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#overall I really just genuinely don't hate it which is like all that matters
justatalkingface · 9 months
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I have to say, I've always been a fan of the idea of Kirishima being Izuku's best friend, rather than Bakugo's. I just think the two work off each other as the "extrovert trying to get his introverted friend to come out of his shell more" better than his and Bakugo's "I can fix him" one.
Plus, both have experience dealing with bullies and trying to defend the helpless from said bullies. Hell, Kirishima would commend Izuku for sticking it out all the way through, whereas he needed Mina's help with his. I really think Kirishima would be a great motivator for Izuku to get stronger and to voice his opinions more. If Izuku was having an especially bad day, I see Kirishima being the type to say,
"Hey man, don't put yourself down like that. You're one of the strongest, manliest guys I know. Even up there with All Might and Crimson Riot. Come on, lets head to the gym to get your mind off things. I'll spot ya."
Kirishima would provide so much positivity and motivation to improve, that I feel Izuku would only come out better with him as his main homie. Not to mention it would give Kirishima even more screentime, which I would love.
Though admittedly, my love of Kirishima is also why I hate that Hori paired him with Bakugo. My man deserves a better homie than that asshat.
...You know, when you look at Kirishima as, like, a character that someone put in a story, rather than as a person, there's something weird about him. You know what it is? Kirishima is basiclly Izuku. He's Izuku if he had a 'mediocre' Quirk; a bit of a coward at the start of his story, with self doubt, but he still genuinely wants to help people, and forces himself to grow and push farther when he decides to apply to UA. And when you strip to the bare bone themes like that, it's Izuku's story, without Bakugou and the Quirklessness there making his life miserable.
And, with that in mind, and that one comment Hori (apparently) made, that Izuku was supposed to be sad that Bakugou took Kirishima's hand... it feels like Kirishima was made, or at least given development, for Bakugou. Like, Kirishima and Bakugou is the friend dynamic of Bakugou with Izuku that so many people want them to have, what fanfic stories are written for, what people in story apparently (god knows why) seem to think they have, and when you look it that way it's... interesting. It's a very interesting choice to me.
Like, Hori apparently (I can't cite any of this Hori shit) regrets how far Bakugou went in the first chapter; it makes me wonder if, like, Kirishima is his wish fulfillment in that sense? Like, he's imagining a version of the manga where Bakugou came in with a lot less baggage, and that dynamic is him doing that sort of friendship without actually changing the story?
On the other hand, though, I'd have to be blind to that dynamic seems to exist to soften up Bakugou's image, to show that he's not all that bad, without really making him improve actively.
Regardless, no matter how you look at it, in a meta, 'why does this character exist' kind of way, Kirishima literally seems to be in the manga only for Bakugou's sake. I mean, his friendship (or 'friendship' maybe) with Bakugou, isn't helping him beyond giving him more screen time. And your right, it's a shame, because he and Izuku would get along really well.
Part of it, of course, is that they exist in a similar kind of positive wavelength, both being really wholesome people. Kirishima is really outgoing, and it seems natural that he would try to reach out to Izuku, who canonly is almost pathetically grateful for even the tiniest smidge of even vaguely positive interactions, especially at the start, much less someone just flat out being nice to him. Meanwhile, Izuku is naturally supportive, and would be great for Kirishima in turn, supporting him on his low confidence moments and encouraging him to be more confident about his Quirk and his own abilities.
Overall, it's a firm foundation for a good, wholesome friendship, one that would easily continue to continue on even when both of them eventually grow past their own doubts, and something that'd be nice to see, but by the time Kirishima got any characterization, he was already set up for Bakugou, and of course we could dilute that dynamic with him doing something else.
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trickstarbrave · 6 months
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the biggest problem with skyrim i see people critiquing it not point out isn't just "the writing is shallow"
i mean it is. but a lot of games have overall shallow writing without that being an issue. sometimes you dont need 90 pages of lore for smth. sometimes simple events can spiral out of control into massive problems. the elder scrolls series definitely has a world so complex though that it should have more interesting and detailed writing, but the biggest problem with skyrim isn't that
the problem is video games are not just writing and a setting. there is game play, themes, characters, and often multiple overlapping stories/plot lines in that setting. And all need to work together as cogs in a machine or the whole thing doesn't fucking work right. it's like making a play, and while i almost fucking failed script analysis in college (dont ask), i do understand that, and how different parts of the experience are weighted as a decisions
skyrim is a game that is heavily weighted towards gameplay and exploration of a setting. its primarily a sandbox game. thats all well and good, a lot of my favorite games are. it is a power fantasy that is (supposed to be) about play choice and agency. and almost nothing in the fucking game actually reinforces and works toward it. in fact it often directly contradicts it.
skyrim tries to bring up a number of themes, especially in the main story quest. stuff like morals, power, how to wield power, what actual justice means, and the nature of violence. and it does absolutely fuck all with it. if i as a dragonborn misuse my power at best i will piss off the guards which literally can happen to anyone. most of the time no matter what i do no npc gives a fuck who i am. i can be the thane of every hold in skyrim, most of the population will still be rude assholes to me.
take paarthurnax. we all hate and bemoan the dilemma we are given. either kill dragon grandpa or be locked out of the blades stuff from now on. it seems like such a stupid choice to the point one of the most popular mods is telling delphine "shut up im in charge". but i think, even if its subconscious for most people so they don't even realize it, the reason this choice is so stupid has nothing to do with the fact we like dragon grandpa (or at least not the whole thing), but because the entire empire is built upon horrific war crime after horrific war crime of emperors with dragon souls. tiber septim did absolutely heinous shit on and off the battlefield. he killed innocents. raped. abused. lied. manipulated. and he never really repented, unlike paarthurnax. what does he get? well after a convoluted scheme we learned about back in daggerfall, he gets to be a whole ass fucking god and gets worshipped. there are potentially elves who remember his reign of terror and being ruthlessly slaughtered and removed from their homes, their cities burned and families killed, all out of greed from this motherfucker. and they are the bad guys for opposing his worship. they are portrayed as cartoonishly evil mass murderers, torturers, schemers, etc etc and at no point do we get a genuinely sympathetic take from a thalmor agent where they list out all of his war crimes and horrible shit he did that still effects them to this day, and to top it all off the empire left them to fend for themselves during the fucking oblivion crisis.
so as delphine bemoans all of paarthurnax's war crimes and horrible things he has done, how no amount of repenting can make up for it and he's too dangerous to leave alive and we should kill him Right Now because what if he, even by accident, succumbs to his nature as an Evil Dragon and does horrible things again, she is also actively defending the horrific, much more recent war crimes of other Evil Dragons just in mortal form. if delphine has a point, then so do the thalmor, but they are just cardboard bad guy elf nazis and the empire can do no wrong.
violence is rewarded time and time again, but THESE characters being violent is bad. because. all dragons are evil and able to be corrupted by power, but the player if they decide to be a massive asshole don't really face that much scrutiny besides ultimate gameplay inconvenience. because this is a sandbox power fantasy! you should make your own choices without being punished! but that means the story about power, the cost of violence, justice, and morals, as well as your greater place in the world can have no gameplay weight. and if it has no weight in the most important part of the experience, then it has no fucking weight at all
i could go on and on. like how the dragons are supposedly intelligent creatures with their own language, culture, customs, and morality system but are basically for most of the game about as smart and engaging as the average bear or wolf you encounter on the road outside of 2-3 dragons in heavily scripted, linear conversations during the story, but we'd be here all day.
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danpuff-ao3 · 7 months
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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💙
Oooh, thanks for passing this to me, Lizzy! 😄 Let's see....100 fics, how to choose 5? 🤔 Well all know #1 already, don't we? 😂 So I'll take a leaf out of Lizzy's book and do a countdown to 1!
5.) A Matter of Time
Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 3,686. Written for Snarry Adopt-a-Prompt 2022. Features reverse chronology and alternating POVs! Also: ambiguous/open ending (my love!) It feels like the Snarry of my youth, that angsty and spicy student/teacher, and some good old fashioned tragedy! I really feel like I pulled the thing off with this one! (What is said "thing"? Who knows.) Also, not to pat myself on the back but...that final line? Ouch.
4.) Cruel Summer
Harry/Sirius. Rated: E. Words: 5,445. Minor Harry/Severus. Written for HP Chan Fest 2022-2023. Features gorgeous art by @mrviran. It's a fic I've had floating around my noggin' for a few years but finally felt the call to write for Chan Fest! Our two beloved, troubled boys (Harry and Sirius) live together post PoA, and sees them through plenty of dysfunction, manipulation, and other problematic content 🤭 They have a very complicated (and angsty!) connection and I am so so pleased with how it came out! It's very bit as spicy, sad, and twisted as I'd hoped!
3.) The Curse of Anteros
Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 52,566. Written for Snarry Bang 2023. Inspired by an episode of Charmed called "Magic Hour" (which itself was inspired by a movie called Ladyhawke). This is another idea I've long wanted to write, but never knew how to write it until now. Curses, fairytales, magical animals, true love!! Begins with student/teacher and carries on through time to old men Snarry!!!! This fic really grew way out of control and I'm so glad it did. It feels like...a "proper" story, if that makes sense? Actual plot! Novel length! Who am I even???? Anyway I'm stupidly proud of this one. Also: ART BY MRVILLAIN AGAIN, MY BELOVED TEAMMATE, I'M OBSESSED. Like...idk I'm blown away. Which sounds bad cuz this is my story, but I don't care. This is genuinely a story that not only was I so pumped to create, but one that I'd have LOVED to read as a reader! Had someone else written this I'd have lost my mind reading it. I hate saying that, it sounds so arrogant, but I don't care, I'm losing my mind over this one. I wrote it in like 2 weeks!!!! This fic POURED out of me! And I love it!
2.) Collateral Damage
Draco/Ron. Rated: E. Words: 16,071. Written for Ron-Draco Fest 2021. The first draft of this got to like 10k before I had to scrap it and start totally over. Somehow the original opening kept winding down the wrong path. So finally after fighting with it for way too long (and only 2 weeks to go until it was due), I gave it up and tried again. Decided: "hey, let's open with porn and see what happens." Well...That worked. That did it. All I needed was to open with a BJ for magic to happen, who knew? I ended up with a story I was super jazzed about, and to my great surprise (and pleasure!) others loved it, too!!
1.) Contempt | Devotion
Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 20,400 | 25,843. Written for Snarry-a-Thon 2022 and 2023. This one's cheating a bit since it's technically 2 fics, but it's also the same story in different POVs so...it kinda counts, right? Also I know people have told me they liked Devotion more but I can't help but admit that Contempt itself still holds the top spot in my heart! And while I think say The Curse of Anteros is a better overall story, I don't think any fic ever will top Contempt. I mean, never say never, but Contempt is the story of dreams. It's my heart and soul. It's the Snarry I've always wanted to write. The story, the dynamic, the characterizations, everything. It's everything I've wanted in a Snarry since I first began reading Snarry 20 years ago. Like...I have no words to express just how meaningful this work is to me. This is literally the culmination of all of my Snarry feels. I dragged this story out of my gut. I pulled it out of my skin and wrote it in my blood. That's how connected I am to this work. (Wow that sounds really dramatic but also...true.)
Genuinely I was so cared people would hate it, but I wrote it anyway because I needed it and I loved it. I'm very glad to say that plenty of others love it with me! And this is another one @mrviran offered love to in the form of a podfic! (Plus cover art!) I'm fully obsessed with the podfic (AND ART!) and I get all teary eyed when I think about it, that my dear friend worked so hard to bring more life to my baby. 🥹
Kinda funny how my favorite works (and what i consider some of my best works) were all for fests. Fests really do inspire me, even if they make me want to pull my hair out. 😂
Also is it cheating to give honorary mentions to Lover Boy at Play, In My Veins (In My Blood), Orange Blossoms, Teardrop in Your Palm, and Black Skies? 👀
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kazoohaa · 2 years
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𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒. dorm leaders
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— notes. more housewarden headcanons because i love their dynamics omg
— details. riddle rosehearts, leona kingscholar, azul ashengrotto, kalim al-asim, vil schoenheit, idia shroud & malleus draconia as a chaotic friend group headcanons, pt. 2.
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leona's the only one out of them who has a driver's license. all of them are surprised that he was even bothered to do the driving test, but... eh.
leona drives like he's in some fuckin racing car game. vil's constantly screaming beside him, "WATCH THE ROAD OH MY GOD THIS IS GOING TO GIVE ME GREY HAIRS", azul is trying not to puke, riddle is almost being thrown everywhere if it weren't for the seatbelts (while criticising the driving and telling him off for not following the road rules)—
they do very dumb shit together.
one being trying to fit all of them on one broom. and they made azul steer. not even 5 seconds passed, and they've already crashed into a tree. vil and riddle went flying to who-knows-where. it was easy enough to find vil, because he was complaining about literally everything being ruined because he fell into mud, but as for riddle? nobody could find the short redhead for hours. /j
vil can do a kickflip. that is all. thank you for coming to my TED talk.
helping each other with homework (it's really just the other 6 trying to tutor kalim.)
vil regularly gifting the others with beauty products (which they probably don't know how to use, but that's okay! vil will give them an in-depth demonstration and explanation for each and every one of the things he gives them.)
azul helps the others with things, free of charge. as surprising as that sounds. i mean, it even surprised azul himself when he realised that he stopped asking or wanting things in return when he helped the other dorm leaders. it's just.. really nice to make some more genuine friends who support him and don't leave him no matter what, even after knowing about his octopus form. sometimes he'll still mostly jokingly ask for payment, though. his services are sooo special, after all!
riddle teaches everyone the laws of the queen of hearts. he can't possibly expect them to follow those rules on a daily basis, but at the very least, he expects them to be followed whenever they visit his dorm. he won't be merciful if they do break rules, good friend or not.
just kidding. he's changed, after all! he's a bit more lenient with his punishments now, but since the other dorm leaders are now considered his close friends, he becomes even more lenient. don't point that out, though. he'll get redder than his favourite strawberry tarts.
leona's, well, less grumpy about the others' existence. he'll be able to tolerate being around them, and if he gets comfortable enough he'll use any of them as a pillow when he wants. don't get him wrong, it's just comfortable! wait, that sounded too friendly... don't misunderstand! got it, herbivore?
he's also gotta learn to hate malleus less. if he hates being in the dragon fae's presence, well, too bad! deal with it.
and so he does. it'll take a really long time for him to really let his guard down, but eventually he'll find himself sleeping on malleus during one of the prefect meet ups.
will get too embarrassed about that fact. he'll deny even doing that in the first place. him? sleeping on malleus? pshhh, you must be mistaken.
vil and kalim teach the others how to dance. azul's really self-conscious about if he looks ridiculous when dancing, malleus is really awkward if it's anything but ballroom dancing, and idia's just overall nervous about everything.
don't worryyy, they'll all get the hang of it later on if they just try hard enough.
idia also teaches the others to play his favourite games so that he can finally get some people to play with him and have more people to rant about gacha pulls and game events to.
everyone can agree that visiting diasomnia is actually pretty fun despite how intimidating and scary it'd look from the outside (similar to its dorm members), and malleus is always happy to give a tour of his own dorm! it's just that.. one specific green-haired first year is just.. very protective and particular about "waka-sama". not to mention that kid's volume. it's like he constantly speaks in large font, caps, bold and italics all at the same time.
riddle learns how to cook sweet treats better so that he can give the housewardens some strawberry tarts to share. he hopes that nobody's told them about the first time he tried making a tart... that was so embarrassing! he'll definitely learn and improve because of that experience!
since it's become such a normal thing to find not even just one but most or all of the dorm leaders spontaneously appearing in each other's dorms to give some things, offer some schooling assistance, or to just hang out in that dorm for no particular reason, the dorm members have just learned to reserve a spot in the dorm lounges or something for the other housewardens.
once again, the prefects' friendship causes infinite migraines for the poor vice dorm leaders, who have to clean up the housewardens' messes as they go. honestly, the vice prefects are the ones who are carrying the entirety of nrc 🤚
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orionsangel86 · 8 months
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Good Omens Season 2 - Overall Review
You know every now and then its nice to step outside of the echo chamber and get a fresh perspective on things. I've been looking at some negative reviews for GOS2 this evening after some critical comments came across my dash which was a surprise at first because my dash has otherwise been filled with GOS2 love and adoration (if perhaps also some odd theories floating around).
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it made me really consider mine, so I decided to write it down. I know I still have episode reviews for eps 2-6 to write up, which I will get to, but I needed to get this off my chest first. This is generally just a reaction post outlining all the things I liked and didn't like about GOS2. Under a cut because looooong.
I hadn't read the Good Omens book before I watched Season 1. I watched that show completely blind and my main reason for watching at the time was because
a) I'm always going to be a little bit in love with David Tennant and so watch absolutely everything he is in always no matter how horrible (Des was a particularly hard watch)
b) I had heard that GO was partially some of the original inspiration for Supernatural and I'll be a Supernatural slut til the end of time.
c) I love all things fantasy and it genuinely looked like a great show.
Whilst I loved the first season, the thing I loved about it, was Aziraphale and Crowley. I also very much enjoyed the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Angels and Demons, and Anathama and Madam Tracey as characters.
I hated the kids. They were bloody awful and on every rewatch I have done in the past few years I have had to skip over their scenes. I find them completely unwatchable. I found Newt to be boring and Shadwell a pain in the ass. I don't find that particular brand of misogyny funny so his scenes are also just painful for me. I loathed the fact that he ended up with Madam Tracey in the end, AND that she changed who she was completely for him. What the FUCK was that all about?
Anyway, now that that is off my chest, the point I am making is that the only thing I really enjoyed about Good Omens was Crowley and Aziraphales love story plus a few of the awesome female characters they had helping them. I also enjoyed the quirky narration by God which I think had a distinctly Douglas Adam's feel to it (which I believe was the vibe Terry and Neil were going for at the time).
I have always been of the opinion that it was GOs faithfullness to the book which let it down. I read the book after watching the show and whilst it was a good book, it dragged on in parts, spent too long focusing on the kids, and Aziraphale and Crowley weren't quite as lovable in book format as they were brought to life by DT and MS. To me, the book was a 6/10, the show a 7/10. I was a fan of AziraCrow and their love story. I did not, and have not ever, believed they were "canon" in season 1 (though i was loathed to admit this due to the rabidity of the fandoms insistence that they were - which was spurred on by Gaiman much to his own detriment).
So when GOS2 came around I had no expectations that it would kick off with AziraCrow being all lovey dovey and shacked up - having confessed their love and living together as life partners - as I genuinely believe some GO fans expected to be the case - after all these are the fans that insisted it was canon in season 1! Surely that means they'll be together in season 2 right?
Well obviously that wasn't the case. First mistake for Neil Gaiman - maybe don't spend 4 years trying to convince your fanbase that these characters are already together and in love if you are going to write a whole second season revolving around the fact that they still aren't together.
I was also really worried when GOS2 was announced that they'd bring back the bloody kids, and Shadwell, and the other season 1 characters. I was very much relieved when I heard that wasn't the case. As much as I enjoyed Madam Tracey, she was ruined at the end of S1, and as much as I liked Anathama, I was very aware that her story was over the moment she burned the new prophecy book.
So going into Season 2, I was expecting and hoping for a few things:
The romantic development of AziraCrow from friends to lovers
More time with the angels and demons
A fun lesbian side story
Technically, I got all three things.
I am aware that GOS2 has its flaws. It's pacings a bit dodgy, and I do find some of the dialogue a bit jarring particularly in the Maggie and Nina scenes. The entire season has this slightly saccharine quality to it where I feel like if I watch it too many times too quickly I'll get sick from the sweetness. There needed to be a little bit more gruesomeness and angst to counteract all that sugar - Zombie Nazi's notwithstanding.
The Maggie and Nina mirrors to Aziraphale and Crowley were more heavy handed than in a season 8 MOTW episode of Supernatural. I've made that joke before, but it still stands. I wish that Neil had been a bit more subtle with it. As much as I like Maggie and Nina, they could have used a bit more development and a bit of distance from Zira and Crowley. I did find the scene where they sit down with Crowley at the end to basically tell him to get his shit together and tell Zira how he feels like something out of a fangirls dream. Does anyone remember that really OTT gay Hallmark style Christmas movie that came out last year? Single All The Way? Gods, when I first watched that movie I thought it was sweet, but it was so obviously taken from fanfiction that I couldn't take it seriously (I say this as someone who adores fanfiction and has huge respect for fanfiction writers - but we all start somewhere, and its usually as a teenager writing really sappy YAOI and that's what I feel inspired Single All The Way - side note: Trixie and Katya's review of Single All The Way is one of the funniest things I've ever watched, nothing like watching two drag queens absolutely destroy queer media that was absolutely NOT written with gay men in mind)). Anyway, I mention SATW because there is a scene towards the end of the movie where two teenage girls sit the protagonist down and tell him that he's an idiot who is clearly in love with his best friend and he should go confess his love before its too late.
Look I'm sure we've all had that fantasy. I know I did when it came to Destiel for years. Nothing better than picturing myself standing in the bunker shaking Dean Winchester by the shoulders yelling at him to go kiss Castiel because goddammit that angel needs to know he's loved!
It's a great fantasy. But I DO NOT want to EVER see it played out for real in ANY media. When I realised that this was exactly what was happening in GOS2 I curled up into a ball and screamed into my hands, and not in a good way. That was... bad. Someone slap Neil on the wrist for that terrible decision. There were a dozen better ways they could have explained the AziraCrow miscommunication issue.
Having said all this, everything else about GOS2 I adored. There is criticism about the minisodes. Sure, they are totally expansions on the popularity of Season 1's episode 3 opener, and are rather self indulgent and not really connected to the main Gabriel mystery, but they are each of them an absolute blast. They dig deeper into AziraCrow's relationship and help to understand a bit more of their dynamic and the underlying issues that they have been facing for their entire friendship.
I totally understand where people may criticise the Gabriel/Beelzebub romance coming out of left field as well. It was totally unexpected and yeah, sure, Gabriel was basically the villain of season 1, so I can understand the irritation and him getting to have a happy ever after love story when he has never even apologised to Zira. But I gotta be honest, I don't really care. I thought it was hilarious and a fun twist as well as well as a much more subtle narrative mirror to AziraCrow than Maggie and Nina were. You can accuse Neil of taking that idea from fans if you want, its totally possible that he came across some ineffable beurocracy fanart and thought huh, that could be fun. But I don't care if he did, or if it did come to him completely separately to the fans. I never shipped them, but I find it hilarious in the same way I find the Dean/Crowley ship in SPN hilarious. That went canon too, much to the horror of the entire SPN fandom. NO ONE ASKED FOR DROWLEY and yet they inflicted it on us anyway... I'll never quite get over that fact.
As for Aziraphale's characterisations. I disagree with everyone who says he was out of character. I love that he's still struggling with the idea of not being part of heaven. I love that he is still dealing with the millennia of abuse and brainwashing and manipulation. I love that he still hasn't quite grasped the tyranny and institutional corruption at Heaven's heart. I found the end of season 1 to be very satisfying in a lot of ways (other than the lack of handholding in the Ritz) but when I really think about it, Season 1 really doesn't resolve Zira's issues with Heaven. He get's discorporated, decides he doesn't want to fight, goes back to Earth and then he's dealing with the apocalypse and he never actually has any communication with Heaven again after that, because it's Crowley who goes to Heaven in his place and witnesses just how cruel they are (at least Hell gave Crowley a trial).
Nothing happens at the end of season 1 that could be enough to break him away from 6000 years of cult-like indoctrination. He still puts it down to a few bad angels. He never actually talks to God, and whilst the Metatron disappoints him, its very easy to believe that Zira would change his mind after receiving a few kind words, and the promise of restoring Crowley to full angelhood.
Crowley was perfect throughout the entire season. 10/10. No notes. Absolutely utter perfection. Outstanding performance from DT, I laughed, I cried, I wept, I desperately want to hug Crowley and let him cry on my shoulder for an entire night.
Other things I adored about the season include the entirety of episode 5 The Ball. My fave episode. It was so silly and adorable and funny. The entire "Seamstress" conversation had me rolling with laughter. Shout out to Donna Preston (Our girl Despair) who absolutely stole every scene she was in. Miranda Richardson shines as Shax (an excellent choice to recast her as a new character after the butchering of Madam Tracey's character at the end of S1). I think Muriel was a bit underutilised but still loved their wide eyed innocence and naivity.
The biggest thing I think was missing was Francis McDormand's narration as God. They brought her back for episode 2 for a very minor role, I don't understand why Neil couldn't have just had God narrate it again, with more Douglas Adams crossed with Monty Python style sequences of explanation (the angels dancing on the head of a pin is one of my absolute favourite moments in all of season 1). I presume that God's narration in S1 was to ensure the books more abstract explanations got faithfully adapted, but I wish Neil could have at least tried to recreate that for S2.
Finally, the AziraCrow romance was almost exactly what I hoped for. All the way through the season they built on it and built on it, whilst also shedding light on the fundamental issues at their core. They are still so opposite even though they want nothing more than to be together. It's heartbreaking, it's shippy AF, its all romance tropes and fanservice sure - but I don't consider fanservice to be a dirty word. The kiss is heartbreaking. You can feel the desperation oozing off of Crowley in that moment. The heartbreaking cliffhanger is exactly what's needed at the end of act 2 of a 3 act structure. If we had been given the episodes week by week, i fully believe by week 6 we would have been more prepared for it, because after rewatching a few times now, its built in rather seemlessly imo. It was always gonna end that way.
When I consider everything, I can honestly say hand on heart that I preferred this season to the first. Though that's only because season 1 doesn't have enough AziraCrow in it and I'm ultimately here for them. This season was made for the AziraCrow fans, so it makes sense that I'd prefer it, whereas I suppose for book lovers and people who prefer the story of book 1 to the relationship between Az and Crow then yeah, for sure I can see why perhaps you wouldn't be too happy with this season. Perhaps Season 3 will be a better blend for all GO fans.
It was a joy. Fanservice? Yes. A bit like fanfiction? Also yes. Are either of these things bad? Not at all. It was extremely queer, fun, silly, romantic, and heartbreaking. The lack of overarching domineering plot was a good thing tbh. Some of my favourite shows focus more on character development than plot, look at WWDITS, which has never had a proper plot in a single episode of its 5 season run. Yet it is hugely successful and critically acclaimed. Half the time in Supernatural the plot was the absolute worst thing about it. You ignored the plot as much as possible and instead focused on the subtext because that's where all the fun was! So yeah, the lack of overarching plot doesn't bother me in the slightest.
I will leave it there. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, though I do wish that anyone who is particularly critical of GOS2 would please tag it as such, because now I've done my dive into the critique of it, I'd like to avoid and blacklist all such critique going forward. I want to remain in my little GOS2 happy bubble for a while longer - before I inevitably revert back into deep meta analysis of the much darker, and sometimes depressing story of The Sandman.
:)
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shaolinrouge · 8 months
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Okay, so I rewatched PR:U for the first time since its release, and I definitely had some thoughts.
To begin with, what is with the really bizarre product placement in the beginning. Jake did not need to hold up those Oreos so blatantly lmao.
PR:U jumps straight into the action in a really identifiably different way than Pacific Rim does. In PR, Raleigh narrates the Kaiju War and then we see him and Yancy get into the Knifehead fight, and it flows really well overall. On the other hand, PR:U starts with a quick relay of the Kaiju War, and then we're introduced to Jake in the regions still affected by past Kaiju attacks (i.e. half-destroyed mansion, which I also have some thoughts on). So it quickly becomes clear he's got some black market dealings going on, and the first action sequence of the movie is Jake running from these random Jaeger scrappers (??). It's just really throwing compared to the first one, since we at least have a general idea of what's going on with Raleigh.
Side note: I'm assuming they're in the Bay Area that was largely evacuated considering they head toward a Jaeger scrapyard, so how does that mansion have like...any utilities.
So then we're introduced to Amara, who can build a sickass Jaeger but has no security system? I don't know, she seems really careful about being discovered for obvious reasons, so I feel her hideout would at least have an alarm or some kind of traps, But Jake essentially just strolls in.
Of course, then we have November Ajax vs. Scrapper, which I actually do like. Its nice to see what the new Jaegers look like, and see what Scrapper, the first single-pilot Jaeger, is capable of. This scene also really seals the tone of PR:U as kind of lighthearted and jokey while also having action and death, which isn't really the case in Pacific Rim.
Another thing I like: Amara and Jake's relationship. A lot of things about this movie feel funky, but I think the actors did a very good job of forming a very genuine-feeling bond between these two characters.
Mako's introduction just feels. very bizarre. I understand that she obviously can't be there in person, thus the hologram, but the whole situation just has a weird vibe that I can't place. I'm not sure if it's because Jake and Mako act so familiar with each other even though Jake was never mentioned in the movie, or because I'm just not a fan of the hologram bit.
Contrary to popular opinion (at least what I've seen), I really like the Jaegers in PR:U. I hate that they removed the realism from their movements that was always present in the first, but there were some very interesting weapons and new designs introduced at the same time, so I can let it slide. Except the giant rotating ball of blades on Bracer Phoenix, it can go die.
Mako's death is genuinely my least favorite scene in the movie for obvious reasons. She was essentially killed off for no reason, since we don't see much of Jake's grief, meaning they wrote her off for pointless plot purposes, which I hate.
I do enjoy the villain bait with Liwen, although it's a shame Newton ended up being the villain. They were definitely setting her up as an antagonist since she was on a side somewhat opposite to Mako's, and because it becomes clear that Shao Industries is somehow evil before having her turn around and attempt to stop Newton no matter the force necessary.
While on women in the movie, not a huge fan of how Jules was treated, but she's also not present that much so I won't go on and on about female characters being used a tool to create tension being male characters blah blah.
The fight against the Mega-Kaiju was...something. Suresh dying was completely out of the blue, and I hated it. I think the cadets all being so young is an odd decision to make, especially because in the first movie most of the Jaeger pilots come into the program in their very late teenage years at the least (besides Chuck and Raleigh, iirc). They try to justify the whole. child soldier-esque training by saying the Bond is stronger at a young age, but they didn't even have that young of recruits in the first PR and that was during a war so idk.
Raleigh not being mentioned at all is also a crime btw. Or Herc, for that matter, but he could at least make a little more justifiable sense than Raleigh.
Anyway, this was a really scattered collection of musings on the movie, but there we go.
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dovehearts-blog · 3 months
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Just to know since your stuff seem Edelgard-friendly but also have the protagonist be Rhea's adopted daughter, what is your intention when depicting rhea and what are your thoughts on her?
I myself love Rhea, she's not bigoted, she's a traumatised war veteran and genocide survivor, she genuinely believe in what she preach and the tenants of the Faith, which make sense since she wrote it, and she love innocents, she play often with orphans and doesn't force people to convert to her Faith.
Now yet she's one to go for the kill when attacked, but she only did it with people who tried to kill her, killed innocents or in Byleth's CF scenario defend a new nemesis who's trying to steal her people's hearts.
Rhea is only truly awful when she's pushed to the breaking point, being betrayed by those she trust and she's attacked, IE, only really CF.
And yes, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the openly racist western church who work with TWSITD, and while Lonato's anger is understandable, his attack isn't, as while Christophe should have been accused of what he actually did, he was still executed for a good reason.
Overall though, Christophe and Lonato were manipulated by the western churches, so I pity them, especially since they took in Ashe and his younger siblings as genuine family, Ashe loved the both of them.
I don't hate Edelgard (though my liking of Rhea, Dimitri and Claude soured my opinion on she who once was my favorite) but I also know she refuse any options where she doesn't rule Fódlan and Rhea doesn't step down, so I'm curious on how you do that whole thing.
Please don't be livid, I simply found your blog by coincidence and wanted to ask when I saw your stuff tied to both Edelgard and the church of Seiros.
It's all right! Your question did not make me angry. (ᵔ ᵔ)
Now, it has been a while since I last played "Fire Emblem- Three Houses". So, I am sorry if anything I say is inaccurate. I am also disinterested in "Fire Emblem- Three Hopes" and only consider some details as canon, such as descriptions of the various territories. Aside from those, I'm not using anything else from that game.
Anyways, I like Rhea! She is one of my favorite characters, and I believe she is often misunderstood. I know that one thing that I am confused about her is how much control/influence she has over Fódlan. It felt like the team behind the game could not pick a lane. I have the same critique towards how they wrote Edelgard.
On one hand, you got Seteth, who explained how, at the Officers Academy, they, "-try to avoid discrimination based on social status here. But the nobility can be quite insistent when it comes to matters of propriety" ["Fire Emblem- Three Houses", Intelligent Systems, 2019]. Then, there is the more extreme example of Rhea having the right to execute a leader from another country.
Which, do not get me wrong, I understand why Rhea was that angry. Previous actions aside, Edelgard chose to invade her territory, directly/indirectly inflict harm on its residents, and rob her. It worsens when the player knows that the Holy Tomb was essentially a cemetery. That was wrong for Edelgard to do.
Then, there is the concept that Rhea banned certain technology in the past. I am unsure how reliable that information is, because Linhardt commented how inside the Shadow Library, "There are forgeries and banned books. Legends, spells, and heresies" ["Fire Emblem- Three Houses", Intelligent Systems, 2019]. And the information provided in the "Encyclopedia of Fódlan's Insects" seem to be contradicted in the game.
For example, in the Advice Box, Edelgard said that, "People used to believe the goddess once fell here from the Blue Sea Star, but according to astronomical research, the light from that star takes millions of years to reach us" ["Fire Emblem- Three Houses", Intelligent Systems, 2019]. In order to calculate how long it would take for the light of the Blue Sea Star to reach Fódlan, I believe that would require a telescope. Which would contradict the information about Distance Viewers being banned.
Secondly, after Jeralt's death, Manuela explained how the dagger, "-wasn't made of iron or steel because...well, because whatever it was, the wound it left wasn't normal" ["Fire Emblem- Three Houses", Intelligent Systems, 2019]. That came across to me that an autopsy was done on him. Which, again, would be banned according to the book.
In conclusion, unless Rhea forbade certain technology in the past and eventually lifted it, I do not consider the "Encyclopedia of Fódlan's Insects" to be a reliable source of information. Edelgard does not even mention that, as far as I know. Why would she leave that out when she declared war on the Church of Seiros?
So, at least in my opinion, I believe that Rhea actually does not have a lot of control/influence at all. Yes, she can try to say what they should or should not do, but, it is out of her hands what the countries decide to do instead. Meanwhile, what she does govern is the Central, Eastern, Southern [which was shut down, I believe], and Western Churches. Yet, it seemed like she struggled with that, even, considering how the Western Church behaved.
Overall, like Edelgard, I think that Rhea is an interesting character. I personally found her to be a compassionate person who just tried to protect what family she had left as well as prevent history from repeating itself. Of course, her secrets had their downsides, even she admitted that in her S Support!
I do not think that she was trying to be a power-hungry person or anything. She said herself to Byleth that, "I have acted all these long years as a mere proxy for you. But the duty is yours and yours alone. Only you can lead the people of Fódlan" ["Fire Emblem- Three Houses", Intelligent Systems, 2019]. Therefore, to say that she was seems out of character to me. It was clear that she loved her mother, so, why would she lie about that statement?
I'm sorry, I am rambling. xD I agree with much of what you said, this is simply my perspective on her. I do not intend to cause discourse.
I hope that you have a pleasant rest of the day! Thank you kindly for your question!
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pumpkinsinaugust · 6 months
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thoughts on bsd 11?
Let me start by saying that the voice acting was incredible this episode. Especially Teruko's and Fukuzawa's voice actors did an amazing job. Also, the animation was beautiful, and while some people didn't like that Fukuchi and Fukuzawa took centre stage, I (as a slightly biased fukufuku shipper) liked it.
Now, on to the episode itself. Many people have already pointed out that there were some plot holes or things that weren't really clear, e.g. what happened in those few seconds before Akutagawa caught Aya or how Chuuya stopped the elevator. I'm fine with a few things like that as long as they don't disrupt the overall enjoyment.
Now, what I'm actually unhappy with was how some characters and their arcs were handled. For example, Teruko was set up for a betrayal arc, yet she stabbed Fukuchi because she was ordered to, not because she chose to do so herself. I don't really like this outcome, because it feels a little out of character for her. While I'm absolutely on board with her being devastated because she doesn't actually want to kill him, I believe she'd definitely do so, because from what she said in the Sky Casino and from how protective she is of the other Hunting Dogs, I don't think she would've actually been on board with Fukuchi's plan. This is something that didn't sit right with me. Truth be told, I was actually pretty sure that either she or Fukuzawa were going to die, which didn't happen - and which actually leads me to my next point.
I absolutely, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, hated the last scene 2 hours after the fight. As it seems, Fukuchi is going to make a return - either as himself, as a different version of himself from another universe, as a clone, or as himself from the past. And I hate all of those options. This is a man who wanted nothing more than to stop fighting. He deserves to stay dead. He doesn't deserve to have to fight even after his death. If it's not actually himself but one of the other options, I've only got one thing to say: I don't like any of those. Also, I just don't want Fukuchi to return because of another reason: it cheapens the scene with Fukuzawa and Teruko. It loses its impact if he comes back anyway.
Of course, I've also got to talk about the events at Meursault. Where do I even start. I'm so over the "it was all a plan" at this point. This worked once without any clues but now that it's being repeated over and over again, it's getting old. At least give us hints that there's something going on. I don't exactly appreciate how the whole arc at Meursault was basically for nothing at this point, because nothing ever really mattered. I was so hoping that there was finally going to be a plan that failed, but nothing of the sort happened. See, I don't mind smart characters doing smart things, I think it works well for Ranpo - because he failed in the current arc (when he was blindsided by Fukuchi). But the stakes aren't as high for Dazai. I mean, come on, the whole fandom was like "he's not dead" after he got shot in the head - and that's not exactly a good sign. It means that there basically aren't any stakes.
And Nikolai. Ohh, Nikolai. I genuinely hoped that he was going tobe the one to help Dazai escape only to then regret it. Sadly, nothing of the sort happened - which would've been fine, had he actually played somewhat of a role. Sadly, he didn't, and while I did like his small speech, his scene felt a little hollow since he was sidelined so much. I'm also not exactly convinced that Fyodor's actually dead, simply because no big character has ever died in the main story.
This is the final one of my issues. I think there aren't nearly enough meaningful deaths in the main story. Actually, there are none. Unless it's a character's sole purpose to die, they don't. And in the current arc, I think that at least 3 people should've died: Kunikida, Teruko or Fukuzawa, and Fukuchi. And right now, it looks like none of them have actually died. In my opinion, it would've added to the story to actually lose some of them.
---
Thank you so much for this ask!! I feel like I have to say one thing: I'm really glad the anime exists because it's what got me into bsd in the first place, but I'm not quite happy with how the last episode turned out. It left me with a weird feeling, and that's why I hope that the story's going to take a different turn in the manga. My current theory is that Bones could've received some bullet points for the storyline but not the actual chapters. That would explain why we did get Teruko stabbing Fukuchi, but not her actually betraying him. But I could also be wrong and I just read too much into some signs that weren't even there!
I'm really curious what you guys thought about e11!! Shoot me a dm or just comment on this post!<3
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1yyyyyy1 · 5 months
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what do you think about poly? i hate it because i don't think its possible to actually be in love with 2 people without pair bonding more with one, or value someone while having sex with someone else. i feel like it's a cover for how shitty men and some women are at commitment. a part of me believes men don't feel true love or intimacy, but admitting that only makes me feel like i'm validating them when they say they can't commit and it's "unrealistic" but it's really just being a good partner.
I like not to think about it :) Everything I've learned about polygamy has been against my will… I distinctly remember a male on Reddit describe his experience with polygamy, in which he spoke about having a "polygamous mindset" for a lack of a better word. He was in a committed relationship with a monogamous woman and chose monogamy because he liked her as a person (I'm guessing polygamy was a hard boundary for her). He said that, aside from the pull to be with multiple people, him being polygamous meant that he was genuinely happy with his partner seeing (and sleeping with) other people and enjoying it; it didn't sound like he was describing a fetish and it was in general different from the idea of polygamy I previously had in mind. It stood out to me because he was mostly talking about his attitude towards his girlfriend partnering others and not his personal gain, so I could see how it could be a mutual dynamic between compatible partners. This kind of changed my opinion on what polygamy could be like if it involved emotionally mature and self-aware people, even if didn't make me understand the appeal any better.
Generally speaking, I don't have a strong opinion on polygamy (or polyamory) because I prefer to concern myself with the things that are for me. I can imagine polygamy working out for people, even if only within the confines of a thought experiment, so I'm not going to dismiss it on the premise that it is inherently dysfunctional. I'm not going to dismiss it in favor of monogamy either because I don't view monogamy as a sign of adjustment. Some people are into monogamy because they are obsessive and controlling, and monogamous partnerships are still notorious for cheating and turning into an "open relationship". I'm less and less inclined to be picking a side as people always seem to find a way to pervert whatever it is I would be supportive of... It is possible to stand up for your preferences without disparaging the other option — and risking being wrong in the process. The reason I would only ever consider monogamy is very simple — I don't like sharing my life on a profoundly personal level with multiple people. My overall personality traits coincide in a way that makes this unfeasible for me. I am very private about my life experiences and I would not share them with someone who is not fully invested. I also see relationships as a learning experience, and since I like getting to the bottom of things I would be genuinely distressed if me getting closer with someone were diluted by some other person's contribution. This may sound like a self-absorbed approach to something as reciprocal as a relationship, but laying down the precise terms on which you enter one makes it impossible for people to sway your opinion in a direction that doesn't benefit you. It doesn't matter to me if my standards are framed as "a desire for ownership" or "controlling", which are all common accusations made against monogamy. The point is that I would never consent to a relationship (let alone sexual contact) with a person who is not willing to match my commitment and views on privacy, it would violate my personal boundaries and I am better off not entering a relationship altogether until my conditions are met.
I would argue that there is an issue with commitment on people's part, but I would attribute it to something other than a specific relationship model. What I see is that most relationships are formed out of convenience, and revolve around reproduction, shared finances and sexual gratification. The reason I believe this results in commitment issues is because these are all non-specific traits most functional adults can perform and provide. There is not much ground for personalized bonding, and this approach can result in indecisiveness about which partner to commit to (if at all). This, of course, can also lead to multiple partners being a valid option at the cost of them being entirely replaceable... To answer the question the second time — I do think that relationships that involve multiple people can be a sign of poor commitment and superficial bonding.
As for men's inability to love, I don't see acknowledgement as endorsement and I don't understand why it is such a common notion. My negative assessment of people is there for me to have an understanding of what I am dealing with, not to validate said people. In acknowledging that men are incapable of commitment, I choose to allocate my efforts to someplace else because attempting to change a person's behavior is a waste of my time. I don't feel responsible for men's stance on faithfulness; I believe them to be capable enough to live in accordance with their convictions regardless of outside influence. I know for a fact that no amount of external validation would make me cheat on my partner, so it is not a stretch to extend these expectations to other people, including men.
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dnangelic · 1 month
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tsun tell me abt the wings but like how they work in UR writing
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OH BOY.... THE WINGS META..... i mean i've mostly been winging it (lol) myself so i don't think i'll end up with huge paras upon paras of info (lying, i know how i can get,) but sure lets go!! before i lay anything of my own out i'll do canon the favor of itself; in canon usually wiz serves as dark's wings and carries him or daisuke around, but dark also has his own set that can appear/disappear (furl/unfurl) at will as long as dark himself isn't low on (magical) power. (why else would he even be called the black wings right-) there's also the matter of daisuke manifesting dark's wings from his own body all on his own, which, when using the 'wrong emotion,' (negative ones such as hate, fury or sorrow,) becomes actively detrimental to him. within dnangel, magic (and likewise, the case of dark's wings,) will always be a) something within a realm that ordinary human beings should not be capable of (aka "something that should not exist") as well as b) something that, at least in regards to hikari artworks, manifests from powerful human emotions. the wings, if not krad and dark for the hikari and niwa, are both proofs of their respective 'sins' - the hikari for playing god as artists, the niwa for being thieves.
that all being said, i don't usually bring wiz in as an npc to threads just because i don't want them to get too long. in canon wiz is aaaaaalways with or around daisuke. ALWAYS. that's his pet, his best friend, his cute lil obligatory magical girl mascot, wiz who hates water but braves it anyways over and over for daisuke's sake, wiz who always saves him and gets him out of all sorts of pinches!! i'll bring wiz in often for heist situations because it's there he's often truly a necessity, but dark having his own wings means wiz's involvement isn't always necessary for everything. dark/daisuke's own wings > wiz in regards to rate of appearance when i write to save myself and my partners some sanity.
frequency aside, the wings are also Actual Limbs. like. those are Physically Attached, sensations can be felt through them, and they can be cut, wounded, or torn off- hence dark's feathers shedding everywhere all the time and needing to be cleaned up. sugisaki messes around with the wings' physicality a lot because the back of daisuke's shirt isn't usually blown wide open, (more often than not they just kind of magically manifest out of thin air) but she's also had hiwatari's shirt rip and tear from manifesting his wings + daisuke outright bleed from trying to manifest his during argentine arc, and i think the process of Actually Gaining Limbs and growing feathers adds a fun dash of body horror that the series does pretty well with sometimes. when you really stop and think about it, the wings, or rather the process of a 15 yr old's body straight up Changing Like That (alongside, yknow, the other inhuman/monster-y bits like the eyes/teeth/claws,) is genuinely Pretty Horrifying if not at the very least bizarre, but it suits dark well as a (gothic) curse and brings him and daisuke closer overall to the beauty and beast thematic. it's freaky. it's weird. it's fun. normal ppl would be screaming.
daisuke also usually has no usual visible evidence of dark's wings; there aren't any thin slits hiding feathers (so even if you're like riku and scan or run your hand along his back, nothing in particular beyond a lot of faint, assorted scars show up,) but those spaces are there on dark's body when his wings aren't unfurled. (i'll give the anime credit for one thing and that's giving dark's shirts open holes for his wings to go through in concept art. i also think an outfit that has zippers on the back like this is awesome LMAOO) daisuke's also clumsier with his wings than dark is!! which means they'll often flap or flail around in response to his emotions on instinct compared to the way they might normally just smoothly lift, lower, or puff (angy) with dark --- when dai's unfocused and/or panicking that ditziness of his very often translates to Things Breaking all over the place because he can't help but run around and accidentally slap things everywhere. bird stuck in a closed room behavior. he's a danger and a menace indoors to all things fragile but it's all completely unintentional 😂
despite this daisuke also gets phantom limb syndrome very often!!! going from all that wing-weight to suddenly being without it makes him feel strange and overly light/floaty sometimes, which is why when he's particularly restless but doesn't have a heist scheduled, he'll often go on a night flight with dark to calm himself down. he does like flying. he does love his freedom, the moon and the stars and a quiet night. he does, at the bottom line, like being dark and the elation a nighttime flight brings him- he just needs a space like that where his intense social anxiety (or dark's own easily recognized fame/infamy) won't get in the way of his own existence, and it doesn't matter 'who' he is.
using jurassic park logic here (lmao) but assuming he flies as fast as a pterodactyl, (aka a rough equivalent body measure for human beings,) then he's around a steady 60 mph in the air - dark can go from azumano to tokyo in maybe an hour, which he can and will do if he's bored and/or just feels like visiting someone. dark's feathers have a rough and coarse look to them and are more or less pitch black, but when you feel them, they're actually pillowy soft and smooth (even the feathers are tsundere,) and give off a really nice reflective shimmer. given the magic that courses through daisuke's blood, it's possible to imbue some of dark's own power into them, (this is only really useful in verses where dark can actually readily do this without worry over detriment to daisuke's body,) but even if left alone to naturally shed, there'll still be very, very faint traces of the tiniest fraction of the kokuyoku's magic left on them. i figure i should also say that while you can brush/pet/touch his wings or something, dark/dai won't really feel it, or if they do it might just tickle or bother them, so it might not be as intimate as anyone imagines. stick to petting dark gently on the head like a bird he loves that.
i have no idea if i'm missing anything atp?? things i take from canon are daisuke hurting himself if he tries to force dark's wings out and if he ever connects to dark through negative emotion; also too much transforming exhausts him and his body, his heart can only pound for so much / he can only fly for so long before he just straight up gets tired and needs a nap regardless of what appearance he's stuck with. anyways what rlly matters is his wings are pretty af. free my boy let him do all the crime he wants, because hes special and got them gorgeous black fallen angel wings. he deserves it. its his right
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lottieurl · 9 months
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tagged by @mistyquigly and @lesbianlotties
rules: share some unpopular opinions about 5 different fandoms of your choosing
tagging @lesbianalicent @itsheliotrope @marlokelly @sameensass @ethanilsa @narraboths
okay Please do not read it if you might get angry or upset ok? pinky promise me rn
yellowjackets
everyone who follows me is pretty familiar with all my unpopular opinions i think? jeff is a shitty person AND a bad character, laura lee could have a fascinating corruption arc linking her faith to their cannibalistic rituals, i think lottielee is insanely toxic because they both enable each other in the worst ways even tho they genuinely do care about each other and have the best of intentions (which seems unpopular because lottielee is seen as this pure sweet little ship? which it is Not to me), jackie could Eat People you just lack imagination, mistytai is fun and compelling, shauna's pregnancy/motherhood s2 storyline was disappointing and retconning of her character. can't think of much else? um one thing i don't think i ever talked about outside of dms - although it's more of a fandom pet peeve than a show one but still - is that i Hate when people make all their munchausen by proxy jokes about misty. firstly because i have an intense aversion to that entire label like it's wild to me that there is a "disorder" that in order to have you have to abuse another person? be so fucking real with me right now. it's just an excuse used in courts to defend abusive parents and other legal guardians really. and secondly because that doesn't even fit misty. and it never did! like i KNOW people base those jokes on misty's behavior around ben in those like four episodes but we have a modern timeline in that very same season where misty snorts goddamn coke to stop nat from relapsing. like it just irritates me because it's such a boring take and such an unfunny joke and well the entire disorder is something i take issue with
person of interest
regardless of what you think about the plot of s5 due to the season being much shorter the pacing is really bad and it's so rushed none of it feels satisfying and earned and that goes for everything so whether i liked some specific direction they took a character or a plot or i hated it doesn't even matter. and this is i think not quite that unpopular but giving the machine root's voice was a terrible choice especially in a show that is so well known for making an AI character that has no distinctly human features. i think it's lazy and cheap
lucifer
mazikeen/eve is so bad SORRY i hated it so much it was so rushed and there was no built up. realistically if maze ended up with a woman it would be linda and their relationship was far more interesting and developed across seasons
the last of us
don't doxx me but i didn't like the gay old men episode it didn't make me feel much and i think it contributed to the show's overall bad pacing. i am a casual viewer and i have no idea what the fandom at large thinks but i didn't like it. i'd say more but i don't care enough to do that really it just did nothing for me much
a league of their own
i'm soooorry to the enjoyers but carson/greta does nothing for me and in general i wish the focus was more on a character like lupe or jess or jo instead. it's like okay i think although i wish there was MORE of max screentime she got a good amount but i did not care for the carson/greta romance. plus like. yeah yeah feminine white lesbian romance at the forefront idk i'm yawning there is literally lupe there. can we focus on lupe
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steelycunt · 1 year
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ridi im sorry i need to rant and i think youll get it 😭 like not to be a bitch but this fandom kinda going off the rails and annoying the shit out of me https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRbYASpf/ everybody in the comments unironically loving it,,, i mean wtvr ship who you want but its kinda getting delusional like ppl are just operating on thin air and pretty fancasts atp and i do Not understand or emotionally connect with any of it. at least w wolfstar theres so much material and foundation to explore but what is all the rest of this?? just hot celebrity fancasts and crack. to be fair part of me respects taking a terfs canon material and making everybody gay but the way it seems to be so oversaturating fics and the fandom that characters dont even feel like their original selves .. atp its all just surface level OCs
hello! yes! i'll be honest talking about things like this always make me a little nervous, and i feel obligated to preface anything i say with a disclaimer that none of it really matters, nothing i say matters, and you should do what you like, because--who cares. i am not an authority on--anything, frankly. my opinion holds no more weight than the next guy's, and all i'm doing here is giving it, so. essentially what im saying is--people are perfectly entitled to disagree with me, but people are not entitled to be mean to me about it xx
having said that. it is my personal opinion that s x barty is one of the worst fucking things i have ever heard lol. who even is barty who is that guy. why would s be interested in him at all. i do not understand it it does not make sense to me. from where are we sourcing the character traits and personality that we are giving barty that would ever endear sirius to him, because it objectively cannot be canon.
overall i do not get the new interest in barty + evan + pandora (+ regulus, but we won't go there)...at all, other than guessing that people were bored with the marauders and wanted a new version of them (and new celebrities to fancast) while simultaneously changing next to nothing about them other than superimposing them onto the first slytherin side characters they could rustle up. i expect ive become a bit of a broken record in regards to my dislike of the popular meow-meow-ification + complete absolution of regulus as a character in order to make him a loveable oc (just as i think erasing all the negative traits that r/s have in order to make them more likeable is just as boring), and all of that applies to those other guys as well (with the slight difference that they are, somehow, even less interesting and significant than regulus in canon), so i won't get into that too much. but i think what you say about having no emotional connection to any of it is exactly right lol--it is a sort of shift? i guess? in the fandom that is simply of no interest to me. they are characters that i just have no emotional investment in and admittedly struggle a little to understand why other people do. i am emotionally invested in, like, five characters overall (and even out of those--there's only two i'm really here for innit xx) and i personally cannot extend that investment to a creepy little side character who is mentioned maybe twice in the entire series.
and that is okay! i do not need to understand it. i don't want to say it annoys me because honestly--i don't go there, its nothing to do with me. if i dont like it i just wont interact with it, and the fact that it doesn't interest me has no bearing on what other people are into or want to do, and i couldn't give less of a shit what people do with the canon material, which is largely garbage anyway. take the bits you want from it, play around with those and ignore the rest. in that respect we are all doing exactly the same thing. but yeah i think s x barty is genuinely awful lol. hate it. very terrible. he's already got a loser werewolf boyfriend and he loves him so so much. leave him alone.
#i know most people are reasonable and thus it is perhaps overly cautious of me to insist on shrouding my unpopular#opinions in like. layer upon layer of placatory disclaimers but. well im a rather anxious guy i can't help it xx but im going to use these#tags to have a bit more of a consequence-less hater hour so. if you like regulus or barty or any of that lot i suggest you look away now#because i am about to express opinions about them that you probably wouldnt agree with + wouldnt enjoy reading!!#like full warning what im about to do is NOT any sort of analysis or defence of my opinion i will just be hating on them. is that clear.#okay. having said that. hater hour. barty and evan and honestly regulus were all cunts? like they were terrible people why do we care#about them now. regulus interests me solely as a piece of context for sirius' character. i could not give less of a shit about him as a#person in his own right. which leads me to my next hater moment: why oh why oh WHY on earth would canon james potter be interested#in canon regulus black. it makes sense in like a muggle au where they are virtually completely different characters but canon?#why would he be attracted to him. there is nothing. there is no chemistry i am ASLEEP and so is james. he would not give that#guy a second look. like it just baffles me it truly does. i feel like you have to bend over backwards to create a situation in which#james potter would ever show an interest in regulus. and i know jegulus is a fucking force to be reckoned with nowadays but god i just#do not like that ship. also i think the fact that barty and pandora and evan are essentially just oc characters who have been coloured#in by general fanon consensus shows in that what they have become is just. not interesting or complex or well fleshed out lol. like#idk i feel like they are just. very shallow. deliberately. so they are easy to like and easy to ship because that is what theyre there for.#god it feels so good to say all this. i will never be a hater again (<- lying) but i needed to be able to just. say this just once xx#also if you needed any more indication what barty and evan and regulus are here to do you just have to look at their#super-hot super-conventionally attractive celebrity model fancasts. like it all adds up its like but what if these death eaters were#not actually evil :-( what if they were really sweet and also? so so hot. like they were all so hot and actually really good#and none of them meant to be evil they didnt want to be :-( they were just hot good guys all in love with each other and the evil stuff#they did wasnt their fault :-( like that has to be. the most boring thing you couldve possibly done with these blank slates. surely.#anyway. im done now but i enjoyed hater hour immensely this was so fucking good for my soul xx thanks and goodnight xx#anon#telegram#scream hang on sorry. just looked at the comments of that tiktok where people are saying they were prison besties. girl. girl.#girl they were in prison for very different reasons baby. baby you know that right. baby look at me. look at me
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dinoburger · 9 months
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I think I know what it is about the TFC mercenaries in the comics.
ok this turned very long and rambling let me just put a cut here.
Cuz. If you're involved in the TF2 fanbase in any meaningful way you see these... discussions... about them, particularly C-Heavy. I've never wanted to engage them really because a lot of them boil down to either "I hate him because he did bad things" or being weirdly defensive and you get that all the time with antagonists that are written purely as antagonists, yeah, if you hate them that's probably what the story wants you to feel
it's not that relevant really like. it's not even that hard to argue that some of the TF2 mercs have done far worse, it's all a matter of the light it's painted in, the context of the story, yadda yadda
the TFCs just aren't fun villains, that's the critical flaw.
I know that's partially intended, that they're supposed to be the grimier, grittier versions of the current mercs, but hell I think even "the TFCs take themselves way too seriously" could be played up in a camp kind of way, or they could ham up the fact that these guys are all elderly now, that could be really funny
because the Mann brothers, the Administrator, Saxton Hale - these guys are all that camp, cartoony kind of villain, they're genuinely fun because of how ridiculous they are. The Mann brothers are evil yes, but they're also hilarious whenever they show up because of how played up their egos are. Same with Saxton.
Admin is played more like a Disney-esque female villain but like, the context sort of makes that funnier because she's essentially babysitting a bunch of absurd men as part of her evil plot.
Hell, even Grey Mann, although he's not the best example, is very much the evil super genius archetype "secret evil lost triplet raised by eagles" that's still really like. absurd.
I think trying to prove which character is a worse person in the context of TF2's universe is kind of a pointless endeavour because of how slapstick it is in its approach to violence, that each of the mercenaries is someone you root for because you play as them, you connect with them
it's sad that like, the comics don't really extend the gesture to the TFCs who presumably were also once someone's favourite class to play and might still be if you're into that niche of TF
I guess overall the comics are pretty good at balancing the serious and the absurd, but this is one aspect where it feels like a missed opportunity
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theanimepsychologist · 5 months
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How do you feel about Gege's overall writing style?
Am I wrong to think that sometimes he introduces stuff, interesting stuff that could be further explored but just drops/brushes past it?
Cause ngl I'm genuinely fearing for Megumi right now. The way Gege had handled the Zenins before, the politics, the clans, the higher ups - all intriguing plot points that led to nothing of notable consequence, makes me think he's fully capable of ditching a proper closure for Megumi despite all the build up. I'm also quite disheartened that, for a shonen manga that has enough awareness to question the idea of 'child soldiers', it doesn't seem that eager to delve deeper into the root cause - which is the jujutsu society and how it affects generation upon generation of sorcerers.
The Zenins are my biggest gripe with regards to this. I know not a lot in the fandom care for them but tbh I found Naobito, Mai and Naoya pretty interesting, esp. Naobito. I find him pretty reasonable and that bit of exchange wherein he tells Maki he'll put her under trials befitting her goal of becoming the Zenin clan head, made me think he had potential to be more nuanced than just a misogynistic prick. But, then he dies and gone he is along any possible character arc.
And with his death we got to the Megumi becomes the Zenin head plotline which - didn't lead to anything meaningful in the overarching narrative (at least so far, but I don't really see Gege backtracking and picking this subplot again). All of this gone to waste just so Maki could get a power up. Even Naoya seemed like he was just written to be a punching bag for one character. And while I know loads in the jjk fandom loved this mini arc, it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Now, I'm not a Maki hater. I liked her before, but after her power up she just became bland to me. And I hate how so much subplot was wasted just for her. Megumi didn't even benefit from any of this. We didn't even get to explore his dynamic with the rest of the Zenin which is just criminal. We could have delved into generational trauma. We could have had Megumi finding out more about Toji which could lead to an emotional conclusion if he ever gets told the truth about Toji's death. As it stands, I don't get why finding out would even matter to Megumi atp, since he doesn't have any emotional attachment to Toji and the story doesn't seem inclined to rectify that even just a bit. Like, we could have explored more of Megumi's character and other relationships. Cause contrary to popular opinion, and while I may seem like I'm being contradictory just for the sake of it, but his relationship with Yuji and Tsumiki is the least interesting thing about him for me.
I know that Yuji and Megumi's bond has more bearing to the overall narrative of the manga (and basically even to Megumi's character as well), but I feel like while Yuji gets to be explored in the lenses and relationships he build with other characters (like Junpei, Nanami, Todo, Choso, even Gojo just to name a few), Gege doesn't seem all that interested in doing the same with Megumi. We barely get scraps of interactions between him and other characters. And it feels like Gege is purposely limiting him to just Yuji, and Tsumiki, although we know how this particular one turned out. Once again another possible character relationship introspection gone to waste. Tsumiki being treated like a plot device felt like an insult to Megumi tbh. That's one of the only 2 developed relationships he had but, again, it gets brushed off.
Now I'm probably just overreacting, but I'm highly pessimistic with Gege's writing and execution of Megumi's character. Not to say he's not well-written, the reason why I'm this pissed is because he is the exact opposite and I think there's so much more to him that could be expanded upon beyond his relationship with the MC.
Hola! Welcome back to our regular programming with JJK confessions Sunday! Not on a Sunday.
Ok so you ask two specific questions:
How do I feel about Gege's overall writing style? I love it. Although I'm looking at writing style from the perspective of how Gege conveys his vision and not necessarily the technicalities. This kind of requires that I am in tune with that vision. While I do feel like the technicalities have room for improvement, I'm so focused on the vision that I am not concerned with the technical bits. I also see Gege as a an amateur writer who is having his first major commercial success and who is doing a really good job for how long he's been writing. I often talk about CLAMP, right? And I by no means want to make it seem like their first commercial success (Tokyo Babylon) was bad. I LOVE tb and it is well-written. But there is a marked improvement in storytelling and writing that you can follow along throughout CLAMP's career. So I kind of see Gege in the same light as someone who is going to improve his craft.
Am I wrong to think that sometimes he introduces stuff, interesting stuff that could be further explored but just drops/brushes past it? No, you aren't necessarily wrong.
Let's taco'bout it under the cut.
I was actually having a similar conversation with a moot about this because I don't necessarily think that Gege is leaving loose ends, I see it more as two things happening:
First, patience grasshopper! In a couple of interviews with the cursed cat that have surfaced lately where he talks about his writing, he makes reference to writing as a craft. When I read those interviews, the way he talks about how he writes feels like he's very intentional about how he chooses to plot, develop characters, etc.
Problem is sometimes we don't see a payoff for some time. i.e. I don't remember the actual chapter number, but the enchain clue was dropped as early as somewhere around chapter 12, but we didn't get a payoff for another 200 chapters.
We also learned about Gojo becoming "The Strongest" as early as chapter 70something, but we don't learn how that identity hindered him for [insert maths here] chapters.
The other thing I see happening (and I can't necessarily back this up take a shot for every time I use the word necessarily in my answer) is that Gege is a metaphorical thinker.
Regarding this, someone in an ask before said something that made sense to me: Gege might not be grounding his vision into the page in a way that is concrete and understandable to everyone--I agree.
As a highly metaphorical thinker myself, I struggle with communication because the way I use language to convey meaning is too flexible, ambiguous, and dependent on people picking up on the mental images I associate with the words I use when I speak. And... unfortunately for my infantile desire to be understood in my own terms, communication doesn't necessarily work like that.
All that said, from reading you, I have the feeling you are a natural meta-thinker, and that you have a very good imagination that is very expansive.
So it's only fair and understandable that you'd like to see Gege expand upon the themes you mention. After all, they ARE good and interesting plot points and you can see the untapped potential.
The part where I'd disagree (although I am not necessarily disagreeing), is that, while these themes are touched upon, they aren't necessarily the sole focus that Gege might have in mind for the vision he wants to convey. Exploring these themes in depth would also necessitate a much longer manga, and it seems Gege has an end in mind that he's trying to reach.
I swear if I say necessarily one more time.
So yeah... I can see why you feel like he's brushing past these themes, but to me Gege is simply exploring "depth" in a way that is perhaps not aligned with what you'd like to see.
For example, you might disagree and I could be wrong, but I see the whole "child soldier" theme and looking for "the root cause - which is the jujutsu society and how it affects generation upon generation of sorcerers" theme playing out through Kenny's desire to push the evolution of mankind. There's something here about how Kenny's goals are a sort of continuation of Geto's will.
As for Megumi lacking some sort of emotional connection to Toji, you have to remember that Megumi says one thing and feels differently sometimes. Saying "I don't care" is a conscious defense mechanism for wanting to suppress "caring too much". Again, I could be wrong, but from a psychological perspective, we are inevitably emotionally bound to our biological parents. So we have yet to see how this plays out. Clearly Gege has something in mind.
Sticking to Megumi--I want to write more about this, because I used to agree with you about Tsumiki. I don't know how to explain in concrete language yet, but the more I think about it, the audience was never meant to see the real Tsumiki, and that was the whole point. Tsumiki existing in Megumi's imagination is the whole shebang because she represents his anima, which he has to integrate into consciousness as part of his psychological development.
The way I see it, what Gege did with Tsumiki, is both 100% shameless plot device and masterful Analytical Psychology and Psychology of Fairy Tales in action.
As for your grievances about execution. Here's where I join you 😂. God did I hate the Sakurajima arc! I l liked things about it, ofc. But Naoya coming back and getting his ass kicked again just made me want to move to Alaska and lock myself up in a cabin and become a recluse.
I can see the arc's role in retrospect (reading people's meta about it really helped with it), I acknowledge it, and I still didn't like it. 'Tis what 'tis.
I think every manga has that one arc you are just not going to vibe with.
Love your comments about Naobito and Naoya being interesting characters too! Mai also strikes me as a well-executed example of Gundam Seed's Flay Alster.
So anyways, you might disagree with what I say but, in writing this, goal is to invite you to think differently about what you mentioned if you feel inclined to do so.
Thanks for stopping by anon and here's to hoping Gege doesn't drop the Megumi storyline.
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variousqueerthings · 4 months
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I am an idiot with a box and a screwdriver, passing through, helping out, learning. I don’t need an army
Dark Water/Death In Heaven -- we're doing it as a double episode single-review, because it's one continuous story. It also wraps up a lot of the thematic threads of season eight and finally reveals that *gasp* it was the Master all along! (I genuinely do not remember if people were taken by surprise back in the day, I never watched this far at that time, and obviously I knew when I finally did)
sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 6/10
sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 6/10
interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 3/10
furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 5/10
companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 5/10
the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 5/10
doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10
isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 4/10
internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 4/10
Politics (how conservative is the story): 2/10
FULL RATING: 46/100 (if I can count….)
the real issue with the plot of the finale, as I see it is actually solidly in the field of "pacing." there's some other stuff (I'll get into what I think about fulfilling character arcs and concepts about soldiers below), but pacing is the throughline as we take a look at various themes and arcs and whether they were sufficiently wrapped up
EDIT: this one is quite long because it also partially covers the whole season + I rant about the military
OBJECTIFICATION: oooof the four women in this finale, Clara, Kate, Osgood, and Gomez!Master, we technically don't get this much, however I do think it's interesting that M*ffat's Master is... called... Missy....
which I will not be doing, because I hate it. you see she's "Mistress" because she's a woman now, but no nonono, she needs a cutesy version of it, so it's "Missy," she's like the sexy dom you always dreamed of (just like Irene and River and several single-episode characters...)
at least he didn't dress her in leather
it's also hard to designate whether the way he writes her is so off from the way Simm!Master was written, because he for sure had a bunch of "I'm just Cu-raaazyy" moments. also he used bigotry as a casual hammer, which I'd be curious to talk with RTD about. I don't think he'd do that the same way if he were writing those episodes today, anyway, wrong era
Gomez!Master, in these episodes, has some really really stellar moments. she also has moments that make me go, "ah yes, this is a woman written by M*ffat," most noticeably in some of her one-sided "flirting" with the Doctor. again, it's hard to pinpoint, because a lot of it is just "yeah they're unhinged about each other and have been forever," but some of the "ooh Doctor I'm doing all of this for you," stuff is... it just feels like they can do that because of het Nonsense now (which I will get into in the "sexiness" point)
like she can be softer now (in a Master way) because she's portrayed by a woman opposite Capaldi's Doctor, which I think the "short for Mistress" moment is the most prime example of
I do also think though, this is (you guessed it) partially a pacing issue, because they didn't insert Gomez!Master into the main narrative until the second-to-last episode. if we could have seen her in some material way doing something prior to that -- but wait, Simm!Master also only appeared properly in the second-to-last episode, yes, correct, but Simm!Master was materially affecting the narrative from very early on, and not in a somewhat random "I gave you a number to call for a helpline that turned out to be the Tardis and also I'm sort of sitting around waiting for the plot to catch up with me" setup, but in a "I'm monitoring your family, I'm fucking with the government" kind of way -- there was even a musical cue that included the four beats that recurred so that we could connect that to the overarching story of mind-control
I'm going to get back to this in complexity, because we're getting off-point. Point is the jump from where we left off to where we find Gomez!Master being a bit lovey-dovey (again, in a Master way) just wasn't there and I feel like M*ffat thought he could do it this way because of course now they're played by a man and a woman... hypothesis. theory, if you will. Charlie Day Corkboard meme perhaps. but M*ffat would never have done this if the Master were played by a guy, looking at his track record. he might have done it if the Doctor were played by a woman, but I think the real issue there would have been how incredibly porn-opening-adjacent his Doctor/Master interactions would have become, so that's a different sort of lesbophobic bullet dodged
like, I'll take more explicit Master/Doctor stuff. but I'm fucking watching you M*ffat, youknow.
PLOT-POINT: Clara is not a plot-point in this episode, however I do think the pacing of Stuff hits her quite hard. we had a slowish build-up of her and Danny over the episodes, although fascinatingly he never really got to have proper feelings about the acres of lies she'd told him -- she was working up to telling him about it properly, but he got hit by a car before she could
this brings up a Thing about Clara, which is that she makes a loooot of bad decisions that prioritise her own current wants over what's good for her and/or people around her, and I doooo think that's intentional -- she has a line in this episode where she says to Danny, "I wasn’t very good at it, but I did love you"
now season 9 might deal with the guilt of the above, so there may be things to come, but there was certainly a lot of confusion on my side about what her journey was going to be about, and so far it seems to be a very unhealthy "I am owed things" rather than about running away from something tangible or feeling overwhelmed from life
there is the original idea that it was her mother's death that prompted her to want to travel, but something always got in the way, and that this (for example taking care of two kids whose mother died recently) indicates that she's a "good" person who cares for others -- and she doesn't not care, but it's certainly not her driving character trait in the way that it seemed to look like when Eleven met her properly and gauged her as a person who could be a companion
this is all very waffly, because I'm still not sure where Clara lands in all of this, or if I think it works in the grand scheme of things, especially in tandem with the other characterisations and themes of this season. it's got a very depressing, hopeless sort of framing to it that in other contexts I might be really into, but I may not enjoy for Doctor Who
that being said... it's consistent throughout the season. Clara sees the Doctor's red flags (and we'll get to those) and provided the ending is okay and she can control the Doctor and her own role in the situation, she's okay with the idea that people get used along the way -- as long as the Doctor doesn't try that on her
in this episode of course Clara threatens to (and makes good on that promise, even if it doesn't work) destroy the Tardis keys, stranding them both on a volcano, rails against the ordinariness of grief and feels that she is owed something more, shuts down Danny's attempts to say that he loves her, because it's not on her terms (granted, these terms are "please just accept that I'm dead," but that is kind of the point with Clara and her sense of controlling things, even death), then decides to be the one to kill Danny properly as a Cyberman, despite the Doctor explaining that Cyber-Danny will kill others, and then is fully intending to just straight up kill the Master!!!!
this is wild to me -- back in s3, when Francine and the entire Jones family are prepared to see the Master dead, it's because he destroyed the earth and made them watch and kept them as slaves for a year
in this episode, Clara wants to kill the Master because she did bad things that, yes, prolonged the sadness of Danny's death, but crucially did not actually cause Danny's death. Danny just... died. yeah, there's probably theories out there that the Master might have caused it (we'll get to this too), but this is never textual in the episode, and Clara never gives an indication that that's her belief
she's just angry that the Master is a bad person who did bad things, as concept. and mostly she's angry because her boyfriend is dead, and as far as I can see, the Doctor is now off the hook (whereas at the beginning the Doctor was very much on the hook) and the Master is the closest person around to take that anger out on
bonkers for a companion to be this way. again, Martha, my beloved Martha, Osterhagen key back in the day, she's not doing this out of anger, she's having a straight-up bad time and the whole tragedy is about the Doctor accidentally turning companions into soldiers. they've got guns and everything. Clara just bypasses this and is simply down for murder because she's upset
at the end of course she elects to not tell the Doctor about Danny's sacrifice/still being dead, because she thinks the Doctor would stay rather than return to Gallifrey (which may not be found after all, because the Doctor lies to her about that too), which is quite self-sacrificial of her. we'll see where this sentiment goes, especially as it's another lie, which is kind of their whole... thing with one another. terrible terrible for one another, which I know is the appeal for their fans, so I'm not necessarily writing this as critique
I am reminded of the Doctor and Martha again, who also had a whole unhealthy thing going on, but it was very based in the narrative and had a specific trajectory and then an ending that acknowledged this as a reason for Martha no longer wishing to travel with them (and then some things I have questions about, RTD bring Martha back I'm not satisfied!)
in this story, it feels like this is simply who Clara is. and while it does contradict some of her earlier narrative in s7, I can accept that it's consistent now. but yeah... as said, there's some plotting and pacing inconsistencies. where are the kids from before (I know she stopped taking care of them, but one feels like they had no tangible impact on the story), why was Danny's death written in the way it was (we'll get to that), where did some of her s7 characterisation go (I really missed a Clara who wasn't just smart and quippy, but was also scared and out of her depth), is this because she "knows" a lot of the Doctor lore now, so she feels like she belongs more in this world than other people? why was she in love with Danny, to the point of wanting to go to a possible afterlife to get him back (actually this is a big one, because while they did have scenes together, I don't know what drew her to him, and I have some feelings about Danny down in the politics section of this, which somewhat can be boiled down to "he gives me the vibes of a man who is kind and sensitive and easily used and Clara likes to use people so...")
like I said- it's not that Clara doesn't make sense for who she is now, but that the pacing and structure don't support her arc very well. I don't think this is the worst thing to happen to a female character during M*ffat's run, but it does make this finale less emotionally fulfilling than it clearly wants to be
am I sad that Danny is dead? yeah, but not because of Clara. I'm sad because of his unrealised potential as a character. am I shocked that Clara wanted to shoot the Master? yes, but because it was a Bonkers Yonkers bit of characterisation on top of some already wild things she did which any past Doctor I think would have said "ok, you are not suitable for this kind of life, because you are way too down with murder and have no emotional stability." When Clara left the Doctor, I was kinda like. yeah, ok, she could end this here I guess (I say that, and acknowledge that actually the Christmas Special right after gives her a bit more depth on the whole "Danny Dying Sitch" of things, although again, it does not make me think she should be continuing to travel with the Doctor, never mind be working with UNIT in s9????)
ok. but. pacing. let's get to it
COMPLEXITY: ok the problem with this episode is not technically complexity, although it does fall for a couple of M*ffat standards in that it didn't need to be doing some of the things it is doing (the cremation stuff I think is particularly unsettling in a needless way that I think crosses a line, but that is possibly subjective)
the problem is the questions I was asking in the previous sections and a whole bunch more, that shows that all of the themes and questions that were set up throughout the season weren't paced well or satisfactorily concluded
take one that I like: The Master. big fan of Gomez' portrayal of The Master barring a few things that are very M*ffat female character, with a dash of his Moriarty (so youknow the drill if you've ever spent too long engaging with a M*ffat narrative), but that's not her, that's just her having to make a "hey Missy you're so fine" dialogue work
I mentioned it was odd that she was so sidelined and just... hanging around... until the second-to-last episode. I am unclear why she "chose" Clara to travel with the Doctor, first of all. I cannot remember if this is answered in the episode, beyond like "the Universe and fate and shit" which I'm not a fan of if so. second of all... why didn't she kill Danny? (EDIT: did read there's a short story that confirmed she did kill Danny, but we're going purely by episodes here)
if we want to go big, say, why wasn't there a big, slow reveal that she'd been poking around in Clara's life, maybe also Danny's life who knows, and that she was giving all of these things to the Doctor as a gift by using humans as puppets culminating in Danny's death and this is what sets Clara off? the idea that she once again is just playing to the tune of a larger narrative that she has no control over and worse, isn't even about her, but about this fucked up dynamic between these two incredibly old aliens
I'm sure some people like the randomness of Danny's death. I personally do not. I think it's contrived angst that comes out of nowhere in the same way so much of M*ffat's narrative tends to do. why is this happening now? because we need the story to go there and we forgot to place 90% of the establishing building blocks that make it feel organic -- the worst offender for this in my opinion is still the "Amy grew up with River as her best friend the whole time, you just didn't know," but this is a pretty bad example in my opinion too, because on the surface it is very very sad, and the randomness of death is a great idea... but hey, remember when they did that story in 2005 with Rose's dad and it was really good and established and played into the overarching themes of her story? this is not that. this is using sadness as a cheap device
there's like. a story in here that is really really good, and it gets buried underneath a bunch of contrived over-the-top stuff (although, while I initially thought the "president of the earth" stuff was bad, and still kind of do, I did think it was funny that the Doctor mocked the Master about all those times they tried to rule the world and the Doctor managed it by accident)
I also -- and I'm sure many people have noticed this too -- cannot help but go, "oh isn't this just the Library plot but evil? and with a worse/less believable set of scifi nonsense explanations?" and that's such a M*ffat classic too. use three or four good (and sometimes not good) ideas over and over again, but bigger and more unwieldy
Ohhhh boy the idea of the Brigadier becoming a Cyberman, because all of earth - no wait, more than earth, some of the people who end up there aren't on earth - for the last x amount of years has just been sucked into the evil Library database. (seriously, tell me how this works, because it works across Time and Space apparently??) -- anyway billions? trillions? of people becoming Cybermen. I don't think this is explained either. I am not a fan of the Brigadier becoming a Cyberman, let's say that
none of the core scifi stuff is explained beyond a handwave, and none of the emotional arcs are given a satisfying conclusion but!
listen Michelle Gomez is so cool, I relish the future when I know she's getting better dialogue
also in theory I like the callback to the "I win" in s3. we know the Doctor doesn't kill her, but yeah, him going "you win." they're such weirdos about each other, truly. again, with all of the rest of the "stuff" this season, the poor pacing, the scrape-the-surface-and-it's-cheap-sentimentality I don't think it entirely works, but hey, Gomez will return so!
CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Danny is dead. the Master is Michelle Gomez (and not dead). the Doctor is slightly? more chill in themself (maybe, idk, going by the following episode, maybe not). Gallifrey is still lost. I think that covers it?
also the Doctor just straight-up wasn't looking for Gallifrey this whole time it seems
COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara does some things in this one. notably, not a single thing she does works, but for the ways they work because the Doctor and/or Danny care about her so so much, which I think is at the heart of all of this -- if you (the audience) believe that the Doctor and Danny have so much affection and/or love for Clara that despite her behaviour they would go to the afterlife for her, they would break cyber-coding for her, then this works
if you don't believe this, then we're in trouble.
things Clara does: aforementioned attempted destruction of Tardis key, attempting to save Danny from death, passing herself off as the Doctor, killing Danny, killing the Master
I thiiiink... that covers it. within this she does convince the Doctor to take her to the afterlife, and Danny saves her life a few times
I want to note the "Clara pretends to be the Doctor" moment, because I think it's a good example of some of the flattening of her character. in her earlier entries in s7 she was afraid at times. now, obviously, like the other companions she's seen more, she's more confident, but she is still in very real danger -- contrasting with Rose in Doomsday and how she taunts the Daleks, she's still very very afraid, she's sure they're all going to die
and I think Rose in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday is the closest to Clara out of previous companions I've seen (not counting Classic Who which I haven't finished). by that point she's seen so much that her mother comments that she doesn't seem like herself anymore (I wish Clara's grandmother had made a similar observation -- or at least some kind of observation). she knows a bunch of DW lore, she loves the travel for the sake of it, she feels, yeah, special (although with the caveat that she's met previous companions, the Doom hangs over them all season, we know this is about to end one way or another)
I just sat there the whole time thinking, "why is the director not asking JLC to put more emotion into her voice, more doubt, more desperation, just... more. why is this scene so flat?"
“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: the Doctor is a headless chicken in this one, except for the fact that he's like "yeah we'll go to the afterlife" and then promptly goes "there is no afterlife, this is stupid."
it's a small thing on the whole, but hey, Doctor, you're the one who decided to go there
as for the Doctor as a seasons-arc roundup. I... don't hate it... but I still don't like how this Doctor is characterised. he's still incredibly unlikeable just on a personal level, and yeah yeah good doesn't mean nice, but he's also just not kind. and I think I struggle to enjoy an iteration of the Doctor who isn't kind, at least sometimes
I think a lot of that -- the unkindness -- falls to the wayside as a concept in this episode, because idk, it's not important I guess? whereas I think it's central to the Doctor's question of "am I good"? are you good because you try to make people not-die, sure, but you're also good because you don't mock kids. you don't casually state that you've forgotten peoples faces because they're so forgettable/unimportant to you. you don't treat people poorly that know they're about to die
if that stuff -- that domestic stuff, as Nine might have called it -- isn't important to the question, then I don't think the question is being satisfactorily answered by this episode
yes, Twelve turns down the chance to have a literal army that could just kill all bad guys, but I never doubted that. does Twelve treat others with kindness? Mmmm still not really, going by the episode right after. it's a fun little exploration of something absolutely wild the Master might try, but I don't think it tells me anything new about the Twelfth Doctor
PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: ok, I'm sure some people loved some of these callbacks. The Brigadier. the Cybermen outside St Pauls.
did like Osgood saying that Simm!Master prime-minister wasn't even the worst one we've had. that ages ever more hilariously
I just don't think the plot is good enough for a lot of them. and as an ending to the Brigadier well... ok, I liked it better than way back (s6) the Doctor receives a random phonecall that the Brigadier is dead and it's apropos nothing and Kate Stewart hadn't been introduced yet, so it was just some random guy that the old fans knew, but the nu fans would have been ??? about, because why does this guy dying drive the plot like that? I liked that the Brigadier has context
of course that context is, your brain was uploaded to a computer database for years and now you're fully a cyberman -- and it's not framed as super tragic? it's another one of the ways the emotional Stuff falls flat in this episode, and I just choose to pretend it's not something that happens
“SEXINESS”: M I S S Y... short for Mistress... because we need to gender this now. Anyway, the first time this character meets the Doctor in this form, she forcibly grabs him and kisses him without his consent (afterwards Clara smirks and asks if she used tongue)
so that is... that is a thing that happens. that is a thing that has happened a lot on this show, both to Ten and Eleven, but not to Twelve until now, because I guess women only humorously throw themselves at twinks
when will our suffering end?? why is this considered funny???? Stop!!!
she also at one point says "you know I should shoot you in a jealous rage, now wouldn’t that be sexy," which was one thing I was alluding to with the "where does writing the Master as kind of fucked up end and writing the Master as a Crazy Evil Sexy Lady begin" because this is definitely in the latter category
INTERNAL WORLD: is this just the Silence of the Library but evil and less believable? yes. does it make sense that they could magically put all those minds back into reconstructed Cyberbodies on top of corpses, including people who must have been dead for centuries, or died in the future not even on earth? don't think about it
POLITICS: So, you know how this season is all about the Doctor and soldiers and "am I a good man" and Danny was a soldier and calls the Doctor an officer, and on the plus-side we have the Doctor's speech about not being a good man or an officer or anything like that, but just "some fuckn guy" (paraphrased, he actually calls himself an idiot)
on the flipside of that we have... Danny. oh Danny. I. so I really want to like Danny, and I actually do like Danny, I think he's the most underserved character of the season, in the sense that everyone else being written to be an asshole just makes it shine through that he is... not. and his whole thing is that he feels guilty about having shot a kid in Afghanistan and that's what made him leave the military, because... it felt bad, I guess
I write that, because Danny didn't leave the army because he didn't agree with their politics anymore. despite having a bunch of lines derogatorily calling the Doctor "sir," and flipping shit like "watch the blood-soaked general in action" there's never actually a story of Danny realising a superior officer was using his power to hurt anyone, and he never questions that having been there in the first place, in a position to shoot a child, might have been the bad thing
he's not railing against superiors, he's just railing, which is frustrating when it's so close to getting it right. it seemed like they might be going there for awhile, there was a hot second where I thought they might, but at the end he firmly re-identifies himself as a soldier and shoots himself and the other Cybermen into the sky to save the planet. it's so... oooh it's so [flames on the side of my head]
he does send the kid back, rather than himself, which circles back to my thinking about Danny the character (kind, compassionate, sensitive) and Danny as keeper of certain themes (that it's not the system of soldiering that's bad, in fact we need to defend ourselves, see Doctor, your black and white narrative about soldiers as related to any guilt you might feel about having once killed people, or making situations happen where people die or or, is false, because it's more complicated than that, and soldiers are a good thing actually -- no, we haven't actually made a narrative about systems of soldiering, we've conflated freedom-fighting against a fictional fascist-coded alien with the British army, it's the same thing in the end)
it makes me want to -- in that oh-so-silly fandom way -- take Danny away from the writers and look back at his core traits: he's an orphan who by the sounds of things was never adopted, so in a place of being easily groomed by a structure like the army, he believes in the inherent goodness of people (I think), like I said, kind, compassionate, sensitive, lovely to kids, clearly suffers from PTSD (of course), and... in my opinion eaaasily misused by others, because he judges things to be solely on his shoulders
because Clara is a very forceful personality, I can sooo easily see how he'd be taken with her and want to forgive her over and over again and sacrifice himself for her
I wish that Danny's storyline had been about realising his worth. not his worth as a fucking soldier, but just "oh, I've been scared my whole life, I've had to do what others told me my whole life, and now this is my choice." I mean, the sacrificing is still... sigh (I do remember seeing people pointing out that great, we introduce a Black recurring character and then yeet him into the sky once his use is up, vs, say Rory who is there from beginning to end)
(I actually like Danny better than Rory on the whole, but I also think Danny and Rory have a lot of similar traits, and they both fall in love with women who have treated them abysmally, but at least Clara understands this as a part of her arc, both in the final episode of this and the subsequent Christmas episode)
but at least it wouldn't have been a sacrifice in which he reinserts himself as a cog in a machine. fucking soldier. please Danny, you deserve more from this thematic journey. if we'd had a narrative about an abusive or simply bad or incompetent or idealistically incompatible officer, this would have made more sense, but instead we just get vague references that go nowhere
ok I'm writing in circles now, so let's drop this and talk about the kid he shoots, whom he meets in the "afterlife" (argh this whole concept is so stupid) and I guess just... sits with? until he scares him away. and then sends him back to life again
there's something poignant in that to an extent, it's just of course that this random unnamed kid from Afghanistan who says not a line is a prop to absolve Danny of his personal guilt at shooting a child, and, again, not really about the nature of British colonialism and military violence
now oof, those are some heavy themes to bring up, can we expect all this from a silly show like Doctor Who? well, M*ffat did, he just wasn't able to follow through. heavy themes aren't shock value, you'd better be a good enough writer to do something with them, or idk, not want to suck the British army's dick
ooh, that was a bit aggressive on my part. I think because season eight actually has so much interesting stuff it's playing with, so this time I could finally see Stuff, but then the payoff was just a disappointing slap. RIP Danny, in my heart you had character development this season that went into all of the interesting narrative threads that were introduced, and you became a passionate speaker for not grooming kids into joining the army
the TL;DR of this point is "soldiers good sometimes. check mate Pacifist" -- but similar to Kill The Moon, it's so messy I'm not sure it actually knows what it wants to say
FULL RATING: 46/100 (if I can count….)
I feel like not everyone would agree with me, but I like the Master's overall plan. it fits with the wildly swinging way they try to win the Doctor over, just to lash out when the Doctor (understandably) turns them down, while also pinpointing the little hypocrisies of the Doctor's morals, because the Master keeps offering the ability to Change Things and the Doctor prefers little shifts of the status quo that often mean people get left behind or get hurt or it's much messier than a clean sweep of "if you just ruled the Universe with me, we'd do good things"
(the Doctor is of course right to go "yeahno, this is not a good idea, for starters we both have so many issues, for seconds anyone who sets out to be a good ruler of anything has already failed because of the premise"). it's the strongest part of the episodes for me, I just wish it had had a more satisfying build-up and been able to tie in better to the themes of the season (or rather that the themes of the season had been written better in previous episodes so as to tie in better with this wrapping-up)
and obviously the whole "soldier" stuff is just badly written
and Clara...? I'll wait and see in her final season. it's very much a "depends on how they round it off" for me
also, oh boy am I done with quips. the Wh*donesque quipping is doing my head in, please make it stooop
"One last chance. I don’t care about the rules, I don’t give a damn about paradoxes, I swear you will never step inside your Tardis again" <- this is Villain Behaviour Clara!!!!
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lakesbian · 9 months
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I’ve been stuck too nervous to start arc 17 because of all the conversation about it making me nervous. Is there anything you think will convince me to get to it?
this is going to contain some arc 17 spoilers because i can't talk about why it's good without saying at least some concrete things about it
anyway. after some research (making a post asking why people don't like it) i have come to a conclusive awareness of the most prominent reasons 4 the two primary camps of opinions abt arc 17
why some ppl think it's one of the most excellent arcs in the book: - extremely well-written fucked up horror tragedy - extremely cool and scary and interesting perspective on the simurgh (give it up for the simurgh everyone give it up for the simurgh) - engaging character writing & dynamics - context 4 a bunch of worldbuilding shit delivered in an interesting little packidge - some of the best character concepts in the book (noelle/krouse) why some ppl find it boring (have not actually seen anyone who Hates it i think just ppl who find it boring/uninteresting): - no taylor PoV or undersiders for the entire arc - flashback that puts the main plot on pause for the entire arc - underdeveloped and/or uninteresting focal characters - unlikable/annoying focal characters
now obviously i am an arc 17 enjoyer. so my refutations to the reasons i've seen ppl disliking it for are: - this is 100% a matter of personal taste. like it's understandable to be less engaged w/ parts of the story that aren't about your guys of choice, but it worked for me because i enjoy the rotating cast of perspectives. i like how it expands the world of worm more. it Is time spent away from taylor and friends, but it's finally providing context for one of the most built-up mysteries in the book, so, like. i do not mind taking a brief taylor break to read what's basically a really good wormverse horror story. we already have like 1.6 million words of taylor so i think if you're going in with the awareness that you're going to just take a little one-arc break from her and then get back to her & try to be open-minded about it you might find it not such a big deal
- i can understand why it induces "AUGH come on i wanted to find out what happens next" syndrome but i'm a "that's ok we get there when we get there :)" person about books so again i personally did not mind. the pacing just works 4 me. like you get the mystery of wondering what's wrong with noelle -> the dread of having it revealed via arc 17 that she's a simurgh plot and subsequently this was always fated to happen and end horribly -> being thrown back into the Noelle Incident afterwards with full awareness that because it's a simurgh plot horrible things are going to happen. which is good! it provides context at the perfect moment to maximize the impact of revealing how tragic and awful the situation is.
- i do agree that the travelers aren't as well-developed as they could be, oliver & cody particularly, but it wasn't an issue for me during the arc. i think they all have the amount of characterization necessary to make it feel appropriately tense. even if they aren't the most distinct characters in the book, they do their jobs Well Enough. i actually really liked some of the genesis/trickster interactions in particular, and i think the most important character (trickster) ends up really well characterized in a fascinatingly detailed way. it overall captures the gist of what we need to know to be compelled by the travelers just fine.
- no none of them are especially likable but this one is like. fully just a personal taste thing. i don't care if characters in a book are likable people, i care if the narrative & themes are well-written and compelling. which they are! also the fact that krouse fucking sucks and the character dynamics are all unpleasant and uncomfortable is genuinely a pro of the arc 4 me. them fucking sucking and causing problems is part of their charm, and also literally integral to why their character concepts are interesting. "found family that never should have been a family" is by default going to involve some level of suckiness. also, like, taylor isn't likable. she's manipulative and violent and uncommunicative and would generally be awful to hang out with. all of which is part of her charm. if you can like taylor for the interesting ways in which she sucks (affectionate) then surely you can like the travelers for the interesting ways in which they suck (affectionate). but even if you don't their Story is still worth breaking down and paying attention to. because it's good.
best case scenario for reading it is you think it's excellent (which it is) worst case scenario you just find it kind of boring. which isn't a big deal, there are plenty of worm arcs that people find meh. if you've gotten thru the rest of worm you can get thru arc 17 too, it's ultimately just another worm arc at the end of the day. one i would highly recommend, but ultimately just another worm arc. no reason not to give it a try, because all that will happen is you'll either go "that was good" or "didn't love that" and then carry on with the rest of the book.
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