#but I feel like between the fans who actually Know stuff about animation and those of us who just go crazy for the library’s pretty dust

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

I love the relationship (or rather, the lack thereof) between the Hilda fandom and Luke Pearson. I don’t know if this is just me, but I feel like we’re just marginally aware that he’s A Guy and that he makes the thing we like and that’s as far as we care to go. You see fandoms researching their favorite creators and following them in every social media and looking for each of their projects and we just. We just want the stills and trailers. Some people care about what he has to say about the plot and animation. And that’s it. He’s just a dude whose name is in the opening and whose self insert shows up sometimes to Be Useless and we’re fine with that! The opposite of a parasocial relationship. We’re parallel playing in the same room

#I feel like we’re far more invested in what the animation team is doing lmao #I think I watched one interview with LP and that was that #the man even commented on sketchbook one day (on Twitter I think?) and we just shrugged and ignored it #however every time the animators pop up here on tumblr it’s a whole event fekdbsjbdns #we’re still not weird about it like some fandoms are so. props for us! #but I feel like between the fans who actually Know stuff about animation and those of us who just go crazy for the library’s pretty dust #we’re far more interesting in what *they* are doing lol #hilda the series #Hilda netflix #I would tak hildafolk but I’ve never read the novels (fake fan alert lol) and I don’t know what that part of the fandom’s #relationship with LP is like

[no1ryomafan]

In my constant brain rotations of “why are people in the west so hard on mecha aside from the fandom can be a bit unfriendly” I think one thing I realized as much as I hate to say is how mecha is sometimes treated remind me of the constant hatred superhero stuff gets.

It’s such a weird comparison because with mecha I do not know what the root of it was-and I’d love to know why but I feel there’s either no clear answer or there is one and it’s stupid-where as for superheroes in the west while there’s still a dedicated community the mainstream audiences have become tired of them due to over-saturation, which I understand, but it’s caused such a massive dismal to the entire genre of it much like mecha.

People think superhero stories can’t have any substance because it’s all about fighting and not about the characters- yet forget the SIGNIFICANT impact they had to so much pop culture. How superhero stories were rooted within comic popularity, how superheroes inspired countless of stories, even so far as reaching japan since so much early anime was taken off of western media which birthed its own genre of superheroes. It’s no different to how mecha help started up the anime industry making it one of the most important genres to japans history, yet most people don’t know it and belittle it.

Yet in superhero story cases it’s even WORSE when people are against it yet then go to see one superhero movie because it’s animated and put it on a pedestal and don’t bother to try other superhero content even though they consumed is no different from the norm. It’s the exact same shit when people watch eva and then think all other mechas don’t compare to it, when the genre always had darker, mature and emotional elements, just only a select few decide to canter to a audience who doesn’t even accept what genre it’s from which makes it all the more frustrating to deal with.

I’m someone who’s hardly into superhero stuff even if some of it catches my eye but it sucks to see that the situation is pretty identical to how mecha is seen, that I can’t help to feel sympathetic whenever I see some comic book fans upset at the mainstream audience even if they too can be a little hostile.

#meg text #to clarify I do agree 100% live action superhero movies especially the MCU got really stale #but that doesn’t mean those movies being stale should single out all superhero content when the stuff before is still GOOD #I was in a server that wasn’t mecha but someone was like “I hate superheroes” yet the discussion was just about a old Justice league cartoo #again- what’s so wrong about the animated ones? when they were from a time pre-saturation and people praise shit like spider verse? #I seriously cant tell if this is also a factor of the ever growing issue of people don’t wanna check out old things despite their importanc #*me awaiting the day someone unironically saids the boys/invincible/spider verse is a deconstruction so I can sigh in pain with actual fans #I hope to god that doesn’t happen but it feels like it’s close to why people already say superhero movies don’t have characters #and maybe that’s true bc I haven’t watched a marvel movie in ages but also I think you more so mean “characters being expanded upon” #because… every story has characters… just some can lack dimension and depth… but their still characters… #oh and it’s funny how it’s always these two that get singled out for focusing on action but shonen gets a pass 😑 #action doesn’t equate to less characters!! How do people not realize this? #it’s fine if not your preference but fights can LITERALLY be CHARACTER DRIVEN #a lot of them are in fact because there’s always a purpose to these fights! Even if the meaning is sometimes barebone #also I know there’s gonna be a mecha fan who hates superhero who finds this post #and hate to break it to you but I’m pretty sure the super in super robot came from superhero and just not super powered #especially when a lot of the stuff Nagai made/worked on was him clearly tackling a superhero story from another angle #of course mecha isn’t entirely a superhero genre since we have “reals” but the 70s robots? Oh yeah meant to be superhero’s #and what I said above I think the comparison is warranted because the downplaying is unreal sometimes #will say between the two superhero’s probably have it worse because mecha honestly is more so “im curious but idk more then 5 shows” #because my god I can’t have some conversations irl where this shit doenst get unnecessary heated #had a whole English teacher who wouldn’t stop complaining about superhero movies last semester in college 💀 it’s that bad #that said mecha still suffers from people liking one show and shooting down the other it’s just not as prevalent bc mecha content is low #it’s not dead like others say but it’s mainly been gundam and people now just think gundam is every robot (which is PAINFUL but whatever) #moral of the story is don’t judge a book by it’s cover especially when that book is actually really important to fucking pop culture

[odusseus-xvi]

Doing a Summary of the French ccs' Lore (because we are forgotten)

(this last part is a joke don't take it too seriously)

Making a post with the lore we know about every French ccs for those who don't follow them religiously : (I might forget some things because I'm not an encyclopedia)

BAGHERA JONES :

Has said in the past she does see herself (her character) as human, like in the "Regret" animation but has also talked about "dying her feathers" instead of hair, and discussed with mike about not really having hair. Her species/lineage/anything you want to call it doesn't seem to be something set in stone.

When asked from where she comes from she answers Switzerland. It seems to have been accepted by Cucurucho. (also knows about The Shit Tower from the Team du Lundi server, though that might not be really lore accurate)

Doesn't seem to be interested in leaving the island itself, but is REALLY interested in freeing herself and the others from the Federation.

Considers BBH and Forever as her family alongside the rest of the french. Both Pomme and Dapper are her adopted kids.

Has both an underground Base and a Castle far north.

Dropped out of the election on her own accord, jumping from the top of her castle's highest tower.

(note : Please admins, cook something for her... She needs it... She tried for days to solve the book thingy, and Cellbit ended up having the last clues and doing it himself... Please I beg you...)

ETOILES :

Is a masked anthorpomorphic cucumber. No ambiguity about that.

When asked where he comes from, it alternates between France, and Far Away (if I remember well) (Was also part of the Team du Lundi server, but nothing confirms it is part of his canon lore).

What does seem to be conserved is his familiarity with all the french ccs : His close joke-flirting relationship with Antoine, his friendly banters with Baghera, his kind of disciple in redstone and create relationship with Aypierre, and his friendship with Kamet0.

Actually enjoying his time on the Island because of the challenges it offers him. Particularly enjoys showing the Federation and The Codes how they can do nothing against him. Considers himself a simple Warrior.

Has a cave a la BatCave but spends most of his time exploring and far away from it.

His favorite thing is bringing loot and stuff to the other residents.

Is freindly with everyone, and enjoys every egg, with particular admiration to Dapper.

(note : #EtoilesIsMyPresident)

AYPIERRE :

A simple human (note : a headcanon I like and that his community has kinda adopted is imagining him with Doc Ock style mechanical arms)

Comes from a random place in France he wrote kind of has a joke to Cucurucho. As for a potential server he could come from the guy is one of the oldest mc cc on the INTERNET. I could not tell you.

We don't really know his feelings on the island, but is portrayed as an opportunist and enjoyer of contracts. Absolutely willing to have deals with the Federation, though also interested in helping the others leave the island.

"n° 1 Gegg fan". Built a Gegg generator and is behind the Geggpocalypse of the election dinner.

Has a fun uncle/nephew relationship with Richarlyson, he revealed the Geggpocalypse to him before anyone else, and is building a winery to run with him.

Has a small house with multiple elevators and teleport pads leading to his huge Factory complex he will open to the public soon.

"I'm secretly building a machine.." before being cut off by Slime saying "WTF MAN THIS IS CRAZY".

(note : We don't know what that last part is about though most likely linked to the lore he's been brewing with the admins that is coming early August)

ANTOINE DANIEL :

We have no idea what he is, though might appears "human". "We all have multiple faces, Im just the only one showing them all". *about the face that was on his inside layer on his old skin* "I'd rather not talk about that, it's private."

Comes from France, though his reference to the Shit Tower into the new Shit Palace might mean he comes from the Team du Lundi server.

We don't know his feelings on the island, though distrustful of the Federation.

Lives in his Shit Palace that is currently unfinished, with the Moon and it's ring above. Has a secret room under called "La Fin du Monde (the end of the world)" with (old and not updated) thoughts about the residents of the island.

Is easily distrustful though trusts the french the most, and confides most of his secrets in Pomme.

Has a weird admiration/obession with Cucurucho.

(note : Come back antoine, I miss the kids...)

KAMET0 :

Ah ah ah ah... ah.

Etoiles did say he might come back at some point to do a cameo, tough not regularly.

(note : come back to the village Sasuke...)

#qsmp #qsmp baghera jones #qsmp baghera #qsmp antoine daniel #qsmp antoine #qsmp etoiles #qsmp aypierre #qsmp france #qsmp french

[girlscoutbrownies]

sbg headcanons!

(i had to put a title because it keeps just showing up as “aiden” in my notifs)

some of my favourite school bus graveyard headcanons! (in celebration of 101 followers) some are mine, some belong to other people that i’ve taken as well

these got really, really long so ill split it into two parts: aiden, tyler, and taylor for this post and ashlyn, ben, and logan will be in the next

——

aiden

(bit of a tw for disassociation around the end)

- uses he/any pronouns, he mostly doesn’t give a fuck. also doesn’t care if you stick to he/him because he likes it. he also tries out mirror pronouns every once in a while and flipflops between any

- unlabelled energy. also doesn’t care abt that type of stuff, but he’s asexual and it takes him a while to grow feelings. he’s afraid of letting people close to him but it really doesn’t matter to him, not that much. he’s pretty apathetic about it

- generally smells like shittily applied cedarwood cologne. it’s one of those cheap drugstore brands and sometimes he forgets to apply it in the morning, and he doesn’t spray it very well. also smells like grass sometimes

- his favourite subject is psychology/maths/anything logic based (he likes those puzzles). growing up with his bitchass karen mom who probably twisted all the words he said, he doesn’t like cryptic or vague language or poetry (english class) because it reminds him of her. in math, there’s only one answer. in english, there’s hundreds. also the words swim on the paper and he finds it hard to focus

- he has his ears pierced. he begged his parents to take him to an ear piercing studio they just ended up taking him to claire’s but he was still so happy about it

- he BEGGED for a dog or a pet when he was very little but eventually stopped at some point. he asked for stuffed animals and never got any because “it would be too hard to keep track of when we’re moving and you would lose them and get sad” and he’s still very upset about it. used to hug like three pillows when he slept

- he was told they were settling down in georgia and now his current room has millions of stuffed animals i will not hear any arguments about this

- he’s a kicker in his sleep (when he gets any). he kicks plushies off his bed like all the time, he’s not apologetic though he’s just like “oh shit”

- worst and best guy to have a sleepover with. super clingy

- he knows very few actual life skills other than operating a microwave for frozen meals because he largely grew up alone without his parental figures in his life. ashlyn and tyler eventually teach him how to cook

- his growth is stunted bc of that period in his life and he’s short like ashlyn

- he is a HORRIBLE gossip addict. they’ll be sitting at the lunch table eating in silence and he drops “did you hear that samantha’s parents are divorced and madison dropped her bc samantha’s mom doesn’t drive them to the mall anymore” like HUH WHERE DID YOU HEAR THIS?

- he gets school lunch and very rarely (if ever) brings lunch from home. sometimes ben makes him lunches

- plays with his food (this is canon) but he makes storylines out of whatever he does its like his personal roman empire

- big fan of extreme foods (spicy, sour, etc) ((he grew up eating plain ramen)) and loves weird food combinations. everyone always makes weird faces at him when theyre at the mall and he orders weird shit

- he doesn’t know proper meal etiquette until someone has to tell him, his parents didn’t teach him anything (I HATE THEM)

- he’s a really bad cook like ben because he always ends up getting distracted, and somehow manages to skip over steps in the recipes.

- he probably likes cooking shows though and is like “yeah i could do that” (he can’t do that)

- the first time someone (tyler) made aiden a homecooked meal he started cry laughing (it was mostly crying) (nobody talks about it)

- the few times his mom has made him meals whenever she’s home they’re really bad. they don’t taste anything like home, but he didn’t know what home tasted like so he just cried. his mom thought it was because of how good it was (it wasn’t) and he just cried harder

- he dislikes bitter flavours, especially like, orange juice that you make from scratch but you don’t put any sugar in it (it’s because his mom once tried to make homemade orange juice/lemonade to feel more like a “real mom” and it was horrible

- he’ll still eat bitter food though he just wouldn’t like it that much

- likes crunchy food or food that pops in your mouth (poprocks) bc he thinks its cool

- probably needs glasses from how long he’s spent staring at screens (his backstory)

- the one thing his parents consistently did as a kid was take him to his doctors appointments so he has stellar teeth

- he’s fit and fairly athletic (jumping off walls and all) but he doesn’t play sports because he just. isn’t interested in any of it. he tries everything but nothing really sticks that much

- he eats his greens but probably wouldn’t care much for the healthy vegan lifestyle, not that much of a picky eater (this part is canon)

- his favourite holiday is halloween because 1. candy (which he didn’t get much as a kid unless he specifically asked for it or ben brought it over) and 2. he loves dressing up it’s so fun to him

- understimulation is the BANE of his existence he genuinely wants to tear out his own hair every time he gets like that. gets really irritated

- he disassociates a lot, generally experiences a lot of derealization. he doesn’t feel like he’s in his own body sometimes

- insomniac

- chases thrills so that he can “feel” something. doesn’t care if it hurts him or not, because at least then he’ll remember he’s a real person and that his life matters

- really bad at telling when people are lying/are irritated with him. he just keeps pushing until they explode

- good with secrets (his own) but isn’t good at deflecting if asked about someone else’s. he’s just like “ummm. would u look over there. a bird!”

- runs really fast, he wakes up early in the morning to take a walk around the neighborhood. he sometimes encounters tyler if he happens to go into his city (which is often, because he doesn’t like being in his house)

- his house is always really cold, which is why he tends to run really warm (his body is compensating). he knows how to turn the ac off, but it always ends up turning back on in the middle of the night

- he grew up learning The Gifted Child instrument; the piano. he dislikes classical music (he says it’s boring but it’s because of this). he also almost got forced to learn the violin but he once practiced so hard his fingers started bleeding which is how he got out of it

- likes verbal validation bc his parents never told him they were proud of him

taylor

- she/they cis demigirl, gets a bit upset at being misgendered though (people think she’s the transfem twin because tyler passes really well)

- bisexual fem pref

- decorates her locker for almost every occasion. halloween, christmas, easter, birthdays. also decorates other people’s lockers for their birthdays before school starts with sticky notes

- has tons of stuff in her locker (except food because tyler won’t let her) just in case anyone needs anything but she’s not very organized so she doesn’t know where anything is

- because of this she’s one of those people that barely makes it to the door before the bell rings but she’s trying to fix that habit

- enjoys crime documentaries/true crime, horror stuff. used to make tyler watch with her but his anxiety gets really bad and he started getting paranoid

- adores christmas bc it’s a family holiday she makes tyler and her mom homemade gifts every year

- loves dogs with every bone in her body she asks santa for one every year but alas. tyler always has to write “a letter from santa” back saying they ran out of dogs at the north pole

- uses emoticons like “:D :] :3” all the time when she types, downloaded a bunch of sticker packs too. especially cat ones

- had her future all planned out as a kid and told her dad she’d be a mechanical engineer and build trains and rockets to bring him places when he started getting really sick and couldn’t move anymore

- her hair is actually kind of dry (compared to aiden’s or ashlyn’s) because they couldn’t afford great shampoo or anything

- has an ehh skincare routine and doesn’t care much for her fashion sense, just wears whatever’s comfortable

- knows a lot of random facts as conversation starters, she’s surprisingly good at small talk ( + comforting people)

- gossips with aiden aallll the time bc she’s super sociable and knows lots of people who tell her secrets. she doesn’t tell any of the important ones but just little drama things

- her and aiden are bffs

- really likes kids because they’re funny, she has a big imagination like them so it’s easy for her to play with them

- she’s a swiftie and whenever someone asks her if she likes taylor swift as a joke bc of her name she says “i like all music!” (she loves tswift)

- really likes sweets over most types of food, she’s healing her inner child guys

- has always ALWAYS wanted to go to a circus/carnival/festival when she was younger, but they couldn’t afford tickets. she still has that dream but she obviously has bigger priorities now…

tyler

- transmale he/him

- doesn’t care that much about dating, he actually doesn’t think about it that much until he meets The Gang. he always too busy taking care of his family to bother with relationships

- dislikes heavy meals, eats in small portions. it’s a habit

- used to be a picky eater but isn’t anymore, when he was younger they struggled to put food on the table so

- he’s like tigris from ballad of songbirds and snakes; when he prepared food for the family he’d eat bits and pieces of it while cooking. eats raw meat sometimes but once got sick from it so never again because he doesn’t want people taking care of him

- he HATES being sick. HATES HATES HATES it, hates having to burden people

- stress cooks because he likes having things to do with his hands. he also runs laps/paces around when he’s stressed

- runs his hands through his hair so it’s always messy

- he doesn’t bother combing his hair unless it’s for a special occasion like the first day of school, he just doesn’t care that much

- gets up early like aiden to keep up his physical fitness, doesn’t stray far though because his mom wakes up around the same time he does

- is VERY punctual. will be furious if someone makes plans and then is late. always arrives somewhere like, fifteen minutes early. he’s trying to break taylor’s habit of being late

- occasionally scolds taylor about how messy her locker is

- is extremely (and kind of scarily) meticulous. clean backpack, clean locker, clean room. it’s a habit

- book smart and figures things out pretty easily. he has an internal computer inside his head i swear. latches onto concepts very quickly

- likes math because he’s good at memorizing concepts but biology is his worst enemy, he gets queasy very easily

- motion sickness

- doesn’t actually have a set plan for the future, other than “help his family.” will probably do something related to sports (sports scholarship) or will do something math/analytical related

- spams people when they don’t respond to him but quits eventually (semicanon)

- has some sort of separation anxiety i swear he does

- keeps every single promise he makes because he hates broken promises (his dad told him he’d be fine and out of the hospital soon), he also doesn’t make a lot of promises

- dislikes nicknames like “champ” and “buddy”

- he’s ambidextrous

- he always seems to be like, tense? can’t relax at all. it might be because of his anxiety (HE HAS ANXIETY)

- only ever relaxes if he’s at home

- rarely watches television, he says it’s a waste of time (he always gets distracted and gets up and goes to do something else) he can leave it in the background though

- i think he has chronic pain, i don’t know where but i just think he does. everything just aches sometimes and he’s so young fuck life

- he’s okay with kids like his sister, not as good as her but he’ll take care of them (habit x37362828) he’d probably say everything really monotone though “there’s santa claus, wow.”

- he and taylor both have a pretty strong southern accent from living in middle of nowhere georgia (i think someone made an art post on this a while back :D)

- is really bad at video games because he gets frustrated easily

- he grinds his teeth when he sleeps and has jaw pain what a loser

#sbg #aiden rambles #school bus graveyard #school bus graveyard (webtoon) #headcanons #sbg headcanons #aiden clark #taylor hernandez #tyler hernandez #i didnt think these would get so long… help… #let me know if they’re inaccurate or if youd like to disagree i would /gen love to hear :D

[urfavnegronerd]

a little rant while im on break at my job

okay i know we're supposed to like ghostflower ships but i... i have some thoughts.

i see the love and lust between those two in into the spiderverse, miles is so giggly around gwen and gwen is slightly less unhinged (you ALL know what im getting at, love her but our good sis gwen is.... *hand motion*) etc. allat good stuff.

but i can't see that happening especially w the events of atsv, like there's definitely room for patching up the relationship but anything romantic between the two would feel forced as fuck i feel like. and maybe that's just me being an intensely passionate empath who likes to act like a nonchalant lil asshole, but still. i LOVE gwen, sony set her up beautifully for an amazing character arc that i'm so excited to see in the next one. HOWEVER, also this could just be me being an annoying little afro latina shit, she's not coming back from opening the collectible, going through miles' sketchbook w/o permission, and the shoes on the bed. that doesn't mean i HATE her i just can't look at her the same.

now a bitch is biased because black love is forever 🔛🔝, but also in the comics and video game miles has a black love interest. there was definitely also THE connection w/ miles and margo (however i'm also kinda in favor of prowlerbyte anyway--), and lil old me in the theatre was loosing it. i think that staying true to the aspect of black love interests is also going to be so important for the community, both comic/video game fans and black fans alike, mainly because of how black men interact with black women. speaking from experience i can't even count how many times i wanted to be the short lil white girl with blue eyes and blonde hair instead of the tall and awkward black girl with the wide nose and corkscrew curls. now here's where i think my personal bias kind of skews my opinion on this, but this franchise has been so important to SO many people. again speaking from experience, when i saw miles in atsv with the EXACT same hair texture as me i almost cried because no one in the history of ever has animated my kind of hair right and miles' hair was right. on top of this i saw so many little black boys practically tripping and falling in anticipation to see this movie in theatres. so i think i favor miles having a relationship with a black girl because this will reach such a new audience and possibly open doors for black men and boys to start treating black somebody and girls with respect. because if these little boys in the theatre see their like, idol for lack of a better word, treating black women and girls with respect i think then there's gonna be an aspect of healing within that.

i'm not really sure how well i'm communicating this, but i don't really think i can fully get behind the ghostflower ship. to me it feels really fucking forced in a way that kinda icks me out, however this is not to say i won't absolutely love the shit out of these two if it happens. in a way, this franchise feels like something the black community needs in several ways. like yeah this shit is pro black but FULLY pro black, not pro-black but anti gay, trans, or whatever the fuck. it shows blackness in a new way, artsy and nerdy but also really fucking cool at the same time and i never fucking got that as a little kid. like i kid you not the other black kids in school would call me a wanna be white girl. and to see someone with similar interests as me just sort of opens the world up??? like i visited my older sister at school in the dmv while wearing a spiderverse hoodie, and people actually wanted to talk to me about it!!! like not ina "oh i like ur sweatshirt ma" type thing like a "omg you like this movie too??" type thing and i just--

yeah i def strayed from the topic, but i hope our baby does get his lil black girl (or his lil gwen, from a big sisters perspective i don't hate her as a prospective partner i just think that there would need to be a clear breakdown in the difference of cultures. for example i was taught that anytime you meet anyone formally (like a parent or something) you shake their hand and or go in for a hug and kiss BOTH cheeks and talk about their home their clothes or whatever) but for like the sake of authenticity (sorry to be that asshole but come ON) but like.... flowerbyte 🥰🥰

did this make sense i feel like i word vomited like a bitch, idk maybe i'm projecting my personal shit into a franchise i really like

#across the spiderverse #black people #tag #drawing #graffiti #into the spiderverse #beauty #fanfiction #celebrities #college #e42 miles x reader #miles g morales #e42 miles #earth 42 miles x you #earth 42 miles morales x reader #prowler miles #miles morales #prowlerbyte #spiderman #into the spider verse #peter parker #mj #opinion #brain #word vomit #ramble #babble #rambling #break #work

[ofallthingsnasty]

Please indulge me with what the life of being arlong’s human pet entails

Gladly 😏 Sorry this took so long, I just couldn't write this without re-reading the Arlong Park arc and Jinbei's flashback. (But I have to say it gave me so, so much inspo for more stuff with him hehe - he just ticks off every violence and degradation box there is, what a character 🤭) anon is referencing this post tw. gn reader, violence, noncon, torture, free use mention, dead dove: do not eat, dehumanization, (inevitable) death, minors dni, read the tags and read them twice

Nothing good, I can tell you that.

I know I talked about being his pet - but really, the term 'pet' is already way too generous. It implies that you’re in some favored position, maybe even loved - and really, you aren’t. You see, Nami is of use to him, is a valuable member of the Arlong Pirates due to her skills - and you? What exactly do you have that could gain you any favors with him? 

Nothing. You’ve got nothing but a too-soft body and a broken down spirit. Entirely useless for his endeavors as a pirate - but perfect for kicking, abusing, tormenting and blowing off steam. (And, he finds, you’re actually a nice example - much better than expected, especially when he parades you around in his towns, beaten and eyes utterly empty. When he’s feeling particularly foul, he makes you crawl in front of the villagers just like the World Nobles do. Just to show those little humans what he’s capable of. Nothing better to make them see how weak they are when he can just make you wipe your feet with your own dignity.) What he likes best about you is your fear, your terror - it’s probably what made him take you in the first place, because you becoming his little pet was more of a spontaneous thing, not planned. (He should have made an example out of you but your eyes... The way you cowered in front of him in nothing but raw, visceral fear was delicious back then and still is.) His personal little punching bag and stress relief rolled into one measly fucking human who does as he says because they’ve been scared into submission by his rampages and abuse. Still, I think he didn’t start out as severe as he treats you now - at first, you were shoved into some corner and unsure what to actually do with you, he just made you clean and serve his crew. To wring some measly fucking use out of you. To have some sort of justification for housing you at Arlong Park - because keeping you like this is just a waste of money. But there is a big difference between scrubbing the floor until your knees are raw to ‘earn’ a living and being forced to lick it sparkly clean with a foot on the back of your head - somehow, you end up down there all the same, each day you spent with him and his crew melting away their (already incredibly small) inhibitions as soon they realized no one is going to stop them from doing… just about anything to you. (And that’s one of the worst parts about this, really. That you’re free to anyone, with just a couple of privileges reserved for Arlong. Half of them spit in your face in disgust, the rest are more physical, for better or for worse.) I think he is a big fan of all things utterly degrading, just to put you in your place for the fun of it: addressing you like you’re an animal and not a person, having you crawl around Arlong Park (naked or not - really, that’s up to him), using you as furniture, strangling or pushing your head into his little pool long enough for your legs to give out - you’re so easily overpowered and always surprised when he catches you, it’s such a sight. And of course, you have other uses as well - and he doesn’t give a shit when he makes you vomit by forcing himself down your throat or you tearing when he’s too rough. You’re there for his entertainment only. It’s like someone giving a kid an inflated sword toy to hit their friends with: once he sees how far he can take it, there is no stopping him. His hatred for humans has few exceptions and you don’t fill any of them, not even when you try your best to be well-behaved. 

And one day, he’s going to kill you, intentionally or not. Like some threadbare teddy bear, your head is simply going to pop off, played with a little too hard, for too long. Be it some nasty infection you caught from a cut too deep or him holding your head underwater for too long or him simply kicking you too hard in the face - whatever it is, you’ll be wishing it had been the barrel of a gun instead.

#arlong x reader #/arlong #/one piece #tw.dark content #tw.noncon #tw.violence #one piece x reader

[iamafanofcartoons]

RWBY Fans talk about what makes RWBY enjoyable for the FNDM.

I want to take a moment to thank the RWBY Fandom for coming together on post

www.tumblr.com/iamafanofcartoons/714857308133441536/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

and discussing why RWBY was an enjoyable show for each of them.

Everyone here had a fantastic reason, and I am grateful to each of you!

@hmvw2015 : For me, RWBY filled the void left behind by Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

It’s one of the few shows I’ve seen (aside from Adventure Time) that grows up with its audience.

The fight scenes are so incredible! They’re lightening fast I would have to rewatch the same episode at least twice or thrice! Easily rivaling those done by Studios Gainax or TRIGGER, or Titmouse.

Since every character, place, and object have connections to fairy tales, mythologies, folklore, and classic novels, it did a great job portraying them to their root inspirations. Plus, I’m always digging deep into their designs and backstories.

The music is almost top tier to the music from the Disney Renaissance Era. Maybe even better than that. The songs add another layer of foreshadowing for the characters, and they’re fun to listen to~!

It tackles issues like self-worth, abuse, and death.

The series basically screams “Women’s Rights” and “Gay Rights” and proud of it. :D

www.tumblr.com/hmvw2015/715987868852666368/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@ammy246 :

I've always enjoyed the characters, and I like how there are 4 badass female protagonists who are each enjoyable to watch. I also like how the villains are actually threatening, so the heroes have to put effort into earning victories unlike many works of fiction. The animation always excites me, because you never know what you're going to get. And, don't even get me started on the amazing soundtrack.

@cinnamonrollfuckhead :

it tickles all the right things about me. i got in trouble for reading in classes when i finished my work early at school, it was nearly always history or mythology. i was an ancient Egypt kid. i read outside my age group. if Snapple wanted to employ me to write factoids for their caps i would take it. i was hooked on RWBY immediately despite being older than any of the main characters. i found an unlikely character to relate to in Jaune. i loved how it balanced serious and goofy themes.

@satoshi-mochida :

Some stuff I like about the show is that it's pretty fun and entertaining to watch, has constantly improving writing and animation(the CRWBY recognizing ACTUAL criticism, and working on those), with smarter and deeper than some may think moments, well-done characters, great music and songs, and probably more. I even cosplayed as Jaune(and the 'HuntsMan' with a Wonder-Zwei plush)with my then-girlfriend before COVID hit and other stuff happened, and enjoyed doing that.

@haunted-meatsack :

I'm waaaaay behind but I started watching for the fight choreography, music, and battle skirts. Plus I'm a sucker for small girls who kick ass with GIANT weapons. Then the story and characters kept me coming. I need to catch up.

www.tumblr.com/haunted-meatsack/715895495101497344/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@bumblebyfan :

I like RWBY due to a lot of reasons, for starters, the relationships between the main characters, and how they constantly help each other, I also really like the whole fantasy setting and how funny it is at times, I also really liked how they handled Ruby’s arc during season 9, as someone who has had... intrusive thoughts

www.tumblr.com/bumblebyfan/715730749688561664/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@xlbingo10 :

one thing that i particularly like about rwby is that the characters aren't dumbasses. i feel like so often in shows i watch there's an episode conflict where the characters make an obviously terrible plan that will clearly backfire horribly just for the sake of the episode plot and it's always painful to watch, so it's really nice to watch a show where that doesn't happen.

www.tumblr.com/xlbingo10/715707865708527616/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable.

@sir-somewhat :

I love the cast.

I honestly can't say there is a character I am not fond of in some way and that includes the villians.

I love the idea of semblances and the faunus.

Also I want more faunus lore. Given the existence of the Ever After I have to wonder if the Faunus came from another world created by the Brothers.

www.tumblr.com/sir-somewhat/715323283721076736/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@ghost-of-sparda :

Rwby was a show I found in college that I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy, but as I watched it- I found myself completely enthralled in the world created by Monty Oum and his friends. It’s story has me on the edge of my seat every episode, and it’s anime vibes make it a treat to watch. It’s not perfect, I will admit that- and there have been times where I didn’t agree with a direction of story telling at first. However there hasn’t been a show that gets me as excited as RWBY does since I was a kid.

If you grew up watching anime, or grew up watching anime- I’d give RWBY a go. If you are still not over the Owl House/ She-Ra/ ATLA/ LOK/ Naruto/ or any other amazing series with crazy fights and an amazing story: I recommend Rwby as your next obsession.

And if you want to give anime a try, but are still dipping your toes into the medium- Rwby is a good half way point for newcomers.

www.tumblr.com/ghost-of-sparda/715237926532956160/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@aspiringwarriorlibrarian :

I really like the characters and their arcs, tragic villains, the triumph of hope and healing, and the fantasy elements.

www.tumblr.com/aspiringwarriorlibrarian/715056039519830016/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@miki-13 : I love how they use fairy tales and myths as inspiration but execute them in really interesting ways, as well as how human and grounded everyone feels while inside such a fantastic setting.

www.tumblr.com/miki-13/715136165044469760/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@thatringboy :

For the same reasons above, I’m also in love with the complex motivations behind the antagonists. Mercury hated the world and needed an enabler, Emerald needed security, Cinder snapped after a lifetime of abuse (just like Mercury), Hazel wanted revenge, Lionhart wanted to save himself, Raven wanted to save herself, Tyrian is just insane (based), Watts wanted petty revenge, Neo wanted revenge but doesn’t know what to do afterwards, CC wants to fulfill their cruel purpose, and Salem just wants to finally die. Torchwick was a comical villain who posed a dangerous threat, the Malachite sisters were doing their jobs, Ironwood was a victim of his own paranoia, Cardin was just racist, Cordovin worships her superiors, the Fennec brothers too, Adam wanted total control over everything and everyone in his life and would stop at nothing to get it, Ilia believed in a cause, Tock was following orders, it’s all so varied and exciting!!

www.tumblr.com/thatringboy/715138435689676800/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@pyrokinetic-murder-hobo :

I honestly fell in love with this project immediately back when the red trailer was first introduced to me.

Though the animation for RWBY was simple and understandably a lot of people regard it as not the best. Even V1 and the original 4 trailers had a living soul to me and there was a certain charm to the characters and the animation.

What kept me coming back is I find myself being unable to predict where the show will go and it honestly keeps me drawn in that my thoughts and predictions are completely circumvented. The show doesn’t follow the trajectory of really any other media and Monty navigated it masterfully.

There’s so many relatable characters and the situations they are put in are approached not perfectly but in a human way as to be a human (even if you have copious amounts of power) means you’ll definitely trip up.

But simply put I’ve loved this project since the beginning with the 4 trailers and could write a dissertation on why I love this show and include a long list of different things I love ranging from OST to characters to design animation. But maybe a talk for another day

And it made me some awesome friends on tumblr of course too which is a major plus (you better know who you are lol)

www.tumblr.com/pyrokinetic-murder-hobo/715072709057478656/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

iamafanofcartoons:

For me, RWBY is a change of pace.

It allows for women to be shown as independent characters, just as smart and strong as male ones.

It doesn’t use fanservice , you don’t have internal monologuing during fight scenes, you don’t have people screaming random attack names, and the music and designs are great.

I appreciate the humor, its not toilet humor or degrading humor like a lot of anime.

It also tackles difficult themes like abuse, leadership, morality, and debate.

It also takes the white male savior trope so common in the fanfics that people use to promote their OCs, and takes a giant dump on that garbage. If anything, when people say “the fanfics are better than the show” you’ll see them promoting a white male savior trope above all else.

Finally? Its a pro-LGBT show on many aspects, which amusingly infuriates a lot of straight shippers who defend their straight white male character who they put on a pedestal.

www.tumblr.com/iamafanofcartoons/715040015347040256/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@grimmgrinningghouls :

for me RWBY is a comfort

It has been for 10 years

I literally would not be who I am today without this show

I'd probably still be a closeted lesbian living in a conservative household with an abusive father

and a mother who hated me

hell I may not even be here

But instead I'm living across the world from them and I'm okay

As okay as I can be

Its helped me through so much and its introduced me to people I have become life long friends with

These funky little lesbians are part of my life and they will be till the day I die

www.tumblr.com/grimmgrinningghouls/715064091163721728/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@snowqueenofmyheart :

Agreed to the above, as well as being able to enjoy a story that centers women in a way that doesn’t reduce them to simplistic tropes or fanservice. I’ve been looking for more female-centered material over the last several years, and stumbling upon RWBY turned out to be a real joy in that regard. Across the board, you have so many compelling female characters, heroes and villains alike. Not to mention two main characters being explicitly in a queer romance is a delight and a relief.

www.tumblr.com/snowqueenofmyheart/715058819349233664/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@youraveragecatastrophe :

well first i love fantasy so we're off to a good start between the monsters heroes and magic

the characters are a very strong point of this show. they're well fleshed out

(even many secondary characters including villains and despite the big cast!)

and they get the opportunity to develop and evolve

i love the themes! love and hope and caring about each other and all that

the fights are really fun to watch especially with the unique weapons and everyone's different fighting style

the story is really compelling and well written too!

also gayness. can't forget the queerness

really this show has everything

www.tumblr.com/youraveragecatastrophe/715058708953071616/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@foulfirerebel :

The music was what first made me get interested in RWBY. The hard hitting rock that also carried quite a bit of meaning into it if you truly took a moment to listen to the lyrics.

So, from there I watched V1 at a friend's house and felt it was good. It did a good job with the action scenes, and setting things up for the characters.

Volume 2, however, is where I truly fell in love with the show. The appearance of Cinder, of Ironwood, the food fight, the investigation into Torchwick and the White Fang, the dance and hacking sequence! Everything pointed to something more going on. Something hidden waiting to spring forth!

V1 was a great entry point, V2 convinced me to stay and hooked me, and when I finally marathoned V3 I was EAGER to watch V4 and onward. Any and all quibbles I may have had melted away when the Fall of Beacon happened.

So, long story short, I love the story. I love how things are built up and come back further down the line (Jaune's issues, Ruby's issues, etc.). I love how the characters do go through a lot and need help getting back up. I love how sincere and earnest everything is without a hint of irony.

I love the slow burn relationships, and that the show doesn't end with those relationships just being established. I love that, despite everything, this one little indie show has continued going past everything that's happened in a decade since it started. I love that the story is engaging, the characters are deep, the writing is great, and that I'm even feeling bad for the villains which I don't normally do.

RWBY may not be the most perfect thing ever, but frankly I love that the writers do see and incorporate feedback into their work. I love that, unlike how Halo or Star Wars do things, you don't necessarily need to have read all the side content to understand things too.

Most of all is I love how this show has improved on every level: animation, writing, voice acting, etc. It's just so refreshing. It's the Little Engine that Could continuing onward and getting better as it goes.

And hey, being a Bumbleby shipper since V3 and being vindicated in V9? Cherry on the sundae. It's been a wild ride, and I'd love it to continue.

www.tumblr.com/foulfirerebel/714989613562904576/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@maor-koren :

RWBY is one of my favorite shows, it take a unique concept and make it very enjoyable to watch.

The main and side characters are all unique in their own way and very enjoyable.

The story is really good.

The animation, fight scenes and the design of the characters and places are all very pleasing to the eye.

And the music is phenomenal.

Don’t let other people make your opinion! look at the show and see for yourself if you like it or not!

www.tumblr.com/maor-koren/714954350873788416/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@but-a-humble-goon :

Rwby is, in a word, earnest. Its characters are unashamedly sincere, affectionate and vulnerable and the show understands not only that these things are not a weakness but that there can be no greater measure of strength. It’s a story overflowing with heart that categorically rejects stoicism and nihilism and never once apologises for itself. Nothing has ever hit me harder and I do mean that.

www.tumblr.com/but-a-humble-goon/714953671346176000/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@mikey-polo420 :

I watched RWBY Because i was drawn in by the trailers when Monty was alive and i liked the idea of cute girls fighting monsters with giant weapons, then i wanted to see their journey through beacon and now i've become invested with the Messages of hope the show presents, i love each of my precious children and want to see them achieve their happiness , i want to support RWBY to it's conclusion because that's what Monty wanted, it's what his friends wanted and they deserve to complete his Brain child.

www.tumblr.com/mikey-polo420/714951464721743872/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@mooninoir :

i started watching when vol. 1 was still going, with a fansub (!) working hell and back to translate each episode as they came out. i remember waiting every week to see a new episode, and when the last episodes came, i was entirely invested in this sci-fi fantasy series with fairytale elements and wanted to know what would happen next.

and, for me, it's an endearing series that i enjoy watching, even with its flaws. it's fun, but it also has a heart. i like how it didn't shy away from telling a broader story. vol. 3's gut-wrenching finale was for me what made me realize i was not there just for the amazing fights and cool soundtrack, but for the characters and how they live in this crazy world. it was amazing to watch its worldbuilding evolve to such great lengths and see the characters i like to grow and learn and evolve along with it. they are done well and don't feel misplaced in the narrative. it just flows nicely and i guess the latest volume proved that to me (the themes, the motifs, the characters' choices, and the visuals) everything comes together, y'know?

and i just... like it. i like rwby. i really do.

www.tumblr.com/mooninoir/714949733681102848/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

Tumblingxelian:

Why do you watch this show?

I watch RWBY for the cool characters, interesting setting and engaging overarching story and arcs, plus some gorgeous animation, sets and awesome music.

What makes it appeal to you?

Women, including queer women, are center stage and given tons of dynamic personality, agency and exploration in ways I rarely see done in other series.

www.tumblr.com/tumblingxelian/714943623381303296/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@feifiefofum :

look, the ad on the tin was cute girls doing violent things and looking great while doing it. that was the impetus for me to follow the show, i was there when it started with the famous red trailer to yellow trailer.

the writing then wasn't bad, a bit condensed because, y'know, shoestring budget so everything was very tight time wise. but y'know, you didn't watch the four trailers and get sold on the story- which was good by the by, but it wasn't exceptional. it was by the numbers, hitting what they need to hit, but good. you didn't think it was spectacular.

but then volume 3 hits you out of nowhere, and you realize, oh, the writing is phenomenal actually.

rwby has deceptively good writing that on the surface is good par for the course that lulls you into complacency, and then manages to sideswipe you with incredible twists that you don't see, but on looking back, the seeds for the twist were planted from book 1 on. the world is slowly and meticulously rolled out to the viewer, the characters shine, and the action, while still spectacular, become secondary to the characters and the world.

i started watching rwby, expecting cute girls doing violent things. and they deliver on that, and if you come watch rwby just for that, it delivers that. i didn't come in for hearty world building, intrigue, and lore so deep you can get lost in it. the writers write on a razor's edge, giving enough lore for a backdrop and setting the stage, but if you decide to dig at any trail, you can get lost in it. the concept of dust, the name of the world itself- frankly i think it's a masterclass in giving enough to keep the story going but having enough in the back that every new twist that they lay out can be found to have grown from a seed that was planted in an earlier volume.

i dunno who traded their soul away to keep track of all that world building and lore, but that excel sheet must be something to behold. rwby throws u-turns that you don't expect at you, lulls you with a sense of 'okay, i see your tricks now' and somehow manages to turn you around again, and have it make sense.

frankly, it's a little frustrating, i've been bamboozled and led by the nose.

and i love it for that. i'm delighted by the ride i'm on, and i hope the show keeps going.

www.tumblr.com/feifiefofum/714920887601790976/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@aspennntree :

I watch rwby for several reasons- mostly for the characters, i find some of them really relatable

also i just genuinely enjoy the story and the visuals and find the show very comforting

i also like the people i’ve met in this community that are kind and i like having people to share my interests with

i’ve made many new friends being in this community and it’s something i’m very passionate about, i just really enjoy it genuinely

www.tumblr.com/aspennntree/714906439613906944/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@tokufan400 :

Even with everything, I can't bring myself to stop watching RWBY. I got back into it after talking with some friends in highschool, and I've been doing my best to keep up with it since. I have love for the characters (Weiss is the best), and I do feel a sence of amazement that a western project like this ha s grown so much. Not to mention the amount of art, comics, manga, and fanfics that have spawned from the show.

Do I have problems with RWBY? Yes. I will probably never stop ranting about something the show does to tick me off. But I do the same for Star Vs and Kamen Rider Zero One, both shows I still hold a love for. Hell, I might do the same for Amphibia and Owl House down the line if I do a re watch.

So yeah, still love RWBY and I want to be around to see how this story ends.

www.tumblr.com/tokufan400/714910475313446912/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@howlingday :

So, I was in high school and I was watching Red VS Blue. Then I started watching Rage Quit. Then Achievement Hunter. Play Pals.

Then my sister and my high school crush were like, hey, try out RWBY. I mocked them by saying "It should be Ar-Dubyoo-Bee-Why". Then I got into it and, well, I liked it the more I got into it until I was caught up to Volume 2. Then Death Battle had the Yang VS Tifa fight (PLEASE, NO REMATCH), and I was rooting for Yang. Then I saw Volume 3, and I was shocked, dismayed, and devastated at the sudden heel turn. I've been hooked ever since.

So, to answer your questions.

I watch RWBY because it's fun, and I want to know where the story goes. I loved the fun had at Beacon, and I want to know what happens next.

The appeal comes from the desire to see these group of friends fight to save the world from the Grimm. I want to see them thrive against a world where everything is stacked against them! And I want to see them flying kick someone in the face to the sound of the most amazing butt-rock since Crush 40 Sonic (No offense MGR)!

So, yeah, I love watching RWBY because it's a story to be told. And I'm going to openly sob when the story finally comes to an end.

www.tumblr.com/howlingday/714865441082851328/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@gorillageek27 :

i watch because, okay i was kinda turned off by it at first, just "what is this anime shit?", but i watched it and it's the most out there animated thing i can think like. Rwby is a show that somehow got me appreicating animated projects and you can tell the writers and animators have fun with it.

www.tumblr.com/gorillageek27/714864574777671680/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@lithominium :

Its endearing, the lack of amazing animation in vol 1-3 is made up for in how much love was put into it. The characters are fun and loveable and the writing is goofy but unlike some other media ive watched its very good at knowing when to keep the tone consistent. Its very gay and i love gay and its got one of the greatest slow burns ive ever seen with great payoffs which always happen when they should. I like the setting and the lore and the weapons and the semblances. Its such a good show

www.tumblr.com/lithominium/714869719134535680/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@everafterfrisk :

I love RWBY for a ton of reasons but to keep it short:

• The Facial Expressions of the characters match really well with the tones of each scene

• Amazing character designs that can just tell you so much about them before you get to know them

•The animation: RWBY imo is best 3D animated series, most of the time 3D animes tend to be stiff and lifeless

But RWBY gives its fights alot of finesse and creativity to go along with

Like here's a few examples:

(V9)

Weiss and Blake using gambol shroud's blade to propel Yang while simultaneously having Yang use Arma Gigas's Sword

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9RQnk7Oueo

(V3)

Yang closing Flynt's Trumpet making his quartet backfire on him

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLu3_LKG_A8

(V4 Short)

Ruby using the recoil of her weapon to bounce out of the way from a Grimm and trip him up using her Scythe catching him into a Hurricane formed by her semblance (13:54)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivns4_clQ_c

There's even a full in depth analysis on the fight choreography from the earlier volumes to check out

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMQfm0RsY6o

• Themes of Unity,Self identity,Acceptance,Loving oneself, Finding hope in the most dreadful scenarios and the list goes on

• The Protagonist Ruby Rose is a breath of fresh air similar to say Deku from BNHA where both know the world isn't exactly kind but still try to help the best they can; even if it results in them destroying themselves to get there as their series's goes on

•The Villains are all pretty realistic in their motivations being not afraid to fall victim to arrogance while simultaneously being victims of either the world's actions or their own

°The show doesn't swindle you into thinking that just cuz they have sympathetic backgrounds that they're immediately good

They have to work for it and atone for misdeeds such as Ilia,Emerald and Hazel or doesn't believe their actions are unwarranted like Salem and Cinder or has a lack of empathy for the world around them like Mercury or Tyrian or Wants to do the right thing but lets the ends justify their means(Ironwood) or Living only on the fear of your actions(Lionheart) or The world has dealt so much injustice to you that you felt giving it by ten thousand fold would remedy it ( Ilia and Adam)

▪︎ The Music is just PEAK for me

The Sound design,everything just speaks volumes of the scene

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS4HvQ5BP-1gKp4Ou4PRkqdEDvnNqdTGS

www.tumblr.com/everafterfrisk/714883876389044224/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@blakistan :

I think RWBY was first suggested to be me on the grounds of “lots of really cool fights” which, while not ultimately the point of the show is still a big plus! Monty was an absolute wizard when it came to fight choreography and CRWBY has done a fantastic job keeping up that legacy. Ofc that was only the thing that got me to look at the show in the first place - what made me stay was the incredibly well done character-driven story. Following along and exploring the arcs of all the different characters in the show helped me through tough times and shaped a lot of who I am as a person today - Blake and Weiss’ stories in particular did so much in helping me find hope that I could grow as a person because that what the show is: hope. So uh yeah, if you like deep, interwoven character narratives that don’t shy away from growth, change, or the ugliness that sometimes crops up along the way with those things, definitely give RWBY a watch

www.tumblr.com/blakistan/714867196992585728/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@proximio-5 :

Tbh, I don't know, there's something about it that I can't explain, I started watching it in 2018, but somehow it's one of my top 3 Favorite animated shows, it can be because of the story or maybe the background, like the people behind it and everything they've done and how far they've come

For example, Monty; first he made the Haloid animation, then he became director of animation in Red vs Blue, and then he created this masterpiece that will be a big part of me

The animation itself is one of the best things about the show, I mean looking back at the style of background in V1 and more recent volumes, saying it has improved would be an understatement, I mean just look at it, you can see how much effort the've done for it

Another reason is the development or the characters, they've changed and matured in many ways. (Speaking of, I really hope Ruby comes back different but keeping at least some of her previous self)

So yeah, this show is far of being perfect, but then again...

What isn't?

www.tumblr.com/proximio-5/714866831427567616/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@kereeachan :

I’m generally a fan of animation, and it’s been neat seeing how it’s improved since volume 3 (when I got into it). The story intrigues me, and I love the wide cast of characters and their development. The alternate universe is a neat one, Grimm are fascinating as a take on Evil Creatures to me, and the designs have always been cool, bar a few that never flew with me (Blake’s 1-3 outfit just kind of always looked a lil too sexy for my tastes on a “huntress” and I initially thought Nora’s 4-6 look was a downgrade before it grew on me)

I really enjoyed Ironwood’s slide from well-intentioned, if incorrect, hero to villain. Honestly his foreshadowing in volumes 2, 3, and 4 was some of the best I’ve ever seen. Maswartz above has commented on how they fool you by having him take facistic actions against people we hate more to hide how far he’s falling fast until we actually GET to Atlas and Mantle and realize it’s gone full Police State (if it wasn’t before). Genius.

I also adored Penny, she was my baby, she was amazing as a character and I’m so happy we got her back for a few more volumes before losing her for good (as much as anyone is ever truly gone, of course, she still looms large over vol 9). As one of the “weird girls” of the world who took a long time to come into my comfort with being a girl due to teasing and bullying (autism, baby. they always know) Penny just always SPOKE to me. I’m glad she not only proved her Real Girl bonafides as a Maiden but even got to live outside a metal body for a few episodes before her death, finally feeling the warmth of a hug.

www.tumblr.com/kereeachan/714863784387297280/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@sevenofreds :

It's a genuinely fun and enjoyable show that can mix multiple genres together without it being jarring. There's action and comedy, there's horror, there's mystery and drama, and it all makes sense for what's happening. It has a layered and complex plot where things almost always turn out to be more nuanced than they first seem, and almost every twist/big event is subtly foreshadowed in some way. The shorter length of episodes compared to other shows also makes it really fun to binge watch.

www.tumblr.com/sevenofreds/714860874339352576/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@crowwrites2140 :

Of course it has its flaws like every other piece of media, but I genuinely find RWBY both entertaining and just a good show in general. I love the "AHA!" moments when you something is revealed that has been hinted at for volumes. I love the music and could listen to it for hours. I love the characters; their designs, their motivations, their relationships with each other and their character arcs that span the show. In regards to the protagonists, I also enjoy how they all seem so human. The writers allow them to make mistakes and fail. They aren't always the perfect heroes. And in regards to the villains, they are believable too. Nearly every one of them has some kind of motivation that drives them to want revenge in destruction. I love the plot, despite its flaws. It's complex and ties in with countless allusions. And lastly, I love the fanbase. Not the toxic side, honestly it makes me sad that a show like RWBY needs positivity posts because its hate fanbase is just so large. But there are so many in the community who are incredibly creative and create hilarious memes, beautiful art, and amazing stories, and I'm grateful to be a part of that.

www.tumblr.com/crowwrites2140/714860089114312704/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@the-god-of-nihon :

RWBY is a special show to me. I’ve been with the series since it premiered at the end of RvB Season 10, and ten years is not an inconsiderable amount of time to be a fan of something. And unlike the “critics” or RWDE, I don’t stick around to hate-watch because of the sunken cost fallacy, or “to learn what not to do.” Or just for a reason to complain, more accurately. I simply enjoy the series. I have since it began, and I still do, and I’ll continue to do so.

While I don’t like everything about the show, or agree with all the creative choices; I don’t automatically assume that something I don’t like is wrong or bad. I happily take RWBY for what it is, and not what I think it should be. I, by no means am blind to the flaws and missteps, but none of them hinder my enjoyment to the degree that I feel like the show overall is a negative experience, even at its lowest points.

I watch the show because I like it. It has been a consistent source of enjoyment for me, and even now. I’ve enjoyed growing alongside it from an indie web-series into what it is today and seeing how it’s changed and improved with every volume.

I enjoy and am invested in many of the characters. I like the world and the bits of world-build and lore we get throughout the main show and supplementary material. And of course I can’t not touch on the fights and character designs. Its vibrant and narrative-relevant use of color, and how that’s effected the shows aesthetic development. And Monty Oum’s classic high-speed, frenetic and intricate choreo, that’s yet to be replicated. And how while different the post-Monty fights are still interesting and engaging for the most part.

I love the depictions of friendship and platonic/familial connection in the show, most prominently for me personally, Ruby & Jaune’s bond. As it’s so rare for a male-female friendship to be purely platonic and still be so genuinely well-written and integral to both characters. Although, I think RWBY is largely hit or miss with the way it handles romance, I think its friendships & familial bonds are where it excels.

Ruby, Yang, and Jaune are my top three favorites characters in RWBY, and how their characters and arcs have been so endearing and intriguing to watch. Especially as since V7, and what is being done with them current.

www.tumblr.com/the-god-of-nihon/714867324298182656/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

@lostdemifiend :

The biggest thing for why I love RWBY so much it is "oh that makes sense!" when something unexpected happens BECAUSE everything was set up previously that would result in this eventually, and none of it feels forced.

At the same time, its gleeful deconstruction of common shonen anime tropes adds to that sense of surprise. Subconsciously, one goes in expecting certain things to happen, but it defies that expectation in a way that feels like a natural consequence.

There's so much more, but I can't even start to unpack just exactly why I love this series so much.

www.tumblr.com/lostdemifiend/714857897499164672/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

Thank you all of you for showing everyone what makes RWBY fantastic to all!

If you want some youtube channels that discuss RWBY in analytical or philosophic detail? Or if you want comic dubs?

Xel Writer on Youtube aka @tumblingxelian for analysis videos

@marylizabetha on Youtube for philosophy videos

and @markzschiegnerii or Mark Zschiegner on youtube for comic dubs!

I love you, RWBY Fandom, you've made my life rich with joy.

#rwby #rwby is a good show #let people enjoy things #please give rwby a chance #give rwby a chance #mark zschiegner #markzschiegnerii #xel writer #tumblingxelian #marylizabetha #iamafanofcartoons

[ot3]

finishing up fionna and cake... overall it was a fun ride but i really don't think it worked structurally. 6/10 show. i didnt think this was gonna be a long post but apparently i've got some thoughts. sticking below the cut

this last episode is kind of underwhelming... theres a couple of parts in this ep where they just sit and explain to the camera how simon realized betty was constantly sacrificing her own desires for simon and how simon wanted to put on the crown because he thought he didn't deserve to live. and it's not like those are bad realization for the show to come to but the show has very clearly established that it's intended for a more adult audience than the original adventure time, and so this kind of writing just feels really condescending when not directed at literal children. like yeah we could have figured this out from the writing, but. you didn't have to just tell us

i also didn't vibe with scarab as a villain, he felt super arbitrary to me. like they needed Something to be forcing them to move between dimensions, but i feel like scarab was an extremely meh choice for that. he wasn't particularly funny or interesting enough as a character to get to be one of the only people who showed up in every episode. i honestly think it would have been better if the existential threat these characters were facing was more of a force than a character, because it was already running so tight on time anyway it didn't really have the space to develop a good villain.

gary and marshall's screentime was another thing that i felt like is a huge waste of space. them doing their whole meet cute bakery au romance is something that's funny on paper but it's not compelling on its own and the only slight interest it has comes from our pre-existing investment in marceline and bubblegum's much more interesting dynamic. it didn't add anything to the overall arc of the show and took up time that could have been used to deliver more solidly on the core premise.

fionna and cake themselves were really cute but i don't feel like fionna's arc was as strong as it could have been. like ohhh yay shes come to love her normal world with all its imperfections.... obviously thats where it was going the whole time and once again. its not like i mind that ending. i just feel like they didn't do anything interesting with it. her character doesn't get to learn and progress as much as she's just marching down a straight path that we all already knows where it leads. i wish they would have just called the show 'Simon' so i wouldn't have to feel so disappointed in this.

adventure time has always been on the cutting edge of bizarre stuff in animation so the biggest let down overall with this show is how much when you strip away the Adventure Time coating of surrealist visuals on top of it it just feels like any other middling adventure cartoon. it didn't lean enough into the episodic structure to benefit from that the way the original show did, and it was too beholden on the episodic structure to linger on any of the parts that were actually compelling.

overall, the show feels like pandering to the adventure time fanbase, but in kind of a lazy way. Compare this to the distant land specials which I think were pandering in an excellent way. im not anti pandering by any means. The whirlwind tour through universes and characters that lifetime adventure time fans will recognize tries to come off as a love letter to the series, but instead just comes off as the adventure time version of that 'rejected ready player one theme song' video. remember farmworld? remember prismo? remember the vampire king? remember shermy and beth? remember Up a Tree? like. yeah. i do remember. thanks. do you have anything to say about any of this stuff or - oh. no. just showing me. got it.

its not someting i think i'll ever rewatch but at just ten eps definitely worth one watch through. theres some really good fun to be had in it and the art is gorgeous all the way through, it just fails to come together into a successful complete work.

#fionna and cake spoilers #fionna and cake

[bleachbleachbleach]

Helloooo love your meta posts esp wrt to language so much!! It really has elevated my appreciation for the series by A LOT lol so thank you!

I have a question regarding ch 98 that's been bugging me incessantly: in the official translatjon renji says "all i do is bark at the moon", however in fan translations (and anime) renji is seen to be referring to a star. I am unable to find the raws anywhere to ascertain the finality of this conundrum so I was wondering if you could clarify what exactly is the 'object' renji is referring to here and lend us your thoughts?

Thank you for reading! I started this reread because I knew that the potential to really revel in this kind of stuff was already there, but I am really enjoying jumping into it full-on and wondering about and learning about a lot of extremely random things as I go. I'm really enjoying it!

[Bleach 098]

The Short Version

In the Japanese, Renji says, 星に向かって吠えるばっか ― which could be translated as "I’m just barking at the stars." 

The word he uses is 星 (hoshi), star, not moon. My guess is that the Viz chose "moon" because it’s more idiomatic in English to howl at the moon, and the phrase conveys that sense of lone wolf yearning/misdirection--particularly given that he’s talking about Rukia, and Rukia already has some moon imagery associated with her.

The catch is, the concept of "howling at the moon" also exists in Japanese; for example, there’s a famous modern poet named Hagiwara Sakutarou who wrote a collection titled 月に吠える、or, well, "Howling at the Moon." (You’ll notice the same verb, but 月 (tsuki/moon) instead of 星 (hoshi/star). But that's not what Renji says. I’d argue that it’s worth considering the idea that Renji was making a choice in not using that idiom! 

The Very Long Version

Stars and Moons and Monkeys and Tigers and Snakes and Dogs and-- oh my!

Tomes have been written about celestial symbolism, in Bleach and otherwise. I’m not a big celestial symbolism person, because they’re such BIG symbols I feel like sometimes they can feel very locked in, if that makes sense? Like X = moon and moon = Y and therefore X = Y. And while I love an extended metaphor, my preference is for very unstable, borderline sloppy referents. Which isn’t to say that celestial symbolism can’t be unstable and sloppy, too, and that’s what I really like about this whole Renji section. Renji is the KING of "imagistically, there is a lot going on here, my man."

As far as folklore is concerned, reaching for the moon might call to mind the story of the monkey reaching for the moon’s reflection:

The branch the monkey’s hanging from breaks and he falls into the water. His folly lies in failing to distinguish between what is real and what is illusion.

One one hand, this is fitting for Renji, our resident howler monkey. I don’t know how much baboon we’ve actually seen at this point, but we’ll see Zabimaru’s nue form very shortly. But of course Zabimaru isn’t just a monkey—he also has the head of a snake. And we have this dog imagery, coming from both Renji’s affiliation with Inuzuri and other body parts in some versions of the nue. And later we’ll have TIGER in the mix, too!!

There’s SO much going on. If Renji were a Project Runway creation, Tim Gunn would probably invite his creator edit—maybe choose one motif, one metaphor, one guy who will scan well on the runway.

But Renji exists in excess, he IS all those things, both in terms of his chimerical zanpakutou spirit and in terms of everything we’ve seen of him thus far: tearing through Ishida and Ichigo; herding butterflies with Rikichi; stunting with Rukia in jail; delivering Rukia to prison; getting stunted on by Aizen in a supply closet; being friends with Hinamori; tearing through Ichigo a second time; and now, finally, giving it all up and begging Ichigo: Just save her.

Bone Metaphors

The reader hasn’t seen it yet, but Renji knows what form Zabimaru’s bankai takes. In addition to all those animals and their potential allegories, we also have bone. In Renji's earlier line, there’s an idiom that I wish were preserved:

In the Viz, he says, "I’ll always be a stray dog." In the Japanese, his line is 「骨の髄まで野良犬根性が染み付いてやがるんだ.」Which could be translated as "I am, indelibly, a stray dog to the marrow of my bones /contemptuously." Or, more succinctly:

"I’m a stray dog to the bone."

I love this line because it’s reaching toward Renji’s challenge to Byakuya, insinuating still more layers to Renji’s multitudes.

Different Flavors of Disgust

Still thinking about Renji’s second act in this arc, I am also interested in his subsequent line. He says 厭になるぜ (iya ni naruze), or, in the Viz, "It makes me sick." But I was curious about the kanji 厭 (iya), because it’s more commonly written 嫌 (iya), which can be used as a negative interjection, or, pronounced differently, as the same word you’d use if you hated snails, or homework, or something―嫌い (kirai). Using the kanji 厭 is a less common spelling, though the meaning is similar. So I was like, well, what is the difference? According to this article, the kanji Renji uses is a lot more common in Chinese. If 嫌 is an expression of digust or hatred, 厭 suggests that you’ve specifically gotten tired of something (and are now disgusted with it). It’s the kanji you’d use to create the word for a pessimistic worldview, 厭世観 (enseikan). That is all to say, Renji has become sick and tired of it, and he’s about to change tack.

Failing Poetry 101

Coming back around to the original line, I really like Renji’s "I’m just barking at the stars" specifically because it doesn’t really reference any existing idiom, as might howling at the moon. "Barking at the moon" is an interesting middle ground, in that "barking" definitely feels more dog-like and howling more wolf-like; barking is less majestic, which fits with Renji’s description being derogatory of himself. Renji is not a poet in his use of loaded idioms but in his negation of them. And if Rukia can be described by moon imagery, she too contains multitudes and I think it's well within her power to be the stars, too.

Kira, as Renji’s most poetic friend, probably rolls partway into his grave whenever Renji says stuff like this, because it breaks poetic form. But I think he’s probably also kind of envious that Renji thinks this stuff up, because it’s fresh, new, off-kilter imagery, it is its own kind of poetry, and let's be real, the moon imagery market is fairly saturated. *frames moon with giant rebar hole in body*

So I’d say, "howling at the moon" conjures a certain kind of poetry, steeped in all the macro-folkloric meanings of the moon and dogs/wolves. "Barking at the moon" is kind of half-half. "Barking at the stars" is not a pre-existing idiom (or poem, or expected language), and conjures a completely different referent(s), the immediate of which is, of course, the volume’s own poem. Renji is out here Renji-ing it.

[Bleach Vol. 11 poem]

#this post has blorbo disease #i feel like every part of this should be expanded but also the tl;dr is already so real #i just like him ok #abarai renji #bleach manga #bleach reread 2021 #bleach カラー #bleach language #asks #no brain just bleach

[returntoaranara]

I made another one later this day 😅

I didn't talk about my greetings and feelings much in my post earlier today so this may be an opportunity to speak up here :)

Actually I started playing twst after the first beans day event 🫥 I knew the game since its pre-registration (but I didn't do this as I didn't know what the game was actually about at that time). And this was the chance for me to go deeper into Disney's movies with the opportunity to meet Toboso Yana, who is my favourite manga artist right now >< I would not become a fan of Black Butler (and this is the only manga that I am currently reading + chasing up to the latest chapter) if I didn't play twst......Yana's storyboards & characters are really fantastic which every character (including supporting characters) appearing are attractive 😭

I am really glad to see Yana's motivation and passion on developing new ideas on main story, event motifs, and also spending lots of time on those beautiful & elegant costumes that you can't imagine how come clothings for male characters can be arranged into this way (where most of the games cannot)

Because of the twisted, unpredictable plot and the perfect world settings, the main story part with new elements added upon release of new books, twst becomes my favourite fantasy online game I have ever played apart from genshin and hsr (especially compared to those featuring male characters just like twst, but none of them locates on the satisfaction line......I had played some of them and found that those were disastrous 😨). Even though I tried to avoid anime stuffs right now (due to certain reasons that I haven't mentioned), twst is one of the very few anime games developed in Japan that I am still sticking into

I think that twst is not just a game for female anime fans or Yana's fans, it is also recommended to those who loves Disney or fantasy stories even though they are not female or anime fans. The main reason is that the storyboard and the style of writing matches majority of fantasy lovers unlike most games featuring male characters usually describe a lot on relationships between characters or some irrelevant stuffs with pointless plots (which cannot be accepted by male audiences and even some of us)

I am really grateful to celebrate twst's 4th anniversary and looking forward for 5th anniversary next year! 😊

#twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #idia shroud #twst idia #twst 4th anniversary #twisted wonderland 4th anniversary #Thank you twst

[flyiingsly]

Secret Santa

Pairing : Hardcase x medic!reader

Warnings : Mention of injuries, death and war, two idiots in love with each other, a bit of angst and mutual pining, fluff

Wordcount : 5,7k

Summary : The 501st boys are organizing a little event for Life Day, but the night took an unexpected turn when you receive a very special gift from your favorite trooper.

A/N : Heeere we are, my submission for the @cloneficgiftexchange ! I was assigned to @melliejellybellybean  and oh boy that one was so much fun to write ! (Telling a story about a Secret Santa event for a Secret Sant event, what a very cliché thing to do, I know, but I just couldn't resist it)

I'm soooo happy to be a part of this exchange ! Right after I've received your name, I immediately checked your blog to learn more about you, and then I discovered that you seem to be a very enthusiast Taylor Swift fan, and I was like OMG THAT’S SO COOL because I really love her music as well, and not gonna lie, it was that perfect excuse to listen to her songs like a maniac while writing this, it gave me a lot of inspiration and good vibes, that was amazing !

I really hope that you're gonna like it too 💜

Since you started to work as a medic for the 501st legion under the commands of General Skywalker, your days suddenly became more animated. But you couldn’t say that you weren’t enjoying it. In fact, it was quite the contrary : you loved working with them.

When you arrived at the GAR med bay, you were placed under the supervision of one of their best medics, Kix, who quickly became your best friend. Then, you were introduced to the rest of the company, and as you were getting to know them better, they soon adopted you as one of their own.

You were getting along with them very well, and they quickly became like your family more than just coworkers or patients. You were spending most of your time with them, whether on missions or on shore leaves.

Since you were following them on every battlefield they were sent to, going through the horrors of war together and saving their lives has created a very strong bond between you and them.

But fortunately, there wasn’t only bad stuff to share, and despite the fact that you were nervous and not very enthusiastic the first time they invited you to join them at the 79’, you were now used to it and really were enjoying those special and joyful moments spent together.

In addition of Kix, there was another person in the group you became particularly close to : Hardcase. He was one of your most recurrent patients, for he was admitted in the med bay every once in a while, for the most unexpected and silly reasons sometimes.

You used to worry for him the first couple of times you found him waiting in your examination room, covered in blood and bruises, but as the time passed by, you realized that his injuries were, in most cases, looking more serious and concerning than they actually were.

You both became attached to each other pretty quickly. You loved his sense of humor, his energy, and his adventurous temperament, and he grew very fond of your kindness, selflessness and thoughtfulness.

In fact, everyone who was at least a little close to him could easily notice that there was something more than just strong friendship and appreciation silently going on between you.

Hardcase wasn’t usually the kind of person to be shy or self-conscious, on the contrary, but with you, it was different.

He was often caught glancing and smiling dreamingly at you when you weren’t watching or found all flustered and blushing after talking to you or running unexpectedly into you in the GAR station’s corridors. Just the way he was talking about you was enough to anyone who was listening to him to catch a glimpse of his true feelings.

At some point, Kix even started to ask himself if his constant visits to the med bay weren’t an excuse to see you. He just couldn’t believe that someone could be that clumsy and careless without doing it on purpose. But you, on the other hand, as long as he wasn’t suffering too much, were always more than happy to see him pass the door.

He was making you laugh, and he was always finding a way to drag you along in his shenanigans and making you engage in silly and funny situations you would never have believed you’d be taking part of one day.

You were a steady and quiet person, and when he was near you, he seemed to become calmer and more relaxed too, like if your presence was soothing both his mind and his body.

To have you around was a true relief for his brothers sometimes, because his excess of energy could be a bit exhausting for them. It wasn’t a problem for you though, for you were never tired of him.

Each one of you seemed to be the perfect balance to the other, and everyone around was waiting for the moment when you will finally end up together.

So of course, when the company decided to put together a special little party to celebrate Life’s Day, you obviously were on top of the guest’s list. In fact, you were one of the first person to know about that idea, and they even asked you for help to plan the event.

The timing was perfect, for the exact day of the celebrations was coinciding with the day after returning from a mission, which meant that the company was, if everything went well, supposed to be on Coruscant for a several days shore leave at that time.

Commander Tano and General Skywalker were invited as well, and happily accepted to join. It was their idea to organize a Secret Santa at first. It apparently was a popular thing on various planets, and when they submitted it to the rest of the company, everyone enthusiastically agreed to give it a try.

When the time came to pick up a name in the basket, you got very lucky, for you immediately knew what would make that particular person happy.

What you didn’t know however, was that it was your beloved Hardcase who got you. But on top of that, what you both couldn’t imagined was that it wasn’t just fate who made him pick you up. In fact, it was mostly Jesse’s and Kix’s idea.

They knew how fond their brother was of you, so they decided to play a little trick on him, both to tease him, but also because they saw it as a perfect occasion to give him a little help to confess his feelings to you.

When he discovered your name written in capital letters, he got through a lot of different emotions in a couple of seconds. Fives and Echo, who volunteered to hand the names out, and who were flying around the GAR base with an upside-down helmet full a little piece of papers, tried their best not to sell themselves by laughing in front of him when they saw him froze on the spot, eyes wide, then smile excitedly with sparkling pupils, before an expression of pure shock and disbelieve pass on his face.

Little did he know that before reaching for him, the two ARCs took care of switching every remaining paper from the homemade basket with only covered in your name ones. He had absolutely no chances to escape it.

It took him several days of intense reflection to find something to offer to you. It seemed like an eternity to Kix, who had to answer numerous questions about whether or not you’ll appreciate his latest idea and who got asked for his opinion at the most unexpected times of the day. But seeing him that involved and entitled to make you happy was so adorable that he couldn’t really find it annoying.

But at last, he finally managed to find something special, really special and meaningful, something that you’ll be glad to receive, and that will, at the same time, perfectly embody how important you were for him.

I wasn’t going to be easy to make, but he knew it, he couldn’t have find a more perfect gift for you.

***

The event was taking place in one of the many GAR’s aircraft hangars, because of the open view its massive door and high level was offering on the city.

Lights were a very important and symbolic part of the Life Day, and the pick of the celebrations on Coruscant was the release of thousands of paper lanterns all around the planet. So being able to see the sky was very important for that night.

The evening started with a big feast.

You had worked for most of the day to prepare all of it with the boys, moving numerous tables and chairs from the mess hall, and placing them in a row between the ships resting in the hangar. It was a lot of organization, but it was more than worth it.

For the food, you had all voted for the simplest option : each guest ordered a meal of his choice from some delivery service, so everyone could eat exactly what they wanted. It wasn’t the most elaborate meal ever, nor the most traditional, but at least everyone was enjoying it, and the whole setting was still making it looks special and festive nonetheless.

The gifts from the Secret Santa were supposed to be exchanged at the end of the “banquet”, after the desert.

Just as they did with the names in the first place, it was Echo and Fives who were in charge of collecting the presents from the players in the morning, to make sure that nobody could see who was dropping which one off, and so they could be delivered all at the same time to their addressees.

But nobody was expecting them to enter the hangar the way they did, Fives wearing a full Santa costume, standing on top of a pallet truck next to a pile of colorful boxes, and carried around by a red nosed and covered in garlands Echo, both visibly very proud of their little show.

It was hilarious, and the fact that he was trying to make his voice even more deep than it already was added a layer of comic to the whole situation.

He then asked to everyone to stand up and come closer to the vehicle, and his request was soon followed by a big and noisy mess of swinging chair and people cheerfully gathering around them.

As they started to give out the gifts, picking them one by one and calling the names written on them, the atmosphere became electric, heavy with muffled cackles and whispers.

You were assigned to a bigger than expected wooden box, beautifully hand painted in blue and circled with a large white ribbon. It was very heavy, so heavy that Rex offered to help you carrying it for you.

Once every participant had been called, the twins enthusiastically started a countdown so all the boxes could be opened simultaneously. As soon as it hit zero, the sound of shredded paper filled the air, quickly followed by a concert of exclamations, laughs and surprised squeaks. You even caught a couple of “that’s exactly what I wanted !” and “I knew it !” in the middle of the various reactions.

Rex had settled the box on a corner of the table to make it easier for you to open it, and you were now examining it from every angle to figure out how to do so. It was that kind of ammunitions containers that could be found in every GAR armory, and that were usually requiring a special tool to unseal, but this one obviously had already been opened at least once.

You were so concentrated on it that you didn’t noticed the many pairs of eyes looking furtively at you, waiting for your reaction.

When you finally managed to open it, the first thing that you saw was styrofoam chips. You chuckled at the view, anticipating a prank and ready to find nothing but those in the box.

But as you dived your fingers inside, they quickly fell on a round, massive and cold shape.

“AHAH !” you exclaimed, grabbing the mysterious item with both hands and pulling it toward you in a burst of colorful little polystyrene bits.

But you weren’t expecting what you were about to find.

As soon as you saw and understood what it was, you immediately gasped, your eyes widening in surprise.

You were now holding a brand new and freshly painted armor cuirass, immaculately white.

“What the …” you mumbled, simultaneously confused and in awe.

You turned it between your fingers, examining every angle of it, admiring its curves and looking at it with glowing eyes.

You soon after put your hands back in, frantically searching for more parts, dying to know if there was something else in that box.

When you stumbled upon one, then two vambraces, you let out a squeak, and couldn’t help but immediately try them on on top of your medic long sleeved jacket.

“No way !!! you let out, when finding out that they were perfectly fitting to your forearms. You twirled and twisted your arms around several times, looking at them with eyes watery from excitement.

You never got the chance to have your own set of armor before, for as a nat born medic, you weren’t supposed to get exposed during conflicts. Only clone medics were usually taking part of the fights and following the troops in battles. You, on the other hand, were supposed to stay behind, keeping your distances with the front line and waiting for the soldiers to return to heal them.

Bu you weren’t following that guidelines most of the times. You were part of the 501st after all, and just like their General, you had your own and particular way of managing difficult situations. That’s how you find yourself running in the middle of the battlefield more than a couples of times, trying to rescue someone.

You even got injured once, not that severely, but still badly enough to frighten the hell out of Rex and get a full lecture from him. Needless to say that it didn’t stopped you from doing it again anyway. Everybody in the company perfectly knew that there was no way to prevent you from saving lives, even at the cost of your own safety.

Of course, you’ve already tried to borrow a spare one from the armory, but standard clone’s armors weren’t the right size for you, and the Jedi’s special lighter armors were way too expensive to equip a medic, so you just never really bother thinking much about it after that.

You kept exploring the depths of the box until there was nothing left inside but chips. You successively pulled out a pair of gauntlets, rerebraces, and elbows pieces, a plackart, and finally, a pair of spaulders. One of them was plastered with a bright red, perfectly hand traced medic emblem. It was absolutely gorgeous.

That’s when you noticed it. The little card stuck on the inside of one of the shoulders. You took it off from the plastoid surface and unfolded it carefully.

The note was handwritten, and the lettering was a bit messy, but you could still feel how much attention and care have been poured into it to make it as readable and beautiful as possible.

“For the best Medic in the GAR ! (Don’t tell Kix about that or he’s going to be jealous ^^ )

You’re always watching upon us to make sure we’re safe, and because you’re one of the most important persons to me, I wanted to return you the favor, and offer you a way to stay safe as well.

Happy Life Day.

Ps : Despite the design on the spaulder, it’s all white so you could customize it as you liked, just like ours ! Enjoy !”

Excitement suddenly turned into pure emotion as your eyes became even more teary. It was the most wholesome words you’ve have ever read, and you could barely believe that someone wrote that to you. You were so moved that you had to read it a second, then a third time to make sure that you had understood it correctly, and that it wasn’t just your brain playing a trick on you.

You instinctively raised your head to look around you, feeling taken aback and curious at the same time, staring at everyone around and scanning the hangar with your eyes for an answer, like if it was going to help you find out from who it was coming from. But it didn’t, of course.

You only knew it wasn’t from Kix, for he had already told you who he picked, but you had no idea who else it could have been. You felt lost for a moment, these words weren’t sounding like a simple note written to accompany a Secret Santa present, and you had the feeling that the person who put them on paper had waited for the occasion to come since a long time already, making it even more special.

When your eyes fell back on the pieces of armor scattered on the table, tears were rolling down your cheeks. Someone found a way to make you a whole made to measure upper armor, just because you were so important to them that they wanted you safer on the battlefield, and it was one of the most touching ways that someone could have ever expressed his care for you.

On the other side of the hangar, Hardcase had been giving you little discreet side glances from a distance since the moment your name was called. He felt proud at first when he caught a glimpse of you enthusiastically searching the box. He needed to make sure that you were happy with what he got you before allowing himself to open and enjoy his own present.

But he was now too absorbed in talking with his brothers to notice your change of expression.

“Hey, I didn’t know that making her cry was part of the plan !” Fives suddenly interrupted him with a worried look, giving him a nudge to catch his attention, and gesturing his head toward you.

His joy immediately faded when he noticed your tears, and he instantly started to feel bad for you. He wasn’t expected that, it was the very contrary of the effect he wanted his gift to have on you, and he couldn’t help but feel guilty about it.

“(y/n), are you okay ?” you suddenly heard Ahsoka’s voice softly asking you.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine ….” You mumbled, weeping your eyes with the back of our hand and smiling reassuringly at her.

“I’m just … a bit moved … This is … a lot, actually … I just can’t express how lucky I feel right now … I mean, I know that building a made to measure armor is awfully expensive, and I feel so blessed that someone actually put so much effort and energy into doing that for me … I …” you sighed, the words had escaped your mouth so hastily that you had forgot to breath, and you were now seeing stars from the lack of oxygen.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t find my words right now !” you chuckled, a bit embarrassed for being that overwhelmed.

“Don’t worry, I understand what you mean.“ she answered, trying not to sound too satisfied.

“Do you know who did this ?” you hopefully asked her.

“Hmmm, maybe …” she cracked a mischievous smile, “but I promised him to not tell you anything … All I can say is that the person who gifted you this really, really care about you, like, a lot ! But don’t worry, I have the feeling that you will know who it is soon enough …”

“I hope so, I really need to thank him for that ….” You whispered, looking deeply at the spaulder, absent mindlessly tracing the medic emblem with the tips of your fingers.

Little do you know that she has been involved in the whole project from the beginning. That gift was so close to Hardcase’s heart that he didn’t hesitated to ask her and Anakin for some advice.

Of course, his General, too, had noticed how fond his trooper was of you. But most of all, he particularly understood how important the lives of his men were to you, for just like you, he was close to them, and every lost life was a hard thing to accept for him as well.

So when Hardcase exposed his plan to him, he immediately agreed to help, offering him to negotiate a free and special access to all the required resources he needed to successfully fulfill it.

Since you were close friend with his Padawan, she volunteered to give them a hand on a delicate part of the plan, but the most crucial one : collecting your measurements. It was, of course, easier and less suspect for her to enter the women’s locker room of the GAR med bay rather than sending any other male member of the company there to do it.

That’s how she found herself sneaking into your locker several days in a row with a measuring tape, scrupulously noting the sizes and lengths of your different outfits, to make sure that they had the right dimensions for the future armor. You didn’t even noticed a thing, never catching  the way your clothes had moved from the moment you put them in and the moment you took them back after your shifts.

At this point, the entire battalion as well as their superiors knew about Hardcase’s gift, and several of its members helped him bringing it to life, in addition to all the persons who were involved in the fabrication of the armor itself.

The whole project had been a beautiful demonstration of solidarity and group work, and the amount of energy and care that had been poured into it was, indeed, very huge and even more consequent that you could have ever imagined.

It was probably one of the most interesting and funny spying mission the young togruta was sent on, and witnessing how big of an impact it had on you, feeling your emotion and your happiness, was the most beautiful reward she could have gotten for her participation.

You were still processing what had just happened, eyes still lost on what you were holding in your hands, when the voice of someone screaming from the hangar doorstep pulled you out of your thoughts.

“It’s beginning ! They’re releasing the lanterns !”

When you raised your head toward the origin of the scream, you just had enough time to see Tup excitedly weaving his arms, pointing at the sky and gesturing to his brothers to come nearer, before the entirety of the hangar’s lights suddenly shut down, leaving the vast space only bathed in the dimmed glow of the outside city lights.

The men quickly gathered on the edge of the wide entrance as you saw a couple of little glimmering flares ascending from the city below into the night sky.

One after the other, the biggest buildings around went dark as well, allowing a better look on the lanterns. It was the only day of the whole year when you could see the jedi temple and the senate completely plunge into darkness.

There were no more screams or laughs resonating through the air, only whisperings and muffled gasps of awe.

You couldn’t move at first, still stunned by the latest turn of events and mesmerized by what you were witnessing. Then you gently settled your spaulder on the nearest chair, before taking a few steps forwards as more and more lanterns were filling the sky, creating a big cloud of artificial stars.

You were a bit further back from the others, but still able to see everything from there, not missing a single bit of the show.

It was one of the most spectacular and mesmerizing thing that you have ever seen, and you were so focused on it that you didn’t hear the sound of approaching footsteps echoing against the durasteel floor.

“Hey …” a soft and familiar voice suddenly whispered on your left.

“Hey …” you whispered back, turning your head to face Hardcase, who was now standing right next to you as if he had appeared out of thin air.

There was enough light to clearly distinguish the blue lines of his tattoos, but not enough for you to notice the faint shade of red covering his cheeks.

“So, did you like your gift ?” you asked him with smile.

“Oh, yeah ! It was great ! Actually, I think that the person who offered it to me know a couple of things about me that I can’t remember telling anyone so far, so I guess I must have talked too much about some particular subjects the last time I was drunk, but yeah, I really appreciated it ! ” he lets out with an amused tone.

“Ahah, you’ll be surprised of all the things you’re saying when you’re drunk …” you teased him, as you felt the heat slowly raising to your face. You were so emotional right now that his very presence was enough to fluster you.

“Oh I know what you’re referring to, don’t get me started, you were as wasted as me that time !” he groaned, glaring at you with a falsely annoyed expression on his face.

His remark made you giggles, and your laugh must have been contagious, because he couldn’t help but start to chuckle as well.

Then, a silence fell between you, only disturbed by the distant buzzing of the city and the murmurs of your fellow troopers.

“Look, I’m sorry, I never meant to make you cry …” he breathed out after a moment.

You heart skipped a bit at his words, before starting to race faster when you understood what he was talking about, and you tried your best to keep your composure and refrain yourself from gasping in shock.

“So, it was you …”

“Yeah, it was me …” he awkwardly answered, “I know that we’re not supposed to tell the person we picked that … well, that we picked them, but … My gift seemed to have made you so sad, I just wanted to apology for that …”

“Sad ??!” you retorted, “No, it didn’t made me sad ! That wasn’t tears of sadness, it was the emotion, because your gift touched me ! Honestly, it’s the most meaningful thing someone ever gifted to me and … I just got overwhelmed ! I mean, I can’t imagine how much it must have costed you, that’s insane ! I’m so lucky to have been picked by you ! Thank you Hardcase, it means so much to me …”

You were stuttering, tripping over your words and feeling your eyes getting watery again.

The sparks of pure joy and gratitude that were making your pupils glimmer as you looked at him made him fondly smile at you, the faint blush on his cheeks becoming brighter.

“Oh well, not gonna lie, I got a lot of help on this one, but actually …“ his voice was laced with embarrassment, “I initially wanted to offer you the lower part as well, but we run out of time … But if you still like it that way, then that’s good enough I guess !”

“Of course I like it !” you let out in shock, astonished by what he had just said, “It’s absolutely perfect, I could never thank you enough for that, sincerely !”

You smiled back at him, your gaze meeting his. He instantly melts from the inside, trying his best not to look at your curled lips for too long, but still devouring you with his eyes.

You were so beautiful he couldn’t get them off of you. He could have admired you for the entire night if it was possible, and you both stayed like that for a moment, staring at each other in silence, the faint light of the sea of lantern reverberating on your faces, creating a very intimate atmosphere around you.

“Can I … Can I ask you a question ?” you shyly say after a moment.

“Yeah, whatever you want !”

“Do you … Do you really meant what you wrote on that card ?”

 “Well …” he paused, quickly turn looking away from you, his eyes landing on the floor, “Yes …” he quietly muttered.

The next silence that fell between you was a heavy one. You felt paralyzed, there was so much things that you wanted to say to him right now, but they were stuck in your throat, you just couldn’t seem to find the courage to speak them out loud.

You were trying to gather yourself to, at least, try to answer something, when he broke the silence first.

“I’m sorry about that too … Maybe I shouldn’t have wrote that, maybe it was too much and inappropriate, maybe …”

“No,” you cut him, “it wasn’t … To be honest, I think that I was waiting for that … Actually, when I read this card, I was praying for you to be the one behind it …”

His eyes widened, you were, too, avoiding his gaze, but you still caught his surprised expression from the corner of your own eyes.

“Rea .. Really ?” he mumbled.

“Yes …” you answered, trying to prevent your voice from trembling too much “I just hoped that I got the message right …”.

You were shaking from head to toes now. You felt his eyes land on you once again and his whole body turning to face you, and, without a warning, his hand softly took yours.

It was your turn to look at him with surprise. You opened your mouth to say something, but no words escaped it. You thought that your heart couldn’t beat faster than it already was, but you were wrong. You never knew that someone could have that much effect on you.

“I think that you got it right, yes ...” he simply whispered, taking a step toward you, and pulling you closer to him until your two bodies where leaned against each other, his forehead gently settling on yours, and his other hand rising toward your face to carefully cup it.

You shivered at his touch, instinctively closing your eyes, your whole attention focused on the sensation of his skin against yours. You were so close to each other that you could feel his heart racing just as fast as yours.

“And I think that I have something else to tell you …” the sound of his voice was making your legs feel weak under your body, you nearly couldn’t believe that you were that close to him.

The whole scene seemed to happen in slow motion, suspended in time, like if the world has suddenly paused around you and time has stopped as you waited for his next words, praying for all of this to be real and not just a dream.

“I love you, (y/n), I fell for you since the moment I saw you and … I’ve waited for that moment for so long …” he breathed out, his nose brushing against yours.

He couldn’t resist anymore, and with a rush of courage striking at him, he closed the tiny remaining gaps between your mouths, his lips hesitantly meeting yours.

Your whole body felt like melting under his kiss, and it took you a few seconds to process what was happening before being able to answer it. You could have never expected how careful and soft his gestures were.

When you finally get your composure back, you slowly let go of his hand to wrap both of your arms around his neck. Your move gave him more confidence, and you felt his fingers slowly caressing your arm, passing over your still vambraces covered forearms until they reached your face, cupping it with his second hand too and deepening the kiss.

When your lips parted, you were both panting, and he was tightly clinging onto you, afraid that you could suddenly disappeared from his grasp.

You reopened your eyes to find him looking at you with a look of pure fascination, as if he was holding the most precious jewel of the galaxy between his hands.

“I … I love you too”, you murmured, once you had caught your breath, “and I have to confess, I’ve been waiting for that too, actually, I wish I could have told you before but … I guess I wasn’t brave enough. In fact … I was too frightened that you might not feel the same …” your face tensed up as you were opening your heart to him.

His eyes started to sparkle with emotion, like if all of the lanterns currently flying in the Coruscant’s sky have been gathered in his pupils, and he softly brushed the tip of your finger against your cheeks in a reassuringly.

“I can’t blame you for that, we were in the same boat on that point … But know that I’ve never ceased to love you, I don’t think that I can ever be tired of you, and now that I have found enough courage to tell it to you once, I will do it over and over again, and I hope that you will never doubt my words, because they truly are sincere.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

“You’re so beautiful …” he whispered contemplatively, unable resist the urge to pull you in for another kiss, more passionate, but just as soft as the first one.

“Aren’t you … afraid that … the other could see us ?” you questioned in when remembering that you weren’t alone in that very vast hangar.

“Don’t worry,” he grinned “nobody is looking at us right now, they’re too concentrated on the outside !”

It was enough of an argument for you, and you weren’t, in the end, paying that much attention about whatever the other members of the company could think about it, quickly forgetting about their presence again right after, too focused on the mesmerizing smile of the man standing in front of you.

Little do you knew that, even if nobody was actually looking at you, everybody was still very aware about what was happening behind their turned back, and that they were all discreetly sharing winks, high fives and looks of victory, happy to know that two of their close friends were finally taking the chance to be happy together.

***

“Can I ask you a favor ?” you let out a moment later, as you were both watching the last released lanterns getting lost in the darkness, “Could we paint my armor together, please ?”

“Of course I will ! Not gonna lie, I was planning on asking you if you’ll need some help … I can’t wait for that !” he enthusiastically answered, a warm smile growing on his face.

“Thank you“ you whispered, before resting your head on his shoulder.

“Hey, I nearly forgot to say it, but Happy Life Day, Hardcase !” you suddenly exclaimed.

He giggled at your realization, looking dreamingly at you, before tightening his embrace around your hips and placing a soft kiss on your forehead.

“Happy Life Day, Mesh’la.”

#vi writing #clone fic gift exchange #hardcase x reader #clone trooper hardcase x reader #clone trooper hardcase #the clone wars #the clone wars x reader #star wars #star wars x reader #hardcase #tcw hardcase

[riacte]

i never really paid attention to it but wow false and ren. they really do hover around each other huh. they r like bugs

Hiii anon thanks for the ask <3 I'll use this to talk about them and them in fanon because I have thoughts woooo (and I'm vibrating with excitement because I'm listening to the HC Grand Prix at the same time)

You said it exactly— like we all know they're buddies and stick together, but most of the times, we don't really notice it because it's just natural. Nondescript even. Like of course their pixels are next to each other in the background. Of course they're hanging out. It's not flashy or anything, they're just there.

[long and winding analysis that goes off in a Direction, will definitely not be maintagged, mentions of shipping and the fandom's worst enemy (comphet / heteronormativity)]

Pairing up

They're like those anime characters who are fully fleshed out individually, but for some reason, their screentime is tied together and they're always shown next to each other. That was actually my first impression of them back when I only watched Grian in HC6 lmao, every time Grian flew over the fantasy district he would casually go "that's False and Ren's bases" and my brain was like "hmm new names :) idk who they are but they stick together :)". Like you know when you're new to an unknown cast of people so you try to comprehend and memorise them as efficiently as possible? And so you start sorting the cast into duos / groups so it's easier to remember them? That was me trying to compartmentalize the hermits in HC6. Grian + Mumbo. Iskall + Stress. Scar + Cub. Joe + Cleo. ZIT. False + Ren.

It did not help that from Grian's POV, there was a part in the civil war arc when he collabed with False to prank Ren because they thought he'd pranked her and so my brain was like "weeewoooo I still don't know who False and Ren are but they continue stick together, and that's convenient for my internal sorting :)))". And that mutual association genuinely never stopped lmao (it only got worse).

Shared audiences?

I've talked about this on privtwt: False+Ren as a fanon duo (like duo Duo as in desert duo) is strangely niche even though they do stuff together all the time and they're both fairly popular on their own. And there is so much intermingling between their audiences— I know this is the case for all hermits' audiences, but it seems especially obvious between their audiences. I know in a stream Ren said he met up with False and they had a discussion like years ago about the two of them hosting a meet and greet with fans in a restaurant (that didn't happen) and internally I was like "yeah, that'll only work if they have a solidly integrated fanbase so no one feels left out in the restaurant WAIT. That's literally what's going on here".

Funny how when I was writing this, an anon sent an ask about Ren's chat basically being full of False emotes LOL. Integrated audience kinda real <3 like, even if you only watch one of them and don't actively watch the other, you still know and think of the other fondly.

Different styles? And sticking together

Actually outside of yayyy fun minigames, to me at least they have quite different styles + ways of presentation? Which feels slightly different from the above duos I mentioned? So I totally understand why people only main one of them and don’t watch the other (but still aware of the other obviously). In terms of taste and personal preference, I’ve been here long enough to know what loyal False mains generally like and what loyal Ren mains generally like. (Like, very verrrry generally.) Ren’s the dramatic roleplay storyteller and False is like, sneaky and shifty and has a wry sense of humour. They’re both funny and charming in different ways. I would say Iskall and Stress have similar presentations (“aha? AHA?”) even though they excel at different things. Cub and False are also similar to me— competent and cool people who are nonchalantly chaotic. And we all know Ren and Martyn’s instant chemistry and their similarities. It’s why a lot of Ren fans gravitated to Renchanting and Rendoc for their dramatics and flirting in the way some False fans gravitate to Fress and Falseren for the fun/mildly hysterical/teasing/sweet/pranking moments.

BUT

False and Ren bounce off each other well— it’s the playful tension and the sudden mutual whiny energy like “noooo don’t leave me🥺” but they start hitting each other 0.5 seconds later. And of course the mutual clinginess. I know people have made jokes about how they’re both smart and competent people individually but when they get together they suddenly become the silliest sillies and share one braincell <3 and I know people (read: mutuals in my DMs) have joked about Ren’s currently extremely obvious bias for her (it's as big as the BRR sign I swear 😭) and the usual “orbiting around each other group recordings”. Compared to other duos, they don’t get paired together bc of similar presentations / style. They get paired together because of the chemistry and they share so many moments lol.

Tldr: they make for entertaining on-screen interactions. It’s fun watching them rotate around each other and punch each other off things. And they do this so much that 1) everyone’s aware of it 2) everyone’s used to it.

Branding? (Or the lack of it)

Last I checked, their tag has 46 fics on Ao3 and 16 of those fics are from me (I love being spiders georg). As with every pair that's not the juggernaut pair, realistically the actual number of fics that actually focus on them is less than what we see. And you know how sometimes for the "niche" pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic? (Actually I think for most pairs, there's more ship fic than platonic fic.) That's also not it, they don't even have 20 ship fics. Like clearly, the current fanon interest in them is not ship motivated versus *gestures to whatever is happening in the general shipping chaos post 2021*.

What I concluded is that they lack the kind of branding that for example Convex possesses. I think it's kind of because... they're an ubiquitous constant throughout the years. They don't need a storyline or a named group to tie themselves together. No matter what they're doing, no matter what characters they're playing, no matter which servers they're on— they just kind of stay in each other's orbits. But they don't play it up or anything like hashtag SHIPrendoc or Renskall or whatever. They don't even have a proper fanon name ffs (outside of fairy pirate grotto or whatever in HC6).

(Although imo this is likely to avoid comphet irl shipping because God forbid a man and a woman are friends :))))) heteronormative irl shipping / truthing was an annoyance for years (pre the HC6 boom). But strangely enough, modern anti hermitshippers on Twitter rarely bring up the real problem of truthing in public comments and instead target people making Scarian fanart in a small corner or whatever. When many cases of Compulsory Heterosexuality literally exist in YouTube comments. But I digress.)

Ren and False are just there, pranking each other and basing together and playing five million minigames and being casually supportive of each other. Like, their biggest shared "storyline" that left a strong impression on fans / converted fans was probably MCC9. We all still talk about it today the way Ren and Martyn still talk about 3L Renchanting. And MCC9 was in 2020 when they'd already done a lot of stuff together prior to that (eg. literally being neighbours in HC6).

And the thing is, they do collab semi-frequently. In like every Hermitcraft season. In recent memory, we've got the Blue River Raceway of course, but we also get those pranks and minigames and random silly interactions like Ren breaking into False's eagle and False pranking him at her elytra race. It doesn't need to be big and theatrical in classic Ren fashion (I remember the Renbob / Falsewell storyline in HC6; her nonchalance and confusion was so funny in contrast to Renbob's hippie demeanor).

And I kind of like the way they've kind of (?? or not???) escaped from the intense duo-ification from the fandom. Okay, to be fair, I know I am the worst offender of the duo-ification of them (with my desperate do not separate agenda), and maybe I've had a negative effect on the fandom, so feel free to throw me off my soap box. I remember how hermitblr as a collective suddenly lost it when they split in MCC17. We took them for granted, we all got to used to them being together, we got used to seeing them in the background, and then suddenly they’re not??

So we’re all kind of aware of them. But it’s not a terribly big thing…. until it is.

It's the same on the M/CC Reddit. Everyone knows they're iconic. But nobody makes a post about how we need more False and Ren duo interactions because they already interact a lot. It's just a natural constant. They don't really need a spotlight because they're just... here doing funky cute friendship stuff.

But if they ever, for some reason, become a mainstream duo on twt in its mainstream duo way with some [insert random noun] duo name, I will be so 🫠😒🔥💥🔥💥. But I literally cannot see this happening unless they team with Grian / Grian adjacent people in Life series. But even then I think they’re kinda exempt because everyone’s so used to them lol. It’s not like a shiny new uwu duo. It’s like how Stresskall is just Stresskall. Or Jleo.

(Actually, speaking of Stresskall, the entire Stress-Iskall-Ren-False group would make for an interesting fanon discussion bc it’s essentially made out of very solid and fan favourite duos. But not now. Team FRIS my absolute beloved though.)

Also, thinking about the ensemble HC fics I've read and how they're just casually kind of chilling in the background. Ren is usually paired with Doc (both platonic / romantic) but False is usually somehow mentioned in a passing comment. Same with False who's usually with the Hermitgals in ensemble fics, but there's also passing comments about her hanging out with Ren. Again, it's just a natural part of the background. Trivia that's sprinkled in between.

And that's why I think I'm so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 because it doesn't need to be big and grand... it's all the little moments <3 they have such a fun and playful dynamic and all the love for minigames <3

I don’t know if this is comprehensible or I’m just going crazy and overthinking things no one thinks about. But writing this was fun at least <3 If at least one person gets maybe 30% of this post (whatever it is), I'll be happy haha.

Post sponsored by the three people who liked my tweet from months ago 🥹

#ask box #answered #meta #i guess??????? #this has subheadings bc i got uni coursework back and that was the feedback #ria.txt #this is 1.8k words long... could've written a oneshot lmfao #save me falseren save me #pogsupremacy

[dduane]

Hi! I really like Scrappy, and I heard you've worked with some TV writers for Scooby-Doo?

I'd like to ask you some questions, but before I do I wanna say some things:

In fact, I looked up the writer’s guild stats and you actually wrote some of the episodes for the original show he was on, as well as some shorts!  “Neon Phantom of the Roller Disco” and “When You Wish Upon a Star Creature” are both really solid episodes and a lot of people really enjoy the Star Creature’s futuristic design! Of the shorts episodes you did I think "A Bungle in The Jungle" and "A Close Encounter of the Scooby Kind" and "Surprised Spies" the funniest. I could go on! But then I would never finish this ask ^^;

And I gotta tell you this. I may have been born decades after those episodes aired, but I’ve seen every single one-the first season, the 99 shorts, the 13 ghosts, the New Scooby Doo Mysteries, the DTV trio, all of ‘em, and I absolutely adored them, thank you so much for helping with that. 

When Fred and Velma and Daphne disappeared, after 1979, did Scrappy have something to do with it? I know Duane Poole said in an interview that Scrappy was easier to focus on, and that Fred and Velma, and Daphne had a hard time competing with his energy or something, but the executives wouldn’t have thrown all their eggs into one basket with the pup after one season, would they? I have to know. Even if it turns out that’s what happened, I know that it’s not really Scrappy’s fault either way, I’m just curious.

I've heard from Mr. Poole's interview that when you were figuring out Scrappy and stuff you guys just gathered around and brainstormed with Joe Barbera. Did you or anyone else that you know of look to past ideas for inspiration?

What was the favorite episode you wrote?

I also heard from Mark Evanier’s account that Scrappy was originally feistier but some scripts were altered. How were the scripts changed before and after that alteration?

Also, in the nineties, why did Scrappy go away? I mean, I know some people didn't like him, but it was more just "he had his time" not the kinda hate you saw in the early 2000s right?

This is un-Scrappy related. Did you guys do your own blocking, did anyone at HB ever split the writing and blocking between multiple people? Just curious.

Also, I know that the original Scrappy series gets some hate, but I am not one of them and there are so many people who love the work you did and what Scrappy-Doo means to them. You guys did an awesome job with the series and there are tons of fans who still remember and cherish the work that you and the others did. Don’t let the haters get you down. Thank you SO SO SO SO MUCH!

First of all, thanks very much for your kind words! The work I did on Scooby-Doo And Scrappy Too! was my very first animation work, and besides being a shed-load of fun, I learned an incredible amount about screenwriting in general, and animation writing in particular, from Tom Swale and Duane Poole (God rest them both). They were fabulous teachers, patient and smart—a pleasure to work with, and (in between work times) extremely funny guys whose senses of humor meshed perfectly with mine.

About Fred, Velma, and Daphne disappearing post-1979: unfortunately I wouldn't be in any position to know whether Scrappy had anything to do with that. I'd very much have been the newest and most junior writer in the room (and we're talking about a time when there weren't even "rooms" as we think of them now: they hadn't been invented yet). But though their job title was "story editor", in terms of the work they were doing, Tom and Duane were what we would now think of as showrunners... and those deliberations and/or decisions wouldn't by any stretch of the imagination have included me. :)

It's interesting to hear what Duane had to say about the disappearance. But I feel pretty sure that a decision involving so many characters would not have been made solely at Tom's and Duane's level. Some kind of approval or signing-off would've had to happen at the highest executive levels at H-B... or at least that's my take on it.

As for brainstorming with Joe Barbera: it seems to me quite likely that that was just how things happened. Hanna-Barbera at that point was a surprisingly comfortable, casual kind of place—relatively friendly to newcomers, and with a sense of under-the-surface goofiness that tended to surface without warning. The founders, in particular, had a reputation for being very hands-on and accessible. I kind of regret that those brainstorming sessions were before my time.

Re: favorite episodes: you'll have gathered that I did a fair amount of writing for Tom and Duane over the years (there's more detail on my IMDb page, which fills in some gaps but still isn't complete...), so frankly it's hard to pick a favorite. But the first one I tend to think of is my very first one, "The Hairy Scare of the Devil-Bear". ...And honestly, one of the funniest things about the scriptwriting process on these was the business of crafting outlandish titles: the goofier, the better. Tom and Duane were past masters at this... and no one will ever get me to discuss the really dirty ones that were floated during story conferences. ...Anyway, I've always been a bit of a Tuckerizer, and in that first episode—though it wasn't anywhere near as polished as later episodes would be—I had so much fun sneaking in the very first of what would become any number of friends' names. A simple pleasure, perhaps. But hey, I'm a cheap date. :)

Re: Mark Evanier's comments about earlier Scrappy scripts: Mark had been working at H-B for a good while by the time I got there, and I'd consider his opinions important. But I've got no useful data on how scripts might have been changed before I got there. Sorry I can't be of more help on this.

As to why Scrappy might have gone away in the 90s….? I don't really have any useful data on that either. By that time, I was in the early stages of being married to @petermorwood and living in Europe, and was out of the loop on things that were going on at Hanna-Barbera.

Finally, as regards blocking: when one was writing animation in the 80s, the received wisdom was that one should write almost entirely in "master shots"—so that one didn't call specific angles in the screenplay unless they were extremely important. The idea being "Don't direct in the script. Let the director have something to do." And blocking would certainly have been included in the concept of what the director was supposed to be doing. ...But at the same time, story editors would naturally have seen the storyboards that were produced in-house, and would have had input into angles and camera movement at that stage… So, in that way anyway, blocking and writing were certainly split.

Meanwhile, thanks again for the nice words about what we were doing! It was very enjoyable work, and the continuing popularity of these shows makes it more enjoyable, even now. :)

#Scrappy-Doo

[weaselbeaselpants]

For those curious, I don't got dirt or shit on VivziePop. As I've made clear before I followed her back in 2009 and I talked to her like on devintart and tumblr 1 or 2 times. No, I don't remember what was said between us really or exactly. The tumblr blog I remember hearing back from her is long dead so I have no receipts.

I kinda lost interest in her because her fanbase was way too intense and mean in 2014 (no idea about any of the Dollcreep drama), and because I was also in a soft antisjw phase myself then and reading BadWebcomicsWiki - I saw her being talked about all throughout the forums on that hellsite up and until 2017. I also saw the completely different forum posts made there about Hazbin at the time- which os of course how I learned about the Dollcreep fiasco, frootrollup1, and Angel Dust r@pe art someone did of Viv.

If you interested and/or curious about any personal anecdotes I can remember from the best of memory -these are NOT facts, though I'm happy if anyone else can back them up if u also have memories of this- I can list those out:

-I found Viv through her fanart first and specifically her fanart of Shane Acker's 9. I loved Viv's fanart- it was always so distinct in her own style but still recognizable. Anyone else in the 9 fandom remember that "design a beast" contest deviantart had? Yeah she took place in that. She also did artwork of the stitchpunks inspired by Kinkei's chibi-pinup style. They were not as sexy as that would have you believe. She did fanart for Rango, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Rio, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Also remember her begrudgingly liking Tangled after the fact because it wasn't 2D like Princess and the Frog was.

-The first time I saw Viv's characters in comic form it was in a comic where it was Halloween and the ZP gang (Zill, Kayla, Jack, Spam, and Vanex) were trick or treating and got stuck in some dark twisted version of their home. Isn't this the plot to the Invader Zim Halloween episode?

-Ickle!Viv was pretty skilled at drawing animals. Personally I think she still is but this was specifically the thing which stood out about her to me. I really love when she drew/draws animals. I also actually think her creatures look genuinely good, especially the dragon looking ones.

-Viv was ALWAYS so clamoring and adoring of her fandoms, especially animated stuff. Even on deviantart, animation fans are cynical and snarky so it was nice to see someone with their own established style be into movies that other people would mock you for as a teenager or god forbid an adult. Didn't make you feel so alone.

-I saw Viv's ZP gang develop in style from 2009-2013 and I gotta say I liked her og cast so much more when they were teenytiny and children. Zill just looked better then.

-Speaking of Zill, before I saw one of her posts getting mad at people who called Zill a "neopet"...I said her style reminded me of neopets. I was 12! I didn't know and also I hadn't gotten to that one doodle in her gallery at the time where Zill and 2009!Viv were cursing out this blob for calling him that.

-I also personally saw Alastor develop from out of those days, or at least the character who would become Alastor. It was the red black, buck-looking deer from 2006-2008ish who's disc Viv said was "the evilest character in all of zoophobia!!" I know she liked the directtovideo disney sequels and really liked Bambi II. I'm not convinced Alastor and Autumn don't exist souley because of Bambi II.

-I have no proof of it happening on my end because I ended up deleting a shit ton of crap on my old deviantart out of embarrassment and I think Viv deleted her posts about it. But a distinctly remember an artist in around 2011/2012 w I was really into art trades did a trade with me where they drew my 9 oc, in spite of us really not connecting in any particular way or being 'close'. They worked in traditional medium and had he/him pronouns and their art was so obviously inspired from Viv's. It wasn't traced, though- just very Viv-inspired.

I remember watching Viv and also that guy when suddenly Viv and Faustisee made a huge callout graph showing the artstyle and characters that had been stolen from her and she showed that guy's work. I also distinctly remember saying in Viv's journal abt the callout something along the lines of "this is bad, but, this guy is a friend of mine [rlly barely mutuals], he didn't mean it". To which Viv replied with something like: "then tell ur friend that what he's doing is bad >:c". So I did and that's when he told me he'd been told enough by her base how to feel and that he was leaving dA. And he left. and nuked his entire gallery, including his part of art trade, which made finding the proof of this encounter even harder to track down. Because he was no longer there, I deleted the piece I did for him as part of my mass embarrassment deletion.

-There was one other encounter I had personally' with Viv that I do remember and it's only because she was actually friendly to me and I liked that coming from my what was, at the time, a fav artist: I like the 2012 Frankenweenie remake and was really incensed back in the day that people weren't liking it because it is a ymmv-case. One of those people happened to be Viv and I def remember messaging her about how "I disagree with you, hmf" and then having INSTANT REGRET and suddenly spamming her with this way too personal "I'm sorry please don't hate me"-ventrant thing and, for all I know the Viv stans can be overly apologetic, I really do think it was my indiagnosed OCD/ADHD talking there. Anyway, what was sweet of her to do even in a passing way was she was all "it's okay. you didn't upset me but lol yeah ur not changing my take on frankenweenie either".

Viv describes herself as "being everyone's friend" and really- where there are a lot of points now that I don't think she cares if she is, most of the time I think the problem is she doesn't know how mean or backhanded she is. She really does strike me as the kind of person who never grew out of 2000s-2010s highschool and that petty thing were you get angry and lash out at others behind their backs but then sweet up after that, and where you think lovebombing = being genuinely appreciative. And yeah, that's still abusive and volatile. Because, and this is all from a decade ago and an antidote I only recall because it was Viv, but I truly didn't get the feeling that Viv thought I was beneath her or that she was trying to own me buy telling me she didn't like the movie I did. The vibe I got from her was "I don't really care about this but also I don't want you freaking out, calm down".

I rb a bunch of critical stuff (still don't like antiHazbin shit) because, and I still mean this, I do still genuinely like her style and wish I could be in her fandom w/o her stans basically gatekeeping me from being my own fan. I really am disappointed as the fan I am that Viv doesn't take better care of herself, her shows or the people working for her.

#vivziepop critical #helluva boss critical #hazbin hotel critical

[ecargmura]

My New Boss Is Goofy Episode 9 Review - Rare Pairs

The best part of this episode is the fact that we see combinations we rarely see. When was the last time we’ve seen Momose and Aoyama together? How about Shirosaki and Kinjou? No, right? That’s why this episode is so good! It brings about different sides for each of our main characters.

I do feel like this is more of an Aoyama-focused episode, which is why I’ll start with him. Aoyama has always been shown to be needy and a bit of an attention-seeker, but he is a good boss. This episode shows more than what he has been shown in the past episodes. Above all of the traits he has, he’s just a very kind person overall. When he went out drinking with Momose and told about his trauma of teaching a new subordinate, it made me feel like he was like Momose in a way before. He was traumatized over a bad incident, but was healed by Shirosaki’s clumsiness; in Aoyama’s case, he was traumatized over being a bad boss rather having a bad boss. I think Aoyama saw a bit of his old self in Momose, which was why he was doing his best to give Momose good memories of a mixer after overhearing his subordinate mutter about his bad experience. I can see why Shirosaki is such a good boss to Momose—he learned from the best.

Momose wanting to learn more about Aoyama is so adorable. He’s already getting along well with Shirosaki, due to being roommates and boyfriends, and Kinjou due to their similarities and being close in age. I think that there was still a bit of a wall between them that broke towards the end when Momose learned about why Aoyama was trying hard to be uplifting in the mixer. The part where Momose starts playing along and tells the chief that he has a mole on the side of his head was cute as heck. I’d like to see these two interact more!

Shirosaki is still his goofy, adorable self. He’s still a scaredy-cat that needs Momose to protect him from horror stuff. The way he got scared of the bear horror movie and it got transferred to Kumatte-chan was cute; the fact that he treats Kumatte-chan as if it was sentient was super cute! His diligent side shows as he asks Kinjou out for dinner. It turns out that he overheard Kinjou and Momose talk about anime, and since Minette (their company) has been getting anime-related ad offers lately, he wanted to study up on the topic. If you don’t know, there’s a ten-year age gap between Shirosaki and Kinjou, so I can actually see the generational gap in their interaction. Shirosaki, 34 years old, isn’t too familiar with anime and otaku lingo, while Kinjou, 24, is very familiar with modern trends, otaku lingo and anime in general. I love the part where Shirosaki’s head goes into space the longer Kinjou rambled on about anime; the part where he looked as if he got ejected like he was in Among Us after Kinjou showed his waifu was HILARIOUS!

Kinjou is very bubbly in this episode. He was the FRUITIEST he has ever been since his introduction. It was cool learning that he enjoys anime and is not ashamed about it. Like I mentioned before, the ten-year age gap between Shirosaki and Kinjou really does show in the dinner outing. The fact that Kinjou knows about stuff like quality animation, voice actors and other stuff anime fans like to talk about made me feel something inside. Also, Kinjou’s favorite anime happens to be a game to anime adaptation called Mic Prince. HIS ‘WAIFU’ IS A MAN! I guess using ‘waifu’ (yome) is different from ‘bias’ (oshi) for otakus? I’m surprised that he’s not afraid to show off how much of a nerd he is. I also really like the karaoke segment. Jun Fukuyama DEFINITELY had a fun time doing all those ~nya’s. The way it was animated was super fluid too! His bubbly actions are very infectious as Shirosaki confidently decides to to the ~nya’s in the post-credit scene.

The lady who sits next to Momose at work was a huge mood, honestly. She hosted the mixer, yet it felt like she was there for the food. I’m glad that her friends had a good time, even if they didn’t really develop a romantic interest in any of our main characters. The fact that they were ‘interested’ in their friend who helped them have a great time was sweet.

Man, I couldn’t help but to smile throughout the episode. It was really good! It’s probably my favorite episode so far! However, the most difficult challenge is to pick a favorite character between the main characters; it’s so hard to choose because they’re all so likable. Though, after the events of this episode, Kinjou might be climbing up the ranks as my favorite of the show. Still, it’s so hard to pick a favorite. I love these dorks so much. What are your thoughts on this episode? Did you have a great time like me?

#my new boss is goofy #atarashii joushi wa do tennen #Mitsuo aoyama #Kentaro momose #Yusei shirosaki #aigou kinjou #kumatte-chan #review #anime #anime review #ecargmura #arum journal #the fruitiest episode by far

[sweetescapeartist]

A DBS MANGA CHAPTER 102 REVIEW. KINDA...

Some stuff about chapter 102 of the DBS manga I don't really like/I want to quickly discuss. Meant to post this last month but didn't. I'm behind on a lot of things.

All those folks saying True UI is Goku's strongest form... The upcoming chapter says otherwise. Goku uses the silver haired UI form & Beerus apparently views that as Goku at his strongest. Heck, Goku calls it his best move. Good job Toyo for creating True UI (black hair) and confusing fans to believe that was stronger than Mastered UI (silver hair) when in reality True UI is simply UI Sign (black hair) that changed how UI works so it matches more closer to how the anime depicted the technique. UI Omen in the anime allowed Goku to use his emotions, but the more control he has over them, the stronger he becomes until he transforms into Mastered UI. UI Sign in the manga was depicted as Goku needing to be emotionless & stated that emotions hinder the power. This was from the ToP Saga all the way until Toyotaro "created" True UI to function off of controlled emotions like how the DBS anime always has & gave it Omen the name "True Ultra Instinct." [Link to a long post that I paraphrased, so you ain't gotta read it unless you're really interested.]

I get tired of the same expressions in this Super Hero Saga. Its a pouty or surprised face accompanied with an oval shaped mouth. Toyotaro is overusing the hell out of that. Here's a compilation & I left out like 4 other panels with this same expression. (There's more in CH 103)

I saw ppl talking about the poses when Goku & Gohan fight look cool.... Looks pretty stiff imo. At least from what I've seen. Lacks a feel of movement. And you don't even see most of the fight. It doesn't make it cool imo. We've seen MUI in action against powerful opponents. If MUI Goku & Beast Gohan are close to equal strength, why not show actual combat between the two other than the aftermath of clashes? There was more attention to choreography with Gohan vs Trunks & Goten than there is with Gohan vs Goku. (Chapter 103 does better with the combat for Goku vs Gohan)

Toyotaro doing the "this form is called such & such" is weird for me. Seems like he's trying to hype up Western fans or something. Like when Goten & Trunks name Gohan's potential unleashed form "Ultimate." Its just dialogue for the sake of some sort of fanservice. Some ppl will like it, others wont. I just wasn't a fan of it. Feels like its placed here just for fanservice. If they called it ultimate & didn't draw too much attention to it, I would've prefered that. Its naming it but not stopping the narrative flow.

Also wasn't a fan of Goku asking Gohan is his new power was SSJ2 or SSJ3. Goku knows dang well Gohan's Potential Unleashed form is far stronger than SSJ2 & was stronger than SSJ3. He should've just asked "So, what's this form of yours?" and leave it there.

Some Vegeta fans are calling him a proud uncle when he smiles at Gohan & Goku about to spar. No, he is a Saiyan who is ready to see a good fight just as Broly smiled when he watched Goku & Vegeta fight. Is there some pride there? Yes. But Vegeta ain't no uncle figure to Gohan. That's Piccolo & Krillin.

Why are Carmine & Soldier 15 there on Beerus' planet? Goku could have just had his sons & Trunks put a hand on his shoulder then teleported. And why would Gohan see Carmine & 15 who shot at his home & at him, turn Beast out of anger, then hop into the same vehicle as them as if he forgot what happened in the last chapter? It was literally a few seconds ago.

This was just for them to record Goten & Trunks in their costumes (can they even keep up with how fast they are moving?) And it just seems like a plot device that won't matter at all. Anyone remember 7-3 in the Granolah Saga?was there for a moment & served no purpose other than a reference. I bet this with Carmine is for a simple joke to be quickly thrown aside.

#dbs manga #dbs #goku #gohan #dbz #db