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themythscometolife · 1 year

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Teen Wolf The Movie

Be warned there will be spoilers in this post.

:readmore:

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Liam being in Japan is interesting.

We adore Scott interacting with children. Aw. He wants to have kids 😭

The sound production on this movie is awful. I had to change my sound bar to Standard instead of theatre. So weird.

Scott and Deaton seemingly running an animal shelter together is so lovely.

Scott clinging to Chris Argent is everything I needed.

JR Bourne was made for Chris Argent.

Oo Bardo. Is Allison in Bardo then? So perhaps could be cleansed and brought back?

“Well that fucking concept…” Oo. Chris Argent cursing is doing things to me. 😏

Scott jumping into some thousand year old ritual because of Allison feels… I don’t know. I’m not loving the regression.

Lydia doing business woman power boss work is nice. Well that turned real fast

The banshee premonitions are coming in faster. Practice and time.

Hot wiring the jeep and stealing from your dad seems like a bad move.

Mason being a cop SUCKS. Fuck that shit.

Derek being a consultant for the police department is… a move.

Derek being in sad mode is also nice.

“Why the hell does he keep taking the jeep?” “Because he knows I hate it.”

oh dang! They full on demolished Oak Creek! Which makes sense.

The editing in this movie is so jarring.

Lydia and Scott hugging 🥺

There’s like grass and dirt everywhere. You needed that specifically? To break concrete?

Jackson just fucking entering the scene and eating left over food is hilarious!

JACKSON AND ETHAN ARE STILL TOGETHER FUCK YEAH

Of course it’s the Nemeton.

I called the Malia and Parrish thing back when the trailer hit.

RYAN KELLEY’S BUTT!!!!

Oh she’s afraid of commitment. I mean… valid tbf. Coyote’s are supposed to mate for life so.

“I missed you too.” “No you didn’t.” “I wanted to.” “Now that I believe.”

Autistic Malia.

Has Chris been possessed?!? NOOOOOOOOOOOO

“Darkness you mother fucker.” LMAO

I’m really loving the set light in the background of the forest that isn’t even concealed.

“I was only three the last time you saw me.” oh damn 12 years

Anticlimactic little spell. But i know it’s a red herring.

Oh there we go. Is this a light of life?

Yep. There’s Allison. Oh Crystal Reed butt 😏

IS MELISSA A DOCTOR?!?!

Ope. There goes the fireflies. Owl City blares in the background.

“My good friend, your dad…” 🥺 They’re good friends.

I see why people say this is queerbaiting Sterek again. The jeep, the awkward clumsiness.

Think this would be like being awoken from a 17 year coma? Kinda seems like it. Maybe that would have made more sense tbh.

She is a trained hunter. Of course she can and will fight back.

She thinks Derek’s the alpha? Interesting.

I miss the Stiles Nogitsune.

So we just have an unlocked Kitsune at the police station? You know what? Yeah why not.

How does he have nine tails but doesn’t even know he’s a kitsune?

The god forsaken tunnels.

Oo! A little Eaddy Mays.

Jackson being here for one liners is fun.

I do miss Tyler as Derek.

Ah and here’s Liam and Hikari. Is she a flame Kitsune?

Scott’s out of practice but his beta is requesting help.

“Yeah but I’m a nice demon.” Yes you are baby.

Eli passes out when he sees his own fangs and claws? Lmao

Peter just inviting himself in. Of course.

“The healing process is faster with fire.” WITH WOLFS BANE! This is new. Why?

Jackson just wants to remind everyone he’s part Kanima.

“i’ll stop anyone that tries to kill an innocent 15 year old.” DOUBT

Scott just forcing Eli to transform is… a choice. Necessary but still

Oh okay it is wolfsbane. Interesting. She worked fast.

So the ONI are taking people like removing pieces from a board. But not killing them since Mason disappeared but they just straight up killed the blonde cop and now are showing up to Scott’s house and with Hikari/Liam

Not the aishiteru. NOT THE AISHITERU lmao

“Remember who you are.” okay fucking Mufasa.

And there goes Eli. bless his heart. he tried to be the bad wolf on campus.

Scott just piercing himself on the kunai. Boy. You are stupid.

“Okay you killed me, now can we talk?”

“There’s blood.” sir. there’s a red splotch on the ground. That ground crawling was unnecessary. But i respect Ian’s commitment

Jackson pointing out they’re Rowan trees is nice. Glad he’s useful.

“We protect those who can not protect themselves.”

And she kicks him okay

“If we don’t die tonight we can talk about the look.” Ah yes the marrish we all definitely asked for.

ARE THEY SAYING ITS FUCKING ADRIAN HARRIS?!? lmao they just brought whoever they could back huh

The Allison healing Scott but using a torch is… Whew.

Allison choosing to find her father is on brand. I like that.

“Because I’m still in love with you.” Oh man

“i was your chemistry teacher, Jackson. You fucking idiot.” LMAO

Not a fucking 30 something year old man playing High School lacrosse.

You’re telling me wolf coyotes would run into a werewolf’s house and try to eat or maim the werewolf’s child? Yeah okay

Car crashes can happen whether you’re there or not. You would still experience it.

This kinda implies that Stiles actually died.

Lmao Greenberg.

“My friends are in trouble and it’s all my fault.” :c

“i’ve killed oni before.” “then let’s kill a few more.”

“You are a hellhound that burns hellfire. Now burn this fucker up.”

I actually appreciate the amount of cursing that they’re doing. Truly capturing the millennial adult experience.

A banshee wail taking out the Oni. Okay

And waking up Allison fully, I suppose. Kinda like what they did for Mason as The Beast. A decent parallel.

The disgust on Allison’s face at the thought of killing Scott.

I feel like three arrows is overkill. Not a fucking heart blood stain.

Oh yeah. It’s all an illusion.

How did Hikari just cover him in Fox Fire?

“Silver, you mother fucker.” this movie is so ridiculous. / pos

lmao an alpha nogitsune. yeah okay

This sequence needed more Liam. A joke honestly

Derek: I’m cool calm and collected

Eli: Dad?!

Derek: MY SON! HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SON?!

Sir, is this Finding Nemo?

I actually applaud Dyan O’Brien for not joining this mess.

“I can’t you’ll both burn up.”

You’re fucking telling me Derek Hale holds the alpha Nogitsune while Jordan Parrish “Lights this fucker up.”

AND YOU LWT TOUR SON WATCH?!?!!?!

Hello, I’ll take, how many layers of trauma can we inflict in one stupid action for Derek Hale.

Oh yeah. A child was fucking orphaned but Allison lives. Okay. I guess.

And Scott gets to be a dad… jesus fucking christ

Hoechlin said “yeah i’ll come back. but on one condition. you can never bring me back ever again.”

“I’ve never seen anyone take the kind of punishment that Derek Hale took.”

YIKES

Yeah your dad died. But here’s a jeep! That stiles got… because his mom dad.

The dead parent Jeep.

“I’m not worried about the past. Because now I have a future… with him… and you.” 😤

Adrian Harris to Eichen? Yikes

Aw. Tyler’s dad.

So. Uh That happened I guess…

lmao what am I even supposed to say or think

#out of myths #fiona liveblogs #teen wolf the movie #what the fuck was that

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razorblade180 · 3 years

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RWBY Vol8 Finale Review

Okay so I just wanna say right away that this review would’ve been out sooner, but the ending credit song is watch pushed me over the edge and made me cry. So I’m little drained.

Of course the episode starts off with Salem finally coming back. Honestly I’m shocked. She’s only been gone for a little over an hour I believe. That’s way faster than I thought considering the blast she was hit with.

90% of this episode is fighting which I’m perfectly happy with, so breaking down scenes is a little scarce and far apart. But I will say I like a bunch of the fighting. I thought James’s gun was stupid, but then he swung while detaching one pistol to pistol whip Winter and I’ll admit it, I said “yoooo!”

Okay...the Ace Ops stuff is probably the biggest thing I’m “meh” on. I totally get what they’re going for and I’m actually one of the few people who likes Harriet, but this scene fell pretty flat for me. We barely see the Ace Ops interact with one another that isn’t them threatening RWBY or talking about following orders. Like I never had any doubts that they do in fact care about each other beyond a coworker level but the show didn’t really show that. It would’ve been nice if despite them saying they aren’t friends several times, CRWBY added gentler moments with one another.

Like if Harriet calms Elm down on the way to to whale, Vine senses Marrow’s uneasiness and pulls him aside to tell him that he’ll watch Marrow’s back and they’ll talk when the job is done. It could’ve been neat if Harriet was about to move and scream Marrow’s name right before Ironwood shoots, but Winter was a step ahead. Just little things like that to show these characters really do value one another and don’t actually buy the crap their selling about being completely professional. Plenty of real life military soldiers will tell you that like it or not, it is impossible not to learn the life of their teammates and essentially become family when they’re overseas. Even if they don’t necessarily like a certain individual.

I actually didn’t expect Cinder to betray Neo this episode until Neo fell off the ledge. I thought we were building to Cinder valuing having people as teammates to raise hell instead of looking at them as pawns. To an extent she still does, but I guess it’s more of she has to work well with people and use actual teamwork in general, not with specific individuals. Power of teamwork yes. Power of friendship, no....

Cinder gets bonus points in my book for doing what most don’t, cut Blake’s ribbon! I’m so used to anime tropes letting heroes recover that I wasn’t expecting a genuine good play.

So I’ve said she was going to die ever since she came back, then I said it when she hacked, and one more time she was human. I never had faith she’d make it through the volume. So when I tell that it still broke my heart to see this. I never wanted her go. Penny is like my second favorite character. I’m a bit surprised Cinder didn’t get the power. This is the second time she’s nabbed Penny. I would assume she has at least a bit of the power though.

Winter really did become the Winter maiden. We were right from the start. I do like that Penny choosing how she wanted to die and who to give the powers to mirrors Winter’s conversation with Weiss in V7 a bit about being roped into something but still gaining the control to actually choose how go about the situation by deciding the terms.

Skipping ahead a bit because once again, I was just floored by the fights. Next real thing that really hit me hard was so many people think other people are dead for varying reasons, and only some of them are true. I do not know how Ren and Nora especially are going to cope with hearing Jaune fell. That’s their second teammate. Out of those two, Oscar, and Emerald, I don’t think any want to or fit to lead as a new team of four. Maybe Nora really will step up and kick off the active part of her self discovery. Then there’s Winter. Maybe she’ll keep them together. If anything I hope her and Whitley finally have this genuine moment because they think they lost their sister. And who knows, maybe to a certain level Jacques dying as well conflicts them in a way because they didn’t love him but it’s still a shock he’s dead. Like I’m pretty sure for Whitley at least that the hate for his father didn’t run deep enough to wish him dead. Pietro is gonna die of broken heart and I don’t know how Qrow or Tai will react. Hopefully Raven gets involved.

Not gonna lie, I thought the crash was anticlimactic and Ironwood among others could still be alive, but then the rushing water came....

I am shocked nobody actually killed James. Pretty sure he’s dead though. Just like how Arthur burned to death which is by far the most unsettling thing this show has done period. Even though the villains lost members, it doesn’t really feel like they lost at all. Especially when the ones who died were killed by their own people basically.

All in all I really liked this finale. I’m relieved the reason team RWBY fell wasn’t because they jumped after Yang because that’s not risk people should take and would be a middle finger to everyone they leave behind. Wasn’t expecting Jaune to fall. That’s nuts. Not mad about it. Now he has to explain to Ruby that he personally stabbed Penny on request. Like good lord, he’s not going to cope. The only saving grace I personally have is CRWBY might be nice to me and the path towards comforting certain characters may lead down a path with Lancaster or Whiteknight at the end of it. I’m not gonna hold my breath. Can’t believe we lost Nuts n Dolts twice...

Also Neo might wanna kill Cinder more than Ruby now.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #jaune arc #ruby rose #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #rwby volume 8 #penny polendina #cinder fall #winter schnee #neo politan

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internalsealpanic · 3 years

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Explosive Chemistry

Summary: Chemistry labs can be a bit tedious. Nothing laser vision can’t fix though.

A/n: You can all blame @birdy-bat-writes for this fluff and @knightfall05x for the amazing mood board. This might feel a little rushed so apologies and Clark is kind of hard to write (ope). Anyway, here is your regularly scheduled comedy. Thanks again to @knightfall05x for proof reading!

warning: swearing, reader’s terrible moral compass, and some injury

masterlist

You met Clark- Well, ‘met’ might be too formal a word for what happened.

You discovered Clark during a mundane Metropolis afternoon. Taking a break from your studies (read: a group project that had not been going smoothly), you hopped on to a trail car to go to your favorite sandwich shop right across from your favorite diner.

The sandwich shop itself was nothing too special, not in a good way at least. It was even what your delicately paletted father had politely described as ‘subpar’ which as far as you knew was the worst insult he could give. Frank- the owner- was, of course, inclined to disagree. You were, on the other hand, inclined to agree with the opinion especially after biting into a raw piece of chicken in one of their “famous” chicken sandwiches. But it was cheap and it offered the best view of the diner across the street.

In truth, you liked the food at the diner better. Their blueberry pancakes were absolutely delightful, at least, on Mondays. But more than anything you found more delight in watching its contained chaos. You’ve watched people propose, get divorced, have fights, and everything else in between. The sheer absurd theatrics of it all captivated you. It was people-watching at its finest. Frank just thought it was creepy to which you simply nodded and nibbled at your sandwich.

As you watched the usual ensemble cast in the diner, you witness a tall, handsome guy with black hair and blue eyes get mugged. Ok, well, almost get mugged. He was a big boi so you weren’t entirely surprised when he was easily able to stop the scrawny knife-wielding assailant. What did surprise you were the proceeding events. To your utter disbelief (and amusement); instead of throwing the guy into the gutter as custom dictates, the buff guy just guided his assailant to the diner and had a chat with him. You chew your sandwich slowly as you watch them talk as if nothing strange had occurred minutes before, digesting the odd comedy unfolding before your eyes.

Moments later and a few tears shed, they parted ways. You frowned thinking that would be the end of it and you were about to whine to Frank about how anticlimactic that was. But then it just kept going.

He got mugged.

Again.

And again.

By the fourth time, Frank sat beside you to watch finally leaving the spot he was polishing alone. Repeated muggings were weird enough but the guy kept inviting them to talk. You choked every time but made no move to intervene, only nibbling at your sandwich and watching with near clinical interest.

After the fifth mugging, Frank raised a challenging brow at you as you continued to chew on your sandwich. You shrug at him as if to say ‘I’m eating what do you want me to do?’. Frank’s eyes didn’t leave you even as another mugger approached the buff guy. You cut him a look and chew a little faster. For a guy running what is most likely a money-laundering scheme, he sure was noble.

Having finally finished your sandwich, you wave your hand halfheartedly to Frank, your middle finger extended skyward. Kicking the shop door open and jamming your hands into your hoodie pockets, you made your way to the other side of the street ignoring the cars driving past you, blowing and whipping the skirt of your dress every which way.

Neither of them pays you any mind as you approach them, which was just as well. You shifted the strap of your backpack on your shoulder deciding whether to use it. Your laptop was in there so probably not. You decide to christen your new flattops by giving the man a good harsh kick in his nether regions. He goes down with a squeak.

“Scram!” You snarl, baring your teeth. In a surprisingly well-coordinated motion, he does, looking honestly scared for his life. You pivot to the guy who you assume is some kind of tourist.

Most people would say that Clark towered over you but the truth was that no matter how tall Clark was he couldn’t really measure up to the height of you. Nothing about you was inherently intimidating, especially as you stand before him in flat tops, hoodie, and short dress, except maybe for your shoulders. But that had less to do with their actual shape and more to do with how uncommonly broad they were compared to the rest of your body. Some people say it made you look like an angry dorito to which you unfailingly replied with something Clark would rather not repeat. At least, not in polite company.

You regard him with a pinched brow which makes Clark straighten as you openly assess him. You memorize the angles of his features, all the sharpness and corners of it not noticeable due to the softness of the way he carries himself in a typical hometown boy kind of way. You note your university’s logo on the edge of his sweatshirt.

You reach your hand out. “Y/n L/n but just call me Y/n”

“Clark Kent” He answers, shaking your hands. You note the distinct midwestern shape of his syllables which explained a lot.

“Yanno muggers aren’t exactly good speed dating partners, right?”

Clark smiled at the, admittedly, terrible joke. By the way, your eyes flash with interest, he’ll be seeing a lot of you.

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Your foot bounced erratically against the metal bar serving as your stool’s footrest. You watched the thermometer with a pinched face and a ticking brow as the mercury in it remains unmoving. Your mounting frustration amusing Clark making him cover his mouth. You fix him with a look and the door actually whistles “innocently” and looks away, pretending to be intently reading the procedure as if you two haven’t been reading it for the past half hour trying to figure out why your solution wasn’t boiling. His baby blues none-too-subtly flicking in your direction. You give him one last scathing look, which he easily glances off, before turning back to your solution. His eyes have been flickering at you as if he’s been meaning to ask you a question. That question likely being ‘could you possibly stop looking like you’re going to murder the molecules in our solution’. His eyes flicker again to watch you seethe and pout at the liquid and it takes everything in Clark not to tease you about being cute.

Bouncing your leg again, you gently turn the hot plate’s nob until the screen reads 1000 F. Clark makes a choked sound, finally tearing his attention away from what you assumed to be a particularly interesting semicolon. Clark reaches over and turns the damned thing back down to 300 F. You glare at him before, violently, turning it back up to 1000. Clark just as quickly turns it back down.

Click

You two continue on like this for a while ‘til your instructor, pinching his nose, strolls over to your lab bench to politely tell you to knock it off. With a shrug, you two settle on 650 F as your compromise. You, however, continue to glower at the solution while Clark peruses through the next lab distinctly reminding you of someone in the waiting room of a dentist’s office which makes you scrunch your nose and worsen the impatient ticking of your limbs. “Glaring at it won’t make it go faster,” Clark chuckled in his Midwestern sweater voice. You had the urge to pour the hot acid of the flask on to him but you suppressed the urge mainly because it wouldn’t actually hurt and pouring it on him meant starting over and that just sounded tragic.

You place your hands primly on your lap and spin your chair towards Clark. “Not all of us can watch grass grow, Paul Bunyan.” You snip. Clark shakes his head at you, whether it’s from your tone or the nickname you can’t tell. All you could discern was that it irritated him and some petty part of you was satiated the way old gods were when someone made an acceptable sacrifice.

“Is that what you think we do in Kansas?” Your first impulse is to say ‘yes’ even if it wasn’t the truth. You thought better of it though. Picking a fight with Clark Kent was a terrible idea, superstrength or not. You were, of course, familiar with Kansas as a concept the same way you were familiar with Mars. Both seemed equally distant, equally alien, and equally irrelevant as such you never dedicated too much thought to it. The last one might have changed a bit with your chance encounter with Clark. You remember him mentioning going home for Thanksgiving Break. You also distinctly remember wanting to ask if you could come along. After all, you didn’t have much in the way of killing time during holidays seeing as most of your relatives were overseas and the relatives you did have here were indisposed either due to work or due to other families. You felt silly thinking about it now and even sillier contemplating how you would explain the special brand of unpleasantness of being bored over the holidays. Maybe you should get a boyfriend- your eyes flicker to Clark but you shake your head- or a girlfriend or maybe friends who weren’t either foreign exchange students or farm boys from Kansas with laser vision.

You whip your head to Clark who was mumbling something about not staring at the grass. He frowns at you, not finishing his sentence.

“You have that look.”

“What look?”

“The bad idea look.”

“I do not”

“Ok, let me rephrase. The let’s do something stupid for science look.”

You huff indignantly. Clark looks unfazed and a little smug. You did not have that kind of look and sue, you’ve asked once or ten times to use his powers to do something ridiculous but this was a matter of importance.

“Use your heat vision”

“Wha-”

“Heat vision. Flask. Go faster.” You punctuate each word with a wild flick or gesticulation of your hands.

Clark moves his glasses up and pinches the bridge of his sharp nose.“We’re not going to use my heat vision-”

“-Yes, we are.”

“No, we aren’t. Do you want me to list the ways this could go wrong?”

“Relax, my human shield is invincible.”

“You’re horrible.”

“Yup.”

“I really can’t convince you?”

“Nope.”

“What if I just don’t?”

“Then I dip out and break into a different lab to get a bunsen burner.”

Clark laughs, shaking his head fondness seeping into his smile. It made your heart melt and your face heat. You know you’ve won when Clark moves his seat closer to you. For some reason, Clark always insisted on sitting just a little farther from you no matter the circumstance.

You two lean in. Clark gives you a side glance. “For the record, I said this was a bad idea.”

“Fine, I’ll quote you on that once I’ve won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.”

Clark snorts. He removes his glasses, the blue of his eyes shifting to an angry red. It makes your breath hitch every time being reminded just how dangerous your sweet, gentle best friend really is.

You watch the liquid in the flask begin to boil and you make a noise of triumph, throwing your arms up in the air in delight. Clark smiles at you and you feel a little embarrassed by your reaction but the smile on your face doesn’t disappear. You both lean back and you toss him a smug smile. He huffs at you amused and rolls his eyes.

“Fine, not all of your ideas are-”

Crack.

Shatter.

Shards of glass fly everywhere as the flask shatters. You yelp high and surprised. Clark pulls you into his arms shielding you from the glass and hot acid. You hiss when a shard cuts against the delicate skin of your forehead. You’re numb as you feel the blood trickling staining Clark’s shirt. Your senses were more focused on the way he wraps his arms around you and how safe you feel despite the graze on your forehead.

“Y/n, Clark, are you two ok?”

You hear the frantic footsteps approach you but neither of you pulls away. You just focus on how tightly Clark holds you against himself. You feel the flex of his large muscles as he pulls you closer.

“We’re fine sir but I think Y/n needs to go to the clinic.”

Do you?

Your fingers rise up your forehead and your stomach drops a little when they come away red. You’re aware that you’re bleeding but it takes some time for the knowledge to fully sink in. Your professor is practically shoving you out of the room by the time you even make any move to react.

“Y/n, I-”

“I swear to god if you say I told you so I’ll punch you in the face-” You look into his eyes, your voice amazingly calm. He opens his mouth again. “- and if you say I’m sorry I’ll punch you in the dick.” His mouth closes and you both fall silent even as you go down the hall towards the university’s health office which was just a glorified clinic with the addition of counselors and a waiting room with Rubix cubes instead of magazines. Clark doesn’t loosen his grip on your shoulder even as you wait for the nurse to come out and treat you.

Your mind feels far less frantic than it did a few moments ago.

“I told you it was a bad idea.” Clark jokes offhandedly.

You snort at the remark and glare at him without any real venom. “You really aren’t as nice as people say you are.”

“Nope.”

“Jackass.”

This draws a tired laugh from him. “Well, I’m sorry. Why don’t I make it up to you then?”

“Unless you’ve got a Porsche in your back pocket”

He winces. You snort again.

“How bout coffee?” You blink at him. “Or maybe dinner? This Friday?” He adds with a hopeful lilt.

“Just as long as you don’t invite a mugger to come along.”

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THANKS FOR READING

taglist: @batarella, @anothertimdrakestan, @lucy-roo, @multifandomgirl-us, @idkmanicantenglish,@birdy-bat-writes, @boosyboo9206, @americasmarauders , @l-horizon11, @arestorationofbalance , @cloudie-skay , @wunderstell

#superman #superman x y/n #superman x reader #my writing #clark kent #clark kent x reader #superfam #kind of #in the future if I continue with this reader

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cynthiaandsamus · 3 years

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Custom Toonami Block Week 72 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch continues his plan to kidnap a little Chinese girl and Todoh gets to show off his new Zangetsu so the Black Knights enjoy having two Knightmares worth a damn for once, though as if on cue Kallen gets caught in the most bullshit way possible bringing them back down to one Ace. Xingke has home field advantage and a new Knightmare with spinny dealies and turns Zero’s bullshit tactics of fighting in the one place that basically wipes out the enemy for him against him. However the gods of the Code Geass world themselves said “You know Xingke’s way too OP, better Kimimaro him and make it so he’s terminally ill so he can’t do too much” so now the Black Knights are literally backed into a cave and instead of letting Xingke just finish the job the Chinese government swoops in with Britannian reinforcements to try and claim victory and seize power all at once. Also Lelouch is somehow back at school despite being in China and I don’t remember this part at all but I guess it answers my question from last time. I think it has something to do with Sayoko and realistic Lupin III style mask or something.

Inuyasha: The Panther Demon filler continues as Inuyasha’s Group, Koga and his two goons and Sesshomaru/Jaken make their way into Panther Demon territory after Inuyasha breaks their barrier. Koga meets up with Royokhan and gets the low down on the Panther Demon backstory with Taiga killing their leader hundreds of years ago and then Sesshomaru beating them 50 years ago but losing a lot of men in the process. It’s kind of a neat turn seeing Jaken go try to get Inuyasha and Sesshomaru’s like “fine I guess we’ll let him help” and then getting mad when he finds out he can’t even come because he’s nailed to a tree. Like it’s a weird bit of complexity for Sesshomaru to feel betrayed by not getting help he never really wanted and now being determined to fight off the Panthers alone. Anyway all the groups square off against the Panther mini-bosses, Lightning Panther beats Miroku and Sango and gets them captured with Kagome, Wind Panther fights Koga to a draw, Ice Panther continues her beef with Sesshomaru and Fire Panther keeps teasing Inuyasha. It’s kinda nice that they give every group someone to fight and something to do but I kinda wish these fights lasted longer and Fire/Ice panther were scaled up a bit to match Inuyasha and Sesshomaru’s power because they’re firing huge sword beams at this point and it just doesn’t seem like they’d have this much trouble with them. Also Jaken and Inuyasha meet and both of them are like ‘hey you seen my group?’ which I just thought was funny.

Yu Yu Hakusho: A new arc begins and honestly this is the Yu Yu Hakusho arc I remember the least because I think I missed an episode or two in the middle of it since YYH came on right around when I got home from school back in the day. But yeah, Kuwabara suddenly decides he doesn’t wanna do demon shit anymore and Yusuke’s like “fine it wasn’t your job anyway you made me let you come last time” and then Kuwabara immediately backpedals on it because there’s a hot girl he wants to save. Also they still need to give Keiko a lame backstory about Yusuke interning with a detective that doesn’t explain all the zombies after her but Kuwabara’s sister being like “Damn who’s the spirit baby, here’s $50 for the bus” is fine apparently. Anyway we get the Toguro brothers’ introduction and it’s neat to see them effortlessly make Yukina cry to make jewels and then have Younger Toguro give her some advice about making herself cry on cue so she doesn’t have to suffer every time which is some weird tough love take it or leave it advice that says a lot about his character right away. Also Yusuke and Kuwabara fight a giant plant demon who’s all like “Yeah I’m a demon but I got bills to pay bitch” and like what bills does a demon have and why can’t they just steal from the rich human but it doesn’t matter because Yusuke and Kuwabara just blow him away.

Fate Zero: So the church is like ‘yo free Command Seal to whoever fucks up Caster’ which is strange because yeah Caster’s killing children and shit but UBW Caster killed a bunch of peeps too and no one blinked an eye and Kiritsugu blew up a fucking building and no one cares so I have no idea where the line is here. Also Iskandar gets a shirt from amazon and it’s hilarious but he forgot to order pants and Waver tells him he’s not allowed to wear pants until he murders a historical figure and Iskander’s like “you know what that’s fair” so he’s just gonna be freeballing it for a while I guess. Strategy meeting with Kiritsugu, Iris and Saber happens and Saber seems more than a little pissy that Kiritsugu doesn’t address her directly and is basically treating her like a Pokemon. They talk about the four spots the grail can appear at and since we’ve already seen UBW we know it’s gonna be in the huge residential place so it can murder everyone and also Shirou. Also Caster shows up for Tentacle Hentai time with Saber along with more child murder but Lancer’s like “Hey I am the Vegeta of this story and no one kills Saberot but me” while Kiritsugu does his Homura Akemi thing to fight off Kayneth’s T-1000 Black Clover Nozel Silva Mercury Magic which is just amazingly amusing to me that Kiritsugu’s fighting style is to just shoot all these demi-god mages in the face and end his battles in the most anticlimactic way possible.

Konosuba: So Kazuma’s dead again. Shoulda really occurred to him sooner that dying again would get him reincarned again but nah, Samurai Santa has to come off him so he can meet Eris but he actually seems to miss his friends a bit. Like he doesn’t ask to go back specifically we’re not being that cheesy here but considering Kazuma’s two purposes in this story are to complain and explain the joke it is nice that he has some lingering feelings for his party. Then Aqua’s all “Hey fucker get back here, you’re not getting rid of me that easily” and despite Eris saying they can’t just revive him because he doesn’t belong there Aqua just does it anyway, really gives the vibe of an older coworker being like “you’re not supposed to do it this way but this is the way I do it” kind of deal. But yeah Kazuma has a crush on Eris now and despite these guys saying how much they hate being in a group together they sure seem to turn down every out they have to get away from each other, idk I get the joke and jadedness but a little more sincerity would be nice.

Sailor Moon Crystal: Usagi wakes up at Mamoru’s place and he gives her his backstory about how he became Amnesiac Batman in Evening Wear. Luna knows Sailor V but for some reason is really cagey about divulging that to the rest of the group even though literally everyone has been assembled now. There’s a dated plot about Blockbuster taking over people’s minds that Usagi literally handwaves away when Zoisite comes out and punches her and defeats the whole team with one dark energy wave. Tuxedo Mask comes in and punches him in the face and then remembers he doesn’t have any powers and gets owned. The two have a sweet but ultimately cringy reunion before Sailor V saves their worthless asses.

Durarara!!: With Mikado’s status as Founder of the Dollars revealed, Seiji goes on a stabbing rampage again and luckily keeps stabbing the only people that don’t actually get hurt by it, this time being Celty. Celty’s about to go grim reaper on Seiji’s worthless ass before Mika Harima runs in and tells everyone she isn’t really Celty’s head, weirdly enough Mikado recognizes this right before she says anything somehow, like makes sense Celty realizes it’s not her head but Mikado has no frame of reference aside from knowing she was wearing Mika’s clothes which in her cover story would be explained by Celty’s head leeching off Mika’s dead body. But yeah despite Seiji spending 18 hours a day staring at Mika he apparently couldn’t tell either which really throws a wrench in his “power of love justifies indiscriminate murder” philosophy which amuses both Izaya and me. Mikado breaks down the craziness that’s just transpired what with the stalking, murder, incest, identity theft, actual theft, and stabbing and tries to put a positive spin on it in that Seiji and Mika are both fucking crazy and deserve each other but it’s a hard sell my dude. Izaya tells Mikado that he’s going to be an excitement junkie like him soon if he keeps ramping up life in this crazy city and Celty just kinda forgives Shinra for knowing where her head is without telling her and also plastic surgerizing a yandere girl to look like her and give her her name which seems a little weird for them to just punch each other and call it a wash when Shinra was arguably as yandere as Mika here and they still get unofficially married. Seiji tells Mika he doesn’t love her but because of all the shit she went through to literally mold herself into the object of his obsession he guess she can hang around until he gets the headless sex toy of his dreams so… happy ending I guess. Everyone in this town is fucking crazy and they forgive each other way too easily but for a show that swings back and forth between how fucked up people are and saying humanity is fundamentally pretty decent I guess that’s kind of the point.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Code Geass #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Fate Zero #Konosuba #Sailor Moon Crystal #Durarara!!

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ac-liveblogs · 4 years

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RWBYlog vol 6, eps5-7

remember when volume 6 inexplicably had two really good episodes? yeah, that was weird

Episodes 5-6

neo is, as always, a delight, but... imagine if we knew her and torchwick better to really understand their dealings with cinder and why she would default to blaming cinder in the first place

cinder thinks it’s as dumb as i do, and this is the only time i’ll ever empathise with cinder fall

Cinder’s shaky little “...neo?” is great.

Malachite’s “take it outside” cut against Neo throwing Cinder through the window is also great.

And finally, also great, is Cinder’s “Let’s talk. *remembers* ....right.” This is a geuinely good little scene that would’ve been a lot better if we understood Cinder and Neo’s relationship before this.

also why is neo even here, why bring her back

Behold, RWBY’s first monster of the week (...fortnight) episode/s. You’d think a show about people that hunt monsters would have more of these, and trust me, they would’ve made the last 3 volumes a lot less tedious. These are also just good episodes in a vacuum - they’re weakened by knowing the issues in them aren’t built up to well or aren’t resolved in a satisfying way.

The tension in these episodes is genuinely pretty good. There’s also some solidly okay character drama - the Yang/Blake stuff isn’t bad, even if Yang’s trauma nor their stilted relationship don’t really go anywhere.

I also really like Ruby’s response to Qrow and his drinking habits, but given Drunkle Qrow was more of a joke than a serious character flaw up until this point, his alcoholism being a real problem for him was a pretty sudden swerve. It’s still fun to actually see some real tension between them, though (even if we’ve never seen Ruby respond like this to anything before, so it’s also out of left field).

Qrow’s self destructive tendencies paired with his semblance and Oz’s betrayal are great, btw. I really like Qrow’s hard crash in this volume. It’s genuinely great character writing to have Qrow respond like this, which kind of highlights how anticlimactic Yang’s response to Blake is.

Maria’s character actually kind of annoys me, haha. Doesn’t help that it takes awhile to even reveal why she’s relevant.

The idea that the apathy is preying on everyone’s doubts and exhaustions is great, but given this is the second hurdle they’ve run into on the quest to Atlas, it seems a bit premature to be whining about it. Maybe if there’d been more monster of the week episodes!

I really like the little stuff, like Weiss not having the energy to use her magic to light the path when she was fine doing it before.

The red eyes in the well jump-scared me, sue me. Also, the creepy music in the sewers reminds me of the Magnus Archives theme.

after hbomb mentioned williams copying music from somewhere else... i am suspicious

The apathy as a concept are very cool.

silver eyes too op please nerf

these episodes are good. sue me.

Episode 7

Cinder’s hyperfixation on Ruby feels pretty underdeveloped. Right now, I’d be expecting her to be focusing on Raven.

I’d honestly thought, for a hot minute, that since Silver Eyes are so OP, Maria being near blind was a consequence of using hers too much, which would honestly be a pretty cool limitation. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, so Ruby is probably just gonna be stupid OP once she learns how to use hers.

like what’s the point of even fighting if you just have no-consequence silver eyes? maria looks stupid for wasting time fighting grimm conventionally at all.

Tock also said Silver Eyes come with a price, but I have no idea what that is. I hope it’s something that prevents their overuse, though.

If Salem wants silver eyed warriors dead, then why does she want Ruby alive?

also, a lesbian called saph. after ilia this is. god. guys. come on.

These three eps aren’t bad. Which is funny given what a shitshow the end of the volume is.

#ac watches rwby #rwbylog

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mysterylover123 · 5 years

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BNHA Rewatch: Season 1 Episode 11 “Game Over”

mysterylover123

So first up, I totally forgot to add onto the You Say Run drinking game last episode! Sorry, my bad. I am ashamed.

Secondly, onwards! So we open with Deku, Mineta and Tsuyu headed off to where Aizawa is fighting off villains. Deku is quick to start muttering like crazy, which Tsuyu finds creepy (nobody seems to find Deku’s muttering charming or anything other than weird, oddly. Not even Uraraka).

Todoroki is showcased here, being very...cool. I’ll stop. (This is probably Shoto’s darkest scene, at least in terms of him being something of a jerk at the beginning. He implies he’ll just kill these villains with ice if they don’t give him info. EarlyRoki is very sinister.)

Now to the Momo-Kamijirou team. Cute Kamijirou flirting antics are really fun to rewatch. They have this great back-and-forth, bickering sexual tension thing going on and it just shows up whenever they hang out. Nothing dramatic, nothing over-the-top, but there’s always a little chemistry there.

I like this little fighting trio. They’re a particularly great combo.

And now, presenting, the Full frontal Alchemist, Momo Yaoyorozu! (that’s actually a joke from FMA’s manga. The locker room scene with Ed and Al, the manga notes “full frontal alchemist”. Also, Momo’s english VA=Riza Hawkeye!) I’ll bet including this will get this post flagged. Sigh. Anyway, despite the wardrobe malfunction it necessitates, this is indeed, in my opinion, the best, most OP quirk. All-purpose. Nearly unbeatable.

Meanwhile, Tomura being all analytical and clever and figuroug out how to fuck up Aizawa’s elbow. This is one of his Bad Guy counterpart to Deku aspects that I think is pretty neat - I mean, yeah they have similar circumstances, but being over-analytical hero otaku, now that’s a Not So Different I can work with.

Now over to more of Iida somehow still not having left and Uraraka being all “just go already!” Seriously Iida what took you so long?

See what happens when you stall out, Iida?!

Now over to Kirishima and Bakugou beating up some baddies. Kirishima makes a fantastic point that if they hadn’t jumped at Kurogiri everything would be fine. Bakugou is as bullheaded as ever (though actually proves himself smarter than thought later on. He’s kinda like Edward Elric - comes across as a hotheaded brawler, but is actually a genius. That’s 2 FMA comparisons. Can we get to 3?)

You’re probably wondering what my position is on Kiribaku, since it’s like the only BNHA Ship I haven’t really commented on yet. It’s basically one of the big ships that I honestly only see as friends. I don’t really get the shipping hype around them. Sorry.

Now on the other hand...these two need to be shipped more. Uraraka saving Iida from Kurogiri! This is one of Ochaco’s best moments, taking on the Big Bad/final boss and tossing him out of the way to save Iida’s life, and by extension, the rest of Class 1-A. Go Uravity!

More gruesome Aizawa injuries. Holy crap. The animation on this is so brutal. (nowhere near as brutal as some of the later injuries, especially that last arc. Dear god that’s gonna be...brutal seems too mild.)

Deku calls back to this bit where Tomura just quits and decides to peace out as soon as trouble comes. It’s interesting, thinking of Tomura’s progression, that Deku’s had the same effect on him that he has on Class 1-A (alongside Bakugou): raising the standard. Forcing everyone to try as hard as he does.

Apparently the Japanese fandom has a Tsu/Aizawa ship. While I’m obviously not into that, it did make me curious to take note of their interactions. She does seem to be particularly close to him, of the kids in Class A. (not that kind of creepy close, of course; just that she’s often the most concerned for him, and he saves her life specifically here.)

And Deku manages to control OFA! How powerful was that smash? How far was Deku able to go at this point, already, without getting hurt? I really want to figure out how Deku can potentially regulate OFA in the future, and this is the only moment where he pulls off a pretty impressive smash without being broken; this ain’t no 5%. Aside from ‘putting on the brakes’ to avoid killing someone, what else helped him here?

“Watashi ga kita!” (One day, Deku will storm in, and the reaction will be the same. Who am I kidding, he already does this all the time anyway.)

So this ep is a big set up from the previous one. The USJ Arc is not one of my favorites, but it does have a lot of great moments. It’s well-executed. It’s a fine place to end season 1. First time around, I remember feeling that it was kind of anticlimactic because my boy Deku didn’t get to do anything big, but of course this is just the end of season 1, so it’s all cool.

BKDK Corner:

They don’t talk this ep, but there are the usual parallels - like in the ep where Baku first displays his capacity to work with others, trust in his classmates, respect talents from those besides himself, we also see Deku first use OFA without breaking himself, on top of his leadership/powerhouse role in the fight against villains. Bakugou being the Power of Friendship gruff Shonen Hero and Deku being a confident OP badass.

Best Girl: No new best girls in this ep. (So far, they were: Mt. Lady, Inko, Uraraka, Recovery Girl, Jiro, Momo, Mina, Tooru, Reporter Lady, & Tsu)

Ranker: Most Brutal BNHA Injuries (my picks)

5. Twisted and dissolved arm - Aizawa vs Nomu

4. Both Arms dissolved - Chisaki (thanks Shigaraki)

3. Multi broken right arm from OFA ( All Might)

2. 2 broken arms from OFA overuse - Deku vs Muscular, Todoroki, etc.

(Hon mention: Endeavor vs high End - face cut, Iida vs Stain - multiple stab wounds, Todoroki’s burn scar)

1. Blood blown up from Inside out (Toga vs Chitose) and blown up hands and feet (Shigaraki vs Redestro)

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firebirdsdaughter · 4 years

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Okay…

… Pre-warning, this is another whiny post based solely on my personal emotions. It may come off as very over the top and overrecationary, but I promise I am totally calm and aware that it’s just a tv show and that Toei does not give one flying fuck what I think.

That out of that way… Onward w/ the whining:

I am… Not excited for this alleged ‘team up.’

Vulcan and Valkyrie finally getting to beat Thouser’s ass? I love it. Gimme gimme. I love Cheetah Mom and Wolf Dad kicking ass together. I personally think they’re a great team.

Jin and Aruto… My initial reaction is: ‘Already?’

From the summaries, we’re not even talking a few eps down the line. We’re talking the ep after next. Aka, the one after the one airing this weekend.

This feels… Super rushed. On both sides, honestly, the more I think about it. Jin’s shown absolutely no interest in trusting or working w/ humans. And I can’t think of a single thing Aruto has done to give Jin a reason to trust him? Unless Jin is playing him, an alliance the ep after next seems very contrived and rushed. I really don’t want Jin and Aruto to go buddy-buddy this quickly. Friendships should be steadily developed over time w/ groundwork. This just feels like… Like Parad all over again. And please no. I want to keep loving Jin, he’s my third favourite character. I don’t want to feel tired of him.

Meanwhile, the very obvious (to me, at least) lack of Horobi in the scans, combined w/ this heavy focus on this ‘team up,’ That Preview Picture, the fact that Takaiwa isn’t on the suit actor list for next ep (don’t know about the one after)… Is scaring me. I’m very worried. Like, I know logically it’d make zero sense to break him out of the basement, update his op segment, hardly use him, and then kill him off, esp since he’s on the character blog and all, but… I’ve watched KR be very illogical before. I’m hoping this is just the pessimism, anxiety, and tiredness talking. I’m hoping they do something cool like maybe have him start going singularity next ep and stick w/ Jin and the only reason we don’t see him in those scans is bc they’re of fights he happens to not be in. That they start something that they’re gonna go into in ep 31 or something. That maybe he and Fuwa do get a subplot (I’m very quietly praying that the Jin and Aruto team up does end badly and that meanwhile Fuwa and Horobi somehow manage to find a balance and partner up—then Naki becomes a Rider and they and Yua… No, wait… Getting carried away). But, like… I’m really, really nervous that he’s going to keep hardly being around and never getting any development. And yes, I know that he’s not the main character, esp bc I very rarely fall for main characters unless I created them, but even considering his role in the story… There’s been essentially nothing. I know Jin’s the pick for the writers (I’m not surprised, either, of course, saw that coming a mile off), but I just felt like I expected them to have done at least something w/ Horobi by this point? They put a lot of build up into his relationship w/ Jin, it’s very clear that’s still a major part of his identity, and yet… It kinda feels like it’s being anticlimactically shuffled to the side, possibly in the name of this ‘team up’ w/ Aruto and it just feels so… I dunno. Like they don’t care? It feels there should be a little more going on between him and Jin than ten second scenes w/ a few lines. That he should, at this point, be being allowed to say more than ‘will of the Ark.’ I could honestly survive him dying (who am I kidding, no I couldn’t DX) as long as it felt like the show actually cared about him at all… To me, rn, it kinda feels like it’s just occasionally glancing in his direction and being like ‘oh? You’re still here?’ and scribbling something on a sticky note then calling it a day.

I know that Toei does not give two hoots what I think. I know things likely look/feel worse than they are bc I feel not great atm. But it feels like they were building up to something w/ Horobi, but now they’re just trying to shuffle him into a corner and hoping people forget about him… Which I personally feel like is an injustice to the actor and the character’s potential w/in the plot.

To end on a higher note, however… At least it seems like we might get to see more of Naki in the series.

#Firebird Salt #my ideal ending for MBJR is currently that Horobi gets his own lab #while Jin gets to go out and travel and find out more of the world #but the lab is home and he always comes back to it #not that they're broken up #they're still home to each other but that's where they're happiest #Horobi likes being in one place and working on projects Jin wants to go out and see the world and do stuff #but they always come back to each other #maybe Jin even eventually comes home one day to find out he has a younger sibling #something like that #I know it's never gonna happen #but it's my dream

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transhitman · 5 years

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TMA D&D Homebrew

So fellas, I’ve been working on a TMA dnd homebrew, and I thought I’d share what I have so far. I’m not sure if it’s balanced. I’ve never really delved deep into the rules of dnd, so I would love some input! I’ve been writing this with a modern setting in mind, and so far I’ve been working on the powers as warlock patrons. I have 5 done so far: Beholding, Buried, Corruption, Dark, and End. I also added a level 20 patron ability since there seems to be some kind of ascendance point where the avatars become irreversibly inhuman, and it felt a little anticlimactic to just have the final ability at level 14. I’ve also nerfed the actual spellcasting, so there are less spell slots, and the actual spells you can know (as well as the eldritch invocations) are limited by patron. It seemed fair since the actual patron abilities might be a little bit OP. I’m aiming to edit most of the other classes, but I might remove some classes altogether (druids wouldn’t really work IMO). I’ve also been trying trying to word in in a way that’s accessible to people who aren’t familiar with TMA, so it gets a bit verbose at times. It’s not meant to reflect cannon 100% accurately, but I did my best. I also made it so that a lot of abilities can be subject to house rules, and some abilities rely on the RP aspect of the game. If you end up using this stuff, feel free to edit it! Since it’s built around a modern universe, a lot of it might not fit with actual dnd lore. Anyway, the five “finished” patrons are under the cut. If you read, please tell me if I should keep on this track or if I should change some things up before I commit to it completely : )

THE BEHOLDING

Expanded Spell List

1st - Identify, Healing Word 2nd - Detect Thoughts, See Invisibility 3rd - Clairvoyance, Sending 4th - Arcane Eye, Divination 5th - Legend Lore, Modify Memory

Lv.1 - The Pen is Mightier

You are proficient in all intelligence skills, as well as the medicine and insight skills, and you may learn one extra language of your choice. In addition, when attacking, you may choose to use your intelligence modifier in place of your strength or dexterity.

Lv.6 - Media Consumption

The acquisition of new factual knowledge restores your strength and sustains your body. When you acquire a large amount of knowledge at any time, you may choose one of the following effects:

You heal yourself for 2d6 health. This increases to 2d8 at level 10, 2d10 at level 14, 3d10 at level 17, and 4d12 at level 20.

You negate any effects of exhaustion.

You regain expended spell slots in a quantity equal to your proficiency bonus.

For the next 24 hours, you don’t have to sleep in order to gain the benefits of a long rest, rather you may use the time to do non-strenuous activities.

You do not need to eat for the next 6 hours. If you were previously hungry, no are no longer hungry.

You gain a +1 bonus to dexterity for the next 6 hours.

The knowledge you gain in order to create this effect must be substantial. You can not simply google a list of facts and read them one at a time in order to abuse this ability. If you are reading the information, it must be a complete series of events that takes place over more than 5 minutes, or it must be an academic paper long enough that it would take a narrator at least 10 minutes to read out loud. You may read it more quickly to yourself and still gain the benefits if you are able. If a creature is telling you the information, it must sustain communication with you for at least 5 minutes or until its story has come to a close. If the new information you gain is related to true supernatural events, you may heal yourself for the maximum amount possible, or if you choose to use another ability, heal yourself for one warlock hit die + your constitution modifier. This ability can be used once per day.

Lv.10 - The Truth and Nothing But

If you ask a creature a question, they are compelled to answer truthfully no matter what. There is no limit to what kind of questions you can ask, or the amount of times you can ask a creature questions. A creature can only answer your question if it knows the answer. If a creature is aware of the nature of this compulsion, it may make wisdom save against your spell save DC. The player in control of the compelled creature makes the roll in secret. On a success, the creature resists your compulsion and may answer however it likes. This ability bypasses any spells that would normally prevent a similar compulsion. Creatures that don’t understand your language, or who can not speak are immune to the effects of this ability. You are automatically aware of this compulsion if it is used on you. Any acolyte of the Beholding has advantage when trying to resist the compulsion.

Lv.14 - Found in Translation

You are able to comprehend any language that exists, be it written, verbal, visual, digital, or psychic. However, you can not speak the language. If a humanoid is communicating in a way that is not a real language, you automatically know the general message it is trying to get across.

Lv.20 - The Watcher’s Crown

You look human, but no man could know such things. Choose a creature whose name you know or whose face you can recall with decent accuracy. No matter where they are, you can see and hear exactly what they are doing. This ability bypasses any anti-divination effects. While in the watcher state, you are aware of your own surroundings, but moving or focusing on a different subject breaks the effect of this ability. In addition, you have disadvantage on perception checks regarding your actual surroundings, and your AC drops to 10. The subject feels like they’re being watched, but has no way to detect you. Furthermore, if you are familiar with a subject, you may learn anything about their past, even things the subject does not know themselves, such as things that happened to them as a young child, or the feelings and memories of people they knew in the past. Using this ability, you may attempt to break the subject’s will by revealing information to them that they don’t want to hear, and planting detailed information in their minds. For example, you could show them how painfully one of their loved ones died, or you could tell them the reason their family hates them. Doing so will emotionally incapacitate the subject, the effect of which is up to the DM’s discretion. You can stay in the watcher state for as long as you can concentrate. You may use this ability once per short rest.

THE BURIED

Expanded Spell List

1st - Catapult, Earth Tremor 2nd - Dust Devil, Earthen Grasp 3rd - Erupting Earth, Meld Into Stone 4th - Stone Shape, Stone Skin 5th - Transmute Rock, Wall of Stone

Lv.1 - Deepsight

When in complete darkness, magical or not, you see your surroundings as vague, white outlines and shapes against a dark background, similar to a wireframe in animation. Creatures concealed by illusion magic still remain hidden, and your sight is not detailed. If you are lost in an enclosed space, such as a cave or subterranean building, a bright point of light will appear, leading you toward an exit.

Lv.6 - Architectural Nightmare

You are able to alter the architecture of the building you are currently in. You may choose a room that is no more than 20 ft wide, 20 ft tall, and 100 ft long. The alterations you make do not damage the structural integrity of the building, and the room returns to normal after a set amount of time. Choose one of the following effects to apply to the room:

The walls begin to slowly close in on the occupants at a rate no more than 12 ft per minute. The occupants must make a perception check to notice the moving walls, and will take no action to leave the room if they don’t notice it. (The creature may still leave the room for unrelated reasons.) If the creature notices, it will attempt to leave through the nearest possible exit. If it is unable to exit, the walls will close in on the target, trapping it in a tight box. While it is trapped, you may deal 2d6 bludgeoning damage per round until the creature drops to 0 hit points. If the creature dies, the walls return to their original place, and any objects in the room are also put back in place. If you choose to simply trap the creature, you may maintain concentration for up to an hour, after which the walls return to their original position at the same rate they closed in,

An empty room becomes a maze of small passages. The maze must have a path from one entrance to another, but can be as complex as you want it to be. If a creature attempts to navigate the maze, they will take an amount of time in minutes equal to your warlock level (a minimum of 6). You can extend this time by a minute by using your action to change the layout of the maze. You can change the layout an amount of times equal to your proficiency bonus. The maze lasts for an hour, until you dismiss it, or until you become incapacitated.

You create a stairway leading downward in any part of a room you occupy. This stairway ignores the layout of the building you’re in and can not be seen from the outside. It extends up to 500 ft underground and terminates in a plain oak door. The way down is shrouded in total darkness, and lights can not illuminate it for more than 5 ft. If you are not on ground level, your distance above the ground does not count toward the 500 ft limit. The door at the bottom of the stairs leads into the nearest man made underground structure. The door is locked to anyone aside from you and creatures you specify when you create the stairs. The entrance to the stairway lasts for only a minute after you cast it, but the stairs and the exit last until no creatures remain inside the space you created. Anything trapped in the stairway, such as creatures and objects, will be able to exit through the top of the tunnel again when you next use this ability. While within this space, creatures do not need to eat or drink. No health can be regained in this space, and for every hour a creature aside from you remains within, it takes 1d4 psychic damage until it has 1HP remaining. If you die while a creature is in this space, it is ejected in the empty space nearest to where you last used this ability.

You may remove all windows from a room, replacing them with walls that mimic the appearance of the rest of the room for 8 hours.

This ability can only be used in man made structures. You can use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.10 - Pressure Cooker

Choose a target. It makes a constitution save against your spell save DC. On a failure, roll a d10. The result of the roll determines the effects of the spell.

1: The target takes 1d10 bludgeoning damage.

2-3: The target takes 3d10 bludgeoning damage.

4-6: The target takes 3d10 bludgeoning damage and is knocked prone.

7-8: The target takes 1d12 bludgeoning damage every round for 4 rounds, and must make a constitution save against your spell save DC or be paralyzed.

9: The target takes 1d12 bludgeoning damage every round for 4 rounds, and is paralyzed for the duration.

10: The pressure hits, then reverses itself, creating a vacuum around the target. It takes 4d12 bludgeoning damage with the initial strike, then 2d6 fire damage as its blood boils inside its body. It is knocked prone.

On a successful save, the target takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage. You may use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.14 - Waking Grave

Choose a creature. If it is unwilling, it must make a wisdom save against your spell save DC. The creature is teleported into a box just big enough to fit it inside. For every minute that passes in real time, the creature in the box experiences 10. The creature has absolutely no way to contact anything outside the box, and while in the box is immune to any divination spells and psychic damage. It also does not have to eat, drink, or defecate, and it is unable to sleep. Every minute in box time (6 seconds real time), the creature may attempt to make a strength save against your spell save DC, though it does not have to. On a success, the creature frees itself from the box and reappears back in the real world, taking 1d6 piercing damage in the process. On a failure, the creature takes 2d8 piercing damage from splinters lining its coffin. If you so choose, you may summon the box into the real world. It appears where the creature was before it was teleported. All the same effects still apply, but you may move the box freely and it can be opened from the outside. The spell lasts for a week in real time, until you release the creature, or until the creature breaks free of its own volition. You may target only one creature at a time, but you can have up to 5 creatures trapped this way at once. Per long rest, you may use this feature a number of times equal to your charisma modifier.

Lv.20 - DIG.

Dig. The earth within 20 ft of you begins to sink at a rate of up to 10 ft per round, the ground at your feet sinking faster than the rest and creating a slope. The area becomes difficult terrain for any creature that is not an acolyte of the buried. You remain suspended above the center of the area and can not move until the hole stops sinking. If a creature who is not an acolyte of the buried starts its turn within the sinkhole or enters the sinkhole at any point during its turn, it must make a dexterity save against your spell save DC or slip 5 ft toward the center. Upon reaching the center of the hole, the creature is pulled beneath the earth and takes 3d12 piercing damage per round. A creature may use its action to make a dexterity or strength save against your spell save DC to pull itself out of the earth. The body of a creature that dies while in any part of the sinkhole is pulled beneath the earth and lost forever. The hole can be up to 100 ft deep. As an action on your turn while the spell is active, you can attempt to compel a creature to enter the sinkhole through a contest of charisma. If you succeed, the creature moves toward the hole to the best of its ability. The sinkhole lasts for 10 minutes, until you dismiss it, or you are incapacitated. When the spell ends, the earth reverts to its previous state with no trace of the hole. If a creature is submerged in the earth when the spell ends, it remains submerged but moves toward the surface as the ground returns to normal. In order to use this ability, you must be standing on unpaved ground. You can use this ability once per long rest.

THE CORRUPTION

Expanded Spell List

1st - Detect Poison and Disease, Ray of Sickness 2nd - Acid Arrow, Lesser Restoration 3rd - Life Transference, Stinking Cloud 4th - Giant Insect, Vitriolic Sphere 5th - Contagion, Insect Plague

Lv.1 - We Swarm

You are immune to all disease and resist poison damage. Eusocial insects, rodents, and birds associated with disease or scavenging are drawn to you. As an action, if such creatures are within 120 ft of you, you may command them to take one of the following actions on your behalf:

Attack a creature. Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the swarm deals 1d4 piercing damage and 1d4 poison damage. The damage for both damage types is increased to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 10th level, 1d10 at 14th level, and 1d12 at 20th level.

Scout out an area that you can’t reach. Upon their return, you know the general layout of the area, how many creatures are in the area, and the location of any traps in the area.

Cover any artificial light sources.

Swarm a creature and attempt to frighten it. The target makes a constitution save against your spell save DC. If it fails, it is frightened for a minute or until it takes damage.

Per long rest, you may take this action a number of times equal to your warlock level.

Lv.6 - Taken Ill

Choose a creature. It makes a constitution save against your spell save DC. On a failed save, it suffers one level of exhaustion and takes double damage from poison attacks for the next 12 hours. The sickness can not be cured by non-magical means. You may use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.10 - Subdermal Residents

A colony of eusocial insects of your choice has made its home inside your body. Most of your organs have stopped working. You have resistance to piercing and necrotic damage. You no longer need to eat, drink, or sleep. These insects are vital to your survival, so you must protect them and keep track of how many units you have left. Losing 70% of them inflicts one point of exhaustion on you, and losing all of your swarm will result in your death. Using your swarm, as an action, you can use one of the following abilities:

Your swarm revitalizes you. Recover 1d8 heath for every 10% of your swarm that remains. This increases to 1d12 at level 15. You lose 1d4x10% of your swarm.

You may sacrifice 1d12 health to regain 10% of your swarm.

Your swarm eats through a barrier. It takes a base time of 15 minutes, with one minute subtracted for every 10% of your swarm that remains. This causes you to lose 5% of your swarm for every inch they bore through.

Make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 poison damage and 1d6 piercing damage for every 10% of your swarm that remains. This causes you to lose 20% of your swarm. Both types of damage increase to 1d12 at level 15.

Your swarm protects you. You may use your reaction to negate all physical damage of one attack at the expense of 20% of your swarm.

When you kill an enemy, insects burst from the corpse. You regain 1d4x5% of your swarm.

Your swarm lies in wait for its next victim. You can plant a trap that deals 3d12 poison damage when it is triggered at the expense of 30% of your swarm.

Your swarm stows away in a person’s belongings. You may track a creature over a distance of up to 50 miles at the expense of 10% of your swarm.

The first time you drop to 0HP while over 50% of your swarm remains, you are automatically stabilized. A return to full health restores the use of this ability. During a short rest, you regenerate 20% of your swarm, and during a long rest you regenerate 50%. If you have access to meat of any kind, you may use it to regenerate you swarm at any time you aren’t in combat, regaining 1% of your swarm per pound of meat.

Lv.14 - Fetid Aura

Any time a creature within 30 ft of you takes damage, you may add 1d8 poison damage to the attack. This increases to 1d10 at level 17, and to 1d12 at level 20. Furthermore, if an ally within 30 ft of you takes poison damage, they may roll the same die and reduce the damage by the rolled amount.

Lv. 20 - Postmortumorphasis

For all intents and purposes, you have become your swarm. You are immune to poison, piercing, and necrotic damage. You may now exceed 100% of your swarm, and all attacks you make with your swarm deal an extra 1d12 psychic damage. If you die and have at least 5% of your swarm left, you have 1 hour to find a new host. The host can be any living human. In order to infect a person, at least one of your bugs must burrow into the hosts flesh for at least a minute. From the time of infection, it takes you a week to fully infest the new body and take control. While completing your infection, you can compel your host to perform the tasks you want through a contest of charisma. Once your infestation is complete, your host will die and you will have complete control of their husk. The new body takes on the stats your original body had, but you can’t alter your appearance. You may also attempt to infect others with this method while you are still alive. If you manage to do so, the creature retains its own will, but becomes a new acolyte of the corruption, and thus entirely loyal to it. You may have only one such infection in progress at a time, and such an infection takes a month rather than a week.

THE DARK

Expanded Spell List

1st - Faerie Fire, Sleep 2nd - Blindness/Deafness, Pass Without Trace 3rd - Blink, Nondetection 4th - Black Tentacles, Greater Invisibility 5th - Mislead, Teleportation Circle

Lv.1 - Shadowcery

You do not have darkvision, but you have a 6th sense with which to navigate the dark. You can sense creatures and objects up to 30ft around you, and if a creature you’re familiar with is in the dark with you, you know exactly who and where it is up to 60 ft away. You have command over the shape and darkness of shadows. You can not create new shadows or erase shadows, but can extend existing shadows up to 10 ft as an action. While in shadows (dim light or total darkness), your speed increases by 5 ft. This increases to 10 ft at level 10.

Lv.6 - Blackout

You can snuff light sources with a thought. Roll a d10. The result determines the result:

1: Light bulbs within 10 ft of you flicker for a minute.

2-3: Light bulbs within 10ft of you burn out instantly, and those within 15 ft of you flicker for a minute.

4-5: Light bulbs within 20 ft of you burn out instantly, and any torch-sized fires within 10 ft of you are snuffed. Flashlights cease to work for a minute.

6-7: Light bulbs within 30 ft of you burn out instantly, light bulbs within 50 ft of you flicker for 5 minutes, and any campfire-sized fires within 30 ft of you are snuffed. Flashlights cease to work for 5 minutes.

8-9: Light bulbs within 60 ft of you burn out instantly, any campfire-sized fires within 60 ft of you are snuffed, and any screen that emits light bluescreens for 5 minutes. Flashlights cease working for a half hour.

10 - Light bulbs within 60 ft of you explode. Bonfire-sized fires within 60 ft of you are snuffed. Flashlights cease working for an hour. All electronic devices show static for 10 minutes.

You may use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.10 - Antilight

Choose a point within 30 ft of you. This point emanates darkness for 120 ft in all directions. The dark acts as light does, being blocked by opaque objects and diffused by translucent ones. Where the dark is blocked from reaching, light can still shine, but the dark does not create new light. Concentrated beams of light (strong flashlights) can penetrate the dark, but fade away after 5 ft. While in this darkness, your shadowcery extends to any place the antilight touches. Creatures with darkvision can only see half as far, and divination spells, including The Watcher’s Crown, have a 50% chance of being blocked. The darkness lasts for 10 minutes. As an action, you can move the antilight source up to 30 ft per turn. The antilight dissipates if you are incapacitated. You can use this ability once per long rest.

Lv.14 - Predatory Dark

You can make shadows tangible, and very, very aggressive. As an action, on your turn, if a creature is within 10 ft of a shadow or within an area of darkness, you can make a spell attack roll against that creature. On a hit, deal 3d10 necrotic or cold damage to the target. Once you have successfully dealt damage to a target, the shadows latch onto it and deal 1d10 necrotic damage per round for 5 rounds, or until you dismiss it. On its turn, the target may try to make a strength save against your spell save DC. On a success, the shadows detach and you regain an amount of health equal to the damage the shadow dealt. If a creature dies while the shadow is attached to it, choose another target. The shadows automatically attach to that creature and you gain 20HP instantly. The health you regain stacks until the shadows return to you. Per long rest, you can use this ability a number of times equal to your charisma modifier. This ability deals an extra 2d8 damage when used in tandem with antilight.

Lv.20 - Sandman

Pray the Sandman only brings you sleep. Choose a creature. That creature must make a wisdom save against your spell save DC. On a success, the creature takes 3d10 psychic damage and falls asleep for 10 minutes, until its allies rouse it, or until it takes damage. On a failed save, the creature falls into a deep state of sleep paralysis. It can not be roused by any means short of your own will. While in this state, the target begins its hallucinations. It sees a creature, the sandman, carrying a sack. Black sand flows from its mouth, warping the world where it touches until there is nothing left. Darkness surrounds the target, pressing in around it everywhere but their eyes. The creature takes 30 psychic damage per round for 10 rounds or until it escapes or dies. While in the nightmare state, the creature can perform actions on itself (such as healing), but not on any other creature. As a bonus action, the target can attempt to break free by rolling a d20, to varying effects:

20: The target breaks free.

17-19: The target breaks free and is blinded for 24 hours.

14-15: The target breaks free and is blinded for a week.

2-13: The target remains trapped in the hallucination.

1: The target breaks free, takes 1d10 slashing damage, and is blinded permanently.

The blindness inflicted by this ability can not be healed by any means short of replacing the damaged eyes. If an acolyte of the beholding rolls a 1 to escape, they are blinded for a week, and lose the use of one eye rather than suffer total permanent blindness.

THE END

Expanded Spell List

1st - False Life, Wrathful Smite 2nd - Healing Spirit, Silence 3rd - Feign Death, Revivify 4th - Aura of Life, Death Ward 5th - Raise Dead, Cone of Cold

Lv.1 - Life’s a Game

Once, you gambled for a second chance at life. You won, and thus were damned. You have advantage when playing any kind of game that involves chance. If you are subject to an effect that would normally insta kill you, you can still make your death saves. Once per long rest when you drop to 0 HP, you return to life with 5% of your maximum health instead. You no longer age.

Lv. 6 - Planchet

As an action, point at a creature you can see. You now know exactly how much HP it has, any disease or injury it suffers from, how many people it has killed, and in certain cases, how it is fated to die. Using this ability on an ally reveals the source of its next injury to it, and grants it a +1 to AC until its next turn. Using this ability on a corpse reveals the wound it died from, but nothing more. The creature you use this ability on knows that you cast a spell on it.

Lv.10 - Rigor Mortis

Death does not come easy to someone like you. You gain a +2 bonus to AC and are resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage (chose one). Any time you are healed, add your constitution modifier to the amount healed.

Lv.14 - Cauterize Emotions

You and any ally within 30 ft of you is immune to the frightened condition. As an action, you may choose a target. The target makes a wisdom save against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature does not feel emotion for 24 hours and becomes incapacitated. On a critical failure, choose an emotion. The creature can not feel that emotion ever again. A creature can only ever have one emotion cauterized. You may take this action once per long rest.

Lv.20 - Exxus

You are death incarnate, and you don’t have to play by your own rules. You literally can not be killed by anything short of having your soul destroyed. If you fail your death saving throws, your body appears dead until you are sufficiently healed. Even in the event of the total destruction of your body, part of you is guaranteed to survive and find a way to rise to full power once again. You may extend this immortality to one other creature. The creature you choose becomes exempt from death. They cease aging and gain the benefits of your Life’s a Game and Rigor Mortis abilities, and if their body should die, their ghost becomes bound to you for as long as your soul remains intact. In exchange, they become entirely loyal to The End. You can grant immortality only once, and it can not be revoked. Chose wisely.

#the magnus archives #dnd homebrew #not art #long post

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 6 years

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I watched all of Magical Shoujo Raising Keikaku

And it was… eh?

It started out pretty weak to be honest. The cast had little personality, the plot was super predictable and bombarded us with boring backstories for bitches that’d kick the bucket moments later, and that trend continued throughout the entire show actually.

However, there’s still stuff worth appreciating even in the earlier episodes. For one thing, the show looks pretty good, with nice visuals and pretty clean animation. The fight scenes, which there are quite a few of, are fun enough to watch and never feel same-y. The soundtrack, though not very memorable, has songs that are appropriate for the scenes, though in earlier episodes some songs sound like they belong in a 90s detective anime. Plus the OP’s fun and I really liked the ED. Plus there’s some solid voice acting throughout. I didn’t realise until after watching but my girl Nao Touyama voices Snow White, which is awesome.

Also, this show has some pretty nice character designs – the majority of them instantly communicating what the character can do. Snow White is the archetypical magical girl and dresses just like one, Ruler wears somewhat king-like clothing fitting her role as a leader, Swim Swim’s magic is based on swimming and she wears swimwear and goggles, Calamity Mary es una bandita and has the get-up to boot, etc. I can’t say that for every character though. Fuck knows what the twins’ designs tell me about them or their abilities, and same with some other characters.

Speaking of the twins, this show’s characters can be pretty annoying. They look identical and act completely the same all the time, as is unfortunately typical of twins in anime. They’re honestly just obnoxious, however, I do appreciate that their abilities – one can turn into any living thing and the other any non-living thing – are used creatively on occasion.

Then there’s Tama – the dog girl. She’s cowardly and stupid until she dies where we learn her backstory – that she’s cowardly and stupid.

Then there’s Cranberry – who is the main antagonist for all intents and purposes up until her death. Her backstory and motivation make enough sense but they’re super boring and she’s kinda just evil for the sake of evil.

The real antagonist is Swim Swim, who I mentioned earlier. She was dreaming about being a liege to a princess, but then another character, Nemurin, raids her dreams and tells her why not aim for princess instead? So when she becomes an actual liege, she conspires against her princess, the earlier mentioned Ruler, and then becomes the princess herself. However, she still follows Ruler’s teachings to a fault. Honestly, I actually like this quite a bit, but the problem is that she literally never evolves past this point and just gets exhausting by the end.

Most of the rest of the cast are forgettable, though there’s 3 more I’d like to touch on quickly.

The first is the main character Koyuki, A.K.A. Snow White. As I already mentioned, she’s the archetypical magical girl. She’s a massive fan of magical girl anime and always wanted to be one, and when she is one she helps everyone she can and doesn’t kill or even fight any other magical girls. I actually like her a lot. She’s obviously a trope but it’s a trope I love and they put her character to good use.

The second is Ripple, who, while she doesn’t seem super relevant in the story at first, she survives to the end and is featured prominently in the OP and ED. And honestly? I never really liked her. She doesn’t really have a goal or motive throughout most of the story, and when she finally gets the goal of killing Swim Swim, she pulls it off reasonably easy in a very, very anticlimactic ending. Her backstory is one of the more boring of the bunch and she constantly says “tch” and it’s extremely annoying. I don’t really know why she ended up being the oh so important girl that survives to the end, is what I’m trying to say.

Lastly, I’d like to talk about Hardgore Alice – a girl who constantly fucked with my opinions on her. She pops up to say hi to Snow White but is beheaded by Magicaloid 44, before it’s revealed that she can recover from any injury and she kills Magicaloid 44 herself. This would’ve been a nice reveal, except during the mid-cards they straight up tell us her power, so the reveal has no weight to it! Something similar happened earlier in the show where Sister Nana’s love for Winterprison strengthens her, and that’s Nana’s power. We’re told this by the mid-cards and like 3 characters who all say it one after the other, even though the demonstration of the power was enough to tell us. Anyway, they start Hardgore Alice off as creepy and maybe a villain, but it’s later revealed that she’s definitely good. By this point she’s still boring me but I’m curious about where they’ll go with her. During her backstory, we learn that her dad killed her mum and she moved in with her aunt and uncle. Pretty generic but whatever. This is where I start to get salty though, she becomes a magical girl aware of Snow White and deliberately makes her avatar edgy as fuck because black and white’ll look good together. This pissed me off because it’s boring as fuck. Why not change her backstory or something so that her dad would’ve killed her too but Snow White helped her? That’d be way better reason to want to join her. So at this point, I’m disappointed. But then they fuck with me again. For you see, way earlier in the anime Snow White helped a random girl find her keys to her home. Turns out that girl was Hardgore Alice! And once again, I was happy. It’s kind of a silly motive but I liked it, and it would have probably been way more interesting if Hardgore Alice survived with Snow White rather than Ripple. Alas, they needed a tragic close friend death scene in there somewhere. It’s not like someone dies every episode.

That’s the thing about this show. They put in so little effort to attach us to any of the characters and kill them off so often that nothing has any impact. Of the 16 magical girls in this show, 14 wind up dead and practically all of them were forgettable as hell though. The show’s just pretty predictable and formulaic in general and while the plot got slightly better later on, enough for me to find it decently enjoyable, it was still kind of a chore to watch, not helped by the anti-climactic ending.

Another thing this show does that’s pretty irritating is introduce plot rules at weird moments. For example, Hardgore Alice is killed for real in her normal form, rendering her truly dead. The reason this worked is because if a magical girl’s identity is discovered by normal people, she’ll die. And since Alice was surrounded by people she couldn’t turn into her magical girl form. This would be cool with me, but the rule “don’t let people know” is literally introduced in the moments leading up to Alice’s death, which feels really forced and unnatural. Another example is Fav, the irritating actually evil magical companion, telling the 15 magical girls at the start that they’ll be cut down to 8 remaining. However, they later reduce it to 4 for no reason. Why not just have it be 4 in the first place rather than go through all this trouble?

One other thing I’d like to praise though is this show’s tone. In spite of the constant character death left and right, it never actually tries super hard to be dark or edgy ala Magical Girl Site. It also doesn’t really have any comedy either, keeping a fairly consistent tone throughout, unlike Magical Girl Site.

Anyway, I think this wasn’t great. Not egregiously shit or anything and had many things worth genuine praise, but there’s not much reason to really watch it. If you’re not a fan of magical girl anime, don’t waste your time on this. If you are a fan, only really watch this if you’re curious.

In my brief research into the franchise just for the hell of it, I’ve learned that there are a shit ton of light novels that go way past the events of the anime and includes such events as Ripple disappearing and Snow White searching for her, and also Snow White being so fucking jaded that she kills evil magical girls so not to repeat the tragedy of the anime’s events. Sounds okay enough, but I’m not gonna read any of them. If they get adapted into anime though, I’ll probably watch them. I mean, why not, right?

#magical girl raising project #magical girl site #did i mention even once that i was invested in the plot as it went further on?#because i was #until the anticlimactic ending at least #still it's not the worst magical girl show i've seen #5.7.18 #josh reviews

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mrfippstuff · 3 years

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Just some thoughts on RWBY Volume 8

Good

-Lots of really good characters moments for lots of characters.

-Penny was more or less the MVP of the volume, every scene with her was varying levels of great and enjoyable, even when they were heartbreaking, and I always enjoy stories about autonomy. Her relationship with Peitro was sweet beyond belief, and I think her relationship and interactions with Ruby have always been the strongest in the show, and easily the biggest highlight. Rest in peace you funky little robot.

-While my opinion of Cinder has always been sort of pendulum, the last few episodes really did well with her. When I like Cinder, I am always a fan of these power-obsessed characters who so desperately crave it, only to meet with failure but are never understand why, but this has ended up with Cinder losing much of the edge she had previously, but she ended up a real impressive villain this volume with how everything worked out for her, and just how that all ended up in her favor.

-Watts roasting her was the best scene in the volume by a mile.

Oscar went from having off-screen development to carrying a good chunk of this volume on his back, who would have thought being kidnapped and tortured would end up being a good thing? For a while now, Oscar has felt like he hasn’t really found his place in the story and the group, but he really stepped up his game while imprisoned, and I found his interactions with the characters around him all well done, he they the people he has been around for the last several volumes or the villains who he had only just met, and I feel like his slots into place much better than he did,

-I wasn’t too big of a fan of the characters who were introduced in Volume 7, the Ace-Ops and the Happy Huntresses felt more like narrative functions than characters to me, and for the most part I sort of held a rather neutral opinion of them; I didn’t dislike them, but I didn’t care much for them in the first place. But they really pulled their weight this volume and had much more solid characterization than last volume, May and Harriet in particularly really stand out. Even Vine, who was the character I felt the least invested in, ended up really getting something out of me with his last scene.

-While I didn’t care for the Ironwood plot (I’ll get to that), I really liked the scenes with Winter. Her sense of inner conflict was great, and her actress really killed it in the last episode.

-Lots of fantastic visuals this volume; the exploding dust mine, Penny flying over Atlas and Mantle, the insides of Monstra, Salem turning Atlas into Normandy, The Yellow Brick Road, and the Fall of Atlas.

-While I feel there might have been less fights this volume when compared to last, I feel like they were overall much stronger and more consistent; Penny vs the Ace-Ops, JOY chasing the Hound, Penny vs Cinder, are all going to be favorites of mine for a long while, and the fights that happened on The Yellow Brick Road are easily the best fights in a finale we’ve ever had.

The So-So

-While the writing was on the wall for their turns, and I can’t argue that there are large parts of this I like, I do with they had done a bit more with Hazel and Emerald. I feel like they could have made Hazel’s turn had a bigger inner conflict than it did, that he had been more resistant than he did, but I can’t deny just how great the end result had ended up being. While everything leading up to Emerald turning was well done, and some of my favorite parts of this volume, once she got to the mansion I felt everyone was a bit too quick to get buddy-buddy with her. I was expecting there to be more of a conflict with her being there, and while I do hope for the best with her, I do hope that’s something they put focus on in V9, that and her thinking about where she stands with Cinder now that she stands in opposition to her.

-While it was nice getting backstory on her, I felt nothing we learned about Cinder was anything I didn’t guess years ago. It’s very Cinderella, which is what I think everyone suspected, and the only thing I can really say is that I wasn’t expecting her to kill her Fairy Godmother (Rhodes).

-While I do love the Hound, and all the horrific implications behind it, I felt like it’s actual end could have been a bit more, like the fights at the mansion were not all that impressive.

The Bad

-I really don’t like much about Ironwood’s writing this volume. V7 put a lot of time into questioning if Ironwood could be trusted, and for the most part it seemed like neither side had any kind of definite argument for it; they didn't know if they could trust him but he was willing to trust them, the core cast were divided on this subject, and whatever Ironwood's decisions and stances were, there was always a practical argument that made sense. Having him go full supervillain at the flip of a switch makes that plot seem moot in hindsight, why set up such an ambiguous question if the end answer is a definitive No, Ironwood cannot be trusted, telling him was the wrong thing to do, and they should have kept lying to him.

--It's part of a problem I've had this volume where the character are presented with difficult moral and ethical challenges, only for the narrative to back down so they don't have to make a decisions; They don't have to agree with any of Ironwood's stances and the ethical repercussions they may have if he's clearly evil and none of his motives have good intentions. They don't have to think about May calling them out on doing nothing instead of helping out either Mantle or Atlas when Penny lands on their front doorstep. Ren was pro-Ironwood because he didn't think they could handle the responsibility of all those lives when they had no plan, but when he got his semblance upgrade his fears are never addressed again. When Ironwood threatens to drop a bomb, they come up with a plan to remove him as a threat no problem and without any risks while they wave a magic wand. I’m not saying the shows needs to put forth these deeply philosophical questions all the time, but I do wish it hadn’t been so noncommittal when it did.

-By making Ironwood such an uncompromising villain, the plot ended up stuffed with antagonist who each had their own goals and were working against one another, him, Salem and Cinder, and it felt like it didn't know how to balance them. And because the heroes had their backs against the wall the entire time, this resulted in these threats being removed in rather anticlimactic ways. Salem is about to kill JOYR when Oscar has a convenient nuke in his cane, which removes her for the rest of the volume. Ironwood threatens to drop a bomb a Mantle, but as stated, they're able to remove him from power with relative ease, and the Staff just makes nearly all their problems go away. This led to this odd situation where despite Ironwood no longer being in power and no cards to play, but him and the Ace-Ops still around, they ended up having fights I didn’t care about beyond the end results, because it they didn’t feel like a real conclusion to that storyline, but rather a way to keep certain characters from helping fight Cinder and Neo. I get what they were trying to do with Ironwood, he was clearly going to be some kind of antagonist threat since V2, but I feel the way they went about it seems like they took easy path with his character.

-Because the heroes had the odds to overwhelmingly stacked against them this entire time, they ended up not really being able to do much for most of the volume, they never had any real plan on how to tackle Salem or Ironwood, so the best they could do was small plans that left them with nothing upon completion. Once they get Amity up, RWBN ended up sending most of the volume sitting in Schnee Manor, which felt like House 2.0, and after Oscar got kidnapped,JOY couldn’t do much until Winter picked them up. Points for deciding to go on a rescue mission, but because Oscar did most of the heavy lifting on that part, it ended up feeling like they didn’t contribute all that much to it. Then when they do come up with a plan, the Staff just ends up solving all their problems for them, to the point where I really felt like we needed some more foreshadowing on just what the Staff was capable of, otherwise it kind of comes out of nowhere.

So RWBY Volume 8, it’s certainly up there as one of the better volumes, even with the problems I have with it, and I can’t wait to see what happens in Wonderland and Vacuo.

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby v8

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Lovecraft Country Episode 10 Review: Full Circle

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This Lovecraft Country review contains spoilers.

Lovecraft Country Episode 10

Tic recites the spell to open the Book of Names, then he and Leti fall unconscious. Their subconscious/spirits are brought to an ancestral plane and it’s there they learn the truth about magic from the ancestors. They are tasked with casting Hannah’s spell, which will use Christina’s spell against her to take magic from the Braithwhites. The ancestors help Tic and Leti heal Dee, then send them back to their bodies to enact their plan.

The season finale of Lovecraft Country is entertaining but emotionally hollow. Maybe it’s the fact that the nine preceding episodes have thrown us into the fire —literally— and put us and the characters through some of the worst racial violence in the history of this country. Or perhaps, it’s that our heroes have already proven their capacity to persist, so winning in itself is not enough. Tic, Leti, Montrose, Hippolyta, Ruby, Diana —and George in the brief amount of time we had him— have overcome pretty much from the moment they appear on screen. But, save for George, they all come away from the horror mostly unscathed, and generally stronger than before.

The problem with Lovecraft Country is that almost every episode is anxiety-inducing and heartbreaking, and emotionally taxing, each leaves the audience raw. When you spend an entire season pushing us to our limits, you expand our limits. What may have felt like a truly moving triumph in episode seven feels like a foregone conclusion by episode ten. Lovecraft Country gives us the ending we expected, and in doing so, fails to deliver on its promise or justify the triggers and traumas it inflicted on its characters and its audience.

“Full Circle” doesn’t stand up to the episodes that come before it. Our protagonists are OP by this point. They have been through too much, and this is not the worst thing they’ve faced, not by a long shot. Treating the confrontation in this episode like the biggest of the season undermines and devalues all of the truly horrific experiences these characters have had in the name of empowerment. What’s a little bloodletting to being shot to death then coming back to life, or becoming a ghoul and losing your arm, or shedding an entire body worth of flesh and bone…

What Christina does to Tic to gain immortality pales in comparison to the things that have been done to our heroes, and Black folks on the periphery, in the name of good ol’ fashion racism. We watched a woman burn to death. A boy was shot in the head. Black folks were beaten and gunned down in the streets. This was all in the last episode. How do we come away from all of that trauma, which compounded all of the trauma before it, thinking a little spat with Christina Braithwhite would be even remotely rewarding? I expected Christina to be a red herring, and frankly, I’m surprised she was treated with so much gravitas in this finale.

Stripping magic away from Christina and all whites, by proxy, does not have the impact that it should. She has mostly operated in a way where her hands are free of blood, and making her the totem for this spell feels less like justice, and more like an easy metaphor. She is the embodiment of white magical power in this show. But she is also human and fallible. Her relationship with Ruby, which was an utter waste of storytelling potential, took away most of her mystique. By this episode, we’ve seen Tic and Montrose do worse things than Christina has done. And we know that her only real advantage over them is a better grasp on magic. With the ancestors’ help though, the Freemans are on mostly equal footing, so the win feels all but assured.

How Lovecraft Country Uses Horror to Tell Black Stories

By Nicole Hill

Taking magic away from white folks is a win, but it doesn’t feel like one. Especially when it comes at the cost of Tic’s life, which feels like an avoidable sacrifice. We know when the surviving Freemans, Leti, and Ji-ah leave Ardham, they are returning to a world where Whiteness still has power. They are returning to a world that is still anti-Black. We do not get pay off for the pain and suffering we’ve endured as the audience to see our characters get to this place. There is no real sense of victory, even when Diana uses her cyborg arm to crush Christina’s fragile, mortal neck. Having Dee be the one to do it also feels cheap. We know everyone can get it in Lovecraft Country, and everybody does, but there is power in letting people maintain some warmth or innocence. Montrose was right there. Leti, who has lost her sister and her child’s grandfather to the Braithwhites, was right there. It seems the writers were intent that everyone be a conduit for violence.

Why did Hippolyta travel to another dimension to become an explorer, a warrior, an artist, and all of these things, only to do…. nothing, when it counted? Similarly, why build Ruby up as this Bad Bitch who finally chooses herself, her desires, and her own peace only to have her acquiesce to her sister once again and be discarded like nothing? Both of these Black women (darker-skinned I feel the need to point out) are empowered throughout the season, only to be benched in the finale so (light-skinned) Leti, and Ji-ah (Korean), could be the heroes. I love Ji-ah, and I wish she got a better resolution with Tic, but she was a deus ex machina where they had other options that could have better utilized characters we’ve spent much more time rooting for.

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I love the idea that Hannah’s family have been working on a spell to strip all white people of their magic, because that makes broad sense. But it does not make sense functionally, and the fact that it will not be explained will keep me up at night. Tic has the blood of white wizards flowing through him, as does his unborn son. How does the magic differentiate, and what about mixed-race Black folks who are even more closely related to their magical white ancestors? I understand that intention is a crucial element to spellcasting, but who’s definition of white does that intention follow? And how does this help? Will all Black folks with magical ties just know? This is a mid-season storyline that requires several proceeding episodes to fully explore, but we get it at the end of the season, with no definitive answer as to whether the story will continue.

I let Misha Green & Co. play me because I naively believed Lovecraft Country had a destination and I will admit to being wrong. But I don’t take back any of the positive assessments I have for other episodes, because what worked for me worked. Though, I expected them to coalesce into a truly worthwhile and fulfilling conclusion. The issue now is that those episodes are more powerful standalone, they have better confrontations and better resolutions, and they are diminished by being attached to such an anticlimactic season finale.

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