#I'm just saying it's really silly to compare that scene to things it is not comparable to

[sysig]

What your fave says about you: Sona/Undertale edition (Patreon)

[gojohatemail]

WHO SAID THAT!?!?

[lpsgirl109]

Yall remember when She Hulk episode 3 dropped and people started saying if you didn't like the post credits scene you were a misogynist and "oh well when WOMEN dance in media it's the worst thing ever but when MEN do it it's fine" and the shit they'd bring up in comparison was. The Bully Maguire dance. That one scene in TFATWS where Zemo does a little dance. The literal fucking intro to GOTG. Im being so honest to god someone said if you like Quill's dance at the beginning of GOTG, you cant be mad at the She Hulk scene. As if anyone at all was mad at the mere fact that she was dancing and not the fact that that scene had no other purpose than to sexualize the character. As if scene where character is singing and dancing while on an important mission to establish who he is as a person and how he's a bit of a carefree idiot is comparable to scene where character shakes her ass directly at the screen, which had no contribution to the plot or her character at all, it was only there to make her appear more sexy.

Cause I remember all that

[deconstructthesoup]

Have I already posted something like this? Yes. Am I gonna do this anyway? Also yes.

*clears throat*

Reasons why you should read the How To Train Your Dragon books if you haven't already (regardless of whether or not you're a fan of the movies)

The drawings throughout the books can range from being silly little doodles one moment to unforgettable portrayals of some of the most intense scenes in fiction you'll ever read.

Toothless is A Baby (and a bit of an asshole, but in the same way that a cat is an asshole).

Hiccup can verbally communicate with dragons, and the dragon language is canonically composed out of absolute nonsense

Fishlegs is ten times more important to the story due to being Hiccup's best friend, and he also has an incredibly lovely arc of his own.

Speaking of arcs, Hiccup's arc throughout the series is a beautiful portrayal of a misfit becoming a hero in his own way and advocating for the rejection of all of the flawed ideals that his ancestors put into place.

Seriously, this is a book series about choosing to be intelligent, imaginative, and empathetic in a society that wants you to be the opposite of all of that.

While Astrid is great, Camicazi---the character who was probably her jumping-off point, since they both have a dragon named Stormfly---is a feral gremlin of a girl who we should all aspire to be (also, as far as I can recall, there's never any hints of there being something romantic between her and Hiccup, or her and Fishlegs---it's just a great platonic friendship between the three of them, which is a win for me personally).

Alvin the fucking Treacherous. This, to me, is something that the movies absolutely should've added, because he is one of the best goddamn villains... ever. I genuinely cannot think of any other piece of media that shows the main antagonist developing side-by-side alongside the hero, becoming a worse and worse threat as the story gets darker and the stakes get higher, but my god did it rewire my mind as a kid... and for spoilers, that's all I'll say about it!

The dragon designs are the. Most. Fun. Every single kind of dragon in this series is unique, memorable, and more often than not, really hammers in the fact that "dragon" is a word that encompasses a vast number of traits---really, it just means a creature that's weird and somewhat reptillian, and these books take that concept and run. With. It.

THE LORE AND FORESHADOWING IS FUCKING LEGENDARY. If I go into any detail, I will spoil so much, but let it be known that if you're writing a story, and you want to work in foreshadowing and big reveals in both a mystery and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it fashion, these books are a masterclass in how to do it. Loose threads that you don't even know existed will be woven in right when you least expect it.

Honestly... I don't think it's too much of a stretch to compare How To Train Your Dragon to Adventure Time, because their way of storytelling is similar in all the best ways. Yes, at first, it leans more on the comedic side of things, but as you delve further into the story, it unfolds into a truly fascinating epic about growing up and what it means to be a hero... and it also gets very, very dark. I'm not exaggerating when I say that some parts of the later books gave me nightmares, and I loved every second of it.

Big fucking kaiju sea dragons with eyes that shoot lightning what more could you WANT

[pocketmania]

Hihihii i recently got REALLY got into Ena, and i been wondering how about Ena with a girly reader? (Gender of your choice!)

Like someone's very pastel pink, wears frilly stuff and maybe even coquette? I dunno i thought it would be cute since it's kinda of my own aesthetic ૮꒰◞ ˕ ◟ ྀི꒱ა

(Changing up the formatting a bit lol, my commentary is now a lil further down. Still labeled [a/n] though✨️)

# ENA w/ a Girly!Reader

> [A/N]

Hellooo 🎀 anon! I'm very glad you got into ENA! Trust me, you'll love every second of it lol

Also, don't be sorry about the emojis, I usually conjure them from what people describe for me to write lol. But great idea! Alsoooo I'm very sorry if this is poor Aha ^^

Now onto the thingy

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

> [Details]

(🌙🎭👩‍❤️��💋‍👨💭) - ENA headcanons + scenario

(reader type) - gender neutral; girly and feminine

(‼️warnings) - none

(quick summary) - Headcanons about ENA dating a very girly Reader.

✦ First things first: lemme just announce that ENA loves your style

✦ She compliments something about your outfit every day... in her own strange way

❝ (Y/N), you are certainly manifesting the looks of a celebrity once again! ❞

✦ She often finds things on her adventures that she believes would suit you! For example, if she ever finds something like a pink bunny novelty, she is gunning in your direction to show you

✦ It took you a while, but you are now one of the only people who don't change her name to say "MENA" or "TENA" or something else

✦ People are surprised but understanding when you say you two are dating, specifically because of how different your aesthetics and vibes are

✦ Despite this, you two have somewhat similar personalities

✦ As in: you both are silly and whimsical and goofy

❝ My beloved! I have kidnapped this wonderful little specimen with consent, and I was wondering if you would like to wrap your eyeballs around it with me! ❞

❝ Oh, ENA! I would be honored! ❞

✦ And then you two stare at an hourglass dog with cool shades for the next hour

✦ You guys like to paint each other's nails (or whatever ENA has that is the equivalent) while telling silly little nonsensical stories

✦ There is barely a time when she is not seen gushing about you, bragging that she has a pretty significant other

✦ If you want, ENA will sometimes match outfits with you! Though, she would admit, it'd be different than what she's used to. But, she'd do anything for you

✦ With that said, fashion shows are not uncommon

✦ Seeing you instantly boosts her mood and sometimes even helps with her episodes

✦ ... Sometimes

✦ ENA has introduced you to all of her friends. They all may not like you, but they definitely like your style

✦ You have soooo many perfumes. 80% of which ENA bought with all of the fatty caddies she had

✦ If you're someone who really doesn't like to get very dirty (considering your outfits are usually full of pink and white), ENA will waste no time in doing all of the filthy work

✦ ENA's way of speaking is what had you head over heels. For her, it was your appealing taste in fashion paired with how friendly you were compared to everyone else she meets

✦ (You were able to look past the fact that she was an ENA)

✦ In fact, that's how you two met

✦ Lemme set the scene...

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Y'know, this is the reason you don't attend cult dances much.

A wicked event, this was. Everyone was dancing as though it was the end of the world, and they had no care about it. Unfortunately, partying so hard can eliminate a person's sense. And everyone here was certainly, and unfortunately, senseless. Messes were everywhere, and you were ready to abandon this place temporarily; you were ready for bed.

You obviously aren't a coward, but you and grime had a rough history, and you'd rather not continue it. Runas forbid you go one day without ending up completely covered in mud and dirt. Why that happens so much, you're not sure. Maybe keeping clean is a pet peeve.

As you were making yourself a clean path, a dual-colored girl walks up to you. It seems as though she just got here as she's not as wasted or entranced by the music as everyone is... Or at least you thought she wasn't. She grins and begins to dance in a rather funny way. "Goodnight! My pal Moony seems to have misplaced me, and these walls are... rather unforgiving," She explains with joy in her voice, contrasting her explanation. "I would be forever grateful if you could help me locate her!"

You just went through an entire rollercoaster of emotions. First relieved at how she was different from the others, then confused as you thought you were wrong, then... intrigued. You didn't know why, but the way this funny woman spoke piqued your interest. Even though she was clearly an ENA, you couldn't help but not be offended by her mere presence. As if to sell you on her natural "charisma", she does a small curtsy and beams at you once more. "Might I say your taste in style is quite edible! I'm sure everyone would love to steal a bite."

Okay, that sold you.

You returned the curtsy and did a comical little spin, showing off your pink skirt and sweater that you had specially picked out for this party. "But of course! I attract even the most obscure foodies." You boasted, now feeling more confident. You stood upright and pointed at her, mimicking her odd, slanted stance. "For an ENA, you sure do lack salt in those bones. Come on, let's go and find your companion!"

Her eyes lit up as she twirled in triumph. She explained what "Moony" looked like to you, and you set out, helping her find her friend. Unlike you, ENA didn't mind getting her hands very dirty and was kind enough to make a clean path for you. How sweet you thought. Maybe she was unlike the rest as you had first thought?

Whatever the case, the night turned out better than you expected. You managed to befriend someone here and got to start a streak of keeping your outfits whatever shade they had started out with. Maybe this party wasn't doomed for extinction, after all.

[badgalsasuke]

Is Sarada a clone?

When Sarada asks Sasuke if Sakura is really his mom (ch. 5) everybody is dumbfounded and Sasuke is frowning looking stressed? annoyed?

He stays quiet before asking if something had happened which is weird?

Compare Sasuke's reaction to being questioned on whether Sakura is Sarada's mom or not to Choji's reaction to Chouchou asking him if he is her dad.

For Choji that type of question is silly. But Sasuke refused to answer that same question about Sakura. He saw Sarada go on a rant and then told her what he had going on was none of her concern.

When Sakura arrives at the scene (ch. 6), she apologizes to Sarada for not explaining things. Sasuke interrupts her and attempts to start to explain things to Sarada before he is cut off by an explosion. Sakura looks strangely stressed throughout all of Naruto Gaiden and this moment is no exception. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura can tell Sarada she's being silly with these stupid questions.

As the story continues Kishimoto fixates on clones and genes and how parent-child relationships are not based on passing down the DNA but rather the connection they form.

Something that I find peculiar is how when the father Shin starts talking about the conception of a child via selecting the best genes of both parents, Sakura gets incredibly offended, almost like she took it personally.

Also, Sakura sweats A LOT during Gaiden, in almost every panel she's sweating. But here Kishimoto gave her two sweat drops instead of the usual one.

Sasuke suspects and it's later confirmed that the Shins come from Danzo's arm. So basically, Orochimaru has Uchiha genes at his disposal to make whatever experiments he wishes, including the Shins.

Rather than creating an exact clone that's just a copy of whatever Uchiha whose genes Orochimaru has in his possession, he was able to create more defective Uchihas with their own will and personality. Also the imagery Kishimoto creates by placing Sarada right next to Shin dad and Shin son is so interesting.

However, when Orochimaru is talking about the time lag in their maturation I'm not 100% sure what he means. The ViZ translation and the Mangapanda translation are slightly different. From my interpretation it seems like the maturation refers to their skills, perhaps? and by skills I mean the Uchiha kekkei genkai, the Sharingan. The clones' genes are cultivated so it takes longer to mature/regrow as both translations suggest. Remember that it took Sarada way longer to awaken the Sharingan (12 years) than it would the usual Uchiha.

Then, when Sarada asks about non-clones Sasuke remains suspiciously quiet. He could at any moment tell Sarada she's being silly with all these questions and yet he refuses to explain to her what's going on. It's a stark contrast to Choji's reaction. Sasuke could simply go "What are you talking about Sarada? Of course Sakura is your mother".

Orochimaru responds to Sarada they can test her if she wants to but then Sasuke interrupts and says there's no time for that so Sarada asks Suigetsu to test her to see who her real mom is. And once again, Kishimoto usage of visual language and text is very interesting to me

When Suigetsu is looking for something that could hold Karin's DNA we get this flashback of her saying that her desk is a part of her body and then we see the umbilical cord that ended up belonging to Sakura and Sarada. Now, I might be reading to much into it here but I find that choice of words fascinating (I checked three different translations ViZ, Mangapanda & Mangastream and they all translated the same way that panel). The umbilical cord was in Karin's desk, the umbilical cord was in a part of Karin's body. I think Kishimoto is telling us here how involved Karin was in Sarada's conception.

After being told that Karin was her mom and Sarada believes Sakura is just a stranger, Naruto gets upset that she acts like in order to be a family people need to be blood-related and tells her that what actually makes a family is love bonds.

Naruto asks her to see inside her if she feels any love for Sakura and that's when Sarada realizes that she does indeed love Sakura, the woman who has raised her and taken care of her her entire life.

When Sarada cries after remembering her childhood, calls Sakura her mom and tells Naruto that she does care about Sakura and wants to save her, Naruto responds that it doesn't matter whether they're related or not, as long as she cares for her, that's their real bond (Naruto is so lovely in Gaiden)

And it's only after Naruto's TED talk, Sakura's rescue and their final fight against the Shins that Sakura finally tells Sarada that she is indeed her child. Sarada responds that, yes, she is her child because they love each other which is how they are connected, no longer caring if they're biologically related which is interesting to say the least...

Sarada then asks Sasuke if his feelings are connected to Sakura and after hesitating a bit, Sasuke says that he is indeed connected to Sakura simply because they have Sarada. Sarada is touched by this and cries but her parents look miserable. Also, no one seems to ever clarify to Sarada that the umbilical cord was Sakura's, so there's that.

Anyway, when we get to the final chapter of Naruto Gaiden we see Karin clarify that it was Sakura who carried Sarada and then she says something pretty curious.

Number one it's very funny how Karin thinks of Sakura as a friend because that feeling is not mutual LMFAO

But moving on, Karin talks about how the most important thing for her is Sasuke's happiness. However, how is Sasuke having a child with someone he dislikes and abandons, helping him with his happiness? It certainly feels like Sakura was desperate to have something from Sasuke considering she chased after him and has the Uchiha crest plastered all over her house and clothes. Maybe both Sakura and Karin remembered Sasuke mentioning he wanted to restore his clan and thought giving Sasuke a child would make him happy, but it backfired on them when Sasuke showed zero interest in that child, probably because Sasuke wouldn't appreciate them using genes from his deceased family members for that shit.

Additionally, Kishimoto continues with the whole bonds-are-formed-through-more-than-just-blood-theme. Karin is also bonded to Sarada hence why we're shown the umbilical cord in her desk. These incessant reminders of the theme of Naruto Gaiden regarding a child that doesn't really know who her bio mom is, feel like Kishimoto is trying to tell the audience Sarada is not the product of a regular pregnancy.

If you've read Naruto Gaiden you know that Sasuke has never kissed Sakura but also that he doesn't allow her to touch him [LINK]. There's basically zero intimacy or romantic moments between the two of them in Gaiden, quite the opposite, Sasuke is either hostile or apathetic towards Sakura [LINK] so I think we can assume Sasuke didn't have sex with Sakura and get her pregnant. Instead, Sarada could very possibly a product of a similar experiment like the Shins hence Karin's odd involvement in Sakura's pregnancy [LINK]. Plus, Sarada not being born in Konoha and there being zero records of her birth, additional to Sasuke not being able to explain to Sarada what's going on, keep in mind he never answers Sarada who her mom is and is always dodging her questions. On top of that, consider Kishimoto spending so much time of Naruto Gaiden writing about clones that aren't traditional clones but new individuals with their own personhood.

Add to that how Naruto had no idea about anything that was going on with Sarada's parentage and it pisses him off but he's not gonna put Sasuke on blast in front of an already dismayed Sarada

What's up to debate then, is whether Sakura went through gestational surrogacy or traditional surrogacy. If it the pregnancy was a gestational surrogacy, then the egg is not Sakura's and someone else is the biological mother, possibly Karin hence the "my desk is my body" and "bonds come in all sort of shapes" comments and the umbilical cord being in her desk. If the pregnancy was a traditional surrogacy then the egg is Sakura and she is the bio mother.

The placenta and umbilical cord belonging to Sakura, which is confirmed in Gaiden, is not proof that the egg was hers so we really don't know for sure that she is Sarada's bio mom. I find it bizarre that Kishimoto didn't give a contundent confirmation that Sakura was the biological mom and instead kept it open to interpretation.

[mikuyuuss]

I love that Mitsuri is a little silly and stupid at times, shes a girlboss AND a girlfailure to me <3 but apparently there are some people that genuinely dislike her for those things? I understand Mitsuri's character isn't for everyone, BUT WAIT, HEAR ME OUT.

I've always had this headcanon that Mitsuri had a somewhat sheltered childhood growing up, since In the Rengoku Gaiden, she randomly got discriminated by a stranger for her hair color, so I can only imagine that she probably got that on a daily basis.

I'm sure Mitsuri's parents don't enjoy seeing their eldest daughter bring harassed, so perhaps they might have coddled her a bit. Maybe that could explain why Mitsuri comes off as childish, innocent or """"stupid"""" as many people would say. For me, it's more like her personality just screams "sheltered kid", through no fault of her own tho.

(this is taken from the second fanbook, translated by @/violetheart08)

The fact that she's happy to have friends at the corps, suggests to me that she probably didn't have many friends growing up, she most likely got bullied too, and if that's the case, it's understandable that she can come across as overly friendly and excitable whenever she's befriending new people.

She's actually socially awkward like Giyuu, but just on the opposite end of the spectrum lol, that's why I love them both.

But still, it's not that Mitsuri is straight up incompetent. She's very creative and thinks outside of the box with her breathing style. She also adapts pretty well in high stress situations, we saw this in swordsmith arc, but also we see this very clearly in the Rengoku Gaiden too.

The fact that it only took her two years to become a hashira shows that she has a level of discipline to attain that title. Not only did Rengoku trained her well, this is also no feat that a truly "stupid" person can achieve.

The reason why I have this particular headcanon about Mitsuri is because some families do put A LOT of importance on reputation, especially asian families, when their kids start showing traits that would make them "different" they tend to "hide" the kids in order to protect their reputation so they won't lose their chances at marriage.

(Though I'm not saying all asian families are like this. This is mostly just based on my personal experience that I won't elaborate further)

It reminded me of this scene, when Mitsuri's family suggested that she can just stay with them forever when she was worried that she won't be able to find someone. I love Mitsuri's parents and they are VERY GREAT for their time, but also this is really relatable to me personally :(

And given how marriage was such a big deal in Taisho era, I imagine that it was a mixture of that and the pressure to conform and protect their daughter at the same time that led me to imagine that Mitsuri probably had a sheltered lifestyle.

And you know it's possible that I'm wrong about all of these lmao, but just the fact that she has a comparably normal childhood is a good enough reason as to why she's more positive and naive compared to her peers. I know this is all just a headcanon, but I do wish people can be a bit more considerate towards Mitsuri before hating on her for being "loud" "stupid" and "annoying"

[celtrist]

I'm not sorry for loving you~

Really doesn't need to involve the obsession au, but the au is what I had in mind. And maybe that song would work better with someone than Mimzy, but Mimzy is probably one of the more sane-ish? Characters in this AU.

So I have to admit, Mimzy was just one of those characters that slipped my mind when thinking of the obsession AU. Granted the docket of characters was very filled in the original piece, and despite the history of these two characters (both in-universe as well as their development history), their relationship whether romantic or platonic is incredibly overlooked. I feel like it's pretty common knowledge concerning Hazbin, but when I talk about the character's developments, I mean that they were originally a romantic couple. Despite this fact, Almimzy is an incredibly non-existent ship, and that makes sense. Alastor and Mimzy barely interacted in the official show, and while she was planned to be a guest, she wasn't really present in the pilot or anything. With so little content even when the official show came out, it's kinda no wonder but it's still a little surprising considering their old status as a couple.

Ah, but I'm rambling! Back on topic, I didn't think of Mimzy until I was asked about it (which as silly as it is, it was really neat to see people ask about this au!). So I've since thought a bit more and all that I've said in the ask is pretty much close to on point with how she acts. I do think, however, that considering she ALSO knew Alastor in life just as he had her, she would be slightly aware of... something being amiss with her feelings. Not insanely, she's just as bad and unaware as everyone else with the obsession she has over him. She just is able to remember her feelings on Earth and compare them to her current feelings and recognize that they're not exactly the same. The problem is that, she's Mimzy. She seems like the type who'd be in denial about something being wrong with her, but I feel like she'd recognize while not thinking too hard about it that the love she felt on Earth is seemingly altered in Hell. The line "I'm not sorry for loving you" feels really good for her here when considering most of everyone else around Alastor WOULD be sorry if they had a more clear mind about it. But Mimzy wouldn't be sorry about it because she always loved Alastor, even back on Earth (in this AU anyway)

Mimzy's obsession is unique in that, rather than doing anything to Alastor she does things to HERSELF to get to Alastor, she doesn't have as much to be guilty of compared to others in her actions due to the curse. She gets herself into trouble, makes herself sick, self-harms, and has probably threatened to kill herself to get his attention, which not great and all very manipulative, but she never forces Alastor to do anything and could be (I don't know if I'm settled on this idea yet) rooted in her own self-esteem concerning the self-harm stuff. And it works. Alastor is canonically close to Rosie, but he never knew her until Hell so in this AU, he doesn't know who the real Rosie is. He knows who the real Mimzy is though, and he doesn't want anything bad to happen to her. So ironically, the person who pushes themselves onto Alastor the least does probably get most of his attention.

I can imagine a scene like this where he's patching her up and they're talking and Mimzy brings up how she's perhaps confused with her own feelings considering how different they are from life. And I can just imagine Alastor feeling more ill at the idea of Mimzy having always loved him romantically but never saying anything if she confessed that, despite how crazy her feelings for him feel in Hell are, the feeling of love and wanting him in a way he doesn't reciprocate was always true since their time alive.

I'm just rambling, but like I said in the ask Mimzy is probably one of the more tragic cases of what the curse does to Alastor's relationships. She's also probably the closest Alastor can feel to having a true friend again, even if Mimzy is still pretty far from her actual self around him. But she's familiar and would probably be the biggest driving force for him to try and get rid of the curse (other than the obvious harassment). He enjoyed Rosie before she made him sick, and he enjoyed Vox before he revealed to be the absolute worst in his thoughts about what he wanted from and to do to Alastor, but Alastor only knew them in Hell. And as far as he's aware, the curse starts immediately, so he NEVER knew the real Rosie or Vox. But Mimzy was someone he knew and wanted to be real with again... and could pretend to be real with again given a few drinks.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

Me: don't make Charlie's habit of twirling / spinning Vaggie into a THiNG it can just be CUTE with no other headcanons behind it-

also me: what if Vaggie always loved dancing but took being an exorcist very seriously bc of the whole "learned to trust people on the battlefield" thing so the only time she felt she had an excuse for dancing with a partner was when she called it "training" or "unarmed sparing" and goaded Lute into doing it with her (Lute being Adam's second and Vaggie one of his best girls) (what, is Lute scared of not being able to keep up with her-?)

Lute: "This, is stupid."

Vaggie: "It's just like sparring."

Lute: "Then why can't I use a sword."

Vaggie: "The point is learning to read your opponent's body and move with it. A weapon only gets in the way."

Lute: "Or maybe you know which on of us would win in a real fight."

Vaggie: "OR maybe it's nice to practice WITHOUT someone losing feathers over it."

Lute: "Only losers lose feathers. If they don't like it they should start WINNING."

Vaggie: "Just put your fucking hand on my waist and do a box step."

Lute: "A what? Put my hand- where!?"

Vaggie: "Forget it. We'll dance like we're in a damn period piece ballroom scene. You can at least survive spinning me, right?"

Lute: "SPIN you?"

Vaggie: "Just hold up your hand and-"

Lute: "We look dumb enough as is! I'm not making myself look SILLY just so you can do a stupid spin."

Vaggie: "Fine."

Lute: "You need to watch yourself. Exorcist are heaven's first line of defense- we are the divine blades guarding the pearly gates. We need to keep ourselves sharp, focused- If you slip even once-"

Vaggie: "I said fine! I get it! Alright? God let's just, let's just get this over with..."

And then she's in hell, a year or so after Lute grabbed her wrist and pulled her eye-first onto a sword instead of a dance,

and it turns out the princess of hell is an eager and willing dancer, even if she's maybe not the most graceful or easy to follow- but it's the kind of challenge Vaggie loves-

(and not the only thing Vaggie loves)

-especially when Charlie's the one who cleared out a space, put on a playlist, and waved her into the middle of the room so they could laugh and bow / curtsy before making tracks across the carpet-

all of this, even though Charlie's still rusty at dancing, never was into it other much other than as another way to flail around to a beat, and here she is now, seriously trying to remember or learn all the different steps Vaggie shows her

this time it's a waltz

Vaggie's been avoiding waltzes. And sure enough she finds herself spacing out in the middle of it, coming back to the excited sound of Charlie's voice

Charlie: "I think we're doing it!"

Vaggie: "...hm?"

Charlie: "The waltz! It's been ages but, this is about right, right?"

Vaggie: "Oh uh, yeah. You've got it. Told you you would."

Charlie: (laughing) "And I told YOU if we made it through this it'd be because you're so good at making ME look like a good dancer! Even when my hooves keep snagging on the carpet... Even when you're a million miles away."

Vaggie: "Shit. Sorry."

Charlie: "No it's fine! Good practice for me leading!" (leading them onto a new patch of floor) "So! A lot on your mind?"

Vaggie: "Just remembered something, is all."

Charlie: "Waltz related?"

Vaggie: "I wouldn't compare this with that."

Charlie: "Aww, shoot." (pouts) "Well give me a few months and I'll get there."

Vaggie: (chuckling) "Charlie, you're already WAY past the last dance partner I had."

Charlie: "Wow. That bad huh?"

Vaggie: "What'd I just say about you and dancing?"

Charlie: "That at least I'm not totally the absolute worst ever?"

Vaggie: "Yeah no. Try again."

Charlie: (grinning) "I'm better than they were."

Vaggie: "You sure are. Actually trying counts for a lot, honestly."

Charlie: "You make trying things a lot easier." (hoof catches) (stumbles) (vaggie steadies her) "Case in point!"

Vaggie: "We really gotta remember to roll up the carpet next time."

Charlie: "Orrrr you'll just have to go on catching me!"

Vaggie: "I'll do that with or without the carpet."

Charlie: "Right!" (face hot) "Er so, were they clumsy too? Lacking in the whole smooth moves department?" (blushes MORE)

Vaggie: "The moves were fine, the ego got in the way a bit."

Charlie: "Ego?"

Vaggie: (sighs) (rolls eye) "Apparently twirling me would've looked too silly."

Charlie: "Wh- Twirling you?"

Vaggie: "Spinning. Whatever. They cared about that a lot and- I know I know- it's a dumb thing to still be hung up on."

Charlie: "Well I'd be honored to look silly with you!"

Vaggie: (laughing) "Okay?"

Charlie: "Can I spin you?"

Vaggie: "You really don't have to."

Charlie: "So we can do it on three? One. Two-"

Vaggie: "Really it's- watch out, table at 3 O'clock-"

Charlie: "-Wheeeeee~!"

Vaggie: "WHOA- that-" (breathless) "Now THAT was a spin."

Charlie: "Eheheh. Whoops?"

Vaggie: "Oh no, no whoopsing your way out of this one, I'm gonna need to inflict some payback spinning of my own." (grins)

Charlie: "Uh I'm kinda tall for-"

Vaggie: "You ever been lifted?"

Charlie: "I mean when I was a kid sure, but I'm like a foot taller than-"

Vaggie: "On three. One."

Charlie: "-Vaggie you come up to maybe my shoulder-"

Vaggie: "Two."

Charlie: "-not that you can't do anything you set your mind to, obviously! I'm just not sure how-"

Vaggie: "Three."

Charlie: "Hwha- OH!" (gleeful) (laughing) "Ohhh my gosh-!"

Vaggie: (smug) "There's more than one way to twirl a girl across the floor."

Charlie: "Spinning WHILE lifting!?"

Vaggie: "Fun right?"

Charlie: "SO MUCH FUN! Can we do it again!?"

Vaggie: "Sure-"

Charlie: "Ooh ohh can I do it to you too? Can we take turns??"

Vaggie: "Not worried about looking silly, huh?"

Charlie: "No! Why would-" (stops)

Charlie: (stops their dance)

Charlie: "Vaggie, I.... I really don't know why anyone wouldn't want to be silly with you. Or how it could ever be more important than seeing you happy like this."

Vaggie: "...Not everyone's like you, sweetie."

Charlie: "Or maybe everyone just needs to actually see you for once."

Vaggie: "I'd rather just stick to you for now. If, that's okay?"

Charlie: "Always."

(dance resumes, much slower, much closer)

Charlie: "It's, it's okay to miss people too, you know. I know, I mean. How much that sucks. If you, want to talk about...?"

Vaggie: "No. Thanks."

Charlie: "You're missing them though, huh?"

Vaggie: "It's not that. It's just, weird how much things change."

Charlie: "Like dance partners."

Vaggie: "Like your reasons for dancing with them."

Charlie: "....Oh."

(do they kiss???) (i have no idea) (maybe Vaggie just relaxes and rests her head over Charlie's heart) (maybe Charlie tries her best not to think about how hard it's beating)

(maybe somewhere up in heaven, an exorcist with a sword does a box step while training, slips, and slices her target in half in fury when she realizes it)

maybe Vaggie always loved dancing but had to end up in hell before finally getting to dance the way she always wanted to

or maybe

it feels like Vaggie never danced at all, until she had Charlie to share it with

[goldenclover-16]

TPOT 17 SPOILERS

Ok so it's finally out and I need to word vomit about it cause this episode was PEAK

First off Pen being sad and watching Blocky's old show for comfort, at least TV is finally doing something. Pen is going through some shit losing both his best friends and seeing it expanded upon is great.

IM SORRY BASKETBALL IS JUST HERE?? SHES OKAY?? I had thought One kidnapped her too but I guess not, but none of the other eliminated contestants mention anything about One. Has Basketball NOT SAID ANYTHING TO THEM!!??!! She was one of the people to resist their the deal and knew something was up. Even if One jumbled her speech or something so nobody could understand wouldn't they at least mention something?? Either way nice to see these guys again, also theories on where the EXIT door leads, I personally agree with it being either the second hotel door or equation playground. No Gatey though so they've more then definitely been kidnapped.

Oh Bottle's hosting this episode? Cool I like her silly vibes god knows CloudYay need it right now they stressed about the elimination. But also it's kinda sad seeing other people keep hosting for Two I really enjoyed them.

Pencil's panic attack was cool to see, last she remembers it was vote to eliminate so frankly it was pretty reasonable. Donut having to calm her down and remind her it's vote to save.

Anyway eliminations and honestly I think this was best case scenario. As much as I like Pillow and YellowFace most of the team was going through more important arcs. The only person I feel could be switched in without too much changing is Winner. Also YellowFace being so panicked and not wanting to go, things were finally going really well for him with Taggy. Hopefully they will be able to keep the warehouse going without him.

This whole scene with Fanny and Tennis Ball was cool, seeing how One is actively attempting to stop word spreading. I've already seen other people decipher the board so I'm not going to put it here (I'm lazy ik and also don't care).

Damn, Two still got depression and looks like shit, they're just bed rotting. I can't personally comment on how accurate the portrayal is but from what I've heard it's pretty accurate. Give them their wife back PLEASE I NEED TO SO THEM HOST AGAIN. Also i've seen people mention how Two is slightly paler and thinner from last episode which is concerning, hopefully they'll be okay. . .

THE FOURSE RETURNS HAHA IT'S SO ANGRY I LOVE HIM

Ok onto the contests I just had to mention this first.

The eating contest was some fun comic relief while everything else was happening, interesting teams to put on it as well. We got Black Hole sucking his up, Taggy selling theirs (nice to see the failed debuters out and about as well as the giant David) and Winner just... absorbing it? Liy being the only one who has to eat normally. Black Hole's little moral dilemma with the bugs was great, seeing him learn to balance the P.A.C.T with finishing challenges, he was trying so hard. Also Winner with the Loser O's, seeing that Loser maybe cared more about him then he thought, Also Loser not being famous anymore? Damn that episode really came back to haunt him.

I don't really have much to say about these guys, it was pretty tame compared with everything else going on. Nice to see Pen trying to branch out and connect with people.

Pencil and Book crash outs HOLY SHIT THIS WENT HARD! Pencil is traumatized from being in the E.X.I.T for years and wants things back to the way they were before with the alliance but has no idea how to convey her emotions properly which leads to her seeming obsessive and selfish. Her actions are sill bad but it's clear it's because she's hurt and traumatized and because of that is left emotionally unstable which leads to her accidently pushing away the people around her. Despite this I find Book pretty reasonable in her reaction if you look at it from her perspective, she had just managed to repair her relationship with Icy by giving her space and has practically forgotten about Freesmart till Pencil joined back. By this point Book has moved on and found new friends in Winner and Taggy but Pencil just comes in and expects Book to immediately want the alliance back. Book needed the same space Icy did for there to be a chance at healing their relationship but Pencil, unlike Book at that time, is highly unstable and unable to regulate her emotions so she suffocated Book which only leads to things getting worse. Pencil desperately needs some therapy.

In the end, Pen's talk with Pencil does give some hope at a redemption arc, it would be messy and painful but possible. Pen understands what it's like to lose all your close friends, and he could have become like Pencil except he still had people to catch him, namely Liy. Pencil had nobody going back into the game. Hopefully Pencil will listen to him and maybe Pen could continue helping Pencil become better.

Going back to some tamer stuff for a bit the haunted house group was interesting to watch. The writers finally gave TV something to do which is great but he's still one I wouldn't mind getting eliminated. The nature vs mechanical theme was interesting and just more showing of the slight negative bias towards mechanical minds from the contestants. Admittedly though Tree had a point for leaving TV to save both himself and Grassy but TV still had a right to be mad. Him controlling the spider mech was cool, Spid-TV lol. The fight scene was cool and just having Tennis Ball and the Fourse crash onto the mech was funny

Now onto the best part of the episode, Donut unironically just became on of my favourite characters now because of this episode. One's room is destroyed and she is clearly unstable, things are falling apart for her and Donut's ass is not helping that. He is suspicious from the start about the contract and is the first I believe to actually ask what's in it which One immediately deflects. As their interaction continues One becomes more and more agitated by Donut's refusal to sign, eventually having a full crash out while slamming him against a table and stealing his legs as well. Props to Donut here for sticking to his guns and not changing his mind despite having his last limbs actively ripped off which kinda reminded me of BFDIA Pin when her limbs were removed. Connection? Probably not but fun to note. Also notice how One has switched from manipulation and sweet talk to straight up threats and blackmail to get deals, most people left in the game to take for deals are smarter and questioning her which isn't great for One. Her facade is breaking apart as she has to put more and more effort into securing deals.

I also wanted to go into Donut getting his limbs back anyway at the end of the episode. I believe this could represent how One is actually quite powerless in a way. Sure she has her magic which we've seen to be very powerful but it can't control others. While we don't know right now why One needs to make deals with the contestants it's clear they're important to whatever plan she has. And to get those contracts the contestants have to actively sign them, she NEEDS the co-operation of the contestants and that's not something she can force through her magic, they always have the option to deny her no matter what she does. We see through this scene that the contestants don't need One to solve their problems and without her they will find a solution on their own. I like to think that if One hadn't interfered when she did for any of the deals they would likely solve their own problem soon after like shown here. And that's not even mentioning the POWER Donut has right now. While contestants like Fanny, Ice Cube, Gatey and Basketball know something is wrong, especially Fanny as we see her actively try to show Tennis Ball he research, they are all under contract. They have all accepted a deal. DONUT NEVER ACCEPTED THE DEAL AND NOW KNOWS WHATS GOING ON WITHOUT ONE BEING ABLE TO CALL IN A FAVOUR TO STOP HIM. He is now arguably the most powerful out of the resistance gang now due to this.

Now this last part is purely speculation so it could easily be proven false but I noticed how both Fanny and Ice Cube could make out their research while Tennis Ball couldn't. While this could just be One messing up his vision specifically what if knowledge about One determines if someone can see the board. Tennis Ball has never seen one like Fanny and Ice Cube and would, by this logic, not understand the writing. But Donut, who has seen one would be able to. I hope that makes sense.

In conclusion this episode was peak, thanks for listening to this long ass ramble

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

Umiri's tragic backstory

So Umiri introduces her story in a silly way. (Because she's very silly.) She drops a "I have a painful backstory I can't get through without drinking", with language I assume stereotypical enough for Nyamu to immediately point out the obvious: she wasn't drinking alcohol. The way she introduces it prompts Nyamu to go "okay, fine, that's what's happening now".

I really enjoy their dynamic, in a way similar to Umiri's dynamic with Taki: there's an air of detachment accompanied by straightforward respect. There's the comfort of being a little rough on that person without being worried they'll take it the wrong way. It's an opportunity for Umiri to be a little Silly without having to involve herself more than she wants to.

So, about that. I do want to pay attention to it and speak about Umiri's genuine negative feelings: because I'm not about to let a fake IDGAFer trick me! Reference silly situations and omit the details all you want, Umiri; this is affecting your daily life.

We can only operate with the assumption that she's telling the entire truth (that she's aware of): the visuals indicate that in the past, Umiri was burned by missing a social cue hardcore. I can feel this scene course through my insides; the one passionate little girl throwing herself into a group project 100%, completely missing that her friends are on an entirely different page, and about to dip on her.

This sucks ass. I know "oh, she's just autistic" seems comforting enough compared to what the likes of Sakiko or Mutsumi have going on, but all memes aside - such symptoms and experiences, whether or not Umiri is intended to be autistic, are extremely painful and isolating.

This is BanG Dream!, so we're talking about a character to whom music and her instrument are very important. The visual of Umiri standing alone on stage, even though she was already alone in the changing room, tells a story in and of itself: of her going anyway. Why? Did she hope they might still come? Did she want to hang on to the "dream" audition? Regardless, there's one other thing young girls aren't known to enjoy: humiliation. Standing alone on stage in front of an audience of adults who are definitely piecing the story together, crying from her hurt feelings... that's a humiliating experience.

I'm reminded of the humbled Soyo watching herself on stage, abandoned by her bandmates one by one, if just in her imagination.

"I was interfering too much, with good intentions. I never thought that would annoy people." That description, to me, represents someone who has thought about it over and over. Who has put the finger on exactly what happened, who can describe it no problem, and yet... it still hurts, else it wouldn't keep coming up.

Additionally, this is someone who is choosing her words carefully. She is very specific about the way she is portraying herself and her feelings. It's very different to the self-loathing Sakiko: I had good intentions. I am calm about this. I am self-aware.

This is a way of protecting herself. You can't hurt me if my shields are up; if I'm already aware of exactly what happened in my painful past and of every way you could make fun of me for the way I'm talking to you right now. She says it herself as well: she guarded herself from experiencing this again by joining multiple bands instead of putting all her eggs in one basket.

She does bring up to DISRUPTION that she's looking for a safeguard to avoid "bothering" her parents. DISRUPTION allowed her to keep that despite Ave Mujica's disbanding. I don't think we have any information indicating whether this was already a driving force when she was younger (which could have informed her interest in being scouted), or if it's a separate issue.

What's evident is that Umiri over-corrected. She identified her taking leadership as the problem, and began to avoid it at all costs. Call her backstory silly all you want, but this impacts her daily and social life! By avoiding it completely, she fell in the opposite category of unreliable person, and thus failed at uniting another band.

...She's learning her lesson: don't avoid taking the lead. You need to be trusted. The problem is... she might be... over-correcting again.

I think we should bite her. As for Doloris... she doesn't appear to believe Umiri has her shit together either.

Speaking of this silly idiot's parents... I have talked, in the past, of my issue with BanG Dream! repeatedly spouting some Dieting Bullshit. I'd also brought up the lack of mention of the social implications of being stupid rich, which has since been tackled with Sakiko... therefore, is it possible that Ave Mujica is trying to tackle dieting and/or eating disorders?

The products here appear to be referencing a genuine brand named CalorieMate (I hope the linked post is trying to be funny, for their sake). Of course, the dialogue alone indicates that Umiri refuses to feed herself normally.

This is surprising, since Umiri had initially been established as that girl who gulped down a ton of macarons at once. She's also always drinking something from the vending machine, which isn't a constant for her classmates. The overeating and diet food are definitely implying a disordered relationship with food. (I also think it's noteworthy that she ate at 12:00 on the dot. Either she was hungry and waiting for the right time to be "allowed" to eat or she forced herself to eat in order to stay on a specific schedule.)

While looking for that brand, I did have to open Twitter, and found this good point:

I don't think Umiri's problems are all that light-hearted. As I mentioned above, I think the implied social isolation is gut-wrenching. It might be my C-PTSD talking, but trauma can look all sorts of ways, and it can ruin your daily life. On top of that, although we have very little information about it so far, an eating disorder is nothing to sneer at: it is a genuine mental struggle that also impacts the body (greatly) and can endanger the person's life.

This is a girl who's all over the place. Did you see the sheer amount of luxury items she bought? She's definitely not eating anything else this month. Regardless her backstory, this is not a healthy place to be in.

Umiri's crashout made me sweat. It could turn out that Umiri's experience isn't a big T trauma that changed everything, but a lot of little t trauma that she was mistakenly left to try and fix on her own; and still, she would fit the bill as an Ave Mujica girlie who Needs Help At The Moment.

To conclude - I don't know when Nyamu became an Umiri hater, but I stan.

She was not being half as scary there as she ended up becoming after their conversation.

Just kidding. There's something else I wanted to say. Here's a PS: why is it that Taki and Tomori are allowed to be bossy about their bands and with their bandmates, and still be seen, appreciated, and earn what they want? Why did it fail so bad when Umiri did it - although she too had good intentions? "Fuck that noise, I want my band to succeed too!" and "if that worked on Sakiko and Mutsumi, then it should work when I try it too, right?"

[muffinrecord]

Magia Exedra negativity I guess?

Something I was thinking about is that getting a new character is kind of disappointing in this game compared to Magia Record.

Let's say I finally actually got Kaede. In MagiReco I could spend AP and start working on her episode levels, go to labs and spend AP to level her up, get her materials. I could farm old bosses to get mats. Every time you leveled up her episode level you also unlocked quotes. You can put her on the homescreen and see all her little animations, what different outfits she has (if she has any).

In Magia Exedra you can use her in a fight. If you have heartsand saved, you can level her heartphial but if you don't then... that's kinda it, isn't it? And even if you have sand, it's not like you can read all of her story right away. You can't even look at half of her quotes right away like you can in magireco. You just kind of get her and the only difference is if you can use her in a fight or not.

And if you're an idiot who has defeated all the nightmare fights in the game then... well what do you do? I guess you can redo them if you want?

There really isn't any endgame at the moment. You log in and complete your dailies and then... well, that's kind of it. You can argue that maybe Magia Record was like that too, but you still had stuff to do. Like, there were so many characters you could work on and farm materials for, you could work on episode level, you could work towards doppels. If all else failed then you could farm SP to get memoria lol. Rainbow orbs were a bottleneck sure, but you could farm labs for the rare chance at getting them (seeing a rainbow orb as a drop in a lab always got me so fucking happy haha, it was like an instant boost of serotonin, even when they became really easy to acquire).

Man and what I'm gonna say is controversial but the SKIP function is both a blessing and a curse. I kind of feel like I shouldn't even complain about it, because I know I'm in the minority here. Cause AUTO in magireco isn't exactly good gameplay either? But it's kind of depressing to just skip all the farming. IDK. Maybe I'm just old.

I log on to my account and want to do stuff and there's just not really a whole lot to do.

I used to play mirrors endlessly when I was bored by refreshing BP and using strange weird teams and just having fun, but that doesn't work for Magia Exedra because you have to spend fucking magica stones to do so. And it's auto. And you really can't get away with using silly fun teams because that'll drop your ranking and your pvp rank is tied to tangible rewards?

...

Yeah I just kind of miss having things to do.

The JP account is fun atm because I'm playing through it more slowly but I dread the day I hit endgame because like. then what.

And another thing-- I will say that Magireco had some issues with how easy it became towards the end. I remember when NA first launched and we were all strugglin' with the waiting horse boss' poison. But at the same time, I really appreciate that you could use almost any character you wanted. Like uhhh I dunno. Two-stars and three-stars who weren't uncapped yet. You could still use them. Not in the hardest Scene 0 fights, but like. You could use them. But here...? Who the fuck is gonna use 3* Kako? Why doesn't Kako have a 4* version? She doesn't even get a personal portrait.

And that's another thing. 2* and 3* weren't better than 4* (most of the time) but it didn't feel like a waste to put work into them, even as a whale, you know? Because they can get uncapped. But like. Who is gonna invest in 3* Kako? Why would I work on 3* Masara if 4* Masara exists? What if I put a lot of effort into 4* Masara and then she gets a 5* version years down the line?

I guess you could argue that it's the same for when variants come out, but like... at least variants might look different from one another, you know? But this is just Masara. And at least with variants I can make a fun mirrors team of 5 Mamis and not feel penalized for it.

I like Magia Exedra but I miss Magia Record. I would trade Magia Exedra for Magia Record in a heartbeat. Even with all the Oriko content that I have devoured.

Edit: oh and I liked the small amount of customization we got too. Even as small as something like picking what card art to use on a character. I liked Tsuruno's 3* card art best. I liked choosing if the battle screen would show their chibis on the attacks or their card art. ...yeah that's a really small thing. I dunno.

Oh and picking backgrounds... and music...

maybe the game will start to implement more changes, maybe it won't, idk.

[ghost-bison]

a christopher eccleston appreciation post

i will never say this enough because i don't know enough words, nor do i think such words exist, that could even begin to summarize how much i love christopher eccleston, but... i love christopher eccleston. and, more importantly, i have a deep-rooted respect for that man.

i started doctor who as, let's be honest, a sci-fi hater, forcing myself because i was obsessed with david tennant, and i was kind of dreading the first series because of this. but i was dead wrong.

he broadened my mind, gave me so many laughs, and so many cries, and i'm not the first to say that whenever eccleston is on the screen you just can't take your eyes off him, even when he's not supposed to be the main focus of the scene.

the way he can switch from silly goose to traumatized soldier in a matter of seconds will never cease to amaze me. or how he can play with both like he's on a swing by balancing it out with sarcasm?

i think whoever doesn't give him the title role in their shows/films is either an idiot, or they know the main character just isn't always the best.

i think it's downright idiotic and shameful that he gets rejected from ever playing some shakespeare just because of his northern accent (they're just posh elitist pos). now that he's older, and that times are evolving (i mean, i hope the world of theater is vibing with this evolution, but i'm not delusional), i hope we get to see him portray a character like leontes in winter's tale cause i know he'd be absolutely perfect for the role, and who better than shakespeare (this character especially, with his nuances and highs and lows and breakdowns and breakthroughs) to match acting like his?

saw an article where eccleston talked about how the moment he really knew he wanted to be an actor was when he had to wear mascara for a play, and had enjoyed it. i think he talks about it in his autobiography too (you should read it, btw, it's frankly affordable, and he happens to be a marvelous writer as well).

eccleston knows he is mistakenly type-cast, because of his background, as macho men and tough blokes in general. he's aware that it's kind of a big part of his culture. again, he talks about it i think in the very first chapter, how for instance he used to dress up as james bond, the pinnacle of "masculinity", which i think was a disguise in the metaphorical sense of the term, to mask his delicacy and femininity (or at least, that's my interpretation of it).

in his biography, eccleston talks about the differences between him and his dad, ronnie: he was surprised, as a child, whenever his father's affection manifested as a kiss or a hug, cause that usually wasn't his father's way of doing things. he compares it to how he, in contrast, has the habit of kissing his own son, albert, and telling him he loves him.

you can find it as well in how he talks about his anorexia, his body dysmorphia and, i think we can call it that, gender dysphoria. he's from a time when those concepts didn't even exist, they weren't a thing to the public eye. my father and my step-father, both feminine men in their own way, and both around eccleston's age, both told me about the struggle that it represented, not being the stereotype of the macho tough guy, and being surrounded by boys who didn't struggle with that issue. it made my dad a junkie, my stepdad a depressive artist, and, apparently, it made eccleston an anorexic actor.

i think it takes a lot of courage for people that age (the boomer generation as we call them), especially men, from whom we expect toxic masculinity, masculinity pushed to an extreme, to be able to openly call it out and dissect it into what it is: a ridiculous standard. but to be a PUBLIC FIGURE, in his 60s, and still find the strength to express it? damn. takes guts, i think.

most of us on this website, we're babies. most of us are at most in their thirties. the millenials and the gen z, and now the gen alpha, we take that for granted. or get offended and scandalized that being able to express oneself isn't yet a basic standard.

but then, i talk to my mum, and i realize that she had to stray from her catholic, sexist education, she had to make up her own mind about things in order for me to be born a free spirit. and that's just considering my mum's a cishet.

christopher eccleston expressed in other words that he doesn't fully consider himself to be cisgendered. i have mad respect for the way he talks about it, and for even talking about it at all.

then, there's his honesty. the more interviews i watch, the more it impresses me. he knows honesty goes hand in hand with dignity. i'm sorry but i'm tired of people who are nice all the time. you never know when they're being honest, and maybe some of them are, who knows. but i'm not stupid enough to think that so many people are just pure sunshine all the time (respect for tennant for lashing out publically about transphobia, i think he passed the test).

eccleston? he knows how to be both brutally honest and yet respectful at the same time. no ukulele apology from this man and holy fuck, it feels good!

i've seen him call russel t davies out for his lack of professionalism on the set of doctor who, and then list him amongst the great writers he's worked with. which makes me want to believe eccleston's side, because, if you're always either too polite, or too full of spite about eveything, who's to say you're not the problem? i've got way less trouble believing you if you can stay unbiased about a person you're having beef with than if suddenly everything said person does turns into shit just cause you don't like them. that's just maturity and wisdom.

one last thing i love about eccleston is that he is interested in other people's lives. there's a critic by marcus berkmann in his book that perfectly expresses my point: "you know what to expect from the autobiographies of most actors, i think: anecdotes, charm, more than mild self-satisfaction and faux-modesty by the bucketload. but christopher eccleston is not most actors".

and that's it. watch him in interviews and at convention panels, where he lets his younger co-stars speak before himself, and seizes the occasion when journalists ask him questions that are meant to make him talk about himself to praise his writers and other actors instead.

read his autobiography, which is both a love letter to his dad and a big let's-be-honest about the struggles of growing up poor and his personal struggles, because he thinks raising awareness is just as important as protecting himself.

look at his instagram posts where he unabashedly disses the monarchy and stays true and loyal to his background even after getting a taste of money. and his other posts where he shares his love for acorns and spending time with his kids.

i've seen him nearly break down in shame and regret on television for having stolen a kid's crisps in primary school. and not trying to find lame excuses for his behaviour. no ukulele apology, just facts, just christopher eccleston showing us what masculinity in its purest, most beautiful form should be about

[dunmeshistash]

Marvelous day to you, good sir/ma'am! I have a burning question in dire need of answering, and thus I have decided to turn to the one and only Monster Mashing Morbius Master John "Dunmeshi" Stash for help!

(Well, actually, I have multiple burning question but I'm saving those other questions for later since I'd like to do some research beforehand when I have the time before I resort to asking more questions.)

For a while now, I have been compiling my thoughts on all of Dungeon Meshi's characters and summing up different interpretations for myself, and this has been going swimmingly all things considered! However, one of these characters I have seen very little interpretations of aside from a handful of incredible fan fictions is the one and only "guy of all time"! Toshiro Nakamoto! Most people I talk to about the fella don't really have anything to say that I myself don't already think; that being that he's definitely the person of all time, a well-written character, understandably though no less dreadfully non-communicative, a poor team leader who could most definitely use some improvement, is complicit in Izutsumi's treatment—which, for the record, I think is good writing and makes sense, especially for the time, though that doesn't mean I won't hold it against him either way—and immensely patient for being able to put up with that little bell thing whatchamacallit. Overall he is just well-written, and his confrontation with Laios—not to mention the way Laios responds—is just... mwah! Chef's kiss! Both sides of that particular fight were also pretty relatable to me and taught me something valuable. It's just... a really good fight scene! Me likey! Life lessons with Dungeon Meshi, hahaha!

I get that there's likely not a whole lot else to go through since he doesn't appear all that often and really is just the person to ever exist, but before I wanted to move on to the next character, I decided to hop by and see if perhaps you'd be willing to share your opinion on him! Maybe you have something interesting I hadn't considered!

If you don't, though, that's perfectly understandable! Regardless, I hope you have a jolly good day! I hope this is not too silly of a question.

Hello! I'm happy to answer any questions so don't worry about sending them!

That said I'm maybe not the best person to ask opinions about Toshiro since I'm a known "not fan" of him, I have come to like him more compared to when I first finished dunmeshi but I probably still have some biases, I'll try not to lean too negative on this tho

With that in mind here's my thoughts

I think Toshiro is a great well written character too! His fight with Laios is amazing and I think on his side of the conflict is a culmination of his worst flaw: He's terrified of confrontation and just passively expects things to resolve themselves.

In the example of the Ogre extra he WANTS to do something about Tade being so thankfull to someone who enslaved her but he wont because he's afraid of challenging how things are/afraid of conflict/confrontation.

I don't think he's a bad person tho, I think he's just passively going thru the motions of life, Toshiro is constantly just thrown around by the people around him without resisting it, he didn't to go to the Island of his own accord: he's there because his father made him go, he didn't choose the retainers that went with him and he didn't even choose to join Laios' party, he just let it happen to him (which is also relatable unfortunately, get a grip man)

Even when having to speak up against Laios in their backstory comic Namari has to pull him to join them in the complaint, he wasn't gonna say anything even if it did bother him (unclear if it did)

Letting other people push and pull you around is also choice tho, he barely tries to resist them and never makes his boundaries clear. In a way him and Falin are similar actually, how both of them just go with what other people want instead of what they themselves want, their reasons are very different (Falin does it because it's what she thinks her loved ones want/need of her, Toshiro does it because he would rather not fight against it) but it is a harmful situation for both of them, you gotta live for yourselves guys.

The thing is that it's not like it doesn't bother him to be pushed around, in the Laios fight years of bottled up emotions finally burst out and he says everything he was holding in the worst way possible, instead of managing his frustrations and setting boundaries with Laios he held it all in until he couldn't anymore, my man is not good at communication or handling conflict.

In another example he gets pissed off at Maizuru for using the Hag to scare him as a kid but also decides not to say anything about it, his relationship with Maizuru is actually also based on repressed feelings that he would rather bottle up and not think about (maybe these too will burst out one day if he doesn't properly deal with it)

But the thing about Toshiro I like the most honestly it's his feelings towards Falin, I might have made fun of him for literally goin "I like her cause she's not like other girls" but honestly I get it, she's a mystery, someone who is always only doing things for other people, and he saw her showing genuine interest in something that wouldn't matter for most people, or most people would find disgusting, so he was interested in her.

People joke that Falin and Laios are the same so Toshiro should like Laios too but Falin isn't as open and bold as Laios, so I think Toshiro wants to actually get to know her, but as I understand for his culture being interested in a woman and wanting to be close to her means asking her in marriage? and so he did, and even then he was still not being clear about his feelings.

That's why I LOVE the extra where him and Falin are finally honest and direct to each other, they're both people who just accept what others push onto them, Falin herself never gave him a response for a year cause she similarly would rather avoid conflict, but here they finally start being honest and direct with each other. I'm pretty sure he knew what her response would be but he still clearly told her and accepted her answer, my man confronted something uncomfortable gracefully, good job.

I avoided speaking on the more negatives opinions I have cause I believe those are what most people talk about but even with the negatives I think Toshiro has room to grow and definitely seems to already be on that path, like Maizuru says he has potential to be a great leader, he just needs to finally take charge of his own life and not be afraid to disrupt how things are

Just as a final thought I wish (some) people realized he has power over his retainers and even Maizuru, who people think is the source of his trauma, is still just a subordinate that can't really do anything against him. The source of his trauma is his father who also has power over Maizuru and made her raise his son (while still having an affair with her) if you're gonna blame someone for how he is blame his father smh

[auncyen]

one scene that's been on my mind for like a week and I'm not sure if will make to final draft or not

-

"Vaugarde's requirements for citizenship are quite relaxed compared to other countries. No doubt they'd welcome one of the Saviors with open arms." Odile looks to the side. "And, well, we could look into other countries as we travel. Poteria is a bit stricter, but I think still a possibility. Ka Bue, too, if you like it."

"...I thought gaining Ka Buan citizenship was really hard?" you ask, puzzled. "I've only heard of one way for becoming a citizen."

Odile's cheeks darken. "Well...I didn't expect you to already know that, but...yes, there's only one way you could become a Ka Buan citizen. I'd be willing to...Siffrin? What are you making that face for?"

Are you making a face?? Oh no, oh no, you're going to upset her, but how can you NOT make a face when she's proposing-- "O, Odile, I'm flattered, but--"

Odile's eyes widen. "Siffrin, wait--"

"I can't marry you??"

"WHAT," Isa booms, and the table rattles when his hands slap down on it in surprise. Bonnie jumps; Mira squeaks. "M'DAME?!! YOU?!"

"THAT IS NOT WHAT I WAS PROPOSING," Odile yells before pointing a finger at Isabeau. "YOU. CALM YOURSELF."

Isa folds his arms and sits back in his chair with a pout. He's...sulking???

....Wait, does Isa like Odile? Like that? They do go out drinking together every so often, but... that doesn't seem right. He called her Mom once. The whole idea makes you feel weird. But then why is he sulking?

"Gems alive," Odile sighs. "The one way for a non-native to gain Ka Buan citizenship is to become part of a Ka Buan family. So if we're going to get into the specific methods of joining a family, there are, in fact, two ways. The first is marriage, which. No. Absolutely not."

Absolutely not!!! You nod firmly.

"Though I am curious, Siffrin, as to why you 'can't' marry me?"

There is a very pointed eyebrow pointing your way. You try not to sound too nervous as you answer, "Well, it'd just--it'd be weird, wouldn't it?!" She said it herself! Absolutely not!

"...Fair enough. Isabeau's already made it very clear he wouldn't give us his blessing." Odile glances sidelong at Isabeau, a smirk tugging at one corner of her mouth. Isa's face is wine-dark as he tries to shrink into his chair, which looks silly with him being such a big guy. "The second method and what I meant is adoption."

"But you don't want to be a mom," Bonnie says, confused.

Odile pulls a face. "Which makes it very fortunate Siffrin is an adult who doesn't need a mother. Adult adoption is usually used to navigate inheritance issues, but I think this would be an apt use for it. Both my parents were travelers... perhaps in my own travels, I heard rumors or had some chance encounter and found the half-sibling I never knew existed before. And thus, I decided to correct the family registry to include them."

"...I don't look a thing like you," you say. "Do I look like either of your parents??? At all???"

Odile lets out a sharp laugh. "Oh, no, not one bit. But we don't need to prove any blood relation for an adoption--that's just what I'd tell the nosier neighbors, to see them try to work that out."

You can't help laughing at that explanation. Odile's younger sibling, helping her annoy pesky neighbors...you don't think you'd mind that at all. It sounds great. It sounds wonderful.

[midnight1nk]

So, this week's episode...

[Spoilers below cut]

Past Ink: Guys, it's fine. This isn't a serious episode, it would be too soon for another arc. It's just gonna be another silly Saturday.

Current Ink: ....

(the following is my live reaction:)

[*unholy screaming*] FOUR NOOOOOOOOOOOO

WOW WHAT A GREAT START TO THIS EPISODE, SCRATCH EVERYTHING THAT I SAID ABOUT THIS BEING A "NORMAL" EPISODE

NOPE I NEED TO PAUSE, I NEED TO TAKE A WALK BC I'M NOT GONNA GET OVER IT, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS COULD LEAD

they're not gonna do it in this episode BUT the fact that goop!4 is being acknowledged in every way possible, we might just have a sequel in our hands

NO NO NO CUT THE INTRO, I HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED THE EPISODE YET AND YOU WANT ME TO MAKE A THEORY ON IT ALREADY? HOLD YOUR FUCKIN HORSES, I'LL GET THERE GEEZ

anyway, we have to press play...

I'm pretty sure someone already has done a pirate au (no I'm not over what I just watched) and anyway, artists: here's pirate SMG4

Four, you should've read the file name before downloading it [*shakes head*]

Wait, is this going to be a parody of computer buddies? That's actually pretty fun..... OH NO NO NO

Ah, so we are doing computer buddies

Actually, yeah, can we have Mario as president please

love how it says "no one even compares to mario. especially smg4 who sucks booty cheeks [or ass] and mario doesn't"

Observe as the SMG4 fandom gets terrified of the word "perfect" [*screams*]

MARIO MARIO NO NO NO HE DIDN'T SAVE

I felt that in my core omg

as a graphic designer, this hurts

apparently, there's a whole new dimension in our computers, Only in the SMG4 Universe [*cheesy thumbs up*]

We really are getting all the computer buddies, huh? I wonder if KinitoPET will appear

[*silver the hedgehog voice*] It's no use!

BRITISH SMG3

wow what a funny bit... WAIT HOLD UP WAIT A MINUTE, LOOK AT THE MEDIA BOX

the eyes....

w̷̹̓e̷̼̽ ̸̯́n̴̩͆e̵̝̓v̴̼͑ë̵̤r̴͓͛ ̷̭͝l̵̦̎e̴̞͗f̵͉̐ṯ̴͗

and the left eye too... oh god, the EYE OF RA— [*gets shot*]

honestly, Four, you improved your aim ever since Western Spaghetti (ik you also did for PV but that's not the point)

I knew they were gonna bring in buff Luigi again

I'M SCREAMING

THERE IS NO WAY THE TEAM JUST DROPPED THAT ON US, THIS CAN'T BE REAL

ok first off, the fact that Four has a folder labeled "Super SECRET Spicy Memes" is giving "totally homework" folder energy (and I don't want to even think more about that)

hey, Four did say that Three brings some spice into his life (yeah, "rosemary to my bread" and all that jazz)

SECOND, the fact he has an image of SMG3 with him saying "whats the matter smg4 kun?"

THEN the "I know what you are" audio clip...

Four, buddy, you're down bad aren't you?

like "woah smg4's bisexual, I didn't know that", the closet is out of GLASS so we been knew but I DID NOT expect this

having Three be a tsundere is one thing, but FOUR....

🫵🏳️‍🌈⁉️

"they're dating behind the scenes" at this point, yeah

we have to keep going... [*secretly puts this clip on the fridge*]

I hate this so much /silly

[*chaos ensues*] [*sips my coffee*] just another tuesday saturday

GOTTA GO FAST GOTTA GO FAST— [*gets tazed*] i can never catch a break c'mon man

oh hey Swag!

four dollars is four dollars, you got yourself a deal

ok, I'm gonna need everyone to see Four's cute little hops here:

look at him go, my silly little goober :) oh, now you have? then let's keep going

holy shit, this fight scene is so well animated!!! LET'S GOOOO

never thought I'd see the day of seeing biblically accurate bonzi in an SMG4 episode and yet here we are.

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP

THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I'VE SEEN IN MY LIFE, I'M ASCENDING

"...but they hugged before" NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

A normal hug, where two people cross each other and are unable to see the other's face since it's over their shoulder, is just as it is: a normal hug. It can be seen as platonic and/or romantic.

THIS is a lot more intimate. 3 and 4's heads touch while they hold each other by the hand. This type of hug is reserved more for romantic partners when the situation leads them to a devasting end, where they face each other to look at and remember what their partner looked like, one last time before they die.

In this case, it makes sense as the computer is collapsing within itself.

"It's not actually them tho." Yes, they're digital copies of 3 and 4 but that's the thing: they're COPIES, acting on what 3 and 4 would actually do

SMG34 shippers, we are eating GOOD today yum yum

but then, that begs the question: would there be a moment where 3 and 4 would reveal their feelings for each other at the worst possible time?

(you guys are not going to be ready for my next episode concepts) What, who said that?

uh anyway them 💙💜 gotta put it on the fridge

I feel for you, Four, but I have a horrible feeling about this

...

Foreshadowing is a literary device—

no seriously, I feel like this could be part of a future arc where a past villain would ruin everything Four has and would offer up a deal when Four would be the most desperate. There's always a catch. Hmm, why does that seem familiar...?

Your life's work or your friends, it's your call, SMG4

:)

HELL YEAH FOUR, THROW IT AWAY (omg just like how he chose Three over the USB, I'm crying dude)

also congrats to Ourstor08954957 for the lovely art in the end credits 🎉 such cute doodles ❤️

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Oh boy, what an episode. I feel like I'm in another plane of existence right now. Everything was absolutely incredible, great job Team!!

Everyone, say THANK YOU to whoever put the SMG34 crumbs in there, we shall treasure it for the rest of our lives. I'm gonna put those moments on my fridge. OH I would love to see the artists draw the SMG34 hug or pirate Four!

Love the fighting scene right by the end and the little details they have added in there. I guess it's "Torture Ink with the Idea that Goop!4 May Happen" day but hey, I'm so normal about it (no I'm not). I've been a bit stressed since finals are coming up so I'm thankful for anything this episode for me.

(If anyone is curious, the WOTFI website is still up and yes, I am logging its status just in case.)

I'm sure everyone is going crazy over this...

"They gay fr :3" [BenJoJoGV, Twitter]

🧍

BEN YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THESE THINGS—