#they can't put it onscreen. but we understand

[the-algebra-thing]

I want you for ever and ever!!!

lines by me rendering by @canyourlawnmowerdothis Of course!!

#raeda #eda clawthorne #raine whispers #raine whis.pers #girl please I am in love with you #the owl house #i don't think this is spoilers at all tbh #we all know they make out. it's a well known fact I think #they can't put it onscreen. but we understand #hoot house hooty hooting #speaking to god #ok I'm done sorry

[utilitycaster]

Do you think that Laura and Marisha are deliberately making their relationship somewhat toxic and unsustainable or do you think they see the relationship as healthy? It is just so different from all of the other relationships they have been a part of and not really in a good way. Would love to get your perspective on it if you have one

I am honestly unsure. I would like to say it's deliberate. Prior to it becoming canon, in fact, I, and a lot of other people who were less than enthused by Imogen and Laudna's romance and weren't entirely sold from the start, made the case that we expected they would be talking to each other and would put together a compelling story, not the dull fluff so common in fanon. While whether it's compelling is a subjective judgment, we know for a fact they didn't talk to each other. We know for a fact Marisha was surprised by the question of "Can I kiss you," and Laura was surprised by the answer. We know from a 4SD not long after (4SD #16, Kiss and Tell) that several episodes later they still hadn't talked. We know that Marisha perceives Laudna as holding Imogen back (and that Laudna perceives herself as doing so) from the Rose City Q&A. We know that from 4SD #20 (Episode Twenty) that Laura doesn't like conflict in narrative and Marisha does, and that Laura was thrown by Laudna's regression following Ashton's attempt to absorb the shard (4SD #19, Shard Candy).

I don't know if it's deliberate or not; I don't have any extra insight that isn't public knowledge any fan can easily access. But man, it doesn't feel like these are two actors on the same page about what's going on.

I've touched on this before but mostly in tags or whisper posts but I've always felt ill at ease with a number of for lack of a better term "fandom-approved opinions" and one of the ones that has baffled me the most is this idea that Marisha and Laura have exceptional chemistry. I watched Campaign 1 knowing the endgame ships but deliberately avoiding the fandom, and Vex and Keyleth did not even once occur to me as a thing. I watched the first year of Campaign 2 without a ton of fandom interaction because I was avoiding additional C1 spoilers and it seemed crystal clear that the obvious ship was Beau and Yasha; it felt like Beau and Jester only even had enough potential for me to multiship it as my general "whomever Jester picks" for like, 30 episodes. And yet people - people who didn't even ship either of the above ships and in some cases disliked them- would just say "oh man I can't wait until we get to a campaign where we can finally explore Marisha and Laura's incredible chemistry!" and it's like. I feel like I'm the kid in the Emperor's New Clothes on this! I understand that chemistry is to an extent a matter of taste and subjectivity, but it just increasingly feels like people looked at two campaigns of tables where Ashley was frequently absent and said "well, if I want an F/F ship that's between two of the women in the cast, I guess this is what I have to work with" and repeated to themselves that a flat pamplemousse La Croix was a Piña Colada until they started to believe it. I mean if someone wants to explain it to me in good faith I suppose be my guest and I will try to take it in, but it feels like people just treat this as incontrovertible fact and if you doubt it they're like "don't you have eyes" and it's like, well, pretend I don't. Explain like I'm eyeless and five because I have never understood this. They both have more chemistry with every single other cast member; it's not all romantic but man, I didn't even buy Laudna and Imogen as platonic best friends of two years. I have never had this problem with any other pre-existing character relationships Marisha and Laura have played, platonic or otherwise. It's literally just them. I just never feel like they're quite on the same page.

Back to the relationship between Imogen and Laudna onscreen, this was easily the best conversation since the start of the gnarlrock fight, and it is my hope it doesn't fizzle out the way that did. You can't keep kissing Laudna whenever she fears she's lost forever to Delilah, Imogen. Or you can, but that won't fix the problem. Again: are you disgusted? Do you feel betrayed? If you're not, why did you say that? If you are, how will you move past it? Do you want to be with someone who never feels like they're good enough for you? Laudna, do you want to be with someone who, no matter what they say, you feel you're holding back?

Early in the campaign, my feeling was that of our current situation, switched - Imogen felt her powers were a burden and a curse and Laudna kept referring to them and to her glowingly. It's just...ships passing in the night, no pun intended here. I hope it's on purpose and whatever comes from it is a good story - and either a tragedy or a happy story could be a good one. But I have a nagging sensation that Laudna wants out but is afraid to say no, and Imogen is afraid to let go, and I honestly don't know if the actors have realized this impasse and how the characters might resolve it, one way or another, besides the insufficient bandaid of a kiss whenever the conversation gets too uncomfortable.

#answered #minxie-the-sabertooth-kitty #really the mission statement of this blog is I am the kid in the Emperor's New Clothes #also i know i keep relying on food metaphors sorry i really like food and feel it's fairly universally accessible to understand #anyway. i am sure some will not believe me here but I think I and most people who agree with me desperately wish we liked this ship #i do not think most people who dislike it are actively hoping it crashes and burns it's just #it feels so fundamentally disconnected and lifeless. at least the conflict shocks it into something vaguely animated #the vindication i was right about this lack of chemistry is still ultimately a consolation prize. i promise you i'd rather be proven wrong #i'd rather be wowed by a brilliant dynamic ship i didn't expect to like. but here we are. #cr spoilers #long post

[feroluce]

So I adore time loops and I think Sampo would be very fun in a time loop AU. Because despite having so many onscreen interactions with so many characters, he almost always seems to hold people at a certain careful distance, so it's fun to imagine what or who he's willing to use a time loop for, how far he's willing to go, how much he actually does care.

At the end of the Masquerade Duet companion quest, Sparkle mentions a catastrophe soon to befall Jarilo-VI. And some players have interpreted this as a past event (the catastrophe being the story quests we took part in there), but other players have speculated this as an upcoming disaster that Sampo is trying to mitigate.

And so, Gepard finds Sampo in Belobog, right after he was supposed to return from Penacony...or whatever it was called, Gepard had almost been too relieved to remember the name after Natasha assured him that Sampo was fine and not missing or dead, just on a trip since the planet was finally open for travel.

He had assumed this was some kind of vacation, or some shady business endeavor (valid), but when he sees him, Sampo looks. Exhausted.

His usual smirk is there, but there's something horribly off about it that Gepard can't put into words. His voice doesn't have the usual bounce in it. His gait slightly off. There are bags under his eyes, his hair is just the slightest bit out of place. Sampo looks exhausted.

His feet move without him really thinking, he goes up to Sampo to say...something. Maybe just ask him if he's ok. But he can't leave this alone and not do anything, because Gepard can feel it, something is wrong.

And that feeling sticks with him, like the persistent cold, like frostbite, all day. Gepard can't seem to shake it. There is a collective unease seeping through Belobog, sinking deep, tangling around their bones. And the only one who seems to be reacting truly different to it is Sampo.

Gepard tries to tail the guy a few times, anything he can do to learn about what's going on and ease this devouring dread, but Sampo seems to know where he's hiding and calls him out every single time.

He dodges every question (normal), slips out of every grab and grasp (normal), barely even looks at Gepard (decidedly NOT normal).

And maybe it's the darkness that seems to hover over them. The way the air feels like it is pressing down and smothering the breath out of his lungs. But Gepard's patience finally snaps, much sooner than he ever would have thought it would, and he finally grabs Sampo by the collar, hauls him up and forces his back against the brick wall of the alleyway. Because maybe Sampo makes his living double crossing and stabbing backs and he wouldn't understand this, but Gepard has a family, he has people he wants to protect, and so he needs to know what the fuck is going on.

And he knows he's crossed a line the moment he says it. He knows it's not true. Gepard has seen the way Sampo and Caelus sneak around in the Fragmentum or meander down the alleys, snickering with their arms slung around each other. He's seen the way Sampo lets Hook climb up his back onto his shoulders while he takes the moles on little adventures. He's seen the way he and Serval rib each other like it was natural, easy, and the way he goes out of his way for Natasha like he wouldn't any other client, had even trusted her with the knowledge that he was leaving off-planet.

Sampo has people he wants to protect, too, and Gepard shouldn't have accused him otherwise.

But before he can even apologize, Sampo does something stranger still.

Instead of telling him off, or taking a swing at him- both things Gepard would admit he deserved- Sampo just. Lifts one hand, lays it over Gepard's fists still balled in his jacket. Like he's keeping him there. Even through his gloves, his hand is warm.

And Sampo doesn't even really look at him, he leaves his head hung low as he quietly tells Gepard to just go home. Stay in with his family. Don't come out. Please. Please.

But eventually, the catastrophe strikes.

And Gepard can't. He can't stay safe inside his home while this is happening. He can't ignore this. He tells Serval and Lynx to stay in. Don't come out. And he dons his armor and marches out to protect as many people as he can.

When it's all said and done, all Gepard can see is rubble piled around him and a blackened sky. He can hear fire crackling. He can hear a voice he recognizes as Serval's wailing and screaming his name, and he knows she's not going to find him in time. She shouldn't even be out here.

A bloodied face swims into view, bright green eyes looking hollowed and haunted, posture weary and defeated. Gepard reaches out a shaking arm, trying to grab at Sampo's pantleg, trying to make any sound other than gurgling the blood filling his throat, because he knows it for certain now, he knew, Sampo knew.

"Not this time either, huh...?" The sigh he heaves isn't theatrical, for once. Somewhere, rubble groans and loudly collapses. Sampo doesn't even startle or turn to look at it. "I'll figure it out soon, I promise. There has to be a way to pull you through this alive. There has to be."

Something materializes in his hand, something red. Gepard's vision dims at the edges as he watches Sampo hold the mask over his face, as it seemingly attaches itself directly to his skin.

"See you on the next go around, Captain."

#hsr #sampard #gepo #gepard landau #sampo koski #I love open endings for things like this #but I did have the thought that like. the aeons are powerful enough to be immune to Sampo fucking with the timeline. so they all know. #(Aha is watching with a bucket of popcorn bc Sampo is Their Little Guy and They love to see him thrown into Situations ndmzjznd) #but this means that Qlipoth is also aware of what's going down. and They see how no matter what happens no matter what little things change #-Gepard still chooses to preserve whatever life he can. he chooses to protect every single time. and that becomes his saving grace. #Gepard DOES pull through not by compromising his morals but as a reward for keeping them because Qlipoth turns Their eye upon him. #They choose Gepard as Their Emanator. and that's what finally gives him power and the chance to live through his own actions. #and thank god lol bc Sampo would NOT be having an easy time with this au. i think everyone else he cares about would be relatively safe. #but Gepard considers it his DUTY to protect people. this is his RESPONSIBILITY. and he is so so goddamn stubborn about it. #so this isn't a case of man vs act of god. It's not Sampo vs The Catastrophe that's not what's going on here. #it's Sampo vs Gepard's unyielding will to protect whoever he can #and he is fighting a losing battle

[ivyial]

okay time for some delulu gojohime analysis that's a bit of a reach.

so earlier today, i was rewatching a compilation of gojo and utahime's scenes from season 1 and it rang a bell (also, i just want to say, mappa gotta have gojohime shippers on the team cause some of the s2 gjhm elements weren't in the manga). ANYWAY.

so in episode 14 (the beginning of the tokyo-kyoto goodwill event arc), utahime is introduced (and i'm not gonna say that her literal second sentence onscreen ever is inquiring after gojo, but i am going to say that). then gojo comes in with gifts for the kyoto students - some charms from a tribe. this is how the panel goes in the manga:

nothing specific about those charms/souvenirs. gojo also explicitly mentions that they're for the kyoto kids - nothing for the staff.

now here's how it goes in the anime:

unfortunately i don't have the japanese script for this scene or the exact intended meaning, so i'll have to use the english translation :')

in the anime, there are two changes to gojo's dialogue:

the tribal charms are specifically protective. whether they work or not, they were made with the intention of protecting the user in mind

"the kyoto kids" becomes "everyone from kyoto" (including staff, technically)

now assuming that these changes are correct, it makes the scene way more relevant to gojohime.

as we know, gojo thinks utahime is weak. he says it to her multiple times and it's pretty much his go-to insult for her. we also know that gojo is loaded with cash, so spending a few more bucks isn't an issue. and yet... he didn't get her one of those. this is one amazing opportunity for gojo to make fun of utahime, by giving her one of those charms and implying that she needs it because she can't defend herself. but for some reason, he didn't take it.

there are a few ways to interpret that:

gojo is a decent enough guy to not embarrass her in public in front of other people. although, this isn't true, since he does do it in front of other people all the time: see season 2, episode 1, when he calls her weak in front of mei mei and geto. so maybe he just doesn't want to embarrass her in front of her students. again, not exactly true, since he puts her on the spot later in the goodwill event arc:

pretty 'eh' to ask her to give a speech unprepared in front of all of the students, especially since she ends up performing very poorly. maybe he draws the line at calling her weak in front of her students, because he understands that they look up to her.

2. gojo didn't give her a protective charm because despite calling her weak all the time, he doesn't fully believe that and he knows she can defend herself. it is vaguely reminiscent of their recent shared scene in the manga, in which *spoilers for the current arc* utahime's cursed technique is revealed and she acts as an amplifier for gojo's. he definitely trusts her enough to team up with her, just like he did to find the traitor at the kyoto school.

3. utahime doesn't need protection, because he is there. for this interpretation, i'm drawing a parallel between this scene and this post explaining how utahime is metaphorically always under gojo's eye. even without that detail, there's his whole spiel in 2x01 where he dramatically announces "i'm here to save you, utahime". it's worth noting that he pretty much came round to help her out because he knew she was in danger (i think? someone correct me if i'm wrong please).

one thing's for sure though, it's that gojo doesn't truly believe that utahime is too weak to be a sorcerer. is she weaker than him? sure, but that doesn't make her incompetent. and if she needs to be protected, he's more than happy to do it for her.

#gojo satoru #iori utahime #gojohime #gouta #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk meta

[chaifootsteps]

I think the other HB Take I've grown to dislike the most is

'When Via realizes what her father sacrificed for her, she'll be so thankful / sorry for doubting him!!'

and like, no?? no she shouldn't be?

it was never her decision for her parents to stay together all that time, they made that choice themselves. The kid is not responsible for what the adults are doing. The show pulling a "Stolas got hurt for her sake so she needs to be grateful for that when Stolas is the one who made the choice to do it" is lousy logic, imo. It's blaming Via for being too young to know what was going on and expecting her to answer for her parents' choices & actions

not to mention It's made very clear that all the fighting after Stolas cheated is making her home life miserable. Anyone who's been between two warring parents will tell you how much it sucks

and also like - maybe the show wants to frame it that Stolas gave her a 'normal life' but the show is wrong about that, gonna be blunt

nothing about the Goetia's home life was ever 'normal'. Stella & Stolas never wanted to marry. they never wanted a child together. Everything about their life was artificial from the get-go and doomed to failure, especially since Stella presumably never even put in the effort to playact 'happy families' once Via was born

and like, the show has written Stella to be so comically evil that she threw Still Not Divorced parties in their house, where Via was living, that she advertised in the newspaper. Via would have to be pretty checked out to not notice that Stella and Stolas can't stand one another. Kids aren't dumb about that kind of thing, they will notice. And given Stella does nothing but screech/insult Stolas every time she's onscreen (and it's implied she's physically abused him before), if Stolas actually cared about Via's wellbeing he'd want her far away from Stella. This self-martyring routine of his makes no sense.

On some level a lot of people judge parents irl for staying with abusive partners if they're subjecting a child to that environment, too, and that's with the understanding the parent loved/still loves the abuser on some level. Stolas never loved Stella. Why is he subjecting Via to her, especially when he's the one who's a prince and could easily have her thrown out of the palace?

it makes the shows' determination to never show what the dynamic between Stella and Via is even more frustrating, because if they did get one it would at least lend some credence to Stolas' 'I thought there was some benefit to us staying together for Via's sake' routine. if she has a relationship with her mother then it makes some sense, even if that relationship is strained at times. but the writers are terrified of giving Stella any dimension at all so I'd bet good money we won't even see them exchange a single line of dialogue by the end of s2 (unless it's for Via to be manipulated by her, since she needs to be the world's biggest dummy so Stolas can cry some more)

(also like, sidenote that's just been annoying me personally - why would a Hell noble be so hung up on the notion of having a nuclear family? he's royalty. he can easily afford to raise Via alone. what are the normative values of Hell, exactly?? why would anyone care if Stolas gets a divorce? why can't the show clearly indicate what is and isn't expected of royalty in terms of upkeep of behavior and reputation?)

(also also, if Stolas was written to be deluding himself about what he did being good for Via then this could be interesting. but I doubt they're gonna go there with the creator's pet he's turned into in s2)

She probably will end up running back to Stolas, apologizing and expressing her gratitude for anything. Because that's the kind of show this is and that's the kind of writer Viv is.

#Anonymous #stolas critical #helluva boss critical #viv stuff #actual blog post

[ladysisyphus]

Okay! Now that we have finished it, I would like to take this moment to recommend the Chinese drama The Disguiser.

It is a must-watch if you liked Nirvana in Fire, because of course it's the same director and a significant chunk of that same cast, except all playing significantly different roles with different dynamics.

For normal people, you should give it a go if you like:

spies

suits

spies in suits

the amazing east-meets-west aesthetic of late 1930s Shanghai

international incidents

acknowledgements that non-marriage-trajectory relationships can still be important and intimate

minimal unfounded valorization of heterosexuality (like, I can't really explain this one without spoilers, but trust me)

but when the heterosexuality happens, it's cute? so you can't really begrudge it for happening

pretty men getting tortured horrifically

some amazing female villains, like seriously, most of the main bad guys are ladies and they're powerhouses

transparently hilarious try-hard patriotic shit

the inherent eroticism of having someone who loves you shoot you with a sniper rifle

did I mention the suits? because damn

an ending that is satisfying and not relentlessly, senselessly tragic

For perverts, let me sell the show to you like this:

大姐. Elegant and terrifying. Will make you kneel and hit you with a flogger, but only because she loves you. Mommy? Sorry. (Not sorry.)

大哥. Executive homosexual. Will bend you over a bench and paddle you in the foyer, but only because da jie told him to.

弟弟. Should not, from what I understand of the book (and the musical???), be the main character, except he's Hu Ge, so of course he's the main character. Spoiled little gremlin. Everybody's baby. Has a real weird daddy thing going with a very bad man, if you're into that. Bisexual slut powers activated, but only patriotically.

弟弟 #2. Adopted when he was ten. Just like a member of the family except when he's not. Faithful right hand and subordinate of da ge, whom he tops so hard. (But seriously, they're in love.) (No, really. They're basically married.) (I sense the source material has him a little saltier about his station in life, but in the show, he never shows an inkling of being anything but perfectly content doing what he does.) Sultry baritone. Will hold you down so da ge can spank you.

And I'm going to say that pervert shit runs strong throughout what little fandom there is, at least as AO3 would have it:

Which is what happens if you include everything tagged for the Disguiser. If you filter it by English-language works only...

And some of those that say they're in English aren't even in English! They're just pretending to be in English! What I'm saying is, if you feel like making kinky things for a bitty little fandom, this is the place.

Now! If I've sold you on it, here is how to watch it:

Option 1: KissAsian. Upside: Subtitled by the same Viki team that did the Nirvana in Fire subtitles, so they're absolutely readable and like 98% comprehensible. Downside: Slightly sketchy site.

Option 2: YouTube. Upside: It's YouTube; different translation that's also perfectly okay; hardcoded Chinese subs. Downside: Whoever formatted the hardcoded English subs did not put anything behind the plain white text, so any time the English text appears over a bright background (which is curiously often), the words disappear.

Also there's a musical??? that came out in 2021????? If I find a link to a full production of that, I'll come back here and update. The clips I've seen of it look great, though.

Look, this is not a show for everyone. It's got some gore and torture and onscreen injury that's pretty disturbing. It portrays the truly awful realities of Japanese occupation of China during this period. The rah-rah communism! bits are at best hokey and at worst distasteful. It can be slow at times and way too condensed at others. If you're not familiar with this period of history, it's tough to keep track of all the various resistance factions. Because of the spycraft and double-agent business, it can be legitimately tricky to remember who's lying to whom about what at any given moment.

Nonetheless, pervert shit aside, it's a solid story about a complicated quartet of siblings who love and also injure one another, and all the people who love/hate them. There are plenty of genuinely tense moments. The hairstyling and costuming are perfectly on point. The actors turn in some stellar performances. As I alluded to in my bullet points, it has an ending that includes some tragic elements, but not so many that it'll sink all your ships and ruin your day. And I tell you what, this show is legitimately horny for everyone in this car:

So if you watch it, let me know what you think!

#the disguiser #伪装者 #c drama #nirvana in fire

[lunar-years]

To preface I would never pretend to be any sort of expert on child abuse and trauma nor on healing from that trauma etc. but I also think the "Jamie wasn't forgiving his father, he was releasing his father's control over his life" viewpoint, while not necessarily wrong, is also...too simplistic? First of all Ted DOES frame it as "forgiveness." The phrase he uses literally is "just forgive him." So that's the message the show is sending regardless of whether that's how we personally make sense of Jamie's actions or not. Secondly, you don't just flick a switch from being terrified of your father and dictated by that fear one day to being totally free of his grip on you AND in a healthy and mentally stable enough place to reach out to him the next (let alone in the span of like, two hours, in the middle of a football match and immediately afterwards. Right after starting to emerge from a depressive episode!!).

I can definitely understand why Jamie may have texted his father in that moment, given the enormously high stress + bad mental health combo he'd been living under for days (weeks?), on top of Ted's (imo ill-fated) advice. But I can't for the life of me make sense of that being a "healthy" choice for him (which I think is how the show would like us to view it). The text alone may have not been inviting his father back into his life, but we see him going to visit his dad in the very next episode. I mean??? we skipped about 1200 steps to get there in an actually healthy way, I think, and talking to an actual therapist about the matter is top of the list.

If Jamie is working to free himself from his father's hold on him, that's a complicated and slow process that I'm not convinced is going to be helped by getting more involved in his father's life and potentially, given the rehab situation, care. I mean we know Jamie's character and I don't think it's really his personality to visit once for peace of mind and then drop this. It's much more likely he extends time and help to his dad and ends up more invested, rather than "free." That could be something that ends well for everyone, if his dad really is putting in the work and is in fact deserving of a ~second chance~ (or third, or fourth...we literally don't even know if he's tried and failed to get sober and Be Better before, but it's very possible), but it is also something that could go very very poorly and result in new devastation and instability for Jamie all over again. At the time Ted was giving Jamie his little speech about it (which he based on an extremely different situation with his own mother in his own life, mind you), he was completely unaware James Sr was even in rehab, and it was actually dangerous (imo) to Jamie, mentally and physically, for him to have given the advice that he did.

Basically, I think Ted's words were well meaning but ultimately very misguided, the actions we see Jamie taking as a result do make sense for the character's state of mind but not necessarily for his well being, and if Jamie would like to give his father another chance it is fully his decision and right to do so. But the storyline wasn't given the time nor care nor complexity that sort of story absolutely requires in order to be done well. And the fact that Jamie leaps in full-force on it without onscreen evidence of him getting any input on the matter from anyone in his life apart from one (questionable) conversation with Ted does not exactly instill confidence in me that the situation ends happily tied up in the bow of father-son reconciliation the show surface-level portrays it to be.

#jamie tartt #ted lasso #tw child abuse #ted lasso meta #i'm saying the exact same shit i was saying when the episode aired I know lol #yes I have run out of new things to say about this show #but I'm also soooo riled up about this again today #it was such a bad way to handle that storyline im sorry

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck Week 2024

Day 2 - Favorite Moment: C'est la Premiere

There are countless good moments in UU, so it was difficult to even figure out where to start with this prompt, but as someone in a polyamorous relationship, there isn't a single moment that I reacted to as strongly as the Rip x Mirah Sisters wedding

The fact that Jump allowed a major character to canonically hold a polyamorous wedding onscreen is simply astounding, and as I said in my review for that chapter, it's a perfect summation of UU's central theme of defying rules that inhibit happiness

Ideally, rules and laws would only be in place for the sake of protecting the populace and keeping the peace, but when a rule's only function is to limit freedoms for the sake of maintaining "tradition," then what good is it?

Marriage as an institution is a great example of how tradition, for whatever value it had when initially conceived, cannot be translated 1:1 to modern-day values and needs. Gay marriage, polyamorous marriage, even divorce are taboos that have been slowly but surely eroded over time, though in many places are still denied to those who need them

I do understand the legal headache that polyamorous divorce would pose to lawyers, but I don't think that's worth inhibiting peoples' freedoms and happiness. As long as you aren't hurting people and you're living happily, you should be able to do whatever you want

The wedding became highly controversial, unfortunately putting a bit of a sour taste in my mouth when thinking of it, but in a sense, that just goes to show how necessary this event is. We still haven't reached the point where people can marry who they want, denied by both law and society, but that can't and shouldn't stop people from doing what makes them happy

Whether Tozuka will let any other characters with multiple love interests be polyamorous remains to be seen, but even if he doesn't, he's made it clear that this form of love is valid, and nothing can take that away from us

#undead unluck #fouryearsandananime #uu spoilers #uuweek2024

[bcbdrums]

Given the fact that we were talking about our perceptions of certain kinds of ships in regards to Stein and how they suit or do not suit his character, how do you feel about smut/the relationship dynamics within Stein x character smut fics?

All righty then...! Here comes a very long rambling of my headcanons about Stein, his two primary relationships, and his relationship with those deeper intimacies. This takes some turns before it gets to the main point but well, I love talking about this man. Extremely long post under the cut.

Also - there are two blogs I tag at the very end of this post - you two feel free to ignore all my ramblings, just know I praise you both at the end and I still re-read your Soul Eater stories VERY regularly.

I'm truthfully still trying to reorganize my thoughts on this specific topic because 1) I have listened to many a headcanon from others on the subject and I always try to give validity to their thoughts even when they differ from mine, and 2) I've also read tons of smut fic with Stein out of sheer desperation for...well, Stein fic. (Come on Stein fandom where you at? Write me some gen fic too, lol)

I have not read too many fics of him with Marie cuz those always contain manga spoilers so I'm skipping those for now until I finish reading (exactly halfway through!). So what I've read is mostly Stein/Spirit smuts and just a couple with Marie, and I want to say….almost zero?? I think zero of those fics (and boy I've read plenty) have "hit the spot" in terms of what I would want for a Stein smut. They're good stories, in some cases great stories, well-written and thoughtfully conceived, but they're not fitting my headcanons and interpretations of who I see onscreen (and who I see in the manga so far).

All that said now… Some of my own relevant headcanons for him, and then I'll get more into fic of others.

I go back and forth toying with the idea that Stein experimented with intimacy just a little as a teen. He's not immune to puberty and hormones; he's human whether he likes it or not, which isn't to say mind over matter doesn't work for him. (Clearly it does, in staving off madness among other things.) But he's a scientist. He's curious. And I can see him justifying an experiment or two in his teen years. But they would in fact be just that, experiments. It's still a big maybe. I can't say for certain he would, it's the sort of thing like…if all the dots line up just right, he'd attempt it. If not, he wouldn't. And it would only be with those two people: Marie and/or Spirit. He doesn't trust anyone else enough. (Yes, I'm on board with the popular fanon that Marie was one of his other weapon partners after Spirit.)

Another teen headcanon... I can also easily see a sort of angsty distraction possibility for him. When he loses Spirit to Kami, I can see him getting into a "romantic" relationship with Marie as sheer distraction, and even misguided retaliation. Spirit "cheated" on him with another meister and abandoned him, so why shouldn't he do the same with another weapon? Which sucks for Marie but well she's not healthy about relationships any more than Stein or Spirit are. But this is just another sort of maybe-thought; another situation where all the dots would have to line up just right for him to go for it. But I can see it, no question, just like the prior thought.

As for Stein as an adult, at the point we see him in the show… While I think relationally he and Spirit have the most interesting dynamic to explore, the one he shows more openness toward is Marie. It's clear that he cares for her. And he doesn't fully understand that either. Now I don't think he wants to get into bed with her, or marry her, or anything traditional to a romance. But I also don't think Marie is going anywhere. Thinking post-anime now…. Unless he gives her a sign that there is nothing between them, I think she's staying put. But sadly for her, I think there is something between them... Sadly because, Stein doesn't know what it is, and it's not "love" the way that Marie wants it. It's just something he's unfamiliar with. Meanwhile she's devoted to him, poor woman.

Now, end of the anime… Let's talk about this…. Marie helps him back to sanity with her healing wavelength. But…then he's just "okay"? No he isn't. Look at that man. His dark circles are darker, his eyes are more haunted. That man has been living off madness and cigarettes for weeks. When is the last time he ate anything? Showered? Legitimately got any sleep?? How he's even standing up let alone fighting Medusa is beyond me, and then he performs freaking major surgery and then waltzes into the death room afterward like he's fine. Because...that's who Stein is.

Stein will fight until he is incapable of fighting anymore, to serve those he loves. Yes I said loves. And it is agonizing how much he strives to show his love for others, and it's something he doesn't even realize he has within him. He thinks he can't understand love? It's because he feels it so deeply and passionately it's beyond definition. Part of this however I'm also certain is motivated from his deep desire for purpose as an adult. The manga shows that aspect of his character even more-so than the anime (in what I've read so far). That man is desperate for purpose and to belong somewhere, with someone. He can't escape his human nature even if he doesn't understand it, can't define it, and even though it drives him crazy all on its own…

So bringing this back to Marie… End of the anime. I don't think Marie is leaving. She's gonna stay, help nurse Stein back to health and sanity despite his pretending he's fine (or perhaps even sheer ignorance of his condition), and Stein…is gonna be confused the whole dang time about his feelings for Marie. He knows he feels something but he has no idea what it is or how to process it. But "love" in the romantic sense he doesn't possibly consider, because well...his conceptions of that sort of thing aren't based in anything healthy (see: Spirit's relationships).

So yeah… She's not leaving. He won't reject her attentions because he does care about her, just not in a way he understands and also not in the way she wants. And as she starts to realize that he has some kind of feeling for her, I think she'd turn up the romance and she'd make a move on him. OR…she'd play the extremely...long...patient game, and wait for him to make a move on her, when it's within his comfort zone. And let me be clear… This man still does not know what love is in this traditional sense, does not understand love. He knows what physical attraction and hormones are and darn him he can't shake those either, but as an adult he wouldn't act impulsively on them nor would he confuse them with love. Stein is the ultimate master of mind over matter. If he were to sleep with her, it would be a choice; a decision he makes consciously and deliberately. I see this within the realms of possibility. But if he chooses it himself, if he's the one who makes that decision simply out of his wanting to…it would be a long, long time that that woman is waiting for him. But I do think it possible. The question is simply, how long will she wait. And she's also the type to try to stir things up (see: her behavior toward Joe in the manga). So who knows when they may end up in bed together... These dots are more complicated to align than those of his teenage years. And if Marie made the move first...I think he'd accept it. Because, see again, his wanting to belong with someone, and he knows he feels something different with Marie.

As for Spirit, well... Stein sees that Spirit likes women. And Stein sees that Spirit can't commit. I think Stein "loves" Spirit more than he loves Marie. First love, young love... Spirit is the relationship of his life, even though that's yet another thing he cannot possibly understand. I think that while part of him, the mad obsessive part, and the curious part, does want to be close to Spirit in the intimate way…it's not out of a healthy desire or even typical motivations. It would come from a desire to possess, from his deeply human but inexplicable yearning to be closer to the one he loves even though it's not the right type of love for that type of intimacy. Not really sure Spirit would be all-in if Stein were to make the move... I think Spirit would take persuading. It's another circumstance where all the dots have to line up just right, and in this case probably more while caught up in madness than in sanity. Because as previously mentioned… In his right mind, Stein knows that Spirit likes women and more importantly that Spirit cannot commit. And he's ironically smart enough to know not to attempt a traditional human romance with someone who cannot commit. I don't think Stein would himself attempt intimacy with Spirit in his right mind at all, unless something happened to make him utterly desperate not to lose the man... Another instance of, all those dots have to connect.

But ugh, the angst. Spirit abandoned him after five years... Stein is not going to willingly subject himself to possible heartbreak again. Plus, he does not think Spirit has forgiven him for the "experiments." I think he thinks Spirit only hangs around him now as an adult as his handler, despite desperately wanting his friendship again. But I think he figures it's a lost cause so he just takes what is offered and never pursues more.

Okay but before I digress further into my endless thoughts about Stein's and Spirit's relationship (I'll do another post for that maybe), back to the point of your question.

I am really not one for labels, partially because I don't understand them but also because I think the spectrum is just so deep and too much defies definition. But if I were to label him, I guess I'd go with...gray ace with demi leanings…?

The man is driven only by curiosity, about anything and everything. But the level of intimacy we're talking about is more than he ever wants to trust anyone with. It's always gotta be on his terms, and more often than not…his terms would be unhealthy.

So let's talk about what shows up in fanfic, since that was what the original question was about. And once again, I like to lend validity to everyone's interpretation. Just because it isn't mine doesn't mean it's wrong or shouldn't exist. But you did ask about MY thoughts, so that's what I'm sharing here.

Once again, I've barely touched Stein/Marie fic because I'm avoiding manga spoilers. In the one or two I've seen, he comes across as not connecting emotionally in the typical way, but knowing that there is indeed something different about being with her. He knows she cares about him, and he cares in return. But it doesn't come across as anything intimate on his side of it. This isn't a characterization I particularly like, because Stein as an adult... As I said, I think he'd choose that intimacy if and when he wants it. In the stories, it comes across more as him just doing her a favor, just going along. It doesn't sit right. But like I said, that's only two stories. For other Stein/Marie, I reserve opinion for later.

Stein/Spirit... Okay. I've noticed a great many commonalities in the fics I've read. And this isn't a taste or preference thing; like I said I have devoured almost every smut fic just in desperation for any fanfic of them. Would prefer more gen fic less smut personally, but anyway.

Most fics have Stein in the dominant role, Spirit in the submissive role. I understand that interpretation but it's not how I see them. I see them as equals if they were to get into that type of intimacy. There is often a lot of bloodplay, frequently madness on Stein's part, major instances of non-con, pet play, BDSM, sometimes light cannibalism... It all suggests an impersonal and unhealthy relationship most of the time, which again...is not at all how I see them if they were to become a couple. Could such things come about? Unhealthily, possibly. But darn me and my desire for happy endings.

These two men are so broken, that if they were to become a healthy couple...I feel like it would be slow, cautious...extremely hesitant. There is extreme distrust on both sides, and also misconceptions about how the other feels. Which...I will save that analysis for later. Focusing back on smut fic.

I have seen only a few that touch on the give and take in a trusting relationship (all by the same author) that come closest to what I feel is accurate to the characters onscreen as I see them, but still the emphasis is too much on lust. It still isn't hitting the spot for me due to a lack of that relational development... Make no mistake, the stories are great, but I personally am hoping for something much deeper.

In my view, Stein just does not seek out physical intimacy in that way. I don't think he can fully escape the innate human need for touch, but in terms of a drive to get into bed with anyone... I think the occasional human desire for it crops up, and he easily ignores it/packs it away because it's not useful to him. It doesn't bother him. He doesn't think about it.

So this is where that...gray-ace, demi vibe comes into play for my view of him. Talking about Stein here as an adult and in control of himself, not consumed by madness... This is I supposed a bit of a summation of my thoughts.

If he did get into a relationship with anyone (and again I think his only choices are Spirit and Marie), it would not be based on the physical at all. I also don't think he would rush into any relationship. It would be a long process before he trusted the person enough to consider them a romantic partner. And really, we could get away from the word romance entirely... Life-partner is a better word, in Stein's case. If the person wanted physical intimacies, I think he would be responsive to that. The other person would be in the lead, but in no way dominating. It would have to be an equal trust thing or else Stein would nope out hard. Stein would gradually learn what it is he likes physically, and how to give his partner what they want. He can come to enjoy it because this is his life-partner, the one he belongs with, the one who needs him and is part of his purpose. But again...the physical is not something that drives him at all. Not in how I see him portrayed onscreen or in the manga.

So, overall, in my point of view nearly all smut fics miss the mark. Now...the stories I've seen where I think the physical intimacy is nailed don't even get to smut. Those are the stories by @asymmetryestablished (AO3 NothingSoDivine) and their characterizations of Stein and Spirit defy description in any words I have. The other author who nails it is @wispforever (same on AO3) and the closest to physical intimacy they get is dancing, but my gosh still the characterizations are utter perfection. I will be re-reading y'all's Stein/Spirit stories forever.

I hope I did in fact answer your question, but overall, I was delighted to just spill out so many of my thoughts about Stein even if in summary form. Yes this was a summary... Okay. I'm done. Thanks.

#soul eater #franken stein #spirit albarn #marie mjolnir #stein #spirit #death scythe #crossstitch #steinspirit #spiritstein #steinmarie #stein x marie #stein x spirit #spirit x stein #headcanons #ask answer

[chloecherrysip]

Now that I've had a few hours of sleep and am marginally a human being again, let's talk about the mario movie some more! SPOILERS ALL THROUGHOUT THIS POST UNDER THE CUT (if you want to see my non-spoilery thoughts and the first part of my spoiler talk as well, here's that post from last night! Be warned that it's pretty all over the place because it was 4:30 in the morning and I was really tired lolol)

After thinking about it more, I truly do have some PROBLEMS with this movie (will talk more about some of that below and I covered a lot of the issues in my first post too) and I do wish it was better overall and not so painfully surface-level with all the character interactions - I can understand why some people REALLY don't like it while others love it! It's joyful and energetic and BEAUTIFUL but if you spent months and months theorizing and speculating about deep character interactions and a very emotional story, it does really sting to finally see how there is virtually NONE of that and the plot feels kinda empty as a result. :(

But! I'm definitely not upset or anything like that, and I'm still gonna see it two more times in theaters with a smile on my face! TRUTHFULLY (and if you've seen my blog before, you know this about me) what I cared about most in this movie was getting to see Mario and Luigi be adorable onscreen and have a good, healthy, loving relationship, and you do get that to some degree, even if it's nowhere near enough. I can make my peace (and write a lot of fanfic, LOL) regarding the rest. :)

Here is a list of moments between Mario & Luigi that made me happy:

FIRST OF ALL, SOMETHING THAT I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE I LIKED BUT WAS CERTAINLY A CHOICE: Mario's nickname for Luigi is Lu????? He calls him that 3-4 times and at big moments, too. It started to be cute to me, even if I wish they'd gone with "Weegie" or something similar, but it's a little jarring at the beginning for sure.

In general, they are just very physically affectionate with each other! There are one or two quick hugs in the beginning scenes before we even get to the reunion. Also, I can't remember the specifics but the very last scene is them basically teasing/poking each other before running off into the day together and it's cute. :)

Mario is SO protective of Luigi in the Brooklyn scenes and let me tell you, as someone who cares DEEPLY about that, i was LIVING. He gets mad at Spike and tries to pick a fight only when he insults Luigi, and there is also a silly scene with an angry dog and Mario just instinctively puts his arm up in front of Luigi when things get a little scary/focuses on making sure he doesn't get hurt, and I was just having the BEST time. Honestly, I loved the Brooklyn stuff so much that I sincerely wanted the whole movie to just be about that, and things took a downhill turn for sure when the separation happened. :(

Someone definitely predicted this before the movie but Mario hates mushrooms as a food and Luigi likes them. During a dinner scene, Mario is slyly separating mushrooms from his food and putting them onto Luigi's plate in a way that suggests he's done that a LOT. Such a quick shot but I just liked the detail!

THE RUNNING THROUGH THE CONSTRUCTION SITE AND MARIO DOING RIDICULOUS PARKOUR BUT ALSO STOPPING TWICE TO MAKE SURE TO TURN BACK AND OPEN THE GATES SO LUIGI COULD COME THROUGH NORMALLY. There was just something SO funny and sweet about [crazy jumping and leaping] [quiet, thoughtful pause to open the gate] [MORE CRAZY JUMPING AND LEAPING, WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING, SIR] [another quiet, thoughtful pause to open the 2nd gate], I loveeeeee

Once again, just gotta be obnoxious about being right that the dialogue in the warp zone was "nothing can hurt us as long as we're together!" I HEARD THE LINE AS THIS IN THAT PREVIEW FOOTAGE AND EVERYONE CONVINCED ME IT WAS DIFFERENT BUT LOOK WHO'S LAUGHING NOW (i'm sorry, just let me have this win haha)

There is a sad moment where Mario and Luigi's dad clearly doesn't believe in their business and he even says to Mario something like "the worst part is that you're dragging your brother down with you" which is clearly upsetting to Mario so he leaves the dinner table - but then Luigi leaves the table too to come and sit with him and reassures him that he's not dragging him down and it's just a sweet, comfortable moment between them that I very much wish went on a little longer (the theme of the whole movie lol)

(Also, Mario and Luigi still live with their parents and share a room, they're clearly pretty young and are treated like the "babies" of the family. I wish we had seen more of their room other than a very extremely brief shots!!)

Luigi DOES immediately sell out Mario when Bowser goes for the serious mustache damage, LOL, but the way it's done is honestly so cute and once again, just reemphasizes how much Luigi loves Mario XD He's basically like "YES, I know him, he's my brother Mario and he's the best guy ever!" (And then Bowser, who is preoccupied with Mario = romantic rival for Peach's affections, is like "would a princess find him attractive???" and Luigi is like "if she has any common sense, she should!" (lol, that line could be TOTALLY wrong, I don't remember, but that's the gist of it, I promise) or something like that - just hyping Mario up when he's not even there, LOL

in Mario and DK's "darkest moment" scene where things seem hopeless and they're arguing, Mario says something like "well, at least your brother's not going to die because of you!" and noooo, bb, it's not your fault ;; (this scene could have been done SO MUCH BETTER with a few tweaks, btw, but I will get into that)

Luigi bringing coffee for Mario at the end of the movie in their respective cups :) :) :) So simple but I am a very simple person who just wanted to see little moments like this :) :) :)

I have GRIPES with the final battle scene but seeing Mario and Luigi work together and take care of Bowser as a duo was still good!!! Nothing can hurt them when they're together!!!

Also, already talked about this at length in my first post, but one more time: Mario saving Luigi from falling into the lava and their reunion hug is just my favorite moment of the movie, no contest, it goes by so fast and I wish it was longer but I can be happy with that alone and I can't wait for the screenshots/gifsets where I can see all the details of it more clearly and don't have to rely on my awful memory. Literally just going to think about that split-second of Mario holding Luigi's face with both hands in an unbearably sweet, gentle way forever. These brothers love each other very much, your honor ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

ALSO ALMOST FORGOT: FLASHBACK TO THEM BEING BABIES (AND THEY LOOK SO FAITHFUL TO THE ORIGINAL DESIGNS TOO!) AND MARIO PROTECTING LUIGI FROM A BULLY (lol I very much wish it was a longer and/or more creative flashback, but STILL sweet)

AND NOW THAT I AM DONE WITH BEING POSITIVE ABOUT MY FAVORITE BOYS, LET'S ~*~COMPLAIN~*~

First of all, still CANNOT BELIEVE that "I'm not afraid! I'll do anything for my brother" didn't make it into the movie, are you SERIOUS, it would have been perfect in SO MANY PARTS, they recorded it and everything, why???? IS THERE A DELETED SCENE??? ARE THERE SEVERAL DELETED SCENES??? I DEMAND JUSTICE FOR THAT PERFECT LINE, I WILL MOURN IT FOREVER

The editing in general is a little odd sometimes and it really DOES feel like a lot of scenes should be there that are missing. Another VERY weird cut is in the scene where Peach, Toad, and Mario are crossing the bridge with the Cheep-Cheeps and they just immediately cut the scene when one latches onto Mario's face and don't even include the cute stuff from the trailer with Peach trying to help him??? Like, WHY???? WHY DID THOSE FEW SECONDS NEED TO BE CUT??? I DON'T UNDERSTAND

I think one of the most painful things about this movie is that, as a writer/creative person, I can see SO many small opportunities throughout the movie where a couple of extra minutes and some tweaks in the writing would have made SO much difference. An unbelievable amount of difference! The overall structure of the story and the plot is good! The story of Mario wanting to reunite with his brother and Peach wanting to protect her kingdom (that took her in and cared for her when she was all alone in the world) is solid! But they never give the EMOTIONS surrounding these things ANY space to breathe beyond one line here or there, and that is SUCH a mistake and I can't believe no one thought to do something differently here.

FOR INSTANCE: The "darkest moment" scene with DK and Mario! It goes by so fast, but there is some good stuff there that, if the movie took a MOMENT and really let their pain/fear for their loved ones and their shared complex of unsupportive fathers BREATHE, would work SO MUCH BETTER. Like, I can easily imagine a rewritten version of that scene with very similar dialogue but just MORE of it (more pauses, more emotion, more reactions to one another's problems, more recognition of their similarities, etc) would have made it like a DAGGER in the heart. SUCH a missed opportunity. I am itching to rewrite it, LOL. (I am itching to rewrite a LOT of scenes!)

ALSO: Luigi is my LOVE and he is adorable throughout this, but I'm gonna be the first to admit that his scrap of an arc in this movie (if you can even call it that) is so lackluster and his heroic moment at the end genuinely doesn't feel that earned! AND ONCE AGAIN, WITH A LITTLE EXTRA WRITING/ROOM IN THE RUNTIME, IT'S A VERY SOLVABLE PROBLEM

And the solution is: build out the prison scenes and have Luigi actually talking to someone else who is locked up!!!!! Other than a couple of lines and jokes, the prisoners don't TALK TO EACH OTHER and Luigi just spends a lot of time looking sad. We don't get ANYTHING about his thought processes while he's captured other than he is thinking of Mario and hoping his brother comes to save him like he's always done.

WHEN CRANKY KONG AND THE OTHER KONGS SHOW UP, HAVE THEM SHARE INFO ABOUT MARIO'S APPARENT DEMISE WITH LUIGI!!! HAVE LUIGI TALK TO HIM (OR THE PENGUIN KING, OR SOMEONE) ABOUT HOW HIS BROTHER'S ALWAYS LOOKED OUT FOR HIM BUT MAYBE SOMETIMES, HIS BROTHER MIGHT NEED SOME SUPPORT TOO AND HE'S GOTTA BE STRONG FOR HIM TOO

It doesn't have to be a long or especially deep conversation, but some lines of dialogue like this would make that moment where Luigi realizes that Mario is right, nothing CAN hurt them if they're together and he's gotta be strong for his older brother too and he jumps in to protect him from Bowser hit SO much harder. That's all it would take!!!

I HAVE ACTUAL WORK TO DO TODAY AND CANNOT GO ON AND ON ABOUT THE MARIO MOVIE FOREVER BUT LAST THOUGHT FOR NOW: the more I think about the final battle, the more I'm conflicted, haha. The twist of everyone from the Mushroom Kingdom ending up in Brooklyn is definitely SHOCKING in the moment and pretty creative but I don't know, I had my heart set on a more classic version of Mario VS Bowser. It just doesn't hit as hard as it could in the end because of how silly the setting is. :( (But the Mario and Luigi teamup with the power star is great, and the music IS fire) (Also LOL at myself for thinking "Luigi won't fight at the end, that wouldn't make sense since Mario had to train" - he just knows how to fight, the movie goes with what's cool over what's logical and that's fair XD)

Also, the end of the movie is a tad confusing and has some pretty huge repercussions for this version of canon? ARE THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM AND THE REAL WORLD PERMANENTLY MERGED TOGETHER BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED??? That's definitely what it seems to imply with Mario and Luigi waking up in their Brooklyn room and then walking out straight into the Mushroom Kingdom! It's pretty bizarre! (Honestly, what I was expecting was that the Bill would destroy the warp pipes and Mario and Luigi wouldn't be able to go home, which I might have preferred, as sad as that would be.)

That's all I got for now! I'm sure I will have more thoughts in the future, haha.

#mario movie #mario movie spoilers #super mario bros movie #super mario bros movie spoilers #would love to hear your thoughts if you agree/disagree with anything i said! #it really is wild to see such STRONG reactions on either side of the spectrum #seeing a LOT of positive feedback and then a LOT of people who are MAD and yeah. i honestly get both sides. i am both of you lol #cherrysip hc's & rambling

[destinyc1020]

I completely agree with being more black or even dark-skinned younger girls in Hollywood. Acting and music scene. But that is done on purpose by Hollywood, but I can't blame them fully I also need the black community (I'm black by the way lol) to take accountability as well. Cause we sit here and complain but we are so quick to criticize and put these girls in a box or hold them to a certain image compared to their white peers. Am I making sense? Like don't get me wrong I see people supporting but only online. Cause they are out here, trust 😭. But our people want them to behave a certain way or if they do something that is outside their image they write them off or bully them online to the point where they just decide to quit. Which is understandable cause they aren't getting the support from white Hollywood and then get made fun of online from our community. Then once again we end up complaining that we don't see them. It's like a weird cycle. So I don't blame young black women for not going into Hollywood until they are older cause you have to deal with sexism, racism and misogynior from their own.

Hmm..... you do bring up some good points Anon. There could be many varying factors on why we don't see as many younger darker-skinned black actresses out here in Hollywood.

I just feel like darker skinned black women in their 20s aren't given too many roles. Many roles are given to lighter-skinned or biracial actresses, and while there's NOTHING wrong with that, it's nice to see a variety every once in a while, and not just ONE type representing "black women" onscreen in the younger generation. Jmho 🤷🏾‍♀️

At the same time, you're right! Sometimes, the black community can be difficult to please, and we tend to put our own in a strict box, and that can be stifling for many. 😔

[licncourt]

What's your opinion on the iwtv movie?

I really like the 1994 movie! It's visually stunning, absolutely immaculate costume and set design and quite faithful to the book aside from a few changes that makes sense for the sake of the transition from book to film. The practical effects are so much fun and even the CGI is very well-applied.

It's not a perfect movie, there are some cut scenes I think should've stayed from the book and from the original script, plus the fact that it's pretty clear the story has been a bit straightwashed with things like giving Louis a dead wife and child instead of a brother and cutting the Only One Coffin scene. It was the 90s though, and it's honestly very impressive how much they managed to get onscreen, so props for that. It can't have been easy to get even what they did into a big Hollywood movie with A-list actors.

As far as standout elements, the casting of Kirsten Dunst in particular was absolutely perfect, she's incredible as Claudia, truly the standout performance in my opinion. Tom Cruise was fantastic too and that's still wild almost thirty years later. I hate to give the scientologist credit, but he did his homework and really put his whole pussy into playing Lestat. He deserves the praise he gets for sure.

Brad Pitt...okay listen. I am a Brad Pitt Louis apologist. I think if you look at his performance as a reflection of Louis' dissociation and apathy during that time in his life, it reads quite well. I just wish there were more emotional peaks and valleys, even just a few, to offset and highlight that monotone approach and make it feel like a character choice rather than BP sulking (which is what it was). However, anyone who's followed me for any length of time knows how I feel about the sewer scene. That was the serve of the century and I was so glad Jacob Anderson resurrected that expression in the show. That's a little baby your honor.

My main gripe with the movie is how flattened Louis' character was. He's presented as a direct opposite to Lestat, the stick in the mud who simply objects to feeding on humans because it's wrong to kill, no more and no less. I really missed the hypocrisy and contradiction that makes Louis LOUIS. We only get it in the (brilliant) prostitute scene and that's a shame.

I also wish they would've kept Louis' religious trauma as a focal point of the story rather than a single mention with Armand. It's so integral to his character that its absence is really noticeable. Still, I understand that it's a movie and there's only so much depth you can include. I think it could've been done a bit better in that regard though.

The highest praise I can give the movie is that they actually added a few things I wish were in the book:

Louis eating some lady's poodles

GRAPE THROWING

Lestat's retort where he yells "why should I know these things? Do you know them?" I think it really hits at the heart of Lestat's pain regarding his turning and provides a great moment of vulnerability

Claudia's line "why do you say such things?" It doesn't fully change the scene, but it drives home the father-daughter relationship in a really poignant way.

Generally speaking, I think it's a great, if inevitably imperfect, movie and definitely one of my favorites. I always use it as an entry point to get people to read the book and it's never failed me.

#also brad pitt's ponytail in the scenes with daniel is so ugly #do not like #answered #vc

[kabutoraiger]

metropolis... really tough dogengers season to understand my own feelings on. it finally has full length 23 min episodes like your riders and whatnot so that's great, that's what i've been asking for all along. it has some very oryxcore aspects like sexy cop hagino.

yuz yuz did feel like we were doing i-dolls again but like. much better this time imo. since the show actually cared more about how she felt. and man robots with feelings just gets to me... though the fact that we can't get a single major female or female coded character in this franchise who isn't a teenager or a child or a nonhuman who acts like a child is kind of. okay.jpg

the cop centric angle is very. hm. i think it could've been perfectly fine but it comes across as such a confused portrayal. the characters say out loud that what's important to them as cops is helping people in their community but you hardly ever see that and instead there's so much focus on arresting the bad guys that it just doesn't work. like why couldn't shiraishi talk things through with the other AHK members besides yuz yuz? they're certainly not portrayed as Real Villains this season. if anything (with the exception of shady legend shaberryman) they're more goofy gooberish than ever.

and the ads/product placement... i never minded it before but it's started to feel a bit egregious here. the base dogengers have so little to do in this season that when they spend one of their few lines of dialogue in an episode shilling a product it just makes me grimace.

all in all: i dunno if i can fully recommend this one. if you have similar tastes to me i think you'll get enjoyment out of it but as a season of dogengers i'd say it might be the weakest one so far. and if you're going to watch it maybe wait and see if h-ggg puts out V2s for those last few eps because the V1s are on the rough side. like not only is this a show where you really want the onscreen text translated but even some of the dialogue feels poorly TL'd and i was having trouble parsing what was being said in a few scenes. though i should be glad they finished it at all i suppose

#watching dogengers

[papa-evershed]

I agree with you that I'd love to see rob play an evil type of character. don't come for me, but I think his face, while super attractive, has a bit of a sinister quality to it. obviously acting and demeanor are important for conveying creepiness, so he doesn't come across as creepy all the time, but there's something about his face... I can't put my finger on it, something about the completely symmetrical pale eyes, the amount of teeth, the general proportions... sometimes even in gifs of characters that aren't supposed to be creepy, like martin evershed or hutch, I think that he looks sinister. absolutely no offense to the man or to your gifs of course! But I wonder if his face seems slightly sinister face to anyone else. It really makes me think about what exactly makes a face creepy (ugly =/= creepy and all that.) He'd play an amazing villain.

Did we just become best friends? 🤓

If anyone comes for you they'll have to get through me first because I actually agree with you. Like you said, no offense to RJC at all and I say it with nothing but love but I absolutely understand what you're saying. I've tried explaining it to my sister (we frequently discuss our celeb-mens with each other) and I don't think she sees it, likely because he has such Golden Retriever energy.

My bet? A lot of it is in the eyes. His eyes are large, you can see the whites around the entire iris, there's a proper name for it that I'm forgetting and too lazy to google at the moment. But the trait tends to carry a lot of silly superstitions with it and it's just very striking. I say this as someone whose eyes are the same and have received my fair share of comments about it, so I really mean this with nothing but complete love and understanding. An example of the eyes though, in case people think I'm crazy:

Like you said, the man just has striking features, period. Especially the eyes and yes, his mouth and the toothy grin. He'd make for an amazing villain which isn't a bad thing, extremely attractive people with striking features tend to make for excellent onscreen villains.

I could go on about why I think he'd make a great villain for reasons that aren't even physical but I'll shut up now because this is long enough. 😂 But I understand exactly what you're saying. Despite his chaotically-playful energy, one semi-serious, stern look from him and it's...oh. And sometimes it doesn't even have to be stern. 🤷‍♀️

[flatbstanley]

4:32 p.m — Obscure Logistics Video Conference Line

Megumi: Thanks for taking the time to meet with us, Katie. We don't usually involve the legal department in terminations, but this employee is very likely to claim religious discrimination, so we need to make sure we have an airtight case here.

Katie: No problem!

Katie: So I've got the information Dandre forwarded about the expected performance metrics for his team, and the employee's individual metrics. I don’t completely understand these engineering terms, but from what I can tell, he’s had two warnings with no improvement.

Dandre (onscreen): Correct. With the second warning, I also asked him to return to the office, which is standard procedure for remote employees who are having performance issues. He refused.

Katie: So now we have insubordination too.

Katie: Well, all of this is in line with our employee handbook. As long as we’re adhering to our written guidelines, and the employee can’t point to any cases where others with different religious beliefs were treated differently, he has no grounds to claim discrimination.

Megumi: Three strikes, you’re out. I’ve checked extensively to verify that the rule has applied in all previous terminations.

Katie: Can I ask why you're so concerned about a discrimination claim?

Dandre: Remember a couple years ago when we started putting pronouns in our signatures? This employee said his pronouns were "llama, gnome, freezer bunny." When we called him out on it, he said that being Catholic prohibited him from being involved in "this whole pronoun thing."

Megumi: He also got an attorney from some conservative organization to send us a letter. From what I understand he had no legal standing, but it was still a headache for HR.

Katie: Oh, wow.

Megumi: Plus, he runs a Catholic podcast where he says all kinds of nonsense. We can't fire him for that, as distasteful as it is, but based on the volume he's putting out, I suspect he's podcasting when he's supposed to be on the clock.

Dandre: Probably explains why his metrics are so bad.

Katie: Wait...what's the name of his podcast?

Dandre: Quotient? Quorum? Something weird that starts with “quo.”

Katie (to herself): Oh my God, Justin.

#ts4 gameplay #fundie sims #character: katie dalton

[characteroulette]

A study on prosecutors -- (previous) (next)

Second, Franziska.

Franziska is a really, really interesting case. Not only is she someone who is coloured by our experiences with our two previous prosecutors (Edgeworth and Manfred), she's also the prosecutor we spend the least amount of time in trial against. Her debut game has her headlining only two of the four trials. She gets exactly one more trial in the next game and even then, it's a single day and not even against Phoenix. She has the least amount of time to make her impression on us, and so every single moment she's onscreen has to count.

And boy, do they ever make it count!

Gumshoe is, once again, our introduction to her presence. I find it a bit weird that they leave enough room for ambiguity on whether or not Manfred's kid is his son or something. Playing with the player's expectations, I guess? It's weird but I guess it's brushed over completely once Franziska is revealed, so it's not too much of a sticking point.

But then we meet her in court and she is as absolutely as much of a menace as advertised. She's as much in control of the proceedings as her father, using her whip instead of his iron fist, and focused wholly on perfection. You get a real bases on what growing up as Manfred's protege would be like from her mannerisms; she acts like a princess, like the only person in the room with any importance, and she wears it proudly. You can't help but admire how much of a bastard she presents herself as. She's willing to get in there and do the work herself rather than relying on anyone else; what a first impression to make.

This is, of course, helped along by her dubiously legal steps. She hides the existence of the second photo, she presents a completely illegal photo only to then claim that it's not actual evidence she's presenting. Her brazen display of dirty tactics is infuriating, it's a reflection on her father's own ruthlessness. It even puts into perspective Edgeworth's own ruthlessness, though he certainly never stepped this far past the line of legality. At least, the way he was presented to us, it never felt like he actually did anything illegal.

The key point, though, is that she makes us feel helpless. About as helpless as Manfred did (and maybe Edgeworth in 1-2, though your mileage may vary on that one). Our immediate response should be to treat her just as hostilely, to suspect her of falling to some sort of ruin just the same as her father.

But then, day two of the trial arrives. And instead of fighting tooth and nail, Franziska starts to go along for the ride.

You might not think anything of it at first. Phoenix certainly doesn't. She's still biting, still snapping and forcing you to prove every argument you throw out there. She isn't one to yield so easily, she demands perfection even when you're unravelling her supposedly perfect case. And yet, with each push, she gives in just enough to allow you footholds. She sees your logic and doesn't discount it. She even follows along, agrees with you as you piece together this mystery.

She's more willing to work with you than you ever expected considering her demeanour in that first trial day. She's just as interested in figuring out the whole truth as you are. It really surprised me, going back to this game and seeing just how willing she is to follow your working out the mystery. She's so agreeable that second day that it speaks of some knowledge, some spot of light in her that flares up in defiance of every method Manfred ever used. She's still too close to the line of illegal, she's still willing to get into some dirty methods herself, but she's not willfully blind to the truth. She's able to understand that what you're proposing makes sense.

She's still a child. She's barely an adult and it shows that she's in far less danger than Manfred or Edgeworth were to that looming darkness.

(Is it her inexperience? Is it her headstrong defiance of falling into the same trap her father did? No matter the reasoning, it makes her less of an antagonist than she should be seen as. It makes it clear that we can reach her, that she's not someone to condemn in the same way we did Manfred.)

We can't really begin to trust her. Not yet. She's a wild card, she's still threatening to crush us under her heel.

But she has more humanity by the end of this trial than Edgeworth or Manfred displayed at the end of their first appearances. And before we know it, we're susceptible to being endeared to her as someone we could form an allyship with.

Case three is kind of a mess overall, but I appreciate Franziska's presence in it keeping these crazy clowns on track. For the most part, at least. She whips even Phoenix into staying focused when Ben, Trilo, and Moe would force us into a detour. Perhaps it's a smart choice in contrasting her with these characters, as it makes her a lot more reasonable looking after her introduction. Yeah, she did something pretty illegal to prove Maya's spirit channelling technique, but she's also taking no nonsense from these clowns and it goes a long way towards me appreciating her presence here in this case. (Anything to get through this painful first day, really.) I really can't blame her for manipulating Moe's testimony because she would have to be crazy to let him explain to the court how he saw the culprit fly off into the sky.

And then we run into her at the crime scene during the investigation and her motivations become loud and clear.

There was a sort of suspicion from the beginning, of course. Phoenix and Maya both told her that seeking revenge for her father made no sense and each time she made no comment towards it. She simply brushed it off and continued on as if they never mentioned her father.

But here, she explains it's not for her father she's doing any of this. It's for Edgeworth.

Edgeworth, whom she believes can't be dead.

It's a brilliant moment, really, tying her in a sibling rivalry sort of dance with our previous rival turned ally. It really informs how her mannerisms and her approach to trials can be so similar and yet so different to Manfred's. How she can be so obsessed with perfection and yet allow us to figure out the truth to each case. She's a perfect blend of both of them and suddenly she's the little sister, the one left behind, the one chasing after something that no longer really exists.

It's almost tragic, really. I started liking her in this moment; understanding a character can go a long way towards endearing you to them.

The second day of the trial is much the same as the second day of case 2's. Franziska is far too willing to allow us to theorise on what happened, challenging us enough to make us prove what we're saying. Her incredulousness at the reveal of the actual method of murder is warranted, but she can do nothing else but acquiesce to the truth of it all.

She's a sore loser. Another flaw in her perfect veneer. Where as in the second trial it was infuriating, this time it's enough to make you feel sorry for her. Someone overstepped her authority, she shot herself in the foot by figuring out the truth and trapping the true culprit in an unwinnable scenario. It was Edgeworth pulling some strings, but she still went right along with it, convinced she was absolutely right.

Thus, we come to the final case of her debut.

It should have been suspicious, looking back, how much of her we saw during the initial investigation. She's running herself to overdrive in order to win this case. Her previous two losses sting far too much; she's willing to fire Gumshoe for it, to charge recklessly ahead, to make a deal that could have killed a woman just to get her victory. Her complicated relationship with Edgeworth comes out in full force with his appearance and oof there is so much good stuff there with him and Phoenix in this scene. (As an aside, I really love how this case portrays Phoenix barely holding himself back from having a panic attack when Maya is kidnapped. It's so good how it portrays his vision going, how it portrays him freezing up, how he can barely hold himself together. Chef's kiss, delicious, I love it, that's got nothing to do with Franziska's character portrayal lol.) She is continually running away from us in this investigation and it shows how doggedly she's working on setting up all her pieces just to topple us.

And, hey! You know the quickest way to endear us to someone we're nearly convinced on? Just have them get shot!

In all seriousness, it is a shocking moment, hearing that De Killer's "gift" to us was having her shot. It sets up an immediate reversal of roles; yes, we never planned for this, we didn't even ask for this, but we're the ones employing the barely legal tactics now. We're the ones who have some dirty methods clinging to the backs of our minds in our efforts to win at all costs.

Being cast in the same light as she was in that second trial is another great moment of understanding. Suddenly, you can't fully blame her for what she does. Condemning her would mean condemning ourselves, even when the circumstances are vastly different. At least, that's certainly how I felt. I can't blame her for her illegal tactics when I'm out here with a gun to my head. It's the same sort of pressure, isn't it? To be hounded by an perfectionist who accepts only victory. To be hounded by an assassin with a noose around our girl's neck.

Clearly, Phoenix also understands this on some level. Otherwise, why would he take her flowers when going to visit her in the hospital? (Phoenix is such a kind person he's even willing to make nice to someone who whipped him into unconsciousness. Another point towards endearing Franziska to us, really.)

The ending of this case and Franziska's big damn hero moment really seal the deal. She comes in at the last second with everything we need both to prove Engarde's guilt and save Maya from De Killer. Her inability to understand our joy afterwards also speaks of a want for growth, a want to chase this light we've shown her, but her headstrong nature won't allow it. Her conversation with Edgeworth at the airport really seals the deal, too. She's become our ally, whether she wanted to or not.

Honestly, I think she's all the more fascinating for her stalwart refusal to admit that she's as endeared to us as we are to her. She's the type of character I've grown to love writing, so she definitely made her impression on me with this.

Her appearance in the next game is such a triumph, too. She's the same headstrong, defiant wild card, but she's accepted her position as our ally. She speaks of crushing Phoenix, of finally having her chance to battle against him and Edgeworth, yet it's undeniable how much fun she's having while we walk around with her. It's undeniable how she's working with Edgeworth in the same manner she did on the second day of her trials when fighting Edgeworth in court. She's here and she's going to make it our problem in an affectionate way.

Anyway yeah I love Franziska she's such a fun character.

#Momo writes stuff #Ace Attorney #Franziska von Karma #Essay time for Momo #Anyway I wanted to write this but went on a 2k Edgeworth rant lol #I LOVE FRANZISKA SO MUCH #SHE'S A FUCKING TERROR CHILD #I am a big fan of terror gals #Clearly lol #Here's my 2k words Franziska rant lol #She's so much fun believe me pls #JFA spoilers #Some spoilers #Character analysis be like #Literary analysis be like #Literary analysis brain goes brrrrr