#is in his stories that haven't officially released yet

[starcurtain]

People are not making nearly enough fun of Wriothesley for being a coupon-hoarding king.

You know if this man was in the real world he would never pay full price for anything. The store owes him money by the time he leaves.

#genshin impact #wriothesley #genshin impact spoilers #spoilers #genshin shitposts #technically I guess the detail about Wriothesley being the meropide coupon collecting champion of the century #is in his stories that haven't officially released yet #but fanfic writers #I really don't think we should move on from this one too soon #he saw the coupon game and he was going to W I N it #you know he would roll up to the store and just open a little coin purse full of meticulously clipped coupons #the line is getting longer and longer behind him #but he's vibin

[alocon]

Still Irresistible [2] - Lando Norris

Lando Norris x Fem!Reader

written by alocon

Summary: Despite all hope, Lando never lost his feelings for his best friend's twin sister. However, he still hadn't acted on it. Well, that was until the party, which led you two into a long-term secret relationship

Warnings and Tropes: Fluff, part 2 to the story released the other day.

[Part One Here] [Part Three Here] [Part Four Here] [Masterlist]

Irresistible - LN⁴ x Fem!Reader

"Lando Norris"

You two had never broken apart as quickly as you did just then. The pair of you had been in your kitchen, cooking together for the arrival of P and Max. You had forgotten that he had a key. He quickly placed another kiss on your lips before stepping back, sitting on the counter beside you just in time for your brother to walk in.

"Hello, beautiful," P said, walking over to you to place a kiss on your cheek. You greeted her back, returning the gesture.

You and Lando had, expertly, invited the pair for dinner. They didn't know that you and Lando were together. I mean, God. Max would surely kill you for it. Which is exactly why this wasn't a double date. It was simply two roommates, one roommates brother and the brother's girlfriend having dinner.

It wouldn't be the first double date that you two had. You had also had some with Alex and Lily, as those two had witnessed your first kiss at the club 8 months prior and had a few with Oscar and Lily, who had only found out about you because Lando accidentally slipped up when he was speaking. Other than that, though, no one knew. You travelled to a lot of his races with him, so, of course, there were rumours about the two of you. However, Max was not suspicious as that had happened since he started driving in Formula One. It was how the sport went. Racing on Friday-Sunday, Rumours from Monday-Wednesday, Answering those rumours on Thursday. It was just part of the sport.

The group of you began to discuss how you had been, how things had been going. You all stood in the kitchen talking so that you could cook and still be involved. "What about you, Lan? Have you found someone yet, mate?"

Almost as if it was rehearsed (it was), Lando began to use his excuse. You both had agreed that, had this question came up, you would say you weren't, and he could choose on the day. "There's someone I'm interested in. She's great. We've talked, but I haven't taken her out on a proper date yet." You smiled as you stirred the pot of pasta. Smart, you thought. Technically, it's not a lie. He hadn't taken you out on an official date, just you two, but you had been on double dates, and you had also had many dates in the house. And when you went out in public together, it wasn't considered an official date, so no one was suspicious. Didn't mean you both didn't consider them dates.

"That's great, mate. It's about time you got yourself out there. I swear, since we were little, it was always 'yeah there's someone I like but we can't be together', I had started thinking that you might love my sister." Max let out a chuckle as you thanked God that you were facing away from him as you listened in, more intrigued. You decided to start teasing Lando.

"Awwe. Used to have a little crush on me, did you?"

Lando picked up on the usual jokey-flirting and decided to hit back. "Nope. Can't stand you."

"Yeah, yeah, that's why you used to get super nervous talking to me when we were 13." You turned to him, watching as his face flushed slightly red out of being called out. He was only able to mumble a 'shut up' in response, making you and Max laugh.

"Doesn't surprise me, I was amazing and very funny and beautiful growing up."

"Still are. Except for the beautiful part," He quickly added the last part onto his sentence as he spoke too quickly for that to be considered friendly. Max eyed him before turning away. You began to plate up the pasta and sent Max off to go set the table, P opting to follow him. "That was close," Lando whispered to you, causing you to wack him gently.

"God, Lan. Watch what you say," you responded, placing your hand on his face to pull him in for a quick kiss. That kiss turned into a longer one, though, as he clearly didn't want to break away from it.

"Right. Make yourself useful." You said, pulling away before they could get caught. You passed him two plates. "Go take these out please. This one is P's, this one is Max's."

"Yes ma'am. Do I get paid with another kiss?"

You rolled your eyes, placing another peck to his lips before he grinned, heading out of the room with the plates.

You grabbed the other two, following suit and placing them on the table. "Right, I'll be back in a second, I'm going to run some food over to Martine."

"Alright, tell her I say hi," Lando responded as you went to the kitchen.

A look of confusion appeared on Max's face. "Who's Martine?"

"Our neighbour. She's 60, and she's been struggling a lot recently because her husband passed last month, so we've been taking her food and inviting her over for dinner so she isn't lonely."

"Aw, that's lovely!" P said, smiling as the door shut.

You stepped across the hallway, knocking the door of your neighbour opposite. After a few minutes, she answered. "Hi. How are you?"

"I'm good, how are you doing? We have some extra food, so I wanted to bring it over for you." You passed her the tub of food, and she smiled gratefully.

"Oh, thank you, dear. I'm feeling a little better than yesterday. It's getting easier day by day, you know?"

You nodded in response, accepting the hug she offered you. "Would you like to come over for dinner again on Friday? Like we have been doing the past few weeks?"

"Are you sure it wouldn't be too much bother?"

"Not at all. I would've invited you over today, but my brother and his girlfriend are over for dinner, and I remember you saying that big groups got a little overwhelming for you."

"Ah right, having a double date, are you?"

You shook your head. "No, my brother doesn't know about Lando and I. Lando says hi by the way."

"Oh, do tell him I say hi back. How come your brother doesn't know? Haven't you been together for 8 months now?"

You grinned cheekily in response to her question. She was such an angel. You absolutely loved Martine. She was hands down the sweetest neighbour you had. "Lando was Max's best friend before he was my boyfriend, so Max would be a little upset if he found out."

"Oh, right. Well, you can't decide who you fall in love with, darling." You heard a door open behind you. "Love is something you can't really control. If you feel like someone is really, really right for you, he probably is, you know?"

You froze when you heard a voice behind you. "Uh. Sorry, who are you in love with?"

Martine turned to your brother. "Oh, hello, you must be the brother. I've heard a lot about you. Don't mind our conversation, dear. I was just telling her about my daughter and her new boyfriend. I'm Martine."

'Martine, you legend,' you thought as she smiled sweetly and innocently.

"Oh right, I'm Max." He shook her hand before looking at you. "Where's the red wine?" You turned to see Lando poking his head around the door too, shooting you a wink.

"Top cupboard, right at the back. I had to put it back there because someone..." You paused to dramatically look at Lando. "Smashed up the last bottle we had."

"It was an accident."

"Yep. And now I have to Lando-proof everything." You turned to Martine. "Right, Martine. I'll leave you, your daughter and her boyfriend, be. Do tell them I say hi."

"Of course, dear. It was lovely to see you, as always. See you Friday."

You three headed back inside, Max heading to grab the wine.

Sitting at the table, you and P waited patiently for the return of Max and Lando. You made friendly conversation, as always. You two always got along quite well. P looked around for any signs of the boys before leaning towards you. "So... Anyone you're interested in?"

You looked at the woman. She knew something. You sighed, shrugging. "There is someone I am interested in. Please don't tell Max though, we both know he'll get all protective twin about this."

She nodded. "Do I get to know who? Because I could take a few guesses."

You shook your head. "Maybe some other time when people can't listen in."

She understood, luckily, and it was only a few moments until the boys reappeared, laughing away as they carried the wine glasses in. Lando sat beside you, gently giving your hand a quick squeeze under the table.

Dinner went normally, you all talked and messed about, the usual. You then all retreated to the living room to play some games.

"Oh fuck you!" Max wasn't happy as you crossed the line once again to take first place, having barely overtaken him just before the end due to an ability you had saved. "You cheated!"

"You can't cheat in Mario Kart, Max. Stop bitching because I'm better."

"Right," Lando spoke up before they could continue arguing. "Bed time, I think. What do you think?" The other 3 of you nodded in agreement. Max and P would be staying over so Lando had given up his room, stating that he was more than happy to sleep on the pull out sofa bed in your room.

You were laid down on your bed as Lando locked the door, Max and P having already retreated to Lando's room and P having already fallen asleep. Lando was the last to come to bed. He took his shirt off, placing it on your chair before removing his jeans so he was only in boxers. He slid into bed beside you, his arms wrapping around your waist and pulling you into him. He let out a soft, content noise as you cuddled up closer to him. "I've missed doing this."

"Lan, it's only been a few hours," you noted as one of his hands ran up to play with your hair.

"A few hours too long, being away from you sucks so bad."

"What are you going to do when you go off to races, then?"

"I don't know." He looked down at you, placing a kiss on your forehead. "You could always come with me."

You looked up to meet his eyes. "To which ones?"

"All of them." He paused, taking some time to admire your face, to watch the way to smiled softly. "Every. Single. One." He placed kisses to your lips between each word before placing his forehead against yours, looking into your eyes.

"Okay."

"Okay? You will come to more races with me?" His eyes lit up as he thought of all the time you could spend cuddling after his races.

"Lando." You stopped speaking a second, your hand moving to the side of his face, thumb gently moving over his cheek. "I would go anywhere that you asked me to."

He pulled you into another hug, his head on top of yours, squeezing you tight, not wanting to let go. He whispered a few I love you's to you, placing kisses all over your face as he spoke. He then placed another to your lips, a longer one than previous. One full of love, adoration. One that made you feel that you two were the only people in the world. One that made you feel like nothing else ever mattered. One that showed you that, no matter what Max thinks when he finds out about your relationship, it really doesn't matter. As long as he had you, everything was perfect and how it should be. You balanced him, you showed him the love that he always dreamt of being shown. You showed him what adoring someone truly felt like. And he found you irresistible. He would always find you irresistible.

-The End-

[Word Count - 2,012]

Hi All,

Another part to the Lando Norris "Irresistible" story because I thought the first part could do with a part two. Hope you are all well, as always, have a lovely day x

Alocon

#f1 #fanfic #formula 1 #lando norris #lando norris x reader #lando norris imagine #lando x reader #lando #ln4 x reader #lando norris mclaren #lando norris x you #lando norris fanfic #lando norris fic #ln4 one shot #ln4 #ln4 imagine #ln4 fic #ln4 fluff #mclaren f1 #mclaren #lando norris one shot #lando norris fluff #ln4 x you #ln4 x y/n #ln4 fanfic #ln4 mclaren #mclaren formula 1 #mclaren racing #f1 fanfic #formula one

[aroacehanzawa]

mary h.how many bsd novels are there i thought it was just the agency aku one and the dazai one but theres more apparently?? how many different bsd spin offs are there i am so confused

OHHHH BOYS. BESTIE YOU ARE NOT READY. THERE ARE SO MANY. and i know this because i own every single novel that has an english release (i'm linking all the ones that do):

Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam - this is the one with the Azure Messenger, infamously adapted into the present day in the middle of season 1 when it's actually set 2 years in the past as Dazai's entrance exam into the ADA.

The Untold Origins of the Detective Agency - what the title says, currently being adapted in the beginning of season 4. The novel also includes a short story set the day before Atsushi's entrance exam about the ADA planning what his exam should be.

Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era - this is one of the Dazai ones, about his time in the mafia with Ango and Oda, adapted in the beginning of season 2.

Dazai, Chuuya, Age Fifteen - another Dazai one, the one (poorly) adapted at the beginning of season 3, about how Chuuya joined the mafia. Has a currently ongoing manga adaptation.

Storm Bringer - sequel to Fifteen, longest of all the novels by far, set when Dazai and Chuuya are 16 and we find out more about Chuuya's origin story. And so much more, it really is a thicc novel.

55 Minutes - the second longest novel after Storm Bringer yet the least talked about (despite how much it elaborates on skill singularities and the nature of abilities). It's a self-contained story of the ADA going to solve a case on an artificial island off the coast of Yokohama, featuring two new ability users H. G. Wells and Jules Verne (hence a relatively sci-fi heavy novel and i wrote a 2k+ word essay analysing all the science behind it lmao)

Dead Apple - novelisation of the movie with some extra scenes and more elaboration on some details in the movie. Also has an ongoing manga adaptation with official english release.

BEAST - this is the Akutagawa in the ADA and Atsushi in the PM one, with a completed manga adaptation (also released in english) as well as a live-action movie that came out last year.

Gaiden (Another Story): Ayatsuji Yukito vs. Kyogoku Natsuhiko - the novel has no english release yet, but it's a spin-off about different ability users and i think Ango is the only recurring character from the main series there. There is an ongoing manga adaptation which does have an official english release.

The Day I Picked Up Dazai - i don't think this one is formally released yet as it was a bonus novel given out at the screening of the BEAST movie. It's divided into Side A and Side B and i haven't read this one yet but i believe it's about how Dazai and Oda first met, where each side follows the other's perspective. There's a completed fan-translation of both sides by @popopretty.

Kunikida and Katai's Magnificent Days - this is a really sweet short story about Kunikida and Katai's friendship and i have no idea where the official version is from but there is a fan-translation of it you can read here.

In addition to BEAST and Gaiden there is also Wan! which is the super cute casual chibi spin-off manga with no stakes and no angst and only vibes, it is still ongoing and has an official english release. Some of the chapters were adapted into the Wan! anime series with 12 episodes (they are shorter episodes of 10 min each) and it is literally free therapy and will give you a year's worth of serotonin!!

There is also the bsd anthology series, which are side stories written and illustrated by different mangakas, there is no official english release that i know of but you can find fan-translations of some of the side stories here and there online.

We also have bsd mayoi or Tales of the Lost, the mobile gacha game which also includes a high school AU storyline (bsd gakuen)!

Other than these, there are also several stage plays, although it's harder to find content on these in english since they are only performed in Japan.

Bsd fans are truly the most well-fed fans of all time sometimes i forget how much content we have and still we keep getting more, it's unreal

#the bsdcu (bungou stray dogs cinematic universe) is HUGE there are so many stories that i have never known hunger since becoming a bsd fan #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd light novels

[boinin]

btw, block #blue lock leaks or #blue lock spoilers if you want to filter out my babbling any time we get a new chapter 🐞

So, first thoughts on this week's leaks?

there's just this panel of Isagi's legs in the air. not a football in sight.

🌈🫡 never change blue lock never change ✊💙

More seriously, it's really wholesome how most of the team pile on to celebrate with the winning duo. KURONA you guys, he doesn't even hesitate!! He's so happy for Isagi

LOOK AT HIM ON ISAGI'S BACK OMG

Guess who I'm going to next...

I can't wait to see this in the official release, but damn... The Emperor is Not Happy. It really reminds me of Isagi's DAMN IT panel from chapter 230—probably on purpose. Kaiser is Michael's ideal after all... but is the novice beginning to surpass the star?

Not pictured in the leaks: Kunigami or Yukimiya's reactions. Hmm... We do get wonderful reaction shots of the two coaches and Ness, as well as a disappointed Ubers. Also no sign of Barou—they're saving that confrontation for next week.

We get some interesting panels of Hiori too. Waiting on the fan translation, but to me it seems like he's going to put off quitting... at least while he's motivated to pursue goals the way he did with Isagi this match.

look how gorgeous and HAPPY he looks here, I'm going to cry 🥹 he deserves the world

But for me, the key excitement came towards the end of the leaks. Because we didn't get just a glimpse of what's going on beyond the Ubers match...

We got the full-ass ending of the Manshine City v Paris X Gen match.

GUESS WHO'S BACK FRIENDS AND FANGIRLS

ITOSHI MOTHERFUCKING RIN IS MAKING HIS RETURN

oh and nagi i guess. whatever

.../s Don't come for me. I love Nagi really, but we've seen plenty of him in his spin off.

I was not expecting to get this level of detail on our favourite edgy emo. Rin is absolutely dominating PXG by the looks of it. Isagi can't rest on his laurels yet.

I was also not expecting our princess to be the sole scorer of this match! On the one hand: COME THROUGH MY STRAWBERRY HAIRED SON! ❤️❤️❤️ I'M SO PROUD OF YOU! I wish they showed more of Chigiri this chapter... but at least they gave us chapter 213.

But still, damn Manshine... get it together.

It could be years until we get the full story behind this match—but Nagi seems to be struggling just as chapter 207 foreshadowed. It's hard to believe he couldn't motivate himself against Rin, who's another established rival of his. Ah well. Maybe he'll redeem himself against Ubers and Barou?

Overall, cracking chapter... and I haven't actually read a word of it yet!

#these are the rayuga leaks btw - I touched the images up to make the lineart clearer #yes this is nanowrimo procrastination #yes I'll log off and go write... once I read the summary #blue lock #blue lock spoilers #blue lock leaks #blue lock manga #blue lock manga spoilers #bllk manga #bllk chp 239 #isagi yoichi #hiori yo #kurona ranze #michael kaiser #itoshi rin #nagi seishiro #chigiri hyoma #boinin talks bllk #long post

[nemmet]

i want to break my only-art-posts rule on here for just a moment, to talk about about fred jones as a canon autistic character and what he's meant to me personally.

my childhood love of scooby doo suddenly reawaked back in november of 2021, which just so happened to be around the time i was seriously questioning that i may be autistic. the realisation put so much into perspective, but i was equally afraid and uneasy about it all. therefore, i began to rewatch mystery incorporated as a source of comfort.

and just... there was a character who was a good leader, a loyal friend, a desirable romantic partner. there was a character who represented this unshakeable force of good in a town otherwise founded upon cynicism and spite. there was a character who, yes, was treated as the butt of the joke from time to time. but even despite that, was a surprisingly thoughtful representation of how an autistic teenager might navigate emotions, relationships, and the world at large.

the more i watched of this version of fred, the more i doubted that his sheer amount of autistic traits were purely a coincidence. and sure enough, i discovered that mitch watson (sdmi showrunner) confirmed on the unmasked history of scooby doo podcast that fred was indeed written with autism in mind.

(more beneath the cut!)

for a while, this was knowledge that i celebrated quietly. i told a couple of people who were interested, but that was about it. what mattered most to me was that it was canon, and that this character i had loved since i was a child was just like me. talking too much about his interests, missing social cues, being confused by big emotions... the list went on. it sounds silly to say about a cartoon character, but identifying with fred's portrayal in sdmi (and subsequent scooby media influenced by it) genuinely helped me to accept and even love myself as an autistic person, in a time when i was feeling hopeless for realising what had made me so different all my life.

as i continued to fall down the scooby rabbit hole, i encountered fred moments new and old that would always cheer me up. i decided to compile them into a short youtube video, mostly just for my own self-indulgence. i had absolutely no idea what i was getting myself into (/pos).

over a year on, most notably following the release of the hbo velma series, my video absolutely blew up. to the point where it currently stands at 825k views, which is utterly unfathomable to me. thousands of people who cared about this character like i did flooded the comments, expressing anger at his most recent portrayal and genuine love for his portrayals in past media.

however, the comments that especially made my day were those like: "how did i not realise that fred has a special interest in nets?", "he's autistic, let him infodump!", and those of a similar wording. in that comments section, as well as on tumblr, canonically autistic fred seemed to have become widespread, accepted and celebrated, showcased in comments with hundreds of likes and posts with hundreds of notes. it absolutely floored me, and i was delighted to have contributed to it.

i haven't made this post to pat myself on the back for throwing some clips together and getting a lot of views, nor to say "i knew it first!" about fred being autistic. i am simply looking back in retrospective, and getting incredibly misty-eyed over the fact that people are newly appreciating this character that has helped me through so much and been instrumental in leading me to my official autism diagnosis. you can see the sappy post i made about it on my old scooby sideblog here.

in summary, this is yet another story about how representation matters! even if it comes in the form of a historically overlooked teenage mystery solver from a 50+ year old cartoon franchise. what matters most is that it was more than just a headcanon, and has changed my life for the better.

if you're still reading, thank you so much! if you are also neurodivergent, i would love to hear your thoughts on fred, and if you've also identified with him in some way. he's... a tréasure :)

#another insane fun fact: i posted the “no one wants to hear your net facts fred” clip from the beach beastie to my scooby sideblog #before i included it as a part of my larger fred video #that original post has since been screen recorded and uploaded to instagram #as well as become an audio people use #and the person who reposted it told me that RACHEL ZEGLER liked it #literally the wildest possible outcome of all of this #obviously the clip isn't my own work but the fact that i made a moment from a fairly obscure sd special more well known just makes me happy #i will stop rambling in the tags now #scooby doo #sd #fred jones #scooby doo mystery incorporated #autistic fred jones #nem misc posts :] #scooby doo and nemmet too!

[thrandilf]

do you have a guide as to the extra materials for The Dragon Prince? i keep seeing stuff about comics or books but idk where to start

Not on hand but I can make one here! :D

There are two, soon to be three, canon graphic novels.

Through the Moon takes place between seasons 3 and 4, like a little season 3.5 It isn't Necessary to read it before watching S4 but the story is cool and the extra information is neat. It feels like we might get more info regarding what happened to Rayla while she was gone later in the show

Bloodmoon Huntress takes place when Rayla is a child around when her parents leave. Lots of Runaan and Ethari, also introduces Kim'dael who will be in S5. Again, not Required reading but a fun extra story.

Puzzle House is coming out August 1st and is about Claudia and Soren as children, and we also get a look at younger Viren and other people. Harrow's father, King Atticus is still king in this one so interesting Katolis lore, SUPER hyped for when we get to read all of this one. The Scholastic link has a 15 pages preview if you wanna take a peek.

There are novelizations for Dragon Prince Season 1 and Season 2, they add a bit of introspection and small extra details. Viren in particular gets more of his internal thought processes laid out and for me it just Confirmed a lot of things. Season 3's novelization is coming out April 2nd, 2024. I'm sure all 7 seasons will eventually have novelizations.

Tales of Xadia is the ttrpg book and it's gorgeous and is probably the most lore heavy supplemental material as far as world building goes. The system also looks fun! The website has a character builder too for OC making. As a writer, it's been a great help as far as seeing some aspects of the world laid out. The system looks fun and there are videos of some of the cortex(?) team playing ToX official tales/campaigns but I haven't watched them yet. The campaigns are also available to look at online too.

I think that ToX is getting an expansion at some point since the base game doesn't touch much on Ocean or Star magic, I imagine due to spoilers for the seasons we're coming up on.

There's also a tabletop game called Battlecharged which I haven't personally played and I don't think it Adds lore but I've heard it's fun.

Also, it will likely be a long time before we see it, but there's a video game in the works as well that's in alpha testing right now called Project Arcanum. Wonderstorm is pretty busy!

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

The Free Stuff:

Reflections are official short stories hosted on TDP's website and all of them are excellent and provide little extra scenes. Some of them are quite impactful, and the ones in this second batch are promising an absolutely wild S5. The first batch was released pre S4 and the second batch is being released now pre S5 as we count down to the new season. They aren't Required reading since the most key information from them will be in the show (going by the S4 ones) but I highly HIGHLY rec reading them all. Banger after banger. As of posting this there may be one more coming.

There's also little 4 panel comics called Everyday Xadia that have been also released during countdown mode and they're just fun/cute. Volume One and Volume 2 (still coming out). Sometimes when people say comics they might mean these, or the graphic novels lol.

Thank you for the ask, I'm always happy to share the TDP love and I hope this was helpful to you and anyone else who'd like a ref!

#tdp #the dragon prince #tdp netflix #puzzle house #tales of xadia #ref #reference #feel free to rb/save!

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (February 18-24, 2024)

Godzilla Rivals: Mothra vs. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. begins with a standout fight between Mothra and Ebirah. From there, however, the Queen of the Monsters spends most of the story on the sidelines, with a brawl involving Mechagodzilla, Garuda, Jet Jaguar, and M.O.G.U.E.R.A. over the fate of her egg taking center stage. A mech fight on that scale is unusual for a Godzilla comic, and despite the misleading title, it's a decent issue. Writer Johnny Parker II sat down for a lengthy interview with Kevin Derendorf and Raf Enshohma this week; I haven't had time to listen to the whole thing, but I do know he talks about his valiant efforts to put Medical Jet Jaguar from Godzilla Island in the comic.

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #5 also released this week. Afraid it didn't leave much of an impression on me; the book is juggling a lot of narrative threads now, and I don't see how it wraps them all up satisfactorily with just two issues left. I would've liked to see a more focused cast (and not just because it takes forever to list all the DC characters on Wikizilla each issue, haha). They also finally mention Monarch in this issue, which only makes the absence of the Monsterverse's human characters more conspicious.

Between Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, March was already going to be a great month at the movies for giant monster fans, but they'll now be joined by an anime classic: The End of Evangelion. GKIDS is bringing it to North American theaters on March 17 and 20 (a Sunday and a Wednesday, respectively). All showings will be in Japanese with English subtitles. This is not, as some reporting has suggested, the first time the film has ever played in the region—I found a Facebook event page for a 2019 screening in Omaha, for instance—but it is certainly the first major release. Be forewarned that if you haven't seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, you'll be confused out of your mind, as the film serves as an alternate ending for the final two episodes. But you've got time to get caught up.

Like many a Godzilla movie before it, Godzilla x Kong is leaking like a sieve, with a number of alleged screenshots of the Titans now making the rounds online. I normally wouldn't mention such things in this column, but they show a couple of characters who haven't been officially confirmed to be in the movie yet. So here's a warning to be on your guard if you're spoiler-shy.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla rivals #justice league vs. godzilla vs. kong #the end of evangelion #neon genesis evangelion #godzilla x kong the new empire #kaiju #godzilla

[aotopmha]

The FF14 community has a sarcastic saying along the lines of "great community btw", which is used in cases whenever someone or some group of awful people pop up doing something shitty and which I find annoying.

I think it is really obnoxious because having a great community does not mean there will never be any awful people in that community.

Especially when you get an award for stuff like having a great community – something that in many spaces is usually based on popularity or earned via nebulous committee vote.

That's just not how people work. And putting that strange standard on every single person in that community is really unrealistic.

In fact, I think it would be creepier if occasional assholes didn't pop up. Actual cult behaviour entails a situation where nobody is frustrated, critical or says anything bad about each other ever.

And this is doubly so for stuff that is popular.

We have 30 million accounts in the game now. Do you honestly expect not one of them to be made by an awful person?

The second frustration I have is tying social media with the community. Yoshi-P and his team, don't, even in fact, straight-up can't really, moderate what happens on social media, on Twitter, Reddit, Discord etc.

And as far as I know their official accounts keep it pretty basic and chill.

So, a lot of the bad stuff is just the nature of social media and the internet.

Now, this actually does not mean the dev team bears no responsibility because what they can do is minimise the poison within the game itself.

FF14 is probably the cleanest multiplayer community I've been apart of ever. The most I've gotten is generic insults in French.

The lack of gamerwords in my 3 months of time surprised me the most, and so did the occasional actual compliments. We just either talk about the game or what issues there are with us doing the mechs or disband when stuff isn't working out and time is getting wasted.

But I also know many haven't been as lucky and some of the security features were dated even by the time the game re-released back in 2013.

The friendlist is a mess because it doesn't block properly, and I know stories of people who had to go to another region to escape their stalker.

The GMs, while preferrable to any automated moderation, still don't catch everything, sometimes for years, especially whistleblowers who signal stuff in specific codewords and technically aren't breaking the rules.

Unjust massreportings can happen.

Reporting can be clunky and from what I've explored is hidden behind some menuing instead of just being an open option like in many other online games.

So they kinda can't control Twitter or Reddit at all and they can't change human nature, but I think they can modernise a bunch of the social tab.

I also haven't experienced the game as a non-sprout/at endgame yet, which I'm told can make a difference. Part of the reason why I find the game so rewarding is because you find so many different experiences and opinions in just Duty Finder and you just sometimes get to talking with them about the game and then various other things.

Recently, many gathered to honor Akira Toriyama in many of the data centers and people were just kind of talking to each other about DB and other series.

And I've never seen anything like this in any other MMO or any multiplayer games. I know it happened for Kentaro Miura, too, when he died.

So clearly, the social element is a huge part of the identity of an MMO, so if they mean they're improving the MMO in the MMO, I hope this also includes the social tab features.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Final Fantasy 14 #FF14 #FFXIV #FF #Final Fantasy

[leafy-m]

So the official English translation of Witch Hat Kitchen volume 3 releases next week, which means the online sites now have the first chapter up for preview.

I've been especially wondering about this because ch 21 is where we get Olruggio referring to his and Qifrey's late night cooking as the infamous "our secret night time fun" (夜中の密かな楽しみ) which is just.... yeah. 🤭

Especially because the official English translations have been rather fraught on this front. The first volume had several items censored in terms of Qifrey not being allowed to say Olruggio's name even for the big chapter-ending panels; subpar word choices for the big moments; as well as all mentions of the word "wine" being cut.

Volume 2 (which I still haven't posted about yet, will do soon) was a mixed bag where some of the chapters had Olly's name cut, one chapter's premise was entirely rewritten/the orufrey context removed, wine is still being censored in-story (though not on the ingredient list, so? Progress??), while other chapters were left completely alone/translated accurately. (there was also a strange higher frequency of British and French words than usual, idk what to make of that)

So what about volume 3? While we won't know until the entire volume's out, the chapter 21 preview is promising!

"our secret night time fun" was translated into the official version as "our secret midnight delights" which imo is just as cute, and look at that-- Qifrey actually gets to say Olly's name multiple times!

I don't know why the first two volumes were censored so, or why the reins are loosening as the series continues, but I hope the rest of volume 3 will be as accurate as this preview is.

Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen vol 3 comes out April 23

#Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen #Witch Hat Kitchen #Witch Hat Atelier #Orufrey #Jade talks WHA

[ginsoakedgirl80]

Costume Cdramas I watched in 2023

My 2nd year with Chinese dramas as my love for costume drama continues.

The title links to where you can watch it (tried to find free legal watches where available)

The Blood of Youth (40 x 45min, filming started in Oct 2021, released Dec 2022) fun action drama with a good dose of comedy, not for people who want lots of romance because they are too busy (and the canon couples don't have enough chemistry, there I said it) to be making out. Good for bromance, ghost ships and/or ace character head canons. Xiao Se's fur collar wins fur collar of the year, Tang Lian is my blorbo of early 2023.

My Uncanny Destiny (24 x 30min, filmed in autumn 2021, released Jan 2023) My favorite comedy of the year. Don't get turned off by the toilet jokes, it's a gem that spoofs drama tropes, gives you a coherent plot, silliness, fun side characters, a ML that is not afraid of being silly and a FL that plays capable and silly well. This might be a low budget production but they put that money to work. Politics, cross-dressing, found family, sisterhood, enemies to lovers, third wheel bisexual who reminds me of Wen Kexing, over the top villain, himbo villain who works out shirtless all the time, it got it all.

Wulin Heroes (22 x 45min, filming started Nov 2020, released Jan 2023) I watched this for Li Hongyi and he is incredibly beautiful in this so props to his stylist and cinematographer. BUT it is a badly written and edited low budget romp. If you are not watching for any actor then do not bother. FL is bearable once you realize she is very much of a lets see where this goes kind of character. 2nd ML is a suffering captive prince turned whiny regent played by Zhu Zanjin. So if you want to see Jin GuangYao suffer, you might like his scenes?? It can totally be read as a throuple especially with the New Tales of Wulin Heroes mini series add on. The choppiness might also be a result of the dangai ban??

No Doubt in us (24 x 14min, 2021, donghua) saw this on netflix and it roped me in with the body switch trope. It's sufficiently entertaining. Though I didn't enjoy the animation style apart from the chibi scenes.)

Heaven Official's Blessing (season 1, 11 x 26min, 2020, Donghua) It's THAT story and the art style is so pretty. I haven't read the books yet but still got what was going on most of the time. Liked it a lot. Haven't watched the 2nd season yet)

The Journey of Chong Zi (40 x 45min, filming started in June 2021, released Feb 2023) This xianxia is a mess! But it gave Scorpion King Li Daikun another memorable role with being the FL's protector. Watching Wang Zhoucheng having a ball with his role was fun. Immortal turned demon Wan Jie is so handsome and tragic. It did draw me in but the main couple is just ick so every time they were apart it immediately got better. ML's refusal to take the antidote to ease his obsession was lmao, FL is naive but charming and her demon styling rocks (do not get the hate on the actress, she is selfmade and there are many bad pretty face actresses around but I guess antis attract antis). Oh and there is a bromance between two of Chong Zi's harem members

Till the End of the Moon (40 x 55min, started filming in Nov 2021, released April 2023) aka my brain rot drama of the year. Drawn in from episode 1 on. Bai Li and Luo Yunxi <3 Pian Ran, Ye Qingyu, Nian Baiyu and Si Ying. <3 I was spamming tumblr with my screenshots, it was a jolly good time to watch this epic tale of love and suffering and saving the world dilemma with a great cast, characters, costumes, sets and soundtrack with the cdrama ppl of tumblr. If this weren't too complicated for cdrama newbies I'd recommend it to all my friends. Do not skip the dream arc (I ended up liking it) or later stuff will make less sense. I'm still annoyed that we didn't get a good extra episode that wraps up some lose ends for the main side characters and that reunion of the main characters but Youku really went nah we better play it safe with censors not liking happy ends for morally grey characters.

My Queen (24 x 45min, filmed in 2020, released Jul 2021) An FL enters a romance adventure VR game drama that I watched because I needed some fluff between TtEotM episodes. Why pick this among any other sufficiently entertaining dramas that are probably better written and not as forgetable? Because I wanted to watch Hu Wei (rich nepo baby in The Blood of Youth) in another comedy role >_> and ridiculous overacting he did deliver

The Trust (30 x 45min, filmed early 2021, released Apr 2023) The life action adaptation of the manhua No doubt in us is based on. I dunno why I finished this, I guess I'm not a quitter and needed silly stuff to balance TtEotM angst. For some reason the director thought it would be a good idea to film this like a donghua and it is causing 2nd hand embarrassment. The ML cannot pull off being a woman in a man's body, not even a martial arts nerd like Xu Yu. Like Wulin Heroes it was filmed before the dangai ban but that didn't stop them from having at least two bromances.

Wanru's Journey (24 x 35min, filming started in Jun 2021, released May 2023) A mess. So IQIYI released this simply to ride on the wave of Ao Ruipeng's The Blood of Youth popularity. Because this got so chopped down because of the dangai ban and it probably wasn't good to begin with. Basically an actress transmigrates into a dangai screenplay and gets between the leads while also making money by writing fic about them (ok this is my reading but she DID release fic and drawings of them). Of course it takes an unnecessarily dramatic turn, instead of staying on the comedy side, cannot remember more of the plot, oops.

King is not Easy (20ep x 30min, released Aug 2017) I watched this for the body switch trope and Bai Lu. Nice to see her actual face before the fair skin filter got her, entertaining enough, badly written silly comedy with mind mindbogglingly contrived final 4 episodes. It's Bai Lu's drama debut so it's nice to see how far she got

Destined (40ep x 45min, filming started in Jun 2022, released June 2023) Highly enjoyable. Fell in love with Bai Jingting. What's not to love about a playboy getting put on his path by his wife and them becoming friends, sworn siblings and then lovers in the process? No this is actually about FL finding her thing (trade) and being wildly successful at it, then it's also political, revenge and more. The leads are extremely charming and have great chemistry (the drama suffers every time they are apart lbr) and the writing is good, though people are too perfect and I wasn't into the whole palace stuff.

My Journey to You (24 ep x 60min, filming started Dec 2022, released Sep 2023) Had me from episode 1 on. Made me buy IQIYI VIP so I can watch it in good quality. Fell in love with Zhang Linghe. Yu Shuxin needs to do all the wuxia while she is still fit. Why waste being able to do the splits on some modern drama? The director sent her mud wrestling and she went for it. Everyone knows she is pretty no need for her to be beautifully put together on screen 24/7. Love the style, the character introductions, the characters, the cast, the chemistry, the story, the way you expect something and something else is going on. While it started out gloomy and remained so for the most part, it surprised me with throwing in more comedy than I expected. The good old idle manchild gets thrown into a position of power story but it's a murderous martial arts clan against another murderous martial arts clan. It's giving you some information but often just enough for getting what's going on just to play with your expectations later, FUN! And I didn't even mention all the other characters because surprise! this is actually an ensemble drama with several intriguing characters. Do not expect for the two leads to be on screen all the time.

Hilarious Family (24ep x 45min, started filming in June 2022 (?), released Sept 2023) A fun ensemble comedy I watched for Jackie Li. A widow moves to another city to marry off her 4 daughters (a silly man-crazy one, a homely one, a scholar one and a tomboy one). No it's not Pride and Prejudice but yes of course this is a romcom and all women have a love interest. It kind of drops off later on tbh, but still good for the characters and side characters. The success of this in China hopefully means that Jackie Li will get to be getting more comedies to work in after the Queen Lau disaster and people having a problem with her artist alias in 2022.

Hello There (20ep x 30min, released Jan 2023) I stumbled on this on IQIYI while looking for a light fast watch that will let my brain relax. The ML's best acting moment is when he plays a wooden robot. FL is fun. There are some questionable scenes, standard low budget action comedy fare.

An Ancient Love Song (14ep x 30 min, released June 2023) A wonderfully written and executed grown up time traveling story, that shows once again that you don't need a big budget to tell a story that draws you in. Ended my palace politics blockade. All this time traveling and no reincarnation in sight. ;_;

Story of Kunning Palace (38ep x 45min, filming started in May 2022, released Nov 2023) Tieing 2nd with My Journey to You for brainrot drama of the year. The cinematography is questionable, the story is not for teaching perfect courting behavior but those two are just such a good cp in their awkward messy way. Their friends/sidekicks are fun too and bring some comedy to that story though crazy in love ML is serving some comedy too. Props to ZLH for actually trying to grasp the basics of playing qin and not just waving over the strings like other dramas deem it sufficient. Bai Lu is Bai Lu-ing, gathering her harem. Coming into this right after An Ancient Love Song the idea to defeat destiny this time around seemed hopeless to me but this is one of those they are good at making plans and they turn out mostly alright dramas. I hope those two's material for the next years is as good as the two dramas with them I watched in 2023, fingers crossed!

Currently watching: A Journey to Love and Taoism Grandmaster as well as 2/3 through a LbFaD rewatch that I started in summer.

I also watched a handful of modern dramas (made in Korea and Japan) and some mini-dramas, but that is for another post.

And yes my most watched actors are probably those uncles stuck in Hengdian, might look that up another day.

If I got the time to blog about a drama I usually do it with screenshots so my tag for those posts is excuse my bad quality screenshots. In other cases I just reblog and put my thoughts in the tags.

#Till the End of the Moon #My Journey to You #Story of Kunning Palace #The Blood of Youth #My Uncanny Destiny #Destined #Hilarious Family #The Journey of Chong Zi #An Ancient Love Song #cdrama #Wulin Heroes #No Doubt in Us #Heaven Official's Blessing #My Queen #The Trust #Wanru's Journey #King is not easy #Hello There #2023 wrapped #spoilers #excuse my bad quality screenshots #I need to organize my screenshots on tumblr better but it's a task #userginsoakedgirl80

[iwander12]

How children and aging are depicted in LittleBigPlanet + Sackboy's canonical age

I've been wanting to write this post for a while now! This topic i find rather interesting as i'm in that turning point in life of being a newborn adult lol

I'm going to apologize beforehand though for my lack of knowledge about LBP PS Vita in case it had some relevancy to this post. It is the only full release i haven't played :( I'd also like the apologize for the strange pacing in this post- there's a lot to go through and otherwise I'd never get it done.

Do sackpeople age?

Yeah!

Perhaps the earliest* and obvious example are the child portrait stickers of the Creator Curators in LBP2. Most of them (aside from Eve) are used in the first proper level Rookie Test, in pictures of Larry giving flowers to Victoria and Avalon, Clive and Higginbotham graduating. In LBP3, there's a sticker of Newton as a baby in Nana Pud's hands. Sackboy: A Big Adventure has a prequel comic called "The Gathering Storm" starring Scarlet which depicts her as a child.

What do sackfolk look like growing up?

Considering baby Newton fit into Nana Pud's already small hands, babies must be really tiny.

SABA has the first example of a child in the games physically with the Death Stranding costume. Baby...

Wait, a baby sackperson is just a tiny sackperson?

*So this means that the Mini Sackboy item from LBP1 is a baby... (Yeah, it's not a plush. It's alive. It blinks.)

It's a fact that sackpeople use their children as fashion accessories. How delightful yet incredibly strange!

Child Scarlet is a little shorter than the shoulders of a standard sackperson. (She's the only example we have, so excuse the brevity... well there's Hildur, but I'm not sure if she counts as a sackling)

What about a teenager?

As previously established, there is a portrait of Avalon, Clive and Higginbotham graduating, though it's not specified whether they're graduating from high school or college, which would make them either roughly teenagers or young adults at that time. Clive is shorter than the other two in the past yet is about their height in-game, so it's more likely they were teenagers and Clive hit his growth spurt after graduation. A series of promotional videos released for LBP1 called "Life in LittleBigPlanet" state that a fully grown Sackperson is 8 centimeters tall.

Newton is said to have flunked out of the Popit Academy after one semester. Completing term 1 of Popit Puzzles will land you this neat graduation outfit.

It's also unspecified in-game whether the Popit Academy is a high school or a college, but considering its logo and what was described of Newton, it's definitely a college. (I am unsure of the system in England, but here in the US if you fail a semester of high school you just continue as usual and make up what you missed as additional work, instead of being kicked or dropped out.)

Newton's insecurities lie in his belief that he'll never live up to his father, and flunking out played into that. This is what led up to him wanting to use the Titans, to prove his potential to the world, and letting Bunkum's residents (including himself) make better use of its creativity. Of course there's no time range or limit to attend college, but most people tend to pursue it directly after high school, and coupled with Newton's bruised pride and desperation, let's assume for the sake of this post that Newton attended college straight away and is a young adult.

Most of the other sackling characters can easily be identified as adults or elders.

But what about .... YOU? Or, well, Sackboy... er...

The player vs. the character

It's a bit hard to define the separation of a character that's intended to be an expression of you versus yourself, because that separation is defined by yourself as well.

Let's say that the aspects of Sackboy that AREN'T decided/customized by the player are what is hard canon about him: This includes the official story levels, as you don't have a choice but to proceed, and less noticable things such as his personality and actions in the tutorial videos+ ads, and what's in his wardrobe (which is every single costume piece in the game. doesn't mean he wears it though. I wonder how cold he usually is).

Now, without you, who is Sackboy? He's a heroic sackling that has gone on many death-defying adventures across the globe and beyond. He's silent, gender non conforming and has a neverending amount of PlayStation cosplays. He goofs around with the narrator and knows how to use all game mechanics.

And, without your input, how old is he?

How old is Sackboy?

We've sorta already answered this question.

Sackboy is a physically fully grown sackling, as he is 8 centimeters tall. This would make him a teenager at the very youngest.

He has attended and graduated from Popit Academy, a college, which edges him into potential young adult or just general adult territory. (Teenagers can also attend college of course, but that's less common)

Having mentioned his wardrobe before, he has a lot of things that children typically wouldn't wear, including the aforementioned graduation outfit, facial hair, wedding outfits, fishnets, a speedo...among more

In SABA, he can wear piercings and a cute choker!

I'm not going to demonstrate this for obvious reasons, but there is even official art of him with genitalia. Go look at Media Molecule's Flickr if you really want to see it. Hell, knowing that and Mm's sense of humor, his name is rather inappropriate too. (I try to ignore this for the sake of my remaining childhood innocence.)

The Twitter is weird

There are a few tweets by the official LittleBigPlanet twitter that "state" Sackboy's age. These are actually referring to the franchise's age at the time they were posted. (Remember that LBP1 was released October 2008 and do some simple math)

(The GIF says "Happy 12th Birthday Sackboy)

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is weird

Sackboy is definitely NOT a child- why, after a decade of this being established, does he sound like one in SABA?

To help explain this decision, this game can be described as a "soft reboot". It doesn't retcon or change anything about the past, but it presents it in a new way for new and/or unfamiliar audiences. (aka marketability.)

Sackboy was completely silent before and now he's shouting "YEAH! WOOHOO!" every 3 seconds. His voice is very high pitched, youthful and would come off to most people as a child's voice.

I tried to look into his voice actor in the past, but the only other thing they are credited for is Tearaway. It's possible they were credited under a pseudonym, but either way we don't know how old they are or how they are typecast.

Why does Sackboy, a grown man with cock and balls, sound so much like a little boy?

THATS BECAUSE SACKBOY IS CANONICALLY TRANSGENDER HAPPY PRIDE MONTH🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

#littlebigplanet #little big planet #sackboy #littlebigplanet lore!!! #i will leave this in the tags since its not relevant to the topic but dont let this stop you from having fun with your headcanons! #sackboy can be a kid for the sole reason that you feel like it. have fun go wild with your imagination #the world is your oyster #thats what this series is about after all :)

[innerchorus]

Arslan Senki Chapter 123

Edit: let me preface this by saying I'm an idiot and didn't realise the simulpub release is split into two parts that you have to buy separately... so I only bought part 2... therefore this post is all about the second half of the chapter and I'm about to go back and purchase the first half now!)

Official chapter title: The Lonely Throne (and just as I suspected this relates to Hilmes, so brace yourselves...)

SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SECOND HALF OF THE CHAPTER from here on...

Team Arslan content at the beginning is more light-hearted in tone (joking about making Azrael a general, what sort of reward he might like, how Kishward would have to be Eran so Azrael doesn't outrank him, it's amusing) and deals with Arslan outlining his next moves. Those match up with the novels, I won't bother outlining them here for now.

Then we change locations to Ecbatana and my heartrate just shot up instantly lmao

Hilmes, inside the city: 30,000 men, versus Andragoras, whose army of 100,000 is outside the walls

PUP SIGHTING

Sad that this is his only panel, my thoughts are still spinning having only just read the chapter but I'm a little concerned that some Team Hilmes scenes were cut, especially the scene between Zandeh and Hilmes and the whole confrontation in the underground waterways that led to what comes next...

There's not even a single panel of Sam this chapter. I want to trust Arakawa and hope that we backtrack a little in the next chapter and see those events, the scene involving Sam in particular because I just can't fathom why that wouldn't be included, I think it's a really important one for his character. I suppose the other option is that it's moved to a little later in the story, and that could work, too! So we'll see.

Anyway, Team Hilmes are facing the inevitable struggles of a closed city running out of food and water, where even loyal soldiers are now worrying about their fates if they lose (or even if they don't win soon enough... the citizens could well turn on them and they know it).

Hilmes... is not having the best of times right now.

And I realised where this was going at this point, and started thinking OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK because I am not ready to see him go through the bombshell that is about to be dropped on him and I didn't even expect to see it yet this chapter either although the title did make me wary

But first we get a little flashback to his interrupted conversation with Ghundi, the sorceror, in which we learn that Hilmes learned... nothing, because their talk was interrupted by word that Andragoras's forces have reached Ecbatana

OH NO OH NO OH NO

FUUUUUUUUUCK

In the end, I was only slightly more prepared for this moment than Hilmes. The chapter ends here. I'm feeling the weirdest mixture of dread and excitement about the next one.

(I haven't counted pages but it felt short? Let me see.)

Edit: okay yeah it was only 16 pages this month OKAY WAIT WAIT THIS IS HILARIOUS but I think I only bought half the chapter lmao, I don't know how KManga works but it looks like the chapter is split into two parts? I think this is the second half???)

#arslan senki #the heroic legend of arslan #arslan senki spoilers #zandeh #hilmes #andragoras #oof that was intense

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

This is not good at all...

Insiders and nothing official, so take this with a grain of salt.. but it is brutal.

Regarding Kang and Loki:

“Marvel is truly fucked with the whole Kang angle,” says one top dealmaker who has seen the final “Loki” episode. “And they haven’t had an opportunity to rewrite until very recently [because of the WGA strike]. But I don’t see a path to how they move forward with him.” 

So they might have to re-write the upcoming movies/series while it's all still filming. My, my...

The Marvels:

Directed by Nia DaCosta, “The Marvels” [...] resulted in four weeks of reshoots to bring coherence to a tangled storyline. DaCosta began working on another film while “The Marvels” was still in postproduction. “If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go,” says a source familiar with the production.  In June, Marvel held a public test screening in Texas. The audience gave the film middling reviews.   

I'm including a snippet from another interview here because Da Costa said this last month:

While some directors, such as James Gunn, receive almost full creative control for their MCU entries, DaCosta recognized she had to answer to Feige: "It is a Kevin Feige production, it’s his movie." Da Costa did not have full creative control of the movie.

Picture me extremely worried now.

The VFX:

At the world premiere of “Quantumania,” [...] “There were at least 10 scenes where the visual effects had been added at the last minute and were out of focus. It was insane. I’ve never seen something like that in my entire career. Everyone was talking about it.”  The schedule swap with “The Marvels” had left the “Ant-Man” sequel in a squeeze, pushing up its postproduction schedule by four-and-a-half months. Some final effects for “WandaVision” and “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” were inserted after their streaming debuts. 

The VFX guys have so much work and Disney gives them impossible deadlines, to the point that the releases of their series arrive and they haven't had the time to finish their work. I'm so glad these guys are unionized now!

On Blade:

The project has gone through at least five writers, two directors and one shutdown six weeks before production. One person familiar with the script permutations says the story at one point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons. Blade was relegated to the fourth lead.

Holy fuck, that script? Seriously? I bet they would have tried to sell that as feminist, wtf... 🤦‍♀️

Bringing back the OG Avengers. No, really:

Sources say there have been talks to bring back the original gang for an “Avengers” movie. This would include reviving Iron Man and Black Widow. But the studio hasn’t yet committed to the idea.

"We're not working on the new characters well enough and people don't like them! What should we do?"

"Should we write them better?"

"No, let's just bring the old ones back!"

There is one good thing though:

Still, there was one bright spot in 2023: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which became Marvel’s biggest draw of the year with $845 million worldwide. 

Fuck yeah, James Gunn! It's almost like when you focus on the characters and you tell a cohesive story, people like it and pay the damn tickets to watch it...

#mcu salt #mcu critical #the marvels #quantumania #holy shit Feige... what are you doing...

[kurisus]

Chapter 104 thoughts

I'm back from posting purgatory and have rewritten, more or less, what Tumblr deleted, so now it's time for my favorite game: Ina Tries To Figure Out What The Fuck Happened In The Latest Noragami Chapter. Spoilers under the cut.

So at the beginning we see trash dad cut himself free from Fujisaki and revert to his original form, while Fujisaki wakes up in Yukine's old house, far from home. I'm really interested to see how much he knows, which I said last time--whether he was aware he was being used or if he's basically been unconscious for the past year. I think he has to be aware on some level, because he knows Father's true name and has to invoke it to summon him from Yomi, but it would also be funny if he flies into a panic, follows the newly created lake, and ends up with the main cast. How far are they from the house, anyway?

Come to think of it, I've been reading Alive since last month (Adachitoka's first manga, which was written by their mentor while they drew the art) and while I'm not done yet, the north of Japan features prominently as a setting for that story and as the final showdown for this one. I'm not sure why, maybe they're from there, but it's interesting.

I'm so glad Yato slammed into trash dad after he insulted Mizuchi. It shows he does recognize her as a victim, and is willing to let things mend between them, since she's had her own character arc since Yato released her name. Don't get me wrong, that was still the right choice for him at the time--but they've both changed since then. And I always love the character development in this manga so this had me bouncing in my seat.

YATO ALSO SAYING HE'S NOTHING BUT A DEAD PERSON LIKE YESSSSSS GET HIM GET HIM KILL HIS MISERABLE ASS

Ahem. I wish Yato had been able to land at least one punch on this horrible man, but it's time for a shounen powerup.

Using the koto no ha on himself grants trash dad access to Izanami/Izanagi level powers, which I think is a temporary powerup that will end with Izanami taking him back to Yomi, because of how he can "feel her breath" on his neck. He plans to then escape again, and possess another body.

This new power is an ass pull as fast-moon put it, but it's also not the first of its kind in Noragami. Think back to Yukine getting cut in half and becoming a hafuri, Amaterasu appearing out of nowhere to give Hiyori the hint that saved Yato's life in Yomi, and how the main characters were saved from the covenant which provided the entire basis for the current arc (due to unresolved tensions between them and the rest of heaven). Basically, in Noragami these things happen with good reason and/or hugely impact the rest of the story, so I think it's best to wait and see how this trash dad development plays out before making judgments on how it affects the writing quality.

There's an old Noragami theory that Father is Izanagi, or stole his power, and it's been mostly dismissed in recent years (but there's an echodrops post about it here if you're interested in the points it made) and even more so since we got snippets of his backstory, but I think it's worth bringing back up now. Izanagi has been suspiciously absent from the manga, and I'm not sure he's even been mentioned, so I wonder if the koto no ha ties into that somehow. Honestly if Izanami killed him in this version of the story and used his power to make the koto no ha, good for her.

Anyway, trash dad reveals he's not just some human who came back from the dead. He can use these powers of creation; it's unclear whether he's used them before, but Yato has never seen him do so--Mizuchi seems to know what he's doing, but it's also unclear whether she's seen it either. I said years ago I don't think it was easy as him just returning from the dead and being granted godlike powers, but I haven't been insistent on it so much because I did a reread of the official translation two years ago and that version heavily implies the only thing trash dad did to get his powers was come back from the dead. I wonder how they'll reconcile that when this volume gets translated (please hold for another 2 years, lmfao).

Is this Izanagi's power, or Izanami's? Did he steal Izanagi's powers next after he paid Izanami a visit? Did he know what using the koto no ha on himself would do? Was it an educated guess based on Izanami's power? Is it still possible he could be a reincarnated Izanagi that believed himself to be human? I don't know if I'd like that last one, but these are the questions I hope to have answered.

Taking a brief detour to discuss that Kiun and Mayu have joined forces to look for their gods, and Ookuninushi is alive but has with him three freshly reincarnated gods--Yatagarasu, Kagutsuchi, and Shinatsuhiko. I'm shocked he lived and they died, but it may lead to an interesting change in heaven where he has to reconcile how they threw away their shinki lives even after they were explicitly told not to use them. The way heaven (and most gods) treat their shinki as not people but disposable tools has been a long-running theme of this manga, and it's been clear larger-scale changes need to be made.

So back to the main event, trash dad creates a biblical sort of flood, but one that brings images of the past. Alongside the tree where a young Yato named Sakura, we also see a cottage and a multi-level house. The cottage may be where Yato and Hiiro were raised, or it might be the one from the Father flashbacks: Check them out side by side:

(103-2; page 1 [Father and Kaya village]; 104, page 21; 45, page 33 [Yato, Hiiro, Father cottage] if you want to check for yourself)

Next, there's that multi-story building, which could be the place where Yato made his first kills, or Hiyori's grandmother's house. There isn't much visible, so it's hard to tell, but here's another side by side:

(46, page 9 [where Yato made his first kills]; 104, page 21; 85, page 42 [Hiyori's grandmother's house])

If this enchanted world functions similarly to Hiyori viewing Yato's past while he's asleep, Hiyori will get to experience trash dad's past as it really happened. I've mentioned before it bothers me how the gravekeeper has been narrating the events even though he wasn't present for any of them, so it's entirely likely Father manipulated the facts of his history, or they naturally changed over the course of a thousand years.

I also think Hiyori could find out trash dad's weak point, his true name, if/when she witnesses his past. She could then become his lifeline and decide to let the secret die with her. Or he could possess her, but I'm being optimistic.

The tree she sees is the tree where Yato named Sakura, but it could also have some significance to Father and Kaya; if the cottage where he raised Yato and Hiiro was in the same general location as that village, he could have some memories there.

So if we get Hiyori and Sakura interaction I will cry. If we get Hiyori and Kaya interaction I will also cry.

Next few chapters I'm really excited to see where this enchanted lake dimension thing goes. Yukine could also be caught up in it, depending on how far it has spread, and it'll be interesting to see how Amaterasu reacts to it too.

I don't normally say this, but reblogs are appreciated. This post required a lot of skimming older chapters to tie my thoughts together, and my original draft got half erased when I was just finishing it up so I had to rewrite a lot of it. Plus it seems like everyone was pretty confused by the events of this chapter, so a reblog would help to spread it around and hopefully shed some light on the events. Thanks!

#Noragami #Noragami manga #Noragami spoilers #ngl I am sad it's not a full chapter but did yall see the new springtime lottery art. I cried #I might be back with more thoughts later cause I feel like I couldn't recall everything I had written previously #it is time to create a master doc of my thoughts I suppose. fun project #live update

[yuikomorii]

I wish for all non-Japanese people to stop acting like otome game experts when they know nothing about them to begin with. Main hero has always been an official term in Japan, that’s an official role for a character and it’s always the English or Spanish fandoms that keep denying it not only in Ayato’s case. That’s like saying that all heroines are self-inserts. As you said you can use them as self-insert but that doesn’t erase the fact they’re still their own character with their own confirmed role in the story. The other guys are still important but they’re just not connected to the story or heroine as the main hero is. The creator just has a preference regarding that character and couple, why would this affect the player in any way? And we still wonder why we don’t get a localisation hah.

// FACTS! Japanese fans will always know better than Western ones, because otome games are made for them. The West and Japan have very different mindsets when it comes to certain things, therefore what Japan finds good, can be seen as bad in the West and vice versa. However, I'd rather trust the word of Japanese fans because, after all, otome games are aimed at them, and if they truly dislike something, it means that thing failed; it couldn't meet their expectations or be to their liking, and their liking is considered the most important because they're the ✨target audience✨

Unfortunately, teaching an entire fandom about otoge pop-culture is impossible; nobody is popular or convincing enough to truly open everyone's eyes, but whatever.

Main hero is and will always be an official term. Those are facts, lol.

As for Ayato, he is seen as the main hero by Rejet and Japanese audience, that’s what matters the most. When he was asked if his opinion about Ayato changed before and after the anime, even his VA said “no”, because, according to him, Ayato is a character that can easily be the core of the story (主軸). In the least biased way, that's a true statement, given that he got that main character charisma and energy, plus background.

From my perspective, he got an amazing world building, and whoever thought of that is a very clever person (or people, if there were more)! I like how everything makes sense, it's a bit weird how they only released YB manga recently but at least it solved a "mystery".

We can see in the last YB chapter how he became addicted after eating that fig. "Addicted" is literally the name of his character song, and its lyrics perfectly describe the entire fig situation (translation by silvermoon249).

Last but not least, I have such a love-hate relationship with this official short story (translation by Koiiro) because 1. that’s the best confession Yui has ever made and 2. it sounds kinda creepy?? The atmosphere was quite disturbing; Yui didn't even seem embarrassed, which is unusual for her, and even Ayato found the situation strange. It has a strong "everything is always connected" vibe to it…?

Welp guys, don't be sad if you haven't found your soulmate yet. Ayato had to wait hundreds of years for it. xD

I truthfully agree with the part about localization. It's not like DL doesn't get one due to the themes presented there, because there are localized otome games with far darker themes, but I feel like the English fandom really doesn't deserve one (I'm not referring to everyone, there are some genuinely kind and calm people). They complain about everything Rejet releases, they are petty and too salty, they abet, and they have no idea how the otome game world works... To summarize, they aren’t able to appreciate anything. As a result, DL should be limited to the Japanese audience, who are far more understanding and supportive.

#admin

[asherlockstudy]

PUZZLE: The recurrent Rhink storyline is not even new!!!!!!!

Ok, I must take a deep breath. I must preface this by mentioning the recent Rhink analyses I have made. If you haven't read these, please don't read this one either if you take an issue with my firm belief that Rhett and Link are more than friends, because, to summarize, this is exactly what I am saying in these posts plus that Rhett and Link are gradually preparing for the "Is it yet yet?" day. This is why they are releasing these videos lately, which are full of coded messages. For example, the "We Dug a Medium-sized Hole" is about their whole relationship, including a focus on their sexual life. The "We Hired an Excorcist to play DnD" is about them having to date and get married (to others) under the shadow of their Church. This is not the first time they take this approach though. This is the allegory in Hazel, where they both end up trapped in the "closet", the middle room, Hazel's forest inside, with no way out. And more obvious than any is their book The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek with their alter egos Rex and Leif fighting with the reform school of their very conservative town. There the symbolism is particularly strong.

For more details and evidence on that, see the previous posts:

They Dug A Hole

The "We Dug A Hole" Discussion

It has always been one story

But even this was not the beginning of the heavily coded scripted content. It turns out we can go all the way back to freaking 2015 and their GMM Sketchtober. Sketchtober was a project they did in October 2015 which was them essentially releasing five scripted videos just for the sake of it. To be fair, I do not see clear symbolism in all of them, so I will analyze them in an order that makes sense for this post. Bear with me here. However, I sense it's me not picking up on some of it and not that some videos really don't have a symbolism at all. Why, you ask? Because of the official video descriptions.

The post is long so I am putting the rest of it under a Read More. BUT!!! If you are interested in this topic but don't have enough time or willpower, open the readmore and read the last chapter, named "Puzzle". Trust me, that's where the most juice is.

The Nose-Looker

Symbolism significance: 3/5

This is the first video they released. The official description is "The nose is the window to the soul". The video starts with Rhett asking Link whether he would choose to only eat straight or curly fries for the rest of his life... Link cuts him off and confronts Rhett for staring at his nose and not at his eyes. Rhett is taken aback and admits looking at Link's nose, with the excuse that he just looked generally at the face and didn't know where exactly to focus. Link presses him to choose an eye to look at and makes a point that he is beautiful, which leaves Rhett speechless. After Rhett tries to manipulate unsuccessfully the conversation, he proposes that they should rather stop looking at each other. They start looking over each other's shoulders, which they characterize as "freeing". They see then a Ring girl and a falconer over each other's shoulders and I don't know if there is any symbolism in this or it was just to add a funny red-herring. The video ends with Link asking whether he could choose waffle fries, so I suppose something that is considered both straight and curly. Hmmm.

Aside from the suspicious fries talk, the obvious commentary here is that you can change the word "nose" with the word "lips" and you might as well have something that really happened. Even in GMM it was obvious how often Rhett looked at Link on the lips, so imagine how obvious it was in private. After the newsical kiss, after writing in his diary and taking the big decision, it wouldn't surprise me if this is the approach Link followed; to non-chalantly confront and expose Rhett, so that Rhett would have trouble escaping him.

Campin'

Symbolism significance : 4/5

This is the second video they released. The official description is "Just two guys enjoying the great outdoors...". Of course you know that all sentences that start with "just two of something" have a heavy sexual implication. This is the one most of the casual viewers found to have some innuedos, however the general concept behind it initially seems to be about people not being able to detach from technology and be immersed in nature. This, however, is once again the red herring. Watch this video and try to tell me they don't act like two people in a tent struggling to not have sex. They lie down to sleep supposedly, they muse about the beauty of nature and how they should do this regularly but then they are incredibly antsy and can't sleep. In fact, it's Link who always finds something annoying enough to disturb their effort to fall asleep. First, he needs to pump up his mattress. Second, he is too thirsty. Third, he is too hot. So, pumped up, thirsty and hot are Link's problems. At every mention of a new problem, Rhett jumps up and agrees that he has the same problem. As a result, they inflate their mattresses, they inject a hydrator in their veins and Link pulls his duvet and stays completely naked from the waist down. Then a cricket gets inside the tent and they leave screaming, only so we find out the tent was out of one of their houses (the whole detachment from nature thing). A neighbour sees Link running after Rhett with his junk out.

While there is not much of a story here, we should remember that there is something shady whenever Rhett and Link mention camping. Don't forget when they told Cuddle Queen Jean about two friends of theirs who once got lost in a hiking trail and had to spoon each other in the cold. CQJ said this could make them either "stop talking to each other" or the bestest of friends. Rhett added: "Right. Or more", which could suggest that Rhett knows how the relationship between "these two friends" evolved. They have also discussed how once Link forgot his sleeping bag and had to sleep together. In any case, there is some sort of significance in camping.

BFFs

Symbolism significance: 2/5

This is the third video they released. The official description is "They're so close they can finish each other's sentences". After staying too close to the microwave, Link develops the ability to finish Rhett's words and predict what he is going to say. Rhett manipulates him to believe this is not happening and then reveals himself as an agent who asks this Link to be withdrawn and recycled. Three masked men violently seize Link and a new Link without previous memory is offered to Rhett. Rhett introduces himself, clearly manipulating the new Link to think of him as his best friend. The music in this one is melancholic and a little haunting. The new Link is seen getting hypnotised by the microwave too.

While it's not very clear, I think the hint lies in the description. Apparently, by finishing Rhett's words Link violates some boundaries of their already extreme closeness. Rhett initially tries to talk him out of it and when this doesn't work, he recycles him. Perhaps this has to do with the church. The suspicion that Link wasn't straight could have been established early. Maybe Rhett saw it in himself to guide Link, to manipulate him that this is not actually the case. The fact that this seems to be happening again and again suggests that Link went through many periods of repression but his feelings for Rhett always emerged again.

Did You Get Me Anything?

Symbolism significance : 1/5

This is actually the fifth video they released but I am saving the fourth for last for reasons that will become clear very soon. The official description is "Never make a promise you don't intend to keep". In this one, Rhett and Link are amateur herpetologists who seek a rare monkey snake. The snake (devil? temptation?) bites Link, who falls into a temporary paralysis. Rhett looks deep into his eyes and can always tell what Link wants to be fed. Link's favourite foods apparently are: wood, dirt, living squirrels, glass and we also get a quick scene of Rhett with a toilet paper that I do not dare think what it implies (it's a joke ofc). At some point, Link almost seems to lose the battle, so Rhett tries to bring him to and promises to always feed Link with what he wants to eat by looking him deep in the eyes. Later, he seems to forget this but only for a moment. He gives Link a lamp to eat with Link appreciating this arrangement. Now, I don't know if this is entirely a symbolism but it probably is. We do get a "promise forever" and in light of everything else in this series of videos, it probably matters.

The Puzzle

Symbolism significance : 5000000000000000000000000000/5

This is one of the dirtiest videos Rhett and Link have made and I can't believe how under the radar it is despite its many views. Not only it is dirty but it is one of their most revelatory scripted work and, as you'll see below, in full sync with other content and spontaneous things they have said. To put it simply, this is their first time. I am gonna write a lot about this one, perhaps more than I wrote about anything else before.

This is the fourth video, so the last video before the "forever promise". The official description is "It's not all fun and games when a puzzle needs completing". Wanna see a similar statement?

On failing to push the shovel into the dirt at the first time, Rhett comments: "I don't know what I was expecting. And it immediately registered with me that this is not going to necessarily be easy or fun".

He's talking about the exact same thing. So let's actually start with the puzzle video. During a storm that keeps them inside their office, Link suggests they could play a puzzle to which Rhett responds enthusiastically. It was Link's initiative. Link was also the one who suggested they made as big a hole as possible. Leif in TLCOBC is the one who presses Rex to leave his own scooter and jump behind him on his own bike. (Just wait, it all clicks together in the end.)

We can be pretty sure that for quite some time at the beginning, Rhett and Link were really not good at solving puzzles or digging holes or biking together.

The gif is self-explanatory. Rarely have they been so clear, in fact. I don't know if their puzzle solving here is any accurate as a measure of their ineptness. Hopefully not, because, well, you would expect that men married for like 15 years at the time would be at least sliiiightly better at this than that. BONUS points for the very consciously chosen 80s amateur porno vibe and music specifically for this moment.

Eventually they get the puzzle almost complete. The puzzle, which pictures a dead grandpa inside a coffin, is however missing one piece. And you know the piece that's missing? THE HEAD.

Rhett and Link start to look frantically for the head (piece) and their panic rises. They stop and try to calm down by reciting this poem about the ocean and the calming lotion, which they repeated in their "Link straightens Rhett's hair" vlog. It doesn't help them though - the head doesn't just show up - so they panic again.

Now I will interrupt here to say a) we have the moment of Rhett failing to push the shovel in the dirt in the dug a hole video, b) we have that time Rhett said in GMM "For some time we had a little project called 'who is soft and who is moist '. It depended on the day", c) we have that time in GMMore Link told Rhett "Nobody is better than you at being flaccid", d) we have that slide GMM episode where Rhett said "I am gonna go hard but, you know, Rhett-hard" where Link interjects to say "Kinda limp. Got it" and then Rhett finishes by saying "- which is not as hard as some people" and e) I remember one time Link letting it slip that he had "helping" pills in his car.

I am willing to bet that at least at the first attempts they had, be it the awkwardness, the anxiety, everything that was at stake, their inexperience in this particular way of going at it, the secrecy or whatever else, Rhett had problems. So imagine if he actually took a helping pill and now watch what happens in the puzzle video:

Freaked out as they are, as nothing seems to be working, they decide to call the customer service of the puzzle company to complain. (Please God, Universe, please tell me they actually did this irl. Please). A Nora answers the phone and they complain they don't have the head. Nora tells them it's unlikely it's the puzzle's fault and Rhett and Link are basically fuming. Nora politely responds that this must be puzzle user error, which freaks Rhett. She further says all "puzzles" (pills) are tested by professionals and at this point their anger is hilarious. An out of his mind Rhett threatens to sue them and he stands up full of determination which is when Link sees he has the head on his raised arm. Freaked out again, Rhett however goes on with his threat. Nora senses the change in his voice and asks if they found the head. (PLEASE GOD TELL ME THIS HAPPENED AND IT'S NOT MADE UP.) At this point, as they don't know what to do, Link impulsively takes the head to his mouth, the puzzle piece, I mean. After an initial shock, Rhett screams nonsense at Nora to hide what's going on. Link starts choking and Nora hears his choking sounds and understands. Rhett keeps threatening her while simultaneously trying to save Link, in this way:

By the way his threat is: "I AM BEHIND YOU NORA. TURN AROUND AND SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND".

Turn around and say hello to my "little friend". This makes no sense with the context of the video. It's a classic "hard dick" reference. It's really one of the most glaring videos they have ever done.

The piece finally is ejected from Link's mouth and falls right on the puzzle and completes it, with this not at all lewd shot.

The head with Link's spit on it.

Nora perceives all of that. Rhett and Link, now very happy, confirm to her that that's what happened and thank her, but Rhett doesn't hang up the phone correctly.

Rhett: (still a little shocked) That escalated quickly.

Link: (content) Yeah, that's what happens when you put together a puzzle.

Nora: (politely) I am actually still on the phone.

Rhett and Link: ...

Nora: Well, I have you boys here, you mind answering a few survey questions?

Link: Sure!

Rhett: No problem.

Nora: On a scale of one to ten, how helpful was I today?

Rhett and Link: Ten?

Nora: Aaand on a scale of one to ten, how (inaudible) do you find the grandpa puzzles?

Rhett and Link:

It is reasonable to conclude at this point that their first time was great for Rhett, however he was entirely oblivious to the fact that for Link the experience was disappointing, if not painful. And yes, this is essentially established through their content too. Aside from the puzzle video, we have this:

This:

Notice their microexpressions.

We have a world darts game on GMM a few years ago where Link said: "I gotta dart first!" and Rhett muttered "Oh yeah I am used to that".

And of course, going back to the bike ride in TLCOBC:

After their falling behind in the chase for Alicia, Leif urges Rex to hop on his bike and let go of his scooter. Rex denies and defends his "scooter or pushing leg", supporting he simply hasn't trained it well yet, because it takes practice. After some argument, Rex cedes and hops on Leif's bike:

Rex abruptly hopped off his scooter and tossed it under a shrub on the side of the road. He stepped onto the two pegs jutting out from Leif’s back wheel, his hands on Leif’s shoulders. “Burn it.” And Leif did. He pedaled like he’d never pedaled before, rocketing forward even with the extra 150 pounds of lanky human freight. The fiery pain in his thighs was overwhelming, but as the boys rounded the last turn on Creek Road, the white dot reappeared ahead, and that was all the motivation Leif needed.

But despite all that they don't manage to catch Alicia and Leif is heartbroken:

“But…” Rex still had both hands and one foot on the fence. “So that’s it? We’re just giving up on her?” “I…I don’t know,” Leif said, wiping his wet cheeks, grateful for the cover of night. “Maybe.” (...)

Leif stared down the shadowy driveway, feeling like his heart had been injured.

But despite the obvious failure, Rex makes an unexpected comment.

“Hey, Leif,” Rex said out of nowhere (...) “Good call on the bike pegs.” Or not. Leif nodded and kept pedaling.

Even though they fail at saving Alicia, Rex is oblivious to Leif's heartbreak and his struggle. On the other hand, Leif seems to have regretted proposing the bike ride which was both very painful and eventually fruitless.

So above we have Link's barb that " a first time must be slow". Further above, we have him judging Rhett and saying he expected the hole digging to be more dramatic. And to go back to our puzzle video, Rhett had a ten that night but Link had only a two. I guess they were struggling so bad and when Rhett had finally some push from a pill or resolved the issue in whatever way, he went full force and with too much enthusiasm to last at all. (Plus there are running jokes even in GMM that Rhett doesn't last long usually, which might have to do with excessive enthusiasm!) This made the experience somewhat traumatic for Link though, as he didn't have time to adjust and enjoy this, and was building this up in his mind for a damn long time.

But we're still good. Judging from that GMM, they now have a rule of Link darting first. I wonder why they go back and back to this particular experience even in their scripts and not, say, their first mutually great time. Maybe this is off limits and off comedy, which would be totally understandable.

After this massive parenthesis, we reach the most crucial point. Nora asks the hardest question last: "And are you still embracing each other?"

This is my favourite moment. Despite Link's conflicting emotions and apparently their initial intent to keep this casual, they are just there still cuddling. It's important that this was filmed in late 2015. It suggests they realised super early that they weren't meant for casual. Then again, I don't know how they even believed they could do casual. You just don't decide to bone your best friend of 30 years casually, especially if you are supposedly a Christian straight married man. Lol casual. Medium. Judging from the digging a hole video, where Link first proposed the biggest hole possible and then downsized this to a medium hole so that he wouldn't scare Rhett away, it's clear Link never meant this to be casual but he did downplay what he wanted originally to convince Rhett, and Rhett was at a point that would let himself be convinced by anything.

As if ALL this wasn't enough, they add a post-title in the end, which is something they didn't do in any other of their videos. The font they chose was this:

Okay guys I GET IT chill now

Anyway these were my many cents for their old Sketchtober. The fact that these videos were filmed in 2015 certainly puts things into perspective.

#rhink #rhett and link #randl #r&l #mythical