#I haven't seen any adaptations or anything so I literally do not know what happens next

[theapocalypseiscancelled]

how am I supposed to read dracula this way I am on the edge of my seat I can't stop thinking about this story I can't wait to see what happens next

[self-indulgent-paw-patrol]

How do you think the pups gained ability to speak? Okay, yes, this is a kid's show. But look- All dogs in the show/movies can just, speak and no one bats an eye. Even the guy transporting maple syrup in the first movie didn't say anything about TALKING dogs, just the fact that the dogs were rescuers. Along with this, NO OTHER ANIMALS TALK. Not even cats. The only cats we DO see talking is the cat pack. Even Mayor Humdinger was surprised with Copycat talking. (Yet, not for a bunch of talking dogs?) And, the only way FOR these animals to talk is a piece of the meteor (further backed up in the second movie where one of the kitties started speaking). So, how do you think this even played out? Dogs do have the system to speak, they just cant do as much as we humans can. What do you think got the pups to get that ability to speak proper, full spoken words, before anyone else did?

Bonus: If the pups over time DID learn to speak, how long do you think it took the town, - and I guess, the world - to adapt to it?

"A dog?" "Actually, sir, I'm a pup." "A BABY DOG?? That's even worse!"

That's literally when my dad commented this guy was already the most sane person in the whole movie, hands down XD

Okay, let's see. Considering the dogs are the only animal species that have the ability to talk like humans in the franchise (I haven't seen the Cat Pack yet but I'm aware they talk at least XD), I ACTUALLY DO HAVE A THEORY FOR THAT. No, you didn't get to catch me off guard yet XD YET.

Anyway, my theory is that the dogs have developed this ability before any other animals for being the ones who are CLOSEST to humans. I don't mean scientifically, I mean EMOTIONALLY.

People treat their dogs as members of their families since ancient times, developing mutual trust and emotional connections. In real life, it's not uncommon to see dogs who make an effort to VOCALIZE when trying to get their human's attention. We have been teaching them to solve puzzles, to recognize shapes, to recognize colors (within their color range, at least), to use their souped up senses to rescue people, to sniff when an anxiety attack is about to hit, to detect smoke before we do, to detect nightmares and even seizures BEFORE THEY EVEN START just by the SMELL.

We have taught dogs to use word boards/buttons to speak their minds, building up simple worded sentences and communicate what they want, or even what they DON'T want, or just to comment a sarcastic remark on someone. They have a sense of SEQUENCE they need to follow for getting what they want to communicate.

Dogs have developed such a close bond to people, they kept making this effort to communicate.

In the show, I believe dogs developed intelligence first and then eventually began speaking words, simple sentences. In a few years/generations soon they were able to work entire conversations, just like a toddler learning to talk, and kept passing it to their puppies, generation by generation, until they were fully able to speak anything and everything.

And of course the people encouraged them to do that. At first it must've been shocking when the first dogs began actually working out WORDS, but I believe soon enough it was the new normal. People encouraged them, they kept learning, and then we got to the point where the show is situated: Pups perfectly able of speaking just like a human. They're still dogs, but they know how to talk, people have been encouraging the species for several generations to be able to do so.

That's why no one bats an eye anymore. People are actually responsible for this whole thing happening XD

"What about cats, then?" They're too independent for that. They don't need to talk. Like, literally, even if they also developed meows specifically to communicate with humans, it's only because they know WE communicate through sounds, not through body language, so they play our game out of convenience, not because they want to.

[semper-legens]

67. Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights vol 1

Owned?: No, library Page count: 192 My summary: A boy falls into a ball pit and comes out the other side in 1985. A girl wants to be beautiful and gets help from an unlikely friend. Some kids want the newest toy on the scene, but wind up stealing a defective copy. Three dark tales from the world of Five Nights at Freddy's. My rating: 2/5 My commentary:

Yeah, yeah, I know, laugh away. I found myself with a strange fascination about Five Nights At Freddy's lore not too long ago, culminating in me reading Cawthon's trilogy of FNaF books. But there's another branch of the FNaF lore that I haven't plumbed - Fazbear Frights, a series of short stories loosely connected around Freddy Fazbear's. This is the graphic novel adaptation of the first set of Fazbear Frights, and when it crossed my desk at work, I knew I was going to end up reading it. Hey, it's not like it took all that long. And I wanted to close off the chapter of my life where I inexplicably care about Five Nights at Freddy's by sampling the last of the FNaF lore that I hadn't yet touched. And so, here we are. This comic is split into three stories, and I'm gonna talk about all of them.

The first is the story of Oswald, a kid from a poor family stuck in his hometown over summer. He finds a ballpit in a local diner that transports him back to Freddy's in 1985, but when he does he finds himself face to face with Springtrap, who follows him back to the present. Which is…a very silly premise, but I'm willing to forgive the time-travelling ballpit. Yeah, it's ridiculous, but the 'innocuous object that takes you back in time' trope is a horror staple. I'm less willing to forgive the utter failure of this story to be horror, however. Oswald ends up going back to what I assume is the child murders, but the sequence of events as seen here is that he goes back to a Freddy's that is in chaos, Springtrap leads him into a back room, and we see six kids…just kinda sitting on chairs, a little slumped over, from the back. The implication is that they're the murder victims, but we don't see anything, they're just kind of there. No blood, nothing. And when Springtrap follows Oswald back to reality and takes his dad's place, he just…doesn't do anything. Literally. He's just there. It isn't creepy, it isn't scary, it's just baffling. There's hardly any tension because there's no threat, at least not as presented by this book. Baffling choices.

Then there's Sarah's tale. She's a teen or preteen girl who thinks she's ugly and wants to be beautiful. When she finds Circus Baby, she asks that Baby make her beautiful and, for a time, gets her wish. I…dislike how the one story about a girl is a moral lesson about Vanity Bad, but even aside from that, this just isn't a particularly well-realised story. Like, Sarah is given a necklace by Baby that she is told to never take off ever, so of course late in the story she trips and the necklace breaks. At least, I assume that is what happens. The art never actually shows that happening at any point? Sarah trips over, then starts transforming because surprise surprise she's a robot now. The necklace being off should have been shown explicitly, but it's just mentioned in dialogue, not drawn attention to in the art. Aside from that, Sarah was just so unlikeable that I struggled to care at all about this story. She makes fun of her friend for not being beauty-obsessed, and wants to get with the mean popular girls…just because they're popular, I guess? It was like a high school girl cliché as written by someone who has only ever experienced high school via bad movies. Bleh.

Finally, Oscar and his friends want to get their hands on a new toy - Plushtrap, a mechanical doll that plays a game with its owner. But when they steal one from a mysterious store, they find that Plushtrap is more alive than they thought. This one was possibly the most competent of the three, in that it actually was a horror story, but it was largely clichéd and not very interesting in and of itself. A killer toy, a little shop that wasn't there yesterday, a kid struggling with some emotional problems that are never really explored to any satisfactory level…the art was creepy enough in itself, but I had the same problem with it that I had with all of the art in this book, that it was kind of smudgy and not particularly representational of any one thing. Characters looked too similar to one another and I struggled to discern them. Plushtrap, too, fell into the trap (heh) of looking too overly creepy from the start and not being believable as a toy that a child would genuinely want to own, as opposed to a horror vehicle. Also, what teen boys really want a doll? It was just…bland, overall.

Next, back to April May, and her friends attempting to solve just what happened to her.

[eldritch-spouse]

Hmm I think neomorphs would understand bonds and maybe could bond w humans?? I also think they *could* be smart enuf to understand human culture

Like imagine ur horny and u start shedding ur clothes and the neomorph immediately knows exactly what u want

I think I heard u say this abt breg in one of ur fics, but they would def also make low noises to comfort a mate bc I imagine them as very territorial

I also feel like they could have have a crush on a human if said human took care of them(or they just find them mate worthy) so they try to pursue u.. I remember one scene in a movie where rhe neomorph just stood quietly infront of a human (b4 getting killed oop) literally towering over them.. if I was there and had it staring at me like that I’d feel some romantic tension

Yes, that's what I was hinting at with this ask.

To me, I believe their ability to form bonds outside the species would stem more from the fact that they're the "blank slate" before David 8 starts fucking with them to make the xenomorphs we know. But take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm rusty on Alien lore. Anyhow, I don't think David could have made xenmorphs into such a social/colony-based species if the neomorphs themselves didn't already have some level of surprising social adaptability.

The scene you're mentioning is a tad dubious because the person standing in front of the neomorph was David, who is a synth. Xenomorphs can tell a human apart from a synth, so I'm keen to believe neos can do the same, and they might have hesitated purely out of morbid curiosity. It could also just be the fact that the neomorph had recently eaten, and therefore might not have had as much of a violent drive at the moment. Though the way they reacted inquisitively to David's exhale, as opposed to violently, is a good start.

My idea with that comic was to explore that hypothetical bond a little bit more, this time in a setting where you meet one in a premature stage and experiment with the possible outcomes of raising one of these beings (which makes absolutely no sense from a realistic point of view, but all my brain cells were effectively shut off when I sketched it). You're under the impression his obsession with you is typical of pack behavior, and to a degree it is, but you mean more to him. And that only sinks in when it's already too late to do anything about it. Now, I'm a yandere blog primarily, so of course the neomorph was implied yandere in that comic.

The bond implies that he'll get to know your body through scents and gestures. Just as he'll be able to decipher your intent from the tone of your voice and you'll pick up on the different meanings of his vocalizations. It's a learning curve, but they're very fast learners and extremely adaptive, so you might "synchronize" much faster than expected. Naturally, this would definitely lead to him understanding what abrupt stripping means, or if nothing else, gouge your arousal through some sort of scent stimulus. Mimicry is likely to happen at some point, wherein the neomorph will attempt to reproduce your own sexual gestures in an attempt to behave more like you and further erase any sort of communication barrier.

When it comes to noises, I haven't really thought about it too much, but I like to imagine they might be capable of differently pitched rumbles, judging from that same scene where they interact with David. Not all of their high-pitched vocalizations might be born of hostility/fear/alarm, but if they're quiet around you it's probably a good sign.

I'm on the fence about them being territorial. I can see neos being protective, but I just haven't seen enough to determine if they'd stick to one place and become attached to it.

[doberbutts]

hello! i know you've spoken in-depth about the witcher before, and i noticed the new season of the series is out. i never got any further than ep 3 of s2, i wasn't really in the mood at the time. i don't know anything about the games (aside from that my ex was rly into them) nor have i read the books! i've enjoyed reading your detailed posts about the pros and cons of all of them & i was wondering if you'd still recommend the show as is.

Oh, yes, if you are interested in where the story goes and you don't mind a dark fantasy, because things will only get darker from this point on. Part 1 of S3 isn't so bad with the dark storytelling as they haven't really stated outright what's going on yet but there are a lot of bad things to come to Ciri, Yennefer, and Geralt, and they are literally what the story is about so it's difficult to avoid those topics.

You do not need any games knowledge to watch the series because the games are equally non-canonical and also happen *after* the books, so there is no conflict of plot. Anyone saying otherwise has forgotten that Sapkowski never canonized the games and also that the show, being based on *only* the books, does not need to respect established game canon because the games aren't books canon.

With all adaptions I do think if you like the adaption then you should read the source material. Not just to have a better understanding of the adaption (and this particular adaption does change quite a few things around) but because anyone who enjoys an interpretation of an authors work should, in my opinion, support the author as well by reading from the source.

And because the books are genuinely pretty good, and if you approach things with an open mind you will find value in the three major adaptions we have stateside (I am not counting Hexer because I have not seen it).

I also think that in this age of bigotry and reactionaries, it is important to support those who are *trying* for equality and diversity. A *lot* of the outrage regarding this show is just racist, sexist, and now homophobic propaganda. Which is silly to me, because the author resolutely writes that these are bad things and that people should be less racist, sexist, and homophobic *in his works*. Not succumbing to the outrage and letting yourself judge it fairly is the way to go here, and if you end up still not liking it... well that's okay. It's not everyone's cup of tea. Just make sure that dislike isn't formulated from some outrage farm's poorly hidden agenda, because there's a lot of it out there.

[dballzposting]

DBALLZPOSTING RAMBLE

Amount of evidence: LOW!!!!

Word count: Not the longest.

Eloquency: I haven't been sleeping very well lately ....

Subject: Trunks & Goten's different views of authority and power balances; Trunks is a follower while Goten is exempt.

Befote I say anything let me preface this post with: Goten and Trunks are, everything considered, very free spirits. They're not afraid of feelings and they love adventuring. When they're kids they love to have fun, and when they're older you can see in the both of them a sort of contentedness/satisfaction. They're living life well.

OK now I want to point out that despite what you'd assume when you first see them, Trunks is very much a follower, while Goten is exempt from any idea of a hierarchy.

You would assume that Trunks would be a leader given who his parents are and what his status is. He just HAS to be a natural-borne leader, right? It's in his blood? But he's just not.

When he's a kid he's very good at bossing Goten around. He's good at being player 1. But this isn't his "true" nature. He acts all arrogant when he's a kid becasue he's doing what kids do: emulating hardcore. What he is is a follower emulating the leadership behaviors of his parents.

We know this isn't his true self becasue he tangibly grows out of it. Even by EOZ, he's no longer a bitch - he's respectful, he's self-assured, he's relaxed in that confidence, he emotes freely. I think he still cares what people think about him, judging by his epic swag outfit and the way that he couldn't just live-and-let-live when it came to that flamboyant gay dude, but he's getting there.

By GT he is just a completely different man. He just wants to chill and hang out. He wants to make wisecracks. He doesnt care about work and he doesnt care enough to let himself be stressed by it. He just dips. He continues to emote freely, even coming apart at the beginning of the series when he was realizing how stressful this space journey was shaping out to be, but he pulled himself together and didn't need to freak out like that again. he adapted to the situation fine.

I don't have solid evidence I just need you to watch GT and see what I've seen and understand that he's literally just some guy ... he's some dude .... Scary shit is happening and he still has time to chill and hang out when the battle is over. I've seen it. Please believe me

In the outro there's a moment where they're showing different epic images throughout the history of dragon ball. And there's a picture from DBZ times, where Trunks is sitting on the handlebars of a motorcycle while Gohan is trying to drive it and Trunks has his arms crossed and he just looks like such a bitch. He's somebody arrogant bastard whelp

VERY NEXT IMAGE: A GT image of Trunks & Pan & Goku & Giru on the hunt for dragon balls out on an alien planet. And UGH. The CONTRAST is so much. Like maybe I should just get the images. I probably won't. But I should

The image changes to GT and you realize that THIS is who Trunks is. Not the kid. Poeple change so much from childhood. On one hand your true nature is available to you as a child but on the other hand you're emulating hardcore and changing rapidly. Trunks's truest nature was probably when he was a baby and he'd cry becasue Vegeta was so ugly

Trunks grows up and circles back and finds his true nature again. And that true nature is in those FUCKING HUGE SHORTS. That JACKET. Those DUMB GLOVES. Those THICK SOCKS and BARE KNEES. Like HWAT was he THINKING !?!??!

His TRUE NATURE is being LAME. That's who he is. He had phases where he wanted to be Cool but he's grown out of it. He's come to accept what style he really feels like himself in. He has changed a lot since childhood: He Doesnt care what people think about him, and he is Not concerned with status anymore.

He's President of Capsule Corp becasue he's gotta be. He doesnt give a shit. You'd think he'd give a shit and you'd assume that he'd give a shit but if you watch GT there is something so calm and cool about him. He's so authentic that he can even be shallow and lack self-awareness in little ways (like he doesnt think he's lame for instance). This is really as deep as he goes fellas. And he's not trying to deny that. He's not trying to look Cool or Smart or Strong. He just wears his huge shorts and reads his Cosmo magazine and readily displays when he's feeling tired or bored, but not in an immature way that demands amelioration. He's a fine adult and he keeps himself together, especially when he has to be babysitter.

He does what he must and he rests when he can.

So. All of that put together: you would think that that makes him not necessarily a leader but definitely not a follower, right? A follower WOULD care what people think about them, right?

NOT what I'm getting at though. He's not insecure, but he's still a follower. And he's not a leader, becasue he doesnt care enough to be, but mostly, becasue it's not in his nature.

Vegeta is a leader by nature. He's not interested in controlling others' freedom, but he is interested in setting them straight. Bulma is a leader by nature. She'll let weirdos be weirdos but as long as there is something she cares about, she NEEDS things to go the way she wants them to. She needs you to do what she tells you to do.

Both ultimately have good judgement in the end.

And then there's Trunks...

WAYS THAT TRUNKS IS A FOLLOWER:

I don't think it's all nurture, but I'll still point out that: being raised by leaders could have very well trained him to be a follower. As a kid, he emulated the leadership role with Goten, but still snaps to such sudden attention when his parents tell him what to do (seen in Z and Super). A truly arrogant kid would blow his parents off.

HIS RESPECT FOR RULES. So many times as a kid we see him say something about The Rules. One example is when in the second Broly movie (English sub), he was terrifically put off by how Broly wasn't "following the rules" and was fighting to kill. For another example, he TOLD OFF Majin Buu when he came at him with that sucker punch. Those are NOT the rules of the battlefield!!!!! There were more times but I can't remember. Another thing I'll put here is how self-aware he was as a kid about being a kid: i swear it came up like three different times when he was chasticing someone for saying/doing something to him because he was "just a kid" and it was pathetic or rude of them to be behaving that way in front of him. It's like, it's hard to teach a kid about Honor, so Vegeta just taught him about Rules instead and hoped that one day it would turn into honor. But in the meantime and arguably the long term, it became the backdrop of his understanding of the world: the world is made out of rules. Rules of the battlefield. Rules of social interactions. Rules of computers and engineering. In this way, he's a follower: if it's against the rules, don't do it! (Some rules he does not respect, however. Like beating up that one tournament contestant and stealing his clothes. It's becasue Trunks was overall emulating the irreverency of his father. This, in a way, is still following what's proper.)

Okay, kids lack nuance and they follow rules like law. That doesn't mean he's a follower. BUT CONSIDER: His reverence for AUTHORITY and HIERARCHY. This was an essential element of his childhood, his parents being who they were, and he learned to DEFER TO AUTHORITY. In Super he seems much nicer than in Z, and the way he listens to adults seems more overt (honestly he's coming more into himself with that lame yellow sweatshirt but we haven't the time to discuss that). My best exmaples are THE WAY HE THINKS OF SHENRON: In one of the Z movies that i dont fucking rmeebr which one, there was a scene where Goten calls Shenron a CHEAPSKATE. Trunks FLIPS and COVERS Goten's mouth. Actuially I think I can find the gif

^ see.

He's like YOU DONT FUCKING TALK TO HIM THAT WAY...!

AND THEN IN GT, when they try to summon Shenron with the busted ass dragon balls, Bulma says of the new Shenron: He's much more crass, isn't he? AND TRUNKS TURNS TO HIS MOTHER and is like, "MOM!!!" I watched the english sub but literally what happened was that she said some barely-rude comment about this new Shenron's lack of manners, and Trunks actually said really dramatically "MOM-!!!" and then basically that She Can't Talk about Shenron That Way...!!!!!

We all know that Bulma has no respect for authority over herself, specifically when she feels that they haven't earned it. And This Evil-Looking Blue Draghon Shows Up an Literally Lights a Stoagie in front of them and Bulma says soemthing so TAME for what her lexicon is capable of, and Trunks was like MOM! ! !!!!!!!

In that moment, his respect for the concept of an in-borne hierarchy or authority surpassed any obligation he may feel to defer to his mother. As is the case with some real-life men, he may even has grown up to believe that actually, his mother is a little batshit cuckoo and maybe needs to be corralled some. (This is an unfortunate perspective).

Anyway. Another way that Trunks is a follower is the way that he never tries that hard to counter anyone. He doesn't fall back into line either but he just ... GHoes to work ...... Does what his parents want him to do .... He's not authoritative enough to be able to keep Pan wrangled in.

I want to make clear that I am NOT saying that Trunks is a follower by nature of a crushed will. I'm not saying that he's all small and pusillanimous. He's absolutely not. The first paragraph in this post holds up. I don't think he feels all small inside

I just think that his lifestyle has fostered an avenue for authenticity, because self-awareness is essential for his warrior craft, and the authentic person that we are seeing is someone who wears those Huge Shorts and does what his parents want him to do. And if he REALLY hated it then he would argue back. But he doesnt care enough too. He's cool. He's a chill dude. He's a follower. Just hanging out

Forgot to say that also: He has manners. We see that at every age past 8. He's not trying to disrespect his elders. He's respectful to Gohan and his wife. He follows the rules of respect and hierarchies.

The reason that we see Trunks a lot of the time as this chill dude is because he himself is at the top of some hierarchy. He's rich and president. He's the son of a prince. Were he on a shittier tier then I think that we'd see him be much quicker to obsequiousness.

It's interesting becasue I think that in theory, a totally healthy and authentic human would want to do away with hierarchies altogether. But Trunks is still of a culture. This is his most authentic self - within his culture. Sure, there are no hierarchies when he's hanging out with friends and doing what he wants, but the rest of the time there is. At work. At home. In space it was a bit complicated - he was the captain, and he was technically the oldest, but he would never try to tell Goku-San what to do, and Trunks just lacked the innate leadership abilities to keep Pan under control! Partly becasue Pan comes with a lot of fire for freedom because of the way that she is being treated at home.

Trunks has totally come into himself and he wears .............. "interesting" outfits. And I think that his parents have had to come to accept that he's lame. Bulma makes him be president but it's becasue he can't be head engineer so she makes him be the head bureaucrat. Vegeta hasnt given up on him becasue it's just not his nature too, but he has accepted that Trunks is lame. Every now and then he'll throw out "I'll be in the gravity chamber if you want to shake the rust off" but Trunks never takes the bait. He's always busy with something else. He's slacking. He's a slacker. Vegeta knows this. Trunks doesnt think he's lame but he is. This is just a fact.

Though he was able to shake off Baby's initial attempt at control. He was able to expel him from his body whereas the sloppy-messy Goten just had all of his memories wide-open for Baby to read. Trunks does have a due CONFIDENCE, and you CAN find his father's influence in him. He's also lame. Just a fact

ANYWAY: FOR COMPARISON:

Son Goten is much more like Goku in that: there are no hierarchies. We're all equal. The difference is that Goten does respect authority. The reason that Goku doesn't is partly his pure-hearted nature and partly because the first person who demanded respect out of him was Bulma and her insistence for honorifics. Of course Goku would say no to that. But Goten was encouraged (or beaten) by his loving mother to be respectful, and he's a sweet kid, so he took to it naturally. Everybody gets an honorifc. Everybody gets a bow. Be kind to everyone and everything. All is right in the world

He did very much tell Shenron that he was a cheapskate in that one movie. He YELLED it. This is Son Goten: authentic and fully expressive of himself. There are no leaders and followers, just people with opinions that need expressing.

In GT he was so rude to Mr Satan. Mr Satan needed some fucking help and Goten was like, "Um, I am NOT your student, and I am ON a date. >:( -.-" That was honestly so fucking rude of him. It's becasue, despite being the youngest in his house, he doesnt have the perpetual reflex to defer built in. He was raised in a way that must've been more free and forgiving. He knows in his head that Mr Satan is old and in need and that's why it was so fucking rude of him to not drop everything and play along. But Goten wasn't being a dick on purpose for the sole express purpose of being a dick, he was just prioritizing his own life over Mr Satan's right now; he was honoring himself. Can't beat someone down for looking out for number 1. He was rude to Mr Satan AND good for himself and Palace-chan. Two things can be true

I know I don't have any hard proof and this post has been very much a "remember this? no? I don't either. Take my word for it" type of a ramble, but I would postulate that when Goten is respectful, it's because he wants to be nice and proper, as a kid or as an adult, but he understands naturally that leaders are not gods; and when Trunks is respectful, it's as if the world is dependent on this order, and he feels real fear when authority is disrespected, and he probably doesnt even know why, but it's probably becasue as a kid he learned fear from his dad, and as an adult he can use reason to surmise who's deserving of respect, but on some level he is always anticipating that pattern of authority to exist as a ubiquitous order.

I think the biggest place where you can find their different responses to authority is how they interact with Gohan. I have very little canon evidence I just want to tell a story. Trunks is obviously very polite. He's known Gohan since he was little and Gohan has always been good to him. He's always been patient, helpful, and informative. This fosters safety and spontaneity, but at home Trunks gets yelled at for talking out of turn so ultimately that's what perseveres. He walks into Gohan's house and he's sooo civil. And I know that if he has questions to ask he chooses his words very carefully. He would never say anything uncouth to Son Gohan. He minds his manners so much. Honestly he behaves as if he believes that he should be shot

and then there's GOTEN and even if he didnt have the privilege of kin status with Gohan he would STILL act the way he does. He #RESPECTS Gohan, so much, and at the end of the day, Gohan does have authority in the sense that if Goten was pissing him off he could tell him firmly to Leave His House. And Goten would listen. He woudlnt defy him. He'd be mad but staying is more than asking for a fight, it's breaking a heart. He'll leave if he's told to . But other than that he can say whatever he wants to Gohan always and for forever EVEN IF IT'S SHIT THAT GOHAN DOESNT WANT TO HEAR Goten lacks the finesse to read through Gohan's composed exterior and see that he doesnt want to hear agbout it. And he'll ask him the worst questions too. Just absolutely ruin his week with it. "Gohan-Niichan is it true that men have g-spots up their BUTTS?" just the worst shit . There are no stupid questions but there are indeed bad ones

And Gohan takes it upon himself to deal with this. He wants to be a trustworthy source of information and comfort in Goten's life. So he deals wioth this

And Trunks is so courteous and careful and kind and he keeps a respectful distance meanwhile if Goten were really excited to see Gohan then he would chew through the wall and rocket toward him and lick him on the cheek like a dog . And Gohan would just very politely pull out a handkerchief and wipe his cheek off and then put the handkerchief back and not say antyhing about it. Very professional guy

[eerna]

Do you have criticism of the hdm show other than how it changed Lyra's characterization and removed the humour? I loved the show but I do tend to agree with your opinions on things so I'd be interested to hear them if you want to share. And it's been a while since I last read the books so watching the show I didn't have the specifics of them in mind so I could well have missed a bunch of things. Something was off with Iorek I think, though beyond his voice being weirdly Patrick-Page-from-Hadestown for no discernible reason, I'm not sure why. Maybe that comes down to the show making itself grittier too. Like in the book he is tough and incredibly capable and fearsome but he's also kind and compassionate and a fluffy polar bear friend. And then obviously LMM wasn't a great choice for Lee Scorsby, I think most people agree on that point. And they cut way too much worldbuilding with the mulefa in s3 and I get that sure, it's not the most action-packed thing and maybe would've made sense to cut when you're on a time limit but good god Mary playing anthropologist is my favourite part of that whole book I really would have watched a whole season just building out that world and society without any action or conflict. Also it was such a weird choice at the climax to make Will open a box and that box had god in it and god just kind of evaporates and that's that. Like that was the grittiest part of the book maybe! or ballsiest, at least. He literally stabs god! Why would they cut that?! they clearly haven't been watering anything down up to this point to try and pander more to christian sensibilities so why on earth would they chose this most important moment to water something down. k I kind of went off there and probably I'm forgetting some things but overall I really do adore it as an adaptation.

Go off!! I shall listen, I'm curious what happened bc I haven't finished s1 and have only seen maybe 2 eps of s2. I am sad to hear they removed the mulefa parts because those are my fav too… Idk if we're gonna agree on this one, but here goes. The only thing I remember abt it is that it was just insanely boring to me, I would pick up my phone a million times during episodes and I NEVER do that. I reread the books either during its first season or right beforehand, and I couldn't stop feeling like the show made everyone into dolls with sly faces, walking around and calmly stating their lines, instead of the memorable characters they are. The book has so much heart and color in it, but the show is gritty and gray and SO BORING. LIKE GOD. Every scene lasts 100 hours with Important Glances and Long Silences everywhere, interrupted by expositiony dialogue. And I am so sorry, I know she's a kid, but Dafne Keen wasn't good enough to be a lead on a show, especially in one as devoid of any other things that could distract from the acting as this. I liked Amir Wilson and the rest of the cast, but I was never able to believe her.

[bortbytingen]

I'm currently suffering from Autistic Burnout and I've been trying what I can to get some kind of support for months. I wasn't sure if I should write anything about this here, but decided that I need to word some of my frustrations with being sent around and no one really willing (or able) to help.

26 Sep 2023 - Medicine review at my Community Mental Health Team (I'm diagnosed with autism, adhd and ptsd, and take adhd medications). This was my first time to this specific CMHT, so the doctor went through a questionnaire. While there, I mentioned to him that I've had many bad experiences in the past and that it takes a lot for me to open up. The doctor apologises and hopes I'll find it better here. When the question comes about hurting myself or self-termination, I'm honest and tell him about my exhaustion, decline in abilities and that I've had "dissociative walks" (I walk around and I'm aware, but also not, I don't feel anything and I can't control where I'm going and so on. I usually can't speak then either) and that one of them almost ended with me jumping off a cliff. To this, he just hummed and then continued with other questions. This plus some other things didn't make me feel very seen or listened to.

28 Sep 2023 - Appointment at my GP surgery to ask for help and get a sick note. The GP I met was great and seemed to understand me. She was the first one ever thanking me for giving her a letter and didn't mind written communication or my way of experience emotions in colours. I got a sick note and a date for a follow up appointment.

12 Oct 2023 - Follow up appointment. The GP I met was sick and I got to see another who literally made me cry. He might be good with other things, but he absolutely do not know how to handle autistic people with mental health issues.

16 Nov 2023 - Appointment with my GP surgery's Mental Health Nurse. The meeting in itself was ok. Got a referral to the Primary Mental Health Support Services and to some course by Mind. I was supposed to get an email with link and notes of what we had talked about, but I never did (and yes, I checked spam and that they have the right email address).

3 Jan 2024 - Triage appointment at Primary Mental Health Support Services (PMHSS). They are a resource aid and doesn't have any support themselves, but the triage nurse at least acknowledge that autistic people require adapted support and adapted therapy for it to work and not risk being harmful (first time someone ever admitted that to me). I later got a letter that summarised the meeting and with links to help: online CBT, online self-help resources and contact details to the Integrated Autism Services. Online CBT: My symptoms is too severe to be accepted and I was told to contact my GP for more correct support (so back to square one). Online self-help resources: Very basic. Nothing new and nothing geared towards autism. NHS Autism Services: Eventually e-mailed them, although they seem to prefer phone calls, which I'm unable to make. Another Autism Service: I've contacted them before and they never answered.

23 Jan 2024 - Meeting with Mind. They were uncertain what to do help me, so the person I met wanted to talk to their supervisor and then we'd meet the next week. Due to me later realising I already had two big meetings that week, I emailed and asked if we could rebook that appointment. I still haven't received and answer from them.

20 Feb 2024 - Got an email from the NHS based Autism Services (AS) and all it contained was links to National Autistic Society and to their own website. Both being places I've checked several times before.

As of today, 21 Feb 2024, I still haven't received any actual support. I have no one that can help me. I've tried to find an advocate, but have so far not succeeded. All that has happened is that I feel completely ignored and unseen, and I seem to keep having a decline in my life skill abilities as well as my abilities to speak. I live with a friend, but she isn't doing well herself and can't join me for meetings due to her working, but she does make phone calls for me now and then. Unfortunately, our relationship is a bit strained atm due to her new roommate (a friend of hers) that I don't get along with. AS was basically my last hope and that didn't go exactly well, so now I'm not sure how to proceed. I don't even know if I have energy to proceed at all anyway.

[randomcartoonbro]

Let's Talk About Kid Loki for a Second!

I love the theory that when Kid Loki killed Thor was during the snake story from when Thor and Loki were around 8 from Ragnarok or a similar event as amusing and interesting as the next person. However, what non-comics fans are missing (assuming the MCU is going this route. They did completely change Classic Loki, after all) out on the fact Kid Loki is a reincarnation of Loki post-Ragnarok. His Thor was also in a reincarnated body (Donald Blake), but he was a full ass adult with his full power and original form when activated. Kid Loki killed a full ass adult Thor. I'm just saying. This kid is powerful despite being canonically around 12-13 years old. Not as powerful as his older counterparts, but powerful in his own right. I, also, standby the fact he totally did it on accident too. His body language gives it away completely.

Bonus: A timeline of Loki for those that don't read the comics (note: I haven't read them in 2 or 3 years, so if anything is off or I missed something new, that's why):

1. Classic Loki: The original comics God of Mischief

2. Lady Loki: A post-Ragnarok reincarnated body they stole from Sif). Created the Enchantress we know as Sylvie Lushton just for fun by granting her power. Later forcefully evicted from this body.

3. Kid Loki: The true reincarnated body of Loki's that is implied to have been born at the time of Ragnarok. Soul needed to be awakened by Thor. One half of Classic Loki's soul (the good parts)

4. Ikol the Magpie: Another reincarnated form that came into existence at the same time as Kid Loki's awakening. The other half of Classic Loki's soul (the bad parts) that's being punished and forced to help Kid Loki to redeem himself. Literally a magpie bird that Kid Loki later eats alive (I can't remember the reasoning, but shit was graphic, man)

5. Teen/Agent of Asgard Loki: A reincarnation of Kid Loki created via a spell from Billy Kaplan/Wiccan (one of Wanda Maximoff's twins) which killed Kid Loki to create a new, older body for him so they could defeat the villain during one of Young Avengers' adventures. Nonbinary royalty.

6. Old King Loki: Also, in the Agent of Asgard comics back when they actually understood what self-love actually meant and how to write it. A reincarnated form of Ikol that was born when Agent Loki was. Just appears old due to the true age of their soul and, simply, the age he feels. Back to being the villain, later sort of gets redeemed through legit just talking through his feelings and getting support, aging down to Agent Loki's age, then just disappearing. I don't remember ever seeing him again after that.

7. God(dess) of Stories Loki: A direct reincarnation of Agent of Asgard Loki after they got their ass wrecked and sent to Loki purgatory and making a deal to be brought back to life and seeing every other version of Loki ever. Yeah. It's complicated. They're the one that helped Old King Loki out. I think they're still around in the comics and haven't died yet 🤔. Unsure

8. Guilt!Kid Loki: Haven't read these comics yet, but I've seen enough to get the gist. More or less, this version of Kid Loki is a guilt hallucination of Thor's that Thor is very confused by. I'm not certain why he happened. I'll update this when I know

And then there's all the alternate timeline/universe versions of Loki such as Siege Loki (called Boastful Loki in Loki) and President Loki

I went completely off my original point 😅 Oops. Oh well. The infodump was fun and I hope you guys enjoyed the read and can help me fill any holes in my knowledge. In conclusion, I adore Kid Loki and hope they don't do my boy dirty. He went through so damn much and deserves a faithful adaption. And I think Jack Veal was a perfect choice for the role. That is all.

[ficsforeren]

Hi!

I actually completely disagree with your point but im not invalidating your opinions.

Anyone who has read Aot from the beginning knows in the manga, Mikasa is completely different from the anime Mikasa we see in season 1. They replaced a lot of interaction between other scouts saving Eren, to Mikasa doing it. We know Mikasa has seperation anxiety, in chapter 4, she couldn’t handle the thought of Eren being in a different part of the city without her, afraid he’d die. In chapter 30 after the ft arc, she let Levi take the lead on Eren. Same in chapter 57, the debilitating fear that used to tie Mikasa to Eren is gone for good. Mikasa being confronted by things that are more important than being with Eren happens fairly often to her. In contrary to most female leads, she progresses to independence instead of regressing. She always loved him. Although it was tough love. Her love to Eren never disappeared, in chapter 138 she proved that it was selfless. While Erens love was selfish, with selfless intentions. I don’t know if you’ve read Mikasas ova (lost girl novel) but it’s so significant to her story. Mikasas purpose is to persistent with the theme of Aot, after Erens “death” in episode 5, she saw a butterfly. That same butterfly was seen again in season 3 and season 1 episode 14. In official art, Isayama often draws Eren seeing Mikasa with wings. It’s because in his eyes, she’s equivalent to beauty and freedom. In the novel, Eren gifts Mikasa a butterfly. Isayama was genius with it. Mikasa being the freest character in the show, alongside Armin is what makes her well written in my opinion. Her philosophy of living in a cruel world. We already saw that Mikasa is capable of living without Eren. Her memories give her strength, while a person may die, memories live on.

Overall she kept true to her ideology. Finding beauty in a cruel world. She gave up that beauty, for humanity. She’s not a simp, she’s a strong female. Im not talking about Isayama not sexualizing her, no Aot woman has ever seeded validation from men. ”a strong female character has her own identity and trajectory that she follows, as well as her own ambitions and goals outside of her relationship with another person. She has flaws.” Mikasa adapted and learned her ideology from Eren, but they never shared the same point of view, much like 2 sides of the same coin. She’s always followed her instinct, whether Eren liked it or not.

One thing i adore and see as inspirational with Mikasa is how she never fell soft for the male lead. Usually, in beserk, tokyo ghoul manga etc. We see a tough woman lead who at some point in the story succumbs to the male lead and becomes soft. Through-all hardships, Mikasa stayed strong and never grew “uwi” or soft for Eren. She never had that downgrade, she was always tough with it. This quote fits her in the manga “When you can’t do anything but be numb and accept the fate of humanity “

wow this is such a long message, thank you for taking the time to write this down for me.

ah, to be fair, I haven't read the earliest chapters of AOT. I only picked up the manga after season 3 part 2 ended, so I'm not aware of the changes between the anime and the manga. but even when they changed the scenes, i didn't have any problem with that. i don't have problem with season 1 mikasa. it's mikasa in season 4 and the rumbling arc that i have problems with because I expected her to have a major character development (since she's the poster girl after all) but nope, to me, she didn't change at all. i get that she loves him and that she has separation issues, but... i don't know, to me it just comes off as clingy, and sorry to say, even annoying at some point. like she could barely function without him and the world is literally ending and all she could think about was still eren to the point that even armin snapped at her at some point.

mikasa is physically strong thanks to her ackerman genes, yeah, but mentally? she's the weakest (imo anyway). historia (before season 4) is actually the strongest female character in the story, mentally. hell, even eren admired her plenty times because of that (and he's not the type who praises people a lot, unlike armin). it's funny how you said mikasa is the freest character in the show when i think historia (again, before season 4) is the freest character in the show: the way she decided to live for herself, to break the chain, and even killed her father out of her own will to save humanity. her character and the choices she made literally saved eren from the brink of death and his severe depression state. she understood him the way he understood her because they'd gone through the same thing. he trusted her better than any of his friends (including armin and mikasa) and even offered to erase her memories if she couldn't live with the guilt. idk man to me their relationship just makes so much sense but then again, maybe i'm just historia biased lol

i don't read the lost girls novels but i've watched her OVAs. again, it's a matter of perspective. you make some interesting arguments and I'm happy to know that mikasa is a well written character for you. i completely disagree with your points but I can see why you think that way and i respect your opinions.

honestly, i'm impressed that you can still defend your fave after 139 happened. i love my boy eren with all my heart but even i can't find anything to say to protect him when people called him incel or the protagonist who achieved nothing because he really did achieve literally nothing 😭 so, good for you to still be able to love mikasa with the way she is now because us eren stans (well, i mean, me personally) just feel like it's easier to pretend 139 doesn't exist lol

[bookwyrminspiration]

So. Chapter 11. I have many thoughts.

First things first, absolutely amazing, every interaction the characters had felt so natural and fit together so well, and gosh I just...do not have the words to describe how much I adore your writing.

Now time for what I'm here for: you've got me all fired up again! It's been quite a hell of a while since I've done any real theory or predictions, so I might be slightly out of practice, forgive me if I get any details wrong!

And I don’t really know what all of it means yet, but let’s try to get the simple facts laid out first:

Bronte and Oralie send cryptic messages.

Sophie finds a dragon scale in a random desk.

Linh has a connection to the dragons, like Marella.

Dragons are connected with thunderstorms.

So, are we getting dragon!Linh? Because I am so here for dragon!Linh. At the very least, there’s some connection between them. But there’s…something else.

So, the messages from Oralie and Bronte are absurdly cryptic, and that’s so fucking cool and I love it, but I really really want to dig into what they’re saying now. So that’s what I’m gonna do!

Bronte’s message: Secrecy and redundancy compose the toolkit of those trying to hide. It takes a special someone to see the darkness in the world and not participate. Your infectious light is spreading.

Oralie’s message: Secrecy and redundancy compose the toolkit of those trying to hide. Play a melody for me, and tell me what it says. History will have something sweet to say about you.

And you (via Sophie) put a special focus on the words “infectious light” and “history”.

And I will eat my boots if that is not connected to some grand underlying secret underneath the entire story. Now, given that these two are Councillors and have access to confidential files, and Bronte as old as dirt, and the focus on the word history, I’m willing to bet there’s some dark secret within elven history (shocker, I know) that somehow relates to all this monster business. Cause like…it’s hard to make monsters! It’s crazy that the Neverseen and whatever the new group is called have managed to make so many!

(And I haven't figure out the Secrecy and Redundancy part yet, but I will tell you when I think I may have understood it.)

And what’s even weirder is how easy it was for Sophie and the rest of the kids to develop specific monster traits instead of just. Literally dying. And from weird potion mist, too.

Is there something about elves that allows them to turn into monsters? We know the monsters are unnatural, and when I’ve brought up the idea that elves are being turned into monsters you haven’t really denied or confirmed it, just kind of skirted around the topic. And this could also be the reason the humans haven’t been attacked by the monsters- the monsters are made of elves because elves are…somehow compatible with whatever the Neverseen are doing, and they attack other mythical creatures because I’m assuming they share traits similar enough to elves that the monsters have an interest in them.

But it’s also weird how Bronte’s letter (while actually being kind of a compliment, which I find so funny because it absolutely does not read like it, 100/10 characterization points) implies Sophie is spreading something, something infectious, and I’m sure the usage of the word “light” isn’t coincidence either.

Light is really important to elves, like really important, and it doesn’t seem like something Bronte would say, either, what with his…seeming respect for it (from how he acted when at the Point of Purity and journey back). He’d more likely say something like “bravery” or “strength”, given that (iirc) he’s even used those words to describe Sophie before. So there’s something about the word light specifically that was important, and something about the light being infectous.

And now, elves are living underground. And the monsters were said to appear out of nowhere, too, just…out of the blue. Are the Neverseen using the light to create more monsters? What are the monsters for? Can they turn whatever they’re doing off? Are the Council somehow aware of what the Neverseen is doing because they have access to lots of knowledge the main crew don’t, and that’s part of why they fled underground?

And what’s the connection with the dragons?

(I nearly forgot about the dragons.)

From what you’ve posted, you seem to really enjoy the part of dragons that is unknowable and out-of-reach, so much greater than pretty much every other creature in the world. And that also sounds like a way you could describe the void!

And if dragons could access the void, then that would explain how they appear and disappear so fast, and if they control weather that would be how the thunderstorms don’t come in over the horizon, and simply just happen.

But what does it mean? Why did Marella go to them in…what chapter was it again? I can’t remember. Why did Linh react to strongly to the dragon scales?

And Marella may have the wings, but Linh has the scales on her face (although iirc they’re a different color to the one Sophie picked up, so I don’t think it’s hers and I don’t see why she’d attack if it was), so is she a dragon as well? And if they are, are they different kinds of dragons? And since dragons are extremely territorial (from what we’ve seen and can infer so far) is that going to create problems? Linh already reacted terribly to another scale, so if her and Marella’s dragon instincts get worse, I can see how that would go terribly. Or is Linh a different kind of creature?

There’s just…so many thoughts. I barely got into any actual theories here, oops. But that’s…most of my thoughts for now. Hope you enjoyed? I know I personally enjoyed Chapter 11 immensely, thank you for this wonderful AU!

- pyro

woa this is a lot!! pyro!! i am speechless!! I am. I am ahhh!!! I'm glad the interactions felt natural, I was a little worried they'd feel too out of character but sometimes my need to let them mess around with each other takes over

those first four facts you've laid out do seem to be what I'm hinting at--whether you're correct though, I'll let you find out in later chapters. I have more to say about Bronte and Oralie's messages but I'll get to that later. also, I do have more planned for the dragons, which will be fun!!

will be entirely honest i forgot you all don't know what wings Linh has--but!! her connection to the dragons may be related to her wings! everyone has a pair of wings unique to them, so how that translates to her remains to be seen. Marella with the dragon wings and the interests may seem more obvious, but I think Linh is gonna have a lot more mysterious, confusing connection to the way everything works.

Now! onto Bronte and Oralie's messages!! these stumped me for a while because I needed them to be cryptic, but also riddle-like with some kind of meaning that sophie could figure out if she gave it enough thought. of course, as of chapter 11 she hasn't even tried to figure it out, but it's planted that seed in her mind

a cool thing that I just want to point out: there are a few lines throughout the au that i have taken the structure of directly of from the books and altered their wording. One of those was in a previous chapter where I took the "but her mind was stronger than her body" from book one and changed it. I don't remember exactly what i changed it into as it's been a while, but I know that's one of them. and i did it again in this chapter! if you remember the message Bronte had Mr. Forkle give Sophie, "It takes a special someone to see darkness inside of someone and not condemn them," that's the quote I based his unique portion of the message off of. Oralie's also has a meaning tied to an interaction with her, but it's not tied to a specific quote.

for the "infectious light," you are right, that does have a meaning, and it was important it was those exact words. what it turns out to be, however, may not be entirely what you're expecting. and then there's the "history will have something sweet to say about you" which is a little hint to Sophie, whenever she figures that one out. they are trying to send her a message but she needs to figure out what they're trying to say first!! also, the secrecy and redundancy part does have something more to it, but I'll let you continue theorizing about that one.

my apologies if i'm focusing on this part for too long, but I legit spent like half an hour trying to figure out how to word this to set up future scenes and reveals, so I want to share some of that process!

and it is curious how the elven world is the only one affected...

there's a lot of theories for why it was so easy for them to develop those features, maybe their minds adapt to abilities so suddenly that they're predisposed to other changes as well, or they go quicker. maybe it's fragile, guilty minds that enable them to be taken over by horrors like these, whereas humans are exposed to violence and guilt and grief on a daily basis. I might touch on this later in the chapters, so I don't want to spoil anything, but there so many possibilities!!

moving on to the dragons!! you're right, i do think very highly of dragons and like the inachievability of them in this context. they're not just mindless creatures, they're a lot more complex, as we saw with them having abilities like elves. Sophie doesn't know exactly what it was, but she thinks it was tied to the explosive sounds she heard and the change in the weather. and I could tie them to the void! if we going with intelligent creatures having access to the void (like silveny, though her intelligence is very different) then it would make sense to continue that pattern. and it could explain a few of the mysteries left behind after chapter 7 (6? i forget which one)

like i mentioned before, I do have more planned for the dragons, and that does involve both Linh and Marella specifically. so!! I think some of your questions will be answered in the upcoming chapters, but for now I can't exactly answer without spoiling. but! you are asking the right questions!! you are on the right track!!

and it wasn’t exactly scales on linhs face, more they had they same pattern (the iridescent one) but I might've worded it weird so I can see where that came from. as for whether or not she's a dragon, the only thing I can tell you right now is that she doesn't have the exactly same wings as Marella, and i told you in chapter 9 (i think?) that she could easily hide them like Sophie, Wylie, and Biana. The whole mystery with the scale, however, is one of the things that i can't answer without spoiling, so I guess that tells you there's a lot more to that too.

i also have so many thoughts about the au and !! I loved reading all of yours!! I enjoyed it thoroughly!! chapter 11 may seem slower than some of the more action packed chapters, but it sets up a lot of the lore and background we'll need for future endeavors, so i'm glad you liked it!! I think i introduced a lot of questions in this one too...

I might've missed some of your points (there were a lot, which is excellent!!), so if there was something important I glossed over feel free to send another ask so I can go back over it!!

but thank you for reading this au!! talking about it motivates me to write more and make it more complex!! I mean, we're about 84,000 words in and I'm still going, so. there's a lot more to come!!

[teen-comics]

A RETROSPECTIVE ON YOUNG JUSTICE: or me trying to fix what aint broke.

First of all, I want to preface this by saying I know this is a "Marvel Comics" account, its literally in my name, and young justice is neither marvel or a comic. but it is the only DC property I really care about and if I posted this to my main it wouldn't be seen by anyone so forgive me

I also originally wrote this in long text message form to a friend (sorry @flashgame) who has only seen up to half way through season 2, so I haven't included anything about large plot points in seasons 2 and 3. Thats not really what this is about tho so I think my points still stand. These are also just my garbage opinions, I love this show I am just venting and you may disagree, you will probably disagree but I sometimes just have to get stuff like this out my system and thats what's this blog is for. I will go back to making memes about decades old X-men comics after this I promise.

With that out of the way here's my rant :)

For me, young justice’s biggest asset, the ensemble cast is also its biggest flaw. don't get me wrong, incorporating many characters (including obscure ones) into the team gave the show great character dynamics, the freedom to do what they wanted with less popular characters and great fan service for everyone. Buuuut it’s also completely inconsistent with who gets the spotlight and it’s plagued with the problems of just having too many characters. Some characters get huge storylines, massive amounts of screen time, often more than they ever got in the comics and that’s great! it seriously is, young justice is the best adaptation of characters like Kalder, M’gann and Artemis etc it’s literally the most time in the spotlight they ever get. but it’s like the writers just can’t help themselves when adding extra characters! it starts out in season 1 and gets exponentially worse by season two.

What you may notice by season 2 is that, with the new characters introduced, some have been given more air time than others. it definitely starts in season 1. Season 1 is a damn perfect study into how to introduce and build characters, having them each have storylines and later, relationships with each other. the show begins by showing us it’s not sticking to the normal way of doing an ensemble kids show, with the main team meeting in the first ep or two and then remaining the same until maybe one other character is added or a whole lot in a second season as a “new class” (Think X-men evolution adding the new mutants in season 2). Instead M'gann isn’t added till like ep 3 and artemis isn added till like ep 5/6?? i can’t remember trust me it’s quite late for a main team character to be introduced in a first season. that’s probably the first warning sign, even the original team takes a while to form but things are still ok, even the inclusion of Zatanna works kinda because she has the storyline with her dad. but Rocket? yeah...rockets a weird inclusion

she’s added in the last two episodes of the first season and then by season 2? she’s left again and is in the justice league. she gets two episodes!!! two! to be in The Team! like that’s weird and telling of what happens next. the show sticks to a varely normal schedule of adding new members, similarly to X-Men evolution, and like evo those new characters aren’t focused on that much. but evo handelled it better. when it comes to new characters it’s obvious that some are getting much more screen time than others, and some are just more compelling too. the time jump really screws stuff up, adding new characters in (and removing others like Rocket) in the five years off screen means they have to do a good job making us like them because we’re not introduced to them in an organic way.

take Mal and Bumblebee, technically we see them in season 1 but they’re basically cameo/easter egg roles. by season 2 they’ve joined the team and they don’t really get a lot to do after that either. it’s weird and because of the time skip we don’t see them joining, we don’t see bumblebee getting her suit (yeah we can infer it’s from The Atom but really they skip a lot) you might argue that this is necessary for a lot of characters, people like bumblebee, batgirl or even wonder girl have these backstory that don’t really fit in so they're just skipped over to make room for the easily included story’s like blue beetles and impulses

but we still feel like we’re missing something. talking of some of the characters let’s actually look at who got added right? In season 2 its starts to become obvious characters are coming to the front and other are in the background. beast boy is well set up in season 1, he’s well incorporated into the story of a main team character and even tho he’s not integral to the plot of season 2 he works great. same goes for blue beetle and impulse, they’re both great new characters with interesting personalities, backstorys and they do plot relevant things. lagoon boy is also an inclusion that seams necessary, he’s obviously there to be part of the love triangle thing but he’s also useful to randomly get captured and be an annoying character to piss of other members of the team. everyone else tho? it’s really hard justifying them being there. Batgirl, Tim, Wondergirl, Bumblebee and Mal just...don’t do anything. yeah they get thrown a bone once or twice but really it feels like the roles they fill could be filled by other already established people? or they could have been side characters outside of the team. they feel shoe horned in and they don’t get any time to grow. instead storylines focus on the original team, (which is kind of inevitable) and season 1 side characters like Red Arrow, and, of course the previously mentioned new characters that actually work with the story.

i can definitely see why some of these characters were added, Mal and Karen were set up in season 1 so i assume the writers always planned for them to be in season 2. the time skip (let’s be honest) is pretty much entirely there to facilitate Dick becoming nightwing and so of course both Jason, and then Tim (probably because jason comes with too much baggage) had to be included. Batgirl also seasons like a solid choice because she’s from that era of batman and it might seam strange not to include her. and wonder girl continues the “The Teams is made of sidekicks” thing. but come onnnn. Tim and Barbara could have been side characters who we see in one episode (maybe one with Dick dealing with being replaced as Robin or something) and the same can be said about Mal and Bumblebee (wonder girl can be cut tbh)

you can also argue that yeah, maybe the plan was to flesh these characters out in season 3 but it got cancelled. but the season 3 we got adds even more useless characters and actually pushes the good characters from this season into the background. even if changes were made in between the cancellation of the original season 3 and the one we got, i stiiilll think they’d have added the useless characters (this is a bit harsh but season 3 does add a lot of new characters) and not focused on the ones they already had because we saw it in season 1 with Zatanna and Rocket. it’s like the writers get bored easily with characters or something? like they just can’t stop themselves adding new toys to play with. I love this show so much, but after a now third rewatch i still believe the same thing i thought the first time i watched this, I love all the characters, i love all the references but god there are so many characters and so many references

[tribow]

Okay bit of a rapid fire for anime reviews on this post. Every show I'm about to mention has short episodes so they don't have a lot in them to begin with.

Nyanpire: the Animation

This is a kods show animated by Gonzo in a style that reminds me of flash animation. The animation style is super simple, but is pretty cute. It's adapted from a doujin manga surprisingly. I have a feeling some company caught wind of it and realized the amount of plushies they can make with these character designs so they hired a studio to adapt into an anime to promote the merch.

Luckily, the anime itself doesn't give that kind of vibe. The premise is that a cat was abandoned and found by a vampire. That vampire gave the cat his blood and thus Nyanpire was born! From then on there's a bunch of gags as it is a comedy. Much of the jokes revolve around Nyanpire not doing vampire-like things and meeting characters that have their own silly quirks. One of the cats is a fallen angel that's a parody of Lucifer.

The jokes are actually told fairly well, but I feel like kids wouldn't get most of the jokes here. Maybe they'll just pay attention to the characters looking cute. Oh, also every episode ends with a music video for a song composed for Nyanpire. It's weird. Probably not worth looking into.

KY Kei JC Kuuki-Chan

This anime is one of the ONAs that can be seen on the Anime Bancho youtube channel. Anime Bancho posts original content from a comoany called CoMIX Wave I think? I'm not very knowledgeable about them, but I know Inferno Cop came from there. Unfortunately, KY Kei JC Kuuki-chan is no Inferno Cop. They are both comedies with very fast-paced whacky humor, but only the first episode of Kuuki-chan managed to actually be funny to me. The jokes would just get repetitive even though it is such a short run-time. Just watch Inferno Cop if you haven't already and don't pay this one any mind.

Urashimasakatasen no Nichijou

Four boys show up as transfer students to a new school and end up forming a club and getting into shenanigans. The show tries desperately to be funny and manages to make me feel literally nothing. I felt nothing at all while watching this anime and dropped it halfway in. The only joke in this show is that the opening starts out with fullbody animation and right at the end everything changes to a simple chibi artstyle because that's how the show is actually animated.

Aaand that's it, that's the only value this anime has.

Ao Oni: The Animation

Yes, you read that correctly. There's an anime adaption of Ao fucking Oni. If you don't know what Ao Oni is, it is a freeware RPGMaker horror game from like...2007 or something. It got a lot of popularity and a bunch of sequels. A decade later Studio DEEN is animating an adaption for it I guess???? Studio DEEN will agree to do anything, that studio is crazy and not in a good way.

But what is the anime? Well it's a parody comedy of the original game. All the character including the Oni are changed into completely exaggerated versions of the characters. Each episode have at least one person die a gruesome, but comedic death and create crazy situations that completely disregard the fact that they're trapped in a mansion with a monster that should be trying to kill them. Somehow, it actually manages to be funny???

Much of the humor probably won't make any sense to someone who has not played Ao Oni or know what happens in it, but the comedy is good! Studio DEEN pulls off a clean chibi artstyle that works really well! Why is this good at all??? Even so, if you don't know anything about Ao Oni you shouldn't watch it as you won't get the references and will be more confused than anything. If you do know about it, then yeah watch this.

ALSO IT HAS A MOVIE!?!?! WHYY!?!?!

Encouragement of Climb

A.K.A Yama no Susume. This show, animated by 8bit, is a show about climbing...

Y'know, like hiking up mountains and whatnot. The girls prepare to go climbing and that's the show! At least, that's what I would say if I wanted to downplay this anime.

What it is really about is social anxiety, or at least the first season that I watched was about that. The main character is a girl struggling with her own social anxiety and she has a friend that wants to help her go out and do something fun instead of sitting around and do nothing. So why not go climbing?

It takes a lot of convincing, but eventually the main character musters up the courage to go for it and spend some time with her friend. It's a nice feel-good anime to watch and to me it depicts social anxiety pretty well. Even though they don't go climbing for real there's still a really nice pay off by the time the first season ends.

8Bit's animation has some really nice looking backgrounds going on. They do some really nice work with that in particular. The animation itself is fine, but those backgrounds are hella pretty, kinda makes me want to go climbing myself.

I've decided to not go watch the other seasons, but I think this show is pretty good and there will absolutely be more progression as it goes on. Plus, this anime seems to be doing well enough to have 5 season with the newest one airing this year! (or was it next year?). It's a pretty good quality show for those good vibes and out of every thing I mentioned in this post, this should be the one you could watch.

TL;DR Everything I mentioned is either average or bad except for Encouragement of Climb! Go watch that or somethin i dunno.

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 2 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Huh. Only 7 episodes. Not complaining necessarily. For series with an ongoing plot I've definitely become more in favor with their seasons only having as many episodes as they need rather than them having to stretch themselves out to full up a certain number of episodes, which can lead to padding and just bad character moments.

Episode 1: Jeez. Catra visiting Shadow Weaver's cell just to rub her success in her face and verbally abuse her back for once. It's like a twisted version of Zuko and Ozai from ATLA. Catra's upbringing under her was abusive but this is far from a healthy way for her to deal with it. She's basically deliberately swimming in her resentment.

Episode 2: It's not that I'm rooting for her but by-golly was it fun to watch Catra act like just the absolute worst she could while she was Glimmer and Bow's captive.

I touched on this in season 1 but part of the drama of the heroes feeling guilt over leaving Entrapta behind is kind of lost on me a bit simply because it was her own fault it happened. She deliberately went back into the purge room because of her machine obsession, which then closed on her and erupted in flames. It was more than reasonable to assume she was dead and no one but her was to blame, so I'm not really able to be invested in their guilt over it.

That said, weirdly enough I do like that her "abandonment" doesn't seem to be even a blip on the radar for Entrapta herself. She hasn't joined the horde because she resents the heroes or felt left behind, she simply is so obsessed with machines and experimentation that she'll be on the side of whoever lets her do the most of that. Like, it's selfish and irresponsible but it's very in-character and I'd far rather have a traitor motivation be based in that over something stupid like a misunderstanding.

Episode 3: I love the mental image of Shadow Weaver thinking up princess-themed ghost stories to tell Adora as a child.

So, if the previous She-Ra Mara separated Eternia from the other realms/planets/whatever she did and that's what cut off the She-Ra line for 1000 years, I'm guessing Hordak may be from the time before that happened, thus his drive to create portals and calling Eternia a backwards world. Either he's naturally long-lived or his technology is extending his life.

Episode 4: You know, you could maybe argue it was vague enough that it could be taken other ways but I'm definitely getting some vibes here that Scorpia is crushing on Catra. She literally refers to the two of them as soulmates at one point. I know she says she's trying to be friends but this feels a level beyond that.

Fun little reference to the original She-Ra cartoon thrown in there (and maybe Cowboy Bebop...? James Bond...? What was Glimmer's art style supposed to be?). I like how it is more like just playful ribbing than anything outright dumping on the original. Again, I've never seen original She-Ra but whenever remakes/adaptations go out of their way to trash to the original I always kind of wonder why they bothered doing an adaptation if the original is just that bad? Also, I was having trouble sleeping so it was about 2am when I watched this episode and the very Eartha Kitt Catwoman Catra made it very difficult for me not to lose my **** and stay quiet. With how much of a contrast that version is from the one in this series, that was hilarious. Bonus note, it's a nice touch that Frosta's version of Catra is a pretty crasher in that sweet suit, since that's the only impression of Catra she's ever had.

Adora being a chosen one is definitely elevated up simply by how much the pressure of what she's supposed to be is getting to her. I'm likely going to keep making Avatar The Last Airbender comparisons throughout the series but that's partly because I went into this series figuring it'd be at least structured similar to ATLA (season 1 being more episodic and a little more kid-friendly as it builds up the world before getting more serious later). Adora and Aang are interesting to compare here. Aang's worries early on were less apparent because he was more in-denial/choosing not to think about his problems that much, which fit with his character as a free-spirited Air Nomad. While Adora is much more military-minded. She can't keep herself from thinking about her problems and trying to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And jeez, that idea of who/how Catra is in her mind. Not only beating her but making her watch as she takes everything she cares about away. Not Shadow Weaver, not Lord Hordak, but Catra. That whole Lion King Mufasa/Scar moment between them in episode 11 and their fight in the S1 finale really did a number on her mental image of her old friend. Not reasonably so.

Minor note: I'm sure I'm the only one who got this impression but by the look of it, the way the robot's eye moved, and the music, after getting the soda spilled on it that little spybot gained sentience for half a second and then immediately died. It was so darkly comedic I had to laugh.

Episode 5: So that red disc is basically She-Ra's Red Kryptonite, having an effect on the mind rather than the body. The drunk Adora joke doesn't really do it for me but it did get some nice interactions going between Scorpia and Sea Hawk, two characters I certainly wasn't expecting to bond. I did really like Catra's panic when berserker She-Ra nearly beheads her. The implication is that is Adora really wanted to kill her Catra would already probably be dead. It's a thing I like about powerhouse characters like Superman or Aang, who could just demolish everything around them and don't simply because they're a good person...which in turn makes them the scariest person on the planet when they're well and truly ticked off. I'm not going to lie, I do kind of want to see a She-Ra version of Aang when Appa was stolen or when Superman fought The Elite.

Also, Catra's line of "I have control over Adora. I'm not giving that up for anything.". There's a lot to read into there.

Episode 6: I guess my prediction was sort of right. Shadow Weaver became basically a magic parasite and while it did increase the power she's capable of the implication seems to be that she needs a constant fix of magic to keep herself going, thus her attachment to the Black Garnet.

Have we seen Micah before? Given how long ago the flashback seems set, the fact that Shadow Weaver didn't kill him and thus he probably becomes someone important later in life, I'm guessing he's Glimmer's dad and the queen's late husband, since I think he's the only important male character whose face we haven't seen yet. Also, he's voice by Ezra from Star Wars Rebels and that cracks me up for some reason. It's the exact same voice and a relatively similar character.

I compared Catra and Shadow Weaver with a kind of twisted version of Zuko and Ozai and that definitely still fits here. Both Catra and Zuko confront their parent and call them out for the inexcusable abuse they put them through but while that moment was the start of Zuko's upwards journey this and SW's betrayal seems like it's going to cause Catra to spiral even further. Makes sense why Adora leaving affected her so much. She's probably the only one Catra's ever had that she could consistently trust and rely on, even if she did somewhat resent her.

Not surprised Hordak is getting along with Entrapta. She's not socially aware enough to be scared or intimidated by him, so she'll speak frankly, and since all she wants to talk about is the machines, experiments, and how they could get them to work Hordak probably doesn't take much issue with that. She's producing results, which is what he cares about, thus also why Shadow Weaver and Catra started losing favor with him. I wonder if Catra is going through imposter syndrome? Shadow Weaver had that line that Entrapta earned her place next to Hordak and, if you think about it, Catra hasn't really "earned" anything. We saw that she didn't really take her training or studies that seriously, showing up late to combat practice and even getting partial credit for what Adora beat. She wasn't promoted to Force Captain because of her own abilities but because Adora had defected when she was supposed to get that title. She's come close to a few victories but never really had any except for Glimmer and Bow's kidnapping...whom she then basically let escape when she returned Adora's sword to her. She doesn't have the slightest clue how the horde's bureaucracy works when trying to get things done, like simply getting troops armor. Given how much better than her Adora always was and how little she herself has to her name, I wonder is subconsciously Catra believes she doesn't deserve her current position and thus why she's fretting so much over trying to prove herself.

Episode 7: Am I mistaken or did Bow's parents say that he's the youngest of TWELVE siblings? I was going to ask whether Bow was adopted or if his dad's used a surrogate or if maybe there's even just simply magic in She-Ra's world that allows two people of the same sex to have a child together but now I'm just focused on the 12 kids thing. I get nervous just imagining myself having more than one. You should see me when I'm with two cats. I have to pet both of them because I'd feel like I'd be making one feel left out and like the other is the favorite. I'm a mess with kids.

The dad with dreadlocks (Lance?), his design looked familiar to me and I finally realized it reminded me a of a fanart design for a human Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Very different voices between those two characters though.

I wonder if there's any significance to the robot protecting the crystal having the same design as those in the artic in episode 5? Obviously both have the connection to the First Ones but the robot in the forest who was also protecting First Ones' tech had a more insect-like design over these more worm/Graboid ones.

I'm kind of curious what Hordak would have done if Catra had told the truth. Given his interactions with her and Shadow Weaver he doesn't seem like the time to tolerate failure but I suppose the implication here is that he at least would respect those who own up to their failures. Or I suppose more simply he was just testing to see if she would lie to him and since she did there's little merit in keeping her in a position of authority anymore where she could lie about important things again.

Season 2 verdict: Still enjoying it. Another person on this reddit recommended I view seasons 2 and 3 as one since they are basically just one season split in two. I was going to do that but this ended up longer than I thought I would, so I'll just do 2 and 3 separate to keep them semi-organized and easier to read.

I think overall Catra is my favorite character since she has the most interesting backstory, interactions, and just general path through the story out of everyone. She's like Pearl from Steven Universe or, well, Zuko. There's just so much baggage there that she's trying and kind of failing to deal with. I'm always invested in whatever's happening when she's onscreen. Hordak so far is a good big boss villain for Adora to face but Catra is a good archenemy for her.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o027y3/going_in_blind_watching_season_2_for_the_first/

[gunnerpalace]

hey there! so i used to be a huge fan of bleach, and loved ichiruki, and i was reminded of them today but i haven't been involved with the fandom since the series ended. however, i've heard of different variations of why the series ended/ships happened the way they did, and was wondering if you knew or could direct to me a post that explains that? i apologize if i'm bringing up bitter feelings, but i've always been curious if bleach's ending was a big FU from kubo or if he always intended rr/ih

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a post that really goes over it structurally in that kind of way (from a shipping perspective). I’ll get back to what you actually asked me after some asides, because it’s not so simple to just analyze the ships in a vacuum.

I’ve had my own post about why the ending was a fuck you moment, thematically, because it failed to resolve any of the themes and momentum of the series in a way that would be appropriate (either internally or in the context of the supposed genre of shounen.)

I would also say that the ending was a fuck you moment in terms of lore, backstory, and mystery, because all of the historical and political dimensions (i.e., things involving the Soul King and Great Houses) were unceremoniously shuffled off to Can’t Fear Your Own World. Not that any of those things were ever brought up properly in the manga to begin with; the proper and natural time for that would’ve been at the conclusion of the Soul Society arc, when Ichigo and co. spent a week there, which we saw none of. So I would say that everything in CFYOW is basically retconned bullshit hung off prior convenient plot hooks, and that the same was true of TYBW and LSS/TLA/Xcution as well. There may have been some notes and forethought, but it’s about as “valid” as Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert’s Dune works are compared to the original Frank Herbert ones; it’s second-hand, at best.

(This is setting aside that Bleach was clearly made up as it went along. For example: Noriaki literally admitted that he didn’t know who had killed Aizen in Soul Society until he realized that Aizen not being dead was the most shocking answer; the clear baiting and abandonment of Kisuke as the villain hinted at through various means such as his unclear and later retconned reasons for being exiled, and so on. Bleach was very much a J. J. Abrams-style mystery box work that was made as it went with, at best, rough notes, which is why its themes and focus change, for the worse. I also have a post about why it stopped being special, which is part of a running series I intend to write on how to rewrite it to fix and preserve that)

The best recent thing to compare it to is, really, HBO’s adaptation of Game of Thrones, wherein D. B. Weiss and David Benioff openly admitted to removing or deemphasizing story elements, and ignoring themes in adapting the work. The difference is that Bleach was not being adapted from anything; it degraded due to its own creator not understanding what he had created.

(To put it very simply, because this would be the point of Hyperchlorate Part II and would take a whole post to explain: the ending of the Soul Society arc did not properly establish and flesh out Soul Society as a place with a history, space, and purpose. Instead, the Arrancar and Hueco Mundo arcs decided to be a thematic inversion and deconstruction of the Karakura and Soul Society arcs. This again had an ending that did not establish or flesh anything out after Aizen’s defeat, with an even greater diffusion of focus onto ancillary characters. The Xcution arc tripled down on this by addressing something entirely new and retconned in, only to abandon it midway through in favor of going back to invoking Soul Society. And Thousand-Year Blood War took all of these problems to 11. tl;dr: Noriaki tried themes, people hated it, and so he just shoved in more and more dumb sword fights between people nobody cared about, half of whom hadn’t previously existed.)

So, let’s get back to your question. Let’s talk about ships. I’ve clicked a lot of keys and spilled a lot of ink on this subject over the years, but I no longer particularly feel like searching my own archives (really ought to go back through and organize them better) beyond this post and my own follow-up to it about the chronology of IR interactions, so I’m just going to repeat myself.

First, let’s say that Bleach was not ever a manga about ships.

I’m not disavowing that what Rukia and Ichigo had was special. That was called out multiple times through the focus of the art, the dialogue, and by the characters themselves. (Directly by, for example, Orihime’s outright statement to the effect in Soul Society, and her later jealousy regarding it. Indirectly by, say, Uryuu’s acknowledgement that him saving Rukia first would piss Ichigo off. In fact, the biggest indirect indicator doesn’t even involve Ichigo and Rukia; Shunsui asks Chad why he’s there and Chad says he wants to save Rukia, Shunsui calls bullshit that two months isn’t enough time to risk your life for that, and Chad agrees and says he’s there because Ichigo wants to do it. Shunsui moves on, but his argument is left hanging: why was two months enough for Ichigo? Because, as Orihime will later say out loud, Rukia is special.)

What I’m saying is that that was never the focus. It was explicitly constructed that way.

How do I know? The Grand Fisher fight. The Grand Fisher fight is emotionally charged, bringing up both Ichigo and Rukia’s greatest traumas, and is their one real moment of not understanding each other for a time. It was a triumphant moment that made them truly glad to know one another, and you can see it in their reactions afterward (Rukia thanking Ichigo for not dying, Ichigo asking Rukia if he can keep being a Shinigami). There was a lot to unpack there, and you can see it in the way they look at each other.

What happened immediately after the Grand Fisher fight? Noriaki skipped a whole month. We go from June 18th of 2001 to July 17th of 2001. He deliberately skipped all of the emotional impact of that event, and Rukia being around for Ichigo’s 16th birthday. Just never happened. We never hear about it. Wasn’t his focus as a writer.

Now, I’m convinced that was because he was scared of what he had on his hands. He wasn’t willing to commit to either a couple’s battle shoujo or a shounen with male and female seemingly-heterosexual co-equal deuteragonists who clearly had a strong emotional bond. More specifically, he wasn’t willing to make Rukia a centerpiece of the manga despite having designed her first, having made her the moral and philosophical core of his manga, and having based Ichigo entirely around completing and complementing her. But hey, that’s just my opinion, right? Except it kept happening.

From the Grand Fisher fight onward, the name of the game in the manga, structurally, became keeping Ichigo and Rukia apart.

The moment she was taken back to Soul Society, her prominence dropped. We got emotionally charged scenes of them regardless. Right at the conclusion, after yet another emotionally heavy set of Ichigo and Rukia interactions, we again skip almost a month, from the end of the first week in August of 2001 to September 1, 2001. (Due to some completely unnecessary timey-wimey bullshit with the Precipice World.)

In the Arrancar and Hueco Mundo arcs, they have roughly a day together over the course of three months. What happens after every meeting? They’re shuffled apart and split up, and we cut away. This time, for over a year!

Ichigo and Rukia again have a very emotionally charged meeting in the Xcution arc. And what happens at the end of that arc? We skip ahead another month to TYBW. (Xcution ended sometime in May of 2003, TYBW starts June 11, 2003.)

And in TYBW, Rukia and Ichigo barely meet up at all. Indeed, the focus is scarcely upon them.

In CFYOW, neither of them even appear, let alone have any relevance to the plot.

The implication, in my opinion, is pretty obvious: Noriaki was deathly afraid of dealing with the outcomes of their interactions, and that ultimately became him being deathly afraid of allowing them to interact at all to begin with. Why? Well, as I said in one of the last linked posts:

As an author, sometimes you will find your characters will do things you didn’t anticipate or plan for, and you’ve got two choices: you can go with the flow and do what’s natural and deal, or you can fight it and try and impose your vision anyway.

He refused to let his art take the direction it needed to go in.

Now, some people might say he got bored of them, or of having them together. I say that’s bullshit. And the reason I say is down to three things:

He didn’t ignore them, he did his best to keep them apart. I outlined this above.

He did not emphasize anything or anyone else instead. His focus was all over the place. While, admittedly, Ichigo’s prominence also declined, so did everyone else’s.

It would have served him well to focus on their interactions to expand his universe and explore its lore. The things that were detailed in the databooks and CFYOW could’ve been presented naturally and easily if they were together. But that came with a cost of shifting the focus. A cost he refused to pay.

Let’s talk more about (2) and (3) now.

Regarding (2), Chad and Orihime are inextricably linked in Bleach, because they essentially have the same relationship to Ichigo. “But Orihime loves Ichigo, and Chad is his no-homo bro!” someone proclaims. So what? They’re presented as equal and parallel at every step.

They both gain their powers at approximately the same time.

We are told they gained their powers due to the Hogyouku (in Rukia at the time) interpreting their wishes (and no one else’s, such as Tatsuki, Keigo, or Mizuiro), meaning they probably had the same strength of desire.

They both go to Soul Society “for Ichigo.”

They both utterly fail against Yammy and Ulquiorra.

They both spend most of the Hueco Mundo arc doing nothing.

They are both featured prominently in the Xcution arc, and both fail to see through Tsukishima’s powers despite their love for Ichigo. (Meanwhile, Byakuya coolly tries to murder someone who he thinks is his mentor, in Ichigo’s name.)

They both get sidelined in Hueco Mundo with Kisuke in TYBW, doing little to nothing.

They both are utterly ineffectual in the final fight in TYBW.

They are often portrayed together, they are often as effective as one another, and they are equally as developed in their relationship to Ichigo going forward, which is to say: not at all. The loss of focus on IR did not come with an attendant rise of focus on IH, any more than it did with the sudden rise of IchiChad. Nothing was built in IR’s place. There was no emotional or human content which filled its gap.

This is where the IH ending coming “out of nowhere” stems from: it indeed came out of nowhere, because Ichigo was never shown to have any interest in Orihime in all this time, nor an especially close relationship with her. He never hangs out with Chad or shows a bond with him either. He never hangs out with anyone, in fact. (Indeed, “friends” in Bleach do not do any of the things that friends actually do in real life. Nor do parents. You might say that interpersonal relationships and communication largely don’t exist in Bleach. But that’s its whole own topic.)

I would honestly say that more time and emphasis was given on Ichigo’s pseudo-surrogate mother relationship with Ikumi than was spent on him interacting with Orihime. (I would say Noriaki has serious hangups about relationships of any kind, be they romantic, familial, or friendly, and also has some severe hangups regarding mothers and fathers, but that is also its whole own topic.)

Regarding (3), Noriaki apparently wanted this big, Game of Thrones-style world with a long history and political machinations and so on. This is the whole point of TYBW and CFYOW. Trouble is, early Bleach was successful because of its small-scale intimacy. So how do you go from one to the other? You have to lay the foundations at every step. And Noriaki steadfastly refused to do so at every step. Having Ichigo and Rukia interact, and focusing on Rukia while Ichigo was sidelined without powers, would’ve permitted that organically. Indeed, if RR was the endgame, it would have given time to establish that, were it his desire. (Because Rukia never showed any interest in Renji, and frankly Renji always seemed way more preoccupied with Byakuya.) It didn’t serve his goals, but he did it anyway.

It’s much simpler to say he lost focus, and that he started to hate the manga as a whole. Why else would you have Mayuri fighting a giant hand when that achieved nothing, and Kenpachi fighting Thor when that achieved nothing? It became empty. Hollow, you might say.

But that takes us back to the question you posed: where did the ships come from? Nowhere. IH, RR, and fucking TatsuKeigo weren’t established anywhere. They just appeared. Why?

Well, why did every single character wind up doing the exact opposite of their intended and stated goals in the end?

Why did Soul Society revert to its previous attitude and rebuild the Sokyouku?

Why did nothing get resolved?

Why did nothing change?

Why was it all revealed to have been completely and utterly pointless?

In my view, it’s because that ending was a giant fuck you to the readership and Shueisha. There is no other way to interpret an author pulling a 180° and completely nullifying their characters’ arcs, and their work’s themes. Aizen’s little speech at the end is the cherry on top. I read it as Noriaki saying that he’s showing “courage” in telling us all to fuck off.

As to why? That’s an open question. His relationship with Shueisha was contentious, so maybe he was mad at them. (They gave him a deadline once he was dragging his feet, and reclassified Bleach as a joke manga.) His readership was on the decline after the Soul Society arc ended, so maybe he was mad at the audience. I don’t know. I also don’t really care. What I am convinced of is he decided to blow up his franchise and to not leave a single stone unturned when he did so.

That’s where that “ending” comes from, which is why despite it featuring IH and RR, both are thoroughly unsatisfying and without setup: it was the only way to piss absolutely everyone off, including people who wanted that outcome.

In a way, it was his greatest success since the early days of the manga.

Anyway, this was messy, but it’s not a simple topic to address. The tl;dr is that Bleach was a trainwreck from the very beginning that only succeeded on the merits of its characters, and that Noriaki deliberately avoided the promise it had to be something unique and grand. The ships are just a part of that, and cannot be understood in isolation from it.

[juicemitio]

Alright I went to Louisville Galaxycon and saw Travis and Clint twice, for their worldbuilding workshop and their Q&A. Here's some interesting stuff I learned (I didn't include stuff they talked about that's pretty common knowledge or they talked about on the last ttazz)

Graduation 

Fitzroy was originally going to be a jock that was weak bc he no longer had a team, Travis told Griffin that that didn't really work for the world so they reframed it as him training to be a hero, was great academically and behaviorally, but had a problem no one had seen before and no one felt like dealing with. It specifically wasn't "barbarian fails bc he can't keep his rage in check," it was that no one was willing to deal with his magic so they shipped him off

Someone asked Travis to explain fitzroy's magic, so from the DM's mouth- he's a barbarian subtype with elemental magic which has a random effect while raging, which we haven't seen yet (path of the wild soul if you want to look it up and see what he can do) and he took a feat which gives him the ability to cast 3 cantrips of his choosing. What I thought was interesting was that Travis described Fitz's magic using the word "elemental" twice, even though that isn't specifically stated in the path of the wild soul entry

Travis knows Argo's secret and is very excited about it 

Clint has a pirate fiction book he reads every night before they record to get into the headspace to play Argo, he told us the name but I forgot it 

There is one small little concept that made the whole of graduation make sense to Travis and is what the arc will be about, and he only figured it out a few days before recording. Obviously he didn't tell us what it was

Originally it was going to start with everyone starting at age 11 and slowly killing the other kids off, but Justin didn't feel comfortable playing a game surrounded by kids dying 

The accounting scene is already one of Travis' all time favorite taz scenes

The pegasus scene informed Travis on exactly how he was going to treat the firbolg

Also Travis referred to Justin's character exclusively as "the firbolg," which means "master firbolg" is solely a thing going on with the npcs in the game which I find hilarious. They just all decided to give him a dope title bc he deserves it, meanwhile no one will call Fitzroy "sir"

To Fitzroy, social threats are an extremely real and serious thing, like the Biggest thing to him (we were talking about what characters found threatening in the workshop, for context)  

There's some big concept/idea that comes up in the next episode that travis almost let spill and had to quickly stop himself from saying it

Someone mentioned eating breakfast in their question in the workshop and Travis goofed on it for a second, then said "cereal world" suddenly, and Clint had to pick up the question bc Travis had to take a second to make a note of it in his phone 

Travis started brainstorming graduation in March and they recorded the first episode in October, and his main job in that time was working on graduation 

Before Buckminster was adapted for graduation he could not fight at all, if he got into a fight he would die, he poured everything into charisma and could talk his way out of any fight (even the big bad of the game he crit 20d his check and the big bad walked away from the fight) 

Travis is really into psychology and how if you assign a label to someone they're going to act more like it (ie you tell a kid they're amazing and smart and talented and they become more like that, you tell a kid they're annoying and dumb and a problem they become more like that), and how that was a major contributor to play into hero/villain/sidekick/henchperson dynamics, you get assigned this arbitrary title of good/evil/subservient and you become like that to fit the role, and then the inevitable pushing against that mold

Travis is fully aware of his story being compared to harry potter and he doesn't care bc it's apt (people in a school arbitrarily divided into four groups and one of them is the Bad One), also he knows people describe it as "sky high meets Harry Potter meets my hero academia" and he actually finds that really flattering bc he thinks that sounds cool and like something he'd want to watch 

On that note, Travis is a self-identified Slytherin and he's always upheld that the reason Slytherin is depicted in a bad light is bc Rowling decided she didn't like them, and he's always sympathized with the idea of a first year Slytherin working their ass off following the rules and doing their work and getting points, and Dumbledore rewards three idiots for breaking like every rule and pulls the trophy away from you. This was a big inspiration for graduation, of one group getting a bad rep and being portrayed as evil for literally no reason 

Amnesty

Clint & Travis's favorite scene they've ever done together was Ned & Aubrey's final scene together 

Aubrey and Dani do move in with each other at the end of amnesty

Balance

Travis' main emotion around taz is pride and he's most proud of the scene in stolen century with the spirits in the robots, bc they had to record it a second time bc it got way too dark and ended in a really grim way and about 20 min after they finished they all decided that they weren't happy with it, that it didn't fit the tone, he's really proud they didn't just leave it be and they took the second pass at it to make it right

I'm pretty sure he's talked about wanting to kill Magnus off at the beginning before but he mentioned that it was only at the end of petals to the metal he actually realized he wanted Magnus to live, bc Hurley had to sacrifice herself to save Magnus bc Magnus had been so reckless, that hit Travis really hard. Travis realized that Magnus' recklessness was getting people hurt and so Magnus did too, so Magnus become a bit more cautious and took up rogue training to try not to get anyone killed again 

Dust

Dust wasn't designed to be anything more than a one off and the workload was completely unsustainable, the document of notes for dust was about 100 pages and only about 10% of it got used

The reason Travis loved it so much was bc it was a mystery and he found it really fun

Commitment

Clint would love to revisit commitment, but probably not in podcast form bc he didn't find himself really being in the moment as much bc of all the different things he had to keep track of, he'd like to see a comic adaptation/continuation if possible

It was based of a comic he wrote that never got published bc the company producing it failed (he still cashed his paycheck) so he reused it bc he still liked it a lot, it was about how America was founded as a monarchy instead of a democracy and what that changed in the usa's (united sovereignty of america's) history, and how people now were fighting to establish a democracy. Also there were cowboys and spaceships and other cool stuff he put in there bc he liked it

General adventure zone

The reason why they're are able to do romantic relationships w/o being weirded out by it (they joke about it but they don't actually care) is bc it's never done in an explicit or sexual way and since it's the decision the characters would make to pursue the relationship then that's the decision they make. He reframed it as it wouldn't be weird if a family were writing a script together and there was a romance and one person wrote lines for one character and the other wrote lines for the other. He did mention that two siblings playing characters in a relationship as actors on screen wouldn't be cool though

They sometimes get comments that some of the stuff they do is "fanservice," but they feel that they owe their success to their fans and they owe some to them 

They are both aware of and proud that Justin is the best at character creation, Clint specifically really was talking about how Justin's strong suit is definitely character creation and characterization

General mcelroy stuff

They walked pretty close to me when they entered the stage room for the q&a and like… they're short, like shorter than you think

Travis referred to his unborn child as "baby dod" (I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure) which I looked up and is a nickname for George, and given with their older kid being named Barbera and nicknamed BeBe and Travis talking before about how he and his wife like classic names with cool nicknames it makes sense

Travis had an earing in his right ear, I didn't get to see his left ear and I couldn't tell if it was an actual piercing or a fake, it looked really good though. Also his tinted glasses look a lot cooler irl than they do in pictures

Clint told the teenage mutant Ninja turtle story with the signatures that griffin told on mbmbam, but Clint remembered it as happening at King's Island, not Disney. This story was prompted by the question of the biggest lie he ever told his kids, and he only came clean about this a few months ago

Travis told a story about how he finished a videogame when he was younger and was so excited that he picked up a plastic knife, yelled "throwing knife!" threw it directly at Griffin who dodged it and it hit and shattered a window