#(1) you are absolutely correct people is just *chefs kiss*

[fosermi]

since animation is literally your major, is there any details from the Sonic X Shadow generations clip we saw today that you might want to talk about?

OK SO major spoilers under the cut for the preview of the Sonic x Shadow gen prolouge

i was WAY too busy fangirling to give a proper analysis BUT when it does come out fully i might just do one, also please take note im still in my second year of studying to be an animator so these are purely my opinion. for now i can point out a few things that i genuinely want to talk about.

first thing that stood out to me was that 2D-3D style of animation, definitely something i dont think we've seen be done for the franchise before (correct me if im wrong) and it reminds me so much of RWBY in a way. There were some bits that, to me, looked choppy BUT THEN AGAIN those were the parts that needed to be choppy for emphasis reasons, specifically it was at the start where Shadow is having some sort of break down. its obvious from how choppy his movements are in comparison to the smoothness of the rest of the preview that shadow was genuinely shaking. with that 2D-3D style that choppyness looks janky as fuck but its so perfect for conveying how uptight and bottled up shadow's emotions are. its so hard to try and capture what im saying but trust me its there!!

second thing i wanna point out are the camera angles. they shift so much to serve the dramatization of the scenes and its so ✨JUICY✨like i shit you not, i cant stop staring at the different camera angles and going "oooohhh ahhhhh" and trying to rationalize the reasoning for those angles because HOLY SHIT they're so good and they actually do serve a really good cinematic purpose!! its easy for people to get lost in the changing of perspectives and camera angles but this? oh this does it so good that it actually drives the plot FORWARD instead of it seeming like separate scenes mashed together.

third thing I'll point out is the scene color shifts. when doing something cinematic, ambiance is key. so when the scene shifted from this soft and comforting blue hues

to this eerie red so suddenly with our only warning being a slight shaking of the screen??

that made it such a surprise that it gets the viewer on alert!! a good thing!!!

now i can go on and on about the different colors for each scene but let me just touch up on this one scene in specific:

it quickly goes from hopeful gold/good light to ominous black/no light, very contrasting, which can mean oh so many things... most notably; maria's hope vs shadow's resolve.

fourth thing ill touch up on are the frames where shadow runs. specifically the one where he runs out of frame from maria.

we get almost 1 frame of a model and then...

these frames here? chefs kiss, perfect. showing us just how fast shadow really is, so fast that we the light from his airshoes doesnt catch up until a fraction of a second later!!! even the glow in the doorway changes to reflect that short millisecond split.

fifth thing ill point out and its a small little thing thats making me absolutely rabid:

he fucking glows.

and yeah, sure, you can argue that its bounce light, its most probably is bounce light since its under harsh light conditions BUT if that was the case the glow wouldnt be this vibrant of a shade and it would give an aura and not specifically on his markings. just a little thing i noticed that i will get to screaming about when i post this.

last thing i wanna touch up on is the sound effects. they were just so very crunchy and pared up with the animation style?? oh it was delicious!! i have some issues with the lip sync but then again they were trying to go for an anime/western cartoon hybrid style here so its bound to be off on the lip sync.

anyway, thanks for listening to my silly ramblings, its nothing too impressive just a fangirl fangirling. now if you'll excuse me, ill go scream to the eclipse nation about glowing hedgehog.

[thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl]

Fic Rec Friday

This week's theme: Rec a fic that starts with the same letter as your username (or, if you like, a part of your username) The rules: Tag a fic that starts with the same letter as your username and describe why it's so good / how it has a hold on you. Then tag some people to see what everyone else is reading. Spread the love! Also, she'll do the round up on Sunday, so if you're still recc-ing on Saturday, no pressure! Please tag @welcometololaland or tag #fic rec friday so she can compile the masterlist.

thanks for the tag @cricketnationrise

Check Please

Theatre Building, Dec. 6 by @cricketnationrise; Ford my absolute beloved! She's my favorite! And theatre! And like I'm fully biased because this was my prompt but it's so *chef's kiss*

There Have Been Five Kisses by @cricketnationrise; nurseydex 5+1 kisses, need I say more? nope you've already clicked through

Red, White, and Royal Blue

The Royal Wedding Stylist Breaks Down Prince Henry & Duke Alex Claremont-Diaz's Looks by th0ughts; are you sensing a pattern and the pattern is that I'm a former costumer rolling around in any theatre/costume adjacent fics? You'd be correct. This technically breaks the rule I set for myself of not allowing fics that start with "The" but I love it so much??? Do yourself a favor and read the whole series. Exactly what it says on the tin.

Stranger Things

takes a village by alchemystique; It's Buckingham, it's background Steddie, it's a modern AU, Chrissy has a really cute and precocious 4-year-old, it's all the found family feels, it's a treat

took you for a working boy by pukner; pukner manages to simultaneously write the most profoundly moving and gut-busting hysterical fics. Also anytime anyone says "you can't make that character trans" I read 5 more fics where the author makes a character trans. I'm fueled by spite and you're only making me more powerful.

Good Omens

Take My Hand, Take My Whole Life Too by @thebibliosphere; Have we all read it and loved it already? Don't care, still lovely, and with season 2 of the show coming up, well worth a revisit. Joy has a Pratchettesque style to begin with, which just makes it even better.

Star Wars (sequel trilogy)

Tomorrow (there'll be more of us) by dirmircharmer; someone on here was recently complaining that the movies didn't do enough with Finn defecting and the ways that could have led other Stormtroppers to as well. This fills that gap; also check out all the related fic at the bottom of it for more.

MCU

take it or leave it by kellifer_fic; The year was two thousand and a number I shan't say so I don't have to confront the passage of time. Everything was great, I still had faith in humanity, the MCU had not yet completely shit the bed and absolutely exhausted my patience. This is Clint x Darcy, which is not everyone's cup of tea, but mostly it's a very funny story about superheros attempting to lay low as normal people and mostly being pretty bad at it.

i'm tagging: @vhenadahls @appalamutte @starthecozy @dancemakestheworldgoround @zimmerdouche

[lattexalmond]

I posted 1,200 times in 2022

That's 295 more posts than 2021!

79 posts created (7%)

1,121 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gunsatthaphan

@machikeita

@smittenskitten

@forever-in-phapundao

@laowen

I tagged 1,166 of my posts in 2022

Only 3% of my posts had no tags

#thai bl - 158 posts

#not me the series - 107 posts

#not me - 99 posts

#seanwhite - 96 posts

#offgun - 94 posts

#off jumpol - 90 posts

#cutie pie the series - 84 posts

#gun attaphan - 77 posts

#vice versa - 73 posts

#zee pruk - 73 posts

Longest Tag: 84 characters

#but like how is the scene with tian looking at phupha drinking not the most replayed

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I have had a little time to gather my thoughts after the GMMTV 2023 event. First off, all the couples are back. I can’t not be happy about this. So here are my thoughts.

Hidden Agenda: I am excited for it in the sense that I do like Joongdunk, but if it doesn’t feel like it’s just a more talkative Kluen and a more talkative Dao then what is rain? Lol I am so here for AouBoom though. They looked fantastic and adorable and just yesss. Am I going to watch it? Obviously I always watch everything for at least an episode.

23.5: It’s MILKLOVE. We got our GL. Everyone was manifesting it and I guess it finally came true. How adorable was Milk being all shy. She was reminding me of myself honestly lol. Fourth and Gemini are in it too which awww they’re adorable 🥺. So excited for this one.

A Boss and A Babe: Forcebook are back!!! Yay!!! This looks so funny to me. Force’s character is so stiff. I am so here for it though. Office romance sign me up.

Only Friends: this entire trailer basically gives you whiplash. Jojo came to play. Firstkhao and Forcebook and NeoMark(which apparently I am okay with 3 hours later). It looks super messy and crazy. I am EXCITED!!!

Last Twilight: I have nothing but good things to say about this one. Definitely one of the highlights of the trailers. It’s JimmySea done by P’Aof and a blind storyline. Ugh. It’s just chef’s kiss if it’s done right which I feel like it will be. I have high faith in Sea and P’Aof. This is not grammatically correct, but oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cooking Crush: OffGun clowned us. This looks too cute for words 🥺😍 NeoMark are in it too. Sign me up.

Dangerous Romance: why am I so obsessed with this one?! I have watched the trailer like 3 times. I love perthchimon now. I love enemies to lovers. I am just so excited. It looks so good. So much depth 😍

Cherry Magic: now I have never been a huge fan of TayNew. I watched DBK and I did enjoy it, but I would never choose them as a favorite. However, I am intrigued by this. I know everyone is concerned. My wife is absolutely angry over it. She was like no no no so I guess I’ll be watching this one with @gunsatthaphan 😂 I am interested to see how they do this. It looks like there are new characters.

I’m adding The Jungle because it has some of the favs in it. Lee Krist Off Mix 😍😍 That is all.

Our Skyy 2 is 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 As soon as I heard the jingle I couldn’t believe it. I was like no freaking way and here we are. Thank you P’Aof 😭😭

21 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

#4

Vice Versa is all about the eyes. I freaking love that. JimmmySea are so so good.

21 notes - Posted August 14, 2022

#3

I don’t care anymore. Not Me is such a superior show. The only thing close to it is 1000 Stars. Sorry not sorry. Offgun supremacy. 🔥😍

21 notes - Posted January 30, 2022

#2

Forgot to post my bingo card from yesterday’s event 😂😂

Thanks bestie for making it for me 😍

@gunsatthaphan

Apparently JoJo is directing 3 shows so I have 4 bingos 😂

29 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I very rarely write text posts anymore. I usually just message @gunsatthaphan or @leofiat about my opinions, but today I felt like writing one.

Cutiepie the series may have a weird plot and people may think it’s strange, but I just have to commend everyone working on it.

ZeeNunew have been DELIVERING every week. Max and Nat’s chemistry has improved as well.

I love the production, the writing, the directing. The fact that we get it in 4k ultra hd an hour after it airs on tv with English subtitles. I am so thankful.

I also just need to discuss how beautifully done the scenes for LianKuea were just done in episode 8. The fact that Lian asked Kuea not once, but twice for consent is just…I have no words. That is amazing to see on the screen. The intimacy they portrayed through their actions felt so real to me. I know that sounds naive, but I really felt understood and seen.

This is definitely in my top 5. I know it keeps changing, but all the new stuff just gets better and better. The Korean shows are even coming in hot with Semantic Error and Blueming. It’s nice to see change.

129 notes - Posted April 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cappuccinopoweredsprite]

1, 7, 11, 20, 30 for the songs ask please

1. three songs that come up when you put your phone on shuffle

well well, let's see what my liked songs have in store...

Numb Little Bug - Em Beihold (how fitting lol)

Industry Baby - Lil Nas X feat. Jack Harlow (another fave fr)

Rockstar Sea Shanty - Nickelback, The Lottery Winners (preserving the silly)

Anyway yes, a pretty representative trio if i do say so myself.

7. three songs you didn’t expect to like but eventually loved

Roadtrip - Dream, PmBata

yeah yeah a Dream song. "loved" might be a strong word here tbh. It gives me feelings of nostalgia but like, for something I never experienced myself.

Beh - Korben Dallas

When I encountered this one for the first time, I saw it just as a quality track I didn't really understand... then I re-discovered it in my final year of high school and i Understood.

just about any Ghost song

Around 18 months ago, I saw an unknown-to-me band being described as "metal for people who don't like metal" and, in direct response to that, as "scooby doo chase music". I didn't expect to find so many of the band's songs Quite Alright, nor did I expect the band to take 1st place in my spotify wrapped. Both of the aforementioned descriptions were correct btw.

11. three favourite songs from movie or TV series soundtrack

So This Is The Famous Suicide Squad - John Murphy

A fairly unremarkable piece of background music, but it made one of my coolest gaming moments ever.

Can't Leave The Night - BADBADNOTGOOD

my guys did NOT have to go that hard in 2014, but they did, and Lockwood and co. got an absolutely banging intro track.

No Big Deal - Brenda Song, Haley Tju, Anna Akana

killer birds and it's no big deal 🪿

riding snails and it's no big deal 🐌

eating flies and it's no big deal 🪰

finally me and it's no big deal 💎

20. three songs that remind you of the person who sends this one

oh that's not hard,

Ghost - Twen- just kidding lol Jesus He Knows Me

ABBA - Dancing Queen

Måneskin - Gossip

30. three songs you really want your followers to know (for reasons other than all those above)

Steel City - Kazzer

i'm not the only one who thinks this song slaps incredibly, right?

Tokyo Calling - ATARASHII GAKKO!

their entire aesthetic is chef's kiss. go listen to them.

Die Biene Maja - Emi Flemming SCHLAGERTECHNO Remix - Emi Flemming, Karel Gott

it doesn't get more outta pocket than a techno remix of the most legendary Czech singer ever singing the theme song of a popular Czech children's cartoon in German. and it also slaps. naturally.

Thank you for the ask <3

[nade2308]

Hi!! Here's an ask for the fanfic story author asks. But I'm cheating on the game because I really want to know #1 (what inspried you) for "Color Me Impressed" 😂😂😂 Ok for another topic, I vastly admire people who can write a novel-sized fanfic! I aspire to manage achieve that someday. How about questions 3 & 4 for "Consequences"?

Thank you for the ask. It's been so long since you sent it, but hey, I am finally answering it. Thank you for the compliment, my fingers are crossed that you manage to achive that.

1. What inspired you for (Color me impressed)?

The inspiration behind this story happened when I was switching between nail polish colors. I told this to @thethistlegirl and we started talking about what color of nail polish fit each of the guys and girl and then before I knew it, I was writing. Then I was like, maybe this is family bonding time and I figured Jack would make a good nail technician and Thistle said that he would do given you need steady hands to be a sniper. The rest is history.

For Consequences:

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

Oh, boy. Favorite line of narration... Hmmm. Maybe this one:

"Although if Jack was here, he would correct me and tell me that you are all rape survivors and not victims. He really cares about the terminology he uses and I'm grateful whenever he is around."

I like like the narrative of rape victims being called survivors because they survived THAT and they came out of it alive and they struggle, but they fight to remain on top and deal with it. Those are just a tiny bit of the groups of people I admire. They have went through hell, but they are still kicking. And fighting for justice one way or the other.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

"Ingrid... that's your name, right?"

"Yes."

"Could you... um... maybe call Jack? I... I n- want him to be present."

This here is possibly my favorite dialogue out of the whole story. Mac's absolute trust in Jack is just... chef's kiss.

[retvenkos]

🎶✨when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (positivity is cool)🎶✨

five songs? only five? blasphemy but i guess i'll play along and offer the first five currently on loop in my abandoned underground parking lot of a mind:

scenes from an italian restaurant — billy joel (the stranger is a superior album - not a single flop in sight - and my favorite song changes daily, but i am always in the mood for this song.)

1812 overture — tchaikovsky

daniel in the den — bastille (listen, there is always at least ONE bastille song on repeat in my mind, and 90% of the time it's daniel in the den. i don't make the rules, friends, i just suffer the consequences.)

runaway goliath — mantaraybryn

uhgood — rm (tied with seoul though!!!!! and lowkey tokyo... i have not recovered from mono. - namjoon's music is just like,,,, exactly my taste. i am weeping on the bathroom floor to mono. at any and all times)

[rhodeys]

✨ COLORING GIFS FOR RAINBOW SETS ✨

hello!! so this ask had just been sitting in my inbox for days, and since i finally got some free time (and an incentive) i thought i’d put together a general coloring tutorial - especially for those who are interested in rainbow sets, or just want to get freaky with their gifs, hehe.

photoshop: cc 2021, but tbh this tutorial is compatible with most versions of photoshop for: beginners / anyone with a basic understanding of adjustment layers and brush tool (optional)

the tutorial will show how you can: (1) enhance colors in a neutral/washed out scene (2) change the overall color of a shot (3) make the colors bolder/stronger (4) convert the dominant color to another color

in other words: i rarely save my psds so this is what we’re stuck with

1. 

usually, when i’m making a color set, the first thing i do is open the hues/saturation layer and pull the saturation to a 100. this gives me a pretty good idea of the colour palette i can work with. and since this shot is more on the dark side, i brightened the gif a bit, and then moved saturation to a 100. this is what i get:

now that i know the dominant colour is yellow, i can drag the saturation back to 0 and start working on the actual coloring! i go to curves, and brighten the gif a little. most of the time, the white and black points (the first and the third inkdropper) does wonders in color correcting your gif. buut, marking the white point of for this gif would remove what little yellow we have, so i just did a manual adjustment until i was happy with the result.  

(since he’s a poc, i used a brush tool at 35% capacity over his face on the curves layer mask. it’s soft, and barely noticeable, but it stopped him from looking lighter, which would become a problem once we move on to the vibrance layers. basically, the lighter the subject, the more susceptible it is to being affected by color enhancing layers.)  

next, i go to the yellow hue/saturation option, and increase yellow saturation to 50. i usually don’t do this much, but the yellows are very very light in this scene, so we’re enhancing the colors wherever we can. i also lowered the intensity of the reds using these settings:

the reason i’m reducing red saturation is because - remember the dominant color on his face was red/yellow? - i don’t want my vibrance layers to end up reddening his skin too much. we already tackled a portion of this when we used the brush tool with curves, but this just ensures that the final product doesn’t have his skin looking too yellowy/funny, hehe. this is my gif after the saturation settings:

honestly, the difference is minimal, but now we have an actual color to work with. now it’s just a matter of enhancing that color. at this point, his skin may also look washed out, but the color will return once we get started with the vibrance/color layers. 

now, i open the vibrance layer, and - this is always dependent on the gif, btw - drag the sliders around until the colors are bolder. this is my gif now:

the yellows are much more evident now, and there’s a bit more color in his face - so yay! at this stage there’s really no need for selective coloring - so i’ll just add a brightness layer and another vibrance layer:

and voila!! mans lookin good

2. 

changing the overall color of the gif is a fairly easy process. i think one thing to look out for is if there are people/a lot of skin that would end up being affected by the coloring – unless there’s minimal movement that you can use a brush tool for. 

loki is more or less a silhouette in this shot, and all i’d need to do would be increase the contrast between him and the fog, and slap on a color. this can be done one of three ways: selective coloring, color balance, and gradient map. i’ll be using selective coloring here because i felt that worked best and it’s also an adjustment layer i’m most comfortable with. 

enhancing the contrast comes first, and since the brightness/contrast layer didn’t work as well as i’d hoped, i opened up the exposure layer and put in these settings:

and i get this:

now that loki is much more prominent against the fog, we can move on to the coloring. since i want it to be pink, i’m gonna open the neutral selective coloring, and use these settings:

just make sure your selective coloring is on “absolute” because it colors your gif independent of the original gif and makes your colors more strong, whereas ‘relative’ colors your gif relative to the original gif – which doesn’t work all that well for color sets. (read: makes it look ugly)

i got the color, but methinks its still a little too dull, so i’ll add a brightness/contrast layer to make the color pop

and done!!

3. 

animation gifs are much more easier to color because the colours are easily isolated, which is just chefs kiss when you use selective coloring. for this one, i just want to enhance the blues / reds, and remove the magenta tone so that the colours are more vivid. first, i increase the contrast:

it’s sharpened the colors a bit, and reduced the dullness:

now, because i want to enhance the blues/reds, and reduce the magenta, i’m going to use these settings in my selective coloring layer: 

i didn’t want to make the red too bright, since red has an annoying tendency to pixelate, and lowered the magentas just enough so that the three of them still have a bit of color on their face. now the blues: 

now that that’s done, all we need is to brighten up the gif. i’ll use curves for this:

i selected my white point (the white inkdropper) from the white part on baymax’s face (which i just realized makes no sense bc his entire face is white) which immediately brightened up the gif and erased the excess magenta. 

if you want, you could still make it brighter by selecting your white point a little towards the shadows in baymax’s face - but methinks this gif looks fine by itself ehehe 

4.

this one will be fairly easy - especially for a shot like this where it’s just blues and black - and will only require selective color and some brightness layers. so, i want to make this a violet gif. the very first thing i’ll do is open up selective coloring and enhance the blues:

idk if this is a thing others do djsajskl i feel like they do, but i do this because i’ve always found it easier to do color convert when the colors are enhanced - so, the more enhanced my blues are, the easier it is to convert to violet. this is what i have now:

now it’s time for violet!!! yee!!!

i increased the magenta in the whites because the highlights in the cloud were looking VERY white, and would end up looking very weird once i increased brightness. so this is just for…. consistency

now we can get on with brightening!! i open up the brightness/contrast layer and use these settings:

and another curves layer, where i’ve intense-ified the dark parts (the grey slider is at input: 27) and lightened the rest (the white slider is at input: 220) 

(i just feel like it makes the coloring look crispy)

and tada!!! 

i hope this helped! i’m still in the learning process when it comes to coloring, but if you have any questions/clarifications, please don’t hesitate to reach out! 

[beauty-and-passion]

I think "The Invention of Lying" would be the great movie for Patton and Janus

I never watched the movie, so I did it and wow, what a wonderful experience! It is an incredibly funny movie, full of brilliant ideas and even more brilliant concepts. I literally had a sparkle in my eyes all the time!

And this is why I want to give some more unrequested opinions. There could be spoilers ahead so, if you’ve never seen this movie, go watch it: it’s great.

______________________________

1) Lying and writing

The movie specifically mentions scripts and movies, but considering how the movies are made in this kind of world, Mark isn’t much of a screenwriter, but he’s more of a writer.

And, as a writer myself, this connection with lying was absolutely perfect. Since I found out what Mark’s job was, I mentally begged to see him use the power of lying to create... well, the first novel ever.

And he did it! It was very satisfying to see it and immensely fun because the story was trash, but it also spoke to me on an intimate level, because this is exactly what writing is about. Novels are made of lies, writers are liars. And the better liar a writer can be, the better his novels are. It’s all a huge game of tricking the reader into believing, even for a while, that what they’re reading is actually real.

It was a perfect explanation of what a writer does and I love it.

______________________________

2) The good side of lying

There is this part I truly appreciated, in which Mark uses his newfound power not just for himself, but to help others. He starts with his colleague who wants to die and, with a short montage, he goes around his city, to say something that makes others feel better.

This is the perfect proof of how lying is useful in society. Saying the truth is necessary and good, sure, but we also need lies. Sometimes the truth is too harsh to bear.

And so, with tiny little lies, Mark saved a man’s life. He helped a homeless guy get back on his feet. He gave a couple that spark to love each other again. And he gave peace to a scared, dying woman.

It’s not an incredibly long moment, but it takes the right time and the message is clear: deceiving others can be good for some time, but helping others is what makes the lies worthy.

______________________________

3) The religious development

I thought this was supposed to be just a funny, silly movie. That kind of “random guy finds quirky power and uses it for silly adventures” movie.

But then, Mark lies about the afterlife, there are people outside his house, waiting to hear from him and here I thought: “Okay, Mark, don’t screw it up. You are basically going to invent religion. Do a good job”.

I was thrilled. And the delivery of it was *chef’s kiss*: the tablets of Commandments made by Pizza Hut’s boxes, the Man In The Sky who is not referring to anyone in particular wink wink, the free villa for everyone, the good place and the bad place, everything was absolute genius. I laughed so hard.

But what I loved most about this recent development, is how the movie shows the good and the bad side of religion. People are happier now, they are not terribly scared and afraid anymore. Religion gave them what religion always gives: solace and hope.

At the same time, religion made people more reckless about the time they’re spending on Earth. Since there will be a good life waiting for you for all of eternity, why should you care too much about what you are doing here on Earth? Be a douche three times only, then die as soon as possible and bam, eternity of happiness. Religion became so strong, to make the earthly time less important.

(And, if I remember correctly, that was an issue of Protestantism especially in the past? That people were so obsessed with the idea of the afterlife, to not care too much about their life on earth? Please correct me if I’m wrong)

Even more ironic, is that while talking to his mother’s grave, Mark says he’s the only one who knows she’s not in a villa, but she’s dead under the ground. Delicious nihilism, just thrown in your face. Loved it.

______________________________

4) Lying and love (Anna’s development)

I had a lot of mixed feelings for Anna and for the romance plot. Most of the time, I was so frustrated by her, I wanted Mark to move on and find another girl, instead of wasting his time with someone so interested in the genetics of her future offspring.

Most of the time, I felt she was a huge bitch because she clearly liked him for a lot of motives AND YET, genetics >>>> literally everything else.

Despite that, their scenes are so, so beautiful. The park scene is particularly good, because it's not just wholesome romanticism, but also a brief demonstration of what an artist truly is. If Anna sees people on a superficial level, Mark sees through them. He doesn't see a bald man with a suitcase, he sees a busy businessman who is late for a meeting. And by doing it, we realize that lying changed his mind. Lying made him see beyond appearances.

And we can see the result of this change, when Anna talks to the chubby kid. For the first time ever, she doesn't see a tiny fatty loser, but a wonderful child with a big, adorable smile. And I can start to appreciate her a little more.

Also, I was able to understand her a bit better, after the date with Brad and her conversation with her mother: this is when I realized that it wasn’t just her being a bitch: it was what her mother and society taught her.

Sure, it could've been handled better and maybe cleared from the start, so I would've been less frustrated by her. And her development is rushed too, especially towards the ending. It could've been handled better.

However, I still like how lying is treated, regarding love. Mark can lie to everyone, Anna included. But when it's something related to love, he doesn't want to. He can't. And, by contrast, this emphasizes how important truth is.

______________________________

5) The finale

The final reveal that Mark’s son is already able to lie is PERFECT. It makes sense, because lying is literally part of who we are - not just as humans, but as living beings.

How do you think animals or plants are able to catch prey? Or to defend themselves from predators? Or to attract the right insects to pollinate them? They lie and deceive others. Lying is part of nature.

And seeing that the "gene of lying" has been passed from father to son is a representation of how natural and common lying is. It even hints at a possible future in which lying will be the norm! Just like, well, in our world :P

That would also explain why and how the society in this movie reached such a high level of technology. For most of the first part, I kept asking myself how the heck these people managed to survive this long, without a single lie. Without lying, humanity would have gone extinct while they still lived in caves because how were they supposed to catch preys? And cooperate? Maybe this kind of world developed another specific passive gene, otherwise humans would've killed each other for the stupidest thing XD

______________________________

6) The connection with Sanders Sides

I want to believe Janus loves this movie. When he's not too busy watching some movie about how bad society is and he wants to have fun, this is what he watches.

This movie is an ode to lying and the connections with Sanders Sides are *chef's kiss*. Let's consider that:

a) The first lie Mark says is to save himself from a desperate situation. The first lie literally stemmed from self-preservation.

b) Lying made Mark much more creative and able to see beyond the ordinary. Lies made creativity.

c) Mark doesn't welcome all lies as they are. Sometimes, Mark regrets his lies, ponders if he did the right thing. And when he had the chance to lie to his loved one, he didn't (and when he did and lied about the man in the sky, then he told her the truth). Lying empowered Mark's morals. Lies made his morals stronger.

And speaking of Morality, I honestly think Patton would like this movie too. Not only because he is a liar as well and he would understand Mark's motivations, but also because this movie proves how love goes beyond every lie.

Lies can help you to be better, but not to change what you feel. Mark loved Anna from the start, lying didn't change that. On the contrary, lying helped him develop the most important parts of himself: his kindness and his creativity. They are the reason why Anna fell in love with him, not his lies. And this was even clearer, when he admitted his biggest lie - the one about the man in the sky. Once he proved that, no matter how many things he can tell, he would never deceive her with the intention of hurting, this is what gave her the final push.

At the end, the message is the same as always: love wins and so on. But it was delivered with a wonderful focus on lying that makes this movie wholesome (therefore perfect for Patton) and clever with a sprinkle of darkness (therefore perfect for Janus).

Aaaand yes, of course this movie is perfect for moceit. I love the dynamic of "I could lie and hurt the world, but I would never lie to hurt you". Also because it's canon (let's not forget Patton asking "how many times someone can say sorry, before you have to admit they're bad?" -> Janus’ sarcastic reply -> actual truth once he realized Patton was hurt by his sarcasm).

And, as I said when I talked about their dynamic, Janus and Patton can empower each other and have a wonderful cooperation. This movie is proof of how strong this cooperation could be.

Also this movie proved Janus can be a mother to Roman and Remus, so the family is perfect, Roman can have his evil stepmother like a true Disney princess

[skellebonez]

32. Are you aware of how much money you spent? Tang and Pigsy

go wild god of fanfic prompts, go wild

I WOULDN'T GO THAT FAR ANON JDFKLSJFAS But that's very sweet of you to say! And I couldn't pass up a great chance to write these two as the old (but not that old) married couple I know them to be in my heart. I tried something a little experimental, this isn't exactly how I would normally write them but I had a little idea and wanted to see what I could do with it.

Are you aware of how much money you spent? 

Tang loved Pigsy. And he wasn't afraid of who knew that fact.

"You sure you wanna come with me to the market after... you know,” Pigsy said with a shrug as he rubbed his neck awkwardly.

Tang knew. He remembered the events of quite a few months ago very well. Over half a year if he remembered correctly. It was the last time he had gone with the chef to purchase his ingredients at the market, not wanting to go anywhere close to what was likely still far too close to the lair of the Spider Queen.

Especially not after their later encounters on the new year and the following weeks.

“I’m sure.”

It wasn’t as if they didn’t spend pretty much all their time together anyway. Tang had work, of course he did, and he wasn’t always in the shop 24/7. But whenever he could take his work on the go or take a break or just have the day off he would be by the chef’s side. He always had been for as long as he could remember since their first meeting in college.

At first it was simply from a sense of loyalty to an old friend. He’d kept in touch with Pigsy since they had graduated together, went to the restaurant from day one since it opened, and went back almost every day since then.

And then... he’d lost his apartment, an accidental electrical fire no one could have prevented and he had been glad no one was hurt, and Pigsy had just offered him his spare room like it was nothing.

Tang could have possibly stayed in a hotel until he was able to find another apartment, at least for a while. But not forever. Not the way people who knew who he really was thought he could.

Once someone learned you were the descendant of a long distant cousin of the Tang Sanzang they had a tendency to assume and want things from you after all.

He wasn't in any way rich, far from it. But people thought he was the second they learned he was related to Tang Sanzang and he was just well off enough for people to assume they were right. Just enough for people to expect more from him than he could really give. And he gave all the same, scared to disappoint. Scared to be left alone. Scared to be alone.

Not Pigsy, though. He didn't tell the chef for a long while before moving in and not for quite some time after, guilt from not revealing who he was making Tang leave him far more money than would be his reasonable share of the rent despite the fact he didn't really have it to spare, and the charade would only last as long as Pigsy was willing to ignore that.

It took 1 month and 28 bowls of noodles that Tang vastly overpaid for before Pigsy dropped an overstuffed envelope with all the excess money (which was really nearly all the money he could spare) he had given the chef right into his lap while he was attempting to study a book on their now shared couch.

Pigsy barely got out his question of "why?" before Tang buckled under the pressure and revealed everything.

His heritage.

His past with others.

His feelings.

That last one had been an accident. Truly it had. He'd never planned on telling Pigsy that he had developed a crush on him ever since he had asked him to taste test some of the recipes for his shop. That he kept going to the shop not because the food was amazing (even though it absolutely was, the best he'd ever had and he was certain ever would have) but because he just wanted to see Pigsy more. That the day he'd asked Tang to move into his spare room in his own apartment his heart had skipped a beat and he wondered if there was a deity out there both enjoying the idea of giving him everything he wanted on a silver platter while also reveling in the idea of it being snatched away in an instant because he was certain Pigsy had never liked him back.

Well. Was certain.

Until Pigsy stared at him for a few second too long before a lopsided grin spread on his face and he ignored every single other part of his confession to ask "you had a crush on me too?"

It had taken a minute or two for them to realize they were both hopeless idiots who had been mutually pining for each other the entire time.

They felt pretty silly after that, having lived together for a month when they probably could have been doing so long before.

~

"You don't have to keep givin me all this, you know," Pigsy said firmly once everything was out in the open, gesturing to the envelope that Tang now held in his hands.

"I know," Tang admitted, worrying his fingers over the edges. "It's just... everyone else always wanted more from me and... I was scared, I guess..."

"I'm not everyone else." Pigsy gently took hold of Tang's hand, giving it a careful squeeze. "I don't care who your great uncle or cousin or whoever was. I mean, I do, cause they're your family!" The chef corrected himself, flushing a deep crimson in embarrassment. "But you could be related to nobodies or a king and that wouldn't make you less you to me. I like you for you! I... am I makin any sense? I didn't go to college to sound nice, I went for business stuff!"

Laughter bubbled up from somewhere in Tang's chest, making him squeeze the chef's hand back.

"You are," he said, feeling a lightness inside him that he didn't realize he hadn't felt in a long time. "I get it. I like you for you too, Pigsy."

"Good," the chef said, a chuckle of his own resounding in unison. "Good..."

The two sat for a moment longer, staring at each other before Tang started to lean forward. Pigsy followed, just as he had with the laughter.

It didn't take long for noses to bump each other awkwardly and for the two of them to burst into cackles as they realized they would need to remember to turn their heads before they kissed.

And then they shared their first.

~

They'd been together for years after that. Scholar and chef, old college buddies now roommates turned boyfriends and then later husbands. Most people didn't even know they were married at all, "if they couldn't see it when it was right in front of their faces why explain it" was Tang and Pigsy's mutual reasoning. And for those that did know, some people didn't really understand their relationship. Not with how they carried on with the whole "freeloader" thing.

But that was because of one of Pigsy's only requests when they started dating.

"Don't feel like you gotta pay me for anything, ok? I don't know what other people have said to you, but you don't gotta do that with me."

Tang liked to take that a little far, admittedly, for the fun of it with the noodle orders at the shop. He couldn't help it, he loved everything about Pigsy! His smile, how much he cared behind his gruff exterior, his cooking (obviously), and how cute he was when he would let out that exasperated sigh at the end of the month and just look at Tang's tab as he took out whatever was extra in his half of the month's rent to pay for all but a few yuan of it and just change into that soft smile all over again.

The tab was real, but Tang always paid it at the end of the month. Even if Pigsy always insisted behind the scenes that he didn't have to. He could just stop giving Pigsy the extra cash and they'd wash their hands of the tab and the freeloading completely if he wanted to.

But Tang liked teasing his husband too much and Pigsy was happy as long as Tang was alright with that.

Something in the back of Tang's mind wondered if he was still just scared though, despite everything. As if the ideas of his youth were too deep seated to really go away, intrusive thoughts needling into his brain in a way that would need something even more life altering than he already gone through to get them to leave, and he kept the tab and the teasing around just for some extra security so he would know he'd get to see Pigsy's exasperated smile and hear him say he could stop again. He was certain he was just overthinking things, something he did more often than he would like to admit.

Of course... that was until Spider Queen.

It hadn't been a good morning already, the selection at the market had been poor and Tang was tired from a long work week. Pigsy had been determined to find the right ingredients for... something that, frankly, Tang couldn't remember after all these months. What he did remember was the way the Spider Queen drew Pigsy in, despite his sniping at him while they were tied up he knew that the chef really was only after actual vegetable, and being in that lair.

It was awful.

They hadn't been down there long, but it was long enough for Tang to suggest Pigsy stay away from the market entirely and order his food via online delivery. Pigsy thought he'd been jealous at first, until he realized that Tang was just... scared. Scared of Pigsy getting hurt, scared of losing him. Just scared.

Until MK had shown up there really was no telling if they would have made it out. And that scared Tang. A lot.

Pigsy didn't stop going to the market entirely, but for Tang's peace of mind he bought most of his food via delivery like he suggested and took MK with him every time instead. Tang refused to go back, not when he knew how close that stand was.

And then the Lunar New Year happened and Tang no longer really felt safe anywhere.

Oh he acted like everything was fine alright, but he knew Pigsy could tell how defeated he was in knowing that Spider Queen and her crew could just show up anywhere at any time now. It left him tired, having trouble sleeping, and just emotionally exhausted.

Until this morning. When he woke up before Pigsy and got dressed and ready to go and suggested they go to the market together.

He was tired. Too tired.

Tired of letting himself be afraid. Of Spider Queen. Of the market. Of his old intrusive thoughts.

After all he had used a giant gun sword on that one spider guy with the pony tail who insisted on teasing Pigsy for some reason. And went through whatever happened with that weird shadow puppet guy. Why be afraid anymore after all that weirdness?

So at the market they were, looking over the selection of ingredients together for the first time in months almost as if nothing had happened. No one would have been able to tell except for the way Pigsy kept looking over at Tang to make sure he was alright.

Tang loved that about Pigsy too.

“Tang you don’t have t-”

“I want to,” the scholar said firmly, handing his card to the merchant they had stopped at over Pigsy’s head before the other even had a chance to argue further.

“Tang!” Pigsy yelped as his card was handed back, gesturing to the bag of food he was being handed shortly after. “Are you aware of how much money you spent? That stuff’s expensive!”

“I know,” Tang said nonchalantly, smiling softly as he turned to head to the next stall. “I told you, I wanted to buy them.”

“But why?” Pigsy insisted, looking a bit lost at having to be the one to follow someone else through the market for once. “You know I’d never make you pay for anything... well, heh, except your tab that you insist on keeping open.”

“About that" Tang said, smiling softly as he turned back to the man he loved for so long. "I don't think we need to keep that open anymore."

Pigsy froze, staring at Tang in confusion for a moment before his eyes widened as he realized what he'd just said. He blinked, looking at the bag of ingredients, thinking about the amount of yuan Tang had spent before he finally caught on to what the scholar had so sneakily done.

The exact amount down to the last little bit.

Paid in full.

"You're serious," The chef said as he took in Tang's expression carefully, reaching out to grab his free hand softly and squeeze. "What brought this on?"

"Just thought it was time to let go of old fears," Tang answered with a shrug, and he barely had time to react before Pigsy tugged him forward with a tilt of his head and pressed their lips together.

Tang didn't keep count of how many times they kissed over the years, who would after so long, but he was sure he'd remember this one as vividly as the first.

"Let's get back," Pigsy said after he pulled back, smiling warm and bright and just looking the way being home felt. "MK's probably waiting to get that out of the city training started and we don't wanna keep them all waiting."

He loved Pigsy.

And the one thing he was never ever afraid of was who knew that.

[mcytnoodles]

sorry to send another ask so soon but i’m rereading the first few chapters again because i just. man this fic is so good. hope you don’t mind the super long ask lol :p

chapter 1:

i love the detail of it being in death order when everyone joins the game. cleo dying first, then with a dialogue line separating her line from everyone else’s, bc she was the only hermit to permadie in ep 7. very clever i love it

the writing of ren’s internal panic/fear!! man!! i love the line “The fear in his body explodes, cold but not freezing him in place, and he readies himself to face a devil.” it’s so perfect for ren’s character and it makes me really anticipate what happens next, even though i’ve already read this!

i absolutely LOVE your characterization. usually in a fic like this, there’s always obvious favourites yk? (i’m guilty of this myself lol) but with this it seems like you’ve done everyone justice and everyone is written so so well

with the first descriptions of everyone, i am really really curious to see the effects of the new hybrid traits and how each character deals with it y’know

(i am also curious on where ren is getting all the blood he keeps dripping LOL

the switch to false’s pov is so great, i absolutely love seeing other hermit’s outside perspectives and suspicions of what could have possibly happens to the 8

just read the ending note and the fact that english isn’t your first language is absolutely astonishing!! all of the grammar and everything is so so well written!! congrats to you genuinely because that’s super impressive that’s so cool

chapter 2:

GOD starting with grian struggling to stay in touch with reality is just. chefs kiss

SCAR WITH THE FORCED SMILE. I LOVE THAT DETAIL. HES READY TO CHARM WHOEVER COMES IN

“Scar is still gripping his arm, blood dripping into his palms and it looks like it's supposed to be there.” oh MAN. banger line. i love it

(i’m sleepy so my commentary is gonna be a little less put-together now lol)

scar acting like everything is fine. i love denial

i love mumbo’s pov it’s so fun

the fact that they agree to sleep in shifts but fail anyways. i mean i don’t blame them they seem really tired

(got too tired to finish but i hope you don’t mind the commentary LMAO)

OH THIS IS SO FUN TO READ THANK YOU. feel free to do this again if you want to, I didn't know if I should answer this because I wanted to keep it in my ask box to look at-

Congrats on being the first reader to pick up on the death order thing as far as I know! I'm actually really proud of that detail :0) in the same chapter, the order X describes everyone was supposed to be the same order, but so many people ended up being described in pairs that it didn't really come through.

honestly, I've been hyperfixated on this series for so long I think everyone's my favorite now. they are all like blorbos to me. I am in severe emotional distress.

I just have feelings about 3rd life Ren with blood imagery okay?? sue me\lh

about my engilsh, autocorrect is saving me as we speak, I cannot spell to save my life I would be dead without @furrysmp's beta-ing and correcting all my errors every chapter, but I'm glad it's hard to tell!

scar and grian are. yeah. they are. very much are.

also, small personal headcanon as to why everyone is so tired that doesn't really come up in the fic, the time between servers didn't pass exactly the same, so the last day of 3rd life was a Friday, and everyone respawned back on a Tuesday, leaving their bodies to deal with a couple days long "empty" period. does that make sense? fuck if I know but it sounds like it does in my head.

GO TO SLEEP.

[beetthereet]

an analysis on alice oseman’s writing in radio silence (only radio silence since i’ve yet to read any of her other books) because wow this human can wRITE:

(this will contain spoilers so don’t blame me if i did spoil you<3)

this will just be split up to sections because i have a lot to say and this is how i organize my thoughts best.

The way she writes first person P.O.V;

The entirety of ‘Radio Silence’ is written from the perspective of our main character, Fraces Janvier, speaking from a future stand. The entire story is written in a past tense from the perspective of an older Frances who knows what will end up happening, who knows everything.

From someone who enjoys writing, first person point of view is sO HARD TO WRITE. I was honestly mesmerized by the way Oseman wrote this book. Another thing about the writing is that the first-person point of view, truly made the story feel genuine and real. I don’t know what was Alice Oseman’s age while writing this book but it honestly feels like such a true experience of a 17-18 year old who goes a huge change in her life and doesn’t really know what to do with herself, and then finds something she’s passionate about. Truly passionate. It just really feels genuine and true and so I wanted to point it out.

The way the plot builds up;

I think, one of the main reasons Radio Silence is a comforting and fun book that many people enjoy reading _and _rereading, is because of the way the plot is built. Because the book is written in the point of view of Frances, in first person, she describes the plot of the book like she experienced it. It was getting to know someone from ‘saving his drunk ass in a pub’ to ‘this is my very close friend that I truly cherish and don’t want to lose’. And because of that, the entire feel to the plot up to when the universe city fandom figures out that Frances is Toulouse and through that, that Aled is the person behind the anonymous podcast, is so... organic in a way. 

The way this book is written truly makes you feel like you’re a little speck of dust in the air, looking down at these two absolute nerds slowly become so close. You have fun with them, you laugh with them, you get shocked with them, you feel with them. You feel with Frances throughout the book in its entirety. Feeling with these characters as they slowly build their friendship is what makes the big blow when tumblr (and the internet) find out Aled’s identity. An identity he wanted to keep secret. He needed to keep that secret. Because there he could be anyone he wanted. He didn’t need to think of what X, Y or Z would think about him after he said this or that. It was his space. And through Frances, we learn that. And we learn how much it matters to him. And like Frances, we want Aled to have this space. To have this bubble. 

And as the plot moves forward from that big blow of that tumblr post revealing who Radio is (aka, Aled), we feel with Frances and for her. Because after the action of some anonymous user on the internet, she lost her closest friend at the time. She lost a person she cared so much for. And that is emphasized so well when Aled snaps at Frances outside the pub. When he yells and shouts and says things until Raine takes Frances away. And we feel so bad, with Frances. Because Aled lost his bubble, Frances lost her friend and her safe space, and everyone lost something from the situation. 

This is brilliantly brought to light even more with the ‘Childhood Kisses’ episode, where we finally see Daniel talking. We see how bad and heartbroken he feels, and we feel so bad for him because he doesn’t deserve this. None of the main cast of characters did. 

And so, Alice Oseman made us feel for her characters. From Aled, to Frances, to Daniel, to Crays, to Raine. We feel for the characters because we care for them.

The stakes;

The stakes in Radio Silence are directly tied into my last point — the way that the plot was built up. Because, if we hadn’t seen Frances and Aled build their friendship like we did we would’ve never cared about how Aled snapped at Frances. We wouldn’t have had any connection to him, and I mean yeah, losing a friend is hard, but if we hadn’t seen that the personal level of empathy to both Frances and Aled would’ve been lacked in this situation.

This is also very well seen in both the time Aled was struggling to keep his identity a secret and the time Carol almost took Aled with her on the train from uni (at the very end). We know Aled and we know how important it is for him to 1) have universe city, 2) be able to keep universe city a secret from the world and his mom specifically, and 3) not go “home” with her because that’s dangerous for him. If we hadn’t seen Aled and Frances grow close (as I’ve mentioned before), these situations would have had no emotional affect on the reader because you wouldn’t have known Aled.

Basically Alice did an amazing job, I’m in awe<33

Alice Oseman will have you falling for each and every one of her plot twists;

In the entirety of the book Alice has planted multiple little ‘traps’ for you, the reader. These ‘traps’ are just pieces of information that are never confirmed to be true, but are assumed to be based on what we know from Frances and the story so far.

Examples; the whole ‘who is February Friday ordeal’, wtf is going on with Aled and Daniel’s relationship, what’s going to be Frances and Alex’s relationship status, whether Aled was going home or not, and so much more because she is good with this shit.

Using the correct tone to convey whatever she wants to, Alice Oseman managed to keep the reader at the edge of their seat, making them think “oh this is so obvious! I know this!” thinking they had figured it out when she is ten steps ahead of you the entire time. That’s such a smart way of keeping your readers interested and invested and she did it in a way that didn’t feel annoying or ‘ugh i didn’t get this right as well damn it’ but in a interesting and enticing way because the clues — and the solution — to the actual answer were and are right in front of you the whole time.

More on the tone of the whole book;

This book can pride itself on correct tone usage with its writing. Something I personally love to look for while looking at writing critically is the tone of the writing. Does the writing feel like this or that, specifically in dialogue or first person point of view. Does it actually feel like different characters speaking or thinking or narrating, if it’s one person, is the narrating consistent? And with radio silence I can say it just checked all of the boxes.

With every chapter I can feel the exact tone Fraces would say this in if this was spoken, I can understand exactly why it’s her speaking and when she’s speaking to her mother, or Aled, or Raine or Daniel I know who’s she’s talking to and why. There’s so much personality splattered through their words both while speaking (and in Fraces’s case) while narrating honestly it was so brilliantly done I was just having so much fun the entire time.

A little conclusion since I tend to ramble;

In her book, ‘Radio Silence’, Alice Oseman tackles the first person point of view as if it’s a piece of cake, builds the plot brilliantly in a way that makes you connect to the characters and feel like they’re just chatting and enjoying their time together while actually building a plot so nicely, and when it comes into play it’s so well executed, not out of the blue, just *chef’s kiss*.

Through the first part of her book, Alice creates stakes to further conflicts so well and so smoothly it’s honestly mesmerizing, and plants little traps, tricking you into thinking one thing without confirming it while the answer is right under your nose. It’s just so well done I’m gonna sob smh.

+ the tone usage of the entire book was superb.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed my ramble. Have a good day babes <3

[iclaimedtobethebetterbard]

For the fic trope mashup, 2 and 63?

aaa ty for the ask!!! sorry it took a while to get around to lol but this was very fun

send me two tropes & a ship to see what fic i would make!

Royal AU + Everybody Knows/Mistaken for Couple

you left the ship up to me so i’m going to make this be royality! also i think i will format all responses to this ask game as a cross between an outline and a bullet fic.

prince patton has been friends with roman the kitchen boy since they were small children

over the years, he’s gotten very good at sneaking away from his royal duties to hang out with roman

roman makes soup (and sometimes even lets patton help if no one is looking) and spins the most delightful stories for patton, and patton tells puns until roman laughs so hard his stomach hurts

they while away the hours so easily together, and though the kitchens are nowhere near as fine as his elegant quarters, patton thinks that anywhere roman is is his favorite place to be.

as they transition into adulthood, somewhere in the middle of roman’s fantastical tales and the treats he always saves for patton’s visits and his dazzling grins at just the sight of patton, patton falls quietly in love without even realizing.

one day, while patton and roman are giggling together over some little joke, sitting so close they could hold hands, one of the new kitchen staff—a scullery maid a couple years older than them who seems very nice but has mostly kept to herself in the week or so she’s been here—comes over to them

she tells them that she just wants to say that they seem like a really sweet couple and their love is very inspiring and they’re so brave

yk, typical very aggressive I Am An Ally!!1! stuff

the problem being that They Are Not Actually A Couple

it is also very clear that she has no idea that patton is the prince

roman chokes on air, face burning up at the thought of what patton must think of the impertinence

(the fact that he has been absolutely head over heels for patton for Years at this point does not help)

but as roman opens his mouth to correct the misunderstanding—

“thank you!” patton says with a sweet smile, placing his hand over roman’s where it sits on the bench between them, and he doesn’t take it away until the scullery maid has left

“why did you say that?” roman demands in a frantic whisper

patton, cheeks flaming, avoids his eyes and says something about it being “easier” not to correct her and have a whole conversation about it

both of them eagerly accept this very flimsy excuse

they also come to the agreement that really, it would be just very embarrassing for everyone if the scullery maid found out she’d been wrong, so they had probably better act like a couple when hanging out. it’ll just be so much more thoughtful and convenient for everyone. they wouldn’t want to embarrass someone like that.

cue Lots of hand-holding and feeding each other snacks and cheek-kissing and hand-kissing and sappy compliments and so on, every time patton comes down to the kitchens

but then they start holding hands even when the scullery maid isn’t around

and at a royal dinner event, patton squeezes roman’s hand under the table while he’s serving the dessert

and roman starts greeting patton with a kiss on the cheek by habit

and the scullery maid is Not the only person who clearly thinks they’re a couple at this point

the head chef in particular has been perfectly aware of their pining for the last couple of years and very much has a “good for them” attitude about it, featuring much winking and “oh no i never see the prince coming down here what are you talking about” fake ignorance lol

(also at some point before this, there’s a scene making it clear that although people have assumed otherwise, it turns out that patton is actually under no expectations to marry someone noble and has total free choice in his romantic relationships)

and then idk how they get here, but the final scene is them being outside in the moonlight for some reason

and one thing leads to another and patton does the leaning-hand-on-wall-to-box-you-in thing to roman

and roman is like O////O and is all “ummmm,,,, there’s nobody around,,, we dont have to pretend to flirt”

bc he is Very flustered and if this is pretend he Doesn’t Want It To Be Happening bc he so desperately wants it to be for real and it being pretend would hurt too much

and patton is like “i know :D” and leans in as if for a kiss but stops just a couple of inches from roman’s face and whispers “im not pretending”

cue roman’s brain entirely freezing for a solid 3 seconds before he processes that This Is Actually Happening

and grabs patton’s face in his hands

and drags him the rest of the way in for a kiss

<3

[fangirlkats]

https://fangirlkats.tumblr.com/post/692967935841615872/send-a-characters-name-to-receive-four-different

fuck you /aff bakugou time

tumblr user culdesacked is so pissed i havent finished telling them the bakugou lore they've gone from passive agressive to straight up agressive

thankfully i have nothing but love for you, too, friend. so here:

Headcanon A:  gay gay homosexual gay. people have differing opinions on baku's sexuality and i Get it like i definitely get the aroace vibes for example but to me hes the gayest gay to ever gay. this man is kirishimas best friend for two reasons 1. kirishimas hot as fuck and 2. whenever kirishima says "thats so manly" bakugou knows whatever it is is going to translate in his head as "thats so hot" and hes Correct. this man had a crush on all might i dont make the rules i just implement them. NEXT!

Headcanon B: he's the king of pet names. i saw this in a fic the other day and i couldn't handle a single second of class 1a grappling with him calling deku "babe". literally my new favorite thing in existence. chefs kiss.

Headcanon C: i think hes... painfully aware of what his feelings for izuku actually are (unlike deku who is repressing the hell out of them), and he's just not saying anything because, much like with the apology, there never seems to be a right time. not that he thinks he deserves anything to come out of it, but hes learned his lesson with not communicating now.

Headcanon D: i dont even know if this counts as unrealistic because it's 100% what's going to happen, but he's not staying dead. like there is absolutely No way he is staying dead and this isn't me reaching here or being in denial, it's just like, basic storytelling. i could concede he may fully die eventually (altho theres 100 ways to heal his body so really why would he), but hes certainly not gone Now. die mad about it.

and as a bonus unrealistic hope: to save his sorry ass deku has to give up one for all (not TO bakugou just in general) and i know what you're thinking "kat, doesn't this mean deku will go back to being quirkless and he wont be able to be a hero anymore and this will send the bakugou antis into a fucking frenzy?" well, first of all, i think we've made it sufficiently clear during the story a quirk does not a hero make so jot that down. and i 100% get the second point but consider: "i know how to live in a world without a quirk, but i don't know how to live in a world without you." read that. sit with it. breathe it in. good, you get my point.

[samwontshare]

Black Widow Review I guess

Was Black Widow the send off movie for Nat that I wanted to see after Avengers 1 first dropped? No.

Did I really enjoy it anyway (with some criticisms)? Yes.

Here’s what worked and what didn’t work for me.

What worked for me:

-Yelena and Nat’s relationship carried this entire movie. It was start to finish a truly beautiful sister movie. Their relationship is so genuine and they have such a great connection on screen. The bickering! The older/little sibling dynamic is so powerful in this movie. Yelena’s need for Nat in her life, and Nat who suffered so much trying to just escape but her younger sibling was left behind. This was so painful and real for me as a survivor of childhood domestic violence - where my older sibling would often leave to protect himself, but then I was left behind to survive. It took me a long time to have empathy for him and his very real need to protect himself. Because we both were just trying to survive and it wasn’t our fault. I saw myself in Yelena and my brother in Nat’s decision to leave the Red Room. For them to come together to take down the Red Room together is just some beautiful, cathartic shit.

-Yelena. Every. Single. Thing. About. Yelena. The acting was just stunning - that Yelena has this childlike quality to her because for the first time, she can be a human being. She has beautiful character moments: fogging the glass, playing with her beer bottle, her enthusiasm for the vest with pockets she purchased AND modified thank you very much. Do I feel they dulled her trauma to keep the levity? Yes, but she still has some stunning moments of vulnerability - especially when she took her fake family to task and called out Nat for saying it wasn’t real. This was just *chef kiss* THE HEAD TOUCHES OMG.

-The found family dynamic. I think some folks might baulk at the forgiveness shown to the parental figures, but for me this rings true as someone again who experienced childhood violence. What’s often hard is that you feel such justified anger toward those who hurt you and didn’t protect you, but for many people (though not all) there is still a need to be loved by those people and you might still love them despite everything because there were good moments in all the horror. What I think actually made this work is that Melina and Alexei both took steps to correct their ways - they immediately helped the sisters. It spoke a bit on generational trauma - particularly re: Melina. Was it perfect? No. Do I think it will work for everyone? No. But I didn’t mind it. Damaged people trying to do better is my jam. And I was just happy Melina lived.

-The opening credits is one of the best things Marvel has ever done. Chilling.

-The humor. This shit was funny.

-The way it centered Yelena and Nat, women supporting women, and said fuck off to the male Avengers.

-This is unpopular but I was fine with Taskmaster. I remember Taskmaster from the Deadpool comics so I get why people are mad, but to me it threaded a nice loop in Nat’s story. Nat’s desperation to leave the Red Room and end her violence meant killing an innocent child - was it heroic? No. Was it human? Yes. Taking the time to make some amends there felt like nice closure, even if Antonia falls into one of my biggest issues with the film (see below).

-I’m glad Dreykov was an unexplained Bond villain with his ridiculous sky lair that everyone should have known about after NYC. Dreykov was symbolic for every shitty male abuser that’s plagued women. It ain’t about him. It’s about what he represented.

What didn’t work for me:

-How WOC showed up in the movie felt super uncomfortable. We see a Widow of color starting the movement to free the others, but she’s quickly dispatched and the job is taken over by two white women. There is a really horrifying scene where another WOC is forced by a white man to kill herself to further Nat’s horror about the situation. The only time in this movie WOC are on screen it’s to 1) die and 2) literally be brainwashed into servitude. There’s no agency for WOC in this movie and it sucks A LOT.

-That sort of plays into my other big problem with the plot and that was the whole brainwashing storyline. It fell really flat for me and I’ve been trying to figure out why. The movie started out really strong with the absolutely horrifying story of Nat and Yelena’s childhood and the opening credits that pull no punches about human trafficking and the literal child torture that takes place in the Red Room.

But the MCU once again proves it’s not ready to tackle deeper issues in their totality - they have to walk it back so it’s still the quippy, action oriented formula that makes every one a blockbuster. So instead of a story about the horrors of the Red Room and psychological conditioning of young trafficked girls into trained killers - and more importantly how those women still maintain their agency despite this, how they are survivors and how they break the chains of the Red Room to take their power back (a story much more grounded in real abuses), they put a sci-fi veneer over it.

Suddenly they’re trained assassins who are brainwashed into being trained assassins…? As if the horrors of the Red Room aren’t enough without the total removal of agency (and it’s handled with so much less grace than say Bucky Barnes’ experience, who breaks his own conditioning). The Widows spend the entire movie as nameless victims waiting for rescue and get absolutely no scenes of agency even when they’re freed.

To me, it undermined the whole trafficking commentary. They remained nameless. They remained victims. They remained waiting for rescue. But at least they’re not forgotten? Yeesh. It flattens the experience of real trafficked people and their resiliency. I think there was a way to both honor survivors and honor those who didn't survive and the movie didn't get that balance.

-I think a lot of other people have already pointed out that this movie feels like Black Widow 2 and we’re missing parts 1 and 3. Telling this story now is a let down. That Black Widow’s only movie is about passing the torch after she’s already dead is a disappointment (and that’s not a criticism of Yelena - who is pure gold in this movie). I left the movie still feeling like Nat herself was hollow, that she didn’t get the earnestness of Yelena’s character. She had an endearing moment of watching spy movies and a beautiful childhood opening and then she gets lost in her own movie bouncing from one fight to another. It was sad as hell. I wanted this to be about her time in the Red Room, her escape from the Red Room, her experiencing what it means to have freedom to decide.

-They really ruined that beautiful moment of Yelena mourning Nat with Val showing up. Look I don’t care if it would’ve been predictable, that movie would have hit harder if Nat whistled back. They didn’t even have to show her. It could have just ended that way.

Overall, I enjoyed it as a movie. I don’t know that I enjoyed it as Black Widow’s ONLY movie.

[ayoalex]

Why is Team RWBY since the beginning present as a dangerous team?

Ok, before I begin this post I have to warn that:

1- I'm not an expert, this is based on my basic knowledge as someone that used to do martial arts as a kid, play a lot of video games and watch a bunch of anime/cartoon or read manga

2- This is going to be a long post, sorry 😞

3- You are always welcome to discuss in the replies or to correct in whatever I could get wrong, again I'm not an expert so don't be shy to call me out. Btw, English is not my first language so it's possible I could have some grammar mistakes.

4- Do not want to see any type of hate for any character 🤨

5- And last, decided to post this here because I prefer RWBY Tumblr community than Reddit one 💀

Let's begin!

When they present RWBY at the beginning of the project we got a glimpse of what they can do individually in the short films know as Red, White, Black and Yellow as well as some aspects of their character, backstory, etc.

As RWBY continued their journey we could see they seem as a force to be reckoned with when together but seem to be lacking in some aspects when they were alone.

The ones that didn't do better alone was mostly Ruby and Weiss while Blake and Yang seems to be able to hold their own alone (tho Blake seems to be in her flop era in the last volumes 💀).

So, let's talk about them as individual first.

Ruby: we all know her, leader of the team and the youngest of them all.

Ruby do pretty well alone when she's fighting Grimms, specially those that aren't that hard to go against. She's basically a prodigy and for that she got into Beacon earlier (and the fact she has silver eyes 😬).

She's the few people in Remnant that use a scythe as a weapon and she's pretty damn good with it; as told by a lot of character using that weapon is hard af so probs for her to be able to be so fucking smooth and amazing with Crescent Rose.

As told by Ruby herself in V1 while talking with Jaune, she did her weapon and here comes her first problem.

Not practical. Crescent Rose is a bad ass weapon and I absolutely love it but it's heavy and takes a lot to use it. It's a rifle as well so Ruby basically has to be a sniper to be able to go well with it.

It's a weapon that doesn't goes well with a team as can get in the way unless the user becomes a support for the team instead of being at front.

This is basically a metaphor of how Ruby is kinda a lone wolf at the beginning and awkward af with people.

But! She later gives some upgrades to Crescent Rose that helps her change the direction of scythe which give her adaptability! Which is completely important!

Now, if I take Crescent Rose away of Ruby what happens?

She's dead bro

Ruby is useless in close range combat, specifically physically one. We can see that in a lot of moments through the volumes.

She usually use her semblance as an advantage, which with her weapon works perfectly but without it is... Meh. It only helps her to speed up.

In Volume 5 Ozpin calls her out for that and then trains her, we then see Ruby being able to actually block and evade attacks without the use of her semblance... Until Ozpin took control of Oscar 💀

She knows basic stuffs, mostly with her defense but she lacks attack.

We don't actively see an improvement of this part in the future as she's seen to struggle keeping up with Harriet. Tho I'm going to give Ruby the fact that Harriet was being emotional and "aaahhh go crazy go stupid" In there.

Tho, Ruby lacks in this she make up by being a quick thinker and strategic.

She's the one that comes up with the plans and she's fast on her feet as well, she knows how to use her teammates perfectly to the point on coming up with duo attacks for them. She use her creativity to be able to defeat enemies as we can see at the end of V6 against the crazy old lady.

In general Ruby lacks close range fighting skills as well hand to hand combat + she can be really reckless and not actually think stuffs through it at first which can lead to disaster (she's getting better tho!)

Weiss: so... Oh boy, the ice queen comes next.

Her first actual win in a solo combat was Marrow if I remember correctly.

So here's the thing, as a solo fighter Weiss is the weakest link because she relies heavily in her semblance, get her someone that can break her aura fast and that's it, she loses.

But her semblance is really REALLY good.

Like she could stand in one place, do her thing and that's it but there's a thing... Weiss is too logical and sometimes narrow minded, her winning against Marrow was amazing and made me proud because she used EVERYTHING in that damn room to her favor. She was creative!

For her type of semblance that's important!

At the beginning she was too STIFF with her semblance but it got to the point where she has learned to be fast on her feet. Use her semblance in a better, creative way AND be a support in the team.

But now, without her semblance Weiss is a good fighter, being a mix of ballet with fencing/swordplay. Really pretty to see and then take off the damn weapon and she's pretty useless.

See a pattern here? Team Whiterose are completely useless without their weapons and semblance, mmmm

Overall Weiss is a freaking monster thanks to her semblance. She has gotten better to it, to control it and stuff, became more creative and less stiff as well as quick thinker but she needs to get better in hand to hand combat... Please, I'm begging.

Blake: ah yeah, our favorite emo cat girl.

So, Blake is crazy. That's it, that's everything I'm going to say about her.

Ok no, but seriously her fighting style is chef kiss

Blake use of her semblance is amazing, like this girl knows what she's doing when fighting.

Her weapons are great as well, like they are sword, a gun, then that freaking ribbon where she goes all Spiderman with everyone. Amazing!

Tho, she comes with an advantage that no other in her team has.

As explained by different characters in the series, Faunus has physical advantage over humans, not only some of them can see in the dark, but they seem to get some characteristics of the animal they are based off.

A good example is how agile Velvet is thanks to the fact she's a rabbit faunus or the way Sun jumps because of being a monkey faunus.

Blake being a cat faunus gives her ton of advantage, she's stealthy, agile, fast, listen better than the average human, etc

Combine that with her semblance, weapon and fighting style and you have an amazing fighter.

But Blake is reckless and that have cost her in the past. Not only that but while she seems to know only basic stuff in hand to hand combat, relies a lot in her semblance and lately she use her ribbon way too much.

That gives an opportunity to the enemy to take her out easily as we saw in her fight against Vine.

I'm going to say that Blake is generally a good fighter and probably one of the best in Team RWBY in general words but lately she seems to focus a lot in her ribbon which makes her an easy target, idk if this on purpose because Blake have always dislike her semblance or it just they don't know how to make Blake fighting style anymore but it kinda annoys me how she has been reduced to a damsel in distress in some fighting scenes.

Overall Blake is a top notch fighter and her weakness are small details that she slowly overcoming.

Yang: ah yeah, here comes my girl (stupid Tumblr mobile isn't letting me putting her name in yellow 😡)

As you guys know I'm a hoe for this girl so I will try to be objective here.

Yang is the strongest member of the team, not only physically but mentally as well.

So, by far she has my favorite fighting style of all the damn characters, I just love watching Yang fight. I think is because I did martial arts as a kid and then some kick boxing in college so idk.

Listen, this girl is so damn practical, her weapons are absolutely genius.

She's probably the few (maybe only one?) Character that actually took an existing fighting style and did her weapon around it + uses her semblance around it which is practical and smart af

Which comes to one of my favorite things of Yang, how tactical she is. Like Yang is what Ruby could be if it wasn't because of the damn weapon.

Like you guys don't get, Ruby weakness is Yang strength.

Yang since the very beginning showed us how of an amazing fighter she is. You thought Ruby is a prodigy? That Weiss is a monster? Blake is out of this world? Well Yang is fucking God.

I know I KNOW, I said I was going to be objective but it just MISS YANG XIAO LONG IS WHAT CINDER WISH SHE COULD BE, I SWEAR TO GOD, THIS GIRL IS BETTER THAN SOME OF THE ADULTS IN THE SHOW.

Ok ok ok

Yang is emotional tho, which cost her a lot (like A LOT, she lost her arm), in the past she was angry 24/7 (still is but baby got it under control 🥰). People are going to say "well not in v1, 2 and 3!".

I'm sorry but that girl has angry issues and the only moment she gets to be angry is when fighting so yeah, she would angry fight everyone and you know what? She still was an amazing fighter while doing so cuz she would kick everyone ass, being tactical about it, find her opponent weakness and absolutely looking hot while doing so.

Anyway, Yang doesn't have like a huge weakness like Ruby or Weiss, literally are small details. She's pretty much versatile as Ember Celica give her the option of shooting at her opponent. Since the beginning she was pretty much one of the best fighters of all the kids, probably coming second after Phyrra.

Her semblance use is pretty good as well, she seems to have a better grasp of it than some of the other kids and know how to manipulate it without overusing it.

Which btw is what made me have like a huge problem with V4 with the whole Taiyang stuff cuz Yang already knew how to fight like he was telling her, so idk I feel that was an insult to Yang as a character because the reason she lost her arm was because of stress, tired, being in battlefield and hello her partner is in danger.

RWBY

Now that I finished with them individually we can see that RWBY has 2 support fighters, 1 versatile and the other one a basically upfront fighter. Which comes in handy a lot of fights.

But it isn't this what makes them a formidable team but it's their chemistry.

Since the very beginning we see they do the most important thing in any type of relationship, communication.

As Weiss has her problem with Ruby at the beginning she end up talking with an adult about it and then getting call out for her poor behavior, that makes her change her approach to Ruby but before all that she did communicate Ruby what her problem was with her which made Ruby to talk with Ozpin and change her approach to study and her team as well.

We see that Yang and Blake goes well since the beginning as well, and they communicate a lot better than Ruby and Weiss at the beginning. To the point that we can see it in their teamwork.

When it comes to Weiss racism the rest of the team communicate her to stop it and then you have Blake and Weiss discussion about it where we got a glimpse of Weiss life in Atlas as well the revelation of Blake being a faunus and an ex member of the White Fang. This makes Blake run away which later Weiss criticized while telling her that they should talk first and communicate better.

The priority of RWBY as a team is communication. Ruby communicate her plans to the rest of the teams, Weiss her feelings, Blake her knowledge and Yang... Ok maybe Yang needs to work in this department.

This makes their teamwork really strong and their bond just continues getting deeper.

Add to this the fact they learn to use each other in a better way, as having both Weiss and Ruby as support helps a ton, Blake to distract their opponents and Yang to finish them off.

A good example of this is probably the train part in V6, where Yang fights all of the Grimms closely, Blake tends to fight them at some distance while helping out and Ruby with Weiss combination of support make the job hard for the Grimms.

This is exactly why JOYR had such a problem with a new Grimm, Yang needs someone to catch her back while she finds a way to destroy the Grimm which is usually provided by her teammates meanwhile RWB didn't had the boost of strength that Yang gives them in battle to be able to finish off the Hound.

Even in duos RWBY are a hard opponent to go against, probably the duo that would have a hard time is Freezerburn as we see in V3 and still I think if you put them fight together currently they would be a duo you wouldn't want to cross lol

They shouldn't have a problem with trios either but usually Yang is the strength of the group and basically the tank so is understandable that RWB had a hard time adapting without her there.

There's a part in the book Before the Dawn where Coco talks about RWBY and how they are a really strong team and even say that while JNPR aren't bad, they were basically carrying on with Phyrra since Jaune wasn't the fighter he is today. (Plus other problems that Renora have as fighters but this is something for other day).

RWBY in general has a great communication between the members, a great leadership, strong bonds and amazing fighters. They know how to adapt to each other styles and some members even complement each other (Yang and Blake).

Other thing that should be talk about its how basically Ruby and Weiss are too similar and too different at the same time to the point that they should clash a lot (which they used to do) but thanks to the fact they communicate their teamwork is amazing and in their own way they make it work.

It really helps that Ruby with Weiss can have the luxury to go upfront against an enemy while having Weiss to back her up which is something she can't do with Yang or Blake.

That's mostly because their teamwork is a metaphor of their own relationship as well as Yang and Blake teamwork is a metaphor of their own relationship.

Usually Weiss is the main support of her team since she's a large range fighter thanks to her semblance which is basically what she gives to her teammates outside of the battle.

RWBY basically fight is how they are with each other outside of the battle as we can see in multiple instances.

Yang being the tank and strength in their fighting style is exactly what Yang is to RWB, she's basically the heart and soul of the team and without her a lot of their attacks doesn't have the strength necessary for it to work as well as we can in V8 how long it took to RWB to know what to do while Yang already knew what she had to do with JOYR. She's the action.

While Ruby is the leader and sometimes call the shoot, she guide the girls through battle and help both with support and action. She usually starts the fight as a sniper until she sees an opening to fight up close which is a thing she actually do with her team. She takes a step back before talking with any of them and helps them navigate through situation in their lifes like promising Weiss to being on her side at Atlas to sometimes intervening between Weiss and her family.

Blake in the other hand is more of a wild card, she's usually Yang personal support as their styles complement each other but in most situations she does it on her own, unlike Ruby, Blake usually is more of an upfront fighter and only being support when Yang needs her which is a thing outside of battle. She usually does her own way, and while she support both Weiss and Ruby is with Yang where we see a more intimate support.

This is what makes RWBY dangerous, their bond and chemistry is something they worked hard to have as they started with difficulties, is a thing the 4 of them appreciate and love, it really helps they know how to communicate and do so to be able to have a healthy relationship between each other.

Right now we are finally seeing a lack of communication between RWBY, specially between Yang and Ruby.

As we all know RWBY is a direct parallel of STRQ which means this miscommunication between Yang and Ruby is important for their future as a team. Is implied that they still have each other back but it's necessary for Yang to open up to Ruby about what's going since this could create a breach if not treated.

Conclusion: stan RWBY and stan LOONA 😌

[characteroulette]

all right I feel like I have to talk a bit about DGS2 (the actual gameplay and story stuff) before I do a deep dive into the theme because like. I have a lot to say that doesn’t pertain to the topic so here’s a few things:

(first, some not so spoiler things)

The way that there’s a musical build-up to the really big turnabout moments is TIGHT. like holy shit, having there be a prelude to Ryuunosuke’s Objection with less instrumentation is so good, it got me freaking hype every time (and also laugh really hard when I’d fuck it up and the music just cuts out)

For that matter, having a twist on the usual system of “if music stops, you are correct!” by having “if music stops, you are wrong” is so good. It’s a very subtle thing I don’t think many would notice, but I did and I really appreciated it as a little detail

Also, the way they finally figured out how to mix and match expressions with each talk sprite! seeing Ryuunosuke make different emotions while in the same body position was wild and I noticed it like every time it happened, it made things a lot more intense honestly because like. wow they can emote a lot more now!! This one small detail makes me excited for a potential AA7 because more expressions!! hell yeah!! (this is the one thing I’ll accept the 3D models for whoop)

(okay, onto spoilers stuff)

I love how Case 1 was constructed. Susato is good and I love her a lot and seeing her actually be a teenager who doesn’t know everything (while also giving her a better understanding of what Ryuunosuke has to go through) was awesome. Seeing the Judge as a character off the bench, also, was wild and really cements how hard they went with the story this time.

Though it is wildly weird how every dude calls her super attractive in her disguise. That’s a bit unsettling, she is 16. It’s okay when Haori (/Rei) does it because they’re the same age, but literally every other older male character doing it is a bit gross, c’mon guys

I hated the beginning of Case 2 because I’m all ready not a fan of flashbacks that are like “oh hey remember this thing we never acknowledged or talked about? that happened” and sure there were a few hints in DGS1-4, but like. It rubbed me the wrong way up until the first day of the trial was halfway through. This was also the point where I was getting really, really fed-up with the Summation Examination (and grateful that they actually didn’t continue Apollo Justice’s jury system in the mainline games because holy shit I hate all of these people I feel like Kristoph goddamn)

Can we just talk about how they gave Lord van Zieks a twink boyfriend?? Also I’m a dumbass who looks at the character design for Enoch Drebber vs. Dr Sith and thinks they’re related purely because their hair is a similar colour. Even though they are decidedly not related. This case was hella though

Also it made me laugh that Lord Stronghart is basically like “Okay Ryuunosuke I guess I can allow you back into the courtroom” and immediately Ryuunosuke tears open EVEN MORE government secrets like what a legend. Phoenix absolutely inherited this penchant for uncovering the government’s darkest secrets we stan the Naruhodou clan

I don’t like how the final case was split between 4 and 5, the cut off in 4 seemed really abrupt. I get why they did it, because there was a lot to reveal in this trial, but the ending of 4 jarred with me. It just didn’t seem like a good stopping point.

That being said, Asougi makes a perfect prosecutor opponent and I can’t believe these galaxy brains over here really decided “what if 1-4 but with two games worth of build-up and all of 4-1′s dread BUT MORE” like holy shit does it work. And I sorta had an inkling that this is where the story was going, of course you’d have to defend the Reaper of the Bailey (because even Ryuunosuke, despite trusting van Zieks, is very often like “yeah but he’s probs a murderer though”) and of course you’d have to fight against your best friend to do so it’s just. *chef’s kiss* perfection I loved it

And van Zieks’ speech at the end. word for word, I called it. I fucking called it like I saw it and word for word I was 100% right, that was such a hype moment for me. I can’t believe I read van Zieks’ character from moment one so well holy shit

All the talk of Asougi being “totally different” than how they remembered him also kinda. fell flat. like we knew Asougi for all of one case, you guys, we have zero reference for who you’re talking about. That being said, Asougi didn’t actually seem all that different for me. Like, I wouldn’t have known he was a hothead if I hadn’t read his profile in DGS1-1, but with that knowledge, everything Asougi did during 4 and 5 made sense to me for his character. I dunno what the hell Ryuunosuke and Susato were talking about, so their worries kinda bounced right off me whoops.

I expected the ending to be more bittersweet, considering we’re leaving all our friends behind to head “home”, but I’m surprised at how heartwarming and genuine it was. All of them promising to meet again is great, very tooth-rottingly sweet. And Iris recognising Sherlock as her dad!! I’m weak for that sort of thing ;w; ;;;

although one last gripe, I kinda hate how the narrative definitely pushes a sort of Ryuunosuke/Susato tone. She is 16 and he’s at least 23~24 (judging from Asougi’s age), Capcom you have to stop doing this. Especially with the AA series. Japan, in general, you have to stop doing this please I’m begging you it’s gross and I hate it

but yeah overall, very good game. as a stand-alone, I’d say it’s better than the first by a slim margin, but together they make one hell of an experience, I’d highly recommend it