#they needed to be on the same team in high school for character development reasons

[thawthebeez]

hey guys. tumblr user thawthebeez back at it again with yet another haikyuu essay B) the topic of today is one that i see NOBODY talking about which is crazy because this motif is (in my opinion) one of the main foundations of the kagehina community.

now may someone please explain to me why the HELL nobody ever talks about how whenever Tobio expresses an insecurity of ANY KIND, Hinata is ALWAYS the first one to swoop in and tell him not to worry about it?

yes, we've all established that Hinata Shouyou is the #1 Kageyama Tobio understander. we get that. BUT THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN DISPLAYS OF THAT AND I'VE SEEN LITERALLY NOBODY SPEAK OF IT EVER.

i'm pretty sure there's an instance of it in season 2 (either that or my brain just made it up) when Tobio is a little worried about his and Hinata's quick attack not really working out but Hinata tells him "nah you'll figure it out eventually" or something along those lines. i'm not going to lose my shit over it because i can't find it but if you know YOU KNOW.

a part that i COULD find from season 2, however, was this:

here we have Tobio explaining how talented of a setter Oikawa is- how he's so much better than him- and it's clear that this is something he's insecure about given his facial expression.

THEN we have Hinata's INSTANT response:

and it blows Tobio away because WHAT

because, to paraphrase a little, Tobio basically just said "yeah oikawa can make any spiker look good no matter what team he's on" to which Hinata replied "yeah but that team wouldn't be Karasuno" which is essentially "Karasuno is strong enough as it is" BUT- if ur crazy- " dw he wouldn't take your spot babe" (<- which probably isn't how it's meant to be interpreted because they just finished talking about The Team That's Stronger As Six thing so like... context clues. it's probably not the insane interpretation).

ANYWAYS boom there it is. Tobio expresses insecurity, Shouyou swoops in and goes "Ermmmm Actuallyyyyy🤓" WHICH IS SO FUCKING ENDEARING ON IT'S OWN BUT THE FACT THAT IT HAPPENS MORE THAN ONCE AND AT SUCH A CRITICAL POINT TOO

the critical point in question being:

(context: Tobio just came back from his training camp in Tokyo and is a little frustrated because he's gotten so used to playing with other prodigies like himself so to go back to talented-but-not-prodigious players is a bit of a switch for him. don't get him wrong tho he loves this team to DEATH it's just a little different that's all. hashtag number one Tobio apologist right here)

SO THERE'S THIS! and it goes without saying that Tobio is DEEPLY insecure about his late middle-school days and being referred to as a king. Tsukishima adds a little salt to the wound and while I didn't take a screenshot of it Tobio makes this look of absolute HORROR after he says what he says

(which, side note, shows a lot of a character development within Tobio. especially since I've been flipping between season 2 and 4 a lot looking for these clips. Tobio didn't even notice when he was acting kingly before but he realizes it INSTANTLY now which is so so so good for him yayyyy character development!)

this also leads fantastically into my next tangent which is

TOBIO FUCKING APOLOGIZES!

now, admittedly this isn't entirely related to my thesis but i absolutely ADORE talking about this scene and i genuinely think it is one of the most prevalent displays of character development within Tobio because i feel like he tends to get overshadowed by all the other characters (especially Hinata, which i'm not upset about in the slightest like it makes perfect sense and if Tobio got all the attention all the time the show would be soooo unbalanced)

but I feel like a lot of people skip over Tobio's overall development over the course of the show. I mean compare s1 Tobio to s4 Tobio THAT IS NOT SAME PERSON ANYMORE. he grows so much over such a short period of time (which is another essay I could write. something along the lines of "Explaining Why Tobio And Shouyou Need To Be On Separate Teams Actually Because Character Development Purposes" because the amount of people i've seen on tiktok complaining about kghn being on separate teams and how they should just be on the same team forever makes my blood boil violently) and it's so refreshing to see Tobio's growth especially as a big Tobio enjoyer.

ANYWAYS back to the main thesis.

So Hinata steps in IMMEDIATELY here. literally cuts Tobio's apology off because HE HAS NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR. he was expressing his thoughts whatever that's fine he could have done it in a nicer way SURE but listen the guy still has a LOOOONNNGGGG way to go but still, nothing to apologize for. it's just growing pains, y'know?

now the quote "What's wrong with him being the King again?" appearing here isn't the first time we're seeing this. Hinata has ALWAYS been confused as to why calling Tobio a "King" is a bad thing. literally from day fucking one Hinata was like "nah dude I think that title is cool" WHICH, AGAIN, TOBIO BEING INSECURE ABOUT SOMETHING AND SHOUYOU REASSURING HIM THAT IT'S TOTALLY CHILL HELLO?????

LITERALLY FROM DAY ONE SHOUYOU HAS BEEN DOING THIS. THAT MAN MAY THINK TOBIO'S AN ASSHOLE SOMETIMES (and he kinda is) BUT NEVER WILL HINATA INHERENTLY HATE A PART OF HIM. and i don't think they realize it here nor do i think the realization comes soon after but at some point there will be the realization that they love each other. every single part. fucking Tobio probably realized it way back in junior high but that's a tangent for another time.

now this line.... this one right here...... oh my god i can be SO NORMAL ABOUT IT.

the main reason why Tobio had this look of HORROR on his face after he yelled at everyone was BECAUSE HE KNEW THE ENDING. he knew that yelling at them would have consequences (if it weren't for Hinata stepping in thank god). HE'S SEEN IT ALL BEFORE. in his final year of junior high he yelled at his teammates to run faster and jump higher and be better AND THEY LEFT HIM!!!

so Tobio yelling like this instantly makes him afraid that he's just ruined the entire balance of the team. he thinks he's going to be left behind again because he yelled and everyone is going to leave him BUT!!!!!

BUT SHOUYOU IMMEDIATELY JUMPS IN AND SAYS "idc what u say honestly if i don't like i'm just not gonna listen" OR, TO TRANSLATE "i'm not going anywhere regardless of what you say"

Tobio's biggest fear is losing this team. I literally do not need to explain why. that man would fucking DIE for this team (if you really need an explanation just to go the end of the Kamomedai match when Tobio admits that he's upset they lost because he wanted to play with that specific team more).

and for Hinata to essentially say "you could literally be as kingly as u want and i simply would not care, pal, i promise you i am NOT going ANYWHERE!!!" which has got to be SO FUCKING RELIEVING FOR TOBIO.

(also something something "nobody was there" / "i'm here" something something "doesn't matter what kind of toss goes up if you send it my way i'm hitting it" something something they're soulmates or whatever they are literally bound together by the universe they were destined to be together and it's a crime that universe kept them apart for so long and now that they're together they will always BE together two peas in a pod literally inseparable they are hot glued and duct taped together.)

and then there's this. i mean at this point you already know what i'm going to say like you get it by now but again IT MUST BE SO RELIEVING TO TOBIO to know that shouyou thinks his biggest insecurity is cool. that shouyou thinks that it's not something to be concerned about. that no matter what, no matter how much a King he is, they're not going anywhere.

SOMETHING SOMETHING "you drew stars around my scars" IF YOU EVEN CARE

and just the fact that it's always ALWAYS shouyou to do this. the fact that there was dead silence before shouyou spoke up. the fact that it's ALWAYS HIM there to understand Tobio (someone who has been misunderstood for as long as he can remember) GOD THEY DRIVE ME INSANE.

anyways thank you for being a witness to this madness👍

#i know kagehina day was like 3 days ago LISTEN #i'll be there on hinakage day i promise #but again the fact that this is not as commonly talked about as it is is WILD to me #also the “Hinata and Kageyama need to be on separate teams actually” is an essay i think i will genuinely write at some point #just one more tiktok of people saying “noooo the boyfriendsss they need to be on the same team” and i'll do it i'll fucking do it #THEY CAN BE BOYFRIENDS AND BE ON DIFFERENT TEAMS PLEASE UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!1 #they needed to be on different teams in junior high for obvious plot reasons #they needed to be on the same team in high school for character development reasons #and they NEED to be in different teams going forward so they can continue to motivate one another #THEY ARE EACH OTHER'S GREATEST MOTIVATORS #there is nothing they love more than playing against one another like did you SEE the adlers v. jackals match HELLO #even when the adler's were LOSING tobio looked like he was having the TIME OF HIS LIFE #and you could tell that Hinata loved it too. not just because he was finally making up on that “i'm gonna beat u one day” promise #if they end up the same team forever they will just never feel that joy THEY NEED TO BE ON DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE NET I PROMISE #a net is not enough to stop a red string of fate #anyways #volleyball guys #wahoo another essay for the haikyuu tag!

[indigovigilance]

Aziraphale, Kermit the Frog, and Fraggle Rock

Inspo from @crowleys-hips, images shamelessly ripped from original post:

The costumes and set design in the Book of Job episode were supposedly inspired mostly by The Ten Commandments but I’m ignoring that for right now because this is more fun. Now that I’ve written it, this is actually one of my dark ones.

Ready? Let’s go.

read on Ao3

The Frog Prince

[Source]

Kermit, created in 1955, was originally an abstract character without a defined species. He did not [officially] become a frog until The Frog Prince episode in 1971. At the same time, he gained his pointed collar. Kermit is not the prince in this retelling, but is one of the many frogs, who don’t believe that the Frog Prince is actually human and try to convince the Frog Prince that even if there is a curse, they don’t need to try to break it, being a frog is great!

Sing out for the swamp and sing out for the ooze The life of a frog is the life you should choose Sing out for the mud and sing out for the bog It’s ever so jolly just being a frog We love the old mud hole, we say that we soak The feeling’s so good that we just gotta croak The muck and the mire, the slush and the slime Are the reasons a frog has a wonderful time

It’s a very weird musical number. I have exactly one semester of music theory under my belt but it sounds awfully minor key to me.

It’s very much about bullying someone who doesn’t feel like they belong into conforming. Exchange “frog” for “angel” and we’ve got a pretty on-the-nose parallel story here.

Two Interpretations

First: Aziraphale is a prince among frogs whose unique identity is being ignored. The ones he has turned to for help are ignoring his pleas and insisting that their way is the best way, even though it is clearly not.

Second: Aziraphale is the frog! Kermit gained his collar when he finally began to solidify as a character with a set identity. Both of these themes apply to Aziraphale’s arc in Book of Job.

*topic change*

Jim Henson & Richard Hunt

Coming back to the extreme queer theming of Season 2 (God bless you GO production team) we have a nod to Jim Henson and Richard Hunt. Much like Pterry and the Notorious NRG, both men began their artistic journeys very young. Henson began in high school, where he began developing what would later become the Muppets; he continued his work on puppets on Sesame Street. He is the creator of Kermit the Frog. He’s also well-known for The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, other queer culture mainstays. Some years later, at 18 years old, Richard Hunt shot his shot and asked for a job puppeteering on Sesame Street in 1972; he got it. He would continue to work as a puppeteer with Jim Henson on the Muppets and related works until he died in 1992 at the age of 40 due to complications of AIDS.

Gone But Not Forgotten || Terry Pratchett

If you have not read my meta on Terry Pratchett’s representation in the Final Fifteen, I will link it at the bottom as well and highly suggest you read it. It’s not necessary reading for what comes next, but it is relevant.

Richard Hunt was openly gay and heavily involved in the New York gay community during the AIDS epidemic. He was in a relationship with a painter named Nelson Bird, who died of AIDS related complications in 1985. There is some speculation that Fraggle Rock Season 5 Episode 7 is an artistic representation of Richard Hunt losing his partner. In that episode, Wembley makes a new friend, Mudwell, played by Richard Hunt, that he abruptly loses at the end of the episode following a confession of mutual affection. You can follow the link below to watch the full episode. The final-fifteen parallel content begins at 12:30:

Gone But Not Forgotten (Fraggle Rock S05E07)

The loss is followed by a conversation between two characters that centers around remembering those who have been lost by keeping the things and memories they left behind, and the partner who [survived] goes through rituals of grieving.

If you scrolled past it but would like to read it now, here’s a link to my meta Terry Pratchett’s representation in the Final Fifteen.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #terry pratchett #neil gaiman #aziraphale #kermit the frog #the muppets #fraggle rock #jim henson #richard hunt

[deconstructthesoup]

Holy shit, you guys liked my Hatchetfield/Fantasy High idea... still coming up with a good name for it. Just using "High School is Killin' Me" would be good, but that might get confusing in the tags.

That being said, oh boy do I have more, so... let's dive in.

Ragh: He's essentially Max Jagerman if he'd actually had the chance to get that redemption arc (instead of, y'know, dying and becoming a vengeful ghost). Back in his freshman year, he was that jerk, and when he met Fabian, it could've easily resulted in two equally hardheaded guys becoming each other's absolute nightmare, but after Fabian initially got rejected from the team despite being the best at tryouts---and after Fabian slipped Ragh the answers to a test in order to get into his good graces---Ragh stuck up for him and got him on the team. It took a while for them to really become friends, mostly due to the fact that they both needed to grow past the toxic masculinity, but they got there eventually, with Fabian being the first person that Ragh came out to. And, yeah, their relationship was initially "friends with benefits" until they got their shit together. (I don't know what Lydia's deal is yet---she might just have a chronic illness, but it could also have LiB connections.)

Tracker: Her story's fairly similar to in canon---religious family who kicked her out once she started questioning everything, moved in with her cool uncle as a result---only instead of dropping out of high school, she transferred from Sycamore to Hatchetfield High. This worked out pretty well, seeing as Jawbone had just started his guidance counselor position after getting clean and putting that psychology degree to good use. Tracker's adjusting all right to her new life---she goes to concerts at the Slaughtered Pig, she's getting really into witchy stuff, and she's bonded with the principal's daughter over having to go to the school your parent works at... and she's also somehow developed a gigantic crush on the local church girl, which she initially tells herself is completely hopeless. But at night, she dreams of a haunted forest, a full moon, and a woman with white hair whose face she can never quite make out. And one day, she and Kristen find a book in Jawbone's study...

Jawbone: He's kind of the Miss Holloway equivalent, because honestly? There's really no other character who fits the vibe. Instead of being an immortal 80's singer who became a witch, however, he's a seemingly normal guy who grew up in Hatchetfield and has left quite a bit off times, but always finds his way back, and he's staying this time. Part of the reason he always leaves is, of course, the pressure of being queer in a small town, but he also has always had unusual abilities that he can't explain, and he used to either ignore his powers through the use of drugs or show them off as party tricks that would eventually get out of hand. But after years of misspent youth, he decided to get his life together, kind of like Emma did... and when he came back to Hatchetfield, he found a copy of the Black Book and learned the truth. Jawbone's now a protector of the town, helping people in his own way---and sometimes, that means having to let people in on the truth about Hatchetfield.

Ayda: She's well known for being the principal's daughter, a total nerd, and a bit of a recluse through no fault of her own, but there is much more to Ayda than meets the eye. See, Arthur Aguefort, way back in the 1900s, made a deal with Tinky after he lost his wife---that if he never lost Ayda in that same way, he'd serve the Lord in Black for eternity. Tinky agreed, Arthur managed to find a loophole and get outta there with an indefinite lifespan and a seemingly immortal daughter, but Tinky wasn't too happy about losing a future resident of the Bastard Box, so he turned the gift he'd given Ayda on his head. Instead of living forever, Ayda is capable of dying, but every time she dies, she is born again, with no memory of who she was or the powers she has---the original Ayda could control flame, and so can every version of her. So Arthur has to watch his daughter die again and again, find herself again and again, struggle again and again... yeah, there's a reason he became principal of Hatchetfield High instead of the mayor. By this point, he's decided that if he can't help Ayda, the best thing he can do is get to know her well while he can. (She's gonna have a happy ending, don't worry---I'm not that cruel)

Aelwyn: On the surface, she and Adaine have the same relationship as they initially did in canon---constantly bickering, constantly competing, you know the drill---but underneath all that, Aelwyn cares deeply for her sister, and has tried very hard over the years help keep Adaine's powers hidden from their parents. It's really due to not wanting to upset their parents that Aelwyn doesn't try as hard as she should, and why she's fairly distant from her sister most of the time. Their relationship is sorta a Lex-and-Hannah situation... if Lex was a straight-A popular party girl instead of a grungy, rebellious high school dropout. Aelwyn does eventually find herself and grow closer to Adaine, but it takes a while for that to happen.

Zelda: She's still a super-shy and awkward dork who loves pretty much every alt-music genre known to man and has some mild anger issues. In all honesty, not a lot changes about her, aside from her being human and not a satyr---she has a crazy family, she's got a crush on Gorgug that eventually turns into a very sweet relationship, and she eventually becomes friends with The Seven... though, I'm gonna need to finish that season before I can give you guys any more information on the rest of them. However, I will say that the Penelope and Sam situation is gonna tie into the Honey Festival.

Other miscellaneous ideas/characters: Sandra Lynn is a park ranger in Witchwood Forest, Garthy O'Brien runs one of the only queer nightclubs in Hatchetfield, Basrar still runs his ice cream parlor, Gilear is still a mess

And... yep, that's it for now. I'll talk about some of the antagonists later, and then maybe I'll get around to The Seven.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #starkid #hatchetfield #ragh barkrock #tracker o'shaughnessey #jawbone o'shaughnessey #ayda aguefort #aelwyn abernant #zelda donovan

[violetlunette]

Things you hate about Hori's writing?

Before we begin, I want to state that I don’t think Hori is a bad writer. I think he has strengths and weaknesses like all writers. I also know that Hori is under a lot of pressure from fans, his editor, publishers, and whoever else is involved with making a manga. I’m also aware that writing a manga is different than book writing, which is what I’m trying to study, so I may not understand a few things. Plus, Hori is under a time crunch which may affect his writing.

That being said, I was asked what I don’t like about his writing, so;

Notes:

*BNHA Critical

*Anti-Shigaraki (mainly how he's written and handled storywise.)

*Take it with a grain of salt

*Keep in mind that these will be writing elements only, not how I feel about characters.

Also, keep in mind that BNHA is a LONG series, so please be polite in your corrections if you feel there's a mistake. Also, the post is a bit rambly, so if you would like me to clarify something I said, let me know.

1: Lack of Build up.

*Now, not everything needs to be built up in a story, however, if it plays an important role, story or character-wise, then it has to.

This especially failed with Midnight, which pissed me off because Hori showed he could do death a scene right with Twice! Twice was built up as a person, we saw his connections with people, we saw him fighting for what he believed in, and we saw him die. We got none of that with Midnight. To anyone who only read the main manga, did you know she was high school friends with Aizawa and Hizashi and that she took in a kitten they found? And that SHE was the one who pushed Aizawa into his teaching job? No, you didn’t. Because Hori failed to tell us that. Also, Hori failed to build Midnight up as a person, show us what she loved, skipped her death scene, and yet expects to get the same emotional payoff as Twice.

2: Not allowing us to learn more about Class 1-A and seeing their internal struggles.

*I hate the LoV but I understand why others may connect with them. One of the reasons is that we get to see their inner thoughts and feeling and learn about their past and why they’re the way they are. With Class 1-A we don’t know over half the class. What do I mean by that? 

Why are they heroes? Tenya wants to be like his brother, Izuku wants to be like All Might, and Ochako wants money for her family and just likes helping people. But what about Toru? Why does she want to be a hero? How did she get in? And so on. What are the students' morals? They believe in protecting people, but what else? Are they chaotic? Lawful? Neutral? What? And what are their struggles? Etc.

Why is all of this important, and why is it a writing failure? Because we need this stuff to care about the characters. This is especially important in the climax where we’re supposed to be rooting for the heroes, but instead, most aren’t. Why? Because we never got to get to know them.

3: Important information is in side materials

*Most of the development of Class 1-A is in Team Up Missions and school briefs where the canon is questionable as they’re written by different authors. But the worst offense is having Aizawa’s backstory in BNHA:V. Why? Because the payoff for that backstory is in the main series. Aizawa’s backstory has no emotional weight and feels out of place in BNHA:V. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t have been the main story. It could have been slipped in while Aizawa and Hizashi are driving to see Kurogiri. This is especially important as it tells the audience of the main series who Oboro is and why he’s important. As of now, without reading the other series, he’s just a few images where he barely talks.

For it is a huge writing failure on the writer's part if I have to buy DLC or go to side materials to get the complete story as those are supposed to add, not fill in plot holes and such.

4: Everything is being shoved into the final climax

*In the climax where everything is supposed to come to a head, we are dealing with the backstories of several characters, plot points that barely showed up, several "twists" and more, making the fight longer than a DBZ battle. Not only does this stretch things out to the point of boredom where everyone is just like, "get on with it!" but it also fails to give us and the story time to build on these points, most of which are important. To be fair, I don't think this is Hori's fault, as he's being pushed to wrap things up if the rumors are correct.

5: Shiggy barely does anything

*Shiggy is the main villain of the series. He’s on the posters, the covers, in the theme song, etc. 

Yet he doesn’t do a thing to push the plot and Izuku’s arc till the end. And even then, AFO’s does most of the work. No, really; after the USJ arc and before the hospital arc, how does Shiggy influence the plot?

He released two Nomus after meeting Stain. Okay. What role does that play in the plot or on Izuku? None. You can take that out and it wouldn’t change the story except for a scene or two. Shiggy “talks” with Izuku at the mall? What’s the effect there? Well, it has them change the campsite but again, that changes nothing as far as the story goes, nor does it push the plot. And Izuku? Again, no change. Shiggy orders Izuku’s death? See above. The scene with Bakagou? Put anyone there, and it would have been the same. And as soon as the heroes show up, it becomes about AFO.

And once AFO is arrested? Overhaul becomes the villain and—correct me if I’m wrong—the other league members play a bigger role than him. And none of his actions affect the plot that much. Like, do the member of the league do anything that Overhaul’s minions couldn’t do? And again, the effect on Izuku, the protagonist; zero.

It isn’t until Giran is captured that Shiggy does something to push the plot forward and that’s defeating Re-Destructo and having the MLA join him. After that? He goes to sleep so he can get a makeover! (Which, to be fair, paid off as his hair becomes nice and fluffy, but still.)

It’s not until the hospital raid that Shiggy not only moves the plot forward AND affects Izuku. And then, almost immediately, AFO takes over. Even in the current arc, I’m not sure if it’s Shiggy fighting or AFO. The most he did was in the USJ arc, and even then, it was the NOMU that affected the characters and plot. True, Shiggy nearly kills Tsuyu and figures out Aizawa's trick, but he's not the one who leaves the damage on Aizawa that persist throughout the series or lessens All Might's time. It's the Nomu. He crushes Aizawa's face and the rest of his body, then stands enough of a threat against All Might that he has to push past his limit. And both these actions affect the plot of the story. None of Shiggy's actions do.

In Inuyasha we barely saw Naraku, however, you can’t take him out of the story and replace him with someone else. Why? Because the story wouldn’t have happened without Naraku being Naraku. Without him, Kikyo wouldn’t have died nor would the drama between her and Inuyasha. (Not to mention the drama with the rest of the party.) The point is that if Naraku vanished from Inuyasha the whole story would fall apart.

That’s not the case with Shiggy. Anyone could have led the attack on USJ and had the same effect on the story and the characters. Anyone could have been possessed by AFO and triggered Izuku’s need to save them. Anyone could be Nana’s grandson and the effect would be the same. And, as Shiggy is the poster villain for MHA, this is the greatest writing failure of MHA. Why? Because a villain's role is to push the plot and the hero's arc forward.

Hell, Overhaul is only around for one arc, and he affects the story more than Shiggy; 

Overhaul's actions caused Izuku to force himself to grow to help Eri, then showed Izuku that defeating a villain isn't enough to save someone as Eri was still traumatized. Mirio lost his quirk, prompting a sense of guilt in Izuku but determination in Eri so she could help him. The bullets Overhaul made come back and cripple Aizawa to the point he has to depend on others. Night eye is killed by him and dies in Ochako's arms, forcing her to rethink her career and install an intense need to save others so no one dies on her watch again. And so on. 

And as for AFO, just like Naraku, the story wouldn't exist without him. Without him, there would be no OFA, All Might's backstory wouldn't have happened, all the nomu plots wouldn't exist, and Shiggy would have nothing. Everything Shiggy has isn't through his own strength but through AFO.

The point is that AFO and Overhaul cannot be removed or replaced by another to make the story function. Shiggy can, and to me, that is a huge failure.

Special mentions; (these are more opinion based)

1: Wasted concepts

*Hori has a bunch of good ideas but due to time constraints or overwhelming himself, Hori rarely follows through or explores the full potential.

The biggest example is the Nomus. I stated this in another post but I’ll copy it here;

“The Nomus are the ones that carry the threat and the emotional impact for the main cast. Kurogiri connects to Aizawa and shows that AFO has not only been stealing corpses but has been eyeing UA students especially, which connects to UA. And the Bat Nomu is a personal connection to Izuku and Bakagou, who are both major players. And we know Dabi’s connection to the plot.”

Because the Nomus are mostly made of dead people, this could have a huge impact on the cast. Forget about Shiggy, if AFO really wanted to get back at All Might he should have used Nana’s corpse in some way. That would have shaken him up and hurt him and the audience more than some kid All Might met once. Plus, the nomus aren’t just dead people, they’re living people that were experimented on. Think of how that raises the stakes for the heroes as they’re not just fighting villains, they’re fighting innocent people who were kidnapped and brainwashed. And every time a hero dies they can end up as one of those monsters. Again, the emotional stakes are raised.

This is especially important for Izuku. Even if the bat nomu disappeared after one arc he would still have made an impact on the story if he had faced Izuku and been revealed who he was. Why? Because he was someone Izuku knew. A bully, yes, but still someone Izuku knew. And AFO turned him into a monster. This gives Izuku a personal reason to fight and train harder while introducing him to the kind of person AFO was. Whether Bat Nomu died or was captured, there’s a personal stake for Izuku.

I could go on, but this post is already gonna be long. The gist is that we got the bare minimum with them and it’s a shame.

But it’s not just the Nomus, there’s also Stain. They introduced a cool villain with a decent concept and half a leg to stand on, but they lock him up right away and don’t bother with him again for over two hundred chapters. And even then he does ONE thing, then vanishes.

There are also a ton of wasted characters like over half the class of 1-A, The UA teachers, the quirkless, the MLA, and Sir Night Eye.

Now to balance this, here’s what I like about Hori’s writing;

1: Decent Concepts *While he doesn’t always explore them very well, Hori does put out fun concepts that fanfic writers myself have fun with.

2: The creative use of Quirks *When Hori shows us the quirks he’s very creative in their uses which is cool to see. And there’s a lot of science and research behind them that I’m discovering.

3: The Characters *Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Hori creates a lot of interesting characters, a majority that people want to learn about. (Shame we don’t but I digress.) (Plus most of the designs are creative.)

4: All Might’s character and arc *Nearly everything about All Might is perfect from a story perspective. Almost everything about how All Might is written is done absolutely well.

5: The setup *The stage Hori set up is very interesting and I like it. I like the premise, the setting, the characters, and more.

6: The Art *I like most of Hori’s designs as they’re nice-looking and creative. Most of the costumes are fun as well. (I love Ochako's hero costume! As well as Stars and Stripes'.)

7: Subtle scenes *This is mainly shown in the beginning, but many small scenes carry many character and story elements without it being overly obvious. But I talked about them in my chapter reviews, so I won't repeat myself.

And that's it! Feel free to share what you like or dislike about Hori's writing elements.

#anti league of villains #anti lov #anti shigaraki #anti shigaraki tomura #anti tomura shigaraki #bnha meta #bnha critical #mha #bnha #long post #anon reply #hori's writing #bnha praise #I don't think Hori's a bad writer #I think he was rushed on a lot of stuff #pressured #and just over his head #I think if he was able to write the entire store before publishing things would have been better #sadly manga doesn't work that way

[the-crime-of-silliness]

S/I MASTERLIST

Basically, all of my current Self insert characters for my selfships, below the cut. (some ships still don't have an official s/i, be patient w/me pls lol) All of their real names are just devo btw lol.

STARFALL (Marvel Comics S/I)

Dating: Arcade.

Age: Roughly mid 20's - early 30's

Tag: 'ѕнσσтιηg ѕтαяѕ' - ѕ/ι

' There's a star man, waiting in the sky... '

After the severance of his loyal body guard, miss locke, Arcade was in need of some hired help. Fortunately, Starfall, an inhuman gun for hire was able to get into contact with him. With the power to condense white hot energy into star shaped projectiles, as well as the average powers of flight and superstrength, Starfall and Arcade did eventually end up relating to eachother a bit more, and falling in love. They make eachother worse <3

SOL (X-men Evo S/I)

Dating: Scott Summers or Todd Tolansky.

Age: 15-17

Tag: 'нєяє ¢σмєѕ тнє ѕυη' - ѕ/ι

' Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter... '

Basically an alternate, aged down Starfall. Sometimes I use them as my self insert to ship with toad, and sometimes I use them to ship with scott. Either way, they are part of the X-men, and have the same powers as Starfall, except they can't fly and get their powers from a sun powered X-gene.

LYNX (DC/DCUO hero S/I)

Dating: Jervis tetch

Age: Early 30's

Tag: 'α ¢нєѕнιяє ¢αт'ѕ gяιη...' - ѕ/ι

' I love you for psychological reasons... '

Based off the DCUO story line. After receiving Exobytes granting them the powers of a cat like superhero (including increased flexibility and agility, as well as claws, although they mostly like to use their own Katar) Lynx became a public member of the braniac resistance. They were forced to team up with Jervis Tetch to clear their name, after being framed for the murder of a C-lister villain.

Cavalier II (DC S/I / Roguesona)

Dating: Jaime Reyes

Age: 18-19

Tag: 'єη gαя∂є!' - ѕ/ι

' But no one ever sees a victory by being too blind... '

Doubles as my Roguesona. After the death of the original cavalier in the suicide squad, a young goon in Gotham city attempting to make a name for themself took it as the perfect opportunity to break into costumed crime, picking up the hat and sword the minute the news got to the other C-listers of the city. After meeting Jaime, who was in town for college, he developed an odd respect for the flamboyant antihero and their odd code of ethics, despite them being one of the weirder criminals in town.

(also jaimes on his 'I can fix him' arc bfebfwiub)

Agent D-S (Spy kids S/i)

Dating: Fegan Floop

Age: late 20s - early 30s

Tag: 'тнε sтσяү σғ тнε sρү…' - s/ι

' I won't be done until my head falls off... '

An older member of the OSS, they were sent to monitor Fegan after his turning, as well as attempt to sway him into helping the OSS. After realizing they were in love with him, they quickly chose to retire from their position and run off with him. Yeah this one's not as lore heavy sorry :p

Sumner Crow (Ever After High S/I)

Dating: The mad hatter

Age: Uhh an adult old enough to hypothetically have a highschool aged child?

'I wonder if they have wondered or will ever wonder...'

Tag: 'ρєσρℓє ωιтнσυт вяαιηѕ ∂σ αη αωƒυℓ ℓσт σƒ тαℓкιηg...' - ѕ/ι

The scarecrow from the wizard of oz(despite that not rlly being a fairytale but like neither is aiw?), Sumner met the hatter family after kinda wandering into the new bakery in town. With his daughter being at school for long periods of time, Mr.Hatter was happy to have someone with enough free time to stop into the bakery and have tea with him, and something just kinda blossomed from there.

(This S/I uses he/they pronouns!!)

#'тнε sтσяү σғ тнε sρү…' - s/ι #'єη gαя∂є!' - ѕ/ι #α ¢нєѕнιяє ¢αт'ѕ gяιη...' - ѕ/ι #'нєяє ¢σмєѕ тнє ѕυη' - ѕ/ι #'ѕнσσтιηg ѕтαяѕ' - ѕ/ι #'ρєσρℓє ωιтнσυт вяαιηѕ ∂σ αη αωƒυℓ ℓσт σƒ тαℓкιηg...' - ѕ/ι #self shipper #self ship #self ship community #selfship community #self insert #s/i #self insert x canon #my art

[eliza1911o1]

Rant about Heroes of Olympus because as a sequel series to Percy Jackson it pains me pt. 1

So I just reread the PJO (one of my all time favorite series) and HoO series and I’m just struck by how unfulfilled I feel after finally finishing BoO for the first time…

I didn’t read it when I was younger because it came out just as I got really busy in school and was growing out of my “reading phase” and before I knew I had ADHD/attention struggles

I know I’m older and they’re aimed at young audiences and a bit outdated in general now but the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is still amazing. No contest. It may have plot holes, it may be lacking in some areas like representation, but everything has flaws and all of those are just so easy to get over with such heartwarming characters and carefully crafted quests. Not to mention the high stakes and actually pretty realistic struggles??? I’m probably biased, but I just really love them and am not above fighting others if they put it down

But even after realizing both series are kids books, the plot valleys (not just pothole level inconsistencies), OOC moments, anticlimactic ending, general lack of dynamic characters and lasting themes, and lacking world building all prove HoO to be underwhelming compared to PJO. Like it’s not bad, but it’s not close to perfect either. It’s even hard to argue how most of the events and characters in HoO add and further the stories of PJO, let alone why to consider all of it as sacred canon. Especially by the end of BoO, the lackluster vibe overall was really disheartening

They aren’t bad books. I just don’t think they lived up to the heart of PJO. I didn’t feel like I was reading more about characters I love or learning about great new characters and settings or invested in why this battle against Gaia will be the greatest of all time. Instead, I my brain was caught trying to convince myself why all of that was true and I was blatantly put off by some of the story directions, which made me feel incredibly sad

Again, it’s a fun read. Not considering any sort of literary analysis or strong personal opinion and taking into account the intended audience, it meets expectations. I just feel like the original series did so much more than be average and I’m just grasping at straws here because HoO had potential to do the same

Anyway, here are some of my strongest complaints with brief explanation and in no particular order:

- where were the old characters??? Grover?? WHERE WAS GROVER??????

- Percy was very underplayed in BoO for no reason; even if you consider his time in Tartarus, he was very weak compared to SoN and it wasn’t really explained, which felt lazy. They should’ve let him rest if he wasn’t up to fighting

- mental health issues were brought up but skirted by (Nico’s coming out was awful, Percy’s suicidal thoughts weren’t really addressed seriously (that’s a whole nother post), Hazel’s literally having died once)

- Too. Much. Romance. Why did everyone need to be a couple?????

- same structure as PJO, but without any reinvention (TLT and TLH had almost the same beginning)

- povs past SoN had weird distribution; I don’t think it made sense HoH had all seven povs but the final book, BoO, didn’t

- what made Jason, Piper, and Leo more special than any of the other seven? The explanation that they began everything felt lazy and discredited Frank and Hazel….

- Reyna and Nico and even Coach Hedge held a lot of importance in the plot and it felt weird since they weren’t even part of the seven. Distribution of responsibility and the idea of seven great heroes saving stuff (even if it was ironic) was downplayed

- the seven never really felt like a team or had a moment where it seemed like all of them were vital to make things work. The splitting up into smaller groups all the time definitely worsened this

- why was New Rome a whole mini country when CHB is a literal camp… the world building was quite slapdash and felt unreastic

- no developed Roman side characters really; wish Dakota, Lou Ellen, and others had more importance and interest

- Percy came back to NYC (to CHB) and no one said anything? No Sally-Percy reunion? No Grover-Percy reunion? No campers cheering for Percy to be back?

- last minute Solangelo; they should’ve had some sort of interest to sudden love/slow burn/opposites attract relationship with proper time to develop

- issue of Greeks vs. Roman felt sort of weak and their sudden cohesion at the end felt too forced (how is one statue gonna fix eeeeeeverything)

- final battle was awful. No words. Giants easily killed, Greeks and Romans united in a minute, Gaia contained in a little storm immediately after waking and killed like no biggie

- minimal lasting damage or deaths (Leo’s death…. Don’t even get me started)

- BoO and later books ruined Leo’s character and made him seem selfish, unaware, and rude

- Annabeth and Percy being captured immediately by the giant princess in BoO; you think they escaped Tartarus for the ending to be THAT

- Frank’s whole situation; firewood and the whole idea of life being fragile felt pretty useless by the end when nothing could touch him

- weak usage of prophecy — I feel like the oracle being dead at the end was a sign for everyone to live without forced guidance, which was a big deal in PJO, but the point wasn’t really made and it felt like he just didn’t want to come up with more. Also, it felt like lines were added randomly to the prophecy of seven but we never hear everything together??? The prophecy felt cheap and forced with how everything played out

- no issues with Percy and Annabeth going to New Rome for college, but they’d be that quick to abandon their home in NYC? I get the trauma associated with it, but there was nothing that made it seem right for them to think the trauma was enough to leave everything… lowkey wanted Annabeth to go to Columbia or Barnard or NYU and be fixing up CHB to house adults or have a veteran demigod network

- cutting off character development and interactions. A lot of the characters were used to further others (Jason furthering Nico’s in BoO) or never even talked to each other (Percy and Piper). There wasn’t much growth in the last couple books even though it was very clear in the beginning ones (Frank is an obvious example) and more importantly, there was a supreme lack of resolution in their stories. Especially Percy and Annabeth, who went to hell and back, we never feel like they suffered for a reason or needed to be the ones to suffer or the suffering changed them for better or worse or any other real indication I should accept the ending

- no backlash on the gods. At all. Percy, like many others throughout PJO and HoO, is struggling to respect the gods, let alone continue being used by them. And in HoO, the gods are USELESS. They do literally n.o.t.h.i.n.g. They have one fight scene and when we have Jason’s equivalent to the asking for childcare scene of TLO, Zeus responds and his backbone breaks. The only consequence was Apollo being demoted but that honestly felt like a marketing scheme knowing ToA

- lots more but I’ll stop myself here

(Btw I did not read it because of the show lol though I am glad I did so I’m ready for it)

#percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy jackon and the olympians #frank zhang #jason grace #piper mclean #hazel levesque #leo valdez #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #percabeth #Grover where were you #blood of olympus #TLH #SoN #MoA #HoH #BoO #this is solely referencing PJO and HoO #no reference to Magnus Chase Kane Chronicles or Trials of Apollo so don’t come at me

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

augh. (< sound I make when random touhou thoughts flood my head)

I kinda get why touhou ‘canon’ might not ever acknowledge the passage of real time for its established characters. reimu and marisa and so on aren’t just team shanghai alice’s characters, but they belong to all of doujinshi culture. so they and everyone else or even the setting itself won’t or can’t go through any dramatic change of status quo because not everyone might accept those changes.

But I can still wish it wasn’t like that! And I still hold out hope zun will just change his mind on a whim one day regarding that ‘sazae-san’ comment!!

though truth be told this is really only really relevant to me when it comes to two specific characters.

The first is Sumireko, who I would love to get even a hint that she’s carrying her chunni dreams after being done with high-school. You can even excuse her still wearing the same outfit and still calling herself a high-schooler around the rest of the cast because she thinks explaining why she’s not one anymore would be too much trouble.

The other is Akyuu which I uh, have much more complicated feelings over. For the record, I don’t want or think zun should be like ‘and now shes dead’ or anything like that. 😨 But i dunno, her whole thing about having a reduced lifespan feels too thematically important to the character to just ignore with ‘oh medince in todays age is a lot better. But but, like i said above about established characters not going through any *dramatic* changes, its not like canon could ever give some kind of reason for her fate changing. But but but, if she just shows up again in like five years and nothing about her fate is commented on, that would really make all the fans double down on the idea that the passage of time is truly meaningless, so...

...Maybe the best case scenario really is for Akyuu to just never show up again and we just all make up our own ideas of what she’s up to 😅❓ Maybe that why Kosuzu and Kasen have both just disappeared... Their stories in canon are capital o, Over, and so its up to fans to decide what to do with em... Miyoi needs to hurry up and do more stuff before she’s gone too!!

Side note that’s barely related: Reisen needs to be playable in the next game wearing another new cute pink/white outfit and her every other line needs to be about how she loves embracing being an Earthling so that more people at large can remember her character development and also stop drawing her in that blazer!

Side note that’s not related: Aya needs to be playable in the next game and talk more about being weary of her life as a middle-aged corporate woman and I think she should wear maple-leaf themed socks.

#i would settle for reimu having a throwaway line about how shes been doing this for decades #although what if monkey paw hears me and touhou pulls a boruto or something (i've never seen boruto but Imagine what that'd be like) #touhou

[regarding-stories]

"Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night" (Movie)

So, I just finished watching "Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night" - the movie. With mixed feelings. Don't get me wrong - it's a nice enough movie. It's just goes to great lengths to edit one character in that didn't exist in the book, one (almost completely) out that definitely was there before and plays a role going forward. And that creates problems.

I can see why they did so. (Spoilers ahead.) Asuna becomes the protagonist, so we see events from her point of view. (Or at least, wee see things with her present all the time...) And the original "Aria of the Starless Night" was only half a book, after all. It certainly was sufficient to fill an episode of the original anime, but for a movie - a movie from Asuna's point of view - too few events happen outwardly.

One thing I appreciate about this adaptation is that we see a glimpse of Asuna's life before the game - very much in tune with what we know from Mother's Rosario. It becomes clear that Asuna is a hard worker. These scenes make me sad. They make me think how many Japanese childhoods are spent in cram schools and such, suffocating the ability to develop as a person in a multitude of ways. Childhood needs to prepare for life, yes, but it also needs room to be a person, to be yourself. How much is too much or too little is certainly debatable, but we see with Asuna that she works hard while finding no praise for it from her mother - whose approval she desires most. I can't help but feel sorry for her. Of course that's the intent of the scene, and it is well executed.

Where things go a bit wrong is the introduction of Misumi, Asuna's friend. Where Asuna is popular, Misumi doesn't care. Both excel at sports, but only Asuna cheers with her team. We soon find out that Misumi outscores Asuna yet finds time to be an obsessive gamer girl on the same level as our good slacker friend Kirito. (Remember, Kirito would typically try to do enough so that school wouldn't suffer, but he is no overachiever by any mark. Asuna would confirm that for herself when she asks him if trying to be part of the front of game progress is like being at the top of class or school. Kirito's stammering tells her - and us - all she needs to know.)

Misumi's introduction seemed over the top. It's just a hunch, but if I had to guess intelligence alone would not get you through Japan's school system with top grades, probably quite a lot of work and rote-learning are involved, especially since such a high value is put on scoring high and unlocking entry to a prestigious school, and competition is also tough. Something which we are reminded of by Asuna's classmates.

We probably learn another reason why Asuna is popular - here she is helpful to others, helping them score better grades as well. One has to wonder if we have left the Asuna of the book already behind. Book Asuna was afraid of the ridicule of her classmates because she had failed the path she had been on by being trapped in the game. (The path her mother designed for her. The obedient girl path.) A fear that doesn't feature much in the movie - it's barely mentioned.

(On a side note, we see Misumi never helping anyone, never cheering with anyone, and avoiding people. Quite the foreshadowing.)

Welcome to the tutorial

Mito (her gamer tag) then convinces Asuna to join her in the game, which Asuna does on a whim when she has the chance. (Originally Asuna couldn't quite explain why she joined the game, leaving it to us as readers to guess that she probably wanted more out of life than study and work and pleasing her mother.) This makes Mito co-responsible for something that was originally only Asuna's impulse decision alone.

The two meet in the game and we get a quick tutorial about the nature of online games - including what an avatar is and how people might play the other gender. This is played for a bit of fun but frankly isn't needed since most of that is immediately thrown out of the window with the classical opening. Still, I bet Asuna had a good day with a friend. When she wants to log out we are greeted by Kayaba's announcement - again. (Watching the crowds is an interesting exercise on this one. Meet some faces we already know.)

Mito then tries to pull a Kirito and drag Asuna along into the second town. Here we start seeing differences between the Kirito we know from elsewhere and Mito. In the novel and anime, Kirito suggested this to Klein but Klein stayed behind of his own volition. Kirito had given Klein a proper tutorial and then left town alone after offering him this opportunity. No matter how Kirito felt about it later - he gave Klein the info to make an informed decision, even if on the spot. Mito, on the other hand, drags Asuna along and almost gets her killed. (This vindicates Kirito a bit. Too bad he doesn't know.) Asuna had yet to get a proper intro into the actual fighting part of the game, nor did she know what was going on, lacking experience in an RPG in general. Mito's motivation is similar to Kirito's, but she seems to misunderstand that she can't just bypass the tutorial. She, however, and to her credit, understands, and does better. She then really settles Asuna into the game, shown as a sort of montage.

We then learn the realities of Aincrad. This is a bit of a remix. Remember how Kirito lost the Moonlit Black Cats? We see a party die in similar circumstances, with Mito doing nothing to change it. She doesn't feel great about it, but she lets them die. Her view is well suited to the realities of the game. But it leaves an aftertaste - for us, her, and Asuna.

This is the one regard that the movie goes deeper than previous media in explaining the supposed economics of the game. (I never found them convincing to begin with, but at least somebody converted them into a proper scene finally so we can see them in action.) Asuna and Mito find empty chest after empty chest in their dungeon crawls, so when Asuna sees a chest, she wants to open it. Mito insists that it's a trap - because else it would have been looted, too. It would require a decent locksmith skill to open without setting the trap off. This is of course exactly the situation a beta tester would know but a newbie would fall prey to, as originally demonstrated with Kirito's first guild in the original SAO Vol. 1 - Aincrad. This also properly motivates part of the hatred for beta testers we see later, something which both book and anime series never really get around to explain very well.

We then see another party fall prey to it, but this only reinforces what we saw in the anime. These traps are practically unbeatable death traps. (In the original, it was an anti-crystal zone, too, meaning it was intended to pose a high-level risk of a total party kill even for the mid-to-higher levels.) The tone this sets for Aincrad is certainly very dark. It is utterly unclear how you would know and avoid such a trap (beta test knowledge aside), and it would put a heavy burden on a party member to perfect their locksmith skill, something which in turn should make it a huge problem for Kirito and Asuna eventually, but apparently for them it is never a problem. Yay for consistency.

We can assume that this looting of the chests gives a few people an advantage over others, and we know a few things about Mito by now. In the opening scene of the movie she was beaten by Kirito in terms of being the players farthest in the game. So she wants to be at the front. We also learn through her time with Asuna that she prioritizes game progress. In spite of seeing her and Asuna having fun, there is a scene where Mito chastises Asuna for paying for something else than potions at the store - for cosmetic items. However, as Asuna points out, she went on a bit of a shopping spree because she wanted to get her mind off the deaths she observed that day. Plus she bought also what she was asked to. We see Asuna balance game with self-care, characterizing Mito further (if subtly) by needing Asuna to remind her.

Let's reuse some more stuff

We now come to climactic scene of the time Mito and Asuna spend together, and again it is lifted out of a Kirito story, The Day of Beginnings from SAO Vol. 8 - Early and Late. In the original story, Kirito and first party mate Coper go hunting the Nepenthes to score the special quest item that the most risky of the Nepenthes drops - the one that brings all Nepenthes from the area down on you if you kill it the wrong way. (Hey, SAO sure sounds like a fun game, y'all.) In that story Coper tries to bring the monsters down on Kirito, fully aware they might kill him. In the end, he gets done in by his own jerk-ass move, while Kirito escapes the situation barely.

It makes sense to lift such a detail to keep the consistency of the floor when making up content for it. The scene unfolds differently in a few ways. In the beginning, Mito makes Asuna rightfully aware of the danger involved. However, tempted by the chance to score some powerful gear, she asks Asuna to hold her own (which she agrees to) and runs off.

It's hard to tell with this movie, but you could say what Mito does makes sense for her character. We can assume that her drive to be the best in the game makes her feel bad when she comes to all those chests looted by others, but it would be better if she actually showed it more. If you are thwarted time and time again, it would explain the enormous lure of a rare drop, right? (By the way - why would any power gamer chose a scythe as a weapon? Maybe it's a good weapon for being hard to gauge as an opponent in a duel, but it probably is a weapon that doesn't drop a lot as random loot, unless loot is randomized for the party build.)

This sets up the tearing apart of the two everybody has been waiting for. This is not the first rodeo for practically anyone watching this movie, so we know what happens next.

Again, the makers of this movie insist on being over-the-top dramatic by not only making it seem like there are between 50-100 Nepenthes around, something which seems quite out of line with how the books are written. They also seem to suddenly be everywhere, not only swarming Asuna, but also preventing Mito from closing in after having been forcefully ejected from the location. At least the incidents driving them apart were all telegraphed properly before happening. Again, painting SAO in a horrible light. Mito steps near the edge, then an unstable effect triggers, and she falls off. Falling damage is (in the books) probably the scariest thing that can happen, so to trigger it this nilly-willy in a zone crawling with monsters is yet another dick move. This scene has them by the barrel-full, calling into question the level design of Aincrad to begin with.

Let's just recall that this area was optional in the original novel where it featured, bound to a quest for a special, powerful item. Here our heroines have to pass through it to progress. Placing the scene as is shades our perception of Aincrad.

But now things unfold further along those lines. Mito is separated from Asuna and sees her HP drop to within the death threshold. She sees no way to save her, and she doesn't want to see her die, so she leaves the party and runs. (Members of a party see each other's HP gauge, after all.)

This is actually a strong moment. Mito does care about Asuna. She just has at times poor judgement - just like when she first left town and almost got Asuna killed.

An entrance veering between stupid and amazing

Asuna then beats the last of the Nepenthes, something that seemed impossible to begin with, only to be attacked by a monster so overpowered, it must be a field boss? There's always a bigger fish, eh?

This makes no sense, really. Monsters don't mix nilly-willy in Aincrad, so why is this one here? For drama, of course. So now our capable woman is suddenly outclassed and Kirito appears, pulling some moves that we never see him do - like jumping on the monster itself. He then beats that thing. So far, so bad, really. It's such a setup, altogether, and unpleasing.

It is followed, however, by something awesome: Kirito is being awkward Kirito for the rest of the scene, unable to behave like a normal human being in the presence of beautiful Asuna. I treasure this scene for adding to his characterization.

Of course it's also a stupid scene. Asuna sits there, gawping. Yes, there is humor in that scene. But Asuna dropped into the red. If she has any sense of self-preservation, she would accept some potions and map data from him, if not an outright escort to town. She just has been left alone. Most people would feel vulnerable and have one of two reactions - to have problems trusting anyone and freak out, or to seek help because their trust in their own resourcefulness is shaken. The scene passed and misses making any sense.

Of course it's not allowed to make sense. Plot must happen still!

So, this is Asuna?

Next Asuna, the ever-changing heroine, has another change added to her list of arc-breaking changes. First the Sword Art Online Progressive light novels pull her forward in her timeline, completely overwriting her original character arc (without calling it a reboot, but I like it, so it's all good). Her initial exposure to the game, the evolution of her inner attitude, is also thrown out of the window. She makes no sense.

Now we have an Asuna that has twice been near death, that has - for all she knows - been left to die by a friend. But she has to come to the starting point of the novel. So without truly motivating it, the movie drags her there. She develops her death wish (not on screen, except for hearing some news how many already have died), then heads out into the labyrinth/floor dungeon with just cheap gear. Because the novel said so.

But this Asuna should know the value of gear and prep. Is this meant to say that she willingly disadvantages herself in a suicide attempt?

The original Asuna of the novel set out alone with barely a clue how to play the game so she could be herself. She has not shown us much of this attitude, but now she claims this as her motivation. (At least "being herself" is motivated by the opening of the movie. The Asuna of the real world had way too little chance to do that, so maybe she seeks to chose at least her own death.)

Kirito saves her again. This moment is weakened by having done the same just a few scenes before. How much saving does Asuna need?

The story has now returned to the rails of the original story that it stays on, ignoring anything in terms of character arc we might have seen in the first part of the movie. It's basically two stories fused together by the same people appearing on screen, but in Asuna's case she's not the same person from the first half.

The original (half) novel "Aria of the Starless Night" is short. But we get a good sense of that girl, her death wish, but also her finding joy again. This is not this Asuna. This Asuna was betrayed, almost died, was saved by someone, then went on her berserk solo path, then gets saved again (is it getting old?), then changes back. But in the movie we get no sense of the meaning all this has to her.

Instead we get an Asuna shower scene. I understand a regular Japanese bath would be different, but the novel clearly places her in the tub and tub only. I'm not very keen on Asuna fanservice that goes out of its way to create a shower scene, more than making it clear what that bath means to her. We're left a bit with the impression that a boy who gives her cream to eat and a bathtub is the one she will follow to the end of the world. This is the impression you want to avoid! They fumbled here. Asuna's arc is touched on but not conveyed to the viewer. (Of course, that would require seeing more of her than just the events of Aria of the Starless Night...)

The bath may have a whiff of fan service to it in the book, it also sets up a funny scene that introduces another character (which they removed), but its main point is to serve as the turning point of Asuna's character arc. She goes from tense and death-bound to relaxed and life-bound. The bath is a symbol of starting to appreciate what's good in life and being reminded of that, a symbol that is completely undermined by the first half of the movie where Asuna and Mito had fun beating the game together. This Asuna doesn't needed to be reminded that there are sensual joys to be found. She needs to be reminded that people can be trusted. A brutal character arc fumble.

Speaking of fumbles

Moving forward to the boss fight, the way the Diavel death scene is portrayed makes no sense. Diavel, in both novel and movie, is killed by the kobold lord boss. But in the novel, Kirito dispatches his own opponent and locks eyes with Diavel before he dies. Nowhere is it written that he is near his body to do anything. But both in anime series and movie, Diavel prevents Kirito from administering a potion - which makes no sense. If you stop the HP loss, you live. You don't die of internal injuries regardless. The Diavel of both anime adaptations essentially commits a suicide motivated by drama. The movie repeats this cheap move.

In general the choreography of the boss fight tries to make room for Mito to also play a role, and that means Kirito has to go down for a moment, then Asuna. Why? Because Mito. No better reason. Kirito is the guy who beat that field boss type monster that was about to kill Asuna by himself, without breaking a sweat or taking a hit. But hey. Wildly differing portrayals in the same work of art make sense, right?

The same is true for Kirito's "beater" scene. It makes a lot of sense for the readers of the novels how he draws the ire of the crowd to protect the other beta tasters, trying to become the target of their hate. We see how Mito at the same time shrinks back. (Her characterization is subtle but consistent.) We're seeing two different kinds of reactions to the same situation. Mito repeatedly doesn't speak out or help, she's afraid of the risk. Kirito seems to be more courageous than her on average, willing to protect others at great risk.

But if you have not read the novels, this scene is hard to understand. Even the viewers of the original anime series got a better insight into Kirito's motivations. In other words, their refusal to explain and show Kirito's inner thoughts, even through "mind dialogue" (never employed in this movie), makes the scene almost nonsensical on its own. We get a hint in hindsight from Asuna's flashback - but it's very little to go on.

The final fumble is are a few lines of dialogue from Asuna. I can only quote the English subs: "I'm going after him. I've found it. How I'm going to live in this world... It's where he goes. So I'm going to move forward." This wasn't said in the novel. She told Kirito in both movie and novel that she would keep her motivation a secret. Not much of a secret for the viewer, huh? The Asuna of the novel is the one deciding to team up with Kirito (in Rondo of a Fragile Blade), but she never breaks the ambivalence surrounding it. So this is a very uncharacteristic statement, possibly meant to tie her in with the Asuna from much later in Aincrad continuity.

Also, Argo was almost written out. The Rat is stealthy, but if there's no space for such a great character, why is there space for Mito?

Asuna Uncaped

Ah yes, and Asuna doesn't put her cape back on in the end. Her capes and hoods express something about her, a hiding away from the world, a shell that she withdraws into. It's a symbolic expression of her relationship to the world in general. Asuna takes a series of novels to come out of her shell enough to not hide under the cape, or at least underneath the hood. Here that transformation happens on short notice. Cape on is after Mito leaves - cape off is when she partners up with Kirito for good. (Also not in line with novels written a good deal before the movie.) It used to be an omnipresent reminder that tells us the difference between the Progressive Asuna and "Asuna the Flash", the person everyone in Aincrad knows, the person in the spotlight, the girl in the outfit that draws in stares. (The outfit designed by her guildmates to draw attention to their guild.) The cape lets us know that she's not there, yet, not practically a super-heroine. She veils herself. It could even be construed that she hides at times from a wider world at the side of Kirito. It marks the Asuna of the Progressive novels as a different person than the Asuna from the main series.

The Progressive novels do Asuna justice, but very little of that Asuna gets expressed here. There's a good reason why Kawahara started at Asuna's low point. Because then he gets time to actually lure her out. In true Kawahara fashion, very little happens that we can show on the screen. But the characters would be front and center in the novel.

We have very little to go on to know what motivates Asuna in the movie - in a movie where she is the protagonist! It was good to see her more, but since we had often to see her with Mito for that, we get two disjointed Asuna's not coming together, two scenes of Kirito saving Asuna, two character arcs potentially written by different people. Couldn't they just have written it so Asuna escapes the Nepenthes alone? It's hard to feel alone and betrayed when a kind stranger steps in, saves your life, and offers all kind of help after - none of which is even remotely what you can expect in Aincrad. It helps characterize Kirito but messes with Asuna's arc. We don't get a sense of the Asuna that reverses track - or rather we see an Asuna that immediately reverses track all the way in one go.

Similarly, the throw-away line "He's so powerful." during the boss fight. So, is that what motivates Asuna to follow Kirito? Does she find that... attractive? The original Asuna was one of the most powerful gamers in all Aincrad, which might have made Kirito stand out as somebody who can best her. She at least gushes about that in SAO Vol. 2 - Aincrad. Maybe that makes sense. In that original scene she was just lovestruck girl, gushing to a friend, trying to summarize her feelings in a few sentences, describing somebody her friend never met. But are we meant to think that this has meaning for Asuna here, in this movie? What does it say about a person that she is not impressed with a person who saves her life, who is noble and takes on risks to protect others, but to remark in an admiring tone that he's powerful? That line did quite a bit of harm in its own right.

I can't truly fault the makers of this movie (I have no idea how much exactly Kawahara was involved) for introducing yet another character for it. This is what Kawahara after all does. He rarely portrays one character alone for long. He loves (and excels at) portraying interactions between multiple characters. There are flaws in execution - Misumi being over-the-top good in the real world, all of the above for Aincrad - but at the core the movie works. It's a bit disappointing if you love the books, but you can watch it.

It just breaks Asuna a bit more to achieve this goal.

#review #sword art online progressive #sword art online #asuna yuuki #kirito #mito #movie adaptation #movie #light novels #asuna

[bobauthorman]

Across Oz

A lot of people have compared Team RWBY to their contemporaries in the Ozluminati, as well as the Ozluminati to Salem’s followers. I thought about it, and have decided to express my thoughts on the matter.

Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking

Ruby, Cinder and Qrow, from my perspective, all share the theme of following the Scarecrow. I understand that it’s commonly assumed that Ruby is the Dorothy of the next generation, but hear me out.

The chief commonality these scarecrows have is their brains. In the original Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow believed he had no brain, and sought the Wizard to give him one, only accepting a placebo to be satisfied. Likewise, Qrow is Ozpin’s chief spy, and Cinder acted as the planner for the Fall of Beacon. Ruby, in turn, is referred to as a “dunce” by Weiss, proves herself to be a steady and decent tactician. All of them relied on Ozpin/Salem for their needs, but instead of trying to help them be their best, Oz/Salem treated them like pawns.

There is also a matter of succession. In Oz, The Scarecrow took over ruling the Emerald City after the Wizard left. Qrow is initially seen as taking over Ozpin’s duties after the Fall of Beacon, but this turns out to be false as it’s always Ozpin, now in Oscar’s body, that is in charge. Cinder was believed to be the leader of the villains, but in V4 it is shown that she is merely a subordinate to Salem, the true Big Bad. Ruby, on the other hand, genuinely takes over leadership when Ozpin goes AWOL in V6.

Perfect? Bang on my chest if you think I’m perfect

The Tin Woodsman and characters like him are characterized by their hearts, or lack thereof. Weiss, Ironwood, and Watts all have acted heartless at one point or another. Weiss was originally the “Mean girl” of the series’ high school setting, while Ironwood, despite his good intentions and friendly demeanor, repeatedly shows himself to only care for himself and willing to double-cross allies. Watts is from the moment he appears to where he ends, to be obnoxious and unfeeling, but as the series goes on we see more depth to his meanness. While Weiss develops empathy, Ironwood throws his heart away and Watts never bothers to pick his up.

But there also grandeur. In the sequel Oz books, the Tin Woodsman becomes ruler of a kingdom, but calls himself emperor because it sounds better. He even builds an army entirely of decorated officers, but only one soldier for the same reason. Chopper’s RWBY contemporaries also seek prestige, with Weiss wanting to excel in school, Ironwood desiring to be seen as a hero, and Watts motivated by Ironwood discrediting him. Weiss starts to see beyond herself, Ironwood and Watts continue to chase retribution for lost glory, and end up destroying themselves.

Look at the circles under my eyes, I haven’t slept in weeks

And we get to the Cowardly Lion. Some of these seem more obvious than others; Lionheart’s fear of Salem leads him to betraying the Ozluminati, while Blake’s character arc involves wrestling with her own fear of Adam. Tyrian is harder to figure than others, because he seems utterly fearless. But that two, may be a sign of lacking courage. It’s brief, but we see that there is something he truly fears, which leaves him quaking- Salem’s wrath. Time will tell just how “Cowardly” Tyrian is.

In the book, The Lion sees himself as a coward, but to help Dorothy and his other friends, he faces great dangers and develops true courage. Blake, meanwhile is able to overcome her fears, but not on her own. She does so with the love of her friends, largely Sun Wukong and Yang. Lionheart, regrettably, had no one to support him. Of all the headmasters seen, he was the only one without a deputy. His death comes about because he further isolated himself from the heroes, fleeing the battle to avoid capture, only to be killed by Salem herself.

If I go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t any further than my backyard

And now we come to Dorothy. Most of you will protest that Yang is the Scarecrow, but I don’t see that as so. What do Yang Xiao Long,Hazel Rainart, and Theodore have in common that makes them Dorothy?

Their familes.

Dorothy’s wish for the Wizard is to be returned to her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Even when she returns to Oz in the sequels, she always goes back to them, and only stays in Oz when she is allowed to take them with her. Likewise, Yang is also driven to find her family; First, her missing mother, and then her little sister Ruby. Hazel’s motivations for hating Ozpin is the death of his own sister, who died a Beacon student. While we don’t know the full story, In RWBY Before the Dawn special mention is made of the picture in Theodore’s office which depicts a little girl, which CRWBY has noted to be important to him. More as the story develops Theodore.

But there is also a matter of exposure. Dorothy’s quest ends up exposing the Wizard to be a humbug. Yang’s endless questioning of Ozpin triggers the events that lead to Team RWBY finding the truth. Hazel, on the other hand, has to be shown the truth by Oscar, while Theodore is still clueless about the truth of the Secret War.

---

#The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #The Wizard of Oz #RWBY #Rooster Teeth #Frank L Baum #MgM studios #Ruby Rose #Qrow Branwen #The Scarecrow #Cinder Fall #Tin Woodsman #James Ironwood #Weiss Schnee #Arthur Watts #Blake Belladonna #Cowardly Lion #Tyrian Callows #Leo Lionheart #Hazel Rainart #Yang Xiao Long #Dorothy Gale #Theodore #Salem #Raven Branwen #RWBY Before the dawn #RWBY analysis #RWBY meta #Greenlight Volume 10

[milla984]

Hi....

This Spencer Ried guy that i see on your blog a lot... sorry haven't watched criminal minds yet.

Tell me something about that character. Why do you love them so much

… well, Anon, grab a chair and make yourself comfortable!

The first thing I actually liked about Spencer Reid back in the day was the fact that he’s played by Matthew Gray Gubler, so he’s definitely the perfect example of non-toxic masculinity to me.

The character is almost immediately introduced as a genius - by his own admission he’s got an IQ of 187, an eidetic memory, can read 20.000 word per minute and has three PhDs (Mathematics, Chemistry, Engineering) which is enough to make me go “yes, give me more of this guy, pls”. Later on it is also revealed he holds BAs in Sociology, Psychology and he’s studying to get a third one in Philosophy. Need I say more?!

During the first season he’s only 23, meaning he’s the youngest member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) team and actually looks like a puppy. Spoiler alert: even after 15 seasons he still looks like a puppy to me and I just want to hug him and keep him safe. Why? Because he’s S O F T, caring and loves his mom and friends to pieces. They feel the same about him and he ends up being the godfather of both sons of Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau, his fellow team member; another team member, Derek Morgan (who affectionately addresses Spencer as 'kid') names his firstborn Hank Spencer - after his own dad and Reid, obviously, claiming he’s the best little brother anybody could ever ask for.

So, yeah… Spencer is a total sweetheart and has been through A LOT: his father left when he was very young and his mom sadly suffers from schizophrenia, meaning little Spencer had to care for her and was forced to commit her against her will when he was 18 (what’s truly heartbreaking to me is that she’s fully aware and immensely proud of his abilities: she loves him and when she’s not having a bad day she’s easily his biggest supporter). He’s also shown to be very empathetic towards certain unsubs (the “villains” of each episode, so to speak) especially when it turns out they’ve been victims of violence or abuse, because he himself has been targeted by bullies; in Season 3 he recalls the time his high school mates tricked him into believing the prettiest girl in school wanted to talk to him in private, while in reality the entire football team ambushed him, stripped him naked and tied him to a goalpost (it’s worth mentioning that he was about 12yo when this happened, because being a genius he graduated from high school around that age).

In Season 2 he develops an addiction to Dilaudid, after being kidnapped and tortured by an unsub; the authors of the show have a questionable habit of putting him through hell, just because, and IMHO the only instance when Spencer getting shot actually has a valid purpose is in Season 5 - Gubler dislocated his knee IRL so they needed an explanation for Reid walking around in crutches for a while.

Since I have a feeling this post could go on forever (and we don't have that much time), I’ll just throw in a few more random reasons why I love Spencer Reid: he wears his wristwatch over his sleeve. He’s a Star Wars and Doctor Who fan. He always wear mismatched socks (as MGG, the actor who plays him, does) and is often seen wearing Converse shoes. I’m biased and I know it, but to me he’s easily the best dressed character of the entire show. His apartment is a mood and very dark-academia-ish. He’s socially awkward and displays a lot of behavioral indicators he’s on the spectrum (sadly the authors never confirmed it and it’s one of the many issues I have with the writing on this show, but that’s not the place to talk about it) so I adore his mannerism: he loves to sit on desks/tables, he almost never shakes hand but greets stranger with the cutest hand-waves ever and when he’s excited about something he rambles/talks super fast and sometimes he has an adorable high-pitched squeal (Reid stans definitely knows what I mean).

Hope this answer works for you!!

#milla answers #milla rambles #answered asks #tysm for the ask!! #long post - sort of #spencer reid my beloved #my knight in shining converse #i want to roll him up in a soft blanket #ah crap i forgot to mention i love his hair #and his eyes... captain bambi eyes #quot. redwithjoon

[bekoobove]

Fazbear Fears #14: Find For Foxy

 …Lane takes advantage of a new mobile game to keep his son busy while he works, but begins to notice strange events occurring around the house…

 “Daaaaaad! I’m bored.”

 Lane quickly muted himself in the video meeting as Eddie barged into his office. He glared at the energetic boy. “What do you want to do about that? I’m in the middle of a meeting.”

 “Mom always plays games with me.”

 “Well, Mom didn’t have to work!” Lane groaned. “Now she does. Please, leave. This is important.”

 Eddie, deflated, left the room. As he did, Lane began to feel guilty about his overreaction. But what was he expected to do?

 Lane had worked from home for years, but recently the family had run into some money troubles. His wife, Sara, had managed to get a job, and they were making ends meet now. Still, that left Lane to keep an eye on Eddie once he got home from school, which was no small task. The kid could barely keep his focus on anything- toys, books, video games- and needed to be constantly entertained. Lane couldn’t work and play at the same time, leaving both of them frustrated with the new arrangement.

 Finally, the meeting ended, but Lane still had something to do. Apparently, the higher-ups wanted them to download some new communications app so they could stay up to date on projects.

 “Seriously?” Lane muttered as he opened the app store. “I don’t want to have homework. If you can’t tell me during the workday, then how important…”

 Lane trailed off as he noticed the app the store was featuring: some sort of mobile game featuring the character Foxy the Pirate Fox.

 Seeing the character made Lane think of Eddie. He loved Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and all the characters, but none more than Foxy. He’d even gotten mad when Fazbear Entertainment cut him from the new band in favor of some wolf character. It was for that reason that Eddie had no interest in going to their new, big attraction despite it being pretty close. Instead he preferred their small town’s Pizzeria which still prominently featured the scallywag fox playing the drums and telling tales from the high seas.

 That train of thought led to another- Eddie had never been bored in the slightest by Foxy. Maybe this app could keep him entertained? Lane went to the app’s page for more detail. In the description, there was more information:

 From the development team behind the Princess Quest Trilogy comes an exciting collaboration with Fazbear Entertainment: Find For Foxy, a unique AR experience!

 Foxy may be the world’s greatest pirate, but now he needs your help on a new treasure hunt! Foxy will present you with a household item that you need to find. Once you do, scan it with your phone. Find enough items, and you could even win fun Freddy Fazbear prizes!

 Download for free today! You’ll never be bored again!

 Lane grinned. This sounded like exactly what he’d needed!

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

  “Argh, matey! It’s me, Foxy the Pirate Fox! Will you help me on the treasure hunting adventure of a lifetime?”

 Eddie squealed with excitement as he looked at the phone he held in front of him. There, superimposed on the living room on the screen, was Foxy, dressed in his finest blue overcoat and pirate hat. Lane, looking over Eddie’s shoulder, was impressed- the AR blended with the real environment really well.

 “That’s splendid!” Foxy said, the designers clearly having banked on excited kids responding to him. “The first thing you need to find is a chair! Scan it with your device, and I'll make sure it’s the right object.”

 “Go on, bud.” Lane encouraged Eddie, nodding towards the nearby armchair.

 “I’ll get it, Foxy!” Eddie cheered. He moved closer and focused the phone’s camera on the chair. The image on the screen lit up, and Foxy appeared in front of it.

 “Well done, Matey! That’s a chair if I’ve ever seen one!” Foxy patted the chair with his hook.

 “Now, it’s time to look forward, and choose the treasure that waits at the end of this hunt!”

 A new screen popped up on the phone, revealing a list of missions. They were mostly the same, simply tasking the player with finding more objects depending on the quality of the prize. Eddie could win Faz-Coins and merch coupons, redeemable at any Fazbear Pizzeria.

 Lane rolled his eyes. “Lure ‘em in with free stuff, and the kids demand you buy a bunch of other things in the game...” he muttered under his breath. He hid his annoyance and clapped Eddie on the shoulder. “What treasure are you gonna go for?”

 Eddie gasped. “The Foxy Visit!” He selected the mission.

 Lane looked at the screen and gasped. “You need to find five hundred things to win that prize. Are you sure?”

 “Yeah! The Foxy Visit sounds great!”

 Lane remembered a party they’d had at the restaurant once where they’d reserved a visit with Foxy. He supposed this was the same thing.

 “Alright, bud.” Lane smiled. “It’ll take some time, but I know you can do it.”

 Eddie and Lane heard the garage door rumbling open. “Sounds like Mom’s back from work. Let’s get some dinner ready, huh?”

 Eddie agreed. When Sara walked through the door, Eddie was already so excited to tell her about Foxy talking to him.

 Lane mentally patted himself on the back. He’d made the right choice.

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

 The next week was a busy one for Eddie and a peaceful one for Lane. Not only was he able to work without interruption, he had enough time to read and watch his shows. It seemed he’d have even more peaceful days, too.

 Lane avoided talking to Eddie about the game too much (most conversations about it ended with incessant requests for a ten dollar skin for Foxy) but from what he understood, the hunts got harder as time went on. Now instead of chairs, he’d be asked to find a book with an animal in the title or a yellow flower. That’s right, some of the hunts even needed him to go outside. In one fell swoop, Lane had permanently ended Eddie’s boredom and made him get some fresh air! It was almost too good to be true.

 On Sunday evening that week, Lane was feeling peckish. He decided to grab some Cheezy Squares, his favorite chips, from the pantry to snack on. But when he looked inside, he realized they weren’t there.

 Eddie was coming down the stairs, and Lane shouted to him. “Hey, Eddie, did you finish off the Cheezy Squares?”

 Eddie shook his head.

 “Well, what happened to them, then? Mom doesn’t like them, so she didn’t eat them.”

 “I don’t know.” Eddie scratched his head. “I haven’t seen them since this afternoon. I found them for Foxy, but I didn’t touch ‘em or anything.”

 Lane chuckled. “Well, maybe Foxy ate them. I bet pirates love cheese.” He was a little disappointed, especially since he had to settle for some pretzels.

 “Maybe I did something with them.” Lane thought to himself as he snacked on the salty twists. “I can sometimes be forgetful…”

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

 “But not this much.” Lane stammered as he stared at the empty spot where his TV usually hung on the wall.

 Things had been going missing all the time for the past few days. Books, kitchenware, food- they’d all disappeared without a trace. But this made it clear there was more to it than bad luck and a spotty memory.

 “Aww, man.” Eddie groaned from the couch. “I wanted to watch the ninja show.”

 Lane sighed. “Eddie, I don’t suppose you’ve seen it recently…” Lane braced for the answer he’d received at least two dozen times this week.

 “I found it for Foxy.” Eddie explained. “But I’m not doing anything with them other than scanning with them, like I told you.”

 “Yeah, sure.” Lane said, annoyed. He couldn’t truly be mad at Eddie, because his idea was ridiculous. It wasn’t like Eddie had actually been stuffing the missing objects in his phone or anything. But it felt like too much of a coincidence. “Listen, Eddie, Mom is getting scared. She’s worried people are breaking in, and I’m starting to feel the same way.”

 “Breaking in to steal cups and Cheezy Squares?”

 “Fair.” Lane admitted. “So you promise you don’t know about any of this?”

 “Yeah, Dad. Geez.”

 Lane took a deep breath. “Ok. I’m going upstairs to watch the TV in the bedroom. Go to bed soon, it’s almost 10:00.”

 Lane trudged up the stairs in a daze. He pushed open his bedroom door, only to hear a strange noise: a rough scraping from above.

 Lane slowly looked up. There was nothing directly above him- instead, it seemed to be coming from the attic.

 Lane had always despised that place. Hardly the most mature fear a man could have, but who cared? To him, it was nothing more than a labyrinth of forgotten junk covered in cobwebs and dust.

 “Maybe something just fell?” He desperately tried to convince himself. Nope- the scraping continued, and it seemed to be moving.

 Heart racing, Lane walked over to the trapdoor, on the ceiling near Eddie’s room. He pulled the cord, opening the door and causing the retractable ladder to shoot towards him. It hit the floor with a BANG. The scraping stopped, and there was the new noise of an enormous CRASH- like now something had fallen.

 As he began to climb, Lane called out. “Hey! If you’re up there, show yourself.” He tried to sound threatening, but struggled to keep the panic out of his voice.

 He gripped the attic’s wooden floor and pulled himself through the hole. Above him, there was another cord, this one for the light. Hands shaking, he turn it on, looking to where he’d heard the crash-

 And saw a pile of random stuff. Confused, he looked around the musty room. There was no sign of an intruder or a break in.

 Eventually he focused back on the pile, and realized something. The objects were the things that had gone missing all week.

 It was the box of Cheezy Squares that first alerted him to this, crumpled under the weight of all the other items. A few cups came loose from the pile, and rolled down it. An umbrella, a fireplace poker, and a rusty shovel poked from the mass. There were items that seemed to have come from outside- dried up leaves and plants, an old dirty baseball, and even a small frog, which looked dead. And, sitting on top, the most recent addition to this bizarre collection, the TV.

 From behind him, Lane could hear someone else coming up the ladder. He turned to see Eddie. “Dad, I heard the crash, what’s- woah, what is all that stuff?”

 In a rage, Lane turned and grabbed Eddie by the shoulders. “Oh, don’t play dumb! You know what this is. This is all the stuff you ‘found’ for Foxy.”

 Eddie looked at the pile. “Well, yeah, I guess. How did it get up here?”

 “Clearly you put everything here!” Lane yelled right in Eddie’s face. “You thought you needed to steal stuff for that Foxy Visit, because you’re a dumb kid who can’t go ten minutes without messing something up!”

 Tears formed in Eddie’s eyes. “B-but I didn’t do it. How could I move a huge TV?”

 “Don’t know, so how about you tell me! It couldn’t have been anyone else.” He spotted Eddie’s phone hanging out of his pocket, and snatched it from him.

 “What are you doing?” Eddie gasped.

 “I’m deleting this stupid app! It’s messing with your head.” Lane held his finger on the app until the X icon appeared in the corner. He pressed it, preparing to watch the app blink out of existence.

 Instead, there was a strange popup: Error: Action Failed.

 Confused, Lane clicked on the X a few more times, but kept receiving the same popup. Trying to sound unbothered to Eddie, he said, “Well, until we can fix whatever’s wrong with this, you can’t have this phone.”

 “But Dad!” Eddie begged. “I’ve almost earned the Foxy Visit! I just need to find one more item.”

 “Well then you shouldn’t have ripped our TV out of the wall.” Calming down a little, Lane tried to reason with him. “If you really wanted to visit Foxy at the Pizzeria, you could have just asked. We might’ve taken you.”

 Eddie quieted for a moment before speaking. “But Dad, the prize isn’t us visiting Foxy. It’s Foxy visiting us.”

 Lane stared, suddenly creeped out. “What do you mean- like in a private party room?”

 Without answering, Eddie turned, walked over to the trapdoor, and climbed back down the ladder. Within seconds, Lane could hear him climbing into his bed and flicking the light off.

 Lane gazed at the phone, at the app, with its icon of Foxy grinning roguishly. He’d never noticed just how sharp the character’s teeth were.

 Lane left the attic, closing the trapdoor behind him (he’d bring all the junk down tomorrow). When he returned to his bedroom, he tucked the phone away in a drawer. Exhausted, he fell into bed beside his already snoring wife, and was overcome by sleep.

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

 Lane jolted awake. He swore he’d heard a noise.

 He turned to look at the digital alarm clock on his bedside table. In glowing green numbers, it read 11:18.

 As he rubbed his eyes, Lane stumbled out of bed and stubbed his toe on something. “Arghhh- crap!” he said reflexively, trying to be as quiet as possible. He looked down, and realized he’d hit a drawer that’d been pulled out of the dresser.

 It was the one he’d stored the phone in, and it was missing.

 Lane growled. “Eddie, I know you took it!” He stumbled out of their bedroom, scanning the hall outside it for the boy. “I don’t care about your stupid Foxy quest, all that matters is that you’re in big trouble!”

 Sure enough, the phone sat on the ground, its screen still glowing. But Eddie was nowhere in sight.

 Growing worried, Lane kneeled down and picked up the phone. Foxy was congratulating the player for finding a box of tissues- and the one that normally sat on a nearby table was missing.

 “Argh, matey!” the fox cheered. “Ye found all 500 items, and so ye won the treasure. I’m on my way over right now! This visit will be fun- you’ll never be bored again!”

 From behind him, Lane heard a crash. He turned to see the attic trap door had slammed open, and the ladder fell out. Then, another object fell from the hole- a box of tissues.

 “Is that you up there? Eddie?” Lane called out- a call that represented his last hope, that everything was normal and the family was safe.

 A hope that was quickly shut down.

 A tidal wave of junk- all the found items- came tumbling down from the attic. But the objects weren’t content to slouch into another harmless pile- no, they began shifting, twisting around each other, creating an oversized, beastly form.

 A black goo bled out from the objects, acting as a glue to hold the horrifying creature together. Finally, the groaning and shifting stopped, and the new junk monster was complete. Appropriately, it resembled Foxy- if Foxy was a couple of fox animatronics torn to pieces and put back together again in a nine-foot tall display of mechanical horror. The mass stumbled forwards on several skinny legs, waving its hooks and arms at Lane. It had at least two heads he could see, which gnashed their teeth formed of sharp pencils, needles, and small knives.

 From one of its mouths, a gravelly, grinding version of Foxy’s usually cheerful voice spoke. “YER OL’ PAL FOXY’S HERE, MATEY! THANKS FOR ALL THIS RAW MATERIAL, I’LL MAKE THE MOST OF IT!”

 Horrified, Lane stuttered. “W-where’s Eddie? What did you do with Eddie?”

 The junk Foxy was silent until it was within a foot of him, cornering him against a wall. Eventually it answered: “NOT YOUR PLACE TO KNOW, SCALLYWAG. BUT I CAN PROMISE YOU THIS- HE’LL NEVER BE BORED AGAIN. AND NEITHER WILL YOU!”

 In one sudden movement, it wrapped its jaw around Lane’s neck. For a moment, just a moment, Lane felt the cold black ooze dripping from its mouth and fangs. He wondered what it was.

 There was a horrific CRUNCH, and it was GAME OVER.

#fnaf #anthology #fazbear frights #five nights at freddy's #horror #foxy fnaf

[thatoneguy031]

I've heard that people are making pinned posts, so I thought I might as well do it, too.

Heya. Y'all can call me Guy, and I'm the head honcho for this(more or less) ask blog, and I think there's a few things you should know about me:

-I'm currently in my junior year of high school, and posts happen... basically, whenever I feel like it. If I don't get to an ask immediately, don't take it personally; I'm just a bit busy with other things.

-I'm bisexual, with a heavy, heavy male lean. I'm single too, but I'm not really taking any suggestions at this point. It'd be unfair for someone to show me their face and not have me show them mine. He/Him pronouns, too.

-This is also a Pokemon IRL blog. I only evolved recently, and I'm still getting used to being a Samurott. I'm currently learning about how to battle and act... y'know, like a Samurott. What does that mean, I don't know. But I'm trying my best!

-I like making stories. Like, a lot of stories. I have tons of characters, all of which are all available for asks.

-I'm a really dedicated memer. If it isn't about anything regarding plot development, don't expect it to be taken very seriously.

-I am a huge anime and VG fan. Current playthroughs/playlist of games(Reminder, I only have a Switch): The World Ends With You(Final Remix, the Switch release) Pokemon Scarlet Hollow Knight(I'm lost, please help) Rivals of Aether(Orcane main, Forsburn and Eliana secondaries) Super Smash Brothers Ultimate(I change mains every other week, honestly) Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4(Kakashi, Obito and Minato main) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe(I'm a Dry Bones main, who would've thunk?) Brawlhalla(I'm a Mako main, and Ragnir and Onyx secondaries) Pokemon Unite(I main Alolan Ninetails, but I've been dabbling in Garchomp due to personal reasons you'll see in later posts) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild(I'm lost, help me)

That's about it for me. I don't really involve myself in any political conversations, and I begin to feel uncomfortable when I have to talk about those kinds of topics with people. But, for those who want to know: Pro LGBTQ-whatever, obviously, but I don't pay attention to current events too much. I'm also not racist, if that had to be said.

If you're into the whole p3do or zoo thing, please leave. You genuinely need help, like, now. Oh, and bigots, racists, homophobes and all that jazz can get the boot, too. And I'll slam the door on your fingers on the way out.

I'd prefer if NSFW accounts didn't pay mind to this blog, as I'm trying to make sure that anyone can enjoy this place safely. I'm just want to make sure this place isn't the next Twitter.

As for my ask thingie, the reason why I even made this thing in the first place:

There are some obvious rules here that the public have to follow:

-No NSFW asks. A majority of my characters are children(About the same age as me), and I don't feel right putting them in such risque situations.

-If a character chooses not to answer a specific question. They might have some personal demons they need to fight before bringing up the topic, or they just might... not want to answer directly.

-I'm occasionally gonna be busy making updates to a character's story before I get to questions, so as mentioned before, answers won't be given out in a timely manner. I apologize in advance if there's any delays.

Here's some ask hints, I guess(Color-coded to associate the characters with the stories)*:

-Delta: Ask him about how he feels about Hertz or his living situation

-Hertz: Ask about his "academic" "performance", or why he decided to take Delta under his wing to begin with

-Jason: Ask him about his past experiences with Pokemon or something about Jayden, or something about his friends

-Jayden: Basically the same thing, or something about being the older sister of the family, or how she feels about Cheren and Bianca

-Cheren and Bianca: How they met Jason or Jayden in the first place

-Chris, or any member of his team(Stephanie, Wave, Lucas and David), for that matter: Try to get them to talk about their background or early childhoods

Smudge, Charles and/or Katie: Their hobbies, how they feel about each other, or how college is treating them

Trevor: His music career, and/or how he got into the music bandwagon in the first place, how his current job is going and stuff

Bryant: How he met Trevor, why they're friends, or their general connection

*Obviously, you can ask them anything, but these are some good starts if you don't know what to ask them.

Also, don't be afraid to ask me any questions, either, I won't bite. I'm just a dude tryin' to develop some social circles. Ask me about anything, really. Heck, you can even send anon asks, if you're too shy to show your face(Don't worry about it, I do the same thing all the time). If anything, I'd love to get some kind of advice with how to deal with evolution and all that stuff.

That aside, there are going to be tags on this post that can help you filter what and who you want to talk to, for both your sake and mine.

Now, without further ado...

Welcome to the show!

And I hope you enjoy your time here!

#furry #pokemon #protogen #ask #delta protogen #hertz #hertz ampwave #trainer jason #trainer jayden #chris noibat #stephanie snivy #lucas cubone #wave buizel #david charmander #smudge #katie #charles #trevor typhlosion #bryant floatzel #guy rambles #this pinned post is super outdated

[nenekobasu]

I read your positive posts on Isagi-Bachira's r/s and immediately after I went on twitter and found some official "shipbait" content from some Blue Lock mobile game I guess (? not familiar with all the multimedia aspects of the franchise) with Bachira saying 「俺の一番嬉しかったことは、潔と会えたこと」and Isagi answering「俺もだけど!直球過ぎるだろ!」which is very cute but also, while it's obviously true from Bachira's side, I'm wondering to myself how much 100% true that is for Isagi. Reading the light novel really drove home that it was Isagi's high school football's team spirit that drove out his "egoistical" way of playing football, bc up until then he was considered one of Saitama's best strikers his age, or the best, and himself was focused on maintaining the same mentality that had Noel Noa say "it'd rather lose after scoring a hattrick than win 1-0" (I'm not extrapolating this is straight from the novel) but then in high school Isagi became so focused on blending in that he became the mediocre striker we see at the beginning, passing for the sake of doing so, and who had forgotten his dream was to be like Noel Noa at some point. But then he was able to rediscover his fire with Bachira (it's funny thinking back on the first volumes, characters were more likely to say "you only were able to do this bc of this or that person! It's not bc of you alone so you suck as a striker!" and for Isagi it's Bachira who was most often called his ~helper~ ig but it's also Bachira who played a part somehow in Isagi's best plays, maybe most notable when Isagi outread Rin and got chosen by him to join their team) This ask was meant to be short…. Oop!!

even with incomplete information on my end it seems like bachira is the igniter of isagi's joy. isagi can feel joy without bachira and he can enjoy soccer without bachira, but bachira was the spark he needed in the same way a destination won't be lost when the journey is over but the journey was still necessary. since meeting bachira (coming into contact with blue lock's representation of joy) is probably what jolted isagi into finding his own joy, i think their meeting was, from isagi's side, probably his life's happiest encounter.

i only have the first 5 volumes bought and i'm still working through them, but so far i don't think there's been an instance where someone said "you needed someone to score, so you suck." there was a wholesome interaction with kunigami who shared a meal with isagi for passing to him but kunigami didn't say "i needed you," he just said thank you, but i guess the manga does imply it by valuing isagi higher than kunigami (or niko higher than his team's striker), even though it was framed as a reason to value isagi-niko and wasn't presented as a mark against kunigami. for isagi, it's not bad that he technically needs other people to score (this is a team sports manga), but to compare isagi-bachira and isagi-hiori again, i think the problem with isagi's recent development is his lack of self-awareness. instead of embracing hiori as a separate person he can connect with, isagi makes hiori a part of himself (his "last piece"/"weapon"); their partnership is based on isagi needing hiori to be 'isagi yoichi', while it seems isagi-bachira is based on enjoying soccer together, so while isagi may have needed bachira that's not the core of their relationship. in any case i believe in the correctness of isagi-bachira

#also. a mobile game for this series sounds absolutely miserable #the comedy of having 'players are commodities to be consumed' a peripheral theme/threat #into making a game hoping these characters can make the creators an extra buck. beautiful in every way #kaiserposting #ask #anonymous

[turnpages]

Book Review: Breakaway - Grace Reilly (Potential Spoilers)

Rating: 🌗 - .5/5 Title: Breakaway Author: Grace Reilly

Description: Cooper is one heck of a hockey player and his main goal is to become the captain in his junior year and finally make his dad proud. What's standing in his way is his temper and his fighting, so when the coach [Ryder], tells him that he needs to volunteer with the kids and teach them how to skate to really look deep inside of himself to learn what matters and how to keep his cool, he's not for it. Cooper just thinks that he needs to get laid and he'll be good. Enter Penny Ryder. She's the other volunteer and she's struggling on her own. Allowing her past to follow her, her secret list is all she's aiming to complete, and who better than a stranger on her dad's hockey team to help her complete it. Once whisper in his ear and some alone time in a supply closet really does do wonders.

Reason for Rating: This book was boring to say the least. When I first started reading it, it was great! There was a lot of character development, description, and you could really relate to the characters, but that just dragged on the whole book. It wasn't until I was 90% through when there was some "drama" and I put that in quotations to use it super loosely because it wasn't even really drama. Not only that, but the secret that Penny was keeping and freaking out about I think was mentioned too much and harped on to have it end up being the secret that it was. The whole book was anti-climactic, slow, but at the same time rushed, and in my honest opinion, boring. If you're wanting a YA book, it's a bit detailed during the sex parts to be classified as that, but that's the type of story it is, YA young love. I almost forgot that these people were in college and not Freshmen in high school.

#1moon #breakaway #books #romance #romanticcomedy #romantic comedy #gracereilly

[sublimegardeninternet]

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[iciclecoal79]

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