#haven't really been a big fan in the past but honestly.... I think I get it now

[aliceramblez]

BroZone Brothers With An Insecure S/O 😔💗

Tags: GN! Reader, Self-Deprecating Jokes, Low Self-Esteem, Abandonment Issues, Slight Body Insecurities. Fluff/Comfort.

A/N: Here we go with our first request! I really liked this idea as someone who has low self-esteem, and honestly it goes to all of y'all who think you're not good enough— cause you are! Also sorry it took a bit! I've been sick because the universe hates me 🙃

Feel free to leave a request & hope you enjoy! ^^

John Dory

At first, he doesn't really know what to make of it.

He finds it a bit strange, but doesn't question your odd sense of humor, and will sometimes even join in on the joke by saying stuff about himself, thinking it's some sort of inside thing between the two of you.

“Man, I can't believe I'm so clingy, sorry! Feel free to use me as a bad example, at least that way I won't be totally useless, haha!”

“Ha! You think that's bad? Babe, you haven't even seen me when I'm up at night just staring at the ceiling contemplating my life choices.”

It isn't until getting a good smack from Bruce and Floyd that he realizes you're actually being serious. And the prospect of that kinda puzzles him, not gonna lie.

“Look at you, tiger! Got yourself plenty of groupies already— Not surprising honestly. Don't have to worry about backups when you decide you're ready to move on, either!”

After a performance at the Pop Troll village, everyone is gushing over BroZone because of course they are. JD only barely manages to squeeze past the number of fans to get to you on the other side of the podium.

The oldest sibling looks at you in shock, and has to get closer to make sure he heard you right. “Babe, why would you say that?”

Caught off guard, you manage a nervous chuckle as you play with your hair. “I-I mean... Wow, would you look at the time! We gotta meet with Poppy and the others!”

John Dory stops you on your tracks and demands an explanation, which isn't really good for your poor heart. All you can do is kick the dirt and avoid his gaze, since that makes what you're about to say much easier to voice aloud.

“I mean... You're John Dory. You could date any troll you wanted and yet you're sticking with me. It honestly feels like a dream sometimes... And I'm scared of the day you realize you can do WAY better and decide to leave me.”

After processing this, he immediately holds your face in his hands and gives you the most serious expression you've ever seen on him. “I don't want just any random troll... I want you. You're my number one fan, and I'm yours, so don't even think about stuff like that, okay?”

After the exchange, he's always on the lookout for whenever your bad habit wants to kick in again and is ready to stop it ASAP

Spruce/Bruce

He notices it happens mostly when you're working at the cantina.

Whenever you get an order wrong, trip over your own feet or don't remember how to work one of the machines properly, you'll go into an awkward insecure flight response.

You'll say “Oops! Sorry! Clumsy Twinkle Toes, coming through!” while grinning and laughing along with the customers, but Bruce knows that it's affecting you more than you lead on.

It also happens whenever BroZone is getting ready to perform and you don't know what to do with yourself since you're “standing in the way”, despite being told multiple times that it's okay for you to be backstage with everyone else.

When he talks to you about it, you get really uncomfortable and just say that it's no big deal and that you can handle it.

“I've always been a clumsy person, so I guess that's always making me doubt myself over the smallest of things... Sorry if it's annoying.”

Bruce will then proceed to give you a huge warm hug and a kiss on the forehead as he whispers comforting words into your ear.

“Hey, I can be clumsy too! I've always been the worst out of everyone when it comes to choreography. Don't tell JD though, cause I know he'll throw a fit knowing I don't practice.”

He'll throw in other examples that may seem inconsequential to you, but you appreciate the effort nonetheless and smile and giggle through the embarrassing stories he shares.

He helps you get more confident by being there with you while taking orders at the cantina and praising you whenever you get something right— albeit in private as to not embarrass you.

Same goes with rehearsals, where he WILL drag you into the lounge area to hang with his brothers and/or Poppy and Viva when they decide to visit, too.

Overall he wants what's best for you and will try and push you out of your comfort zone, but only in a safe environment where he knows that if something does go wrong, it won't be as catastrophic as you make it out to be in your head.

You never stop thanking him for being your crutch during these times.

Clay

The moment he hears the words come out of your mouth he's completely flabbergasted.

First of all, who said those things to you? Because he swears he just wants to talk to them—

It's at a sleepover with his brothers and the gals at the Bergen Golf Course, and among the many games, snacks and movies watched, pictures are also taken.

As soon as you take a look at the array of selfies, you let out what sounds like a mix between a laugh and a sigh.

“I mean, at least it stays consistent— in photos, I look ugly. And in real life, I'm also ugly!”

As soon as those words leave your lips, Clay is at your side with an almost unreadable expression, only to snatch one of the photos from your hands. “How DARE you say that about the most attractive troll I've ever met? Shame on you!”

He then starts going around the room waving the picture around to his brothers, saying stuff like “Look how attractive my S/O is! I'm dating them!” while you're just blushing profusely and begging him to stop (even though deep down your kinda giddy about it).

After that day, Clay will do small gestures in which he reminds you how beautiful he thinks you are. Everything to outright saying it each morning, joking about it with his brothers, and even bragging about you to his friends in the Bergen Golf Course.

He's a simp and he's totally okay with that because it's you.

Clay feels like he's the luckiest troll in the world for being able to snatch someone like you since he's “the most boring and uninteresting of the bunch”, so he feels like he's hit the jackpot.

You immediately tell him that he's not boring to you and that he's the best boyfriend ever, which only causes him to smirk.

“Doesn't feel good to know the person you love feels so bad about themselves, does it?”

Finally realizing his reverse psychology, you give in with a laugh. “No, it doesn't. I guess... We can both work on that? Together?”

And so you do, and end up helping each other whenever one is feeling down in the dumps, as a sort of personal cheerleader. You truly couldn't have asked for someone better.

Floyd

You're the kind of person who's very vocal about your interests.

So it's no surprise that you have to catch yourself mid-ramble whenever you're talking about something you're either interested in or knowledgeable about. And with Floyd being such a good listener, it honestly slips your mind more times than you'd prefer.

After realizing you've been talking for too long, you turn pink in the face and start apologizing profusely.

“Sorry! You probably didn't need to hear all of that. They didn't call me ‘Chatter Box’ when I was younger for nothing! Haha...”

But Floyd could care less about any of that. He loves hearing you talk, not just because he's not much of a chatty person, but because he just finds it incredibly endearing.

He'll hold your hands in his own and give you the softest smile ever that just makes you think that it should be illegal to be THIS sweet.

“You're just so cute when you get lost in the moment like that. Besides, I love seeing you happy. By all means, I'm glad you get to do the talking for the both of us, otherwise we wouldn't get anywhere in this relationship.”

You laugh at his attempt to make you feel better and melt under the touch of his lips on your cheek.

After that, whenever you go out either just the two of you or with your group of friends, Floyd will encourage you to express yourself. He does this by either asking you a question directly or subtly incorporating you into the conversation by saying something like. “I think (y/n) knows about this kinda stuff. Don't you, love?”

Obviously this all happens with your consent beforehand, since he doesn't want to put you in a tight spot, either.

Either way, he always values whatever you have to say, since you always bring in new perspectives that maybe others didn't think about before.

He will also encourage you to be yourself and not try and match your topics of conversation with things you think other people will find interesting. You deserve to be happy by sharing what you love with the world.

Poppy and Viva are huge helps in the art of feeling confident by speaking your mind, and Floyd couldn't be happier for you.

You thank him by telling him about your day each night, in which sometimes he'll fall asleep to the soothing sound of your voice, which only warms your heart on so many levels.

“Goodnight, my prince.”

“Goodnight, my little chatter box.”

Branch

Just like Clay, this man is ready to throw hands.

Just give him a name and he'll get the job done before sunrise—

He notices that sometimes you struggle with finding outfits for different occasions, either something casual, dressy, classy, etc.

But it's not because you don't have anything in your wardrobe, on the contrary it's pretty much brimming. It's more the fact that you're not satisfied with any of them because you feel like you don't look good in them.

Branch tries to convince you otherwise, saying that you look great no matter what you wear, but you can't help but feel self-conscious in anything that isn't a good old sweatshirt.

He isn't knowledgeable in fashion (clearly) so he enlists the help of Poppy and The Snack Pack to try and cater outfits to your exact measurements, along with any other nitpicks you've had in the past with either texture or material.

I mean, Branch has backup plans to his backup plans, you think he wouldn't keep notes on what kind of stuff his S/O doesn't like— INCLUDING mundane stuff like their clothing?

He surprises you with these, and you can't help but feel attractive in them since he paid extra attending to the complaints you had from your own designs.

“I personally think you look great no matter what you wear. But if you feel so strongly about it, might as well get some stuff you'll actually enjoy wearing.” He'd said when you asked why he did it, and your heart just melted.

You vow to try and work on your self-imagine regardless, which he gets happy over and says he can't wait for you to see yourself the way he does.

#trolls #trolls 3 #trolls band together #trolls x reader #trolls branch #trolls spruce #trolls john dory #trolls clay #trolls floyd #branch x reader #spruce x reader #clay x reader #john dory x reader #floyd x reader #headcanons #dating scenarios

[bbanghiitomi]

PART I: bring the cases in!

| masterlist | next |

synopsis: not even a month of working under the ador talent agency, you've only been loaded with useless workloads until one particular day you get tangled upon three different crimes and without realizing it leads you upon a someone.

pairing: idol!prosecutor!mdanielle × non-idol!defense-lawyer!fem!reader

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Day 1:  Investigation

"god my job is horrible." you grumble as you sit on an empty chair in the lobby of the agency you work at, you have just gotten your job and have started "working" last week, it wasn't the best job — scrubbing the toilet and fixing the mess your employer's "daughter" made. you take note to yourself that you studied a long time to become a lawyer but seeing your poor state, you haven't done anything quite remarkable at all yet and you're already getting tired of it.

"good morning y/n!" your employer comes in, wearing the most "hobo" looking outfit ever, you look at her cap that she doesn't seem to take off and you sigh. "hi ma'am." you greet her, she insists you call her "min heejin" because according to her, that's her name and that's what everyone should call her.

but you couldn't do it anyway, you're too professional to do that, beside you haven't been inside this office for a month, so it's never really an easy thing to be accommodated in such a short time. "what have you been doing today?" she asks, you scratch your head and laugh looking up at her with a sheepish smile. you think to yourself: it's not like there's much to do here anyway...

"nothing in particular..." you mutter and stand up, being at least a head taller than your boss, you put your hands on your sides and smile at her. "if you have something for me to do please just tell me." you tell her as you walk past her, silently hoping she gets you a case to work on.

min heejin kind of just stands there, watches as you enter the small cubicle inside the office made just for you (because apparently you're the only employer min heejin could afford for now even though she was once one of the biggest defense lawyers few years ago).

you put your head on your palms as you let it rest, you're kind of frustrated by the lack of attention from your boss, there seems to be not much going on for the office and it'll take a lot of time for any case to come by. honestly, you were looking forward to this job and you had no absolute idea it'll slow down your progress as a newbie lawyer.

not to mention, you were a big fan of min heejin, she used to be a big and famous defense lawyer from just a few years ago, when you were still starting your journey towards your dream of being a defense lawyer — apparently she doesn't take cases anymore for some reasons she doesn't want to specify, you took this job because you wanted to work for her but also find out the truth behind why min heejin stopped her job as a defense lawyer, even if it meant having to babysit her tall adopted daughter.

after an hour has passed, you hear the door open and the familiar voice comes booming inside the office, the flimsy wooden walls of your cubicle not strong enough to withstand such powerful waves. "mama!" hyein shouts, entering inside and there's another set of footsteps, you assume it's from her friend — hyunseo, who happened to be acquainted with your boss but for another reason she doesn't specify.

you move your swivel chair to take a peek at the duo and see them running towards min heejin who is sitting at the couch, hyein seems in a rush and panicking. "mama! my purse went missing!" she exclaims, you turn your chair fully and stands up to peek.

min heejin seems unfazed, rather she gives hyein a quick glance and nods. "i know someone who can find it for you." min heejin stands up before walking over to you and she places her hand on your shoulder. "y/n, here's your first case. look for my daughter's purse." you look around, shifting your gaze to the two young girls and then back to your boss. "b-but—! that's not even a real case!" you argue, looking confused... why out of all cases in this city did your employer choose to send you to play detective on a missing purse?

that thing might be gone by now already!

"wouldn't that be counted as a crime though if hyein's purse was stolen?" hyunseo counters, which make absolute sense but for someone like you — desperate to actually get some real action, a real job of stepping into an actual courtroom, this is unbelievable!

"no! you don't get it, i'm a defense lawyer... not a detective! how am i supposed to look for a missing purse?" you look at your boss, hoping she'd understand, yet it seems like she's hiding some scheme under that cap of hers.

min heejin turns her head to look at you, she doesn't smile but she gives you a nod. "you find out, it's your job. a defense lawyer starts on an investigation, you learn to find clues and solve simple cases then i'll be able to make sure you can manage yourself out there." sometimes you hate your employer for being witty, she's smart enough to find her way out of everything and smart enough to pull strings on people, including you.

maybe that's why you aspire to be as skillful as her but you have such a long way to go first.

you accept the job, reluctantly and now you're with your boss' adopted daughter walking around the town and trying to find any signs of her expensive purse. you grumble, have you mentioned? hyein is a part of this super idol group that's been conquering the generation of idols today; newjeans.

ever since min heejin stopped being a lawyer and would do freelancing jobs anywhere, hyein became an idol and was able to help her mama's office intact, it was once called a law firm office, now it is now called "ador talent agency". it was quite incredible if you were to be honest but you can't help but think how hard it must be for her to witness the downfall of min heejin's defense career. you don't fully know their story but you were willing to find out even if it takes a long time.

as you're walking with hyein down the street you decide to go back to the agency but also take the path that leads to the back of the ador agency office, you notice a very interesting detail from the windows of the ador agency beside the back entrance when you try to examine the back entrance. to get to the back of the office, there's a small alleyway (this small alleyway leads to a road, that goes to the public park and another one to a hospital) and you try trace your steps back with your eyes — eventually you take a peek at the windows, peering your head inside, hyein watches and tilts her head.

"i just noticed that the windows are open." hyein says, you turn your head to the left and see a drawer — on top of the wooden drawer you notice an empty space beside all the picture frames and hyein's figurines. you remember something. "hyein, isn't this the exact space you have you purse sat on?" you take your head out of the window and look at hyein who walks her way towards you and takes a peek at the window before nodding. "yeah, you know? we never lock this window because no one really comes in here." you agree, this specific back entrance of the agency office is quite hidden and only a few people who live in the same area know this entrance (mostly the ones who are close to the owner of the agency).

you trace back your steps and eventually scratch your head. "i need to think more, can we go back to the office for a bit?" you ask hyein, she sighs but agrees before you and her make your way to the agency through the back entrance.

and as you enter and make your way to the lobby there are two people waiting by the couch and in surprise, you grumble.

"good afternoon, is there something i can do for both of you?" the old man stands up almost immediately and curses. "oh what a bad day it is! my food truck was stolen!" you sigh and rub your forehead, the other woman on the other hand stands up too and looks at you with begging eyes. "please help us find the culprit behind my husband's hit and run!" she exclaims, you back up as the two of them start bickering towards you and you hold up both your hands up high.

"woah — woah, woah! please calm down, give me some time okay?" you feel your blood boiling, what's up with the sudden rise of petty cases? you're not made for this! you slump your shoulders and look at the woman. "hit and run? can you tell me the details?" and as the old man was about to complain, you raise a hand on his face to shush him.

"yesterday, there was this car that was speeding through the road and it ran over my husband! he's currently at the hospital near this agency office!" you nod. "where did the hit and run happen?" you ask the woman, she looks down for a few seconds before looking up at you and answering. "right in front of his family's mansion." you recall that there was indeed a mansion just near the agency office, also right in from of the public park and a few blocks from the hospital.

"oh yeah, i know that place." you turn your head to the old man who seems impatient. "and you? what happened?" you raise your brows at him, he grits his teeth and points at you. "someone stole my food truck!" you scratch your cheek and sigh. "where was it usually anyway?" you ask him.

"that unoccupied space beside the hospital!" he exclaims and you look at the woman who immediately shifts her gaze away, after thinking for quite a while you sigh. "alright, i'll come looking for the culprit — for the meantime," you pause and grab the record book from your cubicle and a pen.

"can you two sign your names here and what you're requesting for?" you gave them the record book and watch as they sign their names, with the girl taking a few seconds before signing her name.

mr. hwang — missing food truck.

mrs. jeon — hit and run case of husband.

when the two leave, you look back at hyein and see her shrugging. "she looks awfully familiar." she tells you, you raise your brows at her. "what's with her?" you ask.

"i think i gave her our agency flyer just recently when i saw her once in that famous park just in front of the mansion." you grumble, not having any idea who these people are but now you're currently dealing with three different cases, each one not even making any sense or significant relationship with each other.

you place the record book at your table and open the door of the main entrance and immediately try to remember where the jeon mansion was. with hyein still tailing behind you're able to spot the mansion not too far from the office. when you get there, there's almost nothing except for the amount of fallen leaves everywhere and splashes of paint, you look around to see that inside the big gates of the mansion, there are huge trees and that you take note that it is the season of autumn.

there's a group of people sweeping the leaves, you walk towards them. "uhm excuse? what happened here?" you ask one of the sweepers, she immediately looks at you and greets you back. "oh hi there dear, there was a hit and run incident here yesterday and the car hit the basket full of dead leaves causing the leaves to scatter all over the road and the buckets of paint to fall." you nod, looking at the gate of the mansion, you notice the unfinished paint job on the gate.

"it happened right in front of this mansion?" you ask the woman, she nods and frowns. "unfortunately, yes. it happened all too fast. we were assigned by the jeon family to repaint the gate and clean the fallen leaves and we have just finished our first day of the job then the tragedy happened to the son of the boss." you sigh, feeling bad for the workers and your eyes trails to the entrance of the park just in front of the jeon mansion.

there's a fancy car blocking the entrance, and a bunch of police cars inside.

with your sharp eyes you don't fail to notice the very intricate logo in front of the car, it's the newjeans logo; written in a very clean, shiny metal that you can already tell cost more than the whole ador agency office. thinking about it hurts your eyes, brain, and pockets.

"did something happen inside the park? i thought the hit and run incident happened here?" you watch as the sweeper turns her head to look at the gate entrance of the park and shrugs. "i heard there was a gunshot there yesterday too, and not so funny thing but the car that hit mr. jeon happened to come from there!" she says, you look at hyein who looks confused and you couldn't help but sigh.

"you think we can check it out?" hyein suggests, you want to say no but at the same time there must be some vital clue about the missing food truck and the car that ran over mr. jeon inside the park.

the sweeper goes back to her business and you make your way to the other side of the road, as you were about to walk past the car blocking the entrance, the car honks — surprising you and hyein. "what the —?" you watch as the door opens and a girl, you assume who is around your age, bright brown eyes — long lashes, pretty eyes, wavy hair, fair skin and dashing aura.

you're blinded by her beauty as well as the way she carries herself with pride but also humbleness.

"this is a restricted area, none of you are allowed here." she says, you frown but you understand what she means. "but i need to check something there, there's a hit and run case and i need to find clues to catch the culprit." you tell the girl, hyein laughs and runs towards the girl.

"dani! come on let us in!" she tells the girl, you look at them both — wondering to yourself.

how in the hell do they even know each other?

simple, they're in the same girl group.

you now remember this girl, danielle marsh.

a famous prosecutor slash idol.

how does someone even have two high-paying jobs? that's unfair!

meanwhile, you clean the toilet, babysit a tall toddler and investigate stupid crimes and you get no penny out of it.

"sorry hyein, seriously no kids are allowed here it's a serious case." danielle says, closes the door of her fancy car and she smiles at you; you think to yourself "what a killer smile, this should be illegal".

but seriously, you can't stand the fact that she's getting in the way of your investigation.

"but i'm serious." you tell danielle, she only tilts her head and gives you an endearing smile.

"i appreciate the enthusiasm, but this is only for professionals — you can bring your games somewhere else, for now this is a no-zone." she explains, yet you're determined — at least you try to look like it, she's not even that older compared to you.

"but y/n here is a professional, she's a defense lawyer working for my mama." danielle's ears perks at the mention of hyein's adopted mother and the title defense lawyer, it rings a bell inside her head and she smiles.

"ah no wonder the wandering curious eyes, honestly i've had many people look at me with the same intensity as yours but i've never felt flattered with it the way i did with your gaze before." danielle tells you, causing you to back up when she takes a step closer and you shake your head — clearly blushing. "what are you even — saying..?" you chuckle and your eyebrow curls, you were starstruck, not everyday you get to encounter a superstar.

although you barely know anything about newjeans, coming from the rural side of the country, you were not used to the ways of the urban side and as soon as you arrived in the city you were already greeted by billboards of the famous group. it felt weird seeing hyein's face everywhere, you've gotten familiar with the name "danielle marsh" she's everywhere, particularly when hyein talks about her in the office or when it's time to talk about the current cases going.

"say, you work for min heejin? her talent agency?" she asks with pure curiosity, you stare at her face and give her a quick nod. "yes, why?" you smile, feeling nervous. danielle looks at you and you can't pin what her gazes mean, you were sure she's trying to read your stance and understand what you're role is supposed to be.

"that's nice, but i still think you two shouldn't step foot inside the park. this is a serious case and i will surely appreciate it if you listen." danielle turns her back to you and hyein and waves her hand. "ah, i'll see you later..." she looks at you and perks her brow, you widen your eyes and look at hyein.

"y/n." you see her smile. "bye hyein and y/n. by the way, you can't get inside unless you're handling the defendant's case." she enters and her figure disappears amongst the groups of police officers around.

you step back and see hyein pout. "we really have no chances of getting in." she says, you scratch your head and sigh.

your eyes spot a trashcan, sometimes even at the worst times you try to find some hope and fortunately— like a racoon, your hope could just be inside this trashcan so you peek to see a broken side mirror and a pair of slippers.

"y/n..? woah! what are you doing?!" hyein exclaims as she watches you reach over to the broken side mirror with splashes of paint on it.

"i can get in." you tell yourself and look towards the park.

"i think we have no clue left, it's a dead end." hyein says and you shake your head in frustration. "this isn't it." you grumble as you lean on the couch with a groan. "i just can't give up here!" you shout, the door opens and you, along with hyunseo and hyein look over to see mrs. jeon, she's back again. you stand up and approach her almost immediately.

"i'm so sorry! i don't have that much access to clues, the police inside the park wouldn't let me in." you tell her and she smiles at you and gives you the flyer that hyein apparently gave her.

"i have another job for you." she says, you tilt your head. "what is it?" you ask her and she gives you a picture of her husband, who you assumed is mr. jeon. "my husband is currently faced with an accusation of murdering a doctor, he works at the seoul medical center just a few blocks from this office. i want you to take his case and present yourself at the courtroom as his defense lawyer." your eyes widens as you reach over to her hands, pressing your fingers to the picture mr. jeon and under it is her business card.

"we have just married each other recently, and i don't want to lose my husband! please do everything in order to clear his name." she begs, you nod immediately and bend yourself to bow.

"i will do just that!" you shout with all passion oozing out of you.

the first thing you do after you take the job is run to the hospital, and almost immediately you spot a red car at the garage near the parking lot. hyein follows and she takes note of the fact that the garage was open wide, it's supposedly the garage for doctors. she remembers this as she mentioned running for the person who stole her purse and seeing them run to this part of the hospital.

it wasn't closed but hyein knew it was restricted.

you immediately enter inside and start looking for clues and the first thing that was the most noticeable was the paint all over the car's bunker and the missing side mirror. "this might be it." you mutter to yourself. when you crouch to peek under the car, there's a phone with a cracked screen on the ground and it was near the car exhaust pipe, you pick it up and as you're about to stand up something from the car exhaust pipe pique your interest.

there's a kuromi keychain dangling from the exhaust pipe hole and you pull it out to find hyein's purse now sitting on your palm. "that's my purse!" she says as she takes it from you.

"okay, your purse is back. now, i need to solve the other cases." you tell her, but your eyes widen when she shakes her head. "no! can't you find the one who stole my purse first?" she asks, you sigh and shake your head.

"hyein — isn't it too late for that?" you tell her, she steals the phone from your hands and raises it. "how about this?" she says, you had no choice but to sigh in defeat. "alright, first i need to find out who drove this car first." you tell hyein and even before you can get closer to the car, a loud honking causes both you and hyein to jump in surprise.

"again? you two?" danielle steps out of the police car and the police car drives to park somewhere else, danielle sighs yet she has a smile on her pretty face. you feel your face warm in embarrassment and you shake your head, you remember mrs. jeon's phone number and her card which then you pull out. "have you heard? i'm mr. jeon's defense lawyer." you tell danielle and show her mrs. jeon's business card.

danielle blinks and then she smiles, as if entertained. "oh alright, so you're lee y/n?" she leans in and you fight the urge to back up and fall.

"y-yeah!" you tell her, hyein's face brightens up and she walks towards danielle. "does that mean we get to have you help us?" hyein asks danielle who gives her a very gentle smile and then she shakes her head with a pout. "sorry hyein, i can't. i'm here to watch over the police work. and while i'm here, it's best not to also have the defense lawyer here." she looks at you and you furrow your brow for a few seconds before sighing.

"alright we'll leave." you tell danielle, she brightens her face up and hyein looks at you in confusion.

you had other plans in your mind but it's best to keep danielle thinking you're doing her a favor.

"but aren't we supposed —" you cut hyein off as you give her a sweet smile.

"let's leave, the prosecutor's got some work to do." you simply turn your back towards danielle, hyein follows like a confused pup and danielle follows you with her eyes yet there isn't much inside her mind — trying to formulate any opinion about the sudden reappearance of min heejin's law firm.

#female reader #kpop #kpop fanfic #fanfiction #kpop imagines #newjeans #newjeans imagines #girl group #girlgroup imagines #danielle #danielle marsh #newjeans danielle #danielle new jeans #danielle x reader #kpop x female reader #newjeans x reader #lee hyein #hyein newjeans #newjeans hyein

[oneatlatime]

Hiii!!! I’ve been binging through your blog for the past few weeks and I noticed how you talk about how Kataang(Katara x Aang) is portrayed in the show. Honestly yeah, I will admit I didn’t like it at first but now I just don’t really care for it. But I’d be interested hearing an in-depth opinion on the ship(unless you already did and I just never noticed or forgot 😭).

Another question, do you think you’re going to read the comics that came out the series? If you’re asking my opinion I’d say they’re a uuuh 7-8 out of 10 IG?

I do have thoughts on Kataang which I haven't shared yet. Part of me thinks I should wait to answer your ask until I've finished the series; it's obvious to me that these two are being set up to be the big finale couple, which means if I talk about them now I'm probably missing the pieces I need to have a full, well-rounded opinion. But you know what? I feel like talking about them now. So here goes.

Short answer: It peeves me that Aang comes from a culture that seemingly doesn't even have parents, yet he still manages to date his mother.

Long answer: they're both way too young. I'm a huge fan of letting the kids be kids for as long as possible. Especially with these kids, who have been prevented from being kids by the war. As Katara points out in the opening scene of the very first episode, she's been the mother since her own died (or at least she feels like she has had to be the mother). Call me crazy, but I'd rather Katara spend a few years after the war doing dumb childish stuff to recapture that lost childhood than jump straight into a relationship. Isn't the safety and space to do dumb childish stuff one of the things those who are trying to end the war are fighting for? Shouldn't she get to enjoy that? And Aang is just way too young no matter what way you look at it. He's 12 right? I think that would make him a grade 6 student. Back in my day (yells at cloud) Grade 6 students collected yugioh cards and feuded over who had the snazzier lunch box. I could picture a 12 year old having a crush on a slightly older girl that goes to the same school, but it would be short lived and unactionable. I guess Katara would be around 14? So, a grade 8 student. A grade 8 girl would not date a grade 6 boy. It would just never happen.

They've both got bigger fish to fry. Aang is the last Air Nomad AND the current Avatar. When he fully takes on both of those positions, what time will he have for a girlfriend? Katara is the only Southern Waterbender. Whether or not she wants the responsibility, it will be her duty to single-handedly reconstruct a huge portion of her nation's culture from the ground up once she returns south. Does she have the time to ping pong around the globe mothering her boyfriend as he rides giant animals or does Avatar stuff? Say she wants to: what will her family and the rest of her tribe think of the only person who can access such a huge part of their culture riding off into the sunset?

Their current relationship dynamic is still too mother/son. This is more obvious in season 1 than in season 2 (maybe that's growth?) but you can't depict a male/female pair as pieta and then expect me to ship. I think this could change somewhat, but I've already been disappointed in that. I thought that once Katara had mastered waterbending and therefore felt she had something other than mothering to contribute to the group, she would back off with the mothering. And she did, a little, but not enough for my tastes. Maybe as Aang fully steps into the Avatar role and the last Air Nomad role (sidenote: no idea what the latter would look like) he'll move on to a more equal relationship with Katara.

I think Katara is meant for better things than rebirthing a nation. Bending seems to be at least somewhat genetic. So if Aang wants Airbending in any form to survive after his death, he's going to need a billion kids. While I could definitely see Katara wanting children, I don't see her as the barefoot pregnant type.

I'm not convinced that Aang has a clear picture of Katara. She has flaws, which is good! Does Aang see them?

I get the feeling that, while they are helping each others' skills grow as they travel the globe, they are also preventing each others' personalities from growing. As long as Aang is around, Katara has someone to mother. As long as Katara is around, Aang has someone who prevents him from feeling the full weight of his responsibilities. Again, this is worse in season 1, but how often did Katara deny that Aang was to blame for something that was at least somewhat his fault? Aang will never become a fully rounded person until he can look at his flaws and mistakes dead on and say "my bad" without a Katara in the background going "no you're perfect!" Katara deserves to find out what kind of person she is outside of a nurturing role. Quick thought experiment: what if you pair Katara with someone who needs no nurturing, or better yet, nurtures her? And what if you pair Aang with someone as bluntly truthful as Toph? Katara and Aang might find both of those situations uncomfortable at first, but I think it would contribute to their growth.

Aang having a crush on an oblivious Katara would be a great single season arc. I think it would fit both of their characters well, and I think Aang growing past latching on to the first person he saw after the iceberg would be a good way to show that he's rooting himself in his time-displaced present, and fully committing to ending the war. And don't get me wrong, I love Aang and Katara both as a fighting team and as friends.

These kids are all fighting a war, and all kids. I don't mind the supporting characters having romances, because it's not like Sokka or Suki can end the war, no matter how hard they try/might want to. But I'm a big believer in doing one thing at a time, and I think if you're the only person in the whole world who can end a war, then ending the war should take precedence over dating. I'm aware that that's an unrealistic expectation and out of step with the show's theme of balance. In the real world, birth rates skyrocket during war time because people live for the moment and grab happiness (read boinking) wherever they see it. But both these kids are pre-boinking age so I'm going to be a cranky old fart about it.

Being the wife of the Avatar is a position that will often come with being relegated to second place, especially with the amount of work that undoing a century of war will take. Although she works well in a team, Katara is a naturally dominant personality. Katara did enough of putting herself in second place before the series started. I think Katara could very easily fall into the pattern of subjugating her own needs and desires and putting her husband's first, but I don't want that to happen. And one way to prevent that from happening is to prevent her from dating the single most politically important person in the universe. (To be clear, Aang would never deliberately squish a wife like that, I just think the workload of being Avatar and last air nomad would cause that to happen)

A lot of my objections to this pairing are very adult objections. I don't know what I would have thought about this pairing when I was the age of the show's target audience. It undoubtedly would have bothered me less, although I probably would have been put off by how twee it is. As an adult, all I can see are babies playing house.

As for the comics, I hadn't made any concrete plans to read them. I don't know where I'd get access to them. I'm not sure how canonical they are. I guess I should probably decide whether or not I want to read them after I've finished the whole series. I've been told that my girl Jin appears in one of them, so I definitely have some interest. I have also had the Avatar Kyoshi novels strenuously recommended to me. But so much of Avatar's charm, to me, is in the medium. And while comics are closer to animation than books are, they're still static. Avatar does movement so well.

#ask #this got way too long #short short answer: they're too young #not much incompatible about their personalities #plenty incompatible about their responsibilities

[jokeroutsubs]

[ENG translation] Joker Out at Eurosonic 2024: an interview with Kris for Val 202 radio station

Today, 22.01.2024, Slovenian radio station Val 202 broadcasted an episode of their 'Glasbena zgodba' ('Musical Story') podcast about the Eurosonic 2024 festival that happened last week. Eurosonic is an annual showcase festival and music conference in Groningen, The Netherlands, where emerging European acts perform for industry professionals and festival scouts. Joker Out performed there this year, so today's podcast featured a short interview with Kris Guštin. You can find the original post here or listen to the original audio in Slovenian in the embed above. Here is the translation of the interview, translated by a member of Joker Out Subs and proof read by @flowerlotus8.

Host: The first group we mentioned, Joker Out, performed twice during the festival. First on Wednesday on the MAAS main stage, and the next day, on Thursday, in the Platosonic record shop, where The Strokes also performed in the past. I invited Kris Guštin, who talked to the fans there in Dutch, in front of the microphone.

Kris: Well, my great-grandma and my grandpa's entire side of the family, who are from Indonesia, live in a place called Assen, which is 30 minutes out of Groningen. It's actually the closest big city for them.

Host: Joker Out haven't performed at many showcase festivals, Kris counts Eurovision and the PIN festival in Skopje among them.

Kris: Showcase festivals are maybe not that important or necessary for us anymore, but we still liked doing one or two, to experience it. It is, however… For performers who are really still looking for an international audience, and especially those who would like to present themselves to industry people from abroad, it's a pretty great chance. It's the same with MENT¹, for Slovenia, of course.

Host: Were you thinking about, or were you under any pressure, considering that there were many music professionals in the audience?

Kris: Not really. It's… We were aware that it would be harder to make a good show, because people wouldn't be that oriented towards us and our music, which is totally understandable. I have to say, however, that I was honestly surprised and happy that we had the first three rows or so of our fans, who really made the atmosphere more lively, otherwise it would've been pretty hard. I did, however, also see... The best kind of validation is to see these people who, at the beginning, are standing in the back and not participating in the concert, who are then bobbing their heads by the end. That's always a good sign of a good concert.

Host: The members of Joker Out, who will release a new single in February and go on another European tour soon after that, are currently living in London, where they are getting used to life there and, as Kris says, creating new music outside of their comfort zone.

Kris: But just as a fun fact, well, I will say that now that we are in London, we've made a song that is the most Balkan song we've ever made, so it's… it might have a completely opposite effect. We don't really have any idea yet where it will take us.

Host: In Slovenia, you made a living with music. Now that you've gone abroad and have all these concerts, is it as profitable as laypeople imagine?

Kris: I'll say it like this: if we stayed only in Slovenia, we would be making more money right now than we actually do. But we have, I don't know, some kind of a chronic flaw where we never know how to stop investing in ourselves, well, how to say it. Which is actually a great thing, but such... touring abroad is definitely not a profitable thing for a band at our level, but I will say that it is less of a financial burden than I thought it would be. We are lucky to have so many listeners that in the previous season, the previous tour, we sold out almost everything, which means that it did bring us some money, but with all the... plane tickets, accommodation, transport, it amounts to so much that in the end, we just managed to nicely finance all of it, plus maybe get some money for the album this year. Otherwise, it's not like we're making big money. If we had stayed in Slovenia, we would've just pocketed all that.

¹MENT Ljubljana is one of the leading showcase festivals and music conferences in Central and Eastern Europe and the largest event of its kind in the region.

#joker out #kris gustin #kris guštin

[emo-queer-boi]

I think is because of comments like this that Im more heartbroken over Shane doing this than the others, now don't get me wrong I'm not part of the "shane was pushed into doing this by the two evil greedy guys he calls friends" (which btw reeks of racism) the fact that I'm not part of it makes it more sad to me, because I Know he decided to do this, he knows how hard it is to just buy groceries nowadays, not even getting specific into the age group of most of the fans.

I simply can't afford it, I had originally written a whole paragraph about my situation rn and went into a lot of over sharing about really tragic things but I really don't Have to, I can't afford it, and thats that, and it's an understatement to say I've been through many situations where I haven't been able to afford stuff that would have helped my mental health but they were too on the side of "wants" and not "needs"

So no, I'm not upset over this because "boo hoo I dont want to spend money/I'm not used to not getting things I want for free." I'm upset over this and it feels like a slap in the face when it comes from someone like Shane, who says stuff like this that makes me and others think he gets it enough to not put all his future content behind a paywall when so many of us find it comfort content

I know a lot of us are mostly blaming Steven for this, and bringing up stuff about his life like the tesla or food habits and all that, but I beg you guys to see that as big of a shitty thing it is to be out of touch and oblivious about how much your audience can take, I consider it honestly just as bad if not worse to Know and still do it

No I don't think Shane is rich, or at the same level as a famous actor or that charging us 6 dollars for future content is the same level of tone deaf and pretentiousness as celebrities singing Imagine during the pandemic

Another disclaimer: I'm pretty fucking priviledge when it comes to money that my parents can pay for me to have all the necessities to not only survive nowadays but actually enjoy it with certain comforts, I still can't afford it, so I really don't want to think about how people that don't have my privileges feel about this

All in all, shitty fucking decision with understandable reasons pushing it to happen, I don't think any content creator wants to depend on YouTube deciding on giving them sponsors that magically go with the video they're supporting

But please stop acting like Shane isn't a grown man that is aware of not only everything he has stood for in the past but the way things have gotten worse lately for I would say 99% of us

#watcher #shane madej

[lily-orchard]

Watched some guys' response video to your big steven universe to see if he would have some counter arguments whole time he kept making bad faith arguments, false equivalence and kept saying that you are running on alt-right grifting hate campaign and kept arguing semantics. How many people do you think your new steven universe video is going to piss off.

Yeah I've heard of that one. Haven't seen it myself, but the comments it provoked on the SU video told me it was a lot of braindead mudslinging. The kind of garbage I've been hearing for years, but now in video form so SU stans can just paste a link and go "video now!"

Dude's made three other identical videos in quick succession.

Honestly I have no idea what effect that new one will have. The main angry response to the last one was "DID YOU CALL BECKY A NAZI?!" but this one doesn't have anything that misquotable. It's all a lot of more complicated structural and foundational critique, which tends to fly over the heads of SU stans.

This is just what Steven Universe discourse has been for the last five years. Its fanbase likes to claim I destroyed people's media literacy because I made them hate one bad show in particular, but the fandom has done a very good job elevating me to a position much higher than I deserve because this video has been living rent-free in their heads for a long time. They've wanted a big "debunking" video no matter how dishonest or disingenuous it was for a while, something that would do their thinking for them. It didn't have to be good, it just had to be something they could link on Twitter to "ratio" someone.

Steven Universe's fandom set itself up for failure by just demonizing anyone who thought critically about the show. I'm not new in this regard. People were critical of the show for years. Bismuth was hammered by fans of colour, especially black women, for an extremely racist premise and they were abused and harassed off multiple platforms. People complained that Sugar's claims of being really invested in gay rep wasn't actually showing results, and those people were harassed off multiple platforms. More often than not, with shouts of "IT'S A KIDS' SHOW!"

The fanbase always had that hypocritical view of the show. It was this deep and profound show that had a very mature theme and outlook on life UNTIL you criticized it and then you may as well have been complaining about modern Spongebob. It's Avatar at all times, until someone criticizes it. Actually did see someone going "imagine if people got this worked up over Peppa Pig."

There's no two ways about it. Steven Universe has a fanbase that is simultaneously abusive as all hell, and have not a single brain cell to share between them. And you kinda have to be. Anyone who liked the show and thought critically about it was immediately harassed off any platform.

This video got super popular and meant I live rent free in the heads of every single person who still likes this show, and I STILL didn't get anything close to as bad as what they were giving black women who didn't like Bismuth. The end result was that the only people left were white gays whose only claim to not being bigoted pieces of shit was "being gay and liking Steven Universe."

And that's why there is never going to be "Steven Universe is Genius and Here's Why." To make that video you have to like Steven Universe, and you also need enough media literacy to really analyze it and those two aspects are in direct opposition to one another. There are episodes of Steven Universe I love and think are genuinely brilliant storytelling, but any praise of those episodes will inevitably lead to wondering why the rest of the show wasn't like that.

Trying to argue that this show is genius is like trying to convince people that The Room is Citizen Kane.

#su critical

[combines]

hello again!! as someone who comes from the 2020 fandom resurgence I am. SO SORRY. that happened a lot unfortunately. yeah we did NOT know how to act early on (ToT). I had the vibe it was a lot of people's first online fandoms.

the ship with two guys in it being dubbed butter pecan because of something something 'a lot of nuts' is again, so, so funny. Thank you for enlightening me on this, I know it's probably wild to be asked about this stuff like a decade after. This is like honestly a bit of a mystery in the fandom so it's insane finding out the source!! A real miracle the person who coined it so long ago is still active on tumblr

And speaking, it is and was INSANELY hard to dig for any 'fandom history' or even just any sort of Old post on here and I hate it.

another little question if that's okay- I'd assume that seeing the change in reception to freemance and freehoun kinda swapping around must've been bizarre as an older fan considering this was a fandom for a fps game in the early 2000's-early 2010's, in my head the vibes were kinda reversed where freemance was the big ship and freehoun was less well received by most

hiii again!!! i'm so sorry it took me a few days to answer this sdkfsmdk

i think it's super funny because both half-life: alyx and hlvrai came out within weeks of each other so you had this sort of resurgence on here of old fans returning/posting and getting excited for alyx and then a huge wave of people getting into hl in general because of the audience that hlvrai introduced. personally, i still haven't watched hlvrai because it doesn't really seem like my thing, but i'm still glad that there were so many people who enjoyed it to the point where they actually ended up playing and loving the games too!!

freemance definitely was the big ship on tumblr back in the day so yes it was very interesting to see that reversal!!!! honestly i don't think i was on tumblr too much during that time where hlvrai/freehoun really took off, and so the drama surrounding ship wars or whatever was mentioned to me secondhand. 2020 was just like the worst year of my life for personal reasons, as i'm sure for a lot of people, and i can't remember really any of it tbh LOL but you've got nothing to apologize for! i think you're definitely right, it seemed like a first fandom for many people, and that generally skewed younger. i think (hope) it's a better now at least!

tumblr's tagging/tracking/search is HORRIBLE i completly understand. i still think tumblr is the best place for fandom centralized stuff (pictures, art, gifs, etc) and until there's a new platform that does it better, i'll probably still be here, if super sporadically!

if you are interested in uncovering past hl fandom posts or just looking to follow some great people, i've tagged just some that were active in the hl fandom back in the day!!! :') i'm sure they wouldn't mind if you combed their archive looking for hl stuff/shitposts <3

@mbelyakova @littlewitchbee @temunade2 @loplins @angels-heap @anndromedea @skellagirl @bioticbear @cortnan @duamuteffe @protokol @cerviceps @axiolotl @clodiuspulcher @caramujotan @drgertiefremontphd @jauffre @owligator @saikkunen @utopianoverlord @failssafe @brogineer

#half life #i'll feel so horrible if i ended up excluding someone...which i probably did accidentally as i'm horrible at remembering url changes 😭😭 #and i'm sure many moved blogs as well and i'm just unaware #if i forgot to tag you please pleaaaseee like this post so i can add you!!!!

[bedlamsbard]

I know this is kind of out of nowhere but for the longest time I was super weird and mentally dismissive of your burning out of Star Wars because I was someone who survived the OEU's insanity back in the day and managed not to burn out of Star Wars in the face of ridiculous nonsense like the Yuuzhan Vong and Killiks, so if I could survive that, you were of course entitled to dislike Star Wars but I still found it silly. Anyway I just finished watching Tales of the Jedi(Resolve) and I Get It Now.

...I recognise that may not be the most hinged thing to say to someone I don't actually know, and apologise for my mild to moderate insanity; I slept three hours, am very sick, it's shark week, and my brain seized on you as someone who'd Get It and who I had been hard on in my thoughts in the past, but, like, none of that actually affected you until I randomly said it? So anyway sorry for babbling at you like that lmfao, I'll stop talking now

Okay. I've been thinking about these since I saw them; I saw the first one before the second one arrived, which was a hell of a thing to wake up to since I saw it first thing in the morning. While my usual policy is to leave messages along these lines in my inbox, I was genuinely upset and wanted to respond once I had a more coherent reaction than "why me, gods, why does this always happen to me."

So, first of all, I'm sorry that you had an installment in canon that didn't do it for you; it happens to the best of us and there are very few people in fandom who uncritically (or even critically) enjoy everything in canon, especially in a fandom as big and long-running as Star Wars.

It's also very common for people to fall out of love with a fandom, even a fandom they've been in for a very long time; I would say that fen who have consistently been in one fandom for an extended period of time are probably rarer than those who haven't. It's not always because there is one installment that is just The Worst; often that's just a tipping point for fen who have been on the edge for a while. (Ask your average former MCU fan who left after Avengers Endgame.) Other times fen just drift away from a fandom without a reason to push them out. Maybe their favorite characters have died, maybe the canon is no longer telling stories they're interested in even if none of those stories are "bad," maybe it's a closed canon and without new stories there's nothing to keep them there; there's any number of factors.

I had a very dramatic breakup with Star Wars three years ago, and it was about three years after I really should have gotten out of the fandom, because I had not been having a good time for a while at that point. And honestly, considering that I hadn't had a healthy relationship with either Star Wars or the fandom for a while before that, for various reasons that go well beyond what was happening in canon, arguably I should have gotten out even earlier. However, I'm monofannish to a fault and I really needed something that would actually kick me to a new fandom -- which meant it couldn't come from Star Wars.

I don't really dislike Star Wars as a whole. There are individual installments that I quite dislike, there are some that I still love, and the vast majority of Star Wars I'm neutral on. I do however have a very fucked up relationship with Star Wars, including the canon, the PTB, and the fandom itself. I have gotten regular abuse on Wake and Gambit for the past ten years, which really screwed up my relationship with AO3 and with the prequel era. There is canon that I really, really dislike, some of it because it personally does nothing for me (the ST), some of it because from my point of view, it completely fucked over a story I love (Rebels S4, TCW S7, some other stuff that contradicts stuff from the EU I love; I came out of the EU too), some of it because I just plain don't like it (THR, most of the comics), and some of it because watching it just plain made me feel like I was being gaslit, which is not something I say lightly (Mando is the worst offender, but there are others). A lot of these are problems that could come out of any fandom, especially a large, long-running, multi-media fandom; I know a lot of Marvel people who have very similar problems, though I think the scale tends to be slightly different there just because the canon is set up differently.

When I switched fandoms, I had to recalibrate my entire relationship to fandom, to canon, to AO3, and to how I interacted with all of them. I still have to check myself in most of those places because my relationship with Star Wars had screwed me up so much. I had to train myself into being able to post on AO3 again; I do talk regularly about how a lot of what I write is shaped by trying to avoid getting the kind of reactions I got and still get from my Star Wars fic, even years later. I have to make conscious decisions not to engage with every part of the canon without feeling like a failed fan, especially the installments I'm pretty sure I'll dislike, because I tried to do that in Star Wars and it regularly messed me up. As a cosplayer, I still have a fairly bad reaction to even seeing the word "approvable," and it took a while for me not to have a similar reaction to "screen-accurate." I'm still destashing most of my Star Wars merch and right now, my reaction to seeing new Marvel merch isn't "ooh, would I wear/use this?" it's "when I inevitably have a horrendous breakup with this fandom will I be able to resell it?" which is not a really healthy relationship to have with a fandom. (I have mostly moved off this but not entirely.) I knew that Star Wars had screwed my relationship with Disney World, when I had a panic attack on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind because I was so terrified that it was going to be ~necessary canon, even though Marvel has never operated that way; Star Wars does with Galaxy's Edge, which I don't really like being in anymore either.

And yes, I'm aware all of these are an extreme overreaction to getting out of a fandom. I'm not happy about it either and I wish it wasn't happening. It's better now than it was a couple years ago and I'm frankly glad I'm not in the fandom anymore; I'm happy for people who are or who have gotten back into it and are having a good time. I am not one of them; I may some day be one again, but probably not anytime soon.

But even if I didn't have this specific fucked up relationship with Star Wars, a fandom I have not been in for three years at this point, sometimes people just burn out on a fandom. I'm not a CSI:NY fan anymore, either. (Which my last big fandom prior to Narnia, which I just drifted away from. I've only been in five big writing fandoms over twenty years.)

#thelearnedsoldier #bedlam replies #I haven't been in star wars fandom for THREE YEARS #THREE YEARS

[precuredaily]

Precure Daily's Sixth Anniversary

On April 10, 2018, I posted the first review in the project that became Precure Daily. It wasn't actually on tumblr at that time, but on Facebook. The plan was to watch an episode every day and just post some thoughts, but it evolved into reviews and screenshots and that necessitated a whole blog, and here we are. That was six years ago today!

Six years. It's hard to believe. I honestly, truly didn't think I'd still be doing this. Whether I petered out before the end, or managed to get it all done in the 2-3 years I anticipated, I figured I'd have stopped by now. But somehow I haven't given up yet! I'm still watching, still writing, and still getting new fans to share with, and that makes it all worth it.

The past year was slow, I will readily acknowledge it. I only got about 7 reviews out in that time, including the one that just went up earlier today, but one of those was the Go Go movie. That was a whole undertaking, it took me nine months to get out. Granted, for about 6 of those 9 months it was just sitting there unchanged. I'd open it occasionally to poke at it but then not end up getting much done. Maybe it still wasn't the best it could have been but I'm proud of it nonetheless. It was a good review for a good movie. Also, I got to review the very first All Stars, even if it was a short film. Having recently wached the most recent All Stars brings that experience full circle and it's real nice.

One small hiccup is that, at the time of writing, I haven't yet gotten out the traditional Honoka birthday post. I just haven't had time to sit down and gather artwork for it. Hopefully that'll come out in the next day or two!

Outside of the blog, let's look at the wider world of the Precure series over the last year

I said last year that I hadn't finished Delicious Party, and that's still true. When it was on air, I was watching it with a friend and she was really into it; we are going to resume watching together to finally push through it.

HIrogaru Sky's second half was good, it lacked a little bit of the driving power of the first half and the villain plot never properly came together in my opionion. I still love the characters, I think they're my favorite cast in a good while.

I did not watch Otona Precure. Although I've watched Go Go before, I want to finish this current watchthrough for the blog before I jump into it. Maybe I'll even review it as I go, that remains to be seen. I've heard mixed things about it and I'm not very big on the idea that the girls just go back to teenagers when they transform, but I'll reserve judgment.

Wonderful Precure did not appeal to me when information started coming out, and I fell off it for a few weeks when the first couple eps didn't impress me, but I decided to keep going and it's thoroughly enjoyable. I don't think it's going to crack my top 10 but it should be a solid middle of the road series.

I watched the Delicious Party Precure movie and Precure All Stars F with friends in fairly close proximity, and wow do those movies exist on opposite ends of the spectrum. DeliPa's film was one of the weakest Precure movies I've seen, while All Star F was phenomenal. I need to rewatch it.

I did say last year that the blog would look different when I finish Go Go. That is still true. I should be able to wrap that up in a few months, then comes the next phase of things. Deets when it happens.

And also just because I can, here's some recommendations for shows outside of Precure you should watch that came out in the last year-ish:

Oshi no Ko

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (featuring Wonderful Precure's Tanezaki Atsumi as a monotone elf)

SPY x FAMILY (featuring Wonderful Precure's Tanezaki Atsumi as a psychic toddler)

Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger

The Last of Us

And I think that's it for this year's update! Here's to another year of watching and writing about Precure! Thanks as always to my loyal friends and fans for making this project a success: @sailorzombiestar, @vertixscribe, PaintedOutlaw, @hanasaki-tsubomi, yugimon135 (can't tag you for some reason), and my newest fan @nono-bunny.

Here's all my previous sappy anniversary posts if you want to go back and read them.

First Anniversary

Second Aniversary

Third Anniversary

Fourth Anniversary

Fifth Anniversary

#PCD anniversary #PCD sixth anniversary #read this

[carronyaflowers]

those people are setting themselves to disappointment because red bull would never sign with him 😭 even tho i think charles is not renewing with ferrari i don't think he will go to rbr😕

ooh i have mixed feelings about this actually because i enjoy so much of these different narratives and is also delulu:

Charles' martyrdom with ferrari. Boy bleeds red and there's also the fact that ever since he was a child (or so he says for PR benefit) it was always the red car for him, and of course there was the connection with jules and his papa, and how overall, ferrari seems like such an important part of his life, and despite all these hardships and downfalls, there's just something so compelling about a mouse staying in a big red car carrying all its history and legacy. And despite it being too big for him, the mouse also became much bigger than it. IDK there's just such a feeling of being meant to be in them.

But also, I need him to leave that failteam so much. He's being wasted there. They're supposed to be this big glorious team but I haven't seen that team anywhere these past years. They're so unserious the collective of chirlies (gn) in tumblr and twitter could probably handle that team better.

So if he's to leave, where would he go? Right now, there's four big teams that'd be (or potentially be good enough) to fight for wins, for championships. But honestly, ferrari as we see is not there, I think mclaren could be there but not yet, so that leaves us with merc and rb.

In theory, should lewis suddenly retire, charles could go there

But BUT IT'D BE MUCH JUICIER FOR HIM TO GO TO RB

So yeah, this point really goes to me being delulu. But also consider that Charles is argued to be one of the few drivers that could actually keep up with Max and that's with a shitbox (and this was also referenced from interviews with Max himself, Christian and even Helmut ) (i'm sorry that i won't be able to provide vids but trust on my delulu mind that there's references to that somewhere i know it). And Charles' and Max's driving styles are extremely compatible so engineering the car won't be too much of a problem (see @il-predestinato essay on this (i'm sorry again for the lack of link i'll maybe edit this tomorrow morning or after my exams next week if u have the patience). And i don't think rb would be opposed to having a talented naturally fast driver.

As from Charles' point of view, why don't we think charles may choose rb should he leave? Questioned this, i immediately remembered @drivestraight on the limit fic, especially this part:

After a long moment of silence, Max finally speaks up. “You want to know what I really think about you moving to Mercedes?”

Interested, Charles replies, “I asked you for a reason.”

Max takes a moment to collect his thoughts before he replies, “Mercedes are good, better than Ferrari, for sure, but they’re not your style.”

Charles lifts a brow. “And what’s my style?”

Max grins, effervescent. “On the limit.”

Charles laughs. On the limit, huh? High praise, especially coming from Max. “Maybe I should call Christian. See if he’d give me Checo’s seat,” he jokes.

so yeah, i just think that at the end of the day, a driver would want a team that could provide him the car that would let him show his speed, let him challenge for wins, and might even get him a championship

TL;DR: I think that at the end of the day, I really just want to see Charles in a car deserving of him, and should that be with ferrari or rb or any other team, i don't think i'll care much (of course i'll care who am i kidding but really it won't be that much bc i'm a charles fan first, f1 second), as long as he's happy with his decisions and he gets to drive his heart out.

DISCLAIMER: Bestie, idk if this made sense at all, i'm sick, i've been studying for an exam and my mind is honest to god filled with theories and writings in the social sciences (please i have a love hate relationship with pedagog of the oppressed and origin of the family bc theyre a pain to read and a headache but they're also such good readings) but keeping up with these charles contract discussions have been a joy and anxiety hehe so yeah that's my thoughts on that and the essays on the lestappen gate 2023 tag might be more coherent and make more sense but yeah thank you for the ask, it was great to have these thoughts out even tho they prolly did not write well as i'm in this state

#charles leclerc #lestappen gate 2023 #carronya.asks

[mrsshabana]

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐆𝐲𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐨 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 ˚˳♡

I wanted to thank everyone who read our kinktober this year! And I also wanted to thank @gyusimp for doing kinkober with me! She did such an amazing job and she really helped me rediscover my love for writing.

Here are my top 5 favorite entries I did for kinktober -♡

𝐒𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐭

𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲

𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐠𝐞

𝐕𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦

I am so proud of both of us for writing and posting every day just as we said we would. Because honestly, I didn't think I'd be able to do it. But I found myself looking forward to writing every day and it really became the highlight of my days. Doing kinktober really helped me realize how happy writing makes me. And it showed me just how much I'm capable of writing! I literally wrote over 27,000 words for kinktober!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed kinktober! Feel free to let me know which ones were your favorite, if you'd like to see a sequel, or if you have any questions about the au's! I love them all so much so I don't mind expanding on them!

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭?

Since I put everything on pause for kinktober, I will be getting back to the projects I was working on.

I had a big follower milestone project I've been working on for awhile, but it's been taking so long that now I'm way past the milestone haha. But that's ok, I'm still going to try to finish it! This project will be the main thing I will be working on now.

But for my writing, I have some requests I started before kinktober that I'd like to finish. And the next fic I will be updating will be the band au. I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to finish, but I promise I haven't abandoned it. Your biggest fan will be the next fic that I update. ༉‧₊˚

#gyutaro x reader #kinktober #kinktober 2023 #update

[bluebudgie]

Behold! The long announced whiny pissbaby gamer rage essay that noone on the internet asked for.

Disclaimer up front: This is about Eff Eff Sixteen. If you're a fan of this game I advise you to just ignore this because I genuinely don't want to piss into your morning coffee with my negativity. I will rip this game several new assholes. You have been warned.

FAQ Q: Don't you have anything better to spend your time on than writing a ridiculously lengthy internet text post about a video game whose existence you are free to simply ignore? A: Yes, but this matter is personal. I'm writing this for the sake of carthasis. Closure. To be free of the rage that has possessed me for the past months. Q: Have you tried touching grass? A: I have sat in a field of grass for a prolonged amount of time prior to writing this. I am beyond the need of touching grass. Q: Do you expect anyone to actually read all this? A: No.

Spoilers ahead, obviously. Let's go.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Is this the worst game ever made? 1.1 It's personal 1.2 Pre-release & producer statements

The battle system

The narrative 3.1 Storytelling and morality 3.2 Pacing 3.3 Visuals 3.4 Characters 3.4.1 The game's biggest mistake 3.4.2 The state of women 3.5 Music

Credit where credit is due 4.1 It's personal again

Conclusion

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1. Introduction: Is this the worst game ever made? What a strange way to start, you may think. Shouldn't this question rather be addressed in a conclusion at the end? I want to set the record straight from the start: No, it is not the worst game ever made. All things considered I don't even think it's the worst game of its series. And yet I have never in my life felt such unbridled hatred for a video game, or honestly, any piece of entertainment media I can currently think of. Why is that?

1.1 It's personal Usually I'm pretty good at doing the sensible thing people should do when they don't like something - ignore it. Why bother wasting your energy deliberately seeking out something that you know will make you angry?

Hear me out for a moment, I'll have to go on a tangent here.

I didn't actively get into the series until a year before FFXIII released - which at this point in time is 15 years ago now, but considering we've had only two more (singleplayer) mainline games since then, it's still a relatively late entry point. This is to say: I don't think I'm wearing the worst nostalgia goggles, but I do have a long history with the series nonetheless. These games have played a big role in my life for those past 15 years.

I used to roll my eyes at the "the series died after FFX" crowd. FFXII is one of the best in the series, sure FFXIII was a landslide miss for me, but... that's one game, right. Then FFXV's release drew closer. I did not like what I saw, for many reasons I won't detail now. What did I do? I blacklisted the game's name on all social media platforms, and didn't hear anything about it anymore. To this day I haven't actually seen much of it, though I do know the rough outline. And I know that while the game has a dedicated fanbase, it has also received its fair share of harsh criticism.

Why am I telling you all this?

1.2 Pre-release & producer statements

A few years ago, FFXVI was announced. And I have to be honest: I was negatively biased from the start. I hadn't been happy with SE's general direction for years and I wasn't particularly hopeful for this entry either. But - and I want to make this very clear - I was open to give this game a fair chance. The announcement trailer didn't really hook me but it looked alright, some visual and audio gripes aside. I was... cautiously curious. Not quite enough to call it optimistic, but I wanted to be hopeful.

You know what's excellent at crushing hopes? Game producer interviews that range from "that's a severely stupid opinion to have but you do you" aka (paraphrased) "our traditionally turn-based series can't be turn-based anymore because in order to get the production costs covered we have to appeal to the masses, and the masses are kids who love action and not outdated combat systems in which you have to navigate menus to act" (source); to downright offensive statements such as "we are creating a fantasy world based on reality and therefore black people can't exist in our european medieval setting" (source); and "I have gamer pride so I don't want to feature an easy difficulty setting in my game" (source - for clarity's sake there are accessibility options in the game in the form of equipment that helps simplify combat, however the statement itself is still really goddamn stupid).

And I know these statements have been called out by some - but it definitely didn't blow up as much as it should have considering the popularity of this franchise. It's an open secret why this is the case (if you're out of the loop: the game producer in question is an untouchable god with a really large cult fan following), and quite frankly I believe this is probably where the first seeds of my hatred were sown. Knowing that no matter what FFXVI was going to be it would have people defend it out of their blind commitment to the team behind the game's development, left a.... spiteful aftertaste in my mouth.

Ironically looking back now, and plain offensive statements aside, my biggest concern for the game itself was actually the combat system. I'm definitely part of the old-school "a main series FF game needs turn-based combat" crowd. Oh sweet summer child.

At this point I decided it would be better to go the FFXV route (which, by the way, had some similarly stupid dev comments at its release). All marketing made it clear that I was not the target audience for this game, so best to just ignore its existence.

That worked... alright...ish... until the demo's release. I guess you could say curiousity killed the cat. I decided to take a look at someone's playthrough... and that's where my initial "pissbaby gamer rage" draft that I ended up not posting came from. Go big or go home, if I wanted to be angry about this game in public I should at least be fair and wait for the full release. Not judge the game by its (admittedly generous in length) demo. Get the full receipts, see it for all that it is in its entirety. I think in a way I still didn't want to give up hope completely.

And that's where we are now, two months later I've watched a full playthrough of the game including all sidequests. It's been a wild ride to say the least.

2. The battle system

Let's get this out of the way before we finally get to the really meaty part: As mentioned earlier my primary concern before release was the combat system since it's so far removed from the older entries of the series. Ironically, of all things, this is probably the smallest issue I have with the game now.

I still don't think the combat is good, mind you - this is mostly a matter of personal taste but I'll never see how button mashing and a series of QTEs overlayed over 20 minutes of cinematic cutscene is supposed to be more impactful or fun than the oh-so-outdated turn based menu inputs. Then again, I didn't play the game myself and can therefore obviously not judge how good or bad it feels in the heat of battle. I say "button mashing", by the way, as what I've gathered from other people's reviews - who genuinely enjoyed the game - the combat is really watered down and repetitive in comparison to games with similar systems like the DMC series. While you do pick up new abilities over the course of the game it seems like once you've found one combination that works you can solve every single battle following those exact inputs. This is one of the two really big complaints about this game I've seen consistently in almost every review.

Speaking of combat, the game has the weirdest way to pull you out of the action and emotional moments by freezing mid cutscene, showing a "you won the battle - here's your loot" screen while blasting an epic choir rendition of the classic FF fanfare, before picking that same cutscene right back up. I don't know who thought this was a good idea, but it's honestly jarring. For an extremely cinematic game that supposedly wants to break with "outdated" traditions, implementing that very video game-y results screen is a strange choice.

You could say this last point is nitpicking, and if this game had no other issues I would probably not mention it at all, but as it is this little detail is indicative of a much, much larger issue.

3. The narrative

[The sound of cracking knuckles can be heard in the distance.] Let the slaughter begin.

Prior to release the game was marketed as a departure from the rest of the series - the setting was advertised as a darker, more mature, political intrigue for an adult audience. ('But the masses of kids that like action com-' Who? What are you talking about?) Because as we all know, no other FF game has ever been dark before (/sarcasm).

What we got was storytelling and character writing with about the maturity level of a twelve year old teenage boy in his edgelord phase making his first Game of Thrones fanfiction drafts. This game oozes of sexism, really stupid slavery allegories, the most dumbed down black and white morality with a matching set of one-dimensional black and white characters, godawful pacing and some of the worst NPC dialogues I've ever had to witness.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

3.1 Storytelling and morality

So this dark and mature political story... I'm still searching for it. I know GoT started this trend where writers will use "politics" as a buzz word to make their games look complex (FFXVI hasn't been the sole offender in the past years). Then they expose you to a few kingdom names, show you a map with territories, drop a few year dates with barely any significant relevance to anything over the course of the game, and pretend that's a deep political intrigue. I have news for you: It's not.

Alright, then... this dark and mature... oh. Oh you mean that's because there's a plethora of blood splatters and people say "fuck" and "cock" and "whore" and there's goofily censored sex on screen? Ah... oh. Alright, I see. If that's what you'd call that... sure.

But surely the people who are tattooed like cattle and used as slaves due to being born as magic users will have an interesting role in the story dealing with the very delicate topic of slaver- ...oh, uh... what do you mean the perfect king beloved by everyone is the good guy because unlike all the other people who held slaves, he treated his slaves nicely? And, before you ask.... No, this isn't some sort of commentary the game wants you to question. This guy is unironically, unambiguously portrayed as the perfect good guy. Brought up many, many times for how flawless he is.

And that... is where we're diving into one of this game's biggest and most glaring issues. The writing is so mindnumbingly black and white with not the slightest room for ambiguous or grey morality it's painful. Everything and everyone in this game is always either good with no failings - or so stupidly evil they may as well be a bad saturday morning cartoon villain.

Good characters are always good, and always act out of the pure kindness of their heart. When you think a good character fucked up and actually did something bad, it will later be revealed that either it wasn't them at all and it was all a scheme, or they were possessed by the big baddie and therefore not actually responsible for their actions. Can't possibly risk anyone appearing like a realistic person with character depth now, can we?

And don't worry, just in case you have an extremely bad case of media illiteracy with the slightest hint of doubt of anyone's alignment on the binary moral chart, the game will make sure to overexplain literally every tiny detail to you in the worst way possible. You see, the evil woman right at the start? The one who looks really evil and moves really evil and the first thing she does is being mean to the slaves and being dismissive of her own son? In case you didn't get yet that she's evil, there will be guards whispering about how evil she is when she leaves the scene. Also a scene later the good perfect king will point out how evil she is. And worry not, in case you forget in the few hours she's not on screen, characters will make sure to remind you how she has not a single redeeming quality and every breath she has ever taken has been filled with evil.

And this might sound like I'm exaggerating. But the game is like this with Every. Single. Thing. Sometimes I found myself genuinely wondering if the writers were actively trying to insult the player's intelligence with this condescending amount of overexplanation. Characters constantly comment on everything that is visibly happening on screen - for God's sake if you want to make a modern game that moves away from "outdated" mechanics then write it this way. If you show what is going on with detailed realistic graphics, you do not need characters monologuing a description of what they're seeing. You do not need to voice a character saying "I'm sad" when you can clearly see their facial expression. You do not need to make a character loudly ask himself with noone else present by his side "Is he hallucinating?" when showing another character's hallucinations. Old games did that because they had limited visual capabilities. If you sit on your high horse talking about moving the series forward while spitting into your old playerbase's faces, then do it right at the very least.

Once in a while you'll be exposed to some textbook philosophy theories, which in essence wouldn't be a bad idea at all if those philosophies were somehow smartly woven into the game's narrative… but instead you get characters quoting essentially the wikipedia summary of what that philosophy is about and call it a day.

I wish this was the only issue with the game's writing.

3.2 Pacing

This game's pacing is atrocious. Genuinely, utterly awful. And there`s mostly one thing to blame: Sidequests. If you've heard a single criticism for this game even from people who highly praise it, it's this.

The sidequests are absolutely horrendous filler content on so many levels. Gameplay wise they're usually "follow 10 meters of a linear corridor to defeat an enemy and then grab a carrot at the end" fetch quests. Visually they are not just a nose dive but an entire plane crash compared to the well animated main quests, consisting mostly of the same three reused conversation animations from FFXIV (I'm all for reusing assets if it helps developers save time, work smarter not harder, but this one is blatantly obvious in all the worst ways). And the writing.... oh boy.

NPCs go on and on and on and on having the most blandly written expository dialogue. I get that the writer's intention was to give the world a bit of context and make it feel more alive with random people telling you about their life stories and everyday hurdles, but they failed miserably at making this remotely engaging. They may as well have had people read the dictionary. And maybe this would have worked better as purely written textbox dialogue (if about half of the dialogue was cut, which would still leave more than enough padding around the actually relevant information) - but in a game with voice acting, making people audibly speak in ways noone would ever speak to another person, just doesn't work. It's stilted and unnatural, and really awkward to listen to.

Delivery aside, the stories told in these sidequests vary from "farmer's everyday life issues about growing their crops" to "random child ends oppression by convincing an angry mob of adults they shouldn't be stoning someone because that someone has been a valuable asset to their society (by reminding them they need to keep the streets clean) and suddenly every adult in range is free of bigoted feelings". And then everyone in the bus clapped, I guess. And again, I get the intention behind these stories but they're so clumsily written.

And yes, these are sidequests - you are free to ignore them. But they do make up a considerable chunk of the game. And, unfortuantely, a fair handful of the main quests follow this same fetch quest formula.

This game goes long, very long stretches without anything substential happening. And it's good to have downtime to breathe - the game's big main story moments pack a punch in terms of epic adrenaline filled battles. But this game honestly feels like 60 hours of filler fetch quests with the occasional relevant story sequence sprinkled in between.

3.3 Visuals

I'm not a film student so maybe it's not my place to comment on cinematography, but I felt like visually many of the cutscenes were also really... bland. Not necessarily bad looking (if you can see anything behind the millions of particle effects) but it definitely felt like less care was put into choosing narratively interesting image composition compared to a game like FFXII.

And then it also does this really annoying thing where it will constantly fade to black for absolutely no reason.

Character A: Oh that seems like an exciting story! Tell me all about it. Character B: Okay, so this is a long story... [screen fades to black] [screen fades from black to the exact same shot we had before the fade] Character B: So the story goes like this... (starts telling the story you thought was told off screen indicated by the black sreen)

This and similar instances happen fairly often and I just don't get why. It's nothing to hate the game for but it's just... really strange. Just like those really silly "In the meantime..." text overlays for scenes that are very clearly happening in the meantime. Seriously, we get it. You don't have to spell it out. But whatever, this is one of those things I'd look past if it weren't for the whole rest of this trainwreck.

3.4 Characters

Speaking of trainwrecks. [Takes a deep breath] I've avoided this topic for long enough now. This is where the last seams that hold the game together break and make it fall apart entirely. This is where the pile of shit that's been tossed across the room finally hits the fan.

If you're remotely familiar with any Final Fantasy title you know how important a solid cast is to those games. Your allies and party members you meet over the course of the game, their stories and views on the world's happenings... a charismatic villain. Well, how about we just simply didn't have any of that.

3.4.1 The game's biggest mistake

FFXVI's writers made the decision to focus the game's narrative around a single character, our playable protagonist. There is a small supporting cast of characters that you meet, and occasionally travels alongside you temporarily, but most of them have... not much to them. The game makes it clear: This story is about Clive, and him alone.

And... I don't think having a story focused on a single character is necessarily a bad decision per se, even if highly unusual for a series that was driven by party systems for decades, but... If you decide to do that, then your protagonist needs to have more personality than a soggy wet sponge. It's bad enough that pretty much noone in this game has any sort of depth to them, but if you sideline literally every character in favour of your protagonist's narrative then... at least give that protagonist a character?

This man's personality is nothing beyond helping people because it's the right thing to do. The attempted "he feels guilty for killing his brother" (which naturally he didn't actually do, because that would be too complex of a story) subplot gets dropped a few hours in and he's just... that guy who runs everyone's errands with no input of his own. And it doesn't make him unlikeable necessarily, it just makes him terribly boring.

What is really, really grating however is how every other character portrays him. Named characters and unnamed NPCs alike will throw pity parties for him over and over, going on about how he's so self-sacrificial, always doing everything for others while never expecting anything in return and never taking enough care of himself. It's exhausting. We get it. He's the perfect heroic nice guy, just like his (slave having) dad, the unfailable king. And unlike his evil witch of a mother. Who is so evil, by the way. At times I felt like Clive was some sort of dream fantasy guy self insert of the writers.

I'll say it plainly now: the lack of a well developped playable party is, in my opinion, the game's downfall. Clive alone can't carry the narrative because there isn't nearly enough depth to him, and everyone else has deliberately been stripped of any sort of meaningful screentime. Narrative aside I also feel like multiple playable characters would have done a lot for more variety in terms of gameplay. And before you raise your pitchforks - yes, there are few, very few characters that have their own little story moment. But boy... at what cost.

3.4.2 The state of women

! Rape & suicide mention trigger warning for this section !

So you know, Clive's sidekick? No, not the dog, the girl. Jill. The one who spends most of the game sick in bed, kidnapped, or otherwise missing, and whose single personality trait is being Clive's pure and innocent love interest. Surprisingly, she has her own 30 minutes of side story! A side story that essentially boils down to finding out she was held captive by a weird cult that had no relevance prior to this point and will have no relevance at all after this point. You get to beat up the cult's leader who is revealed to sexually assault underage girls.

Is that ever addressed again at any point? No.

But worry not. We still have a few more women in the bigger roles of the game. One of them, Benedikta, is an early game antagonist whose entire thing is seducing men, and most of the screentime she has is sex scenes. Once you defeat her in battle she flees, and a randomly passing by group of bandits is implied to attempt to rape her. This triggers a flashback of a past assault she was rescued from, and she goes mad. You fight her again, now in her powered up form, and kill her. Then she gets decapitated and her head is sent in a box to her lover to fuel his man rage. Don't worry, you'll get more sex scene flashbacks with her after her death.

But hey. We have another woman in a leading role. The supposedly main antagonist before the real big baddie (who is so boring of a villain i can't even get myself to say anything more about him) is revealed to have business with her. Clive's evil slave-mistreating mum. Her purpose in the story is breeding a flawless heir. What fuels this dignified ambition? Hell if I know. She's written in a hateable way for the sake of it. Likely to contrast Clive and his flawless dad. Absolutely zero depth to anything.

Guess her age here.

If you guessed "at least in her 50s" you are correct! Do I even have to say anything more about this.

The moment her perfect heir is killed, she loses it and slits her own throat. A very anticlimatic conclusion to her non-existent character arc.

Yes, there are a couple more secondary female characters who aren't necessarily walking misogyny targets, but they're pretty much irrelevant to the plot.

Here's a quote from my girlfriend, who is a woman, about the state of women in this game: "I have scarcely felt this alienated by the depiction of women in a video game."

! Trigger warning ends here !

So, uh... how do we move on from here... Let's head somewhere less offensive.

3.5 Music

Usually I'd give the soundtrack a lot more attention since I'm of the opinion that music is one of the most vital parts in a game and can absolutely make or break it - but quite frankly I don't have much to say about this one in detail. It's largely generic epic orchestra music with nothing much unique going for it. The regular battle theme is fairly memorable; and then there's that really aggravatingly annoying acoustic guitar ambient song that seems to play for about half of the game's time. Seriously I hate that one. It drove me nuts. In general I don't know if there's more than 10 songs in the OST because I don't think I heard more than that. Either that, or they all sounded the same.

What stuck out negatively to me especially (apart from that godsdamned acoustic guitar) was the overusage of over the top orchestral arrangements for the tiniest occasions, which was unfitting at best and really tiring at worst. I got used to it with time, but still a good soundtrack isn't just making every moment sound like it's as epic as the final boss, it's making varied music that fits the moment and sets the ambience.

Also not to ruin the OST for anyone who actually enjoys it, but the game's leitmotif sounds like Army of Lovers' Crucified. Noticed it during the demo and couldn't unhear it for the entirety of the game. You're welcome.

4. Credit where credit is due

As should be evident by now, I'm not finding much redeemable in this game. And yet - I would be lying if I said I didn't find myself liking some aspects of it.

Some of the armour designs are pretty neat. In general the character design as a whole feels coherent and mostly fits the setting, some questionable haircut choices aside.

There are chocobos. In different colours. They look nice. Not a big surprise, I suppose.

The voice acting is really good. I can't comment much on the English dub since I only watched the demo in English and then watched the full game with a streamer who played in German; but the German voice actors did an amazing job, and I've heard only good things about the English cast as well. Listening to a few comparisons I was surprised how deep English Joshua's voice is. He sounds like a teenage boy even after the last timeskip in German. That took me out a bit. I also realized I'm very partial to Dion's German voice acting. His final scene was extremely strong in that regard.

Speaking of Dion....

4.1 It's personal again

Alright. Listen. I hate this. I fucking hate this. For weeks I suffered through this game, nothing but this burning passionate hatred within me, ready to shred and tear every single aspect of it apart.

And then. So close to the end. In the final stretch. When I've almost made it through with nothing but rage and hatred by my side. This fucking stupid garbage game attacks my one goddamn weak point: The gay prince and his lover share a small "it isn't meant to be" moment. And I genuinely enjoyed the little gestures in that cutscene. It was a good cutscene.

And at this point I was unfortunately confronted with a hard to swallow pill: I had been kinda looking forward to every time Dion showed up on screen. I'll be honest I'm not sure I would have made it through the game without the driving force of "hey maybe he'll show up again". Over time he turned into my single point of fixation, and it's sad because ultimately he too is pretty much a wet sponge of a character, though maybe the least wet and spongy one. I think he does have some of the stronger scenes in the game (as well as the most visually appealing boss battle - whatever was going on with that bullet hell laser fight in space). He's also unfortunately a sad blond Final Fantasy prince and. Uh. Yeah. Ahem. Alas, he's kinda ugly. Subjectively. But he has an absolutely mighty hip swing when he walks. And a pretty cool spear. Good weapon choice.

In general, props to SE for including an unambiguously gay character in a decently written way. We all know this company is pretty behind in terms of diversity and representation, so seeing that was a pleasant surprise.

Anyway I really REALLY hate to admit it but I've been kinda held hostage by the game over this stupid prince. I'm hoping this is a temporary side effect (derogatory) from being exposed to the game for a prolonged amount of time and in a few weeks I won't care anymore. I hate it here.

5. Conclusion

When I finally finished watching the game after having spent 2 entire months with it I was mostly asking myself one question... What is worse in regards to an art medium? To hate it so intensely that you're willing to dive into every little aspect of it; or to feel complete indifference?

I can't tell you if I think FFXVI is the worst game in the series. It's the one I feel the most passionate hate for, that's for sure. But a game like FFXV seems so inherently unappealing I don't even care to look at it. Not because I think I'll dislike it any more, I just think it will bore me. (Irrelevant side note - I do plan to finally watch a playthrough of that one too in the future. Might as well commit now.)

There are aspects of FFXVI I do think are inexcusable in an objective way; delicate topics handled badly, developers that need an attitude check, and also... by god go meet a woman in real life, please.

For a game that was said to modernize and move the series forward, it makes terribly outdated choices in many regards. It somehow tries so hard to be a departure from the other games in the series, losing a lot of what makes a good Final Fantasy game, and simultaneously clings so hard to references that feel so empty when the core of these games has been trampled on. No amount of preludes and FF1 overworld theme rearrangements and corny "this will be your final fantasy" puns can bring the series' essence back that this game failed to capture. A sense of adventure, a compelling story with a meaningful cast of companions, a world to explore beyond grey corridors.

It should have been a spin-off, not a main title game. Obviously a different name wouldn't have changed the quality of the game, but I can't shake off the feeling that had it been called FFXIV: The Offline Singleplayer Experience (which quite frankly it feels like in many regards), I might have been a bit more lenient with my judgement.

Still...public reception of the game seems, surprisingly, fairly mixed. My fears of the game being hailed as the second coming of Christ didn't actually become true. At the very least the gameplay is oftentimes heavily criticized. And while I really have to wonder if all the people who praise the story and character writing have watched the same thing as I have, seeing the game actually receive some nuanced opinions from both people who like and dislike it alike is a refreshing twist I didn't expect. (Just in case this comes across wrong: I don't consider my opinions to be nuanced. I'm just a hater. But I'm right. Ha.)

Well... uh... After all this I don't quite know how to end this. I feel like I've said more than anyone should say about this game and somehow nothing of substance at all. Topical, I suppose. Oh well. Congrats (I guess) to this game for sparking something in me (negative) no other game has ever done before. For all it's worth, it strengthened my bond to some of the older entries I used to judge more harshly. I know better now.

-----

If you're the single person who made it this far, I think you deserve to have some pictures. Here's my favourite battle phase: (Something about those symmetrical orb patterns was very aesthetically pleasing. Better in motion though.)

And here's an exclusive look at parts of my initial draft and some discord liveblogging:

anyway peace out ✌️ go watch dions death scene in german

#this is my villain origin story #and also the unskippable cutscene villain monologue i'll drop 3/4th through the story

[starleska]

I'm not gonna lie, you're really convincing me to start writing/drawing/animating Y/N x Wally Darling stuff...

You have great concepts and the simp in me is being fed and I love it AHEGAJAGAJA I just worry that there's a chance that Clown had advised against it and I've yet to see that in a post somewhere in the past. But seeing as you're enjoying writing all the Reader x Wally Darling stuff with no worries (good on you btw!), it's all okay right?

/nm /gen

hey there Laurs!! aww, thank you very much 🥰💖 i love getting messages from people inspired by my fanworks, it makes my heart all fuzzy!! just a little endless cycle of good vibes and creativity :3c now, the bulk of your ask is a tough one to answer!! i know i've posted a lot of fanworks for Welcome Home, but at the end of the day, i'm just a fan like anyone else, trying to do my best to respect Clown's wishes. honestly, given the chance i would love to talk to them and ask these specific questions that a lot of fans have been firing in my direction. i have reached out, but understand those messages have likely been drowned under thousands of others!!

so @partycoffin, on the off-chance you're reading this: i hope you're doing well, and taking care of yourself in this terrifying, exciting time!! thank you for sharing your lovely world with us - we're all just so in love with your characters and universe 🥰💖 if you'd like to talk, please feel free to reach out. it would be great to know that you're okay, and i'd be happy to field any questions you have about your bustling new fandom (who have been destroying my own notifications for the past two weeks!!). it may be presumptuous of me, but perhaps having an inside look on what questions fans have might help make this explosive growth seem a little less scary. however, there's no obligation to reply - we're thankful all the same :3c

as far as i am aware at the time of writing this post, i don't think Clown has any problems with Wally x Anon/Reader/Y/N fanworks...or at least, i haven't come across any sources stating so.

the big thing that (if i'm understanding the guidelines correctly) is that Clown doesn't want us to be putting any NSFW Welcome Home material into the main tags. we have to remember that Welcome Home has blown up very quickly, and Clown deserves a chance to breathe and adjust to all this success before laying out those boundaries (if he wishes!). that's why, although i do write NSFW for other fandoms i'm refraining from doing so for Welcome Home until stated otherwise. i can't imagine how stressful it must be dealing with so many notifications, people impersonating, trying to sell their work, exhibiting invasive and creepy behaviour...on top of the overwhelming demand for new Welcome Home stuff. i think as fans we should just vibe and play in our own little bubbles without stressing them out too much, and adjust when we receive new information. for instance, i didn't know when i made my Wally Darling edit that they were uncomfortable with non-canon art being associated with the main game. i've since reached out to see if i should take the video down with no reply, and went with the consensus of a group of fans i asked for the opinions of - to leave it up until asked otherwise. pretty much - i don't think Wally Darling x Anon fanworks contravene the guidelines that Clown has given us so far. they aren't inherently NSFW, and i'd hope that anyone who is making NSFW fanworks is tagging appropriately, as is the courteous thing to do. i'm of the opinion that fans are going to do fandom things, and there's always going to be folks making adult-oriented works, and that's okay!! but i'm also always happy to respect the wishes of the creator in terms of how they'd like that work to be tagged and presented. i think Toby Fox did it best when he first suggested the 'Undertail' tag for NSFW works - a real stroke of genius that i see lots of fandoms still using today. again, do take this with a grain of salt! i don't know Clown, and very few of us do - we're just all interpreting his words in vastly different ways, and that must be terrifying to deal with; thousands of people getting very angry or very sad because they think they can or cannot do a specific thing they never actually said. it's not anyone's fault that Welcome Home blew up so suddenly and there wasn't time for precautions to be taken, but it is the fault of those fans who are overstepping boundaries and need to re-examine their relationship to this art. it sounds like you're good to go on making those animations, and i would personally love to see them 🥰 thanks again for being so sweet about my silly headcanons!! it's honestly been quite scary adjusting to the amount of attention, but please know i'm grateful and appreciative of every ask, reply and message that comes my way 💖

#caveat: i am not an authority here - just a fan trying to do their best to be respectful! i hope this helps 💖 #welcome home #welcome home arg #wally darling x reader #starleskasks #starleskatalks

[acacia-may]

Thank you for the ask, now it's my turn 💘 Nozel x Vanessa from Black Clover? (I know, I'm biased^^') Elfman x Evergreen from Fairy Tail? Isogai x Meg from Assassination Classroom? Mustang x Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist? Sorry, might have went a bit overboard^^'

Hello there friend! Thank you so much for playing and for asking about such fun pairings! 💕 I don't think I've ever been asked anything about Assassination Classroom or Fullmetal Alchemist before so I am so excited for this ^^

(Warnings: I do talk about a Fullemetal Alchemist spoiler, but I tried to steer clear of spoilers when discussing the other pairings. I'm putting it all under the cut just to be safe though).

Nozel x Vanessa

I'm honestly kind of neutral to this ship. I don't have anything against it, but it's probably something I wouldn't have thought about if I wasn't asked about it or if it wasn't requested from me. Since they haven't interacted in the canon, it's hard for me to imagine what their dynamic would be like and how they would get together, so I wouldn't say it makes sense to me to me personally and it doesn't really compel me since I ship both Vanessa and Nozel more with other characters (and some friends' OCs) than with each other.

That said, I have read some really enjoyable fanfictions about them. Yours especially are really lovely and really helped me to see & understand this pairing so thank you so much for that and for sharing your passion for them. 💕I have always been really impressed by this pairing's fans who I have a lot of respect for. I've even written about them a little myself, but only on request since I don't think it's a dynamic I'd really write about much on my own just given my personal preferences and how I personally prefer to imagine and think about the characters. But that's just me and my personal opinions. I can definitely see the appeal of the ship and think it could be a fun pairing--it's just not my personal favorite.

Elfman x Evergreen

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! They're without a doubt in my top 3 favorite ships in Fairy Tail, and I was so excited every single time they appeared and interacted with each other. Their banter is just glorious. I have rambled about them in the past, so I apologize for repeating myself but these two are just that perfect balance between hilarious and adorable, in my opinion. On a certain level they both have such big personalities that are so wildly different from each other that it's almost goofy to think of them actually working out in relationship, but they complement each other so perfectly and have such a strong foundation of trust and mutual respect which I honestly wasn't expecting at first but was wonderful and delightful. I think the story does such a good job of showing us that they protect each other, sacrifice for each other, and want the best for each other, and ultimately they care about each other deeply, even if they don't always show it, so I do feel like they make a lot of sense as a pairing and, needless to say, I find it extremely compelling.

Isogai x Meg

I'll be honest and tell you that it has been quite a few years since I have read Assassination Classroom and seen the anime, and I forgot about these characters and this pairing and had to google it 😅 (I'm so sorry 🙈). As soon as I saw them though, I had this visceral, squealy "Oh my gosh! It's THEM!!" reaction and remembered being very invested in their relationship. Friends to lovers is probably my favorite ship trope, and (from what I remember) Isogai and Meg work so well together and have so much genuine admiration and respect for each other. Also there is just something so special and so compelling about inter-student-governmental relationships to me (A/N: Total tangent here but I think it goes back to one of my favorite childhood cartoons where there's an episode where these friends were pitted against each other in this really intense campaign to become class president, and (spoilers but) she won by one vote, specifically him voting for her because she had actual principles and ideas for improving the school but he just wanted to win. And oh my gosh I ship that to this day, and I think it has given me this intense affinity for these inter-student governmental relationships. Don't even get me started about my favorite pairings from Fruits Basket and Kaguya-Sama Love Is War that fit in this category. I just really, really, really enjoy this trope). Anyways...my goodness they are so cute! All it took was a short scroll through google images and a brief readthrough of their pages on the wiki to make me remember how much I really adored these two and their dynamic and relationship. I can vividly remember being so excited in the Valentine's Day episode when she gave him that chocolate. ^^

I think Isogai and Meg are really strong characters on their own also, which I really like and appreciate. Isogai is so hardworking, caring, and sincere, and Meg is so strong but so kind as well. And it's so lovely to see the two of them coming together and combining their strengths to become real leaders in their class and build each other and the other characters up. In summary, yes I think this pairing makes a lot of sense, and it definitely compels me personally. Thank you so much for reminding me about them and how much I loved them! 💖 I really want to rewatch Assassination Classroom now...

Roy Mustang x Riza Hawkeye

I may have actually squealed when I saw that you had asked about this pairing because my gosh I have no words for how invested I am in this relationship. If I felt I could write either of them and their dynamic with any semblance of justice, I would probably be writing fics about them non-stop, but I have never trusted myself to be able to do that, so they just live rent-free in my mind in incredibly convoluted scenarios about how they would somehow repeal or circumvent the non-fraternization law in order to get married (A/N: my favorite theory is that they throw another inter-military couple under the bus and use them as the poster-children of repealing the law, turning their wedding into an international spectacle before ultimately taking advantage of the repeal of the law to quietly marry themselves...but I digress).

Anyways, I don't even know what I can possibly say about this ship. Their bond with each other is so deep and so strong that even if they never get together in a romantic sense (which I would honestly be okay with as long as they just always stay together in a platonic sense. I don't need them to kiss...though that would nice...), I honestly just can't imagine either of them with anyone else romantically (which is very rare for me to say about a pairing since I tend to multi-ship). They are one of my favorite parts of the series every time I reread the manga or watch Brotherhood and that scene in the Third Laboratory where Riza thinks he is dead and just sort of breaks, gets me every single time. Even when I know it's coming, I still get so emotional about it. Her devotion and loyalty to him is unbelievable but so compelling, and the best part is that he is equally as devoted and loyal to her as well.

I can't fault this pairing at all. I think they're perfect for each other, and I'm so excited I got to ramble about them a little bit so thank you so much for that (also this my sister's ultimate OTP of all time and I can't wait to teasingly brag to her that someone actually wrote into my blog to ask me to talk about them lol). ^^

#thank you so much for the ask #this was so much fun vilandel!! #some of my all time favorite ships in here! so excited!! #isogai x meg #elfman x evergreen #roy x riza #ship ask games

[updownlately]

okay so bear with me here, but i just wanted to lay my personal opinion down on this because other opinions have been expressed regarding this and i didn't really say my piece on this specific part yet.

im not trying to drag lj down here, or bring this back up for her to be dragged. i just want to state my piece here in regards to the conversations we've been having since last night.

regarding the conversations that have been occurring on this blog in the past 24 hours about lj and katie's behaviour, and with lj's wc behaviour being brought up, i said that (and i quote) "the lack of apology irked me the most! that and how the attention was directed to racial abuse." and "the fact that such a key issue wasn’t even touched upon is frankly extremely disappointing from the lionesses, chelsea, and lj herself."

i honestly still stand firm in my stance and here is why.

***adding a cut bc this shit got kinda long

i've attached the two main apologies i've found, one from the lionesses, and one from lj (her tweet).

the reason that i personally am not satisfied with the response and why i said lack of apology, is because i feel that the words said were not enough. yes sorry was said. yes, it mentioned the actions and remorse that lj felt. but for me, 'really sorry' doesn't cut it. that combined with 'wholly out of character for her' doesn't sit right with me.

we know this isn't out of character. and personally, actions speak louder than words, and the immediate walk out without a single change in facial expression when the incident originally occurred + every. single. time. it has occurred since is insane. this isn't a one time behaviour. being 'really sorry' doesn't cut it. yes you can respect another player and whatnot, but if you're going to let your emotions consistently negatively dictate how you treat them on the pitch, and it being with anything other than respect, that is where i don't see the apology being more than pixels on a screen meant to placate the (rightfully) enraged public.

could i see it a fit apology if action was taken to prevent this from happening again in the future? abso-freaking-lutely!!

but that's the issue for me. nothing has changed. literally nothing.

i caught part of the city vs chelsea game that occurred a few days ago, and as the clock got closer to the end, it was clear how each of lj's tackles and shoves got more and more dangerous. heck, she absolutely bodied a player in the air when it was unnecessary. that could've ended so poorly and im glad it didn't, but i digress.

i'm thinking of the walti incident because its the first that comes to mind as an arsenal fan. the clearly placed stomp. the indifferent look. the walkout without a single hesitation or look of remorse. that isn't the behaviour of someone who is sorry for their actions. that behaviour then isn't 'out of character'.

so then coming back to lj's apology. is she really sorry? or is she sorry it was caught? that too at such a big stage? and where was the attempt to 'learn from my experience'? because honestly? i don't see it.

and i don't doubt there's been more instances like this, ones that i haven't seen (i don't watch chelsea games that often, the timing of most wsl games isn't convenient for me since many occur from 4-7 am and i have commitments during the day). but they seem to be a reoccurring theme.

so yes. there was an apology issued. no i don't think it was a good apology in the least and the behavioural aspect wasn't touched upon. the incident was treated like a one off occurrence (which it clearly isn't).

this all gets furthered by the fact (and i can't rmb who so please forgive me and educate me here if possible), but it was either chelsea or the lionesses that released a statement about racial abuse.

now, i'm not disagreeing that racial abuse occurred, and im definitely not saying that it was okay.

it wasn't okay. racial abuse is never okay and never will have a space in the football that i know of (or anywhere for that matter). period. full stop.

and so yes, i agree with their statement. but to me, it felt as if the red card situation was brushed under the rug.

now, don't get me wrong. racial abuse is totally is extremely important and should be kept to a zero in any situation whatsoever and im glad there was a statement released regarding that matter.

but i recall that when i read that statement, i personally felt as if it was more of a deflection than a stance, and that is what didn't sit right with me.

now, i could totally be wrong there. i understand there's a innumerable amount of perspectives here. i'm merely going off my opinion and what i felt when reading that statement. everyone had a different experience/reaction to it and i can recognize and respect that. all i ask if you respect my take even if you don't agree with it.

(i've lost my train of thought so bear with me if it gets a bit murky here)

but yeah, for me, all of that combined really just made me feel that the apology wasn't adequate, given the severity of the situation.

don't get me wrong. i think lj's is a generational talent. i really do. her footwork, her body feints, her ability to score rockets and find pockets of space that barely exist for more than a second is absolutely insane!

but while i can recognize she's a fantastic player, i don't have to be satisfied with the apology she gave during those times. and i'm not.

is it a weird line to balance for me? 100%. it is something i think about quite often to be honest.

as someone who likes to say they have a concrete set of morals, ethics, values, and whatnot that i like to follow, this is tough for me to navigate. it's very much in the grey area and the lines do get blurred.

im astonished by lj's skill level, but i can't find it in myself to 'rep' her as a player like i do with my other favourites or players that i think are outstanding.

the behaviour doesn't sit right with me and it influences how i perceive her as a footballer and a person, and that's just the way it is.

so all in all, if you've made it this far: a) congrats on making it through my word vomit! thank you really. b) this is my personal take/opinion. all i ask is you try and understand where i may be coming from before you attack me, should you choose to do so. c) im a barely twenty-smt kid tryna navigate life. this is new territory for me, i'm not perfect and i know it. could i be absolutely wrong? yes. but does this stance feel correct to me right now? yes.

and yeah.

at the end of the day. no, that apology wasn't acceptable in my opinion. you can accept it should you choose to wish so, i just won't be. not yet atleast.

anyways, thanks for coming to my ted talk lmao

-blu

#holy fuck this got long #y'all wanted a fic? i give you this instead #sorry i just really wanted to put this out there even if only one person reads this #tho(ugh)ts #blu's takes #lauren james

[eroticfriendfictions]

what are your thoughts on how BB has changed from like season 1 and 2 to now? I haven’t watched every episode to say too much about it but the earlier seasons just seemed more… wild lol. like I rewatch some of the early episodes and I’m like “oh my god, this is unhinged. what is happening” but it’s a good thing!! just wondered what your thoughts were since you’ve watched BB way more than I have

The earlier seasons were definitely more wild and unhinged and I honestly really miss it. Man, remember when stuff actually happened? When there were robberies and drugs and hostage situations and sexy music? We don't get that anymore. I started to notice the change around season 6 with some plots being kind of blah compared to before, but I think it's gotten really really noticeable in the past 3-4 seasons. As a result, the past few seasons have been significantly less funny, less memorable, and less worthy of a rewatch. I don't even recommend the show to people anymore, or if I do it's with a disclaimer of seasons 1-7 only.

This isn't like a secret or anything, I just haven't talked tons about it here, but I'm actually like 2 fandoms removed from Bob's at this point. I still watch new episodes and I still like chatting with fans every now and then, but I don't feel the same about the show as I used to. If there hadn't been this big shift in tone, maybe I still would.

#tbh watching some eps this season i just find myself thinking #'okay but why do i care?' #like they introduce the story and i just don't care how it ends at all #damn #important answers to important questions #edwardssnail