#I'll hate on dr who but I never want people to think my opinions are the only option or something they must agree with

[being-of-rain]

Listening to a Dr Who podcast (not one anyone here has recommended to me, in fact I think I heard about it through a tumblr post,) and it's reminding me why I almost never listen to Dr Who podcasts or watch Dr Who youtube videos. It's because I just can't stand hearing so much objectively wrong information. Maybe it's due to Doctor Who being such a large and long-lived franchise, I know that I can misremember and get things muddled. But surely if you're publishing something you'd want to double check that you're not confidently emphasising incorrect facts about even basic things... and yet I feel like I see it with surprising frequency. It drives me crazy, please get a fact checker.

[del-stars]

People need to understand that just because Regulus ended up betraying Voldemort, that does not excuse his actions and the fact that he was a racist piece of shit. He betrayed Voldemort because Voldemort wasn’t holding up to his end of the bargain. In fact, if anything, Voldemort betrayed Regulus first. Just because Regulus got upset and decided to do his little teenage wizard angst arc does not excuse the fact that he was a racist, f@cist, pure blood supremacist who does not deserve redemption.

this is so funny to me because i am.... not a regulus defense blog? i don't really post often about regulus (outside of my wip, which is an au and thus has nothing to do with anything you've just said). i think there's a anti regulus/jegulus anon who's been blindly sending hate as you clearly haven't scrolled through my blog but as i've been sick in bed for three days now and am thus bored out of my mind, let's write an essay :)

re: regulus being a DE, i quite literally do not disagree with you. regulus, to me, is at his most compelling when we consider all aspects of his canon storyline, including the fact that he worshipped voldemort. i find it really bland when he gets given sirius' storyline or is reduced to "my parents forced me to do this" because we know (again, canonically) that they didn't. it's interesting to have a character who made mistakes, and (considering my self-proclaimed bias in favor of all things sirius black) it's really just boring to remove all nuance from his and sirius' stories to just make them essentially identical.

in regard to voldemort betraying regulus first, i'm actually laughing because i have a big rant about this that i saved in my drafts last night wherein i, once again, do not disagree with you. the tl;dr of that was regulus probably felt betrayed upon discovering that voldemort was a half-blood (looove to imagine this was what he meant by 'your secret') who had disrespected what he considered his personal property. regulus, who had been forced to be #2 his entire life, was operating under someone he considered fundamentally less than, which he deemed unacceptable. again, we will literally never know the truth on this, because we're given such little detail in canon, so people can go whichever way they want.

but, in his defense, he was sixteen. apologies to all my sixteen year old followers, but your brain is quite literally not formed. you're in no place to make informed decisions about anything. and, if you've lived an incredibly sheltered life in which you've constantly seen someone physically abused and belittled, and then you're told "as long as you don't act like him, you won't end up like that," you're probably ripe for manipulation and radicalisation. regulus was heralded as the perfect son for being in slytherin and being a pureblood supremacist, and he knew the danger of disobeying his parents. so, yeah, he probably took it a little too far.

does this mean regulus was right in what he did? well, no. did he do the right thing in the end? maybe/kinda. did he die a misguided, sheltered child, and thus we have no real perception of the choices he would've made were he an informed human being? yes.

i think calling him a racist/f@cist is a very.... interesting choice, but i'll save that essay for another day. i don't think those terms are things we should be throwing around in fandom.

to conclude, i offer one sage piece of advice: touch grass. take an internet break. go for a walk. he isn't real. he's made-up. all of this is. you don't need to interact with it if you don't want to. scroll. block the tag. again, i hold some relatively controversial regulus opinions myself, but i happily scroll on when i see things i don't agree with. policing the marauders fandom is a slippery slope. you can think regulus stans are annoying/incorrect, but you cannot tell them to stop theorising on a character, because that is what this fandom is built on. if we stop encouraging one another to brainstorm about new characters, this fandom is going to become a very boring place to be.

[aotopmha]

Attack On Titan Final (Final?) Thoughts

With AoT now done done, I really want to give my final thoughts (season 4 part 27):

If it weren't for Attack on Titan, I would have never become as active talking about media online as I have.

I would have never met, talked to and followed cool people like @raelis1, @momtaku, @ghostmartyr, @tatakaeeren and many others, some who fell out of love with the series and some who yet love it in its (im)perfection.

(I actually started as an anon on @momtaku's blog.)

I currently have almost 1300 followers, most of who followed me for AoT.

For 10 years, the series has been an active, weekly/monthly/in general periodic part of my life and for all of the issues I take with it personally, I loved most of the time I followed this story.

I loved theorising about and analysing this delibrate (and less delibrate and flawed) mess.

It's a compelling and memorable first long-form story by a young author and I'd say you can do much much worse (but also much better) for your first outing.

And to think, I went into the first episode expecting to hate it because of an unfortunate encounter with a fan of the series. But from there I caught up with the anime and then the manga, followed by quickly getting endlessly fascinated by it – and from the start I was fascinated by what I considered the flaws of the series as much as the positives.

And since getting into the series, I really developed my taste: I truly love dark stuff with a heart buried within it. The definition of shock value differs so much from person to person, but to me AoT *generally* had a good balance of both.

It is a B-movie (horror) that also has sincere and complicated thoughts about humanity. It uses all the tropes in bad visual novels and manga aimed at teens and up, but sometimes also turns them upside down in really cool ways.

I think it ended up a slave to unfortunate tropes within its ilk of series, but only two stories have ever come close to make me invested like this one.

And for the most tl;dr version of my thoughts on the series, for probably the last time (might make this a yearly thing, might not; at some point I also want to finally redo my Favorite Character List from back when I started this blog):

I love it with all of its warts. I think the anime ending really solidified this very specific opinion about it I have.

All of the contradictions within this series' themes and characters are fascinating. And all of the straight-forward ideas powerful and burning fiercely.

Not new, not original, but to me absolutely still memorable and still meaningful.

And I have been saying this since season 1: I think the anime 100% ended up being better than the manga. If I'll ever be able to get a full version of the story, I'll be getting all of the anime.

(It's also better in case Isayama ever goes full trash person, but supporting the anime has its own issues.)

[r8kirani]

qamar's comic recs: an unsorted list of a few comics I've read this year that I'd like to share my thoughts on (midlate 2023)

Insomniacs after School

A slice-of-life manga that centers around two highschoolers with insomnia, Ganta and Magari, and their relationships with each other, the people around them, and the way they navigate through life. In order to preserve the shared space they take naps in during school hours, they refound the astronomy club.

Slice-of-lifes aren't usually my first go-to, but this caught my eye purely through being related to space. While it isn't that focused on the actual science of stars and such my autistic ass would love, they still center plenty on the art of astrophotography. The way the story balances this and the interpersonal drama of the characters is absolutely great, and what I found in this series was a genuinely very smartly written and heartfelt story. I can't understate how easily loveable Ganta and Magari are, and how invested in them I have gotten. The manga is finished now, so if you're looking for a binge, here ya go!

The Sculptor

Scott McCloud may or may not be a name that stands out to you. As the creator of a trilogy of books that center all around the art of comics (the likes of which I also highly recommend lol), I'd hope that an actual story by him would cement the idea that the man absolutely knew what he was talking about, and boy was I blown away.

The Sculptor is about a man who makes a deal with Death, gaining the power to sculpt anything he desires by the whims of his bare hands, in exchange that he dies in 200 days. It is a love story, in more ways than just one. I sort of hate to give anything more about it away no matter how much I'd like to sell you on it, so if this premise interests you in any way, please give it a try.

The Eltingville Club

Do you want to read a comic about some guys who just really fucking suck? If you're on Twitter you might've seen these guys flying around from a clip of the pilot that was pitched to Adult Swim (but never picked up). That's certainly where I discovered them from.

The Eltingville Club is a scathing examination and satire of the real nasty side of fandom culture, and while is concerned with an older era, still connects very well with the culture of today. It honestly kind of gutpunched me in a way that I never expected, having figured that such a topic wouldn't be something I'd find myself very emotionally responsive to, but it found a way.

This comic really isn't for everybody. Being about the topic that it's about, there is a lot of uncensored bigotry (misogyny and fatphobia being big ones) and generally vile behaviour on display. It's also just sometimes disgusting. People throw up and jack off in it. I also don't think it's that perfect in of itself and has its >_> moments. If that doesn't shy you away from it, then by all means, try it out and see what you think.

Ducks

If you've seen that one Edgar Allen Poe reaction pic, or the strip it's from, you are already familiar with Kate Beaton. Ducks is an autobiographical comic by her, recounting the part of her life spent working in the oil sands of Alberta in order to pay off school fees.

It is an extremely harrowing and uncomfortable read, marked by the desolating effects of the oil sands on Kate, the people around her, as well as the larger world. It delves deep into the misogyny and sexual violence she'd encountered in such an isolating setting, as well as the bombardment of complicated feelings and thoughts she'd come to have from these experiences, from the destructive oil sands themselves. It is not light. It does not resolve itself on an uplifting note. I don't know if I'll ever read it again, but I feel like it was worth it to have read it at least the one time.

Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise

Whether you love, hate, or have no opinions on Marvel, it doesn't matter. This is a damn good comic. And you don't need to know anything about Dr. Strange to read it; I don't! I don't even like the guy!

This 4-issue series works as a completely stand-alone story with its own world-lore and characters. It is a colourful and psychedelic feast for the eyes, and is drop-dead gorgeous. The story matches this too, toying with concepts like identity, physicality, and more. In combination, this makes for an extremely experimental and mind-churning fuckery of the comics medium.

It's not the most easily followable narrative in the world, but that's not necessarily a negative to me. Even if you're not all that into thinking hard about its existential poetry like I am, it still works as a great read when tuning your mind out to its ebb and flow.

Krazy Kat

Not exactly something that's wholly contained in a compressed comic series but I thought I'd include it nonetheless. Krazy Kat is a comic strip from the 1920s that centers around the eponymous Kat and the love of his life, Ignatz the mouse, as they both live out their lives in a fictional rendition of Coconino County, Arizona. Ignatz likes throwing bricks at her head. Kat thinks of them as love letters. Maybe you'd think this to be a bit unconventional, but I think it's very sweet and funny.

Something that you might find notable about it is that it's about a relationship that is seemingly homosexual/LGBT in nature. When asked about Kat's gender, Herriman remarked that he was something of a sprite, a spirit that's free to butt into anything, neither male not female, paralleling Herriman's own feelings about being a biracial man.

The strip itself is really lovely, with panels that are very pleasant to look at and that are laid out in very interesting ways. The flow of action and linework is very beautiful and lends to the humour very well. You can read Krazy Kat on the web through archival efforts, or through book collections.

Until I Love Myself: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist

It's a travesty I haven't really read more memories from nonbinary people, so I think this was a great gateway into that. Until I Love Myself is about what it says on the tin, Pesuyama's journey of unravelling their internal strife with gender at different stages of their life, and the complications that misogyny and sexualization, and their combined trauma, brings to that. It's somewhat of a metacomic, being concerned with the comic's own creation itself and the discussions Pesuyama has with their editor, and thoughts on what to include within it.

I think I'm both relieved and saddened to know how intimately someone who lives several hundred kilometers away from me could feel the same ways that I've felt throughout my life. It really helped me feel more at peace with myself, even when upsetting. Being a person who is alive is very messy and full of regrets and mistakes, and Pesuyama is very familiar with that. It deals with some really heavy things at certain points, such as pedophilia, so I would highly recommend steeling yourself before going into it.

---

Ok that's my list thank you so much for reading and if you'd ever like to talk to me about what you thought of these comics or comics in general or if you'd like a recommendation specific to you you can always shoot me an ask or DM me bye bye

[laiosynth]

MK1 Whiplash AU

yeah, i'll think of anything, won't i....

anyways yes i'm talking about the whiplash with jk simmons. the jazz movie. the parallels between andrew / fletcher and reiko / shao was too much for my brain to handle.

to be truthful, the thought that led to this AU was "reiko would be a fucking incredible jazz drummer i feel it in my soul" and then i thought about whiplash and then i exploded.

so uh. more under the cut?

so to outline this AU:

reiko was orphaned at like 8/9. the foster system is kinda fucked, and he lashes out constantly at the foster parents who try to help him, scared and alone and traumatized from seeing his parents' death. he gets placed in a halfway house for 'behavioral issues' and it just so happens that this halfway house has an old drumkit in the basement. it's somewhat rudimentary, but it has everything you might need.

reiko, with no other option, sits at the thing one night and picks up a pair of sticks laying around. and from then on, that's his outlet. he relies... heavily on it. it's every waking moment that he's not in school or sleeping or eating. he's at the drumset, practicing. playing over the songs in the vinyl collection, playing over the songs in his ipod. every bit of music he can get his hands on, he's playing over it, mimicking what the drummers he can hear do.

the vinyls in the basement are all old jazz. a wide arrangement of it, from blues to latin to bossa nova to new orleans parade, but it's all jazz. that's what he grow up with, on, that's his formative influence. buddy rich, jo jones, art blakely, tony williams-- the drummers on these old vinyls are his heroes.

by the time he's in high school, his 'behavioral issues' have toned down massively-- he is largely fine. as long as you don't separate him from the drumset. he hasn't moved from the halfway house-- protested STRONGLY at being separated from both his drumset and the vinyls. by protested strongly i mean he nearly attacked some people over it.

when he's in high school, he joins the jazz band freshman year. he's in it every year until graduation.

this story starts, though, when a guest clinician-- dr shao kohn-- shows up to work with the band in reiko's sophomore year.

dr kohn teaches at the local community college, but is highly regarded across the country. he's professor of jazz studies and director of the highly prestigious auditioned jazz ensemble at this community college.

upon seeing the INCREDIBLE talent and potential of reiko during that clinic at the high school, shao invites reiko to come join the jazz ensemble at the college. he's young, but if he can make time in his schedule for it next school year, he'd get the chance to really challenge and prove himself.

reiko does. and starting 1st of august that year, he's giving his early mornings and late evenings to rehearsals with this ensemble and individual lessons with dr kohn. he's giving everything he fucking has to this band, and it shows. he's improving at rates he never had before, he's better than most college players doing this for a career.

and shao keeps pushing for more. and reiko keeps striving to fucking give. more, more, better, better.

to be truthful, he would probably be failing all his classes if it weren't for raiden, the only kid other than maybe kung lao who'll put up with him at school. raiden tutors him in the subjects he's falling behind in (all of them really) so he doesn't get held back or something.

all the while, shao pushes reiko for more, better. he's never satisfied, and that is not acceptable in reiko's eyes. he's never had someone he wanted to impress before, an adult he actually cares for the opinion of. and fuck, does he find he cares. he cares a lot. he's trying so hard to meet expectations, he's falling apart at the seams.

i don't know how i'd want this whole thing to end, but. i hate shao and i like happy endings so. shrug.

[olderthannetfic]

The whole bookmarks conversation reminds me of the authors of massive crossover fic With Pearl And Ruby Glowing, who have been known to lash out at anyone and everyone who criticize them, even if you did it in a private server where it was never intended to get back to them, even if you only mildly disliked one chapter, even if you were a massive fan but wished they'd used intersexism instead of going "what's the word for this? interphobia?" and then deleting all comments stating "it's intersexism". Mention them on a locked Dreamwidth entry that duckduckgo search results will show them part of? They're going to contact you and they're going to be furious.

Sometimes, not everyone is going to love your work. You cannot try to ban them from expressing that opinion in private to others. Yes, even if you're "famous" author who has a whole TV Tropes page for your work. You are within your rights to not want to be insulted to your face outright in vitriolic ways unrelated to your work, such as people who slam them for being queer writers. But not wanting that being a relatable, reasonable thing to feel does not mean that everyone has to say your work is good even in private, that people who comment on the fact that there's been more blonde black people than Arab people in your work even though you say you care about representation are haters who shouldn't be allowed to speak, or that if you ask what a word is and get told what the word is then that's hate that needs to be deleted and just for that we're going to screen all comments you meanies.

I've gotten some really nasty intersexist, antisemitic and outright violent comments on my work in the past. I delete the garbage and report the comments that threaten physical violence against me. The result is that people who like my work feel like they can approach me and say hi and chat in my comments or to others. Meanwhile, despite having a ton of hits, almost no one comments on With Pearl and Ruby Glowing and hardly any discussion of it off of AO3 because no one is in the mood to be yelled at for answering a question the author asked or for saying you didn't think a particular chapter was as well done as the others. When even "I loved the first 150 chapters except for number 44, I didn't get that completely" can be met with backlash, the readers start going, "I'll just not say anything and hopefully they won't get mad at me", a fandom dynamic that has resulted in less and less hits and less and less engagement as the story has gone along.

The best thing to do about angry bookmarks is to ignore it. People hate being treated as if they don't matter, thus it is your best possible revenge, because long after you've forgotten their annoying bookmark, you live rent-free in their head. Snapping back at even the lightest of criticism does not make for a fun experience for the reader. It makes me glad I didn't recommend the fic to anyone or comment and it likely to make me stop reading.

One of my fandoms is stubbornly refusing to move to AO3 and is still posting on FFN, for reasons I don't know and cannot explain. The result is that hate comments are still common. The standard response is to just ignore it. I feel much better about talking to those authors because I don't have to walk on eggshells around them in order to make sure I don't make them mad at me. As a result, I am much more likely to recommend their fic to others, because I don't have to worry I'm putting someone in the line of fire by doing so.

TL;DR can we all please learn some sense of proportion and that negative comments aren't worth burning the world to the ground over? Because in the process of burning things to the ground, you burn a good chunk of your audience in the process.

--

[cipher-fresh]

Idr if you’ve mentioned before, but what was your opinion on the whole “bi-generation” thing in the new dr who specials? Ive heard alot of differing opinions on it

I'm split- ha, ha- on how I feel. I don't like it from a Doylist perspective, but I can appreciate it Watsonianly, if that makes sense? I'll go with my negative feelings first.

One one hand, it feels like a very obvious "Bring David Tennant Back" button that RTD can press at any time. A generous interpretation would be that it feels like RTD got too attatched to David Tennant as the Doctor and is too afraid to kill his darling, and only killed him last time because someone was going to showrun after him. Bi-generation denies Ncuti being the focus of his own introduction- (while I do think he stole every scene he was in, its the principle of not having to share his introduction with anyone else, you know?). It's also left semi-unexplained why this even happened, how did the Doctor's body decide the regeneration after 13 was the one where it was official he needed to settle down, and then bi-generate so he could live with Donna and her family? I hate that Fourteen didn't really even "die", and while it seems like he will at some point in the future and merge back into 15, and then become 15- it breaks your immersion and feels super obvious that RTD did this so David Tennant didn't have to die. I'm also not a fan of RTD saying that there are bi-generated versions of every Doctor out there somewhere, all existing at the same time. I like how regeneration acts as death, and that the Doctor has to face that, but here we never get the catharsis of death and rebirth. A less kind interpretation of this decision could say that this might have happened because Disney didn't want RTD killing off the most profitable and popular version of the Doctor from the 21st century, so they can keep using him in spin-offs like that UNIT one that appears to be confirmed.

But in terms of in-universe storytelling, it's really sweet? 14 and 15 are overjoyed by each other's presence and go for that hug immediately, and are wonderfully in sync. David and Ncuti interacting was the absolute highlight of the episode, they bounce off each other perfectly and seeing 15 assure 14 that he'll be okay was very touching. 14 settling down and living with Donna is really nice in a fanfictiony way, you know? I'd love to write about 14 starting to live a human life while still being himself, becoming a part of the Noble family and working on healing from all of his scars, the dead companions and all the people he's failed to save. 14 healing from his trauma and taking a break also gives 15 a blank slate for the show's narrative to get new viewers, and face new threats.

To summarize- bi-generation so 14 can live a domestic life is nice fanfiction, I kind of wish it wasn't canon, but also this is the single most joyous hug I've ever seen in my life

[ID: Four screenshots of 14 and 15 hugging immiediatwly after the bi-generation, then holding each other's faces. 15 says "So good to see you. Oh, so good!" as Mel looks delighted.

Two screenshots of 15 comforting 14 after the defeat of the Toymaker, 15 puts an arm around 14's shoulders as 14 puts his head on 15's shoulder. 15 then kisses him on the forehead.

The two final screenshots are of 14's disappointed face after 15 stops hugging him, then smiling when he hugs 15 again. /End ID]

[ghost-cwunch]

Art school sucks: a rant (1/2)

On a good note, I just recently graduated! On a bad note, here's what I learned about art school.

Excuse my stupid use of language I am *extremely* tired and pretty upset.

I'll actually start with the conclusion, in case anyone just wants a TL;DR of the following paragraphs: Art school sucks, because education and art alike should have never been turned into a business.

And no, it's not because of some kind of personal vendetta, or bad teachers (though I've had my fair, fat share of bad art teachers.) but because of the concept itself. As everyone knows education has evolved so much from ancient times, it went from simple information being passed down trough generations and generations, to new discoveries, to arguably a position which is the worst of them all and our current situation... A business. And art school is not exempt of this. Which oh my Hell okay MAYBE it works (to some extent) in other subjects such as science or math or like you know non-abstract concepts- But just think about it. The concept of an art school is *fucked*. Turning education itself into a business just automatically turns the focus from the actual purpose of the concept towards money. What does this result in? I'm pretty sure ya'll already know and I don't want to mansplain, but just for the record and in my opinion, it results in people to see it as a mere source of money. This means teachers see the paycheck, thus pushing students to reach goals that would get them a fatter paycheck (usually good grades, at least here, contests, etc, ((reminder that things like these might not apply to every country))) instead of actually looking to work with the kids. This makes the kids, in return, see school as this systemic thing where they're being pushed around and getting information (useless information at that, some of it) syphoned into their brains. Don't even get me started on all of the issues with verbally or even physically abusive teachers, just plain asshole teachers, etc.

Of course, it varies from country to country but especially here (and from what I know in most countries actually but I digress) art schools are all the same: you get taught specific things in a specific time with a specific deadline- and don't get me started on the people that don't even wanna be in the niche they get put in. That was my case.

Some context: Ever since I was little I was an extremely picky person and obsessed with art, in third grade I already *knew* what kind of art I even wanted to do. It was graphic design. I didn't like painting, and I fucking *hated* architecture. SO I begged my mom to send me to an art school- which she did. She was immediately told that ''yeah we have like a rotation every 3 years because we don't have enough teachers, he's gonna be with the graphics kids, it'll all be good." Guess who didn't end up with ''the graphics kids"? Nah, I got syphoned into plastic arts instead (painting, textile work, irl paint and stuff, nothing digital, no pencilwork, very little graphic techniques etc). Which I fucking hated. Every second of those 7 years, I felt like I've learned absolutely nothing.

[seth-burroughs]

yakou for the ask meme? (i also hate what the fandom has done to him so i trust your rc opinions. keep up the good work)

Thank you anon I'll do my best🙏

Yakou:

favorite thing about them

How he's a fucking loser but pulled off the most elaborate murder plan just to get revenge for his Dead Wife and stabbed Dr. Huesca not once but like three times and was fine with dying afterwards if it meant that bitch is gonna die too. And now he's stuck with him in the restricted area for an indefinite period. Oh well

Not my actual favourite thing about him (because I cannot choose man) but I really wanted to point it out because I don't see enough people talk about the sheer BLOODLUST that guy had in chapter 4 like holy shit good for him I think he should be allowed to kill murder & destroy whoever he wants

least favorite thing about them

Nothing comes to mind, I'd say he got underutilized but that's the case with most of the characters here tbh (mdarc feels kinda rushed 😔😔) and Yakou is not THAT bad compared to the peacekeepers it's like. It's fine!

favorite line

Can't really pick, probably the chat Yuma had with him in the prologue, but there are a lot

brOTP

Him and the NDA, but especially Yuma his best pal buddy bro ziomek morda mordeczka Yuma who never remembers to get the fucking groceries.

OTP

none tbh

nOTP

Uhhhhhhhh yakou/seth, yakou/yomi. honestly i'm not big on any Yakou ships can't imagine him in a healthy romantic relationship (viviakou toxic sludge is fine though)

random headcanon

Makes the best fucking spaghetti sauce you ever ate in your entire life. But he puts like an entire garlic in it and you can choke to death on the smell. Also he's a trans man. Usually I don't really hc male characters as trans men etc (rather I go the other way, like a canonically female character being a trans man, non-binary et cetera) but both he and Vivia fit the vibes so! Let's goooooo.

unpopular opinion

I HATE HATE HATE the common fandom hc of Yakou being a father figure to Yuma or the whole NDA or to any character. The vibes aren't aligning on that one, he's their extremely tired boss/acquaintance/pal/best pal that lets them do terrible things to his budget if they torment him hard enough. And also because I constantly see Yuma getting treated like a 12 year old, no guys he doesn't need an adult male role model and father figure, he needs his 6ft tall 1000+ years old death god gf back from the book and to explore his much more attractive rich and successfull perfect homunculus clone's body that'll fix him I believe.

Also: I'm all for NDA found family (even if we didn't get much of them from the actual game...) but please stop making them like. a nuclear mom dad and their beautiful two children family it doesn't have to conform to any rigid roles pleaseee sometimes you're found family and fuck each other it's FINE jeuss. I was about to say something but I'm having a real one right now qhat what I forgot what I typed I suggest you forget too.

Anyway him and Yuma play minecraft together they pull of the most complicated redstone mechanisms and once every few days his house gets burned down by Desuhiko who logs into Yuma's computer while he isn't looking. He always leaves behind a very visible trail of cheeto dust on the keyboard however Yuma would never snitch on the boy that makes him warrior cats pride pfps free of charge so he just tells Yakou it's a hacker

song i associate with them

Generic old songs on the radio. I don't have any

favorite picture of them

h-HELLO???

[bewareofdeaddove]

hello! since this is a discourse blog, introducing myself isn't a priority, but i'll do it anyway.

you can call me whatever name you want on this blog. i'm a minor. i use it/its pronouns. i will provide tw tags simply: no "tw" or "cw", just, for example, "blood" or "queerphobia". please block tags you're uncomfortable with!

i have no dni; i believe in fostering open and good faith discussion on this blog, as that's the point of making it! telling me to kill myself will get you blocked.

as a quick tl;dr before i conveniently list out some of my opinions: i am against harrassment and censorship, and i don't care what people decide to write fanfiction about or draw.

i am wholly against any form of harrassment. this includes calling people pedos for fictional ships, telling people to kill themselves, and anything else. if you really hate someone's posts, complain in private with your friends like everyone else does, don't harrass people.

i am wholly against censorship. media, no matter how bad or "irredeemable", always has a right to exist. all art has inherent value.

i don't judge people's morals over fictional content. as long as whatever you're posting is tagged properly and can be blocked if neccessary, it's not my business.

fiction and reality are not equal, but do have some effect on each other. i, of course, have issues with trends in media that, for example, downplay abuse and sexualize/"adult-ify" teenagers, but fanfiction is, like, the very end of that chain. it doesn't affect anyone. because of that, i don't care about it.

i don't care what you make if it doesn't hurt anyone, but being a bigot in your fiction does hurt people. the way people behave towards fictional characters, i.e. racist comments towards characters of color, can still be bigoted. it doesn't hurt the characters (obviously) but it does hurt real people, and that's where i draw the line.

i only have an issue with fanworks when they begin to perpetuate actual, real-life bigotry. this leads into my next point...

what are your personal limits regarding fiction?

aren't you basically pro-ship, then? well, yeah, i guess. i don't identify with the pro-ship label for many reasons, though. most of all, though, i don't want people to put words in my mouth; i have no desire to be called a pedophile because of the pro-ship label. i have no desire to have people assume that i want terrible things to happen in real life over internet discourse. i will never tolerate these accusations, and i don't use the label in order to avoid the possibility. you can call me whatever you want, though.

i don't particularly like anti-shippers. this is mostly from experience. i have been deeply entrenched in anti-ship communities, and i have come to only think one thing of them: the people themselves have good intentions, but the mindsets they foster are incredibly harmful. i'm open to discussion about this.

i avoid anti-shippers because of their tendency to harrass people, also. like... big tendency. community-built-on-the-idea level tendency. pro-shippers also harrass people, which is another reason i choose not to label myself as one. this i know from experience.

as a general rule, i am uncomfortable with:

shipcest

minor/adult ships

lolisho content (i have complex feelings on it, but i'm just uncomfortable with it as a whole and ask that it not be brought up with me)

rpf, but i only draw a hard line at rpf of minors and generally tolerate everything else, however begrudgingly.

i am fine with:

aging up underage fictional characters

selfcest (although i usually call it selfslash for comfort)

"rpf" of fictionalized versions of real-life people, like idk, hamilton characters.

just about anything else, honestly. we'll see about specifics.

in addition, my boundaries for this blog are as follows:

i will not respond to anon hate, including anything with death threats or anything accusing me of, like, being a pedo.

i will try not to reblog from people who have neutrals in their dni (as that's what i consider myself), but i don't really check dni pages, so i might make mistakes in that regard.

i will not reveal personal information about myself to justify my opinions.

[being-of-rain]

Okay, time to write my thoughts on Empire of Death. Like the rest of the season, I've only watched it once so far. I think soon I'll binge all of Fourteen and Fifteen soon. And as with many of the episodes, I'll be interested to see what I think of the finale on a rewatch. Anyway, this post gets a little long-winded, and I hope readers will forgive me for feeling my way around my opinions on the episode as I go.

I've already said that I wasn't a big fan of the episode. But part of me thinks that Empire of Death is a very subjective one. People I've seen defending it have said that critics aren't engaging enough with the themes, and are being too nitpicky. That sounds familiar, because I know I've held opinions along those lines on other controversial Dr Who episodes. So in that case, what you think of the episode is going to depend on how you connect to the themes, and to the emotions. How much do you think the themes and emotions earn priority over other aspects of the story and how its judged?

Then again, I suppose I might be contradicting that when I say that there's some themes I liked in the episode, but (like in The Giggle,) I really didn't like how the episode executed them. The idea of Ruby's mum being an ordinary woman is something I like in theory and am not surprised by; celebrating the ordinary in the midst of the extraordinary is a signature move of New Who and has been the twist conclusion for quite a few story arcs already. But while it's done as explicitly here as it ever has been, the plot doesn't really manage to support it.

I'm sure I don't have to list a lot of the questions and nitpicks fans (including me) have here, but even the catch-all explanations of 'a god was interested in the mystery' and 'magic is in Dr Who now' don't feel like they really work for me. For the first because it feels out of character and contrived that Sutekh cares about this mystery at all, and if he does then why only this one? And for the second, well its unclear how or even if the magic unleashed in the 60th specials affect this finale at all, since Sutekh seems to have completely different origins to the other two gods (and if it does have bearing on this episode then that isn't made clear at all). You could say this is me getting hung up on nitpicks and details, and I really do hate letting those things get in the way of a story... but it's hard not to when those details are such a large part of the story. I don't quite agree with the harsh criticism of RTD taking advantage of the viewers or whatever (which I think has been said about every showrunner), but this arc/s and final two episodes are so geared towards speculation and building up questions in spectacular ways that brushing over them with not much of an answer feels... well, like a plot hole.

As a result, statements like 'this ordinary woman is so important because of what we thought of her' and 'time is memory and memory is time', while really lovely sentiments, and themes I'd love to see explored, only really make sense if disconnected from the rest of the story. To come back to my first paragraph, they're themes that you have to give so much priority to over the rest of the story that they basically become premises that need to be accepted in order to carry the plot, rather than the other way around.

Does any of this make sense? I think all this was to say: for me this story definitely doesn't earn the 'themes are good enough to ignore the details' approach, even though I love the themes. Never mind, that summary made even less sense.

Another criticism I had of The Giggle, and pretty much all of RTD's finales, is that RTD really wants to go for big emotional moments and let the emotions carry the plot... but the emotions just don't always hit for me, especially when it doesn't feel like the story's earned it. That feels like more of a problem in Empire of Death than ever before.

Maybe the scene with the biggest emotional impact on me (not a massive impact, but bigger than the rest of the episode) was the scene with the lady giving the Doctor the spoon, possibly because it felt so strangely divorced from the rest of the episode, like a scene from a different episode dropped in the middle.

Ruby's departure was... well for one, unexpected. I know she's in the next season, right? Is it a series 4 Martha come-back-as-a-guest-star situation, or a series 9 Clara the-departure-was-a-fakeout situation? Anyway, the departure was... about as satisfying as I've found Ruby's character arc. I really had hoped that her only important defining character trait wasn't 'orphan who wants to meet her bio mum,' but its hard not to think of her that way after this episode. I never really found anything to hook me on the character. Shame.

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but I can't help but compare Ruby's arc to Izzy Sinclair's arc from the DWM comics. On an obvious level, Ruby's arc concludes with her successfully tracking down her bio mum while Izzy's arc concludes with her happily returning to her adoptive parents, no longer considering her 'secret origins' as a missing part of herself. And while I definitely prefer the sentiment of Izzy's story, I don't want to say Ruby uncovering her origins and gaining a new parent automatically makes for a bad ending to an adoptee's story. But I think just as important is that with Izzy, we really dive into why she feels the way she does. We learn in great detail how her feelings about being adopted connect to many other things in her life, not least her self image. In comparison, Ruby feels downright shallow. She's incredibly curious who her mother is, considering it part of her legend... and that's about it. It doesn't really affect her in any way most episodes. Maybe I'm being unfair here and I'd be less harsh after my rewatch, we'll see.

Unfortunately the resolution to the Sutekh plot also didn't satisfy me. Dragging Sutekh back through the time vortex to 'bring death to death' just... doesn't work for me. Not even on a storybook level, or fairytale level, or purely emotion-based level. It felt... idk... childish?, in a way I really didn't vibe with. But honestly I would've been happy it happened if, when the Doctor started listing planets he was bringing back, he mentioned Gallifrey and revealed the Time Lords were alive again and then we could all just move on. Sigh.

I think that's most of the major points. What else do I have to say?

The oppressive empty atmosphere of Sutekh's dead universe was cool. There was a scene with just Sutekh and his minion where everything beside them was intensely silent, which really hammered the point home. It's still funny/silly to me that the so-called god of music wanted this exact same thing.

Mel is still lovely, and call me a nerd but her recognising Six's outfit and later cuddling with Seven's was maybe the best part of the episode for me. Apart from that she sure spent a lot of time standing around with no dialogue. I finally got an answer to the question I'd been asking since November last year- if there'd been a reason Mel in particular was brought back to the show- and the answer is Not Really. I did laugh when a friend pointed out that there's plot-important computer hacking in this episode and during that Mel was told to go keep watch in the corridor.

Meanwhile Kate felt like she was parodying herself by trying to recruit Susan at the end of the episode. Teens work for UNIT because Kate can't be around someone for five minutes without trying to headhunt them. I saw Kate and the random soldier hold hands at the end but read it as (or maybe very much hoped it was) platonic and relieved to be alive.

I don't think I truly knew how much the Vlinx annoyed me until it was killed by Sutekh, and for one short moment I was filled with joy at the belief it wouldn't be coming back. Sorry the Vlinx.

The TARDIS has a laser that can be activated with a whistle? Huh? Did I miss something or is that just a fact? The only thing I could think to connect it with was the 'heart-of-the-Tardis-laser-beam' from Flux, which would make it much stupider.

I'm pretty sure Mrs Flood will be a new character, but heck if I know. She doesn't seem like Susan anymore. Oh yeah! So I guess Susan wasn't in this apart from one second of archival footage. Unless next season uses this as foreshadowing, it feels like a waste.

And that's all I can remember after one viewing! I believe the next episode is a christmas special by Steven Moffat? I've decided I'm excited for it. I think Moffat christmas eps have more hits than misses, as opposed to RTD finales.

[pimento-playing-hopscotch]

Hi Kerry, here are some Nice Ask Weeks questions for you!!

1. What about TK’s character interested you the most in exploring his backstory, and what made you decide to explore what it would have been like had he had a little sister?☺️

2. If we were to get a flashback in s5 to a point in TK’s life, at what age would you prefer the flashback to be set?

3. What about the show made you join the fandom and is this the first fandom you’ve been in?:)

I wish you a wonderful weekend🌼☺️🌼☺️

Hi Mar! 😍💝

Oh my.... first off, I want to apologize for how unhinged the answer to this question might get and also in advance if I give you a bunch of information you didn't want- The biggest reason is the cliche reason of write the fic you yourself would want to read. I came into the LS fandom when season three had just aired, and I adored TK and Owen's relationship in the first season, and the third season did this SO dirty - like there were literally so many times they could have, should have included a scene for them and just didn't- and because of this/the Gwyn stuff, when I went looking for sweet Strand family feels fic, if it didn't have a publication date of 2020, was some version of, "Gwyn is the ONLY parent TK has ever known and Owen was not there for TK once, IN HIS LIFE, they were basically STRANGERS the day TK didn't come to work and Owen clocked that as something being wrong - and I respect everyone's right to write whatever fic they want. I would never tell any of those writers I didn't agree with them, because they had their opinion and I had mine (also I'm sorry I make way too many references, please throw something at me) but in the show The Good Wife, there's a judge who makes every lawyer preface their statements with "in my opinion" and I was like is that a nifty idea! Because I'm not going to say my take on their relationship is THE right one because it's just how I see it. Before I started my long fic I was just writing cute Strand family stories that are shorter because I didn't find those, so I wrote them. Also (and there is a very long, unhinged post that I don't think I'll ever be brave enough to write about how much it grinds my gears they killed Gwyn off) but I truly hate that they killed her off, I don't think it was the right decision or that it has served TK's character arc, and also, I think Gwyn and Owen are such strong characters and they both love their family so fiercely. Which brings us to the cliched reasons - the things of write what you know and only you could write this fic this way, I was like pfft so made up, and then I spent a year writing a fic over 200,000 words with no end in sight about children of divorce who felt very loved by their parents... and realized that yes, this was written by a child of divorce who felt very loved by her parents. Like in the show, I was also seven when my parents divorced (albeit for a much, much more cliched of a reason) and something that I really strongly see and relate to is that despite what has happened, TK loves and has always felt loved by his parents, and has never had to question that. It doesn't mean they haven't let him down and it doesn't mean that everything's perfect- it's like an early episode of Scrubs where their parents all visit and Dr. Cox tells JD, "Every one of our parents does considerable emotional damage". This is very true, and (I swear I'm trying to be concise and just failing) and I know that so many people's parents fail their kids in this respect and they don't get to have that relationship, but if you do have that bond that the Strands do and that love is never questioned (especially as TK has stated his parents were there for him any time he relapsed), then you look past the times they didn't measure up because they mean so much to you; and I really see that in TK's relationships with both his parents. And TK is just so sweet and so caring and if there are too many characters on TV that are an only child I will be like .... but what if they were a big brother/sister? (Me watching the first three years of teen wolf: why do none of them have brothers and sisters lol) Also because (this probable doesn't come as a surprise given that it's 50 chapters deep lol) writing TK as a big brother is really, really fun for me - because he would be the kid who was so excited his mom was having a baby and wanted to help as much as he could and tell his whole class it's his baby - TK Strand is a character that is very fun to write at any age

I would love to see a flashback to the beginning of his relationship with Alex; just because I'm so curious about what it was about Alex that made TK want to propose, (this would also be hard because it would be so different from his relationship with Carlos, but it's a very curious time to me)

It's the first fandom I've been in like this; probably yes, cause I don't think any other fandoms (like Teen Wolf) I was actively a part of like wrote for it- I did not expect to love this show this much - I'm a big parks and rec/west wing/outsiders fan and was like Rob Lowe as a dad- well sure- and then by the time the title card aired I was like "WHAT IS THIS SHOW" like it still amazes me how fleshed out almost every character is in the pilot/first season. Like - I hadn't written anything for 13 years before I started watching LS- but the characters they provided us with were too good to ignore

Thank you for the ask 🥰- and sorry I ramble too much 🫣🫣

[fizzingwizard]

Because of those last two posts I randomly started thinking about Yugioh... and in particular the Doma arc... about which my opinions haven't changed since I was a teen, even though they were unpopular ones.

Since I'm perpetually long-winded I'll put the tl;dr up here: fans were unreasonbly harsh on Other Yugi during Doma because they were too busy feeling upset about Yugi to appreciate Other Yugi's storyline. But some of that is Doma's fault because while it's way stronger than a lot of filler, it's over-involved and has a rushed ending that fails to express its hero's growth. Also YGO fan culture circa Doma-era majorly sucked lol.

I never hated Doma. It's is my favorite filler arc, and what's great about it because it's filler is that it's not dumb. So much of 90s/2000s filler arcs in anime were just painfully stupid. But YGO, buoyed, I guess, by it's over-reliance on card games, was able to construct a couple filler arcs that weren't mindless nonsense. Not all of them! The KC Grand PRix, for example, is so bad it's unwatchable. But the Noa arc gave us a lot of backstory for the Kaiba brothers and asked some interesting questions about family and love. It doesn't go super deep, and the ending is uh, pretty weird, but also very fitting for sci-fi. It's not my favorite, because despite the ways it's better than most filler it's still got a lot of "stupid filler" features. But I appreciate that it took on something which was going unaddressed by canon (the Kaiba bros and their history) and tried to develop it.

Doma was like that. It took on the fact that Other Yugi is the soul of a pharaoh from ancient Egypt who has no memories of being so, and asked, "What does he actually feel about that?" Because all he does is play card games. Now and then we see him joking around with Yugi, even more rarely the others. But mostly he shows up, plays a cool combo, makes a kingly speech, and then disappears back into the Puzzle. It made sense in the context of the story. He's still fighting the war from the past, and he doesn't want to interfere too much with Yugi's present life. But as a fan, you gotta wonder what Other Yugi felt, discovering he's not actually an aspect of Yugi's personality but an entirely separate person with a past he no longer remembers.

Doma decided to ask that question. Of course it couldn't give us Other Yugi's backstory, since that would happen in canon. But it could address how Other Yugi feels while still not knowing anything. It could look at all the horrible things which have happened which are connected to Other Yugi, and which people (even fans sometimes!!) blame Other Yugi for even when it's not his fault, and ask what impact so much pressure would have on him. It said, "He's stressed. He acts strong, but he's not okay. He's reliant on Yugi for humanity, which means compassion and faith in his own goodness. If Other Yugi is a good person, he must be unable to look at the horrors going on around him and think it's fine. He must be wondering if he himself is evil, for being part of the cause. And a good person who thinks he's evil is bound to reach a breaking point."

I'm not counting the battle with Kaiba at Pegasus's Castle as a canonical breaking point because it's really more about Yugi's strength, and Other Yugi didn't even have a concept of himself having a past outside of Yugi then. That's memorable for totally different reasons. Although he initially tries to sacrifice it for Yugi's sake, in the end Canon Other Yugi follows the course of "destiny" with unfaltering dedication. I suppose the idea is that Other Yugi's convictions about his destiny are just too strong to brook any misgivings like the ones posed in Doma. But I always thought Other Yugi needed real character development, and before Memory World, Doma is pretty much the only thing that gives it to us. So I have to admire it for that.

Here's the tricky part. Doma took on something huge for Other Yugi. It put him in a situation where he had to face his anxieties that he might not have been a good king, that he might be just as bad as Bakura's other self. Where he had to exist on his own and trust in his own goodness sans Yugi's influence. It's a huge undertaking for canon, let alone filler!

I think Doma is right in its take on Other Yugi: that he'd be lost and bereft not because of not having Yugi but because not having Yugi means those weaknesses have nowhere to hide. Other Yugi is struggling, but he always struggles where no one else can see, and presents only strength and confidence in public. But the thing is, fans had never seen that before. The most we saw (if you were watching the Japanese version, btw, the US dub just wrote right over the following lines) was Other Yugi apologizing to Yugi for what he had to go through and wondering briefly whether he was bad for causing it. That happened in Battle City and was quickly forgotten.

We always see Other Yugi the winner. Doma showed us Other Yugi the loser. And fans did not accept him. I know the reason why is because he bartered Yugi's soul for the sake of winning. He thought he was bartering his own soul - a relevant point I feel many fans overlook - but it's still clearly risky, and on top of that, he went as far as to block Yugi from interfering with his duel with Raphael. Other Yugi took a massive risk with a power they knew couldn't be trusted, and he barred Yugi from having a voice while dueling in Yugi's body. It's all round terrible choices on Other Yugi's part.

Which is another part of Doma I love. It didn't give Other Yugi some stupid choice no one could really hate him for. It said we're going to test this guy for everything he's worth and it fucking went for it. That makes it very different from the Noa arc, where the Kaiba bros are unquestionably the stars and heroes.

In themes, Doma and Noa are similar. Both call into question one person's loyalty to another and ask whether their love is real or simply useful. Kaiba, as a sometimes villain, sometimes anti-hero, gets pretty lovely treatment: the fact that he's not a nice guy and puts his brother in dangerous situations all the time barely matters. And also when he loses it's fighting for his brother, and then there's someone (Other Yugi) to step in and win on his behalf. Meanwhile, with Doma, Other Yugi starts out as a hero, so he has much farther to fall. His duel with Raphael isn't for a righteous reason, but a self-serving one. And when he fails, there's no one to help. And he really loses what least deserved to be lost.

The stakes were high and Doma let the hero fail catastrophically. Because Doma understood that the only way characters grow is through failing tests against themselves. Not against business executives. Not against millionaires.

And Doma gave us plenty of explanation for Other Yugi's failure too! It didn't make him a temporary villain who would just go back to being the hero at the end of the filler arc so we'd all say "oh, Doma, yeah that was stupid and doesn't fit anywhere in the story as a whole." Doma told us that Other Yugi is breaking down without anyone knowing, and Raphael and Orichalcos are the final straw. Doma says this was going to happen, and if it hadn't happened, Other Yugi would have been weaker going into his final battle for his destiny. Doma said Other Yugi is traumatized too. And why shouldn't he be, having so much pressure on him all the time, with so little knowledge of himself and so little to distract him in that dank, dark mental labyrinth where he's trapped day in, day out?

This is what I think fans as a whole missed because they were too busy freaking out about "angelic Yugi, poor baby!" Don't get me wrong. Yugi is everything good and Other Yugi did make a horrible choice with Orichalcos. But Other Yugi is suffering from trauma every bit as much as the Kaiba bros. It's an existential trauma as well as a magical one which means it much less relatable, much less visceral. And Yugi is so sweet and kind! It's so easy to forgive the Kaiba bros because they love each other, be upset on poor Yugi's behalf, and completely ignore the intense mental upheaval Other Yugi was going through. It's not that Other Yugi should get blanket forgiveness. But his motives should be understood and his pain should be respected.

He didn't set out to risk Yugi's soul, or the Duel Monsters either for that matter. He meant to risk his own and to prove his mettle as a king by overcoming the Orichalcos's influence. It was stupid because he didn't have any proof that that was a good idea except that Raphael provoked him to try or accept that he was a failure. As a very strategic player, Other Yugi is used to taking calculated risks. But this wasn't that: if he'd been calm, he'd have realized that he couldn't be sure Yugi's soul would be fine and only his own would be lost. And he'd have realized that he had only Raphael's word that a pure soul could overcome Orichalcos to go on. Granted, Raphael seeming in perfect control while using Orichalcos himself probably seemed like pretty good evidence. But it certainly wasn't the only possible explanation and normally Other Yugi would know that. He chooses to play the Orichalcos card clearly under a lot of strain, even pushing Yugi away, which is unprecedented.

What this means is that, afterwards, the reason Other Yugi is suffering isn't just because of losing Yugi. It's also because he's now lost what sense of self he had. He had so little of it going into the Raphael duel, and he wanted to gain more by overcoming Orichalcos. Instead he lost Yugi and he lost his idea of himself as someone who cares about others and can trust his own heart. That's why he wanders. That's why he's so mixed up and and sad and broken for the next several episodes. And it's why, once again, Doma put off fans.

Because fans don't like to feel sad, unless it's in an "aw, poor puppy" way. They don't like to see someone who is strong wrestle with not being so. And words like "arrogant" or "impure" are trigger words in fandoms: apply them to any character even one time and that's all fans will remember about them forever and ever. Other Yugi made an arrogant decision; he acted arrogantly. But arrogance isn't who he is. How can we tell? Because he comes back, he wins and gets back what he lost, and he apologizes. And he doesn't do it again. He does better. The same goes for "impure." What even is purity? Why did fans accept it just because Raphael said it was real and mattered? Raphael provoked Other Yugi's anxieties and then laid a trap for him: he gave him what he most wanted, a duel that would "prove he's a true king," and set him up for an entire mountain of despair to crush him one he fell for it. Even with Yugi, Other Yugi was already in such a state of confusion and fear that it was something others could manipulate. Losing Yugi was heart-breaking, but it wasn't the cause of Other Yugi's troubles: they already existed. I prefer Doma's odyssey of test and riddles to the manga version of Atemu, who blindly does what he's told to do because "destiny," but who is also revealed to be just as much the player as a pawn during Memory Game without any transition.

Now that I've praised Doma up and down, let me wind back and say I also hate it. Because for all it gives us that's great, its execution leaves a lot to be desired. Other Yugi is rather hard to watch when he's so sad and weak for so long. It's especially hard when he's got Jounouchi and Kaiba for comparison, both of whom were put in much more heroic storylines. I find Kaiba's dull, since there's not really much Kaiba is really guilty of there - Amelda's grief was Gozaburo's doing. Jounouchi's is great for him as a masculine hero, but fucking sucks for Mai who is a helpless female caught between two men and sapped of any personal motivation. I love Jounouchi/Mai so I really wanted to like their subplot, but Doma really ruined Mai for the sake of Jounouchi's heroism.

Which makes me wonder if Doma hates Other Yugi. It gave classic hero stories to the others, but beat Other Yugi so hard he was wounded forever in the eyes of some fans. Especially in the aftermath of Doma's first airing, every fic had to make sure to describe Other Yugi's "arrogance" to prove they didn't like him an unreasonable degree. It's one reason I stopped reading YGO fic back then: I couldn't open one that didn't mistreat Other Yugi, often while glorifying Yugi's perfection or going to lengths to sympathize with and justify Kaiba's wrongs.

So are there things Doma should have done to lift Other Yugi up the same way? My overall opinion is not really. I think Other Yugi's Doma arc is clear and fitting right until the final battle. BUT! It fumbled the ending. It fumbled it really bad. The battle with Dartz gets stupid by not doing anything with Yugi and Other Yugi's long-awaited reunion. Not only was the art in that episode unfortuantely awful, but the scene itself is like... seconds. Barely memorable. Yugi hugging his friends is way more satisfying. And the weird bit at the end-end where Other Yugi gets hit by the vortex of anger and grief, I guess, was meant as the final proof that he had overcome all the tests Doma threw at hm. But once again bad art and a "running out of budget" vibe hurt that as well.

Endings are important. You can't rush them. Because Doma fumbled the ending, Other Yugi's victory has much less of an impact. Because it doesn't step back and reflect, but just kind of spouts some cliche phrases, we forget what Other Yugi has really accomplished. Kaiba sacrificing himself to let Other Yugi keep battling is memorable. In fact, Kaiba was much more useful than Other Yugi in most of the final Dartz duel, because Other Yugi had not quite recovered his confidence. After Kaiba's loss, Other Yugi faced real despair again, which should have been awesome but was, by then, kind of like "oh, he's sad again. Will he ever stop being sad?" Yeah, he won. We got cool golden lights and shit and then a miracle. But it's not the same as that victory being felt by fans.

So that's why in the end, I'm always half-and-half on Doma. Because it did what no filler ever dared to do before, I admire it so much. But because it was filler, it also couldn't keep all the subplots in balance, it couldn't do its main characters justice, and most importantly, it didn't stick the landing. For all those reasons, I understand why fans have mixed opinions on Doma. My general sense is that it's disliked but in a weird way where everyone still references it and uses it in their fics - proving how superior Doma is to other filler.

I will always have beef with fans who are unreasonably hard on Other Yugi over Doma, especially when those fans don't bat an eye at things other characters do. I hate that the purpose of Other Yugi's Doma arc flew over so many heads or just went unappreciated. I really felt it was much needed character development. And most of all I hate the impact it had on fandom, which made it so impossible to find Other Yugi-related fan works that didn't either overdo Doma or make sure Other Yugi was everlastingly apologetic about it.

Really, I can't express how nuts the fandom nonsense was - I didn't even want to talk about Doma, because fans were so extremely sure about Other Yugi's arrogance and Yugi's saintliness. Call any of that into question and you'd get attacked. It's been like two decades now though so I should be safe... right? X'D

[eliasdrid]

Three thoughts: since everyone and their mother calls build the best rider and I had a relatively mid experience with it and I see you had an awful experience with it…

number three but I put it first bc it’s the most important: why didn’t you like it? Sorry if you’ve made posts abt that—

number one, what do you consider the best rider show?

number two, have you seen kamen rider geats?

3 - Oh that wretched show (Kamen Rider Build)........................ I'll leave my full answer for last so I can just do a "read more" and spare people of spoilers for the show. The TL;DR is that I have a love/hate relationship with it, it starts really well but then it uh, it's like the show just forgets itself? does that make sense? I don't know, it disappointed me... My message to the world is: if you want to watch it (in my opinion) up to episode 33 it's pretty good, it gets worse later.

[note: edited this to be less harsh bc I liked a lot of the show in the end despite my issues with some choices and some people might think I didn't like anything at all]

1 - This kinda spoils the options for the poll a little but whatever. I got into toku this year with sentai so I've only watched Shin Kamen Rider (the 2023 movie) and then Kamen Rider Den-O (2007), Kamen Rider W (2009) and Kamen Rider Build (2017).

I don't think any of the shows are perfect but I think the most satisfying experience overall from start to finish was Den-O because it's a bit silly but consistent with it? So it's pretty enjoyable.

2 - Funny story... I started Geats but I couldn't click with it. I do think a lot of the suit designs are SUPER pretty though. Kamen Rider Geats, Cross Geats and Na-Go are my faves for sure (from the images and material I've seen).

3 - OK So let's do this. I have actually not done a list of all my issues with this show here in my blog but I have complained a lil to people I know and who have watched it (and shared my opinions). This is my personal opinion and I want to preface this by saying I'm a sci-fi nerd and I might have set the bar too high because it looked really promising to me.

SPOILERS FOR BASICALLY EVERYTHING IN THE SHOW

I'll get to issues related to characters first, I think that's easier:

Vernage could have been really interesting but she is equally under and overutilized when convenient to the point she's always doing everything with her last breath (until she does actually die... ) and shows up so sporadically you almost forgot she was still alive when she shows up again. It's wild because when she's introduced you're like? Oh? Will she give us lore and then die? Perhaps a clue to a secret weapon? Some secret power up? no!

Misora is never developed to her full potential despite going through a lot of stuff during the entire show. She could have had a more active relationship with Vernage and tap into some martian knowledge or be able to channel Vernage's power willingly but :/ Her dad literally ends in a coma and she is like... mostly unaffected? Doesn't talk about him? Idk, I'm not saying she should henshin because that's unrealistic with this show but she could have worked with Vernage to take revenge on Evolt for that (via helping the team). I WILL say, she does have her sad moments and her actress does a really good job, it broke my heart when she had her final conversation with Evolt!Soichi. But off that? She's an internet idol ^w^ and the glue that has to hold the team together even though she's like LITERALLY 18-19 and everyone else in their mid 20s and up???

Insanely enough Sawa's friend to spy to friend to spy to friend thing is decently executed so I can't complain much here.

Y'know what I can complain about though? Kazumi! Kazumi is such a character that I wanted to root for because he is so much about community once you get to know him and he has this good caring leadership vibe to him. This guy commits and this guy finds middle points and he can't forgive Gentoku but he asks anyway that he joins them and he even encourages him later to try and follow his father's footsteps. HOWEVER. HE IS A FUCKING CREEP OVER AN IDOL AND THAT UNFORTUNATELY IS MISORA. Bro is 29 years old demanding respect from Banjo and fangirling over a girl that is like... a real human being... who he actually gets to know. I thought their relationship would be... realizing she's a Real Human Being With Thoughts And Feelings but he never stops being a weirdo and it was uncomfortable... ☠

Isurugi Soichi... (not Evolt) underutilized as hell... we get this reveal that he can talk to Evolt near 33 and I thought "OH! Maybe he can influence him? Maybe this is what has been stopping Evolt from wrecking absolute havoc?" but as you might know/guess, this was not the case. There was a LOT of potential for a parallel with Him being posessed by Evolt and Misora being possessed by Vernage and Misora coming to terms with the fact that her dad got the worst alien buddy out of the situation but... they don't do this.

Evolt (Evolt)... my major problem with him is that the show literally tries to sell this "monster that didn't have feelings before" story on the last arc and it just... doesn't work? Because yeah, he's an asshole but like he clearly gets frustrated and excited and he clearly had a lot of feelings driving him around otherwise he'd not have gotten attached to the same human body for 10 YEARS and only hopped out of it when his "vessel" was complete.

Banjo, I got here finally, I deserve a medal. Not my kind of character but overall he's fine? The whole alien thing is done in the most boring way possible imo, idk how they did that but hey! The show is in such a hurry to go through as many small plots as possible near the end that it went super fast?

Sento! I can't talk about one and not the other! Overall Sento is a well done amnesiac protagonist until they make him go back to his old self to undo character development near the end for what feels like ages (I think it was just two episodes though?) and then he remembers and io and behold! he's Sento again but can remember some things from before. I have no words, it felt like he was going to stay like that for a second and all his character development would be undone. I think he could have remembered without having to go through that, I think he could have had conversations with himself without them just making him forget his friends so Katsuragi could have ONE chat with Gentoku. I think he was prone enough to monologue that he could have started remembering after Evolt by just. Literally talking to himself and finding his old self within him... like we could have had the same thing without the weird moment. I also think the whole arc with his dad suddenly coming back was poorly written... because? Suddenly he's not THE Genius and also Build wasn't "originally" meant for him even though it's hinted MANY times that it was Katsuragi who developed the Kamen Rider System entirely/mostly on his own. I think I could be ages here so I'm gonna move on by saying: it was bad.

Gentoku... my meow meow... I'm biased, overall I liked his character development and the Rogue drama was interesting? (it has a couple problems and more torture/blood than necessary maybe tho). His whole deal felt more straightforward than the rest and before he becomes a bit of a "joke" (with the identity fashion crisis and then the awkward moments) he has some really good moments of redemption. I really liked his speech in 39 when he feels bad about fucking up with Utsumi and is too injured to fight. ("Im not writing at 2 am edit": He has good character moments after 39 too! I understand they needed to kill the tension a little by making some fun of him and I liked some of it; the nepotism bit was really good! and his sacrifice was meaningful)

Honorable Utsumi mention because: what do you mean he was a cyborg??? That was so out of the blue and meant absolutely nothing because it's not... anything. For a show that did decent hints about things Utsumi suddenly being a cyborg because "haha his nickname was cyborg" and they maybe did one joke on an episode intro... it's really lame. Off this (which I needed out of my chest) he has a lot of missed potential and could (and should) have replaced Sento's dad as Evolt's "main" scientist because uhh he literally did the Sclash Driver and was very talented? Did the writer just... forget that? I guess so! It'd have been more interesting for sure if he had been working all along against Evolt fearing he'd betray Nanba but no.

I'm gonna go over plot things as quick as possible because I got too wordy with the character stuff:

The Pandora Box. I get it, it's a very convenient excuse but for a thing that Evolt seems to have created himself... they sure throw a last minute "but he doesn't know about this secret panel" I think... I think Evolt knows his funny little box for destroying planets and consuming their energy better than anyone on Earth...

The Sky Wall and the Pandora Tower. It'd have been SO much fun if, as I had hoped, the Pandora Tower was a massive labyrinth they had to figure out to get to the top and stop Evolt or some sort of ritual over a period of time...

The Show is called Kamen Rider Build! They do not build shit during the final episodes. I guess the Grease power up but he dies as soon as he uses it so that doesn't count. They literally got most of everything "solved" around the time Katsuragi made the Genius bottle so! They decide to reuse the Hazard Trigger to do something that is never hinted at (or makes sense if you ask me)... they don't even modify it 😭😭😭😭 They could have done something like before the proxy battle when Sawa and Sento do the modifications for Tank/Tank and Rabbit/Rabbit and have the team help Sento assemble a new device before fighting Evolt but no...

"Let's make a new world instead of properly defeating the bad guy" coward move! It also conveniently erases everyone's character development even if Sento and Banjo are "the same" in the new world it's just, a weird choice (I've been told they get their memories back in the specials or something but still ????)

Evolt destroying the world at random suddenly for his own amusement was really just an excuse to do the New World thing sellable and was really weird specially after the Be The One Movie in which he CLEARLY doesn't want Earth destroyed. He Loved Earth. He spent 10 slutty slutty years posing as a DILF and 3+ of them causing problems on purpose. BE REAL.

Also having Gentoku and Kazumi die was another way to make the "new world" thing more easy to digest because "see :( our friends died we need to bring them back :(" (idk man they were pretty decent at fighting, they could have not died!)

FINALLY. On the New World thing: A Post War scenario with the Kamen Riders helping rebuild the country and Kazumi and Gentoku in leadership positions, Misora reconnecting with her Dad and Sento trying to figure out how to use the bottles for good and more practical uses than fighting would have been much better...

anyway this got super long, I'm so sorry. Thank you for coming to my KRB talk. Kudos to you if you made it to the end, I probably have even more thoughts on this but we'd both be here forever. I'm locking this because people are weird about shows sometimes and I have seen people insist that Build is Really Really good when it's like. mid at best if you have to judge it from start to end.

additionally: I refuse to watch the specials <3 the movie (Be the One) was fine though, tbh it felt more on sync with the show than the finale. Even if they introduce the Blood Tribe guys only to kill them off. The Buid/Cross Z fusion bit was fun too!

[aquillis-main]

（diff anon）2000s extremist psyco the forg and its followers disparage others' opinions, tehspudz and dr crusher acting like only 2010s fans are better than others

I wish these guys would die with their brains gouged out and their eyeballs torn off... Seriously I really hate 2000's fans and 2010's fans Especially since psyco and tehspudz treat people they don't like like garbage with their offensive memes.

and I want to threaten to kill them all Even randomthefox called other people stupid and threatened to kill an individual with "RIP" so I should be forgiven.

... No. No you would not. I don't give a fucking shit who's doing the death threats - I literally wanted to avoid this fucking shit when Random got suspended on Twitter again. I will rip you apart because you want to kill some of my friends. And I gonna go ahead and do it right now.

You are NOT gonna send death threats to crusher, tehspudz, or ANYONE in my goddamn friends EVER. You won't even do it to that asshole Psycho the frog, even though he's such an Archie/SatAM Stan I'd NEVER speak to him in my LIFE. You will NOT TALK TO ME EVER AGAIN because YOU think I'll let you off scot free on WISHING MURDER on someone.

Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow, dishonor on your ENTIRE FAMILY. And most importantly KYS if you think it's okay to wish murder on someone. Fuck you.

[destinyc1020]

Question and I would love your feedback. Why does everyone pick on Tom Holland? It seems like he can never get a break. People question his height, dating Zendaya, his work, everything. It seems like he can't please anyone. Every body seems to have this huge expectation of him from every direction. Even his clothes, his smile, his hair. He is constantly criticized and people question why he's not on social media. And what bothers me the most, I find people will put Zendaya on a pedestal just to berate him to make him out to not be good enough. Like the Vogue interviews with the lie detectors asking celebrities if he deserves her? Who would question a couple like that, and why? Is he not? I think they're both great. I understand its Hollywood but, they work there, they dont live there. Just always seems like he is being bullied alot and people say things as if it's a joke and its actually cruel. Not sure why I'm in my feels but, there are times it feels like they might break up and its only because the confidence you would see in his eyes or his personality PERIOD is waning. I can understand why they didn't want to be outed. Just like he stated, everyone has an opinion on there life. Not that ours matters. Just I think they're a great couple and could go the distance but, since it was made public people seem to have some sort of expectation from them, that I dont see with other couples. Any thoughts??

Anon, you seem like you need a hug.... 🥰

First.... I'll just say, you might need to step away from the internet a bit, and take a DEEEEP breath.

Okay, now.... Honestly?? I would say that Tom is actually very BELOVED and respected amongst his peers, those in the industry, and even among the GP tbh. I mean, obviously not everyone is going to like EVERYBODY, but for the most part I'd say that overall he's VERY well-liked! 😃

With that said, I think there are just some people who just hate to like anything or anyone who's popular, trendy, or well-liked. I guess these people feel like they're "above it all" and don't like to "follow the crowd". Maybe it makes them feel special to hate whatever everyone else is actually liking or something lol. 🙄😅

Either way, who cares what they think?? 🤷🏾‍♀️ All that matters is that YOU like him. Granted, I don't like it when I see hate or snarky comments about Tom either... But tbh, I rarely even see those comments because I simply don't go in spaces where people are bashing him or just making fun of him just because.

Idk where you are reading/seeing such negativity re: Tom, but maybe you should just cut out those negative spaces from your orbit??

Haha...I find it so FUNNY (and how ironic) that some people bash Tom online, but then wonder why he doesn't post much on social media anymore.

Talk about needing to get a HUGE CLUE!! 😒🙄

TL;DR Version: Bottom Line: Just IGNORE those negative spaces Anon. There are FAR more people who love Tom than those who don't. 😊