#are this really spoilers if we are never gonna get here in the live action? lmao

[0ynes]

The betrayal being Shanks accidentally made him eat the Devil Fruit. But oh there's more!!

Buggy was ready to give up on his dream for Shanks, he wanted to support Shanks and find the One Piece with him. But Shanks knew something Buggy didn't, literally, so he decided to not go after the One Piece. Let's just say Buggy was disappointed. And it's funny Buggy says this:

Because Buggy was willing to step away from the spotlight for Shanks. He is just hurt at this point. Still not over that break up in the rain.

#Buggy #buggy the clown #jeff ward #one piece #one piece live action #opla #one piece netflix #are this really spoilers if we are never gonna get here in the live action? lmao #shanks x buggy #buggy x shanks #shanks #opla buggy #shuggy

[kapriisunz]

CLOWN THRONE & BALLOONS | LA!Buggy x fem!reader

Summary; You like kneeling for Buggy while he’s on his silly chair.

Warnings; Descriptions of Buggy being hot on said chair, fucking Buggy on said chair; Oral (m receiving), p in’ v, fem terms, you ride until you die.

LIVE ACTION ONE PIECE SPOILERS

A/N; FanFic writers please hurry on this I need this man carnally. Gotta smash the clown fear out of me. Also I’m not a fanfic writer but we need someone to jumpstart it, so if this isn’t up to your standard: my bad, I’ve never written and published before especially NSFW.

p.s: If it gets out that the actor doesn’t like his portrayal to be used in this type of way, I’ll be deleting this out of respect. Until then, Enjoy.

Masc!reader here! <- not made yet.

Under a harsh spotlight that only lights a tiny portion of the carnival tent, you’re kneeling in front of your captain. Right, in between his legs, with your head resting dangerously on his thigh, staring up at him.

Buggy had laughed Cabaji out of the tent when he had reported back from Shells town all before you came in.

He’s ‘relaxed’ on the wooden carnival chair, his hat hanging from on top of the back bar of the seat, with one of his legs propped up on the armrest and foot swinging lazily really helps encourage the imagination.

his brows crease his paint, shoulders are tense as he giggles at his speech.

Recounting the way Cabaji spoke of someone—and not him—had taken the Grand Line chart, you almost feel sorry for Cabaji.

The way Buggy speaks of this sounds as if he finds this amusing, you’re sure a part of him does but you can tell that he’s all but relaxed.

Buggy’s pride is flashy tales of himself, finding pure enjoyment from his endeavors so he can showcase them to the world. So, when some nobody ‘pirates’ haphazardly steal a map he planned to steal himself? He laughs.

But it seems all too forced.

"Captain?.." You ask.

He still wears his white and red striped bandanna however it does work as intended since you can still see fray blue hairs that linger around his face.

You wonder, if you asked, if could he put his blue hair into a ponytail. But you shake that thought away.

Buggy grumbles in thought, rubbing his forehead with his fingers, minding his clown paint. You frown at the sight of him and gently stroke his thighs in an attempt to soothe him. 

“What will we do?” His eyes snap down at you, sending a thrilling chill down your spine. He giggled, almost too giddy for this situation.

He hums while cocking his head down at you and grinning mockingly. He sits upright, putting his leg down with a loud thud, trapping you in between him, and making your breath hitch.

“The map is mine.” He states tucking a fray hair behind your ear causing you to try and lean into his hand.

However, he snaps his gloved hand to your chin, pulling your face and bringing you closer to him. The wood floor creaks and your knees are a little chafed from kneeling for too long, but you pay no mind- too focused on Buggy and how his face is ever so close to yours. Your noses almost touching.

“And I’m gonna get it back.” He brushes his thumb over your lip, smudging your clown makeup to the side, making you nod up and down at his own words. “No matter who I have to kill.” He lets you go, pulling back against the chair again, you let out a breathy sigh you didn’t know you were holding in.

You can tell that he’s stressed, that he’s angry since he spent months planning only for it to be for nothing.

A light bulb lights above your head.

Looking around the tent, you and your captain are the only people present as the other ‘freaks’ of your crew must be perfecting their ‘performance’ or taking care of the ‘audience’.

You muster the guts to carry on rubbing his thighs while gradually moving your hands upward along him.

You again place your head on his thigh while feigning innocence. You feel up the striped tunic and then tug at the hem of his pants. He swiftly grips your wrist and causes your breath to catch.

“What are you doing?” He eyes you.

“I..want to make you happy,” You continue, trying your best to not show how worried you are, worried that you step a bit too close to danger with your intentions.

He bends forward and looks at you in the eye. His stare makes you even more nervous, aren’t able to determine if he is angered by what you are doing from the stoic way he stares.

You’re about to apologize but to your surprise, he presses a kiss to your wrist almost too affectionate.

He lets go of your hand and grabs the back of your head, pulling you into one kiss. You let out a moan, heat rising to your face both in shock and rosemary-colored lust. He pauses to look at your face, his hand entangled into your hair with a vice grip.

“You want to take care of your captain?”

He asks tightening the grip on your hair and making you bite back another moan, but you nod on your own this time.

He leans back casually, chuckling at the sight of you. His red paint had smeared over your mouth, you must look stupid, pathetic even: You knelt in front of him hair ruffled and face paint mucky but he found humor in your messy appearance.

“Show me,” Buggy purrs with a wave of his hand for you to continue, a lustful glint in his eye, you nod.

You’re now set on a mission, and that mission is to give your jolly captain the most mind-numbing head. And maybe more if you’re lucky

With his consent, you continue with newfound courage, you unlace his tan trousers as he spreads his legs for you, giving you more room.

Your heart pounds against your chest.

You want to please your captain.

You glide your hand down and graze his crotch, a prominent bulge in his pants all while he watches, hissing at your touch.

Finally, you pull his pants and underwear down to his mid-thigh, his cock throbs against his abdomen.

Buggy, who still has a hand in your hair, tugs you closer, nervously you take his heavy cock into your hand and give an experimental stroke.

With a flat tongue, you follow a long vein, giving a lengthy lick from the underside of his shaft to the pinkish tip, his chest is heavy as he breathes, trying not to roll his head back and keep his eyes on you.

He wants to watch you do this.

“Such a good girl..”

Needing more praise from your flashy clown captain you continue.

Your mouth is on the mushroom tip as you suck down, taking him halfway to not trigger a gag reflex.

You clench your thighs together at the groan he makes desperate for any friction, you bob your head on his cock while giving rough strokes on the part you can’t fully take.

However, Buggy forcibly pulls your head down on him making you grab his thighs and gag slightly, he waits only a moment for you to recover, your nose buried into his bunched tunic.

You give him a light tap and he has you moving your head again along his cock, you slowly learn to breathe out your nose and hollow your cheeks as you take him.

You’ll most likely have a sore throat after this.

Your eyes tear up a bit as you take him, his dick hits the back of your throat rhythmically and ruthlessly. Letting you moan around him, and making him buck his hips at the sensation.

“Fuck . . . you’re doing so well,”

Fuck, you want him to talk more, you’re positive that your nails have dug into him as you feel a shock of arousal pulse through your cunt.

You need relief, and Buggy notices that.

He pulls your head off him, a long string of saliva from your mouth to his dick. He pulls you up by the collar of your shirt to make you hover in his lap. Your knees are now on either side of him.

He wastes no time though, a hand under your skirt and a long drag of his fingers from your cunt to your clit over your panties.

You instinctively cry out, but Buggy is quickly on you, drowning out your moan. The kiss is sloppy, but you and he don’t mind.

“You’ll need to be quiet, you don’t want someone from the crew to get curious about the beautiful noise coming from here.” All you can do is nod, and try to not make much noise by biting your lip.

He’s experienced but rough with the circles he rubs on your clothed clit. He pulls your panties to the side but frustratingly rips them and throws them to the side-, and checks how slick you are with another long stripe.

You’re unsurprisingly ready without much touching from his end which he smirks at, he places his gloved hands-that have damp fingertips- on the divot of your hips.

You place your own hands on his shoulders the fur of his coat nestled between your fingers as you grip it.

You slowly lower yourself onto his cock, the pink leaky tip at the entrance of your cunt, you can feel it already throbbing.

You are about to fully go down but Buggy beats you to it, a bit impatient he bucks his hips up into you. Your legs around his thighs tense and shake at the sudden intrusion, keeping his words in mind you bite your lip, and you bite hard.

He groans at how tight and warm you are.

He begins to bounce you up and down, and once you follow the rhythm you’re both panting and groaning, hard to stop yourself from doing so when take the opportunity to explore your body.

His gloved hands tail all over your figure, teasing your chest through your shirt.

You take the time as well, to gaze at him, every part of him and then, you decide that; you want to bite his neck.

And you do.

He’s caught by surprise when you pull his ascot to bite and suck on his neck, so much so that he gives you a whiny moan when you do so.

At the noise, you feel your walls clench around him, making him hiss and buck his hips up into your sopping pussy.

Determined to have his dick mold your cunt in his shape you start to move faster and deeper, still leaving purple and red marks along his neck -and clown paint, at least you aren’t the only one who looks stupid now.

You can feel the build-up in the pit of your stomach, a tight coil forms ready to snap at one extreme movement.

Buggy’s also close having the same overwhelming feeling.

He enjoys having you rubbed up against him, your teeth biting at his neck trying so hard to keep your mewls down but they’re right in his ear.

Throughout this, he wasn’t ever suspecting to have you at his feet licking stripes on his dick nor have your slick tight pussy bouncing on him and dirtying his clothes, and to be fair he’s quite enjoying himself.

He’s a goner once he hears the next moan.

“Buggy. . .”

Fuck, your whine did something.

However he doesn’t want to cum before you do, so he holds back for just a bit so he can tail his hand in between the both of you to map tight circles on your clit.

Now your body trembles as the coil in your stomach snaps in half, and your walls clench around him

He finally lets himself roll his head back, muttering intangible swears, riding his hips up into you, his whole body tenses.

His cum jerks into your spasming pussy, you whine at the feeling too dazed to worry about any repercussions of this.

He rocks your hips along him, riding out the final moments of your orgasm before slumping back on the chair.

Both of you are breathing heavily, but you find that your ‘mission’ was a outstanding success as you see a genuinely but hazy grin from your now completely relaxed captain.

Maybe those nobodies stealing the map weren’t so bad.

#opla buggy #op buggy #buggy smut #buggy x reader #fem reader #one piece #one piece smut #one piece x reader #buggy nation #Here ya go you filly animals ((i love you)) #I am embarrassed to post this #opla #opla smut

[ejunkiet]

THOUGHTS FROM THE MILO BA

Safe for work, I promise 😘 I've just been thinking about the lead up, how we went from Milo/SH making out on the couch to here. >:3

spoilers below the cut!

This is gonna be a mix of direct quotes and suppositions, follow my thought processes here

TO START. the obvious. this is a direct sequel to the shade saga. after everything goes down, Milo and SH part ways, although not for long

"What, you thought you were the only one who could break into a house?"

MILO GREER. FOLLOWS UP. WITH A BREAK IN. the parallels *chefs kiss* also, Milo has clearly gotten some practice with locks, and really, it makes me think about the shitty places he'd lived in when he was growing up. When he forgot / lost his key, he'd maybe have to Jimmy something open. OR it's a skill he picked up from his pops.... but from the state of their relationship, somehow I don't think that happened (sorry Frenchie ;u; )

"you've got your sources, and I've got mine"

SO I'm guessing SH never told Milo where they lived, and he used his sources at the department to figure out their home address. maybe an old friend of his pops... do we know if Colm is retired now?

"you said, if I wanted a repeat performance of our first little dalliance, the ball was in my court. And if I recall correctly, the phrase 'prove it' was thrown around. So. I'm here."

I'm gonna say this leads on directly from my hc that the first night they banged (literally, here is the fic where SH rides Milo hehehe). his first suggestion is to get naked, which means he's seen them naked before. the fact he says he has no intention of this being a 'one night ride' (hehehe) contributes to this

I'm also gonna say that after the heat of the moment, and that intense fecking chemistry, that SH left after, and Milo hasn't been able to stop thinking about them since.

Maybe a couple weeks pass?? depending on how long it takes him to figure out where they live -- does he have their number? He has their name from their ID, enough to look them up, but I'm getting the impression that after they saved his life and kissed the living daylights out of him, they maybe just disappeared.

Look, I wouldn't put it past them.

What I love though is that he doesn't let that stand. He forms an action plan, and comes back.

He's been thinking about them, thinking about that night since they left him with that challenge, "prove it", and by the time he ends up in their apartment, he's hungry for them

Literally.

And I promised only safe, so I'll leave it there hehehehe >:3

#redacted asmr #redacted audio #redacted milo #redacted meta

[cozage]

I finished OPLA and here are my thoughts.

There will be a time and place for criticism, but now is not that time. Now is a time for celebration. Of the greatest Live Action anime adaption to be created.

There’s gonna be very light spoilers in this, so read on if you’d like.

I think my favorite part of it all is that you can tell just how much care went into this show. This production team was truly made by fans, for fans. The little nods towards things in the future really made me keep my eyes peeled and had me freaking out over the littlest moments. Things like Binks no Sake playing in the bar, and Nami reading Nolan the Liar were my favorite. I’m sure there were hundreds of other moments, but those were the two that had my feet kicking and giggling like a maniac.

Am i blinded by biasness and clouded with my love for One Piece? Yes. I’m aware of that. But I went into this show knowing it was a new, different adventure than the one I was familiar with. It’s not perfect to the manga, and they’ve said from the beginning it wouldn’t be. I think that’s the hardest part for people: not understanding why “pointless” changes were made (there were only two changes that kind of bothered me, but we can talk about those later). Most of the changes that occurred still felt fluid and natural, giving a lot more screen time to beloved characters who we normally don’t see for hundreds of chapters. I liked that aspect. Not everyone will. But keep an open mind.

Just like when I watched the anime, I found myself smiling and laughing the whole time. Joyboy is still very alive and apparent in this live action. As an anime and manga fan, i loved this new aspect of their journey and this new medium to watch. It kept me intrigued, surprised, and so invested in my crew. Just like when I watched the anime, I had a very difficult time picking who was my “favorite”, because they’re all so enjoyable and quirky in their own way.

Are there things to improve? Absolutely. There always is. All I can hope is that it gets enough love and attention that Netflix will renew it for a season 2, and we’ll all get to explore the Grand Line and Alabasta together.

If you’re on the fence, or didn’t like the first episode and decided to drop it, I implore you to keep going. I think it gets better by the episode. And so much happens, I was never really bored. Please watch it, even if you just have it on in the background. This show is so special to so many people, and the next season cant get better if we don’t give it the chance.

#also I didn’t know where to put this in the review #BUT #THE ZOLU CONTENT????? #WARMED MY COLD DEAD HEART #like damn they really FED. US. #also if we get a season two…. #ace…. #please i need to see a live action Ace… #please #opla #one piece #opla thoughts #coza thoughts

[the-banana-0verlord]

Bear with me cause I'm gonna go on a rant that will probably be a bit incoherent but I'm brainrotting rn

so this concerns the webtoon community(although it's probably a widespread phenomenon in fandom) but

Y'all love complex and morally gray female characters(or even just characters of every gender) until they are complex and morally gray

I've seen a lot about this especially for Annabel Lee from Nevermore so I won't touch upon her case in this rant but the point still stands for her go read analysises.

so today i'm gonna be discussing Rastha, also known as Trashta:

I haven't read up to much after the remarrying of Navier but I feel like my point still stands. Also spoilers

Imo, Rashta is a complex and sympathetic villain. She grew up as a slave and believed her child was dead (child who was a also later used as leverage to blackmail her.) It's logical she tries to up the ranks to never live as miserably like this. She's a product of unfortunate circumstances. I do not think she's in the right, but that's kind of the whole point of her character to be the antagonist.

Also, she didn't want to be Navier's ennemy at first??? She wanted to live in a world where she was happy and that's valid. (Navier's reaction was also valid mind you.) She acted like she was indifferent to her first baby's fate yet she let herself be blackmailed because she DID care for it. She goes throught emotions and layers and that makes her complex.

Yet despite being sympathetic and half of the bad things in the webtoon happening not being her fault, she's the most hated character.

I hate Sovieshit and her blackmailer much more. Sovieshit was really using double standard against Navier like "oh yeah i'm allowed to have a mistress and divorce you just cause I feel like it and i'm using you for my own benefit but don't you go remarrying yourself or having a lover you're mine >:((((". Sovieshit is borderline a mysogynist (he only wants a delicate woman he can control to do as he pleases) but no Rashta is the real horrible villain we must demonize her.

Now her blackmailer(i forgot his name but if you read the webtoon you know who he is). Most of it his fault. He is using and ataking advantage of Rastha who wnats nothing else than to be free. Sovieshit is painted as a bit sympathetic(wrongly might i add) but this guy is just plain evil. But he's not more hated than Rastha????

I'm not defending her actions I just want people to see further than their noses and realize that characters can be good without being good people.

Now even if i see it more for female characters this is real for male characters too but kinda in the opposite route? Like in twisted wonderland, the characters are MADE to be villains yet people smooth them over as poor little meows meows and babygirls. It's funny as a joke but it erases their entire personnality and complexity, while morally gray female characters get demonized for having the same grayness.(Also i'd like to add that Vil schoenheit, a feminine male characters gets also demonized like female characters so i'm starting to see a pattern here.) So double standard much?

in short, don't say you like complex and morally grey characters if you can't handle them correctly. They deserve better than you

#trasta #the remarried empress #webtoon #twsited wonderland #rant #analysis #media analysis #theoverlordmonologues

[sunnnfish]

Due to the mental anguish I am rambling about tbhk. I WAS going to put this under a readmore but that keeps breaking the post on mobile so. Im sorry. Tons of spoilers for chapter 99. And like the whole series. You know how it is.

I feel like I need to make an itemized list because there’s so fucking much I need to talk about right now

The violence and parallels to tsukasa. I mean who can forget tsukasa prying mitsubas mouth open to feed him number 3s heart. Who knows what tsukasa’s intentions were but they weren’t necessarily bad— as we know now mitsuba needs to eat to survive plus number 3 was like a pretty big power boost that would keep him together for a longer time. So he likely just wanted mitsuba to live comfortably. BUT ALSO there’s the beginning of the chapter where tsukasa tells mitsuba to dig the heart out himself vs kou who gets it for him. Anyways. With kou here it clearly came from a similar place of wanting mitsuba to not disappear. There’s a desperation to it and fear and it’s one I personally actually know quite well. I’ve dealt with friends refusing to eat and take care of themselves and it is a violent frustrating feeling that just ends with crying after the anger fades. There’s a lot of confusion like. Why do you not care about yourself as much as I care about you. Anyways. His actions make a lot of sense to me bc I have felt and done the exact same things.

Me core ^

and THEN there’s mitsubas feelings of wanting to be fucking exorcised and going to the fucking minamoto household to do it there’s so much here hang on. Like. I think he went to the minamoto house for some sliver of hope. If he wanted to for sure disappear he probably could’ve waited it out or something better but he went to the place where, depending on who answered the door, he’d either die or be faced with fucking. Kou minamoto. And the fact the he chose to reveal himself to kou it’s like. Did you really want to disappear. Did you really. And then taking him out on a fucking date basically like. You don’t want to disappear do you. You just don’t want to be. This. He wants to be human. He wants someone who will understand him and. And. Kou so readily accepts and understands him. Even the parts he thinks are ugly or unworthy. Fuck.

AND THEN. Kous feeling of inadequacy and fearing that mitsuba trusts tsukasa more than him and connecting to the vision he saw in the red house. Whether he accepts it or not he wants mitsuba to need him. The red house showed him a mitsuba who told him that he needs kou that he wants kou to be a supernatural with him and he brushes it away knowing mitsuba would never say that to him. He tells himself that mitsuba would never trust him or want him like that but he wants it to be real and he’s still hurt when the real mitsuba won’t open up to him. And it all comes back to his overall self worth issues of wanting to be strong and dependable and worthy.

AND this is all under the context of Teru finally letting kou have some responsibility and telling him to go exorcise the low level spirit that came near their home and AaaaaAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUU. KOU MINAMOTO……..

God its just. Kou minamoto cares about mitsuba so so so much and neither of them completely understand the gravity of it all. Also at this point hes said like 3 times that mitsuba is the root of all his worries. ALSO dont even get me started on the art and expressions this chapter. It’s so gorgeous like as always but. God. Also the keychains. Im gonna[blaring truck horn]

ALSO the way mitsuba says at the end like ‘you’d be lonely without me’ or whatever and kou almost looks shocked for a second like. Oh. And its like he thinks about it more and cries more because yeah, he would be lonely. He’s been lonely. Mitsuba somehow inexplicably became like his closest friend that knows everything about him and god he was lonely when mitsuba disappeared. The first time and the second. And he’s barely had time to process any of it because to everyone else around him mitsuba doesnt really. Matter. And because kou is so kind he is always putting everyone else’s problems in front of his own. The severance happens and it becomes a journey to help nene bring hanako and aoi back—next to no mention mitsuba aside from the leads to the red house, much less trying to find and save him too. The whole time theyre in the boundary to the far shore its all about hanako and nene and number 6. And there’s STILL the conversation about how to become a supernatural that he brought up with nene but noooooo we cant ever know anything about what kou wants. And like. It all comes back around this chapter because he so so selfishly wants mitsuba to live. One of the only things he lets himself want. And it aches. God. I wish i was any good or natural at prose writing because god the things i would write about minamoto kou. AND TO TOP IT OFF HES LIKE FUCKING 14 YEARS OLD…. Okay. Okay im done.

#the power kou minamoto has over me to make me want to chop all my hair off. i WONT. but. #god. kou minamoto and mitsuba sousuke you guys make me feel undocumented emotions #anyways #tbhk #jshk #toilet bound hanako kun #jibaku shounen hanako kun #kou minamoto #minamoto kou #mitsuba sousuke #sousuke mitsuba #sunnfish.tbhk #sunnfish.jshk #sunnfish.txt #why cant i write this much on like. academic papers #sigh #I’ve been writing this for like an hour btw #long post

[mickeys-malarkey]

I can't hold my Bendy theories in anymore!!

I've only got a few people to infodump to about Bendy IRL, I'm just so excited after watching the BATDR trailer and reading all the new theories that I can barely sleep or get any work done, and now that we have an official release date they can't chicken out if my theories are correct rofl. So, here I go!

Fair Warning: There's no way to avoid it, this is gonna have so many spoilers for all the current Bendy games and books (well, except BINR. But there's also not really a story in that one) that I'm just gonna have to assume that if you're still reading past this point, you've either already played/read the entire series (obviously minus BATDR) or you don't care about spoilers!

Pt. 1/3: Expanding (Mostly) On My TIOL Thoughts

As I said in my thought summaries here and on Twitter, I hate Nathan Arch. Dude literally sets off every single alarm bell I have, I don't understand why nobody else seems freaked the heck out by him… *shudders* I'm convinced that he's the answer to theMeatly's question.

To start off, I'd like to point out that… Nathan says his notes exist to “provide context for the contemporary reader,” which sounds like he's just gonna be stating general historical facts every reader would've known when the book was originally published but might not know when it was republished and are necessary to understanding what Joey's saying. But that's not what the notes are like at all? They actually consist of very personal information that readers at the time of original publication couldn't possibly have known and definitely aren't necessary to understanding what Joey's saying; and the vast majority seem to specifically be either 1: flip-flopping between singing Joey's praises and making remarks he really shouldn't be making if he were actually trying to dispel the negative rumors around the man as he claims, or 2: confirming or denying descriptions of himself?? 🚨

It feels like he's trying to manipulate us into seeing Joey as a genius and saint whose inventions we should accept with open arms whilst simultaneously positioning the guy as a scapegoat to take all blame in case we don't, and into seeing Nathan himself as an intelligent and kind man who definitely respected and admired Joey and, of course, would never, ever mistreat him, preemptively discrediting any rumors about him being an abusive friend that might crop up. Even when Joey makes comments that in no way cast him in a bad light— Joey be like “oh Nathan loved creative people and even though he would never understand us wanted to be us” and Nathan be like “actually no I like myself fine, and also no I dislike creatives in general, they're boring and too self-indulgent. It's specifically Joey that I admired, and therefore I admired his creativity specifically by extension. Isn't it just like Joey not to see the compliment—?” Um, no?? No, Nathan, that sounds absolutely nothing like Joey; he's literally been enraptured by every statement or action that could possibly be construed as complimenting him in this book. Did you just indirectly end your relationships with every other creative you've ever met so that nobody would believe anyone who claims that you looked down upon Joey? 🚨🚨

Let me get into some of the more unique notes from Nathan.

“The first time I read this [Elves and the Shoemaker] story it meant a great deal to me. Joey, as he said in his introduction, was never one to talk about his past. He never spoke about his parents. I certainly never met them. I don't even remember how I learned his father made shoes. So to get a glimpse back at this part of his life, for an old friend, it was very special. I remember telling Joey all this after I read the manuscript back in ‘41. He just smiled.” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion of Living, pg. 23

With the way this note happens right before Joey practically spells out that he trusts nobody and denies everyone even the most innocuous information out of self-preservation in the very next story, it does not feel like Nathan's sharing a heartwarming moment between friends. It feels like he's bragging about his position and accomplishments in their predator-and-prey relationship; like he's proud of himself for slowly breaking Joey down and eventually getting him to divulge info he'd been denying him. If your parents lived nearby and were perfectly lovely people, why do you think that you would neither talk about them with nor introduce them to someone who was supposedly one of your closest friends? I'll get into why I think he finally gave the info up in a bit.

In the Lottie story, if Nathan had only said that he wasn't sure the letter exchange had actually happened, I would've been like “yeah sure, we all know Joey's a liar. 🤷🏻‍♀️” But no, he specifically eases us from confirmation of Eckhart and Donaldson's existences even though he claims to have only briefly met them, to claiming Joey was such a good storyteller he could make you think you personally met someone who never existed even if he'd literally just told you that they were imaginary, to casting doubt on the very existence of a girl he was described as having been known by name to outside of the letter exchange.

“I met Joey the following year at the lab and only briefly had the chance to meet [Private Donaldson and Private Eckhart]. They were every bit the characters Joey describes them to be.” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion of Living, pg. 27

“When I first read this I forgot, despite Joey saying as much, that this was fiction, and spent far too much time racking my brain over who this James [who Joey says he told Lottie he met when he came by the lab to say hi to me] was. Joey is so good with his storytelling that even when he tells you it's not real, you can forget a moment later.” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion of Living, pg. 37 (emphasis added)

“I have gone through every piece of correspondence Joey ever saved as part of my work preserving his memory and documenting his life, and I must confess I was looking forward to reading Lottie's letters in person, having been moved to tears reading this part of the manuscript thirty years ago. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find them. It is possible they were lost to time, and I do deep down hope that to be true. However, even if this story is revealed to be one of Joey's excellent fictions, I think it doesn't really matter. Joey would, of course, call it another example of his illusion. I think the message in the story is meaningful regardless whether it really happened or not. And regardless if Lottie actually herself existed or not, she is a fine embodiment of the brave women who served our country in war.” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion of Living, pg. 41 (emphasis added)

I absolutely do not think this is a reality check, I think Nathan's trying to erase Lottie's existence – even gaslighting anyone who knew her in real life into thinking they'd imagined her – to throw us off the “Joey's Illusion of Living ‘philosophy’ is literally just the coping mechanism of an extremely traumatized man” scent; I wonder if Lottie actually fell victim to suicide shortly after writing to Joey that she was spiraling into a deep, dark depression, and Joey made up everything that happened after that specific letter in order to cope with the loss – pretend that “my dear friend isn't dead despite being sent somewhere there was no actual fighting where I thought she'd be safe; I saved her life and she's living a Happily Ever After overseas, married to a handsome young British soldier” – rather than just the goodbye letter to wrap her story up in a neat bow… Maybe Nathan even helped him pretend she was still alive in order to endear himself to this literal kid who was destroyed with grief?

Speaking of which, does nobody find the circumstances under which Nathan and Joey met… concerning? Nathan says “we knew each other since we were teenagers,” which sounds fine until you realize they met because Joey lied about his age and joined the army while still a minor, where he was bullied and pressured into things like underage drinking by grown-@$$ legal adults, multiple of which were also of higher rank. And not only was Nathan one of those grown-@$$ legal adults of higher rank and definitely bullying him just like the others (“I swear I definitely didn't join the other guys in giving him that Real Man™ complex of his like he says—” yeah, sure, Nathan, I totally believe you /s. 🙄), but clearly his horrifying apparent hobby that I'll explain next was already established at the time, seeing as Joey saw the photo of Ivan Newsome dying in agony with his own eyeballs when Nathan introduced him to Walter Richmond… 😬🚩

I'm convinced that Walter, Arthur, and Isabel were three of Nathan's previous victims, and they mirror the relationships he has with Joey, Allison, and Susie.

Walter looking at Nathan “as if asking permission to speak” before engaging Joey in conversation (Nathan nudges us towards believing they had no prior relationship by stating that he was flattered by Joey's observation that he had a way of introducing anyone so that it felt like they were his guest even if he'd just met them… but technically neither confirms nor denies anything 👀) has creepily similar vibes to how Joey “just smiled” in response to Nathan's gushing over the info on his parents; I feel like Joey gave up the info because he had to jump through hoops in order for Nathan to give him permission to publish his book— to be able to get the thing out the door without tripping any of Nathan's “Joey's disobeying and must be punished” alarms. Also, notice how Walter mysteriously had “a lot of people who knew him, but nobody who wanted to claim the title of ‘Walter's friend…’” and how the only people Joey's apparently still in contact with in BATIM are A: one of Nathan's (confirmed) employees, B: a janitor who didn't even realize Joey would remember him so definitely doesn't have enough of a relationship with Joey for Nathan to consider him a threat, and C: a shady veterinarian (wouldn't be surprised if he works for Nathan, as well). It's a classic abuser's tactic to isolate and villainize their victim so that they have no choice but to rely on the abuser; I'll get into more reasons I think that was happening in a bit.

I find it suspicious how Arthur not only personally delivers Ivan's effects to his sister Isabel, just tells her what happened which you'd expect someone with such fresh and debilitatingly severe PTSD to be very reluctant to do, and sticks around to befriend her, but also attends her art show showcasing Walter's war photos— it feels like someone was forcing Arthur to do all of this behind-the-scenes, and maybe the firecracker scene wasn't just about Isabel punishing the rich people for their morbid fascinations, but also Nathan punishing Arthur for being difficult about the situation behind-the-scenes. Meanwhile, Joey just happens to hire this random voice actress to replace Susie who we know just happens to be working for Nathan by the time BATIM happens, the memo that she had been hired specifically marked “don't deliver to Susie” just happens to make it into Susie's possession (seeing as she paraphrases it to Henry), Allison seems to know full well that Joey can't fire her when he tries to in DCTL, and then, by TLO, something has apparently happened to where Tom's been rehired which neither he nor Joey had any choice in and he doesn't wanna talk to anyone about (I doubt it was just all the deaths in DCTL, especially considering Joey went from his furious “I never want to see you again” attitude to begging Tom to come back. We've only heard him beg once before, which I'll get into later), and Tom and Allison have bizarrely switched opinions on the situation and machine (Allison changing from “your invention is amazing, Tom! Why are you stuck on the bad parts of the situation?” in DCTL to “I don't understand why you accepted this job back” in TLO, and Tom changing from “horrible things happened because of my machine, I wish I'd never been ensnared by this place” in DCTL to “why doesn't Ally understand? You don't just abandon a miracle” in TLO)—? It seems to me like Allison was never truly Joey's employee, she was Nathan's employee the whole time (which puts Joey's refusal to attend her and Tom's wedding in a whole new light), and Joey wasn't the only one punished for his failures and attempts to override the steel tycoon's authority.

To reiterate, since I saw some people being confused about the massive change: even with the memory loss issue, Allison's opinion in BATDR is just a natural progression from when the something happened between DCTL and TLO. 😛😬

Anyways, I get the distinct impression that creating situations like these to turn people into murder puppets without anyone being the wiser he was even involved is a hobby of Nathan's.

“…I am glad that he wrote [the murder mystery story] down this one time. It helps me to remember Joey at his most charming and sharp. Later years he became too fixated on things he might have gotten wrong, there was too much guilt and worry, too much fear. It didn't feel like the same man at the end, that's for sure.” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion of Living, pg. 98

You can't tell me that doesn't sound like he gets off on seeing how absolutely ruthless he can make his victims whilst still having them believe they're in the right and he's bitter as heck that one of his favorite pet projects came to his senses and was haunted by his conscience later in life— he literally just admitted he preferred a Joey who admired a murderer and thought that allowing people to die and getting murdered himself must've been worth it for Walter because now he has the immortality of being in a fascinating story instead of having lived in mediocrity over a Joey who felt guilt.

On that note, I absolutely do not believe Nathan's note on Henry's story was him trying to get the truth out about Henry being a despicable person. This is actually the chapter that first clued me in on Nathan's creepiness when I did my ADHD “skim the whole book except reading all the way through anything that looks especially interesting before properly reading” thing I do.

“Joey has always been a professional person, far more so in many ways than me. That is why this section of the book is so forgiving of the man who abandoned the studio he helped create. Joey can't help but see the good in people. That being said, as a good friend of Joey's, I know that Henry's departure was a great upheaval for him and a great personal betrayal. Joey never truly forgave Henry, and I don't think he should have felt obligated to. The fact that Joey is so gracious in this part of the book is a reflection of his incredible generosity in allowing Henry Stein to be stainless in the eyes of history. I think, had he lived longer, Joey might have in later years called it his greatest illusion.” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion Of Living, pg. 155

At first I found his saltiness funny, but then I read Joey's actual descriptions and… he's very clearly trying and failing to put down an amazing person, not build up a horrible one. I wondered why Nathan would be claiming the opposite and I realized— it sounds like he's admitting to being Dead Sea Level salty that Joey got terminally ill specifically because he's certain that, if he hadn't, he would've eventually been able to fully convince Joey that Henry was the villain rather than himself and therefore Joey wouldn't have reached out to the animator towards the end of his life in BATIM. Which leads me to my next observation:

I think Joey's play, “The Angel and The Devil,” was about Henry and Nathan.

I don't care that the Shoulder Angel is played by Abby and the Shoulder Devil is played by Joey, lol; that doesn't matter when you look at the actual content. I want you to read this excerpt:

Angel: [Empathy] is a wonderful talent that also leads [humans] down dark paths. Devil: Thank goodness for dark paths, they lead all great artists to their greatest creations. Angel: Empathy is your provenance then? Devil: We share it— for you it leads men to reach out and help, build hospitals, begin charities… Angel: For you it allows men to achieve their greatness through manipulation and fear. Devil: Is it not wonderful?

Going back to the murder mystery story, Walter and Isabel's thought processes perfectly match what the Shoulder Devil in Joey's play is described as using empathy to inspire humanity to do:

Walter was inspired to let Ivan die so that his photo – his art – would have a more compelling story that tugs at the heartstrings.

Isabel was inspired to kill Walter for the crime of letting Ivan die, masterfully manipulating her confession so that it technically wasn't a confession, instilling fear of herself in everyone present with the fact that if she did do it then she was untouchable legally thanks to her money, and finally, she was fully convinced that she would also be untouchable socially— even be better off, because people would see her as a hero for delivering justice to a monster like Walter.

Going back to BATIM, Joey literally says this to our faces:

“The truth is, you were always so good at pushing, Henry… Pushing me to do the right thing. You should've pushed a little harder.” ~ Joey Drew, Bendy and the Ink Machine, ch. 5

Does that not sound like Henry was good at using empathy to inspire kindness/etc. the way the Shoulder Angel is described as doing (Joey's actually very right that empathy is a morally neutral phenomenon that can be used for good or evil! *Spoken with hyper-empathetic autistic/low-to-no-empathy autistic solidarity*)?

The Angel and Devil also say that whichever of them the man they were assigned to doesn't choose will have to leave. This tells me that the ending of Joey's play – where it's implied the man the angel and devil were assigned to chose the angel – was read rather than acted out (with the excuse that they for some reason couldn't pick a random person to play him out of the crowd like they did for the Hatcheck Girl) in order to symbolize how Joey wanted to choose his true friend and make the toxic one leave, but he had that choice taken away from him when Henry was driven away despite his best efforts. In other words, I think both his version of the friend breakup story and Henry's version have elements of truth and deception to them.

Anybody notice that it seems like Wally and Tom seemed to have been being pitted against and told lies about each other as well as having their work sabotaged by an unknown third party?

“So here's my beef with this whole Gent thing. I went to school, yeah that's right— me! Star Student at Brickmore High. I know my potatoes! So where's this ‘Mr. Connor’ fella get off telling me what to do? These college boys. They can tell ya what's wrong but if you try to fix it on ‘em. They're outta here!” ~ Wally Franks, Boris and the Dark Survival

“Not all of us are well connected, son. Not all of us have chances. Especially to get a job as an engineer when I ain't had no proper education and training.” ~ Thomas Connor, Dreams Come to Life, pg. 252

“If there's one loose bolt around here we're gonna have a whole mess of trouble. And wouldn't you know it, that Wally guy is one loose bolt! He keeps the floors clean he says, he didn't sign on for no science project. All I know is someone needs to keep these pipes maintained. And he can't be a slacker.” ~ Thomas Connor, Boris and the Dark Survival

Wally thinks he's being looked down upon for not having gone to college like Tom (who didn't go to college) and his efforts to help out are not just unappreciated but met with unreasonable emotional response. Meanwhile, Tom thinks Wally's being selfish and lazy and leaving all the work to be done by him. Sound familiar?

“…Henry left for his own reasons, and the correspondence between us became less and less. To be honest, it almost felt like a weight off when he left. He had grown more sensitive as the studio became more successful and giving him pep talks had become exhausting for me. All the good qualities he brought, the hard work and diligence, were being undermined by a restless need for something different. Something that wasn't Bendy. I'll never understand that drive. Bendy was and is perfection.” ~ Joey Drew, The Illusion of Living, pg. 176-177

“Only two weeks into this project and already it's gotten interesting. Joey is a man of ideas… And only ideas. When I agreed to start this whole thing with him I thought there would be a little more give and take. Instead I give, and he takes. I haven't seen Linda for days now. Still, someone has to make this happen. When in doubt, just keep drawing Henry. On the plus side, I've got a new character I think people are gonna love.” ~ Henry Stein, Bendy and the Ink Machine, ch. 3

Joey thinks that Henry was being unreasonably emotional and looking down upon Bendy as not good enough (when he obviously loved the character/cartoons), and that his efforts to help were unappreciated. Meanwhile, Henry thinks Joey was being a selfish, lazy leech and leaving all the work to be done by him.

Is it really a stretch at all to wonder if Henry and Joey were similarly being pitted against and told lies about each other as well as having their work sabotaged by an unknown third party? Maybe the exact same third party?

This makes me very suspicious about who was really behind the worrying newspaper in Joey's apartment; something tells me that Joey's Shoulder Devil successfully pushed his Shoulder Angel off that right shoulder. Twice. I can see Nathan thinking “fine, if you won't give up on this stupid animator, I'll use this opportunity to remove him from the picture permanently and poetically…”

Is Joey's being so touched by the memory of Isabel “angelically” helping Arthur during his war flashbacks an “I wish my Shoulder Angel would come save me?” And is his horror at the descriptions of Shell Shock (PTSD) as basically a time loop foreshadowing that he ends up trapped in a real time loop, himself, by Nathan's sadistic design? I think it's likely, especially after reading @dreamfisher-nux's posts speculating on Wilson's identity. If he's the Gent worker who stole Shaun's tool belt in BATDS and “somebody” who stole Tom's invention in Allison's BATIM Chapter 5 letter, and that invention was the seeing tool, so Wilson's the one that's been tampering with Henry's invisible messages, and he potentially murdered Henry and Joey when Henry returned at Joey's request… How much of this and how much more might he have been doing under Nathan's influence? Is he another one of Nathan's Murder Puppets? 👀

I think all the Henry stuff also explains why Joey claims that Sammy, Jack, and Norman were hired after Mr. Animator left despite the evidence in BATIM and DCTL that Sammy and Norman knew him personally. The only two versions of events he's being allowed to hear are “Henry leaving is your fault and your feelings about the situation are unreasonable” and “Henry was an awful person, you should be glad he's gone.” Nathan would never allow him to hear “it's Nathan's fault and your feelings about the situation are valid,” so he's gotta choose between believing two very painful other options; why wouldn't he try to discredit the most painful one?

While we're adding to the list of people who Nathan seems to have made disappear Mafia Boss-style, it sure seems awfully convenient that the two main Crack-Up Comics artists’ names “appear to have been lost to time” after they wrote a comic where Bendy (Joey) was literally sweating over how Boswell (Nathan) was the richest cat in the world and could crush him like a bug if he didn't perform his job to satisfaction…

…Sounds to me like Nathan did something to shut these two people up so that word of the true nature of his and Joey's relationship wouldn't get out.

Also, interesting how the disappearances of not only a reporter-in-training and the sister of two well-known entertainers but also the only son of the richest, most influential and most dangerous man in Atlantic City didn't get Mr. Joey “Bankrupt From Impulsive Spending Who Apparently Doesn't Even Have The Power To Fire His Own Employees (and ‘Employees’) Nor The Respect Of Enough People To Not Be Giggled At And Whispered About During His Own Speech At His Own Party” Drew and all of his employees arrested or worse… In fact, from the new teaser and archive images that came out, we now know the studio survived for almost two years afterwards before filing bankruptcy and closing forever…

…at which point Joey was mysteriously missing for a while. This is pretty much pure speculation, but I wonder if it could be that Joey's need for a wheelchair stems from an injury sustained in this time? Mr. Mafia Boss decided he needed his kneecaps busted or something?? At any rate, it sounds to me like Joey had someone richer, more influential, and more dangerous than Mr. Chambers “on his side…” until he failed too many times, and needed to be punished more severely? 👀

“Again I shook my head. Didn't [Constance] understand that this was not how it worked? She hadn't lived in my world. Any company that could afford such a machine, that could hide it, that had such dark huge secrets, they had to be protected by something huge as well.” ~ Bill Chambers, Bendy: The Lost Ones, pg. 191

Then, ink machine things continued at Gent… until the year Allison and Tom got married.

Sounds to me like Gent might've been condemned in order to punish Allison and Tom either for the very fact that they got married (making them more-difficult-to-control puppets) or because they failed to get Joey to come to their wedding where Nathan could access him in-person again…

This archive entry sounds as if Joey had to go into hiding, perhaps to escape Nathan and/or people like Bill's dad who were waiting for Nathan to rescind his protection? Also, as an animation history nerd, it sounds to me like the Bendy cartoons were picked up by other studios besides Archgate in attempt to reboot them after JDS kicked the bucket (as has happened to countless cartoons whose original studios kicked the bucket in real life, e.g., the Fleischer cartoons, the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the Veggie Tales cartoons, etc.), and it wouldn't surprise me if these “minor attempts to rekindle the magic” were Joey's feeble attempts at keeping what was left of Bendy out of Nathan's claws. Remember, Nathan didn't say in Crack-Up Comics that he “inherited” the Bendy IP from Joey's estate, he said he bought it, as further confirmed in the final archive entry.

This means Joey did not leave Bendy to Nathan in his will. In fact, it sounds like he either didn't have a will at all or it was destroyed when he died… Anyone notice that Joey's secret BATDS recording, where he asks Nathan for money, is the only time we've heard him sound audibly nervous?

Strange how, in DCTL, Joey calls Bertrum “Bertrum” when introducing him to the most uncomfortable person at his party, who respects him as his boss; it's not until the people who hold financial power over him start whispering and giggling that he introduces him as “Bertie,” as if he wasn't specifically trying to slight Bertrum as the man in question assumed, but instead was trying to assert to all the hungry cats in the room that he was also a cat, rather than a tasty lil mouse for them to devour… Nathan is worse than them? He's able to break Joey's facade of confidence that this crowd of investors could only make him reinforce? What's worse, the investors he tries to persuade like he does everyone else, convince that they should give him money because everything's great… but Nathan, who's supposedly his friend, he begs for money, saying that the one-and-only reason he's asking this is because the situation is dire (implying he has no choice). That's… worrisome.

Funny how, across DCTL, TIOL, and TLO, Joey consistently pulls or feels the urge to pull his cruel pranks on people anytime a new person seems to be hiding things from him or trying to take advantage of him. Buddy after being caught stealing art supplies? Bill after being caught lying about not having knowledge of the ink machine? Sammy when he suspected his deadpan-&-monotone-ness was an act and that he didn't respect him? Almost seems like the pranks are actually the survival mechanism of someone who's had a whole lotta really bad experiences with betrayal, having things hidden from him, getting taken advantage of, etc. rather than just the product of a twisted sense of humor, hm…?

“…inside I was feeling a little angry now. I don't do well when people are disloyal, and this was something I'd expected to be kept between me and Abby. Then I stopped and controlled myself (I have excellent control over my emotions) and realized I had never actually told her there was anything secret about this. I'd have to be more careful in the future. Believe you me, I have been since. A contract is a fine thing to have between colleagues, even finer at times between friends.” ~ Joey Drew, The Illusion of Living, pg. 170-171

“[Sammy] leaned back on both elbows on the stone wall. Beneath him Fifth Avenue roared and certain death would come to anyone who toppled over the edge down onto it. The man definitely had confidence in that wall. I had a sudden urge to give him a shove. Not push him over, but just to see his reaction. This might sound strange, but I needed to see a human moment from him, I needed to see the man he was hiding from me. That's the trouble when you're interested in recreating the illusion of the world. You want to see the truth of it as much as possible.” ~ Joey Drew, The Illusion of Living, pg. 188-189 (emphasis added)

Also, it's weird that, when talking about reuniting with Nathan at the Sparkling Unicorn, Joey claims not to have known Nathan very well in the army but to always have liked his personality… after having claimed to be close enough friends with him that he helped him write fake letters from a fictional character to Lottie, just a few pages earlier. Either Joey's not nearly as good a liar as he's supposed to be… or this discrepancy was created on purpose in an attempt to tell us that Joey only liked Nathan's personality back when they were in the army because he didn't actually know him as well as he thought he did. 👀

This all together…

…really makes one wonder if Joey's little intro to TIOL wasn't him humble-bragging, but genuinely explaining that the reason he took so long to write it was because A: he's been being gaslit to heck and back for decades and genuinely doesn't know what reality is as a result, and B: refusing to write this book was one of the few ways he was able to assert real control over his own life for a very long time…

“Looking back is awkward. Looking back, you can trip yourself up. I've never been a fan of it. Which is why I never had a desire to tell my story. No matter how many book deals were offered, no matter how many dinners were thrown for me. I am a man who makes up my own mind. You can't buy me. No one buys Joey Drew.” ~ Joey Drew, The Illusion of Living, pg. 3

Speaking of the intro, interesting how, as much as Joey tries to claim that his surprise at Simmons remembering his “philosophy” is because Simmons isn't the brightest bulb in the factory, he still gets noticeably hung up on the fact that his words had stuck with someone; it's almost as if the vast majority of people he knew either openly viewed him as a talentless idiot or genuinely were trying to manipulate him as he was so seemingly paranoid about, and he was beyond desperate for any scrap of genuine praise anyone would give him, no…? *Stares at basically every audio log, literally every Nathan note, and every scene where Joey reacted unsubtly ecstatically to compliments and/or irate at any hint someone was looking down on him*

Anyone notice how, throughout his whole memoir, Joey sings the praises of anyone he clearly wants to be like and drags anyone who resembles what he's actually like through the mud? “Omigosh, Sammy is just so talented and powerful and automatically respected and praised by everyone! He's so awesome! 🤩” “Yuck, Detective Sinclair wears a persona to hide how useless and powerless he is and is just so desperate for validation! I hate him! 😤 Btw, this stuff is not what my philosophy is about, I'm actually changing reality here (whatever makes you feel better, Joey /hj).” I guess this leads me into the next section…

Continued in Part Two: Expanding (Mostly) On My DCTL & TLO Thoughts

#long post #spoiler warning #book analysis #game analysis #book theory #game theory #bendy and the ink machine #batim #dreams come to life #dctl #crack up comics #the illusion of living #tiol #tiol theory #bendy: the lost ones #bendy: tlo #bendy and the dark revival #batdr #batdr trailer #batdr theory #joey drew #henry stein #nathan arch #sammy lawrence #detective sinclair #tw: abuse #tw: suicide

[doyouevenshipbr0]

i just finished live action avatar the last airbender. buckle up. obv spoilers incoming.

~

honestly just gonna list the good and the bad and give a number rating at the end. this will be long. also THIS IS JUST MY OPINION!!!! nothing i say is right or wrong. dont hurt me.

the good

sokka (ik this is controversial bc of his actor okokokok im js purely from a performance standpoint he ate)

zuko (absolutely devoured)

fight scenes!!!! obv not as good as the animated (we knew this) but i still enjoyed

zhao!!!!!! do not sleep on him he killed this!!

KIYOSHI!!! ARE U KIDDINGGG

overall loved the focus on avatars other than roku

suki/suki and sokka

attack on the air nomads… ik it was unnecessary and a little hard to watch but still was v interesting

azulaaaaa and the fact that we see her this season. LOVE this addition. also the way they added her was veryyyyy well done. didnt feel forced.

bumi/how they handled the bumi arc in general. some parts i actually like better than the og. like how aang knew he was bumi right away. makes way more sense to me.

sokka and katara has some very sweet and genuine moments

aang and gyatso reunion awwww

omg. the “twist” with the 41st division that zuko accidentally saved becoming his crew. the bestttttt change that they made. i loved this. something so small but felt SO impactful.

yue/sokka and yue. this is a BIG one bc i think the original show really lacks with how they wrote yue and especially her relationship with sokka. i think it was a lot better here.

when zhao admits at the end he was working w azula and that ozai was just using zuko to motivate azula. omg. that was such a cool thing they added

and now. the bad.

aang. JDHSKSJDJ SORRYYYY dont care! he got better as the show went on. overall acting wasnt great and the writing for him definitely did not help

katara OOPSIES HEHEHE sorry but again same thing. kind of a dull performance. where is her PASSION?!?! wanted to like her so bad bc katara is my girl and this girl was giving katara on paper but the performance was just kinda bleh. didnt hate but DEFINITELY did not love.

costumes. dying on this hill i do not care. it was giving spirit of halloween. and some of these wigs…. yue’s wig? azula’s fuck ass pieces hanging out? HOW MAI AND TY LEE LOOKED IN GENERAL?! ouch

^in general mai and ty lee did not need to be here at ALLLLL. def shouldve waited till s2 for their appearances.

where is the silliness? where is the humor? hardly tried to embody the fun spirit of the original and when it did it failed miserably.

gran gran saying the thing. that’s katara’s thing.

too much exposition dumping.

first ep was by far the worst imo. how sokka and katara came across/met aang? WOW what a let down holy shit.

they should’ve kept it as aang running away from the southern air temple. not that he went for a late night drive with appa. dont care that this is a small thing. it is a HUGE part of aang’s character.

idk how to word this one and i think ppl would disagree anyways. but they are making iroh too obviously “good”. ykw i mean? when we first meet him, we know he’s not like the rest of the fire nation but we still don’t truly know where his morals lie. this show made it too obvious too soon.

why did katara never train w pakku?? that makes 0 sense. i understand she was mostly self taught throughout s1. but the whole thing was that: yes, katara was good before pakku, but when she finally did get a master, she became EXPONENTIALLY better and really came into her own. i am not buying that she becomes the master katara we know and love without learning from pakku. so unrealistic. when zuko says “u found a master” and she said “yes ur looking at her”. oh girlboss feminism u are going to HELL!

would like to take a moment to say^^^ i am a feminist ok. do nottttt get it twisted. but girlboss feminism is brainrot.

aang. did not bend. a single drop of water. are u fucking KIDDING ME? that was nuts.

really felt like if u did not watch the original series, this show would feel SO all over the place and u would have so many “wtf is happening” moments. the whole omashu shit was kind offfffff a mess. i see where they were going and why they were doing that but in hindsight after the fact i was like… if i knew nothing ab this show that would have been the most confusing clusterfuck.

and i think my biggest/most general complaint that i already talked about that i will briefly touch on: trying to do too much. why are we putting in characters and plot points that do not come till seasons 2-3 and are completely unnecessary now (secret tunnel, wan shi tong, swamp-kinda episode, etc.)

final thoughts?

it was enjoyable. i cannot deny that. landscapes were gorgeous. fights were well choreographed and looked GOOD. some changes were genuinely made for the better, and even changes that i do not necessarily think were better, i could respect the creativity of some changes and understood why they were there. but overall, as most live action remakes go, this was a flat portrayal of one of the greatest pieces of fiction of all time that suffered from some overly ambitious ideas and dull writing with little to no sense of whimsy. while some performances exceeded expectations, others that were crucial to the integrity of this show really disappointed me.

overall: 6.6/10. this number is completely subject to change.

#personal #atla #avatar the last airbender #live action atla #atla live action #live action avatar #live action avatar the last airbender #avatar live action #avatar the last airbender live action

[halliescomut]

Can we talk about Tadaima, Okaeri?

I'm not going to get into a deepdive here (hopefully) but I'm watching episode 3 and I just want to know if anyone else is seeing what I'm seeing? So there's gonna be kind of spoilers for eps 1-3, but not really because I want to talk about one specific scene in ep 3.

I wish there were gifs up already, but I know that takes time, so we're gonna have to go mostly off description. Somewhere around the 12 minute mark we have the conversation between Hiromu and his dad. They're sitting in the the living room. Tell me how the ANIMATORS were able to convey that thing where when a character is confronting their parent as an adult they sort of feel like teenagers again?? In live action(?) media usually an actor conveys this through body language, like slouching and stuff, or if it's very intentional by the director for the story then they might slightly adjust the actors makeup. There's a bunch of different ways to go about it, but I'm not talking about them reverting to a younger version of themselves through the use of a different actor, I'm talking solely through acting.

I truly wish I could show examples. I'm gonna try with the gifs available. So looking at the gif below you have from left to right Hikari (clearly a toddler), Yuuki (a young adult/teen) and Hiromu and Matsuo (two adults) . You can see there's slight difference between how the adults are drawn and how Yuuki is drawn. He's a bit softer in the face, shoulders are a bit more narrow (though I know from this angle you can't tell that) but there's differences.

And even in the case of Hiromu and Masaki, even though Masaki is meant to be a smaller, more slender man (Yaoi tropes gonna trope) he still looks like an adult.

But in the moment where you see Hiromu talking to his father, he looks more like a young adult/teen version of himself. It's so subtle, but it's there. I already know that animators are insanely talented and that show creators pay attention to detail so well, but I was truly blown away by this very small detail.

If I can find good images to help demonstrate, I'll update this post, but until then I would definitely encourage watching the show. It's very cute. I'm not the biggest fan of omegaverse in general, but when the story is good I can overlook the aspects of the trope that bug me, and the story here is good. It's quite fluffy and escapist (at least so far, I never read the manga, so lord knows what's in store) and just makes for a fun relaxing watch.

#Tadaima Okaeri #hiromu fujiyoshi #masaki Fujiyoshi #Japanese BL #yaoi manga #Yaoi anime

[kaybaeisgay]

alright here we go…. these are my One Piece: Live Action thoughts and critiques now that i’ve finished binge watching the show!

overall rating is a 6.5/10 on a Netflix original scale with some episodes being below that and some being above. (EDIT: before you throw tomatoes pls know that i highly enjoyed it!!!!! just had some thoughts on how it could have been improved in my own humble opinion!!)

(spoilers under cut)

initial praises:

the FUCKING CAST. they are all so good!!!! i admittedly had low expectations for some characters prior to watching (i.e. shanks, mihawk, garp) due to how iconic and mysterious they are, but i feel like they all did a phenomenal job bringing these characters to life

THE STRAW HAT CHEMISTRY. from the second i saw the cast interviews, i knew they were gonna be perfect, but the core cast truly was brilliant together

BUGGY 🗣️🗣️🗣️ listen. i’ve always been a buggy denier…… i understood the Power of His Ponytail for others, but never really got it for myself. that being said…….. JEFF WARD POPPED OFF. imo buggy had potential to be either just okay or the worst part of the show. and jeff, my guy, you knocked it out of the fucking park

visuals!!!!! the practical set was beautiful, and the coloring was so perfect for how fantastical the one piece world is. it was really immersive and i was super impressed!

makeup and costumes were fabulous. i know people clowned arlong’s design from the trailers, but i always really liked it bc of its practical effects and watching his full performance in the show was icing on the cake. the fishmen all looked incredible! absolutely spot on from the costume and makeup departments

drunk usopp???? need it like i need air

suave but unpervy sanji???? please, oda, bring him back i BEG

luffy’s curly hair 😭

zoro and nami’s interactions?? chef’s kiss. loved how they made each other work for their trust and friendship

all the little cameos to diff characters in wanted posters

the cgi they did use looked so fucking flawless. like the sea king and buggy’s devil fruit? it was truly a spectacle

the bad and the ugly:

the writing. i have to say, while i thought some parts were fine, i thought other aspects of the writing (namely the parts NOT written by oda) were lacking and stereotypical. it seemed like there was a real need in the writers room to spell everything out for the audience about the one piece world, when i really don’t think that is necessary. part of the charm is how whimsical the world is and how unhurried the east blue beginning arc felt. and they inserted a lot of weird bullshit i felt didn’t fit the original story

on that same note: the straw hat bonding was weak imo. i am a nami-stan to the day i die, but i really felt like they used her character to override the developments between luffy and the other straw hats. i think having nami present in axe-hand morgan’s base with luffy/zoro immediately discredited the initial bond that the two boys were supposed to have. i get why they did it, and i never thought i’d see the day where i wouldn’t want to see more nami, but i feel like her presence during that moment, her convo with kaya, and her staying for baratie really stole important bonding moments from luffy and each of the boys.

similar to that: luffy’s characterization. (note: i adore iñaki! this has nothing to do with him, just how the writers wrote luffy.) i don’t think the writers knew how to approach writing luffy or even zoro for that matter—which, to be fair, they are difficult characters to write. but i think they got very focused on trying to explain or make sense of luffy for the viewers when i truly think the appeal to pre-time skip op is how both the audience and the straw hat crew are constantly learning more and more about who luffy is through his actions. and in tandem, they didn’t know how to flesh out luffy and zoro’s relationship. where animanga luffy and zoro are bonded because they innately seem to just get one another, i think the LA writers didn’t trust that either their script or the actors portraying them could get that across as well without having them literally spell it out for us. and in turn, i think it really watered down their connection when that bond should be one of the absolute strongest.

okay i’m beginning to realize that all my critiques have to do with writing

like, they didn’t show us how much each village comes to love the straw hats???? which is a HUGE part of why we and everyone in the world adores them??????????

little (and big) things about the characters that got lost in the LA: zoro’s sense of humor, usopp’s love of bugs (seriously, he wouldn’t be spooked by a damn spiderweb, cmon), nami being a weather prodigy, usopp being a sniping prodigy, bellemere and nojiko having hope bc infant nami was laughing, luffy only doing stuff bc he wants to, luffy and zoro not caring about the details of nami’s history, sanji bonding w luffy bc he was strong and kind and joining because luffy asked him to, helmeppo’s falling out w his father (like if you’re gonna put so much of him in there at least set up his backstory correctly???), arlong seeing zoro’s wound from mihawk, arlong park walk???!, and so many other things honestly…..

in general, the whimsy of the world was lacking. so much of what sets one piece (especially at the beginning) apart from other shows is how much fun it is. i get that netflix wanted to netflixify this world, but that’s not why we fell in love w the show. we want to see them goofing off, we want to see all the silly, ridiculous jokes. we want the hilarity of it all and how each character (no matter how cool) is still subject to being a fool at times. usopp’s character really brought a lot of life to the show after he was introduced, which i am infinitely grateful for, but i think the writers forgot the core of the show: the fun of it all.

OH. and here is my biggest gripe of them all……. THE FUCKING MARINES. like holy shit, i didn’t realize i was watching a fucking military propo??? i understand they wanted to make koby more relevant for the story but fuck, did we really need fifteen minutes every episode dedicated to the marines???? i loved koby and garp’s actors, but all the focus on them (WHEN THEY ARENT EVEN IN THE EAST BLUE MUCH AT ALL) really soured me on their characters tbh. they robbed us of so much time that could have been spent on any of the above issues listed just for the sake of adding fish-eye-lens close-ups of them shootin’ the shit with each other. it’s like they didn’t want new viewers becoming unsympathetic to the fucking military even tho oda specifically wrote marines as antagonists lmao. truly, i think all the issues i had w the show could have been fixed if they simply didn’t make so much of it about garp and koby.

along w that thought: someone—anyone—please tell me why they needed a garp and luffy confrontation in this first fucking season. please, help me understand. because imo, that was the most atrocious thing they could have done. they literally cut out KEY PARTS to the arlong park arc just to make room for it. the arlong park bit was so badly fumbled imo. making nojiko and the villagers actually hate nami instead of pretending to??? TOMATO TOMATO TOMATO. saying nami asked to join arlong instead of him forcing her to?? FUCKING AWFUL. having luffy chase nojiko down for the story instead of his “i don’t need to know it, i just need her to rely on us”???!!!! fine, go ahead and erase a crucial part of his character. and don’t even get me started on how garp’s moment completely replaced nami’s iconic “goodbye” to coco village and genzo telling luffy not to make her cry. seriously, i could go on for hours about those episodes alone.

additionally, they made the whole “luffy didn’t tell us about his grandpa being a marine” thing like an issue in the crew when that is not at all how it should have gone. the entire point of garps original intro as luffy’s grandpa in animanga is that we AND the straw hats have spent enough time with luffy to understand that he doesn’t say more than what needs to be said. while we were all surprised, no one (not even his crew) are upset about him withholding that. so to introduce garp so early in the plot and then make it a whole moment of dissent for the crew is fucked up and pointless.

i really think they only added so much of the marines because they were worried there weren’t enough “stakes” to push luffy and the crew forward in the narrative, but that is utter bullshit because the ENTIRE point of the east blue arc is that it’s BEFORE luffy ever has a bounty—before he ever is being truly chased—so EVERYTHING he does is simply for the pure sake that he WANTS TO. and that is precisely why each crew member loves him. that’s why WE love him.

last but not least: where tf was hatchan??? ☹️

overall, my problem with the LA so far is that i feel as if the writer’s don’t have a full grasp on the straw hats, and while they were writing the story, things that should’ve been central to their personas got left behind. it felt like since they didn’t feel like they understood luffy as a character, they tried to overcompensate by making him into something he isn’t.

the outline for everything was there and i think it was still a very fun watch, but im left longing for the magic and catharsis of the original story. in the end, it was entertaining but really just made me want to rewatch the anime to get the full effect of oda’s wonderful storytelling

#my hot take is that it was pretty lukewarm #but dw i do enjoy a nice lukewarm tea every so often #one piece #one piece live action #straw hat crew #monkey d luffy #roronoa zoro #sanji #nami #usopp #buggy the clown #netflix one piece #arlong park #one piece east blue #romance dawn #one piece live action spoilers #monkey d garp #koby #long post #eiichiro oda

[multifandom-nerds-blog]

One Piece live action spoilers (Ep 1 and half of 2)

So I watched 1 and a half episodes so far of the One Piece live action (I'll probably finish it by the weekend or something), here are my thoughts (esp of the differences) so far:

Luffy talking to the seagull while his ship is sinking, just perfection

I really liked how Luffy saw Zorro in the bar and the whole confrontation with Helmeppo before trying to recruit him. Like, obviously the og scene in anime and manga is legendary, but it not only makes more sense, it is also easier for a more compromised storytelling. In anime and manga you have other people often explaining stuff in monolugues or inner thoughts, which tbf works in those but not so well in live action. Also less complicated with child acting laws since the girl only had one scene here

Also we're getting reminded of Zorro being a pirate/bountyhunter before joining Luffy. Him just being absolutely ruthless apparently and cutting people's heads of, like, yeah you go on. Keep going.

Helmeppo swinging around Zorros sword while butt naked, and Zorro cutting of his hair WHICH IS APPARENTLY WORSE THAN BEING CUT OPEN. That was honestly just gold.

Tiny Luffy is adorable, and apparently he's living in some sort of basement? It's a nice detail cause they never showed where and how he lived in anime/manga before you know who dropped him off with the other you know. Like, he's just living there, and the villagers give him what he needs.

Girlboss Nami

I'm so happy to see Nami punching people with her staff. Her new weapons are great, and she obviously needed more than a wooden staff at some point, but I really sometimes wish she would still go on close combat with her enemies. Like, mix her weapons power with some close combat techniques during fights

Nami didn't have anything to do with Buggy before here. I have nothing to say about that honestly.

GARP FEEDING THE SNAIL

Garp hearing about Luffy from that new pink haired cadet: Please no. Just no.

EVERYONE BEING CREEPY BASTARDS

Especially Buggy with his powers, because it really would be totally freaky irl, so they made it creepy (👌)

Him enslaving the WHOLE town and pulling of a circus show with them? Triple yes. He's freaky. I mean, if later seasons follow his character like the anime he will turn out less freaky and scary to the viewer, but for the people in that world he's always gonna be horrifying

LUFFY SWALLOWING THE CARD. Seriously. Everyone is creepy except Nami and Coby so far. He's no exception. Also that face when he thought he beheaded Buggy. No regret, just baffled

Back to the town: I think that was a great decision. Making clear that pirates are technically still the bad guys in that world. Yes, this is about a group of pirates. No they're not like that, but they are pirates and most other pirates are absolutely ruthless, or mad, or both. And Buggy is mad, ruthless and has some serious ego problems

Morgan is the first sign of a corrupted world government we have in the show and it is somehow more obvious then when I was first watching the anime. Probably because it was the first episodes of over a thousand (I catched up at ep 804 precisely btw) and I watched a minimum of 5 episodes at the beginning. But him in the second episode lying about the events of the first is already showing that the marines are supposed to be the good guys in-universe, but it's also the world government and military. People will lie, be assholes and corrupt

Luffy: Eats a devil fruit, Makino: Please stop destroying my furniture

#one piece spoilers #one piece live action #one piece #coby one piece #roronoa zoro #nami #one piece nami #monkey d. luffy #straw hat luffy #vice admiral garp #helmeppo one piece #buggy the clown #buggy one piece

[cxbin-pxrsephone]

As someone who isn’t really in the Star Wars fandom anymore but still likes Star Wars content (and was a hugeeee rebels fan in its hay day), here’s some of my hopes, headcanons and Thoughts for Ahsoka. These mainly have to do with Jacen tbh

- Jacen’s hair is dyed, I’m not sure how genetics work, like at all, but I feel like he would naturally have brown hair like Kanan and maybe that’s the reason he had brown hair in the Lego set, I would think Sabine dies it for him so he can look more like his mom, I think the only trait we see from Hera is more so the green tips of his ears which haven’t been shown yet in live action. Honestly I don’t really mind if it’s not, I mainly just think having Sabine mention dying his hair would be adorable.

- I’d like to think Ezra maybe didn’t know about Jacen or that Hera was pregnant, it would just be interesting to see him be just as surprised about his existence as the rest of the rebels fandom when the finale first aired (because I literally fell of the couch when I saw him, nothing could’ve prepared me for that) it would be super emotional regardless of if he knew about him or not because either way they’ve still never met, and I’m sure Jacen has heard lots about Ezra and would love to meet him irl for the first time

- Zeb and Kallus. That’s it that’s all I need. Like I would love to see Kallus in live action and it would be great to see Zeb again, hopefully with him. I need to know how their honeymoon went on Lira San.

- A kanan reference. A direct Kanan reference. Please. I beg. It’s only been three episodes so there’s certainly still more time and I can understand why he hasn’t been brought up yet, but I’m sure he will at least once

- more disaster lineage from Sabine, obviously her and Ashoka’s relationship is developing and getting better but Anakin/ Ashoka never stopped causing chaos with their masters regardless of how they’d grown, so why should Sabine?

- I need Ashoka’s happiness, please. Her being more stoic and closed off makes a lot of sense given what’s she’s been through, I don’t really see it as ‘out of character’ because like. She’s seen a lot, she’s been through a lot, she’s dealt with a lot, and she’s just not a teenager/young adult anymore, I can see why she is the way she is now, plus there’s over half a decade we didn’t see of her life (that I know of), there’s a lot we don’t know that I hope is explored but even so, It would be nice to see her be happier again even if it’s over something small, we’ll probably get it when her and Sabine find Ezra.

- a Rex appearance! I’ll even take a reference, since it said in the rebel’s epilogue that he survived it would be great to see him as well or at the very least have him mentioned

- I really hope that Ezra doesn’t just show up at the very end, that he’s at least in one full episode. It’s been five years since the Finale and there’s been like, almost no sign as to where he’s been or how he’s been doing since the finale until now so it would be even more painful to have him only show up at the very end and then have to wait even longer for more on him besides the fact that he’d be alive.

- The wren family, correct me if I’m wrong but they weren’t in The Mandalorian? I think? Again I could be wrong I don’t pay that much attention, but if they weren’t in it I wonder where they could be, and if something did happen to them and if so maybe Sabine would mention it or they could have an appearance at some point too, although I really doubt it tbh, it would just be a nice addition also I just wanna see Tristan in live action

( edit, spoiler for episode 4: well. Probably not gonna have that last one 😭😭😭)

#the way I don’t even mention thrawn 😭 #sorry y’all I have priorities #he’s an amazing villain but I’ve been waiting since 2018 for my blueberry boy #also there’s a reason why I’m not in the fandom so please dont get onto me for these #ahsoka tv #ahsoka spoilers #jacen syndulla #Sabine wren #ezra bridger #hera syndulla #captain rex #Star Wars rebels #swr #the mandalorian

[lovelyinspiration1463]

Loki S2 E3 Spoilers Ahead!

My thoughts while watching the episode for the first time:

Is that him as a kid?

I considered for a hot second that Loki might be that horse.

There is never a moment too dire for Mobius to grab a snack, and I relate to that on a deep and personal level.

Boy, Marvel will do anything to plaster their name on screen as much as possible.

*science mumbo jumbo*

I think this variant has gotten himself electrocuted one too many times. 

I wouldn’t be standing right in front of that, my dude.

Well, yeah, now he’s giving off more ‘take over the world’ vibes. Proper Frankenstein over here.

Prototype? Yeah, no kidding. That thing let off a few bright sparks and then just died.

Mustache guy looked so scandalized, I can’t  😭😭😭

“Hornswoggler”? That is my new favorite word.

Is that an offer or a threat? Sounds more like a threat.

Where can I get myself a guy who will pass out money at the snap of my fingers???

I know it’s loud in there, but is no one else hearing the talking purse?

Nice cover, Mobius.

Oop. Old hornswoggler is back and wants a refund. I’m shocked. The machine looked so impressive just… fizzling the way that it did.

This has very quickly become a Charlie Chaplin sketch.

Okay, first of all, Mullet Hair, can you chill??? Killing the same dude over and over and over again is not gonna secure free will for people! Can we discuss? For even just a millisecond?! Are we able to think through our actions?

He ruined your life? Listen here, Sylvie; while you’ve been living it up at McDonalds, the universe has been falling apart! Think outside yourself for two seconds!

His face! 💀💀💀

Are these two seriously having a moment? Cease and desist immediately.

“A long time ago-“ in a galaxy far, far away. No, wait; wrong franchise.

That’s your biggest takeaway? Seriously?

“Rat bags”? Mustache Man is just full of zingers!

Did Loki literally just run in a circle??

Ooh, Miss Minutes is a bit snappy. She really wants everyone to know how clever she is.

Oh my gosh, they are not cramming another slapdash love story into the show 😫 I do not care about this! I came here to see Loki! Every second he’s not on screen, a little part of me dies…

Miss Minutes in the background: 😞

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

I have a feeling Renslayer is suddenly gonna be much more amenable to joining Loki and Mobius now.

All those mannequins are so creepy. 

A Rolodex? That’s his life’s work?

Okay… this just got weird on so many levels. 

OKAY THIS JUST GOT SUPER WEIRD! 🚩‼️🚨 IF SHE POSSESSES ONE OF THOSE MANNEQUINS I AM SO OUTTA HERE

🎶 People always told me, be careful of what you do, don't go around breaking young girls' hearts. And mother always told me, be careful of who you love.  And be careful of what you do, ‘cause the lie becomes the truth - hey hey!🎶

Dude, how did she even get here?

*dramatic entrance at the perfect time*

Mobius, look at her! I don’t think Ravonna is in the best headspace rn.

How many people are gonna barge in here??? Does he have any security at all? Even a single lock?

Also, are we really doing this again? This episode is bloated with will they/won’t they moments. It’s a “won’t” from me. I’ve decided.

The hair! 😍💯

So is Loki just gonna lie there and watch, or…?

So everyone gets free will but him? How do you know he won’t make better choices? He can’t be the one singular person in all of existence that is fated to be something specific!

Okay now I’m starting to feel a little bad for him.

“I can make my own choices.” That’s what I’m saying!

Who put Sylvie in charge? I’m sorry, but last time I checked, Loki doesn’t answer to you!

Seriously? You’re just abandoning her there??? Murder was a bad thing two seconds ago and now you’re both chill about it?

Aww, poor Sylvie. She really is the greatest victim in all this. How dare she be forced to decide to obsess over something 🙄

Yeah, I’m not sure sticking the two of them together is a good idea. I mean technically he’s dead, but what has that ever meant in the MCU?

Oooh, never mind - he’s dead dead. …Well, even so. Loki’s come back from worse.

Can any of these characters just pick a side?! Stop betraying each other so often; I can’t keep up! Who’s working with who???

#mcu loki #loki spoilers #marvel loki #loki #loki laufeyson #loki series #loki season 2 #mobius m mobius #ravonna renslayer #hunter b 15 #ouroboros #loki season two spoilers #loki s2 e3 #loki show #loki season two #first time watch #my thoughts #ramblings #i think i'm hilarious #mcu #marvel shows #marvel cinematic universe #funny marvel #marvel #sylvie #sylvie laufeydottir #mobius trying his best #mobius

[lyssala]

The Sun & The Moon: On the FFXVI Ending

Throwing my thoughts on the ending into the void.

Aka I keep seeing posts about the ending so I need to type out my thoughts to validate myself.

For reference, we played on release and did two full play throughs.

First of all, I am a happy ending person. I want desperately to find the happiness because there was so much suffering so much loss. Saving the world or not, the thought of Clive having come so close to his own happy ending, of having the family and the love he never got to have, so damn close and then still ending up dying alone on a beach leaving the people waiting for him wondering if he would ever come back to them seems so cruel.

But, Lyssa, you played XV too, and Noctis legitimately sacrificed himself in the end to save the world. You’re right, he did, and that ending still makes me ugly cry because I also didn’t think it was fair that he had to do that. The thing were XV and XVI differ is, we see Noctis in the after with Luna, in their wedding attire, finally together. It’s immensely bittersweet, but we see them at peace. We do not get that in XVI SO point by point let’s GO.

(Warning for spoilers, including character death, in other Final Fantasy games as well)

Why I Don’t Think We Can Assume Any of the Three are Dead

1. The Ancient Rule of Storytelling: No body, you say? THEY AIN’T DEAD.

Usually used when a villain “is defeated” but then they can never find a body - guess what, Luffy is going to have to beat their ass YET again. Final Fantasy has never shied away from character death. From Minwu (FFII) to Tellah (FFIV) to Aerith (FFVII) to Zack (FFVII:CC) to Haurchefant (FFXIV) to Noctis (FFXV), heck even other character death in XVI.

Dion to me is the iffiest one, and I say it with a heavy heart because I loved Dion. He fell early and he had death flags on him BUT we didn’t even see him hit the ground so I still standby that if Clive could survive falling from Origin, Dion could too.

Joshua we actually did see die, and it was terrible - both when it happened and when Clive went back to mourn his brother (again for that matter and thanks I’m crying again). The thing is, we also explicitly watch Clive use Phoenix’s power to heal Joshua. Yeah we don’t see him wake up, but literally what was the point of that action if Joshua was just gonna…you know still be dead. They could have just left him as he was. The whole purpose of showing that action, imo, was to finally give Clive the chance to save his brother, which was all he wanted for so much of his life. I don’t believe that was done as just “well you tried but he really dead, bro.” To me it was to show, no, Joshua has a chance to live the life he always wanted too.

Clive, despite all his dang death flags, is still the most secure to me because the last time we see him, he’s still alive. We know he survived the fall, we know he was conscious on the beach, we only saw the curse spread to his hand. If they really wanted to hint he would die there, we easily could have seen the curse spreading to his face. We didn’t though. He was tired, and weak but he was alive. They made an effort to show him alive. If they truly wanted an ambiguous ending they didn’t even need to show him on the beach, just showing Origin fall would be enough. They didn’t though. They showed the man alive, calling out to Jill, not as apology for breaking his promise but a “I can see the moon same as you, I’m still here.”

2. The Ding Dang Themes of the Game

We spend the whole game determined to fight fate, and while yes, fate was defeated when Ultima was defeated, because the human will won…then didn’t because the man who was determined to fight and escape those binds still ended up lost those everyone who loves him…which was part of the fate he was trying to escape? Final Fantasy games have had dark elements before, and they’ve been heartbreakingly sad. They’ve shown loss of all sorts some self sacrifice, and some because the world can be just so cruel. However, once thing Final Fantasy isn’t is loss without hope.

Noctis got to say goodbye to his best friends (yes I am crying again don’t you dare mention Stand by Me in my presence) because he knew what was coming and they knew what was coming. It gutted me, but they all knew and had come to terms with it. It was Noctis’ choice to walk in there knowing he was not coming back. Clive was not the same. He didn’t say goodbye, he said, I’m coming back. While everyone knew there was a risk which is why it was so emotional to say goodbye, he had a life he wanted to return to, one he spoke of returning to. It was never, “You’re coming back right?” And then they skirt around giving a firm answer because they just don’t know. Clive was firm about it, he was coming back, it was his will to come back and guess what won against Ultimia? You guessed it, human will.

Having Clive die alone on a beach after all of that? After all he went through and after all he still wanted? That to me is just cruel, and Final Fantasy has never been cruel. Ren also made the good point that if Clive was to die, Joshua would have fallen with him, so it ended in a reversal of beginning with Joshua watching Clive die instead of the other way around. That didn’t happen either though. He was on the beach, again, still alive (see point 1 as a reminder), additionally, if he thought he was dying, I’d imagine he’d be apologizing to Jill for breaking his promise. In fact that’s what I SWORE he was going to do, but he didn’t. His will to survive was still intact when we left him which to me fits far more with the theme of this game then dying alone on a beach.

3. The Sun and the Moon (It’s Clive and Jill, It’s Just Literally Them)

So yeah I know that the sun and moon imagery is usually used to describe star crossed lovers, never meant to be as the sun and moon rotate. The game already proved that was untrue, they were always meant to be. By all odds they survived and somehow found one another again.

Jill, the moon of course, always said it was because of her prayer to Metia, that every time she prayed for him to return to her, Metia granted her prayer. I say this as someone who grew up religious but now am not, Jill believed it I’m sure but I think it was Jill. Love has also been a huge theme in Final Fantasy, and Jill’s heart filled prayers to keep Clive safe, always had. Not necessarily because a god deemed it so (again, defying gods a huge Final Fantasy theme lol) but her complete and sincere love for Clive, that always kept him safe to come home to her. She prayed for him as he was leaving for origin, just as heart felt as she always had. Why would that fail now the time she probably desired it more than any other time? That also seems so cruel. For him to be torn from her when they were so close to finally being able to have the life they dreamed of together. What purpose does that serve? It wouldn’t except for Jill to have yet another thing in her life to break her heart and leave her to pick up the pieces. I think she would, for Clive’s memory, but again, it feels like loss for no reason but loss. Jill deserves her happy ending too.

You find out later on even more so why Jill cherished the moon, because it brought the sunrise (or you know Clive in the metaphor here) and with the sun the promise the Clive would always come for her. One he never broke. They literally went out of their way to say “the sunrise meant you’d always come for me, I know this.” It was a direct setup for the ending. It was her seeing the star she always prayed on for Clive flicker out, and in that moment I think she did lose all hope because that was the one thing she could always count on to bring him home (to which again, not a god, but her love that brought him home). She is distraught (and so was I so we have that in common LOL) but then, the sun rises, and she smiles. It’s hope. It’s her hope because Clive has never broken a promise to her, and the sunrise has always brought him to her. I have no reason to believe the sunrise didn’t bring him home to her like it always has. Not a single point in this game has given me reason to believe it so why would I?

4. They Did the Thing! The Name of the Game!

A smaller point but one none the less. I sure hope you all played every single side-quest. One particular one, leaves you with a quill to add to Clive’s wall of treasures; one with the sole purpose of when (not if) Clive puts his sword down, that he writes his story. What do we see in the after credits? Literally, a book that is telling his story. Idk how more clear they gotta be that Clive is gonna be okay (tbf I WISH they would have just told me he was gonna be okay too LOL)

Granted, Joshua Rosfield is the author to which, it really could have been him writing Clive’s story in his absence or it could have been Clive and using the name to memorialize his brother’s name. Or it could have been the both of them and they used Joshua’s name because Clive is content living his life behind the scenes. He’s never wanted attention or praise. I don’t think he ever would have used his own name.

Additionally, the ending lines that equates to as my journey ends another one begins to me never meant journey = life. His journey was over, he did what he set out to do. The new journey? Traveling the realms with his wife in a world without the burdens of magic and doing what they do best, help the people who need it.

5. Doggy Knows Best

And finally, my last point is, Torgal knows what’s up. Technically, this is Ren’s point so I give him the credit here but animals, especially Torgal who is more than just a dog (literally an Eikon himself bonded to Jill and Clive, something acknowledged in the game), know when their master is hurt or worse. We’ve seen Torgal when one of them are hurt or in danger or not coming home. Yet at the end of the game, when Jill is absolutely breaking Torgal simply howls.

You know where else he did that? When he was trying to find Clive after Phoenix Gate and he would sit and howl. They were already bonded, he knew Clive (and Jill) were alive but he didn’t know where so he howled for his people until he could find them. It’s the same thing he does at the end of the game. He knows Clive is alive out there, and they are just separated but they’ll find another again because just like Jill, Torgal has no reason to believe otherwise.

And honestly I’m going to believe the dog.

Final Thoughts…For Now Cause I Always Have Thoughts its the ADHD

If you read all this, I hope it brought you some peace <3 I don’t believe a cop out everyone died ending is indicative to the wonderful storytelling this team has brought us in FFXIV. If anything, it reminds me of the ending of A Realm Reborn when you are convinced all the Scions are dead and then ope nope they’re fine just scattered and we’ll find them yeah SOUND FAMILIAR LOL I think they left it open to let people come to their own conclusions but in my heart of hearts I believe they had no intention to let Clive die on that beach because nothing in the story leads me to that conclusion.

If they try to tell me otherwise, well then I’ll go full denial LOL but unless Yoshi-P calls me up and says girl stop you’re wrong, I’ll continue to push my Clive finally gets his happy ending and travels the realms with Jill like he promised her <3 (ONE MORE THING: why the heck would they have Jill just be like mmmm think I wanna leave this realm when its over, lets see the world if they had no future content planned YOU CAN’T FOOL ME she could have easily said anything but she said something that would directly give us more content okay I’m done lol)

#clive rosfield #jill warrick #ffxvi #final fantasy XVI #cliji #tagging the ship because their relationship has a huge impact on why I believe what I do #ffxvi spoilers #final fantasy xvi spoilers #I mean I talk all about the ending so very spoilers #I did this mainly for me #because I need to validate my peace lol #but I hope maybe it can bring some others peace too

[ladysomething]

Oh my goodness thank you so much for such a detailed answer and for entertaining my long, rambling mess of an ask. I appreciate you and I LOVE learning more about your writing process. It’s so interesting to me and it makes me appreciate the fic even more knowing how much work and care you and SaiyanWitcher put into every chapter. I will ask again at the end of WYGIG to find out what foreshadowing moments you loved the most, I promise! And in the meantime I am so excited to see what things I’m right about and what things are gonna surprise me! (Also I think I’m already wrong about the Kelly thing because I forgot in ch2 that Charles said she didn’t have a mating bite, so my new prediction is that Max was helping Kelly escape from a bad situation and that Max’s mum was the one he saw go through mate withdrawal, but don’t tell me if I’m right! I’m living for the suspense!!)

And tiny details like the vase thing are truly my favourite thing. Idk, they just are that special something that makes a fic go from amazing to like, god-tier for me. And now since you said you love when people pick up on tiny details, here’s some others I noticed that I loved, just in case me noticing them can also bring you some joy.

Before the auction, Mattia touches his own face when referring to Charles’ muzzle in ch1 and Max gestures at his face similarly in ch2 when trying to get permission from Charles to remove the muzzle (and then the contrast of Mattia’s cruelty and Max’s gentleness that follows those similar actions is !!!!! so good !!) 

I loved how in ch1 when Charles is trying to mentally block out the auction, he focuses on pretending he’s back in his childhood apartment since that was a safe place for him, and then that’s the same place his dreamworld is based on when we see it in ch3!

Charles self soothing by stroking his teddy in ch2 and by stroking the sheets in his nest the same way in ch4 broke my heart a lil.

And Charles described Max’s scent as most collecting on petals of daffodils and jasmine when Max was trying to calm him down in ch3 and then max describes Charles’ scent as strawberries and jasmine in ch4. Love the subtle overlap, those boys are meant to be (even if it’s a Rough Start)!!!

This ask is now longer than my first outrageously long ask, I am so so sorry. And I don’t even have a question so def don’t feel obligated to reply to this one LOL. But I have so much love for your writing and so appreciate your willingness to answer my (and everyone else’s) questions about your writing and this story!!

anon, I need you to understand that I've had a really difficult week writing WYGIG. I know exactly what has to to happen, and I'm so excited for the next chapter, and yet I am struggling to get words down on the paper.

Your previous ask, and now this one, are so immeasurably delightful to me and they are the exact type of thing I needed to hear. I don't know if you'll ever be able to understand just how meaningful the things you've said are.

I honestly don't think I even have the words to thank you for your extremely kind and thoughtful asks, so instead I'm giving you what is an extremely meagre offering in return: a snippet from chapter 5.

It's below the cut, for anybody who doesn't want the spoilers.

“Is this your Dreyma Ver-öld?” 

Charles’ fingers slip on the keys, discordant noise filling the air. He whips around on the seat, horror filling him as he sees Max standing in the middle of the living room, dripping water everywhere and looking around curiously. 

“You,” Charles seethes. “What are you doing here?” 

But he already knows the answer, of course. Max claimed him, so just like every other part of his life, Max gets access to this, too. At least he seems to have woken up outside, where it’s still pouring rain. At least there are small justices. 

“Mine doesn’t look like this,” Max says, ignoring the question entirely. 

Charles wouldn’t have any idea what Max’s Dream World might look like. He’ll never get to see it, because to see it he’d have to claim Max back. No, instead, Charles is doomed to a life giving everything to Max and getting nothing in return. 

“Was this your home?” 

Charles grits his teeth and turns back around to his piano, stubbornly refusing to answer. 

“What was the shed outside?” Max asks a few moments later. “I tried to go in, but—” 

“You can’t go in there,” Charles snaps, shoulders hunched. He doesn’t care how confrontational he sounds—he’d rather die than let Max near the memories locked in that shed.

#anon ask #lestappen fic #lestappen #where you go i go

[arklayraven]

So much thoughts to get out over Asmo right now...But not sure exactly how. So gonna just write to see if hopefully things come out right. So expect this to be a post of me just blabbing on about Asmo and stuff. pfff

This is gonna be full of spoilers from lesson 12 btw. So putting a read more now.

I talked about this on another post, but the little detail of Asmo being the type to knock on your door before entering your room. Just was so much to me. I had to mention it again because I loved it lots. ;;

The post btw can be found here in case you're interested in checking it out. Warning. It's angsty lol:

So in this moment with Asmo, we get some backstory, and learned why he paints his brothers nails, as he paints ours...

There's quite a bit here to unpack, so will try my best to get my thoughts out on this.

First of all, Asmo once again shows how sweet and caring he is over his brothers. Especially during the most stressful and depressing of times and situations.

He admits to us he was scared when he first arrived in Devildom. Understandable. The place is a huge unfamiliar place to him, and completely different to the Celestial realm like he described.

Though even through his own personal fears and all. He kept his brothers on mind, and put their possible shared feelings and thoughts into mind too. So much in fact, he came up with a idea in hopes to help everyone feel more connected and less alone. It was a small action, but had so much heart and meaning into it.

I'm wondering how many of the brothers later on figured out, how meaningful having their nails painted by Asmo means to him. If Asmo didn't already state the meaning of it that is to them.

All I can imagine off the top of my head is Lucifer...Since he usually is the one to figure these things out in time I feel. Though maybe it was revealed from other characters in time, that I just can't recall or am unaware of.

Then there's Satan I gotta mention here...I'm sure in time he learns to warm up to the fact he's gonna get his nails painted always. Whether he likes it or not. pff But seeing him admit awhile back he felt he didn't belong and all to the family. Just made this little moment from Asmo even more huge to me. Asmo really was trying hard to do everything he could to help Satan feel part of the family, that he belonged and all. Yes Asmo can come off strong in times, but he had his good reasons, and his heart was always in the right place in the end.

Then there's the fact Asmo tells us all of this, while painting our nails, to show and say we are apart of them too. Asmo... 💕😭

Personal talk time: Will not deny the fact I did cry over hearing this from him. Since personally, I never felt I truly belonged or fitted into any group or peoples lives. Even if I have friends here and all, I still often feel like a outcast I guess...So just hearing him say he's painting your nails to show you you're one of them, are apart of the family. Just is such a small act but hugely meaningful thing to me. 💗 (It hit me so much in the heart honestly. That I finally attempted to paint my nails again similar to Asmo's style. So that should say a lot. lol)

Now here's what Asmo says afterwards that really expresses how truly huge his heart is...If you still didn't already know by now.

This side of Asmo seems to be the same whichever time I feel now. Only differences from here and og OM time...In this moment, he's not drunk. So he's not being selfishly true and raw with his thoughts and feelings towards us.

In NB, we can tell Asmo is hiding his true feelings about us possibly wanting to go back home. Since he's putting our feelings and wants first before his own. Even if it'll kill him inside to see us leave, he'll put our wants/desires first. Especially because he personally can understand how that feels and can relate with us.

While in og OM, the present/future, he's drunk yeah, but very upfront on his feelings over us. Since he gets very emotional while he's drunk. He states well and clear he doesn't want us to go. He wants us to stay there forever with them/him. He still cares and loves us sure, but he can't deny what his hearts wants too. Which happens to be us now...In the end of course, he lets us go. Which we had to do, whether we liked to or not because of plot. But we can leave knowing now, how he truly felt about us. How much, he truly loves us and cares about us.

Perhaps we'll see this raw emotional side of him again over us(not drunk of course) in the end of NB main story. However that might end of course...

I feel this quote honestly fits him so well even more now:

“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours. If not, it was never meant to be.”

He's a big romantic, its in his nature of course. Though we know once he desires to be with someone. That's that. He never wants to let them go.

However, he wants them to always be happy and do what feels right and best to them. Even if that means he's not part of the picture in that decision...Though I'm sure, he's hoping really hard, if we were to go back home...He'll be waiting for us to come back, just for him. Or even better, stay to just be with him. Which would be a huge sacrifice for sure on our part, but a huge show of how true and devoted our love for him is to him. Which would mean everything to him.

So yeah. Asmo can come off seeming quite selfish and self centered in times, but that isn't truly the case. In the end, he always puts others happiness, needs, wants and desires before his own. As he's shown time and time again when it comes to us and his brothers, and others too he came across in his life. 💕

Now to end this post pff...

I'm happy to see some people finally are realizing this all about Asmo, and are giving him a chance now compared to the og game/story.

I know Asmo hasn't been given the best treatment from the devs, and sometimes the fans too I've noticed. Since they only see him as a annoying sex driven demon. But he's more than just the sin he's the avatar of now...Yeah he's still a demon, but he has much heart and care for his family and for us too. As well he's such a great character if you actually give him a chance to see who he really is.

Also, if there's anyone you can go to who will listen to you vent/rant your feelings out for hours, with no filters needed and all. I personally feel he's the best one to go to.

Of course though, he'll want to do your nails and all while that happens, a small price to pay sure, but will be worth it in the end I feel. Just to have someone fully listen to you and possibly give some needed comfort and helpful advice in return. Especially when it comes to love either in the form of one self or from/to another. 💖

#;little raven speaks #;little raven plays nightbringer #obey me nightbringer #obey me nightbringer spoilers #obey me asmodeus #obey me asmo