#she originally had a much darker backstory but it made us too sad to think about in detail so i scrapped it and now it's far less upsetting

[goblin-simming]

it's time. Meet Liesel Edgeworth, my most specialest girl of all time <3

Young Adult (24)

Aspiration: Legally Sim (This sim wants to pursue a law career.)

Traits: Cheerful, Geek, Clever, Kind, Soft

Teen (17)

Aspiration: Valedictorian (This sim wants to become a valedictorian! To do this, they'll need straight A's and some luck.)

Traits: Cheerful, Geek, Clever, Kind

Child (11)

Aspiration: Whiz Kid (This sim wants to be the smartest kid in school.)

Traits: Cheerful, Geek, Kind

Toddler (5)

Traits: Clingy, Inquisitive

Infant (1)

Trait: Wiggly

This post is long enough already but I desperately need to tell you about her so i'll go ahead and cut the post :p

Note for readers: our ocs exist in a universe that canon-adjacent at best. We change so much so far back that it's frankly absurd so just. keep that in mind while you read <3

She was born in Munich, Germany to a prominent prosecutor and his wife, their first child. Her mother died during childbirth, leaving her and her father alone and upset over her passing.

She was born with a birth defect that left her legs weak, making it difficult for her to stand and walk on some days, while other days she is largely unaffected.

Her father did his best to raise her himself, making sure she had the mobility aids she needed, and her childhood was happy. She inherited her father's passion for the law, often accompanying him to the courthouse when permitted, and excitedly insisting he tell her about the cases she wasn't able to see play out in person. She also adored her neighbors, and spent much of her time bothering hanging out with the older neighbor boy who wanted nothing to do with her and his baby sister. The spring after she turned eleven, her father's health took a turn for the worst, and in the early summer, he passed.

With no other family to take her in, she was taken to an orphanage, where she spent the next few months. Most of her free time, she was permitted to spend in the records room of the courthouse, taking in any and all cases the records-keepers would let her access.

That was where she met Edgeworth, who saw the similarities between her and himself, and, in an uncharacteristically spur-of-the-moment decision, adopted her himself.

She spent the next six years traveling Europe alongside her adoptive father, excitedly taking in foreign legal systems and studying thoroughly, with the plan to eventually become a prosecutor as well.

During this time she also had the opportunity to meet Phoenix Wright and his daughter, Trucy, whom she bonded quickly with.

When Liesel and her father returned to the United States, with no plans to leave again, Liesel threw herself head-first into Themis Legal Academy, using her knowledge from Europe to spur her focus into the way things are done in her new home.

During her time at Themis is when she met Nora Spect, her self-proclaimed best friend, and Athena Cykes, another close confidant. She was also given the opportunity to reconnect with her childhood neighbors, the Gavins. Things had changed drastically between them, since she'd last seen them, and she got along much closer with Klavier than she had as a child.

She graduated second in her class, and started her career shortly thereafter, facing off for the first time in a real courtroom across from her best friend.

She prioritizes truth above everything else, leading her to have very few wins on record against Nora, though that hardly stops them from celebrating each case they work together, inviting friends out for drinks and karaoke.

okay i'm gonna stop rambling here bc actual events get really shaky from here on but!! other stuff to mention

she's autistic as fuck (she caught the Lawtism, as I've been calling it)

she's cishet & polyam

she's 18 during the events of aa4 and saw all four of the cases in person (4-1 from the gallery, and 4-2 through 4-4 while working alongside Klavier)

she had a crush on Klavier when she was a kid and it kinda faded while they weren't in touch but it comes back full force when she meets him again (and she's exceptionally awful at hiding it)

she has been asking for a cat since she was a child and only gets one after she moves out of her family's home because she was always either moving around too much in Europe or, once in the states, phoenix moves in and he's allergic

she's legally 5 feet tall but medically she's 4'11". she lied on her drivers license and her id and doesn't feel bad for it.

she spent a good portion of her life thinking of gay as the 'default' because so few of the people she interacted with were straight. she came out as straight to her family and is still embarrassed about it years down the line

she gets into a relationship w/ Klavier and Apollo at some point. still workshopping when exactly i just know she ends up w them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#ts4 #sims 4 #ts4 lookbook #acv attorney oc #ace attorney #misc screenies #sim; Liesel #she originally had a much darker backstory but it made us too sad to think about in detail so i scrapped it and now it's far less upsetting #anyway. my blorbo my scrimblo my babygirl look at her #this post took so long i've been working on it since yesterday </3 #wcifs are open btw!! i'm not gonna list everything she wears bc that list would be Too Long but i'll answer asks about stuff <3

[mandareeboo]

SU Music Rankings

Bc I can and I wanna start some Disk Horse rip. These are all in order of preference, with explanations, etc. It’s a long bitch. That said, I’m not counting little short jingles or small joke songs like Little Butler. This is the meat and potatoes of SU music- just under 30 songs. I might do the rest if people like my takes lol.

I scored it mostly on three bases- how dear it was to my heart, how much/often I relisten to it, and also what it means to the plot. That said, little fun songs don’t automatically go farther down than big, plot-heavy songs either! It’s a strange little balance.

Special Note: I don’t dislike any of this music! I love SU and that includes its bumps and glitches. I just pick favorite children lol.

1.) Change

Was there ever a more Steven moment than when he wiped the blood off his face and kissed it into sparkles? I think not. 

If “Be Wherever You Are” is an ode to young Steven, then this is teen Steven’s. Talking about change, and how much and how little it can do. How he holds his arms up for Spinel to hug him, so trusting. How he seems able to just. Break into soft tears at will, and not to be manipulative- it’s just his kind nature. The warmth in his voice. Fuck yesssss.

2.) Change Your Mind

This song is only fifty five seconds and it’s EVERYTHING to me. It really felt like someone was speaking the words I’d always held deep inside of me, unsure of how to say. It feels like a goodbye to someone who never really loved me. 

As much as I enjoyed Future, if this was the finale of SU, I would’ve been perfectly okay with that.

3.) Drift Away

This song gave me legitimate shivers the first time I heard it, and it still haunts me to this day. Spinel stayed, and waited, and all she got was a transmission thousands of years later. Fuck.

4.) Here We Are In The Future

THE MOVIE IS SU AS ITS BEST AND I WON’T BE SWAYED ON IT. Steven being a teen who loves his weird family but is growing just a bit sarcastic to their drama. The adorable love he and Connie share. His slow realization that he will always be working, always have things to do, is both somber and real. The Crystal Gems won’t be safe with one epic battle. They’ll be safe with years of hard work and love. HIS LITTLE HANDSHAKE WITH AMETHYST.

This is a helluva bop and a great way to summarize the main character’s backstories.

5.) Let’s Only Think About Love

Did ya’ll know that Zach Callison killed his throat with that last note? He gave his all for this performance in a vocal range he no longer comfortably do and by god did it SHINE. The FLAIR. The FORESHADOWING. All of the Gems all being awkward about Rose and Steven trying to bring them to the present. Peridot having a mini-existential crisis in a cute yellow dress. I love Zach Callison’s normal singing voice but man is that a fucking bop. Nothing will ever beat it.

6.) Here Comes A Thought

This bad boy helped me out a LOT with some mental issues I was dealing with in high school. I was unmedicated, unsupervised, and full of anxiety. I’d have break downs when I tried to speak about certain things. I couldn’t function. This song inspired me. It helped me feel okay with my intrusive thoughts.

And the episode! -chef’s kiss-. Once again bringing up the morally gray area of training child soldiers. Connie expanding her social group. Steven’s trauma hauling ass in that second half. The ANIMATION. Stevonnie’s gorgeous singing voice. GOD yes.

7.) It’s Over Isn’t It?

Just barely squeaking above Stronger Than You, this ballad is everything gorgeous. The whole episode is. I think Mr. Greg stands in the top five of my episodes for the entire show. It even got nominated!

There’s just so much about this song that I love. The gentle melancholy of Pearl’s voice. How the crew had to redo the shots for this bit bc Deedee went so fucking hard. The hard cuts between Pearl, remembering the love of her life, and Steven, who has begun to feel like he took her away. I’d recommend this song to anyone, regardless of what they do or don’t know about SU, simply bc it tugs so many heartstrings of love, loss, and responsibility.

8.) Stronger Than You

Did you realize this episode aired SEVEN years ago? This bitch was what got me into SU! Hearing about Ruby and Sapphire made my little gay heart so happy inside, and then getting a whole song confirming that they were a couple, that their love powered the strongest Gem on the team? Aaaaaaaaa

To this DAY I get excited when I hear Estelle start singing. This song is timeless. This song will live in media history. God I fucking love this song.

9.) Other Friends

I’m not the biggest musical person, so I hadn’t heard of Sarah Stiles before her casting as Spinel, but JESUS CHRIST the lady went hard. She went SO fucking hard. Sarah Stiles started on 100 and somehow just kept CLIMBING. You can just hear the sheer manic energy building in her voice, the anger and resentment. 10/10 Sarah Stiles is a queen.

10.) Independent Together

This made the list entirely bc the crew was like “you’re gonna get a himbo ass Steven-Greg fusion singing with Opal while Garnet flies across the moon on Lion while floating” and I am forever thankful to them for it

11.) Who We Are

Bismuth deserved more songs. ‘Nuff said.

12.) Peace and Love (On the Planet Earth)

It Could’ve been Great is EASILY one of my favorite s2 episodes. I love the entire concept of this song. Of Steven making music to reflect how much Earth means to him and his family. Of him teaching Peridot some self-care. Also Peridot’s singing voice is really cute and squeaky. 

I know it’s silly, but I would’ve really enjoyed a flip around of this in Future! Like Peridot reminding Steven how much he loves music, that he needs to take time to relax for himself, maybe with a new verse or just a remix of the original song!

13.) Something Entirely New

I watched this episode as it aired, and I legitimately almost cried. I love Charlyne Yi’s voice so much ya’ll- her raspy, not perfect singing voice against Sapphire’s deep soothing lull is great.

And to have Ruby and Sapphire’s meeting be the way it was- for Ruby to bemoan Sapphire losing Homeworld, to being stuck with a single Ruby, while Sapphire is a noble who has always been taught everyone in her “caste” is vitally important (and has, in her own mind, taken that to mean every Gem, as she should) and how they come together and make each other happy. Good shit good shit.

14.) I’m Just a Comet

The fact that Greg’s music career never really blasted off pisses me off to this day bc Tom Scharpling’s voice is fucking BUTTER. Also the song really feels like a jab at his parents now that we know the kind of dynamic he had growing up. “This life in the stars if all I’ve ever known” is definitely him wiping away their existence after reminding them (and himself) the things they used to say about him.

15.) Do It For Her

This episode. This fucking episode. This episode got me permanently hooked on SU. I’d just binged season 1 and was kinda meh about it overall after the bop of Stronger Than You. “Oh,” I thought to myself, foolishly, “I’ll probably just casually watch this from time to time.”

Like three days later Sworn to the Sword aired and that was it. I was hooked! Pearl’s gentle training song turning darker and darker, Connie’s accompaniment from nervous to determined to fully into such a toxic mindset. The fact that SU had the BALLS to discuss the repercussions of training child soldiers, now and later. This episode was everything to me, STILL is everything to me.

Six years and well over 100 fanfics written later, I think it’s safe to say this show swallowed me whole and never let go.

16.) System/Boot.pearl_final(3)

I debated putting this on the list because it’s not anything crazy important, just a way to show things are Wrong, but I had to do it entirely bc Pearl is so damn SALTY.

Like telling us about the Gems makes sense, she felt like she was given a duty, but she went so damn petty. WHY is that Ruby alone. Gross. This Amethyst is a trash dump. Wtf are you people.

17.) Full Disclosure

This episode really feels like a turning point for SU. Before, the show had its dark moments- but now we’re in the thick of it, and it’s not going away. Full Disclosure felt like an rebuff to the idea of returning to any normal we’d established in season 1. Gems are actually a giant species now. Gems tried to kill us now. There’s this Yellow Diamond bitch who got namedropped. Something about a Cluster. 

The song itself is BALLER, with its ingenious use of Steven’s ringtone and photos as he tries to decide whether to clue in Connie on all this nonsense. Meanwhile we, the audience, already know damn well Connie about to yeet some common sense into him.

18.) What’s the Use of Feeling Blue?

I’mma admit it- I’m a Yellow Diamond stan. I’ve always loved her- her anger, her poise, her hardworking nature. I actively argued against the “Yellow Shattered Pink” theories back in the day. But, man, when this arc leaked? I got so overexcited I was too jittery to watch it for like two days. It’s easily my favorite arc of the series. The sheer alien nature of the zoo, the Famethyst, and absolutely Patti Lupone’s beautiful ballad. Goddamn. Yellow singing to Blue to try and help her regain her old status, the warble in her voice as she reminds Blue she misses Pink too, the movement of the bubbles as she talks about attack. It gives me shivers to this day. FUCK.

19.) Tower of Mistakes

This is, fun fact, that only SU song I have completely memorized. The story itself is kinda funny! See, we lost internet at my house for a solid 5 to 6 months when these episodes aired, so I only got a very brief window to view them all. But this was the first Amethyst song in a long while, and I didn’t want to forget it! So I keep replaying it in my head for ages. And that’s still definitely a thing.

Anyway will never not be sad that this entire song was about making it up to Garnet for Amethyst’s perceived slights with Sugilite (which was a two-way road), only for Garnet to pressure her into fusion later when pissed and never discuss it again bc Garnet probably never thought twice about it and Amethyst has the emotional openness of a clam that’s just been told its ugly. Helluva way to make someone feel like shit, G. Helluva way to bottle that shit, Ames.

20.) On the Run

I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Amethyst! Needed! More! Songs! 

The dichotomy between Steven’s play and Amethyst’s honest desire to run away from home is so well-done, especially when you consider a lot of Steven and Amethyst’s actions are playing together. The song is also near and dear to me simply bc it’s my favorite Amethyst episode to exist (well, maybe second to What’s Your Problem, but not by much). Moments like these are all the proof I need that they were right to fuse first.

21.) Be Wherever You Are

This tune really just feels like an ode to who Steven was as a kid. Trapped on an island with no way home, and he’s just happy to be with his friends. The stars are beautiful and not oppressive. Also that one animatic with Lars and the Off Colors playing in the Homeworld Kindergarten to this music was iconic and made this song get stuck in my head for a solid month.

22.) Familiar

I ADORE how the crew use bright neon colors to show how alien Homeworld can be. And Steven recognizing that the Diamonds treat him how the CGs used to, and how prepared he is to “fix” a broken family. It’s a soft, gentle tune about melancholy. Also the Pebbles are beautiful.

23.) Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

Such a cute little love ballad, but every time I listen to it now I just imagine the heart attack Rose must’ve had at the line “And if we look out of place/Well, baby, that's okay/I'll drive us into outer space.” like there’s a Vietnam war flashback if I ever heard one

24.) What Can I Do?

I’m kind of neutral on this one? Rose and Greg both have great voices, but the song itself lacks many lyrics. I think it was definitely a good way to show Rose’s flaws in thinking.

Also, I’m shocked they managed cram that much vaguely sexual innuendo into two minutes, followed by how Not Hetereo that dance between Rose and Pearl was, and not get their asses chewed by it. You go guys.

25.) Cookie Cat

I love a lot of the vibes this song has. The lyrics are so damn prophetic, but they also sound like the kind of weird 90s commercials I grew up on. It’s been like two decades since I saw the Shirley Temple commercial but I’ll be damned if I don’t remember “Animals crackers in my soup! Monkey and rabbits loop-de-loop.”

26.) Giant Woman

I am. NOT the biggest fan of Steven’s original singing voice. I feel bad saying that, since it was just Zach Callison as a kid, but he never jived well with me for some reason. So I wouldn’t listen to this on the fly. 

The song itself is still really good though, with all sorts of fun animation of Amethyst and Pearl being bitchy to each other. It’s a bit sad in hindsight to see tiny Steven trying to get his moms to get along. Ahh, season 1.

27.) Strong in the Real Way

This song has SUCH a strong start. Pearl reflecting on Sugilite’s problems, but the show making sure to show us that Pearl’s lack of enthusiasm towards her also lends itself to jealousy as well as just general malaise. How much she cares about Steven, and wants him to grow up strong. 

And then Steven just kinda. Ruins it? I appreciate his enthusiasm for tryna bulk up but to take what was starting as such a rich, personal song and broadcasting it to random strangers just makes me a bit sad. Almost a bit angry on her behalf?

28.) That Distant Shore

I KNOW this is gonna create some discourse, but I’m just not the biggest Lapis stan. I love her voice. I love the visuals of the song. And I get why she felt afraid and needed to flee.

But Lapis never got to take responsibility for her own actions. And, in the end, the song feels hollow to me- because we all know she’ll never talk to anyone about it, know she’ll burst back in and destroy the barn, and no one will ever question it. I like Lapis a lot, but I feel like her arc never was fully finished. She never got help. She never learned to feel safe.

29.) Dear Old Dad

I’ve yet to meet a single human being who likes this episode tbh. There’s some great discussion about what kind of parent Greg is from it, and what kind of dynamic he has with the Gems that he felt he had to fake an injury to hang out with his son. Honestly the first half was fine and dandy. It’s just that then they Greg just went out of his way to drag Steven away from missions and such. It never jived well with his character before or after.

Also, is it just me, or does Zach himself sound like he hates the song as he sings it? There’s no passion or heart in his voice. It sounds like they told him to read off cue cards and he did. Tom Scharpling’s best attempts didn’t save this one for being a skipper. But the episode, unfortunately, isn’t, so it gets a spot on here.

#Steven Universe #Steven Universe Future #SU Analysis #(I guess????) #Music #Steven Quartz Universe #Amethyst #Garnet #Pearl #Yellow Diamond #Blue Diamond #Blue Pearl #Yellow Pearl #Greg Universe #Bismuth #Spinel #Lapis Lazuli #Steg #Opal #Rose Quartz #Lars Barriga #Sadie Miller #Sapphire #Ruby #Stevonnie #Falc talks

[ae0nx]

FRUITS BASKET S3 EPISODE 1 + 2 RECAP!

Yayyy! Season 3! Finally! I’m hoping this season will make me understand/sympathise with Akito and maybe even Shigure a little bit more because... honestly? My opinions on episode 2?... I might get some flack for my opinions on them...  😬

But, first: I’d like to appreciate how on the Funimation app we got a little interview/message from a few of the english dub VAs! Specifically Colleen Clinkenbeard, Jerry Jewell, Eric Vale, Ian Sinclair and Brina Palencia (Akito, Kyo, Yuki, Kureno and Isuzu). And it was nice seeing some of their opinions of the characters they play and how much they’re emotionally invested in the story. (Ian’s such a nerd ‘I wanna see giant mechs later this season’ 😂 - I lowkey stan him lol)

You should definitely check it out if you’re interested in what they would have to say!

ANYWAYS, let’s get into it...

---------------------------------------------------------------

EPISODE 1

I really love this depiction of the original zodiac and how you can just tell from the tone of the scene how desperately the God of the Zodiac was clinging on to these connections that they had with the participants in the banquet. How much they clung on to and loved the cat... Also, interesting how Tohru’s narrating this scene... almost like she can relate to the desperation of wanting to keep things the same... but we’ll get to that later. But also, Tohru is a God

This new opening is beautiful, I love the way that camera moves around the still illustrations and how the general tone just hammers down that... this season is gonna be some real shit lol (which makes me nervous for the opening for the second half 😳). It’s so warped and the general blue, grey and black tone that follows around every Akito scene we get in the anime has bled into every scene in this opening concerning the rest of the zodiac. Almost... like something is decaying. It’s great, it’s just very sad lol. I love the song tho, issa bop.

One of my favourite things in stories is when we get a bigger villain than the ‘pronounced’ villain of the story. Ren’s introduction through a manicured outstretched hand towards Kureno and Hatori is so weirdly gross in what it insinuates (especially when you apply her connection with Shigure) but again... I wanna know why she’s such an asshole to Akito specifically besides the bad mental health management within the Sohma compound. I have an inkling of what it is through memory of the manga, but like Akito and Shigure... I just wanna understand why.

Also, Ren is gorgeous and I’m sorry for simping. 

I mean... she’s kinda got a point? She just didn’t need to be so mean about it lol. It’s pretty clear that the connection the zodiac have to each other is real and something they cannot control. BUT, wouldn’t it be easier if this connection wasn’t perpetuated by outer circles of the family and if Akito herself wasn’t so cruel about it? But, I guess Akito - through her relationship with her mother - kinda doesn’t know how to genuinely show love and affection. (Which brings me into my thoughts of how the manga ends and how I kinda... have a few problems with it which I will get to... when that comes lol)

Lol - weeeeeeeee! (flashes back to Tohru being yeeted into the river). Is this a part of Akito’s god-like powers?!

Again. She’s got a point! They’ve both got a point. But, they’re both the source of the problem. It’s really painful to see two mentally ill people duke it out. This whole institution is just rotten.

- I am super curious about what Akira’s relationship was like with the zodiac and if it was just as dark. I’m gonna assume it slightly already was, as the exclusion and degradation of the cat curse is already dark in itself but maybe the rest of the zodiac were just fine with how things were? I dunno if we actually will get the full backstory of Akira and his zodiac but I’m definitely intrigued

Ok, but if four crying children came up to me after I’d just consummated with my partner to reach out at my stomach chanting ‘we’ve been waiting for you’. That would disturb me and scar me for a while too so... 😂. I know it’s supposed to be ethereal and spiritual but... dude, wtf lol

...I don’t like how much I’m into Ren being such a Villain™  😅

- Akito being seen as a crying child by the older zodiac members has always been interesting to me because yes, they could see her as that through mainly the age gap, general empathy and the way she sometimes irrationally acts out. But, also the depiction of Gods being seen as children having tantrums has being reflected in many different beliefs and myths (especially Greek Mythology) and I just like the fact that this all powerful, all knowing being would be compared to a child. It gives you a different perspective on power.

- Is the paper note in the CD case that Kureno gave back to Tohru an extra addition or was it always there?...

Mannnn... I really wanted Isuzu to fuck shit up after seeing Tohru so upset but... *le sigh* (outfit’s still on point)

But, I’m so glad we get an equal Ethereal Goddess to save Tohru! HANAJIMA! We love her, we stan her. <3

- ‘Tohru will be in my custody’ 🤣 I personally think Hana’s bluntness was a kindness in her conversation with Yuki because if I found Tohru upset? I’d automatically start firing metaphorical shots at everyone in that house

- Shigure fearing Hana makes me sleep better at night <3

Hana’s just like ‘hmm... sounds like someone I know... 👀’ I’m here for this parallel between Tohru and Kureno in the hopes that Tohru doesn’t ever get in as bad a situation as Kureno. Ahhh... Kureno... (Also, Laura Bailey was killing it in this scene as always)

- Hmmm... there’s something terribly poetic about Kyo saving Tohru’s scarf from oncoming traffic... but also, Kyo can’t help himself aha

KWEEEN! I love this look for Uo, it’s very Kyoko. I already said this in Season 1 but I STILL need to get wool-lined jacket. Outfit Appreciation goes to her - 3.5 stars.

<3<3<3 Friendship is magic!

- Megumi is such a good egg as always! From him going to get Uo to him being so wise with his outlook on love and how it takes time to really flourish. The best!

- This whole episode ends really nicely from Tohru’s return home and Kyo washing and returning Tohru’s scarf and Yuki being happy to see Tohru and Shigure being somewhat decent. It was nice to get a bit of relief after the tornado of emotions

Also, this was a nice screencap! Even Kyo is smiling!!! :))))

EPISODE 2

*takes sip of wine* ...ok.

👀... later lol

This scene really highlighted how Tohru is starting to see Shigure and the whole zodiac curse in a new and darker way. For the first time, it felt like Tohru was a little bit more guarded around Shigure and I hope they delve more into this season. Her description of her feeling around the curse being like a ‘dark well with no bottom in sight’ is pretty spot on. Ugh.

Aw! Is this the last we’re getting of Small!Momiji?! I love them :3 (Momiji’s shorts look a little shorter too, like he’s growing out of them ahaha)

- I haven’t found the Yuki fan club funny since their first scene in the anime but their poor disguises made me chuckle

- Yayyy! Kyo has an obsessive fan club too? ...Yay?? 😅 haha

- ‘I won’t kill them but they can go to hell’ why is Kyo speaking like me?! 😂

The fact that we got a scene of Yuki kinda admirably looking at a group of friends (boys and girls) playfully physically interacting and he unconsciously reaches out to Machi almost like he forgot about the curse? Heart eyes... 🥰

Again. Relatable. 😂 God, Yuki. You really are an airhead. Bless your soul. <3

And that look says it all. Damn. Kyo’s sense of hopelessness is heartbreaking but I still stand by it being understandable considering his circumstances.

Kyo freaking out about Tohru being visually upset was super cute but I couldn’t even appreciate the fluff because the whole scene had such a morbid tone to it, despite it being so visually romantic:

KYO’S FACE!!! 💔 Ahhh, my emotions!!!! Also, that shot from Tohru’s perspective under her bangs is great.

- Poor Mitsuru, I’d ask for extra pay just for dealing with Shigure’s ass.

Hahah - what a great metaphor!

- Now that Shigure’s ‘true form’, so to speak, has been fully exposed all his comments that are supposed to be teasing come off so much more awful. Him insinuating Mitsuru wasn’t ‘upper class’ enough for Ritsu was awful

COLLLDDDD. AS. IIIIIIICE. But seriously, Shigure this whole episode was cold in many different ways but I definitely felt this personally since I’ve been told something like this by a family member before... 😕 Also, it’s just gross how both Shigure and Akito are taking their own personal issues and mistrust of each other out on to other people. The curse and the institution behind the curse complicates a lot of feelings for sure, but there’s a difference between wrong and right and I get the general feeling that they both are just using the muddy waters to their advantage. Although, I feel like Shigure is taking more advantage of this than Akito but I’ll get into that in a bit.

- There’s also something about this episode that made me sympathise a lot more with Kureno in a more understandable way. But, it also makes me question the ending of this whole story and the resolutions that happen and what life for the whole Sohma institution/family looks like after the curse has broken.. I guess, I should read ‘Fruits Basket Another’ after this, huh?

😳... Shigure is so petty, man. Really?!

So...

I hate this relationship. I’m sorry. I know there are loads of people who like this relationship. And I’m still giving myself space for the show and the story to convince me why it’s worth it. But... I really don’t like this relationship. It’s so toxic. In so many ways. And in a weird way, this scene made me feel a LITTLE bit more for Akito than Shigure. It feels like Shigure gaslights everyone in his life but none no more than Akito, herself. I hate the fact that he keeps saying he loves her while hurting her or disregarding her. You know, almost like he’s treating her like a child. But on the other hand, I hate the fact that Akito has lowkey gaslighted herself into thinking she can treat people however she wants because she is ‘God’. I understand this is part of the way she was brought up and it seems like life in the Sohma compound has been very isolating for her so there’s been no one really to show her better (or have the confidence to show her better). But, at least I can be a little bit more sympathetic on her side than Shigure’s. I dunno... it’s just all very ugly and toxic and I’m hoping that it’ll turn around somehow.

I just hope it’s not one of those relationships that are ‘so good cos it’s so bad’.

...I’ll briefly talk about the ending theme to end this on a good note lol:

I really like this ending! I dunno if they’re gonna have two endings and two openings for this season but this ending definitely feels like it should’ve gone in the second half as it’s almost spoiler-y? But, then again what anime opening and ending isn’t packed with spoilers lol

All the illustrations are gorgeous, I’m assuming they were drawn by Takaya-sensei herself as it seems very much in her current style of artistry but my favourite illustrations are definitely the ones shown above! <3

---------------------------------------------------------

Ahhh! Fin! Sorry, about this one being super long and you probably having to scroll past a whole lot on your dash 😝 As usual, I had a lot to say. I’m open to hearing from people who actually like Shigure and Akito’s relationship btw, it’s just that everything before and episode 2 just really didn’t sail the ship for me, personally. I do want to understand! Haha

See you soooon!

#fruits basket #furuba #fruits basket season 3 #fruits basket 2021

[convhearts]

The Hollow Season 2 Review!

*contains spoilers!*

Can I just say, this was 10x better than the first season. The animations! The plot! The emotion! The action! Everything! 10/10 recommend!

So, let’s get into the praises! Like I said, the animation was so much better. I really enjoyed the animation. I felt like the plot had way more depth to it this time and it was more complex which was great!

There was a lot of emotion this season. I actually teared up. Although it devastated me, I like how they handled the Skeet situation. Most shows will pull something like that and then bring them back (which is a cheap copout in my opinion). The Hollow k*lled Skeet off and made it stay like that. They made us live with that. They made the characters live with that. Not many cartoons do that. It was, for a lack of a better word, refreshing. I also was not expecting them to go that dark (burying him, putting his hat up on the grave marker, Mira ending up taking the hat with her). That’s when I cried. I was not expecting a “kid show” to actually show a character buried. (And even reference it later in a conversation using dark dialogue). I found the whole “Skeet continuously trying to **** himself” situation to be a very dark decision as well. They made it a bit funny but it was still a very dark concept. And then with him basically succeeding....that made it even darker (and sadder).

Now onto LGBT+ rep! I am honestly super happy with the rep!!! He said gay!!! He actually said it!!! And they had a full conversation about it! And they addressed the kiss!!! (Adam’s reaction was hilarious). As the season went on, I wasn’t really expecting Kaidam. If anything I was expecting Adam and Reeve to have a thing (but I’ll get into that later). Also, Mira’s dads!!!! And they’re interracial!!! I’m so happy! 8/10 in terms of rep for me in total.

Now time for romances! We did not get Kaidam. Or any canon Adam relationship. However, we didn’t get ANY canon relationship. I’m content with that. They were focused on staying alive and getting through the game. I do think they left it a bit open ended. I think Kai x Vanessa is extremely possible. I also think Mira and Skeet had some feelings for each other. I also think it’s possible that, if we were to get a 3rd season, Adam x Reeve could be a thing. And that’s very cool!

This brings me to the reveals. As in, the backstories of the characters. This was handled very well!! I was super shocked that the original friend group was Adam, Reeve, and Mira. That was definitely not something anyone could have expected. Also Mira and Skeet knowing each other was sweet (although it seemed a bit out of place and had some inconsistencies). Adam being gay of course is amazing. I also liked Mira being a vegetarian. Kai being rich was hilarious. It gave me Fred from Big Hero 6 vibes!

My favorite part was the plot twist/ending. That was the most creative plot twist I’ve ever seen!! They’re digital copies??? It made the whole season bittersweet for me in a way-knowing those aren’t technically the real Adam, Mira, and Kai and the real ones are out living their life. For most of the season I was wondering how they were going to tie in the live action portion of the first season’s finale. I was confused too. They kept talking like that part never even happened. But when they finally revealed the plot twist it hit me like a truck! It was so unexpected. The ending was bittersweet too Them living their lives in the digital world is cool. But the sad part is that those aren’t their real parents and siblings at all. Those really are actual copies. But I did like the ending.

Now time for the criticisms!

The Skeet wanting to **** himself bit got a bit repetitive. But maybe that’s just because I was scared it could be triggering for some people. For the LGBT+ rep, I mostly enjoyed it. I would have given it a higher score but I wish they had explored Adam’s sexuality more and had him reference it more than once. (You can argue the “Most guys look bad in pom poms.” bit was a reference but I’m not sure on that one.) I would have loved a canon love interest but I’m still content with the representation. I’ll still ship Kaidam a bit because it’s cute but I am definitely headcannoning Adam x Reeve to be a couple. I wish they would’ve explored that a bit more. Like I said, it could maybe been seen as open-ended. But I wish they could’ve had a clear “Yes, Adam and Reeve get together” moment. Mira and Skeet were adorable. But like I said, it seemed a bit out of place for me. Also, isn’t Adam Mira’s best friend? How does he not know that she is/was best friends with Skeet? I felt like that was a bit of an inconsistency. About the ending, I wish we had been able to see the real life Adam, Mira, Kai, Reeve, Vanessa, and Skeet living their lives in the outside world. That would’ve made the ending more complete and less sad for me. It would have given me closure. But I think I can understand why they did it. It could’ve seemed out of place having both animation and live action. It was criticized a bit last time.

All in all, I really enjoyed the 2nd season. It was a lot better than the first in my opinion. I don’t think we’ll get a 3rd season since the way they ended the season was a close to the story. It was a full ending. I would love a 3rd season though so I can see the characters again, see them in their new life, and see Adam’s sexuality explored more. I would also love the possible romances to be explored more too. But yes, this is my review and I hope you all enjoyed the season as much as I did!

#i had to repost it because i made mistakes :( #the hollow #the hollow netflix #the hollow netflix spoilers #the hollow spoilers #lgbt

[livlepretre]

if you were rewriting the klaroline relationship for some reason, how would you do it and what would you change? I got to thinking and I feel like klaroline could've been such an incredible ship, if there just weren't so many weird decisions made in writing it.

I feel like I transcended when I read this, because, WOW do I have a lot to say on this topic. 

The thing about Klauroline is that it actually makes no sense whatsoever, and a lot of that is that the writing around it was super weird, like you said. But also that they were an unlikely couple to begin with... let’s look at why:

Klaus. We have absolutely no indication from his backstory that he had ever been seriously romantically involved with anyone, other than Tatia Petrova and, in a darker turn, Katerina Petrova. In fact, given his “love is a vampire’s greatest weakness” rant in 1492, we can understand him as a creature who scorns romantic love. We can probably extrapolate that this has to do with the emotional scarring from the fallout with Tatia, followed by him hardening his heart against Katerina so that he could eventually murder the mirror image of his original love. Interesting stuff. But that means that we are set up to believe that Klaus doesn’t fall in love. That he’s even specifically set against it. 

Meanwhile, we know why Caroline is great: she’s a creature of extraordinary contradictions. Loving and yet starved for love. Popular and yet incredibly insecure about her friendships. Neurotic while also aware that her neuroses push people away. An over-achiever who never feels good enough. Low, low self-esteem, that only starts to improve once she actually becomes a vampire and finds some autonomy in her life (I would say this starts when she tricks Katherine into the death trap in 2x07-- that spark of joy that she actually did it).

But none of this precludes the fact that Caroline is ultimately just a teenaged girl. And Klaus is just a horrible monster. There’s no reason for Klaus to ever look twice at her, when she’s one of thousands of young pretty vampires he’s met over his life, and nothing specifically special on the surface, and no reason for Caroline to get over the fact that he’s the monster who murdered Jenna, hunted and murdered Elena, attempted to murder Bonnie, and oh yes, also tried to use her and Tyler in that same sacrifice. Oh, and then murdered Tyler right in front of her, and continued to generally terrorize everyone she loves. 

And the thing is, none of this would have mattered, and all of this could have been dealt with with a few simple changes! 

First thing’s first: there needed to be an actual situation where the two of them were FORCED to see each other differently. 

In the show, Klaus suddenly and inexplicably notices Caroline when he arbitrarily decides to save her from Tyler’s werewolf bite (which was his fault??). Caroline is basically flattered enough that she puts aside the awful stuff Klaus had already done. This is a major disservice to both characters. It portrays Klaus as weirdly romantic and pathetic in a dimension he most definitely is not (he’s pathetic in a million other ways, but not in a soft mushy way-- he’s more, isn’t it so pathetic that he’s too much of a coward to love?) and, even worse, it expects us to accept that Caroline actually doesn’t care all that much about her loved ones, because a hot powerful guy can turn her head and she can basically abandon all ties of loyalty to her friends. Okay. 

So picture this instead: the two of them are thrown against their will into some sort of life or death situation where they can only depend upon each other for an extended period of time-- hours, days, however long it takes. This gives them an opportunity to overcome the problems they have with each other, and see each other in a totally new light. Klaus actually sees the best of Caroline as an individual-- her heart, her resourcefulness, her determination, her canniness-- all of the things that would separate her in his mind from every other random teenaged girl and set her out like a blazing star in his mind. Maybe she comes up with the plan that saves them. Maybe she’s the brave one between the two of them. Something. And meanwhile, Caroline actually gets to know the man behind the monster-- she sees his weaknesses, but because of her empathy, she understands them as very human weaknesses. She pities him... but she also relates to him. The heightened situation leads to heightened emotions. They don’t come out of this experience in love or even consciously attracted to each other... but they come out of it understanding each other, and being aware of each other in ways they never had been before. 

From there, the relationship could develop more organically. Caroline would feel guilty about siding with her friends over killing Klaus, because she knows him too well to feel good about having a hand in his death. Maybe she would even consider warning him. Begging him to just leave. (And of course he won’t, because he still wants to use Elena, and the fact that he’s doing that to one of her best friends only makes it harder for Caroline because suddenly she can no longer cast Klaus as her villain). 

Klaus would try to keep Caroline out of his various plots. It would actually make sense that they would have their dance in 3x14, but instead of it being Klaus outright romantically pursuing Caroline with lame horse girl drawings, it could be more like: they end up spending the evening together because they keep inevitably falling into each other’s company. Klaus is lonely. Caroline is sad after Tyler leaves, and mad at Klaus for being the reason he left, but also: he’s the person she somehow feels like she can talk to. 

And maybe things keep escalating. Slowly. Slowly. Drip. Drip. Drip. It’s not about an overt romance, it’s about this energy and tension slowly building between the two of them, so that by the end of season 3, when Klaus saves Caroline first and then goes to save Elena, we realize that he’s in love with Caroline. That he’s chosen her first. 

And that when Caroline says “I know you’re in love with me” in season 4, it’s a HUGE moment because by voicing it, she’s really admitting that she’s going to have to act, one way or the other. And when Klaus tells her “I will be your last love” it might actually come across as something honest, and yearning, and hopeful. 

Basically, I think that the romance should have been way slower and way throttled down. It made absolutely no sense for Klaus to fall head over heels for anyone, but especially for Caroline whom he didn’t seem to be able to pick out of a crowd until suddenly he was into her. It made no sense for Caroline to fall for Klaus at all, because it implied that she’s really shallow in ways we know she’s not. So. Let it be slow. Let it build from a moment of unexpected clarity between them. Seeing each other with new eyes. Let them fall together naturally. And for God’s sake, don’t draw horse pictures or lend her prom dresses! 

#anonymous

[toonqueen]

Duckvember 2020

--Ponder--

Linking to an old playlist of mine BUT also including why I have these songs on there. Kinda fits the ponder theme okay. I’m trying I’m so behind here *SOB* 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-BLrUhg7cOKMsu8bGh4CBh5C3EVXCUpy

This is my generic duck feels playlist I use when writing but I often have so many other playlists I use it's insaneeee but this is a nice beginning base until I get a feel for a story to make its own playlist haaaa. 

**Joywave - Bad Dreams*** 

-Ominous feel that some shady end of the world stuff is happening song. One of the main things I put this song to is Magica having a premonition of something bad is going to happen. But she doesn’t have the best rep with powerful magic types and with hero types so she has to make a ragtag team willing to help her. Haaa. Mind you in my headcanon the De Spell family line started by a witch that had a really good future sight so Magica takes it seriously and I GUESS she has to like… stop the world from ending. 

**M83 ft. HAIM - Holes in the Sky***

-Another ominous oh crap bad stuff is happening song wheee. I had an idea that I ended up using in a Duckverse RP of some of the alien hats from Darkwing being a different set of alien hats that were actual powerful witches. The RP I ended up having was for a parody of Hocus Pocus. What I attach this song to is where the hat set grab Magica, Gladstone, and an OC thats a powerful De Spell sibling (that's a whole other story.) That leaves Poe to defeat them save the Earth the usual. My headcanon for Poe is he cannot cast magic but has a wide knowledge of artifacts and spells. Could arm himself with some good magical artifacts. He ALSO would make a ragtag team to try to stop the 3 most powerful magic based people controlled by alien hats. That team would include Fethry and Gyro lol. Notice this song is a lot more postive than Magica’s Bad Dreams song because Poe’s being more positive about getting it done. Magica’s more ‘well we’re going to die anyways might as well TRY” and Poe is ‘ WE’RE GONNA DO THIS AND WE’RE GONNA MAKE IT OMG. Once I get over this crippling depression that I’m useless. Whee.”

**Do You Realize - Ursine Vulpine***

-Vague sad song for sad things. Main reason I had this song is for my Mighty Ducks the Animated Series headcanons for Drake Ducaine. I pretty much kill off all this family and friends in the past. You know, the war, saving stuff. SACRIFICING THEMSELVES SO HE CAN LIVE. His young daughter makes it. Am I not merciful. 

**My Tears are Becoming the Sea - M83***

-Really acidy trippy sad song. Great for fighting elder gods. For my main RPing OC’s on Duckverse this goes with some scenes of their past. Other main thing I use it for is Mighty Ducks the Animated Series I have it for Wildwing’s death.. Haaaa. I kill him off in his 60’s when he has to help save the 2nd Gen team (All the kids of the first team.) Well you know. He’s like the only duck chars I kill off ‘youngish.’ I dunno why most of these story ideas came in high school FRICK. 

**In A Heartbeat - In the House***

-I have loved this song from the second it was in 28 Days Later. I do not have one defined story line plot or character this goes to. I would put it on every song list I had if I felt like I could get away from it. EXCELLENT ATMOSPHERE.

**The Darkest Evening of the Year***

-Another great ominous atmosphere song. I stick this one with Gladstone but don’t put it on my actual Gladstone playlist for being too dark?!? I put it with him finding out what I headcanon the origins of his luck. AND OH BOY. I really want to give the vibe of that scene like some suspense/horror energy let me tell you.

**No Time for Caution - Hans Zimmer***

-Great like, ‘team prepares to fight a boss fight’ type music. Let's do this. We can fight an elder god. LETS GO!!!! But still that bit of dark tone like - hmmm we may not be successful. Ahhhhh.I also think of Tanya from Mighty Ducks working late fixing something or lawd taking care of a teammate gotta find a cure for something. They just gave this woman all the jobs. AGH. 

**Happiness Does Not Wait - Olafur Arnalds***

-A sad yet happy tune. That mix of energy. This one I put with Grandma Duck. In my headcanon all her adult kids have since past but you know all her grandkids visit all the time. It's kinda weird that like, the whole gen in between was wiped out but uh, I have a reason plotted out for that. But you know, Grandma little sad all her kids are gone but sees them in her now adult grandkids ahhh. 

**Low Gravity - Hugo Kant***

-Actually ModMad suggested this one to me when I shared this playlist with them when they made the “Over the Rainbow’ comic. Shared it because it really fit this playlist so I could not  not share ahhh. Anyways. That's one of my top fav comics by Modmad, and actually in an unrelated way inspired some of the backstory for the two main OC’s I RP in Duckverse. Wheeee.

**Everything You Do is a Balloon - Boards of Canada***

-A good ominous ‘the hero has won but at what cost’ energy. This is a song I’ve had for ages and directly put to the abuse I put Drake Ducaine through. I’m so sorry. Weh. I literally have a separate playlist that is Drake Ducaine/Wildwing anxiety cuz I headcanon Wildwing the reincarnate of Drake Ducaine because of COURSE. 

**Goodbye to a World - Small Dust/Porter Robinson Cover***

-I just love music like this. First used this song for Mighty Ducks because the previous life of Drake Ducaine I had be a little duck boy that showed kindness to a Saurian Goddess and she ended up taking the Duck side in whatever fight went down and well the rest is history which will I ever write a story for I dunno. And in the next life as Drake Ducaine the Goddess also reincarnated in a mortal body so they get to work together again yay. This is also one of the main themes I use for my Duck OC’s Felicity and Faustina. In RP land uh they’re from an alternate universe that got all ate up by an elder god and they were the only two survivors cuz some weird luck and magic runs in their family. Their version is a more trippy version here:  https://youtu.be/HzuHAMg1Hng OH WAIT I’M WRONG THEIR MAIN THEME IS A DIFFERENT PORTER ROBINSON SONG HAAA still enjoy. 

**Soldier - Fleurie***

-I use this song several times for Gladstone. Mainly for one story I DO plan to write someday I have so many parts of it done. Anyways he screws up big time and has to fix a problem while he still have luck that works on him, he needs to actually do something to solve the problem and its grueling and takes  a long time and travel around the world and bad stuff just happening to those around him and AHHH. Anyways.  Also a good song for Djinn in new Ducktales theres stories I have reason for his for him let me tell you someday. Ha. 

**Battle Cry - Imagine Dragons***

-A great mello fight song for everything. Just. Some good shit. Heroes making sacrifices. Stuff going down. Hidden powers having to be used getting exposed but you GOTTA SAVE THE WORLD. 

**Elephant Survival - Emancipator***

-A good song for villains to think about their feelings. I loved this song when I came across it. I put it to my headcanon for Negaverse Gladstone. And a little Gladstone in there too. There is a darker mix here: https://youtu.be/59A3k8tpPMI

**Do You Realize - The Flaming Lips***

-This song again but with a slight positive energy?!? Dying and seeing loved ones that passed on kinda vibe. BUT ALSO I abuse reincarnation tropes so bad. This is a good reincarnation trope song. Lawd. 

**Saturn - Sleeping at Last***

-Roll Credits energy to a movie that ended not happy but not sad just the normal in between of life. There is a really good Poe De Spell short story I need to finish that makes me think of this song. I also put it to Drake Ducaine who supposedly dies of old age having saved and rebuilt Puckworld Society. That's a lot of pressure to put on a guy y’all. Also fits my abuse of reincarnate trope abuse. Also for some Djinn x Gene okay like they’re gonna adopt a lot of kids and all those kids are going to write stuff down to their kids like how Djinn writes stuff down and they’re gonna tell stories of their great great great great great grandparents Djinn and Gene forever OKAY.

Anyways, have some feels y'all. 

#duckvember 2020 #duckvember #ducktales #ducktales 2017 #magica de spell #poe de spell #gladstone gander #negaverse #fethry duck #gyro gearloose #mighty ducks the animated series #wildwing #tanya vanderflock #drake ducane #drake ducaine #mdtas #duckverse

[salty-dracon]

Some thoughts on The Caligula Effect 2

So I joke about this game getting a second remake to my friends online and the next moment I learn THIS was announced during the Japanese Nintendo Direct. Let me spill out my thoughts to spark discussion as well as provide a record to myself if this game actually does get localized.

Everything is under the cut!

My thoughts on Overdose were that it has a fantastic world... and that’s it. Out of the game’s cast, there were maybe four characters I liked, and the rest had moments that made me lose all sympathy for them. I recall it was common for some Let’s Players to like the villains better than the protagonists, and I’d agree on that front. I actually think the anime is the best iteration of this game’s story, changing up the formula enough to provide a really solid characterization arc to everyone. But Overdose suffers from poor writing issues (killing Eiji offscreen in the best ending was one of the worst decisions they made), rough handling of certain topics, boring and monotonous dungeons, and 500 social links you’re never going to do. I’m incredibly critical of this game, and I’d never recommend it to someone without a LOT of disclaimers, but somehow I still love it.

Already this game looks CRAZY good visually. It doesn’t look like a reskinned Vita game anymore, with something a little more reminiscent of say, the Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth games. That’s not to say that the game doesn’t still implement its fantastic character art, which still show up next to the speech bubbles. (At least the models have moving jaws. That’s important.)

Here’s to really hoping this game won’t be another Caligula 1 reskin, because uh... the game is about a protagonist who realizes that the world is a virtual one created by a Vocaloid who won’t let anyone out and joins up with a group of teenagers who also want to get out despite the fact that their real world lives were horrible so that they can set things right and they call themselves the Go-Home club (and also a Vocaloid gives them weapons made out of black stuff) but the people that are stopping them are basically the servants and guardians of the Vocaloid keeping them trapped in, who also happen to be humans who can’t return to the real world because their real world lives were so horrible, and so they have to fight because the Vocaloid won’t let them out otherwise. I mean, of course it won’t be a reskin, but I’m surprised at just how much of the original story they kept.

As for things they absolutely did NOT keep, DAMN this game looks dark! I was once remarking to a friend about how Caligula’s story would appeal better to me specifically if they’d gone with a religious pressure rather than idol stan theme, and they appear to have really pulled through with that religious pressure. I just realized, while writing this, that the image I showed off above actually has an image of an angel in the stained glass window being worshiped by fans with glow sticks. Furthermore, there’s a gothic cathedral-like altar, a halo behind Regret’s head, and this whole exchange looks like it takes place in a church. While I’m not religious myself, I can talk a lot about church architecture (see: my Fire Force livetweet) and I’m interested to see how this game handles it.

Not only that, most of the character designs seem darker and very different from the original game’s. Take a look at this game’s idol goddess:

Is μ going through an emo phase? I wouldn’t blame her lol. I think she still has a fantastic design that is in equal parts dreary and beautiful, while perfectly matching the color scheme of the new game.

And what a color scheme it is! The world of Caligula 1 had a gorgeous white, black, pink, brown, and gray color scheme framing bold pops of color in the form of flowers. Caligula 2 changes things up by making black the primary color framing everything else. The pops of color are so much bolder, too, from Noto’s bright yellow sweatshirt to basically everything χ is wearing. Do these changes reflect the story’s potential darker tone too? Or are they representative of something else?

We don’t know too much about the characters, but Caligula 2 looks like it’s giving them different weapons. It looks like the protagonists wield double knives instead of double shotguns. As for the other weapons, I see shortswords, katanas, chains, pistols (much smaller than Shogo’s), canes, and Qiyana’s ohmlatl from League of Legends. Definitely a shift from the original game’s weapons. I wonder if they’ll make a comeback? That giant gun was unique to say the least.

The Obbligato (I think?) are this game’s Ostinato Musicians. Italian for “obliged”, they are the ones who defend Regret from any threats. The one shown off most in the trailer is this guy who looks like the 1010 dudes from No Straight Roads. Man, he really looks like Shadow Knife in that image up there...

Also we get a, um, clown astronaut and a crazy high school yandere. Just to name a few. Definitely not the first time I’ve beat up a clown in a video game. Pretty unique as far as villains go, though. I hope this game has its own villain route, where you learn more about them. I’d really like that.

Social links! Looks like you rank up social links the same way you do in the original game. Do you want to make this character spill out all their trauma? Are you SURE about that, despite there being no negative consequences to you, the player? Awesome. Get ready to be sad.

The battle system is, from what I’ve read, similar, but not the same, as the battle system in Overdose. I’m not going to give too many details on that. They still seem to be time-based with combo chains, but they’re pretty vague. Looks like you still get to unleash crazy special attacks against your enemies. And they in turn can unleash crazy special attacks against you.

I absolutely want to see a. better characters and b. better overall writing. In my opinion these were the two weakest points of Caligula 1. Despite the protagonists’ tragedies, some of the little things they did made me sort of hate them. I did not like how everyone in the original Go-Home Club used Kotaro (who you learn is FOURTEEN!) as a verbal punching bag despite him being one of the kindest characters in the club. As for better overall writing, I stated before that I preferred the anime’s interpretation of events, because I thought they were in a better order overall. Besides killing Eiji offscreen, I hated how they wrote μ to be such a monumentally stupid character (I often point to Persona 5 Royal on how to write a villain like her well) and their, in my opinion, poor handling of certain topics like fatphobia. And though the character episodes sort of redeem them, it’s like... not really? The way I described it to a friend was that while the moral of Caligula 1′s story may have been “We live in a society and everyone’s dealing with their own hardships, but you can’t run away from them forever and you can at least be sympathetic to those facing them”, the character interactions end up dumbing it down to “We live in a society”.

Also an anime adaptation would be really sick. The anime just had so much better writing.

As for what I’m really curious about:

1. Who is Regret and how is she related to μ and Aria? We already know she’s a Virtuadoll like them, but if I recall correctly μ and Aria had some more concreteness to their backstories. Specifically, the human characters remember them existing as vocal synthesizer programs before they became the rules of Mobius. Regret’s backstory is that she just kind of showed up one day. Does she have different origins from μ and Aria? By the same merit, who is χ and how is she related to Regret, μ, and Aria? We know that χ opposes Regret and gives the Go-Home club the power to fight back against her, kind of like what Aria did in Caligula 1, but was she a co-creator of Redo like Aria was, or was her role completely different? The fact that she isn’t a little sparkle like Aria was (as a result of losing all of her power) indicates that their roles might be a little different.

2. What relationship does Redo have to Mobius? We know Mobius was created because Aria and μ wanted a place for humans to live without the sorrows they experienced in the real world. However, eventually μ was manipulated by everyone’s negative emotions and Thorn’s actions. This caused her to prevent anyone from leaving, and also the plot of the first game. Is Redo a second, improved iteration of Mobius, or a completely new virtual space? Were the goals behind its creation the same as in the first game? Or was there another force at work? Is Regret trying to copy μ or improve on her work? Or is she doing what μ did independently? I don’t think there’s enough information to predict the answer to this, but from what I’ve seen, there are a lot of similarities between the two worlds, from the high school to the end goal. However, there are some differences in tone. Mobius was a place to escape suffering, while Redo is being marketed as a place to escape regret. Redo also has a more religious bend than the idol theme of the first game.

3. What other links do the first and second games have to each other? People have been theorizing that Marie Mizuguchi/Wicked from the first game may return as Marie Amabuki (I think) in the second due to them having the same VA. There’s obviously the shared artstyle, symbolism, Catharsis Effect, glitchy NPC faces, and general setting. I also suspect that this game takes place after the events of Caligula 1. Not much I can say about this right now, but I wonder how everything joins up. Or if it even matters that they do. I haven’t seen too much on whether or not this game is being marketed as a standalone or a sequel, or if you even need to play Caligula 1 to enjoy Caligula 2.

Conclusion: While the Caligula series isn’t one I’d recommend to everyone, for the way it handles a number of sensitive topics, I will still be checking out Caligula 2 if it comes to the West. Though very little has been revealed thus far, so far I’m interested in the religious iconography used as well as the darker tone and colors presented in the game. As well as the characters, who have more varied and interesting designs including super unique weapons. I’m a bit disappointed that the plot, as it has been revealed, is an exact copy of Caligula 1′s plot, right down to the names of the protagonists’ faction. I was hoping for a bigger evolution to the story, but considering so little has been revealed in the first place, this may be a bit of a preemptive judgement.

That’s it. I hope you enjoyed my discussion of what I’ve learned so far.

#the caligula effect #caligula

[popmusicu]

My favorite soundtracks from video games

Monkey Island: Main theme 

What a suspenseful beginning. The slow buildup, the soft bongo, light percussion, and then.....BAM!!! All these beautiful instruments come together to create one of my favorite video game intros. It perfectly encapsulates the Monkey Island games and their aesthetic. In a humorous game inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride, what better soundtrack could there be than this, a so-called “pirate reggae” style of music?

Secret of Mana: The Color of the Summer Sky

Fun and sweet town tunes are a staple of RPGs, Dragon Quest, Illusion of Gaia, Super Mario RPG, etc, they all have them. But what makes Secret of Mana’s special to me is nostalgia. This was one of the first games I played and actually got really far in it without my siblings' help. All of its music and locations are so special, but the first time i heard the town theme stands out. Going from the wild fighting monsters to this warm and colorful village feels great, it immediately puts you in a cheery mood and even the shopkeepers can’t help but dance to it.

 And it becomes even more special when contrasted to Phantom and a Rose, the sad theme that plays when you’re forced to leave the village.

Katamari Damacy: Katamari Mambo

I recommend this soundtrack for when you feel tired, I'm almost 100% sure it will give you energy. 

The whole Katamari OST is something truly unique, and that’s because that was the intention of the music director Yuu Miyake. He and his team had complete control of the sound design in the game, so they focused on making whatever sounded good and fitted best. This resulted in a shibuya-key style album with jazz and samba influences that features vocals by many j-pop artists and anime voice actors.

I love this album so much, every song is so different from the last one, but they still all feel cohesive. My favorite has to be Katamari Mambo, something about it is so addicting to listen to. Ka-tama-ri Mambo de~

Doom: All of it 

You are the Doom Slayer, woken from your slumber and in a mission to brutally destroy every demon that crosses your path. The soundtrack that accompanies you in your journey? Industrial Metal. 

It’s just perfect.

Breath of the Wild: Stables and Kass‘ Theme

Breath of the Wild is probably my favorite game of all time, and the sound design is one of the many reasons why I love it.

The stables theme is so soothing and comforting, when you hear it you immediately know that you’re safe and there are people around. Every time I traveled to a new location and suddenly heard the guitar and bongo I got so excited because I didn't expect a stable to be there. Like when i was in the snowy mountains, low on health and thinking that i was all alone and about to die, but then i heard the stable theme and rushed to get there. It really helps cement the idea that while it seems like Hyrule is desolate, there are still small communities here and there, doing their own thing.

Super Mario Galaxy: Rosalina in the Observatory 2

This game makes me emotional, even though it’s not very plot heavy (because it’s a Mario game), Rosalina’s backstory impacted me a lot when i first played this game years ago. Going into the observatory and hearing this song before knowing the whole story is nice, but listening to it knowing what happened adds something more emotional to it for me. The fact that the ship and the Lumas became Rosalina’s home make this song bittersweet. The observatory is where she tells her story of being left alone in the galaxy which is very sad, but it’s also where the Lumas gather around and remind her that she’s not all alone after all. And i think this tune encapsulates that feeling, a little melancholic but hopeful and uplifting, and i really like it.

Life is Strange: Mountains - Message to Bears

Every time I play this part of the game and this song starts playing I tear up. I love this song not because it makes me happy or feel good, but because of the pressure it puts on my chest. The rapid beat and overwhelming instrumental simulate the anxiousness you feel when desperately hoping that Rachel is alive. And the lyrics only add to that feeling; they repeat, over and over, a promise to run away to something better or at least different, but in the end it stays as only an unfulfilled promise.

Ib: Game Over

The song’s name is actually El Sueño de la Muñeca by Agustín Barrios. I just think it’s so random that the creator of the game decided to use this as the game over theme. It’s such a nice guitar composition and i’m glad i found out about it through Ib. 

Silent Hill 4: The Room: Drops of shame and The Suicidal Clock Chime

Paranoia in song form. Two great compositions by Akira Yamaoka for a pretty good game (in my opinion). The atmosphere in these songs is so suffocating, it emanates despair and the feeling of someone being near. The soundtrack of Silent Hill is a pretty big reason for me not finishing the games, I get too scared. But I love listening to the OST whenever because it makes for good background music.

Animal Crossing: K.K. Metal.

Of course, animal crossing is known for it’s amazing songs, especially the ones by the humble superstar K.K. Slider. He’s given us bops such as Bubblegum K.K, Stale Cupcakes, Rockin’ K.K, among others. All of them performed on guitar and accompanied only by his beautiful vocals.

So what does he do when performing a metal song and he needs to shred like on an electric guitar but he doesn’t have one? He sings the arpeggios. And it would be the cutest thing ever, except him howling right after wins the prize.

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja 5: Opening Theme

In the beginning I said the opening of Monkey Island might be my favorite game intro, but actually, the Ultimate Ninja 5 OP is a strong contender for the top spot. That piano and ominous deep vocals in the very beginning used to be my favorite thing about this game, and i would actually close and open the game just to see the intro cutscene with naruto emanating red light and transforming into his four tailed fox. And then there’s of course the explosion of classic naruto action music, but mixed with something darker and some beautiful piano melodies.

Pokemon Sun and Moon: Abandoned Thrifty Megamart

This was a really cool part in Pokemon Moon. The song by itself would sound good, but very normal and typical, so the effects make it so much better. The background supermarket static effect is great, and also the fact that from time to time the sound will stop working in one of your earbuds is a fun touch. It all makes for the perfect song to a spooky part in the game where at the end of the section you find the best pokemon of all creeping on you, Mimikyu.

Touhou Project 8: Imperishable Night: Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke and Immaterial and Missing Power: Doll Judgement

Touhou has too many good songs, but for the sake of not making this 4k words long i decided to only include two. 

Fujiwara no Mokou is my favorite Touhou character and her theme song is equally as cool as her. A little soft and forgiving in certain parts, but fast and exciting in others. Like all Touhou enemy songs it perfectly fits her attack patterns and is incredibly rhythmic and catchy. I also really like the arrangements fans make of this song, they’re so talented and transform these themes into something so different.

And speaking of arrangements, IaMP’s Doll Judgement is a jazz version of Alice’s original theme exclusive to the fighting game. When i first played IaMP and heard this version i had to search for it on youtube because i liked it so much. It’s so smooth and a little theatrical, and it keeps the sound that made the original such a classic for fans, so much so that i might even like it better than the original.

  There are many other songs from video games that i love, but i don’t think i can mention them all without making this post 10 pages long, so i’m going to leave it to here. 

-Violeta Silva

[tu-mint]

‼️⚠️NEW OC⚠️‼️Introducing...Jade Lofota/Dome‼️🥳

‼️‼️Hey guys! Hope all has been well with you since quarantine! Speaking of which, Tiktok has officially dragged me back into “bingewatch anime and mess up your sleep schedule” mode and ofc I listened. So I just recently got back into My Hero Academia specifically (I started it when it first came out then lost track 😅) bc I’ve been seeing this trend with MHA based OCs and it’s so cool! My personal favorite is Artiste aka Hina Tsukuru which y’all can check out on Tiktok @/mailleur_maker btw! Anywho, I figured why not go on and make one too?? These are pretty much the basic layouts to my character (I used a website to create my character’s look bc I can’t draw for 💩 so I apologize if they aren’t the best quality!) Let me know what you think!‼️‼️

Name: Jade Lofota (Hero Name: Dome)

Age: 18 (DOB: 02/20)

Height: 5’8” 1/2

Species: Human

Ethnicity: Samoan

Hair Color/Type: Brown w/ Natural Highlights; 2C-Type

Eye Color: Indigo, Mint Green (when using quirk)

Physical Description:

Jade has a muscular physique with noticeable curves around her mid section. Her skin is a caramel tone with a diamond shape face. She has thick curved eyebrows that arch slightly upward giving her a natural weighty expression. Her lips are turned downwards and two toned, her upper lip a slightly darker shade. Her nose and ears are wide set, but her ears are slightly pushed back. Jade's hair is a 2C curl texture, but she keeps it in a braid that reaches right above her hips with shorter locks slipping out on the side.

During school hours, Jade wears the UALA version of the UA uniform, which is initially the same without the stripes on the collar or cuffs. Jade also wears black leggings and gloves, along with a pair of boots that stop above the knee. With the hero attire, Jade wears a long mustard top that reaches the top of her thighs with loose sleeves that end at her elbows, along with a hood. Attached to the tip of her hood is an inverted triangle shaped device. The top is slightly opened down to the navel, and the hem has high slits on either side. Under the top, she wears high waisted shorts that are the same color of the hood and the sleeve outlines. At her waistline is a utility belt full of medical supplies held up by a strap that goes across her body. Jade wears tech infused gloves and boots that are a metallic grey color and reach below the knee. On her left thigh is a blunt held up by a black strap with yellow buckles; the blunt can stretch to full length when used.

Family:

Manu Lofota [father; retired pro hero]

Lina Lofota [mother]

Manu Jr. Lofota [oldest brother; deceased]

Tony Lofota [younger brother]

Joseph Lofota [younger brother]

Matthew Lofota [younger brother]

Mikey Lofota [youngest brother]

Carolei Lofota [sister]

Backstory:

Jade is a second-year student in class 2-A at UALA apart of the special program they'd developed. (⚠️In this AU, due to its rising global popularity, UA High has now evolved into an international school program to assist upcoming heroes around the world, so there are other UA institutions in select locations (but the original UA in Japan is pretty much the Harvard to all Ivy Leagues). Every year, one student per location is handpicked to spend 3-5 months at the original UA and understand the history behind heroes while getting to personally train and meet with pro-heroes. A special structure created for this purpose is directly across the UA building.⚠️) She comes from a middle class family and was able to get into UALA (UA Los Angeles) school after being scouted by a staff member who she saved from danger. When she was younger, Jade had witnessed her oldest brother, Manu, get shot and killed by gang members he was associated with, thus making the ultimate decision to become a hero. The memory constantly torments her as she believes it to be her fault for not acting quickly enough to defend him, though her parents often try to assure her that it isn't. Being where she’s from, Jade takes a crucial amount of time learning to master her quirk and combat skills as a means of survival. She dedicates her life to protecting her family at all costs, even if it means sometimes committing wrongdoings.

Persona:

Jade is a cordial person and enjoys any opportunity to meet new people; many often take a quick liking to her because of the comfortable aura she gives. Along with meeting new faces, Jade is observant of those she interacts with and can remember distinct aspects very well, such as body language, habits, facial expressions, and speech patterns. While her observance is meant as a defense mechanism, she sometimes uses it to her advantage. Persuasion is one of Jade's strong suits and often she will use it to get herself or others out of trouble. On the field, Jade is a formidable and aggressive combatant, but impulsiveness is often a struggle she deals with. Sudden flashbacks of her brother's death trigger Jade to act without thinking which in turn ends up hurting herself or others. The passing of her brother also overcame Jade with guilt and made her develop a pessimistic view on life and society. These cynical beliefs drove her to swear complete protection over her family from the world's evil, especially her siblings.

Abilities:

- Quirk: Animal Control: Similar to Shinso, Jade has a quirk allows her to use mind manipulation over any animal classified organism, but the only way it can be activated is if she makes physical contact using the head, legs, hands or feet. She can manage multiple minds at once but must be careful to the extent at which she does because she can put herself into sensory overload. The quirk can be deactivated two ways: Jade verbally declares the opponent free of her command, or sensory overload will forcibly shut down her control (if multiple minds are being controlled, she can pick and choose who is released; if there's no specification, the quirk will deactivate control over all minds). Jade can command her opponent telepathically or verbally, but the deactivation can only be done verbally. Her quirk can involuntarily be triggered by the smallest touch, so Jade must be cautious with her interactions as to not set it off (ex: giving hugs).

- Telepathy: When in close range, Jade has the ability to temporarily share her telepathic powers with someone in order to communicate with them. Using telepathy for too long can leave her lightheaded and susceptible to fainting as it requires a lot of mental strength. This also applies to when her quirk is in use with the exception of range. Since most are unaware of this ability, Jade will use it to temporarily distract an opponent when in combat.

- Enhanced Strength: Jade is physically robust and can endure high levels of pain while fighting. Jade can also handle severe injuries while engaging in combat or using her quirk, which easily makes her an intimidating opponent. At the same time, she has the ability to deliver lethal punches and kicks that are deadly to an opponent if powerful enough and has proved this her first year of the final exams in UALA.

- Enhanced Agility: Given that her quirk requires physical contact, Jade can move at an impressively quick rate despite her stature. She is able to maintain incredible balance between her speed and strength at close and mid range and will occasionally use gymnastic maneuvers to take down her opponent or latch herself onto them. Jade's rapid observations on her opponent also help her in using their physicality against themselves.

Uncanny Balance: One of Jade’s most notable skills during combat is the constant switching of her body position. Whether in direct combat or moving away from it, Jade can quickly shift whatever stance she’s in and hold it for long periods at a time despite its complexity, showing her flexibility, durability and balance. An example of this would be fighting in a hand stand depending solely on the legs and feet for combat. (This is connected to Enhanced Agility.)

- Special Moves:

Footlose: Jade back flips into a hand stand position before the opponent and swings a brutal kick between their legs or to the groin then delivers another blow to the side of the face with her other foot, activating her quirk. She brings both her legs to her chest to deliver one final kick to the opponent's face.

Tama’s Blow: At long distance, Jade sprints to her opponent then leaps and spirals while coming down, allowing momentum to build into her left arm. Her fist connects with the opponent’s jaw before her feet reach the ground, twisting the neck far back and killing or severely injuring the opponent. When this move is performed, parts of Jade’s tattoo will glow.

Quote(s):

"Look kid, I’m not here to be the world’s hero—this is for my family."

Trivia:

- Played softball for 3 years but quit before high school

- Jade owns two electric guitars -- one in her dorm and one at her house -- and plays them to relieve stress, worry, anxiety or sadness

- Tama’s Blow was named in honor of Jade’s father as it was one of his finishing moves as a Pro Hero

PLEASE DON’T STEAL OR POST MY WORKS WITHOUT ASKING

#my hero academia #mha oc #mha dome #bnha oc #my hero academia oc #this was actually so much fun #the only thing keeping me from sleeping all day #anime oc #anime #quaratine tings #i need to sleep #mha au

[tonotbelionized]

Volume 7, Episode One: The Greatest Kingdom

So, I’m gonna be doing something that I haven’t done before and make some reviews on each episode of Volume 7. After watching this first episode, I have many feelings towards it.

Under the Read More because spoilers!

I’m gonna start positive on this review before getting into the negatives, because there were actually a lot I liked about this episode.

First, the colours and animation. CRWBY have been getting better and better with their backgrounds and colour schemes throughout the years and it really shows. The industrial aspect of Mantle is sold with the dusk colours, purple and reds, and the neon lights distinguish it from the more rural and asian inspired Mistral architecture.

On top of that, the first episode does a great job in setting out just what it’s like to live in Mantle. The people seem disenfranchised, you have people drunk in street, and the racism is so ingrained that people just behave that way in the open with no fear of reprimand. With the billboards showing Ironwood telling these strict rules, and soldiers roaming the streets with droids, it very much paints Mantle in a dystopian light.

On the characters, I’m love that Ruby and Weiss immediately jump to protecting Blake from the drunk guy. With what little interactions we get for Ladybug, I’m glad that we’re getting something, and that Weiss has grown so much from her Volume 1 attitude to the Faunus to now. Great character development. 

Also Maria is pretty funny again. She annoyed me at the end of Volume 6 with her antics, but it’s nice that she’s climbed back up my list again. I think it was a good idea that she’s not arrested with the others, and I hope that she takes a backseat this volume simply because she’s not needed anymore. The team are in Atlas, Ruby’s learned her silver eyes, and Maria isn’t good in a fight. She’s ran her course.

The new character we got in Pietro Polendina, Penny’s father. All I have to say about him is:

I. Love. Him. On top of his good design with elements connecting to Penny, he’s another disability representation with his wheelchair, and his chair has such a cool design. It looks exactly what a smart and innovative creator would make. And he’s voiced by Dave Fennoy. One of my favourite characters in all media is Lee Everett from The Walking Dead Game, and they got his voice actor to play Pietro.

That’s a big plus for me. 

The fight we got in the episode was very well done. The animators knocked it out of the park with the fight choreography, especially with Qrow and his scythe. The one negative I have is that it feels a bit slow and static in some places, especially with Weiss, but that’s just a problem with her since now her fighting style is stand in one place and use your glyphs. The inter-team fighting is great, I love Weiss and Ren working together, and Nora using Jaune’s shield to launch herself is such a nice nod to her move with Pyrrha back in Volume 1.

Last thing that I like is Penny’s design. It’s really cute, reminds me of those Victorian dolls, and her new hair is so pretty, if a bit janky in some parts. I know that they obviously took inspiration from Dishwasher’s design of Penny, which makes sense considering he’s working for RT now.

And this is where I start getting negative, because there are some parts that I really don’t like.

#1 thing that has made me angry is Penny returning. I hate it. I’ve already made a post months ago about why they shouldn’t bring Penny back, so I’m not gonna repeat myself here, but the simplified explanation is:

It spits in the face of her arc. Penny was struggling with the fact that she’s not a real girl because she’s a robot, with Ruby helping her by saying that, because she has a soul, she is real. This has always been a driving point for Penny. When she died, it drove Ruby and Pyrrha to grief, but it served a purpose because that was when things were getting serious. Ruby just lost her best friend, and Pyrrha won like she always did, but this time her victory came at a price.

Pyrrha killed someone. She was devastated, Ruby was heartbroken, but now all this was for nothing because apparently Penny can just be rebuilt! Who cares that your friend is dead and you watched it before your eyes? She’s back now so it’s all okay!

Real people don’t come back from the dead. Pyrrha is not coming back, everyone who died is not coming back, the whole point that Salem never understood in her backstory is that people can’t come back from the dead. But Penny can, because she’s a robot so of course we can just put her back together. It’s reads off as Penny being a cheap plot point. Ruby could’ve gone through an arc of accepting that her friend was gone and finally talk to someone who knew Penny, but no, because we gotta have powerpuff girl back.

Also Team WBY’s comments are dumb. You guys didn’t know Penny, you only interacted with her once for the entire three volumes she was alive, why are you acting like you’re friends with her? I hate it so much it’s unreal.

Moving on from Penny, beside her, Ruby, Yang and Qrow, the new outfits are bad. The excess use of belts are not only annoying, but they’re clunky and disrupt the flow of the outfit. They make them too busy. The lack of textures makes everything look the same, the overall designs are seriously inappropriate for both Atlas weather and the fact that they’re meant to be fighting. 

Weiss’ ballerina style fighting is going to be seriously impeded by her long and heavy looking dress. Blake is meant to be a stealth fighter who uses acrobatics, leather catsuits chafe and rub you up in all the wrong ways, and the fact that white is overcoming the black is annoying. Her colour is black, put her in it.

On top of colours, Nora’s is just way too bright. It’s colours from her original outfits but there’s just too much saturated blue and pink, it’s way too much. Her old outfit was perfect with the pink taking center stage and the blue being way darker in her jacket. The fact that it mimics the trans flag colours is funny though, as a trans man myself.  

But a final note on the designs is the hairstyles. Jaune’s doesn’t look as bad as I thought if he’s moving, so that’s a plus, but Weiss and Blake’s are just ugh. I had wild hair like Blake’s when I had it longer, and even though I cut it now, it’s still curly. Why is Blake’s hair so lifeless? It looks thin, flat and greasy, and the added problem with it is that her face looks wierd now.

The whole braid on Weiss is way too thick as well, and just isn’t rendered nicely.

Moving on, we have the new characters introduced. Clover and his team, Robyn, Pietro, on top of the previous characters returning, it’s a big problem. The cast is already too bloated, we don’t need Clover and his team adding more and taking away screen time that the other characters need. Why even introduce him when you could easily use the wide cast you already have? Bring Neon and Flynt back, have them be older students than Team RWBY in the Vytal Festival and then they graduated the whole year since the Fall of Beacon.

It woulda added more to the scene, or just have it be guards who disappear after taking the team in. Just stop adding new characters, I literally don’t care about them. And the fact that the heavily Irish-inspired character doesn’t have an Irish accent is bad and I disapprove as an Irish person.

Finally, the OP. I like the actual animation of it, it definitely feels different to the other OPs in the past volumes, but it’s pretty good! I just don’t like the song. Not only can I not understand what Casey is saying, which is something not unique to this song I know, but it doesn’t feel like a RWBY song. All the other openings are rock with ripping guitars and wild energy.

This just doesn’t have that. It feels like a generic anime song to me, and that’s sad because the music has always been that unchanging praise for RWBY from me. 

And that’s it for this episode! Overall, I’d actually really enjoyed it! It was fast, great fighting, good characters and interpersonal moments, and the fact that Dave Fennoy is here just sold it. I’d give my soul to that man.

Now if CRWBY has him call Penny “sweet pea”, I will literally cry. 

So in conclusion, I’d give the episode a 8/10. Needs improvement, but amazing regardless. 

#rwby #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby spoilers #crtq #episode review

[aspoonofsugar]

The Role of “Hate” in Pluto

I have just finished Pluto and one of the things I found the most interesting about it is how it explores the concept of “hate”.

The ending is very clear in its condemnation of it:

However, more than this, what I find fascinating is how the story arrives to this point and what this conclusion means. As a matter of fact hate and other negative emotions like sadness, anger and grief are all portrayed as very human emotions which are very common and difficult to avoid. So, this meta will try to explore this idea further.

Pluto is a retelling of one of Osamu Tezuka’s stories which is called The Greatest Robot on Earth.

Because of this, I think that a good way to go at it when analysing it is to ask ourselves what the greatest robot on Earth should be like.

This is professor Tenma’s answer:

As a scientist Tenma wants to recreate human nature through an AI. Humans hate, feel sadness and lie, so a perfect robot should be able to do these things as well.

Let’s underline that this idea which is fully expressed by Tenma is prepared throughout the narration in several ways far before Tenma makes it explicit.

For example, Brau 1589 states that no malfunction has been found in his AI. This is because him killing a person does not make him less perfect, but actually better than other robots because it makes him closer to a human. This is once again clarified by Tenma when he visits the robot:

Similarly, Atom says something interesting here:

On a less darker note, the narrative offers several examples of minor human weaknesses robots are not supposed to share:

In a conversation he has with Gesicht, Hoffman states jokingly how a robot who skips work could be considered progress. This is perfectly coherent with the ideals embodied by professor Tenma’s character.

This idea might seem to endorse a pretty negative perspective of human nature. This is certainly partially true given Tenma’s cynism and his status as a person who has escaped from society and so who avoids interactions with other human beings as much as possible.

However, when it comes to Tenma, I think that what he thinks about hate and human imperfection is something a little more complex than that:

Tenma created Atom to somehow “resurrect” his son who died in a car accident. However, he soon realized that Atom was not Tobio. First of all he does not mature like human children do:

Secondly he doesn’t share Tobio’s feelings and imperfection. He can try to imitate them, but when it comes to a feeling as complex as the one of hate he doesn’t know what to reply to Tenma.

So, for Tenma the negative traits which made Tobio human are the ones he misses the most and Atom lacking them is why he decides to sell him and to leave him behind.

This is to highlight how Tenma’s vision of the world is not simply one driven by scientific curiousity and a sense of nihilism. Those two are aspects definately present in him and they make up a great part of his personality, but they are rooted in Tobio’s death and in Tenma’s inability to overcome grief:

This is made clear by Tenma’s reaction to Atom’s death and to his willingness not to respect any moral or scientific bounds in order to have him back:

Here Tenma is doing something very similar to what he did when Tobio died. He chooses to do what he can to bring his son back even if he knows that he might be giving birth to a demon.

This is important when we consider Gesicht’s story and his role.

Gesicht, like Tenma, is a father who lost a son in a horrible way. His reaction to this loss was pure anger and hate for the child’s killer. The hate was so strong that motivated him to kill a human being despite this going against the robotic laws. It is obvious that if one takes out the fantascientific setting the situation is already one with which we can empathize. Gesicht is portrayed as a very moral person. This is no surprise since he was programmed to be a robot cop. However, when a great injustice hurt him personally he gave in to revenge and broke the law. This is the core of Gesicht’s character and his struggle.

This is important for at least two reasons.

1) The first one is that Gesicht killing the man out of hate is relevant when it comes to his and Mr Haas’s subplot:

Mr Haas’s wife suggests that Gesicht (being him a robot) could not have killed Haas’s brother motivated by such a negative feeling as hate. She argues that what happened must have happened out of necessity while Gesicht was trying to fulfill his duty.

The idea that robots not having emotions can be considered something which makes them better than humans is touched on several times. Here is an example:

A judge whose judgment is not clouded by emotions can be considered better than one who can become irrational due to feelings.

In short, it seems logical to think that Mr Haas’s anger towards Gesicht would be misplaced if the robot killed without hate and justified if the robot killed with hate.

However, this is not how things play out in the end.

As a matter of fact it is specifically the fact that both Haas and Gesicht acted moved by hate that lets them understand each other:

Finally, it is the fact that Gesicht still chose to protect both Mr Haas and his family despite what had occurred between them what finally motivates Mr Haas to change idea about him and hopefully robots in general:

In other words, it is not the fact that Gesicht is unable to feel hate which makes him better than Mr Haas, but the fact that he was able to overcome it. This is what gets through to Mr Haas and inspires him to be better. After all, if Gesicht was simply a person without emotions it would be difficult for Mr Haas to relate to him and it would be easy for him to keep hating the robot as someone inhuman. However, the fact that the two of them are flawed in a very similar way, but that Gesicht still chose to abide to some sort of moral code (like his duty as a policeman) is the proof that Mr Haas has the chance to do the same.

The way things were sorted out between them makes sense also considering Mr Haas’s backstory. As a matter of fact his and his brother’s hate for robots was born by the fact that they were considered better workers than humans and that this led to the brothers’ father being fired. What is more a robot’s too strict application of the law is what led to the man’s death:

The robot was technically right since the brothers’ father had stolen, but at the same time all he stole was a ball to give his children some joy.

In other words, arguments about how robots are better than humans and superior to them are bound not to have the right effect on someone like Mr Haas since his hate is born partially by this exact idea. However, seeing how similar to him Gesicht was managed to obtain some results.

2) The second reason is this:

Throughout the story this scene seems to be a part of an extremely dark memory Gesicht is trying to suppress. He is literally haunted by this scene and it keeps coming to his mind when he sees robots’ bodies among other things. In short, everything leads the reader to think that what happened between Gesicht and the man asking money out of him is something negative.

However, when we are finally revealed the context of the scene this is what we discover:

Gesicht’s memory was not an unhappy one, but on the contrary it was him remembering the day he became a father. In other words it is the day Gesicht learnt parental love.

At the same time this scene is at the origin of Gesicht’s hate and violent action. As a matter of fact one can not choose to only have positive emotions. If one feels he is bound to deal with both the good and the bad of it:

All in all the story if full of love being used to fuel hate and of hate overcome by love.

This becomes apparent in the character of Sahad aka Pluto:

This abstract sign is identified by Atom as a negative feeling and when we meet Pluto for the first time he has been realizing works of abstract art:

This picture might seem chilling at first sight especially if the reader realizes that the robot who has drawn it is Pluto. Uran herself is led to Pluto because she can feel his immense pain and she wants to help him.

However, as Sahad spends more time with Uran in a somehow positive environment he starts to remember what he was originally created for aka his father original wish:

And so what seemed like an abstract mirror of a pained subconscious becomes a wonderful field of flowers able to move Uran to tears.

After all, the whole conflict is born by a huge dream being destroyed by war and by a man losing his children and his wife.

What Abra/Goji wants is revenge and it is meaningful that he tries to obtain it through three cyborgs (counting Goji himself) who were originally created to turn the desert into a field of flowers.

The example of Bora is self-explanatory:

He was supposed to be a robot who could save the planet, but he has been turned into a weapon which could destroy humanity instead.

In short, negative feelings are a part of being humans and they are strongly intertwined with positive ones. These two points come together in Atom’s “resurrection”. This part of the plot is also linked to Gesicht’s arc and his role as a father.

Atom is able to wake up thanks to Gesicht “hate” and Epsilon’s “sadness”:

After his awakening he is said to be able to feel hate and this is proven true during his battle against Pluto:

This in itself is important and can be used to make some considerations:

Here Brau claims that Atom has matured to which Atom’s reply is that he can not grow since he is a robot.

This is interesting because the fact that Atom can not grow is one of the reasons why Tenma realized that he was never going to be like Tobio. The other one was Atom’s inability to feel hate. These were the two main reasons why Tenma considered Atom a failure.

However, after his awakening Atom has learnt what hate is and he is said to have matured. What Brau noticed was probably something more similar to a change happened in the inside rather than one happened on the outside.

In other words Atom has grown not because he has matured physically, but because he has now a better understanding of human emotions among which hate.

This is no different than a child growing up and having to learn the complexity of the world and to make sense of their negative feelings.

After all, given Tenma’s description of the perfect AI here:

It is difficult not to think of it as a child aka as a being who has in front of themselves all the possibilities and who will grow to become only one of those possibilities.

In a sense this is very similar to what was said in Monster:

Children can become anything and the parents have a great role in influencing their future developments.

This becomes obvious through Gesicht and Atom’s relationship.

As a matter of fact what Atom learnt from Gesicht is not only what hate is, but also this:

He learnt how to overcome it and that humanity is not just hate, but also hope:

This is why the manga ends with a wish and a prayer which are actions born out of hope:

Let’s also underline how the bomb formula Atom writes down after he wakes up is not just something born out of a new found hatred for the world, but it is probably something he learnt thanks to Epsilon who realized that the Earth was in danger just before dying:

Let us also underline how “sorrow” (aka what Atom learnt from Epsilon) plays a part in the ending just as much as “hate” does. As a matter of fact once Atom overcomes his hatred he starts crying and so does Pluto and the two comment how strange that feeling is. It is also interesting how Epsilon’s death, just like Gesicht’s one is linked to a child. As a matter of fact the two robots both survived a fight against Pluto and gave up the chance to kill him only to then die trying to protect a child.

This is linked to the last point of the analysis i.e. to how Atom surviving is representative of the importance of protecting children and in this way the future itself.

After all, throughout the narrative Atom is paralleled to Gesicht’s child, so it is meaningful that in the end he survives thanks to Gesicht’s sacrifice. At the same time he is the one inheriting Gesicht’s legacy like a child who is taught by a parent. Even if the parent messed up he has still the chance to teach the child to be better. So, Atom is able to put into practice what Gesicht learnt and is able to connect with Pluto.

In conclusion, to answer the question which started this analysis I would say that the Greatest Robot on Earth is not the strongest or the one who exhibits somehow better qualities than humans, but it is a robot who is human and who at the same time is able to learn from humans (like the robots developing emotions by imitating human behaviours), but also to teach humans to be better:

This is evident also in how Brau develops. Brau has always been an AI very similar to humans since he managed to develop hate, but after his meeting with Atom he starts to understand something else. He calls it “a heart” and he is able to feel it both in a person as noble as Atom and in a person as despicable as the President. The fact that in the end he chooses to kill Doctor Roosevelt instead of the President underlines a choice the character makes. Despite how much imperfect humans are Brau still chooses them over an AI who is incredibly advanced and intelligent, but lacks a “heart”.

#naoki urasawa's pluto #naoki urasawa's pluto meta #pluto meta #my meta #gesicht #pluto #tetsuwan atom #uran #professor tenma #umataro tenma #epsilon #naoki urasawa

[nadziejastar]

Can you think of other characters besides Riku, Terra and Isa who might have a 'Shadow self' and 'supressed feelings'?

“Master Eraqus, you see, is so afraid of darkness that he, too, has succumbed—not to darkness, but to light. It shines so brightly, he forgets that light begets darkness.”

It’s sad how underdeveloped a lot of the characters are. Fortunately, we’re gonna get Dark Road pretty soon, which will flesh out Xehanort and Eraqus a lot. I think Eraqus had a very strong Shadow Self and a lot of suppressed feelings. He was so afraid of darkness, it caused him to turn on his own pupils and miss vital warning signs that Terra needed support.

*Sigh*, it was so much better when I had no heart. When I didn’t have to worry about things like liking someone.

Becoming fond of something is painful. That’s why those feelings were taken advantage of.

Larxene definitely had a strong Shadow Self. Unfortunately, she didn’t get much backstory during the Xehanort Saga. But obviously, her issue had to do with love. Larxene wanted love, but she was suppressing that desire. She pushed people away and acted cold to protect herself, like Elsa. She had been hurt in the past.

Namine was originally thought of as Kairi’s Shadow Self. I think Namine was supposed to be the manifestation of Kairi’s suppressed feelings. Kairi was left alone at the end of KH1 while Sora went on other adventures. She felt useless and forgotten about by everyone. Her two childhood friends were gone. She was lonely. Of course, since Kairi is a Princess of Heart, even her Shadow Self is still really pure-hearted and bright.  

Are you really worthy of being a Keyblade Master?

Obviously Aqua developed a strong Shadow Self after being in the Realm of Darkness.

Is there any point in continuing this fight?

Her Shadow Self voiced all her fears.

You'll never see the Realm of Light again.

And all her doubts.

Just let go of everything and fade into the darkness.

She felt hopelessness and despair.

No one can save you. And no one wants to.

She didn’t even think anyone wanted to save her.

Your bonds of friendship only tie you down.

My favorite of Shadow Aqua’s lines has to be this one. All of her other ones are pretty much what you’d expect. But this one sounds so out-of-character for her. She’d never EVER say that out loud. It was definitely a suppressed feeling.

Only your heart is hollow enough to be a demon's.

But part of here DID feel like her bonds only brought her down. And she felt guilty for feeling that way.

Ansem the Wise had a strong Shadow Self. DiZ was nothing but a persona to hide his shame. He convinced himself that he was acting as a servant of the world when deep down, he knew he wasn’t. Of course, Ansem the Wise didn’t get fully developed, either. I’m sure there was a story there in KH0.5 where it would show his whole backstory, how he got banished, how he became DiZ, and how he came to be remorseful enough to put his data inside of Sora’s heart while he was asleep.

Sora is...complicated. Too complicated, which is probably why it didn’t really go anywhere.

The figure at the center of the room glanced up at him, and Roxas flinched at being caught staring. But though the hood kept the wearer’s eyes hidden, Roxas could see a smile. Something was so familiar about it, but he couldn’t think of where he would have seen it before. There were so many things he couldn’t remember about these last seven days. It hadn’t scared him before—but now it did a little.

When Xion was born she looked up at Roxas with a creepy smile. I think Xion was born of Sora’s Replica/Shadow Self, who also had a creepy smile. Xion wasn’t a unique character any more than Riku Replica was. She was a Sora Replica. Riku Replica is Riku’s Shadow Self. Xion is Sora’s Shadow Self. Xion can even wield a Keyblade from the Dark Realm (Two Keys).

Roxas was also the bright one, while Xion was the more “dark” and pessimistic one. Roxas was optimistic and didn’t worry or think too deeply about stuff. He always thought Xion could come back to the organization and everything would be fine. He was pretty simple, like Sora. Xion was the moody angsty one who questioned her existence all the time. She felt like a burden on Axel and especially Roxas. Roxas always helped her out. And at the end, she was sucking his power from him. She felt like she didn’t deserve to exist.

Once Roxas absorbed Xion, that’s when he became the angsty person everyone remembers from KH2. Before that, he was pure and bright, like Ventus. It was only after Xion disappeared that he became so “dark” and angry.

Like Namine, Roxas was originally meant to just be Sora’s Shadow Self, nothing more. But he evolved into his own unique character with his own heart (Ventus). I think Nomura originally wanted to use the connection between Sora and Ventus to develop both Ven’s and Sora’s darker sides, but he never really got the chance. KH3′s story was a mess and Xion and Vanitas really didn’t amount to much other than being needlessly convoluted. Vanitas didn’t have any depth at all. But he was supposed to be Ven’s darkness as well as the shadow that Sora cast.

Ventus is Sora’s darkness. Sora’s powerful light was the reason why his heart was a prison to him.

Roxas: I hate you so much...

DiZ: You should share some of that hatred with Sora. He's far too nice for his own good.

Roxas: No! My heart belongs to me!

His heart couldn’t wake up because Sora’s light was casting too large of a shadow on him. Sora’s light only fueled his anger and pain and pushed him further into the darkness.

Sora was supposed to do something to awaken the darkness in him in order to wake Roxas/Ventus up, but of course that subplot went absolutely nowhere.

“But why would you advise me not to fight darkness with light?”

The Fairy Godmother replied, gentle but admonishing. “Strong rays of sun create dark shadows. Sadly, Lady Tremaine and both her daughters are jealous of Cinderella’s charm and beauty, qualities that appear to you as ‘light.’ Jealousy is darkness. Light and dark go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other.”

I think the idea was that when someone is in a lot of pain, you can’t truly connect with their heart just by being “light”. You need to be able to meet them where they are---in the darkness. 

Riku didn’t preach to Dark Aqua about letting go of her misery and despair. He could empathize with how she felt because he had his own darkness. And I think THAT’S what Sora needed in order to be the real hero. His light wasn’t enough. He needed to enhance his darkness in order to really be empathetic and wake Ventus up. But that never really happened.

Perhaps it’s why Nomura said he cannot empathize with Sora and he relates more to dark characters like Xehanort. Sora was too bright for him in the end. It’s why he wouldn’t have made a good Seeker of Darkness.

Nomura probably relates to Riku more. The closer Riku got to Sora’s light, the greater his shadow became.

“You’re talking like I’m some kind of creature of the darkness.”

But it was true that he’d turned away from the light.

No—not from the light exactly. From Sora.

Because Sora shone too brightly… And then, he became the hero of light, and I gave myself over to the darkness.

Like Roxas/Ventus, Riku couldn’t tolerate Sora’s strong light because it fueled the darkness inside him. Being around someone so overwhelmingly bright and positive made him feel bad about himself and he became jealous.

“And Aqua and Ventus, their lights shine too bright. It is only natural that they cast shadows on your heart.”

Master Xehanort pointed at Terra’s chest.

The light within Aqua and Ven—created the darkness in me…?

Xehanort probably felt that way about Eraqus, too. I’m sure he had a very strong Shadow Self and was projecting that onto Terra. Ventus and Aqua were too bright and they only fueled Terra’s shadow. Of course, Aqua and Ventus had their own darkness. Aqua threw herself into darkness for Terra. And I think Ventus’s time as Roxas (Sora’s Shadow) was supposed to give him enough development and darkness to truly understand Terra’s pain, so he could be able to properly connect with him and bring him back to the light using the power of waking.

It seemed like you didn't need me either. Yes, I thought that I didn't need you with me anymore. That's why I sacrificed myself to that man. If you didn't need me, then I no longer held meaning.

The greater the light, the darker the shadow. Riku and Terra felt like they were overshadowed by their friends. I think they had a similar idea for Lea and Isa, only a bit different. Riku was jealous of Sora in an envious way. I think Isa was jealous of Lea in a possessive way. And this is why I don’t think Lea would have made a good Seeker of Darkness. He was meant to be the bright one, like Sora. It was part of his character. He did gain a lot of darkness over the course of the story, to make him empathetic enough to reach Isa. But he was a Guardian of Light at his core. 

I think Isa felt the same way Xion did. He felt like he was nothing without Lea and had nothing to offer him. He was just a drain on him. Lea was the light, the Sun. Isa was the Moon, the darkness. The Moon can’t create its own light. It is dependent on the Sun and simply reflects its light. And I think that’s how Isa felt about Lea. Lea was the source of his light. He was so happy, positive, outgoing, and cheerful. But Isa felt like he had nothing to offer him. And that’s why Saix became so irrationally jealous when Axel became close to Roxas and Xion.

[seriouslycromulent]

(Lengthy) Thoughts on Fantastic Beasts 2: Crimes of Grindelwald

I don’t really plan to write a full review of FB2, but since I said I was more excited for it than Widows, Aquaman, and Bohemian Rhapsody, it feels wrong not to share some general thoughts on the second installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise. 

Especially since I just got back from seeing it a second time in the theater.

As usual, I haven’t read any reviews, nor do I plan to. I think I’ve established by now I don’t care what critics think. Never have. The only opinion that truly matters in how I view any work of art or entertainment is mine, so if you’re mostly expecting to see me repeat or refute any critics’ opinion of the film here, you might want to keep scrolling. (I address a few at the end. But it’s very cursory.)

Anyway, here are some of my reactions to FB2. And yes, there are spoilers below. I tried to keep them vague as to not give too much away, but I was not as successful in doing so as I might have hoped. You’ve been warned.

And away we go ...

Overall, I enjoyed the film greatly. It didn’t give me the warm fuzzies at the end that the first FB did, but it’s not supposed to. It’s not the first chapter that kicks off the story. It’s the next chapter that leads us down the darker path in the tale that introduces us to true struggle and turmoil that we’re going to have to deal with through the remaining 3 films.

It’s not meant to be shiny. It’s not meant to be sweet. But it is meant to present us with a few twists, turns, and new information to keep us invested in the story. And with that in mind, I was not at all disappointed.

I don’t know if I’ve communicated this yet, but I truly love the look of Fantastic Beasts in general. The 1920s is one of my favorite eras when it comes to design and history. From fashion to automobiles to architecture to hairstyles to music to literature to advancements in technology, etc., I think it’s a very underrated era when it comes to human ingenuity and cultural significance. And to set the second film in 1920s’ Paris was just brilliant. In the first film, I got to enjoy the ‘20s of New York, but now we get a splash of NYC and London, but mostly Paris as our backdrop, and the visual design and production were even more amazing.

I was nervous that they were going to use Leta Lestrange to drive a wedge between Newt and Tina, and even though they sort of did, I was happy to see it was a bit of a red herring. And she was never any real threat to Newt and Tina. Crappy love triangle averted!

Now with that out of the way, I really did feel sorry for Leta. Once we learn her backstory, it all comes together and makes sense. When she says the line, “Newt, you never met a monster you couldn’t love,” I was shook by the accuracy of that.

Newt was probably drawn to that ever-present, misunderstood sadness in Leta that he quite honestly sees in Tina as well. I like Tina, but she does have her terminal anxiety covered by that fake-it-til-you-make confidence that allows Newt to see a bit of himself in her. And I think in no small part, plays a role in their attraction to one another.

I do find it unfortunate that I’m seeing so many people rush to show concern for Queenie’s character and express empathy for her, wanting to protect that character going forward, but I see so little of that consideration and empathy shown toward Leta. Which is ... telling.

While we’re also on Leta Lestrange, I was pleasantly surprised by Zoe Kravitz’s performance. I’ve been a bit hard on her for the past year or so. Not because I don’t like her, but because, frankly, I’ve yet to see her deliver a great acting performance worthy of all the love and praise she gets from fans. I feel like most people just like her because of who her parents are, and they want to see her succeed in Hollywood because of it. But she’s yet to really impress me with her acting at all. I’m not saying she’s changed my mind entirely in FB2, but this performance was definitely one of her better and stronger ones. So kudos to her.

Now I’m not disappointed in terms of performance, but a part of me is really annoyed by Queenie in this. I get that she wants to marry Jacob, and the Ministry in America says no, but what was she thinking in enchanting Jacob?! Like he said, when was she going to wake up him? After they were married and had 5 kids? Come on, Queenie! How was that the answer to your problem?

Yes, I’m upset she joined the dark side in the end. But I’m trying to be understanding because Grindelwald is making some enticing points on why people should join him. For Queenie, she thinks that if Majs are in charge, they can get rid of this silly rule about who can marry whom. But at the same time, she knows Grindelwald is dangerous. Does she think Majs will gain control over the No-Majs without casualties? Does she even care? And with her telepathic abilities, she’s going to make Grindelwald a powerful operative -- as we saw in the end when he asked her about Credence’s mental state. Damn it, Queenie! Why did you have go to the dark side?!

It does make me wonder: If Queenie had known what Grindelwald had done to the family that originally lived in that Paris apartment, would she still have joined him? Is she willing to see innocents killed (even children) in the name of creating Maj rule just so she can marry Jacob?

Also, can someone explain to me why it was OK for Queenie to call Jacob a coward -- especially since we know he fought in the war -- but it wasn’t OK for him to think she was crazy? Why is she allowed to insult him, but he’s not allowed to insult her? Again, she annoyed me with this.

Going back to the look of the film, I not only enjoyed the production design, but I also loved the many special effects. From the Kappa (the Japanese water demon in the tub at the circus) to whatever that giant deer with the enormous jaw Newt was feeding in his lab to the Zouwu (the giant Chinese New Year dragon-meets-Falcor from Neverending Story creature) to the simple stone statue of the woman in Paris who hid the underground entrance, I thought most of the special effects were ... well, quite fantastic.

The only effect that threw me at all were the protective felines, Matagots, at the French Ministry. They not only looked disturbing, but they also didn’t look real enough. They almost felt like they stepped out of a video game. And not one of today’s video games either, but one from like 2013. Perhaps it was intentional because they’re meant to be a bit surreal with their huge eyeballs, but I’m afraid that also made them appear just a tad less believable. Which is odd considering all the things we’ve seen in the Potterverse that skirts the concept of realistic. Oh well. It wasn’t enough to make me dislike the other special effects, so I’ll shrug it off.

Shallow moment reveal: I want Tina Goldstein’s leather trench coat and I don’t even wear leather.

I adore Jacob Kowalski. That is all. Change nothing about him. 

I love that their solution to showing Young Dumbledore even younger is to remove the strands of gray he has from his beard. 

This is going to sound odd, but Callum Turner’s face is perfect for this film. Why? Because he has that classic bone structure we used to see all the time in old films from the 1920s and 30s. Seriously, put a straw boater hat on Theseus and give him a bamboo cane, and he looks like he walked out of the background of a Buster Keaton movie. Maybe it’s just the combined effect of the movie’s setting and wardrobe. Maybe it’s the fact that Callum’s skin is so damn tight across his cheekbones he looks like if he sneezes, he’s going to rip his jawline from the bone. I don’t know. But I do know that he has the perfect face for this film.

When I heard that J.K. mirrored Grindelwald’s speech at the cemetery after some of the things Hitler used to say in his speeches, I knew he was going to be a great villain. In the first Fantastic Beasts, Grindelwald is really just a boogie man. What we know of him is more in relation to how people react to him. Even when it’s revealed that he was wearing a Percival Graves-glamour to hide while doing his dirty work, we still don’t truly see him as the dangerous menace that he is. In that respect, he was a man seeking power (and Credence) to get his ultimate plan underway. The rest are newspaper headlines.

But to see Grindelwald talk to his minions in the Paris apartment and at the cemetery with such effortless manipulation was somewhat jarring. Especially when you think of present day parallels with the rise of more authoritarian regimes around the world. Grindelwald uses seductive language to coax his followers into believing their desires are born from love and a need for safety, not born from hate and fear. He tells them that No-Majs are not worthless, but simply of “other value.” He softens the declaration of war by painting what could be an impending genocide by insisting it’s for the betterment of all mankind. 

This is a villain for a story written for adults. Voldemort is for children. He doesn’t get the window-dressing and subtlety of true real-life villainy. Grindelwald, on the other hand, can exist in our world today. Voldemort cannot.

Now I’m aware that a lot of people are talking about the reveal regarding Credence’s lineage -- which was the truth bomb that left quite a few people stunned while the credits rolled. Understandably. But until I see someone piece together a theory on how Credence can be a Dumbledore (although it would lend itself to explaining his Obscurial nature), I’m inclined to believe that Grindelwald was just lying through his teeth.

When he says that the Phoenix comes to Dumbledore family members in their time of need, why did the bird that Credence was nursing suddenly transform into one? At that moment in time, Credence was not in his most need. Why wouldn’t the Phoenix have shown up in New York prior to Newt’s visit? Why didn’t the Phoenix show up after Credence had gone ballistic and ripped up half of NYC and retreated into the subway? 

Hopefully, at some point in the next film, Credence will question Grindelwald and demand some sort of proof. But even if he does, I can see Grindelwald manufacturing something semi-credible to manipulate Credence further. We’ll have to wait and see.

One of my favorite lines: The line where Dumbledore says he and Grindelwald were more than brothers ... I see what you did there, J.K. ... I see what you did there. ;-)

You know what I want for this film series now? More Nicolas Flamel in future FB films. :-)

I also want more Dumbledore, but I suspect that wish will be easily granted as the series continues. And if we can have more Dumbledore with Grindelwald, I would like to order that as well.

I’m not sure of the name of the actor who played a young Newt Scamander in the Hogwarts flashback scenes, but wow! Talk about matching the perfect youngun’ to the right adult actor. That kid was completely believed as a young Newt. Hell, he’d be believable as a young Eddie Redmayne.

Notice how when Credence goes to Grindelwald in the cemetery, he puts his head on Grindelwald’s shoulder? He did it just like he did when Credence thought Grindelwald was Graves. It was a nice, but subtle callback to the connection these two formed -- even if temporary -- in the first film. And back then, Grindelwald was manipulating him just like he is manipulating him now, by filling a void disguised as love, affection and genuine concern. And Credence is still susceptible because he’s spent most of his life devoid of that.

Although I feel like he would have shown more hesitation at the idea of leaving Nagini behind. But maybe he figured since this is what they were working toward all along, she might understand with time.

I did see some people complain about the exposition scene where we learn of Leta’s secret, Yousef’s oath, and Credence’s connection to the Lestrange family. I thought they did a wonderful job getting the audience through that level of detail without making it boring. You hear a narration, but the visuals communicate the story perfectly. For such a tragic tale to be included in a film where some may think it’s all about love stories and magic wands, I appreciate the inclusion of how evil like Grindelwald’s exists in every generation. And its lasting effects helped create the situation everyone is struggling with in this current story. That is some expert-level storytelling.

Can I just say I love the relationship between Newt and Theseus? It’s not perfect, but it’s not mean-spirited. When Newt says, “This is probably the greatest moment of my life,” after Tina uses her wand to tie Theseus to a chair so they can escape, you can see that these two brothers have had a bit of a rivalry in the past, but you also see love there in the beginning when Theseus warns Newt that the ministry is watching him. And when Theseus is heartbroken after Leta tries to take down Grindelwald, that hug from Newt with the line, “I’ve chosen a side,” really says it all about their relationship. They’re brothers who love each other, even if at times, like many brothers, they don’t always like each other.

It was sad to see the poor Niffler get hurt because of the whole blue fire scene, but it’s also awesome that he snagged Grindelwald’s keepsake. One of the trailers said “No nifflers were harmed in the making of this movie.” Better not be. ;-)

OK. I think that’s all I have for now in terms of original reflections on the film. I’m sure more will come to me as I am exposed to other’s feedback. Like I said, I don’t read reviews. But I do hear different things being uttered by others on social media and in casual conversations. And to that, I say this: I’ve yet to hear one complaint about this film that I agree with. Not. One.

For example:

I don’t agree with the complaint that it had too much plot. (What the f*ck does that even mean?!)

I don’t agree that Queenie was acting out of character. (How is that possible if the person who created the character wrote her doing those things in the script? Not liking what a person does is not the same as acting out of character.)

I don’t agree that J.K. didn’t do a good job with the screenplay. A) She wrote the screenplay for the first one, and B) That’s utter bullsh*t because your desire to not think when you go into a cinema doesn’t have to translate into a script that caters to your desire to not think.

Johnny Depp did a phenomenal job, as expected. And no. He should absolutely not be replaced or recast.

And no. Leta Lestrange was not a disappointment. Quite the opposite.

I try to stay away from reviews, because mainly, I enjoy thinking for myself. So I honestly don’t know what all the critics are saying. All I keep hearing is that the movie is getting “mixed reviews.” So clearly some people like it. While others don’t.

I don’t know what others were looking for, but I do know that this film was exactly what the next act in this story should be. I look at Fantastic Beasts like a 5-act play. The Crimes of Grindelwald is the second act, and it did what a second act should do. The second act introduces a significant complication, develops the primary and secondary characters’ personalities further, and increases the action on all fronts in the plot. 

I think it’s unfortunate that some critics (and perhaps fans) thought that they were going to walk out of FB2 feeling the same way they did when they walked out of FB. And I can’t help but feel that some of the criticism being lobbed at J.K. has more to do with trying to take her down a peg and attempting to find a flaw in her skillset than it is about a genuine critique about what appears on the screen in Fantastic Beasts 2.

I don’t support mindless entertainment. I don’t even want my cartoons and action films to be mindless. It’s a sad state when we see critics demanding films cater to the lowest level of attention spans and depth. And I’m happy to see J.K. not give over to that idea.

As I said in the beginning, I enjoyed the film greatly -- enough to see it twice in 4 days. So you’ll likely see me praising the movie as much as the previous one until the next chapter (or Act 3) is ready for me to enjoy.

#fantastic beasts 2 #fantastic beasts #fantastic beasts 2: the crimes of grindelwald #the crimes of grindelwald #newt scamander #callum turner #zoe kravitz #jude law #albus dumbledore #tina goldstein #queenie goldstein #jacob kowalski #fb2 #eddie redmayne #johnny depp #johnnydeppismygrindelwald

[violetfaust]

Hey, what are your top 3 (or 5, if you’re up for it) plots/character dynamics that would’ve made OUAT more interesting but that the writers either didn’t do/tried to do but screwed up royally

Wow, Nonny, I think this might be the best ask I’ve ever gotten (or tied with the one about Regina sending all the random guests at the Captain Swine wedding home with their hearts in favor baggies) and I’ve had some great ones.

And I was going to mull it over as usual and give it the respect it deserves but if I do that it’s going in my drafts and won’t be answered for weeks if ever and will be six thousand words long. So I’m just gonna half-ass it. [Editorial note: it has now been more than a week since I wrote those words and I have been half-assing it in draft all that time. And it STILL got long as hell. This is why no one sends me asks. :-( Sorry, Anon.]

Top 5 characters/character dynamic missed opportunities:

-- First and foremost forever, everything having to do with Neal. Papafire, Fire Believer, Floof Family, Swanfire, Neal/Regina coparenting...every plot since would have been improved, more organic and more interesting by adding Neal. Neal and Emma going back in time and BOTH meeting their parents? Rumple’s Rampage with Neal around--and Neal being the one to banish him? The Dark Two costarring the Dark One’s son? Which wouldn’t have ended with Emma being upstaged in her own story by her Stu boyfriend, but given her the sacrificial moment she deserved.

-- Regina’s love life: With all due respect to OQ, that should have ended the moment Marian was brought back, and Regina’s next and permanent love interest should have been a villain for her to bring back to the light. Hook, if he was kept around after Neverland (the both of them rebounding after Swanfire and Robin/Marian reunited, but growing into something more); Maleficent (written to be a little more bitter/less reformed); Jafar coming off OUATIW (bringing in Aladdin and Jasmine a few seasons earlier, perhaps in place of the Frozen nonsense); even Facilier with the same backstory (which seems to be a fling while she was the Evil Queen, with possibly much stronger feelings on his part that she didn’t return because revenge). 

...OR. If the decision was made to ditch the original story of Swanfire, the only organic alternative would have been to go forward with a full-on love story for Swan Queen. (Which to be honest is one of the few things that I think would have prevented the show’s ratings decline and failure.)

-- Ruby should have stayed a main character, and her romance should have been onscreen. I enjoyed the setup for Frankenwolf in S2, but Kitsowitz have been promising a LGBT couple since S3, when all we got was sad, lonely Mulan in love with her straight best friend. (Cutting-edge wlw content, circa 1925.) Ruby and Mulan coulda/shoulda had a long-term, medium-burn romance like Alice and Robin are getting now. Ruby’s friendships with Snow and Belle could also have been respected (and poor Belle wouldn’t have been used to prop her and her family’s abusers). Even after the show had gone down the Stu hole, there was a period when they could have gotten Meghan back (before she became the queen of the Hallmark Channel) and could have gone on from there.

-- The Sheep Boys BroTP should never have been abandoned--especially so that Charming could play sidekick and patsy to a toxic misogynist pirate who never learned from him. Charming and Hook together were basically two frat boys glorifying traditional masculinity (with Hook being the darker, toxic side and again, never changing through learning anything from David). Rumple and Charming were incredibly different, but they had the commonality of putting their wives and families above everything else in the world. Exploring the different worldviews they came even with that common goal could have been fascinating, and expanded both characters.

-- And, of course, probably most of all: Rumbelle, and Belle’s other relationships. Like, I can’t even begin...there are SO many missed opportunities and lost chances with them--beginning even back in S2. What if they’d kept Lacey for more than two episodes and let her play a part in the main story? (I’ll never get over the hilarious visual of Lacey in Neverland.) But overall...just...not piling on stupid, needless, often OOC conflict without any payoff for three or four seasons. Not to say have them always be in perfect accord like Snowing, or a codependent mess like CY, in which Belle kept brushing off any of Rumple’s wrongdoings. But let them work out issues onscreen, let them fight together against outside threats like Hades, let them address their conflicts in ways that made sense in character rather than being excuses to prop a Stu or Sue. (Let’s not even discuss the constant teasing of the BatB TLK and the  ultimate utter pathetic anticlimax when it didn’t happen.) While I do think that canon Swan Queen is the only thing that could have definitely saved the ratings in later seasons, IMO a strong Rumbelle story that respected their characters and their story as Beauty and the Beast had a good chance of doing it as well. (Especially if Kitsowitz had had the brains to cash on on the live-action BatB hullablaoo.) But Kitsowitz were too small-minded and spiteful (and ABC too prejudiced and cowardly, I guess) to focus on their best romance.

(Honorary mentions to the Rumple/Regina frenemyship, which I cover below, and to poor Will Scarlet, who should have never been on the show if he wasn’t going to be more than a “soul-destroying” unneeded glitch in Rumbelle.)

Top 5 plot missed opportunities:

[OMG, Violet, you’re not done YET???]

-- The Anti-Magic Organization that Greg/Tamara supposedly worked for would have made a brilliant arc. Kitsowitz should have played that out before heading off to Neverland (it was obviously the plan because they didn’t expect the NL/PP perms situation to resolve so quickly).

-- My best crack theory: Hook found the author in Season 3B and had been using him to manipulate everyone ever since. Explaining Once Upon a Stu--and more important, getting out of it at the end of S4. https://violetfaust.tumblr.com/post/114245381966/what-if-someone-already-got-to-the-author

-- A S5b based on my second-best crack theory: https://violetfaust.tumblr.com/post/143427662086/things-that-absolutely-wont-happen-but-should Rumple and Belle try to get out of Hades’s clutches by working with Regina--who claims to be Rumple’s second-born child via Cora. We could have had so much juicy stuff exploring their past, what Rumple did to Regina, Rumple and Cora (it’s a travesty that they didn’t even have a passing encounter in the UW). It could have led into Emilie’s maternity leave when Hades discovered the truth and kidnapped Belle--which would have led to a 6A in which Rumple rescued Belle from some other dimension but found their child gone. And one of the plot points of 6A would have been Rumple working with the EQ not in some idiotic parody of a romance, but because she called in a favor.

-- BIG BAD FUCKING BLUE FAIRY. Enough said.

-- And then there’s the most destructive missed plot opportunity in the history of the show: Giving Rumple’s and Belle’s POVs in seasons 4 through 6. Given the reveals about the Dark Squad in S5, the most dramatic story this show ever had was Rumple’s battle against the Dark One (and his near-loss) in S4. A S4 that showed his POV of what was happening would have been epic--especially if it did not sideline Belle but allowed her to play a part in trying to save him at the end, culminating in their TLK that freed Rumple but unfortunately also let loose the Dark One, leading to it taking over Emma. Then S5 would have played out as it was advertised: the current Dark One vs. the only surviving former Dark One. Similarly, Belle’s actions in 6A caused nearly all the drama of 6B--and she wasn’t allowed to participate in it at all. 

Honorable mention to not including Belle in the Mulan/Ruby/Merida adventure in S5--a one-off that included three of her friends versus her enemy and could have really benefited from having, you know, a MEMBER OF THE MAIN CAST involved in the episode. 

#Anonymous #whew #tl;dr #rumbelle #belle french #rumplestiltskin #dark squad #neal cassidy #regina mills #ruby lucas #anti-kitsowitz #op

[fallen029]

Mirajane Overview

Mirajane is probably my favorite Fairy Tail character and definitely my favorite out of the group. Because of that, she’s probably been written the most in my stories and, overtime, has reaped the affects of this. Whenever I broach new fandoms, the characters I write are normally pretty close to their centers, but drift overtime. While I don’t think that Mira’s too different in my stories, I have added more little touches to her characteristics than the others.

My first Fairy Tail fic was about Mirajane and her relationship with Laxus. Early on, I liked to play up to the idea that Laxus, though resistant to her originally, was slowly broken down by Mirajane, bit by bit. Mira was light and aloof and still possessed that quick to cry trigger that she’s portrayed as having in the source. These things remain as time goes on, but I slowly started to get the feeling that there’s more to Mirajane and therefore there’s more to these reactions and characteristics. She might be emotional and a bit of a crybaby, but anyone who knows Mirajane knows that there’s more to her and, by proxy, how she behaves.  

The most recent example of this was All Fall Down where it’s mentioned early on that Mirajane’s not just a dimwitted airhead...until Freed presses her on a few things and then muses that perhaps he’s wrong and she actually is dimwitted and an airhead. This sorta observation is made in reference to Mirajane a lot in my stories and more a showing of just how committed and convincing she is to the role. I’ve written her so many times, but cannot think of a single time that she was truly called out on this ‘act’, but can think of a few different instances in which Mirajane, to herself, felt as if she’d fooled everyone with this veneer. It’s never expressed properly, probably, but for me, the reason behind this is simply the enjoyment Mirajane gets out of being someone new.

Her entire magic is based off this, honestly. When she was a child, she had to play the role of mother early to her siblings and, later, a dark soul that wanted to be left alone. But I don’t think Mirajane ever really wanted that, as much as she convinced herself she did. Then, once Lisanna passed, she saw what it was to truly be alone. And partially, I’ve hinted over time that the biggest act Mira plays is her happiness. Even once Lisanna’s returned. Mira in my stories often feels a bit underappreciated and distant at times. To me, there was always something hollow to the change that Mirajane experienced after Lisanna’s death. It wasn’t so much to me that she couldn’t have found a way to be happy in the sadness, but rather that she had a kind of fake it till you make it attitude and it just took.

This isn’t to say that she’s never happy in my stories. Because she definitely is, in certain places. I think the happiest she is during most of the stories is at the start of her relationship with Laxus. It’s not necessarily him that makes her happy, either, but rather the flow things take when this happens. Usually, within a few years of them dating, the others will have all gotten together and they have this family unit that Mira’s always wanted. To me, out of all the others, Mirajane almost needs others around to care for and, being in an even closer knit group than the already pretty tight ‘inner circle’ within Fairy Tail gives her plenty of options to do this. As time goes on though, of all the people who get miserable with their lives, I typically paint Mirajane as the most.

I’m not really sure where this comes from, as it’s pretty obvious I’m a fan of Miraxus. But as they age, I think it’s pretty obvious that I have their relationship sour a bit. This was most noticeable in the Remember Me series, but that relied more on my old portrayal of Laxus, which was as a much meaner, distant type of husband. But even in my story where Laxus is probably the best all around person, Last Month, they still suffer in the end, this time mostly from Laxus filtering all his attention into their child and very little into his marriage. I think Parenthood has the most central characterization of all and, in it, Mira’s probably happier. Laxus is the right amount of distant and Mira’s the right amount too busy with other things to notice. Still, they kind of drift slowly, but honestly, I don’t think this is a flaw, but rather how things go. It might just be my personal interpretation of relationships having a hand in this, but there’s just something more real and honest when dealing with such things. I can’t think of a single person that’s particularly happy at any singular point in their lives, in my stories, but I think that’s less because it’s impossible, but rather we view the stories through the eyes of all the characters, as I tend to use omniscient story-telling and, in your head, there’s usually a lot bubbling under the surface. You can be happy over something and still dread another thing. It’s practically a standard.

Mirajane’s typically upfront with Laxus in these moments, but it’s rarely needing stating to him. He’s usually aware of their divide and even, at times, ponders it for himself. Neither really ever take steps to fix it, however, save rare moments and I think, on Mirajane’s part, this has a lot to do with how I have her describe marriage. She loves the idea of marriage and frequently pressures Laxus into this (probably more often than not), but is usually reserved once in the marriage. In the backstory that I designed for her and her siblings, marriage was a very important factor to their early childhood. She saw her parents as a unit and reminisces on it sometimes, to Laxus, about how they were able to forge a life for themselves. She gets upset, even, in one one-shot, when he implies that, given their rather poor backgrounds, that her parents never truly wed and rather just become something like common law. This would ruin the entire identity that Mira has build up around her dead parents.

This also hearkens back to another thing that is sparingly mentioned attribute I give her which is Mirajane’s religious side. It’s annoying, at times, to her siblings and constantly to Laxus’ whenever it is mentioned, but overall, it’s treated as a rather minor detail. It only has one major one-shot and I don’t think it’s necessarily significant to the way I write Mirajane, but it is something that I mostly silently recall me as giving her. Her obsession with being sure she and Laxus, eventually, do marry would align with this well.

Mirajane, like most of my renditions, has a bit of a darker feel to her overall though. In some stories it’s more obvious than others, but throughout, she kind of gets more tired of things as the years go on. She loves the guild too much to leave it and the bar too much to ever become a full time mage again and also finds the actions repetitive eventually. She works herself to death though, to the complaints of Makarov when he’s serving as guild master, and Laxus later, when I go that route. It’s almost a sense of obsession, I think, where she’s not sure what to do with herself when she’s away from it. A bad relationship, maybe, is also accurate. Mira’s unhappy with where she is, but fears if she takes a step in a direction away from it, everything will blow up. In most stories, even, she fears for what will happen to Makarov if she slacks in any way.

Their relationship in Fairy Tail as a whole isn’t nearly as exaggerated as I make it out to be. I think it’s clear that Makarov respects Mirajane and, while he does act like an old perv to her at times, also frets over her a bit, maybe. Rather than just leave it at this though, I add a bit of an extra layer there. In New Position, I focus the idea of Mirajane’s reformation and returning to the guildhall following her sister’s passing on Makarov’s interference. When she shows up to leave the guild, he thwarts this and instead has her stay on as barmaid, which is a definite backstory for all my incarnations of Mirajane. From there, she and the Master’s relationship only blossoms. She loves him in the same way the others all do, but has to also see him as not only saving her life as a young teenager, but also following her sister’s death. It’s because of him that she sticks around which, later, leads to her finding her sister once more.

This alone would be a big relationship cementer, I think, but it goes a step further as time progresses. When my stories pick up, Makarov is typically become a bit more feeble and, thus, needed to rely on someone to help him out around the guildhall more. This falls on the shoulders of Mirajane mostly because she is, no doubt, the one around most often. She cares for him more in his time of need than the others. This, again, is probably due to her availability, but that doesn’t change the sentiment any. I like the idea of Mirajane being so reverent of Makarov towards the end and it shows through frequently. All the former kids of Fairy Tail see him as a grandfather figure, but with all he helped Mirajane through,. I think this is even more true for her.

Another relationship that I’ve changed the dynamic of a bit is the one that she has with her sister. Lisanna and Mirajane, following Edolas, are shown as mostly getting along in that way background characters do. There’s no real reason for them ever to not. There’s not a specific filler relating to just Mira and Lisanna so we really only see their relationship through the eyes of others.

But, I mean, they’ve already got some weird stuff going on, the Strauss siblings in general. The girls typically just boss Elfman around and allow him to go about his life, but the two of them are tangled into one another fiercely. Mirajane already had a motherly vibe towards her siblings before everything got all fucked up with Lisanna’s ‘death’ and this is the source of a lot of their problems in my stories. Lisanna wants more freedom than Mirajane is willing to give her. She acknowledges that Lisanna is grown and an adult and should be able to live her own life, but often struggles with implementing this.

Not that Lisanna helps in this. At all. Rather than flat out telling her sister to butt out, Lisanna finds life kind of nice in the Strauss household. She works some, up at the bar with her sister, and takes jobs some, with her brother, but mostly just hangs around. There’s almost a lack of urgency to Lisanna’s work ethic as she finds focus in other pressing matters; like goofing off with Natsu and Happy or, when this is relevant, Bickslow. That leaves her in the weird place of not necessarily being under Mirajane’s dominion, but also establishing no clear path in life for herself. Though Mira rejects this lifestyle and typically tries to intervene in it, she’s never quite sure how to. This isn’t helped by Laxus, who seems to fund all of Lisanna’s outlandish lifestyles when her sister refuses.

Mostly, Lisanna and Mirajane appear at a standstill in my stories. They rarely address their conflicts, save a major one like Wedding Wars, where Lisanna is purposely attempting to rile her sister up. Even that, however, does little to alleviate any of their long standing problems, but rather just bandages over the immediate. Mira will never be able to really stay out of Lisanna’s life and Lisanna will never dislike it enough to do anything about it. It’s more just bickering between the two of them than any ill-will. It’s the kind of sister relationship that has to come from these sort of things, I think. The more time spent with another person, the more chances for these sorts of things to arise.

Her and Elfman are the opposite though. Mirajane lets Elfman live his life for the most part and when they’re usually directly interacting in my stories, it’s typically lighthearted. This could be attributed to a lot of different things, honestly. For one, I don’t care for Elfman much and, therefore, don’t want to write him too often. Another part of it is though that Elfman’s journey is kind of complete, you know? He’s got a plan in life and is on his way to doing it. All he wants is to successfully be a mage and it’s happening. Lisanna’s a bit more lost in her approach though and therefore requires more attention. Elfman’s big turmoil is vanquished when Lisanna returns and, even before that, Mirajane helps him see through his demons. Lisanna’s are more complex, in some ways, as they have less to do with a singular, terrible actions, but rather are unresolved personal flaws and traits that plague her. Elfman doesn’t have any real conflict canonically after resolving his issue with Lisanna’s death other than his struggles to get stronger and interactions with Evergreen.

I don’t even think that that’s really a point of contention for Mirajane either. In the show, she muses about her brother and Evergreen, but no one ever seems to give it much real thought. This is mostly true in my fics as well. Evergreen and Elfman are probably the most consistent relationship overall, but short of Bickslow’s teasing, they hardly ever get any acknowledgment. Mirajane usually sees herself focused on more important (or at least perceived importance) and other than the few times that Elfman goes to her for advice (or to bitch about Evergreen), she doesn’t refer to either of them in any way at all.

Her lack of approval or disapproval, however, probably also plays into the subdued nature of her relationship with Evergreen. As far as the source goes, they have none, but in my fics, it’s normally a bit contentious. Evergreen is jealous of Mirajane and doesn’t attempt to hide it too well. Whether it’s from Mirajane’s status with Laxus, her close relationship with her brother, or even just the fact that Evergreen seems to be the jealous type in general, she detests the other woman. Mira, however, in return is quite the opposite. A lot of times it comes off as if she’s oblivious towards Evergreen’s aggression, but there’s rare moments where she lets on that this isn’t at all true with either a snide remark towards the woman or and rebuttal to Ever’s rude comments. Mira rarely shows any sort of ill-will towards another (save Laxus at times and Lisanna at others), but she’s definitely not passive and, when pushed, lets this loose.

The Thunder Legion member that she probably should have the most contention with is Bickslow. He’s, arguably, part of the reason Lisanna falls off the wagon so often. He mostly exists and offers up nothing much when he isn’t out on a job and, the more time that Lisanna and Bickslow spend together, the less frequent this is. However, whether or not Mirajane attributes him as a bad influence is never really definitive one way or another. Mostly, Mira finds Bickslow a bit worrisome, at first, but overtime finds him to be goofy and harmless. She doesn’t necessarily support the relationship constantly, but as with Elfman, does little to intervene on it (most of the time).

In Hard to Do, Bickslow questions Mirajane’s friendship and calls the idea of it a facade. Mira takes a bit of offense to this and rebukes his claims that, should he and Lisanna fall out, that she wouldn’t care about him at all. Mira, above all the others, takes the family that she feels they’ve formed, even in short periods of time, are strong enough to stand alone. She honestly takes the Thunder Strauss Tribe to heart, unlike the others who seem to realize it, inevitably, has a time limit.

This is most true with Freed. I think, canon wise, they have the mostly likely friendship of all the minor characters we don’t know much about. Mira and Freed share far too many commonalities to not, at least, be friendly with one another. We’re not entirely certain of Freed’s past, but knowing how the others all wound up at Fairy Tail and his lack of mentioning family, save the Thunder God Tribe, would leave one inclined to think that it wasn’t a pleasant upbringing. I’m sure, in a lot of ways, it mirrors Mirajane and her siblings. Some sort of tragedy at home led to him fleeing at a young age and then finding his way to Fairy Tail (I imagine through the help of Laxus, but that’s just my opinion). This added in with the way that both he and Mirajane had to overcome their own inner demons, figuratively and literally, in order to truly come to love Fairy Tail is quite powerful. The fact that Mira’s own experience in the ordeal helped Freed turn over a new leaf is hardly anything to bat at either.

From there, writing their relationship towards one another isn’t too difficult. Freed is usually apprehensive whenever he’s first acquainted to the idea of Laxus and Mirajane dating (but I imagine him to be apprehensive and skeptical about most things, until he gets his bearings about them), but is rarely that way for long. Mira usually is the one to seek out friendship with them and, from there, it kind of naturally develops.

Of all the non romantic relationships that form in the little group, I think Lisanna and Laxus’ is my favorite, but I really like the dynamic that Freed and Mirajane have. At times their friendship seems staked purely in their equal love and respect for Laxus’ and, perhaps, Freed merely goes along with her perceived view of friendship with him because of his veneration of the man, but I don’t think this is the case. Or if it was, it wouldn’t be for long. Freed is kind of bemused by Marianne, in most situations, and a more reserved person typically needs an energetic, outgoing person to pal around with. Bickslow fills this need most of the time, but there’s other times when Mira would be more suitable.

The biggest relationship Mirajane has throughout my stories though, of course, is the one she has with Laxus. I think, over time, it’s differed in someways, how I write them and feel out how things would be. Originally, I wrote Mirajane as a bit aloof to Laxus and his own desires. This was when I wrote her as aloof in general though and gave hardly any backing to her. As time went on though and I expanded my version and view of Mirajane, their relationship changed a bit. Mira’s less of a somewhat cute, somewhat bossy girlfriend of Laxus, but rather someone who can, and at times does, exist without him. Their relationship is less Mira conning Laxus through the steps of being in one and more them equally deciding things along the way.

Laxus is still an ass, but he’s rounded out a bit and less on edge. Mira’s still zany and, at times, overbearing towards Laxus, but she also respects that he’s his own person in some ways that she didn’t before. I had her invade his privacy a lot in the beginning and, though Mira still is a bit of a snoop and gossip, she’s not prying directly in his face constantly for information. They’re less on edge with one another and not so prone to snapping.

He also treats her better, too, in a lot of ways now. I think this is more due to my changing stance on how I write Laxus. I still stand by the closer to his original personality in the manga still being present and only bubbling under the surface, but he’s also more relaxed in ways too.

One of my more favorite concepts is when the two of them aren’t together. I’ve written it more than once, but the best showing of this was no doubt Timing. Mira and Laxus come to some realizations in that fic that, while they want to be together, they don’t have to be together. And that some time away from one another was the best thing for their relationship. This shows Mira’s desire for more, job and life wise, as well too.

Mirajane sees Laxus as, of course, one of the stronger mages in the guild which she finds attractive (on top of him just in general being so), but there’s also something cute in his personality to her. She finds his anger laughable, at times, but also develops systems for him to control it. She finds his relationship with his grandfather to be sad and, many times, urges him to strengthen it, going as far as having the man move in with them in both the Parenthood series and the story Closure. Mira, having lost her own parents, understands Laxus’ problems in some ways on that front, but frequently bends towards him having it far worse than her. She sees the happy few years she had with her parents as superior to Laxus’ slow realization that his father never loved him and, at certain points, his mother didn’t either. She helps him cut down on his drinking and forces him to be more openly loving towards his friends. In Parenthood, Mira forces Laxus to take responsibility with his child (not hers, for those who haven’t read it) as well as in A Dragon’s Love (that one is theirs, together).

Mostly Mira tries to improve Laxus’ life in both little and big ways. She’s not trying to change him, necessarily, but make him realize that he could be living a much better life than he does. I think this is an important characteristic that Mira has in general towards those she views as friends and would no doubt take into a serious relationship.

Outside of that though, I like to think that Mira and Laxus are friends in general. Canonically they are, at the very least, that. A lot of my stories with them revolves around their faults or any drama they have, but in group centric stories, their less tense moments are shown. Laxus waits impatiently for Mira to arrive, always, and she enjoys his company above the others in the room. They can hang out and joke with one another and, at times, Laxus is shown to sit up around the bar watching her close the place up, just to be around the woman. Even when they start off a bit rocky, like in In with the New,  we see them interact in both elements. They butt heads, but find something in one another that they can’t get passed. During a prequel of sorts, Trials and Posers, I have Laxus muse (fume?) about how Mira once had a chance of joining the Thunder Legion and the sort of friendship they made before that went south, as I imagine most of teenage Laxus’ attempts at friendships went. Mira’s as well.

I don’t really think that my Mirajane’s too different at all from what we see in Fairy Tail. I think that, overall, she’s still the giddy, go-lucky barmaid that is ready to help her friends, but I add a second substance to her that isn’t in contention with this version of her, but rather hovers over the surface. In Rips and Tears, Mira reveals most all of her vulnerabilities to Laxus and these are all included. Upon losing Lisanna, Mirajane had to reinvent herself. There was nothing else she could do. In Fairy Tail, whenever this transition is made with any evolving character, we’re kind of just told, hey, they’re different now, and that’s all there is to it. I don’t like this assessment though. Mirajane wouldn’t suddenly stop feeling so poorly about life and sour over things, but rather just learned to hide it better. Fake it till you make it. When she’s alone though, she doesn’t have to play up this assumed persona. Maybe she really is happier and more upbeat and has a better outlook on life. Certainly after the re-entrance of Lisanna to it. But the idea that this is all she is can’t be true. People are deeper than that. Mira certainly is. I try to make this show through, but probably fail a bit in some ways, as it’s not very easy to parallel in each and every one-shot.

Now this is way too long and out of hand, so I guess that’s all, really. Of all the characters I could talk about forever, Mira’s probably one of them. I probably didn’t cover everything, but I covered enough, surely. Bickslow next, anyways, but maybe another fic between now and then? I dunno, but maybe. I’ve been working on some shit, at least.

#Mira #Mirajane #Mira Strauss #Mirajane Strauss #Fairy Tail #Overview? Overview

[xiaolongpunch]

Rwby’s redemption

I’ve started watching rwby ever since the summer that volume 2 was released. My friends made me watch the four trailers and I was immediately captivated by the breath of fresh air the show promise from its beginning. Four badass girls with unique weapons and abilities? I was already hooked from that point. I binge watch volume after that day, and I immediately got harry potter vibe with the school aspect of the show. I also understood from the get go the the 8 characters we were introduced to in the beginning would be the main cast, that being team RWBY and team JNPR.

This is where my first critique comes in, and it won’t be directed at rooster teeth or miles-kerry or even monty, but rather at the fandom. Volume 1 wasn't shy at showing us who the important characters were, how? The were coloured in and we got to know their names in the first few episodes. The rest was either shadowed in, appeared a couple of times, or simply never be seen again. We knew the main cast was the two teams, and other subsequent characters were more side characters, exemple: Cardin and team CRDL, Velvet, Ozpin, Glynda, Roman, and the other professors and Sun. And one of the major complaints that volume 1 gets is that it was focused on Jaune to much. Statistically speaking, his arc lasted 25% of volume 1, lasting from episode 11 to 14. Other arcs from this volume included Blake’s, Weiss’s conflict with Ruby and probably other minor ones I won’t speak about. Blake’s arc lasted from episode 15 to 16, buut continued into the subsequent volume. Making for 12.5% of the first volume, and about, well the entire volume. Volume 2 was dedicated into busting the white fang and Roman, which directly tied into Blake’s arc from Volume 1, making it the longest arc up to this date since it is still continuing into volume 5. The third arc was the conflict between Ruby and Weiss, although somewhat minor, this arc still lasted for a couple of episodes spread apart from one another. The point being, Jaune’s arc is minor compared to other arcs happening in the show, since his only lasted 4 episodes in volume 1 alone. Sure he had speaking times in other volumes, but none revolved around him, and yet the fandom is still bitching and moaning that jaune is taking too much space. As mentioned before, Jaune IS one of the main 8, not liking him as a character is totally fine, but saying he is taking too much space is somewhat overreacting since he is one of the main characters.

Let’s go on, from V1 came V2, and to this date, it is probably one of my least favourite volumes. I feel like they focused a bit too much on the characters motivation during the mountain glenn arc. What was the point of Oobleck asking everyone why they wanted to be huntresses? It was a bit awkward and I feel like they could've gotten the same result, if not more,  if they made the team sit down around a campfire and make them ask each other their motivation. They would’ve shared some exposition through, shown team rwby bonding, something the fandom has been asking for a while now (Something I will touch later on) aaand they would’ve been able to touch a lot more on Blake’s ongoing arc that way. Btw, this is how critiquing something is done, by talking about what felt wrong and give an example on how they could of improved themselves. I’ve seen way to many people complain and complain and never even explain how they could've improve on what they complained on, and then call what they did ‘critiquing’, but im digressing. Overall, they did what they wanted, expose us to more backstory and motivation, show us a bit more of who the characters are by telling us where they come from. This volume honestly showed me why Ruby is more childish in nature, and it also help set up what they wanted for her next volume. It showed me why Weiss is so cold and distant sometimes, it showed us why Blake acts the way she does..you get the point. It also helped setting up the next volume, which was a real plus.

Next comes V3, and I feel like, like the show, this was where the fandom started to really fall and divide. A reason why people started to become more toxic might have been because of Monty’s death. People started to think that because he died, Miles and Kerry started to ruin the show from his original idea. Especially after a controversial letter came out, you can read it here if you’d like. From that point, it was a shitstorm of fighting, between people who believed shane and people who didn’t. I have read the letter, and personally, I feel like they were some things right and some wrong. Shane seemed to have this idea that Monty was the only one planning the show, but it was with Miles and Kerry, Monty provided the ideas, MK wrote them out. Gray even addressed what the future of RWBY would be, and he mentioned this.

“For those wondering, Monty was heavily involved in shaping the future of the world of Remnant. His story ideas will live on, and you will also be able to see some of the animation he'd begun working on for Volume 3. For some time, the team has known the direction in which the next volumes will be headed, and Rooster Teeth is committed to bringing these tales to you.”

Like I said, you decide if you want to believe shane or not, but I think its clear that Monty planned his show with MK years ahead. And some of the ‘Critiques’ the show got addressed the wrong issues. That volume also sparked the lgbtq representaion controversy, ship wars begun, like I said, a shitshow began. It was also the volume that rwby turned dark and characters died off. And for some reason people got angry at MK for killing them off, because they thought it wasn't Monty’s idea. Except it was, and here is some other complaint. Roman was a major villain, you can't kill him! Actually he was said to be unimportant to the main story plot, and unfortunately I can't find the panel, but I remember that someone in the crwby mentioned that roman was kept alive longer than intended because he was like, but was eventually going to get killed off. Next was Penny’s death, not much complain on that side other then people saying they were sad she died, so nothing to say on that part. But the major character death that got lots of complaint was Pyrrha’s. People had two complaint about, it went too far, and that she was only meant to further Jaune’s character.

To address the first point, I will actually let Gray explain.

“Have we said thanks lately? Thanks again for sharing the story with our youngest audience members out there, it means a lot to us and we take the responsibility to heart. In return, we wanted to take a sec to reiterate some things. We've said from the very beginning that the story of RWBY is actually a pretty long journey, with all sorts of complex changes and themes over time. Because we can only put out so many episodes per year, and the story has been focused the way it has the first couple years, some viewers might assume that this is all there is to the show. Nnnnope. Much like other multi-year narratives such as the Harry Potters, Avatars (the airbending kind. well, the animated, not the live... look, the good one) and Star Wars...Warses... Warii? Forget it -- like other continuity-heavy sagas out there, RWBY will grow up over time. Our characters will be put to the test as the stakes get greater and the full scope of the story is revealed. The tone and imagery of the show will occasionally go darker and more mature. ...You did happen to notice the opening sequence that has been in front of the show all year, right?”

This comes from a blog post surrounding how dark rwby has turned. And I want to emphasize one particular point, because this will counter EVERY complaint on how the show is progressing in terms of change. RWBY was never meant to stay light hearted and happy, it was meant to grow and change, just like many other series out there, and the fact that people complain about it, is in my opinion, kinda ridiculous. When V3 came out, I understood this because it was new, but now? Really? You want change and character development, but complain once the plot thickens and the nature of the show changes? What kind of hypocritical shit is that? I also believe that Monty said that he got inspired by Games of Thrones in some aspect, and that was early on in the show, so death was going to be a thing, I guess the fandom just wants to ignore that though.

The second point is actually a bit more founded. But because of two sides. MK poorly handled team bonding, we barely got any bonding from any teams so we didnt know what they meant to each other other then a few things here and there. And the second side is the fandom’s collective hatred towards Jaune. The fandom complains that Pyrrha’s death was solely to further Jaune’s character, so im guessing they totally ignored her arc in v3 that actually explained why she decided to fight Cinder or why she died, or just simply decided to ignore, knowing the fandom, I wouldn’t be surprised with either reason. The fandom sometimes forgets to piece things together, to read between the lines. It was clear that Pyrrha had an internal conflict about becoming the maiden, and Jaune, being her combat partner, decided he wanted to be there for her, which only fueled the fandom’s belief that this arc was somehow around Jaune. I feel like fandom is honestly just pulling reasons out of their ass to hate on Jaune at this point, yes he did wrong things, but did anyone ever sat down to think that this was actually kinda the most natural portrayal of a teenage boy? Im digressing here, but Pyrrha’s was far more then Jaune, it was a sign, the show basically told us “Hey, things are getting serious, how serious? Welp a main character died trying to accomplish her goal” And her death couldnt of been more brilliant. It was extremely well executed, the symbolism behind it is incredible because it shows that the show isnt a fairy tail, not everything ends happily ever after, and most of all, it furthered Ruby’s character.

A lot of people dont realize that one of the premise of the show was loss of childhood and innocence. Ruby’s character is the very essence of that. And they broke her to pieces in V3, they killed her best friend, and then a close friend. She unlocked her powers and loss her innocence she had for the world. She grew so much as a character it that volume and its sad to see people not looking further then their noses to see how much has been happening in the show to focus on jaune and other minor things like ships.

To go back on Jaune’s portrayal, he is literally a fuckboi in v1/v2 and a bit of v3. Like, thats what his character is, you can hate it, hell I did, but screaming and shouting that his character needs to change because of that is fucking ridiculous, not everyone is meant to be liked, sometimes best portrayals are the ones that actually make you feel something strong about them, and the typical mary sue.

Lets move on, V4 in my opinion was the most poorly handled volume, for many things.They took to long to show how certain character grief and they didnt handle character development extremely well. Nora and Ren’s arc was...short, too short. I felt like they could of really digged into their childhood and their relationship since they grew up together, but they missed out on it. They tanked to show Ruby’s grief, or as the fandom would say, complete lack of. And the plot exposition from Qrow was too fast and really poorly handled in terms of delivery. I feel like they could’ve taken more time to explain some things like magic and the maidens, because the way it was delivered was more like it was speaking to the audience. The filled in gaps on what the audience didn’t know rather then explaining to the character what the hell was going on in their lives.

And I have a major problem with how the fandom ‘critiqued’ this volume. Again, the major complaints were not story, or plot related, they decided to complain on ships and portrayal, which btw is a valid thing if there is an actual problem. For exemple, they non-stopped complained on how Ruby seemingly didnt show any grief, but let me explain to you. People are different, whereas one person might cry their hearts out to someones death, another will feel sad for a bit and move on. We saw Ruby react to Pyrrha’s death, she unlocked her powers because of it. And there is many reason why she might have been shown grieving. Think about how much shit she went through, she saw her school get destroyed, three people she knew died in front of her in one night, she unlocked some weird magical power which she knows nothing about, her sister seems to hate life now, and her friends are mostly gone. Do you seriously think her mind has the time and effort to grief about ONE person dying? No, nobody would in fact, she probably is still in shock of everything that happened. Another reason, which was actually proven in V5, is that she doesn’t grief, she moves on. And they also foreshadowed it a bit, but I will talk about it in the V5 review of this.

The next thing people complained about was black sun, and how ooc blake felt during those moments. Again, I want to remind you that character development is a thing, and traumatic events may several affect someone’s view in life. The reason why Blake seemed ooc is because of her fears becoming a reality. Her friends got hurt because of Adam, she became paranoid, to the point of almost drawing out her sword to the captain when she was confronted. Sun on the other hand didnt experience all of that, and he thought he was doing the right thing by following her because he wanted to help her. And I saw sooooo many people saw he is a predator because she flinches when he touches her, but also completely forgets or ignore she acted the same way when her own mother hugged her. She is scared shitless of everything, this was probably one of the better handled character development in the volume, and the fandom seemingly ignored all of it to let their hatred go through.

The most blatant problem with V4 however was the animation, and I will let the youtuber Cake in his series “Animation analysis”. He really nails the head of what is wrong with the animation, and I highly recommend you watch this small serie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxP3lBW7wm4&list=PL-wKaeXzYOmbnc0cRXxGD0TEY5wgCUipw

I wont speak about Yang, because honestly, this was the one time the fandom is right, her ptsd arc was poorly handled and not well executed at all.

Then came V5, or as I like to call it, Rooster teeth’s redemption arc. This volume, imo, was so heavily touched upon to appease the angry mobs of the rwde tags its honestly kind of funny. Ship wars? Heres more character development surrounding all the characters involved in those ship and their view about each other. Poor character development? Heres ruby actual griefing and explaining how she moved and sooo much more character for the main cast. LGBT representation? Here's the first confirmed lgbt character! They did so many things right and so many things to fix past problems, and yet, the rwde tag is still greedy…

Volume 5 has done a lot of things right, and a lot of those things were things the fandom was asking since the beginning of the show. I believe it was partially RT testing out that if listening to us would actually change anything, and Im afraid the rwde side of this fandom is proving to them that nothing that they will do will change anything, and thats saying something about the rwde tag and the fandom in general.

Lets hit a few things that happened that rt did right. First being, Ruby’s grief. In V4, most of the fandom outcried for Ruby to show how she grieves the death of Pyrrha and Penny, and we got it. And just like I had thought, she moves on. The writers pulled our heart strings by using Monty’s signature quote “Keep moving forward”. This probably wasn't a last minute decision, since we did get a hint of it when Qrow mentioned the same thing to Yang in V3. And we all know how close Ruby is to Qrow, and he probably taught her to move on rather the grief when death hits someone close to you. The fandom, of course, was blind to all of it, and it dishearten me to see that. Because the fandom keeps asking for better writing, and when the are shown that MK can foreshadow things and give hints of two people’s relationship and that the fandom ignores it, it shows that they dont really care, and are probably finding reasons to hate rather then actually seeing their wishes come true.

Yang’s ptsd. V4 poorly handled this, they showed some sign of her illness but it was rushed and it felt unnatural. But rt did try to change this in V5. The random jerks of her hand and arm is a genius idea, it shows that she still suffers from her trauma even though she is trying to be strong for her own sake. This might be hinting at an actual ptsd episode later on when she fights. This is one thing rt did right and are showing they are listening.

First Lgbt character. Spoiler warning, if you havent watched V5EP8 then skip to the next point to not spoil yourself. So in the latest episode, Ilia was revealed to be first lgbt character, she is a lesbian/Bisexual character who is in love with Blake. And not surprisingly, the fandom find reasons to hate this decision rather than rejoice that rt is actually listening to them. This next part is a message straight for anyone who is criticizing ilia as the “villain lesbian” and say its problematic. Do you understand how hypocrite you are? You headcanon characters like Cinder, Salem, and Neo as lgbt, people who are actually show to be pure evil but hate and try to villainize the only villain who’s reason to be villain is due to her past? We have been shown why she chose this path, we have been shown why she sides with Adam at this moment. It hurts her to do so, we could see it when she ordered to kill Blake’s family, we have seen how conflicted she was to have captured Blake for adam, the only character who’s villainy is actual ambiguous and actually is a complex character because of it and you downgrade her to a “Bitter/Jealous murderous lesbian”? FUCK OUTTA HERE, that is completely hypocritical of everything you ever said, she is everything you ever wanted in a character and you still manage to be angry at rt for it?! Do you even hear yourselves sometimes? You wanna complain about something that is lgbt related? How about the lack of it, we have one, they have shown us they are listening so keep on insisting on that representation. You want to complain how the lack of complex character? Criticize MK for the lack of backstory for a lot of the main character, and a lack of personality shown. You want to complain about villains? HOW ABOUT THE ACTUAL BITTER AND MURDEROUS ONE ADAM FUCKING TAURUS. Stop being so blind jfc, there is so many other obvious things wrong about the points you are complaining about and yet you chose to bash Ilia, fucking incredible.

Rwby has a lot of issue, im not denying that, but its time for the fandom to stop complaining about ships and minor problems that have been fixed. Start critiquing instead of complaining and demanding. RT wont listen to you if you only demand things from them, start showing them explicitly what is wrong with the show and offer them solutions in a calm manner. Showing no evidence and not showing solutions is not critiquing on your part, its pure and simple entitlement. My final point is this. We dont own the show, some of us pay for a subscription, but that doesn't make them any more entitled to demand things from rt about their show. You can absolutely critique them for errors, but do it right. Show them what went wrong, explain why its wrong, and show and explain a possible solution. Complaining and whining isnt critiquing, its entitlement of something we dont own. Im probably missing some things I have thought of pointing out in this, and this is highly opinionated in some parts. But I hope my points do make some sense, and I hope anyone who reads this actual give a thought about the points I made. If you disagree with me, by all means, point out what was wrong with what I said and offer your counter-argument, like I said, some of it is facts and some of it is opinions, so let’s debate.

#rwby #rwby5 #rwde