#There's a line at the end that I definitely DONT remember from that arc | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

stackslip · 11 months ago

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augh yeah as much as i do love the parts of COS that are very obviously trying to do something competent and genuine, the amestris parts are just so ????

ill be honest, im pretty sure i blocked those scenes out, so remembering that what happened on the amestris side is. yikes

definitely wish the movie was more focused and didnt try to add as much as it did. especially roy -- i dont mind the beginning, hell i think him exiling himself to the north is a good concept, but the fact that he takes back his position (iirc) is just. so are we throwing away the character development and him realizing that he CANT change the military from the inside or what.

in general i honestly wanted to see less of the military cast. they frankly dont have much reason to be there other than the fact people wanted to see them (esp armstrong... just. WHY). im sure there are still ways to work in roy if the creators really wanted him to be there but like. idk! they sure didnt have to do it like that! we couldve spent more time on exploring noah as a character. or let izumi die on screen. sigh

been a while since i rewatched COS but thanks for pointing out all the weird stuff, i'd almost forgotten it and i honestly shouldn't.

(and of course i have to say i love your posts on the series proper. i will never be normal about scar. ever)

the second i saw roy in there i was like why is roy still in the military at all. wasn't his whole arc about realizing that he can't do shit within the military because it is an institution built on atrocities and exploitation? why is he still in it then. why is he talking about serving his country. why's he talking about waiting for ED that makes no fucking SENSE. (why is he alive. someone said they thought roy was supposed to die by the end of 03 but they kept him alive bc he's a fan fave and i wholly believe this frankly). why is the country's military still seemingly intact with a whole surveillance network, when 03 ended on the military being severely crippled and amestris's neighbours getting ready to invade it and bring it to its knees? why are we literally seeing *the fucking weimar republic* in cos only for amestris to not parallel it in any way and instead be the brotherhood-type funland where once you've taken out the mean führer, everything is fine and there's nothing to fix?

and like. this is a short movie right! i know that they were denied a season, maybe even a season and a half to finish off the show and that some elements of cos were meant to be in the og show's ending. and it shows! bc again munich is fucking reasonably competent considering how much is crammed in on hour thirty. and i know that cos's production was also rushed as hell and that as an Anime Movie they were contractually obligated to 1) put as many recurring fan faves in as possible 2) have at least a third of the movie be a big action scene. so like. i can understand the limits. you have no time, you're told you have to put all this shit in, you want to finish off the brothers' story at the very least. but my gd! you're telling me you had an izumi death scene and it doesn't happen??? you could cut roy out ENTIRELY from this. you could not put ARMSTRONG IN LIORE. you could..... i know they had no time at all, i know once again it was 03 being shafted by production committees and time and budget but it's legit insane how the very stupid and seemingly innocuous choice of having armstrong "rebuild" liore comedically completely slapped me out of whatever headspace cos had managed to slip me in before. i was enjoying it a lot until we got to amestris. and this armstrong thing, followed by rose's line here:

it's just. it's almost comedic. i'm almost wondering if the writer is fucking with me here and acknowledging just how stupid it is to put armstrong doing alchemy in liore is. probably not but gd this is bad. this is brotherhood levels of obliviousness to the themes.

anyhow i'm not finishing cos tonight bc i'm too pissed about it lol. it's funny bc for years i was told it was bad but for the opposite reasons that it's actually bad. like folks kept saying the munich parts were bad/stupid/wrong and made no sense when to me they're by far the most thematically coherent and interesting/emotional bits of it. i LOVE the relationship between noah and ed. and like, i know the bar is is in hell when it comes to depicting roma on screen, but i can't help but appreciate the little and big ways both noah and her people get humanized, how they feel like the most real and concrete part of this world ed insists is a dream or hell. but really, genuinely noah is so good, alfons's weird crush on ed is hysterical, the general atmosphere and research around 1923 munich seems genuinely thoughtful (and it also tells me that the writers had been thinking about this long, long before even 03 ended). i genuinely believe that making munich! hugues a nazi sympathizer and a racist is a really inspired and brave choice that makes the audience reflects THEIR hugues and how the amestrian military behaved. so anyhow these parts are good, genuinely. it's sad that that's the first third and then you get thrown into this mess, and there's still a whole stupid nazi battle to come. it's stupid. it's stupid especially bc there's a genuine part of the movie that IS smart and thoughtful. it'd be so much easier if all of it were bad, or if the difference between the writing in each part weren't so obvious. anyhow. i wanna finish cos bc i wanna see wrath's arc end and envy eating hoheinheim and ed/al reunion and more of noah. but also i think i'm gonna be writing off large chunks of it lol.

(also thank you very much, i'm trying to preach 03 to whoever i can whenever i can. appreciate the love)

#fma 2003 #conqueror of shamballa #eli talks

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joelletwo · 1 year ago

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wrestling with the 4devas bitchslap again to convince myself its fine if graveyard wins the best ep tourney: it's not the other bloggers who are wrong, it's me

not a complete response to but definitely in conversation with and asking some of the same questions again as @reductionisms's 4devas essay, which tries to square gintoki's "life doesn't need to be fun, i just need you to live" being a series-sanctioned message he's given to villains as an arc-concluding moral continuously up until 4devas with it here being an incorrect worldview that needs to be (physically) corrected by shinpachi, the straightman tonal signpost of gintama

a conflict i have been perplexed by ever since i got to this line on my first watch a year or two ago, since i've seen this line before! all over fandom! as part of the general "dont [bottom text] kill yourself" motivational messaging of gintama that i love!

and, briefly, when i hit 4devas i was also in the middle of being really frustrated by the new arc pattern i was seeing crop up: i loved the villains-turned sympathetic-turned someone worth saving by gintoki tune of the first half of gintama, but it fell massively flat for me in Yoshiwara in Flames, where i was never convinced to be on housen's side but had to watch him get a heartwarming redemptive death at the side of the woman he abused anyways.

then shortly after i had the same exact experience in Red Spider with jiraia, and i thought, if this is what gintama is gonna do with its shitty dudes from now on im gonna quit the fucking show. and then shortly after that i met jirochou and saw him cut down otose the woman he loved (under a raining sky!!! the fucking sky motifs!!! the signpost im about to watch a dude be shittily violent to women and be expected to feel sorry for him about it) and saw too much red to really take in the rest of the arc level-headedly or care about anything in it lol.

so it was written off in my mind as the 'otose almost gets fridged' arc until i rewatched it this week. then i had to remember, oh yeah, there's a ton of political maneuvering fakeouts in this arc that i never actually squared back with how the plot presented itself prior to the reveals, so i'd still been thinking about the "fakeout" plot. then i read the manga version with all the "truths" in mind from the start, and finally i felt like i could understand what this arc is doing a little better.

(way) tldr (4.4k words. sorry): do i love this arc? eh. do i still hate it? eh. but it's doing stuff!

first, i was able to see an echo in all the "actually i was planning to betray you the whole time" "actually i was working to help you the whole time" plot beats of what sorachi does with the larger edo/universe story further into the back half of the manga. if i ever sound like i didnt enjoy or wasnt convinced by the execution of these "reveals," it's because i didnt and wasnt, lol. but it's fun that he had fun with them i guess.

the arc starts with pirako ingratiating herself into yorozuya, then having a classic "bump into you and pretend to be injured to extort you" encounter w her dad's gang. to resolve this without escalating into violence, gintoki... does it back to them, which is really funny. but thus the tone is set for the arc of: DISHONEST APPROACHES TO CONFLICT.

pirako isnt honest about her overall intentions the, like, seven different times that she "admits her real ones." kada plays at peacekeeper in the devas while being the ultimate person scheming to get the upper hand over everyone else in the end. (she's also secretly harusame, evil amanto outsider who acts as a unifying force for the kabukicho fighting itself to band together against and expel: sorachi's favorite move! the problem was never internal, it's the shadowy REAL antagonists who infiltrated us)

jirochou and otose are ultimately doing a pantomime of conflict to try to keep temperatures down and escalations from breaking out, so no one they care about has to get hurt. gintoki doesn't know this until the end, but he follows in their footsteps after his encounter with them in the graveyard: he plays at having given up to the rest of yorozuya so they'll leave and escape the coming kabukicho war, the same thing otose was trying with him. it fails both times. i'm really not sure why gintoki and otose thought it would work, honestly. they should know their kids are stubborn as hell.

but gintoki is in a bind because of the things he needs to protect, and all of his actions are primarily in service of that, to the detriment of how he'd prefer to act if he were less restricted. he is unsurprised and unoffended to hear saigou is only willing to warn them, not help them, because her son is in danger if she acts directly. all four devas are, seemingly, being mutually restrained this way, holding back even when blatantly manipulated to do so. the other constant of this arc: everyone is dishonest, and no one wants to risk losing what they have.

gintoki understands that! of course! he's had to make that calculus before, after all :)

and this arc is just one big cliff scene echo: the entire graveyard scene pushing gintoki to emotional regression because he thinks he's losing another parent figure, one he's just seen the Gintoki Figure of the arc cut down, no less (takasugi stolen valor when he goes berserk against him and only ends up uselessly bleeding out on the ground about it, honestly). otose goes into this willingly so gintoki can live. he accepts this decision because he values protecting her values (her kids living on) and is briefly broken by it (the story says, before giving him shinpachi to "put him back on track"). prior to the bitchslap, after saying he just wants them to live, even if it has to be without him, he says:

i dont have a good understanding of when we start getting reveals of gintoki's backstory versus foreshadowing because i went into gintama already knowing most of it, but definitely by the recent red spider where we get our first real look at (or really, first listen to) shouyou. but here we actually get some of what gintoki felt about it, which he keeps closely guarded even when the whole truth comes out: he's done his best to survive having lost, but it was so unbearable he can't face losing again.

(also, honorable mention backstory echo, the person calling him a brother sets his home on fire to drive him and his parent figure out of town. as i liveblogged: this one would really hurt gintoki if gintoki cared about anything oboro ever did!)

but with the shinpachi story-rerouting, they get the good end, keep everyone (otose, yorozuya, all of kabukicho, even pirako and her dad - everyone but kada) safe without having to sacrifice a single thing, even keep gintoki hopeful for this outcome. so, as goose points out, we are left to understand that there could have been a good end on the cliff, that something is different here than there, and, skipping a lot of math, that that is the people around gintoki.

which i do find really funny to imagine as a slam on takasugi and katsura. sorry you kids suck too much, your teacher dies bc u were cringefail. but lets look at it.

everyone is dishonest, no one wants to risk what they have: gintoki rallies himself to keep fighting but is determined to do it alone. kagura and shinpachi fight him on this; they can't leave because they don't want to lose their home, they can't let him fight alone because they don't want to lose him. they're just as restricted by what they have to keep safe, but their only option is to act where everyone else's is inaction. shinpachi says:

if i may skip over the bitchslap itself for now, gintoki does consent to let his allies fight with him after it. yorozuya stands alone against saigou, who's heavily demoralized but resigned, strongarmed into fighting them by the threat to her son. but on seeing their resolve to keep protecting their own precious home and family she says:

and, to skip straight to my thought, i think this is what turns the tides back in their favor. there are more twists and turns to the fight. pirako equates what binds saigou, which she herself equates to what binds the yorozuya, to what binds her:

(with an intentional distinction that she's willing to actively destroy the others', as opposed to their purely self defensive fighting, which is echoed at some point in her distinguishing gintoki from jirochou in the same way, that jirochou not only lives to protect like gintoki but is willing to destroy in the process. i don't find that part as interesting, but it's more fuel to the power of having something to protect as a driving force as an arc theme.)

so now all three stand on the same ground, absolutely unwilling to give up what they hold dear, but all their cards are on the table. they aren't dealing in 12 dimensions of tricksy defensive pre-emptive moves anymore. they know it wouldnt work, anyways, since they all know their drives to protect are the same and no one will be talked into backing down. now they can directly duke it out and let the winner be determined that way, on strength of will. even before the actual circumstances change, the fight somehow feels freer seeing how inevitable it is. and with everything out in the open, yorozuya can now protect each other and saigou's son, taking out one side of the conflict.

(and with everything out in the open, the ultimate 4devas villain can become the single person who continues to betray the others, kada, whose further machinations - with everything out in the open! - saigou (and later yorozuya) can choose to protect pirako from. everyone wins! because everything was out in the open! do you see where i'm going)

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the arc is rerailed to the better outcome. so is the correction justified?

what does the correction accomplish outside of its moment? most convincingly to me of goose's presented options, i also think it's done as a thematic shift, a, okay, just live was a strategy that worked before but now doesn't suffice, so we need something more.

as to why this is needed now and not earlier or later...tldr bad planning <3 but like.

we have, prior to this, a consistent thrust of arcs where gintoki teaches people to lose. as well, while we meet the harusame and we visit space and we get the barest glimpses of takasugi's weird shadowy background moves there, largely we're dealing with kabukicho characters and kabukicho stories. we see or only hear about the shogun for short comedic moments only. we've largely dropped the series intro focus on things like the shinsengumi or hasegawa acting as foreign diplomats. it's a local series, a hometown series, a kabukicho and not even an edo at large series, a personal story about gintoki making personal connections with his personal experience as a flawed person with a flawed approach to life that has let him, chronic slacker, get by on the bare minimum.

at this moment, chapter 300, we have a slow trickle of gintoki backstory starting to come out to us. we've recently expanded the story focus to include yoshiwara, which gets a callout in this arc by kada to keep it relevant. we have an arc of sorachi testing out plot beats that he'll use again for the endgame, in all the political maneuvering and alliancing and betraying and shadowy outsider space governmenting, where he's also doing a lot of echoing of that backstory that only becomes clear later. so it's possible he's thinking about shifting gears and setting up for the eventual endgame, which means getting out of the episodic cycle so things can stick.

and after this arc, to my opinion and memory, we stop getting the classic gintama flavor sympathizable'd antagonists. a lot of the bigger arcs don't even have clear Big Shot antagonists anymore, being more about the shouyoucore theme of characters fighting against themselves, or if there is one they're always explicitly part of the Shadow Government now, a unified and more daunting force than someone they can win over with an inspiring gintoki interaction.

so 4devas does act as a turning point at least in some way. and it's not possible to say this definitively, since all gintama arcs are ultimately never going to be about gintoki or his friends Actually losing something instead of beating the odds, but it does feel like theres a different flavor to, say, dekobokko with its direct look at how chars lives could be different and better and they will still choose to keep struggling as themselves. and Kintama arc definitely doesn't feel like an early days arc, like it can only resolve the way it does with a gintoki who is now able to face his past and the possibility of losing again and again and again (now with, natch, his faith that yorozuya will by his side when he does).

why now, after 300 chapters of letting it sit ignored in the back of his brain working out perfectly fine except when it doesn't (the very reminder of shouyou in a fight making him go Demon Mode, which is like regular gintoki but worse at fighting, bc he is so unprepared to think about shouyou)? well i personally am in big favor of the "take a decade off" strategy for facing problems. it worked for me too. realistically watsonianly its nice to let things percolate in the brain and do some of the processing behind the scenes until its less immediately painful. and he's made many bonds over these 300 chapters, shown in this arc when the whole town rallies behind him, that are there to support him when he needs it now and weren't there before.

realistically doylistly eh. bad planning.

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the series as a result is rerailed to a writing space where things can start changing (leave the episodic, as you guys say, sazae-san format). it's useful in the future. so is the correction justified in terms of what comes before it? was the correction needed?

thinking about the bitchslap leads to thinking about the cliff scene leads to (sorry kagura and katsura, you guys arent really relevant here) pitting shinpachi and takasugi against each other in how they act with something on the line they can't bear to give up.

i don’t need the lesson of 4devas to apply logistically to the cliff scene. once they were set up on that chessboard, frozen in their assigned places as a backstory, it’s not like takasugi could’ve power of friendship’d his way out of being physically retrained if he decided he wanted to. it’s set up as a forced choice, it has to play out as a forced choice.

but we see that even before it’s asked of him, takasugi is willing, prepared, unbothered to give up his own life for shouyou’s. this is, goose lays out in the sequel, the cardinal sin in gintama - a teacher shouldn’t outlive their student. it would have been especially egregious to shouyou, whose whole desired life’s purpose is to raise students who can outlive him and outgrow him, take his lessons and go out into the world and do their own thing with them. takasugi doesn’t expect to do this and doesn’t seem to see a point in the possibility if shouyou isn’t back with them.

though we can also think of shouyou as a little too quickly willing to give up on the cliff - sorry, gintoki, the suicidal guy has thought about it for .02 seconds and decided the best outcome is for you to kill him even though he could get out of this no problem. maybe its no wonder gintoki gave up too. can we ask katsura what he would’ve done?

and is takasugi different from shinpachi there? he rejects the mentor’s attempt to exchange his own life for his. he’s not willing to consider a life without him.

but shinpachi is convinced no one is going to die. because they’ll be there together. incredibly naive - shinpachi and kagura, restricted to one option by what they need to protect like everyone is in 4devas, have acting as that one option because they are still free in a way gintoki and the other adults aren't. they’ve never actually experienced the impossible choice that forces you to give up, so they can act as if there isn’t one - what else would they do? why would they think to give up?

but gintoki is defined by having lived the impossible choice. its built into the foundation of him as a character and leaks out everywhere. he couldn’t have relied on his friends on the cliff because they were quite forcibly removed from the picture as an option, not by his or their choice. its written as an inevitability, logistics we find out later be damned.

if we refocus to 4devas, we can look at the Gintoki Figure for a different angle. jirochou, after he and gintoki resolve the arc conflict by being able to team up because they - say it with me - put everything out in the open, tells gintoki about his impetus for abandoning his family and coming back to his wayward life in kabukicho, the death of otose's husband.

it's, um, another now really obvious parallel to gintoki, lol. characters talk about how jirochou does everything he does in this arc to try to atone for his failure to both otose and tatsugorou, and i guess thats true bc he was written that way but he has an odd way of showing it, but anyways he resolves that, despite his guilt over this, all he can do now is keep living and keep protecting what they loved together. he's come to the usual gintama message all on his own, reinforcing that this is the correct way to live in this series. he had his own unavoidably shitty situation, and he came to terms with it.

so then where did jirochou go wrong, in the narrative's eyes (other than abandoning one woman and their child to deal drugs in the town of his other woman while ignoring her)? was there a point he could've changed how their trio's story played out? but he loved and trusted tatsugorou, and he was happy to step aside and let him be the one by their otose's side. i doubt he would have been happy stealing her away even if it were possible.

but if we look at the resolution tool of 4devas... he never put everything out in the open!!! everyone knows he loved otose, but in more of an open secret way. in classic romance plot, he never confessed for second male lead rejection closure. indeed, in the closest we ever get to a main character having a romantic plot in gintama, the very ending of the arc flirts with him doing just that now that he's made a little progress with the arc message, with the entire cast of the arc expecting him to (and interrupting before he can).

but if he had when they were young. if he had been honest with his friends. could it have opened up other options that weren't available on his own, that they didnt know to offer? i have a preferred one lol. but u can get creative with all sorts of life paths that avoid tatsugorou dying that way or, at the least, jirochou feeling chained to a shameful life (living in a town he doesn't go out in to protect a woman he doesnt talk to and feeling like he doesnt deserve the family he abandoned for this) because of it.

and then if we take this and rewind back to the cliff... we get to grind my favorite ax, "shouyou shouldve told literally anyone literally anything about his deal." if gintoki knew more about shouyou, they could've faced his horrors together, the whole time. he couldve known that shouyou was being literal calling himself a demon and not internalized his own identity as one for life just because shouyou bonded with him over it. i truly genuinely think the logical conclusion of all of gintama's big messages are that shouyou and gintoki should have been more open with each other.

but i don't think sorachi thinks that. and, you know, by 4devas rules, the unriskable precious things he was protecting by staying silent were his students' humanity, and secondarily his own fragilely newly hopeful heart that literally couldnt stand another 10 millionth round of rejection (killed himself and then went on a 12 year rampage over it. girl i would too).

and takasugi really isn't dishonest about what's going on in his head when he tells us he expects to die for shouyou. that's as cards on the table as i could ask. gintoki is, a little bit, by omission. he does what i'd want him to here - tells takasugi try just not dying - but doesn't give him a reason to, and doesn't tell him he has no plans of letting anyone die for shouyou.

so what goes wrong on the cliff - shouyou is happy, gintoki is happy, oboro's even kind of happy, katsura is irrelevant - is that takasugi is blindsided (whoops) by their silent agreement that betrays the one he thought he and gintoki had. and then ruins everyone's party about it and spends the next ten years doing so for good measure.

which is also, basically, what shinpachi is going through that prompts the bitchslap, too. he thought they were a team, that they had each others backs, not that gintoki is a one-way protector of them. he is blindsided by gintoki lying to and tricking them and hiding things from them. he is hurt by gintoki feeling hopeless all by himself when he could share that with them and be encouraged by their endless child optimism.

and would it need to have changed anything on the cliff? in the moment after the bitchslap, what contributes to gintoki changing his mindset is tama telling him, we trust that you're capable bc youve always shown us that, can you trust us this time? when, later in the arc, gintoki seems to regress by sending kagura and shinpachi away, he asks them to trust that he's still trusting them, relying on them to help shoulder his burden, and in return they know he's staying alive, not self sacrificing. maybe it would've helped just to feel on the same team and not shut out, to be able to trust gintoki like gintoki was trusting shouyou?

so. two paralleled instances of gintoki making a bad situation worse by keeping to himself and being too self sufficient. that feels clear cut that feels fine im okay with that as a takeaway. do i think its exactly what sorachi had in mind while writing this, as opposed to just a good series 'hey lean on your friends' moment to read cool and tug at the heartstrings? eh lol. i think theres definitely room to read takasugi into this arc (i still need to refind the takagin 4devas post...) but its not so baked in that i think he was a PRIORITY in the plotting.

but is the shinpachi SCOLDING necessary is the scolding justified... and yes its in response to life doesnt need to be fun i just want you to live. still a confusing framing i can't immediately square. but/and more immediately its directly responding. to gintoki opening up to them about his insecurities!!

which, as said, he doesnt do!! he doesnt talk about his failures! its basically like, here and to hijikata that one time and otherwise even when we know all the facts about what happened we still never hear gintoki himself talk about it. (so he really DOESNT learn the lesson here either. he stays dissociated and triggered every time utsuro comes up. he tries to solve the altana baby problem on his own. he doesnt talk to his new friends OR his old friends. bwah. gintoki. silver soul.)

so this is like. its just in the wrong order!! its just in a baffling order lol. if you want gintoki to share his burden do you need to punch him when he shares it. does it also need to sound like you're blaming him for not being capable of upholding his promise to protect anyone when thats the insecurity thats got him all discombobulated this arc in the first place (a whole set of notes i took on this that i didnt find a place for in this post)?? its so weeeeiiiiiirddd lol i dont liiikeee itttttt. theres plenty of things shinpachi can validly punch gintoki for but this is such a weird one.

so i guess. having a clearer understanding of this arc do i hate it less? YES honestly. i hate fakeout plots generally they irritate me but everything... more or less makes sense by gintama standards now that i have the whole plot in mind.

do i hate jirochou less SORT OF? i enjoy him. in his individual relationships. i like his shitty dad deal i love shitty dads. i like him pining for otose who genuinely likes him but also brings up her husband every sentence she says to him just to keep him down. i like his parallels with gintoki that they both explicitly acknowledge and find macho comfort in. hes still not theeeeeeeee most well-developed gintama antagonist but you know? i at least think otose and pirako would want to be around him after this.

do i feel like i have a clearer understanding of the bitchslap moment. NOT CONVINCED I DO. i feel like its going to be one of those things that slips in and out of my understanding like sand in cupped hands. i have a tentative understanding of it that i dont think sorachi actually had in mind. so i dont think ive solved it lol.

will i be cursed to think about 4devas forever? god i hope not. am i okay with it beating farewell shins in the polls. god i fucking hope it does. in the horrible timeline where i have to see 305 make it all the way and then lose i guess id rather it be to this one than to hijigin. consider this poll propaganda?

#sopping wet gintoki posting

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wonderousmonarch · 7 months ago

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Definitive Thoughts on the Kamen Rider Series I've watched (part 1)

SPOILERS WARNING for Geats, Ghost, and Ex-Aid

please keep in mind that this is just my opinions, and a little justification for where I placed the series on the tier list. I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts on these series, however please be normal about it

Geats

Geats was the first series I watched, and it's been a bit so I might not fully remember everything right away.

Plot/Concept: 9/10

I like the Squid Game/Fortnite/Battle Royale idea behind it, it gave the show a much more serious tone than I was expecting (it's still KR so it's not like, super dark but it changed my view of the series entirely).

Execution: 6/10

I would've liked it more if they fully leaned into the Hunger Games aspect, and kept the full roster of the DPG for the whole series/longer, cause there's like 20 or so initial competitors each time and then they just get shafted in favor of our main crew. like I get why they did it but still I was a bit disappointed.

Characters: 7/10

I don't like Ace as much as I like every other supporting character. I love his arc and the direction his character went but I didn't mesh with his personality. I know he was supposed to be cunning and witty but like he was just kind of a dick most of the time, and we just didn't know why. Keiwa, Neon, and Michinaga all had pretty clear goals from the get go and that made me enjoy them a lot more, Ace keeping his true goals hidden just made his schemes come across as him being an asshole for no reason and getting away with it.

I liked all the antagonists as well. the Jamato were a very cool concept and Archimedial was a freak. Beroba was very cool as well, I liked her and Michinaga's dynamic

Suit/Character Design: 7/10

I liked how all the suits looked, I loved the dpg uniforms, Michinaga is hot. That's it really.

Music: 4/10

man there was not a single song (in the show) that really stuck out to me afterwards. I didn't even remember what Geat's battle theme was until I found it later on YouTube. the four character themes on the Character Song Album are bangers tho but I don't think they get played in the main series so they dont really count

Overall: 8/10, A-Tier

Ghost

Ghost came second cause I thought the suits looked cool. I was right and it was totally worth it.

Plot/Concept: 9/10

I like the overall story, and the idea of using the spirits of dead heros as transformations is really cool. I fucking love Yu Yu Hakusho and Persona, and Ghost is just shoving those two together

Execution: 7/10

Close to the end it starts to drag, and it never explains the whole "15 other Makoto clones" thing in series and I think we're just supposed to assume it was Adel using the Granmeisers power? it was kinda wild, although I did love that whole arc. I feel like ghost, more than any other series I watched, really wanted the audience to watch the movies as part of the series, cause it just kinda brought up aspects of the movies without ever explaining them in series.

biggest offender being when Edith was like "a shame Daigo had to die" as a way to set up his appearance in the 100 Eyecons movie, but since this line is never explained again (other than I think when it's revealed Adel killed Daigo) it's just kinda awkward. idk.

Characters: 9/10

I like all the characters and how they all interact with each other. the only exception is onari who I just kinda hated. admittedly the character archetypes are kinda basic, you've got main character who believes in the good of everyone's soul, rival character who has a more selfish goal, science girl who's the brains behind the whole thing, old man who's more involved than he wants the characters to know, and annoying.

despite this, I wound up really enjoying all the characters and the way they interacted with each other. while Takeru didn't really change that much throughout the series, he is the one who sparks change in the other characters. Makoto goes from someone who only cares for himself and his sister, shutting out anyone who tries to help him and blocking out the world, to fighting for the ideals of both Takeru and Alain. of course he still winds up taking on more than he can handle during the whole clone thing (which is still so wild how they never explained that in series) but even still he did that so the group would focus more on reviving Takeru and not waste time on him, which was wild. Alain has such a good character arc from start to finish, but he doesn't kiss Makoto at any point which makes me sad.

Suit/Character Design: 9/10

Yes. Yes yes yes I loved all the suits (minus the Ghost Boost form, way too much red) and transformations and monsters and just. yes. I wish they let Makoto wear a different outfit cause he does wind up looking like a SMT protagonist, esp combined with how he's stanced up the whole time. but Deep Specter makes me feel a certain way so its excused.

Music: 10/10

oh my god I love the ghost soundtrack so much. I love it so much I'm not sure I can fully explain it with words and it would be better if I just like made noises of general excitement

Overall: 9/10, S-Tier

Ex-Aid

I started this one so I could watch the movie where Ghost and Ex-Aid fight Pac-Man. Was it worth it? only a little.

Plot/Concept: 8/10

Doctors curing a video game virus? are you kidding me? that sounds so ridiculous and campy and I'm so here for it. it sounds so fucking funny

Execution: 4/10

It was just kinda... boring? Like it was kinda interesting to start but then they revealed where the Bugsters came from and I'm just... really? He sent a deadly pathogen to an 8 year old because he got so upset that he didn't think of Big Mario sooner? that's some Elon Musk levels of stupid and I mean that so very negatively. I liked the Chronus reveal, that had to be the best villain entrance I've seen in a while, not the mention the time stop effect was so fucking powerful. idk I was riding the "it's so over" to "we're so back" pipeline the whole time. it ended pretty strongly but like wow I wish I didn't sit through all of it.

Also it was weird to call the "True Ending" movie the "True Ending" instead of just "The Ending." but idk that's a bit nitpicky

Characters: 3/10

One point for each character I liked. Emu, Poppy, and Parado were the only characters I really liked in the whole show. Everyone was just so mean to Emu for no fucking reason. Like he just wanted to help people and all of his coworkers were one TV rating away from telling him to kill himself during every interaction. and now that I think about it, technically he did! and it was during the one point when they were telling him to NOT do it! Parado's "redemption" seemed very short for a redemption arc but the way that he learns what he was doing was wrong was by Literally Dying For Real which is so fucking raw. Steven Universe could never. Oh, I guess the girl that hung out with Snipe was cool, she made his character a lot more bearable and was a very welcome addition to the crew.

Suit/Character Design: 7/10

While the Level One suits were kinda weird, I think the character designs are some of this series strongest points. the only suits/designs I really despise were Level 99 and Hyper Muteki. Level 99 looked so big and clunky and Hyper Muteki has so much gold it makes me want to barf whenever I look at it. Ex-Aid's Burger design goes hard though, and all the monsters looked really cool.

Music: 4/10

Forgettable. Opening was kinda cool but I wouldn't go seeking out any of its music for any reason.

Overall: 4/10, C Tier.

more coming soon - I had to split them up cause my notes app was starting to lag with how much writing I was doing

#kamen rider #kamen rider geats #kamen rider ghost #kamen rider exaid #kamen rider spoilers #spoilers #opinion #monarchthoughts #monarchsbigkrthoughts

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day-mark · 7 months ago

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I love Voltron with my whole heart but yeag,,, it had a lot of flaws. I love that it genuinely tried to address that Killing Zarkon wouldn't be enough to stop the entire Empire and end the war. The show had a good balance of politics, crazy weird magic, and fun family bonding for the first two seasons.

I also think it's kind of insane that the show sidelined Three Entire characters after s3-4 (Shiro, Keith, and Hunk <- especially) but didn't develop the others with that new space and time.

Allura dying just made me sad. She was such an amazing character. I was insane back then so I can't really look at Lance with an analytical eye without rewatching the show, but I can tell he didn't get the moment he deserved either. He should've been Black Paladin!! Keith in my opinion, should've switched from Shiro's right hand to Lance's!! Keith just fundamentally didn't work as a leader (to me) and the focus of his arc should've been his mommy/being Galra issues!!!

I dunno wtf happened with Shiro. They kind of scooped out his guts by the end of the show. (My in-world explanation is that by s7 he's just so beyond traumatized to think all that much.) Hunk's also been done dirty. He's like, amazing, he's so sweet and kind but also an asshole when he wants to be. He deserved way more attention, he had insane amount of potential!!!

This show had so much to offer! Genuinely awesome worldbuilding, comedy, the team who grow to love each other even with all their neurotic issues, and the Galra themselves were fucking icons!!

vld will always have my heart, I love the mall episode it was so beautiful sorry for rambling so much (but the juiciness of dteamxvld ooooiughgh)

my memory of it isn't so great anymore but yeah your feelings do line up with mine pretty well from what i remember 😞

the characters were definitely my biggest gripe cause they were so interesting in the first couple of seasons!! but then in the later ones they were so flat?? uninteresting ??? like idk what happened but nothing makes me more irritated than when characters start getting butchered. and yeah hunk getting that treatment in particular was Very noticeable

i didnt watch the last season cause i heard it was so bad and by that point the previous seasons already disappointed me so i just couldnt be bothered to watch it, but yeah ??? killing allura was... definitely a choice 💀

and lance my fucking lance, he was my favorite and seeing him get done so dirty made me so sad 😭 black paladin lance was my damn roman empire... anfd fucking farmer my ass HE WANTED TO BE A PILOTTTTT

and ngl i really dont remember what happened with shiro near the end of the show but i know at some point i started thinking of him as just being there for torture porn 😭

but yeah, despite the Many gripes i have with the show it was still really neat to be apart of and will have a special place in my heart. i did really like the premise and ideas they had. they had a solid set of characters, designs, and dynamics that i do still really love! and i still love the beginning seasons and the fanartists and writers definitely helped carry with their amazing art and fics.

#forgive me for my generic answers but #it's been so long since i watched that show also i was a dumbass teenager at the time so im scared of saying something “wrong” 😭#bc both my memory and teenage analysis skills may fail me #ask

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meimi-haneoka · 2 years ago

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I honestly have so many feelings after reading the latest chapter. The characters have all grown so much, and they've really been showing their maturity and growth in handling situations (cough Kaito finally came to his senses) Especially Sakura, who I've grown up with in a way too! From the original series till now, finding it really lovely how she can be genuinely happy for Akiho and Kaito, and their decision to travel (comparing to how she reacted when both Eriol and Syaoran were moving away at the end of the salira card arc) and Kaito. Dear Kaito. He finally came to his senses and apologised. Really glad there was no translation errors for the apology, or I would have been MAD. Haha. Anyway, thank you again for the translation post! After reading it and the latest chapter I had a couple questions.

1. What's the price yukito paid? I dont recall it ever being discussed. He mentioned that it was a secret to Sakura and that's that.

2. In chap 42, (parents day) when Syaoran and Kaito fought, Kaito mentioned something about the future that was divined coming to pass. Did we ever get an explanation for that line?

I think overall they tied up the story so well. It's a very sweet ending for them, but definitely a little sad that they decided to travel (though I understand their reasons) I hope that the extra chaper(?) They show us snippets their new life :)

Side note: I was looking back at the clear cards, and realized that the "dreaming card" is actually named "yumemi" as you mentioned in one of your translation posts. And the MCF eventually turned out to be Lillie!! A powerful yumemi. I like how they added this little detail to uncover!!

Hiii, so glad to receive your ask!!! I'm glad to see you've read the final chapter and were quite satisfied with it! I also really enjoyed observing Sakura's growth along the way, it was amazing. When you're in the middle of it, it feels like she's stuck, she's manipulated by everyone (not only Kaito) because everyone is hiding things from her, but most importantly, she doesn't look like she's really trusting her magic capabilities in the beginning and she's quite "lukewarm" about all of it.

And that was exactly the point.

I will have the opportunity to explore this better in one of my posts because I feel like it's a very important matter that needs to be addressed, but I can already say here that the gradual shift from "maybe it's better to not use the key at all" to "I have dreams, I have strange feelings but it's surely all in my head" to "I will try to follow Syaoran's advice and listen to my intuition more" to "I believe in my power and I will decide what to do now" was really amazing to witness. I feel like it's possible to see it more clearly if you re-read the story all at once. Also, Akiho and Kaito's story was absolutely *pivotal* to her emotional growth too, because someone like her, grown up in the blessing of a loving family and surrounded by kind people, touched for the first time what it means to grow up NOT having those things. Her empathy was the absolute protagonist, in this arc, which made her befriend Akiho almost immediately, as if she could feel that the girl needed friendship desperately. But it's also what made her understand the situation and try all of her best efforts to bring Kaito back for her and make both of them happy. She did also a good job at being more assertive with her loved ones, deciding what to do by herself.

Let's go answering to your questions!

1- Hahaha, EVERYONE is asking about that! No, it wasn't revealed! Either they want to keep this as a fun secret forever, or.....it'll be revealed somewhere else! To be honest, I don't even know if Yukito still got that pact with the Tsukimine Shrine. They absolutely remember about it, but since Kaito had undone that with the rewriting of the world (and Sakura gave her friends only their memories back, she couldn't do much about the discrepancies arised - see Akiho's room) my suspicion is that he's back being his normal self, with no actual contract and no price paid.

2- Not exactly, I think this is one of those things we have to infer by ourselves. Also keep in mind that, if I don't recall incorrectly, that phrasing was from the ENG translation. What I understood from the JP is that Yelan simply had a divination about Sakura, and you know how abstract and vague divinations can be....I choose to believe she only saw that Sakura would be distressed/unhappy by a loss of control over her powers (which is indeed the primary reason why Syaoran did what he did, along with Eriol, he didn't know anything about Kaito coming) and not something more specific. Yeah, I have the same feelings as you, about the YunaAki side of the finale! I really, really hope to see them again somewhere else....And I want to see their new life in the extra chapter, yes!! T_T

Yep, well noted! 😉 the Dreaming Card *really* represented Lilie and not Akiho like Sakura had guessed, the "Yumemi" Japanese name sets it in stone! 😉😆

#reply #clear card arc #card captor sakura #ccs spoilers

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ungirthed · 1 year ago

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want to make a place for my thots of anything with no viewers if i remember to come on here. i cant believe i keep having to make these since i end up getting followers and interacting. but i'm an adult with shit to do irl and things to fight and this fandom is almost 20y old so idt i will do that. lol. just finished atla like 20y too late cos my parents hated me and my bro watching tv growing up. journaling/blogging thots!!! ugh. i wish i didnt hve adhd and dyspraxia lmao gonna split them up so i dont get overwhelmed reading my bullshit. if u stumble upon this it doesnt make sense sry

politically a lot of critique that i have to think about. character and plot wise it was pretty good and tight esp for a kids show. amazing female characters. can't wait for the bi agenda from LoK but i may take a while for that. p much i have to say these are great characters and i could talk a lot about them but i'm shocked at what i took away with regards to the romantic rships from the show and the characterization via it.

re love lines:

i wish kataang was written better in the show (MY opinion if any1 stumbles upon this). i don't ~ship~ zutara bc i am an adult and even back then no cos who cares lol but i see the appeal and am attracted to that. i do think we have to retire the trope of the "both sides but falling in love" not because it isn't possible but because post 10/7 (free palestine) i don't think it's worth it to look at it this way anymore. until someone proves themselves not worthy of death because of the resistance fighting back then they NEED TO PROVE THEMSELVES IMMEDIATELY. no more of this i'm in a concentration camp but he's a nazi bullshit. no more i'm a slave but he's the slave master's son (i mean in this case u could have been related but no1 listens to me!) it's repetitive, reductive, and untrue.

that being said: i just never care about the typical bildungsroman love story. you see the One Person bc i guess the kids tasked with saving the world have to be monk-adjacent (in aang's case quite literally) bc understandably theyre so fucked up lol. but it's always sooooo boring to me esp if it's f/m.

katara is such a complex character and mae whitman brings a wisdom to her voice that can be frustrating to connect with for me but her character arc, her strength, her MIND, her heart, and her fists. i think ppl probs like zutara the most when shes' going batshit and no one can understand aang's perspective. but aang is one of a kind and the cutest smartest sweetest loser ever. not my fav char but i love him. he's like if i had a younger brother and not an older one lmao.

of course they're (kataang) together. they were meant to be from the moment they saw e/o and that stupid cave kiss...this is why you don't wait until 32 to watch this lol.

but nothing surprised me and it was meant to be the way it was written. that's also why i find it understandable but shocking people in the universe and apparently outside of it were surprised at aang's turmoil over ozai. like are you joking? he's a 12 year old vegetarian monk. which: i loved his vegetarianism and obviously he was going to be but very casually they put in a line that hints as to why he would be and why many of us are...so i am dedicated to it again.

so wrt that and zutara...the episode where he's with her with the dude that killed her moms and his support of her i can see why people like them. the cave ep obviously but this show is veryyyyy free with affection i noticed and there's some jealousy but they all get over that pretty quickly. i read some of the comics and i could see different rships happening and i definitely think this world lends to queerness (me personally i love monogamy but a certain type lol so not rly interested in much poly but i do like a throuple) but i could see most being bi+ or having identified as that in the past, or labeling themselves but nto limiting. that's just an aside for meee...

so like katara was being katara. i could see suki and zuko being romantic but also a deep friendship that could be deeply affectionate either affect or physically or both bc that's who these ppl are. katara is a very intense person and that's part of why she can be annoying. that's part of why they ALL can be overwhelming. theyre intense, traumatized, repressed kids and teens with mostly good hearts (or just a person so disconnected from herself but also a fascist so u know. her going nuts lol)

hmm what else oh yea. so i came away with maiko......gjpasig the show was paced and plotted well. i am a libertarian communist (anarcho-commie) so MANNNNN i wish they did better on that front but again i must remember i am 32, ancom, and the world is diff. but anyway lmao so team avatar is who i would want to spend time with but i got so interested in mai and ty lee (mailee...). that beach ep conversation was so good, that whole ep, their argument. it was extremely teenage and showed how fucked up they all are. how confused and fucking lost and pathetic. how small their lives are. how boring....so mai...

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minimujina · 2 years ago

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so. hear me out. scaramouche and nilou

maaaajor spoilers below, dont read if you dont know about scaramouche’s full lore and character arc and everything!!

i had this idea because you know how when he becomes wanderer (after losing his memories) and starts to work for that guy in the grand bazaar for free?? he HAD to have seen nilou perform before, i mean he must have right. and since he’s a completely different person from the big emo bastard scaramouche, i imagine that he would be so enchanted by her dancing that he might approach her after a show to tell her. he’s really sweet and just sort of floaty, ykyk how he was before he got his memories back. just a little guy :)

they would hit it off and stuff and maybe they’d go for a walk or something around the city or in a garden :) it would mostly be wanderer listening to nilou talk, since he cant remember anything about himself, and hes much more interested in her anyways. he finds himself really smitten anshjddhhd

i think that would probably be like their only interaction before he gets his memories back, but it was enough to spark a connection on both ends (especially since he told nilou jack shit about himself—she’s left wondering who the hell the guy with the big hat was lmao)

however, since he has now returned to being a bastard full-time, he tries to distance himself from nilou to protect her. he knows that if he saw her again and she realized he was a completely different person, he wouldn’t know what to do. there was too much to explain. he would feel so guilty not having an explanation if he accidentally said something rude or acted out of line. and in the end, he might just end up driving her away from him—which would be yet another loss of a person who is in some way special to him. and he’s not sure he’ll be able to endure that kind of pain all over again. what if she only liked the other version of him, and not this version, who was jaded and cynical and hurt?

auntie buer is not having any of that though lol—she quickly finds out he sort of might maybe like nilou (it wasnt that hard, he was literally thinking about her constantly. the thoughts of how to avoid her kept getting interrupted with fluttering admirations about her, how lovely she is, how sweet, how yadda yadda, and then he would get mad at himself and shake his head). and so nahida does some meddling (idk details theyre tbd) and BOOM confrontation ez clap

i could say more but. it runs off into a specific scene with details that arent necessary for this drabble post.

i thought of this last night and slapped some words onto a google doc before the inspiration slipped (it is quite literally an entire page of a block of nonstop words, there are no breaks whatsoever and its a mess😭) and i wanted to post a modified and much less aggressive key-smashing version of it to see if i can convert anyone to my rarepair agenda :-)

i might. might may maybe might write this story but i already have so many ideas i Cannot commit to and so many other things i should be focusing on. at the very least it will probably be a long time before i post it if i do end up writing it fyi—but this will definitely be in the back of my head

(so like. does. does anyone see what i see. does anyone else think this is cute. because im losing my mind thinking about these two in This specific scenario) (please let me know if this is cute or if i am delusional)

#i am quite literally in love with cylou but i mean. this👆👆👆👆👆👆👆this is some good shit to me #genshin impact #genshin impact drabbles #genshin drabbles #nilou #wanderer #scaramouche #kunikuzushi #nilou x wanderer #wanderlou #wanderer x nilou #scaramouche x nilou #genshin rarepair #mujimush #genshin writing #genshin x reader

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lollytea · 3 years ago

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Do you think any of Toh's characters will die? Like for example Hunter, Eda, Lilith or Raine

Honestly? No. I don't believe any of them are going to die. I'm almost certain of it. I mean, Belos is absolutely getting slaughtered and it's possible some side characters will be offed but characters like the main kids, Eda, Lilith and Raine, absolutely not. There is no way. Because I just don't think any of those deaths would be narratively satisfying.

There's a ton of reason why I don't think Eda will die, like how she's struggled through so much already. Her breakup with Raine, hurting her father, her estrangement from her sister. All direct results of her curse. But now? She has made great strides in embracing the owlbeast as a part of her, she's reunited with Raine, she's reconciled with Dell, she's adopted King as her son. Eda's arc has gradually branched out into a series of open paths, of things she had once lost finally being possible for her again. Like her story is not complete, its just finally turning in a more postive direction for her. Such a hopeful culmination of things is not gonna lead to her being killed off in the end.

Not to mention that Luz, Eda and King are the heart and soul of this show. It's always gonna come down to the three of them. So wouldn't it just feel wrong if, after everything they've been through together, they don't all come out of this alive? And if Eda dies, how would that effect them? Those kids would never ever be the same. That wouldn't feel right either, would it? A terrible ending for Eda is a terrible ending for them too because their stories are all intertwined. Like c'mon haven't they done ENOUGH to King? Now they gonna turn him into an orphan? Nah.

I suppose I could picture Lilith being the one to die but also I dont think she will. I'd find it a lot more tangible if it weren't for the season 1 finale. Lilith has already made her sacrifice, in sharing half the burden of Eda's curse. And then in Titan Where Art Thou, its shown that she's only now beginning to recognize the deep rooted effects of her cult indoctrination and the idea of therapy is tossed around.

Lilith is nowhere near full recovery. She still has so much left to learn. So I feel like the most logical and poignant ending for her would be to move on with her new historian life, begin to understand the extent of her trauma and learn to forgive herself, all while holding on to the consequence of her actions, as the owlbeast inside her will always be a reminder. Forgive but not forget. However, I do think Lilith will have an important role to play in the finale, probably for Eda's sake. I don't think Lilith will die but I'm pretty sure she's gonna put her life on the line.

There is so much about Raine that screams possible death, considering how they've dedicated themself to this rebellion and are willing to do anything to achieve their goal. Raine definitely has Selfless Hero Who Dies For A Cause vibes. But my main reason for believing that Raine will survive is like. You know Dana Terrace was treated like shit by Disney because of her efforts to include LGBT characters and relationships in her show, something that most likely led to them inevitably pulling the plug on it. So like. You really think she's gonna look at Raine, the first explicitly nonbinary character on Disney Channel and say "Yeah I'm gonna kill them." Get outta here. I absolutely do not believe in that "lgbt people should tell stories of lgbt characters having happy endings for the sake of being good representation." Idea at all. But like. In this case? It is a show for children. Raine's relationship with Eda is absolutely groundbreaking and I think Dana and the crew understand the impact a happy healthy bi trans relationship would be for kids to see.

Hunter? Like OH MY GOD. Hunter's death would be such godawful writing that I'm reeling just thinking about it. Remember the build up to Hollow Mind airing? Everyone was dreading it. We were SCARED because we knew what was going to happen. We knew Hunter was going to learn the truth. But like. Truthfully we were all shaking with excitement. We wanted this. We all knew that this was something Hunter needed to know, we understood that it was crucial to his story. And it absolutely tore everyone's heart out but it was a cathartic kind of tragedy, wasn't it? It wasn't just hurting Hunter for the hell of it. Hollow Mind meant something.

Would killing Hunter mean anything? Like anything at all? Ever since Hunting Palismen, it has been repeatedly established who Hunter is. A severely mistreated and brainwashed boy. But there was always so much hope for him. He was never perceived as a villain who needed a redemption arc, just an abused, love starved kid who needed someone to care about him. He has always wanted a future, he has always wanted to live.

What message would we learn from Hunter dying? That ultimately there was never any point in him attempting to escape his terrible life and build a new happy one from scratch because In the end, despite all his efforts to live, his abuser kills him? That Hunter was never supposed to break this violent cycle of grimwalkers and was always destined to meet the same fate? That his whole story was all for nothing? Man that sounds like an extremely shitty and cynical ending after everything he's gone through.

I think, at its core, Owl House has always been a story about family, hope, healing and deciding your own fate. All of the characters mentioned here have one or more of these themes woven into their arcs. I don't think killing any of them off would be in the spirit of what the show represents and I absolutely do not believe that TOH crew are going to take them away from us.

#watch mattholomule get shanked in cold blood this saturday and i look like a complete idiot

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unsympathetic-teach · 4 years ago

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[Image ID: Two screenshots from tumblr user “yiqiangmina.” The first says “PLEASE post the “fandom impacts canon” rant I’ve had similar feelings for quite awhile now. I hate how Thomas lets fans influence his characterization of Sides and how the writers room made it worse.”

The second reads “Because “Logan’s the mom” “Logan loves wine” and all came from the FANS. Which is also why i believe Logan’s “stop ignoring me” thing is becoming an actual arc.” /End ID]

These are my thoughts exactly!!

I feel like Thomas has always been pretty interactive with his fans, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Like,,cool,,,people could send asks to his blog..and it’s kind of apparent that he (or someone on the SaSi team) goes through tags and finds art (or like? there is some other process for the fanart shout outs that we are unaware of). On their own. And those aren’t necessarily terrible things? But combine it with the “writers room” and Joan, who I believe was the main writer for the series (or at least put a lot of love and time into writing good characters), it feels like the show is becoming a caricature of itself.

In the most recent episodes Roman has felt like his s1 self, Logan is becoming more and more like his fanon personality, hell, I even feel like Virgil is becoming very “uwu”-ified in the canon series. And it feels so abrupt! I was watching the most recent Aside and i was hit with whatever the fuck Roman was doing, because he felt so much louder and more annoying than I’d remembered him, and I couldn’t tell if it was a narrative choice, or maybe I was remembering him wrong? But now I realize it was probably just bad writing.

And I *so* agree that the whole “stop ignoring me” arc is coming from the fans. There really hasn’t been any build up to it in the canon series, and most of the emotions that Logan has been expressing in the most recent episodes felt like a completely fanon version of the canon character. Why is Logan suddenly so ok with being more openly emotional? Why does he suddenly feel upset about the others “ignoring” him when there are very few canon instances of that happening? What the fuck????

And I do think this comes from how Thomas and the rest of the crew interact with fans. I think that the way asks are open (or at least used to be open) on Thomas and Joans blogs influenced how the characters were written because the fans ideas about the characters were present in those asks. I think the “fan artist shout outs” are good in theory, but in practice looking through tags or whatever will definitely influence how Thomas/the team sees the characters. I *hate* the patreon choice and the “writers room” choice because there is no way in fucking hell that fans are not influencing the real fucking arcs in the canon series through that. I dislike that they can’t hire actual animators and instead rip off fans to animate their episodes, because, again, if they are interacting with those artists at all beyond a very formal and professional relationship, then those artists will influence the team.

And maybe I’m wrong!! I have No idea what happens behind the scenes of Sanders Sides, but recently the show has felt off. It has felt way too much like the fandom. I used to be able to watch the episodes and be slapped in the face with how different the fans view of the sides is compared to the actual canon personalities. Now it feels like it’s all muddled together, like Roman has become a bigger, louder, more egotistical asshole than his character in SvS and the first two asides felt (aka his most recent character development), how Virgil is becoming cuter and more palatable recently, how Janus is somehow completely forgiven by Thomas and Patton??? How Logan’s arc feels out of place, and how it feels like he’s saying lines lifted directly from fanfiction. I hate it!! It’s ruining the show for me!! Because i reallly dislike this fandom and how toxic it has gotten over time, and I dont like the see the fanon concepts of much more complex and interesting characters becoming the canon versions.

And again, I would like to stress that Thomas has always been very entrenched in the fandom. That his view of the characters is definitely somewhat influenced by that. And the recent choices with “writers room”, all the patreon bullshit, the dresses, and (in my opinion) the tiktoks have emphasized his involvement with fans and fandom, and that the recent narrative choices might reflect that.

Also i feel like Joan being gone will have a real affect on the show. I don’t know why. I just don’t really trust Thomas or the rest of the team at this point because of the animation shit, the time between episodes, the patreon, etc.

This is probably really hard to follow and I’m sorry i just,,, I dislikes the most recent episode so strongly and I have a lot of feelings lmao. (P.S lmk if the Image ID can be improved!!)

#augh im sorry this is long and kind of rambley and doesn't make a lot of sense but still #party rambles #thomas sanders criticism #ts criticism #please let me know if i need to tag anything else

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face-mechon · 27 days ago

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for every thought and take i have about higurashi fumbling its ending or themes, i find like a single digit number of people who even care or remembered that much about the story beyond the funny moments and characters. kinda makes me sad because my feeling that it fumbled something is a huge chunk of my preoccupation with it.

if higurashi had a "perfect ending" in ch 8, i wouldnt remember it as frequently as i do now, basically.

the final author's room is so humble and vulnerable and makes me soften up a bit. i dont have a screenshot of the exact line but theres a point where he concedes and says something like "I hope you at least found my story to be entertaining". when it was so much more than "just entertaining" to me.

he concedes some other things here as well. like "unfortunately that doesn't happen in reality... often times, working alone is a lot simpler" "in that sense, this world is a fantasy"

i still don't sufficiently give words to how this makes me feel. but it leaves me with a sad feeling, its almost a bit crushing. and thats okay.

people will say "if you want a better ending go read this, go look at this bonus content" "read this alternate ending" "read this bonus arc written by another person" and i just kinda give up on it at this point? im not interested in any bonus content actually. despite all my complaints about the story, it turns out i must not really want a different ending! which is definitely an odd thing for me to say! like, im satisfied with what i got because of this final blurb from the author. and i dont see people chasing more higurashi content becoming particularly satisfied either.

i think i just wanted the feeling that reading this final blurb from the author gave me.

the imperfections and "errors" i see in it remind that a human guy made it and poured his heart into pleasing his audience. and he graciously gives up his pieces in the end and says "take my setting, take my characters, take what i poured my heart into, and do what I couldnt". and depending on my mood, it brings me to tears to think about that. im not sure if i was sold on all of the messages in higurashi, but this heartfelt message at the end does something to me. it makes me want to believe in a miracle where he couldnt, or something like that. i dont know if i've read anything else that makes me feel like that.

it is hard to find anyone who has written anything substantive or interesting about higurashi in general. like the internet is flooded with completely uninteresting takes imo

#higurashi spoilers #ok also people who only watched the anime would not see this or know about this part right?

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jellyaibo · 3 years ago

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i want to hear ur thoughts abt object terror, you philosophor

so disclaimer i havent seen OT in fucking months so this insane ramble isnt gna be. the best but

object terror is one of the best worst fucking object shows ive ever seen, literally the PRIME example of some edgy kid trying to make an object show that isnt ur grandmas object show. no. this is the REAL shit and they say SLURS and theres BLOOD and GORE (yes im serious theres blood and gore and death but itsnot that bad, definitely a bit shocking if u didnt expect it to happen tho)

theres also shitty voice acting and terrible mic quality galore, EX: theres a fucking cup that had this dogshit mic for the longest fucking time and it deadass sounded like bro was talking into a washing machine ohmy god, i remember there was a clip of him going around on twitter a while ago cuz of this (i think that was my first time seeing anything from OT too so theres that)

OH and theres cactus, i barely remember anything abt him but he had this fucking emotionless voice that made me HYSTERICAL. there was a scene where someone got him pissed and he said "you take that back" with. absolutely no emotion at all and since then me and my friends keep fucking quoting that line cuz its the funniest fucking shit ever

btw that slur line i said earlier wasnt a joke, one of the characters straight up drops the R SLUR in the FIRST EPISODE (funnily enough, that character became the creators objectsona i think? ik they kinda used him as a mascot for a bit which is so fucking funny) tho i dont think they drop anymore slurs after that but dont take my word on it

anyways i gotta talk abt my favorite fucking part abt this fucking show before i get to. mint

THESE FUCKING CUNTS.

before i watched object terror i got fucking warned abt these two because there was a . homophobic scene w them or some shit and i had NO idea what it was for the longest time so i was really excited to see what object homophobia was gna be graced upon my faggotly eyes

and then theyjust. started making out randomly. LIKE OUTTA NOWHERE and there were other characters there that were gna try to attack/kill them? but then they saw them kissing and were like omg ewww boys (i think. the stuff that happens after this scene is kinda blurry tbh and im NOT gonna go back and watch the clip to see what happens ok. i REFUSE) and im sorry but thats the best fucking object show scene ever

AND LIKE? IDK? MAYBE ITS JUST ME BUT I DONT GET WHY I SAW PPL SAY THIS WAS HOMOPHOBIC???? i dunno maybe its just me but like these two just kissed while watching tv and eating chicken AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENED TO THEM!!! THEY LITERALLY WON IMMUNITY BY THE END OF THE EPISODE TOO. THEY WON. THE GAYS WON. and its so fucking funny to me bro object terror LOVES the gays

ok now i need to talk about mint im sorry i hate this fucking thing so much I NEED TO KILL HIM WITH A ROCK!!!! FFFUCK!!

hes literally just taco ii but 100x worse, i dont even like tacos evil arc or whatever cuz i always found her annoying BUT MINT IS SO MUCH WORSE

never in my. almost 2 years of watching object shows have i ever hated a character so fucking much LIKE GENUINELY THIS THING MAKES ME SO FRUSTRATED. hes just that. lol XD random character FOR THE WHOLE SERIES. just annoying and loud and does literally fucking nothing AND THE JOKES W HIM ARE SO FORCED I SWEAR THEY STOPPED . EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOING ON IN AN EPISODE JUST TO FOCUS ON THIS MOTHERFUCKER CUZ HE WAS GONNA DO SOMETHING FUNNY. im not mad that im missing out on some "juicy" object terror "lore" im just pissed that i have to see this fucking disgrace on my screen

oh and in the latest episode (as of now, the series isnt actually finished yet and i hope to god it never gets continued) SUDDENLY mint has a fucking arc THAT WAS NEVER FORESHADOWED AT ALL IN THE SERIES!! SO SUDDENLY HES A SMART GENIUS THAT COULD DO ANYTHING CUZ HE HAS MACHINES N SHIT AND A WHOLE ASS LABORATORY ??????? THEN HE FUCKING DIES

do you know how many fucking. mid and uninteresting characters we had to lose for him

DO YOU KNOW THE LOSSES I HAD TO DEAL WITH CUZ OF HIM

he lived for too fuckig long in this show dammit it pisses me off that he's even a character that exists . i blame him for being the reason why i hate joke characters (except david ily david bfdi)

i dont wanna talk abt him anymore im gonna

OK OK BUT. 1 more thing. smore

smore is this guy that they introduced later on in the series and hes a FUCKING. DEMON FROM HELL and i need him so bad actually

i think at some point he tries to . kill mint too so im literaly making out with him rn oh my god HES SO

im so mad hes in object terror IM GETTING YOU OUTTA THERE BABY ‼ ‼ 🗣🗣

honestly tho he was so cool im a little mad that they introduced him so late into the show CUZ WE ONLY SEE HIM FOR LIKE 2 EPISODES GRAHHHH RAAGHHHH babygirl

anyways thats it i feel like theres more but im not gonna wring out any more object terror knowledge from my brain i think that'll kill me

hope u enjoyed my insanity anon heres a loser . hope this heals you

#long post #seriously i mean it #dear god im not fucking normal #are u happy #ask

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anime-grimmy-art · 3 years ago

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In one of your recent posts, you mentioned a “tinkerbell au” what’s all that about?

Oh, yeah, Sunny, Fae and me talked about a fairy/tinkerbell AU, in which we made our gals into certain fairies. I think we made up, like, 3-4 different "movies" so Imma just ramble bout what I remember XD

Just so you know, I literally have zero knowledge about the Tinkerbell universe, so if some ideas sound inconsistent with the fairy lore, then just know that this is me retelling bits of a convo I only understood the context minimally. XD The idea was along the lines of the fairies living on an island and the twins shipwrecking onto that island. I dont remember if we added the Ingo amnesia bit too, but the bulk of the story is the twins discovering the fairy world while the gals help each twin find the other.

I don't remember if this was part of the same story or after this part, but basically Volo is the stand in for Captain Hook, and he's in search of some fairy artifact that lets him get close to Arceus or sth. Instead of threatening them, however, he plays nice and tries to win them over to willingly show him everything. Daki, being kind of discontent with her life, springs at the opportunity for things to just change and helps him out even though she knows he's suspicious. But she double crosses him in the end when she's convinced about the importance of family. Lani freaking sinks his ship and Volo vanishes into the jungle that is the island.

The last story I remember is a natural catastrophe happening and the island losing its magic due to some natural force dying/wilting. The fam goes on an adventure to find some magical artifacts/cures based on legends, but kind of hit a dead end. When all seems lost, they seek out Volo who's still somewhere in the jungle, as he has the knowledge needed to find a solution. Kind of a redemption arc for the man, ya know. By the end he hadnt joined the group yet but the animosity vanished and the're definitely on speaking terms. (daki definitely visits him a lot lol)

some other context stuff i remember Isla is a garden/flower fairy that is heavily involved with the community and knows most of the fairy lore. So in the stories she'd probably be the one to talk to if it was about legends/infos about the island. Lani is a water fairy that is way too strong for her own good, she can literally sink ships with her powers. Def the muscle of the group. Daki is a tinker fairy that desperately wants to be an animal(/pokemon) fairy, so next to her normal inventions she builts armor for the pokemon. You know, make a rideable set for Joltiks so she can ride on Toothpick, that kinda stuff. We also joked about her making the HMs and TMs for the pokemon to learn. Ingo and Emmet are exploreres who get shipwrecked on the island. They're really good with map reading and directions, so they'd always be the guides/leaders of the group that bring them from point A to B. I think we also did keep them as good pokemon trainers, so they can interact well with the pokemon of the pokemon fairies. Volo, as said, is the stand in for Captain Hook / a pirate. He's on the search for magical artifact so he can potentially open a door to Arceus. So, like in pla, he's very knowledgable about myths, legends and runes. He'd be able to give more context to the fairy legends that Isla know about. Yeaaah, I think that's all. Just a lot of ideas thrown around, nothing concrete, but hope these ideas were still interesting to read!

#ask #pokemon legends arceus #submas #au #tinkerbell au #fairy au #rambling

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hollywoodbabylondean · 4 years ago

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Cole was a last minute addition because Dabb wanted to write the Claire reintroduction and the writers knew a villainous woman with a redemption arc wouldn't fly PROOFS:

Everything about coles story is lazy. Especially for a season opener as anticipated as demon Dean

We never know what monster coles dad became, even Dean admits he'd never seen anything like it before or since

The family who has 2 lines tops is clumsily added so he has some scraps of humanity inside him

The speech in 10.07 "I know how my story ends its at the end of a blade or the barrel of a gun". Remember that.

We dont.... really know how Cole gets these sources or how someone as allegedly talented as Cole can find Sam as quickly when he did when it was Dean he knows and was looking for.

Let's put coles part of season 10 up until the things they carried in the position of Claire, okay?

Claire has a much more valid and established backstory about wanting to hunt Sam and Dean. Because. We actually saw it happen.

Wanting to kill Sam is much more valid for Claire. After all. She watched him drink the blood of a demon inhabiting the body of a community member when she was a child.

Also, because of what we learn about how lasting an impression angelic possession leaves on a host, especially presumably children, Claire would DEFINITELY have a lot of feelings because his resurrection is the thing that took her father away

We don't know how coles tracking method works, but Claire is a natural born hunter. She was able to find her mother who had been missing for years using nothing but postcards and a journal that found her in foster homes. She's really good at escaping law enforcement and social workers. Finding Sam when he's been putting his mug all over for 6 weeks? Not all that shocking.

Also the tracking from the end of season 9 until things come to a head in 10.07 could be the "6 months" Claire ran away mentioned in 10.09

It's not hard to make Claire a sympathetic character acting out of trauma and desperation. She's a teenage girl. No phone call with family needed.

Sam and Dean are awful comfortable trying to reach out to Claire for only having met her 5 minutes 5 years ago

Cole turning up in 10.07 would be a MUCH better twist if it was Claire, because Dean would be thinking "oh, this kid has been working for rowena", because as a desperate, poor, teenage girl with knowledge of the supernatural, she fits rowenas MO for targets

Cas starts looking up Jimmy's family in 10.07, during the subplot of Hannah's vessel. It would. Be delicious and fucked up if that was the thing hunting Dean as it happened.

10.09 can happen exactly the same.

Now back to Dean's speech to Cole in 10.07. "I know how my story ends. It's at the end of a knife or barrel of a gun". Dean. He gives that same speech to Claire in 10.20. He looks at the sword, tells her that it's not a long life.

In conclusion:

I have fixed the first half of season 10.

#claire novak #dean winchester #castiel #claire and dean

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justiceleaque · 4 years ago

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Hey Leaque! I know you watched the new Justice League movie and I was around when you were doing the very first DC movie reviews back in the day. I would absolutely love a review of this one if you have the time :)

i've been a fan of Snyder's universe from day 1 so i understand this might be considered an off-balance review already, but i want to note that i didn't come in wanting the film to be good or willing to see it as good despite actual impressions. i wanted to watch it as the Justice League movie i was supposed to get back in 2017, the same one i was willing to not watch for years if it meant Zack Snyder got to finish his vision even later down the line

i was actually as neutral as i could possibly get because at this point i don't have any real emotional involvement in whether this version of the DCEU continues or not. WB execs have done some fucked up things with the treatment of the cast/ray fisher, so i take this as Snyder's DC trilogy and nothing more (which makes it bittersweet for me but that's a different topic)

heavy spoilers follow

it's incredibly comic book-like. i remember typing the exact same words back in the Dawn of Justice days: it doesn't read as a superhero film a la Marvel but as a comic book film. each frame could be a realistically painted comic book frame; the dialogues would fit freakishly well if they had to fit speech bubbles. the damn scene overlaps and changes are heavily reminiscent of a comic book. better yet: of a Justice League comic book. if you’re familiar with comic book events where big things happen and it affects everyone, this is how this reads

it’s a heavy film but it’s not hopeless. i’ve been seeing reviews pop-up already: “ZS’s Justice League film is twice as longe and twice as hopeless” is the maybe verbatim title of most articles. the one thing i kept thinking throughout these four hours is how much hope this is filled with. we’re dealing with a post-superman world that was shaken by the loss of a beloved superhero and you see batman, the #1 comic book superhero known for brooding and darkness and all things sad and bad, be the loudest, most hopeful person in the film, trying to get a team together to save the world, and later on being two steps from literally screaming that bringing back superman is what should happen no matter the cost because of his faith and hope in winning. did we watch the same film?

in the same vein, the 4 hours seem like a stretch until you realize each part has an actual purpose that introduces or ties in important aspects related to the film’s one purpose: take down Steppenwolf and Darkseid. i don’t believe any scene was wasted on useless information. it can get tiring in the way watching a shot tv series gets tiring: it does NOT get boring at any point

such wonderful character arcs. seeing each of the team’s personalities and quirks, the way they clash with each other, the way it makes it all work so goddamn beautifully. the way they click because they just keep interacting so much? Whedon’s cut didn’t give me a team, it gave me five different people in costume that were forced to sort of work in the same vicinity as each other. Snyder’s cut gave me a version of the Justice League that worked so flawlessly together by the end of the film it felt like a dance. felt like comic book page spreads

right before the epilogue they all pose together in the rising dawn, clark included, having won. super reminiscent of the JL cartoon intro. i cried a bit

J’ONN J’ONZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO YOU KNOW THE AMOUNT OF SPECULATION ABOUT GENERAL SWANWICK BEING THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER BACK WHEN MAN OF STEEL WAS RELEASED???? VINDICATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

listen to me. i need to make this clear. listen. j’onn. j’onny boy. the way he’s designed and cgi’d..........the adorable frown............the kind smile......................his obvious need to make others feel better and to simply help......................i love him

his interaction with bruce only comes in the end and it’s super brief but seeing those two still not know how the hell each other works even in film format is hilarious. bruce having accepted aliens and magic and shit is the new norm after like 20 years of only having to deal with the joker attempting to rob neon green hair dyes or some shit is so much bigger of a character development than i ever expected, especially coming from BvS where he’s just a stupid fat-bat-carrying onion

i wasn’t a big fan of Suicide Squad’s joker portrayal but we get to see him at the end of the film while we’re seeing a possible future where lois lane has died and superman is best friends with darkseid playing tic-tac-antilife equation. Snyder somehow managed to turn jared leto into a disgustingly legit comic-faithful joker. dont’ ask me how

in the same scene they mention jason and his death

: - (

we see a few bits of some green lanterns in some scenes, one from the past and one from a possible ultra dark and edgy darkseid future. still convinced bruce simply willingly did not go looking for hal, which, fair

they cut out the fish joke bruce tells arthur when they first meet which immediately turns the whole film into a 1/10 for me

ben affleck’s bruce wayne and batman continue being my favorite on-screen batman iteration to date. we finally move from the usual dark lone soldier version Hollywood is relentlessly giving us into one that belongs with the Justice League. incredibly heartwarming to see

there’s a scene when the JL are first assaulting Steppenwolf’s base and they’re all fighting parademons and shit and there’s a moment where you see batman fighting the Space SWAT From Hell alone and the way he moves? the way he flows from one position to another and another like i’m watching a damn comic book animation????????? sir????????????????????

barry allen saved them

like, literally, barry allen saved them. superman was back and everyone was ready to dance one final time and they were all going ‘steppenwolf fucking SUCKS’ and steppenwolf was crying to darkseid and then the motherboxes did their thing and they all were obliterated into star dust and then barry allen was like ‘bitch i told you i need FRIENDS’ and turned back time and now they’re all okay again :o)

darkseid @ batman through his magic spacetime portal: i’m gonna get your ass one day soon and take you back in time and you’re gonna eventually bring about the end of the world by having every dark twisted batman invade your universe because you inspired them

batman:

batman: i haven’t read Rebirth bro

i know i’m forgetting stuff but that’s the gist. hands down one of the best comic book film experiences i’ve ever had. with an aside to barry allen being more of a mix of barry and wally, everyone feels incredibly faithful to the source material. also batman definitely killed like, at least 400 parademons in one night, but pest control doesn’t count

(like. he straight up obliterates them)

(pulls out a batbazuka on them)

(amazing)

#Anonymous #asks #zack snyder's justice league #zack snyder's justice league spoilers #JL spoilers #justice league spoilers #/ long post

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