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thesorcerersapprentice · 5 months

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22.01.2024

BI-WEEKLY ACHIEVEMENTS:

Worldbuilding: For the past two weeks, I've been grappling with an issue in my worldbuilding that has been paralyzing all progress on the novel. To put it briefly, while I want the novel to address neo-colonialism, I don't want to locate the story in a region that resembles the location of neo-colonial powers in our real world, aka. the global north. This for two reasons: first, because I want to use the novel to highlight and celebrate the flora and fauna of my own home region, Colombia; and second, because I want to get away from the idea that the default setting for epic fantasy is a UK-inspired region á la Game of Thrones. However, setting a neo-colonial superpower in a region that closely resembles one that has suffered immensely from colonialism and neo-colonialism in our own world comes with its own issues. After all, isn't it a form of literary colonialism to elevate the region's aesthetics but obliterate the culture? But, then, what's the alternative? For a long time, I assumed I only had three options: either solve the issue by setting the entire story in regions that resemble the standard fantasy default and bypass the problem entirely, abandon the colonialism theme, or keep the global north/global south aesthetic divide we experience in real life, thus maintaining the global north inspired region as the superpower and the global south inspired region as the oppressed. All three options are, in my very humble opinion, a disappointment and fail to do justice to the story. That said, I think I may have discovered a possible fourth option that allows me to keep the superpower region resembling Colombia. Namely, I'm thinking that instead of basing the distinction in climate/geography on the different hemispheres (and sticking too close to our world), I can base them instead on the different altitudes of Colombia. There is a historical precedent for having the 2500-meter-above-sea-level mark be the colonial centre of operations, which would allow me to keep the Cloud Forest biome as the main setting and somewhat side-step the unfairness of it all (I hope?). It's also possible to create a racial distinction between the inhabitants of the different altitudes if, let's say, the 2500-meter altitude region has been conquered, the native people eradicated and replaced by the new arrivals. This would make them physically distinct from the inhabitants of the rest of the regions (á la US; for the below regions, maybe the colonizers took a more "Spanish Empire" route and mixed). Furthermore, if this same region then gains independence and establishes itself as a new superpower, oppressing the regions below, we also have neo-colonialism (also á la US). Maybe that can work?

Decided on Altaluna's Appearance: I couldn't really settle this until I'd settled on the updated worldbuilding (namely, decided the geography, the races, ethnicities, etc.). Since race plays a hand in galvanizing hostilities against Altaluna in the second and third acts, I needed to be certain that her appearance would satisfy the criteria of 'mestiza' within this universe.

Researched Colonialism: I read two books on the subject, Edward W. Said's Representations of the Intellectual and Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire. I also picked up a third book, You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, a reimagining of the meeting between the conquistador Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma in the city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) where the tables are turned. My aim with Enrigue's book is to learn from what other people are doing with colonization in fiction today, especially as it pertains to South and Central America. I'm always up for recommendations if anyone has any!

Updated Writeblr Graphics: I was supposed to have this done by January 1st but I really didn't like the theme I'd come up with, so I remade everything to the tune of the new(ish) setting. Hope you like it!

REMINDERS

Answer pending asks. I am, as always, behind. My apologies to everyone who hasn't received a reply yet. I promise I'm working on it.

Publish Altaluna's profile... please? (I'm begging you, finish and publish it!)

Complete a full summary of at least one aspect of the reviewed worldbuilding (could be geography, history, whatever). Ideally, two.

In memory of my dear friend, Nicolás, who died two years ago last week. I miss you.

TAG LIST: (ask to be + or - ) @the-finch-address @fearofahumanplanet @winterninja-fr @avrablake @outpost51 @d3mon-ology @hippiewrites @threeking @lexiklecksi @achilleanmafia

#progress update #biweekly progress update #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writers of tumblr #writeblr community #writing community #writerblr #writblr #WIP: THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE #WIP: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

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kyouka-supremacy · 10 months

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Its so sad about selling it as a shounen when its seinen. Ive literally watched reveiws from people who called it a shounen (just reviewing the anime) or had a gard time catgorizing thinking shounen meant action/adventure when its an age group. As someone whos getting older its disheartening to see seinens cast to the side

Yeah... Like tbh I can see where the confusion comes from, with the superpowers and repeated fight scenes being elements that are recurring in shonen manga, but that's stopping to a very superficial reading of the media. I do agree part of the appeal of bsd is how it tackles adult themes that a shonen manga can't reach, how it doesn't shy back from diving into disturbing concepts and depictions– it is meant for an older audience, and treating it as a shonen risks to end up making it lose a lot of its charm, because there's some things that you just can't sugarcoat.

I feel like Bones' adaptation of the Fukuchi vs. sskk fight is a good example of what happens when you shonen-ify a seinen scene: in the anime the scene failed to transpose the characters' internal insight and moral conflict, as well as renounced to all the interesting themes questioning war cruelty (themes probably deemed unfit to a teen audience due to graphic descriptions and reflections on political subjects). The anime adapted all the action in the scene, but it was left at that, on a very superficial level, pretty much erasing everything that made the scene thematically relevant and emotionally moving.

But then again, in the end works (and especially well written, original works) can be so that they hardly fit in a single category, and that's okay. Death Note is technically a shonen that serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump, but imo it feels a lot more of a seinen. The Promised Neverland is a shonen, but it's also the manga with the oldest demographic of any other series serialized on the WSJ, with a wide slice of sales coming from an adult audience, and a whole published analysis book written by a researcher from the Hiroshima Women’s University. Bsd is a seinen that targets at an adult, male (?) audience, but that doesn't exclude it sharing traits with shonen manga.

I do understand and to an extent sincerely share some sort of reclaim of bsd as an adult media. It's comforting to say: “I'm an adult, and I'm interested in bsd, which is an adult book”. The thing is, genres are ultimately conventions, and pretty volatile at that, and in the end in my opinion it shouldn't really matter if the story is a seinen or a shonen, as long as it is a good story. And still it does matter, because we're all so used to see our interests be mocked and made fun of, that we feel the need to say “it's an adult story, so it's good; it's not something to be made fun of, and my interest for it is legit and justified” when it really... Doesn't have to be like that. It's natural for adult stories to attract an adult audience (for relatableness of themes, for an easier time in understanding complex subjects and even a curiosity and interest in complex themes and questions), but I think that shouldn't come with diminishing media targeted to a younger audience, with saying it can't hold depth and thematically relevant motifs or that adults are automatically childish to take interest in them. I share a sentiment of frustration that calls for reclaiming bsd as an “adult media”, but I also think that at least personally, it comes from a place of stigmatization of everything that isn't adult like it was automatically bad when really there wouldn't be anything wrong with bsd being a manga for young men either.

(I ended up following a string of thought here, so I apologize if it resulted in projecting / making assumptions on what you meant with this ask. It's perfectly legit and understandable for you to be annoyed by the misinformation around what shonen and seinen mean with no other implication, and the rest is only personal opinions added)

#To be fair imo bsd could perfectly be considered a josei it's just that no one wants to say it out loud.#But you take one look to the bsd merch and all of it is blatantly meant for a female audience there's bags for women and jewelry and dresses #And that's on top of what I guess we can say is evident fujoshi fanservice #The female slice of the audience can't be any less of half of it and in reality it's likely to make the majority of it #It's simply that no one wants to admit as much.#bsd #bungou stray dogs #people asks me stuff

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osharenippon · 2 years

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The 80s "Popeye" Extended Universe

Popeye’s Revolution (Part 1)

Popeye’s Revolution (Part 2)

In 1980, four years after the explosive launch of "Popeye," Yoshihisa Kinameri and Jiro Ishikawa envisioned a new title for former readers who had outgrown the publication. They named it "Brutus," after the antagonistic character in the original Popeye cartoon.

Almost every long-lasting fashion/lifestyle title -- including Popeye -- underwent style and format changes through the years. But, throughout its five decades, Brutus' original concept remains the same, down to its bi-weekly periodicity. It's one of the most consistent success stories in Japanese fashion/lifestyle publishing history.

Throughout its four decades, Brutus became a guide to society's aspirations while reflecting the reality of the magazine business. In this post, we will focus specifically on Brutus' first decade.

With legendary designer Seiichi Horiuchi serving as its first art director, Brutus -- much like Popeye and AnAn -- quickly became a reference for its high-quality, creative magazine design.

Brutus' target is "males in their 30s," and each issue focuses on a specific theme. Still, the magazine appeals to men and women of all ages interested in sophistication and the particular issue's theme.

The publication was launched when Japan was rising to become a global superpower. Its first decade was highly prosperous, encompassing most of the miraculous "Bubble years" of the Japanese economy. This background helps explain some of the classic themes in the magazine, which are still present to this day: high-quality fashion, food, and alcohol.

Looking at 80s issues, we can identify plenty of subjects still part of present Brutus, like culture, travel, and city life. Others, like the coverage of certain sports (sailing/America's Cup; Formula 1) or the focus on cars and motorcycles, were indicative of specific 80s/early 90s trends.

Early Brutus was a snapshot of a country bustling with energy, money, and optimism.

Brutus was originally a magazine for the post-Popeye generation: men who had graduated college and were now part of the workforce, a.k.a. "salarymen." The depiction of salarymen often has a depressing tone: faceless men in dark suits, overworked in bureaucratic, boring jobs, passed out on trains from exhaustion or drinking too much to cope with their burdening responsibilities. Not in early Brutus, where the portrayal of salarymen resembled how female fashion magazines characterize office ladies: young workers who should use their hard-earned financial independence to have fun and enjoy life.

With the bubble years as the backdrop, BRUTUS could convincingly sell the "salarymen" life as glamorous and a path to affluence. It told its readers to invest in expensive, glamorous suits; use their salary in fun ways, and leave the "salarymen" mindset behind, aiming instead to become a "business elite." A very 80s, optimistic way to see your career prospects, which would be much less convincing nowadays.

With the very generous budgets of the Bubble period, the magazine was known for travel-themed editions. The editors and the young staff would go on long trips to destinations perceived as "exotic" -- Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, China, South America, Cuba, Mexico -- and produce an entire issue around it.

Europe was also a popular destination for Brutus, with several issues exploring the continent and its culture. Decades before Scandinavian minimalism went mainstream, Brutus had an issue dedicated to the region's charms. Brutus highlighted East and West German culture. There were issues about traveling to Spain and Portugal, England, French culture and fashion…

But 80s Brutus had a particular obsession with Italy. Italian fashion, Italian "dolce vita," Italian cuisine, Italian design, and the charm and style of Italian men were thoroughly examined by the magazine.

US culture was the basis for Popeye. And while Brutus preferred to explore Europe in its first decade, it also had several issues dedicated to American culture and travel tips. Some of the themes were very "bubble year 80s," such as an issue advising readers to go skiing in Texas and another centered on buying real estate in Hawaii.

While the US often took a backseat to Europe, Brutus' favorite international city was New York City, as crystalized by two special mega-issues in 1982.

Popeye and Brutus explored many similar subjects: traveling, fashion, Tokyo city life, and where and what to buy. But 80s Brutus had something Popeye initially didn't: sex. A subject that completely matched Brutus's "pleasures of life" concept.

While "Hot Dog Press" had love manuals and sex guides for young teen boys (crucial for the magazine to surpass Popeye's sales), Brutus packaged that content in a more sophisticated, adult way. During the 80s, there were eight sex issues.

Regarding nudity, the 80s were very permissive compared to today's standards. While artistic shots of topless women on a magazine cover are unimaginable in 2022, '80s Brutus had several covers depicting nudity. In fact, its fifth-anniversary issue invited famed photographers to shoot nude pictorials. The edition was a hit, and the theme was repeated in other issues in the following years.

Brutus also had annual issues dedicated to architecture and interior design. It became such a standard Brutus topic that, in 1998, it spawned a spin-off title, "Casa Brutus."

But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here. Going back to the 80s, it was the decade when the Popeye family grew exponentially.

One of the goals of Popeye magazine was to introduce Japanese youth to a more health-conscious lifestyle inspired by America. Besides sports, such as frisbee, skateboarding, and jogging, Popeye editors were fascinated by a concept that was somewhat foreign to Japan: muscle training. From the initial issue, the publication ran features on how to "shape up." Soon, Jiro Ishikawa started using another fictional character name to define the prototype of a muscular, fit guy: Tarzan.

The Tarzan lifestyle was particularly prominent in BRUTUS.

In 1985, for example, BRUTUS had an issue dedicated to the new "Tarzan era." Then, a few months later, in 1986, Tarzan became bi-weekly muscle training and fitness magazine, with Ishikawa as the founding editor. The first cover was shot by famed American photographer Reid Miles.

"Tarzan" is still in publication and is Japan's leading fitness publication.

But, of course, the Popeye family wouldn't be complete without Olive.

Olive magazine, aimed at the female public, was launched in 1982 as the "magazine for city girls." But it became a social phenomenon the following year when a female editor-in-chief took over and changed its entire concept. It wasn't solely the "female version of Popeye," but its own magazine, with a different vision: a dreamy, girly-like visual book aimed at teen girls. The "magazine for romantic girls" and its "lyceene" fashion were so influential that they'll be the theme of a future post. Despite its success in the 80s and 90s, "Olive" folded in 2000, the only one of the four spin-off titles that are not in circulation anymore.

#casa brutus #brutus #magazines #menswear #magazine #1980s

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manic-intent · 2 years

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It’s out! Available in [ paperback ] and [ ebook/audiobook ]. m/m enemies to lovers heist-gone-wrong space opera, intergalactic espionage, and rogue AIs:

"This addictive space opera from Ow (Cradle and Grave) posits a far-future, intergalactic cold war between Russia and the UN. Cocky scavenger Solitaire Yeung goes against his crew’s wishes to investigate a distress signal from a Russian military spaceship and steal (“salvage”) an unidentifiable piece of tech. Unknown to Solitaire, the stolen pod is a prototype for a new artificial intelligence, and the Russian Federation orders Cdr. Viktor Kulagin, captain of a destroyer fitted with an AI he deeply distrusts, to hunt Yeung down. This plot paves the way for a rarely seen thematic quandary centering on early AI use in spaceships. The cultural microcosms aboard space stations like New Tesla and cleverly interwoven history make for deeply plausible worldbuilding as Yeung finds himself at the center of a political conflict that could fracture the hostile peace between galactic superpowers. And when a new faction enters the fray, Solitaire and Viktor are forced to ally against a power that threatens all of humanity. Unexpected humor and thrilling action punctuate this space opera adventure while empathetic characters and a tenderly explored theme add a lot of heart. Fans of artificial intelligence and daring spy stories will find much to love." -- Publishers Weekly

Check it out if you’re looking for a fun mid-year SF adventure!

#book #books #science fiction

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dhr-ao3 · 1 year

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A Plethora of Parallels

A Plethora of Parallels https://ift.tt/7KwaTES by Maira Last Drabble Writer Standing, Round 9: Parallels These will be updated weekly after reveals. Each week we are given a theme and a word limit. The chapters included will be my attempts. Words: 299, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 5 of A Dance of Drabbles Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M Characters: Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy Additional Tags: Last Drabble Writer Standing, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Paperwork, Humor, Snark, Sass, Superpowers via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/x0UVj8T April 23, 2023 at 11:48AM

#IFTTT #Dramione #Draco x Hermione

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bleakcrest · 4 months

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BLEAK CREST RULES

Welcome to Bleak Crest! Before getting started, please carefully read through our rules. Any failure to comply can result in an immediate ban.

— GAMEPLAY

After the death of Devon Barrett, renowned crime fiction author, you've been invited to join his friends and loved ones in his hometown of Bleak Crest, where many of his books are set, for his funeral. The village of Bleak Crest is one of England's smallest, boasting a population of less than 400 people, and has made its name with Devon's books.

There is an overarching plot, and players are encouraged and free to create their own dynamics and subplots, but any plotline that will affect a large number of players, the main plot of the server, or is potentially triggering needs to be run by the mods first.

Only players over the age of 21 will be accepted.

— MUSE

Players will be allowed up to 2 characters, and both must be over the age of 18. Please make sure to consider your availability and activity levels for both characters. OCs and canon characters are welcome, however, please be aware that all characters must be humanized. Superpowers, fantasy elements or other abilities are not allowed, and character lore must be reasonable and believable for a standard, modern-day setting. Characters should be adjusted to fit the season theme, or they will not be accepted.

— BEHAVIOUR

We want Bleak Crest to be a safe place for everyone. OOC intoxication (including drugs, legal drugs, and alcohol use) is strictly forbidden while roleplaying and chatting within the group. Please decide not to be online at that time. No bigotry or bullying is allowed in this server. In these cases (and others), Mods reserve the right to remove players from the server. If you feel you are being harassed, bullied, or are otherwise unhappy with a situation, please bring screenshots and names to one of our mods, and we will handle the situation. While we understand that character bleed can happen, especially in a high-stakes server, we ask that players step back if they feel they are distressed by IC actions. Your real-life health and well-being take priority over roleplay. Be mindful to avoid clique-ish behaviour and try to step out of your comfort zone by roleplaying with new people. No one likes to feel left out. Cooperation is key in Bleak Crest.

— TRIGGERS

Check the ⁠lines and veils channel often and please be mindful of what you post. A line is something that should not be brought up at all in the server, IC and OOC, with no exceptions. A veil is something that can be brought up in the server but must be placed under a spoiler tag and labelled.

Possible triggers in this season may include murder, suicide, paranoia, possession, player character death, NPC character death, in-character alcoholism, and violence, among others.

— NSFW CONTENT

As a horror server, there will be discussions of blood, gore and other horror-related content present. Please be mindful of this when navigating the server in public spaces. Any visual content of this nature must be spoilered and tagged. Smut is NOT allowed anywhere within the server. Jokes, memes, and appropriately spoilered dialog etc. is acceptable both in and out of character, but further roleplay of this nature should be ' Fade to Black ' or taken to private DMs outside of the server. This is for the comfort of all players.

— ACTIVITY

Players are expected to roleplay both in the IC group chat AND longform threads. This is essential for communicating with each other and engaging with the plot. We do ask that players try to be available for WEEKLY weekend events, which are normally hosted for 2-4 hours, beginning between 6pm and 9pm BST (day and time subject to player preference via poll). It becomes difficult to plan events when players are not actively engaging, and therefore we request that you keep availability in mind before joining.

— MODERATION

Any issues or questions can be directed to the mods via DMs, to either Winter or Ray, or placed in the Help channel. Please be aware that both mods reside in the BST time zone and won’t always be online to help, but we will get to your message when we can.

— PUBLIC INTERACTIONS

Any interactions posted in IC PUBLIC CHANNELS are considered public, meaning that any other character can walk up and join the conversation. This is a great way to interact with more characters, as well as get involved in the main and subplots. If you want a private thread, please go to your own or your writing partner’s IC PRIVATE CHANNEL and create one there. Otherwise, the IC channels provide a space where everyone is free to interact with each other. All threads are time-locked, so you don't have to worry about finishing them before the next event happens.

HOW IT WORKS

Here is the basic overview of how this server works:

Your application must be approved before you can gain access to the server, and you must read the rules thoroughly before you are given access to start roleplaying.

For some IC actions, Bleak Crest uses a points system. This system will replace normal dice rolls and will be explained thoroughly in the points channel. Every character gets 18 points to start with and can earn more points via exploration, good roleplay, and engagement with the plot.

We recommend having your characters explore Bleak Crest at their convenience and recommend interacting as much as possible within the server. There is always more to learn and a new place to look. Your first week here is the perfect opportunity to get to know Bleak Crest and how things work, as the first week will remain free from horrors so you (and your characters) have time to settle in.

As a standard, if characters wish to investigate a certain area or object, please @ the ADMIN role in your thread along with a short description of what you'd like to do or what you're looking for, and a mod will hop in to give you information or ask you to roll. It can be difficult to monitor multiple threads at one time, so please use the @ function to help us ensure your investigation questions aren't missed.

Characters are encouraged to investigate individually or as groups, but please know that there are consequences to your character’s actions. If you’d be afraid to do it, your character probably should be too. This isn't to say that you can't do frightening things, as that's the point of the server, but try to be realistic. Permadeath is a mechanic and, like in real life, death can come from seemingly innocent decisions. Be careful. Stay alert. Mods aren’t actively trying to kill your character, but we aren’t going to hold your hand either. We won’t tell you the outcome of a decision before you make it, but will sometimes present you with options and warnings about what could happen if you proceed to make poor choices. We will NEVER blindside you with the death of your character.

This season does have an intended time limit. We would like to get the plot concluded within 8 to 10 weeks if possible. This isn’t to rush you or to drag things out, but a realistic estimate of how long it’ll take to wrap things up.

#rules

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creywatch · 8 months

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🌟 Join Crey Industries' Elite Heroes – Become a True Hero in "The Watch"! 🌟

Welcome to Crey Corps' The Watch, the most electrifying and immersive RP guild on the Everlasting Server of City of Heroes: Homecoming! Inspired by the gripping world of The Boys by Garth Ennis, our guild invites you to embrace the power, the prestige, and the chaos that comes with being a recognized hero in the eyes of the public.

🦸‍♂️ What is "The Watch" All About? 🦸‍♀️

In our universe, heroes are larger than life, shining like stars, and sponsored by the mighty Crey Industries. But behind the scenes, corruption and arrogance reign supreme. If you've ever wanted to experience the high-stakes world of superpowered beings and the shadowy machinations of powerful corporations, look no further. "The Watch" offers:

🌆 Immersive Lore-Friendly Roleplay 📢 In-Character Adverts, Cards, Fliers, and Commercials 🎭 Weekly Events for All Types of Characters 💥 The Dark and Twisted Themes of "The Boys" in the City of Heroes Universe 🎓 Hero & PR Academies 🦸‍♂️ Mentorship and Sidekick System 🌟 Evolving Guild Storyline 👥 Immersive Public Relations Faction

Join the ranks of heroes whose faces grace cereal boxes, and uncover the secrets, scandals, and power struggles that fuel their lives. - LINKS -

🎥 Curious About Our "Heroes"? Watch Below to get an overview of our themes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvRjq2rGRTk

City of Heroes: Homecoming: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/installation-guide/ Discord: https://discord.gg/mTzTbNwsVK -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you 18 or older? Ready to embark on an RP adventure that rivals the best of superhero tales? Come be a part of "The Watch" on City of Heroes: Homecoming's Everlasting Server! Our community is waiting to welcome you with open arms.

#city of heroes #the boys #homelander #roleplay #the boys amazon #the boys series #the boys tv #vought #Homecoming #superhero #Roleplay Guild #Crey Industries #Everlasting #superhero rp #superhero roleplay #Immersive Roleplay #literate rp

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hmshermitcraft · 3 months

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Something about mumbo gaining traits from eating Grian's soul in S8? (Grumbo)?

They'd all kind of known Grian wasn't completely human. But, he was human shaped, and probably wouldn't be too angry at Mumbo for killing him. So it worked for Mumbo.

Or it did. Until the consequences.

He hadn't understood why Grian told him to call when Mumbo started to get the headaches. That 'he'd know.' Turns out, Grian was right! Mumbo really would know!

Mumbo can also see... Everything. He thinks. He's not tested it, because he's currently fighting to stay existing in his body. But he can certainly See. He doesn't think he's built for seeing this much!

Grian comes as promised. Doesn't even tease Mumbo, or say a 'told you so.' No, he sits with Mumbo patiently, drawing circles on the back of his hands as he speaks Mumbo back into his own body. Mumbo feels like he's only connected to reality by a tether, but he uses that tether to collapse into Grian, letting the man hold him tightly.

This sucks. Grian agrees.

#hermitshipping #ask #grian tag #mumbo tag #grumbo #mod 🎀#weekly theme: superpowers

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g-kaur13 · 10 months

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Astro Boy (1980-1981)

-Noboru Ishiguro.

Astro Boy (October 1, 1980 - December 23, 1981) also know as New Mighty Atom is a color remake of the 1960’s anime black and white series. It is also the last Astro Boy work that Tezuka himself wrote and directed, and the humour of the story and direction that is typical of Tezuka can be seen throughout. The original Japanese version of the series ran for 52 episodes while the English dub ran for 51 Episodes as the first two were combined into one.

Technique Section:-

The Tv animation series, Astro Boy is known as one of Osamu Tezuka’s seminal works that changed the history of Japanese Animation. The 1980’s are considered the ‘golden age’ of Japanese anime, it saw a huge explosion of genres and intrest. Many factors contributed to this, including the introduction of VHS and children who were inspired by Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) twenty years ago, growing up and becoming nostalgic for their favourite show. Osamu Tezuka’s love of animation as an art form ran deep, and right from thr very begining he knew that he wanted to push the artistic boundaries as much than the commercial ones.

Although the original Black and White Astro Boy (1963-1966) television series is often credited with getting Mushi Production’s animation division off the ground, it’s quit telling that despite the pressure to succeed at the enormous task he would set for himself- the complete production of a weekly animated television program on a shoestring budget- he still held fast to the dream of creating animation as fine art. Under the original English name, it kept the same classic art style art style as the original manga and anime, but was revisioned and moderized with more lush, high-quality, near-theatrical animation and visuals. It combined the playfulness of the early anime with the darker, more serious and dramatic Science fiction themes of the manga and 1980’s series.

Representation Section:-

In the series Astro boy, Astro is the main character, who has a strong sense of morality and is always gentle and kind towards other. AStro is a superpowered robot, with seven secret super powers. He looks exactly like his creator Tobio. Throughout the series, Atlas attempts to persuade Astro to help Atlas conquer the world. By design, both AStro and Atlas were created from the same blueprints, and so they are considered to be brothers. However, Astro refuses to help Atals in his quest for world domination. Astro’s voice is dubbed by Mari Shimizu to continue with Patricia Kugler Whitley for American Version and then 12 year old Steven Bednarski for Canadian Version.

Reception Section:-

Astro Boy was dubbed in two different English Languages. The first was coordinated by Tezuka Productions and Nippon TV and dubbed in 1982, which aried in Australia from 1983 to 1998. It had a very limited release in the U.S. This version was later released on DVD in both Australia and the United States. iIn the Philippines, the series was aired on RPN in the 1980’s. The second English dub was heavily edited and redubbed in Canada in 1985. In the Canadian version most of the character names were different from the American counterparts. In India, the Hindi-dubbed version of this show was broadcasted on Pogo from 2008-2009. The first two episodes of the series were edited into one episode, completely removing the subplot of Atlas origin. Astro Boy is said to be the first popular anime created based on a manga, providing the foundation for the animation of popular comics. Without Astro Boy and it creators, Japanese manga and anime might not have seen the great success that followed and continues to his day. In todays day, it be be hard-pressed to find a person grown up in Japan who is not aware of Astro Boy. The anime theme tune is still commonly used in sporting events and performances.

Personally, I myself have also enjoyed this series in my childhood. Seeing this series after so longs gives nostalgic feeling and it made me miss my old days when i use to watch it with my siblings and cousins.

Refrences:-

https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-animation-8/art-of-astro-

boy#:~:text=Under%20the%20original%20English%20name,near%2Dtheatrical%20animation%20and%20visuals.

astro-boy-influence

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nntheblog · 2 years

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How Many Episodes Will My Isekai Life Season 1 Have?

There are many new anime shows, and more are on the way. My Ichekai Life has not forgotten fans of the anime genre . How many episodes My Isekai Life will have? My Isekai Life - I gained a second character class and became the strongest Sage in the world! also known as My Isekai Life is a light novel series by Shinkoshoto. The illustration is done by Kazabana Huuka. The first publication of the series was in Shosetsuka Ni Naro in 2017, and then later moved to SB Creative. Revoroot's anime adaptation premiered July 4, 2022. It aired a double-episode. My Isekai Life Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9cxOAV0lBs Tensei Kenja No Isekai Life Official Trailer By AniTV How many episodes will my Isekai life have? According to the official website, My Isekai Life is expected to have 12 episodes. According to the product information page, there will be four Blu-ray discs. Episode 12 will be included in the final volume. For isekai titles such as My Isekai Life, a single-cour, 12-episode series is standard. The series will air weekly from September to September, provided there are no unexpected breaks. My Isekai Life forms part of the season 2022 anime series. Every Monday, Episodes are available on HDIVE. My Isekai Life Manga Review Sometimes you simply find something that you like. If you find a genre that you like, you will want to consume more. This is also how the creation process works: One thing can be successful or you love, so it's worth creating new things around that idea. It is clear Shinkoshoto has WAY gone into isekai. Shinkoshoto may have gone too far in isekai. But is that going to stop him from creating more manga titles for people to enjoy? Square Enix licensed another manga adaptation by this author, with the reincarnation theme. It's finally here after a delay in its fall release schedule. This might be even better than Strongest Savage with the Weakest Crest. Strongest Savage is a story about an all-powerful Sage who chooses to reincarnate to gain the strength to confront a mysterious space threat. In My Isekai Life? Yuji Sano looked like a typical corporate drone, staring down work piles when a pop-up asked him if he would like to be summoned into another world. He thinks he may have gotten a virus and tries to reboot his computer, only to find that he is now in another world. He believes that he is just dreaming as soon as he appears. This manga reveals the strengths and weaknesses of isekai. Do you have a superpowered protagonist? Yuji becomes a tame slime, and the slimes discover and then read a lot of books that contain powerful magic. This then transfers to Yuji. Yes, definitely superpowered. Modern knowledge has made it possible to be a "know-it-all". It's too early to tell. He needs to understand the world and currency in order to My Isekai Life credit. However, he does learn that he can tank his MP with absolute destruction magic. The harem of women? Surprisingly, this is not the first volume. He has at best a harem full of slimes. They range from cute slimes to slimes with eyepatch or mustaches to slimes with cute eyes. The splash page shows what I believe to be a monster girl wearing horns and a slime on the head. However, she is not present in this volume. As far as I know, he will transform one of the slimes into an adult girl. It doesn't happen here. Generally, we get a mixture of people, from the regular adventurers to guild girls to the old man who runs the guild. To be clear, this manga has no originality. We'll just be following a man who wants to live a new life, but isn't afraid of being overpowered. His presence will essentially overwrite certain general class concepts (you are supposedly bound to one class). We'll watch what the narrative does with the issues he faces going forward. It does this in a strong way that is both readable and entertaining. The humor is sold a lot. There's the usual shock of Yuji showing his power, and then there's the surprise shock of one of his slimes as he completely obliterates the dragon with one his strongest spells. Yes. It was accidental. Apart from the mob characters and the volume's slime designs, however, it looks like everything is clear and engaging. Its genre trappings are the only thing that holds it back, but the absence of a clear goal is the only real thing. It's possible to assume that someone summoned him into this world. But maybe this story won’t help. It can choose to keep it lighthearted, but if it takes things seriously it might not be a good idea. This manga is not boring and it's worth reading. It may have more potential than Strengthest Sage. We'll have to wait and see what this series does. What's My Isekai Lifestyle About? My Isekai Life tells the story of Sano Yuji who is an office worker who finds himself in a fantasy world. He wakes up in this fantasy world as a monster tamer, and manages to tame a lot of slimes. The slimes are capable of absorbing magical knowledge and other things. Yuji is a monster tamer and a strong sage. Yuji is an unmatched magician, and it appears that no one has yet seen anything quite as powerful as Yuji. My Isekai Life has a manga version published by Square Enix. In 2018, it was serialized in Manga UP! The serializations of manga and light novels are ongoing. The series will appeal to fans of magic and isekai. The anime has so far featured a refreshing art style and tons of cute slimes. Read the full article

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into-september · 2 years

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paper faces on parade

Two fashion designers battle for dominance over Paris with superpowers granted by magical jewelry

Described in the worst possible way, and entirely lacking the crucial context that one of these is the billionaire owner of an international fashion brand, while the other is a middle school girl who once won a designing contest with a bowler hat. Still, given the context of a superhero show where a magical girl leads the battle against a supernatural terrorist, that particular vocation is clearly a choice.

I don’t think I’m about to say anything at all that is new to this fandom; this is mostly an attempt at pulling together those threads for my own benefit. It started with finding some emerald green eyeshadow from 2009 in a drawer and putting it on out of nostalgia, and became pondering about the fact that my makeup routine is either absolutely nothing or fire engine lipstick, winged eyeliner and eyeshadow in colours that most certainly aren’t “nudes”. They’re probably both variations upon the theme of not-quite-up-to-fashion, is she.

As someone who spent a considerable part of my youth being Not Like The Other Girls (yes, we all see the irony), my appreciation of fashion stems largely from ted talks and lifestyle youtubers. The lesson, of course, is pedestrian: Short of body modification, fashion is the most easily available way to assert our individuality. What sets us apart from the others around us? What kind of person are we? What are our values, what is our position in society? Clothes communicate this. Not only do they broadcast this to the world, oh no: research shows that the clothing we wear change our perception of ourselves. People thought they performed better at intellectual tasks while wearing lab coats. The clothes we pick out in the morning become the uniform communicating our purpose in the world, and we judge other people by their cover every day.

So when Thomas Astruc and his writing crew opted to make both his hero and his villain people who create the tools of identity, it is not incidental. Certainly, certainly not in a story where "identity” is the core of the conflict.

Gabriel’s goal isn’t to battle Cat Noir and Ladybug, it is to get their miraculouses - which he can only attain by force. All the time his identity is hidden, he can’t make them any public offers of his money and influence, and all the time their identities are hidden, he can’t use their friends and families as blackmail the way he went for Chloé and Alya. But it’s not like he hasn’t tried to go after their identites; the first akumatised victim of Season 4, in fact, was trailor-made not so much for defeating Ladybug, but for forcing her to speak her real name.

Adrien, too, wants Ladybug’s identity, with the crucial difference that he's not resorting to magical terrorism in order to get it, and has accepted the “no” whenever he’s brought it up. At its core, Adrien’s motivation is the same as Gabriel’s: the love of a woman. Adrien loves Ladybug, and he wants to know her outside of superhero battles. Gabriel loves Emilié, and needs Ladybug’s powers to get her back. Adrien accepts that he can’t have it; Gabriel tries to take it by force three times weekly.

Marinette, of course, jealously guards that identity. Ladybug’s name and adress being unknown is the literal only safeguard she has against Hawkmoth taking her miraculous and using it for whatever evil purpose he’s never specified. Thanks to her experiences in “Cat Blanc”, she presumably believes that keeping her identity from Cat Noir is equally vital. At the same time, the only way for Ladybug to end the current stalemate is to find Hawkmoth, and take his miraculous off of him. Ladybug, too, has a stake in the identity poker.

The irony becomes all the keener thanks to the threefold layer of identity in the game: Hawkmoth is Cat Noir’s father. Cat Noir is in love with Ladybug, but Ladybug can’t return those feeligns because she is in love with a classmate who is secretely Cat Noir. Hawkmoth is the father of the boy Ladybug is in love with, on top of being a top player in the profession she aspires to. Ladybug is Hawkmoth’s son’s classmate. They’re all within literal touching distance, but thanks to the superhero costumes they wear, none of them know it.

Adrien’s placement as the top part of the pyramide with the Marinette-Gabriel duality on the bottom is repeated in his self-realisation, or lack of such. Where Marinette and Gabriel both create clothing for others to express themselves with, Adrien is a fashion model - the vocation where “identity” is a sham, because the model’s job is to appear as whichever person the designer, the photographer, the ad director command them to be. The model doesn’t get to pick his outfits.

Much has been written about Adrien as the chameleon so adept at being what others want him to that he is lacking a clear vision of what kind of person he truly is. What I find interesting is the way this stands in contrast to how Marinette and Gabriel aren’t merely creators, but creators of identity, both in public and as miraculous wielders.

Gabriel is obvious: His power is to let people become the literal expressions of their id. When people can no longer reign in their feelings, Hawkmoth steps in and turns them into supervillains whose personalities are reduced to only one thing: release of this one specific feeling causing them pain. As Shadowmoth, he also has the ability to create literal beings under his absolute control.

Marinette, we might note, didn’t intiatially have a power corresponding to Gabriel’s: Ladybug’s power is a duality with Cat Noir’s. Rather than transforming people, she can create items out of thin air. The one whose abilities answer to Gabriel’s isn’t Ladybug, but The Guardian. Marinette makes people into heroes by giving them a miraculous; rather than forcing the ability to do evil onto them, she elevates them to something like her own equals. As Gabriel got his power upgrade, so did Marinette: being handed the miraculous box to keep at her own discretion, she is now responsible for all new miraculous wielders.

In what might well materialise as a bigger commentary on Gabriel’s tight grip on Adrien’s life, the wisdom of forcing people to help you is greatly challenged as Season 4 has proven that his control of his victims isn’t total. Marinette and Alya both managed to talk others into breaking free of Shadowmoth’s control by appealing to positive emotions. Ladybug, fighting the good fight and asking people before giving them the power to help her, has yet to see anyone reject her.

the fox and the bee

Well - except for that one person, right? The person with one parent as a failed artist and another parent as the ruthless critic of other people’s creations. The person who like Marinette pursues creation, but for desperately trying to create a self. A collage of selfies, a history of dressing up and playing pretend, a consumer of high-end fashion who stole Marinette’s work to earn Gabriel’s praise. Somewhere between Gabriel’s white and Adrien’s black is Chloé, the girl with an ego the size of an elephant hiding a sense of self more fragile than Adrien’s. The girl who disregarded all demands of superhero identities being secret because being a superhero was the only thing giving her a true purpose.

Chloé is still a character that is a lot more ambivalent than people seem willing to acknowledge. She's a horrible person, but she’s also pitiful. She ruins people’s lives, but she’s also a laughing stock. She has a very clear idea about who she is thanks to her family, but the constant flaunting of her wealth and influence is a cover-up for the fact that Chloé feels “useless”.

Whatever Chloé’s journey forward is, she can’t be Queen Bee again unless she learns to let Queen Bee go. Whether or not she ever is a hero again is in fact irrelevant, because the thing Chloé needs to learn to be a better person is that her mother was wrong - that Chloé Bourgeois isn’t “unremarkable” and that Chloé Bourgeois doesn’t need to be a superhero in order to be a person who is important.

There are three insect miraculous: the ladybird, the butterfly, and the bee. The ladybird is well-established. The bee got tossed around on accident, is the only miraculous at this point to be permanently assigned a different holder - but a holder that was introduced as a narrative afterthought, given attention not for who she is but for who she isn’t, clearly making the point that Chloé’s story with Pollen is not over. Whether she’ll land on the white or the black side, that is the question.

But the butterfly, now there is the mystery. Because we know only two things about the future: Ladybug and Cat Noir are still around - but the butterfly has passed to someone else’s hands. If The New Hawkmoth is a character already part of the established cast, then the number of candidates is limited indeed, and most clues point to the other girl who antagonises Marinette as a civillian like Hawkmoth hunts Ladybug. And unlike Chloé, unlike Gabriel, Lila isn’t satisfied with going after one of Marinette’s identites. Lila, from the very beginning, has carried a grudge against both sides of Marinette’s mask.

Where Lila stands in an intellectual alliance with Gabriel, Chloé became Hawkmoth’s reluctant general. Where Lila was the first person to seize an akuma because she wanted it, Chloé was the first person to reject Hawkmoth and break free of an akuma’s spell. Where Lila is genuinely popular and well-liked, Chloé is uniformly disliked and accepted only for whatever her wealth can give others.

And where Chloé is unabashedly frank about her identity - that she is rich, that her mother is famous, that her father is powerful, that she is a superhero - Lila’s bedroom is decorated by masks - masks covering ones entire face, more akin to Mayura’s blue skin and Hawkmoth’s silver helmet than the eye-pieces of the heroic miraculous wielders. Everything that is Lila’s identity is a lie; every famous friend, every heroic deed, every false modesty and insincere kindness. Chloé, for all her insecurities, all her petty lies, is unpopular because she’s unwilling to perform a modesty she doesn’t posess.

One of the things that to this day puzzles me about the miraculouses handed out, is that Alya - pursuer and conveyer of the truth - was given the miraculous of illusions. The only part of it that makes any thematic sense is of course that Alya wasn’t the first person to battle at Ladybug’s side with the power of lies - that was Lila, akumatised into a fox-themed superheroine who just like Rena Rouge could create illusions. Alya, the True Fox, has stood faithfully on Marinette’s side - became the first person in their class to speak out against Chloé and giving Marinette the courage to do the same. Lila was introduced as Alya’s polar opposite, the source of Fake News poisoning Alya’s reporting. The most interesting, and still unanswered question, is that Alya - unlike Chloé! - as far as we know still considers Lila her friend.

Of all of Marinette’s friends and enemies, only one person seems to truly understand the potential threat of Lila’s ability to manipulate those around her. Gabriel thinks he’s dealing with a schoolgirl. Adrien, watching Lila’s destruction unfold in person, knows better.

all cats are grey in the dark

All the world’s a stage and among the numerous entertainers on the cast, Adrien Agreste is our only professional actor, following in his mother’s footsteps. Perhaps too well, because Adrien’s penchant for performance has trapped him in a space between two public identities - His Father’s Son and His Lady’s Cat - who neither encompass the entirity of him. The first involves the repression of the sides of the self that will not be accepted - the other is a wish-fulfilling game of pretend. Adrien, the model whose literal job is to be what others want him to be and who believes that affection must be earned by appeasing those giving it, pursue sincerity but performs to the point where he at times appears to believe his own lies.

Adrien wants to be a person his father loves and accepts, but being that person is painful; Adrien wishes he were Cat Noir, but even to himself admits that this is a role he performs. Who, then, is the “real” Adrien behind the superhero suit and the photoshop filters?

Obviously, he’s the boy who Marinette fell in love with as he was “being himself, dude”, but this is a boy who exists only in very few spaces, around very few people. Only where his father and Ladybug can’t see him does Adrien let his masks fall - and Ladybug and his father are the two polar beacons in his life, each to which he is drawn out of a deep and unrequited love that pulls harder than the few friends he has outside of them.

There are a lot of mirrors between Adrien and Chloé, and I wonder if we’ll see them make a parallell journey. Where Adrien might have thought that Cat Noir was his “real self”, Chloé proclaimed to the entire world that Queen Bee was Chloé Bourgeois. They both fixated on Ladybug as the pillar of their existence as superheroes: Adrien because he loves her, Chloé because she idolised her. They both consider their superhero selves to be the only way they can find a true purpose, and both of them have tied a considerable part of their self-perception into their existence as superheroes.

Chloé rejected Ladybug, but chose her mother instead - and she chose Hawkmoth. Adrien’s first action on-screen was an attempt to defy Hawkmoth in the guise of his father, and of all things unknown about the future of “Miraculous Ladybug”, genre and target audience tells us one thing for certain: Adrien will have to choose between his father and Ladybug, and Adrien has been consistently choosing Ladybug since the very first day.

It’s a no-brainer: Ladybug is the heroine he loves, Hawkmoth the villain fighting against everything good in Adrien’s life. The one thing Hawkmoth can offer him is the thing that Adrien wants above all: his mother back and with her, his father’s frozen heart healed. It would be a lie, of course. For Adrien to accept that, he must also accept that his father was willing to make innocent outsiders suffer immensely so that their family might be happily restored. This willingness to harm others cannot co-exist with a loving and lovable father, and his mother restored would mean the loss of someone else, per the laws of the magic.

Sooner or later, Adrien will inevitably come to terms with the reality that his home is built on lies, and that he never can have the thing he wants the most. Unlike Chloé, he has explicity rejected his father’s ideal, but “Glaciater 2″ is an ambivalent affiar. Adrien, who won’t be like his father and be broken for the loss of a woman’s love, ends the episode choosing her and his broken heart anew. Of course, this he does with the resolution to go about it in the opposite direction of his father; instead of pursuing that unreachable love through the powers of the miraculous, he theorises that letting her see boy behind Cat Noir’s mask might be the way to her heart.

But this is the one thing that is literally forbidden, because the mask is the vital safeguard: Only as long as it stays in place between them can the world have some certain safety against Hawkmoth’s plans. And this enforced insincerity is forcing Adrien into facing the fact that Cat Noir’s life can never truly be where his future lies. Adrien can never be anything else than Adrien, but he’s not allowed to by the two people he loves the most - to the point where Adrien himself might not entirely know who “Adrien” is. Adrien Agreste is “lame”, uncool, awkward; in his own perception, nothing special next to the people he cares about.

This unsettled identity is mirrored narratively in the sheer number of times that Adrien/Cat Noir has been substituted by magical clones, body doubles, or illusions. This happens by akumas (”Copycat”, “Volpina”, “Chameleon”, “The Puppeteer 2″), by his own choice (”Gorizilla”, “Desperada”, probably also “Kuro Neko”), at least once and going by spoilers, at least once more by the fact that Adrien has a literal doppelgänger who is capable of perfectly impersonating him. The question of “who is the real Adrien” has been asked verbatim on screen once, but it’s been the topic of so many episodes that it’s impossible to ignore.

In “Wishmaker”, the episode where Adrien confesses his complete lack of ambition, of dreams as an individual independent of his father, Adrien is also for the first time acknowledged as Cat Noir by an outside party. Or rather, Cat Noir is recognised as Adrien, in what is also the episode where Adrien himself for the first time theorises that Cat Noir won’t be his future. And the reason he gives for this is remarkably puerile: because Ladybug has so many other allies that she no longer needs him.

This is on brand, of course, from the boy who in his “real life” is ignored by his father, and now has banked his identity on pretending to be someone who can be loved by the only other person in the world who’d understand the burden of a superhero’s life. Only by being “special”, by being indispensable to the people he most loves, can Adrien see his life having purpose.

(Cat Noir, of course, can never be indispensable. He’s right there in the title and the opening credits, in all the merchandse and all the posters. Hawkmoth might have set his sight on Ladybug in particular because she not only has the only power that can undo his evil, but now also because she is the key to nearly all the miraculous. But the ladybird miraculous alone won’t give Hawkmoth what he wants, and Cat Noir’s key part in this has been remarkably underplayed by the story, to the point where Adrien himself seems to forget that he is, in fact, fundamentally different from every other temporary miraculous holder.)

At this point, Adrien still harbours the same misconception that drove Chloé into the cesspit where she currently wallows: hanging his entire self-worth on whether or not one singular other person approves of who he’s trying to be, and then disregarding everything if that persona is rejected. His father refuses to love him unless he molds himself by his wishes, and Ladybug cannot truly love all he is as long as he remains only Cat Noir. For Adrien to stand as his own person, to truly know who he is, he will have to find the confidence that just being himself, dude, will be enough.

Chloé has a person, now, who has stated her intentions to love her, even if she’s not a superhero, even if she’s mean, even if she won’t return that affection. If Chloé will condescend to love her back, then the acceptance she so adamently denies to be yearning for will be in her hands, without conditions of making herself into a person that makes her miserable.

And Adrien, he did have a girl who would love him in Ladybug’s place - but Adrien couldn’t return those feelings. Marinette on her own would make no practical difference: Adrien still loves Ladybug, and Adrien can’t stop being Cat Noir. But for a boy whose only wish is to be loved and who thinks that he’s not good enough for it, being told that he is, regardless of whether or not those feelings can be returned, might be the very thing that will let him finally embrace his own worth.

Where Chloé needs to let go of Queen Bee in order to grow, Adrien needs to realise that Adrien Agreste is no less important, no less worthy of love, than Cat Noir is.

(Give your thanks to the Body Shop Shimmer Cube Palette nr. 22, ”Green light”)

#miraculous ladybug #mlb meta #blah

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still-a-morosexual-help · 3 years

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OBEY ME! LESSON 59 DETAILED SUMMARY + DISCUSSION/THEORIES

*I wrote this days after the lesson was first posted and never bothered to go back and edit it so meaning there will be me theorizing about the next lesson as well

*I write a small para for each chapter and I write it immediately after finishing that chapter so there’ll be theorizing about the next chapter too

*I swear more than usual here

*Some of the dialogue is heavily plagiarized and a few is lifted directly from the story, the game is to figure which is which.

*Summaries and Discussions/theories for all the other lessons can be found on this blog under #obey me spoilers or #my theories or #my headcanons

There’s spoilers for The Arcana down there too in the 6th para…. Don’t ask me how or why it just happened

Asmo greets them in the morning and they have normal breakfast/early morning talk sprinkled in with things like how great the waffle maker is and ‘get a cuppa coffee yourself it’s just a button on the espresso machine’ and ‘remember when Satan thought the Roomba was a vehicle was cats?’. Satan blushes and says he meant it can ALSO be used as a cat vehicle but Levi says they all know that’s BS. Lucifer already looking tired tells Levi to sit down and eat and that Beel’s got whipped cream around his mouth. MC, now power crazy after becoming a legit sorcerer, uses their magic to make a napkin float and wipe Beel’s mouth. Beel blushes and thanks them. Belphie says it’s impressive that they don’t need to recite an incantation to use simpler magic. Mammon comes down half asleep and yawning and nearly trips over the cat’s vehicle when MC uses wordless magic to create a gust of him to pick him up and drop him on the couch. Lucifer praises them for it and Mammon snaps at them to be gentler next time they do something similar. Belphie asks if getting the full seal means anything has changed in MC’s magic and they say they can use more spells in this world now. Mammon says ‘cool just don’t use it to send me flying about again’. Beel asks if they can use summoning magic. Satan says it’s not the type of thing novices can do and even though Solomon will teach it to them now it’ll take a lot of practice. Lucifer tells them to start practicing soon and Asmo remembers the rest of them will be leaving soon (ugh I knew this was coming but I still hate it). Mammon asks if they really have to go back. If they can’t stay here longer and call it a homestay. Beel and Levi agree saying there’s more food/anime events here they want to experience. Lucifer tells them all to quiet down and eat breakfast, MC’s quiet an contemplates having to say goodbye again soon.

In Levi’s room he’s playing Devil Crossing and gushing over it. Asmo says he doesn’t get the game at all and Levi (kinda) explains why it’s so great. Satan asks Crowe to play the theme for “Another Purrrfect Day for Kitties in the Devildom” at max volume. Levi asks if Satan did that to be mean and he says the two of them were being so loud he couldn’t read his book, Levi tells him to go read in his room then. Beel tells Crowe he’s hungry and they say they’ll send a snack recipe to his DDD, Beel says forget snack and to send him one for a huge amount of food. Levi scolds him for ordering crowe around when they belong to him and Asmo says he thinks they should ask Barbatos to connect this house and the HoL together via portals so that they could visit whenever, and that it’d be the best example for friendly relations between their worlds. MC says they don’t know if Diavolo would agree and Levi agrees with them. Belphie says when Diavolo talks about peace and harmony between the three worlds he doesn’t think he means visiting the human world whenever. And Levi agrees with that. Asmo asks what makes them so sure and that they’re no fun at all. Satan says the two angels will probably stay here for longer. Asmo asks why angels et to stay and they don’t. Beel asks why they were sent down to the human world in the first place. Belphie says probably for the same reason they were sent to the Devilom – to learn about the world. Mammon comes to the door asking if MC’s there and they reply, he asks if they all never get sick of gaming (isn’t he the one who has weekly gaming nights with Levi, MC and sometimes Beel?). He tells MC they need to go to the angel’s halo asap cause Lucifer needs to deliver something to Barbatos. Belphie says that Lucifer probably told Mammon to do it and he’s heaping it on MC. Mammon tells him to stay quiet, that he’s busy and MC’s free. They don’t get much of a choice but I like to think they put up some token protest.

On the way they run into Diavolo and ask him where’s headed. He says he’s on the way back from the market. He asks where they’re going and when they reply he says he’ll join them as he’s craving Simeon’s coffee. They tell him that they heard about them all having to head home soon, he says he wants to stay longer but the new term at RAD is starting. He says they don’t need to feel sad though cause as a sorcerer all they need to do is learn summoning magic. He laughs and says that he’s never heard of a sorcerer summoning demons to their side just to hang out though. He says he knows Solomon can be a drill sergeant but he knows MC can do it and to hang in there. MC says that’s cool and all but I want to meet up with you too. He thanks them for saying that and says he feels the same and is sad that they won’t be able to see each other but without a pact between them they can’t summon him. And MC who has bigger balls than I could ever imagine having, whose bluntness gives me anxiety irl says cool so let’s forge a pact (WHEEZEEEE. You can’t just say that!? He’s the ruler of an entire dimension he can’t be under your control you dumbfuck I’m- Pls stop saying the first thing that comes to your mind! That moment in S2 where Diavolo and Solomon were acting all secretive and shady and MC just goes up to Solomon and says I wanna know the secret too still gives me anxiety. Fucking stop have some subtlety pls) And they don’t even ask it as a question? They just say “I’d like to forge a pact with you.” Ugh. I love MC but I could never be them. Diavolo, as expected, is stunned and speechless. He then bursts out laughing and later apologizes for it saying he didn’t mean to laugh and it just took him by surprise cause not even Solomon has had the guts to ask him that (You just know if the demon king was up and active MC’d just walk up to him and demand a pact too). And that he is happy they said that. He then gets serious and says he can’t cause as the future demon king he has his position to think of (Do you think the demon king will ever wake up? Or pass away? I mean Diavolo’s already doing his job I feel like this is something that can’t stay stagnant in the long run. And the demon king waking up would be an interesting storyline cause he’d technically outrank Diavolo but it was Diavolo who called the truce with the Celestial Realm so the last he knew the Devildom was still stuck in a war with the Celestial Realm, Lucifer and his brothers were still angels and humans were probably still on the menu…) Diavolo says though they can’t forge a pact he’ll always be there when they needed him and tells them not to forget that. They can then hold his hand or put their arm through his. If they hold hands he asks if they can hold hands the rest of the way to the café and if they don’t mind that it feels a bit like a date. If they link arms he blushes and ask if they could slow down a bit cause it’s nice to walk through town together.

Luke and Simeon greet them at the café. Barbatos is surprised to see Diavolo but thanks MC for the delivery. After Simeon brings the coffee he’s told about the start of the new term at RAD. Luke is surprised that Lucifer and the brothers are leaving and asks if this means Diavolo will be going too, Diavolo says that as sad as it is they will have to. Luke looks really sad and says “…oh…” and says he hoped at least he’d be able to stay longer. This initially shocks Diavolo before he says he wishes so too but that in addition to the new term he has lots of personal business to take care of as well. Luke then asks if Barbatos will be leaving too. He says his place is at Diavolo’s side and he must follow him wherever he goes. Luke seems even more upset and doesn’t reply. Simeon says he understands that Luke is upset but if he keeps looking that sad it’ll only make it harder for everyone else. Luke blushes and says he’s not sad and that all he was thinking about was how boring it’d be without all of them around causing trouble. MC asks if the two angels will still be there. Simeon says they will be able to still each other and Luke cheers, Simeon then says it’ll still be sad that they won’t be able to see everyone whenever they want to, Luke blushes and insist he’s not sad. MC suggests throwing a farewell party. Diavolo thinks it’s a great idea and Simeon suggests calling it a ‘till we meet again party’ saying it has a nicer ring to it. (I really really love how far they’ve all come since S1, that they’ve all made this mix and match chaotic friend group and that they’re all really sad that they won’t be able to hang out as a group anymore). Diavolo becomes very excited about doing “the thing”, “the thing?” asks Luke, “ah the thing…” says Barbatos. Simeon’s surprised that Barbatos can actually understand Diavolo and Barbatos says it’s because they’ve known each other for so long. Luke says being a butler is like having superpowers.

On the way home MC runs into Solomon, they ask him where he’s heading, he’s says he’s heading over to the café for a cuppa. He asks if something good happened to them, and then specifies and says he’s not using some sorcerer’s clairvoyance to see that cause their expression is telegraphs it. They tell him about the party and he says it sounds fun. He then tells them he’s been thinking about where they go from here and how to improve as a sorcerer they’ll need training, and he asks what sort of magic they’d like to specialize in, in the future. A.) Summoning magic – he says that makes sense cause it was why they wanted to become his apprentice/a sorcerer in the first place. B.) Healing magic (which MC used once in S2 without even having to be taught after observing Satan doing it just once – given their protective nature I’d think they’d be good at it) – He says that sounds like something they’d want to learn. C.) Badass attack spells (which they used against Diavolo’s kidnapper) – He says he’d be happy to teach them but asks he exactly they’re planning to fight (the way in S1 the answer would have genuinely been Lucifer is so funny to me for some reason). He says as a novice there’s a lot they need to learn about the magical arts and not just the spells but its history and origin in the three worlds. He says in order to master the stronger spells you need to understand its origin and relevant background. And that it might not be a bad idea to go back to RAD to study these things (the way my hopes soared at this, the way I got giddy imagining starting S4 already in the Devildom after MC leaves at the end of S3), then Solomon gets sad saying if they’re around the brothers he’d get to spend less time with them (BRO leave aside your jealousy and do what’s right for your student! If they need to be around 7pretty boys who just so happen to be in love with them, to study then that’s what needs to be done, I have no biases here I swear!) MC says they’ll do whatever he thinks is best (or they can say that he’s special to them and no one else will make them feel what he does). He’s surprised that they’d leave the decision up to him and says he’ll give it more thought and choose what’s best for them. He then hands them a ring. He says it’s a sorcerer’s ring and that cause they have the ring of light protecting them (aka stopping them from going super nova and destroying all three worlds) they don’t technically need another talisman but he wants to give this to them. They thank him (or they ask if it’s okay if they kiss him). He says they ‘re welcome and says that as his student and his apprentice they deserve nothing less and that they’re important to him (wonder if S4 will give insight to his first apprentice). He says there’s still so much he has to teach them and that he’s looking forward to it and that he’s happy to have them at his side.

Even from outside the manor MC can hear Levi and Mammon arguing. Mammon’s apparently got a part-time job in the human world and yesterday for payday and Levi wants his money back (and okay this is a question I’ve always had…where does Levi get his money from?????? As far as ik Mammon’s the only one with a stable part-time job but Levi always seems to have so much money? Not only is he able to spend a lot on akuzon but he always has money to spare for Mammon??? Where the fuck is he getting it from? Also does Diavolo pay Lucifer?) Mammon says he already spent it all and Levi says he wishes he would keel over and die, Mammon tells him to shut up and show his older brother some respect, Mammon tries to run away and Levi summons Lotan right as MC steps inside (Do you think Lotan ever gets tired of being summoned into small cramped spaces for no reason?) Mammon screams and asks why kinda idiot summons a sea monster inside a house, Levi screams at MC to watch out as (guessing by the noise) MC’s swept back outside the house by a tidal wave. In the bathroom, Levi’s sobbing and apologizing to MC, he says he was so pissed at Mammon he lost his cool, MC asks if they should be fighting like that as brothers, and he says they weren’t “fighting” fighting and the way I’ve said this same thing multiple times to my mother as a kid/teenager is…. Levi then says Mammon’s the worst cause he keeps buying things through crowe without asking Levi, he says that no matter how many times he changes his password Mammon keeps guessing it, MC tells him to stop using TSL passwords, he’s surprised that they figured it out as well (I mean…) He suggests they combine a word to make his new password - something related to a special date or time and they spend more time in the bathroom bouncing words off each other until they come up with the perfect one. Levi blushes and says it feels special to have a password only the two of them know. IF you tell him it’s cause their relationship is special he asks them to keep telling him that he’s different from the others so that he’ll feel less anxious and that he wishes he could stay with them forever and that they could be a family and MC asks if he’s proposing to them and that’s when I screamed HOLY SHIT and noped outta there because HOLY SHIT!!!??? S2 the last two lessons was MC going around collecting special items from the brothers, is S3 gonna be them going around tryinta have a shotgun wedding with one of them so that they don’t have to stay in the human realm??? God MC’s so fucking proactive I could never. Remember early in S2 when MC told Mammon things would be easier if he just admitted to being in love with them!??? It’s the same with The Arcana and Last Legacy MC’s too??? Last Legacy’s MC is such a fucking little shit I actually prefer them over the LIs but the way they’re so forward scared me like YES she’s super pretty but she’s also holding a sword to your throat should you really be flirting with her rn!? And The Arcana’s MC is on a whole other level (specifically in Julian’s route) like this is the second time you’re meeting him why the FUCK are you trying to strip search him on your doorstep in broad daylight WHILE he’s wanted for a murder YOU were hired to investigate!? Or better yet this is just the third time you’re meeting him why the fuck are you pinning him to a wall and pressing your palm into his open wound on the off chance he turns out to be a masochist!?? Actually wait. MC had known Julian for possibly years and worked closely with him for sometime before shit went down and they both lost their memories of each other, but after meeting again even without memories they both realized the other was familiar to them so do you think it’s possible some deep unconscious part of MC that already knew it sparked the strong hunch in MC that Julian was a masochist??? BACK TO OM! MC can also say it’s all in levi’s head (a little too harsh for my taste but whatever) Levi says he’s lost his happy moment - crushed into teeny tiny pieces and that of course he’s the only one that feels like it’s special. He sniffles. (CAN’T WE SAY IT’S SPECIAL IN A FRIEND WAY!?)

In the kitchen Beel is trying to get Belphie to eat celery by offering to juice it and mix it with other stuff so you can’t taste it (I’ve never had celery but someone said it was like water but crunchy which doesn’t sound that bad?) MC asks what they’re up to, they’re using the juicer to make juice and are trying to decide what to add to it. Belphie says they’re making fresh fruit juice and want something a little extra and ask MC what they think should be added. “Celery,” says MC. Because they’re a shithead and I like to think this is revenge for that one time in S1…y’know what I’m talking about. Beel likes the juice, Belphie says he cans still taste the celery >:) Despite only making juice the kitchen’s an absolute mess and they’re all about to clean it before Lucifer sees when Belphie hears the ice cream truck. Belphie says he’s never bought anything from the ice cream truck before and Beel says he can go check it out and when Belphie brings up cleaning the kitchen Beel volunteers MC and himself to do it (y’know MC should really start putting their foot down) Once Belphie runs after the truck Beel says that Belphie being unable to stop himself from checking out something fun has never changed. Beel asks if they want the remaining fruit. They can ask him to feed it to them or say he can have it. After the second option he eats it before they can even get their whole answer out. He then gets sad about how after he leaves they won’t be able to do stuff like this again. He asks if there’s something they can do so that they can stay this way together. (MC can ask to take their relationship to the next level) MC says they can be made part of the family leaving whatever that means up to Beel’s interpretation (watch Beel go up to Lucifer and ask him to sign the adoption papers of a fully grown adult human being). He agrees that this could work and says while he already thinks of them as family that alone wouldn’t be enough to make it official. And says they should ask Belphie and that together the three of them will have to think of something. He says eventually they’ll think of a good way to keep them all together forever. He then tells them he’ll put the dirty towels in the laundry room and that he’ll catch up with them and Belphie later.

Outside Belphie hands them one of three ice creams and says they should head to the pool, they ask about Beel and Belphie says he’ll just follow the smell of ice cream (does ice cream have a smell? Like even a faint one? I mean it must right?) Belphie says that the twins also have a way of always knowing where the other is because they know each other the best, he says though it’s fainter he’s also sort of able to tell where the other 5 are and what they’re doing. And recently it’s become the same with MC as it is with the others. MC asks if it’s because they’re all family. He laughs and says that’s probably it. Before amending it and saying he’s sure that’s the reason. Belphie says that the brothers – Specially Mammon and after Belphie pauses to give it some thought, Asmo – would be thrilled about MC officially becoming family. MC – cheeky lil shit that they are – asks if only his brothers would be happy. He tells them of course he’d be happy and he asks them if they want a bite of his ice cream (they can ask to be fed it), they tell him no, it’s okay. He asks if they don’t like the flavour and then Beel shows up. Belphie says, “see when you’re family, you just know.” And When Beel asks what they’re talking about he smiles and says nothing.

So that’s the semi last lesson and then we’re done and each time they have to get separated again I feel so emotional but this time I feel like S3 really set up S4 with all this talk about the angels and Lucifer and Simeon’s worst fear and Simeon’s backstory and Simeon and Luke’s purpose in the human world, and possibly Solomon’s backstory too and maybe even Barbatos and just ugh I’m so excited for season 4 and the last lesson of S3 hasn’t even been released yet???

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hellyeahheroes · 4 years

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Ms. Marvel is ending soon: My main takeaways

Kamala Khan is probably the most popular female character Marvel as a company created in the last decade. It also is probably the most successful female solo that Marvel has had in awhile. Make no mistake, there will be another run of Ms. Marvel. She isn’t Miss America Chavez. The issue or issues that we have with Ahmed’s run with her that led to a somewhat premature ending.

The first point is that we have to compare with Saladin’s other book that corresponded with his Ms. Marvel book: Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Prior to taking up Ms. Marvel, Saladin has stated that both books are in different places. Miles needed an expansion of his supporting cast and growth character dynamics outside of the relationship of Miles/Ganke. Kamala, on the other hand, needed stories with more weight and lingering consequences. And while he was right, one should point out that what he was doing to Kamala’s book is tantamount to a tonal shift. It would be like if Spongebob became a weekly episodic action drama. That tone shift turned off a lot of fans of G Willow’s original work as things were no longer light hearted anymore.

Kamala’s villains were actually trying to kill her and had actual animosity towards her. Kamala’s and Bruno’s relationship went from cute and endearing to seriously in love with one another. And Kamala Khan actually dealt with personal shit like her father having cancer or something.

And none of this is bad per say because, while it is controversial to say, I liked Ahmed’s run more than I liked GWW’s. The issue here is that tonal shifts aren’t exactly things that keep fans invested no matter how needed it is. And this is why I laughed at the thought of someone thinking that Ms. Marvel was the modern day Spider-Man because no. Spider-Man stories are about consequences and dealing with said fucking consequences of having a dual life. That’s what separates Spider-Man from almost every other superhero. The fact that as soon as Ms. Marvel stopped being all fun and games for one second and you fans complained proves it. G. Willow’s Ms. Marvel rewarded the comic book fan escapism without the stress of regular life interfering. That you can have your cape and cake. All Ahmed did was introduce a little reality. That Kamala’s mom is not okay with lying to her husband about his daughter and Kamala is kind of shitty to expect her to be okay with it. That a white kid that Kamala indirectly helped profile is going to just be okay with the misunderstanding that ruined his life and not want to kill the person that he sees as responsible. I could go on but you get the point.

Which leads to the inconsistent themes of the character. Part of Kamala’s appeal since her first inaugural issue was that she was internally islamophobic and that she struggled with her identity within culture. Her love for superheroes was an escape from her strict culture and religion and that shit disappeared after the second issue. She got superpowers and she ain’t have any problems after that essentially. Oh I have the power to change my appearance and I secretly wish to be a blonde haired white girl? When did I say that? Naw, I am going to remain in form that I was born in. Yep, no problems.

Point is that Ahmed returned the character to her vulnerable beginnings. She doubts herself. Her secret life stresses out her relationships again. She actually gets angry. And I loved every panel of it because it was great.

Whoever picks up this book again will probably return Kamala to her light hearted roots and that is shame. I hope that the next writer reconsiders and continues the serious melodrama that Ahmed reintroduced and heightened for the character for the sake of not turning Kamala into Gwenpool. Yeah, I said it. Because that is not a recipe of longevity or demanding a fidelity to the core of the character and her stories. Adaptations already cherry-pick the character by not addressing the racism the character faced because it’s too inconvenient. Just saying.

@ubernegro

#kamala khan #magnificent ms. marvel #ms marvel

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sleepynegress · 3 years

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Spoiler-Filled Reaction to the 1st Ep of TFATWS: ‘New World Order’ ...

Okay, so I may switch up and do weekly recaps via audio. Either way, I’m getting something out before the weekend is up... Still!... It’s a been a few days, so I can go a bit more in depth with my thoughts on that pilot ep.

~ So, that opening was quiet and down-to-earth. For me, it was hammering home not only the humbleness of Sam (despite the bravado, the man is naive in his optimism and *not* superpowered), but being stuck in his initial thoughts about the shield. ...That it didn’t feel like it belonged to him. Sam’s personality, has been established as super-loyal and almost childlike in his feelings that things will work out and doing the right thing because it’s right (which is why he didn’t get paid enough BTW naive pride).

-which comes into play w/ his conflict w/ his sister later... I’ll come back to that.

~ We jump into a dangerous mission that shows off Falcon’s personality. He’s gonna get it done with style and optimism even when working with equipment that needs a few updates. The stunt coordination here was fantastic! I legit whewed! aloud at Balroc paragliding into *multiple* helicopters... Sam’s hair-pin turns milimeters from canyon rock, propellers, and rockets... ~ I *loved* Torres’ fanboying. It felt like a parallel to Sam fanboying Cap, in CA:WS and evoked the well-established superhero trope of a person *marveling* aloud at what you’re doing making it so. much. cooler. (as an oldhead, the random black dude emoting about Superman’s suit after he comes out of a phonebooth, in the Reeves movie, is my earliest memory of this trope). ~ Then we see the Tunisia titlecard, which yea! it didn’t just say Africa, but ehh, once again “yellow tint” is code for “exotic” country full of brown people. It did cut through the typically more alt-right-tinged military propaganda w/ the Tunisian man thanking Sam for saving his wife, the bare minimum of humanization... but it saved the scene from just “backdropping” the people/culture w/o any humanity, at all, as is typical... That and the way these two BIPOC spoke to one another (there is a certain kind of rapport we non-white folk have w/ each other) was my first hint...that this showrunner ain’t a white dude. The joking about him knowing Arabic...like cheering/teasing when we show our range to one another. Mainly, this interaction was to show that Sam is to Torres what Steve was to Sam in some ways...with a bit more “brazen kid” on Torres’ part, along w/ introing the idea of the Flagsmashers. ~ Then, naive Sam decides to donate the shield to the Smithsonian...because he doesn’t feel like he’s earned it and because in his mind it still belongs to Cap and because he’s out here trusting this governement even after all the B.S. he’s done lived through. Even Rhodey was having his doubts... Maybe being around during the blip makes a person more savvy and cynical, IDK. ~ So, then we see Buck in therapy and since I’ve been through trauma, I know that mindset. Sticking to routine is a big “win”. Not really caring about anything beyond the bare essentials (yall saw that man’s apartment). And the feeling of being displaced would be amplified by the fact that this man is more so than anyone who has existed(!). ~ I noticed that Seb leaned into his Rom-Merican accent, which was a great acting choice, it evokes his sense of having traveled without a solid sense of self in a place, because he was essentially, asleep all those decades, while the brainwashed aspect of himself was enslaved to Hydra. I LOVE his therapist. Fannishness for a cute guy, means a lot of people don’t like her being “mean” to him... But I’mma tell you, as someone who actually has been in therapy for a good bit, you *need* someone who will call you on your bullshit so you can properly work on it. I love that she’s also a vet and there’s nothing cutesy and coddling in a male-gazey sexy or motherly way. She’s doing her fucking job and not letting his ass slide. To me, that read as a hat-tip to a woman drecting this. So, we see Buck manifest his trauma w/ profound discomfort in his own skin. He doesn’t know how to interact anymore, how to swagger in this strange time and place (because dude had all kinds of 1940′s swagger and juice back in CA:TFA) So, he’s just awkwardly honest, and beating himself up for that. But... he’s still alive, so he totally perked up in the presence of this attractive server and Yori notices and like so many old people, just busted his chops and skipped all the what he wasn’t gonna do and did it for him, w/ Leah’s confidant acceptance -ahhh, I luv her!- as an assist. ~ Then we flip back to Sam in Delacroix and we meet his sister and his nephews and his community(!) which really nails down Sam the man, the person, the human apart from his underwritten assists to the Avengers. We see that Sarah knows and loves this naively optimistic ‘I will find a way to fix it because it’s the right thing to do’ hard-headed brother.... but good-God! he doesn’t know shit about real-world day-to-day struggle... If you’ve seen Anthony Mackie in The Hurt Locker... one of the big themes explored, is how tough it is for vets who have been through explosions and firefights in another country... to adjust to day-to-day struggle in “normal life”. THAT is what Buck’s therapist was calling out when she said BULLSHIT to him saying he wanted peace (lol, no he doesn’t, like Sam he wants that righeous kind of adrenalin only being in action for “good” gives) and what Sarah is frustrated w/ is regarding him not understanding or respecting the kind of struggle she had to deal w/. ~ As an aside I *loved* her *nose-scratch* “Can I talk to you for a minute??” Whew! That is a black-ass way to let you know someone is pissed w/ you and wants to hash all the shit out. That’s why Sam avoided it, lol... ~ So, the date with Leah, who does all the right things...Goes terribly, because Buck is still too deep in his trauma focus on anything about how great she is. Note, that just about everything that happened on that date reminded him of aspects of his trauma to the point where Buck, (being an absolute dick!) just fucking, walks out on her!! I NEED her to chew his ass out for that and I need him to *not* be able to make it up to her (and I’d also love some fanfic, where Buck actually does *ahem* treat her well... I know Asian women be shorted in fanfic too!) ~ So, he goes to Yori’s apartment and stares like an obvious knucklehead (still dealing w/ being stuck in his trauma) at the alter to the man who was just in the way of that brainwashed aspect of himself, pays for the lunch and walks off...AND, NOTE!! YORI DID NOTICE ALL THIS. So, this will eventually come to a head...yikes! ~ Then we’re back to Sam, and Sarah who tries to have that talk, but old boy ain’t trying to hear it. Insisting that he’s the man to swoop in and save the boat and the business *sigh* by some magic (hanging with magical beings...will do that, I guess). And Sarah smartly is just frustrated and skeptical, but lets him go on and try and fail in the same ways she already did so. many. times... in those five years. ~ And then we see bb Torres being brazen kid stupid amateur spy w/ the Flagsmashers. I honestly thought old masked dude stomped him to death, at first... The camera pan showed the cliched dead-man pose, after all. I guess he pulled that (super!)stomp, which means... Flagsmashers aren’t the lethal villians here IMO. I think they escaped from the *real* villian. ~ And then comes some real world racist bullshit... This scene at the bank *nails* a particular kind of frustratingly infuriating racism that is common. Where they will act like they are doing you a favor because they like and want something from you... but still won’t serve you in the same way they would a white person. It’s this strange willfullly “I like you negroes, you entertain me! -but fuck you -but I still like you!” patronizing thing that we know all too well. *whew!* That was real. And then that heartbreaking scene where after Sarah rightly told-ya-so’s. -Sam is working on that mess of an engine and reality *finally* sets in when the key didn’t even attempt to turnover.

~ Then Torres messages Sam (and he’s alive!) and we all know Sam knows these Flasgsmashers got super-serum, but isn’t saying. Even TORRES knows (bless his heart). ~ And from there we go straight to the U.S. government rubbing salty dirt in Sam’s wound with the new/fake Cap holding the shield aloft and winking like “It’s mine now, bitch!”. ---And the credits, I won’t get into except to say if you want ALL the spoilers in the credits, watch that linked video, I posted earlier. But they are SIGNIFICANT spoilers.

#okay just about #finished #tfatws #meta #recap

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