#then that's underwhelming....or they could be A Thing and yet then the relationship is only simply a plot device for a moment and/or

[ode2rin]

HELP OF ALL SONGS WHY DID YOU GO WITH THE LAST TIME FOR THAT KAISER ANGST it's my favorite i can't do this mimi

PLS DON'T LISTEN TO YOUR REPLIES !!! IT DOESN'T NEED A COMFORT PART 2 do you know what it needs? reader's pov 🙏🏻 because i am certain kaiser fucked up so good (i'm a kasier kisser believe me) to the point that we can't take him back ;)

you get me anon 🫱🏻‍🫲🏻 i shrieked when i read this in my inbox. i'm hearing you out so here it goes !! (thanks for sending this, i needed a distraction after my previous exam soooo a kaiser angst might just be the best kind of distraction :D)

content/warnings. reader's pov of this (or the break up) | hints of a toxic relationship | heavy in narration !

you can’t say you didn’t see this coming.

you would be lying not to admit that you could sense the storm brewing long before it arrived, an ache that had been etched into your soul from the moment you fell under the spell of those mischievous blue eyes and enchanting smiles.

the world warned you, voices of reason echoing through the corridors of your mind. tabloids whispered tales of heartbreak, fans shared cautionary tales, and even ness, who knew kaiser better than anyone, tried to shield you from the impending storm.

they told you loving michael kaiser wasn’t for the weak. and you shrugged that off, because you know you weren’t one.

now, sitting in the balcony of your new apartment, your phone clenched in your hand, a message arrives from a familiar sender.

you know this all too well. and it reads heartbreak in every word, over and over again.

my mihya: i have a game tomorrow. would you come? my mihya: please come.

loving michael kaiser wasn't for the weak, and you thought you understood what they meant but you didn't. it wasn't just about being strong — it was about the insidious way his love eroded your defenses, leaving you vulnerable and exposed.

in those three haunting moments when michael kaiser arrived unannounced at your doorstep, exuding remorse with every fiber of his being, you had to clench your jaw so tight just not to tell him to come inside.

and every time he calls asking to see you once more, you grasped your phone as if it were a lifeline, the weight of your wounded pride pressing into your trembling hands.

with each time he does ask to try again, it takes everything in you to hold a yes that teetered on the precipice of your lips. it wasn't because you didn't love him, but because you knew all too well that kaiser excelled at chasing you when it was already too late.

it was as though he had finally paid attention to your place in his life, but by then it was too late, you’re too broken to grasp on.

don’t get it wrong, he did love you. fiercely, madly, deeply so. he loved you.

only in his terms, that is.

he loves you when it was convenient, when it was easy. he loves you when he stood high above everyone else, and come moments that he faltered, he dragged you into his lowest of lows.

and you. you accepted that.

accepting a love (if you could even call it one) like that?

it was consuming. such love painted vibrant hues of ecstasy, only to wield the darkest shade of anguish.

and yet again, we really do accept the love we think we deserve.

you spent two years of your life believing love came with thorns. you gave him all of your best, your endless empathy. gave him so much, but it wasn’t enough.

no, it was never enough.

it wasn’t all rain and storms. you had your better days. and when it was good, it was good.

but a few fleeting highs couldn't erase the moments when he tore you down, belittled your dreams, ridiculed your love like you’d always be around.

so, you ran.

was it the bravest thing you've ever done? these days, it's harder to convince yourself that you made the right choice.

to say you miss him is an underwhelming elucidation of what you feel. michael kaiser is written all over you. you feel him everywhere of you. his presence lingers within, haunting you.

and there are nights, that fuck, all you want to do is pick up the phone and have him near, even if that means risking another goodbye.

but leaving… you know it was for the best.

when you think of those destructive nights of 4 am, standing before a mirror seeing the permanent damage of loving a man who didn’t know what he had when he had it, you know it was for the best.

i did the right thing.

you can’t take him back. you can’t do that to yourself again, not anymore. you can’t go through another night of stifling your sobs, grieving for your partner when he’s right beside you. 

grieving for what could have been if he were a better man. if he loved you the way he loved his fame and glory. if he loved you like how your heart ached to be held.

but as they say, one should wait for the right man, but never should one wait for one man to be the right one.

and you refuse to be the casualty of a love that was never meant to be, the collateral damage in his pursuit of self-glory.

1:03 AM [xxx-xxx-810]: i have a game tomorrow. would you come? [xxx-xxx-810]: please come. 3:35 AM you: i hope you win, kaiser.

so, you hold on to your pride, because these days, it’s all you had left.

#☁️ my ode to you #this is shit pls look away #btw anon why do i feel lyk i know u hmpppp #blue lock x reader #blue lock imagines #michael kaiser x reader #michael kaiser imagines #kaiser x reader #kaiser imagines #michael kaiser x y/n #michael kaiser x you #bllk x y/n #bllk x you #bllk x reader #blue lock x y/n #blue lock x you #blue lock headcanons #michael kaiser #blue lock angst

[ozimaniac]

[A Character Analysis of Zen]

Now that we have Zen’s birthday date and know that his zodiac sign is cancer, I just want to look at some characteristics. (Because I’m guessing that these dates were picked for a reason and not just random.) I Also want to talk about his past and why he is so avoidant about it. Even if I just end up pointlessly rambling about it, with no clear conclusion, because we just don’t know yet.

I will now infodump. A lot.

So a main characteristic of cancers is that they are closed off or seem distant at first. Cancers hold back on revealing their thoughts, therefore they come off as mysterious and not easy to approach. They also try to avoid confrontation. They retreat into their “shells” if they are uncomfortable and they like to brood.

Nonetheless they are very caring and protective about their family and friends. They might put the comfort of others before their own. They have the tendency to be self-sacrificing.

I think this description fits Zen well. His character seems calm and at peace with himself at first, but slowly you realise that there are underlying insecurities and you don’t really know what he is thinking. Ow2 actually gave us some voice lines that make it more clear that he isn’t a perfect individual, that reached complete inner peace. He has struggles of his own.

I also saw “dislikes revealing of personal life”, which is really accurate. He has always been really mysterious, especially about his past. This is noticeable in the interaction with Rein and Genji, where Rein asks him “What did you do? You know, before the Crisis?” And he will give different responses, that are kind of short, silly or underwhelming, and it’s implied that he isn’t telling the entire truth. Let me list the following responses:

“I served coffee.”

“I collected payments at a laser tag arena.”

“I was a lifeguard at a water park.”

“I drove a tractor.”

These are pretty ordinary jobs, and I don’t doubt that he worked these jobs. (Except for the lifeguard one maybe, he doesn’t look very waterproof.) So I don’t think that he is lying.. but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t hiding something.

There is also a line, that I think has been cut out of the game, because I only found it in one video.

“I massaged sheep on a free range pasture.”

(Now that’s a dream job. But seriously.. I almost thought I went insane and made it up, because it was really hard to find.)

Then Rein asks “Is that true?” and Genji says “He won’t tell me either.” (Ram also says something similar.) So although he has a close relationship with Genji, he still won’t reveal what happened in his past. And this obviously makes me think that something bad happened, and that he is uncomfortable talking about it.

He also has a line that goes “My memories before the awakening are blurry, but I do remember some things.” and he doesn’t elaborate further.

It could be that he legitimately doesn’t remember a lot before the awakening, and this makes him feel really insecure. Gaining sentience as an omnics and trying to uncover those memories from the past, is probably like thinking about your first memories when you were a child. You might only remember snippets, and you might not be able to recall memories from a certain age. It could also be that some trauma has caused him to repress certain memories about his past and he feels subconsciously uncomfortable about it, which leads to avoidant behaviour, which might be his coping mechanism. Or he does remember his trauma and he is purposefully avoiding it, to not make the people around him uncomfortable or bring the mood down.

Zen’s current self is introverted, wise and sometimes witty. He went through a journey of self healing to get where he is now. So if I had to imagine what he used to be like in the past, then I’m picturing a quiet, oblivious and maybe anxious character. In the story with Symmetra he said that he used to have difficulty understanding certain phrases, which has some parallels to an autistic experience, like Symmetra’s.

His insecurities also shine through in some other voice lines. Like when he talks about his favourite animal, ants. He says “I envy ants for their clarity of purpose.” Although Zen seems quite accomplished, he still lacks purpose in his own eyes. There is also an interaction with Zarya where she asks if he dreams, and Zen answers with “I dream of peace. And, sometimes, falling.” Falling in dreams represents a lack of control over a situation or your life. Also feelings of anxiety or helplessness. 

Tw: trauma and bullying.

Ok so, what was his past like before the crisis.

First I want to look at Zen’s model. He is just an average, humanoid looking omnic. What we saw from Genesis, is that omnics like him were created for various odd jobs. We saw them being cooks or caretakers or servants.

And it’s not hard to imagine that those omnics faced a lot of mistreatment if they made mistakes. It would have been easy for humans to blame omnics and just treat them like objects, and bully them verbally or physically.

If you get bullied early on in your life, it’s likely that this will affect you throughout your life. So even if Zen wasn’t “awakened” yet, he still states that he remembers some things, and that mistreatment could explain his current, closed off self. When he is approached or asked things, he doesn’t say a lot and that could be learned behaviour, and a self defense mechanism. He also uses a lot of wisdoms and phrases that might seem impersonal, at least to strangers. (This could also be a masking behaviour.)

I can also imagine that omnics worked isolating jobs, which humans might avoid. (I’m picturing working in a closed off small space with repetitive tasks or no social interactions. Maybe a factory setting.) And this kind of job could get really lonely and boring. Once again, this could have led him to be more closed off, if he worked in that kind of environment.

Why would he keep this a secret though? Well, maybe it’s just not worth talking about. Sometimes the truth is boring, and the biggest fear is to disappoint. (This is less likely though, because he seems very intent to not tell anyone the details. So it’s probably something more serious that happened, like I mentioned before.)

Instead of being a victim, could Zen have been the aggressor? I think that’s unlikely, because it’s about his past before the crisis. Before the awakening. Most likely he did as he was told, because he didn’t have that level of autonomy yet. This also means that people were able to easily take advantage of him. If people mistreated him, then he had to just accept that, because that was his programming. Also I just don’t see Zen as being aggressive.

Well, anyway that was it!

I got sidetracked a lot on other thoughts, but I wanted to write about Zen’s past for a long time. His zodiac sign just gave me some confirmation about what I was initially thinking.

#(my brain fried) #zenyatta #zenyatta tekhartha #overwatch #ow #character analysis #theories #writing #text

[showtoonzfan]

—⚠️SPOILERS FOR THE LEAKED CLONE HIGH EPISODE!!! ⚠️—

Okay time to rant about the Clone high episode but in a way some of y’all aren’t expecting. This is just me but some people are painting the leaked new episode of Clone High to be WAAAY worse than it actually is. Like…good god some of y’all are overreacting, I’ve even seen people compare it to freaking Velma like GOD no. While I personally enjoyed the episode, I can see why people may not like it. A lot of people are bummed about Ghandi, the cancel culture stuff, and maybe the comedy, though for the comedy it’s mostly a hit or miss, but for me it was a hit. As for the Cancel culture stuff, it didn’t piss me off like a lot of people are because I honestly expected this. Clone high has always been known to poke fun at whatever was going on in the world at the time, so like…yeah of course they’d do an episode regarding that, and I personally liked the idea of a fish out of water concept since the clones have been frozen for 20 years. Some people were saying that Abe felt out of character and OOC, but honestly? Abe’s character has always been that he’s a stubborn loser who constantly gets into trouble, so him getting cancelled and fucking up everything he’s saying felt in character for me, it was one of the reasons I liked it so much because everyone felt in character, even if you could argue it wasn’t as good. I will say that Abe saying slurs felt incredibly forced to fit the plot, but he’s still a loser like he was in the original so I can’t be mad about it yet. I certainly wouldn’t call the episode perfect, but I overall enjoyed it.

The only two issues I had was Joan and JFK. These personal issues was more of a nitpick, but I was expecting…I dunno, more out them? Don’t get me wrong, I was a huge shipper of the two and I’m happy they’re together, but at the same time I find it weird that they’re both….okay with being a couple. I was surprised that Joan was 100% on board, I’d predicted that she would act like the night they spent together was a “one time thing” and that she needed to figure things out. The beginning of the episode even hints at the drama, but there was really no drama around the love triangle at all, aside from Abe moping. It just…felt like kind of a let down, but I think that’s just me because I was expecting more or something really big to kick off immediately. Joan as a whole however in this episode felt …..off to me, but I can’t really explain it. She just felt….off, like kinda out of character? I dunno I was expecting her to be against the popular kids since her character in the show was more being on “the good side” of things, like I would think she would go “I don’t need to be popular”- but she wasn’t bad or anything. I was always expecting her to be annoyed by JFK’s entire vulgar personality but she seemed to have no mind. As for JFK himself, I was surprised he wanted Joan to be his girlfriend, since he was known for being the ultimate fuck boy, going from one woman to the next. I had really hoped that their relationship would be more of a slow burn, rather than them getting together immediately in the very first episode, since JFK still has a lot to learn about relationships. The scene they shared outside of the prom to me opened a new door for a good character arc and relationship exploration, it was the scene that made me ship them, because there was so much potential for them to become a really good couple, so now that they just start off immediately being one, it felt VERY underwhelming to me. However, this is still the first episode, so for now I’ll wait to see what the writers do with these two. I could care less about Abe moping because all my homies hate Abe, but not in a bad way per say, to me, he’s enjoyable to watch, but we acknowledge that he’s a loser lol.

Meanwhile, Scudworth is the same, he’s hilarious as always and I get a kick out of watching him, and introducing a female boss who he has fallen in love with solely because she’s trying to kill him is funny to me. I have no idea if she’ll legitimately be a love interest or not, again we’ll have to see, but I will say that these new board of shadowy figures ain’t it. I miss the old iconic guys, particularly the main one with the soothing voice because he was iconic and funny. I guess it makes sense on why Scudworth didn’t unfreeze them since they had planned to kill him and take the clones away, but I do miss them and it kinda is a downgrade. Then there’s Ghandi, who we all miss but for the people demanding that he be brought back and that the show isn’t the same without him, y’all need to chill because I highly doubt this is in the creators control. I’m pretty sure if it was, Ghandi would be in the show, but they were kinda forced to take him out due to the controversy, so despite me missing him, I can see why it had to be done, and I don’t blame the show itself. As for the new clones and characters, I’ll have to get used to them and warm up to them, but I certainly wouldn’t call any of them “bad”. Again, this is merely the first episode, and unlike the majority of people on twitter right now, I want to give the show a chance and see how this all plays out until I say it’s “god awful” or act like it’s the worst thing in the world. I will say this however, to the people complaining about the gore and even the comedy style, do y’all know what show you’re watching? Like…this is Clone HIGH lol, I expected most of this to happen since I saw the original show, so I will be honest and say I don’t 100% know why everyone is so pressed about it. I get that people are maybe bummed about the whole “cancel culture” thing since nobody likes that, so I can see why but like I said, this is what Clone High is known for so I wasn’t taken aback.

With all that said, I’m 100% confident about the show and have high positive hopes for it. To me, the show hasn’t changed at all, the spirit of the original is still there, the characters for the most part still feel the same, and so does the humor. I think it’s way too early (LITERALLY since this got leaked) to say that the show shouldn’t have been rebooted or the show in general isn’t good and will be a lost cause. For now I think we’re off to a pretty okay start, and I’ll have to see more in the future to see where things go before I can say my full opinions on wether I think it’s good or not. Keep in mind these are all MY personal opinions on the show so far. Fill free to disagree with me. We all need to keep in mind that there’s always room for improvement however, because I will admit that I think it’s unfair that a lot of people are already saying the show is going to suck. We have no idea yet and we’ll just have to wait and see. Thank you for reading, and I personally can’t wait to see more Clone High!

#clone high spoilers #clone high leak #clone high #adult cartoons #adult show #cartoons #my respect goes out to the crew #I still feel bad that this got leaked in the first place #my thoughts #joanfk #jfk clone high #Abe Lincoln clone high #joan of arc clone high #ghandi clone high #unrelated

[mrsgreenworld]

So, I got some requests for more Aslaz fluff and humour and I was preparing a very light one shot. But I hadn't managed to finish it before episode 29 aired. And the episode ... well ... To say it was underwhelming or disappointing would be an understatement. And there were some alarming hints in the episode at the return of the old Alaz. I honestly don't see this playing out. They'll just have to erase all his growth. Have the writers caught the rabies from the Yalı Çapkını crew? 🤔

Anyway, abort mission on fluff, I've got angst and heartbreak coming.

I don't own the show or any of the characters. They belong to the Yabani writers and the production company. This is only fanfiction.

The Things I Hate You For

Alaz sees the moment the spark of love, that's just made home in Asi's eyes, dies out. Her deep dark gaze hardens and completely shuts down the access to his Asi.

"It's obvious that this isn't working out" she says in a dejected voice.

Alaz sees and knows that she believes it when she says it. But she isn't the only one stubborn in this relationship. And what's more important - Alaz is also a man of his word. He said that he'd never leave her. That they could fight and not talk to each other but still remain them, together. And he meant it. He means it now and always will, to his last dying breath.

"No! Stop it! You don't get to do this! You don't get to just give up when things get rough!"

"Things aren't just rough, Alaz! Don't you see how messed up this is? How messed up we are? How we have nothing in common? How our families clash? How there's always has to be some threat or risk of dying hanging over our heads for us to talk?"

"Well, there's no threat right now and noone is dying and we're talking just fine".

"We're not talking, we're fighting, as always".

"Well, this is us. This is our routine" he says with a helpless shrug.

Asi looks at him with tired eyes.

"Our routine" she echoes.

Alaz wants to shake her, knock some sense into her, some light and love back into her eyes. But they have nothing left for him to hold on to. And he hates it. He almost hates her for becoming yet another person he couldn't be enough for.

"What do want from me, huh? What do you want me to do?" Alaz asks, all the fight just leaving him, the body almost sagging.

"I want you to let me go" she says and her words have the weight of a death sentence.

"I know you said you couldn't and wouldn't. But, please, if you love me, if you've ever loved me, just let me go".

Asi voices her request and her eyes stay dry. And Alaz almost hates her for this too. For not choosing him, them. For not deeming them worth fighting for.

"If I let you go now, we're done, for good. You understand that?" he asks, deep down hoping against all hope that she'll take her words back.

She crushes that fragile little hope with a nod.

It is in that moment when Alaz realizes that he's losing not only her but his brother as well. Because Yaman is also Asi's brother and he'll forever be stuck between the two of them. He'll always be that bridge that connects them. For Alaz to let Asi go he'll have to let go of his brother too. And he almost hates her for that too.

#yabani #yabani dizi #yabani fanfiction #yabani fanfic #aslaz #aslaz fanfiction #aslaz fanfic #alaz soysalan #asi #asi kız #alaz oğlan

[comicaurora]

I didn't realize levels of context and such was something I wanted to think/talk on until I read today's page so I decided I might tap you about it if it's alright. Basically, I didn't realize how much I missed everyone Not Being Under Active Pressure until this page. It felt as though something's been made right with the world seeing Erin 0 concealment or hesitation taking notes about Dainix, and what really struck me and got my wheels turning was how this perfectly normal behavior hits so different off the heels of all the weight and pressure and such that Erin and everyone else has been under than it otherwise would hit. Obviously the framing of the page has something to do with the effect I described, but this page feels unique in its requiring context to feel the full scope of the impact.

However, that thought then bounced off a thing that happened where a contextless scene hit me like a truck and demanded I write it despite me having nothing else to apply it to, and I still read it back and need no context to prove to myself that it is a very solid and effective scene in spite of it being like. Five lines and two stage directions. This sort of thing happens with me on occasion where I have isolated moments, single loaded scenes that seem as though they come from context, and yet the context not only doesn't exist but doesn't really need to exist, yet the way it's structured, you think there would surely be grander story context around the scene.

(Sorry I seem to keep giving you walls of contextualizing [ha] before actually getting to the question part) What I wanted to ask you was: What are your thoughts on the relationship between story context and individual scenes/moments in a narrative? The sort of ins and outs of a scene as itself and a scene as part of a story, and a story as a whole and a story as a chain of scenes that give one another context.

This is a fun question, because the need for context to make moments hit was initially something that really frustrated me.

Like many people, my storycrafting started with a big pile of out of context Yo That Would Be So Cool moments - sweet one-liners, fight scenes, big flashy powerups. And I liked the Big Moments from the shows I watched, and wanted to know what made them hit so hard so I could replicate that emotional punch. Was it the kickin' theme music? The determined monologue? The speed lines? The yelling??

And I came to the frustrating conclusion that it was all the slow, often boring setup that had come before the big moment.

The sudden reveal of a superpowered evil side means nothing if we don't know what that character is supposed to act like. A character drawing motivation from a dead loved one tells us nothing if we don't ourselves know and love the person they lost. A jaded, powerful warrior will seem generic if we don't know the fun-loving child they spent two whole seasons being. A character backed into a desperate corner will reveal untapped wells of heroism we can't appreciate if we don't realize how rare this is for them. Powerful moments are in some way carried by what happens in them, but in a much larger way are carried by the contrast between them and the story that preceded them. Stripped of context, all the moments I loved - all the TVTropes "Crowning Moments of Awesome" - were either mindlessly flashy or oddly underwhelming.

In order to make the moment hit, even if the moment was so much more fun and interesting than anything else, the writer had to write all the buildup and pace it out enough that it stuck with the audience, and the audience had to experience that buildup. It just wasn't possible to write a story that was one amazing thing after another without the amazing things losing more and more impact.

We're all on tumblr here, so I'm sure we've all experienced That One Person We Follow getting into some new media property we don't know about. They post mini-essays about why That One Bit With Character A And Character B Was So Powerful, gifsets of two people standing in a dark room captioned with "they were in love here 😍" and extremely well-made fanart of people you don't recognize in vaguely saint-like poses, sometimes captioned with something you think cannot possibly be relevant. This is fine, because you're not the target audience for that fan content. That's for people who already know what the fanart is about - it's essentially referential art that doesn't stand on its own to an outside audience.

But I want people to watch and enjoy the things I watch and enjoy so I have people to talk about those things with. And that means I have spent long hours trying to figure out how to explain to a skeptical audience why a story I liked was so good, and what made the awesome moments work. This is a huge part of the impetus behind Trope Talks, and why the in-depth examples I use always have context as a preamble. Without the context, the moment doesn't work.

If you think a gutpunch is just the moment the fist connects, you're disregarding the windup that actually makes it hit.

#asks #aurora #behind the curtain

[cochart]

Something I wrote some time ago.

Witch of Mercury honest thoughts (you know it’s about to be spicy so cautions for the faint hearted)

Overall, I don’t know if I liked Witch of Mercury very much.

It had some decent characters, and the designs were nice and cute though I don’t know if I liked the mecha designs too much as I’m more for chonky mecha like Zaku. Aerial is nice, but if I’m buying a pla, I’m definitely going for Zeta or 00 Gundam.

People made a big deal out of this series having a female protagonist in a lesbian relationship, and I want to let people enjoy what they enjoy, but I personally didn’t find the whole business too convincing. One thing is that the Gundam franchise has always had multifaceted female characters. Of course, one might argue that as great as those characters were, they weren’t “the protagonist,” but I don’t know if Suletta was the protagonist that the female fans of the franchise dreamed of. The awkward, dorky charms can only get her so far. I know they tried to show that despite her dorkiness, she’s fucked up due to her terrible mother, but I don’t know if that really hit home for me. I mean, for me growing up, the awkward teenage protagonist with fucked up parents was Shinji. And Shinji just feels like he’s been presented better.

Suletta and Miorine are cute together, but they’re cute in a way that an OC couple might be cute. You feel like you’re fondly watching over your two friend’s DND OC’s (from a campaign that you’re not a part of) together. You don’t know the whole shbang between those two, but since your friends are so happy about the ship, you congratulate them. I found it extremely difficult to feel any chemistry between the two throughout the whole series. Suletta obsesses over Miorine like a baby duckling to its imprinted parent, but Miorine—at least throughout most of the series—either seemed like she was trying to use Suletta to get out of her crappy engagement situation or someone who wanted best for her friend who’s been through parental abuse. If you think about how blatant the chemistry is between Byleth(F) and Edelgard in FE3H, I think you could see how Witch of Mercury sort of missed on that regard.

The characters being in school in my opinion felt very “NOT” Gundam. And I’m not just being a curmudgeon here. For a long time, the Gundam series—though there have been some black sheep—has had a distinct antiwar message. There are multiple passages where characters lament the fact that children are fighting wars. Teenagers getting on mobile suits have not been a good thing. So the whole school and weird duel thing put me off. You could argue that the whole thing is a commentary on how the military conglomerates in this world are using weapons of mass destruction as entertainment, but the series doesn’t really show that. There’s very little if any reflection on the implications of making children fight each other using mobile suits.

The way the series tries to create and resolve the conflict felt very uncomfortable as well. It’s clear that the “Spacians” and the “Earthians” are in colonizer-colony relationship. We can clearly see that the spacians are using their economic and military power to basically exploit the people of Earth. Yet how the series tries to resolve the conflict is very lukewarm in my opinion. The part where Miorine tries to peacefully manage things with the victims of colonialism almost felt insulting.

The character designs are cute and charming, but sometimes it feels like some characters—especially female characters—are too busy “being pretty” to act. This might be an issue of taste, but I tend to like it more when an anime isn’t afraid of making pretty characters ugly in a moment of intense emotions.

I don’t hate the series btw. Just a little underwhelmed.

#opinions #gundam

[crazykuroneko]

The Newsreader S2 Ep 2 (Spoiler)

Finally, after an underwhelming first episode (it's not bad, but I feel like it's there to set the scene), The Newsreader is back to being insane. I have to say this episode is on par with IWTV Ep 5; the writing is tight and insane af, all of the characters are going for each other's throat, the score the cinematography are top notch muah. Love LOVE a good television.

So, some thoughts under the cut.

Rob/Noelene: it's so interesting to have them as some kind of foil to Helen/Dale. So soft to each other. Noelene's concern on their relationship affects their career because she's an Asian woman and how a relationship becomes a whole family thing is so relatable. Dennis caring for her because the Asian solidarity is cute as well. And Rob is such a softie 🫂

Helen/Dale: I feel for them both. They're the reason why my office doesn't allow their workers to marry each other lol. It's complicated. You kinda see yourself as a team, but your boss don't. And both of them got a point imo. Dale is right with the footage, Helen is right with the gun law. I think if they prepared a good script for her to corner that gun nut, it could have gone awesomely, but alas. That whole newsroom is filled with alphas (except Dale, he's pretending he has an inch of alpha in him). Dale only listens to words about his own career when Gerry speaks is so funny though (I'm so sorry Gerry, but there are only two things inside his head: career and Helen). And how the moment he's assured that he has a good audience instinct he uses it immediately to recover Helen's image? That's cute. That's love. I'm so sorry to doubt you 🥺

Now, these snakes: Geoff, Evelyn, and Charlie. Geoff isn't that snakey without his wife. He is so unprofessional with his program though. Like, he literally uses it to preach? Doesn't he have a boss or something? I know it's an exclusive program, but still. And GOD Evelyn is out there gaslighting Cheryl in real time. I wrote on my note "Hannibal would be so proud of her". She is my Big Bad Guy from S1, actually. And Charlie, he is interesting. He pokes and prods until he finds the real fault on his cup (News at Six). I think he's underestimating Helen at first, and now he's "interested" in her because she doesn't follow his words yet somehow presents a better solution. (Good for Helen for standing her ground!) But he doesn't realize yet Helen/Dale move as one unit though. He's also so controlling. It will be interesting to see if he'll just fire Lindsey in the next episode or take advantage of the dislike the crews have for each other longer.

Anyway, a solid episode throughout. 10/10. I think I need to rewatch it tomorrow.

#the newsreader #the newsreader spoilers #dale jennings #helen norville #moi.txt #non spoilish review on serializd

[inventedfangirling]

i should probably wait for tomorrow's episode to get the full picture and closure and the promos might have misled me into thinking we have lesser of Patpran than there actually is BUT P'Aof ive got a bone to pick with you.

He literally created a brand new problem (Pat jumping to help Pran without letting him do it on his own) something that wasn't an issue in the OG show but it now is (which makes sense when you think about it especially given their impending separation because of singapore and both of them needing to learn to be separate individuals) and then solved another that didn't need to be solved, like wth was that about Pat "admitting" that he can't live without Pran, as if its brand new information, as if its something that he's insecure about, as if he's worried that its only him and that Pran won't feel the same way?

we're literally talking about the guy who was ready to throw away his family and friends and halt his entire education just so he could run away and live with you in a zero waste village away from all that he knew and was familiar with?? the same guy who said "i can be anywhere as long as im with you", the guy who has always been there alongside him, fighting WITH him, FOR him...Pat KNOWS that...and Pran knows that Pat knows that....thats what the whole ep11 was about! Them being the most SOLID, in love, 'if he goes down i go down with him', we're a team couple-couple there ever was! Both of them know of how much the other loves them, how their love is so strong it can withstand anything! they know that, their lives, their words, their actions, their choices have proved that!! so the grand declaration in this episode is basically the same thing we already know, we got NOTHING new.

at the same time the conflict that was actually relevant, that Pat thinks Pran needs his help when really Pat needs Pran to need him, he wants to always be the one to help him and Pran's need to do things on his own and prove to himself that he could do shiz by himself like he had all through his life before Pat and him met in college again. Pran needed to do things alone for himself and Pat needed to take a step back and let him do his own thing knowing that he got this. That was the conflict and that's what should have been addressed and instead we got a whole episode of unnecessary confusion and separating the two couples and i cant believe the realest 2 convos happened when Pat and Pran weren't even in the same premises.

and don't even get me started on Pran feeling insecure that Pat was the one sacrificing the most like hello? they both have sacrificed equally, its just Pat is the more vocal and ever ready to express affection with words and very obvious actions so from an outsiders pov Pat looks like he's carrying the relationship which he is not and YET like hello Pat is the one who feels that he can't admit that he cant live without Pran? the same guy who yelled out his love in front of the entire architecture branch? the same guy who wanted to flaunt their whole relationship on social media? the guy who from the day he discovered that he had feelings for Pran has almost made his entire personality about being in love with Pran Pat? that Pat?

but also that scene of Pran just looking on as Pat tries to put on the remedy cream bruh aint no way yall playing me Pran would NEVER watch on like that for so damn long without taking a single effort to help like aint no way hello who the hell was calling the shots, was P'aof even around cos if so sir HOW COULD YOU !?

ep 1 was underwhelming but ep2 had so much going for it but then ep3 was so meh and actually sorta undermines the OG by pretending that this "i can't live without you" is a HUGE thing when WE ALL KNEW IT, like WHY P'Aof, WHY YOU DO THIS TO US? Why to Pat & Pran? And pls the way this episode did next to NOTHING for phupha & Tian, its actually insane.

Despite today's disappointment i do (semi) trust P'Aof and i hope he ties it all up as clean as possible tomorrow and if nothing happens i will pretend this whole special was an AU and move on with my life. that being said we better get that finger sucking scene cos baby i didn't watch this special for ALL of that. Except for that scene in the house that withstood the "shake", the whole endeavor added NOTHING to the story of Pat-Pran and i will be mad about this. It's like they made the Taj Mahal and then decided to pour blood all over it and like yeah the blood can be washed away but why tarnish the glorious monument in the first place!?? for whomstttttttttt

#paof i need answers #its like he shot them with a bullet #and then tried to solve it by sucking the poison out #except there's no poison #and we didnt get no finger sucking either #ooh im mad #patpran #our skyy 2 x bad buddy x a tale of thousand stars #bad buddy

[mavkaworld]

🚫 SPOILER WARNING 🚫

Kung Fu Panda 4 was underwhelming. They had all the parts that makes a movie great but they forgot to buy good quality glue because it all fell apart in the end.

They had the lovable known character.

They had the new character who has something to overcome.

They had a powerful cool villain who desires something she can not have.

They had meaning in this story.

Then, they brought in villains from the previous movies... And...? None of them kept their personalities. It was like watching shells of characters who we all loved. Empty shells standing around for no actual reason. They didnt even show us any realistic reactions from them. They just stood there uncaring that their powers were stolen by the Chameleon. They just shat on Poh, and by they I just mean one of them. And how they returned back to the afterlife like that? I mean... Really?

They included so many unnecessary scenes when they could have used it to further develop the little fox thief. We didn't really need to see Tai Lung as much as we did.

In the end, they also sped up the mantle pass over moment for Zhen which only added to the disappointment.

I could not find myself really caring about the characters much, not even Po!

Further with Zhen, I did not mind that she came knowing things and being a fully fledged fighter and being able to go up against Po. That actually made sense to me and went against what was expected like with Po. But I did mind that they just did not flesh out her character a lot. We had three movies worth of Po antics, we know him well. All his quirks and personality. With Zhen? It wasn't bad but it was not good. We got another sarcastic traumatized girl who got delt a bad hand in life. And even further is that she was literally cared for most of her life by Chameleon. She only had to scrape by in the beginning of her life, before she ran off with the lizard. So they didn't even do the truamatize girl bit right.

They did not build up Zhen's and Chameleon's relationship at all, they legit only gave us one scene with them and it was almost lazy because they tried to use only one scene to explain what happened between her and her past mentor, why Chameleon took her in, and Zhen's inner conflict. One. Yet many scenes of Po's dad's going on their way to help him... Which were too long anyways and did nothing for the main story. They gave Po's bio dad's character more development than they do Zhen (exaggeration but it felt like it.)

I still liked it though. It was fun to watch. I loved the image of Chameleon, enjoyed Zhen, and it was well animated. It could have been worse but it was not.

#kung fu panda #Po #Zhen #kung fu panda 4 #spoliers #underwhelmed #It was fun to watch with my mom #Please never make another kung fu panda again #do not recommend #kfp 4

[maya-matlin]

Pick your most unpopular opinion about each of these shows (only if you want to!!): Degrassi, OTH, Gilmore Girls, Friends, Riverdale, That 70s Show, and Dawson's Creek :)

Degrassi:

This is so difficult because I feel like I've stated so many opinions in the past. Okay. I think the Degrassi nudes arc was theoretically really interesting from a psychological standpoint as well as how a survivor would cope after going through a very public sexual assault trial with the details of what happened to them being well known. Because it feels like something so human and yet so misguided, I don't view Zoe's role in it as harshly as others do. To be fair, the writers lost the plot. Literally. It got really sensationalized with blackmailing and cheerleader dolls and fake hostage situations. I also really hate how it turned into a Zoe vs Frankie situation with zero nuance. Their past involving Frankie being an unsupportive friend who victim blamed Zoe multiple times was never brought up once in lieu of Frankie being turned into Zoe's victim. So while I wouldn't say I like the arc itself, I feel like it had potential. The writers just weren't committed to seeing it through and let Zoe down as a character. The aftermath was really underwhelming and made the whole story line irrelevant.

OTH:

Even though I like the shooting episode for what it is, it's a pretty mediocre depiction of characterizing a school shooter. Following Jimmy's suicide, the writing consistently expects the audience to feel sympathy for him and remember him as a good guy who did one bad thing. It's to the point where the entire school ends up signing his high school yearbook. To be fair, a lot of the Jimmy romanticism came from Mouth, who had weird morals himself considering he was the show's resident incel. But beyond that, Jimmy quickly stops being the villain of the episode to orchestrate a scenario where Dan just happens to stumble upon Keith and a gun, giving him the opportunity to murder him. Also, every other scene features monologues given by the characters that are blatantly trying WAY too hard to be deep and profound. Not to mention this episode marked the official return of romantic Lucas/Peyton, but because Peyton was bleeding and supposedly didn't know any better she can't possibly be held responsible for selfishly making a move on her best friend's boyfriend in what she believed to be her last moments. Sorry, fuck that. Your last moments shouldn't include complicating things for two people you claim to care about. Especially not when you were the one who helped ruin their relationship the first time around, and you know for a fact that your best friend still has trust issues over what happened.

Also, Brooke was the love of Lucas's life. I'll die on this hill. Blame Chad Michael Murray's inability to stop giving his ex-wife heart eyes even during scenes post-Brucas, but it is what it is.

Gilmore Girls:

It's difficult to know what is or isn't popular in the Gilmore Girls fandom. I guess I'll say that Rory dropping out of Yale was the right decision? The way I see it, nothing bad was ever going to come out of that. Rory was in a transitional place where she was questioning a lot of her life decisions. She didn't currently feel up to attending school, so she took some time off. It was completely understandable, yet the narrative insists that this was indicative of Rory going down a bad path. I can understand Lorelai wanting Rory to take some time to make sure this was what she wanted but if anything, Lorelai's overreaction probably made Rory take even more time off from school. Had Rory had her mother and best friend in her corner, maybe she would have realized by the beginning of the next semester that she was emotionally ready to return to Yale. Just.. everything with Lorelai, Richard and Emily feeling as though they could force Rory to go back to school as though she was suddenly going to lose her place and never be able to return was stupid. Out of the two of them, Lorelai was the pettiest and most in the wrong during their estrangement. Lorelai was the parent. Lorelai chose not to tell her daughter she was engaged. Rory shouldn't have ever felt as though she couldn't come home until she basically did everything her mother wanted her to do. Considering Lorelai's own history with Emily, you'd think she'd realize that. But again, the writers made sure we knew how badly Rory was ruining her life and making bad decisions for committing the crime of taking a leave of absence from school and daring to try other things in the meantime.

Friends:

My opinions on the Ross/Rachel infamous "break" are all over the place. Technically, I think Ross is right that their relationship was no longer intact when he slept with another woman. Their communication absolutely sucked during this story line. No attempts at clarification were ever made. Ross just walked out when Rachel said she wanted a break, and Rachel let him. Honestly, I don't even think Ross sleeping with someone else so soon after splitting up from Rachel, in whatever form you consider that to be, makes him an asshole. In an ideal world where everyone makes rational decisions all the time, Ross wouldn't have coped with intense heartbreak by immediately sleeping with someone else. But it was a human reaction, and I don't fault him for that. What I do fault him for is hiding it the next day, running around town trying to stop other people from telling Rachel. It's all but admitting that Ross and Rachel were still emotionally connected and in the mindset of being in a monogamous relationship. Even if they technically weren't. What I also fault him for is being so stubborn and adamant on being right that he never admits fault or owns up to causing Rachel pain for several years after that. So what if he didn't technically betray Rachel? To Rachel, it felt like one. Sometimes, when you love someone, you have to be understanding of the complexities of emotions and just take the fucking L, even if you're technically faultless by definition. And honestly, Rachel was part of the problem, too. What kind of relationship or connection do you really have if you're having the same, obnoxious argument for eight years, never able to get on the same page? Like, I know it's a comedy, but Friends wasn't playing up the comedy angle during this arc. Anyways, they definitely shouldn't have ended up together if they were going to keep getting tripped up over one argument for eight years.

Riverdale:

I don't know how unpopular this actually is, but Veronica is extremely underrated and never gets the love and appreciation she deserves. Looking across the entire series, including time jumps, different universes, and eras where the characters literally had powers, Veronica was consistently the most selfless and considerate character on the show. Half the time, she was the mean girl in name only. There were countless occasions where Veronica forgave even when she shouldn't have and/or should have held out for more remorse and effort from the person that wronged her. The attempt to compare Veronica kissing Ginger Judas in the pilot after knowing Archie and Betty for two seconds to Betty doing it three years into Varchie's relationship is.. it has some nerve. Anyways, Veronica was wonderful, ambitious, and everyone on that show was better for having known her. Sadly, she was underappreciated more often than not, rarely ever getting her due. I really wish anyone but Archie had been the love of her life, because he really didn't deserve her by the end.

That '70s Show:

Sometimes, Hyde gets way too much of a pass for his treatment of Jackie. I feel like he's overall the most popular character on the show with his relationship with Jackie being the most popular, resulting in a lot of his questionable behavior getting swept under the rug. Obviously Hyde had issues he needed to work through stemming from his childhood and struggled to let other people in. But Jackie was consistently a pretty great girlfriend for him, going out of her way to show love and affection, only for him to not 100% reciprocate. Fuck Danny Masterson (and honestly Mila at this point too), but a lot of what made that relationship what it was is the chemistry between Danny and Mila and how they chose to demonstrate the love between those two characters. Hyde was still miles ahead of Kelso and Fez and had great moments with Jackie. But it still needs to be said. Hyde put Jackie through a lot.

Dawson's Creek:

While not perfectly written, most of Andie's fall from grace during season 3 makes a lot of sense. I even think Andie cheating on Pacey was in character. It's a controversial take because no one wants to believe that season 2 Andie would have ever done such a thing. But the reality is, Andie had a literal mental breakdown. She says it herself. When Andie went to get mental health help, she was no longer the same girl Pacey fell in love with. Andie was in a dark, lonely, vulnerable place, and she met someone else. This guy understood parts of Andie's mental health struggles that Pacey couldn't, and it led to a friendship that became an emotional affair. They made their own world together, and then had one, impulsive slip up. It doesn't cheapen Andie's love for Pacey, but it's still understandable that Andie crossed a boundary of Pacey's that couldn't be uncrossed. After this, Andie's attempts to recuperate post-breakup, including her treatment of Pacey and even stealing the test were pretty consistent based on how desperately Andie wanted to appear normal and as though everything was under control. However, I also think early season 3 stacked the deck too far against Andie, resulting in her character leaving the show early. The supposed "false accusation" meant to make Andie look bad from a misogynistic, ableist showrunner took it too far. I personally think even during that episode, there are enough hints, including Rob's desperation to shut Andie's story down when she hadn't even gone to the authorities, indicates she told the truth. Seriously, his happy ass was all cocky when Pacey confronted him, but once he sobered up he practically sprinted to Joey's house to use Andie's mental health against her, even manhandling Joey multiple times to force her to listen. But whatever. The intent was obvious, and I still hated it. Anyways, Andie McPhee was great, and I wish people would still appreciate her at her worst. After all, it's what led to season 4 Andie, probably the strongest iteration of her character even though she sadly wasn't around for long.

#mayamatlinscello #Long post #I promise I never mean for these answers to be so long #I just have so much to say #Also the two OTH opinions aren't technically connected #I was just going through my Brucas tag and had a realization so my petty ass couldn't help it

[iwillrememberyoumarathon]

Bangel fans, we want to hear from you! During the run-up to the IWRY Fic Marathon in November, we’ll be getting to know each other through our Meet the Fandom series. Answer the questions here to join in.

What is your name?

Kean

Where do you hang out?

AO3, Tumblr: @keanherself and Discord

Do you create any fan works?

I write fic and have made some underwhelming gifs and art pieces.

Funniest Bangel/Buffyverse moment?

When Buffy is telling Angel about her 18th Birthday plans.

Buffy: I do have plans. Older man, very handsome, likes it when I call him daddy. Angel: (laughing, relieved) Your father. . . . Angel: (horror and fear taking over every cell of his being) It is your father, right?

Please see the very wonderful rendering by @liam-summers

What Buffyverse opinion would have you chased through the village with pitchforks?

Spike is the appendix of the verse. Functionally useless but will randomly explode and ruin everything just to get attention.

Share a headcanon you have about Bangel or the Buffyverse?

I have this theory that Angel only ever wore the Claddagh ring when he felt hopeful or when he felt he had something to offer to Buffy (and the maybe even the world).

First off, I just want to put down the guidelines for Claddagh ring wearing:

Single but open to something - Right hand, heart out.

In a relationship - Right hand, heart pointing in.

Engaged - Left hand, heart out.

Married - Left hand, heart in.

Right, so when he gives the ring to Buffy in Surprise it is on his right, middle finger. I'm putting forward the suggestion that he wore it that way because she had yet to accept his offer of her own ring, or more pointedly his heart. He wore the ring indicating that he was not seeking out a relationship but his heart belonged to another. Essentially, he loved Buffy but was unsure if she wanted a fully committed relationship with him. However, her acceptance of his ring signified to Angel that she did want a fully fledged relationship with him. This was further confirmed by the consummation of said relationship that night. I have a feeling he possibly would have pulled back from sleeping with her if they hadn't exchanged rings. No proof, just a hunch.

OK, so now it is season three and Angel does not wear the ring at all, in fact he doesn't wear it again for an entire two seasons. Not until he is told about the Shanshu Prophecy. I think he does this because for those two years Angel had no reason to believe he could offer Buffy any type of life. The only two times he does wear the ring are when he is blissfully ignorant of the curse loophole and when he is given hope of a light at the end of the tunnel i.e. Shanshu and humanity. He once again removes the ring when Darla and W&H mess with him and he loses all hope in regards the work he does, the difference he is making, and the nature of his fate.

Basically, when he has no reason to believe he can offer anything he removes the ring. I think the ring signified hope and possibility to him, and Buffy embodies both of those things for Angel.

How would you have given Buffy and Angel their Happily Ever After?

They start working together post canon. They both feel a shift in the apathy and coldness they have both been feeling separately during the years previously while they were separated. They realise that just being around each other makes a huge difference to their day to day emotional lives. They decide that they shouldn't wait around for some perfect time when they can be together. They realise that it will never happen. They seek out a way to resolve the issue with the curse and they live and fight together. It is a tough, challenging life, but one that is also filled with joy and love and gratitude. They die together in battle and spend eternity with each other in the Good Place.

Last fic you read?

Love Bites by Maquis Leader. It's a lot of fun.

Slay, Lay, Obey - Giles, Wesley, Willow?

Slay: Willow. Second only to [redacted] in my list of enemies. Good riddance.

Lay: Dark!Twisty!Wes. Giles just has too much Dad energy to boink.

Obey: Giles. Truly a terrible choice between "steal bff's baby" and "poison slayer!daughter because of tradition" but I am going with Giles in the hope that my fellow librarian will at least consult appropriate texts before ruining my life.

Fill in the quiz so the fandom can meet you!

#meetthefandom #iwryficmarathon2023 #bangel #buffy x angel

[mochikage]

scary movie | roommate!kakashi

alright i caved @softiitachi 

  warning: idk how to proofread

it was your idea to watch a scary movie 

technically, it was Kakashi’s turn to pick the movie that week but with a couple flutters of your eyelashes and a pretty little pout on your lips you were able to convince him easily

It’s not that you couldn’t wait until the next week, but you were tired of your friends talking about hereditary and midsommar that you just had to see what was up (plus seeing it on every social didn’t help either)

You let Kakashi pick between the two and as a courtesy for hijacking his pick 

Once the blankets, snacks, and drinks were all laid out and all the lights were turned off, Kakashi started the movie

And boy were you underwhelmed 

The first thirty minutes pass and you start to get comfortable in your seat. Nothing is out of the ordinary and you almost ask Kakashi if he put on the right movie

But then the scary things start happening

and the blanket wrapped around you slowly makes it’s way up your body, right up until it rests over your nose

The pillows around  you and your blanket bring 0 comfort to you. When you look over to see how Kakashi is handling it, it makes you feel even worse

He is completely relaxed. He’s leaning back with the popcorn bowl on his lap, one arm thrown over the back of the couch

 And god was it hard to not lean in to his body

The promise of security and warmth only inches away but like hell were you going to ruin the good relationship you had

By the end of the horrifying movie, you were wide awake

It didn’t matter how late in the night it was, the fear pumping through your body barely let you blink. 

You wait until Kakashi turns on the lights in the living room before you leave your safe cocoon of blankets

Once the living room is cleaned up, you stand there in the middle of it, debating if it would be better to sleep on the couch than in your room

But neither option is truly safe in your eyes for you would be alone 

You head to your room and say good night to Kakashi

All the lights are on in your room, the blankets are pulled over you, your computer is playing cute cat videos and yet you’re still scared

You sit there for a good hour and when you’ve decided that enough is enough, you get up to seek some comfort in your roommate

He must’ve heard you pacing back and forth in the hall because before you even knock, he’s opening the door

And you wish you could kiss slap that smug grin off his face

“Scared?” He wastes no time taunting you and if you hadn’t just watched the scariest movie of your life you would fawn over how good he looks leaning against the doorframe

The stubborn side of you wants to say “no”, but you just look at him with  pleading look, one that you hope he understands

and he does

It’s the first time you’re actually in his room

It’s a lot neater than yours, but he also doesn’t have a lot of things

At least you don’t think. It’s hard to make out what’s in it from how dark it was. Was he really not scared?

“If you want, I have an air mattress I can sleep in.” You can make out him scratching the back of his head and it just now occurred to you the predicament that you’re in i love this cheesy shit don’t come for me

“If I’m going to be honest, I would feel better if you slept next to me tonight.” Your voice is quiet, scared that he might reject you. “B-But of course if I’m making you uncomfortable I can just--”

“No!” He clears his throat, “You’re not making me uncomfortable. I’m okay with it if you are.” 

So, two oblivious, awkward roommates get in the same bed 

It’s silent while you settle in his bed, each of you in your respective sides

they smell so clean, with the faint smell of his soft cologne. You’ve always loved how it’s strong enough to keep you thinking about it for hours after you see him but faint enough to not invade your senses

The nerves you felt earlier start the wear off, and your eyelids finally start to get heavy

The next morning you wake up, feeling warmer than ever

It’s a nice warmth, one that’s similar to sitting outside to soak up the sun 

Your eyes remain closed, too comfortable to start the day just yet

You don’t think too much about the light breaths that are fans over your forehead every now and then

And you’re definitely ignoring the ...arm? draped around your waist right now

You have half a heart to open your eyes and check what’s going on, but you’re far too comfortable to care

Far too relaxed

It’s not until the arm (you’ve realized that it couldn’t be anything else...no pillow moves it’s non-existent thumbs in circles) on your hip moves, almost hugging you tighter that you remembered where you were

You hear a book page turn before the arm moves back to its original position

Your eyes shoot open, only for them to immediately close from the bright light 

You blink away the mild pain and instinctively nuzzle your face further against Kakashi’s side

“Oh good, you’re up.” He murmurs, and you could die right then and there

It was one thing to hear his gruff morning voice, but to feel his chest rumble as he talks with it? nsfw comment: wet dream material right there

You move away from him (only a little bit though because you can’t deny how nice it felt to cuddle him)

“Yeah?” Your voice is quiet and little do you know what your morning voice is doing to him

“Did you sleep okay?” A soft smile overtakes his lips, almost cooing at how cute you looked right now 

“Yeah” After rubbing the sleep from your eyes you look over at your roommate, and you wish you kept them close

the heat rushes up to your cheeks at the sight of him laying in bed next to you

Kakashi closes his book before he turns to you on the bed, both hands tucked under his head 

With a cheeky smile, he says “it scared you that bad, huh?”

Yeah, you should’ve kept your eyes closed

bonus:

If you weren’t picking the horror movie that night, Kakashi would’ve 

He was scared, but he also knew you well enough to bet that you were going to come spend the night with him ;)

#hereditary made me sleep with the lights on #for three days #and i like horror stuff #midsommar was a visual horror movie #but also pretty at the same time??? #vanilla mochi #roommate!kakashi #kakashi x reader

[anghraine]

A few bad but fairly typical P&P takes got me thinking about ... Mako from Legend of Korra, actually, and also, just fandom dynamics.

Many of you weren't in that fandom (or perhaps any fandom) back when LOK aired, but I was very active in it. I actually liked—and still like—some aspects of LOK better than ATLA, and I certainly liked the fandom better than ATLA's.

That said, LOK fandom was still less a dumpster fire than a landfill explosion. To this day, I couldn't even identify the single character who got hit the hardest by LOK fandom's approach to discourse, which like most fandoms today, painted a thin veneer of social justice over good old-fashioned stanning/ship wars, but did it much more transparently.

In any case, if I were going to try and pick the character who got hit hardest by the LOK discourse truck, Mako would at least be in the running. The later days of LOK fandom can give the sense that the basic ship war from Day 1 was Korra/Mako (Makorra) vs Korra/Asami (Korrasami). But my strong impression back when the first book aired was that the ship war dynamic was much more Korra/Mako vs Korra/anyone-but-Mako.

There were plenty of not-Mako options. Korra/Bolin was pretty big for awhile. Korra/Tahno had a substantial following during/after Book 1—Tahno was the waterbender from the rival pro-bending team who got curb-stomped by Amon. There was, of course, Korra/Asami (seemed like no chance in hell at the time, but sweet). It was even a good fandom for hero/villain shippers like me.

I think a lot of this activity ultimately coalesced around Korrasami. But at the time, it hadn't quite happened yet. The fandom was wanky (sorry, discourse-y) about virtually every character, but a lot of people really, really, really hated Mako in particular—Mako haters could encompass people who liked or hated the first season, people who loved or hated Korra, people still mad about Zutara, whatever. I didn't like him at the end of Book 1, myself, though I couldn't buy into the screeds about how abusive and exploitative and otherwise problematic he supposedly was.

Since I didn't actually have much of a stake in the main ship wars, I've always found this dynamic more interesting than anything else in terms of fandom behavior, because I've seen it happen many times, but I hadn't often seen it at the level that Mako hatedom took it to back then. So I was thinking about how this happens, and the particular way it happened with Mako back in the aftermath of Book 1.

Early in Book 1, Mako is revealed to be a tragic, brooding orphan with a slight edge trying to support his sweet-natured younger brother and himself through a mixture of industrial work and magic sports. He gets swept off his feet (literally and metaphorically) by a beautiful, very cool, very rich girl (Asami) and enters a romantic relationship with her, only to feel increasingly drawn to his beautiful, very cool, very powerful friend Korra, our heroine.

Some people pointed out that "which awesome and hot girl do I choose :( it's really hard :( :(" is not the most sympathetic quandary for a character to be in, and for the target audience, particularly unsympathetic coming from a young man. And the choice to repeatedly cut from shippy Mako/Korra moments to Asami looking upset didn't help (especially since Asami lost almost everything when she chose to stick with them and turn on her father). And Mako's eventual apology to Asami was genuinely a bit underwhelming—it's basically "mistakes were made."

And, yeah, those things are true. But fandom is not always so OTT hostile about the man in that kind of love triangle taking awhile to get his shit figured out, even when the man is much older than Mako, a literal teenager. Like, I never thought I'd compare Avatar to Bridgerton, but the Edwina-Anthony-Kate dynamic seems roughly similar and most of the fandom came away from it really invested in Anthony/Kate and sympathetic to them. It depends on the fandom and on the depiction.

It's not that Mako didn't screw up in Book 1. It's that the reaction—he's an awful person for pretty ordinary missteps and some poor relationship choices, he's an abuser, he's the worst character in the show, whatever—just seemed wildly disproportionate.

And also, yeah, overreacting to minor misdeeds and reducing a character to ultra-exaggerated versions of their worst selves out of sheer annoyance is a fandom staple (especially when the misdeeds take up as much air as the early LOK love triangle seemed to for many people, with other aspects of the story crammed into limited space). But the extent of the hatred still struck me as rather extraordinary, especially since he seemed to go from reasonably well-liked to feverishly hated in a short period of time.

My theory after B1 aired was that this really came from the intersection of a fandom that was very prone to this kind of exaggeration and poor faith readings with the actual structure of his characterization in B1. We quickly discover his tragic past with his parents being murdered, and that he's been struggling on the streets, and has to look after a cuddly but clueless brother who doesn't seem to get the urgency of their problems. He uses his prodigious lightningbending abilities to make just enough money in a sort of magic power plant to get by in combination with pro-bending successes. Essentially, we're given far more than the minimum required to sympathize with him and tolerate the occasional asshole moment.

But later on in B1, a lot of his characterization and scenes are directly tied up in the love triangle, and many of his original, somewhat more ... pressing concerns, end up getting pretty much resolved in one way or another. So a lot of those original sources of sympathy that were so concentrated in his early scenes are no longer a concern, while others are no longer being emphasized by the narrative.

And it's certainly the case that Mako was much less widely and disproportionately hated later on, at least in my fandom experience. Some people still hated Makorra with a passionate fire, but Mako himself seemed much more endearing to many people once the narrative dialed down the love triangle, explicitly paid attention to his loyalty as a friend, his basic heroism, his close yet sometimes difficult relationship with his brother, and a certain adorkableness that was not absent in B1, but which wasn't as heavily emphasized.

I don't mean to argue that this later narrative treatment was necessarily better, but I do think the more even distribution of sympathetic qualities or revelations about him alongside his flaws made him much more palatable to a lot of the fandom. It's like people ... just kind of forgot why many of them originally liked him unless the narrative went out of its way to remind them.

This is really long, but I did feel that B1 kind of overplayed its hand with Mako early in the season, and then underplayed it in the later parts of the season, and fandom being fandom, people enormously overreacted to their sense of what was going on in that phase of the story (for many: ARGH!!) and not all the information they actually had.

This isn't a hill to die on for me, exactly. It was just how I saw what was going on—this kind of toxic mix of fandom bullshit with some peculiar choices in the structure of his characterization and what got emphasized (or even mentioned) where. That is still my general impression, though—that the fandom's response wasn't coming from nowhere, but that we were getting this kind of intersection of a fandom even more prone than most to over-reaction and poor faith assumptions + some genuine oddities in structure and emphases in his characterization during that first season.

What does this have to do with P&P? Well, I'll get to that. But this post is honestly long enough already, so I'll do the follow-up tomorrow, probably.

#anghraine babbles #more than usual! #long post #i need a tag that's not a main tag for this tbh #i guess i'll start with #lok fanwank #mako critical #it's not the point but definitely digs into some of the stuff in the show that people were overreacting to #general fanwank

[coraniaid]

Bad Eggs regularly shows up close to the top of lists of the worst episodes the show ever aired, and has done so pretty consistently for a very long time.

To cite just a handful of examples: 

it’s currently the fourth worst episode on IMDB by user rating  

it was ranked eleventh worst in this 2023 list from Rolling Stone 

it was ranked as the single worst episode on this list from Paste Magazine in the same year (quote: “there’s literally nothing good about this episode”)  

it was ranked ninth worst on this 2017 list from Vox 

it was ranked second worst on this 2013 list from BuzzFeed 

So obviously quite a lot of people really don’t like it.

And I’ve never really understood why that is.  In my view, Bad Eggs is … basically fine? A bit boring, sure.  A bit inconsequential in the grander scheme of the season.  A bit awkwardly written in places, with some clunky dialogue and some plotting choices that could have done with a rewrite or three. Underwhelming. But, yes,  basically fine.

The worst episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are so very much worse than this.  I wish I lived in a reality where this was the worst episode of the show.

During this rewatch alone I’ve already sat through at least two episodes that are significantly, qualitatively worse than Bad Eggs, as well as four or five episodes where I suspect you could make the case either way.  And before this season is over I will have watched two more episodes that are definitely worse, too.  Off the top of my head, there are at least two worse episodes next season too.  And at least two more in every season after that.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I could name a couple of dozen worse episodes than this one without much trouble.

But yeah, it’s not great.

(And yet somehow I'm not finished talking about it.)

Beyond the obvious bit of foreshadowing (“sex can have negative consequences!” a teacher reminds a health class that Buffy’s unfortunately absent from, one episode before Buffy is destined to discover for herself that sex can indeed have negative consequences), the thing that I always remember about this episode is the way that same health class teacher – whose name is Mr Whitmore, we’ll learn later – explains how the egg-raising project he’s setting his students will work.

“You will split into parenting teams.  You and your partner will share equally in the daily task of raising your egg.  Now, please choose a partner.”

Note the words in bold.  The kids will be raising their eggs in partnerships.  Let’s make a note of this for future reference.  It seems to be important!

Well, it is.  Sort of.  Until it isn’t. 

You see, the episode sets things up like this for exactly two reasons.

The first is to have Xander and Cordelia very deliberately not partner up, showing us that … oh, look, sorry, I can’t pretend to take the Xander/Cordelia subplot seriously and I won’t even try.  It’s just very silly.  They both have very weird and conflicting feelings about their nascent relationship for reasons that boil down to this: it simply doesn’t make any sense.  Let’s move on.

The second and, I think, primary reason for the partnership set-up is so that Buffy can find out she wasn’t assigned a partner of her own (there are an odd number of students in the class). On finding this out, Buffy laments that she is now “a single mother … doomed to live my mother’s life”.  

In fact, the episode is so keen for Buffy to reach this conclusion that she initially assumes she has been assigned a partner.  Even before anybody tells her the assignment was structured that way. Even though Buffy wasn’t in class to be told about it, and even though her only reaction on being shown the egg in question was befuddlement.  

Buffy is presented with the egg, assumes it must be some sort of “fairly abstract” punishment, and on being told that she has to take care of it immediately realizes that this is the sort of hard work that can only be done by a team of two.  “My partner ... who did I get?” she asks hopefully.  Well, okay, I guess. Maybe that’s how Mr Whitmore sets up all his assignments.

In any case, we know that these are the only two reasons the egg assignment is described this way, because after Buffy expresses her horror at the prospect of becoming a single mother, the concept of the egg raising being done with a partner is never mentioned again.

Not only is it not raised again, a moment’s thought shows it is completely at odds with the actual plot of the episode.

The rest of Bad Eggs proceeds exactly as if each of the students has sole custody of their eggs.  We see the eggs hatch at night, and strange creatures climb out to possesses the students taking care of them.  What happens to the other student in the partnership, the one who didn’t take the egg home that night?  What does Xander’s partner think about the fact he boiled their shared egg? Are they in on the scheme? What do they think about the fact he named it “Xander Junior”?  We don’t know, because we don’t know who Xander’s partner is and we will never find out.  We never see his egg partner, or Willow’s, or Cordelia’s.  They do not exist.  They will never exist.  For the episode to work, they cannot have existed.

And why would Mr Whitmore, presumably already possessed by sinister egg creatures at this point, want to limit the distribution of eggs like this?  Doesn’t he want to possess as many students as possible? Just give them all individual eggs! We know that there are plenty more of them to go around, because later in this episode we see lots of other people get possessed by the egg creatures – Giles, Joyce and Jonathan to name just a few – people who very clearly were not in the original health class.

No, I’m pretty sure that the only reason the script pretends that the eggs are being raised in partnerships at the start is so that Buffy can worry about becoming her mother.  Something that she has never expressed any concern about before, something the episode never even pretends to comes back to, and something that Buffy herself won’t worry about again for another seventy-one episodes (and then only in vastly different circumstances).  

And “how deeply scary is that?” is asked as a rhetorical question, but I’m going with … “not very?”.  We see Buffy fight monsters every night; we’ve seen her mourn friends; we’ve seen her drown and die.  Surely being a single mother isn’t quite so scary compared to all of that?  Especially when, again, Buffy hasn’t ever shown any signs of thinking her mom is unlucky to be a single mother.  Just last episode it was a plot point that Buffy wasn’t happy about her mother meeting somebody new!  Buffy clearly doesn’t think her life would be better if her mother was seeing somebody, so why does she think her mother’s life is so terrible as it is?

What does Buffy’s little speech in the library mean?  What are we supposed to take away from it?  Why did the script go to all that trouble of setting it up?

But just to ask the question is to put more thought into the substance and meaning of this episode than I think anybody involved in writing it did.  

In an interview a few years ago, Marti Noxon (who wrote not just this episode but also most of What’s My Line?, as well as next week’s Surprise and two further episodes this season alone) described the pace of writing episodes for the show as “bananas”.  In that interview she also suggested that sometimes episodes had to be written in as little as four days, generally without much support or involvement from the rest of the writing team, but noted that “sometimes that results in really good writing”.

Maybe sometimes it does. I will say that I think that two of Noxon’s episodes this season are genuinely very good, to say nothing of future episodes she’ll write like Consequences and The Prom and Forever.  But sometimes it results in … well, Bad Eggs.  Not even close to the worst episode ever, despite the fandom consensus, but certainly not something worth thinking too hard about either.

Or as the script has Xander say, in what could easily be meta commentary on the episode itself:

“It says nothing.  It means nothing.  This whole egg experiment is completely pointless.”

#btvs #buffy rewatch 2023 #it’s kind of weird that every single one of those lists is so egregiously wrong about what the actual worst episode of Buffy is #but perhaps we will make it to that episode ... eventually

[maisha133]

I totally agree that while I really enjoyed the rest of the series, ACFTL was a little underwhelming. It almost seemed, to me, like she had a bit of writers block and instead of taking the time she needed to write the story she wanted to tell, she rushed to finish SOMETHING because she had to.

Also I feel like all of Apollo’s scenes were to, like, ASSURE us that he really is the bad guy? And idk. I feel like it wasn’t really needed, or could have been told without making him a narrator.

I also really liked your analysis that Jacks’ and Eva’s relationship never really GREW. It was very static, as shown by the “snark-save-swoon-snark” thing you mentioned.

Some more pining would definitely have been nice.

My biggest plot hole though was in the Caraval series (stop reading if you haven’t read that one yet or this is a spoiler) says that immortals become mortal if they fall in love? And that’s just not brought up this whole time for jacks. So what the heck.

I agree with everything you said!

I am so grateful for Stephanie for writing this story and completing the book as soon as she could considering that some authors taking years to write one. As you have mentioned, everything felt so rushed and did give off a feel that she didn't really know what to do with plot, like she had a vision and she tried to execute the best she could and it just didn't hit. However, I think the problem with that is that Stephanie tried to "subvert the expectations of the audience" ie Evangeline not being the reincarnation of the first fox to make the storyline engaging, but it just came off as confusing. I only mention Evangeline being the reincarnation of the first fox because of the very obvious hints throughout OUABH and TBONA-there is a great post explaining this theory very well + a good portion of the audience already suspected that as well? I just felt that she didn't need to make things complicated, she could have just kept the plot simple.

I agree about Apollo. We really didn’t need to read chapters on what a villain he was. He was just a waste of of writing imo. I don’t know if Stephanie was trying to make us understand him from his pov, but him erasing Evangeline’s memories was so irredeemable, that I couldn’t sympathize with him at all.

On Jacks. Yes! I get his playful and teasing nature, but other times his "cold" moments came off as annoying. The condescending and patronizing dialogue he would have with Evangeline at times pissed me off considering all that she went through.

So I haven't read Caraval, but I am aware of this plot point! I also think it was not mentioned as to why Evangeline and Jacks are telepathic with each other and does it continue after the curse is broken????

At the end of the day, I am grateful that we got a story with a Evajacks ending. Really hope sometime in the future Stephanie writes a follow up with Evajacks. Evajacks wedding plssssss. Still love Evangeline and Jacks tho, just wished there relationship could have developed better.

#evajacks #evangeline fox #jacks #spoilers #ACFTL

[xenosagaepisodeone]

*spoken like Patrick bateman* let's see toastys review of the guro game

media that promises high sexual content (in this context nukige) attempting serious, high stakes plots will all predictably suffer from the same issue of not knowing how to cohesively develop the story aspect and the sex aspect. even a good writer that can integrate sex into plot progression will struggle with transitioning character building moments (casual interaction, isolated contemplation, monologues, etc) and the introduction of plot elements into sex scenes in a way that doesn't break one's immersion in the former two. it's a difficult issue to work around because conventional eroge will have sex scenes as a reward for story progression while with nukige, the upfront sex is the selling point. a character drama mediated by sex will be super easy to work with, but what about a globe spanning cataclysmic chuuni plot that weaves politics, religion, philosophy and multiple factions with competing nonsexual interests into its ever expanding stakes? a strange thing to want to see realized in The Sex Game Genre. it ultimately leaves titles that adopt this approach to storytelling 2 options: having a character go "this huge existential crisis can be solved with my peanus (and you have to take me seriously)", or having a family guy styled cutaway to random people having sex.

the game that the person in that review was writing about was mostly the second, so you would have the writer dumping paragraphs worth of text about eros and agape, the nature of suffering and survival before hitting you with a "Meanwhile..." and cutting to some messy thing. there were actually 2 characters who existed for sex scenes alone, simply so the main cast could continue with the plot (not that the main cast was above being subject to the family guy cutaway treatment, either). the game deeply wants you to acknowledge its story, the trailer for it emphasizes the atmosphere and gritty tone above all else; yet, I can't go "if only there was a realta nua type release where the sexual content was better balanced" because even in all it's larger than lifeness, the story still kind of only survives off of it's smaller character moments. the protagonists relationship in the true route was sweet, the raw feeling of struggle and hopelessness in the last arc are well conveyed, the fight scenes and body horror were actually cool and I was vested in the dilemmas of the side characters. at the same time, the philosophical elements meander meaninglessly quite a bit, the political commentary is trite at best, some characters werent as fleshed out as they should have been and I still am left with questions about major story elements that were just kind of left hanging. the game's thesis re: love is transparently lifted from madoka alongside many, many other elements (who could have seen that coming...), which is less a criticism and more an observation. the only reason I know of this game is because of how hard they amped up and marketed the nonsexual elements (not deceptively though lol it's quite obvious what you were getting into), so I feel bamboozled coming out of it underwhelmed. especially since a lot of it's content isn't stuff I would normally seek out -_-

anon i know you were being sillay but its not every day that i get the chance to acknowledge all of the junk i consume so. wahoo.

#asks #anonymous