#I need to watch through more of the Japanese version but most of the characters I've heard appear to match pretty well?

[beebfreeb]

I got curious about the difference between the English dub and original Japanese voice acting...

[kurishiri]

Vogel’s LINE campaign: full walkthrough and translation

꒰ ִ ֺ ⊹ @ notice ⊹ ֺ ִ ꒱ this translation may not be 100% accurate or contain creative liberties due to characterization purposes. if you enjoy, please consider reblogging, but please don’t repost these or claim these as your own!

꒰ ִ ֺ ⊹ @ info ⊹ ֺ ִ ꒱ for vogel, there is a campaign on LINE until 08,30,2024 where they challenge you to solve their puzzles (if you want to have fun with it yourself, or have more high quality images of the reward, this will also walk you through the campaign, step by step). the picture above shows their signatures, which you can get the full document from which they came — a certificate, that is — in this campaign. and it also features an interaction with the vogel members as well.

˚˖𓍢ִ໋🦢˚ what you need to do beforehand:

download the LINE app and make an account there

after you have an account, click here to friend them on LINE! this will subsequently start a chat with them too

download the ikévil jp app and make sure you have access to the game (so finish the initial data download)

you need to have access to twitter as well

don’t worry about needing to know japanese. any parts that need japanese knowledge, i will walk you through

♯┆initiate the challenge .ᐟ

when you open LINE, text the following phrase to them:

フォーゲルの挑戦を受ける

this translates to “i accept vogel’s challenge”! the romaji would be [fōgeru no chōsen wo ukeru].

when you send this, you’ll receive the poster promoting the campaign followed by a message from darius🪽 basically welcoming you.

To the one Crown holds dear, miss fairytale keeper,

This is an invitation to partake in Vogel’s challenge. Of course, turning it down is not an option.

After all, the game has already started. See, there is nowhere to escape, so the only option left is to face the challenges.

I will be watching over you as you brave through, alright?

—— 🪽

♯┆puzzle n.1 .ᐟ

this is darius🪽’ puzzle! nika🍒 has one too, and ring💍 will give you the reward upon completing their challenges. the idea is sort of like a crossword puzzle, where you have to find certain words that are associated with crown or its members.

this puzzle is probably the most challenging for those who don’t know japanese, because all the words are in japanese. you basically need to have some at least some rudimentary knowledge.

so let me tell you what words are in there! hint: there may be repeats, and unlike crossword puzzles, it’s possible the words may be spelled out in a ‘L’ shape, and there may be overlap, but there is no diagonals.

[ちぇしゃねこ] (chesha neko) = the cheshire cat = liam’s curse

[はーとのじょおう] (hāto no jo-ō) = the queen of hearts = william’s curse

[きつね] (kitsune) = fox = harrison’s curse

[かがみ] (kagami) = mirror = alfons’ curse

[いばら] (ibara) = thorns = ellis’ curse

[じょおう] (jo-ō) = the queen = maybe referring to a shortened version of william’s curse, or her majesty the queen (女王陛下, jo-ō heika).

[おとぎし] (otogi-shi) = fairytale keeper = kate’s role in crown

[かりうど] (kari-udo) = the hunter = roger’s curse

[じゅうさんばんめのまほうつかい] (jūsan-ban-me no mahō tsukai) = the thirteenth fairy = jude’s curse

[こまどり] (koma-dori) = robin = kate’s nickname in crown

i would recommend highlighting or crossing out the boxes that contain these words, as you will need the remaining characters. if you’d like the highlighted answers, you can click here.

here, you will notice that there are some boxes that haven’t been “filled.” you will need to read these “unfilled” boxes left to right, top to bottom, much like reading a manhwa or webtoon.

if you do this, did you piece together this message?

おしらせのいちばんした

or: [お知らせの一番下] (oshirase no ichiban shita). this translates to “the announcement at the very bottom.”

this is where you’ll need your ikévil jp app! did you find it? if not, here’s how you can find it.

if you did, let’s head to the next puzzle!

♯┆puzzle n.2 .ᐟ

i hope you guys like sudoku, because this is something a bit similar.

you’ll find a 3 × 3 grid with some numbers filled out.

the bottom text translates to “if the sum is 15, where is 7?”

basically, the complete grid should have numbers 1–9, with no repeats, such that the sum of the 3 numbers in any direction is 15. in other words, if i number the grid’s positions as

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

then the 3 numbers located at each of these positions would have to add up to 15: [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9], [1, 4, 7], [2, 5, 8], [3, 6, 9], [1, 5, 9], [3, 5, 7].

after you solve this, you will want to note down where the number 7 is, because once you scroll down, you’ll see a grid of 9 illustrations of vogel’s crest in a similar formation as the grid you solved.

once you click the corresponding crest where the 7 was on the puzzle grid, you can move on to the next puzzle!

if you want the answers to this puzzle, you can click here.

♯┆puzzle n.3 .ᐟ

this puzzle is pretty straightforward — you’re given a legend made up from the crown members’ names. after that, you must use that to crack the code at the bottom.

the only thing you need here is to be able to spell the characters’ names and a couple minutes to figure out the message.

i would note down which letter is what symbol, because you’ll need it in the last puzzle!

break the code, and then follow the instructions (back on LINE). it’s not case sensitive, so you don’t need to worry about that. once you do this, nica🍒 will give you a puzzle!

the answer to this puzzle can be found here.

♯┆puzzle n.4 .ᐟ

so first you’ll get a message from nica🍒:

Oh? Look at you, you’re doing better than I thought. Great job. Though seeing you so desperately make your way this far, could it be you’re taken by me or something?

Haha, from the look on your face, it looks like I’ve hit the mark.

If you’re feeling shaken, the puzzles will only feel harder, you know?

Alright, time to focus again. Wishing you the best.

—— 🍒

he then sends you these two images, and you’ll want to keep the left side one handy, as you’ll need it later as well.

When you connect the words together,

what was a place where the birds sang together once upon a time is now a variable of an unknown value.

Should you find a one-way ticket to a new story,

you cannot return to the time before you knew of us.

using this grid, you want to do some more code breaking to decipher the pink text at the bottom of the right side image! note that the bracketed numbers are formatted as [col, row]. any numbers not enclosed in brackets should be left as is. here is the answer if you want it.

and now, we’re gonna open twitter, because the cracked code will lead you to an account on twitter.

♯┆vogel interaction .ᐟ

when you visit this account on twitter, you can see a conversation between the vogel members! here’s a translation.

🪽: We must get along with Crown from now on. That’s why, first, I would like to start with the one who has caught my eye: Sir Rex. I should open more opportunities to get to know him further…

🪽: And what of you two? Are there any Cursed ones that have caught your interest? Because if there are, I do not mind if you initiate contact with them. In order for us to become a “family,” we also have to show our share of geniality.

🍒: Hmm, let’s see, seeing the fox be so cautious around us, I think he and I could get along. Oh, and that company president with a harsh look in his eye, maybe? I like to think I do understand his desire for money. Well, I’ll arrange for that soon. And Ring? What about you?

💍: I don’t really have anyone in mind. I’ll get rid of anyone who gets in your way. That’s all there is to it.

🍒: Geez, Ring, going out and saying something so reckless again… ‘getting rid’ of someone is not only risky, but also inefficient and outright boring. That kind of thing is only okay when the opponent strikes first. But for right now, stay put.

🪽: Yes yes, do get along with them, for they may end up becoming “family.” ——Well, aside from that grim reaper, that is. Ahh, seeing him in person made me absolutely despise him all the more. To think he makes the Cursed ones work for the sake of humans, he truly is the worst.

💍: ‘Get along with them’ in order for them to become a “family”… ‘to get along’… what do I have to do then? To get along… since… I, well… don’t have a lot of friends…

🍒: Ring, you just set your bar too high for friendships. Ah, actually, how about starting with the Rotkehlchen? I don’t actually have that much information on her, so take my words with a grain of salt, but I don’t think she’s hostile toward us, so I don’t think she’d do us harm.

💍: That’s a good point… as you said, she really is cute.

🍒: Hm?

💍: Ah—no, it’s nothing! I misunderstood just now! …h-how do I delete that post… hm… hmm? …I-I can’t…

🪽: Anyway, that aside, can I have you follow the fairytale keeper then, my very adorable Ring? I’m certain if it’s you, you can find out more about her, yes? Pass auf dich auf.

💍: Will do. Alles klar.

🪽: Truly, Ring is such a good boy. Not only is he kind and earnest, he listens to everything I say.

🍒: Just what are you thinking about, Dari? You’ve got this evi——I mean you look like you’re enjoying this.

🪽: Ahaha, I see you are as sharp as ever, Nika. But yes, I suppose I was thinking of doing something a little impish with them. Something that will reveal just how useful the little miss fairytale keeper can be, that is… yes?

they then end with this image:

recognize this from in the game? head over to the app and click on that and then scroll down to the bottom! if you’re stuck, you can click here.

♯┆puzzle n.5 .ᐟ

this is very similar to the previous puzzle, except the code word is different, and you’ll need to input this word into LINE to continue! you will need to use the legend that nica🍒 gave you, along with the legend based on the characters’ names from puzzle n.3, and crack it in the same way you figured out the twitter handle!

you can get the answer here.

♯┆finale .ᐟ

once you send the code word you just cracked over on LINE, you’ll receive a message from ring💍

To see you’ve come so far in solving everything… could you be a genius?

A fairytale keeper really is something to behold…

Maybe, you could tell me about many things I don’t know? Like fashionable shops or delicious foods… ah, t-that just now! It was nothing—

—— 💍

he then gives you a certificate, where all of them sign it. yep, that’s where the signatures come from! i have the translation below, but i would encourage you to go through this yourself, if you can, because it’s pretty fun, i think! and it may be higher quality images because tmblr may compress quality.

The end…?

[devildomwriter]

“…Excuse me? You don’t know TSL? And you call yourself a human?! Just how clueless ARE you?! How could you not know?! Just the fact that you don’t know TSL alone is proof that you’ve been wasting your life! So, I’m going to do you a favor and teach you about TSL. Make sure you pay attention! The Tale of the Seven Lords, otherwise known as TSL, is a series of fantasy novels written by Christopher Peugeot. It’s a heroic epic spanning 138 volumes, and it’s the most widely-read fantasy series in the world. There are even theatrical versions, an animated series, and feature films, too. And it’s been translated into a total of 182 different languages. The 1990s theatrical version was an utter disaster, owing to the fact that they added several characters that were NOT present in the original manuscript. At the time I was like, “this producer totally needs to crawl into a hole and die!” But then the 2015 version came out, and it was AMAZING! Better than amazing! If you ask me, it showed that needlessly cramming a female lead in there alongside Henry was a bad idea. That’s not what he needs. What he NEEDS is a friend who really understands him, and the 2015 version proved that.

Also, the most vital element of the story is that each of the Seven lords is so unique. They’re all so interesting in their own peculiar way. That’s what makes TSL so great! The lords are all brothers…the oldest is called the Lord of Corruption. He doesn’t come across as being so bad at first, but he’s always plotting and planning in secret. The second oldest is the Lord of Fools, a scumbag who’ll do anything for money. The third oldest is called the Lord of Shadow, a brooding recluse. The fourth oldest is known as the Lord of Masks. He masquerades as a high-status, upstanding member of society, but underneath it all, he’s an inhumane monster. The fifth oldest, the Lord of Lechery, only ever thinks of sex. The sixth oldest is the Lord of Flies, and he only ever thinks of food. The seventh oldest, called the lord of Emptiness. He’s weird…you never know what’s running through his head! It seems most people like the oldest lord, the lord of corruption, the best. Everyone always talks about how great he is. But not me. I like the third Lord way more. Of course, I like Henry too. He’s the protagonist. He’s almost as great as the third lord. The second Lord is total scum, a hopeless degenerate that leads a life of extravagance and indulgence. He’s always causing trouble for the third lord. He’s got these magical pigs that can give birth to solid gold piglets, and he treasures them above all else. So Henry goes and talks to the pigs, and using his wit and powers of persuasion, he convinces them to leave with him. Then, he leads every last one of them away, and presents them to the third lord as a gift! Wow…I mean, they’re SUCH GOOD FRIENDS you can almost feel it! It’s enough to make you cry! Oh, and then there’s that one really awesome moment when the two of them realize they both like and respect each other, and they high-five! I just LOVE that part, you know? I wish I could have a moment like that. …I wish I could be like the third lord. I may be a recluse like him, but we’re totally different, because he’s got an amazing friend like Henry. Check it out. See that goldfish in the fish tank there? He’s actually named Henry. I love TSL so much that I couldn’t help naming him after the main character. But I cant really high-five a goldfish, can I?

The original author of TSL, Christopher Peugeot, he’s actually a human, you know? That’s why I’m so jealous of you guys. Humans are so lucky, you’ve got subscription services that let you watch your favorite anime anytime, you can go to Akihabara whenever you want… Why do only you guys get to experience all the good stuff? I mean, humans’ whole concept of pleasure originally came from us demons, you know? We gave it to you. So, why can’t we have a little bit of it back now, huh? I mean, I want to be able to go to a Japanese maid café, too. I want to hear the maids welcome me as if I’m the master of the house, and have them draw ketchup hearts on my fried rice omelette, to experience the magic of it all. I want to cosplay as Henry, and then go stand in the center of Akihabara, or maybe that one building in Tokyo that’s shaped like upside-down triangles. And once I’m there, I want to perform Henry’s super-powerful signature finishing move for all to see and say the incantation that goes with it. I want to shout it at the top of my lungs!...Actually you know what? I want to BE Henry.”

— Leviathan’s longest TSL rant (Chapter 1-13)

[bonbon-bonny]

I don't usually write a whole lot but I wanted to talk about this for a moment

Ahem. *flips through notes*

So I loooove Sailor Moon. Specifically the 90s version. It was my favorite show growing up. My home life was difficult and to see someone like Usagi with a perfect family, a perfect boyfriend etc. getting to live her best life despite the fact she herself wasn't perfect was too easy to become a bit obsessive over ^_^;

well, let's just say I wanted to be Usagi just a bit too much because my world, my family (Side note: I looove my family! They did the best they could to take care of me growing up, but we had to deal with an unusual circumstance that made it hard for all of us), heck just even being myself didn't feel good enough and frankly it left me having to confront a lot of issues just to be okay with who I am now.

And of course ,naturally, I looooved Tuxedo Kamen XD. On the outside to me, he seemed perfect; a knight in shining armor.

But I always kept running into a particular conversation which is "why do you like him so much tho? He seems like a jerk. He seems so different from her. He never shows her affection. She'd be better off with someone like Seiya who's more on her level. He's useless. He's bad for trying to help her because she's a girl boss and doesn't need to be rescued." Like, seriously the amount of criticism I've heard towards this character is wild and he literally gets attacked no matter what he does.

And you know I get it. If you just look at it from a surface level it's easy to maybe get that impression of him but after one particular conversation I was having with a friend of mine about it I stopped and asked myself why. Why does she like him? why does he like her? how can two people who outwardly look so different from each other ever be in a healthy relationship? what could the two of them possibly have in common?

So I did what I do best and I watched the show I grew up with carefully. I observed him. I watched the things he said and did. And in the end I reached several conclusions.

Mamoru isn't perfect, at least in the beginning, but he's always trying to do his best to be. With almost anyone else in the show he's usually calm, collected and somewhat reserved. The only person besides Motoki he seems to act out a bit with if you can call it that IS Usagi and half of the time it's not even that he's actually being mean.

[IF you watch the Japanese version with subtitles, because in the English dub? Ooph! they changed so much of his dialogue and gave him such a smirky voice it's hard to listen to him without wanting to punch him in the face imo.]

It's that the way she perceives him is off. Also, sometimes it's not even HIM that starts the arguments.

Sometimes SHE'S the one who starts their spats and he snaps back at her. Sometimes she hits him with shoes and papers and doesn't seem to care.

One episode that comes to mind is the Dreamland episode where the toy train stops and she rams into him. All he did was look at her and say hi and immediately she got defensive and started making fun of him.

Making fun of an orphan sitting on a toy train who most likely was just trying to do something fun that he never got to because he didn't HAVE a family to take him as a kid.

Seriously. If you were to be in his place, going through this world, it's rather scary, stressful, terrifying, and uncertain.

He didn't get a magical talking cat to walk him through his powers. Instead he got seizures and psychic visions, and a past life version of himself that took over his body without consent until he finally got the rainbow crystal and understood what was happening around him.

He gets amnesia not once but twice, kidnapped several times, and gets trapped in his own mind twice ala brainwashing by beryl and Nehelenia and by stars I wouldn't be surprised if half of the reason he went to study abroad instead of staying with Usagi is because he was afraid if he did he'd only continue to be a burden for her, because the man hardly has any dialogue and seems almost catatonic.

Also let's be real here. As amazing as it was for him to meet and talk with his future self it probably scared him. The responsibility of literally being King of the world, of making decisions that could impact the lives of everyone in tremendous ways. Of being the kind of partner and provider he thinks Usagi deserves or being a good father for Chibi-Usa when he didn't get to have parents to show him what those things looked like.

He didn't get a loving family to support him or tell him that they loved him, he was an orphan who probably hoped someone would eventually rescue him but no one ever did.

He probably feels in his heart that he doesn't deserve to be loved by anyone, and even if someone were to pursue him romantically he probably couldn't reciprocate in any meaningful way because he's most likely too closed off emotionally to be in a healthy relationship with anyone.

Heck the guy only for the most part has only two best friends. Motoki and Saori and frankly I'd hardly even call Saori a best friend since she literally just shows up in an episode in Super S as "Romantic competition" for Usagi and then just ups and vanishes and is never mentioned ever ever again.

So how does someone like him see Usagi and wind up constantly sacrificing his life over and over again for her?

Three words:

She. Sees. Him.

Once she starts to look at him a bit differently instead of seeing him as some tall guy running around with his stupid green jacket with his prickly personality, once she realizes that it was him trying to rescue her when she was so close to the brink of death on occasions and getting injured in the process, once he opens up to her about his struggles she sees him. Not just because he's a hero, but because even if it's hard for him he still tries to help her. A lot of times he even gives her really sound advice that she winds up listening to even if at the time he tells her she doesn't seem to understand him and takes it the wrong way.

He probably also deep down worries that he truly doesn't deserve someone like her.

Even if we don't always see it from the outside he adores Usagi because she sees him for who he is and doesn't ask him to be more outgoing or different.

Usagi adores him because he doesn't ask her to be anything other than who she really is.

Both of them accept the other as they truly are inside. THAT is true love.

You don't really get the chance to see what their relationship looks like from the outside. But he smiles a lot when he's with her which is certainly not something he really ever did with Rei or anyone else from what I could tell. And I bet when he does take her out on dates he's embarrassed and flustered and stumbles but he also probably takes off his mask and tries to make her happy and have a good time.

Also I'd like to add some notes on King Endymion and the violet. Why so much violet? Like....an overwhelming amount of violet XD I never understood why when I was younger but as I've grown up I've spent some time delving into subjects such as Psychology, Spirituality, and Philosophy.

Ladies and gentlemen, Violet is the color of the crown chakra.

https://www.chakras.info/crown-chakra/

Crown chakras deal with the mental and the spiritual. They are a gateway to enlightenment and in my opinion perhaps one could even say that the journey of mental health and enlightenment are two sides of the same coin.

So I'd like to think that for as much as Mamoru might struggle with his mental health, he also walked the path towards true enlightenment. Such a man truly should be King of the World and is more than deserving of being Usagi's partner.

And I'd die for a relationship with a man who is brave enough to confront the things which makes him suffer because I'd know that he'd have the clarity of mind to be a good partner, to treat me with kindness and compassion and show me the kind of love I've always dreamed of having, and that's something only someone who has love for themselves and others could ever possibly be able to give. He doesn't need to be perfect, because perfection is unattainable. He just needs to be brave enough to try even if it makes him deeply uncomfortable at times.

So,

To the men who truly and deeply identify with Mamoru, know I'd marry you in a heartbeat if you asked. That if you showered me in chocolate and flowers I'd do the exact same thing for you because you deserve it. Anyone who is brave enough to do the work necessary to heal and grow, to have kindness and compassion for others, to show me that even if I'm not perfect that it's still okay to be myself around you deserves every happiness in the world.

Not everyone is brave enough to do such a thing and I've come to a point in my life where I'm not interested in what someone can give me externally as much as I am in the kind of person they choose to be and what their values are.

Maybe some people might look at someone like Mamoru and judge him, but Usagi most certainly never would once she got to know him; and considering I've always wanted to be her I'll die on this hill defending him. Out of everyone, Usagi WOULD defend him from the judgement, from the criticism, of the need to be perfect and wear masks, or be something other than what he truly is on the inside.

Mamoru is more than just a knight in shining armor,

He's beautiful imperfection; and I'd choose that over anything else any day.

@heavyheartedprinceofearth

[twig-tea]

I Owe an Apology to Cherry Magic Thailand

This is me righting a wrong. A few weeks ago I wrote this post in response to an ask about Thai BL including what Thai BLs airing at the time I was enjoying the most; I listed Cooking Crush and Dead Friend Forever, which was true. I didn't list Cherry Magic Thailand, and the reason for that is the timing of that post coinciding with the very unfortunate Cherry Magic Thailand episode 8 which was a filler episode that made some really unfortunate choices. None of those choices affected the relationship writing or character arcs of the main characters, but the conflict was poorly written--it didn't fit well in the narrative, it didn't even really make sense, and it didn't land the way it was clearly meant to--and I was afraid that the writers of the show would not realize the really interesting things they had done with the main characters in the Thai adaptation and how that would have to change the way the story progressed in order to be consistent, and so I was ready to watch this show go off the rails. But happily, I was wrong, and instead we got an excellent episode 9 and 10, so I am here to publicly tell you:

Watch Cherry Magic (Thai adaptation)!

The one episode 8 misstep is worth living through for the greatness that is happening in this series.

If you're familiar with the source material, here are a few things that I absolutely LOVE the Thai adaptation is doing (very light spoilers, I kept the big stuff out so that you could read and still be pleasantly surprised if you decide to watch the show):

The "magic" is used in fun and clever ways that keep the show funny, interesting, and fresh

Achi [the Thai Adachi] is more self-actualized and self-driven from the get-go, and is more willing to fight for the relationship

Karan [the Thai Kurosawa] is even more of a simp, and is less outwardly perfect than in the Japanese live action, and is also a little hornier (though not as much as the anime version lol)

Both Achi and Karan have stronger character arcs in the Thai adaptation than Adachi and Kurosawa did in the Japanese live-action

Jinta and Min [the Thai version of Tsuge and Minato] are also really great; they're hitting a lot of the same beats but at different times, which makes their progression feel stronger, and there is less of an emphasis on the age difference between them than in the Japanese live action

Min also gets an arc with Rock [Rokkaku] that gives him more depth than in the Japanese live action

We get more of Jinta and Achi's friendship than we did with Adachi and Tsuge

Pai [Fujisaki in the Japanese adaptation] is a fujoshi, which is from the original manga, but the show is still doing something really interesting with her as (I think?) a nod to Fujisaki in the Japanese live action being on the aro/ace spectrum

They have done a great job making the show feel Thai (e.g. including Thai cultural festivals, changing the scarf to an umbrella, adjusting the humour)

There is a kiss!

Anyway. I'm really enjoying it, and it's worth fighting past the annoyance of needing a VPN set to Thailand and waiting an extra day in order to access the show on VIU's website.

[absolutebl]

hello!!

ahaha i'm pretty sure you might remember me, since i asked a question not so long ago😭

i've recently started watching bl dramas through your guide, but i'm new to it so it's difficult to find ones that match my taste atm :')

so far i've watched cherry magic (japanese), sing my crush, and cherry blossoms after winter. i was wondering if you could suggest me some bls that have fluff and more emotions, less plot typa vibes? not sure how to describe it but i want something like sing my crush. it wasn't a huge nor complicated plot and the vibes were really cozy and soft, so i'm looking to watch something like that for starters :]

tysm for being my bl savior haha, have a good day/night!!

BLs with fluff + high emotion but less plot

example: Sing My Crush

Hum, okay. I feel like sing as some angst going on too. This is gonna have some oddball pulls because I'm felling nostalgic after We Are. Because We Are is the first one that came to mind, and that had led me too...

Love Sick

This was the start of BL in Thailand and basically fills this role for them. It will also give you a grounding in the modern BL genre. I think it's worth watching and love it but it's a decade old and is... something... raw. Plus, what? 50 eps over the two seasons, or something, so it might not be to your taste.

So here's newer stuff that I think may work.

Here's the ones I think most closely qualify:

Love Sick

We Are the series - just ended and is basically the Thai ensemble version of this style bL ( I think quite a few of these will be Korea)

Wish You: Your Melody in My Heart - the adult version of Sing

We Best Love - possibly one of the few i will pull from Taiwan which tends to be less fluffy, and this is, especially in season 2, but delightfully plotless

Mr. Heart - university set early Korean BL exactly on brand

Takara & Amagi - high school from Japan, for this style form them you'll need to stay within the high school sphere

Star in My Mind - what people didn't like about this is what you'll like

Hidden Agenda - play it again JoongDunk

School set, and a bit higher angst but still fluffy emotional plotlessness

Generally, I put the ones I like better towards the top.

Light On Me

My School President

Oxygen the series

Destiny Seeker

2 Moons The Ambassador

Love By Chance (JUST the AePete story line)

My Love Mix Up (both)

Why R U? (Korea's version)

Cooking Crush

En of Love: Tossera

Future the series

If It’s With You AKA Kimi to nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo’

La Cuisine

My Engineer

Nitiman

Blossom Campus

Not School set

Our Dating Sim - you didn't rule our adult characters, but I don't think I'll be pulling many

Jun and Jun - although...

Our Dining Table

Ingredients the series

Bon Appetit

Oh! Boarding House - love triangle warning

See You After Quarantine?

Some More (short)

The Tasty Florida

A Boss and a Babe

You Are Ma Boy

Here's this list too, which I think is tangential:

You have to come back and tell me if I got them right, tho? Cause Sing My Crush isn't much to go on.

[heretherebedork]

Hi, since GMM has many Thai BL series, do you have favorites? If you do, what's the 10 you like most so far?

I mean, I do have favorites. Do I have ten? I'm not sure. Are they all actually good? Probably not!

Let's try this!

A Tale of a Thousand Stars: This is one of my favorite BLs of all time. I love them so much, I adore everything about this show, I love the characters and the story and the romance and the friendships and the growth. A+, you gotta watch it.

Moonlight Chicken: Another perfection. Just... absolutely amazing. This show blew my mind but in the gentlest most healing way possible. Everyone is amazing and everyone deserves an award.

The Eclipse: A gift, this show is a gift, it's absolutely fantastic and imperfect and good and fun and filled to the brim with healing and love and pain and it's very, very good. Kan and Thua might be my favorite GMMTV couple ever.

Tonhon Chonlatee: This is the only GMMTV comedy that has genuinely made me laugh. I still like it. I will always like it. I will always defend it. It's cute, it's funny, it's a fascinating journey through.

We Are: This show absolutely earned it's place on this list, what a darling show about nothing that I adored the entire way through and still miss deeply. Just boys falling in love and vibing along. No, less plot than you think.

He's Coming To Me: This is a good show, okay? It's a bit different, he is dating a ghost... but it's good and I love it and the love story doesn't have to end just because of death.

Midnight Museum: Is it actually a BL? No. Do I care? No. It's about as queer as it gets, has a canon gay romance and the main characters are in a romance-in-all-but-name.

Cherry Magic: Honestly? The Japanese version is good but I think the Thai version is actually overall better and has more growth and more interesting character moments and goes more indepth on the actual relationship as well. Very, very good.

Wandee Goodday: This show was exactly what it needed to be. Imperfect but a joy and the ending was perfectly sweet plus we got a darling ace for ace relationship in the last episode that brought me so much joy.

I don't have an actual number 10 because none of the others I liked made it on that list... but Hidden Agenda, Never Let Me Go and Dangerous Romance were all close. Also, The Warp Effect is not a BL but is SUPER queer and very good.

Anyway, there's my list of top GMMTV BLs that I have genuinely loved all the way through.

Current Top GMMTV BL: The Trainee

Most Anticipated GMMTV BL: Kidnap

[kazarinn]

I watched Last Evolution a while back and found it to be extremely grim and cynical with its talk of "potential" but i'd be willing to watch the movie again if the translation was at fault if there was a more accurate sub. I see a couple sub groups did translations for the movie, but I wasn't sure if there was one you recommended or worked on? Otherwise I'd be very interested in hearing what bothered you about the official translation, regardless of my own feelings about what I watched, but I was having a hard time finding a post on your blog that talked about it directly.

Hello! Yes, I would absolutely agree the official subs are a mess to the point I can't even recommend the movie with them. Personally, I think any of the fansubs should be fine; the one I personally had a hand in was the L Subs version (which I did not translate myself but was lightly involved with the subbing process for), but to my understanding, there is at least one other well-done one done by a fan who clearly knows and loves the series.

(I actually am tentatively interested in maybe trying it out myself in the future for the hell of it, but I'm not super pressed to do it ASAP because there are so many other things with higher priority. Other than subs of the movie itself, I also personally translated the Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of the novelization, which doesn't have a 1:1 transcription of the dialogue but is still more accurate than whatever was going on with the official translation, or at least I would like to believe.)

I haven't made a proper post breaking it down yet, but what I will say is that, as someone who has spent a long time translating for this series and has gone through the movie's dialogue multiple times (way too many times?) in Japanese, it is absolutely, 100%, for sure, not supposed to be a cynical movie. The official translation had butchered a number of things related to that, such as:

The fact that they didn't preserve the nuances related to 宿命 and 運命, an issue that my senior translator (who translated the L Subs version) and I consider to be important enough that my senior wrote about it on Twitter and I touched on it in my own discussion of Crest names. There are certain distinct contexts where the word that means "something truly unavoidable" and the word that means "something we are guided towards" come up.

The fact that Menoa's motives make no sense in the official subs; certain lines are translated to suggest the opposite of what they should, and certain lines will directly contradict each other, meaning the only thing that a viewer can get out of it is that "she wants to save everyone" and that she might even be right about her ideas (which probably doesn't help the viewing of the movie as cynical, since it sounds like Taichi and Yamato are rejecting her "good but extreme" intentions at worst and not her distorted view of the world as a whole).

The conversation between Gennai and Taichi in the middle of the movie has about two or three critical lines that are mistranslated, and those are probably some of the most important lines in terms of establishing the movie's themes, especially given the issue of "potential"/"possibility" that you mentioned.

In general (well, this has very little to do with your question, but I feel the need to vent about this anyway) the official translation is just plain klutzy about everything. There's no conscientiousness about character voice, one of the most important things in translating Digimon works. References to the original series' plot points or lore don't match up at all, and I don't get the impression the translator or editor was familiar with the original series. (Adventure tri. and The Beginning's subs had this problem too, but not to the same degree; in the case of Adventure tri., the lore was vaguely referenced or contradictory in Japanese to the extent a compliant English translation probably wouldn't have even been possible, and in the case of The Beginning, the issues were less common and less plot-relevant.) Even beyond just plot-important lines, there are far too many lines that are semantically mistranslated. All of it makes the movie an unpleasant experience to watch in terms of sheer vibe, and that's something I think is far more important than people tend to treat it as.

I will give a disclaimer that I feel obligated to give during these situations: if you did not like the movie, while I think it is highly likely that you'll enjoy it better with a properly done translation, I cannot guarantee that it'll turn your opinion over 180 degrees and make it your favorite movie ever. I am a translator before I am a literary critic, so while literary analysis is important for a translator, there is a point I have to hold back before it starts turning into my own fanfiction. But it's exactly because of this that the official translation is so poisonous, because a translator's job should be to maximize potential for readings and interpretations for others. If a work could potentially have a "nonsense interpretation" and a "sensible interpretation", and a translation outright invalidates the possibility of having the sensible interpretation because of how sloppy and nonsensical it is, it becomes a perfect example of what I've referred to as "insidiously bad translation", where it looks passable on the surface but is far more poisonous than it seems.

[bliss-wily]

of all characters why zarbon? he was weak and pointless.

EDIT: Please draw your attention to this post as it’s relevant to this one, only if you wish to as the two posts go hand in hand, but it’s important. https://www.tumblr.com/bliss-wily/743634450086264832/an-apology-it-has-come-to-my-attention-that-a

I’ll agree to disagree. Zarbon was formidable. Vegeta underestimated him, he transformed, he beat Vegeta up but didn’t kill him. Frieza was disappointed in him, but in the short amount of screen time he had in all of his appearances we learn a lot:

He was highly intelligent.

His avoidance of transforming most of the time reveals that the man had been holding back for decades if not centuries. The Raging Blast games imply it was ‘eons’.

Zarbon is a Prince, and despite being regarded as a narcissist unlike Vegeta he isn’t flaunting that title like some shiny badge.

Outside of…Dead Zone? I think? Zarbon is the first to showcase a transformation that isn’t a giant form.

And unlike the Saiyans he takes on a different appearance.

There was depth to his character, his on screen kill count is low, he was shown to be pragmatic and rather humane.

But…he was scared. Frieza threatened to kill him. That threw him off his game.

I think had Zarbon took a moment to process and clear his head he would have beaten Vegeta again. However, I still don’t think he would have killed him…I think he would have turned on Frieza.

Sure he said Frieza-sama in the Japanese version but…

If you had been saying that for decades it’s kinda hard to break the habit. I would give him the benefit of the doubt.

He’s not stupid, I think he was serious about betraying Frieza because think about it..

He served a man who had different values from him out of fear.

Zarb was pragmatic, he just wanted to take care of the source of the problem and leave everything else alone - Frieza didn’t agree.

Unlike the others the boy had a genuine look of sadness and shock when Frieza was quite happy to go through with Planet Vegeta’s destruction.

He is my favourite because there is so many layers to him. He wasn’t in the series long but he’s just so interesting. His race is unique, his personality feels unique. His fighting style was unique too. If anyone had to be revived I hope it’s either Raditz or Zarbon as those two could have been redeemed and they could have joined the Z-Fighters.

He is morally grey, but, Vegeta was down right cruel and could be redeemed. Zarbon had shown evidence of redeeming qualities in all forms of media (wanting peace, worried about Frieza gaining more power, he was self aware, with Dodoria showed remorse and shock when Planet Vegeta was blown up) and he certainly didn’t turn around and kill his closest friend/father figure. (Let’s face it, Nappa basically raised Vegeta and probably Raditz too).

Zarbon isn’t perfect, but that’s what I like to see. He had shortcomings, he was fearful but not a coward, he had phobias, but he also tried to do his job without all the collateral damage and he genuinely cares. He was shocked hearing of Dodoria dying, he gets pissy when alternate timeline Frieza starts insulting him and his ‘star subordinate’, he shows that he’s capable of jealousy and he can be thankful and apologetic.

I understand he’s branded as a narcissist because he thinks he’s beautiful but so many of his traits contradict NPD. He is empathetic, he doesn’t put himself or his own gain above others, he can take accountability for his failures. It seems more so that the other in verse characters place those traits onto him - such as when they expect that Zarbon is only using the future warrior as a slave or to do his dirty work - but he doesn’t.

“You need only watch.” - doesn’t necessarily want help from his student.

“Excellent, I’d much rather spend time with you.” - actually enjoys spending time with his student.

“This session was deeply moving for me. It would not have been possible had we not met.” - can be interpreted in several ways. However; it sounds like a bond is developing.

“I welcome any and all who know how to conduct themselves.” - this is said to a Saiyan, implies that his detest is by person, not an entire race.

“You handled yourself pretty well out there too. My compliments.” - he is always handing out praise to his student. But not just them, there are soldiers on the ship who sound so happy that Zarbon compliments them unlike Frieza and Dodoria.

“Magnificent! You’ve done well to come this far! You’ve done your instructor proud!” - again, actually being happy for his student.

“I am dazzled by your radiance!” - this is just showing more and more depth to this man. I get Zarbon is entitled but he’s a Prince, they’re all a bit entitled.

Some more quotes seeing as I have a ton of screenshots~

“You are my prized trainee!”

“Starting now I will polish you into the most beautiful gem the universe has ever seen!”

“Yes! Yes! You’re just as beautiful as I imagined you’d be!”

“You have my apologies. I should not be so passionate in front of my trainee.”

“Your fighting style is truly elegant. So elegant, in fact, that I’ve fallen in love with it, just watching you train.”

“You are a true diamond in the rough…”

“But several will try to woo you, given your considerable strength, and I wouldn’t want you to choose the wrong master.”

Below, Zarbon being nice and a bit of tsundere/flirt. This game seemed like a dating sim at times.

Then him when it’s life or death with his closest ally by his side.

Also I notice in this fight he will throw himself in front of the future warrior several times. He always gets knocked out every time I do this fight as he won’t let the player get hurt - every other mentor I’ve done this with tends to make it to the end on all versions of the game but Zarbon really puts his neck out there for the player. Whether it’s a glitch in the AI or not; I don’t know. But, it plays into his characterisation.

Anyway I went on a ramble, but why Zarbon? So many reasons. The more lore they add; the more I like him. He’s a complex character in my opinion.

EDIT: Please draw your attention to this post as it’s relevant to this one, only if you wish to as the two posts go hand in hand, but it’s important. https://www.tumblr.com/bliss-wily/743634450086264832/an-apology-it-has-come-to-my-attention-that-a

[strawberryicemoon]

Why I can't watch the Ducktales Finale

I'm not the kind of person who struggles to watch the last episode of something. I love to finish a show, and let it sit in my brain. I'm the kind of person who often enjoys spoilers because it adds to my understanding of the media. I love to view the media in their entirety just as much as I love a journey to get there.

But I can't get past the first few minutes of Ducktales 2017, The Last Adventure. And it's because of spoilers that I couldn't deal with. I don't like them, and even years later after I've had time to digest, and have seen so many finale clips, that I still can't just sit down and watch it. And I've made attempts. I've looked through the summary of the episode to prepare. But I can't.

And there's... a couple of things that rub me the wrong way about the Finale that keep me from being able to just watch it.

1. Webby is Scrooge's Clone Daughter

2. Webby is April, of April May and June

3. Donald and Daisy are going on vacation.

Now, I don't actually hate any of these... conceptually. And I'm well aware that Frank Angones has stated the Webby twist was planned from very early on. And usually I am completely down for whatever a finale is, as long as I can tell that this was something the creator really believed in.

I'm a fan of such "controversial" endings as, Amphibia and Digimon Adventure 02, because I know exactly why they ended like that. It's written in the themes. Even if it took me time to understand Adventure's ending, I've grown to understand it and love it once I learned more about the original Japanese version and the shows production (and also grew up myself). Amphibia ended exactly as I expected based on one of the very earliest things I heard about the show from Matt Braly: "an ode to past friendships". Even if I think there are things they messed up I GET IT. I wouldn't want them ending any other way.

So I understand WHY the decision is made. Conceptually it does make sense. Webby exists as a composite character of April May and June, and I believe shares the same name as April in one language. Webby being Scrooge's clone daughter is an effective way of full-circling her relationship with him. Strangers in each other's home to father and daughter. She's family not BECAUSE of Blood, but because of Love. She still loves her Granny, it's just the non blood relationship wasn't the one she thought it was. And Donald deserves a vacation, and to have the more down to earth life experiences he wanted, especially after raising his sisters kids alone for 10 years.

But they still twist me up inside.

And I think it comes down to three reasons: 1. Lack of Continuity between episodes 2. An over-focusing on Scrooge 3. Handling of Word of God

1. Lack of Continuity between episodes Part of what got me to fall in love with Ducktales was S1 and the continuity of the Spear of Selene subplot. We got hints at a semi-regular pace, but it successfully overhung the entire series. It was what separated Scrooge and Donald. It was why Della was gone. The subject matter was of course not something that needed to be overstated, as most of it was being kept hush hush. Sure it was a mystery, but not an urgent one. Dewey had never had his mom, so it wasn't like he couldn't focus on anything else for a while

But in S2 I started noticing that the show stopped explaining or foreshadowing things. Maybe it always did, I haven't re watched it properly. But I definitely noticed something off about the storytelling then. But it was definitely a problem throughout the show.

Webby never brought up Lena after her sacrifice until the relevant episode.

Lena living with the Sabrewings was something never brought up until episodes later we saw her with them.

We had Della talking about the boys with their "Uncles" setting up the pain of not knowing how things fell apart after her departure, only to get no payoff.

We didn't get ANYTHING about Webby's parentage until the final episode, and barely a hint in 1 season 3 episode.

Almost every finale episode changes the status quo in some way. The question is how much. Lots of final episodes kind of have things going back to the way they were before plot kicked off but better (like with new friends or a new government). Sometimes someone dies.

Webby being Scrooge's clone is paradigm shifting. And that kind of thing needs to be set up. You CANNOT catch your audience off guard with something like that.

In Digimon Adventure 02 the series ends with everyone on earth with a digimon partner which is controversial but at least built up throughout the series at hints of other digidestined until an arc near the end showcased many international digidestined. Hilda ends with the reveal that Hilda's mother is half-fairy, and despite not being present throughout the first two seasons, it was hinted at through the third season, and contextualized some of the few things we did know before about Johanna's childhood. The Hollow's first season ends with you finding out it was all a game, but it had been hinted at before with the video game nature of the world. Sure Avatar didn't hint at Aang getting the power to take away bending, but we knew he was a pacifist who didn't want to kill so was looking for a solution, getting the power to remove bending (ie power over others) works thematically, in the same way Anne using the power of the stones and getting brought back to life by a god like being worked. Sure, Scratch turning out to be a wraith at the end of The Ghost and Molly McGee was rather sudden, but people had been theorizing that Todd was Scratch's body for a long time, so it wasn't like there weren't any hints, and while the show was cut short and had to rush to end, the build up of Scratch's memories at least gave some sort of foreshadowing link to what was going on.

There's a reason people rarely throw in new characters at the very end of a show. It can absolutely work. Amphibia and The Owl House threw in "God" at the end, but that gets a pass for being the kind of figure they meet once and then move on with their lives. On the other side, you can sometimes have secret big bads that were pulling the strings the whole time too. I can't speak for the finale of Ducktales (because again, can't bring myself to watch it), but adding two new characters on top of changing the entire dynamic of how the family is set up at the very end of the show does not sit well with me. We won't get to see how this change in status quo effects the characters. We saw how learning about their mom affected the boys relationship with Scrooge, her return and having to build a relationship with her and her presence conflicting with Launchpad's. But we don't get that with Scrooge and Webby? Basically too many status quo shifts in the finale all at once.

All we got was Beakley was a spy, was overprotective of Webby, and a few episodes before the end it was revealed Beakley was lying to her. Webby didn't seem to care about her parents. And this was a girl who was very dedicated to unraveling the secrets of clan mcduck. Couldn't they have had one hint at some point in the show where it was unclear if it was the boys or Webby who were recognized as a McDuck? Some offhand mention where the boys ask her about HER parents, because she helped them with her mom?

You couldn't tell what was or was not going be important in the way they dropped. It's very hard to set your expectations when you had no clue what to expect. And while there is something to be said for unexpected surprises and twists in a story, an audience really needs to know what is or is important or they're going to go on wild goose chases and get disappointed when they build up hype for something the show then refuses to address.

In HINDSIGHT, I find it extremely odd that Huey and Louie, prior to finding out about Dewey's investigations, did not pry at ALL into the fact that hey: if Donald was an adventurer with Scrooge, then he had to know their mom. Like that’s weird right?

2. An over-focusing on Scrooge Scrooge is the Center of the Universe.

I'm not a Disney Ducks fan. Aside from 2017, and pop culture osmosis, I know very little. But the thing is I am someone whose first inclination once I become a fan of something is to check out the wiki pages for information. Find about what longstanding fan mysteries there are. I understand the importance of cross continuity callbacks. I'm a fan of other longstanding series and have rubbed elbows with several others. I get really long franchises with several iterations.

Which is to say that I, despite not having a horse in this race, understand how this works and how it should work.

Now a bit of this is the fact Ducktales is ABOUT Scrooge. But Scrooge isn't the center of the Duck universe. Something I find pretty interesting is the fact that Donald has reasonably fleshed out family trees on both sides of his family. That's cool. That's how real people work, a meeting point of the stories of those who came before. But Ducktales doesn't care, the only adult the show cares about is him. I get that to a certain extent it was the show execs insisting on focusing on the kids. And again, he's kind of the main character. But you brought back Donald, and Della. There are other characters here with rich lives, he doesn't need to take over everything.

It's especially egregious ANY time the McDuck clan gets involved. Could Matilda be the youngest child now? Sure. But that's a really arbitrary change, that they don't use for anything. And even if that was purposeful, the fact is that the first thing they established is Donald's mom is still Scrooge's sister, so Donald is the grandson of Fergus and Downy McDuck. Not nephew? Surely they could recognize him? But where is Hortense and Quackmore? They brought them up in the first episode, and then they never made any appearances aside from references. Why were Donald and Della staying with Scrooge for Christmas? Never clarified. Fans (reasonably) assumed they were dead. Scrooge called Donald his ward (admittedly when he also called him Fergus and Downy’s nephew rather than grandson). I mean where else would they be when their DAUGHTER DISAPPEARED. Would they not want to meet their grandchildren? But that was never clarified. And I've seen some fans alternatively interpret them as bad parents, which I think is just really unfair. Scrooge gets to be the good parent? It's once again Scrooge to the rescue. The CAPITALIST? I mean it's also a little bit just a family issue in general: It's Uncle Gladstone and Cousin Fethry when they are theoretically the same: technically cousins but old enough to be honorary uncles. It's fair enough. But really that brings us to the Duck family in general.

Grandma Duck? What about Gladstone and Fethry's parents? Gus Goose? Are they all dead? Does Fethry have any siblings? Do the boys not know or not care about the Duck side of the family? They know Gladstone but no one else? I mean Scrooge's parents, who should be dead, were magically kept alive but nothing for the duck family. Speaking of which, they constantly bring up how old Scrooge and occasionally refer to the causes of his supernatural age, but that does not explain how young Donald and Della are compared to him. Overall, we get nothing on the Duck family except for its existence at least, so even removed from the context of Disney Ducks legacy its weird to introduce a side of the family and just gloss over it.

The one episode about the Duck family legacy is a Webby episode. Which, fine, she's not a Duck, but she's part of the family. Except wait. She's Scrooge's daughter/clone, and you gave her the focus on the one episode about the Duck family not the McDuck's? You couldn't leave Scrooge out of anything?

So for Webby's great twist in the finale, was taking not just one, but two characters NOT related to Scrooge (April and Webby), and tying them to Scrooge. I think I could deal with Webby being April, and (HUGE MAYBE) Webby being Scrooge’s clone or April being Scrooge’s clone but not both. Not to mention April, May and June are DAISY's nieces... not random three girls who are her boyfriends uncles clone and and boyfriends uncles clones clone? It doesn't sit right with me that a character who I thought was supposed to be learning that he was sometimes in the wrong, and not the center of morality (see how he made Glomgold a villain through his own ego), continue to be made the center of the universe in ways he simply shouldn't be.

He's literally an old rich guy. Like there is historical context for why this character is like this, but why does the world revolve around him in this show.

3. Word of God Word of God is useful. As are interviews and statements made by the creator. It helps to provide insight into the themes. I love seeing the person behind the art.

But here's the thing. Word of God is clarification, insight into how you should look at the work to set expectations. It's supplementary. It doesn't replace text.

This is a little bit difficult to really talk about now that I'm several years removed from the experience, so grain of salt and all, but I really think the way Word of God was handled did the show a disservice.

Back to Lena becoming a Sabrewing, we didn't get that in show. Lena just dropped off the face of the earth, not until S3’s premier we got a clarification on that in show.

We never got Della's reaction to learning that Donald and Scrooge were estranged, she just suddenly stopped speaking under that assumption.

So Word of God became an essential part of understanding the text, because a lot of necessary information was left unexplained by the canon its a huge problem. And Word of God is often fluid. It can be changed later if during the writing process something changes. (We should probably cover this topic in show and want to do it a bit differently, I have a great Idea of what we can do to turn that error into foreshadowing, I was lying to the fans to keep a secret).

But when word of god is necessary, word of god becomes essential for tempering expectations about the show.

This is probably going to be less of an issue for people who come and watch the show later. Sure, things are still unexplained, but when you can binge the show Lena's unexplained absence is less obvious, you're so busy moving on to other things that Della's change in understanding about the situation is clearly unimportant and you can move on.

But what ended up happening is that Frank Angones struggled to balance clarifications, keeping show secrets, and a sometimes changing story. Which sometimes left characters completely sure on where the story was sitting, only for it to be ripped out from under them. Also, tying back to the first point, of plot points being dropped until the episode where they where they were relevant made it VERY difficult to tell what was or wasn’t going to be relevant, and what emotional beats to get emotionally invested in.

Prior to the finale there was a bit of a community of Webby/Triplet shippers. Personally, I see that as a complete dismissal of the themes of the show and a bit heteronormative. I avoided all such content. But at the same time, shipping doesn't hurt anyone. At the end of the day, the boys and Webby were not related by blood, and hadn't even met until age 10. There wasn't... really a reason you couldn't ship them. There are TONS of shows out there with 10 year old characters and love interests. Just off the top of my head: Any Ship with Ash Ketchum, Sprigivy, Phinabella, Kenyako, Sorato. Even if they don't get together at 10, (or at all) the fact of the matter is 10 year olds getting shipped is old news. I'm still attached to Pokeshipping and Takari to this day, even if I tend to see them more as platonic relationships these days. So I avoided all shipping with them, but I understood why people (particularly younger people) were shipping them. Until the finale hit, and the ships that people thought never going to be canon, but were safe, weren't. To a certain extent, that's the game you play with shipping clearly noncanonical ships. But I feel that the way questions about shipping were answered didn't help, because iirc he tended to say the show wouldn't focus on that more than he explicitly stated the kids were family. He called Webby/Triplet shipping highly unlikely for example, giving it more legitimacy than a no, which leant to it being taken as a solid fact prior to the finale that Webby was definitely not related to the boys, because a lot of what else was said was solid fact.

4. (Bonus): of course, I do also feel it kind of isn't enough to justify breaking the found family. So much of Webby's arc was being accepted into the family. Becoming the 4th triplet. So for her to have been blood all along is a little cheap. Sure it doesn't break the becoming family despite blood before. But, having meta-knowledge of Launchpad probably finding family with Gosalyn and Drake Mallard, it's just Beakley whose left as not blood related (and she's technically the help...). And yeah, there's the Granny/Grandaughter adopted relationship. But....

Webby is one of four kids. Again, she became one of the kids. So yeah. I'm happy that she became one of the kids. Able to call him uncle scrooge. But it feels weird to me that she, the kid who already lived in the manor with Scrooge even if they kept their distance, displaced the triplets as Scrooge's natural heirs. The uncle relationships in this show being parental/grandparental was already good. Not all families look the same, some people parent their siblings' kids for one reason or another. Scrooge's presumed "heirs' ' was his sister's descendants, not his, but he loved them like his own. That's good. So to not only break the "not blood related at all" to "actually daughter", kind of ALSO meant a "my niblings are my legacy" got overtaken with "my daughter is my legacy".

And maybe I'd feel less sour about it if we had more time after the show. But on a fundamental level it didn't just alter Webby's place in the family, but her grandmother's, and the Duck Twins and Triplets. Again, especially with the triplets. I wanted the four of them to become functional equals. The 4th triplet. But for her to have a secret Scrooge connection that overtakes the one she was jealous of the triplets of having doesn't sit right to say the least.

I feel I could get over this one, especially maybe if they gave us more time. But it just didn't make it worth it to me.

5. (Bonus Bonus): Now I don't use the term Mary Sue lightly. But what I do think of canon Mary Sueism is a tendency to make female characters on predominately male casts "special" in some way to justify their presence. They have to be the level headed smart ones and the ones with . They have to be likable so they're robbed of character. I wouldn't say Webby is a particularly bad example of this, and it's not like Ducktales lacks other flawed female characters (Della my beloved).

But the way Webby is treated reminds me of April from TMNT 2012, and Allura from Voltron Legendary Defender (and kinda Larmina from Voltron Force). All are 80s characters in shows that had a predominately male cast of characters, and who were both an outsider, and defined by being a girl. And then the reboot both doubled down on making them special, integrating them into the group more, but also making them generally tougher the boys in some way, and also sometimes more in the know about things. Webby is aged up to match the boys age rather than aged down to match the boys age like April but the effect is still the same.

The girl is now a peer to the boys, 4th triplet, rather than a little sister. Webby is more capable and well-read than any of the boys. And at the start of the series she's socially awkward enough it feels like it will work. And I'm not saying Webby isn't flawed, she is. But when it comes to the things the family finds important: adventuring, she doesn't have any obvious shortcomings. Louie quits easily and isn't as coordinated, Dewey is reckless and generally uneducated, and Huey isn't flexible. And Webby... used to be socially awkward???

It’s kinda trading 1 sexist trope for another. And yeah, all shows do have OTHER female characters who kind of avert this. But it doesn’t change the fact the leading lady is more “special” than the boys. Like being a girl has to be special.

In short, at the end of the day Webby being Scrooge's daughter doesn't help her character, her grandmothers, or the rest of the family. It kinda helps Scrooge’s character, but while I haven’t seen the episode myself, I’m not sure there would be enough time for it to be meaningful. And again, I think a lot of the characterization and worldbuilding of other characters were already sacrificed for Scrooge’s sake in the show already.

Oh and the Donald/Daisy thing.

The reason Daisy/Donald's trip doesn't sit right with me is we barely got any Donald and Della having to coparent. Get used to each other again. We barely got any of them and we're heading back into separation. It doesn’t feel cathartic when we still have unanswered questions from this stage in their life. And even if the trip is well, a trip. It feels weird.

It feels kind of unexpectedly "conventional family", even if it's still really unconventional. Donald is going to go be happy with his love interest, away from the boys he raised who aren't actually his sons (and yes, I know he takes May and June with him but still, knowing that May and June are by default Daisy's nieces kind of has "new kids with new wife" implications to me but that's neither here nor there). Adding this to "Webby being Scrooge's daughter is a good plot point for him" and it's just really weird, and kind of feels like the final nail in the nontraditional family dynamics coffin. If feel only way they could have buried it more is if Beakley died or something.

I was already kinda uncomfortable with the “Daisy being the only one to understand him” thing because like. That’s sweet. His soulmate is the only one who really hears him. But also that’s a fucking speech impediment Donald has. Are you telling me that no one in his family cared enough to effectively communicate with him despite his disability? Like if it is REALLY that much a problem he should have an effective communication method. Sign-language for example?

The triplets he raised don’t always understand him. His twin sister doesn’t always understand him? But this random woman does? I am all for Daisy and Donald being basically soulmates. But uh? This feels both ableist and allonormative in a show that really wasn’t those things before. (well okay it was kinda ableist about Donald but it felt less weird to me when there wasn’t one person who could magically understand Donald). And Daisy understanding him still could be a big thing? The first person who understood him without getting to know him first/wasn’t literally raising him/raised with/raised by him?

I want to like Daisy so much, but she just feels a bit like Webby does: a legacy female character they are trying to make too cool, who gets some of their coolness incidentally defined by a male character, rather than a full-fledged character on their own. (For instance if we saw Daisy with anyone other than Donald, her overbearing boss and… whatever Storkules is). 

I feel some of these may have been resolved with more time. But some of these problems had their seeds planted as early as S1. That said I think if the quality of S1 was maintained they would have been fine. Overall, I think Ducktales is a good reboot, and a good show, but it really could have been better. Was so close to being better.

[takosan]

What happens to Arikoto is so tragic I had to stop watching Ooku for a bit. It was just too hard to watch.

Spoilers below; TW rape

Eventually I did finish watching Ooku and have too many thoughts buzzing in my head.

First of all, Arikoto is voiced to perfection by Mamoru Miyano in the Japanese version. Just the softest and most gentle intonations reflecting Arikoto’s personality so well. (The voice was so familiar and when I looked him up, I realized he’d also done Chrollo in Hunter x Hunter - another favorite character!)

Throughout the series, other men in the Ooku constantly remark on Arikoto’s shining presence and his dignified mien. There is a divine light about him in the ugly world of the ooku, court politics, and the threat of the plague. Even though he is forced to renounce his vows as a monk, he remains a caregiver at heart. We see this when he tends carefully and alone to Kasuga in her last days (despite everything she put him through). He is also the only one who takes care of the men dying of the red face pox inside the Ooku. He takes care of those who have been abandoned. But I also think this caregiving is a form of penance for the guilt he carries (the monk, sexworkers and others who were killed because of him).

It is his kindness that first draws him to Chie (pretending to be Iemitsu) despite her cruelty (more on that in another post). Arikoto’s love for Chie was such a tragic romance. He is forced into the Ooku after confinement and rape. He is forced to renounce his vows by Kasuga so that he can father Chie’s children. He ends up falling in love with Chie and wants to be with her - in more ways than one. And after all that violence, it turns out that he is …infertile. The universe is an unfair one and this was just a devastating blow. Arikoto is a changed man by the end of the show but his kindness and regard for life and people remains true. He can no longer wear the clothing of a monk but it was his calling to tend to those who needed him and he stays true to that calling to the end.

Although he is forced into the Ooku, in the end, he is chained to the Ooku not out of duress but due to the bonds of love. He stays in the Ooku to be with Chie, and later to fulfill her dying wish to be a father figure to her daughter. In trying to give the men in the Ooku purpose and some measure of joy, he actually ends up formalizing the system that we see as harmful in the first episode of the show.

Personally I found it hard to tell what Arikoto is feeling by the end of the show. His grief over Chie’s death (at a very young age) may be tempered by the fact that she is now free of the roles she was forced into. In the end they can’t keep their promise to die together. Does he care for Chie’s daughter out of filial love, or to fulfill Chie’s wish, or out of his inherent desire to be there for those who need him? Does he find meaning in becoming the chief administrator for the Ooku because he can now create structure and purpose for the other men? Is he at peace with his decision to stay in the Ooku? Is he numbed by everything he has faced in his life? In the end his gentle smile and calm demeanor reveal nothing of his true emotions.

Buckle in if you want to watch this show. The story is well told and heart rending in every episode.

[miss0atae]

Final Thoughts about My Love Mix-Up TH:

Even though I never really made "random thoughts" for this series every week, I watched all episodes. I'm a big fan of the manga (I still need to read the last volume though) and I also like the Japanese version of the story. I was truly excited to watch the Thai version. I'm the kind of people who like remake. I feel it's always interesting to see how the story will be interpreted through another culture or view.

The series, at the beginning, was really following the story. They made few change here and there, but it was okay. I really liked the change they made with the teacher when they decided to make him gay instead of being homophobic. Even if it dismissed Atom's rightful fear. I still think they could have handled it better, but no story is perfect. All the other changes didn't really change the core of the story. I would say I enjoyed watching it. It was a cute romance with a dear story I already knew.

It was nice... but I don't think I would re-watch it. This is probably the only negative point I could say about the series. Let me explain. Usually, when I really like a series, I know I will want to watch it again and again. Even if I know all the plot, it doesn't matter to me. I don't need to be in a state of "discovery" (if that makes sense). Most of the time, I prefer when I know where the story goes. It is good for my anxiety to know what is going to happen. So, for me, a very very good series, it's something I enjoy and that I would watch again. Unfortunately, I enjoyed My Love Mix-Up TH, but I won't feel the need to watch it again.

I also feel like Fourth and Gemini need to do more "mature" role. I feel they already did the "cute high schooler/ coming-of-age" type of role in My School President. I liked them in this story. It was cute and warm-hearted. Their best performance for me, remains in Moonlight Chicken. I would like to see them play in a story with a darker tone. Don't get me wrong, they did their part in My Love Mix-Up TH. However, the story may not have been the more suited to show their true acting. They did their best and it was good. I still wish for more.

Pahn Pathitta really impressed me. She was the perfect Mudmee. She was as good as Fukumoto Riko in this role. They both really embodied their character. I wanted to root for them and for their character to get with their crush. I can't wait to see Pahn playing in another series.

The rest of the cast did well. I especially liked the actress who played Atom's mom. The last part when he confessed he was dating Kongthap was really emotional. The actress did so well. I felt like crying to, just like her. Usually I fell for the BL grandma, but this time my MVP was Atom's mom.

Kieta Hatsukoi will remain my favorite version of My Love Mix-Up, but the Thai remake deserves to be watched. It is a nice story and the changes they made, even if they could be improved, remain interesting (I still think they could have showed us Annop's wedding, but at least we know he is getting married. Let's not be greedy).

[kalena-henden]

Lee Je Hoon's Chief Detective 1958 starts today. Can't wait to watch! I enjoyed him in Taxi Driver and really want to watch through his filmography eventually.

Lovely Runner is knocking my socks off! Byeon Wook Seok and Kim Hye Yoon are killing both the comedy and the drama. Wook Seok is the cutest loser in love! The mystery and unexpected twists are fun and interesting. I hope this quality storytelling continues. I'm on the edge of my seat.

I only have 3 episodes left of Love Me Love My Voice which has been wonderful and heartwarming. I love the main romance but the friendships and secondary romances have been given ample time to shine as well. I'm always here a good found family. I really like how the dramatic readings and song perfomances have been carefully woven into the story to further the character development. Definitely recommend.

Now we come to our debrief on The Smile Has Left Your Eyes. Whoa, what a rollercoaster. The first half was interesting with many characters' selfish and dark intentions mixed with a little mystery were set up in contrast to our optimistic, self-sacrificing female lead. However, the second half drowned in major events happening and then being dismissed as if they never happened, multiple secret keepers refusing to tell the secret multiple times an episodes even when asked point blank when the answers could stop so many bad things from happening, and the existential dread I felt about what the big reveal was going to be only for it to completely dismissed. (FYI I found out what I thought was going to be the big reveal IS the actual reveal in the darker Japanese version it's based on.) After episode 14, I wasn't sure I could continue watching the show. But after a night of uneasy sleep, I decided to finish it the next morning on double speed to get through it. I did watch the last 10 minutes at regular speed. While there were some well done things about their relationship in the second half, it couldn't save the show for me even though I went in knowing this was not an HEA. Overall, I was just left feeling angry and exhausted. As a Seo In Guk fan, this was a show I had long wanted to see, just to find out what my opinion on it would be. I'm sad that the SIG fanmeet has been post-poned, hopefully I will be able to make the next date. But this means I feel okay to stop my SIG show binging so I will not be watching Hello Monster anytime soon. I'm actually impressed with how much of SIG's filmography I've already seen (7 shows as a ML, 4 shows as a cameo, and 1 movie). I'm pretty sure it's more than I've seen any other kdrama actor or actress.

After a bad experience at the new dentist yesterday, where the hygienist manhandled my teeth and they tried to upsell me on services, I was in need of a comfort rewatch. I've been thinking alot about Lee Jun Young lately and decided to break out the first thing I ever saw him in, Imitation. I was only going to watch a few favorite parts from an episode or two and ended up binging my favorite parts of most of the series. lol I really hope his upcoming Cinderella romcom with Pyo Ye Jin is going to be good.

I slowly picked Vigilante back up again this week and was excited to see Lee Joon Hyuk's character finally emerge to add a boost of energy and chaos to the story.

Now that I've got some time and the second half of the series has finally dropped, I will continue watching Chae Jong Hyeop's Eye Love You.

[seeminglyseph]

Swear my brain is like. “Hey, you should try and figure out a way to make an essay out of the topic of how cool Wind Breaker’s expression of Masculinity is”

And like. Thanks brain I want to have the best case scenario of a YouTube career be “nobody watches you” but also like. I think I would have to talk about the manga a lot because a) the manga only character profiles lend a considerable amount to my analysis. Those grooming products are so vital to characterization. It’s like. I know you can’t fit whole character’s grooming habits into a story organically so fitting them into character profiles makes perfect sense, and it works its way into the design elements of the characters anyway so it’s often stuff you can imply about the characters based on appearance and design. But sometimes it defies what the design tells you about the character, like Sugishita looks like a scruffy hooligan. But instead he’s a guy who gets a hair treatment once a month and has a brand of day-to-day hair care that is recognizable enough that it was censored in the notes. I just don’t know it because I don’t know Japanese beauty products very well. (If I do an essay I’ll do the research I promise, I haven’t decided yet, right now I’m just sitting outside navel gazing about a series I’m fixated about)

But I figure if I let the anime have its finale, which is looking to be a hook for the Keel Arc which I kinda figured, it was the next major arc coming up. And it will take me more than a considerable amount of time to even start let alone complete, people will have time to decide to read the manga if they want more information and I can can give spoiler warnings and start with a discussion of Shishitoren some I do adore them extremely.

And if it takes time maybe some manga stuff will wrap up and I’ll have some manga stuff to say about Shishitoren that is like. Further exploration of the community building through healing and understanding. The “No Man Is An Island” theme of Wind Breaker is really interesting and I really enjoy it, and I also enjoy the concept of like… “you aren’t being a man wrong if you aren’t being a bastard about it”??? Like. Obviously it’s a fighting anime, so people fight and have flaws and hurt people, but that’s not like… proof of them being bad people. But like… also being gay or feminine or liking stuff other people don’t like or being a nerd or concerned about your appearance or being sick or being weak… like that doesn’t make you a “bad man” either. It’s like… there’s a million billion different ways to be a man. And they all count and matter and make the whole stronger for being included. And it’s just that this show is about teenage boys learning to become men, and most of these boys have been pretty fucked up and hurt but like, they just wanna be accepted and loved and respected do good. And like. I love ‘em.

Sakura didn’t think there was a world where he could do good, and is learning so fast that not only is there, but he’s in it and now he’s responsible. And he likes it??? And it’s that’s like. Intimidating and scary. Which might actually be more terrifying than being alone. Being afraid of losing people he likes. The worst. Uggghhhh the Keel Arc has one of the best moments.

God Clover Works do not fuck us with this season 2. Tell me you learned your lesson about season twos from the neverland show. Do not fuck me with the Keel Arc. I need my feral cat child to have his feral cat moment. I need Suo to have his fucking “you won’t like me when I’m angry” moment. I need this. I mean I also need to eventually get to Tsubaki and the like… man I keep calling them El Tango de Roxanne and The Communist Child Mafia. The first one not officially, the song just plays in my head, but like it’s hard to get that across in text and like. It’s not the Police version it’s the Moulin Rouge version, because like it’s clearly the superior version obvs. And due to this being text and any video being likely to require copyright, there’s no way any version of my subconscious association will translate. I know those gangs have their own names I’ll remember on a reread, that arc confused the shit put me in the Pepe Silvia Conspiracy Spiral that is “this is a dystopian hellscape” because like. The Communist Child Mafia was like… sure, within the realm of possibility, but like. Definitely kind of wild. And the Red Light Crew were like. “What the fuck do you mean you are teenagers you assholes?!? You’re fucking bald. That is not a teenager. What?!? Oh he works at the host clubs?!?? But of course he doesn’t drink! That was my first concern of course. That he was drinking.”

I feel like I need to do so much research but I don’t even know what to research. Like. That arc still like, it in no way defies the theme of “No Man is An Island” or “There Is No Innately Incorrect Form of Masculinity” but like. The worldbuilding questions it poses. I don’t know if I’m even supposed to ask them. I might be the wrong one. This might all be reasonable and o just like… misunderstood the setting because like. A couple things could reasonably clear up a few things. Like… a few natural disasters and poor infrastructure and the city being located in an area with poor government oversight and like. Most people in Japan are aware that area has that problem locally. But as someone not in Japan I’m not aware of that history so I’m not aware of that one simple contextual clue that makes like… everything click into place. Because there are things that make me suspect aspects of that but like. I don’t just wanna throw my own bias onto things, you know?

Well I guess I do because that’s the point of an essay. You create a thesis and then you argue for it based on your own biases and how you think the text backs it up, plus maybe some arguments from other texts or anecdotes from life or whatever.

Idk. I might be losing coherence. Ideas out of momentum for now. Need to collect more data.

[alpaca-clouds]

When White (or allistic?) people travel...

I am gonna travel a bit next week. Well, "a bit" really means: I am gonna dip across the border for a few days into the Netherlands (I am living really close to the border) and bike around a bit. At least as long as the weather is gonna play along.

But it has reminded me of this one thing I always saw when I was traveling.

And I am to this day not entirely sure whether it is a white people thing or an allistic people thing. And that is this need to travel often into a fantasy land.

Now, there are those people who will travel to some hotel ressort and hang at the beach for ten days. Which is valid. Laziness is a myth. All power to you. Just consider to maybe not do it on indigenous land. (No, really. The gif is there for a reason. Do not travel to Hawai'i.)

But there is this other kind of travel happening too. The travel, where you wanna see this other country - but not as it really is, but this idealized fantasy version of it.

I most often saw this in relation with Japan. Because let's face it. A ton of people, who are into Japan, are into Japan because of anime and the stuff they have "learned" through anime, with maybe some Japanese self-mythology put into it when it comes to stuff like honor and samurai and what not. And then they travel to Japan and are very, very disappointed, because the Japan they arrive in is not anime!Japan, but just another place. Another speck of earth so to speak. Where just normal people live, not anime characters. Sure, there are cool shrines and temples to visit. But all in all it is just a place like any other. It is not fantasy.

But it is a thing I have seen with a lot of white people travelling. They do not want to visit a place but the fantasy version of that place. Like, with Hawai'i they wanna go palm beach, hula dancing, aloha and what not. They do not wanna go to a place where the indigenous population is exploitated and gets further and further pushed from their land. If they go to South Africa, they wanna go to this trendy place, watch some whales and what not, not see the rampant poverty and crime. Or when they go visit Greece, they wanna see that country with those nice ruins and stuff, eat some good food, and once again not be confronted with the poverty.

I still remember when I was a teenager and got send onto this Christian youth trip to Corfu, Greece. Now, it was knda funny, because it was a Christian youth trip - but our hostel was right next to the local brothel. But the pimp was actually a super nice guy, just so you know. Like, I got bullied on that trip by some of the other teens and at one time he just threatened those bullies to set his dog onto them, before inviting me and my friends over for dinner.

Now, the entire trip was two weeks and every day there was the option to go somewhere. Either to the beach or to see some sights. I did not go along. Partly because of the bullying, partly because I never got the idea of "seeing the sights". Instead I made friends with some local kids and hung out with them. At times I went with them on some trips they did with their families... And the irony is: I have seen much more of that island than anyone else on that trip. Just not... the ruins and stuff, that everyone else wanted to see. But I saw a farm where I got to taste some fresh honey, got a street dog to the vet, somehow ended up on a small fishing boat, was at a party where a kid got babtized, and visited a couple of villages that usually tourists just drive through. I learned a lot about the place and how the people live there.

And I do realize that it is not feasable for everyone from that group of 60 teens to just do that. I get that. But I also have to wonder... What is the value to visit the same ruin that has already been photographed like 2 million times?

Again, I get hanging at the beach. I do. But... looking at stuff that I can look at online? Yeah, no.

I guess what my rambling is aiming at...

Tourism kinda sucks. And even the entire idea, that it somehow helps the communities just does not really match the reality. Because the truth is that the money generated through communism mostly gets gobbled up by big companies, while the tourism at the touristy places also makes everything more expensive for the people who actually live their.

And tourists just do not want to see the people actually living there. They are not interested in the real place. Just in a fantasy. A fantasy that the tourism sector tries to uphold.

But it is... not really good, is it?

Like, hundreds of people or even thousands visiting either ruins or cultural heritage sites is not actually a good thing. It harms the environment and everything. And in the end it also hurts the people actually living around it. And they kinda have more of a right to be there than any tourist.

We really need to rethink how we travel and how we vacation. Because this isn't it.

[megamattzx]

I technically found a way to write, #GoBul, #GoChi, and #VegeBul all existing simultaneously without the need for cheating or polyamory if I wanted to. It might not be something you expected or thought about.

I don't know what's even more terrifying. The fact that I'm willing to take creative liberties or that some of the creative liberties I've taken have given me ways to implement certain ships without being detrimental to the canon ships.....

For context, because of an idea I've already had, I can technically write a GoBul story that still features GoChi and VegeBul, if I wanted to. An alternate universe Canon divergence is all I would require to do so. Something I've already done.

And it's the same reason why I can implement GoChi and a Goku x OC ship, as well as a vegebul and Bulma x OC ship, for the same reasons I just mentioned. An au will be all that would be required for it. And it's actually quite scary how I can pull it off.

It's scary to imagine the fact that I can make all three of these ships applicable to a story without needing polyamory or infidelity in any way, and also have VegeBul and GoChi involved in the GoBul story. I've literally done this to myself.

By reimagining three characters, for my stories with an original take of these characters, I have technically given myself plenty of ideas that I could theoretically do. And it wouldn't even be very difficult to explain either. All it will require is an AU and Canon divergence.

And this would actually be because I reimagined three characters at the very least that actually are related to gochi or vegebul depending on which character it is. And it's actually characters from The 100-Year Time Skip that I reimagined.

And obviously, this wouldn't be the official versions, of all these characters because of the fact that I reimagined them completely and altered them to the point where they could actually be considered OCs, but I don't believe that's justification to call them OCs completely.

Because they're not, their reimaginings and original takes of pre-existing characters. These characters already exist and I reimagine them to fit a story because I wanted to do something that was kind of unique in that sense. And oh boy the things I can do with this fact.

And in case I haven't made them obvious enough, these characters are as follows, Goku Jr, Vegeta Jr, and Bulma Leigh. Now most of you can probably understand who Goku Jr and Vegeta Jr are if you've watched the Heroes Legacy or the ending of GT.

In the original appearance of these three characters, all three of them are the descendants of Goku and Vegeta respectively. Goku Jr is a descendant of Goku and Pan, to be more precise, the great-great-grandson of Pan. Going by the Japanese version.

Vegeta Jr and Bulma Leigh are also the descendants of Vegeta. But this is where the similarities between the official versions and my versions end. there are tons of other differences between the official versions and my versions.

In the official version of these three, Bulma Leigh is actually Vegeta Jr's mother, which I have made impossible in my version because Bulma is Vegeta Jr's mother. Vegeta Jr is also the Clone and adopted son of Vegeta due to Bulma. And essentially she was actually experimenting with cloning because of her curiosity and decided to test Saiyan DNA first. She also wanted to see if she could create a clone of Vegeta without accelerated aging, which she successfully did. No surprise there.

Vegeta Jr was actually born shortly before Goku Jr and Goten were born, I'll be going back to what I said about Goku Jr and Goten later. Vegeta and Bulma got together fully around this time as well and the two actually adopted Vegeta Jr and named him after his father.

Goku Jr and Goten were actually born at the same time, and if you have had the chance to get an explanation that I've already given, you would know that my version of Goku Jr was actually created through the Dragon Balls by Emperor Pilaf, who tried to wish for a clone of Goku. Unfortunately for Pilaf, because he didn't specify the physical age he wanted the Clone, or if simply because Shenron wanted despite the incompetent emperor, the Clone in question was magically created as an infant. Shortly afterwards Gohan actually investigated this.

You see Gohan felt the strong energy signature and thought it was his father brought back to life which confused him cuz he thought that Goku wanted to stay dead and at the time it was possible that Goku could not be brought back with Earth's Dragon Balls, at least at the time. He expected to find Goku and get an explanation out of him but to his chagrin and most likely not to his surprise, it wasn't his father but the little baby clone of him. Gohan actually took him away from the pilaf gang, refusing to leave a child in their care. This is mainly because he suspected that they would be planning something horrible for the child, and he wanted to give him a safe haven. This is when he brought him home and when his mother saw him, Chi-Chi just grabbed the boy along with Goten.

She not only knew that the boy had nowhere to go, but he also needed someone who would actually be able to take him in and love him unconditionally. And seeing the boy she fell in love in a heartbeat in a very platonic way. He has been part of the Son family ever since. So in this story, since they have the same birthday, they are the exact same age and they are born at the exact same time, even though they are not actually twins, they're actually referred to as the "twins". Goku Jr was named after his father.

Being given both his Earth name and his Saiyan name, not only to commemorate Chi-Chi's late husband but also to make it clear that this Young Saiyan child was going to be her son no matter what. Which is something that most people probably didn't expect me to write. People would probably wonder if Chi-Chi would be okay with Goku adopting a clone of himself as his son, but given her love for Goku and even their family, what I did actually made sense in my mind. And actually made more sense given the context of his origins.

You see, while Goku openly accepted him as his son in my story, Goku did not actually adopt my version of Goku Jr. Chi-Chi is the one who adopted him. She was the one who took him under her wings. She was the first of the two to see him as their son. So now we have two of the characters out of the way, discovering the differences between the official versions and these versions of the characters. Now we finally get to talk about Bulma Leigh. I've already made the official version of her impossible. With Vegeta Jr being the son of Vegeta and Bulma, and Goku Jr being the son of Goku and Chi-Chi, I need to find a way to implement Bulma Leigh without her being Vegeta Jr's mother. I've already given that to Bulma. So I did a similar thing that I did with Vegeta Jr with her.

My version of Bulma Leigh, unlike her canonical counterpart instead of being a descendant of Bulma and Vegeta, is a clone of Bulma and the adopted daughter of her and Vegeta. I knew I couldn't make her Vegeta Jr's mother due to what I'd already established for him. So I decided to make her Vegeta Jr's younger sister instead. So now I have three reimagined characters fully usable to implement new original stuff. Reimagined to the point where they could be considered OCs but they are still technically canons because a version of them exists.

Now I know I went on a whole tangent on what I've done, and you're probably thinking this has nothing to do with what I was talking about initially, but it actually does. I assure you. Implementing these three ships without the need for NTR or polyamory. You're probably wondering why this massively long explanation, if you haven't figured it out yet, explains how I can implement the GoBul ship, alongside VegeBul and GoChi, without the need for infidelity or polyamory, all simultaneously, without secrets or conflict. And the answer is quite simple.

I technically have a way to implement an original ship that is technically GoBul. And this explanation I gave is actually how I'm able to do it. Because instead of the Goku we all know and love being with the Bulma we all know and love, it's a different ship, all together. The GoBul that I could implement without it being detrimental to GoChi or VegeBul, would only require two characters that have the same name as Goku and Bulma. It doesn't even need to be the versions that we all know. Two different characters with their names.

It would technically be an original ship but still technically be GoBul at the same time. And it's with my version of Goku Jr and Bulma Leigh. GoChi's adopted son with VegeBul's adopted daughter. And it also helps that in my story, there's only a two-year difference at worst. In most stories that I depict Goku Jr, he is in his mid-twenties. 24 years old to be exact. Bulma Leigh is only 2 years younger than him in my story. I may even lessen that Gap and make her a year younger. But I think I've rambled on enough of what I've done. So she's usually 22 but I might change it to 23. I'm not sure if I'm going to actually go through with this in some of my stories, and fully commit to this, but it's something that I've realized that I could actually theoretically do with these versions and it would actually be interesting to see what I can pull with it.