#an example of perfect casting

[loveisactivated]

JAONINE JIRAPHAT as LATTE

[seraph-noodle]

Apollo Geist was introduced in episode 9 of X Rider and blew up (for the first time) in episode 14 but his screen presence was so strong I legit thought he had been there since the beginning

[theangryhistoriananna]

The amount of hate Lucien Vanserra gets for being interested in getting to know the person his fucking omnipotent god decided was his perfect match is fucking wild to me.

Like yall want this man to be evil so bad and he's literally just trying to figure out who he is now that everything he thought he was is crumbling under his feet. He's literally coming through again and again for Feyre and her friends despite going through a goddamned identity crisis that's lasted like four books at this point. Yall want this man to be evil and he's only ever been described by literally everyone as "loyal" and "a good male" and "not evil". Yall want this man to be evil and he was willing to die/be tortured to protect Feyre ALONE at least three times.

But because this man was given a mate-something he's been raised his whole life to revere and dream about and want-and he is interested in *checks notes* getting to know her, he's now evil. He's now going to go against five books of character development and become a betrayer and/or unreasonably violent?

Like if you don't ship them that's absolutely fine. I think the concept of them not having romantic feelings and navigating the bond on a purely platonic sense is interesting (though I don't think it's gonna happen given Sarah J Maas' track record) and is something that could make for an interesting story but like......I'm sorry but bending backwards to try and paint Lucien as EVIL????

Have we read the same books?

[rings-of-power-realm]

Thank you Robert Aramayo for being a better person than the entire internet. It was a beautiful scene and you and Morfydd handled it perfectly 💚

[shannonsketches]

I was already not a fan of what funi/Chris did with Vegeta both script and voice acting wise, but after reading your posts I straight up really dislike it T_T. And I grow dejected thinking most people in western hemisphere have not grown up with Ryo's Z Vegeta, who's just something else entirely. Like his voice is smooooth, regal, his delivery calm, nuanced, theatrical. This man ACTS. I'd even say that Vegeta sounds subtly effeminate in his inner dialogue, none of this forced macho dying of lung cancer that Chris did. (But to be fair Chris' natural voice is nice! Just wish he used it instead of what was probably an attempt to emulate Brian Drummond after the dub switch).

Sabbat is the Vegeta I grew up with and he’ll always have a soft spot in my heart, but Horikawa was such an immediate improvement even though I met his Vegeta later. And there’s a lot I love about the choices that were made! But the difference in how the characters are handled is super hard to unsee (or unhear, rather).

As I’ve learned more about animation and production, it’s something that I do recognize as not a sub vs dub problem in terms of acting skill and ability, it’s an issue of American animation being dedicated to talking down to kids. I complain a lot about how corporate meddling is fucking the animation industry in the US, but fr the reason a lot of teens start to prefer subs is generally because English dubs are intentionally over the top and cartoony and playing to children, even if the original series is Not.

The trend for US voice acting is very Loud and Theatrical and based on old American cartoons (see: the original voice actor for James from Pokémon basing his voice on Snagglepuss) while other dubs tend to play animation with more nuance (even though they are still more exaggerated than live-action film speaking would be). A lot of our animation here is primarily geared toward selling toys to kids, which results in GI Joe-esque overacting. One of the reasons Optimus Prime’s voice actor famously cites for why he got the role and retains it to this day is because his military veteran brother advised him to play a hero as earnest and grounded, so he did that instead of talking like a vaudeville clown cueing up a pie to the face, which is how a lot of voice directing encourages VAs to dub American versions of cartoons.

So while there are also definitely the cultural differences in gag translation and things, it’s also very largely a matter of US companies wanting to make every piece of animation A Cartoon, a big loud bright thing for small kids to instantly recognize. The difference is even crazier if you have a jpn dub and an eng dub in the background and can just listen to it without the visuals. The American version of everything is so Loud, especially when it comes to anything with an emphasis on action.

I do think that Ryo’s more subtle characterization for Vegeta made the transition to acting for Toriyama’s Vegeta much smoother for the newer DB works. Chris has been playing him so boisterous for so long (to the point that he, as previously mentioned, started adding in his own contentious dialogue for his version) that I have a hard time reconciling his voice with Toriyama’s characterization. Part of why I say that Lanipator’s my actual favorite VA for the Eng dub was because his Vegeta did the big obnoxious thing but had the flexibility of working on a parody to do much more organic deliveries of much more naturalistic dialogue, even while using the cartoonier voice.

All this to say, American dubs are intentionally very Saturday Morning Toon Jam instead of like, stage acting that just happens to be for animation, which seems to be more true of international and independent US animation voice acting.

[adragonsfriend]

"If Anakin had just been able to be open about his family..."

Frankly, if Anakin and Padme had been open about their relationship during the war they would've been that couple that everyone knows is pretty but dysfunctional, and whom no one wanted to invite to parties because of the risk of Anakin publicly trying to get into fights.

Don't get me wrong at all I think Anakin and Padme have the potential to be a good couple that that good for them and the people around him, I love the ship in general (even and sometimes especially for the fact that it's a messy one), I think they're characters with great chemistry and enough overlapping values to work together. That said:

We need to stop with the idea that openly having a family (while simultaneously being a Jedi or not) would've automatically fixed a single one of Anakin's issues.

This is going to get spicy and not be as well written as my usual kind of post, cause I'm tired of this idea. Fight me if you wish (but before you do, think really hard about whether this post is actually mad at you or if it's talking about someone else).

If you're familiar, Jane Austen put it best in Sense & Sensibility in this conversation where Elinor (the main heroine) and Marianne (her sister) discuss Willoughby (the man who played Marianne, unwittingly actually fell for her, then left anyway when an opportunity to marry rich came along, and afterwards came to confess than he was miserable despite his new wealth and now believed he would've been happier if he'd married Marianne and been comparatively poor),

Marianne's lips quivered, and she repeated the word, "Selfish?" In a tone that implied, Do you really think him selfish? "The whole of [Willoughby's] behavior," replied Elenor, "From the beginning to the end of the affair has been grounded is selfishness. It was selfishness which first made him sport with your affections (he intended to play Marianne), which afterwards when his own were engaged made him delay the confession of it (he didn't tell Marianne he actually fell for her when he had the opportunity), and which finally carried him from Barton (he left her when the opportunity to marry rich appeared). His own enjoyment, or, his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle." "It is very true. My happiness never was his object." [said Marianne] "At present," continued Elinor, "He regrets what he has done, and why does he regret it? Because he finds it has not answered towards himself. It has not made him happy. His circumstances are now unembarrassed (he's rich now), he suffers from no evil of that kind, and he thinks only that he has married a woman of a less amiable temper than yourself (he doesn't like his new rich wife). But, does it follow, that that had he married you, he would have been happy? The inconveniences would have been different. He would then have suffered under the pecuniary distresses, which because they are removed he now reckons as nothing. He would've had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint, but he would've been always necessitous, always poor. And probably would soon have learnt to rank the innumerable comforts of a clear estate and good income as of far more importance, even to domestic happiness, than the mere temper of a wife." --Chapter 47

(Please excuse any mistakes in the quote, I was typing it out from listening to the audiobook)

Point being, circumstances do not automatically change people. We largely create our own realities and our dissatisfactions with those realities. A greedy person who refuses to change themself will be dissatisfied no matter what they gain in life.

And Anakin is greedy when is comes to his relationships. Not for money, but the way he wants people to make him feel. It's the whole arc of his character over the prequels and the originals. He learns to love selflessly from Luke, right at the end of his life. It's so important. It's the most important moment in the whole of Starwars, and to claim that Anakin was loving well before that moment diminishes it. Anakin's love for Padme did exist, and it had its good moments, but it was not selfless or giving like his love for Luke became in that moment.

Being open about his relationship with Padme would not have changed that quality of it. Openly having kids would not have changed the qualities in him.

Could he have found the people and time and motivation to face and deal with his issues while having a family, especially if the war somehow ended? Of course.

But having bio kids wouldn't've fixed him any more than having a padawan did. Being with Padme openly wouldn't've resolved the fact that she has a job she cares about , and is a full person who can't cater to his feelings all the time. ("Nothing matters more to me than the way you make me feel.")

Side note, but the utter hypocrisy of criticizing Yoda for assigning him a padawan and then turning around and saying, "but if he'd just not had to hide that he was having kids..." is wild. A knight raising a padawan is going to get a so much communal help and oversight from the community around them (as we see in clone wars), as oppose to a parent in a nuclear family format. If Anakin was "too young and totally unprepared for a padawan," and "Yoda shouldn't've done that," then Anakin was infinitely less prepared to be responsible for actual infants.

The only way being able to be open about his marriage would've helped him is that someone outside the relationship might've tried to step in and been like "please get help." And frankly, that's not actually anyone outside the relationship's responsibility to do. Also, Anakin displays plenty of red flags that have literally nothing to do with his relationship with Padme that people advise him to deal with, which he does not deal with.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Anakin could've left the Jedi. He was free to put down his laser sword and have the househusband arc he deserved at literally any point. And frankly, if his ONLY two options (and this is absolutely a false dichotomy) were commit mass murder or "fail" his duty to the Republic by retiring, I think we can all say which of those is better--both for the Republic and, for Anakin's soul or whatever.

When Ahsoka lost faith in the Jedi she was brave enough to make the decision to leave and find her own path. She left and discovered she still wanted to help people, just in other ways. Literally no one (in world or fans) considered her a failure for opting out of being a soldier in the war. Anakin could've done the same, and it was only his own ideas about status and attachment and violence (and yeah some genuine sense of duty too) that stopped him from doing so. In fact, he is the one to yell at Ahsoka that "The Jedi are your life!" Because he wants her to stay in his life.

Romantic relationships don't fix people.

Becoming a parent doesn't fix people.

People can fix themselves. When they do, it's often partly so they can be better to the people in their lives, be those spouses, friends, children, whatever--but the relationships themselves, the presence of those people in and of itself, is not what does the fixing.

It's effort. The genuine effort to act better. To follow their best impulses over their worst. To take themselves out of risky situations. To build good habits.

The idea that Anakin had to have a spouse, or had to have children in his life either to be happy or to not murder people is Hollywood and/or Sith propaganda, and we should treat it no differently than any other, "her magical vagina will cure him of his issues," or, "let's have kids to save our shitty suburban marriage," narrative.

[theglassesgirl]

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13th NEPHRITE DIES TODAY!!

This isn’t a hate post btw I love this episode to BITS and am glad I can finally liveblog about it lol

It’s so masterfully done. From Naru’s confusion and desperation of being in love with someone everyone is saying is a bad person to trying to help him with nothing but her honesty and effort

If I HAD watched sailormoon utterly devoid of spoilers, I would have absolutely been convinced that Naru could’ve possibly been the moon princess, if only in the red herring sense:

Naru is genuinely so selfless and pure that the Dark Crystal reacts to the sincerity of her love. She has this tragic love w one of the villains, and even when everyone doesn’t THINK she should be able to be of any use to him, her first impulse is always to help Nephrite despite the odds, and she usually pulls it off. She even almost got the thorns out before everything went to shit (and in shows like WITCH, I feel like she inspired the side character friend having a power moment, because you almost expect Naru to succeed for a minute before Nephrite has to sacrifice himself)

Nephrite is my favorite. It’s very obvious that to him, he’s still very much unattached. But Zoicite knows he’s being honest even if it’s not to himself. It’s suuuuuch a classic and staple romance trope 😩😩 if you’re not introduced to it here, idk what to tell you, I’ve never watched another anime that does it as simply yet poignantly as sailor moon did 🌙

[deer-with-a-stick]

if netflix makes Luo Ji non-chinese I'm going to throw myself off a fucking cliff

[misfitmiska]

Some authors really be creating individual characters who are SO made for each other (wether platonically or romantically) in every single conceivable way and then just forget to make them interact smh…

[pantestudines]

No one should care but ive been thinking about it and my take is that the root of the walrus/fairy question is one specific word used by the original poll: "surprised". The question is not which would change your worldview or which is more/less possible to really happen. The question is which *surprises* you more. To me, this means which causes a stronger immediate surprise reaction in you upon opening that door. In essence, how bad do you flinch?

This, to me, is why so many people (including myself!) choose Walrus. A walrus is an immediate situation! That's an animal larger and stronger than you are, one that I would say is potentially very dangerous, that many people have never seen in real life. And now it's your responsibility and on your doorstep! A walrus on a doorstep is a novel idea, at least to me. I don't think I've ever had an animal just appear at my door, and certainly never knock. Sure, after the gut reaction dies down, the mundanity of the situation is certain; a walrus is a real animal and the perpetrator is likely nearby, laughing at the world's weirdest ding-dong ditch prank. But for a few seconds, it's just you, your expectations upon opening a door, and a pinniped of unusual size.

Now let's examine the fairy; The term can be vague, but I think most people imagine a generally humanoid but very small creature with insect wings. First off, by being small, the fairy will likely not trigger a defensive response, unlike the walrus. This thing is not an immediate threat, at least to your subconcious. Also, by being humanoid, usually with a very human face and features, this changes the situation from "strange beast on my doorstep" to "strange person on my doorstep". Obviously this may be different from person to person, but I think "strange small person on my doorstep" would illicite much weaker response from my flight or fight reflex than a large, strange animal. This is nothing to say about the familiarity most people have with fantasy and fantasy ideas, and the lack of familiarity most people have with walrus' in general, but I think those are also factors.

[chaos-burst]

think i'll write molly/essek hades au for the au roulette

[couldtheycatchkillerqueen]

Regarding the recent post:

Killer Queen is too short ranged of a stand to affect most sleuths and it's not in Kira's character to drop Sheer Heart Attack at the police departament and hope.

Kira generally doesn't have many ways to deal with characters that: Work in teams. Work from far away. Have any sort of records showing that they're invastigating him.

The man had to be bailed out by Bites the Dust and still lost Most sleuths wouldn't even let Kira get away for long enough for him to aquire Bites the Dust so that's not even something to consider in most of these cases.

{But you're really ignoring one thing: It can't be detected by anyone but Stand Users. Why would they think they needed to investigate Yoshikage Kira specifically? There's no evidence of the killings, since in canon, even the police didn't try to investigate the mysterious disappearances. The sleuths would mostly not be able to understand that Killer Queen exists, and even if they assumed it was something supernatural, there's still no evidence. And the man managed to impersonate another man in front of his family, landlord, coworkers, and everyone who may have talked to Kosaku on the street, with only the man's child catching on. Had Hayato never thought to set up a camera in his parents' room, Kira would have never been caught at all. And Kira doing poorly against teams of people investigating him doesn't line up when he's gotten away from them twice (he would have escaped Jotaro and Koichi were it not for Act III, and he did escape the entire Duwang Gang when they were chasing him by severing his own hand), plus managing to keep his identity secret from EVERYONE except Hayato until the kid figured out how to use the time-loop to his advantage. You're right that most of the time Killer Queen wouldn't get to Bites the Dust, but it would be because Kira wouldn't need to. He has eliminated people in broad daylight before, and he could do so again when against someone who can't see Stands.}

[angee1011]

The thing is , ATLA live action is like…an approximation of what the story is actually supposed to be.

There are elements that good, even really good, but it leaves you feeling hollow because it’s missing the heart of what ATLA is about. It’s a delicate balancing act between tragedy and comedy, underscored with hope.

The live action is sort of reminiscent of Ember Island players because it’s trying to be as -real- as it can be but doesn’t delve into deeper meaning.

To me, it felt like they wrote the story with thinking about the end too much. They were too wrapped up in how these characters end up, how the story ends. They overlooked how raw, how unpolished it was at the beginning.

[baasthasthezoomies]

The Substance

Feel the need to talk about this. Unsure how to do so.

First, Demi Moore went for it. I mean damn.

Would place this into the same category as Love Lies Bleeding—HEAR ME OUT!—where the first half, brilliant setup. Third quarter you start to wonder if it’s going in the right direction. By the end—if you’re open to getting weird with it—you are on a RIDE.

Loved it. Great time. See it in the theater.

[echo-bouquet]

Okay, so the one time I'm not really trying I actually draw a decent piece of artwork? Fine, be that way.

Anywho, meet Ash of Blue Maiden, one of the many Links from my still-as-of-yet-unnamed-AU. One of the first I designed and finished, and one of my favorites to play around with.

(Also I don't consider this drawing to be a good rep of his personality, this was just the best drawing I made so far)

[maybe-boys-do-love]

There's been a lot of discourse comparing My School President and My Love Mix-Up Thailand, but i think more people need to acknowledge that the biggest difference is actually being a loser in high school as a stoner vs. a dork