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addictedtostorytelling · 2 years

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Hey there! Been enjoying your ep-by-ep reboot gifsets! Since it looks like you might be rewatching the reboot (or at least combing it for footage) I'm curious: have you noticed anything new? I know when I rewatch a movie or show that means a lot to me (even, or maybe especially, one I've seen a million times) I tend to always notice or focus on something different. Salt welcome! But the neutral/positive/miscellaneous is as well!

hi, @clintbeifong!

thank you for your kind words! i'm glad you've been enjoying the gif series.

so, uh—

confession: i have rewatched very little of the reboot even doing this latest project.

a lot of the gifs are ones that i made previously and am now just recycling into the new sets, and even of the ones i’ve made new, entirely "from scratch" (complete with freshly clipped video from the show to work from), i've only really rewatched the individual scenes themselves and nothing much around them.

the truth is, since gsr was the only part of csi: vegas i actually enjoyed, and, even then, i was infinitely less interested in their work on the hodges case than just their interactions with each other, i haven't really been able to bring myself to revisit the reboot at large just yet.

i’m in it for the cute middle-aged marrieds™, and that’s about it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

that so, there’s not much i can speak to in terms of new observations.

like.

i’ve noticed a few little visual parallels between the reboot and the original series here and there, but nothing especially significant or revelatory.

certainly nothing related to narrative.

of course—and here’s the salt—i suspect that even if i were to actually sit down and rewatch each episode in sequence, taking good notes, there might not be a lot there to notice, as, frankly, the story itself is underwritten/sparse. there’s just not much going on with it, either in the macro sense, with the hodges case overall, OR the micro sense, with the individual characters. everything is so superficial and one-note that there just aren’t “hidden depths” to plumb or subtexts to be read into or character developments to analyze. it’s pretty much a “what you see is what you get” kind of deal.

that said, with what very minimal, "just the gsr interactions" rewatching i actually have done, my main takeaway is just how impressed i am with the texture billy and jorja managed to give grissom and sara’s marriage—which is something i’d appreciated before, too, but which now seems even more impressive to me, the more that i think about it.

as they both talked about in their bts spots leading up to the reboot, they’d really never gotten the chance to play grissom and sara as a happy, stable, committed couple with their relationship “out in the open” before, so what they were doing for the reboot was in many ways new to them.

returning to a character after years spent away would be a hard enough challenge just by itself, but bringing something new and believable to your performance—taking something that had previously been hinted at and making it explicit in a way that feels organic and substantive—to the degree that they did is just wildly impressive.

there’s just no question that the grissom and sara we see in the reboot are “old marrieds” who’ve spent just about every waking moment of the last six years on a tiny boat together.

they feel so worn into each other, so comfortable around each other.

there’s just no hesitation between them.

and it’s not like we get that sense because we get to see a preponderance of deep, emotional moments with them, because really we don’t.

their almost total lack of personal storyline denies us anything more than just the hug in episode 01x03 “under the skin,” the ring return in episode 01x08 “pipe cleaner,” the kiss in episode 01x10 “signed, sealed, delivered,” and a few other scattered comfort moments here and there.

it all just shines through in the quiet, everyday interactions between them—the little affirming glances, the subtle nonverbal communication, the way they play off of each other, how they anticipate each other’s moves.

it has almost nothing to do with what’s in the script (which is again, next to nothing); it’s all in the portrayal that billy and jorja bring and what they imply, which is just so wonderfully, classically gsr, plus that little bit of “we’ve been together forever by now” extra sauce.

anyway.

among all of the other stuff about the reboot that i don’t enjoy—including how very much the whole production feels like a “first draft” as opposed to a “finished product”—i do appreciate getting to see this incarnation of my otp, where there’s just so obviously so much history and knowing between them as a couple.

it’s very validating.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

#answered #clintbeifong #asks: csi #**#my meta #meta: vegas #let's talk shop #csiverse

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crackinglamb · 2 years

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(4) What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral? (27) Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why? (38) What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us? ((Sorry, I don't know what my Tumblr won't like me space these out properly. Anyway... *bonk bonk* 😘))

4 - What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral? I am old and salty and I cannot stand the word 'simp'. *hears all the gasps from my discord friends* I said what I said. To me it is incredibly infantilizing, both of one's self and the object of one's usually fictional interest.

But since I am also a reasonable and rational person, when it presents itself before my eyes I simply move on. 😌 I do not see it. I do not judge. I am entitled to my opinion but also fully aware that it's rude to foist it off on others unless asked. (Incidentally, I feel this way about 'uwu' too, and all its variations. It is equally as shudder inducing to me.)

27 - Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why? Most characters don't stress me out to write. Situations, yes. Getting a handle on a character's presentation is pretty easy for me, but putting them in situations that are not covered in the source material can take some jiggery pokery, and that can lend itself to me wanting to tear my hair out.

But...since I have to pick something, or in this case someone, that gets me worried I'll get it totally wrong and end up disappointing someone else (which as you know is not something that concerns me generally speaking), I would say that writing other people's OC's is the most stressful. It is their creation, not mine. Their headcannons, their efforts. I don't ever want to do them a disservice.

38 - What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us? Hmm, I feel a bit like this one has a 'does not apply' in my head. Because we all have quirks in our process that others squint at. And I have a very 'you do you' attitude at all times.

I mean, is it weird or totally logical that I don't like to write smut when Lamb the Younger is around? Even though she isn't looking over my shoulder to read it, and is in fact, rarely in the same room as me. And above all is a teenager who knows what sex is because no subject is taboo in our house.

I edit incessantly, I write out of order a lot. I don't make playlists for every character, and actually rarely listen to music at all when writing unless I need a specific headspace. I don't have the urge to spontaneously post everything at once...much. I feel no shame about doing what I do, in either writing it or sharing it. Hell, my own parents know that I write smutty fanfiction and met you that way. I'm sure these are all things that other people think are weird, but to me are just part and parcel. So...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think cats would say that we, as a species, are graceless, bumbling creatures lacking true sensory equipment and communication skills, but we're kinda cute and tolerable to be around most of the time. I maintain that we didn't domesticate them, they domesticated us.

Thanks for the asks! *bonk bonk* 😘 From this list.

#asks #weird questions for writers #this went a bit long #sorry folks who've turned off the expand post thing

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spockandawe · 3 years

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Well, this is interesting! So, in that post yesterday, there was one line that really baffled me, a thing about people brushing off a character as an asshole “because he shows literally zero growth.” I kind of set that aside because it was such a weird non-sequitur, and guessed that it was just someone’s sentences not quite keeping up with their train of thought, which has happened to me many times. Apparently I was wrong! I already spent long enough on that one post, I’m tired of talking about that, but this is new and interesting.

Okay. I kind of wanted to see if I could talk about this purely in terms of abstracts and not characters, but I don’t think it’ll work. It would be frustrating to write and confusing to read. It’s about Jiang Cheng. Right up front: This isn’t about whether or not he’s an abuser. Frankly, I don’t think it’s relevant. This also isn’t about telling people they should like him. I don't care whether anyone else likes him or not. But I do like him, and I am always fascinated by dissecting the reasons that people disagree with me. And the process of Telling Stories is my oldest hyperfixation I remember, which will become relevant in a minute.

I thought I had a good grasp on this one, you know? Jiang Cheng makes it pretty obvious why people would dislike Jiang Cheng. But then the posts I keep stumbling over were making weird points, culminating in that “literally zero growth” line.

So! What happened is that someone wrote up a post about how Jiang Cheng’s character arc isn’t an arc, it’s stagnation. It’s a pretty interesting read, and I broadly agree with the larger point! The points where I would quibble are like... the idea that it’s absolute stagnation, as opposed to very subtle shifts that still make a material difference. But still, cool! The post was also offered up as a reason why OP was uninterested in writing any more Jiang Cheng meta, which I totally get. I’m not tired of him yet, but I definitely understand why someone who isn’t a fan of his would get tired about writing about a character with a very static arc. Okay!

Now, internet forensics are hard. I desperately wish I had more information about this evolution, because I find this stuff fascinating, but I have no good way to find things said in untagged posts, reblogs, or private/external venues. But as far as I can tell, that “literally zero growth” wasn’t just a slip of the tongue, it’s become fashionable for people to say that Jiang Cheng is an abusive asshole (that it’s fucked up to like) because he doesn’t have a character arc.

Asshole? Yes. Abusive? This post still isn’t about that. This is about it being fucked up to like this character because he did bad things and had a static character arc.

At first, that point of view was still deeply confusing to me. But I think I figured out the idea at the core of it, and now I’m only baffled. I’m not super interested in confirming this directly, because the people making the most noise about this have not inspired confidence in their ability to hold a civil conversation and I’m a socially anxious binch, but I think the idea is: ‘This character did Bad Things, and then did not improve himself.’

Which is alarmingly adjacent to that old favorite standard of ‘This piece of fiction is glorifying Bad Thing.’ I haven’t seen anyone accusing mxtx of something something jiang cheng, only the people who read/watched/heard the story and became invested in the Jiang Cheng character, but things kind of add up, you know?

Like I said, I don’t want to arbitrate anyone’s right to like/dislike Jiang Cheng. That’s such a fucking waste of time. But this is fascinating to me, because it’s like..... so obviously new and sudden, with such a clear originating point. I can’t speak to the Chinese fans, obviously, but exiledrebels started translating in... what, 2017? And only now, in 2021, do people start putting forth Jiang Cheng’s flat character arc as a “reason” that he’s bad? I’m not going to argue if he pings you in the abuse place, I’m not a dick. I’m not going to argue if you just dislike his vibes. I’m just over here on my blog and in the tag enjoying myself, feel free to detour around me. But oh my god, it’s so silly to try to tell other people that they shouldn’t like him because he has a static character arc.

I want to talk about stories. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to say, because it’s impossible to make broad, sweeping statements, because there are stories about change, there are stories about lack of change, there are all kinds of media that can be used to tell stories, and standards for how stories are told and what they emphasize vary across cultures and over time. But I think that what I can say is that telling a story requires... compromise. It requires streamlining. Trying to capture all the detail of life would slow down most stories to an unbearable degree. Consider organically telling someone ‘I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich’ versus the computer science exercise of having students describe, step by step, how to make one (spread peanut butter? but you never said you opened the lid)

Hell, I’ve got an example in mdzs itself. The largely-faceless masses of the common people. If someone asks you to think about it critically like, yes, obviously these are people, living their own lives, with their own desires, sometimes suffering and dying in the wake of the novel plot. But does the story give weight to those deaths? Or does it just gloss by? Yes, it references their suffering occasionally, but it is not the focus, and it would slow the story unbearably to give equal weight to each dead person mentioned.

Does Wei Wuxian’s massacre get given the same slow, careful consideration as Su She’s, or Jin Guangyao’s? No, because taking the time to weigh our protagonist with ‘well, this one was a mother, and her youngest son had just started walking, but now he’s going to grow up without remembering her face. that one only became an adult a few months ago, he still hasn’t been on many night-hunts yet, but he finds it so rewarding to protect the common people. oh, and this one had just gotten engaged, but don’t worry, his fiancee won’t mourn him, because she died here as well.’ And continuing on that way to some large number under 3000? No! Unless your goal is to make the reader feel bad for cheering for a morally grey hero, that would be a bad authorial decision! The book doesn’t ignore the issue, it comes up, Wei Wuxian gets called out about all the deaths he’s responsible for, but that’s not the same as them being given equal emotional weight to one (1) secondary character, and I don’t love this new thing where people are pretending that’s equivalent.

When Wei Wuxian brutally kills every person at the Wen supervisory office, are you like ‘holy shit... so many grieving families D:’ or are you somewhere between vindicated satisfaction and an ‘ooh, yikes’ wince? Odds are good you’re somewhere in the satisfaction/wince camp, because that’s what the story sets you up to feel, because the story has to emphasize its priorities (priorities vary, but ‘plot’ and ‘protagonist’ are common ones, especially for a casual novel read like this)

Now, characters. If you want to write a story with a sweeping, epic scale, or if you want to tightly constrain the number of people your story is about, I guess it’s possible to give everyone involved a meaningful character arc. Now.... is it always necessary? Is it always possible? Does it always make sense? No, of course not. If you want to do that, you have to devote real estate to it, and depending on the story you want to tell, it could very possibly be a distraction from your main point, like the idea of mxtx tenderly eulogizing every single character who dies even incidentally. Lan Qiren doesn’t get a loving examination of his feelings re: his nephews and wei wuxian and political turnover in the cultivation world because it’s not relevant, and also, because his position is pretty static until right near the end of the story. Lan Xichen is arguably one of the most static characters within the book, he seems like the same nice young between Gusu and the present, right up until... just before the end of the story.

You may see where I’m heading with this.

Like, just imagine trying to demand that every important character needs to go through a major life change before the end of your book or else it didn’t count. This just in, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg go through multiple novels without experiencing radical shifts in who they are, stop liking them immediately. I do get that the idea is that Jiang Cheng was a ~bad person~ who didn’t change, but asdgfsd I thought we were over the handwringing over people being allowed to like ““bad”” fictional characters. The man isn’t even a canonical serial killer, he’s not my most problematic fave even within this novel.

And here is where it’s a little more relevant that I would quibble with that original post about Jiang Cheng’s arc. He’s consistently a mean girl, but he goes from stressed, sharp-edged teenager, to grief-stricken, almost-destroyed teen, to grim, cold young adult (and then detours into grim, cold, and grief-stricken until grief dulls with time). He does become an attentive uncle tho. He..... doesn’t experience a radical change in his sense of self, which... it’s...... not all that strange for an adult. And bam, then he DOES experience a radical change, but the needs of the plot dictate that it’s right near the end. And he’s not the focus of the story, baby, wangxian is. He has the last few lines of the story, which nicely communicate his changes to me, but also asdfafas we’re out of story. He was never the main character, it’s not surprising we don’t linger! The extras aren’t beholden to the needs of plot, but they’re also about whatever mxtx wanted to write, and I guess she didn’t feel like writing about Jiang Cheng ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But also. Taking a step backward. Stable characters can fill a perfectly logical place in a story. Like, look at Leia Organa. I’m not saying she has no arc, but I am saying that she’s a solid point of reference as Luke is becoming a jedi and Han is adjusting his perspective. I wouldn’t call her stagnant, the vibes are wrong, but she also isn’t miserable in her sadness swamp, the way Jiang Cheng is.

Or, hell, look at tgcf. The stagnant, frozen nature of the big bad is a central feature of the story. The bwx of now is the bwx of 800 years ago is the bwx of 1500+ years ago. This is not the place for a meta on how that was bad for those around him and for him himself, but I have Thoughts about how being defeated at the end is both a thing that hurts him and relieves him. Mei Nianqing is a sympathetic character who’s also pretty darn static. Does Ling Wen have a character arc, or do we just learn more about who she already is and what her priorities always were? I’m going to cut myself off here, but a character’s delta between the beginning of a story and the end of a story is a reasonable way to judge how interesting writing character meta is, and is a very silly metric to judge their worth, and even if I guessed at what the basic logic is, for this character, I am still baffled that it’s being put forth as a real talking point.

(also, has it jumped ship to any other characters yet? have people started applying it in other fandoms as well? please let me know if this is the case, I am wildly curious)

(no, but really, if anyone is arguing that bwx is gross specifically because he had centuries to self-reflect and didn’t fix himself, i am desperate to know)

And finally. The thing I thought was most self-evident. Did I post about this sometime recently? If a non-central character experiences a life-altering paradigm shift right near the end of the story (without it being lingered over, because non-central character), oh my god. As a fic writer? IT’S FREE REAL ESTATE. This is the most fertile possible ground. If I want to write post-canon canon-compliant material, adsgasfasd that’s where I’m going to be looking. Okay, yeah, the main couple is happy, that’s good. Who isn’t happy, and what can I do about that? Happy families are all alike, while every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, etc.

It’s not everyone’s favorite playground, but come on, these are not uncommon feelings. And frankly, it’s starting to feel a little disingenuous when people act like fan authors pick out the most blameless angel from the cast and lavish good things upon them. I’m not the only one who goes looking for a good dumpster fire and says I Live Here Now. If I write post-canon tgcf fic, it’s very likely to focus on beef and/or leaf. I have written more than one au focusing on tianlang-jun.

And, hilariously. If the problem with Jiang Cheng. Is that he is a toxic man fictional character who failed to grow on his own, and is either unsafe or unhealthy to be around. If the problem is that he did not experience a character arc. If these people would be totally fine with other people liking him, if he improved himself as a person. And then, if authors want to put in the (free! time-consuming!) work of writing that character development themselves. You would think that they would be lauded for putting the character through healthier sorts of personal growth than he experienced in canon. Instead, I am still here writing this because first, I was bothered by these authors being named as “freaks” who are obsessed with their ‘uwu precious tsundere baby’ with a “love language of violence,” and then I was graciously informed that people hate Jiang Cheng because he experiences no character growth.

#jiang cheng #mdzs #the untamed #disk horse #long post/#abuse/#only tangentially #but better safe than sorry i hope

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porcupine-girl · 4 years

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This is long and contains more theater history than you probably want in a meta post but here it is anyhow!

Okay, here is my totally insane out-there theory that I shouldn’t be typing up, I should be editing and posting my lectures for tomorrow but here we are.

The pie scene that’s been released (see here) has a few things going on besides Dean being weirdly okay with Cas gone, more okay than Sam:

In the background we’ve got a truck that says Dabb’s Pies. Could just be a cute shoutout. Could be more.

Dean’s very first lines are “Oh, I don’t have a choice. This is my destiny.” This is the man who literally just spent an entire season freaking the fuck out over his lack of free will. Sure, Dean might make a joke about this, but the writers chose this to be (most likely) the very first thing he says one episode after finally shaking off destiny to get real free will?

Sam acts like Dean is crying and Dean responds as if he is trying to hide the fact that he’s crying when... he’s clearly not? At all? We’ve seen Dean cry so many times and it is not happening here?

(I say it’s probably the first thing Dean says in the episode because a) the scenes they release are almost always very very early in the episode and b) the music sounds like what they play when we come out of the cold open into a goofy Sam & Dean scene.)

Also do not forget that between the promo pics and the actual promo they seem to at some point deal with people who are very plainly dressed up as monsters but may or may not be monsters underneath. The initial photo took me to very meta places to start with, and it’s only gotten worse.

Okay so like, here are my crazy fucking thoughts that probably have nothing to do with what will actually happen:

Sam and Dean, of course, don’t actually have free will. They are still characters in a TV show written by other people. Dabb, in this case.

It’s Dabb’s Pies! Dabb is the one who caused the pie festival, and who is causing Sam and Dean to go there and eat pie!

My initial thought when I saw that photo, as it says, was “Did Brecht direct this episode?” Brecht was a playwright in the first half of the 20th century whose whole thing was breaking down the 4th wall. At the time theater tried to be as realistic as possible - hiding lights with set pieces, all sorts of stuff - in an attempt to make the audience forget they’re watching a play and get full immersion.

Brecht said “but what if we did not that?” and worked to make it explicitly clear to the audience that they are definitely watching a play and not real life. The movement was called “epic theater” or “dialectical theater” and the goal was to make the audience aware of their place as the audience and think critically about the thing they are watching as a play that was written and is being produced with the intention of communicating with them.

Brecht and others used a lot of techniques for this, from writing narrators and other 4th-wall-breaks into the plays to making it obvious that what you’re seeing are set pieces and props and not real things. Having what is obviously a man in a black costume with a skull mask play a monster (possibly a floating skull) would be right up his alley.

@shinychimera had a great comment on that post saying “They could squeeze a bit more meta in if it’s a real crew member playing something like a kuroko stagehand (from kabuki) who’s been pulled into the story…“

Kabuki is another theater tradition that explicitly does not try for anything like realism. You probably know it for its elaborate costumes and makeup, but yes, one part of it is that stagehands regularly come onstage to move things etc, dressed all in black and you’re supposed to pretend they’re invisible.

So anyhow what I’m saying is that what that photo SCREAMS at me is fourth-wall-breaking, meta, theatrical traditions that do those things.

I think the episode starts with what we’ve got here - Sam and Dean are moving on with their lives, probably on a pretty standard MOTW hunt, blissfully unaware that they are still not 100% free.

Somehow, this is going to start breaking down, Truman Show-style. I don’t know exactly how. A crew member wanders into the shot? Whatever.

From there it devolves into something super-meta and SUPER-trippy.

They realize that Cas is only in the Empty because the writers put him there, but somehow the fact that in real life Cas actually has affected the narrative in ways the writers didn’t expect is addressed. Cas loving Dean literally is something the writers never intended to be there but that grew organically because of who he is. Maybe same for Dean loving him back? Or maybe that doesn’t get addressed til later.

So now Dean knows that Cas really is the only real thing in his life and they gotta get him back.

However they get him back is gonna be, again, super trippy. They have to fight monsters like these, that are clearly not their-world-monsters but are people from our world dressed up as monsters.

They probably have to go through either Cas or Dean’s memories or both.

Dabb himself likely appears on-camera to talk to them at some point.

The one barn that that photo looks the most like to me is the one in On the Head of a Pin, which is one place where Cas could’ve died but didn’t (unclear whether it’s where they initially intended for him to die, sources conflict).

So maybe we’ll get a tour of the places where Cas’s love for Dean changed the narrative. Maybe Dabb himself will even explain them to us.

At some point, whether by Dabb himself or not, it will be explicitly mentioned that fans helped shape this, that we saw what was happening in Cas before they did.

IDK how this mindfuck ends but there is definitely kissing and Dean realizing that he’s been pushing down his feelings and denying them to fit a mold that the writers created for him years ago that doesn’t fit anymore.

So, uh, there you go. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#spn speculation #spn 15x20 #andrew dabb #why lamp #long post

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tog-resources-archive · 3 years

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TRENDS IN THE OLD GUARD FANDOM: JULY STATS

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So, a lot of people have constantly mentioned there was an overwhelming preference for TopJoe/BottomNicky fics at the start of the fandom in July which eventually evened itself out. Personally, I didn’t start reading for this fandom until August so I’ve always been skeptical of the assertion, since I wasn’t there to witness anything happening directly after the movie came out and as the fandom was born. Therefore, I decided to make an excel sheet and create a resource that gives statistics for the actual Top/Bottom ratio in Explicit Joe/Nicky fics for the month of July on AO3.

But why, you ask? Especially since, as many people have said, top or bottom positions do not matter? (And truly, they don’t. As far as characterization is concerned.)

Well, a lot of people (many who also say that top/bottom doesn’t matter) use it as an indicator of preference for a character. From what I can understand, stating a preference for Top!Joe is the equivalent of saying you think Joe is “the angry, brown man” and that the lack of tagged Bottom!Joe fics show that no one thinks that Joe can be soft or taken care of or appreciated. And I’ve seen a lot of “you know why” as a reasoning for fandom’s lack of interest in these fics. Which I assume is racism. Or Islamophobia, in Joe’s case.

Of course, this is purely from what I’ve observed. Please let me know if that’s not the case for you, and if Top!Joe/Bottom!Joe has different connotations for you. My Ask Box is always open for respectful discussion.

And so, the tagged fics have become a representation of the fandom’s views on Joe, from these assumptions. AND because I’m going insane in these trying historical times just like everyone else, I thought I would see what the actual numbers are. Just for the record.

Personally, I have no preference. I don’t care who tops who and in what position. What DO I care about? Facts, excel, and not baselessly assuming the worst of the fandom and their motives.

In addition to this, I decided to take a look at the Femslash content of the fandom. As I did more research, I noticed the complete focus on the men in this fandom, men who are technically side characters to the two main female leads, and though it isn’t something unique to this fandom, it is something we should pay more attention to. I find that a lot more concerning than sexual positions in an mlm relationship.

Without further ado, The Stats:

So, to explain my methods:

First, I sorted the stories by Date Posted. (Fics are only listed as July Fics if they posted in July, this is to filter out stories that have updated since then.) I counted the total number of July Fics. Each page contains 20 fanfictions.

Next, I filtered out all non-english fics, since I can’t verify their content, and excluded crossovers before counting up the total amount of Explicit fic.

Then I filtered for only Joe/Nicky fics. After that I went through each fic and marked down whether they were top, bottom, switch, or no dynamic (non-penetrative sex). Some are marked Other because they’re only explicitly violent or contain OT3, OMCs, or rape with OMCS.

What you see above is the total number of fics, the amount of Top/Bottom/Switch/etc, and what’s their percentage of total fic. Additionally, I listed how many top or bottom fics were tagged and the percentage of tagged fic for each category.

What conclusions can we draw from this?

One, that by July 31st, TopJoe/Bottom Nicky makes up 35% of fics. BottomJoe/TopNicky makes up 22% and No-Dynamic is 25%. There's a slight lead for TopJoe/Bottom Nicky fics, but barely. The other categories combined outstrip it.

Two, what I find most interesting is that people who write TopJoe/BottomNicky fics are nearly twice as likely to tag their fics, and only 20% of the fics posted were tagged at all.

So, if it seems like there’s a huge difference between the two types of explicit fic? It’s because some people tag and some don’t. And those who write non-penetrative sex, of course, won’t be tagging anything.

Please keep in mind when making sweeping generalizations that you should take these things into account. I’ve seen too many times that people just “feel” like there’s a difference. It isn’t that hard to figure out the actual numbers. I will be continuing with later months to chronicle the actual fandom trends.

***I will also be posting my color coded list of fics with titles, fic author names, and tags under Keep Reading so that anyone can verify my information (I may have messed up a number or two so please feel free to replicate!)***

Now, you know what I find more interesting? The Femslash fics. In comparison, the work to find those stats was laughable. Joe/Nicky took me several hours, sorting out the Femslash fics took me a few minutes.

If we are going to discuss any sort of disparity of content, I would start there first. Joe/Nicky, as much as I love them, were not the only queer, interracial relationship in this fandom and neither Joe nor Nicky are the main characters.

So, for these stats, I followed the same filtering methods listed above, and only listed Explicit fics. Instead of Top/Bottom breakdown I included pairings.

As you can see… this was easy enough to do since there were only 8 explicit fics posted for the month of July. I won’t be including the list of fics like I will be with Joe/Nicky since I would like to do a separate post for Femslash fics. However, if you’re going to be talking about the difference in fic distribution… maybe start here.

If there are any other “trends” you would like me to catalogue and provide statistics for, please let me know!

FIC LIST: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#the old guard #immortal husbands #kaysanova #meta #the old guard discourse #my post

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akirameta84 · 4 years

Text

Warning: This is VERY LONG. i got carried away.

"hey don't you have a wip fic for another au?" yeah shush i have a new idea that's not as fleshed out (after writing that turned out to be a lie) as the chunibyo one but i had to share it.

its in every fandom, but Saiki K Pokemon Au time. it's always cliche but who cares its amazing.

Kaido is the mc. for sure. he chooses a froakie because the professor (its kusuke, he's totally it) said it was a dark and mysterious as him. at first he's disappointed by the frog but once it evolves he starts loving it. him and greninja wear matching outfits. he tied red wrist wraps on its arms and he wears a pink scarf.

nendo is his rival lmao. he met him when kaido left with his first pokemon and challenged him to a battle, immediatly. he said loser has to buy the other persons ramen. "but i dont even know you??" "oh. well lets be friends, runt!" "you just asked to fight me???" nendo uses an eevee because his mom gave it to him when he was young. kaido wins because nendo didnt use a single attacking move. he just used sand attack and growl. the battle lasted 10 minutes because kaido kept missing.

now with his newly self proclaimed rival, after going to eat ramen, kaido sets out on his journey. i like to imagine a region with just every pokemon cause its cool that way. kaido mainly looks for fighting type pokemon, and a few dark types, and it takes him a bit to realize that this is probably a bad strategy and that he isnt finding anything, as cool as they are. he catches a shroomish, not knowing it became a type he wanted, because he was impressed with it's "battle capabilities" because it survived an attack that had fainted others. he names it doomslayer cause he's such an edgelord.

somewhere along the way nendo finds him and says that he's going to challenge a gym, and that kaido should join him. kaido agrees because "oh yeah, thats why im on this journey" and they go to the first gym.

The first gym is ghost type, run by toritsuka. why is he first? cause he's prolly not very good at battling and he knows it. the gym itself would be very foggy, and kaido has to traverse it to get to toritsuka. along the way toritsuka has spirits tell him where kaido is, and he'll release a pokemon near there for him to battle, and this happens 2 times. Torisuka himself uses 2 pokemon, a Litwick and a Galarian Yanmask. both are female, obviously. kaido absolutely demolishes these two pokemon, with his water and grass type, seeing as they're part fire and ground. first badge complete.

surpsingly, nendo also beats this gym, mainly because eevee can use bite. guess he figured out how to use attacking moves lmao. also yes ik bite is learned at 25, and rn they're at like lv 12 but shh. he found a tm or smt. it also helps thst toritsuka could barely hit nendos eevee due to the ghost and normal type thing.

nendo tries to travel with kaido, but kaido usually manages to worm his way away from him. he usually gets away whenever nendo challenges someone else and they have to tell him that he can't catch someone else's pokemon.

second gym is chiyo's gym. she uses grass types, and her gym is covered in flowers, trees, and it looks like a forest. the puzzle itself is rather simple. the floor is covered in large flowers, and you have to step on the correct ones or get sent back to the start. i like to imagine a giant vine yeeting kaido. chiyo also forgot to write clues over which ones are correct and ends up helping kaido, and winds being endeared by his determination. chiyo uses a Fomantis and a Petilil, because she thinks they're cute. kaido actually struggles quite a bit because he brings a water type and a grsss type. he wins in the end though, because chiyo ends up lovestruck and forgets to attack. she daydreams about inviting him to run the gym with her because he's so talented in her eyes, but he leaves before she can ask, grass badge in hand.

after chiyo's gym, kaido's froakie evolves into Frogadier, and he cries. in-between gyms again, kaido catches a rockruff because it was cute and it whined when he tried to walk away after battle. again, kaido catching types he likes without even knowing, provided his rockruff evolves at nightime. he names it Decimator. at this point i place kaido's levels at 19-21 ish, and close to rockruff and shroomish evolving.

next gym is hairo's and surprise surprise, it's a fire type gym. his gym his very, very intense. he has actual jets of fire lining his gym. there's no puzzle because he believes in just battling for victory or whatever, kaido didn't catch it behind the roar of the fire jets. kaido just walks along a pathway and gets challenged to battle by 3 randoms. i like to imagine one of them is nendo, and its never discussed. he has a fire type and everything, and its just not brought up. he's back to his single eevee after this too. kaido also wins with relative ease, considering he has a water type and rock type, although he makes the mistake of sending shroomish out at some point, but makes a clutch switch after it survives a flamethrower. fire badge obtained.

right after this, his shroomish evolves into breloom and he cries again. he gets very happy when his pokemon evolve. and also, after a few random encounters, his rockruff also evolves. its day form because kaido is a clueless baby. he still loves it all the same. at some point nendo challenges kaido with a single pokemon again, but this time it's a leafeon. kaido asks how he knew to evolve it, and he just says he battled next to some funny looking rock and it changed. of course. it actually manages to oko Frogadier because kaido wasnt expecting anything other than an eevee, but his breloom deals with it easily, because nendo kept using not very effective grass moves because it worked once. how does he have 3 badges again? nobody knows. level 25-27 now.

next gym is saiko's, and he uses normal types because all the other types were "too needy for someone like him." he's got 2 Persians and a Toucannon. he tried to use 3 persians but he was told that he needed something else just in case someone brought a fighting type by his dad. so he grabbed the first wild bird he found and evolved it. saiko doesnt have a puzzle, and instead just has an elevator that you can pay 5000 Pokedollars to use, otherwise you have to take the stairs like a pleb. Kaido takes the stairs because he's keeping his money dammit. its only 3 stories until saiko's floor, so it's really not much. Kaido sweeps easily with breloom until toucannon comes out. breloom gets slaughtered by a flying type move, and he sends out lycanroc to finish it. normal badge complete.

when he next sees nendo, he has a meowth with his leafeon. kaido asks where he got it, and nendo says he found it near the rich looking gym. kaido concludes that nendo accidently stole a pokemon and they go to return it. saiko says that the plebs can have it as a reward for defeating him, and dismisses them. levels 30-33.

5th gym! mera runs this one, and there isn't a type. she has an Alcremie, Appletun, Cherubi, and a Vannilish. what can i say, girl loves her food. kaido is genuinely concerned that she is gonna eat her pokemon though. the challenge is cooking. kaido has to cook curry, and if its bad, he fights a trainer, up to 3 times. if its good he gives it to mera and moves on the next curry. the actual battle goes okay, but its fairly difficult due to not having a single type, and being unpredictable. obviously he wins in the end, and the badge is a bowl of curry.

frogadier evolves into greninja finally, and they have the matching outfits going on. nendo laughs at it. somewhere nendo also got an applin. kaido is fairly sure he took this one from mera as well, but he decides to let it go, and tell nendo how he can evolve it. he doesn't think nendo understood, but he tried. kaido also realizes he only has 3 pokemon, and decides to find two more. he finds a braixen, which he evolves into delphox. her name is Lucifer's Eternal Flames. Lucy for short. he also catches a noibat. the noibat was caught because he got lost in a cave, and the noibat was leading him out, so he decided he couldn't just leave it there. he names it the Jet Bat Wings. yes im doing that and yes its hilarious. levels 37-39.

gym 6. fighting type, and its kuboyasu. he tried to leave behind his violent days behind him, and become a poison type gym, but eventually gave in and did fighting instead. after he had already dyed his hair purple for the colorscheme. he kept the fighting gym purple because he already commited dammit. 4 pokemon, and hes got Toxicroak (yes ik the irony), Lucario, Grapploct, and Pangoro. greninja faints quickly, and so does lycanroc, but after some paralysis tricks with breloom and delphox sweeping the rest, pangoro comes in and ko's delphox. noibat pulls through in the end, with flying type moves. fighting badge earned.

next battle with nendo, and it turns out he actually evolved applin, and now he's got a flapple. kaido is midly impressed. kaido catches his 6th and final pokemon, an absol. he was overjoyed when he finally got another dark type. he names it Fluffy. yes, the dark type doesnt get an edgy name. levels 44-46, there was a longer gap in between the 6th and 7th gyms. oh also, you may be wondering about an evil team in this au. and my answer is....¯\_(ツ)_/¯

gym 7. Fairy type. Teruhashi. you knew she'd be coming eventually. and yes i saved the characters people prolly wanna know about until last haha. and because i think they fit the more difficult gyms. girl's got 5 pokemon, Mimikyu (i think it fits her fake perfect girl personality), Slyveon, Gardevoir, Florges, and Magearna. how does she have a legendary? prolly cause she's perfect and just asked for it, and someone actually found one. No puzzle here, but having to find his way through the mobs of teruhashi fans is prolly hard enough. Kaido actually has to try this gym several times due to him lacking anything good againist fairies. he gets it eventually though, and teruhashi has to reassure her fans that it's okay that she lost before they murder kaido. fairy badge down.

at this point kaido has no clue how nendo keeps getting gym badges. he has 3 pokemon, and one isn't even evolved. especially considering how easily Kaido himself can beat him. kaido I shrug it off as the plothole it usually is in pokemon games. levels 47-50. Noibat evolves into Noivern, and kaido has himself a pretty strong team. Greninja, Delphox, Absol, Lycanroc, Noivern, Breloom. although he has just been choosing based on personal preference, it turnes out nicely. and yes I'm padding this out cause y'all know what gym is next.

Gym number 8. The psychic type gym, run by Saiki and Aiura. It doesn't get more cliche than this. The challenge in this one is a maze. There's no extra trainers here, instead Kaido fights Aiura everytime he encounters her. She only uses 1 Pokemon in these battles because they happen a lot. Kaido wonders how she keeps finding him, let alone getting through the maze so easily when there's walls everywhere. He brushes it off as her just knowing the layout. battle itself happens, and it's a double battle. they each have 3 pokemon. Saiki has a ditto, espeon, and an alolan raichu (because he thought it was cute) Aiura mainly runs the support side of the team, and she's got a female meowstic, alakazam, and reuniclus, and wishes she had a cuter team, but she makes it work. This is prolly Kaido's second hardest gym. not harder than teruhashi's because he had no advantages, unlike this one where he's got several dark types. the battle is hard because they know exactly what kaido is gonna do. the minute he sends out his breloom to get a cheap paralysis, out comes ditto. the breloom ditto nearly wipes out both dark types, but noivern takes care of it, only to meet a sad demise at the hands of raichu, despite the dragon advantage. he's able to win on his second try, after he refused to send out breloom due to the fact that they just seem to know his next move. it creeped him out. Psychic badge done.

nendo tries to take saiki out for ramen with him and kaido after his gym fight, declaring him his best buddy, and it's not explained why nendo decided this. nendo eventually wins the argument and they get ramen. kaido notices saiki looks disturbed everytime he looks at nendo, but brushes it off as "yeah he disturbs me too." they part ways and onto victory road because im still mourning how there wasn't one in sword and shield. after victory road, kaido is nearing level 60 on everyone.

elite four? eheh i don't know who'd make it up. prolly 4 previous gym leaders with fully evolved teams and more pokemon. not tlo worries about them tho.

Kaido bests the elite four, and marches on to the champion.

Champion Akechi. Full team of 6 Pokemon, and he's a formidable opponent. He's able to easily predict what moves are going to be used next, and always has type advantage. Although, unlike before, while difficult to do, it is possible to do something unpredictable to trip him up, which is the only way Kaido is able to win. His team consists of Serperior, Glaceon, Gyrados, Ninetales, Togekiss (it's just there to be annoying, it can barely attack, and akechi did this to be a nuisance so he can't be clean sweeped), and Mew. Again, I love unexplained lengendaries on teams okay. To Kaido, it seems like with enough switching, he could easily defeat Akechi, but Akechi is very good at predicting. So againist Akechi, it's like the team as been catered specifically to beat Kaido. But, knowing him, it likely was. It takes him ages to beat Akechi. Like literal ages. The only saving grace is Akechi can get tripped up if Kaido is unpredictable enough. It's likely a mixture of that and para hscks that lets him win, and Kaido is champion. Nendo did try to challenge him (somehow beating the elite four) but was beaten. I love how the rivals always beat everything but then get horribly beaten by you.

Holy shit this is longer than i thought it would be. I have been writing this for literal hours. Hope you enjoyed. This is what my brain had inspiration for today apparently, instesd of the fic im working on.

Hadn't seen too much Pokemon stuff for saiki k yet, so tada. and yes, i came up with most of this while writing. the only idea i had before i started writing was the saiki and aiura gym

#saiki k #saiki kusuo no psi nan #the disastrous life of saiki k.#saiki kusuo #kaidou shun #nendo riki #teruhashi kokomi #chiyo yumehara #akechi touma #saiko metori #kuboyasu aren #hairo kineshi #toritsuka reita #aiura mikoto #mera chisato #pokemon #pokemon au #saiki kusuke

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meandmyechoes · 3 years

Text

The more I think about Dark Disciple, the more I find something odd.

[28th March 17:46]

I keep referring to it as a ‘favourable experience’, and there is no question the writing is what made me fall totally head over heels about quintress, but I also just, can’t?

I mean, yes. It’s very passionate, dramatic, scenes and gestures I can only dream of. But I also, don’t really see it in that ’omg they totally belong together here are my sixty headcanons of them’ sense?

I am very involved in the pairing, but also don’t really, actively ‘ship’ it — like the way it was an open book with Rhayme or Latts Razzi (since it’s the same author that indoctrinated me to Captain Rhayme). I could imagine them being happily ever after and silly shenanigans and slow-burn. But the concept of a quintress fairytale ending is so wild. I can only ask how much it is tainted with my personal view on relationships.

I know the plot leaves little room for “the future” and fed us well on all tropes possible. But, it just never occurred to me to put them in any other clichés or invent a missing scene.

Winding up, I don’t think their relationship is "weak", but it’s very motivated by circumstances and once you take that out of them, you are a little bit lost. For example even during the illicit affairs month, I… can’t really propose one date that does not seem tonally insensitive. (I can think of them being cloak dorks and Vos bringing her to ice-cream, that’s it, after a long hard moment) Really, all I possibly want is that sweet, sweet angst and canon is already there so I have no complaint.

It’s just… I don’t really get why it has to be the two of them that fall for each other. I understand why they did, and I believe it— Perhaps it’s much more a physical attraction thing that I don’t really have personal experience with.

I don’t know if quintress classify as slow-burn because 10 chapters still seem a little quick in the grand scheme of things. (aside: I’m quite disappointed Ventress wasn’t doing much in the last quarter of the book.) My point is, they do feel a little bit puppet to tropes, and while it’s deliciously written, there’s not much potential outside of canon. And that lack of inspiration makes me grimace a little.

[3rd April, 01:39]

I’ve scrolled through the dd tag and let the book sank a little. I am better articulated to talk about the sexist criticism now.

It’s a romance story, and when I judge it by that (lower) standard, it ticks the boxes. However, it might be a weakness as well, due to the projectability of the heroes. And yes, the whole assassination is dumb. Yet, tcw has been consistently this dumb at us. The last two times when she’s more rooted in the dark she failed, sent Savage and failed, so she’s gonna do it again with Vos… after she put down her desire for revenge. right. and surprise! Our “assassination” plan is to find Dooku and duel him directly. right…

I’ve read a review that says the romance takes away from the plot. However, the romance IS the plot. The book IS supposed to revolve around the two of them. I do agree them becoming begrudging allies then partners is a more unique approach, more rewarding as foils as well. but I guess a romance is easier for the conventional to process ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With the “Ventress lose agency in falling for Vos”. Now, I can’t dictate how each of us buy into their physical attraction and chemistry (or lack thereof), and there’s no denial that a conscious human being is making that choice for the fictional character, I think the stance on this topic varied person to person from the above two factors, which are very different starting points.

I kept Katie Lucas’s foreword vividly in mind while reading. She said this is a story about people seizing chances to rebuild. That there’s always a choice. Cliché as it is, I believe ~the power of love~. I believe there exists someone you’re willing to sacrifice everything for, to overlook everything for, to forgive - to love them, warts and all. So, yes whether you think Ventress loses her agency to the romance, or if that’s a conscious choice on her behalf, is swayed heavily by how much you buy that they are the one.

[10th April, 10:30]

Yesterday I’ve been thinking a bit more about this. I do love this ship, I just don’t believe they’d be two people who find each other again and again in every life time, in every universe. That’s why, as magnificent as fireworks, it also won’t last.

To explore this, it’s not entire impossible for quintress to separate peacefully after this incident, but would that cheapen the build before? The entire motivation of dark!Quinlan hinges on his vision of their future. And say, Ventress did saved him and survived. How would he balance being a Jedi and his feelings - that’s publicly exposed to the Council? (sidenote: i really don’t like Ch. 27 where a bunch of old men are questioning their love life, but uhhh yes, I’m a sensible person!) For now, I’m seeing another Obi-Satine situation. And honestly how bad that an outcome is. It’s not like Ventress died for her war crimes! The show gave her a full pardon! So Idk man. Why can’t she leave him because she loves him and she exiled herself and they never see each other again WHY NOT FILONI WHY NOT.

Now I’m lamenting more what could’ve been with the two arcs. In Filoni’s original sketch, Aayla and Maul were involved. Man, that could’ve been the dream.

~~~

Part 2: [26th April, 15:15]

It has been… a month, since I finished Dark Disciple and I feel like it’s time to conclude all the thinking this book has made me do.

On the wider reflection about attachment and the Jedi Order, I still have to do more reading on it from other sources to form a concrete opinion. This theme won’t be touched on in this post yet, but I cannot shake how intriguing it is to compare “falling” in love to falling to the dark side. The temptation, and the submission to their emotions, the irrationality, the newfound curiosity, it all incites. Very curiously, it was Anakin Skywalker who commented that one is “blinded by love”

Okay, so what I’ve been scratching my head off the past two weeks is how I look at the romance between Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos. How would I define it?

Now this is as much as an exploration of how I view romantic relationships. Well, I’ve decided it wasn’t “love”, it was an “affair”. It was an affair because it’s a rush of passion, it’s a secret, it won’t last. Before I chop my own head off for bluntness, I mean it in, of course they are hopelessly in love with each other, that’s the exact premise of why it moved me so. But it wasn’t a complete relationship, wasn’t a healthy, sustainable one by any objective standards. Then, that’s the exact contradiction. Oh to throw caution in the wind with you, or to build a future with you?

Both are things I want a lot, and the ideal is of course one after the other. What quintress had (in the end) is definitely not something I’d want for myself, but it’s so fantastical, it’s alluring, just like the concept of falling in love - opening up yourself and trusting another person, is - it’s risky. That’s why it’s a sweet, sweet drug.

I’ve been so angry at all the red flags in this relationship. Reading this book, getting into both of their shoes, yelling NO like their best friends. But ultimately, what they had is unique to them and I can’t influence it in any way. Re-reading, I find myself holding myself back at all the places I was furious about going ‘You are smarter than this!’. Because it’s a tragedy, and the beautiful (I guess) thing is they chose each other.

The other day something on the dash inspired me to really think about ship dynamics. I, unashamedly admit, I’m VERY into Obi/Quin/Ventress in any and all combinations. *cough* I will not explain further.

I do accept the premise and I did discover they share quite a bunch of traits, but it confused me a while what made them cross the boundary, and it was, physical attraction (that the book was selling so hard I was blushing hot). I love them both a lot, and I would like to date them both, and I can see myself in either of them. Again comes the contradiction, is it a good thing to have characters so easily projectable, or do I want to see myself in more complex characters like them?

I probably lost quite a few cars stalling this train of thought. And I've been a canon apologist since forever. This book brought me a lot of emotional upheavals and a lot of food for thought. It brought me down to reflect on my romantic worldview and sexuality because I have nothing better to do. It totally challenged me as a writer and it’s just a really good novel by its right, regardless of the absurdity that is The Clone Wars. It’s a lot of firsts for me. And I really should find something better to do.

[26th April 16:00]

I must address that I got spoiled of the ending and the first and second half of the book probably went through some big changes.

If I cried for this book, it’s score would be even higher. And I’ve been so obsessed with discussing the relationship, without shedding light on the characterization, which is definitely an unfortunate side effect. Then it occurs that quite possibly the second half (26-42) deviated even further from the script than the first? It doesn’t have concept art or blocking, plus possibly (heavily) edited to omit correlation to other arcs. My major complaint for the second half is Ventress doesn’t do much and we know NOTHING about Vos, even though he is given screen time in the book. my, I just wish Ventress punch him harder and drag his idiotic mess back to the light sooner.

And to criticism about it being their ‘toxic’ relationship being portrayed as ‘true love’, well, it really depends on how thoughtful the reader is, right? I think if the reader is able to notice all these red flags and gave their own interpretation of the relationship and its outcome, it’d’ve been an educating experience. There’s what for the reader and what for the characters. They don’t know this ‘love’ is destroying them, and what kind of message is it sending? What ‘love’ depicted in the book is true then? I have my answers, and I hope every reader comes to their own as well.

#dark disciple #sw reading #clean version #i yell 'EXCEPT THE FLIRTY PART' every three scenes

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ziracona · 3 years

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hoh I'm really sorry friend but you got Talbot's backstory kinda muddled. Some things you stated that he did, he didn't actually do for the reasons you stated. He didn't experiment on killers just for fun -- he ran from them. they hunted him. he experimented on them to find a dosage right for himself. he also didn't experiment on an animal for fun. it was dead. Vigo apparently talked about escaping and it had to do with serum. Its why he injected himself after tests. He wanted a way out.

I’m going to answer this in two parts since it’s stated in two. First, friend, I am going to have to operate on the assumption that you have very very strong feelings about Talbot and assume everything said against him is pretty much the same after a glance or something like it, because I never once said he experiments on the killers for fun. I said the Entity I think lets Talbot experiment on other killers now that he is one too as “punishment for them and fun research times for Talbot,” not that Talbot experiments on them for fun. I think he does enjoy doing his scientific research, but that aside, the above is just a description of the Entity’s reasoning in letting him do that/its POV. I certainly never said he does it ‘just for fun’. In fact, I explicitly stated his motivation for becoming a killer was to attempt to protect himself. I have to assume you didn’t really read my post at all, or perhaps got it confused with another. I know my shit. I read up. Though it is true I say ‘animals’ when, while he canonically experiments on both rats and crows, only the one rat happened for sure before he moved on to the Trapper. Although, that’s kind of worse... Again though, I never once said he did any of this for fun. I know he injected people to see what the serum would do, in a very reckless and poorly thought attempt to escape the realm. I explicitly mention this. Perhaps you are confused because I describe him as torturing people, and he’s not just doing pain for fun--this is because torture is not limited to only pain inflicted on someone out of cruelty or a desire to manipulate them. The dictionary definition of the verb, to torture, is “To cause intense suffering. To torment”. And he absolutely tortures killers, survivors, and reanimated realm animals alike as a means to his own ends. Also, the Entity has not erased all his memories--I know the archives has some memory deterioration lore added, but much of what he did to others happened well before any of that began, and explicitly some of his own addons mention things he explicitly remembers. The Entity did of course leave him to suffer in the void, with is a form of torture, and used the medical affects of blight itself to help manipulate him. Unfortunately, being hurt yourself doesn’t excuse you from the responsibility of what horrors you inflict on other people.

For part two, I am sure my answer is coming off as a bit abrasive. I appreciate the apology, but yes, it is rather rude. Even without the lack of attention to detail. Let me try to say this more fairly though, because I don’t know you at all, and in all likelihood, you’re a very nice and decent person who doesn’t mean anything by this, and simply has deep feelings about this character. Also, this isn’t all directed just at you, but to some degree at everybody who has sent me one of these in the past, or will in the future, which I am very tired of. I am going to quit answering most of them from here on.

First of all, I understand feeling deeply about a character or topic. I understand being frustrated or even hurt when you see opinions that distress you, or seem unjust compared to what you believe. That’s natural, and even sweet. And I am all for talking about how you feel and think and why, and leaving that in the tags so other people might hear what you have to say. Even for messaging people to see if they want to have a discussion with you. It’s endearing when people love things and want to fight for them. I only describe Talbot as more interesting than many of the others, because I was not asked specifically about my sympathy level, and it doesn’t factor high in importance to me where he is concerned, but you’re not wrong that Talbot is more sympathetic--or, at least, depending on interpretation, much more capable of being written sympathetic while adhering to canon--than many of the other killers. That said, he’s also--completely in line with canon--interpretable as pretty monstrous. I don’t think I necessarily paint him heavily either direction. Simply I personally feel fairly little sympathy for someone who commits the kinds of dehumanizing acts of scientific research torture on war prisoners without a second thought, ignores the consequences of his actions, and so quickly casts his humanity aside when in tribulation. He devolves from someone who could have changed and been good, to a man who is a horrific monster and cares only for him self, with no lines he will not cross (his own words, and pre-killer even). And to some people, that is tragic. To me, I feel little kinship for the man he was before, and am simply disappointed in him for failing so easily and completely. I can see why someone might interpret his character quite differently, but my take is just as valid in line with canon, and it’s mine.

I don’t mind people telling me their thoughts, and I don’t mind reading takes in the tags. And again, I very much understand the desire to stand up for something you care about if you feel it is wronged. But that’s not really what you’ve done here, messaging me on anonymous. To the best of my knowledge, I have never even interacted with you before. You didn’t open a discussion with me; you talked down to me, and you decided to argue with me about a topic I did not invite anyone into debate with myself. I am not an opinion blog, or a discussion blog. I am a personal blog. But still, you were discontent to not go into my space and try to scold me about my own opinions as a stranger. And you did all of it on anonymous, where there is no tag attaching anything you said even to your online persona, and no way for me to even be assured of you seeing an answer, or entering any dialogue with me. Which means that the goal, subconsciously probably since I know nothing at all about you and have no reason at all to think you’re anything but a decent person who is a bit carried away today with love for Talbot Grimes, but still the goal, was never to have a dialogue with me in the hopes maybe I would see and like your reasoning and we could talk about something we both have an interest in. It was that you felt so entitled to dictate someone you don’t know’s opinion about something they disagree with you on, that you felt compelled to leave a missive instructing me to correct my wrongs in my inbox.

Which, well, is rude.

This is probably a bit more, uh, ‘icy’? Than is totally necessary. I really am not angry at all; I understand you probably had no real ill will towards me doing this. I just have this happen a lot, and I am tired of it, so I want an easy frame of reference to link back to for why I find this behavior rude and cowardly and an unasked for nuisance--badly intentioned consciously or not. I truly am sorry if this makes you feel bad or distressed to read, especially if you’re a younger fan. I truly am not mad at you--and I do not at all think or mean to imply you are a bad person. Everybody is occasionally thoughtless. It’s not remotely representative of character. But please don’t keep doing this to people who aren’t interested in a debate. And if you believe in something enough you want to take the discussion to someone else, sign your name to it. If you feel enough conviction to make something someone else’s problem, make it your problem for real too. I’m truly not mad though, and wish you the best.

(and my ‘if you are annoyed by this or any of my other personal opinions and desperately want me to read your thoughts on anon about that’ requirements below the cut)

It’s literally not worth my time to read anon hate or people upset I don’t like a serial killer, so if you for some wild incomprehensible reason really feel a need to see me read that and answer to you instead of just delete and/or block without a look, then either leave my $5 on my Kofi, or get used to knowing I didn’t even read it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I have to actually get paid to not file that shit under ‘I’m not paid enough to deal with this’.

#ask #anonymous #dead by daylight #talbot grimes #the blight #again Anon I know this might read very abrasive to you. Legit the only emotion I am feeling is mild annoyance #You're not a bad person for mildly annoying me and please don't feel too bad or dwell on this if u even #read it & care. Just. Please don't keep doing this to people #Anonymous

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bouncydragon · 4 years

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LORD: Legion of Random Dinos

Now here we go!

Here is the Endgame Rewrite featuring dinosaurs and a dragon! It got WAY longer than it was supposed to. But ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But because it is so long, I’ll divide it into two parts

Anyway, hope you’ll like it!

***********

Bonus: Endgame, But With Dinos! (Part 1)

It was a sight like none before. So many people, all coming together to defeat a common enemy. Stephen just hoped they would be able to defeat Thanos. How were their chances anyway? They might be many but Thanos had the stones. Probably their chances were rather slim. But Stephen wouldn't let his hope be taken away. Somehow they would manage. They had to.

He knew the Avengers had to be somewhere here, he just didn't know where (yet). He knew that even Loki was here. He didn't quite understand why they had made him a part of the Avengers but it didn't matter now. Any help was welcome. They'd need it.

What he didn't expect though was, when everyone came through the portals, that there were also…

"Are those… dinosaurs?" he asked, perplexed and had to make a double-take. Yes, those were definitely dinosaurs. How? Why?

Captain America—Steve Rogers—came to stand next to him. "Don't ask," he sighed and looked very tired.

When there was a thundering roar above them, Stephen looked up to see a huge creature fly across the sky. It looked like… But no, that couldn't be, could it? They weren't real. Or were they? He had to ask. Steve seemed to know about it, judging by his total lack of reaction.

"And is that… a dragon?" Stephen asked. "What's going on?"

Steve sighed and adjusted his shield. "His name is Gwaine and he's Loki's."

Well, that only answered one question. But also opened more. How and where did Loki get a dragon? Why did he have one in the first place? Where had the dinosaurs come from? And why did the other Avengers ride some of the dinosaurs?

Stephen turned to Steve. "I think you really need to explain what's going on."

Steve grimaced. "I'd rather not? Just thinking about it gives me headaches."

Stephen frowned. So there was probably more to this than he might've thought initially. Now he was even more curious.

Suddenly the shadow of the dragon grew and soon it landed next to them. On top of it was Loki, smiling down at them.

"Hello," he greeted them. "Everyone ready for the battle?"

Might as well ask him, Stephen thought, figuring that Loki would answer his questions. "Why is there an army of dinosaurs?"

Before Loki could answer, Iron Man—Tony Stark—landed next to them. He opened his faceplate. "They're called LORD," Tony explained grinning. Yeah, because that answered all of Stephen's questions. Also, how had he heard him?

"LORD?" he asked after he had rolled his eyes.

The answer surprisingly came from Steve. "Legion of Random Dinos." He groaned. "Aw dammit, now I'm one of you nutjobs."

"Welcome to the club!" Tony cheered, hugging Steve who looked anything but happy right now.

Then suddenly a Pterodactyl landed next to Loki's dragon (damn, the size difference!). Sitting on it was someone Stephen didn't know yet. But Tony was quite helpful and told him that that was Steve's boyfriend Bucky. He had heard that name before though.

"Which club?" Bucky asked. "DTSWDT or the Mischief Squad?" Did they all have superhuman hearing?!

Steve frowned at him. "Mischief Squad? Also, what does DTSWDT stand for?"

Tony, Loki and Bucky exchanged glances and then all at the same time said: "Nothing."

Stephen decided to ignore this and addressed Loki once more. "You still didn't answer my question. WHY is there an army of dinosaurs?"

"They're going to help us against Thanos, of course," the God told him. Fair enough but still didn't answer his questions.

"Still doesn't really answer my question," he tried again.

"Loki has summoned them," came the answer from behind him. Turning around, he saw Thor coming towards them on a T-Rex. "I think they will be a great help. Thanos won't know what hit him."

"Why?" It was a very reasonable question, in Stephen's opinion. Also the only question that mattered right now.

"Dinos make everything better," Loki answered, shrugging. That, on the other hand, wasn't a satisfying and reasonable answer. It was an answer a child would give.

"They listen to Loki, so don't worry," Tony pointed out. That didn't make the situation better but was good to know, in case he'd be maimed by one of them.

Stephen looked around then and saw the rest of the Avengers on dinosaurs. They were laughing and racing each other. Looking over at Steve, the leader of the Avengers looked very tired and done. Stephen got an idea why.

He leaned over and whispered, "Do you have to deal with this every day?"

"You have no idea," the soldier sighed. "They're usually worse."

Stephen's eyes widened. How could it be worse than this? Okay, this wasn't actually so bad. Yet. But Stephen really doubted these people's sanity. Not Steve's, but the others'. Riding dinosaurs seemed like an unnecessary risk. Something they really couldn't afford right now. Stephen got the feeling though that these people were beyond reason.

Another T-Rex came heading towards them. On top of it was Clint Barton. "Hey," he yelled grinning. "Let's kick some grape butt!"

Very immature but he did have a point. They were here to fight Thanos. They shouldn't waste time by discussing why there were dinosaurs. That was a topic for after the fight, if they could still discuss it then.

"The Hawk is right," Loki agreed and Gwaine took off into the sky again. "LET BATTLE COMMENCE!" came the rallying cry from Loki before Gwaine charged forward.

Bucky on his Pterodactyl and Tony took off too and flew after Loki. The rest of the dinosaur-riding Avengers followed them on the ground. And the army of dinosaurs was right behind them. Stephen followed with Captain America and watched quite impressed as the Avengers and the dinosaurs (and all the other heroes and warriors) fought against Thanos and his army. It really was an epic battle. Strange but epic.

"Huh," Stephen noted when he was able to take a breather for a moment. "The dinosaurs really are quite efficient."

Steve grabbed him by his collar (not the cloak collar though) and stared at him intensely. "No, please," he practically begged him. "You are the only still rational person I know. Please don't leave me too!"

Wow, they ruined him, Stephen thought.

***

It was some time later when they were able to catch a break and regroup. Everyone had fought valiantly but there was only so much a person could fight before they reached their limits. Thanos apparently was regrouping too. He had underestimated them and Thor had been right… He hadn't known what hit him when a bunch of dinosaurs had attacked him and heroically had given their lives for the greater good.

Stephen had saved a raptor from an attack and now the sharp-clawed fellow followed him around. It was actually quite adorable. He hated to admit it but the dinosaurs were a great help. There's something he never thought he'd say… Also, they were dinosaurs! The child in him was freaking out about having a dinosaur friend.

But it didn't go unnoticed to him that Steve wasn't so happy about his new friend. The super-soldier threw disapproving looks in his direction.

"I'm so, so sorry," Stephen whispered to his dinosaur friend while shooing him away. "I promise I'll be there in a sec. I just gotta deal with your Uncle Steve, he's angry."

Stephen never knew for sure if the dinosaurs understood what was being said to them. His dinosaur tilted its head looking at him questioningly.

Stephen turned to Steve who was standing there with his arms crossed and such a displeased expression that Stephen thought he had been ordered to the principal's office.

For several moments, no one said anything, until Stephen burst out: "Oh don't be so dramatic!" He pointed at his jurassic friend who had trotted back to his side. "I mean, c'mon! It's a dinosaur! Who doesn't love dinosaurs?" He gave his friend an affectionate pat on the head.

Steve turned away from him. "I can't even look at you right now."

Stephen wanted to say something but was interrupted by Loki landing Gwaine right next to him. Stephen was convinced that the dinosaurs saw Gwaine as their leader. He couldn't explain why though. It kinda just made sense that they would.

Gwaine lowered his head for Loki to climb off. "So," the God addressed Stephen. "I see you have disappointed the Captain too."

Stephen sighed. "I guess so."

Loki spread his arms and grinned at him. "Welcome to the club!"

Stephen raised an eyebrow. He could understand why Steve was done with his team but on the other hand, what did he expect when one of his team was literally the God of Mischief?

Loki leaned in closer to him. "If you want to hang out more with dinos and all sorts of mythical creatures, DTSWDT meets every Saturday in Tony's workshop at Avengers Tower," he whispered. "The password is Petrie. JARVIS will let you in then."

Stephen looked at him a bit dumbfounded and watched as Loki climbed back on Gwaine.

"There's also free food and drink and official T-Shirts," Loki told him, apparently not caring about the Captain hearing him anymore. "Or whatever you'd like clothing-wise. Toodles." Then he flew off again.

Stephen looked after him, straining his neck doing so. His cloak poked him and Stephen knew what he meant to say.

"Huh," he said and gave his dinosaur friend (he needed a name for him) a few gentle pats on the head. "Well, I guess that's worth checking out."

To his side, he heard a frustrated groan. He looked over and saw that Steve had thrown his arms up in frustration.

"HAS EVERYBODY GONE COMPLETELY MAD!?" he yelled to the sky.

Out of nowhere came Iron Man flying and hovered a few feet above the ground. He raised his faceplate and grinned first at Stephen and then at Steve.

"You should've seen him on Titan, Cap. Then you wouldn't be asking that," he said and winked at Stephen.

Stephen cringed and glared at him. Did he have to bring that up? Also, what did it matter? This was an alternate timeline.

A huge shadow fell over them and Stephen looked up to see Loki on Gwaine there.

"What does he mean?" he asked Stephen.

Stephen, obviously, stayed silent and looked at Tony who lowered the faceplate again and flew away. Loki frowned and looked at Stephen more intensely.

"What does he mean?"

Stephen still didn't say anything. Loki didn't look too pleased. Should Tony face the consequences of his comment. And he would.

Loki gave Gwaine some sort of signal and then the dragon flew after Tony at an incredible speed.

"COME HERE, YOU ASSHOLE! WHAT HAPPENED ON TITAN?!" he yelled after Tony.

Stephen didn't pity the man right now. Being the target of Loki's anger seemed like a very bad idea. He just hoped he wouldn't have to experience it as well.

***

"HOW COULD YOU HAVE BEEN SO UTTERLY STUPID?!"

Okay, Stephen did become the target of Loki's anger. And boy, he was terrifying. Even more so because he was on Gwaine hovering several feet over Stephen. And Stephen guessed that Gwaine could sense that Loki was angry because his look was just as angry. Stephen was in serious trouble here.

Tony was in the air near Loki but for now kept silent, just as Stephen and the Captain. There wasn't anything they could say right now. Loki wouldn't let them anyway.

"GIVING UP THE TIME STONE!" Loki kept on yelling. "TONY WASN'T IN ANY DANGER! HE'S UNDER MY PROTECTION! HE WOULD'VE SURVIVED ANYWAY!"

"WELL, I DIDN'T KNOW THAT, NOW DID I?" Stephen yelled back now. Why was Loki yelling anyway? Sure, he was angry, but he could be angry at a reasonable volume.

"HE WOULD'VE TOLD YOU, IF YOU WOULD HAVE JUST LISTENED!"

"Why are you yelling, Loki?" Steve asked now.

Loki looked at him and frowned. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LOUD THE SOUND OF THESE WINGS ACTUALLY IS RIGHT NOW?"

They didn't sound loud to Stephen but he also wasn't directly next to them. Or maybe Loki was going deaf. He had talked to them while on the dragon earlier and hadn't yelled then. Maybe the wings were only loud now because Loki was angry and Gwaine therefore too, so he was flapping his wings in anger? Did that make any kind of sense? Why bother wondering about it now? There were more important things to worry about than the volume of dragon wings. Again one of those things Stephen had never thought would go through his mind.

"ALSO," Loki continued, "YELLING SEEMS APPROPRIATE IN THIS SITUATION!" Okay, fair point.

Tony finally took action and tried to calm his raging boyfriend. He flew closer and opened his faceplate. "Babe, it's alright. We will defeat Thanos," he tried.

But apparently Loki wasn't done with him yet either. "I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU!"

Tony looked at him slightly shocked but didn't say anything. He knew there'd be more, and he was right.

Loki fully turned towards Tony. "YOU ALWAYS GET SO MAD AT ME WHEN I PUT MYSELF IN DANGER! BUT WHEN YOU DO IT, IT'S OKAY! YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED ON TITAN UNTIL NOW!"

Tony was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, Stephen had to really carefully listen or he would've missed it.

"I thought you were dead…"

Loki actually scoffed. That seemed a little insensitive to Stephen. Tony had a good point. It must've been hard for him to think his love was dead.

"WHO AM I, STARK?! WHO?!" Loki yelled at Tony but Stephen heard something else than anger in his voice. He just couldn't place it. "YOU SHOULD KNOW BY NOW THAT I'M FUCKING HARD TO KILL! AND I'M ALSO BAD AT ACTUALLY STAYING DEAD!"

Next to Stephen, Thor inhaled sharply. "Oh boy, he's called him Stark," he whispered. "Someone is in trouble."

"I SWEAR, IF YOU PULL ANY SELF-SACRIFICING SHIT TODAY, I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL RESURRECT YOU AND THEN KILL YOU AGAIN!" they heard Loki. That was an interesting threat, and he probably meant it literally.

Tony wasn't able to respond to that anymore because Loki just flew off. Stephen wondered how exactly he flew the dragon. Were there specific signs? Did they talk? Was there something like a dragon language? And if so, was Loki able to speak and understand it?

Tony landed next to them, looking like a kicked puppy. "He's never been that mad at me before…," he mumbled sadly.

Tony was quiet for a few moments, in which Stephen figured he was contemplating what to do now. Stephen wondered if Loki would even be mad at him for long. They seemed to fit together perfectly, like two puzzle pieces. Considering that, Stephen could understand why Loki was so mad at Tony.

"Thor!" Tony suddenly exclaimed. "How can I make it up to him?"

Thor looked at him rather surprised and a bit lost. Then he shrugged. "Why are you asking me?" he answered. "You know him better than I do."

Stephen frowned at him. Didn't he always claim that Loki was his brother, no matter what, and he loved him? Shouldn't he know him then?

"Ah fuck!" Tony whined and then flew after Loki. "LOKI! WAIT! I'M SORRY!" he yelled but Stephen doubted that the Trickster could hear him.

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hikarielizabethbloom · 3 years

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on the way Mel is being written, I feel s1 wrote her well. Fiery latina thing while chliche wasn't off. S3 seems to be doing way better than s2 so far. Don't like how an activist is so dismissive of suicidal traits, but hoping it's leading to a proper convo. While I was pro Melby @ 1st what's the point of a romantic storyline if it's off screen? Ruby is a great character but imo it's hard to root and get attached to something we see nothing off. We maybe see them once every 5 episodes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Let’s just ignore season 2 altogether! Except a few things (Jordan, my light), the season was a nightmare. Mel was treated as a guest most of the time or a deus ex machina. As her fan it was painful to watch. I do agree that they’re doing better in season 3 as far as her characterisation is concerned.

My biggest problem is not with way they’re writing the character, but in the way they’re handling her love life. I always got the impression that her sexuality was used to just pander fans. The show called itself ‘woke’ so they had to have a queer character. That character happened to be Mel, box checked. But they never treated it with respect. When you look at queer relationships (especially mlm and wlw) writers tend to rush them at best. Charmed writers had a chance to change that but they decide not to. Mel was already in a relationship when the show started. Still, they could have created a slow burn relationship (with Jada, with Kat, and with Ruby) like they did with Macy/Harry and Jordan/Maggie, but they didn’t. They rush her in relationships so they don’t have to worry about dedicate time to a queer relationship. At least that’s the impression I got. I also have the feeling that they desexualise her, but I don’t know if this is because of her sexuality or because of her age (she’s over 30, so old for the cw standard) and her being a woc, since they don’t have this kind of problem with Abigael or Maggie (I swear the kid had more sex scenes that her two adult sisters, both in committed relationship during the first two seasons - season 3 doesn’t count because of covid).

I totally agree about Ruby. It took me time to appreciate her character and her relationship with Mel because of the lack of screentime. And it’s absolutely problematic. That’s why we keep demanding more scenes. I think this will change next season. For what I’ve heard, Bethany was busy on other project this season and because of covid restrictions (15 days of quarantine before shooting) they couldn’t have in all the eps they wanted. We just have to wait and see.

(I’ve said it before, I understand why people are drawn to abimel. I would have been too, if the show treated said character differently. I know that the writers are to blame for this, but still what we see is what we get. So I don’t have problem with the ship in fanfictions (where writers can do her character justice), I just can’t on the show. I should ignore too many things that for me are important and serious)

Now, Mel being dismissive of suicidal traits, it’s not really a surprise for me because the show has been ignoring Macy’s depression since season 1. That’s not on Mel, that’s on the writers who really don’t have any idea how to deal with this. But Mel ignoring A.’s pain (I think you’re referring to that), it’s a bit more complicated than that. Because Mel doesn’t owe her anything. Yes, you could call them frenemies now but this doesn’t cancel all that A. did (whether you consider it unforgivable or not). The writers shouldn’t have put her in this situation in the first case. What I find way more serious is the way Mel was dismissive of Macy’s trauma last season. The Mel we know (and love) would’ve never be chill about what happened between Macy and Jimmy, which was horrible.

I hope I answered your questions!

#short posts what are those #why am I not able to be brief #charmed #charmed season 3 #melanie vera #melanie vera deserves better #melby #charmed 2018

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reverienne · 4 years

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Sooo you've finished the first Ace Attorney game, right? What case was your fave? Were there twists and turns that you totally didn't see coming? Who's your favourite character till now? I'm so so curious about your opinions 😁

Hi. Thanks for reaching out! I've finished the first game last month and though I haven't started the second one just yet, I've grown to like the series a lot so I'm always down for a chat. <3

My brain tells me that my favourite case was "Turnabout Goodbyes" (which, imho, feels the most poignant and the most well-written of them all, not to mention wildly interesting - both in terms of the plot, the characters' interactions and development), but my heart chimes in that my actual favourite is probably "Turnabout Samurai" (not because I find "Turnabout Goodbyes" lacking in any way, but this particular case makes very emotional and I'm not always feeling up to that - in the terms of sheer enjoyment and replayability, "Turnabout Samurai" is the clear winner, especially as I love its music theme so much).

My least favourite case is... I really want to say that it's "Rise from the Ashes". It has taken me ages to go through this case, it was such a drudgery, and I've found Ema annoying, not endearing, the whole time. While I appreciate the contrast this case provides to "Turnabout Goodbyes", while I like bits and pieces of it, and while I actually got a bit teary-eyed at the finale, it's still one of the cases I wouldn't want to replay in the nearest future. That being said, if there's this one case I'd rather not revisit at all, it would be "Turnabout Sisters". Not because I find it bad in any way! I've just latched onto Mia the second I saw her, I was pretty sure we'll get at least one more case with her as Phoenix's mentor and when she got attacked in "Turnabout Sisters", I genuinely wished her to recover... so when she didn't, I became so salty as to write my own AU in which Mia survives but ends up incapacitated for a while and Phoenix and Maya face a slightly different set of trials.

I was making many theories during each and every case so, predictably, I had my share of wrong guesses. I think that my biggest surprise was "Turnabout Samurai" because I've always pegged the case as a sort of deliberate murder? Or just half accidental, half deliberate murder but never a pure accident. I was also a bit surprised that I would laugh and cheer so much at the finale of "Turnabout Goodbyes" - honestly, to this day I can't think about a metal detector with a straight face... As for some other surprises, I was pleasantly surprised by Phoenix's sense of humor! It's amazing and I wish I got to hear his remarks about things more often. I also never expected for Angel Starr, Neil Marshall and Bruce Goodman to win so much of my respect or to just... feel for Lana and Ema! Though I guess that my biggest surprise was the Lana/Mia spree I went on a few weeks ago. They've got a single line of content (and I never ship like that, I always require a ton of canon build-up which is a bit of a fallacy of mine) but somehow they've became as canon to me as Miles/Phoenix and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

My favourite character is - to no one's surprise - Miles Edgeworth. I've just had a type since junior high and he fits the bill perfectly. He's such a nuanced character with a lot of development still ahead, and I find him very interesting. Not to mention that his relationships with other characters have such a wide range, going through wild (Larry), sweet (Gumshoe), sweet and heartwrenching (Phoenix, Gregory Edgeworth), and sad and heartwrenching (Manfred von Karma, Lana) that it's just... impossible not to find something there that you wouldn't like? Honestly, having him in such a major role was the hook that made me keep playing through "Rise from the Ashes" even when my motivation was low. Seeing him and Phoenix work as a team almost made up for certain things I didn't enjoy. My second favourite, almost ex aequo with Miles, is, of course, Maya! I missed her dearly in "Rise from the Ashes" and my negativity towards Ema was surely a bit fueled by my fears that they wanted to replace her. She is such a good bean and such a fun character as well! The best little sister that Phoenix could hope for and I genuinely can't wait to see their reunion. The third place is probably still Mia's because I'm being petty, but maybe things will change once Franziska comes over? I'm very curious about her. Though a more probable scenario is that I'll keep Mia on the third place and Franziska's introduction will either made her replace Phoenix on the fourth (I like him a lot, I swear!) or possibly end up after him.

As for my least favourite character - so far I only dislike Ema, though I must admit that she got my respect once I learned of her ties to the DL-6 case and I realize that I should've cut her some slack even before that. She is a child, after all, even if the one-year age difference between her and Maya makes me look at her in a bit harsher light than I normally would. I can't help it, though, her comments have been grating on my nerves throughout 80% of the case so... yeah. My unpopular character opinion.

Anyway, what are your favourite cases? Your favourite characters? I would love to read your opinions. :D

#Ace Attorney #Ace Attorney spoilers #Reverienne is talking #long post #sorry - it's got long and Tumblr ate a read more #anyway I'm very curious about your opinions

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pentanguine · 3 years

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30) What does Genderqueer mean to you?

I love the word genderqueer because of its expansiveness. It lets me say what I am, not just what I’m not, but it doesn’t pin me down with precise, rigid language that ends up becoming prescriptive rather than descriptive. It lets me define myself without being defined, thereby satisfying my neurotic impulse to put everything into categories and my visceral aversion to be being oversimplified and palatable.

And it’s about so much more than gender, too. It’s about the worldview that comes out of my being (gender)queer, and the political ideals that I want to do a better job living up to. It’s about fucking with gender expression and gender narratives, like the “right” way to be trans. It’s absolutely a choice to identify this way, and that’s why I love it, because I know that anyone else who identifies as genderqueer in 2020 has deliberately chosen it in favor of nonbinary (or at least alongside it), and they’re my kind of people.

Nonbinary doesn’t appeal to me as much because it’s very…empty, I think, and clinical. It just says what you’re not, and it says it neatly in prefixes and suffixes that look organized and polite on drop-down menus. And in an ideal world, everyone would be nonbinary, wouldn’t they? Not in the sense that we’d destroy gender (gender is important to many people, including me), but in the sense that “man” and “woman” would just be two random genders amongst a whole nebulous cloud of them, and there’d be no binary to exist inside of anyway.

I think I’ve probably talked about this before in several of the other questions, but when I say that my identity is weird and unresolved, I mean that being weird and unresolved is my identity. I don’t feel like I’m moving closer toward an ultimate truth; I don’t think there’s an ultimate truth to uncover anyway, and even if there were I wouldn’t want to find it. I want to be at peace in the lack of resolution. Everything in life is composed of certainties and uncertainties, and I think I’m fine with my gender being an uncertainty. Genderqueer is a way of pointing to the uncertainty and claiming it as my gender without having to explain something inexplicable.

Basically, I refuse to be made to cohere. It seems like everything always coheres with gender; in the end, everything’s always a category and there are qualifications and boxes to tick and linked chains of traits that you can follow, inevitably, toward order and cohesion. I don’t want any of my traits to imply any of my other traits. I don’t want people to look at my body and think woman; I don’t want people to hear they/them and think neutrality; I don’t want people to look at my masculine clothes and think power. I don’t want people to immediately Know what I am.

I do feel like I leaned pretty hard into the transmasc angle with these questions, which makes me feel a little over-explicated, but I wanted to, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Transmasculine is something that I am! It’s a word that makes me feel comfortable with all the nuances of myself, and more fully able to be otherwise contradicting and queer. It’s a word I want to be proud of and open about identifying with! As an afab person who is not physically transitioning, masculinity is what I have to work to get people to acknowledge in me, and claiming that on my own terms is very personally meaningful.

(As an aside, something that I never got around to mentioning any other place is that I’m a boy! Not male or a man, just a boy: boy as in “relating queerly to time,” boy as in “masculinity that holds no power,” boy as kind of a playful queer affectation. Maybe I’m an agender boy??* It’s something that I made up off the top of my head and am totally winging here.)

All of that being said, though, I’m still genderqueer, as in a mess, as in outside of gender, as in genderfucked, as in invert, as in weird and ideologically disturbing and no more a man than I am a woman. My gender is something that I get to create and name, and I choose to be queer.

*I did not actually make up the idea of being an agender boy**, and I’m not saying this person did either, but they’re at least one of the other people who got there before me

**also I’m not actually agender?? I definitely have a gender, but I just always feel compelled to add “agender” before the “boy” for some reason. I guess because the way I use boy I don’t actually mean it as a gender. Like, my gender is queer and then boy is just something else I am, like I’m a Capricorn and a bookworm.

#gqid asks #supplementary tag ramble because isn't there always a supplementary tag ramble:#i'm so averse to the idea of queerness as inevitable biological destiny #i just think that mindset is so anti-queer #i know that some people DO have fairly clear-cut experiences but i think there are a lot more people than you'd think #who are just approximating as best they can #personally i think there are plenty of people out there with nearly identical experiences of gender to mine who #(for various reasons involving relationships; transition goals; comfort with other labels; etc)#identify as lesbians or trans men #or even for that matter wildly different flavors of nonbinary #like agender; nonbinary woman; definitely-not-transmasc...#we're all the same genderexperience but we're different people with different life experiences and so we make ourselves legible #in wildly different ways #and sometimes that's sad because it's harder to find and recognize your community #but also there's so much creative punk pleasure in that degree of individual choice and expression #it makes me happy #edit: oh also FUCK YEAH ELLIOT PAGE

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eisforeidolon · 5 years

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Episode: Raising Hell

So, uh, basically I have no idea why anything in this episode happens or what its point is supposed to be. Having looked up who wrote it somewhere in the middle, I am completely lacking in surprise.

I mean, the first bit pretty much sets the tone. Chatty Corpsy spouts exposition a mile a minute, then gets killed, and the ghost stands over her and spells disembowel. Is that actually supposed to be scary? Funny? Anything but an absolutely bizarre waste of my time?

A bunch of dudes with basically nothing but FBI jackets and a bullshit story to back themselves up with convince an entire town to camp out in the local high school for two days without anybody figuring out they're full of shit. You know, what with smartphones existing and all. Plausible!

Furthermore, I have become convinced that everyone in this writer's room genuinely believes there is nothing scarier than a bunch of random antagonists standing around in a room pontificating at each other. It's all demons do anymore. It's all angels do anymore. Oh, fucking look, here's a bunch of goddamn ghosts doing it, too! A fucking thrill a minute, I tell you.

Also, you know how the episode with H.H. Holmes was actually scary? Whether or not you think it's in questionable taste for them to use real life serial killers at all, the reason they included him was because the whole murder castle deal and semi-mythical legends about him made for a scary premise they actually used in the episode. I ignored the thing with it being Gacy before in Lebanon because there was more important stuff going on, but contrast the current writers' choices with him and this Jack the Ripper guy with the use of Holmes. Here they're just throwing out the names of real life murderers to try and make their villains scary in the cheapest, fastest way possible. Just like bringing back “Bloody Mary” that just kills whoever, this loudmouthed windbag has nothing to do with the name they're stealing to try and make him scary.

Also, the spell demon guy did is keeping the ghosts in, right? Sure, it's going to fail, but at the moment, it's supposed to be an impassible barrier, yes? So why, exactly, is it necessary for Sam to call in his goon squad to join the four of them in wandering into the danger zone to shoot at 'em? Seriously, why? Shooting them dissipates them for a few seconds, maybe minutes. They’re not laying out additional salt or iron lines or doing anything that might genuinely help contain the ghosts, they’re just putting themselves in danger because ...? The mooks could also be better spent guarding the major entrance points to the town and/or the townies and/or doing research back at the bunker into what they're going to try next after the barrier fails. But those things would actually make sense and prevent the shambling zombie that is the writers’ pathetic attempt at a plot in this episode being pushed into something vaguely resembling action.

I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that Rowena is now suddenly unable to do something with her powers that she did before. Hey, remember when she stole that page out of the damned book to make herself more powerful to unseal her full powers (even though they touted her as the most powerful witch ever to begin with) and that was in season 13, well after the ghost-crystal-bomb thing? But LOL, now she's even weaker? This is exactly why nothing matters anymore. Things that worked previously (angel powers, witch powers, the Colt, whatever) suddenly and randomly don't work to do the exact same jobs for … reasons. The thing that makes it even dumber is they could have said that the ghost containing spell and crystal ghost sucking spell interfered with each other somehow. Still at a bullshit level of convenience, but it doesn't involve making everyone and everything's powers completely arbitrary just because fuck continuity, that’s why!

Then Ketch shows up to save the Winchesters from their sudden attack of brain damage. The show has provided an entire. fucking. town. full of angry ghosts straight from hell. But actually bother to write a scene of Sam and Dean legit getting over their heads in a believable way? Why fucking bother when you can just make them astoundingly incompetent. It is literally unbelievable that Sam and Dean would not recognize those people as possessed fucking immediately. Yet they stand there with rock salt filled shotguns doing sweet fuckall confronted by three fucking ghosts so Ketch can make a big entrance. Is there a rule on a board somewhere in the writer's room that Sam and Dean have to be made to look incompetent at least once an episode? Is this some kind of revenge for having to still write the main characters they're so clearly bored with? Are these idiots just so fucking stupid they don't realize how insulting this is? Did they run out of money for extras and the stunt coordinator?

Also, someone explain to me how tiny flakes of metal are going to be less harmful to a human body than rock salt. I'll wait. They just really really wanted Ketch as one of the BMoL guys to have some kind of specialized gadget but couldn’t give him something actually potentially useful for the situation at hand.

Again, these writers really want to be writing a bad soap opera with occasional supernatural elements. So despite that it's the final fucking season, we have time for Rowena and Ketch flirting. Not to mention that they also give the only major female character even more relationship drama with the Jack the Ripper guy later. If it's not questionably skeevy, it's not Bucklemming!

Also, Castiel is not good at inspirational speeches, just like he’s frustratingly almost never good at anything else these days (those healing powers that were working last week? ha! forget it!). Anyway, why do they keep having him make them? Are we as the audience supposed to find them convincing though they never work on the target? Are we supposed to feel bad for all the ~*feelings*~ Castiel supposedly has despite being an angel who isn’t supposed to have emotions the same way humans do? I guess this particular one is to further show that Dean’s still mad (which I am absolutely 100% behind) but eh, whatever. Though I guess that still ranks it above most of the episode sitting at a solid WTF, no really, WTF?!

Now we get to the part where they bring Kevin back for no fucking reason beyond that he's a “fan favorite”. None of it makes a single tiny speck of sense. Let's skip right past the fundamental absurdity of how Chuck apparently did this for literally no reason just to be a dick when he was actively trying to pretend not to be a dick. Kevin has a “bad boy” reputation (come the fuck on) because God Himself cast him down - so him being in hell would have to be fairly common knowledge, for it to result in him having a reputation. Except literally no demon Sam & Dean ran into between 11.21 and now taunted them with it? Crowley, who was still alive and fucking King of Hell through season 12 never noticed and either told the Winchesters or tried to trade on it? BULL and SHIT. This is pretty close to the same scale of insult to continuity and the audience’s intelligence as these two fuckwits suddenly writing Lucifer as the older brother.

Then in typical fashion, Sam & Dean discuss their plans to totes send Kevin to heaven in front of demon guy just so they can be told OH NOES! He totally can't go to heaven! So sad! The poor widdle woobie! Fuck off with this shit, show. Not even to mention that they take the word of a demon as gospel truth when there is no time crunch or clear lack of better options. It's all those many many hits to the head, I guess. That I do actually find quite sad. I mean, I don't actually want Kevin hanging around like a bad smell while they divert from actually important shit to try and get him to heaven where it makes no sense for him not to already be. But at the end they don't even arrange some way to keep in touch just in case the fucking demon might be (gasp) lying?

Hey, I did actually like the exchange between Dean and Sam over Chuck poking his corresponding wound. Oh, look, it's Sam's “I'm totally lying” face, followed by Dean's “I totally know you're lying but I'll let it go for now, Sam” face. It was a great moment that required very little dialogue to work quite well. It's such a shame nobody's making a show about these two characters! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The absurdity keeps on coming, too. In the whole two days they've been wasting time in Sunshine Daylightville they never discussed how long the spell would last? Oh, right, they were too busy wandering into the ghost zone to shoot at 'em for shits and giggles to care about that, I guess. Not to mention the whole “just cast it again!” is remarkably blasé about it requiring a 'fresher the better!' human heart.

More ghosts blathering at each other. Yay. This supposed Jack the Ripper guy is just always in the right place at the right time to hear all the gossip, knows every random thing he could possibly need to, and already has the power to intimidate and attack other ghosts. He's basically ghost!Asmodeus, who also steals AU!Michael's original idea of how to get through the barrier, because we really needed time spent discussing the world's most obvious plan. Also, we've seen ghosts able to attack and absorb the power of other ghosts, but it was because they had already been doing it for a while. This guy is just as fresh out of hell as everybody else, but he's more powerful and knowledgeable and totes threatening!!! Well, I'm convinced and not on the verge of napping from boredom.

Naturally for reasons, Rowena goes into town entirely by herself without protection with their only real hope of containing the ghosts before the barrier breaks down instead of anybody insisting on her going with backup. That's what anybody with a brain would do!

Of course no one asks where Ketch has been the whole time. Or even thinks of trying to test him after he was last seen literally knocked unconscious in the middle of ghost central where we know there are plenty of ghosts angry enough to be capable of possession. Nope, why would anyone even think to do that? Everything in this “plot” that happens requires all of the characters to be completely fucking stupid.

I'm going to assume by “you” Ketch meant “you Winchesters” because Mary wasn't there. It probably didn't, because Bucklemming, but fuck it. It's the least egregious stupidity in this episode that's a cornucopia of choices for the worst.

I … actually like the scenes with Chuck and Amara? So, you know, that's something!

Then the episode ends with the guys looking at all the ghosties still shooting up from hell and wring their hands about what they're going to do and maybe they should get on that! Again, if Sam's flunkies aren't all dead, why aren't their worthless asses already researching this shit over the past two days? It's not like it's new news that there was a big open hole to hell at the center of the problem and there was honestly nothing but wrangling some cranky civilians to interfere with trying to think ahead to that.

In summary, this episode is a constant showcase of the problems that result when you set incompetent morons who don't recognize their own inadequacy to write characters who are actually supposed to be intelligent experts at their work. It's a joke – except not at all funny.

#writer incompetence #anti bucklemming #negativity for ts #negativity all the way down #long post #spn 15x02 #spn season 15

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ignis-scientia-estrogen-brigade · 5 years

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~ISEB in Japan: A Photo Journal~

If you’ve been following me on Twitter lately, you’ll know that I’ve been traveling through parts of Japan the last couple of weeks with my Ignis Play Arts Kai figure in tow. I posted a few pictures over there during the duration of my trip, but those barely scratched the surface of everything I got to do while in Japan. So I thought I’d put together a blog post of my journey while it was still fresh in my mind, featuring everyone’s favorite strategist in what I’ve been dubbing my Great Final Fantasy XV Adventure of 2019!

[Image-heavy content + commentary under the cut]

A brief backstory: I’ve wanted to go to Japan my entire adult life. For years, I’ve watched friends make the trek while I’ve been stuck at home with a severe case of FOMO. The only thing that ever stopped me from going was money (or a lack thereof), so I made the decision last summer to buckle down and sock away every dime I made to make it happen. My only concern before hopping on the plane was that I had missed the wave of FFXV popularity by about a year, but I would quickly learn that—other than not getting to eat any of Ignis’ recipes at the Square Enix Cafe—I had little to worry about.

Literally the only reason I brought my Play Arts Kai figure was so I could take this picture of Ignis at the Citadel (a.k.a. the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building), which was the very first place I stopped at on my first full day in Tokyo. The building + the surrounding plaza, while not 100% accurate, is a fairly impressive facsimile of the one in the game. It’s located in Shinjuku, which also boasts a lot of similarities to Insomnia. Having finished Episode Ardyn mere hours before jetting off on my trip, it felt like I had stepped off the plane and right into the game!

There just so happened to be an Animate right near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, so I popped in to get a feel for what kind of FFXV merch I’d be able to find two years after the game’s release and a year after its height of popularity. Turns out, there was quite a lot of swag to be found! Truth be told, I’ve never been one to chase down official merchandise (unfortunately my job doesn’t really afford that luxury), but I gave myself special permission while on vacation to buy anything I wanted. So I did! Including everything you see above. ^^;;

The next thing I did was take the train to Ginza to meet Lyle/@landscape-gonna (@landscape_gonna on Twitter), and I simply cannot say enough nice things about her. If you don’t know who she is, there’s a 99.9% chance you’ve seen at least one of her Ignis costumes, and they are A. M. A. Z. I. N. G. We had chatted a bit previously on Twitter before I went full-on stan mode, asking her if she'd be willing to meet up with me (a total stranger) to have lunch and talk Ignis and Final Fantasy. Not only did she say yes, but she gifted me with copies of her incredible cosplay zines and was not the least embarrassed when I busted out my Play Kai Arts figure in the middle of a busy Japanese dessert restaurant haha.

See? Zero embarrassment here.

We even did Noct’s ultimate pose! In public!

I can’t begin to articulate how special meeting Lyle was for me—being brought together from opposite sides of the world to share in our love for Ignis/FFXV is a memory I will cherish my entire life. So Lyle, if you are reading this: どうもありがとうございます ! ٩( ᐛ )( ᐖ )۶

Lyle wasn't the only friend I had in Japan. Another friend of mine, Asuka (who happens to be well-versed in anime/video game culture), volunteered to be my guide through Ikebukuro/Otome Road the next day. Quick otaku lesson: Kbooks is a chain of stores that specializes in the resale of licensed merchandise. For example, if you missed out on some of the limited availability items from the Movic and the Square Enix Cafe collaborations, you might be able to find them at a Kbooks. Otome Road in particular has something like seven different Kbook shops in a 3-block radius, each one specializing in different products (sports anime, idols, cosplay, etc). I, of course, beelined for the video game shop...

...which is where I found this fucking thing:

I’m not gonna lie, I almost bought it. I just didn’t know what I would do with it besides scare the living daylights out of people when they least expected it lol.

Yoooo Adam I found ya boi in Ikebukuro

We popped into the cosplay Kbooks shop since it was right across the street and I found an Ignis costume for sale! Please enjoy this picture of me pretending to come up with a new recipeh (since this is likely the closest I’ll ever come to cosplaying as Ignis).

One of the things Asuka introduced me to was Hanami (picnic under the cherry blossoms, basically). I had timed my trip to coincide with the blooming of the sakura, and the experience of being in Japan during that time was indescribable. I took a bajillion pictures of the sakura while I was there and unfortunately none of my photos ever quite captured the beauty and magic of them in person, but here’s a lil’ pic of a tree in bloom at Yoyogi Park (with the Movic Ignis charm I bought at Kbooks earlier that day).

Another item on my Japan checklist was to stay at a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Hakone, a town famous for its onsen/hot springs. Nothing in Hakone is cheap (at least, not during peak sakura season), and I had spent an absurd amount of money on a night at one particular ryokan with a private bath (shy husband haha). The private bath could only be reserved in 30-minute increments, and by the time we finally rolled into Hakone the bath we wanted only had one slot available for the rest of the night. So what did I do?

If you said, “Waste the first 15 minutes of your 30-minute, super-expensive onsen experience taking the perfect Ignis-in-a-hot-springs photo” then you would be absolutely correct lol.

I actually wasn’t planning on taking a bunch of photos of my Ignis figure on this trip, but after my husband tucked Ignis into my futon while I was in the bathroom, documenting my trip vicariously through Ignis ended up taking on a life of its own. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I popped back over to Tokyo after my stay in Hakone, which is when I finally got to make the Great Nerd Pilgrimage™ to the Square Enix Cafe! Had the FFXV collab been going on while I was there, I might’ve forked over the cash to eat at the cafe, but I opted to skip out on lunch so I could spend more money in their shop. They still had a small collection of FFXV merch...

...including this acrylic Ignis stand that I wanted but thought I would never own after failing to find it at Kbooks earlier in the week. Huzzah!

Also, I just feel the need to let everyone know that this is what the outside of the Square Enix Cafe in Tokyo looks like lmao.

Our next stop was Kyoto, which we arrived in on Gladio’s birthday (April 2nd). Unfortunately I didn’t have time to draw anything for his b-day, but we did stop for a Nissin Cup Noodle in honor of Gladio!

One of the most memorable moments of my trip was when this boating incident happened, and it requires a little bit of backstory. On my first full day in Kyoto, I attempted to field two of the most popular tourist destinations in Kyoto: the bamboo forest in Arashiyama, and the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Both places have their beauty and historical significance, and I suspect during the off-season are inspiring sites to behold. In my case, both places were absolutely swarming with tourists, which really put a damper on my enjoyment of them. Defeated, I followed a local canal back toward my hotel, which is where I spotted a miniature boat enthusiast controlling a boat that looked eerily similar to the Royal Vessel. I pulled my Ignis figure out with the intention of simply taking a photo of the boat in the background; when the man saw me holding my figure and fumbling with my phone, he flagged me over and gestured for me to put Ignis in the boat. I wish I had documented how it all went down a little better, but as I was literally wheezing with laughter, the above was the best I could capture.

One of the more off-the-cuff decision I made was to dress in kimono for a day while in Gion (Kyoto). As the cherry blossoms were at their height during my stay there, you couldn’t sneeze without hitting someone who was dressed traditionally for the numerous festivals that were taking place throughout the city. As a white foreigner, I initially had reservations about wearing a kimono (for fear of cultural appropriation), but I did everything I could to be as respectful and reverent whilst wearing the garb (and the rental shop was certainly happy for the patronage). It was an amazing experience and I would definitely do it again!

Speaking of being respectful, I made it a point not to take pictures of Ignis while visiting any shrines (because nothing screams ‘douchey American’ quite like whipping out an action figure on sacred grounds), hence why I don’t have pictures of any of the major shrines we visited in this post. I did, however, spot this miniature shrine arch in an alleyway, and thought it would be okay for my equally miniature strategist to pay his respects.

Literally, a tiny shrine in an alleyway. I suppose even alleys have their deities!

Osaka is about 20 minutes away from Kyoto by train, and since I had already traveled all the way out to Kyoto, I went the extra few miles to stop by the Square Enix Cafe in Osaka. They actually had a smaller selection of FFXV merch than the one in Tokyo and I didn’t end up buying anything, but I would’ve never stopped wondering if I had missed out on something if I hadn’t gone and seen it for myself!

My last day in Kyoto was a week into my trip, and I still had five days left to go. After walking ~10 miles every day (no joke, I have the GPS screenshots to prove it!), I was really starting to feel the grind. I’m sure Ignis was also desperate for an Ebony after being lugged around in the bottom of my purse for a week lol.

Back on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo!

Weeeeeee (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Said hi to Fuji-san!

Stopped for a delicious matcha parfait! (Shout-out to my husband who never once got annoyed with me whenever I busted out my figure in public spaces lol)

This was without a doubt the craziest and most unexpected find of any of my merch runs. I had gone to the video game Kbooks in Ikebukuro earlier in the week and had sifted through all their Ignis merch with a fine-toothed comb. This particular Movic charm was one I had been on the lookout for, but it was a rare pull even when they were readily available a year ago, and the only Ignis charm I came across in my first trip to Kbooks was the normal Ignis one (see my Hanami pic). I had no real reason to return to Ikebukuro after I got back from Kyoto, but on a whim I went one last time and BAM—this guy was hanging out there in his lil’ baggie, just waiting for me to get my grubby little hands on him. Jackpot!

All in all, I spent way too much money and I couldn’t be happier for it. The only thing I couldn’t find for the life of me was the Ignis cologne by Movic, but after searching through several Animates and Kbooks, I began to suspect it might be an online-exclusive item that wasn’t available in stores. (Which was probably a good thing for me cause I was already stretching my budget to the limit by this point haha.)

On my last night in Japan, I went back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building—only this time I went at night when it was all lit up! I also went up to the observation deck on the 45th floor (something I didn’t know you could do the first time I was there) and enjoyed a fantastic view of nighttime Insomnia Tokyo. It was the perfect bookend to a perfect trip, and my heart is absolutely overflowing right now with love for both Japan and Final Fantasy XV!

#final fantasy xv #ignis scientia #ffxv

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