#yes the main protagonist guy who is never on the screen

[somayblue]

NGL THE BIG BANG IS NOW MY FAVORITE EPISODE

It has that majestic and dramatic yet weirdly cozy and scientifically informative vibe that ONLY SOLARBALLS HAS

This.

This is the Solarballs.

[biconickyoshi]

Hi! The Zukaang prophecy dream person here. What you said about a lot of people not even considering Aang and Zuko as a ship made me think. Following that thought, I fell down a rabbit hole that turned into something a lot deeper than just shipping discourse. I'm not a professional psychologist or anything, but I hope some of my insight on this topic is interesting. I apologise in advance for so many words to read!

As a kid I remember being very clueless about romance. I never really interpreted Aang's affection towards Katara as romantic at all, and I honestly have no idea why, since they literally kissed on screen multiple times. So that's why, for years, I remember trying to find a ship that I would like, yet nothing seemed to click just right. That is until the Avatar Renaissance of 2020 when a lot of new people joined the fandom, and a flood of new discussions arose, way different than it used to be years ago. It made me realize that the core of the issue lies in Aang himself. At least that's my own theory, feel free to disagree. A lot of popular avatar ships include everyone from the main cast, but rarely ever Aang himself, apart from the canon Kataang. In all aspects, Aang is an unconventional protagonist, one unheard of at the time. He is a monk, he is a pacifist, he is a vegetarian. For an average kid or teenager in 2005, I don't think much of these aspects are too relatable. We were and still are used to seeing agressive, determined teenage protagonists, ready to beat up the bad guy at any opportunity. That's what was considered "cool". So a bald 12 year old boy with an arrow on his head who grew up in a temple, surrounded by monks, who avoids hurting people, even those who wiped out his entire nation, is simply foreign. You often hear arguments against Kataang: he is too young for her, she sees him as a little brother, they simply don't fit. Those are all false statements, as rewatching the show without bias you can clearly see them love each other deeply and mutually. Aang is a child, but he is a person too, someone with his own values and principles, and so is Katara. To me, both of them are deserving of love, Aang is deserving of Katara's love.

I am now going to talk about the genocide of the air nomads, as I think I can provide a unique perspective on this. I am Ukrainian. The russian invasion of my country has been going for 10 years now, but two years ago specifically my whole world turned upside down when russia launched a full scale invasion, intending to conquer all of Ukraine. A lot of my beliefs of how the world worked changed drastically. Seeing myself from years ago in people from around the world, not yet knowing war, I think this is something you have to experience yourself to truly understand what it means for another nation to want yours erased from existence. Aang's entire nation is gone. Everyone. No one is alive, not a single person. I don't think many people truly let that sink in. He has to keep going every day with the knowledge that the world he is in doesn't have a place for his nation anymore. He has nowhere to go and no one to come to. He has the gaang, and that's wonderful, but it's not the same. He is the only person in the entire world who truly bears this pain. To me, imagining that for myself, is an indescribable horror. To imagine having no place to come back to, living among strangers who know nothing of you and your people. Yes, he has the temples that preseve history, but how much of them has been destroyed? Even the people at the Northern air temple, although fleeing a disaster, still contributed to the destruction and loss of that history.

Yet, bearing this unimaginative hurt, Aang is able to forgive. He is able to make peace with his loss, and let go of his feelings of rage. He wants to see good in the Fire nation people. And through that, he is the only one who can truly see Zuko as he is. Having let go of anger and hurt, he can see the genuine wish Zuko has for atoning for his family's sins. He can literally see through him, all his feelings and thoughts, like no one else. He holds no grudge, no hatered for him. If you ever have a war, genocide unleashed on your country, you would know how impossible it is to forgive. Yet, Aang, as the avatar, has no choice but to do just that, to let go. I think that alone makes Aang one of the strongest people in the avatar universe.

But how is this relevant to the Aang ships being dismissed? Circling back, to me, this is a matter of understanding. People resonate with Katara for her experience as a younger sister, thrown into the role of a mother figure, for her experience as a teenage girl in a sexist world, someone with a desire to become stronger despite being denied that opportunity, be it by the circumstances or by someone stronger than her deeming her "unworthy". People resonate with Sokka for his struggle to become a reliable leader, for his insecurity being the only one without a special "talent" (aka bending). Toph for her sheltered upbringing and parents that are unwilling to see her as more than just her disability. Zuko for his struggle with his identity, his own values versus those forced upon him, an abusive household, repressed emotions and anger, being a sibling of someone way more naturally talented, coming to terms with the hurt he has caused and atoning for it. But what can people find in Aang that resonates with them? All of what Aang is, is grand and bigger than yourself. I relate to Aang as someone whose nation is being subjected to genocide, but is that a common experience? I'm sure that nowadays a lot more people came to appreciate Aang's character more, but as a child in the 2000s, would you really say you saw yourself in Aang as much as you saw yourself in Sokka, Katara, Toph or Zuko?

In conclusion, my theory is that, because of how unique Aang has been written, that prevents people from seeing him as someone they could imagine in a relationship with someone else. After all, how can you write about someone you don't share many life experiences with? How do you write them in love? How do you make someone so different from you come to life?

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading all of my brain vomit. Avatar is truly a goldmine for character analysis and study. Would really love to hear what you think!

I absolutely loved reading your analysis on Aang's character, anon. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you've brought up here. I think it's so true that many people (whether they're conscious of it or not) view Aang through a certain lens due to how unconventional of a protagonist and person he is. To many, he's not "supposed" to be the one who "gets the girl". He's not your stereotypical handsome/buff/rugged teenage boy protagonist; he's small, kind, goofy, and pacifistic. And I think in general that people find it difficult to wrap their heads around a male character like Aang not conforming to Western and/or patriarchal society's expectations/conventions when it comes to behavior and overall physical appearance. I think this also results in a lot of people unconsciously infantilizing Aang and having a hard time viewing him in a shippable way.

It's also interesting that you brought up Aang's almost "otherness" when it comes to the world he finds himself in when he awakens from the iceberg - he is the last one of his kind in a world where nobody remembers his people. He's from a culture that is vastly different from the ones that remain in the world. His philosophy, mannerisms, gender expression, appearance, etc. are all completely unique, not only canonically in the post-genocide AtLA world, but in our world as well, especially in the West.

The fact that despite everything Aang has been through, despite all the atrocities he has witnessed, he still is able to remain true to himself at his core through to the very end is so moving to me. Aang will always be my favorite character all time simply because of who he is. Even as a kid, I loved him so much - I never had a crush on Zuko or Sokka, it was always Aang. He represented not only the type of person I would want to be, but also the type of person I would want to be with. And sure, he's not perfect, but that's another one of the many things I love about him - he's human, he makes mistakes.

I feel like I could say more, but you already wrote so much good stuff in your analysis, and I'm not sure if there's much I could add haha.

Also, thank you for sharing your perspective as someone who lives in Ukraine - I can't imagine how difficult it must be to be dealing with all of Russia's BS the past decade, and especially recently. I sincerely hope you're staying safe and healthy! <3

[box-dwelling]

OK so as someone who just genuinely loved Dual destinies and is keeping my theis length DD apologia in the drafts at least for now. I genuinely want to know why people don't like it.

I have seen this take from so many AA fans who I completely agree about everything else with. I need to understand why it sounds like we played completely different games.

I will put some I've seen but feel differently about under the cut

Critisms I find unfair:

-it doesn't tie up the loose ends AA4 left hanging. We don't hold any of the other games up to this standard because they all properly finish up the characters arcs. Aa5 cannot be blamed for the problems we want to overlook in AA4. I do also love AA4 but it does leave a lot of dangling plot threads that the others don't and that would be a fucking nightmare to tie up *staring directly at sibling reveal*

- Clay comes out if no where. He's very well established through the game. He just isn't mentioned in AA4 just like Fran isn't mentioned in AA1 and Dahlia isn't mentioned before AA3.

Critism I acknowledge is a reasonable opinion people can have but strongly disagree with

-Spilting the game between the protagonists stops them having proper arcs. Athena is our weird girl for this game. She is our maya. We get to play as her for 1.5 cases. For the majority of the game she's taking up the weird girl screen time and she's honestly still doing that in the ones you play as her. She's just a weird girl who happens to be a lawyer. In the main game Apollo and Phoenix have a roughly equal amount of screen time by chapter. They cut the bloated filler not the arcs (yes I will argue that 5-2 is needed for Apollos arc. Its there to set up his relationship with Athena that us a catalyst later on)

-Phoenix and Apollo are OOC. No. Phoenix is still a cryptic little bitch when you don't play as him and in AA4 he was so very clearly missing being a lawyer. It makes sense. Apollo very clearly in the last case of AA4 regains a lot of his respect for Phoenix. No, he doesn't do this on screen but again that is AA4s fault not dual destinies. That's how he acts the last time we see him so that's how he's acting now.

-The Phantom comes out of nowhere. Plot wise, maybe. But so do a lot of AA villians. Thematically, he's the perfect fit. DD is a game about trust. Very, very explicitly. A spy is someone who can't trust anyone. The phantom is a man who's shut himself off so much from emotions that he no longer recognises why trust is needed. And also has an ability that directly preys on people by making them think hes a trustworthy figure. He's not an incredible villian but he is thematically cohesive.

-almost a part 2 to the last point. The Fulbright reveal comes out of nowhere. First of all 5-2 has some very very choice sprite framing lol. But beyond that it also is a thematically smart choice. We as players are conditioned in AA games to trust the recurring detective. The villain should be someone that we trust. The guy was likeable but also fundamentally always kinda hollow and did in fact pull a shit ton of strings in 5-4 that we all ignored because we trusted him. The clues are there. You're just not ment to pick up on them because of the formula of these games.

-Edgeworth doesn't need to be there. Again game with a theme of trust. He doesn't necessarily need to be there but his dynamic with Phoenix does. They spent 3 fucking games setting up how important it is that those two trust each other and in a game about trust his absence would be felt.

-I don't see this a lot but I did see it a few times. Blackquill is a bad prosecutor. Honestly this is a taste thing and I love him. He is my little bastard man. Also thematically he embodies the two people you aren't supposed to trust in these games, a convict and a prosecutor but is actually a cool guy.

-I've never seen this but I can guess it's happened. Pearl comes out of nowhere. Again theme of trust. Phoenix has just lost the two people he's been relying on to trust the most and needed to be reminded that there were other people he loved and trusted so letter from Maya and visit from Pearl.

-mood matrix. I like the mini game I think it's fun. My brain likes to sit and logically think about what emotions it would make sense for someone to feel in situations.

Criticism I agree with but really don't bother me

-Trucy is side lined. Yeah. I love her to pieces and will never complain about getting more of her but it doesn't make sense for her to not be there plot wise and they clearly just didn't have room for her. I am happy with my Trucy scraps. I would visit her and present every piece of evidence to her to get as much dialogue as I could.

-Klavier is sidelined. Also yeah. But he did genuinely need to be there for 5-3 thematically for that case. (It is literally a showdown between his school of thought and the one he thought phoenix had) but they couldn't make him procecutor because he'd be too much on their side. It had to be someone who at that point seems at least a little morally dubious. I wish there was more but I will also happily take my Klavier scraps.

-the anime cutscenes. I don't love them but I do have a little switch in my brain marked "watching anime" that I can flip and enjoy them for what they are.

-the switch of the voiced sound effects. Yes they are worse but like, I can live with it.

Stuff I don't like and won't defend

-turnabout reclaimed racism and fatphobia (also blatant animal welfare ignorance). I'm not defending it or overlooking it but it's not the only game in this franchise to be problematic.

[the5n00k]

M*A*S*H and the power of pure unadulterated sorrow

(this series is marketed primarily as a comedy! :D what a scam! /hj)

⚠️long post⚠️

I want to point out one of my favorite aspects of this series which is how different it presents its drama compared to other shows marketed as dramas that I've seen. ESPECIALLY modern film

The last movie I can remember portraying this sheer level of raw grief and despair was Hereditary. Such a powerful film about how grief can tear a family apart, it's honestly uncomfortable to sit through because of how well written and acted some of the scenes with the family are. And that's the point; tragedy isn't pretty. So many times you will see characters die on screen and the actors around them reacting to it with a single tear or burying their face into their stone cold main protagonist's shoulder. I have been craving that Hereditary level of despair from something for a long time now. That raw emotional breakdown that completely shatters the mask of a usually well put together facade.

Then my friends recommended M*A*S*H to me.

Yes you can make all the "crying breakfast friends" jokes you want about how often I latch onto a heart wrenching emotional moment in a show but I can't help it when it's so well executed. I can see a million silly Disney sidekicks die and feel nothing but this show has made me cry even on rewatch. And that is RARE for me, usually it's a one and done thing but this show still manages to tear me to pieces.

Not saying the show doesn't have any fun in it, of course it does, that's how the emotional moments hit harder. If you never saw the characters at their highest highs, seeing them at their lowest would just become numbing and unengaging.

Spoilers ahead obviously, I'm going to be talking about a lot of really important character moments throughout the show please if you are at all interested watch the show and come back. It's 11 seasons but it's well worth your time

Something that has always been powerful to me has been grown men crying. Perhaps it's because I never really had a good emotional connection with any men in my life and always saw them as stronger (emotionally) than someone who is erratically emotional like myself. Especially during the timeframe this is set (the 50's) and shot in (70's-80's) I was not anticipating the level of raw acting talent from the guys in this show. Especially once you get past season 4 and shit really starts hitting the fan

To see these grown men who take so much pride in their important positions as doctors and men and who they are just break down weeping like a scared child. It never ceased to break something in me. I cried the hardest at the amnesiac soldier who lost his brother (FANTASTIC scene it should have won 60 awards) but the two characters that have always stood out to me with this particular subject have been Hawkeye and BJ

Clearly if you've watched the entire show you understand what I'm talking about and obviously the other cast members have their moments (Winchester my beloved one day I will put you under a microscope and pick you apart) but for this subject, I'm going to use the two of them as examples because I consider these moments the most prominent to me personally

I'll start with BJ because there's a lot to unpack with him and simultaneously not a lot at the same time. Because he's so closed off and disconnected from most things happening all the time, choosing to opt out of anything whenever he can unless provoked, characters don't really know that much about him. As an audience, you're forced to pick apart his little mannerisms and priorities to see where his head's at. Some people might not like that but frankly I love it. He's a simple character on the surface but underneath, he's a terrified father and husband trying to keep his head down long enough to snap out of the nightmare that is war and wake up at home. I relate to him in that way, just trying to stay in my own corner and occupy myself until I have to wake up and do it all over again. Coping with the monotony is slowly driving him crazy

Then in Period of Adjustment, he gets a letter from his wife about how she and their daughter Erin saw Radar at the airport when he got sent home. And his thin thread of stability finally snaps. He's pissy for the entire day and doesn't want to tell anyone why, he'd rather just go through the motions and repress it just like everything else. But it keeps outwardly affecting everything around him whether he likes it or not. Then, at his lowest, he physically assaults his best friend in their own tent and destroys their only lifeline, the still they use to (poorly) make gin, and runs out.

After getting so intoxicated he can't stand up, Hawkeye finally finds him again and laughs that he's wearing a helmet to see him, still trying to make light of how much he's suffering. He tells him he's sorry for punching him and Hawkeye sits down with him. He finally is completely and truly honest for probably the only time in the entire series. He is completely vulnerable and open and tells him what's been bothering him. His infant daughter mistakenly called Radar her dad. The first person she ever called dad wasn't him. And he breaks down. He barely got to see her when she was born before he got drafted, he missed so many milestones of parenthood with her already and she ends up calling someone else dad. BJ tells Hawkeye he is furious at Radar and knows it's not his fault but he's still jealous. He even mentions how he's envious of Trapper, Hawkeye's old bunkmate from before he got there, which is still a huge sore point for him because of how abrupt his departure was. But he doesn't reprimand him for speaking badly about two people he'd considered close friends. He holds him closer and lets him cry. This isn't a single tear cry, this is a full vulnerability twisted face cry of pure pain. He can't say anything to ease the pain either, nothing he could say right now could help his friend. He just has to let him work through it.

They rebuilt the still together but BJ still remains broken. This is sort of touched on in Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen when he tries to get sent home before Erin's second birthday and misses it. It's not held on but you can obviously tell that he's still barely holding onto mental stability whenever he brings up his family. If you go into this series thinking every conflict has a resolution or closure of some kind I have bad news for you lol it's safe to assume when he went home, there was a rough adjustment period reclaiming his place in the house since Peg took on so much responsibility by herself but we don't really know what happened after everyone went home.

My next example is from Bless You, Hawkeye and I always rag on this episode with my friends but the scene between him and Sidney physically shook me. Everybody probably talks about That One Scene with Hawkeye and Sidney from GFA so I'll refrain from using it as an example here, I think this one is more appropriate for the point I'm trying to make anyways.

Hawkeye has never been mature. At all. His entire character is built on being obnoxious and causing trouble. Unlike BJ, he will share nearly anything about him when asked. Except when it's serious.

In comes everyone's favorite coping mechanism, ✨ unconscious repression! ✨

Again, a part of his character that got used again in GFA, whenever something upsets him in a way he can't manage, he buries it. He rewrites the memory into something happy or positive. So when a wounded soldier soaked in dirty water smelling of mold and musty clothing triggered a psychosomatic response, nobody knew why.

Processing scenes like this is something I remember so vividly from my first watch. Seeing all the pieces fall into place until that sinking feeling fills you is something this show is so good at.

Hawkeye starts talking to Sidney about something from his childhood; being out on a lake with his cousin Billy when he was seven. He claims Billy saved his life by pulling him out of the water but the more he talks, the more his story changes. It gets to a point where even he realizes he wasn't saved. He was pushed. Billy had to have been around 13 at the time, old enough to know how mean pulling something like that is. The way he admits it is when the gravity really sank in for me. His voice breaks, he starts loudly and violently sobbing like a scared child, he's probably been holding in this breakdown for 20ish years. In any other show, I could see them trying to play this for laughs. Oh Hawkeye, you shouldn't be so upset by a silly prank from when you were a kid! Look at this grown man break down! What a baby! But they don't treat it like that. It's treated completely seriously, it's allowed to play out and he slowly works through grief for someone he idolized in his childhood, anger, and acknowledgement. It was a permanent scar that wasn't allowed to heal.

This wasn't the first time in the series Hawkeye has cried but it was the first time he truly let it out. Every other time he knew he'd have to pick himself up, dust himself off, and keep going. I'm not certain if he properly processed anything he went through in Korea because he kept (pardon my language here) drowning himself in alcohol and burying himself in work and antics. So his eventual breakdown just. Getting it all out in one gutteral, primal cry, borderline screaming was cathartic for both him as a character and myself personally. Very rarely do I ever get a moment to have an emotional release like this so I also bury myself further into my job and hobbies until I can't feel what's bothering me anymore. His man's father better have booked him therapy when he got home because I know for damn sure this jackass won't do it himself

Overall, I'll say it again, the actors in this show are insane. None of the emotions felt cheap and the way the characters are written feels accurate to how most people approached the horrors of war and the mental health crises that followed. I'm so happy this show exists. I'm a little disappointed in myself that it's taken me this long to give it a chance but I love it nonetheless. I'll make a post about the characters specifically sometime like I said I would, I just want to make sure I do everyone justice and I'm not just repeating what everyone already knows. I want to add to this wonderful community that I'm happy to see is still active on this app/site and I hope you all enjoy my ramblings lmao there is more where this came from

[krimsonkatt]

Ryuuta Satori (Final Apocolyptis Ver)

The main protagonist of Chronicles IV: The Last Dragon's Elegy and arguably the most important character in the entire Chronicles of Chronicles series. And yes, he is a guy. Ryuuta is biologically intersex and possesses both male and female anatomy, but identifies as male.

Ryuuta is a hybrid, being 58% dragonkin, 36% alfar, and 8% human. His mother was Makoto Satori, another hybrid who herself was 50% alfar, 25% human, and 25% dragonkin. Ryuuta's father was Yazna Dragonheart, king of the fire dragons who was 100% dragonkin. Makoto's father was Koros Satori, a half-human half-dragon, and Zenith Von Zerithia who was 100% alfar. So Ryuuta's genetic history is... complicated to say the least.

Ryuuta's mother Makoto died soon after he was born, so instead he was raised by the ex-archbishop of the Eternian Church, Astos Von Eternia. Astos wanted to create a village where humans and dragonkin could live in peace, as during Ryuuta's era dragonkin and humans were in conflict due to dracorage virus (basically dragon rabies that causes dragons to go mad and turn into monsters) evolving to become able to infect dragonkin who possess enough negative emotion.

Dragonkin began to be treated as second class citizens by humans, forced to wear "happiness collars" in human-run cities that administered drugs to them constantly that made them happy, zombie-like, and a little bit tipsy. Dragonkin obviously didn't like this so they self-segregated into their own dragonkin-only villages so they wouldn't have to suffer discrimination from humans. Astos wanted to create a city where humans and dragons could live in harmony free from all this discrimination, so he founded Neo Arcadia in Nabes Desert to address this issue.

Ryuuta was raised in this new city alongside his two friends, a human named Roland Von Nostra and a 1800-year-old dragonkin woman of the divine tribe named Idun Appleseed. There was a ritual all dragonkin did around this time once they hit maturity: the ritual of the holy flame. Young dragonkin would be split into teams and would have to accomplish some sort of task. Succeed and they could obtain their first dragonstone, a special stone holding a dragon's true potential, allowing them to temporarily change form into their true draconic forms.

However on this very important day disaster struck, as the forces of Devon Hartmut, King of the Devonvil Empire, a kingdom of dragon-hating human supremacists, were able to invade Arcadia, burn it to the ground, and kill Astos. Ryuuta, consumed with rage, transforms into a new dragon form never seen before, and ends up destroying the entire village, killing the few who remained except for Idun, Koros' guardian Owain, and Roland, who seemingly escaped to parts unknown.

Ryuuta calmed down thanks to Idun's song, leaving Arcadia and Nabes desert forever. He then settled down in the neutral city of Nostra alongside Owain while Idun left for the divine tribe city of Dragalia located in the northern mountains. Two years pass with Ryuuta and Owain making their money with simple mercenary work, until one day Koros learns that Dragalia is under attack by the forces of the fire dragon king, Yazna Dragonheart. Thus, Koros sets out to rescue Idun, and eventually save the entire world from the evil machinations of Devon, Yazna, and a mysterious third party manipulating things behind the scenes...

In gameplay Ryuuta is a well-balanced character, wielding a good selection of bladed weapons with varied attributes. His gameplay mainly revolves around striking elemental weaknesses with fast, focused strikes with good range. His Talent, which works differently in this game and can be triggered at will, is "Spirit Blade", changing Ryuuta's elemental affinity to either fire, water, thunder, force, light, or dark. Ryuuta's S-Talent is unique as it is not a screen-clearing attack like every other character in this game. Instead, it is a transformation, changing Ryuuta temporarily into one of his "dragon drive" forms, Valor Form, Wisdom Form, Instinct Form, or Ultima Form. These dragon forms are a manifestation of Ryuuta's mixed heritage as both an alfar and a dragonkin, fusing both races powers of fairy and dragon transformation into one combined form unique to him.

Koros' ultimate weapons include the Zalarok and Brignis, Solaris Tetra, Entropic End, and THE END. This is the final version of Ryuuta that will likely be made, which is why it's called the "final apocolyptis version." Ryuuta also appears in the game The End of Chronicles as a major character. Ryuuta is also a very central character to the lore for various reasons, but revealing those reasons would be MASSIVE spoilers. Let's just say that Ryuuta is the key to both the beginning AND end of the Chronicles series, okay? As such was prophesised in the Chronicles of Chronicles:

"And so a child shall be born to a woman of many bloods and a man of burning status. This child will bring disaster upon the world, the ruin of all. But also be this child a hero of light, bringing hope to a desolate future. He shall be the embodiment of the Original Presence, that ancient dragon of shining brilliance, and bring unity and peace to the dying tree. But he shall also beckon forth it's end, the rotting of the roots and the decaying of flesh. For this child will be of two destinies, one fated and one forlorn. A path of destruction leading to roads once walked, and a path of rebirth leading ever forward into a new day. Thus has been prophesised."

~Chronicles of Chronicles: Chapter VII, Verse 1:14-22

[number1villainstan]

Random questions? I'm down! So on the whole thing with deku not existing and all, can you elaborate I've had some thoughts on it but haven't thought of it hard enogh too write anything about it?

jesus fuck this took so long to answer, i straight up forgot this was in my drafts--

The short answer/thesis statement: Midoriya Izuku is a "black hole protagonist": he, as a character, twists the story around him in order to make himself look sympathetic/always right/super cool (or, more accurately, Horikoshi writes the story that way) to the detriment of the plot, themes, and development of other characters--hell, even to the detriment of his own character depth/development.

(Disclaimers and justification/the rest of the essay under the cut. This is going to be long, and will probably take a long time to answer.)

(Disclaimer: I've really only watched the anime to the end of the Shie Hassaikai arc and through part of the Gentle Criminal--sorry, School Festival arc and read the manga chapters where Lady Nagant appears (the first time) or is mentioned. Quite frankly, I don't want to watch or read further, except for maybe watching the Nagant episodes, or clips of the MLA. That being said, from what I've seen of spoilers, I'm not sure the later part of the series is much different on the points I'm going to talk about.)

Probably the first thing is Deku's internal/inherent traits as a character. What traits does he have? Well, there's his physical appearance, he's a fan of All Might, he cries a lot, he wants to be a hero. Okay, sure. But why does he want to be a hero? What does he get emotional about? He was bullied for being Quirkless--where do we see the effects of that in canon? He and the rest of Class 1A have been repeatedly attacked by villains and lived through seeing one of their classmates chained up like an animal on live television BY THEIR SCHOOL and then kidnapped by a group of villains that attacked a summer camp that was supposed to be safe. (Yes, I am salty about the Sports Festival and Bakugo, because that was bullshit.) Moreover, that student that got chained up was supposed to be someone Deku looked up to. What the hell are the emotional effects of that? Does Deku even see Bakugo Katsuki as a person? A bully? Or just as a standard to surpass? Canon doesn't answer any of these questions--it doesn't even treat them as relevant. Deku's just a bland character for the author to make look cool through Beating Up Villains and pretty (but ultimately hollow) Speeches About The Importance of Heroics and Compassion.

And of course, we have the traits we're told he has, like compassion and understanding, but that don't actually play out--or at least don't play out consistently--in his actions. If he's so compassionate, why doesn't it extend to Overhaul, who breaks out into hives every time someone touches him? That's not normal or healthy! If he's so understanding, then what's this shit I hear about him telling Dabi he's worse than his abusive father? And--furthermore--why does this "compassion" only seem to come out when he's physically fighting people? Why is it that he never steps down from a fighting stance and sits down next to someone? (Although maybe that part's just shonen bullshit.) Furthermore, his informed compassion never leads him to change his mind--no matter what his opponent's arguments are, the narrative always frames Deku as in the right.

And then, of course, there's the fact that he takes up far more than his fair share of screen time. Yes, even though he's the main character. Like 80% of every single episode is dedicated to just showing him off (and despite the disproportionate amount of screentime he gets, he's still such a nothing of a character). How much character development does anyone else around him get, outside of maybe one or two arcs? Hell, it's so bad that Bakugo Katsuki, the guy who's apparently supposed to be his long-term bully/friend/frenemy, has practically no details about him. We don't see his room in the dorm tour, we don't see his parents outside of the montage of a bunch of different characters' parents when the teachers are going around (and the fact that his mother slaps him and calls him weak for getting kidnapped goes completely unaddressed? In a series with the Todoroki family and the Hassaikai arc???), we see comparatively little of Bakugo outside of his interactions/relationship with Deku. And Bakugo is supposed to be a deuteragonist--think of how many secondary characters have their characterization cut short or subsumed into the black hole of Deku. Uraraka Ochako, Iida Tenya, to some extent even Todoroki Shouto, every other member of Class 1A.

And then there's the effect of having Deku as a protagonist on the story's treatment of its villains. BnHA tries to send the message of "everyone deserves to be saved" or "villains are products of their circumstances", but, for a variety of reasons--including Deku being a "black hole protagonist"!--not a whole lot of the villains actually end up getting saved (rather than arrested), and when they do sometimes it's in a way that negates their very real concerns/reasons for being a villain. Very first to my mind is, of course, the Hassaikai: the only one in that group "saved" in any capacity is Eri, which, being one of thirteen named characters (among a host of unnamed ones), isn't exactly a very high rate of 'saving.' I thought everyone was supposed to be saved? And of course, there's the added factor of Overhaul--the main villain for that arc--being the character most heavily coded as mentally ill and/or neurodivergent in the series, and that that coding is used to make him seem more scary/villainous/evil. (I could write a whole Rant on how the narrative's treatment of Overhaul's character is ableist as fuck, but that's not what we're focusing on here.) And then we have Lady Nagant--who is saved, yes, but how many of her concerns about the deep structural issues associated with hero society and the HPSC are actually, meaningfully, specifically addressed? She shouldn't have been 'saved' by a fifteen-year-old cop in training. She shouldn't have been able to be 'saved' by a fifteen-year-old cop in training.

Sometimes, the kind of self-indulgent overpowered protagonist that Deku is can have its place, but BnHA as a story is trying to make a point, and Deku's role in the story actively contradicts its messages. BnHA is supposed to send a message of compassion and "everyone deserves to be saved" and whatnot, but then, not least because of its black hole protagonist, turns around and says that actually the mentally ill don't count, queer people don't count, anyone who's ever hurt a child doesn't count, anyone who reacts to trauma in the "wrong way" (with anger, irritability, etc) doesn't count, anyone who was subject to the wrong high-control group doesn't count, anyone who has the wrong idea about how the world should be doesn't count, anyone who isn't "sympathetic" for whatever fucking reason doesn't fucking count. Maybe I could just write Boku no Hero Academia off as a mediocre show if it had failed its goals in some other way, but as someone who fits just a few too many of the traits I just listed, it's hard to ignore the bigotry and judgement behind these contradictions.

And quite frankly, this shit makes me mad.

[blindedguilt]

Omg there's gonna be a Leonard visual novel? Ahhh please link this id love to support it!

Also you have an alt account with Leonard art 👀👀👀👀

//No idea if that bit at the end is a solid "i know what you are" or a "this you?" bit but just in case, i do!! i will refrain from posting it here (For privacy, though when you find it you should be able to clock it like "THIS IS THE BITCH" immediately anyways lol) if you would like it i can give it to you through DMs (unfortunately tumblr doesnt allow private answering to anon asks :( if i could i would...) but please dont feel pressured at all to come out!!! i enjoy chatting with you, anon *pats*

//But to answer your question, yes!! Technically it's already out though its currently only available in Japanese. I will say I have spoken with the writer though, and I'm very happy to say they've expressed interest in helping me make an English patch :3<! Once I'm done with playing the game for myself (I'm about halfway at the moment, I think? ;0) I'll hopefully start work. I've been playing with a friend and already have a few scenes (roughly, more or less) translated.

//Anyways, I'll put the links to both the trial and full version at the end of the post so they're easier to find vs. just sandwiching between my rambles about the VN!! because BOY is it good, this was made for leonard fans BY leonard fans and its SHOWS AAAAAAAAAA

//More under the cut~ (I'll be rambling about this for a w h i l e)

So the game is called Onaplus, and lemme just post my TL of its official Booth description for you before i try summing it up myself:

Play Time: About 5 hours Routes: 2 Endings: 4~5 Stills: None This is a visual novel game where you can - or can not - enjoy a "Psuedo-Romance" with various versions of Leonard from before he formed his pact, DOD1, DOD2, and LoV. The game is mostly linear; only a few choices on your path outside of the 4~5 different endings. You are the protagonist, a woman who travels through four different "Times" with Seere at your side. You can enjoy the story as it's nature changes between two vastly different routes; choose to spend a sweet and heartfelt time with Leonard, or take part in a good measure of slapstick comedy instead. Includes a number headcanoned details, otakuisms, and out-of-character gags. A game for those who believe no man is beyond forgiveness...

That's pretty much it!! I dunno how much I'll spoil by saying it, but it was NOT KIDDING when it said the main two routes (The more serious N-Route, standing for "Not Shotacon Route" and the gag S-Route, standing for "Shotacon Jerking Off in the Backwoods Route") were different.

I'll keep what I know limited, but I've completely finished the S-Route (much to my dismay, IT WAS SO GOOODDDD I DIDNT WANT IT TO END) and have JUST started the N-Route, so I'm looking forward to what's in store!! I dunno what the "5" stands for though in five endings, unless the N-Route has one I'm unaware of... 👀 but a quick breakdown

Where the N-Route is a very genuine, heartfelt ""Love letter"" to Leonard from his fans being like "We care about you!!! youre such a lovable guy!!!! please take care of yourself!!!!" and essentially plays as an "I can fix him" game, the gag "S-Route" ramps Leonard's "Shotaconness" up to an ABSURD degree to the point one or two scenes were complete "had me completely red in the face, unable to look at the screen"-level wreckage. one scene in particular around the DOD2 mark also made my heart DROP but im not saying what happened or what it is :)))) S-Route Ending A was also extremely difficult to TL because i had to search a few things up and do........ research............ to find suitable english-audience alternatives. it had me GAGGED ngl, but i would never do it again........... i'm turning red just thinking about it now dsjfhkshvwkslahsdfhj (the endings are so good though, and there was ANOTHER thing in Ending A that had me "!!!!!!! yippee!!!!!!" but that's another story.)

I've only finished the endings of the S-Route right now, but some of them were surprisingly (And welcomingly so!) heartfelt for what was 96% a gag route :0!

AND THEN THE PROTAGONISTSSSSSS okay so i was NOT expecting a little "heehee, we made leonard psuedo-dating sim" VN TO HAVE PROTAGONISTS THAT ARE LITERALLY LIKE A HYPERFIXATION FOR ME RIGHT NOW????? trust me when i say these are NOT typical "blank-slate-self-insert" protags their characterisation is so strong and entertaining i was HEARTBROKEN finishing the s-route because it meant saying goodbye to its protagonist more than anything, i literally have made ship fanart of them together i ADORE them so much and i need them in my life...... lately ive thinking about hdcing names for them i love them....

N-MC is so SWEEEEEEEETTT she's a lot more "Expectable" for a "Romantic" visual novel (At least for now... who knows, she might be hiding a dark secret of some kind though im like... more than half sure she's innocent? RIGHT????) and is just a little sweetheart whose dedicated her life to helping others as her parents always wished!!!! she has a ✨tragic anime backstory✨ and for leonard fans is THE embodiment of looking at this sad sack of shit and being like "Oh my god, he's so miserable, i just want him to be happy :((( i can fix him......." her relationship with seere is so SWEETTTT too it makes me melt, she's the one he NEEDS and im just aakshskhsdkvhsdkfh...... though honestly even if its 9/10 unintentional listening to the way she talks about seere sometimes has me like "hmmMMMMMM..... perhaps youre more of a shotacon than s-mc........" ("ara ara, seere-kun~" has become my new tagline for her, i admit..... you seem a bit too taken with him buddy...)

BUT THEN S-MC, I ADORE HERRRRRRRR me and a bud have been playing it together and their design for her has become like the unofficial one i literally use/WILL use no other for my own doodles and that is a FACT. how do i explain her... the game calls her "Caim-like", basically, but that's not enough. you see, S-MC is an over-exploited, sleep-deprived, brash, violent, porn-addicted shotacon (+possible femcel) otaku who's main goal in life is to find a decent person to get married to and whose only reason for living is to keep indulging in her PG (and not PG) fiction. she's more than eager to beat the shit out of anyone at the first opportunity (which she does) and wax poetic about her favourite games (which she does) and UNLIKE """N-MC oneesan""" and their (Unintentional) far-too-friendly comments towards seere S-MC spends makes it her GOAL to ensure nothing happens to the kid despite her annoyance with him, who is far too innocent for his own good dsfkvjhsfdkhvsdfj

The VN is written by the very talented Pixiv fanfic writer Kyon, whose works I would VERY much recommend checking out if you can read Japanese and are a fan of Leonard (They are my GO-TO for Leonard content, just talking with them was such an honour i was like "uUUWAUAaaaAUUGHhhHHhgaaghgH" they do his characterisation so good and they understand the tragedy and facets of what makes him compelling so well and im just UGHHHHHHH THEYRE SO GOOD ANON YOU ARE IN GOOD HANDS WITH THEM WRITING THIS, CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!!!)

Interestingly enough, they did write a whole fucking novel on Leonard's past and life leading up Ending D and do reference part of that in this VN!! Albeit not heavily, though reading the preview on Pixiv I saw it was like "AYYYYYE" so I would recommend it if you can read it ;0 i hope to buy the full thing soon....

Also, I was actually skeptical of this going into it but Kyon is SO good with their writing they did write a Faerie x Leonard Modern AU smut fic I'm now also hoping to get the full version of well... do you know how good something has to be for me not ONLY to spend money on it, but to go from SKEPTICAL "this isn't my thing and i dunno why i'm even reading it" to "I need to read the rest of this NOW GET HIS ASS" i truly marvel at their talent and im so happy at the chance to work with them im.............

The illustrations were done by the also VERY popular Suiden, who you might recognise if you spend any time on Leonard's Pixiv tag in general!!! I admit, I kind of expected more as far as the quality of their contributions to the VN were concerned, but honestly, the character sprites are so charming in their own little VN way (Leonard's DOD2 sprite i ADORE) and i was so excited to see both recognisable artists i adore in there, I don't really have any major complaints so far outside the fact i sincerely wish there was a 1.3 leonard....... ONAPLUS 2 LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN‼️💥👏👏

Oh, and I also learned a LOT about LoV and its system through this game (and how much injustice they did leonard in the sequel, jesus fuck...) which was apparently all thanks to Haruoka's help advising everyone on the LoV bits (Though whether that stands for just gameplay or actual lore, i have no idea.... yet)!! You may also recognise some of the nice Leonard art they have on their Pixiv if you've dug through the tag as deep as I have lmao

it could happen

... Anyways, that SHOULD be enough rambling from me!! If you have anymore questions, do lemme know because this VN is my LIFE right now all I can ever think about is playing it and I'm literally going to be so sad when it's time to put it up......

If you think you'd like to check it out for yourself, please do check out the trial version!! You can get it free on Kyon's Booth and I think you SHOULD be able to just G-Translate your way through the N-Route with minimal confusion just based off of how clear I remember it, and the S-Route should be roughly understandable as well but uses a LOT more slang and "catechisms" with its spelling than N-Route, so you might have a couple more difficulties translating it if you use a machine.

The full version is a psychical disc copy that sells for 500 JPY (3.24 USD/3.05 EUR, i believe) and you CAN buy it through a proxy site like Buyee like I did!! Ofc that will include packing and shipping costs, so you might actually expect it to come up to around 20 USD as it did for me :,) perhaps the real pain though comes in how long you have to wait for it to actually arrive (just under a month for me)

But if you're a Leonard fan? Speaking as the self-proclaimed head of the church of ona, it is so worth it. ive never been so utterly enamoured and in love with a game, its kinda starting to concern me...

Either way!! It will still be a while till an English patch comes out since I've been very busy with work and unable to play it :(

I recommend you try it for yourself!!!

And please do refrain from posting screenshots of the game if you decide to play it (at request of the creators), you can quote it but if it's on a public platform like Tumblr or Twitter or anywhere outside of DMs, please no screenshots!!

Here's a link to the trial version (Free)

And if you like that enough...

Here's the full version!! (500 JPY)

...If you can, please give this your full support!! I very much don't think you'll be disappointed, especially as a Leonard fan~

As far as the English patch goes, I dunno how much I should share out of respect for the creators at the time other than

i plan to start working on it

But I am DETERMINED to finish this translation, i dunno how it might even be spread (Whether it will just stay a small-scale thing spread through the wings of tumblr dms or also posted on the authors booth) but either way!!!

This will be my first time working on a videogame, and if I'm allowed to say this in confidence, I'm 100% certain this will be my best translation yet. :3 perhaps better than even magnitude negative, im REALLY liking the way this is looking right now, even by the rough drafts.... i really only give my all for leonard i've realised, but that's not an issue for me <3

Anyways, anon, if you ever play it please do send some thoughts about it if you're willing (To either blog~)!!! and any questions, please ask!!! i'm so excited to see more people talking about this, thank you anon!!!!

[graylinesspam]

have you been watching the acolyte? care to share your thoughts with the class?

oh Barb, I am having a lot of mixed feelings about the Acolyte rn.

The last opinion I posted had at least one negative person on it. Which...it was a negative post that I made.

Honestly I'm just really hoping all the new Disney Star Wars content doesn't follow the same blue print that the Marvel franchise did in that really small sections of stories were told, and characters were portrayed just well enough to get us attached to them...but then the narrative just fails to really pay off on any of the characters actual relationships to each other or to the plot it's self. I feel like we just really didn't get to know enough about any of the characters and now several of them are dead???

Like I am fully against the hate that Jekki and Yord have been getting, Like it's just another example of child characters being annoying for .2 seconds and people start to viciously hate them. Like calm your tits guys. But they didn't actually get enough characterization for me to like them. Certainly not enough for me to be mourning them. We only know that they were all Sol's padawans and had some sort of relationship. That's it. We don't actually get to see a single flash back to Osha's time at the temple, her training, her relationship with Sol at the time or with Yord. There's nothing there. Just nothing.

I have absolutely had it up to my ears with this shitty 12 episode max, one shot series that take three years to produce with lackluster plots and insanely high budgets. I don't want it anymore. There were so many things wrong with the pacing of the Clone Wars. things that people were complaining about the year it started coming out. And yet it is leaps and bounds better than the shit we're getting now.

Go back to long form story telling. Give me actual episodes with exposition and plot. Give me more character interactions. Give me more relationships. Give me funny mundane scenes. I feel almost claustrophobic in these narratives we've been getting. Like give the characters some room to breathe.

I feel like we didn't get enough build up with the bad guy. I wanted more time to fear him and wonder who he was. I also wanted more time to hate him before they tried to force this icky ass sexual tension on us

adding a cut cuz i'm ranting

I was very put off by the jarring as turn into full blown sexual tension. I mean the man was beheading people last episode and now he's trying to dickmatize the main protagonist? I was just very put off by that. And as I said under my other post on the subject, It felt very reductive specifically because Osha had so little actual purpose in the scenes (yes multiple) other than to be a witness to it. Like can you actually tell me anything that was revealed about her in that episode. or her motives, past, current plans? literally anything that wasn't prestablished?

___

Negatives aside there are actually things that I instantly loved about the show. Their willingness to revert to cheesy scifi shit is something that i haven't seen out of Star Wars in some time. The plethora of aliens on screen has me giddy. The weird living biosleep restraint thing in the first episode. Spectacular. We're getting ship wrecks, weird little creatures like basil, and other cultures that use the force other than the Jedi.

Acknowledgment that the Jedi are just one religion and that there are many things they may be wrong about.

All the weird high republic era stuff that's never been on screen before? The lightsabers work differently because the power pack system hasn't been perfected yet. and the plasma whip saber, the cool robes, the different structure to the order, the plethora of other species that are Jedi. A WOOKIE. A glimpse into a disciple of Bane.

I don't have harsh critics of the show because it's aweful. I have them because the show has so much potential and the writting is really letting me down rn.

[cipheramnesia]

Every time I see stuff about Aliens Vs Predator Requiem I find myself more and more forgiving about its flaws and more inclined to consider it at a bare minimum a good movie, and one of the better Aliens or Predator movies. It's a bit like Alien 3, in that both movies are "rookie directors handed a plate of flaming garbage, manages to turn in competent finished product."

In the case of AVPR it has to work with the shitshow AVP1 and Alien 4 made out of both franchises altogether such as fucking up the continuity, demystifying all the interesting mysteries, and generally trashing most of the things that made either monster enjoyable in favor of, by all accounts, what those directors thought was cool. And the crazy thing is - it does that. It unfucks all the continuity stuff AVP1 messed up, it brings back everything good about the aliens that Alien 4 messed up, it returns the mystery back to the predators, it treats both monsters in the way earlier, better movies handled them which built them up so well. It even uses the rough plot outline of the original Aliens vs Predator comic series (which by the way pick that up if you want to see the best version neither movie accomplished) and lands the whole thing in a tidy 100 minutes.

If you want to get down into the gritty details, Alien 4 and AVP1 both treat their monsters as pretty generic killbeasts. Predators are just big world conquering "aliens built the pyramids" guys, aliens are just "oh scary monster make roar." They both are roughly equivalent to a lion in terms of how divorced from our world they behave, which is a thing that can be made scary but isn't what's at the core of either monster. There's a lot in both of them, but Alien has a mix of the terror of the unknown (it has no eyes, it's hard to see, it takes you away and does things, it takes your body from you and does things inside where you can't see), while Predator has something of the mixture of culture shock (this is a thing that is intelligent like you, but doesn't see the world like you, you think you are the biggest and most dangerous but are not, it can make mistakes and you know what it wants but you will never fully understand its behavior). Alien is the strange place, Predator is the strange person.

That's what AVPR delivers. It does it exactly right, giving the audience All Predator sequence, All Alien sequence, and All Human sequence. The human sequence encounters the unknown Alien sequence. The Predator is the Stranger who lands in the middle of an honest to goodness romantic comedy movie that never gets a chance to start. Our two main protagonists aren't even on the board until after the full Alien-Human-Predator stories finish intersecting. That's solid storytelling and it's all in the first ten minutes.

If that's not enough, it also delivers far more properly practical effects than either Alien 4 or AVP1, it goes far over the top in terms of being gruesome and visceral (which works for me insofar as it kept me in genuine suspense over who would survive), and it delivers multiple instances of what we want (Aliens and Predator beating the shit out of each other). It even concludes with a little beat that nods to the original comic, suggesting some day that story may get a screen adaptation (it won't). Yes, it also very much just slaps together some plot segments of Predator and Aliens as well, and if it was trying to be a better movie than that I would call that a failing. But it isn't, it's trying to deliver something that feels like both movies put together, and do it with both arms tied behind its back. It had to do a lot to salvage those creatures, and instead it went above and beyond, pushed itself to make a movie that was more than a basic plot. And it was okay, in the end. Just okay in a miraculous way.

I love a movie that somehow manages to stick any kind of landing against the odds. Movies with stupid ideas that get done ridiculously well, movies getting buried under production company marketing crap that accomplish something interesting, but get written off anyway. Guys where the good stuff is hidden but there, so I just kinda love Aliens vs Predator Requiem because to everyone else it's either a "wohoo exciting AVP action ride" or "Another stupid cash grab" but it's neither, it's some guys that landed a plane after the wings fell off, and it wasn't pretty, but it was still impressive. If only it wasn't so damn dark the whole way through.

[saint-renatus]

Honestly, I don’t get how people can’t understand that otome isekai is literally for wish fulfillment and self inserting not for being “realistic”😭 rest under the cut bc I have so many opinions.

The criticisms are always like “why doesn’t the protagonist ever miss her family” “why don’t they struggle without the use of google”(and yes this is a serious critique I’ve seen made) this is supposed to be a fantasy of being reborn as a rich lady with hot guys all over her this is obviously not made to be realistic. That’s why kill the villainess does nothing for me (no shade if it’s a favorite of yours), it’s commentary/satire of the genre falls flat because the purpose of isekai is not to show the main character struggling and being depressed. The purpose is escapism. It critiques otome isekai on something it was never trying to be and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of why these works exist in the first place. Kill the villainess feels like it was written by someone who didn’t bother trying to understand what they sought to critique and thought the people who read it were too dumb to understand that it wasn’t realistic. Commentary and subversion of tropes and media best work when they are made by people who actually like the original pieces of media because they’re the ones who are going to be aware of what is worthwhile critique of it. In making coherent criticism of a piece of media, you generally have to base them on what that work is going for, not whatever thing you wanted to see that contradicts the story and it was never written to be. When people were praising it like “finally! a realistic reaction to being isekai’d” to me, it sounded like when people on twitter go “What about a superman movie where superman has a realistic character arc and is corrupted and turned evil?” like do you even know what media you’re consuming right now? Do you know why people like it? What purpose it serves? What it’s trying to be? Kill the villainess is so ineffectual to me because it doesn't critique or satirize any actual issue of OI. I know it has the yandere male leads but so do hundreds of other novels and manhwa, trying to escape a psycho male character is the plot of so many other OI and KTV adds nothing to the topic. Sympathetic second female lead/heroine? Done already and arguably better. It hinges on a such flimsy premise and people act as if it's groundbreaking even though it misses the point because so did they.

I hate how women can’t have their wish fulfillment or badass power fantasies without someone whining because the female lead hasn’t tried to kill herself or been abused and it isn’t rEaLiStiC enough. Of course it isn’t, women get enough of watching female characters suffer on screen for the sake of realism maybe we just want to come home and read a silly story sometimes about a princess who falls in love with a knight and can heal people with magic or whatever. Men can get all the power fantasies they want in their media and have it go without any heavy criticism or great demand for realism but how dare women have nice stories where they’re not suffering constantly and yearning to get back to their shitty families/lives and can fall in love in a new fictional world more romantic than the real one. Watching people gush over miserable media simply for the fact that it is miserable and call it realistic just because the female lead is suffering and the male lead gets to do whatever, and use it to shit on the stories that women wrote in order to give some reprieve to what we already go through — the stories this genre is for — is so bleak.

Furthermore I hate the takes about how “everyone thinks these otome isekai worlds are better because magic but they’re actually suuuper lawless and dark” like no. People wanna live in these worlds because they are magical, fluffy, romantic settings where cliches can thrive, evil is always vanquished and the story is simple. It would be like saying “everyone wants to live in these beautiful disney movie kingdoms but they’re actually so dark, they’re based on medieval times so obviously even though you can see it’s only loosely based on those times, the world MUST be exactly like the dark ages. And look how they let evil sorceresses and flynn rider (convicted thief) roam around, clearly it’s a lawless land.” In most (not all) cases, it’s literally just a highly idealized setting for romance, defeating evil and living happily ever after.

It’s fine if self inserting or wish fulfillment isn’t your thing but to be blunt — find a new genre because otome isekai isn’t constantly referencing otome games for no reason. It’s self insert material. This genre wasn't and still really isn't for “realistic” tales and I don’t see the point in pretending that it is and complaining about the lack of it. That’s not to say I dislike realistic stories as a whole, just that they’re not really what otome isekai is for. I refuse to believe that people are just all around too oblivious to understand what these stories are for, I kinda just think these people make these complaints because most of the manga/manhwa is low hanging fruit and can be critiqued easily because they’re not challenging works. These people can say that they long for a more complex story with such and such subversions but those stories already exist and these people don’t seem to care to read or discuss them instead. And of course not, because those pieces of media are actually challenging and why put in the effort when you can pretend to be smart and enlightened by making pointless critiques of cliche stories? Why actually read complex media with subversions and topical commentary when you can make sure everyone knows you’re a super smart media critic by complaining about a story which never intended to be anything but silly wish fulfillment?

[regarding-stories]

The Dangers in my Heart

A few months ago I got a manga promotion for "The Dangers in my Heart", the series going on sale in anticipation of the upcoming anime adaptation. I tried a sample and was put off and didn't look any further.

You see, the series starts out with a weird setup. Kyotaro Ichikawa is a middle school kid and loner entertaining delusional revenge fantasies, something very similar to the so-called "8th grade syndrome" where kids of that age indulge in fantasies of being powerful like their anime and manga heroes. Except Ichikawa conjures up images of murdering popular kids and keeps his books in wrappers with titles like "Murder Encyclopedia".

Anticipating that this series would involve more cringe and delve deeper into that mindset than it actually does, I did not dig further.

What really happens is that the rather short Kyotaru actually keeps having run-ins with the popular Anna - who is nothing like what he imagined her to be. Even late in the series he imagines her to be making fun of him, when in reality she is mostly a ditz that obsesses about food and has a kind disposition.

(Anna) Yamada is modeling as a part-time job and is already a head taller than Ichikawa. Her 172 cm height and mature figure certainly make her the focus of attention of most male classmates, and the school's "pickup artist" keeps pressuring her for her LINE contact.

Ichikawa, however, gets to know the real Yamada. A girl who hides in the library to be by herself and snack to her heart's content. Who never had a boyfriend and lets her best friend ward off guys pursuing her. And in spite of Kyotaro's paranoid expectations, she doesn't really judge anyone or behave like a snob, but is kind and also quite naive.

As these shows go, the both of them fall in love, but the setup guarantees some complications. Kyotaro has to gradually realize that he thinks about her so often not out of "taking her down" but that he is actually crushing on her. But even when he does, he completely dismisses any and all of the plentiful hints that she is interested in him. Unsurprisingly he has an inferiority complex.

What makes the series work are the wonderful main characters and how the story unfolds. Kyotaro is actually quite bashful but right from the start tries to channel his feelings into keeping Yamada from being put into a bad spot, playing the white knight while jumping through mental hoops in his own logic. Yamada figures out her interest in Ichikawa quite early and becomes a driving force, and her advances are sweet and ensure that the story goes forward.

What the story does without is people randomly falling on each other or on each other's face. If there are "getting close incidents" they are carefully manufactured out of the characters' actions, and often quite charming - like walking home hand in hand.

Yes, there will be some pubescent boy stuff, but most of the time it's adding realism - a growing up boy's mind is a strange place - instead of trying to do blatant fan service. And our protagonist at least tries to keep his motives pure - which makes him the sole boy doing so appearing on screen.

While sometimes naive, Anna is not an idiot. She knows what she wants and goes for it, the author doesn't resort to creating stand-off conditions that will go on and on. Instead there is a steady and well-executed pacing, and also a lot of humor in the story, and the cringe is kept to a necessary minimum. Love it!

[flaim-ita]

opinions on the Geats cast? and hopes for endgame?

opinions on the Geats cast? and hopes for endgame?

ALRIGHT LISTEN UP.

(This got long. I’m not sorry.)

Ace is the best Main Rider since… Tsukasa? Haruto? One of the two, or maybe Eiji. But like. Ace is *so good*. And like, so fascinating? He has reincarnated for 2000+ years, just looking for his mother, for the answer to his existence. He is Not a good person, On Purpose, and he does not resolve to save the world until HALF WAY THROUGH HIS SEASON. That is INSANE. That is AMAZING. He is not doing this out of good he is doing this because Kamen Rider is all he has due to the way he was made.

Can you imagine how fucking cool that is? how incredibly Rider of them? I need to finish my Kamen Rider Yo concept entirely bc I want to Showa this boy desperately. (It does not end well for Ace Park, but still.)

(Side note: Takahashi does REALLY inventive things with the Cross of Fire. Aruto in the final boss suit and Emu as patient zero were SUCH good concepts.)

Ace is just in general a very nuanced character because he realizes does care he just tries not to, because he’s apathetic. Especially at the start of the show his thoughts are just “win -> wish that gets me closer to mom -> repeat”. But the rest of the main quartet are just breaking the system and logic down around him, in good and bad ways, and all of this in the life he resolved to Just Do It.

Also the way he is just Broken, now. He’s gone back to apathetic, but not really, we saw him looking at his mom in TEARS.

…Anyways. I love Ace.

I’m fine with Keiwa. I think he’s a really good deconstruction of the Modern Rider Protagonist. He’s never wrong for his ideals, but when his ideals clash with the physical realities, we are supposed to find him naive and hypocritical. It’s so good! And Keiwa is so cute.

A lot of people are upset about him being comic relief, or him being against Ace. But on the former, I do need to point out that a) this is a kid’s show and b) I actually really like how everyone is clearly traumatized from Lamentation but it doesn’t kill their personalities. Just let him be a silly little guy. On the latter, Ace is doing it on purpose, and Keiwa can hate the goddess if he likes, especially when he does not know Mitsume is being tortured and violated for eternity.

But it does again show his naivety, because Ace seems to be the only one who suspects the DGP is just going to fuck off. Like Ace seems to suspect that.

(Ace is my fav, sorry Keiwa.)

I love Neon. It’s great seeing such an accurate depiction of depression on screen. I desperately want to hug her. Her whole story, from just wanting freedom and love to just… wanting to disappear, being so lonely and out of the loop. It hurts, but in a good way, you know?

Michinaga fascinates me. He is so pathetic but he just will not die. Will not stop. He’s constantly teaming up with whatever evil crosses his path. He genuinely believes he is the main character. Get therapy loser.

Also I miss the Tooru hallucinations they were funny.

Tsumuri is… god. I consistently love Takahashi mascot girls. And guys, thank you SelePro. But like… she is so intriguing, all of these thoughts and emotions forced to bubble under the surface because she has no power in the system. Oh yes, she had the ultimate power, but the ones in charge are gong to use her if they possibly can.

I’ve had thoughts about her all season but it’s so nice seeing it crystallize here.

I’m sad we lost Chirami but his death was so satisfying. Him dropping his affable persona there at the end with the cameras down was so sexy. He is a MONSTER and I LOVE it.

Suel is such an interesting final boss I wonder why he is like this.

I do not like Daichi. I almost forgot to include him. He serves his purpose but I do very much wish for him to die and stay dead.

I genuinely do not give a fuck about Punkjack sorry everyone.

As for endgame, I feel like Mitsume is going to die. There is no way Ace get the reunion he wants. Maybe he does get answers! Does get to talk to her! But her face and voice actors are different. Mitsume is probably going to sacrifice herself to either save Ace or fix things and this will destroy him.

The DGP will end, for real. But not by winning the DR but by refusing to play at all. But the separation is just as inevitable. Future people to the future, except maybe Tsumuri. Ace has new family, after all. The one he built with the rest of the main quintet. And Neon is realizing she has a place here, too.

That’s what I want. I hope I’m right.

[a-confused-teen-venting]

Funny thing that’s been happening.

I’ve been spending the weekend with my best friend who is an ever so hopeless romantic. I did told her of my aromantic identity and I think she accepts it but that doesn’t stop her from basically telling me the plots and stories of romantic books she reads, making me watch Disney princess movies, loving a couple from a video game she’s never played and literally gushing about a crush she has.

And to be honest, I don’t mind.

Apart from also enjoying Disney movies and enjoying the drama that happens in her romance books, I just can’t deny her feelings when it comes to romance.

I love her sweet little heart who desires all of these simple emotions. Her face that melts whenever she starts daydreaming about the guy she likes. She grew up with so many romantic cliches and tropes about soulmates that it just makes sense she would want to have that for herself.

It’s just… you know, I can’t help but just direct all this romance and tropes upon me and feel like… “wow I really can’t make myself want something like this or feel anything of what she is feeling…”

She who probably sees herself being the princesses on screen, who probably puts herself in the shoes of the main protagonists of these books, who wishes for someone to basically look at her the way I drew a character look at their partner, I don’t wish that. I cannot make myself wish that.

And although, yes, it’s normal to not desire romance, it just makes me feel isolated. As if the way that I am is basically wrong.

She’s over here feeling so much for this boy she likes while im on the other spectrum feeling repulsed by the idea of having someone be my romantic partner.

How can I reject and feel disgusted for such sensible beautiful emotions?

[starlight-time-machine]

My Favorite Things 2023

Inspired by SuperEyepatchWolf’s series of the same name, this is an annual series where I’ll recap the things that I’ve most enjoyed throughout the year. I’d like to think of myself as having somewhat eclectic taste, so I hope I can introduce some new and interesting things to anyone reading this.

20. Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon)

I had never watched a retro horror movie before because it’s not a genre that particularly interests me, but I’ve seen ship fanart of the main two guys from this movie for years and years so I thought I’d watch it and see if it was really as gay as Twitter artists seemed to believe. And yes…it’s that gay and more. It’s a classic set-up – an all-American nice guy with a girlfriend and a whole life ahead of him (Dan) and an ambition-driven mad scientist who would relinquish all of his morals in the pursuit of science (Herbert). Herbert is a genius, but he can’t do the work alone, and it’s both terrifying and exhilarating to see him rope Dan into his schemes. And although Dan still has his principles, he’s undeniably fascinated and drawn to Herbert…’s research, and that push and pull between them is thick with tension. Dan and Herbert’s actors are just sublime in this regard, and they play their joint scenes with so much dedication and intensity (and veiled homoeroticism). Some of their interactions were so charged that I thought about them for weeks afterwards – their dynamic is just perfectly executed and some of the best on-screen homoeroticism I’ve ever seen.

The actual plot of the movie didn’t compel me too much (again, it’s not a genre that I’m into), but there were some fun schlocky horror moments and the charm of practical effects kept me engaged. If you want to watch this movie, though, I would definitely recommend that you check out the warnings beforehand, as there are some extremely graphic scenes. But for introducing me to one of my new favourite ships, I wanted to give Re-Animator some kudos on my favourite things list.

19. Engine-Driver Grot (Stefan Grabiński, Mirosław Lipiński)

This short story from The Motion Demon had me absolutely gripped. In a short story collection all about trains, this was the one that appealed to my interests the most. That being, of course, characters with a fierce and single-minded ambition and the exhilaration and freedom of ploughing forwards at any cost. As Grot tests the limits of his supervisors, his train, and his own life in the pursuit of going ever faster, the writing picks up the momentum in tandem, rendering sound, heat, and, above all else, the sheer speed of the climax in a breath-taking fashion all the way until the explosive end. It can be hard for me to feel moved by writing at times, but Engine-Driver Grot made me want to die in a fiery train explosion after reaching the pinnacle of inhuman speed so that should count for something.

18. Dark Matter (Michelle Paver)

Billed as an Arctic horror, Dark Matter really took me by surprise with its vivid descriptions and great character writing. It’s about a man who travels out to the Arctic on an expedition, only to find himself isolated there as strange things start occurring around him. The horror was subtle and engaging, and the ambiguity between a genuine threat and the protagonist’s unravelling mental state was fun to mire in before things truly hit the fan. What I really didn’t expect was the tenderness that Paver afforded the protagonist and his relationship to one of the other men in their crew. Seeing the protagonist becoming more and more dependent on his communications with this man and growing a real fondness and love for him by the end was really quite heartrending, and it made the climax of the book all the more emotional and meaningful. Dark Matter was a book that gave me more than I bargained for, and I really enjoyed it as a result.

17. Mitsuya-sensei no Keikakuteki na Edzuke (Ayaka Matsumoto)

On the surface, Mitsuya-sensei looks like a regular age-gap BL, but I was pleasantly surprised by its depth of character. The mature writing allows the relationship to slowly and naturally flourish, while also giving the two leads time to develop as individuals. It’s a love story, but also a story about finding and nurturing your passion in life and the self-actualization that comes with growing as a person even in later stages of life. With some in-depth food illustrations and cute doggy drawings to boot, Mitsuya-sensei is a perfectly lovely little gay romance manga.

16. Secret Santa (Sabrina James)

I will be honest with you. Secret Santa is a romcom book written for tweens and published in 2007. Is it a good book? No. But is it also one of the best books of all time and a masterpiece of our current English canon? Yes. I first picked it up from my local library as a child, and it was only this year that I decided to reread it and I was pleased to find that it’s still just as good as I thought it was back then. The plot would be at home in any Hallmark Christmas movie: a group of high schoolers are doing Secret Santa for Christmas, and hijinks quickly ensue as they all see this as an opportunity to get closer to whoever they have a crush on (even if they’re not actually their Secret Santa). It’s cheesy, it’s tropey, and it’s deeply silly, but it’s genuinely fun to watch all these different friend groups and potential couples scope each other out and mingle and try to play their hands right to get that mistletoe kiss on the night of the Christmas dance. There are some storylines that I don’t care about, but the best parts are when two characters from vastly different social castes hang out and find that they actually like each other’s company, or when a character does something that ripples throughout the entire web of character relationships (just like a real high school). There’s just something about the writing that makes this book feel more sincere than typical teen romcoms, and I consider it a great read for the holiday season.

15. Frankenstein’s Friend (Ruu1mm)

It’s hard to make a lasting impression as an oneshot, but Frankenstein’s Friend certainly did with how layered and sincere its central relationship felt in only a few pages. A mad scientist creating new life as a companion for himself is well-trod ground, and I really appreciated how Frankenstein’s Friend turned that idea on its head and explored the connection between creator and the created in an innovative and heartfelt way. It’s a real treatise on the meaning of love, straddling the line between being dark and heartwarming, and it’s one of the best BL oneshots I’ve read in a long time.

14. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon)

I’m almost afraid to talk about Perfect Blue – Satoshi Kon and his repertoire are so beloved by the anime community that everyone’s analyzed his works from front to back over the past thirty years. I’m sure I’m not adding anything new to the conversation, but I really enjoyed how layered the movie was. It works both as a prescient thriller about the horrors of parasociality as well as a more nebulous horror about the fracturing of one’s identity through the various arenas we’re forced to occupy in our modern society and how those different versions of ourselves can come back to haunt us. I loved the dream-like quality of the directing and how Kon never overplays his hand – there’s a controlled chaos in how the scenes unfold and overlap with each other, and the bursts of emotional catharsis and violence throughout were almost a relief from the stifling life that Mima lived and how everything seemed to be constantly closing in around her. It’s really just an amazingly crafted movie from start to finish.

13. Yakuza 0 (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio)

The thing that makes Yakuza 0 really fun to play is the studio’s dedication to being as silly as they want without fear that it’ll ruin the serious high yakuza drama going on in the main story. I loved exploring every bit of the map and finding all the little side stories and minigames and losing all my money in mahjong. And on Majima’s side, I loved all of his fast and kinetic fighting styles and recruiting girls for my club and losing all my money in mahjong. And then there’s the host club minigame, which I personally consider to be the main game mode. As a control freak, I poured hours and hours into managing Club Sunshine into destroying every other club in the city – and what’s great about Yakuza 0 is that almost every minigame has this level of depth and consideration. There’s just a lot of charm and care put into fleshing out the world that you inhabit, which helps lend the story some weight as the events will affect that world in turn. I’m definitely a fighting game newbie, but I even had some fun working out small combos and ploughing my way through enemies. With the game being such a complete package, I think there’s something in it for everyone to enjoy. For me, it’s my favourite management simulator that just happens to have fighting mechanics as a bonus.

12. Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Natsu Hyuuga, Nekokurage)

Kusuriya absolutely gripped me from the very beginning. Reading this manga made me realize just how much I love the rear palace framework for stories – watching women jockey for power within this closed society is infinitely interesting to me, and Kusuriya’s structure of episodic medical mysteries allows for a unique angle from which to explore this world. Maomao is great as a protagonist, with her ability to reside in both high and low society and her resourcefulness making for her well-rounded perspective and analysis. I love how acutely aware she is of her position at all times, often keeping information to herself and waiting for the right moment to deploy her knowledge. And despite Maomao’s best efforts to stay unnoticed, her actions slowly but surely do have an impact on her surroundings, and it’s so engaging to watch each little step coalesce into something bigger. Of course, the manga isn’t even halfway through the story already written out in the light novels, but what I’ve read so far has already been a ton of fun, and I can only hope that it continues to get better from there.

11. Undead Unluck (Yoshifumi Tozuka)

A Shounen Jump battle manga with actual romantic progression feels like it shouldn’t be as rare as it is in the modern age, but Undead Unluck truly stands as a one-of-a-kind. There’s just so much heart poured into each of its characters and their relationships with each other, and seeing those emotional truths centered and made important in the narrative was so refreshing and engaging to read. Undead Unluck is a series that excels in strong, impactful moments and constant pay-offs, and seeing the world and our understanding of it gradually expand and change is immensely gratifying. But above all else, its cast is extremely charming and lovable, and it’s just plain fun to see them grow and fight and love. Even when they’re at odds with each other, each character has understandable motivations that clash in compelling ways, and there are so many victories that come at a bittersweet cost. The central themes of overcoming adversity and trauma and choosing to fight for those you love may sound like typical manga fare, but Undead Unluck’s sheer sincerity shines through brighter than anything else, especially when it doesn’t shy away from giving its characters a taste of real despair. Seeing them continue to move forward despite the tragedies they’ve faced and clawing their way through seemingly insurmountable odds one step at a time is inspirational, and it’s what makes Undead Unluck a truly special work.

10. Sammy Keyes (Wendelin van Draanen)

Having gotten back into reading this year, I turned to one of my favorite childhood book series, Sammy Keyes. My library had the whole fifteen book (at the time) collection, and I remember going back week after week to borrow and reborrow different volumes to read. Even now, I still remember a lot of plot elements and striking moments from the series, and it holds a very special place in my heart. Sammy’s voice is so incredibly strong and charming, coming off as both a plucky detective who can’t let a suspicious thread go unpulled and a resourceful teenager trying to deal with her complicated home and school lives. What had always struck me as unique about Sammy was how uniquely precarious her living situation was, coupled with her realistically troubled relationship with her mother. Van Draanen doesn’t heighten these issues to comically dramatic degrees, instead giving them and the characters space to breathe and grow alongside each book’s mystery. The mysteries themselves run the gamut of being interesting and/or dangerous, but Sammy approaches each one with a dogged curiosity and sincere sense of justice that makes it easy to become invested in seeing it resolved.  I haven’t worked my way through the whole series yet, but of this first half I would say Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy is the best and most thematically cohesive one. You’ll have to excuse some 2000’s-isms here and there, but I genuinely think this is one of the best children’s mystery series out there.

09. Watashi no Musuko ga Isekai Tensei Shitappoi (Kanemoto, Hikari Shibata)

Isekai is an easy target for hate these days, and I can’t say that I’m not on the same bandwagon at times, but I appreciate the genre’s existence because otherwise, this manga wouldn’t exist. Watashi no Musuko uses the isekai conceit to spin a deeply heartfelt story of grief, as Mio tries to cope with the loss of her son through the escapist fantasy of an escapist fantasy. There’s a really interesting push and pull between the acknowledgement that art can bring people together and the demonstrations of how that isn’t enough – you still have to learn how to communicate with others and understand the interiority of other people beyond your shared interests. Mio’s connection with Doubara is tenuous at best, but over the course of the series the two grow closer, and the tension just keeps rising as we know that Mio’s coping mechanism will eventually fall through, and it’s uncertain if Doubara will be able to pull her back from the brink when it does. This central relationship really makes for an amazingly human drama, and it’s a wonderful and fantastic read.

08. Marry My Dead Body (Cheng Wei-hao)

Marry My Dead Body is extremely funny, but I can’t go into the reasons why because I don’t want to spoil a single joke in this movie. But here’s the premise: a homophobic cop gets ghost gay married to a dead gay man and they have to solve a crime together. Part buddy-cop drama, part queer coming of age story, part modern Gen Z internet comedy, this movie truly, and I do mean truly, has everything. The acting and directing are both fantastic, and the story can shift between being hilarious and heartfelt with ease. The comedy is so innovative and yet relatable, and that eye for modern sensibilities is what truly sets this movie apart. It’s unlike any comedy movie I’ve ever watched, and it makes for a really fun and bombastic time.

07. Farewell My Concubine (Chen Kaige)

This movie made me feel like my atoms were vibrating, like something in my chemistry had fundamentally shifted after watching. Farewell My Concubine doesn’t tend to spell much out for the viewer, instead allowing us to fully marinate in the complex emotional web of the central characters, and once you’re sucked in, the sheer potency of those emotions can be staggering to behold. The film’s exploration of identity as it’s tied to gender and art and other people amidst ever-tumultuous societal change is supremely engrossing, and like any good tragedy, we watch these characters walk into their own fates step by step. All three main actors are amazing, but Leslie Cheung’s performance is absolutely divine. It was no small feat to portray Dieyi’s infinitely layered interiority, but he does it with so much grace and magnetism that it’s hard to look away. Farewell My Concubine can be an overwhelming watch, but it’s definitely well worth the emotional investment.

06. Bocchi the Rock! (CloverWorks)

In an industry that has never really been anything close to functional, it’s always a treat when an anime production is seemingly stable from beginning to end. In Bocchi the Rock’s case, the production went above and beyond stable and into the realm of masterful, breathing new life into what could’ve been a very standard adaptation. Every episode is filled with innovative gags and comedic bits that convey the staff’s genuine passion for the work and their creative visions, and it’s coupled with a solid story and an incredible soundtrack. Bocchi definitely feels like a protagonist for the modern age – far from the dazzling and purehearted pursuits of other anime music franchises, Bocchi is deathly anxious but simultaneously obsessed with gaining clout, and watching her come into her own as a musician who wants to pursue music for its own sake is half the fun. Her bandmates are the other half, with each girl in the relationship square having her own ambitions and anxieties. Each of the six possible pairings within the band has a unique tenor to their relationship, and it’s these relationships that allow Kessoku Band to push each other to their fullest potentials. It’s rare that an anime can fire on all cylinders for its entire run, but Bocchi does that and then some, and for that it was a bright spot in an already packed anime season.

05. Players (Dan Perrault, Tony Yacenda)

Having loved Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda’s work on American Vandal, Players was the show that really cemented them in my mind as a writing duo after my own heart. We seem to have the same taste in television, as well as the same fascination with finding meaning in the mundane. We love stories where the actual stakes are relatively low in the grand scheme of things – just some penis graffiti or the functionality of an esports team – but where the emotional stakes feel like life or death for those characters. It’s funny, of course, to see two grown men calling each other Cream Cheese and Organizm as they’re arguing about a video game, but their sincerity is so strong and true that you can’t help but become invested yourself. The relationship between the aforementioned Cream Cheese and Organizm is the central thread of Players’ narrative, as the two men’s differing philosophies and play styles clash with each other in their shared determination to win, and their respective brands of loneliness threatening to ruin everything. As with American Vandal, I really appreciate Perrault and Yacenda not letting the mockumentary framework go unexamined even as they’re utilizing it, and the way that the story is disseminated through carefully paced interview clips and YouTube reactionaries and  makes the world feel alive, and the intimate moments all the more vulnerable to watch. Even if you don’t care about esports in the slightest (I certainly don’t), there’s so much pathos to be found in Players that it’s a wonderfully bittersweet watch.

04. Dungeon Meshi (Ryoko Kui)

Dungeon Meshi ended its wonderful decade-long run this year, and as someone who has followed it since 2016, it was bittersweet but ultimately fulfilling to see Kui masterfully guide her story to its conclusion. Kui has always had a deft hand, never letting go of Dungeon Meshi’s core messages and using the framework of food to explore themes of community and life. To eat is to assert one’s own right to live, and even though that desire can be twisted and corrupted, there is no moral quality to hunger. Dungeon Meshi balances humor and drama like no other manga I’ve seen, and every single aspect of the world and its characters is so fully realized and multi-dimensional. The art and writing are both absolutely sublime, and if you haven’t already hopped on the Dungeon Meshi train, I’m here to tell you that it’s worth the hype.

03. Circle of Magic (Tamora Pierce)

Similar to Sammy Keyes, Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic is another childhood book series that I still love to this day. Pierce’s worldbuilding is so deft and alive, and just reading her prose immediately plunges me into this world and its characters. Throughout the books, we watch the four main characters face both the external conflicts of their world and their own internal conflicts as each of them grapple with what it means to belong somewhere and what they should do with their lives. What I love about Pierce’s prose is that it never feels like she’s writing down to a child’s level – instead, she trusts that the audience can understand the politics and emotions at play within the narrative. It’s this respect for the reader’s intelligence that makes this series so much fun to revisit as an adult. The friendship blooming between Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar is the heart of this series, and it’s moving to see them grow closer and support one another in their respective journeys. To me, this series is just the best fantasy story I’ve ever read.

02. Cipher Academy (Nisioisin, Yuuji Iwasaki)

When I clicked on Cipher Academy in the Manga Plus app out of vague curiosity a year ago, I had no idea that I was about to read what would become one of my favorite manga of all time. The elephant in the room, of course, is the complexity of the codes, especially after they’ve been translated into a completely different language. But beyond those puzzles, the emotional core of Cipher Academy has always been its characters and how they communicate with each other. Every person is so embroiled in their own hidden ambitions and goals that each conversation is an information war and each code battle is a knife fight. But through all of this cutthroat back and forth, Iroha enters the scene with his pure charisma and desire to genuinely connect with the other students, and gradually they begin to change in turn. The codes become less about obscuring information, and it becomes more and more obvious that the codes are actually the most honest way these code soldiers can express themselves – to present a code is to open oneself up to vulnerability, and to solve that code is to accept the invitation and engage honestly with another human being. And when these walls finally do come down, it’s incredibly endearing to watch these teenagers have awkward but honest relationships with each other. As Iroha moves up through the ranks with his kindness and tenacity, and even as the ugly visage of war rears its head, Cipher Academy’s students always dare to strive for an impossible but better future. While Nisioisin’s writing is excellent and moving, Iwasaki also deserves praise for bringing Cipher Academy’s world to life. His drawing prowess is stunning, with impactful compositions, sharp and strong linework, and some of the best female character designs I’ve ever seen in manga. Every page in Cipher Academy is a feast for the eyes, and the attention to detail makes it so rewarding to pore over every panel and see the care that’s been put into this world and its characters. That Cipher Academy didn’t get to live for three hundred plus chapters will always be a tragedy to me, but in its short-lived existence it granted me so much joy and life, and it will always be close to my heart.

01. Succession (Jesse Armstrong)

Succession is a show that has irrevocably changed my life. Admittedly, it was a slow start – I had watched seasons 1 and 2 after seeing people heap praise onto it, and I thought it was just okay. I enjoy corporate intrigue shows, so I kept waiting for there to be more explosive drama, bigger consequences, and for the ultimate other shoe to drop on Kendall after the events of the season 1 finale. But it didn’t happen, and I felt perplexed by the bathos that the show seemed to constantly fall back on. It wasn’t until I was watching the show week to week during its season 3 run that I truly understood what it was going for. Succession is about so many things, but what resonates with me most is the examination of this truly broken family and the rippling effects of generational trauma. Succession lays bare the sickening truth that we will always be our parents’ children, and our relationship to them is as woven into our DNA as their actual genetics. The Roy siblings are all refractions of Logan, who himself is a refraction of the long forgotten past, and their struggles to escape his orbit are both amusing and horrifying to watch. They’re all forever stuck in childhood, desperately seeking the love of a man who is incapable of giving it to them, and the push and pull of this never-ending cycle is intoxicating. The constant shifts of power make each conversation weighted and layered, and it all reverberates outward thousandfold through the Roy’s media company and their impact on the world.

The fourth and final season aired this year, and with its conclusion I can safely say that Succession is one of the best TV shows in existence. Never have I seen a show with this much thought and care put into every aspect of its production – the writing is hauntingly memorable and evocative, the directing and framing is always thoughtful and laden with meaning, and the actors are literally giving the best performances of their careers as they fully commit to the emotional truths of each and every one of these characters. Seeing the work of all these people coalesce in such a brilliant way is genuinely beautiful. Succession embraces the absurdity and tragedy of our modern world and how these cycles of trauma perpetuate through every aspect of our lives. The ending is deeply tragic, but still understandable in its inevitably. This was always the path these characters were going to take, because they were never going to be anyone but themselves. The poison will always, always drip through.

And that’s it for my favorite things of 2023. Not to get too philosophical about it, but writing about what I love has made me really glad to be alive. I love art – I love seeing others through their work and having their work see me in return. I love experiencing things that fundamentally reshape my worldview or sense of self. Isn’t it wonderful that we can change each other like that? Let’s enjoy it all.

[maroonghoul]

Horror Movies I just Watched: Jan 2023

I’m back! Since I watch new horror movies all year long these days anyway, might as well continue this on a monthly basis. So I started off 2023 with these:

Noroi: the Curse  More of a mockumentary mixed with a found footage film. I feel the rules here are less defined then with the Ring or the Grudge, though maybe I just having trouble keeping up. While that can hurt the wide appeal, I think it helps the quality. It’s scarier if you don’t fully know how to avoid or escape Kagutaba. All this film does is give you point of views.

Alligator(1980) Animal attack movies feel weird to me for this. Yes, they’re structurally monster movies, that are, on paper, a lot more scary when the monster is actually real (Sure helped with Jaws’ effectiveness), but it’s that strange extra dose of realism that fails to engage me most of the time. I’m going in knowing this isn’t invincible agent of evil precisely. It’s no more immoral then the humans it eats or attacks because all it’s got is instincts.

For this film, it was never really scary. The big gator puppet was goofy whenever it was on screen. But I did enjoy whenever it was on screen, especially when it literally crashed that wedding. Kinda wished the female lead, who was his last owner all grown up, would realize it and had a moment with Ramon the gator. I don’t know WHAT that moment would be (An apology, a mercy kill, etc.), but otherwise, I felt that prologue is pointless. Big guy deserved at least to get out of Chicago.

Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives The fourth film in this franchise I’ve seen and so far my favorite. Yeah, sadly not a hot take. This one or 4 is considered the best. But this gave more of what I want. Now a confirmed classic zombie, looks like Jason has enough energy to terrorize more then his camp, even if he always goes back there, leading to a wide variety of dead meat.

While Tommy this time is a unique protagonist for this franchise in that he already knows Jason is around (because it’s sorta his fault), I’m a bit annoyed he’s naïve enough to think the police would help. They gave him more difficulty then Jason. I guess that makes sense, since it’d be hard to justify him leaving anyone alive long enough for the climax. Points for getting a few car chases into the story though.

But otherwise, I enjoyed the Frankenstein inspired opening, the set up to the kills, the actual kills. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’ll think I go with the one that got him his new machete. The movie being funny without undercutting Jason’s threat level should be enough to make it a Slasher gold standard.

I actually saw it because a local theater was screening it 17 days ago. (Guess why?) and the audience was having a great time with it. I don’t blame them. Funny how a 37 year old dumb slasher movie made a more compelling argument to me the importance of movie theaters then either Avatar movie. Zing!

Black Sabbath Anthology film courtesy of Mario Bava and Boris Karloff! Nice!

The first segment: Well now I found what helped inspired Black Christmas, and in turn, Scream. It doesn’t handle the premise as terrifyingly as what came after it, but it’s nice and short.

The Second segment: Karloff playing a vampire (well, close enough to one) where he turns and breaks down his family one by one, leading to a downer ending? Works for me. Though it’s a pity the version I found dubs him over with an Italian voice actor. 

The Third segment: The corpse in this story is probably the first image that comes up when you do a google search for this movie. Moral of the story; whatever your financial woes or how good that ring looks, don’t steal from anything that looks like that!

Titane What’s really strange about this movie isn’t that our main character is a serial killer or that there’s a sentient car that knocks them up or that they spend most of the movie impersonating a man. What’s strange is that really except for the first act and the last ten minutes, this doesn’t feel like a horror movie at all. 

Most of the deaths happen early on (including one scene played for black comedy purposes) and the car doesn’t do anything beyond it’s sex scene. It doesn’t pull a Christine and come to protect it’s unborn baby. Sure, there’s body horror for the half human half machine fetus that literally tears Alexia’s body apart. But it’s surprisingly utilizes more metal then gore. Though, knowing what I could take, that’s probably a blessing. 

The rest plays almost like a wholesome LGBTIA+ drama about almost literal found family with firefighters. I guess it’s strangely nice it went this way when other movies go the more nihilistic route. Though now I want to watch more movies with firefighters all of a sudden.

[xgryffinwhore]

Hey! Can I request a jaeden martell x reader where basically their charters are dating on a tv show and they are really really good best friends in real life and they they both go on the Jimmy fallon show and he keeps on asking if they’re dating because everyone thinks they are and when they say no he obvi doesn’t let it go lol and it ends up slipping up that jaeden did/ does have a crush on reader and they maybe end up sharing a kiss in front is Jimmy & audience & stuff😶just an idea i had 😂:)

i love this idea wow, thinking i’m going to put my own little twist on it but i think you’ll still be pleased ;)

just friends

warnings!: suggestive topics, fluff

word count: 2.1k

five

your face was being touched up with powder, the cotton pad dabbing at your nose as the white powder absorbed into any oil your face may have had.

four

you look over at jimmy, this wasn’t your first talk show, but it had been the biggest one with the most following. it was intimidating, you bounced your foot up and down and played with your hands.

three

behavior jaeden had grown to recognize. he knew you better then you knew yourself, your anxiety was worse then you put it out to be. “you ok?” he questioned, “fine, i’m fine” you painted a small smile on your face. but he wasn’t easily fooled.

two

he grabbed one of your hands and rubbed circles into your palm, this sent vibrations of relaxation down your spine.

one

his eyes locked with yours, you swore they were a different color each time you saw them. sometimes more blue, sometimes more green, sometimes dark with mystery, sometimes light and playful.

‘aaand where on air’

you wiped the hand that was interlocked with his off on your dress, it was clammy. the curtain came up fast, and your vision was soon flooded with bright lights and silhouettes of bodies.

making out the faces in the sea of people was impossible, but you knew your friends were out there. they had flown out to see you, a) they could go see new york and b) you were on national television, and they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

jimmy was talking, you knew that much, but your nerves took over and honestly you weren’t registering a damn thing he was saying. the crowd cheered, you snapped out of your daze.

“and here tonight, we have jaeden martell and y/n l/n from the new HBO tv series: turning tables”

he turned to both of us, and gave everyone time to clap. he tired to speak over the loud hands, moving on with his show, but the crowd made that difficult. eventually the clapping died out and he could continue.

“now, i’ve watched all of the episodes but, for the people who haven’t seen: can you explain what the show is about?” he looked a jaeden, you let go of a breathe you had held in.

“s-sure” jaeden turned to face the audience more, he was soft spoken and shy, so it was important he projected as much as he could.

“turning tables is a teen drama. it’s about families of poverty in the seattle washington area and how they struggle to go to school and work. my character, jennings cooper, is the main protagonist. the show is mainly from his point of view, and how he struggle to support his family.”

jimmy nods and smiles, he looks pleased with his explanation. i’m truth the show wasn’t that simple, he knew that. but, it would take so long to explain.

“and y/n, who do you play?” he knew the answer to this obviously, but you were becoming a crowd favorite. everyone loved your personality, and you were an up-and-coming a list celebrity.

“i play parker marlow, jennings girlfriend” you blushed at this statement, the crowd giggled and ‘ouuu’ed. jimmy rubbed his hands together, getting excited at the upcoming topic of discussion.

“so, your romance on season one was steamy” you thought back to the scenes you did together. all of the kissing, which felt normal at this point. he wasn’t a bad kisser, in fact- you didn’t mind it at all. your romance through the season built up to a sex scene, your mind flashed through the memories of filming it.

filming those scenes isnt half as steamy as you think it is. it’s awkward, you laugh a lot. you had never felt that exposed in your life! however watching it was different, it looked so real, so perfect.

you blurred out your thoughts, mr. fallon still speaking on the subject. “can we expect more -“ jimmy searched for your ship name, it was on the tip of his tongue. the combination of your first names on the show didn’t make an attractive combo. it was either jarker or pennings. your last names matched a little better.

“-carlow” jaeden finished for him. jimmy nodded and smiled “yes- carlow- can we expect more carlow next season?” you both looked at each other and smiled. the writers for the show already had the next four seasons laid out. you knew that carlow was a continuing relationship on the show.

“yes, you should expect more of that sort of content from us” you stated. the people in the crowd had a positive responce to this, the applause lapping until it died out once again.

“right, your characters have so much chemistry in the show. two struggling teens just trying to break even.” jaeden agreed “yes, our characters balance each other out, and being from the same background helps them associate. jennings is kind of a bad boy-as the ladies say- he’s a felon, he steels cars and sells them to counterfeit manufacturers and dealers for money. parker, y/n’s character, has a job at a diner. she shows him the light at the end of the tunnel if he chooses to go down a good path.”

“yes, parker gets jennings a job at the diner with her, and he falls for her sweet disposition even after everything she’s been through” you add.

jimmy licks his lips and pops another question: “so id imagine the chemistry in the show heightens the real life thing?” he cocked an eye brow, the group gasping at the intrusiveness.

“jaeden and i are just friends” you blurt out, your nerves working up again. it was hard, you liked jaeden ever since you had your first kiss with him.

“y-yeah” he stutters, he obviously wasn’t expecting this either “friends” jimmy shakes his head and puts his finger on his lip “recently, you both have been showing a lot of pictures of you two together on social media.”

the audience ‘awwwed’ at the photos that displayed behind you. on the screen, there were pictures of you and him that were on both of your instagrams. you two at gardens, getting food, even watching movies at each other’s houses.

“for just friends, these photos looks intimate , wouldn’t you say” a bunch of ‘yes’’s and ‘mhm’’s came from the crowd as both of your faces became red.

“we’re just best friends, honestly” jaeden laughed nervously, he fixed his hair with his hand has he always does.

“right right- can you tell me when this photo is from?” jimmy asked, the last picture flashing on the screen. it was of you both, you had just filmed your first scene together.

the first scene you filmed together was episode two, he saved you after you fell into ice cold water. it was how the characters met, and it was filmed at a cove on a windy august day.

the picture was a little blurry, but it added character. he had his arm around you, both of your hair soaked, and you share a huge towel. you remember how cold you were, your teeth chattered so rapidly. his hair was stuck to his forehead and more small pieces went up. and your lips were almost purple, half from the makeup, half because you swore that was the coldest water you had ever went in.

“that’s from when we first started filming, it was the first time we met in the show” you recited, re living the memory in your head. you remember jaeden pulling your head into his chest when the wind began blowing. you remember his thumb trying to create friction on your back to make you just a little warm.

“yes yes- you two look so adorable!” jimmy squealed, he was the most teenage-girl-grown-man you had ever met. his hand opened one of the drawers in the faux desk he sat behind, pulling out a small blue camcorder.

the camcorder.

you know how on tv shows, there is special footage? sometimes it’s just behind the scene specials but sometimes- sometimes - it’s footage the actors document when they were just having fun? yeah it was one of those camcorders.

the camcorder was brought in by the two other co hosts wyatt oleff and finn wolfhard (i know this cast is sooo original not really) they played jaedens two best friends on the show. while they weren’t filming, they’d dick around and talk about stupid stuff. you’d never seen what they filmed, but you had been featured quite a few times; their by them pranking you, or invading your personal space.

you looked over at jaeden, you watched his adam’s apple bob and a thin layer of sweat flush over his face. he bounced his leg slightly, a habit he had picked up from you.

“let’s just review our material here” jimmy teased, his tongue darting out between his teeth. the video began to play, the sound was loud; assumingely for jaeden quiet voice in the tape.

the video started with wyatts unsteady hand, him and finn were running around set, they stopped at jaeden, he was playing on his phone in his trailer.

“jaeden wesley we have come for you” finn yelled. you could see jaeden shoot up from his chair. “hey guys” he waved. they talked for around a minute, jokes and all. then finn started to giggle, wyatt zoomed in on jaedens face.

“so jaeden, how’s y/n?” he chuckled, jaeden blushed “she’s ok i guess dunno.” wyatt stopped zooming in when the only thing in frame was jaedens head. “the kiss was good hm?” wyatt asked. jaeden continued to play on his phone, he nodded. “yeah, she’s pretty cute too.”

the video cut to another segment, this was filmed after the sex scene. you knew because jaeden laid on the bed you, in the same underwear that he wore during the scene. the boys were jumping on the bed, and jaeden took the camera and talked to it.

“this is for memory and memory ONLY! h-hey y/nnn” he was talking to the camera like it was you “you’re amazing and cool” you could hear finn explode into laughter as he stole the camera back and started running “yeah! and he wants your babies and loves you so much-“ “SHUT UP FINN!!!” and jaeden chased him around.

the video was taken off the screen. your face had become close to ghostly white. it was weird, it was almost like he was dumb enough to think finn wouldn’t give jimmy this blackmail goldmine. you looked at jaeden, he hit his bottom lip until it was red, he itches his neck and laughed it off.

“yeah ok-ok jimmy, maybe i liked her back in the day” jaeden tried so hard to be casual, but jimmy hit him with a heart stopper: “but mr martell, the last clip was filmed less then a month ago!”

your mind flickered with memories and ideas of him.

your first time meeting, how good his hand felt in yours. when you wiped icecream off his chin, and him dotting icecream on to the top of your nose. the way his hair always fell perfectly above his eye brow. and SHIT how he always smelt so fucking good. how he let you fall asleep in his arms and how he never complained when you put on some stupid romcom and-

“y/n?” jimmy questioned. “huh?” you spaced, come on y/n you gotta stop doing that. “i asked how you felt about all of this.” “well, there isn’t a right word i can use.”

jaeden took this has a bad reaction, he did a small wave to the crowd and stood up to get off the stage.

you stood up, grabbed his hand, and laid one right on him. kissing him felt normal, but now that there was emotion behind it, it just felt so right.

you both stopped for air, the crowd went wild. jimmy was clapping too, you could barley hear them, your heart was pumping throughout your whole body. you swore jaeden could hear it.

after the show, you sat in your dressing room for a bit, contemplating the events of tonight, and how they were all broadcasted for your embarrassment. but it was only the beginning. only the beginning of what was to come for mr. and mrs. jaeden martell.