#makes for a great plot device tbh

[what-breaks-my-heart]

He Na, The Demon King in White.

#I just find the title to be ironic #a noble demon king??? #makes for a great plot device tbh #especially given the theme of the drama #and if you wonder yes the main theme of the drama is sacrifice... trial and tribulation... yada yada you get it #song of the moon #cdrama #wang you shuo

[samuelroukin]

I'm so pissed off about what happened tbh. This death was entirely unnecessary. His speech to Ed was beautiful but he could've said it while saying goodbye and taking control of The Revenge. He would be captain or first mate to Zheng (whom he would get along with fantastically btw). His arc this season would've made him great at leading the crew. He didn't need to die for Ed to let go of Blackbeard. He was already over that. He could even sustain an injury from the fight that'd make Ed realize how much he cared about him, they could've had a heart-to-heart with them *both* apologizing and letting each other go, and it would've worked perfectly.

I fully agree with the people saying the writers treated him like a cheap plot device. He deserved an apology from Ed, and yet he died *comforting Ed* and absolving him of his sins. The lighthearted funeral and everyone being pretty much like "oh well". Ed, as a main character, gets to move on and be happy without really making amends with people he hurt; meanwhile Izzy, largely a victim of his abuse, has to die while basically taking full responsibilty for the abuse on his deathbed. So that Ed can feel sad for a minute, then feel better and have character development.

I've been feeling very positive about season 2, even though it had some flaws, but this just turned me off entirely. This was so unnecessary and just bad writing in my opinion. (Doesn't help that I've basically been processing all my trauma through Izzy this season and related to him so hard it hurt, and seeing him treated like this by the narrative and other characters just feels... distasteful).

Just venting and sharing my thoughts- hope it's ok!

yeah, i agree with basically all of this. and it's like we all know the show is about ed and stede, their story is the main thing but the writers gave that many scenes to izzy and (imo) were handholding people into caring about him the entire season (bc i guess people can't appreciate nuance or whatever the reason was.) just to kill him off "because his story is finished" ? it's just cheap

#listen i would be devastated regardless but if it had least been well written!! pissing me off fr #anon #asks #ofmd spoilers

[cheshiresense]

Hi Cheshire! Thank you so much for the Yuzu snippet! It was SO great. I LOVE how fucked up the Kurosaki family is (wonder what Isshin thinks of this? We saw a glimpse but like... Is he an outsider and tolerated because he's the Only Adult Around?). I! LOVE! Poison!Yuzu! It's so great, makes so much sense. Also the easy way everybody was like "Ah, yes, OF COURSE the bowls are poisoned." So Neat. So Fucked Up. Being real I came for the ShinIchi but the UraShinIchi is The Best Trio and I am SO here for it. The fact Ichigo has NO idea he likes Urahara? Amazing. The fact that Shinji is SO LONG the favorite? ALSO amazing. Usuallly with the trio it's almost always the other way around or UraShin incorporating Ichigo later, so It'd be nice to see how this mechanic develops.

I also love "Mizuiro-niisan." Cute and terrifying. I wanna know what you have prepared regarding Mizuiro, he was always one of the most fascinating characters in Bleach taht wasn't 'part of the plot' so to speak (c'mon, dude knows how to make a fucking Pipe Bomb and has a harem of older women. There's A Story. (Also does he still have the 'harem' here or...?))

Anyway thank you for the chapter

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! Lol Isshin is very much the outsider to his own family after Ichigo neutralized him, they're basically like two strangers who happen to live in the same house, and even then, Ichigo went and got his own apartment once he had the contacts for it. I wouldn't say he set out to alienate his sisters from Isshin, so long as Isshin wasn't hitting them too, he doesn't really care what their relationship is like, but considering Ichigo's also been pretty much raising them single-handedly for the past 6+ years, they're bound to learn from him when it comes to Isshin too. Plus they do remember the way Isshin used to smack Ichigo around before Ichigo put a stop to it. So anyway, the twins still talk to Isshin and let him be his loud dramatic self around them but there isn't really any love coming from their end when it comes down to it, and they live with their brother at the apartment half the time anyway. As for Ichigo, he actually doesn't hate Isshin or anything either after the man left him to his own devices and doesn't bother him anymore. And yeah, the fact that he's the nominal adult of the house is still useful since Ichigo's still underage. It's just that he also very much wouldn't care if Isshin kicked the bucket tomorrow.

The Urahara/Ichigo/Shinji is also a surprise to me lol. Tbh, I didn't really have a ship in mind when I first started this AU, but UraIchi is my otp so naturally if there is a ship, I'd go for that. But then I wrote Shinji, and suddenly ShinIchi became a lot more probable, and then I wrote the Yuzu POV and Urahara elbowed his way back into the race. So the most likely ship now would be UraIchiShin lol.

The UraIchi dynamic actually turned out pretty interesting in this 'verse cuz this Ichigo is the type to get rid of anything that irritates him. If it's annoying and cuts into his time, he's not the sort to put up with it. And yeah, Kisuke's strong enough with enough connections that if Ichigo wanted to off him or even just threaten him like he did Isshin, it would be really difficult at the moment, but at the very least, he'd still work towards it, and he wouldn't spend any time with the guy. But here he is inviting him over for dinner and letting him properly meet the twins and just generally tolerating his presence, something he's never done with anyone else before, and it's a toss-up whether he's even really aware of the exception he's making. And on Kisuke's part, he doesn't know Ichigo well enough yet to realize how much leeway Ichigo's given him.

This Ichigo is just Grudgingly Fascinatedᵀᴹ by this cryptic bastard making his life a lot more complicated than he'd like, but is also strong and smart and offered his life up on a platter the moment Ichigo asked for it like it's tradeable currency so whatever he wants Ichigo to do in exchange has to be something even Urahara can't do himself, and Ichigo has just enough curiosity for that to add to the fascination pile just as much as it adds to the annoying asshole pile. Meanwhile, Shinji's just chilling with his poison rice, and Sakanade thinks Ichigo is yum with an adorable kitten for a sister. TLDR they're a trainwreck in the making but a pretty entertaining one.

I'm not sure what I really want to do with Mizuiro here yet but I'm definitely giving him a powerup in the future, he's Ichigo's best friend here, as much as Ichigo or even Mizuiro can have friends, and Mizuiro is absolutely ride or die enough to invade Soul Society with him. Plus I'd like to see what I can do with a character who's not exactly a frontline fighter but not a healer either like Ichigo's canon friends.

#msg #the-blue-eyed-fallen-angel #stunted empathy verse #headcanon

[irontragedyreview]

People who are saying "you can't criticize Horikoshi, it's his story and he can do whatever he wants", etc. Yeah, it's his story but he's made it public so I can do whatever I want and if I want to be a bitch and I call hi, mediocre I’ll do it. Like I love Naruto with all my heart and I have defended Kishimoto over certain criticisms in relation to female characters, etc. I have also criticized him for the absolute shit that Boruto is, even considering that as a manga Boruto isn’t 100% his work considering that at the beginning he was involved in the movie but on the manga he was only a supervisor. What I'm trying to get It’s that if you believe that just because a mangaka creates a story it should be free from criticism then you aren’t ready to get involved with any type of media or sincerely the public believes that consuming a movie, book, etc. means being a passive subject without critical thinking.  

That being said, Horikoshi largely deserves as much criticism as he can get because these chapters were truly a shit show since this last arc began. Let's just start listing first, AFO vs Endeavor and every hero in existence was too long and repeated for a large number of chapters the formula "villain takes the advantage, heroes take the advantage, the villain takes the advantage again and finally wins and move on to something else", all of this perhaps understandable to give some prominence to characters who were forgotten for entire arcs.

Shouto and his arc plus his relationship with Dabi, Shouto had a very interesting arc and incredibly much material to exploit but his arc and his relationship with Dabi never managed to take off because he was so tied to Endeavor that the interactions between them felt empty. 

Ochako and Toga were honestly the only thing that was worth it, you could see the commitment to giving them both a great moment and the way she wanted to approach Toga and truly have a conversation. The only thing I can criticize about their ending is that obviously there is no completely satisfactory closure in giving Toga an answer to what happens next, apart from Ochako's offer of understanding, there is no easy way out of what the other heroes will do, therefore which I can’t criticize her for not giving an answer to a complicated situation in this way. 

Also Horikoshi added things to his story that in the end he didn’t finish closing or that surely even if he touched them again it would no longer make sense, what happened to Spinner? What happened to everything about heteromorphic discrimination? I have to believe that everything is fixed by the good heart of Shoji telling Spinner that his way of doing things only makes the "achievements" of equality go backwards by giving them a bad image. In other words, we know that quirk society is discriminatory, especially in less urbanized towns, that those heteromorphs who reach places of power are the least and no real change has been achieved, but of course the victims of discrimination have to keep quiet and be good. So, maybe in the future they will no longer be discriminated. I'm going to be fair here, touching on issues like discrimination is complex, but putting an idea like this in the manga and then going for a simplistic or rather completely ignored resolution, because while a person may not share Spinner's actions, it’s understandable why he does it and simply saying that you have to be better because then people will see that you are good and not discriminate against you is stupid, Horikoshi covered a topic that he honestly didn’t know how to deal with or wasn’t interested in doing so. 

Kurogiri/Shirakumo being just a plot device for Aizawa and being resolved in 5 panels, I'm going to be understanding and say that this arc had the least to explore, but in the end it was meh. Tbh I'm not going to criticize this because it is so empty of content that it is no longer worth criticizing it. 

About Tomura and Izuku, the truth is what can I say the most that I haven't said in previous posts? from all the fights or confrontations it’s the most ignored, neglected and rushed of all, we don't know anything about them other than loose panels for a whole year, they barely interact and now Tomura dies, Izuku is "well, I honestly don't give a damn and I want you dead", if no one who has followed these two characters realizes the damage that this chapter has done to their conclusions then I'm not going to explain it. If Horikoshi felt incapable or was tired of his story he could have ended it with something else, however perhaps this was always the plan, we are talking about a guy who said that the second movie was the end of his manga,that is Midoriya without quirk giving it to his childhood bully. It's obvious that he doesn't care about Izuku as a character and I think he did care about Tomura but he didn't know what to do with him, which is why we have this ending.

Final note for any comments I may surely receive for calling bk a childhood bully. Don't waste your time replying, commenting or trying to argue, Horikoshi took it upon himself to make bk a gary stu who never faces real consequences for his actions (dying is not a sign of karma) and his abuse is never treated seriously by the author, because his victim never reflects on himself, which is ironic considering how many BK fans recognize that Midoriya has self-esteem problems, contempt, and poor self-care but do not recognize BK's role in this or minimize it.

#izuku midoriya #tenko shimura #shigaraki tomura #ochako uraraka #toga himiko #bnha critical #bnha 423 #shoto todoroki #dabi #touya todoroki

[thequeenofsarcaasm]

I love talking about Geto because he’s the type of character that has so much discourse around his nature that it makes him even more interesting. It just makes you want to analyse and dissect him to know what he really is.

Some people see him as pure evil that just needed an opportunity to reveal itself as such, while others see him as a complete and total victim who sunk into darkness because Gojo “failed” him. Then you have those who see he’s a fully grey character whose story is one of exploitation (even after his death).

When you leave that side of the conversation and dive into another subject you have those who project hypermasculine traits on him because that’s probably what they’re attracted to in real life, those who see him as woman lite and those who understand that it’s a little bit more complicated than that. Though Gege uses several tropes and traits that are usually associated with female characters or femininity in general (which is such an interesting thing to do to be honest. It adds so much flavour to the character and solidifies his partnership with Gojo who’s supposed to be the pinnacle of masculinity but also does it in a way that is truly HIS), he remains a full fledged male character the author has worked really hard on in a way that makes him not a plot device at all. That’s a privilege he certainly got cause he’s a male character tbh. Not everyone had that chance (ahem). Anyways. What was I talking about? I think it’s brilliant that Gege added such great nuance to his back story, the way he presents, the way he expresses himself and his masculinity (Not one dimensional, soft even, despite being a very powerful man), the way he loves and hates, the themes and motif he represents, that he can be analysed in so many ways. Everything about him gives fluidity (funny for someone who sees the world in black and white).

Maybe he’s a little bit too human.

#geto suguru #my beloved dead wife #jjk #jujutsu kaisen

[bookshelfdreams]

never ceases to amaze me how ppl are obsessed with assigning other characters's traits and story arcs to Izzy to pretend that He's The Only One Who-- (no, he isn't)

'cause yk there IS a character who has a casual disability/body difference that doesn't just exist when it's relevant to the plot (and is, in fact, not relevant to the plot at all, because it's not a narrative device). A character who starts out with hypermasculine posturing and tbh kinda femmephobic, and is then quite literally cured by gay love. Who's kinda weird and goofy, but depicted as hot and desirable, because that's what he is! Who goes through a traumatic event and finds catharsis and healing, and sure, lots of that happens off-screen and could be addressed in more detail, but when has that ever stopped fandom from writing novel-length metas and fanfics. Who has a beautiful, canon love story.

And on top of that he's a hilarious, sarcastic little shit, and just great fun to watch!

(It's Pete. I'm talking about my buddy, my best friend, my specialest boy Black Pete.)

But for some reason he tends to fall to the wayside in fandom. If he's talked about at all, there's a fandom-wide tendency to make him into the shitty, one-dimensional, disney-esque clown and comic relief character he notably is not in canon - and assign his actual arc and characteristics to a more palatable angry asshole.

Hmm.

Wonder why that is.

#its honestly fascinating how people refuse to see whats actually there #and act like ofmd were worse yet more familiar #oh on the topic of disability: true a speech impediment & facial scar arent that disabling to most people #however they *definitely* are if you're say a professional actor whose voice and face are core to their work #our flag means death #do i need to spoiler tag this? hmm better safe etc #ofmd s2 spoilers #black pete #thoughts #pete <3

[silviakundera]

Did a speedrun through modern cdrama Everyone Loves Me because I'm a fan of both leads. A fairly well constructed romcom for a specific trope, AND also one of the most valid examples of the critique that cdrama storylines are pointlessly over-extended. This would have been a great modern drama at 12 episodes. Unfortunately, it's at least 10 episodes too long. The literal gaming (characters interacting while playing videogames) is very light - it's an initiating plot device piece but doesn't consume much actual screen time. The real genre is IT workplace romance with Hidden Identity trope.

Do you like:

* Capable & ambitious female lead x male lead with a competency kink whose turn-offs are white lotus & green tea girls and turn-ons are brash ladies who can cuss you out; dressing up to impress is not required

* Romantic dynamic of equal partners (2 strong personalities, not active/passive)

* "We don't know yet who is going to be the breadwinner. My goal is to be a CEO."

* Low heat (just a few kisses),

* modern workplace dramas (so much working)

[heavy spoilers below]

The actual set up & outline are:

* Online friend group who casually game together, in the last days of university. One of the guys starts catching feelings for the girl, our FL (let's call him Gamer Friend). FL isn't romantically considering Gamer Friend at all, because she has a crush on a guy from her uni.

* This crush is Gamer Friend in rl! 😮

* ML isn't open to being crushed on by anyone at rl uni, because he is already hung up on FL (as his online friend) 🙈

* FL asks for advice from her gaming buds on how to pursue her rl crush. Gamer Friend doesn't want her to succeed, because he wants to win her heart, so he keeps giving terrible advice to chase him by acting out the soft-spoken innocent maiden archetype (the opposite of FL's real boisterous & brash personality)

* This creates a comedy of errors where ML in rl is being pursued by the woman he's in love with, but he's shooting her down left & right. This culminates in her confessing and he publically rejects her in a harsh manner. When she comes crying (and vengeful) to the group, the guys all realize the identity confusion. Appropriately horrified, bros have no idea what to do. (This whole scene is gold tbh.)

* This plotline covers 7 episodes, but should have been dealt with in 4.

* Next 5 episodes (should have been 2!): Gamer Friend, toiling under karma, tries to be virtually supportive of his beloved while in person desperately making gestures to show remorse & have her less willing to obliterate his RL person. (this is all complicated by them both hired into the same company post-grad; there's a whole gaming dev & art design subplot - like in Lighter & Princess, the writers did the research so the setting is reality-based). This arc ends with identity reveal: she finally knows irl crush = Gamer Friend

* Next 6-7 episodes lead her from being (rightfully) furious and humiliated to them finally becoming friendly & supportive of each other. He waits to ask for more until he feels truly forgiven for the shakespearean hijinks that kept them apart. Includes work drama and fake-dating For Reasons. This arc, again, could have been 3-4 episodes.

* Final 5 episode arc is dating era and culmination of the gaming dev plotline. Heavy emphasis on work drama. Only 2 out of the last 5 episodes had significant romance material for the main couple, which was the major flaw in the drama. Avoided the separation cliche but also no marriage scenes at the end - we just see that they're still close, supportive partners a year later. Should have been 3 episodes ;)

The structure is right for a simple rom com set up of: one party pursues, gets rejected, then the other party pursues & corrects their mistake. The misunderstandings are logical enough; FL is assertive and we see evidence of her talent (not just told); ML likes her for herself & doesn't want a childish, obedient woman like the idol dramas represent; they are shown to make a good team & respect each other; the wronged party isn't a push over and their forgiveness has to be earned. It's clear why they like each other and that they work as a couple. (Though the emphasis is on compatibility & domesticity rather than sexual heat.)

The showrunner just needed to compress each arc and spend a lot less time on corporate minutiae. The way I engage with this type of drama is to binge, skip all 2nd couple scenes, and liberal use of fast forward ⏩⏩.

#everyone loves me #cdrama #drama watching #drama review

[slothyykittee]

The only character personalities that Vivziepop can write are: nice doormats that gets treated badly for comedy, smug asshole guy with sharp teeth, horrible bitch female used as plot device, obvious one note abusive villain used to make another character to look better, and horny whore who’s there to be sexualized, They all have same character voice of being loud, hotheaded, and vulgar like there’s literally only one calm character that I’ve known is calm and that’s Baxter but he seems to be erased from Hazbin

Yep. Sums it all up. No variation whatsoever. And on the vulgar part, I would have let it slide until Viv also made the angel curse. Bro, the inconsistency! Remember CHERUBS? that episode on HB? Yea, it showed that angels are unlike demons. they don't curse or make sex jokes. That's great!........ Until HH came about and I was flabbergasted that Adam said the F word.

And.. Baxter my baby! He deserved so much, he's the only good character I found this shitshow, and yet gets deleted. Tbh I'm taking him as the mascot of Critics.

#hazbin hotel critical #helluva boss critical #vivziepop critical #anon ask

[autumnwhistles]

Last Life: The Unofficial Musical – help required?

As some people know, I'm working on making a musical version of Last Life! Throughout making the first song, some people have asked if there was any way to help, and after some thinking I've finally organised my thoughts. The roles I'd love some help with are below:

(The first song is here in case you want to know what style I'm going for, and there's more information about it in the pinned post on my profile.)

Subtitling – some people have already offered to help with this (thank you!). Self-explanatory, just adding the lyrics I've posted to Closed Captions at the right timestamps.

Promotion (ie on Twitter because I don't have an account and don't really want to get one tbh) – also self-explanatory, this would basically be reposting with permission to let it reach a wider audience.

Creative help – mainly helping to streamline the plot, as I feel right now there's a lot of it but not all of it is necessary, and also want to set more things up early on and give more people attention. This might work better as a group thing so ideas can bounce off multiple people – I was thinking of making a Discord server to discuss this?

Vocals and voice acting – if needed I can sing everything, but it would sound weird if everyone was me, and with dialogue (which there will be some of) it'd be even weirder. Especially for bigger voice/dialogue parts, acting and singing experience would be preferable (and for singing, specifically styles where you have to act through your singing eg musical theatre), and you should have a decent microphone to record it through. It doesn't have to be super fancy, just no device mic etc. If people are interested, they could tell me what type of singing they like to do/what range they have etc, and I'd probably ask to hear a recorded video clip (around 1 min, maybe more) of singing something as well*. With voice acting parts, it depends on how big it is – if it's bigger, it would be nice to hear some sort of clip (maybe I can send the dialogue when written) as well. The character doesn't have to have the same person singing and speaking for them (though they shouldn't sound completely different). Depending on how many people are interested, I might hold auditions via google forms (submitting something)?

Instrumentals – the sound engine I use is pretty good, so that would mainly be used for accompaniment, but for solos/parts where the instrument is in focus, actual playing would really enhance it. Instruments I can see being subject to this are the violin, viola, flute and oboe, but others may come up. This would generally be on a song-by-song basis though.

Possibly someone to help manage this, since I'm not used to organising bigger projects and I'm not too great on keeping everything organised.

I'll take care of composing, lyrics, production, and the singing for some characters (the number again depending on how many people are interested). I'll try to release more content/snippets as well so people (especially those involved in vocals) know more of what's going on.

(everyone involved will be credited obviously!)

*If you want to help with this but just by eg adding some vocals to the chorus part, this probably isn't necessary though!

#trafficblr #last life smp #life series

[whateven333]

What you prefer bonnie going dark with kai or kai being redeemed for bonnie?

I think, and forgive me, I feel like I’m always picking answers that are kind of in-between (I’m a “little” bit of an indecisive person lmao) but I like when they’re sort of a mix of both.

What I mean by that is like for Bonnie’s character, -I think she’s not as “good” as the show tries to convince us, and don’t get me wrong I think this is a positive because it makes for a more interesting/ complex character, -well it would have if the writers actually acknowledged it and did something with it, instead they kept her boxed away as some sort of “saint-like” figure (with none of the respect) but I think they did that in order to keep her away from any of the fun action in the show that the other leading ladies were allowed to be apart of, -like getting romantically/ sexually involved with villains, being careless/ misusing her powers for selfish reasons (like how the vamps in the show got to be reckless/ indulgent with their powers) without consequences, going to parties/ balls whatever and just being there to look pretty in a dress and have fun etc. and I think the writers liked to describe her like she’s “too good” as an excuse to leave her out of storylines that would allow more development for her character and to neglect writing for her character unless they needed to use her as a plot device.

But even though Bonnie is selfless etc, she’s still done plenty of morally questionable things in order to protect her friends (who are mostly killers) so the “too good” thing the writer’s tried to pin on her is pretty stupid and an obvious ploy to keep her away from being a part of more interesting storylines.

So because of that I think although Bonnie is kind of a mostly ‘good’ character, she’s also at least a little bit morally grey? As well as a little dark at times (considering her expression arc, -we know she’ll go to great extremes to do what she believes needs to be done).

Though with Kai I do think he brings out more of that darkness in her and that’s really fun (this concept has been explored in a lot of fantastic BK fanfics and I LOVE IT).

And with Kai, I think that he doesn’t need to be redeemed and actually I think this applies to other characters as well, -like should they even be redeemed ? Do we need to ? I think it’s perfectly fine for darker/ morally grey characters to exist without any sort of redemption arc. I’ve enjoyed redemption arcs before so I’m not against them or anything but I think on TVD it’s been done a lot (though I wouldn’t say they’ve done it well,- also TVD focussed on the ‘her lOvE redeemed him’ trope which I’m not really a fan of, I think it can be one of the reasons a character is redeemed but not the sole reason).

I liked that Post-merge Kai still seemed to have kept his pre-merge traits. I would have hated if they turned him into some sort of strangely good version of Luke, -even though some people insist that’s what he was post-merge and that’s why he was apologising to Bonnie, although that doesn’t make sense since the merge is not supposed to erase him- Kai’s meant to just be himself but with emotions now and Luke really did not have any serious connections to Bonnie to make him care that much about her.

One of the things I like about BK is the intense way they affected each other even when they didn’t want to be affected, even when they tried to act indifferent to the other it was obvious how they were still influenced by each other.

The type of redemption arcs that TVD focussed on had one person changing because of / for the other person. I think with BK they would change each other, both for the better and worse tbh, and that would be so delicious to watch -some of Bonnie’s good bleeding into Kai’s bad and vice versa.

And it would be an unwilling change for the both of them that they would probably try to fight tooth and nail, but regardless of what they want, their mutual obsession would inevitably lead them there.

So all that to say... I'd prefer them to mutually destroy each others perceptions of their own self-concepts and egos 💖

And I mean if that isn't ✨️True Romance✨️ then what is 💕

Thanks so much for the ask ! this was interesting to think about, I tried to answer this earlier but I couldn’t decide which I preferred and ended up kinda in the middle after all anyways… 😭

#bonkai #bonnie bennett #kai parker #ask

[itsjustpoopeh]

and while i'm here at the library with the good wifi and a keyboard let me address something else to the toxic weirdasses trying to pretend it's ✨internalized misogyny✨ because "if tommy were a woman you would hate her yall hated all his other girlfriends"

hmm. no 💃🏽

let's go through the list of buck's girlfriends, which i personally disliked and why. you'll be surprised to find that i only hated one, and it had to do with the way kristen reidel butchered her character to make a self insert

Abby - i liked abby a lot. she was flawed and vulnerable and liked buck. she helped him mature and become a little more thoughtful, and i think let him figure out how much he wanted to be in a real relationship and have all those romantic experiences (hot air balloon date i'll always regret your premature murder). yeah she left him in an awful way and didn't bother to apologize and i hated her for THAT but during the relationship? nah fam i was rooting for those crazy kids

Ali - hell i REALLY liked Ali. smart, sassy, fun, also just liked buck and enjoyed his company. i didn't like her abrupt exit from the show but it's perfectly valid for someone to say "i can't handle the danger you're in and this won't end well for either of us if we try"

let's skip taylor and come back

natalia - i LIKED her at first. sure she was a little judgy about all his crazy ass shenanigans but uh... who tf wouldn't be? she wasn't judging him as a person, just being like "bruh wtf have you gotten yourself in to?" they didn't do a lot to flesh out her character because... well, see: kristen reidel and then this season tim had to dump her character bc she didn't want to come back (valid of her tbh)

aight and the TAYLOR of it all:

i liked taylor when she was introduced. i said it

or, to be more accurate, i enjoyed her character and what i thought the purpose of her character as a plot device was going to be

i will forever die on the hill that taylor kelly could have been an excellent recurring friendly antagonist. a ruthless, ambitious, snarky reporter, getting in bitch fights with eddie every time she shows up to horn in on the 118 for one of her investigations trying to climb the vicious corporate news ladder. getting in the way, occasionally helping out against her will, climbing buck like a tree in bar restrooms, then flouncing off until her next appearance. it would have been great

and then kristen reidel needed a self-insert, tried to redeem her with no actual work done on selling it, made her spineless, then turned her back into an awful unethical reporter when she needed to get rid of her, and worse, made her BORING AS FUCK doing it AND didn't accomplish any narrative purpose with it? nah fuck that shit.

and what i want you to notice is that NONE OF THAT HAS FUCK ALL TO DO WITH BUDDIE

godDAMN y'all are testing my nerves

#911 abc #i said what i said #don't make me say it again

[ninja-go-to-therapy]

What's this Ratatooie Au I keep seeing y'all talk about

This au is the only reason I finally learned to spell ratatouille tbh so no shade there

I’ll put the basic points below the cut

during the escape from the troll tree, little branch gets separated from the others. he manages to survive on his own somewhere between several months and a year before…

he’s caught in a trap the exiled bergen chef has set to find trolls. but she can’t eat this rotten thing. on the other hand though, it’s the only troll she’s got, so…

chef keeps branch in a little cage in her RV. he serves as her only amusement (psychological torture is great fun for her)

after several years when the fight has been drained from him, she makes him learn to cook as like. another psychological torture thing I guess. because if he doesn’t pay attention and learn then he’s going in the pot

also whenever she cleans his cage and also just to keep him on his toes, sometimes chef throws him in a pot with a heavy lid and every time he has the panic attack of all panic attacks

she finds a handful of trolls over the years, but not the village itself, and she’s getting frustrated. finally, a month or two before the 20th year anniversary, she “lets branch go” (allows him to believe that he escaped). what branch doesn’t know is that he’s chipped in some way with a tracking device

branch eventually finds his way to troll village, where he is bombarded by New Friends!! it’s extraordinarily overwhelming

he tries to warn them about bergens but they think he’s just uh. a little messed up in the head.

the party happens, chef snatches the snack pack, then we get what’s vaguely the plot of the first movie but this time branch is like a shaking little chihuahua the whole time. someone save him

#kat answers #anon #trolls #dw trolls #fucked up ratatouille au

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Night Family" was a solid episode. The previews made me think it would be some creepy horror or existentialist episode (with everyone wearing matching pajamas, I thought it might end up being a simulation), and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't the case. The "zombie" family that surprises Rick when he's sleeping was more funny than scary.

Anyway, I love how Rick caved at the beginning just because Summer sighed and looked annoyed. This and "Bethic Twinstinct" have made it clear that Rick can't say no to his girls.

Also, damn--this has really been Rick's season so far. I suspected that because the trailer and a lot of the still images focused on him. I'm not complaining, but Morty hasn't had much to do. Even "Mort: A Rick Well Lived" was kind of iffy because it wasn't really "him." How many lines did Morty even have in this episode?

Rick and Morty had a couple of cute bonding moments, though. I totally thought the podcast scene would be from "Full Meta Jackrick." What IS that episode about?

Summer saying "I'm sorry, Rick, but your opinion means very little to me" was a brilliant callback to Rick's infamous season one line that dudebros have repeated a million times. It's basically the canon version of "I'm not arguing, I'm explaining why I'm right." (He never says that?? Stop putting it on T-shirts!) Five seasons later, Summer's throwing it right back at him.

This season has had a lot of good callbacks to previous episodes, especially Mortynight Run, which is actually one of my favorites. They're fresh and relevant to the plot instead of nostalgia-based, like "Haha, remember Mr. Meeseeks? Here he is!" Say what you will about Rick and Morty, but this show understands that memes have an expiration date.

As far as the jokes go, I'll reiterate what I've said in another post and say that season six just...isn't funny to me. This episode had some funny jokes, like Rick angrily squirting ketchup all over everyone's plates, but it also had obvious jokes that have been done a million times.

Like--ha ha, the police car plunges into a "gasoline factory" that doesn't exist in real life and just makes the situation worse. Rick would rather fuck everything up than clear his plate before putting it in the sink--yeah, I saw that coming.

I did think that Jerry writing letters to himself was cute. I wasn't a Jerry fan before seasons five and six. He's still not my favorite character, but since he's starting to drop the whole "dopey dad" routine (tbh, I think it was an act because he stood up for himself when he really wanted to), his "cute" moments seem genuine because he's not pretending to be the innocent, downtrodden husband as much.

I also loved the scene where Rick greets the device when he walks past the table in the morning. This show is great at capturing human moments like that, better than a lot of "realistic" dramas.

But yeah, overall--it's not going to go down as one of my all-time favorites, but "Night Family" is decent. It's interesting to see how the writers handle the no-portal gun challenge that they've set up for themselves. This episode has a lot of great Rick moments and focused on him more than I thought it would, plus some cool visuals and animation tricks, like Rick jumping from the police car roof in slow motion. Summer was hilariously badass. Don't fuck with Summer.

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #jerry smith #summer smith #morty smith #night family #review

[bibiana112]

Kinda weird question- do you have any links to people talking about Mira from ZTD and ableist stereotypes? I mentioned that I was uncomfortable with her portrayal but kinda fumbled it and made some other ND people in chat uncomfortable. I searched for various keyword combinations but most of what I'm finding is like "and not to mention the ableism with Mira" and doesn't elaborate lol.

Not weird at all! And uh, you see, there's a recent post I made where what I complain about is the very fact I've never seen anyone post too in-depth about her at all, I'd love to see posts that do elaborate on that but I do not have any that I know of right now, sorry :/ hopefully someone else who sees this can point to one? Okay!! After some tag searches I have found exactly one post who kind of gets into it I like this take still would love to see. more than just one but hooray

And like though I complain I couldn't elaborate much on it myself I don't think, I believe most of the posts people make about Saito from aitsf would apply since it's a different uchikoshi take on the very same trope of "emotionless characters who cannot function without killing others" I guess he's a worse portrayal though since she's at least not stated to get reward brain chemicals when killing people and I guess her case also has the added layer of "femme fatale" to it? Which either makes it less bad or worse depending on where you approach it from As I said I am not doing a good job of being coherent on this oh and also there's her being "redeemed" and "cured" in the epilogue which in on itself is kinda not great to imply it just goes away like that and honestly I personally don't even buy it I think she'd just be like oh okay Akane over here has like a thousand reasons to hate me after all that oh and what's that she's the leader of a super wealthy underground organization who's organized one of these death traps before yeah no I'm better off going to prison I'll be fine there lmao bye

But I'll say as an autistic person with relatively low empathy I usually see a character who just doesn't understand other people's feelings and wants to feel them too and is just trying to survive despite getting no help and I just kinda go hm. yeah. shout-out to roxas kingdom hearts shout out to mary from ib shout out that's why I started hyperfixating on media art helps me with understanding others a great lot and Mira is just in a story too badly executed for me to care or even begin to wrap my head around tbh like god she's so fucking terribly used as a plot device in every conceivable way that it makes it difficult to see past it and into what she could possibly be if it weren't for the stereotype of equalling low empathy with no compassion what's with her killing off screen in ways that wildly deviate from her stated m.o? why or how was she even in cahoots with Zero why was that a thing? Honestly her dynamic with Sean could have been better fleshed out could have done something interesting about robot child and his aspd big sis but we just kind of don't get any attention brought to the subject of emotions and the authenticity there of except for the "reveal"...

YOU KNOW WHAT that's probably one huge reason it feels so fucked up actually! Like the whole fucking game is written so you could experience it in whatever order you want and therefore Mira being a serial killer at all is something that though not very well hidden it also cannot be a topic of discussion or explored Ever ever because the player may not have seen the fragment where that is revealed yet- problem being the menu design of that game sucks so bad and practically everyone gravitates towards the same few more interesting looking thumbnails first and then the rest is kinda just there, I mean that is part of the reason A Lot of characters feel half-baked I think but also I think it definitely does impact perception of her character specifically probably The Most and then there's just the general not being given nuance not being able to see the minutiae of how that disorder manifests in her character aside from the killings about how she acts aside from being overly flirty trying to lure in Eric but that affects pretty much all of the new cast we don't have last names and in her case we barely have any backstory at all like Saito is a harmful stereotype sure but we get So Much Context for him that people still love talking about him and delving into different aspects of his life since we have that very well telegraphed in the narrative meanwhile for Mira all we can do is fill in the blanks guesswork that only highlights the worst aspects of the surface level portrayal we got and ultimately that people just don't care enough to dissect because there isn't much there character wise once you remove it

#oh to be miraposting on a sunday evening instead of catching up on schoolwork #I love how you can see the exact moment while writing this that I had a brain blast akdhks #me: sorry I can't elaborate also me: types out. three paragraphs #also if you're comfortable with that I'm curious what you could have possibly said that it'd be considered fumbling #dms are open if you send it into an ask I'll answer privately and again only if you want to share #cause like I want to see different perspectives on this so bad even if they're not eloquent #especially since it's not really something that ever got to me much? but that I can kinda see why it'd be upsetting #my suspension of disbelief is just too tanked for it to get an emotional reaction of me especially with the rest of the cast for contrast #I'm too busy being annoyed at everyone else's portrayal in that game not to mention idk it feels like #like schlocky hollywood no thoughts character archetype go brr type ableism #not the really insidious woven into the narrative stuff that I usually want to rant about cough cough youtube video I'll probably never mak #like pretty sure it's stated somewhere that the idea for her character was uchikoshi going hm. there's been femme fatales in these games #but none of them have been Really “Fatale” you know? he literally just wanted the big booba character to also be the stabby character #zero escape #ztd #mira ztd #if this should be under a readmore. let me know #zero escape spoilers

[aliothbuzzsawshark]

why do you think Luke would be a better protagonist? I’m curious. Tbh I’m much the same but I wanna hear your take

Luke is like. An amazing idea for a Yugioh protagonist, or at least the more *dumb* Protags. (Judai, Yuma, Yuya) From his personality, goals, cards, and what he means to the themes of Sevens

     Luke has the personality of a typical shounen anime protagonist. He’s kind, energetic, optimistic, brave, and has a very clear goal. However he has flaws that make him not too perfect or too annoying (both in being to great or too bad) Yuga never really seems like he cares about stuff. He does, but he’s not expressive or puts lots of effort into what he does. Luke meanwhile, puts 1,000% perfect of his everything into what he does. You can tell Wehen he cares, what he’s doing, and most importantly, wouldn’t hide his plans from the audience like Yuga. Both aren’t extremely optimistic, but Luke is a a lot more than Yuga 50% of the time. Luke thinks either everything will work or nothing at all, creating comedy for the audience and a certain surprise to what he’ll do. Meanwhile Yuga will look at a situation, go “oh I know what’s gonna happen here and I’ll fix it” for so many episodes it hurts.

    Furthermore, Yuga’s goal is trying to stop something (Rush Duels getting deleted), not gain. Having a goal of stopping something can cause the audience to get bored. Of course there is exceptions (Yuma and Zexal are pretty good examples of that) but Sevens isn’t one. All but 2 out of 7 antagonists aren’t against Yuga because of Rush Duels (thank you Roa and Swirly) and that is so, so repetitive. Meanwhile, Luke’s goal is gaining the King Of Duels Title, and likely also trying to stop rush duels. This creates a balance between stopping and gaining.

     Luke’s deck is very yugioh. I don’t know how else to describe it. Dragias are really cool dragons and that’s like 35% of all yugioh cards. They even change throughout the series, like how Utopia has various versions to show time and characters. “Yuga’s deck also is very yugioh” Not really. Besides the Sevens Roads he just has spellcasters, and they call back to Yugi/Atem. Luke has dragons, which are as Yugioh as you can get. The most known card is BEWD, not Dark Magician. (Not trying to hate on Dark Magician btw, bewd is just more recognizable)

     Sevens is about going against tradition. Tell me, dear reader, what Yuga does to show this past the first episode. Luke, Tatsuhisa Kamijo, is still somehow better at showing this than Yuga. He stands up with breaking tradition about every time, (every time I can find of, but it’s Sevens so probably not every single time) even with his own family. When he ran the school, he broke the rules and created it how he thought people would like. Whenever he gets ANY position of power, he changes it so people would like it. It’s just that he’s Luke, and he “assumes” people would like him. His entire relationship with his family is about breaking the family tradition and then not supporting him. Comparing to Yuga Ohdo, Luke does everything Yuga could’ve done, but didn’t. Yuga creates the Make Your Own Duel Thingy, but that’s more a plot device than an actual action of breaking the mold for people. Even then, it’s way to late to do it right at the last arc to be anything more than a plot device.

     So uh. Yeah. Is that good? Do you want more? I can keep going

#talks with buzzsaw #lucidien kallister #tatsuhisa kamijo #luke kallister #luke kamijo #7 rewrite

[wurdulac]

last year i wrote a list of media that touched me. bcs i have shit for memory i was noting down things i watched, played etc. this year. so here's the list.

the city and the city by china miéville - loved it...

the longing - idle game that felt quite promising in the beginning. you play as a lonely shade that has to wait 400 days for his king to wake up. it can get kinda weird and idk how i feel about this anymore.

rain dogs - extremely bleak life circumstances, intense toxic friendship. 'fast food isn't good for you. but i fucking love it'

deadwood - very intriguing way of plotting a story of a settlement but some things abt were fucking stupid and i'm still frustrated when i think abt it. haven't finished the final season and i don't really feel like it.

vanished birds <- read this or else

dungeon meshi - most beautiful art with dynamically drawn creatures and beasts that then get shown being cooked into delicious (and nutricious!) meals in great detail. setting is a spoof of a stereotypical party adventure world but it tries to make sense of its rules and creates in turn something quite unique. great characters too.

wuthering heights - extremely good narrative device. never knew that we learn this story through a tale being told by a servant to some cringey guy. surprisingly well depicted psychology of the characters. reading abt child abuse upset me so bad. society will fuck you up. some ways to better your lot are closed to you based on your gender and race. fucking up people over generations. also moors. they're important.

ghost in the shell

barry - the fact that the show never lets him forget. the satire on show biz, loving the veterans. it's like a more clownish version of breaking bad in a way (both being concerned with morality). characters are caritaturish but everything they do is taken extremely seriously. also it's quite inventive with filmography. solid. loved it.

sangfielle - weird fiction arc of FaTT podcast.. extremely good setting

andor - they didn't lie when they said star wars can be good. abt opression and imperialism.. and droids done well.

repo man - plotted in a very fun way... unforgettable ending.

hellraiser - it was so promising. shouldn't have turned into tense rubic cube solving under most dire circumstances ever imo.

bg3 - the themes have made me insane. it managed to be cohesive. it's the. carousel of violence. cycle of abuse. relationship with power. trusting the other not to use violence against (even though they could). male manipulators. the dark urge. it's not without its faults and it should have been tighter (durge should be the main protag and no tav, chop down act 1, erase halsin)

the terror - such a mixed bag. a very good and tense thriller about imperialistic hubris but. they put a beast there. and the villain was??? idk man.

iasip (well technically i've been trying to watch it for years, but this year alone i watched like 4 seasons or maybe more) - i simply love iasip. its style of comedy that is irreverent. the mad schemes. awful dynamics. touching real darkness.

blowback (podcast) - about american imperialism. first season abt iraq war tone-wise feels like if behind the bastards and citations needed had a baby. recommended.

roadwarden - loved it. loved the setting!

anyway... i kinda stopped reading books after i quit my job (no longer commuting somewhere regularly so i stopped using my kindle). had plans to watch more movies but it's always a struggle to sit down and start watching. went to more than 0 galleries but not that many tbh. i sometimes don't know what to say and most of my comments are still pretty general and feel trite.

#uhm. if you somehow know of something i forgot to mention let me know