#it has a lot of twists and goes in a direction you don't really expect

[hiddenobject-fanblog]

I've been reading some old reviews on the Big Fish Games site for Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome, and I found a few recurring points that I...disagree with?

A common complaint was that (spoilers ahead, here) the protagonist loses to the villain, and people want to play games that have 'good endings', and not 'disappointments'. Call me a Villain Sympathizer or whatever (because I am), but I find it's much rarer to have a story where the villain actually wins, and to see that in a Hidden Object game of all things is extremely hard to come by.

-There is a plot hole worth mentioning in Oscar's framing of Sam that's been pointed out before -- the fact that Sam is actively carrying and using a voice recorder on his person, which you can revisit all of Oscar's dialogue with. All he would have to do is play the recordings to the authorities where Oscar confesses to the crimes, and he would be free to go, wouldn't he?

...Still, I love the surprise ending where Oscar frames Sam and succeeds in doing it. It's a complete turnaround from typical HOPAs where you're the hero and you effortlessly save a town/people/etc. But in Dorian Gray Syndrome, you get to see the protagonist face an unjustly ending despite doing everything right. It really is a 'Villain wins in the end' story, and I wish there were more like it, just to break from the usual story cliches of Hidden Object games.

[iamthatonefangirl]

So I’m not completely sure how requests work but I NEED a fic where the reader like gets into an argument with the winter soldier about something small or big like how he never opens up to her (whatever you prefer) and then some HATE sex after (not really hate just frustrated yk)

disconnect - nsfw winter soldier

I received a few asks that inspired me to develop a story combining them. this is my interpretation of them.

pre-established relationship. if you're new here, there's a mention of a prior event.

disclaimer: fully consensual by both parties although not explicitly stated. dark/sad themes, similar to depictions of depression. read at your own discretion.

~~~

it's stupid, really.

the mud boot tracks all over the entryway when you get home. the huge disaster area the kitchen is.

is it really that difficult to not leave a mess everywhere?

you make your way to the bedroom and drop your bag somewhere on the floor, sitting on the edge of the bed to chuck off your shoes and jacket.

you sit there for a moment, head buried in your hands.

the weight of your situation gets to you more often than not. a lot of those thoughts in your head go unsaid for a number of reasons, particularly because he doesn't have the emotional capacity to care, in your opinion.

is this really the life you thought you'd end up living?

if you wanted to quit working, you could. he brings in more than plenty.

and you'd never have to worry about being sexually frustrated a day in your life.

is that really the sum total of your relationship?

you let out a sigh.

you feel stuck.

~~~

he comes into the bedroom ten minutes later, fresh out of the shower, covered in water from head to toe minus the towel wrapped around his waist.

he goes straight for the bed, lying down on the fresh sheets, soaking them.

"seriously?" you ask, looking up at him, exasperated at this point.

he tilts his head in your direction and gives you a blank stare as though he has no clue what you're talking about.

you take a deep breath and shove down your anger. he's been gone for a week, cut him some slack, you tell yourself.

"everything go okay?" you ask.

you don't want to know the gory details, and he wouldn't tell you, anyways. his face contorts, giving you a disgusted look as though you're crazy for even asking.

he proceeds to shove his hands behind his head, closing his eyes to get some rest.

another deep breath.

"are you hungry?" you offer. the mess in the kitchen tells you that he's not, but you're seriously trying here.

he lets out a low grunt, which you take to mean 'no.'

"can you stay awake for five minutes to fucking talk to me?" you say, anger rising in your chest as you struggle to keep your head straight.

"not talking to you about work," he grumbles, not even opening his eyes.

"clearly, you're not talking to me at all! fuck, I mean, when do you ever?" you yell, standing and walking over to the side of the bed next to where he's laying.

in your anger, you grab his arm and roughly yank it out from under his head, surprising him. his eyes shoot open and he glares up at you as though you've just personally offended him.

"you never fucking talk to me! I- I don't even know if you like me! it's like you just live in my apartment so you can fuck me whenever you want!" you yell at him. your emotions are getting the better of you, your insecurities and your anger twisting in your head. you're completely helpless to stop your mouth from speaking them into reality.

not a word in response. his face is completely devoid of any emotion.

"I don't even know why I expect anything different from you," you scoff. "you're a heartless motherfucker. you don't even care about me."

you feel so empty inside. all the sacrifices you've made, all the times you've cried over the fact that you can't just be normal, all because of what he does for a living, who he is.

all while having to stomach the nausea of simply knowing why you have to keep him a secret.

it's too much to deal with anymore.

he watches as you drag an empty duffel bag out of the closet and begin throwing various items of clothing inside it. it takes a few moments, but it finally clicks in his head: you're leaving. and he doesn't know when, or if, you'll be back.

he stands, grabbing your arm as carefully as he can, stopping you from continuing to pack. "no. stay," he tells you. he sounds so calm, his voice is void of its usual sternness.

he's only calm because he's panicking inside.

you take his calm demeanor to mean that he genuinely does not give a fuck.

"get off me. I'm leaving," you tell him, pulling your arm away from his grasp. that's all you can say, because that's all you know right now. you have no plans for where you're going or when you're coming back.

if you're coming back.

you shove a few more things in your bag as your eyes tear up.

what has your life come to?

~~~

the door slams behind you on your way out, shaking the whole apartment. eerie silence follows.

no sounds of pans clattering in the kitchen. no music blaring while you shower. no keyboard clicking while you work. no more of your laughing as you watch videos on your phone.

no more you.

all there is is dead silence.

he used to live in the silence. he took comfort in it; he'd be able to hear a threat coming from a mile away as long as he lived in the silence. it was his way of protection, his entire way of life.

it doesn't have that comforting effect anymore.

because now?

he's alone.

now, alone, in the silence he once reveled in, he roams the apartment in contemplation. he sees everything he didn't see before.

the mess he left everywhere, destroying the effort you put in every day to keep a tidy home.

but more importantly? he sees the disconnect. the stark contrast between your carefulness and his tendency to act as a bull in a china shop opens his eyes to reality.

he always saw you as a team.

but now?

he realizes that you're not.

you're normal. he isn't.

he never could be.

~~~

your best bet for now is to go to a friend's place, you think. you sob your eyes out as you sit in the driver's seat of your car, and you come up with a lie that's at least semi-believable.

you take a few deep breaths as you click her contact on speed-dial.

"hey, so you'll never believe my luck," you begin, trying to hide your sniffling from the microphone. "my building is infested with rats. I don't know how long it'll be until they've dealt with it. at least a week, probably. do you think I could spend a few nights at your place?"

your voice is choppy as you speak, and it's clear you've been crying, but she doesn't question it. she gives you the 'okay' to come over, and you hang up quickly before the tears start again.

that's how you end up sleeping on her couch that night, sobbing silently into your hoodie as you try to determine what the hell you're supposed to do now.

for so long, you've put up with his bullshit, kept his secret, kept your mouth shut, all for one reason: you love him.

but he's not capable of loving anyone.

~~~

for a while, the feeling of isolation doesn't bother him. all he feels is indifference.

yet as he finally cleans up after himself, the ache in his chest begins. he almost wonders if he's having a heart attack; he's never felt this before.

yes, he has.

he freezes in place, the memory coming to him. he injured you, once, purely by accident. that's when he's felt this helplessness, this emptiness, this deep-seated pain in his chest.

guilt?

he's not sure.

he kneels on the cold hard tile of the entryway, not bothering to put on longer pants or a towel to protect his knees as he wipes up the mud he tracked inside. he doesn't deserve that comfort.

he lays in bed alone that night, mind empty. sleep never finds him.

the following morning, before the sun has risen, he makes a decision.

he opens his bank account and navigates to the most recent transfer, forwarding it back to the sender with one message: deal's off. busy.

~~~

the next morning, you wake up, still feeling terribly nauseous. you look in the bathroom mirror to find your eyes are puffy and bloodshot from crying.

you never should've gotten involved with a cold-hearted killer.

every bone in your body is saying to leave. get out of New York, quit your job, leave him and this whole life behind.

instead, you make a cup of coffee and force some yogurt down your throat before going to work.

you're up early, and don't care to deal with the traffic driving further into the city, so you might as well take the train.

~~~

he has absolutely no clue where you are.

he knows none of the addresses of your friends where you might have gone, not even a single one of their names.

if you didn't have to work, he wouldn't even be sure that you were still in the state.

work.

he doesn't even know the address of your workplace. he has a vague sense of the name of the company, how hard can it be to find?

so that's where he starts.

he camps out down a side street near your office, giving him a narrow field of vision to the entrance while staying hidden. it's the end of the workday, you should be coming out soon.

normally, scouting out a target is easy. he takes a short amount of time to watch them, determine their routines, and find the best course of action to take them out in the most efficient way possible.

there's always a plan, an end goal there. here?

he has no plan. there is no end goal.

for now, he needs to know where you're staying. so he watches and waits for you to come out of the one place where he can count on being able to find you.

he's not prepared for the pang of some unfamiliar emotion that he feels when he sees you come out of the building. you look exhausted; clearly, you didn't sleep last night, same as him.

you still look perfect.

he assumes you're heading to the parking lot, and he realizes he didn't think this far ahead. he doesn't have a fucking car, how is he supposed to follow you to find out where you're going?

he would never make this kind of bullshit mistake on a job.

he's scanning the area, trying to find the most inconspicuous car he can find that he thinks he might be able to hotwire-

you walk right past the parking lot.

he begins to trail you from across the street, mind working through all the possible answers as to where you're going. for now, his focus is keeping his eyes on you at all times.

he refuses to acknowledge the way his chest hurts even more as he follows you down the street and into the train station.

he hates when you take the train, hence why you always drive. to him, the train isn't safe. there's too many variables, too many things could go wrong. today, though, it works to his advantage.

all he can do for now is get on the train car behind you and wait to see where you get off at.

~~~

you're so tired, it's probably for the best you didn't drive today, lest you wanted to accidentally total your car by falling asleep at the wheel.

you want nothing more than to go home to him.

you don't. you get off the train and walk into the first bar you see.

it's after the workday, just past 6pm on a Tuesday, so it's packed, full of both blue- and white-collar workers in need of a drink.

you sit at the bar with the rest of the men as you all contemplate your life choices. you drink way too much, consuming more alcohol than is safe for you to have in your system while walking back.

oh well.

as you walk in the darkness, your head feels heavy, your body warm from the alcohol. you're being reckless, you know you are.

you don't have it in you to care. you feel like your entire life is being ripped apart at the seams, and it's all your fault. you're aware of the reality; you shouldn't ask for more than he can give. that's not fair to him.

no. this isn't fair to you.

~~~

he hates every fucking second of this. you're acting stupid, putting yourself in danger, getting drunk in public while operating under the assumption that you're all alone on these dark streets.

is this how you feel every day? do you feel alone even when he's there?

is he nothing more than a nuisance to you, a reminder of all your fears and all your lost dreams rolled into one?

at least he knows he's there to protect you.

to him, you were his savior.

but to you, he's nothing more than a ball and chain around your ankle.

his chest grows even tighter.

once you get inside the place you're apparently staying at, he relaxes somewhat. you're inside, you're safe.

that means nothing to him. to him, you're only safe within the confines of your own home. you're only safe when you're with him.

does he make you feel unsafe?

he finds another dark alley to hole up in. he's not going anywhere, not going home, not sleeping until you've got this figured out.

~~~

days go by. he learns your friend's schedule, learns the area, learns that you're drinking every day after work.

he knows he doesn't have the right to approach you. he'd lose you for good if he did, he thinks.

except on the fourth day of you being gone, after all these sleepless nights of him sitting on the cold, hard ground, you don't go into work. he watches your friend leave, but not you.

something's wrong.

in the back of his head, he hears your voice from your fight, if he could even call it a fight, saying,

"I don't even know if you like me!"

"you don't even care about me."

the words float around his mind, amplifying the tightness in his chest by 100 times.

that's it. he's done waiting, done watching you like you're a target, done pretending like you're both not miserable. he's done pretending he doesn't care.

~~~

you don't go into work on Friday.

you've spent all week ignoring your problems, ignoring the nausea in your stomach, drinking so much alcohol that you're lucky you don't pass out in the street, alone.

it's time to make a decision.

you don't get up from the couch until mid-morning, getting up to take a shower before heading to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.

as you finish preparing your drink, staring down into the mug, you think you hear something in the distance. but the noise is so faint, you attribute it to your lack of sleep and food. you're fine, there's nothing there.

you hear it again, louder this time, and you turn towards where you hear the noise coming from-

from behind you, a hand slips over your mouth, and an arm wraps itself around your waist. you're about to panic when you hear the figure speak,

"it's me."

you let yourself relax against him. he scared the absolute shit out of you, making you fear for your fucking life, but you don't care. he's here.

but then your anger returns with a vengeance.

you put all your weight into throwing yourself forward, out of his grasp, and he lets go.

"how dare you!" is the first thing you say, and then you turn to face him.

woah.

if you thought you looked like shit from lack of sleep, it was nothing compared to how he looked.

you pause your yelling at him for a moment to take in the fact that he looks so tired he might be ready to collapse, that he looks like he hasn't showered or eaten in days.

you push past your worry and begin again, your anger boiling over as you continue yelling.

"how do you know I'm here? have you been fucking following me?"

he forces himself to speak.

"yes."

you scoff. of course he has.

"I'm not a child! I'm a fully grown adult, James!" you yell.

"then why the hell have you been acting like you're a goddamn child?" he yells back.

you've never heard him raise his voice like this before.

"you could have gotten yourself killed. you're lucky I was there. you did everything wrong, against how I taught you to keep yourself safe!"

your entire body is vibrating with the range of emotions you feel right now. you're so pissed off at him, but you've finally gotten him to speak to you. you hate that he's been watching you like his prey all week, but it means that maybe, in his eyes, you're worth losing sleep over.

you both stand there for a minute as you delay responding. your hair is soaking through your pajama shirt, which you realize as you stand there, is one of his t-shirts. your coffee is spilled everywhere from when he startled you, the mug flipped on its side on the counter.

you try to gather your thoughts to respond. you end up coming back to the one thing that you haven't been able to forget about all week, the one thing that breaks your heart more than any of it.

"you didn't even fight for me," you say quietly. you do everything in your power to take deep breaths, blinking your eyes quickly to stop the tears in their wake. "you didn't even fight for me to stay. you just let me go."

you give him the benefit of the doubt when he doesn't respond immediately. you know he needs to gather his thoughts.

you wipe your eyes a few times, listening to the silence, just praying that you mean enough to him that he'll respond.

"I'll never make that mistake again."

you've missed him so much, even in your rage and despair, that those words are all the reassurance you need to hear from him. he steps closer to you, slowly, waiting for your permission to approach.

you take in his appearance once more. he clearly hasn't eaten or slept in days, and he looks dirty. you connect the dots in your head: he hasn't even gone home, hasn't left your side once all week.

the idea of him following you all week pissed you off only minutes before. but now?

your tears spill from your eyes as you wrap your arms around his neck, embracing him as though he's your entire world.

he's never felt as relieved as he does when you cling to him. the aching in his chest finally begins to dissipate for the first time in a week.

you may be in some random apartment, but he's finally home.

he wraps his arms around your waist and picks you up. you get the hint and wrap your legs around his hips, holding onto him as he walks you over to the couch you've spent the last few days crying on.

he lays you down and begins to peel his shirt from your body, revealing every inch of your beautiful skin to him.

he knows has to show you how sorry he is, the only way he knows how.

he adjusts your positioning so you're sitting face forward on the couch, legs dangling over the edge, and he spreads your thighs as he gets to his knees in front of you.

it about takes your breath away.

this man, who is so possessive over you, so afraid of showing even a sliver of weakness or vulnerability, so against the idea of giving up any form of power, is on his knees for you in apology.

you know this isn't easy for him. this is the biggest display of trust you think you've ever seen from him, and your fears about not meaning anything to him begin to disappear.

you're the most important thing in his life. he wishes he had the words to tell you that.

he wraps his hands around the back of your knees, bringing you closer to him, and he pushes his tongue between your legs so softly.

his mouth is wet, and warm, and he hasn't eaten in days, but he'd rather you be the only thing he tastes for the rest of his life, anyways.

a few more involuntary tears spill from your eyes as he laves his tongue over you. you feel so sensitive, the combination of lacking his touch for so long and the emotion behind his actions is making you so much more conscious of his every movement.

he buries his tongue in you over and over again like it's his only mission in life.

he feels the entire lower half of his face, having gone unshaved for the last week, is soaked, covered in you. he hopes he leaves you with a mild rug burn between your thighs so you feel him for days afterwards.

you're so perceptive to his every move, you feel it distinctly when he begins to trace shapes over your clit.

A, E, S is all you make out.

James.

he's writing his name on your skin with his tongue.

you let out a whimper when you realize it, and your gentle hold on the back of his head tightens, pulling his face closer against your cunt.

"James," you whisper as he begins to work you faster, "please."

that's all it takes for him to push you over the edge. your thighs close on either side of his head, and he can mostly hear the way you whine his name as you come for him.

you barely have a second to relax your muscles before he's crowding you on the couch, repositioning you so you're laying underneath him.

his mouth begins to attack your neck, your rules against him putting hickeys on your neck be damned. and you gladly let him, you don't care right now.

he takes no time at all to shove the fabric of his pants out of the way, wrapping your legs around his hips once more, pushing himself down into you.

"fuck," you whisper at the stretch.

he continues his assault on your neck, marking you up and down all the way to your breasts, anywhere he can reach.

he bites back a groan every time you moan so perfectly, filling his ears, repeating his name every few thrusts.

but there's still something in the back of his head he needs you to know.

he doesn't stop, doesn't quit fucking you so beautifully as he brings his mouth to your ear.

"of course I like you," he admits so quietly, and his tone makes it sound like it's the most obvious thing in the world. you're brought back to the other night when you expressed your deepest vulnerabilities to him, and now, he's making up for what he should have told you then. "and of course I care about you."

you clutch him against you as tight as humanly possible until you're both letting yourselves go, feeling the comforting warmth as he releases inside you.

his body gives out, collapsing on top of you, exhausted from the physical and emotional toll of the week.

you finally feel tired too, more so than you have all week. it's as though your body is finally poised to truly rest now that he's with you again.

you can't sleep yet.

"take me home, James," you whisper, and he doesn't hesitate.

~~~

(guys as I'm writing this I'm about to cry)

yeah so I think I spent about six hours on this total y'all

masterlist

join my tag list

bucky tag list: (send an ask or dm to be removed)

@clavedelune @starfly-nicole @avengersfan25 @thewiselionessss @hextech-bros @a-book-lover-things @ruexj283 @mrsnikstan @sleepysongbirdsings @sapphirebarnes @bananababygirl10 @multiversefanfics @winchestert101 @andziabarnes @chrisevansleftnipple @daisydark @luckyhornet @maryevm @avengemepercy @starstruck-cowgirl @doubledizzy22 @yvespecially @shereadzzz @flow33didontsmoke @blaineandergel @iiamlynn @tellybearryyyy @belovedmoony @doilooklikeagiveafrack @analovesmarvel @izzy698 @ketchumid24 @annabethboleyn @luv4koo @uh-buckybarness @buckyseternaldoll @planetzeidy @thegirlfatherr @mandoloriancookie @cieraboobear @k1gi-3 @wint3rbarnes @quinnofdrama

[dontbesoweirdkira]

can you write about a rebel being bothered by invincible who joined his dad and took over the planet?

i'd imagine mark would see himself as a god because of how much stronger he is. So it's funny to him to see the rebel character resist when they both know she lives at his mercy. he'd take her to dates she didn't want, being her clothes, do sweet relationship stuff meanwhile the character is fuming everytime she sees him.

although some comments gets to him and spirals him into a converstion about how she is nothing compared to him to cope.

(LOVED your batsib x yandere!mark grayson thing btw ❤️)

A/N: Oh my gosh yes? I swear some of ya'lls minds are insane. Mark with an insufferable "god" complex is the best yandere Mark. I loved that the variants of him showed just how fucked up he truly can be. Can you tell which mark is my favorite based on how I wrote this lolll? Sorry this has taken forever to come out. I've been dealing with a lot this past year...forgive me.

Warnings: Dead Dove Don't Eat | yandere!mark, threats, violent descriptions, degradation, and abuse relationship dynamic.

Here's the funny thing about this scenario, Mark is convinced that he's such a good boy for "preserving" you. He doesn't seem to understand why you are so turned off to him when you got the best possible outcome a useless being such as yourself could get. He could've easily killed you or made you into some slave for Viltrumites to use and abuse, but no. You should be kissing his feet and worshiping the very ground he walks on for taking you as his personal..pet *cough* lover.

You hate who he has become. Mark is far from the sweet boy who used to walk you to class and pull all-nighters with. The old mark would never put his hands or you or treat you like some subhuman who should be blessed by his presence. Your heart breaks all over again whenever you wake up next to him, knowing that this isn't all some bad dream and he would probably never return to his old self.. I can't really blame you at all for your rebellion.

Mark tries to convince you that deep down he's always been like this and you need to get over it. The Viltrum way is the only right way to live, that's why humans die off so easily.. can't you see everything is so much better now?

In Mark's defense, he does *try* to retain some of his humanity for you and only you. Well...his own twisted sense of humanity that is. I agree with you that Mark would still take his darling on dates, use cute pet names and do human gushy ushy stuff.. that on paper you should be loving. He thinks that by doing the things you used to love to do with him, he can manipulate you into loving him again. It never really works because it ends with him not knowing how to act right. From forcing intimacy upon you to letting his violent tendencies towards others, especially humans, get the best of him. He'll rip someone's spine out of their body during a date simply because they glanced in your direction then go back to drooling over you like nothing even happened.

Not sure about you, but i'd be a little shit and bite the hell out of his lip whenever he tries to make-out with me. He'd definitely do a dry chuckle, then bite back, drawing blood because you hurt his ego a bit. (the type of man that tries to play it off by sexily sucking your lip and continuing with the kiss. I want to choke him out)

Mark's idea of cuddling is basically just strangling you while he goes on and on about himself or the plans he has for the both of you. Dear Lord, please save us. You can use all you might to push him off of you but he is rather unfazed by this and keeps talking.

Can you imagine Mark trying to be sweet by bringing you a pretty outfit since you mentioned how bland the clothes are that Viltrumites wear are, not expecting to be met with a negative reaction from you? You cannot tell me that he wouldn't be set off by that. He personally took precious time out of his day to get this custom made for you, it's your taste down to a t and he even had it GIFT WRAPPED for you----yet you couldn't be bothered to open it before you tossing it. Madness, he thinks.

He'd grab your hand and force you to fish through the garbage disposal and pick it up, then hold you down while he manhandled you into the outfit. (you have bruises and scratches all over you after that) The entire time he's spewing all sorts of degrading things at you, making sure he's hitting real deep just to make you cry at this point. Oh and you're only wearing that for the next couple of weeks since you're ungrateful, he doesn't care. How dare you disrespect him.

You're right, though. It is hilarious to him when you try fighting him back or acting tough, he's a king and you're his jester. I can see him egging you on at some points for him amusement. You know what he's doing and it only gets you more heated which in turn makes him poke fun at you more.

Tossing you around, pining you down and scaring you are sources of fun for him too. Likes when you get so fed up that you slap him too,,it's so cute and it feels like a tickle to him ..

"You're so damn pathetic, babe. This is why I keep you around, other humans aren't as adorable as you are.."

His very big yet very fragile ego is so on point tho too. He can take you fighting back and acting tough...but do not say shit about leaving him and do not attempt to.

The last time you did, and it genuinely seemed like you meant it to him, he flipped the fuck out. Like you always knew that Mark was batshit, but the way his eyes shifted into something sinister before dangling you by your ankle thousands of miles in the air, threatening to drop you and let the birds eat up your splattered guts...yeah, i'm good on that. You think you are going to just leave and have a better life without him? No way, baby. Death is the only way out of his *loving*chokehold.

Another way to cause him to act out is mentioning something about him being weak or not as great as he thinks he is. Bonus points if you compare him to someone else. You might think you're just getting under his skin as retaliation for whatever he did to upset you, but you are unleashing something you shouldn't..

"----You're nothing. A piece of gum stuck to the sidewalk has far more purpose in this world than you ever could. You could live a million lives, and never amount to me. You wanna do comparisons, huh? I'll show you how weak I am when I snap their fuckin' neck, they're not shit to me and neither are you--- so don't think I won't---"

Yeah he's talking all of this shit while you're trying not to black out from his hands that are tightly constricting your airflow.

I do think he's that much of a pussy that he would have this same reaction without even doing anything, really. He could see someone that he feels insecure about and he's so deluded that he convinces himself that you are somehow now in love with that person, even though you've never met them before...and now he's destroying the house when he comes home.

Once he comes down from his ego trip and realizes he almost just killed you and could've lost you for good over his immaturity, he's very very apologetic. Like the way he acts is the closest to his former self that you're going to get. His touch is suddenly gentle, and his head is thrown into your lap, begging you to forgive him. He goes on about how he is so stupid and he just wants you to love him blah blah "I didn't mean it sweetie" blah blah... yeah fuck you mark. He'd be soft until you're better and finally forgive him (just so he can stfu honestly) then he's back to his shenanigans.

There's so much I could write for this but I don't wanna go too far off of the request lmaoo. Please send in more for daddy Mark with an inflated ego. I need himmmm

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Mame is fielding one of my favorite shows, what is the world coming to?

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

(This was gonna be ready yesterday and then I realized I'd missed 2. Sigh. I'm doing well.)

Feb 2025 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

ThamePo (Fri YT) ep 10 of 12 - SHUT UP. I love them more than anything. I love how nervous and hesitant Thame was the next morning. Def the younger boy who bagged the experienced older dude. This show makes me go “aww” a lot. I do hate this part of the plot though. Because I loathe parasocial fandoms with every fiber of my being and this is why.

The Boy Next World (Sun IQIYI) ep 6 of 10 - The plot has gone wildly off the rails, like into Days of Our Lives waffle iron territory. It is utterly absurd. But I'm still watching it.

The Heart Killers (Weds Gaga) ep 12 end - I love Style so much. The perfect Brat but he is playing Petruchio not the shrew! Ironic and very kinky twist on the original. I also love how most BLs are like “we’re gonna separate them for 2-5 years in the final ep” and Kant & Style were all “fuck that noise.” 

Summary

Jojo directs this action romcom about assassin brothers (Khao & Joong) meets tattoo artist ex-booster (First) and very flirty mechanic (Dunk) conmen. I dithered over how to rate this. It felt like an 8 show wearing a 9’s britches. There were dropped threads, forgotten characters, and unfinished plot lines even with a particularly long run time. And, for me, it doesn’t have significant rewatch potential. But it was fun (when one applies no expectations or logic) and I enjoyed the wildly unhinged relationships and, weirdly, music. I mean nobody claimed that we needed Taming of the Shrew only with gay Thai hitman, but we really needed it. And no one asked for Petruchio as the gayest brat ever to strut his perfect skin and copped-top across our screen, and yet we loved him for it. Sure it didn’t make sense, was utterly absurd, but it was terribly earnest and sexy about it. IN the end this goes hand-in-hand with all these other absurd crime pieces we’ve been getting since KP, and frankly I like this one the best from Thailand so far. 9/10 but I’m slightly uncomfortable with that decision.

Perfect 10 Liners (Sun YT) ep 16 of 24 - It’s cute. They were cute. I enjoyed it. But I am still mostly just looking forward to the next couple.

Sangmin Dinneaw (Sun iQIYI) ep 7-8 end - I forgot to watch this one for over a week, goes to show how engaged I am. Anygay, ep 7 amnesia trope is ago. A lot the ep was fuss in hospitals so I went ahead and watched the finale as well. It was fine.

Conclusion

Given its charmingly simple premise and a solid lead pair, this could’ve been quite an tidy little BL, but it went all weird and slapstick and overtly sexual (and I enjoy high heat). It was a little bit like YYY meets modern Thai BL but mixed with early Japanese pinks. All very strange. I ended up being half bored half annoyed half confused half embarrassed. And if that’s too many halves for you, now you know how I felt. 5/10 

Flirt Milk (Sat YT) ep 4 or 10 - Umm plot? Where are you?

Ossan‘s Love Thailand (Mon YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - Workplace harassment, form of... Thai BL. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

When it Rains it Pours (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - Is the live-in boyfriend meant to be perceived as a psychopath or just a controlling monster? I love how blunt Sei was with him. Such and honest little bean. Ah, controlling monster.  Well, I really hope they can resolve this in the final episode. Despite all of the pain I’m enjoying it, it's being true to itself.

This is JBL doing its thing and toeing the Tokyo in April party line. I don't know why anyone would expect anything different. Go watch Eternal Yesterday and drink me later. This is what Japan DOES with BL at least half the time. The more JBL we get, the more of this kind of show we get with it. It's a numbers game - just add bruises.

Heart Stain (Korea Weds IQIYI) eps 3-4 of 8 - I have to admit that the only reason I even tolerate love triangles as a trope is because of K-dramas. But I still don’t like it. That said, I do like all of the honesty and conflict that's built into this story and frankly dealt with because of the trope. And I love how massive Woohyeon is so baby girl. The lap sitting was extremely cute. The teacher finding them lap sitting was also cute. And the handhold drag afterwards was cutest. The whole scene was adorable. 

FC Soldout (Korea Thurs iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - Tiny idiots. Every. Single. One. (@heretherebedork you must be loving these boys.) Give me a sec to talk to a character: Captain. Sweetcheeks. You know there are better ways to exhaust your adorable boy-toy late at night than forcing him to do physical labor, right? Or, at least, not that kind of physical labor.

Eternal Butler (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 9 of 12 - Oooo. emotional Ever 4. Poor baby. I did want to see him kick ass. Hopefully that’s the beginning of next week’s episode. 

Impression of Youth (Taiwan Weds Viki) eps 6 of 9 - Very little happened in this episode. Lots of flashbacks. And stuff we’ve already seen.

Fight for Love (Vietnam YT) ep 2 - Ooo 2 timing? Coils within coils, tongues within tongues, my goodness these boys are getting around. It’s all very messy gay drama llama ding dong but... comedy. It’s a new one on me. But sooner that than Thailand’s Only Friends version.

Exclusive Love (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 1-2 of 12 - Shy aspiring singer inherits funeral business. Nice to have something more from Taiwan to watch. But this is extremely odd, and somewhat extreme behavior, given the premise. That is a lot of personnel and sunglasses just for one guitar-playing influencer. Even if I agree that he shouldn’t be allowed to play. Surreal that it’s a mafia funeral business, although I suppose it makes sense. It’s not creepy, but the creep-factor is high with this show. It's also v thirsty already. I kind of like the sides, but they seem to be in a different BL. So far, mostly whiplash but I'm not mad about it.

Checkered Shirt (Korea YT) ep 2 of 8 - It remains awkward and cute, but a little boring for a short. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 19 of 20 - Today in: how to tell your suicidal stepbro you wanna d**k him out. 

It's airing but......

Gelboys (Thai Weds iQIYI) ep 1 of 7 - I’m immediately terrified by the fact that he’s carrying a guitar around. It’s slow with that dirty gritty high school authenticity thing from OG Love Sick. Which is not my favorite style of any show, let alone BL. I always get Kids PTSD. I think I’m gonna give this show a pass. It’s just too far out of my wheelhouse. I don’t have patience for this right now.

The Last Time (Thai WeTV) trailer - from 2024, not sure about this one, looks dark. Since it's also difficult for me to get hold of I am giving it a pass until I know about the ending.

Speaking of which...

In Case You Missed it

I Will Turn Back Time (China Gaga) 6 eps - Spies report it does not end well. Stepbrothers trope = yeah! but all other messaging = boo. I'm not gonna bother.

End of year wraps are here!

2024 Trend Report

MY BEST & WORST BLs of 2024

Best Kisses (and sex scenes) of 2024

BL's 2024 Quirky Awards

2024 Awards - Quick Picks

Next Week Looks Like This:

2/21 Bali Hai (Thailand ????) no MDL listing, only rumors, unsure on deets.

2/27 Secret Relationships (Korea iQIYI) - Stars Wei's Kim Jun Seo. Adapted by Cradle Studio (Kakao). About clever and resourceful Daon who has worked hard to overcome being poor. His cheap ways annoy his coworker, Sunghyeon but after “an incident” with his parents, Daon grows closer to him. But Daon also has feelings for his former tutor. This has the signs of a classic Kdrama all over it: Office setting, love triangle, lead suffering for his self-actualization. I’m optimistic about a longer treatment.

2025 Line Up

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 1

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 2

20 BLs Announced for 2025 That I'm Really Excited About

GMMTV 2025 Line Up - My Totally Biased and Wildly Flawed Feels

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Got nothing. Frankly you're lucky this came in a somewhat timely manner, with any screen caps at all. It's chaos 'round these parts.

(last week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

[synergysilhouette]

Everyone keeps talking about "traditional villains," but in retrospect, I wish Disney had gone in a different direction for the Revival Era. Hear me out...

King Magnifico's failed characterization and poor writing in "Wish" really bummed me out. I was looking forward to a complex villain who was kinda right. I was hoping it could usher in a new age of Disney villains who were more grey than black and white, who made the characer grow as a person because they challenged their perspective. But then I realized that the opportunity existed in earlier revival-era villains:

Dr. Facilier is a villain first and foremost, though thinking back on it, I do think he is kinda proto-Magnifico, granting people's wishes, only for them to find that what they wanted isn't what they expected. I do wish he tied a bit of truth in with his scams, mentioning (similar to Magnifico) how people's dreams are very difficult to achieve--especially in the post-WWI American South, particularly POC. Naveen is generally assumed to be a POC himself, so he could juxtapose this viewpoint as someone who's never really had to experience such hardships. Dr. Facilier could still be 100% villainous, but further emphasis on dreams, wishes, and hard work would be part of his character. However, this is the reverse of "Wish"; Tiana has already worked hard, but she's lost a lot of her innocence and light-heartedness trying to achieve it, thus causing her to reevaluate how important love is and how she may not have realized it, being more practical about her dreams. It all starts with a wish.

Mother Gothel was already right; the world can be dark and cruel, and will destroy any light it finds. However, similar to Magnifico, since she's completely evil, the protagonist she goes against doesn't really change to understand what she's saying. Rapunzel doesn't see the world as dark or dangerous anymore; it's the opposite, thanks to her experiences. Because of this, I do wish Rapunzel did have a bit more negative experiences independent of Gothel to prove Gothel's point rather than it being "hey, she's just saying that because she's the villain." Maybe Rapunzel tries healing someone and people start lusting after her hair.

Hans is DEFINITELY a missed opportunity. He was the anti-Anna; isolated and alone, and he became bitter and cruel because of it. It's mentioned that the deleted song "More than Just the Spare" was removed because it made Anna too much like Hans. I don't think that, and if anything, it furthers my point: Hans gave up on his brothers, who he felt overlooked by and pestered by (he doesn't even mention his parents). Maybe give Hans less brothers and feature them a little in the movie so we can see how they interact with Hans and how it's a "what could be" for Anna and Elsa. His evil character is exactly what Anna is trying to avoid, but she understands how he became this way rather than it simply being for shock value.

Yokai was a great villain to me, but the reveal happened too late. I'd have loved seeing a more thorough exploration of his character and parallels to Hiro (which were done great in the film; I just wish it was expanded on). Highlight how people quickly forget about the dead and don't always learn from history, how there's this cycle of loss and hatred that you have to break.

Bellweather was on a power trip, but I do wish she had a storyline similar to Judy and Nick, since--in an interesting twist--they come off as more interesting and complex than the villain. She doesn't really say what made her act like this, and comments that "fear always works." I wish we got more of that, especially to play the two sides card; Zootopia is mainly predator-phobic, and challenges to this, ie predators playing down predator-related crimes in order to get people to look past their identity (and the fact that many predators are in positions of power) may have caused Bellweather's abuse by predators to be overlooked, causing her to want them all gone.

Te Ka is interesting. Despite "Moana" being a great film, I do feel like Te Ka and Maui's storyline was underutilized. It's revealed Maui stole Te Ka's heart for humans, but from what we see, Moana lives in this ideal community where their heritage, culture, and nature is loved and respected. Maybe embrace the fact that Tala is the only one who tells the story of the ancestors and how being they became "comfortable" since they were no longer voyagers, being used to the hierarchy and their stagnant society. Highlighting some humans' selfish natures would've been nice rather than Maui just telling us about it, with Te Ka being a metaphor for the destruction and disregard for nature and love.

Namaari is such a missed opportunity. Despite caring about her community, she comes off as more villainous than an antihero since she doesn't show any sympathy or care for Raya--in fact, she seems rather smug about hurting her. By making her a villain burdened by expectations and love for Fang while slowly being redeemed would've been better to me, shifting her POV slowly, making Raya angry with Namaari but understanding her motives. Having some regret about her choices--even if she believed they were the right ones--would've gone a long way for Namaari's characterization.

Magnifico...well, you already know he could've been one of Disney's most complex villains. Horrifying backstory and powers that are the result of hardwork left him with a jaded view on wish granting. He wants to help others, but has MANY reservations about it.

This is just my POV, of course; some of you may disagree (or feel like the aforementioned villains already achieved what I ask for), but I do hope future Disney villains have that "they're kinda right, even if they're wrong" characterization. It'd be a nice new era as the successor to traditional villains and twist villains--though just like twist villains, this trope requires VERY good writing.

[qedmirage]

Conclave (2024)

They don't make movies like this very often.

Conclave (dir. Edward Berger) is a 20 million $ drama film with strong political thriller and mystery elements. That's not a lot of money to make a film these days, solidly in the 'mid budget' area, but the "drama movie about several characters locked in a scenic locale" is an honorable and excellent tradition.

The basic setup is that, well, the pope has died and there's to be a conclave to elect his successor; Ralph Finnes as Cardinal Lawrence is the Dean of the College of Cardinals and must manage the overall proceedings. And a papal election conclave is never, I think, an event that goes smoothly or as expected; it happens rarely enough and the stakes are so high that there's always going to be something to give the Dean a headache.

Well Lawrence must have gotten dealt an awful hand because almost immediately there are two separate soap opera level twists; one cardinal (a known alcoholic) alleges Tremblay, one of the favorites in the election, was dismissed the night before the pope's death rendering him ineligible for the election. And another cardinal...shows up? He has been appointed in pectore, in secret as the Archbishop of Kabul (okay, fair, I can see why that guy would be secret). In the real world that disqualifies you from election if you haven't had your identity publicized (because soap opera twists are bad) ; in the film's world the relevant rules are different so they can have their twist. All in all this means Lawrence - now the most senior person on the scene - must figure out the truth of those allegations, while also participating in the election, without coming across as influencing it, and oh yes he's sequestered and forbidden to talk to the outside world. Have fun, detective!

Some things stand out about this film in particular. Firstly, the major characters are all Cardinals; they are men of letters, with knowledge of several languages, deep familiarity with scripture, etc. Basically, they're kind of nerds, all locked in a room to determine which among them gets to be the next boss.

And secondly and somewhat relatedly this is a film where the characters are quite sincere in their beliefs. It's good character writing! Okay, getting much further will require lots of spoilers, so if you click on the read more or go past the big image, you have been warned! Spoilers ahead!!

I really liked the various ways Lawrence and other characters play hardball with their vows in this film. The nuns who serve the cardinals food and clean up the hotel they use are not sequestered...but the cardinals are. At one point when Lawrence wants to get access to a report a nun does not give it to him, but she logs into her computer...and leaves the room. And wouldn't you know it, Lawrence ends up with the report just after that! A very funny thing is that while the allegations against Tremblay seem to be true, the report Lawrence publicizes is taken as a heavy-handed move and doesn't seem likely to derail his candidacy. What does take him down is that he arranged for a specific nun to be present, and she seemed to embarrass another cardinal. Tremblay says he did this on the pope's orders and he....might not be wrong? Like the past pope is described as a chess master and it would be really funny if he ordered candidate A to take a move against candidate B he knew would be exposed and sink both of them.

Okay, some faster thoughts. While the film's sympathies lie in the progressive direction (more on that in a moment) the progressive Cardinal Bellini doesn't come off so noble to me. He seems at times too focused on the hard-nosed politics required to keep Tedesco out vs. Lawrence's descriptions of faith. But hey, you do NOT want Tedesco to win, so it's not like he doesn't have a good reason!

And last but not least, the final twist.

So the winner of the election ends up being Benitez, that in pectore candidate from the start. And Benitez, it turns out, is intersex.

The film handles this with a level of care that's not so common in media. That's right! The "Catholic Church Movie" is one of the better LGBTQIA+ films of the year! Surprise, bozos!

This is a twist but it's one that makes you want to revisit and rethink earlier parts of the film. Why was Benitez, who seems so sure of his beliefs in confrontations with Lawrence, such a fan of Lawrence's prayer about embracing doubt and uncertainty?

Benitez during the film is someone who's already figured out who they are and how to handle their "situation", ultimately deciding against surgical alteration to remove his female organs. "I am as god made me."

There's a tendency in mass media to over-emphasize surgical and biological aspects of gender presentation, but Benitez is someone who's very clear that having ovaries doesn't define who he is.

[aspoonofsugar]

can I ask your thoughts on the direction oshi no ko has gone?

Hi!

I personally dislike it. It feels like tragedy for the sake of gloom rather than catharsis. It is an ending that de-powers everyone's arc really.

Aqua is the only one who gets a complete arc, even if negative. He has a tragic arc and fails to have a positive development. He literally dies idolizing Ruby in juxtaposition to Kamiki, who dies idolizing Ai. Narratively, it makes sense for him to die, as he kills his shadow (Kamiki), but I would argue it does not really work for the story as a whole. And that is because the overall themes and the other protagonists' character arcs are all sacrificed for this negative outcome.

Ruby does not get to solve her feelings for Sensei/Aqua and is stuck in yet another tragedy. I don't know how her arc will be solved. Probably in a bittersweet and yet positive way, but here comes the thing. I don't think it is believable psychologically speaking. Ruby grew a lot, but she is still defined by the loss of sensei and AI. Nothing in the narrative happened to make me believe she would not react very very badly to Aqua's death tbh. We'll see.

Akane failed her objective to help Aqua and repay him. As a result, her development up until this point does not get any catharsis nor resolution. It literally goes nowhere.

Kana is worse than ever. She did not get to properly convey her feelings for Aqua and she went from being the tritagonist to being a character, who quietly disappears in the background, in what is ironically an echo of her acting career.

Finally, Ai's death finds no thematic resolution and her two final wishes are not fulfilled. Not only her children do not manage to save Hikaru, but one of them even dies himself.

All in all it feels like the story set up a plot with specific roles for each character to fulfill and then decided not to have them fulfill them for the sake of drama, rather than theme. I also personally disliked we spent so much time in Aqua's head as he arrived about a self-realization about his identity and that the climax was all about it... That was never truly the point of his character nor the series. The focus of the story isn't if Aqua and Ruby are Aqua and Ruby or Goro and Sarina. The point is that they get a second chance at living, so they can solve their complexes. Aqua even lampshades this, before the climax.

Now, I like well written tragedies, but I don't think the series is written as a tragedy really. The structure sets up positive arcs until the end of the movie arc, where you can see the author started changing the order of things, so that it could end in tragedy. So, there was the fake good ending, which was positive, but very weak. And then, there was a twist, so that a more powerful, but negative ending could be delivered. Except, I would have preferred the positive ending with the struggle of the tragic one :''') Especially because I really think it would have been the most powerful one possible for this series.

Anyway, there are still a couple of chapters left, I think. So, we will see the denouement. That said, I think the series lost its power in the final arc, which is a pity cause up until that point it was excellent. Like, the Dark Ruby's arc is one of my favorite arcs ever. I reread it some weeks ago and I cried a lot. That is the kind of power I was expecting in the finale, but instead we got a theme attached on the story at the last minute and a forced twist. It isn't one of the worst ending ever (especially if you read the series and the chapters all together probably), but it is definitely below the level of writing this story had. These are just my two cents of course :)

[wistfulenchantress]

so quick question. do bylers genuinely not understand that whether you go by the monologue (Mike knew he fell in love with El the moment he met her) or by Finn’s interpretation (Mike is a nerdy kid so he never expected romance was in the cards for him so it wasn’t in his mind when he met her, he fell in love with her throughout that week of knowing her instead of in that moment of meeting her) either way it still means Mike fell in love with El????. Finn says at first it was like finding a lost alien in the woods and then once the scariness of that is gone it becomes more about mileven’s relationship referring to their dynamic starting ep 2 after Mike finds out El’s background and the danger she’s in. Do you people realize you’re trying to argue the semantics that Mike lied in his monologue because he didn’t fall in love in a split second in the woods but instead fell in love a day later 😭. Y’all are wrong regardless because you think Mike doesn’t love her at all. Then we have Finn also saying El is Mike’s first time having romantic feelings for anyone which goes direct against your theories of Mike being in love with Will throughout the show

Hello to you, too, nonnie! Gonna take these one at a time, hope that's okay 💚

The monologue is lies. I can elaborate a lot further, but I'll just say this because it's what you were talking about with semantics. The quote is "and i knew, right then, that i loved you" while mike is confirmed to not only not be thinking of romance, but, per season one trailer, thinks "that's not will." so, uh, yeah. him LATER assigning love to that is crazy. he could have easily said "i fell in love with you in that first week" or something along those lines but he doesn't.

finn's interpretation of mike not thinking about romance is great! and when does he start thinking about romance? when other people (nancy, lucas) suggest to him that he should think of it. classic compulsive heterosexuality, especially with the surrounding homophobic climate in that season specifically.

but do mike and el fall in love as twelve year olds over the course of those seven days? during which mike is suicidal? does mike, who shows no interest in el beyond keeping her from dying until she recognizes will, fall in love with her suddenly? is el, who doesn't know what love is, suddenly ready for a long term relationship?

watch the scene where mike promises el that he'll go to the snowball with her. because as soon as he has to make a commitment, his face fall. playing along has repercussions. (this is a real internalized homophobia feeling, i speak from experience).

and then el sacrifices herself, and survivors guilt is a part of this for the rest of the show. i'll tell you more, and analyze more, but i don't think that's what you want. you want me to talk about what finn said.

what do you want him to say? he can't just spoil the entire show, goddamn! byler is a foreseeable plot twist, but a plot twist nonetheless in this heteronormative society. finn can't just out right spoil season five. he also NEVER said mike loves el. not a quote. he specifically avoided saying it, as well as saying things like they are a couple "going into" season five, which is incredibly specific.

and even if mikes romantic feelings for el aren't legitimate, they still affect his life. it's still his first long term relationship, even if it is lies.

and at the end of s4 MIKE doesn't know his feelings for will. they can be there, and feelings can grow subtly, but here's the other thing:

they're all kids! not even fifteen by the end of season four. i will never say to you that mike has had passionate romantic feelings for will since the beginning, in the same way will hasn't for mike.

their relationship is special, and is growing with them, blossoming into something romantic. that's what makes it beautiful and healthy!

anyway, if you have more questions feel free to send more asks, or message me! i won't post screenshots or anything, i really do love talking about this. thanks for the ask, and if anything i said didn't make sense let me know!

i hope you have a great day. hope to chat again soon 🫶🫶🫶🫶

[aeroburning]

You've mentioned, in depth, how much you enjoy Gate's character in X6 (which is an amazing game, haters can fight me because I will die on that hill), but I'm curious to know: what do you think about the story in general? Especially in relation to the Nightmare Virus and Gate reviving Sigma as the "big twist" at the end of the game?

I think X6 has one of the strongest stories in the series, but it's not exactly because any big twists happen or anything crazy in general. I think one of the big reasons that X6 does fairly well is that it makes a lot of the interactions between the heroes and villains have meaning. We get a lot of time to understand who Gate is as a person, with details about his past being sprinkled in throughout the game.

The Maverick Hunters aren't seen as flawless heroes, Zero is blamed for the Nightmare, and in some ways, it's true. Zero's DNA was used to empower Gate's machinations. The sheer instability of his code is enough to drive Gate mad. However, with that in mind, I recognize that just because Zero's code is a risk, that doesn't mean this was an act that he condoned, and I also hold Gate accountable for doing the things that he does despite the influence. It goes both ways.

But not only that, this is one of the first games where it feels like its a direct sequel. Even though characters like Isoc are tools of Gate, it provides an interesting look into how politics play in the Mega Man X world, even after it has been ravaged by Eurasia.

Obviously in games like X2, we have to collect Zero's parts, and that's important, and it's continuity between the games, but we don't really feel a connection like how we see with X5 and X6. Now, it certainly helps that the events of X6 are based only a few weeks after X5, but the game's story was built with that continuity in mind-- and it feels less episodic and moreso building to something great. That all being said...the game isn't without it's narrative flaws.

This meme exists even in circles outside of MMX fandom :P

I also think Gate and Alia's relationship is one of the best things about this game. It's not something that I think anyone would have expected, but it's something that we learned that we wanted. Alia having a somewhat murky past and having to do something horrible creates some excellent tension and worldbuilding the series desperately needed. The game could have existed without Sigma and it would have been a complete story, and I think a lot of people recognize that. There's a lot going on with X6 and I think that's why it's one of the best. You're not racing against the clock or fighting a war, you're uncovering ghosts from the past and battling the ego of a brilliant man who had his life's work uprooted. It hits, and everything is connected in a way that feels satisfying to experience and fun to play through.

[vodid]

building upon an upcoming au with a spark color scale for.. reasons... in which the closer a descendant of primus you are, the golder your spark. pure gold is an immediate child of god. while the farther your lineage goes, the bluer it becomes

(spark range not drawn to scale. i'm sure it'd take a LOT of generations to get through it like that. but id think its easy to get through the gold; its the blue that has a wider range)

both are positive in their own ways. child of god? you are cherished. have a deep cool blue spark? you have impressive ancestry.

most cybertronians are in the far blue range as cybertron has a lot of history to it, and it could be in such a way that gold has become entirely obscure, only known through word of mouth and could have even ended up a myth to many. religion would uphold this legend (ugh y'all know i LOVE me some gold halo iconography and this would be SO fun to play with) but we all know how deep a religion runs through someone can vary, from entirely atheist to devout.

i can also see more extremist religions twisting it a little bit, in a sort of "the bluer your spark is, the farther from primus you are and thus the more of a sinner you are" and potentially to a point where your bloodline "should be removed from the world." or if you have a gold spark, you MUST have some religious duty to fulfill. primus sent you for a reason. the closer to gold it is, the more expectation there is for you to become a religious figure. this could lead to an actual pattern in differences of religious devotion between those with golder and bluer sparks, which in turn could affirm zealots even more (your spark is blue? no wonder you're not a follower of primus. shameful!)

the thing that really ruins that perspective though is the matrix. it doesn't discriminate against spark color when choosing its prime (have a gold spark? you're closer to primus. have a blue spark? your lineage has made you strong. have a spark in between? you have the past and the future with you.) even if the matrix might not be the will of primus himself, it is the will of his direct children, the original primes with sparks of the purest, untouched gold.

perhaps, despite how private sparks are (unless you are a religious figure), some may decorate their spark casing in a way that stained glass could give their sparks the appearance of a golder or bluer spark, depending on what they want. it can be easy to balance it to a silver, which can really hide which color they are

but don't be fooled, most do not care as they generally have a similar blue in the current day and age. your spark could be cyan, it could be pushing the lines of indigo, but at the end of the day, it's not gold. maybe you'll see a silver in the temple, maybe you'll see a priest with the barest hint of a gold tinge, but not many who have yellower sparks are left. (not to say NO religious figures have blue sparks. many, many do and even a prime may have the deepest blue anyone's seen)

it really doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things unless you're the purest of gold, which nobody is ...at least, not for a while.

now the super fun issue is: cybertronians, in a post-apocalyptic world, would have no idea if gold means a child of primus. or a child of unicron. ;3c

[eldritchamy]

Hi, its the former Feralist again.

The worldbuilding just really struck a raw nerve on first glance? On second glance it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought but it STILL infuriates me on a couple of points, mostly in implications that people failed to think through. I've calmed down about it, because it IS just kink, but there are parts of the worldbuilding that I still cannot touch without being viscerally upset.

(I could get into depth if you want, but once again, it is just kink; I don't expect kink writers to think about every last implication of their worldbuilding.)

Anyway, I am currently reading my way through Abscission, which is helping somewhat with certain things that upset me wrt disability and stuff. I'm really excited to read your suggestions!

Signed, A (Formerly) Committed Feralist

(P.S. *specific* things... What appeals to me wrt inevitability in D/s is less "I can MAKE you submit whether you want to or not" and more "We both know you'll submit, because we both know that you *want* me to dominate you", which is not always the vibe in HDG. Sometimes it is, though! And that's why I'm still here! Also that little bit near the end of Grand Folia where Celosia says something along the lines of "Its not that I'm an Affini and you're a terran and I'm better and you're lesser. Its that I would ALWAYS find you - in any time, in any place, in any form - because you ARE mine" really REALLY fucking got me.)

(P.P.S. I may have written a few hundred words of a fic about an Affini playing a convoluted game of cat and mouse with a cute, awkward, evasive little terran who may or may not be a feralist spy. The Affini can't make up her mind, because every time she catches her at something suspicious, there's always a perfectly plausible explanation! Its gonna drive her absolutely NUTS.)

It sounds like you're more into dubcon than noncon. On one hand, this is the noncon intox kink petplay bdsm scifi setting, so a certain amount of noncon is pretty baked into the world at a systematic level that you're either okay with or you aren't.

But on the bright side, there ARE fluffier options that skew more in the direction of what I think you're looking for, because the setting ALSO heavily features things like hurt/comfort, recovering from trauma, learning how to love yourself, and accepting that you deserve to BE loved and cared for by others.

Abscission is a really good one for a protagonist that consistently and very insistently reaffirms their consent at all times. Autumn is very sure about what she wants and frankly spends a lot of time bullying Solanum about not being afraid to give it to her.

From what you're saying, I think you would really like a newer story that's only 3 chapters in called Good Sensory. The tl;dr is that there's an independent human who's too ace and autistic to feel comfortable around most Affini (who tend to be very flirty and touchy and she can't stand a lot of their textures), and an Affini who is ALSO really ace and autistic instantly wants to give her the world. The Affini is VERY sensitive, patient, and accommodating with her neurodivergence and goes out of her way to be very direct about her feelings and intentions.

Marsha (the affini) literally has this internal monologue about Sally (the human): "I admittedly could twist her mind and dull her dislike of certain sensations, but it would be far more satisfying to simply alter her life such that she never experienced them in the first place."

The story was written basically in honor of how much the author (a very autistic woman) loves her very autistic partners, and the joy of giving them experiences that are comfortable for them.

In particular, I think you will REALLY like their first date in chapter 2, which is one of the most gentle and accommodating scenes I have read for all of HDG so far. It's SO sweet.

Someone in the server actually just collected a list of recommended fics that skew much more on the consensual side. NOTE THAT I HAVE NOT READ MOST OF THESE AND CANNOT PERSONALLY VOUCH FOR THEM.

Intake Interview Wild and Domestic Child of the Wilderness How To Tame A Polycule Fermata Art Exhibition Flotsam Heart Cross Pollination Surrogate Bloom Sycanthe Lantana Alone in the Dark, Together Germination Reading the Leaves Nurture and Acquisitions Perturbance A Normal Grocery Run During Which No Domestication Occurs No Gods No Masters (the primary storyline anyway) Hers to Have, Hers to Hold Petals and Vines Weeklong Stay at a J-Cafe (edited)

I AM currently about halfway through Petals and Vines and can absolutely confirm it's one of the cutest stories in the setting so far. I'm loving every minute of it. 500/10 adorable. Millie is everything, she is the light of my life and I would die for her. She's approaching DAWN levels of cute. DAWN LEVELS.

I would also add to this list:

Inosculate by SapphicSounds (the affini refuses to do ANYTHING with the protagonist until she explicitly asks for it)

Through The Looking Glass by PyxxieStyxx and TheMothCourt (the protagonist does get embarrassed/humiliated quite a bit, but she is VERY INTO IT and is given ample opportunity to back out or revoke her consent at any time, which she never does because she is having the time of her newly lesbian life right now)

I WOULD caution you against writing for the setting if you have mixed feelings about the worldbuilding, and especially if you haven't read some of the most foundational works of the setting like the original, Abscission, Divaricated, For A Better Universe, and a couple others. You should also familiarize yourself with the Rules and Axioms for the setting, as they're important for how the community functions as a creative space.

(The point is not taking things we like OUT of the sandbox to play with, it's bringing something of our own INTO the sandbox so we can play TOGETHER. But we play NICE in that sandbox, because we want the people who play in it after us to have that same joy we did. If your goal is to CHANGE something about the setting, then you're not playing the same game as everyone else in the sandbox.)

I'm pretty confident at this point that I have a good feel for the lore, vibe, and mechanics of the setting to comfortably start writing for it, but even I'm still holding off because there are some other Big Foundational Stories (Divaricated, Wellness Check, No Gods No Masters, probably Nurture and Acquisitions) that I want to experience and understand first, because when I'm ready to start contributing, I want to make sure I do it right.

Also, there actually IS a story literally CALLED Cat And Mouse, and it's one of the top 10 stories in the setting (sorted for Kudos on AO3). I cannot personally vouch for it because I haven't read it and don't know anything about it beyond that it's a Predator/Prey dynamic, but it has the same author as Good Sensory and her stories (though incredibly varied, tone wise) haven't let me down yet. Sheepwave is a very evocative writer and whatever kind of mood she's going for her in her stories, you're gonna REALLY feel that mood.

Sweet Poppy (one of her more famous stories) is a blood curdling psychological horror story. I am terrified of Poppy. She's easily the scariest Affini I've read yet. That's a HARD story to read if you can't stomach it, but it's very well done. It's the kind of story that you can't stop reading and ALSO it makes you sick to your stomach.

The only other story I've read from the setting so far that filled me with anywhere near that kind of nauseating dread was Independence Is Easy by SapphicSounds. If you're REALLY into doll kink, you might love it, but if you're not, it's absolutely a horror story. I don't regret reading it, but I was definitely way more into the first half than the second half. The protagonist DEFINITELY needed to be domesticated, but not by this specific Affini. I've seen lots of people be REALLY obsessed with it, but based on what I can gather from your tastes, I would NOT recommend this one to you.

In regards to the worldbuilding, the main thing to remember is that HDG is at its core a WILDLY SELF-INDULGENT kink setting where the most immutable aspect is that everyone deserves to be loved and cared for and given a better life. It was made by gay auDHD trans women FOR gay auDHD trans women, and the real fantasy is just that there will always be someone there who loves us unconditionally while accepting us for our truest selves and telling us that we deserve to not hurt anymore. All of the scifi worldbuilding exists to supplement that. The Affini are overpowered by design.

It's not intended to be realistic, it's intended to be wish fulfilment where inevitability is coming for you, and that inevitability is kind, and loving, and PROFOUNDLY horny.

[tobiasdrake]

You've written before about how Cell is a twisted exaggeration of Goku's ethos (and all of Dragon Ball's, if you can even separate them), the pursuit of martial arts mastery and self-improvement at the expense of everybody's lives.

I don't want to talk about that; I want to talk about the *opposite* of that.

I want to talk about Androids 17 and 18.

More than any other recurring superpowered characters, they are completely uninterested in martial arts as a discipline or even a hobby. Their fighting styles are simple, direct, and mostly lacking in signature techniques; the most distinctive, 17's energy shield, is so practical it's boring. This is all thematically appropriate, as they don't have ki and therefore have no use for the philosophical groundings in martial arts meant to help channel ki.

As antagonists, this makes their relationships with the rest of the cast pretty clear. As allies...I think Toriyama had trouble coming up with ideas for them for a while. Through the Buu arc and the first several arcs of the Super anime the Androids had no significant combat roles. When they finally get recruited for the Tournament of Power, though, their fighting really leans into this; the Androids have no interest in studying novel special moves or testing themselves against new opponents, so they have no compunctions about interrupting or opportunistically eliminating their enemies. Arguably 17 being the sole survivor is a cosmic validation of this pragmatic attitude.

It's also a nice underdog moment in general. Something I really like about Dragon Ball's tournament arcs is that they're creative with how they resolve.

Typically, in a tournament arc, we're there to see our boy conquer all the competition. That's what is expected. Dragon Ball has featured nine tournaments. Ten if you count the Anoyoichi Budokai or Other World Tournament in Z filler.

21st Tenkaichi Budokai

Uranai Baba Tournament

22nd Tenkaichi Budokai

23rd Tenkaichi Budokai

Cell Games

25th Tenkaichi Budokai

28th Tenkaichi Budokai

Universe 7/8 Tournament

Tournament of Power

That's a lot of tournaments. Some didn't get expanded into full-blown tournament arcs but that's not the point. Point is, of those tournaments, Goku only actually wins two of them. That's including the Anoyoichi Budokai, as he was the last man standing in the ring but he and Paikuhan were formally disqualified for a rule violation midway through their match so it doesn't "count" as a win.

Dragon Ball goes to great length to avoid having Goku just eat all the competitors and win the gold in each and every tournament. In almost all of them, including Tournament of Power, he is centrally situated in the climax of the arc. But they're creatively written in such a way to keep things more interesting than "Goku wins yet again" would be.

The use of 17's lack of ki signature to allow him to sneak his way to the end after Goku and Frieza have double-KO'd themselves to take out Jiren is a great example of Dragon Ball having its cake and eating it. Goku gets his climactic fight, but the tournament gets a more interesting and creative outcome than it would have if Goku just shitstomped Jiren off a ledge and claimed the trophy.

[cyanidecrystal]

SPOILERS FOR SHERLOCK AND CO. AHEAD.

Ok so I've been listening to Sherlock and co. for months now, not really cause I'm a big fan od the podcast, more so that I have adhd and I'm a fan of background noise. I've been enjoying a lot of it, it's easy on the ears. Comfy. But I have some criticisms that I feel should be at least put out there.

1. The way the show treats disability

So we all know this is the first Sherlock adaptation with a canon autistic Holmes and I appreciate that I really do, but I'm afraid that's where the positive disability rep really ends.

Whenever a disabled character appears the the episodes after that, you can bet your ass they're going to be the villain. There has been a lot written about the horrible DID portrayal, but I'd also like to call attention to the mentally ill stalker guy, who not only is shown as a deranged murderer but we get to witness a graphic torture scene with him. How fun.

The last one (so far) is the very obvious twist villain of The Sign of Four and I was really hoping I was wrong when I guessed he'd be the bad guy because he seemed like a real step in the right direction if he turned out good. Sadly, as I said if a character outside of the main cast is disabled they are evil. That's just how it is.

This is obviously a very old stereotype. Showing the villain as unstable and mentally ill or disabled as a shortcut to let the audience know they're dangerous or evil. Even though in real life, mentally ill and disabled people are way more likely to be victims than perpetrators.

2. Sherlock's violent outbursts

Ok, this point I'm way less confident with so if someone knows the books better and can tell me I'm wrong I'll accept that but does anyone else think that Holmes is really quick to hurt people in this series?

I've been kinda letting it slide for ages now but in a lot of the episodes it seems like they're going normally and then suddenly Sharlock starts torturing people.

The reason I've let it slide is because they're usually actual killers so u know what that's not so bad, but in the latest episode he just goes off on some low level guy, who seemed mostly just kinda scared.

Even thought these people are always bad guys it really takes me out. It's so jarring. Idk.

3. Watson bullying

Yeah, just hear me out, okay?

I get that this is kinda their dynamic but between Mariana, John and Sherlock, Watson is constantly getting teased and bullied and it usually seems like he doesn't rly enjoy it.

It's usually about things he's seriously self conscious about. Then when he gets a love interest/friend who's actually nice to him they act even worse. I know it's comic relief so I just let it slide till now.

Until the last episode where Mariana seriously crossed the line. The fact she continues recording not only after being asked not to but also after he thanks her for not recording in such a sweet and passive way that makes me think he expected them not to honor his wishes.

I really hope this causes some kind of argument or fight or anything between them, but I expect it will just end up with John saying "you were right, guys I needed to get back to it" and never think of it again.

Anyway, I'm still listening to the series so don't take it as some bitter hater ramble. It's just some things I've noticed that have been bothering me for weeks and weeks. Feel free to agree or disagree or add your own thoughts.

[icharchivist]

can you allow me to be a Grade A Bitch for a sec

(this is a DA4 AND a FF7Remake Hate Post)(but also i swear i'm making relevent points there. I think.)(i mean beyond just being a hater.)

so for the tldr the original FF7 has been one of the biggest impactful stories of my life when i was an early teen, and i was an adult when i got into DA and DA is part of the few stories that are like. super mega important to me. I hold both stories very dearly into my heart.

I was really looking forward the Remake and VG, mostly optimistic about what would come, trying not to set my expectations too high either.

But i ended up really disliking the direction both took so it's my cross to cringe, i guess.

But I also remember Epler talking about the ff7r saying it's an incredible game and even saying stuff like "this is the best and only way you should do a remake/a continuation" which means i'm also just 😬 because i fundamentally disagree.

I wrote a 10k words reviews of things that annoyed me about ff7r and like.

Some of the elements i was already hating in the RG happened in VG and i don't even know how on purpose it was 💀

on the complains i had:

-The lack of agency of the Main Character/Player.

FF7OG is about dealing with identity a lot and the OG does that by giving choices to how Cloud will approach some situations which doesn't amount to much but at least are because of dialogue choices, and the conclusion is "every dialogue choices isn't himself talking actually". Once Cloud has dealt with his identity problem in the OG you don't get to pick his dialogues for him anymore because he figured himself out; But still it gives some branching storyarc. In the Remake those options are fully replaced with "different branching depending on the number of quests you do with each girls" On top of that actual choices Cloud makes in the OG (like crossdressing) ends up imposed on him with the remake.

And i'm thinking about how one of the big problem with VG is that there is no real control on Rook. Even the dialogue wheels' options aren't so different from one another because you have a set path. The only thing you can change is the romance per se and even there it will depend more on how many quests you do with your companions than picking specific choices.

-"Weird on Flashbacks" They were super weird on how to time Cloud's flashback which also therefore completely ruins the 2nd Act twist when Sephiroth manipulates Cloud making him think none of his memories are real.

DA4 meanwhile is just weird about the flashbacks, you stumble upon them so they're not exactly linked together and all of that.

-The Pacing Complained about the major padding in the remake which was just very visible when you see a part of the game that takes me 8 hours in the OG took me 80 hours to clear in the remake. Like come on. And while some thing are relevent some others are just really annoying, or try to further a character arc at the expense of the plot (re: giving Barret two chapters (yay!) by making so the team doesn't go to save Aerith right away after she was taken to protect Barret's daughter (wait what?))

DA4? same thing. You keep being distracted from the main story by padding quests of having to take care of your companions' unfinished business instead of focusing on the main story. And then the ending goes too fast and with a terrible pacing.

quoting:

"-The Fear of Committing to the Fucked Up aspect of the game". DA4 took the hard pill out of this one.

In the OG the horrors Shinra pulls are truly horrifying, but there's also ambiguity like -- when Avalanche bombed the Reactors and the news said it killed many people, was it our bomb that did that? or was that propaganda? The game will give you no answer and will just have Barret and Reeve fight over it, whether it may have been something they had to do still against Shinra. Avalanche isn't all white in their actions, and because we stay on Avalanche's point of views there's aspects of Shinra we can't know about, and can't know therefore if they're THAT evil. (i mean. they probably are. but the game leave it up to discuss because then the convo between Barret and Reeve hits harder.)

In the Remake? Don't worry bestie like every bad things Avalanche did was from another branch, and Shinra purposingly made the explosion worse to kill people to frame you and start a war with another country. you did nothing wrong, they're using you, you're fine <3

The ecological aspect of the game is also severely undercut by the remake to focus more on Sephiroth, therefore removing any of the early political nuances of the game that is supposed to serve to set up the allegory Sephiroth represents.

in da4 do i even need to say it. We barely talk abotu the bad sides of Thedas, when we do it's from like, arguably horrible people, cultists, they're not regular people on the street, so you don't get to think about it. The Evanuris? just evil for the sake of evil. Don't worry about it. And instead of elaborating more on them, it focus back on Solas in a way that betrays what he represented in the previous game.

never thought i'd be comparing Solas and Sephiroth like that. Look what you make me do.

-Moralizing Revolutionaries for Taking Drastic Approach.

FF7 OG does have this one convo with Reeve i mentioned but in general the game mostly supports Avalanche's actions because they have to take drastic measures because Shinra IS that bad. Reeve is biased as a member of Shinra who was trying to change it from the inside and was also fed their propaganda, but he turns around eventually and commits fully to Avalanche when the rest of Shinra betrays him and shows him that there is no peaceful alternative for him to take.

In the Remake however you get multiple convo trying to have them wash their hands clean of it. Tifa is constantly doubting what they're doing (she wouldn't. let Tifa be angry. Why is Tifa no longer angry in the remake.), Barret not even being sure of his goal, clearly telling us the worst of Avalanche is another branch, "see we didn't mean to bomb the reactor to make a statement, we just wanted to make it unfunctional" untrue Jessie but okay!

But also the President of Shinra gets a whole new scene lecturing Barret about how he's not a revolutionary, he's just doing that to bloaster his own pride! that he's not mad Shinra killed his people, but mad that they don't look like hero. And Since then the convo is stopped by Sephiroth killing the president, you never get to talk about it ever again, almost validating him.

(which is repurposing a scene from later in the game that did call Barret's motivation selfish because he was in for the revenge more than for a change on earth, but THAT DOESNT MEAN IT'S ABOUT FAME AND PRIDE????? HELLO?????)

Because, you see, Revolutions being violent are bad :( you can't change the world by being violent :( you must always feel like you're punishing yourself for it :( oh and if you care a little too much actually have you considered that your desire is Selfish and therefore it doesn't matter?

the wild thing is that in the OG the conclusion was more like "yeah we're "selfish" in the way we want to save the planet, but that's because it means we want to keep living in it, keep making a future for people in it, we have to care personally to see it through". But there in the remake the only time it's brought up is to shame Barret for not being authenthic in his goal to save the world.

This also happened to my husband Solas, where all of the extreme positions he took were shamed by the narrative, and framed as him being selfish for caring so much, and don't worry you don't get to see revolutionary do violent things anymore, that's soooo DA in 2011 we don't do that anymore.

Who needs to talk about ecology or slavery when you can make the villain who was always a symbolism of how this society has failed people to be Bad People Because They're Bad, Guys.

-Also on that Tifa point: Girlboss means you're not allowed to want to take revenge anymore and you have to embrace your position as a motherly figure.

Tifa is SOOOO angry in the OG and is like. Downright mean at time?? she insults the boys really often? Because she's traumatize, she wants revenge against Shinra, when Aerith gets kidnapped she doesn't have time for the boys' nonsense when Aerith was taken because of her, so she stresses and insults the guys to move faster because Aerith is in danger.

In the Remake, don't worry, she doesn't want revenge. She wants to just make a change in the world! but not like this :( not with violence. Barret has to encourage her with "violence is the answer" and he barely believes himself when he says that. Instead Tifa's motivation becomes much more about protecting Marlene, the little girl she helps out. And so when Aerith gets kidnapped saving Marlene for Tifa, Tifa does the normal thing to.... ask Cloud to give up on saving Aerith because both her and Barret are very tired and Aerith knew what she was doing and both Tifa and Barret need to grief for a while. It's only after 2 chapters worth of content that weren't in the OG that Tifa suddenly remembers her original character and sneaks on Cloud when he sneaks out and says "i thought about it, but actually i can't just do nothing for Aerith, so i'm coming with you :(". Cool. In the OG she nearly threatened Cloud that if they didn't go asap to save Aerith she will Do Something. So then when you go save Aerith instead of Tifa nearly starting a fight with Barret because they have different plans to save Aerith and Tifa doesn't vibe with Barret's, it's Cloud and Barret who fights and Tifa who is the voice of reasons going "ahah guys calm down :)"

Because you see, women cannot want revenge. They cannot be angry. They cannot have a selfish desire out of her selfish relationships. Out of feeling personally wronged. We don't want women like that. Women needs to just scold guys for being silly boys for being traumatized by what she's stronger about. Don't forget to emphasis she really just wants the best for others people, especially those she's motherly about. Because a woman has to be a sweet mother figure first.

This also happened to my fiend Mythal, see. Stripped of her desire for revenge, her vindication, because "wow Solas is so silly wanting to fight back against people who hurt us, i care about the people and the daughter i abused all her life now."

Don't worry; She has the last wise word when Solas is being silly. That's what Women are for.

next point again, quoting:

"-No respect for the mysteries of the saga."

Listen for more ff7 reasoning read the blog post i linked, for da4 do i need to say it. the way they just handwaved some lore we have theorized about for more than a decade, and the fact they almost didn't address it? (they revealed that the "elves=spirits" reveal was supposed to be revealed by Anaris but since some people wouldn't play Bellara quest they realized they had to tell it elsewhere. Imagine that. imagine THAT.)

ff7R was so convinced people would know aspects of the saga so they didn't bother treating those aspects with respect. both game wrote themselves with "here what we expect the players to know about us, and what players wouldn't know, and only then we'll care what we talk about" instead of telling a story.

re my ff7 post but i got upset at how they spelled the lore out in ff7 way earlier than in the OG and in a way less subtle way, and honestly, the lack of subtility in the lore reveals counts also for da4.

-Sephiroth/Solas are fundamentally different from previous games because they want to sell you the aura of the character without any regard to what those characters represents, and they get away with it by just handwaving it with "well they're manipulators anyway so of course they would" instead of genuinely focusing on the fact they are people who have been pushed by the system they were a part of all their lives and why the fuck am i NOW putting comparaison between Sephiroth and Solas; It's going to piss me off so i'll stop -- OH GOD IS THAT WHY THEY HAD SOLAS STAB VARRIC. REPRESENTATIVE. REPRESENTATIVE TALK TO ME. BECAUSE I'LL BE IN YOUR WALLS.

-Meanwhile also no nuance with the villains.

That's a bit carried over from FF7OG on here except when it comes to Sephiroth, but they somehow made the Evil People Even More Evil, Reeve is much more conflicted about being Part of Shinra than he was at first in the OG, and Sephiroth was stripped of his complexity since it's AC!Sephiroth, not OG!Sephiroth.

But no nuance. in my DA4 villains. "people are just bad sometimes."

"-Desamorcing any emotional scene by the new mysteries." dfjdlfkjdfjfdhd THEY'RE THE SAME GAMESSS IM SO

sorry ff7r bad with the whole "those are the ghosts that are maintaining the original timeline and it's bad uwu" but this wording applies to everything about the Executors, fuck the Executors, i'm out of fucks to give.

-paraphrasing "why would you pretend a character who's death is important is still alive just to play with us until reality will eventually settles in" i'm this close to say Varric=Zack the situation is dire.

"-Aerith and Nanaki becoming dev's mouthpieces at the expense of their own character arc." i don't want to get deep into it but legit sooo many chara in VG do that, especially when they criticize Solas. Morrigan first and formost because of her situation, but eventually characters will just starts to act out of characters to tell you what the devs want you to think. Re: the Murals discussions scenes.

Also both Aerith/Nanaki and Solas who are the "last of their kind" in some way and instead of it being to further their characterization, it's just used so you get some lore info, infodumping, and then disregard them as soon as you do.

-The Themes are no longer theming.

Big Themes like Ecology, War, Capitalism, science destroying Nature, Nuclear power, ect on FF7 side, or Slavery, War, Religion, on DA side, are fully taking a backseat over personal plotline that takes away from the impact those had on the world.

FF7 becomes about how those specific fuckos are stuck in a fate loop and have to replay fate over and over again, making them special while in the OG they were a bunch of nobodies doing what they could with the issue they had, while in DA4 you're so focused on people's personal regret you lose the big picture of how the world actually works.

And in turn therefore the new themes are incompatible about the original themes.

Solas must let go of the past because screw the ancient elves. FF7R players are put in a position of asking themselves "sooo will the characters we know die die this time?" and the game will bait and switch it because "maybe you can challenge fate!" when one of the big themes of the OG is "the destructive consequences of the Denial Stage of Grief."

-In the end both games are telling you to let go of what the previous games tell you to enter into a "new era" for a "newer audience" that apparently can't handle moral nuance, systemic problems, and stuff like that.

"-It feels unfinished."

And that's just for stuff i can compare to reading my FF7R review at the time!!

to me FF7R is a bad game because it betrays the themes of the Main Game, mischaracterize most of the characters especially for the sake of new, badly written twists, and it completely refuses to let you Think about the Society the characters live in. Don't worry about it. Blame Solas/Sephiroth. It's fate/the Executors. You don't need to think about the system that led to those things. You don't need to think about your influence in those. you don't need to think.

But hey it's escapism media right. Enjoy your witch looking for her cat in the Alps. I'm going to seethe, for having starting my year playing ff7r to see if i was too hard on it only to feel like i wasn't hard enough, and finishing it on DA4 where the betrayal came out of nowhere.

And i wouldn't drive as much the comparaison if i hadn't seen DA devs praise the damn game like. Maybe this and "who's Zevran again" should have been the two Red Flags to make me think i shouldn't care, actually.

[pixelgrotto]

The Shining Lost Crown

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is finally out on Steam today, and everyone should play it. I'm really hoping that a large audience can finally appreciate this game for what it's worth, because I feel like it received a double whammy of negativity upon reveal and not-so-high sales upon release.

Part of this unfortunate combo is due to gamers being crappy, while the rest is Ubisoft being Ubisoft. When The Lost Crown's first trailer hit in 2023, it initially seemed like it had replaced the long-dormant, long-awaited, long-troubled remake of the most-loved PoP game, The Sands of Time. That remake has since been rebooted for a release date in 2026, but it didn't stop some from lamenting that Sands of Time 2.0 had been ditched for a sidescroller. "Looks like a mobile game," cried members of the YouTube peanut gallery. Others focused their ire on the main character, who is Black, and the trailer's accompanying music, which was a rap song. I read at least two comments that said "More like Prince of Wakanda," which made me want to slap a bitch through my screen.

But then the game was released, and it got lots of positive press. As someone who'd felt the burning need to defend The Lost Crown from folks making "Prince of Wakanda" comments, I was enthused to see them eat crow. Alas, Ubisoft made the decision to release the PC version of the game not on Steam, but on the meh Epic Games Store and on their Ubisoft Connect launcher, a piece of software that nobody uses because they want to. And so, despite strong reviews, The Lost Crown came out of the gate slightly hampered.

At last this error can be rectified, and hopefully everyone can see that this is the PoP revival we needed. Even though series creator Jordan Mechner wasn't specifically involved in The Lost Crown, this game feel like a natural evolution of the formula he established in 1989 right off of the heels of Karateka. PoP started out as a tough-as-nails platformer with an emphasis on exploration and cinematic scenes - it only makes sense that it should transition into a tough-as-nails Metroidvania with style and storytelling influenced by anime.

Prior to this game's reveal, the PoP franchise had been floundering, trying in vain to recapture the mainstream appeal that it had snagged during the Sands of Time trilogy in the mid-2000s. Proof of the struggles to reimagine the franchise have emerged in since-leaked videos showing reboots that were thrown away by Ubisoft in favor of more Assassin's Creed games. (Hi, I'm one of those folks who remembers that the first Assassins' Creed was supposed to be a PoP spinoff, and resents the fact that the Prince floundered in obscurity for over a decade while AssCreed got over two dozen games.)

But the wait was worth it. Ubisoft Montpellier (the one team at Ubisoft that I like, since they made Rayman and seem to rise up every five years to drop a banger before disappearing back into the mist) reinvented PoP by looking at what AssCreed had become and then veering in an entirely different direction. Instead of an overbudget open world experience littered with microtransactions, we have simply a good ass video game that focuses on the trademarks of the Prince - sweet parkour moves, tricky combat, and time travel shenanigans.

That said, you don't actually play as full-on nobility in The Lost Crown - you play as Sargon, a cocky member of an elite team of bodyguards dubbed the Immortals. These larger-than-life anime figures are tasked to go to Mount Qaf to rescue the Prince, and Sargon's connection to the title "Prince of Persia" is interesting and not the obvious "oh, he's just the Prince in disguise" twist that I expected.

All of this is to say that the plot of The Lost Crown is solid, and there's a certain amount of respect paid to the source material that goes beyond the "vaguely inspired by the Arabian Nights" schtick of every other game in the franchise. As should be the case in 2024 for something with "Persia" in its title, actual people of Middle Eastern descent worked on this, and apparently the Farsi dub is excellent.

As for Sargon, his design does boast the Killmonger dreadlocks that have become a tropey shorthand for "cool Black guy" in media. But aside from this, he's great, and he really grows over the course of the story. Everything about his dual-wielding fighting style to his double jump is excellent, and you'll need to master those moves to make it through The Lost Crown's boss fights, which are intricate, multistaged affairs that toss Sargon in arenas against huge foes who have their names presented in ALL CAPS along with a subtitle - for instance, "JAHANDAR, Guardian of the Citadel."

I'd been cocurrently working through Elden Ring for my fulltime job of writing game guides as I started playing The Lost Crown, and after dying for the eighth time against Jahandar, I realized that this game's emphasis on bosses combined with Sargon's ability to quaff healing potions a limited number of times (and take a limited number of hits) was awfully Soulsy. That said, The Lost Crown isn't a full-on Soulslike, but there's borrowed DNA here. Aside from the bosses and healing, collectible lore items that reveal extended backstory lie in abundance, and Sargon's moveset demands the sort of attention and mastery that Soulslikes promote. There have been some stunning combo videos showcasing everything he can do in combat, and outside of fights, expect to make Sargon navigate through some absurd platforming sections replete with spikes farther than the eye can see.

Honestly, there were a few instances in The Lost Crown that made me curse modern gaming's love affair with Soulslikes and grunt, "WHY DO GAMES THESE DAYS HAVE TO BE SO HARD." Then again, I was playing on Hero difficulty level, which is a step up from Normal and meant to be tough, so I have nobody but myself to blame. And the original PoP was no walk in the park either, even if you can speedrun it in less than a half hour these days if you know what you're doing. Overall, the challenge level in The Lost Crown is fair, especially because the game presents you with a wide array of accessibility options, and you can lower the difficulty at any time.

I think if you've played Hollow Knight, which I've seen The Lost Crown getting compared with a lot, you'll be ready for all of the obstacles that Sargon faces. I haven't, despite obtaining it via one Steam sale or another several years ago, but now I want to. Both games share an absolutely huge map in common, and as someone who enjoys Metroidvanias but is mostly used to the two franchises that gave the genre its title - Castlevania and Metroid - seeing Mount Qaf spread out before me on the map screen in a seemingly endless fashion was way larger than anything I'd previously witnessed. Games today, man. They're not just hard, they're big.

I for one am grateful that PoP is back in action with such a big title, and with the recent release of The Rogue Prince of Persia only a few months after this game, suddenly I am inundated with more Persia content than I've had in years. Maybe Ubisoft's gearing up to milk this franchise AssCreed style, which seems to be a possibility that I'll be forced to call them out on if it ever occurs.

In the meantime, I'm just glad to be performing death-defying wall jumps over beds of spikes in a fantasy Persia once again. If you missed it the first time around and love Metroidvanias, platformers, or Soulslikes, don't delay. The Lost Crown shines like headware fit for a prince, and this is a game more than worthy of your time.

[deltaengineering]

Winter Anime 2024: Payday

Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge hasn't ended yet, but I am quite certain that at this point it's unsalvageable. I can give it one thing: it's going for a specific ~vibe~, and nails it. Why anyone would want to evoke the ~vibe~ of "deservedly forgotten 2000s sci-fi seasonal" is beyond me (I won't provide an example, because if I could remember it it wasn't forgettable enough), but there you go. Truly, Bones have outdone themselves with this celebration of their 25 year legacy.

It's hard to even start, but the one thing everyone is certain about is as good as any: The plotting and structure of this show is a complete mess. Some consider this "ambitious", but I don't think an ambition of "let's throw in every half baked thing we can think of and try to glue it together with proper nouns" is worth celebrating. We've got insipid and illogical worldbuilding that ultimately goes nowhere, brave political statements on the level of "slavery sure is bad but don't be rude about it", metaphor bombshells like a character who schemes behind the scenes and styles themselves the "puppetmaster" and constant plot twists that explain things long after I've given up on even trying to make sense of anything. That's where the ~vibe~ comes from: everything that has ever vaguely annoyed you in a mid anime is somehow in this one all at once.

This wouldn't be so bad if it had characters that are entertaining on their own, but here we meet the most bizarre creative decision: the one thing it has going for it is the Diet Dirty Pair banter between Rouge and Naomi, which elevates a few episodes to "decent", but of course they spend half the show seperated. And by themselves, Rouge likes chocolate and is as dumb as a brick with charisma to match, while Naomi is sassy and mysterious and that's it. The rest of the characters (and naturally, there are far too many of them) are either irritating or at best just bland.

So if this is Bones pulling out all the stops, at least you should expect the production values to be high, but even that is a mixed bag. Metallic Rouge looks quite mediocre for the most part until it's time for a dedicated Sakuga Cut™, which might be a fight or alternatively just a random one of the dozens of boring hallway conversations (that Crunchyroll of all things is treating this as a joke really says it all). And even the fights aren't all that great, because this show somehow manages to have bad sound mixing and music beds that I'd call interesting in theory but don't work well as a score. At least it has a stellar OP, but even that seemed a lot better before the show actually came out.

I might bump up the score a point if it ends exceptionally well (which it won't), but even in that case... it's still bad. Please go back to sourcing your deep plots from Weekly Shounen Jump, Bones. ~3/10

Bucchigiri...

Bucchigiri..., on the other hand, has the exact opposite problem: While Metallic Rouge is a convoluted tangle of inconsequential plot, this show is just happy to phone it in. It almost feels like a rerun of fall 2021, where Metallic Rouge is the new Fena and Bucchigiri... is the new Takt:Op. It leaves an agreeable first impression, with a bold, colorful look, unusual setting, expressive direction and kinetic animation – but everything not entirely superficial is an excuse, and a "dog ate my homework" level of excuse at that. If all you want is bromantic burly brettyboys going through the motions, get your fanfic pen ready, but don't expect the show itself to provide significantly more than character designs. It doesn't help that the main character is particularly bad, with his gimmick being "annoying disinterested horndog". These non-characters keep going in circles slapping each other's asses and being not very funny for two thirds of the show, until a very generic "sensitive best friend is tempted by evil" drama plot appears because even yaoi shippers realize that eventually something has to happen, which boils down to Matakara going around slapping everyone's asses again, but now it's supposed to be sad. And then that doesn't work at all, because for character drama you need characters. Who knew.

Of course the funny bit is that this is pretty much what I asked for. I gave SKOO shit for only being good at the wacky parts while the heartfelt drama and more fleshed out characters fell flat. Well, now the director's followup work is just the wacky bits and feels completely hollow for it, and then the exaggerated drama lacks anything to back it up. Maybe just do better, I suppose. Oh yeah, and this also hasn't ended yet but with how completely predictable it is I feel like I've already seen the final episode. ~4/10

Undead Unluck

You can take the Shounen out of the Jump but you can't take the Jump out of the Shounen. I don't usually touch the Weekly Shounen Jump brand for good reasons, but Undead Unluck definitely had one of the strongest first impressions for one in a long time, if only because it has leads that aren't Goku and Vegeta again. But it also had a flashy, devil-may-care attitude with absurd nonsense happening left and right, a bonkers setting that is actually interesting in its own right and production value to back it up. In short, it was Fire Force with arguably better characters. When it's firing on all cylinders, Undead Unluck is a very fun time.

The problem is that Undead Unluck is firing on all cylinders about as often as a Cadillac V8-6-4 with a flaky ignition distributor. Primarily it has a massive padding problem: The amount of recapping and flashbacks to things that just happened is patently ridiculous and I say that as someone who has watched two seasons of My Hero Academia. If you include things like OP and ED, I feel like calling roughly a third of this show's runtime literally repeated content is not a wild exaggeration. And that's only literally repeated content – since this is Weekly Shounen Jump, there is also a lot of restating of facts and tedious explanations. I can't even blame this just on Jump Editorial, because a lot of the time it seems to be in service of hitting the right cliffhangers – but if both source and adaptation have severe pacing issues, it all compounds to the worst pacing in any show I've seen a considerable amount of.

And then, even in the coinflip of time when it's actually doing anything, it's obviously not always at its best either. This is honestly acceptable from a show that goes wild – with these you have to take the bad with the good. I didn't care much for the lazily metafictional final arc for example, but it would be perfectly fine if it didn't (quite expectedly at this point) do its core statement twice in as many episodes in a row, only with more screaming the second time. It's good when it's good, sure, but it would have to be outstandingly brilliant to make the whole thing worth it – which it isn't, so it's not. 5/10

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete (Gushing over Magical Girls)

My standard line regarding any extra spicy fanservice anime show has always been "you know you can find real porn on the internet easily, right". Gushing over Magical Girls (which is, aint gonna lie, a genius title translation) is a pretty good example why: Even though it is pretty damn explicit, it still isn't on the level of actual porn, and then the extended moaning and wriggling sequences just take up so much of the time that it gets tedious pretty fast. And a lot of the "other" content of the show is just blatantly an excuse to make the porn happen. There's some edgy comedy too, but I think characters like Kiwi are more annoying than anything, so that didn't do much for me either. Then the middle section of the show is an excursion where our protagonist villains go sex up a couple of more villainous villains, which feels like it's missing the point even by its own standards. Also, be aware that with hentai content come hentai production values, and this one is definitely below average. None of this is particularly unusual.

However, I kept watching this one, and the reason is pretty simple: I don't actually object to spiciness in principle, and in the beginning the show did a pretty good job of portraying Utena's awakening to a bunch of fetishes. That she then started an awkward on-and-off anonymous BDSM relationship with an actual magical girl was even better. I honestly have to say that this is a brilliant concept, even if it wasn't executed to a level where I was certain it was intentional. Also, while it's arguably the "main plot", it's a fairly small part of the show and when it didn't show up much in the middle I was sure the show had lost me. I do have to admit though that against all odds, Gushing does stick the landing, with a final episode that really pays off that plotline in the best way you could reasonably (see above) expect. It's a bit of a rough ride, but this show delivers.

So I'm two minds about Gushing over Magical Girls. If you just consider it a hentai OVA that somehow escaped to television (which is not an unreasonable standpoint), it feels surprisingly ambitious and well thought out. But as a regular TV show, it just has too many weaknesses to ignore. Still, even though I can't call it good, I still think it's a more interesting curio than the score might make it sound. 5/10

Hime-sama "Goumon" no Jikan desu ('Tis Time For "Torture", Princess)

Oh no, this has "torture" in the title, what could it mean? Yeah, I think at this point everyone knows that it's a joke (one might even say... The Joke) and let's leave it at that. It feels like every season there's some fluffy and cute comedy that I quite enjoy for no profound reason. The Alleged Torture here simply doesn't do anything wrong, manages to find just about enough angles to its one joke to not get boring, and features nice designs and enough production value to deliver a smooth ride all the way to the end. It occasionally does something beyond its one joke, and that tends to turn out cute and chill as well, like Tortura's modest OL home life. Really the only thing I don't like about this is the manzai reaction antics of the sword – explaining the joke is always questionable, but it's especially so when there is exactly one punchline that never changes. In any case, this one is hardly essential and there are many others like it, but sometimes you just want something sweet and inoffensive that still puts the effort in. And this is definitely one of those. 6/10

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Apothecary Diaries)

I feel like I should like this show a lot more than I actually do. This is because it is made of great ingredients: Very nice looks, a setting with tons of potential, mostly interesting characters and in particular an amazing main character. Maomao is just great, she has tons of personality and a funny oddball charm that is tempered by a smart and stoic attitude. The beginning of the show, where Maomao plays the streetwise intruder into the stilted world of court intrigue and manages to cut through the bullshit like nobody else could, is pretty excellent.

However, as the show went on, it became clear that I just don't agree with the direction the plot takes. Of course it turns out that Maomao is actually deeply involved into the court drama in half a dozen ways (without ever telling the audience about it, which smells of retcon). Of course the focus shifts to other characters like Jinshi or later on Lakan, who are far less interesting. Of course there is a romance with Jinshi on the horizon. I don't want to be that guy that is mad that a show doesn't turn out to be what they had wished it to be, but it's still a letdown.

And that's not mentioning that the daily business of the show, various levels of detective work, is hardly solid gold either. It's just bad at mystery writing – most "cases" turn out to be massively contrived and then Maomao walks in and just guesses the solution out of nowhere. The large-scale mystery (who is Jinshi, really?) is not much of a mystery at all but Maomao can't figure it out because apparently she has to solve these complicated and tiny problems before she can realize the simple and obvious large one. And then there's the drama, which is effective enough in the moment but seems to be mostly built on a foundation of allegedly smart people acting much more stupid than they should.

So overall, I think this is still a good show simply because Maomao is fun to watch no matter what, but I just don't think the writing can quite hold up its part of the bargain, and that is kind of a bummer. 7/10

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Bang Bravern arrived with a simple, but quite amusing thesis statement: What if you had a tacticool, Armored Core-like mecha setting but then everything changed when a super robot show invaded. That's pretty funny. It also just so happens that Masami Oobari knows that the likes of Top Gun tend to have a certain undertone, and also made Bang Bravern explicitly homoerotic. That's even funnier. Add to this the fact that the epic super robot action genre is inherently hilariously over the top, and you have the makings of a very amusing show. Now, I could just leave it at that, because that's what Bravern is. An over the top and self-aware love letter to the super robot shows of old, with a couple of additional comedic angles.

In other words, it's like all super robot shows that have been made in the last two decades. Yeah, Bravern is undeniably quite entertaining, but I also don't think it's anywhere as unique as people seem to think it is. The "super in a world of reals" joke in particular doesn't really come into play that often, apart from when that side of the show keeps introducing dozens of characters that then proceed to not do anything apart from standing on the sidelines. The gay love affair does matter more often, but seems to run into diminishing returns because once you've done "come inside me" (which it does in like episode 3), you really have nowhere to go. And besides those two, well... it's charmingly exuberant and features all the goofy tropes, but it lacks the absurd hugeness of a TTGL or the meaningful subtext of a Gridman – and that's only shows that I have actually seen as a non-fan of the genre. I suppose fans will gladly take it anyway, because the genre is somewhat rare nowadays, but Bravern doesn't exactly blow me away. Still, you can't deny the fun. 7/10

Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

So here we come to the big dog. The show that's pulling Doraemon numbers on Japanese TV, has been riding a comfortable #1 spot on MAL for months, and has inspired an unfathomable amount of porn. And the real surprising thing is that it's the first show in a very long time that I think comes even close to deserving that level of hype, especially early in its run when it absolutely isn't the kind of show you'd expect to do this – apart from the production values being about as good as TV anime gets, naturally.

Frieren starts out as an uniquely focused narrative that explores as many angles as it can out of a complicated mess of legacy, memory and regret through the lens of a pretty simple and generic RPG trope. It achieves this almost entirely through one of the best casts I've seen in a long time – Frieren may not be quite as charming a protagonist as Maomao, but she has much more depth and more importantly, every character that matters in her show is almost as good, and their relationships are even better. In its first-cours adventure mode, when we're just wandering around having more or less episodic encounters and plot points that drift in and out of focus with a wistful tone but splashes of goofy comedy, Frieren is quite excellent and would have been my show of last year if I had considered it eligible.

But then it slams in a new gear with the elegance of a tractor driver who thinks clutches are for pussies. Suddenly we're doing a proper Shounen Exam Arc and we're getting a lot less of this and a lot more of this. Now to be fair, this is a long running manga and it probably could not have kept doing flashbacks to Frieren being too dense to realize that Himmel was hitting on her 80 years ago forever. But still, the mage examination arc just really isn't Frieren at its best. It's not even that the content is particularly bad (maybe apart from the really quite rough beginning), and I do understand the long-term benefits of introducing a bigger cast of characters for future use, especially when they turn out to be quite good eventually... but it all just takes way too long. There's still great moments here, but that's usually a small segment of the established good stuff or, failing that, Frieren dropping a sick ass spell. Yeah, I won't even blame this on the action, because said action is incredibly well done and still quite brief, but you really didn't need a full season of theorycrafting and skill discussions to get those explosions. In short. Frieren temporarily turns into Full Metal Alchemist with better leads, and while this would be high praise for almost any shounen manga, it isn't for the one that has demonstrated it can do far better.

There is one real upside to this distraction arc though: Unlike, say, the plot problems of Apothecary Diaries that are here to stay, none of this irreversible, which Frieren immediately makes clear by snapping back to its best behaviour the second they leave the designated raid zones. The ending is as good as any part of the show, with the skillful writing and great tone we have come to wish for. Frieren may not be as consistently excellent as it first appeared, but it is still pretty damn good – and not on a purely superficial level either, because it obviously can have outstanding writing when it wants to and the fundamentals are rock solid too. 8/10

Yubisaki to Renren (A Sign of Affection)

And the top spot of the season goes to... a show that may not be the most ambitious, but does absolutely nothing wrong. Yubisaki to Renren is a fluffy romance where a very cute girl meets a very nice boy, and then no drama happens because not everyone in the world is a fucking idiot. I think my delight with this says more about the absolute state of romance anime than it does about the show itself, but I also have to say that while the plot of this show might be simplistic, it takes great care to set everything up in such a way to get away with said simplistic plot.

Obviously the core of the setup is that Yuki is deaf. But, quite smartly, the author doesn't make the story about Yuki's problems with not being able to hear, but rather about how her world is just... limited. And Itsuomi is a dude with an uncommonly wide worldview and experience. Opposites attract, and there you go. The show basically gets all the grounding it needs from that simple setup for free, then throws in a bit of complicated history among the larger cast. Then just make Yuki incredbly cute and Itsuomi an uncommonly levelheaded adult who will take measures to prevent any pointless drama before it gets out of hand, and you have a show that's just 100% a good time all the way through. So the leads (i.e., the thing that matters way above all else in a romance) are great, and the rest of the cast is more than fine too, even those who would instigate such drama – it can't get annoying, because they never succeed.

Really if I had to say something negative about this show it would be that it's still superficial compared to a show at its skill level that does go hard. I mean, it's about two nice people falling in love and nothing goes wrong, which isn't exactly a lot. There is maybe also the idea that Itsuomi may be a bit too perfect, but I'm just more than happy to see a male lead in a shoujo romance that is neither an abusive jerk nor a bland cardboard cutout. In a perfect world, something like Yubisaki to Renren should feel a bit bland and generic, but in the real one, there just isn't much like it. 9/10