#DONT TAKE THE MEME SERIOUSLY THIS POST IS THE OPPOSITE OF A COMPLAINT

[trackermons]

its time for ghost game episode 11 thoughts dump! spoilers below ofc. big focus on ruli and angoramon's dynamic this week to nobody's surprise ever

so first off, don't take this week's meme completely seriously dgvhjdfj i actually am not disappointed with this episode at all! of course i'm kinda bummed we're several months in and haven't seen all the evolutions yet, but taking a step back and looking at it from a narrative standpoint, it sort of makes sense these two specifically wouldn't have managed it yet at least. ruli's interpersonal relationship with angoramon clearly isn't quite as developed as it could be yet, and while this episode was focused very strongly on it and they came on in leaps and bounds, i can kinda see that having them magically sort everything and become super great partners in just the span of 20 minutes would be... eh.

especially with the nature of their conflict becoming clear- angoramon has other things going on in his life and strikes me as a somewhat private person who doesn't always feel the need to explain himself, while ruli is very much a social butterfly who is used to sharing things and sees keeping secrets from each other as a sign of distrust. it's about boundaries! they're very different types of people, which in some ways is a good thing for their friendship on a surface level, but it does mean they're going to need to put in work and effort to get to know how each other really ticks and that's becoming increasingly obvious even to the both of them by the end of the episode. last week in my predictions i spoke a bit about how their dynamic is super comfortable around each other, just not close yet- i think that still stood at the start of this episode. ruli got worried about angoramon "acting off" because she's become so used to his presence as it was that she didn't really know him as well as she probably thought she did; meanwhile angoramon didn't even realise that she noticed, nor that he could have done anything "wrong". and he didn't! it's just in both of their natures to act as they did and it ended up causing friction. it was bound to happen eventually and i'm glad it resolved itself as well as it did; the whole episode worked really nicely in my opinion, everything i hoped for and more with regards to their characters.

the more i think about it the less i think an all-out evolution as an expression of bond would've fit well in this episode, in fact it could've even been read as a bit of a cop-out. the conclusion here is one of resolving to do better, not a statement that things are magically better just like that. to compare with last episode and teslajellymon, at risk of sounding like a broken record- kiyoshiro and jellymon have been almost proactive in their development as a duo, butting heads and never quite being complacent in each others' presence, and as a consequence they're actually as close as anything. they know each other and what makes each other tick so well that they were able to achieve evolution, even if they still clash on occasion. and while at a glance it might seem like ruli and angoramon are more "settled" in their dynamic, in truth they haven't actually explored their dynamic much at all. ruli is headstrong, sociable and the clear "leader" of the two, while angoramon has established himself as the follower who goes along with things and just keeps her safe. ruli's clearly gotten used to that, which is why any perceived deviation from that norm put her on edge. at this point the reason why they aren't capable of evolution yet, or why just this episode's events couldn't magically improve everything, is kind of evident- but they're well on their way, and this was the wake-up call i think both of them sorely needed. i'm really hoping they keep up this good exploration of character in the episodes to come, it's got me on the edge of my seat a little if you couldn't tell gfhhfv

now because i feel like i should definitely talk about something else: reppamon! I really like reppamon just in general, and their role as a "villain" this episode really interested me. i really liked how in attempting to explain and resolve their problem, both ruli and angoramon managed to come to a better understanding of their own issues; being able to combine dealing with the monster of the week AND personal problems in essentially the same breath worked really nicely i think. ruli's final spiel about needing to talk a lot and learning to respect each other through that is really what convinces me she's going to try and take her own advice. reppamon's tail being sentient and its own being was also something i never noticed before and having it brought up was pretty cool! and can we talk about that fight scene (between angoramon and reppamon, before kausgammamon showed up) for a moment because the animation quality spiked HARD, i rewatched it like 5 times while trying to write this.. it's been a while since angoramon actually fought one-on-one and got seriously physical with an opponent (possibly even since his introduction?? if i'm remembering right) so seeing him finally get some action again is a breath of fresh air. hell it really does feel like he's just spent the past 8 episodes just standing around when you compare it to this, i couldn't be more glad about it in general

kausgammamon showing up again was neat also! I'm less focused on it than other things this episode for sure (hell, i'm pretty sure the whole thing would've turned out almost exactly the same if hiro and gammamon hadn't been in it at all oop) but the fact they can sort of pick-and-choose which of the three evolutions for gammamon depending on scenario gives me some hope they'll end up using all three a fair amount. i know it's most likely that betel will remain the "standard" path but it's nice to see the other evolutions coming out for situations that aren't exclusively super specific and gimmicky. i'd say i'm disappointed we didn't get much of jellymon and kiyoshiro this episode, but this really was ruli's time to shine and hiro gets main-character-pass so it's pretty understandable! the whole 'no phones' thing was kinda funny talk about bad timing... also i really desperately want to see what jellymon does with her new camera i'm literally begging them to not leave that as a throwaway gag

that'ssss about all i have for this round, but next episode predictions? i really don't have that many right now, but i think it's more likely going to be some kind of filler compared to the past 2 weeks, the teaser seems pretty general to me. would be nice getting the gang all in one place again at least. if we're getting any new evolutions at all i'd put money on wezengammamon first; i think the metaphorical dust will settle a bit before we get symbareangoramon after what we saw this episode. hordes of zassoumon seem pretty intimidating, and if they really do spread and multiply through chain mail it'd be interesting to see how digimon and technology intersect in a little more detail, so i guess i'm hoping for a deeper look into that most of all here!

[edwad]

"Abuse of power" - okay, you have a MASSIVE FOLLOWING AND people consider your word law - you have girls sending you nudes, you have many spinoff blogs by people that consider your word the absolute truth, and you... haven't done very much to deal with it. You're one of the most popular blogs on tumblr. Don't pretend YOU don't do the very same thing- you snarkily condescend to people ALL THE TIME, too!!! Wtf, edwad. This shit got to your head.

...are you serious

first of all, i do not have a massive following. i have 4395 followers and if you know literally anything about how tumblr has grown then you'd know this wouldve been a lot of followers back in like 2011 but these days its nothing. its literally nothing. just because you have less doesnt mean im “one of the most popular blogs on tumblr”. there are people with 5 and even 6 digit follower counts and im not even to 5000 because its not like all that many people are really going to want to follow a communist. a ton of my followers are inactive or bots anyway. 

the spinoff blogs are run by a handful of people (many of whom have given up on them if they didnt give up immediately) that think the ___wad meme is funny. its not like i have an army of people willing to fucking die for me. my word isnt and has never been Absolute Truth and i CONSTANTLY have to point this out. have any of you seriously read my posts in the last couple of years because i keep getting these complaints about how everyone worships me and i dont do anything about it, when ive said COUNTLESS TIMES that i dont want people even looking up to me. that i should be criticized and thats why i tend to not openly take such firm stances on a lot of things, not because people worship my every word but because a lot of people who are just starting out aren't necessarily able to know what to look out for or be able to look into things at a super deep level because they dont really know what resources they have at their disposal besides just asking and having no real reason to believe the answer might be wrong or just one answer among trillions in inter-tendency dispute, and so my constant game is to try to ride the fence in educational settings because i dont know everything and i dont want to pretend to know everything or impose any of that on people that need the space to figure things out on their own. this has literally been My Brand for a good year and a half now. 

saying i havent done very much to deal with it when i fuckin post about criticism and self criticism all the god damn time and have like bi-monthly adderal ramblings where i literally cover all of this and more, saying that you should criticize everything (and always explicitly saying that ruthless criticism should be directed at me too) and express my distrust of meritocratic hierarchies on the tumblr left specifically because this abuse of power takes place all the time, which ive talkeed about multiple times wrt to what i was calling “pop communism”. none of this is new. its stuff ive been covering for years and apparently no one ever thinks i address it because no one bothers to read it or just pretends it never happened because its convenient for making points like you are. 

and??? girls??? sending me ??? nudes??? what the fuck? what the hell are you talking about. do you think i just get random nudes from strangers all the time  or something. literally where did this even come from. this is disgusting and i dont even know how to respond to this. if anyone has sent me nudes in several years its because i knew them and because we already had some level of closeness, not because i was a popular blogger on a Web Site. i dont even really have friends on here. i literally lost all my friends back in like 2014 and im really not close with anyone on here EXCEPT some people that i also happen to know personally, and many of which i actually originally met OFFLINE. anyway this is really weird and the implications of this is fucked up like what are you getting at 

snarky condescending is what i do when im arguing with actual assholes. the rest of the time im usually just using an ironic tone, another thing ive talked about repeatedly, but honestly has a lot to do with my annoyance at people being nice to me lmao. so youre now trying to bring up one of the things that is an outgrowth of something you deny i do. i hate compliments and so i dont take them seriously when i get them. im also not going to answer everything fully and seriously and i shouldnt be expected to if im not up to it or if its something ive already answered countless times. 

its like you people literally know nothing about me and just make shit up when this is the EXACT OPPOSITE of everything ive tried to do for the last few years. if none of you understand me then thats a different issue but to flat out deny the truth when ive stated it so obviously a thousand and a half times is pointless. i feel like ive answered this same message like 10 times in the last month but you people just keep saying i never address tumblr power dynamics and my own follow base, which is a lie and its super fucking stressful having people say you dont do this when you do it all the time. like shit i might as well just not bother if its going to be ignored anyway and people are going to demand to know why i havent done it.