#this is a joke and not an actual critique of the character btw

[lil-ace-of-spades]

Bruh...

#star wars #the mandalorian #din djarin #paz vizsla #koska reeves #bo katan kryze #star wars art #the mandalorian art #tbobf #the book of boba fett #mando #art #the mandalorian s3 spoilers #star wars fanart #mand'alor #darksaber #this is a joke and not an actual critique of the character btw

[aroanthy]

i've thoroughly enjoyed everything you already said on the topic and would like to ask if there is anything else you might want to get off your chest about saionjis gender shit if it strikes the fancy?

i am the transfem saionji truther, we know this, but mannnn. her whole thing with masculinity is so damn interesting and i see very few people actually grasp at what's going on in that (malcolm tucker voice) abandoned barn of a brain of hers. that was a joke btw her brain is not an abandoned barn she actually makes some of the most astute points in the whole show lmfao. anyway

saionji's masculine ideal is much more informed by traditionally japanese ideas of gender, as opposed to the americanised 'modern man' masculinity that akio peddles. like saionji thinks that princes are cringe. he's just also tormented by the fact that no one else thinks that and everyone loves these princes and because he's got the world's biggest inferiority complex, he can only think that he's wrong, that he's been left behind to a world deemed 'unspecial' because of some innate quality about him. and whenever saionji thinks this (all the time) he becomes fucking awful to be around.

i digress. saionji takes being the president of the kendo club very seriously, not just because he takes Everything seriously but-- well. arguably the reason that he takes Everything seriously is because of his practice of kendo. i think it's a bit of a chicken and the egg situation wrt 'is saionji Just Like That or did his warrior grindset make him that way'. kendo is really important to him, and the way that he and touga are (rarely, lol) able to connect through it would suggest, i argue, that it's a good and healthy thing for him to have in his life. same goes for touga but that's a different post about 1000 other things.

i think this gets at a) something rgu is trying to get at wrt americanisation and a critique of aspects of japanese culture that doesn't then discard that culture altogether. ikuhara does this a lot more obviously in his other shows. and then b) on a character-level, it's about separating something valuable and important (the practice of kendo) from ideas that have enmeshed themselves with it bc Society (misogyny, namely). saionji's conception of masculinity is all about kendo, and he likes kendo, but he's uncomfortable with/stifled by this expectation of Manliness that he simply cannot access in a way he's comfortable with. it's only when he lets himself forget about his obsession with power dynamics and Being A Man that he can just. enjoy this aspect of his life that informs how he lives it so wholly. tldr girls can be kendokas too. which is obvious to people who aren't as misogyny-brainrotted as ohtori academy student saionji kyouichi, but swagever.

btw if anyone whose better educated on nuances of japanese culture than i, white british person whose only read a handful of academic articles on the subject, thinks something ive said here is off in any way, please let me know!! i always always always want to gain a better understanding of rgu as a distinctly japanese show, my lack of resources and formal education on these topics be damned!!

i just think saionji is an androgynous legend who should get into textile crafts. let her woodcarve and knit. she'll be unstoppable. practical queen etc etc. lets embrace gender anarchy together

#that's all :) #i mean its not i didnt even talk about sexaulity as relative to gender nor did i mention wakaba's egg cracking dorm room #but that's bc i didnt want to write about it rn #and this ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while #send me asks!!!! i promise i like answering them it just takes me a while sometimes!!!!!!! #dais.txt #dais talks trans #new tag yay

[lurksunderthebed]

Thoughts on CoD dudebros that attempt to gatekeep their "role" characters? Over the course of last year it's funny how many i've seen upset that Laswell has a wife because they genuinely thought Price was "bonking" her according to them. Even more so going as far as to say that they'd be into experimental poly relationship. And don't get me started on YT side of the base where people say stuff like Soap & Valeria, Ghost & Milena double date, it's hilarious really. But god forbid you post anything about GhostSoap remotelly romantic. It's like hellfire out there.

Oh man that's a good question. I haven't actually thought too hard on that tbh. Funny timing because I literally watched an opinion piece on YT on what they [the male fanbase] thought on mwiii(23).

I think people want to read into things as they prefer. People are so conditioned in these action movie style sort of storylines to assume Man + Women talking = relationship. And in that sense I can see why people would ship Price and Laswell because they do have a friendly relationship, one that implies years of knowing one another. (though Valeria and Milena /soap or ghost?? Why??)

I think the biggest shame is the fact that male and female platonic friendships are so rare in these instances that for a significant part of that vocal fanbase, it blows their mind to have heterosexual friendships that are just that: friendships.

And it's always a bit ironic we have this situation when you have those dudebros pile on the ghostsoap ship and say, "can't friendships just be friendships, stop making everything gay". Can't friendships just be friendships, stop making everything het.

Bro, we ain't making anything gay, it's there in the text. Call the spade a spade. They flirt with each other. I can even pull up the receipts and go through every bit of possibility and still think, wow, even them joking is pretty sus with all the context. Especially when it's Ghost who flirts back, out of all people—the man who is so emotionally constipated that showing his face and letting people use his name is a Big Deal™.

I always wonder what that fanbase would make of these meta posts. In a weird way, I do sort of welcome that critique. It would be interesting to see what would come out of that.

I mean, yeah you can read Ghost and Soap's relationship however you want. But it's definitely not something as clear cut as, "they're just friends. That's what brothers in arms are like. You just don't understand!" sort of thing. I think reducing them down to 'just friends' would be doing a disservice to how much Soap meant to Ghost in terms of the actual codmwii plot line.

The nice thing is that despite all the differences we all have with each other, we as an entire fanbase all agree on this: Codmwiii(23) has the worst campaign out of all codmw games.

The storyline sucked and didn't go anywhere. The ending was there for shock factor. It didn't really add anything to the story aside from making one feel upset. It was sloppy storytelling, and it really felt like it could've been better.

But yeah. Lol 😂 sorry for the rant guys. Hope you enjoyed the Ted Talk.

Btw, much thanks and love from everyone reading my meta posts. All the encouragement fuels me for my next overly long post. 💞🥹

#ask #ghostsoap #soapghost #cod mwiii #cod mw3

[eliziarts]

It really gets me how you can't say shit about Helluva Boss (or Hazbin Hotel for that matter) to actually critique without fans getting buthurt, and the only people agreeing with you people who just hate Vivzipop (for the record i dont lol). But here are my gripes that I wish people were actually talking about (btw I really *want* to love Helluva Boss and none of this is mean-spirited, just things I've noticed that I wish the team would fix, or I believe are beyond fixing):

1. The very confused tone. I know a lot of people deflect any criticism from the show by saying 'oh but it's a comedy you shouldn't take it too seriously'. Here's the thing- it's literally taking itself too seriously. There's a balance that a show can have between dark elements and humor, but Helluva Boss consistently tries to tackle very, VERY heavy subjects. This combined with the Brandon Rodgers-essque d!ck joke comedy doesn't.. work. At least not in the way they're attempting. I think the most egregious example of this is the scene in the latest episode when Moxie's dad is literally threatening to kill him if he doesn't follow through with an arranged marriage... immeadiatly followed by Moxie walking though a hall of wall d!ldos. It kind of says, 'hey, we were taking this really seriously 2 seconds ago, but jk actually now you should laugh!'

Juxtaposition doesn't work if it actively confuses its audience on what to feel. I'm not sure how much influence Vivzie and Brandon have on the outcome of the show vs the rest of the writing team, but it seems like Brandon's humor and Vivzie's tendency to write melodramatic soap opera scenes just aren't really meshing together quite right. I wish it had more similar pacing and tone shifts that HH had, because it felt more sudden in a purposeful way, rather than 'we're too lazy to find a good transition between these two scenes.'

2. Why does Vivziepop never write interesting female characters? I know this is talked about a bit more, but it's growing increasingly prevalent in Helluva Boss. We still haven't gotten an episode focused on any of the female leads that's actually about *them*.

Millie is practically nonexistent without her relationship to Moxie. Even the episode where we meet her family, it doesn't give us any insight about her. Every time she goes feral(tm) it's either to save her husband or it's part of a group fight. The only backstory we got for Loona was there to service Blitzo's character, and show us *his* reaction. The only things we've seen with Octavia were put there to help us learn more about Stolas. Even in the scene where they only had Loona and Octavia on the screen, it didn't feel like it was about them at all. It didn't feel like the scene existed to show us them bonding about their shitty dads. It felt like the scene was there to once again ask the audience to give Blitzo and Stolas pity points. Which- brings me to my next problem.

3. Its justifications of abuse. I know they're in hell. Most of them should be shitty people, and they are! But I wish the story would stop trying to pretend they're not. Helluva Boss keeps doing this thing where it draws a line between 'good' abuse and 'bad' abuse. And this kind of completely changed Stolas and Blitzo's relationship. Ik some people may like this change but I personally don't.

Earlier on, we were made to believe Stolas kind of fucked up by cheating on his wife. Not only did this affect Stella (tho ofc we later learn it's due to image reasons) but his daughter as well. It's just generally an uncomfortable and tricky situation. And I liked it! It was interesting and had levels of nuance. However, now that we know that he was basically being abused by Stella this entire time, and met Blitzo when they were kids (which is a WHOLE OTHER UNCOMFORTABLE CAN OF WORMS LMAO) the audience no longer feels like Stolas did anything wrong. Now his actions feel justified.

As much as I loved his confrontational scene with Stella the first time I watched it, as I know many people did, I also know that it kind of ruined any sense of nuance that whole situation had. Now, Stolas suddenly has been absolved from any previously implied mistakes. And, Stella is portrayed as this 1 dimensional cruel monster.

Which brings me to the point of abuse in this show. It's a very prevalent theme, and it's a heavy one for a show branded as a sit-com to portray (hard, but not impossible). But it fails on the end that it doesn't stay consistent in its condemnation of it. Every time a character does something 'bad', as soon as we find out there is a reason for this bad behavior, the show suddenly makes it seem like we should feel bad for them and that their actions are justified because they're a broken person. See: the narrative around Stolas' affair suddenly being changed as soon as we find out he was being abused by Stella.

Inconsistent emotional consequences in writing is lazy for sure. But the real problem is when it gets to the abuse side of things, it can actually become harmful. It's implied that Blitzo had an emotionally abusive relationship with Verosika. But ohh we know he had a fucked up childhood and has fear of forming emotional bonds so! Geuss it's okay! But when it comes to Stella, she's just downright mean, 1 dimensional, and literally says she's doing things for no reason other than to make Stolas suffer.

It's important to note that every single time a character gets a *reason* for their assholery, it becomes a *justification* in the way the show frames it. But whenever a character doesn't have a reason for being as asshole, like Stella (at least not one that's shown), that's where the show then draws the line.

This is harmful! Hate to break it to you but the bulk of abusive people out there were abused themselves. They have multitudes of reasons for why they are the way they are. But that doesn't excuse their actions! And I really hate that this is the standard of framing Helluva Boss has set up for their show because now, no matter how bad a character's actions are, they can slap on a sad backstory and suddenly make that character a sympathetic one.

Yeah but anyways idk. If you read all of that I thank you for taking ur time to listen to my 2 cents. The last episode I really enjoyed was the Ozzie's one and I'm just kinda bummed at a lot of this stuff I mentioned.

#helluva boss #hot take #helluva boss blitzo #stolas helluva boss #stolitz #vivzie why cant you spend more time on your female chrs im begging you #vivziepop #helluva boss critique #helluva boss criticism

[centrally-unplanned]

Oh speaking of manga I have been casually rereading the FLCL manga while doing the translation work, and finished it over dinner today - god I love the ending. This manga is a hot mess btw, there are moments where the conveyance completely falls apart, but Hajime Ueda is just not the kind of guy to care about shit like that. It carries itself on its visuals and character dynamics, which is fine - it just means it isn't going to have 'plot' payoffs per se.

But the ending man, for its all Ueda-core irreverent violence and FLCL's commitment to toxic relationships, when Haruko has burned everything down and Naota has rejected both Mamimi and Ninamori as crutches for his own lack of self-awareness... then Haruko just pops up out of his forehead wielding a shotgun and wearing a bunny suit one last time, and Naota's response is "wanna make out?" which, obviously she does, and they even have a bondage joke thrown in on top:

Its A: very hot, but more importantly B: the kind of tonal irreverence that only 'anime' can pull off. The semiotics of the medium is just full of events close enough to this kind of stuff that what would be whiplash in any other medium is punchline or even organic here. And Naota deserves to get some after all the shit he has been through, good for him!

Idk I think as I have been deep diving into the FLCL interview database how the manga works has crystalized for me. Saying the FLCL manga is controversial is a bit of a stretch, but its not very popular as it is extremely different from the show - way more surreal, way more slapstick, and of course a full blast of Hajime Ueda's edgy goth-punk stylings. For a lot of fans these changes are a bridge too far, its "Not FLCL".

As you start to understand Tsurumaki's 'intent' though, it comes together - this is a work devoted to the goal of trying to open 'anime' up to new directions its not going in. He goes on about how the anime industry is overly obsessed with realism; uncomfortable with throwing the silly and serious into the same scenes when it shouldn't be; and neglectful of the diversity of themes present in manga such as the emo-seinen works (and the troubled girls who populate them) Tsurumaki is so fond of. FLCL is self-indulgent but also intentional in its industry 'critique'.

To adapt that to a manga, the critique has to fit the industry; it wouldn't make sense to adapt 'manga themes' into, well, a manga, that wouldn't send a message! Hajime Ueda is actually perfect for this role, taking an artistic style that is completely different from anything out there, seemingly incompatible with the story being told, and stretching that story the bounds of its tonal diversity to make the fit work. You can't 1-to-1 the intent ofc, but if you are going to try this is how you do it. From that lens the story works, and the ending is great; from full-on ruin apocalypse to makeout fanservice to entirely silent metaphorical ending in maybe 15 pages. The semiotics of 'anime' were built for this, you just have to not be afraid to try.

#flcl #ash adaptational analysis

[zacki0gaming]

The PCC Comic + HOPE Series Are Masterpieces? (Absolutely Not!)

Before I Start

This is going to contain Major Spoilers, Disturbing Topics, Etc (You have been warned).

Greetings everyone! I am continuously providing reviews of both continuations of the episodes and ranting. Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thoughts on the comic titled "Pink Corruption Continued" or PCC for short (which is canon btw) and the HOPE series. If I must briefly describe these two, I must say that it felt more like it was "another waste of my fucking time".

The content, more often than not, felt like I was listening to a fanfiction OC fetish that I could typically find on websites, such as Wattpad or Archive Of Our Own.

This is generally insulting in this franchise that it does an incredible successful endeavor to make me feel miserable. The HOPE series felt very empty and the PCC comic NEVER tries to make it feel "canon" and I wasn't even satisfied to the "slightest" on how this entire current 23 page comic went.

In advance of offering my critique, I would like to acknowledge a noteworthy statement that was shared by a YouTuber named "Upper Echelon," which I wholeheartedly concur with: "Human beings can be manipulated through cheap and shallow tricks." Within storytelling, whether it be in a game, novel, or other media format, individuals can be emotionally manipulated and misled by poorly-written narratives. Regrettably, creators may intentionally introduce characters who are supposed to be perceived by the audience as cool and instantly likable. Yet... Objectively speaking, this approach offers characters that are often somewhat forced into the storyline without adequate development or proper characterization. This can be interpreted as an "act of manipulation" towards the audience to forcefully evoke sympathy for these characters. Remember this because this almost happened twice for me with one of ArtofSoup's OC characters when I initially read the PCC comic for the first time that I'm going to talk about later on.

Here is what I'm going to do here before starting reviewing the entire comic:

Firstly, I'm going to explain the drama, controversaries, and the old cancellations to the best of my ability from what I can remember.

Next, about the comic, I'm going to be explaining all of the characters I've seen having ages changed, the canon ships, etc.

Thirdly, I'll be discussing additional screenshots of potential ideas that were supposedly going to be incorporated into the comic that were from discord.

Fourthly, I will be starting reviewing the entire comic by dividing the pages into 4 separate categories: Pages 1 -5 (First), Page 6-9 (Second), Page 10 - 15 (Third), and Page 16-23 (Final).,

Fifthly, I'm going to be actually discussing the "HOPE" series too because why not.

And finally, I'm going to give off my final conclusion for all of this.

Drama, Controversaries, & Old Cancellations

I can confidently say that this entire franchise's downfall is well-deserved in my opinion.

For the sake of brevity, I will succinctly address the Pink Corruption Drama because this will go down in my opinion, the most stupidest and hypocritical drawn-out drama I have ever seen in my life... All of this started because of disgusting pornographic fanart from Brittany's sister, Brea...

It is repulsive, nonsensical, and ironically hypocritical. If you want even further context on this, I will be providing links to videos, etc about the drama and allegations itself. I'm not joking, some of you people don't realize how DEEP this rabbit hole goes...

To clarify, the Pink Corruption Series used to reach its peak back in 2019 to early 2020, specifically talking about the amount of views Season 1, Episode 3 has on Brea's channel. 3.1 million views... (Probably only because the JSAB game was very popular back at this time). However, Brittany's sister, Brea, uploaded several videos discussing canceling the series but, I couldn't remember the main reason why.

This action here was the beginning of "the downfall of the entire fanchise of the Pink Corruption Series". This also most likely caused the drastic decline in viewership for the series, going from receiving millions of views to approximately 10,000 or more views in the subsequent months.

In early 2020, with insights from Bubby Aurora's "Telling My Tale" google document, the "drama," or "great schism" as some call it, began in early 2020. Brittany's sister, Brea, had been writing pornographic fanfiction for the series and constantly showed it to Brittany. This made Brittany so uncomfortable that she felt compelled to cancel the series.

In early 2020, the infamous drama, or "great schism" as some call it, began. The catalyst for this event can be traced back to insights gained from Bubby Aurora's Google document titled "Telling My Tale." At the heart of the conflict was Brittany's sister, Brea, who had been making pornographic fanfiction for the series and continuously showed it to Brittany. This caused significant discomfort for Brittany, leading her to make the difficult decision to cancel the series. (Keep this in open mind later on).

At the time, ArtofSoup and Brittany used to be friends at this time period, but I didn't fully understand what was happening behind the scenes. Because of this friendship, Brittany Robinson gave her permission and consent for ArtofSoup to continue the series in the form of a web-comic. Ecstatically, ArtofSoup began writing their comic, "Pink Corruption Continued." (I'll explain the events surrounding this in more detail after discussing the current topic.)

However, things started to fall apart when Brittany supposedly cut off contact, shit talked ArtofSoup behind their back, and continued to create episodes (that were non-canon, NOT CANON)... Without their consent... This eventually led Brittany Robinson to intentionally create the "Non-Canon Continuation of the Pink Corruption Series" on youtube, "Season 1, Episode 6 to recent". Due to this happening, Brittany Robinson started to blatantly steal ideas from ArtofSoup's work into the non-canon continuation, which infuriated ArtofSoup.

The most important links I can possibly provide for this:

Telling My Tale - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VcQcbdEQwRxJPiWgI8BZFwj8d0GtmjzC0R3ASOSzrls/edit "Telling My Tale" is a document drafted by a user named "Bubby Aurora / Mzoyagon." It recounts both her personal experiences within the fandom and people who she used to be friends with such as the current creator of the series, “ArtOfSoup” (formerly known as (Quadragon, ItzFriday). It also deals with other disturbing and horrible topics she encounters such as grooming, stalking, spying, doxxing, etc. ArtofSoup also traumatized her since she was 12 years old at that time because of it.

Lucas' Lies - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ci_EhXiI6pndj1g-T3Kfy-YgwBd0UVgD was a Google Drive that was established by "ArtOfSoup," formerly known as "Quadragon" and "ItzFriday," the current creator of "The Pink Corruption Series." The contents of the account included inadvertent conversations between Brittany's sister, Brea and ArtOfSoup, and allegedly stole ideas derived from both Brittany and Brea without their consent. Moreover, tons of screenshots and proof about it, showing Brittany Robinson lying behind ArtOfSoup’s back. 

Reasons why LucasTheDubber shouldn't upload on BreaBear Jone's channel - https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sr33b0 This was one I found from a website I've never seen before on the Internet called, "TwitLonger". It was created by a user named, "RPG_Animator_Mi" for reasons of Brittany's sister, Brea just trying to suck in all of the attention and money they can, and using Brittany herself as a vacuum. The list that he created has 7 here, some are possible evidence that Breabear is directing Lucas and some are things that are definitely wrong. However, all of these links in the list aren't going to be accessible to you all.

Pink Corruption Youtube is in DANGER - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXP-EGwa63A This Youtube video revolves about two things, Identity impersonation and copyright infringement related issues. This was because of Brittany's sister, Brea, "who is alleged to have posed as her sister, Brittany in order to issue copyright strikes against fan videos of The Pink Corruption series from other Youtubers, whom are in the fanbase". The issue happened with the removal of translated versions, including "Russian", of content from the series. From the video itself, the situation escalated when a favored Youtuber within the community, known as "Heck Island" (whoever remembers this person), faced the termination of their YouTube channel due to repeated copyright strikes. Notably, these strikes were attributed to her sister, Brea alleged to be impersonating Brittany Robinson. The videos that were listed on Heck Island's channel were taken down because, "they were just regular memes videos".

Furthermore, remember what I said on why this is also comes off hypocritical too? Well... I would consider Brittany Robinson, a fucking hypocrite herself because of this. According to the "My Channel Intro 2022!" Video on Brittany Robinson's channel, toward the end of the video, this is where I initially see Brittany comes to "her sister's defense against long-term bullying because of the people harassing her online". Moreoever, she expresses a zero-tolerance policy toward negative commentary regarding her sister, which she will go to lengths of blocking you "if you say something bad about her sister", possibly for the ones about her being a groomer.

Brittany coming to her sister's defense over this shit is absolutely unacceptable. However, the gravity of the situation cannot be understated because IT'S... STILL... FUCKED... UP!!!

I could talk even further about Brittany's hypocrisy. Remember what I said about how the drama originally started back in early 2020 because of Brea shoehorning her Pink Corruption pornographic work into Brittany's face? Well... I have a screenshot of Brittany Robinson, "calling her sister's disgusting Pink Corruption work, "Cute" with a heart emote".

I can prove this further when "Pipythecat205" says in this response on the Pink Corruption discord that "Lucas just doesn't seem to care". Yet, Pipy... Is right... Brittany Robinson doesn't give a shit ALL THIS TIME and still supports her sister from this.

The Drama's Central Query So let me tell you yall something... If Brittany Robinson does actually love and care about sister, actively defends her over online harassment from other people, and has recently developed a tolerance for her sister's contentious disgusting contributions to the "Pink Corruption" series—the catalyst for the drama. What the fuck... was the legitmate point of this all happening in the first place then...???

Final Verdict On The Drama, Controversaries, & The Old Cancellations

Overall, perspectively speaking, Brittany Robinson is a straight-up hypocrite, a fake friend, and perhaps a disgusting individual. She went from being ham-fisting crude pornographic depictions of the Pink Corruption Series by Brea. Into terrible lengths to allegedly steal ideas without that person's consent for her non-canon continuation, false relationships, block people on Youtube (probably the ones, who know about the drama), and for some unknown reason, "likes Brea's content now"...

Her sister wanted to shove porn art of fanfiction TPC crap up to Brittany's face, abusing the copyright system to take down TPC Fan videos from other Youtubers who watched this series, etc.

This entire drama is remarkably atrocious in a tumultuous and regrettable manner. Brittany Robinson and her sister, Brea wanted to deliberately cause their downfall of the entire series in the most disingenuous, hypocritical, and ridiculous way. And they succeeded at it...

I'm finally done talking about this shit... I know there's more to discuss, but I've decided to focus on the most important points here in the entire drama. There were more videos about the drama itself, but unfortunately, the ones I used to watch have been already removed from YouTube.

Character Ages

After finally discussing what I know about the Drama, now we discuss the age changes made by ArtofSoup themselves. In one of the current creator's posts on the canon wiki, I had to scroll down to find the canon ages post. According to the post, it is quite clear that ArtofSoup changed the caretakers' ages.

The Caretakers' ages before being changed: (Pretty much confirmed from Brittany Robinson's old twitter account)

Pyrare - 1000+

Pentellow - 24

Iris - 25

Cube - 19

The Caretakers' ages after being changed from the current creator, ArtofSoup:

Pyrare - 45

Pentellow - 20

Iris - 21

Cube - 16-17

Please keep this in mind, because I’ll bring this up again later to provide more context by combining this with the canon ships, including the other characters as well. Now, here are the other characters whose ages have been changed:

Dub - ? (I don't know why he's age has a question mark because Brittany Robinson confirmed that all monster shapes have longevity for being 1000+ years old)

Ajaceare - 19

George - 22

Challenge - 19 (soon 20)

Teroblast - 22

Sitbnite - 15

It is likely that ArtofSoup knew about the previous ages for the Caretakers and then changed their ages for the continuation. Also, an issue with this is that the is is clear that there is a minor lore change I noticed ArtofSoup made... It was to the species' lore. They removed the monster shapes' ability for longevity, giving them instead a normal lifespan like normal shapes.

The Ships

Now we're gonna talk about the canon ships. According to the canon wiki's posts, I found a screenshot of at some point on Youtube, ArtofSoup (Formerly known as QuadragonX on their channel's name), confirmed at least 6 ships. Let me briefly state my thoughts about these ships.

Dub x Cuda (Barracuda) - I don't see a lot of people talking about this ship, also I don't have anything to say about this.

Cintagon x Circumsphere - One of those type of ships that I generally feel so confused on why people shipped these two in the first place because clearly there hasn't been any potential romantic tension between these two.

Cube x Lythorus - I don't ship these two because I see their relationship perfectly working as "childhood best friends".

Ajaceare x George - George has a fucking wife and children since Season 1, Episode 1...

Pentellow x Iris - I'm not going to explain this insufferably generic lovey-dovey couple ship...

Squadril x Marcle - I don't see a lot of people talking about this ship but, I ship it nonetheless.

I'm starting to feel like I don't have a huge taste in romance anymore. It's still fine. :/

Anyway, if we combine the age changing and the ships together, ArtofSoup made it feel disconcerting and perhaps disgusting because of two ships on the list. The ones I'm talking about on this list is, Ajaceare x Geroge and Cube x Lythrous ship. Before you all start talking shit, none of this has to do with me being a homophobe or anything, let me please explain why...

Ajaceare x George Ship

Let's first talk about Ajaceare x George ship. Considering that this ship isn't even close to being decently popular, since Season 1, Episode 1, it has been pretty much confirmed that Lythorus was talking with George himself before he turned into a corrupt. He had a "martial family with a wife, son, and a daughter".

We don't know how old Geroge was before the comic came out besides being confirmed 22 by only the current creator, not Brittany herself. In light of this, it seems that the current creator, ArtofSoup, wanted George to "secretly divorced his family, thereby opting to pursue a romantic relationship with an unattractive cyclops female monster cube". Crazy, right?

Cube x Lythorus Ship

Now we'll talk about Cube x Lythorus ship. I generally feel like they wanted Cube to be shipped with a character like I said about Lythorus's entire characterization in my Season 1, Episode 2 rant "who is so incredibly forgettable in the series that was left in a coffin for about 6 years by now, and a cardboard cutout leader who shows a level of incompetency for not having any reinforcements". But wait... Here's what I found out...

I could pretty much say that Brittany Robinson confirmed the caretakers' ages, including Cube being 19 years on her old twitter account before it was taken down. In all 31 states, a minor is referred to as someone under the age of 18. So basically, I thankfully got a screenshot of Brittany Robinson confirming that Lythrous is actually 20 years old from a QnA on her channel before it was taken down because of the recent short cancellation of her non-canon continuation of the series. We can pretty much agree that Lythorus was this old before the comic and the drama came out.

So theoretically, what I'm trying to say here: ArtofSoup never confirmed Lythrous's age being changed on their canon age post on the wiki. So, if I'm possibly correct on this and ArtofSoup likely knowing about the caretakers' previous ages, they would be changing Cube's age from being 19 to a minor (a 16-17 year old) just for him to be shipped with a fully grown adult (a 20 year old flower) in the canon continuation. If that's the case, then we have a damn problem here guys because it is a 5-4 age gap... Might as well have to give Cube a different main love interest than in the comic...

Sexualities

Also, I found a screenshot of the characters' sexualities for the canon. I don't have a lot to say about this. :/

Final Verdict for the canon ships & sexualities, and characters' ages being changed

None of this has to do with the characters' sexual orientations or anything like that. Overall, what I'm saying about this is that the current creator, ArtofSoup, wanted characters like George, who has been canonically married with a loving family since Season 1, Episode 1, to be in love with Ajaceare, and changing up the lore for the monster shapes just for them to be get rid of the ability of longevity. Furthermore, ArtofSoup could also potentially involve changing characters' ages into minors so that they can be shipped with fully grown adult characters like I said for Cube and Lythorus. I can't say for sure whether this is the case, because I don't have much evidence to support it. But it's possible based on what I've covered up.

Potential Lore Changes

Despite my previous discussion about Monster Shapes losing their ability to have longevity, I found another screenshot that has happened since 2022. These were possibly future ideas for the canon continuation itself for the current creator to use if that's the case.

So technically, they are 9 here and let me tell you something. Some of these feel uninteresting or pretty weird. Although I do find some that are potentially good for the comic.

The idea of granting the Tree of Life the power to send prophetic dreams to shapes, offering glimpses into their future, is an intriguing concept that adds supernatural abilities to the trees themselves. However, on the other hand, I find this other idea for the Tree of Life to be quite ridiculous. Having the Tree of Life become bored and cause all sorts of mischief for its own entertainment feels completely out of character. I generally don't like the idea of the Tree of Life having potentially negative motives, as it doesn't make sense to me.

Making LGBTQ+ jokes that confuse some other shapes like I don't care about this...

Also, having Heroes such as Cyan, who is canonically a 0 years powerful childlike being start cussing, especially saying the world "fuck" while improperly maturing is just pretty uncomfortable... Imagine seeing Cube hear his hero start cussing while in his sudden mature state... Like, these heroes are so precious to be starting to swear tbh...

Let's FINALLY Discuss This Comic Now!

Front Cover

First off, we get a simple, yet terrible front cover. Just look at this shit...

I can already tell that the current creator is a "straight-up Iris simp" who made Iris "the pretend main lead of him being the only one to fight Dub in this front cover" instead of including the other caretakers and heroes with him. I'm getting sick of tired of these people having this sort of "Iris Simp Fetish", trying to make Iris act as if he's the coolest character and should've been the main protagonist of the series because very clearly he's definitely not in my opinion...

Second, it seemed like the current creator, ArtofSoup implemented some kind of dumb Iris vs. Dub fanart that they found somewhere on the internet for the front cover instead. (I know it's the creator's digital artwork but, come on...)

Anyway, now let's talk about the pages. (I'm not going to be discussing a lot here due to it feeling short because of the length of these pages).

Pages 1-5

On the first page, the story continues after the opening scene of Season 1, Episode 6 left off, as it originally shows Cube losing his grip from his grabbing claw while trying to stop Cyan from searching Ajaceare while he was in his sudden mature form once again.

On page 2, as the trio (Cube, Cintagon, and Iris) continues to plummet to the ground, Iris says that he can't teleport while falling, and even if he could, it likely wouldn't help save him and the others. (Well, I don't understand this part about why Iris can't teleport while falling. Perhaps ArtofSoup was trying to establish a "weakness" here for Iris's teleportation ability, but it feels very vague to me).

While this part was still ongoing, I'm not fucking joking, this was so unexpected that this happened in "THE SECOND PAGE"!! One of ArtofSoup's OC characters named, "Challenge" came out of nowhere alongside Orange because he randomly found this dude?!

On page 3, Orange screamed out Iris's name as he noticed him with Cube and Cintagon still plummeting toward the ground. Challenge quickly came up with a plan with Orange to split up so they could catch more of them. Challenge and Orange then starts zooming down toward the trio to save them.

On page 4, when Challenge grabs Cube's hands, (He does the 200 pound joke like how Lythorus did in Season 1, Episode 2 toward Cube. This reference right now for me is cheap, amateurish, and not funny at all and it's only there to be this perhaps stupid exaggeration for Cube to be called FAT) due to Challenge carrying Cube from his hands. Wow ArtofSoup, I don't think it's the best time to be doing this right about now.

On page 5, this is where the entire pacing goes all over the place... It abruptly skips ahead to Squadril, who is suddenly captured by Dub and Flower Corrupts.(In a confusing turn of events, I was... Being showcased a fucking completely new and seemingly OC character - a random inverted triangle—whom Orange somehow met at some point in page 2. And now, this story then abruptly shifts to Squadril's perspective, where we find him being held captive at Dub's base with no explanation... What...?)

Dub, who was satisfied by Cyan being out of the way for his future plans. (I swear to fucking god... I hate this plot device that this series gave Cyan. Cyan's sudden mature form "ISN'T DOING ANYTHING FOR CYAN'S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!! IT'S ONLY THERE TO BE A "FRUSTRATING NUISANCE" TOWARD THE OTHER CHARACTERS, ESPECIALLY HIS CARETAKER, CUBE THAT'S IT!!") Oh my god...

BTW, CYAN WAS NEVER SEEN AGAIN FOR THE REST OF THE COMIC...

Behind Dub, two corrupted flowers called him by "Boss" show Squadril being held captive all of a sudden. Squadril then tells them to back off as he won't surrender to them. This won't help Squadril as Dub then corrupts him in the process.

Alright, so... not off to a good start for me. The first five pages already have pacing issues, with OC characters randomly appearing and a touch of overused comedic references from the canon episodes that aren't funny at all for the dish. What a disgusting meal...

Pages 6 - 9

On page 6, we see Dub still processing on fixing Squadril while turning him into a corrupt. While fixing him, Dub screamed out George's name, wanting to know where George was. George was seen presumably hiding and (starts to be the only mouthless flower corrupt showing emotion...) Answer me anyone... WHERE THE HELL did this development come from???

On page 7, Cube and Iris were safely landed back down to the ground with the help of Challenge and Orange while Cintagon completely landed onto a tree branch from impact (Hey Orange, why can't you use your telekinesis on Cintagon too???). Iris then says nice work to his hero, Orange. (Lets pause here...)

Major Issue: Iris's Entire Characterization Being Changed

From a post I found out about Page 7 from the current creator, one of the information about this page is that ("Iris has more emotion than just "smug").

I actually have more evidence to go along with this which is from the Halloween Comic, ArtofSoup created on DeviantArt.

From the Halloween comic itself, Iris does a prank on Cube by using pink paint to disguise himself to make Cube think that he got infected. After Cube found out that Iris was pranking him, he didn't find this funny (Iris... Your sense of humor will always fucking suck bro to this day... Get a life dude...). Iris even "actually apologizes to Cube from the prank", which is so weird for me because of his sudden change of character.

You really think that Iris was this kind and friendly enough from the way Brittany portrayed it, who has fucked up demeanors? THINK AGAIN FOR THEIR RELATIONSHIP!!!

Overall, this also implies that ArtofSoup also made Iris's personality more apologetic and nicer now. So... takes a sip of cold coke You're telling me that your making Iris's whole characterization and personality more mellow and likable now all of a sudden without even giving him any sort of meaningful character development for him to be acting this way...??? Bruh...

THIS WAS NOT EARNED!!!

Btw, that Halloween short comic just basically shows just like I said, how fucking pathetic Iris's sense of humor is toward the other characters.

Back To The Comic

Back to Page 7, Challenge, Iris, and Orange notice Poly Village unknowingly being destroyed that being up with pink flames coming out of the burned houses from some unknown corrupt. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS COMIC?!?! DID AN FUCKING DRAGON BURN THE ENTIRE VILLAGE DOWN????

On page 8, we get to introduce another OC character.... (where the hell are these characters even coming from, bro...) that comes out of nowhere. He's name is, "Teroblast", an old friend of Challenge and this MF looks like a self-insert of the current creator, ArtofSoup's QuadragonX's profile picture on the wiki into this bitch.

Am I wrong?

Anyway, while Purpex is never to be seen (like we care where she is at this point), Marcle was crying on the ground because of Squadril getting kidnapped. Teroblast was about to comfort her until he noticed Challenge with the others. With an awkward gesture, Challenge acknowledged Teroblast's presence by placing a hand on the back of his head.

On page 9, Teroblast asserts that he has not seen him since his brother's death. This statement concludes with Challenge exclaiming "ENOUGH!", which shocks Teroblast. Ok first off, let's talk about what happened here...

Question Time Imagine this scenario: You unexpectedly run into an old friend you haven't seen in ages. They are delighted to see you, but out of the blue, they start sharing very personal information immediately that you'd rather not discuss in your current situation. I want to generally hear your thoughts about this in the comment section...

I would've punched Teroblast in the face for that...

From what I'm seeing him pages 6-9, Poly Village gets burned and destroyed with no explanation to just let it happen for the sake of the plot's progression, more OC characters coming out of no where that looks like an almost self-insert of the current creator.

Page 10 - 15

On page 10, Challenge believes Teroblast doesn't understand. He explains that he and his unknown brother were very close until Dub abducted him. Judging by the appearance of the unknown shape next to Challenge, it is implied that his brother is Barracuda himself. But, who knows if that's the case...

On page 11, Teroblast expresses sympathy for Challenge, who is grieving the loss of his brother. Challenge weeps, and Teroblast speaks his name.

Here's the main issue with this: remember what I said earlier on, before I started explaining the comic, about how creators may intentionally introduce characters who make the audience instantly love and find them cool, but who are objectively blinded by them not being well-written characters? Reflecting on this comic, I nearly felt sympathy for Challenge and his predicament. However, I just... Still don't care about him because he was very unexpectedly introduced into the story in a very non-linear approach.

Secondly, Teroblast... Why the hell are you bringing up something so personal out of your fucking mouth to piss Challenge off and make him cry afterward, despite already knowing about his brother's death then...? Let's have Teroblast be aware of Challenge's brother's passing without making it a big issue, and then immediately use it as a cheap trick to try and sympathize with Challenge's situation.

On page 12, this is where I die in laughter... After Dub finishes corrupting Squadril, he turns into this very clever and calculated henchman (Hedrilateral, his name)😂😂, as he comes up with this plan for Dub to disguise as a flower. (Lets pause here).

So you're telling me that Squadril's character gets immediately thrown out of the window because I barely fucking know anything about this magician's life, just for him to become a "henchman corrupt for Dub" for god knows how long?! 😂😂

On page 13, Dub showcases a new ability for him to shapeshift into a gray flower, like the one from the video game itself.

On page 14, Dub senses victory drawing closer. He envisions a restored Cubic and a corrupted Iris, believing that Paradise will be his. (Just to keep you guys the heads up, Iris's corrupted counterpart's name is just "Corrupted Iris"...)

On page 15, Iris notices Stibnite and alerts Teroblast, Challenge, and Citren that they have a problem. Teroblast shouts to Stibnite that he has five seconds to leave, or he will take action. However, someone intervenes and advises Teroblast not to do that.

Overall for pages 10-15, the portrayal of Challenge's emotional turmoil as a result of his brother's demise, coupled with Teroblast's subsequent apology, was so poorly-done and was clearly contrived, seemingly inserted from the current creator, ArtofSoup with the intent to elect sympathy for the Challenge's character. Additionally, Squadril's entire characterization gets his ass cheeks smacked out of the window, just for him to become a "fucking henchman corrupt" for Dub...

Pages 16 - 23

On page 16, Stibnite displays his hatred for Sabrepulse and the four caretakers. Before seeing a shield, he immediately senses that something is wrong. He notices the purple dome that was created by Iris and Orange that contains Lycanthropy inside the seal from the Lycanthropy fight since Season 1, Episode 4. Wait...

So basically what's going on here is that, ArtofSoup wanted to insert another OC character coming out of the blue. Furthermore, I thought Dub was going to send "a group of corrupts to save Lycanthropy from what he said in Season 1, Episode 5", not some bat-like creature that randomly finds it out in Poly Forest. Another minor plot change that nobody notices...

On page 17, Stibnite approaches the seal. Inside is Lycanthropy, who appears to be undergoing a purification process within the seal, which is transforming him back into his pure counterpart, Lythorus. Lycanthropy and Lythorus begged anyone to save them until Stibnite saved Lycanthropy's life from purification inside the seal by summoning a bomb attack to explode the seal. (Lets pause here).

About this page, the seal that Iris and Orange created here for Lycanthropy since Season 1, Episode 4 was another way to purify corrupts. It is shown that Lycanthropy is being weakened by the seal's power, proceedingly turning him back into Lythorus, but at a slow rate. However, at the same time, looking back at Lycanthropy's entire character, you could barely give a fuck about him because he has little to nothing to do in this series...

On page 18, Challenge uses some sort of new ability or something (possibly a clairvoyance power, I don't fucking know). Meanwhile, Lycanthropy thanks an embarrassed for Sitbnite for stopping the purification and destroying the shield, though the former thinks the latter overdid it. FINALLY, Pentellow shows up and accidentally snaps a branch, Lythorus notices her, and the situation gets ugly for Pentellow.

WHERE THE FUCK WAS SHE AT???

On page 19, Pentellow gets worried about how she can't win against Lycanthropy. Challenge runs off-screen to search for Sibinite as Cube chases after him, while Tsavorite, who pops out of no where and somehow, starts to use some new ability to sense or call Cube (I don't know). Tsavorite starts saving Pentellow's life from Lycanthropy, as Tsavorite tells Pentellow and Cube to rush off, while Tsavorite and presumably Challenge stop Lythorus.

On page 20, Pentellow tells Cube that they need to go without a second thought, with Cube being clueless about what's going on (how about explaining to him while still running). Lycanthropy was about to launch a spiked ball at Pentellow and Cube when Challenge stopped the attack by using a weapon by using his prismatic ears, then threatening Lycanthropy to stop. (Let's pause here).

What follows here everyone is going to be the most blatant heroic sacrifice I've ever seen...

On page 21, Cube realizes that Challenge got infected by The Pink Corruption via his prismatic ears. Cube informs him, but Challenge already knows, and he says that although "pyramid monster shapes are resistant to The Pink Corruption Virus" Slams hand so hard on computer desk in disbelief WHAAAAAT?!

I THOUGHT THE CARETAKERS WERE THE ONLY ONES THAT WERE GIVEN THIS ABILITY!!! THIS FURRY PYRARE WANNABE MOTHERFUCKER IS NOT A "CARETAKER"!!! GTFO WITH THIS SHIT!!!

With tears in his eyes, Challenge warns Cube that he has been too cautious. He asks Cube to convey his farewell to his father (how the fuck will Cube know anything about your father if you never told him his name to him...) before succumbing to corruption. His final words to Cube were a single, urgent command: "Run!"

On page 22, while Cube, Tsavorite, and Pentellow are running away (and we never learn what happened to Orange, Iris, Gold, and Pyrare), Challenge confronts Lycanthropy, declaring that he won't allow him to harm our virus-stopping team. Lycanthropy responds by saying that he has already achieved victory, but Challenge is confused and asks what he means.

On my gosh, we are at the final stretch of the comic everyone!

On page 23, Teroblast shows up and is forced to watch Challenge being corrupted. Teroblast and Challenge are both shedding tears, with Challenge trying to say he loves him (Don't tell Teroblast that you love him after he bursts out very sudden personal information about your brother's death), before the virus fully controls him. Challenge suddenly becomes infuriated, as he screams in agony turning him into a corrupt.

You know what, I wanna talk about this dude, Challenge...

Challenge's Entire Characterization

Undoubtedly, even though it's been 23 pages, Challenge is the most forced OC character I have encountered over my years in web-based content. He was so forced here in such a highly incongruous manner, that Challenge wants to be incorporated into the comic to play a pseudo-protagonistic role, which is absolute shit. Furthermore, the current creator, ArtofSoup, wanted so hard to manipulate my emotions by invoking sympathy towards Challenge situation - specifically about his brother's loss, as it is clearly shown from pages 9-11.

ArtofSoup wanted her OC fanfic fantasy to have Challenge to be the most broken character in the entire fucking series. I will explain why:

It is implied that Challenge has the ability to "see into the future".

Every Pyramid Monster Pyramid like Challenge are resistant to the Pink Corruption (even though, the caretakers only possess this power).

He can fly.

If Challenge had been introduced much later in the story, in a more linear approach, it would have been a lot better.

In all honesty, this wouldn't help right now, because I couldn't care less towards Challenge's selfless heroic act, leading to him becoming a corrupted shape since Page 23. Overall, he is poorly-written, who has been seemingly shoehorned so hard into the story with very little consideration for contextual fluidity or compelling characterization, is contrived, distracting, and is too overpowered.

Other OC Characterers

This also goes along with ArtofSoup's other OC characters such as Teroblast and Sibtinite...

Final Verdict On For The PCC Comic

Cons

Narratively, ArtofSoup wanted to ham-fist shit such as different story's direction, changing characterization without proper development, minor lore & plot changes, etc to make it feel so unappreciated, miserable, and unsatisfying to me. It happened because to make the entire comic feel like it has "OC Fanfiction Fetish Fantasy Syndrome" from the current creator, ArtofSoup. They tried to deceive me by deliberately using "forced sympathy tricks" to desperately make me care about their OC characters in the cheapest way as possible, particularly Challenge and Teroblast (mostly for Challenge) cause IT DEFINITELY SHOWS. The pacing is already all over the place in the story's progression over the span of the preceding 23 pages. The Caretakers and Heroes should've been in a different area in Paradise by now searching for more groups besides wasting their time tagging along with these fucking OC characters (that almost look like self-inserts) for the PAST 23 PAGES!!!

Pros

Despite the amount of issues in comic, story and writing-wise, I would like to acknowledge some commendable elements. For starters, the story's tone achieves a more serious tenor (from the look of the direction), while not trying to be cheesily lighthearted, like from the earlier episodes of the series. Furthermore, character designs such as Teroblast's are aesthetically pleasing, knowing that it is assuming that the canon continuation was going to add more characters with improved designs.

Score

In summarizing my evaluation of the PCC Comic, I assign it a score of 4 out of 10 (Below-average). Starting with your sister shoving that disgusting pornographic fan-art cake in your face for dessert, and ending with the transfer of ownership of your project—with your full consent—to another individual, whom you badmouthed behind their back all this time, all of this led to a lackluster fanmade series derived from the "Pink Corruption Series," specifically the "Hope" series (that I'm going to be talking about next). Finally, giving me an actual pretty bad continuation in the form of a web-comic that "never tried to make it feel canon to begin with", to shove even more cake ONTO MY FUCKING FACE NEXT with OC fanfiction fetish toppings on it.

Hope Series

Now we can finally talk about the "Hope" series... The Hope Series is a discontinued fanmade series, based on the web-series, "The Pink Corruption Series" after Brittany Robinson gave her consent and permission for the Pink Corruption series to ArtofSoup.

Most of all, just like the pilot episode from The Pink Corruption Series, this pilot episode is not good...

So Let's Discuss This Episode

Beginning Part

In this episode, the scene opens on a stormy night, with Cube singing as he sits on a rock. He receives a call from his triangle chest from his brother, "Cubical". (Lets Pause Here).

Do you want to know the main reason why Cube has a brother? It's probably because we feel so bad that Cube doesn't know anything about his biological family. I don't mind Brittany taking away the generic childhood best friend trope, but this doesn't help the fact that I wasn't even invested into Cubical's character.

In a conversation between Cubical and Cube, Cubical asks Cube about his whereabouts and mentions that he has been searching for him. Cube responds by telling Cubical not to look for him and explains that he "needed some fresh air anyway". (It is evident here that Cube has a bit of an attitude here toward his brother).

After hanging up his brother, Cube continued walking until he heard a baby crying. He found Cyan, whose wing was caught on a tree branch. Cube rescued him and decided to take him home.

For some unknown reason, I don't know why Cyan is out here this windy and rainy at this late at night, while getting stuck in a tree...

While Cube was singing to Cyan, Cubical, who had been searching for him, spotted his umbrella on the ground and picked it up, looking worried. He then found Cube and hugged him. Cube stated that Cubical didn't need to search for him. Cubical was startled when he heard Cyan and quickly moved back. Cube explained how he had found Cyan, and Cubical agreed to let Cube take Cyan home. (Cube and Cubical's relationship kind of fucking sucks tbh).

Overall, the beginning part of HOPE episode 1 was pretty boring, with nothing interesting happening. Notwithstanding, the interactions between Cube and Cyan were moderately charming, though not particularly noteworthy, Cube and Cubical's relationship is already somewhat bad and cliched. Moreover, having Cyan randomly come out of no where just to get the rest of the plot going was never explained...

Back To The Episode

Middle Part

Later, while they are eating, Cyan shoots a beam from his chest, acting like a projector, showing Pyrahedron (we fucking "replace" Pyrare with this guy now...), who explains that Cube is now the fourth caretaker of the Tree or Life and that he has one day to reach the tree and seal the monster. (Lets Pause Because I Think I Can Talk About This Right Here).

Major Issue: Cube's Entire Characterization Being Changed

I think it's a good idea to make a comparison from the pilot episode from TPC with the HOPE series.

You can clearly tell from Cube's character and personality in the HOPE series that it's "completely changed" and I find it very disagreeable. From Season 1, Episode 1, Cube was fairly apathetic about his role as one of the Caretakers and his position as the hero, Cyan. This was evident from Cube's dereliction of his duties as a caretaker, which occurred twice in the pilot episode.

The first was forgetting to assist his hero Cyan in sealing away Dub, seeing Cube questions Cyan on why he has to come along as well.

The second one was forgetting to give Cyan his name (most likely by accident).

In a metaphorical sense, Cube's pronounced apathy towards his caretaker responsibilities, evident since the first episode of Season 1, serves as a reflection of his demeanor characterized by timidity and nervousness. Seeing him throughout the series occasionally questions Cyan or the companions, the other caretakers and heroes about why he has to perform these challenging or significant tasks. Nonetheless, despite his reservations, Cube still greatly assumes his role and together with his hero, Cyan, unintentionally semi-completes their mission on sealing Dub (even though it ended in chaos toward the conclusion of that episode).

(This image right here perfectly explains what I'm saying.)

In contrast, in the HOPE series, Cube's persona went from being a shy and somewhat introverted shape, which clearly shows signs of self-doubt and uncertainty about his role as a caretaker at times throughout the TPC series. And turned him into a much more easygoing and composed personality, who has a bit of an attitude toward his brother's overprotective tendencies and doesn't seem to be bothered or anything in the slightest about being chosen in his caretaker's role. Although recognizably simpler, this marked shift in character causes me severe dissatisfaction, as I perceive Cube's character in TPC to be superior...

About the way Cube gets chosen as the 4th Caretaker of the Tree of Life here, he was chosen so damn unexpectedly, after receiving a call from Pyrahedron (I don't know how the fuck did Pyrahedron get Cyan's phone number), without giving any indication as to why he was chosen for this role. Cube never expressed any concerns or questions about this, like how his TPC counterpart legitimately did toward TPC Cyan in the pilot episode. All of this happened because "he fucking "randomly" found Cyan, who inexplicably showed up out of no where to initially be stuck in a tree and gets taken care of by Cube just to get the rest of HOPE's main plot going".

Overall, I already dislike Cube's character here. This fucking disrespects how Cube's entire characterization was established in the TPC series.

Back To The Episode

Gold pops up and interrupts the call, while being happy (Gold's character gets ruined here too...). After Pyrahedron hangs up, Cube says he will go to the Tree of Life. Cubical asks how he is okay with all of this. Cube replies that he wasn't until he saw Gold on the call and realized that he looked similar to Cyan (Are you only giving out the main reason why you were chosen was just because of your fucking appearance looked identical to Cyan here...) He thinks Pyrahedron was serious and decides to head out in the morning.

The next morning, as Cube gets ready to head out, Cubical asks if he's really ready to do this. (OH MY FUCKING GO... You know what, I might as well talk about Cubical here...)

Cubical's Entire Characterization

I don't have a lot to say here so, I will keep it brief. If I have to describe him here, Cubical serves as a "clear replacement for Cube's childhood best friend, Lythorus". Despite being a caring brother to Cube, objectively, his character comes across as goddamn irksome due to his overprotective nature, constantly fretting over Cube's safety throughout the entire pilot episode, like shut up, bro...

Back To The Episode

Btw, despite giving Cube a brother, STILL DON'T HAVE THE AUDACITY TO SHOW PARENTS!!! WTF!!!

Cubical reminds Cube about his previous encounter with Dub. Cube gets a flashback of Dub shooting a laser beam, presumably toward one of his eyes. Cube reminds his brother that he survived the incident and that he will survive.

So you're telling me that before Cube was chosen, he encountered Dub before and was attacked by him, which we can all agree that Cube gotten "infected", right? So how come CUBE HASN'T TURNED INTO A CORRUPT LET?!

Subsequently, Cube requests that Cubical cease his concerns. While initially agreeing, Cubical persuades him to at least consume a meal before departing with Cyan, which Cube acquiesces to.

An hour later, Cube traverses the terrain clutching Cyan who slumbers soundly. Suddenly, a hazy figure zips past him. He glances back but discerns nothing. Progressing towards a huge pink lake, looking shocked. Unable to wade through the water, he ponders over how to circumvent his predicament.

Ketches approached Cube and asked if he needed help crossing the water to reach the Tree of Life. Cube gratefully accepted and thanked him. Ketches introduced himself and explained that he had helped all the caretakers before Cube as well. He invited Cube to hop aboard.

During their voyage, Cube acquaints himself with Ketches and inquires about the other Caretakers. Ketches identifies them as Iris, Pentellow, and Pyrahedron and clarifies that Iris and Pentellow have been unaccounted for since Cyan's birth. (You know what, looking back on Pyrahedron, I wouldn't mind having different caretaker characters because I could care less about Iris and Pentellow returning here...). However, Cube expresses his hope that their disappearance is unrelated to Dub. Ketches concurs, and they eventually arrive at the Tree of Life.

End Part

After dropping Cube off at the Tree of Life, Ketches expresses his gratitude, while cautioning Cube. He says that it looks like a clear path, but there could be someone clandestinely lurking about. Cube acknowledges Ketches' advice and proceeds towards the Tree of Life.

Before I talk about what happens next, I'm not joking, the rest of this conclusion is more "hilariously bad" than the TPC pilot episode's conclusion. 😂😂😂

Issue: Laughably Bad Conclusion That Ended On The Most Biggest Discontinued Cliffhangers I've Ever Seen In This Entire TPC Universe

Suddenly, a group a flower children showed up (they are fucking corrupts btw, who popped out of fucking no where). One of them "viciously assaults Cube by uppercutting him physically as a corrupt that caused him to disembody his body from his dead flying upward into the air". 😂😂😂 I burst out laughing because of this... How come Cube hasn't even turned into Cubic yet after getting blasted by Dub from his previous encounter with him and now an uppercut (that was so strong by the way) from an infected flower child?!

Cube firmly declares his refusal to engage in combat with children, even those tainted by corruption. (ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! THEY ARE CORRUPTS CUBE, DEFEND YOURSELF?! 😂😂😂) However, one of the children warns that, despite their own unwillingness to fight, Cube will still face dire consequences from the flower group. (WHAT?! THEN WHY DID ONE OF YOU LITTLE BRATS START ATTACKING CUBE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO FIGHT HIM THEN?!)

Following this, one of the child corrupt flowers, pulls out a damn gong out of her ass that causes the sky and the Tree of Life to adopt a pink and black hue. Heli's fleeting appearance is observed, before taking flight. In the ensuing commotion, Dub emerges, and the episode concludes. (JESUS WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! 😂😂😂)

Final Verdict For HOPE Series

Cons

After laughing so hard after HOPE's pilot episode conclusion, it's time to give my final verdict on this. It is so unappealing and boring than its predecessor, TPC (despite my unfavorable opinion about the latter).

From a narrative standpoint, Episode 1 presents a poorly-written script, replete with subpar pacing, characters such as Cube, who has his personality and characterization disrespectfully changed, minor inconsistencies, and an utterly hilariously bad conclusion that is more worse than the TPC's pilot episode.

Not to mention, upon me discovering a restored video of the Hope series's intro, HOPE's worldbuilding looks like in a nutshell, if The Pink Corruption Series's worldbuilding was overly simplistic and generic that will make you go...

Me: Bro...

And, take all of the elements out of what a JSAB world looks like...

Pros

Episode 1 doesn't have a lot of pros besides character designs being improved (also, Cube's hat looks ugly as shit btw).

Score

My appraisal for the show, taking into account its single episode, would be like the PCC comic, 4 out of 10 (Below-average). The HOPE series, in my perspective, appears to be an unproductive utilization of my time. Going from giving your consent and permission to someone else just to make another typical underwhelming web-series on Youtube that failed to impress me.

Right after, when Brittany Robinson - the show's former creator - discontinued HOPE and instead embarked on the Non-Canon Continuation of the TPC series, this is where her writing skills showed their "true colors" due to how unbelievably bad it was in my opinion. It was because I knew something was up with the writing since the pilot episode that was going to eventually decline later on.

Final conclusion for ALL OF THIS!

So... What's the problem here between these two works? The biggiest main issues between them were the "amount of changes" that felt so insulting to me. It includes narrative shortcomings and quality, poor characterization that were disrespectfully changed or without proper development, ineffective worldbuilding that takes away what a JSAB world actually looks like, and try to perceived manipulative tactics emotionally toward me that were employed from the PCC comic for Challenge and Teroblast haphazardly, that was distracting and unnecessary, etc.

The Entire Pink Corruption Drama is the most pointlessly disingenuous drama I have ever seen in my life from what I've analyzed to the best of my ability. All of this because from the distasteful and objectionable pornographic artwork associated with the TPC series from Brittany's sister, Brea.

If I were to amalgamate both the PCC comic and the HOPE series, my rating would be a modest 3.5 out of 10 (slightly below average). My perception is that ArtofSoup and Brittany Robinson have lost their touch for me regarding the series as a whole. While there is much to criticize, I will refrain from doing so at present. However, I cannot help but feel melancholy because the PCC comic and the HOPE series does "an incredible job to make me feel straight up miserable in my gaming chair" and it shows, it ABSOULTELY SHOWS FOR ME!

Thank you to everyone who read this...

#the pink corruption #tpc #pink corruption #brittcorruption #jsab tpc #Episode Rant #tpc long post

[eastgaysian]

hii, so. i've been thinking about it as a woc living in the third world myself but um. the critique of succession on like, neglecting race, don't make a lot of sense to me for a number of reasons like okay it's def a laugh whenever someone says "i wanna imagine what a black character would look like on succession" but it's not really an Elephant In The Room wrt to appraisal of the writers' room imo? bec from where i'm coming it's not so much an implicit thing that they've avoided dealing with race and maybe i'm wrong? but like stewy and lawrence were very important characters in s1, and marcia was too atleast till s2. we got shiv getting someone to look into marcia's background and the deleted scene from the s3 finale where they talk about their past. and everything that you talked about kendall after ep8 imo. employing jess and lisa and marrying rava (jewish) and telling sophie he loves her only to walk all over them. connor mentioning how poc and women were not allowed on the upper floors (decision-making rooms) of waystar when he was young. a black woman being one of the people who voted against logan in the coup in s1. other instances come to mind too (roman asking "is he a jew btw", shiv's implied backstory w lisa esp how sanaa lathan talked about it) etc but overall i feel, it's not like a sidelined thing as much as them hyperfocusing on the family as the show has gone on. i think they're conversation on gender gets more screentime since almost half the characters are women, and it's layered in with nuances of class and race but also how sexism just sometiems pervades those institutions as well. maybe i'm completely wrong though, idk :/

i generally agree with what you're saying, and this is what i'm referring to when i say that i do believe race is a concern for the writers. there's a demonstrated awareness of how race and class intersect in several instances throughout the show, there's some amount of thought put into it. but it's clearly not a central concern that gets intentionally, consistently explored and critiqued in the way succession deals with capitalism, familial abuse, misogyny, sexual violence, etc. the recurring characters of color aren't in the main cast, they've all been sidelined or written off for various reasons. while there's plenty to read between the lines about how race affects the way stewy or marcia or jess move in the world, this hasn't been explicitly brought up in the show until s4 (the direct comments about race are all from white main characters usually speaking in a general sense), and in s4 sophie and jess's responses to racist rhetoric have ultimately been in service to kendall's character.

this is kind of an inevitability of how succession is constructed. it's about the roys, an obscenely wealthy, privileged, white family. their space in the world is overwhelmingly occupied by white people who have insular worldviews and do not care at all about the people of color they interact with or the oppression they face. the people of color who work for them aren't real people to them, and the people of color they work with or hang out with or marry are only people to them as long as they don't really think about their race. despite all the jokes i make about What if the roys were wasian, the roys can't be nonwhite, and when the focus of your show is this kind of white family and their viewpoint you have very little space to meaningfully talk about race.

but like, if sidelining characters of color and never being able to meaningfully address race is an inevitability of how succession is constructed, then that doesn't make it above criticism, it just means that the object of criticism is how the show is constructed. (monster of a sentence, sorry, i'm not getting graded on this so i can't be bothered to edit it to be actually coherent.) stealing from caden romanroydinnerparty's response to an ask here:

i think the... strain? limitations? of succession's format and its ability to comment on race are more exposed in s4 due to its increased political focus, which requires acknowledging the racism + antisemitism within fascist rhetoric. given these constraints, there is at times visible effort to talk and think about race, but this is inherently limited and often awkward because from the start, the show wasn't 'designed' to do that. constructing a show that can't talk about race doesn't happen without some degree of racist bias on the part of the creators and, maybe more relevantly, in-built racism in the entertainment industry as a whole. i think succession could be better with how it handles race, but it could also be a whole lot worse. flawed as it is, there is still plenty of interesting stuff to me in the way the show does address race. i don't know that a show like succession - or any mainstream tv show really - could ever be devoid of racism or 'anti-racist.'

#mingbox #i tend to get annoyed by any viewpoint that feels a little too simplistic about this #like i think it's possible to say that. the way the show is constructed prioritizes its white characters at the expense of #characters of color + there are hard-to-justify creative choices made at the expense of characters of color + there are instances where #you can tell the writers Do think about and care about race and try to bring it into the show. these attempts are not always successful #but also like they can't be meaningfully 'successful' because of how the show is built. at its core. a lot going on! #chalkboard

[zenon-karr]

Okay I wanna say sth so in the new episode …SPOILER:

So Betty actually wins the pageant according to the judges but Alice reads and crowns Ethel winner instead because she thinks the opportunities will help someone like Ethel. So I was thinking about the potential endgame ships in relation, now a lot of people aren’t understanding Beronica but I think in RAS’ mindset giving endgames for example to ships like Beronica and jarchie or Reggie and Archie would help queer representation in different ways than Choni and Kevin etc. As they’re the core 4 of the main characters - usually they would not be queer in any other show leading from friendship to romance. Usually in shows ships like these would never be endgame. Or even have a chance. But Beronica happening has changed this. I made a joking post before about how in most shows barchie would be endgame but in riverdale anything is possible. But I think there’s more meta to this after this pageant episode. Idk just musing..

Thinking this is inspired how Archie comics wouldn’t let him make Archie gay in his musical and how that influence the comics plot about censorship and then talking about the enemy is us not the red scare/communism etc the enemy is within wholesome, conforming America critique. Yes this is the milkman but it’s what riverdale is. It’s poking about this All American Archie mindset. It always has been. They’re pulling the curtain and telling you what riverdale is this season and that’s how it ties to the rest of the series. This then means they used the main ships to critique their tropes and what they mean. This concept of Alice giving Ethel the pageant win made me think how RAS might view th queer ships like jarchie or rarchie and Beronica. How normally they wouldn’t have a chance but then giving them a chance to be endgame is not something queer community is used to. For me it’s something different than the representation found in choni and the ships with Kevin. Which choni is amazing! Watch for them because they’re one of the best ships out there btw!! But Beronica and jarchie - these characters are the main icons of Archie comics and to end that classic love triangle in the queer way would be unique.

#riverdale #spoiler #spoilers #riverdale spoilers #riverdale spoiler #jarchie #beronica #Rarchie #reggiearchie #archiereggie #archreggie

[juniperhillpatient]

I didn’t want to share this with the link but my one & only criticism of that video I shared is super specific & it’s that the video essayist doesn’t like Dennis trying to kill Dee in the castle. In my opinion that was a beautifully hilarious scene / culmination of a hysterically entertaining subplot & I strongly disagree with her that it fell into the same category as other cases of the show becoming too mean spirited & neglecting to show that these characters care about each other in the latest seasons. I do agree that this is a huge issue & literally everything else in the almost 3 hour video I fully agreed with though so please still know I loved the critique. I just really liked the castle episodes & this is an excuse to talk about it lol -

I actually found the sibling dynamic weirdly sweet in the Covid episodes. The joke was funny because it wasn’t that Dennis literally wants to kill Dee, it was that he was delirious with Covid & thought he was communicating with a ghostly castle which is so funny cmon. And before that they were renting a castle together & she was teasing him while also taking care of him & in a giant castle they still chose to share a room like they’re so cute. It’s my favorite plot we’ve had in so many seasons & I must defend it with my life.

To me it was mean in classic sunny fashion which is VERY very notably different to the way new sunny is mean. It called back to such iconic scenes as “Dee? I swear you would be of more use to me if I skinned you and turned your skin into a lampshade. Or fashioned you into a piece of high-end luggage. I can even add you to my collection” followed by a hilariously horrified expression from Kaitlin Olson.

Dennis rushing at Dee in a deranged attempt to behead her only to pass out & she has to take him to the hospital is great. It’s the above mentioned scene with talk of skin luggage - or Dennis & Dee’s talk of murder & Dee’s confusion and about what the “actual plan” is in “Mac is a serial killer” amped up to 100 to me. It’s “Dennis is a serial killer” jokes done right much like “making Dennis Reynolds: a murderer” & NOT like “The Gang Gets Cursed.” That last one takes the joke way too far by leaving the implication that Dennis might actually be a killer which completely ruins the joke both by explaining it & botching the punchline which should always be that Dennis is a pathetic bitch who WISHES he was a serial killer (side note - other than that, I mostly enjoy “The Gang Gets Cursed” btw).

This became an essay but I wanted to share that extremely good & insightful video without my huge block of text commentary on something extremely specific. However I did want to rant about how much i LOVE the siblings in the castle episode imo that is pure classic sunny dynamics shining through the fog of late seasons overall crappiness lmao I’d actually categorize that specific sub plot as one of my favorites in the whole show which is insane given that it’s from season 15. I just really really love the Reynolds siblings being fucked up but in a funny way that has almost sweet aspects hehe

I also think this is an opportunity for me to discuss WHAT the notable difference is between the “mean” aspect of sunny here & why it works SO much better than the other mostly uncomfortable humor of later seasons. The joke’s punchline is on Dennis - something that’s desperately been needed in the sibling dynamic & the way it’s narratively framed for a LONG fucking time. As discussed in that amazing & super insightful video, new sunny punches down & it’s frankly cringe more often than not. Old Sunny knew who it’s jokes were on & it was always the person just asking for comeuppance by being awful. I’m not saying Dee isn’t awful because that would defeat the purpose of her character but she does suffer from what I call “the Meg Griffin effect.” It also hurts such characters as Britta Perry from Community, Jerry Gergich from Parks & Rec, & Toby Flenderson from The Office. It becomes more uncomfortable & off putting than funny as an audience member after a while to see everyone being consistently awful to one specific character who is not inherently worse than the others but is always the butt of the joke. It’s a trope I will simply never enjoy, personally.

But the castle plot works because it’s certainly deranged & mean (it’s literally not even always sunny if it’s not deranged & dark & mean you might as well give up & watch a different show if you don’t like your dynamics fucked up) but the joke is not -

A. Dennis is a serial killer ooooh edgy! - tired, contrived, Reddit core, unfunny, defeats the point of sunny which is that these guys are all incompetent losers

B. Haha dee is gonna die! She sucks lol! - that is one way to interpret the joke I guess but it’s so clearly actually that Dennis is in a fucking fever infused hallucination about ghosts & dee ultimately has to take his passed out ass the ER because this stupid bitch didn’t get vaccinated

Like it redeems so much or the awful dynamic they’ve built (which they unfortunately double down on anyway later. *cough* the gang goes bowling *cough*) where it’s like…. Isn’t it hilarious that Dennis constantly abuses his sister guys? Haha what if dee literally killed herself lol? Isn’t this so funny aren’t you having fun?

Classic sunny is mean. I’m not trying to say I dislike mean punchlines. But……. Dennis passing out & almost dying Covid IS mean? Dee having to deal with her brother almost beheading her & listening to his deranged conversations with “the castle” IS mean? It’s just that it’s mean in a FUNNY way. Like Charlie getting rejected by the waitress in the musical episode. Like Dee realizing how disgusting her schemes are in “PTSDee” & feeling sickened by herself. Like Frank getting told to fuck himself in his fat fucking ass in the Christmas episode. Or Mac shitting his pants in “Mac Day.” These are all examples of times I’ve found the meanness of sunny funny because it’s about showing what happens when you’re a horrible person who never learns.

Anyway in conclusion I love the Reynolds siblings & the castle plot is the only good part of new sunny goodbye

#Reynolds siblings #trash twins #golden geese #deedennis #Dennis & Dee #iasip s15 #the gang goes to Ireland #iasip season 15

[marley-manson]

End Run is a great episode and I especially love it for the very well-done and fun critique of violent masculine posturing, and the comparison to war.

It’s there from the opening, intercutting the bar fight with the soldiers getting shelled, excellently paralleling war with, well, a dumb macho bar fight lol (and both scenes were fantastic btw, gr8 fight choreography in the bar and atmosphere at the front.)

Klinger’s self-assured refusal to fight because he doesn’t gaf about masculine posturing, as is underlined by some great jokes about his clothes (”I was fighting for my outfit, I didn’t want to tear it!”) and war-zone escape attempts, and Zale mocking him for it even while Zale himself stayed on the fringes backseat fighting. Incidentally I assume Zale’s “If you don’t like it why don’t you go back where you came from?“ is meant to sound like racist anti-immigrant sentiment, ironic for being said in Korea. Zale is slightly redeemed at the end but he’s clearly the secondary villian after Frank and not meant to be likeable here so I dig the asshole conservative American vibe going hand in hand with his second-hand, hypocritical enthusiasm for violence.

And there’s Frank also posturing by proxy because he’s too much of a coward to actually face the prospect of violence, so he tries to force Zale and Klinger to fight to make himself feel manly. I mean, that’s the politics of war right there lol, Frank could be any government official pushing for war.

The fight as a little mini representation of the war and how it should go if the world was fair. More overt and funny comparisons with lines like: “Yeah, I like to see a couple of guys beat the hell out of each other. Makes you forget about the war.”

And Hawkeye, appropriately, the one who turns Klinger and Zale against Frank and inspires them to stage the fight and knock Frank out instead. It’s a nice little victory - they can’t make American and Chinese or South and North Korean soldiers shake hands and turn against the generals/politicians sending them out to fight each other, but they can resist authority on this smaller stage.

Billy Tyler’s subplot is also complementary, thematically, in his fear of not being able to play football and not seeing an alternative for himself. The narrative doesn’t reduce his feelings to masculine posturing ofc, that would be reductive and insensitive. It’s not a parallel, but it’s a vibe that fits the rest of the episode. There’s an element of sports being tied to masculinity, and Billy needing to be more open to less physical alternatives for his future.

Definitely one of the best episodes of the season for me. Excellent politics, excellent direction from Harry Morgan, some great jokes, great character stuff, just a whole lot of everything I want from Mash.

#mash #mash s5 #marley on mash #mash gs

[enviousinfluences]

god i feel that omori post

when it first came out i played it through once and enjoyed some aspects of it (pretty much just a couple of characters and the soundtrack). and then when i tried playing it again i had a sad realization that i liked what the game *wanted to be* more than i liked what it actually was.

the story was super predictable, like i figured out what the "twist" was like. immediately. quickly enough that i didn't realize it was supposed to be a twist and not just obvious subtext until i saw other ppls reactions to the game. (rip media literacy) the ending felt so flat even the "true" ending barely added anything. when you finally get to the part of the game where you're going through the "creepier" areas it was such a blatant yume nikki ripoff that i was genuinely annoyed, you couldn't even say "inspired by" it was so copy paste.

i know a lot of people joke on the whole "rpg maker earthbound-esque based on depression blahblahblah" game genre, but i like a lot of those. omori just felt like a lot of those put together in a way that made me wish i was playing the games it was inspired by more than the game itself.

at this point i just occasionally listen to a few of the songs i liked and haven't engaged with the game or the fandom since the game was new. (the fandom sucks btw, super toxic like holy shit. like i said earlier there's just no media literacy and ppl so up at arms about ship wars with characters who are like 12/16)

sorry this was so long lol i rarely see ppl be critical of the game that actually make good points about why it's bad, so when i saw you mention the way it just copies other games i got worked up lol

No you're so good. I really try to take a generous approach to critiquing things so I reserved my opinions about it for some time but I continue seeing so much praise for it 3 years later and I'm sorry it just rings soulless to me.

And it isn't that I don't sympathize - the best parts of the game are the art and direction. Sometimes artists aren't also good storytellers and sometimes they can't break from following to closely to their inspiration.

But the amount of praise it's garnered really feels undue. I get what you're saying about it being a tired critique but it feels really true in this case. The scary parts were literally yume nikki. But not as effective because yume nikki was original and creepy because of the lack of narrative.

And idk. It's like; in comparison, Yume Nikki is clearly inspired by a game like LSD dream simulator. But it doesn't feel derivative or trying to *be* LSD dream simulator.

I could get on my pretentious soap box all day tbh thank you for the enrichment.

[marsgod]

Heya, congrats on your milestone! 😆 I'm here to request for a twst matchup please! (I go by they/them pronouns btw.)

I am 5'4, have brown eyes, pale skin and black hair that reaches to my shoulders. As for what I find attractive in someone physically...I've discovered that I'm really into glasses. 😳

Apparently, I look unapproachable to strangers? I frown when I'm confused, giving people the impression that I'm judging them or that they did something wrong. I also have a resting bitch face? My classmate told me she thought I was gonna beat her up whenever I wasn't smiling.  

I daydream a lot, am really detached from reality and have gotten lost many times when going through a new building. I am also empathetic, and always try to help people cheer up. Mostly through talking to them alone, I'm not the cheery type. I just try to help them sort through their emotions.  

I am also sensitive and prone to emotional outbursts, the getting angry and crying sort. I can be a little self-centered in that area, where my emotional well-being comes first before others' comfort.  

My hobbies are reading, writing, and listening to music. My ideal date would probably be eating in a café while watching the sunset. Yeah...That sounds like a dream. ❤️

As for what I want in a SO... Someone who can tell when I'm upset, but will give me space to work through it (I don't like talking about how I feel). Someone intellectual, I suppose? I don't like the impulsive types like Ace. And I read a lot, so I'd like to be able to discuss things with them!  

【Ａ　Ｔｉｍｅ　ｏｆ　Ｃｅｌｅｂｒａｔｉｏｎｓ】 - Matchup for Twisted Wonderland!

I’d match you with… Trey Clover!

You wanna eat at a Café? I’ll raise you one better, try watching the sunset with your loving boyfriend in your own café as you two domestically clean up and joke around

Also, he can’t cook very well, but baking home-made bread and other pastries happens often and C’mon, it’s Trey and they’re delicious

He is book smart, not as street smart, and likes to plan out things rather than burst into a random fit of spontaneity

As for when you’re upset? He’d rather you come to him, but might ask small questions (“how was your day”, etc.), whether you want to tell him is up to you but he’d appreciate it if you straight up told him you’re upset and want to be left alone

Emotional outbursts (mostly aggressive ones) are common with Riddle, so he isn’t too phased, but it also depends on why it happened and how you conduct yourself

He doesn’t really disassociate like you, but will make sure if you’re walking or something that you don’t run into a wall or take notes for you to copy down

Trey likes reading, although he mostly studies, but will gladly read anything you write and maybe give some tips or give suggestions on characters (actually gives good critique)

tbh he isn’t phased by you looking unapproachable, Riddle is was too, but Riddle isn’t too bad and has a reason, but Riddle acts unapproachable and you just look it so there’s a difference

He’s semi-glad you’re not too outgoing or erratic like Ace or Cater, there’s 2 too many of them running around and causing trouble so a break with you is nice!

#[⭐️]count our lucky stars![⭐️] #twisted wonderland #{..no identity found..}

[thechangeling]

I was reading your co-signing the narrative post- great post btw- and your thoughts on Kit Lightwood helped me figure out exactly what bothers me about the way other characters talk about and treat him.

So, there’s this kind of this running “joke” in TLH that Christopher’s interests are boring, that everyone else puts up with it him as though it’s this big nuisance, that everyone zones out hearing him talk… and on and on and on.*** And then there’s this scene where Grace is genuinely interested or at least not bringing him down about his self-expression and the things that bring him joy, and that’s romanticized as special when it’s really kind of the bare fuckin minimum. Like, I’m not saying James/Matthew/Thomas had to immerse themselves completely in every sciency detail but the constant “jokes” implying that Christopher’s work is boring or incomprehensible or not worth their time is just so tiring. There’s always an undercurrent of “Christopher’s just playing around uselessly” (which is not true and even when he’s having fun with his work then it’s still automatically WORTHY and VALUABLE because it makes him happy!) Not to mention this recurring problem directly contradicts the value that Christopher’s work has (beyond its inherent value) when he sends it into the world to literally save lives: the poison antidote, the fire messages that will probably come about in CoT.

And the thing is, the merry thieves’ disinterest is directly meant to foil grace’s interest in order to lend the Grace/Kit relationship a certain significance, as CC assigns to it. I’m not saying shared excitement over an interest/hobby/career/field/etc isn’t sweet platonically or romantically. I just really dislike how the idea CC is using is “no one else can bear to tolerate Kit’s ‘quirks’ but Grace, and that is Endearing, and so they are Soulmates (TM)” rather than the much healthier and positive idea that “Kit does cool sciencey stuff which his family and friends generally don’t share as strong a passion for but still don’t huff about it like it’s somehow a chore or a burden on them, and then Grace comes along and she does happen to share a similar passion and that’s the beginning of their ties to one another.” That second reasoning is what could make their friendship really refreshing; we don’t need ableism poorly twined into romance to enjoy that relationship.

I haven’t read TDA in a while but I’m thinking we could also find touches of this with Ty partly because so much of when we see him is from Kit’s POV? Not that Kit means harm or thinks himself heroic but CC on the other hand is a repeat offender in “abled/white/straight/cis character is ultimately and completely responsible for the salvation of disabled/POC/queer character in this aspect.” And I’m kind of half dreading the wicked powers for that reason among others …

I apologize if all this seems obvious or rambly. I do sometimes have trouble articulating things exactly but when I read your post i had a lightbulb moment and I wanted to note it down.

Have a great day!

***Side Note: this is why I really enjoy fan-created content that explores Christopher’s relationships with people (even people he didn’t interact with on-page in the canon) without that annoying and problematic aspect built into the framework of the relationship.

^^^^^^^^^THIS ALL OF THIS!!!!!!

Full disclosure this is gonna be kind of long sorry. But you have stumbled across my favourite topic to rant about. Allistic saviorism. Basically the name is pretty self explanatory. It's when an allistic person fictional or otherwise has the desire to or actively attempts to essentially "save" the autistic person from the horrors of the world or their life, or even themselves because they think that the autistic person isn't strong or capable enough to fix/handle it on their own. All of this is usually done for very self serving reasons. Part of this is also allistic people being praised as heroes for being nice to autistic people or asking them out, or loving them.

I don't neccesarily think that kitty is an allistic savior ship on it's own. I think that there are definitely peices of those beliefs scattered throughout the books and it might get worse in TWP. That's honestly something that I'm worried about too tbh. But honestly I think that the fandom made it a billion times worse.

This mainly allistic fandom wanted to romanticize the idea of Kit taking care of Ty and shouldering the burden of his "unpredictability." Kit is the only one who can get through to Ty. The only one who understands the mystery that is Ty 🙄. Some of this is canon too. For example, Ty can look Kit in the eye, he lets him touch him. He doesn't wear the headphones when Kit's around right? And Kit was able to calm him down during his meltdown.

And while some of this is really cute from a romantic perspective, it's also kinda problematic because it reeks of allistic saviorism. It promotes the idea that Kit is like Ty's "cure." And that's just impossible.

And honestly I know I've contributed to this in some ways. Because if I'm being perfectly honest with you, there's a part of me that enjoys that. The romantization of autism.

The idea of being taken care of.

The idea that someone could love an autistic person and see them as "beautiful" and "extraordinary" and all the things Kit calls Ty, was incredibly moving and appealing to me as a kid. It still is. Because I grew up on stories of charity cases and allistic saviorism making headlines with prom dates. I was super secretive about it, but I was always a romantic growing up. But I thought that it was impossible for me to have a real love story because people like me don't get that. (Not to get all sob story on you sorry. I overshare. It's an autistic thing.)

And there are some really compelling things about kitty that really do work. And I'm not trying to suggest that Kit learning to help Ty with the ...shall we say more colourful traits of his disability is a bad thing always. It's not. But I think the issue is with Ty's lack of pov and Ty's lack of a narrative in the books. It makes him seem like less of a completely developed character and more like, "Kit's" you know?

And because we don't have Ty's pov we don't really get what makes Kit have this sort of calming effect on him or why it's different. And more importantly we don't get why Ty's letting him in, we only get Kit pushing past his boundries. The entire thing becomes about Kit essentially and that's at the root of all allistic saviorism.

Also like you mentioned before, Kit is seen as special to a certain extent because he can handle Ty. That's not neccesarily something the character believes obviously, but again with CC co-signing the damn narrative with the way she makes the impact Kit has on Ty such a big deal in everyone's eyes and in QOAAD she really emphasizes the drain Ty's necromancy plan is taking on Kit, suddenly Ty's grief becomes all about Kit and with no pov from Ty, it's more allistic savior bs.

Honestly most of this isnt actually THAT bad it's just when you throw it all together and look at the ugly history and let's be honest present, of autistic people being silenced and spoken over by our caregivers and loved ones and we are treated like burdens on them, and how those people are praised for loving us, it kinda looks bad. But the fandom definitely made it worse.

I always get criticized for criticizing kitty by allistic people with, " well if you think they're so toxic then why do you even ship them?" Which is a piss poor take lacking in any nuance. An autistic person has the right to critique a dynamic involving an autistic character. More to the point, you can love something and be critical of it. I swear when this fandom finally figures that one out... we could accomplish so much.

I'm really hoping this is making sense it's like 2 in the morning. As for Grace and Christopher's dynamic I agree with you. I basically have nothing to add. Bare minimum. Should not be idolized. The way the others treat him should not just be brushed off as no big deal. It's ableism.

Basically it's just a bunch of classic mistakes that come from a neurotypical abled writer writing nd characters. Some mistakes are more damning then others. But it does make me scared for TWP.

I can only hope.

#kit x ty #christopher lightwood #ty blackthorn #tsc #tlh #tda #twp #the last hours #the dark artifices #the wicked powers #actuallyautistic #allistic saviorism #asks

[in-silks-and-flesh-and-leather]

Silky! First, your stories and writings are amazing and INTELLIGENT! They have so much depth and the characters aren’t interchangeably generic!! Second, of course the same with your commentary and thoughts—always intelligent and worthwhile. When you disagree it’s not to be petulant and disagreeing for the sake of disagreement, which I appreciate. For example, I too, was very underwhelmed about the Gucci sex scene. But I hadn’t read the book. I was judging it as a scene itself—and especially bc so many people hyped it up. But I really enjoyed reading your critique and commentary through the contextual lens of the book on which the movie was based. Finally, I have to say again that your comments and replies are always very kind. You don’t dismiss people even if you disagree. Btw, I happen to enjoy Maurizio Gucci’s look bc I prefer AD clean shaven, though I wish his hair wasn’t quite so floppy and I could do without the glasses but whatever I will take what I can get. But I feel on your blog and as your follower I can voice this even though I know you don’t enjoy Maurizio Powers haha, bc you and your blog space is very welcoming and kind. On the flip side, I admit that while I enjoy any AD content, Jacques aesthetically usually is not my first preference (though depends on my mood) but what I adore is falling in love with a character that an author has created. It isn’t so much about the aesthetics of Jacques or Maurizio in the end, for me, so much as how an author has written them and reimagined them. And you do it so well for Jacques that I enjoy being taken on the adventure you created and falling for this character. That is all credit to YOU, not the movie. So I don’t know why some people would be offended or annoyed if another person in the fandom does or does not enjoy an AD movie or an AD character as portrayed in the movie. Who cares? It would be boring if we all liked the same things. And they’re all meant to be for fun anyway. In the end it’s with a specific author’s rendering of a character that we fall in love with anyway. And I think we as a fandom are all the richer for it, for the diversity and intelligence and creativity that authors such as yourself bring. - 📖

My dear 📖❤️

Thank you so much, I adore an ask that I can sink my teeth into 🥰

And if you didn't just hit on two of my primary considerations in creating a character/story, mh 👌 You're brilliant ❤️

I'm so glad to know you feel that way about the (apparently) incendiary thoughts I share on occasion. I wish we could be more open about what we actually like/dislike and why - I promise everyone it's so therapeutic and the jokes that come out of it are gold 😂😂

Also, there are few things I enjoy more than spirited debate with an intelligent person (which remains respectful throughout, obvi) - I'd love to hear more from people who have considered opinions different than mine.

That's a really interesting point about preferring one look over another and how that plays a role. I don't have a preference really (just no mustache/chinstrap 😂) so I never thought about it much. If you would like to share, I'd love to hear more about it 🙂

I'm also a fan of gentle roasting so even the characters I am totally into, I still gotta go for a joke. That's why Rick is princess creamy legs/daddy long legs always and forever to me. And I'll bring up The Logan Family Pout™ any chance I get 🥰

The last few sentences you wrote brought a tear to my eyee ❤️ You're absolutely right, it's fabulous to have people who like different characters for different reasons, and when there is a talented author out there who gets them and has the talent to write a story that will sweep us off our feet and build upon the character we love 😭😭❤️❤️ Perfection!

Sending you all my love and zero bad science metaphors because you're worth it 🤗🤗

And a little sprinkle of our Gooby Goobs because it's for sure not all bad 😄🥰

[clove-pinks]

I am begging people to read Frederick Marryat's debut novel Frank Mildmay (also known as The Naval Officer) not only because it's a neglected classic about a fascinating and multi-layered Byronic hero who experiences the late Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812 (and is heavily autobiographical), but how else are people going to appreciate my proprosed Muppets version?

Frank, the title character, is of course human. But his father is Sam the Eagle (whose American accent is never explained), and his sister Clara is possibly also a muppet—which would allow her beau Commander Talbot to be a muppet. (Note to self: find noble and well-meaning yet slightly trigger-happy muppet character).

Frank's first captain as a raw midshipman is Kermit. I mean duh.

(We can call him 'Lord Thomas Kermit' eh @hmsspeedy? Plus imagine all the "frog" jokes!)

The port admiral Sir Hurricane Humbug is played by Statler and Waldorf as two characters: Sir Hurricane and Sir Humbug. Considering that he canonically tells bad jokes and offers unwanted critiques, I feel like this is a particularly inspired casting choice. Sir Hurricane and Sir Humbug can banter between themselves, harrass Kermit, endless possibilities!

My biggest deviation from canon is casting Miss Piggy as Frank's tragic doormat of a mistress, Eugenia. (The troupe of actors are now Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, btw.) Wheras book Eugenia is meek and sacrifices everything for Frank's reputation, Miss Piggy Eugenia gives him some very richly deserved karate chops—and she doesn't die, since I'm taking the liberty of making my muppet adaptation less brutal. Frank's illegitimate son Eugenio is now a curly-haired muppet lad who pops up to say "Papa!" (his only dialog) at the most inopportune and embarrassing moments in a running gag.

I'm considering Miss Piggy in a different wig as Frank's mistress Carlotta, who canonically does try to karate chop actually kill him. Frank's road to repentence is now driven less by a spiritual crisis/feelings of guilt as it is driven by angry muppet ladies who have had enough of his philandering ways.

The Swedish Chef has a bit part as an angry Dutch farmer who chases off Frank in Walcheren. The fact that he's the wrong nationality is lampshaded by Gonzo and Rizzo, who are on Frank's gunboat. ("I can't believe I'm gettin' abused in another period piece," laments Rizzo, breaking the fourth wall as his body is used to extinguish embers like a rag).

More to come??

#captain marryat #frederick marryat #frank mildmay #muppets #age of sail #the muppets #silly post #file under 'jokes that are funny to no one else'

[dreamerandcrazy]

Ok, so I haven't been able to comment much on my Riverdale rewatch mostly bc i'm watching it with my boyfriend and we have an agreement of no cell phones when we're watching, otherwise we can't pay proper attention to it. But I wrote down some notes about the episodes I did watch (I watched up until ep 6, which is very ironic bc apparently today is its anniversary, so yay for my perfect timing). I actually remember most of the stuff that happened in s1, so here's mostly a few things I paid more attention to or noticed about the characters and the ships, or things i'm able to look at through a different view now that i've watched all the seasons. Strap in if you want to see my notes, if not just scroll please, no ship or character hate here please. Also, feel free to ignore, this is really just a personal look in some stuff I didn't notice in my first watch.

- Betty's character used to be much happier and lighter in season 1. I know we're introduced to "Dark Betty" right in episode 3, but still, I feel like the way Lili played Betty in season 1 did not hold the same "darkness" as it does in the following seasons. The scene where she is dancing happily in her bedroom because she's going to homecoming with the boy she likes? The scene where she introduces Jughead to the Blue & Gold and gets him to work with her? Her genuine innocent happiness at seeing her sister again after so much time? The way she interacted with Kevin and Veronica? Those were all chef's kiss because she actually feels like a teenager in them. In all her girly glory, she radiates youth energy and it's a thing that was sadly lacking after s1. Btw this is not a critique at Lili's acting at all, I blame it entirely on Ras and his obsession with dark Betty.

- There's actually so many indications of Cheryl being a lgbt character in the first episodes that I have no idea how I missed it the first time. But then again, there were many indications with Veronica as well, and sadly that's not the path Ras chose for her.

- Jughead in s1 is truly so superior in so many ways that it's not hard to see why he quickly became such a fan favorite. I think even if he wasn't played by Cole Sprouse, he still would have conquered many fans' hearts. Sadly, the things that made Jughead such a loving and interesting character for me also fizzled out in s2 when the writing team decided to make him a woke serpent leader instead of allowing him to sticking to his true personality as a passionate mystery lover, a dedicated friend and very nerdy, which was very cute. I feel that we got some of that back for him in s4, which was good, but sadly s1 is where my love for him really stayed to stay. But I still care for him, and s5 has a promising storyline for him which i'm excited about, so let's see if s5 Jughead can become better than s1 Jughead.

- Going back again to Cheryl for a sec, I just noticed that the red lipstick actually wasn't that common for her in s1? At least not in the first five. I wonder when did it start becoming her trademark? Anyways, it's actually a really good look her and allows you to appreciate Madelaine's natural beauty even more.

- Also, did anybody notice how Alice lowkey figured out who killed Jason in ep 2 lmao, like... in episode two she legit says she wouldn't be surprised if the Blossoms themselves had killed Jason, which... is what happened LMAO, considering we know it was his father. And even more hilarious and tragically ironic note, in ep 6 she's laughing at Betty suggesting that Hal killed Jason because "do you think your father has the stomach for it?!"... Ma'am... i'm-.... 😂😂😂😂.

- This rewatch has reminded me of how much I adored and how I much I miss Josie and the Pussycats. The girls were such a nice addition to the cast, and their songs were so beautiful. I truly wish we get to see them again someday, but at the same time I also think the actresses deserve to be at a work place where they're given the treatment they deserve and not completely ignored and treated like extras.

- Archie/Valerie was super cute and is very underrated in the fandom, but i'm glad Valerie stood up for herself and didn't take any of Archie's or Cheryl's sh*t. Still sucks because they were really good together, though.

- Why was Jason not allowed to talk, lmao? Like, i'm sure it's become a running joke in the show at this point, but back when season one was airing what was the excuse for it? He appeared in so many flashbacks and scenes and we still never heard a single word ☠️☠️☠️☠️. I just want to know what was the reason lol.

- I liked s1 Reggie, but I feel like Charles Melton's Reggie is better because he actually feels like a douche with good intentions lol, and he has more of a personality. Most of the time I even forgot about Reggie in s1, but after s2 he definitely made me more aware of him. So for that, I like Charles Melton's Reggie more. But the actor from s1 still did a good job with what he was given.

From now on I will be talking about the ships, so bear with me, and know that I am a multishipper. Yes, I have my preferences. No, my word is not law, it's just an opinion, so please respect it.

- Bughead is still super cute in s1. I feel like from s1 they will always be my otp, even if I no longer feel as strongly about them now and have a different insight as to where I would like their story to go, and now I definitely see the problem others had mentioned before of how they kind of took over the show, which is something I kind of closed my eyes to before... But I really loved them in s1. It felt like a very juvenile teenage relationship, they didn't give much thought on why and if they should be together, they just went for it like teenagers usually do, and they were very very cute together.

- I feel like if you don't count Beronica (because they really were the best no matter what you say or ship), if there's a ship that deserves "best chemistry" award for s1 is probably Varchie. I lost my interest in them years ago, but this rewatch reminded me of why I actually loved them once. They never really became an otp for me, but Kj and Camila's chemistry in s1 was VERY GOOD, and I really liked them. Their kiss in the pilot was electric and the s&xual tension was OOF, and that chemistry carries on through the season. You can easily tell something will happen between them eventually. It makes me sad bc I don't know what happened after s1, but their chemistry from s2 onwards was just... not there for me. Which is ironic bc it's the season they truly started dating and they got a lot of smexy scenes, but I just... didn't feel it. But I'll leave that comment to my s2 rewatch. For now just let me enjoy Varchie's chemistry in s1 while it lasts because it was really good.

- Now we get to Barchie, who I made clear was the reason for my rewatch, so let's get to it. I LOVED the way Barchie was written in s1. I remember when I first watched Riverdale, I was curious about their dynamic but didn't put much thought into it because I loved Bughead too much and wanted them to be together, and I thought Barchie would be the traditional "first og ship" thing and wouldn't have a big follow up, but boy was I WRONG and am I GLAD for it. I'll talk more about their development in the next seasons when I get there, so for now let's focus a bit on s1. Just in like the first two episodes, there is so much Barchie foreshadowing, like, it's legit insane how it was right there in my face and I missed it the first time! "I have never felt what i'm supposed to feel with betty", "it's not my fault he doesn't like you", "I can't give you the answer you want"... Omg, those are obvious eyebrow raising "this will come back to bite you in the a$$" moments and it's incredible how they actually DO! I would call it clever writing, but like... it's Riverdale lol. So I really am just glad that the ship was done this way, i'm glad Barchie has the back story that they do, they've really come a LONG way and i'm happy I get to experience their whole growing storyline. It's also especially good because s1 actually provides you with scenes that show you their friendship and how they're so close, you see them hanging out, talking, their pictures together, everything was just really done well with them. Still have a bit of critique with the way Archie contradicted himself sometimes regardinf his feelings for Betty, but let's be honest, we've watched enough Riverdale to know that's just a problem with the writing.

- Kevin/Joaquin is still my favorite Kevin ship, i'm sad it's completely impossible to go back to them someday so for now i'll just be really glad it existed and that I got to see them even if it was short-lived. They had great chemistry and their kiss scenes always outsold.

- Beronica... sigh. Beronica. The most wasted chemistry i've ever seen on CW and I've watched a LOT of CW shows. There was so much potential there, s1 was practically overflowing with them and it's one of the reasons it became some popular. I remember when the Beronica fandom was the biggest one, ah, good times. Veronica and Betty were easily the best part of season 1, their friendship, their lowkey romantic moments, they were just superior in every way. This ship deserved better, not even just as a ship, but as a friendship.

- Veronica's s1 hair >>> Veronica's hair in seasons 2-4. I loved the side part and I am glad it's back in season 5, it looks so much better like that.

- Cheryl, as always, deserves better. Can't wait for her to meet Toni so I can watch again Cheryl finally get to love someone and be loved back, which is exactly what she deserves.

For now, that is all! I will probably make another post soon when i'm done with season one and from season two on I will be live-blogging the episodes since I will be watching it alone. Once again, pls, no hate, my thoughts are my thoughts. Peace.

#bri rewatches riverdale #riverdale #barchie #choni