#S1 was so good I miss S1 art style

[ridiasfangirlings]

Do you know smtg about why the character design for k&7 stories different from K S1, KMK, and K S2? It's so hard to watch it TT. I like the story but at the same time the design make me sad. Somehow it look hilarious. I need the elegant design back.

I feel you anon, the 7 Stories art style makes me sad too -_- I blame GoHands for this one, the more rounded style seems to be the 'house style' that they're going for and honestly I don't think it works at all (I watched Project Scard and the animation had the same issues, I'm told Handshakers was even worse). My general feeling is that GoHands wants to be known for the cool, slick style that the first season of K had...but that's expensive, so they didn't want to do that and thus have been slowly working their way towards basically 'budget K.' You can kinda tell watching the series how even in season one the budget seems to be decreasing a but towards the end but they mostly manage to cover it well enough using tricks that are common in anime – the big battle between S4 and Homra at the school, for example, is largely done via panning still shots of people fighting rather than actual movement, and there's some re-used animation with Fushimi and Yata fighting that was taken from episode 5 but it's not hugely noticeable. Missing Kings as a movie seems to have gotten a bit more budget but there's still some reused animation there, most notably I distinctly remember Yata falling off his skateboard and then doing the breakdance move to get back up which was taken from episode 5. ROK is where they start to go a bit more on the cheap, the look isn't quite as bad as 7S but everyone's eyes I think are a little bigger and their faces a bit rounder, and there's a lot more obvious reused animation to the point that for me it dd occasionally detract from the episode – specifically in episode 12 and the S4 Big Damn Heroes moment, having the alphabet squad rush in with animation that we just saw back in episode one I think really made that moment a little less of a 'hell yeah' than it should have been.

Then in 7S we basically get the final form of unfortunate animation, where everyone has giant anime eyes and the designs look a little flatter and some of the backgrounds look really off. I couldn't get through more than one episode of Handshakers but I've been told that series had a particularly bad habit of having characters standing on computer generated backgrounds where they didn't look quite on the same plane as the places they were supposed to be occupying and while I don't think 7S is terrible on this some of the backgrounds are just mystifying. Fushimi's house in LSW in particular is coming to mind here, there's a shot of Fushimi talking with Kisa and behind them are these absolutely gigantic arching doorways that are like doors for elephants and like I know they're rich but why does it look like they live in a museum (Scard also does this with the weird backgrounds and it's even worse, because it's supposed to take place in this lawless rundown area and the main character is supposed to be scrambling to survive but apparently he lives in an IKEA catalog. The cafe also has these really weird shelves and just a general nonsensical layout that honestly made me appreciate the look of Bar Homra even more). I don't think there was any real intentional change in style in the sense of 'we think this looks better,' I really think the change was just GoHands being cheap and trying to ape the much more successful style of S1 but without any of the budget behind it.

#k project #Talking K #S1 was so good I miss S1 art style #honestly I think GoHands is just either cheap or poor or both #and they're trying to mimic the very successful cool look of K S1 but with none of the care behind it #Scard was so cheap looking I'm sorry people who liked it but it was #it was noticeable immediately to me how every outdoor scene has no people for miles bc GoHands didn't want to animate crowds #and they reused so much K animation it was literally distracting to me #maybe other studios do this but I have never watched another series and gone 'oh I know where you took that from; #and I've watched a lot of anime #please come back S1 style everyone looked the best there

[genericpuff]

I’ve seen some people try and defend Lore Olympus by saying that movies like Hercules and such aren’t accurate to Greek myth, yet they’re still loved. And I somewhat get where they’re coming from, i really do.

BUT- I feel like part of the problem with LO is the fact that if you replace the names, you’d almost be right to assume it takes place in a completely different setting. Meanwhile, if you take away the names from the Hercules movie, you can still tell where it’s supposed to take place. (And who’s who, if you know your myths). Plus the writing of Hercules is 100% better than LO.

The difference between LO and Hercules is that Hercules clearly has respect for the source material put into it. It might not be accurate to the source material - because it's being retooled as a Disney movie for children - but you can tell there's still a lot of thought, love, and effort put into it. The team behind that movie did research on the art and culture of Greece, and adapted it into a movie that was entertaining and recognizable as a Greek myth adaption.

They put our home boy Heracles/Hercules in a tunic! Do you know how shocking that must have looked to American viewers who didn't know a shred of Greek myth and wondered why the big buff hero was being drawn in a skirt? Still accurate though!

LO, meanwhile, writes Greek myth as if it hates Greek myth for existing. It comes across more as a white woman using these stories purely for profit and colonizing it with American-esque culture. The outfits have become noticeably less Greek since the beginning, the characters never eat Greek food anymore, and the locations are left as vague as solid color backdrops to indicate "The Underworld" and "Olympus" without actually showing any set pieces or understanding of how these locations would look and feel in a modern setting.

All of these examples I gave are things we saw a decent amount of in S1. But since then it's just become talking heads on top of flat color backgrounds, eating Chinese food and dressing in American-style clothing. When was the last time we saw a mortal? There's just nothing Greek about the comic anymore because either Rachel has gotten so complacent that she just defaults to what she knows without any research (so what she watches on TV and in movies) or she only bothered with her research in the beginning to get people hooked and convinced that she's a "folklorist" so that they'd keep reading the series and giving her money on good will alone.

Using Hercules as an example of "well it's not accurate to Greek myth either!" completely misses the point of what people are getting at when they say that LO is a bad Greek myth retelling. Guess what else isn't completely accurate to Greek myth? Hadestown. Hades (the game). God of War. Stray Gods. They all take creative liberties with the source material in order to adjust it to the medium and audience they're creating it for, but none of those adaptions are quite as disrespectful as LO's. And God of War literally has little angry man going around and brutally murdering the gods. It still respects the setting of Greek myth more than LO, but unlike LO, it doesn't try to constantly sound smart with its inaccuracies, it knows fully well that it's a video game first and foremost.

And that's the beauty of myths. They can be adapted across generations and used to tell new versions of the same stories. So it begs the question, why bother writing a Greek myth retelling if you're going to make it so non-Greek that you could have just as well just written a normal soap drama and have it still be virtually the same?

Compared to all of the other examples, LO is the definition of confidently incorrect. It should have stuck to just being Greek myth inspired, not a retelling.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

[shinneth]

My souring sentiments on Sailor Moon's manga

It'll be a surprise to no one who knows me even remotely that Sailor Moon was my everything back in my childhood. From the age of 9, I was utterly obsessed with it.

That was just a couple of years shy of 30 years ago.

Since then, I've often revisited the series. I watched the entirety of the Viz dub of the classic anime; all 200 episodes.

And I loved it all the same, if not more so than before. Because now I have context for why exactly the anime was the way it was, including its gradual diversion from the manga source material. And I respect the hell out of the staff who poured their life into this work, while concurrently running with the manga and doing whatever it could to not completely outpace it in the narrative.

Are there a lot of fillers in the OG anime? Yes. Too many? Well, not so from a functional standpoint (this show had to run weekly for 5 years), but there are definitely some fillers you could skip and miss nothing in doing so.

But a story like Sailor Moon honestly needed some breathing room in order to properly flesh out the cast.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the live-action reimagining of the show, was phenomenal back then (despite looking low-budget even by 2003 standards), and having re-watched the whole series recently, I can safely say PGSM more than holds up and deserves way more love and respect than it gets. It's THE perfect example of reimagining the story of Sailor Moon while still respecting its roots and maintaining the soul of the franchise.

Which is exactly why I couldn't stand Sailor Moon Crystal. We knew from the off that it was supposed to be completely faithful to the manga, but one look through @crystalvsmanga will show you Crystal took shitloads of "creative liberties", and the amount of changes I could dare to call "good"? I could count them on one hand.

The animation is low-hanging fruit, because everyone and their dog knows how godawful it was for the first two story arcs. But more than that, I actually loathed the general art design. Yukie Sakou's style DID NOT closely resemble Naoko Takeuchi's. People kept saying it, but I couldn't really see it. The eyes especially are a far cry from Takeuchi's style. And Sakou's style did NOT facilitate the OTT cartoony expressions that were definitely present in Takeuchi's manga; everyone looked so goddamn soulless, like overly-expensive porcelain dolls.

My biggest gripe with Crystal was the story, of course. While a great deal came from just being from the manga (which I'll get to in a bit), the changes they made went a long way to actively make the manga's story worse. My main takeaway from Crystal S1-2 is that it took itself waaaaay too seriously.

That being said, I did like Crystal's third season a lot better BECAUSE Chiaki Kon had way more competence and held a lot more respect for Sailor Moon. Like, my god, for once it felt like there was a soul in this show! It can actually take the piss every now and then!

Some silly things kinda broke my immersion (such as the Senshi just being able to fuckin' fly and Chibi-Moon in particular was literally sky-stepping), but most of that can be blamed on the source material it was adapting. While I was fine with Crystal3, I definitely didn't feel it was anywhere near as good as Sailor Moon S. Outside of Hotaru/Sailor Saturn having more of a presence, there wasn't really much in Crystal's take on Infinity that I liked better than S.

But most of that comes down to the fact that I liked S more than manga's Infinity arc to begin with.

Which is a good segue to talk about the manga proper.

I have not yet watched Eternal or Cosmos. the movies that adapted the last two manga arcs, but it'd be redundant since I know ahead of time what they're going to be about, and so far I haven't heard about any of them deviating from the source material, so it'd be moot to talk about them even if I had watched.

When I first got my hands on the manga, which was when I was around 12-13 and thus got the crappy MiXxZine translations, I was fine enough with it. Thought it was too fast-paced and didn't care for 99% of the villains being one-and-done jobbers, but I was also reading it with my impressions of the 90's anime characters still intact. I was reading the manga like an extension of the anime, rather than the other way around.

It wasn't until many years later when I grew older, when the manga was properly translated, when I acquired the wisdom my teenaged-ass self lacked, and learned to look at the manga as a completely separate entity that I started to see the cracks in the manga's narrative.

Further rereads have left me in something of a mindfuck, as I experienced the manga the proper way. And I realized:

The more I read the manga, the more I disliked it.

The manga is lauded for having an infinitely better depiction of Mamoru, as well as his ~Miracle Romance~ with Usagi.

Objectively, the manga definitely spends lots more time giving UsaMamo attention as a couple than any other aspect of the story...

I'd say they're also more developed as individuals in the manga too, but usually the beats, uh...

... let's say they usually ring hollow, when these two (and sometimes their daughter) are the only ones who consistently get shit done across the series. Hell, on the rare occasion that the Inner Senshi weren't rendered into street pizza, Neo Queen Serenity basically told them to fuck off and let her daughter, past self, and past hubby take on motherfucking DEATH PHANTOM/NEMESIS BY THEMSELVES.

It's likely because my first exposure to Sailor Moon was via the 90s anime, which had more of a focus on friendship and comradery between Usagi and her friends than it did her romance with Mamoru. I mean, romance was DEFINITELY a prominent thing even in that iteration of the story, but that wasn't where my interest lied. I was, am currently, and always will be more interested in Usagi's galpals than I'll ever be interested in her love life.

And, well, I'm sure this qualifies as a hot take, but...

This one moment with Usagi and Mamoru in the elevator (hell, their interaction across this entire episode was great) resonated with me far more than any ultra-romantic declarations of eternal devotion that Usagi and Mamoru kept regurgitating at each other in the manga.

Granted, the manga had a FEW moments early on where their dynamic was more playful, but they were pretty much confined to the early chapters and this element of their chemistry pretty much died not long after this.

Some say 90s anime Mamoru was far too mean-spirited in his teasing of Usagi. And I mean, sure, he was kind of a douche at times, but he usually got some karmic blowback from it (I remember one time he made Usagi cry without even really meaning to, and she cried so loud in public that randos nearby were giving Mamoru the evil-eye or a scolding). But honestly, after R, Mamoru kinda became a bland, generic love interest, just as he almost always was in the manga. The only difference was that anime Mamoru was never granted powers that were literally equal to Usagi's. The manga gave him a GOLDEN FUCKING CRYSTAL.

There was that infamous break-up arc in R that, yes, was shitty in concept and execution. But if I had anything positive to say about it, it at least shook up the status quo. It didn't make him immediately fall into the bland, generic love interest he would soon become. And it gave us some of the most emotionally-charged Usagi moments in the entire anime.

Conversely, in the manga, we had THIS shit for our UsaMamo "drama":

(the former incident with Usagi literally accusing her boyfriend of falling in love with a kid, by the way, happened while MOST OF HER FRIENDS WERE KIDNAPPED BY THE ENEMY AND COULD'VE BEEN DEAD FOR ALL SHE KNEW AND YET SHE FUCKING HAD TIME FOR THIS STUPID SHIT)

Everything seemed to revolve around Usagi and Mamoru (sometimes Chibiusa too). It lowkey came off that way at times even in the 90s anime, but in the manga or Crystal? You'd be hard-pressed to find the girls engaging in their stated hobbies at most points in time, because they're usually all together and talking about their prince and princess.

Hell, even Haruka - Sailor Uranus herself - seemed much more interested in Usagi than she ever did in Michiru, her actual girlfriend.

So... am I just missing something? I've seen people say that as they grow older, they prefer the manga/Crystal to the 90s anime. But I've never seen anyone other than myself express the opposite sentiment.

But it's true - unless I completely leave my brain at the door, I have a hard time enjoying the manga for what it is. The characters I'm most interested in or attached to quickly get swept aside for the characters I have the least interest in. No more does that ring true than the Stars arc of the manga, where Naoko Takeuchi basically speedruns killing off literally the entire cast until Sailor Moon's the only one left standing. Most characters don't even get to go out in a blaze of glory or anything - it's got nothing on the finale of the 90s anime's first season in that regard. If you're lucky, you'll get a single panel where your entire existence is ripped to shreds - but sometimes you'll be killed literally off-screen!!

There's a number of questionable manga-exclusive aspects that rubbed me the wrong way as well, such as poor Sailor Pluto being assigned as a child to guard the Door of Time in complete and total solitude. While I appreciate more Silver Millennium lore that the manga provided (the anime hardly mentioned it past the first arc), it was more than a little uncomfortable knowing the OG Queen Serenity conscripted the Inner Senshi as small children to become Princess Serenity's guardians. Really casts Queen Serenity and her Moon Kingdom in a much darker light - like maybe Queen Beryl and Queen Nehelenia had a point in trying to take them down (though the manga I believe retcons all past villains as incarnations of Chaos, so that arguably removes all prior villains' agency?). Lots of little things that I didn't think twice about, but now that I look at them again, I'm wondering WTF Naoko Takeuchi was thinking.

Though I don't want to be too hard on her. Poor girl was working under stress far longer than she'd planned to (she'd intended on ending the story either by the Dark Kingdom or Black Moon arc), so it's no surprise there's a lot of clunk and clutter in the narrative.

I often wondered if Naoko Takeuchi really wanted to make Sailor Moon with a Super Sentai-esque setup in the first place. After all, her first big hit was Sailor V, which was exclusively Minako and Artemis fighting evil with Minako having her own masked love interest she ended up being at odds with and he eventually died. With a scant few secondary characters here and there.

It led to me thinking about what Sailor Moon would be like if Naoko kept the cast to a more Sailor V-like size. That, perhaps, the Sailor Moon she really wanted to make would be quite a different beast from how we know it to be today.

So this lengthy diatribe about my personal conflicts with my waning fondness for the manga versus my strengthened love for the OG anime and live-action show was actually a preamble to a bizarre AU I wrote an outline for over a year ago but never posted in public. I had considered posting it to Sailor Moon's Reddit back then, but I (probably wisely) held off, as my musing went way off the rails.

But I figured now's a good time as any to share it here, at least. Though it'll need to be its own post since I wrote so goddamn much in this post alone, wow.

On that note, I'll end with this: The only iteration of UsaMamo that I unironically enjoyed and rooted for is...

#sailor moon #pretty guardian sailor moon #bishojo senshi sailor moon #sailor moon manga #sailor moon anime #sailor moon classic #sailor moon crystal criticism #sailor moon manga criticism #pgsm #naoko takeuchi #usagi tsukino #mamoru chiba #chibiusa #usamamo #usamamo criticism #miracle romance #no kidding the fandom usually acts like the manga is sacred territory #something you're not allowed to have a bad opinion about #I don't necessarily HATE it #just... #I don't really feel what everyone else is feeling from it #if nothing else it'll always be better than s1-2 crystal #now THAT'S an abomination I know I'm not alone in feeling that way about #but yeah #the manga is overrated #there I said it #am I okay?

[sepublic]

            We got ANOTHER promo y’all!!! It’s technically a trailer but it’s thankfully very brief, given the runtime it’s hyping up is only two episodes, compared to usual TOH trailers that are advertising at least nine episodes! This is an official release and NOT a leak!

         First off, Luz’s laptop!!! She’s doing this 11:09 pm at just 20%, she’s got references to Stardew Valley and Hollow Knight on her desktop, and I think that one Hades game? The one with Zagreus? Anyhow the Hollow Knight references are REAL, coupled with the S1 intro, makes you wonder if it influenced stuff like Hollow Mind…!

         Luz also has a Good Witch Azura fanfic file! And she’s recently made art since her return to the human world; You can’t see all of it, but it appears to the Owl House’s roof, in a parallel to how the intro usually ends with Luz, Eda, and King on the roof when she ignites a light spell and pushes it into the sky! Augghhhh she’s coping…! And her username is @FriendofOwlsandTitans… Oh my GAWD! She accepts King as a TITAN she’s a friend to TITANS!!! Original art do not steal, just like her GF!

         “All I ever wanted was to be good at something”… Good lord, if that doesn’t summize SO much about Luz. Her feelings of inadequacy. Her initial dreams of being a chosen one. Her desire to help others and be of service to them. Her need to JUSTIFY her own existence, to quote her girlfriend… That hit hard. Like I know but OW.

         She’s making video diaries again as we guessed, but this time to HERSELF; Girl needs a place to vent, good for her! She probably stayed up and snuck to the kitchen to let herself indulge in her dark feelings and thoughts alone. Did Luz make a video for Eda and King and eventually give up, being forced to confront herself inward without any distractions? She says she knows what she has to do now, is… Is Luz about to do something rash? Something involving Belos? Babey don’t hurt yourself, or maybe she just means the general principle of making thing right!

         Then skipping past stuff we DO know, we see Luz and Hunter dressed up for Halloween! Hunter has a HOOTY mask, likely meant to invoke his Golden Guard persona, and Luz is honoring King OH MY GAWD WAAAIIIIII!!!!! She’s MOURNING her Titan brother, just like she mourned Eda! They’re in a dilapidated house, the shack where the Portal opens? They’re armed… Probably investigating paranormal activity, AKA Belos. This fits with another shot of them entering a basement with the same coloring as the house, atop the stairs!

         We get a proper look at Amity and Gus’ new designs in the show’s own art style! They look AMAZING… They painted Hooty’s face on the door, pffft, but also ouch. The longing. Treating this place as an earthly version of the Owl House because it kind of is with its role and even coloration! If they miss Hooty you KNOW it’s been a while. Willow must’ve grown flowery vines outside to spruce up the place, it seems to have been converted into a fulltime hideout! If this was the old Wittebane home, I’m sure Caleb would appreciate it… Philip on the other hand.

         The door seems to have just… Opened on its own as Amity looks back. Or did somebody, probably Luz and/or Hunter (seeing a glimpse of Gooplos?) quietly leave, and Amity only notices when she hears the door swinging behind them?

         We have a hand, either Amity, Willow, or Hunter’s, reaching out to some glow-in-the-dark night decorations; Including a symbol of the moon and sun. This is likely one of the characters mourning and being reminded of the Collector, rather than in-universe connection.

         We see our cast, sans Luz, looking at some sort of box with styling reminiscent of the Portal! Not only does it suggest it was actually Caleb and his wife who made it (and Philip plagiarized), but also! Caleb must’ve left it behind in the human world. When Flapjack was pecking at the floorboards, was it to find this? It must be a clue, perhaps on how to make a portal, a Titan’s blood rift, etc.! Is this distraction what got Luz to sneak out earlier?

         There’s some sort of book page we see next, presumably the contents of the box the kids found given their hands! I’m not sure the significance of the symbols, but the bottom one reminds me of the curse… Or is it just a reference to Clawthornes loving birds, AKA his wife? Is that some sort of teardrop? Maybe it’s Titan’s Blood and that’s meant to be a FURRY arm of a Titan! And what even IS that thing to the right?!

         Hunter says “Did you know that HE was here?!” In a distressed voice. Is this him potentially confronting one of our protagonists for keeping information about Gooplos’ potential survival, regardless if they actually knew and were hiding? Or him talking about Philip and Caleb to perhaps Luz, with the realization that either was a town founder, and inquring as to how Luz didn’t notice!

         Then we get Gus and Hunter THE BROS dressed up for Halloween, Hunter doesn’t want to hear spoilers because Gus is likely talking about a recent human hyperfixation of theirs! Brothers.

         And then, finally… Luz and Hunter aren’t here, it’s just the other kids, maybe those two are at some other part of the zoo more personal like the aviary…

         WE GET THE LONG-AWAITED ANSWER TO THE GIRAFFES!!! AFTER TWO YEARS, ARGUABLY THREE IF YOU CONSIDER WHEN THE FIRST TEASER THAT MENTIONED GIRAFFES WAS RELEASED!!! Since the very beginning, we have been haunted by this question and whether they’d answer it, but now… NOW…! It all comes to light.

        The kids are obviously scared and locking arms in preparation, that’s so cute, venturing into ancient territory that hasn’t been traversed for generations. WILLOW HAS HER HAIRCLIP FROM WING IT LIKE WITCHES!!! Was it a gift from Amity, I MISSED IT SO MUCH! She takes a picture and a Giraffe, recognizing natives from its home realm, FREAKS… 

       We get one idea of why Giraffes were banned and it makes sense. God the kids’ reactions are so funny. Of course Willow the Bravest is bold enough to step ahead and take pictures for the rest! This is such adorable levity and I appreciate the closure, this is their one chance so of course they’d take it after two months of debating if they should risk it! Mayhaps they regret that risk now.

#the owl house #the owl house season 3 #analysis #luz noceda #the owl house hunter #willow park #amity blight #gus porter #augustus porter #vee noceda

[strbymacaroon]

✿ S1 E1: Your New Normal! ✿

✿ Roomie Series!: Eren Yeager x Reader!

❥ S1 E1. 13:00 mins remaining, 4360 words.

❥ Previous Episode: S1: Pilot!

❥ Y/n now forced to adapt to her new life, tried to understand who she was before. With… a few inconveniences in the way.

.•° ✿ °•.

°•. ✿ .•°

You soon came to realize that the whole house layout changed. Actually, you were in a completely different house! You don’t even know how, it just happened. You blinked and– poof! Different. Well, that’s not exactly what happened, but that’s what it felt like. You just went to bed and woke up to a completely different room. 

The ceiling was incredibly tall, a small chandelier decorated with crystals hanging above you. Your bed was huge, a King to be exactly. A white and pink canopy tied to the post, some cute fairy lights strung along the top railing. 

Your floor was hardwoods, a massive white fluffy rug covering it. A few candles were lit, the scent of vanilla in the air. Jesus, alternate you had money to burn. 

In-fact, even your clothing were different. A short, silk, white, thin, gown resting over your frame. Knee high black socks, and some matching black lingerie.  You nodded at yourself. At-least alternate version of yourself had style. 

Sexy style. 

So, that’s where you were. 

In your room. 

Your dream room. 

You always told yourself, once you had the money you were going to decorate your room. And, in this world, where you do have the money, you did exactly that. Your room was luxurious and big. 

Decorated in whites and decor, your bed soft with some silk bedding, flowing curtains covering your floor to ceiling window, and that was the simple things. That didn’t include the balcony, restroom, and closet.

Yeah, balcony. Restroom. And the closet. 

You glanced at the time, which was a clock conveniently on your vanity. 7:30. You should have class in a few hours. Resting not too far from the clock was a planner. 

“That should be helpful.” You grabbed the pink book, opening it to this week. 

— Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday —

Payday!: Monday! (Send Dad a thanks, also dinner Sunday!) 

Classes: 12-3 on Mon. Tues. Thurs. (Easy classes.)

Free Days!: Wed. Fri. “Party Days! ❤︎︎”

Arts stuff— Wednesday. Sometimes Sunday. 

Check on Roger, Wednesday. ⇝ Important!!

Roger? Who the hell was Roger? 

You felt your stomach drop. 

..a sugar daddy?..

You shook your head, slapping your cheeks. Chill, Y/n. You glanced back at the calendar. Your schedule was so much more— free. Apparently you didn’t work a job anymore, and didn’t have as many classes. What do I major in? Is it the same thing? Hopefully. You worked your ass off becoming a nurse. 

You sighed, sitting in the chair. Glancing at the lavish mirror in-front of you. Seeing as the strap to your sleeping gown fell off your shoulder. 

Was I always that pretty? Or did I swap bodies with..

Your phone rang, making you jolt. You reached for it, reading the caller I.D. 

‘Daddy <3’ 

You blinked, smiling to yourself. Yeah, that’s who you needed to talk to right now, your Dad. I wonder what he’s like in this world? Generous, obviously. You slid your finger over the phone, holding it to your ear. Smiling, “Hey, Dad! What’s up?” 

You walked to your balcony, pulling it open. Feeling awed by the view. To add to that growing list, you also lived in a two story house across an ocean. A fucking ocean. What the fuck..

“Jean,” the person corrected, and you felt your stomach drop. “But, I'm not opposed to that when I come over.” 

You could feel your face burn. “Oh, that’s.. I thought you were someone..” You thickly swallowed, running your hand over the couch. Another silk thing in your growing collection. You sat on the couch, enjoying the view. “But, why did you call? Are you good?” You had no idea how to talk to Jean. You didn’t know how you acted here. 

“I’m good.” He told you, “Eren just said you were acting weird at practice, so I wanted to check up on you.” You couldn’t miss the strain in his voice. “Since when did you start talking to him?” 

Man, I must really hate Eren. “Uhm, since yesterday?” you were unsure how to respond. “I mean, he is my roommate. Wouldn’t it be weird if I didn’t talk to him?..” 

“I don’t know, you’ve done it your whole freshman and sophomore year. What’s different now?” He asked, shuffling a little. 

“I feel different.” You laid back on the couch, in slight disbelief. You were talking to your boyfriend– Jean. A fictional man from Attack on Titan. “I–I feel different.” You repeated. 

“How different?” He pressed, almost like he was confused. 

“Different enough.” You told him, feeling your eyebrows mush together. What was with that question? You pressed yourself off the couch, your mouth moving before you could think. “Eren was talking about me?” A part of you wanted to change the topic anyways. 

Jean laughed, “No.” There was a slight moment of silence, “And yes. He always talks about you.” You could tell from Jean’s tone that wasn’t a good thing. “He talked about you differently.” 

You blinked a few times, “Oh.” He shit talks you. 

Jean laughed again, “Oh indeed.” 

Your jaw dropped, peeking off the balcony. Is that a pool?! I have a pool?! You smiled, lifting your foot to the railing. “Hey babe, I think I need to call you back.” You told him. Confused on where the pet name came from, but forgetting about it quickly. Glancing at the built-in slide. 

“You think?!”

“Yup!” You ended the call and tossed your phone back on the couch. Lifting yourself over the railing and smiling. Jumping into the pool. 

You lifted your head up, running your fingers through your hair. Letting out a loud laugh, “This place is awesome!” 

You turned to the slide door being frantically opened. 

Eren was glaring at you, blinking in utter confusion. “Y/n, what the hell are you doing?!” 

You giggled, smiling at him. “Swimming?!” You shouted, “We have a goddamn pool, why in the world wouldn’t I swim in it?” You said, dipping under the water and popping back up across the whole pool. 

Eren smiled, remembering your sudden attitude change. He quickly gripped the bottom of his shirt, toying with it and walking to the pool. “Is it cold?” 

You tilted your head, looking at him with long lashes. Quickly looking at his outfit, some plaid pj pants, a tight black shirt. “Why don’t you come in and find out?” You played, pushing a wave of water in his direction. Watching as he dipped his bare foot into the water, his skin littering in goosebumps. 

“Jesus, you jumped into this shit?” He looked up, glancing at your balcony. “From there?” He pointed up. 

You giggled, nodding your head. “You’re telling me you don’t want to jump off my balcony?” 

He shook his head, “You never let me play with the idea when I throw pool parties.” He pulled his foot back out, “You always say your room is off limits.” His eyes moved to the water, trying to glance at what you were wearing. It didn’t look like swimming clothes to say the least. 

In-fact, Eren’s never seen you in swimming clothes. “What are you wearing?” He asked, tilting his head. 

You shrugged, “What I slept in.” You shook your head quickly, “But, that doesn't matter. Come join me in the pool.” You outstretched your arms, almost like you were waiting for a hug. “Let’s have fun!” You gave him a kind smile. 

Eren shivered, “Let me go change.” He turned on his heel, his back turned to you. 

You booed at him, swimming to the edge of the pool. Placing your arms on the edge and resting your chin on them. “Don’t be boring ‘Ren, just get in with your sleepwear.” You tilted yourself back, lifting one of your legs into the air. Revealing the sheer black stocking, “That’s what I did.” 

Eren blinked at you, his eyes dipping up and down your leg. Watching as you lowered your leg into the water again. He smiled, thickly swallowing. “‘Ren? Is that a nickname?” He didn’t know if he liked it. 

You rolled your eyes, pulling yourself out of the water. “Way to change the subject.” You pulled your hair over your shoulder, ringing it out. 

Eren glanced at the way your white dress clung to your skin, sheer from the water. He turned away, clearing his throat. “I said I’ll get in, just let me change!” He shouted, starting to rush into his house. Like hell he was going to miss his chance to slam you into the pool. He didn’t know if it was to mess with you, or get back at you. 

“I’ll probably already be out by then.” You yelled over your shoulder, standing up and looking for a towel. Quickly removing your socks and ringing them out. 

You threw your hair back over your shoulder. 

“Y/n!” 

You turned to the sound, utterly confused. Before you loudly laughed, “I thought you said you were going to change?!” You shouted up, smiling as you sat back down. Dipping your legs into the water. 

Eren ignored you, just grabbed the bottom of his shirt and lifted it over his head. You felt your eyes widen, your jaw dropping. Holy shit, Jesus take the wheel.

Eren laughed at your reaction, “I know.” Cocky bitch. He tossed it to the side, “Should I take the pants off too?” 

You rolled your eyes. Absolutely. “Gross, like I'd want to see your shriveled dick.” I’ve dreamed about it, actually. You leaned back on your palms, enjoying the show. 

Eren shook his head and jumped off you balcony, and it felt like he was flying. Something euphoric he hadn’t felt in awhile. Well, without the help of... 

He popped back up from the water, right in-front of you. 

You smiled, “It’s fun right?!” You teased, tossing your socks to the side.

Eren smiled back, “Mhm, a lot of fun.” He grabbed your ankles, making you look at his hands. His hands. They wrapped around your whole ankle. God. “I don’t know why you’re letting me do this now.” 

“Because,” I’m making the most of this, you thought. “We only have two more years. Let’s enjoy the time we have.” You responded. 

Eren nodded, “I agree.” And, he pulled you into the pool, dunking your head under the water unexpectedly. 

You popped back up, clinging onto him as you tried to breathe. Choking on the water, “Fuck! You bitch!” You coughed, secretly watching as Eren slowly freaked out. 

“Shit, I didn’t mean to–” 

You dunked him under the water, laughing loudly. He popped back up, jaw dropped. “You little– faker!” 

You giggled, “Get used to it, ‘Ren. This is how it’s going to be like everyday.”

Eren suppressed a smile, he didn’t mind that. Not one bit.

•° ✿ °•.

°•. ✿ .•°

You wrapped the towel around your body, walking out of your restroom into your room. Enjoying the way all the expensive lotions, perfumes, and conditioners felt on your body. Money did buy happiness. 

You opened your closet and your jaw dropped. It was practically another room. Littered in shoes, dresses, clothes, jewelry, and— “Lingerie?” You blinked, letting your hand grab the fabric. Soft. So this is the shit you sleep in. 

You walked back, glancing at your designer— everything. Practically everything had a expensive logo decorating its already expensive design. 

How much money does my Dad send me?!

You turned on your heel, peering at the table in the middle of the room. They were backpacks. “Which bag do I take?” You ran your fingers over a simple black backpack, looking at the logo. Gucci. 

Jesus fuck, you could be carring someones semester tuition right now. You turned your attention to the jewelry, grabbing some earrings and a matching necklace. Holding it to your skin. Were your ears pierced?.. 

You placed them back down on your vanity, looking at yourself. In fact, you looked different. Not entirely, your face was the same, it was just your body. In fact, it was your dream body. You wrapped your hands around your boobs, giving them a small squeeze. 

“Hell yeah.” You giggled to yourself. You could get used to this.

You grabbed a dress, trying to glance at the design. You didn’t like it. It was beautiful, just showed way too much skin. You weren’t used to that. You weren’t used to any of this. 

Or Eren Yeager. 

Fuck. Eren Yeager. 

You felt your stomach fly, a sappy smile coming over your lips. You were in the same house as Eren Yeager. Hell, you lived with him! Who else could say that? 

No one, but you. 

You wiggled, quickly spinning as your eyes landed on another vanity. You smiled, skipping over to it and looking at everything. 

You had a small speaker there, if you were correct— it was an Alexa. 

“Alexa?” 

The top of her lit up blue, while she replied— “Mhm!” 

You smiled, “Play some music for me, please.”

“Of course!”

You nodded your head, moving your hips to the Doja Cat song playing. Then, moving back to your closet. Skimming your fingers through your racks of clothing. It felt like you were in a mall! 

You grabbed a lacy black bra, slipping it over your body. Along with some matching panties. Enjoying the way it complemented your body, before grabbing a light gray zip-up jacket. You kept the jacket over your shoulder, revealing your shoulders. 

Some sweats would look nice with this. You looked around, only to come to a small realization. 

“I don't have sweats!” You sighed, pouting slightly. 

You paused, looking at what was in your closet. Nothing. This style was completely out of your comfort zone. You grabbed a skirt, holding it to your hips. Discarding the jacket you were wearing. 

“Miss L/n?” You turned over your shoulder, peering at who called your name. A random old lady?..

You blinked a few times, “Yes?..” 

“Are you picking out your outfit today?” She asked kindly, her gloved hands cupping each other. 

“Uhm..” you looked around yourself, “Am I allowed too?”

She giggled, “Of course you are dear, but if you don’t mind me asking— why today? Anything planned?” 

You blinked, eyes skipping up and down her attire. A simple black dress, a small white handkerchief wrapped around her head, and some white gloves to match. If you didn’t know any better —which you didn’t— she looked like a maid. 

“None at all, just— uhm.” You looked around the room, “Looking around.” You cringed. Such a bad lie. 

She blinked at you, “You seem to be in a pleasant mood.” She walked into the closet, “How about this, you go down stairs and eat with Mr. Yeager.” She giggled, “Don’t tell him I told you this but, he requested for me to send you down.”

You felt a smile on you face. Placing your hands to your face and looking to the side, “Did he?” 

She turned back, seeing how you were smiling. “Oh, don’t tell me Miss. L/n.” She teased, placing a gloved hand above her growing smile. “You and Mr. Yeager—” 

“You don’t need to say that.” You cut her off, trying to change the subject. You could feel your heart beating quickly. The fact that you and Eren could be something was—

She grabbed the jacket on the floor, folding it into her hand. “And, I’ll pick out the outfit. Like always.” She gave you a kind smile. 

You nodded, taking a step back. She turned her back to you, searching through your clothing. “There’s another gown on your bed, if you wish to wear it.” 

You looked down, seeing you were just in your underwear. Your face burned in embarrassment, “Yes, thank you.” 

She paused, her head turning to the side. Peering over her shoulder. “Uhm, you’re welcome, dear.”

.•° ✿ °•.

°•. ✿ .•°

You turned around, doing a small spin. “I don’t know about this, it feels.. weird.” I feel weird. 

Your legs exposed with a short skirt, and your top a simple long sleeved crop top. Your shoes were some pink Nike’s that matched with your white shirt. 

Eren laughed, shaking his head. Keeping his position on the couch. “It’s what you always wear.” He told you, pulling out his phone and searching for something. 

You pouted, sitting down next to him. “Ugh, I’m going to go out and buy some sweats.” You complained, grabbing your phone and opening Amazon. Hopefully you wishlist traveled with you.

“You know what sweats are!?” He said, and by his tone you knew he wasn’t joking.  

God, alternate me sucks.

“Shut up.” You plainly said, seeing that it did. You smiled to yourself, doing something you never thought you would. 

Proceeding to checkout. 

Eren leaned on you, his head resting on your shoulder. Does he not know what personal space is?

“Is that a cosplay?” He asked, pointing to your phone. Completely oblivious to what he just laid out for you. 

You smiled, “It’s a Halloween costume..” you turned to him, “How do you know what cosplay is, ‘Ren?” 

He backed up, blinking a few times. “My ex used to do it.” You hated how fast he answered that. You didn’t know if he was lying. But, something was telling you he was. 

 I wonder what he cosplays? 

You felt your phone buzz, making you glance at it again. 

‘Daddy <;3’ 

Ugh. 

“Jean’s calling you.” Eren voiced, looking at you. “He always calls you.” 

“It’s because I’m his sugar mommy.” You said with a serious tone, not taking your eyes off your phone. 

Eren was silent. “Everything make so much more sense now.” 

You shoved him playfully, throwing your phone on the couch beside you. “Gross! I can’t believe you’d think that!” 

Eren fell to his back, resting on his forearms. “What?! You’re loaded, Y/n, you can’t blame me.” He replied, “Shit. I’d do anything to be your sugar baby.” 

You laughed loudly, “Really?” You said sarcastically, “What about?…” you looked around trying to think of something. Fucking me until I cry. “Answering any questions I have.” 

“Really? That’s it?” Eren thought you were going to make him your slave for a day. 

“What? Do you want to be my slave for a day, or something?” You tried to sound as monotone as possible. But, you could admit the idea was very exciting. 

Your anime crush, doing anything you want. 

Money does buy happiness. 

Eren smiled, “Anything for you, Y/n.” 

You shivered. 

Eren noticed. 

You turned away, hiding your burning face. Your heart was beating like crazy. I seriously need to wife Eren up. 

You sighed, blowing a piece of hair out of your face. “You’re so boring ‘Ren..” you stood up and started to walk away. Eren quickly grabbed your wrist, yanking you back into him. You hit his chest. 

“Don’t even think about it, it’s about damn time I actually talk to my roommate.” He smiled, placing his chin on your shoulder. Peering at you, “It gets so lonely here.” You never noticed how much bigger he was than you. 

In fact, was he always this touchy in the anime?

You mumbled, turning away. Trying not to show how utterly embarrassed you were by the situation the two of you were in. “Ew, get your dirty hands off me.” Keep touching me. 

“No.” Eren laughed and you could feel his chest vibrate against your back. “I don’t think I will.” 

You relaxed, giving up. “Fine.” Curse this man’s attractiveness and strength. “But, now you're not going to be my sugar baby.” 

Eren whined dramatically, “Boo, you whore.” You could feel him jolt. “Oh, are you still coming to practice with me?” Eren asked, his lips close to your neck. You shivered. He noticed again. 

“That was the plan.” You tried pushing yourself off him, but he didn’t let go. Is this how he is with everyone? 

He smiled, his teeth biting his lip for a second. Like he was excited, “I think you’re going to love it.” Eren sure did.

Actually, what the hell was ‘it?’ You don’t even know what sport Eren plays. What if he didn’t play a sport at all. What if he was in a cult? And you were just blindly saying yes?!

Actually, if Eren told me to kill myself, I’d do it.

“Will I?” 

“Nope!” He replied, finally standing up and walking to the door. Grabbing his keys and smiling at you. “Anyways, I’ll swing by the house and drive you at—“ he clicked his tongue a few times, “—3:30, that’s fine right?” 

You blinked a few times, isn’t today my free day?

Eren noticed your confused expression. “Today’s your party day,” it was almost like he was informing you something you didn’t know. Which, you didn’t. Eren was also giving you a weird look. You recognized that face, it was the one he gave you when you acted differently from your alternate self. “So, don’t go to one tonight.” 

You smiled, nodding your head. “I knew that I was just—“ you paused for a second, “—testing if you knew that.” You internally cringed. 

Eren pressed his lips together, suppressing a laugh. You’re so awkward now, he thought. “Of course.” 

You heard him leave, the door clicking shut behind him. Jesus, it was either you marry this man, or kill yourself trying to do it. 

.•° ✿ °•.

°•. ✿ .•°

You never knew driving with Eren could be a surreal experience. I mean, there was that one time you got into a car with a guy you considered— just a friend. Only to come out with your face hot and heart beating like crazy. 

Your heart decided at that moment, you didn’t see him as— just a friend. As Adrien Agreste likes to say with Marinette. 

But this, this was on another fucking level. You could feel your whole body burning. Your heart was beating out of your chest, you could hear it in your ears. 

Jesus, you couldn’t even hear the radio blasting. 

“Do you wanna’ get food after this?” He asked, seeing how tense your shoulders were. “I can pay.”

You blinked a few times, “Huh?” You thickly swallowed, “Uhm, yeah. Food sounds nice.” You simply said. 

“What do you feel like having?” Eren looked at you for a second, seeing as your eyes were trained outside the window.

“Chick-fil-A.” You responded, before quickly snapping your head to Eren. “No! I take it back.” You smiled, “I’ll buy, I know this amazing ramen place.” Eren was about to speak when you cut him off, “Think of it as my first duty as your sugar-mommy.” 

Eren laughed, eyes moving back to the road. Trying not to get too distracted by the conversation. “Can’t wait.” 

You giggled, bright eyes slowly moving away from him. Looking back outside. Counting the cars that passed by. 

Eren however, still wanted to talk. 

“Are you excited?” Eren asked, his hand moving over the wheel as he parked the car into an empty space. 

“Maybe?..” you slowly responded, trying to see where you were. The college's football stadium. Did Eren play football? Wait, how was it going to work? You couldn’t play football.. Maybe, he was going to set you up as a manager?..

Eren opened his door, and shut it behind him. You were going to do the same, when he quickly locked the car. Walking to your side, unlocking the car, and opening the door for you. 

You laughed, “Idiot.” Before stepping out, “Thank you, Eren.” You placed your hand on his shoulder, before fixing your hair. 

Eren watched as you started to walk forward, the place you touched burning. He thickly swallowed, “Uh, I—I already talked to my director about you joining, and he said it should be fine.” Eren said, trying to catch up to you. His hand placed on your waists, and leading the way. His head turned to you, “But, I’m so excited! It’s gonna’ be nice having you at practice with me.” 

You smiled, grabbing his arm and squeezing it. “It sounds nice.” You softly replied, pulling yourself away and looking back at the field. 

You could feel your heart drop. 

Oh no, not this again..

You promised to leave this very ‘sport’ back in high school. Hell, it wasn’t even a sport! It was goddamn torture, and child labor. You looked at Eren, seeing the way he was smiling at everyone. “Eren, you do?..” 

“Marching band!” Eren smiled, grabbing your hand and pulling you close. “I’m in the drumline.” He whispered, pointing at the percussionist. 

That’s actually so sexy, what the hell?

You looked at him, mouth agape. “You do marching band?!” You blinked at him. 

Wait, does that mean you get to see him in the uniform?! 

There really is a god. 

You could feel Eren’s hand squeeze around your waist for a moment, before speaking. “I’m so happy, now we can spend more time together.” He whispered. 

You could feel your lips part, your hand moving over his. Your face burning with embarrassment. “Eren?” You softly said, hand tightening around his. 

His eyes dipped down to your lip, before looking back into you. “Y/n?” He said with a slight laugh. 

Your lips parted, before closing. Tell him you like him! “Eren, I—I really li—“ 

“Y/n?” 

You flinched hearing your name. You could see Eren turn pale. His hand pulling away from you so fast, you couldn’t register it. 

You turned your head over your shoulder, confused by what— or who, would’ve caused such a reaction from Eren. 

You could feel your blood run cold. 

In front of the two of you, stood someone taller than both of you. Hands stuffed into his pockets, hair slicked back with gel, and a tight black long sleeved shirt, with gray sweatpants. His lips brought into a slight scowl. 

“What the hell are you doing here at my practice.” His eyes danced to Eren, “With him?” 

You couldn’t even register his question. The words leaving your mouth without thought. 

“Jean?” 

Your boyfriend. 

.•° ✿ °•.

°•. ✿ .•°

#writers on tumblr #anime #fiction #writing #aot fanfiction #aot x y/n #attack on titan fanfiction #attack on titan #eren aot #attack on titan eren #eren jeager #eren fluff #shingeki no kyoujin eren #eren x reader #snk eren #Eren Roomie Series 🌸

[jellybeanium124]

actually you know what the more I think about that taika cameo in that shitty simpsons episode the more pissed I get. because taika and the simpsons could be so fucking good. like, early simpsons, and I mean early early, like s1-3, and taika waititi movies are like, in the same family. super early simpsons have this sort of slowness to it, this reality, this mundanity. the family struggles financially compared to the inexplicably financially comfortable simpsons of today. there's a lot more focus on childhood stories. "lisa's substitute" could be a taika waititi movie. so could "moaning lisa." "three men and a comic book," even.

and lisa? lisa would be the ideal taika protagonist. not the pop-culture-worshipping holier-than-thou-ing, zombified little-miss-know-it-all of the HD era, the real lisa simpson. this 8 year old girl who's sensitive and smart, but still a child. her father's a drunk and her mother, a kind, beautiful soul, and brilliant painter, had all her hopes and dreams crushed and remolded into homemaking and child-raising.

give! me! a! simpsons! episode! where! lisa has to come to terms with the real world at the tender age of 8!!!!

I mean like, I understand that they probably can't just let taika guest write an episode of the simpsons. or direct. directing an animated project is going to be super different from directing a life-action one anyways, who knows if he'd want to.

but the simpsons has done clever and thoughtful homages before, even recently with "barthood" (released 2015, fuck that's 9 years ago). they could've done an homage. they could've parodied his style. they could've made something thoughtful. homer and lisa stories have been some of the most touching stories on the show. or, they could've just focused on the kids and done a bart and lisa story.

but they didn't do any of that. they didn't write anything thoughtful, or creative, or even good. they wrote drivel, and racist drivel at that, with two jokes around the asian-caricature character kumiko that were genuinely painful to sit through (and this show has a history of being racist towards asian characters).

they wrote taika as a hyperactive egomaniac with no attention span and gave him 0 direction. his performance in this episode is undoubtably the worst acting performance I've ever seen from him. and like, you know, not all actors are cut out to voice act, but I don't think that's the problem here. I think the problem here is that taika read a shitty script, and it was season 35 of the simpsons so who gives a flying fuck, and he read the lines because this was a paycheck. why bother giving this project effort if nobody else was putting any effort into it either? why bother giving this project effort when they write you as the worst version of yourself, a persona that probably gives you a sense of comfort and control when you're choosing to do it, but probably doesn't feel that great when writers who don't know or care about you write it for you.

and, to be clear, I don't mind that he's the villain of the episode, or even that he wasn't written exactly as himself. like, of course it should be a persona of him on the simpsons. all celebs get a simpsons persona when they guest star as themselves. I think I just hate the fact that it's pushing a narrative that he's a shitty guy that's similar enough to his real life persona at a time where people are violently attacking him for no damn good reason. and the fact that it's poorly written with no love or care for anything. not taika, not the simpsons, not tv, not art, not anything.

#the simpsons #taika waititi

[dropoff99]

Wheel of Time S2 Episode 5 - “Damane” is an achievement in adaptation that should be recognized

I’m not an active reviewer of this show or any other. It’s not something I am very interested in. However I think it’s important to note when a piece of art begins to transform into something greater than the sum of its parts, especially with an adaptation of this magnitude which has so many things to juggle it can make your head spin.

This series has been a part of my life for over 25 years. It’s as difficult for me to remove my bias as it is for anyone, especially when beloved moments from the series are changed. Any fantasy fan who has spent time around the genre has experienced this. However I feel that the fandom really needs to recognize what is happening currently on Amazon Prime’s Wheel of Time.

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of time is possibly the most ambitious fantasy series ever created. A magic system with as much depth as you will find in fantasy, hundreds of named characters, 14 large books, a prequel novella, a couple encyclopedic volumes, and now a major streaming series on Amazon Prime.

Up until this point half-way through the second season the show has been admirable in some of its attempts at adapting Jordan’s beloved series but I don’t think any fan (of either the show or the books) could really say it is has been a total success in terms of quality. S2 E5 on the other hand is simultaneously a great adaptation of the series and a great episode of television that could be the turning point from a capable fantasy show to an excellent one. Before we get into that let’s revisit where we’ve been.

Season 1

S1 had 2 really good episodes, a couple outright bad ones (finale), but mostly could be described as average storytelling hidden by some great performances by Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney and set in a beautiful and interesting universe. For all intents and purposes it was a success in terms of attracting viewers, introducing new audiences to RJ’s series and being a decent show.

There have been some great casting choices and the majority of the cast has worked with a couple exceptions (recasting of Mat). The characters are firmly recognizable from Jordan’s work with of course some big changes as well that vary in terms of popularity with the fandom. However, the challenge of making the wheel of time universe really sing (ie the fantasy/lore concepts) was hit or miss for me in S1 (in many ways a miss). I’m not speaking of book accuracy, simply how interesting and cool they were.

Emonds Field 5 - not perfect but definitely a success

Myrddraal and Trollocs - success

Channeling - 50/50

White Tower - success

Thom/gleeman - failure

Ta’veren - TBD

Loial/Ogier - meh (admittedly high degree of difficulty)

Eye of the World - failure and was not interesting at all

Aes Sedai and Warders - biggest achievement of S1, huge success

Fal Dara - meh

Traveling people - meh

The ways - decent

Two Rivers - 50/50

Logain/male channelers - success

Darkfriends - success

Whitecloaks - decent

Shadar Logoth - decent

Overall an admirable effort, especially considering how much they adapted but IMO they had some big misses that brought down the season.

Season 2

So far the second season has seen a huge jump over the first season in terms of production quality, visual style, performances, and dialogue. Many of the actors on the show have found their footing, particularly Josha Stradowski who plays Rand. Every new major character they have introduced has not only been written well but their performances have been off the charts which I will touch on more when I discuss E5.

However the first 4 episodes were much like the first season. The pacing was hit or miss, some of the changes have landed (Nynaeve in the arches) and a few have not (namely Lan’s arc). Mat is still MIA but we will see how they land things with him later. Either way season 1 caliber storytelling combined with the other upgrades in acting, visual style, and overall polish makes for a pretty damn good product.

Episode 5 - “Damane” (full spoilers)

It’s difficult for me to fully explain why E5 was so satisfying. It is less about any one individual factor and more about how smoothly it weaved (no pun intended) many well executed components together.

The first thing I will start with is visual style. S2 has been an upgrade in general from S1 in many of its choices but Episode 5 is on a different level.

The initial location (near falme) Liandrin takes the girls is absolutely stunning. I took my own little photo above to demonstrate just how sumptuous this looked in 4K in my living room. The show has always been pretty but I will admit the variety of locales in S2 as well as the cinematography has been a significant upgrade. What I especially liked about this scene is that it did not lean on a slick establishing shot of a CG city or even a giant fortress/village made specifically for the show, two things WoT is very good at. Instead this is a simple scene in terms of CG. It’s just a waygate and the effects used for channeling all look great and are not too over the top. As far as set design it’s just the stone pillars for the waygate and the large throne that Suroth rides around on (and Seanchan costumes). Otherwise it’s a beautiful natural location that grounds the action and fantasy elements organically while pulling in the viewer to this world.

But that’s just a taste.

Story locations in this episode: Falme, Cairhien, Toman Head, The White Tower, Tel’aranrhiod, The Ways. And that’s not counting different areas within those places.

Each of the above have a strong visual language to communicate the various cultures and landscapes of Jordan’s universe and I don’t think it skips a single beat going back and forth between them. Forests, deserts, marshland, night scenes, day scenes, cities, villages, fortresses, and fantasy creations like the ways and the dream world. The show was in its bag in terms of something interesting to draw the eye the entire episode.

The performances were no different in terms of their variety and quality. Fares Fares (Ishamael) and Natasha O’Keefe (Lanfear) were probably the best on screen fantasy villains I’ve seen since vintage Game of Thrones seasons. They were engaging, scary, and villainous in a relatable but unapologetic manner, delivering line after line that could easily be viewed as cheesy if not for perfect execution in direction and tone. And frankly what I liked most is that the show didn’t fall in to the modern temptation to make them less evil. Sure they have their justifications/motivations but they are also unambiguous baddies from the viewer’s perspective which is true to Jordan.

Moving on to Rosamund Pike who we’re really running out of things to say in terms of her acting which has never dipped for a second for the entirety of the show. What was more impressive is how the show’s writers have demonstrated their commitment to showing a ruthlessly efficient character who will do whatever it takes to save the world. This episode highlighted her commitment to her cause as well as her intelligence in dealing with a character who is immensely powerful.

Ayoola Smart as Aviendha provided the best action sequence and an excellent dialogue scene with Perrin that efficiently introduced ji’e’toh and Aiel culture. I am really looking forward to seeing more from her as Aviendha is one of my favorite characters. On a similar note Meera Syal really got to flex her abilities as Verin in a much more recognizable manner to book readers than what we saw earlier in the show. It was thrilling to watch her pick apart Liandrin’s plot.

The last thing that I was really impressed by and primarily why I wrote this post to begin with is how committed the show seems to be to genuinely introducing some of the most difficult elements of the Wheel of Time universe which is honestly not what I expected given the first 4 episodes. Let’s take some inventory of what we got from E5 as well as S2 so far straight from the books/universe.

Aviendha/Aiel/ji’e’toh - success

Falme - as a location it’s a success

Seanchan - success (with a very high degree of difficulty)

Collaring - success

Lanfear/Selene - huge success

Ishamael - huge success

Novice training /arches - success

Cairhien - success

Horn - TBD

Elyas - success

Wolfbrother abilities - controversial but a success IMO

Tel’aranrhiod - success

Verin/Browns - success

Channeling - success

Mat’s abilities - TBD but this might be a big L

Min’s Visions - TBD but so far an L for me

Elayne - success

Do I think this show is going to be this good every episode from now on? Probably not. And yes there is still plenty to dislike from S2. Mat/Min are borderline non existent so far, the Lan/Moiraine arc was miserable until they separated, and Siuan hasn’t even shown up yet (despite having some badass scenes in the second book that are very memorable).

However I will say this is the first time where I’ve felt real confidence in where the story is headed both short and long term. If they do this for the remaining three episodes then Wheel of Time will hold the belt for best fantasy show currently running.

#Wheel of time show #wheel of time #Robert Jordan #Rafe judkins #fantasy #Amazon Prime #The Great Hunt #Lanfear #Ishamael #TV #books

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 95 and 96 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 93 and 94 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-95: A Ruthless Brotherly Duel -- Ryou VS Shou

Wishing for his kind and respectable brother to be himself again, Shou challenges the Hell Kaiser to a duel. But a callous Ryou conditions it on having a duel in which an electric current will rush through them with every drop in their Life Points. And so, a brotherly duel begins between Ryou and Shou. Shou does develop his dueling--respecting his opponent as always--but Ryou pounces on him, in full command of the Cyber Style's Reverse deck.

TURN-96: The Relativity Field! Judai VS the Genius Doctor

In order to take back one of his important keys, a Saiou struck by the Waves of Light once again sends in an assassin against Judai. The assassin is Zweinstein, a genius physics expert with a deck made logically--Judai's weakest point of all. Zweinstein activates his Relativity Field to start things off. He then summons* a Monster that negates Judai's Fusion, his forte, gaining an edge as the duel unfolds. *This is referencing Singularity Demon's effect in the episode, but he doesn't actually summon it; it's more of a hand-trap he discards to negate Fusion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Got my subs for episodes 95 and 96 all nice and finalized!

These two episodes are a great time, but 95 in particular is great. It's the culmination of those little bits we've had of Shou observing Ryou's fall from grace since his loss to Ed, knowing he'd face him one day and preparing himself for it, and the whole time they're dueling, he holds onto some hope that he can turn Ryou back into the big brother he knew--only to realize by the end that Ryou, after what he's seen underground, really is just focused on winning, willing to be as "cruel" or "foul" as it takes if it helps. You do feel for the little guy, moreso when this gets flashed back to in 137 during Season 3 (another favorite, as it's a big development episode for Shou). Also, Judai being a friend and watching over him knowing this was his choice to make, building him up about using Power Bond, rushing over once the duel's over--it's sweet.

96 is also one of my favorites because of the good art/dynamic animation, courtesy of Kyoung Soo Lee's animation team (especially those last few scenes after Judai destroys Relativity Field, but just the Solid Vision putting them in space the entire time). The premise isn't too bad, we check in with Misawa who's realizing that just joining the Society of Light isn't enough for him to make a name for himself, and he bumps into God Einstein Zweinstein who tells him that logic beats "coincidence," before he tries to convey this to Judai and prove his Grand Unified Duel Theory. I like the Dueling Physics idea and the Einstein parody (he won a Nobelly Prize!), and the match between his logic and Judai's intuition--and who doesn't enjoy the randomness of Misawa's extra Eureka moment, lmao. Still a bit meh on it being the last we see of him for a while, but it is nice seeing him when he does come back. (Also, I like how it's not at all mentioned how Ojin managed to get a recording of Chronos calling for Judai to trick him with... very GX lol)

Edit-wise, both episodes had a fair amount of animation error fixes I applied; 95 saw more card-related errors than the quick one in 96, while both had a fair share of more quality-of-watching ones with split-screens, incomplete footage frames, or miscolorings (and in Burstlady's case, another missing shoulder strap). Due to Tumblr’s dumb link limit in posts yeeting them out of the tags used for them and limiting their reach, and since I still wanted a visual element to it, I’ve made a separate post here with my usual fix/edit breakdown for the interested--altogether, that's about 26 between both episodes, which I think I hit sometime in S1 when doing double-releases for a bit, but since most were quality-of-watching things, they were pretty quick to work on for the most part.

Anywho, enjoy! Looking forward to revisiting 97 and 98 next as we circle back to the Pro Leagues and get Ed's best episode of the Season in the process; as Judai put it in 96's preview for 97, "Ed's Wheel of Fortune'll suddenly start to turn..."

#my subs #GX #yugioh #yugioh gx #ygo #ygo gx #yu-gi-oh gx #yu-gi-oh! gx #Shou Marufuji #Ryou Marufuji #Judai Yuki #Zweinstein #[i find it interesting they name him Albert Zweinstein in-show but the credits just show 'Zweinstein' lol] #...okay who at tumblr thought it would be a good idea to make it so clicking on a post's blog doesn't take you right to the post arghhh #[also first of these with the new post editor as a test run let's see] #[i'll update the masterpost in the morning--gotta be up for work in six hours... for an early meeting yay]

[aro-attorneys]

God. Second attempt at writing a sort of coherent Good Omens Season 2 rant/review/thoughts. Whatever you want to call it.

First, things I really enjoyed:

Pre-fall Crowley scene. Though this was not liked as much by some other critical Book fans. I understand from canon-conflicting perspective, but TV and Book Omens are separate in my head (sorry Neil Gaiman I can't buy the Same Canon thing)

The flashbacks scene (especially the one with Job and the Resurrectionist, the zombie one was kinda bad though)

Aziraphale getting to use the Bentley

Ok that's all that stood out to me of what I really liked. Time to complain!

God I'll just...start with The Kiss. I saw spoilers for it before I got a chance to watch it and immediately felt disappointment. I do like the Ineffable Husband ship, but I liked it as this...vague thing they kinda had going on in the back. They absolutely did not need an angsty one-sided confession scene with a forced kiss. Everything about it felt so inorganic too. I was trying to be open to the possible (different/romantic) chemistry they might have in s2, but it never happened. Instead there was Nina and telling Crowley he's in love with Aziraphale. Even though nothing really indicated that? To the public they could just be friends?

They did make more "gay jokes" (like they did once in season 1, which I did not like, it was very amatonormative which goes against the vibes those two have). Did not like those. Felt forced.

I have made posts before about the lack of aro and qpr representation in media and Yes that does play into why I did not like this ending of the season. It felt like this possible representation was forcibly taken away from me. I get to be sad about that. It's technically a separate argument but I'm throwing it here anyway.

Aside from That, the vibes of season 2 was...not really Good Omens? I really love the season 1 adaptation on so many levels. It is not perfect and there is valid criticism to be given, but overall it catches the absurdist comedy and relevance of everyone at play Very Well. Both the book and the show have this "ah it's all coming together" thing that's executed so well. I agree Crowley and Aziraphale got more of a main character role in the Show vs. The Book (where the humans and nonhumans are equally important/get similar screentime). And they amplified this in season 2. This post-book "canon" seems to focus a lot on Crowley and Aziraphale, which feels Wrong. They don't work on their own like they did in the Book/s1. It was their interaction with Earth and its Humans that made them shine in the end. Giving them their own problems to deal with was incredibly uninteresting. This is probably why the flashbacks stood out to me more. ...Yeah, I think it boils down to them not being as interesting on their own.

(of course when fans draw Book Omens Ineffable Husbands it's a different thing altogether, but art or comics usually don't have TV-style drama)

I feel I should say something about Gabriel and Beelzebub? It caught me by surprise that I just laughed when I saw it unfold. It was just very weird idk. I will miss Beelzebub though, I loved their trash gender vibes (then again, the new actor did not sell the vibes as well as the previous actor).

This season made me dive a little into the Book Omens fandom again and made me realise how much I missed the Book. I read it back in 2017 and a lot of fine details are lost on me. I want to read it again for sure. I see a lot of mixed reactions from Book fans on this season. Oftentimes criticism of different kinds, sometimes someone who did kind of like the season.

Overall I hate it when a screen adaptation takes a fandom over. I have to see incredibly bad takes on the Ineffable Husbands every day since the show came out.

In short: it was mostly not as interesting/memorable and I am pissed off about the kiss scene that I have to see everywhere.

#good omens critical #good omens #good omens season 2 #book omens #hey the negative stuff is under a read more #unless you're open to criticism of your beloved gay angel demon show you shouldn't open the post okay? #this isn't important enough to ruin someone's day bc they like the show #but do know that i find the tv omens fandom (the ones who didnt read the book) to be annoying as hell #not the individuals obviously. #anyway is this coherent at all #i tried to just make paragraphs on the main stuff that bothered me #I will push the qpr acearo ineffable husbands agenda

[trashworldblog]

so beth good omens huh

YEAH

[s1 spoilers ahead]

its really good and i have alot of emotions that i havent quite worked out yet. but heres some thoughts:

- Very Good

- this healed a part of my former catholic currently religiously traumatized soul. obviously a show like good omens would hurt some sore spots, even unintionally just due to the aesthetics, right? WRONG. i never thought id be able to watch something that has to do with religion and not feel uncomfortable. but somehow, i got through the entire first season without feeling that discomfort. maybe ive grown, maybe its the show. but the way they... did... well, everything felt so disconnected from the catholicism i grew up with.

and the show is obviously catholic (at least to my experience) everything is story book catholicism, and yet... it feels different. maybe its god being a woman of color (i believe?) adam and eve being people of color, the gay angel and demon eye fucking every so often, and the honest depiction of first testimant things being Fucked Up, even for a demon, feels so disconnected from the white washed, hateful, church i grew up with. so it didnt hurt watching it. not for a second. and that made me incredibly happy.

- the use of queen music is killing me and so fucking perfect. first of all, all bangers. obviously. its queen. second, theres something about queen, and its place in the queer community, mirroring nicely with crowley and aziraphale. i cant quite put it to words yet.

- the camera angles in heaven being incredibly uncomfortable and awkward, literally warping the angles to be gigantic monsters. if they used normal camera angles and focus lenses, heaven wouldnt look too off. empty and barren, yes, but otherwise fine. using these low or up close shots makes my neck sweat and physically want to lean away from my tv. so good!!!! immediately shows they are very much not the heros in this story. also heavan and hell wanting war so bad showed that heavan was NOT on humanity's side. they were on heavans side. it made a beautiful common enemy for aziraphale and crowley and the humans to be up against. i hope they explore aziraphale and crowley and humanity vs the afterlives in the future.

- GAY PEOPLE!!!! THEY ARE SO IN LOVE!!!! AND AFRAID!!!! i hope they use this break after saving the world and showing their people theyre invincible to holy water/ demonic fire to get together!!!! they wont but i can dream!!!

- the idea of people always watching and keeping score is so terrifying when you think about it. no wonder theyre terrified. theyre existence is to just do what angels and demons do. and they have to do that forever without break. can you imagine how exhausting that must be?

maybe for a regular demon and angel thats fine, but aziraphale and crowley are a bit more then that. theyre in a slight gray area, and it cant be easy to do ONLY holy or ONLY evil things. add on to that the horrors of being on earth for a long time. you cant get attached to much. people die, things go out of style, animals and plants go extinct, libraries and art burn, things get lost and lost media is heartbreaking.

-the actors are really good. like these mfs are in LOVE LOOK AT THEIR EYES. wow. best "im in love with you but im hiding it" eyes ive ever seen. also i need to watch the finale again to appreciate the body language used to show that theyre in swapped bodies.

- the plot is really good and interesting!! i was afraid of missing crowley and aziraphale when we switched to adam or the witch hunter or the witch but i didnt miss them most of the time! i was super intrested in how adam would turn out without crowley or aziraphale's influence. and the witch stuff was pretty interesting too! some times i got a little lost in it all and got distracted, but tbh thats the adhd experience so.

-theyre so stupid and yearning and blind to eachothers emotions i love it

conclusion: good show! i am reading alot of fanfic about it and i started a side blog to store some good omens stuff on. i enjoy this blog being my personal and watcher blog, and i kinda wanted to have a good omens layout so, sideblog! ill still reblog some good omens things here, but most of it will be over there.

#good omens #thanks for the ask! #finalgirl posting

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (16-22 Oct 2022)

ᵛᵃᶜᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ ʷᵉᵉᵏ ʷʰᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉ

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😍Dishonor On Your Cow (mandarou) - 111K, shrunkyclunks - this fic is just fucking hilarious and so, so good - I had forgotten just all the great moments AFTER the initial meet-ugly, like bucky (sort of) becoming a cat and a multiverse Steve and repeated guest appearances by deadpool

🙂👂‍Curtain (Hercule Poirot #44) (Agatha Christie, author; Hugh Fraser, narrator) - though published last, it was written right after WW2 which made it interesting to read after later written novels. I've always thought this was a solid end to HP though.

🥰👂‍A Thief in the Night (Gentle Art World) (KJ Charles, author; James Joseph & Ryan Laughton, narrator) - delightful - KJC is an autobuy and never disappoints

🥰👂‍The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting (Gentle Art World) (KJ Charles, author; Cornell Collins, narrator) - reading Toby's story (A Thief In The Night) made me want to revisit Robin & Hart - I forgot just how GOOD this was in terms of exploring different power differences and communication styles and how everyone is always bringing their own baggage/interpretations to what one thinks is a straightforward communication - fascinating and complex

🥰Whatever here that's left of me is yours (rainbow_nerds) - 41K, stucky AU - I'm a sucker for a ghost romance with a happy ending (esp if it gives me ghost sex first!)

😊Okay, so he can play… (pretty's got nothing to do with it) (darter_blue) - 50K, stucky college hockey AU (mildly a Check Please AU)

😍World Enough And Time (laiqualaurelote) - 51K, brilliantly done MFMM/Doctor Who AU

🥰👂‍The Spare Man (Mary Robinette Kowal, author & narrator) - MRK's self-stated mission was 'The Thin Man but in space' and she succeeded brilliantly. Loved ALL the characters and the plotty sometimes tortuous plot (very reminiscent of all the AC I've been reading). Gimlet (space Asta) is of course the biggest star. [There were one or two places where i had a flash of annoyance? irritation? at the plot/characters but I actually think this might have been because of the audiobook format? Like, if I had been textually reading i would have maybe rolled my eyes but it would have moved on more quickly. It was DEFINITELY a me thing, not truly a book thing.]

😊Murder on Board (Miss Underhay #10) (Helena Dixon) - Kitty & Co continue to be quick, light, cozy mystery fun. I do absolutely love the absurdly high body count this series is accumulating in such a short time.

🥰Clean Slated State (Justkeeptrekkin) - 42K, BlackBonnet AU with newly divorced/dating Stede & bartender Ed - fantastic characterizations, so enjoyable

😍by the moonlight side (wearing_tearing) - 92K, Steddie, werewolf!Steve - stayed up way, way too late for my old woman body reading this! SO. GOOD. Full of found family pack feels and wolfy goodness, tender and hot and emotional.

💖💖 +102K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

How we rolled up the carpet so we could dance (rohkeutta, SulaSafeRoom) - MCU: Stucky, 7K - featuring Cap!Bucky and the tag "Tired Old Men In Need Of A Break"

Feeling I'll Forget, I'm In Love Now (smithsonianstucky (thelarenttrap)) - MCU: Stucky, 8K - great WS recovery fic - Bucky's touch starved but also traumatized so they get a cat

Apes Debemus Imitari (We Should Imitate the Bees) (buckysbees) - MCU: Stucky, 15K - semi-annual reread of this wonderful The Little Shop Around the Corner AU set in a farmers' market with beekeeper!Bucky. I love this fic so much. Basically any time someone mentions it I immediately have to reread it.

✨✨ also this absolutely marvelous essay ✨✨

‘Family Means No One Gets Left Behind’: An oral history of Lilo & Stitch, the Disney movie that almost brought hand-drawn animation back

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Ghosts (US) - s1, e15-18; s2, e1-3

Columbo - s1, e6-7

ParaNorman

The Forgotten Disaster of the SS Eastland

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Ologies with Alie Ward - FIELD TRIP: I Go France and Learn Weird French Stuff

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Louie Mattar’s Fabulous Car

Switched on Pop - Steve Lacy brings bedroom pop to the Billboard top

Shedunnit Book Club - The Kidnap of Elizabeth Canning

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Meramec Caverns

99% Invisible #512 - Walk of Fame

Vibe Check - It's the Gayest Candy

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - A Thousand Words

Song Exploder - Santigold "Ushers of the New World"

Into It - A Portrait of the Artist as Taylor Swift

Ologies with Alie Ward - Metropolitan Tombology (PARIS CATACOMBS) with Erin-Marie Legacey

One Year - 1942: The Most Hated Man in America

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Times Square Hum

Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Ep 155: Taron Egerton - where you will learn that Taron loooooooves mayonnaise and does occasionally like to just...spread it over a slice of pizza 'like a crumpet'. [if i have to have that knowledge you do too]

Strong Songs - "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

'80s Rock

Journey

Presenting Iron Maiden

Presenting Joni Mitchell

Presenting Taylor Swift

The Loneliest Time [Carly Rae Jepsen]

Presenting Carly Rae Jepsen

#sunday reading recap #bookgeekgrrl's reading habits #bookgeekgrrl's soundtracks #fanfic ftw #all the reading was so great this week! #vibe check and into it were the stellar standout podcasts this week #vibe check podcast #into it podcast #strong songs podcast #20k hz podcast #99% invisible podcast #shedunnit podcast #the atlas obscura podcast #off menu podcast #ologies podcast #one year podcast #switched on pop podcast #song exploder #'80s music #joni mitchell #carly rae jepsen #iron maiden #journey #taylor swift #i didn't listen to ts' new album but i did listen to crj's at least 3x! #fan artists are a *gift*

[cosmicqueen10]

Dishonorable Mentions of 2022

This is just MY OPINION.

Please take this all with a grain of salt.

⬇️

⬇️

⬇️

⬇️

Platinum End

Death Note successor my ass. 💀

Requiem of the Rose King

Depressing, morbid and tragic as fuck. 💔🖤

Tomodachi Game

Started off good but then everything feels disjointed and off and dragging out too much... I'm gonna stop now. 😵‍💫

Odd Taxi Into the Woods

The last 5 to 7 mins of new content at the PRACTICAL END of the movie should have been put in the end of the final episode of the anime. This movie was unnecessary! 😑

The Devil is a Part Timer Season 2

Art style, fight choreography, quality — It's all downgraded. I rewatched S1 to prepare for S2 and the change is too obvious. It's been a decade, new people working on it, so yeah it'll be different. But honestly it's a miss. 😮‍💨

Again JUST MY OPINION.

PLEASE DON'T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY!

If anyone even reads this that is.

😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤😤

#platinum end #requiem of the rose king #tomodachi game #odd taxi into the woods #the devil is a part timer season 2 #Dishonorable mentions #just my opinion #anime of 2022

[4kadhd]

Hdhf

#feeling sad rn #i wish this show had been as good as some ppl see it #i wish it was as good as all the early hype for it was #god i miss the energy s1 had #the only reason i stuck around was the art style of it and animation #and tbh that was the only thing that got me into it and that kept this show afloat #ki bitches #sorry to be so down but like #this show coulda been something #instead it was some fucked plot and racist ass bull

[vickyvicarious]

do u have any atla fic recs? all time faves? can be shippy or not

Fun fact, I am incapable of holding back on reclists. In other words: brace yourself, anon. There’s a reason I put most of this behind a cut.

First off, these are almost all Zuko-centric, because I shamelessly play favorites. I’ll sort them by author rec, gen, shippy, and then by other characters because honestly the numbers break down well that way. Within those categories it’ll be more just as I think of it, so no special meaning to the order. I’m not always good about bookmarking even my faves, so some excellent stuff will no doubt be missing, especially since I haven’t read a lot of the more recent stuff yet/forgot some really old stuff, but this will definitely still give you plenty of fic to enjoy.

There’s a good number of FFN links on here so apologies to people who dislike it, but a lot of great stuff is still on there so give it a chance.

Author recs

Everything by @awesomeavocadolove​​  Such hits as Another Brother (Zuko adopted by Hakoda pre-S1), and currently has a Zukka soulmate fic I’ve been meaning to start reading, as well as Unchained Melody, one of my favorite Zukka fics ever. Always quality, you can’t go wrong.

Everything by KimberlyT.  I do not kid. She’s written a variety of ATLA fic ranging from Zutara/other romance to gen, seriously emotional to cracky cabbagebending. I think my favorite is probably Mismatched (S1 Zuko adopts a baby) but honestly just go read it all.

Everything by @emletish-fish​​. She has a very fun writing style and honestly her end-of-chapter notes on why she’s made the choices she has are fun minimetas worthwhile in their own right. Some of her top fics are the Stalking Zuko series (S3 suspicious Katara to Zutara) and The Worst Prisoner (the Gaang kidnaps Zuko in S1 and can’t get rid of him). I think there’s still a good amount of her fic that can only be found on FFN so check there too.

Everything by @botherkupo​​. Especially her Undying Fire series (healer!Zuko) but also just literally everything she writes, it is all so great. Tends toward Zutara but strong gen fics as well sometimes and a lot of fun. Check it all out!

Everything by @muffinlance​​. Loves to toy with her readers’ emotions in the best of ways. Tons of fantastic gen Zuko-centric AUs, I have adored every single fic I’ve ever read by her, can’t praise them enough. Very productive as well, her tumblr is a hub for the ATLA renaissance and her fics inspire lots of others. Has also organized a fanmade ATLA coloring book for charity so get that once it’s out. In the meantime read everything she’s written.

Everything by Haicrescendo. My favorite is What We’re Given (the series where Zuko finds more air bisons and raises them), but there’s a lot of good Zukka fic too. I tend to steer away from explicit works in this fandom unless it’s a smaller part of a much longer plot-centric fic, so there are a number I haven’t read, but I really like the Pokemon!AU Zukka.

Everything by @gaycinema. I really love the EK fight club series (Zuko fights in Rumbles/etc.) but all of it is a good read. Some Jetko, mostly a lot of introspective or emotional oneshots. Which isn’t really a great depiction of how good they tend to be, you’ll just have to read them and find out. You won’t regret it, trust me.

Everything by @captainkirkk. So far eight stellar fics, starting with kind Fire Lord Zuko and ranging to Floating Tea Shop!Zuko who doesn’t want to hunt the Avatar. I love her style and have laughed out loud at multiple of these. 

Gen Zuko fic

Bringing Out the Blue by maguena1. [unfinished, long] Definitely worth the read. The first ATLA fic I ever got really sucked into. The Blue Spirit never gets knocked out so Aang doesn’t know his true identity; he joins the Gaang on a recurring basis, while Zuko attempts to tell himself this is only for information on how to catch them, they definitely aren’t his friends.

It’s Impossible by Sandra Phillips. [abandoned, long] One of the earliest Avatar!Zuko fics (sort of) and a really interesting take on some spirit stuff.

Embers by Vathara. [complete, long] A landmark fic in the fandom, and for good reason. I didn’t love everything about this fic, but it is very well-written and an absorbing read certainly worth the praise. 

the art of description by incandescens. [oneshot, short] Five descriptions of Zuko and Toph’s field trip from various perspectives. Short, sweet, and funny.

Breaking Point by Kryal. [oneshot, short] Zuko isn’t banished but instead sent to serve in the Home Guard. I love Zuko loving his people, and alternate canon explorations, and this is exactly that.

The Alternative by Lunatique. [oneshot, short] The reason Zuko is so determined is because he fears what will happen if he isn’t the next Fire Lord. An idea I support in canon, to a degree, written well.

Hands and Knees by gigerisgod. [oneshot, short] Zuko reflects on the choices he’s made, and experiences he’s had, when joining the Gaang. A nice introspective fic.

Relative Misery by peroxidepest17. [oneshot, short] Toph complains about her family and Zuko takes her on a field trip. Not a fic I take too seriously, but funny in a sad way.

Second Nature by lazyartisan. [possibly abandoned, long] An AU stemming from Zuko’s capture at the North Pole. Well-written and characterized, an old favorite that I actually find needing to reread to give you more detail, but I can promise it’s good.

Year One by peroxidepest17. [oneshot, short] Lessons Zuko learns in his first year being Fire Lord. I really like explorations of Zuko’s journey as Fire Lord and this is a lovely little window into that.

Soft by PenPistola. [oneshot, short] Zuko and Toph bonding after the Ember Island Players. Short and sweet.

The New Phoenix King by JoeMerl. [oneshot, short] Fire Lord Zuko is overthrown, and no one but him is bothered at all. In fact they help. Hilarious crack.

First Name Basis by JoeMerl. [oneshot, short] There’s some popular posts going around Tumblr lately about Zuko not knowing the Gaang’s names, but this fic did it first back in 2008. As amusing as you’d expect.

Male Bonding by glamaphonic. [oneshot, short] The original ‘Zuko and Sokka bond and are also dumb idiot boys’ fic. Katara is permanently rolling her eyes.

it’s not the waking, it’s the rising by isamagicdragon, thegracious [ongoing, series, medium] Azulon tells Ozai to kill Azula instead of Zuko, which leads to heartwrenching fire sibs adventure. I haven’t caught up on the last chapter yet but god is it fantastic and also just a really interesting and new perspective on what could have happened.

Doe-Eyed by Anonymous. [complete, medium] Zuko is a baby, Azula is a loving big sister. More fire sibs and a great exploration on Azula’s POV of turning against Ozai.

kintsugi by discordiansamba. [ongoing, series, long] Zuko doesn’t have Iroh after being banished, and winds up hired as a guard to protect the frail Beifong daughter. Fantastic preseries Zuko+Toph found family fic.

Legacies by WildInkling. [ongoing, medium] Far in the future, a historian studies the journal of Fire Lord Zuko. Also, he was secretly a famous author but no one knows. A funny and poignant outsider POV.

#UndercoverZuko series by naggeluide. [complete, series, short] A completely cracky concept written straight enough to be actually quite touching in parts, but also just really funny. Zuko goes Undercover Boss on his ship pre-series.

Avatar Ficlets by JaggedCliffs. [series, oneshots, short] An ongoing series of disconnected oneshots, mostly post-canon and mostly Zuko-centric. Some a pretty fun, one is a great view on Zuko and lightningbending, all worth the read (and follow for when more come out).

The Blind Leading the Blue by BrusselsSprout. [ongoing, medium] An epic Zuko and Toph field trip set in S2. I love them and this.

half in the shadows, half burned in flames by r_astra. [oneshot, short] Iroh dies, Zuko gets caught on the Day of Black Sun, everything ends up all right but damn does it hurt getting there.

A Tale of Earth and Fire by chiiyo86. [complete, medium] Zuko and Toph are married for Politics in a FN Wins AU, and follows them slowly bonding as friends to beginning a revolution. They’re married but it’s not romantic, just some good friendship.

Eight Principles of Yong by psocoptera. [oneshot, short] An exploration of immediate post-show FN politics (sort of), calligraphy, and Zuko. Also has some lovely non-fighting firebending; I always love when people explore other uses of bending.

Healing Properties of Cinder Sage by Dawen. [oneshot, short] Zuko gets very sick in the Western Air Temple. Some good interaction when he’s new to the Gaang, and Toph+Zuko friendship.

We Ourselves Must Walk The Path by WinterSky101. [complete, medium] The Gaang agrees to make Zuko their prisoner in the WAT. Speaking of new-to-the-Gaang, tension, this fic has plenty of it, and also features some good Toph and Zuko.

Frozen by Aris Merquoni. [oneshot, medium] Zuko is captured in the NWT. Some politics, lots of angst, and eventually, healing. Also actually makes me somewhat like Hahn? Incredibly enough.

Reluctant Hero by PAW_07. [ongoing, long] Avatar!Zuko fic. I got to beta it way back when for a little while before I got too busy, and have always been a huge fan of this fic. Great concept, one of the best executions of it I’ve seen, and also one of the first. Definitely read this.

Morality Chain by Pureauthor. [abandoned, long] Azula and Zuko were always on each other’s side; how this changes canon. I love this concept and would happily read a lot more fics with it (please guys, I need more fire sibs).

A viper-lizard’s tales series by Yumi_Take. [ongoing, long] The world needs more of Zuko adopting pets and small children, and those are just facts. This only has one of the two, but it’s a EK baby! Jet plays a big role in this fic as well, a weird kind of uncle-ish to the baby/friend/murderer Zuko needs to watch closely and hold back kind of thing.

(life happens) wherever you are by howlikeagod. [ongoing, long] Katara doesn’t find Zuko and Iroh in the teashop, and canon takes a sharp left turn. Excellent Gaang fic.

The Best Path series by EudociaCovert. [series, ongoing, long] Zuko meets Jet in ‘Zuko Alone’ and winds up getting claimed as theirs by the remaining Freedom Fighters. Really really well-written, I got quite emotional over some scenes.

Shippy Zuko fic

Balm by Thyme In Her Eyes. [Maiko, oneshot, short] A sweet little fic about Mai’s thoughts on Zuko’s lightning scar.

The Black Games by Mrs. Pettyfer. [Zutara, complete, long] Hunger Games-esque AU. It’s the first in a series, and I lost interest after this one but I remember enjoying the fic and it was more personal preference rather than a drop in quality that had me leaving.

Lie To Me by Inkcharm. [Toko, oneshot, short] I’m not actually a fan of this pairing romatically (at least until years down the line), but this little fic of Toph and Zuko bonding through lying to one another is sweet. I choose to ignore the more shippy parts and enjoyed it.

Zutara? What the heck is that? by Ryxl. [Zutara, oneshot, short] Complete crack, have a good sense of humor and I think you will enjoy. Just the mental image of the Gaang finding a Zutara propaganda flyer had me chuckling.

The Three Chores series (1, 2, 3) by Fandomme. [Zutara, threeshot, short] Zuko and Katara slowly bond as he helps with chores. I will admit it’s been years and I barely remember this, but what I do recall is lovely and I always appreciate people lightening Katara’s load.

read the inscription by suzukiblu. [Zuko/Song, complete, series, medium] When Zuko is banished, he is left alone in the Earth Kingdom to fend for himself. Very touching, and I love Song in this.

Hooked by TGP. [Jetko, complete, long] A classic ‘Jet didn’t see Iroh warming his tea’ fic. They’re almost all this premise but so many well-written and very long ones. 

Something To Hold Onto by Wildgoosery. [Jetko, complete, long] The EK fell and Li stayed to fight with the Freedom Fighters to protect the city during its foreign rule. Jet didn’t see the tea fic that goes very AU from canon.

Foxfire by Rahar_Moonfire. [Jetko, ongoing, long] Zuko loses his memories Jetko fic, but with heavy spirit influence and lovable EK OCs, both of which I adore and should be in far more fics.

Once Upon A Teashop by anaer. [Zukka, Jetko, ongoing, long] Cracky Ba Sing Se AU that gets gradually more and more serious. Jet hits on Zuko a lot and Sokka gets a job in the teashop to keep an eye on both of them. Endgame Zukka but heavy Jetko, and both pairings are handled pretty well, not a love triangle that makes me too mad, although as always bear in mind Jet’s messed up. 

Names by TGP. [Jetko, complete, long] I feel like I’m forgetting some more excellent Amnesia!Zuko fics, but this is one I do know of. To be honest I don’t remember it super well because it may be mixed up with other Jetko/amnesia fics in my mind, but I think it was really good. I’ll have to reread myself.

Epistles by Lady_of_the_Flowers. [Zukka, ongoing, long] I love epistolary fic and I love Zuko and Sokka bonding earlier in canon. I will be honest I haven’t read this in a long time and been updating all the while, but the premise alone (Zuko and Sokka become messenger-hawk-pals in S1 and then fall in love) is fantastic. 

Ozymandias, King of Kings by Think_of_a_Wonderful_Thought. [Zukka, ongoing, long] Zuko rebels earlier and actually is sent to the mines, until he is ‘rescued’ by the Water Tribe. Dark but getting lighter over time, and more reluctant-to-rule Zuko which always wrenches my heartstrings. I prefer super loyal and dutiful to his people Zuko but this trope always makes me feel things.

Crossovers

Fallen Drops of Fire by Chasmfiend. [Fullmetal Alchemist, ongoing] Young Azula and Zuko somehow appear in Amestris, and encounter Roy Mustang. I adore the fire sibs, and their relationship in this strange situation is the star of this fic for me, but it’s also fun seeing the FMA perspective of these two.

The Dragon-King’s Temple by Kryal. [Stargate SG-1, long, complete] The best crossover fic out there. Zuko and Toph get stranded on the other side of a Stargate. I don’t know anything about SG-1 but it didn’t matter, the fic was fantastic, they were badasses, it explored language and culture from an outside perspective, and it was just a ton of fun. Must-read.

Other character fic

Loyalty by Julia451. [oneshot, short] The ship captain didn’t misspeak when he called Iroh and Zuko “prisoners” in the start of S2. A lovely look at a nameless character, giving depth to a small moment and humanity to a FN soldier which I always love.

The Only One by HarlowR. [oneshot, short] An excellent exploration of Azula’s mindset regarding Zuko, her desperate need to be loved and jealousy of him matching his own. I think Azula was one of the greatest tragedies of the show, and this fic makes me feel it.

Blood by theAsh0. [oneshot, short] Katara-centric thinkpiece on bloodbending and healing. Dark but really interesting.

Touch and Go by Cadence. [oneshot, short] After Iroh’s struck by lightning, Toph doesn’t let Zuko drive them all away. A momentary alliance and the seeds of friendship. More Toph-focused but still heavy on the whole Gaang.

Shortcomings by Menamebephil. [oneshot, short] Iroh thoughts during his imprisonment, on the theme of mistakes. I love this man and don’t understand why I am so drawn to fic about him that makes me sad.

Watch And Review, Please by Becca Stareyes. [oneshot, short] The Ember Island Players receive some constructive criticism... sort of. Funny and quick.

Azula Redemption Trilogy (1, 2, 3) by Mistress of Sarcasm. [threeshot, short] Second person and deeply introspective, three short little fics delving into Azula’s head and bringing her closer to redemption.

Echoing Refrains by catie_writes_things. [oneshot, short] I really like nuanced explorations of the whole FN royal family. It’s perfectly fine to write Ozai as pure evil bastard, but exploring  what might have been or how he got there, or even as in this fic his talent for music being inherited by Zuko is really interesting too. Iroh-centric.

our curse by ohmygodwhy, and the last dragon by thesometimeswarrior. [twoshot, complete, short] Stay away if you don’t like to cry. In the first Zuko learns Ozai is executing Iroh, and isn’t able to stop it; the second is even worse because it’s Iroh’s POV. I put this in the other characters section because honestly I adore the second fic even more than the first, but they are both fantastically written and will hurt you a very great deal.

Finally, I’m not quite bold enough to put my own fic on a reclist, but just shameless enough to mention I’ve written a few Avatar fics I quite like if anyone feels the desire to check them out on my AO3. ;) But seriously give love to all the rest of these, they deserve it. (And as I said, there’s lots more excellent stuff, this fandom is so prolific and well-written!)

#atla #atla fic #fic rec #reclist #replies #anonymous #i'm haunted by the feeling i've forgotten a lot of stuff #but honestly i need to stop this is huge already #enjoy anon #Anonymous

[k-s-morgan]

Will’s vs. Hannibal’s Ways of Expressing Love

The fact that Hannibal loves Will and is in love with him is openly stated in the show several times. Will’s feelings, on the other hand, are more ambiguous, which is why some viewers often doubt whether Hannibal’s love is reciprocated. I think that exploring the ways these two men experience and react to love can explain the varying degrees of their openness about it.

I’ll put TLDR right here: Hannibal is more open about himself and his feelings, including love, hence he doesn’t have many challenges with admitting it. Will is closed off, stiff, and emotionally repressed, so he expresses his feelings in a much more subtle way.

Let’s start with Hannibal. Details about his past are scarce, but we know that he admits to loving two people throughout his life, his sister and Will.

E3 of S3.

*Bedelia: What your sister made you feel was beyond your conscious ability to control or predict … I would suggest what Will Graham makes you feel is not dissimilar. A force of mind and circumstance.*    

*Hannibal: Love.*

Undoubtedly, Hannibal’s love for Mischa was traumatic and unhealthy. He loved her so much that he ate a part of her body after she was killed, devastated by this loss. But it was still love that made him feel all the related emotions, so Hannibal has some experience with it. From what we know of him, he has a very broad mind. He despises limitations and overcomes them, and he is not ashamed of who he is. He isn’t embarrassed to cry in the opera or to be the first to stand up and applaud; he delights in stereotypically ‘feminine’ hobbies like cooking and clothes selection; he draws fan-art and openly expresses his admiration when it’s due. For this reason, Hannibal doesn’t have many problems with expressing love either.  

Upon meeting Will, he is immediately drawn to him. He sees him as his potential partner and decides he wants to try and build a family with him as early as E2 of S1. That’s when he starts planting the idea of Abigail being their shared daughter in Will’s mind. He does the same to Abigail, urging her to see him and Will as her parents, even giving her shrooms to evoke the desired associations (unsuccessfully since Will doesn’t come to dinner). So, Hannibal acknowledged his pull/infatuation with Will from the very start, and he acted on it right away.

It’s not 100% love at this point, but Hannibal still easily follows his emotions. He doesn’t stop to consider how strange it is to want a family with a man he just met; he doesn’t agonize over the idea of how his life has more risks now that he allows another human being to know him. When these feelings progress at the end of S1/start of S2, Hannibal is finally taken aback. While he never planned to leave Will in prison and it was a part of his plan, he still didn’t expect to miss him so much — he admits it to Bedelia, looking forlorn, in E1 of S2. He repeatedly pines for Will by sitting in front of his chair at the time of his supposed appointment, glancing at the clock despite knowing Will is not going to come. This is a shift to an actual love, but Hannibal still doesn’t fight it. On the contrary, he embraces it, and he spends the entire S2 doing repeatedly romantic gestures for Will. Namely:

1) Protects Abigail to reunite Will with her later.

2) Shares a part of himself he doesn’t seem to have ever shared with anyone else. He talks to Will about Mischa, reveals his views on murder and God, acknowledges he cared about Abigail, and shows vulnerability. He shares his teacup ritual with him, which is something precious and deeply personal.

3) He digs up fake Freddie’s corpse and decorates it as a way of courting Will (as directly said by Alana).  

4) He draws a fan-art of himself and Will as Achilles and Patroclus.

5) He is ready to abandon his well-established life in Baltimore and reputation to run away with Will. In Hannibal’s view, no one truly suspects him and there is no evidence against him, but Will is in danger. So he’s willing to discard everything he’s been building for 20 years for him.

Finally, he calls Will a loved one more or less directly in E13 of S2 (in fact, he implies that they both love each other).

*Hannibal: Do you know what an imago is, Will? … An imago is an image of a loved one buried in the unconscious, carried with us all our lives.*

*Will: An ideal.*

*Hannibal: The concept of an ideal... I have a concept of you, just as you have a concept of me.*

Will hurts him with his betrayal, and Hannibal still finds himself unable to kill him. He is openly crying in the finale, admitting how Will hurt him, breaks his (and his own) heart by killing Abigail, and flees to Europe to start a new life. But things don’t go as he hoped they would. Bedelia is not a worthy substitute, and Hannibal is increasingly slipping into a self-destructive state because of his love for Will. He kills Anthony, who was an improved copy of Will, and turns him into a Valentine heart for him. Again, this is a very explicit and open emotional action. Hannibal doesn’t hide his feelings. He’s an emotional wreck with Bedelia in E3, and as they are talking about Will, he admits he’s in love with him.

*Hannibal: You cannot control with respect to whom you fall in love.*

Bedelia points out his self-destructiveness.

*Bedelia: You're going to get caught. It's already been set into motion … I know exactly how I will be navigating my way out of whatever it is I’ve gotten myself into. Do you?*

After Hannibal keeps spiraling and kills Sogliato, she adds: *You're drawing them to you, aren't you? All of them.*  

Hannibal gets so self-destructive over Will that he lets Jack beat himself almost to death, not even attempting to fight him. The first words he says to Will after they reunite in E6 are:

*Hannibal: If I saw you every day forever, Will, I would remember this time.*

He’s a romantic. The courtship, the Valentine heart, the romance — Hannibal did have some struggles, but overall, he accepts these feelings and isn’t afraid to act on them.

When Will pulls a knife in E6, Hannibal classifies it as another betrayal. This is where he decides to kill and eat him in the hope to put an end to this misery (which is what he and Bedelia discussed back in E3). However, even blinded by another heartbreak, Hannibal tries to save Will at the same time. He knows the police are coming and he puts off the moment of sawing for as long as he can, first fussing over Will and his wound, then waiting for Jack, then doing everything slowly as hell.

Everything changes in E7, when Hannibal faces the real risk of losing Will and comes to terms with the fact that a hope of life with him is better than life without him. So Hannibal carries Will home bridal-style, takes care of him, waits for him to wake up and writes formulas to reverse time. He directly tells Will that Will won, and that he, Hannibal, is at Will’s mercy.

*Hannibal: Your memory palace is building. It's full of new things. It shares some rooms with my own. I've discovered you there. Victorious.*

He gives himself up, sacrificing the freedom he’s been fighting for back in E2 finale, in the hope that one day, Will is going to come back to him. After this, Hannibal is all about Will, with all his heart. Throughout the second half of S3, he says things like, *“I gave you a child. You are family, Will. Was it good to see me?”*, etc. He agrees to risk his life by agreeing to Will’s plan, knowing he’s planning something but not knowing what and if he’d die in the process. In E13, Hannibal says:

*Hannibal: "No greater love hath man than to lay down his life for a friend"* and shields Will from the bullet. Later, he allows Will to push them both down, and he stays with him afterward.

Conclusion: Hannibal is very accepting of himself, so he doesn’t undergo severe challenges on the path to acknowledging what he feels for Will. He knows what love feels like because he felt it for Mischa before, so he embraces loving Will pretty quickly, even though he doesn’t know how to best approach it at times. That’s why we get direct and explicit confirmation of his feelings several times.

Now, on to Will.

Unlike with Hannibal, there is no evidence that Will has ever experienced love before (at least love for people). We know he had a father and was lonely as a child.

E4 of S1.

*Will: We were poor. I followed my father from the boat yards in Biloxi and Greenville to lake boats on Erie.*

*Hannibal: Always the new boy at school? Always the stranger?*

*Will: Always.*

His choice of words indicates that his relationship with his father wasn’t all that good (for instance, *I followed my father* instead of *My father and I had to…*). So, it doesn’t look like Will ever had meaningful connections. More than that, he says:

*Will: There’s something so foreign about family. Like an ill-fitting suit. Never connected to the concept.*

We can suggest that he doesn’t know what love is or how it feels like. From E1, we know he isolates himself because he hates himself for who he is: he understands he’s different, that there is darkness in him, but he desperately tries to subdue it and deny this fact. He’s rude, twitchy, and unhappy, but like Hannibal, he understands the extent of his loneliness only upon meeting him. That’s when he tries forming relationships with others.

Will’s relationships with Alana and Abigail are a good indication of his problems with love. He wants to be with Alana because he needs to feel normal. In 99% of cases, he remembers about her only when she comes to seek him out first. He kisses her for the first time at the moment of particular vulnerability, fearing that he’s finally losing his mind (in E8). When Hannibal calls him out on it, Will doesn’t deny it and semi-nods. He actually had to agree with it verbally according to the script.

*Will: I feel unstable.*

*Hannibal: That’s why you kissed her. A clutch for balance.*

*Will: Because I’m losing mine.*

So, it’s not that Will feels romantic love for Alana — he uses her because he desperately needs to feel like everyone else. Alana is a pretty, smart, normal woman who fits this goal perfectly. He doesn’t allow himself to be genuine with her unlike he does with Hannibal, to whom he opens up.

Will confesses to Hannibal that he loved killing Hobbs in E2, which got him down and made him panic. Hannibal supports him, and Will keeps coming back to him. He talks about everything important with Hannibal, opening parts of himself that he guards from everyone else. Will asks Hannibal to look after his dogs as early as E4 — he doesn’t have other friends, and he’s already focused on Hannibal. He buys into an idea of having a family with him and Abigail, which is amazing for Will, who has just said he could never relate to the concept of family.

When Will buys a gift for Abigail in the same E4 and freaks out, Hannibal asks him:

*Hannibal: Feeling paternal, Will?*

Will’s reaction is instant and defensive:

*Will: Aren’t you?*

Hannibal easily says “yes”, which disarms Will. This is a great contrast between them: Hannibal isn’t afraid to talk and acknowledge his feelings while Will is embarrassed of them and shies away from them. In fact, this is a repeat of their conversation in E2.

*Hannibal: You saved Abigail Hobbs' life. You also orphaned her. It comes with certain emotional obligations.*

*Will: You were there. You saved her life, too. Do you feel obligated?*

Again, Will deflects. He’s wary of emotions, especially of admitting them out loud.

Will shows a hint of romantic interest in Hannibal in E7. He brings him a bottle of wine out of blue, but unfortunately, he stumbles upon the party Hannibal is preparing. Hannibal invites him to stay, but Will says he won’t be good company. He’s shy and awkward, smiling nervously and dropping his gaze in embarrassment. Then we have this lovely line:

*Will: I’ve got a date with the Chesapeake Ripper.*

So, in S1, Will makes considerable emotional progress. He realizes he wants a family after all, and while he makes several half-hearted attempts to court Alana, he’s mostly focused on Hannibal and Abigail. He opens himself up to Hannibal, receives official guardianship over Abigail with him, arguably flirts with Hannibal (like in the wine scene above), and covers up murder to protect their family. But then Hannibal betrays him. Will doesn’t know his reasons yet, but this betrayal plunged him into darkness, bitterness, and new stage of emotional repression. It’s worth mentioning another point of Abigail here: in the end, Will doesn’t know her. He spoke to her only several times, and even fewer times were genuine. He loves the idea of her, and this idea was introduced by Hannibal, not by Abigail’s presence. It’s Hannibal who forced Will to confront his need to love and be loved.  

In S2, Will is incredibly conflicted. He acknowledges to Hannibal that he hurt him, tries to kill him via Matthew, but when he recognizes that Hannibal wants him as a friend (as spoken in E7), his attitude changes. Will doesn’t plan to forgive him, he’s still angry at Hannibal for killing Abigail (which is his biggest conflict, as evident from his talks with Hannibal himself and Freddie), but now, he can’t bring himself to harm or betray Hannibal.

He gets his first chance in E7, after being released from prison. He threatens Hannibal with a gun and has a perfect chance to make him pay, but he doesn’t. Instead, he conspires with Jack and decides to cultivate co-dependency, creating an environment where only he “and the fish exist” (E8). What does Will do to start? He makes himself physically attractive, grooming and dressing prettily. It’s a seduction on all levels, and Will plans to use emotions to hurt Hannibal back. At the same time, Will admits to being confused over what he feels for Hannibal.

E8 of S2.

*Will: I envy you your hate. Makes it much easier when you know how to feel.*

E9 of S2 (talking about trying to kill Hannibal with Margot).

*Margot: Did he have it coming?*

*Will: What do you think?*

*Margot: I can't say that I know.*

*Will: Neither can I.*

He spends the rest of the season lying to both Hannibal and Jack, unsure whose side to choose, too lost in his own feelings to make sense of them. At the same time, he has a dream where Hannibal calls him beloved in E9. It shows that Will contemplates the idea of love in relation to Hannibal. In E10, Will tries to fantasize about Alana as he’s having sex with Margot. However, he sees the image of Wendigo near the fireplace, Wendigo who he’s used to associating with Hannibal. Two interesting things (copied from my other meta): first, Will actually sees Hannibal’s room and consequently, he sees himself in it (or he sees their rooms united). Second, he sees the Wendigo near Hannibal’s fireplace. Fireplace has many meanings, including passion, sexuality, home, family, and resurrection. It emphasizes the sexual and romantic subtext of this uniquely shot scene, where people destined to be together have sex with the wrong partners. Will’s vision begins to contract, focusing on Wendigo: he is having an orgasm at this very moment, imagining the Wendigo’s face very close, approaching him. Still through the misty eyes, he tries to focus on Alana again, but his gaze moves up to Wendigo above her, as if he can’t help himself. He and Hannibal reach orgasm first, with Alana and Margot following them. So, Will dragged Hannibal into his sex fantasy. It’s both symbolic and physical: he tried to imagine Alana just like he tried to have a relationship with her before, in S1, out of his desire to be normal. But his attention is inevitably drawn to Hannibal, who’s his “real deal”.

Based on this scene, it’s underlined once again how Will struggles with emotions. Even in the safety of his own mind, in his own fantasy, he tries to think of Alana but still ends up with Hannibal. Will is always fighting himself and who he is. He refuses to accept his darkness just as he refuses to admit he loves Hannibal. It’s the essence of who he is, denial is his second name.

Among the important moments, there are Will’s words to Hannibal:

*Will: You are right. We are just alike. You are as alone as I am. And we are both alone without each other.*

So, Will accepts the bond with Hannibal, and at this stage, he even has the courage to voice some of his emotional thoughts. His progress is slow, but it’s there.

In E11, Will has a nightmare. He sees a burning corpse of ‘Freddie’ in a wheelchair, a symbol of his betrayal of Hannibal, and he hears his own increasing screaming. It’s easy to interpret, knowing the context: Will feels guilty for lying to Hannibal.

When Margot loses her child, Will feels renewed anger at Hannibal. He fantasizes about killing him and gets to realize his fantasy with Mason’s help in E12. But at the last moment, Will changes his mind and chooses Hannibal. He does the same thing in E13 by calling him. When he sees him, he doesn’t even try to point a gun at him: he asks why he didn’t leave as he was supposed to, and he even leans forward to accept the knife, accept the punishment for betrayal.

So, Will chooses Hannibal over Abigail, for whom he wanted justice; over his and Margot’s child, for whom he wanted revenge; over Jack and Alana, who were his only semblance of friends; over his own confusion and desire to be normal. For someone as emotionally stunted as Will, it’s huge. It proves that he loves Hannibal and is willing to compromise all other relationships he has formed as well his own beliefs for him (while Will is dark, he tries to fight it because he doesn’t think people like them are normal). Is it romantic? Will’s dream with the word “beloved” and his sex fantasy, as well as his acceptance of the idea that he and Hannibal were Abigail’s fathers (which makes them partners) imply that yes, romantic feeling is a part of it.

Hannibal’s romantic feelings became explicit in S3, and so did Will’s. But since Hannibal is more open and self-accepting, his were discussed out loud while Will’s were mostly portrayed silently, implied, and alluded to.

Will builds a boat to sail and find Hannibal, which is pretty romantic by itself. He spends his time in Hannibal’s house, in the kitchen where their bloody break-up happened, imagining Abigail near him. When Alana comes to find him, he asks her to leave. He’s cold and indifferent toward her — she’s not what he wants, and he’s not interested in even friendship with her. All he wants is to mourn his lost family with Hannibal and Abigail. Again, Hannibal is Will’s priority.

Will imagines his perfect world as the one where he and Hannibal killed Jack together. This scene is intercut with his Mizumono memories, namely, with Hannibal's face that emerges every time he moves yet another part of the engine. This is a vivid demonstration of Will trying to repair what is now broken. When Jack asks him why he called him, Will is indifferent and genuine:

*Will: I wasn't decided when I called him. I just called him. I deliberated while the phone rang. I decided when I heard his voice … I told him to leave. I wanted him to run … Because he was my friend. And because I wanted to run away with him.*

That’s a big admission for Will. This is the first time he openly acknowledges Hannibal as his friend in front of another person. Chilton calls Will and Hannibal’s interactions a “flirtation” in this episode, which once again points us in the romantic direction.

The entire E2 of S3 is dedicated to Will’s love for Hannibal, where he argues about it with himself in the form of imaginary Abigail. This is another proof of Will’s problem with emotions in general and emotions for Hannibal in particular. He can’t just think to himself as normal people do — no, he can’t admit how much he loves Hannibal this. Instead, he imagines Abigail and talks to himself through her to make it easier. He berates himself for lying.

*Will/Abigail: We were all supposed to leave together. He made a place for us. Why did you lie to him? He gave you a chance to take it all back, and you just kept lying.*

Will is reverent about Hannibal; he keeps talking about him over and over again.

*Will: This isn't Hannibal, it's just where he begins. Beyond this, far and complex, light and dark, is the vast structure of his mind. A thousand rooms, miles of corridors. Everything he remembers, wonderfully and fearfully reconstructed.*

Will goes as far as lies at the place where Hannibal’s Valentine heart for him was, reconstructing this image and trying to feel close to him. The heart comes to life the moment Will touches it, which is romantic. Will says:

*Will: A valentine written on a broken man … I do feel closer to Hannibal here. God only knows where I would be without him … He left us his broken heart … He misses us.*

He looks on the verge of tears, so Hannibal’s gift touched him. Will is overcome by emotions. At this very moment, his more frightened side suggests that Hannibal is also playing with him.

*Will: Hannibal follows several trains of thought at once without distraction from any, and one of the trains is always for his own amusement.*

We know it’s not the case, especially here, but Will has trust issues and a low self-esteem. He’s worried that Hannibal’s feelings for him aren’t as strong as he thinks they are, which is why he’s not sure how to react himself. He asks himself, *“You still want to go with him?”* and replies, *“Yes.” He wonders about what life they’d have if they left.

*Will: What if no one died? What if we all left together? Like we were supposed to. After he served the lamb. Where would we have gone? … In some other world.*

Pazzi comes and tells Will that he hopes they’ll catch Hannibal together.

*Will: What makes you think I want to catch him?*

Later, Pazzi says:

*Pazzi: He let you know him. He sent you his heart.*

E2 ends with Will scaring Pazzi and telling him, *“You don’t know whose side I’m on.* Then he tells Hannibal he forgives him, which is also a huge step in his direction.

This entire episode proves that yes, Will loves Hannibal. Considering how he isn’t awkward from receiving a Valentine or hearing that Hannibal gave him his heart, Will shares the romantic aspect of Hannibal’s feelings for him. He regrets not running away with him and their daughter, he places himself on the floor where the heart was to feel closer to him — this is such a rich romantic subtext that it’s practically text. Especially for Will, who remains so conflicted and emotionally restrained all the time.

Will’s attitude changes after seeing Chiyoh. He becomes more bitter. Considering how dark he is in these scenes and how he constantly compares himself and Chiyoh, he likely sees her as someone Hannibal was supposed to love but easily abandoned. It makes Will draw the parallels between them, and he starts to doubt that Hannibal loves him, that his “broken heart” has any authentic meaning. That’s where he starts thinking about killing Hannibal again. He still says:

*Will: I’ve never known myself as well as I know myself when I’m with him.*

This line also speaks volumes. Hannibal gave Will a precious gift of understanding himself; he showed that he could accept him, and Will is drawn to it. Will admits the depth of their connection to yet another person. Then he makes a firefly from Chiyoh’s prisoner, a tribute that is clearly done with Hannibal in his mind, considering the style and the central topic.

Chiyoh sees right through Will’s emotional constipation. She implies that he should “kiss” Hannibal rather than keep being “violent”:

*Chiyoh: I told you, there are means of influence other than violence.*

She kisses Will then, thus showing him what others means exist. He doesn’t get it, though, since he responds to her kiss despite not feeling anything for her, and she pushes him off the train, likely admitting he’s a hopeless case.

Meeting Jack, Will tells him that a part of him will always want to leave with Hannibal. This is yet another declaration from him. Will isn’t scared of the consequences — he speaks of his feelings openly now. It’s a great development of his character.

But the feeling of doubt about Hannibal likely resurfaces further after Will sees that Hannibal replaced him and Abigail with Bedelia in E6 (hence his hatred for her since that moment). He mocks her alibi and then leaves to reunite with Hannibal. The following moment was deleted, but it still discloses some of Will’s romantic feelings:

*Will: I looked up at the night sky there. Orion above the horizon and, near it, Jupiter. I wondered if you could see it, too. I wondered if our stars were the same.*

From the words that did get into the episode:

*Will: You and I have begun to blur ... We're conjoined. Curious if either of us can survive separation.*

Will doesn’t just admit the bond between them, he elevates it the level of soulmates, implying they are one and the same. It’s also a declaration of love in his language. But love doesn’t stop Will from being vindictive, hurt, and angry, so after meetings with Chiyoh and Bedelia that affected his perception, he pulls out a knife as he and Hannibal are walking together.

There is a brain-sawing disaster after this and E7, where Will looks done and tired from the madness and his constant attempts to figure Hannibal out. He does bite Cordell before looking at Hannibal, seeking his approval; he uses “we” pronouns when speaking about Hannibal with Alana. One example:

*Will: You helped Mason Verger find us.*

So, he still sees himself and Hannibal as a team, but he’s still tired and bitter, so after everything is over, he hurts Hannibal by saying he doesn’t share his appetite and by attacking him emotionally.

*Will: I miss my dogs. I'm not going to miss you. I'm not going to find you. I'm not going to look for you. I don't want to know where you are or what you do. I don't want to think about you anymore.*

This is all personal and emotional. It sounds like a break-up, which is exactly how Bryan Fuller and others referred to it. When Hannibal leaves and Jacks arrives, Will puts on his glasses, an indication that he’s hiding again.

Fast-forward 3 years. Will is married now, but from the very start, we see that this marriage isn’t all people usually expect it to be. The first scene shows the family apart. Molly and Walter have gone fishing, which is something Will loves. He had dreams about teaching Abigail how to fish, but he doesn’t go to do that with his family, preferring to stay alone instead. It’s the first hint that his heart isn’t in this relationship, that he’s too hung up on the past to move forward and make new happy memories.

Jack came to drag him to Dragon’s case, and Will makes it look like he’s reluctant. At the same time, he doesn’t send Jack away, even though we know from the past that he has no qualms being frank when he wants to. More than that, he asks him not to show pics to Molly, but when they have dinner, Will deliberately leaves the house with Walter, leaving Jack and Molly together. At night, when Molly’s asleep, he crawls out of bed and goes to read Hannibal’s letter. He doesn’t tell the truth to Molly about himself and his dark urges, about everything he has done – Molly clearly has no idea who he truly is, considering how she jokes about his ‘criminal mind’ in later episodes and how Will immediately closes himself off from her. He never initiates physical touches with her; he doesn’t return her “I love you”, which is an even bigger indication of his lack of commitment. Will is emotionally stiff with Molly for the most part, and the only times he laughs with her or shows any emotion is when they are talking about superficial stuff in the former case and when he’s furious after Francis’ attack in the latter one. Other than that, there is no closeness or honesty.

Another point of Will’s inability to express or even give his love to someone is in his scene with Walter in E11. This child, his step-son, has just been attacked by a serial killer with his mother. His mother was hurt and they barely escaped. Will doesn’t hug him or offer him paternal emotional comfort; he’s very awkward. All he says is, “You're both safe here,” which is something an officer might say but not a father. Will was much more emotional in his fantasies about Abigail.

This is what Will says about Walter’s reaction to Jack:

*Will: He read about me in a Freddie Lounds article. I had to justify myself to an eleven year old.*

He’s resentful and not emotional. He doesn’t say, “I had to justify myself to my son!” – he distances himself from him. Will is cold. He has expressed his feelings for Hannibal at this point in rather poetic ways, but he can’t be bothered to do this for his wife and his son.

He treats Hannibal in a very reserved fashion too, in comparison to how he acted 3 years ago. However: first, there is the fact that he came to visit him in the first place. Will didn’t need his help, we saw very clearly how he managed to easily reconstruct the crime scene the night before. It proved that his mindset is in a good shape, so he didn’t need Hannibal’s assistance. But it’s Hannibal he requested to see right away.

Will distances himself from him by calling him “Doctor Lecter” and insisting that he’s more comfortable the less personal they are. His eyes glisten, though, and he can’t look away from Hannibal. The impersonal approach doesn’t last very long, too, and soon, they are talking like they always did. Hannibal accuses Will of marrying for false reasons.

*Hannibal: How did you choose yours? Readymade wife and child to serve your needs. A stepson or daughter. A stepson absolves you of any biological blame. You know better than to breed. Can't pass on those terrible traits you fear the most.*

Will doesn’t bother to deny it, though any man would have been offended, particularly if he truly loved his family. In Will’s case, from the experience and all the precedents, silence = agreement.

In E10, Will seeks Bedelia out. He acts catty and jealous, targeting her personal connection with Hannibal.

*Will: You didn't lose yourself, Bedelia, you just crawled so far up his ass you couldn't be bothered.* - personal, targeted against Bedelia's attachment to Hannibal.

*Will: You hitched your star to a man commonly known as a monster. You're the Bride of Frankenstein.* - personal, attack with romantic connotation. Bedelia catches up on it and mocks him:

*Bedelia: We've both been his bride. Have you been to see him?*

*Will: Yes.*

*Bedelia: Haven't learned anything, have you? Or did you just miss him that much?*

*Will: Have you been to see him?* - personal again. Will wants to know if Bedelia is keeping contact with Hannibal.

*Bedelia: I've seen enough of him. I was with him behind the veil. You were always on the other side.*

*Will: Something we should talk about.* - again, personal. It's all personal, which is why Bryan and Hugh called them Hannibal's jealous bitchy exes. Will is palpably jealous and he shows his resentment to Bedelia openly.

Later, we have some more romantic references.

*Bedelia: My relationship with Hannibal is not as passionate as yours. You are here visiting old flame. Is your wife aware of how intimately you and Hannibal know each other? … Your experience of Hannibal’s attention is so profoundly harmful yet so irresistible, it undermines your ability to think rationally.*

So, there is romantic text, parallels between Hannibal and Will’s wife, and Will doesn’t deny any of this again. He keeps coming to Bedelia because she’s the only person he can talk about Hannibal to without being watched.

After Hannibal sends Francis after Molly and Walter, Will spends about a minute being angry with him. Then he accuses Hannibal of staging a competition between him and Francis. It is startling: Will spent months, years mourning the loss of Abigail who he didn’t even really know personally, yet he forgets the gravity of what happened to his wife and won very quickly. He leaves Molly and Walter and tells Bedelia that they are finished. One traumatic event, and Will left. It coincides with something very important that happened here: after this, Will finally figures out Hannibal is truly in love with him. So he goes to Bedelia to discuss it with her.

*Will: Is Hannibal in love with me?*

*Bedelia: Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you, and find nourishment at the very sight of you? Yes. But do you ache for him?*

Will is predictably silent. Obviously, if the answer was no, he would have said no. But he struggles because like we established, he has issues with expressing emotions. He only managed to start referring to Hannibal as his friend openly in this season, opening up about some of his feelings, but he’s not ready to go this far. It would be absolutely out of character for Will to say, “Yes, you know, I’m in love with him! Thanks for helping me see it.” Every confession Will makes is preceded by struggles and heartbreak. But he’s going to reply to Bedelia’s question, only not explicitly-verbally.

Will sets up Chilton and then comes to allegedly say good-bye to Hannibal. He lies several times in their conversation (about Chilton and Molly with Walter), so all his words are automatically suspicious. Regardless, he destroys Hannibal emotionally and walks away. Personally, I believe he was already planning to break him out, so he was playing it up for cameras and also taking a chance to hurt Hannibal for everything again. But whatever his plan was, what happens next is that Will conspires with Francis against Jack, Alana, and the FBI. They agree to break Hannibal out together. Will lies to Jack and then gets to ask Hannibal for help. He’s being flirty and manipulative in this scene.

*Will: I need you, Hannibal … You're our best shot, Hannibal. Please.*

He’s smirking, he leans close to Hannibal, he sends him a flirty look from under his eyelashes. Will is thoroughly enjoying himself, and he does it best when he has some excuse to hide behind.

Later, he lies to Jack and Alana again, leaks info to Francis (who nearly killed his wife and son), and gets many officers killed by proxy. He tells Bedelia the truth that he doesn’t “intend Hannibal to be caught a second time.” He also implies that he’s going to let him go free, which is why Bedelia should pack her bags.

*Bedelia: Can't live with him. Can't live without him. Is that what this is?*

This time, Will agrees, although in his way.

*Will: I guess this is my Becoming.*

For Will, Becoming was always connected to his feelings for Hannibal because accepting himself and his darkness meant being free to escape with Hannibal.

*Bedelia: You found religion. Nothing more dangerous than that.*

In E3, it was stated that love is a God (you can find more here https://www.reddit.com/r/HannibalTV/comments/7w54dg/lovegodreligion_s3_parallels/), so it’s possible to say that religion = love in this context. It certainly makes sense. Will is accepting himself and his emotions, and the trigger was establishing for sure that Hannibal is in love with him.

Will and Hannibal drive to the cliff house. When Hannibal asks Will if he intends to save himself by killing them both (Hannibal and Francis), Will replies:

*Will: I don't know if I can save myself. And maybe that's just fine.*

This is the first time he confesses that he might be incapable of killing Hannibal. Predictably, when Francis comes, Will can’t handle seeing Hannibal killed, so he reaches for his gun.

Will and Hannibal work as a unit and protect each other. Hannibal is shot, nearly strangled, thrown onto the ground, and he is still weakly holding on Francis' leg to prevent him from going after Will, even though it leaves him in an open and vulnerable position — Francis does kick him in the face with his other leg. There is fierce determination on Will's face as he stands up despite the pain and runs to save Hannibal. They act in synch, consummating their relationship.

Then, Will admires how blood looks on his hand and repeats Hannibal’s words:

*Will: It really does look black in the moonlight.*

He remembers the words Hannibal said to him weeks ago in one of their endless interactions. A bit earlier, he perfectly recalled the words Hannibal told him *years* ago, back in the middle of S2.

*Will: I understand that “blood and breath are only elements undergoing change to fuel your Radiance." Hannibal said those words. To me.*

So, Will remembers everything Hannibal told him. He stores these memories. It’s a small but still important proof how important Hannibal is for him.

At the cliff, Will finally accepts the truth.

*Hannibal: See. This is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us.*

We know what Hannibal wanted: a Murder Husband. What does Will say to this?

*Will: It’s beautiful.*

This is a loud “yes” to Bedelia’s question about his feelings. Will acknowledges, accepts, and admires them. He doesn’t feel awkward, as he would if he knew Hannibal is in love with him but didn’t feel the same. No, he reaches forward to embrace him, and such physical contact from Will is mind-blowing because he almost never does it. He clings to Hannibal, puts his head on his shoulder, touches him as if he wants to melt with him. Then he gives the fate a chance to stop both of them or to set them free. They fall into the ocean under the Love Crime song, another romantic element.

Water symbolizes reborn, and post-credits scene indicates that Will and Hannibal have paid a visit to Bedelia and are in the process of eating her while she’s hiding the fork to stab one of them as he approaches. The deleted epilogue to the series shows that they are in perfect harmony now.

**Conclusion**: Will has passed through a long, painful journey. He went from hiding from emotions and deflecting to not denying and carefully acknowledging them. We don’t hear words “love” or “in love” from him in relation to Hannibal because Will is not that kind of person. He doesn’t use these words freely, and for him, every small emotional step is a struggle. He tried to deceive himself and other numerous times; he tied to deny the truth and manipulate his own mind, but with each season, his feelings for Hannibal became more and more explicit. Will reaching out for physical contact, Will saying “It’s beautiful” are his way of saying, “I ached for you. I love you.”

This is a story of mutual love and obsession, about soulmates, about unique type of connection that few people share. It’s not about Hannibal falling in love and Will not feeling the same. Their feelings are equally strong, but they express them differently, particularly as Will’s are tied to the acceptance of his own darkness.

#will graham #hannibal lecter #hannigram #nbc hannibal #murder husbands

[scribbled-anecdotes]

So, I was going to make this list on National Indigenous Peoples’ day but I held off for two reasons: firstly we shouldn’t have to wait for special occasions to talk about Indigenous experiences and Indigenous issues but also because Canada Day was right around the corner. Canada is a settler-colonial state and while for many non-native peoples Canada day celebrates a seemingly proud history of freedoms and equality and innovation, for many indigenous peoples across so-called-Canada it is an uncomfortable, and even painful, reminder of a violent history of oppression and a continued struggle against settler-colonialism. So instead of taking July 1st to dwell on Canada’s questionable past take the time to consider Canada’s future and how we can work to undo the settler-colonial structure currently in place. So many people really don’t know where to start with undoing this country’s colonial legacy, so I’ve compiled a list (which is by no means exhaustive) of resources to start with

So please, as Canada day does look a little different this year, maybe start a new tradition of education and/or appreciation of Indigenous Peoples’ and our history on this territory as well as are contemporary experiences here. Also if you are not Canadian you can take some time to look at these or spread these resources (colonialism is not just a Canadian issues, it is a global one). 

Documentaries: 

Angry Inuk (Dir. Alethena Arnaquq-Baril, 2016) - Can be found on Youtube. Examines the importance of sealing to the Inuit and their struggle to continue their ways of life against colonialism by both the Canadian state, private oil/fracking companies, and even the EU’s anti-sealing laws. Watch if you’re interested in food sovereignty and protecting traditional ways of life. 

Rumble: the Indian’s Who Rocked the World (Dir. Catherine Bainbridge, 2017) - Can be rented on Prime. Examines the role of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian and American music industry between the 1950s - present and what struggles they faced. Watch if you’re interested in music history and Indigenous representation. 

First Contact, S1 + 2 (Dir, Jeff Newman, 2018 - ) -  Can be found on APTN and TVO. A 3 part series that asks average Canadians to confront their biases about Indigenous Peoples. This is a very important watch for non-Indigenous peoples. TW: strong anti-indigenous racism in some parts. Watch if you’re interested in how racism and settler colonialism are enacted by everyday people and where common stereotypes come from. 

Canada’s Toxic Chemical Valley (Dir, Patrick Macguire, 2013) - Can be found on Youtube. Looks at the history of environmental racism in Sarnia, Ontario and its affects on the people of Aamjiwnaang Reservation. Watch if your are interested in environmental justice and land rights. 

Reel Injun (Neil Diamond, 2009) - Can be found Prime. Looks at the history on Indigenous representation in old Hollywood and its evolution since then. Watch if you’re interested in Indigenous representation and film history.

Searching for Winnetou: Drew Hayden Taylor Wants to Understand the Roots of the German Obsession with Native North Americans (Drew Hayden Taylor, 2018) - Can be found on Youtube. Traces the roots of Germany’s cultural obsession with the “Indians” and looks at the modern appropriation of Indigenous culture in Germany. watch if you’re interested in Cultural Appropriation and stereotypes and Europe’s role in this. 

Canada’s Darkest Secret (Rania El Rafael, 2017) - Can be found on Youtube. Looks at the long and violent history of the residential schools system in Canada which ran from the mid-1800s - 1996 and how it continues to affect Indigenous communities. TW: child abuse and sexual abuse and trauma. Watch if you’re interested in assimilation, inter-generational trauma, and the modern history of Indigenous-settler relations. residential schools are the source of so many issues within modern Indigenous communities and so understanding their history and impacts is a good way of understanding why Indigenous people have the struggles we do today. 

Trick or Treaty (Alanis Obomsawin, 2014) - Can be found on Youtube. Looks at the history and mishandling of treaty relations and where that leaves modern Indigenous-settler relationships. Canada has not held up a single treaty. Watch if you’re interested in treaty rights, land rights, diplomacy, and the history of Treaties. 

Seachers: Highway of Tears (Dir. Stephanie Brown, Allya Davidson, 2016). Can be found on youtube and Netflix Canada. While not entirely Indigenous-centric, this documentary looks at the 71 km stretch know as the Highway of Tears where hundreds of Indigenous women have gone missing. It is not the best documentry in my opinion but its a good start to understanding the MMIDWG mov’t and how the RCMP fails indigenous women and girls. TW: murder, sexual assault and violence, violence against women and girls. Watch if you want to understand Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 

Arts and Culture: 

Biidaaban/ the Dawn Comes (Amanda Strong, 2018). Can be found on Youtube. A claymation short film that examines an Urban Indigenous woman’s relationship to her land. 

The Mishomis Book: the Voice of the Obijway (Edward Benton-Banai, 2010). Can be bought at most book stores. An introduction to Anishinaabe culture and history on Turtle Island through stories and colouring-pages. Read if you’re trying to diversify you’re understanding of Canadian culture and history. This is also a great book for kids, especially Indigenous children. 

Indian Horse (Richard wagamese) - This is both a film and a book, both of which are amazing. The story follows an Anishinaabe Residential school survive as he uses hockey to cope with his trauma. TW: Abuse, Child Sexual Abuse, Violence and Anti-Indigenous Racism. 

Sgaawaay K’uuna/Edge of the Knife (Helen Haig-Brown, Gwaai Edenshaw, 2018) - The first film done entirely in Haadi-Gwaii (and I believe any Indigenous language), Sgaawaay K’uuna follows the struggle of a cursed man and his transformation into a wild man (Gaadiig). Based heavily in Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida folklore and oral history. watch if you’re interested in Historical reclamation, Indigenous oral history and Indigenous film. 

Kent Monkman - A Cree painter who often inserts Indigenous bodies, culture and sexuality into traditionally European styles (ex, the History Painting). 

To The Indigenous Woman (the 1491′s, 2011) - Can be found on Youtube. A spoken poem about violence against Indigenous women and the complacency of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals in this epidemic of violence. TW: Violence against women, Sexual assault, rape.  

Bad Indians (Ryan red Corn, 2011) - Can be found on Youtube. A spoken word poem about the way Non-Indigenous peoples view Indigenous peoples and our work to reclaim our voice and power on this land. TW: references to racism and genocide. 

This is just the tip of the Iceberg so if you do find this interesting/ eye opening and want more information, I can 100% provide more resources. But hopefully, these documentaries can help to educate non-Indigenous peoples about the history and contemporary experiences of Indigenous People’s on Turtle Island. Gii’Miigwetch (thank you).  

#This may be the longest post i've ever made. #Sorry bout that #Indigenous History #Native Rights #Canada day #educational resources #anti-racism resources #Canadian history #Canadian politics