#these are all things that are a huge pet peeve of mine in fiction

[harlivycentral]

I'm curious what you didn't like about the movie? If you want to share your thoughts

Sure! I've tried to avoid any super specific/beat-for-beat spoilers where I could in answering this, but obviously kind of a general spoilers warning for me giving my thoughts on the movie below. Under the cut because it got kinda long lol.

To start, one of the plot points of the movie is that Superman prevents one country from invading another. They're fictional countries, but are pretty obviously supposed to call to mind the invasions of Ukraine and Palestine. And I do appreciate that the movie is pretty clearly on the side of Ukraine & Palestine. But it's a) SOOOOO white savior-y; b) it of course makes the US military look good and doesn't implicate the government at all for any involvement in the conflict; and c) the way the fictional conflict is presented is that the invasion is stopped almost as soon as it's started and none of the people in the invaded country die, so overall I think the movie comes across as a fantasy that really lets America & Americans off the hook without having to grapple with any of the reality of the actual conflicts and our government's and our own culpability in them. (And, Superman's whole thing throughout the movie is keeping everyone alive, but of course one of the few people who is killed on screen is a South Asian street vendor who is very much disposed of for Superman's character development, which doesn't really sit great with me.)

Honestly in some ways I appreciate what the movie was trying to do with the above plot points (and with the obvious Clark as an immigrant themes), and it felt more subversive than a lot of other super hero movies I've seen, but I feel like the bar is in hell when it comes to the politics of super hero movies. It's not like I'm going into a super hero movie expecting them to be leftist or engage me in complex political thinking, but I've just personally gotten to the point where I'm really tired of even this, like, middling attempt at making more powerful political and ethical points.

Also, I don't like what they did with Lois and Clark's relationship. I would've liked to see them go one of two directions: either nod to the early Superman comics, with Lois being into Superman but not knowing his secret identity and thinking Clark is lame, OR a nod to more recent portrayals of their relationship where we get to see them in more of a long-term partnership and the trust that comes with that. Instead we got a weird in-between, where she knows and accepts his secret identity, but they've only been dating for three months, and she's unsure about commitment and they're fighting. It's not to say we couldn't have had conflict in their relationship, I just think they did a boring version of that. And they had this whole thing about her being "punk" in a way that I thought was really lame lol, which was more of a pet peeve of mine than really any huge critique but anyway...

Also, I was excited to see this movie because the previews showed us a very sincere and hopeful version of Superman that felt authentic to the comics and that I wanted to see on screen. Which I actually do think they kept true to, but I think they undercut it with the characters around Superman. It felt like they had so many other cynical characters and couldn't stop from winking at the camera about like "haha he's so lame and corny." Which, like, almost worked, but I just don't think they quite pulled it off for me. It ended up feeling (for me) like they were afraid to commit to the just, like, face value hopeful tone and couldn't help kind of undercutting Superman and themselves a bit. There were definitely lines that felt like the annoying, shtick-y Marvel Dialogue that has been overplayed for about a decade at this point and did not help. And they did the classic superhero movie thing of the worst, most ugly CGI sci-fi world you've ever seen in your life that is just not something I am ever compelled by or ever want to look at.

Lastly, the movie just got boring and meandering to me. If you're going to have a two hour run time, in my opinion, you need to use it for plot line that really keeps up its momentum and builds in complexity/excitement consistently OR for intimate character building and very intentional slow beats, and they didn't do either very effectively for me. And Ma and Pa felt like cardboard cutouts of someone's idea of Midwesterners who has never once interfaced with actual Midwesterners.

Anyway! This is literally all just my take on it obviously, but it really disappointed me. But honestly what was I expecting from the Superhero industrial complex at this point lol. I feel like I went in hoping for something different and got something that just felt fairly in line with what has become a very very cookie cutter format for a superhero movie because of a million reasons that probably could have helped me predict that I would not like this movie because I have not liked pretty much any super hero movie post Captain America: Winter Soldier (except Black Panther) but I couldn't help getting my hopes up for this one... rip. Part of it is that superhero movies (like comics) have always been flawed, but they at least used to be sort of uncharted territory, and I've just lost my patient for what has now become a very predictable and imperfect genre of blockbuster.

[valyrfia]

RE: This ask on fanfic, fandom, and lestappen

(preface with, I love fanfic and fandom, and I've written for very big and small)

I have never experienced such bad fandom etiquette as I have with 1633. I wrote one multi chapter fic for the ship and 99% of ao3 comments I got were people asking when I'd publish the next chapter, which has always been a big no no in fandom. I deleted the fic because it felt bad that people didn't want to engage with what I had written, but, just ask about my update schedule. Also, people changing the date of their published fic to be more recent, so, it appears at the top of the 'recently updated page'! I have never seen this in any fandom before now! AO3 isn't Instagram! If you tag correctly, people will find your fic if they want to read it.

People are pushing 1633 constantly in very public spaces like Twitter, Insta and TikToK, where we know these drivers have accounts and look at comments/posts about them or on their own posts. Just today on Twitter I see Dan Howell (which what a fucking weird intersection of my past and current interests) being asked at a public panel about lestappen, just because he's mentioned liking F1 in the past. I know it gets easy clicks and engagement because it is popular. But, it's so far removed from behaviour that was ever considered acceptable in fandom.

I remember, back in 2013/14 there was a huge backlash to people bringing up fictional ships to actors/writers. There was discourse after every Supernatural or Teen Wolf fan forum/con panel when someone would inevitably ask about Destiel or Sterek. People would argue whether fanon and ships were appropriate to ask the real people behind the show about.

RPF is fine, I have written, currently write and will continue to engage in RPF spaces. But, there are boundaries that you must keep if you are going to engage with it. Tumblr and AO3 have always been considered locked fandom spaces. If a person goes onto these sites and searches themselves out, that's on them. But, it's implied in fandom that you keep to just these spaces or private chats

(personally, I'm sad I just missed out on the livejournal days... I got into fandom when everything was being moved over from there and fanfic.net onto ao3)

I understand younger social media users are used to an algorithm finding content for them. And on sites like Tumblr where the algorithm sucks or ao3, which doesn't have one. You have to search out the content you want yourself. Liking and kudos isn't enough, you actually have to engage in meaningly conversations and comments if you want to make friends. That can be scary! But, it's a soft skill that is slowly getting lost and with it fandom etiquette is going down the drain.

This is like...one of the last big serious ask I want to reply to on this topic because not everyone agrees with me (which, fine), but OP you put a lot of time into typing this up so I will honour that.

I think fandom, much like a lot of other things nowadays, have become less about fun and more about hitting a certain number of likes and interactions. That's why people push Lestappen on other social media even though most of us have explicitly said "can you not, thanks". The changing the date of the fic to push to an 'algorithm' infuriates me and is a personal pet peeve of mine. There's one that's doing that now on the Lestappen tag and I've point-blanked refused to read it literally BECAUSE of the date changing. People will read your fic if they want to, constantly pushing it to the top of the 'Date Updated' list does nothing except piss people off.

I will say I think the fictional ship discourse of 2014 was maybe driven in part by the fact that being gay was still seen as something much more 'novel' than even now. If we think about when marriage became legal in the US and all that...I still think though that it shows a level of self-awareness and self-regulation that we've lost in fandom. As my partner and I often to lament to each other, we've become so individualistic that people have lost the concept of shame. It's an idea that YOU are the exception and something should cater to YOU, instead of the other way round. In the case of fandom, this comes out as people acknowledging fandom etiquette in an abstract way, but still logging into their twitter account (WITH THEIR FACES ATTACHED! WHICH! THIS IS A TANGENT BUT IT BAFFLES ME! WHAT HAPPENED TO DIGITAL FOOTPRINT!) and posting about RPF. Fandom is not an abstract entity, fandom IS the people that interact with it–from authors to artists all the way to those who consume the content.

Also, I also JUST missed out on the lj days–the great migration was happening just when I was getting involved in fandom and I can't help but feel like I missed out on something special.

[evelhak]

I was googling if a certain book was on the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge and somehow the war on the character was in the first search results side by side and I thought it was funny. 😂

Ok, well, the first one was more about how Yale isn't like she said but the hate for the character in general was also mentioned and a part of the point there. Meanwhile the second one actually starts with how she did do wrong things but it's about how she is criticized way too harshly and hated for mistakes anyone could have made and often victim blamed too.

I'm on about this again, I know, but I have a particular dislike for when characters (or humans too ofc) are not truly being criticised for their mistakes but actually just being hated or punished for not being perfect, because the audience expected them to be a role model of some sort.

A lot of people claim that it's the show's fault because the character was framed as a role model, which just doesn't make any sense to me. It's not an educational show. It's entertainment. It's about someone really young who is striving to do the best they can. And it's obvious from the very first episode that this is a sheltered teenage character learning new things, having a ton of first experiences, and the way she handles them is not nearly always at first the best one, and sometimes she also just has a bad day. That's an integral part of the journey. That's the whole point. That it's okay to make mistakes, you'll learn and you'll survive past them. Because the story is describing humanity. It's not trying to give you straight answers. If you feel like a character betrayed you by not reaching the standards you hold them to, the problem is yours.

Yeah, everyone has blind spots and faults but if you perceive a character (who is honestly a really realistic portrayal of a human being under her circumstances) to be initially so perfect that you have to scrutinize her to find faults and when you do you blow it out of proportion and she's suddenly the arch villain of her generation, just for being human then maybe the problem is that you misinterpreted the show to begin with and held her to standards she was never meant to be held to.

It's just a big pet peeve of mine when characters aren't treated as means to understand human beings and reflect upon your views of the world, but instead as some sort of reflection of your morality based on which character you love or hate and having a 'correct' opinion on who is irredeemable and who is actually just a victim and not responsible for anything they do. That's where this usually seems to culminate.

Characters are tools. Aside from driving the plot forward (because I'm more into character driven stories:) they are there to demonstrate relationship dynamics, behavioural patterns, all sort of gravity of a particular situation, personality traits, and so much more, and you can obviously criticise how the story portrayed some elements or characters but also people kinda need to understand that a story is never objective and it isn't meant to be. It's kind of the whole point of stories to empathise with the point of view. That doesn't mean you shouldn't look outside of it, it's just that if you feel like a blatant, huge, character defining, story-wise very obviously intentional mistake like sleeping with someone's husband or dropping out of school "ruined a character" then maybe you need to consider that you might be rejecting the story because you didn't want this character to be human or something?

Like, the whole point of writing characters in character driven media (which Gilmore Girls very much is) is to give people opportunities to take the character's perspective and try to understand how they ended up doing what they did, how it makes sense for the character and how this can enhance your understanding of other people and yourself. If fiction like this is approached with a desire to judge, and not with curiousity and understanding at the forefront, then what is the point? (Understanding doesn't equal excusing something by the way.)

If you've done all this work and just don't like Rory or someone else as a character, I'm not talking to you. Taste is subjective, that's cool, I'm not saying anyone has to like Rory. I'm just sad about the approach and the completely misguided reasons to hate her and declare her "the worst". That's different than just not vibing with her.

But I guess thinking Rory Gilmore is a supervillain just shows to what extent people are capable of twisting situations and dynamics and exaggerating things in their head when they're disappointed.

[thaliatimsh]

hiiii can i get 5, 10, 11, 16, 17, 19, 25 for the fic writer asks :>

HOHOHOOHO thamk you for asking sorry it took me a hot minute to get back on my laptop:

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

LOL i love how everyone has asked me this do i come off as so bitter? i sure do lol. anyway another peeve of mine is really naff ~foriegn language~ bits esp. as like. rubbish sexy talk. people making a character go oooh ma petite chou-fleur in the heat of the moment shfgdjshds fuck off

10. What’s your favorite fandom, pairing, or character to read fic for?

this is a tough one! when i go hunting for fics i normally start w my Fave Character Tags (... treavor pendleton, george hodgson ao3 pages saved to my phone bookmarks smhhhh). probably dishonored fic is my fave to read actually? bc people do so much fun stuff with The World :^)

11. How do you come up with your fic titles?

normally they come from a spoken line in the text of the fic! or sometimes a bit of description... or something from the canon. like the working title for a different kind of man was "stained glass". the fics in the takes two to quarrel series were all named for lines in the fics, except for imperfect life which i lifted directly from canon text (and the series was named for a line in imperfect life)

nlwib's name comes from that one line of wallace's in game thats like - "I must prepare the mourning garments. His lordship has never looked well in black.". i often think that if i was gonna do a cleanup re-write i would just call it in black, but i did start posting it nearly eleven years ago and my Style has evolved since then lol

16. Do you research for your fics? If so, how deep of a rabbit hole have you gone down by accident when researching?

HFJSDKFHKS SEE MYSTERY MAN PART 2 in which I accidentally uncovered the history of one of the rl officers of the franklin expedition and have since seen real life Scholars talk abt things that were literally lost to history until i connected a bunch of dots on accident while trying to find out what early 19thc. eton was like. for a fanned fiction. me @ franklin scholars: get on my level wankers lol

17. How obsessively do you sit and stare at your fic after you’ve just posted and wait for feedback?

TOO OBSESSIVELY and it never ends well. i am trying to hold back on this bc. drac your fics are too niche your majesty they'll kill your self-esteem your majesty. never 4 get that the only comment i got on nlwib chapter 15 was "shame it wasnt gay" :/

19. Do you edit your fics after you write them, or do you prefer to just hit post and run (because it’s someone else’s problem now)?

i don't really Edit edit? things come and go as i write, then i'll get a version i like and probably give it a once-over in the ao3 preview to look for typos.

25. Do you listen to music as you write? If possible, link your writing playlist.

i don't really listen to music while i'm writing bc i get too distracted! either by lyrics or A Good Bit in instrumental music lol. but sometimes I'll play a single song on repeat through the entire thing like a deranged animal. i think the last nlwib chapter was written to Paris 1919 by John Cale on repeat for abt 40 hours lmao

this is the questions btw

[estellamiraiauthor]

Not really a game review: Kentucky Route Zero

Not really spoilers I guess because I DONT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE HAPPENED, but more under the cut.

TL/DR this game started off with great atmosphere but I guess I didn’t click the right non-required places to get the plot?

Kentucky Route Zero is a Point and click adventure in five “acts”… similar to something like Sally Face, I guess it was released in installments but I played it all at once after it was all complete.

The first three acts (other than an incredibly boring “interlude” before act 3) were interesting and mostly coherent. We had some solid characters, some mysteries that never ended up being resolved (I guess???) and a unique art style.

Then all the characters I’d been following disappeared, we got mostly new characters whi’s only appeared as cameos before in act 4 with no real explanation tying it all together, and then act 5 is a weird epilogue where I think I was supposed to infer a lot more happening offscreen than I did…

And this is a huge pet peeve of mine. I LIKE interactive fiction as a genre, I really do. But you’ve got to make sure your audience actually SEES your major plot points. I’m not at all sure if I just missed things because crucial plot points were in places you didn’t actually have to click to complete a section, or if they weren’t explicitly in the game at all and you were just supposed to KNOW, but either way… kinda sucks.

And I keep seeing websites talking about “the reveal with Julian” and I don’t know what that is either… is that ALSO in optional dialogue? I don’t get it.

Again, I like interactive fiction and point and click adventures A LOT. From Space Quest to Day of the Tentacle to Sally Face, this is my genre. But you’ve gotta show me the plot, folks. Don’t assume that everyone’s gonna make the same abstract connection or whatever I was supposed to read into this???

[clementines-writing-corner]

organizing thoughts + setting microgoals (ya know productive people things)

Hello friends!

Happy 2024!!

It seems like my winter break has just flown by and tomorrow my university’s spring semester starts. I haven’t had as much time to work on my story as I would have liked, but I do feel rested after this break, which is always a good thing! ᕱ__ᕱ Despite not a lot of visible progress in my original story, there have been a few things I have been thinking about and attempting to iron out in my brain which I can update you on this week.

World-Building

Before I get anywhere else and make real progress in the plot of my story, I have come to the conclusion that I need to spend some time on worldbuilding. I knew the funky little magic world and my funky little fantasy story is taking place in needed some serious work before I started writing anything, but it’s come to my attention that it needs that work now, before I continue to develop anything else. Which… sucks.

Not that I am not going to enjoy creating my own fictional world but it's going to take A LOT of work before I see real progress and I am going to have to complete that work in very small increments because I have other Important Things™ I need to be doing. Like school. Ugh!

I am very notoriously bad with time management (which is something I’m working on in therapy actually - shout out once again to my therapist who is literally a God-send), so I think my goal for next week will be to create an outline/schedule/list for what I need to get done in the realm of world-building so that I can organize my thoughts a little better and have something tangible to work on. I’ll share it here next week if I have managed to make progress on it. One of the big things I know will absolutely be making it on that list first thing, however, is developing my magic system.

Magic System

As I have mentioned briefly in a previous post, janky magic systems with little-no rules are a huge pet peeve of mine when it comes to fantasy fiction (unless it makes sense within the story, which is rare). So, I know that crafting my own magic system will take me some time because I want it to make sense, be clear, and have outline rules and limitations. 

Another thing that's important to me is that any magic system I create/include in my story, is in accordance with my own personal religious beliefs. NOW HEAR ME OUT IN THE ENTIRETY BEFORE Y’ALL GO JUDGING ME, OKAY?! I am a Christian, so nothing aligning with demons, Satan, or the occult will be happening in my story (on the side of “Good” that is). It may seem like a small or silly thing to some but it’s 100% a priority to me. However, I want to write a fantasy novel that is accessible to ALL, not just my fellow Christians, and one that doesn’t feel preachy or anything of that nature. I’m not trying to push my beliefs onto my readers. I just don’t want to compromise them in my writing. 

This is an interesting article on writing magic systems into Christian fantasy that I have been looking over the past few days if any of y'all are interested in what my magic system may look like. 

Stereotypes

I also don’t want to accidentally write any story of -isms or -phobias into my novel and I know a surprising amount of magical beings and tropes fall into the “developed from a racial stereotype” category (just look up J.K. Rowling, goblins, and Jewish stereotypes if you don’t believe me). So, I wanted to create my own magical beings without the baggage. If, in the following posts, y’all see anything that could be rude or prejudice developing as I continue to grow my story please just let me know. It’s never my intention to cause harm. As I said, I want my story to be accessible for ALL. ᕱ__ᕱ 

~*~*~

That’s pretty much it! That’s what I’ve been turning over in my head and working on in the past few weeks while in the midst of family and friends and the chaos of the holiday season. I hope to get something more substantial to give to y’all next week, but for now I’ll let you go. For my fellow students returning to school, good luck in this new semester! ᕱ__ᕱ 

And always remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

 ~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

PS. I also finally taught myself how to crochet something and spent 3 days working on a flower garland for the canopy above my bed. It is quite cute and I feel very accomplished!!

[sofoulandfairaday]

Forgive me if you've already said this, but where can I read your fics? Your opinions are always very interesting and I am intrigued to see them developed into a story.

Ya can’t lmao

No, see, I mostly write for myself because I enjoy it and therefore it’s shameless self-indulgent content. I cry when writing sad scenes, I giggle at the crack-y ones, I get flustered with the smut, I spend hours researching the little details like book titles and whether jasmine grows in Venice or not and what the magical hierarchy of cities is and how dark magic can also heal and not just destroy and how not to make the characters overpowered because that is such a pet peeve of mine. It’s very VERY specific to my taste and I overthink every single word I write (yes, the curtains are yellow for a reason). I do have a very long 50+ chapter WIP which will maybe be published when finished. Since every fucking chapter is about 8K words long it will never be finished and no one will ever bother reading it ihihihihi.

(Just publish the first chapters!, you say. I wish I could write linearly, I reply)

Also, there is another HUGE problem. Most of my stuff is written in Italian. The very few excerpts on here are translated. Do you know how hard it is to try and convey the precise feelings you had when writing something, the word plays and the very specific descriptions in another language? It’s a whole job, and a boring one most of the time, which means that my Anna Karenina length fucking fan fiction (not even close to finished) has to be translated by me in my nonexistent down time. Also, I used to be one of those people who bitched about GRRM, but MAN my story has maybe spiralled into 100 different directions and I have no idea which version of the characters I want to stick to, what order I want to give certain events, and if they are IC or not anymore. Can you tell that I’m a perfectionist and I make even fun things unfunny?

Which is also why I’m so behind with the fics I want to read and review both in eng and ita. I DO see the new stuff published and I have NO time to look at it let alone tell the author what I think.

(Also I erase half of what I write because cringe and I have a self-insert OC - double cringe - that was meant to be a fun minor wink wink character in two (2) chs that has become important so now it CAN’T be a self-insert and i have to make psychologically complex except now she’s too bitchy and then she’s not bitchy enough to the point she is nothing like me now which kind of invalidates the point entirely. Also, I hate everybody else’s OCs so why should my writing have one when I could concentrate on other characters?? Except I can’t give her role to anyone else unless I rewrite half of the whole thing so I am stuck and-)

When Olivia Rodrigo said and I hate every song I write and I’m not cool and I’m not smart (and I can’t even parallel park) that’s me :))))

I am so sorry anon by the way this wasn’t meant to be a rant you’ve just opened Pandora’s box and now I’m afraid I come off as a little unhinged. I am honestly flattered that you would send this, bless you. You’re my favourite ❤️

WITH THAT BEING SAID, there is something of mine on the internet (most of it SUCKS). Unless you know Italian you won’t be able to read it though. My account on a very popular Italian fanfic site still has my old little Bellamort song fics from when I was 13 (I can’t even bring myself to cancel them because cancelling them would mean opening them and opening them means I combust from the cringe). My views of the characters have also changed and I stand by NOTHING lmao. There is also some new stuff which is all smut (some I’m proud of and some I’ll delete as soon as I get over myself and just open the damn site) and maybe one (1) one-shot that I’m actually proud of.

And in English? The only thing that has ever been translated in English as of now is 8K+ words of filthy (and I mean filthy) PW very little P smut which I will not link on an account that actual people from my actual offline life might find (it’s hard enough to explain what’s on here) . However if you know me it’s not impossible to track down (or you can just dm me). There is no deeper meaning or philosophical themes or anything like that tho; if you’re attracted to my thoughtful metas where I quote and dissect the book passages or my quirky headcanons where I tease the characters, this is not that. This is just them fucking.

Sorry ❤️

[bestworstcase]

listen. it is possible to acknowledge the clear influence of the 2016 US presidential election on the political storyline in rwby v7 AND engage substantively with the the actual text. i'm being snippy because this is a Huge Pet Peeve of mine which isn't something i would expect anyone to just intuit from the body of the post as written so i want to be clear that i am not like

irritated at you

or even in disagreement with the General Point because yeah. i've remarked before on the political utility of grimm to aspiring autocrats and authoritarian regimes and how fear of grimm is a vector for anti-faunus bigotry via scapegoating so like I DO GET WHAT YOU'RE SAYING

BUT

while v7 is pretty goddamn plainly a political fantasy informed by its time and place, and of course in the more general sense rwby is a story written by americans for whom american politics will naturally be the habitual point of reference and therefore there are, indeed, any number of ways these fictional polities can be read as commentary,

atlas is not the united states.

in general i find the fannish habit of treating fictional polities as 1:1 fictionalized representations of real polities to be Really Irritating (<- the aforementioned Huge Pet Peeve) for various reasons – i think it's reductive and often just a thought-stopping appeal to stereotype particularly when the real polity is not the USA, and insulting to the writer(s) in the same way that it would be insulting to regularly engage with fictional characters as fictionalized representations of real people. It's Fiction. It's Made Up.

with regard to "atlas is the US" in particular, the problem is that… no it isn't, and i think that the fandom reflex to read atlas as an allegorical united states is a contributing factor in a wide selection of fuckstupid takes about things that happen in v7-9.

because, like – for all its innumerable flaws and failings, the US is a democratic republic. we're governed by our elected representatives in the legislature and our elected president. the GOP has lately completed its collapse into a fascist clown cult (may they spend the next four years eating each other alive without achieving anything substantive amen) and things are very bad, but american democracy has not collapsed and the existential threat to american democracy is that the median american voter is fucking stupid. that was true in 2017-2020 and it's still true now.

before the great war – eighty years ago! this is, as i am always saying, recent history! – mantle was a fascist state. whether its prewar government had any trappings of democracy or not, the regime was certainly not democratic in any real sense. after that war, it's implied the state was obliged by the terms of the vytal accords to institute a democratic system of government, which – if we take the text at face value and do not Imagine that (for example) what is shown is only a small executive body with legislative power being vested in a larger representative assembly that is just never mentioned because it isn't important to the story* – seems to have been done by people with very little interest in this "checks and balances" nonsense.

(*which, to be clear, is an approach i embrace for Fanfic Purposes. but this post is about a textual reading.)

like. five seats. five. of which just three are elected representatives, and the two by appointment can be filled by one person who gets two votes. even if appointments must be confirmed by unanimous vote, it's not hard to get three people to agree on a candidate and it's also not a particularly heavy lift for a single political party to win all three seats.

you win all three seats and install your guy as headmaster-general and then you can lose two seats and still have the majority, and if it takes a unanimous 3-0 vote to oust an appointee then you're locked in until and unless you lose the third seat.

there are three possibilities; either:

this system was deliberately intended to be trivial to capture because it was designed by powers that be of the old regime.

this system was designed by people who were uninterested in or unable to envision what a fair, representative government would look like or how it would function.

there was a much more robust democratic system designed after the war, but it collapsed fairly quickly (a la vacuo) and the present council is a slapdash fig leaf raised by the military leaders who seized the moment.

all with the eventual outcome of mantle/atlas having basically at most dabbled in, flirted with democracy before snuggling back into the warm(?) safe(?) familiar embrace of stratocratic rule with a dash, a garnish if you will, of vestigial democratic-republicanism for civil affairs. in all likelihood this would have occurred through a gradual expansion and concentration of executive power and erosion of checks on that power and in that sense there are comparisons that can be made to democratic decline in the US, but a) these issues are endemic across all modern democracies because we're having a global trend toward right wing authoritarianism right now and b) the historical context and political situation in atlas as presented from v2 onward are really just not comparable to what is happening in the US within the past decade.

and the issue with this sort of square peg round hole allegorical reading of atlas is that it, i think, obfuscates the textual reality that is presented – that atlas is a military dictatorship with a very thin veneer of democracy and this has been the case for decades. ironwood is a deconstruction of the benevolent dictator trope, and of course for that to work at all, you have to pick up the cues in v2-3 that mark him as a dictator.

if that cueing is missed (e.g. because a viewer took Big Military and the Action Hero presentation to mean "atlas is Fantasy USA") then the glimpses of atlesian politics in v4 read very differently and mantle being… a fascist police state once we get there is, from what i've gathered, a lot more jarring than it is if you saw this

and went "ah. police state" about the hitherto open unanswered question of whether ironwood was a loose cannon or an autocrat. this is the autocrat move. (loose cannon would be getting dressed down by the atlesian president or PM or whatever.) lol

atlas was a dictatorship the whole time btw

[ykoriana-imperatrix]

SDC Month - December 2022 - Monday #4

Last chance for a truly unpopular opinion in 2022?

One last time, the disclaimer everyone must be tired of reading by now: if you think there is even the smallest chance this post might upset you in any way, if not outright infuriate/offend you, please do what is best for yourself and avoid reading it. Have a nice day, and a nice remainder of 2022.

(Cut for content and some spoilers from The Chosen through Dragon Fire.)

Now, for our last maybe-genuinely-controversial-maybe-not statement of this year: Flama's feelings for Osidian were fully platonic.

And no, before I get accused of that, I am not saying this (just) based on her young age at the time of her death. Yes, she was only 9 (~10 in our years, though, in my opinion, there's hardly a huge difference in emotional maturity between a 9-year-old and a 10-year-old, so perhaps the difference is a moot point) when she died, but I am aware that is possible for someone that young to have (if only budding) romantic feelings for someone else. (Though it is also entirely plausible a child that age would have never experienced those, of course.)

In any case, this goes beyond the age aspect to me — I actually used to believe Flama feeling romantically towards Osidian was indeed the case, but over time, I started examining that belief more, and realised we have nothing resembling actual, solid evidence for it. Yes, we know it is definitely not uncommon for members of the House of the Masks to develop incestuous feelings for their kinsmen/kinswomen, but really, even in a House already predisposed towards incest, is every single Masks lord/lady going to potentially feel attraction towards every single one of their relatives? No, I don't think that is plausible in the slightest; attraction just does not work that way, in fiction or reality.

That said, there might be the tendency to consider that since Ykoriana canonically had romantic feelings for Kumatuya, perhaps their children's situation just parallels theirs, with Flama feeling unrequited romantic love for Osidian. (And just a side note: Osidian's feelings for Flama are not the ones under discussion here — I definitely think it extremely unlikely for his affection to have been anything but platonic, especially considering the 3-year age difference and resulting gap in emotional maturity and development. I have no doubt Osidian cared deeply about Flama as his little sister, just not in what you might call the usual Masks way, and I consider their bond as being made no less meaningful by that. Without going into too much of a tangent, it is a huge pet peeve of mine when platonic feelings are considered completely worthless compared to romantic ones — one can be appreciated without diminishing the other, I think, and all sorts of meaningful connections between humans, real or fictional, can exist.) In any case, yes, the reader might be tempted to compare Flama to Ykoriana in this regard, but here's the thing — no one in-universe ever makes the comparison. Ykoriana's POV, "Mothering Mask", is the chapter which provides the most information about Flama, and yet she does not compare her and Osidian to herself and Kumatuya once. Don’t you think she would have, if only in passing, had their situations actually been the same? Instead, the only comparison we do get is that of Carnelian and Osidian to Sardian and Kumatuya, and I feel like the omission is telling:

Before the election, Imago had told her that Osidian Nepheron had descended to the Forbidden Garden of the Yden with Suth's son, Carnelian. The parallels between their relationship and those of their fathers had disturbed her (...)

And one could argue that perhaps Ykoriana finds that particular parallel too painful to make, because she does not wish to bring back traumatic/sorrowful memories by considering her past feelings for Kumatuya... but she mentions them earlier in the exact same chapter, and, as you’ll recall, had no apparent issue with bringing them up during The Chosen (”Ykoriana” chapter) or The Third God ("In the Underworld" chapter) either:

Only a girl when her father died, Kumatuya was the brother she loved.

'Thwarted love is the charioteer of vengeful deeds.'

‘I demanded this proof of love from your father, Nepheron. Though I had reason to hate all men, him I loved. (...)'

Sure, in “Mothering Mask”, she also recalls her past plans of potentially poisoning Flama's love for her brother:

Given enough time, Ykoriana would have been able to gently poison Flama's love for Nepheron.

But, in my opinion at least, you could read that very quote and consider that scenario while believing Flama's feelings platonic, and nothing would really change. Flama having a strong sibling bond (in the usual, platonic sense of the term) with Osidian is just as much a problem to Ykoriana, because it still means she intends to vote for him and not Molochite. (And you know, it is not impossible Ykoriana thought Flama's feelings for her brother could eventually become romantic, — as we can assume her own had — even if they were not so at the time, which could have made her all the more determined to create a rift between her children.)

The only other character who goes into any detail about Flama and Osidian's relationship is Osidian himself, and this is what he has to say in The Chosen ("Just One More Day" chapter):

Osidian nodded slowly. 'She murdered my sister, who would have been my wife.' 'That is rumoured—' 'That is a fact!' said Osidian, causing Carnelian to flinch. 'Flama promised to vote for me.' Carnelian caressed Osidian's jaw. 'I'm sorry.' 'We loved one another since we were children. When I am the Gods...'

Yes, Flama would have married Osidian were she still alive, but that means little, if anything, regarding their actual feelings; it is just the custom in the Masks, so I think we can hardly conclude anything from that particular tidbit of information. Do note Osidian does mention they had loved each other since they were children, which means their closeness was almost certainly not a recent development by the time Flama died. They were likely very young children when they first started bonding with one another, so that could be argued to make the possibility of romantic feelings even more unlikely, since while the idea of a 9-year-old having romantic feelings for a 12-year-old (just sticking with SDC years here; as we’ve discussed, the difference is small at these young ages) still has some plausibility, would you consider the same to be true back when they were, let's say, 3 and 6 respectively? And yes, I will concede that Flama's feelings could have started out as platonic and shifted into romantic ones later in life, but again, there's no real evidence of that to be found. Just like the passage regarding Ykoriana's intentions above, I think that "we loved one another" can still be read with the fully platonic interpretation in mind and nothing would change. Flama's death being a traumatic experience to Osidian and one that turned him even further against Ykoriana is consistent in terms of cause and consequences regardless of the nature of Flama's feelings.

And there you have it — the conclusion of the unpopular opinions project (for this specific SDC month, at least). Does this contradict your own views, or do you actually agree with me? Also, in relation to the project in general, would you enjoy seeing it make a return in 2023 (provided I have enough good ideas for it, that is), or would it be better to shelve it for a time?

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

Queer platonic izuocha ^_^

Oh that’s what we’re talking about.  Not to knock the real thing, don’t know much about it, but i have a bit of an aversion to queer platonic relationships in fics.  I’m not the biggest romance fan, i'm very picky with the ship content i do like, and a huge pet peeve of mine is when a ship that wasn’t the central focus takes over the plot of a fic i was otherwise enjoying.  More than once, I’ve gotten a rec where i was told “there’s no ship in this one,” only for the characters to do all the same ship cliches that annoy me but that apparently didn’t count as a ship because they call it something other than dating.  Again, i don’t know about how it works in real life and have nothing against it, but in terms of reading fictional material, it may as well be a difference in semantics in terms of what actually happens in them.

[chio-tyan]

For the artist asks! 💖

11. Favorite comment you've ever received on your work?

15. Biggest artist pet peeve?

17. What inspires you?

18. Do you have any larger projects you'd like to pursue? Like comics, shortfilm, a series etc?

11. "damn you would be such a great artist if you didn't draw your fucking [insert my problematic kink which everybody hates me for lol]". it was actually a hate message, but turned out to be a proof that my work deserves credit even from the haters.

also "the way you draw sasuke and naruto reminds me of emi rankai", i just collapsed then and haven't got up since 😭♥♥♥ i worshipped rankai so much at early teen age, so this is... ah ♥

15. just.... drawing in general actually 😄 i hate drawing, i hope it doesn't show much haha. it probably does considering how rarely i post...

17. deep emotional drama. if a fictional character suffers i love to explore it ♥ that's why i rarely draw girls btw, bc girls are nice and mustn't suffer. i gladly draw them happy, but happy atmosphere in art just isn't exactly my thing. even my header art is more bittersweet than happy

18. i organized and printed two zines, it was very fun! and i'm drawing a comic right now, although the plot isn't mine, this is also fun. i made a huge comic strip once in 2015, which took me 6 months of spending all my free time on drawing non-stop. it was the most fun i've had ever i think. although now it's pretty old and looks ugly 😄 but i still love it. here it is: @kuroo-goes-to-tsukkis-house the navigation is very uncomfortable but i don't wanna bother fixing it, sorry!

anyways yeah, no particular ideas right now, but if i suddenly combust with excitement to make something new - i definitely will, no matter what it does to my mental health lmao

[chocobothis]

Unintentional rant incoming because this is a huge pet peeve of mine.

It’s okay to just dislike a ship. “I don’t like it.” End of story. Totally fine. To each their own and all of that. It doesn’t need to be a big, drawn out fight where someone’s name is drug through the mud because they like something someone else doesn’t.

Frankly, it’s kind of embarrassing too? Someone is putting so much time, energy, and effort into attempting to destroy someone for disliking their ship. Instead of just block, muting, blacklisting, whatever it, and moving on. It shows up in their feed because they spend so much time looking it up the algorithm assumes they must like it. There’s not giant conspiracy happening or whatever. It’s just algorithm's and a self-centered need for a moral crusade.

I do want to reiterate how fucking dangerous it is that words are getting watered down. 

What feels like 95% of the time someone’s being labeled an abuser, an abuse apologist, etc. it’s because of a fictional ship. I do cursory sweeps of blogs, as a habit, and the biggest offense tends to be liking the wrong thing. Or, they like the wrong things and are Queer in a way the labeler doesn’t find palatable. (Which is a whole other problem.) This let’s dangerous people sneak by because why look at a false alarm? 

It’s also wildly simple to weaponize these fans morality mob mentality by someone with bad intentions. Because as long as they know the right words to say, the right things to like, etc. they can get access to this spaces with blind acceptance. Because clearly they’re Good, Pure, and Moral because they like these specific things deemed acceptable. So anything they say must be true and anyone disagreeing with them, that likes the Bad Dirty Wrong Things are inherently liars.

Using terms usually used to describe how abuse functions and different roles in abusive families or systems to talk about people who have a different ship than you is really fucking weird.

[kurishiri]

Um, hi (✿^‿^)ﾉ. If it's alright with you, may i ask for a Twisted Wonderland matchup? no pressure tho if you don't want to do this, it's fine!!

I'm an infj, straight (but still questioning), cancer girl who's usually shy and reserved, and a bit awkward. i mostly like to stay quiet, but i try to be approachable and friendly if i interact with someone. it takes a while to get to know me, since i'm really private and have a fear of being judged. but if i feel comfortable enough, i let myself be more playful, affectionate, and mischievous. (i'm a bit of a crackhead lmao)

from what i'm described by my family and friends, they say that my strengths are usually my kindness, loyalty, and diligence. i tend to have a bleeding heart that drives me to be helpful and supportive to others, while my passion to reach my goals makes me really hardworking. and because it isn't easy to get to know me, i end up being really loyal to those who i am really close to. (i absolutely love my family and friends)

but for my flaws, they say i can be really perfectionistic, people pleasing, uptight, and anxious. because of how willing i am to help others, others can sometimes cross my boundaries and make me stressed. as for my perfectionism, i can be really worried that i'm not improving enough that i end up stressed as well. my anxiousness and stiffness are usually the end result of these two flaws off mine, making me overthink everything ;-;.

for likes, i tend to be a huge literate nerd. i love reading and learning about new things, whether it be about history or fictional. even if i may not really remember some of the details, i still have a lot fun reading. i also love writing, listening to music/rain, and knitting. writing stories as always been my passion and my dream career, while the other two i do when i need relaxation. i also can't help but enjoy traveling a bit. it's always fun to have a small adventure, even if my social battery is so low.

for dislikes, i really don't like going to parties whose guests i'm unfamiliar with or being in the spotlight. my anxiousness shoots up the roof and i'll struggle to relax. i also don't insensitivity or dishonesty. the former being that i can't stand seeing anyone being mistreated. while for the latter, i have a major pet peeve against lies and trickery.

i guess what i look for a partner is someone who's honest, has a decent attitude towards people, and can accept me for me. i don't think i'd ever like someone who acts mean or lies, it's an easy way to make me disinterested. it'd be nice tho if they'll understand and like me for me, because of how much i end up filtering myself to acquaintances and strangers.

i'm really sorry for the long matchup, please take your time if it's needed. (i also apologize if there's grammatical errors, i'm writing this in mobile and it's hard for me to keep track) i hope you have wonderful day and please take care of yourself!! You're an amazing writer and i can't wait to see what wonderful pieces you'll write next <333

— hello! sorry for taking a while with this! school is slowly (or more like quickly) ramping itself up and sometimes it can be hard to sit down and do these. of course, i intend to do all the ones in my inbox, but they just may take a while. anyway, anon, without further ado, the matchup is below the cut!

matchups request info !!

⇢ i can't be the only one who thinks neige needs more love, even though he's a side character in twisted wonderland.

⇢ the first meeting - i would imagine - could be that you find an injured bird that fell from a tree and want to bring it back to its nest. you struggle to do so, and neige, who happens to pass by and see you while on a stroll, comes in to help.

⇢ neige, while evidently a bit naïve, is a very kind and pure soul who wants nothing but the best for anyone, even if said anyone is annoyed with him. his kindness almost makes him thickheaded, so even if you're not that open with him, he won't mind all that much.

⇢ you two are a chill couple. you don't get jealous of each other easily, but you still love each other.

⇢ he can get along with pretty much everybody in a very genuine sense, just as you are supportive toward friends. you two can connect on that level.

⇢ like, you two could be on an outing together and if you saw a friend who looked troubled, you wouldn't hesitate to try to help them to the best of your ability.

⇢ another one of neige's charming points is his presence; it's basically the epitome of calming. just being around him can make a lot of worries go away. perhaps this is because of his natural character, where he's just altruistically calm yet kind overall in a genuine sense.

⇢ it's not as though he can make your anxieties disappear completely, but he can at least help. hold your hand, give you a smile as gentle and bright as the sun, a comforting hug, etc.

⇢ speaking of genuine, he doesn't lie. there's no reason to lie anyway. his naïveté makes him honest, and it's more charming than annoying.

⇢ outside of acting, i think he would share quite a bit of hobbies that you have. he is also a more introverted person who has more "quiet" hobbies. for example, he'd express curiosity toward the stories you write, and he will support you wholeheartedly if writing is your dream career. he would never hold you back from doing what makes you happy.

⇢ in general, you two give wholesome vibes. you understand each other, support each other, and just like being around each other's presence and indulge in similar hobbies, and you also like to spend time with friends and other people just as much. he is honest but not blunt, and i think that would make him a great person as well to be with. you'll surely find solace in his gentle presence.

i hope you enjoyed!

[angelicymp]

Perhaps a little coaxing is needed...

Good evening my literary friends,

I am hoping to find a suitable partner for specific cravings and ideas I have in mind.

My introduction will be brief and a bit more to the point than usual. I am quite thorough and detail-oriented when it comes to being a writer, including some of my rules and preferences. However, since I believe it to be quite a hassle to go through every point I’m making, my ad will be a bit more compact.

A brief recap: You can call me Imp; I am in my twenties and a student, striving to become a part-time freelancer as well. My main hobbies are photography, traveling, drawing and of course, the art of writing. Currently, I reside in Europe, so my timezone could differ from yours, unless you are also from a similar region.

Be sure to read through my ad to see if we’re compatible. Too many times I’ve encountered cases where the inquirers skimmed through all of the info and upon messaging me, were surprised to learn that we weren’t a match from the beginning. So if you haven’t properly read my ad, I’ll know. I’d like to urge everyone to stick with it so there won't be any misunderstandings and not waste everyone’s time.

————————


Me, myself and I

(art by: Ayami Kojima)

♦ Nickname: Imp

♦ Experience: 12 years and counting

♦ Style: 1:1 with the inclusion of doubling

♦ Rating: Mature

♦ Roleplaying Platform: Email and Google Docs

♦ Chatting Platform: Email, Google Hangouts or Discord

♦ Pet peeves: Slice of Life


After finishing the game of Resident Evil 8 Village, I was struck by yet another muse.




I am currently looking for either a pre-existing canon inspired roleplay, or, something completely original. Be sure you are above the age of eighteen, preferably 21 and upwards. I will not accept any inquires from minors - this is not negotiable.

What to expect

♢  Content: Mature. I am more interested in darker things like horror, occultism, the supernatural, you can maybe guess where I am going with this. My limits are few, safe for a couple of minor pet peeves that I have, I am pretty much open to some experimentation; such as violence, gore and sexual themes. When it comes to heavy scenes, I will not fade to black, unless it serves no purpose to the story. Not a huge fan of censorship. However, I will not force or push my partner into something they are not comfortable with. If you want to know the extent to how far I am willing to go, what sort of content, or how graphic my writing will be, you can ask me directly.



♢ Rating: I have little to no issues with delving into more sensitive topics. Since reality is often stranger than fiction, it is very interesting to explore all sides of human nature, including the less comfortable subjects such as psychology, crime, etc. But I also like to remind that this is a world of fiction and no one in their right mind would condone such things in real life. The world of adults is not easy to handle, but it sure is interesting to explore. So if you are a gentle soul and can’t take the heat of more serious moments within the roleplay, be it a character going through trying times, etc; this might not be ideal for you.

♢ Writing: My texts are considerably lengthy, detailed, and elaborate. Third-person is usually my preferred way of playing my character unless there’s a special case where an exception can be made. Word count usually fluctuates, though I have a standard form of 400-500+ words per reply. It also highly depends on the given situation.

♢ Romancing: I admit to being a hopeless romantic. There’s nothing more enjoyable than witnessing good and powerful chemistry between two characters. Preferably I go for the usual MxF pairing dynamic but I am also open to FxF and MxM, should it feel more fitting. While doubling, I can write the character/love interest to my partner’s desire, but I always aim to stay true to their personality and character. I hate nothing more than forcing characters into a relationship, especially if there’s no spark, so I won’t respond well to being pressured into letting characters act out of their personality. It’s just not realistic. As for smut, or what have you, I have no issues with adding a few spicy scenes, sometimes even drawing them out of our pleasure. When there is, however, a running theme where sexual themes are taking the focal point of the plot, it can become quite boring. It is never the center of any of my roleplays, so be warned.

♢ Plotting: I am fairly quick when it comes to building new characters, concepts, premises, storylines, backstories, etc. It allows me a certain latitude. Feel free to communicate your ideas and thoughts with me. I am happy to chat, even when it doesn’t involve the roleplay directly. Though this is a hobby, I am still extremely passionate about good storytelling and interesting character arcs. I hope to meet someone who is just as enthusiastic and willing to put in the same amount of effort. If it’s only me who’s pulling all the weight, I will lose interest and feel forced to end the correspondence.

No gos

♦ Won’t do: Pedophilia, Necrophilia, Bestiality, Scat, Vore, Toilet Play, etc. I am sure you can also think of many other strange fetishes that have developed over the years spent on the internet.

♦ Won’t write: The idea of supernatural beings trying to fit into human society. The typical bully x victim storyline. The run-of-the-mill vampires vs werewolf plot. BDSM centred stories. Slice of life. Flawless or excessively flawed characters.

What I expect

♢ Literacy: You should at least have a decent grasp of basic grammar and coherency in your spelling.

♢ Flexibility: Since we all have lives outside of the roleplay, we both need to be flexible. Sometimes our schedules may differ, and if life is currently intervening, we can take things a bit easier. Plus, I can’t always respond every second of every day, either. This should be considered a hobby and not a job. If a hiatus is on the rise, there is no problem with putting things on ice until things clear up.

♢ Experience: And by that, I don’t mean how many years you’ve roleplayed, rather the experience that comes with age and emotional maturity. Especially if you want to write stories with grit.

♢ Open to doubling: Quick explanation. Doubling is when we play two main characters each. The dynamic is as follows; I write your chosen love interest against your main character while you do the same for me.

♢ Long term: Only long-term partnerships.

♢ Sharing the spotlight: Don’t forget, this is all about you too! Let me know all your specific cravings, interests, or wants that you want to be included into the roleplay.

Cravings

♦ Urban fantasy: Supernaturals, demons, spirits, vampires, you name it. I’d be more interested in something original and unique, especially when it comes to vampirism and demonic entities.

♦ Dark Sci-Fi: So this is a bit inspired by Resident Evil. A world where monsters become a vicious reality, generating fear among the people they come in contact with. But as it turns out, these monsters are not supernatural, but rather infected or mutated by a virus that cannot be explained.

♦ History, mythology, and folklore: An interesting take on the historical timeline, where legends and myths were once a reality. However, their existence was greatly misrepresented in the storybooks, sometimes even completely distorted. Our characters could be accidental time travelers who have been sent from the future to see it with their own eyes. Inspirations are mostly Slavic, European, and ancient folklore from all over the world.

♦ Crime with a dark twist: Mafias, organized crime, and corrupted politicians run this town. All of them have one thing in common. A particular drug that grants humans superhuman abilities; but at a cost. The drug will turn force the users to reject their humanity to instead embrace their monstrosity.

Canon & Fandoms

♢ Castlevania: Rather the original games than the Netflix series. But I am also not opposed to tackling the Netflix universe.

♢ Devil May Cry: Every game is game. Except for the reboot. Never played that one.

♢ Invincible: Not so invincible.

♢ Resident Evil: Village is one of the best games I’ve ever played. Periodt.

♢ Harry Potter: Next gen anyone?

————————

If you made it this far, I am glad you managed to hold on, lol. If you found what I wrote, agreeable and have a similar interests to mine, feel free to message me on this email adress.

You can also contact me via DM on my Tumblr blog, though preferably, I would rather be more receptive on Email since I am more active there. And it’s a lot more personal as well.

Email: impish.and.angelic@gmail.com

Hope to see you there.

I wish you all a lovely day my fellow readers!

-Imp

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Final Four: The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck Review! or The Batman Trial Episode but with Ducks, Sharks, And the Fonz

Hello all you happy people and welcome to the penultimate Ducktales review... for season 3 anyway. I still have most of season 1, all of season 2 (I did cover one but I’ll probably redo it), the tie-in comics, the 87 series, and even then i’ll never really be done with ducks between all the scrooge comics and other duck related shows like Darkwing Duck and Quack Pack. But as far as covering the show as it comes out as i’ve done for the past year, that’s’ts almost done. It’s honestly just starting to hit as I type this: this is the second to last episode. After next week while there’s always fan fiction (And I certainly aim to contribute to that), a possible Darkwing Duck Reboot under frank (though that’s in doubt) where they could show up, and a movie down the road given what we saw with Phienas and Ferb and the show’s popularity it’s still not the same as getting these well animated, well crafted adventures every week with breaks or the ocasional entire week of them. The show won’t go on, and whatever happens with the property next is a mystery no amount of ducks can solve. 

So with all that in mind naturally this episode is a breather episode: It’s not unimportant: like the rest of the season it ties off a lot of loose ends, adds in some stuff we didn’t know we wanted, and in general feels necessary like every episode this season. It’s something I credit the season for immensley: They knew this would probably be it so while they had more stories to tell, they made sure if these were their last, to leave no loose ends. And outside of ones they just never wanted to address in the first place like “What happened to Donald’s parents”, “Why was every trace of Della missing despite Scrooge’s search for her having just ended”, and “What did Della thing of the decades long seperation”, they’ve tied up pretty much all of them except for FOWL and what Beakly was lying about, and I feel both are about to ducktail into one another int he finale. Could be wrong but  I applaud them for tying off almost every loose end and character arc by this episode that isn’t related to FOWL in some way. Not every show can do that: She Ra was a masterpiece but still had a few things like Scorpia and Catra’s broken relationship, Hordak’s reformation and Adora’s Parents just left up in the air due to time constraints, Steven Universe ONLY got to go back and answer a lot of questions because they were lucky enough to get an epilogue mini series, and Star Vs... was not as good as either show by the end and by the finale about 80% of things it’d brought up all had the following answer:

My point is it’s VERY hard, even when you know the end is coming to tie everything up in a neat bow. And I can’t know how good the finale be or how satsifying it will be but given how well this season’s wrapped everything up so far,  i’m betting on immensely. But we can talk about that when it finally comes around next week. For now we have a trial episode to talk about that’s mostly good.. mostly. See why the mostly under the cut as I discuss and recap the episode with full spoilers.  Count it down!

We open in the Mansion, where a bunch of tribble like Fuzzy creatures are running amok. Unsuprisingly, Scrooge bought one for Louie as a pet to teach him responsiblity.. again. And once again he instead turned into a get rich quick scheme, didn’t read the manual and now they have an infestation. 

ONCE AGAIN, Louie is written like he’s barely changed at all in the past three seasons. Anyone whose been following my reviews regularly knows this has been a pet peeve of mine for the entire season. Despite having an ENTIRE arc about Louie growing as a character and learning the human cost of his scheming and to use his angle seeing talent’s wisely, the writers keep writing him as if he learned nothing. I went back to track it and while not as often as it felt I noticed a few things. The first is that it WASN’T like this for the first half of the season. No really. He even learns brand new lessons in The Trickening and Louie’s Eleven. Granted he also exploits his uncle in Louie’s Eleven but that’s mostly played for laughs.. still not a great bit but not a major part of the episode. 

So he was fine for the first act of the season... but then for whatever reason from Let’s Get Dangerous onwards (Again I don’t count the Christmas episode as both of those are meant to slot in anywhere and chronologically take place before this season for the timeline to make any sense), he’s just...

He’s utterly insufferable in his small parts of the first half of Let’s Get Dangerous! as he berates Huey for daring to look a gifthorse int he mouse.. even though everytime he’s seemingly got something for nothing or minimal effort it’s backfired and it’s something that seeemd to stick with “The Richest Duck in the World!”. He’s fine in Impossibin and alright in split sword as while he clearly hadn’t learned lying isn’t the best policy we at least got a good story out of it. He then went right back to obnoxious with New Gods on the Block where he, EPISODES AFTER THE SOLEAGEO FISACO again thinks an easy way out is the right way, and has NO guilt over possibly killing a bunch of people with his gold powers and in fact is disapointed he dosen’t get to keep a living being turned to gold!. He spents all of Fight for Castle McDuck being a huge dick to Huey AGAIN iwth no lesson, and now has yet another family endagering get rich quick scheme he feels no remorse about. 

I will admit when I”m wrong and I DID think it was in way more of the season than I thought. And let’s face it in real life personal issues don’t just go away and you can sometimes slide back, i’ve done it way too many times and i’m not proud of it. We’re only human. But this isn’t real life, this is cartoon ducks. And cartoon duck wise most character development has stuck or if a bad trait’s come back it’s been in a new way. Webby is still trusting, but knows how the world works now and while idolizing scrooge dosen’t think he’s perfect anymore. Huey is no longer a skpetic towards the super natural and hasn’t forced a party on anyone. Dewey hasn’t craved other people’s love or thought he needed to earn his mom’s love again. And that’s just the other kids. They aren’t the same people theyw ere going in, neither is Louie. So it’s grating when an episode acts like h’es exactly the same, let alone almost a fifth of the season.

What makes it even worse though is that he had an ENTIRE STORY ARC dedicated to learning some of these lessons already. With the others if one episode were forgotten i’d let it slide as it happens with tv, i’m used to it. It’s not a great look but it happens. Mistakes happen again we’re all human. But you can’t act like an entire arc of a series didn’t exist. While they ignore Della’s history somehow being hidden for the rest of the show they don’t ignore that Dewey spent a whole season looking for her, as he never hides something like that from his brothers again nor do they, and he’s out of them the biggets mama’s boy. While they did take a while to adress Lena, partly because the episode got pushed back, they didn’t act like season 1 never happened and she was still working for her aunt. Della still isn’t on the moon and Owlson still isn’t working for glomgold. Actions. Have. Consequences. That’s the whole point of this episode, but they act like none of it got through to louie and it makes his arc feel like a giant waste in hindsight. This episode even feels like it was SUPPOSED to be in that arc: Louie is back to his season 2 characterization, Scrooge is actively trying to mentor him again.. it just feels really out of place as our second to last episode in that way and drags it down a bit.

Thankfully after Scrooge bars the door, and possibly leaves everyone to their deaths but he presumably has enough faith in the kids, the twins and Beakley to take care of it, he gets a summons to court.. and gets kidnapped. He and Louie are whisked away to a mystic court presided over by a giant statue of justice holding scales, that judges someone based on Karma. Scrooge’s foes have brought him to court, blaming him for being evil and if he looses he looses EVERYTHING. And their proscutor? 

Sadly not Droopy, maybe next continuity, but searing the same Hannibal-Esque Getup is Doofus Drake to Louie’s horror. As for why he’s like this.. he thought iht was fun. Great gag. 

After the credits we find out why he’s doing this: He’s still pissed about Louie taking half his inheritance and giving it to his family, so he’s going to take LOUIE’S inheritance. It’s.. honestly a great setup: Doofus was already a villian I liked, being a nice weird evil mirror dewey instead of a walking fat joke like last series. So I was glad to both see him pop up one last time to make it a full trilogy of apperances as an angonist and to see him take a step up from his passive roll in the past: in his first two apperances while he was evil and abusive, and still is, his evil was mostly due to his own warped logic, feeling he could put shock collars on and control people and that Louie lying to him was enough to warrant making him into a pinata. He’s still a bad person mind you: kid or not he ensdlaved his parents, tried to enslave louie and goldie and in general REALLY needs some help empathizing with people. But my point is that before he didn’t come after anyone.. so it’s a nice capper to have his final turn as antaognist be him going after our hero.. and at his most dangerous. Before someone would’ve come for Louie eventually in Doofus’ first apperance and Goldie would’ve found a way out or Scrooge, despite grumbling about it, would’ve helped.. if nothing else than to lord having to save her from a 12 year old over her. Here if he wins the family is out on the street and three of their greatest enemies are now infinitely more well funded. 

So while naturally unnerved by his rival Louie offers to defend Scrooge who denies it despite the fact that Louie is REALLY good with words, and Scrooge, while not bad with them, can’t stop shouting and keeps pissing off the baliff, played by my boy Henry Winkler whose done a lot of voice work and also played Fonzie on Happy Days, is currently on the HBO series barry and in general is just a fucking delight. The irony is also not lost on me that he’s not playing a lawyer here despite being one on arrested development. 

We get our first witness: FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Hell. Yes. It’s nice to see him in his full glory one last time, as I don’t know how much he’ll be in the finale. Scrooge blows of the Duke Baloney thing, which is fair given that while Scrooge screwed up there, Glomgold still stole money from him right after and then spent his whole life trying to one up him. But Glomgold has a different tale in mind as he stole something else from him: the limelight. 

It was 1980-something and Glomgold was a bonified celebrity in Duckberg for his hot dogging, grandstanding and treasure hunting loved by all and took Baba Wawa, a nice mix of Barbra Walters and the parody of her on SNL by the late Gilda Radner, to a shark shaped cave to get the gem of the shark god, a ruby tooth at the end of the cave. Naturally Scrooge popped up and easily made his way through and stole the spotlight. As it turns out he wasn’t always well loved and it makes sense: he dismises Baba asking him about how disliked he is, and dosen’t care and even in the current story, or rather season 1 of it, he dismiseed PR entirely in Jaw$. He was rich enough and enough of a job provider he just didn’t see the need for fame or glory, that just came second so it’s logical no one liked him. Fortunes naturally reverse as you’d expect though: Glomgold dashes forward and ends up putting Baba and her camerabird in danger and being Glomgold he irrationally assumes she’s working for Scrooge and leaves her to die. Scrooge however, after getting the rock, goes out of his way to save her because it’s the right thing to do. He can be selfish at times, and as we’ll see monstrously so, but at his core Scrogoe is a good man who will do right when the chips are down. So this leaves Glomgold trapped and Scrogoe getting his good press instead and realizes he likes the attention. 

As the flashback ends Glomgold fills in the gaps, pointing out he was stuck with the sharks for days, but slowly bonded with them learned from them and they became family, helping him with traps, joining him for thanksgiving and even getting a heart taatoo with a shark on it. Awww. Look I didn’t really need to know where Glomgold’s love of sharks came from, nor that he had some weird tarzan origin story with them.. but my life is 100% better knowing all of this so thank you Frank and Matt. Thank you. I’m also entirely convinced the two have had this whole part of his backstory ready to go for three seasons and were waiting to use it, along with the other two bits we’re about to get to. This episode as you can tell is also a vingette episode, but one where the wraparound is way more improtant than usual.. but it works given the setting and allows the stories to be as long as they actually need to be, and it addds some nice stakes instead of just having Scrooge’s villians gripe about him. 

Scrooge protests and the Bailiff puts a clamp on his beak, so he has no choice in the matter when Louie steps up for the defense. Louie also proves that irresponsible he may be.. he’d be a damn good lawyer, as he easily picks things apart, pointing out Glomgold was ALREADY bad by then, Scrooge had no intent to steal the spotlight and Glomgold is currently planting dynamite under his chair, with predictable and hilarious results. So he gets put on the “good” side of the scale. Next witness.

Next up is Ma, and I was delighted that as I’d hoped and theroized this episode wrapped up one little plot point that while not major, was something I was curious about: Ma’s claims Scrooge stole Duckburg from her family.  This was also likely the backbone of the episode at one point as Frank pitched a beagle trial episode at one time, but Disney nixed it. Likely the magic stuff was added both to justify it better and to distract Disney Channel’s higher ups because they constantly underestimate what a child will like. It was for the best though as the beagles are just a bit weaker here: While Character Actress Margo Martindale is a delight and was specifically cast for the role, overall it just feels like they ran out of ways to make the beagles a big threat and releigated them to muscle when needed, to the point they only appeared in one episode besides this one this season as with FOWL about, they didn’t really need villians of the week and what ones they did use like Glomgold and Mark were far more entertaining villains who needed a coda to their stories.They aren’t bad characters, but in a series where their breaking into the bin or mansion wasn’t a story the crew was interested in they served no real purpose. 

So we finally get answers about the whole Deed thing: It was sometime in Ma’s childhood, good look guessing when, and the Beagles owned Duckburg having clearly overwhelmed Fort Duckburg at some point in history between Clinton’s defense of it and now, with Grandpa “Pa” Beagle finally making an apperance. In the comics he was basically what Ma is to both series: the scheming brains behind the beagles who showed up on occasion and it was a good idea to use him as the past version of her. 

Scrooge naturally comes a calling and unsurprisingly Ma was lying: Scrooge offered to buy the place first from Pa, he refused outright, and then when Scrooge showed off the money he was offering, Pa bet the deed for it in an arm wrestling contest. Not only that but as Scrooge finds out as he almost looses, Pa was cheating having a smaller beagle boy operate pull a lever in a device attached to his arm to give pa extra force. Scroooge simply dropped a few coins to distract the guy and claimed victory and the deed. 

Little Ma is left dejected though and Doofus claims he ruined his life, but Louie steps up, at this poitn Scrooge has learned to reign himself ina nd accepted Louie as his defense without saying anything, a nice subtle bit. He probably realized that while irrepsonsible.. Louie has everything to loose her and no reason to slack off and dosen’t even relaly have to lie for his uncle to get him off: he’s simply using his ablitiy to see all the angles to poke holes in their story. 

Case in point, he orders the “tape” to continue and finds Little Ma berating her dad for his failure and forcefully taking control of the family. LIke Glomgold, Scrooge may of cost her something.. but it was something she and her family hadn’t earned and they were still on a bad road. Scrooge just made it worse. 

But suprisingly, its MAGICA, who we’ve established is an uncaring monster, who has a story Scrooge genuinely feels bad about. Like the rest she was not a good person: Long ago she and her brother Poe were extorting a villiage, and lording over it as gods, changing the population into goats, toads and other things. The only diffrence from what Magica would do to the blot and presumiibly others later, is that Poe reigned in her manical tend ices, trying to get her to think things through. The goat transformation was so they’d have milk and at least get something out of it and as to not waste all their slaves. Poe is voiced by Martin Freeman of The Hobbit and Black Panther fame. Great actor, does amazing work here.  So like the others Scrooge changed things, and fought someone with bad intentions for his own self. He talked Magica into fighting him with both amulets by playing into her ego and Poe trying to talk her down, and easily deflected her bolt with the dime to turn her into a crow with her own spell. So far it’s just like the other tales in a nice mirror.. it’s what comes next that makes Scrooge into a  bad guy too. Not as bad as Magica and Poe.. but sitll not good. Poe dives selflessly in front of the coin.. and shockingly while she cared nothing for Lena.. that wasn’t the case for Poe. Magica is truly devastated, desperatly trying to put the amulet back on and begging scrooge for help while he just ignores her and fills up his sack. And while they both deserved it... Scrooge and Louie both recognize he was wrong as the flashback ends with Poe escaping and Magica sitll haven’t having found him to this day. And props to Catharine Tate here a she takes a normally hammy terrible person who was wholly unsympathetic and manages to make her painfully human.  

What makes the act so terrible is not who it happened to, they both desrved it, but Scrooge’s attitude, utterly callous to magica’s pain with not a drop of sympathy. While she deserved it as did Poe.. he’s not doing this to her as some justice for her crimes, or because she did something horrible to him or any valid reason.. he’s doing it because he’d rather get more of her and poes gold than lift one finger to help someone who had , for all his evil, selflessly sacrificed himself for his sister. For all Poe’s evil and tyranny.. there MIGHT of been a good man in them, in both of them.. and Scrooge could’ve cared less. He shut the door on Magica ever becoming a good person, ever getting her brother back to line his own wallet and to satisfy his own ego. See that’s the true mark of a hero: how they treat others, even the worst of them. And in his lowest moment Scrooge could’ve cared less about anyone but himself. 

Scrooge feels bad and Louie does finally get the responsibility thing and this is where things start to go off the rails: he apologizes to Doofus and admits he dosen’t want an enteral rivalry and h’es sorry for any pain he caused. The off the rails part is because Doofus is genuinely not a good person, ahs done very bad things and is trying to bankrupt Louie for the crime of “taking half your fortune after you used it to torment and enslave your own parents’. It just.. dosen’t play as well as they’d like. That said I DO like both Louie deciding to bury the hatchet instead of just avoiding him and Doofus showing some nobiity in accepting it. Maybe he’ll change. 

He goes off into the night, and Scrooge genuinely apologizes and accepts repsonsiblity... and here’s where the plot finishing going off the rails and into someone’s living room: the bailiff AWARDS THEM SCROOGE’S FORTUNE BECAUSE HE ADMITTED SOME CUPLABLITY AND WAS HUMBLE. 

This just.. it makes no sense, it will never not baffle me and it hurts my brain> Yes he admitted some wrong doing and apologized for it.. but it was also THROUGHLY proven the other two weren’t his fault, and he was simply being a good man which should get him some good. Thankfully the conclusion is a bit better, as Louie points out while they made him, he made you so who made who, who made you... okay i’m getting into the AC/DC of things point is these incidents all shaped Scrooge into a better person.  His mistake with Magica. is clearly learned from. He’s stopping a group of bullies in Ma’s story and saving a life without a second thought in the second. He learned to value others, to value family all because THEY showed him what happens when you don’t. By seeing the worst person he could be.. he became the best. So the trial’s thrown out his assets are returned, and their teleported out before magica can hit them with lighting. Lesson learned.. well kinda Louie tells scrooge to do it because he got the pet. 

Final Thoughts for The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck:

Great title aside.. this one is a mess. It’s not a terrible episode: the flashbacks are genuinely engaging, each one helping flesh out the villians and in Ma’s case pulling one last dangling plot thread. Glomgold’s was just entertaining , clevelry using his 80′s origns for an 80′s style news special and giving us the origin to his love of sharks that we didn’t know we needed., Ma’s tied up a loose plot threat with a fun flashback and Magica’s was genuinely heart wrenching and did the tall task of making us feel for someone that terrible. The wraparound.. was a bit weaker. Doofus was the best part, playing an excellent manipulative bastard lawyer, and being a genuine threat and his walking away peacefully was a nice touch, and Louie having to defend scrooge was great and showed him off better than ever. And Louie did get some moments to shine.. it was just wierldy bookened with him acting terribly AGAIN, in a way he should know better than in an episode where he acts fine for most of it and even then he thinks lying to a judge is a good idea! I know he’s 12 but he’s not this stupid and while as I made very clear i’ve seen this shit before, I haven’t seen it flip flop in the same episode. Louie deserves better than this. 

But it’s also in service to a responsiblility aseop that just.. dosen’t work as presented. Yes you should take responsiblity for your past, yes you should learn from your mistakes and own up to them, I have, and yes it’s all too easy to slide back> That’s all fine.. but him apologizing to Ma, whose family was terorrizing a town, and Glomgold, who he did nothing to, and having Louie apologize to Doofus, who while he tried to exploit him still enslaved his own parents and deserved to loose half his fortune AND loosing half his fortune wasn’t even the main thing Louie wanted to do as his main goal was getting BOYD a loving family.. it’s bullshit. Just pure Grade-A bullshit. Why are you booing them their right. It’s a good idea for a moral but it’s executed so overwhelmingly poorly it bogs down what was otherwise an exceptional episode, into just passable.  It’s just mind numbing and saddening to know the next to last episode wasted so much good ideas on a clumsy moral. Thankfully I have hope the finale will be better, and again at least we got some good out of this one. 

Next Time: Endgame Baby! Clan McDuck and their Amazing Friends Vs F.O.W.L. for the fate of adventure itself! One last ride! I can hardly wait!

This week on the blog: Ducks Ducks and more ducks.. and a top 12 list of my faviorite superheroines later today’s for international women’s day. But after that we have more of the Della arc, the last step in the Lena arc before Shadow War next week, and the 87 ducktales pilot treasure of the golden suns!

If you liked this review, share it around, follow for more, and you can comission your own for 5 dolalrs an issue or episode, or kick in some money on my patroen, link on my blog. Even a dollar a month helps and my next stretch goal is 5 dollars away and if we reach it i’ll review both the super ducktales mini series introducing gizmoduck AND a darkwing duck episode a month. Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure. 

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep33 S4 pt 2: The Best Storyboarder Came Back Just so They Could Draw Tristan Getting Hit in the Nuts

OK lets just get to the good stuff.

God bless you, storyboarder.

(read more under the cut)

The team has entered the Atlantis lair of Dartz, which is also accessible through Paradius in San Fransisco, but youknow...we don’t have magic so it’s not like we could’ve skipped like 10 minutes and just done that instead of the helicopter escape, the Military moment, and the ride through a hurricane.

Oh wait, we do have magic, that’s right...well...for now, pretend we don’t.

Enjoy the snakes.

Strangely, Kaiba does not feel comfortable with the snakes, when snakes really just a smaller and cuter dragon. I love snakes. Never owned one...but I trust em.

Dartz has the Yugioh “old guy” aesthetic of “We just really like yellowed sandstone”

I get that they want this place (and also Yami’s house) to look like a tomb so there won’t be any paint on the wall but this is just a pet peeve of mine that Ancient times freakin loved garish colors on the wall in layers and layers of patterns and yet in fiction we never show that.

But...it doesn’t go with the vibe. I’ll let it go because it would absolutely ruin the vibe to have a bunch of swirly stuff in neon orange and green.

Before we have a chance to grab a step stool and just kinda yoink Yugi Muto, Dartz shows up, and this shot happens.

I couldn’t not grab a cap of that. I mean...look at it. It is SO HARD to foreshorten hands so it looks right and then bam they just did that. It’s just...

...I’ve been breaking down foreshortening in Yugioh shots for a while now trying to figure out why when I do it, it looks like a busted huge hand, but when they do it, it looks really good, and I’m starting to realize that maybe it’s more than just stacking but also...the composition?

You can’t really look at this picture as a whole. The hand is such a strong focal point that you must start there, and then follow down the arm to the face. I think when I do these foreshortening shots I make the hand the same weight as the face, and that’s my downfall. You gotta let the composition force the viewer to slow down and take time in order for the optical illusion to happen...maybe? I’m like over 30 now, you’d think I’d figure this out by now.

Whatever, that’s another post.

So like...what happened to those two people who used to be there????

And now prepare thyself for my lazy math. I know this math is bad. For people out there who feel like working out the geometric growth and calculate just how many souls Dartz slurps up--feel free to tell me. If I like the explanation, I will adjust the Death Count to match it. It’s just too 2020 for me to do more than multiplication at the moment.

Did I count how many people would have existed 10,000 years ago? no. Did I account for plagues? No. Like this math of 4 a day is bad...but eh it’s all I got right now in my mental ammunition.

Something that we did think about was...

Why not slurp up the Pharaoh soul when Yami was still alive? Like we assume the puzzle existed in the past but like...did Yami not get superpowered until Yugi woke him up? Was he in fact useless until he got a little bit of a battery charge during Season Zero when he was dumping people off of bell towers?

And like I get not knowing about the underground Ishtars, and not being able to get a hold of Shadi because Shadi is a lazy ghost, but Bakura was RIGHT THERE. You can’t munch up Pegasus off screen and then say “eh but Bakura’s kinda low tier” we know for a fact that Bakura is not...so like...there must have been some copyright situation where they couldn’t use certain characters. This is a filler arc--but it would have been nice to have at least some explanation as to why it took Dartz so long to finally murder the hell out of Pharaoh.

Which is me expecting way too much out of this show. Just something I was really hoping would get addressed but leave it for the headcanon.

It’s at this point that Mokuba realized he’s standing on top of people.

A crypt made out of human souls! Crazy, usually we’re in a crypt made out of one single human soul....and both of these crypts have Yugi in it.

In Raphael’s storyline, he’s been busy just cleaning up after everyone else. It’s supposed to come off as very serious but I was totally busting up when he’s just dropping bodies into the back of this jeep.

And in the Kaiba Corp plotline, Roland is anxiously wondering if he should be a Dad and save the kids or if he should be a dog and stay in the plane.

He stays in the plane.

Strangely this was the right call. (And this is why Roland has never died)

So they start throwing around cards, as you do, and Dartz puts down his Orichalcos, has he does, when suddenly...they started seeing stuff again. Can’t have a single card game without it.

So the Orichalcos is just a backstory device? For reals?

Something I alluded to quite a few episodes back with Valon was just...wondering why the hell the Orichalcos crew had so much freakin magic as to make all these visions during duels. Turns out...it’s just a thing to occasionally trip on Oricalchos juice. I’m not sure why we never had a vision with Mai, Weevil, Rex, or Gurimo, but at least we now know that Raphael and Valon weren’t as magical as I thought they were.

So we’re in like...outer space. Kind of the last place you’d expect out of ancient Atlantis and Dartz isn’t having ANY OF IT.

And honestly that makes sense. Imagine giving someone 10,000 years ago the run down on outer space. They’d freak. They’d definitely think you’re talking about demons.

If space is an elaborate analogy, we don’t know that yet. For how this is presented, it’s just an old man hootin and hollerin about how much space sucks, and I love that.

PS how anime is this shot of the earth behind the orichalcos symbol and the dude in the middle with the ass length blue hair--really damn anime, right?

Like at least one of you has this wall hanging, right?

For those that are too tired to look it up, Pangea was 280-230 million years ago.

THAT REALLY CHANGES MY MATH.

AND I’M TOO TIRED.

So my thoughts are...either the math is wrong and I’ll fix it eventually in post, depending on my mood come next Wednesday, OR...humanity was deleted and then came back later??? (because the dawn of mankind was 7 million years ago)

OR...

They just felt like drawing Pangea 10 million years ago. Maybe that’s all. Maybe I don’t have to fix anything. I dunno.

Maybe this isn’t Earth.

Maybe Yugioh Earth never had Loma Preita because it isn’t actually Earth. And, like a Final Fantasy situation, is a second planet on a parallel plane of our own?

Either way, I’m not redoing the math because I actually don’t know how to change it anymore. I’m v undecided of the timeline now......maybe the next episode will tell us more? (I doubt this very much)

RIP deathcount.

Yo Atlantis!

I have a lot of questions!

About Atlantis!

And the purpose of the aqueduct going the wrong direction.

Is that in fact the poop shoot?

But wtv it looks neat.

So anyway, that’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed my bad math, and I hope you enjoy your Halloween. Ours is a whole lot of nothing. I’ll be watching lots of Phasmaphobia streams while eating Butterfingers that I legally can’t give to children because it’s an epidemic (butterfingers is like the last candy that my old 30 yo ass can handle without passing out or gagging. Weird how getting older makes me hate all the good things I couldn’t eat when I was younger because I was too young to be allowed to eat them.) and that’s about it.

WHY did Halloween finally fall on a Saturday DURING an epidemic? I only get so many Saturday Halloweens in my youth...just why.

(and here’s a link to read these in chrono order)