#despite being XY like his mom

[existennialmemes]

If you're visiting family for Easter, and they won't respect your gender, remind them that Jesus's chromosomes are canonically XX, as he inherited all of his human DNA from Mary.

Unless of course they think that Mary was actually a child-bearing XY cis woman, which is also a delightful and realistic possibility. So either Jesus is Trans or Mary is Intersex.

Or it could also be both!

Happy Easter Day of Trans Visibility!

Further reading on that if you're interested:

#trans rights #easter #trans day of visibility #intersex rights #trans shitposting #jesus christ #trans jesus #yes there are XY cis women #yes they can have children #they're rare but that's also partially because checking someone's chromosomes is very rarely done to begin with #so given the fact that we've found any with how infrequently we even look #it implies that atypical sex chromosomes may actually be more common than we think #both because Jesus's could've been assigned female #despite being XY like his mom #so Mary could be an intersex cis woman #and Jesus could be an intersex XY trans man #Happy Easter Day of Trans Visibility

[mamasplat]

Don't be shy tell us more headcanons!!!! I'm eating this up.

has my blog finally found a main purpose? i post my headcanons here? hell yeah

Miscellaneous rival cast headcanons | XY

a lot of my headcanons are based on a mix of fanon, manga, anime, pokemon masters, and main game elements put into a blender

calem and serena are 18! not as much a headcanon and more implied canon, they can’t be older than 19 because they are clearly still teenagers but they can’t be younger than 18 because emma (who is canonically 16) makes remarks about them being old. 16 and 17 are too close for that to be the case, so they are at least 18!

shauna is 17, as well as tierno.

trevor is 15 being the youngest, though the smartest and most reliable member of the group.

calem and serena are both trans (calem FTM, serena MTF) serena transitioned before moving to vaniville and helped calem transition with the help from her experience in fashion when he came out.

serena is the protagonist, while calem is the rival as that’s how it’s set in masters.

serena is childhood friends with shauna, and trevor. while calem is childhood friends with serena and tierno, the friend group formed over several years of naturally growing together before they all set off on a journey together

shauna is the type of girl who is a little crush crazy, always hopping from one guy to the next to fawn over. she pretty much instantly fell head over heels for calem when they met (based on her dialogue during the firework show) however, her crushing for calem ends up back firing because of how often calem and serena are near each other; growing into another crush on serena at the same time. hijinks ensue.

grace considers calem to be like one of her own, he’s always welcome in their home no matter what. she occasionally refers to him as her son in law.

serena and calem have insane romantic tension they are utterly oblivious to but everyone is painfully aware of, including shauna who is stewing in very complicated jealousy.

tierno is calem’s closest friend other than serena, anything he can’t bring up to serena for one reason or another gets told to tierno.

tierno is really good at reading people, he pays attention by second nature and despite coming off as rather unserious he has a way of calming people.

tierno had a crush on serena at some point after meeting and has asked her out on three occasions, all being declined. he’s a good sport about it and isn’t afraid to play it for laughs

trevor is very sick and tired of his friends reckless shenanigans, tierno and calem especially.

trevor is the team mom here, he didn’t agree to it but he is.

shauna is a little slow on the uptick, but a big gossip. which means everyone else is a gossip by proxy.

going off of Y’s habit in the manga of being too shameless for her own good with getting dressed in semi public places, serena has the same habit. you get used to it after a while.

despite seemingly having her head in the clouds, shauna will bitch you out if prompted.

serena’s mom, grace, is a single mom. serena is the product of a fling during grace’s younger years as a rhyhorn racer, which is why she’s so overbearing about serena’s future, she wants her to have a good life to overcompensate for that fact.

trevor lives with his grandparents in santalune, his parents work overseas.

tierno lives with his parents in aquacorde town, as does shauna

please consider with me for a moment, serena/shauna/calem. do they have a ship name i think the chao they’d make is beautiful-

#i’m violently dyslexic bare with me #young love hijinks to be expected as they are in the prime developmental phase to be awkward about romance #teenagers being stupid and stressed also to be expected #media puts so much emphasis on needing to find love young can you blame them #EVEN MORE SO IN KALOS WHICH IS BASED IN FRANCE #pokémon xy #trainer shauna #trainer trevor #trainer tierno #trainer calem #trainer serena #headcanons #kalosshipping #brighttomorrowshipping #boutiqueshipping #trans headcanon

[perenlop]

this is also a thought ive had abt xy and sm for a while now and kinda reinforces my point now that im watching all of xy in a row (i know the debate has died down well at this point and if people are still bitching about it then its not worth the time, but i wanna say it anyways) i feel like people held up xy as the groundbreaking gamechanger series, where THIS is where all the status quos would be changed, this would be the most mature and impactful adult oriented series yet, we would finally get closure, this is the series to watch if you want an “all age” pokemon show (something idc about bc i think theyre all for everyone but whatever) but then you watch it and its the same deal as the other seasons except the animation is better and the cast and setting are different. 

like, team rocket still gets crammed into episodes where they do not need to be there at all, except here it’s a lot less forgivable because unlike the other seasons, they arent in every episode. clemont is a standout character compared to the other gym leaders, especially during his own gym battle arc, but he still feels like he’s geared around the mold that brock and cilan set. and it’s weird to say that serena’s crush is groundbreaking when misty also had an obvious crush on ash. (not a shipping thing, that’s literally just the canon of the show) serena is crammed into a ribbon collecting thing like dawn and may despite not really needing that to be a sturdy character. 

like yes there are a ton of differences from the other seasons but a lot of it is surface level stuff like, serena having a complicated relationship with her mom while dawn has a really good one with hers. none of that changes the actual status quo, which is “ash goes around collecting badges, team rocket harasses them, rinse and repeat”. and that’s not to say you can’t like xy or that it inherently sucks, but it’s not a game changer.

meanwhile sun and moon got ridiculed for looking more cartoony, and ironically it DID do all those things that xy fans claimed xy did. it’s not adult oriented but it DOES tell really mature stories in a way that adults can enjoy while being easy for kids to digest. it DID change the status quo in a way that wasn’t invasive. team rocket is still there to harass them but they’re treated a lot more respectfully this time around and they’re not just used to fill screentime as often as other series. and it does all that while being really fun and enjoyable all around

#echoed voice

[llycaons]

ep10: and then there's THIS asshole

THAT BITCH. sitting on roofs is wangxian's thing!

xxc looking SHARP. the very very obvious exposition here is so funny

see I don't even think the fans are exaggerating when they talk about him being a kinky bitch I think it's heavily implied in the canon text

SO DRAMATIC LMAO

oh! people write xxc and sl as traveling together but actually before this scene they were doing their own thing and just knew each other as friends

aww, younger jc had some principles after all. along with hopes and dreams. the ability to empathize with other human beings. a chance at getting married someday

they keep talking about xy being so young but wwx and co. are only like 16 here and xy is clearly around their age so??? how young could he possibly be. he was younger in the novels but the timeframe is different anyway

WHY IS HE TIED UP LIKE THAT

LOVE this response. it could be him saying "I have no shame and you can't scare with with your implications because I don't care about my reputation' OR it could mean 'I'm already gay and everyone knows it, you bitch. your move'

huaisang they are literally surrounded by corpses. why do you think

wwx latching onto this and them smiling SO big at lwj...jc getting mad at him...ough

side note I think that we can assume that he's at peace with his sexuality and any resistance he has to being into lwj is much more about his hangups around commitment and being loved, and about his embarrassment over being attracted to someone so strict and unfun (and maybe also he feels like he's not allowed to want/have things in his precarious role in the family and therefore ruins his own opportunities reflexively)

lwj I think does have some internalized homophobia to work through but a lot of HIS resistance is related to feeling shame over having desires/emotions esp romantic/sexual ones (father issues, also maybe his upbringing and personality too) and also embarrassment that he likes someone as wild and unconventional as wwx. anyway

nhs waxing poetic about handsome gentlemen for the second time in two episodes and people still write him as straight?

wwx looks so fucking miserable watching xxc walk away with no more info on his mom and jc SEES that oughhh

BIG SEXY IS HERE!!!!! I am of course referring to both nmj and baxia but I couldn't get a good pic of baxia and there's a limit on the number of images per post anyway

jc and wwx looking so pleased at the praise is ADORABLE. I actually think a fun hc is that nmj is the reason wwx knows he's into dudes

also, nmj being the ONLY person to call lwj 'wangji'! he's such a big brother...

oh shit I forgot this. wwx is the one to save xy's life here! honestly this was for the best. despite all the horrible things xy did later, I don't think it would have been okay if nmj personally killed a defenseless man in cold blood just because he was angry

WHAT A DICK I know I just said killing xy in cold blood out of a personal sense of anger would be bad but honestly I don't even begrudge jgy for taking his chance and murdering this guy

he's also SO stupid for letting prejudice and his ego get in the way of doing his job and carrying out his SECT LEADER'S orders

iirc this is literally the only time jgy and wwx are alone in a scene together and it's just a very polite exchange and wwx thanks him for all his hard work while everyone else is feasting after the commander was a dick to him aww. flash forward 20 years and wwx is like 'I never hurt you! Why did you ruin my life!" and jgy was like 'well SOMEONE was going to and it may as well have been me!' insane

this line is more romantic than "'l'll sleep on your roof tonight" imo

ah the gentle longing of first love, unceremoniously doused in the cold water of the realities of war. one of the more background tragedies of this show

OH FUCK THERE'S WZL!!!!! MY GUY!!!!! IN THE CORNER!!!!

fun fact: apparently this is a very famous shooting location and it's used in a ton of cdramas

despite this action I don't think he genuinely cares about nmj, honestly. appreciated, almost certainly. but I don't think he truly respected or cared about many people. it's just that he could see his death right there in nmj's eyes and this choice was a last-ditch gambit to preserve his own life by risking it in the most performative way possible

isn't it wild that wen chao and jiang cheng have the same advice for wwx which is: stop interfering in the affairs of other clans?

even the ego-blinded wen chao can tell that wwx is into lwj

honestly wwx's crush just makes me so sad in this arc. so delicate and new and he's so young and so many terrible things will happen

see I think lxc valuing jgy and publicly supporting him and praising him earned him one of the only spots on the list of people jgy genuinely cares about. I don't think he respects him, at least not enough to not use him to murder his friend, but I will argue that jgy feels genuine affection for lxc and BELIEVES he never hurt him/never wanted to hurt him. this dialogue is mental, it's not a performance

this is also why jgy/lxc is more emotionally true to me than either of them with nmj (even tho I obviously don't support it or thinks jgy would be a good romantic partner), sorry nielan fans I appreciate your perspective but I think this is the more textually supported one, even if it ends much worse

jgy is so fascinating to me like the way he'll twist himself into whatever he needs to in order to survive. he defends himself saying 'he said horrible things to me and beat me' then 'he insulted my mother' then 'he took credit for my accomplishments' and each one seeming to flow naturally to the next as nmj rejected those reasons…very interesting that nmj criticizes jgy for wanting praise and credit, contrasting characters like lwj, who are widely praised for not caring about credit or glory

this last shot of nmj IS haunting tho. jgy may not have cared about him but I think nmj really cared about and trusted jgy, and this betrayal of someone who values justice and loyalty was very hard to take

personal highlights:

wwx comparing himself and lwj to xxc/sl

nhs complimenting xxc and sl in a gay way

wzl in his first appearance!!

wen chao noticing how much wwx likes lwj, which is kind of horrifying but also it's a good measure of just how obvious he is and people do not talk about wwx being hopelessly in love enough

#cql re-rewatch

[raspberryroll]

rant. spoilers. nobody's actually reading this.

the best damn thing that ever happened to the st0ry of mingl@n novel was that it got picked up by good scriptwriters in one of the best production companies in the cdrama industry. because in the adaptation they actually managed to acknowledge and criticise the class and gender inequality in feudal society. and yet despite it, there are people like ML and GTY who are kind and good and love despite the pain and hurt they experienced in their childhoods.

the mingl@n novel was painful to read (so i dropped it), and the author's followup effort l0ve like the gal@xy is turning out the same (and i want to drop it)

it still has all these bitchy women constantly making snide comments to our protagonist for the audacity of 1) not being well-mannered or educated because her parents left her behind from a young age to fight a war and she was deliberately neglected by her awful aunt and grandmother for 10 years and 2) being married to the most eligible bachelor in the country, aka our male lead

the novel keeps telling how the heroine has her own mind, then throws that away in the middle because the male lead has to be stronger and smarter than her. never mind that she doesn't want to marry you, just have the royal family bully her into it. she's turning into a doormat. how dare she say no; how dare she want to break off the engagement; how dare she not fawn over her fiance like she actually loves him?! and yes it is repeatedly emphasised how firm his grip is, the heroine can't shake him off, but it's somehow romantic.

the drama adaptation isn't any better; for some bizarre reason they decided to turn her mother up to eleven, and now she has an abusive, neglectful asian tiger mom because her life has to suck and the audience needs someone else to hate on. and they kept all the shrill boy-crazy women too. you see, our heroine is ~not like other girls~

厌女至极

[gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights]

Rating: G

Summary: While Luka is throwing out his Jagged Stone merch, he and XY have a heart-to-heart in a dumpster.  Takes place after the episode "Truth."  For @luxyweek 2021

Word Count:  1,594

XXX

Rebuilding a whole personality wasn’t fun, to say the least.  

No.  No, he was sick of saying the least.  Rebuilding his personality sucked.

This whole freaking week sucked.

Luka swept his guitar pick collection into a plastic trashbag.  He tried not to flinch as Jagged’s face seemed to wink at him as it tumbled in.  He grit his teeth, but kept going.  This was no time to lose his nerve.

The old Luka took what everyone gave him.  The old Luka kept waiting.  Waiting, waiting, waiting for things to change.

For Marinette to love him back.

For Mom to tell him the truth.

For Jagged to follow through on his promise.

Jagged wasn’t going to call.  They weren’t going to make a song together.  Luka didn’t want to, not anymore.  He didn’t want to be his dad’s—his backup guitarist.  

He squeezed the neck of his guitar, but set it back on his bed.  Maybe he’d never pick it up again, but it wouldn’t go in the dumpster.  Jules would kill him if he threw out a perfectly good instrument like that.

Jules.  She was taking all this in stride—she said that she was used to being forgotten.  Expected it, really.  Knowing the name of the man who’d forgotten her didn’t change anything.

Then again, Jagged hadn’t looked her in the face and chosen Adrien instead.

That was months ago now, but Luka still seethed at the memory.  Jagged had taken Marinette’s guitarist recommendation like it was gospel—he visited her bakery, praised her sunglasses—but he couldn’t even spare a phone call for his son?

He wasn’t jealous of Marinette and Adrien.  Not really.  But the way Marinette effortlessly connected with his dad… that pain dug in its painted nails, and wouldn’t let go.

Posters crumpled and tossed in the bag.  Vinyls followed.  CD cases, t-shirts… man, he was going to have to get some new clothes.  How had Mom let him fill over half of his closet with Jagged Stone merch, knowing what she did?

He clenched his fists so hard his palms hurt.

This was so, so screwed up.

In the end it took three trash bags.  He hauled them over his shoulders like some kind of grunge Santa Claus.  Mom and Jules weren’t around to comment as he walked the plank back to the street.  Jules was probably at Rose’s house, and Mom… who knew where Mom went when she wasn’t home?  Maybe she was off with some other famous loser, like Bob Roth, or— 

Luka paused a few meters from the dumpster.

“XY?”

He’d recognize that tall troll-doll hair anywhere, even covered in… substances that Luka was better off not knowing.  It also helped that his name was on the giant necklace over his bare chest.  

XY slung his arm over the edge of the dumpster.

“Look, if you want an autograph, you’re gonna have to wait like—oh.”  He blinked at Luka.  “It’s just you.  Well, you can get your own dumpster.  This one’s taken.”

“I—I’m not here for the dumpster?”  He blinked back.  The sight of a shirtless XY dumpster diving… it was enough to shock him out of his spiral of rage.  “I mean, I’m here for the dumpster, but I was—just taking out the trash.  What are you doing here?  ...And where’s your shirt?”

“Didn’t want it to get slimy.  And you know what they say, homeslice.  One man’s trash is another man’s next hit single.”  XY held up a stained pigeon plush before dropping it again.

“Uh… no.  No one says that.”

“Whatever, breadslice!  Just gimme your garbage if you’re gonna be such a hater about it.”

Luka sighed.  What was he supposed to do?  Actually find another dumpster?

“You’ll be disappointed.”  He tossed the first of the trash bags up to XY.  “I know I was.”

XY ripped open the thin plastic and scowled.

“What the heck, man?  This really is garbage.”  He held one of the Jagged Stone shirts up to his chest.

“That’s what I told you.”

“No, I mean—this is the kinda garbage you like, though, right?”

“How would you know?”  Luka frowned.

“Stalked your YouTube after ripping off your music.”  XY shrugged.  “Don’t worry, I didn’t steal anything else.  Dad doesn’t need my help with that anymore.”

Luka shook his head.  He was never going to escape Jagged Stone.  It wasn’t like he could take down all Kitty Section’s music videos, videos where he wore Jagged’s merch, covered his songs…

“You got anything else down there?”  XY called.

“See for yourself.”  Luka tossed the other two bags.  They were both met with groans of disappointment.

“I can’t rip off Jagged Stone.  I already tried that.”

“Don’t bother.  He’s not worth ripping off.”  Luka crossed his arms and leaned against the dumpster.  He was probably getting his hoodie—one of the few pieces of clothing he still owned—dirty, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Huh.  You’re a weird guy, Lu.”

“Says the one who’s waist-deep in a dumpster.”

“Nowhere to go but up then, right?”  XY gave a nasal laugh.  

What was wrong with him?  He was a famous popstar; he shouldn’t be out here sounding happy to dig in the trash.  What else had he said?  His dad didn’t need his help?

“Did you get fired or something?”  Luka asked bluntly.  He might not have Truth’s powers anymore, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get answers.

“Eh.  Or something, I guess.”  XY shrugged.  “Does it count as getting fired if you get permanently replaced with a hologram?”

Luka grimaced.  “Probably.”

“Oh.”  XY was quiet for a moment.  “Then yeah.  I’m fired… but only until I find some real inspiration and show Dad I’m not useless!”

Luka snorted.  He wished he could be surprised, but apparently that was just what fathers in the music industry did.  Threw away their kids as soon as they were inconvenient.

“What!  You saw my cardboard costume!  I made that all by myself, y’know, and I can do it again!”

“Sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you.”  Luka climbed up onto the lip of the dumpster and perched there.  It smelled horrid, but it felt easier to talk to XY face-to-face.  “I just don’t see the point.  Of trying to prove you’re not useless.”

XY snapped one of the Jagged Stone records in half.  Stupidly, Luka still flinched at the sound.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”  XY scowled.

“Sorry.  I’m still… everything comes out wrong.”

“No it doesn’t.”  XY pouted.  “Not for you.”

“Now it’s my turn to ask what that means.”

“You can—you just—your music is real!”  XY threw his arms in the air.  “My dad would kill to have a kid like you.”

Luka couldn’t help laughing.  The irony was just too rich.

“Shut up!”  XY threw half of the record at him.  Luka didn’t even have to lean to dodge it.

“Sorry!  I—my dad pretended I didn’t exist!”

XY paused with the other half of the record still poised to throw.  Slowly his arm lowered, until he dropped the broken vinyl to the pile of trash.

“Oh.  Uh.  That’s rough, dude.”

Luka shrugged.  Man, this was awkward.  XY was probably the only one who was too self-absorbed to have seen the news, but Luka took that as a mercy.  It was nice that someone saw him for him, and not as Jagged’s reject.   

“It’s fine.  I didn’t know he existed, either.  Sort of.”  He wasn’t about to explain the situation in detail.

“Huh.”  XY rubbed the back of his already-messy hair.  “We could always swap places.  Parent Trap-style.  You can have my crappy dad, and I’ll beat yours up for you.”

He flexed a bicep, which was surprisingly defined.  Climbing in and out of dumpsters must have done something for XY’s physique.

“Heh.  I’d almost take you up on that, but I can’t stand Bob Roth either.”

XY pursed his lips and nodded.  “Fair, cheeseslice.”

“I preferred ‘breadslice.’”  Luka smiled a little.

“Really?  I’m trying to pick up some new slang.  Y’know, since I’ll probably have to rebrand.”  He flashed his hand sign, then mimed it blowing up.  Complete with dramatic explosion noises.  “You think I’d look good in your old t-shirts?”

Luka’s brow furrowed.  “I thought you said they were garbage.”

“Eh, Dad says I’m an awful judge of quality.”

“Your dad sucks,” Luka said bluntly.  “And so do those clothes.  But, speaking of rebranding… that’s why I’m throwing all this out.  I’m looking for a fresh start, too.”

He couldn’t believe he was saying this to XY of all people, but maybe the popstar was exactly who he needed.  Someone the old Luka would’ve never spoken too.  Someone who, despite everything, understood some of Luka’s pain.

“So if you want to get out of this dumpster… we could go shopping.  If you want.  Get some new stuff.”  He shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal.  As if he had plenty of friends he could go shopping with if XY said no.

A friend.  Did XY even count as a friend?  All they’d done was have one conversation in a dumpster.

“That sounds dope!”  XY beamed.  “I’ve never gone shopping with a real breadslice before!”

Luka blinked before letting out a genuine laugh.  Who would’ve known XY could be so funny?  Maybe this was the real him, the one that wasn’t tied down by his dad’s expectations.  That’s what Luka hoped, anyway.

He held out a hand to pull XY out of the garbage, and into a new chapter in their lives.

#ml s4 spoilers #fic tag #luxy #luka #xy #tali writes #luxyweek2021

[smilingperformer]

Discussing the good and bad of Pokémon Journeys: Part “Rocket Gang”

It is no secret that the handling of Rocket Gang in Journeys is quite different from how the fans and audience have come to know them. Even I have tons to say about how I feel about Rockets in this series, so let's get started!

TLDR; Their handling in this series isn't exactly the best kind as it has removed one of the beloved aspects of them (having own Pokémon they bond very closely with) and is showing less often how they are RIGHTEUS evil, not evil evil. More under the cut, Journeys abverted to JN.

So. How do I begin. Let's start with saying: I am a Rocket Fan. A huge one. Ever since I started watching Pokémon couple years ago during Sun & Moon's first year, I fell in love with these buffoons, and I absolutely adored how the two bonded with their Pokémon and showcased that they're not that different from the brats, just on the villainnous side. Kojiro is a loving and caring man, Musashi has gone through lots of stuff and Nyarth has deep understanding over Pokémon's feelings due to his past experiences. Oh, Sonansu's there too, I love that blue blop so much. Honestly, the main reason I love these four so much is because they're such lovable villains who tend know what is right for their Pokémon, or other Pokémon they manage to bond with. And it was shown really well pre-SM as well.

Like, one of my favourite episodes of all time for Rockets is actually JN019, and it's because of how the Rockets end up helping a Ditto/Metamon who wants to be a proper actor, but thus far tended to fail in transforming into Pokémon perfectly. Musashi, as a actress herself, really bonds with this Metamon, managed to help it perfect the transformation with the help of Kojiro, Nyarth and Sonansu, and despite having the job to pokenap Pokémon... they actually end up helping Metamon to get back its job, to make sure it doesn't have a reputation of a Rocket 'mon. And they do SUCH a good job at acting like they're not intending it.

Like, during this acting performance, they really want to get blasted off! They don't even hide it. They keep provoking Satoshi to use Pikachu's Thunderbolt to blast them off and save Metamon that way. And I just fricking love them for this asjhgsjhgfs.

But aside from this episode, there really hasn't been that many episodes focusing on this aspect of Rockets. Another good episode for them JN is JN024 thou, where Rockets are on vacation and, are NOT on their villainous acts.

They're mere citizens in that episode, enjoying their free time in Sinnoh's Resort Area. And even when the brats come around, they fully ignore their need to capture Pikachu. For Sakaki-sama's orders. Akjhksajfh I just, really love how this ep managed to show that, even if they are part of Rocket Gang, it's merely their job, not who they are fully. They're not like Matori, they're not like Yamato and Kosanji- oh it's Kosaburo. They're merely doing the villainous stuff because they believe it to help make the world better. And when they're not working? They're good citizens. This was such a good episode for them because of this because it really showed that they could easily just be friends with the brats if they weren't on the opposite sides.

They even helped foil Matori's team's plans on kidnapping every single Pokémon in the Resort Area and sajghsjhgf. These four really hate Matori now do they. They're on her side, but they also keep foiling her plans. Even in Sun & Moon they foiled Matori's plans to pokenap Nuikoguma, because they knew their lovely Kiteruguma mom bear would be upset. As I said before: They're villains, but they're not evil evil. They do the evil stuff for their own rightful reasons.

Now that I've discussed the reasons I love Rockets and what I've loved in JN, let's talk about what it is that makes me feel iffy about their handling in JN, one of them being the lack of own permament poketeam.

In the past seasons, Rockets would always catch themselves one of their own 'mon that would willingly join their causes, and end up bonding with them deeply. In JN, this is... pretty much non-existant. We have the recurring 'mon of Kamukame/Chewtle and Morpeko, but the first one appears in such a rare rate, and latter one has been used as a... abuse comedy. When the Morpeko started following Rockets, I had hoped that it would end up bonding with the Rockets and they'd find some common ground, but so far, there's no sign of it, and Morpeko is more like a leech in their base instead of a powerful asset, and like. I feel like this was the show's way of trying to recreate Kiteruguma but with an opposite twist of it eating their rations instead of feeding them like Kiteruguma did, but it's not working as well as Mama Bear's gimmick did. At least in my opinion.

Now let me just say that, I don't really mind the Rocket Gacha machine. I feel like the concept it has is pretty cool, and seeing what kind of Pokémon Rocket Gang has managed to capture for using is super cool to witness. They also have been able to switch up it's results in unique and fun ways and seeing it sometimes fail is kinda fun and relatable to anyone who's played gacha games, sajhgfs. However, it feels like the Gacha completely replaced Rocket Quatret's ability to capture Pokémon of their own and, it hurts my soul to say it.

I think one of the reasons they did this route was due to how in Sun & Moon, Musashi and Kojiro ended up leaving their 'mon behind, due to knowing that they won't like it at the Rocket Head Quarters and leaving the cozy family that is Kiteruguma and Nuikoguma. So, maybe the writers felt like the Quatret would now feel bad about capturing 'mon they would bond closely with after this, and then ending up having to send them to HQ. So in a way, I get the possible intention behind this decision. Yet it still hurts. And I feel like most Rocket Fans feel the same way.

Their writing is pretty much the same throughout the show (which imo is kind of an average, as it doesn't hit the nail the same way I came to love them in Sun & Moon or OS to DP era, or even XY and Best Wishes DA! Arc), so it doesn't make sense for me to recite every single appearance of theirs, but I really have to discuss what irritated me a lot:

So. JN059.

I'll just say it straight away: I did not like how Rockets were written in this episode. At all. While their personality was spot on, their motives and actions weren't. Like... the fact that Grookey/Sarunori was a Rocket 'mon is a unique concept and I honestly like it. However, the way Sarunori ended up switching sides was so bad for me. So bad.

No. I am not one of those who think that Gou stole Sarunori from them and doesn't deserve it. No. That ain't my problem. It's more like the issue in how Rockets weren't allowed to learn more about Sarunori, bond with it, learn that it's not the one to want to join the villanous side and feels happier with Gou. The idea of the story for Rocket 'mon to switch sides is great. Excecution however is not.

Like... this line where Musashi says that Sarunori needs to be sent back to HQ to be re-educated specifically ticks me off in bad way and I hate to feel ticked off like this. And this line is all because they weren't allowed to learn more about Sarunori's motives. Because the plot had to be in one episode. I feel like the motives, Rocket Gang's handling and side switching would have worked better for me, if it was a longer built arc. Sort of like how Mijumaru/Oshawott, Hikozaru/Chimchar and the likes of them were done.

And this hurts more because of JN019 where they WERE allowed to bond and perform an act of helping Metamon get back its job. These buffoons KNOW when the 'mon deserves to go to the non-villainous side. And it's all because of JN019 that I feel so strongly ticked off for this line. "We'll... ...have you re-educated". That's not what they were gonna do with Metamon. Like. God damn it.

Rockets were there when Hikozaru switched teams from Shinji to Satoshi. They came to care for the lil monkey before this switch and after this switch. They KNEW it would be better off with Satoshi, and they kept rooting for it from afar, despite constantly trying to steal it. That's their job. Same with how Nyarth comes to like the Honcho Nyabby, due to its background, and finds peace with knowing that Nyabby will find a happy life with Satoshi. All of these examples are exactly why I strongly dislike how Jn059 handled Rockets, and I so god damn wish they would have ACCEPTED that Saruroni should join Gou, but make it so that they'd have to rescue Sarunori instead of giving it to them just like that. They're not heartless.

Unless this was an act from them. Which I doubt since Nyarth learns about Sarunori wanting to go with Gou late into the episode and then trying to deny it having been said??? Uuuugh. This episode really could have used more build up and different handling with Rockets.

Another option that would have made me like Sarunori's capture was if it had been some other Rockets it escaped from, like Matori Matrix or sudden return of Yamato and Kosaburo, or something else. I LIKE the idea of Sarunori being a Rocket 'mon, so I wouldn't change it. I just don't like that it was OUR beloved Rockets that had to be treating it this way.

Sigh. Now that that's out of the way. What else is there to say. Well. How would I try improving Rockets in JN? Simple: give them their own Pokémon to care for. Make them bond with more than just Chewtle. Let them have Pokémon they can bond with and show their loving side with. It's severely lacking right now and I feel like most Rocket fans are really missing this aspect a lot. Also please don't make them act like they don't understand Pokémon's feelings. They do. I'm glad that Satoshi still knows that Rockets care for Pokémon of their own and wouldn't treat them badly, but it still isn't showcased that well in JN. So I wish it would improve on that. I would also seriously love it if some of their old 'mon from past shows would come up from the Gacha Machine, as I'd imagine them being put inside there as well. It did have tons of Gulpin inside for some reason.... Sakaki, wtf.

Well. I guess there's not much else to talk about regarding Rockets. In short, I love Rockets, but I'm not happy with how they're handled in JN fully and despite there being couple really good episodes for them, and some of the episodes have excellent usage with them (like JN038 where Musashi just casually says "Evening" to Satoshi when he discovers them hiding in bushes, sajhgshfsghjf forever love that moment). I just want better handling with their righteus evil.

So. What's up next? I'm thinking about compiling a post of COTDs and supporting cast next time, which would include the likes of Kikuna, Renji, Sakuragi, family casts etc.

So, thanks for reading if you got this far, hope you enjoyed it despite possibly disagreeing with me, and I hope you'll all have a fantastic day.

Til next time! Aleira, aka Smiling Performer, signing out!

#pokemon #pokeani #anipoke #pokemon jn #team rocket #rocket gang #discussions #character discussions

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

(Accidental 150 Follower Special) IOTA’s Top 10 Best (and By That, I Mean Personal Favorite) Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug

Alright, I already covered what I considered to be the worst Miraculous Ladybug episodes in two parts, and now it’s time to talk about the what I consider to be the best Miraculous Ladybug episodes before I talk about... him...

I’m only putting one rule in place for this list. I'm going to try and list episodes with good qualities other than “cool-looking Akuma and awesome fight scenes”, and focus on other details like character moments and story.

Other than that, let’s get started.

These are the Top 10 Best Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (in my personal opinion because your opinion is also valid)

#10: Mr. Pigeon

While Marinette works on sketching a design for a hat for a fashion contest where the winning design will be worn by Adrien (a rare example where the “Marinette does a thing to impress Adrien” plot actually works), a birdwatcher who loves feeding pigeons in the park is told off by the only police officer in Paris, causing him to get akumatized into the titular Mr. Pigeon, who has control over all of the pigeons in the city.

And by God, does this episode have fun with the concept.

In addition to constantly mimicking pigeon cries, Mr. Pigeon's movements are just so entertaining to watch, only aided by the creative ways he controls the flocks of pigeons.

I'm not kidding when at one point, Mr. Pigeon traps Ladybug and Cat Noir in a cage, and threatens to have his pigeons crap on them unless they hand over their Miraculous. Yeah.

This is one of the episodes that really set the standards for how outlandish the Akumas in Miraculous Ladybug could get. It kind of reminds me of an episode of the original Ultraman, where the SSSP has to find a way to move an incredibly heavy monster using increasingly abnormal strategies, like inflating it with air so it'll float like a balloon. It's clear it isn't taking itself too seriously, so the audience shouldn't either.

Admittedly, Cat Noir's feather allergy feels shoehorned in, and is only included to increase conflict, and you would think it would come up when Mayura, a bird-themed supervillain appears in the third season. But then again, that's just a minor nitpick.

It's just a really fun episode, and I wish we could see Ladybug and Cat Noir fight Mr. Pigeon again that isn't used for a cheap gag.

#9: The Puppeteer

After being told by her mom that she can't have a Ladybug doll made by Marinette, young Manon is Akumatized into the Puppeteer. But obviously, you can't have our heroes beating up a five-year-old, so instead, the Puppeteer has the power to exact control over past Akuma victims as long as she has the doll made by Marinette. So Ladybug and Cat Noir have to face off against Lady Wifi, the Evillustrator, and Rogercop, before the Puppeteer gets her hands on the dolls Marinette made of the two heroes and take control of them as well.

It's still kind of funny to think about the fact that of all the Akumas to become a huge threat to Ladybug and Cat Noir, it's a little girl throwing a temper tantrum. And like with “Mr. Pigeon”, the episode has a lot of fun with the concept, best reflected in the voice acting. You can tell that Carrie Keranen is having so much fun this episode with the stuff she says as Lady Wifi.

The fact that someone who was actually a major threat to the heroes with how she was able to easily outsmart them and also came really close to getting their Miraculous is now acting like a little kid using phrases like “super duper sorry” is even more hilarious.

I'm still a little confused as why of all the past villains, it's Evillustrator and Rogercop that get to come back, and I wish they had gotten more to say, but it's still a treat to see Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting four villains at once, especially since this was before “Heroes Day”.

#8: Sapotis

Hawkmoth akumatizes Alya's little sisters into Sapotis (supposedly based off a folktale, but I can't find anything about it online), who have the power to multiply and easily overwhelm Ladybug and Cat Noir, forcing Ladybug to recruit Alya to become a third hero, Rena Rouge.

I've been a little negative about Alya in the past, but this episode gives her some major character growth. One of the biggest problems I had with her character in Season 1 is how often she tried to figure out Ladybug's identity... despite claiming to be a huge superhero fan, who should know why superheroes keep their identities a secret. Thankfully, this episode mostly puts an end to this idea.

The episode opens with Marinette giving Alya some reasons why Ladybug would keep her identity a secret, and it actually plays into the episode.

Putting aside the stupid Rent-A-Miraculous system introduced in this episode, the idea of keeping secrets and how necessary they can be sometimes is reflected after the battle where Alya is hesitant at first to give up her Miraculous, but eventually concedes and keeps her identity a secret from Marinette (who ironically knows, but that's not important).

Even without that, this episode still has a lot of action with the three heroes fighting their way through an army of Sapotis, with plenty of banter during said action. Hell, at one point, Cat Noir says “gotta catch 'em all”. I don't have a joke here, that's just brilliant.

Out of all the introductory hero episodes, this one easily sticks out among most of them.

(Don’t worry, I’m going to talk about Rena Rouge’s character design in a later post.)

#7: Guitar Villain

I said before in an earlier post that Jagged Stone is one of my favorite characters in Miraculous Ladybug, so it's obvious that the episode where he gets akumatized would be on this list.

After a disagreement with his manager about trying to mimic the popular singer XY (who ironically lacks a Y chromosome), Jagged is akumatized into Guitar Villain, a rock star with a pet dragon who forces everyone to listen to his Awesome Solo (yes, he names his attacks too) to dance uncontrollably.

Honestly, there's not much I can really say about this episode. It's Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting a rock star who flies around on a goddamn dragon. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Even the way they defeat him (which I won’t give away) is a fun jab at rock stars.

Admittedly, the episode does border on grouchy old man territory sometimes by complaining about how bad today's music is with the way they portray XY as a whiny and egotistical coward, but after watching “Silencer”, you'll be glad everyone hates him.

Overall, it's a rockingly awesome episode.

#6: The Dark Owl

Mr. Damocles, the principal of Marinette and Adrien's school, is akumatized into the Dark Owl, a corrupted version of his favorite comic book superhero (who would later turn out to be real in the New York special, but I don't want to acknowledge that), who uses his high-tech gadgets to trap Ladybug and Cat Noir, putting them in one of their toughest binds yet.

I'm a huge fan of the Adam West Batman show, so you could probably guess why it's on this list. This episode really feels like an episode of that show with how goofy and over the top everything is. Obviously, this episode has a few Batman references thrown in (even an Incredibles reference at one point), and they're all hilarious.

I just love how complex Dark Owl's traps for Ladybug and Cat Noir are, and the fact that he actually manages to outsmart them at one point. Like seriously, have you ever heard of a death trap that involves drowning someone in whipped cream? That’s totally something you’d see the Joker setting up.

I don't really want to give away the ending (which is why this part is so short), because I think it's a really clever resolution that you should check out for yourself.

#5: Gorizilla

Hawkmoth akumatizes Adrien's bodyguard into Gorizilla, whose sole purpose is to protect Adrien. His motivation? To see if Adrien is actually Cat Noir or not. So Adrien has to avoid this gigantic gorilla's wrath with Marinette, all while trying to catch a movie his late mother was in.

See this? This is Adrienette done right. This is the kind of interaction I like when it comes to romance. Marinette and Adrien spend a few scenes with each other avoiding Adrien's crazy fanbase, and Marinette doesn't stammer half of her words. Even when she interacts with Adrien as Ladybug, she still remains confident, and Adrien trusts her judgment when it looks like he might fall. I don't just want Marinette and Adrien to cuddle with each other or declare their love for each other when they get their memories wiped. I want them to interact like human beings before they actually start a relationship, and this episode is a good example of it.

Adrien also gets some good focus with the way he views his relationship with his parents, as does Gabriel with his relationship with his son. Granted, he's taking a pretty huge gamble trying to kill Adrien to see if he's Cat Noir or not as opposed to just... taking off his ring while he sleeps. Can we at least admit he's trying?

I feel they could have done more with the King Kong homage (guess who I'm talking about?), but I can understand there wasn't enough time to focus on that. It's still an important episode to watch for plot and character growth that will barely be acknowledged in later episodes.

#4: Sandboy

tHe SaNdBoY hAs ChEcKeD iN. nOw NiGhTmArEs CaN bEgIn.

Now that we got that obvious joke out of the way, let's talk about one of the most creative episodes of the show.

Tikki and Plagg, Marinette and Adrien's Kwamis (the magical beings that power their Miraculous) take part in a ritual with the other Kwamis inside Master Fu's Miracle Box to contact Nooroo, Hawkmoth's Kwami, on his birthday and get an idea of where he is. Unfortunately, Hawkmoth chooses to akumatize someone during the ritual, leaving Marinette and Adrien helpless to fight back against Sandboy, an Akuma with the power to make their worst fears come true.

I said before in my worst list when talking about “Ladybug” that there was too much going on for one episode, what with Marinette's expulsion, the attempted Scarletmoth attack, and the fake Ladybug plotlines generally being rushed through. This episode is basically the opposite of that (ironically, they're both the penultimate episodes of their respective seasons).

The Kwami ritual and the Akuma attack are perfectly staged together so one affects the other. Not only do the Kwamis have to risk aborting their ritual to reach Nooroo in order to fight the Akuma, but Marinette and Adrien have to deal without fighting off Sandboy's nightmares on their own. Both plots balance each other out into a well-crafted story.

This is also one of the only episodes in the show where the Akuma of the week isn't the man focus. Here, we don't even see what happens to get the kid akumatized into Sandboy, and instead, Gabriel senses someone with negative emotions and akumatizes the kid offscreen. This works, because it doesn't distract from the main plot too much.

Even Marinette and Adrien's worst fears beautifully contrast each other, with both managing to be unsettling in different ways, even if they both have different tones. While Adrien's worst fear is being imprisoned in his own room (the fear only made worse with Plagg's absence), Marinette's worst fear is... the real star of the episode. Ladies and Gentlemen, I think you all know who I'm talking about.

You can tell the animators had a field day with animating Nightmare Adrien. Just look at the way he moves around and the faces he makes. It manages to be terrifying and hilarious at the same time. Bryce Papenbrook's performance only makes it better, cementing this as the highlight of the episode.

This episode also does a good job at foreshadowing the main plot for Season 3 with Hawkmoth finding out about the other Kwamis and by extension, more Miraculous.

It's got plot, comedy, good action, and Nightmare Adrien, so how can you turn this episode down?

And no, I'm not talking about Nightmare Ladybug, mainly because I'm tired of all the evil doppelgangers from the worst list.

#3: Startrain

Yes, believe it or not, I managed to find a Season 3 episode that wasn't complete garbage, and spoiler alert, this isn't the only one.

Marinette and Adrien's class goes on a field trip to London by taking the train, until the driver is akumatized into Startrain, who wants to escape to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... SPACE! So Ladybug and Cat Noir have to defeat Startrain while also finding a way to bring everyone on the train back home.

I like how this episode plays with the usual Akuma of the week formula. Unlike every other Akuma they've fought, Cat Noir points out that if they beat Startrain, everyone will die, so they have to be more strategic in their approach. They don't even fight Startrain for most of the episode, as they have to make their way to the front of the train to confront the Akuma. The action in this episode is very creative and really takes advantage of zero gravity, only aided by the design of the futuristic train the episode takes place in.

The new hero introduced, Pegasus (AKA Max, another student in Marinette and Adrien's class), is also really cool, being very intelligent and helping out the heroes progress through the train even before he gets the Horse Miraculous. It makes sense that his intelligence would be used rather than just his powers in this situation.

There are even some good character moments too. For once, Master Fu does something smart and loans the Horse Miraculous (which has the power of teleportation) to Marinette so she can still go on the class trip, trusting her and actually letting her have a life. It was also nice to see Alya stick up for Marinette by keeping Lila from interrupting her nap with Adrien.

This episode is basically like a refreshing glass of water to enjoy during the garbage fire that was Season 3.

(I’m going to talk about Pegasus’ character design later on too, don’t worry)

#2: Silencer

Lukanette shippers, ASSEMBLE!

Music producer Bob Roth and his son XY hold a contest for young artists to show off their skills, and Kitty Section, a band composed of several recurring characters, decides to enter, with Marinette helping to design their costumes. But as soon as they submit their video, they find out that XY copied their style, naturally pissing the band off.

Marinette and the lead guitarist of Kitty Section, Luka, confront Bob Roth and XY, who threaten to ruin their careers by claiming that they ripped off XY. Seeing Marinette getting threatened is more than enough for Hawkmoth to akumatize Luka into Silencer, who naturally has the power to silence and mimic the voices of others.

I talked about Luka and his relationship with Marinette in an earlier post (specifically the one where Astruc claimed that the fandom growing to like Luka counted as character development), and I said that this was one of the few good episodes this season because of their interactions. This episode basically made me realize how much Luka cares for Marinette, and the episode gives plenty of time to show the two spending time together and growing closer. It's basically everything “Oni-Chan” should have been about, giving some depth to Luka and not portraying him as a crazy person like they did with Kagami in that episode.

Silencer is also one of the more creatively designed villains this season, and has a really creative approach to achieving his goals. While the ability to steal and imitate someone's voice seems mundane compared to control over the weather, or making nightmares come to life, it's used very effectively. Silencer basically tricks the police into arresting Bob Roth while imitating the mayor's voice, and he threatens to make his life a living hell by using the connections to the voices he's stolen. Even with the hand puppet gesture, it's still unsettling to have Silencer speak in all these voices, and it would make for a really interesting horror movie.

Even Ladybug and Cat Noir's interactions are back to their Season 1 levels of enjoyment. Even though Silencer took her voice, Ladybug just makes so many expressions that do a great job at describing her feelings, which naturally plays off Cat Noir's motormouth tendencies. Whenever Cat Noir jokes about Ladybug's condition, he is rightfully called out on it and is reprimanded in some way, my favorite being when Ladybug uses her yo-yo to hit Cat Noir on the head to shut him up. Even putting aside that, they still work well together this episode and really feel like equals. I also love their silent fist bump when Bob Roth is exposed.

Again, the episode still takes the time to go on about how unoriginal today's musicians are, and how they lack artistic creativity and all that crap. Look, given how ham-fisted the writing in this show can get, are you surprised the commentary isn't subtle?

Even putting aside how much this episode made me appreciate Lukanette, it still has a lot of great moments that aren't even related to the ship itself, which is a real testament to how this show can perfectly balance romance and story when it's done right. Now if only the show could try this much with Adrienette, then people wouldn't hate the main pairing of the show this much.

#1: The Collector

Taking place immediately after the Season 1 finale, Marinette meets Master Fu and discusses the book she found depicting past Miraculous users. Marinette theorizes that since the book was in the Agreste mansion, Gabriel could be Hawkmoth. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, she's right, and in order to draw off suspicion, Gabriel akumatizes himself into the Collector.

This episode has several good writing decisions for both sides, and the choices the characters make feel natural. Gabriel akumatizing himself is such a smart move, and so is what Marinette and Master Fu do with the book at the end. This episode does a great job setting up future plot threads and establishes Master Fu's character and the mystery associated with him.

The Collector is a visually stunning villain, and his powers are really creative, leading to a great fight with Ladybug and Cat Noir, who use a great strategy to outsmart him. I also love how over the top he is in order to make the heroes believe that he's working for Hawkmoth, all with a devious smile on his face.

This was also the episode that really got me into Miraculous Ladybug as a whole. I checked out the first season on a whim after it was mentioned in a Pan Pizza video, but it was during the hiatus between seasons, and I hadn't really started using Tumblr yet, so it mostly stayed off my radar. When Season 2 started however, I really got invested in the story, and the way this episode turned out was a big reason why. I wondered what it would be like when Adrien finds out his own father is Hawkmoth, and how the story would play out after the reveal.

Despite what it led up to, I still consider “The Collector” to be my favorite episode of Miraculous Ladybug.

Well, now that I talked about that, not it's time to talk about what I consider to be the worst episode of Miraculous Ladybug, “Felix”. God help me...

#immaturity of thomas astruc #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug sugar #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #adrien agreste #cat noir #chat noir #alya cesaire #rena rouge #max kante #pegasus #gabriel agreste #hawk moth #hawkmoth #xavier ramier #manon chamack #jagged stone #xy #bob roth #principal damocles #mr damocles #nightmare adrien #luka couffaine #master fu #thomas astruc

[variousqueerthings]

thinking about these awesome tags from @catzy88​ and wanted to just speak to essentially what they talk about and one of my favourite writing choices of the show (so far, considering my predictions for what’ll happen moving forward):

and it’s Johnny’s two-steps-forward-one-step (sometimes several steps) -back journey. 

1. Introduction

there’s a few of things that happen on the show that get wrapped up in a semi-fantastical/wish-fulfilmenty way (Miguel recovering from his back injury like he does, Daniel sorting out his dealership problems with Doyona, etc.) and I’m not mad about it, it fits in with the generally optimistic tone of the show + various circumstances that surround these choices, so they’re not one-note writing decisions - 

ex. aftermath of Miguel’s surgery will continue to be explored on s4 so it’s not done and over with without consequences versus the way Daniel’s journey to Okinawa is about healing in various ways, so that deus ex machina fits in with the tone of that storyline. People’s mileage probably vary, but I think it’s all relatively well-balanced (pun not intended) with the deeper, less-easily-fixable issues and character dynamics that the show explores.

2. Johnny’s Story

If everything on this show were easy it wouldn’t be so watchable. Which is where Johnny comes in (amongst other characters, but I’m gonna focus).

in contrast Johnny’s journey for three seasons has had a lot of good intentions - help Miguel, get his life in order, forgive and forget the past, mend his relationship with Robby, be generally better to himself and others - and the majority of it’s gone pretty badly. 

I have predictions that there’ll be a flip in s4 and Daniel’s going to spiral more obviously, while Johnny’s going to be healing/functioning somewhat better. I also think it’s important to show him failing despite being in a better place than end season 2/beginning season 3. And failing again. And failing again. 

Johnny (and Daniel, but I shall focus!) doesn’t come onto this show with easily fixed issues. He’s likely been an alcoholic since he was in his 20s, he’s isolated to the extreme, he can’t hold down a job, he’s still under the thumb of his stepdad, and his relationship to Robby is non-existent at best. 

In 100 different ways he’s trapped and he’s so trapped that he can’t even envision being less trapped. Starting the dojo is a fluke, combined by meeting and saving Miguel and wanting to spite Daniel. He’s not planning on “getting better,” hell, he doesn’t even think that he has a problem that can be fixed to begin with. Up until this moment life has largely just happened to him and his decisions have been reactionary (and if there were times we don’t know about before now where he tried, he obviously failed)

His thinking clearly goes something like this: “I’ll make this kid not get beat up... and I guess now I’ve got a business so I need other kids? and now I care about this kid I guess, oh and his mom’s pretty nice (and pretty) too... and now I’ve got a business I can buy Sid out, that’s cool... ” etcetcetc. (still reactionary to an extent, although that gradually changes) right up until the tournament happens and he starts to have to face some of the shit he’s been telling these kids and Robby’s with Daniel and Kreese has reappeared...

I’d argue it’s not until mid-ish season 2, when Kreese reveals he’s homeless and Johnny decides that their forgiveness is tied into one another and especially when Tommy dies (still got one thing I don’t... time) that he actually really starts thinking about what all of this means for him longterm, that he can and should want for the future and that he has real responsibilities to do so because of others. It’s also the first time he properly admits that it’s not just “the tournament as a single event,” but the whole philosophy that he was taught that fucked him up (which is scary, because then he’s gotta admit a whole bunch of other stuff - that he has deep-rooted issues and that he needs to try to get better. That he’s both a victim and a perpetrator of this cycle. That just saying things are shit and won’t ever change won’t cut it anymore).

And just as he begins this thought-process and is incredibly vulnerable because of that everything goes to hell.

All of the structures Johnny had been building were on sand, right up to the choice to handshake deal on the dojo, and they all come crashing down spectacularly all at once in the season 2 finale.

Back to square one.

3. Square one (but not really)

This is amazing! It’s giving us a narrative on top of the more fantasy-like narratives that goes: “Not everything can be fixed easily just because we want to fix them,” and, “some things need to fail so that the next time you try, you try better!”

It’s not square one at all. 

A whole bunch of shit that Johnny was carrying with him without being able to voice in the first season is now out there, in the open. The ugliness needs to be exposed before it can be healed and (as myself and so many people who’re dealing with xy and z know) when you first “discover” what’s fucked up you can feel like everything’s worse. Your ability to deal with that thing can get a whole lot worse. 

Johnny relapses into a version of himself that on the surface looks even worse than in s1, but actually he’s way more open to change, he’s got reasons to get back up again, even if it takes a moment for him to pull himself together to actually do that. It takes pretty much all of season 3 for him to get there (and that was necessary too), but now he’s there he can start from a much stronger place than he previously did.

And there’s so much he’s still not facing - can you imagine the fallout when he has to deal with being an alcoholic? 

Johnny as a character has made so many mistakes (note: I’m not a fan of using the word “fault” as a descriptor for characters (as in “whose fault is X”) because they’re fictional and it’s more about motivations than tracing faults) and those mistakes make a whole lot of sense to his character - a broke, drunk, traumatized guy with more failings under his belt than you can count. 

I confess, I’m not sure how I feel about him not visiting Robby in juvie from a writing perspective, however it’s on the show, so now we get to analyse how it can make sense - which, considering that Johnny isn’t good at prioritising - and as an ADHD that’s a mood - it can totally work. Is it very bad? Yes. Does it sound like something Johnny would do when faced between an easy-fix of his relationship with the Diaz family and his much more difficult and complicated relationship with Robby? Sigh, yeah... unfortunately parenting Robby is the biggest fear he has... it’s not pretty, but it’s not meant to be...

4. Anyway, TL;DR 

I’d have felt cheated if Johnny could just magically “become” better - both mentally and in his relationships to others. He’s made big mistakes, has a lot of unresolved mental health issues, and - ironically - has chosen flight over fight for so much of his life that “simply wanting to become better” being  enough of a motivator to change all of that around would’ve been unrealistic for his character and unsatisfying for a longterm plot in which we see how difficult it is and (hopefully) get to revel in the continued upwards journey despite that.

Also it would’ve been kind of insulting to these journeys in real life (to do a little conflating for a moment). 

Trying to make good is admirable, but it sure isn’t easy and it won’t always work, especially if you don’t know where to even start.

The joy of his story is in seeing someone continue to try despite that.

#johnny lawrence #cobra kai #robby keene #cobra kai meta #my writing #oh hey I wrote just straight-up meta without going halfway narrative about it #ramblerambleramble #i love characters who fuck up over and over again

[genlirema]

Can you give me some of your headcanons for AZ and N

Aight buckle up kids we’re going for a bumpy ride (i.e. this is just me scrambling for random headcanons off of the top of my head with 0 coherent thought process behind them excuse the sporadicness also I like to use the ❤️ emoji for AZ and the 💚 emoji for N cuz I used to do that a while ago when I had a rp blog for them)

❤️&💚 AZ and N do not get along well. This could be due to N’s overconfident demeanor, which reminds AZ too much of his younger brother, whom he also didn’t get along well with. N makes it very clear whenever they met who’s the “real” king between the two, and needless to say, this is rather annoying to AZ. It would take a long while, probably years before they decide to reconcile and be friends…If they decide to do so.

❤️&💚 Both AZ and N lost their mother when they were young: N was separated from his mom at birth while AZ lost his mom after she gave birth to his younger brother.

❤️&💚 Ironically, despite both being wandering travelers/vagabonds, the two rarely cross paths with each other, if ever. This, again, could be due to how much they don’t like each other.

❤️&💚 While N’s boastful, loud, and quick-talking personality may starkly contrast AZ’s quiet and slow demeanor, deep down the two are both very similar, as both can get overwhelmed by their emotions/are pretty big softies. AZ may be slightly better at controlling his emotions, but not by much.

💚 My headcanons for N’s personality may be…unorthodox? From what the fandom usually deems him to be? Whenever I write for N, I typically give him an overconfident personality, constantly giving himself praise whenever possible. However, this overconfidence is actually a farce: He’s fully aware that he’s not as great as he claims to be and merely does it to “feel human”, as he would say. In truth, N believes the lies Ghetsis told him of being a “freak of nature” and is merely masking it behind a “high and mighty” persona in a vain attempt to feel like he’s human.

💚 Naturally, being separated from his mother at birth meant that N has no clue what his mother was like. This may add to his self-loathing and believing that he is “a freak of nature”, since he had no mother figure in his life to relate to. Not even Concordia and Anthea could fulfill that role.

💚 N holds no grudges against Ghetsis and what he did to him. In fact, despite all the lies he told to manipulate him, he cares for Ghetsis deeply. Although, it’s nearly impossible for N to say he “loves” him anymore (or anyone else for that matter) but as he would say, it’s from his lies that he is slowly discovering his own truth and ideals.

💚 Perhaps his overconfident facade could explain why he empathizes with Zoroark the most and keeps him as his most loyal companion. From the moment Ghetsis rasied him as his own, he was taught that humans were deceitful. At least with a Pokemon like Zoroark, he can hear and understand the motives behind masking yourself and making illusions. He can never do that with humans.

💚 Living with Pokemon may also explain why N is not adverse to eating meat. Ghetsis probably raised N to be vegan, and once N learned the truth he stopped that lifestyle.

❤️ AZ’s personality and psyche is much less complicated than N’s. As a wandering vagabond cursed for eternity, he’s naturally more distant, quiet, and aloof before reuniting with Floette. This isn’t out of a fear of making connections/relationships; he simply found no fulfillment in them. Once she reunited, AZ found that fulfillment again, and while he still may keep his distance a bit, he’s more of a wallflower than actively avoiding contact with people. He would have tried connecting with Lysandre first, since he would value those he deemed his family above anyone else, but I can see him regarding the xy protagonist as family too.

❤️ Like N, AZ may not remember much of his mother either, as he would’ve been around 5-7 years old when she died. The only trace of her is from Floette, which was a gift from her. AZ likes to think Floette is a reincarnation of his mom…even if she can be a bit sassy at times.

❤️ AZ does not remember his birthday, so he would joke that his birthday is on New Year’s Day since he is “the beginning and the end”.

❤️ As king, AZ was pretty much a spoiled brat. This could explain his irrational decision to create the Ultimate Weapon after Floette’s death, as he wasn’t much of any help during the 3000 year war. In fact, his brother was the tactician calling all the shots.

❤️ That weird painting of AZ in…that one castle whose name escapes me at the moment? That’s not him. That’s a random king in France who just happened to name himself after him. AZ is not aware this painting exists, but he may get a good laugh out of it if he were to see it.

#hope you enjoy #trainer az #n harmonia #answers by lirema

[airi-p4]

Who’s the father?

I got this silly idea and I had to write it :S Silly, comedy, crack (?) and fluff (?) - and Lukanette endgame, of course. 

AO3

__________________________________

Luka didn't expect to find Adrien Agreste in the hotel room he had been summoned by Marinette. ‘I need to tell you something important’ his wife had messaged him. But why was her ‘just a friend’ Adrien Agreste there too?

Luka greeted Adrien, confused, as he took a seat and looked for Marinette in the vast suite of Chloe’s father’s hotel. She came out of the toilet and turned to face them.

“Luka, you’ve arrived. Now that we’re all here, I have to tell you something…”

Luka gulped, nervous, expectant. Something about this situation felt very wrong, but he couldn’t place what yet. Then Marinette reached her pocket and took a device out of it, showing it to the men before dropping THE BOMB:

“I’m pregnant”

Joy should have been in Luka’s mind after the notice- but that wasn’t the case. FEAR was all he had in his body. ‘Pregnant? Awesome!’ But then again… Why was Adrien Agreste there...? Did that mean Luka wasn’t the father? Or that she didn't know? They’ve been dating for a few years, didn’t they? Heck! They were MARRIED! Then why? Was she cheating on him? He internally asked.

“Am I the father?” Adrien asked, and Luka was SHOCKED. It felt like cold water falling over him. Out of nowhere, more questions joined Adrien’s. “Or I am?” a red haired boy appeared in the room. “Maybe me?” the robot creator said, “Or me?” Kim added. Luka couldn’t believe his eyes. What was going on? Where did all those people come from? And why were they claiming Marinette’s child fatherhood. He was her husband! Shouldn’t he be THE ONLY possible candidate there?

“Is it mine, Marinette?”, “Or mine?” two new voices joined. ‘NINO!? IVAN!? This is so wrong!’

“It can only be from the coolest, and that’s me!” another man appeared in the room, and it scandalized Luka.

‘Oh no, not XY! This has to be a nightmare. Marinette what’s going on?’

“Marinette” Luka finally said, getting closer and holding her arms. He took a deep breath, trying to keep him calm, and gulped. “I am the father, right...?” he finally asked in a threat of a voice close to her ear.

Marinette’s gaze lowered and she chewed her lower lip to finally spill some tears and cover her face with her hands. ‘It can’t be…’ Luka feared the worst.

“WHO’S THE FATHEEEER!?” he screamed in despair.

__________________________

Luka woke up covered by cold sweat, and panting, shouting loudly the last sentence he pronounced in his dream.

“See? He’s ok. He only passed out of the shock. Welcome back, Luka”

Luka, still numb, turned his head towards the owner of that voice: Juleka, his twin sister. Who was she talking to? Juleka signaled to her left and there she was: Marinette, with a worried look on her face.

“Marinette! What happened?” he finally asked, wiping the cold sweat off his forehead.

“You passed out of the shock. Gosh, you’re hilarious! Next time don’t startle your wife like this. She was worried about you” Juleka said, adding a low “Lucky bastard…” and an elbow hit at his ribs at the end.

Luka blinked at Marinette. ‘Wife’ she had said. ‘At least the wife part is true!’ he sighed, relieved. ‘Of course it had to be! What was he thinking about?’ Realization hit him. “Wait- I passed out? Why did I pass out?”

Juleka made a ‘I told you’ gesture to Marinette, and the blushing woman took something out of her pocket: a positive pregnancy test.

His reaction wasn’t not what she had expected, but ‘at least he hasn’t passed out this time’. She sighed relieved, despite her concern and nervosity, expectant for his reaction.

Luka’s mouth fell to the floor and his eyes had never been so opened. ‘What?’ He quickly shook his head and pinched his arm (in case he was still dreaming- which wasn’t the case anymore) and grabbed Marinette’s shoulders first, and then moved his hands to cup her cheeks, staring at her sapphire blue eyes. Marinette jolted at his sudden touch.

“Marinette” he gulped. “Who’s the father?”

An awkward silence followed his question. Marinette was offended, and so showed her face, and Juleka was both rolling her eyes in disappointment and ready to grab some popcorn and enjoy the show to come.

“Are you making fun of me? Because this isn’t funny!” ‘Oh no, she sounds ANGRY’ Luka realized. “It’s obviously you, dummy!” she said.

“No Adrien, no tomato boy, no Kim, or Max or Nino- And please no XY?”

“What-!? NO! HELL NO! What are you talking about? Are you still asleep?” Marinette’s eyebrows frowned, and if she was already offended and angry, now she was also disgusted. “What’s wrong with you? Is this you denying the idea of being a father? If you hate it so much I can-”

“NO! NO NO NO! Marinette, NO! That’s not it! I just had a horrible nightmare and-” she frowned again- she thought he was just thinking of a silly excuse. Oh no. “Marinette. I love you and it would make me the happiest to become the father of your children. Trust me, please” he begged, trying to kiss Marinette on her lips, only to find it rejected. “I was just not expecting that. I’m shocked. You have to believe me, please!”

Marinette finally loosen up at her boyfriend’s desperate begging. She trusted him, after all. And she knew well enough he sometimes short-circuited, like the first time she had kissed him or when she had finally confessed to him after gathering the courage. Marinette giggled at the far memory.

“Luka. We’re going to have a baby. You and me. Me and you. We’re going to be a family of 3 soon!”

“Marinette, Oh my lord! We’re going to be parents! You’re going to be the best mother in the world and I’m going to be a fath-” he paused. “I’ll give it my all to be the best father I can”

Marientte blinked at his sudden change of attitude: from joyful to serious. “Are you ok? Do you need more time to process this? We can still think-”

“No, Marinette. That’s not it. It’s just… I’ve never had a father, you know? I became a little worried, that’s all. But I promise I’ll try to be the best father this child- our child- could ever have. I love you, Marinette. You make me so happy...” he fell into her arms, his joy palpable in the way he hugged her. And Marinette could finally breathe again, relieved and expectant of the new future awaiting for them.

“Oh, Luka! I love you too” she said, moving to eagerly kiss him.

That was Juleka’s curfew to leave the room, dragging her mother- who had been eavesdropping at the door- along and giving the couple some intimacy to process their future to come.

________________________________________

The parenthood news kept swirling in Luka’s mind. ‘Father’. The word alone frightened him. ‘Could he be a good father when he had no paternal figure all his life?’ Maybe it was time to ask her mother about his roots.

“Mom. Who’s our father” Luka asked after dinner at the Liberty’s deck, to Juleka’s surprise.

“Oh. I wondered when this time would come… It took you longer than expected to ask, son” Anarka said, finishing the last bit of her fruit salad. “Why now? If you’re scared of being a bad father like Gabriel Agreste then you shouldn’t worry, because-”

“No, that’s not it, mom. I never needed a father because you two were enough for me. But if I’m going to be a father, I need to be aware of possible genetic transmitted diseases or other possible alterations my child could inherit” Luka explained.

“I see. You’ll be a good father, Luka. I guess it’s time I tell you about him then...”

Juleka remained silent, just listened, curious, but also scared. She never had the courage to ask about their father in case it made her mother sad or angry, or whatever, despite wanting to know for a long time.

“When I was born it was a stormy day-” Anarka started.

“Mom. Straight to the point, please. Marinette and I have an appointment with the Doctor in less than two hours”, Luka rushed her, knowing she could be talking for hours otherwise.

“Ok, straight to the point, then” she pouted a little in a childish manner. Then she took a deep breath and gave them her answer. “I don’t know”

“Wait, what!?” The twins asked in unison.

“I don’t know, that’s it” she shrugged.

Juleka and Luka were staring at each other and looking for traces of joking in their mother's face. But nothing. She really didn’t know.

“You can’t be serious. Was it a stranger? Someone you don’t know?” Anarka denied it with her head. “You should have an idea then!”

“There are three possibilities…” she tilted her head in a remembering gesture.

“Oh, no. This is reminding me of Mamma Mia...” Juleka rolled her eyes, making Anarka chuckle a little at the comparison.

“Ok, tell us. I still want to know. “Luka demanded. “You want to know too, right?” he added, turning to Juleka, who nodded in agreement.

Anarka raised her arms, disarmed in front of her dearest children. “Ok, ok. I get it…. This is going to be surprising... “

“Just tell us! Do we know them?” Luka asked.

“You do” Anarka nodded. “First is… Agent Roger”

“AGENT ROGER!?” the twins yelled in panic, exchanging panicked looks.

“Oh no, mom! What were you thinking!?” Juleka asked.

“I wasn’t thinking, that’s the problem! We were drunk, I was in prison, he was on watch. It just happened, and swore to forget it and never bring it up again”

“We may have a sister, then? Sabrina…”

“Impossible! it has to be someone else…” Juleka refused to believe. She still was her number one enemy- Chloe’s- best friend, after all. “Who else, mom?”

“Bob Roth…” she bluntly stated.

Luka’s face turned blue in horror for the idea. Juleka turned as pale as a ghost in disgust.

“Oh, no! Not him! Just- NO! What’s wrong with you, mom!? I can’t stand either him or his son! And the sole image of having XY as a half-brother…? ABSOLUTELY NO” Luka said in denial.

“Well, it’s not like I’m fond of that, lad… Mistakes happen, even I make them” she shrugged.

“That’s not what I would call a mistake… this- is something beyond a mistake…” Juleka mumbled, gaining Luka’s energetic nod in approval.  

Anarka shrugged again. “Past is past. And what’s done is done. There’s no point in lamenting now, anyway. Not after 24 years…” Luka and Juleka kept their disgusted faces on, so Anarka decided to move on with the candidates. “Anyway, the last one is the most likely candidate…” she paused.

“Who is it, mom?” the twins demanded.

“Is… Jagged” she finally said.

“Jagged...? As Jagged Stone!?” Juleka blinked.

“Are you sure, mom!?” Luka stood up, palms still on the table.

“He’s the most likely, yes”

‘Was that a blush on his mother’s face!? And a faint smile?’ Luka thought, with mixed feelings.

“Jagged Stone and I played together for a while. We were comfortable with each other and sometimes it happened. You know- excitement and adrenaline from the shows, alcohol, emotions while composing…” Anarka was smiling at her memories, while Luka and Juleka thought they had heard enough.

“I don’t know what to say...” Luka sat back down. “Jagged seems like the best option out there but still…” Luka sighed. “Could we get a test done?”

“If you manage to get a hair, or saliva, or skin, or anything with DNA then yes, I guess it can be done” Anarka’s words sounded more like a challenge than anything, and it set Luka’s determination up, and Juleka launched a knowing glare towards her mother. She had always been good at manipulating her son.

“We’ll do it!” Luka yelled, rushing to meet with his wife.

_______________________________________________________

It wasn’t easy, but the twins finally managed to get the DNA needed for the test (with Marinette’s help, of course). They collected some of Sabrina’s and XY’s hair (easiest choices since their parents were bald) and Marientte managed to get Jagged’s hair too.

Luka took them to the laboratory to get the DNA test done. ‘For my girls’ he thought, delighted about finding out they were going to have a daughter after their last visit with the Doctor. Oh, and he planned to spoil her so much! He would daydream and grin at the thought, hugging his wife’s belly in joy.

Finally, some days later, the test results arrived at the Liberty. Anarka had the letter on her hand, while Juleka, Rose, Marinette and Luka gathered to hear its content. Anarka ripped the sealed envelope and carefully unfolded the letter and proceeded to read it. He stared at the note, in silence, re-reading it and making faces. She was testing their patience and Luka’s nervousness peaked.

“I see… that’s it then...” Anarka mumbled.

“WHO’S THE FATHER!?” Everyone present yelled in demand.

Anarka smirked teasingly at their reactions- just as she wanted.

“Mom please!” Luka begged.

She was tempted to say Bob Roth just to tease them, but it seemed too cruel to her children to even joke about it, so she opted to tell them the truth.

“It’s Jagged”

Luka sighed in relief, as well as the rest of the family. Marinette caressed his arm a little, before he stood up and took the test results out of his mother’s hands to read it from himself. Not that he didn’t trust his mother but with Anarka, you never know. Juleka approached to read its contents too.

Sabrina - Not a sibling. Xavier Yves - Not a sibling. Jagged Stone - 99,9% Positive

Luka was relieved to finally know (mostly because the results discarded the worst two possibilities). Later, Marinette contacted uncle Jagged to let him know the news. After some dramatic performance, the rock star cried tears of joy from the discovery of having children (and grandchildren soon!).

And maybe it wasn’t what Luka expected (what was he supposed to expect, anyway?) but the idea of having a father didn’t feel as bad anymore.

From then on, Jagged, Penny and their newborn son became part of the Couffaine family, and Luka kept his promise to Marinette to be the best father in the world, and he spoiled his daughter (and her siblings) with everything he got.

He was the father, after all.

#lukanette fic #my fic #airipyon #airip4 #Don't take this too seriously #it's just a silly fic #I wanted to draw a comic... #I tried and it didn't work out #so no comic sadly #Can someone write that Mamma Mia AU tho??

[the-falcon-of-the-fall]

An Analysis of Laverre

I’ve been in the Spe fandom for 5 years, and have been around during the early days of the XY arc. The only content I got, like many English speaker fans, were Coronis’s summaries of the arc being released, and theviolenttomboy’s comics based on those summaries. Even though they don’t show much details at the time, I was enthralled by the fast pace, the action, and how interesting X and Y are, especially X. He’s a shut-in, and Y is his ever faithful friend who stuck by him despite him being a hardass at times, while also keeping their friend group together. I fell in love with them as a ship because of how loyal she was to X, an ideal many would want but unfortunately may not have, as depressed people are hard to deal with, shown with his friends having already given up on him begging him to leave his room because they have their own lives. X returns this loyalty with deep care and trust for her, while also considering her needs and emotions.

While I had other ships that eventually fell out of interest, Laverre has staunchly remained as my absolute favorite ship of Spe, and perhaps one of the top faves among all of my ships. It’s because it’s been with me for a long time, but it also resonates with me. I do have depressed friends, some lost and some still present, and I understand the pain it is at times to try to help them, not being depressed myself. I have a long-term boyfriend who faces similar issues X has, who I sometimes can’t understand because I don’t have those same issues. I can relate to Y of the frustrations felt towards X, and sometimes, my friends are too frustrating for me. However, Y has the ability to make it clear when he has pissed her off, and X has the ability to recognize he causes her stress and try to own up to it and change instead of blaming it on circumstances, most prominent when she points out how him running off to fight Team Flare is an incredibly awful decision that endangered him and everyone else to try to back him up, and cause them a lot of grief. He apologizes for doing that to Y, and listens to her for the rest of the arc by communicating properly on what he plans to do.

But even before that most notable moment between the two, during their time with Cassius, X gives Y distance when she finds out Grace was kidnapped by Team Flare and makes it clear she wants to be alone. While it may look like he’s not considerate of her needs, X’s already established to be a bit of a mess, already has pissed off Y by using her Rhyhorn as his new room, and is very mad and stressed about those news too, so him trying to help her with that would make things worse. Not only that, it’s established he has a much better relationship with Grace, with X stated to care a lot for Grace by Y, and we can see  that as him venting it out by needlessly Mega Evolving and defeating a wild Pokemon, and being even more snappish. Not only is X a mess who has grief on top of that, he’s going to be biased to Grace, and he knows that won’t help Y whatsoever, who already is acting withdrawn to everyone else.

We can see that Grace tries to drag X into her argument with Y the day before Vaniville gets destroyed, but he refuses to get involved, not only because that is a shitty move on Grace’s part, but because it’s not his own problem. He can’t solve Y’s problems with Grace, only she can. Grace’s her mom. So, he gives her space to process her feelings while he and the rest of the group try to move with their best course of action.

As shown here, X still shows concern for her. Y tells him while she is still upset, she decided to let go of it because the situation right now is dire and she can’t sit around and grieve. All it matters at the moment is to stop her brainwashed classmates from crashing the helicopter everyone’s in.

As shown here, X trusts her to fight them off, while they focus on trying to stop the brainwashing, show in the next panel. She doesn’t keep it bottled up for long either, as she vents out her problems about Grace on Yvette while she fights her, and finds herself feeling better from it, and realizes that she shouldn’t have been so secretive about her stress to her friends either.

While it may hurt, giving space to those who you care about when they are stressed and make it clear they want to be alone is sometimes the best option. Trying to help them when you know you aren’t in a good position to do so is only going to make things worse for them. Let them decide how to solve their stress and how to express it, as they’re the ones in charge of it, but let them know you’re there for them. X understands this and thus gives Y space, but still makes sure she’s fine enough to battle, then trusts her when she makes her decision, even when she admits she’s not completely fine.

Not only are they able to be honest with each other, own up to their faults, and know when to intervene and when to not, they both inspired the other to change for the better. X deeply inspired Y, as seen in their childhood flashback of him encouraging her to pursue her dreams of being something not a Rhyhorn Racer. This radically changed her view of herself from being helpless to the whims of others and to hide her true feelings, to having control over her destiny and to be honest about them. Y is deeply grateful for this, and despite him being a hardass, she sticks by with him because she truly loves him for that.

Y in turn also inspires X, as it takes until the end, where X realized that while people have tried to exploit him and his Pokemon and Team Flare are powerful assholes, he had people who were always supporting him, including Y, waiting for him to go out before the entire mess happened. This makes him realize his view that the entire world is out to get him is wrong, as while he agrees with the misanthropic Emma the world is terrible, there are good people who want to help him. It may have taken years instead of probably a few months for Y, but she has inspired him to change for the better, and he’s grateful for that too.

Interestingly enough, while X is a hardass to Y at times, he never is very aggressive to her, whereas he is towards Tierno and Trevor when they want X to try something out and cooperate respectively, though both happened for one time and both situations were particularly stressful. While he certainly shouldn’t be so aggressive to them, this makes his respect for Y more prominent, as while Y yells and scolds at him all the time to stop being a dick and get out of his room/tent, he doesn’t really do anything as direct as that. This seems to indicate that Y’s extremely important to him, unfortunately for those two, or he knows Y really won’t put up with his bullshit unlike Tierno, who while nice, is firm that he shouldn’t have done that, and Trevor’s very easily scared, though is able to assert himself.

While it’s a popularly held belief X and Y have a sibling-like relationship, I very much disagree and dislike. And it’s not just because there's a lack of Western content from that notion. It also feels very shameful to even like them romantically because of that. The manga itself doesn’t even seem to support it either. Grace may have taken care of X for at most five years and that takes up a big part of their life, but X and Y don’t seem to think they’re siblings. While of course, it varies case by case, kids being raised together starting at the age of 7 is generally not young enough for them to consider the other siblings. Hell, it seems to support there may be some romance going on on Y’s part:

I would never call my theoretical brother that in a serious situation if you ask me. Of course, you can view it as a phrase with deep platonic love, but this wording is most certainly not sibling-like. It also seems to imply Y has been trying to get X out of his room for so long because of her infatuation for X that evolved into pining, though that could just be shipping goggles.

In a previous panel shown here, X also refers to Grace as “your mom” when asking Y if she’s going to be fine after isolating herself from the bad news of Grace being kidnapped, instead of “our mom” or “mom”. That kind of wording is way too detached for someone who is seen by the fandom to be a sibling-like figure, and again seems to say they’re merely just childhood friends who were taken care of by the same woman.

While X’s aggression towards Cassius teasing him that Y’s his girlfriend twice was taken as disgust, it’s quite a common trope. It makes sense in character too, as X’s established to like bottling things up, so it’s not a surprise that he’d also deny that he likes Y. Cassius, while helping them, is still an adult, and X doesn’t like them so doesn’t trust him either. His extreme aggression towards Essentia assuming Y’s his girlfriend is fairly justified in that situation, as they had to separate despite it going against their rules, and X is very aware of how Y acts that it takes only one word and a slight change of attitude to crush her head. While that may be seen as extreme disgust, it’s way more likely he knows Essentia could pretend to be anyone given how she accidentally activated the mimicking people function, and knows she’s a big threat because of her Trevenant and she’s superhumanly fast.

It can be quite easy to say Y has feelings for X, but because X has forced emotional constipation, we can’t be sure if he reciprocates. X’s moments of ship tease is muddled with other factors, like the aforementioned denying Y’s his girlfriend to Cassius and crushing Essentia’s head for pretending to be Y, but there’s one tiny moment that stands out for me:

This is a rather major contrast compared to this:

Despite his acknowledgement of being a great trainer, he gets surprisingly flustered when Y tells him it was thanks to him she’s more honest towards others and herself. X, who while may not want to admit it, is arrogant on top of easily blaming himself for a lot of problems, which is why he felt secure to infiltrate Team Flare’s base. To see him surprisingly embarrassed of changing Y for the better hints he has a special attachment to Y, and possibly surprise from X himself that Y still is grateful for that and knows he can be more than a reckless idiot, even though she made it clear he stressed her and the others out a lot.

To wrap up this very long ramble up, X and Y are an example of two people, with flaws and their own issues, being able to support each other, care for each other, and be the most important people in their lives, even if X is depressed and having sometimes very unbearable flaws. However, Y makes it clear he is not allowed to get away with them just because he’s depressed and has good intentions, and he acknowledges the same. He makes it clear that he trusts and cares for her, and she appreciates and gives that in return. It’s a two-way relationship with honest communication and positive growth for the two of them, of moving as much as they can together from danger and past wounds, even if they never completely heal.

#pokespe #pokemon special #trainer x #trainer y #laverreshipping #analysis #depression

[kalosstarters]

A long and messy DP commentary (you’re welcome)

Like I said earlier, yesterday I finished my dp rewatch and here’s a few (1000+ words of) thoughts (warning: opinions):

The second watch definitely made me appreciate certain aspects of this series more. Dawn’s development is awesome and like I told my friend once, it probably makes more sense than May’s (as much as I do love May, the girl had a Lot of luck on her side). Dawn already knew a thing or two about ‘mons and coordinating once she left to her journey thanks to her mom, yet she had her own hiccups. She had to learn to lose and how to overcome it, and she did! Her friends seemed worried after she lost in the grand festival finals but she seemed genuinely fine and happy for Zoey. That was very different from the Dawn who lost her first contest.

Speaking of Zoey, appealshipping is a criminally underrated ship. I mean, people ship ikari (now, I have to mention I used to ship them too thanks to a couple of well written fics, but boi, I do hate the canon Paul) based on like 2-3 interactions in the entire series. Meanwhile, Zoey supports Dawn basically from the moment they meet and they’re an epitome of a wholesome, healthy relationship (of any kind you want). Zoey seemed to always be there for her when Dawn had her lowest lows and she gave her some of the most valuable advice that she needed to overcome her slumps.

Cris would probably kill me if I didn’t mention Piplup, and I have to say that I too did get more fond of the blue penguin too :3 Piplup seemed to be even more visible than Pikachu most episodes and I love how colorful, goofy personality he has. And if you need a reaction pic, there’s no face that Piplup hasn’t ever made :’D And Dawn and Piplup’s bond is awesome too, the way Piplup is very enthusiastic about cheering Dawn up when she’s having a bad moment, how Piplup doesn’t want to evolve because he wants to protect Dawn the way he is, etc, etc. (If you want an essay on this topic, ask @criis55 / piplupsbubbles)

Piplup also reminds me that I actually really enjoy the voice acting in the English dub of DP! We were always a bit disappointed when we couldn’t find the English version of the episode on the site we were watching dp from because we wanted to hear the iconic sounds like ‘pippippip’ or ‘starrrravia’. And even Ash, Brock and TR’s new voices grew on us despite us being kinda iffy towards them in the battle frontier arc (I think it also proves that the voice actors developed as time passed).

I also have to admit that in general DP felt more ‘balanced’ than OS (esp Johto era) and AG. What I mean with this is that it had less episodes that felt like fillers (and even the fillers it had were often p fun and showed some character development instead of being all about tr stealing mons and the character of the day helping out). Contests also were very good additions (just like in AG) so we had more to look forward to than just Ash’s gym battles. The rivals/friends showed up frequently unlike in some other seasons where we meet them just before the league (I always hate it when that happens) and it felt like Dawn and Ash had an equal amount of focus. I also like that this season still has a clear continuity which starts to change a bit in BW and more drastically in XY that has almost no past references.

Speaking of rivals, I do have to talk about Paul a bit more too. I already said I hate him. But he’s still a good rival to Ash because he’s someone you /really/ want Ash to win. And even though I was occasionally annoyed that adults like Cynthia never really called Paul out (because his behavior especially towards Chimchar /was/ abusive, there’s no way around it) I do like that Ash ends up teaching him a lesson or two and he already seems a bit nicer towards his ‘mons at the end of the series.

I already mentioned this in a post few months ago, but anyway: I know many people enjoy DP for its seriousness/darkness (bc it’s true that the ‘dark arc’ is darker than in the previous seasons) but if I’m honest, that part isn’t my cup of tea. I can’t really even explain why, that’s just how I roll. I personally just liked the funny and chill parts more, which probably explains why I also enjoy S&M.

The league, Wallace Cup and Grand Festival were all enjoyable! If you ignore Ash’s last league battle (which you should bc it’s BS. They literally had to bring that guy with 6 legendaries so Ash wouldn’t have a chance to win. I still think the best possible development for Ash would have been to win this league and give the anime a new protagonist, but that’s not what happened and many were frustrated with the ‘weaker’ Ash in BW. But that’s a whole different story…) this league is definitely among my top 3 because it felt like despite the loss Ash was kind of a moral winner there. Ash vs Paul is obviously an awesome battle and the bits with Conway (can’t believe I only mention him now) were hilarious.

This text is already way too long but I’m still quickly gonna mention that I loved the teams of basically all 3 main characters (gliscor, buizel, happiny and croagunk some of my personal favorites) and I also liked that Brock found his true calling in the end! I think he’s gonna make an awesome doctor and I wish we had seen more of that serious side of him instead of the writers only making him see the ladies. But hey, can’t have everything.

Overall, DP was a really fun ride and I would definitely recommend it to everyone who considers watching the older seasons of poke/ani!

#tia watches dp #pokeani #commentary

[krispycreamsicle]

2020 Creator Wrap: Favourite Works

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works.

@wingyenart thank you for tagging me!! (sorry i’m a little late 😅)

i’ve only been making gifs for about two months and i’ve posted a couple of pieces of random fanart so it’s weird thinking of myself as a creator :’) i’m not gonna get too sappy but thank you all for being so kind 💕

my 5 fave works are under the cut!

1. xue yang’s smirk slipping

you know that post that’s like ‘girl help in order to see the content i want i have to make it myself?’ b/c that’s this post 

one thing that i find interesting about xue yang is how he masks his trauma and when/why he lets that mask down. i’m gonna stop myself from writing a novel on xy in this post but know that i have many incoherent thoughts on this ghjkl;’

anyway this is my favorite gifset i’ve made so far and i’m really glad that people liked it :’’)

2. villainous friends

villainous friends! two of my top three favorite characters exchanging foreboding glances! i love subtle foreshadowing that you completely forget about until a you do a rewatch

this was my first attempt at making a gifset with different scenes, all with very different lighting and coloring. it was...... a struggle! but i learned a lot and i like how it turned out

3. look mom shijie i’m on tv

i love this little interaction between wwx and jyl! it’s adorable that he waves the deadly weapon that kills both her and her husband :)

there’s some details of this interaction that i hadn’t noticed before making this (jzx looking away b/c he’s a disaster, lwj looking away respectfully, jyl trying to cover her laugh!) i think making gifs has made me appreciate little details like this a lot more

4. xiao xingception

sjy acting as whx’s rendition of xy acting as xxc will never stop being impressive to me. 

i had this queued and decided to completely recolor the last two gifs like 15 or 20 minutes before it posted. which was very dumb. but it looked a lot better so it was worth it despite raising my blood pressure

5. homewrecker (affectionate)

if i wasn’t concerned with this not showing up in the tags, i would’ve linked the acoustic version of homewrecker by marina and the diamonds. alas! 

the coloring of this scene is cold and somber and so very ~blue~ so making it warmer was a challenge! but i like how it turned out in the end! 

bonus?

this is from the first gifset i ever made and tbh! it’s not great! but it was an experiment that led to me finding a new hobby so i love it regardless :)

#tag #looking back i'm realizing i might have a slight bias for yi city #also it's still 2020 in my timezone so i still have time to post this lol

[rjalker]

God fucking DAMN It you know how I’ve been saying there aren’t any kid antagonists in Miraculous Ladybug that aren’t being abused????

mother fucking fuck, guess who also needs to be included in that list???

XY!!

Because apparently these creators are under the impression that ALL people are just inherently good UNLESS they’re being abused!!!

Apparently these creators are under the impression that the only thing that makes people be mean is if they’re abused!!!!

GOD I HATE THESE WRITERS

Marinette? Alya? Nino? Max? Alix? Literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE CLASS BESIDES ADRIEN, LILA, AND CHLOE?

All have good relationships with their parents. And they’re all friendly almost to a fault. Luke??? Friendly af.

What kids in this show AREN’T super friendly and nice??

Adrien (pretends to be nice to a fault when there are consequences, starts sexually harassing people, being super mean and sarcastic, and endangering people’s lives the moment he can’t get in trouble for it!)

Kagami (you know what her characterization is even more inconsistant than Adrien’s so take it as you will but she can be pretty harsh, and despite her wanting to be friendly she does not come off that way)

Chloe (I’m not even gonna bother listing what she does)

Lila (Lies to and manipulates all her classmates)

XY (steals other people’s work)

And you know what Adrien, Kagami, Chloe, Lila, and XY all have in common?

They all have terrible relationships with their parents. One way or another, they are all being abused. 

And I am fucking sick of it. These writers are simultaneously saying that all people are inherently kind UNLESS they are abused, and that all people who are abused must go on to become abusers AND THAT THAT IS OKAY BECAUSE IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT BECAUSE THEY ARE ABUSED.

If we weren’t supposed to think that, they wouldn’t shove Chloe’s tragic backstory down our throats every chance they get. They wouldn’t fucking make us feel bad for the girl who torments everyone around her every chance they get. They wouldn’t shove sad poor innocent Adrien down our throats.

They wouldn’t have shown us that Lila’s mom has allowed her to stay home from school for months straight without doing anything about it or taking any kind of responsibility for her daughter’s wellfare.

They wouldn’t have shown us how strict and uncompromising Kagami’s mom is.

They wouldn’t have shown us that XY has repeatedly been told that he is stupid and never has any good ideas. I fucking hate to break it to everyone but no one will say “you know me, dad, I never have any ideas” unless it’s been repeatedly drilled into their head that their ideas are dumb and so are they. He could literally have just said ‘I’m out of ideas right now” but no. He said, as his dad well knows, he never has any ideas. And then they both laugh at it. Which means this self-deprecating joke about him being stupid and useless is a reoccurring thing.

Unless I’m fucking forgetting someone, this show has yet to introduce a child antagonist that has a healthy relationship with their parents.

Fucking god, at this rate they’ll most likely reveal that Gabriel was abused as a kid. I swear to god. They fucking like to play up his tragedy with Emilie often enough. Just you fucking watch.

They are telling kids that all bullies are being abused, and, like Ms. Bustier says, that means that it is their job to help the person bullying them. It is their job to be the better person, to set a better example. They are not allowed to get upset or mad or sad. They have to be the better person, and there is no point in asking adults for help, because they will tell them the same thing Ms. Bustier says.

They are telling kids that if someone is mean to them, it’s because that person is being abused, so it’s not their fault they’re mean, and it’s not okay to be upset with them.

They are telling kids that if you are abused, you are always going to be abusive. They are telling kids that being abused makes it okay to abuse others.

And the fucking Adrien stans are believing them. They claim “it’s not Adrien’s fault” he’s sexually harassing and assaulting Marientte, because he’s abused and doesn’t know any better.

I fucking hate it.

It is always your responsibility to be a good person. Being abused does not mean you do not control your own actions. There is never an excuse for abusing other people.

#ml writers salt #Rjalker watches Miraculous: The Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir #ml writers guillotine

[dangermousie]

The Untamed

Oooh, my baby!!!

My OTP: of course of course Wei Wuxian x Lan Wangji. They are everything and beyond. They are so different in personality but compliment each other perfectly, and both do the right thing despite the cost, ultimately. I love them. And the thing is - WWX deserves to be loved the way LWJ loves him - unstintingly, utterly, nothing held back. And LWJ deserves the warmth and joy and being brought to join the rest of humanity from beyond his self-imposed control cage the way WWX does it. The thing that I love so is that each of them loves the other for who the other is and sees them so truly, to boot - neither one must change or better themselves or anything. No, they are perfect for each other just the way they are.

My NOTP: I get why people ship them and I have shipped plenty of unhealthy ships before myself, so no judgment, but XY (thanks @hamster428 I did not mean SL not sure why I had a brain moment) x XXC gives me the heebie-jeebies personally because XXC destroyed XY and reveled in it.

My fave thing about it: how it shows that goodness is not always easy or glorious or popular and heroism is not always shiny or fun. How it shows that silence is the same as guilt when bad things happen. The power of love to heal and the bonds of found family (not once did I ever remember that WWX was not birth brother to Yanli and Jiang Cheng.)

One thing I would change: let Queen Wen Qing be alive somehow.

My favorite character: I think I am not being super original here but Wei Wuxian. It’s such a combination of fun and trauma, courage and wit, terrifying power and little boy lost. But the main thing is how he does the right thing whatever it costs him, how he suffers and suffers and it would be easier to conform and give up, to comfortably do what everyone else is doing under the cover “it’s the established rule so it can’t be too bad” and yet he refuses to turn away from suffering and unfairness and hypocrisy. Whatever the cost. And he comes back to life and does it all over again.

My least favorite character: They are most of them well done. Even the villain like JGY I understand. But there is no excuse for either Jin sect leader or the awful mom of JC and Yanli.

A character I thought I would love that I did not: Jin Ling. I don’t hate him but even by the end I never warmed up to him. I get what makes him him but I don’t have to like it.

A character I did not think I would love but did: Jiang Cheng. In the beginning it was “who is that” and also we saw him kill (or thought we did) WWX in the opening. I was ready to hate him. And he does do some awful stuff in the drama but ultimately he is my favorite character just below the OTP and his story arc is amazing and that last golden core reveal and why he lost it broke my heart so much. And frankly, the first half I loved the OTP but loved the siblings even more (in second half it flipped) and the scene near the end when WWX wipes his tears and gives absolution made me bawl like a baby.

If I could read only one fanfic about it, it would be: give me every healing, wonderful post-ending life at Gusu Lan with my OTP fic ever!

#cdrama #the untamed #asks