#I think out of official media ive read

[rabbitsfrommars]

So over December I picked up a copy of Forbidden Scrollery right? Which for those who aren't obsessed with Touhou like me is one of many official Touhou mangas because I had NO idea they had been officially localised and had a physical English print and man it's just so GOOD.

Not only is Moe Harukawa just an amazing artist but the stories are just so distinctly touhou. It's like something you'd find in the games!!! There's just a kind of joy that I've been having reading through it because you'd never have thought we'd get English physical copies (and if you did it would be really hard to find)

But no! It was right there in the manga section. Forbidden scrollery. It's awesome. I love that touhou is FINALLY getting recognised for being popular. Godspeed 🙏

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

Do you have recommendations for shows/books/whatever with canon/basically canon polyamory?

ok the only media w officially canon polyam i personally consumed are Iron Widow and Hades.

Iron Widow is a mecha scifi/chinese fantasy book, it has pacific rim mechanics, so it takes 2 ppl to pilot the mecha but its more dystopian in that the pilot (male) usually drains the life force of his concubine (female). the mc has a guy shes interested in from the start but she pushes him aside to seek her goals to become a concubine pilot (theres a very good reason for this but i dont wanna give too much away) ends up being forced to work w the most dangerous pilot (spoilers hes actually a misunderstood sweetheart and i love him), her first love somehow finds his way back into her life so he can be their ally and its very clear from the first time he meets the other guy that this bitch is bi af. At one point he literslly saves their lives and i wont elaborate on that cause again spoilers but someone mentioned it in a propaganda ask. They canonically fall in live w each other and start dating. Please look up the trigger warnings first cause theres some heavy subjects addressed in this book. The book itself has trigger warnings listed at the start so if u find it at a book store u can check them this was too.

Hades is a roguelike videogame w dating sim mechanics (ish) -you give gifts to characters to learn more about them, and theres two romance options but you can romance both at once, they're both aware of and okay with it, hinting that they mightve had a past even before zagreus was born (its greek gods one is death incarnate the other is one of the furies, they've basically existed since forever)

From the submissions I got:

ive been told Leverage is like the korrasami of polyam, as in they were as polyam as they could be in a show from 2010, so it sounds like its canon but not explicit because they couldnt get away with that.

The girls from Amphibia are apparently in a similar situation, heavily implied canon, someone told me it was confirmed by people who worked on the show, but i dont think its explicitly stated.

The Kane Chronicles apparently also has canon polyam, although its 2 bodies, cause I think one of them has a god in him or something? I never read the books, but I was told Sadie (i think thats her name? The girl) is in love w both of them, and kinda dating both too i think?

I dont know if Singing in the Rain is canon but theres that kiss gif that got prrtty popular on tumblr where kathy kisses one of the guys then the other, so it looks canon? or at least implied canon?

Sense8 as some people have mentioned has 1 officially confirmed to be canon throuple, 1 that has a lot of hints to confirm but a lot of ppl see it as a gay couple w a very supportive friend ig and someone else said in general because of the plot u could kind of see the 8 of them as a big polycule, although that one isnt canon

HoneyWorks/Heroine Tarumono is one of those songs turned novel turned anime. i dont think its confirmed canon but theres a lot of stuff pointing to the possibility, you mightve see @non-fantasy telling me about them in a few asks. im obsessed and ive yet to watch anything

Penumbra Podcast: Second Citadel has Rilla/Sir Damien/Lord Arum, i also haven't listened to this one but a lot of people told me rilla and damien were in a pre-established relstionship, both got crushed on lord arum separately, talked about it and worked things out to now be a canon polycule

im She-Ra (netflix) theres a trio that is implied to be a polycule at the end, a lot of ppl called them canon in the notes but i dont personally ember it being confirmed? i am very forgetful tho. It's Rogelio/Kyle/Lonnie, unfortunately they lost the prelim round

I believe people submitted some others that were canon but im very forgetful so i cant remember right now

[islesnucks]

SOCIAL MEDIA AU

Mat Barzal x Singer!Reader - Pt1 - Pt2 - Pt3

enews

13,529 likes

enews Singer Y/N Y/L/N and hockey player May Barzal seen hanging out last night, it seems after she finished her tour last week she went straight to New York where he plays. The pair haven’t made it official yet but they seemed pretty cozy with each other. What do we think? Couple or just friends?

View all 3,249 comments

y/nmyqueen the way she looks at him, honestly same

islesterritory we didn't even had to do the anna kendrick thing this time

y/ndaily guess we'll have to learn about hockey now

y/nnation

302,945 likes

y/nnation Y/N was a surprice guest at Harry Style's conert last night. She played an acustic version of her song State of Grace, sounded beautifully. After it she said a "friend" had helped her learn it on the guitar, many speculate she's talking about Mat Barzal since they've been hanging out a lot and he plays guitar.

By the way she was smiling the whole song 🥰

Swipe left to see the videos some fans took.

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_y/l/n_ i was there!! she was so into the song really felt every lyric it was magical 💕💕💕

lovelyy/n if shes happy we're happy and she looks really happy

barzal97

Liked by ny_islanders, yourusername and 209,582 others

Apparently im a good teacher

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laurenrodycheberle showed this to J, he said 'the student has become the master' ... he said more things but they are not instagram appropiet

barzal97 oh i bet he did

titobeavu91 guess we’re not that close of friends because ive never gotten a guitar lesson

rpulock me neither al_rom26 me neither n_dobson me neither zeekerr me neither owahstrom97 me neither mattymarts17 me neither pagertrain me neither josty17 me neither barzal97 im blocking all of you

barzyy/n he's in a music studio?

y/nmyqueen yes!! and im almost sure thats the studio y/n records when shes in ny

y/ndaily

Liked by yourusername and 203,471 liked

y/ndaily Y/N was seen leaving the studio yesterday. She just finished her tour 3 months ago, but could it be new music already?

View all 65,090 comments

y/n382 OMG SHE LIKED ITS SO HAPPENING

sparksfly its gonna be full of balands I can feel it

stateofy/n pun on the detective hats guys is that the studio the hockey player was in??

y/nmyqueen it is!!!!! i knew it looked familiar

yourusername

Liked by barzal97, harrystyles and 4,002,185 other

Something’s cooking

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zendaya already my favorite album

owahlstrom97 need backing vocals?

n_dobson i can play a mean triangle yourusername ill keep you boys in mind

tmz_tv

190,875 likes

After months of rumors, secret outings and hints on their social medias Y/N and Mat have been caught smooching at the singers sound check before her appearance at tonight’s VMAs. Head to the link in our bio to read the full timeline of their love story.

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y/nn1fan this is a huge invasion of their privacy tho

spacestar true but also they look so cute

islanders27 way to go barzy!!!!!

nhlwags official wag now

-

that's it for now, sorry it took so long!! already working on pt3, hope you liked it <3

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Media Syllabus

For those who are not aware, I have decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s Queer Cinema Syllabus and have officially started Unit 1: Coming of Age Post Moonlight. The films in Unit 1 are Pariah (2011), Get Real (1998), Edge of Seventeen (1998), My Own Private Idaho (1991), and Mysterious Skin (2004)

Today I will be writing about 

My Own Private Idaho (1991) dir. Gus Van Sant

[Available for rent on: Amazon, YouTube. Run Time- 1:44]

Summary: In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant. (from Just Watch)

Cast:  River Phoenix as Mike a homeless queer male sex worker with narcolepsy Keanu Reeves as Scott the mayor’s son, “homeless” sex worker who is friends with Mike William Richert as Bob, I don’t have any other way to describe him besides this character is Falstaff in Henry IV. 

Content Warning: mentions of sexual assault, prostitution, conversations around incest. homelessness.

So the first thing before we start, if you are planning on watching this film you have to remember this is based on Henry IV by Shakespeare. Because if you forget that (like I did until about 40 minutes in) there is going to be dialogue that makes you go “no one talks like this?????” (which honestly was not a bad thing, but remembering that it was Shakespeare did stop me from going down way too deep a rabbit hole about reality and unreality so…thank you brain! Now, unfortunately, I have not read Henry IV and also unfortunately I will not read Henry IV for the sake of being better able to analyze this film. 

In hindsight, Scott is a dick and the film so perfectly sets up/foreshadows how we are going to get to where we end up with Scott, but as it is happening, it feels like a massive, unexpected punch in the gut the second you see him back from Italy, in a nice suit, in a nice car, driving blindly past his old pal Mike, who is collapsed in a sleep attack on the sidewalk. 

I always love when media humanizes homeless, drug user, and sex worker communities so for me watching this film, that was a huge win. Unhoused folk, drug users, and sex workers are so fucking dehumanized in my society, and frequently blamed for their own life conditions, and considering the statistics on how many homeless people in the US are queer, and particularly how many queer youth are on the streets, it is particularly important to me that film, queer film especially, allows its audience to love, root for, and mourn for homeless queer people. 

Gif by @camyfilms

I like that you don't really know exactly how Mike got to where he is. But there is enough context with the flashbacks we get and his medical condition to understand any number of ways that Mike ends up unhoused. I think it is particularly notable that there are multiple moments in the film where a house or other form of stable shelter is destroyed in his mind. Where I appreciate not really know exactly how Mike became homeless, because in a way it feels like his entire life was set up so that was the only inevitable outcome. Scott, however, I have no idea how he got to where he is, homeless and doing sex work, when he is set to inherit his father’s fortune soon. 

And looking back at how the entire story plays out, knowing that Scott will eventually abandon Mike to pursue a love interest and wealth, it makes a lot more sense as to why we never truly find out how he got there. Because for Scott, it doesn’t fucking matter. Because for Scott, he is playing at being homeless. This is a funny little game for him, he can give a middle finger to his father and act out, and struggle for as long as it is entertaining and fun, knowing that at any point he can return home, shape up his behavior, and have more money then he knows what to do with. 

Which is why I am truly and deeply obsessed with the fact that Scott wears a suit when he is amongst the other unhoused folk he is living with. Because of how much that visually separates him. I like that it is serving as a reminder of his status and almost like a reminder to himself that he is actually separate from everyone else here. And this theme is repeated in how Scott interacts with his father too. Because, while he wears a suit when amongst the unhoused, when he is summoned before his father, he dresses with a collar, and denim jacket without a shirt on underneath. Visually he looks a lot more like the other members of the community he has been running with, and that literally only happens so that he can get a rise out of his father. 

gifs by @vintageblr

And that playing at oppression aspect of Scott’s character is marked so clear by the line he says near the end: "I think I need to take a break for awhile" or whatever the exact wording is, when he meets a girl in Italy and sends Mike home. Scott has money, and while a part of me still believes that Scott cares about Mike, he doesn't love Mike. So the second that Scott has something that he loves, something that he wants, he pumps the brakes on the struggle bus and puts an end to his life of sleeping rough and engaging in sex work. 

And like I said before, while I felt hurt and betrayed and pissed the fuck off when Scott drove by Mike on the street, looking back at the entire film, the signs have been clear from the beginning. Because Scott is never going to be able to give Mike what he wants, at any level, in any capacity. Scott promises that he will share the wealth with the community when he inherits the money, he has the means, motive, and opportunity to perform such an action. He has the ability by the end to give Mike the support that he needs. To help him get on his feet, but he never does it. 

Even just by way of Mike being in love with Scott and Scott being straight and not being able to give Mike what he wants.

I will be thinking for way too long about the way that Scott stares at the ruckus everyone is making at Bob's funeral. Because, I don't know, I feel like there is almost a part of him that is longing to be there. That is missing it a little bit, or maybe feeling a little guilty. At least, that is how I am reading it as someone that worked with and considered myself friends with unhoused people. When I stopped working that job, I lost all connection with them, and the last time I got to see any of my friends again…was at a funeral. 

When discussing my thoughts on this film with @bengiyo and @emotionallychargedtowel I was really cycling back and forth between where I landed in believing that Scott cared at all for the people he lived among for years. 

Like there are shitty people who are homeless, sure, but there are also so many really wonderful people who are homeless, and there is no way that Scott, even as a rich bitch that was playing at poverty, did not forge genuine connections with people. At one point, he was sitting in a diner, comforting a woman who was upset. Do you know how many times I've seen that?

And when I started saying that I did believe that Scott cared in part for Mike, I was slammed with a visceral memory of Scott leaving Mike out in the cold, to sleep on some random guy’s lawn while he went back in to town. 

gif by @thejingshi

That said, he gave a reasoning of Mike being safer sleeping in that wealthy neighborhood with no one else around, then he would have been back in town. And similarly too, Scott holds on to Mike's half of the motorbike sales fund until it is time to send him away and also...he doesn’t give Mike all the money cause EVEN THOUGH SCOTT DOESN'T NEED IT! 

I don't think he fully could have not cared. If he fully didn't care, I don't think the moments of tenderness would exist. 

I don't think Scott would have gone to fucking Idaho

I don't think he would have been staring off the way that he was at the funeral

But you can't even get into the thought of like, Scott has strict rules to follow now that he has the inheritance money. But like…

No he doesn't.

His Dad is dead, and he has the money, what is anyone gonna do if he doesn't act like a refined gentleman? Nothing.

God I want to punch this man. 

At the very least Scott and Mike were friends. 

gif by @peeta

gif by @thejingshi

And so whether or not Scott gave a flying fuck about anyone else in that community, there is someone that he cared about, that he left to rot because it was more convenient for him. And I’d like to think Scott has to face that a bit during the funeral scene. Cause based on the way that it was shot, it looks like Mike is staring straight at Scott, but when we get the shot from Scott's POV, you can only see like the barest tops of heads and chairs flying so I don't even know that Scott and Mike

And the ending of the movie? God, heartbreaking. This whole film just made me see so many echoes of people I care about, having shit luck their entire lives, ending up on the streets, getting in to sex work of some kind, casually referencing their latest rape by a client, maybe having things be good for awhile (getting housing, getting reconnected with someone they care about, getting accepted in to school) and then just having that ripped away from them. Getting their shit stolen. 

And on the other side of it too like, being connected, talking with one another, taking care of each other. All the times that someone has been having a particularly bad day, and before I could even go over and talk to them and check in, someone else from the community swoops in comfort them, and make sure they were doing okay. 

I loved this movie. I think everyone should watch it. 

By/For/About?

The Gay Trifecta! 

We know that this is an About Queers film, because Mike is queer.

By Queers: I'm not 100% certain if the director is gay, it didn't say it explicitly anywhere, but he is behind a number of keystone queer films, and I think I saw an interview about gay activism that involved him.

For Queers: This is a story about the struggles of being a queer man, among other things. But I think the center of, loving a man you know can never love you back, and being fucked over by that in the end reads very much as for a queer audience.

Favorite Moment: 

Everyone going buck fucking wild at Bob's funeral. It was such a moment of unrestrained energy, and I like it all the more for what it did to Scott.

Favorite Quote:

gif by @magnusedom

"I really want to kiss you, man."

If you know, you know. If you don't, watch the movie so you too can understand how devastating that line is.

9.5/10 Film

[kimodraw]

do you have any recs for other peter pan media? i love your art and just read peter darling and i feel crazy

thank you so much! sadly i don't have many because i think a lot of peter pan media is. bad and misses the point.

If you haven't read the original book, i can't recommend it enough! I find sooo charming and well written. Other than that my favorite adaptation ever is the 2003 movie it drives me up the walls how good this movie is. The disney movie is fine and very well animated but you dont need me to tell you abt the disney movie.

As a kid i LOVED Peter pan in scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean!! Wendy and the lost boys go back to neverland as adults and find it has gone to shit, peter wearing hook's coat and becoming more and more irritable. I actually just learned its the 'official' sequel, authorised by the Great Ormond Street Hospital, so that's neat

Huhh I saw a peter pan musical 2 years ago lol? its french and definitly wasn't recorded, i was the only adult without kids and i had a great time, smee was a woman (double win for feminism AND homophobia ) and they didn't take advantage of the room filled with 6 years old to ask them to all scream they believe in fairies. boo, don't know why i told you abt this. movin on

I haven't read the loisel peter pan series yet so i can't exactly recommend them but i love the art

it seems very edgy and also probably misses the point, and i bet its filled to the brim with early 2000s sexism but. loisel art. yummy. need to check out my local library rn actually

I also liked peter darling quite a bit! heard the audiobook version and had to listen to gay erotic scenes narrated by an old british man on the subway. great experience

i hated lost boy by christinia henry with a PASSION: bad writting, made hook straight, doesnt get peter by making him litteraly evil (hes meant to be a child!! the most child ever!! when he does bad things its because he's selfish or doesn't get it or is angry he's a child!!!) anyway i hate how much this book gets recommended to me whenever my peter pan posts get some traction stop talking to me abt lost boy you guys tricked me into reading it already!! only good thing it does is replacing the native americans by. giant spiders. so i guess less racism than most peter pan works. great

idk ive heard of hooked recently. you guys know abt hooked? from booktok? seems bad

i have a short and mediocre playlist abt my peter pan,, thing too (title translates to 'im mad because 'lost boy' really is the perfect title for this' lol)

thanks for allowing me to ramble abt peter pan!! sorry for not having a lot of positive answers, have a peter i havent posted here yet

if anyone has recs THAT ARENT LOST BOY BY CHRISTINNIA HENRY!!!! feel free to drop them, both me and anon would love that im sure

[blizzardsuplex]

Roderick Strong Primer Part I: The Portion About Personal Connection

Part I (you are here) | Part II | Part III | Part IV

[So...I've been jokingly kicking around the idea of doing a series of meta posts on Roderick Strong for a while now. As usual with me, however, one late night conversation with @scissormedaddyass later it no longer stayed a joke.

This will be split into four parts: this one, where I talk about some of my personal experiences concerning his work (and PWG, because I can never get away from that promotion when talking about my faves ever); the second, which will dive into what I know of his history; the third, which will talk about his character arc - yes, even he has one - and finally a match guide, because by God he wrestles real good.

I'm not saying this'll be the most in-depth dive into his character and career in the world (for one I'm gonna miss a lot of early ROH and most NXT things), but until someone else makes one my little offering will have to do. If even just one person comes out of reading this understanding a little better the brainrot I occasionally have for him, then I think I did okay. Content itself under the cut!]

As I am sure absolutely no one who has talked to me about professional wrestling for longer than ten minutes knows, the promotion that made the greatest impact on me in my teen years was 2014 to 2016 Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). Beginning with night one of the 2014 Battle of Los Angeles that took place on August 29, 2014, I saw most of the shows they put out for a decent stretch, getting off the train after All Star Weekend 12's second night on March 5, 2016. It was there I saw the full potential of my first favorite wrestler, Chuck Taylor; there where I was first exposed to both talented up and comers like Speedball Mike Bailey and veterans like Chris Hero; there where I first saw the work of my favorite wrestler ever, Zack Sabre Jr.

In other words, for nearly two years it was my favorite promotion; as people well know, though, even as late as the mid-2010s it was not very easy to watch, and living half a world away with no credit card to pay for exorbitant shipping meant that to keep up to date I had to get extra creative. Knowing that I definitely wasn't going to be able to attend a live event, I followed what was happening as closely to real time as I could though social media posts, forum threads, and the occasional YouTube clips or official preview. As soon as news of the DVD releases dropped on the company's Twitter, I would Google search through pages of trash results for a couple of minutes every day until I found someone who'd uploaded the actual full event in glorious 240p and immediately watch it—more often than not, I knew, it would make my day.

I'm not saying PWG was perfect (God no). In fact, back then I don't know if, had I been more active in wrestling discussion circles, there would have been a safe space for someone like me. Still, spending all that time and effort to keep up and watch it was a really important time for me as a fan. It opened my eyes to how fun and creative pro wrestling could be, especially with the freedom independent status provided; sure, oftentimes it would be dizzying or even dangerous to give that kind of power to the wrestlers, and they lacked the multiple levels of safety and security that proper contracts provided, but there was just so much sheer entertainment I got from spots and shenanigans that would have never be cleared or work with the constraints of sponsors, copyright, or other corporate concerns. Making to suck your opponent's dick in the middle of the ring? An invisible remote that magically makes everyone, including the chanting fans, act in slow-mo? "The legendary asshole of Jushin Thunder Liger"? All hilarious, all fondly remembered. There's a reason that for years my top wrestling dream was to attend a show in Reseda—a dream that'll never be realized, but the Globe Theatre is a beautiful venue that seems to actually have working AC, so that's nice!

But, as mentioned: after Zack won the PWG title, a result I spoiled for myself via Reddit thread with much screaming, I stopped watching. It wasn't that I was any less interested in it—I was very much excited about the prospect of my boy on top, actually! It was simply that, between the sites I used all getting nuked and not knowing how to torrent, I just couldn't find it anymore. So I fell out of watching PWG, then the American and British indies, then NXT and what little main brand WWE I still watched, and finally I didn't watch much wrestling at all for two years, from 2016 to 2018. I only came back, actually, when I found out where my old fave Zack ended up: this large promotion called New Japan…

But that's a ZSJ story, and (as is hopefully clear from the title of this post) this series isn't about him. Instead, let's set the scene:

On July 29, 2016, two events and about four months after the last PWG I'd been able to watch, Roderick Strong had his last indie date before going to WWE. Having watched it back, the entire sendoff is pretty elaborate: after champion Zack fends off his latest challenger, Kyle O'Reilly, in a grueling 20+ minute match, Roddy comes down to the ring and demands his rematch. What follows is a less than six minutes breakneck fuckfest with several run-ins and foreign object usage; but, of course, Roderick loses. Afterwards, inviting his friends then that night's locker room down to the ring, he makes his speech about how in 2014 (which was, of course, the year I started watching) he'd made a commitment to reinvent himself as a wrestler—a move that ended up contributing to him being signed to NXT after a 15+ year career. He's thankful for everything PWG had given him, though (especially his then-fiance, now-wife Marina Shafir); as he says to cap things off, he loves the crowd, doesn't hate them!

Honestly, I wish I watched just two more events than I actually did back then, because it might have made my path to becoming a fan of Roderick Strong way more flattering to me. Instead, I have to admit: after Zack tapped him out for the belt and Roddy slunk off to the back, and for a long time during and after my two year break…I forgot about him.

It's a bit of an awful thing to say and is, on top of that, admittedly hyperbole; I never dumped anything of him in my brain down the memory hole. What I mean is that he never really came to mind unless I thought about it really hard. Even during my lull period, when people asked me about pro wrestling I could talk about my favorite people and my favorite moments and my favorite matches, and Roderick was never really there in anything more than a passing mention. In my defense, at first it was because I was even more of a massive hipster back then than I am now, and since I knew he was in NXT I assumed that when (not if; those were more innocent days) he'd go up to the main roster and get lots of fans he wouldn't need me vocally being one of them. Sure, he was probably going to be misused and I wasn't really going to watch to find out because this was 2016 WWE, but he'd at least get that money and that fame on Raw or Smackdown. Why wouldn't he? He was fucking Roderick Strong, a fantastic wrestler and someone I didn't realize for years people thought was bland as hell. Surely he'd make it. Surely.

But slowly and steadily he began to fade from my thoughts, until it came to the point that even after I started watching prowres again from 2018 and into the pandemic I didn't talk about him at all—even when I began looking back nostalgically on my time watching PWG.

Then, completely by chance, the week I decided to get back into All Elite Wrestling—I watched for a while in 2019, but lapsed during the pandemic era; it was hard enough to watch one major wrestling company with no crowds, much less two—was the week Roddy Strong debuted there. Buoyed by other people's excitement and name recognition, I felt generically happy watching the clips. "Oh, yeah," I said to myself. "Roderick Strong. What's he been doing for the past few years?" 

(Yes, I completely missed his Undisputed Era period, and was shocked at the belated news that he and everyone else in that faction never officially made it to the main roster. Yes, this also means I mostly know what happened thanks to Drea fighting the good fight with all her Era boys fics. No, I don't think I'm gonna watch his NXT run any time soon, LOL.)

After therefore deciding not to really dive into his recent past, I decided to, for the umpteenth time, think about when I first became familiar with him in that era of PWG…and something funny came about. If you're familiar with the trope called "Once More With Clarity", then that's what honest to God happened: eyes wide and memories superimposed above a shot of the aforementioned eyes at around 50% opacity, I realized that so many of my favorite moments and matches had him there the entire time. Person ZSJ won the belt from? Roddy. One of ZSJ's best matches until that point? When Roddy beat him the first time Zack challenged for the title. Speedball's real coming out party with the Reseda faithful? Them answering Roddy's open challenge at Mystery Vortex. That (in)famous, ridiculously overbooked, ridiculously memorable Guerrilla Warfare match at All Star Weekend 11? The heel aggressors was Mt. Rushmore 2.0, Roddy's faction with the Young Bucks and Adam Cole. Even outside of PWG, I ended up finding out he was involved in several other promotions I followed; I saw him several times in EVOLVE for instance, and what little Ring of Honor I watched Mr. ROH himself was, of course, there as well.

I'm probably forgetting something, but here's what I'm trying to get at: the more I combed through my good memories of pro wrestling the more I realized Roddy'd not only always been there, but that he was a key player in them, not just in matches but in the angles as a whole—and, yes, even promos, his forever dump stat. At the time it was all going on, I just…never really noticed him. And that's the story of much of his career, isn't it (at least in kayfabe)? Always considered an excellent hand, but even when he held the big belt he never seemed or felt like the most important person there.

"Okay," I then said to myself those months ago. "So he's a great wrestler. He's in all these great things I like, wrestling-wise. But who is he, really? Is there enough for me or anyone else to chew on from a character perspective?"

The fact I'm dedicating a four part series to this man, along with all the GIFsets and fanfic I've made, might spoil my answer to that. But for now, brave reader who's actually read all of this (or clever reader who's skipped to the end), stay a little in suspense for a bit if you’d like while I write part two. :')

[staarry-skies]

gonna be insane abt usamamo for a second im so sorry esp to my moots who do not care about sailor moon my heart goes out to you

read more bc this is so much longer than was intended

i see a lot of the same "theyre only in love because of fate/their superhero alter egos/their past" takes A Lot (to be fair its usually directed at the 90s anime, to which i do agree n understand, however ive also seen it directed at the manga which is why im talking abt it) and i just Do Not Agree, so im gonna talk abt it in a twt thread bc im insane and twt is my outlet for my insanity. (this was originally written for twt but got too long oops.)

starting with the whole "theyre only dating because of past lives" because its the easiest to debunk, its just flat out not true. mamoru n usagi never really got the chance to officially get to together pre-past lives reveal in the manga but its pretty damn clear they were going to, probably the next time they met as civilians and swapped their different keepsakes that they have from each other.

theres also the whole "oh well their feelings are remnants of silmil" which i think takes away a lot of their agency as characters and also just isnt true and is also pretty easily disprovable, usagi likes mamoru for being there for her and supporting her when she needs it, and mamoru likes usagi for being this incredibly strong heroine but also being a normal cheery girl all at the same time.

which leads me to the next point! "they only like each other because of their alter egos", two rebuttals here, they dont exactly stop being tuxedo mask/sailor moon just because theyre out of costume that is still them but i do see why this is a popular criticism. my other thing is that its definitely not true for mamoru, whos usually the one criticized for not truly liking the Real Usagi™️ and only liking her for sailor moon (or serenity but we just went over that and funnily enough this criticism should be directed more to usagi but we'll get into that later).

for this lets go back to why mamoru loves usagi, according to earlier in this post i claimed it was because of the dichotomy between her and sailor moon, the crime fighting warrior, and usagi the happy-go-lucky school girl who always brings a smile to everyones face, thus showing that he loves /all/ of her not just one side over the other.

but me saying so isnt really enough so lets hear it from the boy in question: "its true... for a long time the crystal was the only thing i wanted... but now when i see her... angry one moment then laughing the next... the crystal? no thats not what i really want... usako youre what i want" - (crystal ep 7) so... yeah thats pretty cut and dry, oh yeah nows also a good time to mention that ill be pulling stuff from crystal too because of the nature of crystal having been more closely supervised by naoko and being a stricter manga adaptation, any scenes it adds are retroactively canon to the mangaverse (at least to me, but if youre looking for a similar line from the manga: "youre strong today sailor moon, everyday i feel like im seeing a different side to you, is there other versions of you ive yet to meet? i want to know everything, who are you really?" - (chapter 8) same idea as the crystal quote just a lot more vague lol)

also this is reflected in more than just words, its actions too, tuxedo mask is a lot more closed off towards sailor moon earlier on and its not until chapter 4 that he starts being a lot more openly caring and affectionate, and you wanna know what happens in chapter 4? he finds out sailor moon is usagi, and it doesnt take a lot of media literacy to put two and two together to figure out why that shift happens there.

now for usagi, remember when i said the whole "liking the alter-egos" criticism applies to her more but is never directed at her? well heres why, we never really see her civilian relationship with mamoru develop much on her end before the reveal, she is of course attracted to mamoru but on a way more superficial level (usagis pretty notorious for her immediate, but ultimately kinda surface level crushes on people: see rei).

she denies her crush but its pretty obvious she has one, for example when mako points out that usagis blushing after one of their interactions and asks about it and she insists pretty loudly that she "doesnt like him!" but never really explains the blush (earlier in the same scene when she sees mamoru she blushes and b-dmp! is written in the bg, keep in mind he hasnt done or said anything yet so its not embarrassment) and then theres chapter 3 where she recognizes that his profile sorta looks like tuxedo mask which she'd actively try to deny if she didnt like him like she says she does, so its pretty obvious she has a crush on mamoru.

but her relationship with tuxedo mask is what gets more development, she goes from that superficial crush she has on mamoru to liking him for deeper reasons than just: pretty guy! i.e. helping her, being there for her, and grounding her when she needs it. also in the same vein as her recognizing him in chapter 3 the reveal is her just recognizing him as tuxedo mask, which obviously she has to like mamoru quite a bit to do (even if the evidence was quite literally all around her) (in saying all of this i do think pgsm does a much better job at showing her genuinely falling for all of him but pgsm also skews more towards the 90s anime in terms of characterization so i wont be using that).

and finally "usamamo are only together/feel pressured to be together because of fate/chibiusa" short answer: no. long answer: noooooooooo. no but in all seriousness this flat out isnt true, if you'll remember the first 14 chapters of the manga are kinda. yk. dedicated to this. their fate isnt to "be together" their fate is to literally DIE if they dare attempt to be together again, they are together DESPITE fate, like i dont even know how else to put it because multiple characters comment on fate repeating itself when it comes to dooming usamamo, they werent reincarnated to be together they were reincarnated to be happy and live normal peaceful lives.

as for fate as in the future, thats pretty easily disprovable because its ALSO something the manga goes over, during the dream arc when mamorus suffering from nehelennias curse he starts feeling guilty and selfish for constantly being a burden on usagi to the point he asks her if she really does want a future with him, even saying that he feels horrible for potentially tying her down to a future she might not want, which yk would kinda not be a concern he would have if he was only with her for the creation of crystal tokyo (side note: nowhere does it say usamamo NEED to be together for crystal tokyo to exist, usagi could very well rule alone like queen serenity or with any other partner, its just that the current timeline has them together in ct) as for usagis response, mamoru falls asleep before he can hear it, but she says point blank that she can change the future if she wants. So. Yeah. dont really think i need to say much more than that on that front.

And the last part of the "fate saga", "theyre only together to have chibiusa" which is such a crazy and lowkey highkey misogynistic sentiment, but for arguments sake lets take a look at why its completely wrong, first off, again. "i can change the future as much as i want" - (chapter 40) she could have chibiusa by other means (for example the way queen serenity had serenity) but also, the reason they care so much about chibiusa is because she's a product of their love, they obviouly care about her as a person but they wouldnt just force themselves to be together just to have her and her alone (if that makes sense i have no idea how to phrase what im trying to say) in any case its a really gross thing to say because it insinuates a lot of really weird things!

if you made it through all that you deserve like a medal or something but thanks for listening to my silly little thoughts about my favorite couple right now

[intertexts]

GMORNING !!!!! u know what time it is

EPISODE 8 TRIVIA:

- the big monster they fought in the beginning was called a Crawling Apocalypse which looks like this. terrifying !!!

- bizly really liked that william banished it. he was originally not gonna let him do that but then "i realized your character can do so little and that was cool so i said fuck it" we love william pity points he is such a loser and he rolls so terribly <3

- they start talking about one piece because grizzlys saying things abt how certain parts of dakota are inspired by luffy and bizly goes "ive never watched anime" which is the biggest lie in the world

- grizzly: "yknow we were about an hour into the episode before i realized wow i havent done anything productive yet"

condi: "you just hit on vyncents mom for like 20 minutes!!!!"

- and then they start talking about how dakota and chip (bizlys pc from riptide) would either be best friends or hate each other which is really funny bc there are now MULTIPLE what if crossover episodes where they meet and interact and thats exactly the dynamic . i love them

- condi wasnt expecting his dad to be dead, he thought theyd have to fight him

- he kind of hesitated taking the sword !! vyncent doesnt really know how to feel about using something that belonged to his father

- he wasnt entirely Present for the part where his dad betrayed the party, he was sort of fading in and out of consciousness so theres a chance he didnt actually get the full picture. condi knows this out of character and vyncent knows it in the back of his mind somewhere that his dad might not actually be fully evil but hes too angry to come to terms with that yet

- hes struggling a lot with the fact that his mom.doesnt know about the betrayal. he doesnt want to tell her because "its not his fathers pride at stake, its his mother's memory of him" and that makes me so . :(

- THE GREATS!!!!!!!! THE GREATS ARE HERE i love the greats. surely nothing bad is happening to them

- they have a couple theories as to whats going on with the greats:

-- condi: theyre in this state because vyncent took too long getting them back here out of his head

-- condi: they were killed when they got transported to the other world and there was no way to get them back completely

-- charlie: something happened in the time where vyncent was transported to prime and the greats had died, so someone did something to keep them alive by putting them in his head. maybe they could only be kept alive by being in vyncents head

- grizzly tries to insight check bizly irl to see if any of their theories are close so far. this does not work . he rolled a 17 btw

- none of them trust minerva they think she might be secretly working with the lich. bizly defends her by saying "shes also in the middle of basically an apocalypse i think shes allowed to be a little mean to you"

- le frog is the only french person ever. this is brought up with NO context no explanation

- bizly is sharing some of the thumbnail art from youtube because this was right around the time the first few episodes were being put up publically !! most of them are just the same as the official refs but the most important one is le frog bc im not actually sure if youve seen his offical design yet . also tide used to be white. we dont have to talk about white tide

- bizly says pd feels more like a DC comic than a Marvel comic. hes right about this

- charlie starts talking about marissa meyer books and this is important 2 me because the lunar chronicles was an extremely formative piece of media for me . she apparently has a book called renegades thats superhero themed and i have not read it yet but i put it on my list specifically because of this. wahoo!

tgis is SUCH good trivia for this ep thank u dude... ouagh. really solid meal here. i love these last couple episodes so much.. there's so much fun stuff happening here i'm enjoying all of the greats stuff & getting like a solid Vyncent Moment for a while.

i LOVE the william pity points its great! it WAS cool as fuck!! also i gain +5 hp every time a gm goes "who give a shit if this isn't technically how the game mechanics should work, it's fun for everyone at the table & makes for something cool and makes sense narratively."

that being said. i DID take SO MUCH PSYCHIC DAMAGE from how long dakota spent hitting on his fucking mom. Please. Please king !!! sob.

I ALSO WAS EXPECTING THEM TO FIGHT VYN'S DAD???? still not unconvinced that some lich undead bullshit isn't going to happen with that. god i'm so invested in figuring out what HAPPENED there... i love this type of murder mystery situation. & i also was genuinely unsure if he would take the sword or not!! really kind of an ohhh shit! moment when he did. imo. vyncent virion sol i love u.... also it's still INCREDIBLY funny 2 me that he's still in his normal clothes. i have not forgotten that he is just doin his fantasy bullshit thing in the just some guy drip. (<- i might have forgotten something but i've been assuming they no longer have/wear Official Hero Drip since they're no longer really sanctioned or on great terms w/ them? also i've been assuming that the episode-specific clothes & shit isn't really permanent... now that im thinking about it though please tell me wiwi hardcore blue flame black leather kickass spiky biker jacket remains. it's too cool for him. but. still.)

I LOVE THE GREATS SO MUCH... i hope nothing permanently bad happens to them :( i like them so dearly..... you know they r really solid folks because they spent a YEAR and change living in a teenager's brain & came out of the experience still bein so nice 2 him.... augh. also in general big fan of the system-adjacent bullshit :] i love it when theres. guy with guys in his head. etc. will b sad ab their departure but i hope they r OKAY and return 2 Being Alive & shit!! nervous laughter. also god i can't wait to find out what Actually Happened with them. hhrhrghghgghh.

THIS IS SO TRUE ALSO???? free my girl minerva she did nothing but have Literally Normal Reactions to TERRIBLE things happening!!!

I DON'T LIKE THAT LEFROG FACT. it raises the question of is he actually even french or like, is there even a point of reference for his behavior. like. What is going on there. Horrifying thank you!!!! also man this entire degree im working on would be useless! well. maybe prime quebec exists. somehow. independently of a hypothetical europe. HIS DESIGN IS SO FUN BTW. its so cute.. i WAS kind of imagining a mutant Big Real Fucking Frog situation but i think this is a lot more reasonable. also literally ignoring white tide I Do Not See it. It Does Not Exist.

ALSO. NOT GOING TO START TALKING AB COMICS FOR EVEN MORE PARAGRAPHS. BUT. he is so so so right. (<- dc comics guy with Opinions. well. technically im not even much of a dc guy im just a vertigo guy. but. still.) hghghghbhgh.

[dnangelic]

TSUN! I HAVE SOME CHOICE WORDS TO SAY TO YOU!!!!

you are such an absolute delight to see on the dash and interact with, and that is no exaggeration! I adore all of your muses and even if i don’t know any of their respective medias, i learn about them through your writing and your metas and you talking about them and thats so fun to do!!! ITS ACTUALLY MY FAVORITE THING EVER! I appreciate you giving my dazai a chance despite not knowing bsd aswell as p much any of my other muses sknsksns you’ve been so sweet to me since we first became mutuals and i genuinely love seeing you around so much 😭 i see you on the dash and my day gets atleast 10% better without fail every single time. i hope u talk about your boys forever and ever . ITS SO FUN TO BUILD DYNAMICS WITH YOU!!! anyone is lucky to write with / plot with / interact with you i wont even lie and i genuinely believe that nsjsksnsjssn i appreciate that you show interest in so many of my muses it makes my heart so so so warm . I HOPE WE CAN CONTINUE WRITING NOVELS TOGETHER FOREVERRRRR even though i know im the one who owes you like 2829922 things ksnsksns DW AB THAT . I ALSO WANNA SAY about you writing dark and daisuke specifically i think its so good how much care you put into a series thats really old and like Ive genuinely put the manga on my reading list BECAUSE of the interest garnered from your writing !! SOLELY BECAUSE OF YOU ! u are an absolute angel ( … hehehehensnensn … bejbwnw … get it bc … bc …!2&2!/@/!/82 s hehehehe ) AND YOU ARE ALWAYS SO KIND TO ME and always so interactive and i can’t even beginnnnnnnnnnnnnn to properly articulate how much of a joy you are 2 interact with !!! wishing you and daisuke and dark and yan qing and all ur muses the best day ever . 🙌

OH MY GOOOOOOSH and to think i was sitting here at ur post like 'should i ask permission for nine asking for permission. what if nine doesn't wanna say anything. i hate feeling like im ever panhandling for a compliment. nine should be pouring soup into my lap and slapping dark + calling him a bitch so i can finally apologize but youuuuUUU YOUUUUU ALL THESE FEELINGS R SO MUTUAL!!! I LOVE SEEING U TALK!!! IT BRINGS ME SM JOY TO SEE U POST!!! even the most random stuff. doesn't matter if its long or short. literally dont even worry abt owing me stuff ur presence alone is also a DELIGHT ur fr like such a funny mut and person BUT UR ALSO SO GOOD AT UR MUSES TOO??? LIKE i could go on forever abt how much i respect ur dazai alone and how even if i don't know bsd canon that's probably for the best, bc ur now ur dazai is The canon dazai to me, but u also have like nine... billion... (hehehesbhgbssnsjkdj x2) MUSES ON UR MULTI THAT U ALSO FLAWLESSLY INVEST URSELF IN AND!! WOWWWW WHAT A MUN!!! genuinely im so glad i found u even in this hellsite and that i can just toddle around following u like this everywhere 🐥 every like i leave on ur post is me picking at it for crumbs like a pigeon in a city being tossed bread. keep tossing that bread for me please please. IM CRYING. IM WAILING!!!! BUT SINCE U BROUGHT UP READING DNANGEL LET ME ACTUALLY HELP U OUT TOO??

scans are like absolutely everywhere and most places have the godawful quality fan translations. u can and frankly probably should read the official eng which is available here. dnangel had a weird run where the eng was only licensed and translated up to book 13. 14 and 15 (and beyond) are fan translations, but there's exactly one chapter that's ALWAYS broken on any website you go to except this one. this site doesn't complete the series though so the last link you'd have to hop to is this one. but the entire series is only 20 volumes in total. you could speedread through it in like a day. it's short and sweet and i love it even with its flaws. why else would i b here writing dark n dai. anyways. point is. tysm. im holding u and all ur muses tight. i wont leave u!!!! im so glad i met u!!! uve done sm for me already and i wont forget it!!! MY SO TALENTED FRIEND!!!

[astroyongie]

IVE December Reading Edition

Note: please remember to take this reading with a grain of salt. Enjoy ! 

Yujin

Love: It seems like she was in a relationship that ended at the beginning of December. her ex was an idol 4th gen male, leader scorpio main vocalist. I see that a lot of arguments happened between them and she discovered cheating from their part despite the fact that they had decided to go official between them. Her heart is still aching from the deception 

Career: When it comes to her career however, things are going extremely well. not only she has been receiving support from the company, there’s also solo activities that she will be able to do by herself to show her own colors. she was made to stay in the industry for a long time, but she needs to be careful on how she invests her money 

Health:

Physical: X

Emotional: Emotionally agitated, stressed

Gaeul

Love: Just like Yujin it seems like Gaeul also went through a break up recently (not with her last ex who was a trainee), however in her case, she was the one calling it to an end, simply because she fell out of love for this person. She also understood the fact that this relationship wasn’t going anywhere and that it was too unhealthy to keep going and mostly also because this person already saw someone of the group. Her “ ex” was an idol of the 3rd gen who isn’t active anymore 

Career: I see a lot of troubles concerning her career, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see her name appearing in the media for rumors, scandals or something in the gender in January. There was so much conflict within her work and with the company but she has a strong character and trying to fighting for what she thinks is right. 

Health:

Physical: She needs to be careful with chest pains and her heart in general, as she might feel a lot of it. also her blood pressure isn’t the best and those affect her stomach as well

Emotional: her mental health should be looked upon, she isn’t in the best state and also not having the most healthy ways to cope with it 

Rei

Love: Her whole reading was love focused so there’s a lot of information. And it might be a curse at the moment on IVE but just like the other girls, she too is going through the end of a breakup that happened a little more long ago (November). Her ex was a non idol. She naturally separated from them due to her schedules, they both weren't ready for it and they naturally left each other. also it makes me think as if their relationship wasn’t even official between them, more like a fling that started to become serious and they naturally fell apart because they had notice for each other and also because they both weren’t ready for commitment. Anyways it hurt her and she has a heartache however she also wishes them all love and luck 

Career: I got no info about her career status 

Health:

Physical: She needs to look for her health very seriously, because I do feel like something is wrong regarding her health, her legs feel very heavy and sore, she might have urinary problems at the moment as well and her throat feels funny

Emotional: She feels rejected a lot at the moment as if no one cares for her, but her faith is big and she believes things are going to be better for her 

Wonyoung

Love: Her love life is complexity chaotic at the moment. She isn’t dating anyone at all however I do see that she has quite a few flings and people she talks too, but she never gives them too much, mostly keeps them hooked and coming for her but she doesn’t feed them of what they want. Wonyoung is also not very honest with her own feelings and she flees from love. Her family has been very supportive and in her life lately 

Career: A lot of things are going on and I see her moving fast, expect new solo works for her, new solo opportunities that she will do without the group. She is in full abundance at the moment and taking profit of it by cutting everything In her path 

Health:

Physical: She needs to take care of her health, most precisely her plexus area, like breathing, heart and lungs are having some difficulties 

Emotional: She thinks she is balanced, but I see a lot of self esteem that needs to be worked on and mostly a lot of depressive episodes as well, where she doesn’t sleep, gets panicked and stressed try easily 

Liz

Love: Liz is single at the moment, there isn’t much to say about  her love life, only that she has been spending time alone and that she isn’t seeking for any type of romance at the moment. 

Career: Things are shaky here, I see someone that is bullying her and harassing her inside the company. This had been very hard for her and she is trying to fight it off, but it mostly makes her feel unmotivated to do anything. This will have impact on her later 

Health:

Physical: She is physically healthy at the moment 

i: Not so much emotionally, I see her being burnout out and exhausted. She wants to take an hiatus to rest and to fix her current life. The “run away” cards came out a lot so I wonder if she will really get into a mini pause 

Leeseo

Love: Oh so she recently got into a flingy thing, I don’t know for sure if they are official yet but things are going pretty well. This person is an idol, 4th gen, also a Maknae, vocalist libra   and they have some soulmate energy in them. Leeseo feels very appreciated and very loved by this person, she feels beautiful with them. They are still growing 

Career: Her career is going very very well as well, I see a lot of money and her managing it quite well. She will have to make some decisions for her career but it seems like we will see Leeseo more during 2023 and that she will have opportunities to shine on her own 

Health:

Physical: She needs to look out for her health, mostly her kidneys, her bladder, hips and bones in general 

Emotional: X 

[eirichele]

Same anon who asked that Jack Thompson question and I'll say one more thing: I don't think Intsys cares about power dynamics. Considering we have lord retainer relationships that can become intimate (and arguably commoner-noble relationships too) and especially that DLC side quest in 3H where they pretty much poke fun at the people who were creeped out by student teacher relationship and say "oh those relationships form really strong bonds" if you complete it.

(2/2) Plus even if you're against S supporting the students, the teacher student dynamics is kinda baked into the story and cutscenes. And given Intsys’ previous record of having a casual disregard when dealing with taboo subject matter (the incest in Fates), I don’t think they care about power dynamics all much.

(2/3) And if your response is “well I care” then just don’t give Intsys your money. You can call it gatekeeping and it probably is but at the end of the day, if you truly believe in your cause that fiction affects reality and that intsys are normalizing problematic stuff, then show your displeasure by boycotting them because by otherwise buying their games, you’re kinda enabling them isn’t it? Plus there are other games that are doing the FE formula without those elements (Triangle strategy for eg).

you're kinda not getting the point of where im coming from At All. lmao. even if i boycott every single fire emblem thing that comes out bc im disgusted with their views on sexualizing teenagers and abuse (which tbh youre acting like im a loyal customer when i dont buy official merch and the only fe games ive ever bought are awakening echoes and houses. the rest ive borrowed or [redacted]) it doesnt solve the systemic problem of media everywhere doing that shit. it should be called out regardless of who does it every time it happens because it's not a few niche games here or there in the nsfw section of steam. this is mainstream and a trope that keeps perpetrating unhealthy shit in our society.

its also ridiculous to imply you shouldn't watch media ever if you're going to be critical of it like the DAMAGE fandom has done to society omggggggg. if i dont watch it then its like omg dont talk shit you havent seen it so you cant make an informed opinion!!!, and if i do im "enabling" something that is literally a societal problem like come the fuck on. that's why im so annoyed by your "dont like dont read" crowd all you guys want is for responsible media consumers to shut the fuck up so you can enjoy your media guilt-free and thats not gonna happen lmaoooo. sorry i am here making you think critically about the things you like and maybe making you feel something that is slightly negative for 2 minutes in your escapist fandom life💔

[theofficialdailyplanet]

hi! my fyp on tiktok has recently been just full of nightwing content and im very interested!! ive never watched much, if any, dc content before.. can you help me figure out where i should get started? im mostly interested in nightwing but willing to watch anything. i gather its mostly animated shows/movies on hbo? thanks!!!

hello! same omg i LOVE nightwing, hes my lil guy. and i'm glad u wanna kno more! love talkin to ppl abt dc especially the bats 🥰 so this is gonna be long sorry in advance lmao

general rundown jus cos the media for dc is officially split into three parts mainly

unofficially (and no shade cos i have a dc tiktok), tiktoks not always character accurate representation. lotta ppl call it fanon, its like the fan ideas of how character are that arent actually accurate or factual. (i dont have a problem w fanon rly but its a whole thing)

officially, the dc animated universe ones (dcau) ones are vaguely connected so they have the same characterisation throughout for the most part. usually events happen differently from the comics even if the movie or show is based on a comic like justice league dark for example. the dcau's also different from the dc universe (dcu aka the live actions) but do the same thing.

and comics are the source for everything. for the most part.

all that to say nightwing might not be exactly how ur expecting but im sure you'll still love him regardless he's a loveable guy. even if u dont like him in the comics specifically but still the movies or smthn thats a okay imo, (personally altho i read a lot of comics films & shows r easier to digest)

for comics

wayne family adventures: it vaguely follows canon but its sweet and an easy read webcomic on webtoon. the first and second season have physical copies

but for the canon timeline here's a few good beginner nightwing reading list from twitter i recommend, from:

nightwingirah

brookstweetz

bombadleaker

for shows & film

he doesnt actually have any solos, its either hes with batman the titans or he's there as a feature. so the ones i remember and liked him in:

batman & robin (1997)

batman ninja

batman the animated series

batman (2004) - the tv show

lego batman

titans

teen titans

teen titans go

justice league vs teen titans

teen titans judas contract

young justice

the dark knight rises

thats abt it, i hope you like them! lmk what u think if u go thru them 🖤

[biolizardboils]

sad i cant get Frontiers yet. im gonna gush about the Knuckles short so i wont be so sad

so it took me a week to realize the prologue comic and this short have different subtitles. the comic has Convergence and the short has Divergence. the acts of coming together and coming apart, respectively. hmm

also for anyone who missed it: this year, official Sonic social media said “here’s some fun material to get you caught up on series lore, also SURPRISE these are canon and take place just before the next game!” the timeline for this material is as follows: TailsTube (video series) >> Prologue: Convergence (comic) >> Prologue: Divergence (animation). if you haven’t seen them yet, enjoy!

on to the actual short: man. game-wise, Angel Island has been kinda irrelevant the entire time i’ve been into Sonic, zone reuse aside. i read up on its history, the games it was used in, and i revered it as the lore’s first big cornerstone. but outside of fanfiction it never really felt like it mattered until lately. i’ll shut up about it eventually, but damn, shit’s had me like this all year

so now that Classic-era lore and Everything After aren’t walled off from each other anymore, i guess the M.E. has two shrines (the indoor one in Hidden Palace, and the outdoor one seen from SA1 onward) and Knuckles moves it between them for some reason. you’d think he’d just keep it in the first one instead of letting it make a big green Come-Steal-Me beacon in the sky lol. maybe it’s an ancient custom, or he just wanted the rain to wash it

i love Flickies :) idek why, i just do. funy birdy

“Perhaps it’s karma...” Knuckles sweetie no!! your ancestors’ mistakes should not be yours to bear!!

TIKAAAAL MY DAUGHTERRRR

i like how this flashback clarifies two things the original SA1 cutscene didn’t, one happy-ish and one sad. on one hand, at least some of the trampled Chao could get up right after, instead of them all laying there dead (that freaked me out when i first played it). on the other, Pachacamac violently threw aside his own daughter. between this and popping Longclaw in the SCU, this guy just keeps getting worse

Perfect Chaos’ roar is so uniquely gorgeous for a 25-year-old soundbite.. the chills i got when the screen went white and it rang out...

“The question is: whose power was it originally? Who build this shrine to the Emeralds, and where did they go?” holy shit holy shit holy shit?? like?? ive wondered about the Emeralds’ origins before, but i never thought the series would address it. im not even sure i want them to address it; it’s been up for fan speculation for so long that an official answer might not live up to the hype. that being said they’ve got my full fucking attention

Tikal and Chaos are still around :’’’) its cool that they can come down from Sonic’s World Heaven whenever they like apparently

its also cool that Knuckles casually follows Tikal’s light ball. i wonder if that happens often, her pointing him towards cool shit on the Island

still not over Chao living in Sky Sanctuary man;; its so obvious that i cant believe it was never shown before! like of course Chao live on the Island, they lived near the shrine in the past! of course they live in this zone specifically, its like the Hero Garden but 10x bigger!

the gorgeous shot of Knuckles twirling in the air!! he was dodging buildings but he was enjoying himself at the same time!!

shoutout to Pablo, my spoiled NiGHTS Chao in SA1 that i haven’t visited in years lol

so many questions about the Koco Thing the Chao wanted... is it just a mask, or the front half of a real Koco’s corpse? if the latter’s true, where’s the back half? the Gear Thing looked like it fit snugly underneath the face, as if it’d been inside the Koco. i doubt Sonic’s gonna have to crack these Baby Rocks open to collect Gears, but the framing here looks too intentional. (if the game answers any of this please don’t tell me i wanna find out on my own)

speaking of spoilers there’s now no spoiler-free way for me to look up what the thing Knux put the Gear in is called so im stuck calling them Ancient Lawn Chairs

his goofy ahhh scream when he comes out the other end lmaoo

“Oh, an ambush, huh? Your funeral.” bro the delivery there....

the way the music cuts off as he prepares the punch and comes ROARING back in when it hits!!!!! i took Katie and Tyson’s advice and watched this on my big TV and i swear the impact SHOOK my whole house it went SO HARD

the fucking GASHES he makes on the third robot i FELT that shit. i felt his POWER, the WEIGHT of his every move throughout the whole scene. from that first punch something different started to happen it was amazing

AND THEN HE BRINGS THE WHOLE CLIFF CRASHING DOWN OH MY GOD

Sonic and Knuckles will see a robot teetering on a ledge and say “is anyone else gonna style on this guy?” and then not wait for an answer

“AND AFTER I WIN--” god i LOVE his confidence here

and then the floating angry preschooler brought out her biggest toy and said “bet” zcxvcbnm

fr tho what did Sage do to him?? did she Orb him immediately or did the Big Thing kick his ass first

poignant call back to the opening monologue aside, Knuckles’ screaming made me think of this lol

“But sometimes...” Knuckles. sweetheart. no man is an (Angel) island. sounds like you need another lesson on the true superpower of teamwork. ill try to give you one when i get the game and free you

I’m Here’s drop over the credits and Sega’s eye logo joined forces to jumpscare me back-to-back lol

i aint got no deep final thoughts but god damn these shorts just keep getting better exponentially, what kinda black magic they doing over there

[actualbird]

Hi Zak. It’s me. I am surprisingly not dead.

I suddenly got curious

How hard do you ship Marluke

For me (with Martem) I literally scream MARTEM when they’re next to each other in official media or smth

Yes I know it’s a bit too much but I will go down with that ship

Marluke’s very cool too I am a multi shipper I’m fine with almost all ships

Welp sorry this is getting unnecessarily long I will excuse myself now

-🍁

OH MY GOSH, HI MAPLE!! long time no see, im v glad ur alive and i hope ur doing well :D

and hmmmm....this is a difficult question, cuz the moment i saw it my brain immediately was like "okay how do i numerically quantify ship enjoyment intensity...." and then i read the next lines where u gave examples and oHHH okay thats way easier to do

so here is a non-exhaustive list of things i think answer how hard i ship marluke

when i see them together in official material i also go "OH HEY MARLUKE" like theres one i remember, when tot posted this promotional material for the Flower MR series

i quote retweeted that tweet with something along the lines of "wow they rlly made marius and luke face each other like that, fuckin gay asses <3"

when i do NOT see them together in promo materials, i immediately try and see if i can edit them together anyway. ive done this many times. i will take the hammer and put them together and nobody can stop me

everyday i am co-making a new marluke au with a buddy i met on twitter. not exaggerating when i say everyday. it has been 0 days since our last new marluke au

there are currently 51 fics in the marluke tag on ao3. 11 of them are mine

the cumulative wordcount of the marluke fics ive posted on ao3 thus far totals to 70,647 words. if i exclude the nxx ot5 ship fics (cuz the giann finds out about marius' polycule fic takes a BIG CHUNK), it totals to 51,024 words. make of that what you will

conclusion: i cannot shut up about these two and i do not want to stop <3

pls dont apologize for long asks!! i dont mind in the slightest and i adore talking about these guys in particular hehe. thank you for the ask :DDD

[aesthetic-bastard]

Media Interaction 2022

Part 8: August

Land of the Lustrous - This is probably the most gorgeous-looking anime I have ever seen as well as the most incredible use of CGI in an anime. I loved every moment of Land of the Lustrous and it's a shame the first season goes by so quick in just 12 episodes I wish I could get more.

I will probably continue with Land of the Lustrous by reading the manga at some point in the meantime but its adaptation is just too stunning to anticipate its second season. Anthropomorphism is probably one of my favorite themes in anything but I appreciate it when it's done faithfully to whatever non-human entity the concept is based on. I like that each gem in Land of the Lustrious has its own unique personality and quirks based on its real-life gemstone. I also like the incorporation of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness and how it's essentially used to determine each gem's efficiency in battle. It makes me so elated when this attention to detail is put into designs based on objects or animals and is never just [human version of object]. Besides the excellent world-building and character development, I'm very fond of each gem being basically genderless and sharing very homosexual relationships with each other. The relationship Phosphophyllite developed with Cinnabar is very special to me and I never expected to be so emotionally torn up even by the first episode of watching their interactions with each other. In fact, I have never watched anything that tore me up by the end of just the first episode, excellent anime.

Ergo Proxy - I don't think any other anime will ever be able to top using a Radiohead song as part of its official soundtrack. Besides a stunning ending theme featuring fucking Paranoid Android by Radiohead I think Ergo Proxy also has one of my top favorite Opening Themes in anime. I'm learning that I seem to greatly enjoy media that are both post-apocalyptic as well as sci-fi and Ergo Proxy does everything with these themes that I love. I find the setting of this anime very pleasing to me in how I envision a future where most of humanity is wiped out and society is forced to live an artificial livelihood inside of bubble domes. There are a lot of things this anime has that are very satisfactory to me which are its art style, color pallet, soundtrack, and ambiance. I strongly admire the female lead in Ergo Proxy and feel that Re-l Mayer is written like a real woman with genuine struggles and emotions. I can say the same for Vincent Law and that he is a male lead that isn't overly masculine and has emotions that he isn't afraid to express. Ergo Proxy is one of the few psychological anime that I appreciate because I feel that my brain is just big enough to understand the larger picture. I'm not all that fond of psychological themes in media but Ergo Proxy gives you just enough to work with by the end of each episode for you to further unravel the mystery and I anticipated each episode after the next at least for the first 12 episodes. After the first half of Ergo Proxy, I did feel it tends to drag along and have some very unusual filler episodes. I'm not sure if I could even call them filler because no matter how "off" they felt from the main story they still had a purpose in explaining what was happening. I would like to add that Ergo Proxy is also another one of the top animes I've watched that has an excellent English dub.

SMT IV: prayers (manga) - This is a 2-volume mini-series set in an alternative setting following the character Jonathan. SMT IV Prayers is ok at best but it being just ok is what dissatisfies me. Of the two characters Jonathan and Walter, Jonathan is my favorite and it's disappointing to see his story fall so flat in comparison to the other mini-series following Walter. The art style isn't the worst but it's not the greatest either the only good-looking character is Jonathan but besides that all the other character designs make me wanna take a nap. I don't have very much to say about Jonathan's mini-series and I think the newly added character introduced in his story is just a very two-dimensional edge lord that wants revenge on demons.

SMT IV: demonic gene (manga) - This is the other mini-series following Walter in an alternative setting. I liked this mini-series a lot better than the story following Jonathan even though Jonathan is my favorite. I think the art style is very good and I liked seeing all the characters in SMT IV be adapted in the author's style. The story is a little more interesting and I like the new character introduced in Walters's alternative setting vs the character introduced in Jonathan's alternative setting.

Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction - This was my first time reading anything by Asano Inio and I have been made very well aware his works are pure depression and misery despite having absolutely gorgeous imagery and lovely character designs. I was always drawn to this manga over his other work, Goodnight Punpun which I have seen is wildly popular but I was just in love with all the character designs I had seen when first introduced to Dead Dead Demon. This manga was very political and I didn't expect that but that's what made me enjoy it. I think Dead Dead Demon has a very brutal and realistic depiction of how the world would actually react if aliens came to Earth. When aliens invaded Tokyo it was nothing like a Hollywood blockbuster movie. It was an intense heated political climate. You have one side of the political spectrum that believes aliens are "invading our country" and we should kill them vs the other side of the political spectrum that believes that we should make contact with Aliens and coexist with them. There is a pretty big underlying theme of xenophobia depicted in Dead Dead Demon but it is very unfortunate that this theme is literally thrown away after chapter 80 in fact anything after chapter 80 is thrown away. I was very disappointed by the ending, to say the least. I loved the bond that Kadode and Ontan had with each other and I think things really kick into high gear when you learn the meaning of Ontans existence in Kadodes relationship. I think they should have been girlfriends that being said I would have rather it ended with everyone dying in the explosion and Ontan and Kadode spending their final moments with each other after they kissed. I was truly prepared for a miserable ending after being made aware of the author's previous works and I would have accepted that kind of ending over the one we get. I really don't care if the ending fixes everything and makes it a happy ending it literally feels like Dead Dead Demon got axed at the last moment. While reading this I heard there is an anime adaptation coming out at some point and I am rather excited but I do fear this will be an anime that will have terrible reception if it hits western audiences for many reasons despite that, I give Dead Dead Demon a solid 10.

[froshele]

Hello tmoblr!

On a lark one night I decided to write a horror comedy novelette for fun. The next morning I realized that I don't know enough about the subject matter and cultural nuances of the setting not to look like an asshat writing it :)

This is mostly a checklist for myself and my own research, but if anyone is open to like occasionally dropping in when they have time and just infodumping a little about these things or tossing me a paper or three written by people who know what theyre talking about, I will be your friend and we will have tea together :)

There is a special interest guy for everything so if anyone is like moved by that to reach out I will absolutely be thrilled ☆

So, without further ado:

☆ American Christianity as a lived religion throughout the country (am foreign and Jewish, have never been to church, know enough about people to know that the letter of the law and the way religious people, including priests, live under it can be two very different things)

- especially ^ in large urban areas, especially in specifically Detroit; currently I am here for the medium to long term and think it'd be funny to set this atrocity here, but there are things that people would rightfully simply not have it occur to them to explain to me or invite me to, and unfortunately these are the ones I need to know to do this place and its people justice

there is seriously so little you can read that is worse than some chud from not your area writing about your area in like that weird holier than thou way they sometimes do and having come from a country it used to be socially acceptable to shit on recreationally pre current high profile events i Get It and do not want to inflict it on people

☆ When you would actually go about getting an exorcism and who (denominationally, in terms of census categories, etc) is more likely to believe in their efficacy

☆ Common tropes in media made by people outside "observant" Christian culture (again, especially throughout Michigan and specifically in Detroit) that are Just Tropes, and especially ones that people would prefer not to see

☆ Where the line is between pop culture angels, devils etc and doctrine about them, and what on that scale people tend to actually believe (ex. It seems to be a common belief that dead humans and animals become angels but according to a very cursory wiki crawl of Christian theology this appears to sometimes be opposed officially)

☆ Where the distinctions actually are between ambient American state religion and the practices of more specific faith communities, and how those work as such on the community level; almost certain they are not like Jewish kehillos

☆ cultural regions of Michigan as such and their like local tensions and stuff; will likely pick this up in the course of people watching but would appreciate primers generally so I can speedrun not seeming too weird to people (please ive already terrified my neighbours help me contain this before it spreads)

☆ local points of interest :^) of course, of course