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#just thoughts I'm probably missing stuff I tend to go on way too many tangents oops
curuxavermella · 1 year
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Some Obey Me! Nightbringer commentary, up to Lesson 10 because I just finished it and I need to yell to the void about it 🥲 and for my own future musings when more content comes out...
I'm still missing some side lessons/hard modes because I need to get higher ranks to unlock them but the main story up to date is done!
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First of all, I love a more chaotic MC. I also love time travel plots a lot, and how this game explores more deeply the relationship between the brothers: I felt they took it a bit more seriously than the og Obey Me! More seriously it's probably not the right word but... better paced? Which I like a lot considering they are still adjusting. I saw most of them struggling with issues I wanted to see in the og game and damn did I get fed. We haven't seen all of them in 10 lessons, but seeing them also worry about each other as they went through different shit was amazing, considering how they "joke" about leaving each other to their demise in the og game lmao. I liked this a lot more.
Also a day or two ago I thought about us still having the Ring of Light while progressing Nightbringer (I even went back to og Obey Me! to catch up... I left it on Lesson 68 and was saving up on rainbow sticks and AP, only for my dumb ass to forget that they have a promo of 0AP going on so I put on the seatbelt, grabbed my 70~ rainbow sticks and plowed through the damn thing up to Lesson 80 while I farmed some grimm in Nightbringer to level up my damn cards and continue the story when I was done. And I found out that yes, we still had the ring with us in the present) and how they would find out we had the thing. And lo and behold, on Lesson 10 Lucifer sees the Ring and flips his shit just like I hoped he would bc it's an important plot point and I was a bit worried they'd forgotten about it lmao. The brothers did see MC use the Ring before on Lesson 9 but Luci wasn't present and MC pulls a "oh they're just similar" and that's it bc they buy it lol I love them.
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Also I thought it was weird none noticed we were human, but Diavolo was onto us on Lesson 8/9. He pulls us aside and outright asks and I was like "THANK GOD" bc SOMEONE between these powerful bastards had to notice eventually. I mean, I know people pointed out in og Obey Me! sometimes they can't tell and perhaps we've been with our demon and angel family too much so they kinda can't tell what we are. So. Yea. Also demons can change their appearance/don't always look like demons, so it made sense. But I still made fun of their radar lol.
And then Diavolo pulls a "you can't stay here as a human, the situation is already dire as it is" and I was like "WAIT NO GO BACK". I legit thought we could fly past it with a task, like the usual trials Diavolo puts MC through, but I underestimated how more serious Nightbringer was compared to og Obey Me! and at some point I legit believed we were going to get our ass kicked out of the Devildom by the end of Season 1 and we'd have to come back for Season 2, just like in the og game.
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For the "Diavolo trial" (lol) I thought it was going to be the Mausoleum job Mammon mentions the moment we get back home, because it fits the usual MO (I had just done all the trials to get into the Student Council in og Obey Me!.....), but when we get there we meet Adam (who posseses poor Mammon) and hello there, YET ANOTHER MYSTERY IN THIS GAME, HOW ARE YOU? GOOD? GREAT! Leaving aside the whole Adam thing because that's a whole other suitcase to unpack another day and I'm not in the mood to revise Biblical history right now to look for Lilith+Eve stuff (and besides he said his beloved was in the Celestial Realm, so it can't be Lilith...... I think.) when he mentioned that a demon who called himself Nightbringer told him a human with the damn Ring of Light would lead him to his beloved in the Celestial Realm I almost flipped my shit. I kept changing my mind about the "unknown person" who sent us back being Barbatos because it could also be a red herring (god knows I've eaten those up way too much so I have Trust Issues with very Obvious Stuff), and past Barbatos didn't recognize us despite being able to see shit everywhere, past-present and future. But if future Barbatos wanted to keep his past self without knowing shit, I suppose he could also do it... So, yeah, I believe it's him, but for what purpose? I think he saw shit going down in the future and the only way to help us/everyone was to send us to the past without us knowing.
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As an extra: before heading out to the Mausoleum job, MC wrote a goodbye letter for the brothers because of Diavolo kicking us out. When I tell you I got misty eyed xd like, damn. "Lucifer, be nicer to your little brothers." "I always had fun with you, Mammon." "We have to go bookshopping, Satan!" etc etc, it was all so sweet. We have it with us at the moment, but we didn't give it to them at the end Lesson 10 bc Shit Went Down (I'll get there in a second). Also there are little details, like them commenting how the "empty guest room" makes them feel so at ease thay they even caught Lucifer napping in there. Who tf is cutting onions.
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I thought it would be a while until we revealed we're a human to the brothers but Lesson 10 had other plans (very cool Lessons 9 and 10 btw, with Beel's and Belphie's stuff going on and Lucifer trying to face Diavolo for the sake of his little siblings I love this man so much)
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and then, after a Cool Heroic Moment after which we are left out in the open bc we used all of their powers oops, they leave us with this confrontation and A CRIMINAL CLIFFHANGER.
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Lucifer doesn't exactly buy it for some reason because we're too op lol and Belphie is reclutant for obvious reasons. And they end it with this as the final blow:
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And that's it!!! Good luck waiting for the next lesssons bitch. Have fun lol
Oh you think the next stage before the boss battle is going to be the end of this convo? Nope: it's Solomon and Simeon being cryptic. I wonder what Solomon told Simeon. He warned us about Time Paradoxes so I don't think he'd go that far to tell Simeon. Solomon did tell him something though, and we won't know what it is yet......
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I am suffering here. But God Nightbringer gave me a lot of good stuff. I will eat this time travel plot like candy. I feel I'm being spoiled by the game with all the scenes they're giving me and I'm enjoying every second of it. Plus the dynamics, I already talked about the brothers between each other, but there's also new stuff, like Barbatos hating the absolute shit out of Solomon. After Solomon uses his pact on him to save our asses he takes revenge on the Sorcerer lmfao I KEEP WONDERING WHAT DID SOLOMON DO TO HIM TO GET HIM SO PISSED OFF?? But man that was hilarious do it again.
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Bonus Barb: one of the last things you can say to him in og Obey me! is "I love you" so if he's Nightbringer it's going to be Fun (and I can't WAIT I've grown fond of Barbatos too agh).
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Plus there's the whole Simeon being human issue, but he seems to be faring better at the end of the game. He keeps saying "He (Michael??? Their Father????) probably had a reason to do it" but it won't stop me from kicking some Angel ass ngl. It's gonna be fists out with Michael the moment I see him, I swear.
Plus I want to see the present demons losing their shit with MC disappearing. I bet they're all frantic o(-< and Solomon said he can go back and forth between fuckin dimensions, so he could probably go back and tell them we're okay???? But he hasn't. I think. This is a mess lmao poor MC and demon family. He does say if something happens to us Lucifer will have his head, so..... you can do it, Solomon, I believe in you jdfgsdg
I can now farm side lessons and hard mode at peace for extra scenes, wooo.... o(-< oh and there's new songs in Lesson 10, but only in Lesson 10. The duets/group songs remixes were there and they were a breath of fresh air ;u; I hope they add more.
Time to farm side content in peace and prepare my cards for when they release the next lessons............ whenever it''ll be. Sobs.
Edit: NEXT UP: LOSING MY SHIT ON LESSON 11 LET'S GO BABY
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drshojo · 4 years
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The World, My Childhood And My Hero Academia: Vigilantes
Hello friends!  
Its Dr. Shojo coming at you with a post that will be divided into three parts!
Part One: The world as we know it! 
The world has changed a lot since we last connected. For starters, TOILET BOUND HANAKO KUN HAS NOT ONLY A PHYSICAL RELEASE BUT A GORGEOUS ANIME! And not only that, but MY NEXT LIFE AS A VILLAINESS: ALL ROUTES LEAD TO DOOM! IS GETTING AN ANIME AS WELL! The last time I wrote about Katerina there wasn’t even an official English translation of that long-ass light-novel-title. And now?
A WHOLE ANIME. A BISEXUAL HAREM AWAITS! I am JAZZED!
Do you think it’s my fault? No matter, I’ll take all the credit. All the manga I talk about are getting anime adaptations. I’LL DO MY DUTY AND TALK ABOUT SOME MORE!
But first. Let us address the Covid-19 shaped elephant in the room
I deeply regret that it took a whole-ass pandemic to get me back to writing. In my defense, I bought an iPad and started drawing like 900 kokichi oumas. I was really busy with that. And then I started reading fanfiction. Then that got me thinking about how fanfiction such an interesting look into how people interpret fandom, use it for wish fulfillment and escapism, and good god is everyone OK cause that bulimia fan fic was super detailed....and I am officially on a tangent. Off track. Ahem.
We are all staying inside a whole lot more which means y’all probably need some reading material and Dr. Shojo has your back! Go read “Horimiya”! It’s amazing! Ahhhh, my work here is done! I'm serious, if you’re here for a Shojo rec, that’s it! There's also like 8 million more Otome Isekais to check out now. It’s like they’re multiplying like rabbits..............
As a Doctor, I must advise you to stay inside and read some manga and practice social distancing. Embrace your inner hikikomori. 
Allright? All good? Okay now one final disclaimer:
This post is going to be talking about something a little different than usual and I want to start by giving you some context about who Dr. Shojo is in real life. 
Part Two: Dr. Shojo Exposed 
You see, when I was little I was obsessed with Japanese media. This doesn't surprise you at all I can tell. Probably because I walk around calling myself Dr. Shojo and shout about manga that you should read.
Anyways, the reason why I was obsessed wasn’t because of the big eyes or the spikey hair or the interesting new culture. It was because it tended to have more character development and overarching plotlines than the media I was used to in Canada. Dexter’s Lab, Magic School Bus, pretty much everything I saw on TV was episodic in nature, so imagine how much my mind was blown when I saw Naruto and Card Captor Sakura, heck, even Pokémon had the Indigo Plateau! Here were kids that were learning more and more each day and got to see enemies become friends and vice versa. They lived and grew older just like me. Except they were cooler than me. And had more interesting lives than me. I gotta tell you, I was so sad when I was 12 and Kero didn’t tell me I had latent magical powers. But there was magic in my life and it was the magic of a complex narrative story. And not only that, it had a sense of movement and had cool costumes. I was hooked immediately.
Also, fun fact, at that age I happened to be a complete and utter tomboy! I loved pretending to fight my friends in the playground and was really worried that puberty would ruin my life because being a girl sounded so CUMBERSOME.
Which leads me up to my confession. Before I became Dr. Shojo, I was in fact......Dr. Shonen.
Bleach? Naruto? One Piece? I've read every single chapter there is.  
Hundreds of hours of watching fight sequences. Another fun fact, I only got into shojo because my aunt bought me volume 7 and 8 of Fruits Basket thinking “all mangas like the same right? Kids love comics?” It’s a tribute to how episodic western media was back then that she thought buying volume SEVEN and EIGHT was a REASONABLE PLACE TO START READING.
Now you might also say, Hey! Dr Shojo! Cardcaptors was a shojo! And you are right! but back then the anime was marketed to boys over here in the west and they actualy like, edited out episodes that they thought wouldn't interest boys?! Second fun fact, Once when I was in Grade 3 I was told I was not allowed to join a club under the stairs cause I was a girl and it was BOYS ONLY. The point of the club? To talk about how great Cardcaptors was! I Kid you not!
So anyways, your pall Dr. Shojo loves Shonen manga to this day!
The only reason I made this Dr. Shojo blog specifically about shojo is because, being a tomboy with no female friends, reading shojo manga was the first time I really thought about what it meant to be a girl and fall in love. And y i k e s. Shojo manga, like most media, fails miserably most of the time in displaying real world relationships. Or at least, it  doesn't prepare you for how disappointing everything can be. When I had my first kiss, I was thinking about how it didn’t feel at all like how I felt reading Zen and Shirayukis kiss in Akagame No Shirayuki Hime. Those were formative years, and shojo was one of the only places I saw romance being talked about for younger audiences. I liked reading romances where no one had any sexual experiences and were figuring out what love meant to them. But let’s shelve this topic for now.
The point is that gender roles are dumb and if you have an open mind there's a world of stories out there for you. Take this time inside to read something you wouldn’t normally. Critically think about the ways that the worlds you see in stories and how you experience the world differ. What are the messages a story is trying to tell you? And why do you like the stories you do? Reflect on how the stories you tell yourself color your view of the world. Even mindless entertainment leaves an impression on us. Anyways.
Whilst you're doing that, I'm going to absolutely lose my hecking mind over the Shonen Jump series MY HERO ACADEMIA: Vigilantes!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Part Three: I downloaded the one month free trial of the Shonen Jump app and made you read all that, so I can tell you that today Dr. Shojo is going to rant about a spin-off of a shonen manga
THAT’S RIGHT, OF COURSE I READ HERO ACA AND YES I DID PICK UP THE SPIN OFF SERIES. SHONEN JUMP LETS YOU READ ALL THE NEW CHAPTERS FOR FREE ON THEIR APP. KIDS, IF YOU LIKE SHONEN AND YOU’RE PIRATING ON A SCANLATION SITE STILL GET OUT BECAUSE YOU DON’T NEED TO SEE THOSE WEIRD PLASTIC SURGERY AND DENTISTRY ADDS ANY MORE.
SHONEN IS HERE AND ITS LEGAL AND ITS FREE FOR YOU. GET OFF MANGA FOX OR MANGA ROCK OR WHATEVER THE KIDS ARE USING THESE DAYS.
OK, so by this point in the article you have learned two very important things about me: 1) I love Shonen manga and 2) I read a lot of fanfiction.
Specifically, I read an absolutely biblical amount of My Hero Academia fan fiction and let me tell you, A solid chunk of it is vigilante/ Deadpool / criminal with a heart of gold themed.
So when I saw Hero Aca had a spin off, and it was about vigilantes, I was NOT SURPRISED IN THE SLIGHTEST. Ao3 sure is powerful.
Now, if you will permit me a tangent in a post full of tangents—HOLY CRAP, THERE ARE TOO MANY VIGILANTE AUS. I CAN'T KEEP TRACK OF EM. IT’S THE ISEKAI PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN. I GET AN EMAIL A FIC HAS UPDATED AND I’M LIKE IS THIS THE FIC WHERE DEKU HAS AN ABUSIVE MOM OR THE ONE WHERE HE HAS SPLIT PERSONALITY DISORDER OR THE ONE WHERE HE’S VIGILANTES WITH HITOSHI. OH WAIT, nvm, it’s the one where deku has a healing quirk.
OH WAIT WHICH OF THE 6 DEKU WITH HEALING QUIRK VIGILATE AU FICS IS THIS ONE?! ARGH WHY DIDN’T I WRITE A DESCRIPTION IN THE BOOKMARK FOR THIS!
My gripes aside, there's a reason why there's such an abundance of vigilante story telling—
Deadpool made like an absolute buttload of money and people love sass and memes.
People have a desire for a story in which they see themselves. Or, how they think of themselves.They like a story about someone who maybe came from nothing. Someone who has less money, maybe someone who is unlucky and had some bad breaks. Someone who never learned they had magic, never got their Hogwarts letter, never saw Kero, someone who never got that God-level quirk from All Might. And if your on Ao3 They want someone who also has seen a lot of memes and kind of wants taco bell and is also questioning their sexuality a bit?
Enter our new hero VIGILANTE DEKU.  
But the cannon can't do this, cause hey, Deku is the chosen one. Albeit, chosen by All Might, He’s got his own thing to do. But how can we still cash in on a vigilante story?
And thus enter our New-New hero KOICHI HAIMAWARI—code name Nice Guy and then later The Crawler. True to his relatable roots. He’s just a dude in an hoodie who can go about as fast as a bike.
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First off, I love Koichi. He wants to be a hero and fight crime, but most of the time he has to run away because at the end of the day he's just a dude.
He’s cute but not wildly good-looking, A bit of a nerd but not like an extreme okaku. He’s got a part time job and hates violence.
And this is where Koichi really shines—in every day stuff. He helps out wherever he can. Often, that just means listening to people complain and maybe helping his friends out with whatever they’re going through. He’s the kind of guy who smiles, not because he's especially brave, but because he just takes things one at a time and doesn't sweat the past. I think it’s really telling that he missed getting into hero high-school because he skipped the entrance exam to help someone. He’s the kind of person who lets us experience the superpower of human decency and empathy. And you know what? That’s something the world need desperately.  
This theme of human decency is really the driving force of Vigilantes—it’s a manga about how the laws are there for a reason but sometimes they unfairly impact the poor and vulnerable. It's about how a lot of criminals are just people who fell into bad social circles or on bad times. People have the capacity for cruelty and violence but that’s never all they are.  
Now, speaking of crime, the entirety of Hero Aca falls into some murky water when it comes to its evil doers. Much of the fandom has a huuuuuge problem with how much the franchise is willing to sweep under the rug in the name of redeeming their baddies. RE: people getting mad about forgiving Endeavor’s child abuse, or Bakugo’s suicide baiting. Or Mineta’s blatant sexual harassment.
But this theme is in Vigilantes even more than it ever was in the main series. To start off with, there’s this guy who tries to rape Pop Step early on, and the later he later winds up befriending everybody. It becomes a running gag that each new villain winds up befriending the other villain guys and then they all open a cat café together.
Using jobs as a way to lift people out of lives of crime is great and all but in the story there is no nuance or consequences for past wrong and well.....it feels very weird.  It's like Vigilantes plays at having an opinion about moral ambiguity and the complexity of human existence and then just.......lets everyone get along because who has time to get into all that. Make of that what you will but it sits weird for me personally.
Anyway, let's move on and talk about POP STEP our main girl!
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I love pop stars and I love vigilantes and a guerrilla performer is defiantly a character I could get behind. And I think they do a good job with Pop. She is actually kind of shy, but has this secret edgy persona she puts on when she performs. She is every girl on tumbler in the early 2000s. I also looooove that they make her not that great a singer. SHE’S GOT PASSION AND CHARISMA and maybe not born talent but like why should that stop you! Talent can be earned through practice and this is a great lesson to show people.
Unfortunately, Pop is also a great example of everything wrong with romance in Shonen.
It’s established early on that Pop loves Koichi because she is the girl he rescued all those years ago and yada yada yikes we’ve heard this one before. Many times before.
Sure, it's fine that they’ve met before, but gosh am I sick of damsels in distress. It's like she can't love him just because she respects what a great guy he is in her life and in the community at large, no no, she just needs to be rescued on top of that. And LOLOLOL isn't it funny he never noticed she was a girl because she was a child with short hair?! Once he realizes she has boobs now they will for sure fall in love! That’s how love works!
She's just with him all the time—nothing romantic ever happens she just gets a little tsundere.
I am never ever going to believe Koichi likes Pop because he spends like sooooo much time with her and they never have like, a moment. The first time he considers her is when Makoto is like, ‘hey I would love to get together with you, but have you thought about if you are crushing on Pop’. (Also this entire plot point is suspect—she's arbitrarily falling for Koichi cause he.......is the protagonist?)  
Say what you will about shojo, they give you the emotional conversations, the moments where you think.....ahhh I can see why she is falling for him. They give you context! Shonen likes to just say HERE’S A GIRL YOUR AGE. YOU CAN DATE LATER WHEN THE ADVENTURE IS DONE.
Just when they might get together, Pop suddenly turns evilllllll. The evilllll beeeees made her eeeevilllll (and more sexy).
*Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*
Because why on earth would they get together if Koichi didn’t get to rescue Pop one more time?
I’m tired. These troupes are tired. I’m sure you are too. HOWEVER! If your still with me, Let’s move into why I'm really writing this post. Let’s get to the part that got me screaming to my friends, who by the way, don’t even care bout Hero Aca….but listened anyways. May you all find nakama like these my friends.
Anyways,
HOLY FUCK ERASERHEAD’S ENTIRE BACK STORY IS IN THIS AROUND CHAPTER 60 AND IT IS WONDERFUL AND ABSOLUTLY HEARTBREAKING AND IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTER BACKSTORIES I HAVE EVER SEEN AND IS THE REASON WHY THIS SERIES IS A MUST-READ FOR MAIN SERIES FANS.
AND BY ALMIGHT.  
WHY. IS. IT HERE.  
I present to you my late night text messages to my friends
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ALSO, AIZAWAS TEACHER IS PRINCE?!?!?!
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AHEM, so as you can see, I kinda lost my shit.
And now, I would like to formally defend my claim that DESPITE HOW AMAZING IT WAS, ERASERHEAD’S BACKSTORY HAD NO BUISSNESS BEING IN THE VIGILANTES SPIN-OFF MANGA.
Eraserhead, aka Aizawa Shouta, is a side character who is working with the police on some crime stuff. He is not a main cast member in this spin off. He’s a guest character that fans of the main series will be like OH COOL. GRUMPY CAT MAN LIKES CATS ON HIS OFF HOURS TOO. LOVE THAT FOR HIM.
So, my imagine my absolute surprise when Aizawa runs into Koichi and the following happens:
It starts to rain, so, like in any good manga, this means some great FORCED BONDING TIME
Except no. It doesn't because rather than start talking, Aizawa JUST STARTS REMEMBERING—ABSOLUTLY SILENTLY TO HIS OWN PRIVETE SELF—HIS ENTIRE TRAGIC BACKSTORY.
AND THIS GOES ON FOR CHAPTERS.
THIS GOES ON LONGER THEN ARC ONE IT FEELS LIKE.
I LOVE IT, BUT KOICHI IS ABOUT TO JOIN ATSUSHI NAKAJIMA IN THE DUBIOUS CATEGORY OF “PROTAGONISTS THE SERIES FORGOT ABOUT IN LIEU OF COOLER SIDE CHARACTERS”.
AND LO IT HAS NO BEARING ON THE REST OF THE PLOT, CHARACTERS, OR STORY
What the ever-loving-just WHY?
WHY?
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
SURE, IT’S A COOL TIE-IN.
YES, OF COURSE I LOVED IT. I SHIP ERASER MIC, I DREW THIS FOR HECK’S SAKE:
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AND YET I AM ANGRY.
I AM ANGRY BECAUSE MY FRIDAY WAS RUINED BECAUSE VIGILATES SUCKER PUNCHED ME WITH AN AMAZING STORY THAT REALLY WASN’T PLOT RELEVANT AND PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE.  
IS THIS WHY THEY TOOK LIKE NEXT-TO-NO CARE WITH POPS ARC?!?
I mean its ongoing, so it’s too early to say but—
In conclusion—
Excuse me one more,
AIZAWA WAS TAUGHT BY PRINCE!?!??!?!?!?!? PURPLE RAIN PRINCE!?!??!?!?!? WHAT!??!?!?!
It’s so ABSURD that I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I HAD TO WRITE PARAGRAPHS TO JUSTIFY YELLING ABOUT THIS ONE THING. WHAT THE ABSOLUTE—
Ahem,
Anyways, I hope you liked this weird rant/personal-story/random-diatribe in three parts.
If you’re reading this, thank you, stay safe, and I’ll be back with more shojo manga next time.  
Ciao!
Dr. Shojo
(aka Dr. Shonen)
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billdenbrough · 4 years
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i'm going through some rough stuff atm and i've been feeling pretty bad for a while, but the shark puppy au made me smile for the first time in days. thank you so much, to you and to all of the people contributing to it. you made someone's day a lot more bearable
first off, i’m so sorry you’ve been having a hard time recently! i feel that a lil deeply, rip, but i’m sending you all the vibes and care i can, and i really hope things shift for you, because that’s an awful way to feel, but i am so, so happy that anything we did or said today/last night made anything a little easier for you 💕it’s nearly 3am and i have work again in the morning (fucking rip) but i thought i’d put some more shark puppy stuff out there in the hopes it might make tomorrow a little easier for you too!
so this morning before work i answered an ask abt shark puppy and was talking in the tags abt patstanlon (essentially just. thinking abt how to execute it)
and so tonight once i was finally home from work i was talking to a few of the others abt it and @benverlesbians brought up patty’s BA and also how in the book she says bill isn’t a real writer bc he’s a novelist (tangent but i just went back to read the start of that chapter and a, ouch, but b, “Stanley drove a Mercedes diesel—teasing him, she called it Sedanley” this will never not make my heart yell) and that led jem to the conclusion that patty thinks real writing is either non-fiction or non-prose, i.e., journalist or poet
we settled on journalist for her career, but she has a background in poetry from college
@benverlesbians: “patty and mike are like “we both got BAs in english and we are both perfect human beings” and they are correct”
anyway this interview takes place after the Scathing Review from the Conservative Magazine (after richie’s bi ass jeans)
jem posited that bev’s rly protective of the band (and herself, ofc herself, and why wouldn’t she be) and tends to like, vet the interviewers pretty hard, bc she has to be sure she can trust them with their words and their image
and then we were thinking abt how that’s interesting bc like. patty probably isn’t super overt on social media (certainly not just showing her whole self on there, miss ‘wouldn’t admit to thinking richard dawson’s watch chain was sexy if wild horses tried to drag it out of her’), which is like. frustrating for bev’s purposes, but also… kinda relatable? and bev can respect it, on an intellectual and empathetic level, even if it’s annoying that it runs counter to her purposes (but there’s also—-part of bev thinks maybe, someone who can be private with themselves can have some integrity with others, but then there’s another part of her, those self-preservation instincts honed from years of not being able to trust… men specifically, but it’s made all trust harder now, and that part is wary, hard-pressed to give people the benefit of the doubt, not when it comes to her and her friends)
jemma: “bev is like “why don’t you have instagram” and patty’s like “this isnt you interviewing me, this is me interviewing you. please pass the maple syrup, my pancakes are dry as fuck"”
(it starts at a kitschy diner (jem’s idea) bc like, well, there are seven of them. like. that’s too many. but they’re probs not all at the diner, maybe just bev, stan, mike & eddie (deliberate choices from bev, given how she couldn’t find too much on patty—-some good testimonials that convinced her to give the interview anyway, even if patty works for a buzzfeet analogue, bev has less personal hang-ups with them than stan does, even though she loyally disavows them with him—-and she trusts stan and mike to hold their own, and while eddie can be a wild card (it’s not wild, she thinks, not really, because it doesn’t come out of nowhere. it’s just that he’s brave and good and loyal and principled, like he’d have her back, have all of their backs, and wouldn’t let anything slide he wasn’t okay with), she’d rather have that inability to back down at her side when their words and image are on the line than some of the impulsive nonsense richie and bill pull, and ben has a tendency to be too earnest, too quick, and if bev wants to be careful, be sure, before exposing ben’s heart and sentiment and big fucking eyes to that, well, sue her) but then patty is interviewing them, and she’s thoughtful, questioning without being probing, framing things in interesting ways that keeps them talking, keeps them interested, and bev’s already halfway to inviting patty back to the clubhouse (their studio) where the others are when stan, like, references some swedish poet whose translated works he was reading when he and mike wrote one of their songs, and patty, like, gets it? and works tomas tranströmer into her next question, and stan’s expression is just. and he glances at mike, and mike grins (bev doesn’t even know why stan bothered. mike’s clearly thought well of patty the entire time), and stan cocks an eyebrow at bev, and she almost can’t believe it, bc since when does stan ever want to allow interviewers more access? but it’s stan, and he never asks, and so of course she turns to patty, and asks: “got a couple more hours?”)
@chaoticbisexualalien: “pre-meeting stan journalist!pat on twitter giving their album a four-star review but singling him out as exceptional and then a bitter fan is like "oh did he eat you out for that review” and she’s like “I would have given them five stars for that"”
@striffyisme: “omg,,,, the fans start calling her Petty Patty for her excellent clap backs”
britt: “stan sees it and doesn’t get involved directly because he doesn’t want to fan the flames but he admires her from afar and then later on he finds out that she’s interviewing the band and he’s like ”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!“ inside”
alex: “stan, instantly in love and adoring from afar, patty falling for him as she gets to know him, everyone outside the band thinking it was the other way around lmao”
which, yeah, bc when the others catch on, they realise… patty working for a b/zzfeet analogue isn’t a speed bump for patstanlon to overcome, but rather just something stan was holding onto as like, a reminder to himself that ‘objectively she’s not perfect, and the only perfect person in this world is probably mike hanlon, be quiet rich’ but he’s wrong! she’s perfect too! he knows two perfect people! and by the time she’s gotten a job offer for her frankly thoroughly fucking excellent article abt shark puppy and has quit her job at the buzzfeet analogue, he’s pretty much forgotten about that hang-up until she’s like, “god i’m glad i have an actual adult workplace now” and mike laughs and stan feels his heart grow three sizes in his chest
@dykeeddie: “Okay I’m just gonna say it if she’s working at a b*zzfeed analogue for any period of timeShark Puppy Styles Me For A Week… there are 7 of them it’s the only way”
anyway the article is fucking bomb, everyone stan patty blum, and it blows the conservative scathing review sky high into a void of irrelevance
(at the clubhouse, patty makes such an expression at one of bill’s lyrics that richie actually chokes on his coke from laughter)
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