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#i highly recommend the series if you can watch it at the least
ruindunburnit · 1 year
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Instead of watching Glass Onion (and I will soon because tumblr is a menace about spoilers!) I started watching His Dark Materials series 3.
Besties, I never read the books (and I tried, I PROMISE I did), but holy shit does this TV series give me everything I want out of a fantasy work. I wish I was reading this series when I went through an Eragon phase.
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hell0mega · 1 year
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hmmmm
#not to be weird or cringe but i cant help but feel like#if american crime story the people vs oj simpson came out in like 2013 instead of 2016 and i had seen it then#i would not have been normal about it. i wouldve been so weirdly obsessed#because i can feel it. i can feel the obsession in my bones. the little bit of naive wonder left inside of me i can feel it trying to reach#and im a full adult who is very media-jaded and generally very real-person jaded as well#im able to use it as a shield against all that cringe inside me that i know I'd look back on and just. want to die about it#and if you've read this far you deserve to know exactly what i mean. cuz i do mean the case in general sure but#there's one specific player in the whole thing that this very specific feeling is reserved for. and I've come this far#I'm being vulnerable with you right now#so I'm specifically talking about David schwimmer's portrayl of Robert Kardashian#and i would like to stop there and say it's just the fictional interpretation of him by a talented actor#unfortunately his performance led me to watch actual footage of the real Kardashian and look into his story#and i had to stop!!!!!! cuz of this all too familiar phenomenon!!! do you know how embarrassing this is to admit!!!!!!#theeeere it iiiis aaaagain that funny feeling#if you don't know anything about the oj Simpson trial. by Robert Kardashian i do mean kim Kardashian's father.#they were best friends. for like 20 years. he was also a hyper religious lawyer. like should be my least favorite person ever#AND YET#if you like crime drama i highly recommend watching the series regardless. it's AMAZING#Sarah Paulson fuckin rocked that shit#also it's extra triple embarrassing cuz it's fucking David schwimmer
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its-time-to-write · 6 months
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i hold it like a grudge - ch. 2
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I forgot to mention, the chapter titles/series name comes from the song, “the grudge.” I’d highly recommend listening to it at least once to get the feel I was going for in this fic, or at least what influenced parts of it.
table of contents try to be tough
It’s raining, not completely unusual for early August, and it feels like a reset. The air smells clean and fresh, and you know that it’s going to be a slow workday. You pull out your computer and check up on your online orders and update some posts on social media. You’re gaining serious traction, with reposts and likes from some American celebrities. Shit, with the way things are going, you could sell your flat and buy an actual house.
The grudge you hold against Jamie doesn’t seem so huge at the moment. It’s still there, but it no longer feels as though he pulled the rug out from under your feet. For the first time, you’re allowed to think about other things than the struggle he left you with. For example, why did he leave you in the first place? You hadn’t considered about it since cutting up everything he ever gave you, too busy with the all-consuming thought how will I survive?
It hurts, hurts much more than you think it still should. 
The two of you grew up together in the same council estate, right next to each other. You terrorized the neighbors while your mothers discussed money and shared food and scrounged together what they could to support both of you. 
When you got older and he was scouted for footie and headed for the academy, you still called him almost every day. He’d listened when you cried about your mum and watched her fade away right in front of you.
He’d gotten leave and come home for her funeral, and helped you pack everything up to either sell or to move next door with Georgie.
Jamie had been there for every part of your life, just as you’d been there for him when his dad came around, or he got yelled at by his teachers. 
He knew you, knew how much it meant that he stayed. Knew how much the support meant, and the way you both had clawed your way to get at least close to the top.
This plagues you as you wrap pickup orders for the day and place them in their spots behind the counter. 
You’re coming to the conclusion that he did it on purpose, that he must have known exactly what he was doing and somehow decided you deserved it, when a customer comes in out of the rain.
“Morning!” you say. “I have your order all ready for you. And it’s all paid for, so nothing else is needed on your end.”
Keeley says “Thanks,” with far less energy than she showed the other day with Jamie.
You ask, “You alright?” before you can stop yourself. 
She huffs out half a laugh. “Yeah, fucking great. Life’s just peachy at the moment, as I’m sure you’ve read in The Sun.”
You hadn’t, but you’ve a good guess what it has to say.
“I’m sorry,” you say as she takes the earrings. 
She just laughs again, short and grating. “Yeah. Y’know, I’ve been on all your socials. Read your website about empowering yourself and all that. Part of the reason why I wanted to come here, actually, y’know, fucking… girls supporting girls.”
You nod, unsure of what to say.
“I’m glad you’re getting the success you deserve, babes. Your bio said you went through a lot of shit to get here. Guess I’m still in my ‘lot of shit,’ part of life, you know? Anyway.” She goes to leave, jewelry tucked safely into her purse.
You think, fuck it.
“Keeley?” you ask hesitantly. She turns back around to face you.
“I just- I’ve been with someone who didn’t value me. Who didn’t hold himself accountable. It didn’t start that way at first, it was a lot of fun, but it ended up hurting me. I haven’t been able to trust anyone like that since, and I don’t want you to end up like me. You don’t have to stay with him. You can have a whole life all on your own, you know?”
Keeley gives you a small smile, says, “Thank you,” and heads out the door.
I deserved it.
Those words ring in your head as you walk home. You don’t bother to open your umbrella, opting to let the rain fall as it will in some form of absolution.
I deserved it.
You shut the door to your flat and drop your clothes on the way to the shower. You turn the knob to scalding, and let the suffocating steam fill the bathroom.
I deserved it.
The rain hits the roof with more force as you drink half a bottle of wine in lieu of dinner. It’ll hurt you tomorrow, but you don’t work tomorrow.
I-
No. It’s 3am, and you’re awoken from vivid dreams of your mum and Georgie and Simon, of Keeley, and of fucking Jamie. 
No. You didn’t- you don’t deserve it. 
“No,” you say aloud. “I know how to swim. I made it.”
With that pronouncement, you pull your blankets tighter around you, slipping easily into a dream where your mum holds you and whispers, “I’m so proud of you.”
It’s another rainy day in Richmond. The sky is dark and cloudy, and you can hear the sound of drops hitting the pavement as soft music plays in the shop. You haven’t seen Jamie or Keeley in a while, but his face is stuck all over Richmond, just like you predicted. 
Every time you see it, you think a calm, fuck you and continue walking. You didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve you.
You’re working on an order when the door chimes and Keeley Jones breezes in.
“Hi, welcome back! Jamie buying you more jewelry?”
Keeley grimaces. “Broke up with him a bit ago, actually. Thought a lot about what you said about accountability, then a friend of mine used the exact same word. It’s a little bit shit, but like you said. I can have a whole life all on my own, yeah?”
“Yeah!” you hastily reassure. “I promise you, it’s fucking brill without him. Hard at first, but you have to know your value.”
She grins a little half-grin and places the Keeley earrings on the counter.
That’s not unexpected, people often want to get rid of gifts from their ex, but you do still have a business.
“I’m so sorry about your breakup, but we can’t really do returns. Everything’s custom, so…” you trail off.
“Oh!” Keeley says. “No, I actually came back because I really fucking love these earrings, and I want something else to go with it. What d’you recommend?”
“Oh!” you parrot. “Well, we have necklaces. The charms are the same style, I can make a mockup for you if you give me a minute.” You turn around to pull out some boxes, and hear the door jingle. The air in the room changes ever so slightly and you know without looking who has just stepped in.
Jamie looks back and forth between you and Keeley, like he didn’t expect to see either of you there. 
That fucking drowning feeling, the one you worked so hard to get over, comes back in full force. 
“Hey,” Jamie says hesitantly, “um, I’ll just-” 
He leaves as quick as he came.
Keeley gives you a strange look. “What the fuck?” she laughs. “Was he looking for me? How the fuck did he know where I was?”
You tear your eyes away from the space Jamie just occupied. It’s been what, a month since the first time he came into your shop? Longer? It feels right and wrong somehow, like it’s both at once; you and him, in the same room, just like it’s always been. Like no time has passed. 
But time has passed, and more importantly the time for you to respond to Keeley has passed. You’ve been quiet a beat longer than normal, and she catches it. Keeley’s a smart girl, smarter than she’s given credit for. She’s puzzling out all the information she has, and you can practically hear it all bouncing around in her mind.
Something clicks into place. You see it in the way Keeley’s entire expression changes. She claps a hand over her mouth and exclaims, “Oh shit!” 
You don’t have a a chance to say anything because she looks at you with horror in her eyes and says, “It was Jamie.”
“What do you mean?” you ask carefully. 
Keeley’s still processing. “It was Jamie,” she repeats. “That’s your ex. The one who didn’t hold himself accountable, the one you said cheated on you. Oh my god, I’m the other woman! How could I do that to you?”
Keeley is having an epiphany mixed with a heart attack.
“You didn’t know!” you argue. “You didn’t know, and you never would have done it if you had.”
“I’m so fucking sorry,” she moans.
You grab her arm. “Keeley. You. Didn’t. Know. It’s been over a year. I’m fine.”
She snaps out of it a little bit, but still looks dazed as she says, “Why the fuck have you been so sweet? You knew exactly who I was.”
You lift a shoulder. “Jamie… he’s like a magnet. I dunno. I get what it’s like when he looks at you, it’s like you can’t believe that someone that wonderful even notices you. And I guess I understand why he dumped me, you know? We’ve known each other since we were kids and it’s fine if you have a regular job, but if you’re a fucking Premier League footballer… probably best to stick with models.”
Keeley walks over to the door and flips the sign to “closed.”
You look at her quizzically, but she just leans against the door and whispers, “I didn’t know you knew each other that long.”
There’s no good response to that statement, so you chew on your lip. For a long moment, you two just stare at each other.
Finally you say, “Okay. Fuck this. We’re going to my flat and we’re going to eat a shit ton of food and get absolutely smashed.”
table of contents
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theharrowing · 8 months
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White Lies
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Yoongi is everything you could ask for. He is attractive, confident, and smart. And his partner Taehyung is as possessive as he is beautiful. Too bad a relationship would be a major conflict of interest.
You need to have them, at all costs.
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🤍 Yoongi x Female Reader x Taehyung
🤍 word count: work in progress (currently 10.5k words) + images of social media posts & text conversations
🤍 college au, partial social media au with a lot of written story, strangers to lovers & established relationship, yandere, hurt/comfort, smut, fluff, angst, slash, poly, minor character injury & death, graphic violence, nsfw, 21+.
🤍 warnings: 🕊 dead dove 🕊. toxic relationships (dishonesty, jealousy, yandere behavior); ACAB includes our MC, sorry you found out this way; corrupt policing. more specific warnings coming soon, pending the release of each chapter.
🤍 part 2 of the Rose-Tinted Obsessions series
🤍 this is a sequel to Boy Blue! i highly recommend that you start at the beginning to fully understand the the dynamic & history between Yoongi & Taehyung. there will be a lot of references to Boy Blue; this fic will spoil the shit out of it. this includes some major character deaths!!! this MC/reader character is not the same MC/reader character from Boy Blue.
🤍 note: all detective work and cop jargon in this fic is either made up on the spot or comes from years of watching/listening to true crime media. i have no credentials in this field and i do not claim to know what i am talking about. for the sake of simplicity & also my sanity, all dialogue that is written and spoken is going to be in English. characters are from Korea and living/working in the US, and we can fill in the gaps between what language they are speaking in which context. also, although i try to keep the mc's physical description vague, i will refer to her as having curves and having hair that can be gripped onto. length and texture will be left vague. places mentioned are completely made up. i may be using actual city and neighborhood names to make it feel real, but every school, bar, etc. is fake and any similarities they have to real places is coincidence.
🤍 also note: this fic is going to be extremely contrived and dramatic, just like its predecessor was. we are not here for award winning story telling; think of it like a trashy daytime soap opera and a gore porn horror film had a baby. obviously, i do not condone the behaviors in this story; it is a work of fiction.
🤍 written parts beta read by @neoneunnajimin
🤍 check out the playlist!
🤍 posted nov. 2023 - present | read on ao3
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INDEX
0: Introductions | 0 words + screencaps
1: Do not, under any circumstances, become emotionally attached to either of these men | 2.9k words + screencaps
— TaeGi POV 1: What the fuck is this??? | 0 words + screencaps
2: Sleep sweet, pretty | 7.4k words + screencaps
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tag list: @aidam9911 @andrea613 @bangtan-tee-86 @ffion451 @fluffybuns69 @here4kpopfics @icedtaericano @iloverubberduckiez-blog @kiki-zb @lovemeforeternity @mgthecat @moonleeai @mother2monsters @neoneunnajimin @oceansmerchild @unsureofwhathappens 🤍 by asking to join this tag list, you are agreeing that you are at least 18 or older and that you are comfortable engaging in dead dove content. please tell me at any time if you would like to be removed and i will be happy to pull you off.
White Lies copyright 2021-2023 theharrowing, all rights reserved. No translations or reposts are allowed!
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projectdrow · 3 months
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How the Bad Batch can end well
So here are my 5 thoughts on season 3 and what’s to come after. I recommend @eriexplosion if you like reading interesting thoughts, analysis and ramblings, a lot of their recent posts inspired this one.
First of all, the trailer was a work of art. It gave us some really random scenes, but also some very direct information that we can speculate on like crazy, if we want to. Also, the title-episode list comes in handy, I will refer to it.
1.) Episode 1-3 one go
I’ll come back to why the show needs to end before May the 4th later, and that’s another reason for the multiple episode days.
When a streaming service like Disney drops more than one episode, they often do so because they think viewers might be lost, because the single (first) episode does not have the full “boom-bang-drama” potential.
I think we’ll see the liberation of Crosshair, maybe even Omega, in the first three episodes. The trailer makes no secret of the fact that Cross will rejoin the team. So this story will not be the main focus of the whole season and the first episode might built up solely for the climax of the escape/liberation in episode 3. At least something heavy will happen at the end of “Shadows of Tantiss”
2.) Omega as the main character
Omega’s character is a very typical tool in storytelling. Throw a character who knows nothing into an established system, so she learns everything with/for the viewer. Sure, the boys are main characters, too, but Omega is the point of view of the kids(! - I’ll come back to that later)-show we’re watching. She can’t be gone for that long, because I don’t think season 3 will be a “Omega’s adventures on Mt. Tantiss”. I think episode 6 and 7 (“Infiltration” and “Extraction”) the latest will bring her back.
3.) So what’s the story?
Actually, and some might say that’s a big take, a lot of the first episodes will be about Tech. I don’t think I need to elaborate to anyone why it makes no sense for him to be dead and never had.
When we first saw this Clone X, there were some interesting “Undercover-Tech” ideas, but after analyzing the trailer in more depth and especially what appears to be an attack on Pabu led by this Clone, well, I think that’s Tech. And not undercover, no, the full on brainwashed, highly dangerous Imp!Tech. Episode 10 is called “Identity Crisis”, which could very well be Tech’s. But they’ll get him back, don’t worry, also because the second part will be about the BB finally deciding what to do with their lives. Which leads directly to 5.), but first:
4.) (Almost) no one dies
Two reasons. First: We already had that devastating Tech-death scene. He AND Asajj will be brought back from the dead this season. Any further death this season wouldn’t convince anyone anymore, not even the kids.
Second: The kids. It’s still a children’s show. Yes, Star Wars kills of characters in them too, but @eriexplosion made a very good point in this post: That’s not what this show is about. TBB has been about the struggle of Clones finding their place, finding family, finding a meaning. All of that would be for naught, and that’s why I think everyone survives.
Also: The last episode is called: “The Cavalry has Arrived”.
5.) About the future
I think the Bad Batch was intended to be released earlier. As well as the trailer. But with the strikes and Filoni being promoted, their was a lot going on. With the triplet opening and the double episodes, we’ll finish on May 1st. And that would be just to perfect to announce the follow-up-project on May 4th. I see another Clone series on the horizon. The Clones work, the people love them, it’s all there, the characters, the stories, the animation. It’s a safe bet for Lucasfilm. And sure, it would work with Rex, Cody and more as main characters, but the Batch was intended to be and is a stark contrast to the “Regs”, especially if they get Cross and Tech back.
Sure, Omega could be the leading figure again, but… nah. I am writing this because I’m absolutely convinced that we won’t have seen the last of the complete BadBatch after season 3.
Star Wars is about Hope. So I hope.
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infaria · 3 months
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So, so, so, SO many people miss the point of the walten files and it's genuinely saddening, because it is such a delicate story hidden behind horror. What makes the walten files stand out from the rest of the big analog webseries out there is the fact that it's so far the only one that is both horror and drama in genre. The only other online indie horror projects that I've seen put focus on placing actual depth into characters so far is welcome home and the tanji virus/oracle project duology (a duology that I highly recommend people to watch, it deserves more recognition).
Martin has said that there's more to the characters than meets the eye, with bunnyfarm specifically noting that "this is a story about broken people, beautiful people"
This is probably why most theories people make are doomed to fail from my point of view. Martin doesn't seem to be particularly interested in creating an epic horror that ends in a thrilling battle or to create the "most SHOCKING, SCARY analog horror ever?!?!" as random reaction channels title their videos as. Maybe this is why Martin deviated from the original format. The walten files 4, despite being 36 minutes long, did not add too many answers to the mystery. Instead, there was a perfect balance of giving more context as well as well as giving more character to pre-existing characters, such as suzan, ed and molly, the antagonist (whoever he is), felix, jack and charles. All that through dialogue and actual cinematographic scenes. The story wants you to take personality and psychology into account when theorizing as well.
I won't post all my theories, but now that we have 4 out, I'll give my two cents on the "who or what is bon" mystery, based on a mix of character analysis and hints given throughout the episodes, site, hidden media and martin's statements.
I never believed the "felix killed and placed jack into bon" theory as someone who discovered the series after bunnyfarm's release. Felix is a coward, self centered, is irresponsible and refuses to acknowledge his issues. And people mistakenly interpret that as "evil capitalist who only cares about his hide". I won't analyze felix (at least not today), because so far he is the one character who we have the most context about his inner psychology and woo boi, there's a LOT of issues this guy has, but point I am trying to make is that he doesn't seem like the type to kill jack because, believe it or not, from what I can gather, he'd never kill a person on purpose.
The only possible scenario I can see the "felix put jack in bon" theory being true is if jack attacked felix after learning of the kids, so felix accidentally killed him in self defense.
Felix is shown to be alive in 1981, so it's unlikely it is him being bon either. (funnily enough, if that wasn't revealed, I'd think him being bon as a good theory, something that, yet again, I'll probably touch upon a future dissection of his character)
The only two scenarios I can think of is a) either jack put himself, either on purpose, or accidentally in bon, b) bon is a third party or c) jack is bon, but someone else placed him in
Out of these three theories, I believe a) is the least probable, with c) being second in place. It is possible jack got depressed to the point of doing something this intense, however it was implied in the Relocation project and the findjackwalten site that he is very likely alive. Here I am mostly going on hunch, but I don't think martin would choose the "Man loses family, ends up depressed and then a vengeful insane spirit" route. I did say above that I believe felix to more more likely to fit that role of "person going mad from mental stress", but I actually believe that he'd be more likely to snap, considering his mental stability after the crash. Also I don't see how jack could accidentally get into bon.
I honestly think both were red herrings from the very start of the series. In fact, walten files 4 pretty much added the possibility that they have nothing to do with the murders (excluding ed and molly*), aside from felix being heavily hinted to have tried covering up the bon incidents instead of reporting them like a normal, law abiding, responsible citizen.
Cyberfun Tech episode pretty much revealed to us that the "bon is just a malfunctioning animatronic" theory is not true, as bon clearly has something controlling it. So I can only see the above theories being correct.
This places the c) theory as most believable. The issue is who is the third party. People have speculated it is the original ceo of cyberfun tech or a demon. I'd personally lean towards the ceo, a demon would be too random for a story that focuses so much on personal strife. And since I am part of the "jack is alive" theorizers, I also don't believe the "manifestation of jack's anger" theory. Something that keeps bugging me also is why did the person who honked at felix during the car crash didn't report anything, it's weird, as if someone saw the perfect opportunity to use felix as a scapegoat for the murders. Maybe bon has an accomplice?
I'm stepping into tinfoil shadow government territory here though lmao
*I know I am being nitpicky here, call me a law nerd all you know, but I especially get frustrated when people throw around heavy words without knowing their terminology, as that can have pretty bad consequences when applicable to real people. Another small fun fact just for extra trivia knowledge: Age of consent doesn't always mean legal, if you're a minor, please protect yourself. Back on topic, no, what felix did was not murder. It's a shitty, also fairly common douchy behavior in my country called "causing death through driving under the influence of alcohol". Here's the difference:
(The first picture says California, but the same exact thing applies to law articles from multiple countries)
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This post probably ended up on a passive aggressive tone, I apologize ToT
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holleighgram · 10 months
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Hold onto your keyboards, cause I'm about to get ✨️controversial ✨️
I'd like to preface this by saying all interpretations/ headcanons/ readings/ etc. Are valid and I'm in no way discouraging anyone to change their ways.
I watched (and enjoyed) Baloney's "The Truth About Kingdom Hearts!" And I absolutely adored their take on the series, but one line stuck out to me that I really want to expand on because I don't see it being talked about as often as it should.
Kairi doesn't like Riku.
And I think this is a very RICH and IMPORTANT aspect of the Destiny Trio dynamic. It adds to the complexity of these characters, but especially Kairi.
(Another shout out to @violethowler and their INCREDIBLE Constructing Kingdoms series. The video on"The Girl Who Never Grew Up" made me like and understand Kairi so much more. Highly recommend checking it out.)
Kairi doesn't like Riku, and with some pretty valid reasons, but I'll get to that after I compile all the evidence towards this:
In KH:
Kairi likes her life the way it is. She doesn't desire change, but Riku wants nothing but change. He wants to grow up and move on and see the outside world.
And because Sora looks up to him, Sora has jumped on the bandwagon too. Kairi is going along because Sora is. But it is clear that for Kairi, change =/= good. So what does she say?
"You know, Riku's changed."
Sora asks her how, and she kinda bites her tongue. Clearly she had opinions, but doesn't want to badmouth Soras best friend to him. Later she says, "Sora, don't ever change."
Later, after everything, when Kairi is restored and in Travers Town, she doubts that Riku can be saved, despite the fact that she LITERALLY saved Sora from being a heartless. She almost seems like she's trying to convince Sora not to go, or to at least let her come with-- not to save Riku but because she wants to be there with Sora.
At the end of the game, she obviously return to destiny islands and draws the paopu.
During Chain of Memories, everyone forgets about Sora, but the memories of Riku stay intact. For a year. Kairi is well aware that her "friend" is missing. In fact, last she knew of him, he was still taken by Ansem and presumably dead or at least suffering. She doesn't know.
She knows she's a Princess of Heart and has powers thay can help (as she restored Sora after being a heartless). But the most we get is "he's far away, but I know we'll see him again." Like, do you?
I mean, SELPHIE is the one that says "I sure miss him." That's way more than we EVER get from Kairi.
So for a YEAR, she doesn't spare Riku a single thought. But the SECOND she remembers Sora, she is willing to do anything to see him again.
Here's a little bit of speculation for WHY she doesn't like Riku:
1) Perhaps when she first met them as kids, he reminder her of Xehenort, who kidnapped her and yeeted her into space.
2) Kairi wanted to be best friends with SORA, but not Riku. She's afraid that Sora will follow Riku to the outside worlds (where she doesn't want to go) and leave her behind. If it wasn't for Riku, Sora wouldn't want to leave at all.
3) He (as far as we know) opened the door and damned their home into Darkness. That's probably a point of contention for her. Even though Sora so forgiving.
4) He hurt Sora in KH1, but Sora is still loyal to him. She probably sees that as him taking advantage of Sora-- the person she cares most about.
5) He's the reason Sora never came home. If it wasn't for him, they would have gone home at the end of KH1 together.
I can't say for sure how Riku feels about Kairi. He DID drag her corpse around and give into the darkness to save her, but that can be interpreted as solely wanting to "beat " Sora at being the hero. Even still, we get moment in COM where he reflects on missing her. We even see Namine come to his rescue in her form. I definitely feel like there is less animosity there, but who knows.
That's all.
Roast me, Kairi stans, but I love the depth this reading gives to the story and the potential for arcs and character growth for her and she is forced to face who she is without Sora.
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writinandcrying · 4 months
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TMNT HEADCANON - Turtle of choice x reader (GN)
Reader’s Birthday
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the first slice goes to.. / showing love through cake lol
It’s a tradition in my country to give the first slice to the person you love the most during your birthday, so here a tiny Headcanon for how the turtles would react to it!
Here a demonstration of this wholesome act, TW cute kids
Reader and TOC (turtle of choice) are still on the “crush stage”, doing with the 2003 boys cuz I’ve recently started watching the show! (I only remember bits it cuz I was pretty young when it aired lol, I love how the very beginning shows how they found out a new lair, how they met april, how they barely got any human contact before meeting her, it’s super cool and has some fresh concepts comparing to most canon narratives, if you haven’t watched the 2003 series I highly recommend it)
Anyways, let me know if you would like me to do other versions as well :) hope you guys like it, feedback is welcomed 🫶
English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammar mistakes !!
Mikey
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🛹 He’s deadass behaving like this after you tell him the meaning behind giving the first slice (i love this gif lol)
🛹 “AWW !! ANGELCAKES!!” Hugs you so tightly you barely have time to move the tiny slice to the nearest surface you can find, one second later the cake would have gotten smushed between you two
🛹 good luck if you have labyrinthitis, he WILL spin you around a few (at least 5) times to show how appreciative he is of the gesture
🛹 he’s not letting you go for a hot second
🛹 Sees this as an opportunity to finally kiss your cheeks, he has always wanted to but never really had a “reason” to without making things awkward, this is his perfect chance!
🛹will randomly give you kisses through out your stay
🛹 Gets addicted to it, your skin are much softer and smoother than theirs, does a mental note to give more attention to this area from now on
🛹 If you blush to his antics tho? Oh he is DONE for
🛹if you placed a microfone to his chest it would def broadcast the sickest beat
🛹 boom boom boom boom 💥
🛹Actually he will cling to you, will do anything you want or ask for, it’s your princess / prince / royalty day!
🛹 Pls confess to the poor boy lol he’s actually anticipating it now
🛹 Literally vibrating with joy, expect lots of hugs from him
🛹 Your bday will become his favorite “holiday” (yes for him it’s a holiday now )
Donnie
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🔬”Cake time! “ Mikey sings out loud as he has been patiently waiting for your arrival to sing happy birthday
🔬you insist that Donnie gets the first slice tho, and he definitely reads into why you are persistent of him instead of younger brother
🔬he of course accepts it, but D keeps it quiet most of the evening, doesn’t want to put you on the spot, but he can swear he saw a faint blush adore your cheeks when you looked towards him
🔬 will ask to speak in private with you, hopefully when the “birthday commotion” dies down a bit, he definitely doesn’t want to deal with Raph’s and Mikey’s “oooooh” and “get it Donnie!” Teasing remarks
🔬He still deals with it tho, cuz I mean, brothers.
🔬 Donnie shows the reason why he pulled you over, a PowerPoint complication of several different birthday traditions around the globe he has read some before setting up the party earlier
🔬 “Isn’t it interesting?? “Totally trying to cover up his main question, did you or did you not give him the first slice? aka just said in front of EVERYONE that HE is your favorite person in the entire world?????
🔬 “one of the most wholesome ones I’ve fond was this one, apparently, I mean, if you wish to, you give the first cake slice to your- erm, to the person it means the world to you…”
🔬 “that one is pretty cute, yeah” you chuckle, looking down as his nervous hands, fidgeting with a random prototype he decided to hold it for moral support while showing of his presentation
🔬”were you.. aware of such tradition? “ Donnie finally looks towards you, searching for any indication of you confirming his suspicions, eyes shining with anticipation
🔬 “I did Donnie” you smooth your hand on top of his as you caress it tenderly
🔬 literally let’s out the dorkiest giggle you have ever heard in your entire life
🔬 the “school girl / Kicking my feet” kinda giggle
🔬 cover his mouth right after he lets it out. Don is mortified, embarrassed as hell, deadass wants to crawl in a hole and die after he lets it out
🔬 Relaxes a bit after he sees you giggling as well
🔬 asks more about your birthday traditions, past birthdays memories you had to break the ice (that’s his way is being smooth)
🔬 please be noted, He does not let go of your hand, man is making his moves
🔬 but just a heads up; this moment will live rent free in his mind for MONTHS on end, for his sake (and his brothers sake as well) confess as soon as you can
Raph
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🧨 says he doesn’t want it right off the bat
🧨 It’s not that he doesn’t want to accept your feelings, he actually has no ideia about this tradition whatsoever, if you have ever told him before, he definitely forgot it
🧨 Plus, I’m a firm believer most Raph’s aren’t really into sweet treats, they doesn’t want to mess with his diet or can’t handle much sugar (gym rat tendencies)
🧨 You try to empathize how special it would be for you if he accept it
🧨 you really don’t wanna say why tho, like, this is already really embarrassing as it is
🧨 just take the cake man, damn
🧨 mikey for the rescue! literally shoves the cake down his throat after Raph guarantees he doesn’t want it
🧨 Things get a bit awkward after that, you really don’t want to showcase that such a small thing had an affect on you
🧨 But there’s a tiny part of you that feels rejected, unconsciously start to shut down
🧨 Raph is extremely perspective of this, much the second youngest, he start to analyses what could have gone wrong, did something happen before you came to celebrate your birthday? Is someone bothering you? Should he teach them a lesson?
🧨 Will antagonize Donnie to check cameras around your area and work place
🧨 But it’s donn who comments about the birthday tradition
🧨 Will literally get so mad when he finds out lol
🧨 Feels SO stupid, Jesus Christ
🧨Will bark at mikey to spill the cake out, that was his slice
🧨”Dude, that was a week ago!
🧨 “I don’t care. Spill. it. out.”
🧨 “Raph, he probably already, uh- processed it out? “
🧨 “you guys are freaking disgusting, do we really have to discuss this at the dinner table?”
🧨 Will randomly show up at your place with a tiny red cake, a bit messy, but still pretty cute
🧨 “my birthday was last week, im pretty sure you were there to witness” you let out a chuckle, trying to ease out the undeniable tension in the air
🧨” this is my cake “
🧨 “ok..?”
🧨” …and I want you to have the first slice “
🧨 Oh.
🧨 OH.
🧨 oh.
Leo
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🎏 Unlike his brother, Leo could never forget it
🎏He literally has a folder in his brain just for stuff you tell him
🎏Stores it like the most precious piece of information anyone has ever given him
🎏 It took him a really long time to process his feelings for you, but once he does it, he treasures every single moment he has with you
🎏 you don’t even have to say anything when he sees you holding the plate to his direction, holding a mix of surprise and yet seriousness look on his face
🎏it’s like eveything it’s suddenly in slow motion, The determination behind his eyes makes you concerned a bit
🎏”Thank you, y/n”
🎏He bows to you
🎏 His brothers have no ideia what that was but they are def crackling up a storm
🎏 “what was that????”
🎏 “Tone it down, splinter junior, it’s just a cake”
🎏 what the boys don’t see it’s you being absolutely speechless and looking like a tomato as Leo takes his slice
🎏 you are the one over-analyzing the situation here
🎏What did he meant by that bow? does he remember what you told him ages ago? He wouldnt simply just bow for a slice of cake, would he?
🎏It fuels a fire inside of you and him, both extremely aware of each others lingering touches and thoughtful gestures from now on
🎏This goes on for a while, this whole… mutual pining stage can be tricky, but when reciprocated, it’s so nice to navigate through, and honestly quite addicting
🎏 a confession won’t even be necessary, leo and you get together over thoughtful acts, your first kiss was under the mistletoe on Christmas was an easy feat, yes, it was barely a brush over eachother lips, but still just felt natural, like it was supposed to be
🎏the midnight kiss in new years was a whole other thing, hands gripping on each other, his hand holding the nape of your neck like his life depended on it, you two couldn’t get enough of each other, waiting for so long to actually make a move after the cake incident
🎏 you finally make it official on his birthday, gracing you a smile and a light peck as he gently places the slice right in front of you
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goddessofmischief · 6 months
Text
      AUGUST (SHANKS X READER)
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A/N: This is part of this series, which requests are open for! These fics are all one-shots, so they can be read separately. Also, I highly recommend listening to the song linked in the title while you read, and please leave a comment when you've finished!
It took six weeks and a shipwreck to get you into the arms of the man that you loved, and you didn't regret a thing.
Little known pirate fact: the Oro Jackson's final resting place is a little island in the murkier side of the East Blue, far from pirates or Marines or anything at all. Here it lies to this day.
It arrived at this spot on a fated morning on an afternoon in August, when you, Shanks and Buggy were embroiled in the most terrible of arguments.
The tension had not dissipated from the days earlier, when Shanks had unceremoniously declared himself Captain, and Buggy was comfortable voicing his feelings - almost all of his feelings - out in the open now.
Starting with this one.
"We're not moving fast enough," Buggy complained. He had this particular feeling a lot.
"The ship can only go so fast. You know that," Shanks chided, jokingly. "...You've been on it for years."
"You know that's not what I mean. The One Piece is out there and we're supposed to be trying to claim it - now everyone's trying to claim it, aren't they? - but we're still wandering."
"We're preparing for the journey!"
"Oh, sure, like we really need all these maps. The only one that we really need is the map to the Grand Line, and we haven't even gotten it yet."
Shanks had been dispatching the two of you out for maps for the past few months, and many of your efforts had ended unsuccessfully. Buggy was beginning to tire of it.
"We're doing the best we can, Bugs, you know that," you tried, and Buggy cut you off.
"'You know that,'" Buggy imitated, and you and Shanks blinked at him with wide, vacuous eyes. "You two are even beginning to sound like each other, you know that? What, do you two get off on bullying me?"
"Yes," said Shanks, at the same time you said "No, of course not."
"No, of course not," Shanks amended, all too late.
"Fine," Buggy snapped, grabbing his satchel.
"Hey, where're you going-"
"You're not threatening to leave again, are you?"
"No, idiots! I'm going down to the port for a drink. Don't join."
You and Shanks sighed, exchanging weary looks with each other as Buggy departed the ship.
"So... what do you wanna do while we wait?"
...
"Careful," you warned idly, watching Shanks jerk the captain's wheel from one side to the next.
"Sorry, I'm just - I'm still getting the hang of this, I'm not used to steering-"
"It's alright," you assured him. "We're all learning things."
He had promised you there was an especially appealing island close by - something he'd discovered on his own and was anxious to share with you.
"Maybe you could let me try-"
"It's fine, I got it-"
"Shanks, let me steer-"
"I can do it-"
"What are you trying to prove?!"
"Nothing!"
The ship found that island, alright. It slammed right into the rocks in front of it.
"Oh, my God," you uttered, hand covering your mouth. Shanks stared ahead in total disbelief.
The ship was wrecked. You crashed. The ship was crashed. You and Shanks crashed Roger's ship. You and Shanks crashed Roger's ship. Buggy would never forgive you.
It was your fault.
It wasn't really - you would realize this, later on - but in the moment, that's how it felt.
"Shanks?" You shook him a little. He was seemingly catatonic, still staring straight ahead at the rocks.
"We..."
You nodded, grimly, trying to get him alert again.
"Come on, we're stuck. We have to figure something out."
...
Well, at least it was a nice island to be stuck in.
You and Shanks started a fire on the beach, after hours of searching and confirming there didn't seem to be anyone else on the island.
"Can't believe we wrecked it," Shanks mused. "It was the only home I've ever known."
"...Buggy's going to kill us."
Shanks glanced at you, a hint of amusement on his face.
"That's really what you're worried about?"
"Aren't you?"
"I think I'm more concerned with how we're going to get off this island. I'm beginning to realize that we can't. I guess we could try swimming out, but- no, it's too deep."
"So, we're stuck?"
Shanks confirmed your worry with a weary nod.
"We're stuck."
...
You didn't speak to each other again for another four days.
There was enough fruit on the island to live on, enough water stored on the wrecked Oro Jackson. The two of you could barely look at each other, repulsed by the shame of what you had done.
On the fifth day, you began to worry.
"Shanks?" you called out, shouting his name loud enough that he should have heard it. "Shanks, look, we better start making more permanent plans-"
He didn't respond.
"Shanks, come on, I don't wanna fight-"
You stopped dead in your tracks. Your brain couldn't handle what you had saw.
Shanks, flat on the ground under a palm tree.
You realized he must've fallen - the flares beside him indicated he was trying to call for help - your fault again, everything is awful and it's your fault, Shanks was dead and it was all your fault.
"No," you whispered, breath scarcely escaping your body. You collapsed to the ground, searching his face for signs of life, cradling his head in you hands. "Wake up, please, wake up- please, I need you to come back, I don't want to be alone-"
Shanks coughed, suddenly breathing again, and you realized with a rush of relief that he'd only been unconscious. His eyes scanned over you, a little smile teasing at the edge of his lips.
"Are you an angel? Am I in heaven?"
You cried in relief, not even having the energy to make fun of his stupid remarks.
"No, you idiot, you're here on earth with me."
Shanks noticed your hand was resting over his heart, and he brought his own hand up to meet it.
"You were crying over me?" he asked, cockily. You shook your head as the tear tracks staining your face betrayed you.
"I thought you were dead."
"I think I was."
"Did you see Roger?" you asked, almost laughing.
"I don't think I was dead long enough," he said. "I had to come back, you see. Had to be where you were."
As long as you had known Shanks, you had carried with you a indecipherable ache. It was today that the ache finally rose out of you, and today that you bent your face down far enough to connect your lips to his - on purpose, this time. He met them.
"We're still stuck on this island, you know," you murmured, finally pulling away.
His eyes sparkled.
"I'd forgotten."
...
For the next three weeks, your life was a montage of sun-drenched beaches, bare shoulders and tanned skin. Water everywhere, sand in everything. Salt air stung your tongue and infused all your kisses.
You barely felt like a pirate anymore. Life was that good. You felt more like a creature of the sea, tossed by the waves, unbothered by the silly human things that had once so concerned you - what One Piece? What Buggy? What Mihawk? You and Shanks were connected by everything, ebbing and flowing out of each other like it was the only thing that made sense.
Despite this backdrop of love, there was one thing that was clear. You were going to die. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon. The water from the ship would run out, and the fruit would run out, and then there would be no more left, and you and he would merely be skeletons left scattered on the shore, then dust.
"I can't even regret it," you sighed, head on his chest. "Not with everything that's happened."
"Do you think Buggy will miss us?"
"I don't know," you said with a guilty pang. "I guess I hadn't thought of him for awhile. I wish I could let him know what became of us. Mihawk, too."
"Could you not talk about Mihawk during moments like this?"
You laughed, kissing him lightly on the nose.
"I wonder how many sunrises we have left."
"Enough," he said, and after that the talking ended.
...
Little did you know, Buggy hadn't slept for weeks.
Okay, hadn't slept was an overexaggeration - he had little winks now and then, just a few, just to keep himself alive. He'd be no good to you or Shanks dead.
He'd been to four islands by now, and had scoured every one of them. What he really couldn't understand is how the Oro Jackson could have gone anywhere unnoticed. The citizens of the island he had been on recalled it in the port, when you dropped him off, and then it vanished like a ghost. The one ship every Marine in the world was looking for, and not one person would admit to seeing it.
It was killing him.
He couldn't imagine what had happened to you - Shanks, too, but he worried more for you, mostly for the reason that he was sure you would never leave him on purpose. It was possible for Shanks to have left, but you, too? Wouldn't happen.
The thought crossed his mind, once or twice, that the two of you had gotten sick of him and run away together, but it seemed impossible after how desperately you'd tried to keep him from leaving. You wouldn't just leave him now.
Maybe you were kidnapped. Or hungry. Or cold. Or-
Wait, was that the ship?
"Buggy!" he heard a chorus of familiar voices call out, frantically waving their arms on the beach. A familiar burst of red hair was immediately apparent amongst the grains of white sand.
"What the... the hell," he muttered, rowing the small boat he'd attained to look for you beside the crashed ship. He'd never realized how absolutely massive it was until it was in pieces. Even now, weeks later, rotted wood planks scattered the shore.
"Buggy!"
He barely had a moment to climb out of the boat and throw his oars aside before you and Shanks barreled towards him at full speed, both locking him in a tight embrace.
"You saved us," you whispered, burying your face in the nape of his neck. Shanks hugged him gratefully, too. It felt good having both of you back again. For a little while, Buggy had feared he would have to walk the world alone.
"What the hell happened?"
"Crashed," you explained, your cheeks flushed from the excitement.
"Did it just... did you not see the rocks?"
You shook your head, still completely overwhelmed.
"We thought we were going to die."
"I was beginning to think you were already dead!"
"You saved us," you emphasized, salt water stinging your eyes. "I could kiss you."
Buggy's face went blank, as did yours. Clumsily, you reached over and gave him a peck on the cheek, and smiled. In one fluid motion, you pulled back, and Shanks looped his arm around your waist. You and Shanks glanced at each other, still grinning, and you rested your head on his shoulder.
That was the moment he knew something had changed. Something was different, since the last time he'd seen you.
"You guys..." he tried to put the words together. "You guys... what, uhh, what did you guys do for six weeks?"
Buggy had a few guesses.
taglist: @sawendel @twinklesnake @literaturewithliz @sordidmusings @foggyturtleknightangel @toertchen @96jnie @lunanight1021 @trafalgardvivi
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forbidden-sunlight · 5 months
Text
yandere!Ragatha with gender-neutral! rabbit plush! reader headcanons
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Warnings: Obsessive behavior, implied bullying, spoilers for the pilot episode.
There may also be possible triggers in this story.
If you do not feel comfortable venturing any further, please hit the 'back' button on your mobile device or computer and read something much more pleasant than a possible series of unfortunate events.
Hey guys, and welcome to another piece for The Amazing Digital Circus! :) This was inspired by another yandere!Ragatha set of headcanons, written by the talented @xciiii! I highly recommend checking it out, so I will leave a link to it here.
Without being said, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show! :)
Ragatha is someone who will get attached to her darling slowly as she gets to know them. At first, the realization that she possessed such feelings will embarrass her greatly, these….feelings she has towards them. Yet as time went on, or if anyone keeps tabs on time anymore, her love grew and grew until she…she just couldn’t stand the thought of someone else falling for her darling. 
Being trapped in the Amazing Digital Circus is not an ideal place to get attached to anyone beyond being friends, even when Caine’s little adventures have helped her from abstracting like poor Kaufmo. And Kaufmo had been her darling’s friend. Her darling was so upset when they learned about his abstraction. And there was nothing wrong with comforting her darling at their lowest point. Not at all.  
At least she wouldn’t have to use the key to their room yet. Jax had been so #@$%^&!* stubborn with handing it over. But she’ll deal with him when the time comes. 
Thankfully, Pomni seems to be adjusting just fine and doesn’t have any interest in anything beyond finding a way to leave this exit. If Ragatha was honest…Pomni seemed kind of scared to be around her darling and tried to avoid being paired up with them during activities. 
Maybe it’s because her darling is a tiny rabbit doll with floppy ears and tiny red eyes? Ragatha wasn’t sure. Not everyone who comes to this place is able to retain their human form. Look at Kinger, Gangle, Zooble, and Jax. 
Gangle liked her darling's form because it reminded the circus' artist of an anime that she used to watch before coming here, though she struggled to remember the name of it.
Ragatha will try not to get jealous when her darling spends an afternoon helping Kinger build a pillow fort or drawing with Gangle, she really will because she knows they like them as only friends, never anything beyond that. A certain periwinkle rabbit will make it hard on her, though, if he tries to flirt with them. 
When it came right down to it, Ragatha didn’t care so much about appearances as much as her darling’s personality. And in her defense, she never thought her curiosity, this tiny little crush would become something so suffocating, so lovely, that all she can think about is her darling and making sure they are safe. 
If something happened to them…well, she’d go crazy and tear this whole world apart like Kaufmo had tried to do. 
Taglist:
@ceoofdabicorpsensfw
@nunezs-stuff
@dragonempress18
@abelheilonwife
@chososnumberonewife
@amidst-the-tempest
@star-spark-blog
@sayorikinnie69
@1havenothingtodo
@mitra555
@yandere-dark-cupid
@sunnyblackbird
@cherryblossomfox
@moonreaper25
@technikerin23
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1moreff-creator · 6 months
Text
DRDT + Milgram AU: Undercover (Introduction)
Finally succumbed to the Urges and came up with ideas for a full Danganronpa Despair Time - Milgram AU, and now I feel like sharing. This means giving each character a MV + VD concept (not a full VD though I ain’t writing that much dialogue, and not a full MV because who do you think I am), plus this Undercover post! I’m not sure if I’ll commit to this for a full three trials, or I’ll just drop it after just one, but I can guarantee I’ll do this trial in full. Feel free to make analysis posts (no pressure obvs), but also obvs don't expect this to be that good, I'm doing this for fun.
And if you come from the Milgram side, uh... have fun? I am curious about what people with no prior conceptions of these characters would think, but I do recommend DRDT if you haven't watched it (the overlap between the fandoms is non-trivial, I imagine you'll like it). If not, you should probably look up the character designs at least, but be wary that there will be DRDT spoilers.
As an obvious disclaimer just in case, I am not affiliated with either DRDT or Milgram in any way, this is just a fanmade AU done entirely for fun.
Basic Concept
Pretty simple. What if the 16 students of DRDT were prisoners in Milgram? This means they're all "murderers" by some loose definition of the word, implying most of their backstories must be changed to acommodate for that. For the prisoner pairs, I just paired them based on the Chapter 1 recap. The rest is pretty self-explanatory provided you know how Milgram works; three trials, vote Forgiven/Unforgiven, etc. I won't repeat it all here. You can go to the official Milgram YT channel for more information if you're not familiar.
Meet Es
Although they are of unspecified adult age, this universe’s Es is very similar to canon Es from the main series, at least in appearance. The only differences are red highlights in their hair, as well as sharp yellow eyes and taller height. They also wear arm sleeves on both their arms, being particularly adverse to people touching the left one, and their voice is slightly higher pitch. As for their personality… well, you’ll have to wait for the VDs, right? But as a heads up, they’re quite a bit nicer than canon Es, though they can still get pretty strict with the prisoners. 
(Can you tell who they’re connected to yet?)
Their uniform is the same as canon, including the band thing which in Milgram runes reads “reciffO eciloP”. The only difference is that their other band thing is longer and has the following runes:
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(As a heads up, since there's no rune for 'q' I just used the rune for 'c/k' in its place. You probably don't need to translate it all to know what this says if you're familiar with DRDT lore)
Jackalope is replaced by DRDT canon MonoTV, no big changes to its personality. It still breaks the fourth wall and talks to an audience,which is odd for the prisoners (and Es) seeing as there is no audience in-universe (at least, that's what it claims). 
*Es’ VD is mostly the same, besides changes in dialogue caused by the difference in personalities. The only real difference is that there is no ‘extra cell.’
*Cover is still Hibana. 
Alright, let's get to the fun stuff.
Undercover
(It is highly recommended you know what the canon Undercover looks like before reading this, since a lot of it is pretty similar)
The opening is still the same minus Es' different appearance and MonoTV replacing Jackalope, and only starts changing when the prisoners begin showing up.
(Don’t- Don’t expect this to actually work as a song btw. I’m not insane enough to make that work)
UNDER Split in between decisions, my conscious is made up of torn stitches
Levi (01) holds a mostly neutral expression as he holds up his prisoner card, which displays his face alongside an image of an alleyway. His pose keeps changing slightly in smash cuts. Levi’s face darkens right before there’s a switch to the next prisoner.
(Note: I won’t mention the pose switching and the face on the card all the time, since that’s part of canon Undercover. Just assume it always repeats)
UNDER The beauty in simplicity, wilting with rising complexities
Arturo (02) has his chin up arrogantly at first, showing a prisoner card with a picture of a bathroom. He scoffs and turns around before the switch. 
UNDER A liar? No, that’s wrong! My honesty shines like a star in the night
David (03) (speaker persona) smiles nervously, rubbing at his cheek with a finger. His card shows a bedroom. He covers his face with his free hand, sighing before the switch.
UNDER A sinner? No, you’re kidding! I’m innocent as can be, just don’t mind the gaps
Whit (04) throws a cheeky grin to the camera, doing a finger gun with his free hand. His card shows a park. He nervously rubs the back of his neck before the switch.
(Note: Yes I gave him 04 because of the tetraphobia thing sue me-)
UNDER With a fury and a passion, unstoppable, show them your fangs
Ace (05) snarls at the camera. His card shows a city street. He throws it to the floor angrily before the switch. 
(Note: Sometimes I wasn't quite able to tie their talent to their murder, so it's either tangential to their story or has been replaced with something similar. I am mentioning this with Ace for... no reason in particular, sure, you'll believe that)
UNDER Your fears and anxieties, Respond to the stress, show me fight or flight
Nico (06) hides under the part of their cloak which looks like a scarf, peeking out nervously. Their card shows a locker room. They take a step back as the scene switches.
INSERT CHORUS HERE
UNDER Each existence is like no other, Lucky, unlucky, showtime reaches all
J (07) holds up her card with an unsatisfied expression. It shows a bridge surrounded by camera equipment. She rolls her eyes as the scene switches.
UNDER And yet, it’s all the same In the end, this wretched still life goes on
Rose (08) yawns as she holds up her card lazily. It shows a large dining room. The card slips from her hand as she falls asleep.
UNDER It’s too much, too much, I’m high strung, please forgive my sins
Hu (09) looks nervous, glancing around as if to find a place to hide. Her card shows a zither in a non-descript room. She drops her card, and closes her eyes with a pained expression, a hand on her chest. 
UNDER Please do condemn me, Bloodletting, the horror inside us is what makes me feel.
Veronika (10) spins and gives the camera a bright smile as she pulls out her card. It shows a rooftop. She throws the card in the air dramatically, laughing as it spins around and falls beside her. Her eyes fall back on the camera, and she smirks menacingly. 
UNDER  Unopposable, incontestable Merry kings, life’s queens, for me they bow down.
Arei (11) is sticking out her tongue and looking to the side dismissively. Her card shows a bowling alley. She laughs into her hand before the scene switch.
UNDER My weakness haunts me, Alarm bells are ringing, there's no going back.
Eden (12) fidgets with her hands, shaking nervously. She hides her face behind her card as she shows it, but her teary eyes are still visible over it. The card shows a bedroom full of clocks. She cries into her hands before the switch. 
INSERT CHORUS HERE
[The music winds down, a bridge of sorts. As it plays, a few scenes are shown, where only the characters’ silhouettes are visible, white noise covering them]
[01: A steaming kettle covers most of the foreground. In the background, Levi is seen sitting at a table, head slumped forward. Most of the table is visible, but no one else is in the frame]
[02: Arturo is seen to the left, holding a white turtle neck shirt in his hands. Behind him, an open suitcase sits on a bed, clothes splayed haphazardly around it]
[03: David stands alone on an empty stage, arms wide out. The spotlights are all on him. The entire stage and some of the front row seats are visible, with David’s silhouette only covering a small part in the center of the frame]
[04: A computer monitor covers almost the entire frame. There are countless photos and words, but they’re all too blurry to see, with the exception of a small message on top which reads “Analyzing profiles…” Whit is reflected on the screen, resting his head on one of his fists]
[05: Ace sits on a motorcycle, looking up and admiring the night sky which takes up most of the frame]
[06: Nico is crouched beside a cat, holding out a pink mouse toy for it to play with. Only their legs are visible, but there is a puddle of water under Nico]
[07: J has her palm spread out all over the screen, as if blocking the camera. There are flashes of light behind her, but the source is impossible to see]
[08: Rose sits slumped in a chair, hands on her face. All around her, dozens of canvases can be seen, painted entirely in black. Small bits of color poke out at the bottom, but no full paintings are visible]
[09: The camera is entirely focused on the top of a zither. Hu’s hand is visible, touching the strings with her plectra]
[10: Only Veronika’s footwear is visible over a dark floor. The rest of the scene is filled entirely by blood]
[11: Arei stands in front of a bathroom mirror. She’s holding the right side of her hair, the only part that’s visible. It looks very unevenly cut]
[12: Eden is holding her head in her hands, slumped over a work desk full of small machinery. Behind her are a multitude of analog clocks of various designs, all showing the same time; 6:00]
[13: Min is sitting on a chair, slumped forward and apparently collapsed over a notebook. A pen sits just beside her right hand. A bit of the writing can be seen, showing this:]
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[The brown part being Min's hair. Don't make fun of me I'm using Paint and have zero art skills]
[14: Xander, the focus of the shot, stands in front of a crowd, standing on a simple chair. His fist is in the air, and so are the fists of everyone in the crowd]
[15: Charles is kneeling over a grave, the name on it hidden behind the silhouette. Charles is pulling at his hair with his hands. Other graves are visible around him, but the edges of the screen are darkened and it’s impossible to see them well]
[16: Teruko’s hand is reaching out to a black figure, this one without white noise. The figure is completely non-descript, more a simple shadow than a proper silhouette. Blinding white light surrounds this figure] 
UNDER No mistakes, no corrections, 100% Perfection, results shall not vary. 
Min (13) wears a neutral expression, and she holds her card perfectly upright. Her pose changes only to match the exact angles actual mugshots use. Her card shows an untidy bedroom. Before the switch, she lowers her hand, and looks briefly to the side, before turning back to the camera. When she does, her left eye flashes magenta behind her hair. 
UNDER Fighting for true justice, Stand strong, a reflection of the will of the many
Xander (14) is glaring at the camera, moving his card around flippantly. Said card shows a window overlooking an entire city. Xander throws the card away before throwing a punch at the screen.
UNDER Leave no room to hide, No hesitation, a chain reaction of truth unfolds
Charles (15) looks serious, if a bit annoyed as he holds up his card. It shows a laboratory table with several test tubes. He turns his back to the camera, adjusting his goggles, but gives one last, softer look behind him as the scene switches. 
UNDER Or shall the secrets remain? What lies beyond the lies, armageddon untold
Teruko (16) looks at the camera with cold eyes, but a hint of a frown on her lips. Her pose never changes; unlike everyone else, her segment is one continuous shot. It starts with her holding her card at an angle such that only her face is visible on it. She closes her eyes solemnly, before finally flipping her card around so only the backside is shown. It has the Milgram logo combined with the DRDT logo. She never shows the rest of the front of the card, as the scene switches moments after. 
[Pre-chorus, as the prisoners hold their hands to their mouths before a scene of them smiling plays. At the end, for a few frames, a white camellia blooms, before there’s a sudden shift in scenery as we hit the final chorus. All the prisoners’ silhouettes have a still shot each with Es, with a blood splatter always under the latter. The scene starts to focus on each individually]
[Levi’s punching Es in the face, Es thrown to the floor from the impact. Brass knuckles are barely visible on his hand. Levi’s shouting, as are all the other prisoners]
[Arturo is kneeling, facing away from Es. The latter is laying on the floor behind him in what would be a pretty uncomfortable position. Arturo is holding his head in his hands, his mouth visible from the side and open in a shout. One of Es’ shoes is off]
[David is holding Es by the neck of their shirt, shouting at their face (from now on I’ll stop clarifying that they’re shouting). The following symbol appears over where his eyes would be, glowing yellow: 正] EDIT: I forgot to mention one of Es’ shoes is off. RIP to the theorists I’m so sorry-
[Whit is pointing what looks to be a gun at Es, who is recoiling as if they’ve been shot in the heart]
[Ace is seen running, Es’ body falling to the ground beside him and twisting as if they’d been bumped into]
[Nico sits on top of Es’ back. With one of their hands, they’re grabbing onto Es’ hair and apparently pushing it forward. With the other they’re holding two ends of a wire firmly planted on Es’ neck]
[J stands normally, pointing what seems to be a remote control at Es. The latter is face-up on the floor, their limbs contorted in unnatural angles]
[Rose is standing, facing away from Es, who is kneeling and grabbing at their throat. A small jar sits beside them, the cap taken off]
[While standing, Hu is grabbing Es by the throat with both hands, blood coming from the Warden’s throat]
[Veronika is kneeling besides Es’ face-up body. Her hands are on her chest, and there is blood under her as well as the Warden. Meanwhile, Es’ limbs are contorted in unnatural ways, and one of their shoes is off]
[Arei is violently swinging a bowling ball at Es’ head, causing their body to twist around as it falls]
[Eden is standing, covering her eyes. Her right hand has a Ⅵ symbol glowing bright yellow. Es is uncomfortably laying face-up on the floor]
[Min is standing with her back turned to Es, who is kneeling on the floor and grasping at their neck. Min is shouting into a landline phone. Along her arm, an equation glows bright yellow:
ln(x³ - 2 . 13) = 0]
[Xander is grabbing Es’ shoulder, plunging a knife into their stomach]
[Es is standing neutrally, but there is still blood on the floor. A glowing yellow question mark floats above them. Charles is nowhere to be seen]
[Teruko is kneeling calmly besides Es, who is lying face-up with their hands crossed over their chest as if in a coffin. A question mark glows on Teruko's left hand. Teruko is the only prisoner besides Charles who is not screaming]
[The song winds down while a sped up and translucent version of the video plays in the background. A shadow begins growing in the middle, and for just a moment, two sharp yellow eyes stare at the camera from the center of the screen. The finale simply has Es exiting to the left as they do in canon Undercover]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And there's Undercover! How we feeling? Hope you enjoyed! Take care!
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teethcritter · 1 year
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Alright, so. Finn and Princess Bubblegum. Yeah, yeah. Hero and the princess, a story as old as time. We all know the princess in question is by no means into boys, as Patience put it.
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So what happens when we look at their relationship from a purely professional standpoint? A lot!
So, let's start with some background information, at least in my view of the characters. I think personally, that it makes sense for PB to have known Finn for a while before season 1. I like to think that she actually helped Jake with raising him, as she probably would've checked on the tree house from time to time with all her surveillance issues and a certain vampire breakup. And I mean, who's to say she wasn't in contact with Joshua and Margaret as well? They had, supposedly, the only human left in their hands. She would've been interested in that. She would've been very interested in that.
Now, let's take a moment to consider what being partially raised by a princess / mad scientist would do to your brain. Let's take a moment to consider what being a knight at such a young age would do to your brain. Clearly a number since the very first episode of the series is Finn and PB causing a zombie apocalypse.
PB was shown in a very morally grey light right from the start. What Have You Done?(s1ep24) is one of my all time favorite episodes because of how well it's portrayed.
Finn is pretty willing to cross her in this episode once he realizes that the right thing is not what she asked of him, but it certainly sets the groundwork of the CONSEQUENCES for doing so; as well as "The princess is always right," mentality he seems to have for most of the series. (A/N: these clips are taken out of context of the full episode, I highly recommend you watch the full thing to understand what happens in it, why PB and Finn do what they do, etc. This goes for all the eps I'll mention.)
As Finn ages, we see his relationship with PB change a LOT. Even after he gets over his crush, he still seems to worship her. In a way that she's kinda conditioned him to.
A very important thing to note while I talk about this, especially around this part, is that I STRONGLY believe that neither of these characters are in the wrong in the relationship. I don't think one is abusing or manipulating the other. It's a two way street. They are both making it worse.
The next episode I'm going to reference is Princess Cookie(s4ep13) (Another A/N: I apologize for the google drive links from here on out, Tumblr only allows one video per post. Cringe.)
By this point, Jake is willing to cross PB AND FINN in the name of doing the right thing. Finn however, is not. As we can see clearly here. Jake has a criminal past. Jake understands that crimes are often committed by people with a very messed up mental state. Those people need help, not a lifetime in the dungeon. But clearly, Finn doesn't get that. Which is not his fault whatsoever. He's been a knight since at least age 12.
I also find this dialogue from the same episode incredibly interesting. I know Jake was playing a part here. I know he was trying to de-escalate the situation so that PB wouldn't send in the guards, but these words still left his mouth.
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And I don't know, the fact that he quickly had to correct himself makes this seem genuine to me.
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This concept can actually be explored further in Burning Low(s4ep16) which is literally two episodes after this.
I was originally going to avoid Burning Low in this analysis, despite it being one of my favorites, but it is pretty important to the relationship between Finn/Jake and PB. It doesn't take much for Jake to flip out on PB in this episode, which is a drastic contrast from his demeanor in the first half of it. It really makes me consider the fact that he could have some deeply rooted issues with her. Or even, some deeply rooted issues with how much time Finn spends with her.
Another small note from this episode, is this.
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We know for a FACT that this is not romantic jealousy in the slightest. I think that Bubblegum has gotten so used to being worshipped by Finn, that now that there's someone in the way — especially someone who she has such a strained relationship with — there is this weird jealousy. Not because she's in love with Finn, but because he's growing up. Because she isn't the sole princess in his life anymore. Because she has one less person 100% fixed on her and her alone. Because Finn is HER knight.
Alright, now before we move onto season 5, there's one more thing from season 4 that is worth talking about. This scene in The Lich(s4ep26).
This scene is one of the most disturbing scenes in the whole show for me, because of a few reasons. First of all, this is after Burning Low. This is after both of them have their explosions at her. But this is about Finn. Finn, right now, thinks that PB is jealous of him and Flame Princess. He thinks that now that there's someone in the way, that suddenly she cares. Which isn't entirely wrong, as I stated in the previous paragraph.
I think that her reaction here was partially a trauma response. Her reaction to Finn in general around this time period could be in relation to Mr. Cream Puff as well, since as we see in Bonnibel Bubblegum(s10ep4), was not a consensual relationship. Of course though, his pursuits were unwanted. Her reactions don't have to be because of a specific thing. She said no, case and point.
Now, I'm not going to get into the insanity of Farmworld Dimension, but I do think it's interesting that this interaction is the last one between the original Finn and PB. Of course Finn after Farmworld is still technically the original because of the paradox Jake created, but it's still interesting to me. Anyways, like I said, I'm not going to get into that in much detail.
Onto season 5! Frost and Fire(s5ep30) is a hard watch. But I rewatched it for this and actually made a connection that I've never made before. Jake says to chase the Cosmic Owl dream, which leads Finn down this road of manipulation. I don't put Jake at fault whatsoever, I highly doubt he expected Finn to do what he did. Finn fucked up — Aaand... I can draw some pretty distinct parallels between Finn and Flame Princess' breakup, and PB and Marceline's breakup.
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Frost and Fire
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Obsidian(AT:DL ep2)
After the breakup, Finn is not in the best mental state, obviously. He still doesn't understand what he did wrong and I think that's partly what's eating away at him. He doesn't understand what happened. But in a desperate attempt at getting back to normalcy, he gives himself entirely up to PB again. And then we get this line from the episode Rattleballs(s5ep46)!
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PB tells him to relax, and he goes off to fight things in a dump. As you do. He finds Rattleballs there and after some training, Finn asks how he ended up here. Rattleballs explains that he escaped Bubblegum's mass execution. And he asks Finn to not out him, but loyalty to the Princess comes first.
Finn thought that Rattleballs and PB could talk it out at this point. Which they did kinda end up doing. But that is so goddamn interesting to me. He doesn't know the lengths of which PB goes, but it's so clear that deep down he DOES acknowledge that something is not right with her. Which means by proxy, something's not right with him either.
I'm going to break away from the show here to reference the comics. I know they're not canon, however the Princess and Princess graphic novel doesn't really contradict anything from the show, so I think this is of note. Finn isn't scared of her, he's scared what she'll do to other people. Very interesting.
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Okay, back to the show.
In Hot Diggity Doom(s6ep42), PB loses the crown. This interaction is one that stands out to me.
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Obviously the situation is tense. They don't want to serve a dillweed, but "We pledged our allegiance to you," freaks me out a bit! We didn't see this happen. This was before Slumber Party Panic(s1ep1). We don't know how Finn and Jake became her knights. They also seem to be aware of something relating to Cream Puff, as both of them know he died somehow. They both mention in it Slumber Party Panic. Besides exploding when scared, candy people don't die of natural causes as far as we've seen thus far. I do wonder what happened to that guy.
And this monologue in The Thin Yellow Line(s7ep25) doesn't make me feel any better about it. I am fully aware that implying PB did something to him is grasping at straws from what we're given, but hey! It's PB. And boy oh boy, is it interesting to consider that maybe Finn and Jake knew that.
Moving on from that random headcanon though, I want to talk about how Finn reacts to all that information from Banana Guard 16. Obviously he embellished the truth there. PB did what she had to do for the most part, although... not very ethically. Finn knows that. He knew a good chunk of that by this point in the series, and his opinion on her hasn't seemed to have changed. When he actually sees PB at the end, he realizes that maybe Banana guard 16 was right. Maybe she is gonna take him apart. So he, y'know, does a super sneaky thing and switches the guards. Instead of taking to her about it, he puts an innocent guard to death, as far as he knows. And we all know that she didn't actually do anything to anyone in that episode, she even says she's not proud of her past!! Growth!!! We love to see it. Though Finn, seems to have gotten worse.
He's gotten better socially, as he makes up with Flame Princess in Bun Bun(s8ep6), but worse professionally.
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And here we go! Another parallel in Varmints(s7ep2).
At the beginning of Islands, we get my favorite scene in the whole show. We get Fern, PB, and Marceline seeing the gang off. And then we get a very interesting interaction between Finn and PB. She explains that if he finds humans, he might find out some heavy stuff about where he came from. She makes him promise that he'll come back to Ooo. And he doesn't promise. They hug, and he leaves. And she says, "He'll be safe." But clearly she doesn't believe herself. Finn, in my eyes, is probably the most important person in PB's life next to Marceline. And she's terrified that he's gonna leave his family for blood.
In season 9, when Elements starts, and Finn and Jake are greeted with the candy tree house, Finn automatically assumes that it was PB, which is something I don't see talked about a lot.
And wow, speaking of season 9! Fern would not have died the first time if PB didn't install a FATALITY SETTING TO THE WEED WACKER. Just a thought. Just an observation, if you will.
Then by season 10, he pretty much spends the entire season trying to prevent the war she's starting. And then in Obsidian, he's still ready to be by her side at the drop of a hat. And to top it all off—
In Together Again, even in death, his first thought for outside help, is her.
This never ended. They never fixed any of these problems. Finn is the knight of a dictator. Even if he wants to be ethical, he can't be. And I think somewhere, he knows that.
I'll probably go into seasons 7-10 deeper at some point in the future but tumblr's image limit for this post was hit a while ago LMFAO
TL;DR if you're going to talk about PB's wrongdoings, you can't pretend Finn is innocent. I strongly believe neither of them are bad people, and that they really do need each other. But that's not good. They actively make each other worse.
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longwuzhere · 8 months
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Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers
My episode 1 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 2 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 3 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 4 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 5 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 6 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 7 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here and here
My episode 8 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 9 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
(SPOILERS if you haven't seen the show yet):
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We start things off with Jor-El and Clark meeting and like the last time, Jor-El speaking in Kryptonese much like how Jor-El in the comics did in Man of Steel #6 (1986)...
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as seen in this panel (W&P: John Byrne, I: Dick Giordano, C: Tony Zuiko, L: John Costanza) where Clark meets a ghostly projection of his father at night speaking Krypton's native tongue to him. BTW Man of Steel (1986) is a fantastic read. Highly recommend finding it at your local comic shop.
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After Lois, Jimmy and Clark get promoted from interns to reporters at the Daily Planet we see the three of them will be having Thanksgiving with the Kents. Ma Kent shows Lois the newspaper she framed that all three of them wrote much like how her comic book counterpart made a scrap book out of the newspaper headlines of Clark's various heroic adventures in Man of Steel #1 (1986) as seen here in the panel (W&P: John Byrne, I: Dick Giordano, C: Tony Zuiko, L: John Costanza).
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The camera then moves and see see kid Clark and the things he did back then. The baseball photo kinda reminds me of this fantastic moment in Batman/Superman #3 (2013) by Greg Pak, Yildiray Cinar, Matt Lackey and John Kalisz, and Rob Leigh:
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On Earth-2 Clark and Bruce met as young kids after the car, Alfred drove broke down and both had some fun playing baseball. It's a very cute flashback that highlights no matter where in the multiverse, a Superman-Batman friendship is constant.
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Lois's father shows up to the Thanksgiving dinner and I got double confirmation now that it is General Sam Lane. I talked more about his deal here.
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Later in the episode we have the awkward parents and their children who are dating each other moment and General Lane here asks if Clark was in the military. In one non-canon series, Superman Year One by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr., Clark signs up for the military after high school. Kind of a weird miniseries, not the best Superman comic, not the worst at least.
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Things go from bad to worse when the area where Clark landed activates thanks to the presence of Kryptonite from the League of Lois Lanes sphere that held it and we see that symbol on the robots that the giant ship sends and on this person at the end of the episode. If you know your DC universe, that symbol belongs to Brainiac and we can conclude that the one with the symbol on their head is Brainiac as well.
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Brainiac makes his first appearance in Action Comics #242 (1958) (cover art by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye). At this point Brainiac was a "twelve level" intellect alien who shrunk cities for his collection to help repopulate his dead planet, one of the cities is Krypton's capital city, Kandor. Several retcons later we learn that Brainiac is a robot created by the Computer Tyrants of Colu, Brainiac's home planet to spy and conquer worlds. The Brainiac that has a closer connection to Clark and his Kryptonian people kinda like what MAwS is doing was in Superman the Animated Series...
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where Krypton was very depended on their AI, Brainiac who then screwed them all over when the planet was about to explode and saved his metal ass and has then became a thorn at Superman's side in the cartoon ever since. MAwS is doing something similar as we see Brainiac's symbol on the robots that were deployed from the ship and the very robotic looking body Brainiac has at the end of the episode.
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As we see Clark try to stop the portal and ship, he breaks into the hull and battles the robots in it. As he's getting pummeled, AI Jor-El helps neutralize the robots. It's kinda the same idea that what Man of Steel (the movie) was trying to go for when Lois was on Zod's ship and AI Jor-El was helping her navigate throughout the place. As I said before in the last post, Shin Ultraman is a better Superman movie (and a highly recommend watching) than what Zack Snyder was trying to do in Man of Steel.
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We wrap up episode 10 with the Kents, Lois, and Jimmy enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner and we see that Jonathan was able to get the turkey to temperature so Clark heats it more with his heat vision. Superman sometimes does this do heat very mundane things like coffee as seen in this panel of Super Sons #9 (2017) (W: Peter Tomasi, P&I: Jorge Jimenez, C: Alejandro Sanchez, L: Rob Leigh). Highly recommend reading Super Sons and watching the animated movie too!
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Congrats to Jimmy on selling Flamebird for $5.6 million. I talk more about flamebird here. Missed opportunity to have it be $5.2 million cuz DC's love of the number 52, but whatever.
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The final scene of the episode gives us this moment where Brainiac tells this Kryptonian Warrior a planet they can conquer. The warrior then states that Earth will kneel. The most infamous Kryptonian that likes to mention conquered people kneeling is General Zod and so this character here might be Zod. No confirmation yet but I'm like 99% sure. When we get a confirmation, I'll talk more about Zod later.
And with that we are done with season 1 of My Adventures with Superman and if you made it this far be sure to check out my other easter eggs post:
My episode 1 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 2 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 3 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 4 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 5 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 6 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 7 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here and here
My episode 8 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
My episode 9 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here
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lilareviewsbooks · 1 year
Text
Queer Normal-World in SFF Books
Here are five books where being queer is the norm, aka there is no homophobia or transphobia at all! Not all these books are fluffy though -- most of them have heavy conflicts and a bunch of shit going down, but at least no one has a problem with anyone being gay!
These are my favorite kind of books and I have so, so many recommendations, so let me know if you ever want more of these :) And I can also absolutely do only fluffy queer books, too!
The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang
Mx. Yang's books are perfect for this type of prompt. The Genesis of Misery is their most recent, and the premise is absolutely killer. It follows Misery Nomaki (she/they), who is haunted by an apparition of an angel. While she is convinced she is mentally ill like her mother, and that her visions are a symptom, people around her seem more and more certain that she is actually some sort of messiah. 
I have my issues with The Genesis of Misery, but it’s a very creative sci-fi that’s worth the read. It includes mecha, interesting depictions of religion, which permeates the entire story, and, of course, excellent queer rep. We have characters who use neo-pronouns, a polyamory situationship and most characters are queer. Not to mention, it’s written by a queer and non-binary author, which is always a plus. It’s part of an on-going series, though, so be prepared to wait a little while for the sequel! 
Plus, The Locked Tomb fans might be interested to know that there’s a very cavalier-necromancer dynamic in this, and that Rebecca Roanhorse (who wrote Black Sun) described it as Joan of Arc meets Gideon The Ninth. 
Yep. You wanna read it, don’t you?
(Also, if for some reason you’re like: “gee, I really wish there was a black-and-white silent movie with a killer score that touched on these same themes”, then you should probably watch The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928). It’s not explicitly gay, but it is queer in my heart. And it rocks.)
The Locked Tomb Series, starting with Gideon The Ninth, by Tasmyn Muir
Since I mentioned it, I guess I might as well include The Locked Tomb in here! This is a Tumblr favorite, and with good reason, because The Locked Tomb fucking rocks. It’s hard to pitch it to someone without ruining the whole point of the series, but the first book follows a necromancer, Harrowhark and her sworn swords-woman, her cavalier, the butch-as-hell Gideon, as they’re summoned to the First House to compete to become Lyctors, the companions of God. 
Yeah, I know that’s a lot, and, to be honest, it’s probably not gonna make much sense to you at many points throughout the story, but that’s the point of The Locked Tomb - everything is confusing, and it’s about sapphics in space! 
The thing about this series is they’re the most unique books you’ll ever read. Every volume has a different approach to telling its story. There’s so many mysteries and it’s almost impossible to understand all the intricacies without sitting down and doing some work. The magic system is also the wonkiest, coolest thing - it involves eating people, sometimes, y’know. And, I promise, you’ll love every single second of it. Especially because there’s absolutely no homophobia or transphobia in any of it, and almost every character is queer as fuck - especially after the second book, when gender starts getting a little funky!
Winter’s Orbit, by Everina Maxwell
I love this book so much, and so know that it comes highly, highly recommended! I have a whole five star review on it you can check out here. (Do check trigger warnings, though! You should always, but especially for this one. I didn’t and they really got me!). 
Winter’s Orbit features my absolutely favorite trope - queer arranged marriage. (Nothing better - those three words and you know it’s gonna be a queer normal world, have some politics and probably be really fucking sweet.) This one is probably one of only ones out of this list where the romance is very predominant and serves as an important B plot. It’s also a standalone, but has a companion book in the same universe, called Ocean’s Echo, which rocks, too!
This one follows Jainan, a recent widower who is rushed into an arranged marriage with Prince Kiem in order to keep the alliance between their homelands intact. Together, they must navigate court intrigue I’m trying my best not to spoil and investigate Jainan’s ex-husband’s death, which might not have been an accident, after all...
In this sci-fi fantasy world, being queer is completely normal, and their system when it comes to gender is absolutely fascinating. People will wear little gender signifiers, like a wodden token for female, for instance, so that others know how to refer to them. It’s super cool to see these kind of things incorporated into the world-building, and it’s something you really only get when queer authors are behind the helm.
(Also, this was originally written online, and it was actually picked up and traditionally published! Which is so cool! Queer fics becoming traditionally published books is so rare, it’s so nice to see it actually happen!)
The Teixcalaan Series, starting with A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
This is another one of my favorites! I read it last year and it blew me away - so much so that I’ve been itching to re-read it ever since I finished the second book.
The Teixcalaan Series is a political sci-fi duology focusing on the themes of language, empire and cultural domination through imperialism. It’s amazing, and I wrote about it in a full-length review, here, if you wanna take a look! 
It follows Mahit Dzamare, from the tiny Lsel Station, who becomes the ambassador to the huge Teixcalaan Empire, whose culture she’s been in love with for ages. The problem? Something happened to the Lsel ambassador, and the Empire’s control over the Station has been growing ever bigger. To make matters worse, Mahit’s imago machine - the cerebral implant full of her predecessors memories and experiences - doesn’t seem to be working properly, leaving her with a ghost of her predecessor inside of her head...
With all the problems the Teixcalaan Empire has, it’s not homophobic or transphobic, which is a plus for us gays who want to read in peace. Mahit has a charged relationship with her cultural liason, Three Seagrass (yes, that’s her name; yes, there’s an in-world explanation; no, I won’t tell you what it is, you’ll have to read it and find out), not to mention all the hijinks she finds out her predecessor was up to. And none of it needs to be justified or explained at all - people are just gay, and that’s fine!
On A Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden
This graphic novel has a stunning art style, and, listen closely sapphics, absolutely no men at all. Yep. Literally there’s only women and non-binary people in this comic! 
And guess what? It’s available to read for free, here. Thank you, Ms. Walden!
Here, romance is also an important plot point. On A Sunbeam follows Mia, who starts working for a crew of repair-people who rebuild broken down structures. In another timeline, we flashback to her experiences at her boarding school, and to her relationship with a new student.
What’s most unique about On A Sunbeam - apart from the fact that there are no men at all - is it’s unique version of outer space. It’s almost historical, with huge sprawling marble structures decaying, surronded by trees. The ships are shaped like huge fish. You can feel the whimsy in your bones from the colors and the art style that Ms. Walden uses, here.
This standalone is definitely worth a read. And if you like it, you should definitely check out the rest of Ms. Walden’s work - it’s all as beautiful as this is, if not more. Her The End of Summer was one of my favorite reads, last year.
That’s all I’ve got, guys, but lemme know if you want more of these - I have so many, I can definitely recommend you more! Drop me an ask if you have specifications, too - I’m always happy to do some digging :)
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For my first thought about “Saw X” (once again, highly recommend), I’m really impressed with how the movie managed to make their concept work. It’s mainly because the story of “Saw X” is really hard to pull off.
Not a lot of movies and shows can portray the kidnapper/torturer/evil mastermind as the protagonist while the victims are the main villains. Because, obviously, no one wants to be rooting for a character who is tormenting other people. It’s like making a version of “Squid Game” where you’re supposed to root for the VIPs, that’s a hard sell.
But, there are the rare few that manages to pull this off. “Hard Candy” is one of the best examples of this since the victim is a pedophile murderer while the torturer is Elliot Page. “Don’t Breathe” is an accidental example since even though we’re supposed to root for the victims, they’re not so easy to side with since they’re burglars who robbed a blind man.
So “Saw X” had a tough sell since we’re supposed to be on Jigsaw’s side for once. But honestly, I thought they nailed it. Not only are the victims horrible people (scammers who prey on the terminally ill), the story doesn’t force you to like John Kramer. John is entirely unapologetic about his actions as Jigsaw and the movie doesn’t try to justify him, especially by having Amanda question John’s choice of putting Gabriella into a test (she was a drug addict). Instead, the story naturally puts you on John’s side by focusing on his internal dilemma; fighting his cancer.
The first third of the movie was entirely devoted to John dealing with his cancer and how he was dreading that he was almost out of time. It humanizes John and makes you feel really sorry for him, even knowing who he is. What I like about this is that it’s not forced sympathy because the audience has known about John being a cancer patient for over a decade by now. Focusing on John’s disease and mortality makes sense is what I’m saying.
Even Jigsaw’s friendship with the little boy Carlos makes sense since John wanted to be a father. The one thing that people can say was a little forced to make you sympathize with Jigsaw STILL has precedence in the series, which is really rewarding for people who’ve watched every “Saw” movie. Nothing felt out of place for John’s character, it’s like a legit tribute to the character.
So when you learn that the doctors were all scam artists, it’s natural to side with John since:
1) They did it to themselves
2) You feel for John since you watched at least 30 minutes of him trying to fight the disease
3) You feel angrier towards the doctors since they’re arguably worse people than John
4) The lead doctor reveals that she knew John was Jigsaw and continued the grift anyways, so they have really no excuse
It’s like “Don’t Breathe” again, where both sides are horrible people, but the more sympathetic one gets to be the hero. And I’m all for it, because fuck medical malpractice/grifters.
(Side note: I feel like another way the movie got us on John’s side was that he stayed true to his word. If you pass the test, you get to live. During the movie, he makes sure Diego survived since he passed and asked that Gabriella be taken to a hospital after she freed herself. It’s honor, but in a fucked up way, which is appropriate for the character)
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Game Night: Cassette Beasts
Pokémon fans threatening to find a new monster taming series is like Americans threatening to move to Canada: we’ve all said it at some point, and for completely valid reasons, but the reality is that it just isn’t that easy to pick up and go.  For me at least, it’s hard to pin down exactly what it is about Pokémon that’s central to my interest in it, so I’m not quite sure what to look for in other monster tamers.  At the very least, when something like Palworld rolls around I can easily tell that it’s not that.  The last several Pokémon games have been some of my favorites, but I’ve remained curious about the genre at large; unfortunately these games are innately a rather large commitment, which doesn’t pair well with my indecisive uncertainty.  All this to say, while I was definitely intrigued by Cassette Beasts when I first heard about it years ago, that intrigue never actually went anywhere…until now.
I believe I recently heard someone toss it out as a recommendation on a stream I was watching, which is why it stuck out when I was browsing the Games Done Quick channel on YouTube.  Out of curiosity, I wound up watching the speedrun.  I then poked around the official wiki a bit and came to realize this game could be very appealing to me specifically.  And BOY was I right about that!
Before we get into it, spoiler-free tl;dr: Cassette Beasts both wears its inspiration proudly on its sleeve and iterates upon it in many truly fascinating ways, with an atmosphere that switches effortlessly between delightfully cozy and creepy cool.  I have some gripes, but I have been thoroughly entertained and downright mesmerized playing this game.  If you have any interest in monster tamers, pixel art indie RPGs, and/or cosmic horror, I highly recommend checking Cassette Beasts out.
>PLAY
The game first asks you to customize your character, sans outfit—that comes later so you’re not entirely overwhelmed right away.  There’s also an option for pronouns, including he/him, she/her, and they/them, which is lovely to see.  You are then dropped onto the shore of a mysterious island, and are found by a girl who tells you that you’ve landed in a different dimension.  So, yes, technically an isekai.  But this is a limbo-esque world that only has humans because they keep falling into it from time to time—every single character is either from another world, or was born to parents who are stuck here.  That, combined with making your character’s explicit goal “find a way home”, excellently avoids the most common pitfalls of the genre and lets you assess it without preconceived notions.  What’s really interesting about this is that people are pulled from many different worlds, and from various points in the timeline: you have characters talking about the Mars landing of 1969 and the 20th century peace treaty with the elves, and also famous Greek philosophers and Karl Marx.  I love how eclectic it is, and it’s frequently used in really funny ways. (You all remember Diogenes, right?  Guess what traits are shared by all the monsters he uses.) The people brought here have all banded together in a mutually supportive community, with everyone contributing what they can and materials like wood and metal being traded for goods as opposed to using money.  Why do we want to go home again?  This sounds like a nice place to live!
But anyway, we’re here for the monsters.  And in-game they are just called “monsters”, never “Cassette Beasts”.  Which strikes me as odd.  But the monsters have been in this world way longer than the cassette tapes, which are actually a relatively recent arrival courtesy of an isekai’d shopping mall.  Rather than catching a monster, you record them on a blank tape, meaning that even if you are successful you’ll still need to defeat the monster or flee to end the battle.  You then use your tape and cassette player to take on the form and powers of the recorded monster, and fight your battles first-hand!  Pokémon briefly flirted with this idea in a spin-off manga (Pokémon ReBURST), but here it’s fully embraced; this sort of approach can be seen in other aspects too, as we’ll see later.  After learning the basics, you’re given a few major questlines and then set free into the open world of New Wirral, tackling whatever catches your attention as you romp around.  There is some level-scaling, though I’m not sure of the specifics.  Regardless, both it and enemy AI can be adjusted via Settings, and you can also turn off the glitch effects that show up if those are impacting your experience.  In battle you control both your avatar and one of several recruitable partners, and can carry up to six tapes at a time—essentially Doubles format, with all the complexity and chaos that entails.  One very interesting wrinkle in the formula is that in addition to the tapes/monsters having health bars, the humans also have their own health bar, hidden under that of their tape as if the tape’s HP was a shield meter.  If attacks overkill your tape, the excess damage is dealt to your own HP, and if you lose all of your HP then you’re done regardless of how many tapes you have left.  It’s an important extra resource to keep in mind, and the same is true for (most) NPC cassette-users: if you deal enough damage to their own health bar you can defeat them without having to get through all of their tapes.  Until the late/post-game, that is, where your human foes are invulnerable beneath their tapes while you very much are not, and that feels very unfair.  I also find it strange that there’s no item for restoring your human HP—campfires to rest at are fairly plentiful, but it’s still somewhat odd.
Each monster has one type, and rather than limited uses for each of its moves, both characters generate AP every turn they can then spend on certain attacks.  Moves also each have a type, but while there is a same type attack bonus (STAB), it’s not as significant as it is in Pokémon.  Naturally, each type has advantages and disadvantages over other types, but!  Weakness and resistance is also toned way down, and is not your primary goal when using type advantage. Type interaction is far, far more nuanced in this game, involving the entire spectrum of ailments and buffs and debuffs, and even changing the target’s type.  For example: Water extinguishes Fire, temporarily reducing its attack power.  Using Fire on Water creates steam, which heals Water over the next few turns.  Fire also melts Ice, changing it to a Water type for a few turns.  And this is all just barely scratching the surface!  A chart showing these interactions is given to you in-game, which is nice; more than that, whenever you discover a new interaction for the first time, a tutorial box pops up and elaborates on the effects, as well as providing an explanation of why (extinguish, steam, melt, etc) that goes a long way in keeping track of them all.  While a fantastic feature, it can get repetitive at times: the mystical Astral type has identical interactions with all four classical elements, and despite all 4 being mentioned the first time, you’ll still get that same text box explaining that interaction 4 times.  Types range from the usual suspects (Fire, Water, Air) to some very…surprising choices (Glass, Plastic, Glitter), plus Typeless moves that take on the type of the monster using them.  Moves are treated as stickers applied to your tapes, and can be peeled and moved at your discretion; you obtain them either from leveling up a tape, or from shops and chests and drops.  Leveling up monsters (from 0 to 5 stars) also increases their max AP and how many move slots they have, and I think slightly increases their stats?  Your human characters, though, have their own stats which increase as you level them up from 1 to…well I’m not sure exactly but it exceeds 100 at least.  I couldn’t tell you the exact mathematical way the two sets of stats interact, but it’s a neat idea, strengthening yourself as well as the tapes you collect.  Your partners gain experience even if they’re not with you, and thank God they do, otherwise it’d be a pain to spend proper time with each and every one of them.
There’s one other major battle mechanic unlocked at the end of the tutorial segment: Fusion.  After filling up a meter, your avatar and partner can fuse their monster forms together to unleash hell upon your enemies.  Monster sprites were made modular so that the game could automatically generate fusions on its own, meaning that there are in fact over 16000 different fusions you can make, and your bestiary will keep a list of them all. (Thank God there are absolutely no incentives for filling that list!) Fusing will also cause whatever music track is playing to gain vocals, which is a fun way to up the presentation factor.  Your relationship with your partner is key to Fusion: its measured from 0 to 5 hearts, and you need at least 1 to be able to perform Fusion at all.  At 2 hearts, you gain a super move.  Every level gained increases the stats of your fusion as well.  It’s a fun mechanic to mess around with, even if a lot of the fusions can look a bit derpy—small price for the sheer flexibility of the system.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that Pokémon fans have been enamored with fusion since at least B2W2; I doubt it’s coincidence that Cassette Beasts chose to implement it as a Mega Evolution-esque gimmick.  Once you get to the late/post-game, the NPC fights also gain access to Fusion, giving you a chance to figure out ways to play around the feature from the other side.
Like I said before, this game greatly expands upon a number of fan-favorite concepts from Pokémon, and I’m pleased to say that extends all the way to Shinies.  Every monster has a small chance to be a “bootleg”, with not only a different color scheme, but a different type.  There are a total of 14 types in the game.  Do you see where this is going?  Every single monster has 14 variants with different types and color palettes (even their original type, weirdly enough?).  And every single one has a page in their bestiary dedicated solely to tracking how many of these variants you’ve found.  Probably nightmarish for a completionist, but holy shit is that insanely cool!  Multiple palettes to choose from instead of being stuck with just one that might suck!  And they have mechanical differences to incentivize recording them beyond simply collector’s value!  Fantastic!  There are also various ways to increase your odds, all the way up to 20% in specific cases, which I imagine will entice quite a few players into the hobby of bootleg hunting.
Let’s see, what other mechanical topics can I cover before moving onto more story-related stuff?  Field moves are a thing—you obtain them by recording a specific monster, and in the case of some like the glide you’ll partially transform when it’s activated.  I think it strikes a nice balance: it’s dependent on what you yourself have actually recorded, but doesn’t ask you to dedicate move or party slots to it.  Their approach to evolution feels simplified: when you rest after getting a tape to 5 stars, you’ll be prompted to “remaster” it if applicable, rather than having to guess which level you should be aiming for.  There are a few wrinkles when it comes to branching evolutions, but only a few, and mostly come down to either having a certain move on the monster to change its remaster, or, after choosing to remaster, being given two options right there.  Those options can be a bit vague, though; I looked into it ahead of time, and if I had gone with the option my gut opted for when remastering my starter, I would have gotten the less cool-looking monster.  I also want to mention the loading screens; you know how The Sims lists random stuff on its loading screens?  They do something similar here, except they’re all related to one of the monsters: “Directing Traffikrab”, “Tuning Kittelly”, “Sharpening Ripterra’s knifeclaws”.  It’s a little thing but I find it charming, and perhaps a bit devious in making players curious to track down these various monsters being teased.  Oh, and selecting the Flee option will tell you your percent chance to flee, and even if you fail you can still choose to blackout if you really just want to get out of there.  There’s also a Mystery Gift analogue that’s been used to distribute various bootlegs, and things I haven’t even tried like the “Gym Pass” to customize your player character's stats.  Beating the game also unlocks customization options for future playthroughs like randomizers and permadeath.  There’s a LOT.  It’s a very packed game.
Right then, story.  There are two BIG big questlines, one of which being a setup similar to collecting Gym Badges: there are 12 special NPCs all over the map who give you a stamp when you defeat them, but rather than specializing in a certain type, they tend to have a favorite tactic they employ in battle.  One of the easiest to find specializes in moves that create defensive walls; one particularly annoying one prioritizes controlling accuracy and evasion; there’s even one who specializes in just one particular monster with an elaborate signature move.  It’s perhaps not an enormous difference, but again, it’s nuanced.  There is also a “Champion” fight at the end, but I won’t get into that.  More importantly, the questline that the game is largely centered around and leads to the end credits, is the hunt for hidden subway stations that house powerful, eldritch boss monsters known as Archangels.  Apparently, when humans first wound up in New Wirral, they didn’t know what to make of the monsters and tended to refer to them as angels or demons.  That fell out of fashion as the community came to understand monsters better.  The Archangels, however, cannot be understood by human minds.  Each one is drawn/animated in its own style that clashes with the world around them—your partners all say that it hurts just to look at them, and just being in the stations makes them feel uneasy.  A personal favorite is the claymation skeleton with a vertical mouth, to give you some idea of what to expect.  These fights have their own unique mechanics, and the Archangels tend to hit very, very hard; if you do survive, some floating guy in a red coat with a 3D rendered reflective triangle for a head shows up and absorbs the boss (concerning), and you’re given part of a riddle that will eventually lead you to the final dungeon.  The vibes are incredibly at odds with the typical overworld gameplay, and I mean that in THE best possible way.  The Archangels were a real highlight for me.
In addition to those, every partner you can recruit has their own questline, which can range from a single fight all the way to finding 6 hidden locations around the map with their own substantial battles to win.  The girl who finds you at the start of the game, Kayleigh, is your first partner, first having a quest that’s essentially “finish the tutorial” before switching to a more personal quest that involves dealing with an actual cult.  You’re also very early on pushed in the direction of Eugene, who has that long, long quest finding hidden locations all over the map.  Slow-going as it is, though, it’s about fighting off a horde of capitalist vampires who are trying to establish a housing market, so.  That’s fucking hilarious.  But it has stiff competition in Felix’s quest, where you follow his middle school OC brought to life as she journeys to four sacred altars to slay their guardians.  That’s right, Felix’s edgy anime OC, an angel demon catgirl ninja named Kuneko, is also up and about in New Wirral and he is mortified by this discovery.  Excellent questline, no notes.  Another partner you’ll run into fairly early is Meredith; her quest involves navigating a dungeon you probably won’t get to for a good while, though it’s a solid dungeon when you do get to it.  There’s also Viola, the character from Twelfth Night by William fucking Shakespeare, whose search for her brother takes her into a haunted shipwreck to face a villain from a different Shakespeare story.  New Wirral is very eclectic.  But perhaps least expected of all is Barkley the dog.  One of your playable partners is a dog.  His quest is the shortest and an utterly fucking brutal punch to the emotional gut.  Anyway I like all these folks, they’ve got personality and endearing character development that touches on some personally relevant topics.  Aside from Barkley, you can romance any partner after maxing out your relationship level, and that was a tough choice to make.  The Gym Leader analogues are sufficiently quirky for their role, and you meet a handful of other perfectly fine recurring characters—including a few who are only encountered in post-game quests.  If I’m really being strict here, I don’t think I’d say any of this game’s characters have jumped the ranks to new blorbo status, but take that as you will.
The post-game has an interesting structure to it.  You don’t unlock any new areas, not really, but after engaging with the newly-unlocked sidequest board for a bit, you gain access to a few longer questlines.  There are two that eventually come together which each feature their own new characters, one following the direct consequences of actions you took earlier in the story, and one that’s about someone new being dropped onto New Wirral, showing that the world keeps turning even if your particular story is over.  There’s also another questline which delves even deeper into the background lore of the game, and that’s something I’ll never get enough of.  The repeating sidequests are brief and rewarding enough to from a satisfying gameplay loop to disguise the grind, and I’m only just now considering an extended break after nearly 70 hours total gameplay (which I would guess is around half post-game).
Oh, I should also talk more about the bestiary and completing it!  Each monster has the standard flavor text and habitat listing, plus that page that tracks bootlegs, and a list of how many you’ve encountered/defeated.  However, when you raise a tape to 5 star level, you also unlock an additional page of flavor text, usually something related to the inspiration for the monster’s design.  While heavily scaled back, having this sort of progression in the bestiary reminds me of doing research in Pokémon Legends Arceus, and I very much appreciate that.  Going that far is optional, of course—really, doing anything involving the bestiary is optional.  But the game does nudge you in that direction and reward you several times along the way.  When you first encounter the “professor” character, he gives you a series of quests that just ask you to record one of the monsters found in the central region of the map.  Easy!  From there, he gives you a handful of resources and tapes every time you hit a new milestone of 10 monsters recorded.  In the post-game you can also randomly get quests asking you to get a certain monster to 5 star, or perform a specific fusion, or use a specific monster to fight the professor’s assistant, all slowly, slowly nudging you in the direction of completion.  But what’s really interesting is that you don’t necessarily have to fully complete the bestiary to get the grand prize (this game’s equivalent to the Master Ball).  Cassette Beasts originally had 120 monsters.  A later update raised that to 128, and some time after that, they released a DLC that added a handful of unnumbered monsters.  You get the Master Tape by recording 128 monster species.  So, if you record a bunch of the DLC monsters, you can “complete” the bestiary without tracking down every last monster in the base game.  If you do go beyond that, the completion percentage will actually go over 100%, which is so weird to see, but in a cool way.  It seems the intention was specifically to not make completion increasingly difficult as new updates are added, which is honestly pretty rad!  And, again, though I appreciate the bestiary remembering all of your fusions, I’m so glad there’s nothing incentivizing you to from every last one of them.  Same goes for bootlegs.  So, does this mean future updates/DLC with even more monsters are on the way?  No clue.  But they are working on a multiplayer update expected to release soon! (I don’t have Switch Online so I won’t be able to do much with that lol.)
I did purchase the DLC right away; I was confident I would enjoy the game enough I would want it eventually, and buying them both together was slightly cheaper than buying them separately. (The bundle also comes with a cosmetics pack but it’s nothing that interests me personally.) After progressing through the main quest enough that you become able to access the final dungeon, a small boat washes ashore, and you’re able to ride it to a dock in the middle of the ocean housing some sort of carnival.  The ringmistress asks you to explore the three major attractions and beat their power sources, the “Infernal Engines”, into submission.  Despite being a small area it’s still just as open-ended as New Wirral, an effort I appreciate.  You can tackle the attractions in any order you want, even leave in the middle of one to go do another if you prefer.  The place is also populated by several new monsters to record, including one of my personal favorites, a ghostly book monster named Hauntome.  It’s a few mini-dungeons, some solid bosses capping them off, and then one last boss, with a loose story in the background that has some connections to the main story but isn’t anything essential.  I don’t know if I’d go as far as to call it a must-buy, but it is fun, and inexpensive, and more Cassette Beasts.  Up to you.
There are two major themes I picked up on during my playthrough: community and art.  The people who’ve ended up in New Wirral, in spite of coming from countless different dimensions, have all banded together to support each other and however many newcomers show up; they don’t even ask for anything in return, they just value life and want to be sure people are cared for.  The theme that plays in Harbourtown is transparent about this: “we’re all in the same ship […] but at least we’re together […] I don’t know you but we’ll make the most of / wherever we are now”.  Fusion is about literally joining with someone to create something stronger than either of you could do on your own.  There are even some genuinely scary twisted manifestations of this idea, like the Mournington cult and the truth behind the Landkeepers—people crave community, and there are some who will use that to their own advantage.  It’s baked into the motivations of all your partners, and, switching gears, most of them are heavily connected to art too!  Felix is an artist learning he doesn’t need to be ashamed of his past, less “polished” work.  Kayleigh, after addressing her regrets with Mournington, reconnects with her old hobby of playing guitar.  Meredith actually takes things in a different direction: she used to spend all of her time consuming vast quantities of art to the point that it cut her off from her community, showing that you still need to exercise moderation when it comes to art.  Viola is a character from another, pre-existing work of art!  The Archangels play into this as well: one of the biggest things setting them apart is the way they clash with the rest of the game’s art style, and their nature as incarnations of humankind’s ideas is a delightfully malevolent spin on the whole thing.
Taking these two themes together, Cassette Beasts presents a thesis on our responsibility to our fellow people and how we can all find our own way to fulfill it, with a particular focus on art and how it broadly conveys our ideas and inspires change.  The final boss fight punctuates this beautifully when, after Aleph destroys your cassette player, Morgante awakens and tells you that you don’t truly need the cassettes.  “THE ABILITY TO MANIFEST YOUR WILL TO ALTER REALITY…TO CHANGE YOUR WORLD, AND YOURSELVES...THAT LIES WITHIN YOU.”  Then she and ALL of your partners fuse with your avatar, and through your combined might, you strike down the malevolent forces in your way, secure a path home, and bring a huge, fundamental change to New Wirral as its inhabitants now have the option to decide if they should stay or go.  It’s an extremely satisfying ending, even if it does see you and your partners going their separate ways.  But, who knows?  Given a few tidbits from the post-game, it sounds like we just might get to meet them again someday.
Again, I had a really, really great time with Cassette Beasts and highly recommend it.  It’s charming, its fun, and it’s only $20!  Maybe don’t get it on Switch, though, not if you can’t stand frequent load times.
And, just to brag about my bootlegs a little:
-The random free bootleg from Harbourtown was a Glass-type Dandylion for me
-The freebie Ritual Candle netted me a Water-type Glaistain!
-The post-game bootleg starter, I got a Poison-type Candevil
-Was able to use the mailbox to get a Fire-type Undyin
-And obviously there’s Barkley’s Ice-type Pombomb
-The first one I encountered purely by chance was an Astral-type Jellyton
-Air-type Jellyton
-Ice-type Carniviper
-Astral-type Carniviper
-Fire-type Traffikrab
-Plant-type Squirey
-Ice-type Boltam
-Lightning-type Snoopin
-Poison-type Kirikuri
-Glass-type Scubalrus
-Glass-type Spooki-onna
-Lightning-type Dominoth
-A Fire-type Piksie
-A Glitter-type Picksie
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