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sophies-junkyard · 8 months

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NOBODY ASKED but… Obviously Simon’s arc in adventure time solidified the series as one of greatest of all time (and I’m so hyped for this ice king sadness renaissance) but now I’m thinking of OTHER Adventure Time moments that rewired my brain as a kid. In no particular order:

1. “Once the strong guys got it how they liked it they said ‘this is fair now. This is the law.’ Once they were winning they changed the rules”. They really had the cartoon dog say that on tv in 2014.

2. “People get built different. We don’t have to understand it, we just gotta respect it”

3. The entirety of All The Little People. That shit was absolutely nuts for a kids show but also like…. I can’t articulate the lesson I just know there was one and it haunted me. The danger of the human ego. Hubris. Irreverence. Don’t play god bro.

4. Lady and Peebles. When PB ripped Ricardio’s leg off and bashed his skull in with it. And it was so hardcore they edited it out of the episode. Bro. I remember watching that after school one day and how my jaw just DROPPED at a PRINCESS being so brutal. They let her be so fucking angry and that was a game changer.

5. [Finn, about a horrific memory] “that one’s going in the vault. Aaaaaaaaaandd. It’s gone.” I quote that CONSTANTLY. It’s a great way to bring levity to a bad situation, but also forces me to go “hey wait a sec that’s not gonna work forever”. Things don’t stay in the vault.

6. Puhoy. He lived an entire life in that pillow world. He had kids. And then it’s just gone like a dream.

7. The deer. It was probably my first real introduction to horror. The hand wiggle. You all know exactly what I’m referencing. Were the candy people stuck in that well for 6 months???

8. What Was Missing!! Obviously now because it foreshadowed (and confirmed past) Bubbline, but back then just because it was so good??? IMO, this is the episode that defined WHO our main cast was, and how their relationships needed to grow for them to be content. It set up the next 6 years of the show! Plus it gave us 2 absolute BANGERS. Ugh i rewatched that recording so many times it wasn’t even funny.

9. Ghost Princess. Really just for the line where he sounds like he’s gonna shit his pants remembering his death and then in a clear narrator voice he’s like “I was a broken man.”

10. The pajama war episode. Now I’m doing this from memory so I could be wrong, but I think this really marks the start of Finn growing up. “I’ve really enjoyed just… hanging out with you.” The ability to start over with someone you’ve got complicated history with. The kindness. The growth from both of them!! It’s a direct parallel of episode 1 but their tones couldn’t be more different and I love it.

11. The slow and horrifying realization that The Mushroom War was nuclear Armageddon. Mushroom clouds. That went so far over my head as a kid even though they reference it constantly. It finally clicked during “I remember you”. Which I am NOT gonna go into because holy fuck that’s like 18 posts on its own.

12. Goliad! A child mirroring EVERYTHING they see, for better or worse. Seeing Jake in a bad moment screaming at the kids and goliad absorbing that behavior. Seeing she can use fear to control people. Also PB was Fucking Crazy! Her line “I’m not gonna live forever… I would if I could” is even more unhinged when we learn (like years later) that she’s already 900 years old. But she does physically age so I guess there’s that. The Suitor also falls into this category of episodes.

Ok getting into some of the more talked about moments

1. OK I LIED I have to talk about I remember you. I was 11 years old. I turned on the new adventure time episode like usual. 10 minutes later I was grappling with a grief I had never imagined before. Absolutely BAWLING not just for Simon and Marceline (the PLOT), but for what it showed me. The reality that every kid tries not to think about: your loved ones will leave you someday, even if they don’t want to. It’s an episode that becomes more powerful with every year I get older. To get a bit personal, dementia has completely taken my grandparents from me. I’ve seen sides of my grandfather that should never have existed, and I must constantly forgive him for what he does… now that he doesn’t remember me. And someday it’ll be my parents. That’s just the way of the world, ya know? Anyways, I remember my mom got home right as the credits were rolling and we had a long talk about keeping people alive with memory, mortality, and how the future was far away and we should decide on dinner lmao.

2. The Hall of Egress. I was almost 15. Life was changing. I was changing, and it was strange and frightening. That feeling where you know you’re losing your childhood but you just want to cling to it. Follow the same old familiar path, stick with what’s comfortable. But life doesn’t work that way. It took me years to really understand this episode and it’s symbolism. Honestly I still don’t think I could fully explain it. It’s like. How do I put this. I was so glad to be in the target age group in that moment. I was so glad that something I was growing up with was assuring me “you’re changing, but we’re changing too”. And isn’t that the theme of adventure time? Everything stays, but it still changes.

3. The absolute horror of Ferns existence. He’s Finn, but he’s wrong and warped. All those memories of the people he loves and they can’t stand to be in the same room as him.

4. Susan Strong. The introduction of a RUNNING PLOT. The show up to that point had really been so goofy and so monster of the week. I think the only really plot heavy episode before this one was It Came From the Nightosphere? And then suddenly they call into question the fact that Finn really is the ONLY HUMAN in all of OOO. And then… is he? It was SUCH a departure from the usual tone. Ending that episode with him reaching below her hat and gasping in shock, but never telling the audience what he found. And then she’s just gone. Which leads us to Islands!

5. Min and Marty. Second saddest episode in the entirety of adventure time, made worse because you know exactly how this family is gonna end up. There’s SO MUCH to dissect about Martins behavior in the series. A reformed con artist receives a traumatic brain injury while attempting to save his son. They’re both lost at sea, and he never looks for him. Was it the emotional trauma? Was it the physical damage? Meanwhile a mother loses her husband and her child in a single night and never EVER learns why. Nobody but Martin knows what happened that night. Also Finns fear of the ocean from season 1 is finally explained. 7 years of ignoring Finns origins and then they throw you THIS??? Watching it live was unreal.

Anyways I’m sure I’ll think of more. I might add on to this later for my own sake lmao, but I’d love to hear other peoples formative moments, quotes, episodes, etc. I really just needed to dump this information out of my brain so I can get on with my week.

#If you see this you’re obligated to comment an adventure time moment that lives rent free in your head #or don’t it’s your life babe #I have nobody in my life who has watched adventure time and therefore I must ramble here to myself #adventure time #princess bubblegum #marceline #ice king #finn the human #fern #Fionna and cake #this is my life #bubbline

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waitmyturtles · 6 months

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THE MORNING AFTER: ONLY FRIENDS, EPISODE 12 -- WHEN ONLY FRIENDS GOT 2GETHER-ED

TRIGGER WARNING: EVERYONE'S UP FOR CRITICISM HERE, JOJO AND TEAM, FORCEBOOK, FIRSTKHAO, ALL OF THEM. Read at your peril.

Well. Big deep breaths. I spent a lot of time on a show that had been marketed as not-a-BL, that ended as a BL. As a mom with not that much time to spend on watching and writing on dramas that were marketed incorrectly, I am feeling some kinda way (fucking pissed off).

So many people had amazing takes yesterday, on both sides of the aisle, regarding how the show ended (pro-ending here, anti-ending here, here, here, here, here, and here, and my dear friends @neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan did heavy lifting on reblogs yesterday, so stroll on over to their blogs for more).

I want to set up a constellation of points to touch upon before I get into the meat of this post.

1) I referred quite a bit to my review of Theory of Love throughout my watch of Only Friends. In that review, I meditate on how the majority of the general global public judges sex, and casual sex, and people who have sex and/or casual sex. Generally speaking -- even in countries that makes as progressive art on sex and sexuality as Thailand and the United States -- that's a rule of thumb that I can rely on. Sex is judged by the majority of the global public.

2) I hate to say it. I cannot believe this happened. But I was right about monogamy being an ultimate theme in Only Friends. Not just a theme, fam. A theme by which people judged others for having open, casual, and consensual sex. Queer sex. Queer sex that is so very often had outside of the constraints of a monogamous relationship.

There was a reason why that holiday party was populated by couples, except for Boston, and Boston had to grovel to them in apology for their friendship. In Only Friends: monogamy wins, and casual queer sex loses.

3) Unfortunately, in part though an analysis of Cheum inside of last week that I accidentally started (ha), I see that points 1 and 2 come together to have created a fabric and framework of judgement that Only Friends ended on.

The last paragraph in this excellent post by @benkaaoi notes that the assumption by a large portion of the OF fandom that the creative choices that were made to end this series were designed to save the sanctity -- economic and otherwise -- of the shipped pairs of ForceBook and FirstKhao. This rings true to me.

Most of the BL shows that I've watched this year are older shows, through my Old GMMTV Challenge, in which I've been studying the changes over time that GMMTV and other Thai networks, have made towards their editorial choices, attitudes, and risks in producing BLs. I included Only Friends on this syllabus to note the show's impact as a kind of zeitgeist measure of how much heat and literary controversy GMMTV could take in airing increasingly progressive queer media -- even though Only Friends wasn't originally intended to be a BL.

To the theory that Only Friends needed to save the ships... and to another theory that the ships needed to be saved in the most moralistically judgmental way that I could have ever imagined (I was actually blown away by how heavy-handed this messaging was) -- I look to the ending of 2gether.

The majority general reaction to the ending of 2gether from within the existing BL fandom in 2020, was one of guffawed incredulousness. BrightWin/SarawatTine did not kiss in the first season of 2gether. It took Aof Noppharnach to come in to make Still 2gether to indicate that these two young men may have been at least vaguely sexual with each other throughout the course of their fictional relationship.

Yet, 2gether was a massive success. Many theorize it was because 2gether was the first big BL to air during the start of the COVID pandemic, and new BL fans had time to be at home and watch shows. But I posit in my 2gether/Still 2gether review that 2gether was also successful PRECISELY BECAUSE IT LACKED SEX (and by sex here, I mean plain old kissin').

As I stated earlier: sex is judged by the majority of the global public. With BrightWin NOT kissing, new fans who may have been implicitly and/or explicitly turned off by physical depictions of queer love could glom comfortably onto 2gether, and watch a BL without the "threat" of physical depictions of two men expressing their love to each other.

Subsequently, BrightWin gained massive social media followings, 2gether made GMMTV buckets of money, and GMMTV went -- well, hot diggity.

Many of us had impressions of Only Friends as...something else than it ended up being. Early on, Jojo Tichakorn, for instance, cited an early non-GMMTV, non-BL show, Gay OK Bangkok, that he and Aof Noppharnach worked on in 2016 and 2017, as being referential to Only Friends. Gay OK Bangkok centered on a group of queer friends, mostly cisgender men with Jennie Panhan in the mix, as they lived their lives and dated away in Bangkok.

I'll tell ya, GOKB didn't end the way Only Friends did, and I'll get into that more in a bit. I believe @benkaaoi, @lurkingshan, and others are absolutely right that the ultimate moralization on casual sex that this show depicted -- and how Only Friends punished Boston for his casual sex -- was an economic decision designed to reflect on the sanctity of monogamy that shipped couples like ForceBook and FirstKhao can sell back to their fans, fans that may have actually flocked to GMMTV shows from 2gether, and that demand a fantasy of devoted monogamy from both fictional characters and professional actors who are actually only just doing fan service to earn their livings. GMMTV has known for a long time how to make money, and money the network doth has made from Only Friends, and from shipping their ships around the world to service the growing fandom.

Casual sex in fiction, casual sex that breaks up the ships.... fucks that economic shit all up.

GMMTV has taught us our lesson, a lesson that we had already learned from the no-kissing rule of 2gether. Loose lips shall not sink ships at this network. And I think we lost a chance for a big and progressively artistic zeitgeist that GMMTV could have taken risks on, if it had the courage to risk depicting something truly novel.

I want to note quickly another framework that I dug into while I was watching this show. I sent a flare to @lurkingshan before I started watching the episode that I was going to, in part, watch this last episode from my personal Asian lens. I wanted to ask myself, as I was watching this disaster -- is there anything happening here that strikes my heart with fear and doom as an Asian?

Indeed, yes. I didn't expect it, but there was a dialogue on individualism vs. collectivism.

Boston. My dear, sweet Boston. Boston, named after a city so very distant from Bangkok.

Boston was punished by his group of friends because he didn't adhere to the rules of the group. His individualistic actions and preferences -- his preferences to "roll alone," as Nick stated, would not work in the frameworks of either monogamy with Nick and/or the group dynamics of the hostel crew.

The link I linked above is an amazing answer to an inquiry I posed to dear @absolutebl last year about how Asian social collectivist paradigms are depicted in BLs. In that question-and-answer dialogue, I asked ABL Sensei about the motif of queer revelations in BLs, and how seemingly straight characters respond in kind to being approached with a proposition to a queer dalliance and/or relationship. Generally speaking, the Asian collectivist mindset is to at least attempt to respond in kind to those kinds of propositions, as one's behavioral habits are designed to be responsive to others instinctually, as opposed to only servicing oneself. To only service oneself is not only seen as selfish, but also as disturbing to the general flow of public existence among one's societies. To respond in kind means that you will not cause potentially disturbing angst to another individual or group. (Collectivism explains why Asian countries performed much better with mask mandates during the pandemic than we in the States did.)

So -- Boston filming Ray, Boston sleeping with Top, created waves in the friend group. He was so severely punished for it.

And the show iterates, and repeats, Nick's preference that Boston move forward alone in Boston's life, because of Boston's tendencies to make decisions that suit himself. As an Asian-American, I mutter to myself: god forbid.

Nick will not commit to Boston -- and yet, will also condemn Boston for making his own decisions outside of the specter of a monogamy that does not exist between Nick and Boston, and that Boston will still get judged for, as referenced in the Sand/Nick conversation depicted above.

In other words: if Boston makes a decision for himself? That's punishable. Because it might hurt someone else's feelings -- a someone else that actually hasn't committed to Boston, and/or allowed Boston to commit himself to.

This group caught Boston in a moralistic and collectivist catch-22, the likes of which I just would have never expected from Jojo and team, even if the creative team faced the economic pressures of the GMMTV bigwigs. I'm sorry to state that I am beyond disappointed in this condemnation of individualism, sending Boston alone, judged, and friendless, off to New York City to live in, what, the immoral boundaries of Chelsea? Homey, get a fucking SWEET-ASS PAD, and FUCK THESE LOSERS, leave 'em BEHIND in your cloud of airplane gas emissions. See you at the La Quinta rooftop bar on 32nd Street, friendo.

Only Friends could have ended so much better. And I understand that in the Only Friends novel, published AFTER the script was finished, that it did end somewhat better for Boston (cc @jinitak, reporting from Thailand, thank you for this heads-up about the novel!).

So. Any-fucking-way. Do y'all know how Gay OK Bangkok ended?

Of many lovely endings for the various GOKB characters, an older main character, Aof, was dating a much younger character, Big. (CC to @neuroticbookworm for our quick convo on this last night.)

Aof was sex-averse. Big wanted lots of sex. Big slept with a lot of people. He loved Aof. Aof couldn't handle Big having sex with other people, and they broke up. It was a lovingly handled break-up, written just gorgeously by Aof Noppharnach.

After their break-up, I thought Big would disappear from the show. Instead. Instead! Nong Big, the little brother to the core group of queer friends that centered GOKB, was welcomed back with open arms. Arm, Pom, Sathang (played by an effervescent Jennie Panhan), and others toasted to Big, telling him he would always be family, no matter if him and his ex, Aof, had broken up. In the queer circles of friends that I'm a part of, exes are not as commonly excommunicated as they are in straight circles.

Only Friends could have been this. Something, a little something, like this.

Instead, Only Friends punished a friend for acting outside of the rules of their group.

Boston was punished because.... because Only Friends had to end up being a BL. For the sake of the moolah, for the sake of collectivism, for the sake of the shippers who'll buy tickets around the world to see ForceBook and FirstKhao perform fan service on stage.

I just didn't think that the show would be so brutal, on so many levels, in the end, to people who want to have casual sex. I don't think any of us expected this. But, it's over, it's done, and the piece has been said -- GMMTV said, no casual sex today, and here's how we actually feel about it.

I'll see you over on Gagaoolala for Playboyy. Deuces, OF.

(It was an absolute pleasure writing meta with the Ephemerality Squad -- onto the next one! @lurkingshan @neuroticbookworm @ranchthoughts @twig-tea @slayerkitty @thatgirl4815 @distant-screaming @clara-maybe-ontheroad)

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lakanakana · 1 year

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tagged by @abadbadbrujah

Rules: List 8 shows for your followers to get to know you better

fuck it bitches we’re going thru these chronologically

1. Moomins

Every Finn’s token show on this list. I don’t know where we would be as a society without these hippos without anuses. Somewhere better I think.

2. The Busy World of Richard Scarry

When the Richard Scarry opening theme came on you KNOW my toddler ass leveled everything in their way to get in front of the TV in time. And for a good reason, this shit rocked.

3. Code Lyoko

^ These two were my bisexual awakening. Also if you can’t fit your entire season’s worth of script on the characters’ foreheads you have failed as a character designer.

4. Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin

A puppy wanting to avenge his father’s death gets buff and gathers an army of ninja dogs to kill a building sized manhunter bear (all this watched in an abysmal quality dub that has like 3-4 people voicing dozens of characters with lines that sometimes sounded like they were run thru google translate 15 times).

I think me watching this as a kid under 10 counts as my Joker origin story. And this one absolutely fuckin slays!!!!! I just started rewatching this the other day and hooolyyyy fuuuuckkk is it still good. This was also my first anime if moomins and pokemon don’t count! Things have gone only downhill from there.

5. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

No I think this is my real Joker origin story. And I’m proud of it. I started posting my art online due to mlp fan art being so common back in 2010!

6. Super Dimension Fortress Macross

An alien spaceship crashlands into Earth in 1999 with no survivors on the ship, jumpstarting a new space race for humanity, only for another alien fleet to come check on the ship a decade later and finding humanity going apeshit thinking they’re here to attack. After a series of misunderstandings and an entire human city being teleported to Pluto with the crashlanded ship, they begin a race back to Earth. Realizing that Earth tech is still way inferior to the spacefaring race, they figure out that the only way to win a war is via the love of culture.

For a long time I only watched movies and short stuff with 2-4 episodes max, but I think this series brought me back to longer series. I’ve always been fascinated by stories about a future that’s already come to pass. And I mean this one’s sequel predicted Hatsune Miku and Vtubers so that’s cool I guess?

7. Maniac (the netflix show from 2018)

Psychological drama about two people participating in a pharmaceutical trial for a drug treating mental health problems by altering the participants’ dreams.

The first time I watched and loved a live action show! I watched... uhhh... 2 other live action shows after this and didn’t even finish the other one but maybe someday :3 This one was visually stunning so I guess that’s why I managed to finish it?

8. Simoun

Nonbinary lesbians in clothing so skimpy they should have absolutely no business so high up in the atmosphere having religious and relationship problems trying to solve which one of them has to transition into men so they could be together even as adults because adult lesbians simply do not exist because this came out in 2006. Me and commas are not friends.

You know it’s a small fandom when I can look up the series in the gif search and several of them are my own gifs <3 And you’d be right because there are like 6 people and a napkin in this fandom.

This is my current fave series and it has taught me the humbleness you need in a tiny ass fandom. Fr you can still find my years old art in the most recent posts on tumblr, and I think I deserve to cry :)

But I mean having every single character being trans unless they die before they become adults doesn’t exactly scream marketability so it’s understandable.

tagging @thatlittledandere @crossedeyes @sammaltakki @parsakaalimato and @novafloofeatsbirds for this! Anyone else is also allowed to do this, remember to tag me so I can snoop around >u>

#kanailu

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dummerjan · 1 year

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Getting to Know Your BL Mutuals - Tag

rules: answer the questions and @ some people. include the tag ‘g2ky BL mutuals 2022’ on your post so we can find everyone’s answer.

tagged by @baby-droll thank you :) <3

(I am including everything I've watched in 2022, not just what was released this year.) What have been BLs that took you by surprise this year? Definitely KinnPorsche. I've never had so much fun watching something and I am so glad I got to experience it while it aired even if I only started watching after the 5th episode had aired. Since May my life has been entirely consumed by KinnPorsche and my life has been the better for it. Bad Buddy surprised me as well, it is so unlike other BL series I have seen and Ohm and Nanon are amazing actors. I watched it within the span of 24 hours and the last scene and line were so lighthearted and funny I didn't even feel sad. Never have I laughed so much even though something was over. The Eclipse took me by surprise with how openly political and critical of society it was. Last but not least I have to mention My Tooth Your Love, it might win an award for silliest title but the story itself is anything but silly. Both of the protagonists read as autistic to me - my favourite kind of character: unintentionally autistic. I couldn't adore them more. It is a true comfort watch and I continue to be surprised by the healthy communication and boundary setting displayed. More people should give it a try despite the silly title and odd premise. It is so much more and not at all a typical BL, though still typically Taiwanese. What have been BLs that you felt a bit disappointed with this year? The Eclipse to an extent. It kept getting better with every new episode until the last, I think, three episodes. How the curse related plot got wrapped up was very unsatisfying and clumsy, though they still did great with the relationship aspect. Similar goes for Minato Shouji Coin Laundry, it just was too long and I didn't care about any of the side couples and it got repetitive. I was also disappointed and wholly underwhelmed by the Korean BL series I've watched (Blueming, To My Star, Wish You). I've seen so much praise for the first two but they just weren't for me and I had a hard time caring for any of the characters. The acting felt very stiff and I found it difficult to make sense of the emotions they were supposed to feel when judging by their faces they seemed dead inside to me. What has been your favorite BL this year? KinnPorsche, no surprise there. Favorite BL couples (not just of 2022) This is hard and why they are my favourite is due to very different reasons. A lot of the time I care less about couples themselves and more about the story they help to tell. But some are also proper OTPs of mine for which the relationship is the main draw. - Pat/Pran - Akk/Ayan - Kinn/Porsche - Vegas/Pete - Kim/Chay - Teh/Oh-aew - Tutor/Fighter - Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian If you had to suggest a BL for someone what would it be? Regardless if someone is familiar with BL or not, my top pick would be I Told Sunset About You. Though I think it is barely BL compared to other series. Same goes for Gaya Sa Pelikula. What's your non-BL favorite this year? I have watched mainly BL and everything before KinnPorsche is hazy. I am having a hard time remembering other shows or movies I've seen this year and nothing I would call a favourite of mine, I think. Derry Girls S3 was disappointing, Skam Italia S5 was such a treat and I really liked it but it hasn't stayed with me that long after watching it.

@blventingspace @thiansong @supernovasimplicity @fanfictionroxs @mvickym @varis-world (But there are also several others where I am not sure how much BL they watch aside from KinnPorsche - tagging always makes me anxious.)

#g2ky BL mutuals 2022 #meins #i love tag games and it's a great excuse to just ramble which i am excellent at #this didn't even get *as long* as I had feared #the recommendation question wasn't in the post i was tagged in but i saw it in others so i felt free to include it #any chance to mention gaya sa pelikula and itsay #playing tag

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juniperhillpatient · 1 year

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The Avatar State Re-Watch

Watching this episode is really stressful because I have to pretend I care about what's happening in the plot & with all the characters as if it's not the episode when my personal Blorbo of All Time is introduced.

(Yes I got excited about the flashback, & the end of Book 1 as well. Her Royal Highness Princess Azula is just that special that she gets three Offical Introductions™ okay)

Anyway...

Okay, so, the Gaang is heading for Omashu where Aang is planning to learn earth bending from King Bumi. That's when we meet one of the most unpleasant side characters of the show. Boo, Fong, me & all my homies hate Fong. Right after we learn about the nightmares that Aang is having about the power he wielded during the Siege of the North Part 2 while in the Avatar State/soul bonding with the ocean spirit, this asshole uses peer pressure to try to force Aang into the Avatar State again to defeat Ozai.

I had honestly forgotten that the show does a decent job of exploring Aang's fears regarding his own power. This episode is where we see that he's becoming affected not just by the burden of his responsibility, but by fear of what he's capable of. A big criticism I've had so far along this re-watch is that the Gaang is continuously responsible for the deaths of Fire Nation soldiers - 'Imprisoned,' 'The Northern Air Temple,' & 'The Siege of the North Part 2,' are the biggest examples so far, yet Aang is shocked & horrified at the thought of killing Ozai in Book 3. This is not because I'm on team "Aang should've killed Ozai," again, I just think the show can be hypocritical about the whole "no-kill" rule. That said - I think this episode comes close to handling the issue well, & it certainly does a good job of exploring Aang's inner motivations & fears. Aang is terrified of the amount of power he wields, & not just because of this great responsibility he has, but because the Avatar State can be quite destructive. He's having nightmares about what he did during 'The Siege of the North Part 2,' he's struggling with reconciling this scary destructive force with his own nature as a pacifist, & also just a kid.

Katara & Aang's conflict in this episode is pretty engaging because both sides make sense. While Aang ultimately realizes that 1. Fong is an insane asshole & 2. Fong is wrong that the Avatar State is the only way to win this war - it makes sense for him to consider Fong's arguments at the start. After all, on a logical basis, they are running out of time for Aang to learn the four elements. On Katara's side, we have her knowledge that discipline & hard work are the way to master the elements & her care for Aang as a person, not just the Avatar. It's a well-done conflict & we ultimately realize that Aang needs to master the elements on his own. Oh, & we get the fun little info from Rokku about the Avatar's potential destruction. I'm sure that won't be important later! I'll be honest, I don't love what they did with Sokka in this episode. After a lot of development in Book 1 & experiencing a devastating loss in the season finale, Sokka is back to being the comedic relief with no real inner conflict of his own as of this episode which is a bit disappointing. I did like him bonking Fong on the head though.

So, Book 2 has a new villain to be More Eviller & Scarier™ than Zuko & Iroh now that Zhao has been sucked into Hell where he belongs. I'm sure this is a villain I'll be completely normal about. But she sure does have an iconic introduction!

I just feel like Azula's level of badassery can never actually be underappreciated.

The Fire Hazard Siblings reunite in this episode & it's crazy to think that 2 years ago I was watching this cartoon thinking "this is a kinda interesting dynamic, hm" & now I still care a completely normal amount about these dysfunctional evil siblings in a kid's cartoon & I definitely don't spend 28 hours a day 366 days a year thinking about the stupid imperialist family of assholes.

Anyway, Azula shows up & Zuzu is filled with joy to be reunited with his baby sister. Not. Zuko greets Azula with disdain even without knowing her intentions, which is interesting because he's pretty ready to trust her. Iroh is mistrustful from the get-go, which makes a lot of sense because he knows his brother & he knows this probably isn't the reconciliation mission Azula is claiming. Zuko's attitude toward Azula is unrelated to whether he trusts her. We saw in 'The Siege of the North Part 2' that Zuko has a hate boner for *ahem* is harboring a hell of a lot of resentment for his sister. He thinks everything comes easy for her. He sees her as having taken his father's affection, something he is desperate to obtain. So, right off the bat, we have some extremely complicated & fascinating family dynamics at play.

Azula gets a lot of praise for "do the tides command this ship" & she absolutely should because it's an iconic & terrifying introductory speech BUT I think MY personal favorite Azula moment in this episode is when the wool is pulled from Zuko's eyes & he yells "you lied to me!" & she responds "like I've never done that before?"

This is where the mask is lifted - but only partially. Azula isn't one of my favorite characters of all time for nothing - this girl has so many layers to explore. There's the calculated politician who is always playing a mind game & never telling the truth - that's who we see at the start. Then there's the mean & twisted bully who immediately starts insulating & belittling Zuko once the gig is up, playing at his worst insecurities to get under his skin by reminding him that their father sees him as pathetic & a failure. Later, we'll meet the scared & lonely girl hiding deep down, but she's buried pretty deep, so not yet.

Azula & Zuko's fight is just iconic. We get to see both of their fighting styles & how they work against each other as well as Azula using her keen ability to get under Zuko's skin, something only a sibling could do so effectively even after years apart. Zuko is an aggressive fighter, while we see Azula deftly dodging his attacks more often than fighting back, even choosing to scratch him rather than burn him - which is a tiny hint at something more going on under the surface - Azula doesn't want to kill her brother. This claim doesn't come with some great declaration that Azula is actually a softie, I just think that she's an incredibly skilled fighter & it's impressive to see the way she maneuvers to avoid doing worse damage than necessary to Zuko. She wants to take him prisoner, but not strike a killing blow herself.

At the end of the episode, we get a pretty significant moment from Iroh & Zuko. They severe their hair & their ties with the Fire Nation, cutting off their royal headpieces. This represents a pretty huge shift in their role in the story & I'm so excited about re-watching their journey & where they go from here!

#the avatar state #atla book 2 #atla re watch

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feuqueerfire · 2 years

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The Eclipse Ep 1 - 3 Live Blogging

One of my most anticipated shows of the year due to the casting (FirstKhao my loves) and the moody vibes/plot. Also, everybody and their pets seem to be watching this show and there's just so much content for it, I'd most likely get spoiled if I wait. So, here starts my torturous journey for the next 9 weeks where I hope the show lives up to my expectations (the disappointment will be far greater if the ending falls flat when watching week to week than binging) + I get to enjoy the show with the fandom since it seems like it's an active one (the number of gifsets/tiktoks/long written posts I've seen already!).

Episode 1 (Aug 24)

I know this is a live blogging post but I'm thinking of actually just watching through at least each part without coming on here to write something every few minutes.

1-1

Funny that I've watched like 75% of this via tiktoks already, only that last scene of Ayan talking was new to me

The curse could still be a real thing maybe? I've heard people say it doesn't seem to have the supernatural aspect they expected, so maybe it doesn't exist but then again maybe it'll come into play later

I hadn't realized from the tiktoks just how long Akk stares at Ayan's underwear/pants as he zips them up

lol I already know that it was his uncle committing suicide + Ayan going to the school to investigate but the show itself making it a little more mysterious for now. Yeah, I wouldn't have escaped the spoilers lol

Akk, Kan, and their friend (one of the twins, AJ?) seem fun and relaxed among themselves, I got the impression that they'd be more reserved and repressed but I guess that's just Akk and Kan with their respective pairings

Ayan didn't wash his hands. Went to the sink but didn't wash I think

I thought this was a boarding school but seems not. They all live in their homes.

1-2

The students who were protesting the uniforms used -kha particles. The kids in the washroom called them "The World Remembers" squad or something

Ooh, a new teacher who is curious/questions things

Right now, I guess the curse could go either way being real or not but they're also setting it up that the "The World Remembers" students think somebody is behind these things and trying to hurt them

Ayan washed his hands this time

Ayan bringing the journal to school makes me nervous, is that also memorabilia from his uncle? They focused on it a bit when he came to school at the beginning of this part and also Akk noticed it at the end of this part

1-3

Akk really is so for the rules and seems to really, really believe nothing would be ever wrong if all the rules are followed

The twin's character's name is Wat. The next mission is to figure out the names of Win and Louis' characters

Kan seems more aware of how he feels and that he's into guys than Akk does. He seems to then do his best to contradict it and make it seem like nothing, like when he went at Wat for suggesting Kan and Louis' character were boyfriends or when he moved away when he was sitting too close on the bench.

Bro I keep typing people's real names instead of their character names lol Hard to really get into the character when I have like the real person and 2 other characters they've played in my head.

1-4

Akk's talk with the principal... there is a chance that the curse is supernatural because they both seem to believe in it

:( Ayan remembers his uncle and the moments they shared so often, from everything.

Fave scene of the episode: Ayan's "Are you into me, prefect?" followed by him just throwing everything Akk says back to him but flirty and outrageous. "I'm small and what? What can a big guy like you do to me?" is seriously my favourite but Akk not realizing what he's walked into lol

Okay yeah my hopes aren't too big anymore for the curse to be supernatural, they showed a hand using the flower pot

Oof Akk being like >:( What did the school ever do to you, huh? not knowing Ayan's uncle's suicide relates to the school somehow

This part ended up being actual live blogging since most of the scenes were new to me (fave scene not included, that's been a fave since release lol)

The mystery, the protests, and the "curse" seem like a really big part of the plot, which is cool! I hope that continues throughout the series instead of focusing 90% on the romance toward the middle/end.

The sound/music in this didn't bother me per se but it was certainly very loud and prominent lol

I'm curious about the views on this. They reached 1 million for episode 1 part 1 ~12 days after the release but I don't know how that compares to other GMMTV and popular non-GMMTV series.

Anyway, interesting first episode! I don't know how I feel about it as a first episode because I'm not actually having first-time reactions to the episode since I've seen such a large chunk of it already via fanworks.

Episode 2 tomorrow, then 3 the day after and then... a week of wait. On the bright side, seems like there's a sizeable fandom shaping up for it. So in the meantime, I can read the On-Air and other Eclipse threads on Reddit, listen to the BE Podcast episodes on it, participate in Discord discussions, watch all the tiktok vids/edits, and read/reblog the plethora of Tumblr posts/gifsets. That'll have to sustain me during the week + maybe rewatching. I'm also curious if this'll affect my consumption of other series. Perhaps I'll stick to light ones that don't require too much thought or emotional involvement?

Goodnight, it's 1 AM

Another thought the morning after: Because I already like the actors and trust the show to make the characters grow in organic ways, I'm not disliking any of the characters and am actually quite fond of them already. Akk's aggressiveness and one-track mind could easily have irritated me in another show and Ayan's audacity with his flirting could've put off but the actors are really charming.

Episode 2 (Aug 25)

Waiting 1 day to watch the next episode wasn't difficult, so here's hoping that maybe the weeklong wait won't be too bad either lol

2-1

I continue to think it's endearing seeing Akk, Kan, Wat be friends and goof around. Lets us see smiley Akk

Me seeing boys be friends in a boyfriend group: Wow so sad that I'll never be a teenage boy and get to hang out with people as just a dude :'). Me seeing the boys tease about being virgins: Well. Sucks about the not being a teenage boy thing but at least I avoided all that.

So Chadok is the head of Student Welfare, he's not the principal

Akk just going around telling Chadok and also the prefects that Ayan's up to something lol

Which student do I suspect is enacting the curse? Maybe Namo, Pawin's character since he seems kinda power-hungry? It'd be interesting if it's one of the main 4 but I don't think it's Ayan/Akk. If Kan, then maybe he's covering his tracks by insisting it's a supernatural curse? If Thua, then it wouldn't make sense to me but then again, we know nothing about him thus far and maybe he's just covering his tracks really well. Who else do we know? Wat? They haven't given him enough depth or motivation for that yet.

2-2

I fully don't get what the big deal was. Kan had everybody's assignments in that USB? And he couldn't just run after the teacher and hand it in after she's walked out? Lol nobody's yelling at you about missing assignments in uni and I can't remember how it was during high school. I think the teacher would be upset if we were all missing our assignments but then again, that wouldn't happen because we wouldn't give all our assignments to one person. But then again, we don't have things like prefects and class presidents and so there's more individual responsibility and only responsibility for your individual self/group.

I was unsure why they kept zoning in on Namo looking at Kan and Thua in that class and was wondering if they were trying to signify he has malicious intentions but I guess mans just knew what was going on.

Anyway, Kan brining macarons as apology, Thua not really accepting them, Namo telling him Kan got in the fight because the kids called Thua a slur, then Thua telling Namo to keep it a secret in case Kan gets kicked out of the Prefect Club (Aside but ...would Namo have reason to want that?) and taking the macarons

Someone on Twitter pointed out Ayan was napping on Akk's desk

I'm curious about Teacher Sani and what she's making of the school rules and how she'll come into play later

Akk talks so shitty about Teacher Dika/Ayan's uncle. When Ayan says he has no right to talk about Dika that way, Akk says what right does Ayan have to talk about Suppalo's rules that way. It gives very... conservatives who value businesses/terrible traditions and status quo over the rights and livelihood of actual people. This show, like Not Me, isn't subtle in its messaging (this one using the school as a metaphor for larger society whereas Not Me was talking about politics more directly) but it's still interesting to see the parallels

Also, 2nd time we got to see Ayan's Arthur meme fists while Akk's badmouthing Dika

I'm noticing the really loud background music this episode more than I did last episode

2-3

lol we may escape the product placement and silly sound effects but the singing with the guitar is here to stay (+ the dramatic background music). Seems like Kan's singing Louis' song from Fish Upon The Sky, it's a very catchy song, one of the first BL OSTs I added to my Spotify

Bro an intense ass scene of a classroom debate with the teacher. It was interesting how Ayan doesn't care for the uniform but is willing to acknowledge that it can be a form of equality, the way he's saying the hats are. It's mostly interesting because he's saying it's all true like yeah that guy was a dictator, but he was also implementing the hats for equality, and also the teacher approves of the uniforms which are for equality and was developed during the same era, but also Ayan doesn't fully abide by the uniform when he doesn't want/need to

Also, Akk's little "Ayan, stop" was really cute to me in the midst of all the intensity

Naurr, not a tussle between my beloved friend group! It ends well here (suchhh a cute hug, Wat the mediator) but hope it's not foreshadowing for more betrayal/upsetting moments between them (The Gifted: Graduation flashbacks)

Interesting to see how differently Akk and Kan are loyal. Kan's headstrong and ready to go to bat for people he cares about (@ the 11th graders for Thua, @ Akk for Wat) whereas Akk's willing to be disliked/"seen as the bad guy" to protect people he cares about (as a prefect to see that rules are follow which he believes is for the best of the students, to protect Wat here)

2-4

Cuteass shirt sniffing scene (Bad Buddy Pat tease), cute dog scene, cute scene in the teacher's bathroom that Akk was hounding Ayan for going to in ep 1

Thua telling Kan to not protect him anymore because he's used to it and doesn't wanna see Kan hurt.

Bro, this whole show is basically the characters trying to protect their friends in various ways

Unexpectedly weak and whiny Ayan (not that he didn't start his outrageous flirting soon enough)

cuteass frenemies shower scene

This part is very cute and BL-y

The zoom in on Namo and also the zoom in on Thua hmm

well, we're going from teasing frenemies to angry again

Should I watch the preview for next episode... maybe not? I watched ep 1's preview but that's because I knew most of this episode as well whereas I don't know how the preview will trick the audience for this one. Perhaps I'll watch it if I rewatch the ep later.

This episode didn't have much of the mystery of Ayan's uncle (I even forgot about it until we see him holding the diary in part 4) and not much about the curse. However, we did get a lot of like depth to the characters and their relationships, so it didn't feel like a stagnant episode.

I freaking love friendship groups in shows soooo much and I'm delighted to see the friendships here (Akk Kan Wat, and also Kan/Thua and frenemies to future lovers Akk/Ayan) and how they all look out for each other.

Forgot to mention this but is Teacher Dika Ayan's real uncle? or just like... an uncle the way every man who can be your dad's age/bit younger but isn't your dad is your uncle? His mom knows about it but that could also be like 'oh, he was a tutor and ofc his mom knew him. doesn't mean he was her brother'

Views Tracking (just because I'm curious. Wish I had other GMMTV/popular non-GMMTV data to compare with):

~14 Days Later

Ep 1 - 1: ~1.1M

Ep 1 - 4: ~615k

~7 Days Later

Ep 2 - 1: ~660k

Ep 2 - 4: ~500k (Interestingly, parts 3 and 4 are 3k and 30k less respectively. I guess part 4 has lots of cute moments between Ayan/Akk, thus the higher views)

Episode 3 (Aug 26)

Thought I'd wake up to catch the new episode premiering at 9:30 but was awake from 8am for some reason

3-1

Akk moving away from Ayan but that means he moves down from the higher ground so that he's not taller than Ayan anymore. something about that really tickles me

Thua's fist during the pledge?

Ayan and Thua also talking, the Kan/Thua and Ayan/Akk duos and Akk, Kan, Wat trio are becoming more intertwined. Also, what did Ayan tell Thua here?

3-2

Chadok really is giving Akk a lot of power to oversee the rules are followed

I do wonder what and how much influence Ayan has over the "The World Remembers" gang

ooh, we're gonna get a Wat storyline too?

how come they hang out so often at Akk's place but we have no clue about his parents or anything

I'll for real be so upset if this friendship group breaks up or betrays each other

3-3

holy shit at Ayan's... not murderboard but mystery connection board

holy shit at the students' protest and them being forcibly carried away

3-4

I wonder what Ayan was gonna do before he caught Akk tailing him

Ayan's got a thigh tattoo too for fuck's sake

Watching Akk dozing off felt like actual romantic interest/affection from Ayan's side whereas before it was like flirting to get Akk off his back, some curiosity, and some caringness that could be seen as just friendly

I legit was like... they're not gonna kiss right now right? It's ep 3

omggg Ayan not only getting flashbacks of Akk and him while Akk's dozing off but also during Judo. Ayan's like actually falling for Akk eek

Didn't have much to live blog because I was watching the show lol

Maybe I'll add Watch The Trailer to my "things to do for a week without another episode to watch" list because I think every gifset I've seen about the trailer or the scenes from when I watched the first half of the trailer w/o subs have already appeared in the show lol The next 9 episodes really going to be new stuff. Makes sense though considering they're still filming. In fact, today was Q19 (thread by ilykhaotunggg).

I think I need to choose either Aye or Ayan to refer to him as. I think Ayan is a prettier name but I've already used Ayan a whole bunch T.T Wish there was find and replace all. Update: changed all the references from Aye to Ayan.

Since I'm curious about the viewers on this, I think I'll also track the live audience for each episode (if I can catch it)

Highest viewers I saw watching premiere:

Part 1: 6.5k

Part 2: 5.7k

Part 3: 5.7k

Part 4: 7.3k (I guess because, once again, it's mostly cutesy moments between our beloved Ayan/Akk frenemies who are starting to fall for each other)

12 hours later:

Part 1: 325k

Part 4: 222k

Episode Thoughts:

I like how the characters are becoming more interconnected. Thua and Ayan, as well as Ayan with the protestors. Also, seems like we'll be getting a side story about Wat's career path. Didn't get much of Namo or Kan/Thua this episode.

Glad they brought back more of the protesting and the uncle mystery that wasn't there much last episode. This school is so shitty and uncaring of its students, as expected. Also interesting that Wat and Kan are trying to dissuade Akk from continuing to be the prefect president. Do they also want to quit? Would there be a moment where they can't bear to enforce (bro I forgot this word for like 2 days and the only thing I could think was 'implement the rules' but that's not what the prefects are doing, just enforcing them) these rules anymore and quit and Akk feels betrayed?

The romantic storylines are also progressing. I'm excited that it seems like Ayan's starting to actually be into Akk! Not just outrageous flirting for the sake of flirting but mans is getting flashbacks to their cute moments when they're too close. Good luck Ayan, did his share of flirting and flustering but hope he can handle being flustered as well.

Fave Scene: Ayan watching Akk doze off and us as the audience get to see as Ayan starts to fall. It's not just fun and games anymore.

Curse Culprint suspects: I don't knowwwww like

Namo is still the prime subject but idk if him being the culprit would be too obvious. He wasn't in this episode much anyway (Main suspect for curse but also main suspect of being a red herring - he��s framed suspiciously so that we focus on him instead of the actual culprit/s)

Kan? idk? he even tried to talk Akk out of being the prefect's president but idk if that means he's concerned for his friend or it's a little more nefarious. But also he seems really concerned for the trio, so I don't actually think he did it

Thua? He had his fist clenched tight while The World Remembers gang was being punished + we now know he doesn't fully agree with all these rules. He appears to be not involved in any school politics when speaking with Ayan but he could be hiding things, who knows.

Wat? idk I can't think of any motivation or suspicious activity. His storyline seems more related to his future career.

I wasn't suspecting the main pair in the previous episodes and I still don't think it's Ayan but maybe...

Akk. Teacher Chadok has given him the responsibility of stopping the kids' protest and seems like The Curse has been a good way to dissuade any unrest in the previous years. So perhaps he started off with that? And since Chadok has been putting more pressure on him to stop them, he's going the extra lengths to fuck with them. The Curse and Akk both have the same goal, so perhaps it's him? But then again, some of the consequences of the curse could actually hurt someone like the car or the flower pot and I don't know if Akk has that in him, so I don't think he did those. (Secondary suspect) SPOILER FROM SPECIAL EP: Hal said they showed Akk throwing paint on The World Remember group's posters, so this seems at least partially correct.

Perhaps it's more than one person and they may or may not know about the other(s)? Someone doing the flyer burning which doesn't actually harm anybody vs someone willing to let the kids be hurt to send a message? Each doing it for a different purpose?

It's funny because none of my stuff is based on evidence (like that one post with the glimmer of the watch) but just like... hm, can I think of a motivation?

Anyway, I think I'll rewatch at least episode 3 (or maybe all 3) on Thursday before the next episode. I'll watch a different show in the meantime but one where I don't think I'll get extremely invested or that has a complex plot.

#the eclipse #ep by ep commentary

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icyviv · 1 year

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Anime I watched in Winter 2023

I haven’t ever done anything like this before, but I figured “Why not?”. I enjoy writing. So, my thoughts on the anime I watched in Winter 2023!

Loooong Post Ahead!

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel The Northern War

I will start with the show I was most excited for heading into the season. During 2022, I picked up the Cold Steel games, and was in the middle of III(3) when this was announced. Which was awesome, as this event (The Northern War) was heavily referenced, but never explored. So I went into the show quite optimistically.

Unfortunately, while the first episode, and even the second were quite good, the show ended up falling quite flat, personally. And I think that was because of a few key problems.

First, the show was focused on characters created specifically for the show. A group of mercenaries. While they are characterized well, and feel fine, they are completely new. When this show came out, Cold Steel as a series had been finished for a number of years, so I get that trying to fit this in might be odd. But Cold Steel is focused on Class VII, or more specifically, Rean Schwarzer. While Rean is in the show, and we get cameos from other members of Class VII, it feels very forced.

Second, the show did not know its audience. The Legend of Heroes is a moderately large series at this point, with currently 9 games available in English, with the 10th capstone game coming later this year. And that does not include the early series games that are not in the canon of the Trails series, as well as the sequel series that has had 2 games released in Japan. So, getting an anime at this point is kind of weird. Especially focused around an event that is not covered in the games. Which brings me to my point. Who was this show for? I should be sitting right in the target audience, but this show felt like it was trying too hard to be accessible for someone unfamiliar with the series. At the same time, it used the political intrigue the series does well, but the intrigue is very hard to follow without a background in the series.

So, overall, this series was a pretty big miss. Which sucks, because I love the Trails games.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

This series was pretty high on the list as well. It is a yuri, and I tend to bias towards those greatly, but overall, I think it did very well.

It is an isekai, which have absolutely flooded the anime market, but that was expected given the popularity of the genre calling for a certain publisher in Japan to blanket ban future submissions in the genre. Which is hilarious and sad, really.

Back to MagiRevo. The pacing and flow of the series does very well, balancing high action with the political intrigue of running a country. Especially given that the political intrigue is the A plot, regardless of how much Anis tries to avoid it.

I would totally recommend this one, mostly because its really nice to see a show where love wins sometimes. And I don’t mean that in a specifically yuri way. Or maybe I do.

The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World

Honestly? Honestly? Isekai trash without the Isekai.

Main character OP as fuck? Check.

Bunch of girls randomly in love with him? Check.

School setting? Not technically necessary, but check.

Really buff dudes and a solid brotherly bond? Che… wait a second…

This show surprised me, if only a little bit. Definitely not enough to redeem it. But still.

The main character actually makes a male friend! And they bond over being buff as hell! And join a club full of really buff dudes! I appreciate the attempt at fan service in the other direction, even if it fell a bit flat. But the male friendship was a nice touch. I just wish it had explored it a bit better.

So, overall, meh.

Tomo-chan is a Girl!

Wow, this show was fun. The dynamic between the two main characters for this romantic comedy was delightful. This show could have very easily devolved into something misogynistic, but I think it walked that line very well. Some will definitely disagree, but this is the internet, so whatever.

Jun’s struggle is shown super well. His issue is not with Tomo being stronger with him. His issue is not with Tomo being a girl. His issue is with what a relationship with her would mean, and how that would change them together. Which is actually a super interesting way to address what a relationship of “boyfriend-girlfriend” is. His entire struggle boils down to “if I date Tomo, will we still get to compete?” The idea of an irregular relationship like that seems impossible to him. But, eventually, he figures it out. Which is great. Good for them.

A fun romantic comedy. Totally worth watching.

Onichan wa Oshimai (Onimai: I am now your sister)

I personally really liked this one. A lot of people will have issues with this show. For that reason, I can’t recommend it for someone who looks for issues in media. Cause it has more than a few.

Obviously, the show is filled with Transgender themes and experiences. Specifically, the villainization of trans women in “female spaces”.

Trans girls, you will probably like this show. TERFs, fuck off.

Trigun Stampede

Oooo, this one is spicy.

Hot Take, fantastic show.

Hotter take, the 3DCG was really good and I think made the show better then it would have been in 2D.

I read somewhere that the director said the this was “not a reboot, not a retelling, merely another Trigun story of two brothers.” (I am really paraphrasing). And I think that really helps with the show.

As someone who has not sat through the original Trigun, I went into this show only vaguely knowing who Vash the Stampede was. Yellow hair, red coat, gun.

What this show did really well was the emotional storytelling of Vash. Throughout the first episode, I felt something… off about Vash. Which was weird to me, because I didn’t know the character. But throughout the rest of the show, you really begin to feel his sadness. This giant weight he carries. That his smile is so, so fragile. And I adore it.

I loved it. Someone who dislikes 3DCG will hate it. Pretty straightforward.

The Ice Guy and his Cool Female Colleague

Yes! Office romance and not high school romance! I will take it!

Also, a fun show. Typical slow burn romance. If you like that kind of thing, this should be right up your alley.

Sugar Apple Fairytale

A fantasy tale involving Fairies that are enslaved by humans. Has a large chunk of tsundere romance, and both characters involved are Tsun, so that is always fun.

While the main plot is focused on the “Will they, won’t they”, I do think it makes a few good explorations into love in a slave society. When you hold someone’s life in your hands against their will, can you really expect them to love you?

A good time, and I will be watching part 2 in the summer.

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten

More romance! High school this time, but that's okay.

I really liked this one. Immensely. It felt really nice.

I think the main conflict of the series is focused on removing your preconceived notions of others and just talking to them. Which is great! In theory.

Of course, things are never that easy. Even once you have talked about something hard, it doesn’t mean that the future will be any easier. Every tough conversation is tough for a reason, and there can be safety in silence. In just letting the status quo be. The status quo can be scary.

I mean, there is also the wish fulfillment of having a really cute girl cook food for you. Like, I can get why people might just assume its that and nothing deeper.

But I don’t think those people have ever cooked something delicious for someone else. It is a truly wonderful feeling to see a boy’s face light up in joy at something yummy.

A lovely romance. Totally worth a watch if you want something sweet.

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement

I… really don’t know how I finished this show.

Its mediocre at best. The story is WEAK. The animation is basic. The characters are quite boring.

I think I just kept watching because I was hoping for the obvious to be addressed? And it wasn’t?

The obvious is… When will the main character receive consequences for her brazen and kind of stupid actions? And the answer is… never?

Very bland and boring isekai.

I mean hell. They never even address why the fuck she fell off a cliff in the first place? Like, what? Moving on.

Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire

Another mid Isekai that… wait… it’s not an isekai?

A fairly mid show following the genre that sprouted because of the above mentioned isekai ban. “Character already in a fantasy world gets reincarnated with op powers” An attempt was made at least. I guess.

Not ridiculously fanservicey. Definitely has a fair bit though. Some fun fights. Interesting world building that is probably explored much better in the source material (I hope).

A miss.

In/Spectre 2

I quite enjoyed this series when the first came out, so I was pleasantly surprised to see more of it.

This Sherlockian series following mythological creatures of Japanese folklore is quite fun. If you like weird mysteries, I would recommend In/Spectre. Its a bit crass at times, though I believe that to be a choice by the author to offset the perceived upper class nature of the main character Kotoko.

Worth a watch

Shows I did not finish (with one caveat)

The Misfit of Demon Academy: This show actually had its broadcast canceled due to “Covid Issues.” It will resume in June I believe, so I will finish it then.

The tale of outcasts: This show had some promise, and I quite enjoyed its first half. Very Ancient Magus Bride vibes. Unfortunately, I SUPER lost interest in the final arc. The introduced villain basically said “I am going to do bad things because I am bored.” Which is fine. Depending on the character. It did not do it for me.

The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World: I am surprised I made it as far as I did in this show. But overall more boring OP Isekai stuff without much variance.

And I think that does it! That covers the shows I watched in the 2023 Winter season, barring stuff that was not part of the season. This was fun, and I might do it again for spring! There are a few good shows I am looking forward to, like GWitch Part 2, Tonikawa Part 2, and Ancient Magus Bride Part 2.

If you got this far, holy crap, thanks! Unless you are looking for a TL;DR.

TL;DR

Anime good. World hard and cold. Titty soft and warm.

#anime #winter anime 2023 #legend of heroes trails of cold steel #magirevo #analysis #anime analysis #writing #long reads

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thehylianbatman · 2 years

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Doctor Who as a Consistent Narrative, Part One

Doctor Who is one of my favorite shows. I love it a lot for the sense of adventure, the plain morals that can be easily and quickly made quite complex, the big, wonderful universe. There’s so, so much to love about Doctor Who, and I do.

But I’m also a narrative nut. I love a consistent story. And Doctor Who is... not that.

With hundreds of writers (probably; I haven’t done the math), dozens of producers, showrunners, and script editors, and two or three distinct separate eras, which all come with their own structure and style of storytelling, as well as an entire wealth of expanded media in all directions, Doctor Who is, frankly, a nightmare for canon nuts and people who want to follow it as one story, like me.

And I’ve been thinking about that a lot. How I would change that. How it could work.

I’m not at any conclusion yet. I’m not even really doing any work on it yet. But I am at a beginning, so I thought I would start to write it down.

The ground assumption here is that I’m gonna rewrite everything Doctor Who-related. Some things, just a little bit. Other things, quite a lot. But everything’s gonna be looked at and touched up just a bit. I don’t know if I’ll adapt it and publish it somewhere, or just make notes and publish those somewhere, but it’s gonna be something like that.

RULES

If I mess with things too much, however, it won’t be Doctor Who any more. So I have some ground rules to consider when modifying things:

1. No deleting TV stories. No, not even The Twin Dilemma. No, not even “The Power of Three”. If it aired between 1963 and 1989, or since 2005, it counts. If it’s bad, tough; I have to make it better.

2. No fuckery Doctors. I hate that. I’ve always hated that. I hated the Morbius Doctors, I hated the Other, I hated the War Doctor. No. I’m bypassing all of that. There’s only gonna be 14 or 15, depending on when I get around to it: 1 through 10, 10 version 2, and then 11 through 13 or 14. Like I said, whenever I get around to it. The oldest Doctor is the First Doctor. All the others come in sequence after him. There are none before him. This gives the story a solid beginning, and I hate retcons.

3. No changing regenerations. As much as I love one Doctor or another, all their stories have to end. When they die, that’s it, they die. I do think it would be interesting to re-write Tom Baker’s first season with Jon Pertwee, for example, but that’s not what I want to do here. That can be its own project. For this, I just want to make the story flow better, not completely change it. And so, for that reason, all the Doctors will still regenerate when they did in canon.

4. Everything can be considered. Since this is a show about time travel that has alternate dimensions, I’d like to at least look at the relationship of every story with the “main” storyline. Some things will never be reconciled, sure. And that’s okay. But everything deserves a chance, at least.

5. Word of God will be considered, but not treated as Gospel. Artistic intent is important. Whatever the people who created that episode of Doctor Who intended the message to be, that’s important. But it isn’t everything. Death of the artist and all that. Whatever Steven Moffat said in an interview doesn’t exactly matter to me. I’ll read the interview, sure, if I know it exists, but if I watch the story and feel like it naturally leads somewhere else, I’m gonna disregard Moffat. This is my AU, not Moffat’s.

6. There is a set story priority. I know that the books and Big Finish all exist, and that they and the TV series don’t always play nice. Like I said in #4, everything can be considered, but, when they contradict, I can’t just roll with both. So, for this series, the priority story will be as follows:

The TV Series - It is gospel. I plan to mess with this one the least and treat it as more important than all the rest. If something else contradicts with TV, TV wins every time. In terms of Classic Who and the New Series, that will be determined on a case-by-case basis; basically, whichever I happen to like more at the time (most likely Classic Who). And yes, this does include the movie.

The New Series Adventures - For those of you who don’t know, Doctor Who still has an ongoing book range, derived from the Virgin books all the way back to just after the cancellation, in 1991. That string is still going today in the New Series Adventures. Since they are often written by the same staff as those working on the TV series at the time, and since it’s so young, this will be considered as apocrypha to the New Series. Just like the New Series, if I like something in Classic Who better, I’m gonna disregard it.

The Virgin New Adventures - This fills the same niche as the New Series Adventures. This is the book series that started it all. It was worked on by the people who were working on the TV series when it was cancelled, and so, specifically for continuing the Seventh Doctor’s story, this is going to be considered above everything else. The reason it’s below the NSA’s is because I believe the VNA’s to be a bit more dark and edgy, and not really my flavor of Doctor Who, so, if the NSA’s completely go against something in the VNA’s, I’m gonna side with the NSA’s unless what they have is completely stupid. But I don’t imagine the two will contradict each other often; their placement is moreso equal than one above and one below.

All Big Finish Audio Plays - The only reason Big Finish isn’t higher is because of the timing of everything. Big Finish didn’t start until 1999, a decade after the cancellation and 8 years after the original writers started the books in 1991. By the time Big Finish started, the BBC had already picked up the books for themselves, shifting them into a new era. That’s how long Big Finish took, and that’s why some of the books are higher than it. For that reason, for parallel narratives with the New Series Doctors and the Seventh Doctor, the books will be higher than Big Finish. However, nowadays, Big Finish has one of the best claims for Doctor Who expanded media, having been running with Doctor Who since 1999 and often featuring original writers and cast members. For that reason, it’ll be higher than other works.

All Other Narrative Books - This will include all the BBC-era books (that being the Eighth Doctor Adventures and the Past Doctor Adventures), the original novels in the Target Novelizations range, the Virgin Missing Adventures, as well as the comic books. They’re below Big Finish because Big Finish has more of a claim to be a successor for classic Doctor stories, since they feature the classic Doctors. These books generally seem more eclectic than the aforementioned books, since they weren’t the writers of the show expanding their Doctor, they were writers expanding Doctors that were over and done with. Plus, most ongoing classic Doctor book series have been cancelled by this point (2022), whereas Big Finish continues. Essentially, I feel Big Finish fits better with the Classic Series, and the books are moreso a reflection of the times they were written in. The comic books, on the other hand, are a hodgepodge of both, having the gift of contemporarity as well as the burden of expanding previous Doctors. For this reason, they’re considered equal with the books.

The Comic Strip - The comic strip is the oldest ongoing piece of Doctor Who media; it has been going since 1975 at the very latest, and it’s arguably that it’s been going since 1964. For that reason, it’s just as big and varied as the TV series; even moreso, actually, since the strip is not limited by model budget and actor budget and all that, all it needs is art and words on a page, which means you can create whatever you want. And they sure have. Because of this, the strip will be hard to rectify with just the TV series, let alone all the other works that make up Doctor Who. They’re also not really intended to expand the narrative of the TV series, just to be their own thing, and so, for that reason, I’m gonna treat the comic strip as “if it’s cool, I’ll use it, but I’m not gonna stress about putting it in”.

All Other Narratives - Deleted scenes, mini-episodes, special episodes (e.g. “Night of the Doctor”), Wilderness years adventures (BBV, Reeltime, etc.), stuff like that. The stuff that doesn’t really fit anywhere else, but should still be important.

Non-Narrative Reference Books - Bless ‘em, more often than not, reference books are just some writer making stuff up to sell a book. These are just gonna be used as flavor text, essentially. If it’s a cool idea, I’ll lift it, but I have no qualms about contradicting these.

While this priority is set, it’s not rock-hard; it’s moreso a template. I’m gonna generally follow the VNA’s, but if Big Finish does something REALLY COOL with the Seventh Doctor that I think he just NEEDS, I’m gonna use it instead. The priority is moreso for things of equal value.

7. It all has to come out in order. As a fan of Star Wars, I fully understand the implications of putting something out there before another piece of the story. It messes everything up I don’t intend to have that happen. Now, am I gonna put it all out there in order? No, that’d be insanity. But I’m definitely gonna create it in order, so that, as a narrative, it all flows and makes sense, regardless of what order it comes out in.

FORMAT

So now that I have all these rules for this project, how am I gonna realize it?

Well... I’m not.

It’d be impossible. I’d have to resurrect at least a dozen actors (probably more) and miraculously acquire millions, maybe billions, of dollars in funding in order to get cameras and staff and sets and scripts and effects and props and models and all that. This would effectively range from pick-up shots to completely new productions of episodes of Doctor Who. That’s impossible. I could never, ever do it the way that would fit the best.

But I can, at least, try.

If anybody’s read Aristotle’s Poetics, you’ll know that he thought that story mattered above all else. And I agree. For this, the story will matter above all else. And stories can be conveyed in a multitude of ways.

I’m most experienced with the written word. Most of these stories began in the written word, be they scripts or prose. For that reason, I believe the written word would be the easiest and most accessible to create this narrative in.

However, some stories won’t change all that much. Some Doctor Who is really, really good and has no effect on the overarching story. What about them? Do I really need to re-write them?

I’m torn. I could do it just to be consistent. This whole thing is about consistency, after all. But I could not do it to save myself the work, and just say “Go watch The Edge of Destruction at this point”, for example.

This question is undecided at this point, but I’m leaning towards consistency, because, you know. Consistency.

Now, if I had unlimited time and funding and all that, I’d learn to create a 3D Disney-style movie all by myself (long, hard, and complicated, I know), hire the original cast, when possible, or the Big Finish cast, when necessary, and make, effectively, a high-quality Doctor Who animated series primarily adapted from the TV series. That style and quality of animation is a good balance, I believe, of the animation we’ve already received, the comic strip, and the TV show itself.

If you’ve ever seen that modern chocolate commercial with Audrey Hepburn, you know what I mean. The whole thing, as I understand it, is CGI. That. That would be what I create.

And, to aid in that vision even possibly being a reality, I would, naturally, produce each story in two versions: prose and script. This balances the materials necessary for future production with the materials necessary for the story to simply be enjoyed by a casual reader.

Think of it like The Room: two formats created at once.

It would also be nice to create other necessary paperwork, such as lists and storyboards and all that, but I don’t exactly have the experience to be able to do that.

(Incidentally, if you DO have the experience, and this project sounds like fun rather than complete lunacy to you, definitely reach out; collaboration makes me responsible. I’d prefer to write the whole thing myself, though; consistency.)

If this ever does get written, the prose adaptations would probably be released on a sideblog, and potentially also cross-posted to AO3. The original writers would, of course, receive credit before me; it’s an adaptation, not an original work. The script versions I would probably hold on to unless somebody reaches out with interest. I would prefer to be involved in whatever project might pop up.

That’s how I would prefer this project to take form.

CHANGES

So since I want to change Doctor Who, and I want to go to all this trouble to do it, what would I change?

The biggest change would be serialization of all parts. Doctor Who’s just got to be in parts. The serialized episodes could be 25- or 45-minute episodes, but it’s just got to be in parts. Single episodes are to be avoided like the plague. Everything will be slightly re-jigged to fit the structure of the Classic series.

There would be one, consistent title sequence produced for the whole series. I’ve had a few thoughts about this, and it would incorporate an element of every sequence the series had in the original run, plus plenty of the New Series.

In the same vein, the theme song would be adapted. It would primarily be the original theme, but with flavors and additions from later themes to make the whole thing flow. The whole piece couldn’t last more than 10 minutes with all the parts, though, of course, the title sequence would only be between 30 seconds and a minute.

The TARDIS console room would change, as it did in the series, but it would be explained in-narrative and occur gradually, rather than all at once. Some things that make no sense changing won’t change.

The second-biggest narrative change would probably be to the companions. Although I’ve set the rule that the Doctors must follow their canon lives and stories, this is not true for the companions; many, many companions left because of contracts or simply because they wanted to, rather than giving their character a proper conclusion. I plan on changing that; giving every companion a reason to join the Doctor, a reason to stay with the Doctor, and an ending. Notes will come on what I’d like to do in each era, but I definitely want to make the story more interesting. For some, that’ll mean very little change (e.g. Ian and Barbara), but some will be greatly expanded and taken along their narrative track to “correct” what was done wrong with them originally.

Although I don’t plan on changing the Doctor that much, I do, for sure, want to make them consistent and focused, rather than being whatever the plot needs from them. The amount of adjustment will change on a story-by-story basis.

I also don’t plan on adding much. This is an adaptation project, not an expansion project. The goal is not to add new, simply to make nice what we already have.

Further, more specific changes will come in later posts. I have a lot of thinking and a lot of research to do.

SOURCES AND RESOURCES

This will be a gigantic project. I definitely will need help from what’s been tread before. For that reason, I have a collection of sources to consult:

The Original Releases of Every Story - This is, obviously, how I plan to get the original stories to adapt. I will, of course, get them in their original forms when possible, rather than any adaptations; after all, the adapting is my job, what good is it if someone else has already done it?

The DVD Documentaries - These are an excellent source on the different facets of every Doctor Who story. I don’t know what I could glean from them, but I for sure want to give them a chance.

Wikipedia - A great repository of institutional knowledge. It contains many, many pages concerning Doctor Who both in-universe and in real life. I’d have to be a fool not to use it.

The Doctor Who Wiki - Fandom’s ruined this one, but this used to be my go-to for Doctor Who information. When Wikipedia fails me for general information, I can rely on this wiki to be ad-ridden and go too in-depth while simultaneously being completely non-understandable.

TARDIS Builders - An excellent source of reference material; it’s a forum for people that build TARDISes, and they, naturally, take and share a lot of reference material.

themindrobber - This is the personal website of one Doctor Who fan who has contributed loads of independent research to the Doctor Who space over the years. I plan to use his references on the Console Room and the console itself extensively.

Dalek 6388 - Partly administered by the guy over the previous site, this website tracks the construction and history of the real-world Dalek props. It’ll be useful for color schemes and such.

Classical Gallifrey - This is a review blog more than anything else (incidentally, run by a man named Matt Smith; but a different Matt Smith than most Doctor Who fans know!), and has been finished for a long time now, but I still find the reviews useful because they can help make obvious what can’t quite be put into words. I’ll probably read the accompanying entry as I tackle each story.

CONCLUSION

And so I’d like to rewrite all of Doctor Who so that it all could, in theory, be created again, with more intent and consistency this time. I don’t know if I’ll do it, and I don’t know when I’ll do it if I do do it. But I do know that I’ve done this post now, so there’s evidence I had the thought. Maybe someday, I will do it.

Thanks for reading.

#Doctor Who #Consistent Narrative Doctor Who #That's gonna be the tag for this project #I'm not tagging anything else because I feel like I could tag basically everything Doctor Who at this point #Hoo boy did that take a long time #I have NO idea what I'm in for huh #Geez this will be crazy if it happens #I hope it does happen though and I hope people like it

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violettelueur · 3 years

Text

— JUJUTSU KAISEN EPISODE FIFTEEN || KYOTO SISTER SCHOOL EXCHANGE EVENT - GROUP BATTLE 1

↳ featuring : basically everyone at this point from jujutsu kaisen

↳ warnings : EXTREME grammar issues

↳ form : story

↳ published : 22 march

↳ pronouns : she/her

↳ word count : 3.6k

↳ synopsis : within the jujutsu world, there were three famous clans to be aware of, the Kamo clan, Zenin clan and the Gojo clan. However, unknown to many sorcerers there was one last family that was known to be apart of the three, only for them to disappear after the golden era leading some to speculate that they had died in battle after the sealing of ryomen sukuna, but....

↳ previous episode : kyoto sister school exchange event - group battle 0

↳ next episode : kyoto sister school exchange event - group battle 2

↳ barista’s notes : let me admit...i can’t wait for my school term to finish...i am so done with education at this point ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ but other than that, i will continue my best to study for my last four exams (ugh) and get the best grades that i can ╲ʕ·ᴥ·　╲ʔ i hope you enjoyed this episode and let’s be excited for your coffee orders (requests) to be given at the 31st of March or 1st April ʕ≧ᴥ≦ʔ

BEFORE READING, I NEED YOU TO BE AWARE OF THIS:

1. the whole story belongs to Gege Akutami and the credits go to them and them only.

2. the spell curses used belong to Tite Kubo due to them being the ‘Kidos’ being used on the manga and anime ‘Bleach’ - but none is mentioned in this chapter.

2.5. for the ‘cursed spells’/kidos (bleach) i will link this video here and tell you the time stamp to check out what i am intending to show - remember i add a few twist here and there by adding the katana to link with Y/N’s cursed technique

no cursed spells used this episode..

3. if you are confused on anything, please don’t hesitate to message me since i know this whole thing is so confusing.

“We’re starting in one minute”

“Now, let’s hear a few words of well-appreciated encouragement from Iori Utahime-sensei,” Gojo suddenly declared, leading the mentioned teacher to look at her colleague in complete shock before quickly beginning to sprout out whatever came into her head.

“U-Uh...Um, some degree of injury will be unavoidable, but, um..now and then, help each other out..or something…” Utahime stuttered out causing you and everyone else from the Tyoko team to look up at the speakers in both confusion as well as fed-up expressions since all of you knew that it was one of Gojo’s teasing antics again.

“Times up,” Gojo quickly stated in a playful tone leading you to look off to the side as you began to look around the area since you were wondering how the principals, teachers and possibly other jujutsu sorcerers were observing you since there were no cameras located to which caused you to suddenly come in eye contact with a pair of piercing pure onyx eyes that were staring down at the group you were with now making you come to the conclusion that someone was using a technique that allowed them to share sights with crows or have their sense being shared with them...either way, it was like having someone watching you 24/7.

‘Creepy...it’s like they’re sensing my death’

“Hey! Gojo, you little…” Utahime yelled out, irritated that she was interrupted out of her little encouragement speech - well, it wasn’t like she had a lot to say to you all anyways.

“Now, let the sister school exchange event...begin!” Gojo enthusiastically yelled out like it was a sports match, encouraging everyone in your team to start running forward in order to gain a head start on whatever the plan was.

“Respect your seniors!” the Kyoto teacher exclaimed loudly through the speakers after since it seemed like she wanted to remind your adoptive father that she was older than him, which can to a surprise for you since she looked much younger than you thought she was - well...you could say Gojo was a bit of the worst end when you found out his age, he seemed completely younger than he had mentioned to you when he took you out to a dessert place after a mission he set for you.

“Ichiro?!” Itadori questioned as he turned back to look at the speakers as if he was going to get the answer he wanted while Fushiguro looked at him with a non-chantant look on his face.

“So stupid,” Kugisaki commented as she gave off a disappointed look as she continued to run.

“Where do you think the cursed spirit boss is?” Itadori asked both Panda and Maki as he came toe to toe with them as he ran since he was truly determined to win this event as soon as possible.

“It was probably unleashed halfway between both schools, but it’s not just going to sit still, we just need Gojo to get there first to exorcise it since she isn’t allowed to fight anyone,” Panda answered, as you managed to catch up to your first-year classmate leading him to question how fast you could actually run since you didn’t show any athletic signs back when you and him were students at Sugisawa Municipal Highschool.

“At the time we agreed upon, we’ll split up into the Megumi squad and the Panda squad for scouting, we’ll be counting on you after that, Yuji,” Maki stated while turning her head slightly to look at the younger student leading Itadori to give her an encouraging salute and smile informing her that he knew what he had to do.

As you all continued to run, the black demon dog was running in front of all of you while barking to indicate where he was going leading you to quicken your speed to make sure you didn’t lose track of it since you now had the role to exorcise any curses that were around with the help of Maki, no matter what grade they were.

“Where are you going?” a spider curse questioned as it began to hang down by a string of its web, trying to seem intimidating when in reality it really wasn’t.

“That's a small fry,” Panda commented, leading you to unhook your katana that was behind your back from its position as you prepared to exorcise the thing by sliding it with the wooden stealth one since it was an extremely weak curse anyway. However, before you could even push yourself forward to cover the remaining distance that was between you and the disgusting spider curse, the demon dog that was in front of you turned it’s head to the side as if it had sensed something else from a distance.

“Gojo, stop!” Fushiguro shouted at you causing you to turn back to him before pressing your front foot to the ground to help slow down and halt your movement causing the demon dog to stand proactively in front of you as a sudden eruption of broken tree trunks as well as a huge cloud of debris covering the remaining path that everyone was running in leading them to pause around you.

Rapidly, as fast as the destruction came was as fast as the instructor appeared from the mist as Todo struck everyone was a confident grin since he was joyful that he had found everyone from the Tokyo team right in front of him - it was as if he had struck gold.

“Great! You’re all here! Come at me altogether! I want a re-match, Gojo!” Todo declared ambitiously as he pointed at you, leading everyone to go into a fighting stance since they didn’t want the possibility of losing you even when you knew that they knew that you could defend yourself, just not attack your opponent back at all.

As expected, Itadori took the first step as he ran towards the large student before suddenly jumping up to reach and grab onto Todo’s face as he proceeded to slam it against his knee, causing you to slightly cringe since you didn’t want to know how much pain his nose might be going thought at the very moment in time.

“Gojo! Don’t worry, I got Todo in check!” Itadori informed you, leading you to smile and nod at him as a way to thank him, causing Maki to shout out the command that everyone needed to do right now.

“Scatter!” Maki yelled out causing everyone to run off in two different directions with Kugisaki, Panda and Inumaki going to the left side of the forest, while you, Fushiguro and Maki took the right side, as you all needed to go in different directions to cover up a large amount of area you all had to cover in order to find the grade two cursed that was released for the players to exorcise to win the event for today.

“Todo was alone, it seemed like he really wanted to fight Gojo though,” Fushiguro commented as he turned back to look at you and Maki, while still running since there was a possibility that the grade-one sorcerer would come looking for you.

“We were right to swap Gojo with Yuji into that role,” Maki stated as she turned to you with a confident smile on her face leading you to give her one back before shifting your eyes to the dark blue metal pole that was dangling on the side of your hip, where you held it in place with a black belt that Kugisaki had gifted you one day during one of your random shopping trips.

‘I’ll thank her again later when all of this is done’

ꕥ

BEFORE THE EXCHANGE EVENT STARTED:

“Todo will absolutely be out to crush us straight away, Mai might follow behind him to come after me, too,” Maki mentioned to everyone, as she held her chin in a thinking posture as you sat next to her with your arms placed behind you to help support your upper body.

“Todo’s a monster, the worst possible outcome would be that we all face him and get wiped out,” Maki explained before turning to look at you before letting out a sigh of disappointment since she needed to change the current plan due to the fact there was a few new little rules being placed upon you to make the game fair. “So our plan was to leave just one person, that’s why we wanted Gojo to take him on since she is the most capable of keeping him at bay or more like knock him out to give us some time but rules are rules. Itadori, we’ll leave that role to you,” your senior classmate declared as she took in yours and Fushiguro’s suggestion from before leading to the mentioned sorcerer to point at himself with a little uncertainty.

“We’d rather not lose anyone who can scout out our enemies, you don’t have to beat him, just hold out as long as possible and buy is time,” Maki said with a smile as she lifted a thumbs-up to somewhat cheer up your classmate since she wasn’t completely sure on how well this plan would work, but she had a gut feeling that it was going to go well due to yours and Fushiguro’s previous statements.

“But you can be daring against him! To be blunt, we weren’t counting on your abilities anyway, so it won’t affect us too much if you have to quit,” Panda teasingly commented while giving him another thumbs-up, leading Itadori to inform his upperclassmen on how ‘mean’ his comment was in a whining tone.

“Sorry, Y/N. You wanted to face Todo, didn’t you?” Panda asked as he leaned his body forward to get a quick look at you.

“I’m good either way, it’s such a complete drag to fight him again anyways,” you answered before leaning your head back to face the ceiling as it seemed like a wave of unnecessary tension has been lifted from your shoulders - even though you knew you were more than capable of beating Todo, you weren’t too keen on fighting the close-ranged sorcerer since he was just plain annoying in your mind.

“But Senpai, if I’m gonna do this, then I’m gonna win,” Itadori declared with determination laced in not only his tone but his posture as well, leading you to look back down at him before gifting him an assured smile that quickly displayed itself of your face as you then gave him the final thumbs-up of approval that he needed.

‘Yeah, he’s got this’

ꕥ

While you, Fushiguro and Maki continued to run in whatever direction you three were going in, you were more focused on locating the second-grade curse you needed to exorcise to get this event done and over with since today you weren’t really in the mood to get into many first - you didn’t even have a single drop of orange juice today, and that already made you irritated.

However, as you continued sensing for the cursed spirited that you required to know the location of, your mind couldn’t help but get distracted by the amount of cursed energy that was looming around the area Itadori and Todo were located before at least four people from the ground and one person from above started to unexpectedly move away from leading you to become perplexed but slowly beginning to understand what was happening as you looked up to the sky to find a familiar blonde-haired sorcerer as she rode a broom across the sky.

“Fushiguro, use Nue right now,” you commanded, leading your classmate to look at you before looking up at the direction you were staring at to finally understand what you meant, which caused him to quickly summon the owl-like shikigami right in front of you.

“Take her down,” Fushiguro demanded his shikigami leading to the bird to unexpectedly appear behind the flying sorcerer with purple electricity enveloping his wings before flapping them down to transfer the high voltage lighting bolts to the third-year student leading to her falling from the sky into the maltitude of trees below to break her falling or possibly help her land somewhere that was not the ground to have a lighter impact than it should really.

“That’s strange,” Fushiguro suddenly commented, as you and Maki halted on your sprint since you all knew you couldn’t discuss the matter in hand while running to god knows where you three were planning to head to.

“All the Kyoto students are moving together, they’re all going to the same location,” you mentioned as you continued to survey where they were heading off to with your sense still enhanced.

“You mean that’s where the target is?” Maki asked you since she didn’t have the ability to see cursed energy at all, unlike you and Fushiguro, while the divine dog decided to nudge his snout against the back of your hand leading you to rub its head causing it to emit a rubble/purr as it begins to lavish on the affection it was receiving from you.

‘Not really the best time, but why not…’

“No, unless the second-grade is especially cunning, my demon dog would have noticed it,” Fushiguro said in a stern tone causing the dog to bark once in response before returning back to the attention you were giving it. “They’re trying to kill Itadori, aren’t they?” Fushiguro rhetorically questioned, leading a sigh to come out of your mouth before you turned your head towards the predicted location where you could sense the Kyoto’s students' cursed energies.

“It’s possible,” Maki replied as her gaze moved downwards, trying to understand why they would attempt an assassination during the Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event, especially since the act of killing was prohibited as one of the main rules.

“I don’t sense that much hostility from them, but due to Itadori’s surprise survival, it is possible that Principal Gakuganji ordered then to that but to be honest, that was quite stupid of him since they don’t have the strength to even fully commit the assassination,” you quickly mentioned to your teammates leading them to look up at you with confusion on their faces.

‘I have to thank Gojo for this information later as well’

“Zenin Mai: grade three, Miwa Kasumi: grade three, Nishimiya Momo: semi-grade two, Muta Kokichi: semi-grade one, Kamo Noritoshi: semi-grade one and Todo Aoi: grade one,” you listed as you adding in their grades to make sure Fushiguro and Maki got an idea on what you were about to explain to them. “Out of all of them right now, Todo is the only one that has the capability to fight Sukuna, so Principal Gakuganji was willing to sacrifice his other students really quickly for the execution of Itadori since the rest of them wouldn’t survive,” you informed your schoolmates causing them to shudder at the fact on how informed you already were about the other students without them even ever mentioning about them to you.

“We’re turning back, guys,” Maki stated, causing you to turn to look at her before giving a nod to indicate to her that you understood what she wanted.

“Sorry,” Fushiguro unexpectedly apologised, while Maki just turned away and started to walk back in the opposite direction where everyone was running from.

“What are you apologising for, dummy? There’s no point in winning or losing the exchange event if your friend dies,” Maki said in a disappointed tone, leading to both you and Fushiguro to look at each other before starting to slowly follow her from behind leading you three to go back into the wooded area in search for the other Kyoto students, who were technically on the run now since they seemed to have failed to execute Itadori from what you could sense in the back of your mind.

‘Team Panda is probably doing the same right now since I can faintly sense Panda and Kugisaki going into the forest again, where is Inumaki though?’

ꕥ

“They’re up ahead,” you informed both Fushiguro and Maki since you could feel a stronger presence of cursed energy that was in front of you, leading you to realise that there were at least two Kyoto students since the rest of them seemed to split off somewhere.

Maki turned back to you and gave you a nod before fastening her pace as she suddenly noticed a shine of blue hair coming into her view leading the weapons specialist to prepare her red spare before quickly appearing out from your guys hiding spot to attack Miwa, who quickly managed to notice your upperclassmen as she pulled out her katana from her sheath to deflect Maki’s surprise as well as incoming attacks.

“Gojo, go ahead and find the curse, I’ll take care of Kamo-san,” Fushiguro informed you to which you replied to him with a nod.

During that second, Fushiguro came out from the side and headed towards Kamo leading you to take the small time that you were given to go on ahead and search for the grade-two curse that you needed to exorcise, only to suddenly feel a presence coming from behind leading you to rapidly turn around while raising your katana at the same time, only to discover Kamo standing right in front of you with his bow making direct contact with your weapon, leading you to become confused on why the semi-grade one sorcerer would even try to sneak attack you from behind.

‘Huh?’

“You didn’t even unsheathe your weapon, that’s strange,” Kamo commented, leading you to give him a deadpan look since you didn’t want him to notice or sense your confusion right now.

“Didn’t your little principal inform you to not fight with me or are you just getting a little too confident? That attitude of yours is going to be a drag,” you stated back in a nonchalant tone.

“Kamo-san, are you guys planning to kill Itadori?” Fushiguro asked from behind causing the mentioned sorcerer to turn his head back to view the erratic-haired sorcerer, leading you to smirk before you switch your hand that was holding the katana as you swiftly pulled it back to thrust the tip of your katana into Kamo’s stomach causing him to widen his eyes in shock as an immense pain started to engulf him as his body was pushed back with vast pressure causing Fushiguro to move out of the way to avoid his body colliding with Kamo’s.

‘Don’t get distracted next time, you drag’

Holding onto his stomach, Kamo slowly looked up at you and Fushiguro before coughing out in pain since your attack was more than what he had expected.

“And if I said we were?” Kamo answered, causing you to look at him with massive suspicion in your eyes.

“You failed, then. Itadori wouldn’t go down in such a short time,” Fushiguro declared with a small praise for his friend as he raised his tonfa in a defensive pose while you just straightened yourself up since you had no worries about being attacked again.

“We have no reason to kill him,” Kamo stated with a smirk on his face causing you to turn your head to the side and scoff at him since it was hilarious that he was acting so confident after just barely managing to withstand a simple physical attack from you before you turned back to face him again.

‘What a drag~’

“Yes, you do. The higher-ups and the three major clans have plenty,” you mentioned before resting your katana over your shoulder to relax for a second since you could sense that this fight was either going to be easy or too easy for your liking.

‘It’s surprising that he is attempting to fight me though, I wonder if Gojo-sensei forgot to inform them about this little extra rule but I still need to find out about that mole...’

ꕥ

“Ah~ I thought I told you to tell your students to not attempt to fight Y/N? they’re only going to get hospitalised in the process,” Gojo playfully asked, as he turned to look behind his seat to be eye to eye with the Kyoto Principal, who was in charge of informing his students about this new rule that he and Principal Yaga implemented.

“Well, she attacked Kamo, so she’s breaking the rule isn’t she?” Utahime asked as she took a sip from her cup leading Gojo to turn to look at her with a slight frown on his face.

“Well, your student did attack her first, she can’t help but retaliate since that was her normal strength right there. If it was any other student, they would have been eliminated real quick,” Gojo informed his colleague causing her eyes to widen before turning back to the screen to only discover your eyes were directly looking at her since you were directly looking at the crow that was inspecting you right now.

“She’s quite an interesting girl,” a sorcerer from behind commented as she proceeded to open her eyes. “Not only did she notice my crows looking at her since the start of the event, but she’s also quite strong, no wonder you took her in,” she mentioned as she faced forward to notice Gojo looking at her.

“She’s a tough cookie, isn’t she Mei-san?” Gojo said with a proud smile on his face before he processed to face the screens again with the smile now straightening.

‘I don’t know what he’s trying to do, but I know Y/N won’t fall for it naively, she’s more the type to manipulate his plan...besides, it’s as if she’s giving him a death glare right now’

This thought of his caused him to giggle lightly, creeping out Utahime as she stared at him in pure confusion.

‘I know she can do it’

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nyxdelanuit · 4 years

Text

Feral (Tendou x F! Reader)

Hey! Here’s Nyx being super late with a collab fic for the Haikyuu Headquarters Collab, which can be found here!

Special shout outs to @the-great-queen and @fallingintoimagination for getting me hooked on Feral Tendy <3 and @mammonrights for bein a heathen with me.

Warnings: Biting, Marking, Slight breeding kink cause it’s me, A lil bit of predator/prey play, and NSFW abound~

You quite enjoyed the calm, lazy weekends where you curled up with a book or movie, ignoring the outside world and the coming work week. The same couldn’t be said for your friend, currently draped over your lap, whining.

"I'm so bored, let's do something fun." Tendou looked up at you with pleading eyes as you kept watching your show. You were only a few episodes out from the season finale, and you weren't too keen on stopping now.

"I am having fun, Sa-to-ri." You grinned, glancing down at him, "It's not my fault you don't have any taste." He pouted at you, the teasing something that had thrived in your friendship.

“It’s not my fault I’ve already read the whole series before the show started. I could tell you what happens if you want.” Your attention turned fully to him, what he wanted all along.

"You wouldn't dare, Tendou." You tried to keep your gaze hard on him, despite the growing grin on his face.

“Ooh, pulling out the last name, that hurts.” He put a mocking hand over his chest. “And I wouldn’t have to ruin the whole series for you if you just entertained me a little.” You huffed, pausing the show and giving him an unamused glare.

"Fine, and what do you want to do exactly?" He sat up, leaning in close to you. You could feel the heat of your face at his nearness but kept up your mask. It wasn't new for you and Tendou to flirt like this, but it never failed to excite you.

“Would you believe me if I said you?” The coy grin he wore made you roll your eyes.

“No.” You turned your face away, trying to calm your desperate heartbeat before you gave him more ammunition to tease you. His calloused fingers slid under your chin, bringing your face back to his gaze.

"I think you're lying… you want it, don't you?" You bit your tongue softly, trying to weigh your options. Tendou would notice right away if you lied, and you wouldn't dare tell him the truth, that you had been dreaming of the day he'd finally make a real move.

It seemed Tendou was especially impatient that day, pressing a light kiss to your lips before retreating, hopping off your couch to stretch. “Let’s play tag.”

You were snapped out of your stupor at the kiss by his words, wondering if you had possibly imagined it. "W-what?" His eyes drifted to yours with a predatory smile.

“Tag. If you can keep away from me for… hmm… fifteen minutes, you win. We keep watching your show, no more complaints from me.” You furrowed your brows.

“Satori, we’re not kids anymore. I figured you’d want to go out to a club or something, why tag?”

“Cause it’s fun. Live a little, play tag with me.” He shrugged and held out a hand, which you reluctantly took, pulling you to your feet.

“Fine, and what happens if I lose?” His eyes glittered with a curious mischievousness, and you were almost tempted to pull your hand away.

"I'll think of something. Now for the rules. No leaving the house, no locking doors. I'll give you a 30-second head start. You can hide if you really want to." His grin only grew as he spoke, showing his excitement for your little game. You rolled your eyes again, ignoring the spark of adrenaline that ran through your veins. "Sound good to you?"

"Yeah, sure, Satori."

"Then… Run." The look in his eyes sent a shiver down your spine, and you couldn't help but wonder if this was how a rabbit felt staring into the eyes of a wolf. Once he started counting, you were pulled from your frozen state, turning and bolting down the hallway. You could still hear him, his singing echoing through your house as he counted down the seconds to his hunt. With no more than a handful of seconds left, you crept into the ancient wardrobe in your room, thankful you hadn't had the time to fill it properly. You bit at your lip, trying to get the door to close from the inside was harder than you expected.

Your breath hitched as you heard his footsteps, far too close for you to fiddle with the door anymore. You pressed yourself into the dark of the wardrobe, hoping it was enough to conceal you as his shadow snuffed out what remained of the light.

Your hands flew to your mouth, holding in your breath along with the whine that threatened to escaped as he paused in front of you.

“Come on out sweetness, maybe I’ll make your punishment something we’ll both enjoy?” His voice was deeper than usual, a darkness you’d only caught glimpses of before now on full display. You shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as you were, the heat pooling in your stomach as he lingered. Something about the tension, the anticipation of being found was a drug to you.

He slowly moved away, something you only noticed by the return of the light. You sat for several long moments, trying to hear past the blood rushing in your ears as you peeked through the door. The room in front of you was empty, and he could no longer be heard. If you wanted to run, now would be the time. Cautiously, you pushed open the door, creeping out one leg at a time until you released a shuddering breath, straightening your clothes.

"You should probably run now, little lamb." The voice made you jump, even more so the sight of Tendou, leaning against the door you had just open, a malicious grin splitting his face in two. You ran without any thought, slamming doors behind you as you tried and failed to remember your house's layout. Every step, every labored breath you took, you could hear him nearing. You could feel him hot on your heels, to the point where the doors were no longer falling closed behind you, merely bouncing off his extended arm, slamming against the wall.

You had made a mistake somewhere in your panic. A room with no other doors, no easy means of escape, just you and Tendou standing at separate sides of the room. All you could do was watch as he closed in, your heart jack-hammering against its cage. The only way out was around, to fake out the former Guess Monster of Shiratorizawa.

Breathe in, breathe out- glance to the side, opposite of where you were planning of going. Your mind was working faster than you thought possible, acting on the barest hint of thoughts as Tendou's hands neared you. You ducked, somehow slipping through the narrow escape between his arm and his body. Your lungs burned as you ran, the peals of laughter echoing throughout the halls as the hunt continued. How long could fifteen minutes be?

Each step, each ragged breath sent a fire through your veins. Maybe Tendou had the right idea, when was the last time you felt this alive? Slipping through doorways, skidding along tiled floors, nervous laughter seeping through your lips as his cackling rang in your ears. Faster, quicker, just seconds ahead of his hands, you ran. You couldn't hide, not anymore, all you could do was hope that you were faster than him until the clock ran out.

You somehow found yourself back where you started, the timer of his phone counting down the last seconds of your game. You had won, you knew it, just a few more seconds…

A shrill scream tore through your throat; you had let yourself get distracted. Calloused fingers wrapped around you, holding your arms tight to your chest as the alarm rang through the house. You had almost won… Tendou pulled you flush against his chest, every inch of him wrapped around you, pressed against your back.

“Too bad, little lamb.” He taunted, his lips brushing against your ear. “You were so close.” You hadn’t even noticed the whine that escaped you until you heard him chuckle, low and dark. “You stopped there near the end… did you want me to catch you that bad?” You shook your head, belatedly noticing how his hands sunk into the plush of your chest. “You can deny it to yourself all you want, but your body says differently. You haven’t even tried to slip away.” He moved his head to brush his lips against your neck, the barest brushes of skin. There was no fighting the shiver of pleasure that ran down your spine or the gasp that slipped past your lips.

You resisted even less when he turned you, pressing your chests together as his head dipped to kiss you hungrily. You opened to his whims easily, tongue and teeth clashing with no other thought than the hunger that burned deep in your stomach. When had your hands buried themselves in his? When had he stopped kissing you in favor of trailing bites down the length of your neck? It was happening so quickly, and yet it seemed as if this had been building up as long as you could remember. He devoured you, as he did so many other things. Headfirst into his passion with little regard to anything else as his rough hands slid under your shirt, quickly pulling it up and over your head. He barely pulled away to pull his own off by the collar, whipping it to the abyss that existed outside of you and him.

Throughout the house, he led you, a trail of clothes littering your path. He was nothing but a storm of lips and teeth, marking every inch of skin he could reach, claiming you as his prize. He hadn't even stripped you of your underwear, but the way he was grinding against you, laving his tongue over the deep imprints of his teeth had you writhing for release. Finally, a single finger dipped between you, dragging over your covered folds and feeling the dampness that made the fabric cling to your skin.

“Pretty little lamb, I’m going to destroy you.” He chuckled, his breath falling heavily against your neck. You nodded, already a whining mess.

“Please, Satori… I want you, please.” Was that your voice? You hardly recognized it, buried beneath all the lust and longing weighing down the tone.

He spoke mockingly as he slowly pulled the last scrap of fabric down your legs. “I knew you wanted me, little lamb… but I didn’t mind playing our little game to make you admit it. You opened your mouth to refute him, to say something in your defense, but the only thing that came out was a sinful moan as his teeth sunk into your thigh, marking you so close to where you wanted him.

Words failed you, lost in the haze that was Tendou Satori, and all you could do was pull him in closer, desperate to feel him inside of you. He fit against you so well, the feeling of his lips on yours was a drug like no other. You melted against his touch, conforming to his body as he hitched your leg high up on your hip. His touch on your hip was firm, holding you still as he teased at your entrance, watching your face with a sadistic smile.

Ever so slowly, he sunk in, his mouth open as he let the softest of groans escape him while he watched you writhe as you tried to push down further on his length. "You know, little lamb… I never said what I would take as my prize…" You attempted to clear your cloudy eyes, focusing on his gluttonous face.

"I thought this…" A sharp thrust, bottoming Tendou's length inside you brought your sentence to a breathy end, but you tried to continue on, "I thought I was your prize?"

“Hmm… but you gave yourself over to me without me even asking… I guess I’ll just have to cum in you as my prize.” It shouldn’t sound so appealing falling from his lips, but all you could do was keen out, desperate for him to take you in any and all ways he wanted. He won you fair and square.

“Please, Satori, whatever you want, just move!” His smile darkened, a calloused finger coming up to brush lightly against your cheek.

“How can I resist when you beg so nicely for it?” With that last word, his hands returned to your hips, holding on in a bruising grip as he pulled out slowly, watching the tears gather on your lashes as you pleaded for him to move faster. As soon as the tip traced your entrance, something in him snapped. He bucked into you wildly, pulling a loud moan from your lungs.

Gone was your lazy, teasing friend that you spent calm Sundays with, replaced with a hungry animal, intent on devouring you from the inside out. Each roll of his hips pushed you further from your thoughts, focusing only on the carnal way he hunched over you, sucking deep marks into your skin to remind you long after this was over of what he turned you into. Just a mewling, desperate mess, falling apart underneath him, pliant to his every touch. And touch he did, imprints of his hands seemed to be carved into your hips, the ghost of his teeth in every bite he laid on your skin still stinging, only heightening the pleasure of his cock pistoning within you.

The pleasure became overwhelming, and you dug your nails into his shoulder, desperate for anything to ground yourself in this moment. It only spurred him on further, a deep growl rumbling in his chest as you marked him in kind. Some small stake that showed you weren't just a passive participant in his game. You pulled him close with the grip you held on his shoulders, panting heavily on his shoulder before you bit into his neck, mirroring one of the many marks he had left on you. The whine you pulled from his throat only made you moan against his skin as he pushed your legs higher, trying to find a better angle to sink into you as you savagely attacked his neck.

You only pulled away when you felt the peak growing impossibly close, a breathy moan of his name bringing him back to himself.

“Please, Satori, I’m so close.” You let the tears spill from your lashes, twin rivers framing your face as you stared up at him, pleading. “Fill me up, please.” He groaned lowly, pulling back just enough to sneak a hand between your bodies. Those stupid, calloused fingers you had grown to appreciate so quickly deftly found your clit, sensitive from all the friction of his rutting, and he relentlessly assaulted the swollen nub. You felt him start to twitch inside you as you tensed, finally cresting in pleasure.

He was thrown violently into his orgasm as you cried out his name, clenching your fists around his shoulders once more. Each thrust as he worked through his release brought you closer to over-stimulation, the added friction on the edge of pain as he filled you.

The house was finally quiet, the only sound coming from your intermingling breaths, heavy and satisfied. He collapsed next to you, content to relax against your pillows as you processed all that had just happened. When you remained silent, he turned his eyes to you with a grin. “We can go watch that show now.”

You couldn’t stop the nervous giggle that escaped you. “After all that, you want to go watch that show?” He nodded, smirking.

"Yeah, why not?" He sat up, stretching out his shoulders, and giving you a good view of the angry red lines you had left all over him.

“So… do we just pretend this didn’t happen?”

"I don't know what you mean, I thought I made it pretty clear." You wished you could see his face as he got up for even a hint of how he felt.

“What do you mean, Satori?”

“I won you.” He sung, “I marked you inside and out. You’re mine now.” He turned with a mischievous grin, and you wouldn’t be surprised if this was the outcome he wanted when he walked through your door this morning. Still, you stood, walking over to him and running a hand down his chest.

“You did, didn’t you?” With your confirmation, his grin softened to a more sincere smile, ducking to place a kiss to your cheek.

“So, time for your show, little lamb?”

#tendou x reader #tendou satori x reader #haikyuu smut #Haikyuu hq collab #nyx writes

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cocochannel00 · 3 years

Text

The Azoff Family: A Case Study on one of the Music Industry’s Most Connected Families

(ft. a breakdown of the Grammy voting process and problems)

This is very long so I will try and split it up into categories for everyone (sorry I got carried away- I spent like 2 hours writing this) but enjoy!

*Disclaimer: I want to preface while the majority of this is based in research, some parts may be speculation. I don’t know the family personally so I can’t tell you what goes on behind closed doors but I can tell you how parts of the entertainment/music industry work. I’ve had 5 internships in the industry (one in marketing at one of the big record labels) and the rest of my work is publicity (what I enjoy) and events and a former advisor used to run in the same circles as Irving Azoff (and he spilled some tea last year) I’m not out here to diminish the hard work of any artists or their teams, I’m simply here to showcase parts of the industry that aren’t always shown.*

Please also see: Story Time: How Fan Pages Directly Impact Columbia Records Decisions and Harry Styles Image

IRVING AZOFF: NEVER STOP THE GRIND

Let’s begin with the great business man himself Mr. Irving Azoff Irving Azoff is the literal posture child for connections and power in the music industry (he was also inducted into the 2020 rock and roll hall of fame class which is like a huge fucking deal for a manager to be inducted so you know he's the real deal)

In conclusion, I love Irving Azoff and his drive.

Irving Azoff: Early Years Run Down:

He came up middle class (dad was a pharmacist, mom a bookkeeper) in Danville, Illinois

He dropped out of college to run a small Midwestern concert-booking empire and managed local acts in the era

Opportunity came knocking and he got the chance to manage the Eagles and the rest is history

He's one of the best negotiators and has negotiated business on behalf of stars like Stevie Nicks, the Eagles, and Jimmy Buffet

Azoff has been an incredible manager and his drive to always advocate for his clients while basically not giving two sh*ts about what people think of him has gotten him the incredible reputation he has today.

All of Irving Azoff’s Major Job Positions:

Former President MCA (major label)

Former CEO of Ticketmaster and executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, the behemoth formed from Ticketmaster’s merger with Live Nation.

In 2013 he and Cablevision Systems Corp. CEO and New York Knicks owner James Dolan formed a partnership, Azoff MSG Entertainment (Currently still CEO)

----> Azoff also ran the Forum in Inglewood under Azoff MSG Entertainment after MSG purchased it in 2012 (it was sold in 2020 to the owner of the Clippers) — why do you think Harry played the forum for the Fine Line show? Azoff connection

Azoff MSG Entertainment encompasses all of the other companies including Full Stop Management, Global Music Rights (performance-rights org), and the Oak View Group (arena developing company)

He also is the co-founder and manager of the lobbying group Music Artists Coalition, a group that helps lobby for artists-rights issues such as royalty rates, copyright issue and healthcare insurance (see he's not all bad)

Essentially what I'm getting at is this man knows anybody who's anybody. He's the man you want on your team to help promote your music, plan your tour, and get you on that Grammy nom list.

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JEFFREY AZOFF: THE CHILD OF NEPOTISM

So for those of you that don't know, Jeffery Azoff is Harry's current manager and the son of Irving Azoff (the third of four kids). He's currently a partner at Full Stop Management, the company owned by Irving and the one artists such as Harry, Haim, the Eagles, Kings of Leon, and Meghan Trainer are signed to.

Jeffrey graduated from the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business and started working fresh out of college at his father's old Management company (Frontline Management) working under Maroon 5's manager Jordan Feldstein (the only way you get that kind of internship/job as a 21 year old fresh out of college is if your family or family friends gives it to you). He worked here for 5 years.

Direct Quote from Irving Azoff to Jeffrey (really tells you a lot): "Listen carefully, because I’m going to say this one time. You have a phone and you have my last name. If you can’t figure it out, you’re not my son."

After working for his father, Jeffrey moved on to the talent agency CAA (Creative Artist Agency) where he worked for roughly 3 and half years before joining his dad in forming Full Stop Management in 2016.

While he was at CAA, Irving moved over clients like Christina Aguilera and the Eagles to the talent agency to help with tour booking instead of doing it internally through LiveNation (he was CEO).

Even though I'm sure Jeff has had to work somewhat hard to get to where he is (or at least to mess up his dad's work as he doesn't seem like the type to take laziness well), the door into the industry and every job was basically handed to him on a silver platter.

Not to mention if you watch episodes of keeping up with the kardashians (like myself) you can actually see Jeff hanging out with kendall and the rest of the fam at their Palm Springs house (you know you're a nepotism kid if you have an in with the Kardashian crew). Invite me next time Jeffrey!!!

Think of the Azoff's as the mafia family of the music industry, you don't mess with the mafia

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THE GRAMMY AWARDS: STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS ON STEROIDS

Ok so here's where we’re going to get into a bit more of the speculation/grey area. I don't need to tell you that award shows are corrupt (See the Golden Globes Emily in Paris scandal) and the Grammys are not an exception. Think of the Grammys as one big student council/government elections where despite the fact the teachers tell you six times to vote for the best candidate, you're still going to vote for your friends even if they aren't the best.

A simplified break-down of Grammy voting:

1) Recording Academy voting members (artists, producers, musicians- anyone involved first hand with the creation of music; All voting members must have been producers, performers or engineers on six or more tracks of a commercially released album (or 12 or more digital tracks) and record labels will submit nominations in various categories to the grammys (songs need to be released commercially between October 1 of the previous year and September 30th of this year). You can also become a voting member by either winning a grammy or being endorsed by a current voting member (hint hint)

2) Once received, the recording academy with have the academy of trustees and its reviewers organize them and approve any changes to the 30 categories/fields (aka they can add new categories or remove old ones; so no best ukulele album of the year -- this is where things get funky)

There's speculation that during this stage when these special groups of 8-10 people are organizing genres, there's an "unwritten rule" that you need to be careful what album you green light (especially for famous artists) if you don't want them to win) (Rob Kenner said this- he used to be on one of these committees). Famous people tend to get more votes from clueless or lay Academy members that don't know the specialized categories or don't care enough to listen to songs that aren't radio trending.

3) After the nominations occur, Voting members begin their first voting. Members can vote for the four general categories of record of the year, album of the year, song of the year and best new artist and a maximum of 15 categories, all within their areas of expertise. Now the interesting thing is that while these are the guidelines there is literally nothing stopping them from voting in whatever categories they want (i.g. a rapper voting in the opera category despite not listening to opera). Theses ballots are all tallied and the top 20 entries are determined in each category (funky moment #2)

In 12 of the 84 categories those top 20 go to the ballot and it's done; for the rest it’s not like that. 59 categories including the big four go to a "nomination review committees" (identities are protected so they can't get lobbied... sure) who take a look at the top 20 and narrow it down to 7 or 8. (these are the special committees the Weekend talked about when he was snubbed). They're supposed to choose the nominees "based solely on the artistic and technical merits of the eligible recordings" which lets be real if that was the case Watermelon Sugar (along with most of the others in the category) I don't think would have been nomimated as they are very generic pop (none of them are special... sorry to the WM lovers out there).

This committee is basically held to THE HONOR CODE SYSTEM... I mean tell me when the last time the honor code system worked in literally any scenario (literally wtf). Don't take my word for it though the former CEO of the Academy Deborah Dugan (a queen) filed a complaint against the Recording Academy basically claiming that the nomination review process was rigged (she was fired after 5 months on the job).

Quote from Deborah Dugan "Members of the board [of trustees] and the secret committees chose artists with whom they have personal or business relationships... It is not unusual for artists who have relationships with Board members and who ranked at the bottom of the initial 20-artist list to end up receiving nominations."

These review committees can also exploit there power by adding up to two nominees that don't appear on the top 20 list to the final voting ballot (except in the 4 big categories - which watermelon sugar that one wasn't nominated for)

They also have craft committees for like non performance stuff (like album notes, engineering and arranging) that don't even get voted on by the academy voting members

4) After all of that fucked up mess, the grammy's decided is ok, the ballots go back to the voting members for the final vote. Deloitte (an accounting firm) then counts all of them, seals them in envelopes, and delivers them to the Grammy award show.

** The Grammy's just announced this year they're removing the "secret committees" so let's see how things shift in the next couple of years**

So obviously I'm not saying this to discredit Harry's nomination or his win as Fine Line was in the US top 20 albums for the majority of 2020, however, we must acknowledge privilege. Harry has a big name to him and a huge following, and while all of that shouldn't be taken into account, it does. He also has the Azoffs, a very well connected family with friends in lots of places that would be able to put in a good word here and there to get support behind Harry. Harry won best pop solo performance for Watermelon Sugar in a category with Doja Cat, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and Dua Lipa. Look at the names there, the songs (ya'll can try and remember them cause I'm too lazy to write it out) and tell me that those top names with all of the music produced didn't get there through some connections.

Do with all this information what you will and if you are interested in learning more about the entertainment industry on your own Endeavor (owners of WME, a big talent agency like CAA) is hosting a free online program called the Excellence Program to help guide the future generation of industry executives. The program is a-synchronous and starts on July 12th. Highly recommend giving it a go if you're interested!!!

Alright ya'll that's it. Feel free to message me with your thoughts!

Extra Sources if you'd like to read:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdndn/how-grammys-voting-actually-works-and-where-the-alleged-corruption-lies

https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/voting-process

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-11-05/irving-azoff-eagles-manager

https://celebrityaccess.com/caarchive/jeffrey-azoff-exits-caa-to-launch-new-management-company/

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/grammy-awards-secret-committees-945532/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/grammy-awards-eliminate-secret-committees-voting-changes-1163887/

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ladyc0312 · 3 years

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A Jikook Guide to RunBTS: 102-111

It’s been a minute! No, I haven’t abandoned this project - I’ve just been dealing with real world stuff at the same time as I’ve been working on my fic, which is wrapping up this week. It’s also been kind of strange to me to have gotten to this point in doing the Run episode write-ups, as 102 was the first episode of the show I ever watched.

With no further ado, let’s get it!

Ep 102 “King of Avatar Cook Part 1” (Ep: 4 / KM: 2)

The ones where Suga nearly cries over mixed up salt and sugar

6:44 - When JM beats JK in rocks paper scissors, JK "snips" Jimin's rock with his fingers and then moves his other hand to hold JM's hand for a moment (as seen in the Behind) Amusingly, no one except the editors seem to notice that JM only won by straight-up cheating and changing his answer to match Hobi's while everyone was looking at JK.

32:32 - JM touches JK's back when he first comes into the kitchen to taste the food JK helped make.

33:01 - After JM tells Hobi not to fill up on the other team's food, JK says Hobi should eat more and JM scolds him not to play dirty while wagging his finger at him. JM says to play fair and JK shakes his hand.

33:28 - JM and JK stand super close together to take the last of the food they want.

BEHIND 2:26 - After joking that he wanted to change teams, JM says that JK is always confident about his cooking and that he thinks JK will be good.

4:24 - Longer take of the 6:44 moment where you can see JK quickly holding JM's hand after rocks paper scissors.

5:03 - JK tattles on JM for looking at the recipe on his phone and says they should take points off for doing that.

Ep 103 “King of Avatar Cook Part 2” (Ep: 4 / KM: 1)

6:16 - JK laughs and claps like it's the funniest thing ever when Suga instructs JM to stand still with his hands clasped and JM does so.

7:05 - When JM keeps pretending Suga is instructing RM to do stuff like say JM is handsome and be nice to him, JK says "Look, look, he's saying weird stuff!" and laughs with JH about it.

9:01 - JK once again laughs at JM being silly like it's much cuter and funnier than it is.

27:04 - Same here.

Ep 104 “Photo Exhibition Part 1″ (Ep: 4 / KM: 3)

The one where everyone except Jimin is a little afraid of JK

All - black & white couple <3

2:24 - The guys are playing a musical chairs-type game and, twice, other members talk about how they're scared of getting hurt because JK is big and competitive. At this moment, JK and JM go for the same mat and JK wins. JM sits and leans back against him. As Hobi and Suga talk about how scary JK is, JK is smiling and putting his arms around JM while JM hums and smiles at the camera.

9:01-9:16 - Somewhere in here, JM uses the opportunity of RM getting up to select his clothes to shift his seat so that he's sitting next to JK.

10:44 - When JK is looking for a belt, JM helps him out by suggesting he make one with one of the pieces of clothing he's holding.

11:06 - Probably nothing, but Hobi suggests out of nowhere that JM go for the "boyfriend look" with his outfit.

Ep 105 “Photo Exhibition Part 2″ (Ep: 3 / KM: 2)

The one where everyone finishes their outfits and takes pictures of each other

5:37 - JM asks JK to look at the pants he made, seemingly searching for a compliment, which JK dutifully gives him.

11:47 - After JM gets the capital of Mongolia right, JK asks how he did it and comments that JM is full of surprises.

29:48 - JK helps JM tie on an accessory. Didn't want to not include this moment because it's cute, but it should be noted that JK is in the role of JM's "stylist" and that's why he's doing it.

32:52 - When V takes a pic of JM from the back, Suga says he can't tell if it's JM or JK (despite them having totally different outfits, different hair colors and cuts, and generally looking nothing alike...)

BEHIND 7:36 - Another angle of the 29:48 moment

Ep 106 “Photo Exhibition Part 3″ (Ep: 3 / KM: 3)

The one with the now-infamous photo of Jimin

4:20 - JM compliments JK's photography skills and shakes JK's hand when he returns from taking RM's photos.

6:57 - While the others are looking at Suga's pictures of JK, JM asks JK to take pictures of him (and licks his lips while doing so).

7:18 - JM is continuing to pose for JK, this time on all fours looking back over his shoulder. JM will claim half a minute later that he was going for a "werewolf pose"... but, really?

28:45 - When the others are criticizing JM's photo, JK comes over and puts his hands on JM's waist. The camera pans away immediately.

35:56 - JK ends the episode joking about the "new actor" photo he took of Jimin.

BEHIND 5:58 - JK takes everyone’s favorite photo of JM.

Ep 107 "BTS Game Scouts Part 1" (Ep: 2 / KM: 1)

The ones I’ve watched twice now and still can’t follow, but the guys seem happy

4:56 - JK calls Jimin "Jimin-ssi" and tells him to start drawing.

11:27 - JK does so again when it's JM’s turn here. BEHIND 6:01 - JM tells JK he's right behind JK in the score in a flirty tone.

Ep 108 "BTS Game Scouts Part 2" (Ep: 2 / KM: 1)

11:20 - When Jimin gets a purple reward, he starts repeating "boarahae" and JK joins in by singing it.

26:38 - J-Hope accidentally says "Jungkook and Jimin" when he means "Jungkook and Tae." It's almost like he's used to saying two of those names together...

30:06 - All three times they're about to announce JK the winner of something, JM cuts in to announce his name before they do.

31:28 - When JK asks where he can use his gift cards, Jimin tells him he can go shopping with them.

Ep 109 "Dubbing" (Ep: 5 / KM: 2)

The one where it seems JM might have a future in Disney dubbing if this whole idol thing doesn’t work out

0:19 - JM finds the different voice JK uses in the opening much funnier than anyone else does

10:40 - JK praises JM's Lion King performance

33:19 - After their guest praises JM for his performance as Judy in the Zootopia scene, JK calls out "Jimin-ssi!" twice

BEHIND 0:51 - JK has a GIANT smile on his face because he finds JM's sudden shyness adorable

3:50 - After JK complains that he is cold, JM puts his arms around him to warm him up

6:02 - When JM is playing around with the Rex voice, JK again finds it far funnier than anyone else does

Ep 110 "Treasure Hunt Part 1" (Ep: 4 / KM: 1)

The ones where the warm-up games to get hints to the treasure hunt are much more fun than the hunt itself

12:35 - When J-Hope suggests that someone should get piggy-backed, JK says "oh!" and looks right at JM.

22:18 - When JK starts singing, JM joins in and harmonizes with him. BEHIND

2:57 - When it's announced that a game is all about being strong, JM immediately says that JK should do it.

4:08 - When it becomes clear it's a strength and flexibility challenge, JK says JM should go and informs everyone that JM majored in contemporary dance.

Ep 111 "Treasure Hunt Part 2" (Ep: 2 / KM: 2)

6:19 - When they get the clue "Jungkook with a different last name," Suga immediately says, "Park Jungkook"

33:00 - When JM learns that the prize is to go home, one of his first comments is that JK won't be able to go home (because JM knows JK hasn't really been trying on this one.)

33:44 - In his ending comment, JM wishes everyone after him good luck - especially JK. BEHIND 4:12 - When JK is confused about the rules, he asks JM for clarification and JM explains to him (the on-screen text says he's being a "friendly hyung")

5:45 - When JH asks Tae if he knows the "JK's last name" answer yet, Tae also guesses "Park"

8:12 - As JM leaves, he once again brings up JK, saying "JK, fighting!" No proof of this, but there has been some speculation that JM's concern for JK may have led to him texting him the answer, because JK seems to be able to get the passcode without having done any of the work necessary to solve the clues...

#jikook guide to run bts #jikook #kookmin

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bronyinabottle · 3 years

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G5 MOVIE THOUGHTS FOLLOWUP - THE ANCIENT EQUESTRIAN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

SPOILER WARNING: THIS WILL GET INTO SPOILERS FOR THE G5 MOVIE EVEN BEFORE THE BREAK. IT HAS BEEN JUST OVER A WEEK SINCE THE MOVIE PREMIERED. BUT IF YOU STILL HAVEN'T SEEN IT, PLEASE SCROLL PAST THIS.

This is something of a follow-up to my thoughts on the movie. My thoughts on the movie were generally positive. Though much like the movie itself, the positive thoughts were on what it’s doing on it’s own merit as the start of a new generation of pony media. As someone who had followed Generation 4 from all the way in the middle of Season 1 to the ending of Season 9, the connection the G5 movie makes with the previous generation in the opening scenes are enough that it’s necessary to give a perspective from a G4 fan’s point of view. Again, I do want to say that G5 will be within it’s right to not have to answer so many plot things at once and try to stand on it’s own by exploring the characters and this new Equestria first.

That said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the longer none of the questions G4 fans will have are answered. There is a huge elephant in the room with the unanswered questions from G4. And It is Hasbro’s fault in the first place for telling us it’s the same Equestria, There will be fans that are annoying about it from multiple angles, and there will probably be times where people who just want to enjoy G5 on it’s own just outright snap at anyone who wants their answers about what happened in between G4 and G5. Even if the person who asks the question is just genuinely curious and not being demanding there be answers. This is just the kind of thing that all fandoms that have timeskip sequels, especially ones where it overrides a happy ending where discussing with other friends can get dicey.

HAPPY ENDING OVERRIDES AND ALICORNS

Until we get an official answer from the show itself, we can only theorize with each other. Though theorizing about a happy ending override, regardless of how long it’s been and/or how sensible the theory is can start some heated discussions, Cause many were content with the happy ending of the original. While no realistic story ever has a happily ever after, a story within a fantasy land such as MLP’s can be an exception.

Let me give something of a comparison by bringing up another show. Avatar: The Last Airbender is perhaps my favorite show of all-time. And while it’s true I didn’t like the sequel series Korra as much as A:TLA. It wasn’t because of some happy ending override with at least half of the main cast from the previous series deceased. The Avatars themselves are just as human as the other characters in the world. Avatar’s still a fantasy world when all is said and done, but the way the world building is done still made it feel like it it was possible for the world to be in danger again by the time the next Avatar is grown up, most known Avatars had challenges they had to face. The Avatar series blends some form of realism but still manages to provide a fun fantasy world. It’s a case where it’s believable that the main legacy of Aang’s time as the Avatar aside from defeating the Fire Lord where he created Republic City would have it’s own fair share of problems that would be left to his successor to solve. Aang in turn was finishing the war that Roku failed to stop. So while I have my criticisms about Korra, none of those are related to the way the world is after the timeskip. It reasonably makes sense in the context of the Avatar universe.

In contrast, there isn’t much we know about the past of G4 and it’s a much more idealistic setting then in Avatar. Yes, ponies die with what I assume are human-esque lifespans for the exception of the Alicorns. But Friendship is Magic is a setting where the power of friendship is literal magic power that can save the day even when things look bleak. As a result it can get very sappy, but FiM is the kind of show you watch to put a smile on your face rather then go to for a multi-faceted plot. Most episodes of FiM are the kind of thing you see in a lot of other shows. But what brings most of it’s fans back even for the most overdone plots is the characters and their interactions. FiM’s lore is a lot less straight forward, and sometimes may feel not as consistent given there were so many different writers over the long span of time. That said, there is something about the series that sort of ties in heading into G5 and that’s G4’s history, and especially Alicorn lore. We don’t get a lot of either even back in G4, as the most we get is the founding of Equestria was through the Hearth’s Warming Eve story, and the knowledge that Alicorns like Celestia and Luna are at least older then 1000. Which is a huge gap compared to the Avatars that no matter how powerful, have similar mortality to our own. Throughout G4’s time, the debate about Alicorns have raged throughout the whole time even before things got really heated upon Twilight becoming an Alicorn in Magical Mystery Cure. Some went with Celestia and Luna being the only immortal Alicorns while Cadence and Twilight were somehow lesser Alicorns that aren’t immortal but maybe at least still a longer lifespan then their normal pony friends and family. Though as of Season 9, that may be turned on it’s head when in The Last Problem. Twilight eventually grows to Celestia-size as Celestia and Luna even retire to let Twilight succeed them. If Twilight is somehow a lesser Alicorn, why did she grow to Celestia’s size? Why did Celestia and Luna retire in the first place if they knew Twilight will not be as long lived as they are? Perhaps part of the reason G5 has as many questions as it does is because G4 itself created questions it never promised to answer.

That said, the implied length of Celestia and Luna’s rule still presents G5 with a problem that will be asked everywhere. Even if we go with the possibility that most of the Mane 6 have passed from old age, you still have to answer something about Twilight. If Twilight is also dead, how long did she live? Did she at least have an over-1000 year reign as Celestia did? Was perhaps Luster Dawn chosen to be her younger co-ruler if Luster herself ascended at some point? The kind of things that might actually force G5 into a corner when it comes to Alicorns despite the fact G4 never had to, especially now that Sunny may have just become one herself. This is once again, another of the traps Hasbro put the writing team through by having them put it in the same world. G5 thus not only adds questions about what happened in between the Generations, but also now has to inherit what remained unanswered in G4. That is a VERY tall task on a team that will likely just want to do their own little fun pony show. It’ll raise expectations too high, and there will be annoyed fans regardless how they spin it. Which could have all been avoided if they set it up that this was an entirely new world, or made G4 a fictional story (With all the references to it being mainly merchandise for a really meta look at things) in the G5 universe. You’d still have people complaining about it not being as good as G4 probably, but the approach they went with added more gasoline to the fire whenever G4 Vs. G5 debates happen in the MLP fandom. And inter-fandom generation fights are never fun, just ask the Pokemon and the Sonic fandoms how that turns out (Even though there’s no Generation number count for the Sonic franchise. You could say Gen 1 of Sonic was the classic era. Gen 2 was the Sonic Adventure Era. Gen 3 was the “Dark Age” Sonic 2006-Sonic Unleashed era. Gen 4 the Sonic Colors and Generations era. and Gen 5 the current Sonic Forces and Team Sonic Racing era. And then of course there’s also the different TV shows and comic books that also have their own fans that can be at each other’s throats).

There isn’t going to be an easy solution to something that will no doubt have fans on the edge on their seat even if they will be left to hang on that edge for a longtime before G5 starts to give some answers. I think I’ll at least bring up 3 things that will probably be part of the discussions of just what happened between G4 and G5

(More after the break)

1. AND THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN THE FIRE NATION AN UNKNOWN THREAT ATTACKED

With G4 being considered Ancient Equestria. It’s probably safe to assume this is at least 1,000 years after G4. And 1,000 or more is a really, really, long time. Where anything could of happened, including *GASP* a villain actually winning at some point (Or at least, did some lasting damage even if they were ultimately defeated). Though I think even with that possibility, there has to be a sense that the villain didn’t defeat the Mane 6 while the other members aside from Twilight were still alive. If Twilight was at some point defeated. Perhaps the villain struck when Twilight was most vulnerable. You could also have it that Twilight somehow sacrificed herself to defeat a large threat. She saved Equestria one last time, but at the cost of even her long-lasting alicorn life. With the populace left on their own to continue life without Twilight, but the loss of their longtime leader too much for Equestria. Thus a slow decline happened.

As for who the threat was it’ll probably be a while if we ever know. Perhaps the real Grogar showed up at some point and was truly a harrowing threat to deal with. Or something entirely new. Maybe it wasn’t even a villain, but a catastrophic natural disaster. Whatever it is, if this is the case. We’d have to deal with the sad thought of something being too much for even Twilight to handle

2. TWILIGHT BECAME DEPRESSED/JADED AFTER HER FRIENDS PASSED. POSSIBLY EVIL TOO?

This would basically be the cliche sadfic ending. Where after everyone of the Mane 6 has passed. Twilight just never felt the same afterward. Though I do feel like there is the slight counterpoint that maybe Twilight would still have Celestia and/or Luna (maybe, again we’ve never ever gotten full confirmation of how long Alicorns live. Just assured that it’s more then 1000 years) and she’d most certainly still have a full grown Spike and any of her friends descendants. Death is always a sad reality, but you have to wonder if Twilight would have prepared herself by the time that comes. Twilight would have not gone as far as she did without the rest of the Mane 6. But while I’m sure it would be a tearjerking moment, it’s not like Twilight wouldn’t have other friends she made throughout the generations. Celestia and Luna also must of gone through the same thing living for more then 1000 years, yet they seem pretty fine. So while the subject of “immortality blues” is prime for sadfic material in the fandom. It feels like there’d have to be more nuance then that, if this were the reason the time between G4 and G5 led into each other.

Supposedly, this theory is picking up some form of steam. To the point that a head canon is rolling around is that it was actually Twilight who sealed the magic away in the first place for one reason or another. Essentially making Twilight, in a huge plot twist, a villain in G5 or at the very least someone who took the magic with them into some form of Limbo very similar to Starswirl and the other founders during the Season 7 finale. I… personally don’t know how I’d feel about that. They’d have to be very careful with the execution of such a twist. And I’d want more nuance then simply Twilight getting sad about the deaths of her friends. At the very least, it’d likely eventually get to a point where this villainous incarnation of Twilight is reformed and probably becomes a recurring character from then on. But the writers will have to tread very carefully if this is the direction they take.

3. G5 IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE/TIMELINE. JUST FOR THE MOST PART THE MAJOR EVENTS OF "ANCIENT EQUESTRIA" STILL HAPPENED

Perhaps this last one really gets into a more desperate side to deflect any possibility that the ending of G4 could of deteriorated into what the world becomes at the start of G5. I know there will be plenty that will be too frustrated with the lack of satisfactory answers that they annoy people in the comment sections, getting into situations where sometimes the only answer to those people will be others that just want to watch G5 as a fun show with a “cope”, “read a history book”, or “deal with it”. But honestly, there can be a case here. As I mentioned in my thoughts in the movie. There are visual details on characters and/or lore that while they may seem minor, to the point that even if they do ever answer important questions such as what caused magic to disappear and/or what happened to Alicorns like Twilight. That the staff may ignore completely because they think it’s too small of a detail to bother including. But the most nitpicky fan can and will latch on small excuses into why it can’t be the same.

Let’s begin with the one-sided Cutie Mark. Again, while it’s true that previous generations made this a tradition. And it was only on one side on the G4 toys as well, as the actual reason it was on both sides in the G4 show was because it was easier for the flash animators. That said, it’s still a big pony design inconsistency. Because regardless of it was only to make things easier, it became a staple because of how long G4 lasted. So it was still so weird to see early screenshot and artwork of G5 characters with grown ponies with no mark. When that wasn’t possible in G4, as it turned out it was because the one-sided cutie mark returned. But one side as opposed to both sides is still a significant difference. Similarly, the horns and wingtips being a different color then the coat may also be a significant difference. Of course I know it can be just waved off as art style difference, as the art direction is no longer based on what Faust wanted the ponies to look like. It’s still plausible enough for someone to discredit it as truly in continuity with G4. Cause even for those that are on the side of “More then 1000 years is a long time, anything could of happened” it’s a lot harder to argue against inconsistencies such as cutie marks only being on one side unless they switch gears to the meta explanation of “G4’s double sided cutie mark was not intentional, at least at first”. But from what most people saw in the G4 show, G4 ponies had marks on both sides. And the G5 ponies don’t. It’s again, quite nitpicky. But it’s enough to start a case that at the very least, the ancient past of G4 is not 100% the same G4 we saw in the show.

Speaking of not the same G4 we saw in the show, another possibility is that G5 actually came out of an alternate timeline. Where perhaps the last two seasons did not happen. If perhaps it’s a timeline where major events in the show either ended anywhere between the end of Season 4 or the end of Season 7, then it starts to feel a little more possible. (Supposedly, the tree of harmony in it’s Season 9 form that might counteract it. But then again it had none of the treehouse architecture and was all wood. Which ironically may lead into it leaning more that the G4 show isn’t the same continuity). If the events of the Friendship School nor everything else that leads to the ending we saw in The Last Problem. It’d be a lot more palatable because the pretty much implied world peace ending with non-ponies in the mix included is discounted. There’d still be questions even in this scenario, like did Celestia and Luna still retire in this timeline then. And regardless if they did or not, the show would still be burdened with the question of what happened to the Alicorns. But it’d at least solve the most pressing question with the peace of The Last Problem being squandered. Because perhaps in this timeline, the Mane 6 never went that far. Perhaps it would imply some sort of indirect failure in that case. But this is perhaps a scenario they had a similar foreign policy as Celestia did. Not really hostile to anyone, but not intervening even in ways that could be helpful. Heck, if we go far enough in saying that G5\s G4 (As confusing as that may sound) was different from what we saw in Friendship is Magic, what if there were differences even early on for one reason or another? With how vague the connection is, we only know that the Mane 6 were friends and Twilight still became a princess at some point. From there. potentially a lot of other things may have gone differently other then that.

Again, saying G5 is a completely different universe/timeline is probably always going to sound like a desperate way for people who cannot possibly believe the ending of G4 eventually led to the start of G5. And I’d understand why that’ll annoy people who just want to watch the G5 series on it’s own merits. But it really wouldn’t be entirely the fans to blame for that attitude. G4 lasted a whole decade, many got attached to the characters/world we saw that had about the happiest ending it could possibly be. It should naturally make people unhappy that in a few ways it’s stomping over a happy ending for this fantasy world that many watched to escape from the realities of the real world.

Even with the long time allotted of 1000+ years or more, that’s made complicated by the implied long lives of the Alicorns from G4. Only opening up that can of worms further by seemingly making Sunny an alicorn. There’s a debate on whether this form is permanent, but if it’s NOT permanent. That arguably adds yet another addition to the list of reasons it may fall out of continuity. The only time we had a temporary Alicorn transformation (outside of Animation errors, or dream sequences like Big Mac’s) was when Cozy was an Alicorn after receiving some of the magic from Grogar’s bell. But even in that case, Cozy’s wings were not more like a glowy hologram like Sunny’s wings seem to be. And even if it is permanently on Sunny now, the design for Alicorns is too different. Adding onto the one-sided cutie marks, and different colored wings and horns. So the G5 writers may actually be stuck in a lose/lose situation when it comes to Alicorns after the ending of the movie. I think whether Sunny is permanently an Alicorn or not, they may not elaborate enough about it. And it’ll be among the headaches in the comment section (Though may at least be a reprieve from the political discussions G5 are going to have on occasion I imagine.)

Hasbro chose to try to say this is the same Equestria, and a new show needs conflicts to solve. But from the perspective of some G4 fans… it forces a world they loved, to get torn down into arguably a more divided world then even the Hearth’s Warming tale. Which said tale seems to have been implied to be from before Princess Celestia and Luna were around (Based on the lore of the unicorns being the one to raise the sun and moon) and thus yes. Somehow, if everything that happened in G4 is canon to G5. Then the world peace in The Last Problem in just a thousand years or so become worse then even Celestia’s sole rule.

RESPONDING TO “READ A HISTORY BOOK”

I’ve mentioned before, you can try to point to World History to point why this is a realistic take. But again, we don’t have an ancient civilization from 1000 years ago that we look up to as the pinnacle of peace in the world (Like I said, the Golden age of Ancient Greece and/or Rome still had slavery and brutal wars). That has literally never happened. What was shown in the Last Problem very much looked like it was that for Equestria. I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time, especially in regards to the context that the leaders of Equestria tend to live for at least more then 1000 years to imply things would just go backward like that.

CONCLUSION

The movie on it’s own merits is a good start for the generation, though at the same time. It’s going to have some hard questions that’ll often be no-win situations for the writers. They can choose to ignore the G4 questions, understandably trying to tiptoe around as many cans of worms as possible which would allow them to do whatever the heck they want with G5. Maybe even getting a few stragglers frustrated with no answers to just shrug and continue watching anyway if the show entertains them enough. Or they can certainly try to at least give some answers on the biggest questions (What happened to the magic, and/or what was the fate of G4’s alicorns) but risk having an answer that just adds even more questions.

The movie is a decent start for a new generation if you only view it as a pilot for a new series, but if you view it as a sequel to Friendship is Magic. There are certainly problematic issues with that currently. Maybe the special in Spring, or the eventual Series will cover some of this but it does leave fans waiting a while for answers that they’re not promised to get, or at least not as quickly as they’d like. Remember when I mentioned that I may view some of this similarly to how I was about Starlight Glimmer after her sudden redemption at the end of Season 5? With many questions I wanted to know about Starlight before I could really accept her as a recurring character? (And not really fully coming into terms with her until I expanded on her myself in a story for I Dream of Twilight Sparkle) This may be how I have to view the connection of G4 and G5.

They can go one of two routes: At least try to give as much of a clear explanation as possible. Even if it’s one that doesn’t exactly answer everything, at least giving a good try may help with those who have questions remaining in relation to G4. If instead however, they go the Season 6 Starlight route of just about ignoring all the questions fans have, it’ll make things frustrating for many. At least with Starlight, she wasn’t the major focus in every episode. That said, Season 6’s job was to endear us more to her reformed character. Now with G5’s setup, it may be running well into a corner where they must try to answer what happened in between G4 and G5 or else you end up making a lot of fans lukewarm or worse to your series. Starlight’s reformation and then lack of ability of Season 6 to explain more about Starlight to us was a divisive moment. And G5 involving G4 brings over the same kind of feeling but on a larger scale because now it’s in the very premise of the generation’s plot, it’s less avoidable compared to one character. Because even when it comes to episodes that will not further the plot and it’s just a fun friendly moment between the members of the mane 5, this movie is how they met and thus the not fully explained premise would always be looming over like a large shadow. It probably doesn’t help that they’re basically starting with a reformed Starlight-esque moment when it comes to introducing it’s premise AND on top of that something similar although certainly with at least a lot less backlash then with Alicorn Twilight since it came so soon. Though I do have to think there will be people who think this was way too soon to be ascending Sunny, since at least we got to see Twilight’s journey to Alicornhood (Even if you weren’t a fan of the episode she ascended in). Sunny arguably does earn her Alicornhood through implied years of working to unite the ponies. But it can still feel too soon when you had 2 1/2 seasons worth of episodes before Twilight did, while Sunny did so within one movie.

Someone’s ultimate thoughts on G5 might end up being what they are looking for in this new generation. If they’re looking for just about everything new. The movie provides plenty of that with new characters, new locations, and a more modernized world compared to G4 Equestria (Even if G4 Equestria had it’s own fair share of electronics it looked like, such as video game machines). If you’re in this for the G4 references. Aside from the very beginning of the movie, you’re kind of stuck doing a where’s waldo for most of the movie. And no guarantees you’ll get much more then that later. As I said in the trailer thoughts, the G4 stuff could very much be just Hasbro trying to bake it’s cake and eat it too. With a world that feels like it should be it’s own thing, but they didn’t want to commit entirely to that. So they shoehorn G4 in as the ancient past without giving a proper explanation to how point A (the end of G4) got to point B (the start of G5). It’s only been about a week since the movie premiered, but there is just so much to digest. And for those looking for answers to the G4 elephant in the room, may feel like they get nothing but metaphorical tummy aches for a long time.

I’ll end this off by having a message to both people who already feel like they’ll be fans of G5, as well as people like me who were fans of G4 and have concerns about where G5 may be doing to it’s legacy.

For the G5 fans, as I mentioned in the trailer thoughts. I still hope that it turns out ultimately good. I don’t know where things will go from here but the G5 movie taking in context that it’s basically a really long series premiere, had some genuinely enjoyable moments. At the same time, I hope anyone in the G5 fanbase can try to understand why G4 fans have the concerns that they do. I’ll repeat, G4 lasted a decade and was the absolute peak of MLP’s popularity. There will be a lot of people attached to that world, and understandably upset about the implication that it got torn down into how the world is at the start of G5. If they’re really annoying about it, I can understand why you couldn’t hold the urge to snap at them to “Get over it” just try not to snap at the ones who are just asking curiously. I’m personally not going to spam comment threads with “THIS DOESN’T FIT WITH G4!” or “HASBRO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS PLEASE”, but I would be lying if I were to say I’m not just as curious about what those type of fans want to know too.

And as for G4 fans like me, if G5 ever upsets you in some fashion. It’s ok to stop watching and just stay quiet whenever you find yourself in a conversation about G5 and only participate in G4 matters in the fandom. This is a natural evolution of a fandom’s lifecycle where eventually a direction a franchise is taken to a place some others don’t like. So you’re only left to mainly talk with those who prefer an older generation and/or incarnation. Just because G5 has started and even though Hasbro says it’s the same world as G4. You can still do G4 content by itself and ignore G5. If you still have the inclination to do stuff with G4, do it. Generation 5 is not stopping people from still drawing the G4 characters, or writing more stories about them, or even if you don’t feel you’re that creative. Support artists who are still drawing G4 ponies, and/or rewatch some of your favorite episodes of Friendship is Magic that give you a smile. MLP has lasted since the 80s, and while for the most part to Hasbro it’s to sell toys. Toys, and the shows surrounding them’s purpose is to make the people watching or playing with them smile. From the little girls in the 80s to the much more diverse both gender-wise and age-wise fandom that came out of G4. The cute ponies are supposed to make us happy, and it’s ok to get back into a comfort zone if perhaps a different part of Ponies don’t give you the same feeling or even upset you in some way. Also as a vice versa to my message to G5 fans, try as best you can not to provoke those enjoying G5. If the G5 movie and/or episodes makes them as happy as your favorite G4 episodes/movies you should let them be. Many of us had to deal with that crap just for daring liking a pony show at all early on in the fandom. Try not to add to the toxicity as best you can. G4 is not going to be forgotten, the fact Hasbro decided to try to make it in the same universe actually has the side effect of making sure of that. Cause maybe you have fans that enter the MLP franchise through G5 curious about what happened in the past. And thus, they can be led to watch the previous generation. New G5 fans could potentially also become new G4 fans and friends. In other words, friendship… is still magic!

#mlp #my little pony #g5 #mlp g5 #netflix #my little pony the next generation #my little pony movie #generation 5 #g4 #mlp g4 #generation 4

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tobeornottotc · 3 years

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Close Friends the series (another Thai hope for new stories in BL) ideas

What is up with these mini series Y destiny, Close Friends where they have a short storyline for certain known pairings and leave me devastated that they didn’t make it into a full 12 episode or more series? Why are we stuck with the engineering, university repetitive motives when we’ve had outlines and ideas right in front of us for how to make new groundbreaking Thai stories in this genre??? Unique, Romantic, Fun and great potential to explore new dynamics and characters. Please Close friends choose a series to make into one full series. Anyway here’s how I’d do them starting from my most favorite and desperate want for a full tv series plot, to the ones I can’t be fussed about.

1. KimCop

Are you kidding me? We could have had a celebrity/fanboy trope this whole time from Thailand? Why haven’t we gotten yet this idea? Man this needs to be a series, this needs to be fleshed out and give me a full storyline. Like have a spoiled/ arrogant celebrity who wants to go undercover away from his label (feeling bored/frustrated with the environment he’s in and sneaking away when he finally gets out) and meets his number one fan boy who works as cafe barista (cafe shop au damn it) who he knows because he’s been having secret conversations with him through a VR app that he monitors for research on how to create more. Let him pretend he doesn’t know said fanboy but find a way to spend more time with him, let said fan boy not be okay with his attitude and arrogance on the surface but be confused about the other version of himself he speaks to in VR, let us have this. It would be so good, between secret identities, contract living/cafe shop au tropes, we could have something that can be great, with longing, misunderstandings, having the fan boy pretend he’s not affected by the celebrity (due to annoyance by his spoiled persona) when we and the celebrity both know he’s different when he’s speaking to his VR version. Just so much to play with, with this. We need this storyline as a narrative like this is closest to the kinda risks Korea BLS do with their plotlines for BLs and with Thai we know the episodes would be allowed to be longer and properly played out. Plus KimCop are fantastic; they’re made for this, they need the directing, the stellar budget and production but I want this now. Damn you Close friends for laying this in front of me!!!

2. Mii2

Please can I get a coming of age series for this perfection? A coming of age that ends happily and show cases these two’s journey to being together through their pen pal relationship. Can we get self discovery, exploration, acceptance and more. Can we get finding your purpose, your struggles in highschool to fit in, to have friends, to be socially accepted. Can we get that with these two who clearly live opposite lives and find solace in each other. I want my BL answer me 1997/1984 Kdrama!! Like you can have it all! Give it to me 😭 let me learn about Thai history during these times. Let me watch this soft friends to lovers premise Please? I’m begging? From the aesthetic, the time period, the wholesome characters and the potential with this plot, we can have a great unique Thai Bl series that’s still about highschool but show cases a different era. With inside jokes about that time period, with references, and opportunities for nostalgia for certain Thai folks, it’s a win win to me and it’d be BL!

3. JaaFirst

You heard it here I want them because of their chemistry. I couldn’t help feeling so teased and upset that this wasn’t a supernatural thing about a cat who turns human or something (we’ve had mangas based on this, lol even Mew Mew power has a play on this with the main het couple at a time, common) like I would have wanted this synopsis with these two a magical race of people who are able to turn into animals, one of them who loses his memory/ has to find something that will help his race in a certain time frame and finds himself having to stay stuck with Ja’s character who he falls for because he watches and learns about him as a cat. Maybe he stays in his cat form to discover why he was found in Ja’s place with no memory, trying to discover about himself, But there’s times where his human form can roam around depending on certain world building rules. Meanwhile Ja is a cute cat owner who’s unaware. But something is bothering him, it’s making him spiral, he is intrigued by a boy he keeps bumping into at odds times around his area but he can’t find the boy anywhere, and each time they meet he’s a bit standoffish and refusing to let Ja get to know him or help him, he can’t find the boy unless he appears at a certain time and place. And he spends time pining trying to find and get this person not knowing he’s living right next to him moping about his circumstance about not being able to stay human all the time, Like a play on Little mermaid or kdramas like My girlfriend is a gumiho you know these dramas with supernatural beings who have to stay in a contract situation with someone with a time limit (a month/100 days normally) to stay together and get to his goal. Like weird animal supernatural trope but it could work 😭 One it’d be supernatural so unique to this genre, it’d explore a requited but they don’t know trope with a lot of barriers and misunderstandings :( Like damn it why can’t we be having all this Thailand.

4. MaxNat 😭

A Karate Kid reboot but with BL 😭 Yes you heard me, between watching Nat fall for the sport and prove to whoever he needs to that he can be a champion due to the help of his headstrong tutor who takes him in, like we’ve got another plot, we’ve got another theme to explore, a new world of learning about the world of Karate competitions, and training to be a champion. Character dynamics that can be fleshed out to have another sports based BL series but this time Thai like yess 😭 let’s stew and stay longer in this I don’t want to do this energy with Nat’s character probably being forced to do the sport because he has no choice, to impress someone, to get revenge on a rival who hurt him but slowly realizing that karate is his talent and what he loves to do authentically. A fish out of water experience, as he falls for his strict gruff, cold, and robotic tutor who he learns more about as time goes about why Karate is his all😭 Like yes please.... Haters to lovers, going in with wrong intentions, learning about self worth and finding your purpose/self. Like a chosen one narrative let me have this!!!

See what I mean when I say all these mini series just leave me sad, that Thai BL genre isn’t risky enough to do new things, all you have to do is branch out a bit, try and create stories without the need to get Bl adaptations all the time from novels with the same themes and tropes. Let’s get new themes we see in other countries, let’s have these actors be put to use more and given stories that aren’t just the same old same old. I dunno, watching Y destiny and Close friends, have made me sigh because if people actually put thought and effort into how to improve this genre, and make it more than just a money thing, we could have great stories for Thai BL that actually will shock us, and make us refall in love with the genre. Dunno if what I’m saying makes sense, I just want new stories from Thai BL (don’t get me wrong IPYTM and GMMTV are trying) but I sometimes get frustrated at this explosion of quantity of BL that never has quality, it’s either repetitive or just awful in terms of storytelling. Why? Please Thailand branch out a little, these two series have shown you new plots, and ideas you can play with and create something more interesting and better than the typical lazy plots. Let’s expand Thai BL more. That’s all. Do you guys have your own ideas on these storylines and how to make them into longer series. I didn’t mention the other two because I wasn’t as connected to their plot (Love TalayYoon though) but I really enjoyed Close friends, and I’m sad it’s over now.

#thai bl #bl series #bl drama #reviews #close friends the series #maxnat #KimCop #mii2

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beybladefanboy · 3 years

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Top 5 Metal Masters Episodes

Honestly, out of the three main seasons, Masters to me is the weakest. That is by a slight margin, it’s still a very good season, but it is a more noticeable margin than the one between Fusion and Fury. I think we can all agree that the time they spend in America in the last twenty five or so episodes is the most consistently good part of the season. Before that, this season goes up and down in quality like a rollercoaster. In the end though, this season was more good than lackluster so here are the best episodes.

Honourable Mentions

Episode 98: The Fallen Emperor

This is the episode where Da Xiang and Julian battle. I honestly really relate to Julian’s story where he was held to really high expectations and was never allowed to fail so when he did, he didn’t know how to handle it and felt like he lost everything. This episode also made me really like Da Xiang. He was annoying at first but seeing him become a leader who has found strength supporting his team and getting back up after every defeat and teaching Julian to do the same was really nice. It was a great moment for both of their characters and it was cool seeing Da Xiang use the full extent of his abilities. I didn’t really think of him as a really strong blader before this episode.

Episode 100: The Wild Beast Unleashed

This is Kyoya and Damian’s battle and once again, I’m biased toward Kyoya. I like his battle against Damian more than Gingka’s because Gingka was sort of guaranteed to win while Kyoya could’ve gone either way. I don’t really have much to say: it’s just an epic battle and an interesting look into Kyoya’s character. I won’t go into that because another Tumblr user has already done a much better job and I don’t want to copy them, it’s just really in line with the Kyoya we know.

5) Episode 77: The Dragon Emperor Returns

I mentioned having a Kyoya bias but if there’s a character I have even more of a bias for, it’s Ryuga. Long story short, this is the episode that made Ryuga my favourite character. I liked him as a villain in Fusion, and was already starting to get a bit of a crush on him, but this episode made me fall in love. In fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment it happened: when he explained how the dark power was man made so he could overcome it and draw L-Drago’s power from its original source, showing that he was willing to admit his mistakes and determined to grow from the experience. How could I not admire that? He’s also just a total badass. His entrance in this episode, walking in with a sadistic looking smile as he makes meteors fall all around him before he beats the crap out of everyone there was just amazing. This is also a great episode for Tsubasa, another favourite character of mine. He’s going crazy due to the dark power in this episode, letting his dark side take over and drive him to battle Sophie, Wales, and Julian in the woods at night with the intent to destroy them. It’s tragic but the Dark Tsubasa arc was the best part of Masters so I really liked seeing him struggle with this darker side and seeing Ryuga provide him the solution: to become one with the dark power. Just a really interesting episode overall.

4) Episode 69: The Scorching Hot Lion

Here’s more of my Kyoya bias. This episode was a huge breath of fresh air. Masters before this point was really uninteresting for me, with the exception of the Dark Tsubasa stuff which hadn’t been portrayed much at this point. It was mostly battles I didn’t care for and Gingka, Masamune, and Yu being insanely obnoxious. So to get away from them, and see a character’s return I was personally waiting for with baited breath, it was like a drink of cold water on a hot day. This is a simple episode all things considered: it’s just the formation of Team Wild Fang but that was more interesting than anything else in the season at that point. Kyoya and Nile’s camaraderie/friendship is developed and showcased well, to the point where they already really feel like a team. Demure is sort of just inserted into their group but he does prove himself to be useful and to kid me, it was a nice surprise that he was the one to make their team. So yeah, just a simple episode showing fun interesting characters forming bonds.

3) Episode 91: The Furious DJ Battle?!

This episode is honestly just funny. It doesn’t accomplish anything plot-wise: it’s just Gan Gan Galaxy trying and failing to find a replacement member for their team since Tsubasa and Yu are both hospitalized. Kenta and Wang Fu Zhong all battle for this honour, when Ryo interferes in his Phoenix costume. He tries to join the team, stupidly not knowing the rules of his own tournament and in one of the most satisfying moments EVER, Hikaru puts this idiot in his place and Ryo is disappointed. His suffering is points in my book. Then the American and Japanese blader DJs come in. Rewatching it now, this episode was probably fan service for people that wanted to see them battle but it’s honestly great fan service. Seeing the main cast react to such a terrible bey battle, with the series’ over the top announcing, is just amazing. Words can’t really give it justice. Just watch the episode. It’s the funniest one in the show.

2) Episode 72: Eternal Rivals

In my opinion, this was Gingka and Kyoya’s best battle. I always have fun seeing these two battle but at this point in the series, they hadn’t battled one on one since Metal Fusion. The battles got much more layered and fierce since then. Gingka and Kyoya are constantly going back and forth between who is winning, trading special moves and keeping you on your toes and wondering who’s going to win. And then… neither of them do. Gingka and Kyoya end up being equals in power, using up every ounce of their strength trying to defeat their opponent before collapsing from exhaustion. Yeah, it’s kind of disappointing we never saw Kyoya defeat Gingka. However, I think a tie was the perfect way to end this specific battle. Before this, Masamune lost to Nile so one more loss would’ve kicked Gan Gan Galaxy out of the tournament but simply giving Gingka the win would’ve sort of discredited the hard work Kyoya put in. Having them tie keeps Gan Galaxy at the disadvantage without making them lose and showcases how far Kyoya has come as a balder. Overall, just a really epic battle that makes the slower parts before it worth it.

1) Episode 79: Dark Eagle

There’s a very simple reason I love this episode: it’s the culmination of the Dark Tsubasa Arc, aka the best thing about Metal Masters. It was an interesting look into a character's psyche and added a darker layer to the earlier part of this season. However, this resolution was what made it really stick out to me. In other shows I've seen (Yugioh for example) the goal is always to drive out/destroy the darkness within people but this episode decided to go in a more realistic direction. Realistic in an representational way I mean. In real life, we can't drive out our "darkness" so to speak. What we can do in real life is accept ourselves and learn to overcome our inner demons rather than denying them, which is what Tsubasa did in this episode. He accepted that his darker self was part of him but that it didn’t define who he was, overcoming that darkness and creating a new special move on the spot to defeat Sophie and Wales. Yeah, the battle itself is still really good but the flashback of Tsubasa as a kid and him overcoming his dark power is what propels the episode into being one of the best.

#beyblade #beyblade metal fight #beyblade metal saga #metal masters #beyblade metal masters #daxiang wang #julian konzern #don't think I've ever tagged them before #they're both cool #kyoya tategami #tsubasa otori #ryuga #ryuga kishatu #gingka hagane #I do love this season #I really hope I haven't made anyone think otherwise

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