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catmiemy · 9 days

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New Life, Old Problems (Leah Williamson x Reader)

Summary: You're trying to fully settle into your new life in London with your girlfriend. But when you get sick your past stops you from reaching out.

A/N: Finally managed to put something on paper again! By now I have about 6 stories (some multiple chapters) fully planned out in my head, but I struggle so much with actually writing any of it. Although it's getting a bit better, so I might become more active again.

This is the third part of the New Teammate series (Part 1, Part 2 Arsenal version). Although I think you should be fine to read this without reading the other parts first. Also this was definitely helped along by @holly-wallis, who reached out to tell me she was excited for the next part. So thank you again!

You thought you were doing well. You thought you had settled perfectly into your new life in London. You thought your relationship with Leah was going great. And all this was true, but only to a certain degree. Underneath the surface there were still many gaping wounds and you had a long way to go, which would take even longer because you refused to accept it, pretending like you were already at your destination.

How hard it really was for you to fully trust anyone, even Leah, to be vulnerable around her, became glaringly obvious when you got sick. As much as you wanted comfort, someone to take care of you, you couldn’t allow it. The thought of trusting anyone so much when you were in a vulnerable state left you panicked.

However there was no hiding your sickness. Leah and you had plans that day and if you came up with some random excuse your girlfriend might end up checking on you since it was unlike you to cancel without a good reason. And sadly you couldn’t think of a single good reason why you were unable to meet up with Leah. How were you supposed to do that when you could barely muster up the energy to go to the bathroom when needed?

In the end you decided that the truth was your best course of action. The defender had been exceptionally understanding about your situation and the multitude of struggles you still faced because of your past trauma. Honestly more understanding and patient than you were with yourself.

Despite being reasonably confident for a positive reaction you still were too much of a coward to call your girlfriend, opting to text her instead. ‘This was better for your sore throat anyway’, you reasoned with yourself.

R: Le, I’m sorry I have to cancel today. I got sick.

L: Oh no! Are you okay? No wait, scratch that. How bad are you feeling? Is there anything I can do? Bring you something? Or do you want me to come over to keep you company? I’d be happy to!

You looked at the sweet and caring words, Leah’s concern noticeable even from these few letters on your phone. The urge to text back and ask the Englishwoman to come over was huge. She would take good care of you; make you feel safe and loved. But you couldn’t allow it because what if…

You couldn’t even begin to describe what was hiding behind this what if. Maybe it was actually that, the big unknown, the completely unexpected. Never in your life would you have pictured what had gone done with Jimena and the whole team in Barcelona before it had actually happened. It had left you afraid to fully let your guard down because who knew when something unpredictable would happen again. And right now you were definitely too tired to keep up any guards, so your only option was to keep everyone far away from you.

R: That’s very sweet, but I can’t…I’m sorry.

With a rapidly beating heart you watched your phone, practically hypnotizing it, scared of your girlfriend’s reply. What if this was the final straw? As much as this possibility scared you, it was still more bearable than the alternative. At least it was an option you had already considered. You wouldn’t be blindsided by it. Plus if there was one thing you had gotten good at in the course of your life it was dealing with pain and people leaving you.

L: I understand, babe. But if you need anything please text or call me. And I’ll be right there! Take care of yourself! Sending you some remote cuddles. Love you!

Your whole body relaxed as you read this response, even some tears of relief rolling down your cheeks.

R: Thanks, darling, I will. And thank you so much for being so understanding!! Love you too!

And with that you put your phone away, buried yourself under the covers and fell asleep relatively quickly. The cold medicine you had taken before texting Leah doing its part in helping you drowse off without too much of uncomfortable shuffling. Your last thought was that hopefully you’d already feel better when you woke up again.

Unfortunately the opposite was the case. You were startled awake by a violent coughing fit that just wouldn’t stop. You thought that you could ride it out, but when it got to the point where you felt like you had to throw up from coughing so much, you forced your tired body out of bed and into the bathroom.

First you collapsed in front of the toilet, bending over the bowl, but once it became clear that you didn’t actually have to throw up, you dragged yourself into the kitchen and filled a glass with water.

As long as you were drinking you were fine, but as soon as you put the glass down the scratchiness in your throat returned with full force, swiftly followed by another cough attack.

You resigned yourself to keep standing there, leaning heavily against the counter, too tired to support your body weight with only your legs, and drink glass after glass, until finally you could put the water down without instantly dissolving into a coughing fit.

At that point you were trembling because of the cold, your teeth chattering and every single bone of your body seemed to be hurting. Still you didn’t immediately crawl back into bed, instead you gathered all of the supplies you might need to ride out this cold. You filled a bottle with water, grabbed some crackers and medicine and then you decided to also get a bowl to be on the safe side should you actually have to throw up at some point.

When you finally returned to bed, your breathing was labored and you all but fell into it. You quickly buried yourself under the blankets. It did little to warm you up though and you debated for a moment to get back up and get more blankets. The idea of moving again seemed entirely impossible however.

This time it took you a lot longer to fall asleep, silent tears streaming down your face because you felt so miserable. You yearned for some comfort, for Leah’s arms around you really, and you knew she would come in a heartbeat if you asked her. Still, you couldn’t. You just couldn’t!

The next time you woke up you felt even worse and it was at this point that you realized that you needed help. Somewhere in the hazy fog of fever and misery you managed to form this one rational thought. However you had little recollection of what happened next.

You remembered staring at Leah’s contact on your phone for a while, although you couldn’t say if you did so for a few seconds or minutes or even hours. In the end you decided against calling her, instead opting to get an Uber. How you managed to get to the hospital was beyond you. You had some vague memories of a very concerned and helpful Uber driver who even walked you into the ER.

Another thing you recalled was sending Leah a message once you sat in the waiting room, slumped against the wall and shivering violently.

R: Fine. At hospital. But fine. Don’t worry!!!!

You even remembered feeling very proud of this text; convinced that it would soothe all of your girlfriend’s concerns. If you would have been coherent enough to read Leah’s answer you would have known that it had the opposite effect. You did feel the constant buzzing of your phone from when the Englishwoman tried calling you over and over again, but it felt kind of nice against you aching body, so you didn’t do anything about it.

---

“She’s not answering her phone and she hasn’t texted me back, Lia! What do I do!?!”

Your girlfriend was crying as she basically screamed these words at her best friend. When she had gotten your text and couldn’t get a hold of you, she had called the Swiss woman for support and because the midfielder was known for being helpful in difficult situations.

“Okay Leah, first take a deep breath…” Lia began with a soothing tone.

“Are you kidding me?! How do you expect me to breath when I don’t know where my girlfriend, my very sick girlfriend might I add, is!” Leah yelled, feeling the need to punch something like some sort of cliché from a movie. Or even better, the blonde would have loved to have a ball at her feet right now, that she could pund with all of her strength into the back of the net. And then maybe get into a slightly too aggressive scuffle with an opponent. Just something to get rid of this nervous energy.

“You know where she is though, she’s in the hospital, so they’ll be taking care of her,” Lia reasoned, continuing quickly before your girlfriend could blow up at her again, “And fine let’s skip the breathing. Here’s what I think we should do; you pack some things your girl might need and I’m going to call the hospitals closest to her. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out where she is. Then I’ll come pick you up and drive you over because you definitely shouldn’t be driving.”

Despite her earlier refusal Leah let out a deep breath, relief smoothing out the edges of her panic, at least now they had a reasonable plan. This was exactly why she had called her best friend and once the Englishwoman was less preoccupied with her fear for you she would be thanking Lia profusely.

A little later the two footballers arrived at the hospital, Lia once again taking the lead and asking about you. There was a bit of a back and forth where the staff had to figure out if they could even give them any information about you.

It was a big test for your girlfriend’s brittle composure, every second that ticked by brought her one step closer to bursting into tears or unleashing her fury on everyone that got into a five meter radius of her.

Leah managed to keep it together however, not using the healthiest coping mechanisms. The Englishwoman kept pinching herself to let at least some of the overwhelming emotions trickle out of her.

Lia frowned when she noticed, but decided to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t want to risk a full-blown outburst which might then keep them, or at least Leah, from seeing you even longer.

Finally they managed to find the right information and saw that Leah was in fact your emergency contact, something that the blonde had been telling them all along. If only they would have believed her then this wouldn’t have taken so long!

Thankfully things went quickly after that. Leah was led to your room while Lia wasn’t allowed to tag along. The Swiss woman promised that she would stay in the waiting room until your girlfriend had updated her, in case either Leah or you needed something.

Leah entered your room quietly, not wanting to disturb you even though with all the meds you had been given it was unlikely you would wake up anytime soon. Still she didn’t want to take the risk. So the defender tiptoed into your room, coming to a sudden halt once she had a good view of you.

It filled your girlfriend with fear and pain to see you so sick. You were pale, even more so than usual, almost the same color as the bed sheets. There was a tube connected to your arm, most likely to replenish you with everything you needed. You were also hooked up to a monitor, and it was a small relief to Leah that everything on it looked and sounded normal. As far as she could tell at least. Most of her medical knowledge stemmed from watching doctor shows, so that probably wasn’t the most reliable source.

After getting used to this sick, fragile version of you the blonde approached you, standing by your bedside. She looked down at you with teary eyes, gently stroking your cheek before smoothing out your tussled hair.

Your girlfriend craved more contact. She wanted to snuggle up next to you, wrap her arms around you and basically attach every centimeter of her body to yours. But Leah didn’t know how you would feel about that. Not when you weren’t awake to enforce your boundaries, not when you were in a vulnerable state which usually made you push people far away from you.

So with a sigh she pulled up a chair and sat down next to your bed, not even allowing herself to hold your hand. The England captain didn’t want to risk making you uncomfortable even the tinie when you woke up.

It was about 30 minutes later that Leah suddenly remembered that Lia was still waiting for her. She rushed down to the waiting room, not wanting to leave you alone for a second longer than totally necessary.

“She’s okay, I think. Or not too bad at least. So you can go home,” Leah explained, sounding very unsure. Everyone had told her that you would be okay, all the signs pointed to it, but she would only be able to believe it once you woke up and she could see for herself. And maybe not even then.

“That’s good! I guess you want to go back now, but call me if you think of anything you need, yeah?” Lia replied, giving her friend a tight hug.

Leah nodded, before turning around and walking as fast as she could back to your room. She would have run, but had the distinct feeling that that wouldn’t be appreciated by the hospital staff. And the Englishwoman didn’t want to annoy anyone, not when she was aware that they were already breaking the rules for her by letting her stay with you way past visiting hours.

---

When you woke up you noticed with a pang of sadness that there was no warm body next to you. It wasn’t like you and Leah stayed over at each other’s place every day, but definitely more often than not. And lately every time you woke up alone you felt some dismay. Everything was just better when you got to start the day with your girlfriend.

The second thing you became aware of was that despite just waking up you still felt exhausted, drained was the better word really, and also somewhat hazy and achy. It was then that you remembered that you were sick and that you had this weird fever dream where you took an Uber to the hospital. If you would have had the energy for it you would have laughed at the absurdity of this.

However as you opened your eyes you realized with a silent ‘Oh’ that it hadn’t been a fever dream after all, you really were in the hospital. Panic bubbled up in you, but got quickly cut off before it could become overwhelming by your favorite voice speaking up, even if you didn’t like how worried it sounded.

“Babe, are you awake? How are you feeling?”

You turned around, your lips turning into a smile when you laid your eyes on your girlfriend. She had gotten up from the chair she had presumably been sitting in, staring down at you intently. The Englishwoman’s eyes were trailing over your entire body, however not in the way they usually did, this felt more clinical, like she was attempting to spot anything that might be wrong.

“Could be worse,” you replied.

Leah gave you an unimpressed look. “But it also could be better?” She double-checked and you nodded sheepishly.

“Is there anything I can do before I get the doctor?” Your girlfriend asked softly.

For some reason Leah was still standing a good fifty centimeters away from your bed, her arms hidden behind her back as if she had to stop herself from reaching out to you. If only she would! You longed for some comforting touches and maybe a good, reassuring hug from the blonde.

“Get me home?” You joked with a pleading look. You definitely wanted to get out of the hospital but you knew that it wasn’t up to your girlfriend, and she would never do anything to endanger you.

“No can do, sorry babe. Anything else?” Leah prodded, hoping you would ask her for a hug. She could barely contain herself from launching at you, but the fear of crossing your boundaries in such a difficult situation kept her back.

“Maybe a cuddle,” you mumbled so quietly and rapidly that Leah couldn’t decipher what you were saying.

“What was that, babe? Sorry I didn’t quite hear you,” Leah apologized, taking a step closer to you.

You locked your eyes with your girlfriend’s, letting all the love and concern shining in them wash over you and give you the strength to utter your request more loudly. There wasn’t even a reason to feel weird about it, you knew that Leah wouldn’t deny it, would most likely be happy to oblige.

“A cuddle?”

Within milliseconds your girlfriend closed the distance between the two of you, sat down on the edge of your bed and leaned down to gather you carefully in her arms. You both felt and heard the relieved sigh Leah let out when you were tucked into her arms.

It made you wonder why the blonde had kept her distance before, a certain guess at the forefront of your mind. And in the safety of your girlfriend’s arms you managed to ask about it without much over thinking or fuss.

“Why did you sit all the way over there?”

All the way over there was a bit of an exaggeration, but also not really. Any sort of distance between your sick self and your girlfriend felt like way too much.

Leah tried to lean back a bit to look you in the eyes, but you held her firmly in place. You weren’t ready to lose the comfort of her body on yours, even if she put now weight on you, not sure if it would negatively impact you in your current state.

“I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable with me being too close when you woke up. I know allowing closeness when you aren’t feeling too good is still very difficult for you,” Leah explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Even though your girlfriend showed you over and over again, day in and day out how amazing she was, the level of understanding and love behind this gesture still knocked you off your feet, or it would have if you were standing. It almost made you believe fully that you would always be safe with her. Almost. There was still a tiny bit of fear and insecurity left. It would probably take a good while longer until you got rid of that last remnant and you were once again very grateful for Leah’s patience.

“Thank you so so much, love,” you whispered, pulling the blonde even closer to you.

“Always,” Leah stated, not an ounce of doubt in her voice. She would always do whatever she could for you, to make you feel comfortable, loved and safe.

Your girlfriend allowed you to cuddle a bit longer until she gently extracted herself to get a doctor. At first you were somewhat annoyed at this, you would have preferred to stay wrapped up together for the rest of the night. However when the doctor announced after a quick exam that you would be allowed to go home later that day, you didn’t mind so much anymore. The thought of going home made up for losing contact with your girlfriend temporarily.

Especially because she instantly stated that she would be staying with you when the doctor pointed out that you could only go home if there was someone around to supervise you. The way her voice sounded slightly offended that this wasn’t abundantly clear to everyone made you smile fondly.

That’s how you found yourself sitting in Leah’s car that Lia had brought to the hospital early in the morning with help from Viv and Beth a few hours later. The short walk to the parking lot had tired you out and you couldn’t wait to get to Leah’s apartment and crawl into her cozy bed.

You were half asleep when your girlfriend asked you, “Home?” Still you managed to nod and echo her words. “Home,” you confirmed.

In your drowsy and still a bit feverish state you hadn’t realized that Leah was actually asking where you wanted to go, your apartment or hers. In your mind it was already decided that you would be going to the Englishwoman’s place. You loved her apartment more than yours at this point, everything about it homey and safe.

So when the blonde announced that you had arrived and you opened your eyes from the half-sleep you had been in a wave of unhappiness hit you as you took in your surroundings. You were parked in front of your own apartment building.

Tears flooded your eyes, which you tried to blink away hastily before Leah could spot them. It was stupid to be upset because of this, it wasn’t like your apartment was bad or anything, you were just really craving the comfort of your girlfriend’s place. Where everything smelt and felt like Leah.

Of course the defender detected your distress instantly. She had been watching you like a hawk ever since she had gotten to the hospital last night.

“What’s wrong, babe? Does something hurt? Should we go back to the hospital?” She asked you in rapid succession, trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice calm and steady.

You shook your head, mumbling that it was nothing. To emphasize this point you reached for your seatbelt, determined to get out of the car and into your apartment without any more of a hassle. Everything was fine. It didn’t matter that you had wanted to go to Leah’s home. Everywhere was better than the hospital anyway.

Leah didn’t give up so easily though. She put her hand on yours lightly, not taking a hold of it however, leaving you the option to pull it back if you wanted to. You didn’t, just this small contact made you feel better instantly.

“Please tell me what’s bothering you,” your girlfriend begged, her eyes looking suspiciously wet.

“It’s stupid,” you waved Leah off.

“Please,” Leah asked again, demolishing the last of your resolve to keep this to yourself.

“I really wanted to go to your place,” you explained, rushing to add, “But it doesn’t matter. Let’s just go inside now.”

Again you tried to make an attempt to leave the car, and again Leah stopped you with a gentle touch.

“We can still go over to my place if you prefer,” she offered, already turning her car back on.

“No, that’s not necessary. I’m just being silly,” you argued, but Leah just reached over to buckle you back in and pulled out of the parking space.

You didn’t have it in you to continue arguing. Plus you were too happy at the prospect of getting to go to your girlfriend’s place after all. So you just leant your head against the car window, letting your eyes flutter shut again.

“I thought you said you wanted to go home,” Leah said before you could fully fall asleep.

“I did, but I meant your place,” you answered tiredly.

“Oh,” your girlfriend exclaimed, her voice heavy with emotion. The idea of you thinking of her apartment as your home meant a lot to Leah. Every once in a while she couldn’t help but worry if she was doing enough to help you move on, to be the best girlfriend possible, to make you feel loved and safe. So this undeniable confirmation that she had been succeeding in all of these aspects meant the world to your girlfriend.

When there was no more reaction from you after this, Leah glanced over, smiling when she saw you sleeping soundly. You looked so young and open and vulnerable when you slept. Leah cherished the fact that you were comfortable being like this around her, that wouldn’t have been possible a few months ago.

#woso x reader #woso imagine #woso fanfics #woso #leah williamson x reader #leah williamson imagine

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tenpintsof-sundrop · 5 months

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I really really hate to be that person - especially because I know a lot of people are under the impression that fanfic authors are greedy and we should be grateful for any comments we get, even if those comments are full of unauthorized concrit, even if they're kind of rude, even if they're weirdly self-shaming (sometimes insinuating that people should feel bad over reading the dark or smutty content in the fics or that we should feel bad for writing it in the first place even though you're also reading it??).

But like, lately, I have been getting so many comments along the lines of "this fic should be longer!!" "I wish this was a series!!" "please turn this into a series!" "I would read endless sequels of this!!!" - today someone literally commented on one of my fics saying that it was a war crime that the fic was 30k instead of being 'a whole series'. And I totally understand the mindset that if something is good, you want more of it. If you enjoy something, you want more of it. But these comments are definitely not as flattering as people think they are.

When reading those comments - it doesn't always come off as a compliment. Most of my fics range from 5k to 30k on average, and they are usually oneshots or oneshots that I have split into multiple parts in order to be more readable - most of my longer, ongoing series are abandoned because I didn't have the steam to maintain them. (Most people don't know at all how hard it is to write a good, coherent, well-plotted 100k fic and actually keep up with it.) After I post the fic I have written later this week, I will have written over 400k this year alone, with my entire AO3 having over one million words split between 79 different fics.

So often, having people look at my fics and having their only comment be to 'write more' - feels like an insult. Because I do write more. I have written more. I write consistently. (It just sucks that people have almost nothing to say about what I have already written.)

Having people look at my fics - usually very long fics - and go "hey, this would be better if it was longer!!" or "hey, that was good, but the only productive thing I have to say about it is: make it longer" - it always feels very discouraging.

It doesn't make me want to rush to write more of that fic. In fact, most of the time, I actively avoid working on sequels to fics where the only comments are 'more please' because I know the only thing people will say about the sequel is 'when are you gonna make more?' - and oftentimes, I don't intend to make more.

I have said this in another post, but the ending to my fics are always intentional. I don't write fics with the mindset of turning them into a 100 part series. I write fics with the mindset of making them like a film or a short TV series - telling a capsule of a story with a very intentional beginning, middle, and end. And if I write a sequel, it's because I feel there is more to be told - but I will also cap off that sequel with a very intentional ending.

(Also, don't get me started on the complex of - if fics don't have the classic 'happy ending' people feel like every single thread needs to be resolved until it gets to a more classic happy ending, when I love writing intentional melancholic and thoughtful endings.)

Also - in general, I feel like people don't understand how much work goes into a fic. It might take you about 2 hours to read a fic that's 30k (and a lot of people who are avid readers probably read faster than that, reading it in an hour or less) - but concepting that fic, writing that fic, and meticulously editing that fic so that it can be readable and pleasant for people takes upwards of 20 hours of work. I would say realistically, upwards of 30 hours. And those are just working hours - hours sitting at the computer actively working. That doesn't include the time spent in between workshopping the ideas in my head while I am doing other mundane tasks in life.

It's very, very easy to consume a 30k oneshot in one sitting and then hold out your plate and go "more please!!" without putting any thought into how much work went into the original fic.

All of this just to say - please think about these things next time you are commenting on a fic (or even closing a fic without commenting at all), or doing something stupid like generating a fic with AI - which steals from everyday hard working fanfic writers. Fanfiction is hard work - it's a labour of love, and it shouldn't be about blind consumerism where you finish one and then rapidly start looking for the next one. You should appreciate each one like a good, hand pulled taffy instead of gobbling them all down like cheap candy mass made by factory machines.

Yeah - I think that's it.

-your local over worked (but still passionate) fanfic writer

#uuugh #either nobody will see this or everyone will and they will complain about it #sundrop speaks #dick grayson x reader #jason todd x reader #ellie williams x reader #spencer reid x reader #abby anderson x reader #mike schmidt x reader #fanfiction #fandom #vanessa shelly x reader #gar logan x reader

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ponett · 9 months

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with the fallout of bandai namco's idiotic "it's up to interpretation" bs, do you think that it's possible to enjoy queer media made in a corporate environment in addition to independent works? is it even worthwhile to attempt making queer media in a corporate environment? i find it special how well the g-witch production team managed to tell the story they wanted even with the challenges and pressures they faced, but i have to admit that independent works like slarpg are always going to more completely tell queer stories. as someone who has resonated with both slarpg and g-witch, i was curious to know your perspective.

i'm probably less cynical about this than a lot of my peers are - not that i can blame anyone for feeling cynical about queer rep from corporate-owned media. (we've been through so many First Ever Gay Disney Characters at this point, and lord knows blizzard loves to tease that another overwatch character might be gay every year or so as a PR move.) unfortunately it's just extremely hard to get something like a full season of an animated series funded and produced independently, so the artists looking to enter these fields and pour their hearts and souls into meaningful queer stories as a full-time job don't have many options

going indie gives you theoretically endless creative freedom to tell your stories without corporate censorship, but it's also a massive gamble. only an extreme minority of indie creatives in any medium are actually able to make a living. the fact that i came out the other side of slarpg's development with enough money that i can keep being a full-time indie instead of being in massive debt makes me one of the lucky ones. and even with my modest success, i sure as hell don't have the money to hire a whole team, which limits the scope of what i can make. so i can't turn my nose up at the queer people writing disney channel cartoons where they can't say the word "gay" out loud. they have health insurance, i don't. for most people, what i do is simply not an option

with the corporate-produced Queer Stories i enjoy, i'm often able to squint and see what the creatives were trying to do, wishing that they could have done more while understanding that they probably had to fight tooth and nail for what's there

in the realm of children's animation in particular, i'm thankful that the people working at these studios ARE fighting for more, because it means that kids today have so many more positive queer stories to relate with. i didn't have a single gay character i felt i could relate to until i read scott pilgrim at age 16 and saw wallace wells. before that, i felt so alone in the world. i denied who i was for years because it felt like there would be no place for me. i didn't know anyone openly gay in real life, growing up in the south, and in fiction gay people either existed as the butt of a joke or not at all. the fact that queer kids are now able to see people like themselves in so many shows means something, even if we still have a long way to go and the big studios continue to be a major obstacle

on the subject of g-witch, i'm honestly unfazed by the statement from bandai-namco. i guess i wish they could've let suletta and miorine kiss, but like... the text of the show is extremely blunt about them being a couple by the end. it's not up for debate. and it's not like a gundam series having a meaningful story in spite of the wishes of the toy-producing overlords is anything new, this is just our latest example

all that being said, i do think people should branch out more and explore more weird indie shit if they want more wholeheartedly, openly queer stories. people gotta suck it up and embrace more outsider art instead of only valuing things with studio-level production values. start looking at ren'py visual novels, rpg maker games, obscure webcomics, zines drawn in sharpie, artists on bandcamp who aren't signed to a label, all that jazz. maybe part of the reason why i'm not more fazed by the state of affairs with corporate-funded fiction is that i'm constantly surrounded by furry artists who are telling their own little gay stories

#tamamayfox #ask

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near-dareis-mai · 1 year

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Something interesting to me that I think fails to be taken into account of the criticism "the Dragon Reborn can be more than one person or any gender" plotline in the show is that I feel most of the critics seem to mistakenly assume that the show is presenting it as a fact that the Prophecies of the Dragon are flawed, and that the show is presenting Moiraine's personal ideas of the Dragon as ironclad fact.

When, in fact, if you watch Episode 6 closely, what you're actually getting is an argument between two diametrically opposed points of view a) Moiraine, who thinks the Tower prophecies might be innacurate, and who therefore thinks they need to cast a wider net for who the Dragon Reborn is and b) Siuan, who thinks the Tower's prophecies are accurate, and who therefore thinks that they should be narrowing the candidates down according to who prophecy says the Dragon Reborn should be.

So you've got a) Moiraine, who's travelled all through the Westlands, and heard a hundred stories about the Dragon from a hundred different villages, taking the argument that the prophecies of the White Tower can be fallible and that some other prophecy out there might be the one they're looking for. It's natural for her to take this argument, because twenty years of being outside of the Tower and hearing differing stories is naturally going to shape her mind to be skeptical that the Tower is the only authority in this, or that the Tower holds the only right set of prophecies. It makes total sense for Moiraine to put forward this argument.

And then you've got b) Siuan, who's stayed in the Tower, who leads the Tower, who knows first hand the rigorous fact and information storage protocols of the Tower, taking the argument that the Tower's set of the Prophecies of the Dragon are accurate, and that they should stick to identifying the Dragon Reborn using them. It's natural for Siuan to take this argument, because the White Tower is pretty much the only institution to make it out of the chaotic post-Breaking period intact, and from the start the Aes Sedai have shown a vested interest in ACCURATELY preserving information, to the point where the Tar Valon library has a copy of every single book in existence. It makes total sense for Siuan to put forward this argument that the Tower's prophecies will be accurate in a way that no word-of-mouth prophecies passed down through generations in some out-of-the-way village would be.

But, at the end of the day, that's just what they are: arguments. The show presents both Moiraine and Siuan's arguments neutrally, and with equal weight: it doesn't actually take a side. It doesn't actually say that Moiraine is right. It doesn't actually say Siuan is right. Instead, it lets them present opposing arguments for tracking down the identify of the Dragon Reborn, and then the plot moves right along without establishing either one as right just yet.

And the kicker is, by the end of the series, THEY'RE BOTH GONNA BE RIGHT.

Siuan is going to be right, because yes the Tower's prophecies ARE going to turn out to be the most accurate of the prophecies in all the Westlands that Moiraine has travelled to. ALL the Tower prophecies are going to come true, even if the Aes Sedai haven't interpreted them correctly.

And Moiraine is going to be right because there ARE going to be other people with accurate prophecies that will come to light: the Aiel and the Sea Folk. The Sea Folk prophecies of the Coramoor and the Aiel prophecies of the Car'a'carn are going to come to light, and they're going to be just as right as the prophecies of the Tower.

It's just… as a book-first fan myself who watched the show later, I have no idea how we book fans can be mad about this one, and I simply don't understand the criticism that this was a short-lived plot point with little value going forward. The show can only have created this argument if the show-runner has full knowledge of how the book series wraps up, a long-running thread that can only be proven in multiple seasons, rather than just a one-season mystery box. And they've even taken care to set up the opposing ends of the argument be Moiraine and Siuan, the two people who first started the quest together, the two people who first head Gitara's prophecy of the Dragon being reborn. In Season 1, they've set up an almost metaphysical argument between Moiraine and Siuan that can only truly be answered in Season 8 after the Last Battle, at the end of the age of prophecies.

Additionally, they're also foreshadowing an argument that's going to happen between Rand and Tuon near the very end of the series: what do you do when two sets of supposedly infallible prophecies seem to clash, as the Westlands and Seanchan prophecies seem to clash, re: the Dragon kneeling to the Crystal Throne?

What part about this shows a lack of forethought, of not thinking through implications? To me, it shows the opposite. It shows that they're thinking through implications so deeply that they've set up this overarching near-metaphysical argument in Season 1 that can only be truly resolved in the final season of the final episode of the show.

#wheel of time #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #wot on prime #moiraine damodred #siuan sanche #rand al'thor #tuon #the wheel of time #wot books spoilers #as someone who read the books when i was a kid just thinking of the payoff of this question years down the road has me vibrating in my seat #if we actually get a book end scene of moiraine and siuan actually revisiting this argument in season 8 #i will go INSANE #utterly INSANE

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apparently-artless · 23 days

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WHY YOU SHOULD TRY READING WIND BREAKER EVEN IF IT'S NOT YOUR CUP OF TEA

Content warnings to take note of before you read: poorly written explanations and BAD ENGLISH [like extremely bad I'm not even joking XD], a few manga spoilers like mentions of characters that might not be included in the current season of anime

A few days ago, I started reading the manga of Wind Breaker by Satoru Nii and reached the latest chapter after two days. Considering I have a life to deal with, this is actually fast because I couldn't stop reading for as long as there is a next chapter to read. This series was suggested to me by my sister and I was already looking forward to the anime. After watching 2 episodes so far, I couldn't contain myself and decided to read the manga instead. In all honesty, delinquent theme is not my cup of tea. At the very least, it is not a genre that I would actively seek. However, this series piqued my curiosity, kept me engaged, and made me want to read more. And now here I am, desperately waiting for the next chapter to come.

Before anything else, I would like to let you know that [as far as the latest chapters are concerned], there are no teachers involved in the story. Even if they are going to school, there are no scenes of them actually studying. There are also no authorities involved. So just think of them as students only doing social studies by protecting the townsfolk and interacting with them daily. But then again, THIS IS FICTION, SO IT'S OKAY!! So with that out of the way, let me point out a few things that I really love about this manga.

THE MAIN CHARACTER

The main character, Sakura Haruka has such a cool character design. Bicolored hair and different eye colors, who wouldn't be interested? To top it all off, he's good at fighting and he is such a tsundere he ends up blushing all the time! He also has a sad past that makes us want to protect this baby boy from all the pain and suffering he encountered thus far. If you've watched the first episode, it's quite evident that he was ostracized because of the way he looks. Ugh, my poor baby boy. T_T

The anime actually did a great job of including more tidbits of Sakura's dark past in the first episode. There were scenes that I noticed that are included in the later chapters. In fact, the first 1 minute and 30 seconds of the first episode gave us something that manga did not give until almost 50+ chapters.

Some of the scenes are these:

And this:

It may seem like a normal dark-lit room but it actually speaks a lot. One room, no other furniture, and just a futon he can sleep on. What I am trying to point out is there is a difference between someone who started living alone as soon as they moved to a different town and someone who has been living alone almost their entire life. Now, don't get me wrong. Sakura's past is yet to be revealed. The full details of how he ended up alone are not yet even shown in the latest chapters of the manga. We can only make assumptions based on what was shown thus far and his behavior as he tries to interact with more people. Anyway, as you read more chapters, you will eventually realize that the main character lived a painful life before coming to Furin High.

THE OTHER CHARACTERS

If the main character is great, it's a good series. But it's even better if the other characters are interesting too. The mangaka did an amazing job with the other characters and how they contributed to the story. Each character has their own personality that you will also love. I bet you might even have a top 5 or even top 10 favorite characters just for this series alone.

THE CHARACTERS' DEVELOPMENTS

Now this is one of the reasons why I fell in love with the series. I am not just referring to the character development of the MC but also the other characters! What's more, is that the author finds a way to make their development interesting but brief and how their past contributes to who they are right now. Sometimes, the past is even included in a single chapter and with a few more scenes of the present. Of course, there are longer backstories but I assure you that every scene is important and contributes greatly to the plot.

THE PERFECT BALANCE BETWEEN MC AND THE OTHER CHARACTERS

You know how there are times that the main character feels like they are being forgotten in some series? I can think of a few but let's not mention those. XD Anyway, this one will surely not disappoint. The MC is a first-year high school student and even though it was already proven how strong he is in the first two episodes, there are surely other characters that are more OP than he is.

To me, this is very important. If the MC is the only one progressing, it's quite boring. But if there are other characters developing to the point that it makes you think, oh maybe he's the MC all along, it makes the series annoying. If I ever encountered such tropes, I would immediately put that series on hold and get back to it once I felt like it. Or maybe just never get back to it, at all. XD

Wind Breaker, despite having many interesting characters, manages to highlight the secondary characters without having the main character overshadowed and underappreciated.

THE DRAMA, THE COMEDY, THE ACTION AND THE FOUND FAMILY TROPE

Since delinquency is one of the themes of this series, of course, there's action. And the anime so far is doing a great job with the animation of the fight scenes. The drama is superb. It tears my heart out and rip it to pieces every single damn time whenever one of the characters' past is introduced. And then there's comedy. MC is socially awkward, and tsundere to boot. Who wouldn't laugh at his antics? What's best is that despite the fact that Sakura's behaviors are quite disturbing [signs that indicate that he did not have a normal life], the author managed to portray these scenes in such a way that you will find them painful but endearing at the same time.

As for the found family, I wouldn't want to spoil a lot but just think of it this way, the founder of BOFURIN considers every member not just as a friend but as family. And not just the students, he also considers the people of their town a big part of their family. Not some strangers to protect, but a family to treasure. If that's not sweet, I don't know what it is.

ADDED LGBT THEME

Since it's been confirmed that the anime will only have 13 episodes, the character I am referring to will not be introduced in the anime. As you may have already noticed, Furin High is an all-boys school so needless to say, all students there are males [at least, biologically speaking]. She's the only rose among the thorns. She was included in the screenshot below but I doubt we'll get to see her completely in this season. So I will leave it to your capable eyes to identify who I am referring to. XD

Anyway, the portrayal of this character is very close to reality. Her story of how she struggled with her sexuality and how she wanted to be accepted by other people is so beautifully and at the same time painfully written.

I really love Sakura and this character's interactions. It feels like Sakura has a very reliable and beautiful older sister. I do hope that this series will continue getting more seasons because I am really in love with this character.

I can still go on but I think that I already made my point. Anyway, if you are still having doubts about this series, just give it a try. Read at least 60 chapters and if you really don't like it, there's nothing wrong with it. We all have our own preferences when it comes to anime and manga. I thought I just needed to make this review since it's really a surprise how this series managed to make me love it a lot.

So if you are looking for a series that has these elements: fluff, angst, action, drama, comedy, found family, lgbt themes, you will definitely enjoy it!

#wind breaker #manga #manga recommendation #artsrecs #artsreviews #manga spoilers #wind breaker spoilers #wind breaker manga spoilers #long post

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animehouse-moe · 9 months

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Welcome To Demon School! Iruma-Kun Volume 3: Flowers Blossoming In The Night

God, it's been two months already? I'm so used to the typical quarterly release of series that Kodansha's catchup schedule with Iruma has caught me completely off-guard, but I'm all for it since I get to read more of this series! And what a trip down memory lane it is. Crazy to think that it's only been 4 years since the anime started airing, it feels like it's been much longer than that. Anyways, enough of my reminiscing, let me talk details with this volume!

The more I tend to read in a single sitting, the more I tend to compare the art of various series to one another. It's not a great practice, as each artist is aiming for something different in the mix, but sometimes it can help in making me aware of things that I wasn't previously.

A really great example of this is character blocking or posing. It's definitely something you can easily take for granted, and might not always feel like something noteworthy to share (unless it's really good). But anyways, the point was in my reads throughout today, I read a few series that had rather stiff characters and designs. Comparing that with Nishi's already incredibly fluid art, I could really feel the difference and effort that went into character posing to match that fluidity. Something that really puts effort into providing a dynamic feel where applicable, which plays really well alongside Nishi's static and delayed approach to humor.

I know it's really bad to try and talk about something that's so difficult to properly be aware of and to explain, but just the posing and the little details with lines and whatnot adds a lot to how you perceive and react to the poses and drawings.

Also, the Clara moment is this volume! But before that, some anime content (since I've gone to grab a screenshot). The anime actually adds content to this sequence/chapter, and it's a really great addition in my opinion. When Clara's down and out after being mocked by her classmates she returns home, rather deflated. To cut a long story short, it's a really great addition that drives home the importance of family and how they can reflect on/help with the confidence of a high school student and the troubles that face them at school.

Also an all-in-one seduction attempt from Clara that proves nearly fatal for Kalego.

But! The all-important question, how does the anime version of the Clara scene compare to the manga?

Well, I don't want to say it's a non-contest, but I think the manga has the strongest essence and feel to it. For me, it mostly lies in the eyes. The manga version is just that bit more squinted/narrowed, which makes it feel more happy and playful, resulting in a far more effective and true visage for Clara.

Now, that's not to say that the anime's version is a wash, it's still great and really close to the manga. It also has the advantage of being able to build up to the moment better.

Moving on, I've talked at end about the expressiveness of Nishi's art, and how willing they are to get down and dirty with little differences in art and approach to characters and whatnot. With that in mind I'll spare the trouble of re-hashing that and instead turn my attention towards the messages of this volume.

Okay, maybe I lied a little. I just can't get enough of Nishi's range. Five total characters on the page, and all of them look so different. The shading, the use of color, they're all so varied. And most importantly, they're all so cute and fun.

Anyways, there's just so many and they're all so natural and well integrated that you can easily miss them. Things like Iruma starting to take agency in his own decisions and life (even if it is in the underworld where he may be eaten alive).

I think my two favorite moments from this volume in regards to messages though would be Iruma's run-in with Kiriwo, and Sully's conversation with the big 3. Both present such simple but impactful aspects for the characters and story at large.

With Kiriwo, while it is about Iruma finding someone "like him", it's got way more to it than that. It's about finding your place to belong, somewhere that you feel that it's okay to be yourself. Add on top of that its emphasis on equality and a desire to let everyone be equal, and it just speaks so much to Iruma as a character (thanks to his terrible childhood where he was powerless against the life he was forced into). Also, something something acting in an expected manner for the sake of popularity and acceptance.

Now with Sully, it's not really something directly relating to Iruma, but I still love it so much. With the chance to unanimously take the Demon King's Throne and rule over the underworld, something that countless Demons aspire towards, he casually shrugs it off for the sake of his (new, and definitely not kidnapped) grandson. Especially these days, and doubly so under the guise of Japanese work culture, denying an effective promotion that would (as Sully puts it) "take me away from my Grandson" just carries so much weight. Choosing family and happiness over accolades and achievements, it's a really admirable and heartwarming piece.

Just to re-wind a little, it's super great to see how strong and important Kalego's established to be as a character so early on. His hardline on the students about the importance of education, and the dangers of the world really is very strong right out the gates.

Anyways, I think I've made my point on this volume very well. It carries everything that I love about this story, and even without motion or all the other addition of an anime, displays and depicts it wonderfully to the reader. It's got the same energy and excitement, and all the same important and valuable pieces to it as well. Just always, always a good time. Can't wait for the next volume to drop (in two months!).

#mairimashita! iruma kun #welcome to demon school iruma kun #iruma kun #iruma suzuki #魔入りました！入間くん #mairuma #asmodeus alice #clara valac #sabnock sabro #naberius kalego #anime and manga #manga #manga review #manga recommendation #shounen manga #shonen manga

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grapenehifics · 3 months

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Making of Monday: Can't Stop the Suns Part 1

(I am thinking SO positively rn that I am calling this part 1, like I will remember to actually write more. YMMV; we'll see how I do.)

I'm hard at work on the concluding chapters of Pick Up the Pieces right now, and working on Pick Up the Pieces means I also need to do a fair bit of rereading An Uncivil War, so it's very much on the forefront of my brain, and also I have yet to participate in a single MoM, so: here's some backstory on An Uncivil War.

Okay I actually need to back up even farther than that, all the way to Solsbury Hill and February 2020. I started Solsbury Hill - it wasn't called that, then; it didn't have a name, just 'weird doc file/outline I'll probably never finish because I don't have a track record of finishing creative writing projects, ever' - and then the very next month I started working from home AND season 7 of Clone Wars premiered.

To get ready for season 7 - and because I was home a lot more during the day, now, and didn't have to commute to work - we decided to do a rewatch of Clone Wars season 1 through 6. And you know how we joke about plot bunnies, and why they're called that? That the hardest idea is your first one and once you have that the ideas just keep multiplying? So, I'm sitting on an outline for what would become Solsbury Hill, and we're watching Clone Wars, and we get to season 5, and the episode with Ahsoka's trial, and I think to myself, huh. That's weird. Why is Obi-Wan acting like that? Why is he not sticking up for our Padawan? If he had, I bet things would have turned out differently. Ahsoka might not have left the Order. Anakin might not have turned to the Dark Side. Clone Wars is full of all these little things that individually might not be enough to push Anakin over the edge, but they start stacking up, collectively...

From there, it was a pretty easy leap to, 'what if Obi-Wan left the Order instead of Ahsoka', and that created this whole domino effect because Anakin would obviously leave with him, right, and Ahsoka was getting kicked out anyway, and now I've got this scenario with three Jedi on the run in the middle of a war.

And that was fascinating to me. Once I started thinking about it I couldn't stop. But I was also getting really into Solsbury Hill, at that point, so this new story needed to take a backseat. I dumped a bunch of notes into a Word doc and went back to my AU.

It turns out, though - and this was the first time I'd learned this about myself - that I liked having both an AU and a canon project going at the same time. Solsbury Hill and An Uncivil War both used such different parts of my brain and required a different skillset and researching vastly different things, and if I got bogged down in one it was nice to be able to switch to the other one and hack away at that one for a while. So I ended up, from early 2020 until August 2022 when I posted the first chapter of Solsbury Hill on AO3, working on both projects nearly simultaneously, although obviously Solsbury Hill (despite being three times longer) got to the finish line first.

For a long time - almost three years - An Uncivil War was just called, An Uncivil War. And it had this expansive outline that I just kept cracking away at, and whenever I came across something cool in another piece of Star Wars media or another show premiered or I read another book I'd think 'Ooh, that's neat! That's going in the fic!' and I'd add it to my to-do list. And at some point I looked at my word count and realized I was pushing 100k and not anywhere close to the end of the story I wanted to tell.

So, I started thinking about sequels, and series. I had (still have) this outline, fortunately, and there was one pretty obvious stopping point at what was then the mid-point of the plot. (I say, 'then' because it has since, of course, expanded. It turns out I'm very bad at guessing word counts.) So I took half my outline, dumped into a brand-new doc, called that one Pick Up the Pieces, and wrote the 'ending' of An Uncivil War, as much as possible, as if it were the ending, just in case I for some reason never got around to writing Pick Up the Pieces.

Because it was important to me that An Uncivil War be able to stand on its own. It's got a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the end calls back to the beginning, and the main threat to the characters is resolved, and they talk about what they're going to do next but even if that was the only story you had, it should still be a satisfying conclusion (or, at least, I hope it is).

But it isn't the entirety of the story I wanted to tell. Because they originally were one big story, I actually had maybe half of Pick Up the Pieces already written by the time I started posting An Uncivil War, so while the first part took me three years to write, the second has technically only taken me a year, but I was definitely not starting from scratch.

I also - and this should shock absolutely no one - was once again wildly off in my word count estimate. Pick Up the Pieces is, right now, already as long as An Uncivil War (120k), and I've still got three chapters left to go...plus a bunch more things in my outline I haven't gotten to yet.

So, in true Star Wars tradition, I'm now plotting a part three! Pick Up the Pieces, like An Uncivil War before it, has a logical ending point, so it will wrap up there, but the plot will move merrily along to the next thing on my to-do list, which is in fact the same to-do list I've had since March 2020. (It's a good thing I love this story so much or I would have quit long ago.) Part Three, at the moment, is tentatively titled Sometimes Fate Steps In, and I'm really, really sorry to have to admit that that's where all the smut is going to be. (I know. It's Solsbury Hill all over again.)

(I do love it, though. I feel like I should...apologize, to my fics, somehow, for having a favorite? I do have a favorite, though. It's this series. I love it so damn much. This is the one thing I write where, if you told me right now that I would never get a single comment or kudos on it, I would still write it anyway, because I just get so much enjoyment out of researching and writing it and re-reading it.)

(Which is not to say you shouldn't comment on it. Please, please do! You will absolutely make my day, week, month, year! But I love it enough to do it anyway.)

#making of monday #obikin #an uncivil war #pick up the pieces

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kataraslove · 8 months

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Do you think Kataang will ever get retconned for Zutara? I can see Bryke/Avatar Studios/Paramount/whoever tf is in charge now for the upcoming movie being like, “To drive up sales we should reintroduce Kataang vs Zutara discourse. Let’s make it so that Katara never actually loved Aang and only settled for him because she couldn’t have Zuko.”

short answer: highly doubt it

long answer: bryke had the chance to give in to fanon and make zutara canon at the end of atla; they didn’t. bryke again had the chance to make zutara canon in the legend of korra; they instead gave confirmation that katara and aang got married and had three children. bryke could have made zuko and katara end up together in old age; we have not seen one instance in which they even interact. bryke could have had them date in the comics, especially now that zuko is currently single. instead, katara spends her time helping rebuild the world with aang. any supplementary material from avatar studios could have indicated that they were spending time together - but the only thing i’ve really seen is stuff like legacy of the fire nation reiterating their friendship during the series. so if bryke never made it canon all these times, they’re probably not going to reverse their decision now. especially not when it’s been 15 years and the canon ships have a lot more support now.

in fact, one of the writers who had wanted zutara even said, “they’re definitely together in an another universe.” and offered no follow up as to whether they canonically had feelings for each other in the current atla one.

i mean, mike dimartino doubled down on braving the elements by stating that the moment in which katara offered to heal his scar wasn’t intended to be romantic. for context, when zach tyler eisen stated that the scene of katara bringing aang back to life was more romantic than the zutara moment, mike offered no denial. mike even confirmed one of my fave kataang parallels in that episode. so, the chances of kataang being retconned for zutara happening with avatar studios content are very slim. and isn’t that the whole point of avatar studios; so that bryke could tell their stories in the ways that they want to?

while kataang is probably going to be retconned for zutara in the live action adaptation, I highly doubt it will in any animated content (not going to say no because if the past lives can be completely removed in avatar lore, anything is possible. but it just wouldn’t be consistent with the canon that they’ve spent establishing over the last 15 years).

finally, the whole “katara secretly wants zuko while being married to aang and maybe could cheat with zuko behind aang’s back” is an insult to katara’s character in general, but it is especially insulting for the version of her character that’s a married adult women with a political career and a baby. even if for some reason she hated being married to aang and/or secretly wanted zuko, I’m pretty sure the version of adult katara that we’re going to see will be way too busy with her own affairs to even contemplate cheating. quite frankly, i should hope that there’s a ton of plot lines that bryke plans on doing with adult katara that isn’t “having a secret affair with her husband’s best friend.”

now here’s what i think will happen (and you can revisit this in two years time if i’m right): i think the marketing of the movie might have zuko and katara stand beside each other. y’know, hype it up for the loudest portion of the fandom who is relying on content from 2008. emphasize on the Fire and Water and red and blue and whatever.

the actual movie content will consist of aang and katara - as lead characters - being politically involved while navigating early parenthood. i think zuko will get a little bit of screen time, enough to build-up events for the rumoured zuko movie (which will likely be a sequel to the adult gaang movie). i think the adult gaang movie will confirm zuko’s relationship with mai. zuko and katara might talk with each other, could even share a nice platonic moment - but that’s about it (and that would be enough to stir up zutara shippers).

meanwhile, for kataang, I think the movie’s plan is to break popular misconceptions that:

aang is a horrible father and husband

katara is a SAHM (not that there’s anything wrong with that)

and i’m not saying that as, like, things that i want to desperately see. i’m saying that based on all the comics that have come out in recent years and all the content from avatar legends. of the two, the second misconception is the one that i’m most confident about that. we will definitely, no doubt in mind, get to see katara’s career and legacy (which I’m super fucking excited about!!!). and the movie will 100% contain a plot surrounding katara. this i can guarantee you, based on everything that I’ve read behind the scenes. remind me to one day finish writing out all the evidence i have surrounding this.

but anyway, anon, I hope this helps give you hope and anticipation? long story short, you’ve got nothing to worry about. look at how beautiful the happy couple looks.

#kataang

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nateofgreat · 1 year

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KOTOR 2′s backstory is really anti-Jedi, and also bad.

Honestly I think one of the worst “Jedi critical” stories in Star Wars has got to be Knights of the Old Republic 2. It’s just, really stupid IMO, I could do a whole series of posts on it honestly. But for now I’ll look at the backstory alone because it really doesn’t make any sense.

Everything starts with a sudden and especially brutal attack by the Mandalorian’s against the Republic, seeking to destroy it. And so the Jedi immediately intervene right? After all they have a long history of battling the Mandalorian’s and protecting the Republic, and despite what certain opinions would have you believe the Jedi are very much knights who don’t enjoy violence but will engage in it to protect the innocent.

Wait no, KOTOR is instead claiming that the Jedi opted to do nothing but sit and analyze the threat without even trying to help the victims of the war. Despite how wildly out of character that is for them. But okay moving on.

So as a result of civilizations being blown to smithereens by the Mandalorian’s and the Republic begging them for aid, the Jedi Revan goes around and drums up some support among other Jedi to defy the Council and go to war anyways. So naturally seeing this cult of personality crop up around Revan, the Council are quick to intervene and ensure this new following doesn’t-

No wait, there they go, off to war. At this point I guess you could generously view this story as one of a specific Jedi Council who became too wrapped up in other matters and forgot their duties? And so this new following under Revan are the true Jedi in this situation.

Except no, because supposedly (according to the game) every single Jedi (but one) who went to war with the Mandalorian’s and didn’t die fell to the dark side and resurrected the Sith Empire which proceeded to go to war with the Republic they were fighting for a couple months ago. So they all universally pulled an Anakin Skywalker.

This also doesn’t make any sense. The Jedi have great control over their emotions and passions, that’s why they meditate so much. They wouldn’t all be infected by hatred and turn to the dark side so easily. I’ll grant that some of them might but certainly not all (but one) of them.

Only at this point do the Jedi suddenly remember they’re actually warriors too and go to war. Never is the question raised as to why this war is so different from the first one they refused to fight in. But well, KOTOR 2 was really going hard on the anti-Jedi sentiment. To the point that the backstory for it all just feels really stupid and out-of-character for everyone involved.

#Pro Jedi #Star Wars #KOTOR 2 #KOTOR critical #Jedi Order #Jedi #The Jedi Order

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ilikekidsshows · 1 year

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What do you mean Adrien need more respect can you elaborate more because it wasn't the only time I see you said it

The way I see it, 'Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir' made a mistake in the very way the show is designed: they constructed a setting where everything hints at Adrien being a main character or at least a secodary character, but he's actually not. The show basically lies to the viewer about what to expect when it comes to Adrien's character. And I tend to have a pretty big beef with shows that lie to me.

The show is called "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir", Adrien's father is the literal main villain of the series, all the minor villains have a personal connection with him and his family has a long history with the Miraculous items. Meanwhile Marinette is just some girl from a bakery next to the school he goes to. The show's very story engine, the construct that creates the stories told in it, puts a lot of weight on stuff connected to Adrien when it comes to the superhero action, while Marinette's story engine connection are her feelings for Adrien, which generate the romantic comedy plots.

All the lore in Miraculous revolves around Adrien. You'd think that this would mean that Adrien would have a vital role in uncovering this lore as Marinette is the one who saves the day. You'd think Adrien's nearest and dearest being villains would be delved into some more since it's such a recurring thing. But none of this happens. Instead the show goes out of its way to make sure that anything that should be about Adrien and how he feels about it, is made to be about Marinette and how she feels about it.

Adrien discovers the Miraculous grimoire in his home, but the episode goes out of its way to make sure Marinette gets her hands on it and is the one who gets to meet Fu and become his student, while Adrien is left out on the lurch. Marinette is the one with an arc of realizing just how evil Gabriel is as she grows past her idolization of him, which might be building up to her being the one of the heroes who figures out he's Hawkmoth first. Marinette is also the one invested in Chloé's failed attempt at becoming a hero, while Adrien's feelings on Queen Bee are never brought up.

Season four ruined Adrien's relationships with every single character who isn't Marinette or Plagg and I think the only reason Plagg was spared is because they literally can't remove that relationship from the show. 'Rocketeer' exists solely so that Adrien won't tell Nino about him being Cat Noir, so that Adrien doesn't get a confidant like Marinette gets in Alya. This makes it so that Adrien will have less screen time to talk about his duties and life. The point is to make sure Marinette has more screen time.

The fallout of Marinette and Luka's relationship ending is depicted from Marinette's perspective, to show how she's getting by after the breakup. The fallout of Adrien and Kagami's relationship ending is depicted from Marinette's perspective as well, to show how she's feeling about Adrien and Kagami breaking up. We still don't have a single scene of Adrien and Kagami discussing their failed relationship outside of the breakup scene, which they absolutely had to include. The writers don't actually want to write about Adrigami, it only existed to make Marinette angst for the dramatic season three finale.

The way Nino and Kagami get removed from Adrien's support network is solely because the writers don't want to write about Adrien's relationships. They only care about writing about Marinette. I'm not saying this lightly. This is a consistent pattern in the show. The same happens in any situation where Adrien has a strong emotional response to something, and the writers sideline Adrien's emotions by having Marinette be even more upset by it or by giving Marinette something worse to deal with.

In the New York Special, Adrien kills someone and quits. This grief is sidelined in the narrative to focus on Marinette having an emotional breakdown about not being there to help Paris and then later angsting about Adrien quitting. The matter is resolved not by dealing with Adrien's grief, but by him coming back for Marinette's sake. The Cat Blanc timeline is not important for Adrien's character, despite the point of Akumatization being character development, it only exists so that Marinette can be upset about it. We know this because Adrien never finds out about it, while Marinette gets nightmares about it. In season four, Adrien gets pushed aside by Marinette constantly, and he is understandably hurt by this and quits. The episode then has him "learn" that Marinette needs his emotional support so much that he should come back and cater to her needs and ignore his own. In 'Destruction', Adrien once again Cataclysms someone, and once again the writers shoehorn in Marinette being upset about not being able to fix it. The best Adrien can manage on his emotions being taken into account by the writers is a few seconds of getting equal screentime with Marinette's.

The season four finale is what makes this writing bias obvious when the part in the story where Adrien was logically supposed to discover just how much Marinette had been keeping from him gets pushed aside by Marinette having an emotional breakdown about Félix tricking her and stealing all the Miraculous. The writers' priorities seem to be that Adrien's feelings on anything don't matter, only Marinette's. Whenever Adrien is justified in being hurt, the writers hurt Marinette worse so that they can ignore him and focus on Marinette instead. They also constantly keep information from him that the other characters should be giving him while not calling out these characters for keeping very important information from him. The important thing about said information control is that it’s always information that Adrien would do something about or have strong feelings about. It’s another sign that the writers don’t want to write about Adrien.

(This paragraph has been edited for more accurate information on the episode ‘Emotion’. The previous misinformation got mixed up because of a spoiler so now this post is accurate and spoiler-free.) The season four finale pivoted Félix into the role of the primary villain in Miraculous after Gabriel. However, in season five, Marinette gets top billing in the episode where he is convinced of the error of his ways, not his cousin Adrien, who Félix has wronged in every single one of his appearances and whose feelings about that this episode is supposed to address. The writers only allow Adrien to have his say once he’s been missing for most of the episode/Marinette has had enough screen time. The sidelining of Adrien and Félix interactions in favor of Marinette content is more on the whole "not allowing Adrien relationships outside of Marinette" thing they've been pushing since season four. Any relationship Adrien has only gets the minimum possible amount of screen time. It’s also part of a different pattern of Marinette and her feelings still getting focus in episodes that should be about Adrien, his family and his feelings, since we also had the episode with the anniversary of Adrien’s mother’s death have another confession attempt from Marinette and ‘Gabriel Agreste’ shoehorned in an entire Marinette subplot. The only time this series had a genuine Adrien-focused episode was when he and Kagami broke up, which I already stated was something the writers just couldn’t resonably exclude. 4% of this show’s episodes deal with things to do with Adrien, but only 1/4 out of those episodes puts focus on Adrien over Marinette.

Mariette’s romantic relationships in this show are really lopsided as well. We all know that it's a gender role cliche for women to always do the emotional labor in a relationship and to offer comfort, but Miraculous "solves" this one-sidedness by reversing it. Marinette's love interests are her biggest emotional support. Every finale has either Adrien or Luka swooping in to comfort her while she's having an emotional breakdown. Even Cat Walker is presented as a romantic option through having him swear emotional labor to Ladybug. Meanwhile Marinette never has to comfort her love interests because they're very skilled at hiding their emotions. This might be another symptom of the writers just not wanting to focus on characters other than Marinette, but I have seen that even progressive people in terms of women's issues tend to balk at the idea of men seeking out emotional support and comfort. Marinette and Luka breaking up the instant Luka needed more emotionally from Marinette does lean towards this former bias since Luka is allowed to have emotional needs as long as he doesn't ask Marinette to help with them. But, regardless of the reason for it, the end result is that Marinette's love interests are more emotional support dispensers than equal partners. The writers don't want Marinette to have boyfriends, they want her to have servants who cater to her needs, because she’s the main character and her boyfriend is her prize that she wins in the end.

This show has no respect for Adrien as a character. It seemed like he was set up as the secondary main character, only for him to be consistently treated as nothing more than Marinette's love interest. The writers only write as much about him as they absolutely have to. The fact that Adrien is also an abuse victim whose story is strictly about how little control he has of his life makes this all even worse, because the writers are actively removing any control he might have on the narrative as well. They're not doing this for the sake of theming, because then they would focus on his feelings about this. It's all for the sake of not having anything derail from their singular main lead. Adrien is a prop for Marinette, not his own character. And I’m too invested in Adrien’s character to be cool with this.

The thing about any of this is that if it was just any one of these matters alone, or even just a few of them, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Nothing is perfect, after all. But it’s this much stuff, and I’m sure this isn’t even all of it. It’s not only a consistent pattern, it’s a constant pattern, and it’s made me lose my patience with this show. It’s obvious these problems aren’t going to be mitigated, because they aren’t problems, it seems to all be on purpose because it keeps getting worse. Maybe it’s backlash at those Toxic Adrien Stans who want Adrien to be the main character in Marinette's place, so the writers diminish his role to drive home the point that he’s supposed to be Marinette’s support and will never usurp her role. The reasons don’t matter, all that matters is that the end result is my favorite character being treated like garbage.

#ml salt #this is basically me explaining why I'm done with the show #I still have some analysis posts I've already written that I plan to post but then I'm moving on to SPOP #I love Marinette but she alone can't keep me invested in this show #I was in it for them both from the start

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lord-squiggletits · 2 months

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Actually re: the last post about IDW Optimus and politics and moral grayness, if anyone here has read The Wheel of Time series, I actually compare IDW OP to Rand al'Thor in my head a lot. They have sort of the same background of "normal guy gets singled out by a person of Great Authority and put on a path to saving people" followed by a path to leadership hinging on "I became the Chosen One so even though I just wanted to save people, now I have to get involved in these bullshit politics where people are more concerned about securing their own power or spiting their enemies instead of uniting against evil."

Then there's a part of WOT where Rand becomes way darker and edgier, where basically as a result of a severe incident of betrayal and trauma, he goes "You know what, fuck you people, I tried to be nice and you just stabbed me in the back and tried to literally use me as a tool for your own ends" and he basically became a major hardass. To the point where I think there was at least one point (if not multiple) where after Rand extended some sort of diplomatic solution and got rejected, he was basically like "fuck you," fought an entire city on his own and won, then made himself the ruler and went "your armies belong to me and you're going to prepare to fight the Dark One like you SHOULD BE DOING." That phase is sort of comparable to Orion working under Zeta (OP flashbacks, Autocracy trilogy), in which OP's ideals are buried under disappointment and he's seeing these complicated, shitty political realities playing out where it seems like nothing is getting better and his attempts to work with the Decepticons only end in (from his perspective) being blatantly lied to and having his goodwill taken advantage of.

That's really what my ideal phase 2/3 story for Optimus would've been lmao. Still with the same idea of "gee you ARE fighting for the greater good but aren't you going a little far," but balanced out with a rightful dose of "I tried to be diplomatic and nice but no one listened, what else can I do but use force/politics/manipulation to make people see reason if they won't stop backstabbing and betraying each other in time to fight the Actual Evil Force who's going to kill us all."

WOT Rand even had a part of his character arc where he went so far into "humanity sucks, they would literally rather get slaughtered by the ultimate evil than set aside their petty bullshit long enough to work together" where he almost committed murder-suicide in a fit of despair that maybe humanity wasn't even worth saving at all. Only for him to be saved from the edge of despair by realizing "Wait, the world SHOULD be saved, because even though humanity sucks and so many people are evil, good still exists in the world and we can still fight to make the world a better place than it is."

LIKE IN A WAY RAND AL THOR IS BASICALLY IDW OPTIMUS in terms of the general shape of his character arc. Just the difference is that Rand got written as just a character with flaws and virtues coping the best he can under immense pressure and trauma. Whereas IDW OP got written more as "God the world fucking sucks and Cybertronians might just deserve to die bc we colonized people" and also everyone is constantly calling him a fascist and even the titles of his story are comparing him to an actual genocidal tyrant who killed 100 billion+ people. No joy or humanity just a scapegoat for evil living in a shitty world where everyone is miserable and "maybe our entire race IS doomed and we DO deserve to die" is like, a repeated motif of the entire story all the way to Unicron. As opposed to being treated as an obviously shitty worldview that the characters grapple with and go "no actually the world can be a good place and our society can recover from war and we don't deserve oblivion because of the cycle of violence we're trying to escape."

#squiggposting #like in theory i dont have a problem w what barber wrote. IN THEORY #i do enjoy depressing angst stories where the moral weight of war and shit is measured #and ppl ask questions about if the world can ever improve or if we're just doomed to repeat history #my problem is just that barber went too hard on the 'maybe we all deserve to die'#and not hard enough on 'actually we can improve and overcome our history'#i guess making OP some white guilt and fascism allegory was more important #like literally the depressing worldview wasnt some story arc the characters were trying to overcome #literally all the way through unicron it kept coming up #and literally not till OP 25 did the narrative finally go 'actually trying is enough'#so like the ending was fucking great and OP defeating unicron by the power of love was even greater #the rest of the story leading up to it not so much #idw op love

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veebs-hates-video-games · 5 months

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Let's see if I can sort out what to say about Fire Emblem Engage yet, which might end up with a bit of commentary on other games in the series, which I guess is appropriate since it's basically an anniversary game. The short version is that I feel like a lot of the hate for it from The Gamers is extremely exaggerated, and even though it's not perfect it's probably my favorite Fire Emblem game at this point.

Like most people old enough to have been around at the time my main introduction to Fire Emblem was through SSBM, although in my case I didn't really care about the characters in that so much. Specifically it was the inclusion of Together We Ride in the soundtrack that got my attention. I still have an mp3 somewhere that I recorded from the game by hooking up the line out of my GameCube to the line in on my laptop.

I didn't actually play the GBA games because I never had a GBA of my own, so I started with Path of Radiance instead and have played a decent number of the games since then at least part way through. Still need to get around to Shadows of Valentia one of these days, but it'll probably be my next FE/3DS game when I do.

Up until now I'd say Awakening was my favorite of them. It was pretty satisfying mechanically without being overly complex like Fates (which was great if you really like planning everything out and min-maxing stuff, but it's all a bit much the first time through playing casually), it had a bunch of fun characters and supports, the music is frequently excellent, and the story is completely ridiculous in a fun way.

In a lot of ways Engage felt very similar to Awakening to me, which was great for me. I don't think I could convincingly argue that any other game in the series is anywhere near as fun for me in terms of gameplay. It's incredibly flexible in terms of what you can do with your units and what kinds of team compositions will work, especially on lower difficulties, but it manages to achieve that flexibility without being overly complex in an intimidating way, and a lot of the map design is excellent too.

It does a great job of encouraging you to try different things out by the way the maps are structured and enemies are placed and various different gimmicks on them and is full of moments early on that demonstrate the value of different units and abilities without directly telling you what to do. There's a lot of stuff set up in ways that don't just hand you a victory and have multiple ways to approach them, usually more than one of which makes you feel very clever for pulling something fancy off.

And the Emblem abilities that are restricted in use by being situational and on long cooldowns let them give you some truly ridiculous stuff that would be broken in any other game but feels perfect here, and it lets you do some absolutely bonkers stuff once-ish per map as a result. A lot of it gets balanced out by giving bosses multiple health bars though, which solves so many design problems and stops you from just warping a single unit there to burst them down instantly. That and sometimes having multiple bosses on the same map really forces you to use the ridiculous emblem abilities and take advantage of your whole team you've deployed a lot more often.

I know there are some people who don't love it aesthetically, and that's fine, but just on a technical level it's easily one of the best-looking games on the Switch. Seeing clips of Three Houses again after playing Engage for a while is rough. It feels like looking at a PS2 game running in an emulator, and Engage feels easily at least two full console generations ahead in terms of the tech it uses and the results they get out of it. Plus I actually love the art style too, with all the bright colors and overdesigned characters and stuff, and the combat animations are probably the best the series has ever had.

And I suppose the big thing that the most people complain about is the writing and story. You know what? They're fine. As far as I'm concerned the series has never had top tier writing (sometimes it's pretty decent like the Tellius games or Three Houses, but even those have some issues), and if that's really what I'm in the mood for I have plenty of other options for that. Just from stuff I've played this year there's been Future Redeemed, 13 Sentinels, The House in Fata Morgana, and probably some others I'm not immediately thinking of.

It's not like a story or its characters have to be super deep to be fun or interesting or serve their purpose in a piece of media either, and for me Engage managed to do that for me in the same way Awakening did. I genuinely enjoyed spending several dozen hours with a lot of the characters, and the story's a bit silly sometimes but did what it needed to to bring a bunch of random characters together and through an adventure together.

And something unprecedented for me for a Fire Emblem game (and pretty uncommon for games in general) is that I immediately wanted to play it again right after finishing. Usually I want to see more of the supports and any optional stuff I might've missed (e.g. optional recruits and stuff), but that's not enough of a motivation to play through the whole game again, especially not right away. This time though in addition to that the game mechanics are so satisfying that I wanted more of that too, especially with all the units I never really used and all the new silly build ideas I started coming up with toward the end of the game as I understood how everything worked better. I've been holding back from actually doing it yet because there's so much other stuff I'm trying to get through or finish up, but there's a pretty good chance I'll start over again at some point in the next few months, maybe after SoV and/or going back and finishing my replay of PoR I started earlier this year before getting distracted by this game.

Engage is almost definitely my favorite Fire Emblem game at this point and easily in my top five games I've played this year, probably in the top three. I think it's probably number one for gameplay, with 13 Sentinels for story and Future Redeemed for all aspects combined overall, and Unpacking is an honorable mention for general vibes.

#fire emblem engage

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i-heart-hxh · 9 months

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You've mentioned a few times that the CAA is your favorite arc, and I'd love to hear you wax on about why that is! Since it's so....controversial amongst fans, it seems. Or, alternatively, you could wax on about your *least* favorite arc and why! I very much enjoy hearing your hxh meta, no matter what lol

Thanks so much for asking! It's hard to summarize all of the many reasons why I love Chimera Ant Arc, but I'd love to go on and on about it for a while nonetheless and maybe people will get something out of what I have to say!

(I actually don't think I'd have much to say about a least favorite arc, as I've re-watched/re-read I've found reasons to love all the arcs and I think the series works so well as a whole that it's gotten harder for me to single out any particular arc as a least favorite.)

I can understand why CAA is controversial to a degree. I think for a lot of shounen anime fans in particular, it's a difficult pill to swallow--it's long, it's complex, the focus isn't always on the main characters, and I'd actually agree that there are points where it gets overly dragged out and could have used some editing (especially in the anime, as much as I love it). It also goes in a lot of directions that aren't what one might expect watching it for the first time, which is actually one of the things I love most about it.

Togashi toys with shounen tropes and expectations from the very beginning of the series, but CAA is where that aspect of the series starts to get more intense and pointed. If you look at Yu Yu Hakusho and read interviews about it with Togashi, it seems he was dissatisfied with having to stick to the usual shounen formula (particularly in the Chapter Black arc, where you can almost see the editors forcing him to tone it down and telling him what he can and cannot do, removing his authorial autonomy). He has stated that he wanted to deconstruct the characters towards the end of Yu Yu Hakusho, but he was told he could not by his editors. I think this was deeply disappointing to him, especially with his health seriously dwindling at that time due to overwork.

When he created HxH, I believe he did so with the intention to build a series where he could initially follow a familiar battle shounen formula (albeit with clever twists from the very beginning), only to later use the series as a vehicle to comment on that very formula and then give himself far more freedom to pivot between different genres and switch focus as much as he wanted.

Here are just a few of the many, many ways CAA directly contradicts the audience expectations from a shounen series:

Gon (protagonist) and Merum (antagonist) never battle one another--in fact, they don't even speak to each other once

As the arc goes on, the human side of the war increasingly expresses negative sides of humanity (selfishness, pride, revenge, etc.) while the ant side increasingly expresses more noble aspects of humanity (loyalty, kindness, self-improvement, etc.), which of course makes it morally complex and there isn't just one "side" to root for

Gon's big power up is horrifying, tragic, brutal, and self-destructive instead of glorious

Netero ultimately defends humanity using a dirty trick instead of his own hard-won battle prowess

Meruem finds his reason for living in a disabled, physically weak girl, and the way he dies centers around spending his time with her rather than in any battle or involving himself in what the protagonists are doing

Gon is unable to save Kite despite "winning" (of course, Kite does make it ultimately, but not due to anything Gon did)

Gon and Killua's friendship and mental health are deeply affected by the things they go through in this arc--the "power of friendship" isn't enough to make everything turn out okay (at least not in the short term)

It is often the genuine kindness and mercy of the characters that makes the biggest difference in this arc, and those kindnesses are ultimately what changes the trajectory of the story

This is by no means an exhaustive list nor am I expressing it as well as it deserves, but I love how CAA intentionally subverts what the audience expects from it, but at the same time it also tells an emotionally engaging, intense, thoughtful, and beautiful story. I love how much of what happens in Chimera Ant arc involves themes and ideas Togashi had been subtly building on through much of the series, like Gon's risk-taking behavior and his issues with guilt and self-esteem, Killua's painful devotion to Gon, the idea of having to make great sacrifices in order to obtain great power (like Kurapika's nen contract prior), the idea that one's entire life can change when you meet one person, the idea of second chances...

The parallels between multiple characters and the way themes repeat and are interwoven into the story are breathtakingly brilliant in my opinion--I've gone through CAA so many times and I've read and written tons of meta about it, and yet it feels like I'm constantly discovering or realizing some aspect of it that I had missed or didn't consider.

I love what Togashi has to say through this arc about the transformative power of love and the different sides of humanity.

And on a more personal level, I adore the intensity of Gon and Killua's relationship in this arc and all the love and angst between them, the fact that the Meruem and Komugi scene made me sob multiple times even after I had already seen it before, how beautiful and filled with heart the anime production is for this arc even if the pacing is a little rough at times (the animation, voice acting, and soundtrack are top-notch), and the character development of Meruem and his Royal Guard. To me, CAA was what turned the series from something enjoyable and well-done to an absolute masterpiece. I love that you can go back through the series from the beginning and see the subtle ways it was building towards CAA as well--for me, it elevated the entire series because knowing what it's heading towards changed my perception of everything leading up it as well.

I could say so much more and I'm tempted to, but I think this a good summary of what I love about it at least. Thank you so much for asking me and giving me a chance to talk about what makes this my favorite arc!

#hxh #hunter x hunter #chimera ant arc #meta #my posts #asks #snowlemons #I'm restraining myself from just babbling on forever but I can always talk about it more another time lmao

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booasaur · 2 months

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Did you finish Night Country? If so what did you think of it? I loved Navarro—Kali Reis absolutely sells that stately sense capability and strength and hotness lol—and think Jodie/Kali really sold their relationship being the core of the show I also mostly loved how things played out (didn’t see the ending coming at all) but I wish the show had been given more episodes to flesh certain plots and characters out because some things felt a little superficial (it’s interesting to me that so many people were lost because I thought the show made a lot really obvious and could’ve actually used some more mystique) and enhancing them would’ve made things that much better and cohesive. But trying to find balanced criticism or commentary about this show is hard because everyone defaults to racist, misogynistic, no nuance takes on how it’ll never compare to s1 and just refuses to even see a little bit of the good. Idk I feel like you can dislike it and want better and still recognize the good aspects of this season and the value of telling indigenous stories. At this point I almost wish the showrunner had been able to make a new series like she wanted to, instead of having to be tied to the true detective name because maybe people would approach this with more honestly and openness

Hey, sorry for the late reply. Well, I know I've replied a LOT later before and mostly decided to stop saying sorry because I'd have to say every time, but at the moment, I'm having more difficulty than I used to in remembering how I felt when I finished the ep, so I wish I'd just responded at the time.

Let me see... First, I did laugh like an idiot when they took turns falling down the ice caves like idiots, especially Danvers.

Other than that, I liked the ending but it felt a bit too neat... I think if they'd changed around some stuff, it might have offered a bit more tension because, well, at that point, it seemed they'd let more killers go than caught them. Honestly that and all the quibbles I had, where I wish we'd seen some stuff seeded better and elaborated on more at the end, like you said, that all could have been helped with just giving them the two extra eps they should have gotten. I was thinking that too, at the time, lol, I remember now, when I read your ask, I went on this whole rant (to myself, in my head) about those two eps could have done so much, how the streaming model had killed TV, how these shortened seasons were basically like individual movies with an occasional sequel. I know this is an anthology miniseries and the story finished, but still! Too much is suffering for the same reason. I haven't really been able to get into a single new Trek, it's just a different form of storytelling. What can you do in 10 eps every once in a long while, with a full ensemble cast.

I literally looked up how many eps Discovery ends at and it's 65. Compare that to my home Trek, Voyager, where it flourished with new life when Seven appears. Guess when that happens. Ep 68! I literally had to chart the two shows:

Look at those huuuuge Discovery breaks.. It's not just that shows used to be given so much screentime, we just got so much so quickly. I absolutely forget what's going on in between seasons of most shows now. In terms of actual amount of time, Discovery actually lasts longer! But I barely know the characters or their stories. I can't say much different for Picard or SNW (barring what I brought in from before). There's only so much character growth and relationship evolution. How am I supposed to love them? Know them?

Maybe that's why I'm gravitating so much to soaps lately...

Anyway, it's more capitalism than just streaming, of course, which also speaks to your other point; I didn't know Issa Lopez just wanted to make a new show and they put it under the True Detective name?? But isn't that just so typical of all these issues! Like, the fact that they're making an NCIS spin-off with Tony and Ziva? They're retreating to the safest, most conservative ideas they can think of. It's happening with everything, companies dropping DEI initiatives, politics returning to big money white guys. Sticking this female-led extremely Indigenous-sympathetic premise with this particular franchise with its defensive white dudebro fanbase.

I wonder how much that's related to the obligatory bigoted backlash to any media perceived as "woke" now. It's all feeding each other, right, bad actors in each space taking advantage and fanning the flames, but it's beyond annoying now to have watched a normal show and go online and see this rabid overreaction to stuff that isn't even on the screen.

The worst part is, as you said, there's no room for the middle ground. I myself don't want to go into detail about the issues I had because there's so much unfair criticism. Like, if I thought it was a little unsubtle in its messaging at times, how can I say that when these fiends are tearing it apart for daring to even have the message. I'm just glad that Foster and Reis were so good and the show so well received that the fanboys can keep crying to each other about s1.

I will say, a huge part of that ending landing was Diane E. Benson as the older Indigenous Alaskan lady being cool as hell. She was so nonchalant and mischievous and angry as hell underneath it all! That's why I wished there was just a bit more tension, a bit more to that scene in terms of its place in the ep, rather than just its place in the story where it provided a reveal.

The handling of the killer reveal was what I found a bit pat, just being like, well, that happened, okay, bye, but the reveal itself? Freaking loved it. Those men deserved what they got and more. :<

Some things I'm glad they didn't go into more, the accident in the past, and what exactly happened to Navarro. Let me imagine she and Danvers are off together in some liminal space. :P

Anyway...I guess I did remember a lot, lol. And now we have a season 5 ahead. :)

#replies #Anonymous #sent on 20240220 #4 #5 #true detective

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magicalyaku · 11 months

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Hey there! I'm back from writing paradise. I admit I might have gotten a little obsessed but that was just because writing is so easy and fun while everything else is always hard. u3u But I basically finished my novel so I have no excuses anymore not to get back into real life. Here's what I read in May! Pretty good month! uAu

Keeper of the Lost Cities 3: Everblaze (Shannon Messenger): The first one in the series I read instead of listening. Was a good choice because I think I missed quite a bit of the first volumes. 8D Also, it's so long. I don't think, me being me, that I would have made it though the audiobook. Don't get me wrong, I like the story. I have a tremendous respect at how it is written, keeping all the plotpoints together, presenting the puzzle pieces little by little, managing the huge cast of people. When I complain next time about a Middle Grade book being too simple and too shallow than this is the kind of book I'm comparing it to. My one problem in this volume was, how the tension never lets down. It's so wound tight all the time, everything is always on the edge of collapsing, including Sophie. It was a little exhausting for me. So I was very glad, there were at least some answers near the end.

The Scottish Boy (Alex de Campi): I went to Scotland at the beginning of May to visit my friend, so what better book to read than this. And what a book. It's the kind of story, where so much happens in the relationship of the protagonists that right after it ends you want to go back to the beginning and read all their first interactions all over again. Hng. It's great. Also Alys, my queen. When she first appeared I was so afraid she'd turn out evil. Because court intrigues and stuff. The ending of this book is all my heart desires. I don't actually like war stories, you know. But after In Memoriam and now this, they sure make good love stories. The drama of for once not knowing where it all goes? Who lives and who doesn't? Damn. I really enjoyed reading this book. The illustrations by Trungles are also verrry nice. uAub

Captive Prince (C.S. Pacat): This was a reread and I read the other two volumes in June, so my thoughts on the series will go there. :)

Wraith, Entity & Presence (Oracle of Senders 3,4 + 3.5) (Mere Joyce): It's so hard to tell my feelings for this series. There's a lot of death and murder, there's choking and burning and failed exorcism and so much danger of death and still it was just so pleasant to read, so charming and nice and laid-back. It's so weird. 8D I liked the cast of characters and the adventure and Cal's and Meander's relationship (the complete lack of gay panic and homophobic surroundings), the classical music references (even though I never looked up a single one). I wish there was a sequel with Cal and Meander as adults. I mean, I realise, it would be difficult to do in a classic novel format because the ghost cases just aren't big enough to last a whole book, but imagine it like a half-hour show oder manga series with a ghost of the week for half the chapter and their happy slice of life for the rest. Hah. Good series.

The Hanged Man & The Hourglass Throne (The Tarot Sequence 2+3) (K.D. Edwards): I didn't think about it while reading but in retrospective this series fits into what I categorise as "wild". There's so much shit happening here. Big and bold. At the end of volume 1 I was still undecided of I like it enough to buy it on paper. These doubts were washed away with the sequels. It's an investment in the beginning, getting into the world and all, but I found it totally worth it. That one big drama at the end of vol3? Yes, totally got me. Like right from the textbook. Make me care, rip me apart. Damn.

The Buried and the Bound (Rochelle Hassan): If someone asked me in a survey about what I want to read and then actually went and made it into a book, this might be the result. This contains only things I like: two suffering (gay) boys, one tough girl (not involved in any romance), which is the best constellation of characters, really. Some magic, some adventure, some drama, different storythreads that weave nicely together in the end. I enjoyed reading it a whole lot and am looking forward to the sequels!

Ander & Santi were here (Jonny Garza Villa): Now this one was difficult. I think it's a good book, I wanted to like it, but. Hear me out. For me, this is split in three parts. The first one is about the illegal immigrants. See, for as long as I remember my dad worked in a … what's it called in English … an housing complex for refugees? Not a camp, but like a dorm. And while illegals and refugees are still a step apart, they're at least somehow adjacent. I lived basically next to them half my life and never cared. When in 2015 there was a huge wave of refugees coming to my country and everyone was freaking out, I just thought "Great, that means my dad will keep his job" (because the dorm was always on the verge of closing down and it would probably been tough for my dad as one of very few black people in a kind of racist small town to find a new job.) So anyway, I thought it was a good thing to finally read an actual story about people in these situations, to learn how to care. So that part was good and insightful. The second part was about the art. I draw manga only, but I do consider myself an artist and I was around when manga became big in my country and the art schools hated it and made us suffer. I have thoughts on art. And I really enjoyed reading about Ander's art and process and thoughts. My favourite part of the book! And then there's part 3, the love story. And I think, because I connected more strongly to the other parts than usual I felt the disconnect here much more than usual! The romance in here is very intense and very physical and my aroace brain didn't compute at all. Complete detachment. Which was kind of a problem, because the romance is a huge part of the book. I really wanted to like it but it didn't work. I did like Ander as a character, though, and their family and friends. And the cover is still so damn pretty!

That's it!

#yaku reads #may wrap up #books #queer books #lgbtq books #queer lit #bookblr #oracle of senders #the scottish boy #the buried and the bound #the tarot sequence #keeper of the lost cities #ander and santi were here

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