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donnatroyyyy · 3 months

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A (very long) list of my (semi) unpopular DC opinions

The Batfam shouldn’t work together as a whole big group as vigilantes. Whenever that does happen it ends up being character suicide for AT LEAST two of them and also usually ends up minimizing all of them to one of the skills/traits they’re good at (or the archetypes the writer wants them to be). The only exception to this is if it’s a long arc covering an actual catastrophe where each issue covers a duo or trio within the big group. Otherwise they should stick to no more than 4 ppl at a time in a team up. Also, this obviously doesn’t apply to them as civilians, they’re literally family obviously they’re gonna hang out as a group.

The Teen Titans (2003) is the best writing but (one of the) worst teams. On the other hand the original Teen Titans run and NTT run are the best teams (imo) but have either really bad or really mediocre writing. We as a society need an OG TT or NTT run written well.

Roy struggling with a heroin addiction has so many more layers and nuances to it than struggling with alcohol because as a non-meta hero most of his fights were against something drug-related. As opposed to alcohol which is now seen as a normal thing for soldiers/heroes/warriors to fall on as a crutch, this medium uses alcohol addiction with every other character. Roy’s addiction to heroin would literally be an opposition to all that he’s ever stood and fought for, all that his family and friends ever fought and stood for, and way more interesting because of that.

Garth (like Donna) is one of the most powerful and interesting characters but is never given enough panel time. However, unlike Donna, writers would rather write him out of the teen titans before they actually write a good interpretation of him. And I don’t know why but his role in the Aquafam too has been dwindling with time.

Garth’s openness about his inferiority complex and his inferiority complex in general need more panel time, it’s one of the most interesting thing to come out of the OG TT run

This is a complicated take because it’s literally two opposites in one take, but the main difference in characters as seen in old comics vs. now is two things. One, the writing of characters was much better, much more realistic, and much more nuanced in old comics. Two, when there is a well-written character in modern comics its usually a more show not tell character so everything is shown to us through actions and stuff rather than straight up words or them psychoanalyzing themselves in their speech bubbles and that just doesn’t work with modern audiences because media literacy is a dying art. Also, there’s the variable of the influence of fanon over how characters are written in comics but that’s a whole other post.

Roy and Donna are literally THE OTP like I don’t even want to hear it, they’re literally DC’s percabeth.

Every single Teen Titan had an inferiority complex, some were just easier to see.

Selina and Bruce and Talia and Bruce are two very different relationships that can’t be compared. Also they will always live side by side till the end of comics, this love triangle was one meant to last, and it will.

Jason Todd as we know him right now should get the YJ Roy Harper treatment, we need to find out that he’s a clone and the real JT is somewhere in Africa working for UNICEF or something, that’s the only way to fix his character.

Also, ignoring the top one, if DC doesn’t want to commit to that because they’re cowards, they should at least not make him a part of the Batfam yet, it’s too soon for either side.

Kara Zor El is the perfect character to be a white lantern, her arc literally matches up perfectly with each of the rings, and she’d wield it incredibly

Kyle Rayner is top 3 GLs

In my opinion, Diana is best written when the most important thing to her in the world is the world itself. Like, usually I hate the whole “hero would sacrifice u, villain would sacrifice the world” thing cuz it mostly doesn’t really apply, but to her it absolutely does. Diana would sacrifice the closest person to her for the world in an instant if it was for the sake of the world. And this isn’t like an angst thing because they all know it and are all ok with it.

Also, Diana is one of the most if not the most powerful characters in all of DC, if DC did a Deadpool kills the marvel universe kind of thing they should totally use her because she is sooo powerful. (Afterthought: that’s why I hate most of her appearances in anything JL because they underpower her soooo bad)

I say this as a batfamily Stan, the batfamily is the worst family in all of DC and sadly the one that gets the most attention.

The OG TT are the epitome of superheroes in the sense that each and every one of them defines every part of a superhero spectacularly and always has.

Kory needs an arc where she leaves everyone and everything for a while because as of right now, not only do the writers only ever see her in relation to others, but she sees herself that way. She needs an arc where she finds herself in relation to herself, who SHE is. Away from the love triangle, and the titans, and the Titans, etc.

Babs is a better character outside of the love triangle than she is when she’s in it. (Also a better character as Oracle but that only really unpopular amongst writers)

Every single woman character in DC is written in relation to the men in the comics, even WW. The only exception is Oracle, not Babs, but Oracle, which is actually so twisted considering that the creation of Oracle as a character came hand in hand with an event that literally inspired the cloning of the phrase “fridging”

BOP is one of the best teams

Harley Quinn shouldn’t be a hero yet, she was abused for over a decade, we need to see more of her struggle to undo all of the manipulation and heal from the abuse as well as try to undo all the damage she’s done. The Animated Series is the best version of her arc but it’s still not good either.

We as a fandom(s) need to normalize the ability to consume and enjoy things we don’t necessarily agree with. For example, as I’ve stated before multiple times, I absolutely hate any kind of abusive Bruce, however, I still read those long posts about it and I still read fics where dck punches him cuz he’s an abusive asshole, it’s okay to consume media that you don’t necessarily agree with. And same with fanon versions of characters, I HATE coffee-addict Tim, I’ve still enjoyed hundreds of fics with him in them though.

Damian Wayne is the most compassionate member of the batfam and one of the Keats likely ones to willingly kill

Blue devil and kid devil have arguably the most interesting story and tragedy in all of DC and the only reason they’re not given a lot of attention is because their tragedies have to do with something we don’t like to see: the wrongdoings and flaws of heroes, especially ones we like.

Speed Saunders should’ve continued as a character

Hal Jordan should’ve stayed evil for a while, the end of the parallax arc sucks and is a stupid cop out because they weren’t ready for a fully new GL. I don’t think he should’ve stayed the villain forever, but maybe for a few years, especially if that meant they would’ve ended the arc better.

Mera is more powerful than Arthur, always has been and always will be.

Wally West does see Barry Allen as a father figure and vice versa, it’s okay to see someone as a parental figure when you still have parents, especially when your parents are (canonically) borderline emotionally abusive and/or neglectful.

Any iteration of ANY hero being abusive is the worst writing ever because what the actual fuck, I’m sorry, but what happened to the whole they’re literally fucking heroes part??

There are so many characters that deserve solo series (or even mini series) but don’t get them because all the series are already being taken up by bigger characters (looking at you batfam)

So many characters get mischaracterized for the sake of other character’s stories (again, looking at you batfam)

Anyone who thinks Superman is boring either doesn’t understand him as a character or hasn’t read enough stuff with him in it (I recommend All-Star Superman and/or American Alien)

Anyone who relates to the Joker needs to turn themselves in at the nearest police station. (Unless it’s LEGO Joker, we like him)

The LEGO Batman movie is unironically some of the best DC media to ever exist

Atlantis and Paradise Island should be allies (especially once Diana, Arthur, and Mera come into the picture), I don’t know why they’re not

Lex Luthor is one of the most despicable villains because he’s a realistic villain, which is much scarier

Kon should be the next Superman

Connor Hawke should’ve stayed Tim’s age and Tim’s friend, it makes the most sense timeline-wise plus I think their dynamic was super cute.

Comic writers not making Roy openly refer to Ollie as his dad even though they’ve been father and son since they’ve debuted basically is actually so crazy to me

These next few are about Talia Al-Ghul because I love that woman:

Talia Al-Ghul Pre-Morrison was one of the best and most interesting characters in all of DC and that isn’t just my opinion, she was really popular amongst fans and writers for that exact reason

However, Morrison’s damage to her is near irreparable

BUT, if DC did want to repair it, I genuinely believe she’d be the best character they’d have character-wise and it would probably pull in a bunch of new fans

But even if they don’t, Talia Al-Ghul is one of the most important characters in all of DC and comics in general because she’s literally the documented history of WOC in media (especially Arab and Asian women) as well as their relation to white men in media. Her character and how it changes is directly tied to mainstream views on WOC at the time.

Talia Al-Ghul is literally of “I Bet On Losing Dogs” by Mitski, personified

Dinah Lance is the perfect example of a complex character done right and interpreted wrong/not interpreted enough.

If anyone should be the therapist within the hero community it should be J’onn or Red tornado, those are the two that make the most sense.

Helena Bertinelli is more important to the batfam than Jason Todd is.

Cassandra Cain shouldn’t be portrayed as mute anymore, it doesn’t make sense for her character or her arc.

The worst thing to happen to Poison Ivy’s character is Harley Quinn.

Mera is made to be a mother, whether to her own kids (Garth included) or as a mother figure to other kids.

On the other hand, Stephanie Brown wasn’t ready and doesn’t/didn’t want to be a mother, she gave up her baby willingly and will almost 100% not go out to look for her.

Lady Shiva’s appearances 99% of the time are out of character for her, the whole “training with Shiva” thing is also OOC for her, and Cass even existing is OOC for her. The reason that this continues though is because she’s been transformed from an actual character into a character tool.

Stephanie Brown and Cassanadra Cain are a good duo and anyone who hates on one but likes the other misunderstood both of their characters.

Dick hating Jason for what he did to Tim IS in character of him, and, in my opinion, correct of him

The rise in people who don’t like heroes’s pacifism is concerning. People calling Bruce a bad person because he doesn’t kill is concerning. People viewing Clark as boring because he’s a good person is concerning. People liking straight up villains more than they do heroes is concerning.

Anyone who recommends mister miracle should also tell them about the TW in the first few pages

Kingdom come isn’t that good, especially to non-Christians

Big Barda needs her own run. We need a Bug Barda run that covers everything from her origins to where she is now, and we need it done by a female writer who’s good at complex and heavy stories

Some of the most hated comic writers are some of the best at what they do

Chuck Dixon is just as much a blessing to any character he writes as he is a curse

Marvel’s comic writers and artists 80% of the town do a better job with their characters and their arcs than DC writers and artists.

DC should have sensitivity readers because the amount of racism in these comics is insane

It’s okay to put down a comic/run because you don’t like the art, it’s your time no one’s gonna judge you

Alex Ross’s art is actually nice, people just like hating

The Trinity should never be shipped with one another

Steve isn’t important to Diana at all, he’s barely in any of her comics actually, he’s less important to her (or at least to her character) than fucking swamp thing

Batfam is better smaller

It’s better to read the first appearances of characters, it helps you understand them better.

Lois Lane is the DC version of Susan Storm, aka the blueprint of women in that company’s comics, but also one of the most forgotten women in that company’s comics

Comics aren’t going to go anywhere arcwise for the characters long term, that’s the whole point. Batman will always have a robin. Love triangles will always be love triangles. They will all always stay young.

Old campy comics were better than modern comics.

Cheshire isn’t a redeemable character and shouldn’t be one. Women in comics should be allowed to be straight up villains and stay that way.

Cheshire having Lian is OOC. Cheshire leaving Lian is a racist trope.

Asian and Arabs are treated horribly by DC.

The New 52 is actually a good place to start for new readers, it was a good idea, but it should’ve just been an alternate universe (like mcu is to 616 kind of) or something (and it should’ve been down with the supervision of anyone who isn’t Dan didio)

DC has some of the best world building in the history of modern day media/literature especially considering how many facets of this world there were/are to build

Team rosters that are constantly changing are better than stationary ones unless they change too much/too fast

Canon is hypocritical 90% of the time, most times canon clashes and crashes and doesn’t make sense, so don’t worry about it, read a comic, count what you want to be canon as canon, throw the rest into to the “never existed” pile

I’m sorry to tell you guys this, but it isn’t an opinion, it’s an unpopular canon fact, one that even I don’t like: Dick Grayson likes pineapple one pizza

Something that I hate that been on the rise a lot lately is the fact that the fandom is so okay with character being sexualized just because they like how the characters look, I feel like we should keep our stances on this as they are with all over-sexualized characters.

Villains of the week are actually so fun, even more then the big villains sometimes.

JSA needs a comeback please and thank you (I’m begging atp)

Cassandra Cain shouldn’t be Orphan, ever, it makes no sense for her to take the name of her abused. The same way it doesn’t make sense for Jason to become red hood.

Complex characters who are dumbed down once can be dumbed down and mischaracterized every time after that, and this has been done A LOT.

The YJ shows is very much overhyped

The fact that DC overpowers their characters makes them more interesting, not less

Selina was right and in character when she left Bruce at the alter. She was not right and in character when she hid Helena from him, she wouldn’t do that.

Bruce Wayne is more fun to read when he has a pipe and fun colored robes, please give him back his pipe and his fun colored robes.

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dishsaop · 2 months

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listen. im not saying the Avatar Yangchen duology is the most serious, heartbreaking, well-written, or adult story ive ever read. it isnt. but it also took me by fucking surprise. the torture scene? yangchen's successive breakdowns? jetsun's death and fate? all the deaths?? that one dead kid? (and all the other dead tortured child army kids??) the slow endless horror of the avatar cycle? being literally haunted and fucking lost in the countless incarnations of yourself and the knowledge that you have to dirty yourself for eternity with guilt, failure, death, and sin to save a bare few in the face of a world that will never stop trying to kill itself? having to make peace with that?

yangchen is so compelling to me. everyone loved her brief moment in the Avatar show, because of her stark "You have to abandon your own spiritual needs for the betterment of the world". but the novels drive that home in an interesting way.

yangchen is faced with greed on an unparalleled scale, and it is tearing the world apart. she is so desperate to do some good - shes so haunted by her countless past lives and desperate to at least not have regrets the same way they all do. she builds a spy network from nothing before she's even a teenager because she cant trust anyone, and at every step she is betrayed over and over by literally everyone she cares about, every choice she makes hurts or kills people, she spends almost the entirety of the second novel hopped up on enough drugs to would kill an ordinary person just so she can stay awake bc shes so terrified of hesitating for a single second. i cant figure out if haunted or chronically ill is a better term for whatever is happening in her brain but its. its fucked.

in a lot of ways she is objectively terrible at both avatarhood and being a spy, but she is exactly what the world needs. she so desperately loves her people, her culture, mercy, pacifism, and systematically cuts every tie to these things, no matter how much it hurts. she gets her hands so fucking dirty, she abandons her principles in every circumstance but one (the last Unanimity), she lets murderers and torturers go free and takes immediate economic control of half a world to abuse it.

and its the right decision. i know she gets flak because of how hard kuruk had to invisibly work the next cycle to fight the spirits yangchen pissed off, but yangchen's whole character is about balance, even more than aang's ever was, imo. aang gets a nearly perfect happy ending (which is good! there were good morals and a great story about culture and peace and genocide in the show, im not criticizing it) but yangchen's story really is wholly about balancing the world and the sacrifices you make to keep it even. for all that shes not a great avatar, shes actually a perfect avatar. she fixed it.

alao, kavik is fascinating. im putting him in a terrarium and shaking it. and the stark criticism of the white lotus the entire time... the implication they caused the platinum affair... ayunerak and do flatly admitting they will let (and even help along) the nations crash and burn in an apocalyptic war without fighting to stop it if it means they have control and can pop out of a bunker at the end to reshape society.... augh.

#long post #SORRY ITS SO LONG #yangchen #the dawn of yangchen #the legacy of yangchen #spoilers #avatar the last airbender #atla #kavik

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ragnarokhound · 15 days

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puts this on your list of things to do

Skcnwksks *adds another stone atop the mountain, and the world sinks another inch closer to hell

But okay fr. I actually read Knight Terrors: Robin today, and with the enormous grain of salt that I am working mostly with fandom osmosis, esp re: their established relationship, I think they alllllmost wrote something that worked. Almost. Long rambling nitpicks under the cut:

I think if they had about three more pages they could have established Tim and Jason's relationship and their problems with working together a little better; and either cut Babs out as the middle man who introduced their individual issues to the audience, or used her more effectively as a mediator.

They very clearly wanted to showcase two problems: Tim is working himself to death trying to save everyone, and Jason is suffering by insisting on working alone. Good! I like this concept. It's annoying to me that Babs is the one who tries to reach out to both of them about these issues, gets rebuffed, and then is never heard from again. I'd much prefer it if they tried to talk to each other on their own and it went poorly at first, only to be forced to open up in the nightmare realm. It would tighten up their combined arc if they'd had one single conversation before the Inciting Incident occurs.

Like, don't get me wrong. I am waffling about this because Babs is a good entry voice to help introduce our primary actors. She is the person they have in common, and by having her be the voice in their ear, we see that other people in their support networks are worried about them.

But man, why not just have Tim monologue to himself about being ready to wrap up his third bust of the night and consider hitting up Jason to see if he needs help on the intergang drug bust he's in the middle of. It could be on Tim's way to the next place he's going, demonstrating that he's stretching himself thin and looking for even more to do; even with people like Jason who he isn't all that close with. And then Tim and Jason have their own snarky conversation (with some veiled flirting) about not needing each other's help or each other's nagging, and that's when the nightmare mist hits.

Because the story is only tangentially about people other than Jason and Tim. They're both too wrapped up in their own problems to notice other people reaching out to them about their fucked behavior. So Babs could have been used as a yardstick for each of them - Tim dismissed her fears at first, Jason hung up on her outright - but only if she comes back.

If Babs had also been there at the end to check in with them, yeah, it might have lessened the impact of Jason's plea for help and getting only Tim in response, but it would have been the indicator that they were now ready to hear the worries expressed by their loved ones. A very *clear* indicator of what has changed in the narrative that justifies Babs' involvement in the first place. You could have her come in right as Tim and Jason are catching up after the initial plea, having just escaped her own nightmare (*editors note: see Babs' knight terrors issue, lmao). She could groggily direct them to someone who needs help. All three of them are working together now, Tim and Jason are on their way to opening up to more people; huzzah

And hell. If you want to justify why Tim knows stuff about Jason he shouldn't - or why Jason might know something about Tim that he shouldn't for that matter - a little extra time spent together in the nightmare zone is great for that. Make them see each other's worst memories. Make them see each other's defining moments. Make it the twisted, terrible, self-directed-blame version of events that exists in their heads, and then they can separately call bullshit.

You literally put them into a shared mind palace!! Why did Tim know that about Sheila? Because he just saw it in Jason's head. How does Jason know Tim has a savior complex too big to shoulder? Same deal. IMO, this would have made their insistence that the other person is better than they think much more natural. It's not an empty sentiment because 'I've literally seen what you think of yourself and I am telling you that it isn't true'. (They're in a shared mindscape. Why not imply that they are seeing what the other is seeing too. That they're having a shared experience and are privy to each other's thoughts, emotions, and memories? Easy to do. "I feel like I'm walking to class in the 10th grade...but when I was that age, I was 6 feet under." "And I'm positive I'm picking up ammo for a gun I don't own. I think it's safe to say we're sharing a dream.")

I'm also ??? about why the nightmare zone let them talk at all?? Maybe that's something that we don't have time to explain/ it doesn't need explaining, but if I were a terrible nightmare creature and I was menacing two people at once, I simply wouldn't let them exist in the same space. Isolation is key to breaking someone's will. If you let them talk to each other they could help each other. Fool. Buffoon. Literally the only reason to let them talk to each other is if you think they'll make each other worse lmao.

There was a clever visual trick in which Jason hits the void barrier and Tim sees the ripples he makes - but iirc that is the closest we get to an explanation of how they might be breaking through to each other. And it happened after they were almost done with their second conversation. Too little, too late, IMO.

Arguments could be made that they were able to break through because they were approaching a hard limit. Jason hears Tim again when he yells at his double to shut up, when Jason himself is just about ready to throw in the towel. The moment of deepest despair, the realization for both of them that they're not cut out to solve the problem with their current method. Something something, breaking the pattern - but why let them, unless the nightmare can't do anything about it? I do like a monster with a secret weakness, so I'm willing to let it slide now that I've talked it out lol but still. It feels like an unearned conversation when the only convo they had before was mostly exposition.

Anyway. Tldr; if the writers had a few more pages and shown us Tim and Jason's conflict with each other rather than water it down via Babs (OR BROUGHT HER BACK TO TIE IT ALL UP WITH A BOW) it would have been a tighter & more interesting story.

#wow that rant got a little long skxndbdjsj #anyway i think i want to own a copy of knight terrors robin now #i want it on my shelf so i can shake it around every now and then and remind myself of what we could have had #cause its honestly not the worst #it just suffers from being a spin off storyline without enough time to sufficiently set up its payoff #jaytim #also im still enamored by how that convo would go #jason: drake? is that you?#tim: jason? where are you? are you okay?#jason: not remotely. but first things first *coughs blood* what are you wearing

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arcplaysgames · 1 year

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The Persona 5 Post-Mortem, Part Two: What I Did Like 8)

Okay let's talk about what I liked about Persona 5 Royal because despite tearing it a new one last post I think it did a lot of good things.

Joker is a great fucking character.

We made it, folks, we did it. We have a player-directed mostly silent protagonist who is just bursting with personality.

My biggest and loudest complaint about Persona 4 Golden was the protagonist. I felt like he was such a blank, empty void that the game frequently had to compensate for the space he should have filled.

Joker was the perfect answer to almost everything. He was vibrant, funny, heartfelt, and kind of a bitch. He had force of personality. There was backstory to him that drove the story. Instead of "grey dude staying in small town for a year, no further details available" we had

"Do-gooder gets framed for assault and is forced out of his small hometown, moving to Fucking Tokyo to attend a prestigious but strict high school, all while being told at every turn to make himself small, to not make waves lest he fuck up his life more. He tries to do as he's told but his desire to push back and protect people gets him in trouble almost immediately."

P4MC gets involved in the Inaba murder mystery because he fell in a TV; Yosuke is the one with personal motivation to start with. Joker gets involved in the Metaverse because he's genuinely motivated to help people and push back against authority. If you took out the personas, the wild cards, the supernatural element of this story, Joker would still be an interesting person and something would have happened to him regardless.

Joker also is much more than a passive observer to the plot. He is a catalyst. He is inherently wrapped up in the central conflict. He's a showoff, he has a vicious grin when he's pulled off something clever, he's actually a Trickster. He's a fucking character!

And while he is player-directed, Joker absolutely, genuinely has his own motivations separate from player control. He has attachments that the player doesn't decide for him, and in Royal it becomes the most shocking moment of the game.

There is more authorship to Joker, and he is not just the player's avatar. There was zero reason for P4MC to be gender locked because he was almost entirely built from the player's projection. Joker succeeds by being his own person who the player is guiding.

The secondary cast of the game is frequently very good.

Hot take: I think Sojiro is a better character than at least half of the Thieves. He's more complex, has more gravity, and feels like a part of the world in the way the literal main cast often does not.

And it's not just Sojiro. I think the non-teammate SLinks in P5R are broadly speaking much better than the previous games. Yeah, I am annoyed at how much Atlus just cannot stop writing grizzly sad dads while keeping single moms off camera, but. i cannot deny that the actual characters we get are good.

Sojiro, Maruki, Kawakami, Tae, Iwai, Toranosuke, even Mishima who I hated as a person but have to admit he was an interesting link. Compared to previous Persona games, I was more interested and invested in more SLinks in this game than in P3 and P4. And honestly I don't think any were Actively Terrible like, say, P3's Hanged Man or P4's Devil.

I think this is aided by how varied the SLinks are. Many of the SLinks in P3 and P4 are other students, and that kind of limited what stories they could tell, imo. In P5R, we have an ex-yakuza gun nut who adopted an abandoned child, a fairly unethical disgraced doctor who is trying to test a new drug, a failed politician who still believes in governance of the people-- these are interesting! They're good! Not to be flippant but they're better than "yet another classmate, but this one is Wacky because X reason."

Living in digital Tokyo was honestly a delight.

Okay yes I have some complaints about the lack of localization in P5R's environments and how the lack of context really hurt a few sections of this game and I really stand by that.

HOWEVER, as someone with a dear friend and penpal in Tokyo, it was... honestly really nice to explore the city as much as the game let me. One of the real joys of the game was just experiencing a simulacrum of that space for a year. I got a laugh out of the POLLEN WARNING!!!! days and how similar they are to my own days in Georgia. And as someone who has never lived in a city and only academically understands how they are laid out and function, just exploring busy streets was fun.

A few times, i skipped using the Fast Travel menu just to walk to the various places I needed to visit.

I loved Kichijoji the most. 8) And the little moments when i recognized a place (my gasp of delight at the FIRST TIME I saw Shinjuku!!!), that was fun because learning the layout of Tokyo gave all those locations more of a sense of scale and place.

Inaba was frankly very similar to my own super small midwestern town in America. Digital Tokyo was a new experience I really enjoyed.

Morgana was a talking cat that slept in Joker's school desk and rode around in his bag.

Enough fucking said. As someone who is not a dog person, it's nice to finally have a game for the Cat People. Finally some goddamn representation.

Yes, I think Joker faking his own death and Yaldaboath as the final boss were messy as hell, BUT...... they were stylish.

I could (and have) sat here and poked holes in these sequences, the two Huge Setpieces that anchor the game. We all know by now that both are messy as hell, don't make a lot of sense, and don't really hold up to scrutiny.

However: unlike the Izanami reveal in P4G which Just Sucked (and I will never stop mocking), these flawed climaxes are smoothed over by the full tilt all-in bombast employed.

They were fun enough to make me go "well, I can't be mad at every damn thing." Which is something.

The Third Semester/Royal Content.

This probably needs to be its own post, because it is dense enough to be its own game and singlehandedly saved Persona 5.

Part Three soonish!

#p5 #persona liveblog #post mortem #long post

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away-ward · 7 months

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To the anon who posted "one thing i hate about will was his manwhore tendencies/lowkey maybe “flirty” personality.", i agree with you 100%. Even worse when i remember that will said that he could easily "sink into alex" implying that he can have alex and alex have him, just like how rika could easily have kai if em and banks were not around. There's no "exclusivity" for their romance as if intimacy with others were so easy, so it does cheapen their feelings for their partners, and it can be seen like "so mich talk, but no actions". This was my main gripe with will too, because if he had the time to fuck around with other women, he had the time to email or call emmy and asked if she was homeless or dying, alright.

That's why i said, no MMCs in this book is possessive, not even damon, they all aint shit. The romantic parts were not giving, the bias were so obvious it ruin the fun of "a story with variety of couples" type of series, the men were scums from hell, even worse than mafia romances (and mafia romances had better arc, can you imagine that?! Even these mafia guys practice loyalty and monogamy wtf?!). Like if you guys want great dark romance, better not expect it from PD srsly, because if there's one constant thing i noticed that pd loves to use in their storytelling is to romanticise (?) something ugly, then abandon that ship and expect the reader to lap every second of it. They always wanna write something that goes beyond ugly (whoch is fine, many other authors like k. Webster and other do it too), but PD'S wrap up of their stories were always just pure shit. It's even disappointing because pd's idea was usually fun to read but man, the execution was just so 🗑️☠️

If there is one thing pd was really bad at, it's the middle and redemption arc, that's why whichever character that gets the shorter end of the stick in any of their books will always just have to stow in their hurt feelings without any further just ending for them. It happens in DN for banks and emory, it happens in Fall Away, it happens in credence noah and jake, in tryst six venom too, and at this point, only birthday girl and maybe hellbent were free from this, only because they dont have much "bully" elements to their stories. Even if there were some rough scenes in hellbent, the romance was still sweet, hot, monogamous and everything great you'd expect from the romance genre, but with a sprinkle of hot spice in it.

IMO, i didnt have much thoughts or feelings when will complimented banks, because he's literally like that with everyone, but when you guys discussed about it, he really was a bit too flirty with these women, huh? 🤣 now he made me pissed off to, and this just adds more to my will grayson's ick list, LOL! Becaus that mad sense, if we cant get angry at michael for looking at banks and kai at rika, why cant we with will?

Hey, I hope the Anon sees your message. And I also hope you don’t mind me popping in with some thoughts!

But you can ignore them too. I'll post if Anon replies.

Even worse when i remember that will said that he could easily "sink into alex" implying that he can have alex and alex have him

So I actually found this line interesting, because it can have two meanings, depending on how deep you want to look at it. One, is the obvious. He means penetration.

But the second is like drowning. Like how he used Alex, along with drugs and booze to, drown out his pain. It would be so easy to just try to love Alex and to sink into her because she doesn’t fight him; she numbs his pain. But at this point, he's come so far that he doesn’t want to be numb anymore. He’d rather fight with Emory than forget with Alex.

At least, that’s how I understood his thoughts in that scene.

because if he had the time to fuck around with other women, he had the time to email or call emmy and asked if she was homeless or dying, alright.

You’re not the first person to say this and, I hope you don’t mind, but it always struck me as a bit funny. Because if I was Will’s friend after he got out of prison and he told me he was going to try and contact Emory, I would have lost my mind.

Because, looking at the situation with only the information Will has, this is a girl who had repeatedly for three years told him ‘no’ and to ‘leave her alone’. Then, when he goes to prison for brutalizing her brother (who rightfully deserved it), she doesn’t reach out to him at all.

He's not sleeping with other women in prison. He’s not going anywhere. She knew exactly where he was every day and night.

I’d say with all of that, Emory had made it abundantly clear she didn’t want to be contacted by him.

So if he told me he was going to reach out “just to check on her” I would have tied him to a chair, and removed all access to the internet. No email. No calls. Hell, he doesn’t even get pen and paper. He can’t do smoke signals or morse code. Nothing.

It just seems to be that when a girl says no, we should respect that. So we can’t say we want Will to respect her but also ignore her when she says she doesn’t want him in her life. Because that’s what she told him. Repeatedly.

But also, it sort of does a disservice to Will to expect him to roll his heart out to her once again.

For three years, he begged, followed, and pleaded with her to see him. He goes to prison, and she still says nothing. Not even a thank you letter. Now, whether Em owned him any communication is up to the reader.

But even before then, Will was lost.

I propose Will didn’t just not like himself, but that he hated himself. He hated himself for wanting her so much. And he tries for years to root her out of his mind and heart. He tries to numb the pain with women and booze, because if the woman he wants doesn’t want him, what would be the point of acting like he’s in a committed relationship. Why mourn the loss of someone who was never his?

And I still think all of this is to cover up the fact that he hates himself. He’s trying to deaden the voice inside that says he’s worthless because Em didn’t see anything worth in him. He’s heartbroken and sick.

Now, if I were Will, and I had gone through all that and had tried to get this person out of my head and heart, only to see them once and realize they are still so deeply entrenched in every part of me? To realize that for years, all the stuff I’d done to try and kill off the love I felt for them, was useless because at the first sight of them I know without a doubt I’m still in love with this person who has made it very clear they want nothing to do with me?

I would feel so stupid. Just dumb. And broken.

But in NF, Will of course has a layer of anger to cover up his feelings. He wants to hurt Em for hurting him and it’s messy and wrong, but people often are.

All I’m saying is expecting Will to come out of prison wanting to get right back to where he left off in high school would be unfair to both of them.

but PD'S wrap up of their stories were always just pure shit. It's even disappointing because pd's idea was usually fun to read but man, the execution was just so 🗑️☠️

Unfortunately, I think this is the case. PD has great ideas, but somewhere along the line, at least for me, the story I’m interested in reading and the story they’re interested in telling diverge until I’m just confused as to how we ended up here.

because they dont have much "bully" elements to their stories

This is an interesting analysis. I wonder what it is about the “bully romance” trope that causes them to do this?

I know a lot of author get tripped up with arc enemies to lovers storyline because they don’t give enough time to let them come to respect each other before making them lovers? At least in my experience, it seems some authors try make the enemies part ‘oh they don’t really hate each other; it’s just hidden attraction’ but that’s not enemies to lovers!

Does PD do the same thing? Where they try to make it a bully romance but once the romance picks up, there’s no time to deal with all the previous bullying?

I don’t know. I’m just throwing things at the wall…

I never minded Will be flirty with the women in the inner-circle, because I don’t think there was any real intent behind it, but I won’t waste an opportunity to bring up this clip so…

#shout out to kennie #asked and answered #devil's night series stuff #will grayson iii #asked and answered 135 #response to prev ask #asked and answered 127

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thestobingirlie · 1 year

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some ppl do too much w making eddie v traditionally smart/knowledgeable or w having steve say that eddie is one of the smartest people he knows (as though steve's best friends are not robin and dustin). i have also seen ppl make steve say that eddie is the smartest person he knows which,,, okay. sure. we're all a little delusional sometimes ig. then use this as a springboard for him just not trying in school or w/e bc he doesn't care despite him clearly caring enough to repeat senior year three times instead of just getting his ged. this also works against what i find most appealing about eddie - like some ppl want him to be a bad boy played straight who is super smart and competent and i do not understand that. i like that eddie is a drug dealer that just can't graduate high school obsessed w his nerdy interests who is not cool and also not v competent outside of his specific interests, particularly in the intense survival situation he finds himself in. that's what makes eddie fun to me and it's also why any fics or aus that make him hyper successful/famous/competent/badass/etc never feel authentic to him as a character imo. they just rarely let the fact that he is a soft-hearted, nervous person at heart shine and that is what i like most about him. also ppl don't appreciate the way steddie defies expectation enough - like when it comes to dealing w the weird, scary world of the upside down you expect eddie to thrive and steve to flounder when steve is actually the borderline hypercompetent one in those situations, even at the very start. that's what makes the pairing fun and so few ppl appreciate that bc they just want to force them into overplayed archetypes.

oh it pisses me off when people try to make eddie scholarly. boy is on his third attempt of senior year. like, he’s clearly trying to pass, but he can’t. and that speaks to trouble with class more than eddie just not trying, or teachers purposely holding him back, which i’ve also seen in fics and just doesn’t really make sense to me. i feel like a drug dealer is the kinda student you would want to leave high school lmao

eddie is definitely not the smartest person steve’s knows, and that’s not a bad thing! no one has any trouble making steve out to be the biggest idiot alive, but for some reason people have a hard time making eddie seem dumb. like, i think i’ve mentioned this before but i saw one fic that said steve only passed high school because his dad paid the school or something? to try and make it seem like eddie was better in school and it’s so stupid! there’s nothing wrong with being bad at school, but so many people just can’t seem to accept that eddie is bad at school, and steve was slightly better, considering he passed the first time.

and yeah! eddie’s a pathetic loser, and i love that about him! he’s a 19/20 year old still in school, obsessed with d&d. people who take that loserness away from him ruin his character.

you would expect eddie to really find himself in a real life d&d game, become a badass, but instead he flounders. he can’t handle it. which is a fun contrast to our other geeky characters. and people that try to make eddie the saviour and steve the one that totally looks up to him, is weird. the fun of steddie is that eddie starts out expecting steve to be a douchebag, and yet he ends up as someone he wants to emulate and become. eddie finds out steve is the epitome of a hero, rather than an asshole jock. (and though i don’t doubt that eddie has traits that steve would love, he’s not gonna be really looking up to him as a genius. because that’s just not who eddie is)

(also, this is kinda irrelevant, but it made me think about kas!eddie, and how people always make him super badass and brutal, and i think it would be funny if he was just a failure at that too. like, not very good at fighting, just treats this shit like a d&d game. literally just a hinderance to vecna. not on purpose to help the others. he’s just shit at it lol)

#steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steveddie #stranger things #asks #anon

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munsons-maiden · 2 years

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you don’t have to answer bc this will probably cause discourse lol

i honestly don’t understand how chrissy can be with someone like jason yet people ship her with eddie. like you can’t argue that she didn’t know about all the names that he was called and probably thought them too, since she was afraid/nervous around him in the woods during the drug deal. it’s a small town and even smaller school, you can’t tell me that she didn’t think the same things as jason did. she just had the chance of seeing that he’s actually nice one time and it was during a drug deal.

imo everyone just wants to see themselves as the only pretty, white, thin girl who is available to ship eddie with. if chrissy was black or asian or fat then she would not have as many fans or people feeling sorry for her (in the show and irl). same with Eddie tbh but that’s a whole other can of worms that people on here aren’t ready for.

i probably would’ve liked her character better if she was woc or fat tbh but then tumblr would shame her or ship eddie with nancy instead lol

I'm answering this because a) discourse is okay as long as it's friendly and respectful, and b) because I'd like to offer my own perspective on Chrissy since she's a character I can very much relate to.

First of all, as I said, that's only my opinion but I would have shipped her with Eddie regardless of her outer appearance, body type, ethnicity or even gender for that matter because I see the potential between those two and because I see Chrissy as a character very differently than you do.

I don't mean that as an offense, but you shouldn't generalize the reasons why people like Chrissy or ship her with Eddie; they don't owe anyone an explanation for that and some people, myself included, relate to her for a whole array of deeply personal reasons (and I mean that with shipping completely aside; let's focus on Chrissy as her own character here in this reply).

What I see when I look at Chrissy is a young girl who's hurting because she's forced into a corset of conformity that suffocates her with every day. Her abusive mother and her surroundings have taught her that perfection is what matters (we clearly see that in her Vecna vision, in the facade she's putting up at the pep rally during Jason's speech - the smile never reaches her eyes, they're hollow and sad) and it's literally killing her long before Vecna strikes. She struggles with an eating disorder. Her thinness is the sign of a severe mental illness that kills people in real life. She's a victim of abuse, and she's killed in one of the most brutal, horrendous ways possible. I'm only talking about Chrissy's specific case here, not the general problems of racism and fatphobia in fandom and irl because that would be far too complex to address correctly in a single post - but we, the audience, were meant to feel sorry for Chrissy, and the reasons why many of us do are, again, varying. Personal experience, relating with her struggle etc.

Chrissy is drowning - and I can assure you, as someone who's walked in her shoes, that in her situation, you're in constant survival mode. And Jason being a narcissist doesn't help her situation, but more on that later.

you can’t argue that she didn’t know about all the names that he was called

Yes, Chrissy knew Eddie was being called a freak. But if we see one thing very clearly in the woods scene, it's that she doesn't think of him as that, and that she doesn't treat him as such - and never did because if she had, you can bet that Eddie would have taken way longer to warm to her. Compared with, for example the talk between Steve and Eddie in the UD where Steve doesn't exactly try to make Eddie comfortable or reciprocate the attempt at finding a common ground but instead subconsciously makes Eddie, once again, feel like a freak for his interest in heavy metal, the woods scene shows that Chrissy doesn't view Eddie as a freak, at least not in a bad way because her reaction to Eddie calling her the Queen of Hawkins High vs a Freak is like day and night:

This whole encounter in the woods, regardless of whether you ship them or not, clearly shows us one thing: Chrissy is deeply unhappy, and I'd even call her desperate because she holds on to Eddie for dear life because...this stranger she doesn't even know is the only one she can open up to knowing he won't judge her because he's already a freak. The situation reminds me a bit of Jack and Rose in Titanic tbh, or Belle and The Beast. This concept is indeed as old as time, storytelling-wise.

You can see her performative fake smile at the rally:

vs her real smile with Eddie:

I said it before: Eddie and Jason are the embodiment of two very different values. Jason stands for forced conformity and the very real danger of being bullied or worse if you don't conform; Eddie embodies being yourself and knowing your worth even if others don't see it. You can read about that here.

and probably thought them too, since she was afraid/nervous around him in the woods during the drug deal

She was very clearly nervous/afraid because the second before she met Eddie, she had the second absolutely terrifying hallucination in a single day.

Now tell me, after that: wouldn't you be nervous/unsettled as well?

Eddie clearly thinks she's scared to get caught first (and tries to calm her, telling her that it was a safe place and nobody would ever come out there to catch them dealing), then he thinks she's scared of him - that's why he tells her he'd go and that it wasn't a problem. To which Chrissy says: "No, it's not that - I don't want you to go." and then she opens up to him because who else does she have to open up to? Jason? Who doesn't see her fading away further with the mental illness that's slowly killing her?

Chrissy was never scared of Eddie. (else, she would've never come to his trailer, but I digress).

The constant pressure to be perfect Chrissy faces at home, by her mother, the comments on her weight we see her making in the Vecna vision: Chrissy has been raised to believe she needs to be flawless and perfect and (since we're all human) Chrissy knows she can never be flawless and perfect, never be enough. It's constant failure, she feels inadequate and her self-esteem is very low because of it no matter that she's the Queen because she knows it's a mask and it's tied to the terms and conditions of being perfect - and being Queen puts her in a spotlight, a constant danger of people realizing she's not perfect.

It's a constant feeling of losig control, and she gains a sense of security and control in the only way she knows how: controlling her weight and her hunger. That's exactly how EDs are developed. (A widespread, very harmful misconception about EDs such as Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa is that those suffering from it hate people who are overweigh when in reality, it's not about weight, they hate themselves because the unattainable standards of perfectionism they were taught to adhere to cannot be attained by them. I say that as a psychologist. Those suffering from EDs are victims of unattainable standards of beauty and perfectionism as much as people who are overweight (I'm only talking about beauty standards here, not about society's reaction. I'm very much aware that people with overweight face fatphobia - they're both victims of the same system; the difference is that those on the underweight side of the spectrum of it "fit" better with the norm and thus are spared the treatment those on the overweight side of the same spectrum sadly have to face).

And that's why she's with Jason, btw, a study-book narcissist and master-manipulator. When you're struggling, especially with a low self-esteem, you fall prey to people like Jason and the sense of security they give you, their status can give you, or simply because you don't feel you deserve better.

Chrissy is running for her life long before Vecna gets her.

Again, you're perfectly entitled to your opinion on Chrissy, just like everyone else. And just like you did in your ask, I'm offering my own perspective on her as a character.

#kiki answers #anti jason carver #chrissy cunningham #stranger things 4 #stranger things #tw ed #tw abuse #tw spiders

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e2019 · 2 months

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the sub doctor upped my dose cuz he thinks i'm a high relapse risk tho personally i feel that my risk of relapsing is lower than it ever has been before for where i'm currently at but i guess thats kinda a hollow n meaningless statement as i've already decided to do it pretty much i just want to delay it as long as possible

idk for how long i can keep benefitting from what i've been doing tho cuz i almost thought the way i'm using the subs would put me in a position where i'm withdrawing from them too but it seems more like the opposite actually i have to keep decreasing the dose because taking the same amount even 2x in a row my tolerance drops in btwn atp if i take 4mg+ i'll probably be nodding.

so what i'm realizing is there's a limited window of time during which it's possible to use subs "therapeutically" without committing to being on maintenance cuz i don't wanna get fucked up on em but eventually any dose no matter how small will be too much it seems. it's hard to find people to ask for opinions or talk about stuff for advice cuz other ppl on subs are, for the most part, uppity squares who are retarded &/or whipped enough to do unquestioningly whatever their doctor tells them

so anyways idk it kinda feels like no matter what i do i'm only going backwards. by some metrics i think i am making observable/measurable progress tho like i don't wanna count my eggs before they hatch or whatever but i'm only a few days shy of 1.5mo off heroin so i just have to do again what i've already done and that'll be 3mo which in the grand scheme of things isn't very long at all but it's nonetheless very important because it's the biggest milestone in getting off opioids imo because thats the point at which you start feeling significantly better like significantly significantly

and i've only ever made it that far like a laughably small number of times considering that i've tried to quit heroin a countably infinite number of times. and each attempt was such a struggle for me each day felt like a week and each week felt like a month each month felt like a year like i'm sure this sounds so stupid & overdramatic like omg it's only 3mo just suck it up but it feels impossible and it's not even like you're completely better after 3mo it's just after that point the lingering symptoms are no longer entirely incapacitating.

anyways the time is just flying by i know for sure i'll make it to 3mo with relatively little effort i have confidence i can stay sober for at least 6mo this time but after that idk all bets are off but no matter what happens i'll feel really good about that because i've only ever done that once before so it'll be like a new personal best almost. idk i have high hopes cuz i'm able to think about all kinds of other things that i want/want to do that will motivate me to not spend all my time/money on drugs.

i get i have not been sober for very long atp so it's really too early to say what will happen like maybe i shouldnt be so hopeful but honestly i think it's a good sign because it's hardest at first & gets easier with time, liek usually i would be so much more obsessive atp i wouldn't be able to think about anything but getting high i would be out of my literal mind fiending but i feel like i have the control/patience to wait until i've made the (somewhat) "rational" decision that it's worth it which at this point in time it's definitely not, except that has literally never stopped me before.

no matter what i decide to do i think this is a W for me because i didn't go in to this with the intention of staying sober forever i just wanted to slow down and regain some control over my use and i'm learning to do that i think

oh and i also haven't done, and have hardly even thought about doing, seriously retarded shit like shooting up water which typically it's a real challenge for me to make myself stop doing that. even if i never stop using i'm cautiously beginning to wonder if i could, at the very least, eventually get myself to stop shooting up but idk because i know it would take a looooooot of work, not to mention it'd mean i'd have to smoke crack.

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literaticat · 1 year

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In publisher’s weekly and some other publications, I’ve seen it more than once said by librarians that there’s a need for books for that black hole of an age range of 14-15, and a need for shorter books for the MG category. I think the article described some MG books as being as thick as your palm.

So, if we’re hearing these cries-- what does it take for publishers to hear the cries too?

(I realized after I pressed send on this that It's REALLY long and rambly -- even more so than usual -- probably because I am procrastinating packing for a trip I'm taking in an HOUR. SORRY!)

Publishers hear them.

It might surprise you to know that publishers actually DO publish books for 14-15 -- they are generally called in parlance "upper MG" or "lower YA" (or sometimes if somebody is feeling cutesie, "tween") -- unfortunately it's a little hard for people to FIND those books because, well, in the US at least, there isn't any place in the bookstore specifically for them. And there are fewer school librarians and others to do readers advisory to show kids (and adults!) where they are.

In the UK, as I understand it, bookstores sort of go "Children's - Teen - YA" and what WE consider "upper MG/lower YA" is "teen", and their YA is the saucier older stuff. This is smart, because a lot of times, kids of 8-12 ARE really strong readers, and WANT to get into more sophisticated fare and "read up", but they really AREN'T ready for, or even interested in, the sex-drugs-rock-and-roll of the older YA. (Hell, I don't even know that I'M ready for it sometimes lol). And kids who are 13-14-15 may want to read books about kids who are, you know, their own age, going through authentic middle school and early high school stuff -- but MANY of those kids are not remotely close to having boyfriends/girlfriends, worrying about their gap year before college or whatever.

SO ANYWAY - those books do exist, though I agree there could be even more. However, there's a discoverability problem, because if nobody KNOWS how to find them and they just have to troll through the MG or YA section trying to randomly figure out which MG books are a little more sophisticated and which YA are a little less sophisticated, like, they are going to give up.

Well, why don't BOOKSTORES just CREATE A SECTION then, and publishers can publish books labeled SPECIFICALLY FOR THAT SECTION? Yeah, I don't know. As I said, that seems like the elegant solution. The thing is, I think that a lot of times people chafe at "over labeling" things. Like if I say "this book is for 8-10, this book is for 10-13, this book is for 14+" and actually put prescriptive LABELS on them saying that, it's almost like "rating" the book or telling kids "you HAVE to read this level of book" when they are really ready for or want something different.

There ARE good reasons to keep "MG" and "YA" as broad categories that can encompass LOTS of kinds of books, rather than getting super granular. The kids section has always been a big tent where LOTS of kinds of books fit, regardless of genre, supposed age range, etc -- Like when I was 10 I very happily read Babysitters Club AND Sweet Valley High AND Judy Blume's YA fare AND Beatrix Potter AND Pippi Longstocking (not to mention Stephen King and VC Andrews!).

As for lengthy books: The fact is that big fat commercial series and such DO often sell better than quiet, introspective and short books. So those chonkers are also what they push the hardest and what people are likely to know about. (Not to mention, they are the most visible and take up the most LITERAL real estate on the shelves). So it can be hard to see the "little" books about 13 year olds going through friendship crises when there are 1000 giant books about cats having wars etc. They ARE there, though there could and should be more! (Yes, even though shorter books are published -- ALL books should be shorter, IMO -- and I think some publishers would agree).

I dunno, there's lots to unpack here and it's an interesting conversation for sure. As far as creating a new category -- it's tough. (Just look at the trajectory of "New Adult" to see how tough!)

I just think that it's bigger than "oh publishers can just decide this" on a dime -- there's actually several groups that would need to get on board (educators, librarians, booksellers, AND *all* Publishers) and likely an education campaign for readers and parents that would have to happen, yadda yadda, and it's above my paygrade!

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missusplum · 1 year

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Why are you so hopeful when these writers might bait and play us again?

What were you’re thoughts on the finale and what stories would you like to see next season?

Here’s hoping for one of your long essays

lmao i completely get the frustration, but the way i really see it, i don’t think the takeaway from this season is that armony will never be a focus; it’s that this show chooses to be chaotic just for the sake of being ~shocking~ and ~unexpected~ so really by that benchmark anything is possible lol

for those reasons i think going into the business of trying to predict anything on this show is generally a bad idea and a recipe to setting yourself up for disappointment. so i have no thoughts on what might go down in s3, just that i hope we get one loool. because despite all my yapping and complaining i really do want to see more of this show, and i think there are lots of stories still to tell. i started watching for elodie and i’m gonna stay for her too 😌

i’ll share my thoughts on s2 behind the cut:

my general sentiment on this season is a big meh lol. like all the criticism and worries i had about where the season was headed and about kamdar being nothing more than a lightning rod all stumbled into fruition. my biggest criticism is that the writing seems intent on delivering shocking moments and stressful situations at the sacrifice of interesting stories and actual character development. the biggest example of this is the show choosing to drop chris’ story, the far superior and more emotionally-compelling storyline, halfway into the season and choosing to fully focus on kamdar instead. i really think it was a gigantic misstep to veer into this direction and a misread of what drew people to this show in the first place. to me, the real strength of tcl was always, always, the chemistry between arman and thony, and between thony and fiona. people watched because of the actors’ chemistry; even in s1 the mob drama was always less interesting and draggingly melodramatic at times. but people put up with it because it was the vehicle to showcase the chemistry and relationships that intrigued everyone. s2 literally went full throttle into mob territory and sacrificed the emotional side and the relationships that made us care in the first place. and that is the true fumble here.

i do get frustrated reading some of the postmortem interviews with the EPs because i really want to know what progress they think this season made at all. almost all the new characters that they brought on have died (shoutout to JD for living to see another day!), the triangle of death is still in tact, thony is still single-mindedly focused on her family, luca is still sick, the de la rosas are still undocumented, arman still has no power, etc. and everyone is so miserable 🥴 something something about a clinic and helping out the community was completely overshadowed by this kamdar storyline which ended exactly how we all knew it would end, with him dead. oh i guess g*rrett miller died too. overdue imo but i’m sorry to his fans for your loss lol

one thing i will say is while i think it was very deliberate to have thony do unlikable things and behave antagonistically, i still think a lot of the fandom is being unfair with how much hate she’s getting and letting recency bias cloud their judgment. this is the same character that agreed in a second to sell street drugs because arman looked sad and then immediately incriminated herself when they got caught, literally only to protect arman. it’s a complete disservice to the character and franking oversimplifying just to write her off as selfish. she is anything but selfish imo. i do believe, and the EPs have said as much, that she has a tendency to be arrogant and to think she knows better, and this stems from her career as a surgeon. but to say she hasn’t paid for her mistakes is crazy lol, the entire two finale hours was basically nothing working out the way she wanted, and everyone telling her off and giving her shit for what she’s done. which for the record i liked; thony has often acted purely on instinct, but i like that this time that she had to lose and that the same instinct led her to make bad decisions. makes for a more compelling character vs. one who is always doing the right thing. i will say that i think reverting to anchoring all of thony’s actions to be about saving luca’s life was a narrative mistake. not only because it only underscores what we already learned about her in s1, but because atp (and i hate to say it) luca is nothing but a plot device imo. like people get frustrated when luca is thrust into the forefront again because aside from being a cute kid who is unfairly ill, there’s nothing else to the character. is he not literally only there to be sick and to cause thony to act irrationally? instead of investing time into actually making luca a well-rounded character with a personality, we wasted scenes on the likes of kamdar and maya, none of whom ended up having any staying power on the show anyway, and the stakes ended up feeling repetitive. i cannot understand why there was a need to bring on so many new (and temporary!?) characters in a short season when you already have existing shallowly-written core characters that the audience actually wants and needs to know more about.

i’ve already made my opinions on love triangles very clear lol and it still stands. like if you’re a fan of any of the characters of arman, thony, or nadia, i cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone would want this triangle to continue. it’s horrible for all of them; it’s unattractive to see arman continue to divide his heart between two women; it’s depressing to see thony reduce herself to an emotionless robot because she has to shut arman out; and it’s ridiculously unrealistic to think that nadia would still put up with arman after all the arguments they’ve had about thony already. if you’ve read any of the postseason interviews with melissa carter and miranda kwok they seem pretty intent on continuing to ride this out. i’m flummoxed because like what more is there to explore???

in one of the interviews, they said that they had to slow down armony because they went too fast in s1 which is wild to me when that’s one of the few reasons why people tuned in in the first place lol. the philosophy behind thinking that when a couple gets together it becomes boring is flawed and imo more of an indictment on the writing if interesting stories can’t be told with your leads in a relationship. miranda kwok said that the bond between arman and thony will be strengthened after surviving what they went through in s2, but literally none of that was communicated to the audience lol. melissa carter said there was an opportunity for more romance in s3 because there was none in s2 but like y’all literally wrote it that way 🥴🥴 i really do think the writing massively overestimated everyone’s patience and tolerance for nothingness and crumbs. it might have been more tolerable if the rest of the show was just as compelling, but imo it just isn’t so s2 was really just watching this show shoot itself in the foot repeatedly lol. fwiw i think a push and pull between these two could have worked but s2 was literally all pull lmao; like if you have guaranteed five seasons to arc out a molasses-paced relationship then sure but we’re barely scraping by here lol 🤧

anyhoo, all in all i hope the writers actually do get a chance to read some of the criticism of this season and it’s not just written off as shippers throwing a tantrum lol. s2 was a bit of a drag to get through but if nothing else, and for better or for worse, i feel like i have a better grasp of what this show is trying to be now so that’s something. all my criticism aside, at the core of it i do love that this is a show with southeast asians at the forefront, with elodie yung at the forefront, and for those facts alone i’ll happily keep rooting for it to succeed and keep contributing my views and ratings. the rest i’ll just keep hoping for the best.

#the cleaning lady #tcl #tcl rants #i think this counts as my s2 review!

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lyricposting · 1 year

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fanmix myself, 2023 edition

genuinely almost can't believe i have TWO of these on here now (i do one of these every two years ish.) time really does pass huh... ANYWAY here's the link, and full tracklist under the cut, plus me rambling :) please talk to me about any of these songs my little brain will esplode

a song you like with a color in the title: forever yellow skies by the cranberries

a song you like with a number in the title: 10,000 emerald pools by børns

a song that reminds you of summertime: rain king by counting crows (literally the album of visiting my fiance the summer after i graduated college. song of joy and also freedom)

a song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about: all the small things by blink 182 (no i don't want to talk about it)

a song that needs to be played LOUD: bulls in the bronx by pierce the veil (i'm in agony but this song is so good)

a song that makes you want to dance: genghis khan by miiike snow (obviously)

a song to drive to: one week by the barenaked ladies (specifically if you're stuck in traffic. bnl are really good at making songs that are good for listening to in really bad traffic somehow)

a song about drugs or alcohol: home again garden grove by the mountain goats (had this one on repeat for about 2 weeks straight somewhat recently)

a song that makes you happy: tunak tunak tun by daler mehndi (also had this one on repeat recently. the vibes are immaculate)

a song that makes you sad: in corolla by the mountain goats (self explanatory)

a song that you never get tired of: awake my soul by mumford and sons (this is on one of the first albums i ever bought with my own money and i still never skip it to this day. it's SO good.)

a song from your preteen years: my song from angel beats… the memories of playing minecraft on the family computer with the angel beats songs playing in the background are SO strong...

one of your favorite 80’s songs: i wanna dance with somebody by whitney houston

a song that you would love played at your wedding: run away with me adam neely cover (my fiance introduced me to this song and it's honestly one of the Very Few songs he likes that i genuinely love lmao)

a song that is a cover by another artist: BILLY COBB hide and seek (ignore that the previous song is also a cover lol. billy cobb does some of my favorite covers of all time. i've lost count of how many times i've played this, running up that hill, and linger honestly)

one of your favorite classical songs: edward elgar's cello concerto!!! specifically as played by jacqueline du pre (i'm NOT sorry for the length. listen!!!!! it's so so so so so good!!!)

a song from the year that you were born: how's it going to be by third eye blind (literally the way he shouts at the end is top vocals of all time imo)

a song that makes you think about life: the times they are a-changin by bob dylan (the first time i heard this song it was simon and garfunkel's cover and let me tell you. it fucked me up. listened to it probably 10 times in a row)

a song that has many meanings to you: wish you were here by pink floyd (song of very potent memories plus the actual song is like. woof. plus the double hit combo. you know how it is)

a favorite song with a person’s name in the title: jenny was a friend of mine by the killers (self explanatory. this song fucks.)

a song that moves you forward: hark to the music by ezra furman

a song that you think everybody should listen to: foundations of decay by my chemical romance (hello!! obviously)

a song by a band you wish were still together: tumble by stabilo (i have so many thoughts about this song it needs its own separate post also this is my favorite band that no one cares about)

a song by an artist no longer living: paradise by the dashboard light by meat loaf (my curse of getting into someone and then they die 2 years later continues with this man)

a song that makes you want to fall in love: better than by gretchen parlato (this one doesn't make me want to fall in love as much as it reminds me of a time when i was falling in love. close enough.)

a song that breaks your heart: addict with a pen by twenty one pilots

a song by an artist with a voice that you love: dead of night by orville peck (first song of his i ever heard and one of my top 3 of his still. his voice is EVERYTHING in this song, i fell in love instantly.)

a song that you remember from your childhood: i need you to love me by barlowgirl (... i have issues.)

a song that reminds you of yourself: midnight by tyler glenn (the issues strike again. genuinely cried the first time i listened to this song lol)

#own post #my incurable playlist curation hobby #it may be suppressed due to me no longer being in crisis mode and also having a full time job but it is not gone!#i used an old ask meme for this lmao #love how i said i would post this in the morning and then it took me almost a month to get around to it... whoops :)

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dreamofstarlight · 1 year

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Kate, someone suggested on twitter that there should be a series about the Kennedys just like The Crown but then someone was like "pff what parvenus lets do the Roosevelts instead" and another was like "Roosevelts, Vanderbilts, Astors, Rockefeller...like there are several more American The Crown worthy names before Kennedy."

Like weren't the Vanderbilts considered new money too???? didn't they also come up around the same Patrick Kennedy was a politician? late 1800s? Astors were also very new money...like the OG came around in late 1700s and made money off of skinning rabbits and opium. Same for the Rockefellers they got rich around or just a little bit before the Kennedys did. The Roosevelts were dutch settlers but they made their money in the same way colonial wealth/slavery/drugs and etc.

I guess my thing is like...there really is no "blue blood" posh American families. Because even if they are so proud to be the first ones here or from the mayflower (the Bush family) they were literally not nobles/rich or blue bloods when they got off that boat. Nobody who was an actual rich or aristo person was on the mayflower. So it's just kind weird to act like one is superior than the other imo. But the whole social class/system in America is weird.

I also think a show about them would be more interesting because they were at least the outsiders and even tho they didn't have many presidents as the roosevelts or bushes, they had a much more social impact than they did in a weird way. like there's a reason why when people think of american dynasties they come first and not the bushes. Their come up and how they made themselves thee american dynasty is just so interesting.

however i also don't want a show made about them and since they kind of shut down the last show made about them i hope they do it again lol. anyways thank you for my ted talk.

All those families would make good TV but the Kennedys are more recent/relevant and have a better storyline. If a series a la the crown were to be made about them, I'd like it to not fall into the trap that the crown did (just following the popular topics and not digging deeper). The only obstacle with that is getting past Kennedy PR/Lawyers bc they are notorious for shutting down projects.

#anon #ask #answered #kennedy family #the kennedys

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wildernessuntothemselves · 2 years

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Okay SO as a disney level happy ending lover like myself we’re all used to the idea that love is what prevails in these kinds of stories and oc wanted love but chose to seek the power/authority/freedom (I use freedom very very loosely for this point in history as well as being a woman) she never got to have. The rape obviously was the fast tipping point, as well as gyu not only getting married but then having to have sex with his wife, to flee to taehyun. Now I feel like she probably has developed a form of love for him (not the same childhood to adult lovers level like for gyu) but he has what she always held higher than just love by itself. I feel like her perfect marriage would have been if beomgyu could have married her before all the shit happened but that’s not always how life works as this story shows. Now irl I am a dirty filthy whore for both men but in this story I am rooting for one far more than the other in terms of what oc wants/is better in the long run (as well as the non rapist) HOWEVER when you take her life into account you can see the dilemma as this was way back in this era as well as she is extremely sheltered. You can see why she has thought about going back to him even though none of us irl would do that but simply from looking at her as a character in this you can appreciate the back and forth. I also see taehyuns perspective but I don’t think he fully grasps just how sheltered she was because her learning to love him regardless of still loving gyu or not is actually a huge thing for her because gyu was literally her entire life before, but that ties in with him being detached from love entirely. Imo if she’d go back to gyu her ass would get thrown into a nice dungeon or some shit because Beomgyu would be all “you still left me though 🙃” BUT I still stand by taehyun having some sort of grand gesture whether it be him telling her he loves her and he’s willing to take baby steps or saying she’s his queen or something that would be wild. But I feel like gyu is also going to do something off the rails and that would also be wild. Idk it’s all going to hit the fan and I’m excited to read it all. Your story is ART

I am so sorry this was so long I just love this story and you showing all the perspectives and it being different than the usual things on here 🥺

i'm a disney happy ending lover too. i never really read sad fics becasue i can dish it but i can't take it 😂

yeah oc's ideal version would've been being married to gyu but maybe what's best for her is to be with tyun. this next chapter fully fleshes out the pros and cons of being with tyun for oc and the reasons why she wants to stay with him as well as the reason why she wants to go back to beomgyu (and in chapter 8 she'll make her final decision 👀) but i'm happy that you already get why she's so conflicted. but while the contex of the story is super important to understand her motivations, there are still many relationships like hers and gyu's that happen in this day and age, and even worse, but the victim stays emotionally attached to the abuser. manipulation is a hell of a drug, and it transcends time periods

and yeah taehyun really should appreciate the strength it's taking her to get this far, and he kind of does but that's not his problem. (his problem will also be fully explained in chapter 8)

“you still left me though 🙃” 😂😂😂😂😂 i can just imagine him making the face he did in his birthday live when they members didn't come to wish him happy birthday

but yes both men have shit up their sleeves and things will go wild 😂

#thank you so much babe #i love reading long messages #mort talks #yamqn

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faeryfossil · 2 months

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You once said on a post that some humans deserve to be killed for doing bad things. Well what if we invented forced re-education and made it so nobody had to die and instead could become good? We could invent brainwashing to make people not be bigots of any kind and to care about things like the poor and the environment. Ordinary people could have it too if they want their morals and conscience to be in tip top shape! I personally would. I don’t believe hurting people is right but if forced re-education were a thing I think it should be law and create total world peace! :)

That’s an interesting idea with a lot of strings leading other places. Personally, i think that if the world as a whole prioritized things like financial and spiritual freedom, sexual/gender expression and acceptance, food and housing security, abolishing racism, addressing and mending the climate crisis over time, healing our ecosystems, local communities rich in activity, support, walkable areas and public transport, land back, and everything else that would create an ideal society, then the conditions in which people grow would help them better develop mentally and emotionally and there would be much fewer “bad people”. I would never say that someone who robbed a bank, or accidentally killed someone, or is addicted to drugs etc. should be killed, nor are they bad. They’re a product of their environment and there are so many external factors that can lead people to ending up in bad situations. Bigots, on the other hand, or anyone who is genuinely a malicious and vile person, could qualify for something like that, but again, if we had actual systems in place to better protect our people as a whole, they would be silenced way more often. When i say some people deserve to die for the things they’ve done, i’m talking about r*pists, murderers, p*dophiles, etc., who are a waste of space, money and resources to keep around. Those who have no change of rehabilitation, are serving life sentences, etc. and are literally just taking up space in prisons for no reason, living better, more secure lives than the homeless population and even some housed individuals. If they were to get brainwashed and become a “good person”, what would that mean for them and their victims/the victims’ families? Would they technically be different people then, and would their crimes now be dismissible? Would they even remember who they were and what they did, and understand why it was wrong? I’m not dissing this idea or anything, i’m genuinely curious about the possible outcomes if this were ever implemented into society. It would likely cost a lot of money, so again, using tax dollars for really horrible people to get brand new starts, when a lot of regular people who’ve never done anything wrong struggle to make it through each day. And with the current systems in place, there would most definitely be favoritism and nepotism as well, based on biases of biological sex and gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnic background, financial status, ableism etc., so it would not ever be an acceptable practice in our current world, imo. I don’t know, it is interesting to think about. But as of right now, my answer is that there are just some genuinely despicable people that don’t deserve the privilege of being part of this existence, so they gotta go.

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