#I fucking love the dynamic here - there's something that just flows y'know.

[saturnsorbits]

Hi hello I (btp) am here to talk about my dabihawksbtp self ship 👉👈

I love rainy days. A rainy weekend morning? We’d all slowly wake up and hear the rain lazily tap against the window and just lay there enjoying the warmth and holding each other. Eventually one of us would get out of bed, but it wouldn’t be by choice, it would be because of like needing the bathroom or something and then we’d all slowly filter into the kitchen for coffee.

I’ve given a lot of thought about who does the cooking in the relationship. Hawks is a busy man and has no time to cook and lived on convenient take out or mooching off people who can cook before we all got together. In a No Quirk AU, Dabi was a culinary student and became a cook and if there’s one thing I’ve learned by living with people who cook for a job is that they don’t want to cook all day and then come home and cook some more so he would occasionally cook and when he does it would be amazing. Which leaves me, living my best stay at home wife life and I’d be the one making dinners and packing lunches and I stg if either of them get in the way while I’m making dinner then they’re on dish duty.

Anywho thanks for letting me ramble~ that’s my self ship. But what about yours? What are you and Denki doing on rainy days?

Hey, hey, hey! 💕

Okay, first off - That lazy rainy morning sounds perfect. Just being able to bask in each other on those days and knowing that no-one wants to be anywhere else except for exactly where they are... 😭

Secondly: we both love and respect the stay at home wife life. 100% you are Dabi's shining light in the dark when he hits his lunch hour and can think of nothing worse than eating anything that smells even remotely like the kitchen he's working in. Appreciates more than you'll ever know that you just text him, mid-day with what you're cooking so he doesn't even have to think about food when he clocks out.

Hawks, on the other hand, will willingly take dish duty if it means getting to watch you cook. I feel like he's a little mystified by it, like you say he's never really bothered to learn properly so I feel like it's both really calming and incredibly interesting for him to just sit there and observe.

Also totally here for the three of you sitting down after a long day and just sharing a simple, home cooked meal together chatting about nothing and everything 🥰

[mrmallard]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers.

Thanks for the ask game!

A lot of these are probably gonna seem kind of "base", or like highly specific.

1: Getting lunch at work

I don't always get lunch at work because I'm either about to be super late, or because I've been spending too much money and I need to try and cut back to make rent. Lately it hasn't been as much of a problem. Either way, getting lunch at work always makes me happy.

We can order in from a local cafe/restaurant, and every day has its own associated special. My favorite special is on Wednesday - it's a chicken burger with chips (fries) for $13. The burger has half of a chicken schnitzel on it, which is cut in half again to make two burger-sized patties, as well as mayo and lettuce. Eating is a general pleasure whether I'm at work or not, but getting to sit down and eat well after working my ass off for like three hours straight is a real highlight of my work day.

2: Video games

I've always been super into games, and even as I've gotten older games have probably been the most influential media in my life. I'm able to take a step back and acknowledge real life; I'm not exactly well-adjusted, but I'm not living in a fantasy world either y'know.

I could cite at least thirty games here. I love Tetris. Life is Strange fucking rules. I've been playing Runescape on and off for almost twenty whole-ass years of my life. Minecraft has gotten me through some of the toughest years of my life. Turn-based RPGs were a fairly late-stage thing I got into as a teenager - my favorite games growing up were like Jak and Daxter, and eventually Sonic the Hedgehog - but now it's probably one of my favorite genres, and I am certifiably Not Normal about Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest.

It's probably bad that I don't have a more sociable hobby, but man - video games are the best. I love video games.

3: Final Fantasy in particular

Look I'm really deep in the Final Fantasy mines rn so I'm just gonna vent.

I'd dabbled in RPGs before, with the PS2 pack-in demo disc including a demo for Dark Cloud and with me eventually owning both a Harry Potter game and Pokemon Yellow and Crystal on the Game Boy Color. I'd also tried to emulate Chrono Trigger, but keyboard controls and general impatience left me feeling kinda bleh about the whole thing.

Final Fantasy was beyond my scope as a kid, and I actually wouldn't come into direct contact with a Final Fantasy game until high school. I lent a friend of mine Tekken Advance - which is a 2D sprite-based port of Tekken 3 for the GBA, with mixed results - and he lent me Final Fantasy X in return.

I did not like Final Fantasy X. At all.

I grew up on Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank. I grew up on Pokemon and - of all games - Rocket Slime on the DS. The shortcomings of the Game Boy Pokemon games were whatever, because they were Game Boy games - they still had their own flow and charm, while FFX felt dated and stiff.

FFX came out around the same time as Jak and Daxter, and that game runs circles around it! Real-time shadows, 60fps, dynamic character animations etc. Ratchet and Clank was the same. Of course, it wouldn't come out until way later that Naughty Dog games were basically freaks of nature, with the first Crash Bandicoot going so far as to overclock the PS1 to run properly, and both the Jak games and RnC - which used the same engine as Jak and Daxter, and proprietary code from the games as well - being borderline un-emulatable for a good while, because the tech was so cutting edge and unlike anything else on the market that any support for those games would have to be tailor-made for how they ran.

But that's the comparison I had. It's the early 2010's, and FFX fails to impress even among its own contemporary releases. That's how I felt.

Time passes. I get really bummed out at one point, and there's nothing that I want to play. I just want to sit there and play a game at a steady pace, and I don't want that game to ask very much of me - I want to make progress without the active gameplay that a Jak and Daxter would ask of me.

And then I remember that jank-ass PS2 launch title that I basically forced my way through until I gave up. I'd given it back to my friend years ago, and I went down to the game store and bought my own copy. Worst case scenario, I wasted a few bucks on a game I would continue to dislike - but I was listless and bummed out, and I wanted something to play.

I bought FFX-2 before I even finished the first game. Playing FFX again just hooked me in for good.

I played Final Fantasy 5. I played a bunch of FF1's GBA remake. I tried to emulate FF6 and FF8 (the latter after demolishing Kingdom Hearts 1), but like Chrono Trigger, something just didn't feel right and I couldn't progress. I end up playing FF13 and its sequel, I watch playthroughs of 7 and 9 (though I did play a significant portion of 9), and I get into spinoffs like World of Final Fantasy.

Today, I'm knee-deep in Final Fantasy at most points of the day.

I appreciate the games on their individual merits, but I really love the connective tissue. I'm a huge FF5 guy, and Gilgamesh on the Big Bridge is one of the huge, hallmark moments of that game - his appearances in later games, starting with FF8, create an organic sort of expanded universe through the Void that was introduced in the same game.

I like that Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy 13 are ridiculously at odds with each other concerning their approach to game design. I like how FFX is this beautiful game based on like southeast Asian culture, and how FF8, in comparison, has you fighting fucking dinosaurs with a big sword that has a revolver barrel on it. Final Fantasy is a ridiculous, endlessly robust franchise, and I love it dearly.

4: Songs with wordy lyrics

This one's as honed-in and esoteric as possible. I love a song that goes crazy with the wording in the verses.

I don't have any screenshots on this phone, because I've made endlessly detailed posts about this before, but I'll offer some examples.

The champion of this type of songwriting has got to be Dar Williams, with her song Iowa being absolutely packed with lyrics. At one point, between verses, she manages to squeeze in a little interjection that adds so much flavour to what she was already saying - it's like "once I had everything, I gave it up / for a corner of the driveway in the woods I've never felt / and for you, I've come this far across the tracks / ten miles above the limit and with no seatbelt (and I'd do it again)". All the verses in that song are that wordy, but that "and I'd do it again" is EXTRA EFFORT between this verse and the next part of the song, and it's just such an awesome song that she gave 110% on.

But even smaller lyrics that get unexpectedly wordy in an offbeat way are very pleasant to hear in a song that might not be super wordy in the long run. Idylls of the King by the Mountain Goats is this huge, grand, romantic song (in an album about two people basically stuck circling the drain and pulling each other down with them, which is arguably most famous for being the album with No Children on it) with structure like "this place, with its old plantations / these roads, heading out towards the sea" and "your eyes, twin volcanoes / bad ideas, dancing around in there" - very effective, emotionally evocative lyricism, sure, but the second verse busts out this line:

"and I dreamed of vultures, in the trees around our house / and cicadas, and locusts, and the shrieking of innumerable gibbons"

And the WAY he sings "the shrieking of innumerable gibbons" just SCRATCHES AN ITCH IN MY BRAIN in a way that's super hard to describe.

Maria Mena also has songs that do this, though I won't touch them due to subject matter. Overall, wordy lyrics in songs make me very happy.

5: Hawaiian shirts

I'm not always a very outgoing or cheerful person in real life, but Hawaiian shirts help me to make up the deficit. They're bright and outgoing, communicating a laidback sort of vibe, and they're very open and breezy which is great for ease of movement. Hawaiian shirts make up a significant portion of my wardrobe, and I really relish the opportunity to get more because even the act of throwing one on and buttoning it up - or god forbid, taking a buttoned up shirt I've worn before and just sliding into it - honestly makes me feel so good. Not a lot of clothes fit me, but my stable of Hawaiian shirts never lets me down. In the words of a great philosopher: they're comfy and easy to wear.

[touchmycoat]

I LOVE YOUR PORN AU!!!!! LIKE SO MUCH - and i'm just. if you don't mind me asking, how - the way you flesh out the characters, their motivations, and feelings in every scene in such an eloquent way, and just little things here and there, a habit or an activity that adds dimension to who they are, and - your prose is wonderful. you achieve this addictive, engrossing narrative space that readers just absolutely melt into, and i have to ask - how did you develop your writing style? 1/2

what books did you read that formatively shaped the way you write? or you know, what did you do to improve your writing? i'm so in awe of how you world-built and established the porn au - like lqg & hc being national taolu champions?? how do you come up with that stuff? i cannot comprehend the amount of research and effort that must've gone into porn au, and i'm just so deeply thankful that you decided to share that with us. i apologize if i'm coming on too strong, but wow. thank you 2/2

--

oh my god please don't apologize, when i saw your ask i rolled on the floor giggling hysterically for a solid 15 min, bless your heart

part of the answer to your question—i've taken like, 8 years' worth of creative writing classes/workshops! there was also a transnational literary component to my degree so whenever possible, i took literature classes fksjdfksd so whatever you see and like is definitely the result of a lot of work. My writing from not even 10 years ago but like, 5? horrid, ridiculous, wild, cringe. The Porn AU itself is the second draft of a MUCH more lackluster piece.

about my writing style. gosh, you really know how to make a writer blush. "I like your writing style" is literally an instant kill LMFAO okay okay, the useful answer: my primary criteria for choosing what to write is, don't be obvious, be interesting. Fiction tells us to show, not tell, right? Poetry is about concretizing the abstract. Screenwriting says cut all useless lines. A lot of writing rules and advice—never start with the weather, avoid detailed descriptions of the characters, don't use adverbs, etc.—are all really about this exact sentiment.

I once took a seminar on writing for horror movies. The golden rule of the horror genre is Never Show the Monster, because whatever the audience is imagining is always going to be scarier than what you actually show them. There are obviously exceptions to this (to all writing rules), but in my mind, it's all the same principle.

LONG answer under the cut

So you start with building a scene. I approach it like essay-writing—I state my thesis for the motivations/main propulsion of the plot. "In this scene, LQG and SY are motivated to save Cang Qiong's porn production, so they have sex on camera." Then you build the sub-motivations: "LQG is also doing this because he's pining after SY."

I learned this "thesis-writing" from theater, specifically from writing 10-min plays. Theater is all about characters being driven by their wants and needs, and the reason I say 10-min plays in particular is because longer forms of writing will give you more leeway, but in 10-min, you pretty much need your character motivations established from their very first line. That's why you need that very clear thesis for yourself—if you don't even know what the character wants from the get-go, then you can't establish who they are, what they want, and where they're going to go in a dynamic and interesting way.

So this thesis drives EVERYTHING that happens in your scene, just like an actual thesis for an essay, just like topic sentences for your paragraphs. Once I do this, I have the emotional direction & narrative scope of how much this scene will cover, I have a sense of where it begins and ends. "Begin with the dynamics of their sex. LQG starts showing signs of his feelings. Reveal LQG backstory for exactly what those feelings are and why he isn't telling SY. The rest of the scene implies that LQG's feelings may not be so unrequited, but also sets up the fundamental problem at the heart of the whole fic—SY's inability to comprehend his own feelings." This is kind of my new thesis now. They're having sex; LQG pines; SY doesn't know he himself is pining.

Now it's time to manifest. This is the "storytelling" part, and the hardest lmfao.

Personally, my approach is largely shaped by my very cool screenwriting teacher, who hammered into us: don't fucking waste lines. The Golden Rule of screenwriting is that every line should reveal something new. I found my old writing kind of repetitive, especially on the emotional front, so this is kind of my editing mantra now—is this line either propelling the story or revealing character? If it's revealing character, is it a revelation that has to happen right now, or is it slowing the momentum of the scene?

But these aren't rhetorical questions! "Momentum" doesn't just mean tumble forward as fast as you can, it also means taking the time to draw the bowstring back further, so your next move has even more propulsion. That's why you get the little "LQG has been in love with SY..." cut scene in the middle of the fucking (at least, that's my reasoning for putting it there). Every line has to bring a fresh revelation that "proves" your thesis further.

That brings me to the details. You said you like the details I inject into the world-building, and honestly that's so gratifying to hear, because that means I'm successfully manifesting my intentions, y'know? "Every line has to bring new info" kind of sounds like a tall order, but the most effective way I've seen it done in books and onstage/onscreen is with these hyper-specific details. If you're writing a scene in which someone feels dirty, never have them just say that—have them say they want to take a shower. Show them running out of bleach again as they scrub down the stall after they wash. Begin the scene like "Steve always washes his throat first now." Then pack the scene with even more revelatory details: "Soap in hand, he heard the pipes above his head groan for a half note on adagio, and readied himself for the blast of icy water that always followed." Shitty shower, probably not rich, is likely a classical musician.

By the same token, I want to build LQG's character. The "Liu Qingge has been in love with Shen Yuan" section is the first insight we get into his background and perspective, right, so: I need to establish LQG's emotional context for filming this scene -> I can characterize him as a nut for martial arts in the same stroke -> so this takes place at a gym, beating up sandbags is a classic way of showing manly emotional distress -> so give me more details on this gym -> Puqi Gym, XL the martial god is obviously the owner -> how do I have XL & LQG a relationship beyond gym owner & client? They spar together -> I want XL & HC's position in this AU to mirror their god/ghost king statuses in TGCF canon -> how can I concretize their fighting prowesses in real-world details? -> they're martial arts champions -> what's an actual competitive martial art form that involves weaponry? -> wushu -> wikipedia Wushu, find taolu weapons sparring

(I just realized that in my songxiao daycare AU, Hualian are Olympic gold medalists by the same narrative logic laksjdnflaksjdnflsd)

So, that's the flow of logic behind my world-building lmao. It's all in the details. Leverage is one of my all-time favorite TV shows and the way they build their stories is super inspiring. If their thesis is "the rich and powerful take what they want, we steal it back for you," they manifest it in the most specific and concrete narratives: mine workers who like the work but are fighting for workplace safety vs. the money-grubbing mine owner who will blow up their livelihoods if it means a bigger payday; the little girl from Iraq with refugee status forced to be an accomplice to antique smuggling vs. international smuggler with a fetish for British royalty.

Last pieces of writing advice I've gotten: pay attention to the real world. A writing exercise we did was just sit in a public spot and make concrete observations on our surroundings. There are stories in everything!!! I learned to observe things like weird holes in the concrete (earthquake? drilling accident? bullet mark?), odd patches of moss or bird shit (look overheard: it's an AC unit dripping water for the former and nesting swallows for the latter), ladies in flipflops walking alongside ladies in high heels (excited mother walking her antsy daughter to the bus for the daughter's first job interview—the daughter's shirt collar is unfashionable and she's taking the bus, so there's a good chance the shoes were passed down, maybe from an office lady aunt. Maybe she's even overdressed for the interview, so will her outfit be an unintended source of tension once she gets to the interview? Is it a group interview, to make the comparison more stark?).

Also, write what you know. You know why SY is a video editor in porn AU? Because I'm a video editor. One of my more popular MDZS fics is set in a plant shop 'cause I worked in a plant shop. SL was First AD in Bachelor!AU 'cause I was First AD on a set once. Concrete details like the editing software having a split-screen, always answering questions about how often to water plants, and being up until 3AM editing call-sheets are the ones that will fully immerse your readers.

And if you can't do the actual things, just watch someone who is, listen to them talk, pick up lingo, and fake it. I watched like a 15-min vox video on fencing for the fencing!AU and a 45-min music theory video on the hospital pianist!AU (also I started learning piano sklfjnlsdjlfkjsd). Of course, I just finished reading a wangxian fic that had me going, "holy fucking shit, the author is literally getting their masters in a music program" so my 45-min youtube video ain't shit, but if you just need a little bit of character establishment, then it's enough to do the trick.

Anyways, tl;dr. Find the details, find the tension. Never tell outright what the tension is supposed to be, manifest it instead. Make the manifestation as interesting as possible, and if it's meant to be funny, make it funnier.

Sorry this turned into a fucking lecture lskjnflskdjnflskd but last thing, someone asked me before if I had formative authors, and this was the list I wrote at the time:

Angels in America (play) by Tony Kushner

The God of Small Things (novel) by Arundhati Roy

The Penelopiad (novel) by Margaret Atwood

“Litany in Which Certain Things are Crossed Out” (poem) by Richard Siken

Night Sky with Exit Wounds (poetry) by Ocean Vuong

Giovanni’s Room (novel) by James Baldwin (and then Go Tell it on the Mountain and then his essays)

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

And, ooh, now that I have this list I think I can even roughly sort it as such: Kushner, Atwood, Siken, and Salinger I really latched onto for their dialogue and very present narrator voice—same is true for Go Tell it on the Mountain. Roy, Vuong, and Giovanni’s Room, I think, are texts more representative of the kind of saturated figurative language I like, and emulate. Of course they all do imagery and voice and overall structure amazingly, but that’s the rough dividing line I’d draw.

But yeah James Baldwin is my fucking hero.

[sinfulredemptions]

@dragcnsden​ submitted:

{ ☆ } If someone told him that he’d ever find someone to feel this- comfortable around— especially down in Hell of all places —Angel would have called them a fucking liar. If they told him it’d be with one of the most feared and dangerous bastards in the place, well… he’d have called them out on their bullshit even harder. And yet, here he is… lingering in the doorway as he looks across the room at Al, for once actually feeling hesitant about joining him. Ironic, isn’t it?

It’s late at night, as most of their pleasant chats seem to be… just another aspect of the nighttime to add to Angel’s ever-growing love admiration of it. And as he rests against the wooden frame, jazz lightly hinting the air and a warm fire flickering in the room making shadows dance in the drowsy lighting, he can’t help but smile. A soft, nervous one… charmingly quirked to the side, as all his sincere ones are, unlike the wide, showy grins he often dons around others.

He’s really gonna fucking do this, huh?

With a deep breath, he releases it with a small shake of his head before pushing away and slowly sauntering into the room as per usual.  ❝  Heya, Luce stellare~  ❞  He pipes up with a playful purr, yet another nickname flowing forth like second nature; albeit, this one meaning more than Alastor could ever likely know. Plopping himself down on a plush chair beside the deer demon, one leg crosses over the other as an elbow props on the armrest, a cheek laying against a closed fist as he gazes into the gently-roaring fire.

It’s a nice sight… The warm colors dancing across the logs, the sound of crackling mingling with the music in the air, helping turn what could have been Silence into a comforting melody. Although, Angel must admit… the moment would be far more soothing if he didn’t have a stubborn decision lingering on the cusp of his mind. Evident by how his legs lightly bounces, free hand lightly drumming slim fingers against his other armrest as he emits a soft, discreet breath… Alright, time to stop being a bitch.

❝ Hey, Al?  ❞   Angel begins, gaze still focused on the fire, and holding a hint of nerves,  ❝  I don’t mean ta- Y'know, make things weird or nothin’…  ❞  The last thing he wants is to destroy the companionship he’s found, the security he’s stumbled upon… And yet- it still feels wrong, in a way, to not be sure that Alastor- understands. At least, as much as is safe for him to.  ❝  But I jus’, heh… I dunno… I jus’ wanted ta let ya know that, I- … I really appreciate these li'l chats we have.  ❞

Looking over at the deer, a sheepish smile tugs at his lips, cheeks tinged with a gentle pink,  ❝  It ain’t often that I can feel this comfortable around someone… Fuckin’ neva’, as a matta’ of fact. So, I figured I oughta thank you…  ❞  Shrugging, gaze wanders to the fire as he raises a brow,  ❝  Now, don’t worry- I ain’t plannin’ ta start spewin’ all my deepest feelin’s an’ shit on ya.  ❞  Don’t want to drive him away, after all. Angel’s no fool… In this relationship arrangement they have going on, HE’S the one who needs Alastor.  ❝  I jus’ wanted ta let you know, that- yer a pretty damn great guy, Smiles.  ❞  

Glancing over at Alastor, expression and tone turns playful— as if trying to backtrack from the snippet of unguarded sincerity he had allowed Alastor to see, to KNOW —as he adds,  ❝  I mean- Yer an asshole, don’t get me wrong…  ❞  Cue a light laugh, a subconscious brush of his bangs as his legs shift positions, hips shuffling slightly   to become more comfortable,  ❝  But you ain’t all bad… In fact, yer one of th’ betta’ guys I’ve eva’ known.  ❞  

One of the best, actually… { ☆ }

Routine.

If there was one thing that Alastor took solace in, it would routine. Things done a certain way at a certain time...as sure as the false sun rose and set, as steady as the ticking of the clock above the mantle..and as inevitable as a certain spider coming to peek into the parlor to see what he was up to that night.

It was...comforting in a way and it sort of alarmed Alastor honestly.

How easily he had come to expect the other to join in on his private time, and he didn’t hate him for it. Angel was respectful, despite their first few meetings where he had been exceedingly crude and the like, but he had seemed to understand that unlike most of the denizens down here, such things were not even on his radar, let alone something he would want to indulge in.

It had been like a switch being flipped he’d noticed, the lewder comments had died down and their dynamic had gotten much more comfortable over time. It was strange to Alastor, who was unused to people wanting to be within his company, most quick and HAPPY to flee at the first sight of him, and for good reason. His violent and murderous reputation preceded him, if the little story that Vaggie had told Angel was any indication~

Tonight, he was tending to his butchery tools, the black leather roll laid out on the table with the whet stone attached to it with a small vice. As per usual, his dress was....casual...almost. Hair pulled back, his suspenders off his shoulders, hanging about his waist on the couch, but tonight he didn’t have gloves on as he pressed the knife to the stone and set to work, humming lowly along with the music as he almost tenderly sharpened his blade before lifting it to check the sharpness against his thumb.

He didn’t look up as the other settled into the couch next to him, close to the fire. Alastor knew Angel enjoyed watching the flames, so he had made the habit of leaving that spot open for him and as always, there was a cup of coffee waiting for him on the table, seemingly out of nowhere. There was a slight jittering on the couch that caught his attention and set his teeth on edge slightly, his ears giving the tiniest of flicks as he glanced over, unable to continue his work while Angel jostled about, but then...he stilled as he began to speak.

A brow perked and he tilted his head with a light, amused expression on his face. The smile that he normally wore, the steel trap wound tight was relaxed just a bit with Angel, and he was sure the other had noticed. They had gotten rather good at reading one another with these late night excursions. Comfortable hm? It was a rather strange thought, Alastor pulling his gaze away from Angel to continue his work, but one ear swiveled towards him would let the other know that yes, he was still listening.

The soft sound of the blade dragging along the stone rumbled like a strange purr under Angel’s words as he spoke. Alastor pondering them over and he chuckled softly, there was a flash of steel then, glinting at the flat of the knife slipped under Angel’s jawline, turning the spider’s face to look at him. “I will argue Angel dear, that I am many things, but a ‘great guy’...isn’t one of them.” The static of his radio dropped out, letting the lower tone of his true voice to ring through the empty room as he leaned in, the two of them rather close as the low crooning of a jazz singer filled the air with lyrics of slow, dark nights.

“But...” He quirked a smile as he shifted the blade upward, giving Angel a gentle pat on the cheek with it. “I do enjoy your company. I find our late night rendezvous to be engaging and in fact, rather relaxing!” The static returned then as the stag withdrew with a little hum. “It is rare to have company that isn’t terrified of me and actually rather interesting to talk to! Besides, I think we have a bit of common ground from being so close to one another death wise~” A small laugh then as he put the finishing touch on his blade, giving it a light thumb and smirking at the thin line that he cut into the skin there. Such a bare graze of a gesture and already small beads of blood welled at the line.

Satisfied, the small wound was given a lick and he tucked that blade away in its slot, picking up another to repeat the process. That was perhaps as close to a thank you and a confession of friendship anyone would EVER get out of Alastor~

@burningfcols​

[sobdasha]

i got caught up with this not because i did better but because i’ve had no time/watched some tv

War for the Oaks, Emma Bull I began reading this book at the same time as The Innkeeper's Song, listed below. I started out dragging my feet on this one and racing through TIS. But one book got progressively more amazing while the other book got progressively less impressive and my better book is this one. This was the roomie's first brush with urban fantasy, and one of her friends got her a second-hand first edition paperback, and so she talked about it a lot until I finally picked it up and she said "Uh but also I haven't read it in forever so I uh. Don't know how it holds up." (She rightly fears me because as you will have noticed I am a Very Particular Reader.) Reasons I disliked this book at first: - fashion choices that scream "1980s" and fashion choices that scream "lesbian" are incredibly similar and guess which of the two I am not getting, seeing as this was published in 1987. - Eddie is breaking up with her garbage boyfriend which is good but she has an incredible amount of chemistry with Carla which is disheartening given that I know I won't get sapphics and Eddie will end up dating some other boy with whom there is no chemistry. - This is a book about rock-n-roll bands I don't know any of these songs (okay I might know these songs but I don't know artists or titles so I may as well not know any of these songs) it's kinda wasted on me. - oh boy I'm so excited to watch her and the phouka fight like Kagome and Inuyasha or any other pair with this dynamic yaaaaay /sarcasm Reasons this came to be a Good Read: - Everyone dresses so goddamn queer in this book that you know what, everyone except that jerkass Stuart is queer. He's garbage so he can be straight or whatever. It's my reading experience I do what I want. There's no way these people aren't bi. Also it's canon because everyone takes one look at the phouka and assumes he's gay. …………………………with slurs but still. - Good supporting cast. - I both failed to give the phouka a deep voice and also to sustain a Stereotypical Gay voice (which, the dialogue will totally 100% support), but I did accidentally voice him with Tatum's dub of Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss which was completely appropriate in the "vaguely gay vaguely British unambiguously prissy" department, and also entertaining because it reminded me of the dynamics in that anime but, y'know, better. - I almost gave up when the romance hit hardcore but it turned out later that was actually a fake-out that was meant to be garbage and set us up for the endgame much later, by which point Eddie and the phouka actually had the same level of chemistry as Eddie and Carla, so I could actively enjoy the ship. A win! Anyway it was fun. It may not have aged the best in the sense that it strove to be accurate to time and place (see: homophobic slurs), but the character dynamics held up pretty dang well. I would definitely read this again and enjoy myself; in fact I plan to.

The Innkeeper's Song, Peter S. Beagle I was very excited to read this because I was so blown away by The Last Unicorn but the more I read the more disappointed I got. Half the time I feel like that weeb who is like "hello I only like your fanfic you wrote when you were 13 and high on pixie stixs, all your stuff now sucks", and half the time I tell myself, "Maybe there is a reason I've only ever heard of The Last Unicorn and had no idea he'd actually written other books." As you have probably picked up by now, I have a knee-jerk dislike of first person PoV where it must prove itself worthy to me first, despite the fact that I like plenty of things written in first person. I also have a knee-jerk dislike of "I will change the narrator every chapter and announce loudly who it is instead of doing it subtly but unmistakably in the content of the text itself." This book had both. Despite all my harsh judgment, it would be incorrect of me to say that this writing choice is not valid. That this writing choice cannot be used to amazing effect. I do not believe that is what happened here. I did not feel it was adding much to the story to begin with (other than being the shortest and straightest path to advancing a narrative with many fronts), and I was definitely unimpressed when we got to the string of chapters, all of them less than a page and some no more than a paragraph, during the orgy scene where the 3 women have sex with 1 teen boy who's been thirsting after them, and they pay him a lot of worshipful attention in the orgy even though none of them actually like him, and also this is when we reveal one of the women is a man in disguise in the most confusing way possible so my cringe got even deeper as I waited for Beagle to fuck up a trans storyline. (It was literally just "I'm on the run so I'm magically dressing as a girl" but it took a really long time to clarify that after.) In addition to not liking the narrative structure, I just wasn't interested or invested in the actual plot. It didn't feel very urgent or important and at the end I was like "what even happened and also why did it happen." I was underwhelmed. I was definitely the wrong audience for this book. Oh also because I was not enjoying myself I started to get really irrationally annoyed by the way fantasy fauna and flora would have fantasy names and they would be italicized. In a first person PoV. Where the narrator is literally speaking the language that this word is native to. It half felt pretentious, and half highlighted what felt like a loose thread: everyone is literally narrating to someone (presumably collecting the story, after everyone has gone their separate ways) and this has all been woven together into a proper narrative, but our story collector is absent despite addresses to such a person. What purpose does this serve? Does it make it more ~authentic~ fantasy? Because I don't buy it. Now my suspension of disbelief is snapped; I'd have preferred it was either left out entirely, or made into a brilliant framing device like in The Name of the Wind.

Giant Bones, Peter S. Beagle This one was short stories "set in the same universe as The Innkeeper's Song", which basically meant some city names were reused, as well as all those italicized fantasy names and the "I am narrating my story to an audience in-story" frame. You know, all the things I didn't particularly care for. I pressed on to see if there was anything I might like, but since I can't remember, I assume there wasn't. Because this left me wanting, and the title was Giant Bones, I went to reread Conservation of Shadows by Lee instead, starting with "The Bones of Giants," which was greatly preferable, so much more my speed. That's when I did the write-up for the last round of books lol.

Nimona, Noelle Stevenson This has been on my list for Forever but I'm bad at reading new books. Anyway! Nimona was very good!! It felt, hm, very self-indulgent in the way that is amazing, where the creator gives themself whatever they want and the work turns out brilliantly because of it. I didn't think I was into friends to enemies to lovers but apparently I love it wen Stevenson handles it (see: She Ra reboot). Speaking of She Ra, I probably would have figured out where the end game was going if I'd read Nimona before looool. I know people referenced it when they talked ships but I just….didn't...pay enough attention. There was found family stuff I enjoyed, dad stuff, I'm finding that I am liking a lot of takes on monster girls, etc. Anyway it gave me a lot of feelings, it was funny, it was good, I need to get a copy.

The Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee The first time I talked about this book I mentioned something about the pacing and suspending disbelief or whatever, but I want to note that this time the pacing felt perfect and the plot didn't seem weird at all, it flowed very smoothly. I don't know if that's because it was a reread and I knew where it was going, or because I just read it awkwardly the first time. Anyway. Something that stood out to me this time is that, near the end, I realized this story is a bit animated Disney Mulan. There's even the "you broke this you broke that you impersonated a soldier but also you saved China so thanks" bit. Where The Dragon Pearl is wildly different from other Mulan-type stories that I like (see: Monstrous Regiment) is that it is entirely ungendered. (There are some mentions of gender in the book. These amount mostly to, "most foxes choose to be female because Tradition but one of my cousins decided to be male like my brother and no one mocks him for it" and "official name tags also include handy signifiers of which personal pronouns a person prefers.") What I'm trying to say is, a lot of other stuff when dealing with/trying to deconstruct gender stereotyping, ends up reinforcing it in a way. In order to illustrate why the stereotypes are wrong, they end up repeating the stereotypes a lot in order to argue against them. The Dragon Pearl, on the other hand, is genderless in a way that doesn't reinforce the gender binary. There are no gendered clothes. There are no gendered bathrooms. There are no gendered hairstyles or accessories. There are no gendered actions or emotions or stereotypes. There are no gendered bodies (the differences highlighted between Min and Jang-who-she's-shapeshifting-into are of build ie, height, center of gravity, not of private bits). No plot points revolve around the maleness of the person Min is impersonating; no plot points revolve around the femaleness of Min. And they/them? It's never explained why any person uses that pronoun. They just do so that's just how it is. I just think this is amazingly neat and I wanna applaud Lee for this finesse.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Mackenzi Lee I put this on my list because Queer and people were recommending it, but it was not well-advertized to me. I was expecting shallow teen romance, but dressed in historical clothes and unsubtly, unabashedly, unashamedly GAY. So I was expecting some gay. I was not expecting gay pining I actually enjoyed, I was not expecting call-outs for privilege of wealth and class and sex and color, I was not expecting the drama of the romance to not be stupidly fabricated misunderstandings but instead be driven by the need for character development and personal growth, I had forgotten I was expecting people of color, people with disabilities, badass women, I was not expecting a nuanced call-out of ableism ("I don't believe I need to be well to be happy", etc). I was not expecting a reversal of gender stereotypes that avoided saying "X gender is bad." Like, Monty is the team weakest link. Monty faints at the sight of blood. Monty is romantic and emotional and swoons at the slightest provocation. Monty uses his wiles to seduce people, that's the main skill he actually brings to the party. Monty cries. Aside from probably Monty's asshole dad who hates him for being gay, no one else nor the narrative calls these traits out as being Feminine (And Therefore Bad). Like, haha, We All Know These Are All Stereotypes Of Women At The Time, but no one says it. I find there's something really nice about no one saying it. Meanwhile, Percy and Felicity are competent and cool and I heart them. (What the hell, I heart Monty too. He really grows on you. He's so soft and in love and pathetic.) Anyway going back to the privilege thing, I love that Percy and Felicity and others constantly call Monty out on his privilege and refuse to coddle him over it. But they also care about him and they are very tender to him, not because of his privilege, but because he is a person who deserves basic person things, when he has his own issues. Your issues don't excuse your behavior, but yikes we deeply underestimated the sheer depth of your PTSD and we're gentler with you because of it. So try to stop being an ass. This book is just super wholesome and I can already tell this will be one of my new go-to's when I need a comfort book. Like Ancillary Justice etc.

The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky, Mackenzi Lee This is not a fanfiction in the sense that is it written by the author and not a fan, but you need to understand, as part of me selling this to you as earnestly as I can, this is a fanfiction set after The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue which involves hijinks as Monty and Percy try and fail hilariously to have their first time having sex together, Felicity tries to wingman, there are miscommunications and nervous breakdowns and tender resolutions and it is absolutely a perfect indulgence. Because it was written by the actual author everyone is 100% in character and the narrative voice is spot-on. Kudos!

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, Mackenzi Lee Ace/aro Felicity???? ACE/ARO FELICITY!!! TBH I only vaguely remembered the descriptions for this one, ie "this time it's lesbians," and I was reading this going "there is a suspicious lack of lesbians but so much platonic vibes and also…..maybe…..maybe…????" and like I got both lesbians AND ace/aro Felicity????? Lee wrote this book? As a gift? For me???? I cannot believe I was blessed with "not like other girls"!Felicity as a vehicle for calling out the internalized misogyny inherent in the Not Like Other Girls mindset, and it is glorious. You can like pretty dresses and running around doing science, or you can hate dresses and only love science, or you can only like pretty dresses, or you can like whatever the heck you want in whatever combo, doesn't matter you're still a girl you're still valid and this shit isn't mutually exclusive. Much as I don't wear makeup (I've slowly learned to wear dresses again) in real life, gosh I love Johanna for being like "I love dresses and I love science and what if I was a badass adventurer but also got to be rescued a lot" because that was bitty me. Gimme a princess dress and a sword and a bow and arrows but also a tower to be rescued from and then various adventures. I want it both ways! And that's okay!! Also this is a critique I have apparently wanted since at least 3rd grade, see this proof from my daily journal prompts, I apologize for my lack of attention to spelling and forming letters: "Girls are what ever girls are. Girls like different things so I con't judge them all. Some girls like barbies. Just becaus you my not like barbies dosn't mean those girls aren't girls, it means they like more things that hove barbies. I like nintendo and I'm a girl." Apparently I was a Not Like Other Girls who thought Other Girls were still extremely valid. (that's kind of hilarious though because like, child, you had Barbies and didn't hate Barbies, you are just bad at playing with dolls and props. You're also bad at playing Nintendo.) Other stuff specifically, hm, it was refreshing to not have "I am skinny and perfect and clearly ugly" or even "I am legitimately ugly." Instead we have, "You do realize my torso is a solid rectangle, it laughs at this corset which I guess we are going to put on anyway, also my football player shoulders are going to literally pop the sleeves off that dress" and "I am built like a corgi dog, this is simply a fact of my proportions." Like, Felicity definitely has Issues with her traditional femininity and lack thereof, but I feel like it was never specifically tied to "my body shape is ugly." Also to go back to this book being written for me personally. You know they always say to write things that only you could write, that are self-indulgent, write what you want to see? It's really hard to do without a template to follow. Right before I picked up this book I realized that maybe The Thing Only I Would Write would be saying "a Skadi-and-Njord marriage is in fact a valid happy ending," but I've never seen that before and I don't know what it would look like even if I kind of understand the concept. All the media I consume, if not ending in romantic soulmates, is at least found family. If you are a loner, if you like being alone, your happy ending is to get a manic-pixie-dream-anything (girl, grandson, grandma, dog, whathaveyou) and integrate back into being social. There are no happy endings where a loner stays alone, where you get married but live separately and see each other very rarely because you love them but can't stand to live with them and you need to be alone to exist as you. And Mackenzi Lee just up and wrote it. It's valid to want to live in a house by yourself filled with bookshelves and have friends. It's valid for a girl to marry another girl who is a pirate and sails around most of the time and only comes to visit on occasion so you don't get sick of her and you keep loving her. This is an okay thing for an ace/aro to want, and it's valid to be happy with this. I can't even, y'all. I'm still marveling. I finally have seen a picture of the life I know would make me happy, and it's finally been acknowledged that I can be happy. (The amount of time I've spent, knowing I hate being social, and wondering--how many years down the line, when I'm living alone and content, will the switch suddenly flip? How many bridges will I have left behind when it turns out that I actually feel loneliness, and I'm miserable and unable to make friends and it turns out there are no manic pixie dream whatevers in real life and I fucked myself over forever because I was wrong and I should have been maintaining these social ties now and turning into someone I'm sure I'm not? What if people like me, who don't really get lonely without people, don't actually exist??) Anyway representation matters. Also Felicity being blindsided with Callum's proposal was, wow, okay I should have caught on to ace!Felicity then because that was so very accurate to my life experience minus people cutting fingers off. Look I was quoting stuff at the end to a friend and she was like "maybe that's why there's aces on the cover" and I am a very stupid ace okay. Felicity and Johanna's intense queerplatonic friendship that they keep trying to take up again in among the same sort of "you need character growth" drama that Monty needed re: Percy is also just, chef kiss, god I love this book. I need to buy this book. I haven't yet so what I did is I renewed all the books so I could immediately reread them after I finished them the first time.

[your-friendly-neighborhood-sc00t]

Ben 10 Reboot Review/Rant

aka: Why This Show Sucks

aaka: 333 Follower Milestone Special

Ah, how I have absolutely dreaded the day I have to write this review, or at least start writing it. Your boy Sc00t here, and welcome to my review of the Ben 10 Reboot.

Also, y'all too good to me, can’t believe over 300 people actually follow me and like seeing my trash. Thank you all for following, and I hope you guys continue to enjoy the content on my blog, ^^

I’ve been putting this off for quite some time now, for obvious reasons, but it’s time to finally crack down on this shit.

So, surprisingly, I actually did something I NEVER DO for shows I don’t like,

I actually watched multiple episodes for the sake of this review, DESPITE how painful it was to watch. I didn’t wanna judge it based on one or two episodes, so instead, I saw FOUR.

Yup, almost an hour of this horrendous show, just to write a stupid review.

There’s ALOT to cover here, so I’ll try to do it in an orderly fashion, and try to address all of the various issues this show has. For now, let’s start off with:

1: The Length of the Episodes Ben 10 OS (Original Series), AF (Alien Force), UA (Ultimate Alien), and OV (Omniverse), despite their differences, all had one thing in common:

All the episodes were a good 22 - 25 minutes long. This allowed plots to develop and flow at a steady and reasonable pace, nothing was rushed, and more effort was put into the production of them.

In the Reboot episodes average at 11 minutes, like a Spongebob episode, which results in a shitty premise having to move along quickly just to make with the little time they have. This was also very obviously done to save money, 11-minute episodes with simplistic, shitty plots are significantly easier to produce that 24-minute episodes with proper pacing and decent/good plots. Short running time + incredibly cheap animation = profit and easy mass production of trash.

2: The Pacing

As I’m sure you can tell, the pacing of each individual episode is GARBAGE, it moves along so fast, that if you’re not paying full attention to the show, you actually won’t know what the fuck’s happening at all. And the running time isn’t actually the problem at all. We’ve seen shows convey their plot efficiently with the same exact running time, just watch any episode from the first three seasons of SpongeBob, and you’ll know precisely what I’m talking about.

3: The Animation

The animation in this show is the WORST we’ve seen in the franchise, it’s just so simplistic, flat, uninspired, and just down-right stiff at times. Action sequences just don’t flow well at all, and the designs of each and every character looks like it was slapped together in just a few minutes. I mean, just compare to ANY of the previous series’ animation, compare to other cartoons, and then just see it for what it is, and you’ll find that no matter how you look at it, it’s fucking terrible, and LAZY.

4: Forgettable Villains

The various antagonists that appear throughout the series are bland, poorly designed, and are just so damn forgettable. I can’t even remember one name of any one villain from this show. They never left any sort of impact on me at all, and there isn’t anything even remotely interesting about them. The original series had many memorable and interesting antagonists, that had well fleshed out personalities and goals. Vilgax, Kevin, Hex, Charmcaster, Dr. Animo, Ghostfreak, and all these other foes that Ben faced off against posed a real, genuine threat to him, and here lies another problem. The Reboot’s “antagonists” are not intimidating in the slightest, and actually don’t serve as a true threat to Ben at ALL. They’re pathetic to watch, really.

5: Max is Irrelevant

In the Original Series, Max was an extremely prominent character, and was often just as involved in the plot of the episode as Ben and Gwen were, and the plot twist at the end of Season 1 where it was revealed that Max is a Plumber and that he fought Vilgax in the past was a great plot point and reveal, it added more depth to his character, and made him more interesting. But in the Reboot, he is almost entirely absent in some episodes. Basically he’ll just show up at the beginning of an episode, preach about some moral that Ben completely ignores, and then just is either hardly shown, or not shown at all for the rest of the episode. He’s become irrelevant, and doesn’t affect the narrative of the story at all, He doesn’t play any sort of significant role at ALL.

6: Gwen and Ben’s relationship

One of the shittiest decisions made in the design of the show, was to completely fuck up the well-established dynamic of Ben and Gwen, in the Original Series, they’re two cousins who constantly bicker and sass eachother, but they clearly cared for one another, and had many tender and compassionate moments that effectively fleshed out their love for one another. Gwen was also the more rational-thinking and logical of the two, and never actually supported Ben’s utter stupidity or rash decisions. Reasonably so, in the sequel series’ they’ve matured and have grown out of their constant arguing and sass, but still tease each other from time to time. In the Reboot, however, Gwen, more often-then-not, completely INDULGES Ben in his poor decision-making and stupidity, to the point where I’d say she’s nearly as ignorant and doltish as he is. Gwen is simply far too nice and encouraging to Ben, which utterly destroys the original dynamic portrayed in previous series’

7: The Aliens

With all the painful problems with this god forsaken show, I almost forgot to talk about one of the most important parts. The.

Aliens.

They just look so fucking shitty in the new animation style, and some of the new design choices for them just make absolutely no sense. Like, why is Upgrade PURPLE instead of GREEN? The Omnitrix is black, green, and white, so it, y'know KIND OF JUST MAKES SENSE FOR UPGRADE TO BE THESE COLORS. And why the fuck is Stinkfly some stupid-ass looking bug-themed Superhero? Why doesn’t he ACTUALLY RESEMBLE SOME TYPE OF BUG. It just makes no sense, why these things were changed. And to be perfectly honest, one of my favorite Aliens from the Original Series, Ripjaws, was actually taken out from the roster in exchange for Overflow, or Waterhazard, or whatever the hell that water-themed fuck is named. He’s a bland Alien that should’ve never even been involved in this series to begin with, he wasn’t part of the Original 10. ANOTHER, issue with the Aliens is the voice-acting, alot of them are actually portrayed by voice actors I like, John DiMaggio, Greg Cipes, Josh Keaton, Travis Willingham, etc. But the thing is, their voices, don’t even fit them, at all, so whatever they spout out of their mouths, just sounds awful. In all previous series’ the Aliens’ VAs fit them perfectly, and alot of them had some pretty badass voices. Basically, when you assign a VA to a character, it has to sound as if that voice could ACTUALLY come from that character. If the voice isn’t matching the face, then we have a clear issue. It’s not so much as the voice acting is bad in the Reboot, but it’s just doesn’t fit with the Aliens. But interestingly enough, they were sure to find the worst possible voice actor they could find for my favorite of them all, Heatblast. His voice used to be so fucking badass, and that was because he was voiced by Steve Blum, a veteran VA, the voice fit the character PERFECTLY. In the Reboot however? They got some fucking Disney Channel actor, Daryl Sabara. I didn’t even know of this guy’s EXISTENCE, until I looked at the cast of the Reboot. This guy’s, voice is incredibly obnoxious and irritating, which is the EXACT OPPOSITE OF HEATBLAST’S VOICE IN FOREGOING SERIES’. One more thing I’d like to point out, was them switching Wildmutt out for Wildvine, again, this is another decision that makes no sense. WILDVINE WAS NOT PART OF THE ORIGINAL 10, he doesn’t even show up in way later in the Original, so why is he replacing one that was at the very start of the series? AND FINALLY, we come to our last issue. The transformations are pathetically animated, it genuinely looks as if he is being covered in some large alien suit, IT DOESN’T look as if he’s actually BECOMING that alien, and that’s a big problem when he’s supposed to, y'know be literally morphing into them.

8: Stiffness

One thing to notice throughout various episodes, is that conversations, and the overall voice acting, feel really stiff, and carry absolutely no weight, kind of like a piece of cardboard. There are even extended scenes of pointless dialogue that don’t affect or further the plot of the episode, in any sense of the word.

9: The Intro

Ben 10 (2016) has without a doubt the least amount of effort put into it’s Intro. You see some green asteroid “crash” into Earth, suddenly you see Ben wearing the Watch, he slams it. And we see the 10 Aliens, introduced in a similar, but poorly executed fashion. We hear “BEN 10” being chanted in the background for a solid 11 seconds. Suddenly we see Ben giving Gwen and Max low-fives, and then runs forward.

End of Intro

Now, does it sound like I described alot of shit? Not really, right? That’s because nothing actually happens in this intro, it conveys nothing, and is just lazily slapped together. I remember the Original Series’ intro, it was a catchy theme song that quickly explained the premise of the show in it’s first 18 seconds. The intro goes on and shows actual interesting shit, like Ben transforming into some Aliens, and some nice visuals. The Reboot’s intro shows us the bare minimum of what they could ACTUALLY be showing us, instead of them quickly jumping on screen for a tenth of second, why not illustrate at least one of their abilities with a short clip? The Original’s does this incredibly well in the last 10 seconds, briefly showing us the capabilities of some of the Aliens with incredibly short clips, you could actually be impressed by what you were witnessing. The Reboot’s intro is just so mundane, and devoid of any sort of interesting material, and it’s the only intro in the franchise that’s SLOW-PACED. All of the previous entries’ intros have been fast-paced. And while you may consider Ultimate Alien’s to be slow, it quickly scrolls through a large variety of Aliens while playing epic music, that’s fast enough, and certainly impressive enough for me. The Reboot’s intro is in-fact, so bad, that when my sister watched it, she actually started LAUGHING. And when you’re cackling at an intro that is CLEARLY not trying to be funny, well then, you’ve got a pretty shitty opening.

10: Ben’s Character

Okay, now I know Ben has always done stupid shit in all of his incarnations. However, his character seems ridiculously dumbed down in the Reboot, and he just seems as mindless as ever, in the other series’ we saw how he wasn’t always a goofball kid, he took himself and those around him seriously at times, and we were able to respect him as a character for these moments. Like in Alien Force, in the episode: “The Gauntlet”, there’s a scene where Ben stands up to Cash, not by using force, or the Omnitrix, but with words, he simply calmly and intelligently calls him the fuck out, and walks away. It was a well-written moment, and showed a deeper, more mature side of Ben. And in the episode “Framed”, where Ben doesn’t finish off Kevin even when he has the perfect opportunity to do so, knowing that he isn’t worth it, and showing a more compassionate side, even to a dangerous enemy. Ben doesn’t have any moments like this at all in the Reboot, and it really takes away from his character, he essentially becomes a one-dimensional character, that really doesn’t have any defining characteristics outside of being a goofball kid.

The Verdict:

Ben 10 (2016) is a clear attempt to appeal to a much younger audience, of what Man of Action assumes to be 6 year olds with short attention-spans that don’t give a flying fuck about depth, good animation, and proper storytelling. This show wasn’t made with any genuine thought or care, it was made to sell toys, and make money, while utilizing as little resources and time as possible. Not only does this show fail as a Ben 10 cartoon, it fails AS a cartoon in of itself. It insults every aspect of what makes good animation and a good show, and is just disgusting as a product. And I’m afraid that the only positive thing I am capable of saying about this show is that it isn’t Breadwinners, and that’s about it. So, yeah, don’t watch this show.

End of Review/Final Words Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this review, (if you even read it) and I know I’m late as fuck on reviewing this steaming pile of horse shit, but I promised it months ago, so I wanted to get it out for you guys, plus, I was in the mood to get pissed about something, and believe it or not, I actually enjoy writing these, they’re fun for me, and I hope they’re fun for you to read as well. And if you disagree with every little thing I said, and you ACTUALLY enjoy this show. Then that’s perfectly fine, you’re entitled to your own opinion, and your own interests, but I wanted to get mine out in the open, so I hope you can respect my opinion as I will respect yours. What other reviews can you expect from me in the future? Well, I currently have two game reviews in the works, but it may be quite some time before they are done, considering how incredibly lazy I am. But who knows? I’m sure I’ll find something else I hate, and either review or give my thoughts on it in the future.

Once again, if you actually made it to the end of this review, I heavily appreciate you taking time out of your day just to read me bitch about some stupid cartoon.

And I’ll see ya around, :P