#he's such an underused character so no one really cares

[johnnyreincarnated]

privated the johnic fic cause I don't like it anymore

#makes me kinda eh. #the problem is sonic I think he's too ooc :pensive: #Johnny is fine because a lot of his characteristics are self projection #he's such an underused character so no one really cares #although I still try to keep parts of his canon character in there

[lusthurts]

**SPOILER WARNING FOR THE RED WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE MOVIE**

This movie was very entertaining. It hit all the beats of a great rom-com. I personally enjoyed the music a lot, even if it was at times very different from the music in the book. Nicholas Galitzine was a standout of the main cast for me - he really made me feel Henry’s angst just like the book did, and I think this is a character that the film truly did justice. My personal favorite character from the movie though was Zahra - Sarah Shahi was absolutely incredible. She had fantastic comedic timing and her dynamic with Alex, Henry, Shaan, and Ellen. I really enjoyed Bea, Nora, & Pez as well, although I think they were severely underused and I kinda hated how the Nora/Pez dynamic worked without June. I think the romance was beautiful - I particularly enjoyed the polo scene, the karaoke scene, the Texas stuff, and the V&A museum.

I also laughed out loud a ton during the movie. Zahra’s scenes were hilarious, and the royal wedding/cake debacle was handled perfectly. I miss June here a bit, but I generally was very satisfied with how it all went down. Also, despite many fans early fears of a lack of chemistry between Nick and Taylor, I thought their chemistry was fantastic. Maybe not the best I’ve ever seen, but it was definitely believable, entertaining, and one of the most compelling parts of the story.

I also liked that we got more of Henry’s POV than we did in the book. It didn’t add a ton in my opinion, but I do think it allowed Nicholas Galitzine to show off his acting chops. I think the heart of the book remains, and after the press/everything I’d heard about the movie going into it, I was pleasantly surprised with how the political stuff was handled. Alex’s arc with Texas in particular was beautiful, and I think the end of the movie left me with a similar feeling to the book.

As for things I didn’t love, and I will say there were kind of a lot of small things, I’ve made a list that I’m sure no one cares much to read.

I missed June a lot. I identify a lot with her character, and although I totally understand why she was cut out (I do think in the book she serves less plot purpose than Nora), I actually think the choice to exclude her made even less sense after seeing the movie than before seeing it. Nora and Alex’s relationship felt very underdeveloped in the movie, and none of the romantic elements that I thought made their relationship important to the book ended up mattering at all in the movie. He kisses a different girl on New Year’s, there’s no mention of a sexual history between them, there’s no fake dating setup to detract from Alex/Henry, and Nora’s just generally absent. I feel like June would’ve served that purpose fine if not better.

The romance felt kind of rushed. The whole Christmas phone call that imo is so crucial to Henry & Alex’s relationship and character development doesn’t happen at all (probably because his parents are still together), and I didn’t have like a timer or clock or anything but it felt like the 100 or so pages leading up to the NYE kiss was like less than 20 minutes.

I hated that Alex’s parents were happily married, and I think it massively takes away from his character development. His arc honestly fell very short for me which is disappointing since he’s a character I identify so closely with. I don’t feel like they do his like major anxiety justice, and I think he goes from kinda being an idealist, reckless dummy to being a heartfelt, romantic, ready for a big commitment guy in the span of a few minutes.

I honestly could’ve done without the sex scenes. They were good, and I could tell the intimacy coordinator slayed with this one, but they were more explicit than the book imo (especially the one in Paris), and while I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, I would’ve much rather had more fade to black so as to save screen time to develop the romance more at the beginning.

I didn’t enjoy the Miguel character at all. He has no character development, and I do not at all understand how this character is the Luna/Liam blend he was promoted as. He functions as a ruthless journalist who despite being queer himself decides to out Henry and Alex to the entire world, and we NEVER get an explanation for why. It’s alluded to that maybe Miguel had feelings for Alex and did it because he resented Alex for not feeling the same? But like, he literally outed two prominent figures to the entire world at risk of benefitting a homophobic predator running for office. And he never apologizes? Or faces any repercussions???? Like this is just kind of there?? And that is NOT AT ALL Rafael Luna or Liam who are both generally speaking positive forces in Alex’s life. I just don’t get it at all.

This is a personal issue I had that most probably don’t care about, but I’m from Minnesota, and seeing Minnesota red in the movie was infuriating. MN is not a swing state, never really has been, and was basically the only state in the upper midwest to stay blue in the 2016 election. I’m biased because this is my home state, but MN would NEVER vote red and I’m kinda just annoyed at the implication that it did instead of them just choosing to blame it on all the actual swing states.

Okay those are my thoughts. I doubt anyone cares that much, but I needed to get it out of my system. I will say I really enjoyed the movie, and I can see why the bulk of reviews are positive. I think anyone who didn’t read the book won’t feel like anything is missing, and fans of the book will for the most part still really enjoy it. I will definitely be rewatching when it comes out officially on Amazon Prime tomorrow, and I can see myself rewatching hundreds more times in the future. But it sort of needs to exist independent of the book for me, I guess. And that’s okay! I think everyone involved did a great job with the adaptation, and I look forward to watching it again.

#red white and royal blue #rwrb #firstprince #red white and royal blue movie #red white and royal blue review

[9leaguesofmirrors]

My Favourite Reece Shearsmith Characters

So it's Reece Shearsmith's birthday today, so I decided to celebrate this by sharing some of my favourite characters played by this fantastically talented actor

These are in no particular order

Gregory Brewster - Him Indoors

Him Indoors is a short film about a serial killer with agoraphobia. Not only is the premise very interesting, Reece delivers a chilling yet very entertaining performance as the main character. It's on YouTube if you want to watch it, which I highly reccomend you do!

Tommy - Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room

This HAD to be on the list! Reece's performance as Tommy is heartbreaking, we watch a man seems to put-together and serious slowly fall apart and lose control of his calm façade - impeccable work

Sean Stone - Chasing Shadows

Admittedly, I don't know where the watch the full show, but I have seen clips and I knew I had to put it on this list because of Reece's portrayal of an autistic person. You can tell he put a lot of thought and research into it in order to give a realistic performance, which is a testament to his dedication and how much he truly cares about the roles he plays and who he's representing

Tyler - Riddle Of The Sphinx SPOILERS BELOW

If there's one thing Reece is good at, it's how to play a chilling villain. Everything about Tyler is unnerving and he manages to be terrifying without being loud or angry all the time. It's measured and the emotion builds and builds - fantastic work!

Joseph Lisgoe - The League Of Gentlemen

I've mentioned before that the debt collectors were underused, and I simply had to talk about how extraordinary Reece's performance as Lisgoe was. He completely dives into the roles he plays and this one was no exception, not even a light smashing on his closest friend stops him from carrying on a scene (just check out the outtakes!), he simply embodies the part and delivers a performance that terrifies the cast, crew and the audience

Laurence - Merrily Merrily SPOILERS BELOW

Merrily Merrily is an Inside No. 9 episode that I can never rewatched because of how empty it made me feel - and I mean that in the best way possible! Laurence is wracked with pain over the loss of his late partner, and Reece delivers such a subtle yet haunting performance that I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about it

Ross Gaines - The League of Gentlemen

Ross is such a fun character because of how manipulative, calculating and cold he is. Not only does it set him apart from the other inhabitants of Royston Vasey, it makes his scenes with Pauline all the more tense and entertaining - and Reece really does deliver in the role. I'm glad they decided to go with this casting choice

Aiden - Thinking Out Loud

Like with Laurence, Reece delivers a hauntingly stellar performance. What makes this one really special is that it's a monologue. There's nobody for him to bounce off of or react to, he has to reach those emotions himself. And, as always, he nails it

Ollie Plimsolls - The League Of Gentlemen

I've said before that I think Ollie is one of the most cleverly written League characters and I stand by that. As a representation of the Saviour Complex and self-righteousness of people in theatre, Ollie is a character that should be easy to hate... but because of Reece's expert comedic timing and delivery, he ends up being so funny that you can't help but laugh every time he's onscreen

SPECIAL MENTION: Gilbert - Betty Blue Eyes

Reece Shearsmith said in an interview that he wasn't a great singer. Reece Shearsmith is a liar. Don't believe me? Listen to The Kind Of Man I Am from Betty Blue Eyes and thank me later

Also, if you can find it, there's a short bootleg of him in The Producers which is good too!

Of course, this are just a few of his performances and he's never delivered a bad one - whether he's playing a comedic character like Archie in The Bill or a more serious one like in Borley Rectory. And we haven't even touched on his writing skills, I can't wait to see what he does next!

#inside no 9 #in9 #inside number 9 #reece shearsmith #steve pemberton #the league of gentlemen #league of gentlemen #chasing shadows #him indoors #BBC #bernie clifton's dressing room #merrily merrily #thinking out loud #gregory brewster #betty blue eyes #ross gaines #joseph lisgoe #ollie plimsolls #ds sean stone #sean stone

[familyabolisher]

can you elaborate your thoughts on 'the bear' show? i keep seeing it all over my dash and it looks interesting but i wanna know what to look out for since you said the politics isn't handled well.

having now watched all of the second season—a major problem sticking out to me is that the show can’t quite decide what tone it wants to strike. in season one, you had these dream sequences intended to communicate carmy’s [in]ability to process his feelings about michael, spliced with an otherwise v realist tone—but the show never really leant into either consistently using a surrealist external world to represent something internal to a character or going straightforwardly realist. season two has, eg., a moment where syd sees the text on the rapidly generating tickets change from table orders to like “fuck” over and over, and, like—it’s the same thing again, it’s the use of an obviously not ‘literal’ physical space communicating the mental headspace of the character whose perspective we briefly occupy, but, like, the show can’t quite commit to the tone that this slightly trickier technique demands, so it just feels awkward and clumsy and like a cheap way of communicating a character’s internal state. i thought the bit in season one where carmy dreams he’s on a cooking show that goes horribly wrong was really tonally effective and an excellent segue into the rest of the episode, but, like, they just kind of pull this conceit out when they need it and ignore it when they don’t. and i wish they’d try to do more with it! shit or get off the pot.

the dialogue is also just … pretty weak at points. there’s a lot of like, characters launching into anecdotes as a technique of exposition, which … i can put up with once or twice, but when it just keeps happening, i can’t help but think of it as lazy writing. season 2 also seemed to spread itself far too thin; we have different episodes dedicated to different secondary characters, which if handled well could be effective—the idea is that they’re a team, that everyone contributes something and everyone has to pull their weight, and we spend time with each individual before seeing how it all comes together at the end. that did kind of half-land in the final episode, but on an individual level, the episodes just weren’t tightly constructed enough for any one storyline to feel complete. tina and marcus in particular felt … underused, underdeveloped, i feel like i barely have more of a sense of their characters than i did at the end of season 1. marcus’ episode especially felt incredibly flat; we learnt (through Dialogue Exposition) about his relationship to his terminally ill mother, which i think worked well enough, but other than that, the process of learning new baking techniques felt half-assed and lacked any real tension, will poulter’s character was completely forgettable. glad we got some pretty shots of copenhagen, but like, what was the point.

ideologically it sucks lol. there’s a chef who’s fired for doing drugs which the narrative is v much fine with, there’s pithy comments about people coming into the restaurant in groups and buying one thing so they can sit around, there’s … just no real sense of the ways in which restaurants are classed spaces, service work is a denigrated form of labour, hospitality is a v abusive industry … richie’s episode in season 2 focuses on him learning some nauseatingly bootlicky hospitality shit as a barometer of Character Growth to the point that i was laughing when i watched it because i couldn’t take it seriously at all. (there’s a line where a manager says that serving fine dining guests can be compared to looking after people in hospital in terms of the level of care you bring to the job … i guess that’s why they call it … Hospitality … and i was just sat there cackling. like, be serious.) there’s just no drive to interrogate the hospitality industry & how the impression of servitude and deference is built into the world of fine dining and what that means, no serious criticism of restaurant work beyond carmy’s flashbacks to chefs being abusive to him that become a discursive dead end when the show doesn’t develop them to tackle the nature of fine dining itself.

my final big problem is that it’s very thematically flimsy. the conceit of the show is that carmy has to interrupt his career as a fine-dining chef to come and work at michael’s v modest sandwich shop whilst emotionally processing his suicide—so it seems pretty clear to me that this would play with tensions between the culture of fine dining and that of a failing sandwich shop, right? like, clashes when the fine dining chef tries to bring fine dining techniques to the new place, in the end we all learn a valuable lesson about what we can all teach each other or whatever? and season 1 does do this, but even at the points where it seems to want to criticise the fine dining industry, by season 2 it seems to have pretty definitively joined the war on fine dining on the side of the fine dining. there’s not really a drive in season 2 to interrogate what it means to turn a neighbourhood sandwich shop into a fine dining establishment; how do regulars feel about this? what about the locals who might now be priced out of it? what about the question of gentrification? none of these are ever really brought to the forefront. in season 1, we got the sense that carmy’s fine dining world was sterile and alien where it wasn’t actively abusive, and the sandwich shop allowed him to escape that world—so why aren’t we asking questions about what kind of restaurant culture is really valuable, what really makes for good hospitality? even in a show that obviously doesn’t want to ask serious questions about restaurants under capitalism, there are all these little channels of negotiation that season 1 seemed to set up only for season 2 to let them drop.

so, yeah. i’m not convinced the show really has a strong sense of direction. season 2 felt very all over the place, and seemed to want to juggle so many things at once that it ended up not really landing any of them.

#ask #a few people asked me about the bear so take this as like a blanket response

[coraniaid]

top five buffy characters?

In order (today, anyway):

Buffy

Willow

Faith

Giles

Anya

Can't really put my thoughts on Buffy Summers better than I did last year. As I said then, she's one of my favorite fictional characters in any medium. I just think she's neat.

Big fan of Willow, too, although a little bit less so than I was when I first watched the show as a teenager. As well as the slight derailing of her arc with the whole magic-addiction stuff in Season 6 and the show struggling to find anything for her to do in Season 7, I think on reflection, despite the whole "occasionally I'm callous and strange" line, the Buffy writers sometimes don't actually realize when they've made Willow do something interesting and a little fucked-up. They're just a bit too sympathetic to her. So we never get the pay-off those moments deserved, and maybe we were never going to, because -- like Willow herself -- the writers simply don't think Willow did anything wrong.

Faith is the other character who is an easy fit into my top three. (Yes, not shocking, I know.) It seems a bit silly to claim that a character who appears in less than one full season's worth of episodes is one of my favorite characters, but ... I guess I'm a bit silly. She's a main character in my heart (and in my fanfiction), even if the show writers never quite realized it.

A bit below those three, but above anyone else, is Rupert Giles. I think Giles is a fascinating character, but -- more than almost anyone else in the fandom -- he tends to get flattened into this role of "Buffy's good dad" which simply doesn't reflect his role in the narrative at all. (I think it's telling that the fandom's big take-away from Helpless is "Giles has a father's love for Buffy, which we know for a fact because an evil British man said it", combined with a general indifference about ... the objectively awful things we literally just saw him do.) But canon!Giles is (mostly) much better than the fandom caricature. He kind of sucks. I like him.

That fifth spot is the tricky one and the one that's most liable to change. I don't think there's any character in the show who is consistently as sympathetic and interesting and multi-layered as those other four. Tara is nice and has a surprisingly deep relationship with Buffy, but doesn't really get much in the way of an arc. Dawn only appears in three seasons (and the writers seem to just run out of ideas for things for her to do in the third of them). While I will defend the importance of Joyce to Buffy forever -- I think Buffy's relationship with her mother is one of the key things that makes her who she is, and I think the show would be far less interesting without Joyce Summers in -- Joyce herself isn't ever given enough to do and basically doesn't exist outside of her relationship with Buffy. Xander is kind of like Giles in some ways - a deliberately flawed image of (a certain kind of) masculinity who cares about Buffy enormously but isn't always able to act accordingly because of his own self-loathing and because he has a slightly idealized image of her in his mind -- but he's also a little less interesting and a lot more irritating (and, like Willow, sometimes the writers just don't seem to realize when he's in the wrong). I think most of the Xander detractors on this site are misreading the text, but I don't really want to be a Xander defender either.

There are a whole host of other minor characters I wish the show had done more with or cared about at all: Amy, Jenny, Drusilla, Oz, Kendra, Robin are some names that come to mind. But the truth is that, as they appear on screen, I just can't pretend they were ever more than cyphers. (Even if Oz appeared in far more episodes than Faith ever did; at least Faith had some sort of agency and was central to most of the episodes she appeared in.)

So, who's left?

I think Anya is badly underused in the show throughout her time on it (she's just almost never taken seriously at all, either by the writing or the characters), her backstory has all the consistency of wet papier-mâché and to be honest I don't like Selfless quite as much as most people either. But, well, at least she's reliably funny, and there's definitely the idea of an intriguing character in there. Her death makes me furious too, more so than any other character on the show. So, almost by process of elimation, there she is.

#btvs #asks #thanks!

[beanghostprincess]

I have a rant regarding Usopp in the live action, one thing I noticed (and infuriated me) is the many many new fans that inmediatly "clocked" Usopp as the Straight Character™ and are therefore like "well I don't care about straight characters, so im going to ignore him, teehee" and AHHHH FIRST OF ALL IF YOU KNEW THE BISEXUAL VIBES THIS MAN EXUDES, and I don't even want to blame the Kaya kiss because it was cute and they're lovely together 😭 (tho I also see the pattern of which Character the Fandom decides are Straight™ and therefore ignored...)

But I also feel like maybe the Live Action didnt really give Usopp enough moments to shine, here's hoping for more (San)Usopp moments in the second season, they really underuse him in the first one

Okay, first of all, if you think Usopp is straight you're definitely reading his character wrong because look at him. Just look at him.

Yeah, no. This guy doesn't care about gender in the slightest.

And people assuming a guy is straight because he,,, Has a girlfriend,,, Wow,,, A bisexual man who kisses a woman,,, Who would've thought that bisexual people could fall in love with anyone,,, As if that wasn't the literal fucking definition of bisexual. And you could also headcanon him as gay or any other sexuality! Why does he have to be the straight character for having a girlfriend in canon? You can do whatever the fuck you want with it. Fuck canon. People make my blood boil. Also, the whole "I don't care about straight characters" thing is something SO common and it makes me so angry because-- First of all, who said he's straight? He's a fictional character, do whatever the fuck you want with him. And second, it's alright to like specifically queer characters because they give you comfort and representation, but instantly ignoring a character just because they are not queer? Uh. Like, I understand, but it gives me the ick. It's just weird. Off-putting. Because there's a thin line between focusing on the characters you think are queer for comfort and reducing them only to their sexuality and ignoring everything that matters in the show. But you know? I don't think that's exactly the issue here and we both know what it is. Like. Between you and me, anon, we both know.

I am white by the way and I'm not used to analyzing black characters in terms of how the fandom views them and stuff, but isn't it quite curious how Usopp is always the ignored character from the East Blue Crew, and he's often used as a comedy relief in OPLA? "He has a girlfriend and he's straight so we don't care abou-" Sanji has flirted with Nami. Visibly. In front of your fucking screen. And you don't say that about him. Or any other character, really. That's just an excuse and we know and everyone knows and you don't have to analyze shit to know this because it's obvious. And if somebody comes at me saying "oh! But it's just because his personality is softer and he's a coward and most people hate that in shonens so he's a boring character" I am going to fucking combust because everyone knows that if Usopp were white EVERYBODY would be calling him a baby boy and a soft boy and a cutie pie and he'd be one of the favorites (cofcof Koby cofcof) (<- I love him too btw but you know what I mean).

That being said, OPLA doesn't even give Usopp enough screen time to be a character because his personality there is used to crack a few jokes and have THE romance in the show. That's it. He's the comedy relief character and the one who gets the girl because Netflix would cancel the show first before not doing any romance. God forbid people read between the lines, oh my God (<- I love Usokaya and everyone knows btw I am not complaining I cried when they kissed. I'm just saying that that's quite literally all he does. But Usokaya my beloved).

His OWN arc in OPLA is stolen by the screentime used for the Marines and Luffy is the one doing the work. They don't let Usopp follow through with what he actually does in the manga and it's very frustrating not being able to see him shine IN HIS OWN ARC. They barely give him any important scenes in comparison to the other characters. It's incredibly infuriating. See? I am now infuriated.

And now a lot of people watching OPLA have said they prefer OPLA Usopp rather than Manga!Anime!Usopp or that the live-action has made them like him better. I don't know what bothers me the most, really. People literally don't care about the characters, they just want them if they're hot. Which, by the way, it's insulting because if you don't find Manga!Anime!Usopp hot ?????? Please, go to the ophthalmologist because I think you need glasses.

I really hope we get more Usopp moments (hehe and Sanuso moments. My beloveds. They got their four cute short scenes in OPLA and I was the happiest person alive) next season because otherwise, I am going to fucking lose it.

#if somebody calls usopp ugly i will have to become violent and i am a very chill peaceful lovely person #like seriously i hate conflict i think the only thing that makes me this angry is usopp haters #i am so nice for not throwing rocks at usopp haters i should get rewarded for my self-control #one piece #usopp #opla #one piece live action

[gartenofbanny]

Alright so, my commentator is going to buy a microphone, in the meantime I'm just going to make blogs which will be scripts for future YouTube videos.

This blog is going to be a pretty short one as well.

So I'm going to be talking about my problem with Moxxie's mother. While I believe EXES and OHS was pretty bad, a character caught my attention. That being Moxxie's Mother. Moxxie's Mother is the best character and my favorite one that was revealed to us when episode was released, but then again that's not saying a lot since we've had the release of Chaz and Crimson.

Though she is the best character in the episode, there are still problems with how the writers use her or more specifically how they barely used her. The problem with Moxxie's mom is that they didn't give her a damn name and not much of an identity aside from being Moxxie's mom and Crimson's wife.

Blitzo's mother despite not being on screen has a name, Millie's mother has a name, but Moxxie's mother does not. Her name wasn't even released along with the design, like seriously? How am I supposed to feel bad that a character died if they don't have a damn name, am I really supposed to think "R.I.P Mrs. Knolastname. She doesn't have a first name either lmao." It's just ridiculous.

Moxxie's Mother does have a personality and emotions, but that's only towards Crimson and Moxxie. We don't know how she feels about the lifestyle of a mobster, I'm not sure in the flashback if she didn't want Moxxie to become a mobster or if she didn't want Moxxie to kill and learn the lifestyle of it at a young age, we don't know if she was in Greed her entire life or most of it when she was born in Wrath, we don't know why she married Crimson or even if she loved him to begin with, and we don't know why she's physically weak despite coming from the Wrath Ring.

There are a few headcanons that describe to us her personality and while headcanons are a saving grace because the fans provide us with explanations that the writers don't give us, that's all they are, headcanons. They're not confirmed facts or statements. The headcanons shouldn't do the writing for the show, that's the job of the writers themselves. I and many people have said this a couple of times and I'm gonna say it again.

Moxxie's mom was not brought up at all in the actual episode (aside from the flashback) or in previous episodes. Neither Crimson nor Moxxie mentioned her and why the hell is that? Crimson was somewhat but not really hinted upon since Murder Family, but Moxxie's Mother sure as hell wasn't.

I feel like she was just placed in there for shock value. She was shown once in a flashback and in that same flashback, it was revealed that she died. Moxxie's Mother had no lines in the flashback, no name, and no complete personality aside from she's Moxxie's caring Mother and Crimson's wife. Moxxie's Mother like ALL of the other female characters in Helluva Boss has her entire identity revolves around the male characters. No identity for themselves, their identity is just that they're associated with the male characters.

I didn't feel much when it was revealed Moxxie's mother was revealed to be dead mainly because there's not much I can really be sad about. Yeah, there's Moxxie and the fact that he lost his mom, but that's it. Hell we don't even know if Moxxie is aware of the fact that his mother died, and if he is then how come he doesn't mention her or even talk about her in the episode.

In conclusion, Moxxie's mom was extremely underused and underdeveloped like many other characters in Helluva Boss, and had the potential to be something a bit more than just "Moxxie's mom". Maybe that's why they didn't bother to give her a name because that's all she ever is right now. Anyway, thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a nice day!

#helluva boss #vivziepop critical #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop #helluva critical #helluva boss critique #vivienne medrano #helluva criticism #helluva critique

[aevykartandcosplay]

Jlaire Week Ask Game

Yeah, I went ahead and answered all of them. :P

Light and Darkness - What got you into Jlaire in the first place and what makes it one of if not your favorite ship?

I’m pretty sure I shipped them from the very first episode. First, we’ve been introduced to Jim, who is like the sweetest character ever. So when we saw him literally drooling over Claire, we know she has to be special.

It doesn’t take much time for them to interact and I remember loving that scene because I didn’t know there was so much Spanish in the show (at least in the first season). Both that interaction and the one just before the audition show they’re actually interested in each other and I’ve loved their dynamic from the beginning.

I think they somehow remind me of my own characters, Zem and Aury, since he’s the anxious one and she has to help him (even though Aury is way more short-tempered than Claire).

Romeo and Juliet- What's your favorite Jlaire moment form Trollhunters?

There are many good ones to choose. I love when she discovers his secret, the dance in the hill and when he reaches out to help her when she makes that mega-portal. They really care about each other and I think the best part is how we’re able to see their relationship flourish during the seasons.

Beauty and the Beast- What's your favorite Jlaire moment from Wizards?

The picnic, for sure. I think we should have seen more Jlaire interactions when he was a half Troll. I loved all the scenes where Claire gets to protect Jim, showing how much she has improved as a sorceress, but there’s something about them being able to relax and have an actual date.

Tragic Love - What's your Jlaire heartbreaking moment in the series?

Even though Jim knowing he’s not going to survive if they go back to the present is a close one, I have to say when Claire finds his soul wandering over the Killahead Bridge in the Shadow Realm. I’m a hopeless romantic and what breaks my heart is that “being close but still too far from each other” if you know what I mean.

My Romeo - What's your favorite Jlaire quote from Trollhunters?

From Hero of a 1000 faces: “This is the worst day of my life.” “That’t the real Jim.” It’s so funny, but also shows how much she’s gotten to know him.

100 Life times - What's your favorite Jlaire Quote from Wizards?

That’s a tough one. I liked the “I'd date you for a hundred lifetimes, Jim Lake.”… until the movie came out. So I guess: “But I've fought across time and space to bring you back.” Because of the same reason that scene is so heartbreaking to me.

Toby dating Advices - What's your advice for Jim that would help with him Claire

Actually, I think things worked out quite well. I would have advised him to be braver but he actually ended up being it, so...

Mary Dating Advice- what's your advice for Claire that would help her with Jim.

Actually, I think things worked out quite well.

time and Space - What's your Aus for Jim and Claire relationship or what's your favorite Au for them?

I have a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast kind of stories, so most of my Aus revolve around that. I seriously thing Troll Jim was underused and I’d have liked to see more of them as a couple, like travelling to New Jersey. That’s why I had to write about that and why Lights and Shadows of Camelot is the culmination of it. BTW, I’ve written a lot about Jlaire in my fanfics, if you’re interested 😊

Shadowhunter - What's your favorite headcanons for Jlaire?

They send messages all the time, checking out the other is okay. Jim makes Claire her favorite cookies and she takes him on dates using portals to visit new places.

If you have any more questions or want me to elaborate about anything, don't be afraid to ask!

Sadly, I won't be able to do any prompts, but I'm gonna share some Jlaire art I have around and you can check out my fanfics for more Jlaire content!:

-New Jersey: A brief story of what happened in the journey to New Jersey that had place during the season 2 of 3Below.

-Awakening: A novelized version of the 11th episode of the third season, "Jimhunters". Includes original new scenes.

-The Arrival: Final chapter of "New Jersey", connecting the story with "Wizards".

-Light through yonder window: After being attacked by Nomura, Jim is brought to the hospital. Claire decides she has to go and stay by his side. Tells what happened between the episodes 'Claire and Present Danger' and 'Battle of Two Bridges' and a couple of things more.

-Waiting: Jim has entered the Darklands. Claire and Toby will have to act quickly and not fall into despair.

-Butterflies and Christmas Jlaire, from Arcadian Nights.

-Lights and Shadows of Camelot: Claire has just discovered her magic powers and goes to Camelot so Morgana can teach her. One night, she'll meet the Trollhunter.

#tales of arcadia #trollhunters #jlaire week #jlaire #ask game #jim lake jr #claire nuñez #my writing #fanfics #ao3

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part One (Chapters 1-4)

So, at the request of @lacunammmm, I'm going to be... well, rereading MHA. All of it, god help me. Because the chapter division is stupid and based off giving weekly (and often cheap) cliffhangers rather than smooth storytelling, I'm just going to reread arcs instead of individual chapters (the arcs I'm going to be using are the ones off the wiki, for the record), kinda summarize it, and write out my opinions as they happen in a stream of conscious kind of way.... which is going to be a mess, fair warning. If you've read my take on the War Arc as a whole, that is the vibe I'm going to be going for. Thankfully, the first couple of arcs are only a couple of chapters long, so I get to get some easy stuff as a warm up before it gets longer and more complicated. Anyways, I'll be doing this on and off, and if this gets any attention I'll probably move it up my priority list a bit.

Anyways, first impressions as I read: where the hell was this guy with dragon fire head the entire time? Right at the start of chapter one it has examples of Quirks and there's this guy freaking out, and it's like a fire version of all those dragon covenants from Darks Souls, which is fucking awesome. Seriously, talk about an underused idea.

*clears throat*

But. Anyways. There's some crazy nostalgia seeing normal kid!Izuku; I know he's technically the same character, but he's changed so much from then to now, it's almost like he's literally a different person. It's not just that he's more confident and stuff*, like, all his mannerisms are gone, too. I mean, hell, the only thing that really connects Izuku from then to the current version is him going Kaachan, of all things. There's this kind of disconnect because I can't think of Post War Izuku, or even to some extent before that, really acting like Izuku.

More than that, though, he feels... fleshed out, in the way later Izuku doesn't; this Izuku, for all his flaws, and often (but not just) because of them, feels a lot more like a person that late game SUPER-DEKU Izuku does. Man, I miss this version.

*Actually, now that I think about it, he doesn't actually seem to have grown in confidence, after a certain point. Maybe by BvI2, his confidence, as a person, seemed to have stalled a lot. He's more confident later on, true, but that's more in a, 'I have assessed I can take you' kind of way to various villains, where before he was more nervous and determined; he's more confident in his power, sure, and his power level means he can apply that confidence almost all the time, but beyond that? The Dark Deku bit is something I could see this Izuku doing, if with less confidence, and for him to go on for so long without really getting to value himself at all speaks of some serious lacking growth.

Ah, beginning Bakugou. I did not miss you. And geeze, Bakugou cares way too much about Izuku; that ego is as big as a blimp and as fragile as spun glass. God, I forgot how damn sinister he was early on; that smile while he's burning Izuku (which I note doesn't even to have marred his uniform) gives me 'child pulling fly wings' energy. I really could see early Bakugou going way too far on Izuku and seriously hurting him in that, 'I didn't mean to' kind of a way, only maybe regretting it afterwards, and that is a bad vibe to have. In a less serious note, how does the teacher teach anything with him in class? From the way his friends talked afterwords, the lack of reaction the teacher had to his fits, everything he did except the suicide baiting was standard. Yelling, standing on the desk, exploding shit? None of that registered.

I know he's supposed to get away with everything because the staff likes his potential, but how much of the class does the teacher have to yell over him and his explosions? Or does he patiently wait for him to shut up before the lesson can continue, because clearly Bakugou's not getting punished for any of that.

...Sweet flying fuck, it has just got to hit me how much that must have hurt, the slime villain thing. Drowning is supposed to be a horrible way to die, and I doubt drowning in slime is any better, and to add insult to injury? He calls Izuku 'his hero', fuck. All things considered, that's probably the first time Izuku's been told that since his mom played games with him a a kid, since I doubt it's as common a phrase in MHA as it is now...

...

Now that I think about it, I refuse to believe that some sort of All Might related slang doesn't exist in MHA somewhere, and is this super common thing that people say all the time. It makes too much sense to me, considering the semi-literal worship the man has, and makes me want to laugh too much for it not to be real.

Speaking of All Might, popping out of the sewer, while carrying his groceries, as you do: in retrospect, that's like Superman crossed with your favorite idol popping out of the sewer, dressed in a normal outfit, holding groceries. It is both hilarious and without the reader's context brings up so many questions.

God, I miss this All Might. He's posing as he jump/flies away, long past the time Izuku should be able to see him, delightfully extra about it, and he's just so casual about this interaction, as he checks on Izuku, secures the villain, and even gives him an autograph on sheer autopilot.

I... I think this might be peak!All Might? Like, I know we get more of his story later on (but not by much, and generally just to introduce another character), but as a character I feel like his entire personality just started to flatten out after this initial arc, and by the time the next arc hits he's already getting flanderized into the useless character we end up with. Give it a second, let's get to a bit later in the story and I'll expand on that.

That said, the fact Izuku managed to stay on his leg and not get flattened by the jump or something is amazing.

Ah, instant karma on Bakugou. But, as has been noted, not punishment; he's not being punished for being an asshole, something bad just randomly happened to him, in a way that makes readers subconsciously want to think he's been punished for being an asshole, without having to make up for it in anyways, in a kind of half assed version of the dying for redemption trope.

Alright, real talk time: All Might and turning down Izuku. A lot of people hate on All Might for this, and I mean, a lot. They call him hypocritical and cruel, and like, did you pay attention? The man is being consistent; he didn't become a hero (student) until he got a Quirk. More than that, he tried to let him off gently, told him about how else he could help, and he really was just being honest. He may have been wrong, but he was honestly wrong. The fact Izuku took it so bad was because All Might was his last hope, but you can't blame All Might for Izuku's entire life when this is literally the first time they met.

*side eyes Bakugou*

Anyways, and now we come to it: the big moment. Well, a big moment, anyways; a lot of big moments in these chapters.... but yeah, Izuku saving Bakugou. It's... I feel like hindsight is tainting me here, in all honesty. Because that face Bakugou makes, as all those heroes stand around*, it does get you in the gut, it really does, especially when it drives cowardly Izuku to charge forward to save him. Asshole or not, he is just a kid, and he doesn't deserve that...

But. I can't help but look at that and think, 'This is Hori skipping on characterization'. That is, rather than making him better (though, to be fair, these early parts are the part of his biggest growth), or kinder to fix his character, Hori is hitting us with a poor Bakugou moment to smash some sympathy into us to try and undo all the shit that made us hate him not five seconds ago, while still leaving him as is. I don't know, maybe I'm too cynical, but I can't shake the thought.

But yeah, this is like, the defining moment for who Izuku is as a person, and it still is great at making him feel heroic in this really realistic, yet still impressive and admirable way. I really do love these early chapters. As much as I hate to say it, though, if All Might wasn't there all that would have happened was he would have gotten killed, like, two seconds after that so the heroes kinda had a point yelling at him.

Trying to recruit the recently traumatized victim, though? That is pure shit. Less, 'do you want to work for me', and more, 'Do you have lung damage', please; you're apparently professionals so I'd love it if you acted like it.

*Yeah, I feel like Aizawa would have expected all his students to try and rescue someone trapped by the slime guy, Quirk match up or not; there's certainly enough bad match ups they have in literally every school sponsored fight we've seen that it feels off that someone just said, 'I have a disadvantage' and gave up. I can't tell if this is an excellent demonstration of how half assed the heroes are getting, that UA is just better, or all heroes got flanderized as the series progressed into just charging in all the time anyways and this kind of characterization got forgotten. Some of everything, maybe.

Also. You, Fire Hose Man. Backdraft. Look, you stupid fucker, I get you're putting fires out (the second Bakugou is not responsible is the second his Quirk starts being treated seriously, interestingly; can't light a shirt on fire but once the slime gets to him the city starts burning? After this I don't think he'll ever start a fire again, no matter how hard he's going on someone or how flammable various things are) but you know what might be more helpful? Stopping more fires from happening, and saving a literal child! Two-for-one!

The villain is made of slime. You have access to high pressure water.

Do I need to draw you a map?!

*sigh*

...Sweet fuck in any other context than him being hammier than ham, All Might would be terrifying. How much of that persona is All Might going, 'Don't be afraid, I'm here to rescue you', and how much is, 'Don't be afraid of me, I'm so extra! Clearly I can't single handedly cause natural disasters when I'm not carefully monitoring my strength; there's no way you're going to explode if I touch you!'

God Bakugou, your ego, dial it back. Izuku, why are you complimenting how he refuses to get over himself?

Actually, right before All Might shows up, Izuku basiclly moves on from what... All Might said, which is interesting. He clearly still wants to be a hero, but that moment in itself just seemed really grown up to me. I respect that.

And... ah. I think this is my favorite moment.

'You can be a hero'.

God that's so damn powerful, the way you can see Izuku's composure fail, second by second. And... look at the way All Might is standing, look at how confident he is standing there, even when he's Skele-Might. This is the All Might I like, this is the man who helped get me into this story in the first place; even at his weakest, even after burning past his limit, he's still got the aura of a top hero to him, before promptly being shown as a Real Human, and it's so different from how cringing he seems to get later on, and so different from all these other mentors and heroes. All Might is both larger than life and starkly human in these chapters and that contrast is glorious.

And then the training, and I just hate we can't get this for rest of the series; All Might has that retired coach kind of a feel to him, of a guy who has done everything and knows how it works, and is just surprised and delighted by how Izuku is not only keeping up with, but surpassing his expectations.

The training we see is short, but when Izuku ends up screaming his victory, god it feels like he earned that win, and it's viscerally satisfying to see him improve like that.

'Now eat this', lol.

...What the fuck is UA's budget. They have a fucking town, like, an actual town, to train in. More than one? People could live there. And it's nice to see Iida be a character again, and the little arc he goes through here is interesting; he's well meaning, but abrasive, and in Izuku's mind almost bullying him, but you can still see how he means well; he maybe be a bit of a jerk at this moment, but he's not an asshole, which makes him (for what, one chapter?) a far more satisfying rival character than Bakugou ever was. If the story was spun different, you could really see a competing sort of rivalry between them forming where they both ultimately respect each other even as they try to one up each other, the thing everyone seems to think Izuku has with Bakugou for no real reason.

On another retrospective note, I have mixed feelings about how OFA is working here; when I first read this, I got into it, Izuku's struggles really brought me in. And then he kept struggling. And kept struggling. And the way All Might is suddenly unable to see this obvious problem coming, when he was so competent until Izuku got to UA, for literal months, leaves a bad taste. Looking back, it feels like Izuku is getting nerfed so he can suffer and panic all the time, and All Might is getting dumber so he can be a joke, and that.... ugh.

Uraraka coming in clutch on that rescue, though.

And Bakugou, yet again I'm harsher in hindsight, or maybe just less connected to Izuku's view on him, who would of course expect Bakugou to be the best, but the way it's focusing on his 'sheer battle instinct' and that he ends up in first place just feels like Hori hyping him up just because he can.

And to wrap it up... I'm assuming the 'Your Hero Academia' makes more sense in Japanese, because that phrase just feels...awkward, reading that in English. Was it different in the official stuff, or did it just stay as that weird almost title drop...? I can't quite sympathize as much with Izuku here, because of course he was going to get in, but it's nice seeing him win anyways.

In all honesty, this ended up meatier than I expected for just four chapters; in the future, if/when I keep this up, and the arcs get bigger, I might need to break it into multiple chunks to stop them from getting too big. Or, maybe this intro is meatier into such a short span because it's the intro. Guess we'll have to see.

#The 'Great' MHA Read Along #mha critical #bnha critical #bakugou critical #i miss this all might #i have no idea what i'm doing #what the fuck did i just bring upon this cursed land

[wannaeatramyeon]

I need your honest opinion on Jace! He's one of my favorite characters in the story

He's so smart but also so cute at the same I just love him!

Well let me tell you!

✨ Jace Park Appreciation ✨

Jace isn't necessarily underrated though he hasn't been utilised properly for absolutely ages. He's really become underused in recent arcs, much like most of the original cast to be honest. But he joins my legion of green flag kings 💚

Jacedaichi Case Files

This is probably one of my GOAT arcs in Lookism. The humour? The insight into characters? The references that I don't get

We all know Jace is the brains behind Burn Knuckles but he is absolutely goddamn adorable in this, especially with Woong as his sidekick. Actually, the whole of Burn Knuckles are crazy endearing in this arc. I love them all.

Personality

A romantic at heart. Intelligent and smart. Patient as hell with all of Tabasco's silliness. Super loyal with a strong moral compass. I'm not sure what more you could ask for. He even won Johan over! And Queen Mary with his ears!

Sure, he shouldn't have slipped Vasco laxatives daily, but it came from a good place.

Backstory

LOOK AT THEM!! In this arc, he's probably the more realistic depiction of childhood growth we have seen in the series, at least in my opinion. He started as Euntae's friend, and then sided with the bullies. But he's a stupid kid, and I'm not sure if I would have made a better choice under the circumstances and at that age.

Since then, he has stuck by Vasco through thick and thin, and helped him to get over his phobia of needles.

Relationship with Vasco

Is there a stronger bromance? Are there better partners in crime and friendship? The care, respect, and love for each other is SO pure. They would move heaven and hell for one another.

Jace is the perfect fit for Vasco. Tabasco may be stronger, but Jace counters a lot of his weaknesses. Unfortunately, intelligence, common sense, and dealing with technology are frequent issues. But that's fine, because Jace is there.

#GET YOURSELF A JACE PARK #honestly all the good arcs are like from 2+ yrs ago #we dont need to be violent all the time PTJ #show us some personality #lookism #jace park #vasco #lookism headcanons #lookism manhwa #lookism webtoon

[the-eeveekins]

The 13th Day of G-Witch: Keep Marching on Instead of Running Off

Delling does what I would consider something of the bare minimum of being a good parent: protecting your child's life with your own. He reveals to Miorine that they decided together that if anything should happen, at least one of them needed to survive to take care of Miorine. Miorine is clearly frustrated that once again her father withheld information about her mother from her, and wonders why they both couldn't have escaped.

Sadly we never learn what happened. The way the show kept Notrette so vague and mysterious is so frustrating.

Thank you for saving Earth House Nika. And Martin, what she did was save your life and everyone else's life in Earth House, you shouldn't be a little snitch.

So, remember what I said about Guel trying to play the hero around Suletta, and paying the price? Yeah, he does it again here. As soon as the doors open and he hears the Aerial is nearby, he makes a dangerous escape into a mobile suit and jumps right into a life or death battle to...go see her? Save her? I don't really know what he was thinking here, but I think after this he learned not to stick his neck out trying to save a girl who can take care of herself and doesn't need a hero. The people who clamored for Guel to be the main character kind of missed a point. Every time Guel tries to be a main character, he suffers dearly for it.

Look, I have mixed feelings about this scene. I know Guel loves his dad and killing him is an absolutely massive and terrible psychological blow. But also...Vim Jeturk was a terrible man and the world is better off without him. It's a shame he had such a strong grip on Guel's heart.

This scene is amazing and one of my favorites in the series. Suletta is confronted with murder and death up close and is naturally terrified. But Prospera IS correct here. Sometimes you have to kill to protect your loved ones from people who would harm or kill them. But it's the way she applies that logic to her motto and twists into a way to prime Suletta into being so ready and willing to kill to protect her loved ones that makes it truly insidious.

Suletta stating that she's ready to move forward as she steps from the clean floor onto the blood, from the shadows into the light, and repeats her mother's motto with that look on her face. This moment is pure gold.

This fight is fantastic, but almost criminally short! I really wish they had saved a bit more runtime to show the Aerial Rebuild in action just a little more. Especially the criminally underused GUND-BIT Rifle. The music here is incredible, and the parts of AERIAL REBUILD that the show uses in this scene do not do the whole song justice, you should absolutely give the full version a listen.

What a way to end the season. There are many slaps in Gundam history, but this one may go down as The Slap. It was a pretty shocking moment for pretty much everyone watching (except I suppose the tryhard Gundam edgelords). The sudden gore, Suletta cheerfully extending a bloodstained hand for Miorine, who has been splattered in blood. And of course her shocked reaction.

We got plenty of Yandere Suletta takes out of it for the next 3 months. And of course the agonizing wait to see how they would move forward after this.

And thus ends Season 1! Honestly, I always found S1 to be really strong, even if it's slow by Gundam standards. But I really think that's one of the show's strengths. The way it started off slowly, but always had those problems lurking just under the surface absolutely helped ratchet up the tension for when things finally started getting serious in episode 10. I thought it was a stronger approach than just jumping immediately into a war right away.

My biggest issues are the set-up of the mystery around what happened to Notrette (and never explaining it in S2) and the decision to pass on explaining stuff that really should have been explained THIS season (the Space Assembly League).

#25 days of g witch #g witch #the witch from mercury #gundam #g witch spoilers

[prowerprojects]

I will not lie, I'm easily bought over by cute Sonknux and Sonamy interactions (Sometimes I hate how easy I am to bait)

But I'm still a bit disappointed by the fact that Tails is once again relegated to mission control... And he's billed as "the sidekick" once again as well... (And why do they keep using such an unflattering pucture of him??)

I guess I could gloss over it because Frontiers hasn't yet happened in the idw universe, that with it starting off with Forces and MV being the last major event they had to go through (as confirmed in the special itself). But the special also has Sonic calling Tails "partner", which is a cute Frontiers reference... except Sonic calling Tails "partner" is supposed to be Sonic's direct response to finding out about Tails's problems during the events of the game and switching up the nickname to assert Tails as his equal. Having him call Tails that even before that kind of cheapens it. But whatever. Chalk it up to a badly placed reference.

And I guess this issue is the right way to utilize Tails, why shouldn't he be providing support, figuring out how to dispose of the problem while Sonic is doing the legwork and calling up the allies? (He is the support character. He is "the sidekick". I guess. But I also wish people didn't give credit to idw for not writing him as just a sidekick because this is literally how he's described in his introduction box)

But I don't know. I don't actually hate the way he's written in the special itself, it just once again reminds me that despite being probably the most often appearing character after Sonic, Tails has never gotten a story that explores him as a person? (Aside from that one Classic Special which is great! But also like. It's his anniversary special. They were basically forced to write about him and isn't that sad) Maybe a couple of panels that show that he's still a person and isn't just a magic box that fixes up robots and provides exposition, but not an actual story.

I was so excited for Kit's inclusion because wow! An antagonist forTails. We've had a bunch of evil versions for Sonic before, but for Tails? What would Tails's relationship with his evil doppelganger be? How would having one affect him? Isn't that intriguing? And the Tails & Kit first interaction fight is probably my favourite Tails scene in the entire book. But afterwards? How silly I was thinking that Kit's inclusion was meant to explore Tails as a character. No. Neither of them gives a shit about the other as soon as Sonic enters the picture. (And now that Kit is around Tails is never gonna stop getting billed as "the sidekick", we gotta parallel them or whatever) It's all about Sonic, Sonic, Sonic. Even when Tails does something cool someone (maybe even himself) has to comment on how good of a job Sonic did raising him. Sonic getting credit for everything Tails does because isn't he such an amazing big bwother.

I'm upset not because I like being a hater, but because I get hopeful but keep being disappointed. I guess I just have to accept that the people currently writing the comics don't really like or care about Tails and stop expecting anything. (And liking or disliking a character is a completely neutral thing, it's not a moral failing or anything. I'm not condemning them for it. But also he's my favourite character and I can't help it if I feel upset about it. )

Yeah this post kinda went off the rails... but this is just how I feel. Can't make anyone like my favourite character, but also can't stop myself from being upset about him being underused.

Cute picture of Tails to brighten my mood (and yours after reading all of that).

Also nice to see the return of the M.E. Junior after it got destroyed in Urban Warfare.

#tails #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #project.txt #tails the fox #miles tails prower #sonic idw spoilers #idw sonic spoilers #idw

[transmutationisms]

i agree that a lot of the critiques of s4 are baseless, but i haven't seen a lot of people acting like stuff is coming out of nowhere. like the consistency of themes doesn't seem to be the issue. i guess it's that the dialogue feels a lot less nuanced and you can make arguments either way for that. the thing for me is it doesn't feel like we're covering new ground. everything they're telling us we already knew. i am biased bc s2 was my favorite (which seems to be a common sentiment) but it feels like s3 onwards has just been reiterating points we already knew without building upon them that meaningfully. the decline of empire stuff has come into play a bit more in s3 and s4 which i like and they built towards it really well, but character wise i don't feel like we've learned anything that valuable in the past 1.5 seasons?

i disagree with that. kendall spends season 3 trying to play knights on horseback, leading to him finally offloading his guilt about the waiter to his siblings, leading to season 4 where he seems to have lost that shred of humanity that made him feel guilty over it; i think that's pretty important information to learn about him. roman went from proposing business-marriage to his father (season 2) to deluding himself into thinking he could just playact as the chosen son (season 3) to actually gaining the corporate position he wanted and going insane over it. shiv is working out an actual viable way for her to survive in this world beyond "go through dad," and everything between her and tom this season is new ground. even connor has had some critical beats in very little screentime (the wedding convo with willa, buying logan's apartment, etc). i acknowledge greg has been foundering for a while and im sorry to greggirls for your loss but frankly i personally never really cared about him the way i do the siblings.

also, i can't really read the political storylines and the psychological explorations as being separate from one another. like, roman and mencken is political commentary, but also a really important psychological beat for roman. same with shiv and matsson; same with kendall and his new tech infatuation; same with connor and the developments in his presidential run. if the political commentary is accomplishing something, it's because the character writing is accomplishing something, and vice versa. to me this sort of political-psychological monism has always been what makes succession tick, both in these storylines and in the broader way the show situates familial abuse as a function of the larger capitalist social matrix.

in general i guess i would question what type of character development we expect from a show whose psychological premise is that people don't fundamentally change. to me this was what made an episode like 'honeymoon states' so brutally effective: it's a reset in many ways, only with the centre of the universe gone forever, and the remaining characters finding new ways to make many of the same old mistakes. i think this does convey new information about the characters, and i think that sense of cyclical psychological claustrophobia is very much on purpose. you might still think it's executed poorly, or you might just dislike it as a narrative engine for a tv show—fair, i'm not going to try to talk you out of that. but i disagree that this season hasn't told us anything important, either about the characters or the political realm they operate in.

like i said, i do have more sympathy for dialogue critiques and i won't pretend none of the convos in season 4 have been clunky. i also do have some issues with season 3 (misuse or underuse of guest stars and secondary characters, a few episodes i don't think go anywhere, etc). personally though, i think season 4 has been stronger and tighter overall so far.

#s4 critiques

[viralvava]

i feel like the fact that giro is a shady, cringe liar is a very undervalued and underused aspect of his character in fandom despite the fact he very much is all that. sure hes semi-responsible but he canonically completely lies to vent about how he met model z (confirmed in zx tunes soundtrack notes), for one thing, and even then if you arent a vent truther he very pointedly didnt tell aile jackshit until it was quite literally forced from him. he was more frank than he was with vent, actually telling her he was a guardian, but even then he was as vague as possible, as is shown with prairie and how she has to tell aile later on that giro watched over her primarily (at first) thanks to orders from ciel. not to mention how giro talks about model x in response to questioning in the intro -- "im sure its very powerful and very dangerous. its probably better we (you) dont know". brushing off all inquiry, making it very obvious he never intended to tell or show the protagonists a thing in the first place. if he wasnt forced into it, he probably wouldve kept omitting everything about himself to them, basically! indefinitely! and, of course, theres how he tells at least vent to deal with his salt regarding slither inc. in summary, "be as salty as you want, but dont show it in town, they arent going to like it". this is very shady. he is not an upstanding citzen. girouette consistently withholds information and even outright lies (and ropes others into said lies, poor fucking vent, EVERYONE was in on it) about incredibly important things, and he is generally quite a shady person, running a vaguely illegal transport company/front for a paramilitary organisation, as well as the literal opaque visor in his megaman transformation implying a need or desire for anonymity, especially with how in the manga vent doesnt recognise giro on sight. also in the manga, giro is shown to be incredibly blase about the whole megaman thing when he talks to vent at first, in, coupled with his other behaviours, is what i assume an effort to throw him off and downplay the importance of the situation, as usual. hes also really cringe in the manga too btw its great i hate him who says "YO" after dropping the craziest bombshell of vents life on him all casually

girouette is not a very honest person, and this is true ESPECIALLY in vents route. i can only assume that raising vent, an incredibly precocious and easily aggravated person, made his existing tendencies worse than how they ended up with aile, who he seems more open with, if only for her calmer personality in comparison. i wish this was more commonly depicted with him :( he is usually just watered down to 'responsible father figure' and like, yeah, sure, whatever, but hes a lying liar who lies! and hes vague and occasionally facetious! and he is so shady even just in his vibes! come on guys i swear hes such an interesting character when you look past the impression he is actively trying to project

p.s: yeah sure, his open affection with aile is cool and all, but what about his strained but very present and existing care for vent, that he yet feels the need to hide beneath numerous layers of deflection and faux-challenge? the care that, apparently, for some reason, he feels he cant express so blatantly as he does with aile, perhaps because he feels vent wouldnt appreciate it? and such. vent is also incredibly underrated. vent and giros dynamic, something that informs so much of giros character, actually, really is kind of forgotten huh. the price of aile-centric fandom. love aile tho

#anyway im going to bed now goodnight all 10 zx fans #please dont kill me for my bad character analyses i prommy ill keep it to myself from now if you want #megaman #megaman zx #SORRY IF THIS IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE ITS REALLY MESSY HUH SORRY ITS 5 AM

[brackenfur]

like i like the idea of there being an omen of the stars subplot where hawkfrost begins to rebel against tigerstar……one of the most underused aspects of hawkfrosts character imo is the fact that he has every reason to hate tigerstar the most out of all of tigerstars children, and in the books he’s very loyal to his father and never questions him.

like in MY world hawkfrost would start off as being loyal to his dad sure, but over the course of omen of the stars he really begins to dwell a lot on why he’s even there in the first place. he died very young because he followed tigerstars plan, not his own, and he essentially had his entire life ruined because of his father, never had enough time to really live his own life and have his own ambitions and desires…..and now he’s stuck in this horrible place WITH his father and tigerstar couldn’t care less. n tipping my toes a little into headcanon world, but i think hawkfrost knows very well that tigerstar wishes brambleclaw was here instead, that tigerstar still prefers his older son over him and will always choose brambleclaw first. his oldest, the one who impresses him the most - hawkfrost was the one who was willing to do anything to obey tigerstar and died because of it, but it’s still not enough, tigerstar still jsut is like….settling for the fact that hawkfrost is here, he doesn’t really Care about him

so i think that’s what fuels hawkfrost to begin to rebel against his father, it starts off small at first, but he begins to take the df apprentices away and train them on his own, make up his own plans, get other df cats to listen to him. hawkfrost is stuck in hell w his father but HE wants to be in charge, he’s the one who had the balls to actually try to kill firestar, after all, and he’s done with trying to impress his father so 🤷

#wc #shark noises

[theblondebondd]

some thoughts on this cap run since it's coming to an end now ( finally ).

there are just so many things about sentinel of liberty & cold war that were terrible. the amount of wasted time ( ten issues and majority of them are just filler bs that doesn't do any good ), killing roger, the lack of actual development - steve has friends now out of nowhere ; bucky is...well everything was wrong with bucky ; the overcomplicated, under explained outer circle lore - the lies the writers tweeted to hype up the run only for the majority of it to never happen, killing roger, everything to do with sharon, the lack of accountability being held against bucky and peggy, ian being brought back with no explanation and then...not wanting to see his family after years?? for some reason?? KILLING ROGER.

murdering roger so callously has to take the cake as the worst part. then to have his funeral be as disrespectful as it was? ( really? all you could have namor muster up was that " he was gorgeous "? one of his oldest friends, and that's ALL he'd have to say? ) and the poem steve says is fine, or at least would be if we'd seen him grieving at all this entire time since roger's death. but he hasn't been. ( the only person we even saw openly react to roger's death was sharon and we'll get into how stupid that is later ).

then there's the little shit :

the fact that they mentioned shipping steve and bucky, even though comic steve and bucky are a father and son duo

them having peggy basically call natasha a slut and get away with it

the weird " did steve or did steve not cheat on sharon with emma " jokes when he didn't

peggy actively pointing a GUN at emma and preparing to fire and then being told by everyone that that's okay & not being questioned for why she'd be so adversive to get out of literal mind control

bucky shooting steve and then dropping him off a building and having the nerve to ask why he's upset with him

need i go on with those?

now back to roger because again, everything that had to do with him in this story was...ugh. it's bad enough to take a character out of comic limbo just to kill him, even worse when he's one of marvel's many underappreciated and underused gay characters. but how do you make it even more disrespectful, i wonder? oh, i know, having your lead female character say, in her eulogy about him, that he was " a damn mess " when she admits to only knowing him for a week, and then that looking at him was " like looking in a mirror ", and comparing his experiences as a gay man in the 40s, to hers as a woman in the 60s ( is it still 60s? idk, i think so. points still stands ) and then having her confidently steal the spotlight from him at his funeral to show off that she's taking on his mantle. what were they even thinking? not only is it blatantly ooc, but it's just plain gross and cruel. it shows that they never cared about roger, or steve, or sharon, or anyone in that book, like they claimed to.

there are ultimately no words for how much i hate this run at this point, and i am confident in believing that finale #1 will only make it worse.

#marvel #steve rogers #captain america #sharon carter #agent 13 #roger aubrey #destroyer #namor the sub mariner #bucky barnes #peggy carter #sentinel of liberty spoilers #captain america cold war #marvel comics