#this was absolutely inspired by that one she ra episode

[julie-su]

VOTE HERE!

Zara-Ra, who is entered into the @sonic-oc-showdown ! I saw the rest of the bumblefolks filling out this OC Q&A that dear @bunnymajo had brought to our attention - and I had to have a go ~

"Zara-Ra has Guardian blood flowing in their veins. Due to her granddfather Knuckles being subjected to a great dose of Chaos Energy in his egg many years prior, Zara-Ra has heightened chaos powers, worked through their lineage. With training from their mother, Lara-Su, they were able to get a small ammount of it under her control. Their name, which they chose for themself, is inspired by her ancestor, Sonji-Ra, who had transitioned in the same sense that Zara-Ra had."

Zara-Ra's Page on Toyhou.se

Q&A under the cut -

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name? … Don’t laugh — I was lounging on the setee at my parents’ place, rolling names around in my head. My eldest sister was catching up on our favourite Soap Opera, BBC Doctors (.. No, not Doctor Who.) and lo and behold.. The character Zara Carmichael is the focus of this episode, I believe it’s about a resort, but I don’t much remember. Zara.. Zara-Ra. It just sort of, stuck. … I cannot stand Zara Carmichael.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range) Zara-Ra is the same age as me - 23! And soon, he might be 24.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)? My partner’s character, Tara-Ka, was made at the same time for us to roleplay together - of course they are madly, deeply in love! -Cheesy- They live together in a small apartment in Echidnaopolis. They are deeply, madly in love!

🍕 - What is their favorite food? … Mobini Ants. Though, he’ll substitute for raisins. And grapes! Archimedes is alarmed; he’s told it’s only mobini ants, but he remembers the first time he met Zara’s grandfather.

💼 - What do they do for a living? Nothing; money doesn’t exist! Hey— HEY! WHAT’S ESPIO DOING WITH THOSE QUARTERS?! AIIIEEE!! … Zara-Ra is the current backup Guardian, though, it’s .. Unclear if he’s doing a good job. -thinks about Dark Mobius, sweats- I’m sure it’ll be FIIIIINE. Other than that, she keeps The Chaotix alive with Tara-Ka; Tara-Ka’s life-long obsession has always been the tales of the Chaotix. It was pure coincidence that their life partner would happen to be within such close proximity!

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies? Ant farmer… NO. I’M KIDDING! Zara-Ra has an extensive secret model city under the floorboards of her and Ed’s childhood bedroom, named ‘OuiOui Land’ - full of thousands of delicate models. He may not live there anymore, but he’s always in the area… They wonder what he’s doing all of the time. It’s OuiOui Land.

🎯 -What do they do best? He’s … Kind of a Rich Failson, without the ‘Rich’ part. A nepotism baby. Not for lack of trying - he was supposed to become the one to become a guardian, only to get cold feet. Ed tried to lead by example to encourage him, only to be lifted up as a ‘better choice’. The thing Zara-Ra does best, is… Be himself. He’s not disappointed in the missed oppertunities, and he’s happy that he is exactly where he needs to be.

He CAN do it all as Enerjak, where he's unimpeded by his thoughts and feelings - but he also… Well, loses everything that makes him… Him! He becomes this soulless machine line of output; all it really does is burn through his power and energy. And suddenly, everybody close to him realises that 'sometimes' being able to reach his full potential, is better than her reaching full potential all of the time - in the short bursts, he covers more ground than most others could do in the same time he spent sat around doing nothing. It's kind of frustrating for him sometimes when it comes in bursts like that, because it can be really close to the line… But after coming down from power like that, he realises that he just works differently to others.. And that's okay!

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do? Zara-Ra’s absolute favourite thing in this world is any important outing that is done either alongside his brother, Ed, or alongside his partner, Tara-Ka. Ed will often take him out on excursions to do with protecting the island, whilst Tara-Ka will bring him along for any odd job that they can find under The Chaotix. As long as he’s got a purpose and a clear instruction, he’s having the time of his life.He hates any job that he has to do on his lonesome. He is not a leader-type, and cannot take charge. He over-stresses over every minute detail, ending up in an internal stalemate for even the simplest of tasks.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories? Meeting Tara-Ka. They met on the outskirts of New Albion; Zara-Ra was out scouring for leads; they had heard it from the grapevine that the Dark Presence was still in operation on the outskirts of the city, deep into the desert. Here, he ran into one lonesome Tara-Ka - an echidna with such cybernetic enhancements that had not been seen for decades. Sure, cosmetic and medical cybernetics had been adopted by the masses - but these were cybernetics built for violence.… Tara-Ka was a runaway from a branch of the Dark Presence deep in the desert, and -all- they wanted to know was… “Can you take me to The Chaotix? They’re all I’ve ever dreamed of meeting”.How could you not oblige?! They’re the buggers who had sent him out here in the first place!

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories? Becoming posessed by Enerjak… It was incredibly traumatic; though, he did not get violent; he had his mothers’ knack for resisting the dark whispers. He did, however, forfeit all emotions; the unlocking of ultimate power had driven it all out. What hurts the most, is that many people felt that this beast of apathy and pure drone work ethic is much prefferable to his usual state.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one? Nohoho. Zara-Ra’s first design is waaay different! For starters, he wasn’t even originally a guardian! Yes, he wasn’t created as Lara-Su and Argyle’s child.. That came later! I was on a long coach trip with a lot of paper, and no plug for my laptop.. Go figure.

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC? Archie Sonic.. I wanted an Archie echidna! I played around for a while, making an avatar in this game, hot pink… And I sort of, fell in love. His first iteration was of a zonehopper, to fit in with the game; but as he outgrew it, I worked him more and more into the Archie Sonic comics lore.

🌂 - What genre do they belong in? Probably.. Dark Comedy. Yup. That happens to be the tone of just about every single piece of prose that contains Zara-Ra!

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality? There are not enough words in any spoken or written language, alive or dead, to even begin to explain Zara-Ra’s connection to gender and sexuality. For whom it concerns… Zara-Ra was born ‘Jamie-Su’. He’s on testosterone, and has had top surgery; he has little tufts of sticky-uppy fur on either side of his chest. The planning to keep his guardian crest intact was a -nightmare-. This has -nothing- to do with gender identity, really; it’s moreso a medical history. But it felt as if it were fitting to put ^^

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have? Just the one - Edmund II! Yes, -that- Edmund II. .. Why are you looking at me like that?! You know Ed! You don’t?! He’s that old codger from the Archie Sonic arc, Silver Saga - issues #25 to #28; son of Lara-Su and Argyle (well - if you read between the lines!)

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like? Zara-Ra has an incredible relationship with her parents. The only point of contemption is Zara’s ant addiction. “It’s normal, we’re echidnas!” — “THAT IS NOT NORMAL!”

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC? Swag :3… I love the way he dresses, the way I style his hair -he’s based on me, down to the same glasses, to the little stupid puffer body jackets I wear. Bangles… I love making him wear outfits I do. Big baggy tripp/parachute pants… My self-insert, Puggle, also scratches this itch. I did, at one point, have my hair hot pink with black raccoon-tail stripes down the side, just like Zara :P

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC? It’s got to be daily, at this point. If I’m not drawing, I’m roleplaying, or crafting the narrative! If you told me that I have one drawing for every day of the year, I would laugh, and wonder why it wasn’t two for every day XD

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC? …. I hope not! O_O it would get awful boring around here!In all seriousness.. There is the fact that dear old Ed seems to be quite on his own, as the sole echidna.. Eeeee. Not lookin’ good for ole’ Zra.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias? He’s terrified of forgetting things; he wakes up in a sweat in the middle of the night, after an in-depth dream where he had forgotten that his own brother had passed away, asking where he is. He sits up, now awake, and calls his brother; sighing in relief. It was all a dream… He wonders if he ever would forget something like that. It gnaws at his mind.

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival? Antoine. He knows what he did. Old Bastard.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC? … I’ve lost track!

#Zara-Ra #Zara-Ra the Echidna #sonic OC #Archie Sonic #What WHAAAAAT I actually got this all written out XDD

[kdramaxoxo]

Hey I love your blog soooooo much!! 💖 I’m going through a tough time rn and I was wondering if you had any funny kdrama recommendations?! Or kdramas that made you feel really happy when you watched it?!

Thank you for all your posts and recommendations btw! I’ve loved so many of your recommendations and I’m so grateful for your blog!!💕💕💕

Oh anon i'm so sorry you're going through it :( Thank you so much for the blog love and hopefully one of these will fit your mood!

K-dramas to brighten your day:

Shopping King Louie (romcom): Ridiculously fun and lighthearted romp following a spoiled and useless chaebol with amnesia who is being taken care of by a country bumpkin in the city. Very low stakes, super adorable couple, and as many tropes as you can fit in your bag, this one is one of my favorites to recommend.

Extraordinary You/ A Day Found By Chance (fantasy/romance): This magical k-drama has my heart. It plays with all of the predictable tropes and then just goes crazy! While not perfect towards the end, I give this show bonus points for being super creative AND inspiring me to read a LOT of fan fic. I think about this drama more than any other.

Soundtrack #1: (romance) A short drama about two friends. One of them is helping the other write a love song (while also being in love with her). It’s cute!

Hit The Spot: rom/com-ish: Just a heads up this is legit rated-r and has graphic sex scenes. I don't usually go for that (and actually the scenes are pretty funny to me personally - the first episode starts that way but I swear you can just skip those scenes) but the actual drama was soooo good (and maybe sponsored by a sex toy company?) Hani delivers (i love her so much) and the sex positive messaging and just two ladies getting what they need?? So funny and so fun!! But take care if this isn't for you.

Run On: (rom com) This show follows four people in their daily lives: An athletic, a translator, a CEO and an artist. Soft soft couples!! Y'all know I love this slice of life rom com for so many reasons, but you might not know that Kang Tae Oh’s character (the painter) is like one of my dream boys. BLORBO FROM MY SHOWS.

Have a Nice Dessert (another cute web drama): If you’re looking for low angst and a super soft boy, this is your drama!! It’s a web drama (youtube) about a girl who loves photographing desserts and the boy who likes her.  Like all web dramas, it’s short, and there’s really no time for angst and breakups :)

The Best Hit / Hit The Top (romcom): A famous 90′s boyband dude travels into the future and meets up with his family and friends in this really cute drama featuring Yoon Shi Yoon. I LOVE Yoon Shi Yoon in pretty much everything but this role was made for him - he is hilarious. It’s a slice of life but features the k-pop music industry so the setting is unique.

Into The Ring (workplace/romcom): The perfect slice-of-life rom com! Goo Se Ra has trouble holding down a job due to her passionate personality so after she loses her latest job working for the ML, she decides to run for a small government office position because it pays a salary. Literally she does it for the money which is just *chef’s kiss.* The show is about her dealing with local politics and it’s SO FUNNY and smart and the OTP is the best! 

Eulachacha Waikiki / Laughter In Waikiki: (ridiculous comedy) I hope you’re ready for a crazy amount of unlikely situations and nutty hijinks because this show is probably one the most silly ones I’ve ever watched. It follows a group of friends who own a hostel so it’s a slice of life drama. At certain points I was like “this is TOO silly” but I’m glad I stuck with it cause it was so hilarious. Plus, the baby is a star!

Light On Me (web drama bl): I absolutely adored this simple and sweet drama! One of my favorite korean BLs EVER! Because it’s longer than the average Korean BL, it actually has: *cues triumphant music* Character development!

Fight for My Way (romcom) I love this drama! The couple is one of my OTPs and it’s really funny and a mostly lighthearted story of a group of friends. It’s down to earth and adorable - I’ve never had anyone complain about this one!

Wok of Love: (romcom) Despite the fact that the show was shortened by two episodes because of sports, this drama is a funny and quirky show worth watching. Many people dropped it because it was SO crazy for the first couple of episodes (it has a talking horse people!), but it does settle into a really sweet and fun story about a chef, a gangster and a rich girl and her family. If you love food, this show is for YOU!

Splash Splash Love: (short drama) Featuring a girl struggling with her studies and magically ends up in an ancient land working for a king! It’s awesome!

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo: Super cute and fluffy drama featuring a female weightlifter lacking confidence, and a popular and good looking swimmer. Romance & great friendships!

Top Management: Adorable mini drama about a girl who can see the future and becomes the rookie manager for a kpop band. Fun and easy (plus they seem to be setting it up for another season…)

***J-drama rec*** Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!: (romance, fluff, represenation!)  If you’re used to k-dramas were everything could go wrong at any time, you’re in for a real treat! Cherry Magic is my absolute favorite drama of last year and this year combined (even with a silly name like it has!) - It’s the ONLY show I’ve ever given a 10/10 rating to. An introverted guy finds out a seemingly popular and confident co-worker has a crush on him. This drama is so so soft, so so sweet and it has not one but TWO ace characters and a lot of gay panic! I’ve rewatched it recently and smiled the ENTIRE time. Plus there’s a valentines day special that’s really fun.

Bonus short shows for instant relief:

Gaduri Sushi Restaurant

Semantic Error

Out of Breath (gl!)

The Best Mistake

Kiss Goblin

XX

Enjoy and I hope you feel better soon!!

#kdrama #kdrama recs #kdrama recommendations #semantic error #run on #so happy to add that junho wok of love gif #any chance to do it and i will #cause people don't realize the kisses in that show #are soooo #i love a list #should i have added hometown cha cha cha #and semantic error? #ask

[aprillikesthings]

ugh my wired headphones are still hurting my head >:(

anyway

s3 ep2 huntara

ahahah I love this one

(if you're new here: i'm rewatching She-Ra for fic-writing purposes, and live-blogging my way through them making commentary and jokes and side notes about random shit. bc this is a REwatch there are many references to later plot points)

is that the Beta Kindergarten

(man I've been making a lot of Steven Universe references in these lately, but yeah I can't look at sandstone slot canyons without thinking "hrr hrr where's Jasper")

(wait has a Jasper cosplayer actually taken photos in one of these in like Utah? a quick image search says no. damn.)

how many times did I look at this establishing shot before I realized this part of the Fright Zone is the ruins of a ginormous spaceship

ALSO "day 135"? I noted yesterday that someone working on the show said sOMEWHERE that each season is about a year and I was like "ehhhh" but I guess that's not far off.

That makes the whole catradora arc even more angsty tbh. For some reason I thought the whole show took place over like a single year or so. But FOUR OR FIVE YEARS?? they pined for each other while trying to murder each other for MULTIPLE YEARS????

awwwwww

Listen. I love this ship. I'm always weak for "complete asshole with tough act is soft for one (1) person"

(tho lemme tell you. do not actually date those dudes irl. *sigh*)

why did so many 80's cartoons have extremely unrealistic quicksand scenes tho

gdi adora

The Crimson Waste is actually just a western bar full of furries. But seriously designing the characters in the bar must've been hella fun

AAHAHAAHH Adora being so, so blatantly gay for Huntara is one of my fave things

Did they need to establish that Adora is into women? Pfft, no. Did they still decide to show us Adora being absolutely smitten on sight for an older, big, buff, badass, butchy lady? YES.

Doesn't hurt that she looks likes this lol

like it's the least subtle thing on EARTH i love it so much

oh no now I want to look up fics

18 of them are explicit. well. I'm just gonna. leave that tab open.

ADORA. YOU COCKBLOCKED HER. RUDE.

lol there's a moment where Glimmer and Bow are like "ha ha we need to talk amongst ourselves" and turns around and Adora is still just staring at Huntara with googly eyes without noticing what Bow even said and lemme tell you, I've been that fucking obvious and oblivious

Huntara literally is like "oh my god you kids are gonna end up DEAD without me. FINE." Meanwhile, Adora:

Plot plot Huntara leads them to a trap and they get hit with tranquilizer darts and dropped into a pit.

that's just a nice shot tbh

EAT SOME DAMN SOUP your girlfriend spent TIME on that

she just refuses to be afraid of him

Anyway yeah this is when we find out he's just a clone of Horde Prime the Big Baddy of the series, Hordak is a "defective" clone, he was sent to "the front lines" to die and fell through a portal into Etheria. "with nothing but a broken ship, I built an empire..." the whole point of the portal is to bring Horde Prime through, which means that's what he was doing when he tried before and ended up with A Magic Baby (Adora) instead.

The animation in the flashback is clearly inspired by Lotte Reiniger which is super cool??

Back to the Crimson Waste, they've gotten themselves out of the hole, and Adora's upset because the whole point of this mission is her getting more info about Mara with the hopes of understanding her own past better

she's RIGHT

"...at least to me..."

LISTEN TO YOUR CUTE NERDY GIRLFRIEND YOU EMO BASTARD

She makes him a nice techy exoskeleton armor thingie

that's a start but c'mon I know you can do better than that

lolol the recorder baby critter KICKS HIM in an obvious "dude really????"

look at him!!! AAHAHAH

i'm gonna go over the image limit and tumblr's gonna cut me off and make me reblog this any minute now but this episode is jUST TOO GOOD

"I like being friends with you, too" ;_;

Huntara's "friends" make fun of her for being a softie while she swings the She-Ra sword around and then Glimmer drops in wooo

yeah I know this is a fight scene but eheheheh

and then they banged

okay they kept fighting but like, c'mon

the "sword point under the chin" thing is just so good and I loved the way they did the angles here

OH SHIT I forgot Huntara had heard of She-Ra

OH HO HO HOW THE TURN TABLES

Anyway Huntara does her little speech about how she also used to be a Horde soldier but left because Hordak was such a dick to his soldiers. "you would know, you were one of us."

called THE FUCK OUT

Huntara does her little "you can't defeat the Horde alone even if you're She-Ra" and she responds with "yah I'm not alone tho"

but also that shot is unnecessarily hot

....i've hit the image limit with two minutes to spare so I went back and deleted one because

hggghh

(not gonna get into how Shadow Weaver's face-touching thing is what made Adora do it here but yeah)

Huntara tells her minions to get lost, admits that the war scared the shit out of her and that's why she ran, but she knows that's bullshit and she promises to help Adora stop the war :D and then leads them to the place they were originally looking for: the ruins of Mara's ship!

AND EPISODE OVER

(gonna...see if any of those fics are any good 👀)

#april rewatches spop #huntara

[dalekaiken]

how did u come up with the initial ideas for ur fics ?? :3

I'll reply with my current multichapter fics bc my oneshots are mostly... Sudden ideas I get, such as Keeping Promises being a fic I wrote in one sitting after finishing Unleashed bc I was inspired. XD (Or I wrote the first draft in one sitting but you know-)

DNA Collision: I absolutely adore when people draw Shadow with more alien-like features, such as giving him yellow scleras, tiny scales, or a third eye! But the fanart made me think... What if there was a reason Shadow looked like that/more alien, especially considering that he didn't originally even know he's half alien. My original idea was that Eggman would do something that would make him mutate, but then I thought it might be a bit of a lazy choice, plus then fixing it would be a lot easier because they'd already know the cause. My bestie came up with the idea that it would happen suddenly while Shadow was racing/using Chaos Control, and I liked that idea. (I can't tell how/why it happens since that's a spoiler, but you'll find out eventually ehehe). I like aliens, sci-fi, and body horror (although I don't wanna make the body horror parts too graphic in the fic but still. It's a part of it), but there's also metaphors etc. in it. I'll probably talk more about those once I finish the fic, because for now I want readers to make their own interpretations and speculations >:3

Prophecy of Chaos: The ship I was super obsessed with before Sonadow was Catradora, and since I tend to like certain types of dynamics, I kinda noticed lots of similarities between them XDD (I mean, they're a snarky hero with a heart of gold and their former enemy with a traumatic backstory) I think I also saw a tumblr post where someone pointed out that the way Boom!Shadow acts is like a bitter ex/former childhood best friend, and that made me think... What would Sonic and Shadow be like if they had been childhood best friends who had a falling out? I think I jokingly told my friends like "what if I made an AU that's kinda like the premise of She-Ra but with Sonadow" but then I actually got invested in it. It just works so well with Sonic characters and Sonic lore, with the whole chosen one thing and friendship being a big theme in both series. My bestie @tillytilli had lots of suggestions for the AU, and then I asked if they'd like to be a co-creator. Plus with two people working on it made it possible for us to make several illustrations for each chapter; usually three art pieces for each chapter, one by me, one by Tilli and one being a collab between us. So yeah, the premise and some elements are inspired by She-Ra, but the plot will differ a lot since we didn't want it to just be a retelling of that story, we wanted to also make it our own story. Plus we haven't really assigned the characters certain roles (except the obvious ones, like Sonic having Adora's role, Shadow Catra's, Infinite Shadow Weaver's, and Eggman Hordak's. But even some of those are a bit mixed, especially between Sonic and Shadow) because we felt like it would limit the characters too much, and we wanted them to be themselves first and foremost if that makes sense? (So like. You don't need any knowledge of She-Ra to read the fic. Sonic knowledge is more important since there's lore and references XD)

Impactful Skip: I came up with the idea around the time the sneak peek of Sonic and Nine in Sonic Prime came out. Since Nine was a traumatized child because he never met Sonic, it made me think... How would Tails turn out if he had had Sonic, and then lost him? Because he would know what he was missing. Sonic and Tails are so close that I feel like neither of them would be the same if they lost each other. I think I was also subconsciously inspired by that one episode of Futurama where Fry has to test the time machine with Bender and the Professor so he's late from his date with Leela, but the time travel goes wrong and Leela thinks he's dead. (This scene especially always BREAKS me) I didn't like... Actively think about that episode while thinking about the premise, but then I remembered it after a while and was like OH. Another inspiration for it was that one tumblr post I can't find sadly but it was like... "Why would you tell a post-apocalyptic story if not to show the kindness of humanity?" And it's a big part of Impactful Skip, because while Tails has turned against all his friends, his friends still stick together and try to find hope and kindness towards one another even in a world with barely any hope left.

Thank you for asking! I'm really enthusiactic about these stories so I'm always happy to explain about them! ✨✨

#Everyone is always welcome to ask about my fics >:3c #You can send the asks here or to my art blog pajulammas #both are fine! #t4twerehog #Thanks for asking!

[joshuasumter]

Details about “Across the Netflix-Verse: Joshua Sumter Meets She-Ra and the Princesses of Power”

Here are a few inspirational details about my self-insert, isekai-turned-multiversal, dimension-spanning crossover epic, Across the Netflix-Verse: Joshua Sumter Meets She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Space Jam (1996) and Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) -- Just like how Michael Jordan and Lebron James are live-action superstars entering a spectacular animated world and teaming up with the Looney Tunes in their two movies, Joshua Sumter (That would be me) does the same as he gets forced into the animated world of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power to help Adora and her friends in the princess-led Rebellion in their ongoing war against the dreaded Horde.

Epic (2013) -- M.K. is a teenager finds herself transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and evil is taking place. In similarity, Joshua is a grown, autistic young man who finds himself transported to a war-torn planet based on a rebooted TV series from the 80s.

Kanji Tatsumi's storyline from Persona 4: Arena -- In Persona 4: Arena, Kanji Tatsumi still thinks that everything in the entire P1-Grand Prix tournament is all a dream until he eventually finds out it is in fact not, so when Joshua first lands smack-dab in Etheria, he believes that his experience in Etheria from Season 1 to the Battle of Bright Moon is all a reinterpretation/Isekai adventure dream, that is...until he eventually later finds out that it's not a dream when he reaches the first episode of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power's Season 2.

Kingdom Hearts and PowerPuff Girls: Super Smash-Up! -- The Kingdom Hearts franchise features Disney-based worlds and how Sora embarks on an epic journey across the multiverse and encounters Disney and Final Fantasy characters in their respective worlds and helps them while the Powerpuff Girls: Super Smash-Up! comic crossover mini-series is a dimension-spanning epic inspired by Batman: The Brave and the Bold where Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup visit other Cartoon Network universes. In Across the Netflix-Verse: Joshua Sumter Meets She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Joshua did the same thing - this time, it features worlds and universes that are mostly based on, inspired by, and from your favorite Netflix shows and movies. In actuality, the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power world Joshua was first isekaied into was one of the Netflix-based worlds in the Netflix-Verse, so he then later goes on a world-hopping journey across the Netflix-Verse and encounters main characters in their respective worlds like The Cuphead Show, Green Eggs and Ham, The Dragon Prince, Tiger & Bunny, We Can Be Heroes, Lego Elves: Secrets of Elvendale, The Sea Beast, Maya and the Three, Nimona, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Dragon Age: Absolution and helps them out.

Emblem spirits from Fire Emblem: Engage and the Soul transferal from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- The corporeal spirit incarnation of Mara, the previous She-Ra, is in her ethereal appearance and bluish glow, interacting with the world and fight. Moving her soul into Joshua's body, along with prior knowledge of her past, the transferal allowed Mara to communicate with Joshua as if living in their mind, offering him advice and intent on providing guidance. Joshua is unaware that Mara's strength made him fights like an entirely different person with a hard-hitting silver-ironed baseball bat as his holy sword-like weapon, wielding it like a hero's sword.

#she-ra and the princesses of power #shera and the princesses of power #she ra and the princesses of power #the cuphead show #Green Eggs and Ham #the dragon prince #tiger and bunny #tiger & bunny #we can be heroes #lego elves #lego elves secrets of elvendale #the sea beast #maya and the three #nimona #nimona netflix #nimona film #nimona 2023 #jurassic world camp cretaceous #puss in boots the last wish #my dad the bounty hunter #dragon age absolution #crossover #crossovers

[crisp-sweet-pink-lady]

Summer of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Bitty Adventures Season Two, episodes 7 - 9

It's the perfect time for these episodes, since they're explicitly set at the tail-end of summer. This is also the most solid three-parter of the season so far, or at least the episodes I've enjoyed the most so far.

According the scripts, the overall social/emotional theme of these episodes is about turning disappointments into something even better, and the E/I lesson is perseverance. And I hadn't really thought about it before, but all three episodes do share those themes: No Blueberry is an Island shows the girls figuring out a way to work around every challenge Blueberry comes up with to try and make them give up on the vacation, Where the Berry Breeze Blows has Orange deciding the best way to deal with their actual cancelled vacation is to build their own resort, and The Berry Best Vacation sees the girls try one thing and then another to get rid of Mavis so they can enjoy their vacation, only to realize that the things they did were more fun than the actual vacation they planned. Even Mavis herself says multiple times, "Do we shrink from a challenge? We rise to it!"

Of this vacation trilogy, I think that No Blueberry is an Island is my favorite, even though it commits the storytelling sin I dislike in this series the most. But at least it makes sense this time. The girls are purposefully staying away from Strawberry so they can prepare for the vacation without giving away that they know her "surprise." And the girls preparing, first for the regular vacation and then for the challenges, is more interesting to watch than building the resort or the attempts to trick Mavis. Plus, it's the debut of Sunshine Girls, which is the best song of the season (and the writers know it, as the song is used liberally in the BGM for all three episodes). Plus, the misunderstanding makes more sense than in most of these "character overhears something and misunderstands it" type of plots.

Mavis steals the entire episode of The Berry Best Vacation. Her first appearance was amusing, but here she absolutely shines, probably because the only character she's trying to influence this time is Cherry, who is immune to it by now. I don't think we ever learn the aftermath of her attempts to explore uncharted territory, but I imagine it's probably like that scene in The Emperor's New Groove (especially the "Perfect! These are my best shoes!" part).

Cut scenes:

In No Blueberry is an Island, one of the ways Blueberry tried to soften the blow of no vacation was to tell the other girls that the resort had a height requirement that they were too bitty to meet, only for the girls to get around that with some fashionable hats. And in the actual episode, one of the things that inspires Blueberry to suggest making the essay a song is the "secret knock" they had, which wasn't actually in the episode, it was supposed to be in the scene where Blueberry was going to break the news about her mistake (where Raspberry asks for a password), but in the animated scene, it's changed to a normal knock. The knock would have also shown up in the cut scene, as the girls knock on Blueberry's door to show her their new hats.

The Berry Best Vacation had a cut montage of the girls trying to keep Cherry away from Mavis, including having all of them dress as Cherry while hiding in the foliage, and a shell-game like scene where Cherry, Strawberry, and Orange enter three different bungalows, only for none of them to be in the one they appeared to enter, with the kicker being the last one has Lemon, still suffering from her sunscreen woes, this time dayglo pink (which explains why she was dotted with green and pink during the "make Mavis uncomfortable" sequence). And all of that set to a Benny Hill-esque version of Sunshine Girls. There was also a cut line where Mavis spoiled the end of the Patty Persimmon mystery that Blueberry was reading (it was the ping-pong champion).

I didn't notice any cut scenes in Where the Berry Breeze Blows, but according to the script, Raspberry's first sandcastle was supposed to look like Neuschwanstein Castle:

Clearly the writers were being a bit ambitious with that description.

#strawberry shortcake #summer of ssc #berry bitty adventures #no blueberry is an island #where the berry breeze blows #the best vacation

[lem-cup-rev]

4.3 | Flutterina

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)

🌸🌸🌸🌸

-Spoilers-

This was a good one that just had less going for it than the last couple.

I said in the beginning that I found the little towns and their parties uncharming, and I stand corrected! This was charming! The party sequence was carried by a lot of cute little gags. And I like the noseless people with their adorable little kids. There’s a satisfying complexity to their designs and outfits, and the leader and older people we see really feel like middle aged women.

It’s a cool premise to come in after the battle and focus on the aftermath. It was honestly confusing at first when Hordak said the Rebellion had been doing new stuff, because the good guys have practically never made new progress or decisions offscreen! I think it would have benefitted from a quick opener of, like, the last bot falling to Bow’s new shock tablet and the team being like ‘well, that was that!’ That would fill me in pretty quick!

Also I forgot Hordak thought Entrapta was just working with Bright Moon right now 😭

I really enjoyed Adora and Bow’s excitement about the party, and it made such a sweet bookend to Adora’s first party and to her feeling intimidated by all the She-Ra legends. However, I thought Adora’s cockiness felt more extreme than I really wanted for the tone, and the degree to which she dismissed that very earnestly worried leader and endangered the village was kind of painful to watch.

Swift Wind is such a sweetie! He’s just a really solid member of the team! I love his balance between quirky goofs and earnest strategizing. It’s not even that big a thing, I just really expected him to be annoying.

Bow was a little more interesting to me too; he got a focus for once and I like his gentle confidence. It was fun to see him in kind of a new situation, being a legendary hero and owning it.

I WUV Flutterbaby!!! She is just so cute! She has little Ojamajo Doremi hair buns! She has so much personality in such a short time – she rotates around this balance of shyness, excitement, and bravery, and her emotions are so big and tearful and precious. I do think it’s kind of hilarious that they let her join the Rebellion right now since she does seem to be about 12.

Catra’s nightmare was exquisite. Entrapta’s quirky little voice saying “What did you do to me”... It’s such a strong choice that this portal has become a point of trauma for her more than any other specific thing. The tummy-boiling guilt over her frantic and thoughtless but ultimately useful throwing of Entrapta under the bus comes through so strong.

Some months ago, I woke up in the morning with an idea for a She-Ra-inspired roleplaying game turning around in my head. The only real image or sentence I could remember was “Give Catra a nightmare.”

Scorpia is back to being a miss for me. I’ve said it so many times that I wonder if I’m being unfair and missing the appeal. But honestly, it feels like she’s the one guilty of Double Troubling. How is she still chatting it up in the blithe hope that Catra will be her friend? I want to see some change in her. And if we’re going to keep seeing Catra reject her, I want there to have been something between them, ever, so it has any impact.

Double Trouble was such a goddamn star. I love when characters are allowed to LIE WELL! I loved that at one point they got to play Flutterina lying badly. It was such an absolute delight seeing them weave their web in a way that felt nuanced and believable. She-Ra and many other shows are usually so afraid of showing deception in a way that isn’t exaggerated and obvious! I love that this entire episode was dedicated to their performance of giving Flutterina a full constructed character arc and emotional depth and vulnerability, so there’s no reason for anyone to imagine she’s there to trick them.

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre, so I understand the kind of accomplishment on display here.

It’s also such a neat touch that her 1985 namesake was a real character, not a disguise.

I had the thought during this episode that it must be infuriating to fight against a magical girl. I can just imagine Catra watching Adora and Swift Wind do their friendship power-up and just going “Uuuuuugh! This stuff again??” How dispiriting and alienating must it be when your enemies have the cosmic forces of beauty and love on their side?

I remember being pretty aggravated by some of the next few episodes. I’m so excited to see how I feel this time around!

Next time: I like don't remember, apparently Shadow Weaver starts teaching Glimmer? I don’t have a cute phrase for this one

#review #spoilers #episode #4⭐️ #she ra and the princesses of power #spop #she-ra and the princesses of power

[mdhwrites]

Can we still send toh related asks even after the show is over?

Can we also send asks about other medias you're familiar with?

Absolutely yes to the first question. If TOH had stayed solidly in my heart, you'd probably still have me writing for this fandom for years to come because I'm stubborn like that. I am not the sort to join a fandom only while it's airing. Things I write as much fanfiction as I have for TOH aren't fleeting fancies for me. Hell, just because I love Luz, Amity and Boscha so much from my early days of writing them, I'll likely still keep making fanfiction of them or having my original works inspired by them going forward. It's who I am. As for other media: OF COURSE! You can honestly ask me asks of anything. I am admittedly slowing a little to doing one large ask a day I think, in part to just let some of the statements get to be seen more easily by more people. Also because I still don't get that many asks. I would also encourage not to just ask about media I'm familiar with because unfortunately that amount is pretty small, especially in the past decade effectively. But if people let me know they're interested in my thoughts on a property, it can help motivated me to watch it. Frankly, I'm just bad about watching scripted content because it makes my brain go brrrrr in ways that things like Youtube videos or livestreams don't and that can be... Rough sometimes. I have so many ideas already that I'd love to work on and getting more inspiration can be painful when I'm stuck in a slump like I am now where I'm struggling to write. Hell, despite wanting to be able to claim I did a chapter of a thing on an ask tomorrow (which does mean tomorrow's blog got changed by a new ask that I immediately wanted to answer), I'm answering this because my brain doesn't want to let me write still despite the fact that I am getting my energy back. Just need to do more than take walks with it. But yeah, after I moved out of my parent's house eight years ago now, I kind of stopped watching most television. One of the last cartoons I really kept up with before The Owl House was Randy Cunningham Ninth Grade Ninja (good show. Not perfect but a TON of fun and great for kids). Voltron, She-Ra, Paranormal Undead Park, etc. like that have just skipped over me. If not for my nephew, I'd likely have never started watching The Owl House and even then, I stopped somewhere around Adventure in the Elements with him. It took THE Lumity animatic for Little Miss Perfect (which the animator later took down... just like the creator of the popular Ordinary listed hers as private... Boy were those not fun moments for me as I started losing my ability to write again) to get me into the fandom and into the show proper. Honestly, one of these days, and probably sooner rather than later, I should do a Post Mortem on The Power of Love to talk about what inspired that story, what the goal was, all of its twists and turns, etc. like that because that story means SO MUCH to me and it could be fun to gush about it. Anyways: Yeah, send me your asks on anything, I don't care much about spoilers as I'm still enjoying Amphibia despite knowing how it ends and the like (my next episode is The First Temple and honestly there's a few blogs I could already do about how great Amphibia's writing is) and maybe it'll finally get me to watch some of these great shows I've missed!

[magickatzuh]

“We’re supposed to be friends for life!”

#amphibia #sasha waybright #anne boonchuy #Marcy wu #its sad sasha hours in this house #also idk how her fucking hair works im so sorry #i need to draw sasha more #and yes #this was absolutely inspired by that one she ra episode

[cocogukkie]

2020 in review: kdramas (the heart fluttering, the disappointing, the saviors of 2020)

it’s december 31st! the new year is quite literally upon us (some of y’all are already in 2021) and my procrastinating self has chosen to upload this today. i’ve always loved these rec lists and I wanted to do one for 2020! this year was a rollercoaster for kdramas with some excellent ones and some not so excellent ones. i watched all of these in 2020 but not all of them were released in 2020.

if you want to use my questions to make your own list please do!! or give your favs in the tags, i’d love to read them. (fair warning, some of these have multiple answers bc i just can’t choose one!!)

drama that made me laugh

When The Camellia Blooms (2019)

i finally got around to watching when the camellia blooms this year and it. was. so. funny. oh my goodness, the comedic timing in so many scenes was pure excellency and im kinda mad at myself that i didn’t watch this last year. this isn’t just a comedy for those who are interested, its a thriller/romance but its also so fucking funny. definitely watch this if you want to laugh (and be touched bc the emotional scenes in this one are beautiful)

drama that made me cry

Sweet Home (2020)

hahah….. um this one is gonna go to sweet home friends. i went into this one with zero expectations and the first couple episodes didn’t really wow me? but i kept watching and holy shit fam. this show really picks up story-wise around ep 4 and makes the viewer love a lot of these initially unlikable characters. all i can say is that the end was devastating for me and i cried quite a bit. (warning, there are a lot of mature themes in this one so make sure you look for trigger warnings or send me an ask and i’ll list them all out for you) 

best OST

Itaewon Class (2020) 

i loved the ost for itaewon class!! the music is just so inspirational and pump up music, its so good. my favorites are ‘you make me back’ by woosung and ‘start’ by gaho.

drama with chemistry royalty (aka the best couple) 

i have three for this one because i just cannot choose one. 

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020)

we recognize this one as one of the best things to come out of 2020. go moon young and moon kang tae have some of the best chemistry i have ever seen in a drama couple. i waited on the edge of my seat every single week for the next couple of episode just so i could fawn over these two. they work so well together, lift each other up, and so fucking funny together and support one another. while they’re not the chillest couple (lmao) they’re most certainly one with the most personality. they’re so cute and bicker and they just get each other. who could ask for more.

Flower of Evil (2020)

our badass mom and dad 😭😭. this was another peak drama that came out this year and our married partners-in-crime-but-not-really had amazing chemistry. baek hee sung and cha ji won were so cute as a married couple but they were even more precious later on in the drama after certain things unfolded (no spoilers). they both just get each other and protected one another as well as on the most precious kdrama children this year, their daughter eunha. they were so wholesome, flower of evil is so very worth a watch.

Into The Ring (2020)

this was one of the more underappreciated kdramas of the year but hoo buddy was the main couples chemistry top notch. they were so friggin cute and i just couldn’t. goo se ra is highkey one of the best female characters i’ve ever seen, she’s absolute chaos, lawful chaos, but chaos nonetheless. her other half, seo gong myung is opposite from her as lawful neutral. he’s just along for the ride that is se ra and loves her. they’re both so very fond and protective of each other and back each other up!! very very cute and you’ll definitely replay more than a couple of their scenes together.

most disappointing

Record of Youth (2020)

it’s sad but true… i went into this one with so much hope and excitement (i was riding off that ‘psycho but its okay’ high) and i was vastly disappointed. the plot mostly focused on the male lead, and there wasn’t much characterization for the female lead which i didn’t like. honestly, i only cared about maybe 3-4? characters in the whole drama. the rest were absolutely terrible or plain boring and i ended up skipping eps 14 and 15 and just watched the finale. i would not recommend tbh.

drama you can’t really get through

Crash Landing on You (2019)

this one is absolutely on me, i want so badly to love this one. but i just… can’t seem to get past ep 2? i’ve tried!! i swear, but i just cannot get through it. maybe in 2021, i can try again and i’ll enjoy it more.

drama everyone else liked but was meh

Kairos (2020)

i though kairos was a bit predictable tbh. i know those of us who did end up watching it really liked it but maybe its because i watch so many crime/mystery shows that this one didn’t really do it for me. the writing is quite solid and everything connects well, i would recommend that those who don’t really watch thrillers, to watch this one. (also the friendship between the female lead and her two friends is suuuper cute and worth it alone to watch kairos)

favorite romance

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020)

yeah… this one wins again lol. what can i say, i just loved it so much and the main theme of the show is romance (its also a comedy and a mental health/healing drama) all i can say is watch this if you haven’t yet, its definitely worth it!! 

favorite mystery

Memorist (2020)  & Watcher (2019)

i really enjoyed these two mystery dramas. both were super fun to watch and very kinda unique in their own ways. i liked memorist because it was lowkey funny and i liked the relationships between the characters, but most importantly i couldn’t guess the main antagonist by the end! i really thought i knew who it was and then i was completely wrong lmao. watcher was also very good, the main trio had really good chemistry and i really cared about all the characters. (also i’ll never say no to watching seo kang joon) plus the plot twists threw me a bit at the end which is always a feeling i welcome, i love being surprised and wrong (as long as it makes sense)

favorite slice of life

Hospital Playlist (2020)

oh my goodness, i was late to the hospital playlist party and i regret it because this show is so. so. good. its just a slice of life following 5 friends who are doctors and work at the same hospital together but its so much more than that. this is honestly one of the first shows i’ve seen that are optimistic? in the show, every time i thought a plot was going to play out a certain way (usually negatively, as tends to be life unfortunately) it surprised me by taking the more optimistic wholesome route. characters in subplots changed for the better, became more understanding, chose to do the right thing, etc. if you want a feel good drama where the main characters have wonderful platonic chemistry and just care about each other but is also super funny, watch hospital playlist!! (season 2 is coming out early 2021 and im so pumped)

favorite fantasy

The Untamed (2019)

this one is a cdrama but i watched it in 2020, mostly because of how many people on the internet were adamant that the rest of us watch this and ngl they were v right. the untamed was very very good and im really glad i gave it a chance and watched it, its also my first cdrama ever. the chemistry between the male leads is honestly what makes this show and its worth the 50? i think? episodes. to be completely honest the fanfiction for the show are peak and if you do watch this, go straight to ao3 and you will not be disappointed.

dramas that saved 2020

The Uncanny Counter (2020) & Run On (2020)

these two dramas are among those that started airing at the end of the year and will go into the beginning of 2021 and absolutely saved the end of 2020 for me. while neither of these are finished, both have been excellent so far and worth starting. uncanny counter has the best use of the found family trope i have ever seen. i fucking love the four counters and their relationship with each other, how protective they are of one another. they all have amazing chemistry and the actors have amazing chemistry in the making films.

run on has one of the cutest couples that will definitely make my best chemistry list for next year. i didn’t put them on this list bc they actually haven’t gotten together yet but once they do, they’re gonna be freaking adorable, i can already tell. there’s no specific grand events propelling the plot forward, but just following the lives of these unique, interesting and relatable people who have casual yet entertaining conversations with each other. the show is super soft and the main couple are so straightforward and honest (plus theres mutual pining!!)

best dramas of the year

here are my best dramas (and one movie) watched this year, no further explanation given lolol. just watch them and enjoy because these are fucking excellent in the feels department. trust me 💞

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay (2020)

Flower of Evil (2020)

Itaewon Class (2020)

Hospital Playlist (2020)

One Spring Night (2019)

Midnight Runners (2017)

Hot Stove League (2019) 

I hope this gives you some fun stuff to watch!! or convince you to start that drama in your watchlists! 

#kdrama #kdrama 2020 #kdrama recs #kdrama recommendations #when the camellia blooms #sweet home #itaewon class #Its okay to not be okay #psycho but it's okay #flower of evil #into the ring #memorials #the ballot #record of youth #kairos #memorist #watcher #hospital playlist #the untamed #the uncanny counter #jtbc run on #run on #one spring night #midnight runners #hot stove league #best of 2020 #ocn watcher #cocogukkie recommends

[sokkabackbender2021]

An ATLA Rant: Imperialism & Nuance

Just to start off, this is coming from a girl who’s grandmother was Filipino. No, I have not personally experienced imperialism in my lifetime, but it is a subject that I think is very serious and important to me because of my heritage.

That said, I have absolutely zero idea how you could watch avatar: the part airbender and come out of it saying that it is pro imperialist. Absolutely zero.

I agree because this is a pan Asian inspired show that was written was created by two white men (with the help and advisement of several poc as well but that is a topic for another time), people, especially people of color, have every right to be critical of it. But this argument that the show is somehow pro imperialist just doesn’t make sense to me.

The fire nation is in the wrong. The show makes that VERY clear. Their actions towards other nations is called out by several characters (Zuko, Roku, etc). Their destruction of other cultures (southern water tribe, air nomads, attempted earth kingdom) are seen as diporable and downright inhuman. Not only that, but we see the devastation this cultural genocide brings upon main characters like Katara and especially Aang and how they must heal from it.

Moving on, the show absolutely was not teaching people to stand docile and peaceful against their oppressors. Katara and Aang literally destroy a whole fire nation factory!! When the fire nation was attacking the northern air temple, they were kicking their asses off the cliff!! They planned a whole invasion to attack the fire nation capital to end the war!! (Let’s not forget Katara incititing a riot against the fire nation in the imprisonment episode with the earth benders). I could on and on about all the times the gaang meets the fire nation with violence and encourages others to fight back against them, but that would be going wayyy too in depth.

I think where people get far too simplistic here is that they think that atla is telling people to not use violence against their oppressors because the show is critical of people like Jet and Hama. First of all, the characters are given a lot of nuance in the show. Both are introduced with tragic backstories of the horrors that the fire nation inflicted upon them (I still get chills with the scene when Hama explains her story).

Despite this, both characters have every chance to use their abilities to fight back against the fire nation in a way that helps. You know, like fighting against the army and not innocent people who have no idea that the fire nation is actually in the wrong. The narrative is not that violence is bad! Peace is the only way! I think it’s that you can’t let your veagance lead you away from fighting the right people. That’s the issue: neither Jet and Hama were fighting the right people.

And we first see both characters fighting soldiers in their first scenes. Hama in the flashback when she’s defending her home (and rightfully uses violence to do so) and Jet when he helps the gaang take down some fire nation soldiers in the forest. This is just violence directed at the right people. But instead, both attempt to murder and in Hama’s case, torture people who take no part in the atrocities the fire nation has committed. Are they ignorant? Well of course they are because as we very obviously see, they’ve been fed propaganda their entire life while also living under an authoritarian regime, something that’ll give you no will to think other than the things that are spoon fed to you.

So let me ask you this, was it right for Jet to try and murder an entire village of innocent people, literal children included? Was it right for Hama to imprison and torture lord knows how many innocent citizens just because they belong to an nation that they have no actual knowledge of its evil? I’m hoping your answer is no, and the show would also say no as well.

When both Katara and Aaag choose not to kill, the narrative is not saying that they shouldn’t kill these men. The narrative allows both characters to make their own choice in what ways they wish to do, and it has nothing to do with what is actually right or wrong, because ultimately it is up to what each character wishes to do. Katara sees Yon Ra as the pathetic old man that he is, so she sees no purpose or healing for herself in taking his life. This is a personal choice made for herself, and that is all that matters.

The same goes for Aang. This poor boy is desperate to uphold the beliefs of his people, so he finds another way. A way that still upholds his beliefs while still ending the tyranny of Firelord Ozai. It is ridiculous to say that this is a passive take to imperialism, because yes he doesn’t literally murder someone but he still takes the dude out. And honestly, Ozai’s fate is worse then death (especially considering who Ozai is). Once again, the narrative is not saying be passive to your oppressors and don’t use violence. Its saying that because Aang is living in a world where his beliefs have been forcefully removed and disrespected, he has every right to continue to defend them in the ways he sees fit.

While some may see the narrative as more sympathetic to Iroh and Zuko, I think it’s just because they ARE some of the main characters of the show, as compared to those like Jet and Hama. We see much more of their story just as we see much more of the gaang’s story. Not only that, but their narrative purpose is far different from these two other characters. Iroh and Zuko are meant to show that despite them being from the fire nation, they are not inherently evil people. Jet and Hama are meant to show that even while they are against the antagonistic force of the show, they still can commit evil. Not only are Iroh and Zuko’s actions never justified, but they both must go on a journey to unlearn the hateful propaganda instilled into them, and remedy their ignorance. The narrative never says that neither Jet and Hama cannot also redeem themselves, but Hama feels no remorse for her actions, and Jet does attempt to redeem himself, but ultimately falls back into old habits (I believe he could’ve redeemed himself, but I’ll agree the writers were a bit sloppy in his end, like I’m not sure why they had to kill him other than to make him a tragic character but whatever).

To finally wrap up this essay, ATLA is not a black and white show. The show is not pro imperialist for condemning the violent actions of two characters who happen to be victims of imperialism. The show is not pro imperialist for allowing two children to decide for themselves whether or not they want to end the lives of someone. The show is not pro imperialist for not making the antagonist of the show a one note and one dimensional bad guy.

I’ll end this with the speech that Zuko makes to Ozai when he prepares to leave on Day of Black Sun:

No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla essay #zuko #katara #aang #iroh #jet #Hama #anti imperialism #I promise you if the show leaned towards supporting imperialism I would not love it as I do #the southern raiders #sozins comet #day of black sun

[pointlesslypoetic]

I was tagged by @deheerkonijn and, much like my main greased up hobo Aragorn, I answered The Call. To Deheer, thank you for being one my strongest sources inspiration, both on purpose and inadvertently. You are an amazing artist and writer and a Very Cool Friend.

The largely unanticipated 2021 Year End Fic Review

How many stories did you complete?

Stories? 0

Self contained one shots that I’m counting bc they’re technically their own stories? 13 and a half.

I’m like Professor Calamity from Jimmy Neutron when it comes to fics, and I’m vowing to end that when it comes to the fic I’m currently working on. Although, in all honesty, I do intend to go back and continue both Landslide and Forged in Fame. Just waiting for the brain cells to rub together.

What is your total word count for the year?

211,600. Which is, uh, absolutely unfathomable and I’m honestly kind of in shock?? Not bad for a chronically distracted, fic hiatusing Bitch amirightladies?

What fandoms did I write in this year?

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Ducktales 2017, and Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit. To say I have eclectic taste would be fair. If only I had managed to throw Star Trek TOS on there. Would have really rounded out my personality profile I think.

Did you write more, less, or roughly about what you expected?

MORE. WAY WAY MORE. My god more, by about 100k words. I’m still reeling. Jeez. I love writing, I consider myself an author on somedays, a freelance bullshitter on most; but I’ve wanted to BE an author since I was, oh, five? So this is really a confidence boost. Feels good, feels organic.

What’s your own favorite story of the year?

Of my own making, either my ongoing SPOP fic (https://archiveofourown.org/works/34172422/chapters/85027798) or Save the Last Dance for Me (chapter five of Landslide). All of my fics have been absurdly fun to write, as I am a woefully self indulgent person. The Dionysus of AO3, really. But those two are very, very dear to my heart.

Most under appreciated story of the year?

NONE! All of my fics have been well received, kudo’d and commented on and bookmarked. Landslide and Forged in Fame have received more attention than WYAIAA, but I’m writing for a more niche audience and primarily myself with that fic so I don’t think one can really compare the feedback. It’s like comparing the views of an NFL game to the latest episode of GBBO; they have their audiences, and are beloved for different reasons. I’m eternally, immensely grateful for every kind word anyone has ever left on any of my fics, I really do read each and every one. It’s not the quantity that matters, but the quality.

Biggest fanfic-related disappointment of 2021?

That I am biologically incapable of juggling more than one interest/fandom at a time. To my duck audience, I am so sorry lmfao. You haven’t been abandoned I swear.

Biggest fanfic-related surprise of 2021?

That Landslide was such a well received hit! I literally never saw myself writing Ducktales fanfic, but after the finale of the show left me gently disappointed and very confused, I really felt the need to get it all out and work through my feelings the best way I knew how. And so I just started smashing away at the keys, and the first chap was born. And then, I woke up the next day, and there was ART. And so then I wrote more, and then there was more art, and on and on until uhhh 11k views later that artist and I are really good irl friends! And along the way, I had fallen back in love with writing after almost a year of struggling with it. So, Landslide is love letter to a wonderful cartoon, one of two that got me through the Cobra Panasonic, and love letter to myself. So, yes, complete shock that it found such a wide audience, but I’m so grateful it did.

Something you’re looking forward to working on in 2022?

My own personal work! I’d like to actually churn a manuscript out this year, or, at the very least, a first draft. And so much more fanfic! I’ve got so many ideas, and I’m sure this year will bring new interests and new friends!

I’m tagging @lettheladylead and @alysurr to drop their Year End Fic Review!!

#fanfic #fanfiction #2021 year end fic review #spop #ducktales 2017 #lord of the rings #lotr #gigolas #scroldie #seamista #she ra and the princesses of power

[noelleification]

I wrote an essay about she-ra supremacy and i want to share it with you

For context, my English teacher and I have been in an elaborate pissing contest for the past year. He said fan fiction was bad, so I wrote a sonnet about Banana Fish. He said you couldn't write about death using bright language and colorful metaphors, so I wrote a flash fiction piece about it.

One thing that he's done this year that we disagreed on was making us read The Plague by Albert Camus during a global pandemic. So, my most recent attempt at fucking with my teacher was writing an essay about why She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) is better than The Plague.

So, here is my essay. :)

"Recently I was asked, “What is the job of a novelist, and did Albert Camus accomplish this when he wrote The Plague?” While most of my classmates answered yes, I was less taken with the novel than they seemed to be.

The question “What is the job of a novelist?” is difficult to answer. Quite simply, art means different things to different people, and giving a yes or no answer to such a complex question seems impossible. Still, while The Plague definitely has something interesting to say, its message isn’t profound when compared to other, “lower” forms of art. It’s easy to assume value in The Plague because of it’s status, but after reading the novel, I was somewhat unimpressed with the one-note characterizations that served to deliver an ultimately average message.

In contrast, I have repeatedly been overwhelmingly impressed with She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a 2018 remake of a He-Man spinoff cartoon from the 80s. The new She-Ra broke boundaries in terms of representation, and the show’s resolution was made meaningful by the well-developed characters and important themes. Due to its complex characters, important messages, and groundbreaking representation, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) is a more important and influential piece of art than The Plague by Albert Camus.

The complex characters in She-Ra are much more rich and well-developed,than those in The Plague. Characters in The Plague are flat and one-dimensional—instead of real, relatable human beings, these characters come across as ideas. They represent something, but they’re not flawed, multi-faceted characters in their own right. On the other hand, She-Ra’s characters—from its heroes to its villains to its side characters—are infinitely complex and well-developed.

The most prominent example of this is Catra. Catra, the deuteragonist of the series, is the childhood best friend of the protagonist, Adora. In order to understand the complex role that Catra fulfills in She-Ra, it is important to understand the background of the show.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power takes place in the fantasy world of Etheria, in which women with magical powers, called ‘princesses’, rule and protect the land. The central conflict takes place between the Rebellion and the Evil Horde. The Horde, ruled by Hordak, is an army dedicated to wiping out the princesses and taking control of Etheria.

Catra and Adora are two child soldiers raised by the Horde. They grew up together and are best friends. However, when Adora finds a magical sword inside the forest and discovers that she is the legendary warrior She-Ra, she defects from the Horde and joins the Rebellion. Alongside two new friends, Bow and Princess Glimmer, Adora fights to defend Etheria from the Horde.

Catra, however, feels betrayed when Adora joins the Rebellion. While Adora’s arc is quickly established as a redemption arc, Catra spirals into a corruption arc for many seasons. Because of her pain and betrayal, she becomes the right-hand woman of Hordak. She lashes out at those closest to her, makes it her life’s mission to stop Adora, and hurts dozens of people on her way to the top.

Still, Catra is not a one-note villain. Her pain and betrayal is explored deeply throughout the series. Even at her worst moments, Catra is sympathetic. Flashbacks of her childhood show her deep emotional bond with Adora and the physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of the Horde. She is shown breaking down multiple times throughout the series, and her relationships with characters like Scorpia show her humanity, even when she is hell-bent on destroying the Rebellion. Despite Catra’s actions, she is a deeply sympathetic character.

Catra is a complex villain, but she is an even more complex protagonist. In season five of the series, after a series of events lead her to reflect on her actions, Catra betrays the Horde to save Adora. This is not an easy decision for her to make. Catra is emotionally tormented—betrayed by those closest to her and held captive by the same force she once swore to serve, Catra saves Glimmer’s life in a last-ditch attempt to do “one good thing” in her life. Catra believes she will be killed for her actions, and in what she thinks are her last moments, she cries, “Adora, I’m sorry. For everything.”

Of course, Adora is not content to let Catra die. She saves her childhood friend, but when Catra is rescued by the Rebellion, she does not immediately change sides. Catra is shown to be bitter and cruel to Adora, Bow, and Glimmer as she struggles with her own internal conflict. Catra continues to lash out at those who are trying to help her, and it is only when Catra begins to face the consequences of her actions by apologizing to a friend she betrayed that she is able to start on the road to redemption. Her redemption is complex, and it is an arc that continues for most of season five. Catra does not flip a switch that takes her from “evil” to “good”—it is a grueling process that is only made possible by the forgiveness of those around her.

Catra is not the only character with a complex arc. Despite being the protagonist, Adora is a deeply flawed character who has to learn and grow over the course of the series. Season four sees Glimmer betraying her friends and falling deeper into a spiral of fear and hatred after the death of her mother. Even Shadow Weaver, Catra and Adora’s abusive parent figure, is not easily classified as “good” or “evil.” Shadow Weaver is a morally grey enigma who serves whatever side she believes will win and, in the end, makes the ultimate sacrifice by dying to save Catra.

It is worth noting that this is not a full redemption of Shadow Weaver’s character. Unlike Catra, Shadow Weaver has a ‘death redemption’—instead of truly facing the consequences of her actions, she sacrifices her life, which almost seems like taking the easy way out. This form of redemption arc is less satisfying to viewers, especially because many believe Shadow Weaver died for Adora’s sake, not Catra’s. Noelle Stevenson, the show’s creator, has confirmed that Shadow Weaver is not meant to be a fully redeemed character. However, this incomplete redemption once again displays the complexity of She-Ra’s characters. They are not good or evil—instead, they are every shade in between. Contrast this with the static, one-dimensional characters of The Plague, and it is clear that She-Ra’s characters are far more well-developed.

In evaluating the value in a piece of art, it is important to look at the message and theme. The Plague does, in fact, have multiple important themes that it discusses. It centers around love, mortality, religion, humanity, and ethics, all of which are important philosophical topics that force the reader to think. I will not make the claim that these issues are not important, because they absolutely are.

However, it would be irresponsible to dismiss the important messages that She-Ra contains just because it is a show made for children. She-Ra explores a number of complex and thought-provoking themes, such as love, loyalty, justice, grief, forgiveness, and redemption. It does this through its rich characterizations and complex relationships. Despite She-Ra’s PG rating, it nevertheless discusses colonialism, unhealthy and abusive relationships, environmentalism, psychological trauma, and self-worth.

Once again, a fascinating example of these themes comes from Catra and Adora. Catra and Adora were emotionally and physically abused by their parent figure, Shadow Weaver, from a young age. Catra in particular was told she is worthless, and this goes on to drive every one of Catra’s actions for the first four seasons of the show. She-Ra does not shy away from the aftermath of Catra’s abuse. It shows in detail the resentment she holds for those around her, including Adora, for their perceived wrongdoings. Her breakdowns are vivid and heartbreaking.

Despite all of her trauma, Catra craves Shadow Weaver’s love deeply. Some of her most horrific actions in the show are driven by her feelings of heartbreak and betrayal inspired by Shadow Weaver.

However, the abuse that Adora suffers is just as insidious, if less obvious. Adora was raised to believe that she had to be perfect and that the well-being of those she cares about is solely on her shoulders. This message deeply affects Adora’s character throughout the series and plays into some of her most profound flaws. Adora is prone to wanting to face everything alone. She doesn’t want to burden her friends, so she hurts and burdens herself. She blames herself when her friends get hurt, and she ultimately ends up seeing her life as worthless. Adora’s struggles with her self-image are directly tied to the abuse she suffered at Shadow Weaver’s hands. In the final episodes of the show, Adora is willing to sacrifice herself for the good of others.

Shadow Weaver’s influence is to directly to blame. She is present as part of the Rebellion during the fifth and final season, and she is the character who plants the idea in Adora’s head of sacrificing herself for the world. Even when Catra stands up to her on Adora’s behalf, Adora is unable to see her own worth. This results in a number of heartbreaking scenes where Catra pleads with Adora to think about what she wants, not what is expected of her. In the penultimate episode, a character finally tells Adora that “[she] is worth more than what [she] can give other people. [She deserves] love, too.”

Dismissing the messages of She-Ra as being “lesser” or “childish” is, in many ways, a straight, white, male perspective. Privileged groups are able to easily grasp their own worth, as they are never taught that they are worthless. It might seem more valuable to talk about more philosophical concepts if messages like those in She-Ra are seen as a given. But for many, self-worth is not an expectation. LGBT people are considered lucky to be accepted by their families, and they still face homophobia or transphobia on an almost daily basis. Their identity is seen as something to be ashamed of. It takes years of un-learning these patterns that a cisgender, heterosexual individual might never have learned in the first place. The same goes for other marginalized groups as well—women are often seen as less intelligent, and this idea is enforced through constant dismissal and belittlement of their thoughts and ideas. Individuals of color face daily prejudice and have been excluded from these conversations for centuries. Therefore, it is equally important for art like She-Ra to reinforce these messages that marginalized communities might never have been taught.

The messages in She-Ra might not be as philosophical as those in The Plague, but they are doubtlessly more emotional. Driven by the lovable characters and relatable issues, She-Ra made audiences feel in ways that I doubt The Plague ever has.

While The Plague is important from an ethical and philosophical standpoint, She-Ra is important from a much more human one. LGBT people are much more likely to be abused, mentally ill, and impoverished. These are some of the same issues faced by the characters in She-Ra. Given that the audience of She-Ra is largely LGBT, seeing these messages reaffirmed on-screen is deeply moving. A high-brow message is important, but if one doesn’t have the basics of self-respect and self-love, these conversations cannot be had.

It is possible that some might dismiss She-Ra and it’s messages compared to The Plague because it is a modern-day animated show instead of a classic novel. Here, we get into another interesting conversation: high art vs low art.

High art is renowned. It is old and has stood the test of time. People see it as beautiful, historical, and fundamentally important, despite the fact that they don’t rock the boat. Van Gogh paintings and Roman statues are examples of high art: priceless pieces with recognized worth. The Plague is another example of high art.

Low art, on the other hand, is art ‘of the people.’ Anybody can make low art. Current music, literature, art, and television is seen as less worthy or important than older pieces with more widely recognized importance. Some “instant classics” can almost immediately be placed into the realm of high art, but for the most part, newer things are always seen as less important than older ones. Low art is comic books, Taylor Swift, graffiti, and yes, She-Ra. They might be just as artistic and valuable as older pieces of art, but they will not be valued the same.

Here’s the thing, though: high art almost always starts out as low art. Modern day romance novels are seen as trashy even though Jane Austen’s novels are renowned. The Beatles are now seen as one of the best bands of all time, but during their peak, they were dismissed due to their primarily female fan base. Most famous painters didn’t become popular until after their deaths, because before then, their pieces were “low art.” Dismissing She-Ra because it’s low art is biased and, ultimately, ignorant.

Moreover, low art is more likely to be queer, female, poor, and PoC. Anybody can make low art, but art by privileged creators is more likely to be seen as ‘valuable’ in the long run. While underprivileged creators can and have gained notoriety and acclaim for their art, there are more road blocks in their path that keep them from ever being on equal footing with other artists. Dismissing all low art as less valuable is dismissing the perspective of those from marginalized communities.

I will not make the claim that She-Ra is a better piece of art than The Plague. The Plague is a piece of literature that has withstood the test of time and remains relevant to this day. Given that She-Ra is still fairly recent, it’s impossible to tell what it’s legacy will be, and in the end, it is a cartoon aimed at a less mature audience. Even more than that, though, art is subjective. What speaks to one person might not connect with another, and calling one piece of art “better” than another is impossible.

However, I do believe that She-Ra is more important than The Plague. The distinction here is that She-Ra did something that has never been done before. The message of The Plague speaks deeply to people, but it is not breaking any glass ceilings.

She-Ra, on the other hand, is revolutionary. The representation is She-Ra is truly remarkable. Not only is the cast mostly comprised of female characters—which, in a world of male-dominated entertainment, is a rarity—She-Ra also embraces diversity of all types. The majority of the main cast with the exception of Adora is nonwhite, and characters of all different body types are featured. While women are typically forced into a cookie-cutter mold of beauty, She-Ra characters are treated as beautiful no matter what their size or ethnicity. This is a message that young people, especially young girls, need to see.

She-Ra also pushes back against toxic masculinity. Many of the main male characters in the show reject gender roles—for example, Bow is almost always seen wearing a crop top with a heart on it, and Sea Hawk has an undeniably flamboyant presentation. King Micah cross-dresses in the final season. Despite this, the male characters are never made fun of for their feminine traits, and instead, their presentation is embraced. They are also not stereotyped as gay for refusing to fit into traditionally masculine roles. All three characters listed above have female love interests.

The most groundbreaking part of She-Ra, however, is the LGBT representation. She-Ra features multiple loving LGBT characters and couples, and the main characters of the series were confirmed to be in a loving sapphic relationship. They said “I love you” and shared an on-screen kiss. She-Ra even features an important non-binary character who uses they/them pronouns, and their identity is always treated with respect.

Furthermore, the entire story centers around the relationship between Catra and Adora. Their romance is not a throwaway side story; instead, their love is the driving force of the entire narrative. Finding LGBT representation is hard, and finding sapphic representation is harder—but what truly sets She-Ra apart is that this was in a children’s TV show. In a world where many believe that LGBT relationships are not “appropriate” for children, She-Ra made history by teaching kids that it’s okay to love who you love and be who you are. She-Ra made people feel something. Audiences were crying during the series finale, and the show has amassed a cult following of LGBT viewers well into adulthood who have never seen their identity represented in such a meaningful way before.

The Plague is undoubtedly a valued piece of high art, but its messages nevertheless do little to progress society. For this reason, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a more important and influential piece of art than the Plague."

#she ra #catradora #spop #she ra and the princesses of power

[joneswuzhere]

hello join me in thinking about some books and authors that are, or might be, part of s5′s intertextuality

5.10 in particular offered specific shout outs, and also u know i’m always wondering what might be ahead so i have some ideas on that:

- first, as mentioned in a previous ask post, i know i wasn’t alone in keeping an eye out for 5.10 parallels to the lost weekend (1945) the film that gave episode 1.10 its name and several themes - or to the 1944 book by charles r jackson which the film is based on

- s5 has not been shy about revisiting earlier seasons, especially s1. altho i feel that 1.10′s parallels to the lost weekend centered characters other than jughead (mostly betty), a 1.10-5.10 connection involving jughead and themes from jackson’s story (addiction, writers block, self reflection) seemed v possible if not inevitable

- but like,, , for a hot minute after the ep, i was really stumped on understanding how anything from the book or film could apply, even tho the pieces were almost all there

- jackson’s protagonist don birnam goes thru and comes out the other side of a harrowing days-long drinking binge that could be compared to jughead’s one-night hallucinogenic writing retreat

- but jughead is struggling primarily with traumatic memories, not addiction and self control like birnam. and tho drinking activates birnam’s creativity, it paralyzes his writing as he gets lost in fantasies; he’s never published anything. jughead’s drug trip recreates circumstances that already helped him write one successful book. even the rat that startles him mid-high doesn’t line up with birnam’s withdrawal vision of a dying mouse, symbolic of his horror at his own self-destruction thru alcohol

- and maybe the most visible discordance: in the film there’s a romantic motif around a typewriter. first it’s an object of shame; birnam’s failure to write, tied up with his drinking, makes him flee his relationship. he tries to pawn the typewriter for booze money and finally a gun when shooting himself feels easier than getting sober. but with the help of relentless encouragement from girlfriend helen, he quits drinking, commits to her, and focuses on typing out the story he’s dreamt of writing. rd goes so far to avoid setting any comparable scenario that jughead has brought a wholeass printer into the bunker so there can still be a physical manuscript to cover in blood by the end, even without his own typewriter. the subtle detail of his laptop bg image is a little less noticeable than his avoidance of betty’s gift

- tabitha might be closer to a parallel than jughead is, but she’s still no helen. both refuse to take advantage of the inebriated men in their care, but birnam takes advantage of helen, financially and emotionally. jughead refused a loan from the tate family and now has resolved to deal with his shit before he considers a relationship with tabitha. instead of helen’s relentless and unwelcomed attempts to get birnam sober, tabitha reluctantly agrees to help jughead trip safely bondage escape notwithstanding. she even helps him get the drugs.

- whatever potentials exist for parallels to jackson’s story, they were not explored for this episode. ok so why tf am i even talking about this? what was there instead?

-  i have arrived at the point

- s5 has been revisiting s1, not directly but with a twist. and jughead’s agent samm pansky is back. u may recall, pansky is named for sam lansky

- jughead’s trip-thru-trauma is a story device tapped straight from lansky’s book ‘broken people’

- lansky is like if a millenial john rechy wrote extremely LA-flavored meta but just about himself no jk very like a modern successor to charles r jackson. both play with the boundary between memoir and fiction. lansky is gay; jackson wrote his lost weekend counterpart as closeted and remained closeted himself until only a few years before his death. both write with emotional clarity and self-scrutiny on the experiences of addiction, sobriety, and the surrounding issues of shame and self worth

- i feel like a fool bc after this ep i had been thinking about de quincey and his early writings on addiction (c.1800s), but i failed to carry the thought in the other direction, to contemporary writers in the genre, to make this connection sooner

- lansky’s second book, broken people, follows narrator ‘sam’, mid-20s, super depressed, hastled by his agent to write a decent follow-up to his first book, but too busy struggling with his self-worth and baggage from several past relationships. desperate, he takes up an offer to visit a new age shaman who promises to fix everything wrong with him in a matter of days. not to over simplify it but he literally spends a weekend doing psychedelics and hallucinating about his exes. jughead took note

- unless u want me to hurl myself into yet another dissertation about queer jughead, i think his parallel to sam - who, unlike jughead, has considerable financial privilege and whose anxieties center on body dysmorphia, hiv scares, and his own self-centeredness - pretty much ends there

- But,, the gist of the book could not be more harmonius with a major theme shared by the 2 films that inform the actual hallucination part of jughead’s bunker scene: mentally reframing past relationships to get closure + confronting trauma head-on in order to move forward

- so that’s neat. what other book and author stuff was in 5.10?

- stephen king and raymond carver get name dropped. i’m passingly familiar with them both but u bet i just skimmed their wiki bios in case anything relevant jumped out

- like jughead, carver was a student (later a lecturer) at the iowa writers workshop. also the son of an alcoholic and one himself

- i recall carver’s ‘what we talk about when we talk about love’ is what jughead was reading in 2.14 ‘the hills have eyes’ after he finds out about the first time betty kissed archie (at that time he does not respond as would any of carver’s characters)

- this collection of carver stories deals especially with infidelity, failings of communication, and the complexities and destructiveness of love. to unashamedly quote the resource that is course hero, ‘carver renders love as an experience that is inherently violent bc it produces psychic and emotional wounds.’ very fun to wonder about the significance of this collection within the s2 episode and in jughead’s thoughts. and maybe now in the context of the s5 state of relationships. or, at least, the state of jughead’s writing as seen by his agent

- anyway pansky doesn’t want carver, he wants stephen king

- i have too much to say about gerald’s game in 5.10, that’s getting its own post someday soon

- lol wait king’s wife is named tabitha uhhh king’s wiki reminded me of his childhood experience that possibly inspired his short story ‘the body’ (+1986 movie ‘stand by me’) when he ‘apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train tho he has no memory of the event’

- no mention of that in this rd episode but memories of a train could be interesting to consider with the imagery that intrudes on jughead’s hallucination. i still feel like it was a truck but the lights and sounds he experiences may be a train

- ok now we’re in the speculation part of today’s segment

- if jughead’s traumatic memory involves trains, then it’s possible this plot will take influence from la bête humaine <- this 1938 movie is based on the 1890 novel by french writer émile zola. this story deals with alcoholism and possessive jealousy in relationships, sometimes leading to murder. huh, kind of like carver. zola def comes down on the nature side of the nature-vs-nuture bad seed question (tho i should say he approaches this with great or maybe just v french compassion). also i can’t tell if this is me reaching but, something about la bête humaine reminds me of king’s ‘secret window’ which we’ve observed to be at least a style influence on jughead post time jump

- but wow a late-19th century french writer would be a random thing to drop into this season, right? then again zola also wrote about miners, which we’ve learned are an important part of this town’s history + whatever hiram is up to this time.  and most notably, zola wrote ‘j’accuse...!’ an open letter in defense of a soldier falsely accused and unlawfully jailed for treason: alfred dreyfus. archie’s recent army trouble comes to mind.

- since the introduction of old man dreyfuss (plausibly Just a nod to close encounters actor richard dreyfuss, but also when is anything in this show Just one thing) i’ve been wondering if these little things could add up to a season-long reference to zola’s writings. but i had doubts and didn’t want to speak on it too soon bc, u know, it’s weird but is it weird enough for riverdale??

- however,,,

- (come on, u knew where i was going with this)

- a24′s film zola just came out. absolutely no relation to the french writer, it’s not based on a book but an insane and explicit twitter thread by aziah ‘zola’ wells about stripping and? human trafficking?? this feels ripe for rd even outside the potentials here for the lonely highway/missing girls plot.

- that would add up to a combination of homage that feels natural to this show

- anyway pls understand i’m just having fun speculating, most of this is based on nothing more concrete than the torturous mental tendril ras has hooked into my skull pls let go ras pls let go

#accompanying image has no meaningful organization it's just there to make me look insane. enjoy #riverdale speculation #filmref #but books #adhd has me like. this is Not the post i've been trying to write for weeks but my brain gave me no choice

[haunted-medievalist]

tag game time!

i was tagged by the lovely @contre-qui, with the aim of tagging nine people to learn about their interests - i'm unlikely to find that many people myself but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it! going under the cut because this is a pretty long(ish) one.

music!

fave genre a little bit of everything but right now especially medieval folk & pop rock

fave artist a strange mixture of måneskin, kraftklub, siames, cavetown, and rainbow kitten surprise

fave song hard choice, but probably 'brothers' by siames & eddy capparelli

most listened to song recently either 'coraline' by måneskin or 'king orfeo' from the child ballads

song currently stuck in your head 'happy pills' by weathers

five fave lyrics oh boy, this is gonna take some thought.

"called to the devil and the devil said / hey! why you been calling this late? / it's like 2a.m. and the bars all close at ten in hell, that's a rule i made / anyway, you say you're too busy saving everybody else to save yourself / and you don't want no help, oh well / that's the story to tell" ('it's called: freefall' by rainbow kitten surprise)

"today i coo, today i caw / i have a pistol party and i kill 'em all / i think i might be scared / of the man and the men with their hands inside / and the women, oh, the women all they do is cry / and i, well i lose my mind" ('little pistol' by mother mother)

"so did you pack your bag, or did somebody pack it for you? / take me to the sad, sad party that you're bound to / whether you're a 'have-not' or a 'have', i got a question / are you living dead, or is this some kind of possession?' ('blast doors' by everything everything)

"but what if i run out of fertiliser? / what if the clouds run out of rain? what if lemon boy won't grow no longer? what if beaches dry of sugar cane?" ('lemon boy' by cavetown)

"now they tell you that you're their muse / yeah, they're so inspired / but where were they when they called your name / and they lit the fire? / when the voices came, you cut your hair / but you're stilled confused" ('joan of arc' by arcade fire)

books!

fave book genre fantasy all the way

fave writer bernardine evaristo, leigh bardugo, madeline miller

fave book oh dear, here we go. 'circe' by madeline miller, 'six of crows' and 'crooked kingdom' by leigh bardugo, 'girl, woman, other' by bernardine evaristo, 'good omens' by neil gaiman & terry pratchett, 'the raven cycle' series by maggie stiefvater, 'oranges are not the only fruit' by jeanette winterson, and a whole lot of old norse literature of dubious authorship (but especially 'gisla saga' and 'hrafnkels saga freysgoða', and pretty much all of the eddic poems in the volsung cycle)

fave book series it's a tie between leigh bardugo's grishaverse novels and maggie stiefvater's 'the raven cycle'

comfort book 'the secret kingdom' by jenny nimmo

rainy day book any of my norse books, sagas or poetry

fave characters nina zenik in the grishaverse, ronan lynch in 'the raven cycle', gisli in 'gisla saga' (not sure if that counts as a character or historical figure, dependent on perspective...?), and circe in, y'know, 'circe'

five quotes from your fave books?

"i thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but i see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands" ('circe' by madeline miller)

"'spreader of swords, it is your own sons' / corpse-bloody hearts you've chewed up with honey, / proud man, you've consumed dead men's meat, / eating it as ale-dainties, sending it to the high seat' [...] with the point of a blade she gave the bed a bloody drink, / with a hel-keen hand, and set the dogs free; / she woke the servants, and in front of the hall-door / she flung a burning brand: she paid them back for her brothers. / to the fire she gave everyone who was inside, / who'd come from myrkheim after murdering gunnar and his men; / the ancient timbers fell, the temples smoked, / the buildings burned of budli's kin, and the shield-maids inside; / their lives stemmed, sinking into hot flames." (gudrun avenges her brother in 'atlakviða', a poem in the old norse poetic and elder eddas)

"you aren't a flower, you're every blossom in the wood blooming at once. you are a tidal wave. you're a stampede. you are overwhelming." ('crooked kingdom' by leigh bardugo)

"from the passenger seat, ronan began to swear at adam. it was a long, involved swear, using every forbidden word possible, often in compound-word form. as adam stared at his lap, penitent, he mused that there was something musical about the ronan when he swore, a careful and loving precision to the way he fit the words together, a black-painted poetry. it was far less hateful sounding than when he didn't swear." ('the raven cycle' by maggie stiefvater)

"but where was god now, with heaven full of astronauts, and the lord overthrown? i miss god. i miss the company of someone utterly loyal. i still don't think of god as my betrayer. the servants of god, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. i miss god who was my friend. i don't even know if god exists, but i do know that if god is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it. i have an idea that one day it might be possible, i thought once it had become possible, and that glimpse has set me wandering, trying to find the balance between earth and sky. if the servants hadn't rushed in and parted us, i might have been disappointed, might have snatched off the white samite to find a bowl of soup." ('oranges are not the only fruit' by jeanette winterson)

hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending first | reliable or unreliable narrator | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or by the summary | rereading or reading just once

tv and movies!

fave tv/movie genre fantasy, travel/road trip & comedy

fave movie the secret life of walter mitty, supernova, any and all ghibli films, scott pilgrim vs. the world, lord of the rings, the how to train your dragon trilogy

comfort movie the lion king (original), how to train your dragon, from up on poppy hill, kiki's delivery service

movie you watch every year elf, howl's moving castle, love simon

fave tv show she-ra and the princesses of power, skam, bee and puppycat (i guess more of a web series than a tv show?), adventure time, the it crowd

comfort tv show adventure time

most rewatched tv show skam, every october without fail

five favourite characters catra (she-ra and the princesses of power), sana (skam original), marceline (adventure time), moss (the it crowd), inej (shadow and bone netflix adaptation)

tv shows or movie | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or bingeing | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watches online

tagging (absolutely no pressure, this is a pretty long one!): @crowcaves, @the-obsidian-soul, @natscbi, @somehowmags, @gabrilearnelle, @clockwords, @starsspace... and that's it, that's as close to nine as i'm getting, but if anyone else just feels like doing it then feel free to consider yourself tagged!

#tag game #long post #tysm for the tag!!!!

[meg-noel-art]

Favorite Glimmadora Moments

Season 4:

1.) “Like a queen”-- Adora may not really know how best to comfort Glimmer through her grief, but she sure is gonna call her beautiful a whole lot. ;-;

2.) This look is very soft... No further questions, your honor.

3.) I cannot overstate how much I love this scene. Adora confessing that she wants and needs to take care of Glimmer. Empathizing with her pain, but acknowledging she doesn’t know how best to help. Assuring Glimmer that, no matter what, they will be there beside her to help and support and comfort her. To everyone who says Adora hasn’t advanced beyond “punching her feelings out” or whatever at this point in the series---I gesture in a very meme-like fashion to this scene--and this entire season.

4.) I will die on the hill that this three second frame is infinite in how it speaks for itself. Faced with the last image she’ll ever see of her mother speaking to her, Glimmer is crying and grieving and Adora reaches out to offer physical support. A silent reassurance. Maybe their relationship really is too subtle in the grand scheme of the show, but I think if you watch without blinders, these little moments between them speak such volumes about how they care for each other. Anyway their love language is physical touch. No further qu--

5.) Another important, literally 2 second moment--Adora watches Glimmer assume her role as Queen and make an inspiring speech with this look of melancholic pride. Tears in her eyes. A small smile on her face. And for those of you who are like, so?--Well, in terms of visual storytelling, we are informed that this is not just a reaction, but a ‘moment’ because it’s ‘interrupted’ by Bow. Who literally crashes into frame and only then does Adora sort of come back to the moment, and join the others.

6.) This is enormous wife energy. Also :pleading_emoji:. Also, also, Adora just wants to hold hands.

7.) This little moment is sad--but Adora sure do wanna be snuggling this episode.

8.) “Everything I’m doing is to protect people...Is to protect you.” I actually really love the arguments Glimmer and Adora have in season 4 because it sets up a deeper complexity to their relationship. They aren’t always sunshine and fluff and support. They are actually very similar people. And when it comes to Glimmer’s new responsibilities--she exhibits very Adora-like behavior. Wanting to prove herself, and protect the people she loves at the cost of their agency, and be trusted to do so. Adora---who thinks the same way---can’t handle that coming from a person who she considers she must do the same for. It’s actually.. such a fascinating concept to me. Because while they start to hurt each other and say more and more upsetting things--the underlying issue is the concern and fear they have of losing the other person. It’s a really realistic issue for a cartoon, I suppose. And it really deepened the strength of their love for me, as a ship, despite the angst.

9.) I could (and have) gush paragraphs about this scene. From lighting/to atmosphere/to musical queues/to dialogue. But I’ll just highlight the fact that the moment Adora makes the choice to be vulnerable and admit her need for Glimmer to be by her side (both physically and in a metaphorical sense) is a really powerful moment. And it’s the one that gets Glimmer to stop arguing in return and admit it right back. And if Frosta hadn’t interrupted, they would have kissed. Change my mind. Also they are absolute parallels here. Adora always runs off on her own--here she asks Glimmer to stay. Adora can’t sit still and wait for danger--so she asks Glimmer to be patient. Role reversal, we call this.

10.) Their love language is physical touch. In this scene Adora gives her key phrase “We have to be able to fix this” in regards to the destruction of Salineas. My favorite bit about this line is how obviously Adora is looking to Glimmer for reassurance. Not only does she physically hold onto her she turns her catch phrase into a plea “we have to be able to fix this...right?” I think this is not so subtly implying their relationship as well... Cuz you know...visual storytelling and all that. The eye contact and touch suggest it’s a personal question as well.

11.) This moment is really special because it comes right after Glimmer lashes out and blames Adora for Angella’s death. Beyond regretting it immediately, being unable to do more than offer Adora these guilted glances--Adora still takes her hand as they fight back to back. Like...romance lads, idk what else to tell you.

12.) “I wanna be the hero she deserves” ................................... this is very specific wording......... for.............like. Okay.gay.

13.) I could write an entire meta on this scene too. How Adora’s promise to take care of Glimmer up until this point--visual memories OF Glimmer--and then a gasp of Glimmer’s name--and she is able to return into She-Ra? I think me going into it more than that on this post would be redundant. :--)

Season 1//Season 2 + 3

#favorite glimmadora moments #glimmadora #glimmer #adora #spop #she ra and the princesses of power #i love s4 for a lot of reasons #but for these two especially #so sad to see it all dropped #bless!!