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manychocolatefactories · 3 years

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CatCF Dark Chocolate: Part 1, the Kids

About this version:

This retelling was mostly inspired by the original book, as well as Dahl's first drafts for it. I wanted a more old-fashioned feeling to it: in this setting television is still only present in rich and upper-class houses, the regular people using newspaper and radios to get information. Imagine a mix of 40s and 50s with some touches of 60s thrown in.

You have here 8 Golden Tickets.

First winner: Augustus Pottle

(Based on Augustus Gloop )

Augustus Pottle is an enormously fat boy, with a head like a ball of dough and a body like a blimp. He bears an uncanny ressemblance to a pig: he has a pink and greasy skin, numerous folds of flesh and chins bulging out of his neck, small greedy eyes, and an upturned and always sniffing nose looking like a snout. All the outfits he wears are always much too tight for him or about to pop (and it doesn't help that he literaly gains weight the minute he eats something). He has two outfits during the story (inspired by the two outfits Quentin Blake drew for him): during his interview he wears a green jacket, brown pants and a turquoise shirt ; and during the tour he wears beige pants, a blue jacket and a white shirt with pink spots. Of course he can never wear his jackets and his shirts are always about to rip.

Eating is not just Augustus hobby and obsession - it is also his career. Augustus is considered a "champion" because he kept winning eating contests: the biggest eater, the fastest eater, the fattest eater... It all comes down to his mother, a thick lady wearing a lot of shiny but ugly jewelery. Mrs. Gloop always tried to find fame and attention, but when her attempts to find it at radio failed, she reported all her dreams on his son: he had inherited from his tall and bearded father a large and stout body. People were amazed at how big and gluttonous the boy was, and Mrs. Gloop thought it was an excellent way to get attention and fame. So she bred him to become the fattest and most gluttonous boy alive, so that everyone would look at him (and at her). It goes so far that Augustus is used to sleep in the dining room - being so full after meals he can't even pass the door to get up to his bedroom.

The excess of greasy and sugary food made his brain fat too, clogging it with blubber, and resulting in him being quite simple-minded. He only now has two thoughts in his brain. The first is "eat, eat, eat", he is a true glutton obsessed with eating and devouring. The second is "I'm a champion, I'm the best, I need to beat everyone else", he sees others as rivals and life as a contest, and his own fatness and gluttony is for him a sign of dominance over other people.

Second winner: Elvira Salt

(Based on Veruca Salt)

I wanted here to get away from the angry, screaming, demanding Veruca Salt, so I create this character.

Just like Veruca, Elvira is a spoiled and filfthy rich girl who thinks she can get everything she wants with money or by asking. But she is not an angry, screaming, bratty child. She rather believes it is natural and normal for her to have everything, or for money to solve every problem. She seems detached from the world. She doesn't think or believe one would say "No" to her, and basically considers the entire world to be a shop with people at her service, or a field from which she can pick flowers without a care.

She looks like a glamorous movie star of old, like Marilyn Monroe, always wearing elegant silk dresses and gloves and wearing fur coats (with furs of lovely and cute animals like guinea pigs, mink, chinchilla or rabbits). In fact, Elvira enjoys only things that are cute, pleasant or elegant. For example give her the biggest pearl in the world - if said pearl is actually ugly she will throw it out without a care. She is a girl that bathes in milk and honey, that has for a snack expensive truffes, foie gras, chocolate and champaign, that doesn't walk but get carried around, and that considers it normal for a young girl to receive as gifts emeralds, rubies, diamonds and other precious jewels. To put it shortly, she lives an extravagant and excentric life. Always smiling, always happy, always content, she basically lives in a world of luxury where misery, poverty or lack of money does not exist, and as a result actually forgets that other people around hers have needs and desires too. She thinks she is the princess of some sort of fairytales, and the others are just background characters here to serve her story.

For the tour, she wears a candy-pink velvet dress and a "fur" made of clubbed baby seals. As her father... well fun fact, Elvira sepnds so much money her father actually looks like a beggar or a homeless man, because he has no money left for himself - but a beggar with plump and thick wallets in his pockets.

Third winner: Violet Beauregard

(Based on Violet Beauregarde)

The Beauregard parents (who look so similar to each other it is difficult to say who is the father and who is the mother) are competition freaks. They are obsessed with their children being the best, breaking records, being a champion, earning trophies.

However, for their misery, they got Violet. Violet isn't good at sports, neither at school. She doesn't have any talent for anything. She doesn't have any interest or dreams. She is a plain, dull girl wearing plain and dull clothes, with dim eyes and a big mop of hair of an undetermined color. The only thing that stands out is her great, thick, muscular jaw - because her parents, desperate that they were, found a way for her to be a champion. Chewing gum. She spends her time chewing gum, so that would be her talent, isn't it? Her parents worked hard to make chewing a sportive and intellectual talent, making her break unexisting records of gum-chewing, organizing uninteresting chewing contests... They now think that their little girl deserves to be with Olympic champions just for chewing-gum, forgetting how useless and stupid this is.

They also extended her "abilities" to chewing other kind of foods and candies, including chewing chocolate bars: and here she found the Golden Ticket, which was a dream come true for the Beauregard parents, a perfect mediatic exposure! Fun fact: Violet chewed a bit of her Golden Ticket.

Fourth winner(s): Wilbur Rice and Tommy Troutbeck

(Based on Wilbur Rice and Tommy Troutbeck)

I wanted to reuse the characters from the deleted "Fudge Mountain" chapter of the book. A lot of this characterization is my own invention: I based myself on the few personnality clues found in the chapter, and for their appearance I used Quentin Blake's illustrations.

Tommy and Wilbur are best friends in the world. They are neighbors, they go to school together, they always share everything (even though they may fight for it first) - this is why when they discovered the fourth Golden Ticket they shared it. However their friendship is filled with a strange sort of disdain, and they really bond over their main hobby: pranking people. They like to do pranks and jokes and to have a good laugh. Unfortunately for everyone else, they are devilish little brats and cruel children, whose definition of a good laugh involves making believe someone's house was robbed, putting someone's dress on fire or pretending their little brother is dead. The worst is hurts or distress people, the better it will be for them. Causing black outs, using dangerous chemical products, hurting their own parents, it is all just a good fun.

The Rice family are the definition of bourgeois and nouveau riche, small shop owners who became extremely wealthy thanks to their trade. As a result they are boasting their money and spending a lot of it: their small house became bloated with numerous architectural additions that don't fit with each other, and they collect cars, having so much they can't even drive them all. Mr. Rice is a tall and very thin man always dressed in expensive but ugly suits and with a thick mustache looking like a caterpillar, while Wilbur is a small dark-haired boy with a round face and a round belly, chubby and flabby. Wilbur is an arrogant, haughty, snobbish boy that is friend with Tommy only because he thinks of him as a sort of "pet" - he is so arrogant that he also disdains his own parents, but Mr. Rice merely thinks Wilbur is being a "good lad", an "energetic boy" or a "little man" and is quite proud of this unruliness.

The Troutbeck family is the opposite of the Rice. They used to be nobility, living in a great manor, but they fell on hard times. Their nobility title not worth anything, money flying by, their family fell into poverty. They still live in their manor, but it is now run-down, dirty and unkept. Mrs. Troutbeck is an obese woman always wearing faded pajamas or worn-out jumpsuits and a thick layer of makeup, and Tommy is a tall and thin boy, skinny, with an angular face covered in moles, beauty marks and freckles. He has spiky strawberry blond hair and always wears tattered ans stained clothes. The Rice parents are hoarding misers, skinflints who refuse to spend and disdain the "show-off" Rice (the same way the Rice disdain the poor and "low" Troutbeck), in fact they only had a kid so he could later work and make money for them, and they encourage him to steal rather than buy things. Tommy is also a rude, violent boy, known to punch and insult all those that displease him - something he inherited from his parents, that also raised him with insults and slaps on the head (no wonder he doesn't have any respect for them).

The two kids have another element cementing their friendship: their love for candies. Wilbur spends his time buying candies to stuff his belly, and Tommy keeps stealing candies from other children, messily devouring them. And it is during one of their sugary feasts that they found the Golden Ticket.

For the tour, Wilbur is wearing a light blue jacket with a red bow tie, and Tommy a navy-blue turtleneck.

Fifth winner:Michael Themmen-Vry

(Based on Mike Teavee)

This name was a suggestion of ArtMakerProductions, who said I could invent a name whihc would have "T-V" initials. So I created Themmen-Vry, a name based on the names of the two actors who played Mike Teavee.

The Themmen-Vry family is exceedingly rich, grossly rich. But the Themmen-Vry parents are quite pleasant people: the father friendly and affable despite looking like a pigmy hippo, and the mother being an excellent hostess despite not being very bright and quite young. However their sson... it's a different story.

Michael is the oldest of the winners, being near the end of the his teenage years and almost a man. But he stayed stuck to the mental age of a child. Michael adores television, he has several elevision sets in every room of his manor to never miss his favorite shows. And Michael always liked to play, to disguise himself as his heroes. Couple that with very wealthy and very permissive parents, and you get this brat. Michael always plays at some game when he isn't watching television. He has an impressive array of costumes and toys to play with, and when he plays, he truly plays. He forces everyone to get into his roleplay and refer to him by his fictional identities. He forces other people into playing with him - he even kidnaps children from the nearby school to play with him. And he also wants realism to go so far... well let's say he won't be afraid to use a real gun to play a hunter. His parents are so permissive, seeing this as merely "harmless childish fun", that they allowed their manor to be burned down only because Michael wanted to play a firefighter.

No need to also mention you that Michael is a self-centered and disdainful brat that is always the hero of his stories and that uses "playing" as an excuse to bully and insult other people by having them be villains, monsters or preys. Basically he is the ultimate worst RPG player you can think of.

Tall and thin, Michael has long and thick hair covering his ears and forehead like a helmet, and a face covered in acne. As for his outfits, they change all the time: one time he is dressed as a mad hunter, another time he is a monster-killing alien-king, another time he is a ninja-cowboy from the Far West, and that's when he is not a policeman-Robin Hood.

His outfit for the tour is a vividly colored cosmonaut outfit, and he is armed with a ray gun. Actually a laser gun using real, harmful lasers. He is also one of the few kids allowed to come to th tour without his parents, due to him being old enough.

Sixth winner: Marvin Prune

(Based on Marvin Prune)

In the original drafts of Roald Dahl, Marvin Prune was a conceited school-obsessed boy that embodied the "all work and no play" mentality, disdaining all childish fun and freedom and rather dedicating himself to harsh studies and strict intellect. I decided to reuse this concept for a new interpretation:

Marvin Prune and his parents (his father, a man with a face like a boiled onio, and his mother, a woman who looks a lot like a donkey) are extremely arrogant and conceited so-called intellectuals. Marvin Prune thinks of himself as superior to everyone else and more intelligent than others because he read a lot of books, learned a lot of things and is an excellent school student. As a result, he thinks that he has all the rights to disdain others, insult them, treat them as complete idiots. But the thing is that Marvin actually has a very poor knowledge of the world and his "intellect" is up to discussion. He has numerous facts wrong - for exemple he thinks sugar comes naturally as a white powder and can't exist under any other forms, or he believes all the ancient Greek artworks were entirely white and that Greeks never used colors. If he gets so many of his facts wrong, it is because he believes simply learning about something is enough to be an expert - for exemple he claims to know all about foreign countries because he read about them in books, but he actually never visited them or met people from said countries.

This arrogance and this quest for "intellectuality" leads the Prunes to worship all that is "antique" "ancient" or "proper" - which results in them only collecting ancient furnitures, putting dust and cobwebs in their house to make it look more ancient, and Marvin wearing outdated outfits, like puff ties or jabots. He also likes to wear glasses, though he doesn't need them - he just thinks wearing glasses makes him look more intelligent. With narrow shoulders and chocolate-colored curls, the most defining trait of Marvin is his nose, which is really big, really long, really pointy and sharp, compared to a shark's fin. He always uses the royal plural "we" instead of "I" because he believes himself to be the most intelligent boy of the country or perhaps the world, and this bloated ego of him actually leads to a darker side of his personnality: he disdains all that is considered childish and worthless, up to the point of destruction. For exemple, he only reads encyclopedia, scientific books and teaching manuals. As for the rest - children book, novels, comic books... he deems them irrelevant and stupid and so wishes to burn all of them. Yep, we have a little book burner here.

Marvin only searched for a Golden Ticket because he wished to learn more about the Wonka Factory and know all of its secrets, as well as to be able to "correct" Wonka - because he is that kind of kid that considers everybody else is doing things wrong, and that he knows how to fix mistakes and improve everything. And he pretends that to find his Golden Ticket he used a lot of calculations, planning and studies, comparing the weather, selling patterns, geography, trafic levels... but in truth he actually got it by pure luck.

Seventh winner: Bertie Upside

(Based on Bertie Upside)

Bertie Upside actually surprises everyone because he isn't a brat like the other kids. He is a wealthy and rich orphan, but he is kind, healthy, gentle, generous, cute, humble, decent giving money to charity and being very respectful and wise. He sees the best in people, and during the tour he prevents the other kids from breaking the rules or bullying Charlie, deeming him a true "bore". He is basically the perfect kid, that is repeatedly said to have a "heart of gold".

For his physical appearance I based him on Quentin Blake's illustration of Charlie: tall and thin, blond with blue eyes. He always has clothes that match his hair and eyes: light blue jacket and yellow tie for his interview, and golden jacket with light blue shirt for the tour.

Eighth winner: Charlie Bucket

(Based on Charlie Bucket)

This Charlie I based on the original drafts of Roald Dahl, which depicted Charlie as black.

As usual Charlie is a small malnourished boy, all skins and bones, living with his poor family in a shabby and run-down house. His father is a newspaper deliveryman, which is how the Bucket family has a newspaper every morning, and his mother works at a toothpaste factory (like in the 2005 movie). Their job doesn't bring much money, but it is enough to survive. As for the Grandparents you have Grandpa Georges (got his leg cut off after the war, and is always criticizing, insulting and being revolted by the other Golden Ticket winners), Grandma Georgina (can't walk due to the family being too poor to have her hip and knee fixed, she quells and calms her husband's wrath and fury), Grandma Josephine (has a weak heart and can't do a lot of physical activities, but has a wild an insane past, resulting in her often telling stories not suited for kids) and Grandpa Joe (bad arthritis, usually tempers or censors his wife's stories).

Charlie tries to help his family: he makes a bit of money by collecting glass bottles and metallic scraps. As for the food the Bucket family survives with, I wanted to include elements of the "soul food": as a result the daily diet of the Buckets is black-eyed peas, turnips and sweet potatoes. When they have enough money they buy a pork feet or a chicken liver to add meat to their diet, but it is quite rare. Charlie is a little angel of a kid, ever complaining, working hard at school and always sharing what he has with his family.

#charlie and the chocolate factory #catcf #retelling #dark chocolate #augustus gloop #charlie bucket #violet beauregarde #veruca salt #mike teavee #wilbur rice #tommy troutbeck #marvin prune #bertie upside

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nblenasabrewing · 4 years

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Does Lena have PTSD?

This excellent post from @drummergirl231-2 goes into a detailed analysis about Della and the examples showing possible PTSD. I, being who I am, wanted to look at the same for Lena. Full credit goes to them for the idea and format!

According to the DSM-5, in order for a person to be diagnosed with PTSD, they must have a certain number of symptoms from eight categories: Criteria A through H.

For a diagnosis of PTSD, someone needs: to meet Criterion A to have at least 1 symptom from Criterion B to have at least 1 symptom from Criterion C to have at least 2 symptoms from Criterion D to have at least 2 Symptoms from Criterion E to meet Criteria F, G, and H

DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional. I do NOT have a degree in anything related to psychology and simply enjoy dissecting the layers of a fictional character. If you feel you fit any of the criteria, please see a professional for a real diagnosis. This isn’t something that can be easily self-diagnosed, and a professional diagnosis would open you to more opportunities for help.

Lena does and doesn’t fit the criteria in general for PTSD. She’s certainly suffered from traumatic events, but the event is more... her entire life. She’s a classic child abuse victim, which makes her more of a candidate for C-PTSD.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD; also known as complex trauma disorder) is a psychological disorder that can develop in response to prolonged, repeated experience of interpersonal trauma in a context in which the individual has little or no chance of escape. Being stuck with Magica for fifteen years absolutely contributes to Lena’s current issues. C-PTSD and PTSD share similarities, there are a distinct differences - mainly that PTSD focuses on one event and the effect it has on a person long term, while C-PTSD focuses on years of repeated trauma. However, there’s no approved criterion yet for C-PTSD. So I’m using the PTSD criterion with some added explanation where C-PTSD would be applicable.

Criterion A: The traumatic event

A person must be exposed to one or more events involving threatened or actual death, threatened or actual serious injury, or threatened or actual sexual violation in one of the following ways:

Direct involvement

Witnessing the event happen to someone else

Hearing about it happen to a loved one

Repeatedly hearing details about traumatic events, such as police officers repeatedly hearing stories of abuse

The obvious example here: Lena effectively died. Twice. Following that, she was trapped in a realm where she couldn’t be seen or heard by anyone and she couldn’t touch anything for six months (give or take). Her first interaction with anything since she had been trapped there was smacking the Boggle case in Friendship Hates Magic! And even she’s surprised by that.

In addition, she spent fifteen years with Magica in her shadow, who effectively acted as an abusive parental figure. She’s proven to be an expert in gaslighting, and knows exactly how to manipulate Lena - by hanging the promise of freedom over her head and reminding her repeatedly that people will think she’s a monster if they find out the truth about her.

Criterion B: Intrusive Symptoms

Expected or unexpected reoccurring, involuntary, and intrusive upsetting memories

Repeated nightmares related to the traumatic event

Some form of dissociation, such as flashbacks, where the individual truly feels the traumatic event is happening again

Strong emotional distress when exposed to internal or external triggers associated with the traumatic event

Strong bodily reactions (such as rapid heart rate) when exposed to reminders of the traumatic event.

Nightmares: While we can’t say for absolute sure that Lena has nightmares outside of Magica’s influence via the helmet in NOKH, the fact that no one is surprised by her nightmares does seem to imply that’s she probably had more than she’s letting on. Lena’s biggest fear is turning into Magica, after all - it’s no surprise she would have dreams along that line.

Emotional distress, strong bodily reactions: These really come out in Violet’s library, when Lena gets overwhelmed and tries to hide. The fish-eye view of everyone trying to talk to her while she sees Magica over their shoulders was most likely meant to imply she was having at least the start of a panic attack.

In addition, her reaction to Webby calling her (looking like Magica) a monster was pretty extreme. Again, the dream world setting makes things a bit wobbly, but given everything we know about Lena up to this point, and the fact that she yelled at Magica for saying they’re both monsters, it feels safe to assume she’d be angry and upset and scared if anyone ever called her a monster (again, something Magica constantly used against her.)

Criterion C: Avoidance

An individual with PTSD will frequently avoid reminders of the traumatic event in one of the following ways:

Avoiding thoughts, feelings, or physical sensations that trigger memories of the traumatic event

Avoiding people, places, conversations, activities, objects, or situations that bring up memories of the traumatic event

Whether the nightmares were caused by Magica or not, their effect on Lena is real and pretty easy to see. She sets up an entire sleepover just so the kids can help keep her awake. Avoiding sleep to avoid nightmares is pretty extreme.

She also continues to keep secrets from everyone despite Webby’s constant reassurances that they all care about her and don’t think she’s anything like Magica, because the alternative is having to talk about it or worse, have her fears confirmed.

Criterion D: Negative changes in thoughts and mood

The inability to remember important details of the traumatic event

Persistent and elevated negative thoughts about oneself, others, or the world

Exaggerated self-blame or blame of others for the cause or consequence of the traumatic event

Pervasive negative emotional state (anger, fear, shame, etc.)

Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities

Feeling isolated or detached from others

Difficulty experiencing positive emotions

Lena’s opinion of herself seems to be pretty low. We only get one episode to really see it, but her fear of turning into Magica and active attempts to avoid such an outcome definitely make it seem like she still considers herself “evil”, and is trying to make up for it. She also readily gives in and says, “I am her”, essentially giving up on herself.

The dream adventures also excellently illustrate how Lena feels “Othered” from everyone else - they get butterfly wings, she gets weird monster wings. She falls behind at Dewey High and is separated from the others. She’s the only one in Louie’s dream, aside from Louie himself, to experience any sort of physical change. Even when she tries to be happy with them, she can’t keep up the facade.

And before all of this there’s the classic example of her being jealous of Violet (under the guise of protecting Webby from being tricked again). She immediately assumes the worst of Violet and follows Webby around telling her not to trust Violet.

Criterion E: Alterations in reactivity that started or worsened after the traumatic event

Irritability or aggressive behavior

Impulsive or self-destructive behavior

Hypervigilance (feeling constantly on-guard, or like danger is lurking around every corner)

Heightened startle response

Problems with concentration

Sleep disturbances, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless sleep

Lena’s personality in season one was mostly that of the sarcastic, irritating cool teenager who can’t be bothered. Under that, she was an unwilling slave to Magica, and while she did show irritable tendencies toward her, those can be forgiven as “Magica is terrible and provokes her.”

Season two, on the other hand, shows us a much different teenager - one who snaps easily and seems constantly frustrated by her own perceived shortcomings. Those emotions, of course, come out on the other kids (i.e. snapping at Huey and Violet). And while all of that can be attributed to her inability to sleep, which is being driven by Magica, Frank’s already said this isn’t the last we’ll see of Lena’s emotoinal growth and negative feelings.

Criterion F: The above symptoms must last for more than one month.

Obviously time is relative in Ducktales. Given everything that was going on around them, we can assume she’s been home for around a month-ish. Donald left for a month-long cruise two episodes before Lena came back, and everything after that has to have taken place within that month or it would have been way too obvious something was up. And again, Frank has said this is going to come up again. But even while she was still in the Shadow Realm, she was showing signs of trauma.

Criterion G: Distress from symptoms significantly impairs the individual’s ability to function in multiple areas of life (social, occupational, etc.).

While we haven’t seen much of Lena’s daily life, we do know a few things - before returning, she was living in Webby’s shadow, presumably following her around and getting comfortable in her shadow-y life. Violet throws a complete monkey wrench into that comfortable life, and Lena reacts... poorly, to say the least. She initially refuses to take responsibility for the tulpas feeding off her own negative feelings, continuing to project all the reasons she hates herself onto Violet (”She’s a spy, she’s a second-rate me,” etc.).

In NoKH we see that the triplets aren’t quite used to the fun, happy persona Lena tries to project, which immediately gets a frustrated yell and fire flaring up. She’s so worried about trying to be Good that her anxiety bubbles over into her life. She’s also constantly keeping secrets, something that is, unfortunately, normal for her, but not normal overall.

Criterion H: The symptoms are not due to substance abuse, medication side-effects, or another condition.

So the real issue comes in here - while there’s no medication or substance abuse, there is an outside force. Most of what we see of Lena’s symptoms are due to increasing sleep deprivation via Magica’s brainwave helmet. By the time NoKH starts she’s already gone at least several days without sleep, and it’s obvious the dreams are deeply affecting to her, to a point where she arranges an entire sleepover with her friends just to keep from going to sleep. There’s no way to know what she was dreaming about (although I have a few theories), but it almost certainly involved Magica, the main cause of her trauma. And we see how understandably upset she gets when she’s finally face to face with Magica.

In conclusion:

Lena is a complicated character with a lot of different factors playing into who she is, but there’s little doubt that after fifteen years of emotional/psychological abuse, two deaths, and six months trapped in what could almost be summarized as an isolation chamber, that Lena has some serious trauma. And while Magica influenced a lot of NOKH, it should also be noted that Magica, as her abuser, most likely acts as her trigger now. She spends the entire dream sequence running away from Magica, terrified to confront her. And while she has an amazing, empowering moment at the end of the episode, I’m sure this is going to come back up again.

(***All GIFs by me)

#Ducktales #Ducktales 2017 #Lena de Spell #Lena le Strange #long post #Sam's Meta #So much went into this #including making those GIFs #I've been working on this for..... several weeks dear god #please show it some love

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sundcwns-blog · 7 years

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heey, hello, it’s a meme. i’m maze ( she/her ) & hailing from one of the oh so lovely coughs gmt tzs aka gmt+2. besides being trash on the daily i’m literally always listening to music aka if u ever need something new in that department .. hello, or browsing through netflix without any intent on watching smth. living that wild life ik .. DKAMS. but you’re here for my two kids aka basil & saint so here we go ! if you’d like to plot like this and i’ll slide into ur ims or look under the read more for my disc*rd ! also as a warning i unintentionally was v vain and made both muses scorpios .....

☾ — ·˚ » BASIL CRATES is in saint tropez !! they often get mistaken as KIAN LAWLEY. apparently, HE/THEY is/are the JOCULAR of the group. they’re a TWENTY-ONE year old PANSEXUAL DEMIMALE. i hear they’re known as ALTRUISTIC and DOGMATIC. they also make their living as ART STUDENT / BARTENDER / COMIC BOOK ARTIST but you’d have to ask them a bit more.

BACKGROUND + PERSONALITY.

born and raised in berlin, germany until his mother decided to move to the us when basil was twelve.

despite growing up bilingual, he had difficulties adjusting to the new surroundings and rather spent his free time drawing, eventually building up universes without needing any context and instead having the designs speak for themselves.

after finishing high school at age sixteen basil took a gap year to travel through europe with money they earned from several jobs during school times. bas was v very introverted back then, so it served as a challenge which once again they had difficulties with at first. but ofc you can’t get around without trying, so bas did. he’s still more of an ambivalent than an extrovert, but this journey made him see the beauty of uncertainty and they loved it.

also ik i used he & they in that last paragraph instead of just one bc basil honestly truly doesn’t care which one others use as long as they acknowledge bas isn’t cis bc he’s v open about his gender along with being pan .. but that’s another thing.

basil has a very high iq, but always prevented others from knowing about it. he basically failed tests on purpose back in germany and in the us he always made sure others don’t feel bad about their results and said his were worse even though he probably always got an a+, thus resulting in bas being able to skip two grades.

his mother had to carry two jobs to make a living for the two of them, which was one of the reasons why bas sold his art from a young age. thankfully it was actually decent ( coughs and looks @ ryan reynolds’ twitter ) and ppl actually wanted to pay good money for it. this was also one of the key moments in which bas realized they wanted to have their profession somewhere in the art department.

married his high school sweetheart in las vegas as soon as they both turned eighteen, but divorced just three weeks later. this is just one of their impulsive decisions as bas isn’t much of a planner, they rather have a few good laughs when telling the story ( even for the 10th time ) instead of asking what if. the only thing bas ever truly planned was becoming a comic book artist. they’re still at the very beginning as basil’s v young, but they’re just as determined to make it in the industry.

basil’s mother was always into greek mythology and even gave her child the middle name cerberus, which literally is the most dangerous thing about him and while he’s into mythology himself, he doesn’t really tell anyone his middle name as he’d rather not be compared to a three-headed dog .. but if he ever ends up drunk u can bet he’d insist on being called cerberus and nothing else.

being a comic book artist basil’s an avid comic reader as well, but mostly prefers indie comics as they’re more his kind of humor. speaking of, basil’s more of a morbid humor kind of pal ? but he’ll also immediately apologize if he takes it too far bc he values comfort even more than getting a laugh out of others and himself.

huge fan of dogs, literally the person that points at a dog and says “aw.” and definitely wants to pet them.

the least scorpio-like scorpio you will ever meet, and trust me this is coming from a Real Scorpio™.

ends up in a lot of weird scenarios while just trying their best, but always tries to take it with humor especially if someone’s with them.

most of his friends wouldn’t expect it, but basil’s very romantic, like going all out even for a first date and is probably doing waay too much for his opposite.

not really into the whole sex, drugs n rock ‘n’ roll as he prefers to maybe drink a few beers with his closest friends due to seeing what alcohol can do to people on an almost daily basis as a bartender. however, all of kian’s tattoos are canon for bas except for the native american and butterfly ones.

WANTED PLOTS.

literally everything but to be basic .. a best friend ( who might even know about his high iq bc he truly doesn’t tell anyone ), bad influence ( basil’s not exactly innocent or good himself but there’s always worse am i right ), childhood friend ( someone he considered a friend after moving to a completely new country ), enemy ( maybe they’re of the opposite group or even in the same and they had some fight that led to it or just disliking each other for apparently no reason at all just .. pls give me smth negative ), ex on good/bad terms ( as basil’s pretty romantic it could’ve been too much for the other or literally any other reason k thanks ), someone who hates his jokes ( plain n simple .. kewl ), my brain is scattered bc it’s almost 2am rn so i Def missed 820397 plots i’d love but u know what .. i’m a plot pro so shrugs. also i nearly wrote pro plot so u get me now .. pls killme KMDSX.

☾ — ·˚ » SAINT DEVERAUX is in saint tropez !! they often get mistaken as ALISSA VIOLET. apparently, SHE arrived from THE USA. they’re a TWENTY-ONE year old UNLABELED CIS FEMALE. i hear they’re known as VIGOROUS and DETACHED. they also make their living as an ACTRESS but you’d have to ask them a bit more.

BACKGROUND + PERSONALITY.

just as a small disclaimer: if anyone read girls on fire by robin wasserman, saint’s personality is heavily inspired by one of the characters in it aka lacey. and if u haven’t read it .. pls do it if you’re even just remotely into ya literature.

born and raised in los angeles, us, saint was practially thrown into the lives of the rich and famous. her parents were big in hollywood back in the 80s & 90s and gave those legacies to her.

being practially raised by nannies, saint didn’t really have a connection to her parents till they retired when she was fourteen. from there it was basically always good which is .. v weird but they somehow made it work.

as soon as saint turned eighteen she decided to change her last name to her mother’s maiden name, as she’s never been a fan of women having to give up their names just for being married even if it’s voluntary. this also resulted in her imdb page ( she truly made it huh. ) being “divived” into saint bartowski ( also shoutout @ anyone who gets this ref ) and saint deveraux.

at age eighteen saint also let out her true self, at least towards her parents. she admitted to worshipping lucifer just to piss them off and see how they’d react, it was just a game for her. but to be as convincing as possible, she did the most, even though she would’ve already had them just with her words, but saint always wanted to know just how far she could take it.

to the public she’s seen as this socialite turned actress who never did anything wrong, but just due to her parents and herself keeping everything under a neat little rug.

saint’s a very passionate person and loves to be surrounded or admired by people, but at the same time she doesn’t really care about anyone, no matter how many i love yous she’s going to whisper into someone’s ear or no broken promises ever.

as a result of the press putting labels onto her 24/7 she resents them. the only one she’ll ever claim is being in the lgbtq+ com as it’s basically the only thing in her life she truly cares about besides acting and her cats. however saint also makes a lot of fun of men and highly prefers females and nb pals for .. u know what.

she can also be extra af as she literally bought an old vw t1 bus in st. tropez for the short amount of time she’s there and have it look exactly like the one she has back in la with the pride flag sprayed on its roof and every little sticker/detail on its doors, etc.

getting to her job .. she currently stars in a made up netflix show that’s somewhere between veronica mars, twin peaks and 21 jump street ( the movie version ). i actually made a whole filmography for her but i’m too lazy for graphics and i’m not even sure whether i can use real movies/shows so oo. but if u want a list i can tots send it via disc*rd ( btw mine is artcmis#4377 ). and just know that she admires amber heard and mostly chooses roles like her aka not the damsel in distress. tho she would def love to save that kind of character one day .. js.

this is getting soo messy already omg. but to put her in a nutshell, saint’s a callous, manipulative, control loving, determined scorpio who also happens to be an actress, cat lover and feminist putting up a facade daily. also she can’t handle relationships for shhhit.

and what would these bullet points be if i didn’t start and finish them with a disclaimer ? still a mess yeah ik .. MXKAJD. but even tho most probs don’t even know who alissa is i just wanted to say that saint will have green eyes bc .. #aesthetic.

WANTED PLOTS.

once again any plot goes except for romantic stylez kind of plots bc yk not her kind of thing. catfish ( either someone used to catfish someone else using her pics or even better someone got catfished with her photos n now they’re meeting and she’s .. acting v different. plS. ), fwb ( so yeah saint hates relationships but u know what she doesn’t hate wink wink ;) KMSLASK also probs won’t work with males bc she’s all like [ cher horowitz vc ] as if ! ), fan ( someone who likes her movies or show idk ?? let her be all chill with them pls ), smoke bud ( she loves to party & smoke soo .. maybe even in an all-in-one with the fan plot ), enemy ( probs one of the other sec charas bc maybe they’ve met before or even wanted the same role ?? ), once again my brain is a mess sooo .. good bi !

this got longer than my biography ever could so if u read it all .. u truly are the mvp and deserve an award.

#stropez:intro #≻ ᴍᴏᴠᴇ ɪ'ᴍ ɢᴀʏ ┊ ooc.#i feel like i'm the only one not in the gc yet sooo excuse me if i roll in there Very awkwardly later SKAKDJ #also i don't know a proofreading so .. smiles.

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sweetheart-minnie · 7 years

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Writing Task: Mid-Year Questionnaire

Triggers: None

Notes: This is long!!! This will forever be my default warning on every task I do.

Name: Kiara :DD

Characters: Sally Finkelstein, Raksha Bhediya, Anastasia Tremaine, Ellie Dokter, Dash Parr, Bonnie Rockwaller, Minnie Muysken and Violet Parr

Pick a thread from the past six months that you’re proud of and talk about why.

Gahhh I was proud of so many threads!!! How am I supposed to pick only one?!?! I won’t but I can narrow it down to like two.

Holding Out For A Hero: I adored this thread so mucchhh!!!! And the title was so perfect (kudos to MK because I sure as hell didn’t come up with it haha). The thing I loved the most about this thread and the reason it was the very first one to pop up in my mind was the fact that Dash had the opportunity to use his powers for good. That’s all Dash wants in life!!!! To be a superhero, or in the very least help people with the abilities he’s been given. He has a huge protective streak and it was so much fun to be able to explore that through this thread. He got to save lil Bambi from bullies and to top it off I was able to reenact a scene from The Incredibles!!!!! I was so freaking excited about that!!!!! Especially because through the reenactment Dash learned something new about what he could do with his magic and I LOVE developing my characters magic. I just really loved this thread it was so precious and exactly what my little Dash needed in life. :DD

A Code In Process: Wow MK you’re in this one too hahaha. I loved this thread from when I posted the starter because it started out with so much action in it. I mean, I was able to write out a CODE. Like, I feel bad for Ms. Gladys who had to be the victim of a code, but it was so much fun to explore that specific nursing skill set in Minnie. This was the first thread where I got to explore Minnie as a nurse, so it was nice to really get to see my lil child in her environment and how she worked within it. Also, that was my first time ever writing about a code. I have been through CPR training because I need to keep my license current and have experienced an actual code, but have never actually written about it. It was a really fun experience and sort of unique describing it because writing about it made me realize that there really is a lot involved with it. When you’re in the middle of a code, trust me, you’re really not thinking about all that so it was nice to take a step back.

Visions Of The Past: Okay I know this isn’t really like a thread and is a one-shot BUTTTT I am really, really proud of it so I have to mention it. It was one of my all time favorite one-shots I have written, although both of my Raksha ones don’t fall that behind. I was very proud of this one because it gave me the opportunity to dive into parts of Sally that I haven’t been able to before. She has a very extensive past to her and to be able to show it was so much fun!!!! Plus, Sally is my darling OG so like I’m always proud of her, my lil pumpkin :DD

Identify a challenge you’ve faced in this rp. Reflect on why this is a challenge for you. Are there any strategies you can develop to overcome this challenge?

I’m freaking shy. I don’t know if it may look like I’m not, but trust me I am!!! It’s more of a reaching out to people shy. I have absolutely no problem holding out a conversation and even talking someone's ear off JUST AS LONG as they came up to me first haha. I don’t know what it is, but I’m scared af to approach someone even on the computer. It makes absolutely no sense, trust me I know because it makes even less sense with the profession I’m in, but what can I say, I am. And I know everyone here is sweet and oh so lovely, but I’m just a little shy shit. Like, if I know one of my characters would be PERFECT to help someone’s plot out…. Yeah I’ll be to shy to say anything.

This is also the reason why you guys hardly see me on the main skype chat, or I rarely appear on the chatzy type events. I suck at those and it’s not because I’m not around because unless I’m at work I’m like always around haha. I would have made it a second challenge but it’s all for the same reasonnnn. I don’t know something about being the first scares the shit out of me. I’m a very happy second haha.

I’m trying to work on this I promisseeee.

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth (we recommend choosing an older character, but it’s up to you! ) What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now?

I did Sally last time for this one and honestly I can definitely go for her again, but I’ll switch it up!!

We are going to go with my precious Anastasia :DD

Ana right now is the one going through the most changes within my little army of babes, and I have to say I’m very excited about that!!!! When I first got her, Anastasia was very set in her ways, and it isn’t to say that she still isn’t, but she’s growing very tired. She always had a strong head about her, and an iron will that could hardly gain a scratch to it. People knew better than to mess with Ana. She was mommy’s perfect little angel, always did as she was told, never spoke back and thrived to make sure she was all her mother wanted her to be.

All Anastasia wanted was to make she was the epitome of perfection.

Well, she’s falling apart right now, and I am so FREAKING HAPPY ABOUT THAT!!!! IT WAS ABOUT TIME!!!!! (wow I sound like a horrible mun to my baby haha) A huge part of that all has to do with her panic attacks. Before, they were manageable. Anastasia had them maybe once or twice a month and was able to pick herself right up after they occurred. Of course, NO ONE knew about them too. Welps, THEY ALL DO NOW and they are getting far too much for her to handle so she truly is growing drained. I’m beginning to watch that strong ironed will chip apart piece by piece. Then THENN she went and spoke back TO HER MOTHER!!!!! That really is huge as far as Anastasia is concerned haha. When I saw that I was like WHAAATTT SINCE WHEN?!?! Yeah, she’s chipping apart and I think it’s honestly for her best because I feel like she’s beginning to realize that she needs to detach and become her own person, not the image her mother holds for her. I’m excited to see where she goes and maybe she’ll let me touch her soft side (because she has one!!) but I never know with her she’s such a stubborn little asshole so who knows.

Pick another character and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them for the rest of the year?

I think I spoke about two of my babes for this one last time? Yeah I did!! Raksha and Anastasia haha. I’m going to talk about Violet this time around, my newest addition.

Violet reminds me a lot of Sally. They’re both shy and both suppress their own magic. Sally however did it because her own magic terrified her, Violet on the other hand does it because she was scared of the retribution that came with using them. Vi isn’t scared of her own magic, but she has repressed it so much she doesn’t know how to use it to its fullest potential. In fact, if she could get rid of them all together I bet she’d actually do it. She wants to be “normal” because she believes that being without magic is what constitutes one as being “normal”.

Yeah, no I don’t want that for her. I want her to realize the gifts she has and all that hidden potential she’s running away from. Violet is very aware that she now lives in a town where magic is acceptable, but she is so scarred from her past that I really feel like she almost has ptsd when she uses her magic. She just assumes the absolute WORSE. I want her to grow out of that. There is so much I can tap into with Violet, but in order for that to be done I need her protective shell to be broken!!! So, that is my goal for my little Violet love. Force her into situations where she needs to use her magic and into situations where she has to be social with people she NEVER would’ve back home.

It’ll be a process for sure because Violet is SO stubborn, but I’m very excited to see what kind of person she’ll turn into once she realizes that her magic isn’t like the root of all evil and the bane of her own existence.

OPTIONAL (REQUIRED FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T DO THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE): In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

Gahh my stengths freaakkk. I always think about what I need to improve that I can’t ever place my own strengths haha.

Description/details: I’m pretty sure I mentioned this one last time butttt it’s always the only one I can think of haha. The reason being is that I LOVE LOVE LOVVEEEE describing shit!!! That was why I picked up Minnie and made her a nurse because I wanted to have the opportunity to describe my profession out in writing. Sally’s magic, I LOVE ITTTT because I get to write out her sceneries in SO MUCH DETAIL, to be honest that was the main reason I make her a part of her own visions so that way I can describe shit through her point of view. I made her an empath too so that way I had an excuse to go ahead and describe emotions. I’m just a description junkieee.

OPTIONAL (REQUIRED FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T DO THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE): In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

Guys, you are going to see my beautiful laziness becaussee I will post the same three reasons I post last time. In my defense, I really do feel that they are still the same for me. Again, some of my laziness could be talking there too haha.

Body Placement: Okay, so remember how for this I mentioned that headcanon I had for Ellie??? You know the one where she always carries a purse because of all her medications and the fact that she needs a first aid kit with her?? Yeah, how many times have you guys seen this purse??? NEVER. Yeah, so I am STILL working on this. Then I went ahead and did a similar type of headcanon with Minnie and said that she constantly hand sanitizes her hand. Yeap. I forget that one too, or when I do I always forget that you know that little bottle of hand sanitizer needs to go somewhere because it’s not going to vanish into thin air. This is still a working progress. Cutting: If you haven’t noticed already I tend to write A LOT, and I know that hugely has to do with the fact that I get so into voicing my characters. While I know that that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it sort of is at the same time because it takes away from everything else my character can be doing. Then to top it off when I am realizing that my reply is super long, I have trouble trying to figure out what I can cut off so that I can add other aspects. The thing is my characters never want me to cut anything off! So it leaves me almost half-assing my endings because I needed to wrap it up somewhere! (That one was literally copy and paste hehe but it still remains the same xD I think I’ve improved a little bit though….) Dialogue: Yeah, wow I am still working on this one. My problem is still the same, that I answer everything when in reality like how many times do I do that myself?? Never. In a conversation things get cut off, like I need to cut things off haha. I tend to be more aware of this with my shy babes. Like when I’m on Sally and Violet I keep telling myself “they are fucking SHY Kiara!!! They aren’t suppose TO TALK A LOT!!” I swear that is my daily mental conversation with myself haha. You know who I notice this a lot on too?? Ellie and Minnie and I guess it’s because they are the opposite. Like Ellie, holy shit she’ll talk your ear off if you don’t stop her, but that’s just her personality so I find myself answering every little thing. Then Minnie she’s polite and sweet so she’d find it rude if she didn’t answer every little thing.

IF YOU DID THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE: Alright, now pick an item from the Wishlist you completed in January that you’ve started to pursue. How far are you from completing this goal? Talk about the steps you took to make it happen.

Ellie’s turn!!!!!! :DD

In my wishlist I had mentioned wanting Ellie to have a bit of stay in the hospital, whether it be because she finally got convinced to do chemo (which I still want!! SOMEONE CONVINCE HER), or because she was going to be in need of surgery related to something her cancer messed up. The second one is the WINNER. Ellie is going to be getting surgery to get her spleen removed since it has enlarged due to her cancer. (Thank you Bee!!!!!)

The steps, so I had to actually first look up what kind of surgery could happen with the type of surgery Ellie has. It was there where I found out she could have splenomegaly, which would require the removal of her spleen as treatment. There was my surgery. MK had actually suggested Bee’s character Tibbs. I can’t remember how we got to that point, but MK did haha and I was like yeaasss. Plus, Tibbs is a GORGEOUS doctor so like why not!!!! After a mental conversation with myself to suck up my shyness and just contact her, I told Bee about my idea and she so kindly said yeeaasss.

So there we are, Ellie will be getting her surgery, and a stay in the hospital :DD It’s currently in the works haha.

IF YOU DID THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE: Pick another item on your wishlist that hasn’t happened yet. We’re gonna do a MOCK-PLOT!!! Pick a character who could help with this goal, and plan at least three threads or “steps” that would kick-start this plot. Need help? Remember to look at the plotting tips and tricks! See the end of this questionnaire for an example. You do not have to follow through with the plot as you planned it here– but it can kickstart brainstorming and get you thinking in terms of cause/effect.

I can actually still use Ellie for this too :DD

Ellie and her Chemo

Thread one: Ellie gets very sick and winds up in the hospital, whether it be because she forgot to receive a transfusion so she ends up really bad, or very physically sick because she caught an infection like pneumonia, which is very common for her sort of cancer. Someone helps her to the hospital. (Celia, or Stan, or Jane or Terk)

Thread two: Once in the hospital it gets told that her cancer is only getting worse, ya know since Ellie isn’t doing the best in keeping up with it, or even TRYING to get rid of it. Chemotherapy can be brought up as an option. (The doctors can tell her this: Tibbs, or Sweet)

Thread three: Ellie, of course because she’s Ellie will say no since she thinks it’s pointless at this point. This is where she needs a strong convincing push. (Celia, or Stan, or Jane, or Terk)

Thread four: Ellie gets convinced and home girl can start her chemo!!! (Tibbs or Sweet can help her with her chemo therapy process if they’d like. Celia/Stan/Jane/Terk can be frequent visitors!!)

Anastasia and Therapy

Thread one: Someone finds out she’s having a lot more panic attacks than she’s letting on and are only getting worse. (Zella or even Ariel)

Thread two: One of her panic attacks end up bad that she’s rushed to the hospital and of course at this point her mom is going to get notified. (Zella or even Ariel can send her to the hospital, Bo, Tibbs, or Sweets can be the ones there when she’s at the hospital and they can notify her mom)

Thread three: Milla finds out about Ana’s panic attacks. Dun dun DUNNNN. (Milla and if Zella wants to be a part of that conversation she can toooo)

Thread four: Therapy is medically suggested. (Any of the healthcare people can suggest this and if she gets the therapy James can be her therapist)

Finally: write a NEW wish list for the upcoming half of the year. It’s fine if you use a lot from your previous wish list if you still haven’t completed them and you still want to!

Sally: I want Sally to help someone out with her magic!!!! She needs to feel a little more proud of her gift and she’ll feel that way if she can see that her magic can actually do GOOD. So, she can help retrieve memories because she can see the past!! Or answer any future questions because she can see the future!!! Look, Sally can basically see anythinggg USE HERR. Also, also, ALSO I have one more neat trick I want to do with her magic development wise and it’s her being able to project her visions so that the other person can see them as well, same goes for her empathy that she can project the emotions.

I kind of did Ellie and Anastsia alreadyy.

Dash: He is in a happy place right now and he’s a teenager so like that can’t stay forever so, ruin him I guess xD. I want him to have a full teenage experience!!! Heart broken, heart unbroken after it got broken, maybe he could break a heart, make him question his sexuality because I doubt homeboy is completely straight tbh, get him into an accident. The list is endlesssss.

Violet: I kind of did her too but force her into more experiences where she needs to use her magic. I want her to have FRIENDSSS. She has got ZERO. Maybe even a BEST-FRIEND!!!! She sadly, NEVER had one of those. Someone could threaten to hurt her brothers!!! She would go crazy!!! She is very protective of them.

Bonnie: God, Bonnie. All I ask in regards for her is that somehow someone help me add some sustenance to her!!! My god she is so SHALLOW. I don’t even know how this could be done, but I beg someone help me with this MISSION!!!!

Raksha: My wolfie is pregnant and she isn’t aware of this. I mean deep, deep, DEEP down she is but she won’t accept it. Someone help her bring this to light haha and then once it is brought to light help her accept it!!!

Minnie: I will happily take any and all hospital-like thread for her!!!! If anyone needs a nurse Minnie is totally available!!! :DD

#bdrptask #it's on minnie bc she's the account I was on haha

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jadedahlia · 6 years

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Anime Winter 2018 wrap-up

BEST OF THE SEASON:

Hands down, my top pick this season was A Place Farther Than the Universe. I know I didn't talk about it much on here, but it was really a standout in terms of having consistent quality, amazing characters, great comedy, and also inspiring lots of Feels.

FAVORITES: -Speaking of Feels, episodes 9-11 of Violet Evergarden are full of those. Initially I felt kind of detached from the more emotional moments in the story for some reason, but as Violet grew and learned more about emotions the stories in turn seemed to work better on an emotional level. Also I absolutely headcanon Violet as autistic and could relate to her a lot because of that. That said, there were a couple minor issues (like the romantic relationship between a 14-year-old princess and her 20-something suitor, and the occasional framing of Violet and the Major's relationship as romantic, though at least it seems more like the Major thought of her as more of a daughter than a love interest), but overall I've been enjoying it. Also the art and animation are incredible.

-Laid Back Camp was another winner, with an incredibly soothing quality to it that honestly made it feel almost therapeutic to watch. If it weren’t for A Place Farther Than the Universe, this would be my favorite of the season. I still definitely want to try All The Food from the show, and I also love that Rin appreciates doggos as much as I do.

-The Ancient Magus' Bride really grabbed me around the end of the first season, when I was going through a depressive episode myself, so the dragon's words to Chise really resonated with me. The pace definitely picked up in the second half of the series, and overall I think that was a good thing. I actually felt the parts where Chise deals with her trauma and the end of her character arc were even more compelling than the finale (which unfortunately felt a bit rushed and kind of glossed over some major issues that needed to be addressed between Chise and Elias). To be fair I think the manga is still ongoing. I definitely want to read it at some point, since while overall the anime was good, everyone says the manga is even better.

-How to Keep a Mummy was a surprise favorite, in that I didn't really know what to expect from it before watching, but it ended up being really adorable and sweet. I probably "aww"ed at least several times per episode.

-Pop Team Epic was even better than I expected it would be. It started out a bit hit-or-miss but in a way I could appreciate for what it was trying to accomplish (some people have called it an "anti-comedy"). However about halfway through is when it started to hit its stride, I think. The Hellshake Yano sequence is honestly brilliant (both in terms of the sketchbook "animation" and the fact that it's hilarious), and I'm still not over the Undertale reference. Also as an article on Anime Feminist points out, it's actually pretty subversive in the way that Popuko and Pipimi are allowed to take on a lot of roles that women don't typically get to play (and they're allowed to look "uncute", especially in the Bob Team Epic sequences).

(Honorable Mentions and Dropped series behind the cut because this got long, haha)

HONORABLE MENTION: -Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc is generally good, though I'm hoping things pick up pacing-wise next season. I found myself getting mildly frustrated with how slow things are progressing with the main plot. That said, I'm still enjoying it a lot.

-Citrus was a solid adaptation of one of my favorite trashy yuri manga, lol. As I've probably said before this is a "problematic fave" for sure (and I can understand if people drop it over the frequent sexual assault situations), but at least things get better consent-wise as it goes on. I actually really hope it gets at least another season, since things only get better from the point where the anime ends (though I'm also a bit behind on the manga at the moment, haha), but it also has a satisfying conclusion as it is.

-Sanrio Boys was super cute and pleasant. It definitely felt a bit cheesy at times (it's kind of hard to take lines like "I want to sparkle!" completely seriously, especially when it's repeated over and over again), and the first half is much better than the second half, but I grew attached to the characters and found them all endearing (Yuu is still my fave).

-IDOLISH7 still has a few episodes left, so I can't review the series as a whole yet, but it's been fun and cute so far. It had a few strikes against it going in: an idol series based on a mobile game, when most idol shows and mobile game adaptations have been less than stellar. But this one is a standout for having strong characters and good music. Like Sanrio Boys, it can be a bit cheesy at times, but the plot is still fairly compelling (after the latest episode, I just have to know what happens next).

-I forget if I covered Devilman Crybaby in my mid-season reviews but I don't think I did? Anyway I can definitely appreciate this series on a technical level. The art and animation are excellent, and the plot is compelling and ambitious. That said, the gratuitous sex and violence was a bit much for me at times, and it definitely veered into grimdark territory near the end. I think I liked it overall though? There's definitely a few individual standout scenes, and I liked the characters a lot.

-Takunomi is a Shorts series (though longer than the usual ones at about 12 minutes per episode). It's basically about four 20-something ladies living in Tokyo who drink together and talk about drinks. While a lot of them are drinks that are only available in Japan unfortunately, there were a few cocktail ideas that I could probably make at home (the Kitty, with red wine and club soda, sounds especially good). That said, it does feel a bit like advertising more than a show sometimes.

---

DROPPED: -I was pretty much only watching Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles for the ramen trivia/recipe ideas because I'm a foodie, but the last couple episodes I saw before dropping it were less about ramen and more about the girls eating ramen. Also I had really hoped Stalker Girl would get character development to be on equal footing with Koizumi by the end, but instead her (obnoxious at her best and incredibly creepy at her worst) behavior is increasingly exaggerated and played for laughs and everyone else just kind of puts up with it or seems to think "welp, that's just how she is lol".

-Oh DamexPri Anime Caravan, what a disappointment. I was really enjoying this series until it had to go and be blatantly homophobic. Like, I get that otome games are generally heteronormative and lack LGBT rep most of the time to begin with, but at least they don't often have harmful gay stereotypes. As soon as this show decided to introduce a predatory gay pedophile at the end of episode 8, I was Done. Until that point though, it was a funny show with a great female protag. The guys gradually endeared themselves to me, plus they were pretty hilarious to begin with (Narek is amazingly over-the-top Extra and I love it). I might watch the rest at some point, but that one glaring flaw definitely soured my experience.

#winter anime 2018 #becki reviews stuff

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