#that one anime trope where the hero goes mad with power or something and goes so off the rails the villain freaks the fuck out

[pikahlua]

MHA Chapter 406 spoilers translations

This week’s initial tentative super rough/literal translations under the cut.

1 セントラル病院前鎮圧完了！ セントラルびょういんまえちんあつかんりょう！ SENTORARU byouin mae chin'atsu kanryou! "Suppression in front of Central Hospital complete!"

tagline 1 各地の奮戦が希望をつなぐ‼︎ かくちのふんせんがきぼうをつなぐ‼︎ kakuchi no funsen ga kibou wo tsunagu!! The struggles of various places connect hope!!

2 怪我人のトリアージと逮捕者の移送中！ けがにんのトリアージとたいほしゃのいそうちゅう！ keganin no TORIAAJI to taihosha no isouchuu! "Triage of the injured and transport of the arrested in progress!"

3 奥渡島制圧完了‼︎ オクトじませいあつかんりょう‼︎ OKUTO-jima seiatsu kanryou!! "Suppression at Octo Island complete!"

tagline 2 No.406　摑め‼︎おまえの"個性"　堀越耕平 ナンバー406　つかめ‼︎おまえの"こせい"　ほりこしこうへい NANBAA 406  tsukame!! omae no "kosei"   Horikoshi Kouhei No. 406 Grasp*!! Your quirk  Kouhei Horikoshi (*Note: This "grasp" can mean both to literally hold something and to comprehend/wrap one's head around something.)

4 分断作戦決起点制圧完了！ ぶんだんさくせんけっきてんせいあつかんりょう！ bundan sakusen kekkiten seiatsu kanryou! "Suppression of the division strategy's starting point complete!"

5 怪我人の救出継続中！ けがにんのきゅうしゅつけいぞくちゅう！ keganin no kyuushutsu keizokuchuu! "Continued rescue of injured persons in progress!"

6 国立多古場競技場継戦中‼︎ こくりつたこばきょうぎじょうけいせんちゅう‼︎ kokuritsu takoba kyougijou keisenchuu!! "National Takoba Arena continued battle in progress!!"

1 Mr.スケプティック確保！移送中です‼︎ ミスタースケプティックかくほ！いそうちゅうです‼︎ MISUTAA SUKEPUTIKKU kakuho! isouchuu desu!! "Mr. Skeptic secured! His transfer is in progress!!"

2 避難システムによる士傑への避難完了！ ひなんシステムによるしけつへのひなんかんりょう！ hinan SHISUTEMU ni yoru shiketsu e no hinan kanryou! "Evacuation to Shiketsu by way of evacuation system complete!"

3 停止したブロックの避難民保護に出動中！ ていししたブロックのひなんみんほごにしゅつどうちゅう！ teishi shita BUROKKU no hinanmin hogo ni shutsudouchuu! "Dispatch to protect the evacuees of the stopped blocks in progress!"

4 蛇腔病院跡地制圧完了！ じゃくうびょういんあとちせいあつかんりょう！ jakuu byouin atochi seiatsu kanryou! "Suppression of the ruins at Jakuu Hospital complete!"

5 黒霧！イレーザーヘッドとプレゼントマイクと共に消息不明！ くろぎり！イレーザーヘッドとプレゼントマイクとともにしょうそくふめい！ Kurogiri! IREEZAA HEDDO to PURESENTO MAIKU to tomo ni shousoku fumei! "Kurogiri! And Eraser Head and Present Mic with him, whereabouts unknown!"

6 この総力戦は最終的に このそうりょくせんはさいしゅうてきに kono souryokusen wa saishuuteki ni This all-out war will eventually

7 緑谷出久を信じる戦いになる みどりやいずくをしんじるたたかいになる Midoriya Izuku wo shinjiru tatakai ni naru become a battle of believing in Izuku Midoriya. (Note: As per what I wrote in chapter 379, I would probably contextually read lines 6-7 as something like “This all-out war will come down to us trusting in Izuku Midoriya.”)

8 緑谷… みどりや… Midoriya... Midoriya...

9 出久… いずく… Izuku... Izuku...

1 疾い…！ はやい…！ hayai...! "[So] fast...!"

2 あいつは死の間際… あいつはしのまぎわ… aitsu wa shi no magiwa... "That guy was on the verge of death..."

3 瞬間ではあったが… しゅんかんではあったが… shunkan de wa atta ga... "It was [for just] a moment, but..."

4 死柄木すら翻弄する動きを見せた… しがらきすらほんろうするうごきをみせた… Shigaraki sura honrou suru ugoki wo miseta... "He showed movement that made sport of even Shigaraki..."

1-2 あいつは何かを摑みかけている途中だった…！ あいつはなにかをつかみかけているとちゅうだった…！ aitsu wa nani ka wo tsukami kakate iru tochuu datta...! "He was in the middle of grasping* something...!" (*Note: Again, this is that word that means "grasp" and "comprehend.")

3 この"副作用"を活かせ この"ふくさよう"をいかせ kono "fukusayou" wo ikase Take advantage of this "side effect"

4 もっと！ motto! more!

5 まだ！もっと‼︎ mada! motto!! Still! More!!

6-7 もういい… mou ii... "Enough..."

8 後にする あとにする ato ni suru "Leave him for later."

1 …いいさ ...ii sa "...It's fine."

2 壊すだけだ何度でも更に こわすだけだなんどでもさらに kowasu dake da nando demo sara ni "I'll just break him however many more times even further."

3 距離を取って"危機感知"で何とか凌いできた きょりをとって"4TH"でなんとかしのいできた kyori wo totte "4TH (kanji: kiki kanchi)" de nan toka shinoi dekita I started to somehow pull through by keeping my distance with the "4th (read as: Danger Sense)."

4 再生＋即死持ち＋前より強化されている肉体にどう対処するか…答えは見つからなかった… さいせい＋そくしもち＋まえよりきょうかされているにくたいにどうたいしょするか…こたえはみつからなかった… saisei + sokushi mochi + mae yori kyouka sarete iru nikutai ni dou taisho suru ka...kotae wa mitsukaranakatta... As for how to deal with his regeneration + instant death[-inflicting ability] + his body strengthened more than it was before...I couldn't find an answer...

5 "変速"は発動したら最後…発動時間に関わらず切った途端反動で体が動かなくなる "2ND"ははつどうしたらさいご…はつどうじかんにかかわらずきったとたんはんどうでからだがうごかなくなる "2ND (kanji: hensoku)" wa hatsudou shitara saigo...hatsudou jikan ni kakawarazu kitta totan handou de karada ga ugokanaku naru If I activate the "2nd (read as: Gear Shift)," it'll be the last time... Regardless of the time for which it's activated, as soon as it's turned off, my body will stop moving due to the immediate recoil.

6 発動した以上は… はつどうしたいじょうは… hatsudou shita ijou wa... Now that I've activated it...

7 今度こそ最後ーーー… こんどこそさいごーーー… kondo koso saigo---... "This time is the last---..."

1 更に さらに sara ni Go

1 向こうへ むこうへ mukou e beyond

1 まだ mada "Am I still"

small text 更に向こうへってか さらにむこうへってか sara ni mukou e tte ka "[They] say 'Go beyond,' right?"

2 モブか…！ MOBU ka...! "an extra...?!"

3 エンデヴァー���"黒影"程の圧力も無い エンデヴァーや"ダークシャドウ"ほどのあつりょくもない ENDEVAA ya "DAAKU SHADOU" hodo no atsuryoku mo nai It's not as much pressure as with those like Endeavor and Dark Shadow.

4 後にすればいい あとにすればいい ato ni sureba ii It's fine to leave him for later.

5 オールマイトと比ぶべくもない オールマイトとくらぶべくもない OORU MAITO to kurabu beku mo nai He can't compare to All Might.

6 これ以上　巻き戻しを進行させてまで係う程の価値も これいじょう　まきもどしをしんこうさせてまでかかずらうほどのかちも kore ijou makimodoshi wo shinkou sasete made kakazurau hodo no kachi mo To let the rewind proceed more than this, there's no value

7 意味も いみも imi mo nor meaning

8 縁も えにしも nor connection* (*Note: This is the same word All Might uses in chapter 396 to refer to a connection between him and Dave in the USA; it's a word that refers to some mysterious force such as destiny that binds two people together.)

9-10 あの石塊にはない あのいしころにはない ano ishikoro ni wa nai!! in it with that pebble!!

(Note: For speech bubbles 6-10, you could combine them all together into something more cohesive like this: "There's no value or meaning or connection with that pebble to merit letting him rewind me any more than this!!" And yes, Katsuki is the "pebble," which is a reference back to chapter 7 when Katsuki called Izuku a "pebble in his path.")

1 わかってきた wakatte kita I've come to understand.

2 痛みだ いたみだ itami da It's pain.

3 掌に溜めた汗粒が てのひらにためたあせつぶが tenohira ni tameta asetsubu ga [The pain of] the beads of sweat that collected on my palms

4 全身を駆け巡ぐる痛み ぜんしんをかけめぐるいたみ zenshin wo kakemeguru itami running through my entire body,

5 吹き出る痛み ふきでるいたみ fukideru itami pain that spouts* out, (Note: This word to describe the pain can mean: "gush out, spout out, spurt out" but it can also mean "send out shoots" like for plant roots. I feel like that description is relevant given the imagery we see on this page. Considering the next line, I think he's referring to pain that erupts from different individual points on his body.)

6-7 その位置間隔！ そのいちかんかく！ sono ichi kankaku! and the space between those positions! (Note: He's talking about recognizing the physical space between the different points of pain on his body.)

8 痛みで摑め いたみでつかめ itami de tsukame Grasp* it with pain, (Note: Again, this is that word that means "grasp" in the sense of "comprehend.")

9 誘爆のタイミング！ ゆうばくのタイミング！ yuubaku no TAIMINGU! the timing of the secondary explosions! (Note: I think he's saying he can predict when and where the little explosions that surround his body will happen by paying attention to the locations of the pains on his body and thus he can utilize those explosions too.)

1 何なんだ なんなんだ nan nanda What is this?

2 痛ったァハハハ疾っ いったァハハハはやっ ittaAHAHAHA haya "It hurts-A-HAHAHA so fast!" (Note: Yes, he's breaking into maniacal laughter at the end of his words. Also a fun phonetic bonus: the Japanese word for "so fast" here is "haya," so he's saying "hahaha-haya!" He sounds battle-crazy, or just plain crazy.)

3 すぎて止まんねえ〜〜〜‼︎ すぎてやまんねえ〜〜〜‼︎ sugite yamannee~~~!! "Too fast, can't sto~o~o~p!!"

4 何なんだこいつは なんなんだこいつは nan nanda koitsu wa What's with this guy?

1 なぁ　出久　俺まだおまえに追いつけるかな なぁ　いずく　おれまだおまえにおいつけるかな naa Izuku ore mada omai ni oitsukeru ka na Hey, Izuku, can I still catch up to you?

2 なんでだろうなあ nande darou naa I wonder why?

3 なんか今追い越せる気がする なんかいまおいこせるきがする nanka ima oikoseru ki ga suru I feel like I can surpass [you] now.

4 あんた… anta... "Honey..."

5 勝己が…！ かつきが…！ Katsuki ga...! "Katsuki is...!"

6 ダメだ…見れないよ…‼︎だって相手は… ダメだ…みれないよ…‼︎だってあいては… DAME da...mirenai yo...!! datte aite wa... "No...I can't watch...!! Because his opponent is..."

7 見なきゃ… みなきゃ… minakya... "We have to watch..."

8 だって…！ datte...! "because...!"

1 だってあの子きっと だってあのこきっと datte ano ko kitto "Because that child is surely"

2 いつもみたいに笑ってる筈だから…！ いつもみたいにわらってるはずだから…！ itsumo mitai ni waratteru hazu dakara...! "smiling like he always does...!"

3 さっきから…！何故この石塊に さっきから…！なぜこのいしころに sakki kara...! naze kono ishikoro ni Since a while ago...! Why is this pebble...?

4 何故僕はオールマイト以上の なぜぼくはオールマイトいじょうの naze boku wa OORU MAITO ijou no Why am I...even more than with All Might...? (Note: The verb at the end of the sentence is cut off here making this sound awkward in English. He's basically wondering how Katsuki is irritating him even more than All Might did.)

1 そうだ… 似ている そうだ… にている sou da...nite iru That's it...he resembles [that guy].

2 与一ならもういないぞ魔王… よいちならもういないぞまおう… Yoichi nara mou inai zo maou... If it's Yoichi [you're looking for], he's already gone, Demon King...

3 おまえが殺したんだ おまえがころしたんだ omae ga koroshitanda Because you killed him.

4 憎しみを宿した事で鮮明に蘇る… にくしみをやどしたことでせんめいによみがえる… nikushimi wo yadoshita koto de senmei ni yomigaeru... By harboring hatred, I recall it clearly...

5 そうだ　こいつだ…こいつだったのだ sou da koitsu da...koitsu datta no da That's it, it's this guy... It was this guy.

1-3 こいつが手を差し伸べなければ こいつがてをさしのべなければ koitsu ga te wo sashinobenakereba If this guy hadn't reached out his hand...

4-5 僕が最も憎いのは ぼくがもっともにくいのは boku ga motto mo nikui no wa What I hate most of all is...

1 おまえのせいだ駆藤‼︎ おまえのせいだくどう‼︎ omae no sei da Kudou!! "It's because of you, Kudou!!" (Note: Because of the order of words in Japanese, you can also read this like the end to the last sentence on the previous page: "What I hate most of all is YOU [Kudou].")

2 ボケが来たかよ‼︎ ボケがきたかよ‼︎ BOKE ga kita ka yo!! "So an old geezer is here!!" (Note: This is the same grammar as All Might's "I am here!")

3 俺ァ爆豪のかっちゃんだバァアカ！ おれァばくごうのかっちゃんだバァアカ！ oreA Bakugou no Kacchan da BAAAKA! "I'm Kacchan of the Bakugou clan*, moron!" (*Note: "Bakugou no Kacchan" literally means "Kacchan of Bakugou/Kacchan of the Bakugous," but the grammar is an archaic style from before Japan's family registration system created family names in the late 1800's. The structure would read as "[Name] of the [clan name]." The literal word "clan" does not appear in the sentence above, but I've included it to get the archaic style to make sense in English. I should also mention that it's possible Katsuki is introducing himself here as "Kacchan" as an insult to AFO's intelligence. Like, "Oh you're a little kid/senile old man? My real name's probably too difficult for you. Here, call me Kacchan, dumbass.")

tagline 今、世界が少年を見る‼︎ いま、せかいがしょうねんをみる‼︎ ima, sekai ga shounen wo miru!! Now, the world sees the young man!!

#my hero academia leak translations #mha 406 #bnha 406 #my hero academia manga spoilers #final arc spoilers #kacchan of the bakugous #that one anime trope where the hero goes mad with power or something and goes so off the rails the villain freaks the fuck out #there are a LOT of notes this chapter too

[pb-dot]

Shag & Scoob

Every once in a while I will delude myself into thinking the internet can't surprise me anymore. It's not that it's a less wild and wacky place than it was in my youth, although the frontier days are certainly over, I've just seen more things now. I was wrapped in such a blanket of hubris when I came across the webcomic titled Shag & Scoob and Friends, let me tell you I was once again wrong. The internet has out-stranged my wildest dreams yet again.

The most fascinating thing about Shag & Scoob is undoubtedly how the series has rapidly evolved. It starts as this purposefully shitty gag-a-day format featuring Shaggy and Scooby from Scooby doo that isn't quite Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff-level, but certainly can see that exercise in metatextual foreshadowing and oddly quotable dialog pretty clearly from its level. A storyline eventually coalesces as our two go on a rambling amble with a clearly stoned Kermit The Frog that takes them to a seemingly abandoned underground laboratory where the party gets split up by plot-convenient Horrors.

This is where the story goes what is medically known as "off the fucking chain." Our heroes encounter a menagerie of cartoon characters, most of which seem to know the pair already, and a menacingly grody Mickey Mouse who definitely is up to something.

What follows is a series of escalating reveals. The cartoon characters are aliens who broadcast the cartoons they're based on (well, that are based on them in this setting I suppose) as an olive branch to earth, being watched and known by humans gave the toons specific themed superpowers somewhere between a Jojo stand and a HeroAca quirk, Scoob used to be an alien general before he lost his memory, Scoob is frenemies with Bugs Bunny who is seriously badass, the cartoons are at war with the martians who use an evil edgy version of their superpowers, oh yes there are martians I forgot to mention, and it just keeps going. Trust me when I say I have not even begun to mention all the intensely anime shit that happens in this story.

I will admit I initially kept with this thing mostly to see when the show ran out of crazy but cool fight anime tropes to have our goofy-looking protagonists experience first hand, but now I'm kind of into it? The characters arcs are following your typical anime formulas, but implemented with dexterity that has you going "about fucking TIME" rather than the bored, sarcastic "wow, how unexpected."

It also helps that there's a strong horror bent to the proceedings. I never thought, for example, Miss Bellum from Power Puff Girls could be quite as terrifying as she appears in this series, but by jove she a fresh new nightmare. It also makes for an interesting way of pacing the anime fight shenanigans as new foes are either disturbing abominations who are terrifyingly strong, or Just Dudes, which we all know to be the scariest thing in a battle anime.

I should also mention the series seem to be on some sort of hiatus as the last upload was in December 2022. I hope it returns one day, but for now, enjoy the gloriously genuine battle anime madness.

#shag and scoob #webcomic #things I read that I swear is real and not something I made up #good stuff

[lizbotw]

Hawks, Bakugou, and Kirishima With a S/O That Has a Kitsune Quirk

Anonymous said:

hello hello !! Can I request some headcannons on how hawks, bakugou, and kirishima would be in a relationship with a fem!s/o that has a Kitsune quirk and fox like traits please? i couldn’t find the rules post so sorry ahead of time if this is anything you’re against doing. 💞

hi! hope you like them ♡ and dw this is something i’m fine with doing!! also, i know you said fem!reader but it came out more so gender neutral so i hope that’s alright!

Takami Keigo (Hawks)

He loves stroking your fur all the time. Even if you try to swat his hand away, he just grabs your arms to stop you so he can go back to doing it.

He just loves teasing you in general and he always has a little smirk on whenever he does it, but he also knows you like it and obviously if you weren’t in the mood he’d know to stop right away—he can read you well so it wouldn’t take him long to realize he should switch into cuddly, comforting boyfriend mode (he especially likes the cuddly part because you’re just so soft).

If he sees any fox plushies in stores when he’s out and about, he’ll show it you and tell you how it looks just like you (he’ll even hold it up next to your face and pretend to do a comparison with a cheeky grin while you try and fail to look annoyed, unable to fight off a smile every time). If you’re not with him, he’ll send you a picture of it and tell you it reminded him of you (he’s always thinking about you honestly), or sometimes he’ll just straight up buy it for you (or do both). Yes, you have way too many fox plushies at home now. (But you also do the same to him so you have way too many bird plushies as well.)

Let him leave the house unsupervised and left up to his own devices and expect quite a few text spams of:

[Keigo sent an image.]

[LOOK AT THIS ONE]

[Keigo sent an image.]

[THIS ONE HAS YOUR EYES???]

[Keigo sent an image.]

[Almost as cute as you 💕]

And once you think it’s finally over and your phone will stop torturing you with its constant buzzing, a few minutes later he’ll text you again. [Babe… don’t be mad but HYPOTHETICALLY how would you feel about sleeping next to five new fox plushies tonight? Once again, HYPOTHETICALLY.]

Reading that, you can literally imagine him saying it as though he was right in front of you with a playful smile on his face, not even the least bit bashful, and badly concealing a shopping bag overflowing with stuffed animals behind his back.

Knowing he already bought them anyway, you have no choice but to agree to the inanimate newcomers that will now be joining in on your cuddle sessions with your boyfriend.

You shake your head in defeat as you text him back that no, you totally wouldn’t mind, and then glance over at the rapidly growing stack of stuffed animals you two already have.

He likes to talk about how you’re perfect for each other because of your quirks and how you make such an amazing “animal duo” or whatever silly name he comes up with that time.

“Please stop googling new nickname ideas, none of are going to catch on.”

Cue camera pan to Keigo typing away on his laptop, furiously searching for an even catchier duo name, tongue slightly sticking out of the side of his mouth in concentration. He doesn’t even look up when you speak, eyes instead lighting up as he reads something. “Okay, so what I’m hearing you say is that you want to see the brand new one I found.”

You’ll probably groan because please, someone help.

“Hey! Don’t give me that look, I know you want to see it.” Aaaaand now he’s pouting which is stupidly cute on someone like him—a pro hero high up on the rankings—and you have to admit you are a little curious. And that’s how you end up giving in and leaning over his shoulder to see what in the world he’s found this time.

(He may also take advantage of the position you two are in now to quickly turn his head to the side and plant a wet kiss on your cheek, lips, jaw—wherever his lips end up really before you can go reeling back from his sneak attack and scolding him while he’s laughing at your expense. Don’t put it past him to cheekily ask for more even after pulling that stunt—spoiler alert: you sigh and agree once again when he pulls out the pouty look for the second time in the last five minutes.)

He loves cuddling with you on the couch when watching a movie, or in bed right before you fall asleep, because your fur is really warm and soft. You should get used to this because even if you manage to roll him off of you, he’ll somehow end up right where he was before. Each and every time.

Buys you cute outfits!!! He goes out of his way to make sure whatever he buys you doesn’t get in the way of you using your quirk while still making sure you look stylish.

(“My baby deserves to look good!”)

(“…Keigo, please, my closet is already overflowing.”)

Tons of gifts related to your quirk. He just thinks it’s so cute. Somehow simultaneously finds both the tackiest and the nicest things ever to give you. The duality means that any time he hands you a gift bag it’s always a gamble as to what’s inside. (“What? I’m just keeping you on your toes! Plus, I thought the fox-themed crocs were pretty cute, I don’t know why you didn’t appreciate them more.)

Overall, he just loves being by your side constantly and always having an arm around you or touching you in some way because you’re soft and fuzzy and he loves showing you off, and he spoils you a lot as well, even if you tell him you already have way more things than you’d ever need.

Bakugou Katsuki

He pretends he doesn’t care about your quirk all that much, but he actually thinks it’s pretty cute and will sometimes absentmindedly stroke your head or play with your fur when you’re just lounging around in his room. If you catch him in the act and ask him about it, he’ll quickly pull his hand away and tell you you were just imagining things.

You know he secretly loves being close to you though, so you’re not afraid to just climb right on top of him when he’s laying down and snuggle into his chest. He’ll probably curse and tell you to get off, but there’s an interesting dilemma that’s always presented:

“Kat, if you want me to get up, you have to stop hugging me first.”

“…fuck no.”

If you’re feeling insecure about your quirk, he’ll be confused because why? You got into U.A. didn’t you? So it’s not like your quirk is terrible or anything.

Yeah, he’s not that great at motivational speeches. But through a lot of cursing and fumbling over his words, he’ll eventually find some way to get it out that he loves your quirk and that you shouldn’t be ashamed of it. Plus, he wouldn’t date a weakling would he? You hit him playfully on the arm when he says that and then he quickly tries to reword it so it doesn’t sound so mean. Please give him a chance.

He loves to intimidate people with his power, but if it’s a class training exercise and he can’t fight whoever you’re up against personally, he’s definitely supporting you because he refuses to lose, even if it’s through you. Cue him screaming words of support from the sidelines and everyone barely containing him from jumping in there and finishing the fight himself because he’s so pumped up.

He also has a lot of respect for your abilities though and has faith in you, so even if you get hit, while he’s still concerned for you, he knows you can take it and will get right back up.

Now, if you get really hurt, he’s the first one to rush to Recovery Girl’s room to check up on you (after first beating up the person who did that to you, of course).

Speaking of this protective side, if anyone makes fun of you their ass is absolutely getting beat!!!

You’ve actually had to stop him a few times from getting into a fight with a group of students he thought were looking at you the wrong way, but you know he’s just looking out for you and find it all pretty funny and endearing.

His rough personality is a perfect contrast to your soft persona (it’s the fur honestly) and everyone at U.A. likes the play on the “opposites attract” trope you two have going on.

Best couple ever honestly because of the pure balance.

Katsuki may not be the best with traditional sweet and caring words, but you understand him better than anyone and anything he does for you you can tell comes from a place of love.

Kirishima Eijirou

#1 fan right here!!!

He thinks it’s cute how you’re so soft and cuddly due to your fox traits while his quirk is all about hardening.

It’s a funny contrast to him but it just makes him want to protect you even more (although he also knows you’re definitely not fragile and can stand up for yourself as well).

If you ever feel insecure about your quirk, you better be prepared to be bombarded with love. He can tell when you’re feeling down and in a school filled with people with so many amazing quirks, he knows what it’s like to sometimes not like yours.

(If he ever falls into a self-loathing spiral, lamenting about how his quirk isn’t as flashy as others, you always know exactly what to say to cheer him up. You’re both each other’s rocks and it strengths your relationship greatly to be so effortlessly open with one another.)

He’s also good with understanding people, no matter what hard exterior they put up (as seen by his friendship with Bakugou), so he makes sure that you feel comfortable around him and are able to talk about any insecurities you’re feeling.

He asks tons of questions about your quirk sometimes because he’s just in awe whenever he watches you, and when you’re cuddling in bed, he likes to stroke your fur (also it feels really comforting so you can’t really complain).

He’s just so interested and in love with you that he’s constantly talking with you.

“Tell me the kitsune legend again,” he’d request, resting his chin in his palm, elbow propped up on the table, and staring at you with pure adoration in his eyes.

“No, this is the third time and we’re supposed to be studying math. How did we even end up talking about Japanese folklore and mythology?”

“Well-”

“Don’t make me tell Bakugou you’re slacking off again,” you threaten with a mischievous grin and a dangerous glint in your eye. The clash of your sweet expression with the warning undertone makes him unsure if you’re joking or not but he decides not to take any chances or push his luck.

That usually clams him up and he looks absolutely adorable as he scrunches up his face when he goes back to trying to work out the difficult math problem.

Anyone who makes you feel bad about your quirk is catching these hands, he does not care!!! Well, maybe he’ll try to be civil at first, but once he sees they’re not backing down, oh boy, he’s going full scary boyfriend mode.

He’s so protective of you, but when you do fight and stand up for yourself, he’s hyping you up so much and supporting you 100%. Expect lots of kisses and hugs and words of praise as he tells you you did great out there.

“Babe, you’re so amazing! I love you so much,” he’d say as he squishes you to his chest (you’re pretty sure he’s about to suffocate you), peppering kisses all over your forehead, temples, and the top of your head after a particularly intense training exercise fight. Everyone has to agree that you two are adorable together, even though some of them pretend to be grossed out with your PDA and stick their tongue out in disgust, turning anyway dramatically.

You two are such a sweet couple. Between all the affection you show each other and your unconditional support for the other person, but also the way you have each other’s backs and won’t hesitate to protect one another, you two just work so well together.

(There’s also a joke going around U.A. about how while Eijirou is soft on the inside because he’s just so supportive, you’re soft on the outside because of your fur. It’s a really stupid saying but you two love it all the same because honestly it’s true.)

#bnha x reader #bnha imagines #bnha scenarios #mha imagines #mha scenarios #mha x reader #bnha headcanons #mha headcanons #hawks x reader #takami keigo x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugou x reader #kirishima eijirou x reader #kirishima x reader #takami keigo #keigo takami #bakugou katsuki #bakugou #kirishima eijirou #kirishima #please let me know what you think! any feedback is greatly appreciated <333 #love you all!!! <33333 #also requests are open in case anyone wants to send anything in :)

[fizzingwizard]

I could cry y’all. Episode 37 was SO GOOD. So good!! It truly felt like a Mimi episode, and it truly felt like Digimon Adventure, in multiple ways. It’s seriously fantastic!

I feel at once super duper relieved that this show is, really and truly, capable of this time of episode, and also super duper confused why, if it could do this, it hasn’t been doing it the whole time??

Anyway, we’ve now had four or five solid episodes in a row, so I’m letting myself feel hopeful again!

This episode is called “Mimi Wars,” but I feel it might be more aptly titled “Sailor Mimi”

In the name of employee rights, I will punish you!

More below!

Okay... so as I was watching this episode, I really got the feeling that they were parodying something again. Like last we had a Mimi episode - far far away in the distant past though it was - when they very obviously parodied Castle in the Sky. That’s twice now Mimi’s been compared with a girl with twin tails, Usagi’s pigtails and Sheeta’s braids xD

Although the poses Mimi uses aren’t exact replicas of Usagi’s, though, so maybe I’m wrong. I got the Usagi vibe from her personality even more, so maybe using the poses would have been considered copyright infringement and so they had to change them a little. Or, maybe Mimi is parodying someone else who also uses dramatic hand movements and talks a lot about justice in spite of being generally clueless...

See the resemblance? XD

But what I REALLY think is going on is, they’re spoofing the genre in general, while also taking it seriously. That’s important. It’s not just a joke here. This is the girl power episode, in a way, and in my opinion, it’s a better girl power episode than the fare I got used to growing up, which went more or less like this:

Guy: *does something with good intentions but inept*

Girl: Ugh! Men don’t respect women!

Guy: I’m sorry, what did I do wrong?

Girl: I won’t tell you because feminism! C’mon girlfriends, let’s assert our confidence as women by going on a girls night out shopping spree and making a bunch of random guys stare in awe at us for no clear reason!

Girls: Yes! This is third wave feminism!

... that was more or less the formula. It was... awkward. I’d like to blame on “those episodes were written by men who think all feminists are angry feminists,” but I think if I went and checked who the scriptwriters were, there’d be some women in there for sure.

What we got in THIS episode is something I’d actually want my daughter to see. First off you’ve got Mimi, who loves pink and pretty things and comes across as a real girly girl, not to mention a bit of a ditz. And the show’s straight up, “but just because you have flaws doesn’t mean you can’t grow into a great person. Also, being girly is not incompatible with being a boss.”

Mimi doesn’t need to be a man, nor does she need to be a hard ass, nor does she need to be especially kind and sweet to soften her orders. All she has to do, according to this episode, is care about her craft, care about quality, and care about worker conditions.

I mean... a show where the girl boss wasn’t a Russian spy in a former life?? A show where the girl boss isn’t a Stepford wife who got where she is by marrying rich and funding her perfume company that way? She’s... she’s Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. She gets to be flawed and girly and fun-loving and bossy and ditzy all at the same time. She loves diamonds - but diamonds are no longer a “girl’s best friend.” Rather, Mimi herself is the diamond in the rough!

This actually makes her a really good set with Sora. Sora continues to be both a tomboy and very sisterly. Mimi’s very girly but very bossy. Between the two of them, they can conquer the world. Of course, I don’t know that the show would take it any farther than they already have, but I’m just happy to see this development for Mimi at all. We had it to a degree in 99 Adventure, and Kizuna took it a bit further by making her an entrepreneur. Reboot Mimi is a remix of that for the 21st century.

*deeeeeeeeeep breath*

so... back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As awesome as Mimi is, she’s not the only one who’s great in this episode. The others get to let their real personalities shine, at least. We needed this episode sooooo bad like 20 episodes ago... le sigh.

Anyway, we start off having mad camp, for some reason (why aren’t they just staying on Komondomon?? whatev)

Food! They’re going to get food! They’re splitting up and making a plan in order to get food!!! I still miss the “food desperation” of 99 Adventure but hey, at least they’re acknowledging that they need to eat.

Sora advises Hikari and Takeru not to go too far on their quest and Tailmon swears like a knight of the round table to protect Hikari with her life.

Taichi: Oookay... note to self: don’t piss off little sister’s hotheaded partner...

Taichi adds that they’re also counting on Patamon, who is just thrilled to go off and play with Takeru.

Tailmon: *BIG SIGH*

Lol I really love that they’re bringing back the old Patamon/Tailmon dynamic where she’s all grown up serious and he’s got the priorities of a toddler most of the time... It’s Black Widow and Hawkeye bahahahaha

We even get to see them COLLECT FOOD what did I do to deserve this they are COLLECTING FOOD IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN I REPEAT IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN

Taichi even has to warn Agumon not to eat the food becaues they’re supposed to be gathering it to share ;___; omg... we actually get on screen proof that Agumon is a glutton??

Then Taichi tries to “help” by shaking the tree and the tree falls and they -

BAHAHAHAHAHA

humor!!! Poking fun at Taichi even!! Over food!! Because he has a klutz for a partner!!! And because he himself was overzealous!! ;_; I could die of Cute.

Sora absolutely shocks me this episode too. I expected she’d just watch Taichi and Agumon drift away with their folly while sighing and shrugging her shoulders or something.

NOPE

She jumps DIRECTLY UP and into the water without a moment’s hesitation, like they’re going to die without her - I don’t even know what her plan is here, she seems to want Piyomon to evolve and pull them out, but why does that mean Sora has to be in the water too?

I think her sisterly instincts just freaked out on seeing Taichi looking wet and confused and clinging to a tree trunk so she just did the first thing she could think of which was “Get to him!!”

Piyomon then fails to evolve, reason unclear, I suppose she’s hungry... they never do eat though so I’m not sure why she can evolve later xD (probably they eat off screen)

But I mean I just love that we got this bit with Sora. I call it freaking out but she doesn’t seem freaked out - she stays calm and seems decisive and takes action - all good things. It’s just hard to understand her thought process xD But it’s all good info about Sora. (again stuff we needed more of AGES ago)

Now I had thought this was all just a funny bit that was separate to the main story, but this is how Taichi and Sora end up washed up in the rocky area Mimi is. This does mean Koushirou, Takeru, and Hikari aren’t much in the rest of the episode, sadly. Not sure why but the reboot does seem to struggle with writing episodes for the whole group.

Like last week, I’m somewhat miffed that, in the end, the main group finds the stragglers instead of the other way around. It’s even worse this time because at least last episode Koushirou told them where he was and they had a reason to go there. This time they have no idea Mimi’s gonna be there and it’s all a big coincidence. On the other hand... I do think Mimi was born under a lucky star, so that explains it. :P

Taichi and Sora suddenly find them selves trapped Gulliver’s Travels style and they’re both immediately like, “Hmm... something about this situation seems very familiar...”

Taichi and Sora: Oh that’s RIGHT we totally forgot that the pink cowgirl we hand out with is also TOTALLY BATSHIT

D’awww. Our future overlord is just so adorable, I don’t even mind when she flogs us in the street

TBH, up till now they’ve woefully underestimated just how batshit she is. And it’s wonderful.

So Mimi has happened upon some poor, disenfranchised Digimon who are being forced to work for an evil boss who collects the beautiful gems that grow in this area. Like in 99 Adventure, Mimi will have none of this sort of crap. Her reasons, though, have evolved with the times:

omg... she voted for Bernie Sanders!

This is how Harry and Ron reacted when Hermione said she was starting a house-elf welfare organization called SPEW.

Though I joke - like I said before, even though Taichi and Sora are rather mind-boggled by Mimi’s mood swings and fits of passion, and there’s definitely humor there, Mimi herself is not a joke here. We are shown strongly that, however in the clouds her head might be, her heart is not only in the place, it’s also already internalized the fact that people don’t always get treated well in the real world and it’s up to those with power to ensure that are protected.

I mean. At this point, I’m going, “Sorry but ISN’T MIMI THE REAL LEADER IN THIS SHOW?!?!”

Of course she does have another, less lofty motivation... she really likes pretty stones.

Buhahahaha.

Mimi’s names are as creative as they are incredible, just like her. Taichi and Sora have trouble keying in with Mimi due to how changeable she is, but they never talk badly about her or reject her. They never try to wrest leadership from her either! Taichi might think Mimi’s names for the stones are over the top, but sort of sidesteps it and just goes along with her plan.

Reason #14567876867867 why I love Yagami Taichi: when someone else is the leader, he can be a follower. And he’ll be the BEST follower. Keep reading to see why.

The story of how Mimi befriended the enslaved rock Digimon here is pretty much how Goku became besties with Vegeta.

Men communicate their hearts through their fists! Or swords, depending on the anime. ANOTHER AWESOME SUBVERSIVE MOMENT FOR MIMI - she’s now even got cliche shonen hero tropes assigned to her!

Taichi and Sora, like I said, don’t try to change Mimi’s mind - they’re actually touched by her strong feelings about workers’ rights and her desire to help her new friends -

Taichi: Wait... what?

Sora: Well, she’s still a ten year old girl.

The rock Digimon show their allegiance to Princess CEO Mimi. They don’t even mind having their names and identities stripped away and being reduced to numbers on an Excel spreadsheet...

Taichi: I hate Excel.

Sora: I do too, but I’m more impressed that she remembers the numbers she gave us back in episode 6.

Taichi: Impressed? More like filled with a sense of impending doom

Only Taichi seems to understand Mimi’s unique power bahahaha.

But back to what I said earlier, about Mimi being the real leader: I don’t know if the show’s gonna keep doing anything with this at all, but I really like that they didn’t NOT do this in order to ensure Taichi’s the only leader. (I mean, Yamato’s so far not made much of a bid for leadership so he’s been pretty uncontested thus far. He also hasn’t had to do all that much leading given how often the group is separated... but I digress)

I love the idea that Taichi can step back and let someone else take the reins when they’re best suited. Which Mimi is, due to her easy ability to make friends and gain trust. Mimi had this ability in 99 as well and it was used in the final battle to muster the troops, so to speak. It ought to have been a bigger deal but wasn’t since she missed most of the final battle :/ But I loved that “social, able to make friends” wasn’t some stupid “Girls talk too much” trait, it was actually something that was useful. This is a great place to take that with the reboot.

At the same time, while Mimi and Taichi both have similar leadership traits, there are places they diverge that potentially make them leaders for different situations. Taichi’s pretty cool and strategic even in emergencies. He was more of a hothead in 99, but Mimi’s always been quick to anger. (And quick to cool down.) As we’ll see in this episode, that’s sort of where Taichi’s true ability lies: he’s serious, determined, strategic, and reliable as well as brave. But this is Mimi’s episode, and Taichi isn’t going to get to be the hero anymore than he (almost) was last week with Koushirou. Because more than one character can have positive leadership traits! Hallelujah.

Quick nip over to Komondomon and the others - Koushirou’s group is going to try to find them, but Komondomon falls asleep. Oh noes. I wish someone (Koushirou) would ask, out loud, “Gee, what are these strange symbols that appear when we communicate via digivice? Do they mean something? How were they assigned?” I really thought we’d get a hint what with all the conveniently colorful gemstones this episode, but still nope.

My girl looking like a BAMF!

Mimi explains her plan to her servants employees. She is surprisingly artistic!

Sora plays the role of bait to create a diversion while Greymon digs a tunnel to get to where the gems are stored. Mimi congratulates herself on a job well done.

Taichi: A job well done? Who d’you think has been doing the work here?

Greymon: That would be me.

Taichi: Right, right I was going to say you >.>;

So we do see bits of Mimi’s self-centered side as well - she’s not perfect, but who is? Taichi just lives with it. Mwehehehe.

... will be fired! LMAO

No. 72 is Taichi, btw. Mimi gave up calling people by their names for Lent.

Taichi: Lent’s not for over a month.

Mimi: It’s never too early for religious sacrifice.

Taichi: And you’re not Catholic.

Mimi: I celebrate Mardi Gras.

Taichi: yOU JUST LIKE THE COSTUMES AND KING CAKE

He’s miffed and he.... just lives with it. Again. xD

It’s hilarious. And adorable. I love both that 1) Mimi is an awesome boss while being, in fact, rather bossy, and that 2) in spite of being a boss type himself, Taichi not only listens to Mimi, but he totally indulges her like he’s her older brother or something x’D He wouldn’t be out of line for saying “I have a name you know!” On the other hand, I guess he knows her well enough to understand that she doesn’t mean anything by it, and... there’s no stopping her when she gets like this :P

Feel the wrath of Tachikawa Mimi!!!

So Mimi’s plan has worked so far, and she’s got everyone listening to her despite her questionable business practices, and then she... suddenly rushes off in another direction.

Taichi: That’s it, I am through being her personal assistant if she’s just going to change the plan on a whim!

Taichi: ... I don’t want to see her get hurt or be sad though...

Greymon understands Taichi’s heart ;___; and enables him to go after Mimi. I don’t really get why it’s wise to split up given that Taichi can’t fight big rock Digimon without his partner... x’D So I’m going to chalk this up to, Greymon understands that Taichi is, at his core, the team Dad. He’s got to be allowed to worry and check up on the kids, even when it’s not so advisable. Awwwwwwwww.

Indeed, Taichi doesn’t get to be the hero this ep, but small moments like this give us waaaay more character development than always being the hero!

Fortunately Mimi does have her own partner and she’s not afraid of the enemy’s rock hard abs. :P

They make it into the storage center for all the gems. IT’S SO COLORFUL. Ten year old men is squeeing just like Mimi.

Come on!! She’s holding yellow/orange topaz and purple amethyst! It could be the material for Taichi or Takeru’s and Koushirou’s crests! (I always liked fire opal for Taichi though xD)

Taichi’s been promomted!! To chief pack animal x’D Just because it’s a cool name doesn’t mean that’s what the job is, Meems.

Taichi’s just like, “I think I’m too young for that position.” Bahahaha.

He’s going to be carrying her books to school before long.

Then something big and hard hits Taichi in the head!! He freaking starts to cry, it hurts so bad!!

Taichi: Owww! Omg I think I got a concussion from that! Help someone call an ambulance!

He was hit in the head by a diamond, which Mimi loves. So she goes off on a monologue about how much she likes diamonds. She never asks him if he’s okay x’D

Taichi: Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, not that you asked or anything.

Mimi: Please, everyone knows your head is already harder than diamonds.

Taichi: ...

The pile of gems looks like Fruity Pebbles. Mmmmm

It turns out the mastermind of this whole operation is Gogmamon, who is the bastard child of Gogmagog I assume :P He eats the gemstones as well as Gotsumon for power. He then produces the diamonds?? I didn’t quite understand if he was spitting out the diamonds because he didn’t like them, or he was creating them inside him when eating and then spitting them out like... diamond turds...

...

they’re diamond turds aren’t they >__>

Mimi is not interested in big business bulldozing the mom and pop shops and small upstarts. And she hates sweatshops! She is pro-Fair Trade all the way! And she will yell it in your face!

Taichi: It’s the yelling part that I’m having trouble with.

Mimi: A good speech from the boss is what keeps up employee morale!

Taichi: Yeah, that’s less true when the boss is about to be gobbled up herself...

Golemon and Togemon try to fight Gogmamon and this results in Golemon falling to pieces.

Taichi: Are you okay?

Golemon: My HEAD was knocked off, but sure I’m doing JUST FINE -____- little brat

Taichi stands protectively in front of Golemon’s head. Lol. He’s thinking of strategies... perhaps regretting rushing after Mimi and leaving his own partner behind...

Mimi joins him and Gogmamon finds her a formidable opponent in the war of words. Gogmamon argues that all the rocks, all the Digimon, everything here belongs to him and him alone! And Mimi brilliantly counters with:

“Fuck that! They belong to ME!”

x’D He just like... under his breath... “she admits that’s how she thinks of us...” hahahaha... I laughed out loud...

It might not be 3D but this is an excellent evolution sequence xD I haven’t said so yet but the animation in this episode was good! Good for the show anyway. It was smoother than usual despite some mechanical-like mouth movements and more than that, it had character and expression!

okay important question everyone: Taichi = Kermit, Mimi = Miss Piggy... discuss??

So Gogmamon has a pretty cool-sounding attack, “Curse Reflection.” I have often complained that the villains we fight and get new evolutions with aren’t that scary, but Gogmamon not only seemed pretty formidable (if not the smart, I mean he does have rocks for a brain), he also had a good story build up. My one disappointment in this episode is that the ending is so fast and Gogmamon so easily dealt with. This would have been a good time to introduce Rosemon (like how last week would have been an appropriate time for HerculesKabuterimon). But in both cases, we’re definitely supposed to take away at least that these guys are almost there... Anyway yeah, I would have liked a tiny bit more meant to the resolution but.

So here’s ANOTHER cool thing! Taichi notices that Gogmamon rejects the diamonds, and realizes they’re the key to defeating him. But he doesn’t just tell that to Mimi. He asks her “Did you see that?” And guess what - she did!

So even though the show couldn’t resist telling us that yes, Taichi would have been able to handle this situation - it doesn’t even let him give Mimi a hint towards victory. She figures it out for herself! The most we can say he does is point out the diamond, but she understands the implication and is able to use it against Gogmamon through her own intellect.

TAICHI DOESN’T MANSPLAIN Y’ALL. HE’S NOT A MANSPLAINER. HALLELUJAH AND PAST THE PEAS!!

Mimi is very influenced by her hardworking, CEO grandpa, Tachikawa Genichiro, who’s taught her things about business and things about values, and it really reads as if she’s the one who will inherit the family business - like she’s the family investment. You know, the role that traditionally only falls to sons. That’s changed with the world, and apparently Tachikawa Genichiro-jiisan is totally on board with his granddaughter being more than just a pretty heiress!

... btw what are they making...

“You’re fired!” Mimi yells as Lillymon takes Gogmamon down x’D kill me I love it

Like last time (and it sure was a long time ago that we saw it ;_;), the aftereffects of Lillymon’s powers is plants start growing everywhere. This is such a cool effect, I don’t get why it’s not used more. Right now I feel like Mimi/Palmon are the best set in the show.

(I did think it was funny when Mimi gives the diamond to Lillymon to use against Gogmamon and Lillymon acts like Mimi’s making this huge sacrifice since she loves diamonds so much. But 1) it wasn’t the only one, and 2) they were spat out by Gogmamo! that’s gross! that’s got to cut into the value! hahah)

The others finally catch up and the day is saved. Golemon is an employee for life now. Awww.

AWWWWWW.

I gushed about all this before so I won’t repeat myself, but yeah, I’m so happy with this episode.

Lol Sora and Taichi have accepted their places in Mimi’s world, in the end. They might have numbers instead of names and their boss might change her mind about things every five seconds, but other than that it’s a pretty nice gig overall.

Again the art, so sweet. This reminded me of Miyako yelling to Mimi about how she wants to be like her when she grows up in 02 so I capped it.

And I absolutely love this little play on words since it’s in English! Wow!

SO CUTE. How did a Mimi episode kick every other episode out of the water? Scratch that, we always knew Mimi was fantastic. A shojo hero for the 21st century.

Well I said a ton and this is really long now so I’m gonna assume you all get my thoughts on this episode. 9.5/10, really awesome, totally unexpected but perfectly suted to Mimi. I’m so so happy this show seems to have figured things out and remebered that it’s supposed to be freaking Digimon Adventure, it seemed like it forgot for a while there. I just hope we haven’t wasted too much time on those more lackluster episodes, I want so many more stories like this one.

Next week looks like another winner:

OK, that concept is hilarious x’D I’m so sorry. But also, leave it to Yamato and Gabumon to get the tragedy episode.

The mood maker will be this guy! I’m totally psyched for Yamato and Jou. Taichi’s been important in the past two episodes even though they were centered on Koushirou and Mimi, so I wonder if/when he’ll be involved this time? Or maybe it really will be just Yamato and Jou - my dream combo?? I can’t wait either way.

DID NOT CHECK FOR TYPOS! See y’all next week.

#fizz watches digimon 2020 #digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure: #digimon adventure reboot #digimon #digi spoilers #this took forever because i loved it so much #so many caps so many comments hahahahaha

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Quadruple Feature! (Beauty and the Beet, Whiffle While You Work, Jurassic Jumble, Something Fishy)

Welcome back! It’s been a bit since I visited St. Canard and my march to watching Just Us Justice Ducks by watching one episode, with the exception of Megavolt the first chronological appearances of, each member of the Justice Ducks and Fearsome Five. The Megavolt exception was so I could, by comission, cover the one and only appearance of the OTHER Negaduck if you were curious.So far besides Negsy and Volty, i’ve covered both of Morgana’s first chronological episodes, Liquidator’s and (SIgh) Gizmoducks. But with only 6 left to go.. I put the seires on hiatus to work on ride of the three cabs and my minty fresh retrospective of life and times. At the TIME it didn’t seem like a bad idea, I could get to this any time and what not.. but in hindsight.. yeah putting an almost finished project on hold till two much larger projects, that at the time of this review have 10 and 13 installments left, WHILE also starting two more projects... was not my best move, especially since I have a comission, and an episode needed to properly review that comission AND a valentine’s day episode to review.. all of which come AFTER Just Us Justice Ducks chronlogically and 2 of which involve Negaduck. So yeah I whiffed it bad on this one and this mini-marathon is my way of fixing that, finsihing up the last few episodes before the big event. The episode i’ve waited almost a decade to watch and one of the most loved in the series history: Just Us Justice DUcks, which is coming up next week. Then LIfe and Times will be right back where it was and I promise to get that out weekly. But yeah with logisitcs out of the way and 4 episodes to go, I don’t know how to go slow so let’s get dangerous shall we?

Beauty and the Beat:The Misplaced Batman the Animated Series Villian

We open with one of the first Darkwings I watched via my old Darkwing Duck DVDS, rewatched a while back and easily one of my faviorite episodes and the first apperance of my faviorite Darkwing Duck Villian, though Liquidator and now Quackerjack are giving him a run for his money. But yeah I love Reggie and part of it is he’s something far diffrent than what Darkwing normally fights. 

While he still fits in with the Rouges gallery: someone with either powers or a good gimmick whose intresting, engaging and most importantly to this show, Reggie is still diffrent in that he’s an inherently tragic figure. While the rest of the rouges have sympathetic qualities theier still not really good people: Quackerjack chose to lash out at what drove him out of buisness instead of starting over again, Megavolt is your standard wants money bad guy, and Liquidator was a massive asshole. And if you add in the other villians i’ve covered, Taurus Bulba was basically Marvel’s Kingpin as a bul and Splatter Phoenix while having a noble goal of funding her arts does so via framing an innocent child and stealing. They aren’t unsympathetic, some of them anyway, but they are still ruthless because they choose to be.  Reggie.. didn’t get that choice. We see from the start of this episode his life has just been being everyone elses punching bag: His boss dosen’t respect him, his cowowkers not only don’t respect him but actively bully him and only the newsest researcher has ever paid him the time of day much less told the two assholes, Gary and Larson, a nice shout out, to stop. And given I reviewed Wonder Woman 84 yesterday i’ts NICE to remember a version of a “geek becomes a supervillian’ story that’s.. actually good. This is basically the same sorry, a disrpsected scientest trnasforms and gets revenge.. just you know done right. 

And SOMEHOW Reggie’s life only gets worse as asshole one and asshole two sabotage his work, he gets fired and is forced to experiment on himself. While that’s a classic mad scientst and supervillian trope what’s notable is Reggie didn’t go immiedtly to world domination. He just wanted to cure world hunger and get some respect. He just wanted to be treated like a human being for once. Instead he got turned into a plant and despite this being a miracle.. he gets MOCKED by gary and larson and runs away, feeling like a freak. And since after that the transformation has clearly made his brain unstable.. he goes from a sweet, put upon guy who just wanted help to people.. to an obsessive plant monster.. who still just needs HELP. He needs therapy and a warm blanket and to turn his life around. And his motivation.. is just not being alone. While his kdinapping of the one scientest who liked him, and he assumes has feelings for him, is bad, and selfish.. it’s clear by that point Reggie is just not himself anymore. He’s Bushroot now. He’s lost himself and were this a diffrent show maybe he could’ve gotten the help he needed and some empathy.  But what adds to the tragedy is Darkwing himself. This episode really showcases one of Darkwing’s biggest weaknses: his inablity to see crime other than in black and white terms. To him it’s just a game of heroes and villians. Nothing more nothing less. Villians can become heroes, as he hopes for Morgana, but to him there’s just good guys ,him and bad guys, everyone breaking the law. For someone whose often seen as an outlaw himself.. he still can’t see things in any other terms. However instead of just being lazy writing... it’s a clever character quirk, at the center of this episode and our final one, as well as one that pops up a little in Stegmutt’s first apperance. It nicely parodies/deocnscruts the whole good guy badguy dynamic by making it clear that sometimes while the person may be doing bad things.. they have a reason for it and sometimes the law just dosen’t work. It’s something I do wish they’d dug into more but given this was more of a comedy, I get why they didn’t, but what they did with it is great and it adds to this episode tremendously: Darkwing just sees Reggie as another villian to stop and not as a very unstable man who needs his help, but also needs tobe stopped for his own good. It’s why this is such a good episode, besides some great comic set pieces: it has a really tragic and moving story that , with some tweaking woudln’t of been out of place in batman the animateds eires. It’s still a bit goofy in places, as it should be giving the show it’s in btu at i’ts heart it’s just a relaly godo really tragic supervillian origin story. 

Whiffle While You Work: The Saving Grace of an Okay Episode This one’s more of a mixed bag. For the good... Quackerjack is fucking awesome. While I already loved him from the comics, I hadn’t met his more lightehearted tv counterpart yet.. but boy was he a delight. From his it’s play time catch phrase which despite being repeated a LOT never got bored to his really invenitve use of toys. While a vilian with a toy gimmick is not new, Toyman has been around for.. 80 years? Damn. I should do some Superman TAS episodes this year to commemerate that. Point is between him and the joker the gimmick isn’t “New” but Quackerjack still feels unique from using actual jacks, to a motorized hula hoop, to a GIANT CRYING BABY DOLL TO FLOOD A CITY. Jackie is just a delight every minute he’s on screen, and his motivation is solid: wanting to get revenge at the Whiffle Boy video game and i’ts insuing phenmonin and merchandise deals for squeezing him out of buisness. It makes him mildly symathetic enough to be intresting but not enough to override his terrible actions. He’s just fun to watch, and Micheal Bell is phenominal in the roll. easily one of my faviorite vilians thus far and it’s easy to see why he showed up quite a bit. 

Sadly the rest of the episode.. is not very intresting. It starts with your standard “Adult gets child away from the video game only to play it” plot which is belivieble, my dad was a gamer back during my childhood and probably still plays games ocasionally to this day. He fucking loved Starcraft, Ultima ONline, Super Metroid, Warcraft II and III.. and swearing. He really loved swearing at the games. And the idea of the episode isn’t bad, Drake is jealous that Gosalyn is in the limelight for once.. the issue  being a grown man competing with his own daughter just makes Drake really unlikeable. He at one point tries to use his parental authority to take her out of the contest, lies about being in the competition, and dosen’t apologize or learn enough to make up for his being a dick about this. THe episode really suffers from Launchpad not being around to be a buffer between the two and as ssuch it’s just uncomfortable. Hell Gos threatens to reveal Drake’s identity to .. someone.. but she still comes off sympathetic as when Drake presses her on it.. it’s very clear she made the threat on the spur of the moment out of hurt. 

Also the whole Whiffle Boy game craize extending to a city is delightfully batshit, and plausable given i’m pretty sure if nintendo could afford their own city we’d have it over in japan and for a video game episode in the 90′s, this one isn’t all that bad. It actually seems to get games on SOME level, and seems based more on an arcade game, which drake plays whiffle boy on at one point and the 80′s arcade competition craze, and since arcade comeptitions were still a huge thing in the 90′s, it’s very clear this si written by people who actually know what a video game is and don’t just fear it as some strange doodad their kids are into. Trust me I’ve been around animation so long this plot has become tiresome. So not a BAD episode, just held back by drake being written even more dickishly than usual.  P.S. there’s apparently an ultima level to the game.. so either Lord British is finally putting Chuckles down or someone needs to know what’s a paladin. 

Jurassic Jumble: Two Great One Shot Characters that Taste Great Together Well okay Segmutt does get one more episode but this is still his only episode on his own just like Neptuina next, so I count it well enough. Point is this episode is pretty good. It does have some weaknsses: It starts with Drake not beliviing Honker’s theory about a recent theft of acountants, one he’s only on the scene for because he happens to really need help with his taxes because, contrary to what Wesley Snipes thought, Superheroes still need to pay taxes. He dosen’t belive it’s dinosaurs.. he dosen’t belivie it’s dinosaurs despite the foot prints, honker being smart and HAVING FOUGHT A DOG MADE ENTIRELY OF WATER. 

I just get annoyed when superheros in a superhero universe don’t hav ea logical reason for dismissing something.. or random citizens.. it was fine if reptitous in the stan lee days because it’d been 20 years, at the time, since superheros were active and people can be stupid but it gets grating when someone says somethin’gs not possible in a superhero universe. Given we’re currrently dealing with an outgoing president who refuses to accept an election is real and his followers who think masks are a polical issue i’ts not exactly unrelasitic, dosen’t mean it’s enjoyable to read or watch. 

Still it works here because it splits the plot nicely and Gosalyn’s disbleif is less grating as she just wants it to be martians and dosen’t bully her friend or anything over it, just makes a few snyde remarks. The episode also wasn’t helped at first by the fact there’s a really reptitive bit where Darkwing bungies down to investigate the crook he thinks is responsible, but is actually just chilling at his minium security prison. It’s just not funny and takes up too much of the episode. But the episode picks up towards the second half when we meet our dinosaur: Stegmutt, a dumb but kind and friendly child like former janitor turned stegasaurs, whose unwittingly kidnapping people for his “friend” Dr. Fossil, the professor who turned him, and genuinely is not a bad soul and likes gosalyn and honker. He’s just clumsy and destructive and working for someone he dosen’t know is evil.  Speaking of which.. Dr. Fossil is really damn awesome and i’ts a shame he never came back in the comics or cartoon and hopefully Frank does him better in the reboot. Seriously he’s enjoyable, a bit nebbish but delightfully insane, deciding to wipe out all non dino life because he’s tired of getting panicked screams in the street and of all the dino merchandise like those puzzles with the pieces missing. He’ sjust delightfully nutty, with his love of saying bin bang boom and his having to put up with Stegmutt’s antics, as well as the whole joke that he TURNED HIMSELF INTO A DINOSAUR, yet gripes about being a dinosaur and acts like it’s humanity’s fault , balking when Gosalyn suggests he just.. turn himself back. Plus Ptetrodacytl’s are awesome so tha’ts a bonus. Seriously his showing up turns the episode from okay to fucking amazing. Seriously bring him back for the reboot.. and get Rich Fulcher to voice him. Seirously Bob Fossil as Dr. Fossil... it’s too perfect NOT to do casting gag wise, and he frankly perfectly fits the charcter down to the nasily voice. Plus Rich does voice acting quite a bit, so he’s already likely in Frank’s Rolodex. 

Stegmutt himself is also not too shabby, your standard child like moron, but he’s got a sweetness and niceness to him and we get some good gags like his habit of breaking off handles, his opening sodas with his tail and Fossil getting rid of him by telilng him to check if he left the bathroom light on...

And the climax with Darkwing.. turning.. into this

I don’t get it either but i’ts still a fun climax. Also forgot to mention Dr. Fossil can do that blow you away by flapping his wings thing Storm Eagle can do. Neat. All in all while not the series BEST outing, it has some flaws holding it back, it’s a damn fun one and one I highly recommend. Okay one more. 

Something Fishy: The Better Submariner This is a simple but good one: St. Canard beach has gotten trashy.. literally there’s trash everywhere. And while Drake is ambilent to it, Gosalyn is taking up the crusade to take out the trash and the garbage people... and gets her dad beaten up over it by dumping trash on some guys head but frankly, he deserved it.  Things go up a notch though when some sea creatures invade and .. clean up the beach and beat up darkwing. And while they destroy some property.. they aren’t exactly wrong? This is where that flaw I mentioned comes in though. Drake just.. can’t see things in shades of grey and insits he must be the good guy and whoevers doing this must be stopped.  However it becomes clear when we meet the antagonist that while her methods are wayy to extreme.. she’s in the right. Neputina is an awesome character, easily one of the series best and esaily horribly underulitized. She was a simple fish who thought a toxic waste barrel was a new friend.. and learned the hard way by becoming a sexy fish woman. Yeah I said it. But her motive is understandable thanks to her origin and just how BAD it’s gottne, with piles of trash all underwater and the laws Drake cites agianst this sort of thing not doing squat. It’s a nice take on the old enviornmental message , something I dreaded going in as it makes a valid point; sometimes diong things the “right” way isn’t enough.. but it still dosen’t justify harming innocent people in the process, as Nep’s ultimate plan to flood the city would.  Launchpad ends up being the voice of Reason as drake is too caught in his games of good guy bad guy to get Neptuina ISN’T a bad person, just one fed up with people hurting those she cares about. Neptuina is a unique villan in that unlike Morgana, who while having a sympathetic motive was out for herself, Stegmutt, who didn’t reailze he was on the wrong side, and Gizmoduck.. wellll

Neptuina.. is just misguided. She has the right idea but the wrong methods and Darkwing’s too stubborn to admit it.. but he’s also seen as in the wrong with Launchpad realizing DW just.. isn’t the good guy this time, but in the best scene of the episode talking Neptuina down by pointing out innocent people will get hurt. It’s a good, nuanced episode about envrionmetnalism with a throughly charasmatic and intrersting, acted wonderfully by Sussan Silo, antagonist. Neptuina is a better version of Marvel’s namor the submariner: she goes against humanity.. but I don’t want to punch her and dosen’t have one of her constnat character traits as “I want to bank your wife richards BANG YOUR WIFEEEEE”

So overall.. a good batch of episodes. Only Wiffle While You Work was all that weak, and even it had it’s charms and Quackerjack. It shows the series overall quality: even the just okay episodes here are still really fun to watch. It’s just a solid show overall and whie not without flaws is a classic to this day for a reason. Next week we’ll wrap this up with JUST US JUSTICE DUCKS! Until then stay safe and goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. 

#darkwing duck #drake mallard #gosalyn mallard #launchpad mcquack #honker muddlefoot #neptuina #stegmutt #doctor fossil #dr fossil #justice ducks #quackerjack #regenald bushroot #bushroot #whiffle while you work #beauty and the beet #something fishy #jurassic jumble

[dereksmcgrath]

Nosu Koshu’s return combines the Black Mercy from Superman with a Dragon Quest isekai plot that doesn’t really deliver much in the way of innovative gags and, in terms of plot, only perpetuates vague hints at larger schemes by Uneras. But maybe Ren’s sister Rin is going to get to be more relevant, so that’s good.

“Nosu Koshu of Illusions,” Magu-chan: God of Destruction, Chapter 56

By Kei Kamiki, translation by Christine Dashiell, lettering by Erika Terriquez

Available from Viz

Spoiler Warning for the Dragon Quest animated film.

Nosu Koshu, the dream god, is like the Black Mercy from Superman mythos. First appearing in the comic “For the Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, then adapted for Justice League Unlimited and Supergirl, it is an alien being that lets you dream of your most ardent desires–but usually with some catch, not just that, to remove the Mercy from yourself is to lose that perfect dream, but because even within that dream, like any utopia, there is always some dark side behind it. When Nosu Koshu popped up first in Magu-chan, she gave Ruru the dream of being reunited with her dead father, at the cost of being with Magu and living a healthier life of coping with loss and finding new opportunities despite that loss.

Nosu Koshu gave Magu-chan the best arc it has had up to this point–so bringing her back now for a parody of Dragon Quest and isekai storylines is tiresome. Hell, I hated that Dragon Quest animated film for its twist at the end regarding isekai stuff, so unfortunately that example tainted my appreciation for where this chapter was going.

I’m not being entirely fair to this chapter: there were details I liked. I admit some of those details were gags that I should have seen coming: Magu being reduced to a Dragon Quest Slime monster, or Uneras being shown as the final boss (which, as I’ll talk about in a moment, is potential foreshadowing to her being the Big Bad all along for this series). And I laugh heartedly when Ruru said they’ll just skip the maze level and thanks Muscar for the warning; as repetitive as their dynamic is, I do like the groove the series has set, Muscar struggling to be fearsome and intimidating and Ruru, not out of simpleness but kindheartedness, looking on the bright side and taking Muscar’s remarks as helpful rather than intimidating.

But isekai storylines have been done to death. “Magic technology goes out of wack” like Uneras putting Izuma to sleep, then having magic eyemasks to put the others into Izuma’s dream, are plot details I expect from some of the worst manga that repeatedly persist with that trope. If I want the mad scientist who keeps making magic-like objects that cause wacky hijinks, I’d get back to writing Mei Hatsume fanfiction, not sitting through G-rated To Love-Ru.

I’m trying to judge the series by its own previous examples: if you’re going to invoke a certain type of video game, even if it is an RPG, I am stuck comparing how this same series handled the fighting game tropes, offering a funny version of Smash Bros while also having more clever gags that invoke the invitation envelope from that franchise as well as even designing a bulkier headband-wearing Magu to look like Ryu from Street Fighter.

But even still, I think how another series would handle this kind of plotline about Dragon Quest-style RPGs and isekai plotlines–because I’ve seen Gintama do it, not only to parody the same content but to do the exact same plot, that being to get into someone’s body (more specifically for Magu-chan, someone’s mind) to help them through a health-related problem. And when there are so many isekai stories out there, it is ripe for parody–and there have been enough of such parodies in other series, or even isekai that are parodying their own genre and undermining their own narrative conventions.

The gags in this chapter also felt less impressive than those in previous chapters. The problem the series has had since depowering Muscar has been Uneras, and I hate saying that when she is, for better or worse, a character who resonates for manga and anime fans like us, someone portrayed as ostensibly a Western fan whose fixation on the tropes of Japanese comics and animation shows an outsider’s perspective that just gets details wrong and invokes cringe. Maybe it is naive for me to think this is all innocent: as a fan in the United States, who is going to misread cultural aspects of works that are created in cultural contexts outside of where I am, I really try to be aware and not make claims I cannot support.

So, maybe Uneras is a warning for people who think they are being reasonable and having good intentions but whose misreadings are doing actual harm. It’s not that difficult a way to measure her, given her other problematic behavior: her reaction in this chapter of thinking “hawt” upon seeing Izuma oppose her, after the series has already presented Uneras as a pseudo-maternal figure to Izuma, is all kinds of Oedipal squick that, no, ew, stop, please.

When you keep making Uneras’s behavior the instigation for the plot–creating the problems for the characters to solve–her role as the trouble-maker, as the troll, lacks the same complexities we saw earlier. When she first appeared, her antics inadvertently caused problems: if she had told Ruru that the cookies she ate would make her too powerful, then Ruru would not have accidentally blasted Izuma and Magu. In her subsequent appearances, she was carefully placed in alternative positions, sometimes purposefully trolling the characters, sometimes unintentionally causing problems that thankfully were harmless enough to be corrected by story’s end with minimal ramifications and no malice. Then she depowered Muscar, bringing the story back to square one in terms of giving him a potential redemption arc, and invoking colonialist imagery that shows her cultural ignorance is not necessarily amusing but dangerous.

If we don’t want to read something deeper behind Uneras’s behavior, within the plot of the manga itself, there is an easier understanding for why she is trolling people, tricking them, and now pulling such a dangerous Black Mercy god like Nosu Koshu into her ranks–and it’s been obvious since Uneras’s first introduction. When she premiered in unlucky Chapter 13, she made it clear that she is playing the humans and gods against each other, that she sided with the humans against her own kind to keep the gods in check. She is not the traditional notion of a hero, she is not a good-hearted cliche like Ruru: she is a puppetmaster, and that opens up more potential for what to do with her in this manga, and I tense up either because she will emerge as an antagonist in this story or because I am now attached to this idea and will feel disappointed if my prediction does not pan out that way (which, seeing as I am wanting to see every tiny cute creature as a potential villain–e.g., Nezu in My Hero Academia–may be my problem and not that of the stories’: “When you’re a hammer, and everything looks like a nail…”).

That leaves us with what the story does with Nosu Koshu. Since her introduction, she has been a passive character, fitting for a god whose ability puts people to sleep in the dream that best serves the reality they want to enter. That power gave Magu-chan the kind of storyline even the goofiest gag manga needs, one that showed how Ruru has mourned her father’s death and gave joke characters like Naputaaku a chance to rise to the occasion. But now that Nosu Koshu’s threat has been diminished, the manga is trying to figure out where to position her–and the conclusion they reach is to give Ren another god to look after. I had enjoyed how Magu-chan added more gods but made sure to give those gods their own human Pokemon trainer, so introducing Nosu Koshu but not giving her her own unique human is retreading whatever characterization we could get from Ren without developing a currently present human or a new human character we could add. It’s like when Transformers Prime introduced Smokescreen and gave him Jack as his human partner: Jack already has Arcee, and that choice diminished opportunities to give Arcee the spotlight, as her storyline faded more and more into the background while Smokescreen’s role got larger and larger. Diminishing the only woman-coded Autobot to the background didn’t help either.

But speaking of sidelining women characters, if we are going to have Nosu Koshu at the Fujisawa restaurant–and, as they do have a beach stand, it does make sense to apply this god’s talents there after Mother Fujisawa exhausted herself in an earlier chapter–pair Nosu Koshu with Ren’s sister Rin. While I have enjoyed Rin’s dynamic with Naputaaku, he is already Ren’s god partner, and Rin’s schtick has been rather stale: in the beach stand chapter, we did learn she desires to rise to the occasion to run the family business, belying her slacker demeanor. But if we’re going to move beyond the tiresome slacker schtick, having her be the partner to a literal sleepyhead like Nosu Koshu makes sense and could help both characters, contrasting how Rin’s passivity differs from Nosu Koshu’s, and showing that Rin has actual dreams she is trying to reach in her own way while Nosu Koshu has been content to force other people to literally dream without having any goal of her own. Like I just said, I tend to write ideas that I hope a story will take, then I feel disappointed when they don’t go there, and that unfairly influences my reviews. But I hope I got this one right, because after the previous chapter and now this one, it feels like Magu-chan needs an emotionally impactful chapter to give more direction to where the gags should go.

#magu chan: god of destruction #manga review

[iyliss]

Hi, sorry if you've already talked about this, but I have a question. I remember seeing some meta floating around a while back about how Season 2 of GX was based on the Lovecraftian Mythos and Cosmic Horror, but I don't know anything about Lovecraft or Cosmic Horror, but you said you did. So could you maybe tell us more about how GX was inspired by Lovecraft? I love digging into the meta of things and hearing what people are interested in! Thank you for your time.

Omgg thank you so much for asking!! I already talked a bit about cthulhu mythos and gx (you may find about inspirations of arcana forces that doesn’t have much meta, about the world and the devil that are more focus on anime interpretations and that very scary looking reply about judai being randolph carter). But I can sure develop about season 2, and GX in general, since this was about more specific points. I’ll try to keep it decently readable, Im sorry if i get carried away ^^ Also I hope I don’t make too many mistakes, I’ve red most of the stories I will refer too, but not all, and a part comes from other sources so it might not be exact (and I might reconsider some aspects as I keep reading). Also I will avoid repeating things I said in the 3 posts linked up there. First of, why would Gx and s2 more specifically be related specifically to the Cthulhu Mythos, amongst other inspirations? Beside the arcana forces being quite obvious references, there are some narratives, aesthetics and themes in common. Amongst other things:

An entity from outer space partially coming to earth and leadingit to it’s destruction

The mix of weird sci-fi (aliens, space, white holes...) and occultism (tarot, spirits, ghosts...)

A sect. A whole sect right there.

A general mystery of some aspects of the universe (what is the light of destruction? What is the extent of it’s power, and influence? Where does it and gentle darkness come from?)

About “knowing too much” (mostly Saiou knowing the future, but you can see a bit of it in Judai’s evolution)

And so many aspects of Saiou but it’s harder to explain it all

I think that even without having red anycosmic horror litterature, the villain being the leader of a sect that try to destroy the world in honnor of an out of space (and reality) super-powerful entity screams lovecraft. Ill try talking about other points down there that are less obvious. In a way, the “main” characters of s2 (judai, edo, kenzan and saiou) follows lovecraftian main characters archetypes. Judai ressembles characters such as, well, Randolph Carter, and Charles D Ward. Innocent, a bit naive and immature, generally nice though lacking some sense of consequences. There’s often this kid who doesn’t actively try to get involved in things, but have some strong relationship with occult things and will get in all kind of trouble that never really ends well. Edo… is more about how he loves litterature, doesn’t have much friends, has a (black) cat, drink tea and is american but more about European style. That sounds stupid but it’s also an important part of lovecraftian imagery. Kenzan is interesting cuz he’s an paleontologist (at least of passion), but in a very stupid way. That may be an unwilling coincidences but I swear the number of incredibly unprofessional (and unrealistic) field rescearcher/archeologist there are in those stories… And Saiou… There’s this underlying theme (fueled by lovecraft’s racism tbh) about beings/people that are weird, monstruous, different (=not white american protestant men for him), and they probably know some secret dangerous occult magic that will destroy the world, because that is obviously what they want. And that’s pretty much how Saiou was treated. But, what makes those stories more interesting than simple racist metaphores is that said « monsters » are never shown actively doing anything bad (the dunwich horror mostly, and the shadow over innsmouth are especially interesting. In the first, it actually makes more sense than our main monster Wilbur Whateley actually tries to save the world). Which well also goes with Saiou’s story.

And it’s actually hard to explain deeply because I am often scared to associate scenes and aspects that are just a bit alike. But if i have to develop on some specific lovecraft stories, beside The dream quest of the unknown Kadath for s3 and Through the gate of the silver key for s4... In s2 some aspects reminds me of The repairer of reputation (old, very close friend of a good man have been slowly becoming the leader of a cult that does quite shady things and want the return of an old god, while maintaining a good face to his friend who noticed nothing despite everyone else thinking he’s strange), the dunwich horror (Boy hated by everyone deals all alone with an incredibly powerful entity that only brings destruction, ambiguously helping or stoping it, until at the very end the other characters finally realizes that they have to stop it too), at the mountain of madness (Hero with an affinity for spiritual things discover aliens are a thing, but they’re actually nice. But there’s also something evil those aliens tried to fight and failed, and now it’s after the humans), or The case of Charles Dexter Ward (Well meaning boy brings back his very powerful and evil double-from the past- at first tries to deal with him alone, gets all kind of trauma, asks for help as a last resort and no one understands. Notice it works both for the light/Saiou and Haou/Judai). But for that I actually think it’s more that similar themes (which could be  more likely inspired by typical Cthulhu mythos tropes and stories) leads to similar scenarios than direct references. However, s2 strongly feels like an incredibly good “adaptation” of cthulhu mythos, especially because it deals a lot more with the dehumanization and trauma that are only implied in the stories. I say adaptation because this universe is actually much more vaste than just H.P. lovecraft (and that’s why I say “cthulhu mythos”, because it’s not just him) and, at this point, is more about the tropes and themes than the characters or creatures. Also I want to conclude with insisting that, while the extend of lovecraftian inspiration in S2 is debatable, it’s clear that there’s at least one person behind ygo who has a very good knowledge of cthulhu mythos, and has it as a strong inspiration. Not only in GX, but also in the tcg (outer gods), in zexal (i personnaly have some thoughts about don thousand being based of Nyarlathotep) and in Vrains (tindangles being Tindalos Hounds).

#thanks again im so happy to talk about this ;w; #there are so many things to say about s2 and Saiou #I might try to make some kind of chart someday #I hope it makes sense and is decently pleasing to read! #gx #ask

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Hey you like evil septic egos, right? (I've read your Inverted series lol very good) Something I've been wondering for a while is what an evil version of the septics would be like. Like if most of the others were good guys but one of them was evil. You know, like how some people think Marvin is evil? I thought you'd like something like that enmwljdisl What would you think that would be like?

Uhhh how’d you know I like evil septics? *sweats nervously and glances at my AUs with evil versions of good characters* (Also thank you!)

Okay but like this idea is so intriguing. I’m gonna assume this is a world where Anti still exists, but like, one of the boys has a reversed morality and serves as a secondary villain. How would this work? How would they interact with the other boys?

I mean, the community’s already had a lot of evil!Marvin concepts. I mean like, the idea of a black magic magician who’d do anything to get what he wanted—wait that’s Inverted!Marvin abort abort abort make something different! dsjkflhdsj But in all seriousness,I think an evil Marvin could serve as one of Jackie’s enemies, a supervillain to Jackie’s hero. I wouldn’t be surprised if he went after the other boys as part of supervilliany deeds, or tried to team up with Anti. He’d be after power and dark secrets, not caring who he has to go through to get it. He’d probably also make a show of it, loving the attention he gets. And he’d have some cool magic powers. I really like the idea @beerecordings had about an evil!Marvin that can turn people into animals, which is like, really cool because can you imagine being forcibly turned into an animal or something? Especially something tiny? That would be freaky. Evil!Marvin holds people hostage by turning them into mice and putting them in a cage or something, and Jackie has to find other magicians to reverse the spell.

Or people thought JJ was evil back when his Power Hour first came out (don’t think I haven’t forgotten that *squints*). So what if he was the evil one? I’m imagining, like, he used to be a normal, nice guy but then Anti ripped him out of his time period for puppet reasons and that really messed with his idea of morality. Maybe even after Anti stops straight-up controlling him Jameson just sticks around because he doesn’t know what else to do in this new time period. Or maybe Jameson goes looking for a way to get back to his own time, and he gets so obsessed with going home that he’ll do anything to get back, including murder. Maybe he wants to get back at Anti for doing all this to him, and the other boys take him in as an ally at first before realizing just how far he’ll go in order to get rid of Anti. They try to talk him down, but instead Jameson just starts to see them as the enemy too. In all honesty JJ being a secondary villain could be really sad, because he’d be so driven by this determination to get home and kill Anti and it’s really all he’d have left :(

Or like, we can play around with the evil doctor trope with Schneep, right? What if he was a doctor who got his license revoked for doing some shady shit, but he continued to work, tricking in people who don’t have anywhere else to go for medicine and stuff. I think he’d be super confident and cocky, because he’s the smartest person in the room and he knows it, so he’s absolutely insufferable. His “patients” just have to deal with listening to him monologue and insult them like GLaDOS from Portal jdsahfdjkl He probably runs experiments, claiming it’s all for the greater good and that if he can just get this data down he could make a breakthrough, but he really knows what he’s doing and just thinks it’s fun. But once he finds out that magic and the supernatural are real, he’s intensely curious about it all. He’s interested in Marvin’s magic, in Jackie’s powers (if he has any in this universe), in if JJ was affected by the journey from the past. And he’s especially interested in Anti, but he can never seem to get a hold of him.

Or! We could take Jackie, the hero, and make him into a villain! I can imagine an evil!Jackie trying to convince people that he’s one of the good guys, and for a long time the rest of the boys have him as part of the team. But then they start to catch on to some of his more questionable acts. He stages crimes, sometimes committing them himself so he can get others to like him, see him as a hero. In doing so, he’ll put innocents in jail or even get them killed. He keeps up the good guy image but he also really likes the idea of being a villain with good presentation via Megamind so once the others catch on he makes a new costume just for them jsaflhdjsak He tries not to monologue because of the advantage it gives the others but sometimes he can’t help it. I imagine he could get the group in a lot of trouble with the police simply because he looks like them, making it a lot easier to frame them. Which he will do, once the others start to threaten to expose him. He probably really cares about fighting Anti, tho, if only for the idea that he wants to be the only villain in town.

But an evil!Chase...frick, dude, that might actually be the freakiest one. Because Chase is the “protagonist,” right? For whatever reason, he’s the one that Anti’s mainly after. Maybe after everything he’s been through, he just snaps one day. He’s done with Anti, he’s done with the others, he’s tired of being hurt so he’s going to hurt others before they get the chance to. From a story perspective, we would watch as Chase goes down this spiral into madness, and we’d watch with slowly growing dread as we realize that the sad rad dad we all know and love changes into someone completely different. The others would be shocked, even Anti might be shocked seeing what Chase is capable of. And Chase would’ve just lost it, he’s now going after Anti full force, showing a ruthless side nobody knew he had. But also, Chase could be the only one who actually has a redemption down the line. Maybe the others could get through to him, maybe Stacy and the kids could get through to him. Or maybe not. Maybe he’s been pushed too far, pushed right off the edge, and maybe he doesn’t even want to climb back up. And that...that’s a scary thought to me.

Anyway that’s what I’ve got djkasflhdsjk If you have ideas of your own anon, I’d love to hear them. Or heck, go write them! I mean, your own ideas, not mine, of course dalfhsdjkj Anyway these are all concepts that I think are really fascinating, love to talk about them ^-^

#asks answered #jacksepticeye #jacksepticegos #septic egos #marvin the magnificent #jameson jackson #dr schneeplestein #jackieboy man #chase brody #anonymous

[autumnslance]

Lmao I got three I'm particularly curious about for you on the character meme. Thancred, Lahabrea, Igeyorhm. XD Feel free to do as many or as few as you'd like of course!

You asked for it. We’ll start with That Damned Rogue. The Ascians will be below.

This of course got long, so behind a cut it goes:

Thancred

First impression: I started in Gridania and took like 2 years to finish ARR 2.0, was already spoiled on the possession angle (I spoiled myself, no big), and had just @erickgage‘s affectionate joking summary of Thancred being the guy who shows up 5 minutes late with Starbucks to all the early battles. So I didn’t really get to meet the guy ‘til the Waking Sands.

And honestly, he was stereotypical generic bland anime prettyboy competent guy. His 1.0/ARR model is…just sorta there. He was a flirt, also generic as heck. Really didn’t register too much, until I finished 2.0 finally and then went hard on the MSQ through the patches and into HW and StB 4.0, when I finally caught up to content.

Impression now: Godsdammit.

My first replay through the game was on PunchyCat, starting in Ul’dah, which meant I got to meet Thancred much earlier. I was immediately amused by his nickname for Nanamo, and Papashan’s assessment of the witty Archon. I was more into the lore, getting the first lorebook and reading the short stories on the main site, and playing through all at once instead of piecemeal over months/years made things make more sense. Thancred hits a lot of tropes I commonly like in a lot of characters, so he jumped up to being a favorite.

Gunbreaker suits him as a tank job (thank goodness he can stop trying to tank warmachina as a rogue, ffs Thancred), and tanking in general suits him when it comes to fighting for those he cares about.

I’m interested in the ShB story mentioning why he wears white in all his gear iterations; I’d previously made a post about his color choices and that aspect of character design, but having a lore explanation for his affinity for that color was interesting. I didn’t think his HW model suited him, honestly; way too rough mountain man hobo. His model in ShB is closer to his ARR model, but different enough, and imbued now with actual character, that he’s a bit more visually interesting and while still pretty typical handsome anime protagonist in appearance; his true personality just comes through a lot more.

I’m still forever mad about the unintentional character ‘ship with Aeryn, tho. It took a 3rd playthrough for it to happen.

For myself, mind, when I got into playing and learned his canonical age, it was at the time the same difference between myself and my younger brother. My assessment of the Scion “family” with Thancred being the middle child (esp his behavior pre-HW) maybe helps that. I’m getting to a point, really, where I look at the characters under 35 and think “OMG disaster children, all of you.”

Favorite moment: Oh goodness. There’s some good ones.

‘How was I supposed to know all my girlfriends would track me down and show up at HQ all at the same time: a master class in how to not to deal with multiple paramours by Archon T. Waters.’

His dramatic reappearance and duel with Ardbert in HW 3.1.

Taking out his frustrations by soloing the Coerthas cyclops boss so we can get on with the Tournament and fight Raubahn. (Side Bonus: pre-tournament when he jokes about fighting for the other team to even up the odds, and then: “It looks to be a veritable who’s who of the Eorzean Alliance. The only question is: who came to watch and who came to fight? Hmm…Nanamo. Definitely Nanamo.”)

Making sure Urianger knew he was still part of the team post-Soul Surrender climax.

“All right, which one of you triggered the obvious trap?” Also learning he can hold his breath for 10 freaking minutes–but still gets to be jealous of the WoL, Lyse, and Alisaie for their kojin blessing.

That dramatic teamwork with Urianger to knock Ran’jit down the pit in Rak’tika.

That frickin’ Trolley duty and it’s aftermath with the completed checklist of anime death markers and then just sitting there battered and bleeding and smiling and then giving Ryne a name and a headpat and “You’re family.” Bastard.

Idea for a story: Have you seen my Ao3 account? *grumbles*

Unpopular opinion: While he likely used drinking as a bad coping mechanism at times in ARR’s patches, I doubt he ever really went to blackout, as losing control to that extent, after having been controlled and probably losing a lot of time while possessed, would be awful. We see him drink a few times, but I don’t think he is/was an alcoholic.

I also agree with @ahlis-xiv that his flirtatious persona was mostly adopted. While he probably does have a healthy libido and enjoys time with paramours (that Urianger keeps a handy list of), there’s a lot that’s likely exaggerated, allowed to be assumed, and otherwise used as a cover, given his specializations. It’s also noteworthy how he’s mostly acting the same even after being lost in the wilderness, right up until our foray into the Antitower. The wit/humor gets toned down a lot, but the flirting is cut out entirely after that. He still charms some ladies in the First, based on incidental dialogue, but that seems a general reaction to him being a handsome hero type rather than any intentional flirtatious act on his part.

Favorite relationship: Thancred and little sister types. I do wish we’d seen more of his relationship with Minfilia outside of informed moments and the short stories. I feel like he has a semi-older-brother relationship with Lyse, too, given their antics in the 2.0 patches (particularly the “Hoary’s fighting the WoL, come watch!” and Thancred not even considering how one of his girlfriends would see him sending Lyse to retrieve an item until after and going “oh yeah, whoops”). And now there’s Ryne, and she is totally running things if you watch their background conversations/body language. But that’s kind of where Thancred likes it; find a girl who needs a protective older brother and do what she asks and whatever she needs.

I do have a special place in my heart for the expanded broship with Urianger that Shadowbringers gave us, though. I’ve already spoken on that one.

Favorite headcanon: Everything people assume about how he spoils the nutkin. And really, focusing on taking care of and doting on a pet would be good therapy. Goodness knows he needs it.

Also I assume he and Hilda hooked up at least once during the HW patches. Part of that expectation and cover, sure, to immediately flirt with the pretty, tough, half-elezen guard captain. But also, he spent however long mostly alone, and then only with the Vath and a nutkin for company; the guy was probably touch-starved and lonely and just needing a connection to another person he could relate to (that wasn’t a bug).

Otherwise, again, have you seen my Ao3? Ugh. Damned snarky smart rogues…

————

Lahabrea

First impression: Laughing Organization XIII-wannabe is obvious villain. Wonder what their deal is.

Impression now: So much lost/wasted potential thanks to being stuck as the ARR villain when it was so hastily rewritten and acted, and so little was decided on the Ascians and their motivations yet. A lot of what we learn now retroactively makes him more interesting. The fact he was a workaholic who looked at the workaholic Scion and went “ah yes; that one will do, perfect” makes me laugh.

Favorite moment: I like his interactions with Elidibus. And I am actually fairly fond of his theatrical reveal in Praetorium about the Ultima Weapon, the Heart of Sabik, and casting Ultima.

Idea for a story: Maybe stuff while he’s possessing Thancred. Maybe stuff between then and the Reactor. I dunno; I’ve been enjoying a lot of others’ stories about our first Ascian antagonist.

Unpopular opinion: Dunno if this is unpopular, but some of the retroactive information is to excuse why he seemed so much less powerful than other, later Ascians, but I do think the Speaker could be quite devious and powerful, if he had better writing around him. He suffers for being from ARR.

Favorite relationship: I am not ashamed to admit I am a Lahabrea/Igeyorhm shipper and Hades Ex seems to agree with me so there.

Favorite headcanon: The Speaker likely also had a good singing voice. Another thing good about possessing a man whose primary cover was a bard–excuses to indulge that.

————

Igeyorhm

First impression: Wannabe-Organization XIII also hires women, cool. Wonder if she’ll get to do anything?

Impression now: I’m sad so much got cut from HW; as great as it was, a lot got left on the editing room floor and it shows in spots–particularly where the Ascians connect with the plot. We learn much about her retroactively as well, including how she worked for/with Lahabrea thanks to being the one to wreck the Thirteenth, and change Ascian policy on how to bring about Rejoinings. I still wanna know more about her.

Favorite moment: You beat the whale, good job–thanks, that’s my key now. It’s such a perfect dick move. Excellent timing and taunting. 

Idea for a story: Maybe some of her inner thoughts working for/with Lahabrea. She was a raised up shard, so does that mean they found the scattered pieces of her original soul and force-merged them? I doubt it, since Emet-Selch mentions raising up those who are a piece of the previous office holder, but I wonder if it came with imbuing the new title-holder with some of those memories and knowledge. Perhaps she wonders if some of her interactions/feelings/whatever with Lahabrea are her own, or her tapping into her previous life’s memories. Something to think about, anyway.

Unpopular opinion: I dunno, she shoulda gotten to stick around longer? Or been allowed to do a lot more? Should have been much more of a presence in HW, but I don’t think that’s unpopular so much as unconsidered.

Favorite relationship: Lahabrea is really the only one she gets significant interactions with. Though I wonder about her interactions with the other few women in the Ascians.

Favorite headcanon: See above with the story ideas, really; she didn’t get a lot of time onscreen so there’s a lot of room to make things up, and retroactive info from ShB to make her more interesting, or at least her situation as an upraised Ascian.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Prompts #Thancred Waters #Lahabrea #Igeyorhm #Ascians #illegiblewords

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Lucy

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

It’s not very often you see a series where the villain is the main character, but then again it isn’t very often you see a series quite like Elfen Lied. The series is dark, foreboding, and gory, and a lot of that has to do with its protagonist, the Diclonius woman Lucy. Lucy is one of the most brutally tragic villains you’ll ever see, between her incredibly nightmarish childhood to the constant torment her very nature puts her through as a mutant. It all adds up to a very rich, complex character... though one that ends up not as fully realized as she could have been.

Actor: Kira Vincent-Davis portrayed Lucy in one of her star-making roles. The other? Osaka from Azumanga Daioh. She definitely delivers an excellent performance here, and it is easy to see how she managed to get such a varied career out of this. She knows just how to inject the right emotions into Lucy’s voice, and when Lucy is in her Nyuu personality she manages to fill the latter’s Pokemon speak with enough character that you get what she’s going for.

Motivation/Goals: Lucy is a Diclonius, and as such she has internal homicidal instincts that make her desire to slaughter as many people as humanly possible; coupled with the horns, the name she ends up being given (her true name is Kaede, but she ends up being called Lucy), and the fact she ends up embodying each of the Seven Deadly Sins if you read into her actions, and Lucy ends up a symbolic stand-in for the Antichrist. Of course, as a child, she didn’t really grasp this and in fact actively tried to suppress these feelings, but unfortunately fate decided to deal her a very poor hand.

First was her only source of happiness at the orphanage she grew up in, a puppy. A puppy that her bullies found out about, and in one of the most infamous moments of the series, beat it to death in front of her… and in turn, begin her descent into villainy as she slaughters the entire lot of kids, from her bullies to the girl she had befriended earlier who decided to snitch to the bullies about the puppy.

Second was what she felt was a betrayal at the hands of her only friend, Kouta. After he got her to open up and befriended her, she saw him at the festival with his female cousin and became insanely jealous, thinking he chose another girl over her… and so she went on a killing spree, which culminated in killing Kouta’s father and sister right in front of him.

And finally, her last ray of hope, a human who she had befriended was injured by the people who finally took her into custody… she died of her wounds, but Lucy wasn’t told until after she was imprisoned under the condition that they save her. When she finally gets a chance to escape, her sole motivation seems to be staying near Kouta again and try to find some way to apologize for her heinous actions, though even she realizes she’ll never be able to atone for what she did to him.

This brings about a pretty interesting facet of her goals: she slowly starts to defrost and gain more humanity the more time she and her split personality Nyuu spend with Kouta. It is in fact a major part of the story that she slowly becomes less evil as time goes on and she begins to develop, though by “less evil” I mean to say that at best she is an anti-hero, one who has no qualms about brutally dismembering anyone who dares to harm Kouta or herself.

This also ties into one of the major themes of the series: nature vs. nurture. Obviously, Lucy’s internal genetic desire to wipe out humanity is her inherent nature, but one also needs to look at what drove her to her killings; she was bullied, abused, and faced prejudice, betrayal, and scorn all around her for her entire childhood. Notice how when she’s shown the simplest compassion, she immediately starts to fall for that person and seems to want to do better, before a simple misunderstanding causes her to react in a volatile manner. It may seem over-the-top and disproportianate what she does to Kouta, but this is what her peers and caretakers molded her into: a violent misanthrope who clings desperately to even the tiniest shred of kindness in the world, and when she feels betrayed she lashes out and kills in a fit of rage, giving in to her violent nature. After gaining the amnesia during her escape at the start of the series and gaining her split personality, she is taken in yet again by Kouta and treated as a friend, an equal, and this begins Lucy’s ascent from pure villain protagonist to very, VERY dark anti-hero. 

Personality: Lucy is a cold, cynical, and bitter woman due to the numerous tragedies she experienced, but she is no emotionless husk; if there is one thing that is true about Lucy, it is that her capacity for love is one of her greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses. Love is what drove her to kill Kouta’s family out of jealousy, it’s what drove herself to sacrifice herself for Aiko (the girl she befriended before being captured), it’s what drives her the most throughout the series really. Her capacity for love is only even closely rivaled by her capacity for hate.

Final Fate: In the anime, Lucy finally confesses the truth to Kouta, and while he outright says he can never forgive her for what she did, he is at least a little more sympathetic to her plight than he was in the manga, where he outright said he hated her (though he did at least say her split personality Nyuu could stick around as long as she promised not to kill anyone). She then makes a heroic sacrifice against the army who is after her, one which she may or may not have survived. The ending is rather ambiguous, as opposed to that of the manga in which she is really and most sincerely dead after nearly bringing about the apocalypse in a fit of rage.

Best Scene: There are a lot of contenders, but perhaps her finest moment is the scene where Lucy as we know her is truly born, baptized in the blood of the bullies who killed her dog.

Best Quote: “When you're miserable, you need to make someone even more miserable than yourself.”

Final Thoughts & Score: Lucy is an amazing character. Her character arc is a depressing, heartrending rollercoaster showing her descent into the darkest depths of despair, cynicism, and evil before she begins to slowly but surely rise again, climbing out of the dark if only just a little bit. She’s stoic and sadistic, monstrous and vicious, cruel and uncaring… but at the same time, she has a boundless expanse of love inside her broken, battered heart, and a burning passion that drives her actions and the plot. She is shattered, she is flawed, but she is so very interesting.

A really fascinating aspect of her is how she deconstructs the tropes of the cute monster girl and magical girlfriend. The former is deconstructed by the fact that, despite being appealing to the viewer and us being given no reason to think she’d be unattractive to the humans of her world, her horns and other differences cause her to be mocked, tormented, and persecuted by her peers, with said persecution ultimately pushing her over the edge and causing her to become a serial killer. For the latter, her powers are incredily, seriously dangerous, as her invisible arms (or vectors, as they are called in the series) can easily dismember and when not dismembering infect the reproductive capabilities of whoever they touch, and there is also the fact that they are part of the contributing factor that drives her to madness.

Lucy gets a 9/10. She’s a very impressive villain, and one who has one of the most fascinatingly tragic backstories. In fact, she has the backstory by which all tragic backstories should be judged; if your villain wants to destroy the human race and yet their backstory wasn’t a horrendously cruel conga line of trauma the way Lucy’s was, you may want to rethink that backstory. It really is the tragedy and the way the series unfolds to show you just how she became the way she is that makes her so great; the only reason I don’t give her perfect marks is because the manga goes into far more detail in developing her, as the anime was made while the manga was still ongoing. 

And you know what? That might honestly be for the better. Lucy in the manga was far more insane, far more evil, and far easier to see as irredeemable, though even there she had moments of kindness and compassion that ultimately belied her true nature buried under the years of systematic abuse and betrayal. In the anime, while she is still a bitter, jaded serial killer, she comes off as bit more worthy of redemption; she revels far less in the actions she takes and seems to act in her adulthood more out of self-preservation than anything, as she harms only those who have wronged her rather than people who just get in her way. It does end up making it more believable when Kouta offers his sympathy at anime’s end; this version of Lucy seems more like a broken monster who does all she does because at this point it’s all she knows and all she thinks she can be rather than someone who all too often indulges their twisted genetic instinct. I would have much preferred to see this Lucy receive the culmination to her character that the one in the manga did, but sadly that did not come to pass. We are left with something brilliant, but also something that could have been even more heartbreakingly beautiful in its tragic poignancy. 

#Psycho Analysis #Lucy #Elfen Lied #Spoilers #speelers

[eeveebethsylveon]

Fanfics!

Note: I don’t have a good working title for this story.

It’s basically just a knee-jerk response to the end of the fourteenth chapter in Probable Theorem (so if you haven’t read that, make sure you read it first so you know where I’m coming from!).

That ending bugged me, so I’m just doing what I do best: taking a fictional scenario I didn’t write which I honestly had a negative response to, and changing it into something I am happy with by inserting my own character.

Warning: spoilers if you haven’t read PT, and also if you have a problem with mad borderline-rabid dogs you probably shouldn’t read this.

I hope I punched enough Enters to get the “Read More” prompt so as to hide this from everyone who’s trying to avoid spoilers.  Okay, here goes...

Lily had a project in mind.

Her plan was to go out at night, try to find Prince Charging, and snap a couple of pictures of him helping people.  Then she’d string them together in a video and narrate over them how much good he was doing.

Maybe then people would get off his back, and others like him could relax.

At least, she hoped that he was special with unusual powers.  That’d make him just like her.

She tugged her black hoodie up a little higher over her brown hair.  She knew full well that the outfit she wore on these outings made her look like she was planning something shady: totally black shoes, black socks, black leggings, and the black hoodie, with the only color she actually had being metallic silver fingertips on her black gloves so she could use her phone.  Still, it couldn’t be helped, and at least whatever method Princey used to find wrongdoings didn’t include spotting weirdly-dressed weirdos.

Not that he was one to talk.

Lily actually already had a bunch of pictures of the guy.  There were a couple of standard “superhero takes down criminals” shots, but most of them were just shots of him helping people who needed a sympathetic ear - which was what she preferred having anyway, they made him look more human.  She just wanted a bit more footage first before making her video.

Then she rounded a corner and stopped dead.

There was Prince Charging - unconscious and being lifted up by a bunch of people in black ski masks who were clearly about to throw him into the back of the unmarked van nearby.

She quickly snapped off about five pictures before ducking into an alleyway and tucking her phone into a pocket.  No.  I’m not going to let this happen.

Zipping up the front of her hoodie to completely hide her face, she focused and began to change her shape.

This was her power.  When she was a kid, she loved animals: loved reading about them, loved pretending to be them.  And after a while, “pretending to be” became “actually becoming.”  The only limitation she seemed to have was, she always was stuck becoming whatever color clothing she was wearing, and if the clothing wasn’t at least the closeness of the average T-shirt and jeans it wouldn’t “go” with her.  Closing up the front of her hoodie was the only way she could make sure her creature of choice didn’t end up with a face the color of her hair.  She didn’t want to be distinctive when she did this: she just wanted to be a totally black dog with silver nails.

When she opened her blue eyes again, the group of people who now had Princey right next to the open doors of the van seemed taller.  Not too much taller, she’d gone for a sight hound that probably stood about to her human waist.  Smells were stronger now, and sounds were somewhat louder.

Okay...I’m not Princey’s dog, I’m just a stray dog who has a serious problem with people in black ski masks.  I’m ignoring him, no matter how much I want to make sure he’s okay.  And I need to prepare to do the unthinkable.

After a second to compose herself, she dashed out, snarling and barking.

The bozos in the masks didn’t even have time to react before she hit the nearest one, sinking her teeth into his leg.

With a yelp of pain, he dropped Princey.

Lily released him, dashed around and used Princey as a springboard to aim right at the ski mask of another clown.  That guy got his arm up and her fangs found flesh yet again, while her weight alone caused everyone else to drop Princey on the ground.

First victory attained, now time to make sure they’re too scared of me to attempt to pick him up again.

She continued snarling, lunging at each guy while staying out of arm’s reach at the same time, doing her best to keep her attention everywhere and not actually look like she was protecting the guy she was all but standing on.  That was easy enough, actually: bite the hand of the first person to reach towards Princey, then turn around and bite another guy, leap off Princey and dash around to pull the most cliche move ever and bite a fifth guy’s ass.  Then she decided to be extra terrifying and ran right across Princey to head straight for the next guy’s crotch - 

It was the balls-dash that did it.  Her teeth never connected with him as he panicked and shouted, “Let’s get out of here!” leaping into the van himself.

The rest all hurried into the van as well, slamming the doors in her face - which she didn’t mind; she didn’t want to be in the van, she just wanted to scare them even more - and driving off.

Lily ran after the van for a bit, still barking up a storm...and doing her best to memorize the license plate.  She was so calling the cops on their butts.

When she stopped, she acknowledged to herself that she wished she hadn’t had to bite those guys, because now her mouth felt absolutely vile.  Well, better make sure Princey’s okay after that dance I did on his body.

She turned around and slowly walked back to where Prince Charging had fallen.

And he wasn’t there.

Huh?  She sniffed around the place.  There was his scent, that “I take regular baths complete with shampooing my perfect hair thank you very much” mixed with lightning, but it didn’t have any new trail away from where he’d fallen.  It was just...wait...

There was a second scent.  A second male, one who yeah cared for hygiene though maybe not as much as Princey, and oh yeah liked himself a bit of makeup.

What was weird about that smell, though, was that while the smell did lead there, it didn’t seem to go anywhere.  Like he’d run over, picked up Princey, walked over his own scent trail for about three paces and then just...vanished.

Another one like me?

Well, there was no point dwelling on it.  She had a video to make and the police to call.

Stepping back into the alleyway, she returned to human form, unzipped her hoodie and pulled out her cell phone.  Once she got the police on the line, she set to work.  “Okay, I just witnessed an attempted abduction.  There were maybe six guys in black ski masks trying to shove Prince Charging into the back of an unmarked van.”  She gave them the license plate number.  “They didn’t succeed in their attempt - a stray dog ran over and chased them off.  What?  No, I don’t think the dog belonged to Prince Charging, it acted more like it had once been traumatized by people in ski masks or something.  It was more interested in chasing the van than staying with him.  But yeah, whenever you find them, you’ll find that most of them have been bitten by that dog.  And I hope you arrest them, because removing dangerous people from the street is your job, not theirs.  Vigilante justice shouldn’t be stopped by vigilante justice, that’s just begging for things to spiral out of control.  In fact, they’re more dangerous than Prince Charging.  I - what?  No, sorry, I’m not sure where he went.  I was watching the van drive away with the dog chasing after it, I looked back and he was gone.  Okay, you’re welcome.  Bye.”  Lily hung up and went back home.

~

She spent the rest of the night putting together her video, and then uploaded it to YouTube.  “Now it’s time to turn those guys into a hashtag.”  She’d heard that expression exactly once, and didn’t know what it actually meant other than it was probably bad.

The video started with a shot of Prince Charging, of course, while she rambled on about him, flipping between pictures as she changed topics.  Mostly what she was saying was that there was never going to be a chance that he’d run out of enemies to fight and therefore go into the “hero becomes the villain” trope, because finding enemies wasn’t all he did - he just helped people who needed help even when there wasn’t a bad guy.  And then she sprung the pictures of the guys in ski masks and proceeded to bad-mouth them.  After all, nobody wanted to root for people in ski masks outside of their original sport!  Everybody in movies who wore black ski masks when they weren’t skiing was a bad guy!  She even slapped up a comparifier picture with Princey on one side and a selected ski mask clown on the other just as a way of saying “I’m sorry, but Prince Charging even looks cooler than these guys!”  She ended the video with one more picture of Princey comforting somebody and the statement of “If he’s truly dangerous - and everybody has the capability of being dangerous, so that’s not even the question - then this anti-Prince group needs to just let the cops deal with him.  I actually hope they try to find him for the sake of hiring him as an assist or something, because he’s clearly on the same side as them.  And as for that dog that saved him?  Well...who knows where that dog went, but wherever it is, Prince Charging really owes it.”  (The dog wasn’t really in the video, since she couldn’t get a good picture of herself in that situation; she’d just drawn a picture that was as good a rendering of what the dog looked like as she could and stuck that in - black dog with gray nails and blue eyes, nailed it.)

~

She hit a hundred thousand Likes within the first six hours of it being up, and got about fifty subscribers to boot.

A week later, she went to the Prince Charging Fan Club; no real reason, it helped her feel less alone.  She also didn’t go in, because she didn’t really want to, she just felt like hanging out outside the building “dressed” as that dog.

Lily could hear her video playing inside - what was that, the eightieth time this week?  Anyway, the group was also discussing it, and it sounded like she’d come in at the tail end of the meeting.

She lay down in an alleyway near the front door, took a deep breath...and froze.

There was that scent again!  That “I take regular baths complete with shampooing my perfect hair thank you very much” mixed with lightning!  Prince Charging was inside the building!

She slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, staring at the door and barely aware of the meeting being called to a close.

People filed out, and the last to leave was a group of two.  One had a bandage on his face and...and he was the one the smell was coming from.

And he turned just a little to his left and their eyes met.

Lily couldn’t have moved if she’d tried.

#probable theorem #residentanchor #celery #roman sanders #OC #i wish i could have ended this different #couldn't think of how roman would react #sanders sides #could join nqp if you want #not quite practical #virgil is in this but only barely #he's the one to get prince charging out of there

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Demon Slayer 12 - 13 | OPM 23 - 24 (FINAL) | BSD 36 - 37 (FINAL) | Shield Hero 25 (FINAL) | Fruits Basket 12 - 13 | To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts 1 | Astra 1 | Maou-sama, Retry! 1 | UchiMusume 1 | Dr Stone 1 | Fire Force 1 | Granbelm 1

Summer debuts aplenty!

Demon Slayer 12

I assume the creature on the episode titlecard is a boar…?

I see…! So Kyogai uses the drums like a game controller! Y’know, like A = attack and directional keys to move.

I almost expected Inosuke to appear from behind the screen door, but it was just Tanjiro…

Huh? For some reason, I find Zenitsu funny now…but only the tiniest bit. Not enough to laugh out loud, but enough to give tiny “heh”s.

Well…that episode title didn’t lie, at least…

Ah-hah! I knew it! Knewwwwwwwww it! It’s the double-personality trope I liked 5 years ago (you see it embodied in Martin/Alter-Az). The only thing I didn’t know was how Zenitsu would become badass…well, now we know. He sleep fights…I still think ingesting blood to invoke a second personality is still way cooler though.

Shoichi? Is that the kid’s name?

“Marechi” doesn’t seem to mean anything…

“Show me your wounds.” Then again, there are some wounds that you can’t present to others…not unless you show the side effects.

As much as I was scared by Exposition Crow, I have to be thankful the little feathered buddy is around. I wouldn’t understand “marechi” otherwise. But seriously, where does that crow hide in his spare time…?

Oh…the duty of filial piety…I know your feel, Tanjiro.

Tanjiro’s brain!Zenitsu is so accurate, I LOLled…a tiny bit.

Tanjiro, you gotta remember: be proud of where you’ve gotten today! Don’t be the man you were yesterday! Keep evolving with the times like water itself, because that is what water is about – change! (triumphant music plays in the background to accompany this declaration)

The only problem I have with filial piety is…what happens when your family has only daughters???

OPM S2 Ep 11 (Ep 23)

Garou’s got a point in that villains are meant to be sympathetic in order to get a good story. However, I’d still root for the heroes all the same.

Naruto running…why’s it so popular???

“Mentsuyu” (on Saitama’s blue shirt) means “noodle soup base” = a mixture of dashi (soup stock), soy sauce, mirin and sugar.

It took me a replay to realise that Garou turned red when the tree fell down.

BSD 36

Uh, dude? Who calls their kid “Eruisu-chan”…? It’s Elise, isn’t it?

Katai – yet again, can I just say he is the husbando we need and not the husbando we want? (LOL) There’s even what appears to be a sake bottle in the bottom left corner…  

Is there such thing as a bullet-proof futon???

Come to think of it, this scene with all the rubble about halfway through the episode looks like it comes from the Dead Apple first key visual –the one that came out when the movie was announced. Not the Shin Soukoku one, the other one with Soukoku in a rubble-filled place looking at the horizon.

Looking at Natsume-sensei from the back reveals his hair is calico-coloured too…

I wonder how much of Dazai’s scheming is actually just Natsume-sensei…?

“What did you have for dinner last night?” “Yeah.” – Just imagining this with a monotone instead of Akutagawa’s usual anger is hilarious!

Snakes don’t run…?

Oh, I get why he was calling Akutagawa “bro”! When you’re married, you call your brother in law “brother” as well!

Bungou Stray Dogs 37 (FINAL)

I discovered something – the kanji under ECHO, 回向, are read ekou. What do they mean? The verb form means “to hold a memorial service for [someone]”, so I’d assume it’s “memorial service”.

For some reason, when Atsushi said “you’re not paying for this ride!”, I thought, “It’s your Ubr driver here”…LOL.

I seem to remember that Goncharov controls rock and his power is The Precipice…but I don’t remember reading past ch. 52…

“How can you be so sure?” I thought it was something like “Because that’s what I would do.” Turns out I was right…maybe I have read chapter 53??? Or is this a previous chapter that’s been movd forward???

Hmm…come to think of it, why is Akutagawa’s power to control fabric anyway? (Because he can control other things, it’s just that he chooses to use his coat as a default.) Does the Rashomon story have to do with that…?

Oh, that’s cute. Shin Soukoku are on the same thinking wavelength now. (somewhat sarcastic)

Come to think of it – season 1 anime!Atsushi was about as whiny as Zenitsu…hmm. Now there’s a cross-anime comparison I never thought I’d make.

“…what appears to be a hiker…” (or maybe it was multiple hikers…?)

Did you notice Akutagawa was missing his coat?

“Fancy hat boy” – That’s why the fandom calls Chuuya “Mr Fancy Hat”, LOL.

One thing’s for sure – whether you like BSD or not, you gotta admit they have a great sense of closure.

Shield Hero 25 (FINAL)

See? There is a Meteor move for Naofumi!

Raphtalia’s mostly been saying nothing but “Naofumi-sama” over and over again…it kind of irks me. It’s too bad I’m almost finished with this show.

I’m gussing the reward has to do with Raphtalia’s village.

Is Naofumi leaving???

LOL, before Naofumi faced the Waves, he was wavering…geddit??? (Oh, that joke’s terrible…)

Fruits Basket 12

I think Shigure attended the ceremony to procrastinate on his writing…LOL.

Okay…I started this episode a few days back and now I hav a bowl of piping hot pho to go with it! Let’s get back to business!

Momiji is a scheming little brat, ain’t he?

The “Yuki wearing a girls’ uniform” was funny…because reactions.

Hmm…even though I know what’s going to happen, I only just realised Akito and Yuki only seem to wear traditional Japanese dress when tied down to their curse or their main house. Westrn cloths thereby symbolise progress for them…but you can’t say the same for Shigure, though, so there goes that hypothesis…

I thought for a second they were going to play baseball…that’s what they did in Star Driver.

Fruits Basket 13

Snake attack!!!

Hmm…Ayame clearly used a convo diversionary tactic there (avoiding the topic).

“Aya says he sells men’s dreams.” – LOL.

Demon Slayer 13

I find it interesting Tanjiro also has respect for his opponent, not just empathy.

Aww…this message of recognising your skills and having them be recognised by others is cute. I needd that, really – ever since about a year ago, sometimes I’m so negative I just want to be erased from the face of the earth. That’s why I love Rokuhoudou so much – it was my solace from such thoughts.

Seeing the eyecatch’s strip go vertical for Zenitsu was interesting – I didn’t think it would change orientation midway through the show.

Okay, in this book I read recently – Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin – the protagonist admits to having “an overdeveloped sense of theatricality”…or dramaticism or something like that. I now realised Zenitsu has that too…although now he’s back to bugging me as a result.

Oh! So Inosuke was the 5th survivor! I had a feeling that would be the answer, but now I’ve confirmed it.

WHOA! I’ve never seen Tanjiro go all Papa Bear like this!

…and you can tell with that pre-OP shot that Ufotable ran out of budget for once.

The Legend of the Eight Samurai is also known as…wait for it…Hakkenden! There’s an anime called that, y’know? Update: It’s Satomi Nansou Hakkenden vs Hakkenden (with some subtitle on it).

To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts 1

First anime of summer! Now if only my CR would stop buffering so much…I’d be a happy person.

Oh…great. Fantasy information dump right here…just like Fairy Gone.

Is this weird that I recognise Patria to be…Korea? (At least in history. Its people seem to be generic Europeans.)

Is this a “dudes in war are scarred for life” thing again??? Please, please don’t let this be another Spec-Ops Asuka.

…and now here come the furries. (sarcastic)

Aren’t the white coats really impractical for battle???

If Cain isn’t a vampire or based on a bat…I dunno what I’d do, but I’m pretty sure he is, based on those pretty boy features.

I thought her name was Nancy…? Her name is Nancy Schaal Bancroft, after all.

Ooh! It’s the Abominable Walrus! I’m so scared~! (mocking tone)

This is basically an AI story, but fantasy-based, isn’t it…?

90s fire in the background…LOL.

“I’m going to ask Elaine to be with me.” – Now there’s something I didn’t think Hank would say.

LOL, Cain Madhouse really is mad! (in the Joker-style “insane” sort of way)

Well…uh, it was a bit predictable, but had its perks. I mean, there’s no CGI in it at all for one thing…I guess we wait for more (of this show and the debut of other shows) to see if it stays.

OPM S2 Ep 12 (Ep 24) (FINAL)

Shouldn’t that be “whale on an opponent”…?

What’s up with the montage, though???

*dead Centichoro* - Now that’s what I call “legs for miles”…! (LOL)

Astra 1

I’ve read some of the manga for this, so it’s my most anticipated anime this season! I can only hope it lives up to its own hype.

Double-length 1st episode! Ooh! Just like the manga’s double-length debut.

Okay, who decided on using CGI for Aries? Put it on the ship, not on her!

Oh, foreshadowing! Me likey.

I can’t really tell what Aries is meant to be screaming because she’s screaming over the woman, but it’s definitely not “beef” Aries is yelling.

Is it just me, or is there a frame around this scene at the Spaceport…?

I guess Aries is what they call a space case! (Wahaha!...Okay, I think that’s one stupid joke too many, now.)

Boob shot??? Why??? Also, according to the manga’s supplemental material found between chapters, Yun-Hua’s suit is newer than Aries’s (IIRC).

I definitely do not remember seeing a picture of Kanata’s sensei in the manga at all. I know Kanata refers to his sensei quite a bit, but…hmm…maybe the fact he looks like Charce means something. Update: For some reason, I remembered Charce as “Charles”…?

This scenery, with the ground making platforms in the air, looks like Dr Stone!!!

I just noticed the frame expanded after Kanata entered the sphere.

Did we need the flashback again???

Zetsubou is “despair”, at least from the way I learnt it – from Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, of course. It can be translated as “hopeless” in context, though.

Second recap from earlier in the episode. Well, at least it’s not Detective Conan or Demon Slayer bad…

Wow, they’re really trying to sell a potential Kanata x Aries ship here. That wasn’t in the manga either.

This is the 3rd time for the same recap…geesh. The things you notice when the episodes are compiled and online for you to watch…they can get kind of annoying.

I think the star = planet thing makes more sense when in Japanese, since “hoshi” can mean both. In English, it makes Aries sound like more of a space case…

Maou-sama, Retry! 1

…and the award for Most Boring Opening in a While goes to…this show!

I almost expected blonde!Rem to be called Rem…I knew that her name wasn’t Rem, but still…

Seriously? The face game of this show should be higher for it to pull off a gag involving funny faces…

The run cycle of this show’s…kinda suckish. Like Dororo’s one scene where he’s Naruto running.

“It’s you who is the root of all evil.”

UchiMusume 1

Aka “If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord”.

The language on the title card seems to be a substitute for English. If you just take that thing that looks like brackets as one symbol, that seems to be a Y. How can you tell? Because “little” matches the 3rd last word.

The devil language seems to be based on Japanese, though…at least from what I’m picking up. Update: Oh! So when she says “toilet”, it’s just the syllables backwards! Just like in Hataraku Maou-sama.

I swear, if this guy isn’t voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, I’m going to have to swallow my hydralyte drink properly! (I’ve been struggling to drink it all day today.) Update: Nope, it’s Nobuhiko Okamoto.

I thought I just read something on the devil list that said “Bobble Space” in English…wuh?

Dr Stone 1

This is my 2nd most anticipated debut of the summer 2019 season. Let’s go!

Ooh, I see Crunchyroll even got themselves a fancy new intro card…which makes them more like what Funimation used to be on that front…

I know people have been comparing Senku’s hair to green onions…and now I can’t unsee it. Dang it, you guys! That’s the first real thought I’m having for this anime?!

*raises arms like Christ the Redeemer*…and Boichi and Riichiro Inagaki said, “Let there be light!”…and for some reason, it was green light…

Hmm…I thought in the manga Yuzuriha was shoved to the tree, which made Taiju look more like a hero to her. Turns out she ran to the tree then got petrified, if the anime is anything to go by.

I heard a really accurate “what’s happening?” in the scene which is meant to have English speakers in it…it’s almost creepy, to be honest with you.

Shuei…LOL. It’s clearly a play on Shueisha.

I didn’t think of this when reading the manga, but this anime’s very much a Holmes and Watson scenario…although Watson here is a little bit too dumb for some people’s liking…

I swear TMS used pictures of the real thing when looking at those grapes…

I love seeing Senku being pissed off. He’s so smug all the time, I needed that change of pace.

Maybe one day Senku will make vodka…LOL. I’m kidding.

Fire Force 1

Oh geesh…so Ohkubo grabbed the Aria from Ao no Exorcist to make his nuns work???

Why is there Naruto running???

“I’m a newly-assigned…”

Kyoukai means church. Does it really mean “cathedral” as well???

“Is that the scent of a damp woman?” – Uh, duuuuuuuude? Excuse-moi? That is not how you treat a lady you’ve just met…!

Can I insert a “Twinkletoes” comment from Toph (Avatar) yet…?

Okay, scrap that. Can I do that Overwatch “Molten CORE!” thing instead…?

Granbelm 1

I started watching this because it’s being promoted as “magical girls drive mechs”.

One of the mech ladies reminds me of…what’s her name…from the Re:Zero LNs…I believe her name is Beatrice, but that’s the name of one of the library loli, isn’t it…? *Googles* Okay, her name is Priscilla. AFAIK, “Priscilla” is NOT the name of the orange-haired lady in Granbelm, though… Update: Her name is Anna, actually.

These mechs remind me of Kim from Twinkle Star Sprites.

Wow…ripoff purple iPhone, much…?

Shingetsu = new moon, mangetsu = full moon.

I feel like Mangetsu is a relatable protagonist, but also annoying as a result of being relatable.

“Pennies from heaven” is a phrase you say to declare your good fortune, much like you say “speak of the devil” for bad luck when it comes to a certain person who arrives at the wrong time.

#simulcast commentary #to the abandoned sacred beasts #katsute kami datta kemono-tachi e #granbelm #Fire Force #enen no shouboutai #bungou stray dogs #dr stone #doctor stone #the rising of the shield hero #tate no yuusha no nariagari #one punch man #Demon Slayer #Kimetsu no Yaiba #Fruits Basket #kanata no astra #Astra: Lost in Space #UchiMusume #uchi no ko no tame naraba ore wa moshikashitara maou mo taoseru kamo shirenai #Maou-sama Retry! #Chesarka watches BSD #Chesarka watches OPM #Chesarka watches Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari #Chesarka watches Furuba #Chesarka watches KnY

[digikate813]

My Little Pony Re-Watch: Episode 51 & 52 A Canterlot Wedding

*I’m just going to be up front here. This is the episode, that made me a brony. This is the episode that made me realize how great My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic really was. For a long time, it was my favorite episode. So of course it’s one of the most divisive episodes in the whole series. So we’re going to approach this differently. Rather then go over events individually, I’m going to stick to talking points more in the style of my video reviews. If i didn’t we’d be here all day. So let’s do this.

*A big complaint about this episode is how Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor, kind of comes out of nowhere. Maybe it’s just because I grew up with a lot of sitcoms, where siblings kind of appear out of nowhere with no previous establishment, but I just kind of accepted Shining Armor’s existence. Though it would have been fairly easy to introduce him sooner. Between the Grand Galloping Gala and Twilight holding her birthday party in Canterlot, it is weird in hindsight that he was nowhere to be seen during all of that. But again, it doesn’t really bother me.

*And i like the touch that his cutie mark is a shield and his most powerful spell appears to be a protection spell able to encase the entire city of Canterlot. It just adds more to my working theory of how talents and magic work.

*Twilight does have a bit of a right to be mad that she wasn’t told about this wedding until days before it’s supposed to happen. But hey, maybe that message that got burned in “Dragon Quest” was the announcement, idk.

*You want to sum up Pinkie Pie in one moment? The confetti sneeze. That is all

*Another criticism of this episode is the other character that appears out of nowhere, Princess Cadance. Now i don’t think the existence of another alicorn comes completely out of nowhere like many claim. Because there was that illustration in “Hearts and Hooves Day” that shows us other alicorns exist besides Celestia and Luna. And as far as we know, they’re all princesses. So this doesn’t break the lore necessarily, but I will agree that this at least was poorly established.Then again the show was never great at presenting Cadance’s role in the world, as we’ll go more into in the next episode.

*I will admit that her supposed love spell is both underutilized and morally questionable, but that’s not a discussion for this post. I think Silver Quill has covered everything on that topic.

*I used to hate the “Sunshine Sunshine Ladybugs Awake” rhyme and dance, but now that they don’t do it anymore, I feel a bit nostalgic towards it watching this again. Is that weird? It feels weird.

*And personally, I think the mystery behind why Cadance is so different from how Twilight remembers her works. Because while Twilight may know Cadance, we don’t. And therefore we can’t really tell what exactly is wrong even when the show tells us something is off. It’s not obvious what’s going on on your first viewing is what I’m saying. We’re just taking Twilight’s word for it that, if nothing else, Cadance has changed a lot. Being dismissive, insensitive, and hypnotizing her fiance to stop asking questions. But that last one probably isn’t that big a deal.

*The rest of the girls may be a bit too dismissive of Twilight’s feelings on the matter, especially after what they learned in “Lesson Zero” but Twilight does have a tendency to exaggerate and be paranoid. So I do get why they wouldn’t just take her word for it. It’s something that they could easily brush off as Twilight being Twilight and not as a red flag.

*Plus not Cadance is pretty good at being manipulative. Getting rid of her old bridesmaids so the Mane Six could fill in. Such a gesture makes it easier for the girls to get wrapped up in the planning and see Cadance in a better light instead of listening to Twilight. 

*Lyra speaks! That is all, but when a famous background character finally talks, you acknowledge it.

*I love this episode, but Spike playing with the cake toppers constantly is a really lame way to keep him out of the story.

*Twilight confronting Cadance the way she did might seem like a dumb move, and maybe it was. But keep in mind. Twilight has tried alternatives. Her friends wouldn’t listen to her, the princesses are busy guarding the city, and when she tried to talk to her brother about this, she saw Cadance put a spell on him. She’s in crisis mode here, and wants something done to stop her. So she takes action into her own hooves. The only problem with this plan is that Twi doesn’t really have, proof that Cadance is evil. 

*How much this plan backfires is kind of devastating. Even Celestia scolds her for this stunt! By the way the facial expression on Twilight when that happens is one of the saddest faces in the series.

*Then we get a really sad reprise of the previous song, but all anyone cared about was the cute little pointy pony style. It’s crazy how popular this style became! Some fan animation series are made just in this style. It is really cute, I’m just always blown away at just how popular it got, and still is.

*One of the best things to see reactions to in regards to this episode is when not Cadance engulfs Twilight in a ring of fire and sends her to the depth of Hell to cover her tracks! Okay it’s not Hell, but still. It was the best cliffhanger from the show for a while.

*How has the show never used these caves beneath Canterlot since this? I know there’s a line where they say that most ponies forgot these caves even exist, but could you imagine if maybe,  the Diamond Dogs wanted to get down here or something? There’s potential to use these caves again, and I’m shocked the show hasn’t.

*And here’s where we learn what’s going on. That Cadance was replaced by an imposter. Now I knew what was going on because I knew who Queen Chrysalis was. That’s what led me to watching this episode. But the story is clever at revealing this twist. There are hints to fake Cadance’s true identity, but since we don’t know Cadance, we wouldn’t notice things like her magic looks different, unless you were paying very close attention to the flashback.

*Ah, This Day Aria. I’ve said that this is quite possibly the moment that sold me on the show for good. And i stand by that. The Disney Renaissance vibes you get from this gorgeous duet are powerful. Between the villain celebrating maniacally and the hero racing desperately, it creates tension and an amazing contrast, performed by the same voice actress. There’s even this clever bit in the melody of contrasting between an Authentic Cadance and a Deceptive Cadance. Everything about this song is marvelous! It’s a beautiful moment to watch play out, and a great way for us to see what the real Cadance is like. I love everything about it!! Obviously.

*I don’t think the way Twilight and Cadance escaped the hypnotized bridesmaids should be as funny as it is, but it is. It’s so funny.

*Queen Chrysalis’ reveal is epic! Her design is incredible and eye catching, her voice s sinister and distinct (I really miss that modulation though), and the introduction of Changelings into this world is such a great concept! The only part that’s kind of weird is that they never say Chrysalis’ name in the episode itself.

*Celestia finally gets to do something and fights back! Only to be immediately defeated. This is one of the most controversial scenes in the episode and i get why, but as far as the moment itself goes, I don’t really feel the same way. In the moment it’s a way to show just how much of a threat Chrysalis is while giving Celestia some agency. For the sake of tension, it works. No what bothers me is the larger trend this started of Celestia getting her flank whooped whenever possible. 

*And I get why Chrysalis was surprised it worked. She would have had to take on Celestia eventually, but she might have figured she’d have her army with her by that point. So being able to get the job done herself gives her more of an ego boost in this grand plan.

*And do I even need to comment of the Mane Six battling the changelings? It’s AWESOME! The combat is exciting, there are a lot of funny moments, and between the return of the Party Cannon and using Twilight as a weapon of mass destruction, Pinkie is a master on the battlefield.

*This episode is also unique by being the first two part episode where the major threat isn’t defeated using the Elements of Harmony. Giving a great twist on expectations that I think gets taken for granted.

*Another major point of contempt with this episode is that Chrysalis just stands there and lets her enemies plot to defeat her. And I get that too. I do, but to me it’s not, completely unjustified. After all, Chrysalis’ plan has gone without a hitch. She’s managed to stop anyone in her way at every turn. Now that she’s taken away all major power, why should it be any different now? She’s deluded by her success and doesn’t see a way she can be stopped.

*The only way she is defeated is by something she wouldn’t expect. True and pure love. The changelings manipulate others to gain power from their love of the person they’re impersonating, and Shining Armor was their latest victim. Not believing his own sister because he’s literally being controlled by someone who says they love him. And it’s not Twilight or any of her friends who break that curse, but Cadance. The one who truly loves him. Simply by being there and expressing how much she cares about him. Add to the fact that Cadance’s magic centers around love, something Chrysalis might not have known, and you get an even bigger power boost. It’s pretty cool when you see it at first  and beautiful when you think about it any deeper. 

*Plus I love cheesy stories where love and friendship and bonds that make us stronger save the day. It’s really my jam and why i stick with the show. And this is one of the best demonstrations of it’s power.

*And the fun little trope twist of the princess saving the knight in shining armor. And then it’s both of them together that stops the villain.

*I know everyone’s made this joke, but because one of my most well know loves is Pokemon “Looks like Team Rocket’s Blasting Off Again!!”

*Hey Twilight and Shining Armor’s parents are back! And they still don’t get any lines. Hooray!

*Props to Dashie for pulling off a Sonic Rainboom so flawlessly!

*Luna?! Where the hay have you been??!! Okay this is another complaint about the episode but this time I have to agree. Where were you??? The only props I’ll give here is that at least they acknowledged she exists. Unlike Return of Harmony.

*I personally think Twilight should’ve gotten more of an apology from her friends, but at least the message still comes across. Not only is there the power of love in it’s toxicity and purity, but also Twilight journey to persist even in the face of doubt. If something seems suspicious to you, especially when it effects the ones you love, pursue it. Investigate and see what you can do to help. And it’s because of Twilight’s actions that she’s able to reunite her brother with someone who genuinely loves him. You might not be able to save someone you love from someone who is just using them on your own, but you can do your best to find someone who can help them. Twilight may not have technically saved the day this time, but she played a very important part.

*Ending with a fun reception with a really catchy song and the reveal that Vinyl Scratch’s eyes are magenta and not red. Breaking the hearts of fan artists the world over... And isn’t that what we should really take away from this episode?

Screw the haters. This episode is amazing! I should really do a full video on this one because I truly love this episode. If anything, the criticisms has made me realize in other ways why I love it so much, and why it sealed the deal for me on this whole magical pony thing. So I suppose I should be grateful for that. There were a lot of other things I could have mentioned, but again, these are just supposed to be short thoughts. Like I’ve said, this is the episode that made me understand why so many people loved this show for little girls, and i will always be grateful for that. Next Time: The Crystal Empire!

#My Little Pony #MLP Rewatch Marathon #canterlot wedding #My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Review #analysis #MLP:FIM

[whetstonefires]

d gray man liveblog part 5! (part 1)(part 2)(part 3)(part 4)

Love the amount of personality Allen conveys by code-switching into different formality levels. the translators here are doing an excellent job conveying that, though i suspect the foul language there could have been legitimately punched up.

asserting that his oath to mana and the love that underlies it are his even though he can’t know that is...what makes Allen main character material i guess.

XD I want to ask when ‘being a total maniac with a personality whose internal contradictions are never entirely resolved’ became the shounen protagonist standard but i’m paging through mentally and it basically goes all the way back.

Ashita no Joe was like this. it’s always been like this. only the details change.

I will give Cross Marian .3 points for the possibility he predicted that offering Allen no mercy would inspire him to pull out his hardshell rage against the whole situation rather than crumpling under the weight.

stg allen walker is composed of 93% layered trauma like fine lacquerware and 4% mental invasion. the remaining 3% of his personality is what’s subject to contest. when XIV exceeds 7% encroachment is when shit is going to get real.

oh woo there is Politics afoot and Bookman is...actually intimidated by them, that scares me.

also he and Lavi keep conversing through thought bubbles and i can’t tell if we’re meant to understand they have a telepathic link or this is just an idiosyncratic method of indicating whispers.

lavaliere thinks allen is funny. or that komui’s attempts to reframe shit in allen’s favor are funny.

he’s not actually wrong that the XIVth can’t be trusted, but you want to insist he is wrong somehow because he’s already demonstrated that his standards for treatment of people who even might be compromised are inhumane as fuck.

i want to keep making Pope jokes but the recurring phrase ‘the central government’ just. it really does emphasize how much this organization is modeled on a modern Japanese concept of hierarchy rather than an early-modern European one.

...i am reminded that early European accounts of Tokugawa Japan recorded the shogun as the Emperor and the Emperor as the Pope.

labubibir just smirks when komui asks if his unilateral ‘we’ll tell everyone all about this in the morning’ decision has the pope’s imprimatur behind it.

srsly if we get to a twist that the current Pope is like. an animated corpse or a stuffed bear or a wooden statue or something run by a committee, i’m not even going to be shocked.

oh look it’s Link in that outrageous papal magic ninja getup. XD the role of Timcampi in this story is so weird. and great. he’s like. magic floating R2D2 stg, only if Luke threw R2 at Yoda’s head at some point.

...the point would be when Yoda actually explained about Vader before Vader could, but did it in the most assholish and unhelpful way possible

which you know i would believe would have happened.

Cross Marian it is so completely in character for you to turn up dead and thus useless at such a politically vital moment i almost don’t believe you’ve actually been killed.

only the fact that you actually shared significant information last night makes it seem reasonably likely this is not a fake death.

the disappearing body is a good trick. the guards sleeping and not dead is suggestive either way.

i like the juxtaposition that made it look link Link was blowing shit up by playing chess. (instead it is the marginally less ridiculous ‘playing chess at the site of a battle while ignoring the fighting’)

are those things even akuma? they’re fighting them in a graveyard and either the fight is non-serious enough or the chess is important enough that Miranda’s multi-tasking...

if she needs to use reverse on the board then presumably it...got spilled? but then they could just memorize the positions and let her let it go...

lol yeah okay allen scold the monster for its lack of manners toward a lady.

lmaoooo okay the chess was to win an Innocence-infused ring back from the ghost of its chess-master previous owner! normal duties have resumed in spite of the massive loss of personnel and allen’s identity issues, and apparently Link is now contributing to team efforts. this won’t divide his loyalties at all of course.

the chessboard didn’t decay with the ghost, so i still don’t know what Miranda was reversing time on it for.

+1 sassy old lady.

wow they’re actually building Order operations around use of the Ark, which only Allen can pilot. i guess anyone can use the doors he’s established so once he’s got a solid network running they can axe him but....

...Miranda it is rude to crush on a priest, though he has very pretty hair. (i mean, i’m assuming he’s catholic, since he’s with the Order, which works for the Pope. all indications really are that England is a catholic country in this universe.)

...it’s also a country where the Noahs are installed at high levels of government I don’t understand how no one in the Order has noticed that.

‘even if only for the moment’ ffffffffs link shut the fuck up.

...if anyone is inexplicably reading this without familiarity with the media property involved and picturing the hero from Legend of Zelda when i yell at link, please continue doing that, it’s basically correct except for being wrong in almost every particular.

oh good grief. So, they actually agreed with me about ‘can’t get rid of Allen’ for all the reasons i stated! they just announced to everyone he knows that they have an ongoing mission to kill him if he goes rogue.

that’s entirely reasonable, really, though depressing, but they had to be so viciously dehumanizing about getting there! wtf. “our very own pet noah” imma wring your throat.

...ten years has made Miranda Lott so much more relatable but never more than in this moment where she’s reminding herself she’s the only actual adult in this group.

also really feeling Allen’s “I don’t understand anything, but time keeps moving on.”

Holy shit the guy who knew Kanda when he was a small person now counts as foreshadowing of horrible things to come.

...how long have they left the bloodstained shattered window unrepaired so Rebeliel can sit here staring at it?

i don’t know whether i’m more focused on how absurd it is that this man does fancy baking (19th century! powerful! man!) or how terrifying it is that he’s offering Allen a slice of cake.

lmao apparently Reever is not a typical example of his role, probably because Komui isn’t. in fact, i don’t think i previously realized the ‘section’ he’s ‘chief’ of is the hq science section, because Komui acts like he’s Head of Mad Science and leaves Reever to be his chief minion.

also, this poor woman. her brother got horribly murdered working with these people and it traumatized them and now they’re treating her as a replacement goldfish because she looks just like him. that’s messed up on so many levels, though presumably she’s at least moderately okay with being misgendered or she’d dress differently. it being the 19th century and all.

...also i can’t tell if she’s meant to be a very pale black woman or if hoshino just did a ‘fat person’ character design around racist caricature visual tropes, but she’s got the blackface lip outline and a dreadlock ponytail, so welp.

wow Cross’ disappearance just gets more mysterious even as the evidence of his death mounts.

oh never mind Lebubble says it was definitely his bosses but he’s concerned because he was left out of the loop.

hmm okay that’s two women getting instant crushes on pretty boys and two relatively minor cases of sexual harassment in three chapters, all four times intended as humor, do not like this trend.

hmm now a trans woman being used as a visual gag. i’ve seen worse uses of this trope, but ugh.

the Ganimard expy is funny, tho. the amount of personality conveyed in a few pages is reliably high.

...i feel like he’s pointedly not given his prisoners any changes of clothes in order to maintain the illusion that it makes some kind of sense for there to be an entire gang of phantom thief that gets caught every single time.

that doesn’t actually explain why they’re all still wearing the outrageous hat.

aaaaand back to allen’s identity crisis.

wow, on the one hand cross is pressuring him from beyond the grave not to rely on Mana’s memory because that’s not his real self, but on the other hand he has to seriously consider that his recent lapses in the formality adopted in imitation of Mana were even less himself and in fact the result of a hostile alien consciousness breaking through.

haha this heist scenario is so exactly like a Magic Kaito one I’m guessing that’s a deliberate allusion and not just shared Phantom Thief tropes. (Though how do you tell in a genre like this, Ganimard-Nakamori-Galmar lmao.)

...the thematic element of speech-mode equating identity is really nicely used but lmao sticking out the tongue has sufficiently different connotation in Japan to make this possession sequence weirder than intended. which was already pretty weird.

daaaaamn link’s papal ninja moves are finally seeing some use. also way to signal your real identity bodysnatcher kid, allen’s like sixteen, an adult would definitely not call him niichan.

wow you can even use his papal ninja paper magic! somehow! that is a really high-tier bodysnatching skill. also lol of course kanda can recognize a papal ninja crow by skillset.

i am a huge fan of allen’s capacity for headgames.

oh my goodness is he seriously donating all the money from his thefts to an orphanage? specifically the orphanage where he lives?

and again with the boob grab.

...allen walker weeping that he’s bleeding is quite the hilarious sight but come to think of it if he can’t hold off one random crybaby bodysnatching kid his odds against XIV don’t look that hot, eh?

oh no evil undead nun.

oh that’s a great idea, ask komui for advice about what to do in the situation that an exorcist and his guardians are rejecting summary kidnapping. it’s not like he devoted his entire life to regaining contact with his sister after the Order kidnapped her.

oh no it’s another hideous potbellied angel monster and they’ve figured out how to jam allen’s curse radar. that curse was a present from his dad you bastards!

...mana was a really weird person.

you know link, i’m pretty sure from you that was protectiveness.

oh! a twist! the nun is evil without being an undead monster!

meanwhile the nice nun and all the orphans have been turned into puppets.

daaaaamn the Papal Ninja Paper Magic is good stuff! why don’t they teach it to more of their staff, maybe they wouldn’t have such high turnover.

...Kanda just referred to Noise Marie as ‘she’ but I’m pretty sure that’s a translation error based on the fact that his surname is ‘Marie’ and ‘Noise’ sounds like a descriptor based on his hearing-based power rather than a first name.

it would frankly be awesome if Noise Marie were a woman, but considering the only two not-conventionally-boobalicious and also not elderly female characters we’ve had were minor visual gags (plus i guess Miranda during her initial nervous breakdown), and that hoshino was genuinely startled people thought Jasdero was a woman, presumably because of the lack of visible breasts, i reallllllllly think she would be unlikely to design a huge bald muscle woman, let alone treat her with this much casual respect, let alone while writing her as gay.

regardless, if Noise Marie actually dies imma be so mad. not that me being mad has had a perceptible affect on the death rate--though Kanda and Krory did survive the Ark Battle Arc so maybe i do have power. or rather we collectively as readers do.

hah he cut his own fingers off with wire, badass.

allen’s talent for inspiring compassion claims another victim in Bodysnatcher Timothy and holy cow Emilia The Nice Middle Class Girl is here with a handgun to menace the giant monsters, nice.

i mean, they’re not very menaced, but she’s shooting them anyway, because fuck you.

...holy shit that’s a powerful ability. the fact that it leaves his real body vulnerable is kind of a major drawback even with good teammates, but wow. also for some reason his Innocence has its own consciousness???

which can pilot his body for him while he’s walkabout, how helpful!

Bonne the the translady prison boss has joined the count of girls who see a cute guy and get an instant crush recently, but for some reason she’s really into Reever? I mean, he’s good-looking, sure, but he’s not one of The Pretty Boys.

Just realized that part of what’s vibing so weird is, this is a shounen series, but the specific way it juxtaposes elements of extreme shittiness with elements of brilliant concept and execution is more shoujo in style.

sameface isn’t normally a big issue in this series but Link-with-his-bangs-blown-back looks confusingly similar to Timothy’s Innocence Spirit, whom Timothy identified as his adult self with startling ease.

kneeling there out of options thinking you’re going to die and you dedicate your last thought to revellier, link? really??? that’s extremely sad. did he actually do anything to earn your loyalty or is this just brainwashing?

I feel like last time through I failed to absorb the political implications of the Order having managed to put together agents who can stop a Level 3 akuma with their hands and then eat it. with their hands. i think they’ve been spliced with akuma, because ‘nothing human can get through this barrier.’

Lenalee going one-v-one on a Level 3 was a nigh-self-destruct big deal a couple of months ago. This isn’t just sloppily managed shounen power creep this is the obsolescence of the excorcists.

which in theory would be a good thing, but the way these guys are made has to be awful and our main characters were already disposable enough in the eyes of their masters.

At least Allen’s getting Power Creep too! New tactic: drop sword. Stab enemy in the back with it while standing in front of them because it’s still part of your body somehow.

oh good grief allen you saw what happened to tiki myk! how did you not see this coming. ughhhhhhh. i know why. your current life plan is to Denial so damn hard the universe breaks your way. this is your god letting you know she’s not going to indulge that touching optimism.

i think it shocked me the first time, but i’m not sure anymore.

yeah, deeply counter-productive course of action.

...i’m now used to the way XIV uses Allen’s face but the akuma seeing him as a flaming skeleton monster i had forgotten about. wut?

with kanda it’s not a question of did he count on allen being able to dodge or did he not care if he stabbed him too, it’s both.

the cognitive dissonance of the story trying to treat Timothy joining the Order as a Good End to this episode, the same way it did back in early days when they recruited Miranda, when the prevailing atmosphere of the story has become one of institutional cruelty and corruption wherein the Order is a hellish slave-taking death trap that eats its people alive is just...fucking me up big time.

am i actually expected to accept the content here at face value?

...i mean, it’s a good end in that our heroes are spared having to forcibly kidnap him into indenture, but Emilia joining to look after him is just. It’s not funny or heartwarming or empowering.

we’ve recently gone over how komui doesn’t want lenalee to see his joining the Order for her as self-sacrifice even though it was, and also how much it fucks him up being accountable for how evil this organization is.

and not to be awful but lenalee’s his actual family and actually sweet, whereas timothy is a horrid brat with a habit of sexually harassing Emilia.

And that was before the war reached a point where we’re seeing 90% mortality.

don’t do this emilia. nooooooope.

on the upside, the nice nun and all the children survived somehow!

allen’s relationship with Link is weird.

i wonder if i was meant to be disturbed by how similar Mana’s body language was to the Earl’s for a second there?

okay so can we talk about how in this moment of extreme drama where Allen has sat up in bed possessed by evil, timcampi (who never communicates except via body language and is a floating orb) gets a speech bubble containing a picture of a toilet?

because it was really important to let the readers know that the little golem theorized that Allen needed to have a pee, in between cutting from the unsettling Symbolic Dream to the terrifying murder face.

and the thing is, it even kind of was! it contributes to the pace of the whole scene, it reminds us that timcampi is a conscious being with opinions even if he can’t communicate much, and is witnessing this incident. and yet. toilet.

the entire storytelling style of D. Gray Man revolves around creating cognitive dissonance and it does not suit my brain.

...i honestly don’t know what to think about Link being uncomfortable sharing a room with Lenalee flashing that much thigh, but i know i like him better for the fact that he let her drive him out of his own room by falling asleep on his bed, and just stood around in the hall like a chump waiting for her to finish her nap.

and he escalates from threatening allen with a formal complaint to threatening to tell komui he’s alone in a room with lenalee lmao.

he really is fitting right in.

oh hey. it wasn’t just timcampi who saw.

yes okay thanks for the tyki myk update good to know there are long-term consequences for running a noah through with Crown Clown.

aaaand North American Boobs Lady didn’t seem half this menacing last time she came up, but now she’s flanked by Hungry Hands Dude and his partner and komui is looking freaked out.

he does that a lot lately.

#catching up with d. grey man #d gray man #d gray man spoilers #i need to go into less detail

[dweemeister]

Frozen II (2019)

Six years ago, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee directed Frozen, a film that became a pop culture phenomenon destined to induce musical madness for anyone who needed to babysit a child. I contended in 2013, as I do now, that Frozen had the best-looking CGI for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film at that point in Disney history and its musical score by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez a great asset. Let me get a few other unpopular opinions (at least, on tumblr) out of the way now. As the 2010s close, Frozen still has the best musical score and original song (“Let it Go”) of any Walt Disney Animation Studios film released in the twenty-first century (the century is still young). Due to overexposure and criticisms borne out of bad faith, social media turned on Frozen quickly. But I think one thing yours truly and Frozen’s harshest critics can agree upon is how little did we know that Frozen would be as successful as it has become, how it crossed cultural and linguistic barriers that other films in the recent Disney animated canon could not.

When its sequel was announced by now-disgraced John Lasseter (Lasseter served as producer but is uncredited on Frozen II), the weight of expectations hoisted upon Buck and Lee (who wrote the screenplay) must have been tremendous. As Lasseter often said in the mid-2010s when announcing a Disney or Pixar sequel, he claimed that a Disney or Pixar sequel only comes to fruition when, “the filmmakers who created the original have created an idea that is so good that it’s worthy of [the] characters.” Frozen II is a gorgeously-animated film that misfires on its characterizations and plotting, but deserves partial credit for attempting to communicate a worthy message to those children – some who are just now navigating the confusing years of teenagehood – who fell in love with and have repeatedly watched the 2013 original.

Time has passed since we last saw our heroes, Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) of Arendelle. Little has changed in Arendelle in those years, with Kristoff and his reindeer Sven (Jonathan Groff as both) presumably still harvesting ice and Olaf (Josh Gad) basking in the fact he has a magical coat of permafrost. One evening, Elsa (and only Elsa) hears a siren in the distance, emanating from the north’s Enchanted Forest – which is surrounded by an impassable mist. A substantial but manageable disaster disrupts life in Arendelle shortly after the mysterious call, forcing the protagonists towards the Enchanted Forest. There, they meet a lost Arendellian military unit that has been in constant warfare with the Northuldra tribe since around the time Elsa and Anna’s parents have been missing. Elsa and Anna help the factions agree to an armistice. Amid this peace, Elsa travels even further north to confront her family’s past to understand her unsettling present.

Frozen II’s greatest failing is, surprisingly, not Jennifer Lee’s tiresome insistence on impossibly frequent humor and dialogue that sounds as if the characters have been airlifted from contemporary America – though there is plenty of both in this film. Instead, it is an elementary building block to any art that attempts a narrative: understandable, meaningful motivations. With Elsa, she journeys northward on little else but a hunch and bedtime stories imparted to her during her childhood – flimsy reasoning at best. For Anna, she apparently has become paralyzed in the fear of disrupting how she and her sister have been interacting with each other and their lives in Arendelle. Lee needs to imbue Anna with depth here, as it is unclear exactly what Anna fears losing most. Kristoff accompanies Anna and Elsa because he wants to offer marriage to the former, doing so with the competency of a Sous-chef asked to perform a coronary artery bypass. My apologies to any Sous-chefs with medical experience. And, oh yes, Olaf goes along because Disney needs to make that sweet green.

Lee also cannot help but pack her screenplays with exposition. If this is any indication of how intelligent she thinks moviegoers are, the results are not flattering to anybody. There are worthy ideas in this screenplay, yet they are obscured by plot contrivances needed to position characters in certain spots that reeks of narrative convenience or thematic cold feet. An idea that seems to have been inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender does not inspire additional confidence, but perhaps a few guffaws and rolled eyes. The Northuldra tribe are inspired by the Sámi people, an indigenous people native to northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland as well as far northwestern Russia. Frozen II dances around the idea of having something to say about imperialism – in terms of cultural/racial supremacy, coercive diplomacy by gun barrel or bayonet, environmental exploitation – but declines to do so.

Elsewhere, Olaf’s characterization is still that of the buck-toothed, boisterous goofball that he is. But unlike the first Frozen where Olaf exuded childish silliness, he is spouting philosophical claptrap that will pass over the heads of children. Frozen II is preening here: “Hey, parents showing your children Frozen II! You’re smarter than your grade schooler; isn’t that hilarious!?”

This contempt extends to a late scene where Lee’s screenplay has Elsa scoff at a reference to “Let It Go”. The moment, brief as it is, is as perplexing as it is infuriating. Assuming that it is supposed to be played for laughs, why would Chris Buck and Lee think that those who despise 2013′s Frozen care to watch this sequel? Why would they think that, for the children who adored Frozen upon its original release and since then (while probably encountering few people bashing on the film), that moment would be the slightest bit humorous? Considering the number of people – even if it is only one person in the world (I’d wager everything including the kitchen sink that the actual number is higher) – who found inspiration in “Let It Go” and its use in narrative and character development context, how could they be so disrespectful to those individuals as well as Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez? Perhaps this is rabblerousing over something insignificant, but it seems to exemplify a level of contempt the filmmakers have for elements from the previous film and, potentially, the audience willing to watch the sequel.

Every Walt Disney Animation Studios film released since Winnie the Pooh (2011) has treated tropes introduced in the older Disney animated canon in similar fashion. Disney history, even for a film made six years ago, is a punchline, not to be celebrated or engaged with critically. The Walt Disney Company of 2019 is one preferring to bury its past (this also includes the companies it has acquired). If there, like in the early 2000s, is a war for the animation studio’s soul, it is playing out in how these films are being made.

Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez’s sufficient musical score is worse, title-by-title, when compared against the 2013 original. “All Is Found” feels out of place in this film because of its orchestration – this is the only song in either Frozen film using Nordic instruments and inspired by Nordic folk music. As interesting as this song is lyrically (and for how those lyrics play into what eventually occurs in this film), it suffers from the same problem plaguing “Frozen Heart” from the first film in that they are just too musically detached from the showtune style that the Lopezes bring to Frozen II. “Some Things Never Change” lays out the subtext and the film’s dramatic irony too obviously, and Groff’s silly vocals to imitate what Sven would sound like is a juvenile decision. Shortly after, “Into the Unknown” – which features the voice of AURORA as the mysterious Dies Irae-like voice that only Elsa can hear – is sung by Elsa with bombast. As talented as Menzel is, “Into the Unknown” is overproduced, contains an excessive amount of vocalizations, and has no business being the third song sung within the opening twenty or twenty-five minutes of a film. The early placement of “Into the Unknown” creates pacing issues in the film’s first half from which it almost does not recover.

In the film’s second half, we find Kristoff a frustrated figure, unable to find a moment to pop Anna the question. In the film’s acid trip of a musical number, Jonathan Groff, as Kristoff, is given a 1980s power ballad named “Lost in the Woods” for curious reasons. “Lost in the Woods”, for reindeer-related reasons, is the most entertaining number in Frozen II, but, like “All Is Found”, makes no musical sense – it is framed as a homage to multiple 1980s power ballad music videos that one could have found on MTV in that decade. Maybe the part of me that is irritated by the swathe of 1980s nostalgia sweeping American popular culture right now is being hypercritical, but I will acknowledge that – when listened to divorced of narrative context – “Lost in the Woods” is a fantastic musical homage. Frozen II’s thematic parallel to “Let It Go” is actually “Show Yourself”, not “Into the Unknown”. It is yet another song demanding much from Menzel and has been subordinated by, presumably, Disney marketers and executives.

Before mentioning the film’s final song, the Lopezes should be praised for steering the plot away from stormy waters, lending a needed course correction to an otherwise hapless screenplay. “All Is Found”, ��Some Things Never Change”, and “Show Yourself” provide a necessary musical boost that might otherwise have contained even more tedious exposition. To Frozen II’s credit, the story’s second half is unexpectedly, but never unjustifiably, melancholic. The best song on this soundtrack just so happens to provide the greatest narrative boost to Frozen II in the film’s darkest moments. “The Next Right Thing”, echoing a line repeated a few times from different characters, is a musical and thematic triumph. The song, eschewing lyrical/poetic meter (this is a radical decision; very few songwriters in the history of Broadway musicals and Hollywood would dare to even compose one song with no identifiable lyrical meter), literalizes how one carries on in the midst of depression and loss. Bell cries rather than sings some of the song’s lines, but, given the lyrics, it is deserved.

Through "The Next Right Thing” and what transpires to the film’s conclusion, Anna and Elsa – in their distinct ways – learn how to answer the most baffling questions children and adults will ever face. How does one regain their bearings when one’s peers and loved ones all seem to be changing into something unrecognizable? How can the tragic decisions of the past be resolved depending on who made those decisions? I’m not saying Frozen II is an articulately-crafted drama examining the human condition, rising to the heights reached by cinema’s most celebrated auteurs. but it is at least attempting to pose difficult questions to its audience – and yes, to the children and teenagers that have and will grow up with Anna and Elsa and company – that numerous other animation films from other major American studios would dare not attempt. The bar may not be high, but the filmmakers – and yes, the Lopezes – provide a small, yet necessary, lift.

For the Walt Disney Animation Studios, what has been deemed the “Disney Revival” in some quarters has been predicated on the company’s financial strength over the 2010s, ignoring how distractingly metatextual and behaviorally contemporary these recent films have been. If one is looking for 2010s animated films reflecting and extolling humanity’s goodness and/or affirming cultural and ideological empathy, do not look to the major American animation studios for these qualities. In some future year, may those audiences looking back on the films that they cherished as children take inspiration in Anna and Elsa’s courage when facing life’s uncertainties. May they teach a few grizzled movie fans to see something that only they could because of their youth.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

#Frozen II #Frozen 2 #Chris Buck #Jennifer Lee #John Lasseter #Robert Lopez #Kristen Anderson Lopez #Peter Del Vecho #My Movie Odyssey

[groundramon]

Do you have a list of like top 5 tv shows? (Cartoons and anime included)

!!! Yes I do, actually!

I’ve actually thought about doing a YouTube video about this in the past, and while I do want to do list-like videos (and I already have at least one in mind) in the future, I put off doing this one because it actually…depends greatly on where certain shows I currently like are headed because some currently-airing shows would be on this list if they hit their full potential, but who knows if they’ll hit their full potential. Also I always split anime and cartoons into two categories because I always had a hard time picking otherwise xD But I do have some semblance of a list, and I adore talking about this kind of stuff, sooo:

5. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

This spot is kind of a three-way tie between Voltron, Bojack Horseman, and FMAB, all for extremely different reasons. So consider Voltron and Bojack my honorable mentions. But while I believe Bojack’s best is honestly some of the (if not the) best out there, and if Voltron promises through on what they’ve promised it will easily skyrocket up this list, Bojack’s worst is everything I hate about Hollywood and Voltron just has too many holes at the moment.  FMAB has the best of both worlds because it has great animation like Voltron, doesn’t have any of Bojack’s bad kind of moments, and doesn’t have many holes in it.  (Another honorable mention goes to BNHA, but like Voltron, I just don’t think it has had enough time to develop all the way. Unlike Voltron, it doesn’t really have any holes, but I do have a problem with how strictly it adheres to cheesy super heroes of the past.)

BUT onto FMAB itself. God cmon, its FMAB, do I really need to elaborate why its so great? The characters are compelling, their motivations are powerful and interesting. I could write an essay examining Ed’s character alone, because he has so many interesting motivations and morals that seemingly conflict with his angry disposition, and I don’t even like Ed that much. The story is exciting - there’s basically no filler, and it almost moves too fast at points. I do have problems with the show - as I said, it goes too fast. The only two deaths in the season happen in the first 12-15 episodes of the series, and although I think that’s because the original FMA animated those scenes already, it still fucks with the pacing of this show. Additionally, despite Lust, Gluttony, and Envy all being revealed before, the show introduces a completely new villain - Greed - to introduce the homunculi. And then they kill Lust - the presumed leader of the first three introduced homunculi?? Idk man, the show barrels in a completely different direction way too quickly. But other than that, its a great show. The only reason it isn’t higher is because I’m a biased shit towards other good shows.

4. Teen Titans

Speaking of being a biased shit, idk if it shows or not, but I have a HUGE soft spot for corny kids shows that try to give kids bad laughs and dark/relatable storylines, or rather, have a heart while doing so. Its not so much that I like a balance of comedy and darkness in my shows - although that’s a good thing, I eat pure angst up and I’m all-for pure comedy shows that have the aforementioned heart (ie we bare bears, another good show not on this list) - its just specifically corny pun-ridden teen/tweeny-feeling shows/games that actually have a decent story underneath that get me. (Also my sense of humor aligns much more with shitty teen lingo and puns than modern cartoon humor that’s considered “good”. Like I find Teen Titans 10x funnier than I’ve ever found Steven Universe. I’m a 90s kid at heart even tho I wasn’t alive in the 90s)

But the biggest impact of this show for me was the heart and the plot. The silly moments made me laugh, sometimes iromically and sometimes unironically and sometimes I wasn’t sure how, but it was the story that really gripped me. The first season’s overarching plot for Robin is honestly one of the most compelling things I’ve seen in kids cartoons…period. Its dark, its unique, its a subversion of such a simble and broad trope. Sure it had a nice cheesy ending but Robin actually saves the day through INTELLIGENCE, something he always had. No other Teen Titans ending did that, but I digress.

And god, do not even get me started on Terra’s arc. Just because Robin’s was the most well-structured arc doesn’t mean his was the most emotional. I was fucking distraught after Terra’s season. Those memes weren’t a joke, I legitimately cried right in front of my mom. IT WAS SO OBVIOUS, BUT IN MY BLIND LOVE, I MISSED ALL THE SIGNS… and god, even when she comes back, even when she’s given a happy ending, she manages to make me cry AGAIN. I never, ever thought I could cry over a character like Beast Boy, but she made me do it. I didn’t even cry when Sokka’s girlfriend died, but this really, really got to me. Once for personal attachment, and the second time because…the finale is so good. Literally its Bojack levels of deep, emotional, and realistic, and this was the ending of a fucking kids show. What the fuck. To this day I still get emotional whenever something reminds me of her arc. Which brings me to my next series…

3. Cybersix

Hi so did I mention Cybersix is really good? Because Cybersix is really good.  I’m not even done with it but yeah, I love this show.  It’s got an amazing art style, great animation, an intriguing story…I have a feeling I’m gonna be really disappointed when it ends because I’ll want to know what happens next so badly.  I like the characters, I like the aesthetic, I like the old-timey music that dates this cartoon so wonderfully, I even like the romance between Lucas and Cybersix/Adrian!  How’d you make me do that.  Oh yeah, because it’s not hard to get me to care about a mutually rewarding relationship that’s gradually built up through a friendship, then an aesthetic attraction, then presumably a relationship but idk yet, where both parties care about one another and their boundaries and have gotten along well since the start.  I forgot.  (I could nitpick that Lucas doesnt have the same buildup for the relationship as Cybersix [its complicated, basically he’s friends with Cybersix’s alternate persona Adrian but he’s in a relationship with Cybersix, and he doesnt know theyre the same person] but I’m not gonna.)  It’s just…a good show man.  @ hollywood, reboot THIS you cowards.  Stop rebooting shit nobody wanted a new version of and reboot shows that were ended to quickly.  Actually dont reboot Cybersix because the only animation studios that would be able to do it any justice are Studio Mir and anime studios, and whoever owns the current copyright to Cybersix would probably be okay using flash for it

2. Digimon Adventure (with a honorable mention to Digimon Tamers)

You can rip my love for the entire Digimon franchise from my cold, dead hands.  I’m sincerely surprised any show passed up my love for this show.  If/when the currently airing series in Japan gets brought over here, I’ll watch it, even though Digimon has kind of abandoned what made it so great in the first place.  But hell, even Fusion was enjoyable - the second arc, from what I remember, was pretty dark and interesting (im still mad they got rid of the two best characters tho) - and the only reason I disliked Data Squad so much is because of Marcus (that and it doesnt have anything else that’s absolutely stunning, in fact from a technical standpoint Marcus is the best thing about the show).

But there’s a reason I put Digimon Adventure here and not the entirety of the Digimon franchise.  Digimon Adventure is what started it all.  No Digimon season has as much heart in it as the original.  Sure the animation improves each season, sure Tamers is probably better story-wise on a technical level, but I dont think any season matches the raw charm of the original.  It was so charming, in fact, that what was supposed to be a 13-episode miniseries evolved into a massive franchise that’s still beloved to this day.  Hell, there’s still content being released for the 8 Digidestined of this season!  It’s right alongside Pokemon, Invader Zim, Hey Arnold, and all these other beloved 90s/early 2000s cartoons that are being revived in recent years, and I think that says a lot.

I wasn’t even alive when Digimon Adventure was airing, but I loved the Digimon games I had played so much that I went out of my way to watch it.  And I…loved it.  Sad as it may be, it was the greatest TV show I had seen at the time.  Growing up in the late 2000s watching only Nickelodeon and CN was not a good period to grow up in, and I never saw Avatar as a kid.  By the time the 2010s had rolled around, I had mostly given up on cartoons, and besides, they were all fugly.  I still tried to watch some, but just…the humor didn’t grip me, they seemed dumb, and they weren’t pleasant to look at.  (Okay the main shows I’m vaguing about are Adventure Time and Regular Show, as well as whatever Nickelodeon was doing but I begrudgingly put up with Nickelodeon for the most part because I preferred Nick and I never knew what else to watch)  Then Digimon came around, and hol-y-shit.  The characters were like nothing I had ever seen before, the storylines engaging and interesting.  Sure it was cheesy, but there was 95% less fart jokes than the average cartoon, a good story, and actually relatable characters that actually go through hardships and actually change for the better!

Digimon Adventure has been and always will be proof to me that no matter what you are, no matter what your show is, you can make a good show out of it.  If you get people who care, who can make relatable characters, who can come up with an interesting story, you can make a good show.  Digimon Adventure is basically a big long toy commercial, and yet its better than lots of shows that dont even have merchandise - and its also better than a lot of shows that have merchandise now, but weren’t created to sell toys in the first place.  I just.  Love it a lot.

Also, the reason I specifically chose Digimon Adventure, outside of having a personal attachment to it since it was always my favorite, is because Tamers hecking scared me as a kid and I’ve never gotten over how creepy the last arc is.  Like it’s good, but it still scared me.

Honorable mentions: Bojack Horseman, Voltron: Legendary Defender, We Bare Bears, Gravity Falls (thats a big one, it would definitely be on this list if I had 10 spots, and will gladly take the 6th spot if Voltron doesnt follow through or Bojack goes south), Over the Garden Wall,  the aforementioned Digimon Tamers ,and Infinity Train might be #2 or at least #3 if it wasnt just a single episode l m a o

1. A tie between Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra

HI SO YEAH if you didnt expect this then you dont know me //BRICKED

Before I explain both, I want to be very clear that I’m not counting them as a single entity.  No, I just cant pick between them.  They’re two extremely different shows, and I actually agree with people who say ATLA is overall a more-rounded show.  Problem is, I watched both during a period of my life where politics and darkness make an extremely interesting show for me (aka the current period of my life) and thus its a very biased and “nostalgic” pick, just like Digimon Adventure.  Had I watched these shows when they were airing, I dont know if LOK would even be on this list.  Heck Digimon adventure probably wouldnt be on this list since ATLA would’ve held the crown for my favorite show for all those years.

They both have amazing animation and solid writing, but that’s about all they have in common in my eyes - even though they share the same world.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a kids show.  Through and through, its a kids show.  That’s not an insult in the slightest though; no, the fact that they can make something so sophisticated and enjoyable that still clearly appeals to children is really a testament to their skills.  Many kids shows that try to take on heavier/darker stories feel like completely different shows when they try to do that - shows that arent intended for kids.  Voltron and SU are the most notable examples of that, but even LOK has a little bit of that (but in LOK’s case, its the entire show, so I kinda give them a pass lol)  Other shows do it okay (Gravity Falls) but really the only show I’ve ever seen match Avatar’s perfect balance of comedy and seriousness is Bojack, which isn’t a kids show so it has an advantage over Avatar.

Avatar’s world is fanciful and larger than life.  I’m so sad that I watched Avatar and LOK after my fanfiction days; I would’ve loved to spend nights thinking about a potential Avatar story, complete with my own Avatar and original cast.  I could put it before Avatar, after LOK, who knows? but it would’ve been so much fun.  Hell I HAVE thought about Avatar stories, but I obviously dont have much thought up on any of my potential ideas.

The pacing of Avatar is golden.  How a show wish such good pacing got through Nickelodeon, I dont know, but whatever deal allowed Avatar to go on for three seasons and then end was a once-in-a-life-time deal (as evident by what happened to Korra).  Somehow this show came out almost completely perfect, with few or no flaws.

This is the pinnacle of children’s entertainment, in my opinion.  This is proof that there’s no excuse for the garbage that makes up 90% of children’s entertainment.  The standard doesn’t have to be this, since this is the best, but this show is proof that we need to raise the standard.  I wish executives actually gave a shit about quality; if they did, maybe we could get mostly good shows instead of mostly bad shows.

If most shows were half as good as Avatar, the average show would be gorgeously-animated, smartly-written, and really good, even if it had a flaw here and there.  If most shows were half as good as Avatar, Steven Universe would be the average instead of a godsend.

If I someday, somehow make a show that’s 2/3rds as good as Avatar, I’ll officially be a good writer.  I’d love to make tons of shows just as good as Avatar, but hey, I cant get TOO cocky now lol

Now for The Legend of Korra.  Korra has slightly better animation (god i love studio mir) and different but still intriguing worldbuilding.  I know a lot of people found the political bs to be annoying, but I actually found it quite intriguing.  Avatar did a little bit of exploring moral gray areas and playing with politics, but Korra just goes all-out.  I wish the first season’s morality could’ve been a little grayer, but even then, the politics were still interesting.  And god, that one scene in the first season finale, the murder-suicide…that’s still a really powerful scene.  The entire finale would’ve been super powerful were it not for everything resetting by the end of it, but hey, they basically did the same thing in season 3!

Holy shit though, season 3.  An on-screen strangling.  Someone exploding themselves to death.  And then the finale’s fight.  The finale’s fight. The finale of season 3 is one of the most intense things I’ve seen…ever.  The atmosphere in that fight is just…so good - combined with the animation and choreography, its just amazing.  You can almost feel every hit, you actually feel concern for Korra, you’re legitimately concerned for her life.  And you know what?  You should’ve been!  Because she almost dies, and she has to suffer the consequences of that.  The fourth season has a time gap in-between, but even then, she spends episodes trying to fully recover.

In my opinion, the only thing making Korra a kids show is Milo.  I’m certain they put him in there because otherwise, it wouldn’t have been allowed to be called a kids show.  It’s dark, its intelligent, its beautiful, and it’s going to go right over most kid’s heads.  As a kids show it does kind of fail; it just doesn’t really appeal enough to them.  Once you’re old enough to understand, say, Naruto or Dragon Ball you should be okay, but ATLA appeals to all ages while Korra really needs a certain maturity in its audience to be understood and to not scare its audience.

They’re just both. so good

(thanks for the ask!!!)

#stormy answers #long post #this took forever to answer but it was w o r t h #i actually have a script for this video now lmao so i could make this video now if i wanted to