#she knows when fans will recognize her foreshadowing and will make it count in the best way possible

[displayheartcode]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - Seanan McGuire perfectly understands how to write a pay off that’s both emotionally and narratively satisfying

#between everything with the crossroads in the incryptids/ghost roads books and HOW BE THE SERPENT KILLED ME #she knows when fans will recognize her foreshadowing and will make it count in the best way possible #I could probably write an entire paper for indexing alone #seanan mcguire #october daye #toby daye #incryptid #ghost roads #sm

[ms-cartoon]

Warning: This post will contain mentions of assault or anything along the lines of it. You get the idea.

My review for HH ep 2 was supposed to be out by now, but there are some things I have to say first. My reasoning for sticking around for Hazbin Hotel is all gone except for Vox right now. I love Husk too, but they really just kinda ruined him for me in ep 4. I'm probably being dramatic but that's just how I feel. If he's supposed to be this wise bartender who's meant to make people feel better and help reach an understanding of some sort, he really just failed at that.

EP 4 of Hazbin Hotel is probably the worst one out of all the eps released so far. There are PLENTY of flaws to point out, but they can be said for some other posts I'll upload soon. What I'm mainly concerned with as of now is that "Loser Baby" song sung by HuskerDust.

So it's revealed that Husk was once an overlord and was always gambling. He betted his status and powers when playing against Alastor and lost. Now I guess he's forced to do whatever Alastor wants such as being a bartender. . . .

Sorry to get off topic here but. . . . Husk was an overlord??? I don't like how they just suddenly reveal that. It caught me off guard. I know they sorta foreshadowed it in the pilot, but they should've given most newcomers to the show a hint or something. It honestly feels like the writers just pulled that revelation out their asses just to add some positivity and similarity between Angel and Husk's relationship (because Viv and the fans just love idea of this ship oh so much)

Also, since he was previously an overlord, how come nobody's heard of him??? Everybody will get shocked when they hear or see Alastor or recognize him by his radio shows. Everybody knows the Three Vs, Camilla, etc. but not a Husk??? The Overlord with a gambling addiction?? Charlie and Vaggie will get shocked when Alastor comes in the picture but look at Husk like he's some random dude that just popped outta nowhere?

Plus, Alastor didn't force Husk to work as a bartender. In the pilot, he was easily convinced with cheap booze.

Speaking of his gambling addiction; well we all know he likes to gamble judging by his appearance. But gambling being his addiction?? Since when was that implied?

Anyway . . . . At this point, I don't get what the idea of that song is or what Husk meant by it. Maybe I am overlooking it, but its pretty hard not to believe knowing how Viv screws up her writing skills and how she went about it. According to all the Viv defenders, the song was meant to say Angel isn't alone in being stuck in a situation he feels he can't get out of and that Husk can understand where he's coming from and what he's going through. Well sorry to burst y'all's bubble, but even if that was, they just did wrong ENTIRELY. (Sidenote: If you Hazbin lovers wanna see it how u see it, then fine. But Imma stick with what I believe and there's nothing that could be said to change my mind, so don't bother trying to correct me.)

Husk makes it seem like he knows exactly what it's like being in Angel's shoes; signing a contract and being forced to do something against his will. That part seems to be the only thing they have similar. Except what happened with Husk in the past should NOT count as a similarity!

Husk: Loses a bet against Alastor, costing his soul and status as an overlord. Agrees to commit to Alastor's biddings apparently, including being a bartender for a hotel (which he wasn't really forced to do. He doesn't seem to be afraid in refusing Alastor's requests. I partially don't even believe it was apart of the deal to do what Alastor wanted)

Angel: Is a pornstar. Forced to be a pornstar and do whatever Val wants him to do. Including submitting to him and his sexual needs, getting beaten, r8ped, assaulted (sexually even), exploited, drugged, etc.

What part of Angel's problem should Husk be understanding? Alastor doesn't beat or r8pe Husk! It's never even revealed what Husk goes through with Alastor. I doubt it's anything bad on his part, since he clearly isn't afraid to talk smack to the powerful radio demon who could kill him in an instant. They just . . . had that past and now Husk is doing him a permanant favor. What Husk is doing now isn't even anything bad. He's working as a bartender for a hotel and is being paid to do it. He may not like, but it's nothing bad. What ANGEL is going through on the other hand?? The word "bad" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Husk may not know what Angel goes through (though he should connect the dots since Angel hinted at him when he revealed he gets drugged all the time) but Angel just full on agreeing with him and accepting that he's a loser for what he goes through and having to embrace his situation????

Ummm . . . . NO!

Bro! You just saw Angel about to get drugged!! He should NOT have to accept that!!

#anti hazbin hotel #hazbin husk #hazbin hotel #hazbin #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel critique #hazbin hotel criticism #vivziepop critical

[theartgremlin2]

Apparently people are complaining about this week’s Bad Batch s2 episode being uninteresting. While I was a little bored while watching, that has more to do with the episode’s pacing than it’s actual content. The comparison between Tech and TAY-0 made it quite fascinating to me.

One of my main gripes about Tech has been how underdeveloped his character is. He’s the smart one! He’s got a big, beautiful brain and an ego to match. Occasionally, he behaves a bit robotically because of how direct and literal he takes things. I don’t think I’m the only one who has felt like that. It seems to me that the writers realized it too, which is why TAY-0 is the perfect person to contrasted against Tech in this little character study of an episode.

TAY-0 was quite capable of doing his job. He was the current champion racer when we are introduced to him. Cid wouldn’t have bet so much on him if she didn’t have every confidence in him. We’ve seen her do it with Omega, and she clearly thought she would win that wager with Millegi. Not only is TAY-0 a competent Pilot, he is also relatively intelligent. He knows how to fix his speeder, and how to re-assemble himself. He even has a certain sense of art, though that isn’t really explored. He is very similar to Tech in that he has an inflated ego. This is likely from all the praise and popularity his skill as a pilot earns him in the races. However, TAY-0 has one glaring flaw: he’s inflexible.

The move where the two rival pilots who trap their opponent and saw into their speeder is not a new strategy. The announcer and the crowd all know what’s going on when a pilot gets trapped between these two in the tunnels. TAY-0 has seen these rivals do this likely several times, and yet he is incapable of adapting to the situation when it happens to him. In addition to this, when Tech is attempting to repair him, TAY-0 insists that Tech is doing it wrong. He cannot imagine the possibility that there might be another, possibly even better way to re-assemble himself. And this inflexibility is why TAY-0’s ego comes off so gratingly. He behaves as though he knows best in every situation because he is a great racer! There is no need for him to learn anything from anyone else!

Tech is already a magnificent pilot. We have witnessed him flying the Marauder in ways that rival Anikin Skywalker’s ingenuity. He has probably gotten the Batch out of more tight spots than you could count on all you and your closest friend’s fingers and toes combined! In contrast to TAY-0, however, Tech has the humility to admit when he doesn’t know something. He does not claim that his experience piloting the Marauder makes him just as good a racer as the droid. Instead, he recognizes that this is a different skill, and spends time familiarizing himself with it before he decides he can do it. And once the race is over, he does not soak in the praise that the racing fans pour on him. He savors the glory for a moment, accepts the praise, and moves on.

This is not something I ever thought I would say, but Tech’s humility is what makes him a compelling character. He can be a smartass. He can be annoyingly correct. This actually put me off the character in the first season. I was not a big fan of Tech. But he can also be endearingly eager to learn. S2e2 even foreshadowed the closer look at Tech’s humility we were going to get by allowing him a moment of revelation when Romar points out to him that the Serennians had existed before they became Separatists.

This development has softened me a little towards the character, and I can’t wait to see more of him!

#tech bad batch #tbb tech #tbb season 2 spoilers #the bad batch season two #character analysis #episode analysis #am I the only one who wants TAY-0 to get a little development from this too? #please let him have a think and realize that maybe he’s not the Force’s greatest gift to being-kind #I also really hope that Tech and Romar become good friends #it would be a cute elder-teacher dynamic #GremlinReflections

[tundrainafrica]

that moment when you realize levi's last memory of hanji was her laughing - her last laugh. oh and levi would never have a body to bury. Also, I was wondering if you have done an analysis of the solute that levi did - you know keeping his hand over her heart. I personally headcannon that levi meant hanji to give her heart to him, to be his and that's why he kept his fist over her heart. (sorry if it sounds cheesy lmao)

OKAY SO WE’RE ON THE TOPIC OF CH. 132 AGAIN. So imma assume you guys really wanna hurt yourselves more so allow me to drop this really amazing animation of 132 which really captures Hange and Levi’s facial expressions well along with a lot of symbolisms about Hange so please, even if you’re not gonna read the whole meta I have down under. Please watch it. You won’t regret it. It’s beautiful. Here’s the link (The lyrics are good too, so I’d recommend you check the English translation out, the second verse all the way to the chorus, it really fits.)

that moment when you realize levi's last memory of hanji was her laughing - her last laugh. oh and levi would never have a body to bury. 

How are you so sure that Hange’s last memory was her smiling and laughing?

I actually like to entertain the possibility that Hange and Levi made an extremely conscious effort to avoid looking at each other, especially in the eyes. Why is that?

Maybe, the scene in 126 was that much of a profound scene relationship wise that they couldn’t look at each other after that? But I can’t help but think the Levi and Hange’s dynamics were particularly distant in 132? Especially if you compare it to just a few chapters ago where Hange couldn’t even leave him right? Like she was always next to him on his sleeping bag. 

That’s why I really hc-ed that maybe when she was changing his bandages, particularly removing the ones covering his mouth, they had a conversation. And I wrote out my take on it in this fic.

There are just way too many panels about them talking about so many deep things and in all of them they’re looking away from each other.

You can say, towards the last panels, of course he’s not looking at her, he knows she’s going to sacrifice herself, why put her to the pain?

And even the dedicate your heart scene right? He wasn’t looking at her. 

So the point is, do you really think his last memory of her was her smile? 

And was it really her laugh? Personally, when I see people smile, I don’t look at their mouths, I look at their eyes. I’m an eyes person. I think eyes talk more than someone’s mouth. 

And Hange wasn’t smiling at all, look at those eyes.

And do we really count a ‘haha’ as a laugh :’). Do you think Levi... who has seen Hange laugh so many times before, and had seen that same wonder in her eyes before and how she constantly smiles with both her eyes and her mouth, do you think Levi would have counted that as a laugh?

Anyway, I like to headcanon the last clear vivid memory Levi had of her was when she was changing his bandages back in the ship. They were avoiding each othe rtoo much, Levi was really avoiding looking at her this whole chapter and I really suspect there was a deleted scene, a conversation in the ship which changed their whole dynamic in that chapter before Hange chose to sacrifice herself. 

Anyway, moving on to the next question:  

Also, I was wondering if you have done an analysis of the salute that levi did - you know keeping his hand over her heart. I personally headcannon that levi meant hanji to give her heart to him, to be his and that's why he kept his fist over her heart. (sorry if it sounds cheesy lmao)

Omg, that is such a cute headcanon I didn’t think about. Thank you for sharing that <3 I’ll add that to my own personal list of headcanons that I’ll be sharing below. 

Before I move on to sharing it, I just have to say: 

I love the original Japanese translation.

For most western languages, you have to mention the “your” in Dedicate your heart because it just doesn’t flow well to say “dedicate heart” nor would it be consistent with Erwin’s iconic statement being constantly translated to “Dedicate your heart” suddenly being translated to “Dedicate heart” which is wrong grammar anyway. 

With 心臓を捧げよう, we only know there is an unspecified number of hearts which are to be dedicated. 

So Levi’s message could be translated to either “Dedicate your heart.” or even “Let’s dedicate our hearts”

So as a Levihan shipper I could headcanon this in so many ways. 

1. I’ll drop the vanilla one first.  “Dedicate your heart” okay Hange while sacrificing yourself, make sure to dedicate your heart okay, fight to your heart’s content, which is the most conventional interpretation. 

2. The next one is: Let’s dedicate our hearts. This could mean that he feels the war is reaching it’s climax and if she’s ready to die, Levi is willing to join her soon and he will dedicate his heart the same way. Since Japanese tenses in relation to time aren’t specified and future tense doesn’t exist in Japanese, it makes it vague enough to even foreshadow Levi’s own intentions to really dedicate his heart like his own comrades did. And the fact that Levi said see you later Hange? That only supports this headcanon. 

3. Another head canon I have is Levi figuratively left his heart with her with that salute and in that moment, maybe he was talking to himself when he decided to dedicate his heart to her. With that dedication and with Hange’s impending sacrifice, Levi showed his readiness to lose his heart and have it die with her. 

4. This is actually an analysis I read a while back from a Japanese website I’ll leave the link below and it’s definitely one of my favorites for this scene. 

So to summarize the analysis, the Japanese fans see it as a symbolism of unity for Hange and Levi. 

Remember Hange was betrayed by the Jaegerists a few chapters back probably less than a few days ago manga time. Hange is one of the few people who have this idea that what Eren is doing is wrong, the violence, the rumbling. And with Zeke, Flock and Yelena all explicitly disagreeing with her, she was living with this idea that she was doing things wrong especially since only recently a majority of the survey corps actually betrayed her. Yet Hange still continued to hold on to her idea that their ideas are all wrong, there must be a more peaceful way to end all this. Also, remember even do Hange had such an idealistic way on how she wanted it to end, no one explicitly agreed with her. 

Thus, she was lonely. And with that ‘dedicate your heart’ scene, Levi recognizes that loneliness and by saying “let’s dedicate our hearts” he’s telling her he is dedicating his heart to that same cause she is fighting for. And even if no one agrees with it, he agrees with her cause. 

He’s empathizing with it, he’s affirming it and he’s telling her what she’s fighting for isn’t wrong and he wants to clear her of any doubts in her final moments so she can fight till her hearts content. 

And I think that’s beautiful. I got the analysis  here.  

The “dedicate your heart” could mean one of all the things above but it can also mean all the things above at once. I like to hurt myself by thinking, Hange and Levi talk more with gestures than words and maybe Levi meant to say everything up there. 

And maybe with this face Hange gave we can see... 

She might have gotten all five messages before she sacrificed herself. 

Anyway, thanks for reading!

#levihan #levi ackerman #hange zoe #levi x hange #levi x hanji #meta #snk 132

[ichika27]

TWEWY 04

Week 2!!!

Seeing Joshua on the thumbnail made me giddy lol. Week 2 is my favorite in the game. Also, I have feelings right now so I’ll be making this post as I watch the show haha.

I’m still not that used to the fact that they’re using smartphones now instead of flip phones.

Spoilers for the game ahead!

Did Minamimoto do this in the game? I don’t remember. He uses his megaphone to yell out the mission (still sent everyone the text though).

Joshua!! Joshua is finally here!! I waited so long to see you animated and voiced. It’s Joshua... my boy is here! Yes, I will fangirl over him for the entirety of his Week.

Their partner pact is so cute lol. I’m a nekujosh/joshneku fangirl. Have been since I played the game years ago so uh... yeah.

Joshua is introduced and says some strange things the way he does, of course. Since they changed game mechanics to fit the anime (scanning requires you to touch the person instead of just tapping the player pin), Neku has gotten some... flashbacks when he touched Joshua.

Hehe It’s starting...

Sota and Nao! They’re players now. I wonder if this meant they’d get more significance than poor Makoto did.

Minamimoto appears... in front of our main characters! On his junk pile... haha I remember those piles in the game. He starts shouting in math puns calling them zetta slow lol. The Minamimoto fans are probably happy right now.

He also seem to have recognized Neku and Joshua (hinting it with the change in attitude/expression when he noticed who he was talking to). I guess the anime is trying to foreshadow stuff again.

They’re showing us other players. That’s a nice touch. You don’t really see them be featured in the game. Like, you know there are other players clearing walls and stuff but you don’t really get to meet them unless they’d have something to do with the plot so this is a nice touch.

Also, Minamimoto just sent out some noise to attack them even though they have completed the mission. What a jerk lol

They’re really trying to up the brutality in the anime, huh? The first episode featured an erased player who suddenly turned into bubbles and disappeared immediately after being attacked but this time, they’re gonna make the erasure time slow by showing us how bad this is haha. I don’t hate it though.

Minamimoto immediately gives them a new mission which is basically battle royale - destroy other players. Neku saves the others from noise attacks and reminds them to trust their partners. Total shounen protag right there lol. Sadly, it doesn’t work for everyone and so some of the players are fighting each other. Minamimoto then gives them the orders to fight kariya and Uzuki giving the reapers a reason to attack them back.

I guess this is a faster way to decrease the player count right away. This way, the anime can just focus on the important characters.

They’re both levitating! Haha I thought this was just a Joshua thing. They used a very powerful attack (fire and ice, I guess) that destroys all the noise. They’re already showing off Joshua’s strength on Day 1.

The audience is finally given a part 2 game tutorial! Joshua explains about the routes and the reaper decals. Of course, it seems it’d make no sense in the anime about why the players are even allowed to shop since they don’t really use all the game mechanics here. No sidequests to do and they don’t really incorporate the “brands you use and food you eat raises your stats” thing. Still, it’s good they introduced this to new fans.

Oh yeah, since there’s no Tin PIn in the anime, they’re not gonna do the gold pin mission. Sad... Joshua likes Tin Pin.

Aww they’re working together now! They’re using their special skills again to fight some powerful noise. Also... taboo noise already?

Minamimoto watches as the duo fight the strange noise. I’m wondering if they’d also show that Kariya has suspicions on what Joshua might be?

I’m glad Eri is getting screentime but man, it’s sad. She buys flowers and visits Shiki’s grave everyday. I’m glad she gains more significance and while she’s still Shiki’s friend, she shows a bit more personality with the scenes given to her.

Neku apologizes to Eri regarding what happened to Shiki (no reaper decal on the flower shop so he’s invisible). He soon realizes he has no idea how he dies.

They’re making Joshua look more suspicious than in the game. He’s kinda being strange and cryptic in the game but here, they’re kinda hinting that he’s sinister. I know they wanna finish this up quickly but this might change how people who only watched the anime see Joshua. I’m curious how this’d affect what he would do at the end of Week 2.

Flashback again! So Neku doesn’t die of being shot in the head in the anime. I guess that’s probably too much for the anime, huh? He bleeds to death due to his wound here. In the game it seems he dies immediately after being shot. I dunno which death is worse.

Reaper Beat! I was wondering if he’d show up in today’s episode. No Rhyme noise yet...

--

I was unable to get a screenshot of it (I didn’t even know if all these would fit caise tumblr gives me errors when I have too many pictures) but Kariya and Uzuki had a talk earlier where Uzuki mentions having only been a reaper for 2 years and Kariya says he’s seen the game go past just 1 week before but it was a long time ago hinting that he’s been a reaper for far longer. Little ways the anime gives infos on how this all works.

I have some things I didn’t like but I guess that’s what happens with compressed adaptations. I’m happy Joshua is here though. They captured his “pretty boy” looks in the anime. Since this is gonna be dealt with fast, I guess there might be less joshneku/nekujosh moments since they’re already trying to make Joshua seem too untrustworthy. Ugh that hurts my shipper heart but I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything in the first place.

I’m excited for the next episode though. More Joshua! lol

Also, next episode is CAT so I guess they’d give some screentime to Mr. Hanekoma. I hope they animate the part where Neku finds out who Hanekoma is haha. Please. They already took away Tin Pin for Joshua so at least give Neku something to fanboy about.

Alright, til next week’s episode! Not sure if I’d do this “make a post as I watch” again or just collect screenshots and then make a post afterwards but I guess depends on what will happen next episode. A lot happened today and I didn’t know if I could remember all my thoughts after watching the episode.

#the world ends with you #Subarashiki Kono Sekai #subaseka #twewy #joshneku #nekujosh #sana_post

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 1: Anticipation

Introduction

What is your most anticipated game? Not the upcoming game that you’re excited about, the game that, more than any other, made you count down the days until its release. No game has ever made me as excited for its release like Fire Emblem Fates did.

Fire Emblem Fates was first announced in January 2015. Back when that trailer was first released, I was still obsessively playing through Fire Emblem Awakening, the game Fire Emblem Fates was meant to be a successor for. The trailer hooked me and I eagerly waited for more information on this bold new entry into the Fire Emblem series. The trailer showed a battle between two armies, a monster destroying a castle, a woman dancing, and a duel between two swordsmen. Between these clips, the trailer showed a return of Awakening’s gameplay, the addictive gameplay that’d taken away hundreds of hours of my free time. This trailer told us nothing, leaving me eager to learn more about this new story.

As the months went on, it was announced that Fates would tell the story of two kingdoms at war. More interestingly, the player would be given the opportunity to choose which kingdom to support, adding a layer of moral ambiguity and complexity to the story. I loved this concept and had no doubts it would be executed perfectly. The game released in June 2015 in Japan, but American fans had to wait until January of the next year to play it.

I bought the game as soon as it came out.

And I loved it. I played through all three routes half a dozen times each. For about six months, Fire Emblem Fates was the main game I played.

I haven’t played Fates in four and a half years. I don’t know why I went from spending multiple hours each day playing it to dropping it and never going back. I’ve played Awakening about once a year since then, but I haven’t gone back to Fates for some reason.

Since its release, Fates has gained a certain...reputation among the Fire Emblem fanbase. Put bluntly, it’s widely considered to be the worst Fire Emblem game. And, to be honest...I can kinda see why. Looking back, the game’s writing was filled to the brim with problems. But still, I can’t bring myself to hate the game like other Fire Emblem fans. I still remember asking my mom to preorder it for my Christmas present when I was fifteen. I still remember devoting hours of my life to this game.

So, I’m left with this quandary. Who should I trust? Other fans, or the memories of my youth? Is Fates really as bad as people say? Well, I kinda want to figure that out for myself. And I think the only way to figure this out is to obsessively play the game.

Over the next few months, I’m going to do a deep dive through Fire Emblem Fates and post my thoughts on this blog. I’m going to go through every chapter, every support conversation, every part of this game to answer the question: is Fire Emblem Fates a good game?

Opening Cutscene

Booting up my copy of Birthright for the first time in years, I’m greeted with an opening cutscene containing much of the footage from the trailer. It’s worth noting that the two armies from the trailer have very different aesthetics, one being heavily influenced by feudal Japan and one being heavily influenced by medieval Europe. The transition from the battle to the woman dancing is done by zooming out, revealing that this battle is actually taking place inside a painting. I actually really like this, it shows that the hostilities that this game is centered on have been going on for a long time.

Another thing to note: the song the dancing woman is singing has been translated into English. I’ll be going through the Lost in Thoughts All Alone’s lyrics and analyzing them when they appear in the actual story. The dance scene leads into circling shots of two families; judging from their different styles and fancy clothing, they are presumably related to the two kingdoms at war. The eastern family has a red and white color scheme, while the western one has a black and purple color scheme.

After that, the camera pans into a deep chasm until it arrives in a land of floating castles and islands, which looks interesting. Next, the opening cutscene shows the dancer in a lake, being choked by a large dragon-like creature. As the creature pushes her further underwater, its scales turn into light and fade away, turning into a humanoid form. Finally, the trailer shows the two swordsmen clashing as the dancer freaks out, setting her up as being an in-between that doesn’t want this conflict to grow. Her necklace flies off as she panics and lands in a pool of dark blue water, bringing us to the main menu.

The opening cutscene, like the trailer, hooked me in and made me excited to play this game. Even though I know that the game is going to bungle the story beats it sets up, I’m still excited to dive right it.

While staring at the dark title screen, which features only the quiet sound of waves for background noise, I get a strange hint of nostalgia. It’s a weird type of nostalgia, though. When I replied Awakening last fall, it felt familiar and comforting. Coming back to Fates, it doesn’t feel familiar. I recognize it, and it’s nostalgic, but it isn’t comforting. It’s like nostalgia for something I’ve forgotten, if that makes sense.

Character Creation

Jumping in, I am presented with three settings each for two types of difficulty. Normal/Hard/Lunatic control the strength of enemies, while Phoenix/Casual/Classic determine whether or not units come back to life. I’ll be checking out the other difficulties in a later entry, but for now, I create a Normal/Casual save file. Yes, it’s taking the easy path. But I barely remember this game and am playing it on a deadline, I don’t have the time to restart every level multiple times.

Next comes the character creator. We’re shown the player Avatar standing at the bottom of a lake and given the ability to customize gender, build, hairstyle, hair decoration (if a girl), hair color, face, scars, and voice. None of the options look bad, but the fact that it’s just choosing from a set list of faces is a bit disappointing. Understandable, considering the fact that these assets are drawn in, but that just raises the question of why there needed to be customization in the first place.

A few oddities about the character creator: hairstyles are sorted on two axis chart of Stylish/Simple vs Wild/Slick for boys and Long/Short vs Cute/Wild for girls. I don’t have time to go into each hairstyle, some are better than the canon versions, some are absolutely ridiculous, some are just boring. The short build is the canon design for Male Corrin while the tall build is canon for Female Corrin. This is probably for the best, because Short Girl Corrin looks like she’s eight. Finally, while both choices have three voice choices, two of Male Corrin’s choices are played by Cam Clarke (Corrin’s other male voice is Yuri Lowenthal, while Female Corrin’s voices are performed by Danielle Judovits, Marcella Lentz-Pope, and Stephanie Lemelin). Later games featuring Corrin stick with Clarke and Lentz-Pope.

I flip a coin and end up deciding on Female Corrin. I go with the generic design, because I really don’t care enough to customize her. Speaking of design, Corrin’s design is a mixed bag. Regardless of player choice, Corrin always wears the same outfit: a grey, black, and white suit of armor with a blue cape. Corrin’s generic hair color is also grey, but like a pinkish grey. I do appreciate Corrin being associated with grey, gold, and blue, making them visually appear to be between worlds, but I personally think the armor looks too complicated, looking more like a striped suit than actual armor. I also don’t get why it has a neck cuff.

Also, Corrin is barefoot. Always. This does give Corrin a sort of animalistic appearance, but that design element isn’t present anywhere else in Corrin’s design. Fire Emblem Awakening was kinda infamous for the fact that none of its characters had feet on their models and I get the vague feeling this game is overcompensating.

Next, we get to the details that actually matter. Name (I went with Corrin, because it’s the canon name and I don’t relate to this character at all), Birthday, Boon, Bane, and Talent. Boon and Bane determine stat growths, but they are labeled by personality traits instead of the actual stars, which is both more immersive and slightly annoying. I made Corrin Quick and Unlucky. Talent determines what Classes are available to you. I didn’t care, so I spun it randomly. It landed on Mercenary.

Prologue: The Ties that Bind

Now that we have our character created, let’s start the game. The game starts with the dancer singing Lost in Thoughts All Alone at the shore of a lake before walking into the lake and sinking below the waves. The song continues as she goes underwater, which means she must be amazing at ventriloquism. As she goes deeper underwater, ruins start to appear, floating in the water. The dancer swims into a bright light and disappears.

Smash cut to the Western prince riding on a horse, commanding an army as they charge into battle. The Eastern prince charges through his army, wielding a sword surrounded by lightning. The anime cutscenes in this game are beautifully animated and incredibly cool to watch. The Eastern prince introduces himself as Ryoma of Hoshido and challenges the Western prince, Xander of Nohr, to a duel. Xander accepts and charges into battle, wielding a sword surrounded by shadowy purple fog. The two clash as the cutscene ends.

We then see Corrin and a Hoshidan Pegasus Rider named Hinoka fighting an enemy, This fight is rendered as an actual game cutscene. Side note, the fact that this scripted battle features Hinoka guarding an attack for Corrin is a great way to foreshadow that mechanic. Hinoka mentions that Corrin looks distracted and reassures her, pointing out that all of Corrin’s siblings are here.

The game then moves onto introducing basic mechanics. If you move your cursor away and look at the other units on the battlefield, you’ll notice that all of them have unique names and designs. Fire Emblem Fates shows both armies off to you during the prologue, which is really interesting. Still, it must be noted that the Nohrian Units are marked as enemies and the Hoshidan Units are marked as allies. This isn’t super important now, but keep it in mind.

Between turns, Ryoma asks Xander why he’s invading and mentions a cowardly attack. Xander tells him to surrender and the two fight some more, both doing decent damage. The camera pans over to Xander’s siblings. The youngest of them, Elise, mentions that, due to a bridge collapse, they can’t get over to Corrin. Her older sister, Camilla, tells her not to worry, because their royal blood allows them to manipulate dragon veins. Camilla moves over to the river and a fireball flies out of her, striking the river and evaporating it. The third of Xander’s siblings, Leo, tells Elise to stay back as they attack the Hoshidans. The Hoshidan royals remark that Camilla’s use of a dragon vein means she’s royalty and the Hoshidan prince Tamuki smirks, saying that he’s always wanted to use a Nohrian royal as target practice.

The two armies of named characters start fighting and a Nohrian general named Hans shows up with an army of reinforcements. He then refers to his own army as cannon fodder and says king Garon sent him to kill them all, because he’s very obviously an evil person. A Hoshidan general shows up and we get some more tutorials as Corrin and Takumi beat up a single redshirt. And then the level just ends.

Corrin and the Hoshidan royals run up to the bridge to help out Ryoma. Xander calls out to Corrin, happy to have found her alive and well. He beckons her to come back to her family, which angers Ryoma, who shouts that Corrin is his sister. Xander counters, saying that Corrin is HIS sister. The other royals argue over which family owns Corrin and Hinoka states that the Nohrians kidnapped her. Xander points out that the Nohrians raised Corrin since she was a child and are her real family. As the two families fight over Corrin, the screen fades to white and we hear voices yelling for Corrin to wake up.

The prologue features some good teaching of mechanics, some bad teaching of mechanics, and an introduction to the game’s plot. It introduces two countries at war and Corrin, a bridge between the two that is caught up in this war. I just have one question.

What even is this chapter? It isn’t in media res, the actual point in the game this chapter is playing off of happens differently. The fact that it cuts to Corrin waking up implies that it’s a premonition of the future, but Corrin can’t see the future in other parts of the game. At least, I don’t remember that ever happening. Sure, this chapter introduces the plot, but it does it in such a confusing way.

Awakening did something similar to this, admittedly, but Awakening is a game about time travel. That scene happened, just in a different timeline. Awakening’s use of media res both set up the plot and helped foreshadow the game’s main twist.

Also, the Hoshidans are allies and the Nohrians are enemies. In a game about a morally grey conflict between two sides made up of real, suffering people, it’s not great to start out by calling one of them evil.

These two traits, aping Awakening without knowing why it worked and failing to be a morally grey story, are going to become much more apparent as the game goes on...

#fire emblem fates #fire emblem #corrin #fe14

[sepublic]

Ideas for potential future Hazbin Hotel episodes...

So in the event that Hazbin Hotel gets greenlit by some outside studio, or continues to function and thrive with fan support, I think there are a couple of important ideas/concepts that are worth exploring and forming episodes and subplots around;

-An episode about a second visitor (Alastor doesn’t count as he’s a benefactor and Niffty and Husk are employees, not guests) would be VERY important and I feel a good starting point for the next episode. We already have Angel Dust, but he admits that he only signed up for a free room (not that this won’t change...). For the show’s themes of redemption, we need to actually see someone else, probably someone who saw Charlie’s ad on TV, actually sign up to stay at the hotel. By having this happen, it���ll show that, yes, there ARE people who are legitimately interested in the Hazbin Hotel and its offer of redemption, and this can pave the way for more guests. Having the Hazbin Hotel gain traction (along with reactions from other demons to Alastor’s sponsorship) would move the plot along.

Based on the official art by Vivzie, I think characters such as Mimzy, Crymini, or Baxter would work. Rosie is a demon lord, so I don’t see her signing up anytime soon, Arackniss is unrepentant, and I think Molly might be saved for later. We’ve already had cameos of Mimzy and Crymini (the latter even watching Charlie’s advertisement), and considering how prevalent the aforementioned three are in art, they’d probably be good starting points for the hotel. Likewise, Cherri could possibly join later, but I’m not entirely sure.

-It’s mentioned in a Q&A that Demons can actually ‘level up’, increasing their rank and power in the process. Considering Alastor seems to be vying for the spot of a demon lord (or at the very least started off concerningly powerful for someone who hadn’t yet leveled up), this would be a good subplot to explore not only Alastor and his motives and abilities, but also introduce Rosie and potentially Lillith, Valentino, and Vox. Ideally, we’d be introduced to leveling up as a concept, and see how it works and what it does.

Likewise, we could also explore the demon hierarchy in general, and how it works. How does Lucifer, Lillith, Satan, and Beelzebub’s authority extend? How do other demons feel about them? Have there been attempts to overthrow them, and how loyal are the Demon lords, assuming they have any allegiance whatsoever? We see a Bat Demon Lord and Dinosaur Demon Lord with Lillith when she looks at Charlie’s fireworks, so it seems THOSE two at least have it good with the ruling family.

-Having an episode dedicated to a new arrival at Hell would also be interesting, as we’d see what it’s like to suddenly die, only to be reincarnated as a demon (potentially as an animal you hate, no less) immediately afterwards. Having a subplot of the Hazbin crew welcoming in a new demon would be a neat way of exploring how Hell works, how one gets introduced and acclimated to the area, and the lifestyle. It could also be used to explore the origins of other characters, or at least the circumstances in which they died and/or arrived. Additionally, it’d be in Charlie’s best interest to immediately invite new arrivals to Hell, as presumably they’d be in a vulnerable, disoriented state and want to leave Hell ASAP. It might be taking advantage of someone else’s predicament, but it’s probably in anyone’s best interests to leave Hell, and we can also explore Charlie’s character flaws later.

-Speaking of arrivals and new guests, having the story focus on how the redemption and rehabilitation process actually works would be pretty important. 

-Character backstories and origins are pretty key, and exploring Angel Dust’s family and mobster origins would be vital regarding his redemption. Likewise, a proper introduction to Valentino (and the Hazbin crew possibly dealing with him, a bit VIOLENTLY might I add...) is begging to be animated. We could answer various questions, such as what exactly ARE the Egg Bois, Vaggie’s hostility to other demons, the origin of Alastor’s power, why Niffty seems rather obsessed with men, and so forth.

-Twice, Alastor has offered Charlie’s hand, and both times she’s declined a handshake/deal. This seems like foreshadowing towards an inevitable ‘deal’ she’ll make with him, so an episode about this (probably later in the series) would be an interesting concept.

-Similarly, Alastor always smiles because he sees anything else as a sign of weakness; So obviously, preferably as late into the series as possible, we need to have the show’s most major ‘All hell is loose’ moment in which Alastor frowns.

-More Sir Pentious antics... that’s really all I have to say. Presumably these would be Wile E. Coyote subplots as he attempts to destroy the Hazbin Hotel and repeatedly fails, with some plots failing without the main cast even being aware Pentious was trying.

-Charlie backstory, alongside her family dynamics with Lucifer and Lillith, as well as her thought process in creating the Happy Hotel. A meeting with Vaggie and explanation of the two’s relationship origins would also be neat, and the introduction and clarification of Satan and Beelzebub as separate entities from her father is also neat.

-I think an episode actually showing if it IS possible to be redeemed and go to heaven would be very important regarding, again, the show’s themes and Charlie’s motives and goals. Perhaps it’d happen later in the series, or earlier, depending on the answer to the age-old question; If you CAN go to heaven, we’ll definitely need an episode exploring a demon that rehabilitates, and the process of ascension. If you CAN’T go to heaven after redemption, then this would probably be revealed as some devastating reveal later down the line that forces Charlie to question herself.

-Likewise, an episode(s) focusing on Charlie’s flaws and misunderstanding of redemption would be great for her character. Charlie is definitely well-meaning and optimistic, but at the same time you get the idea that she’s a bit naive and doesn’t quite fully understand how people end up in Hell, and how tricky of a process it is to actually rehabilitate oneself. Charlie learning that she can’t push people into becoming better just by being all happy and sunshine-y would be relevant as a character arc, and it’d motivate her into approaching redemption more subtly. People can and ARE messed up in Hell and are dealing with intense issues, and Charlie needs to learn to recognize this and give people the space they need to improve.

-We see the results of the Exterminator Angels’ annual massacres, but we have yet to see one in action. Thus, an episode that showcases what an extermination actually looks like would be both fascinating and also utter nightmare fuel as the characters try to survive and protect the guests at the Hazbin Hotel, who may not be any more exempt from extermination than anyone else. Likewise, seeing how the Demon Lords and others prepare for an extermination would be neat world-building.

-Mobster, crime-ring shenanigans with Angel Dust, Cherri, Arackniss, etc., would also be fun to see. It could be used to explore what the demon underground looks like, what ‘laws’ there are in Hell, if any, and how society functions. It could also explore the idea of Exterminator weapons being a major thing in the black market due to their ability to actually, permanently kill a demon.

-What happens if a demon dies from an Exterminator weapon? Vivzie may or may not answer this, but going into speculation, I think a slain demon might actually reincarnate into a new life outside of Hell, thus given another ‘chance’ but as a different person entirely.

-Somebody dies permanently; Again, we know demons can be taken out completely by the Exterminator weapons. I think this could make for some interesting drama, or it could just be reserved for some one-off, one-shot character in order to explain how Exterminator Weapons work.

-An episode about Charlie just completely, UTTERLY losing it and revealing her true demon form in all of its hellish entirety would also be amazing.

-More Niffty and Husk interactions! 

-Another musical number isn’t NEEDED, but it would admittedly be pretty great. Potentially, there could even be an entire musical episode dedicated to all of the characters singing, which explores their motives, backstories, etc.

-Additionally, having filler subplots of the cast trying to deal with and rehabilitate the episodic, demon-of-the-week and dealing with said demon’s flaws and making them a better person could be entertaining.

-How much of Hell IS there? Overpopulation is an issue, so presumably there are boundaries... And if so, what ARE those boundaries? Does Hell just end at a cliff hovering over an empty void, or is it contained at the bottom of a giant pit?

#hazbin hotel

[black-clover-incorrect-quotes]

Attack on Titans, Seven Deadly Sins (fandom) - RillCharmy, GaucheGrey (ship) - Patri, Nero (characters)

Answer to this ask game. 

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Attack on Titan

Favorite character: Annie. 

Least Favorite character: Levi >:/

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): SashaxConnie, AnnieXBertholdt. I don’t think I can get to 5 ships sorry! I was never into AoT for the ships.

Character I find most attractive: Jean maybe? The artstyle doesn’t do any character any favours LOL 

Character I would marry: Armin !! He’s so cute

Character I would be best friends with: Sasha. She seems very fun to be around. 

a random thought: It was my very first anime (if you don’t count Naruto, that I wacthed since I was a toddler lol). so I’m very attached to AoT, but I gave up reading the manga roughly an year ago because I didn’t like the story anymore. I’m looking forward to the manga to be completed so I can binge read it. 

An unpopular opinion:I have some opinions on Ereri, but there’s a question for that so I think the new arc is BS. It was supposed to be humans vs titans, not humans vs other humans. 

My Canon OTP: None sadly. 

My Non-canon OTP: AnniexBertholdt. 

Most Badass Character: MIkasa? 

Most Epic Villain: Gotta say Zeke, even though I don’t know him well as a character

Pairing I am not a fan of: Ereri.There got to be a 20 year age gap....I don’t know what everyone is on, probably crack. Why is it even the most popular ship?

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Annie!!! When i stopped reading, she was still in a coma. I heard she came back lately but come on, it’s been so long. 

Favourite Friendship: The Scouting Legion veterans. 

Character I most identify with: Armin. Minus the brains. 

Character I wish I could be: I wouldn’t wish to be fighting Titans at all. Thanks but no. Some dude in the inner walls. 

Seven Deadly Sins

Favorite character: Escanor or Arthurt, can’t pick. 

Least Favorite character: Meliodas. 

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): DianexKIng, MargaretxGilthunder, DerierixMoonspeet for some reason. Lowkey ship Escanor and Merlin but only because I wanted him to be happy lol

Character I find most attractive: Ban? I dunno. I don’t think there’s anyone particulary attractive in SDS

Character I would marry: King. 

Character I would be best friends with: I don’t know if we’d get along, but I’d want to befriend Arthur given the chance. 

a random thought: After the Demon King was defeated, the manga should have ended. I don’t get why they did that mini-arc on Merlin resurrecting Arthur butchering Merlin’s character like that lol

An unpopular opinion: I feel like the series has a lot of pedo undertones, but you can’t really call them out because “Elaine is an adult, she just looks like a kid” “Meliodas knowing Elizabeth since she was a baby is cute because soulmates” “Meliodas in hundreds of years old, he just looks young” and so on. They just try to justify drawing children in romantic situations. 

My Canon OTP: DianexKing

My Non-canon OTP: None really. 

Most Badass Character: Ban. I mean, he couldn’t die.

Most Epic Villain: I like Herickson the best out of all the villains. 

Pairing I am not a fan of: Banx Elaine. Also what they tried to pull with Gowther and Elizabeth’s aunt (I think?). 

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Escanor. He really didn’t have to be the only one to die. 

Favourite Friendship: Not really a friendship but a platonic relationship, Merlin and Arthur. Too bad she apparenlty grew him as a host for chaos, but I don’t recognize that as canon so LOL

Character I most identify with: KIng. Leave me alone to sleep all day and I’m happy. Slooooooth.

Character I wish I could be: They are all very happy in the end. Meliodas or Elizabeth, since they have everything figured out and had their happy ever after. 

Send me a ship and I will tell you:

RillCharmy

When I started shipping them: I never considered it untill RIll shipped himself with Charmy, so it was pretty recently. 

My thoughts: I honestly don’t think they have a future. RIll is clealy in love with an idea more than Charmy herself, and she has eyes only for Yuno. I won’t cry if they don’t become canon, but shipping is free isn’t it?

What makes me happy about them: Moslty, all the possibilities. Tabata could write a lot of things with them. 

What makes me sad about them: As I said, that I don’t think they’ll ever become canon. 

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I don’t read fanfics so i don’t know

Things I look for in fanfic: :( 

My wishlist: Please Tabata just develop their relationship some more. I don’t care how.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Not really a big fan of CharmyxYuno, but that would be my first choice. As for Rill, I’m not sure. A nice artistic girl, maybe.

My happily ever after for them: As sad as it would be to see Charmy leave the BB, she could join his squad. 

GaucheGray

When I started shipping them: I didn’t care for this ship much until some of the lastest chapters, so it’s a fairly new ship for me. 

My thoughts: Unlike RIllCharmy I think Tabata wants to make them endgame (if he’s going to have canon ships in the end). At the beggining I thought it was lazy, because they were held together by nothing but getting caught up in the same shit everytime, but I like that he’s actually building some backstory and interactions for them.

What makes me happy about them: I think they both could be very beneficial to the other. 

What makes me sad about them: Nothing really? That’s a pretty fluff and light hearted ship. 

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: N/A

Things I look for in fanfic: N/A

My wishlist: I’m waiting and seeing where Tabata is going with them. For now, to see them again in the manga would be nice. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I don’t ship them with anyone else. I guess I wouldn’t mind any ship for them to be endgame. 

My happily ever after for them: I can’t picture anything but them staying in the BB. They wouldn’t be the most affectionate couple with Gray being so shy and Gauche being Gauche, but they’d probably go on jobs together and whatnot.

Give me a character & I will tell you:

Patry

How I feel about this character: I don’t like him. I’m sorry, I feel bad for his hardships and all but he was a moron and his actions can’t be excused so easily. 

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: No one. He didn’t have many chance to have romantic interactions I suppose? I usually don’t ship villains, and he didn’t appear much outside his role as antagonist. I’ll just wait and see for possible ships in the future.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Licht. . 

My unpopular opinion about this character: As I said, I don’t think everyone -both in universe and in the fandom - should be so quick at excusing and forgiving him. The fact that he isn’t in a jail is nuts.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I’d say that I wanted him to be held accountable for what he’s done, but that’d be rendundant at this point so I wish he could joins the Golden Dawn, because he was basically the one pickying each and every memeber, he’s the captain as much as WIlliam. 

Favorite friendship for this character: WIlliam. 

My crossover ship:.......I don’t know sorry

Nero

How I feel about this character: Oh boy. Firstly, I didn’t think much of her, she was just the  animal mascot. Then, I kinda hated her. It was not a good plot twist, and the fact that she was there fighting the last boss rather than Noelle or characters that were in BC since the beginning irked me. With time, she grew on me. Now I like her quite a bit.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Only the First Wizard King. I moslty liker her because of this ship eheh

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Asta

My unpopular opinion about this character:As I said, I think Nero turning into a woman was kind of a sloppy and lazy plot twist. It was not foreshadowed or anything. I like Secre now, but I don’t understand why Tabata went that direction with her, and why he didn’t give us some hints. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she got more time with Lumiere. 

Favorite friendship for this character: Gotta say Asta again...man, this girl should interact with more people.

My crossover ship: I duuuuno.

#thanks for the ask #ask #ask game #long post

[fresh-outta-jams]

Plastic Heart - Part 17

Namjoon x Reader Author: Mo Summary: When you get the highly-anticipated BTS dolls for Christmas, your life takes a turn in a way you never could have expected. Note: There’s some foreshadowing at the end of this one ;) I love you guys soooooo much. Seriously, all of your asks and replies and comments give me life! Checking for them after I update is like opening presents on Christmas morning uwu <3 Warnings: None? Word Count: 1.5k

Prologue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Wednesday came around slowly, and in his days while you were in class, Namjoon grew bored easily. Sure, now he could play video games with the guy without having to tag-team a single controller like they did, he could hold a book with his hands instead of his entire body, and he had Koya to take care of now, but his little blue son did a whole lot of sleeping.

That left him with nothing to do and a whole lot of time to do it, counting down the hours until you’d finally get back to the apartment so he could drown you in kisses. Well, until you pushed him off to work on homework.

But today was different. Today was Wednesday, which meant that once you got home, he’d get to go out again, this time wearing a beanie and a mask to avoid trending on Twitter. In the past few days, RM still hadn’t released anything official, so Namjoon was stuck going out incognito as to not be recognized by one of his namesake’s crazed fans.

When the door finally opened, Namjoon sat at attention, carefully relocating the snoozing koala to the cozy pillow laying on the couch. You smiled at him, taking out your earbuds and setting your backpack on the chair so you could rearrange things before going to the library.

“Did you guys have a good day?” You asked.

Your boyfriend stood up and walked over to you, and you straightened up to kiss him. He loved how far he had to lean down to make your lips meet, a reminder that though you had been multitudes taller than him before, he was now the tall one. He was the one you called when you couldn’t reach things in the cupboard (that he had maybe relocated to see you straining on your tippy-toes until finally surrendering and calling him to come use his long-ass arms to get it).

“It’s better now.” He murmured against your lips, an arm snaking around your waist. “How was class, baby?”

“It was good. Boring, but good. I’ve got another paper to write, which means lots of tea at the library.” You slid your laptop into your bag and stopped to think about what else you might need. “You’re coming, right, babe?”

“Of course I’m coming. I’m always so bored without you here.”

“And what are we, chopped liver?” Jin scoffed from his seat on the coffee table.

“We’re perfectly entertaining, but he’d much rather make out with his human girlfriend than hang out with a bunch of toys.” Yoongi chuckled to himself. He had some weird look on his face, but you weren’t quite sure why, and you wouldn’t know why until you got back later…

Namjoon’s face reddened and he grinned shyly.

“What, you think we can’t hear you two out here after you put Koya to sleep?” Hoseok laughed. “You’re not exactly subtle.”

“Alright, so, we’re gonna go.” You changed the subject, cheeks steadily darkening to meet the red shade that Namjoon’s were. “All set?”

“He’s been ready for like two hours, just sitting there wearing his shoes in the house ‘in case your class got out early’.”

“Wow, okay, is today Roast Namjoon Day?” He looked at Taehyung pointedly, sending the other boys into a laughing frenzy.

“Cute.” You pinched his cheek. “I missed you too, Joon.”

His bashful grin revealed those dimples you loved so much. He surrendered to your touch, practically glowing under your gentle affection until he turned to the boys. “Remember Koya has to be in bed by ten. He likes lullabies and bedtime stories.”

“We’re the best babysitters ever.” Jimin promised, saluting. “We’ll take care of him.”

“I trust you guys. See you in a little while. We probably won’t be out too late.” You told them, watching as Namjoon looped the strings of his mask around his ears and pulled his beanie over his hair. There. Inconspicuous. No one would ever be able to spot him now.

So, the two of you headed out to meet your friends once again. When you arrived at the library, Melody and Ella were already sitting at the usual table, and Luna was standing in line to get tea from the little shop tucked into the back of the large academic building. You scooted into your usual seat in the booth against the wall, and pulled an extra table over so Namjoon could sit beside you. Ella smiled at the sight of your boyfriend, but Melody only stared.

“This is that guy you were on Twitter with.” She said, motioning to Namjoon’s tall form as he took a seat in the spot next to yours.

“Right. Introductions. Melody, this is my boyfriend, Namjoon.”

“But not THAT Namjoon.” Joon interjected. He looked to Ella apologetically. “Sorry we gave you a fake name. When I tell BTS fans my real one, they tend to freak out.”

“That’s valid.” Ella nodded in understanding. “No harm done.”

“Oh, Namjoon, how nice of you to join us.” Luna smiled, sitting across from you and beside Melody. “How are you?”

“I’m great, Luna, thanks.”

“Okay, one more question, so, when were you going to tell the squad you had a boyfriend?” Melody asked, still ogling the handsome man that had seemingly walked into your life out of nowhere. She couldn’t remember you saying anything about being interested in anyone. Although, if someone who looked that much like Jin had just waltzed in out of the blue, she couldn’t say she wouldn’t wind up with a boyfriend too…

“It all happened so fast. I swear, we haven’t even been dating for that long, and I kind of wanted you to meet him in person before I said anything.” You explained, resting your hand on Namjoon’s on top of the table. “Plus, would you have believed me if I sent pictures?”

“Probably not, no.” Ella laughed. “He just...looks so much like RM.”

“Which is why we’re being careful today…” Namjoon motioned to his mask, chuckling to himself. If there was another leak, he was sure his and your face would be plastered all over the internet again, and surely, that wouldn’t be good for you in the long run.

You opened up your laptop and made a fresh document, plugging in your font preferences and line spacing settings before punching in the MLA formatted header. It came as second nature to you now: name, class, teacher, date, title. You sighed deeply. God, how you hated papers.

Sensing your distress, Namjoon’s boyfriend senses tingled and he leaned closer to you, telling you gently, “I’ll go get us tea if you tell me what you want.”

Your heart just about melted. “I just want an iced chai with soy milk. Thank you so much, babe.” You kissed his dimpled cheek, even though there was a mask between your lips and his smooth skin.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” He stood from the table and walked over to the counter.

Melody looked at you, jaw dropped. “Where the hell did you find him? I want one.”

You resisted the urge to reply ‘Target’, instead giggling and shrugging.

“Yeah, talk about goals, oh my God.” Ella chimed.

Luna only sat there, smirking knowingly, but not saying anything about where he’d really come from, who he REALLY was. She was happy to see you happy. It didn’t matter where your new boyfriend had come from. She could see that he really cared for you, and that was all that mattered to her.

“What can I say?” You shrugged, watching him as he ordered. Your heart fluttered. That tall, handsome man over there was your boyfriend. Your BOYFRIEND. Ugh, you got chills just thinking about it. “He’s one of a kind…”

Namjoon came back a few minutes later with your iced chai and whatever he had ordered for himself, which was in a warm drink cup instead of a cold drink one. He lowered his mask and blew on it a few times before taking his first tentative sip.

“What did you order, Joon?” You asked.

“Earl Grey. It’s really good.” He reported, letting the warm cup sit between his large hands. “Do you need any help with your paper?”

“I think I’m okay right now, but if you want to read it over when I’m done, that would be really helpful.”

“Of course.” He wrapped his arm around you and pulled you closer, kissing your temple softly while his mask was down. So far, that was the only thing he didn’t like about wearing it: that he couldn’t kiss you while it was covering the bottom half of his face. “Whatever you need, baby.”

You were too preoccupied with your work and the handsome man with his arm around you, exuding warmth like a furnace, to notice the piece of folded paper sticking out of his pocket. And you were also too distracted to notice the shooting star that whizzed through the clear night sky just beyond the glass in front of you...

Tagged: @iie-wakarimasen, @lilgaga98, @catbugsugarpea, @demonic-meatball, @backtonormalthings, @kbowen9, @honig-bienchen, @coolcat494, @ffantasylandd, @feed-my-geek-soul, @ayoo-bangtan, @xxqueenwxtchxx, @cap-lu20, @finninpoposu, @coldbookworm, @sitkafay, @daniawinchesters21, @okaysoplshelpme, @zamirayinyue13, @douseeme16

#armyofwriters #kpopwonderlandtag #btsprotectnet #plastic heart #namjoon #namjoon x reader #namjoon imagine #rm #rm x reader #rm imagine #bts imagine #toy story au #disney au

[yetanotherbuffyblog]

What a ride, guys

So, uh, that finale…

The end is here, and Buffy and Friends are working things out on how to stop Glory from destroying the world via dimensional rifts and killing Dawn. Buffy refuses to take killing Dawn as an option, despite Giles being quite insistent on it. Anya suggests using the Orb of Dagon from earlier in the season, and also the hammer from the troll. 

I’m going to skip a lot of character moments to get to the actual fight, like how Dawn was made out of Buffy because she wasn’t born like a normal person, and how Buffy can’t bear to lose Dawn and talks about quitting after this apocalypse, but we’ll talk about some of it in the notes.

Tara is the one who leads them to where Glory’s working her ritual (around a giant construction tower, I guess?), because the insane people seem to be drawn to it. Once there, Glory recognizes her and Willow uses that distraction to undo the magic Glory did to Tara, which weakens her enough that Buffy can attack, while the rest of the Scoobies go for the minions. The fight seems to be pretty even between Glory and Buffy, until Glory decapitates Buffy… only to reveal that the Buffy she’s been fighting was actually the reprogrammed Buffy Bot. Real!Buffy starts whaling on Glory with the troll hammer. 

There’s a lot of fighting, but Buffy actually manages to beat down Glory, and manages to have her change into Ben. She makes Ben swear to make sure Glory leaves them all alone while she goes to check on her sister. Ben agrees to it, which is when Giles rolls up, and is all like, “Yeah, I get it, she’s a good guy, she’s not going to kill you because she’s a good guy. But, uh, let’s be real here: if Glory survives we’re screwed, so…” And Giles STRANGLES BEN TO DEATH! HOLY S***!

So Glory doesn’t bleed Dawn for the ritual, but that creepy demon dude who survived being stabbed? Doc? Yeah, he does because he’s the Jerk of the Week. He manages to repel Spike, but by the time Buffy gets up there he’s already cut Dawn to start her opening portals. Buffy chucks him off the tower for his troubles, but OH NO! Portals have started opening! Dawn argues that the only way that to stop the end of the world is to let herself die. So she offers to jump off the tower.

But Buffy thinks about how Dawn is made from her; the ritual’s kind of vague on how it works, exactly, but she knows that there’s something important about that connection? And Buffy remembers that thing she’s been told: that Death is her gift. So she realizes that Dawn doesn’t have to die, but someone does, and so Buffy throws herself off of the tower, dying, but also closing the portals. 

So the world is saved! But Buffy is dead.

Huh.

Notes!

-I am… not thrilled with the idea of the solution to saving the world being suicide. TV Tropes’s recap page for the episode mentions a review of the finale that had a similar, but more extreme, mindset, and TV Tropes’s reaction is like, “You missed the point! Did you want the world to be destroyed?” And no, of course not. But I’m not exactly happy with any plot situation where the only way to solve it is by suicide. I don’t think we should be writing stories that frame suicide as a heroic act. I sort of give this one a half-pass, because we know she won’t stay dead, and I realize this is a completely unrealistic situation, but still. It’s one thing for someone to save the world by putting themselves into a fight they can’t walk away from; it’s another to save the world by literal, unambiguous suicide, and that’s not something I’m okay with.

-Although Buffy did tell Spike that not all of them were going to come out of this alive. And the one who dies is… Buff. That’s some foreshadowing, Joss.

-When they go to the Summers house to get ready, Spike tells Buffy that he knows that she’ll never love him, but she treats him like a real person and that means something to him. Which is a cool character moment, I think. 

-Willow having a spell that reverses Glory’s Brain Drain feels a little… too convenient? It’s not so out there, and of course she hasn’t done it before because you have to get within reaching distance of Glory for it to work, but it’s handy that there’s a counterspell for it? Just when they need it!

-Reminder that Anya’s afraid of rabbits! When she and Xander are in the storage room looking for the Dagon Sphere, they happen across a plush rabbit and Anya screams. I’d forgotten that they bothered her.

-They also find the Buffy Bot, which Anya explains is being studied by Willow. Xander wonders if that’s a lesbian thing, but Anya reinforces that Willow’s interest in the Buffy Bot is purely academic.

-Also Xander proposes to Anya? She accepts except that she says that they’ll save it for after this battle. Which is kind of nice.

-Doc’s a pain in the butt. But is he dead? He survived being stabbed, so I don’t know if a fall off a tower would kill him.

-And Spike survived being thrown off the building, but Buffy didn’t. And I get that he’s a vampire so that probably counts for something, as he can only be killed in specific ways, but it felt a bit annoying. Not that I wanted Spike to die, it’s just… y’know.

-This dialogue! Heightened by knowing that Whedon’s a fan of Shakespeare!

Buffy: Hey, everybody knows their jobs. Remember, the ritual starts, we all die. And I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn.

Spike: Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech, was it?

Giles: [wryly] "We few, we happy few..."

Spike: We band of buggered.

-Was this a fauxnale? Was the show going to be cancelled and then saved at the last minute? [shrugs] I dunno. You guys tell me.

-At one point Glory gets hit with a wrecking ball. That was cool.

-Tara gets her sanity back! I was worried about that. That being said… are the other crazy people going to get their sanity back now that Glory’s dead? Probably not. So I feel pretty bad for them. But at least Tara’s doing well.

-Also crazy!Tara calls Giles a killer before they get going, which is great ‘cause it foreshadows when he kills Ben.

-Oh hey, yeah, that? That was crazy. We get this line: 

Giles: She's a hero, you see. She's not like us. [suffocates Ben]

-And it makes sense! We know that Giles used to be really hardcore, and he’s the one advocating that they kill Dawn to save the world. He’s willing to do these underhanded dirty things, especially if they protect Buffy. He knows that Glory’s going to come back if she’s allowed to survive. I think Buffy knows that too, on some level, but she’s really tired of all this Slayer business and just wants to save her sister more than she wants to kill Glory or Ben, so it’s kind of secondary in her mind. But not Giles! Nope, Glory’s gotta go, and if that means killing Ben, then he’s gonna do it.

-When Glory “kills” the Buffy Bot, she assumes that the Slayer was a robot the entire time. Oh Glory, you moron.

-You know, Glory’s funny because she’s so… emotionally stupid? When Buffy’s beating her down, she basically begins pleading that Buffy just doesn’t understand the pain she’s going through of… not being an almighty deity. That’s it. As if “Oh woe is me, I’m not an evil demon god!” is really a sympathetic position to take here when you’re plotting to murder someone’s sister.

-The beginning of the episode has a flashback of Buffy helping some rando in an alley being attacked by a vampire. It’s a cool moment, with some good dialogue (especially because the vampire doesn’t seem to realize who he’s talking to), but it ends with Buffy agreeing with the would-be victim that she’s “just some girl” and it reinforces the idea that Buffy really just wants out of this game. She never asked to be the Slayer, and she would very much like to just be a normal person.

-One of Glory’s minions calls her “groove-tastic one”? What’s up with that guy?

-What do the minions do now that Glory’s dead? Go sulk, I guess? Find new jobs?

-A freaking dragon flies through the portal?!

#5x22 #Buffy Summers #BtVS #Dawn Summers #Spike #Xander Harris #Rupert Giles #Glorificus #Anya #Willow Rosenberg #Buffy The Vampire Slayer

[99vernon]

Where will we go?

s8. spoilers via speculation

The emotional rollercoaster is about to start! Cast members are repeatedly saying expect a “bittersweet” ending and many twists/surprises; and Gwendoline Christie said “you are going to need therapy.” (I believe her.).

Jon and Sansa - the rebirth of a love lost thousands of years ago. They will be remembered as  the GOT’s epic love story that no one saw coming. I just wished the show confirmed Jonsa in s.7; it would have tapered the fans expectations.  

Lets face it, we are all nervous about how s.8 will end for JONSA. Recently, I started to speculate that Sansa would marry someone other than Jon - Daario Naharis or Samuel Tarly. (sorry guys.) However, after the re-watch, I found myself again routing for Jonsa to recognize that they are in love with each other. I realized it doesn’t matter if Sansa marries someone other than Jon at this point; or if Jon marries someone other than Sansa as the marriage would be an act of duty for them. They have to save the realm even if it means sacrificing their love. 

From the very first episode of GOT there were JONSA hints. JONSA’ s endgame was revealed in s.6 e.4 when Jon and Sansa finally see each other again and said to each other “Where will we go?” This sent a strong message to the audience. The final resting place for Jon and Sansa after their duty is over will be together – in Winterfell! Thus, the only possible ending for Jon and Sansa after they have fulfilled their duty is for them to be together - regardless of who they marry.

A Jonsa endgame is also foreshadowed in s7 ep6.  The conversation between  Jon and Beric regarding their purpose and the reason Jon was brought back to life. Beric  said - “You and I won’t find much joy while we are here, BUT we can keep others alive.” Ned and Benjen said – anything before the word BUT does not count, it is bull. Beric is wrong. Jon will be rewarded for saving the realm. He will have happy times Sansa and their children! The question is how much time will they have together.

s.8 spoiler - Jonsa endgame Speculation

In s.8,  Jonsa’s love for each other will be revealed and will bring complications because of Dany. Jon bringing Dany to the North under the umbrella of a false romantic relationship was suicidal for Jon. However, Jon had to do it. They will need the dragons to survive the cold winter nights. Although, I believe Jon did the right thing allying with Dany, there will be a price to pay for bringing Dany to the North and the boatsex. Don’t forget one of the consequences of bringing the wildings South in s6 ep of Battle of the Bastards was we lost a Stark-Rickon Stark.  The Umbers gave Rickon Stark to the Boltons and Rickon was eventually killed by Ramsey Bolton. Also, Jon paid a physical price for betraying Ygritte. She injured him with multiple arrows.

What will the price be for Jon starting a false romantic relationship with Dany and bringing her North? I believe Dany will burn one of the Stark children to death and/or disfigure a Stark. (My guess Jon or Arya) In addition, Dany will burn Winterfell. However, the crypt will stand strong.

I believe the Prince that was Promised is  both Jon and Sansa.  I don’t know why I did not see this before.  (My apologies to Jon and Sansa) The main reason humanity even stands a chance against this war is because of Jon and Sansa. Sansa gave Jon the will to continue fighting for the living;  Sansa won the Battle of the Bastards and won back  Winterfell - a major weapon for the war to come; Sansa is preparing to prevent a famine during the long night; Jon is away negotiating to get stronger allies; Jon left Sansa in charge of the North; Sansa is ensuring the armor is designed correctly;   they are getting things done without using dragons or fear.

One person cannot win the war. Dany also has a role to play and that is to break the wheel – to make sure we do not have another long night. How will she break the wheel? I am not sure. It probably will mean killing someone she loves dearly. Dany’s role was not to win the throne or fall in love with Jon. (Btw Dany would have won the throne if she did not listen to Tyrion.)

Bittersweet Ending for Jon and Sansa

As I said, the endgame for Jon and Sansa is for them to be together… after their duty has been fulfilled. In s.8 Sansa will leave Winterfell and be the one to lead the survivors to Dorne to wait out the cold long night. Ironically, Sansa will be the one to lead Dany’s army; she will be the conqueror/the badass during the long night. Sadly, Sansa will suffer a memory loss again and will not remember the love she found again with Jon.  Similar to s1 ep 2, Sansa will leave Winterfell heading to Dorne and Jon will head to Castle black.(teardrops)

However, I believe Sansa remembers and goes back to Castle black to get Jon. We will get another reunion similar to s6 ep 4. As the long night ends and the sun rises, Jon dies in Sansa’s arms (his duty will be over).   Sansa is never the same again; she completes her duty as Queen and rebuilds a society for the human race in Dorne - Establishing a foundation for Jonsa’s children. After Sansa completes her duty, she dies and joins Jon and Rickon in the crypts of Winterfell. Theon will be the last one standing from the original Stark family and will rebuild Winterfell.

#JONSA #Jon and Sansa #s.8 Predictions #Jon Snow #Jonsa Endgame #s.8 speculations #Starks

[randomnumbers751650]

So, I'm writing this because I'm trying to understand psychological horror, focusing on two animes from last year: Angels of Death and Happy Sugar Life. I wanted to write this because I got inspired by discussions on the Netflix's Ted Bundy show, Explanation Point's video on HSL (which made me watch it), and because I made the mistake of reading AoD's prequel manga Episode 0. Spoilers abound.

Due to way I was raised, I have difficulty in understanding stories that villains are the protagonists. Why would anyone cheer for them? Sure, there are many logical arguments, like the attempt to understand how his mind works and the cathartic feeling of being able to do feelings you know you'd be wrong. I have a RP blog and I once talked to with a friend on trying to understand how musing an utterly despicable muse could be so cathartic and she wondered if it's because it allows her to vent her stress and negative feelings on fictional characters, instead of real people. Logically, it makes sense, but I still feel odd about it.

I first watched Angels of Death because I really enjoyed the portrayal one of my best friends in the RPC had of the protagonist, Rachel Gardner. I honestly think it was a well-written anime, Rachel telling Zack that they weren't tools and the climax with the building on fire were my favorite moments. AoD also had a great advantage because it was self-aware, the banter between Rachel and Zack was pretty hilarious, and Cathy and Danny were also evilly funny. I always wondered how AoD managed to get to be an anime and Ib not...

Also, another thing that AoD makes sure to show is that every single named member of the cast is a murderer, and the man behind everything judges himself God for the sake of an experiment. It shows Zack murdering people in flashbacks and enjoying every single minute of it. In fact, the biggest plot twist is that the apparently innocent Rachel is probably the most dangerous murderer of them, the moment when she tries to kill Zack in her floor was a moment that actually got me on the edge of my seat (said event was properly foreshadowed).

When I say all characters of AoD are well-written, I say this in a "technical" sense - given their backstories, they act in a way consistent to what they are. Zack had a really crappy childhood and turned into a murderer; Danny was bullied and indirectly caused his mother's suicide; Cathy is subconsciously guided by a desire to punish sinners that caused her parents' death; Eddie was rejected so hard that he saw killing what he liked as the only way to preserve; and Rachel also had a crappy childhood, but parents who hated each other and killing her father in self-defense just broke her, her emotionless insanity is what guides her death wish (funnily enough, it doesn't seem that Gray has anything but a god complex). In other words, while they might be nearly a caricature, they still show to act on motives that make sense for them.

The question that guides the series is "what does it mean to be human?" In the end, we all want to avoid loneliness, as Gray says to Danny while the building explodes. Danny had a really pathetic death - he was a "love to hate" villain, even if he had a childhood excuse, nowhere implies that we should sympathize with him, on the contrary, he's one of the creepiest waste of air type of characters - if we showed his portrait in the game, one could put a sub "Most Likely to be a Pedophile").

But then I decided to read the prequel manga. I hated it. A lot. The characters are nothing but violent dicks to each other, in a grand scheme to get the role of "angel" in Gray's experiment (I used to muse Dr. Danny in my RP blog, it was fun to protray him as a pathetic peepermaniac, but I lost my drive after it). It doesn't try to be nuanced or anything else, but I guess if the objective was to remind us that the characters were murderous scum, it succeeded. The effect was so bad on me, that made me question the entire point of AoD itself.

I thought about this for a while. In Aod, we're basically siding with two murderers and Zack's popularity is immense, he's a Chad of murderers. The question is why?

It would be easy to dismiss his popularity as an example of the "bad boy fantasy", mostly associated with women who latches on a "bad boy" type in hopes of "fixing him", but that alone is insufficient to explain (and although it's usually recognized as a 'feminine fantasy', I want to avoid any implication of sexism, even though I don’t doubt this has been discussed in woman’s studies).

At point a friend of mine linked me Explanation Point's video on Happy Sugar Life. Why is Satou, a murderer and near pedophile (near pedophile because she doesn't engage in actual sexual activities with Shio, but it's not less disturbing), a sympathetic character? I won't recap the entire video here, but Satou is sympathetic because of many factors, such as the fact almost everyone around her is worse (arrogant rapist manager, sadomasochist actual ebebophile Danny's long lost brother, lolicon, an actual succubus in human form, obssessed copycat stalker, mad artist - the only developed characters that save themselves are Shoko and Asahi (and not 100% in his case, his determination was his downfall) - I honestly dislike Shio because she's annoying), had a crappy childhood, and that she seems sincere in her feelings for Shio.

The issue, in the end, it's about the way it's framed. Lindsay Ellis has a pretty good video on framing, on explaining how Mikaela actually had potential to be a well-written character in the first Michael Bay’s Transformers movie, but it was ruined by the way she was framed - as mere fanservice, instead of a strong character. The same principle applies to Happy Sugar Life, just pay attention to the way Satou is framed, as a strong character, in “pure” love, flowers appears on the screen when she’s thinking of Shio.

Framing is one reason why HSL failed or, at least, lost a part of its power as a cautionary tale. In the last episode, the way her imagination exploded with images of what her happy life with Shio could be, sprinkled by sappy imagery. Even if Satou killed herself to save Shio as a way to defy her aunt, it still gives a mixed message.

If we apply EP’s argument on Satou to Zack, I think we have even better “case” for Zack. Let’s count the reasons why one should sympathize with Zack:

Antagonists (Danny and Cathy) are worse people

Strong and powerful, to the point of turning into a shonen protagonist when cutting rocks in the last episode

Has a code of honor, only kills people who are laughing

Has standards, refuses to accept godhood from Rachel

Enjoys what he does, he’s probably the most sincere character of the cast

Has a twisted sense of humor

Has a sad backstory, that offered the chance of following another path (but the old man died)

Recognizes he’s messed up

Ridiculously loyal to Ray in the end

We never get to see the PoV of his victims and when we do, the frame actually makes Zack sympathetic - for example, the woman in his flashback, we see her lying to him and him killing her for it - it’s a bad thing, but the scene is framed in a way that Zack is the offended party (it was his PoV anyway)

He’s hot - granted this only works for the anime, because in the game he was some sort of tall mummy gremlin

As another friend of mine said, when I brought this to her, in the end you’re kind of cheering for them to escape police and continue murdering others. And, in the end, they do get away - Zack (and Ray, to some extent) is never punished for his crimes, even though the ending is ambiguous most people believe they escaped anyway.

In HSL we have a similar situation: even though Satou killed herself, Shio is still irreparably damaged, preferring to live her “happy sugar life” in her head than the real world. In fact, HSL’s ending is one of the most hopeless that I’ve ever seen recently, that the entire surviving cast is apparently beyond repair (as worse as Shio worse is Taiyo - it’s quite rare to portray female on male abuse on such a realistic way, any other anime would make a semi-hentai scenario on him, but here, I wouldn’t be surprise if he died starving himself to death in his room). HSL’s ending managed to be much more hopeless than AoD’s ending.

But, returning to Zack, the way his story is framed makes him a sympathetic character. However, while I argue that Zack is a well-written character, he’s not a very realistic one for one simple reason: he’s too conspicuous to be a successful serial killer, he’s too loud and messy; actual serial killers are methodic people, they plan a lot to not leave clues. Meanwhile, Zack is dumb as a rock, which might add him being an escapist character another trait of him.

And that’s where the comparison with Ted Bundy enters. It might be a stretch comparing a fictional character with a real person, but I still think it has some merit. While I haven’t seen the Netflix series, I read the debate on whether it glorifies Bundy or not. Basically the way the series frames Bundy is an argument for the glorification, but the interview with the victims who escaped him and loved ones of his victims is an argument against it. But the fact remains that both have their fans.

If we criticize Bundy’s fans for not noticing how much of a pathetic and deranged person he actually was, why can’t we do the same for Zack’s fans? Well the fact that one is real and the other fictional might be one reason, and being fictional he acts as an outlet for our own frustrations and tendencies just as I discussed with my friend above, but I feel that alone is insufficient, there must be a further reason... but I can’t think of anything else. Otherwise an argument has the danger of turning into the fallacy “videogames make kids violent” sort of thing.

One thing that has to consider is that both AoD and HSL are psychological thriller/horror series. If Zack, Ray and Satou got caught, the shows would be lesser works of art, because one function of psychological horror is to challenge our perceptions of justice.

Horror challenges our perceptions of safety and we are used to the bad guys being punished in the end, it’s a safe assumption. Instead, in horror, the bad guys get away and might be sympathetic, making us sympathetic to their getaway. It’s horror in the sense our own safe perceptions of morality and justice are twisted upside down.

I could go on and approach the thorny question of whether AoD glorifies murderers and HSL glorifies yanderes with children, but this essay is already getting too big, so I leave it for another occasion.

#satsuriku no tenshi #happy sugar life #psychological horror #explanation point #more to the ted bundy debate

[bthump]

watching jojo's bizarre adventure anime adaptation and seeing how much the anime team fixed araki (the mangaka)'s bad writing makes me rlly wish that if berserk gets a proper anime adaptation whoever does it will do the same with miura's writing (and some of his art too tbh). like for example for all their faults the berserk movies did improve casca's character. what are your wants for a potential full berserk anime adaptation? (also let's hope that this is the year we finally get one 🤞)

I never finished JJBA or watched the anime so idk, but I’m curious how much they changed. Like were there big changes to the plot, or was it mostly just little minor changes to smooth over some flaws?

ty for asking, and I apologize in advance for how long this got lol.

tbh I think my ideal, if not realistic, Berserk adaptation is one that just goes ‘fuck it’ and throws out most of the story lol. Starts with Black Swordsman, ends with Femto lowering his hand and letting Guts escape - well more specifically, on this panel:

Like that is a perfect final shot imho.

(Also I might mirror it with the opening shot. Like I wouldn’t open on Guts fucking an apostle lmao, I don’t actually dislike that opening but it doesn’t fit this theoretical adaption. So how about we open on a long shot of Black Swordsman Guts surrounded by the ghosts he’s fighting, that mimics this?)

Ooh I might also… I might stick the Lost Children arc in between Snake Man and Count Slug. Ugggh there are some logistical issues to untangle there, but I really, really want Jill/Rosine Guts/Griffith parallels, and I want ghosts taunting Guts about becoming a monster like his friend. Subtlety is for cowards. Oh except we wouldn’t’ve seen Femto yet so that wouldn’t work. Well, “like him” then instead of “like your friend.” There now it’s foreshadowing 2 ways.

the climax of the story is the moment of sacrifice because there’s no Eclipse rape, Casca dies shortly after Judeau, and Guts’ horror at being sacrificed by Griffith is the emotional low point. Potentially no gtsca either if I can figure out a way to incorporate Guts’ stupid dream speech somewhere else. Maybe it can be a flashback during the Wyald fight, which I’d keep incidentally, sans attempted rape, w/ Guts talking to Erica. Actually yeah that would be perfect and immediately tie Guts’ “dream” of fighting stronger and stronger enemies with fighting monsters lol, meaning I could bypass Guts’ post Eclipse war declaration that draws that comparison more explicitly.

Boom, Berserk is now a nice little self-contained tragic story about two dudes each becoming solitary monsters because they abandoned each other for abstract dreams, and threw aside the potential for true emotional healing (relationships) for shallow coping mechanisms (swords/dreams). Uhhh, also Puck is cut. Sorry Puck, ilu but you’re a ray of hope that ruins the vibe here.

And finally since this is my ideal adaptation, the subtext between Guts and Griffith is text. They don’t actually fuck or kiss, because that would avert the Eclipse, but… hm how do you make it clear that they want to fuck but are too repressed to do it and that’s what ruins everything? Okay well Griffith’s torture chamber monologue includes “love” a la the anime dub, and maybe “desire” or “need” to completely remove that ambiguity desperately maintained in the minds of straight people. And Guts… I don’t know that I can go textual lol. The only point in the story he can possibly recognize his own feelings is chapter 71.

Ooh I got it. Just include “at that time he shone before me as something beautiful, noble, and larger than life” after the Count’s backstory lmao. Do you really need more? Well, maybe “he shone before me as something larger than life - noble, and… beautiful.” Or just cut to the chase completely: “At that time, he shone before me as something beautiful, noble, and larger-than-life. I loved him.”

OKAY all that said I feel like this wasn’t really what you’re asking lol since you mentioned a complete adaption. So okay assuming there are no huge major changes to the content or structure of the story, here’s a (stupidly long, like only read this if you for some reason enjoy seeing me ramble for days about minute details lmao) list of some more minor things I’d want to change:

I’d start with the Black Swordsman arc and continue as the manga goes. Yes, in this one Guts still fucks an apostle. This is right before the credits, and it’s depicted as badass and cool. In fact, I might actually split the scene with the credits - start the opening sequence right after Guts blows her up, and resume on this shot with more of a sombre tone:

Like okay that would be pretty cheesy lol, but this is the Black Swordsman arc. It’s supposed to be a little campy, and really unsubtle, and this seems like a fun way of highlighting this little tonal shift.

Relatedly, I would not acknowledge the fact that most people watching already know where it’s going. I would maintain the integrity of the first arc in starting off with Guts as an apparent cool badass and then tearing that down, as well as keeping Griffith’s identity and Guts’ motivation a mystery in theory, and making the Count’s backstory the climax of this arc in a revelatory sense, rather than in an action sense.

To get more general, no fanservice for straight dudes. no one’s tits are randomly out, and when they are they’re drawn realistically and subject to the laws of gravity. casca’s clothes don’t get torn all the time, rosine’s got full moth fuzz coverage, farnese is wearing a shirt when guts takes her hostage and if we need self-flagellation (and tbh I wouldn’t necessarily cut it) it can be in a flashback, etc. Oh except Slan I guess. Her whole character is fanservice so w/e I’ll allow it.

not every woman is in love with and solely motivated by a dude. skip the queen’s completely unnecessary reveal that she was in love with julius, skip casca’s “I lived my life with the intent of sacrificing myself on my unrequited feelings for griffith” bullshit, skip sonia’s crush on neogriffith, skip tf out of schierke’s crush on guts, skip the random period of incest-y bdsm-y vibes in Farnese and Serpico’s backstory that adds nothing lol, skip the suggestions that Farnese is jealous of Casca’s history with Guts, etc

also most sexual assault scenes are cut. Casca is running for her life during the 100 man fight, not from attempted rapists. Wyald does not assault Casca, Farnese is not almost raped by a fucking horse, we chill out a bit on the sexual torture in every bg scene during the conviction arc jfc, Casca’s multiple assaults during that arc are cut, troll rape is cut, you get the point.

I’ll keep Adon’s shitty threats tho bc i feel like some violent misogyny is necessary if i’m not changing everything, but I’d completely lose the comic relief vibe he gets and make Casca’s fight with him properly epic and satisfying. The movie did this a bit better imo, but I’d really remove Adon’s whole boastful loser schtick. That might disappoint some fans, but idc Casca deserves to kill someone who is actually kind of a badass.

There’s a lot of bullshit around gtsca that I’m torn between wanting to cut, and instead wanting to just depict very negatively. Like would it be better if instead of Casca shyly asking Guts how she looks in a dress she just complained about the dress being uncomfortable, ie we completely cut that burgeoning “soft side” bs?

Or would it be better if she still asked him how she looks, then we call back to that moment when she gets awkward about her scars before sex, we keep Judeau musing on how she’s showing a soft side, we call back to that when he tells Guts to save her from leadership, we tie it all together when Guts asks Casca to leave with him, and bring it home by making it abundantly clear that Casca moving from being Griffith’s sword to Guts’ sword is not a positive change.

Like highlight everything negative about it - Guts being a huge dick, the ominous undertone when he invites her along (like cue the creepy cello music when they kiss right before we shift to monsters and behelits lol), all the parallels between him and Griffith wrt their dreams, Guts telling Casca to fuck off while he fights Wyald, maybe even add a moment where Casca actually reflects on how she’s left out of all the dream/equals bullshit and what that says about their priorities and how they see her. Might be a nice lead up to her telling Guts to leave to pursue his dream and be Griffith’s equal.

also maybe show that judeau is wrong about casca being better off away from the hawks? ugh there’s so much that would have to be reworked with her narrative. like if she still has to attempt suicide, again can we ditch the lead up about how it’s because she has an unrequited crush on griffith and just keep it about the fact that she hasn’t slept in a week and she’s on the run and her hawks keep dying and griffith is being tortured and she just stabbed guts and she’s had a very difficult year?

and like, maybe she leapt to accept Guts’ ‘come with me’ offer because she’s exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed, but are you kidding me? While Guts gets an entire narrative arc about abandoning his found family, Casca doesn’t even think about it for a moment before agreeing to ditch them? Can we maybe have some indication about how she feels about the Hawks as a family, maybe some reflection about why she would choose to leave, maybe some second thoughts about it after the Wyald fight when it becomes abundantly clear what her role would be while Guts pursues his dream, like god she’s such a pawn of the narrative, I hate it. Give her some real reasons for doing stuff!

ANYWAY moving on

like the movie, I’d give charlotte more agency in the sex scene w/ griffith, I liked her asking him to stay and moving his hand to her tit herself. I probably would not actually make griffith so out of it though - i enjoyed that in the movie but I don’t necessarily consider it in-character. The way he went from literally crying in the rain to smiling and making charming jokes as soon as Charlotte opened the window in the manga honestly makes perfect sense to me lol. Just uh, make Charlotte into it from the start because there’s zero reason for her not to be other than bad misogynistic cliches?

Also I feel like there’s a balance to be struck between depicting het sex as dude sticks his dick in, woman somehow has a good time a la the manga vs making guts and griffith competent at foreplay and oral a la the movies lol. Like maybe depict the sex scenes as the bad sex they are but Charlotte still feels closer to Griffith afterwards despite not coming from a dude fucking her while thinking about another dude and like, just keep Casca telling Guts he was obviously a virgin afterwards lol.

I guess we’re stuck with the Eclipse rape, but it happens mostly off screen and in close, telling but non-explicit details, like yk, big clawed hand holding a wrist, Casca’s eyes squeezed shut, Femto’s hand on the small of her back (I’m thinking a reversed call back to the wagon scene w/ that to suggest Femto’s motivation being a show of power tbqh). Some would be from Casca’s pov, with maybe one brief moment from Guts’ pov as he loses an eye or something. Keep the movie’s visual reference to Griffith saving her. No pornographic angles. No apostle rape prelude to it. Casca doesn’t have an orgasm. Femto doesn’t stare at Guts. It’s not about Guts at all for either of them, it’s about Femto taking Griffith’s fucked up relationship to sex and expressing it monstrously, and it’s about Casca being betrayed and symbolically negating the agency she fought for since Griffith threw her a sword. Guts’ reaction is horror and fear, not manly heroic outrage. He might still rip off his arm to attack Femto, but that would be because that’s always his reaction to whatever scares him, not for Casca’s sake. Might have to contextualize that with flashbacks to his childhood, or at the very least strong visual parallels to both his childhood and the Zodd + Wyald fights.

I want to cut the fetus, replace it with like a cronenburg-y fucked up dog-like demon in the Black Swordsman arc - not as a literal version of the Beast of Darkness, but just as a metaphor for how Guts’ inner darkness is twisting him into a pathetic asshole lol. But tbh cutting the fetus is a logistical nightmare because Casca needs magic protection during the Conviction arc. So idk. But NGriff doesn’t need it, and his narrative would be more engaging without that scapegoat. Fuck emotional ambiguity, I just want to drop the news that NGriff has feelings, and then not change anything else about his narrative. The themes of isolation and loneliness threaded throughout would just shine through lol it would be great.

I would emphasize the shit out of the Beast of Darkness/Femto parallels. Yeah Guts would still assault Casca in my adaption too. If the Eclipse rape happens, that has to happen because the point is that Guts’ inner darkness is the same. But like, I’d cut the page where beast of darkness guts bites her head off while raping her. Also I’d keep the visual parallel to the Eclipse rape (the v similarly depicted kisses) and add another from Casca’s point of view, or have her flashback then instead of just staying in Guts’ head.

as for the fallout, I’d give Guts a proper scene where he sees himself as a monster, like damn he got more of a self-reflective and telling reaction that time he accidentally killed a random kid, we should get something when he sexually assaults Casca. but overall I’d focus way more on Casca being afraid of him now rather than his mopey guilt. I would also… I mean god this should be addressed in the fact that Guts fucking wears the Berserk armour all the time lol. Like one second he’s all, “omg Flora can put a magic seal on my brand that’ll depower my magical evil jiminy cricket wolf and hopefully prevent me from raping and murdering Casca, that’s great!” and the next second he’s all, “omg magic armour I can wear that will enable me to kill everything with the side effect of superpowering my inner evil wolf and turning on my companions? sign me the fuck up I’m sure nothing bad could possibly happen with that.”

Like what I’m saying is I’d either make Guts a lot more reluctant to use the armour and take Skull Knight’s warnings seriously and genuinely reflect on the fact that mysterious magical children have to prevent him from murdering his friends over and over again, or I’d draw attention to this idiocy and fully commit to Guts as a dumbass hypocrite blithely walking down the path to more tragedy of his own making. and probably the latter based on where the story is likely to be headed lol.

in the lost children arc, I’d give Rosine’s mother more of a role as a good parent who Rosine has a loving relationship with, who tried and failed to stop her father’s abuse or something, because honestly I love the Peekaf story and I find Rosine’s regret at the end as she tries to fly home v powerful, but I hate the idea that she regrets sacrificing her abusive father so maybe this way I can split the difference.

and Jill’s ending where she goes home to endure abuse would be depicted much more darkly.

like straight up I’d depict Jill flying with Rosine as a truly beautiful moment, I would show that Jill has the potential to fulfill Rosine in a way her neverland kidnapping bullshit can’t and that yes, if Jill stayed with Rosine everything might actually work out and with Jill’s influence the whole land of the elves thing could be reworked into less of a nightmare and more of a haven lol. And Guts would absolutely be depicted as fully monstrous in comparison, ruining both these kids’ lives. Like, no ambiguity, no suggestion that Jill learned an important lesson about living with abuse lmao, no implication that Rosine brought her tragic end on herself by not being a good enough child abuse victim, just Guts sowing tragedy wherever he goes.

I have no idea how to deal with the conviction arc in general lol, specifically the ultra cynical tone the actual narrative seems to take. Like, the Black Swordsman arc was idealistic compared to the Conviction arc, they clash badly imo. Extremely badly. Like it’s a giant mess. It’s like

Black Swordsman Guts: fuck everyone who dies because they weren’t strong enough to deal with my existence. *turns and wipes away a tear* *lets a zombie kid stab him* *evokes pity from puck*Conviction Guts: fuck everyone who dies because they weren’t strong enough to deal with my existence. *poses with his sword in one hand and the rescued love interest in the other* *the crowd cheers* *luca nods sagely*

yk it’s just… awkward. It’s hard to mitigate through like, film choices yk, because a lot of it is due to the circumstances. Guts telling Puck innocent people are just ants under his feet is much different than Guts refusing to let the big bad kill Casca by telling him that tens of thousands of people can and should die because they pray too much lmao, no matter what music plays in the background. Guts’ attitude is the same, the narrative’s attitude is contradictory.

Maybe I could make Guts less of a dick and cut a lot of those cynical moments? Not really call attention to the fact that Guts is effectively sacrificing tens of thousands of refugees for Casca, or more accurately, for his own desire to feel like a hero since he isn’t even the one who saves Casca, he got distracted trying to fight the fake Godhand.

Or lol maybe I’ll just have Isidro point that out in like, a smug way. Maybe I’ll have NeoGriffith personally thank him for his contribution to his resurrection. I mean I really want to call this questionable shit into question, yk? Not to declare Guts wrong for wanting to save Casca, but to declare his cavalier idgaf attitude a big problem that has consequences. Which would actually tie in nicely with emphasizing Guts’ dumbassery in brushing off Skull Knight’s warnings about the armour and insisting it’s nbd. lol I really hope this is what Miura’s going for, just more subtlely.

Actually I wonder if I could get away with cutting Isidro out entirely. Anyone could’ve saved Casca there.

Oh I’d cut the hell out of a lot of Guts’ fight scenes in the MF arc, and if I could possibly get away with it I’d cut out everything on the beach after Skull Knight’s ominous warning. Like this might end up being the Griffith show for a while because Guts’ half is a fucking slog. And of course I’d cut the entire boat trip. They get on a boat, they get off a boat, the end.

Okay I need to stop somewhere. I’m ignoring a lot of later stuff because it’s so dependent on where the story’s going now that Casca is awake etc. Like eg the Moonlight Boy. Can I cut him? Give him a more ominous tone? Emphasize the saccharine tone he evokes for the sake of pulling the rug out from under the audience later? Will I be forced to make huge changes anyway because I can’t stand where the story ended up going? Idk it depends.

If I could tho I’d definitely cut Magnifico, Isidro, Ivalera, mermaid… like Farnese, Serpico, and Schierke are the only characters on Guts’ side who contribute to the story in a meaningful way. And without Isidro Puck could again too.

Oooh yk one thing that might be nice would be framing Farnese as the main protagonist of Guts’ half of the story during the MF arc. Just focus on her, show more stuff from her perspective, cut down a lot of fights but keep her digression back home, maybe give her some additional content that explores her character shift better, show her struggling more with her own inner darkness a bit when she first joins and give her some character beats as she slowly grows more comfortable with Casca, maybe put her backstory chapters in the first episode of a new season (a great season ender would be Guts walking away from the Hill of Swords js), etc.

lmao god I feel like I could keep going forever. sorry this is so meandering but ty for giving me the opportunity to go on and on about this. Is there anything you’d really like to change yourself?

#ask #a #b #Anonymous #anyway jsyk the part before the cut is kind of its own separate thing so if you click this and decide it's too long to read #there's always just the first part lol #theme: adaption #theme: critique #theme: opinion

[amandajoyce118]

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season One Easter Eggs And References

I so greatly enjoyed Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, and I’m really interested to see what they do in season two, which is almost done filming. I still maintain that this show is like if Riverdale and Supernatural had a baby. It’s definitely creepy and not for everyone, but I found it fascinating.

I’ve got Easter eggs galore, though I didn’t go through and explain who every comic book character is like I would normally do with a superhero show. And yes, the Netflix series is based on the 2014 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic, which in turn was named after another comic from decades earlier. Sabrina Spellman is an Archie Comics character, but it’s not clear if her show is set in the same universe as Riverdale or not.

There are spoilers here, but as usual, I’ve broken this list down episode by episode for those who want to read while they watch. Enjoy.

S1E01 “Chapter One: October Country”

Opening Credits

The opening credits feature the artwork of Robert Hack. Hack is the artist who actually illustrated The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic book. A lot of his art inspires the look of the show as well.

The Episode Title

October Country gets its name from a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury. They were all considered pretty dark, and the volume mostly reprinted stories included in a different anthology, only adding a few new pieces, king of like this show.

The Very 70s Aesthetic

The show kind of has a weird timewarp thing going on like sister series Riverdale. There’s a lot of cars, furniture, and even clothing that seem to be inspired by the 1970s. That’s likely because Sabrina made her comic book debut in the 70s. It’s a way to give an homage to the original books as well as the newer series the show adapts.

Cerberus Books

Cerberus was a three headed dog who guarded the gate to the underworld in Greek mythology. We’ll discuss him more in a later episode.

Dr. Saperstein

My guess is that someone on staff is a Parks and Rec fan. This is Jean-Ralphio’s surname, and his father, was, in fact, a doctor. Of course, it’s also the name of the doctor in Rosemary’s Baby, so… pick your reference.

Sabrina’s Thermos

You’ll notice some characters on Sabrina’s thermos. Those happen to be a musical group named The Archies. Yep, they’re Archie and the gang from Riverdale, which does make you wonder if the two shows are in the same universe or if one is the fictional version of the other or what.

Sabrina Makes Harvey Forget

She does it with a kiss here, but in the 90s television sitcom, she made him forget she was a witch a lot of times. This made me wonder if she might have to do it a few more times over the course of this series, or if the next time he finds out, it sticks.

Her Parents Were Flying To Italy

This is an awfully interesting destination. Why? Because what’s in Italy? That would be Rome and the Vatican, home of the Catholic Church, which is interesting in and of itself. It’s both a very romantic and a very religious destination for a witch and a mortal to be traveling to. It also happens to be where the first Sabrina The Teenage Witch movie was set, if I remember right.

The Weird Sisters

These three get their nickname from the trio of witches in Shakespeare’s MacBeth. There’s a lot of Shakespeare references throughout the show, but I think that’s really just because writers like their Shakespeare.

Salem

The show’s take on Salem is interesting. In the Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina comic, he was Sabrina’s familiar, but that’s not became he was a goblin. Instead, he was cursed by a witch in Salem to become a cat. He was a mortal man named Samuel who got her pregnant and, because he had nothing to offer her, he didn’t want her to have to marry him. She took offense, Satan ate their kid and she cursed him to become her familiar. When she died in the witch trials, Satan renamed him Salem as a nod to what happened.

The 90s sitcom had Salem as a warlock who was cursed to cat form by the witches council after committing a crime. It seems like Ambrose on house arrest is filling that role this time around.

S1E02 “Chapter Two: The Dark Baptism”

“...a movie star like cousin Montgomery.”

I like the idea that this is a nod to Elizabeth Montgomery, the star of the series Bewitched, which followed a witch named Samantha who married a mortal. Samantha’s evil cousin on the show? Her name was Sabrina.

A Riverdale Mention

So, Riverdale is likely just across the river from Greendale here since we hear the town named.

Black Narcissus

The name of the goat snagged for Sabrina’s baptism is also the name of a 1947 film. There’s actually a ton of classic movie references, posters, etc in the show, just like in Riverdale. I probably won’t point them all out because this would be a list of nothing but movie references.

S1E03 “Chapter Three: The Trial Of Sabrina Spellman

“Conserve water. Plug it up, plug it up…”

This is a sign on the bathroom door in the high school It’s a nod to the horror movie Carrie, which was based on a book by Stephen King. The movie also inspired a musical episode of Riverdale in season two.

Daniel Webster

The lawyer is named after a character in a pretty famous short story about a farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is then defended by a talented lawyer.

Archie’s Madhouse

Another comic from the Archie world of comics. One of its covers is on the wall in Harvey’s room. He’s clearly a fan of many different types of comics.

Ravens VS Bulldogs

We get another nod to the fact that Riverdale exists. About half way into the episode, there’s a kid putting up a flyer for a bowling match between the Baxter High Ravens and the Riverdale High Bulldogs.

Dr. Specter

I just thought it was funny that an eye doctor has this name. It’s not really an Easter egg, just cute.

Side note: Ambrose asks Luke if he’s a vampire. So, I’m going to go with witches aren’t the only supernatural beings the show will eventually introduce. Vampires, werewolves, there is no limit to what I expect now.

S1E04 “Chapter Four: Witch Academy”

Gehenna Station

“Gehenna” is an old biblical term that means hell-like. I kind of think it’s fitting that the school is disguised as an old train station as well since a lot of artists imagine purgatory as a train station. Hell-like purgatory seems like a good training ground for witches.

Nick Scratch

Old Scratch is a common slang, or at least it used to be, for the devil. Here, I think it’s just a nod to the fact that Nick’s a warlock. (Also, Nicholas Scratch was the name of a Marvel villain once upon a time, but that’s a whole different publisher.)

Valac

One of the names seen in a book is that of Valac. I think fans of The Conjuring franchise will recognize it as a demon there. Another movie reference in this episode? The “light as a feather, stiff as a board” chant used by the harrowed kids. That’s courtesy of The Craft.

S1E05 “Chapter Five: Dreams In A Witch House”

Batibat

Her makeup looks pretty reminiscent of The Witches (movie based on a Roald Dahl book), but that’s actually all I’ve got for this episode. Unless we count Sabrina using the children’s string game Jacob’s Ladder as her way to get the spiders’ webs going, but I think that’s just a result of that particular game being a prevalent one in the 90s, and thus, amongst the writers.

S1E06 “Chapter Six: An Exorcism In Greendale”

Harvey As Johnny Depp

Harvey with his headphones on in the #10 tee? That’s am almost exact remake of a shot of Johnny Depp in A Nightmare On Elm Street. (Side note: I kind of feel like this shot should have been in the previous episode, the one that actually focused on nightmares.)

Apophis

Apophys is a death metal group. Apophis is the name of an asteroid, but also a derivation of the name of an Egyptian ruler, as well as an Egyption entity of chaos. Apep was drawn as a giant serpent and was an enemy of “the light.”

The Exorcist Homage

Okay, this episode really just plays as a loving homage to The Exorcist. There are so many shots that echo frames from the film. I’m not going to even attempt to list them all.

The Witches That Came Before

Okay, Sabrina calls on the power of a whole lot of historical figures as she names “witches” during her exorcism. My personal favorites? The goddesses Artemis and Luna, the queen Anne Boleyn, and the mythical first wife of Adam, Lilith. She also calls on Morgan Le Fay of the famous Arthurian legend. She actually appeared in an old Archie comic involving time travel called Jughead’s Time Police. Yeah, even Archie comics got weird back in the day.

Afterlife With Archie

This is the more supernatural version of the Archie comic book universe. Luke actually has a copy of an issue in his hands while he’s in Cerberus. It’s funny because this comic book storyline was created by Sabrina trying to bring Jughead’s dog back to life… we’ll call that foreshadowing for a future episode.

S1E07 “Chapter Seven: Feast of Feasts”

Grandpa Kinkle

TV fans might recognize Grandpa Kinkle as Michael Hogan. He’s been all over genre shows for decades. Most recently though, and where Sabrina’s target audience will know him from, he played a hunter on Teen Wolf. There, he came from a long line of werewolf hunters. Here, he’s from a long line of witch hunters. Coincidence? I have a feeling it’s not.

Ben

Poor, tragic pizza delivery boy. Okay, so the most recent season of Riverdale also featured a character named Ben. Specifically, Ben Button. Ben Button was played by Moses Thiessen. Guess who this Ben is played by? That would also be Moses Thiessen. And, guess what else? They both (spoiler alert for Riverdale fans who haven’t watched yet) died in weird ways. What does this mean? I have no idea.

Side note: The only witches in the coven who don’t seem to partake in the feast are Sabrina, Zelda, Nick, and surprisingly, Prudence. (And Hilda and Ambrose, but they aren’t invited) There’s a part of me that wonders if that will be significant in season two.

S1E08 “Chapter Eight: The Burial”

1693

Above the entrance to the mine, we see that the Kinkle’s took over, or created, the South Line in 1693. I’ll admit, my first thought was, oh, that’s when the Sanderson sisters originally died in Hocus Pocus. It’s also the year that the Salem Witch Trials took place, providing a nod to the history the show pulls from. The Von Kunkles hunted down witches and stole their land while the trials were going on in Salem, which also indirectly led to the hanging of the original Greendale witches. Yikes.

American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares

A comic book published by Vertigo, this happens to land on Harvey’s bedside table. Another vampire reference, eh? I hope we see one eventually.

S1E09 “Chapter Nine: The Returned Man”

Dr. Phibes

He’s named for a Vincent Price character. If you don’t know who Vincent Price was, he was pretty much the face of horror in American cinema for a while. Do yourself a favor and look him up.

Pop Culture Nods

I have no idea why someone who claims to be as dark as Zelda chooses a song from The Sound of Music for the Church of Night’s choir. Your guess is as good as mine. Susie tries to shoplift Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I’ve never read it, but it’s certainly the type of novel Susie, or even a witch in Greendale would be interested in. It follows a poet who changes sex (male to female) and lives for hundreds of years.

S1E10 “Chapter 10: The Witching Hour”

Mr. Loomis

This is likely a nod to the Halloween franchise, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that it was also the last name of Sidney’s boyfriend in Scream, but that was a nod to Halloween in and of itself.

Riverdale

Again, a Riverdale nod. Harvey’s dad had the funeral home in Riverdale take care of Tommy instead of the Spellman’s. But is it in the Riverdale we know on TV? Who knows?

“Let Greendale cast a spell on you…”

This is the town motto on the sign at the edge of town. (I’d like to point out the sign is designed just like the one of CW’s Riverdale, so nice consistency in set design there.) It’s cute, but I’m also wondering how the town got this motto since everyone seems bent on rewriting the towns witchy history.

Cerberus

The owner of Cerberus books? His eyes flash yellow after getting a kiss from Hilda. I’d like to think he’s something canine to go with his name, and perhaps his store stands over an actual gate to hell. Whether he’s a real hellhound or a werewolf, or the show pays off on its vampire nods with him, remains to be seen.

Madame Satan

She reveals her real name. She also reveals she’s Lilith, first wife of Adam. I find it funny that Sabrina actually invoked her during the exorcism.

Comic Book Look

Sabrina gets her comic book accurate hair in the end here. You know, I don’t think she needed it, but it’s a nice nod that there’s been a transformation in her power level.

Bonus Motifs

These things showed up a lot, and I didn’t want to have to write about it every single time.

13

Pop culture has got 13 as being unlucky and associated with magic, so I like that the show embraced it. A witch’s pregnancy lasts 13 months, 13 minutes is just enough time for a soul to leave a body, and 13 hours is how long Sabrina has to wait to see if her resurrection spell worked.

Cain And Abel

These two brothers were the sons of Adam and Eve, for those who know their biblical stories. They represent jealousy and murder, etc. We’ve got Hilda with her Cain pit in the garden, but there’s actually a lot of more subtle references to them. Cain was a farmer (Hilda) and Abel was a shepherd (Zelda, leading the way), for example. There’s a lot of focus on sibling relationships considering the show’s main character is an only child. Harvey and Tommy, Hilda and Zelda, the Weird Sisters, etc.

Suspira

A lot of the set design (windows and ceilings, specifically) are nods to the horror film Suspira. I’ve never seen it, but it got a lot of notice from horror fans on social media, so I figured I should add that here.

Real Spells

According to interviews and set visits, the crew wanted the set to be authentic, so that had practicing witches cast protection spells on the set and used real symbols around the Spellman house. The Spellman house even has a German protection spell carved into the floor.

Jughead

Also according to set visits, one of the shelves in the Baxter High library has a shelf where you can see a crown and “Jughead was here” carved into it. I don’t think it’s actually visible while watching the show though.

So, what did you guys think about the show? Love it? Hate it? Did you spot more Easter eggs?

#chilling adventures of sabrina #sabrina on netflix #sabrina season one #chilling adventures of sabrina spoilers #easter eggs

[whetstonefires]

d gray man liveblog part 5! (part 1)(part 2)(part 3)(part 4)

Love the amount of personality Allen conveys by code-switching into different formality levels. the translators here are doing an excellent job conveying that, though i suspect the foul language there could have been legitimately punched up.

asserting that his oath to mana and the love that underlies it are his even though he can’t know that is...what makes Allen main character material i guess.

XD I want to ask when ‘being a total maniac with a personality whose internal contradictions are never entirely resolved’ became the shounen protagonist standard but i’m paging through mentally and it basically goes all the way back.

Ashita no Joe was like this. it’s always been like this. only the details change.

I will give Cross Marian .3 points for the possibility he predicted that offering Allen no mercy would inspire him to pull out his hardshell rage against the whole situation rather than crumpling under the weight.

stg allen walker is composed of 93% layered trauma like fine lacquerware and 4% mental invasion. the remaining 3% of his personality is what’s subject to contest. when XIV exceeds 7% encroachment is when shit is going to get real.

oh woo there is Politics afoot and Bookman is...actually intimidated by them, that scares me.

also he and Lavi keep conversing through thought bubbles and i can’t tell if we’re meant to understand they have a telepathic link or this is just an idiosyncratic method of indicating whispers.

lavaliere thinks allen is funny. or that komui’s attempts to reframe shit in allen’s favor are funny.

he’s not actually wrong that the XIVth can’t be trusted, but you want to insist he is wrong somehow because he’s already demonstrated that his standards for treatment of people who even might be compromised are inhumane as fuck.

i want to keep making Pope jokes but the recurring phrase ‘the central government’ just. it really does emphasize how much this organization is modeled on a modern Japanese concept of hierarchy rather than an early-modern European one.

...i am reminded that early European accounts of Tokugawa Japan recorded the shogun as the Emperor and the Emperor as the Pope.

labubibir just smirks when komui asks if his unilateral ‘we’ll tell everyone all about this in the morning’ decision has the pope’s imprimatur behind it.

srsly if we get to a twist that the current Pope is like. an animated corpse or a stuffed bear or a wooden statue or something run by a committee, i’m not even going to be shocked.

oh look it’s Link in that outrageous papal magic ninja getup. XD the role of Timcampi in this story is so weird. and great. he’s like. magic floating R2D2 stg, only if Luke threw R2 at Yoda’s head at some point.

...the point would be when Yoda actually explained about Vader before Vader could, but did it in the most assholish and unhelpful way possible

which you know i would believe would have happened.

Cross Marian it is so completely in character for you to turn up dead and thus useless at such a politically vital moment i almost don’t believe you’ve actually been killed.

only the fact that you actually shared significant information last night makes it seem reasonably likely this is not a fake death.

the disappearing body is a good trick. the guards sleeping and not dead is suggestive either way.

i like the juxtaposition that made it look link Link was blowing shit up by playing chess. (instead it is the marginally less ridiculous ‘playing chess at the site of a battle while ignoring the fighting’)

are those things even akuma? they’re fighting them in a graveyard and either the fight is non-serious enough or the chess is important enough that Miranda’s multi-tasking...

if she needs to use reverse on the board then presumably it...got spilled? but then they could just memorize the positions and let her let it go...

lol yeah okay allen scold the monster for its lack of manners toward a lady.

lmaoooo okay the chess was to win an Innocence-infused ring back from the ghost of its chess-master previous owner! normal duties have resumed in spite of the massive loss of personnel and allen’s identity issues, and apparently Link is now contributing to team efforts. this won’t divide his loyalties at all of course.

the chessboard didn’t decay with the ghost, so i still don’t know what Miranda was reversing time on it for.

+1 sassy old lady.

wow they’re actually building Order operations around use of the Ark, which only Allen can pilot. i guess anyone can use the doors he’s established so once he’s got a solid network running they can axe him but....

...Miranda it is rude to crush on a priest, though he has very pretty hair. (i mean, i’m assuming he’s catholic, since he’s with the Order, which works for the Pope. all indications really are that England is a catholic country in this universe.)

...it’s also a country where the Noahs are installed at high levels of government I don’t understand how no one in the Order has noticed that.

‘even if only for the moment’ ffffffffs link shut the fuck up.

...if anyone is inexplicably reading this without familiarity with the media property involved and picturing the hero from Legend of Zelda when i yell at link, please continue doing that, it’s basically correct except for being wrong in almost every particular.

oh good grief. So, they actually agreed with me about ‘can’t get rid of Allen’ for all the reasons i stated! they just announced to everyone he knows that they have an ongoing mission to kill him if he goes rogue.

that’s entirely reasonable, really, though depressing, but they had to be so viciously dehumanizing about getting there! wtf. “our very own pet noah” imma wring your throat.

...ten years has made Miranda Lott so much more relatable but never more than in this moment where she’s reminding herself she’s the only actual adult in this group.

also really feeling Allen’s “I don’t understand anything, but time keeps moving on.”

Holy shit the guy who knew Kanda when he was a small person now counts as foreshadowing of horrible things to come.

...how long have they left the bloodstained shattered window unrepaired so Rebeliel can sit here staring at it?

i don’t know whether i’m more focused on how absurd it is that this man does fancy baking (19th century! powerful! man!) or how terrifying it is that he’s offering Allen a slice of cake.

lmao apparently Reever is not a typical example of his role, probably because Komui isn’t. in fact, i don’t think i previously realized the ‘section’ he’s ‘chief’ of is the hq science section, because Komui acts like he’s Head of Mad Science and leaves Reever to be his chief minion.

also, this poor woman. her brother got horribly murdered working with these people and it traumatized them and now they’re treating her as a replacement goldfish because she looks just like him. that’s messed up on so many levels, though presumably she’s at least moderately okay with being misgendered or she’d dress differently. it being the 19th century and all.

...also i can’t tell if she’s meant to be a very pale black woman or if hoshino just did a ‘fat person’ character design around racist caricature visual tropes, but she’s got the blackface lip outline and a dreadlock ponytail, so welp.

wow Cross’ disappearance just gets more mysterious even as the evidence of his death mounts.

oh never mind Lebubble says it was definitely his bosses but he’s concerned because he was left out of the loop.

hmm okay that’s two women getting instant crushes on pretty boys and two relatively minor cases of sexual harassment in three chapters, all four times intended as humor, do not like this trend.

hmm now a trans woman being used as a visual gag. i’ve seen worse uses of this trope, but ugh.

the Ganimard expy is funny, tho. the amount of personality conveyed in a few pages is reliably high.

...i feel like he’s pointedly not given his prisoners any changes of clothes in order to maintain the illusion that it makes some kind of sense for there to be an entire gang of phantom thief that gets caught every single time.

that doesn’t actually explain why they’re all still wearing the outrageous hat.

aaaaand back to allen’s identity crisis.

wow, on the one hand cross is pressuring him from beyond the grave not to rely on Mana’s memory because that’s not his real self, but on the other hand he has to seriously consider that his recent lapses in the formality adopted in imitation of Mana were even less himself and in fact the result of a hostile alien consciousness breaking through.

haha this heist scenario is so exactly like a Magic Kaito one I’m guessing that’s a deliberate allusion and not just shared Phantom Thief tropes. (Though how do you tell in a genre like this, Ganimard-Nakamori-Galmar lmao.)

...the thematic element of speech-mode equating identity is really nicely used but lmao sticking out the tongue has sufficiently different connotation in Japan to make this possession sequence weirder than intended. which was already pretty weird.

daaaaamn link’s papal ninja moves are finally seeing some use. also way to signal your real identity bodysnatcher kid, allen’s like sixteen, an adult would definitely not call him niichan.

wow you can even use his papal ninja paper magic! somehow! that is a really high-tier bodysnatching skill. also lol of course kanda can recognize a papal ninja crow by skillset.

i am a huge fan of allen’s capacity for headgames.

oh my goodness is he seriously donating all the money from his thefts to an orphanage? specifically the orphanage where he lives?

and again with the boob grab.

...allen walker weeping that he’s bleeding is quite the hilarious sight but come to think of it if he can’t hold off one random crybaby bodysnatching kid his odds against XIV don’t look that hot, eh?

oh no evil undead nun.

oh that’s a great idea, ask komui for advice about what to do in the situation that an exorcist and his guardians are rejecting summary kidnapping. it’s not like he devoted his entire life to regaining contact with his sister after the Order kidnapped her.

oh no it’s another hideous potbellied angel monster and they’ve figured out how to jam allen’s curse radar. that curse was a present from his dad you bastards!

...mana was a really weird person.

you know link, i’m pretty sure from you that was protectiveness.

oh! a twist! the nun is evil without being an undead monster!

meanwhile the nice nun and all the orphans have been turned into puppets.

daaaaamn the Papal Ninja Paper Magic is good stuff! why don’t they teach it to more of their staff, maybe they wouldn’t have such high turnover.

...Kanda just referred to Noise Marie as ‘she’ but I’m pretty sure that’s a translation error based on the fact that his surname is ‘Marie’ and ‘Noise’ sounds like a descriptor based on his hearing-based power rather than a first name.

it would frankly be awesome if Noise Marie were a woman, but considering the only two not-conventionally-boobalicious and also not elderly female characters we’ve had were minor visual gags (plus i guess Miranda during her initial nervous breakdown), and that hoshino was genuinely startled people thought Jasdero was a woman, presumably because of the lack of visible breasts, i reallllllllly think she would be unlikely to design a huge bald muscle woman, let alone treat her with this much casual respect, let alone while writing her as gay.

regardless, if Noise Marie actually dies imma be so mad. not that me being mad has had a perceptible affect on the death rate--though Kanda and Krory did survive the Ark Battle Arc so maybe i do have power. or rather we collectively as readers do.

hah he cut his own fingers off with wire, badass.

allen’s talent for inspiring compassion claims another victim in Bodysnatcher Timothy and holy cow Emilia The Nice Middle Class Girl is here with a handgun to menace the giant monsters, nice.

i mean, they’re not very menaced, but she’s shooting them anyway, because fuck you.

...holy shit that’s a powerful ability. the fact that it leaves his real body vulnerable is kind of a major drawback even with good teammates, but wow. also for some reason his Innocence has its own consciousness???

which can pilot his body for him while he’s walkabout, how helpful!

Bonne the the translady prison boss has joined the count of girls who see a cute guy and get an instant crush recently, but for some reason she’s really into Reever? I mean, he’s good-looking, sure, but he’s not one of The Pretty Boys.

Just realized that part of what’s vibing so weird is, this is a shounen series, but the specific way it juxtaposes elements of extreme shittiness with elements of brilliant concept and execution is more shoujo in style.

sameface isn’t normally a big issue in this series but Link-with-his-bangs-blown-back looks confusingly similar to Timothy’s Innocence Spirit, whom Timothy identified as his adult self with startling ease.

kneeling there out of options thinking you’re going to die and you dedicate your last thought to revellier, link? really??? that’s extremely sad. did he actually do anything to earn your loyalty or is this just brainwashing?

I feel like last time through I failed to absorb the political implications of the Order having managed to put together agents who can stop a Level 3 akuma with their hands and then eat it. with their hands. i think they’ve been spliced with akuma, because ‘nothing human can get through this barrier.’

Lenalee going one-v-one on a Level 3 was a nigh-self-destruct big deal a couple of months ago. This isn’t just sloppily managed shounen power creep this is the obsolescence of the excorcists.

which in theory would be a good thing, but the way these guys are made has to be awful and our main characters were already disposable enough in the eyes of their masters.

At least Allen’s getting Power Creep too! New tactic: drop sword. Stab enemy in the back with it while standing in front of them because it’s still part of your body somehow.

oh good grief allen you saw what happened to tiki myk! how did you not see this coming. ughhhhhhh. i know why. your current life plan is to Denial so damn hard the universe breaks your way. this is your god letting you know she’s not going to indulge that touching optimism.

i think it shocked me the first time, but i’m not sure anymore.

yeah, deeply counter-productive course of action.

...i’m now used to the way XIV uses Allen’s face but the akuma seeing him as a flaming skeleton monster i had forgotten about. wut?

with kanda it’s not a question of did he count on allen being able to dodge or did he not care if he stabbed him too, it’s both.

the cognitive dissonance of the story trying to treat Timothy joining the Order as a Good End to this episode, the same way it did back in early days when they recruited Miranda, when the prevailing atmosphere of the story has become one of institutional cruelty and corruption wherein the Order is a hellish slave-taking death trap that eats its people alive is just...fucking me up big time.

am i actually expected to accept the content here at face value?

...i mean, it’s a good end in that our heroes are spared having to forcibly kidnap him into indenture, but Emilia joining to look after him is just. It’s not funny or heartwarming or empowering.

we’ve recently gone over how komui doesn’t want lenalee to see his joining the Order for her as self-sacrifice even though it was, and also how much it fucks him up being accountable for how evil this organization is.

and not to be awful but lenalee’s his actual family and actually sweet, whereas timothy is a horrid brat with a habit of sexually harassing Emilia.

And that was before the war reached a point where we’re seeing 90% mortality.

don’t do this emilia. nooooooope.

on the upside, the nice nun and all the children survived somehow!

allen’s relationship with Link is weird.

i wonder if i was meant to be disturbed by how similar Mana’s body language was to the Earl’s for a second there?

okay so can we talk about how in this moment of extreme drama where Allen has sat up in bed possessed by evil, timcampi (who never communicates except via body language and is a floating orb) gets a speech bubble containing a picture of a toilet?

because it was really important to let the readers know that the little golem theorized that Allen needed to have a pee, in between cutting from the unsettling Symbolic Dream to the terrifying murder face.

and the thing is, it even kind of was! it contributes to the pace of the whole scene, it reminds us that timcampi is a conscious being with opinions even if he can’t communicate much, and is witnessing this incident. and yet. toilet.

the entire storytelling style of D. Gray Man revolves around creating cognitive dissonance and it does not suit my brain.

...i honestly don’t know what to think about Link being uncomfortable sharing a room with Lenalee flashing that much thigh, but i know i like him better for the fact that he let her drive him out of his own room by falling asleep on his bed, and just stood around in the hall like a chump waiting for her to finish her nap.

and he escalates from threatening allen with a formal complaint to threatening to tell komui he’s alone in a room with lenalee lmao.

he really is fitting right in.

oh hey. it wasn’t just timcampi who saw.

yes okay thanks for the tyki myk update good to know there are long-term consequences for running a noah through with Crown Clown.

aaaand North American Boobs Lady didn’t seem half this menacing last time she came up, but now she’s flanked by Hungry Hands Dude and his partner and komui is looking freaked out.

he does that a lot lately.

#catching up with d. grey man #d gray man #d gray man spoilers #i need to go into less detail

[dippedanddripped]

At last year’s American Music Awards in November 2019, Billie Eilish caused a media stir with her performance of “all the good girls go to hell,” backed by a hellscape of pyrotechnics and wearing a bedazzled shirt stating, “No Music on a Dead Planet.” It was only one of many iconic looks that Los Angeles-based brand Freak City has had a hand in creating. Riffing off the bootlegging practices of underground hustlers in the San Fernando Valley, the studio’s custom-embroidered and hand-painted fits have been the go-to red carpet choice of pop stars like Lil Nas X, Diplo, Rosalía, and reggaeton queens Bad Gyal and Tomasa del Real. Freak City is so quintessentially Californian that even Kim Kardashian is a fan. As such, it’s no surprise that they’d catch the attention of LA native Eilish, who tapped them to collaborate on her own capsule collection.

Though they now count A-listers among their clientele, Freak City, as founders Valerie “Vally Girl” Campbell and Justin “Time” Romero describe it, is “an all-encompassing underworld of outcasts, non-conformists, abnormal, abstract, punk rock, hip hop, trashy, beautiful weirdos, submerged in the realms of fashion, art, and music.”

At its core, Freak City is a lifestyle brand and creative studio tied to a commercial space in Los Angeles. Entering the space—through its inconspicuous doors nestled between a medical marijuana dispensary and a tourist company—is like tapping into an alternative universe, where the traditional rules for retail spaces are broken and creativity runs wild. After spending time in their shop, design studio, and music studio, visitors are encouraged to leave their mark, whether by tagging the walls or laying down a beat in the studio.

Like many great American success stories, Freak City’s can be traced back to being “at the right place at the right time.” Campbell and Romero’s origins trace back to the “MYSPACE days” of the late aughts, when the two were performing as a duo under the alias The Keyishe. “We were playing shows, making clothes, and started throwing parties for our friends and ourselves, as there was no scene for the type of music we were making at the time,” they say. In the throes of the financial crisis of 2008, they stumbled upon an industrial space off Melrose Avenue in East Hollywood, and due to the recession, they were able to qualify for a commercial lease without a credit check.

Freak City’s humble beginnings, they explain, involved a lot of trial and error. Taking cues from Warehouse culture, it was initially a free-form space that showcased underground music by night and acted as a makeshift shop and gallery by day, where fashion and art was sold exclusively to their friends. “Word of our mini-movement started spreading, and our parties turned into events, attracting bigger artists and musicians,” like Kreayshawn (of “Gucci Gucci” fame), who notoriously celebrated her twenty-second birthday at Freak City in 2011. Eventually, Freak City moved to its second location on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood. After that, they claim, “things only got weirder.”

Freak City became a destination for spontaneous sets by nonconformists like Peaches, M.I.A., and Mykki Blanco, and Vally Girl was approached to style Nicki Minaj when she was supporting Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale tour in 2011.

In 2017, Freak City appeared at Mexico City fashion week, showcasing a collection of raunchy club kid-like fits drawing from pole-dancing culture, construction and safety hazard signs, as well as their signature bootlegging-style hoodies and long-sleeves with custom logos and baseball tees.

Freak City launched its own independent record label with a compilation titled Sounds of Freak City, a mix of old-school electro, funk, and trash pop, with Justin Time’s graffiti artwork gracing its cover. Several years later, the compilation would be a visual foreshadowing of their most celebrated collaboration to date–Billie Eilish. After making what they call a “love connection” through Eilish’s stylist Samantha Burkhart, Freak City launched the pop star’s official capsule collection in July 2019. Offering Eilish’s signature looks, like oversized tees and loose baseball shorts, Freak City’s explosive graffiti styles graced the collection of ten coveted (and quickly sold-out) pieces.

To celebrate the collection’s one-year anniversary and recent limited re-stock, we caught up with the founders of Freak City for Sound and Style, Electronic Beats’ vertical centered on the music world’s unique aesthetics. Vally Girl and Justin Time explain how they contrast the concept of “keeping it real” with counterfeit aesthetics, how they approach the fetishization of status symbols like brand logos, and how independent labels ensure their creative autonomy is kept alive.

Where do you draw inspiration?

We’re inspired by our home, the city of Los Angeles—from the streets in Boyle Heights to Beverly Hills, from skid row to Soho House.

What kind of music could we expect to hear at Freak City–do you have any particular favorite tracks?  

At the moment, we mostly listen to meditative soundscapes, healing frequencies, and trap. Our musical taste is far and wide. We’re just as into instrumental music as we are into turn up music. Some of our favorites right now are Khruangbin, SiR, Phem, N8noface, Chicano Batman, Young Dolph, and, of course, Gucci Mane [whose music video for “Nothin On Ya” was filmed at Freak City]. That’s our typical playlist with mixed in experimental instrumentals.

There’s this image of fakeness associated with LA. Is Freak City and its counterfeit aesthetic an interpretation of that? How does Freak City keep it real in a city so associated with fakeness? Real recognize real. Especially in a place like Los Angeles, where people come here to try to be something that they’re not. Being born and raised in LA, it’s a lot easier to see through the bullshit. Part of why we left Hollywood was to get away from the fakeness and return to realness. At one point, we were inspired by counterfeit culture as an art medium, posing the question, “What’s real and what’s fake, and does it even matter?” We see a lot of fakeness succeed and realness fail, so it’s interesting on many levels beyond fashion. Through the years, our team has gotten smaller and our success has grown bigger because we’ve been able to focus with fewer distractions and have gone deeper underground. The saying, “Fake it ’til you make it” has never resonated with us. We’d rather make it so you never have to fake it.

You recently called out fast-fashion retailer SHEIN for stealing your designs from the Billie Eilish collection. How do you fight back against copycat practices in the fashion industry?

Communication is the key. Behind every company is a human being, and it’s important to start constructive conversations on how to work together instead of against each other. SHEIN has remained positive in sorting out the situation, and you never know, this might lead to bridging the gap between independent design and large-scale industries. We have to remember we are in the Instagram era of copy and paste, and most big brands don’t even know who they’re copying at the end of the day. The problem is hard to escape, but problem-solving is key.

OUR WORK DESCRIBES THE IDEA OF DESIRE, LOVE, LUST, PLEASURE, AND PAIN.

Have you considered that Freak City contributes to the fetishization of wealth, or do you see your creations as a creative way to express critique at such fetishization?

[At Freak City] it’s all about the art of the struggle. The hustle. The good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly. Making something from nothing. Our work describes the idea of desire, love, lust, pleasure, and pain.

All things that humans struggle with in this life. Most of our designs have subliminal messages/meanings and evoke questions more than answers, which is open for interpretation. We try not to show bias, and you don’t get to choose who appreciates your work. You can’t hate the player, hate the game.

#freak city #la streetwear brands #billie eilish #streetwear blog #fashion blog #counterfeit culture #custom fashion