#it just makes me angry when people are lazy about what story they're telling

[spoofymcgee]

i just finished watching the power of three and. i didn't like it.

don't get me wrong, it has plenty of delightful moments. it showcases beautifully just how impatient 11 is, just how unwilling to stop moving and running. it's strange how he still feels so fresh and new half a season from the end of his run.

kate is, obviously, incredible and i would die for her, and the sweet little moments between her and the doctor, the doctor and rory, the kitchen scene with rory and amy, all of those were lovely.

but this episode feels like it's designed to hurt you, to set up the devastation of the next one. i haven't seen it yet, but i know what happens and.

i don't mind that it's there to make the next episode hurt. i don't even mind how unsubtle it is about that–this doctor's run i think has a very serious problem of talking so much about the themes and how cool it is rather than showing them, but that's another post, and i can set that aside.

what i do mind is that. there's no point. it's a big, flashy, dramatic, horrible sendoff for the ponds, when approximately three seconds ago they were ready to retire from travelling, to be normal. and then, totally against everything they'd been doing and saying, they went back. for really no apparent reason other than they suddenly want to when there's no setup for that.

and i think it's for two reasons.

the first one is that this whole run has no fucking clue what self-restraint and consent and respect for other people's boundaries are. you can see that in so many places–from the beginning, how the doctor doesn't give amy a chance to change out of her nightgown, the way she kisses him and keeps doing it even though he's trying to get away, the way they have her choose and commit to rory and then turn around and make rory weirdly possessive towards her, as if without him stopping her she would go and do who knows what with the doctor (who. isn't interested? stranger in a strange land much?) the weird bit where the doctor keeps asking rory if he can hug amy, and not asking amy. right up until the end–amy's chosen rory so many times now, and she has to prove herself again and never stop proving that she'll choose him over the doctor, despite that they're married, despite that she picked him. the story won't stop punishing her for being interested in someone other than him at the beginning.

and that's just off the top of my head. this whole run has basically no clue what consent is, and is operating on a very outdated understanding of boundaries.

so what follows is that the ponds can't choose to walk away. the doctor will keep running towards them, they can't choose to leave because we think the doctor doesn't have the ability to respect that boundary, so they have to want to stay, because otherwise. well, he wants them to stay. needs them to stay. he can't let them move on. but the doctor is the good guy, so we can't go there. so the ponds have to be put permanently out of his reach, because we don't know what self-restraint and respect for others is.

which is just fucking uncomfortable.

the second reason is why i think the power of three is mean.

and that's because it's for the shock value. it's for the flash, it's because we can't let people have a happy ending, a quiet exit in this show. they need to go out with a bang, they need to be ripped away from the doctor, it needs to be dramatic and tear-jerking and what does it matter if this is telling a sound, good story so long as we can keep it loud enough to keep people's attention?

because the story being told here is that traveling with the doctor is an addiction. you either kick it or it eats up your whole life and then itself and you're left with nothing. travelling with the doctor is something that chews you up and spits you out and kills you and steals you out of your life and won't let you go back. only the doctor needs someone with him, doesn't he? isn't that what we've talked about so much? what happens to the doctor, to the universe, when the doctor goes alone?

so that leaves us with an endless parade of people marching to their doom to protect the universe from the doctor and who he becomes without them. which is a story that fits, technically. the minotaur in the maze, snapping up innocent people and emptying them out and filling them with prayer and waiting for it to all end. the doctor in his box, sweeping people out of their lives and filling them with adventure and wonder and sacrificing them to stop himself from going mad.

and i hate that story. i hate it so much. i hate it if it's on purpose and i hate it more if it's by accident, if they stumbled into that by having a flashy no-substance exit for amy and rory.

it's every take i hate on the doctor, it's the antithesis to the first message amy's arc had to say: the doctor is ancient and the doctor is alone and the doctor is kind. the doctor doesn't let other people keep hurting when he can stop it, even when it makes him not the doctor, even when it's the worst thing he's ever done.

just. i wish amy and rory had been allowed to be normal, like they wanted. i wish the doctor could have dropped in on them occasionally for dinner, or stayed away if he couldn't. i wish that they could have had a happy ending instead of a bittersweet one that leaves a sour taste in the back of my throat when i think about it for too long.

#eleventh doctor #amy pond #rory williams #doctor who #the power of three #the angels take manhattan #analysis #nuwho #it just makes me angry when people are lazy about what story they're telling #when they get so focused on the flash band they forget to pay attention to what their themes are doing #and you end up with this

[atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine]

The things I'm reading about the commentary for RW/BY Vol. 9 have made me want to write this post. It's just something I want to say, regardless of how it most likely retreads old ground or shares sentiment with other posts like it. At least it'll be more concise and filled with less angry ramblings than if I decided to write this last night, when I was first reading everything.

(Just to avoid confusion, I'll be referring to the characters/writers via their initials as a way of censoring them from people who don't wish to see this post. This makes it easier for me and is less annoying than having to put slashes everywhere)

I mainly wanted to focus on two things. One was the hacker crew (as I will "affectionately" dub the writers) deciding to off-screen W telling the rest of RBY of what happened to P and J killing her. The other was of ER saying on Twitter that he (and the rest of the hackers) didn't think R would find issue with J killing P. Anything else from the commentary may or may not have a separate post, it just depends on what is said and if it upsets me enough.

Let's address the second point first because I have something to say. I don't understand ER's logic here. Why did he, and by extension everyone else, think R wouldn't be upset/angry at J for killing P? She has every abso-fucking-lute right to feel that way! I mean, one of her closest friends KILLED another of her closest friends! Disregarding how it was P's choice (which I hate, btw), you mean to say R wouldn't lash out at J, berating him for not trying to find another way or doing more to save P? Even if R understood that the situation was complicated or everything was just going a million miles a second, I can't see her not being incensed at him. Shit like that needs time to process and I can't imagine R to be super calm after hearing that bombshell.

Which leads me to the first point. Why in the fuck did the scene of W telling RBY of said bombshell happen off-screen? Why do the hacker crew INSIST on off-screening important scenes like this? Even if fans want to say they didn't want to reiterate information the audience already knows, they could've made it to where W starts the conversation, fade to black or cut away, and come back to RBY's reactions afterwards. It's not that hard! Do they think scenes that are character-oriented are filler? I just can't understand their reasoning for doing this.

It's at this point I'm saying the writers are downright lazy. I've known for years now that they're not good but I know for sure now they're just lazy. ER can Tweet all he wants that he and the team should've been more clear on certain aspects of the story or they should've thought more on other aspects but the truth is, they didn't WANT to put in the work. It's too much effort for them to put in care for decency's sake so they might as well half-ass it or better yet, just shoot the first idea that comes out of their minds, write it into the story without any revising or editing, and call it a day. Let the fans who actually do more for the story than the writers do put in the work to explaining the plot because clearly, they care about the material and aren't thinking they're hot shit for writing nonsensical bullshit.

It must be nice, getting paid to sit on your ass all day while the animators you overwork and exploit the services of do all the work that you underpay them for. Wish I and the other people who create art, fanfics, videos, etc. could get money for all the promo we give you, whether that's our intention or not. But then again, the harassment we may receive for any fuckups on your end wouldn't be worth the blood money.

#rwde #rwby critical

[ga-yuu]

Pregnancy stories - When Yoshino was pregnant with Izumi

Few days before Izumi was born...

Yoshino: "So...?"

Kurama: *touching her belly* "Ah. Baby feels healthy."

Yoshino: "Really! Thank god!....*rubs her belly* I can't wait to meet you."

Kurama: "You look happier than before."

Yoshino: "Of course I am. It's my first being a mom. I wonder how it's going to feel like. I'm really looking forward to it."

Kurama: "I see."

Yoshino: "Also thank you Kurama. You and all the Rebel members have been taking good care of me for the past 9 months. Thank you." *kisses his cheek*

Kurama: "For handling all your mood swings, I deserve more than a kiss on the cheek."

Yoshino: "Mm...." *kisses his lips*

Kurama: "Still...I don't understand, why those guys are excited more than me. I'm the father of the baby, yet they all are acting like it's their baby."

Yoshino: "Fufu...they're just excited about the fact that they're going to be uncles."

Yoshino: *looks at her belly* "You're so lucky. You're going to have some many people who's going to love you."

Kurama: "..........."

Kurama: "Yoshino."

Yoshino: "Hm?"

Kurama: "Why.....do you look so beautiful today?"

Yoshino: *blushing*

They both move close to kiss each other.

Yoichi: "Dinner's ready!"

Kurama and Yoshino: "Ah!" *moves away*

Sueharu: "I hope we didn't interrupt you guys."

Kurama: *glares*

Benkei: "Looks like we did."

Yoshitsune: "Yoshino, how are you feeling?"

Yoshino: "I'm doing fine Yoshitsune-sama, thank you."

Benkei: "Today, I made you your favorite Yoshino. Can you eat? Tell me if you need anything else."

Yoshino: "No no no. It's fine. I already feel bad for harassing you all with my mood swings for the past 9 months."

Yoshitsune: "Don't worry about that. We understand how hard it is for a woman who is going through this phase."

Sueharu: "That was really an experience. But it was fun."

Yoichi: "Yeah, we got to see so many fun things. Especially, angry Yoshino."

Yoshino: *blushing* "Please don't remind me that..."

Yoichi: "Do you remember that day, when Kurama asked Yoshino to peel oranges for him? And Yoshino was like 'You lazy-ass, do it yourself! How about for once, take ownership for what you did to me and feed me oranges!' "

Yoshino: *blushing* "Hey, I didn't go that far."

Kurama: "Yeah you did."

Yoshino: "Kurama!" *blushing*

Sueharu: "Yeah. And Kurama never asked again. From then on, he was the one feeding Yoshino oranges."

Kurama: "Because the doctor told me that Yoshino's body was weak and she needed a lot of food to stay healthy."

Benkei: "Yeah, and you were only feeding her oranges. "

Kurama: "What's wrong with oranges?"

Benkei: *sighs* "Nothing, but she needed to have more healthy food to survive the labor."

Yoshitsune: "Yes. That's why I also helped Kurama to make rice cakes."

Yoichi: "Yeah and you two burned the entire kitchen."

Kurama: "I thought if I increased the flames, it would cook fast."

Yoshitsune: "I'm sorry Benkei.....I made a mess."

Benkei: "It's fine Yoshitsune-sama! You were only trying to help."

Yoichi: "Hey that's so unfair! Why is Yoshitsune-sama forgiven so easily while I and Sueharu was punished to clean the entire kitchen?"

Sueharu: "Yeah, that's unfair."

Benkei: "Because when you two were cooking, you burned the rice so much that it was stuck to the pot. Do you know how annoying it is to clean?"

Kurama: *picks up the Yoshino's dinner and starts feeding her*

Yoshino: "Ah! Kurama, it's fine. I can eat myself now."

Kurama: *glares* "Don't tell me what to do. Now, open your mouth."

Yoshino: "Aaahh...Mmph...Mm...This is actually yummy."

Benkei: "Isn't it? We all made it together for you."

Yoshino: *angelic smile* "Thank you, everyone."

Yoshino finishes her food.

Kurama: "Here have this orange."

Yoshino: "No, Kurama. I think I'm full----!!"

Everyone: "!?"

Yoshino: "Ah!"

Kurama: "What's wrong!? Is the baby coming out!?"

Yoshino: "It kicked."

Everyone: "!!"

Yoshino: "It kicked! The baby just kicked!!"

Yoichi: "Hahaha...looks like the baby really wants oranges."

Benkei: "Oh my god, is there going to be another Kurama who's only going to eat oranges for the rest of their life?"

Yoshitsune: "I guess so." *smiles*

Sueharu: "I wonder if it's going to be a boy or a girl. I'm curious."

Yoichi: "I bet it's girl. It would be cute to see a junior Yoshino running around here."

Sueharu: "Yep! I can't wait to bring her so many cute dresses to wear."

Benkei: "And cook her so many delicious food."

Yoshitsune: "And play with her."

Yoshino: "Fufu...you all are excited even more now. Kurama what do you think? Is it going to be a boy or a girl?"

Kurama: "Does the gender matter?"

Yoshino: "No...but it wouldn't hurt to take a guess, right?"

Kurama: "............" *closes his eyes*

Everyone else: *waits eagerly*

Yoshino: "Kurama?"

Kurama: "......I think it's a boy."

#ikemen series #ikemen genjiden #cybird ikemen #cybird otome #otome #ikegen #cybird #ikemen mc #ikemen genjiden kurama

[saltwukong]

Nitpick November #3: Fairy Tales

After a while, I finally managed to think of something significant about Volume 8 that amounts to a nitpick, and not something that makes me blindingly angry. It's one of those Miles-and-Kerry-isms, the dependence on old legends and fairy tales in-story that you can tell usually appears when they're doing some Plot Bullshit they didn't bother to properly set up.

Some people are probably going to be scandalized by hearing this, but I really...don't care about the 'thematic rules' as they apply to minor details. If a character's name doesn't relate to a color, I really don't care. If a character doesn't link back to some old legend or literature, I'm not bothered. Really, those aren't things that affect the story all that much, and that's what I care about: the story. I don't find these things absolutely necessary.

In fact, you could probably excise them and I wouldn't notice. In many characters, they have. But that only makes it all the more jarring when the whole fairy tale nonsense pops back up as something it was never meant to be: a hugely important part of the story.

I mean, they did that the first time, and it was already bad then. Our first true delve into overarching plot came in Volume 3, when the maidens were introduced and came packaged with a whole fairy tale bit that Pyrrha explains. The thing is, nobody in the audience cared about in-story fairy tales. Why would they? This isn't an urban fantasy show. They cared about the slaying of monsters with huge badass weapons. It shot the story into that abysmally frustrating "MAGIC IS REAL?" nonsense that was so rightfully mocked every time it appeared.

And that should've been the end of it. You got one free pass out of that because it ostensibly did double duty as worldbuilding. Made-up in-story fairy tales should have had absolutely zero presence or impact in the story from there forth. Yet, at the end of that volume a mere six episodes later, came "silver eyed warriors".

When you do that, just drop random legends and myths out of nowhere the second they're ostensibly relevant, you make it abundantly clear that you didn't really plan for this and are just making shit up as you go. That you're too lazy to actually, properly establish something--because if you weren't, you'd have other options than this, and better ones, too. Naturally, the silver eyes nonsense resulted in a lot of complaints of exactly that.

Volume 4 provides us this in the form of the Only Religion That Matters, with Generic Good God and Generic Evil God, and from then on whenever a character needs to swear they say "Gods!" or "Brothers" even though they've never done that before and it sounds really awkward. Again, another Old Legend featuring as the star of an exposition dump, this time from Qrow, to actually hammer in a plot for the heroes to navigate.

There's no new legends dropped for Volume 5 and 6, mostly because they're busy dealing with the first two--maidens and silver eyes. Volume 7 features no new legends as well, along with almost zero mention of either of those, because Volume 7 is awesome and can carry itself with a plot that doesn't rely on Randomly Generated Exposition Lore. But then of course, comes Volume 8.

In Volume 8, it's "maiden" this, "silver eyes" that, along with something new: "the girl who fell through the world". Because of how far we'd come, I knew the second that Oscar brought this random fairy tale up out of nowhere for no reason that it was going to be super important Plot Bullshit dropped out of nowhere, and I was right! This is supposed to be "foreshadowing" for the Ever After, the alternate "plot" Miles and Kerry pulled out of their ass after they finished bludgeoning, shredding, and burning the actual plot that Volume 7 had set up to that point. You would think that after nine years, these two would've learned that they can't get away with that, but not. They show their hand every time.

It's lazy. It gives the audience absolutely no reason to invest in a plot point and relies on their existing attachments surviving the awkward transitions (and they might have, had those existing attachments not been villainized and killed off). It's a hand-wave for when a plot just happens, with no input nor logical action from the cast themselves. There's no way to have characters drive plots like these because it's all referential, ordained crap.

It doesn't even have the guts to be original crap. RWBY has now entered the dull and unsatisfying world of Alice in Wonderland recaps, because creating original mythology to contain their writing decisions is too much work.

And all of this, for what? Am I supposed to be impressed that Miles and Kerry can crib Lewis Carrol like everyone else on the planet? Cause I'm not. This was never what RWBY was supposed to be about. Fairy Tales were an interesting feature and source of design notes when this show started, never a whole major facet of the story. I'm bored by this.

#rwde #nitpick november #nitpick november 2022

[iseeweirdthings]

Thoughts and Notes on Netflix's 2024 Live Action Avatar the Last Airbender (spoilers!)

Good:

The Casting overall I think is good, I have some problems with characterization but overall everybody looks the part -azula.

The Effects good all the way through actually

Some of the Added Scenes, such where Zuko gets his platoon from

The Score, it's the same score

Bad:

Incredibly Show and Tell, like illude to something, foreshadow something, don't just show me it and explain it right away, not every plot thread has to be on screen.

Pacing, condensing 20 24 minute episodes into 8 one hour long episodes really hurts character moments and overall story progression.

The War!!! 70% of the dialogue is about THE WAR. That's not really what the original story is about, so much focus is about the war and you lose so much of the necessary innocence of the characters

The Live Action why do we doing this.

Nobody seems like friends when the camera is on, the chemistry isn't working sadly, I think it has to do with Dialogue and Pacing of Dialogue, they need to actually talk to each other rather taking turns performing one liners and monologues. There's too much space in between lines.

Every character is playing their trauma as if it's their first card in the deck, and pouring it out to everyone immediately, it's lazy, and unemotional when it should be.

I feel like I just watched 8 episodes of this show and followed this group but I don't know any of them, we're not given time to spend with them.

Character Notes

Avatar (the war) Aang, this isn't a child, he is played by a child but sadly he isn't allowed to be one. He's too weighed down by his trauma and responsibilities that he isn't given the space to have fun, and he does have a nice smile and he does look like Aang but they're playing him as a fucking rock. A Rock who can fly???

Also all the past Avatars give him such shitty advice which he always disagrees with and then when he leaves the spirit world he's like "they're absolutely right!" stand up for your own beliefs baby!

He gets so boiled down to being a hero and having to save everybody that he loses his own essence and appeal.

Katara (the prodigy) It just doesn't feel like the same character, she doesn't feel motherly, she doesn't feel angry, she isn't shown to be hard working, idk she's just there, so much of her original struggle was learning but through some nice words from Aang and Jet she's already a master before she gets to the North Pole.

Sokka (😐 this is the face he's making) I think he just needs to be more expressive and charismatic, I want to like him but he's just too stiff. Get that man high before filming or something idk. Should've been more sexist. it's a plot point.

Appa and Momo aren't characters, they're just there but not even there.

Zuko!! he's cute! I think he might be my favourite casting. He's frustrated and whiney and annoying in all the right ways. He's by far the most rounded character so far and that's helped by more screentime from not only him but Ozai and Azula. But! that's at the cost of their own mystique and characterisation.

He's also not funny enough, like original Zuko's dialogue is 90% "My Honour!!!!" and new Zuko at least to my knowledge doesn't say it one time. Like they're both hyper-fixated on the same task but one is just naturally funnier. idk maybe that's an easier thing to pull off in animation.

And like most people I think adding the platoon he thinks shouldn't be sacrificed as his crew is a good decision, I just wish he made it himself, rather than Ozai gifting/pawning them off to him. would've made it just all that better in my opinion.

Iroh! loved you at first! great casting, but you're allergic to smiling, I get it this first season we're really playing into the RIP Lu Ten but like Zuko is right here and you need to spend time spending time with this kid, show him that war ain't all that. there's joy and love in this world man, and so many amazing wonders. be happy just to live in a world like that. be happy man please. you're too old to not know how to grieve.

I think Azula's casting has yet to prove itself. The young girl playing her just seems like a really nice person, who doesn't at all look crazy enough.

They're also fucking her character, where is her self confidence? where is her unwavering faith in herself? Why is Ozai doubting her?? She's the mother fucking queen? why isn't she acting like it??? She just isn't giving crazy bitch.

Ozai, fine, but why are we seeing ur face??? sit in the chair!!!!

I think overall i want to give this show the benefit of the doubt, you're not doing a terrible job. Just give us more character moments and relaxation, it's not all about the war. it's about kids and growing and friendship and shit. also like write faster dialogue you can get more lines in like always. Especially for Sokka! he's the filler to any dead air. In 50 minute episodes there shouldn't be this much silence.

I'll keep watching, for season 2 I just hope that even as the show gets more serious, they can still create the beautiful moments of quiet and calm and fun. The show needs more fun, and the kids should have more too.

#hi kathryn #im sorry Meli #tumble time #tumble #oh boy oh man #Avatar #avatar the last airbender #avatar live action #atla #my expectations werent high but i think the showrunners expectations were lower #natla #tumbles #Aang #Zuko #Iroh #Sokka #Katara #I still had fun watching i think mostly when i had a second thing to do #enough of live action adaptations #its still way more avatar then the movie is #fucking m night shamylan #its the best live action avatar adaptation to date! good thing the bar was on the floor before hand

[buck-yyyy]

my complete, organized thoughts on volume two of stranger things.

spoiler alert: i'm really fuckin upset.

obvious spoiler warning for under the cut.

so. where to begin. lets start with... well, there's too much i'm disappointed in to pick a notable one to lead the pack, sooo a random one it is:

continuity between the seasons

there was none. there were so many plot holes and things left unmentioned from previous seasons that were important and completely left out. starting with will's birthday- what the hell? they made a specific point to mention it in season two. it was important enough to be one of the few confirmed birthdays in the cast of characters (actually, is it the only? a quick google search tells me that apparently, of the main kids, only mike and will have a confirmed birth date, and of the two, only will's was actually mentioned in the show). and yet, they somehow forgot it- with a team of hundreds of people, no one caught the fact that the date they used at rink-o-mania was one of the few dates ever mentioned in the show.

moving on from that fiasco, we have the fact that the upside down's air is harmful. they have to use hazmat suits in season one, in order to safely enter the upside down without getting sick. hopper gets sick in season two from the particles, when he's in the tunnels. yet, when steve/robin/nancy/eddie/dustin go into the upside down this season, they're perfectly fine with no masks or anything? that makes ZERO sense. there are a million other continuity errors, but i simply do not have time to name them all.

chekhov's gun

for those unaware, chekhov's gun is "a dramatic principle that suggests that details within a story or play will contribute to the overall narrative. This encourages writers to not make false promises in their narrative by including extemporaneous details that will not ultimately pay off by the last act, chapter, or conclusion" (courtesy of masterclass.com). in even simpler terms: a detail that was important enough to be brought up in the story isn't going to be shelved and ignored. it's a fairly important concept in writing; it confuses the audience when you bring something up then don't ever address it again. so why did that happen so much this season?

hopper's broken ankle wasn't ever addressed after he escaped from prison, even though an injury to that particular body part is detrimental to one's mobility (trust me- i ran cross country for years. when i fucked up my ankle, even a little bit, like simply twisting it the wrong way, i couldn't run. and while his situation was life or death, there was NO MENTION of it). max's letters were unopened and unread, except for billy's- so why did they chose to make such a big point of her writing them for everyone of her friends? mike's behaviour at the airport was COMPLETELY unexplained, and just made him more of a douchebag this season. and again, the upside down particles and the general atmosphere of the upside down being harmful was completely ignored.

all of these things add to the shoddy continuity, and lazy writing of this season- particularly volume two.

max's story line

what. the. fuck. i am so beyond angry at this. volume one featured max, a deeply traumatized girl struggling with PTSD, survivors guilt, and suicidal thoughts, choosing life and deciding to fight as hard as she could to survive. that story was and IS so deeply personal to me. however, they chose to resolve that plot by having her FUCKING DIE as a self-sacrifice. i should NOT need to explain to you why that's so shitty.

harmful tropes/stereotypes - part one

so, i'm dividing this one into two parts, one for what i'm about to bring up and another to put with all my byler/queer rep thoughts (i told you it'd be organized :0). this season (although this is NOT the first time), they employed SEVERAL overused stereotypes for POC as a main feature of various character's stories. i'm the first to admit that i am not the best person to talk about this, because i'm white, so i'm going to link a post by meembyers, who did a quick summary of the tropes.

mike and eleven's relationship

i'm going to be upfront about this, i'm particularly biased on this front because i'm a byler shipper, but hey- none of this is unbiased. you clicked to read this because of bias. plus, i don't think any milkvans follow me, so whatever.

their relationship has deteriorated to the point that it is genuinely laughable. i used to think that it was so that they could set up byler, but i now i don't fucking know whether that's actually what they're trying to do or if the duffer brothers just can't fucking write a good relationship between the two characters- we've seen them do well with lumax, so what the hell is the problem with el and mike?

if we're forgetting about byler for this analysis, their relationship is such. a mess. mike couldn't say 'i love you' for months, and in fact has never said it properly to her face in a way that she could respond to. he says it himself, that he practically worships her. there's a complete disconnect in his mind between jane, a very real girl who is in love with him and just wants a happy relationship with him, and eleven, the teenage superhero who can move things with her mind.

mike is the first person that she met outside of the lab. everything that she liked was just stuff that he liked. el latched on to him because she was a traumatized, abused child who had no one else in her life, nowhere safe to go. she didn't know what a boyfriend was, let alone the meaning behind a romantic relationship- and while we can see that this is what she wants now, that is not at all how it started.

mike has been reduced to nothing more than el's boyfriend. he has no development- even when he finally managed to say 'i love you', it was only because will told him to, encouraged him. and again- he has never been able to say it in an environment where she can respond to it.

mike's character assassination

i said it in the above paragraph, and i'll say it again- mike has been reduced to simply being el's boyfriend. gone is the mike of season one and two, the mike who yelled at his friends for being the only one who cared about finding will, the mike who stepped off a fucking cliff to protect dustin, the mike who could instantly tell whenever something was wrong with will, the mike who tried so hard to carry will out of the lab when hopper had to go back for joyce. all of that is gone.

he's one-dimensional, a massive jerk to his friends, painfully oblivious (and not in the funny or plot-moving way), and again- he only cares about el.

i mean, for fucks sake, he couldn't even tell that will was sobbing in the van next to him. season two mike would have noticed instantly and tried to make things better- but nope. none of that.

the fucking queerbaiting? what the fuck?

holy fucking shit it was bad. it was. so bad.

QUEER PEOPLE ARE NOT AN ADVERTISING TACTIC.

i mean, for fucks sake, i don't even want to talk about this. it might sound stupid, especially to casual viewers (although, lets be honest, what casual viewer is reading this- it's longer than essays i've written for a grade), but i feel so, so heartbroken. i've linked a post i made last night about why byler meant so much to me, if you want any extra context, but it's really not necessary to read.

https://hey-its-bucky.tumblr.com/post/688553205043511296/this-will-probably-be-my-last-post-before-i-go

queerbaiting is fucking horrendous. i'm not going to talk about any more. it makes me genuinely sick to my stomach to think about.

harmful tropes/stereotypes - part two

now, this one is about queer stereotypes- and this, i feel like i'm equipped to speak about, with my own personal experiences.

will's whole story line this season was an overused trope. it was the 'gay person is in love with their best friend, but oh no the love is unrequited, so gay person steps up as the "bigger person" and hides their feelings and helps best friend with their relationship while feeling broken inside' mixed with a little bit of 'sad gay boy' and then some 'in love with a straight person' thrown in for spice.

i'm not going to say that this doesn't happen. that would be a lie. this is word for word, something that i experienced. but that doesn't mean that it isn't a trope or a stereotype.

some people are going to fit a stereotype, and as long as that's actually who the person is and not just a caricature of them, that's okay. the issue arises when it's the only thing we see in the media, because it reinforces the idea that there's only one type of gay person.

i'm not going to go into this much more, because i know a large portion of people on this website are queer and very much understand what i'm talking about, but if you're really curious you can do some research on your own.

and, now, for the grand finale of my rant:

will's feelings for mike being used as a plot device

dear fucking god.

they used will's feelings for mike as a way to push mike towards saying 'i love you' to el. his personal connection, his love for mike, was only seen to progress a straight relationship. again- i should NOT have to tell you why that's problematic.

conclusion

i'm so tired, guys. physically, because it's 12:40 am, i've been writing this for an hour and a half, and i got like. five and a half hours of sleep last night. but i'm tired mentally, too.

i'm so fucking sick of the treatment of queer characters in media. i'm sick of lazy writing. i'm sick of stereotypes, of poorly-thought out decisions, and especially: I'M SO FUCKING SICK OF QUEERBAITING.

i'm tired, and i'm angry, and most of all, i'm disappointed. so, immensely disappointed.

i'm going to bed. i hope this all made sense. i'm sorry to those of you who feel the same way as me, because we all deserved better. best of luck to everyone. take some time for yourself- it might seem silly, but i know how much disappointment on this scale hurts. remember to drink water, and, of course:

fuck the duffer brothers.

#stranger things #stranger things spoilers #stranger things volume 2 #byler

[the-lady-general]

Insomnia essay about LDS, Reflections, beware of heavy spoilers. Terrible spelling, very rambly. I'm not getting any sleep and neither will you :p

Tl;dr: latest lds is one of my new favourite episodes overall, they're showing that geniune nerd passion that makes star trek so amazing. also i love where this season is going and i love that the showrunners are catering to me personally specifically. (lds is The Most Trek.)

i think it's telling that what gets mocked in both plots are the uniforms and the optics and the whack fringe bs that starfleet have to deal with (the delta flyer as the culprit for threshold, the brain worms from conspiracy). it's also telling that cadet rutherford has some of the most vicious criticisms against starfleet. but look at him and the passion he has for making space hot rods! rutherford-of-the-present is so shocked at how angry rutherford-of-the-past is, but they both care SO MUCH. they just want to build spaceships and go fast and make friends! present rutherford can see that past rutherford's anger is infantile, and he's lashing out because he's scared and hurt, presumably by the institution he trusts. there are still entirely benign options for the line "he'll think it was elective" - it might have been a traumatic accident and a next of kin decided to take the chance and not saddle rutherford with the memory for example. of course "starfleet was problematic" does make for the more compelling story. but considering how this season is going ("trust the system!" and it works! because this is the utopian future!), it would surprise me if they did it in any other way than "starfleet was problematic, and the problem is going to get fixed".

the archaeologist and mariner likewise is a super compelling subplot. because mariner wants to be the Bad Boy so badly, but she saved the contact after the archeologist revealed she's a good guy - just stealing the elgin marbles from the british museum/those toras from the vatican museum rather than doing it the long-winded paper-based way that starfleet would have done. and i can't remember right now and i'm too lazy to look it up, but was it mariner who complained about federation scientists always "taking the shortcut & not going through the academy" and then needing starfleet to rescue them in minding the mind's mines? we also don't see the archeologists motivations at all - does she geniunely care about returning the grand nagus staff because it's the symbol of office for the head of the ferengi theocracy? or does she just want to be the Big Damn Hero who Doesn't Play By The Rules? and does it even matter to rom and the ferengi?

(as an aside: does rom care about the stick. does he have a new one. is the old one in any way significant to him or his people. was zek's stick auctioned off for his funeral. rom's the fucking nagus, he could have hired a ferengi crew to steal it back and wouldn't have needed to rely on a human.)

and can you imagine getting mocked for "aren't you guys a military" not even a decade after the dominion war? when you're representing ALL peaceful interests of ALL member species? because the mission isn't just about expansion or border protection or w/e:

the presumption is that the universe is enormous and full of friends, life that we don't even understand, amazing phenomena that make you reconsider your place in life/society/the universe, technologies and cultures that can elevate the standard of living on a massive scale - and then you constantly come across, like, abandoned drones that destroy planets, lifeforms like the horta or the space amoeba that are dangerous to the unwary, parasitic life that destroys entire cultures on purpose, expansionist empires, cultures that choose outright fascism or slavery or personal gain over societal welfare. and your own people are constantly running away to the fringes and settling somewhere to found Weird Cults without legal oversight. And ultimately, the Federation has its problems, because how WOULDN'T you have problems, but there is such an emphasis on self-determination of members and neighbours that the result is a massive collection of cultures who enjoy such a high standard of living that even participation in society (work, military service etc) is entirely voluntary for billions of people.

And it's all so incredibly fragile. so when there's a cemented windsock or a cube or a romulan with ambitions or fucking butt parasites are headed for earth, who are you going to call? THE GUYS WHO JUST WANT TO STUDY QUASARS. and then you laugh at them because their sincerest wish is to not be a military, but they are the ones fulfilling that role when necessary.

(because they put themselves into that role on purpose. but that's the set up, isn't it? what if the military'a first mission was humanitarian and scientific? what if they tried to protect everybody regardless of membership status?)

I think for fans and official writers it's always tempting to look for the grimdark in starfleet because on the one hand, that's what's missing from the original vision (not really, there's plenty of grimdark right from the start, but they're optimists about it.). on the other hand the whole thing is coming out of american exceptionalism, which isn't the worst basis for speculative fiction. and on the third (?) hand, there has been this fashion since the early 2000s (and i blame 9/11 and shrek, whomst i love) of doing everything ironically and deride the kind of passion that makes star trek so great.

So the last episode was SO GOOD and very cathartic. They just want to study quasars and protect the right to self-determination of all sentient life! that's what they care about! and it's so easy to point and laugh and call them nerds because, to steal from tolkien's lotr foreword, they've bared their heart for all the world to see and take a shot at.

#star trek #lower decks #lds #the lady general rambles #spoilers

[kneelbeforeclefairy]

Okay okay okay so I need to process. I do not know why I am so upset over a fuckingtv show but I am

Okay so this is not the books. Now I do think any adaptation has to be...somewhat...faithful to the source material, or it becomes an adaptation In Name Only, and at that point why not do your own thing? However that doesn't mean it's BAD per se to change a lot of things, all media requires adaptation. Sometimes you can get the details wrong and hit the spirit. I use Howl's Moving Castle as an example of this. Pick up the book after you've seen the movie and the only thing similar is there's a dude named Howl with a Moving Castle. (Actually like the first 60 pages are the same and then they diverge wildly) but because like the SPIRIT felt similar, book fans tend to like the movie, and just accept them as two different things.

So initially I was a HUGE skeptic about some of these changes as they dropped. Why change the time period? Why age up Claudia? Why the framing device of the "second interview?" And I was pleasantly surprised as more trailers came out and FINALLY the first two episodes, that my fears were unfounded. The setting update was pretty cool, you didn't really notice it, the second interview became an interesting device to play with the idea of unreliable narrator. I'm still not crazy about 14 year old Claudia, but to be fair, being 14 eternally would suck, and it's a fun thing to explore, it's just not my favorite.

But this last episode. I mean--my chief criticism of Lestat so far was that he was too nice, and I wasn't seeing the Toxic that this relationship needs to get to Claudia Kills Lestat which is where it has to go. I was rejoicing at the moment where Lestat makes Claudia watch Charlie burn. Finally, FINALLY Lestat's brand of Awful. Other than that, aside from a few bitchy remarks, that one outburst at the table and a sort of tendency to ignore engaging with Louis emotions when he can throw money or sarcasm at them, he seems a decent guy.

And I was wondering how they're going to make him Awful, Abusive even, bad enough that when Claudia kills him we lose no sympathy for her, but also sort of mourn him, but also acknowledge it had to be done BUT ALSO when Lestat becomes protagonist, we still have to love and root for this guy. It's a fine line to walk. You can argue Anne Rice, goddess of inconsistent writing, doesn't always pull off.

But I think the answer was not just make him explode like that and beat up a man who he claims to love, who either can't or won't fight back, all because he's...jealous?

Thing is to me, it reads like lazy writing. They couldn't figure out how to show a relationship that was abusive without it being physically abusive, nor a relationship that is bad for everyone involved but does still have it's happy moments. They couldn't push Claudia to the point where she has to kill him without him doing the one unforgivable thing, and I think, to most audiences, that beat down is unforgiviable in terms of what you forgive of your protagonist. There's a line, you know? Withholding information, lying, and gaslighting people--sure, tell me your side of the story and I'll agree you have a lot of growing to do before you're a good person, but I'm still here, watching you become one. I still like you As A Charecter. Do THAT, over, let's face it, as tawdry an emotion as sexual jealousy and I frankly don't care WHAT happens to you. Thats like Tale of the Body Thief levels of "I'm not sure you can recover from that, Lestat."

And the reasoning behind it? They made it almost a love triangle. Lestat is jealous because Louis doesn't love him, he loves Claudia better? I mean, we got a good look at Louis' depression mode when she was gone, and I get Lestat gets angry because he's HERE, isn't he ENOUGH for him? And I think that's worth exploring, and I certainly think that's part of the Issues between the three of them. But that's not what we saw. We saw One Happy Family, even if Louis and Claudia are closer. We didn't see Lestat upset about it. And why should he be? I guess he feels left out? Idk it just seems...cheap. tawdry.

Oh, and I also Don't Like that the shorthand for Lestat is losing his investment in the relationship is him cheating. I didn't like it in episode 3, I really don't like it now. I think it's once again, a lazy shorthand of Bad Relationship, a sort of shortcut. I also think it falls into that old Depraved Bisexual trope and Bisexuals Won't Be Faithful To You trope. And I think there are better ways of doing that than just turning everything into sexual jealousy.

It's too....human. one thing that always set the Ricean vampires apart was how...non human...their way of love is. Most of them are polyamorous. Most of them are queer. Their love seems almost a little mixed in with platonic and familial. It's... interesting. And one thing that never happens is sexual jealousy and love triangles. That's too....easy. Boring.

The other thing that really bothered me is Claudia's assault. What. Exactly. Did it add to the plot? I get the OMG she leaves home and meets another vampire. Now she KNOWS there are others like her! But she could have left him for a million reasons--hes not as fun as Daddy Lou and Uncle Les. He talks down to her, calls her fledgling, she doesn't like that. He's old and stodgy, wants to pull her into some vampire cult. Not Claudia's style. Or best of all, he treats her like a child and that's a Trigger. But to take the only female main charecter, a black female character, and have her be sexually assualted--why? What does it add? Cause I'll tell you what it feels like. This Claudia has been aged up and sexualized--she not only is looking for romantic love, she's looking for sexual love. Now that's not MY preference in honing in on What's Eating Claudia, I think an eternity as a 14 year old is enough angst, but sure let's make it she wants sex and believes she'll never find it. (it also bothers me her snap is after 5 years. Like...girl....you might find love you are still 19. ) But whatever, okay, so she's very sexual. But the second she leaves home the first thing we see happen to her is she gets assaulted? It looks to me like a punishment. Claudia wants to get laid and that's what happens to naughty little girls who are too sexual too soon they get into bad situations that for some damn reason, a freaking vampire can't fight her way out of. (I mean if it was a 200 year old vamp, at least there's some textual basis, but that guy was her human and vampiric equal, give or take a few years. ) And the fact that this happens to a black teenager--when the sexualization of black girls is such a problem in media and in real life....it's not a good look, show. It's not a good look.

And that weird She Tore The Pages Out thing? Wasn't that a FUN way of dwelling on the assault of a black woman without showing it and getting the criticism for SHOWING assault a la Game of Thrones? Felt very have your cake and eat it too.

Anyway, I am just... Angry. Yes I'm angry as a Book Fan. But I've been enjoying this adaptation on its own merits until this episode. Sometimes it REALLY hits the spirit of the thing, despite so many detail changes. Sometimes it goes left and starts telling its own story...and that's FINE. But at this point I feel like it's not longer got much of a resemblance to the books, it's not telling that story any more, but I don't know what story it wanted to tell. I can't figure out what this is about. And I feel like the COMPLEXITY that is the Lestat/Louis/Claudia household has been thrown out the window in favor of ...almost a love triangle? Romantic jealousy, sexual jealousy and the only way the writers can show a bad relationship, infidelity and physical abuse.

It's lazy. It's lazy and I hate it.

#iwtv episode 5

[dymagamwedd]

name :      iris pronouns :        she/her preference of communication  :    discord most active muse :     right now, ferry and chauvelin. it tends to fluctuate depending on my mood and what's going on in life at the minute. ferry muse is highest right now because... picket lines. say, have you thought about joining a union? experience / how many years :     oh, god. been around on tumblr rp since at least 2011, and i roleplayed on ff.net, facebook, foopets, and skype before that. if you really wanna go back further, i started roleplaying through gmail instant messenger with my school friend back when we were twelve. i've been at this hobby for ages. platforms you use :    tumblr and discord. best experience  :    man... probably the process of creating my OC lewis anwyl and his whole story / network of characters. that got me through some rough times in the pandemic. i'm less active on his blog now because of phd pressure, but i still write him a lot on discord. my original angry little welshman before ferry came along. rp pet peeves :      uhhhh i've got a few, but one that really grinds my gears is when people assume things about your muse that aren't true and just refuse to listen when you gently tell them that they're godmodding a bit. i had it a lot with lewis, where people would just assume because he's a Ye Olde Medical Man that he must treat patients horribly, hate women, and think every ailment should be treated with cocaine. it happened at least half a dozen times. everyone brings their own understanding and biases to RP, that's only natural, but if someone tells you 'hey you're assuming things about my muse that aren't true,' listen to them. if muses are making the assumption IC, that's fine! i love conflict! but it's when that spills over into OOC that it starts to become a pet peeve for me. fluff,  angst,  or smut :     i love all three, but it depends on mood and muse. some muses just aren't very interested in sex, so i don't write smut with them. others don't let themselves get into fluff situations, so i don't write fluff with them. sometimes i'm in the mood for angst, sometimes i need some cathartic cuddling content. it's all a matter of situation. plots or memes :     plots. i really struggle with memes that have no context attached to them. usually, even if a meme is entirely out of the blue, i will end up messaging to plot just a bit before i answer it. long or short replies :      medium, 2-3 paragraphs. i do love when people get inspired and write really long replies, but i just... cannot handle that as a sustained thread. not to pull the 'my life is so hard' shit, but doing a phd involves an insane amount of reading and writing. when i want to wind down from a stressful day of research, i don't really want to face a full draft box of 8+ paragraph replies. these days, i prefer to keep it concise. are you like your muses :    there's a bit of me in a lot of my muses, especially ocs. there's a bit of me in ferry, there's a lot of me in millie. nothing about me in jacob, though, fuck that guy.

tagged by :       @polarean thank u <3 tagging :  uhhhh i'm lazy. i'm sharing the means of production with the workers of the world. aka, steal it from me.

#( * dash games. ) #( * reference. )

[rantingcrocodile]

I agree with all of that, Miss Croc, thank you. It also makes me so angry whenever people accuse bi women of us being lazy in wlw dating because if it were true that bi people are just a bunch of passive bums who just prioritizes straight relationships, then bi men would also show the same rate of being in mostly straight relationships as well. However, there seems to be a higher trend of bi men who have a lot of MSM and male-with-male relationships with other bi men or gay men, in contrast to bisexual women wrt same sex dating history. Bi men are statistically more likely to perhaps end up with a man than they do end up with a woman, but this trend also shows the same story with bi women. This should pose a serious question: Is this really a matter of the world being very phallocentric, or is it perhaps men as a whole are just way more flexible, open, and aggressive in trying to be with people intimately versus women, who historically and biologically speaking, tend to act more passive and harder to please, even among lesbians/bi women? Lesbians love to shit on bi women about us being more oriented towards being with men rather than with women, but like I stated before, they don't make wlw dating fun or at least as easy and simple than regular straight dating has been curated for us. For all the bullshit that can be found in straight dating and 'gay dating', one thing remains consistent: Men, more often than women, put on all the stops and try to make everything accessible to have all roads leading to dick. Sorry for the harsh joke there lol, but compare that to lesbi dating, where it seems like all the roads are either blocked or have various signs of "We don't date bisluts here go away", "Wrong road, go back", "Gold stars only", "If you have history with men/you're a late bloomer, STOP and go back", "Ew you're a single mom/divorced woman with an ex male partner? TURN BACK", and so on. All the roads that leads to pussy are then, essentially, closed off. Law abiding citizens are going to pay attention and obey the traffic laws and the signs that are telling them to go away, I don't know what else to tell you. :/ To which I will say, harshly, that people can't complain about bi women like this anymore, because if men can get all the women in the world to come with them, it says nothing about the women in question and everything to do with the fact that if a group tells a woman that she is disgusting and unwanted, she is going to go to the other group who tells her that they want her instead. Simple mathematics.

So yeah, let's stop blaming bi women and let's maybe discuss ways to make wlw dating, or bi4bi dating, a much better experience for the women who want to have a girlfriend, wife, and so on. <3

The biggest issue is that we will never know the true numbers of bisexuals in whatever kind of relationships until we're liberated purely thanks to the numbers of bisexuals in relationships who won't identify themselves as bisexual. There will be a ton of people who call themselves either "straight," "lesbian" or "gay" when they're actually bisexual because either a) they're closeted and are terrified of others finding out they're bisexual or b) haven't come to terms with their bisexuality. So the numbers right now really are completely useless.

If, hypothetically, we pretend that we know for certain that bisexual women most often partner with men, and that bisexual men most often partner with men, then I think that's a clear sign of biphobic oppression.

That sounds like a complete reach, but hear me out.

If, as the biphobes claim about bisexual women, it's all simply about it being "easier" to partner with the opposite sex to gain "heterosexual privilege," then surely bisexual men would simply partner with women at the same rates as bisexual women.

Instead, I would argue that while bisexual women are reduced to permanently consenting sex toys for men and presumed to always be open to and available to men for male use, bisexual men are presumed to be liars who are afraid to actually come out as gay. That heavy pressure resulting in minority stress would create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bisexual women told that they'll end up with men and that their attraction to women is "predatory" and "fake" then internalise that, hate themselves, have little-to-no boundaries and then take any man that shows minor interest to feel loved. Bisexual men told that their attraction to women is fake and that they're using liars and manipulators will internalise that, hate themselves and then feel pushed towards partnering with men.

On top of all of this, because there's so much biphobia, even if individual bisexuals get through their own personal issues, it's highly likely that they'll believe in biphobia about other bisexuals, which makes it even harder to date.

Realistically, gay men and just date gay men and lesbians can just date lesbians, and bisexuals could just as easily date other bisexuals and have just as wide a dating pool. But with closeting, biphobia, internalised biphobia, internalised misogyny for bisexual women, then it's a minefield.

The bottom line here is that while we can discuss this all day long, there is an obsession with bisexuals and who we date (or don't date), which does nothing but reduce us to objects that are either good or bad depending on the sex of our partner. It's completely (and deliberately) dehumanising.

Lesbians are lesbians are lesbians, gay men are gay men are gay men, but bisexuals are examined and twisted and turned and only ever conditionally "accepted" on the thinnest ice depending on our partners or who we talk about wanting to partner with. We're never simply accepted as our own individuals with our own individual needs.

It literally does not matter if a bisexual woman only ever wants to date straight men and closets herself forever. She is still subject to the same baseline biphobic oppression that a bisexual woman who only ever wants to date lesbians and closets herself as a lesbian forever. Just as a bisexual woman who is celibate and closets herself as an asexual. It's all because they're bisexual individuals, whatever the rest of their circumstances, because they're people. But biphobes refuse to accept that and see that as ridiculous purely because they don't see us as human - they see us as some monstrous other.

#crocodilian answers

[seths-wife]

Theory: why is Seth Twiright the demon of wrath? What's his backstory?

Note: this theory tries its best to be as objective as possible in explaining and deducing facts basing on only what is known in the novels and not basing on personal preferences and sensibilities, just cold gathering of the facts and trying to draw plausible conclusion. That doesn't mean i'm right, necessarily.

Index:

1) Demon of wrath or demon of pride? (Biblical references and discordance of themes).

2) Was Seth a victim of abuse? (Can we draw this conclusion basing only on what we know?)

3) That one comic by Ichika

4) Conclusion

Chapter 1: demon of wrath or demon of pride?

Seth is a really peculiar character: the sin he's represented by doesn't seem to be...displaying that much, contrary to those of the other demons in this series.

Gilles is clearly lustful (basing on the catholic religion definition of it, at least) seen his high sex drive.

Vlad is not really explained but he's a cook so he must be obsessed with food (joke), also his interactions with Banica seem to suggest a morbid curiosity of his to try new foods for hedonistic pleasure, no matter if it's immoral and illegal to eat those.

Marie Annette is a really prideful human/demon seen her few lines in the entire series, like "bow down to me" without any legitimate reason.

Eve...well...on another theory about that...

Rahab is clearly envious when also other people get what she has, seen that she's basically the ec version of Ayano Aishi and a big stereotypical yandere, at least in one part of the narrative.

Salem (does he even exist? (joke)) is an economist so he must be obsessed with money and gathering earthly and perishing goods. (joke)

I won't talk about Adam Moonlit as the demon of greed here as it's for another topic.

But Seth? When in the series does he show unrighteous wrath? Do we see him get angry outbursts and go around beating up and killing people because he's angry at them?

No.

On the contrary, in the whole series Seth seems to be pretty calculating and cold, and he doesn't seem to be really excessively troubled by any behavior or at least he doesn't really show a strong vengeful attitude towards them.

Yes, he might get on bad mood when his plans don't succeed as he expected to, but he never goes like "you'll pay for ruining my plan" or something. He proceeds with his plans, trying to adjust the latters in order to fit the new situation.

Actually, sometimes he seems to find amusing and funny when people try to kill him and unmask (pun or not lol) him for his evil bahaviour, like when Adam tried to kill him and the latter was surprised he couldn't succeed since Seth outsmarted him, or Gammon when he confronted him about brainwashing Miroku.

It's as if Seth finds funny when people are frustrated because of him, it soothes his ever-roaring mind and boredom.

For months, i've thought that Seth should have been the demon of pride because of his attitude in the crime novel and because it fit him better as for the Biblical references:

We see multiple instances in the crime novel that Seth likes himself very much: he loves the fact that he consideres himself to be the best scientist in the country™ as he uses this bunch of words everytime he introduces himself (both as Horus and as himself), also he considers himself to be very handsome to the point he doesn't want to change his face because it would be "such a terrible crime" (i mean, i also think he's hot but Seth, calm down, what the hell...).

But his pride doesn't end with him flaunting his intelligence and hotness.

There are also other instances of Seth's pride that are even more remarkable.

Like for example, the whole matter of Seth making artificial humans (so called "ghoul children") mimicking the creation of the "gods" in the series. This can be considered a matter of pride, as he wants to act as the "gods", he thinks he's able to be on par of them.

Well lol, gods...i always found pretty unrealistic how we got from human scientists with high tech from almost omnipotent beings that can cast lightening wherever they want, make ladies pregnant and instill thoughts and visions in people in a single arc while being trapped inside of a spaceship. This always provoked some strong cognitive dissonance within me, this sounds like a stretched, inappropriate and unrealistic even if they have big tech. That's why i call them "gods wannabe". They're still humans playing God after all.

But that's besides the point.

Even more remarkable is this other line, right after quoting the achievements of other "gods" in the series:

"In that case—

I am the god who creates “evil”.

Seth is literally and explicitly placing himself in the place of the gods, considering himself to be a god on par of the pillar ones in the series.

And this is very coherent basing on the fact he should be the parallel of the Biblical serpent, the demon who thought he was on par of God and fell because of pride.

So it would have had much more sense to have Seth as the demon of pride.

So when and why is seth the demon of wrath since in the series it looks more like he's the demon of pride?

His motive? Not really...Seth doesn't seem to act because of some sort of anger as his main motivation is to "follow his h.e.r.s nature and make himself 'new friends' (his own definition of friends)".

Then i think we have no choice than look at his backstory and see if we can spot some unrighteous anger there.

Chapter 2: is Seth a victim of abuse and angry at his mother?

The vast majority of the theories around about the reasons of Seth's evil are based off the fact that Seth might have gone through motherly abuse that provoked him some childhood traumas back when he was a little white and red mask.

Those assertions are usually backed up by pieces of the short story "Outlaw and lychgate".

Let's look at them.

The most quoted line about this issue is:

“My, and what sort of dish is that?”

“It’s not really much of a dish. You just splash some curry powder and ketchup on a sausage. My old ma used to make it for me a lot when I was a child.”

“Just like mom used to make, hm. That sounds quite nice. My mother never did any home cooking for me.“

Well...from this particular line, fans have begun to speculate than maybe his mother starved him or refused to cook for him.

But is it necessarily the case? It can be a possible interpretation but we don't know how masks work in this series or whether or not they need to eat, especially since they don't have a mouth or a digestive system of some sort.

It can also be that Seth was just curious about food in the line upwards since as a mask maybe he could not experience food, given that he couldn't physically eat when he was a mask.

This doesn't necessarily refer to an abusive situation of a mother refusing to provide food and care for her son.

There is also another instance in which Seth spoke about his mother.

"I often hear strangers tell me that they can’t tell what I’m thinking.

Even my own mother said so, before she died.

That’s why, to get her to understand at least a little bit, I shot her in the forehead.

To this day I still remember how stopped moving, her mask cracked in two.

That was the first murder I committed."

Ok, the fact that his mother "didn't understand him" could have been because of various reasons:

1) maybe she didn't try to understand him and neglected him.

2) maybe Seth became too different from his mother since he contracted hers and she couldn't understand and relate to him anymore even if she tried to.

3) Seth is just too cryptic or changes his mind too fast (probably because of his boredom) when it comes to expressing his true intentions or having certain intentions therefore people have big trouble understand him.

I would go for 3 since Seth also explained that not only his mother didn't understand him but also various other characters, so it's not necessarily true that Seth's mother just refused to listen and understand him, it could have been that Seth was too cryptic or that she couldn't relate to a her.

Anyways, we don't have a lot of info about this but i don't think it is correct to see a mysterious passage in just one possible way.

And also i wouldn't like for Seth to be "he's evil because mommy wasn't nice therefore he's angry and wants to make everyone like him and destroy everything uwu" because:

1) that's a really misused trope.

2) it doesn't properly explain why Seth did what he did in the crime novel, it's clear that there has to be an even deeper motivation that made him do those horrific things: abuse is too much of a simplistic and lazy motivation given his role.

Also there is no specific mention of anger and resentment even if there could be.

So where can we see that Seth is angry?

Chapter 3: that one Ichika comic.

Let's look at this one comic.

It is kinda difficult to understand what it means but the face resembles Seth's human form a bit and also this comic shows a theme of anger against the human creators of the first period since the comic seems to be talking about the second one "in this world where everything is an extension" (the second period is a virtual parallel reality to the first one in the series).

Seth seems to be pretty aware of the first period.

I think so because Kiril (his clone) at one point gained back the memories of his original.

Who? Seth? Pale? (That twist complicated things a whole lot).

I will go for Seth since in the series he's always referred to as the original talking about his "clones".

Kiril with Seth's memories came up with "Vocaloid, huh?!", showing awareness of the knowledge of vocaloid (since the first period is similar to the real world in the series) but i don't think this is an info Kiril learnt on his own but he took from Seth's memories since he was a researcher of parallel worlds and wouldn't have been out of place for Seth to learn about the first period.

So, given that Seth is the one of the comic and he's talking about the humans of the first period, he seems to be angry at the fact he was born to be an her (let's remember the humans of the first period started the her problem for their own personal gain) and in the society of the second period he's seen as a problem because of that.

Therefore Seth in his anger invites people to blame the creators instead of him since he doesn't think to have a free will and has no other choice than being evil because of those humans who "made him this way".

Funny how the same topic is faced with Irina and Levia in the duel. And funny how Levia in this series seems to also be a victim of her own pulsions and can't really be a moral authority in this, again, gods wannabe. They have their morals inspired by their originals who made their avatars who have tainted them with a virus, so they can't create, define or judge good and evil themselves.

So funny.

Chapter 4: conclusions.

So i think this is a plausible reason Seth might be the demon of wrath. But still, i wonder how it is that Seth is happy later on to follow those pulsions he thinks he can't control (given by humans) and doesn't try to fight back the instincts.

Maybe he accepted and got happy with his disease or he just resigned that that was his destiny thinking that he had no choice.

I don't know if i will make anymore theories after this, since i want to go on and make content for something else.

#evillious chronicles #evillious #seth twiright

[onstoryladders]

are you dropping the not me ? :( i’m sad that gramblack didn’t happen and everyone’s feelings are valid. it’s just that for me not me’s more than the bl aspect. some of the writing choices were questionable yes but the series’ message is really powerful given thailand’s social climate right now and i hope people would focus on that as well

I understand what you mean, anon, and wholeheartedly agree: Not Me is a very special series with many good messages and themes. I wish I could keep watching it, but I feel bad even when I so much as get a gifset on my dash, so...

And it's not because of my ship not being endgame. I mean of course I'm sad that they're not canon, but I have SO MANY ships that aren't, and that doesn't make me hate the works from which they come from.

It's because they made a mess. They ruined a character, the one I loved the most. They added a storyline that is lazy and boring and unnecessary and completely detached from the main plot. They ruined the female character with the most screentime giving her no agency and no relevance whatsoever out of her romantic connections.

Above all, they went out of their way to trick us with obvious hints that lead nowhere, wasting so much time that could've been used to resolve other issues or deeper explore other themes.

This all feels like a betrayal, and not even for a good cause. That's what makes me angry the most – if this had been to give us an interesting alternative I could've been okay with that. But what did they give us instead? The weakest storyline ever. I get secondhand embarrassment when I compare Gram's subplot to what the other characters have. It's that bad.

And that makes me feel like whoever wrote Gram's storyline cared more about the “suspense” of hiding his true love interest than to remain faithful and loyal to his character – and sorry, but I can't forgive this. When you tell a story, the story comes first. If you betray your story, you betray your audience, and that's something that annoys me too much.

So yeah, I get what you mean, I agree with you, and at the same time I don't. Because it's true that Not Me is more than a BL, but it's still a story, and a story that's heavily focused on characters and their relationships at that.

And to me, it's ruined.

#negativity #gramblack #i might still watch the rest of the series #but like-- not now #im still too upset #unless something interesting happens #but right now im just so done with it lmao

[alirhi]

This is oddly fun lol

Let's see how many of these I can churn out before I get distracted or need a break! (pff. like I need an excuse to watch the show again. Despite its flaws, I really, really love TFATWS, guys)

Without further ado, let's get down to it!

Episode 2: The Star-Spangled Man

I'm pretty sure I'm on record when it comes to my undying hate for John Walker, yes? So obviously, Bucky's grumpiness 100% stays 😂

I'm not really a fan of how much emphasis they put on the shield. I can see it as a catalyst for Bucky to go confront Sam, yes, but he wouldn't keep going "shield shield shield" like a broken record. Bucky has consistently been shown to be an empathetic man. I can't believe for a second that he'd be barking at Sam about having no right to give up the shield; he'd ask why. Sam's got shit to do, so he'd get impatient and not answer.

"Why'd you give up so easily? If you were overwhelmed, I could've helped you-" "You've been ignoring me. Like now, how you're ignoring me walking away from you." "Well, you weren't texting me about this." "You think I needed your permission?!" "No, but I was right there with Steve while he was learning what it meant to be Cap. I wouldn't mind helping you get used to-" "Then go teach him." A vague gesture toward the "Cap is back" posters. Bucky makes a face. "Steve passed the mantle to you. You fought with him. You earned it. That little shit didn't." "What do you want me to do about it?" "Just tell me why, Sam. I mean it. I just wanna understand." "Not now, Buck. I've got shit to do. You see me heading for a plane right now, right?" "This is important!" "So is this." Sam tells him about the Flag Smashers, we get our silly Big Three/Gandalf conversation.

I'm sorry, but that whole jumping from the plane scene is funny as hell, and I love all the nods they added in to jokes from the press tours that brought us this show in the first place (like ripping the sleeve off his jacket lol). I don't think I'd change a single thing from the Big Three convo to Bucky joining Sam in the warehouse.

"You're doing the staring thing again." "You're staring at your watch," Bucky points out. He knows it's linked to Redwing, he's just pointing out how dumb that line is in that situation. They're there for recon lol. They're meant to be looking around.

I don't...particularly care about the other common gripe here? Meaning, "Bucky's a civilian, so why is he allowed to randomly jump in on a military mission?" Bucky's also known in this universe as an Avenger, just like Sam, so I don't think anyone would really bat an eye at him joining. Also, I have my own agenda related to Bucky's apparent freedom to walk in and out of military/government things.

What does bug me (as funny as it is) is Bucky's animosity toward Redwing. Again... Bucky is a certified nerd. Always has been. If anything, he'd be fascinated by Redwing and Sam would constantly have to slap him away because he's leaning in too close trying to see the tiny watch monitor. "I don't trust Redwing" is just old man griping "I don't trust your newfangled technology" and that... that's not Bucky.

And that "we're not assassins" dig, and then laughing when Bucky gets upset? That's not Sam. Both of these men have shown a remarkable amount of empathy, and Sam has a background in helping traumatized vets. If he cared enough about Bucky to be texting him after Steve left, he'd care enough not to make callous jokes about his time as The Winter Soldier, whether he knows the full story or not.

The fight on top of moving trucks looks cool, but makes no logical sense. I keep trying to think of a way to explain this from a story perspective, rather than a lazy "it looks cool!" filmmaking one, and I'm coming up blank. Anyone with half a brain would have pulled over, had the fight, and then taken off. It was a fun sequence, though... Eh. I'll leave it.

When Karli breaks Redwing, Bucky doesn't say "I always wanted to do that." Again, it's funny - I love the jabs about that stupid robo bird XD - but not Bucky. In my version, he smirks and says "You're so gonna regret that."

"You were kinda getting your asses kicked before we got there." Is immediately followed by Bucky staring him down and asking, "And... how did that fight end for you?" Sam adds, "I don't see them in custody. Are-are they following in a van?" He looks around, sarcastically searching for another vehicle. Walker and Hoskins grimace at each other, grudgingly conceding that point.

credit to @dailycelebs

Seeing Walker, and having to listen to his stupid pro-government rhetoric, makes Bucky think about Steve. When we cut from the Flag Smashers back to Bucky and Sam and the closeup of Bucky's pensive face, we hear 1940s Steve angrily telling 1940s Bucky about how the higher ups in the army had already written off the POWs and were going to leave them to die. "I love our country, Buck," he laments, "but what do I do when I'm not too sure anymore about the people who run it?"

"What you always do," is young Bucky's answer, "stand for what's right, not who's in power."

Perfect lead-in to the conversation about handling things themselves.

When Sam meets Isaiah, and hears his story, not only is he horrified and heartsick for him, but he also begins to see Bucky in a new light. He's seeing Bucky's face, the way he tries to hide his emotions and not make this conversation about him, and he's putting things together. He's still upset at being out of the loop, but he's seeing more of the situation than just "omg black super soldier". When Bucky says "he'd already been through enough," Sam asks quietly, "like you?"

The racist cop comes back before Bucky can answer, to arrest him for missing his appointment with Raynor.

ngl guys, I was so moved by the difference in how that cop treated Sam (before knowing he's Important) vs how he treated Bucky (knowing that the government views him as a violent, if pardoned, criminal). He approaches Sam with his hand on his gun, eager to defend Bucky; "is this guy bothering you?" Just because they're having a heated conversation. Then, when he sees that there's a warrant for Bucky, he approaches timidly, apologizes, treats him gently and politely. By "moved," btw, I don't mean "it was so sweet." I mean "this is fucking sick, and very, very realistic." White cops see a white guy and treat him with respect regardless of his actual criminal record, while being openly hostile towards an innocent black man without even knowing who he is, just because he's black. Moments like this made me applaud Spellman.

"You, too, Sam - That wasn't a request" is Sam's first sign that there's something off about Raynor.

Look, again... The couples therapy banter is funny because Sebastian and Anthony are funny, but that scene, from a storytelling and a mental health standpoint, is atrocious. Without some underlying reason behind her actions, Raynor is just a pointlessly terrible therapist.

Rather than insulting Bucky from the outset, Sam is angry with Raynor for violating Bucky's privacy by not only introducing herself as his therapist, but forcing a "couples" session without her patient's consent. With his background pre-Avenging, he knows this shit shouldn't fly. He immediately points out how unprofessional she's being.

Raynor doesn't bother listening - the fuck does she care, really? She shrugs and casually admits it's "slightly unprofessional" but proceeds anyway.

"Whatever's eating at him?" Sam scoffs. "Did you really just say that to a WWII veteran and the world's longest-serving POW with complex PTSD? Did I hear that right? I've had, maybe, like five conversations with this man since we met, and even I know he's been through some shit and-" "Sam," Bucky tries to interrupt, looking uncomfortable. With his crushing guilt, he has an easier time dealing with insults than someone coming to his defense. "No," Sam snaps. "If the HIPAA Slayer over here wants to drag me into this, she's damn well gonna hear what I have to say!" He turns back to Raynor and demands, "Is this how you've been treating him this whole time? Downplaying what he's been through and making a grown-ass man sound like a sulking teenager?" Raynor keeps her cool, but barely. Visibly frustrated and annoyed, she ignores Sam's tirade and tries to force the conversation back onto the track she wants it on. Bucky's embarrassed and doesn't know how to react to any of this, so he still makes that little "he would talk less" jab. Sam, seeing that he's not going to get anywhere with him until they're away from this bitch, glowers and plays along. We get our silly/angry banter.

After their argument with Walker, Sam finally confronts Bucky about what really happened to him.

"He meant HYDRA; HYDRA used to be my people." "Were they?" Sam asks, stopping him and looking him in the eye, not letting him look away or deflect. "Steve was under the impression that they were your captors. I was under the impression that the Wakandans spent two years deprogramming you so no one could use you the way HYDRA did ever again." "I-" Startled, not expecting that, Bucky stutters a little and admits, "Yeah, I... That's true, I guess." "You guess?" "Does it matter? Sam rolls his eyes. "I dunno, does it matter that you were a slave for most of the 20th century?" "I doubt it matters much to my victims." "HYDRA's victims," Sam corrects firmly. "Just like you." Bucky fidgets; he doesn't know what to do or say. No one since Steve has even so much as insinuated that Bucky wasn't 100% culpable for what he did while under HYDRA control. "Look," Sam sighs, "I don't particularly like you. I don't hate you, but I'm not your biggest fan." "...Thanks?" "I just need you to know where I stand-" "Yeah, got it-" "-So you know I'm not biased like Steve when I say you had no choice. I don't know your story, but I know no one flips on a dime from docile and plagued with guilt to an unstoppable killing machine and back without some serious psychological damage behind that. I'm not saying you're an innocent little bunny, but I don't think you're a monster." "Thanks," Bucky croaks, more sincerely this time, and a bit choked up. He clears his throat and looks distinctly uncomfortable as he grumbles, "but to catch these guys, we may need to talk to a monster." Sam cringes. "I was afraid you'd say that."

#sebastian stan #anthony mackie #tfatws #tfatws critical #fan ramblings #show rewrite #if i'd written it #episode 2

[xthunderbolt]

Servamps might be victims of their respective sin - a kind of a [longish] theory

So we've seen how each servamp seems to have a certain quirk, and you'd think that they come from the sin that was assigned to them. Like Hugh acting all high and mighty because he's Pride, Lily stripping because he's Lust, Ildio being hungry because he's Gluttony and so on.

But the thing is that Servamp already showed us that those sins aren't what they seem. All of them came from traumas - or what we were shown till now were, and we might learn about Gluttony now too.

But listen.

What if those sins were assigned to them because they're actually victims of them?

You know like, Kuro is a victim of sloth. Hugh is a victim of pride. Jeje is a victim of envy. Freya is a victim of wrath. Lawless is a victim of greed. Ildio is a victim of gluttony. Lily is a victim of lust.

And their quirks not only come from that thing - that trauma, but what if the reason they persisted was because that was the last thing they felt as humans?

For example look, Kuro is Sloth, yeah? And says he wants to die. It's true that in the last few chapters he didn't say it with words, but look at his body language. He still feels that way. I mean I know that recovery doesn't happen so quickly - and I'm actually happy that Tanaka makes this seem so realistic - but the fact that it's still there it's what matters now.

Sloth, laziness, wanting to die are things that people assign to mental illnesses. Depression especially. And look, I know this shit is wrong, but just ignore what people say about depression, I'm just trying to explain things from everyone's perspective, in as simple words as possible.

So you know how those shitty people always say that depressive people are lazy, yeah? And let's remember that during Kuro's era, when mental illnesses were unheard of and unknown, things were even worse than a simple laziness. Hell, some people were even seen as possessed but whatever, back to our story.

And so maybe Kuro went through those things and died of suicide. And I think that because look at his smile here for a bit, especially his eyes.

Doesn't it seem sad? Doesn't it look like a sad smile? Or a hurt smile, however you wanna see it. To me it seems like a goodbye smile. It's that kind of smile that says "I'm sorry" or "Forgive me." It's like the kind of smile that people give you before they... kill themselves.

And so Kuro wants to die because that's what he felt in his last moments as a human.

And all these things also go for the other servamps, like...

Hugh, a victim of pride - a child who was victim of pride. If he's really a child and not just some man with a disease that makes him smol. But as a child, maybe his parents were these prideful people who made him feel as if he's never enough and has to always try his best to be better than everyone and reach their expectations. And so this wish, this need of his to be seen and recognized for his worth, or as someone who's strong, transfered into this need to be seen and recognized as someone who makes everyone "tremble and shiver" before him, because that's what he felt until his last breath as a human.

Ildio, a victim of gluttony, is always hungry because that's the last thing he felt as a human - hunger. I don't have enough info about him to theorize a potential lifestyle, but he could even have been starved by an asshole or something similar, who knows?

Then there's Lily, oh dear. Lily, who might be a victim of lust, a victim of sexual abuse, someone who shows his body because in his last moments as a human he didn't care about it anymore. He didn't care about himself anymore. In his last moments as a human he just felt like an object meant to be used and thought "if my body is meant to be used, then I'll give it to you myself". And yes, that's common in rape or sexual abuse survivors. Don't trust those those movies or stories who tell you that they only cry in the shower and don't let people touch them. It's bullshit. You won't even recognize a rape survivor unless you look very closely at their behavior.

But there's also another quirk Lily has. Taking care, protecting, saving children. And I'm sorry if I triggered or will trigger someone with this, but I think that this comes from sexual abuse too. The abuse might have started as a child and so now he wishes to prevent other children from going through what he's been through.

Next.

We don't know much about Jeje yet, but as a victim of Envy, I just hope he wasn't killed because sometimes envy can do that to people. It's also sad to think about.

Freya, a victim of wrath, omg I'm scared to even think about what horrors she might have been through as a victim of wrath. Might have been something so cruel that it turned her into this tenebrous looking woman. Something that took away her light and left her looking ready to murder, when she's in fact not angry, she's cool. She's cool, just hurt.

And all the servamps are just hurt like that and I'm not even surprised that some of them hate the fact that they've been brought back to life so much. They're basically reliving, refeeling, their traumas every single day. And they do it under the label that brought them that suffering. They're like reminders of the nightmares they've lived rather than some fancy, cool titles.

#Ehh I hope this makes sense #Because I'm really shit at putting into words what I have in my head #servamp #servamp manga

[ikevamp-annalyne]

Annalyne Sonata [IkeVamp OC]

Hey guys! I am so verry happy to finally being able to officially introduce my IkeVamp OC, Annalyne! ٩(●ᴗ●)۶

This is a very long post, but I hope you won’t be discouraged and will enjoy learning a bit more about her, and the story I imagined for her (^.^)ゞ

I also commissioned the MOST AMAZING ARTIST EVER @lemonsqueazie​ for drawing my baby OC! ღවꇳවღ She is my favourite artist, and also an amazing human being that I love very much. She is so attentive to what you tell her, always doing everything to meet your ideas and make the best art for you! I highly recommend to check out her blog @lemonsqueazie​ alongside her Instagram and her DeviantArt post about her commissions! You can also find all the infos here.

NOW, ON WITH THE OC! (๑ゝڡ◕๑)

Name: Annalyne

Last name: Sonata

Nicknames: Anna, Nana, Lyn

DOB: June, 19, 1995 (25 years old)

Origin: French

Languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean

Height: 160cm (5.25ft)

Sexuality: pan

Job: freelance fashion designer, blogger, gamer

Passions: fashion, drawing, eating, baking, cooking, videogames, reading, music

Phobias: larvas and maggots, bugs (except ladybugs)

Lover: Leonardo Da Vinci

"Heh? What is this? Kinda like a storage room?"

Annalyne is a very chill woman, taking things at her own pace and working hard towards her goals and dreams. When she doesn't work, she becomes a lazy slug chilling with a good book or videogames -part of why she is also a gamer-.

Her most prominent traits are definitely: her kindness, her humour -made of bad puns and references-, her caring side, her clumsiness and her supportive behaviour. Number one fan of her family and friends.

She will always go out of her way to make her loved ones feel loved, supported or just important. She can also easily throw hands if needed. No one messes with her or her close ones without getting punished.

She has a hard time trusting people. It looks like she is close to everyone, but she hardly confides in people. It takes a hecking long time to build a relationship of trust with her -due to some childhood traumas-

She is strong-willed and -way too- a tad stubborn. But she compensates by being very sweet and cute. She can be very anxious but eating calms her, explaining her chubbiness. Also, count on her for helping everyone.

She is very good at cooking and baking, and loves making things herself. She loves dogs, but honestly, she loves almost every animal ever. She has a talent with them, understanding them beyond reason: animals love her.

"Call me the PUNisher."

She is easily triggered by disrespect, racism, homophobia, bullying and abuse. She can kick your ass off if needed, being very rude and violent when angry -she already broke the arm of a racist, and slapped Shakespeare...-

Comte is the one engaging conversation with her, asking her if she likes this painting. She is hyper excited talking about it and Comte cannot help but giggle, finding a Da Vinci's fangirl in modern days being pretty rare.

How she met Comte:

Annalyne lives near Paris and absolutely loves museums. Therefore she spends a hella lot of time in the Louvre, especially contemplating Da Vinci's works. She meets Comte in front of Da Vinci's painting Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

They spend some time debating and chatting over Leonardo Da Vinci's life, works of art and other controversies. He smiles a lot throughout the whole chat, since he wonders how his old friend would react.

How she ends up in Comte's mansion:

Comte bids her goodbye after they have finally seen Mona Lisa from up close. She thanks him for the delightful conversation, happy she has met someone as knowledgeable as him on her favourite historical figure.

She is taken aback, quite surprised, and thinks the mansion is a storage room. Maybe the man is actually an employee? She is curious though so she walks through the hall and stares at everything in awe.

When he leaves, waving his hand, his pocket watch falls and Annalyne picks it up. She chases after Comte all over the museum and sees him going through a door. She opens it and ends up in the mansion's hall.

Who she meets:

While discovering the hall, she stumbles upon Leonardo who's asleep. She doesn't want to wake him up but God, she stares for a good minute at the sleeping man. "I have never seen such a gorgeous man..."

She walks past him and continues looking for Comte. But then, Napoleon appears and asks her who she is, and what she does here. She tells him she wants to find the gorgeous blonde man to give him his watch.

He offers to give to him in lieu of her. But she is wary of him, a stranger. And Comte appears, the noise having caught up his attention. He recognises Annalyne and is surprised she is there. She gives him the watch.

The first dinner:

Comte gladly accepts the watch and asks her if she wants to dine with him and the residents of this mansion. Mansion? She stares at him, dumbfounded, and frowns. "Mansion? Isn't that a storage room or something?"

Comte giggles and promises to explain it all over dinner. Her trust for Comte and her love for food makes her accepting the offer. How surprised she is upon seeing all these people gather around a huge table!

She sits down and gets served by Sebastian, under all the surprised looks. Comte then proceeds on explaining it all to her: how all the residents in there are famous historical figures, and how she is the past.

How she reacts:

She is surprised, but she believes in timelapse, magic, etc. So she just stares in surprise and shock but is soon overexcited to meet all these people who changed history and inspired her throughout her whole life.

She will ask a bunch of questions to each of them, questions she has always been curious about, like the rumours and alleged controversies. Even when she hears about not being able to go back in her time, she is strangely chill about it.

"Well, there's no helping it! I will come up with a lie when I go back there!" But she will write letters and leave them -along jewels of hers- in places she thinks her friends or family could find them in the future.

Meeting her soulmate:

Sebastian shows her her room and then tells her to explore the mansion if she wants to. What she does! She then remembers the man sleeping in the hall? He must be a historical figure as well, but who can he be...?

She wants to know so she goes to find him and stumbles upon him, nearly falling on top of him. He seems awake since he is sitting on the floor. He had heard her footsteps so he smiles at her. "Well, who do we got there, Cara Mia?"

She smiles at the Italian nickname and tells him everything about her being here. He is surprised she is so chill about it but he smiles and introduces himself. "Well Cara Mia, nice to meet you. I'm Leonardo Da Vinci."

Upon hearing the name, her eyes widen and her breath catches in her throat. She stares, her heart beating faster every passing second. His smile is intoxicating and she cannot help but blush and stutter.

"W-well, nice to meet you, Leonar- huh Sir Leonardo? How, how should I call you?" He laughs."Leonardo is enough, Cara Mia." He smiles and pats her head before standing up. "Watch yourself, Cara Mia."

Her reaction upon the vampiric reveal:

After having talked with Comte and decided to stay in his mansion, she actually wonders how he could resurrect them. She decides to ask Sebastian, her new colleague, and he just shows her the Rouge and Blanc bottles.

"What's that?" She asks, pretty curious."Take a look and you will understand." She first goes for the Rouge and recognises the metallic smell of blood. She stares at Sebastian. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"They are all vampires. Except I, who is human." She widens her eyes, sueprised, and then goes "Aaaaah, that's how he did! Makes sense!" She smiles. "Is Comte the one who transformed them all or no?" "He did, yes."

"So, is he like, a pureblood vampire? A superior vampire who can turn humans into vampires?" "How do you know about this?" "Oh please, Sebastian. Cinema, animes, mangas and books are full of vampires."

Sebastian stares at her, bewildered. "And you are not afraid? They could easily feed off of you, even kill you." "Oh please Sebastian, they're more like puppies than wolves! If they were capable of this, you wouldn't be here!"

"Plus," she says while flashing a big dumb grin. "If they wanted to eat me, they would have already bitten me and emptied me of all my blood. They are not dangerous." Sebastian is shocked at how chill she is.

Her relationships with the residents:

She gets close to every resident ofthe mansion pretty fast, especially since she is not pushy, funny, kind, calm and knowledgeable on a lot of matters. They all grow a soft spot for her, even shyer and harsher residents.

Napoleon: they bond over cooking and baking. Also, since she is French, she can tell him about the impact he had on her country.

Mozart: music is common ground for them. She knows a lot about him and will sing for him, being allowed in the music room.

Arthur: writing sessions together, in his room or hers. They tease each other a lot and she is quick to react to his flirting.

Vincent: they are very close, bonding over drawing and painting. They talk a lot about art and have art sessions.

Theodorus: she doesn't let him win with his harsh replies and he likes that. She is strong and adores Vincent: he likes her a lot.

Isaac: she isn't pushy and gives him room so he likes talking with or teaching her a few things. They often meet in his room.

Jean: he likes how pure she is but she doesn't let him avoid her. She will do anything to befriend him and he gives in.

Dazai: sharing writing ideas brings them closer. They also laugh a lot because they are both airheads amd chaotic walking memes.

William: she likes his work but hates him. She will always avoid him, or shoot sharp daggers glares at him.

Comte: the father figure. She loves going to him to talk or when she needs some calm, and having tea together.

Sebastian: always laughing and teasing each other. She will flick his forehead when he assumes things for her.

Her relationship with her soulmate:

She is a Da Vinci's fangirl so of course, she is a mess around him. At first, she just blushes a lot, stutters a bit around him and she fangirls when he is not around. "Omg I can't believe I witnessed him sketching!!!"

They bond very easily since they both love arts. And Leonardo is very curious about her fashion style, her job, and basically how the world works in modern days -she spent an entire night talking about phones-

One day, he finds her sighing in her room: "what's the problem?". "Ah, nothing, I'm just, not comfortable in Comte's dresses. I'm more into trousers or skirts from my time." He is curious so she tells him about modern day fashion.

"Ah, so women wear pants and shirts. Whatever they want." She nods excitiedly."Yeah, and I hope one day men will be able to do so as well! Wear skirts and dresses and heels. But toxic masculinity is still pretty deep..."

"Wait for me, Cara Mia" and he dashes off the room, to come back later with a stack of shirts and trousers. "Here, take these. They're mine but for now, it will do. Tomorrow, we're going shopping for you."

And they do go shopping the next day, buying loads of men clothes alongside jewels and shoes. Also, they buy fabrics, needles and everything for Annalyne to sew her own clothes. He loves seeing her so happy.

She spends the next days adjusting Leonardo's clothes and the ones they bought to her chubby curves. And Leonardo surprises her by wearing a dress. They go have dinner like this: her in men's clothes, him in women's clothes.

Legend says every resident nearly choked themselves of either shock or laughter. And Leonardo and Annalyne really enjoyed it a lot and decided to do this at least once a week -Leo enjoyed the dress, actually-

The purebloodness revelation:

She catches very early on that he is a pureblood, without him even telling her. She is extra sensitive so she kinda feels auras and saw how Comte and Leonardo's eyes are similar. His genius made even more sense.

"Leonardo. Are you like Comte, a pureblood vampire?" She asked him while they were shopping for fabrics. Leonardo nearly fell out of surprise. "What are you talking about, Cara Mia?" "Well, you know..."

"Same eyes as Comte, genius who can do anything, super strong and intimidating aura. Open-minded as if you've already seen everything, and laziness that can be explained by already having done everything possible..."

He stares at her and then laughs, patting and ruffling her hair. "You're awfully clever and intuitive, Cara Mia. Yes, I am a pureblood. Does it change anything between us? "HELL NO!" she shouts. "But I've got questions!!!"

She drowns him under questions on everything he's done, seen, lived. They spend almost all of their time together, teaching each other about their lives and their knowledge. Residents are jealous of the Leonardo monopoly.

How it "ends" between them:

She is a strong woman and will go back to her time. But she promises Leonardo she will find him, right after returning to her time. He asks her what day it was, when she entered the mansion. "March, 15th, 2020."

When she leaves, while everyone is crying, Leonardo calculates. "Okay, gone for a month in her time, so she'll be in the Louvre in April, 15th, 2020. Ah. My birthday." He smiles. Almost 200 years, but it will be so worth it.

When she passes through the door, she is back in her time. Asking a guide what day it is. "April, 15th, 2020". The day they agreed upon, and Leonardo's birthday. She smiles and then proceeds to rush out of the Louvre to look for him.

But then she passes in front of Saint-Jean-Baptiste. Her favourite painting. A tall and gorgeous man is standing there, in a blue shirt and blue jeans. She feels it. She goes to the man, pats him on the shoulder, and asks: "Leonardo...?"

The man turns around, a huge grin on his face, bright golden eyes shining with love: "Was about time, Cara Mia..." she cries and throws herself at his neck; he spins her, crying as well, burrying his face in her neck.

"I missed you so much. Never do this again. 200 years was worth it but it was too long." She is a mess while crying. "I, I pwomiss Leo, I will neba leaf you again-" he laughs at her messy face. "Look at you, silly girl." He kisses her.

"I want you to see how much I love you in my eyes. They speak on my behalf."

Trivia facts:

She has a tiny water spray bottle she labelled as "Holy Water". Whenever a resident smiles or laughs, she opens it and "collects" their happiness. Thus, when one is talking shit about himself, she sprays the water on them.

"There, you have been blessed with Holy Water. Now love yourself or I agressively hug you." -the mistake on the label,on "thoughts" is intended, as it is is a mix between thots and thoughts, bitch thoughts she's gonna spray away.

She hates Shakespeare, Faust and Vlad. Whenever they pass by the mansion, she grabs the garden hose she labelled "Garden Hoes" and splashes water on them. "Oh no, you walking sin, stay away from my babies!"

She eats A LOT and puts shame on Theo when it comes to eating sweet things. They have pancake-eating competitions -and guess what, she wins-. She will be snacking 24/7 when nervous, anxious, sad and basically under negative emotions.

She listens to every type of music. She really enjoys any kind of rock music, and is also very knowledgeable on classical music. She likes to dance on Kpop and sing on Disney songs: her favourites are definitely I’ll Make A Man Out Of You and Why Should I Worry -in French-

She used to practice martial arts so she can beat the crap out of anyone being a little sh*t with her or her loved ones. She also has a very scary aura when furious, leading to most people just running away from her wrath.

She loves gossiping with Arthur. Whenever she knows about some rumours, or when she needs to talk about something that upset her, she goes to his room with coffee or tea. They both irradiate chaotic gossiping energy when together.

She is the mom friend, and becomes the mom of the mansion. She already told Jean to “get his bottoms in the living room to eat with all of them”, else she was going to kick his butt so hard he would be unable to sit or practice fencing.

All the animals LOVE her. Chérie is missing? She is cuddling with her in the patio. Lumiere is not under the bed? He is sleeping on her laps while she reads. King is nowhere to be found? She is playing with him in the garden. Snow White vibe.

She loves flowers and will put some all over the mansion. She puts one every day in front of every resident’s door, with a message written on a tiny piece of paper, something like: “You are a sweetheart and you deserve the best, keep going, dearie!”

#Ikemen Vampire #IkeVamp #ikevamp oc

[belphegorbillickin]

Okay, but I can definitely imagine Barb/Dia doing that. It seems like quite a possibility. But wasn't dying mc's own fault though? Like,, Barbatos did warn,,, unless he knew this was gonna happen and mc was DUMB AND STUPID enough to show up to everyone like: "hi." and possibly be dumb enough to get killed. Idk lol I forgot this part.

But what you said about Beel, I really like that. I think you even mentioned belphie guilt tripping you in your yandere hcs, and trying to make you completely depend on him?? I like those possibilities. Mammon though,, too soft. Like you said, they've robbed him a lot. He could have had so much potential to be a dark character. Similarly Levi omg.

The brothers are the embodiments of the 7 deadly sins, yet, tbh, I haven't seen too much of this side of them. At least, not like how'd I expect. Leviathan, for eg. Envy. I don't recall seeing his sin playing out anywhere except in the TSL Quiz thingy. I mean, it's been toned down a lot for someone who's the literal embodiment is envy. Idk I just don't feel he's like that? As from what I found: Envy (Latin: invidia), like greed and lust, is characterized by an insatiable desire. It can be described as a sad or resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of someone else. The struggle aroused by envy has three stages: during the first stage, the envious person attempts to lower another's reputation; in the middle stage, the envious person receives either "joy at another's misfortune"(if he succeeds in defaming the other person) or "grief at another's prosperity" (if he fails); the third stage is hatred because "sorrow causes hatred".[38]

Envy is said to be the motivation behind Cain murdering his brother, Abel, as Cain envied Abel because God favored Abel's sacrifice over Cain's.

They toned him down a little too much?? If this game has actually been inspired by demons and the 7 deadly sins, they could at least make them similar to the demons, at least in some way. I'm not that far into the game yet, but so far that I've played, I haven't seen much. As for a demon who is the embodiment of envy... I wish to see more. Levi is capable of A LOT.

Similarly, Satan. I sometimes wonder why is he even called the Avatar of Wrath when we hardly see it?? The only time I remember is him losing his calm during the whole body swap event. The fact Satan got mad at us refusing a pact actually made me think that he was the sin "wrath", but idk now. And the way it was said that "every smile is an act", I really like that concept too. But I don't think I've paid much attention to see where it played out. Sigh now Satan simps for cats like,,, please show me your dark/evil side sir.

The way you said Barb and Dia took part in a torture dungeon, I want to see more of that too. If they're demons, wouldn't they have caused SOME sort of bloodshed in a way? Especially if they're the strongest demons. Killing humans, eating them, or I even like to think doing the same to their own race. Torturing... Seems like something that every demon's blood would contain lmao, I'm not answering questions bye.

And I believe so too. The human seems like a pawn... I feel the demons would use humans for entertainment and their own purposes, while keeping up the facade of loving them. It's easy, since demons are manipulative. In that case, losing the human whether by their own hands or not would go like: "Oh well, that's unfortunate. Time for another human."

But if they REALLY did love you, I feel they'd still be manipulative. Like you said. Corrupting/spoiling the human so much to the point that they'd just HAVE to depend on them. I feel they'd also have yandere tendencies, or be "protective". Like, then I feel they really wouldn't want to let you go, despite knowing how much it can ruin your innocence.

I also don't like how everyone is after mc like "uwuwu master". The human is still a weakling despite having pacts, plus, the pacts aren't even demanding the human's soul or anything. I don't get why they let mc walk over them when they are CLEARLY much stronger? If I were a demon I'd do the opposite lmao. Making the human seem as if they are controlling me, but it's the opposite. I don't think a mere pact can change the fact that the demon's stronger,,, esp if the pact didn't demand the human's soul/life/whatever.

Also, thank you! Things got better for me :)) and also,

💫✨💕send this to ten bloggers you think are wonderful. keep the game going 💕✨

Ofc you don't have to do this, but I got this, and it really made me happy, so here ^^

Oh btw in lesson...56 I think?? Just gonna tag this as a spoiler, but where for whatever reason Satan was "Sully" and the angel Lucifer asked him whether he liked books, let me just say I haven't even played it that far yet, but Satan going, "...Every book here is precious."

TOUCHED ME SO BAD LIKE. I DON'T KNOW IT REALLY MADE ME SOFT LMAO HE'S JUST SO okay I'll stop 🏃– 🍹

It's been a while since I've thought in-depth about the whole time traveling thing tbh, but couldn't Barbatos generally see the outcomes of the world?

We went back because they wanted to know who opened it, but considering Diavolo's the ruler of hell who turned Lilith human and Barbatos is basically the ruler of time & practically the universe I believe they already knew Lilith did it since it had to be "blood related" basically.

Barbatos also knows he can stitch together timelines and get of "extra" MCs essentially, so I believe he'd take that into account. I'm not saying MC getting killed was 100% part of the plan, but that they didn't care of MC was traumatized because they knew they could bring them back if necessary.

Imo the real goal wasn't to find out who did it, but to avoid breaking the family's bonds and devotion to Diavolo. The way it worked out was incredibly convenient and "coincidentally" a huge upgrade for Diavolo that kept the status quo and made him look good (or at least better) to Belphie and Beel without making Lucifer choose.

We see that kind of repeat later when Diavolo withdraws from the play because he was worried Lucifer wouldn't be as loyal. That's also why Lucifer gets that warning from Barbatos.

I think a huge part of why Levi's characterization is like that is because not enough people like him enough to tolerate it tbh. Even Mammon and Lucifer stans complain about the other characters hogging screen time and a lot of them admit to feeling bad for other fans. Levi is pretty much always second to last popularity wise.

I think he'd actually be more liked if they focused more on the jealously instead of making almost every interaction otaku/Ruri-chan related, but it's a bit too late now. I really, really hate how they just pretend otaku culture always existed and that's all Levi ever was. Like at least make him have an obsessive personality and be hyperfixated on novels instead of talking manga in an era before Japan even existed. It's so unbelievably lazy and really takes me out of the story.

Another problem is we only really see him interact with family or people that could enact severe consequences like Diavolo & Barbatos or people protected by the exchange program. He never gets a chance to shine or be cunning. The closest we get is things like him purposefully trying to ruin Christmas for random people online in his Christmas card. I think if he genuinely got jealous of MC and some random demon he would summon lotan almost instantly.

It's especially painful knowing what we had & being so excited to get more only for all of that to get dropped.

In an early devilgram, Be You, Satan gets jealous and feels bad about not having much unique to him and Lucifer comforts him in his own way when the others make it worse. Mammon is the most empathetic though ofc. They also talk about horror movies and Mammon says he doesn't find them scary (& the way it's framed sounds honest, idk if it's a retcon or a lie,) and Satan says "I'm sure we've all witnessed plenty of real-life horrors worse than anything in the movies."

Then when Lucifer asks for a time when he was really angry Satan first casually then gleefully talks about torturing a family to death because a kid set him up to get scolded by their parents. Meanwhile the brothers act wary of him and worry about him getting out of control while Lucifer tells everyone to take cover for their own safety with a smile. Satan happily talks about them begging for their lives and says he wishes they saw it too.

Levi also says he hates hearing about people being happy, but likes hearing about the negative things. While Asmo and Mammon are freaking out he also calls Satan cool. Which shows at least a little bit of his envy for once. Satan also says just the aura of his rage is usually too much for humans which is also interesting.

But back to Diavolo and Barbatos, I don't hate how the whole torture thing isn't super open, it makes sense imo, but I would like to see hints of them hiding it. Especially if Satan or even attic Belphie was the one you could go to to learn more about it. If anyone would defy Diavolo for that it'd be them trying to bring Lucifer down with them, or even just Satan rewarding the hunt for knowledge and not understanding the human psyche fully.

Imagine if instead of a paper thin lie about being human we got a Belphie manipulating us by pretending he was locked up because he was against hurting humans and the whole exchange program was a scam? Or at least if he told us things no one else would about Diavolo that were true so we wouldn't trust him and etc. That's the angle I'm going with in my fanfiction at least, the original story is just so lazy and boring imo.

Yeah I'm not a huge fan of how they handled pacts either, especially considering they don't even get MC's soul. It's way too one-sided to the point where I don't believe someone like Satan would ever offer it, even if the first offer was a trick and he'd get your soul or something. I agree on the whole manipulation thing too, like how is it partnership if one side has complete control over the other?

Even just making it so that demons can fight against if they really don't want to do something like harming each other and having it corrupt MC would make it a million times better.

And that's so sweet, thank you! You've made my days a lot brighter too. Not much makes me happier than infodumping and complaining about Obey Me rn lol.

I really liked Satan's line there too, although I did wish he had more a reaction to everything tbh. That whole section felt a bit too easy imo though, like I kept waiting for it to all go to shit or something. I am glad they went back into more story-based chapters too. I hope they keep that trend and expand on it.

#asks #season 3 spoilers