#and we start making an actual comic retelling (and doing it better than)

[mourninglamby]

i wish the dsmp was yours and it was a comic or something. literally so gorgeous

thaaaaank you darling I do also wish I could make a big comic with a team of ppl… would be so cool

#I have a daydream where #I get all my friends together #writers and artists #and we start making an actual comic retelling (and doing it better than) #the source material #we would have a patreon for updates + early access to new pages #+ other rewards based on tiers like requests #and design polls #and maybe even side story polls for characters that need an extra push #or just original scenes scripted by us.. #sighs dreamily

[genericpuff]

The Mishandling of LO’s S3 Mi(n)season Hiatus - Part 3 2/2

ALRIGHT. THIS IS THE LAST PART. I MEAN IT THIS TIME.

I had completely forgotten how long the mi(n)season finale for S3 was, but I suppose it makes sense considering it was operating as the true cliffhanger before the 4 month break.

If you haven't read the first 3 parts of this episodic breakdown, please go check these ones out first:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 1/2

Alright, let's get this show on the road!

CAUTION: THIS IS PART 2 OF THE THIRD PART OF A 3 + 1 PART SERIES IN WHICH I WILL BE SPOILING MUCH OF EPISODES 251-253. THIS EPISODE CONTAINS TOPICS SURROUNDING SEXUAL ASSAULT. THIS WILL BE A LONG POST. BRACE YOURSELF.

We've gotten delusional Leuce. We've gotten erasure of the SA. We've gotten a complete bastardization of the original myths that this story got its claim to fame on. The dread has set in, and all I want to do is get off Mr Bones' Wild Ride. But we have one more stretch of mind-numbing track to go, because the reveal of Persephone starting winter was not the end, oh no. The true cliffhanger of this episode - upon which the fans and critics alike have sat on for 4 months - proves that when we think Rachel has gotten crazy enough in this circus she calls a "retelling", she manages to prove that yes, she can make things even crazier, and no, you will not have a good time.

Ironically, despite that opening, I actually have a lot less to say about this last part of Episode 253 than I did about the first part. Obviously there's no feasible way to top "Persephone causes winter", but this episode does come rather close in its absurdity. Ultimately, if these essays have proven anything, it's just how much Rachel retcons things, to such an extent now that she seems to be retconning or outright forgetting information that she established just a handful of episodes prior. You'll see what I mean here as we go along in this.

As soon as it's hinted at that Persephone has started winter, we cut away to Apollo. Because, as per LO tradition, we can't spend longer than 10-15 panels on a single scene.

Already this seems like... really odd framing.

This is Apollo. A character who has been a villain since basically the beginning of the comic, when he sexually assaulted Persephone. This is not something that's up for debate. This is not something that can be refuted, as much as the comic may try to erase it or twist it into something else.

And yet, the vibe I get from this is, "Misled but good-deep-down character being taken advantage of by a sinister being." This isn't the type of framing we should be seeing around a character like Apollo.

I mentioned it ages ago in my post about the SA erasure that it really feels like Rachel is slyly trying to make Apollo empathetic, from giving us an entire episode in his perspective to adding extra panels into the books to making Persephone weirdly reminiscent of feelings for Apollo that she never had.

One thing I also touch on in that post is how Apollo is framed against Zeus. Zeus is also a villain character for much of the series, and even after he's "redeemed", the fanbase still considers him largely to be an antagonistic force. So to have Apollo be trying to take down Zeus comes across as very "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and I really don't like seeing that framing when it's regarding a rapist.

And this scene largely feels the same. It feels like Rachel's trying to sway the audience into believing Apollo is like Draco Malfoy - a misled boy who "didn't know any better" and was being manipulated by a greater evil. If you haven't guessed by now, that "greater evil" is Ouranos.

Why is it Ouranos? In my opinion (so take this with grains of salt) this is because they need to somehow "one up" Kronos and give Persephone and Hades a tangible force to fight against, to draw a clean line in the sand between "good" and "evil" so that we, the audience, will be forced to categorize Persephone and Hades as "good" and someone else as "evil".

But really, why Ouranos? We're told that he manipulated Gaia to use her powers in an attempt to create "hierarchy" (whatever the FUCK that means, I don't think Rachel really understands how societal hierarchies are created) but there's NOTHING to imply that he was tyrannical or "evil" in the same way that Kronos has been depicted. Rachel's basically submitting this whole plotline to "well it's in the prophecy" but there was NOTHING dictating that she had to try and write a "prophecy" storyline to begin with. So as a result, it feels very tacked on and it's hard to tell what the point is, it really just seems like Rachel watched too much Marvel one week and decided that Lore Olympus - a fantasy romance - needed a big bad.

And by extension it feels like Apollo is being used as a pawn in this dynamic. By making him subservient to an "evil" force, it means he can labelled as definitively "evil", and thus it gives Rachel a vehicle to have Apollo taken down - or even perhaps empathized with much like in the Draco Malfoy sense - without having to touch the SA plot that she set up and never resolved.

He was evil before, but he wasn't the kind of evil that Rachel could write around. Because she doesn't know how to write SA or give her female characters any sense of retribution or agency. We've seen that already with her robbing Demeter of winter and Persephone of her feelings regarding the SA. There was never going to be a chance in hell she was going to be able to write herself out of a plotline she's been procrastinating for 4+ years.

That said, this is just a vibe I get, so I'm not gonna speak on it much more. This is one of those "we're really not gonna know until the comic returns" situations.

Once again, Rachel's trying to make Apollo seem like a "master manipulator", but she's also trying to make him seem like he's the one being manipulated, but she's ALSO trying to write him as a big dumb idiot who literally can't grasp consent. Apollo has to be one of the most inconsistently written characters in the entire comic, and yes, that includes Persephone. Again, it just goes to show she hasn't been able to fully commit to the SA plotline because Apollo's motivations and intelligence levels change with each passing episode. Sometimes he's being nefarious and plotting to overthrow the King, other times he's literally asking a nymph if she'd be willing to cut her hair to look like Persephone. The comic can't choose and so we, the audience, can't tell why Apollo is even still here.

Again, this is SUCH bizarre framing. If we're to believe that Persephone has been "cursed" by no longer being able to create Spring, only Winter, then does that make Ouranos and Apollo the heroes here? Because Ouranos is right, if Persephone is causing winter, that's going to kill the mortals, which is the complete OPPOSITE of what she's trying to do. So what are we left with? A plotline where Apollo and Ouranos might actually have a point about how she rushed into a marriage with the King of the Underworld and sacrificed everything that gave her agency and power - both metaphorically and literally - in the process?

Again, this is why Rachel fundamentally misunderstands the original purpose of The Hymn to Demeter and how she's, by and large, made her retelling worse in an attempt to be "subversive". It puts the plot and character motivations in a place where it's hard to tell what the story is trying to say, I can understand if maybe Rachel's trying to write a conflict where Apollo uses this information to manipulate her, but it doesn't help that knowing EVERYTHING we know about the H x P relationship within the context of this comic, Ouranos has a point that Persephone's union with the King of the Dead is problematic. It might not be the same "problematic" that we're all thinking of, but it really just reinforces the criticisms of this relationship. Is the comic really asking us to say "fuck the human race, they're in love" ??? Because that's NOT what the point of the original myth was in the slightest and it's just a really weird place to put your audience in.

It's 4:45 AM right now as I'm typing this so my thoughts are a little scattered, but all this really feels like is an attempt on Rachel's part to create a new "big bad" for her to use as a distraction from the SA plot and to give Persephone a "flaw", but that "flaw" really only takes away the strength of another character.

Oh, and by the way? This whole "you need the fertility goddess" thing? THE COMIC HAS ALREADY TOLD US THIS WON'T WORK BECAUSE SHE HAS TO BE IN LOVE WITH APOLLO FOR HIM TO BE ABLE TO USE HER POWERS. SO RACHEL'S ALREADY WRITTEN HERSELF INTO A CORNER THAT SHE'LL EITHER HAVE TO SOLVE OR RETCON ENTIRELY. DO YOU SEE WHY THIS IS SO ABSURD???

This line is kind of jarring because we had the Kassandra prophecy at the beginning that talked about the herb, but the prophecy Ouranos is talking about is the one about the sons of kings overthrowing their fathers. I definitely forgot about that one for a hot second reading this, I didn't get how this sequence related to the poisonous plant thing because they're framed as completely separate prophecies. It's not like Kassandra said in her initial prophecy that this plant would be used to overthrow a King again, she just said that the plant still existed and Psyche figured it out on her own that Apollo was gonna use it on Zeus. IDK that's just something that bugged me (also again, why are they believing her prophecies when we literally just had it established an episode ago that no one believes her prophecies LMAO)

Because if it wasn't enough for LO to have one Evil Robot Jeff Bridges villain, it had to throw in another one for good measure. It's just a line of dads and grandpas going back centuries waiting for their turn in the ring with Persephone.

lmao I love this 'hint' at Apollo being the one to write the note from Hebe and leave the cupcake for Zeus. Like... duh? We already put that together as SOON as Psyche said gasp "Zeus!" and then it showed Zeus eating the cupcake while Psyche called him on the phone telling him Apollo was gonna try and harm him. This sequence of 'revealing what really happened' doesn't work here because we've already been told what happened.

Except we know he won't. There's no tension to this whatsoever.

That's Hebe by the way.

It's odd that Apollo is embracing this prophecy when he has a kid himself. He literally has a fully grown son in this comic. I guess Apollo forgot about that, just like Rachel.

And that's it. That's the midseason finale. Ouranos is the new twist villain and Apollo is... whatever the fuck Rachel plans on doing with him.

Now, this leads me to my original motivation to create this series of reviews. It spawned from a conversation we were having in the Discord, discussing what it must be like to be a free reader who hasn't paid for the FP episodes that are still behind a paywall. This is not standard for LO, it hasn't kept FP episodes behind paywalls in the past during long hiatuses like this. I can even prove this with screenshots from the Wayback Machine, during the last midseason hiatus:

(whoof, that rating has dropped. I know it doesn't seem like much but for a series with millions of readers, by law of averages it takes a LOT of poor ratings to pull that number down compared to a series that only has a few readers)

Point is, this is the first time Rachel/WT have done this. Now, I will make this perfectly clear, I don't think this was a decision that was purely on Rachel. WT controls much of the backend like paywall costs, release dates, etc. so I'm not gonna go pinning this on her.

However, I do think this is a completely bungled attempt at trying to get people to pay up. LO has been dropping in views steadily but surely since the midseason break for S2. It's not pulling in the peak numbers that it used to, while it does still pull in a lot more views and money than other series on the platform, it's nowhere near the juggernaut that it once was in terms of record-breaking numbers, and I think WT knows that. So this really comes across as a stunt to get readers to FP, assuming that people will HAVE to pay if they're left waiting for 4 months.

But here's the flaw in that logic - people are still going to have to wait 4 months anyways. Reading those 3 locked episodes, especially all at once, will still leave you in the same place as you were beforehand.

And it shows in the numbers that people aren't falling for the bait.

Again, 17k likes still isn't anything to sneeze at for a FP episode, but it's still just barely above the new average that LO has gained over the past two years. I remember a time when those like counts would be 30k+. And now, despite being on break 4 months with these episodes still locked behind a wall, it's barely able to scrap by its new average of roughly 14-15k, and that average is when episodes are actually updating.

Obviously like counts = / = viewcounts but when they fluctuate, we know that the views have to be as well by extension, at least to some extent, and that's still engagement that's dropped of in and of itself. And we can also see a rough look at how the views have dropped off through the comic's landing page. Now, it's hard to compare data because there was a time when WT actually didn't give follower/view counts on the landing page (this was also when the like count capped at 99k) but we can still see a downslide in growth very visibly in the view count, sub count, and most of all, the rating, which has been steadily dropping for years now.

August 2020:

May 2021:

November 2021:

March 2022 (don't get confused by the 995 million, this is where view count comes in):

September 2022:

March 2023:

Today (October 24th, 2023):

Again, there's no way to get a true clear picture of LO's stats beyond this surface level data, but it does show that LO is just not getting the rapid growth it used to. People are moving on from it. And while its view and sub count are steadily increasing (albeit slowly for a webtoon that gets as much marketing as it does) the average rating is going down. It's clear that the majority of LO's growth happened between 2018 and 2020, which would make sense as the series was still relatively new compared to how it's become old news today, and Webtoons experienced a boom in 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdowns - a boom that they think still applies in the year 2023, judging by their attempts to import as many series onto the platform as possible and capitalize on an audience that just isn't there anymore.

All of this leads me to wonder - what's in it for free readers after all this? Because if you recall from where we started, the cliffhanger they started on was Hades - possessed by Kronos - attempting to strangle Persephone, a cliffhanger that was resolved within seconds for FastPass readers. If they don't FastPass after that, they'll be met with numerous reveals that don't even make sense for the plot as a whole (such as Leuce making up the text messages).

Again, I don't want to claim that this was a decision on Rachel's part, but it really seems like either she didn't plan this hiatus, or her inability to write naturally without the need for addictive-style formatting as a crutch made it so that the free readers would be given the worst midseason premiere ever.

And what are we, the FastPass readers, going to return to? There are still so many plot threads that have been left unresolved, multiple villains being setup, and as far as Webtoons and Rachel have revealed during NYCC, LO is supposed to end by the spring. That's 20-30 weeks TOPS, which isn't exactly a whole lot of wiggle room for a writer like Rachel who's chronically bad at pacing and getting to the point of the plots she's established.

I know there are so many readers right now anticipating the return of this comic, some of whom genuinely believe this comic is "better than ever" and others who are critical of it but hope that the comic will come back in a better state after the hiatus. But right now there's so much evidence to support the contrary - that LO is about to come back in as bad, if not worse, condition than it was in when it left.

And through all this, for a comic that's finally ending after 5 years, I have to ask - where is the hype? Why are Webtoons and Rachel keeping the finale of this comic behind closed doors? Where's the promotional art, the hinting at what's to come, the attempts to generate any semblance of excitement for the readers who are still left after clinging onto this ride for 5 years? Why were the fans themselves barred out of their own communities during the majority of the hiatus?

And that just leads me to an even more discouraging thought. This is not meant to accuse Rachel or make assumptions. It's simply a thought that I had while thinking about what the series could possibly pull upon its return, so please, take this with MOUNTAINS of salt. It's one thing I hadn't considered with the knowledge that LO will be returning with 3 episodes still behind a paywall, a 'buffer' in and of itself for Rachel to work off of.

Rachel only technically needs one episode ready for the release. Not three as she normally would if the episodes had been unlocked like in previous hiatuses. That's not including whatever buffer episodes she would need beyond the upload schedule, but she's proven to be chronically bad at maintaining a buffer as well since day one.

We haven't seen any promotional art. No hinting. No hyping beyond what's been seen for her "Rachel Smythe Presents" series.

With all that in mind, I have one question to leave this on:

Has Rachel even started working on Episode 254 yet?

#thank you for reading this very long essay series #it's 530 AM and i have to work at 2 PM #i've been listening to drakengard music on loop for 2 hours #these are troubling times #deadass i think the comic is gonna come back even worse than before #and i WILL be here to talk about it if and when it does #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus

[centrally-unplanned]

I watched the Scott Pilgrim anime! I was deeply ambivalent, which I am sure is a shock to no one who knows me and saw it lol. I think I have a sequence of thoughts, so I will tackle the obvious one first to get it out of the way: Marketing, Adaptation, & Genre Drift in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Starting from top, if you don’t know, the Scott Pilgrim anime is not an adaptation of the original source material, but an alternate history version of the events where the titular Scott isn’t present for the majority of the episodes and Ramona Flowers is the main character. Which has been controversial! Not…amazingly controversial or anything, this is an extremely low stakes scenario and from my analysis the majority of people liked it. But controversial enough to get insufferable Kotaku articles “explaining the backlash” which don’t explain the backlash well. Let me see if I can do a better job - its fun to set low bars for yourself to clear after all.

The backlash starts with the marketing; really just the professional drama-trolls would have objected beyond an initial reaction to Netflix announcing Ramona Flowers vs the World; as a concept it makes a ton of sense, and it is essentially what they actually did (well, we will get into that). But that is not how it was sold:

“Join Scott in his fight for love, life, and rock!” I’d love to, still waiting for the invite! This is the first teaser for the show, and if you do a quick “frame count” it pretty equally privileges Scott & Ramona both, but Scott is still on top and it deliberately hides any sense that it is an alternate timeline. It even has this screenshot as one of its final moments:

Which I am pretty sure does not appear in the actual anime! If it does its in some flashback alt-timeline scene in a later episode, not its implied context (in the actual episode Scott ‘loses’ this fight). I can show more evidence - casting the original cast of the movie to make it seem like a ‘recreation’, statements by O’Malley where he plays deliberately coy with the idea of how similar it's going to be, and so on - but I think I don’t have to, because it was intentional, you don’t have to read the tea leaves on this. The bait-and-switch is part of the marketing, not an accident from it.

That is the step 1: people are thrown about being deceived. The step 2 is simple - this is a deception about an adaptation. I am someone who constantly complains about shows sacrificing cohesion & storytelling for “the twist”, but its too common these days to be that mad over it in a mass way. My designated punching bag over at Kotaku points this out:

This is a recurring theme for metatextual work like Final Fantasy VII Remake and the Rebuild of Evangelion films: initially they’re presented as retellings of beloved stories, only for it to become clear at some later point that they’re going to take more than a few liberties and tell a different story entirely.

The difference here is that FFVII and Evangelion are remakes, not adaptations. FFVII is a video game being made into a video game again; Evangelion is a tv show + movie being made into a movie series. The FFVII decision was controversial, but fundamentally you can just go back and play the original game; fucking everyone hated the idea of the Evangelion rebuilds being remakes because that is pointless, the originals have aged amazingly, and they had to deviate to justify their existence (they failed at that, but a story for another time). Meanwhile, Scott Pilgrim is a comic, that has never been a TV series, or an anime. There is the movie, but did you know a bunch of comic fans hate the movie? You see a lot of comments like these all the time (from a discourse reddit thread debating the new show):

Personally, I thought it was fun. I agree with a lot of your complaints honestly, but I don’t understand how you liked the movie? I can’t stand the movie because I feel like the characters are all flat, especially Ramona who has absolutely no personality at all.

I disagree btw, the movie is great, but it is a loose adaptation - hell it was released before the final volume of the graphic novels was finished, it has a different ending! A short, cohesive movie could never adapt a long-form, episodic graphic novel. And its live action, stylistically very different. So this TV show was both branded as, and was expected to fulfill a demand for, a first “real” adaptation of the comic, that people wanted. The fact that Evangelion deviated in its remake is a poor comparison. Questioning that people want full adaptations of works they enjoy isn’t really worth our time.

Now I personally don’t care about the above two - I am explaining the debate, but they aren’t problems for me. Step 3 is where I start caring - I think Ramona Flowers vs the World is a great idea. They thought they made that, and I wish they had. But in the process of telling the bait-and-switch of the story, they also bait-and-switched the genre. There is this great quote from O’Malley about the original graphic novel’s story from an interview (whose headline we will revisit in another post, don’t you worry):

Yeah, I mean, when I was writing Scott Pilgrim the first time, I just wanted to come up with a very simple story engine: fight, fight, fight, get to the end. That gave me something to hang all this other stuff on, all this slice of life hanging out in Toronto.

Its such a nice summation of what Scott Pilgrim is - the fighting against the evil exes? Its all sizzle and jokes, none of it matters. Its a plot device to structure the real story, which is a slice-of-life romance drama, coming-of-age narrative, and extremely intimate portrait of Toronto’s scene of indie music venues and hipster coffee shops. The joke is that Scott is dealing with all this crazy video game/anime shenanigans on top of actually having to navigate very grounded past emotional damage and present challenges of adulthood. The heart of the comic is not the fight scenes, some of which literally happen in the background while other characters are talking, but scenes of a group of friends hanging out at 11:00 PM at a dive Korean restaurant:

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off meanwhile is not built around this cast. Its built around a mystery plot and Ramona Flower’s evil exes, who she is investigating, and Scott Pilgrim, uh, checks notes travelling to the future and fighting his …aged enraged alternate self from the original timeline…? Anyway, Ramona’s evil exes are mainly joke characters, comic reliefs who engage in crazy shenanigans. Half of the episodes are structured around them, and their episodes are filled with extended comedy bits and very-long fight scenes. Episode two has a 13 minutes long fight scene between two of them, including build-up, over control of the League of Evil Exes. Hell, they don’t even live in Toronto - a ton of the new anime takes place in New York City and a bit in California. The comic meanwhile has panels just…explaining locations in Toronto sometimes:

Listing the hours of operation, its so cute! The anime has no time for this in between its sci-fi plots and fight scenes, and its far cheaper for it.

The decision to focus on shallow characters like Ramona’s exes is downstream of the decision to focus on Ramona without Scott -besides the exes the rest of the characters are Scott’s friends, who Ramona gets to know through him. Which is the final point here - who are the characters people love from Scott Pilgrim?

All of Scott’s friends ofc. Characters like Lucas Lee are memes, not people. Obviously Kim Pine, Young Neil, Knives Chau and so on appear in the anime. Sometimes they have great scenes - like the adorable scene of Knives & Kim playing music together, Knives’s first time really trying to jam:

Which goes absolutely nowhere from a character perspective - Knives & Kim barely interact after this. It sets up Knives doing a comedy-meta musical for the plot, sure…but that’s boring in comparison to real emotional connections, Knives doesn't have an arc. But they can’t have more, because our main character Ramona Flowers doesn’t know these people; she wouldn’t just hang out with them, and she is busy with her mystery investigation. She sees them when she needs them for plot reasons. Kim and Knives and Stephen Stills are much flatter this time around (Julie, to her credit, kicks ass in this one).

Obviously I could point out that Scott & Ramona’s relationship in the anime, given that they have literally one date before Scott vanishes, has no depth to it, but that is easy. The funniest way to summarize this character issue is if you check the tags on Tumblr right now, you are going to be awash in Scott/Wallace shipping posts. Like I swear, at times its straight(?)-up 50% of the posts going on, its a rabid gay horde out there lusting for this sugar daddy/baby dynamic. Which makes sense, they have so much sexual tension & emotional depth as friends…in the comic. In the anime they barely know each other! Wallace hates Scott and interacts with him maybe a half dozen times, primarily to tell him to move out, then does his own shit. This is all people projecting comic!Scott/Wallace onto the current show.

There are more downstream consequences of these decisions & other issues (like the overdone meta elements, or abandoning most of the indie-music aesthetic) but this has gone on long enough. The point is that telling a different version of the story would actually be fine. It would disappoint some fans, sure, but if done well you would likely win them around. Hell, the original comic’s ending kind of sucks, good time to polish some things. But if you change the main character and the genre and the cast focus and all the character dynamics…at a certain point its just its own new story now. A story irrevocably tied to the old one, but not about any of the things the old one cared about. I think you can see why that would be a harder sell than Ramona Flowers vs the World, even if it was a good zany action comedy anime in its own right. You will get backlash from this level of drift - and you will deserve it.

Also fuck Lisa am I right? Jeez, 0 out of 2 for moving picture adaptations. What you get for being blonde I guess.

#scott pilgrim #Ash adaptation analysis #essay

[mdhwrites]

Self Defeating Endings With Grom Factor by MoringMark

A link to the comic's, Grom Factor by Moringmark, beginning.

(If you want to skip the preamble about endings and tragedies, I've bolded the start of the paragraph when I actually start talking about Grom Factor) So I don't like making this. I don't really want to comment too much on fanworks. I have no reason to shit on people who are just celebrating The Owl House. My goal is not to make people despise it, it's to analyze, process my own thoughts, and hopefully teach through sharing those thoughts.

But... I can't talk about tragedies with TOH. The VAST majority of media I consume wouldn't give me the chance and, well... Endings are important. Happy Endings actually happen the most often because they're the most safe. The most gratifying. Everything the characters worked for had the simple point of success and a better future. And, you know, I like that. Their ubiquity though makes them a common point of lazy criticism as people will try to nitpick all the things not fixed or it being so happy because, well, the story had to end eventually. It's why I've never really been like "HoW dO wE aCtUaLlY kNoW tHe IsLeS wIlL bE oKaY!?" I don't care. The show says they're happy because they got rid of the evil guy then fine. It needed to end and at least this means our characters can know peace. The only things I really interrogate about the ending is what it says about those characters and the story that was told because that is part of your ending.

But if you want to claim a more complex story, especially if your story is already ripping off so many elements from a previous one (I'm sorry but Grom Factor is just Grom+Eda's Curse but missing the emotional cores of either because we don't know these characters and there's been no real build up. Not to talk about how ripping off your own series' biggest stories is already going to tank investment), a 'tragic' ending can be a way to do that. A bittersweet ending can be a way to do that. A way to undercut the happy ending everyone expected by instead ripping out their heart.

But you run the risk of making the whole story pointless.

Most people will argue that most tragedies are pointless. Romeo and Juliet is so confident in how pointless the love story is that it tells you the two people die at the end at the BEGINNING. But... It's not. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet sticks with people and is something people want to retell because the tragedy of it all has a point. It talks of the brashness of youth, the collateral damage of endless fury, of how dangerous emotions can be, even the best of them like love. How things can be torn apart and destroyed, futures ended futilely because people will not let go of their emotions or even try to be calm when they have only ever been told to hate. Romeo's passion is both his most attractive quality but also the dooming element that makes sure he kills himself at the end, a trait that Juliet shares and both have from their families who never let people rest. Never allow there to be more than just extreme emotions and so anytime they're emotional, it's big and dangerous.

And so the ending has a point to it. It is the only one that fits the thematics and condemns properly all the damage that was done. That sweet words cannot fix an endless cycle of hate. It is an ending forced by the entire point of the story. Something is only self defeating when there isn't really a theme, core or narrative goal that requires that sort of tragedy. Or, worse yet, when the ending actively undermines all of those elements.

So let's finally talk about Grom Factor. For those who haven't read it, my description earlier is not far off. Luz and Amity's child, Ayzee, causes herself to be named as the next person who will fight Grom. She does this for the most bog standard next gen reason: Wanting to prove herself in contrast to her successful parents. To be her own person and prove that she can be great too. Meanwhile, her girlfriend Milan doesn't want this, partially due to being a healer and following the hypocratic oath, but then commits to helping her girlfriend no matter what. In this process, she gets a part of Philip's journal that shows that Grom is actually a small, scared child. So while Ayzee is preparing to fight Grom, her girlfriend prepares to try to cure Grom.

Big fight ensues, the elixir they bring (yes, just Eda's eliixir, nothing specialized or more complicated) doesn't work and Grom EXPLODES into something more dangerous than ever before. Ayzee and Milan are given a petrification glyph by Amity and Luz after showing Ayzee doesn't have magic of her own, they do a dance to get to the core of Grom to use the glyph... And Milan instead uses Lilith's spell from the end of S1 in order to split the pain of Grom and take the curse onto herself. It works but now anyone who touches Milan gets their fears shouted at them because her hair is now at least partially Grometheus. Then the two leads talk, kiss but we see in Ayzee's head that she is being tortured during the kiss with her fears of inadequacy and the idea that she will always end up hurting other people.

So there you go. A story about one person selfishly throwing themselves in danger without a care about others or the harm she may cause due to her potentially ready for this while the other lead preaches a stop to all harm and even pushes to save a monster because they're in pain too. All the while, the arc tries to sell us on the relationship and how much they theoretically care about each other, especially since this is their first arc together as a couple.

So the actual way to go for a tragic ending, that has similar results to what the comic does, is actually not that hard to see. Ayzee's fears and inadequacies, and her need to prove herself, has HER save Grom while thinking that this will fix her mistake and make her girlfriend happy because she's now taking part of her girlfriends beliefs: To let no one suffer. She could see about someone else taking the pain or not take charge in this situation her flaw, the thing that set all this up for failure which is a component of tragedies. is being unwilling to allow others to do that. To put the burden on herself. So, knowing that killing Grom would hurt someone she cares about by forcing her to take a life, but also needing to do something to set things right, especially as she sees this as her mistake through her original sin of wanting to fight Grom for glory, she sacrifices her happiness to do a selfless act and save the creature. It's bittersweet because of all the curse will do to her but it does actually resolve an arc to the episode and has something to say about how looking for danger for glory is always going to lead to more trouble than you want to have found. It has a POINT.

Instead... Milan's just such a dang good healer! It was so foolish of her to be a good doctor and not want harm upon others. If she had just been like Ayzee and focused more on herself, she might have been willing to let Grom rot and get to have anything resembling a happy life afterwards. Instead, this genuinely just good trait of this good person who did nothing wrong the entire story, means that she will NEVER have relationships again. Not just with Ayzee but ANYONE because she inherently harms people around her by mentally torturing them. By her own character motivations, this means she isn't going to be okay EVER unless this is cured.

But that doesn't track with the reveal of Grom's backstory. Because, you know, that did happen. The story ends so fast after Grom is saved and barely lets her have any time that it's almost easy to forget. But... Grom was made into what she was by cursing herself for the sake of power... To protect others. She was selfless. With it being Milan who saved her, this is meaningless. At best, it's cycles repeating. If Ayzee had, it would have been part of the point the story theoretically sets up for how one needs to do things for others, not for themselves. Instead, I guess the lesson is no good deed goes unpunished? It's not even that personal glory hurts those around you as collateral damage because that's NOT what Grom did.

And finally, there's just the last comic in general that REALLY highlights how little Milan or Grom matters here. She shrugs off the curse. She shrugs off the consequences. Her pain doesn't matter. The only pain that matters is AYZEE'S because this is still her story and NEVER was Milan's. All of this trivializes the tragedy and sacrifice Milan made, as well as the saving of Grom, because those things had nothing to do with the actual focus of the story which doesn't even payoff because the ending shot is making sure we know just how miserable Milan will make Ayzee's life.

THAT is a self defeating ending. The relationship that this arc ostensibly solidifies and sells to the audience? Dead. Ayzee's fears and worries? Made WORSE. Any themes about the need to do what is best for all instead of best for yourself? Falling on the character who already knew that OR saying that doing so always sucks for the person who actually gives a fuck. Any payoff for this? Dismissed so it can only focus on the person SPARED any consequences from her actions except tangentially. And yes, tangentially since Ayzee just needs to get over a teenage crush while Milan will never be a healthy partner to anyone.

The closest you might want to say is that because Ayzee's life did get worse, it sticks to a theme of her brash actions having consequences but then why is the ONLY person to explicitly be harmed by all of this Manila who didn't share that same flaw? At least in Romeo and Juliet, they BOTH die because they BOTH suffer from dangerous levels of brashness and passion. Not many main characters in tragedies get out unscathed for a reason. Usually even if others do get killed during their story, they still suffer just as badly, if not worse.

You can't even go with "Well, at least this version allows Ayzee to be her own person," something that would have been undercut by fusing with a creature" " which is ostensibly part of the point of this sort of next gen arc. To prove they stand alone from what came before... Except no. Ayzee's angst at the end, blaming herself for this, thinking everything she does will always end up hurting others, is literally just Luz's angst arc post Hollow Mind and just about as unreasonable for self hate as her justification. So even that theme, the most basic, number one next gen theme is pointless here, especially since it doesn't even get resolved in any way. The ending, and even the comments recognize this, reinforces that Ayzee is right: People will only ever see her like a little Luz instead of a strong witch herself.

So is there ANY point to this ending? Well... because it's a next gen retelling. Because TOH already did Grom. Already had Luz wanting to prove herself through being Grom Queen. Literally Ayzee's entire arc here is a more blatantly selfish, less interesting version of what her mom did one generation ago. The twist of Grom actually being a good person... *gestures to every character arc in TOH* so that adds literally nothing new, especially since it ends the same way as Eda's curse with the same spell. As such, if it ends happily, and with the couple okay and stronger than before... It literally is just Grom. So you have to give it a tragic ending or else there's no point to this story existing. There's nothing to say except that it's a worse version of the original and why didn't you try to shake things up at all?

It highlights the fact that yeah, this arc is just flawed from a conceptual standpoint which isn't surprising to me. This arc is much of why I made a post a couple days ago about the Isles being an objectively terrible setting for a follow up story. This story is the epitome of everything people dislike about next gen stories, even up to every change they make in a retelling being just worse than the original.

And here's the final nail in the coffin: I will never care about these characters because of this arc but especially because of this ending. We knew almost nothing about Milan before this besides her being Ayzee's girlfriend. Hell, we barely knew anything about AYZEE because we haven't gotten that many comics with her so the only trait that's really been established is that she's a gamer. And yet, in their first outing, a chance to really show who they are and to make them more distinct than Luz and Amity... Well, doing literally anything for your girlfriend and being a damn near saint is just what Amity turned into eventually and I've talked about how much the arc hammered in that Ayzee is literally just Luz all over again. It's a miracle she's not named Buz. Then the ending says screw you to any payoffs or themes for the sake of having ANYTHING to distinguish this from the original and little else. Even the idea that these characters could lead to a fun, silly extension of the show by how absolutely miserable the ending is.

So at this point... Why should I ever bother with these characters again? That seems like a self defeating goal for myself as a viewer.

======+++++======

As a note, this isn't because someone brought it to my attention. I still follow Mark and have since even before his started his final Star Versus comic story. I want to support him, I don't think he's a terrible writer and I like plenty of his comics, but it's rough when he took like two years to finally do a large arc like this again and it's just... not good. And no, I don't like A Hint of Blue either unfortunately but unless I just want to talk about how a boring romance happens, I probably won't ever do a blog like this on that.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house #Grom Factor #moringmark

[oddygaul]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and also just Scott Pilgrim

-footage from Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim

I watched Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, then realized it had been nearly 15 years since I actually read the comics, so then I re-read all of those. I wish I had just done it in the right order to begin with, because doing it this way really scrambled my thoughts about both works. In my defense, how was I to know Takes Off is actually a sequel? What am I supposed to do, read things?

I was pleased to find that the original Scott Pilgrim honestly holds up pretty well. Takes Off is clearly such a reflective work that I was expecting to find the original story a lot more problematic than I had in high school, but… for the most part, it really knows what it’s doing. Yeah, a lot of the characters are shitbirds, but they’re meant to be shitbirds. The entire point of the book is showing us flawed people who intermittently make shitty decisions, and giving them a chance to grow, reflect, and treat the people around them better.

So generally, I still really liked Scott Pilgrim. All the goofy-ass character art and the surreal, unexplained quasi-fantasy Canada bits that made it tick back then still work. This time around, I really appreciated the writing and dialogue for not only its bevy of solid jokes, but for how fucking weird it is. In the past decade or so, I think a lot of ‘quirky’ humor has homogenized somewhat into a particular tone. Call it Whedonization or globalization or internet brain or whatever you want, but it can sometimes feel like anything aiming to be comedic hits a lot of the same beats.

The Scott Pilgrim comics, however, are a weird time capsule and their own vibe entirely. These fuckers just talk like aliens sometimes. They say random stuff, but it’s not *holds up spork* random, it’s “shit sorry I was kind of half listening but I think the thing I’m about to say is relevant” random. It’s less big swings to try and land a punchline, and more of two people letting loose a stream of consciousness at each other, lending a sense of constant confusion to the proceedings. It’s absolute nonsense sometimes, and I was way into it.

This ties into a slight shift in my read on Scott as a character, too. I always just saw him as a huge asshole - and that led to my biggest issue with the movie, which was that Cera plays him way too meek and doesn’t suck nearly enough. Reading the comics again, though, while Scott absolutely does suck, he’s just so fucking head empty that I warmed up to him a bit more. He’s still an asshole that doesn’t take responsibility for how his actions affect others, absolutely, but also god damn he’s so dumb that it softens the blow sometimes.

There were some little details about characters I’d forgotten that I really love - like the fact that Scott is actually a really good cook, but does it purely through intuition without knowing what anything’s called.

Art-wise, I liked it a lot more than I remembered, too; it definitely starts out a bit rough, but there’s a lot of charm to the characters and their weird gremlin mouths. I also laughed at some of the manga inspiration I didn’t pick up on before; everyone’s got big anime eyes, sure, but the grey screentone Clip Studio pattern fills? The hiring of assistants to do polished background work as the author gets into the later volumes? Ahh, classic.

Takes Off was a lot of fun, too. I gather that a lot of the internet fandom is upset it wasn’t a straight retelling of the original story with killer animation, but man, you gotta let creators create what speaks to them. Bryan Lee O’Malley started Scott Pilgrim twenty years ago. He’s been both married and divorced since then. Surely he’s gone through as much growth and change as we all would in such a timespan - how could you expect someone to just re-tread the exact same ground on such a personal story?

I find it interesting how prevalent this trend has become in the past decade or so - a creator or creative team returning to an old work - seemingly out of necessity, as the IP has become such a juggernaut that it’ll happen with or without them - and refusing to just tell the story again by the numbers. Anno’s Rebuild of Evangelion is the closest spiritually to this, but even recent ‘remakes’/reboots like Final Fantasy VII and God of War 2018 have followed the same path - creators ruminating on the strengths and weaknesses of older work from a more distant lens to create something new. They all seem to have arrived at this methodology independently, too (O’Malley said he only watched the Rebuilds once Takes Off was written and well underway); it’s not about chasing the trend of an altered remake, it seems to just be a natural desire to reckon with the past this way.

Because of this, one of the reasons I really wish I watched the show after re-reading the comics is to have a better sense of the evolution, and the change in tone and message. Due to watching Takes Off while having only a hazy recollection of the original, I made a lot of assumptions about how the original work must have portrayed things, to explain what Takes Off’s themes were a rejection of: that by giving Ramona more agency, she’s less of a damsel in distress/prize to be won, and isn’t defined by her body count… when in fact, neither of those are really the case to begin with. Ramona has plenty of agency in Scott Pilgrim, she fights as much as Scott does, and really is only defined by her body count as narrative framework, not judged in-universe by the other characters* **.

*I think some of these misconceptions may have come from having rewatched the movie more recently than I read the comics, as the movie (if I remember correctly, which this entire blog has established I likely don’t) does tend to treat Ramona as more of an passive object. Her subservience to Gideon in the real world (rather than in her subspace mind prison) comes to mind.

**Also, you could argue that the framework of the story itself being ‘guy fight’s girl’s evil exes in order to earn the right to date her’ is inherently placing importance on Ramona’s body count and someone’s romantic eligibility/desirability being defined by that but like… man that just is clearly not the vibe imo

If anything, I think the real lack that the show was trying to make up for wasn’t Ramona’s lack of agency, exactly, but a lack of screentime. Takes Off simply spends more time inside Ramona’s head, letting us see things from her perspective, and understanding the reasons for why she is the way she is and why she does the things she does. In some volumes of the book, she’s aloof almost to the point of feeling like a trope; it’s clear (especially later on) that there’s a reason for the way she acts, but the story just doesn’t necessarily communicate it very well. In the show, with Scott sidelined, we get to spend a lot of time with Ramona, understanding her thoughts and feelings, which is certainly a welcome change.

Anyway, intentions of the changes aside, I wouldn’t trade Takes Off for a straight remake in a thousand years; the sense of utter surprise I felt while watching the story take a hard left turn was exhilarating***. Plus, if the reason you love a series is the characters you’ve developed a bond with, what could be better than canonized fan fiction written by the original creator, showing your favorite characters interacting in new and novel ways? How could one not be excited to see Gideon and Lucas bro out and watch anime together? How could one not be thrilled to see Wallace Wells enact further chaos upon the whole province? More than righting storytelling wrongs, Takes Off is making space to tell more stories and round out everyone’s favorite supporting characters in a franchise that, due to the inherent density of its plot and setup, simply hasn’t had the real estate to develop all of them and let them breathe.

***Having just played through NieR recently, I almost felt like the show had scanned me, detected I had gotten Scott Pilgrim Ending A before, and was throwing some NG+ bonus content at me lmao

As far as the production goes, I was impressed overall, but thought it did suffer from some awkward timing and pacing issues. It’s stiff competition when your inevitable point of comparison is an Edgar Wright movie - even other live-action movies can seem stiff and slow compared to his frenetic pacing and constant cuts - but it still felt remarkably low energy at times, especially in the back half. Now, this is a problem you see a lot in anime dubs; English and Japanese are two very different languages, with different cadences and construction. Since a cast is typically required to dub over already existing animation, the translated dialogue often ends up being elongated and unnatural when it should be a quick back and forth, or hurried where it should have a little more breathing room. Given, though, that Takes Off was not only recorded in English before Japanese, but actually recorded before animation then animated to the dialogue (exceedingly uncommon), I was surprised the show still had this issue.

Regardless, the boarding in the first 4 episodes or so manages to be bombastic enough that this isn’t a problem; there’s a lot of wild camera angles and perspective shifts that keep things dynamic even when the dialogue itself isn’t moving too quickly. The animation highlight for me personally was the fight in the video store between Ramona and Roxy; great idea, incredible execution.

While Science Saru is the main production studio, I was intrigued to spy a bunch of other studios listed in the credits - WIT, Shaft, Ufotable, Trigger - but upon some further research it looks like they were just doing inbetween work.

Also the music includes slapped - I was jamming hard to Kidnapped by Neptune and Konya wa Hurricane, and then that United States of Whatever drop? unreal.

#will's media thoughts / virtual brain repository #shows #comics #scott pilgrim takes off #scott pilgrim

[coraniaid]

Dawn Summers?

General opinion/how much I care about them: Dawn isn’t one of my favorite characters (partly because she’s not in either of my favorite seasons), but I do like her and I think the decision to introduce her into the show was a really good one.  I think it allows for some really strong emotional beats that just wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

A ship I love: I don’t think we see anybody in the show who I’d feel comfortable shipping with Dawn.  (At least, nobody who we see enough to have any idea about their actual personality.  I guess Janice … exists?)  Uh.  Amanda, maybe?

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Dawn and Buffy seems a little bit too obvious an answer here, but … well, it’s obvious for a reason, no?  I think it’s a huge part of what makes seasons 5 and 6 work, and its relative absence in season 7 is a significant factor in why that season doesn’t work for me.  “Summers’ blood: it’s just like mine“ + “She’s me.  The monks made her out of me.” + “I don’t want to protect you from the world.  I want to show it to you.” and so on.  And I like the fact that Buffy actually does get to find Dawn annoying sometimes too, without this detracting from how much she loves her, and that Dawn gets to be upset when she thinks Buffy is ignoring her.

The NOTP: I have lots of other conceptual problems with the comics which have pretty thoroughly put me off reading them, but knowing who Dawn ends up with in them is … definitely up there.

My biggest headcanon about them: I always forget that this is headcanon and not just established in the show, but teenage Dawn absolutely thought Faith was the coolest person she’d ever met.  I think she’d have been so thrilled to meet her at the start of Season 3, and driven Buffy a little crazy later by adopting her mannerisms and trying to copy her fashion choices (in … well, the exact same way Buffy herself does later in the season), or by suggesting that Faith was maybe a better Slayer than Buffy and Buffy could learn a lot from her.  And after Faith starts working for the Mayor, I think she’d have been the biggest advocate of her ability to reform or secretly feeling bad about everything … right up to the point Faith threatened Joyce and stole Buffy’s body, something that Dawn would react to very very badly (see: her reaction to meeting Faith in Season 7).  In fact my headcanon for why the rest of the group don’t really talk about Faith after Season 4 is precisely that they’re worried about upsetting Dawn, who is by this point very vocal in her dislike of and refusal to forgive Faith.

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: I’m not sure if it’s an interesting enough idea to make work on its own, or you need something else as a hook, but I sometimes think I’d really like to read an (otherwise canon compliant) retelling of the first four seasons (or, well, first three seasons) where Dawn actually existed all along.  When exactly did Dawn find out about Buffy being the Slayer? (Yes, I know there’s a semi-canonical answer to this question but I do not like it.)  Does Joyce take her to LA (and out of school??) on all those occasions she has to be conveniently out of town for the plot to work, or is Buffy supposed to look after her while she’s fighting the Order of Taraka?  Does Dawn hate Ted too?  Does she get to meet Kendra? Is she home when Buffy and Spike stake a vampire in front of Joyce in Becoming? How does the big fight in Dead Man’s Party play out if Dawn is around?  (OK, maybe I just want somebody to write a version of Dead Man’s Party that’s … you know, good.)

Something that makes me think of them: Well, like I said, I don’t think of Dawn that much (compared to some other Buffy characters, anyway), but that means I get to be reminded that Dawn exists sometimes, which is nice?  It’s always fun when I run into a line of dialogue in the early seasons that absolutely couldn’t have been said in the version of the show where Dawn always existed (“It’s a good thing you were an only child”, for example): for some reason those are the times in my rewatch of the show I’m most likely to remember that Dawn actually does (or will) exist.

#btvs #asks #dawn summers #thanks!

[not-souleaterpost]

The SOMA - CROMA peace treaty

Well, seems I kinda was indirectly at fault for starting a "shipwar", so for Christmas I'll be the Grinch and steal all the animosity away:

Soul and Maka being together is obviously implied, it's not even just subtext but basically the point of the first one shot chapter. There are countless moments in the anime and manga that work with that and it is undeniable that the romantic part of "being partners" is the most felt with them - from all the handholding, dieing for each other, bickering but actually caring deeply for each other, the pseudo-kiss at the anime end, etc. Crona and Maka's relationship has romantic undertones too - and that is also mostly undeniable, especially in the anime but also in the manga - like Maka calling Crona's soul beautiful, abandoning her past believes and resentment for Crona, Crona defending and later even taking a deadly blow for Maka, saying Maka "made one happy for the first time", etc (Also manga spoilers, so I leave that for the iceberg videos later)

So what am I trying to say by this? That in the end, there really isn't any battle for "truth" - Ohkubo was simply too much pussyfooting and didn't really want to commit enough for either side in the end - because yeah, both side make sense but both also exclude each other. Prefering one or the other is not as much as one side being "wrong" but seeing another thing being reflected in you - basically what I mean - Soul and Crona are both self-inserts of Ohkubo, parts of his view of himsellf or better said archetypes that reflect on the audience: That's why maybe SOMA and CROMA both work in their weird ways - both are just the author shipping himself with his dream waifu - Wait, now I have ruined this for everybody- No, what I tried to say is actually, that charachters aren't "real". not in the sense of "oh it's just entertainment, don't overthink it", but in the way that they aren't individuals like me and you, in the end they are ideas being mediated, emotions being expressed - so is it really the right aproach to try to "PROVE" one's side? - And I'm being self critical here, cause even if I tried to make those posts "Memes" or kinda tongue in cheeck, I did express a sentiment of mine - one which thinking deeply is just emberassingin the end lol. But fuck, I probably miscomunicated with this again - look simplyl said, these charachters are written by the way one reads them, each interpretation is a seed of a story - cause that's what storys are themselves - a series of reteling and changes building on each other - like Soul is obviously inspired by Joe from Ashita no Joe - not consiously necessarily - but being the archetypical "too cool for school" ruffian with a secret heart of gold - but he also isn't just a retread - but an evolution, with the change of backstory from a street urchin to a rich kid under presure: So as "real" authors reinterpret storys, so does everybody, hell I freely admit that in my comic I bend the charachters in a way that I think is interesting and lets me say something new or funny or weird or just even stupid for the sake of it: So Tl;Dr - it doesn't matter which ship is "canon" or "valid" because in the end both "sides are doing something different which doesn't really denys each other - two different storys that yet reflect the one world we all are living in, so vast it's more diverse than any corporate "multiverse"

(Oh also on the whole "problematic" aspect - I think in the end one gets if they aren't some sicko, that yeah, one aspects the charachters in time to get over the charachter flaws that would make a relationship be not the best idea - like yeah Crona should become more of an independet person before "dating" Maka, so unless one wants Crona to stay either a murderous psychopath or a baby that has to be cared for by Maka 24/7, I think there isn't some problem - and why one then probably writes in the change in their interpretation - like I'm trying in my stupid comic, and why I didn't tag it as a CROMA story, firstly because I tried not to get into this whole shipping thing, which probably would have been better and why I' try to get out of it again lol, and because I thought that yeah a lot of things should happen before and that there is a lot potential beyond some generic "fluff" story or whatever people like) So yeah, this will be my last post about "shipping", and I hope people get something from it - worst case scenario CroMa and SoMa shippers can be united in actually having evidence and reason for their shit unlike shit like KidMa which has no canon at all lol But hey, I won't be an asshole for once and say even that could be an interesting thing to explore - the story of a bookworm that competes with the privileged talented Kid, only to see the imperfections as not things to gloat about but as what binds them all. IDK

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you again in 2024, and if this post only causes more drama, as allways:

Yeah...Sorry

#soul eater #soma #croma #soul eater evans #maka albarn #crona #shipping is kinda stupid in the end #should have followed my natural instincs as a boy on that lol #better hate me than each other #cromaka #soul x maka #merry christmas #happy new year

[justfinishedreading]

Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe Volumes 1 - 5

Oh god I’m hooked, I bought and read all 5 volumes over the course of a week! Oh where to start. I first learned about the Hades and Persephone myth a couple of years ago when it was mentioned in the TV series Harlots, a murdering aristocrat force feds pomegranates to a sex worker and calls her Persephone, they later share a genuine bond but it is ultimately doomed because… well he’s a murder. Over the years Greek mythology has come back into fashion, in particular with many YA and fantasy retellings, and the Hades and Persephone tale is one people adore, it’s the allure of a gloomy, scary king that turns out to be a softie. Before reading Lore Olympus, I had watched a show on Greek mythology, and was reading an old book I was given like a decade ago, retelling the myths for children, so I’m aware how the original myth goes in general; Hades kidnaps a young Persephone and takes her to the underworld, later she is rescued but she feels sympathy for Hades and agrees to spend half the year in the underworld and half the year above ground (she agrees but she is also forced to agree because she ate 6 pomegranate seeds and once you consume food from the underworld you must remain there. This myth explains why we have the seasons, in Autumn and Winter Persephone, the goddess of Spring is in the underworld.

When I heard about Lore Olympus it was on a YouTube video about society’s normalisation of older men with much, much longer women, and the reasons why such unbalanced, often abusive or controlling relationships are favoured by men and how the age gap portrayal in media excuses them. So not a great endorsement of Lore Olympus. I avoided getting it for a long time but still there was the allure, the promise of passion and melodrama, of gorgeous art and Greek mythology, in a seductive mix of modern and classical imagery. I picked it up in the bookshop several times, and put it back down again -the art looked promising but the layout of the book was awful. Now I’m a graphic designer so I care about these things, the comic was born as a webcomic and looking at volume 1 you could tell it wasn’t designed with a book layout in mind, the art was sparsely tossed across the pages. It was not good. So months went by and I resisted buying it. But in the end my desire for some romance with high emotion and angst won, and boy does it deliver. Within a week I’d consumed all published volumes, buying one at a time and devouring it and buying the next the following day. Happily the graphic design does get better from volume 2.

So here’s the good and the bad. The Age Difference, on one level this does not bother me because these are gods, in that old book I was reading about Greek myths I learnt that when the god Hermes was just a new born baby he escaped his cradle, stole Apollo’s cattle, sacrificed them to the gods, did some other stuff and then lied to Apollo when he came round accusing Hermes. The concept of age and knowledge and ability are not as we know them. The Greek myths were also OBSESSED with youth and beauty, so with the source material being already so problematic it isn’t a surprise that it bleeds through. However did the author NEED to make Persephone literally 19? She couldn’t just be a young women? The author went out of her way to specify that Persephone is 19, something that is so problematic that various characters and Hades himself acknowledges as being bad, he asks do you mean she’s 1919 years old? (Already a lot young than him if she were 1919 years old, him being thousands of years old) No?! Actually 19!?! I understand that the age difference is part of Lore Olympus’ appeal, the forbidden nature of it, but could her age have been left a little vague, perhaps even aged up a little? Because at the end of the day if we associate Persephone’s personality too much with her age… what happens to her and their relationship with Hades when she becomes older? Also the mention that her body will forever be that of a teenager is distasteful and sends the message that bodies older than teens are not desirable. I suppose since she is the goddess of Spring, to be forever youthful makes sense. 

On the good side, this series handles well difficult topics, it has examples of toxic relationships (not Persephone and Hades but Hades and a former lover) but shows why a person might fall into toxic behaviours, it also depicts well a case of rape and the victim blaming that follows, highlighting narcissistic personalities, and overbearing parents. The reason people love Hades and Persephone’s relationship in Lore Olympus is because they bring each other hope and joy in a world of both physical and emotional pain. 

Back to the bad, Persephone’s character is a bit of a problem, she’s the born sexy yesterday troupe, so young and naive but super overly sexualised, academically clever but clueless to the ways of the world. Of strong will… but easily led astray? Shown to struggle with prejudice but also given a lot of special treatment and privilege. That last point doesn’t bother me so much because at the end of the day the Greek gods were AWFUL people, they were forever throwing tantrums, meddling in the lives of humans, and causing havoc on a whim. The gods were the ultimate abusers of power and unpredictable moods. In that sense Lore Olympus is a good representation of the Greek gods, those guys were MESSY.

P.S Apologies that my photos have been so bad of late, my laptop died and my phone camera is really bad!

Review by Book Hamster

#just finished reading #lore olympus #rachel smythe #hades and persephone #hades and kore #greek mythology #greek gods #graphic novels #book hamster #book blog #reading blog

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

(Note: All of these asks are before episode 206 (Season 2 finale) so some may be dated.) 1. Am I just dumb or do the lo fans who insist we "see" how powerful Persephone is are actually lying? Because sure we'vr see big trees and once or twice seen "wild" vegetation, but have we ever actually SEEN her use her powers? and no the AOW doesn't count since that wasn't her actually doing it willingly (such a dumb retcon). IDK it seems like we've seen more instances of  Hades using their powers all the time yet we've never actually seen the supposed "chosen one" Persephone once use her own.

2. It's so frustrating how there's no reflection on Rachel nor the fandom's part for how Eros is depicted. When he's around Persephone he starts acting more "feminine" and even gets design-wise to look more "feminine" with his posing, eyelashes, beauty marks, and slimed down with more androgynous clothes, but as soon as he's with Psyche he's depicted as much taller, muscular, and in darker more "manly" outfits with chiseled features. I don't even think it's intentional, but it's very hmm induing.

3. At the begging of LO RS made it seem like Persephone didn’t have many friends or that her friends were kinda just spies for Demeter so she kept them at arms length, where we’d see that Artemis is suppose to be her first “real friend” and I guess Eros too? But no this whole time she had dead flower nymphs that didn’t get named almost 200 episodes in; and after mentioning said dead flower Nymphs Persephone wants to watch Hades’ first meeting with herself where she was naked/he was drunk so they can have a laugh. 

4. NGL I want RS to cover the Trojan War bc I want to see what absolutely stupid ideas she'd put into it but also I just know she'd make Helen hashtag Empowered™️ by wanting Paris and being complacent in the deaths of thousands and be weirdly anti Menelaus who is clearly the bad guy here but also she'd make sure Helen's "beauty" is in comparing her to Persephone because of course you can't have anyone be hotter than her. I can see it vividly and it's horrendous.

5. I mean idk making LO be 100 give or take episodes would have probably been for the better. Im not saying it couldnt be a bit longer than that, but she's basically restarted the whole story 200+ episodes in, so there's really no excuse to claim she HAD to have all these episodes when other popular webtoons got their stories done in a good way without such an excessive amount. IMHO A short but strong story is so much better than a dragged out, weak story like LO has turned into.

6. TBH I'm surprised LO hasn't done a "cancellation' plotline yet. I can see it now, Hades ranting the media is trying to ruin Persephone's reputation and trying to take away all her prospects and shaming her for the harmless crime of mass murder. Probably throw in some "it is misogyny to critique her" for good measure and with zero reflection as he's in his massive mansion as he gets rich off ongoing slave labor. I feel like just off her handling of Thanatos we'll get it eventually.

7. I was going to say why is there never any gay renderings of HxP only to remember than one MLM comic on Canvas that just rips off LO down exact plot points and the only major WLW version i've seen was a book so hyper violent towards Persephone (with female Hades?? loving to abuse her??) and hateful of Demeter it actually made me sick to my stomach. Anyway outlaw HxP retellings i've had ENOUGH 🗣

8. the fans claiming "rachel is giving persephone a CHOICE" which like for one, who says she has the authority? but even then she's still, you know, a fictional character, she doesnt have agency by the mere fact she's fiction, so at the very least it has to be written into her character to make choices within the narrative, but rachel doesnt even do that? stuff just HAPPENS to persephone and she doesnt react, she's just yanked along. rachel doesnt even write her to make choices, she just exists.

9. its funny rachel claims LO is some empowering feminist story when its like, even barring the clear fact its NOT, the "feminism" is basically the "more 👏🏽 female 👏🏽 CEOS 👏🏽"logic of not actually fixing old power structures and creating equality. the system doesnt need to change, it just needs to be more accessible, which doesnt actually fix anything. making persephone be another CEO doesnt make it suddenly feminist, she's just now profiting from an unfair system like the men already do.

10. People are calling Hades "Persephone's husband" 🤡 yes we all know how it will end but at this point he is merely a guy she knew for 3 weeks 10 years ago. Calling him husband is ridiculous.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

[lokiondisneyplus]

'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"  

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.  

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."  

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.  

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.  

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.  

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

#Tom Hiddleston #Loki #Disney+ #interview

[yinses]

kinds of tattoo artists 

|jjk edition|

rqst: after sukuna i cant staph thinking about what the others would be like as tattoo artist

a/n: these are probably my favorite things to write. i love the format. 

G O J O  S A T O R U — he has a story for every tattoo ever. one’s he owns, seen and inked himself. they could all be true, but you find the vibrating hum of the needle against your skin easier to ignore when you focus on the vivid imagery of his tales instead. he’s a very good storyteller, never skimping on the details and adding comical commentary around every corner. you connect the threads of each narrative to the accompanying bold lines stretching up the length of his arms. swirls and various shades making for very convincing illustrations to the novel he’d created. before you know it, your hour is up, cutting his retelling just short of the art peeking under his shirt. you could get lost in those baby blues as they twinkle with mischief. they leave you so wrapped up in strings of intrigue that you actually consider a second tattoo despite your hesitations of the first. he looks proud of his work, and should be, deserving off all five stars you planned to give on his review.  “don’t like it too much. tattoos can be pretty addicting, after all.” he remarks as he rubs cream into your swollen flesh.  yeah, you think, addicting was the right word. 

G E T O  S U G U R U — the look he gives you when you tell him it’s your first is almost enough to make you reconsider. it’s not rude but there is a hint of condescension as he coaxed you to go into more details about location and coloring. ultimately, you end up in his chair anyways, lip bitten as he goes about preparing supplies. the point of no return comes all too quickly as he peels the sterile needle from the one use pack. “i would offer to let you hold my hand but-” you look up from the skin pinched between two of his fingers to the same smug grin that had greeted you at the door. something on his face must have changed, because slowly so did his as he breathes out a sigh. he surprise you by guiding one of your hands just above his knee, fingers squeezing around yours once before pulling away. “if it gets to be too much squeeze hard but don’t jump. id rather give you a breather than have you pass out on me.”

I T A D O R I   Y U U J I — if anyone was going to do your tattoo, you’re glad it’s your boyfriend. he’s more patient than most artist would be. attentive to every squirm and flinch and mindful how a single twitch could leave you with a permanent mishap. you’re going nearly thirty minutes over what was expected, but he’d scheduled out an ample block of time prior, mindful of your skepticism. “hey, hey, we’re almost done,” he mutters, hand stopping when he notices the water behind your eyes. “want to stop, baby?” you do. want the endless burn to finally go away, but you want to finish it equally as bad so you steel your nerves and shake your head. something akin to pride curls at the corners of his lips as he starts back up the motor but not before pressing a quick kiss to yours. “it’s going to look beautiful on you. just you wait. it’ll be worth it.” and you believed him. 

F U S H I G U R O  M E G U M I —he’s not one for conversation, choosing to rather concentrate on his work than idle chatter. but he doesn’t seem to mind if you do. and so you find yourself talking about any and everything as the clock ticks on. the entire process is almost cathartic. pent up tension escaping you with every word and each pin point of the needle etching away at your skin. this was suppose to be your bold change. something different to stamp a revision on your life while mounting a memorial of your past. or at least that was the speech used to butter yourself up to the idea. at the end of it all, you’re staring at something better than you’d imagined, and dont delay telling him as much. your words ignite a blush that crawls up his nape, barely hidden by the sheepish hand rubbing over the skin. “i-uh... don’t mind doing your next one. if you want one to remember your friend by.” he’s already turning away from your blink of shock, throwing care instructions over his shoulder as he prepares the bandage. 

F U S H I G U R O  T O J I  — it comes as a surprise, because he’s the owner. something pointed out to you by a friend when you’d accompanied them to the shop in the past. he only took on special guests, you’d been told. spending half a day bent over a customer completing yet another work of art that keep the business in high praises. he didn’t bother with the small things. so why he the one offering to pierce the little stud above your naval? eventually you would get a tattoo but you weren’t quite ready to take the plunge. but you’d been eying the cute studded crystal since your last visit. it looks as good as you thought it would, twinkling bright under the hooded lamp. he seems to think so too a thumbs over the tender flesh just above the piercing. “you were so good for me. not even a flinch.” you found yourself caught staring at the sharp cut stretching across both lips as they work into a smile. “you’ll have to come back and let me mark you up for real.”

C H O S O —he thinks you’re cute as you stumble through the explanation of your design. accommodating but insistent when you began to doubt yourself. ultimately, your idea hadn’t changed but you felt it lacking as you stared at the temporary imprint reflected in the mirror. you were his last appointment of the day, and surely eating up his time, but he refused to let you just go through with it. there was a light scold in his voice as he rubbed alcohol against your skin to wipe away the markings. “if you’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right.” you should have been halfway through your tattoo now as the neighboring stations close down for the day. but he waves away your timid glances as he nudges a new sketch book your way. in a way showing you his work had been somewhat counterintuitive, rather than help you settle on a design, you’d been overwhelmed and visibly intrigued by the numerous portraits and motifs. you spent more time compliment the his steady hand for being able to produce such detailed works than you’d progressed to coming any closer to honing in on your own tattoo. eventually he’s the one to call it a night, chasing away your frown with an offer. “tomorrow’s my day off. why don’t you meet me at the cafe around the corner and we can brainstorm this with the help of caffeine.”

#gojo satoru x reader #megumi fushiguro x reader #geto suguru x reader #toji fugiguro x reader #choso x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #Jujutsu Kaisen #jjk imagine #gojo x reader #megumi x reader #yuuji x reader #geto x reader

[rayghosts]

memeception

#M E M E C E P T I O N #WHAT IS THIS IM CRYING #rb #shitpost

[arctimon]

Big Hero 6, Volume 1 Review - Something Old Or Something New?

(Before we get started, I would just like to note that, as always, this is my personal opinion.  I am allowed to have one, just as you and everyone else are allowed to have one.)

I was very excited, as well as a lot of people, when Yen Press announced that there would be a new Big Hero 6 graphic novel coming this year.  The artist was brand new (Hong Guyn An), but it would be based off of the series and not the movie, and as the series finale was a bit...lackluster, it would satiate our needs until Baymax! comes out in 2022.

And I did end up getting the novel a week early.

And while the novel itself is a fun read on its own, I feel like fans of the show are going to find themselves a little disappointed.

(Spoilers for the novel are below.)

Of course, this is where I would normally put spoilers for something that’s brand new.

But, as other people have mentioned on here...it’s not new.

And that is perhaps what annoys me the most.  All of the descriptions and blurbs made me personally believe that we would be getting a brand new story.  Again, the press release description: The gang is back in an all-new adventure! Join Hiro, Baymax, Go Go, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and Fred as they fight to protect the streets of San Fransokyo. Based off of the animated Disney feature film, the comic will tie in with the animated TV show.

“All-new adventure”.  “Tie in with the animated TV show”.

It’s not either of those.  It is the animated TV show.

So let’s explain a little bit.  Volume 1 has three chapters in it, based off of three of the episodes in the first season: “Issue 188″, “Failure Mode”, and “Baymax Returns: Part 1″.  The chapters are in that order, which is also confusing because you don’t read the book like a regular manga from right to left.  Even if it was like that, the order still wouldn’t make any sense.  And if you haven’t watched the show, you’re going to see Globby in the middle of the book with no introduction and be instantly confused.

Which leads to my second point.

I previously linked a review for the novel, which now doesn’t read like someone expanding on details on anything new, but now reads like someone who...well...

...Volume one features a good dose of humor, a reliance on old characters that fans of any of previous iterations will know and love (as well as introductions of what I assume are comic-only characters, including a new young genius that’s quite a fun addition), and a mixture of episodic and arc-style stories, sometimes both within the same chapter...

It reads like someone who clearly hasn’t seen the show.

Because if you have seen the show, you would full well know who Karmi is.

None of this is the fault of the artist, though.  The art is actually really good, and captures the anime/manga style for everyone beautifully.  Sometimes it can be a little much (like the fights with High Voltage and Globby can be overwhelming for the page), but those instances are few and far between.

As for the plot?  Well, like I said, you’re not missing a lot.  It’s pretty much the plots of those episodes.  If you watched said episodes (and I think a lot of people who would be getting this graphic novel already have), a good 90-95% of the lines, places, and situations are a copy-paste from the show.

There are a few differences (Hiro and Karmi have some cute additional lines in their interactions in “Issue 188″, as well as Hiro starting at the cafe and then going to meet Granville at school as opposed to just being in his lab before meeting Karmi for the first time), as well as some shoutouts to other Disney titles (crowd members from Wreck-It Ralph and Emperor’s New Groove), but I don’t think you’re going to miss much.  “Failure Mode” suffers the most from this, IMO.

And I think that’s what frustrates me the most as a member of the fandom.

Perhaps it was a bit self-inflicted, but I truly believed that we were getting something new, not just a retelling of the series.  Yes, it’s better than nothing (and as mentioned, we’re all starving for new content), and I don’t want to be an “old man on the porch” complaining, but I am disappointed that we aren’t getting that brand new adventure that I was led to believe.

Now, having said that, depending on the amount volumes we’re getting, we could end up having something new when everything is said and done.  But who knows when that will be?

We know that we’re getting a Vol. 2, but there’s been no release date announced.  It could be months before it comes out.  And how many do they plan on making?  And do they plan on doing all the episodes, or just certain ones?  If they want to keep going the Obake and Karmi route, “Fan Friction” and “Big Problem” would probably be their best bet.

Long story short, at the end of the day, this is a young kids/adolescents book, and I am neither of those.  It’s a beautifully drawn book that is very faithful to the series, but almost to a fault.  If you’re looking for something brand new, this may not be the thing that you’re looking for. (Big Hero 6: The Series Vol. 1 is available in bookstores and digital outlets now.)

#big hero 6 #big hero 6 the series #big hero 6 graphic novel #big hero 6 spoilers #big hero 6 manga spoilers #hiro hamada #baymax #karmi #honey lemon #go go tomago #wasabi #fredzilla #granville #big hero 6 fandom

[renaroo]

Other History? More Like Other MYSTERY

as in it’s a MYSTERY how the hell this got past an editor the week before Pride Month are you fucking kidding me?

I was kind of hoping for more than like... a week of being back on tumblr before I breathed fire and ripped a comic book to shreds. But we all know why I’m here.

There are so many preemptive things to get out of the way before I rip into this thing...

John Ridley as a writer in other forms of media has been incredibly accomplished and an important additional voice to entertainment industries. I do not wish to take away from that or to minimize the impact of voices like his.

But, you know, he’s a voice in media. Not the end-all, be-all to all marginalized people worldwide who can substitute his perspective for any nonwhite straight male voice. And I don’t think that has ever been more apparent than the continued spiral down the drain that has been every issue of The Other History of the DC Universe since the first. 

DC’s “new” approach to everything being canon and everything mattering is dumb and filled to the brim with ways it’s going to backfire and reveal itself to be the eye sore of publications that it’s aiming for, but I was curious to see how they would try to incorporate these characters’ long and contentious histories in the comics with the real world issues they often were billed to tackle, and try to fit it into the current pop culture landscape. That was the whole reason I had my eye on this comic to begin with.

By the second issue we were getting some stark warning signs because as much as I appreciated hearing an authentic perspective on how the Teen Titans brand carried on while neglecting its landmark Black teen heroes (Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher), there was a note of cruelty added to the issue that felt otherwise misplaced and uncharacteristic of the tone being set. 

There was no reason to have a significant portion of that issue dedicated to Mal and Karen’s monologues taking some aggressive words out on Roy Harper specifically for being an addict. 

Perhaps it was a quirk of writing from a flawed perspective or a show of how righteous upset and anger could be turned outward to other people suffering in a vy for your own empowerment. 

I’m now pretty sure that wasn’t it at all. I’m pretty sure because it kept getting worse every issue and it’s culminated in today’s issue where the retelling of Renee Montoya’s story managed to be petty, cruel, shockingly pro-police brutality int its adulation of Jim Gordon and especially Harvey Bullock, and managed to make a well-rounded and very beloved Latina lesbian and just retrofit every stereotype she never had before to her without regard for what it did to her story or to the stories of people around her. 

Honestly, lapsed faith and a poke at the damage that Catholic guilt can have on especially queer believers is kind of my jam, so it’s not that I wouldn’t be down for a story with that perspective. I could even understand exploring that with Renee. But not at the expense of her established history.

Which is a question all of its own. Here we have the skeletal structure of Renee’s life events that we have read before (in much better stories), but they are surprisingly out of order and also shockingly twisted in a way to make EVERYONE as unpleasant as possible. 

And in a way that has convinced me that either John Ridley has never read comics featuring Renee, or that he was mandated to change things that had no business being changed.

According to this issue Renee hated Batman and other superheroes? Which, ah, I don’t even know where that could come from. Ever since the animated series where she got started, Renee’s whole bag has been “the acolyte of Jim Gordon, only other cop who supports Batman”. Like I don’t even know how you get around that.

But according to Ridley she’s hated them all along as an extension of her internalized homophobia and self-loathing. Great.

What follows out of that is that apparently? Renee and Batman specifically butted heads over wanting to rehabilitate Harvey Dent? As in Renee wanted to help him and BATMAN was the one flipping out and saying Harvey was a sociopath and couldn’t be helped.

Like. I’m starting to question if Ridley has read Batman comics before. I don’t know where that interpretation could possibly come from? Bruce and Harvey were friends? Bruce has always held out hope for saving Harvey from his psychosis? It’s like. THE storyline for Two-Face.

The cop stuff... I don’t really know how to talk about the cop stuff to be completely honest. If you mention the LA Riots on one page and a few pages later try to frame it so that over policing and methods of brutality weren’t a thing until 9/11... I don’t know what to say to you. 

I’d say maybe I was being ungenerous here except there were two characters who got entire full page spreads about what good cops they were. And one of them was goddamn Harvey Bullock with the explicit commentary that Renee USED to be uncomfortable with his torture methods and general brutality but figured it was “okay” because he knew how “innocent people screamed different” and that he “never collared someone and it didn’t stick” because. Y’know. Police violence and falsifying evidence never go hand in hand. what the actual fuck ever right?

The timeline for Renee and Kate’s relationship is also completely changed which means that we get to add a trope I just LOVE as a lesbian personally, which is that lesbians can’t keep relationships and can’t keep from cheating on their loving partners. Especially when they are butch. 

And I’m not talking about Renee cheating on Kate. Oh, no. Ridley decided Kate was the Other Woman during Renee’s relationship with Daria. 

And just.. the cruel commentary that Renee had about both Kate and Daria throughout. It made my skin crawl. The way she talked about other women in general made my skin crawl. “Uncomplicated women” “Broken souls” “Can’t be with someone better than yourself”

So I actually planned to go into a full rage post about just the queer content because 1. my lane and 2. it honestly affected me so bad I was shaking and tearing up in anger a bit. Every single friend I know who loves Kate and Renee, see themselves in Kate and Renee, have been the same kind of mess I am after this.

The NASTINESS of the internal monologue. I don’t know how to explain it more than this is how poorly men think of flf and to have one use a character so meaningful to the community to spout this hatefulness has revolted me in a way I... haven’t had happen to me for a while.

I was going to talk about the weirdness of just... randomly deciding to retcon Renee’s parents into being undocumented when that’s never been a thing before and just doing NOTHING with it the whole while after. Or how it’s pretty questionable how Renee suddenly became so adherently Catholic when it’s never been portrayed like that before (that’s Hel B’s bag, JPV if you squint) but it’s entwined with any of her commentary on her ethnicity p sus too but I don’t have the nuance for that discussion right now.

Rena Rants are back and what a fucking JOKE this comic was. 

I didn’t pay for it and neither should you.

P.S. bringing back Tim Fox and calling him “Jace” is dumb as fuck too

#VICTOR #CHARLIE #Rants of Unusual Size #Rena Rambles #Wednesday Spoilers #The Other History of the DC Universe (2019) #Renee Montoya #the Question #Kate Kane #Batwoman #character assassination #for who? #take a pick #I didn't even touch on her calling Vic instead of #In the name of the moon fuck you my dude

[melyaliz]

Remember Me 10

Master List

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Pairing: Bakugo Katsuki x OC

Notes: Trying to catch up on a few chapters.

All Masterlists @melyalizarchive​

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Check out my published work.

---------Bakugou---------

Everything was lovely. Perfect and beautiful. The food was delicious, the drinks were sweet, Olive looked amazing

And Bakugou was about to murder that lady who wouldn’t stop taking pictures of them from across the room. Seriously? This was supposed to be a nice place and these people were acting like riff raff. He couldn’t even pay attention to the questions Olive was asking him. His date clearly saw the woman as well since her gaze kept darting over to the rude fan. However, unlike him she wasn't really acknowledging it.

Oh great, now she was coming over here.

“Excuse me, are you Ground Zero? My son loves you, Japanese heroes. I was wondering….”

Olive’s brown eyes grew wide, blinking in shock at the woman standing before them. “We’re actually in the middle...”

“Oh he doesn’t mind honey. After all these heroes love attention.”

“Maybe after we eat?” Olive’s eyes darted from the woman to Bakugou’s hands which were gripping the table so tightly it was a shock it didn’t break. It was VERY clear that he was NOT loving this attention. Quickly the young woman tried to think of another way to de-escalate this situation. While she hadn’t known Bakugou for long it was clear from both the resorts and their conversions he was not the picture of easy going. Which was the kind of attitude you needed for women like the one standing by their table.

“No no, actually could you just take the photo?” she asked holding out her phone to Olive who looked down at it. The situation being so comical she was having a hard time not laughing. God if only she could be filming this situation to save forever. This woman was a piece of work.  Looking back up at the prestant fan Olive was about to respond when Bakugou, who had been festering in his seat trying to keep his cool for the whole interaction, lost it.

“Can’t you see we are on a DATE!?!” The blonde snapped sparks flashing from his fits singing the white tablecloth as the women, shocked, instantly took a step back.

“Oh excuse me… I didn’t.”

“Just go!” he snapped, already feeling that mix of annoyance and instant embarrassment that he had just lost his temper in front of his date. His face so red it almost looked like it was on fire. His hair standing on edge looking like the small sparks that were flickering from his palms.

But the damage was done. Glancing over at Olive he noticed she wasn’t even looking at him but her phone. After a moment she glanced up at Bakugou then the woman who was retreating to the safety of her own table. Slowly turning back to Bakugou Olive took a sip of her wine, her face totally unreadable.

“ My friend and his wife are going to this bar where this metal band Revocation is playing. Did you want to ditch this and go ?”

“Uhhh” Still coming down from the scene that had just transpired it took a moment for his brain to register what she was saying.

“ It’s this band ” she held up her phone for him to see, “ I know you like Metal so… ”

“ Yeah let’s go ” he stood ready to leave right now. Over this whole fancy restaurant and it’s perfectness. Honestly, this wasn’t really his thing he had only taken her here because he knew chicks liked it.

Or apparently the chicks he had taken out before Olive.

“We still have to pay. ” she mumbled reaching for her bag.

“ Don’t you dare, ” he growled, still heated. Freezing Olive glanced up at him before sitting straight in her chair a small smile slowly starting to grow on her face. Sipping the last of her wine she tried to hide her amusement.

Bakugou decided not to ask her what she found so funny instead pulling out his wallet taking a few deep breaths. Calming himself down. Breath Bakugou breath. As if on cue the waiter came rushing up. He had no doubt witnessed the whole scene and was ready to get this explosive hero out of his restaurant.

“ I’ll order an uber. ” Olive said, “I’m excited” she added in english smiling and Bakugou suddenly felt like a huge weight had been lifted.

The club was a small hole in the wall with a stage. Dirty with low grade alcohol and beer. Olive ordered for them saying Bakugou had to at least try a local brew since he was in San Diego.

It was ok, a little bitter for his taste.

The opening band was ok. He might had enjoyed it more if Olive didn’t seem so distracted. She kept stepping forward slightly, casting a half a glance behind herself as if trying to discreetly see something behind her.  Her distraction distracting him. What was wrong with her?

Then suddenly her body became translucent and some guy who had been standing behind her fell through her. Slowly, as if she was underwater, she stepped over him glaring down at the offending man.

“Wow, not cool!’ the guy says getting up touching his face checking if there is bleeding.

“Yeah, it’s really not cool that you kept touching my ass!” she snapped up at him. Eyes flashing with frustration. “If you're close enough to fall, you're too close.”

“I can’t help it, that skirt….” his predatory gaze at said skirt was cut off by Bakugou stepping in front of Olive. English my not be his native language but he had heard enough to understand what was going on. And he was not ok with it.

“Get away from her.”

“You with her?” The guy asked sizing Bakugou up. It was apparent, even dressed in the nice slacks and button up that Bakugou had put on for this evening, that he could take this guy. Yet this guy didn’t seem to really understand that as he puffed out his chest trying to make himself look better.

“I will kill you” small sparks flickering in his hand ready to take this guy out. Who did this creep think he was?

Bakugou was about to show this douchebag JUST who he had been messing with he felt a hand folder over his own stopping him.

“Just walk away and stop touching women without asking.” Olive said calmly, her hazel eyes hard as her grip on Bakugou’s hand tightened slightly. The guy, who had seen the sparks, knew he was no match for the blonde and decided to leave while his limbs were still attached.

“Olive!”

At the sound of her name Olive turned and waved to a couple coming up toward them. Her hand still intertwined with Bakugou’s. As the couple came closer she dropped his hand and Bakugou couldn't help but miss her touch a little. But only a little.

The guy who had called out her name pointed his thumb behind his shoulder at the creep who was now nursing his pride at the bar with a bottle of IPA. “What happened with that guy?”

“ Bakugou, this is Peter and Emma . ” Olive said, pointing to the couple. The guy had shaggy auburn hair with pale skin and a face of freckles that made him look almost like an overgrown child. The woman next to him had short curly black hair and dark skin. They were such a contrasting couple they almost stood out in the crowd of people. “That guy tried to grab my ass and…” she started retelling the incident so quickly that Bakugou couldn’t keep up. She even kept using her hands to act things out while adding in sound effects making the couple laugh.

She must have reached the end because Peter leaned over toward Bakugou holding up his hand for a high five.

“Dude nice!”

Bakugou wasn’t really the high five kind of guy but he had also had enough PR classes to know when to just do it. What was the term american’s used for these kinds of guys? Oh yeah, surf bros. Peter was a surf bro. Although his energy level did kind of remind Bakugou of Kirishima.

The rest of the interaction throughout the concert was awkward slow english with Olive mumbling a few words here and there. The couple was friendly enough but for the most part they were there to listen to the music and Bakugou was grateful they didn’t force too much conversation. Although, every once in awhile Peter would glance over at Bakugou sizing him up as if trying to gauge who this person Olive had brought was. It took a lot of self control not to call him out on it but after the restaurant Bakugou knew he needed to keep his temper in check if he wanted to save tonight. And deep down he wanted to make a good impression on this girl who would rather spend the night listening to Metal music while drinking cheap beer than at a fancy restaurant.

As the night wore on and the drinking continued Olive’s Japanese became better and worse all at the same time. Her confidence was rising so she was speaking quicker but because of that she kept mixing up tenses and direction. One moment Bakugou could understand everything she was saying with total clarity the next it was as if she was speaking totally giberious.

It was kind of cute though because she was so confidently failing.

As the last few songs started to play Peter and Emma had disappeared to the bar and had never come back. Not that Bakugou really cared, he was too busy explaining drumming techniques to Olive.

It had all started with her leaning forward to ask a question about the drummer, her body barely touching his as her hand gently touched his arm to pull him down to her level so she could into his ear. As the music wore on, she had slowly wormed herself under his arm, his hand gently on the curve of her back as they continued to talk music. Well Bakuogu explained, she mostly asked questions with wide eyes of wonder at his knowledge which just fed into his ego.

He was surprised how even drunk she kept up with his questions and prodded deeper. She wasn’t asking to flatter him or fuel his ego, she genuinely wanted to hear what he had to say.

Soon the conversation shifted from music to his powers and moves he was working on. A small smile was on her face as she watched him explain a trick he had been trying out. It was a little more subtle than his normal moves but he was realizing he needed some smaller, more controlled ways to use his powers in more crowded arias.

“What?” Bakugou paused frowning down at Olive who was just smiling up at him hanigng onto his every word. Biting her lip she shrugged.

“I just like you and your interests”

“My Interestings?” he chuckled gently brushing away a few strands of her hair that had fallen into her face.

Olive scrunched up her nose trying to find the right words, stumbling for a few moments she just sighed, shrugging, “I just really like you.”

“Oh do you” Bakugou said leaning forward grinning down at her, all teeth as his crimson eyes studied her expecting her to get flustered at his forwardness.

To his delight he noticed a small flush spread across her pail skin as Olive nodded her eyes never leaving his. Without thinking she licked her lips and Bakugou’s gaze followed her tongue. Moving a few inches closer he was only a hair's breadth away from her.

For a moment they both stood there just wrapping up in the moment, daring the other to make that move. To push toward that next step in this murtal attraction. Admitting that maybe there was something there, something worth exploring.

If asked, Bakugou will always say it was him who took that step forward. Who kissed first. And maybe he was, but if he really was forced to admit it he wasn’t really sure. All he knew was that one moment he was thinking about kissing her and the next he was.

She tasted just how he imagined she would. Sweet and playful, a bit like the beer she had been drinking and surgery sweet from the lipgloss she was wearing. Her body seemed to melt so willing into his, her hands gently pressed into his body, one on his arm and the other on his chest.

Not one for PDA, Bakugou moved her into a dark corner of the bar. She giggled as he pulled her to him again, his hands moving down her body to her hips, pulling them flush to him. She let out a little grunt pushing herself onto him. Her hands moving to his neck pressing herself into him as she grinded into him

“My place?” he asked huskily in english pulling himself slightly away from her, just enough to catch his breath. To put himself back together. Hif brain buzzing with more than just the alcohol.

It was like a switch in her brain went off and she pushed away.

“I can’t I’m married ”

It was Bakugou’s turn to jolt back. It was as if with those four words he had become completely sober and painfully aware that he had just been making out in some dirty dive bar. “ What ?” There was no way his brain tried to reason. Her friends would have said something. He would have seen a ring.

“He’s dead… I… you should know though because I like you” the words were slurred and making no sense to him as he stood there looking down at her completely lost. Those lips he had just been kissing pulled into a grimace as her breath became shallow.

Fuck fuck fuck.

What the FUCK?

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“Can I kiss you”

Bakugou’s voice thick and warm like his body wrapped around her. His eyes trailed up from her lips to meet her own with the most intense gaze Olive had ever felt. It was as if those crimson eyes were looking into her very soul. Cracking her open bare before him seeing things she didn’t even know about herself. Nodding mutley her tongue felt like it had been velcroed to the top of her mouth.

He learned forward gently touching her lips. Hesitant at first, testing the waters but knowing them oh so well. Olive couldn’t remember kissing anyone but Eliott so the experience of Katsuki being so good seemed very foreign to her. He tasted sweet with just a hint of smok. The taste of alcohol barely evident on his breath as he slowly moved his lips pulling her in deeper.

It was so warm. His tongue flicked expertly over her lips asking for entrance, his hand travelling up from her arm to her cheek gently pulling her closer to him. His touch was too tender and intimate. As if she was made of porcelain. About to crack and break. Shatter across the floor.

Olive didn’t want to be weak. She wanted to be confident and strong. To be happy. To be the woman she had been with this man who was way out of her league. To be…

To be…

Her heart was beating so fast she couldn’t breath. It was pounding in her chest as if it could crack her very bones shattering through her chest. She needed air. She needed to catch her breath.

She needed Eliott.

Pulling away she could see the concern spread across Bakugo’s face as he looked down at her. He had looked so happy. So focused and now… he was unreadable.

“I’m sorry I…” she stammered trying to pull herself together. Those little porcelain pieces putting them together on this china doll. That’s all she was, a fragile little doll.

“Don’t apologize. I hate it” he cut her off shaking his head, his eyes unable to meet hers.

“Oh…” she paused unsure how that felt, “ I’m not sure how I feel about not apologizing.”

“Well apologize if you are sorry but none of that insecure shit.” he said his gaze snapping toward hers burning bright hot flames in his eyes. He wasn angry. It was taking every ounce of self control to not lose it on her.

And she couldn't blame him. The woman he loved was dead and what he had instead was this… this broken thing.

It made her angry too.

It felt like they were caught in this loop. Both of them were looking for something they were missing. He was looking for something in his past and she was looking for something in her future.

“ I just.. ,” she let out a long breath, “I hate this so much,” giving up and switching to english so she could be as honest as possible. The weight of the statement hung over them, pushing down like some dark storm cloud. Her saying what both of them had been feeling for weeks. Finally out loud. Barely understandable over the music on the dance floor it was still there.It hung there between them both like the chaem that had grown since the accident.

This wasn’t really club conversation. Not that much of what had been spoken that night had been very good “night out” topics.

“Let’s go,” Grabbing her wrist Bakugou turned, pulling her off the dance floor.

“But the others… do we need to say goodbye?” she asked glancing over her shoulder trying to find his… their friends.

“No, I’ll text them later,” he wouldn’t but he knew she would worry and - of all the things on her mind - it wasn’t worth it.

The cool air against their skin seemed to wake them both up. It hit them like an ice cold drink on a hot day as they excited the bar. Refreshing and just everything they needed. Olive let out a long breath, her hands going up to her dark hair wishing she would just massage the answers into her skull.

What were they supposed to do?

“ I hate this too ” his back was to her but she could hear him as clear as if he had whispered it in her ear. He turned to look at her, studying her. “It’s like you are there but you're not. ” he said switching to her native tongue. Just another reminder of how distant they were from each other. Just another struggle in this relationship.

“I feel like I’m living in the body of a stranger. As if I don’t fit in my own skin” hot tears were fighting in her eyes, frustration filling her body like bowling water. Bubbling so close to the rim it would spill over at any moment. “I want to love you, I want to be that girl… I just don’t know her… she’s years away from what I am right now.”

Her words were simple but strong determined to talk this out. Her eyes bright as she searched his answers. How could she make him happy when she didn’t know anything about the Olive he had fallen in love with?

He lunged forward grabbing her arm pulling her to him. Wrapping her in a warm hug. His body enveloping her in his own just holding her as she let out a choked sob crying angst his black tee. His hand gently stroking her hair as he kissed the top of her head fighting back his own tears. He had always hated seeing her cry, and she had probably been crying more these past weeks than he had ever seen her cry in the 4 years before.

But she wasn’t hiding them from him anymore. She was crying freely in front of him. Letting him in to what she was struggling with.

He could feel her hands gripping his denim jacket pulling him closer to her as she shook her head, her tears seeping through the thin cotton of his shirt. Not that he cared. She could ruin that dumb shirt for all he cared.

Just stop crying.

“ I’m sorry ” she mumbled through her sobs. “I’m sorry”

Pulling away he took her face, his in hands wiping away the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs. Bending down slightly so he was eye level with her he shook his head.

“Stop apologizing, this is not your fault and once I find the guy who did this to you I will… I’m going to fix this Olive.”

She sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her arm, “W...What?”

“The guy who did this. The moment we find him I'm going to pound his ass into the cement until he undoes this. And then I’m going to kill him for doing this to you. For making you feel so sad.”

She studied his face blinking wide tearfilled eyes unsure if she understood him. But he wasn’t going to clarify for her. She might not fully understand it right now. She didn’t know him well enough to know what he would do for her.

And the answer to that was anything .

“Let’s go home” he said standing up straight holding out his hand for her to take. Gently she slipped her hand into his nodding sniffing again. A soft sad smile on her lips as she blinked away a few stray tears from her lashes. It took all his self control not to kiss her again.

They walked in silence for a while. Lost in their own thoughts. Hands gripping each other as if they so much as loosened theri grip they would lose the other. That they would drift away until the chasm between them was too great.

“ God I’m a mess” Olive let out a wet laugh looking down at her now makeup smudged sleeve and arm.

“Yeah you are, ” Bakugo chuckled looking down at her before trying to rub away some of the mascara and eyeshadow that was running down her face only to smudge it more. “You almost looked this bad on our first date.”

“Did I start crying then too?” The horror written over her face was adorable. Sadness forgotten replaced with total embarrassment. Memories of that night came flooding back to Bakugou. That look of amusement she had at the restaurant. The excitement she had while making him try different beers explaining them over loud music. The way her body rocked out to the music in that bar. And the way that same body melted in to his while kissing him in that dark corner.

“No just sweated, we went to a metal concert with Peter and Emma.”

“Fuck no we didn’t!” Olive’s eyes grew wide at the choices of her past self, “ I must have really liked you… Peter is… was Eliott’s best friend.”

“I didn’t realize that at the time” H e had learned that fun fact a year later when Peter had - in Bakugou’s option- hilariously threatened the hero that if he ever hurt Olive he would cut off Bakuoug’s balls.

As if Bakugou could even imagine hurting Olive.

The memories of that first night and the millions after made him smile, they were such different people back then, yet so much the same. “You also got drunk and told me you were married after we kissed.”

“I didn’t,’” she groaned hiding her face behind her hands “ What is wrong with me? ”

“ You meant to say you had been married but ” he couldn’t help but laugh at the memory. While not funny at the time it was nothing but comical now.“ I had no idea what you were saying. ”

That got a laugh out of her giving him a sense of triumph. “Did I ever tell you that when Eliott asked me out I told him that I was just a very awkward person and if I was too weird he needed to tell me and then I shook his hand and said ‘let’s do this?”

“You didn’t, but I think mine wins.” he said, nothing can top that night in Bakugou’s book.

“Oh for sure” she paused biting her lip, a sure sign she was still worrying. However, her eyes were much brighter now. “You’re better looking than him.”

“I know.”

“Well it’s good to know you know your are hot.” her tone was playful, for a moment it almost felt like the old Olive was back. Teasing him about being so full of himself but also feeding his ego a moment later.  “Although it doesn't explain us to be honest.”

“Huh?” he asked, turning to her, confused.

“ Like, you’re the number 1 hero, hella hot and… I’m like maybe a 5 in everything.”

“I wasn’t number 1 when we met, I was number 2. I only became number 1 a little over a year ago.”

“Wait really?”

“Yeah” he sighed looking up at the sky. He couldn't see the stars because of all the lights from the city but the moon looked down at them. Full and bright. “You… I never thought I needed anyone to support me. That I could do everything by myself but you somehow just snuck in and proved me wrong.”

“Now that doesn’t sound like me.” she said softly having a hard time imaging she was cool enough to help a hero make it to number 1. She could barely get herself to an average ranking on the Amazon seller’s list.

“You just kept telling me I could do it. Kept pushing me to do things I didn’t want to do, to get there.” they paused at their apartment building looking up at it as they stood outside scared to go in. as if leaving the city would break this spell they had created. “Deku always said he was who he was because of the people who supported him and I always thought it was stupid. But… you didn’t just support me you pushed me. You helped me.” he looked down at her meeting her gaze. She had been looking up at him smiling softly watching him speak as if he had just told her she was made of star dust or some other romantic bullshit.

“Can I kiss you?” she asked, catching him off guard. “I’m not… ready for much more but… just one kiss before the end of the night…. Just…”

He cut her off capturing her lips. Kissing her so desperately it made Olive’s head spin. Just drinking her in as if his actions could say what his words just couldn’t.

He wanted so much more than a kiss. He wanted all of her like he used to have. But he would get what he could take. Because no matter what was going on, no matter what kind of Olive he had right now.

She was worth it.

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Selene’s Statements About Della Duck

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When it comes to Della’s decision with The Spear, we’re meant to believe she was more excited about taking a quick joyride in orbit than prioritizing motherhood. We’re also supposed to believe that Della’s crash-landing was the thing that humbled her into being more family-oriented. 

But even with the show being over, there are still some things about this that leave me unconvinced...I mean, yeah, it was very convincing after Scrooge gave his perspective of the ordeal, but as Season 2 progressed, I began to question this retelling...

Although taking the Spear was presented to us as this big, selfish mistake that Della has been trying to make up for and get past, other cases that resembled this story or touched on a contributing factor, didn’t quite treat it as such. Space-related imagery and the like continued to be brought up in the background; even after major events like Della’s return, Lunaris’ defeat and Penny settling her homesickness...it felt like there was something much more important that needed to be said beyond Bradford’s small mention in the finale.

If these other situations in the series truly were inspired by Della’s situation and if she was completely in the wrong, then there would have been more things to further cement this to line up with Scrooge’s perspective. If what he said was exactly what Della was doing, it should be reflected in these other stories as irrefutable no matter how you look at the situation. There shouldn’t be anything that makes us want to second guess...and yet, there’s enough room to think about this.

Dewey and Webby meeting Selene in her garden was one of the first moments I started to question when I looked back at it. As soon as a negative view of Della was said, Selene immediately, without a doubt, went against it by claiming otherwise. At this point in the series, it could have been argued that she was just looking at her friendship with Della in a rose-colored way, but as the time went on, a lot of the information she gave about Della became evident.

In a similar manner, it was once believed both inside and outside of the show that Della had died after getting lost in Space. But the Sphere of Selene itself was hinting towards the opposite; that she was actually alive on the Moon.

Let’s take a deeper look at what Selene was saying about Della here:

“So, we’re back to “she stole Scrooge’s spear and betrayed the family” then. Great.”

“Whaat? No way! She loved her family more than anything in the world!”

This was suggesting that Della was always family oriented, not suddenly after her arrival to the Moon. This is proven through the episodes we’ve seen with her as a child.

In “The First Adventure!”, Della stayed persistent in convincing Scrooge that it would be better to take Donald and her with him, than to search for The Papyrus of Binding by himself. Later after he agreed, both Donald and Della had to get after him for caring more about his business than enjoying the adventure he was having with them. In “Last Christmas!”, Dewey had to explain to Donald why Della was so upset with him. She had planned for the night to be spent going on a mission together but Donald misinterpreted her actions and skipped out to do his own thing. 

Even in the Pre-Spear comics IDW provided, it was Della who was chosen to remind Donald about what it means to be family in Issue # 3. And while the comics don’t determine the canon, the writers who developed these stories were given insight about how the show’s universe works and how the characters are supposed to act. The writers in both the show and the comics could have easily slipped something into these stories to demonstrate how wrong Della was to go into outer-space at the time that she did. In the child episodes, they could have highlighted her selfishness directly by making her want to catch Santa to steal all of his presents or having her extremely eager to make her own request with the papyrus. Why would the showrunners miss out on that opportunity...twice? Why are other characters focused on being in the wrong, but she isn’t?

As an adult, it didn’t feel right to have Della fussing at Donald and Louie for taking significant leaves and not being mindful about the impact of their actions, if she basically did the same thing. It never came off as not wanting them to make the mistake she made, it always sounded like she would know better. She was so quick to point out this problem she had with others that it felt like she forgot about herself. On one hand, this makes her look like a hypocrite, but on the other, this gives off the notion that being selfish and leaving her family out of big events, is not initially a part of her nature.

The closest case we have to better reflecting the Spear situation is in “Trickening” where Della’s desire is at a level of uncertainty that could easily be misinterpreted. In this episode, she wanted to join in on what someone else was doing to give the trick-o-treaters a memorable Halloween. She was aiming to share her love of the holiday with them, but she was so caught up in making it special, that she didn’t realize this plan was way too intense. 

Donald was completely opposed to it like he was with her space travel proposal. He wanted to make his sister understand that she was doing too much, but she ignored his concern and tried to push past him. If Della was supposed to learn that she should listen to Donald more, you would think she would have taken that into consideration much sooner instead of having a huge relapse. Della showing improvement after a major mistake would be too important of a thing for her to revert on, so, having a similar situation in “Trickening” was more than likely done to help us understand something about the Spear one better. As the twins fought, he begged Della to think of the kids and she stated this was exactly what she was doing. This suggested that Della had the same mindset when it came to her own kids.

So, as both a kid and an adult, she has been portrayed caring more about family than other things like adventure itself or some kind of item she could get out of it. If she loved her family so much, then what on Earth would make her leave during such a crucial time and jeopardize the chances of ever being with them again?

“Last Christmas!” showed us that Della doesn’t adventure out on her own unless she feels like she has to. If she didn’t go out in the snow after Donald refused to come with her, then she would have missed out on her chance to catch Santa as a present for Scrooge. Like her Santa hunt, Della originally intended for her space trip to be a family thing. If a parallel is meant to be made here, then that opens up the possibility that Della took the rocket so that she wouldn’t miss her chance to do something special for her family; more than likely, something for HDL’s birthday that could not wait. That could explain her urgency and lack of detail in the letter she left for Scrooge.

If she was just taking the rocket for a spin, she wouldn’t need to word her letter like that. She would have used it as a way to express her gratitude towards her uncle for having her project built. Why would the showrunners have her letter be like this purely for the sake of suspense if we’re supposed to be looking for clues? This is another thing that is too important for them to have pulled something meaningless here. If she had to leave a letter for Donald about naming the boys for her too, then it sounds like she was doing something that may not have been able to be done in time before their hatching. Or, I suppose, in case she didn’t make it back at all. Either way, both messages showed that she thought about the consequences beforehand.

In addition to the garden meeting on Ithaquack, something else that made me slowly change my mind about Della’s decision was how she had brought her copy of the family photo with her. Having it placed on the dashboard in front of her as she traveled through Space, seemed to imply that family was a driving force in her choice to continue in the direction of a storm she could have easily avoided. In Scrooge’s flashback, it seemed like Della was enjoying the challenge she was faced with before the rocket was struck. But when it came to showing her perspective, she wasn’t having a fun experience at all.

“Aw, Della wasn’t just a good person...she was the greatest! And she made everyone around her better.”

When Launchpad defined what it meant to be a Senior Woodchuck in “Challenge”, I immediately made a connection to what Selene had said. It’s a bit uncertain whether Della became a Senior Woodchuck or not, but she was still a dedicated member of the Junior Woodchucks and that sort of implies that she was someone who often looked out for others. This coincides with how Della encouraged HDLW in “New Gods” and helped to bring the children’s feelings of inferiority to Scrooge’s attention. Della eventually helped to make Penumbra a better person once the lieutenant realized that her jealousy and suspicion advanced Lunaris’ invasion. The betrayal against the pilot made her a hero in the eyes of her fellow Moonlanders again, but it was through a lie and that didn’t settle with her. Acknowledging the fact that she messed up motivated her to regain her heroic title in the right way.

None of the points that I’m bringing up in this is to say that I don’t think Della was flawed or that she isn’t really an impulsive character, but that maybe there was a different kind of mistake she made with her rocket plans than what we were being told.

“Maybe the spear isn’t an artifact...maybe, it’s something else!”

“Your mom did love a good mystery!”

This part makes me think of the riddle from Della that the boys would later find in “Castle”. It led them on a quest to find a lost crown, but similarly to The Spear, they found out that this treasure was never an actual crown--it was a sailor’s hat in a duffle bag. It was within the castle’s catacombs where HDL realized that the riddle was originally intended for Donald; another character who is supposed to be looked at as their parent. An imprint of the Spear’s blueprints were later discovered on the back of the paper Della’s riddle was written on.

The way Selene mentioned mysteries right after Webby wondered about the spear being something else, seems to suggest that Della’s disappearance could have been due to her wanting to solve a mystery of her own. In “Last Crash”, Scrooge did compare Dewey’s hunt for the missing photo piece with how he previously failed to keep his niece safe from the cosmic storm.

“Here. It’s not a spear, but it’s a treasure even Della never found.”

This feels reminiscent of Della’s old journal statement about how she never found Coot’s armory. In this episode, it was explained that her younger self was looking for something in relation to the non-McDuck side of HDL’s family. Webby wanted to follow in Della’s footsteps and bring the boys with her on an epic journey to finally resolve this mystery, but once they reached their destination, it landed them in a room full of corn instead. Because the treasure was expected to be materialistic rather than sentimental, the trip looked like a big waste of time. It wasn’t until a spark was set in motion, that the characters were able to acknowledge the importance of what they discovered.

I noticed many elements in “Coot” that could be paralleling things in relation to Della’s journey. On her side of the story, she was determined to complete the task of celebrating her family at the fort, but a setback prevented her from doing it sooner. There was also an cloudy formation that accompanied a crash as well as there being a moment where her vehicle needed to be reassembled.

If Della was looking for a treasure of some sort in Space, perhaps she didn’t reveal this afterwards because, like Scrooge was with her, she was embarrassed about her failure. Selene implied that Della was usually great at accomplishing cases like these but this one resulted in a major loss that caused a decade of separation.

“Don’t give up, young duck. Your mother never did.”

There is definitely no exaggeration about this. In spite of all her struggles, Della continued to press on until she made it back home.

As I was observing the occurrences in Season 2, I noticed that there were key moments about her departure from the Moon that line up with her departure from Earth. If she was working hard to get back to her family on Earth, then there could have been something about Space that she was working just as hard to get to. If there was a particular goal with Earth that Della wanted to include the Moonlanders with, then there could have been something particular with Space that she wanted to include her family with.

Della had to leave the Moon earlier than expected because an emergency came up. That creates a possibility that there was some kind of emergency that caused Della to launch The Spear from Earth sooner than she intended to. Both departures resulted in leaving groups behind and breaking a promise she made to them. Della was very concerned about what the Moonlanders would think about her being gone and while Donald was the one who made a promise about never spending another Christmas apart, she had to have agreed to it; she’s the one who made a big fuss in the first place. If Lunaris' claim of Della being a traitor was false, then there's a possibility that Scrooge's explanation wasn't true either. What could strengthen this is how he was wrong about Della in “Raiders” during its own parallels to the Spear incident.

Adding on to what I said about “Trickening”, If both of these situations were meant to be reflective of Della taking the Spear, then she wasn’t using the kids to mask a selfish desire, she was seriously doing it for them. Lunaris told the rest of the Moonlanders that Della made up her stories about Earth to trick them into letting their guard down, but that was never part of Della’s plan.

So from evaluating Selene’s statements we can gather:

That Della was always family oriented and that betraying her family for the thrill of adventure or the sake of something materialistic, is considered out of her character

Della doesn’t adventure out on her own unless she feels like she absolutely has to

Della may have taken the rocket so that she wouldn’t miss her chance to do something special for HDL’s birthday

Della’s letters to Scrooge and Donald showed that she thought about the consequences before taking the Spear

Della may have not avoided the storm because there was something in the direction of it that she was trying to get to

That even in the past, Della was someone with the tendency to look out for others and make them better people

There may have been a different kind of mistake she made with her plans than what we were being told

That Della’s disappearance could have been due to her wanting to solve a mystery of her own

That if Della was looking for some type of treasure in Space, there’s a higher chance that it was of sentimental value rather than what we would have normally expected it to be

She was more than likely looking for something in relation to another group of people who would also qualify as being part of HDL’s family

Della might not have revealed this afterwards due to her being embarrassed about her failure

Maybe she didn’t tell Scrooge and Donald the truth about her outer-space proposal because she wanted it to be a surprise

If the kids succeed in finding the armory’s gold with realizing it...perhaps in some strange way, Della may have unknowingly completed her goal too

That Della was always known as someone who persevered whenever she had her heart set on something

Della’s plans to enter Space may have played out in a similar manner to her plans to come back home

An emergency in relation to her goal could have caused Della to leave sooner

There’s a good chance that Scrooge may have been wrong about Della’s intentions

If there was nothing significant shown ahead in the storm, then what was Della working towards? Before this episode aired, there were comments here and there speculating that the cosmic storm was a wormhole that sent her into the future. I think that especially at this point, it could have been some kind of portal. The clouds were in the formation of a tunnel and an underground tunnel was what led to the golden armory, so, whether she realized it or not, the storm could have certainly led to the treasure she was seeking. It could have been a portal to a place that wasn’t easy to realize until you’ve passed through it. The Shadow Realm was a hidden dimension that made Lena seem invisible while she was trapped there. Or, maybe like the wormholes in “Neverrest”, the storm could have been a shortcut to another area of Space.

If Della had a bigger reason for taking the Spear then why didn’t the showrunners go into that before the series ended?  Maybe in a similar way to Negaduck’s return, they wanted to get to that but something caused a change. Perhaps there wasn’t enough room to conclude it while also doing the same for Huey and Webby’s F.O.W.L. arc. Interviews with Vulture and SyFy Wire   revealed that twenty minutes had been shaved from the original finale script during finalization as well as there being fifty-five-ish episode ideas leftover that we didn’t get to see.

Another potential option for the additional Spear information is that was always set aside in case Disney greenlit a fourth season. All of the other seasons provided something new about The Spear of Selene and the subject matter is deeply tied to the series, so it would be pretty strange to suddenly stop mentioning it in the next continuation. Maybe Huey and Webby’s arc needed to be focused on first because there’s something about Della’s decision that further connects the two. I’m just...really doubtful that we were given so much build up against the narrative with no intention of it paying off at some point. 

I would love to go in fuller depth about what I think could be going on with Della’s story, but it’s SOOO much work to put everything together for evaluation...I’m not sure how long it’ll take to get it done. I started a multi-part essay about this two years ago and wanted to have it finished before Season 3 but there was too much left to finalize in the last section….

Right now, I can only manage to make singular posts like these and shorter...but there are older, slightly outdated traces of my theory if you look around my blog long enough.

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#DuckTales #Disney #Della Duck #Selene #The Spear of Selene! #the spear of selene #Last Christmas! #Last Christmas #Challenge of The Senior Junior Woodchucks! #challenge of the senior junior woodchucks #The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck! #the secrets of castle mcduck #The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot! #the golden armory of cornelius coot #ducky thoughts #cartoon theories #gifs #ducktales gifs #gifset #parallels #foreshadowing #della duck theories #most people aren't going to read these tags (?) #so i'll just say it #HDL's Father #HDL's Dad #Huey Dewey and Louie #Huey Dewey And Louie's Father #Huey Dewey and Louie's Dad