#I love how Pokémon has cool looking designs until you look into it just a little bit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

doubleddenden · 1 year

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Okay. I'm gonna do it. A full review of Scarlet and Violet where I break down everything good and bad I found with it. I'm not gonna hold back on either fronts, so there might be ranting and nitpicking and praise over the dumbest things.

If you disagree just scroll. I'm just a nobody and not worth arguing with. I'm making this, however, because we need real people's thoughts on this game since game reviewers are being paid to give it 8 or 9/10 while millions of players are pointing out the game crashing and game breaking glitches and rating as low as 3/10.

If a random nobody's opinion influences you, read on.

Now, more under the cut, and this may just be my lengthiest review yet:

I'm going to preface this by saying I have been a fan since gen 1, my first pokemon was Cyndaquil in Silver, my favorite game is Black 2, my least favorite game is BDSP, and my favorite pokemon is Corviknight. I loved pretty much every single pokemon game up until the Switch, where LGPE, base SwSh, and BDSP brought the franchise to absolute pathetic, soulless new lows- yet, Isle of Armor, Crown Tundra, and Legends Arceus renewed my love for the franchise.

That should tell you about the type of fan I am. You can trust I know what I'm talking about.

So how do I rate Scarlet and Violet? Basically I'd say that the best game in the franchise is being held back by... well, not being fucking finished. Bugs, glitches, clipping, slow downs- that's just on the programming angle btw. I still have things I dislike about it outside of those aspects.

Basically if it weren't for the glitches and if it were an actually finished game and not an over glorified beta/ desperate attempt to make that holiday cash, I could give it an easy and deserved 8 out of 10. But because of the very preventable errors that came from several companies deciding that the integrity of a game series much beloved by MILLIONS the world over was less important than lining their pockets, I have to give it a 5 until it's fixed.

That being said: I truly do enjoy the game. I really do. I think these truly could gave been my favorite games EVER if they just... just cared a little more.

Let's focus on the positives first:

The new Pokémon this gen are pretty great looking. Something I really disliked about Sword and Shield was that too many of their new Pokémon looked like canceled cartoons (Eiscue), scrapped Sly Cooper characters (Inteleon), non Pokémon like in general (Stonjourner), or just WAY TOO FUCKING HUMAN (Cinderace). Scarlet and Violet has designs that stretch across the board of being cool, cute, animal like, humanoid, and overall it's a very nice mix this go around. Even the humanoid ones look great because theyre just better designed and cool looking, and I can forgive the lack of natural or Pokémon aesthetics as long as it looks good- such as the case of Ceruledge, which looks so amazing to me despite definitely fitting in better in Megaman NT Warrior.

The starters I feel are way better than last gen and are just overall better quality than we've had in a long time- even though I didn't pick it, Skeledirge is the BEST fire starter we've had since Infernape, unless you count Hisuian Typhlosion. They're also way better balanced the likes we haven't seen since gen 4 with secondary types that actually allow them some wiggle room against their "stronger" rivals.

Not to mention the Pokémon have actual textures this go around that help make them look less plastic compared to past games. You'll see it in terms of fur or scales on some Pokémon- it's not perfect mind you, but it's a start! I think my favorite textures though are the Terrastilized textures. I LOVE Terrastilizing my Ceruledge to see that gorgeous red crystal wrap around it's ghostly blue flames.

Terrastilizing is also a pretty neat mechanic that doesn't really do too much besides change a Poke's type. I do miss some of the hyped designs of Megas and some Gmaxes, but we also didn't really need anything as complicated as those either. It works. It's not really my favorite and I'm not really a fan of silly hats, but I do like that it's pretty balanced overall.

Onto other things, let's get into the main draw: open world. Fans kept saying SwSh was open world- one Wild Area and several hallways in a very cramped and forced rail road progression do not make an open world. They said Legends Arceus was open world: a definite improvement, but you were still bound by progression to open sandboxes rather than them being a singular area.

This game is the real deal this time. Sure, levels aren't scaled with the player and you have to progress in the story to unlock certain Koraidon and Miraidon traversal abilities, but it really is a chance to do things how you want without annoying losers like Hop or Team Yell stopping you every 5 minutes to tell you you have to go left. I literally made my way to an area about level 40 to 45 while my team was around level 20 just so I could get items required to evolve my Ceruledge with just 2 badges- and I had more amazing times like this where I stumbled onto areas that were 10 to 15 levels higher than me and gave me thrilling challenges because of it.

An ice type gym leader, Grusha, actually gave me my first defeat in game in several years. Ice type. The glass cannons that go down if a feather touches them. And it was so satisfying to beat him not just by spamming A, but by actually requiring strategy and effective team work.

I encountered and CAUGHT a level 70 Terra Dragonite when I was still level 40 something, and definitely didn't have the badges to control it. But it was rewarding to just let me have a thrill like that! In SwSh, I could be 1 level shy and not be able to catch a Pokémon I can easily defeat because of its stupid system.

I think that the open world could have been done better and made more interesting, but for what it did, it did so, so fucking good. I love being hilariously unprepared for fights- it makes my victory much sweeter! I love being in areas I'm clearly not ready for and discovering weird things- I still am! And I'm in post game! I also love being presented with multiple routes I can take rather than 1 narrow hallway path- I could have gone to the Psychic gym town after getting the proper power ups for Miraidon, OR I could carefully map out and find a detour that let's me go another more accessible way.

It really does give me a sense of freedom I haven't felt from the games ever in my life like this. I sincerely hope that they don't abandon this style of world traversal, because this, I feel, is close to what I've always dreamed my ideal "BotW" Pokémon game would be. Close anyway. There's still leaps and bounds needed before I'm fully satisfied on that front, but it's a good start.

The stories in the game are also really fun and actually have effort put into them- I know I bash on SwSh a lot (and this won't be the last time because it was the last gen), but the fact they NAILED the ending and did not pull whatever tf Rose was up to was such a relief. Sure the gym challenge is pretty standard fair, but the Titan and Star stories were actually pretty neat. I genuinely thought Arven was going to be my least favorite character, but he ended up becoming one of my favorites because his motivations are very pure and understandable, and his background actually made me sympathize with him. I thought Team Star was just going to be another annoying Team Yell, but the fact that it wasn't even an evil team at all and the build up to the boss and reasonings for everything was actually very interesting and well handled- for Pokemon, anyway. And the final story? Suspenseful. I was literally on the edge of my seat. I actually cried a few times throughout Arven's story and the final one too.

And you know what? They somehow made me like an ass kissing weaker starter rival. All they had to do was sprinkle just enough yandere on Nemona to make her just a tad creepy and hilarious, and the dialogue options were GOLD. I even got attached to certain Pokémon like Miraidon, who really is just a large metal motorcycle doggo. It felt amazing watching him regain his strength and courage, and I finally care about a legendary as much as I do Nebby.

The photos of the badges are really fun, and I love that there's something for every type too. Maybe the gym leader was kinda eh, but the photos I have help keep it a memorable experience. The ending one especially had me smiling ear to ear.

As far as other things, I am glad to see they kept the move remember function from LA. It's so much simpler and easier than having to find a guy to do it for you, and that and the nicknames make sense anyway from an adventure stand point.

Another neat feature that isn't explained is the dex rewards. Not just from Jacq, but the pokedex itself will reward you for catching em all with more balls, items, etc. It's incredibly useful and motivating, and gives me a reason to capture all of those 300 Pokémon I already have

Lastly, the music- oh my god the music. Dynamic, diverse, fun! Explosive! Experimenting! I don't think there's a single track I dislike, and I still have Team Star's and the final boss battle stuck on loop in my head. The instruments sound like actual instruments this time and not just DS or 3ds holdover soundfonts like SwSh. Fuck it, I don't even like Ed Sheeran, but the song was still a lovely addition- still unclear how the lyrics fit, but it still sounded nice. Plus there's multiple fun wild pokemon themes.

And now that I've sung high praises... yep, time to absolutely tear the bitch apart. No mercy.

First, let's start with the things a patch will not fix:

Just like SwSh, a lot of things were removed.

Two options- Set and Battle Animations- were removed. I personally play with Set because I don't like having an unfair advantage, and I like the thrill of not knowing what's coming next. You could argue "lol just press B, stupid" but this is exactly the same issue that came with the forced EXP share in SwSh. "Just rotate your team" was the common phrase even by Ohmori, ignoring the bigger complaints- and although the EXP share is now somewhat balanced, I don't see how removing Set will ever benefit anyone, because now I always know what's coming next no matter what. I can't just ignore it either because my eyes do not work that way. Although I don't touch Battle Animations, I know plenty of people that like them off since battles can drag on with them on, and that's no exception here.

Although those are just two things so far, these things are just basic options in the settings menu. Now, most of Pokémon has been using the same system since around XY, with the biggest changes coming from LGPE and SwSh that bake in exp share. Moves are pretty much the same with a few exceptions, which means that the battle system is about the same too.

Why this matters is this: they *purposely* removed these features. This wasn't something just left out by accident, this was literally a purposeful choice. I can't personally see any reason this was done except to give a middle finger to certain people. I mean, SET especially. That's been a setting- not a feature, a SETTING since the gameboy days, and all it does is press B automatically on that front.

Now onto other things, they also removed a bunch of moves, abilities, and forms. Scald is now a signature move just for Volcanion instead of a convenient surf alternative. Greninja, while in the files, still has Battle Bonds, but the Ash Greninja transformation is gone. I really do not understand that because now it means the only games you can use it in are the Alola games. There's more obviously but I'd rather not list a book.

A big change was definitely the removal of actually being able to dress how we want. Disguise it as "lore appropriate" if you want, that doesn't really justify them SEVERELY limiting us to just 4 uniforms. Imo, only 1 looks good, and if you have Scarlet then you're stuck in that ATROCIOUS orange and white color scheme. Legends Arceus may not have had that much in terms of character customization besides period appropriate clothes, but there were options to experiment at the least. I'm just saying, it would have been nice to be able to mix and match and sort of defy dress code a little like Team Star does. Plus... I'm gonna be honest, I need someone to inform game freak that full length pants still exist and most of the world still has them. I hate exposed ankles and preppy shoes. It makes me look like a hipster dweeb.

As far as the rest, the "accessories" are pretty lukewarm tbh. I was expecting "accessories" to be like a hoodie underneath the uniform, some hair accessories, patches for clothes, etc, but it's really just an expanded gloves, shoes, hats, bags, and glasses option, like what SwSh had. Sure there's more on that front, like helmets, but with the four uniforms our options are still HARDLY unique.

I'm not going to forget the "most options we've ever had" for the face and hair, and honestly it still sucks. I found it very hard to find something that didn't outright make me look like a femboy or a small business lesbian. Nothing wrong if that's your vibe, but I prefer a vibe closer to the messy hair and boy options in SwSh. And don't get me wrong, it's great to be able to have all the same options girls do, but inclusion by omission isn't the way to go and more should be done on that front. Let boys wear skirts and short shorts and let girls have full length pants and boy hair cuts, and ffs let us have hair styles that aren't so... samey and plain. More eye options too, because I really do not like how our eyes look so big just to make us look even younger.

Imo the most likely reasons character customization is like this is either a time issue, a "lol its school so lore," issue they purposely set up to do less work, or they really, REALLY want to do away with CC all together and are using this as sort of a "soft" excuse to do it. "Oh, everyone hates it so they must not want it anymore lol" basically.

I have my nitpicks with the character design as well, but this is no longer about "things removed," and will be addressed in my nitpicks.

Now as for other things removed that affect actual gameplay, they removed the Shiny sparkle noise that was introduced in LA and made Shiny hunting much easier. I really don't understand this, especially considering some shinies like Cuphant and Garchomp are very hard to tell if they are shiny or not at a glance. This is doubly hard for Pokemon that are very small and hard to see without squinting. Another middle finger to fans of it? I really can't think of a reason except to artificially inflate the rarity of shinies again, and that's just shitty either way. One could argue that because of two separate teams, LA was the one that thought of it while it didn't come to the SV team- and yet the move relearning and free battle camera are exactly the same as LA. Therefore, there was a conscious decision, like Set, to remove it for reasons that are probably very stupid, dumb, and shouldn't have mattered when the jingle helped to identify one Garchomp from a shiny Garchomp and more.

Something else removed is the ability to just catch without having to initiate battle. Maybe it's just a Legends thing, but I somehow find it tedious to have to initiate battle with every single Pokémon I want to catch now. It's not entirely unforgivable, but it does slog on having to toss, battle, toss, battle instead of having to battle when you're caught.

Lastly, and definitely the biggest thing to me: the removal of the permanent TM. Sword and Shield (if I have to praise that pile of shit ONE MORE FUCKING TIME) at least had permanent TMs AND TRs that function as old 1 use TMs. The TM system they have now, imo, is just tedious. I have absolutely better luck just finding a random TM on the ground or just going by my team's natural moveset than I do actually saving up for these TMs that hardly benefit any of my team. LA had a better system of just being able to purchase the move to be tutored without the bs materials required. Plus just... it's pretty brutal when you think about it. Disgusting in others. Why tf do I need an entire bag pocket dedicated to carrying Shinx fangs, Drowzee fur, Etc? Why am I hitting these poor creatures hard enough to knock out teeth? If anything, I fucking hate that we've regressed from Gen 5's BEST contribution to the franchise. The simpler solution would have been to have TRs of any move you've seen be made into a single use TR for a reduced price OR a permanent TM for a higher price.

Let's move away from things removed. Let's just talk about things that aren't right or that i just don't like or find slightly annoying. We're not hitting bug territory yet.

Wtf is this game's obsession with SANDWICHES??? Sandwich stores, sandwich ingredients, sandwich mini game, your dragon loves sandwiches, your school sells sandwiches, your friends and teachers and NPCs talk about sandwiches so often, even the last photo in the game HAS A SANDWICH STICKER! And the thing is, there are other dishes in the game such as rice balls or ice cream- but MOTHER FUCKING SANDWICHES ARE THE END ALL BE ALL IN PALDEA! EAT SANDWICH! CONSUME SANDWICH! INTAKE THE SANDWICH!

On a mechanics note, I think the food mechanic is okay I guess, but they don't explain that you're selecting ONE SERVING and not just that many pieces of ingredients to put on the sandwich. This ends with a sandwich that's like BRICKS OF BACON BACON BACON CHORRITO BACON HAM HAM HAM BACON CHEESE CHEESE BACON CHEESE BACON. Plus, as my friend pointed out, WHY are we dropping these pieces onto the bread instead of carefully placing them? Why is an ingredient lost to the god damn void if it lands ON OUR PLATE??? Do our pokemon snatch it like untrained dogs? And the bonuses are hardly worth it in the end- least of all for wonky and very low effort animation that sometimes just doesn't work!

Speaking of picnics, I hate that they delegated the breeding mechanics to the picnic. I'm guessing GF is wanting to get away from it because they don't want to admit pokemon fuck or something, but they lay eggs, that's a thing that's been around for over 20 years at this point, and it's time to just accept it. But anyway, what's in the game sucks because of the WAITING. At least with past iterations of Nursuries, I could just ride my bike around and see the NPC make a gesture to tell me my pokemon laid an egg, and if it's taking a while, I could just leave them for a while while I fucked off to do something else for a bit. Here, you gotta make a picnic and wait for that to load, you probably should box your other 4 pokemon so they don't breed by accident (btw you don't just deposit the two you want to breed, you have to make room yourself for it), then you have to WAIT in the very small confines of your picnic table. This is so tedious and BORING. I could have hatched several eggs in the time it took to get ONE egg.

How would I fix this? JUST COPY AND PASTE THE NURSURY! They copied and pasted attacks and stuff, so they can do it. Why do we have to reinvent the god damn wheel? Just slap it in there! OR! Better yet, stream line it to have it delegated to a menu in a special box in the PC. Sort of like a battle box, but just for breeding. You could also go so far as to include incubator space for your eggs so you don't have to rearrange your team every time it's time to hatch. Put a Flame Body pokemon or something in there with it to help them hatch faster or something and to allow multiple, seamless hatches.

Moving on, the day and night cycle. I don't particularly hate the idea of in game days and nights going by faster, but I think it's just inconvenient as of right now. LA once again did it best by having the option to sleep through certain parts of the day so you don't have to wait for nightfall. Oh hey, another pointlessly removed feature.

Now for some nitpicks:

I do not like the camera. It cannot decide where tf it wants to be in battle and zooms way too close while traveling.

This game is in DESPERATE need of voice acting. There's so many cutscenes that are awkward lip flapping and especially towards the end where the gang is just talking- I almost missed some of what they said because I didn't see the text pop up.

I hate how boring most of the gym leaders are here. I was hoping for some shenanigans at least with Iono outside her gym battle but nope

The character art style in 3d particularly is okay but I'd rather us go back to less Detective Pikachu and New Snap and more LA

I don't like how most buildings and shops are just menus now instead of letting us explore little areas

I still hate this inferior trading system. Stop trying to push Pokémon Home on us and bring back in game GTS dammit, you block heads. It wasn't good in LGPE, it wasn't good in SwSh, it wasn't good in BDSP, just give us back the fucking GTS so I can stop asking random people online for help. Trying to find a Quaxly is a nightmare (I am aware of the Austin John codes, that's not a good solution and although I appreciate his efforts, an artificial solution does not work). Everyone is offering Sprigatito for Sprigatito and it's annoying. The surprise Trade is also somehow slower and more tedious.

The main character design overall just feels weird, especially the default boy that looks like someone shoved their shota fetish in. Even then, they describe the academy as a place for all ages, but we're 12? Or something? You'd think this would be the prime of all times to allow us different body types to customize or something. Theres clearly older students as well going as far as grandmas.

The weather is just irritating tbh. Why is it raining in the canyon area constantly? Why does it always rain in the central city during import cutscenes and make the game lag more? Fuck you if you want to use fire types I guess, because it rains every 5 minutes

Some of the "new" Pokémon should just be new forms. Regional variants, Paradox forms- I'm sorry but I don't care that convergent evolution is a thing, that applies to Pokémon like Tauros and Bouffalant or Heracross and Pinser- white Diglett is just white Diglett and the Paradox Donphans are just Donphans. Also, Pawmo is a useless design because it's just Pawmi but slightly taller. Stop padding your dex with bullshit to meet a quota. The designs are cool mind you, implementation is not.

The map design could use work. There's some interesting locations but most are pretty plain looking. Some sprucing up by adding palm trees at beaches, beach goers, some areas with glowing pokemon and lights, flowers- more work needs done in the future.

Gliding does not need a timer. I want to glide for long distances without falling. I really don't understand why this was added because even Braviary didn't have this issue in LA.

Perhaps the biggest nitpick I have that is ultimately of no consequence whatsoever is the choice of ending song. Don't get me wrong, I think Celestial is a decent jingle and I personally have no beef with Ed Sheeran, but what does the song have ANYTHING to do with the game? Was it "written for Pokemon" or did Pokemon just so happen to buy a song that just so happened to be finished but not published at the time? I feel like reception would have been better if it were sung by singers with actual connections to the series, like the anime openings in general, or by well known poketubers or singers in general from YouTube that need way more exposure. Instead they paid out way more for a mid singer to make a decent song that doesn't match the theme of the game at all. Like seriously, why not have a song about the past and future or something? For that matter why Ed? Why not a Spanish singer for the Spain region? It just seems pretty fake for Pokemon as a company to keep getting these random celebrities that have nothing to do or say about the series at all until they're being paid to say OMG I LOVE POKÉMON PIKACHU IS MY FAVORITE. It's disingenuous basically. If Ed were like "oh yes I like pokemon, my favorite game is Platinum and my favorite Pokémon is Lucario" or "My favorite game is Black 2 and my favorite Pokémon is Slowpoke" or something, I'd be more inclined to believe the hype, but as it stands alongside all the other celebrities, it just screams fake fan.

Anyway, back to the game, I think that covers most of what I dislike that has nothing to do with glitches or performance. There's probably more, but for now this seems enough. Reminder that I still like the game, but I'm not going to hold back on what bothers me.

And now I talk about glitches and performance. Pretty much everyone and their grandma have, but it needs to be pointed out until it's fixed.

I'm going to list everything I HAVE PERSONALLY encountered. If you somehow haven't encountered a single thing anyone else is talking about, 1. You're lying, 2. You have and just don't realize it, and 3. You're some special miracle child that needs to go buy a lotto ticket because that is highly unlikely.

Now, what I have personally encountered while playing:

Slow downs- slowdowns to the point that it takes 20 seconds to finish a jump. Slow downs to the point that I feel like I'm trying to emulate X on my laptop. Slowdowns that drag on and on to the point that it's 3x slower than it should be.

Somehow the game works better in hand held- not by a lot, but better. This tells me that they probably didn't spend a lot of time optimizing it for docked mode and literally developed it for hand held.

The world flickers. You notice it a lot for far away locations but even indie games don't have this issue. Sometimes it flickers black or it flickers blue. It's so frequent that I really am convinced that the game wasn't finished.

Wall clipping. Pokémon sometimes spawn INSIDE walls. This makes hunting a specific one annoying or avoiding them annoying, as you're hugging a cave wall to get around a Diglett and WHOA WALL SALANDIT. It's jarring to say the least and is not only immersion breaking but super, super low quality. You'll especially notice it in those tube caves around the mines. If you're not careful you're liable to fall through the entire world.

Landmass... swelling??? I really don't know how to describe it, but there's areas where I guess land doesn't load in until you're RIGHT THERE like 20 yards away, and it makes rocks, islands, and mountains feel like they're inflating right before your eyes.

Falling forever. This... idk how this happens but it's happened a few times. You fall off a mountain or into a river, and instead of landing, your animation is locked into falling. You can't open any menus btw so you can't warp away. You just have to sit there and wait or restart and lose progress.

Black screen. My friend also experienced this, and it's just when the game won't load. No indication that it's loading, no timer or bar to indicate how far along we are, and it might just not load. I waited 8 minutes for a single cutscene to load one time out of curiosity when this happened to me. My friend ended up having to quit and reload.

The eating animations just don't work sometimes

My pokemon sometimes takes on the texture of a nearby building. It'd be cool if it were intentional, but it's not.

Pokemon clipping through the floor- especially noticeable in gym fights

Sometimes my pokemon won't fight in LG mode. It's not a shiny, because I swapped to a different pokemon and suddenly it's killing and mayhem again.

The PC. Just. Yeah. Takes forever to load one box, then if you go to another it has to load that one, and if you go back it has to load that one again. It makes organizing so fucking tedious.

Picnics take forever to load

Massive stuttering, especially while capturing. Yall know that clip of Psyduck being captured and the whole background unloads and reloads? Happened to me but in a different area all together.

And of course, game crashes. I had 3, one of which was after a HEAVY slow down.

And there's more of course out there. I personally haven't done co op yet, so I'm just curious how bad that is after everything I've seen online of Dick Wigletts and models just going crazy.

As far as non game breaking performance stuff I hate:

Draw distance is still stupidly low. Higher than SwSh, but I should not be seeing grass and trees growing before my eyes.

Low frame rate for objects in the same area. I'm sure we all know about our 10fps classmates, but this also affects Pokémon that are clearly loaded in but jutting around like action figures. Windmills are especially noticeable, not winding or just having abysmally low fps when very close to them. Honestly how do you fuck up a WINDMILL? Thats SUPPOSED to spin and be visible from a distance.

Reflections. Just... Game Freak, do you not know how reflections work? Because that's not it sweeties. At all. It's especially noticeable at the very pit of Area Zero.

My Switch gets VERY hot running this game. It has no issues with BotW or XBC2. It's not a model issue because of the low draw distance, and again, those games rendered way more complex objects at a distance in comparison. I'm reminded of how SwSh apparently fucked up Roku tvs at launch. Like wow, I was actually concerned for a bit. Game Freak just does not know how to optimize.

That's about all I can think of right now but I feel like I'm forgetting something.

All I can think of is what this game could of been. It could have been my favorite next to LA and BW2 if stupid fucking rich people in suits gave a damn about the game beyond their holiday cash in.

You can observe this from various angles, but this is my take on the issues present in the game:

The game reportedly took about 3 and a half years to make, starting production close to LA according to leaks and datamines. Most of us can agree that they should probably get about 5 or 6 years per game. We know GF works with multiple teams on a project: I theorize roughly 3. Team A is for new gens, Team B is for enhancements, and Team C is more of a fuck around team for games like Arceus or remakes. That's just on the Pokémon angle, because we know they have the Gear Project and like to work on other projects despite not having the manpower- because they really thought Little Town Heroes would be bigger than Pokémon. At the very least, it doesn't appear that we had a side project to blame for detracting from the main game like LTH did to SwSh.

But I'm going on a tangent. SV and LA clearly needed more time in the oven (and I'd argue more time debugging).

However, the belief is that GF is being bullied around by TPC and Nintendo to produce a new game every year and a new gen every 3 years to keep up with everything else going on around the franchise.

TCG

Anime

Manga

Plushies

Toys

Clothes

Merch

Music videos

And way more.

Each new gen serves as the spearhead for everything else the franchise does until the next gen- which for the last 9 years as of writing this has been consistently every 3 years.

In other words, the belief is that if Game Freak has to delay, TPC and Nintendo loses a LOT of money in delaying everything else and pisses off shareholders.

I somewhat buy into this theory, but I refuse to believe the people in charge of GF are being bullied into it. It's much more likely that someone in management, producing, and directing are writing checks their teams are struggling to cash. GF has a big turnover rate, and employees have described the environment as basically not being able to move up by merit alone while promotions go to people the higher ups like personally instead.

In other words, too many "yes men" are saying "yes we can make a huge game like Legends Arceus in 3 years. Oh, we also have to release a new mainline title? Yes, we can do that! No no no, don't worry, it'll be done by then!"

And again, this is just me guessing and theorizing and I by no means have inside information. However, this seems the most likely answer to me. Imo there was a significant drop in quality from one game to the next when we hit 3d, and especially in games directed by Ohmori where there's so many corners cut, he may as well be the antithesis to a Wendy's hamburger (their motto is no cut corners, hence the square patties- get the joke? Okay moving on). He's most likely not the sole person to blame here, but rather one of many "yes men" that do not want to give their higher ups a wrong answer.

I will say that LA (directed by Iwao of USUM fame) and SV are absolutely progressive for the franchise in so many ways, but most of the community agrees that they are not living up to their potential- and the sad thing is, they're probably already planning a Let's Go Johto game (like USUM, the words Let's Go! are directly in the game and there are many gold and silver items to buy) and eventually gen 10 to come out within the next 3 years already.

I could sit here and talk about or theorize all the ways they could give themselves more time, but the reality of it is this: pokemon is a product, not your neighbor you grew up with or the mom and pop shop you go to to support them, and they are definitely not indie (hasn't been since gen 3 I'd argue but I'm willing to push as far as gen 6). New gens especially are just commercials for merch for the rest of the franchise. No matter what, the games will make about 5 times their initial investments back- it literally sold 10 million copies in Japan in the first 3 days alone. Boycots don't work because it's literally too big to fail. Seriously, I saw a guy who literally went out of his way to collect multiple copies of each game from around the world for collection purposes- that alone gave TPC about $1k probably. Not to mention scalpers.

So the best thing people can do, imo, and especially reviewers, is to grade HARSHER on the games. The only way they'll learn is if there's enough back lash- remember dexit? That's how we got 250 pokemon added back in after the initial 400. Even if you love it, point out what could be better, no matter how small, and point out every glitch you encounter. They have to do something different for the next gen, because at this point the next gen will be even buggier on the next Nintendo console.

And again, I know nobody from GF reads this, but I'll say it anyway: NOW is the time to negotiate for more time. Not 2 months before release, NOW is while gen 10 is still in development. Push for 5 years minimum, and let some other studios fill in the gaps in the mean time. I know for damn sure a Colosseum 3 or a side game in a similar vein developed by another studio would more than keep me and the super fans occupied for a while.

But. Reviewing SV as they are now... 5/10 seems fair. Listen, I love the game and I think it is super duper ambitious and fun when it works- but the glitches and performance are so distracting that it breaks my immersion. The graphics are close to being good but NEED so much polish. Even with all of my nitpicks, I would have gladly given this an 8/10 if only it were FUCKING FINISHED.

But alas, it's not. It's released and I'm more than sure some business men who couldn't give a shit about the actual game or fans are saying it's perfect, but it's not finished. Several million people basically got a glorified beta game thinking they'd patch it day 1.

That being said, and I fully acknowledge I am a pessimistic POS that assumes the worst in everything, so this is surprising coming from me: a patch is most likely coming. This is THE new gen game, meaning this is what's going to go for competitive and World tournaments. Rn there's exploits to make OKO moves like Sheer Cold have 100% accuracy and it's not due to an ability like No Gaurd. That, and it's pretty much guaranteed that they're going to add DLC to expand on the story- too much in the game is pointing to that. Nintendo also has been forced to give out refunds- pokemon seemingly being one of the few games that make them break their no refund policy, something I'm sure they're unhappy about as publisher. It is within their best interest and ours that, especially for gameplay and tournament purposes, they patch and finish on the performance end. Visuals will probably still be fucked, but even SwSh got patched eventually. This isn't a situation they can run from like LA, it's something they are probably required to fix. Hell, a sound designer from the game found out about the E4 music glitch, so I think they have to be aware.

But pessimism aside, I do want to thank the people at Game Freak that tried their best to create something incredible. Behind all the business politics and corners cut by higher ups, there are solid ideas all around, and an amazing, heart felt attempt at a story and pokemon designs once more. This is by no means directed at the assholes that inflicted crunch times or approved of releasing the game in this state mind you. Those people deserve to be fired and never allowed near the franchise again.

So yes. 5 out of 10 for now, fix the performance and it'd be an easy 8.

Hopes for the next game: I know I said that the open world was a good "start" for the franchise, but GF has this issue where every game has a mediocre but good "start" to something they hardly improve on.

Oh, the graphics in LGPE were bland but its a good start for the next game!

The Wild Area is boring and lifeless- but it's a good start for the next game!

The DLCs vastly improved on the exploration- it's a great start for the next game!

LA gave us so much freedom to explore- it's a great start for-

You see my point. SV gave a great start for open world exploration, but I just really want them to NAIL it for once. There's clearly someone on the inside that gives a shit- maybe not the higher ups, but there is someone that does. I want them to keep trying their best to improve on what we have.

That's another thing: let's try to not regress and try not to come up with another useless gimmick. I say the next gen or next game just needs to focus on improving what we have now instead of trying to come up with what comes after Terrastilizing.

Seriously, just polish the graphics, no new gimmicks, get the game working and prioritize optimization. Do what went right with SV and LA again. That's all we need.

As far as other things, maybe base the next region in Australia? Prime candidate for open world with lots and lots and LOTS of unique pokemon species. I don't want to see it for 5 years though because I want it to be rich with diverse biomes and exploration and better graphics.

And ffs just give us better character customization. This was piss poor.

And for the next game- which I sincerely hope isn't just LG Johto because I HATED LGPE- just go ahead and delay. We know you want to come out in 2 years, make it 3 instead.

Honestly just optimize SV, add updates and FREE DLC to it (seriously, they owe us), expand the story, maybe add in a couple of new quests and pokemon, do something with that unused area in the NE area of the map or add in something like the Canary Islands, or hell, past and future versions of the region we have now, and that will keep us occupied.

Just. Finish your god damn games. This is inexcusable of the world's richest franchise. Finish your fucking games. SV were so fun but they aren't finished. FINISH THE FUCKING GAME.

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #den reviews stuff

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esprei · 2 years

Note

On the line of sharing Submas/Pokémon first encounters, my first game was Sapphire and only because my older brother had two of the cartridges so I whined until he handed one over. From there we always made sure to get the opposite of the mainline games (I got Pearl, him Diamond, I got Heart Gold, him Soul Silver, etc.) because he liked completing the Pokédex and I did not; we’d either trade the Pokémon he was missing or he’d just straight up steal them from me 💀. So when it came time for Black (him) and White (me) he was the one who was able to challenge the Submas bros with half his competitive team whereas I couldn’t even get past the first car. So when it came time for Black 2 (me) and White 2 (him) I finally got my first chance to challenge them in that interaction outside the station. Lol, but because I never did the battle Subway much in the first game I was like “…ok???? Moving on-” I ended up remembering them from the anime though.

I almost didn’t get Legends Arceus at all because some time after Sword and Shield came out I was in a bad headspace and memory connected the feelings together with the series (still haven’t finished it oops), but I saw a couple Mutuals posting about Ingo and I was like “that one dude from white 2???” And had to find out what was up. Thanks to the interest in this funny New Yorker train dude getting sent to the past though, my brother bought Arceus and it completely revitalized my love for the franchise and blasted me out of the bad head space I’ve been in for the past year lol. This fandom is super refreshing and nice, so seeing everyone share their experience with getting into it is heartwarming tbh.

On funnier note, it turns out my brother has been holding a grudge against me since B2W2’s release 💀 when I told him I was interested in the Battle Subway he immediately hit me with the “Oh, you mean the battle facility featured in the game and sequel where you DEMANDED to have Zekrom twice? When you could have completed the Pokédex by getting RESHIRAM IN WHITE 2? But nooooooo you HAD to have Zekrom twice. That game? Is that the game you mean?” In my defense, I thought Zekrom looked cool af and I chose the games purely based on the legendary designs 😔 it’s even stevens though because at some point he released my fucking Empoleon in my Pearl game the bastard

WHY DID YOUR BROTHER RELEASE YOUR EMPOLEON WHAT A JERK

it’s okay i’m in the same boat as far as zekrom goes i just think it looks cooler and i like its typing better 💀

that’s the beauty about pla though, when it was first revealed way back when i thought it was an interesting idea and i planned to get it, but god did i not expect the obsession that would come all because of one man 😳 but also i was very shocked with how much i enjoyed the game, i wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as i did overall. it really exceeded my expectations

#anonymous #asks

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feitanswife · 1 year

Text

So seeing as I’m gonna have to redo three hours of gameplay (I’m setting timers to save every 20 min from now on. I’ve had the fear of god put in me)

I figured I’d give some organized thoughts…

WHAT DOES GAMEFREAK HAVE AGAINST SPIDERS. WHY IS ALMOST EVERY SPIDER MON EITHER MID OR TRASH???? LET ME HAVE COOL SPIDERS PLEASE

Holy Johto Batman! I haven’t had this much issue leveling up Pokémon since I actually beat heartgold for the first time (after owning it for like ten years and just resetting constantly)

But I guess that’s a good thing cause Lordy this game is DENSE! There is so much going on. I’m taking down gangs, im fighting giant crabs, im annihilating the shinx population for no reason, im getting badges???? It’s so weird to get three badges and be like “alright! I’m like 10% done with the game!”

I haven’t found a character I don’t like. The writing is PHENOMENAL!

I did however nearly get stuck ten separate times and actually get stuck in a glitch loop of two starly’s chirping forever and lose all my progress so.

The Pokémon designs are awful and I love them. I’m such a sucker for genuinely stupid Pokémon designs. I have a tumbleweed baby and I love her so much!!!!

Except for whatever quaxly’s middle evo has going on. Like I get what they’re going for but I dunno it looks like it’s made of balloons.

Someone really said “what if spiritomb was a capitalist and we made the wisp quest even more annoying?” And I ate it up like the bitch I am. Anything for a ghost type.

Brassius is the opposite of how I thought he’d be and I love it

I accidentally spoiled most of the plot but I have no idea HOW any of it happens so. That’s gonna be fun. It’s like getting a cryptic text that says “one of the people in this room will die in the next twelve days” yay Suspense!

Also uh…. Miraidon (aka Vivi the Munchasaur, terror of the picnic table, and my sweetest baby the bestest baby ever yes you are yes you are) is the best Pokémon ever. I’ve only had this dumb bike lizard for… ten hours but if anything happened to them I’d kill everyone in this school and then myself.

I maintain that Arven is just jealous that Vivi likes me more and that’s why he’s such a shit to them even though they’re just a baby and none of this is even their fault!

Speaking of my friends. Someone needs to take the caffeine away from Nemona! She’s really sweet! I like her! But she needs to calm tf down!

Penny will not be winning an Oscar for her performance. Neither will Clavell. I think I’m the only person with a brain cell in this trio.

Why tf did I have to fight a car. Who is this sad DJ man who apparently has issues with micromanaging people? Can I give him a hug I think he needs a hug.

Also I didn’t figure out that you can fast travel from the beginning until after I already beat two gyms and was freaking out cause the level curve was bonkers and the gym leaders aces were multiple levels above my cap. It didn’t need to be. I could have gone to the other side starting area at literally any time.

#pokemon sv #pokémon sv spoilers

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torterragarden · 2 years

Note

Top 10 humanoid Pokémon?

Top 10 legendaries?

Top 10 raiden skins?

All right I'll just pick one of these I'll pick the first one since I already answer for favorite legendaries and I don't feel like looking up Raiden's skins rn.

So yeah top 10 humanoid Pokemon if anyone is weird about this I'll kill them. Also what counts as humanoid could be... debatable but I'll do my best

10. Bisharp - Actually didn't use one until very recently, I used one in my playthrough of X and uh yeah it's pretty cool! I like it a lot

9. Lilligant - Very cute! I love her

8. Medicham - Really cool design and typing

7. Gardevoir - Don't google her. Don't make the mistake I did when I was 10 and just wanted to look up one of my favorite Pokemon not knowing people were absolute fucking freaks. Anyway Gardevoir looks like a cool alien she's cool

6. Mr. Mime - Fucking horrifying I love it

5. Mr. Rime - he's just a guy here for a good time I love him. I wish he had better typing tho he's near unusable because Ice types suck so bad

4. Incineroar - I say it counts idc. Your cute little cat turns into this horrifying buff furry wrestler and that is objectively fucking hilarious if you can't handle it get out of here. I love this thing he's so funny

3. Cinderace - Again I say it counts it looks like a guy lmao. Anyway I love her. Not necessarily the design but what really makes this Pokemon for me, similar to Incineroar, is the personality and the animations, I love the Pyro Ball animations and I love the animation it has when it Dynamaxes and when it wins a match I love how it just like pops off it's so fun

2. Hatterene - She counts and I fucking love her fairy tale inspiration I love that she's like the princess and the witch and the tower all in one, she's simultaneously cute and creepy she's fucking great

Grimmsnarl - He's a troll and trolls are humanoid I say he counts. Anyway I fucking looove Grimmsnarl oh my god. Fairy types have a reputation for just being like, cute and pink and while that does describe a lot of them (and that is fine! I love them) I think Grimmsnarl, Mogrem and Impidimp demonstrate how cool and creative the Fairy COULD be. A Fairy/Dark line based on imps, goblins and trolls is SO incredibly perfect like. Yes that is exactly what Fairy/Dark types should be!! Oh my god. And Grimmsnarl is honestly so fun to use, Prankster is one of my favorite abilities and Grimmsnarl has the movepool to make amazing use of it, it's such a good Pokemon both for competitive and casual playthroughs I love him so much

#ask #gennethapang #thanks!

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cheesy-cakey · 3 years

Text

Before Challenging the gym

Rosedome city gym-

The gym is closed and you see two people outside.

Ace: Hey! you're here to challenge the Rosedome city gym? well you're out of luck today.

Deuce: Gym Leader Riddle is at an unbirthday party and all the staff are invited... why are we here then?

Ace: Well we were told to watch over the place and tell challengers no one's here.

Deuce: No it's cause you caused a scene last time so now we're serving punishment for that by not being invited.

Ace: You have a package from Professor Crowley? well if you really need to see Riddle the unbirthday is being held in the rose garden at the square.

Deuce: Just go down that path.

Adeuce: CYA!

Afterclaw Savannah Gym-

Upon arriving to Afterclaw Savannah you saw someone frantically looking around seeming frustrated.

Ruggie: Ughhhhh where is he this time?

he turned and saw you.

Ruggie: Have you seen someone with brown hair and green eyes anywhere? he has sort of a wild appearance. seen em? no? haaaah where did he run off to this time.

He then rushed off to look for the one he's looking for.

Soon another person walked up to you.

Jack: You seem confused about what just happened. he's looking for the Afterclaw Savannah Gym leader, Leona. He tends to wander off to take a nap somewhere. you're here to challenge the gym? well if you want to challenge the gym you have to find the gym leader first.

he shrugged and left.

ask around if they've seen him.

found him in a greenhouse.

Coravinelle City Gym-

Someone had recommended to visit the underwater museum that is full of the cities history.

While looking at some of the pictures you bump into a tall man... two tall men.

Jade: Apologies, I wasn't looking where I was going.

Floyd: heeeey, Jade. they're so small! like a wishiwashi.

Jade: You don't seem like your from here, Are you just visiting? Your all the way from Night Raven Town?

Floyd: haaaah? Little Wishiwashi came all the way from that small town?

he questioned as he picked you up looking at you closer.

Then bam. headbutting the rude man then dropped you.

Floyd: GWAH! The little Wishiwashi is like a goldeen now.

holding his forehead.

Jade: You had it coming, Floyd. So what brings you to our prosperous city?.... You're traveling to collect all the gym badges?

Floyd: Then that means little Wishiwashi is going to challenge Azul's gym right, Jade? That means you have to battle us to get to him! I'm not going easy on you after what you just pulled wishiwashi~

Jade: Indeed, Floyd. Well why don't you tell Azul yourself that you wish to challenge him? He's all the way at Sea Witch exhibit.

Scarab Desert Gym-

Walking around town you soon see a Pokémon zoom through the air.

While being distracted you had no idea of the person about to run into you.

Jamil: KALIM! Ack!

falling over you look up to see someone. Hurriedly getting up

Jamil: KALIM! Get back here! aaaand he's gone... great

The man sighed then looked at you.

Jamil: Sorry, I was trying to chase someone after they just ditched what they were supposed to do... You want to know where the Scarab Desert Gym is? I have to apologize but it just closed... unintentionally... why? well the one I was chasing was, Kalim. The Gym's gym leader during the day... If you wish to challenge the gym you might have to wait since I still have to go find them... You want to help? If you wish, he's usually out on the desert looking for an oasis to play with Pokémon. goodluck.

Pyfiore City Gym-

Upon arriving at the Gym someone came out.

Epel: Hm? oh are you a challenger? sorry but Gym Leader Vil is at a photoshoot right now. where? Well he's doing a photoshoot for a perfume brand that's from Rosedome city... when will he be back? well we don't exactly know. sometimes after a photoshoot he tends to go through the shopping district of the city before coming back... if you want you could go see him and tell him that you want to have a gym challenge... well good luck.

Isle of Igni Gym-

While walking around and looking at the gloomy but high tech city you bump into someone.

you look up to see a child surrounded by parts and rubbing his head.

getting onto your feet you help him up.

Ortho: Thank you! Not many people around here help when bumping to people. they get embarrassed and run away. huh? you're not from here? Oh! you're from Night Raven town? ISN'T THAT WHERE PROFESSOR CROWLEY DO HIS RESEARCH AT!? Is that a Pokédex!? Uwaaahhh... You should get it updated by my brother! c'mon! oh wait I still have to carry these parts to him... you'll help? thank you! Now let's go to the gym! why? well that's cause my brother is the gym leader! he's so cool! Did you know my brother helped create the Pokédex your holding right now? pretty cool huh! he also designed the pc. and almost everything you see on this island! You're going to challenge the gym? Your 6th gym badge!? Amazing! why don't you meet my brother first THEN you can challenge him. you still have to go through the gym task of course.

Somnia Valley Gym-

let's just say you met while going around the valley at night.

Didn't know who he was until you went to challenge the gym.

Ramshackle Forest Gym-

You arrive at the gym to be greeted by a young boy.

Grim: You're here to challenge the gym? well you're in luck! I'm the Ramshackle Forest's Gym leader! Grim the Great!

then a slender older man wearing a suit, cape and a top hat came out.

Ghost A: Grim are you telling people that you're the gym leader again?

Grim: Geh! no I'm not!

then another man that was a bit chubbier but shorter wearing the same outfit came out.

Ghost B: He definitely was.... you actually believed he was the gym leader?

Ghost A: he's not. he's an apprentice under the actual gym leader... who are we? well you can call me Ghost Uncle A!

Ghost B: Ghost Uncle B.

then soon someone entered the gym. he was similar to ghost B but taller.

Ghost C: Eh? why are you all standing at the entrance?... oh no no I'm not the gym leader... who am I? well call me Ghost Uncle C. The one your looking for is Gym Leader, Yuu. We had actually taken him in back then and trained him to be the gym leader. This used to be a trio gym but after we retired we appointed our what we consider adoptive son the gym.

Ghost B: What about this little one? your talking about Grim? well Yuu found him in the forest lost for some reason then he decided to take him in saying he's going to do the same thing as we did.

Ghost A: anyways, where is Yuu? didn't you go with him C?

Ghost C: He said that the spirits said there would be someone looking for him and asked me to tell the challenger who entered to go to the willow tree woods. and I'm guessing it would be you. You can find the path to willow woods on the northern side of town. here take this if you ever get lost just blow this whistle. a drifloom would come pick you up... the drifloom can't exactly take you TO him since they only know how to follow the whistle and come back here... if you need we can have a litwick follow you to make it brighter.

after that you walk out the gym and start heading north.

Ghost Uncles: GOODLUCK KIDDO!

I love making these headcanons they're so much fun

#twisted wonderland #heartslabyul #savanaclaw #octavinelle #scarabia #pomefiore #ignihyde #diasomnia #ramshackle #twisted wonderland pokemon #twst wonderland

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thatsthat24 · 5 years

Text

New Inktober for 2019!

Once again, I was asked to create a new list of art prompts for October this year! These creations from you guys are ALWAYS so amazing, so I’m excited to bring you a new list! I got so many suggestions from my friends! You can use #TSinktober if you’d like to share your creations!

Remember: Even if we’re on Day 31, and you wanna post art based off the Day 1 prompt, you DEFINITELY can! There is no lateness for posting art, because it’s all entirely for fun! Hope you enjoy!!

Day 1: In a twist from the past years’ Day 1 prompts, I want to see you take a traditional Halloween monster or character, and draw what they look like Sep. 30th, and then their traditional look when it’s October 1st! Maybe they don’t get spoopy until October 1st haha.

Day 2: Turn fall weather into a character! Could be the human embodiment of Fall, or the spirit responsible for Fall occurring, or something else!

Day 3: Turn a famous painting into a spoopy Halloween version!

Day 4: Draw a classic still life of items belonging to your favorite character. Let us guess who the items belong to!

Day 5: Draw your best friend or yourself (or both) GOIN GHOST. Ya know, that good ole Danny Phantom transformation!

Day 6: A Pokémon hanging out with (or running from) the zombified version of itself

Day 7: Choose two months, personify them, then draw what their first date would look like

Day 8: Sanders Sides characters on their dream vacations!

Day 9: A business that a Halloween monster or character would thrive on if they ran it!

Day 10: Take any popular author, imagine if they were a superhero, and draw what their comic book cover would look like!

Day 11: Portray any Disney princess as the “monster/scary thing” from a horror movie such as The Conjuring, The Nun, etc., either depicting them in a scene from the movie or the poster for the movie!

Day 12: Take any two coffee flavors, like Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint, and draw a battle between them, Mortal Kombat style (brew-tality lol)

Day 13: Take any Avenger from the MCU, and reimagine them as a Pokemon Gym Master! What would their Pokemon team look like?

Day 14: Reimagine a Sanders Sides, Cartoon Therapy, or other original character from our content as a kind of humanoid piece of candy or sweet treat!

Day 15: I really enjoyed this prompt from last year, so this year, take any Disney Villain, and use them as the inspiration for a Met Gala outfit! NO DALMATIAN PUPPY FUR ALLOWED, ALL OF YOU CRUELLA FANS.

Day 16: Take any traditional Halloween monster/character or any horror movie villain and make… them… CUTE. Now whether that’s adorably cuddly cute or va-va-voom cute is completely up to you! - Erin

Day 17: Take your fave character or OC and reimagine Steampunk versions of them!

Day 18: Take your fave food and create a cartoon character based off of it! It can have its own style, be stylized after an existing cartoon, whatever you wish!

Day 19: Take a quote from a book, song, or movie that particularly inspired you, and make it the main centerpiece of this day’s piece of art! Wherever you’d want to take the art from there is up to you!

Day 20: Here’s a cool challenge for ya! You can draw any Halloween-themed picture you want, BUT It’s all in ONE pen stroke. You can’t take your drawing utensil off the paper!

Day 21: What if anyone else from Halloweentown, other than Jack Skellington, had discovered and fell in love with Christmastown? Would anyone else have tried to dress up as Santa? Would they hatch another plan entirely??

Day 22: Back due to demand, take your fave character(s) from two different animated tv shows/anime/movie and depict them in each other’s animation style! An animation swap, if you will!

Day 23: Ever watch a movie or show and wish it had ended a different way? This is your chance to correct the plots to conclude the way YOU wanted it concluded! Oh boy, this may end up getting controversial lol

Day 24: We all know traditional Halloween monsters... but create what you think the Halloween monsters of today or the FUTURE would be!!

Day 25: This one is purely selfish because I’m still so in love with the past creations. Take ANY character of your choice from ANY piece of media and draw them in the style of a Tim Burton illustration!

Day 26: Speaking of classics, gotta include this one cause it’s tradition! Draw your OTP in Halloween costumes that are designed to go together!!

Day 27: Take any dramatic scene from any scary or Halloween-y movie... and meme it.

Day 28: How to Train Your [Insert Monster/Demon/Halloween-y creature here]

Day 29: This one is SUPER open-ended, but I’m into that. Take any book, turn to the 13th page (so the book has to be at least 13 pages lol) and go to the 13th word on that page (if it’s an article like “a” or “the”, just go to the next adjacent noun/verb/adjective/adverb) and use it as the inspiration for a one-worded scary movie/book. Draw that poster or book cover!

Day 30: Slightly inspired by the eerie vibe one can sometimes get from Spinel (SU), Betty Boop cartoons, etc. take any character, Halloween-y creature or otherwise from any of your fave piece of media, and depict them in the classic rubberhose/ Max Fleischer-inspired art style!!

Day 31: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Do you remember a specific Halloween that was especially memorable for you?? It might have been because of the friends you spent it with, or a memorable moment that happened, or because of a costume you were particularly fond of. Or maybe there were a series of Halloweens that were dear to you because of a tradition you did with your family (and maybe still do!). Depict that moment along with an explanation! If you just wanna write about it, that’s fine too!

As always, you guys have been absolutely blowing me away with your incredible creations!! I love this time of year and seeing what your talents produce!! Thank you for all the amazing works and have a WONDERFUL October!!!

Thank you to all my friends whose suggestions helped to make this list!

Dahlia, AJ, Tammy, Ellen, Adri, Fariha, Brei, Rafaela, Jack, Esteban

#TSinktober #Inktober #TSinktoberPromptList

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sage-nebula · 3 years

Note

the pokemon company be like *thinly-veiled misogyny*

To be honest, the sexism isn’t even really thinly-veiled if you think about it. Like off the top of my head:

— Professor Juniper was our first female professor, and it took until Gen V to get her. But whereas all the other professors got to stand on their own without needing anyone else, Professor Juniper had to have her father come in to provide answers to various plot occurrences that she didn’t know. IIRC, she also inherited her practice from him, which was also something that the male professors before and after didn’t have to contend with. It’s a miracle that this was averted with Professors Magnolia and Sonia in Gen VIII, both of whom are women.

— Speaking of female professors being screwed over, in Gen VII we’re introduced to Professor Burnet, whose practice specifically focuses on ultra wormholes and disturbances in space-time (which makes sense since she was previously working on the Dream Radar). Given how much of the plot concerns ultra wormholes, you would think that she would be the main professor of the story, or at least play a big part. But you’re wrong! Instead she’s only in one mandatory scene, and then is basically never heard from again. Meanwhile, Kukui shows up all the goddamn time even though his goal (to create a League) is literally meaningless in the scope of the overall plot. (And even that could have been cool if it had delved into the socio-political ramifications of what overthrowing Alola’s current system of government for another one would mean, but now is not the time to get into the failings of Gen VII’s plot. I’ve gone through that enough times.)

— Back to Gen V for a second, we’re also given two rivals in the first of the Unova games: Bianca and Cheren. While Cheren, the male rival, is taken seriously and has it talked up over and over how great of a battler he is, Bianca has her Munna stolen from her halfway through the story and spends the rest of the game talking down on herself and ultimately deciding that her father was right and she really is not cut out to be a Pokémon Trainer. Keep in mind that Bianca was the first mandatory female rival in the games, because while May could be a rival in Gen III if you played as Brendan, if you chose to play as her, both rivals (Brendan and Wally) were male. So on that note, our rivals so far look like:

Gen I: Blue Oak (male)

Gen II: Silver (male)

Gen III: Wally (male), optional May (female), optional Brendan (male)

Gen IV: Barry (male)

Gen V: Cheren (male), Bianca (female), Hugh (male)

Gen VI: Shauna (female), Tierno (male), Trevor (male), optional Serena (female), optional Calem (male)

Gen VII: Hau (male), Gladion (male)

Gen: Hop (male), Bede (male), Marnie (female)

So, let’s see. We only have two mandatory female rivals (Bianca and Marnie), as well as two optional female rivals (May and Serena). Meanwhile, we have twelve mandatory male rivals, as well as two optional male rivals (Brendan and Calem). To cap this off, while the mandatory male rivals (outside of the useless Kalos ones) are always treated as strong, competent battlers who have important roles in the story, our two mandatory female rivals, well . . .

Bianca: See above

Marnie: Gets battled a whole grand total of two times and has basically zero impact on the plot despite the fact that her brother is the only Gym Leader who didn’t give into Rose’s vision for how Galar should operate and use Dynamax evolution

And even when it comes to the optional ones, since Brendan is treated as the default MC by TPCi, that means May is the one who gives up training to go be a professor like her dad. (Which is the exact thing they basically did to Bianca in Gen V, except she studies under Juniper instead.) Serena at least keeps battling if she’s the rival, but jeez.

So to say there’s definite gender inequality where the rivals are concerned is a bit of an understatement.

— Moving away from the rivals, let’s talk about villains! We didn’t get a female villain until Gen VII with Lusamine, and even then she wasn’t allowed to stay a villain because I guess Game Freak doesn’t want to accept the fact that women can be evil, too. Moreover, all of Lusamine’s achievements come from the men in her life, and all of her motivations revolve around her husband. To spell it out:

- She inherited the Aether Foundation from her grandfather / father, without having founded it herself like we’re at first led to believe.

- Her husband Mohn was the one who discovered how the ultra wormholes work, not her. IIRC, he was also the primary researcher behind Type: Null’s creation.

- The reason why she does what she does is because she’s looking for her missing husband Mohn, with an added dash of “women just go crazy (and abuse their children) without their husbands!!1!!!” thrown in for flavor.

Compare this to Giovanni, Maxie, Archie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, Colress, Lysandre, and now Chairman Rose, all of whom formed their own organizations (Giovanni inheriting his from his mother is anime only and does not pertain to the games at all) and had their own goals and desires, versus relying on someone else for those goals and desires. And as if Lusamine not being allowed to form her own organization and have her own goals for her own sake wasn’t bad enough, they then had to go and make it even worse in USUM by turning her into a damsel in distress in the Rainbow Rocket plot, depicting her as not only less capable as the male villains, but also less capable than her male subordinate. Gag me.

— On that note, Oleana is sorely underappreciated by basically everyone except the Twilight Wings writers considering she’s the only reason anything Rose did got done, yet got none of the credit for herself. Damn shame.

— Stepping away from the games for a moment, Generations was a hot mess in terms of sexism. First of all, they only ever used the male MCs, pretending that the female ones didn’t exist at all, even in cases where the female MCs are vastly more popular (e.g. May, Dawn, Hilda). Second, most of the episodes focused on male characters from the series, and the ones that didn’t were either there so they could disrespect the best character in the series by not giving her the episode she deserved (Zinnia), or were told from the point of view of a male character despite that it was supposed to be a female character’s story (Emma). And lastly, there was whatever the fuck that mess with Cheryl was. It was animated in a way that made it look like an anime not suitable for anyone under the age of eighteen. Like honestly, what the hell.

— Leaf has been consistently and constantly disrespected all over the franchise. Despite there allegedly being four trainers who left from Pallet Town (counting Ash) in the anime, Leaf has never been seen or mentioned even once throughout the two decades that anime has been running. They had an opportunity to show her in at least a cameo form in the 20th anniversary movie, but they chose not to do that either, adding yet another disappointment from that movie to the list. She had no appearances in Origins, no appearances in Generations, they didn’t do what they should have done in HGSS by making her the rival atop Mt Silver if you chose to play as Lyra, she wasn’t a skin for Pokémon Trainer in Super Smash Bros. until Ultimate, I’m pretty sure they never made an Amiibo for her either, they replaced her with her Special counterpart in LGPE and her characterization absolutely bonkers to boot, and back to Masters, SS Leaf doesn’t have the Main Character designation for the theme skills that SS Red has, and is also routinely left out of any story bits that feature Red or Blue. It’s a miracle she was even included in the Battling Legends event or whatever it was. As far as TPCi seems to be considered, Kanto only has one main character and that’s Red.

— Oh and speaking of Iris, they gave her the Gym Leader theme designation instead of the Champion designation, instead choosing to act like Alder is Unova’s only Champion when he, no offense, didn’t really fucking do anything in Gen V. :’) We hate to see it.

— In the current run of the anime, the two boys (Ash and Gou) have gotten to go around and have adventures for ~50 episodes while the girl (Koharu) has had to stay home and go to school. You can argue, “She wanted that!” all you want, but you have to remember that she only wants what the writers tell her to want, and the writers said the boys get to have adventures while the girls stay home. She finally has an Eevee and will presumably go on adventures now, but we’ll have to wait and see. And don’t get me wrong, I like Journeys and I love Gou as a character, but it is absolutely a Choice to not have a female lead present in the adventures at all and it’s one that the writers deliberately made for whatever reason.

— On that note, let’s look at Ash’s female companions, shall we?

Misty: A Gym Leader who has a vague goal (water pokémon master) and is largely out of focus during her run as a primary companion. She had no rivals or in-series (as in, concrete ones she could accomplish before leaving the main cast) goals of her own.

May: A coordinator. Does have rivals and has a story, which is nice, but battling isn’t her focus.

Dawn: Another coordinator. Even more focus than May (she was written as a deuteragonist), but also not primarily focused on battling.

Iris: A battler (her Gym Leader / Champion Status is written out) who actually does get decent focus and a cool arc surrounding her connection to dragons.

Serena: A performer, which is a girls-only career path that doesn’t have battling in it at all, unlike contests. Does have a goal, but much of her character is written around her crush for Ash and at the end of the series she says that he is her goal.

Lillie, Lana, Mallow: Honestly I didn’t watch enough of SM to have an opinion on how these three were handled outside of hating how Lusamine didn’t get to be a villain in the anime either.

Koharu: See above, she’s only just now getting to be involved with things.

Now, don’t get me wrong: There’s nothing wrong with being a coordinator (and we do see male coordinators too, such as Drew and Harley), and I think that both May and Dawn are wonderful characters. But it does make me feel some kind of way that the female characters were often given the “girly” sidequest while the male main character got to go for the Gym badges, especially since AG and DP went on for a good chunk of years. None of the ladies so far have been treated as badly as Serena was (that performer stuff is just nasty, I’m not sorry), but again, it’s a deliberate choice and something to think about, especially since I feel the only reason they didn’t go that route with Iris is because of her Gym Leader / Champion status in the games.

I could probably think of more examples of the casual sexism in the series if I thought about it, but this is just from the top of my head. As you can see, there is a lot. All of this being said, and I’m putting major emphasis on this since I don’t want anyone to get it twisted—

I love Pokémon with my entire heart, flaws and all. It has been my hyperfixation for 22 years and that is not going to change any time soon. So DO NOT even dare suggest that I hate Pokémon, or shouldn’t play it, or anything like that. I will be playing Pokémon on my deathbed and nothing and no one will stop me.

But that being said, I criticize because I care. Because I wish it would do better. Pokémon is for everyone. It’s for boys, girls, nonbinary folks, and people all over the gender spectrum. But the treatment of its female characters and the abundance of favoritism shown toward the male characters leaves a lot to be desired (though at least girls are at the table, whereas trans folk are relegated to background NPCs and nonbinary folk are nowhere to be seen :/). I think Pokémon can get better—Magnolia and Sonia felt like a proper apology for how Juniper in particular was shafted, not to mention Burnet—but it’s got a long way to go.

(And also, yes, you’ve understood this right. Twilight Wings is the only anime series to not fuck up at all when it comes to sexism. You go, Twilight Wings. Four for you, Twilight Wings.)

#pokemon critical #pokemon criticism #pokemon negative #let me know if I should use any other tags #long post for ts #stabbymattress #the treatment of Ash's female companions from best to worst has been:#Dawn - May - Iris - Misty - Koharu - Serena #and the Alola girls somewhere in the middle ig I honestly didn't watch enough of that series to know

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gale-gentlepenguin · 3 years

Text

Gale’s Top 10: Favorite Pokémon

Rules:

1. No mega evolutions/gigamax alone. I have to like the Pokemon outside of just those bits.

2. Regional versions are covered if they make the list.

3. These pokémon are not Meta, they are my personal favorites.

4. This is simply my favorites. I would love to hear yours.

_______________________________________________________________________

10. Volcarona

This thing just looks really f***ing cool.

The Fire bug typing.

The mothera reference. The insane special attack.

Stupidly fun to use when playing.

Volcarona is Alder’s ace for a reason. And if you don't kill it quick. You will be begging for your life by turn 3.

When ever I get the chance. It always has a spot on my Unova team. No question about it.

_______________________________________________________________________

9. Guzzlord

The Ultra beast with the code name Glutton.

I will say that gen 7 was... interesting in its approach towards Pokémon. I honestly didn't care much for the designs (outside of the Alola forms). The Generation did have a few cool things going for it, but I found most of the line up to be kind of boring.

UNTIL THIS MOTHERF***ER SHOWED UP.

This Dark Dragon type Pokemon just looks so ... monstrous. In the Ultrasun and Moon games, The pocket of space where you find it is a decimated city with nothing in it but it, waiting for something to eat. This thing destroyed its world, likely ate every person and Pokemon. Its downright terrifying. It looks like a boss monster or the final form of a JRPG boss. (Plus his appearance actually made me watch the anime for a brief moment, so kudos)

And it hits like a truck. Sure fairy type attacks grind it to dust. But outside of that, I can just RELATE to this thing. Being unable to fill its stomach and wanting to eat all the time.

But the reason he is so low is that... you can't really use him until late game and in a sea of other ultra beasts, his impact is minimized

_______________________________________________________________________

8. Electivire

I just love this Thunder Yeti.

One of my favorite build on evolutions. The means of getting him are a bit hard, (having a special item to trade with just to do it) but the benefits are vast. He is fast and his ability neutralizes electric attacks, allowing him to go even faster.

His movepool allows him to use fire, ice, ground, rock, steel and even Psychic attacks.

He can even learn a move that lets him get rid of his ONE TYPE WEAKNESS.

Regardless of what side of the fight he is on, Electivire is one tough customer.

_______________________________________________________________________

7.Arcanine

He is a big fluffy boi!

ITS A DOG THAT BREATHES FIRE AND IS BIG ENOUGH TO BE RIDDEN!

My 10 year old self DREAMED about having one. It has soft fur and is loyal. It also is mega versatile. It can learn dragon type, electric type, ground and even grass type moves. It also just looks so cool. I wish we got to see it more commonly used, but sadly it is always outshines by ANOTHER fire type of the gen and that is sadly that.

_______________________________________________________________________

6. Rayquaza

Its a giant green dragon that looks like Shenron and has the best mega evolution. He is also my favorite Legendary. Sorry all other Legendaries. not even Arceus or Mewtwo could touch this beast at his best.

It is majestic, and I have played through emerald version MORE times than any other Pokemon game ever.

So let me tell you about how monstrous this thing is. Its mega evolution was banned BECAUSE IT WAS SO RIDICULOUSLY OP and it is the reason why Mega evolution is no longer allowed because Z moves couldn't counter this thing.

It always is cool. And THIS is what a dragon is.

______________________________________________________________________

5. Empoleon

This might have been shocking to see him so low on the list. Only barely making the top 5.

His design is one of my favorites. And his evolutionary line is my favorite LOOKING of all starters.

Its just... I always keep forgetting he is steel type and when someone uses a ground or fighting move he gets rekt. Now this is more on me and not on the grace that is empoleon.

I also wish this Pokemon got more love. It was overshadowed in the anime, its constantly ignored by most when talking about Sinnoh, and it has a diverse move pool.

I just wish it was either more of a tank or more of a fast sweeper.

I want to love him more, but battling is kind of important to me and I just feel on edge using him.

______________________________________________________________________

4. Hawlucha

My favorite Gen 6 pokemon.

Bar none. This wrestling bird is just so cool. It has THE best Shiny colors. It is based of a luchadore. It has its own special move, Flying Press. And it hits like a truck.

He has great versatility, he also is just fun to look at. And the Pokemon anime gave me a new appreciation for this bird. If he was a penguin, he would be number one.

_______________________________________________________________________

3. Lucario

Okay I admit it, Lucario is my more obvious pick. BUT COME ON!

It is one of the coolest Pokemon ever created!

It is fast and strong. It has Aura Sphere (one of my favorite moves in the game)

He was also my main in smash before Ultimate came out and nerfed him.

He was my boy. He also has one of the better Pokémon movies made about him and he deserves it.

Also you know a trainer is a bada*** when he/she has one on her team. Its like a status symbol.

And with the coverage he has, its no wonder he is so well loved.

Plus his design is amazing, his shiny is one of the coolest designs, and he looks like a good boy.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. Raichu

HE IS SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND!

okay so I always liked the Raichu line, but I always felt Pikachu was overrated.

I still love the electric mouse, but I always evolved him.

When Gen 7 happened and THIS form of Raichu happened. I fell in love. Look at this Electric Psychic typing. And the answer to evolve or not was put to rest forever.

Having access to Thunderbolt, surf, psychic and an assortment of other moves. I just love how amazing it is to use. He also looks so cute and cuddly. This is the ideal Pokemon design, you may not agree, but this is what perfection looks like.

Plus, his tail is a surfboard. Your argument is invalid.

_______________________________________________________________________

1. Feraligatr

Let me tell you all a story.

My first Pokemon game that I ever played by myself was Pokémon silver.

My first starter was Totodile.

I started my journey with this little gator and every step of the way, whenever I was backed into a corner, this guy came through for me. I called him Gatorhawk. Because he had the little red tuft that I thought was a mohawk.

I remember playing the game in the car on my way home, doing my best against Lance and his three dragonites. The rest of my team was down. Only Gatorhawk remained as I faced his 3 remaining Pokemon. Surviving attack after attack. Yet somehow finishing off his dragonites.

I got down to his last Pokemon, Out of healing items, and up against charizard.

My Gatorhawk was in the yellow. I was so close. All I needed to do was survive that Charizard’s attack.

It fired a hyper beam. I thought it was over. All of the hardwork I had gone up to this point, it was for nothing.

But Gator tanked it. By some logic He tanked a hyper beam with only one HP left.

And he hit with a critical Surf. It was over. We had won.

I screamed so loud my mom thought something bad had happened.

I was a pokemon champion. I had beaten Lance. No older cousin help, no sister assistance. it was just me, and my Gatorhawk.

So when I see Feraligatr. I think of Pokémon, I remember the nostolgia, the good times.

I remember what it meant to be the best.

#Pokémon #pokemon #gale's top 10 #Gale's top ten #man I love pokémon

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incorrect-hololive · 3 years

Note

I was re-watching some “What’s in a Duel” (YouTube vids that analyzes some of the best, character-driven duels in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series) and I started thinking of some duels that could be re-skinned with Hololive, where the EN girls serve as the antagonists of each scenario. Basically the baddies are fierce and tenacious, but roles I fit the Holomyth girls in aren’t out and out evil... just morally compromised enough to qualify as main villains sometimes. First two scenarios I got are the least spoiler-heavy.

The first I got is Yugi’s first duel with Pegasus from the first generation. Our good guy playing Yugi is Mel, since she’s a somewhat lewd pure cinnamon roll... also because she played Passionate Duelists over her Vtuber chips cooking thing. Oh, and I guess Choco as Yami Yugi because they kinda look like they could evolve into one another like Pokémon or something. Then for our antagonist, Pegasus will be played by Ina. She came off a bit creepy from her character concept but her art skills, goofy eccentricity (read: puns), and comfy air have ultimately dominated general perception of who she is. And Pegasus himself is much the same. He’s a bit creepy from the fact that he’s an uber rich dude running several epic corporate takeovers, holds knowledge he really shouldn’t (by virtue of being a mind-reader mostly), and stealing the souls of innocents in a bid to revive his wife from the dead but that’s all overshadowed (moreso after either his death in the manga or reform in the anime) in light of how he’s also an eccentric goofball who personally designed most of the cards used in Duel Monsters himself and will slap you around with a deck themed around old-school kiddy cartoons. It’s a jarring disconnect and it’s great. Like could you imagine sweet, comfy Ina being all “fite me in a children’s card game” on stream to one person in particular and taking the soul of their closest loved one because she won via timer?

Moving on to GX, the flavor of the season now is the relatively mundane rematch between Judai Yuki (Jaden Yuki) and Cronos di Medici (Vellian Crowler) from the undubbed fourth season. Long story short on this one is that Cronos, an esteemed educator and the campus’ vice chancellor, is purposefully botching his teaching duties in a bid to get his graduating class held back... because he got really attached to the students for the first time in his teaching career and can’t bring himself to let them go. So it falls on protag boy Judai to step in and stake whether or not he’ll actually do his friggin job on a duel. Playing Judai for this one is Akai Haato, because, much like everyone’s favorite drop-out boy, our favorite pure red heart has been through WAY too much traumatic horseshit in the span of about half a year so who better to depict carrying the severe baggage around after the fact. Meanwhile, Cronos, unlikely as it sounds, will be depicted by Calli. Much like how Cronos carries himself with an overblown air of refined pride because he runs the most esteemed house of the school (and furthermore holds a PhD in 4Kids dub) only for the facade to constantly crumble easily, Calli will often come off as cool badass with a majestic air about her until nerves or a massive inconvenience outs her for the adorably sentimental dork she really is. It also helps that the characters loosely fit the playing styles. Judai came into the show with arguably the purest love for dueling ever shown in the series and plays a deck themed around superheroes who help another out; perfect for a pure maiden like Akai Haato, an idol who’s kind to her core and always down to help a homie where she can. Meanwhile, Cronos plays a deck of antiquated clockwork mecha who focus on brute force and making absolutely sure their opposition have no choice but to bend over and take the incoming punishment; this matches how Calli is a lass who loves to scrap but also guns for the quick kill, either scythe or mace in hand, after a slow start.

I can cook up some stuff for later series and the remaining EN girls, but that’d get way more spoilery.

Whoa, this was definitely a read! I don’t know too much about YGO but this was pretty interesting to go through, I’m intrigued now. YGO fans where you at-

#not quote #also super sorry for the late response #life has been kicking me hard

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miraculouscontent · 3 years

Text

Askplosion #12 4/4:

(I would like to state for future reference that, while I do not mind long/multi-part asks, if you’d like to engage in actual discussion with me over a non-Miraculous topic, my DMs - Tumblr Messenger - should be open; I lost pieces of three multi-part asks this time just due to Tumblr not sending the remaining part(s) so yeah, I just wanted to make that clear)

(like, this askplosion ended up being super long because of this section and that’s not really what I want to have going on since I’m supposed to be a primarily Miraculous blog; I don’t want to have to stop answering non-Miraculous related asks but I might have to if this keeps up:)

.:New non-Miraculous Asks:.

Anonymous said:

What are your experiences with some really rude anons?

It’s partly my fault when it happens. Like I’ve said before, I’m an aspie, and part of what that means is I struggle to understand situations emotionally. I can come off as insensitive or read the mood wrong which often leads to people misunderstanding my intentions or where I’m coming from.

More often than not, what I’m saying will make 100% sense to me but not the person/people reading it. I also stick a lot more firmly to my opinions than I should because people tell me I fold too easily, and I come off as more egotistical than I actually am to cover up my low self-esteem lol.

So yeah, can’t think of any experience in particular but sometimes it might be my fault? At least I suspect that it is?

Anonymous said:

“Killed by kindness” makes me think of an assassin who kills people by giving hugs and compliments to people and the occasion gift that isn’t tampered until thre target does like Conrad Birdie making women swoon into fainting by singing.

omg

yes

Anonymous said:

You're watching Yashahime right now? rip

MARINETTE TAKE 2 MOROHA DESERVES BETTER

SETSUNA HAS SO LITTLE REASON TO HANG OUT WITH THE OTHER TWO GIRLS

IF I SEE ANOTHER DEUS EX TOWA I’M GONNA KICK SOMETHING

(so yes, I’m watching Yashahime)

Anonymous said:

Since someone recommended Remarried Empress, I would like to recommend my own webcomic: Princess Love-Pon! It's about a young girl named Lia Sagamore who becomes the titular magical girl and purifies people's hearts when they're tainted by the Dark Queen! It's really cool due to its diversity, the main character is black and her best friend is Afro-Latina, the villain and her prince son are also black, and there's a Japanese girl, a black guy, and an Indian girl. Plus, loads of pink and frills!

Thank you very much, though I actually don’t take recommendations, even from close friends. The Remarried Empress anon wasn’t a recommendation; they were more pointing something out to me and then I went to confirm.

Anonymous said:

Unrelated to MLB: Which Pokémon are your favourites?

I used a “Favorite Pokemon Picker” because I prefer going by generations to pick favorites and that was the easiest way of going about it. I struggle picking super favorites so here’s what I got form each generation! (my only rule was “one Pokemon per evolution line” with an exception of the Eevee line since they’re different types, and also Alolan/Galarian forms)

(note: the blue-patterned Vivillon is my favorite and I honestly don’t like Charizard normally but the Y version actually slims him down and gives him the wings I feel he should have; it’s an improvement of the design so it gets my seal of approval, I don’t like the X version at all)

(lol I was looking through this after I was done and find it really funny how it’s like, 50% cute things and then the other 50% is just EDGY, there’s very little in-between with me I guess)

Anonymous said:

Bridgerton the Series: Yay or nay? Sorry if you haven’t seen it or it’s not your thing. I was just curious.

Never seen it, though when I brought up to someone, they didn’t recommend it to me at all ahaha.

Anonymous said:

I previously kept having this argument about The Bechdel Test with someone. She keeps insisting that the test is invalid because there's nothing wrong with talking about men and that it was created for lesbians only, and not for feminists, with the implication that being a lesbian somehow means that you dislike men or want them gone. And she also thinks the test is about NEVER talking about men, rather than merely occasionally talking about other things. I keep telling her otherwise, but...

jdfhkgdfhjgdfg “lesbians only”

now all I can imagine is “lesbians only” sections at restaurants and such

Anonymous said:

Have you ever played Akinator, with or without the Miraculous Ladybug characters? Because I played it with Ochaco from MHA and Marinette and he guessed them within a second(can your character control gravity? Is your character a protagonist?). I even played it with myself as the "character" and he guessed "your shadow" lol. How about you?

I’ve played Akinator before but I don’t specifically remember what I was searching for lol.

Anonymous said:

The cast for the newest Power Rangers series got revealed, and I hate that as soon as I saw the Pink Ranger's bio mentioned she was an internet journalist, I thought of Alya. I really hope she doesn't have the same problems as Alya in the series proper.

fhgdfkgd journalists have been ruined for us forever

Anonymous said:

Have you noticed that in many shows, especially shonen shows, people tend to hate the most "feminine" female character? Like, in Naruto it was Sakura, in Death Note it was Misa, in My Hero Academia it was Ochaco(although a lot of people like her so I'm not so sure about that last one?). The most hated character in one too many a shonen is almost always the "girliest" of the characters. They're always claimed to be useless or reliant on a man. And this is within the fandom who should know better!

It probably didn’t help with Sakura that she was decked out in pink hair; that’s an instant girl label for you (or lesbian label, depends on the person :P).

I don’t think I’ve been in enough fandoms to have such an experience but I definitely see where you’re coming from.

Anonymous said:

Rewatching Chat Blanc and Here To Help from Star vs. and hearing Adrien/Marco tell Marinette/Star that they always liked the girls from the beginning makes me so pissed. It's not that I don't ship Starco(I do! But I also like MarcoxJanna), although I don't ship the love square, but I'm so annoyed with writers finding the need to make the audience "know" that the main ship's characters "always" liked each other, as if that makes their love for each other more true, even if it's obvious they had other crushes? Like, what happened to Kagami Tsurugi? Jackie-Lynn Thomas?

News flash: Teenagers are allowed to have crushes on multiple other people before they find "the One". It doesn't mean their love for that "One" is any less valid. And if you still want to pull the "they always liked each other since they first met", at least make it actually TRUE!!! Don't have them have crushes on other people before moving on to the "official" crush and be all like "Oh, by the way, I liked you from the start," when it's dead obvious they didn't. You're doing a disservice to the romantic "false" leads.

I'm willing to forgive Star's crush on Oskar and Tom since she's not the one claiming she always liked Marco(even though she fell in love with him LONG before he fell in love with her, which is a nice turn of events), although her "love" for Oskar was merely an infatuation at most and I personally don't see why it was needed. Why don't they just say that their old crush didn't do it for them???

UGH, I remember watching that show and being so annoyed because I really liked Marco and Jackie and wanted them to be a thing but I knew that they’d pull Starco in the end because of course they would.

It also totally makes it seem as if love is the most powerful relationship there is (aros would like a word), which is so bizarre when there are so many “power of friendship” tropes. Like, a male and female lead have to get together because their relationship is the strongest.

The love square would hold so much more meaning to me without this love drama nonsense. It’s tiring.

Anonymous said:

Have you seen Yuki Yuna Is a Hero? If so, then what are your thoughts on it? I was thinking of watching it but it seems to be another "taking away the empowerment of the magical girl genre by making the girls suffer instead" type story. I read about it on TV Tropes and apparently it's a deconstruction that takes after Madoka Magica which already puts a bad taste in my mouth, but then I got to the examples and they're basically about how girls who get magical powers lose their body parts one by one and that the reason only girls can be heroes is because "young girls have always been sacrifices".

Not to mention it was written by a man and aimed towards a seinen(adult men ages 17-35) demographic, making it torture porn for adult men. Also, both the laconic page for Yuki Yuna and Madoka Magica say "Being a magical girl sucks."(though for Yuki Yuna it adds "Unless you have the power of friendship.") and to be honest that kills any desire in me to watch the show. Should I give it a chance?

Oof.

Yeah, after bringing it up to a friend of mine, it was instantly recommended of me not to watch it, so I’d say, “no.”

Anonymous said:

Let's make one thing perfectly clear. I, love, love, LOVE Sailor Moon. And I love the transformations, too. But if there's one thing I don't love, it's that their outfits all look pretty much the same but with different colors/different lengths of gloves and shoes and stuff like that, and that they all have the exact same body type save for the one fat girl who's made to look bad. I don't like Madoka Magica, but at least they all had unique/different costumes(but they still have similar bodies).

We’re not allowed diversity here. Take your different body types to a show that cares; we’re all about femininity here and how girls can be beautiful and powerful no matter wha--oh wait...

Yeah, I don’t care for the design in Sailor Moon, but that’s because skirts don’t interest me design-wise unless it’s really unique/interesting.

(note that there’s a lot of talk about tomboys, sexism, and TV tropes and such below, and then Madoka Magica after that; that’s basically the rest of this askplosion:)

Anonymous said:

I just saw the thumbnail for a video called "Why You Should Watch Princess Tutu(Yes, I Know The Name Is Stupid)". Umm, why is it stupid exactly? Because it's "girly"? What is with people thinking that in order for a girly show to be good they have to first separate the show from its girliness in order to enjoy it? It's like how men will say a show is good despite it being girly, or that since it's good it's no longer girly. Nobody does this for boy shows, because boy things are "never" stupid.

Princess = girly thing

Tutu = girly thing

girly things = bad

That’s the formula~ They should’ve called it something edgier and manly so that more people would be interested.

Anonymous said:

I'm wary of any woman or girl who says, "I'm a girl, but I'd rather read books about guys" or "I'm a female writer but I mostly write stories about male characters". I feel like those women are the "not like other girls/one of the guys" type who suffer from internalized misogyny and don't like female characters. I also feel like they're the type to not care about female representation, because in their minds, girls shouldn't care about female role models. We can enjoy males just as much! I do!

To be fair, they might also just be writing about shirtless men doing “handsome” things. ;P

But nah, I see your point. Me personally, I try to find a balance of writing both, but I do think there can be bias.

Anonymous said:

Do you think it's okay to like a ship but acknowledge that it wouldn't be safe or healthy or condonable in real life? Because I was just thinking of how a lot of people like some really "toxic" ships like Veronica/JD in Heathers, Yuno/Yukki in Future Diary, Madoka/Homura in Madoka Magica(although some people don't like it because of its toxicity/like it but don't realize it's toxic), almost any villain/hero ship, the list goes on. But they're aware of the fact that it's not a good standard for healthy relationships in real life.

An alternative I've seen is people having a crush on "dangerous" characters like JD and Yuno, or Karma from Assassination Classroom(there's not a single video on YouTube with him in it that DOESN'T have comments full of people saying they want Karma to father their children), but still being aware of the fact that the character is a) not real and b) wouldn't be a good partner if they were real(and that's assuming they even want to be with you. But sometimes there's a good reason for falling in love with a "toxic/dangerous" character.

Take Monika from Doki Doki Literature Club! She's obsessed with the player(not the player CHARACTER, the flesh and blood player themselves) to the point of killing off all the other girls and "trapping" you in a room with her where she talks endlessly about lots of things. But she's actually a lonely girl who's driven insane by the fact that nothing around her is real. She latches on to you because you're the only other person who's real and sapient and has got a mind of their own. You're literally her outlet to the outside world.

She's personally my favorite character in the game due to her actually being a more fleshed out, sympathetic(and not in the idealized "moemoe" way), and realistic take on the Yandere archetype(which, like many moe archetypes, is kinda misogynistic in nature in that it reinforces submissiveness; it's basically animes version of "woman scorned".). So it makes sense that people would sympathize with her and want her to become real, because all she's ever wanted was to be real and to talk to real people. Especially since she really did care about her friends and even returned them back to life because she saved their backup files, taking herself out of the picture.

I read a few "Monika becomes real and lives with you" fanfictions where she's really sweet and not at all crazy and cares for you a lot, and it's never felt the same as all those other "Yandere/psycho lives with you and is your girl/boyfriend" type stories precisely because those stories tend to just glorify possessive partners that kill your loved ones, drive your family members to commit suicide, and tear up your stuffed animals and dollies for the sake of it, rather than go into why they're so crazy for you, and often reinforce Stockholm Syndrome.

Plus, those "things" she talks about in the empty room? They're actually quite smart and make you think about the world for a bit. Not many "crazy" type characters actually get that. They're all about how "I'll slice your boyfriend open with an axe if you don't date me wa ha ha", and even if they're not, it's all the fandom will focus on, to the point of ignoring any and all other aspects to their character. Because that "crazy in love" aspect is the most appealing part of them. Maybe it's due to forbidden fruit/bad boy(or girl) appeal? Who knows? But I'm starting to wonder if it's still as bad if people recognize the problematic aspects of "crazy in love" characters or "dysfunctional" relationships.

Because if they recognize it's not real and don't really want it for themselves, then it's probably not much of a problem. But if they just go on wanting it to be real and never take a step back and go "wait a minute, this isn't real love; they're only together because he latches onto the first girl to show him any kindness and affection and she's a doormat who doesn't want something bad to happen if she leaves him", then that's bad.

Obviously it's not as bad as being in love with literal stalkers, killers, and rapists in real life(which is an actual thing, believe it or not, it's called hybristophilia), because fictional characters will never be real. Karma Akabane will never be real. Yuno Gasai will never be real. JD will never be real. But loving fictional characters who do those things and not realizing the problem with it may cause people to seek out real criminals, so it's best to separate fiction from reality.

I can’t help judging a little internally, but yeah, I think people can ship whatever as long as it has that “not in real life” scenario going for it. It’s ultimately fiction, so just because I don’t like it and/or think that it’s bad doesn’t mean other people can’t ship it.

Anonymous said:

I'm getting tired of all the racists on TV Tropes getting upset whenever a trope has a Japanese name. Whether it's Tsundere, Yandere, Meganekko, Genki Girl, Bokukko, or any Japanese anime name, people will complain that the trope exists beyond anime so it shouldn't have a "cute anime name", and that it should instead just be given a broader(read: English) name with the same meaning. Or that the site is too obsessed with anime. I'm just sick of people saying that anime names are bad.

The other thing is that we don’t actually have English words for certain things? I mean, the whole reason we say, “tsundere,” is because it says everything in one word. It’s easy.

(Also, people are aware the the English language isn’t some unique thing that takes no inspiration from other languages, right? It’s a mix of things, so accept that other languages exist because we literally wouldn’t have English without them.)

Anonymous said:

Have you seen the TV Tropes reviews for "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic"? Holy crap, they are all a perfect example of the "Real Women Don't Wear Dresses" phenomenon that I have mentioned earlier and is so fucking present on this site. While some reviews praise the show for showing that "it's okay to be strong AND girly"(such as Hadles' review, which was really splendid), and that girl shows are no less good, others either insult the show by calling it "girly, saccharine, and stupid" as if "girly" is synonymous with anything bad about a show, or feel the need to distance it from its girliness in order to praise it as if a show can't be good if it's also girly.

Some people were saying things like "the show might seem girly at first, but it's actually a good, brilliant show with intricate plot twists, well-developed characters, and even some scary moments" and "the characters aren't just shallow girly-girls, they have depth!" So what, girliness is mutually exclusive to anything of value? One person even said that the Girl-Show Ghetto was the reason they couldn't get into the show or respect it. Just...wow.

And one review even said "Rarity's pretty tough for a girly girl!" Excuse me? Tough FOR a girly girl? So being a girly girl somehow automatically disqualifies you from being tough? Like "yeah, she's tough despite being a girly girl! Because girly girls aren't supposed to be tough."

It reminds me of the phrase "you're pretty for a black girl", which, while it's never been said to ME, I have heard other people complain about. It's sick and it hurts, just like this. And the few people who didn't say things like that still said that they couldn't get into the show at first because it looked "girly and vapid", before changing their minds and thinking that the show either proved their biases about girly shows wrong, no longer think it's girly since girly shows "can't" be good, or like it "despite" it's girliness.

And there were 70 reviews in all. 70 reviews full of this misogynistic "girly is bad" shit. So in conclusion nearly all the reviews on TV Tropes for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were along the lines of one of three things. 1) "This show is girly so I looked past it because girly shows are dumb." 2) "This show is good despite being girly/the characters are good despite being girly." and 3) "This show is not girly to me at all because it is well-written and captivating and girly shows aren't capable of such things."

Granted, some people there were able and willing to call out those who judged the show badly for being girly(or gave it the "not like other girls" treatment, but in show form), as well as people warning other potential viewers to get rid of any potential bias they may have against it due to it being girly. But there were still more people insulting its girliness as a reason they think it sucks or denying its girliness to justify their liking of it than the other way around.

I would've accepted it in the form of "If you think this show is bad because of its inherent girliness, then you are wrong!" or "This show is proof that a show being girly or aimed at girls doesn't and shouldn't take away from its value, as people seem to believe." or "A girl can be girly and be a strong female character.", but no, instead I got shit like this. It's especially insulting when TV Tropes is a site that devotes itself in part to critiquing sexist tropes found in media, only to turn right around and reinforce them.

I don’t read TV Tropes that frequently, so I fortunately missed out on all of these complete idiots who associate girly products with being bad.

(that “pretty for a black girl” comment makes me hate all aspects of “expectations of beauty” and it’s like--plz let these die)

I could maybe see an argument for criticizing a girls show for being “saccharine” if it were like, “girls’ shows written by men who clearly don’t know how to write girls are usually bad,” because then it’s not a criticism of girls’ shows exactly but rather who keeps being put in charge of writing them.

Anonymous said:

I get so annoyed when people get upset when confronted with the matter of female representation with "what's so wrong with one show having a male protagonist or mostly men and one/a few women? Why do we have to include women in everything?" These people clearly do not understand that one show doing it is one thing, but when multiple shows do it, it's an obvious problem. It's even worse when they turn around and diss shows with largely female casts for "not having enough men".

And as for people getting upset that "every show has to include women/come with a checkbox nowadays", as if it's bad to include women in your story...look around. Women make up 50% of the population. They're literally everywhere. What reason do you have to not include a substantial amount of women?

These people act like male is the default and women are a last resort. They see no problem with men dominating a cast because it's justified(despite that not reflecting real life), and yet having female characters, or, hell, a female-dominated cast(I know they also don't reflect real life, but there are still female-dominated spaces; most colleges are 2/3 female) is "unrealistic" trying to fulfill a quota, or a straw feminist agenda, as if characters can't be female for their own sake. You shouldn't have to be forced include women because their presence should be a given.

How many stories nowadays take place in the war front in Viking times or whatever? A lot of men just don't want to include female characters or see them represented(well) in media because those who are overrepresented tend to want to stay that way. They likely also have insecurities about their masculinity and are worried about female characters flooding their shows with estrogen and ruining the shows they love, because they can't relate to female characters or enjoy shows about them without negating their girliness(ie. This show seems girly, but it's actually good), since they're ashamed to associate themselves with anything feminine due to looking down on women or seeing them as bad.

Plus they want to be the center of everything so the second a show is about mostly women they get upset and claim it's "sexist against men" because it's not about them. Hence why bronies(bless their souls) are made fun of for the grave sin of enjoying a female-centric show with a female protagonist and largely female characters. Granted, there are some freaky fans, but there's still some sexism at play here.

This reminds me of a post I saw about a boy who actually looked up to female characters because you can pick a role model who doesn’t fit your gender. Crazy concept, I know. ;P

And yeah, that’s how it goes with equality. People who are best/most represented don’t want equality because they think it means less for them and they don’t want that, like a child who doesn’t want to share their cookies with everyone else.

Anonymous said:

I love TV Tropes, but if there's one problem I have with it, it's how often it associates femininity with weakness. The "Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy" trope is a good example of this, but the worst offender in my opinion is the Girly Girl With a Tomboy Streak, as most of the examples there are simply of girls who are strong-willed or fierce or can fight. Because you know, those traits are male. It's bad because there are ALREADY tropes for girly girls who can fight, Girly Bruiser and Lady of War (which TV Tropes even goes out of its way to SAY shouldn't be counted as a "Tomboy Streak" and yet does stuff like this), but it's also bad because ANY girly girl with these qualities, no matter how feminine they are otherwise, will be seen by TV Tropes as having to be at least somewhat tomboyish(read: masculine) in order to have those traits. Because regular girly girls are just weak and fragile and only want to be housewives.

It's even worse when you realize that much of these characters are created with the exact purpose of subverting the stereotype that girliness equals weak, and instead present a new and more empowering form of femininity: that femininity is strong and DOES NOT equal being a passive sex tool for men's pleasure. They're MEANT to show that being a tomboy is not the only way to be strong, and TV Tropes acknowledges that! But then they also go and claim these characters have "Tomboy Streaks" thus undermining the positive message by insinuating that you have to be tomboyish to be strong and that even girly girls have to have some level of masculinity to be deemed respectable and equal human beings, plus manipulating many impressionable folks into thinking strength and bravery is automatically tomboyish.

Worse yet, they often put a character here because "she's a big eater" or "she burps/farts a lot". Gee, I didn't know women had bodily functions? I didn't know women had digestive systems? So basically any time a girl shows that she is a human being and not a pretty, passive doll to be idealized, she is acting like a man. Because only men are fully-fledged human beings. Even outside of that, look at basically any masculinity-femininity contrast trope(Tomboy and Girly Girl, Sensitive Guy and Manly Man, Masculine Girl Feminine Boy, etc.). The "masculine" character will often be described as dominant, assertive, or outspoken, and the "feminine" character will often be called weak-willed, passive, emotional, and timid. It's fucking sickening.

The Tomboy With A Girly Streak trope is similar to its inverse in that a tomboyish girl will often be placed under this trope with their proclaimed "girly" streak being that she's tender or cries a lot or is soft spoken/a doormat. Because being girly is about not taking up too much space, not having any ambition or aspiration, and overall being a weak and shallow waste of space. For a site that claims to dismantle such sexist misconceptions, it sure does reinforce them just as much.

I almost want to stop using TV Tropes based on that and many other reasons, but it's a genuinely informative site that at least tries to avoid these stereotypes(plus it's edited by more than one person), it just doesn't do enough. For example, they made an awkward claim once that women can't fight while on their periods, and even have an Improbably Female Cast trope, as if it's abnormal that a cast could consist of mostly women and demands an explanation. To them, femininity=inferior.

And then in comes the “anti-girl tomboy” characters who basically do everything “girls don’t do;” glares at things like make-up and such, rolls eyes at the subject of “girl talk” or “romance,” drinks anything carbonated and spreads their legs wide open, etcetera.

Guys really don’t get the same version, at least not that I’m aware of? Like, at best, they don’t participate in “guy things” but that’s about it.

Having characters acknowledge it just makes everything more blatant, like if a woman comes by and the guys have to assure “DON’T WORRY, SHE’S LIKE ONE OF THE GUYS.”

It’s like a woman can only hang out and engage in “guy talk/time” (the concept of which I hate but that’s besides the point) if they can crush a beer can against their forehead.

Anonymous said:

OMG TV Tropes called Cirno the Ice Fairy from Touhou a "tomboy"? Why? Because she's boisterous and outspoken and not a "shy girly-girl" like Daiyousei! TV Tropes clearly believes that any girl or woman who is more than just a pretty face(which ALL women are, by the way), who takes up space, who has a dynamic personality and isn't just a weeping wallflower(which I'm not saying Daiyousei is) is a tomboy. Because she's acting like a man that way. Ugh, so over TV Tropes and their sexism.

And all the girls in Touhou(including Cirno) wear big frilly dresses anyway so it doesn't really make sense to see ANY of them as tomboys. But no, apparently any girl who is rowdy or tough or is active and not passive is a tomboy. You gotta be a tomboy to have attitude. You can tell they think so because they often say things like "strong, but still feminine" as if those things are opposites. They even described femininity as "weak and susceptible, vain and superficial". Like, ugh, kill me now.

I legitimately want to see a bullet point list here of what qualifies as a “tomboy.” Like, what, anyone who does one thing that isn’t “girly”?

Can we just throw out all of these terms; not even replace them, just throw them out?

(the below ask is incomplete - the first part is missing - but the asker clarified after I asked them, so clarification is below:)

Anonymous said:

Tropes is because I'm working on a story and I hope when it becomes famous that TV Tropes will write about it, but as it stands, I'm beginning to wonder that TV Tropes undermines most stories or plots to do with women one way or another. I mean, they constantly create tropes with the intent of calling out inherent biases, yet reinforce those biases themselves.

For example, they have a trope called Men Are Generic, Women Are Special, which points out the bias of male being the default, and yet on almost every other page on the wiki describing a trope, the default character will be a "he"(especially if it's a character trope), and whenever they mention "The Hero" or "The Big Bad" it's always a he unless it needs to be female(like if the heroine is in a romance story, or if the villain is a seductress). Female characters at best, can hope to be "The Heart" or "The Chick" of the group(which is often used in a demeaning way).

They even have a trope called "Improbably Female Cast" in which they point out all the instances of a story's setting having an "over-abundance" of women or girls with no men in sight, and claim that such stories have majority female characters when it is "unusual" "unlikely" or "lacks justification". Someone even suggested that the trope should be called "Where Are All The Men?" as if there's something inherently weird or wrong when a story is dominated by female characters, and like the story is in dire need of men, as if only men can be protagonists.

Even if the story has a justifiable reason for having mostly women, the fact that the writer made that choice at all is somehow deserving of mention. The mere fact that there's no "Improbably Male Cast" trope shows where the site's biases lay. They don't see anything wrong with a show being dominated by men with little to no female representation(ex. Death Note), and yet a show dominated by women(ex. MLPFIM) is somehow an anomaly and demands an explanation(even if the story does provide a reason for it, TV Tropes will still list it and presume it "improbable", as if to say "I mean, yeah, but there's no reason why you couldn't just make them mEn instead", as if writers who have mostly female characters are going out of their way to steer away from the "default" males.

In fact, they even admit that "Men Are Generic, Women Are Special" is their reason for having such a trope, but not the inverse. They even say that it's not the trope if the show revolves around a group of girlfriends with no indication of the gender ratio in the wider setting. So any time the females outnumber the males a story it's instantly labeled "improbable" because there's NO WAY any setting AT ALL could have more females than males. That's improbable! You see, this is why when women are 1/3 of the people in a given space men perceive it as "majority female" because they're uncomfortable with women having more of a presence than men.

We'll never have true equality if shows with majority female casts continue to be scrutinized under a microscope and assumed to be of inferior, lesser quality, just because there's no male characters around and it's women who are driving the plot. My problem isn't that they have a trope for majority female casts, it COULD be a testament to gender equality(ie., "there used to not be a lot of shows revolving around women, but now they're becoming increasingly common and well-known), but it's that they single out such stories as "unlikely" and thus discredit them.

And worse yet, they refuse to change the name, because they don't see a problem with it. So now every single show that doesn't have an equal number of males and females or more males than females is going to be called "improbable" by TV Tropes, because there's something(bad) to be said about shows that choose to make most of their characters women. Death Note and Naruto can slide by the radar of having loads of men, but Madoka Magica and Touhou are "improbable"? Because they have loads of women?

the clarification:

Anonymous said:

I started out complaining about how TV Tropes says that boys will watch Star Vs. The Forces of Evil only because of Marco(who's great, but it comes off like boys can only relate to boy characters) and that the show only looks girly but has a deep complex plot with scary moments(as if a show can't be dark and complex and still be girly; girly=shallow, watered down fluff), hence my complaint about TV Tropes undermining girly shows or anything "girly".

Yup, exactly like I said.

Good stuff in “girly” things is the exception. Good stuff in “manly” things is expected.

Which is funny when you consider stuff like “edgy” reboots of things. Like, Disney remakes their original movies and that usually means making them worse (like in Beauty and the Beast - god I hate that remake - where the objects are going to become complete objects when the last petal falls even though the enchantress is explicitly a good person and it comes off as super cruel and unnecessary), but that seems to just be its own breed of bad I guess.

Then there are terms like “chick flicks” and “soap operas” which are usually women-oriented and tend to be considered dumb/over-dramatic.

You know, not like MEN shows with their sexualization of women, guns and MEN things.

Anonymous said:

Remember what I said about TV Tropes being sexist? Well, they also have a trope called "Girly Run". Like, that's literally the name. Girly. Run. Thankfully the first example(which is under advertising due to the forms of media being in alphabetical order) is an aversion from the blessed Like A Girl campaign, but...just reading the page lets the casual-yet-bold-faced sexism speak for itself.

why can’t things just be like the Sims where characters can wear whatever the hell they want and have any personality without any judgment or criticism from other Sims?

(more Madoka Magica talk - and ONLY Madoka Magica talk - below because I’ve unleashed a monster apparently:)

Anonymous said:

I know you don't like Frozen but I saw a theory somewhere that Elsa's powers came from making a contract with Kyubey and her wish was to impress her sister and anyway I can't stop rolling my eyes. This isn't(just) because of my distaste for Madoka Magica compared to my love for Frozen, but if Elsa's a Puella Magi then why didn't she become a witch long ago? How did she make it to adulthood? How did she become emotionally stable? And why do her powers have to come from a negative source?

I think it might just be people looking for excuses to do their crossover fanfiction which--yeah, I’m not crazy about that.

Anonymous said:

Did you know that Cristina Vee voiced Homura Akemi in the English Dub? It's very noticeable, especially during the Cake Song, where I could've sworn she sounds exactly like Marinette. By the way, I'm still not sure what the hell was going on in that song. Could you please explain it to me(if you know)?

Nooooo don’t make me think of Homura when I think of Marinette!! fjkdgjnfdg

lol but seriously, I think the Cake Song is just meant to be one of those “weird but meant to be dEeP” things that shows do sometimes to be cool (not a criticism technically; depends on how it’s used).

I think the cake is the labyrinth and Homura saying that she’s the pumpkin makes her the odd one out since pumpkins are associated with scares and halloween, so it’s “foreshadowing” her being the witch. The things that they say they are... they’re like--ingredients for a meal, but not a cake, so the the cake is the labyrinth and they’re the things that would go inside it.

Homura and Madoka are the only ones who really get descriptions to go with them. Homura says that she’s “full of seeds” (despair?) and Madoka implies that it’ll bring sweet dreams once she’s sliced (which is either referring to the godly freedom given to magical girls before they turn into witches, or foreshadowing Madoka being “split” after Homura stops Madoka from purifying her, leading to Homura’s “sweet dream” of what it’s like when everything is “normal” after her reality twisting).

Anonymous said:

May I ask what you don't like about Kyoko's character? Is it because she was the stereotypical "jerk with a heart of gold"? Or because the writer made her flip from hating Sayaka and wanting her dead to suddenly dying for Sayaka even though she barely knows her compared to Madoka(because the writer doesn't understand how girls' relationships work)? For me it was a mixture of both(though I still don't mind KyoSaya!), but I still liked her enough, she just felt a tad stereotypical. Your thoughts?

It’s both. I just don’t like characters like her at all and the runtime of Madoka Magica can’t maintain all of these characters, “developing” them, and then killing them off. I don’t even have any time to get attached to them because they’re dead within a matter of a few episodes.

And it’s always like, “okay here’s this character’s backstory to make you feel emotionally attached--HA NOW THEY’RE DEAD. SEE??? WE TOTALLY GOT YOU.”

Like, no, you didn’t. I didn’t even have time to care about THEM, much less their actual death.

Anonymous said:

What about the girls in Madoka Magica? Do you think they're strong female characters? Now, obviously the show is not feminist, since it misses the whole point of Magical Girl, which is to empower girls and show them that girls can be powerful and feminine and can find strength in solidarity with each other by instead making them suffer and fight each other and have their power come from their emotions, which are exploited and turned against them because women can't be powerful, but still...

It’s the same way I feel about Marinette; there are some who I want to say are strong characters, but the writing is ready to just kill them off at any time and bully them for essentially having emotions.

Basically, imagine a male writer hands you a character sheet and is like, “AW YEAH CHECK OUT THIS sTrOng FEMALE CHARACTER I WROTE.”

Like, even if they were right, their ego and obnoxiousness about the whole thing, along with what they actually do to said character, makes you not want to give them any credit for it.

Anonymous said:

How do you think Puella Magi Madoka Magica would be different if they had magical boys as well(which can mean either gender-bending canon magical girls or introducing original magical boys)? Do you think the show would be better? Worse? Or would it be just about the same?

Personally I feel like having magical boys would be good and bad; good because there would be no more of the “teenage girls are hysterical” crap and it wouldn’t just be girls suffering because they can’t handle power, and bad because it would still be problematic(for stereotyping all teens as over emotional and deserving to be taken advantage of by the Incubators, and it would still be about kids suffering in a genre meant to empower girls, having some of them be boys wouldn’t help that much).

I also feel like Gen Urobuchi would still make the girls suffer more and have them be more emotionally and mentally unstable. Holy crap it feels like he read up on Aristotle’s views on women while making this show.

It would at least be more balanced I guess? Like, teenage years are a fragile time, so it would make sense for both girls and boys to be taken advantage of. I still wouldn’t like it but it would be nice to point out, “there are emotional boys as well as emotional girls.”

Anonymous said:

Literally all the problems with Treatment of Marinette, Chat's Entitlement(TM), and the sheer sexism in general(ex. all the teenage girls and even women villains being catty and bitchy, while the male villains are cool, suave, and calculating; female villains being irredeemable scum while male villains are "not as bad as they seem", etc.) could all be solved if the show just got some more female writers! You know a show isn't feminist like people claim if none of the writers are women.

That's what I love about Friendship is Magic; the show is written and directed by a woman and actually has a variety of both male and female writers! Plus, Lauren Faust explicitly identifies as a feminist and claims her works are meant to empower women and show them that there's no wrong way to be a girl. And the show reflects that! There's no "token girl" who checks all the boxes; the females have realistic flaws, diverse personalities, and let's not forget ARE THE HEROES!!! Not to mention that the cast is actually PREDOMINANTLY FEMALE. Do people have any idea how refreshing that is?!

And that's why whenever people claim that shows like Madoka Magica are feminist when it's written by men for men while also dismissing actually feminist shows written by women for women as "sexist" or "demeaning", I cringe inside. It's not just what the show looks like, it's what the people behind it say.

And Gen Urobuchi is not a feminist. At all. Just listen to the things he says about the girls, that they're terrorists who are full of hubris and destined to be alone, and that actual magical girl shows weren't his inspiration beyond the show's cosmetics, he just based it off of porn games. He only watched those shows after making Madoka Magica and admitted they were weird to him. Well, maybe they wouldn't be weird if you actually used them as inspiration! Why are you even making magical girl? So basically he admitted that all the suffering the girls go through is because it's his fetish.

I knew I wasn't imagining things when I saw all those weird shots and angles(ex. zooming in on Sayaka's thighs and breasts when she collapses to the floor, Madoka gripping the bed sheets between her legs when agitated, zooming in on Kyoko's ass when she takes her phone out of her shorts' back pocket, it's all for cheap titillation). And yet people keep saying the show is devoid of male gaze and sexism and why? Because apparently men know how to represent women better than women themselves.

you said “Madoka gripping the bed sheets between her thighs” and it gave me an immediate flashback, I hate it

I find that it’s a similar thing with gay anime/manga; I’m more likely to trust a F/F story if it’s written by a woman since they’re less likely to sexualize everything.

Anonymous said:

Homura in Puella Magi Madoka Magica: But Madoka, what's going to happen to you? You'll end up all alone here forever! You'll never be able to see your friends and family! Homura in Rebellion: Haha, screw Madoka's friends and family! Only I am worthy of Madoka's love! That girl belongs to me! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!(I'm sorry for the over exaggeration, but this is how it felt for me.)

Apparently, it was better for Madoka to just have all of her memories and powers yoinked away.

Sayaka is Madoka’s right hand girl so idk why Homura has this idea that she needs to sAvE Madoka. The fact that this whole thing comes out of a misunderstanding (because Madoka doesn’t have her memories) is so irritating.

Anonymous said:

I actually love Madoka Magica, but I completely agree with you on the hysterical women thing. Why couldn’t they just have... both magical girls and magical boys? Like, just mention that magical boys are a thing? They don’t even have to change anything but that, they don’t even really have to show it, just be like “yeah there’s magical boys too but that’s not really what this story is about, it’s about our characters we have here”. I don’t know, feels like that would have at least helped stuff.

Yeah, they don’t have to bother having the magical boys around. Just to know they exist would be enough. I mean, the fact that the focus is on them would still be bothersome (they’d probably do a thing where each girl represents a different emotion that is easily manipulated/easy to control), but it’d be something.

Anonymous said:

One thing that weirds me out when people are talking about Madoka Magica is when people refer to the characters as "little girls". Like, excuse me? They are not "little girls". They are teenagers! All of them are at least 14 years old! I hate when people call them "little", it's just so condescending and infantilizing, especially when the show does enough of that to them already. After all, no one makes that mistake with the heroines of Lucky Star and Hidamari Sketch(who are also drawn by Aoki)!

I feel like it’s the equivalent of when people call women “girls,” y’know? Sort of a “treating females as younger than they really are,” which is probably what gives guys the feeling that they have control.

For a gender that claims to be so dominant, certain ones sure have to delude themselves a lot to make themselves feel better.

Anonymous said:

I was thinking about what you said about Puella Magi Madoka Magica passing the Bechdel Test, and if it counts if there's barely any men to talk about. And while I do agree that it counts, I also feel that it doesn't really matter much in shows such as Madoka. This isn't even about feminism, this is about the fact that if a show has next to no men in it at all then it's pretty much a given that they won't talk about them since it would be impractical to talk about something that doesn't exist.

So because of that, I think there should either be an alternative test which only applies to shows that have a significant or equal number of male characters and yet the ladies still pass the test(making it feel more "real" since the option to talk about men is there), or the test should be rewritten entirely so that it only applies to shows in which the cast is either equally gender-split, or has a majority male cast/significant amount of males even if the females still outnumber them.

Reminds me of how, on TV Tropes, someone suggested that there should be a "Weak" and "Strong" Bechdel Test, where "Weak" refers to the women talking about something other than men because it is literally what's relevant at the moment(such as two female police officers discussing how to catch a female killer), thus applying the Bechdel Test there seems semi-void, while "Strong" is when they could talk about men but choose not to(ie. two female students talking about their grades during lunch).

And just to clarify about the "Strong" one, when I say they could talk about men but choose not to, this isn't to imply that female characters should talk about men, or that something's wrong with them for not talking about men, just that there's nothing stopping them from doing so, but they choose to talk about something unrelated to men. I think this strategy is much better than the test we have because it makes conversations between female characters seem more real since they're discussing things other than men of their own volition, rather than the non-male-centered talk being because they have to talk about it in-universe. I say that because The Bechdel Test serves to show that women's lives don't and shouldn't revolve around men, and they can talk about other things if they want to, but if the conversation is because they have to(like the example I gave), that gives sexists the opportunity to go "Yeah, well, they're only talking about it because it's their job!"

But if the female characters talk about things other than men of their own free will(as in, when the option is still there), then it shows that women really do have their own free will to talk about their own things and that there is NO REASON to not pass the Bechdel Test in today's day and age(I keep hearing people claim the test is stupid and doesn't matter, but then it should be easy to pass). "Oh, but if they had the choice, they would talk about men." No, because men don't sit around and talk about the women in their lives all day so why should women talk about the men in their lives all day? And to the people saying these types of tests are getting in the way of their "creativity", well, now that we know that you think female representation is stupid and something you have to be forced to do, we don't have to listen to a word you say. ;)

I like the idea of adjusting the Bechdel Test for other circumstances and expanding it as such!

You could also extend it to things like sexualization, because--I mean, having two female characters who talk to each other probably doesn’t mean much if they’re half-dressed or the writer wanted to make them bisexual for “The Fanservice.”

Anonymous said:

To be honest deconstructions of Magical Girl confuse me. There are some good ones out there(such as Princess Tutu and Revolutionary Girl Utena, so I know they're not all just torture porn, my only gripe with Utena is the implication that girls who take on the feminine "Princess" role are weak), but at its heart Magical Girl has always dealt with death, gore and pain just as much as female empowerment.

It makes me feel like the people who write these stories haven't seen magical girl and think it's all just sunshine and rainbows and that just because it's "girly" it's vapid and has no substance, and since the only way to have substance apparently is to be "dark", they go "screw it with all this princessy magical shit! Let's make our show dark instead!" When in reality if they had just sat down and watched a magical girl anime, they would understand that this is not the case.

Not to mention that many of them tend to have fanservice and the idea that magical girls have to suffer, so instead of empowering young girls, they end up misrepresenting the genre and turning it into fetish fuel torture porn for adult men(Madoka Magica and Yuki Yuna are very good examples of this; the writer of Madoka says that the girls are terrorists and full of hubris and that he was inspired by porn games). It's not that you can't deconstruct the genre at all, but it's almost never done tastefully and the magical girl themes are just a cover used to explain the suffering the girls go through. :(

Another thing about magical girl deconstructions is that they often reinforce patriarchal themes, like that girls shouldn't want things for themselves and that genuinely doing something for someone while also having ulterior motives that help yourself are a BAD BAD BAD thing, no matter how ultimately harmless they are, even if they help everybody involved. They also tend to reinforce Tall Poppy Syndrome and portray the powers as harmful or a bad thing, implying that girls shouldn't have power.

Honestly, I think there can totally be even more substance in magical girl anime that doesn’t have to resort to “make it eDgY” (which I feel like is a slippery slope that can easily come off as lazy); for example, I’d really enjoy seeing something deeper to magical girl powers than something like, “oh, this magical girl happens to have the power that fits their personality,” such as a magical girl who has a power she feels she doesn’t fit but it’s a matter of perspective/seeing herself differently, or a magical girl who does have the powers that “fit” her personality - like a “fiery” girl with fire powers - and the weaknesses in her powers correlate to the weaknesses in her personality, so she has to either iron out those issues or find workarounds, as true “perfection” isn’t possible nor practical, which is something all the girls have to accept despite whatever pressure they’re under.

.I dunno, I like lore and powers revolving around metaphors. It’s fun.

Anonymous said:

About what you said in regards to "no pueri magi because it doesn't hit the shock value threshold enough", I remember this interesting comment I saw on an article called "The Problem With The Dark Magical Girl Genre"(which I would totally recommend checking out, by the way!) which said that shojo magical girl and seinen magical girl both embrace a different philosophy regarding strong female fighters. In shojo, they tend to embrace femininity as a strength and show girls that they have the power to do whatever they want and undergo dangerous professions. But in seinen, which conveniently enough is more likely to "deconstruct" the genre(ugh), rather than admiring the girls and supporting them in their endeavors, the girls are meant to be pitied(often to the point of infantilization) when bad things happen to them, with the fact that they are girls serving to make everything worse. It operates under the idea that girls are fragile, in need of protection, and shouldn't be fighting at all.

That's why deconstructions like Madoka Magica and Yuki Yuna don't sit right with me, and also why I don't consider them feminist series. People can say whatever they want about Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure, but ultimately they also had dark and dangerous themes(to the point where some kids had nightmares), but ultimately allowed the girls to rise above the hell they went through and find the strength in them to save the day. We feel bad for them when they die, not because they're moe girls, but because we were actually given the time to form a connection with them and want to see them succeed, rather than just be expected to pity them because they're cute manipulated girls. That way, when they ultimately save the day, it's all the more satisfying. Princess Tutu was a deconstruction that actually went about it in the right way, because the girls eventually found the courage to defeat their enemies in a way that made sense. Why the hell is it a "good" thing to subvert that?

No clue, but I basically agree with everything there. I mean, Madoka Magica’s entire stick is basically that all the girls are like “uwu” in terms of the style (with Madoka being the “cutest” of them all) and then being put in this dark and edgy plot+setting; it’s for both the shock value and the “contrast” of having “moe” characters be thrust into these situations to essentially die.

And the conclusion doesn’t end up being satisfying (at least to me) because the villain doesn’t have emotions so he’s just like “owo” (seriously, I wouldn’t hate on Rebellion so much if Kyubey had been given emotions rather than going crazy; Homura can basically do whatever she wants and it was SUCH A MISSED OPPORTUNITY) so it ends up being more about the journey getting there like wow look at all the sUbvErSiOnS and dEaTh we had along the way!

Because at the end of the day, it’s still like, “the girls give into their ‘hysterical emotions’ in the end basically no matter what,” even if they get saved by Madoka in the end.

Anonymous said:

Do you remember, in Madoka Magica, when Kyubey said that humans would still be living in caves if not for the Incubators? First of all, keep in mind what Incubators do. Their entire purpose on this earth is to feed off the emotions of young teenage girls as they spiral into despair as a result of their delusions of power. Like wow, let that sink in. Apparently humanity's advancement relies on the exploitation of women. We are literally the punching bags of the universe. Isn't it lovely?

No! You see--we’re so important to the world! If we weren’t emotionally exploited, the world wouldn’t be the way it is now! :D

(kill me)

Anonymous said:

I once saw a tag on tumblr that read "The only good magical girl anime is Madoka Magica because it's gay, and even it has problems." Like, ugh. Really? Has this person not watched ANY other magical girl anime? Such ignorance. So many things wrong with that statement that I can't--and WON'T--even begin to unravel here.

MADOKA MAGICA IS NOT GAY AND I’M SO TIRED OF PEOPLE CLAIMING IT IS

s T O P

I DON’T EVEN CONSIDER YURI ON ICE TO BE GAY. MADOKA MAGICA? NAH MAN.

Anonymous said:

Do the girls in Madoka Magica even have transformation phrases? You know, like how Marinette says "Tikki, spots on!" or how Sailor Moon says "Moon Prism Power! Make-up!" or how Iris in LoliRock says "Iris! Princess of Ephedia!" etc. But in Madoka Magica, there doesn't seem to be any of that. At least in Yuki Yuna they pressed a button on their phones. But how do the Puellae Magi even transform? Just goes to show you how Gen Urobuchi knows next to nothing about the genre he claims to deconstruct.

Transformation phrases are magical and cool and you can’t take that away from me.

Anonymous said:

I had a shower thought about Madoka randomly in bed last night: If a Magical Girl's Soul Gem loses control over its user when 100 metres or further away from it, that meant that when Homura got Sayaka's Soul Gem back for her, Sayaka should've regained consciousness once Homura was less than 100 metres away, even if she didn't have her Soul Gem yet. I also love to ponder why on Earth Homura would even bother retrieving Sayaka's Soul Gem if she only cares about Madoka and Madoka's well-being.

I think it’s just a complicated process of Homura trying to make sure Madoka doesn’t fall into despair herself (in a non-witch way) and is convinced to make a wish.

Anonymous said:

The more I think about it, the more I realize that Sayaka really got the worst deal out of the whole thing. While her story may seem more "mundane" compared to the others(she just wanted the token Ill Boy osananajimi to like her back), she's the only one who somehow isn't brought back when Madoka recreates the universe, loses her Soul Gem on more than one account(and on the second, she starts decomposing and her crush sees her and calls her a monster because he thinks she's pretending to be the REAL Sayaka), is supposedly the weakest Magical Girl, getting swiftly taken out by both Kyoko AND Homura(the latter of which doesn't even make sense, if her body can heal why was she taken out so quickly?), takes a long while to show up in Magia Record, and Gen somehow finds it suiting to single her out as the one who is "destined to die" every time she makes a contract. Apparently the series director wanted Sayaka to live/be brought back, but Gen refused because it just had to be edgy.

Of course, MEN are allowed to have wish fulfillment power fantasies and dream like the sky's no limit and aspire to be all they want to be, but the second WOMEN try to be the strong ones, the powerful ones, or dream of something for themselves and others, they have to learn a lesson about how unrealistic their fantasies are and how they'll never live out their dreams. Hence why Sayaka puts the blame all on herself, saying that she's not a hero and was stupid and selfish the whole time.

"token Ill Boy osananajimi“ dfhbgjhfdgdfg

It was a real shame because I liked Sayaka somewhat (not saying much but still) and she was such a predictable one to go. Like, “oh wow, an angst-y anime all about shock value? so basically the best friend is dead then with no chance of survival.”

I think I do remember being told/reading somewhere (so don’t quote me) that Sayaka is the one that’s hardest to keep alive in the games, so you have to work hard for it. It just sucks.

Anonymous said:

Yet another thing that bothers me about Puella Magi is how the show frames the young ladies as if everything is their fault even though they have no idea what they're getting into because the person who makes the deal doesn't even bother explaining shit to them and all the show's attempts at deconstructing is just taking lighthearted elements meant to empower girls and show them that they can be brave and strong as well as feminine and make them dark and morbid.

Like, I get the whole "having young girls fight is a little unrealistic" aspect, but most magical girl shows actually do touch on that! Only difference is that over time, they become stronger and better at fighting(which is only to be expected, whether you're a teenage girl or not) and become more competent along the way because the whole genre is about FEMALE EMPOWERMENT.

Not to mention how the show seems to forget that the Incubators are villains and even seems to put them in the right and the girls in the wrong, what with the claim that they rationalize with the girls they make contracts with like sentient human beings(yeah, because emotionally manipulating young girls and literally taking their souls out of their bodies and making them liches without their consent is definitely treating them like sentient human beings), and that they always follow up on their end of the deal whereas it's the girls' faults their wishes go sour because they never wish for what they truly want(I'm sorry, but I simply DO NOT buy that. Homura and Mami outright wished for what they wanted. Their wishes went sour because the plot "decided" that they should have wished in a different way; plus, you're telling me that if Sayaka had outright said she wished "for Kyousuke to love her back" that the show wouldn't just "make" him mind-controlled or have Sayaka "outgrow" her feelings by the time he falls in love with her, all the while making it out to be "her" fault he's so heartbroken because she was some kind of tease or whatever, further demonizing girls' sexualities?).

Plus they explicitly claim that every woman in history was a magical girl and that without them, humanity would still be in caves(as in, humanity wouldn't be able to progress without the oppression and exploitation of women, and women can't gain power without going insane because female power is some unhealthy, inhuman, infernal thing.). Even if we take this all as a reflection of patriarchal society(which I highly doubt it was, if anything, it reinforces it), all it does is imply that the oppression of women is the natural order of things, required even.

As for the girls themselves, they routinely beat themselves up and the show makes no effort to tell them they're wrong(up until the massive cop-out of an ending), like how Sayaka's last words before becoming a witch are literally her "admitting" that she was "stupid, so stupid" for wanting a boy to love her and be healed of his infirmity. It just seems like we're supposed to think "you know, maybe the Incubators aren't that bad!" while ignoring that the girls are being treated like the disposable trash bags of the universe. This show already does the magical girl genre dirty but treating it like everything the Incubators did was necessary and like it's all the girls' faults these things happened to them in the first place is the icing on the stale, sour cake. Nothing like a giant heap of sexism to help get you through your day. :/

I’ve noticed this a lot in Miraculous, but Madoka Magica somehow does it worse; this “one (supposed) mistake leads to all of these consequences you never saw coming.”

Like Ladybug calling Lila out. We know that Lila’s pettiness in “Chameleon” shows that it wouldn’t matter whether Ladybug yelled at her or not; the simple fact that Marinette opposes a liar led to Marinette getting expelled, even if only for a while. Then there’s “Miracle Queen” and all that garbage that came with it.

These two shows put their teenage girls through hell for having emotions and there’s no way to undo it.

Anonymous said:

Honestly, the Madoka Magica fandom is basically the magical girl equivalent of "not like other girls" type women. I can't say I'd be surprised if they didn't watch a single magical girl show other than Madoka because they're all "stupid and girly but this one is edgy and dark" just because those shows are written by women to inspire other girls and show femininity as a strength while Madoka Magica is written by men for men who want to see young girls suffer without any actual feminism.

Like, let's go through their arguments one-by-one to prove that they don't hold up. They love to say that Madoka Magica is better than other Magical Girl shows because "it's dark and edgy and shows the downsides to being a Magical Girl unlike other shows where it's all sunshine and lollipops". First of all, other Magical girl shows also got very dark. Princess Tutu and Utena are also "darker" takes on the genre, but even more lighthearted shows like Sailor Moon and Precure had scary moments.

The only difference is, with them, they still managed to critique problematic aspects of the genre and actually provided ways to improve it, while STILL managing to keep their target audience(FEMALES) in mind, without condescending to them and infantilizing them. And they still showed the girls being empowered and overcoming the darkness.

In Madoka, there's none of that, there's no actual critique of the genre because Gen didn't have the respect for it to do his research, it's aimed at men so it doesn't keep female viewers in mind by definition(which is also another reason why it can't be a deconstruction; deconstructions should be done FOR its target audience), and the girls are constantly put down and treated like Moe crybabies by the narrative even when they're not(cause, you know, teenage girls are "emotional"!). And it doesn't offer ways the genre could improve, it just takes a female-empowering genre and twists it to be this system of oppression that the genre is meant to avoid.

Magical Girls tend to have a very strong focus on girls empowering girls and all that awesome stuff, and yet when Madoka and Mami form a special bond and Madoka encourages Mami by telling her she's not alone? It makes her big-headed and overconfident and she gets devoured by Charlotte. See what happens when girls rely on each other? Madoka is Sayaka's best friend, but gets pushed aside in favor of Kyoko, who later dies for Sayaka because girls who want to help each other had better be prepared to suffer and die for their beliefs. Sayaka loses everything, which happens to include her best friend, over a guy. And the whole witch process means that any female solidarity that could be found in the show is thrown out the window since the core concept of the show is girls being forced to brutalize and kill and exploit each other.

People act like Madoka is Yuri when it's not, Gen was asked if Homura really was in love with Madoka and if Kyoko really was in love with Sayaka, and what did he do? He beat around the bush. Naoko Takeuchi and Kunihiko Ikuhara(the latter of whom also worked on Sailor Moon R; woah, what a surprise) both admitted that there was gay love in their stories, yet people act like Madoka is super progressive regarding homosexuality when it's just implied and those shows were MUCH more open! Doesn't stop people from claiming the show is "honorary yuri" and saying that the meaning of "yuri" should be broadened to include any close bonds between two female characters, whether or not it's actually romantic, AND favoring the show(and HomuMado) above actual yuri shows that are made to appeal to women. If all this were actually valid, Sailor Moon would be yuri as hell.

I hate seeing people fap over this show and act like it's so revolutionary for recycling things that the genre was ALREADY DOING, because I know full well that the ONLY reason it gets this wide acclaim is because Magical Girl shows have traditionally been written for women and this show is aimed at men. That's literally it. Because nothing a woman writes is good enough, especially when it dares to go against patriarchal constructs of femininity as weak and docile by portraying it as cool and awesome. It doesn't matter how cool and dark and diverse and inclusive and complex Sailor Moon and Precure and Princess Tutu and Utena are, they're written by/for women with the intention of empowering them so they're automatically invalid, cheap, happy-go-lucky crap where nothing bad ever happens and anything those shows try to do ought to be discredited because they don't appeal to men like they should so what's the point?

But the second a MAN comes in and intrudes on a female-dominated space by doing all of those things but with a very shallow understanding of how they ought to be executed, people are all over it because a MAN did it and now it's interesting and respectable! I have seen so many people say that they don't like Magical Girl because it's girly and shallow and stupid, but then they praise Madoka for things that the girly and "shallow" shows have already done! Men are always taking away things meant for women and distorting it to fit their patriarchal views and yet when they do it it's somehow better and anyone who complains is simply a whiny straw feminist!

The fandom does it all the time, someone complains about the show and why they don't like it and find it sexist, and the response is always "you're just not smart enough to understand it; you have no idea what you just watched". Because obviously since it's made by a man it's sooo much smarter then the traditional sappy stuff made by women. That's why it's so annoying when others praise it at the expense of other works in the genre: they know their reasons for liking it are, more often than not, rooted in sexism against female-aimed and female-empowering works, so the only way they can praise it is at the expense of said works, hence them being just like girls who claim they're "not like other girls" when there's nothing wrong with girls being feminine and in fact many of those girls may like the same things you do!

So while I'm not saying there's anything inherently WRONG with liking Madoka, I DO have a problem with people who act like it's better or more serious than other shows in the genre and simply discard them on the grounds that they're "for girls", since they obviously didn't watch them.

me when I initially watched Madoka Magica: I don’t get why this exists.

me when I learned it was written by a man: ohhh, now I get it.

I also take issue with people comparing things that are made for different demographics. Like look, I don’t care if you enjoy your angst display over here, but also maybe don’t compare it to the stuff not even made for you unless you’re willing to get into a fight over it?

It comes off wrong, like they have to trash on stuff because it wasn’t made for them, y’know?

Anonymous said:

Honestly, I am so sick of people saying that Magical Girl shows are sexist or anti-feminist, when all they do is portray girls being awesome and powerful while also being feminine at the same time, because "Well in Japan it's actually gender conformity because it's telling girls they can only be strong if they're feminine! You're just projecting your Western values onto an Eastern work!".

First of all these shows are made by women for women and often have explicit feminine messages that you literally cannot miss unless you are simply blind or trying not to see them. And they also tend to have a very strong focus on women supporting or empowering other women. Just think of Sailor Moon, which constantly gets this "criticism", and yet there's an episode where the girls explicitly protest against a villain who claims women are all shallow and useless and can't do anything without men's help. Would Naoko Takeuchi put that in the show if she weren't a feminist?

And then there's the fact that she has said that one message she wanted the female leads to convey was to value their relationships between other girls because girls are strong and don't need to waste time depending on men. There's also the fact that most Magical Girl shows tend to treat the powers as something special and awesome that's unique to women and girls, paired with the coming-of-age themes present in the show, and you get a magical equivalent of female puberty, with magic mixed in.

But no, all of that gets thrown out the window because they dare to be "feminine" while doing all of that stuff and the Japanese are forcing their girls to be girly through Magical Girl propaganda. And I just HATE when people act like anything feminine must be societally forced onto girls, rather than girls just happening to like them. In addition, stating that they are simply reinforcing gender roles by being feminine is such bullshit because the whole purpose isn't about conforming to patriarchal femininity, it's about reclaiming femininity.

Too often, femininity is associated with being weak, powerless, helpless, submissive, docile, vapid, catty, bitchy, petty, vain, stupid, the list goes on. Magical Girl saves femininity from a bad reputation. It shows femininity in a new light, as something strong and powerful and, hell, even admirable! It's about telling girls "Hey, you can be strong and powerful and smart, but you don't have to be a tomboy or act like a man to do so". Girls are always told they have to act masculine to be taken seriously because the only way to be respected is to be like a man, which is an indirect way of saying that only men deserve respect.

Magical Girl does away with all that in favor of showing the feminine as something innately powerful, and yet naysayers MISS the point and say that it's just stereotyping girls instead. To see people claim that Magical Girl forces girls to fit a feminine ideal to be respected is just disappointing. It's supposed to be a female power fantasy for young girls that shows them as the ones being powerful and empowering each other.

Take how in Sailor Moon the heroine often says something along the lines of "I won't let you take advantage of girls", which Wedding Peach went on to imitate. The purpose of the genre is for girls. To empower girls. So why on earth would they show them fitting into a "male" mould of power? Do these people think that any time women are shown acting distinct from men that they are doing something wrong?

And the hypocritical part is that nobody pisses on male-oriented anime for reinforcing a harmful narrative to boys that they have to be masculine to be valued and respected. Of course they don't! Because being "masculine" is never seen as a bad thing to be. It's assumed that masculinity is always strong and good and awesome and there's nothing wrong with boys being forced to be masculine because you're supposed to want to be masculine. You're not supposed to want to be feminine.

So of course people will shit all over Magical Girl for embracing, empowering, and reclaiming femininity, because it's not supposed to be that way! You're not supposed to be feminine and also be strong. You're supposed to deny your identity as a woman and assimilate into the boys' club because only boy things are worthwhile! And they cover it up by saying that Magical Girl forces girls to be feminine, when in actuality the WORLD forces girls to be MASCULINE. Magical Girl doesn't force girls to be feminine, It ALLOWS them to. Do you see the difference there?

Another thing I'd like to bring to the table is that the claim is racist and here's why: The claim that "Magical Girl shows are seen as feminist in the US for portraying femininity as a source of strength but not in Japan because it's telling girls they have to be feminine"...what does that mean? Japanese people can't be feminist? All Japanese people are sexists and think girls have to fit in a certain role? Do Japanese feminists HAVE to be anti-femininity? Are there literally no Japanese people who think you can be feminine AND strong(who also obviously identify as feminists?) Because it seems hella sexist to insinuate that Magical Girl shows are sexist because they're made in Japan and they don't believe you can be feminine AND strong there.

While there is some credibility to it since Japan IS, by and large, much more strict with gender roles, hasn't it ever occurred to these people that these types of shows exist to counter that belief? Not only that, but it implies that people aren't allowed to have opinions on works that aren't made in their culture, and that anyone who sees those shows as feminist are just projecting their Western beliefs onto an Eastern work. And even worse, when people say that, they don't have the same opinion of Western Magical Girl works.

Just look at LoliRock, Miraculous Ladybug, Winx, W.I.T.C.H., Star vs the Forces of Evil, and countless other European/Western Magical Girl works. Where are the people saying "They get their power from femininity and that is sexist!"? Nowhere! They're silent! Even though those are very much like Magical Girl works from Japan(although I don't think the genre originated from there), while still being original.

It's because people think that any media exported from Japan is automatically sexist and demeaning and so anything they create, no matter how empowering their intentions, gets twisted into something that's somehow toxic or unsafe for girls to watch. But when Europeans do the exact same thing nobody complains. Because Japan is not allowed to do anything empowering whatsoever; something's always wrong with it, apparently.

So that's why I have a problem with people who say those things; it's so problematic because they think they're being all open-minded and aware/respectful of other people's cultures, but all they're doing is reinforcing negative stereotypes further. It's kinda like what I said earlier(in another ask) about how people love to praise Madoka Magica for being a unique, dark, and interesting take on the genre when all it did was rehash elements of the genre that already existed, strip away the female empowerment, and gear it towards grown men, which is why people like it more. How about instead of speaking for Japanese people you let them speak for themselves?!

I would also like to add that there’s even a limit to women acting masculine because that’s still “not enough” for those kinda of men who would promote those beliefs. Women need to act more masculine to “be taken seriously” but then you have men who’ll tell them to “dress less” or whatever.

I think what it comes down to is that they want women to not be “emotionally taxing” with all those dAmN eMoTioNs of theirs (unless it’s for the sake of their angsty magical girl anime where the girls suffer for having emotions), but they also need to look pretty and be sexualized.

We can’t win.

#other: ask and answer #other: non ml talk

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ask-prime-starscream · 3 years

Text

She-Ra Review (Better late than never)

Okay, I just watched the first episode of the original She-Ra and... PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF! I think we evolved quite from that. Even though Bow used to have more male empowerment by showing off even more skin, lol.

But here it is. Review of the new She-Ra:

So, for me the show overall used to be quite in need of getting used to. I guess because the stakes are rather low and I preferred more adult-orientated shows. Falling from a high point and not getting hurt or getting hit by a laserbeam and just stumbling backwards wasn't doing it for me.

But after giving AtLA a chance, I was able to go back to more child-like shows and to just roll with it. The plot never really interested me. We need to do this or that in order to accomplish this- fine by me. Just do what you do.

I never cared much about the kingdoms or the people living there. It was just decoration. Some interesting character designs in the background. No culture. When the evil-doers took the decoration away, I didn't care. I was missing some "war leaves scars, in people and the landscapes". Sometimes wounds can't be healed. Sometimes we can't return things the way they were. Make the loss of something count so you see its worth.

There was also never a moment where I wanted to know more about the lore or the past. How it all functions. What carried the series were the characters. But a lot of them are more like a walking gimmick and aside from that nothing.

I think Bow is one of the best characters. He has some nice, positive masculinity going, he is a mediator, he tries to find solutions and tries to keep the team together. When he later just snaps and says "I can't be the happy one all the time!", I felt that. He has a right to be mad at someone too (Glimmer) and he doesn't have to instantly forgive. Lol, I had people say you are immature if you don't forgive and stuff. And dozens of characters who constantly have to be the bigger person, no, more like they have to be Jesus in order to keep the rest happy and zero damage is shown. Their psyche doesn't matter.

So. Big <3 for Bow and his only weakness: A covered belly! x'D

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Scorpia is probably the heart and soul of the series. And after seeing how her original was... that's fucking evolution times ten! xD She is just so genuinely likable and clueless while also being insecure. When she wears the princess-prom dress for the first time and blushes... what a cutie! I was going AWWW! And when she finally realizes that Catra is no friend material and Catra realizes who she chased away with her behavior: That was true loss! I felt that. I didn't do wrong to Scorpia, but I felt the pain anyway. So, like Bow, Scorpia didn't stay the punching bag forever and reacted. I like that!

10 out of 10 scorpions for Scorpia!!

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Entrapta has a really cool design, especially with her moving hair. All the budget to the hair! For some reason I also like her name a lot! It's rather extraordinary, heh! Unlike "Glimmer" or "Bow" which are rather on the nose. Normally I dislike the "limitless young genius" trope, but Entrapta at least had some limitations (mostly when they were plot-relevant, though) and she is a princess after all, so a special affinity to something (and if it is machines) beyond a normal person's grasp is believable. Unlike others... (Raph from TFP. "Hacking into the FBI? No problem!" H-How?!) And while she is in regards to anything else rather airheaded (uhm, robots kill people. Well, not on screen, but... I'm sure they killed someone), she at least realizes that later and it got her a connection to Hordak which no usual good guy could have done.

An army of robots for Entrapta!

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Hordak the missed opportunity. Not enough screentime at all. They gave this cliché evil guy a soul and they did next to nothing with it. All his good scenes are with Entrapta and there are only a few. Later he sheds TEARS when he realizes she never betrayed him! Why can't we get more scenes like that? Him being a failed clone is a good backstory and a scene with the creation of Imp would have complimented that a lot. Imagine the half-dead baby lying there and it's about to be flushed away, but Hordak hesitates. He picks Imp up, looking at him. Discarding him because he is not perfect? Because he will never be what he was supposed to? But who says that he can't accomplish something? Hordak sees himself in the baby and shows fate the metaphorical middle finger. He presses the baby tightly against his chest and murmurs: "We will show them...", accepting the baby and ultimately himself...

In the last season we get Wrong Hordak and while having someone around who is completely pure and naive to a world beyond the hivemind (just like a person escaping a cult) is important to show so we get the clones's perspective, we kinda lose on the real Hordak there. All he does is stare at that one crystal sometimes... until the end when he does the "throw the emperor in the pit Darth Vader style!" thing. Lame. He should have been with the good guys sooner and shown some recovery there.

A baby bottle for Hordak so he can feed his future robot children with Entrapta.

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Glimmer. For some reason I always saw her as a side character who somehow got cast as a main character. She just constantly slipped out of my mind. Oh yeah, she has mother issues and a whole family and kingdom, but... she just seems so flat! You could put Adora in her position and nothing of value would have been lost. Still the main hero who fights evil. Maybe without fancy glitter magic. When she becomes queen and later almost a tyrant, that's when she gets more interesting, but still... I was just "where is Adora?" whenever she hogged the screentime. Not interested in this character in the slightest. No glitter for Glimmer.

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Adora. Does the main character things. Even doesn’t hesitate sacrificing herself for the greater good. Is the typical main character. Doesn’t think things through, runs towards the enemy, is immature, gobbles down food. Main character. I don’t like this kind of main character, but I don’t hate her either. Neutrality for Adora.

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Catra got too much screentime. Yeah. We get it. She has issues. She makes bad decisions. Very bad. She regrets it. Is hurt. But can't be the bigger cat. When she later visits Glimmer constantly in her prison, I was just groaning. Give someone else the screentime! We get it! We get Catra's problems! Sometimes less is more!

I don't know how people viewed her coming together with Adora in the end, but I was glad they were allowed to kiss and say I love you and so on. Not that I shipped it, but hey, be happy. They were all over each other throughout the series. Just let them be happy. Yeah, Catra did horrible things (but what I said about lasting damage in this series. It ain't there.), but if Catra was Starscream, I wouldn't object either and I have to stay fair here. If Starscream is a war criminal and I still simp for him, then I have to give other villains the same treatment without finger pointing and screaming "Abusive! Toxic!". Except I want it to be, but that is another story to tell...

Aside from that, Catra showed regrets and emotional pain. Starscream is entirely different there. I love him the way he is, but... sometimes it's hard to stay on his side. But that's the writers's fault. I also like about Catra that she just laughs into villains's faces. I didn't expect that character to be able to carry a whole army on her shoulders and lead them. With nothing but cat powers, lol. That thing with electrocuting Entrapta and pushing the "planet gets blown apart" button... juuuuust stop. It ain't worth it. That's some serious own grave digging there.

A cat for Catra.

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The lesser princesses. Why are the elements so weirdly spread? We got magic, plants, water, ice, lightning bolts. And some others who don't have crystals. But the main elements are really weird decisions. From the traditional elements we got only water and it hogs two crystals! Then we got the element of magic which is okay in the context of this world. Then plants and red electricity which is also okay on a greater Pokémon-esque scale. It feels like something is missing there. Especially when they talk about their weaknesses "Fire, fire, fire..." Where is the fire princess? The earth princess? These are two main elements and if you don't want to go the traditional route then make all elements something out of the ordinary. Not water AND ice if you only have five crystals around.

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Frosta could have been entirely cut. She says nothing of worth and adds nothing of worth. Her gimmick is "Toph" but with heart and soul cut out. When she was introduced I expected her to be the most mature, raised from a young age to act more adult than she actually is, because she needed to grow up fast in these times. Her country is the largest and with great power comes great responsibility. We could have gotten quite political here, how complicated it can be. The hard decisions you have to make and the compromises you have to take. All for the sake of keeping your people safe. Her character arc could have been about that and about finding her childish side again which was denied from her. There. Also her big country is meaningless aside from her introduction episode. Since she always fights with the princesses alone with ZERO bodyguards and all... Where is the power of that country??

A snow-less winter for Frosta.

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Mermista's gimmick is "snarky". When she shows new parts of her personality like reading novels, it's a one-episode thing. It takes quite a while for her to get actually likable. Not that I disliked her, she just had no presence. When she later leads a mission we get to see more of her, but those are the moments where I feel like we are missing a couple of episodes that should be dedicated to the other princesses alone or with them as the focus. They are just shoved into the background so much by Adora, Bow and Glimmer, that shouldn't be. They are in the opening after all as if they are part of a group that is always together.

Sea Hawk is constantly dancing on the thin line between okay and annoying. Though I like that it is a fabulous guy having a relationship with a girl and not the "boring guy". But the men of She-Ra are mostly beyond the usual men tropes of angry, stoic, boring, stupid dude. So it doesn't even stand out as much as it should, lol. Like I hate this trope that the most beautiful girl/sexy woman of a show comes together with "the average Joe" or "comedic relief who is also often times small in stature". I guess... I know why that is... Anyway, the main girl/more chaste woman gets together with the main hero. Mr McBoredom but strong! While the fabulous guy... is either evil, has a bad character, is not traditionally manly, is just shallow. No pretty men for the girls. Well. Not anymore!

A dolphin for Sea-Ra and what she could have been if she had more screentime.

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Perfuma is the hippie princess and I guess my favorite from the lesser princesses (though, there is no real competition.). The way she handles things are in line with her beliefs and sometimes she says some actual intelligent remarks, but isn't listened to because she isn't the brash one, but the harmonious one. Which is sad. Everybody rather calm down and meditate instead of getting in each other's faces. That could work wonders sometimes. So, she actually is the first to see that Scorpia doesn't want to attack them when she left Catra while the others just keep attacking. Her shtick really is taking into consideration when she is written in a situation. However, sometimes it is a bit too much. Power of friendship isn't going to break the mind-control chip and they all saw time and time again that IF the controlled person can get a grasp on themselves again, it's only for mere seconds. So cut the crap, it's not against your beliefs when you stop thoughts-and-prayers-ing for something that won't change without actually doing something against it. Fun fact: Because she was so insisting of poweroffriendshipping Scorpia out of control, I was almost expecting a digivolut- uhm, a transformation there, lol! Especially because they mentioned before, she could be one of the strongest princesses. Well, of course she wouldn't become more forceful. Except she might get the power to swipe negative thoughts away and disperse fighting will. Now... that didn't happen, but still... (Also a nice episode with her having to admit she doesn’t get cacti. There is actually some character development here!)

A beautiful flower for Perfuma!

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Spinnerella and Netossa. “The biracial gay couple” hanging around in the background until they became characters in the later seasons. Finally! I found the “biracial gay couple” trope so often in shows, it’s like they want to stuff as much diversity as they can into two characters and then keep everything else conservative. Thankfully She-Ra shows a lot of diversity everywhere.

A net carried by wind for Spinnerella and Netossa.

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Swift Wind. Back to the sketch block. Nothing of worth was done or said. He is supposed to have this super important magical connection to She-Ra, but she hardly uses him. He is just another fighter... somewhere else. If he is there. And he stands out like a sore thumb as the only talking animal. Maybe you could make it a gimmick for a toyline that every princess can summon a pet to ride. That would have been cool. Or if he stayed mute and acted just like a horse. Then you could have had the cuteness factor. And the animal behavior factor which is also cute... and funny. Think of Pegasus from Disney's Hercules. That's a good horse companion! But Swift Wind? Annoying. Unimportant. Waste of time.

No unicorn for Swift Wind.

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Shadow Weaver. Didn't like her. Wanted power, got what she wanted, but too much. Ugly now. Her powers are rather weak. I didn't even pay attention to the episode where she haunts Adora. As if that's gonna do something in the long run. Then Catra stole her job. Rightfully so. She got imprisoned, then fled, then became an ally. When she later sacrificed herself and said to Catra that she is proud of her, well, did she say it so Catra would do what she wanted or did taking off the mask symbolize that she finally said the truth? We might never know and we might never care.

No dark magic for Shadow Weaver.

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Emperor I have two many eyes. (Badumm-Tss!) "I want to destroy the universe!" What a lame motivation. What can I even say to that? Of course only mind-controlled people would follow this goal and I remember a series where someone carried their own clone and said "It's sad when oneself is the only one you can rely on/trust". Yeah.

Why did Hordak even build an empire when everything was supposed to be destroyed? Why open a portal to the asshole who didn't want you in the first place? So many toxic parental figures in this series. And the children won't stop wanting their approval. When Prime shows Glimmer the last pieces of destroyed worlds or gives her food that is made of things that could only be found in these worlds, one gets a glimpse of the horror he represents. He could be the most horrible gourmet of all time "I only eat things made out of extinct lifeforms". Petty. But oh so scary. When you are so powerful that you can destroy worlds, what do you care about the ants living on them? But nah, he has some pseudo-religious thing going, assimilating people into his hivemind like the borg in Star Trek do. Actually, just assimilating people and growing his army and enriching the collected wisdom of galaxies could be a motivation, too. Then the good guys could make a stand for individualism. But eh, too complicated.

No green juice for Horde Prime.

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Prepare for Trouble and make it Double. Double Trouble. I learned something about the incompatibility of neutral pronouns and my native language. Their gimmick is "actor" and it's pretty over the top, it gets annoying fast. Not even the gayest nurse I'm working with talks like that and they would make any gaydar explode in a second. Maybe they could have gone a little deeper with that and give them some meta jokes about how scenes are gonna unfold and give us some surprises there. I don't like the opportunist crap they pull off, why even bother working together with Catra in the first place? Always join the winning team? What a Knock Out. Get out of here, before I make you swallow your own tail! Yes, I’m still salty about that. Fuck you, Predacons Rising! Fuck you!

A mirror for DT because after all they still have a sexy body.

#she-ra #princess of power #I guess you won't mind this more than an answered ask bomb

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