#hes too op and has too much exposition
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fall river massachusetts late 1892-1893 dash simulator
🥃 remember1794 Follow
lmaoo of course l*zz*e was a member of the temperance movement….. broads like that are always the worst
📿 godbeliever Follow
and??? are you saying that being against the overconsumption of alcohol is somehow akin to being a brutal murderer?????
🥃 remember1794 Follow
yes
🪓 bordenupdates
dont bother engaging with remember1794 his entire blog is posts about the whisky rebellion of 1794 or about how much he hates women
#notborden
7,394 notes
👒 gibsons-a-girl Follow
look all im saying is that miss lizzie is unmarried and hasn’t had ANY suitors… and maggie is unwed too. im just saying!
👞 shoeshiningisawomansduty Follow
im so tired of you sapphists projecting your filthy disease onto everyone. no one cares.
👒 gibsons-a-girl Follow
thats not what your mother said to me last night
👒 gibsons-a-girl Follow
wait why is your blog just photographs of mens footwear
#wild ass site
1,808 notes
❄️ alaskafan Follow
i think the uncle did it bc what the fuck kind of middle name is vinnicum
❄️ alaskafan Follow
AND hes a butcher ? might as well write murderer on his head lmaoooooooo
❄️ alaskafan Follow
bordenupdates just vagueposted about me
#hope this is ok to rb op bc LMAO
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🐋 righttowhale Follow
ever since the 1850s big petroleum has been working to destroy the whaling industry, backed by the naturalists who find a problem with the hunting of whales, despite there being an abundance of the beasts in the sea! do not reject whaling – trust when whale experts say that these creatures will never be at a serious risk, don't fall for the propaganda of big petroleum
⚓️ sunkenmen
what the fuck are you talking about. did a whale kill your parents or something.
🐋 righttowhale Follow
yes, actually.
⚓️ sunkenmen
. sorry
#sorry for your loss but your politics suck
94,726 notes
📿 godbeliever Follow
i don't believe that women are capable of a crime so brutal. even when judith slayed holofernes, she did so by the guiding of God. her actions were virtuous in nature. women, being of the fairer sex, who serve God as lizzie does are not capable of a murder so foul. jezebel was able to do as she did because she spurned Him.
👒 gibsons-a-girl Follow
stop lumping sapphist lizzie defenders with these freaks.
#this discourse has been incredible #anyway block godbeliever
3,552 notes
🕯 literate-lover-19
the adventures of sherlock holmes my beloved
2 notes
🧺 thepoppypamphleteer Follow
theres nothing wrong an opium reliance.
🧺 thepoppypamphleteer Follow
i always wanted to fuck her
437 notes
🧵 spindlecity
does anyone wanna take me to the columbia exposition :( i know its in illinois but still
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if you think about it, orv is an isekai that completely turns isekai concepts on its head.
one of the main goals of (crappy) isekai is wish-fulfillment-- it’s really easy to insert yourself into the mc’s position and imagine that you’re currently the one inserted into this new world as its op protagonist. and at first, orv seems to follow this basic trope-- kdj’s favorite novel comes to life around him and he’s literally turned from an average office worker to the most knowledgeable being in the world in mere minutes. you can see how it’s similar to a lot of other isekai expositions, and how it could be easy to make kdj a self-insert for a lot of readers.
and then as you dive deeper into the novel, it becomes clear that wish-fulfillment is not one of orv’s goals. kdj is a very unique character with an interesting backstory from before the transition to the new world, something most isekai mcs don’t have or don’t dwell on too much. the lack of backstories from their life in the old world is too make sure not to throw off the immersion of the reader into the mc for that maximum wish fulfillment. but kdj has ppl from before and backstories from before that impact him a lot and make it clear that orv is not that kind of isekai. it’s harder for him to be that sort of blank slate wish fulfillment type of character because of his unique past and motivations.
and of course, this all flips on its head again as you discover that, yeah it’s not wish fulfillment for you, but it was all kdj’s wishes coming true for him. it’s an isekai inside of an isekai, in a way. it’s an isekai wish-fulfillment self-insert fanfic not for you, but for kim dokja. which is already a pretty insane concept, but of course orv takes it even further after that.
because in the very end, the story expands from kdj’s world to the oldest dream’s world to the readers’ world, making the ending a literal wish-fulfilling conclusion that brings the readers’ wishes for kdj’s revival to life.
like orv is actually insane for pulling all that off.
#orv#omniscient reader's viewpoint#orv spoilers#kim dokja#anyway uhhhh many thoughts#like the initial concept of orv is pretty cool cuz its sort like reverse isekai instead of the og sorta thing#but even then i thought it would get stale after awhile when the novelty of kdj's knowledge started wearing off#but it never did#bc kdj and the side chars kept growing in ways that don't happen in isekais a lot#and the plot develops in interesting ways that ive never seen before#and obv the weird meta stuff just kept getting more meta which was really cool#and in the end the plot twists on itself so much that its evolved way past its initial#'oh wow i woke up and my fav novel is reality' concept#anyway there are def more ways that orv subverts some isekai concepts but like this is all i can think of for now
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"Destruction" is the worst episode of Miraculous Ladybug
Oh hey guys, remember way back in April or something when I said I was doing this? Well, the one year anniversary of its premiere is a suitable time to post this, particularly since yesterday saw the airing of the last piece of canon to come out in a while, which happened to be set immediately after these events.
With the always obligatory reminder in place that I generally think that “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir” is in fact a good TV show whose appeal potentially reaches beyond its merchandise-mandated target group, it has an unflattering pattern of introducing the juiciest story threads and then just… do nothing about them.
The topic of today’s sermon isn't in isolation the worst offender. But it is thanks to this that the worst offender happens at all, so I'm not gonna be nice about it.
Scroll past to skip the negativity.
So, “Destruction”, possibly the most eagerly awaited episodes of out S5 if you don’t count all the false advertisement that was “Revelation”. I remember finding this episode uncharacteristically charmless for this show when I first watched it. They've been onto heavy topics before, but those episodes still had that je ne sais quoi that gives this show such heart. But re-watching "Destruction" I found it lacking already from the first scene, and felt it only in glimpses. It's just not fun.
The episode is also poorly paced, no way around it. It is inexplicably a flashback to two episodes ago which is not evident from the start. More than half the runtime technically consists of Marinette and Alya having a sleepover. The battle and its game-changing outcome is over at 12 minutes into the episode, which is barely past the halfway point. After that, we spend five minutes - a quarter of the episode's full runtime - on a flashback re-playing the same battle but now with verbal exposition explaining Marinette's clever plan. Mind that the confrontation between Marinette and Gabriel lasts for all of seven minutes, meaning that the flashback is nearing the length of the battle itself.
To top it of, it's bogged down with lengthy exchange between Gabriel and the kwamis just to make clear that the haters on the twitter were totally wrong when they bitched about Orikko being OP because actually its powers were something else than we established last season. Here's a bonus plot hole which has nothing to do with everything else I'm going to nag about: Orikko allegedly can't give out the powers of time-travel because no kwami can replicate another kwami's powers. Except for Nooroo and Duusu, I guess, who have done so on several occasions. One of the more remarkable being the episode which first heralded the event that "Destruction" set in motion: "Timetagger".
And who can forget that this was the second time in three episodes where Ladybug and Cat Noir had Monarch at their mercy but spent so much time giving triumphant speeches that he gets away.
Or that that in fact was the second time on the same night.
But while those things certainly make the episode poor, they are not what makes it the worst.
What makes this episode the worst isn't its technical failures, but about the way it leaves its feces all over the themes and the character arcs it seemed like the show had been building up until this point. Moreover: in the role it plays in S5 and the Agreste storyline, and how the show's refusal to touch it again creates a black hole in the season at large, and arguably in the show as a whole.
I. THE INESCAPABLE CONTEXT OF WHAT CAME BEFORE IT
The art of telling a story is the art of highlighting what matters and leaving out what doesn’t. In a well-crafted story, no matter the medium, no detail is insignificant. Every word is carefully chosen, every line or hue made with intention. The curtains aren’t blue just because, and Miraculous Ladybug has made too many meta jokes to hide behind the claim that it’s just a silly rom-com for kids. It has trained its older audience into looking for context and connections; after “Mr. Pigeon 72”, you can’t insist that nothing that happened earlier in this show matters for what happens later. Titles matter a lot in a show where episodes are titled after the villain-of-the-week who usually is the thematic mirror to what our heroes are going through.
“Destruction” is the fourth episode somehow named after Adrien, and the third somehow named after Plagg. You bet this matters.
As some might know, "Kuro Neko" is not my favourite episode. That's not to say I don't like it! It's cute! It's playing a really interesting scenario! We get Plagg hanging out at chez Marinette! But to enjoy it, I have to willfully ignore the storytelling incompetence it flagrantly displays. Because the moment you peek beneath the surface of the events happening to consider theme, motifs, and narrative parallels, it's just
"Kuro Neko" is the second episode that is named after Cat Noir. The first one was "Cat Blanc". There is a thematic connection between the two; not a very clear one and probably not an intentional one, but all the same: both episodes are about an alternative to Cat Noir. One is the result of his father's violence; the other is Adrien's own attempt to become more like the person he presents around his father. They also both show us Plagg and Adrien negotiation Adrien's relationship to Ladybug, and how Ladybug and Cat Noir negotiate that same thing.
"Cat Blanc", for all its apocalyptic visions, starts and ends with hope. It starts with Marinette’s hope at confessing to Adrien, to Adrien’s hope in finally knowing Ladybug’s identity and knowing her like he’s yearned for for three seasons. Those hopes lead to disaster, but the episode ends with Ladybug finding Cat Noir on the Montparnasse Tower, where he is singing his lullaby about the kitty being "all alone without his Lady". As is fitting, Marinette breaks the pattern: after having just witnessed a world turned to destruction because the two of them loved each other, she leans her head on his shoulder in perhaps the most romantic gesture she's ever given him.
"Kuro Neko", in contrast, starts with Adrien resigning the job when he realises that Ladybug no longer needs him and that makes him feel bad. It ends with him coming back and verbally accepting that Ladybug doesn't owe him any exclusive treatment; he isn't her unique partner, just one of many. Where the final scene of "Cat Blanc" seemed to confirm that Ladybug is indeed the answer to Adrien's solitude, the final scene of "Kuro Neko" and its continuation in the first scene in "Risk" both make clear that the opposite is now status: Adrien has to accept the painful fact that as much as Ladybug might be the most important person in his life, Cat Noir does not hold a similar space in Ladybug's.
(The end of “Strike Back” of course claims to remedy this, but those words don’t ring very true when to Marinette’s knowledge, nothing of what went wrong today had anything to do with her keeping secrets from Cat Noir. More damning: Marinette never follows up on her purported regret. In all of S5, she never once sits down to share all those secrets with Cat Noir. Status from "Kuro Neko" still stands, and Adrien is fine with that now. This has nothing to do with the many problems “Destruction” creates, but talking about “Kuro Neko” by necessity means talking about how it wasn’t fixed even if they put the words in Marinette’s mouth. And now back to our scheduled programming)
"Cat Blanc" and "Kuro Neko" by their very existence bring up a thorny topic: That Adrien being Cat Noir isn't wholly unproblematic, and that both Adrien as an individual and Ladybug as the Guardian might have legitimate reasons to question that choice. This has always been obvious to the viewer who knows Hawkmoth’s identity, but the show itself eventually starts calling attention to that from an entirely different angle - namely that of his powers.
Lest we forget: The first episode of S4 that aired wasn't the first episode chronologically: It was "Furious Fu", wherein we learn that The Order of the Guardians has it out for Plagg specifically, and where Ladybug's status as The Guardian is almost revoked on the grounds that she's letting him run around unsupervised. This question of Plagg's whereabouts comes up again in the only episode that is named after Adrien sans Plagg: "Ephemeral", a re-play of “Cat Blanc” except not good. This whole subplot is quickly forgotten, though it being the only one of Su-Han's complaints that weren't about him being a boomer, it's also worth remember that "Destruction" technically happens a couple of hours after he made his last appearance. One might expect that his one consistent lesson would be important enough to echo a bit in the episode where it’s proven to be justified.
"Destruction", as not only one very early episode of the season promising to finally bring about some significant and not the least permanent changes to their lives, but indeed an episode happening on the same night as Ladybug's declaration of regret and Cat Noir's renewed declaration to be her partner, would by its title and its topic seem like the obvious place to finally resolve what "Cat Blanc" and "Kuro Neko" both asked us to question: The existential terror of Plagg's powers, why it is that Adrien is uniquely chosen to temper them at Ladybug’s side, and how Adrien feels about being the one to carry that responsibility.
Yeah. Well.
II. ADRIEN'S PRESENCE IN "DESTRUCTION"
Where "Kuro Neko" and "Cat Blanc" place significant focus on Adrien Agreste in his civillian life, in "Destruction" he appears on screen for a total of 25 seconds - most of which are another flashback to a previous episode, and whose purpose is to highlight Gabriel's hurt from the cataclysm, not Adrien's thoughts about what is happening.
Cat Noir's presence is also marginal. Three minutes of screentime pass from his first appearance until the battle is over. Said battle is the turning point in the war between the heroes and Monarch, thanks to neither Ladybug's powers nor Monarch and all the kwamis, but Monarch using Cat Noir's powers for an impulsive act of self-mutilation. Cat Noir is distraught over this, turning desperate when Monarch first start toying with the idea and being near tears after he carries it out.
I'll get back to the impact of this event, but for now I'll point out that the aftermath is brief: After Monarch escapes, our heroes have this exchange:
LB: We had him, we almost had him! The kwamis were safe, they were right here!
CN: I cataclysmed him! I can't believe this, I just cataclysmed someone! Granted it was Monarch, but - there was a real person behind that mask, and it must have hurt him terribly! Milady, you gotta fix this!
LB: Cat Noir, Monarch just ran away with my lucky charm! Without it, I can't fix anything. I can't call on my powers and undo the effect of the cataclysm. There's nothing I can do...
We then cut to the slumber party, where Marinette tells Alya that she and Cat Noir "split up" immediately after, and Alya comforts her. From this point in the episode, Cat Noir and Adrien only appear in flashbacks. First a fifty-second flashback wherein Marinette sets up her convoluted plans, then a few seconds of him moving his statue in the wax museum before Monarch appears.
In the episode that more than anything should thematise Adrien, Plagg's powers, and his relationship to his father, Adrien is on screen for a whooping four minutes and twenty seconds.
And because I am that devoted to proving my point, I went and timed all of Alya's on-and-off appearances, which clocked in at a total of five minutes and six seconds.
Alya is of course core to the slumber party which frames the setting of the entire episodes. Moreover, it is with Alya that the emotional arc of the episode ends: it starts with Marinette tormenting hersef watching a Ladyblog report about Monarch's recent win, for which Alya chastises her. The last scene (before Gabriel pulverises the miraculous) has Alya reassure Marinette that she will get the kwamis back. When she regrets her lack of superpowers, Marinette in turn reassures her that Alyas true superpower is being her friend. The journey of the episode was for Marinette to stop blaming herself for messing up, and learning to rely on Alya's support in the new turn the war has taken.
...
IN THE EPISODE WHERE ADRIEN KILLS HIS FATHER.
III. SIR NOT-APPEARING-IN-THIS-FILM
In the episode where Gabriel commits suicide on his son's miraculous, here are some things that got more screentime than the son forced into using his only source of liberation to kill his father:
Flashbacks to past events (four minutes and fourty-five seconds)
Alya (five minutes six seconds)
The kwamis (six minutes and nine seconds)
Bet you can't guess which one is the only kwami who doesn't appear in this episode!
...okay, and Duusu, but you get the point. In the episode detonating the nuke that is the gruesome potential of Plagg's powers, and the potential damage Adrien might deal with them, Plagg never appears on screen.
In the episode highlighting the presence of the kwamis and their importance to their holders, the kwami whose presence is the most thematically tied to his holder's character arc is completely absent.
In the episode irreparably going into the only kwami whose powers is straight up murder, the kwami who The Guardians have singled out specifically as particularly dangerous, the kwami whose irresponsible nature has previously caused problems both to Adrien privately and Cat Noir professionally, said kwami is never even mentioned.
It's almost as if we're not supposed to remember that it is because of his presence that this whole tragedy was possible.
IV. THE EXISTENCE-DEFINING HORROR OF A CATACLYSM GONE WRONG
And ain’t that a funny one, when the gruesome potential in Plagg’s powers was the driving factor in Adrien’s first true crisis as a hero?
Marinette faced her moment in "Origins", where she gave up on her miraculous after the first disastrous attempt. She knows that she is the only one who can do something about the situation, but refuses out of her own lacking courage. She only becomes Ladybug of her own choice when she realises that she can save Alya's life. After this, Marinette never again questioned her place. She would grieve the burden on occasion, but she never once thought anyone else could do better.
Adrien, as we all know, was the polar opposite: he jumped right into it without reading the manual, had to have Ladybug pick up the pieces after a rash cataclysm, and never doubted his calling again until he realised what Plagg’s powers could do when used on a living being.
The NYC special has Adrien quit for reasons that had nothing to do with being unsatisfied with Ladybug's HR policies. It is in part because he effed up his duty as Paris' substitute guardian, but it's certainly also because of the recent horror he just witnessed: his hand forced by someone else nearly killed Ladybug, and killed Uncanny Valley instead as she stepped between them. Adrien just saw a mother weeping over her daughter's corpse, and how only the lucky presence of Ladybug's powers could undo the damage caused by his, unintentional thought it might have been. Adrien would of course never kill anyone on purpose, but Uncanny Valley’s temporary malfunction was a brutal display of what would happen if he stumbled the wrong direction with the gun loaded. Ladybug might have the duty to protect Paris, but Cat Noir has the duty to not to disintegrate people on touch.
The show never before discussed the weight of this burden in Adrien’s presence. “Cat Blanc” did it from Marinette’s side, but this never was a consistent story thread, only briefly brought up as her remembering why his knowing her identity is a bad idea. The sabbatical in “Kuro Neko” has nothing to do with Plagg or with Adrien’s sense of duty, and where you’d think this would be where Marinette finally brings up the issue bridging the NYC special and “Cat Blanc”, neither of the two are as much as alluded to. That Adrien has the power of murder has yet to be explicitly discussed in the show proper, but in combination with his personal relationship to Hawkmoth being a ticking irony bomb, the question of can he even bear it is inevitable.
That Adrien’s post as Cat Noir wasn’t as given as Marinette’s as Ladybug is echoed in the amount of times that Adrien has either quit or at least contemplated doing so (“Syren”, NYC special, “Wishmaker”, “Kuro Neko”). He likes being Cat Noir more than Marinette likes being Ladybug, but he lacks her iron certainty in the role. It is notable, then, that THE ONE TIME where Marinette questions her part, it is after Cat Noir has quit. She says this, out loud, in words. When Cat Noir’s powers become too heavy for Adrien to carry, then Ladybug, too, disappears.
So surely "Destruction" must be the point where this is finally comes together - where Adrien's history of quitting meets his ultimate crisis, where his powers abused on a human being of flesh and blood forces him into confronting the potential cost of being this particular hero, which will foreshadow the ultimate choice he’ll have to take: between being Cat Noir and being his father’s son. And where his choice, in turn, will define whether Ladybug can exist.
Or not.
Maybe we'll never again have Adrien think about how he probably murdered a man. Maybe we'll just - oh I don't know.
Have him start trying to cataclysm people?
Repeatedly?
While showing none of the horror at himself which he clearly had in the aftermath of accidentally cataclysming the villain responsible for his later victims’ possession?
And in the end, after never calling attention to Adrien’s new and trigger happy ways, we’ll have him give in to his fear, claim that he isn’t strong enough to responsibly use Plagg’s powers, and send his miraculous away for Ladybug to use alone, because it turns out that “Kuro Neko” was right and the NYC special was wrong: she can be Ladybug without him.
Growth, amirite.
V. IN THIS HOUSE WE DON’T TALK ABOUT PATRICIDE
Dramatic irony was the main engine driving "Miraculous Ladybug" from the start, and it was Adrien who bore the brunt of it. Not only did he spend four and a half seasons in unrequited love with a girl who rejected him for himself; he spent five seasons doing weekly battle against his own father.
The superpower war between father and son isn't just a source of story tension, however: it is inextricably mirrored in their relationship as family, where the father is openly abusive and the son is magically incapable of protesting. The show repeatedly makes A Point about how the freedom Adrien so wants, is one that he only gets through being Cat Noir, and the only way Adrien is capable of fighting his father - albeit ignorant of it - is with Plagg's powers.
Cat Noir defeating Hawkmoth was necessary not just for his story as a superhero, but as his character arc as a normal boy.
And in "Destruction", this is exactly what happens. Thanks to Plagg's powers, the path to Adrien's freedom is finally paved, in the most gruesome and unwanted manner possible. Adrien might not get the big cathartic show-down with his evil father, but technically he was the one to bring him down.
But we don't talk about that. Except for his one (1) line after Monarch escapes with Ladybug's lucky charm, Adrien never again brings up the fact that his being careless with a cataclysm certainly maimed a man, by precedent (Aeon) possibly killed him. Rather than a story arc about Adrien being afraid of his own powers, it’s only now that he starts aiming it at people when he’s under emotional duress. This could of course have been one hell of a story point if it was intentional, but by all accounts, it wasn’t. When Adrien never again reflects on his having probably murdered a man, or reasons that Monarch is probably fine since he’s clearly still around so maybe a cataclysm isn’t so bad, and he never dwells on his nearly murdering two of his friends, there can’t have been any connection intended here. Moreover: when Adrien is scared of his miraculous towards the end, it’s not about its capacity for normal murder when he’s having a bad day, but its capacity of ending the world if he happens to be akumatised.
Gabriel is likewise disinterested in the cause of his impending disintegration. You’d think the man would feel some kind of special resentment towards Cat Noir and his powers, you could think this was where he’d get to re-thinking his relationship to the two people who are sitting on the keys to solving all his problems. Maybe he’d start doubting himself now, bearing the ultimate testament to his magical hubris. But no. The cataclysm wound is there and it’s a problem, but the reason it happened is completely irrelevant to the man who did this to himself and unknowingly, to his son.
That is almost as mind-blowing as the fact that they really had a straight up patricide happen on screen. Sure, death was never the intention of either of the two parties, and Adrien certainly holds no blame for what happened. But Gabriel must have at least known what he was risking, and even if the soft-hearted Adrien would somehow reason away the gravity, Plagg would certainly now. By its very nature, this one cataclysm drags out and distils a plethora of questions about both Adrien’s role as Cat Noir, about Gabriel’s vision of himself and his goals, and about their relationship not as father and son, but as villain and hero. The gruesome narrative irony looming over all this is in that regard just the icing on the cake.
There is certainly an Oedipal layer to the drama of Gabriel and Adrien, though the often more scandalous incestuous angle is considerably downplayed here. Even so: By the denouement of S5, Adrien has successfully killed his father and set up a home with his mother. That really happened, but we’re sure not going to investigate how this influenced the relationship between two nemesis, between father and son, between Adrien and his kwami.
The cataclysm in “Destruction” turned Adrien from anguished shoujo love interest to the hero of a greek tragedy, but the show is dead set on pretending that it didn’t.
VI. SO THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT
In isolation, "Destruction" comes across as weird more than anything. It's named after Adrien's kwami, it spends an inordinate amount of screentime on Adrien's father, it reaches back to Adrien's perhaps most defining moment as Cat Noir as it fundamentally changes the game between our heroes and our villains as one of them is finally dealt a damaging blow - which in turn sets Adrien's life down a path towards tragedy that must be interfered with for him to have a happy ending by the end of the season.
And yet, Adrien is a peripheral presence in it. Marinette and Gabriel dominate the screentime, Alya and the kwamis are consistently present as the thematic chorus at their respective sides throughout, the episode plays its events twice in order to make it clear that Ladybug is too clever for Monarch's miraculous, the emotional arcs that are followed are the follow-up on where Marinette and Alya stand after the disaster in "Strike Back" as well as Gabriel's renewed vigour. Adrien's only contribution to the episode is to follow Ladybug's instructions and to make clear that his relationship with his father is still awkward. The episode depicts probably THE most important event of the show, but this event is treated almost as an afterthought, and the horrors of it are confined to one (1) line of dialogue from Cat Noir.
The only thing in “Destruction” that is brought up in later episodes is that Gabriel is now actively dying. If they wanted for Gabriel to live on a countdown for his date with the grim reaper, there were countless other ways about it: Have it be his use of too many miraculous which backfires, have him having used the peacock before it was fixed, have it be too much evil on the hands of Nooroo, have him get a serious call from his doctor, have him screw up Tomoe's machinery, have him develop a drug problem. This is a fictional narrative; its twists and turns are absolutely in the hands of the writers, teenage girls being irredeemable or not. It was never vital that this happened by cataclysm specifically.
So what was the point, then? Did we truly turn our magical girl show into a Greek tragedy for the shocked pikachu faces only?
The one thing I somehow haven't seen people bring up, is that "Destruction" makes it impossible for Adrien to learn Monarch's identity. According to the writers themselves, the reason lies in two of the other episodes named after him: "Cat Blanc" and "Ephemeral", wherein he learns his father's identity and is promptly akumatised. This is of course bullshit: both these cases relied not on Adrien learning his father's identity, but on Gabriel specifically scheming to traumatise Adrien with both the Hawkmoth reveal AND the fact that he's been living in the same house as his mother's dead body for the last year or two (timeline here is spectacularly contradictory). There was anothing inevitable about this. You're the writers. You could've set up a scenario where Adrien didn't learn about his father's crimes as an act of psychological warfare, and where he'd have the time to absorb it, to grieve and to find support by the time he'd confront him with it. Having every person close to Adrien keep life-defining secrets from him “for his own good” is, by god, not a good look on anyone involved here. Still it’s understanable, at least for those who aren't either adults or gods of destruction.
"Destruction", however, serves as an explanation for the gaping plot hole in the epilogue: Marinette tells Alya, she tells Su-Han. The one she doesn't tell, though?
The partner who was at her side before Alya or Su-Han ever appeared, and stood by her in far worse storms. Because telling Cat Noir the truth would mean telling Cat Noir that he dealt Gabriel Agreste the killing blow, and ain't that a nifty way to ensure that Marinette won't. Because if Adrien does learn Monarch's identity and the truth about his fall in future seasons, Emilie better hide those garment pins.
The truly damning part of "Destruction" isn't so much what the episode itself does. It's what it doesn't do. It's the storylines it cuts short and leaves behind, and it is the storyline it by its very existence introduces, but which the show refuses to touch.
Per title and content both, "Destruction" should be the culmination of thematic storylines from "Cat Blanc", the NYC special and "Kuro Neko". It’s not; it’s not even about Adrien, and Plagg isn’t even present in it. Moreover: its lacking presence on future episodes make it painfully evident that ambitions, there were none. Those storylines were either aborted like Adrien picking up Felix's spyglass in the S4 finale, or the show never did mean for there to be such a thing as "layers" to this story about a boy who becomes a hero to unknowingly break free from his superhero father.
The real reason why "Destruction" is the worst episode of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is that it obliterates the most cohesive character arc this show had going for it, and that this was done on purpose.
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Meant to Happen - A "Kissing You" Drabble
Pairing: Frankie Morales x f!reader
Warnings: Mostly just fluff, brief mention of drug use, Santiago is kind of an asshole (sorry, Santi, I love you), mentions of mental illness, nothing too crazy on this one friends
Word Count: 2k
Prompt #68: A tender kiss on your lover's chest
a/n: My schedule has been nothing short of pure insanity, and my brain is doing that thing tonight where I’m convinced I’m not good for anything, so here’s a Drabble I’ve had in edits for ages about Frankie feeling kind of the same way. Mostly it’s just exposition with a tiny bit of fluff but sometimes the brain writes what it wants to write.
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It was never really meant to happen.
Frankie had been Santi’s best friend since their days in special ops, but you’d been friends with him even longer. As kids, you and Santi had raced around the block on your bikes, and as teenagers he’d taken you to every dance with the very clear stipulation that you were not dating. Not that you thought you were; things had never been like that with him, and up until several months ago, they hadn’t been that way with Frankie either.
When Santiago returned from service, a whole handful of new friends came along with him, and you fit into their little group with ease. You knew they’d seen some shit, every one of them, but it was Santiago’s behavior upon their return that was the hardest to ignore. It was clear that where Benny found his focus in the ring and Frankie found his in little white lines on the kitchen table, Santiago liked to drown out his demons by focusing all his energy on one particular task.
Finding you a date.
It was all in good fun, although you’d punched him more than a few times after he’d texted you about meeting up only to never show, leaving you alone with some sleazeball he’d met at the gym. He’d introduce you to every eligible single at parties like you were on an episode of the Bachelorette, and he’d purposefully make sure that there weren’t enough seats in the living room at game night whenever he brought someone new for you to meet. You always sat in Benny’s lap instead, just to spite him.
He had your best interests at heart, you knew that, so it didn’t bother you too much when it became an ongoing joke, one that was only encouraged by Will and Benny, who were quick to point out that they were single too. Tom usually took your side, coming to your defense when you reminded them that you weren’t really looking for anything. And Frankie…well, Frankie was usually quiet. He’d watch from the sidelines as Santi went on about how you’d never want to date the likes of them anyway.
But then they left. All five of them, heading to South America for a mission that they didn’t want to talk about. You knew Santi was behind it, and that the others weren’t keen on going, but it was apparent that everything changed while they were gone.
You only knew what happened in general terms - hard not to when Tom didn’t come home - but no one would tell you the full story. Santiago ignored your texts, and then he left for months without telling you where he was headed. Will and Benny came around to check on you, kept up with weekly get-togethers, but deflected whenever you asked how they were doing.
Frankie was the only one to confide in you. You weren’t quite sure how the conversation started, but you do remember the way he let you pull him into your arms and the way he cried against your chest. His nose had been tucked into your neck, tears wetting the collar of the old t-shirt you wore that night as he finally purged the emotion pent up inside him.
Later, when you settled him in your bed, you held him as he slept the whole night through, for what you suspected was the first time in months. It was like a switch flipped, and while you’d spent years telling yourself that Santiago was right, that Frankie wasn’t your type, you had to admit that it was much harder to deny your feelings once he was laying in your arms.
What followed was a hurricane of secrets and stolen moments. You suspected that Benny figured it out after a couple of weeks, when you’d chosen Frankie’s lap over his at game night. Santiago hadn’t been there, still off in God knows where, and you’d naturally gravitated toward the man you tiptoed on calling your boyfriend. But if he did notice, Benny said nothing. Neither did Will.
Frankie had practically moved in within the span of a few weeks, and you relished in the little life you were building together. Mornings filled with blueberry pancakes and quick kisses on the way out the door. Afternoon rendezvous in the cab of his truck that left you both on the brink of quitting your jobs, just so you could stay a bit longer. Evenings spent together, lounging on the couch as you introduce each other to your favorite shows and movies. All leading to late nights that felt too easy, even amongst the horrors you both struggled to cope with.
His struck often, and you had your own too, things from your past that you shared with him in the comfortable darkness of night, blankets wrapped tightly around you both. And as one night turned into another, and then into weeks, followed by months, you wound yourself tighter around each other until you were nearly inseparable.
And then Santiago returned.
For all the guilt and shame that weighed on the shoulders of Will, Benny, and Frankie, you were certain that Santiago felt it all and then some, but he acted as though the past eight months hadn’t happened. But you knew him, and you knew that the dark circles under his eyes, overgrown hair, and half-hazardly trimmed beard were all signs that he was still struggling to deal with the loss of one of his best friends. The rest of your boys had each other, had you, but he’d been dealing with it all on his own.
And you just had to go and make everything that much harder.
It took Santi all of five minutes to figure out what was going on. You thought you’d been subtle with your stolen glances, waiting for the right time to tell him, but he’d picked up on the way you easily maneuvered around one another in the kitchen, as though you’d done it hundreds of times. And he’d been right - you had.
You’d discussed on occasion how you thought Santiago would react, and while Frankie had been hesitant, you’d been steadfast in your opinion that your friend would be happy for you both. Happy that Frankie was showing you exactly what it means to be loved, and happy for him that you were quieting his nightmares - the ones that came in the dead of night and the ones that haunted his waking hours too.
But as it turns out, Frankie was right to be skeptical.
Whatever insecurities Santiago was facing, they came out disguised as warnings about Frankie. Mostly things you knew already, about his drug use and the loss of his pilot’s license, failed relationships and Frankie’s lack of a secure financial situation. For every rebuttal, he had another argument lined up, and at some point, you’d stepped in between him and Frankie, certain that even if he lashed out at his friend, he’d never take a swing at you.
But that didn’t stop your knuckle from making film contact with his jaw the second he told you that Frankie would never amount to anything. Frankie was pulling you back immediately, arms secure around your waist as Will pulled Santiago outside and forced him into his truck to drive him home. Benny quietly made his way to the kitchen to clean up so you wouldn’t have to, and Frankie followed him after encouraging you to retreat to your bedroom.
You’re wearing a hole in the floor when Frankie joins you a few minutes later. Your hand hurts, but anger is still coursing through your veins, so you barely feel it. In fact, you’re barely paying attention as your boyfriend slips through the door, slowly closing it behind him.
“I can’t believe him,” you shout as you pace away from Frankie, your feet carrying you toward the bed and then back toward the door. “Some best friend he is if he can’t even be happy for us.” You continue your routine. “He’s one to talk, after all, disappearing from the face of the Earth, leaving us all here without a clue as to where he is, or if he’s even alive, only to come back and pretend that he knows what’s best for us.”
When you turn back toward Frankie again, you realize that he’s still standing at the door, his forehead resting against the wood, and your anger is quickly replaced with concern.
“Hey, you okay?” you ask, the gentle whisper of your voice a stark contrast to just moments before. He flinches lightly when your hand runs up his back, and you instinctively pull away. “Frankie?”
When he turns, you know he’s the furthest thing from okay. His eyes, which you now know to be so full of life and love, look cold and distant. He’s frowning, the creases in his skin more apparent than usual, and you itch to smooth them with your fingers. He reaches for you this time, and suddenly you’re in his arms, his body melting into your embrace.
“I’m worried about him.”
His voice seems small when he speaks, but you know that the depth of his emotion is anything but. Your brow furrows and you sigh, running a hand down his arm to tangle your fingers with his, pulling him toward the bed. Frankie follows without protest, allowing you to settle him between your legs so his body rests on top of yours, head tucked into your neck the same way it had been that first night.
“He’s going to be okay,” you reassure him, although there’s a significant part of you that doubts your own words. He doesn’t respond, and you press kiss after kiss to his skin, whatever you can reach. When his tears start to dampen your shirt, his quiet sobs shaking his body, you only thank whatever gods might be out there that he trusts you enough to be this open.
Time ticks by, the evidence of such reading on the clock next to the bed, but you pay it no mind. Your fingers have been locked in his hair for ages now, tangling in his curls and tugging in what you hope is a comforting motion. And it must be, because neither of you move until his breathing has evened out, the only remnants of his tears the occasional sniffle.
“What if he’s right?”
You barely hear his whisper, but anger flares in your chest nonetheless. You hate that Santiago did this. “He’s wrong,” you state firmly, hoping that he’ll believe you, even though you know he won’t. Not at first, at least.
Frankie, predictably, shifts away, rolling off of you and to your side as he runs a hand over his face. “Everything Pope said is true, though.”
Your body follows his, seeking out his warmth as you ease a leg over his thigh to tangle your limbs back together.
“Like what? Tell me exactly what he said that’s true, because I don’t believe a word of it.” You accentuate your words by kissing away the remains of his fallen tears.
It takes a bit for him to respond, but his thoughts are so loud you can nearly hear them. Still, you wait, and when he speaks his voice is quiet. “He said that this was never supposed to happen.”
You know he’s referring to you, to whatever this between you might already be and what it might still become, and you make a mental note to kill Santiago later for putting doubt into Frankie’s mind. Doubt about himself, mostly, but also about you.
You reassure him that you love him, because you do, and you’re pretty sure you always have. For every date that Santiago set you up on, for every new suitor he brought home, your happy ending had been there all long. And as you press a soft kiss to your lover’s chest, right above his heart, to prove to him that you’re here, you remind him of the one thing you’re more certain of than anything else.
“That’s where he’s wrong. I think this was always supposed to happen.”
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#frankie morales x you#frankie morales x reader#frankie morales#pedro pascal#pedro pascal fic#pedro pascal fanfiction#kissing you#lurking and writing
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The Promised Neverland - Season 2
The “...Why Though?” commentary of a manga reader
(*manga spoilers)
tldr:
me, starting s2: this isn't as bad as i've heard!
me, finishing s2: *screams in rage* *kicks a wall* *wails in the darkness*
-i know s2 has a really bad rep, so i'm here to be amused, not angry. we'll see how that goes
-mujika <3 sonju <3
-i hope that third empty spot with emma and ray in the op gets filled with norman when we find out he's alive
-i'm on ep two. it feels like we're on a speedrun, but nothing ~bad so far
-why are the cookies moldy...? did they leave out yugo...? i don't like that. i don't like that at all. yugo raised them and they raised him for so long.
-my god this place feels so empty without yugo. but for an anime-only, i guess it's fine
-excuse me, what about the seven walls? :)
-why did you not let them have the shelter's clothes...? what about their individuality?
-i'm sorry, you had time for an entire new sequence of slimees, but not other important things...?
-excuse me, why are we not going to goldy pond? :)
-wow, the raid holds so little weight, both struggle-wise and emotionally
-THIS RAID DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! they found this place but didn't scout it?! they didn't know about the extra exit?! KIDS BEAT THEM WITH A MUG AND A PUSH?!
-excuse me why is this demon promising isabella freedom, where is peter ratri? :)
-the goldy pond people disrespect
-i'm on ep 5 and so far i don't think the anime is bad anime-wise. rushed yes, not looking at things too closely yes, but bad? no. adaptation-wise it's terrible, but if you haven't read the manga, will you think "wtf?" i don't think so. it's just that anime-onlys are truly, truly missing out
-a demon went near them in the temple and they didn't flee? AND THEY DIDN'T FLEE?! on what, good faith?!
-all of the children being near/in demon town is fundamentally the opposite of the manga logic
-lol the exposition via prayer. okay.
-NORMAN'S PLACE IN THE OP, I CALLED IT!
-the emma-norman-ray reunion doesn't pack the punch that it does in the manga. emma and ray and us haven't gone through all of those things that led them to norman, that made you feel the time passing and the struggle and norman's absence.
-it's an understated reunion isn't it
-i see the lambda group escaped the erasure rampage
-i never thought i'd say this, but damn i miss minerva!norman. the sus. the uncertainty. the coldness. the facade. the "what now." the vibe that made him distinctly separate from ray and emma.
-low-key hate the "now that norman is here, we can move forward again" vibe. norman made the escape plan; then things moved to a standstill; now he's back and things can happen again. as though the others are just going through the motions.
-there's no emotional weight, they just say their lines and we move on, no time to breathe, no nothing
-here's the thing. having placed the kids in this situation, you're truly honestly saying that THE FOUR OLDEST KIDS are gonna just leave their young siblings alone near demon town to look for mujika? seriously? are you sure
-there's no pacing, and because there's no pacing there's no personalities, everyone just says what they have to say, one thing after the other, and there's no time for them to transition smoothly from one emotion to another
-at least they kept the essence of norman's arc...? but the norman-less arcs weren't fillers, they had a point!
-i am so sad, the lambda facility part is so good, why did they mess up so much with the rest
-far be it from me to comment on the VAs, buuut... norman's VA kinda stands out, ngl. she shines, even in this awkwardly paced dialogue
-HOLD YOUR HORSES, NORMAN'S VA IS FISCHL'S VA?!?! HOW?!?! H O W?!?!
-norman's "i'll gladly become a god or a devil" IS SO BRUSHED OFF, oh my god, this should be A Moment!
-the wild demon looks bad, but who cares
-JESUS, THERE'S NO TIME GIVEN TO THE CHARACTERS TO PROCESS INFORMATION AND EMOTIONS! THE SPEED WITH WHICH EMMA GOES FROM NEUTRAL TO WEEPY TO HAPPY WHEN SHE SEES MUJIKA, ARGH!
-emma coming in with the telepathy, immediately knowing that the sound is the bang of norman's lies...
-THESE ARE THE GRACE FIELD KIDS, OF COURSE THE THOUGHT OF NORMAN HAVING LIED WOULD HAVE CROSSED THEIR MINDS! IT’S NORMAN! THERE'S PRECEDENT!
-but norman's plan and character in the manga had SO MUCH MORE DEPTH OH MY GOD! HE HAD HUMAN BLOOD ON HIS HANDS! HIS PLAN WAS MORE REFINED! and yes, i know "farms were attacked" here too, but the fact that norman actually had to make the choice to let humans die is not addressed or even hinted at
-there's really no time to breathe. one minute norman declares annihilation, and the next he's like, "no never mind :'(". the VA is the only anchor keeping him grounded
-these are the enhanced lambda group... which doesn't matter because they don't actually do much...
-the op song is nice tho
-OH SHUT UP NORMAN CAN'T AIM
-no, vincent, the real peter ratri wouldn't have believed you so blindly, but. we make do what we can here in anime land
-it's a shame that peter hasn't really had a Presence as the Enemy
-but why do all the kids who know nothing randomly agree to play tag on shipment day?
-so uh. why is sonju fighting with the kids on the farm in this scenario? bc last time he said he wanted to eat humans... and now he's here...? because we're... friends? that's it?
-lmao the queen and the nobles make an appearance in the last ep. sure okay
-ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME YOU'RE GONNA SUM UP THE EXISTENCE OF *** AND THE PROMISE WITH EMMA WITH A STILL?!?!?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! WHY DIDN'T YOU LEAVE IT OUT ALTOGETHER?! FFS!!!
-YEAH AND MUJIKA IS CROWNED QUEEN IN A STILL, WHO THE FUCK KNOWS WHY OR HOW!
-lmfao, most underwhelming return ever??? of emma and co in the human world???
-goldy pond and norman’s kids gave up their existence so that emma could keep her memories, isabella could keep her life and cislo could keep his leg. sacrifices were made. i'm not mad, why would you even-
-okay okay okay.
as an adaptation, it sucks.
had i not read the manga, would i still consider it a bad season 2? well... i would consider it a downgrade. i wouldn't sweat the basic premise, but the execution would probably disappoint me. the dialogue is perfunctory. they say their bit, change emotions and thoughts in an instant, there's no weight, depth or consideration. things get resolved almost as soon as they're touched upon. i would have no idea who most of the new characters were as people, and i would have learned very little about the ones we already knew. everything is incredibly rushed, and whereas s1 was full of tension and obstacles, s2 was handing the kids everything on a platter, including hot air balloons, mujika randomly spotting emma's necklace, the old demon randomly having that one part of the pen etc (i usually don't mind random coincidences for the sake of storytelling, but this a "compilation of too many issues" situation). the powerpoint presentation in the end would have left me confused and underwhelmed, and the emma-tachi return is incredibly lackluster for a closing scene. i don't think i'd consider it a disaster, but definitely disappointing.
but it is an adaptation and i have read the manga and it's all very sadge.
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I’m in Love with the Villainess Reaction
Before we get into the next episode, I wanted to address some things thanks to some comments I read over the week. Last episode was important, perhaps the first thoughtful discussion about homosexuality in an anime that anyone seems to be aware of. It was also our first insight into Rae’s character and her peculiar actions.
Speaking of Rae’s actions, it seems to me that some people are blowing things out of proportion. Let me just say it, when it comes to Rae and Claire in the earlier parts of the series, neither is really innocent. Neither of them are particularly bad either, each knows where to draw the line and is capable of acknowledging when they’ve gone too far. Also, Claire initiated most of their interactions, by attempting to bully Rae into submitting or quitting school. As for the maid thing, I hope I don’t have to spell it out, but Rae has a greater purpose behind sticking close to Claire beyond her own selfish desires.
Episode 4
Kicking off with magic exposition. Exposition that Rae likely had to sit through (or skip) countless times over while playing Revolution.
Rae’s own exposition about monsters is much more entertaining. Take notes, Torrid Magic! (Yes, for some reason his last name is literally Magic. I suppose it’s like how Rae Taylor’s parents are tailors)
Once again, Rae overdoes it. Great line though. “I’m officially too OP to function!”
Oh, they actually showed his full name.
Can’t have an element based magic system without the whole strengths and weaknesses thing. Also, combo magic. Multi-casters also have special composite magic depending on the elements they have access to.
This is flirting, right?
Rae’s like eww, boys. Right there with ya, girl.
Rae is like “Noooo, not more exposition! Where’s the skip button? Skip! Skip!”
That first fantasy was meh, but that second one, heck yeah! That’s more like it. That, and it’s more faithful to Claire’s character.
Time for the first boss battle!
So yeah, Torrid might be a tri-caster, but his aptitude is not nearly as impressive compared to the main characters. Plus he lacks the wind attribute that beats water. He is hopelessly outmatched here.
What’d you expect. Numbers don’t matter when most of the students there are either too weak to do much damage, or too inexperienced to land an accurate hit. Should have just had Misha take it out with one strong attack.
Rae, you’re not bound to video game logic, you can just call out whichever name you want.
I don’t know what to say, so I’ll just let Rae speak for me.
Eww, it’s raining slime everywhere!
And as usual, Thane gets the short end. Eh, I doubt he’d want all that attention anyway.
Everyone’s favourite character has finally arrived.
And now, we all feel bad for Mama Slime! Great job, anime, neither the manga or novels made me feel this way.
Rae, don’t pretend. We know it bothers you, enough that you tried to run away from it.
Guess that event worked, it did raise the Affection level for who Rae called out to.
Claire had the perfect opportunity to get on the Thane route but chose the Rae route instead. We’re all proud of her.
That little giggle from Rae at the end was cute. I think this is genuinely the happiest she’s been.
Misha, you’re the second most powerful person in the whole school, and your attribute beats water! Why are you scared of a tiny slime?!
Claire, you could vaporise a slime that small! Why are you scared?!
Next episode is going to be a fun one!
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Things that ran through my mind while watching this episode:
--This is not Kimetsu no Yaiba at its best yet, the blood slowly dripping over Tanjiro's memories to indicate his anger when hearing of Satoko's death really was not as effective as showing Kazumi's expression. There's also still a little figuring out the CG to make it smoother. At this point, KnY was still just a nice anime instead of the amazing art piece we would know it to be later.
--Speaking of not always being top-notch, here we have more of the KnY signature style of info-dumping, albeit not always within the heat of battle. As in the manga, it was very practical having Urokodaki just straight up tell Tanjiro about the merits of his uniform and about the box and about how it's so rare to see a black Nichirin-to that they're said to be unable to advance in the Corp (for lack of previous example, though I suspect this has to do with how Yoriichi was kicked out, too, though that reason might had been lost over time). However, I think Ufotable really folds that exposition into the flow of the story by having Tanjiro assure Urokodaki that his goal is turning Nezuko back human, and Urokodaki feeling certain that Tanjiro will accomplish this.
--Speaking of, passing thought in the last episode, but we don't know if Nezuko woke up the moment Tanjiro returned, or if she had, say, woken up the second she realized he had gone far away, in which case we could have had a whole week of antics of Urokodaki alone with Nezuko freaking out of her brother being missing. And now I really, really want this.
--Back to Urokodaki though, a detail that really stood out to me in the first watch was Urokodaki fixing Tanjiro's collar and patting his shoulders before officially sending him off. He's just so proud, and my heart can't take it. If Giyuu has any knowledge of this, he's probably feeling totally assured in Tanjiro taking over as Urokodaki's successor. Sorry, Giyuu. Also, when I first saw this episode, I must had been skipping the OP because I was very disappointed when Tanjiro put back on the checkerboard haori instead of the water one Urokodaki gave him for the Final Selection; with all these ongoing flashbacks to Urokodaki's teachings I had totally thought the relationship between Tanjiro and Urokodaki was going to be a theme for this whole series. (Then came Rengoku.)
--A brief note on settings--this town, the site of Tanjiro's first mission, is so rich with real life detail, I feel like I have been there. I kept getting feelings like "that feels like Iwakuni/Yamatokoriyama/Matsusaka/etc" which is to say, if you like this setting, please be assured that there are places and buildings you can still get that feeling all around Japan, it just takes a willingness to on at least day trips outside the major cities. I visit a lot of museums in towns like this these too, and I kept getting flashbacks to photos I've seen, too. Heck, I even feel like I've been inside Tokie's house. Please please please, should any of you have opportunities to travel in Japan, know that these sorts of places do exist all over the place, but you have to leave the major cities. There is so much to explore.
--When it comes to side characters, I always did like Kazumi, and rewatching this episode makes him like him all over again. I had him become a Kakushi in a fic once, and I stand by that being a fitting decision for him. I have to wonder, though, after returning Tokie to her home and trying to blame a demon for killing Satoko and all the other girls, wouldn't some people suspect him of being the killer??
--I... in all my meta, I never made a single post about the Swamp Demon. I've mentioned him for his Blood Technique and for how a demon who has eaten at least 16 people was perhaps a lot to expect for a first mission, but... that is it. Sorry, buddy--erm, buddies?
--Please let me use this opportunity to say (1) I like the hat, (2) the Taisho Secret that the tooth grinding habit is a carry-over from when he was a human is cute, and (3) I can totally relate to the split personality when I am feeling hangry. Sorry, Swamp Demon, I don't hate you but you just never got my interest as much as other demons. The fact that we learn Kibutsuji Muzan's name over the course of this fight is more important than anything Swamp Demon himself ever contributed to the plot.
--Also, Swamp Demon was just here to serve as a punching bag for Nezuko to kick around. Let's give it up for our girl on one of the most iconic entrances of this whole series. BAM, KICK THAT DOOR OPEN.
--Speaking of Nezuko, I liked the storytelling they let live with how Nezuko observed Tanjiro's Corp look with such surprise and interest. That clues us in both that, this is a New Tanjiro, and that she recalls her country bumpkin brother well enough to be surprised at this new, strong look. (I have to wonder if Tanjiro's noticed how Nezuko has gotten taller over the course of her big sleep.)
--I love how Nezuko was still kinda, *bluescreenofdeathortestoftheemergencybroadcastingsystem* at this point. We can tell she's thinking and observing, but she's still having to take her time to make sense of everything. That is, unless the situation calls for violence, in which case her demon instincts take over.
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Kingohger ep14
my heart is wrenching from geats
ugh i'm so nervous
"being popular is such a burden" yeah sure jer
they should have put keitai charms to tell one another's sword apart
judging by OP's Rita shot this is gonna be a two-parter
new Jeremy shot?! Otto!
He won't give up his cryptic storyteller act even now
MURDER HIM HIMENO
To think she's not doing this just out of revenge for her parents, but as a doctor, as the ruler of all those lives lost that day…
Gerojim 😭😭 best boy😭😭 Sebas too😭😭
He ran home 😭😭 for "somewhere quiet"
did Gira just accuse Himeno of not having any friends 😮
JEREMY SLEPT THROUGH KAMI NO IKARI
AND WAS PUT ON DISPLAY LIKE A CIRCUS ATTRACTION
wait we didn't get a Rita scream after Jeremy mentioned Moffun? 😏
Himeno suceeded immediately after her parents' death?! that would make her the longest-ruling among the royals huh...
Rita out here doing so much exposition to get this show going
part 3 already… yabba two parter 😏 more on how Rita met Moffun later
loving all the suit action focus this ep
did Kagu just hit those bug soldiers with their spade
What even did the MOTW do
Himeno's dress doesn't have pockets smh
THE GREAT MASTERPIECE KNOWN AS MOFFUN TO ISSHO okay calm down your honour
o…okay… i… i can't really accept moffun's real voice…
they've been replaying the same episodes for 15 years??
Spiders Jeremy's face is so punchable (affectionate) puppy dog eyes game MAX
…the new actress hasn't shown up yet?
love dialogue mirroring Ojou-sama -> Jouoh
TOLD YA
well there's next to none ritahime but very good Himeno focus and Rita scenes on their own. Can't wait for the Kaguragi focus next week. However, doesn't sound mich like a conclusion of the last 4 ep? So this arc would drag on a bit longer?
if you squeeze and put on shipper lenses i just love how it's consistent that Himeno looks to Rita for support. And that Rita is her voice of reason.
Gira jumping in to rescue Suzume as soon as he learns about her 😭 iikodane
THEY ARE RELEASING THE MOFFUN ANIME ON TTFC OFC THEY WOULD
I did wish the Suzume plot can be teased for a while longer, at leat for 5 or 10 eps but this show has no brake pedal
PRODUCTION BLOG IS GIVING US COSTUMES NEXT WEEK YESSSSSSSS
the twin Himeno offshots are so cute! and those with Jeremy too!
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8-Man vs. Cyborg 009
Who's this schmuck? Just kidding, I did some background research and apparently 8-Man is one of the OG cyborg heroes to come out of Japan, predating Cyborg 009 by a year. He's called 8-Man because the scientist who turned him into a cyborg failed this experiment 7 times before getting to him. Yikes.
Crappy name aside (apparently the mangaka also had a manga called "Wolf Guy," which I find hilarious), it's a neat idea to put two OGs against each other. I'm sure the boomers are excited lol. (Come to think of it, Japan's population skews older, so it would make sense that this sort of thing would be published now).
Ch. 1
Coming from the BGOO Parts manga, the art feels a little clunkier and dated here. Backgrounds are very simple and there's less detail in how the characters are drawn. It's still faithful to the original series though and that's good enough for me.
Just like with BGOO Parts, they're rehashing Black Ghost stuff again, with some retconning along the way. Series that resurrect the same villain over and over are so dull. Please do something else writers!! :(
Why did the skull-masked guy (Cyborg #22) look kinda kawaii tho? They drew his eyes all shiny and cutesy.
They flashback to the end of volume 10 AGAIN. I guess that really is the most iconic moment of the franchise, but with every flashback it's losing its charm.
There was a diagram explaining 8-Man in the front of the manga and I guess he uses cigarettes as a power source? First of all...huh? Second, that's the most 1960s thing I've ever heard.
Also in the front of the manga is an image of Joe carrying a beat up looking 8-Man. Way to spoil it! I wonder what the vs. in the title is implying? Are they going to be rivals and then team up or are they straight up pitted against each other?
Did they pair these two together because they were like "8? 9? You get it? Eh? Eh?" What if it was 8-Man vs. 008 lol. It would have to be underwater randomly I suppose.
Ch. 2
Okay I stand corrected, I guess 8-Man isn't a cyborg...he's closer to an android, but he has a human consciousness so...he's not really an android either.
This was like, the exposition chapter. They wrote this assuming the reader was new to 8-Man and maybe Cyborg 009 too so they gotta hastily give little wikipedia summaries of what the reader missed lol. Not enough exposition for me to know who the robot bossing 8-Man around is supposed to be though! Maybe that'll come later.
I see the obvious parallels with the stories here, both cyborgs/androids/whatever were created as weapons but their creators wanted more for them. 8-Man has a little more of a film noir vibe tho with the detective aspect.
How the heck is a cigarette a "cooling" tool? My brain does not compute.
So 8-Man is being ordered to attack Joe, I guess. I wonder if he's been misled about Joe's background? He kinda helped him out back there with the cigarette, so I guess he's showing hesitation.
Ch. 3
So I guess Black Ghost's motive is to "resurrect/summon the God of war Ares by sacrificing one of the heroes..." Not Greek mythology again...please. I can't take it anymore!
8-Man's hands kinda look like Mickey Mouse gloves teehee
Dr. Tani and Dr. Daemon look so identical to me that I had to swipe back a few pages and compare them. I finally excepted they weren't the same person when Dr. Daemon referred to Dr. Tani in the third person lol.
We get more revelations about how 8-Man's machine brain works. He retains every memory (either OP or awful) and Ivan can't read his mind. I forgot Ivan could read minds in the first place? I feel like he doesn't do that much.
This manga has a lot of two page spreads, which I appreciate. They make the reading experience more cinematic, it moves things along quicker in general (no dialogue), and it looks great on my giant tablet :D
Ch. 4
The villains from the respective series place their bets on which hero will come out victorious. It gave me Squid Game vibes (but obviously less gruesome).
It's kind of funny how the villains are low key rooting their corresponding hero on, wanting to show off their nemesis to their new friend.
Kinda awkward how the other numbers cyborgs are just tagging along waiting for 8-Man and 009 to be done. I guess there's not much they can contribute, which is probably why BGOO Parts gave everyone accelerator mode...
Obvious fake out death is obvious
I enjoyed the shot of Joe and 8-Man outrunning the shinkansen. That was fun.
Ch. 5
After the battle between 009 and 8-Man, Black Ghost and Dr. Daemon attack and kidnap Joe, Francoise and Azuma. Black Ghost reveals their master plan to harvest memories from the cyborg so that they can resurrect the 3 brains that make up the "true" Black Ghost and put them in a giant robot body.
I'm not fully clear on what Dr. Daemon gets out of all this? I guess he gets to help rule the world or something?
The way they depict Francoise's ability makes her seem hilariously useless. She's supposed to be able to detect things from very far distances but every time she senses something it's like 2 feet away from everyone lol. Like she'll be like "something's coming...from the ocean!" and the gang turns around and it's right next to them. Thanks for nothing lol.
The demon God statue (taken from the original manga) looks kinda silly. It's bird beak makes it look like it's from Darkwing Duck or something haha.
Ch. 6
Okay 8-Man and Francoise getting all flustered once Francoise implied that her and Joe are in love was really cute. I wanna see more scenes of them getting to know each other and becoming friends :D (not likely)
The concept of world domination via a giant space satellite/demon God statue is pretty badass, not gonna lie. Very classic evil guy plan.
Seems we can now drop the pretenses that this is going to be a "versus" situation and everyone will just team up in volume 2. Pretty predictable.
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Hello again.
Sorry to bother you with this topic again, but i reread the 11-part long fates criticism post on reddit, and found so much shit wrong with those posts i could no longer resist the temptation to write a counter-essay pointing out everything wrong with it and posting it to the fe subreddit (rip what little karma i had).
I'm in the middle of writing it now, and one of the parts i'm having issues with is the last one, where OP claims the themes of the game to be family, war being bad, and finding the truth, and giving reasons as to why the themes are poorly done (family is bad because BR doesn't explore Corrin's relationship with the Hoshidan sibs enough, war bad is poorly done and SOMEHOW also somewhat pro-war due to Hoshido's moral superiority over Nohr and Corrin being "absolved of any and all wrongdoing during CQ", and finding truth being bad due to Azura knowing the truth all along).
As expected, i have a LOT to say about those arguments, especially the second one, but i also want to add a little extra to the essay by pointing out what the actual themes of the game are and doing so with evidence from the plots of each route (no supports or other such side material unfortunately, he barely touches on those in the other posts and i don't think it'd be fair of me to use that as evidence when he doesn't bring it up himself in the segment i'm talking about).
Issue is, i kinda suck at thematic analysis and don't truly know what the themes of the game are, even after looking through the scripts of the routes again.
Which is why i wanted to ask you: what would you say the main thene of each route and/or the game as a whole is, and could you give examples of them being estabilished/developed throughout the plot(s)?
I know this is a complicated question, and i'm completely fine with it if you don't feel like answering, especially since my main point will be dissecting why his arguments are bad, with the thematic analysis being more of a bonus.
So anyway, I started writing and I couldn't stop, sooooo... yeah. I hope you don’t mind me posting this public, because I wanted to share my brain mumbo jumbo with others too haha. Thanks for the ask! And feel free to take from this what you will, it's not like I'm going back to Reddit, I hate it there lol.
For starters, all of what I've written under the cut isn't me trying to say that the topics that the OP of that thread aren't major pieces in Fates' story, but... ehhhh. The family aspect is definitely prominent, but I wouldn't say its a theme per se. It's more a tool to drive the dramatic and tragic moments of the plot. Theoretically, you could replace the sibling aspect with "really cool childhood friends" and you wouldn't lose a thing if it was written well enough. The royals being Corrin's siblings just takes less work, because family dynamics are more readily and easily understood (even when they're dysfunctional) with comparably minimal explanation.
'War Is Bad' isn't a theme either IMO, cuz objectively there's positives to come out of warfare for both Nohr (resources) and Hoshido (defense against attacks so they don't have to step out of their isolationist bubble). It's really only Corrin and the litte sisters who push that aesop, but that's because it's part of their characters. Truth seeking is also not a theme in my eyes, it's more a catalyst for things to happen. Like the OP said, Azura has all the answers so finding the truth is a pretty shitty theme. But in that case, why not work backwards? If Truth Seeking doesn't work as a theme, consider then if it's even meant to be a major theme at all. That's what I did, and it led to me to think, no, not really. Azura exposits the truth because it's another way she supports the leader, Corrin, and it helps him and the story at large develop the actual themes meant to be conveyed.
But anyway, back to the topic at hand.
Using He/Him for Corrin, the rest is under the cut!
For Birthright, I'd say the big theme of that route is "Trust and Belief in your allies/friends". From the start, Corrin's trust and faith in people gets tested: Does he believe Silas' words when he says they were childhood friends? He chooses to do so, and it works out. Yay!
From then on though, that faith is shaken with what happens with Zola. True, Corrin's words and actions did shake Zola's core a bit given his words to Garon, but he still betrayed the party and ruined Corrin's plans to end the war early.
This theme is given the spotlight later during the Ice Tribe chapter, during Ryoma's talk with Corrin about it. This hardens Corrin's resolve in choosing not to doubt his friends anymore, leaning into his strength rather than worrying about the risks all the time. This initially burns him with Flora, but it helps win the day with Takumi getting over his possession.
Being more broad, you could put it under a general "The Value of Human Relationships" as well, in order to include the copious moments where Azura's connection and companionship with Corrin takes the spotlight when discussing her powers and the dangers that come with overusing them. This can also include the tragic aspect of Birthright, where the Nohrian siblings' family dynamic is ruined because of Corrin's choice, something that Birthright's story hammers in a lot, especially in regards to Elise; the value of the relationships that Corrin had with the Nohr royals is sullied, pushed into a place of destruction, culminating with Camilla outright saying in BR's epilogue-in the JP version at least-that her feelings towards Corrin and his actions are mixed.
For Conquest, I'd say the main themes are "Where Justice Lies" and "Moral Convictions".
Corrin has a clear and well established moral compass: he fights if necessary, but will always, always do his utmost to find an alternative to war and killing. Can he disarm them? Can things be talked out? Can he deceive ally and foe alike?
This compass gets put to the test during this route. Quelling the Ice Tribe rebellion his own way works out, but fighting against the Hoshidan soldiers and royal family puts him on edge. He can avoid death and conflict to the best of his ability during the Sanctuary and Macarath battles, but innocent lives are put in danger in Nestra, and despite Leo's efforts, Corrin is still uneasy.
Hence the moral question Corrin offers himself during chapter 15: Should he have not joined Nohr, considering all the pain he is enabling by doing so?
Learning the truth that Azura reveals drives the point home further: Corrin now has knowledge of this demon infesting Garon, that's causing all of this wanton destruction. And yet, he does not have the power to rebel. As the story goes on, he no longer has the option to mitigate damage as much as he wants to, either. Is the justice he's fighting for-expunging the demon he now knows of-worth the sacrifice of another kingdom's peace? Corrin even breaks down over this dilemma eating away at him during the Wind Tribe chapter, where he is overcome with emotion at the thought of being seen as a worthy hero despite his actions.
(Fighting for his own justice also relates to Xander, a character who initially thinks justice is a fairy tail nonindicative of the real world, but later comes to terms with being a king who maintains the justice he believes in. I can't talk about Conquest's themes without mentioning Xander heheh.)
For Revelation, I wish I had better words to describe it, but something along the lines of "Be who you are/be true to yourself."
Rev in itself deals a lot with Corrin's personal growth as the definitive leader of the campaign (as opposed to BR or CQ where he's kind of joint-leaders with Ryoma or Xander, respectively) This growth has to deal with being his authentic self, relying on his strengths, cementing his convictions, not putting himself down or giving up.
The branch of fate kind of does this in a very neat meta way, IMO. Corrin can't betray his convictions to side with one family against the other, and seeks to solve things without conflict. While Xander and Ryoma scoff at this and proceed to fight anyway, notice how they only target each other and not Corrin. This is because Corrin remains true to himself by choosing diplomacy first.
However, Corrin then steps out of his realm of expertise. Sure, he's an objectively talented fighter, but he's still inexperienced and doesn't like warfare in general. By taking Azura's advice and trying to attract Ryoma and Xander's attention by taking out their subcommanders, instead of getting the result he wanted, Corrin instead earns the ire of his elder brothers. (As an aside, this also goes to provide an in story example of why Azura isn't a leader type, something she herself says later on. Her calculated strategies don't take into account the emotional aspect of conflict, which fits into her established character of being standoffish and stoic. She's meant to be a supporter, both in-game and in-story.)
What do Ryoma and Xander say of Corrin after he does this? They declare him a traitor, hellbent on being an enemy of both kingdoms. They can't understand why Corrin would attack them like that, and are so incensed by Corrin presumably doing such a 180 on his character that they think malicious madness is the only cause.
It's why it's not Corrin's martial prowess that gets Ryoma and Xander to stop fighting in chapter 13 (you're very much encouraged NOT to fight them given how damn busted their stats are, after all). It's Azura's song and Corrin's words that calm the brothers down and have them begin to realize that Corrin means what he says and is the same brother they know and love. (Something that the other siblings-Sakura, Camilla, and Elise especially-say in very similar terms!!!) Azura creates opportunity for peace through revealing truth and her song, not her leadership. Corrin uses said opportunity to spread his cry for peace and unity, because they are a leader whose strengths lie in believing in people and relying on his friends.
This all comes to a head during the the times when Corrin tries to take all the responsibility unto himself, putting his life at risk in doing so. He attempts to tell the party of Valla because he himself still doesn't believe in his strength as a leader, and tries to pass off the role to Ryoma and Xander. The brothers reject this idea, because it was Corrin's leadership, not theirs, that brought the party together. This comes up again with the Anthony debacle, where Corrin again tries the same thing-taking all the problems onto himself-and has to get the point definitively hammered into him: Your biggest weakness is also your greatest strength. Be true to yourself, and we'll always support you in times of need.
Corrin developing like this makes them the leader that he always was, he just didn't know it until then. It's why as time goes on, I have less of a problem with Corrin leading Valla, because thematically? It works! He pushed back against the cycle of warfare that Nohr and Hoshido-and his families by extension-offered him, and ended it by being true to his moral convictions (like Conquest) and relying on his strengths, that being believing in people (like Birthright). Corrin proves that he's a leader capable of leading Valla out of its ruined state, with the help from his brothers that he'll never shy away from asking for again.
Sorry again if this was a lot, Fates just brings out the analyst in me haha.
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Hate watching Trigun, the CGI is meh, but I watched Doro Hedoro and I liked it despite the CGI. Granted I'm heavily biased as I'm a fanboy of the OG Trigun
Roberto is a poor stand in for Millie, 0 chemistry with Meryl.
The new coat is garbage compared to the old duster. The gun is a bit different, it's more greebled, and I don't care for it.
They keep referring to his head as "spikey" like the original but his hair is more fluffy looking, unlike his straight up broom head.
Voice actors are great at least, I like some of the writing.
Old first scenes was better with the bar sign scene.
Meryl is pretty cute I'll give it that, still animation is all floaty and shit.
Original world built slowly and gave information naturally, this one is a bit heavy on the exposition.
Nit pick but the original's OP fit the western theme far better than the J-pop opening
I feel like there's almost too much movement, like they feel like they always have to be moving
Nebraska Family is better in this tbh
Knives' coat looks fucking retarded and I hate it, he's also showing up too early, explains why they exposition is so heavy, it's rushing.
I cannot help but compare it to the original, it's not terrible, it has redeeming qualities but it falls flat of the original imo.
Really changing his duster, removing Millie to add some random drunk guy, the heavy exposition, but I'll keep watching it, it's only 12 episodes so whatever.
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My comment on Dracula for today, 2/2:
Jack stands guard as Mina visits Renfield, fearing another violent outburst from the latter, but he's quite civil aside from staring a bit - and bluntly asking Mina if she's who Doc Seward wanted to marry. She corrects him, although, to be fair, Jack is in "oh, Mina, you are so wonderful!" mode all the time. Renfield advises Mina not to stay around, and also bitches at Jack before swaggering up with some Latin he probably picked up from the doctors. He's still my gross lil' blorbo. Jack calls him "my own pet lunatic"; that's kind of fucked up. Meanehile, Renfield is quite happy to converse, telling Mina of his eating habits to prolong life and that he actively wanted to kill a human over this notion. He fails to imply that he has given up on the idea, but when it's time to go and Mina poltely says she hopes they'll speak again under more favorable circumstances, Renfield earnestly says he hopes he'll never see her again, God bless her. Wow, he really wants for her to get out of harm's way after just one meeting. Mina has Mary Sue superpowers, but she's so much of a nerd and defiance of Stoker's sexism that I'm willing to forgive her.
Jack goes alone to pick up van Hellstoker from the station, and "left the boys behind [him]". He actually calls them "the boys", and notes how they are finally more cheerful since Mina got here. The polycule is basically canon at this point. Van Hellstoker has to ruin my mood by telling me that Mina has a man's brain and a woman's heart. Fuck off. Also, he wants to send her home to the hearth to spare her poor woman's heart the horrors while the dude squad go vampire hunting. Dumbass. Y'all will be lost without her. But because Jack is an idiot about his mentor and older man crush, he agrees. Van Hellstoker brutally murders a proverb during the mutual update, then they reach the asylum and Mina, in the face of the author's avatar, turns into a meek, submissive little secretary who asks his professional opinion on what should and shouldn't end up in their chronicle. Even her heart-to-heart talks with Lucy's boyfriends? Yeah! They might make her husband love her even more, and isn't that the thing to consider about her existence? Yeesh.
After dinner, it's time for war council. Van Hellstoker gives a longer exposition on vampire lore that is too dense to recount here. Suffice to say, some very selective weaknesses aside, vampires are stupidly OP (and, less than surprisingly, very international). But the polycule all swear to go united against Dracula which is a neat bonding moment. Although Quincey gets bored sometime during van Hellstoker's history lesson and wanders off to start shooting at a bat. Uhm. Is that the weird Texan stereotypes showing up? He didn't hit it; shame. Van Hellstoker tells Mina that she isn't allowed to ask questions anymore - hurray, more of that being Ominous(TM) about information business! But now with the extra note of "we are men". Boy, am I happy about this. If it weren't Mina who has to pay the price, I'd say they really have the results of their idiocy coming.
#Dracula Daily#even van Hellstoker has thesaurus syndrome#why say 'contemporary' when 'coeval' is more confusing?#it mixes really poorly with his oh-so-foreigner verbal mannerisms
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hey i'm back to clear things up, i was just so quick to get my thoughts out i didn't think to properly explain them
i wanted joel to seem more dramatic was what i meant. yell leave and then turn his head to the side bc he can't look at her go, or smtn like that. idk maybe i'm too hung op on this i'll rewatch the ep tmrw to see if i still feel the same
i liked the funnier in her head line too, but the fake bite was soo cute
ok fedra time this is gonna be a long one lol. i totally got what why ellie was saying those things, it's more so about the "rules" of the show. yk how every piece of media has it's own rules about the world and how the ppl in it are allowed to function. ex if someone other than the main cast shows altruistic intentions they're hiding something (spn), everyone lies for their own benefit to some degree (house md), the people can't rule themselves (got) etc. the rules of tlou (so far at least) are that there can't be an uprising without one firm hand who has clear and realistic end goals which happen to coincide with the morals of the writers. no one firm hand and no realistic goals means the fireflies are idealistic and ineffective. the morals don't coincide with the writers and no clear end goal means kc is brutal and senseless. it's not so much about these specific groups, but what they stand for. further examples for the fact that the people can't rule themselves. (ps jackson has council representatives which is called council communism and again proves the point that in the world of tlou there need to be people who make decisions for the majority)
i totally got the type of crush you were explaining for riley, i was just lacking the feeling like the actress was actually about to blush and then try to hide it and then lovingly look back etc. idk this one is really personal i think
sorry this was so long and i also hope this doesn't come off as me arguing i'm really happy just to be sharing my thought with you <3 excited for next week!
i think it's just up to personal interpretation! maybe i'm just not looking into it hard enough, but i felt that since this is a TV show, they can only focus on a few characters at a time. even if they wanted to show us a positive society without any sort of leader, it would be difficult to follow the story if we were bouncing around through a whole bunch of people, each with their own lives and ideas about the world they live in. it's a cool idea that i would happily watch, but it wouldn't fit with the (mostly) linear story they're trying to tell here. like, it was much easier for them to give maria this sorta-leader role because then she can be used for plot purposes and exposition about jackson. and there's always going to be some element of politics involved in apocalypse stories, but tbh covid has jaded me because i saw so much selfishness and greed arise from that, to the point where i'm burnt out and uninterested in the government systems and i'm much more concerned with the individual stories within. i probably should care more considering this show is so popular and definitely has an impact, but.... idk. maybe someday i'll rewatch and skip all the emotional scenes so i can focus on the rest of the show's message!
i think where we differ is that i like a more subtle type of acting. overacting is much more egregious to me than underacting. if joel had been sobbing or screaming his head off i would've been like.... 🤨 also it's worth pointing out that riley is a bit older than ellie and she's getting ready to do this very adult thing (essentially being deployed for war), so she's not in the same headspace as ellie is for most of the night. ellie is excited that her best friend just came back into her life, she's doing all these incredible fun things, and she's got butterflies in her tummy ;-; but riley knows what this night is really about. she's just trying to give ellie a good time, she's not focused on her own feelings yet. if everything had gone as planned, riley would've walked ellie back to the dorm, left boston, and then probably would break down and feel all her feelings when she's alone. i don't think she ever expected ellie to kiss her or for their relationship to go past friendship, so she didn't even bother getting hopeful about it. it's possible that i'm projecting a lot onto riley because this is exactly how i act when i'm interested in someone lol. sometimes i over-correct so hard that it seems like i don't like you at all, let alone feel romantic feelings towards you 😭
but either way i love talking about tlou in any capacity so please always feel free to share your thoughts!!!
#sorry i love riley very much and i have a lot of headcanons about her#sometimes i forget they're not canon because they've been in my head for so many years fjksdjs#tlou spoilers#the last of us spoilers
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Server Movie Synopsis: Bullet Train
*AN: Keep in mind that these synopses will contain spoilers and may not be complete, as I rarely see the entire movie while serving for it. These synopses are just going to be fast impressions of an Alamo Drafthouse server. In this particular case, it is worth noting that I am conversational in Japanese and read it at about a junior high level.*
Okay, so he’s a mercenary, got it, cool. Been working on himself, good. He’s...on an ‘easy job’ and he’s not gonna take the gun? Done killing, sure, but, I mean...kneecaps are a thing, my guy. Also, in Japanese culture, ladybugs are only good luck because they supposedly absorb all the bad luck around them, soooooo...maybe her codename for him is more accurate than he thinks. Thomas the Tank Engine as a metaphor for sociology... These Japanese translations for the codenames and stuff are amazing, lol. Sanada-saaaaaaan *heart eyes* A...boomslang...was stolen from the zoo. Well, that’s going to come back to bite someone. *rimshot* Wait, how many characters are there? Wait, who is this guy? Wait, what? WHAT? WHAT. So the Citrus Twins are here to deliver this guy plus ransom money to his Russian mobster yakuza oyabun dad, but Ladybug’s here to take the ransom money, but now Wolf’s here to kill the person who gave his wife a Red Wedding--okay, and Yuuichi’s here to find the person who pushed his son off a roof and it’s this schoolgirl, but wtf is her deal, and what’s with the train mascot getting pushed around so much? Ohhh, the snake belongs to that chick over there and she’s the one who killed that guy’s wife and she’s here to get the case, too... But the schoolgirl is after the Russian mobster, and now there’s explosives everywhere? And her parents hated her enough to name her ‘Little Prince.’ She’s definitely the Diesel. (FORGET THE DIESEL, WHO’S THE PERCY, THAT’S WHAT WE REALLY WANT TO KNOW oh, the ransomed kid was the Percy, okay, my bad, I must have missed that the first time...) Wait, so now he’s dead and she’s dead and that guy’s been shot and the Russian dude is pissed and WAIT IS THAT CHANNING TATUM? Why does this feel so much like a Lost City AU fanmovie? Oh snap, now Yuuichi’s been shot--is he dying? Ope, there went the sleeping powder. OH SHIT, IS LEMONS DEAD HOW DARE YOU. Okay, we’ve got the Diesel cornered, and GODDAMMIT THEY FUCKED THAT RIGHT UP. Ladybug, my dude, you have now accidentally killed three people. OH SHIT, LEMONS IS ALIVE YAAAAS. Oooh, Sanada-san has arrived to give us the exposition we were all too confused to ask for! Aaaaand it tells us almost nothing. All right, showdown! Whoops, there goes the case. Badassery ensues. THE PRINCE IS HIS DAUGHTER? Shit, I’d fuck the guy up, too. Ooh, is he going to fall for that? Nope, damn. NO NOT LEMONS AGAIN YOU BASTARDS. Wait, are we crashing?!? Whoopsie-daisy, the shinkansen has now brutalized a dozen yakuza, another train, and half a town. OHSHIT HE FINALLY FELL FOR IT, LOLOL. Gatdam, Prince is like a cockroach. WTF IS THAT A TRUCK FULL OF MIKAN OMGLOLOL, VENGEANCE FOR TANGERINE, AND LEMONS IS ALIIIIIIVE. Yay, happy ending for approximately half the characters!
It’s like Guy RItchie and Luc Besson decided to make an anachronistic yakuza movie that is also a love letter to Japanese trains (I mean that in the best possible way). Featuring a mascot who squeaks when punched, mediocre subtitles that do the job (I guess...), A Day in the Life of a Fiji Water Bottle, multiple ejections from a moving train, Five Seconds of Ryan Reynolds (to make up for Five Seconds of Brad Pitt in Deadpool 2), Zazie Beetz having a really terrible day, and a Mid Credit Scene (but no End Credit Scene after all the funny animated credits).
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Space Marine 2 is Gears of War on steroids, and a treat for 40k fans
40k Warhammer Space Marine 2 is primarily a third-person shooter and just secondarily a Warhammer 40k game. That's not to suggest that a sequel to the tale of Titus, a former Firstborn Captain of the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter, won't be given to ardent aficionados of the universe, but if, like me, it means little to you, Space Marine 2 won't lose you in the minutiae of its lore.
After playing an hour of Space Marine 2’s second level and having a chat with Saber Interactive creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick at Gamescom 2023, it became very clear to me that the team is aiming to strike a balance between doing right by longtime fans and people like me when the Space Marine 2 release date rolls around later this year.
Hollis-Leick played Dawn of War 2 when it came out and has read so many Warhammer 40k books and novels that I imagine he has whole shelves dedicated to the series, but that doesn’t mean he’s not thinking about new fans.
“How do we make it feel accessible to someone who’s got no familiarity with whatsoever?” Hollis-Leick ponders. “We worked with Games Workshop to relax some of the terminology where possible, to use more common terms to make this a little bit easier to understand. Also, I wanted to avoid massive exposition dumps at the start of the game about what Aterian is, what a Rubicon Primaris is, and all that stuff. So it was a combination of simplification and drip-feeding as much visual storytelling as possible.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzucEQ-VhHQ
That visual storytelling is immediately evident too, with a massive mud-drenched battlefield opening up the second level while soldiers bark orders at one another and fight the Tyranids – Warhammer 40k’s aliens that are reminiscent of the bugs in Starship Troopers – as they come running at you in droves.
There’s so much in the character design and world itself that isn’t outright explained, and yet Space Marine 2 absolutely feels part of a larger universe that easily welcomes you into its mechanics. Warhammer 40k fans will not be left wanting, I’m sure of it, even if the presentation isn’t immediately lore-heavy.
While Space Marine 2 is not a cover shooter, instead opting for a blend of ranged and melee combat against hordes of enemies that you can tackle in up to three-player co-op, it will definitely appeal to fans of that genre. If you thought the jacked dudes, screaming, and gore of Gears of War was intense, Space Marine 2 dials that up to 11 while offering you a smooth blend of ranged and melee combat.
Because Saber Interactive is leveraging its tech from 2019’s World War Z, Space Marine 2 will see you fending off hordes of enemies as they scramble over each other to reach your position, and when they do you’ll need to dodge roll, melee attack, and parry your way around the battlefield. Space Marine 2 is a delicate dance of off-the-cuff judgments, where your choice comes down to point-blank executions or chainsaws through the chest.
“We felt that the story of a Space Marine cannot be told without that epic scale,” Hollis-Leick adds. “So there is a lot of sort of programming wizardry that goes into it, we have to be very efficient with graphics.”
You’ll see swarms of Tyranids from hundreds of meters away bearing down on you like a flock of birds, only for them to push right up to your position and charge you without a second thought.
Space Marine 2 is a successful exercise in over-the-top game design. You’re controlling an eight-foot-tall immortal man who likely weighs over 1,000kgs in armor, and you’re somehow gliding around the battlefield like an Olympic figure skater.
While that might sound like it shouldn’t work on screen, it really does. The movement and gunplay are top-tier, and this is what makes it appeal to anyone who doesn’t know their Space Marines. The core experience of Space Marine 2 is so good that newbies won’t feel lost, but while big fans will definitely still get what they want.
If you’re also a fantasy gamer, we’ve got all the best Warhammer games you’ll ever need as well, alongside some brilliant co-op games to keep your squad busy in the meantime.
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Spirit World #3
Oh, that's why all the cats! I know Constantine canonically likes cats, and I assumed him and all his beloved cats that he pretends to barely tolerate were just fanservice. (Which, you know, I'm sure they are still, but.) It was all a setup to that joke. Just so you know he's saying it intentionally, knowing full well what he's doing, to be mean. So you don't have to question even for a second that, wait, what, since when is he allergic to cats? He's not. You know he's not.
I love all of the art in this, but Cass's adorable little ghosty outfit? Oh my god. I would die for her. She is too cute. They're all too cute. (I am in love with this demon.) And I love all the mythology, too, it's so refreshing to see eastern stories worked in.
I love the exploration of the limits of Xanthe's powers, thinking out how they would actually work out logistically, where they would break down, and the fact that they really aren't just all powerful and worldbreaking. They take time and preparation. This works so well in the context of Gotham heroes, because that's really their whole deal! Thinking through what they would need and preparing for it! It's also nice to see it not just because most superhero stuff doesn't bother to go into that kind of detail, but because it sets out an actual schema for it, and disproves the whole 'OP Mary Sue' complaint. Which I think is a lot like the mythology: there are rules, you just didn't know them, because you don't know about it yet.
I'm really liking the parallel characters here, because Constantine and Cass have had such similar experiences, and it's really being used symbolically to intimate to us the kind of life (death) Xanthe has lead. They don't have to do exposition or anything because we already have known stories to lean on, to contrast and play against each other! Plus, they can emotionally lean on each other, you know?
There's a bit where Cass has her memories returned that's genuinely kind of hard to follow and made me dizzy to look at, and I'm not sure it's achieving everything it set out to achieve in being framed that way, but it is a bold artistic choice, so I respect that.
This villain is so successfully creepy, and successfully creepy in a body horror way while actually showing us all of the bodies and the whole villain right there for us to look at. And I do really like how the body horror plays against the gender discomfort; even if it doesn't get into dysphoria outright, I think there will be plenty to read in that direction. And the artstyle lends itself so well to that!
I just love this series so much.
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