#Like I was genuinely trying to look at the pros/cons of his character

[animestsstuff2]

Twitterpated

ProHeroHawks x VillainFem Reader

This lil story/fic will involve depictions of Hawks primal needs. I kinda feel with mutation quirks its pros and cons for all things and with that Hawks having a mate and a heat. Ya know he’s all twitterpated for you. This is a lil slow burn! You are a villain for the L.O.V. There will be character description but mainly on things like (light eyes glistened or hair fell over your face) otherwise up to you guys

Content warning: pretty chill first chapter just an intro really, some fighting, mention of injury, burning flesh. Potential spoilers if you haven’t watched to season 4/5 i think

Hawks stood on top of a large telephone pole knocking back his coffee as he suppressed a yawn. He was on night patrol and this was only night one. His eyes watching over night life below. It wasn’t too busy after all since it was Monday but his eyes stayed narrowed as he scanned the lit streets and shadowed alley ways. His feathers out fluttering about for something..anything to give this ProHero something to do.

He tipped his head backwards body following as his wings bristled, something was going on and it excited him. His wings stretching out as they flew him forward to where he felt it where the rest of his feathers were gathering. He made his way to a lesser part of the big city his eyes scanning the smaller houses with overgrown gardens. His eyes scanning the area when he seen it. A bright blue flashing to his left and he swooped round, landing on the roof and stepping to the edge.

“L-Look! I-im sorry but I don’t have it right now!” Two people, a criminal and a civilian. Hawks crouched low as he watched the palm of the mans light up in blue flame. Hawks chewed his lip debating whether to step in as they hadn’t noticed him.

As a hero he should step in but as a double agent he should leave Dabi to his business. He decides on the latter giving a quick glance to the guy being threatened only to see hes already staring at Hawks. He feigns a look of care as he presses his index finger to his lips, getting up from his position he pulls a long feather from his wings. The fluffy plume now taut into a red blade. He moved to step off the roof when a hand reached round his mouth and the feeling of something sharp prod his back.

Hawks eyes widened genuinely as his body stilled. The feather in his hand fluffing out as he finally registered the person behind him. His brows furrowing as his own wings puffed out on instinct trying to grasp who this was and how they slipped by him. It was almost impossible not with his senses.

“Hey there birdy” He sucked in a breath as the sultry voice just giggled in his ear. He was no longer as sleepy as he was earlier. He opened his mouth not knowing what to say as his eyes fell back to the man only to see a blue flame lick him up. Hawks nose crinkled at the smell of burning flesh as the raven haired man spun round.

“Hey there pro” he grinned sending a nod most likely to whoever was behind Hawks. The hand was removed as the person stepped back and on instinct Hawks spun. The long feather once again pulled as sharp as a knife as he pushed the tip under the persons chin.

His hand faltered as his eyes met yours. A white cloth mask was pulled up over your nose but the bright moon made your eyes glow. His feather reduced to fluff as his mind for a moment drew blank and you only giggled at the supposed ProHero. You lifted a gloved hand up and gently pushed the feather aside. The action sending a tingle down his stomach and he straightened up. His wings were never sensitive, why now.

“Hey Angel, not a very nice way to act towards our dear friend here” Dabi’s voice broke Hawks from his thoughts as his head turned back to the scarred man who already had a cigarette in his mouth. Hawks watched as the girl before him jumped from the roof his preying eyes not missing the white that appeared when her cloak shifted from the fall. That white looked like feathers, like wings.

Hawks followed putting his bigger feather back as he sent out smaller plumes to survey the area and ensure no one was watching. His narrowed eyes watching the two villains before him.

“Did you really need to burn him Dabi? It always smells so bad” you whined as you crossed your arms moving closer to Hawks whose feathers bristled again.

“Stop whinin’ now especially after you begged me to let you come with” Dabi snapped back taking a drag of his cigarette.

“You gonna tell me what that was about? Save me n’ the commission some paperwork” Hawks asked, watching as Dabi’s mouth stretched into a humourless grin.

“Yeah? Yano, just cause the boss wants ya doesn’t mean im your buddy too” He grumbled and Hawks rolled his eyes at the mans antics.

“At least gimme a name and why you did it. You need me to kill another pro just so you’ll spill?” He hummed. His eyes flicking to the girl beside him, more specifically her hand that was reaching for his wings. He pivoted on his heel turning his body completely towards you as he grabbed your wrist tightly, narrowed eyes and slit pupils staring at you.

“Calm down Birdy. I just wanted to know if they were really as soft as everyone says” You teased sending him a wink. Hawks brows furrowed at your behaviour and just shoved your wrist away frustrated a villain was toying with him.

“His name is Ito Takashi. He owed the boss some money and wasn’t able to pay up so I took care of it” Hawks eyes glanced over to the embers of what was once a man, what once was a life and felt guilt chew at his heart. He, however, remained stoic and only rolled his eyes.

“Bit far burning him though” he observed and Dabi just shrugged as he eyed his companion. Her eyes focused on Hawks this entire time.

“Hmm, suppose I coulda used one of your little feathers to slice him huh” Dabi muttered as he reached a hand and plucked a red feather from Hawks wings. The mans bird like eyes honed in on the feather that sat in Dabi’s palm.

“I don’t think you’ll miss this one”

The blue flames swallowed it whole and Hawks suppressed the small sting in his back and rather focused his attention on the shove Dabi received from the all too quiet girl.

“What? You feel bad for the guy just cause you share the same quirk as him?” He teased as you shoved him again and slapped his arm. Hawks attention shifted as he stared at her now. You averted your gaze but Dabi only chuckled, reaching over and snatching the cloak from you. The metal broach snapping as the fabric lay on the ground.

Hawks eyes widened at the white wings that emerged from your back. They were almost the size of his own. His heart quickened as something stirred in his chest. The wings stayed tucked behind you but it was obvious how big they were for the curled far over your head and the bottom feathers lay on the grass at your feet. You were quick together the cloak from the ground and pull it back over your shoulders, clicking the broach back together as your eyes met Hawks.

“Get a good enough look little Bird?” You hummed but he could sense the anger in your tone. He relaxed his previously tense shoulders and glanced at Dabi.

“Yeah we got another you Hawks. Shes a beauty, names Angel, well obviously I can’t tell ya her real name. I wouldn’t let her wings deceive you..Shes far from holy” Dabi chuckled as he moved his attention to his phone and sighed.

“Alright Dove, crusty wants us back” Dabi turned and began waving his hand for you to follow. Your eyes finding Hawks already staring at you.

“Till next time Hawks don’t miss me too much” You chirped as you followed after Dabi. Hawks paused momentarily before taking to the sky, eyes scanning for the two villains only to find you both gone. His brows furrowed as he continued to fly over the city finding himself landing on the roof of a tall building.

A strange feeling was building in his chest as he crouched low. His eyes watching the city below but not really paying attention as his thoughts trailed back to you.

Who were you?

There was no way the commission didn’t know about you, especially with a quirk similar to his. If they did have information on you it most likely is old. The commission has intel on almost all of the criminals in Kyushu and surrounding areas, even if it was limited like Dabi’s or Shigaraki’s they would have something, so why didn’t he know about you? Why wasn’t he warned of someone like you, someone like him. The U.A student Tokoyami is one of the only other individuals Hawks knew to have a similar based quirk.

“Hmm..Angel” The name didn’t ring any bells either aside from church ones as he mulled over his thoughts, trying to distract himself from the continuing feeling in his chest.

This feeling only dragged further throughout Hawks night shift and when 8AM rolled round he was immediately through the balcony doors in his office. His body warm and feverish, feathers puffed and wings twitching as he headed out of his office, finding his assistant already at his desk with a pile of paper work. His head snapped up with a smile that dropped upon seeing the hero.

“Hawks! You don’t look so good are you okay?” Hawks waved him off. He could feel the sweat along his forehead. He didn’t need a mirror to know how bad he probably looked.

“Yeah, don’t worry just think chugging a bunch of coffees has got me all wired up. I left some documents on my desk of reports needing sorted. I’m on nights this week so i’ll leave anything for you on my desk each morning” his assistant only nodded slowly as the pro headed by and down the elevator, leaving his agency and taking to the skies as he quickly flew home.

He couldn’t strip fast enough. His boots kicked haphazardly off, next was his belt that got slung over the sofa. His gloves chucked in the hallway along with his cargos. His jacket shrugged off as he peeled his tight black shirt from his warm body and hit the shower button. The warm water that usually comforted his sore muscles made him recoil as he turned it to cold.

His forehead resting along the tiles as his wings stretched and continued twitching. His feathers unable to keep still as some smaller ones plucked themselves off and flew mindlessly around the bathroom. Hawks just sighed as his eyes closed, trying to ignore this feeling. He could be sick but he rarely ever gets sick, though its not like there isn’t medicine available to deal with this. His thoughts continued as he decided he’d call the doctors before he went to sleep. His hand running through his wet hair as his mind kept buzzing, skin stayed hot and wings tweaked.

Angel..

[maopll]

May I request Albedo, Xiao, Kaeya and Zhongli with a female reader who can manipulate blood?

Y/N THE LAST BLOOD BENDER

| genshin impact !

⌗:, a/n: The title is satire. i couldn't think if anything else 💀. this is the most characters I've ever written

⌗:, warning: mentions of b!ood,, suggestive in childe part(ofc..)

⌗:, pairings: albedo, xiao, kaeya, zhongli, childe, ayato, itto, heizou, w/ fem!reader.

✧ ˚ 　· 　　 . ✧ ˚ 　· 　　 . ✧ ˚ 　· 　　 . ✧ ˚ 　· 　　

ALBEDO was truly intrigued by your ability to wield a vision that also allows you to control the blood of another. truly a fascinating ability you wield. since he is an alchemist he would like to learn more about your powers. the techniques, the pros and cons, and since its specially yours so in any case he should know if any problems arise during battles.

since you can control blood you are able to freely regulate the heat of bodies of people who you have touched so in dragonspine you can keep both klee and sucrose warm since albedo won't really be needing it...but its a great ability! during battles he does not have to worry about you getting hurt since you barely have to sweat out while defeating enemies because you are strong just like that. always keeps some time of the day to analyse your ability since it interests him so much! he was quite surprised knowing how it was inherited throughout your family. all in all he is genuinely interested but also quite worried since it can wear you out a lot especially if you use your ultimate so he is always looking out for you if you're uncomfortable. 8.7/10 boyfriend <3

XIAO here was freaking out when you used your ability during a battle and honestly he thought those blood marks on the ground were yours and he was breathing heavily. he was so worried :( poor boy thought you were dying and he just can't take the thought of you slipping away from him. but you reassured him saying that that was the hilichurl and mitachurl blood. although some of them were yours you thought it best to not tell him.

he was surprised since that was when he first found out you had special abilities like so. he was still worried so he went to consult zhongli and looks like it was a very special ability that you weilded! now it was your job to tell him about all the limitations of this ability and the problems that you sometimes face while using your ultimate like chest pain or so. but he does think you look really cool when fighting those opponents with ease...its not even weird cause he is a literal demon. but he takes great care of you ever since he heard about your problems. very good he is trying his best!

KAEYA saw your abilities when you were pissed off because a hilichurl literally ruined your date. you just looked at it, moved your hand towards the hilichurl who was going to pounce at you and boom. the next moment the hilichurl is gone. cavalry captain was still processing the moment before his eyes. when he was hit with a cold wind up his spine. he cartoonically shivered and also had that sweat bead on his head. he was TERRIFIED

he was kinda scared of you how much you could snap only if someone just started to disturb your date. so now you had some explaining to do and this dude really said "aww my sweetheart is so strong, you're my knight in shining armour I could always count on you" and while that did inflate your pride you knew he was teasing you. you nudged him and continued onwards with your date. he still does tell you about that day but not enough to anger you lest you might snap...

ZHONGLI just glanced at your eyes and IMMEDIATELY knew you had some special powers or abilities. grandpa knows his history well. when you one day did tell him about this ability of yours he just said "oh I knew" you were confused. how did he? he has his ways just don't question he will give you a 4 hour case study of it.

you knew zhongli's identity so he must know more about this ability to control blood and also wield a hydro vision and he did knew. he told you everything about the limitations which thank the archon happened only when you used burst or you were sure you were having your days numbered. you can always ask your lover for extra details incase you are wondering about something. man's a walking talking dictionary. however when you did spill other enemies blood on the battlefield when with him, he would get tensed thinking it was your blood. he knows about the disadvantages of your power and he is not ready to loose another one of his cherished ones just because he couldn't protect them. he sometimes has sleepless nights but he knows how strong willed you are so he sets his worries aside for the night because you are here, with him, right beside him

CHILDE was fighting off some enemies when you two were out taking care of some commisions that you needed help and this was the first time you asked him for help because you don't really need help but this could also be used as a way for spending time with him and I just know that and will bet my life on the fact that he will just stare at you in awe thinking that you look as beautiful as a painting as you took care of enemies one by one all while spilling their blood and staring at their limp bodies with cold eyes. he was having a huge blush and...uh well a boner... he just gets hard whatever has you looking cold and heartless okay?? he has a weak heart when it comes to you

He will not stop singing his praises for you "you looked so pretty covered in blood baby!" "you took care of them so fast!" "I just wanted to marry you on the spot!" "you are so lovely I'm glad you are my girlfriend" and so on and so forth. but deep down he was genuinely taking you as a comrade of his for sparring. he would always ask you to spar with him just to see how you skillfully wield the blood and hydro together in balance. bro just wanna fight that's it.

AYATO was observing inazuma from afar since he was supposed to be meeting with some shuumatsuban members later but he did not think he would be ambushed by a bunch of fatui later. he is a capable swordsman but let's be real anyone would freak out if they get jumpscated by some mask wearing dudes and so was he. luckily you were passing by and you noticed him ofcourse you can't have him getting beaten up or worse! so you quickly used your burst and you were coughing up a shit ton later because it consumes a lot of your energy. he was so grateful to you for the day.

He even asked if you were injured or not since he saw blood thinking it was yours, but he was really taken surprised when those were not. he hasn't heard of any abilities which were like yours or similar. he would definitely love to know more since it would also become a bonding time for you two considering how both of you can spend any time at all. since it's an ability he hasn't heard of before he would do the necessary research work just in case you will need it. he cares for you deeply and doesn't want anything to happen to you. look I'm biased

ITTO is a bullchucker. do you think he would even rack his brain to think whether you actually have any abilities or not? ofcourse no. he thinks he is your bodyguard and you only need him to protect you while you relax and watch the show. nevertheless when he was getting beaten up by some enemies you turned the tables on him by helping HIM out of troubles reach. thanks y/n. he was cowering in fear until you told him that everything has been taken care of. he will never admit that he was scared. there was blood everywhere but he didn't even understand what was going on. he is that dumb okay? but while on the way to hanamizaka, everything finally loaded into his mind and he asked in a high pitched voice "WAS THAT YOUR BLOOD BABE?!". you told him to relax cause he was ready to sprint towards whatever doctor was nearby and yes he was THAT worried.

He wasn't going to listen to you until you smacked him hard into reality. and he only said, "Oh." Okay, good, good progress. then it was all forgotten since you said you would be fine. he blindly believes whatever you say. but if you do feel sick or feel pressure around your chest area due to overuse of your abilities he will take you to the doctor to check you otherwise he will check you up himself. dw he won't kill you.

HEIZOU and you were quite litreally investigation about some crimes that were done and he said he would require your assistance so here you were in yashiori doing whatever investigations he had. you were only there as an assistant. but there were some kairagi nearby and while he was busy gathering evidence you quickly cleaned up the surroundings to not hinder his work. you don't want him to dirty his precious hand now <3. while you thought he had not noticed what you did back there he very much did and even observed your attack patterns. so he was just curious and asked "babe I never knew you had the ability to control blood and also a vision. mind telling me a bit more about it? I would like to know more" was he interrogating you or not you did not know but you trusted him since he was your boyfriend.

You told him everything you knew about it and you eventually forgot that the conversation even took place and that was enough time for heizou to personally look into your abilities and he did quite investigate too much into the history and he would preferably not go into details considering how...gruesome it was. but he always does his homework so when you were having some uneasiness around your chest area he popped outta nowhere to give you a detailed description of what you were going through. in conclusion you will live to see another day and spend more time with your genius of a boyfriend <3

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

I'd Like to Adopt These Side Characters, Please (And Also Make One Arbitrarily To Appease The Vibes)

So, I've already mentioned my plans to write something for our dear single-minute-of-screentime-boys from the FNAF movie. And, as per usual for me, posting some headcanons will help the ideas flow for that WIP. . .

___

Jack Samar

His passengers always are, in fact, "the weirdos." It just seems to happen without fail. College partygoers crashing down from adrenaline (among other things) highs, random drifters that could all probably be in the same cult if you pay attention to detail, that one guy who's all too happy to take advantage of the open secret that the ducks in the park are free. . .Most of the time, it's nothing too serious. But he's still got some very interesting stories here and there.

He's one of the best drivers in town. And that's not just due to his job as a cabbie; he knows how dangerous driving can be, so he takes pride in making sure his skills are sharp. (Seriously, if you've ever driven a car, then you know it's practically a miracle to see someone else on the road who actually knows what they're doing.)

He has a steel-trap memory; he knows every part of town like the back of his hand. Constantly driving on various routes just has that effect on you.

He's a bit of a rescuer. As in, if he happens to see a stray animal while driving, then he'll park, coax said animal into the car, and then drop it off at at the local shelter. If you have him drive you from Point A to Point B, there's a good chance you'll spot a scruffy-looking cat or dog riding shotgun.

If he isn't too tired at the end of his shifts, he'll drive over to Sparky's for a late-night snack before heading home to rest. Both he and Ness are good listeners, so a decent chunk their banter is dedicated to venting about sucky patrons.

He's certainly aware of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaria, as well as the rumors surrounding it, but he never really bothered with the place. And he doesn't plan to start bothering with it after seeing Golden Freddy in the back of his taxi.

Although. . .well, that occurrence might have made him start weighing the pros and cons of trying to get more information out of Mason. (He's very much hesitant about it, of course. Yeah, he was the one to help Mason out, but the assumption of Mason's experience with Freddy's is still far from pleasant.)

(Yes, his name is a pun inspired by Cory's samurai joke. What did you expect from me?)

___

Ness Aeoruhndbt-Ultendera

"Ness" is only his nickname, but he doesn't plan on revealing his full name anytime soon. Not even to his friends, for whatever reason. There's also a bit of an inside joke about how his surname is too long to actually fit on his nametag. (Yes, that gibberish my personal idea for his surname. I spent way more time working on it than I probably should have because I was determined to make a weird/funny reference, so leave me alone, okay?!)

He's been in the restaurant business ever since he was a kid; he's worked in several different joints before Sparky's. Coming from a family of foodies, he truly enjoys what he does, no matter how small-scale. Sure, some days are worse than others, but that's just life.

Similarly to Jack, it's not that uncommon for him to serve some strange characters. (Hell, sometimes the strange characters in question will wave down Jack's cab right after they've finished their meal at Sparky's.) Nothing usually comes of it, but he's still more than observant enough to pick up on certain oddities.

He makes a genuine effort to be polite and outgoing with customers. But make no mistake, he absolutely can, has, and will verbally curb-stomp someone if they push him or his coworkers too far. (Aunt Jane was lucky that her jab was minor. Plus, Ness just had other customers to focus on.)

It's no surprise that he LOVES conspiracy theories. Now, he knows which crackpot rabbit-holes to avoid, but he's still the type to listen to true crime podcasts almost religiously. In a way, researching and brainstorming is a comfort to him.

He's actually developed legitimate friendships with a specific few of Sparky's regulars. (Jack and Mason are part of this camp.) In fact, if there aren't many other customers that need tending to, he'll sit down and chat with them while they eat.

While he's perky during the day, he's still a night owl. It helps that his regular-friends almost always stop by in the late hours. (This has also paved the way for him to become a bit of a coffee-addict, but not to the point of concern. Speaking of which: he takes great joy in people's reactions to his argument that coffee is actually a type of soup.)

Oh, and that rubber-chicken-head-pencil-topper? Its name is Fabio, and Ness has been carrying it for several years now. He can't remember where/when/how he came into possession of Fabio, but you can pry it from his cold, dead hands.

___

Mason Kingsley

I wasn't originally planning to make a technical fanego for the FNAF movie. But after I learned that Mark was intended to make a cameo, I was intrigued. Thus, Mason—aka Trauma Boi—was born. His inclusion here (and in that future story I mentioned) is basically just a "What if?" scenario. As in, A. What if Mark had actually played the role of that first nightguard in the movie, and B. what if he'd actually survived his ordeal at Freddy's. . .?

Please read "survived," as "escaped by the skin of his teeth with grievous injuries and is now sort of dead inside."

Fittingly enough, Jack happened to by passing by when Mason fled the restaurant. It's pretty damn easy to stop for a guy who's covered in blood and cradling a broken arm and screaming for help.

After Jack drove Mason to the hospital, the two of them made an effort to stay in touch. Their respective patronage to Sparky's helps out with that.

Time passed, as it tends to do, and Mason eventually recovered. Keep in mind that the recovery was physical; he's still having night-terrors about animatronic monsters. Just the mention of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaria will make him start shaking and murmuring under his breath, pale and tense.

He absolutely refuses to talk about the incident in detail, but it left some very obvious scars on his neck, chest, and arms. He's constantly trying to keep said scars covered.

Silver lining: shortly after recovering, Mason was able to adopt a therapy pet. Enter Checkers, a golden retriever who's just the best emotionally-tuned girl and is always by his side.

He stops by Sparky's for dinner once or twice per week. He wasn't too receptive to Ness' chitchat at first, but by now they have a solid friendship. (It started when Ness "accidentally" brought out a large side of bacon with Mason's order. Checkers most certainly appreciated that, so it's become a small tradition between them.)

(And just to clarify, because I KNOW someone is gonna read this and take it the wrong way: I'm NOT using this to try and whine about Mark's absence in the movie. It's really not too hard to understand that his own Iron Lung project has kept him INCREDIBLY BUSY. It's an amazing accomplishment for him, so of course it should take priority over a cameo in FNAF.)

___

@sammys-magical-au @that-bat @bee-the-matpat-simp @insane4fandoms

[kiwi413]

Heyyy so I have a itty bitty request for you if you don't mind! I was wondering if you could write something for a reader who's getting courted by the monkeys but just so happens to be MK's mom? 👀🕶️🤏

I absolutely love the way you write them and hope to see you around more often!

-💗

A/N: certainly, thank you for the kind words! I kinda got carried away with the length (also sorry I took so long)

Characters: Sun Wukong, Macaque, MK + female!Reader

Wukong

You didn't get along at first

You really didn't like this whole putting the world on the shoulders of your kid

however, after careful consideration, lots of stern talks with the great sage and puppy dog eyes (from both MK and his mentor) you decided to let MK keep training under the Monkey King

Your conversations with Wukong revolved around MK's progress and safety for a while

until one day it developed into more, such as his adventures from back in the day, where you worked, what happened between you and MK's dad, etc

as you got to know each other more and more, soon budding feelings began to rear their heads

When he realized this Wukong had conflicting feelings, to say the least

on one hand, you're a very nice person (not to mention attractive) and a perfect mom to MK

on the other hand, he's been alone for centuries, and he's a bit rusty

cue emotionally repressed monkey panic

after he's done having his moment, he pulls himself together and decides that he's gonna do this right.

So! he starts asking MK about you a whole lot more often

things like what sort of flowers you like, your favorite fruit your favorite color, if you talk about him at all

he thinks he's being subtle

he's not

thankfully, MK can be a bit oblivious

it only takes seeing the great sage in your kitchen one evening, looking at you a lovesick look while you laugh at something he said for MK to finally piece it together

MK.exe has stopped working

he feels weird about it at first but ultimately gives his approval to Wukong and becomes his wingman

Sometimes a family is you, your turned superhuman son, and your thousands of years old celestial monkey husband

Macaque

(before I begin, I simply have to mention that this reminds me of that one TikTok audio "come here you little jerk taste the back of my palm /but you ain't my daddy/ Nah but I'm doing yo mom")

this start is a 100 times rockier than Wukong's

You really don't like him for actively harming your son both mentally and physically

he's not very keen on you either, your mere presence alone makes it harder for him to manipulate MK

After the LBD incident, he tries to make up with you, for MK's sake

you're very hesitant, that is he apologizes for what he's done with the most genuine look you've ever seen on him.

reluctantly you give him a chance and find that he's actually a decent guy when he's not trying to kill your loved ones

you find his humor and sarcasm charming, and love it when he tells you stories with shadow puppets

he starts hanging around more often under the pretext that he's only doing it to please MK, but we all know that's not the only reason

he realized he had feelings for you when he was telling you a story and he glanced at you for a second only to see you with your attention focused solely on him with a soft smile on your pretty face

his heart skipped a beat and words got stuck in his throat

he quickly excused himself and teleported away, leaving you very confused

he rethinks his entire existence (aka emotionally repressed monkey panic 2, now with more edge!)

mentally adds up the pros and cons of getting attached™

you've been good to him thus far and he really likes MK so

congrats now you have a clingy emo monkey after you

he becomes way more physical and teases you way more often

has to hold back purrs and restrain himself from positively combusting when you return his affections

he may be smooth when he dishes them out but he can't handle being on the receiving end of things

MK doesn't catch on until he wins you over, and he finds out in the worst way possible

walking in on you two being affectionate with one another

he's a bit mentally scarred but he'll be fine, eventually

way more hesitant than he'd be with Wukong, but he comes around after you talk to him and he sees how happy Macaque makes you

he does tell the shadow demon that if he hurts you he better watch his back though

Macaque says he'd never dream to, but he gets the idea

Overall? all three of you can get used to this new family dynamic you've got going for yourselves

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

The Sign - final thoughts

I want to start by reasserting what I've said before about companies like Idol Factory. Having production companies being willing to try new things and push the genre is always going to get points from me, even if I don't absolutely love the end result. Much better that than yet another university series that doesn't even attempt to be coherent.

So I am grateful that this show exists, even if I did struggle to maintain my enthusiasm the entire way through.

We'll start with some very solid positives.

Pros:

Idol Factory is so good at identifying talent. The acting was overall great, with some genuine standout performances (Nat as Art, I mean c'mon, just incredible). Heng devoured his role. Gap was an utter delight. Billy swings between horny and angsty like no one else. Babe did amazing for his first series, and I look forward to seeing him develop as an actor.

The talent behind the camera was really strong in some arenas too. The production quality was high, and we got some genuinely beautiful cinematography.

Even characters in small roles were memorable and well-characterized.

The action scenes were pretty solid, for the most part. The underwater stuff looked really, really good.

The sex scenes. Idol Factory knows we are thirsty bitches, and I appreciate that about them. And they were so pretty!

The cast chemistry. It was fantastic.

The premise - I am a sucker for the reincarnation trope, Until We Meet Again has a firm hold on my heart.

Some genuinely interesting ideas around karma and fate and determinism.

Getting to see more of Thai culture and mythology.

Cons:

This part hurts, because I really was so obsessed with this series in the beginning. I think it was mostly a writing issue, but there's some big flaws in the story construction that became apparent as we got further along. The interweaving of the past & present, the cop storyline with the mythology storyline...it got a bit clunky.

There were a number of planted seeds that never bore fruit. The Abott being set up as a powerful ally to then be completely nerfed in the last episode. Chalothon being set up to be punished for refusing to give up his quest of vengeance, but that never happening. Tharn being told multiple times he needs to learn to fight for his love, and then he just...doesn't. (Unless you consider talking to Chalothon for a year "fighting").

Really clunky setup at times - we've spent almost no time with Khem and Tongthai, and then suddenly a ring, and then suddenly he's shot, and then suddenly he's fine.

Relatedly, I genuinely can't believe that for their final scene, they had Tharn run in and just tell Phaya that Chalothon had entirely changed as a person and was now in support of them. Why wouldn't you have at least one scene of Tharn & Chalothon talking? I get that show don't tell is not universal for every situation, but it was hella important here! That was a genuine wtf moment. It would have been so powerful to see Tharn finally break through to Chalothon, after centuries of hurt.

The flashbacks. I get that they had to use a ton of the budget for CGI, but I rather wish they had either done the flashbacks in the green screen space they used for Phaya being unconscious, or just used a black stage. It just felt like the cast in costumes running around in the woods, which, admittedly, it was. But it took me out of the immersion, and made them less impactful.

I will still watch anything Billy does, and I'm excited to see where Idol Factory goes from here. And someone needs to do a Gap/Yoshi series stat.

[egg-emperor]

'Show me one time where he's genuinely a good person with good intentions, where selfishness, ego, and desire to survive and save the world so he can rule it isn't involved. There isn't any.' ehh, i don't know, id argue eggman saving tails in lost world counts. dude doesn't need tails to get past the yeti, only sonic. he yells 'tails!' to try and alert him and sounds generally concerned when doing so. He also makes the decision to save him in less than a second, meaning he didn't have time to weigh the pros and cons of saving one of his worst enemies, he just instinctively went to help him. mind you, this doesn't even contradict him threatening to turn tails into mincemeat in sa1, because as he explains, he's a complicated guy *shrug*. not trying to start any drama or anything, but i def believe there are a few stand out moments in game canon when eggmans 'human side' is shown that cant really be explained away without heavily reaching imo

I knew this could possibly be one of the moments someone could raise. But I have a response locked and loaded, I always account for everything and am ready to go lol. And I don't think it requires what I'd consider heavy reaching to explain away because I go by what can be seen/heard of game then carefully think about what it means while considering his character and what tracks with everything we know.

I see Eggman's save of Tails as calculated decision. There are a lot of benefits: Making the team up seem more genuine and convincing, winning Sonic over some more and possibly finally Tails after how hostile they were towards each other, the way the more is up against the D6, the better, and the way Sonic could possibly be less focused on the mission if he lost Tails. Also the bonus of how he'd prefer to kill both Sonic and Tails more personally than some random unplanned battle robot, just like Sonic falling into lava would've been underwhelming.

Eggman could see that he was starting to gain Sonic's reliability when he said that they need him to shut down his machine, while Tails wasn't happy about it and felt like Sonic trusted Eggman more. So if he jumps in and acts like a hero and saves Tails, it's going to help him seem more genuine and possibly win Tails over more too after their beef with each other. It makes sense for him to be prepared to act to seem convincing whatever it may be, even though he of course couldn't have predicted the modified robot to attack him.

I don't purely say this off vibes because when Sonic says "you could've gotten yourself killed" Eggman quickly smiles behind Sonic which makes him seem very suspicious I love it lol

It looks sly and mischievous for a guy who just saved someone's life, it's not giving "he did it out of the goodness of his heart", more like "yes it's working, Sonic said he 'can't figure me out', I'm convincing >:)"

If you think it's not possible that he could've thought that fast to weigh pros and cons, he had the plan to betray Sonic and Tails the moment they got him past the Deadly Six and back to his machine and new Eggrobo all along. So I contextualize everything within this. That gives plenty of time to plan on trying to make his facade of a willingness to work with them without any tricks all the more convincing. This is why I feel that him jumping in to save Tails was more calculated than it appears at first watch.

Plus, we know he can think and act that fast anyway. Because in the Lava Mountain scene where he fakes his death, he was planning to do that the whole time and was prepared but he couldn't have expected for it to be kicked off by the Deadly Six breaking the bridge. Yet he was able to quickly act to save Sonic, so he could still keep the Zeti back while he went to reprogram the machine and he could destroy him himself with his new mech as planned.

Him suddenly thinking fast to save Sonic was for selfish and sinister self motivated reasons, and I think it makes a lot of sense for the same to apply to Tails.

Shrugging it off and saying he's just a complicated guy was also the perfect thing to say that wouldn't make it obvious that he was trying to convince them to keep him around. Because otherwise they would've likely realized it doesn't add up with how he was acting just a couple scenes ago when he said he thinks he "liked it better when [he] was trying to destroy [Tails]" If he dismisses it in such a casual way that can't be disproven, he's not trying too hard to convince them.

But if you think parts of that are a little too speculative, though it does have a little something on screen and the context of why he's teaming up with them to support it, we can also go by how he visibly acts much more blatantly in the later cutscene at Silent Forest, when Tails falls into the trap.

Eggman has no reaction, he just stands and silently watches. Doesn't even have the slightest look of suprise or shock like the Frozen Factory Tails save cutscene, which makes the latter feel more performative of a response while he was right in front of Sonic.

He then gives Sonic a little speech while he's devastated to motivate him, so that he'll "make sure his sacrifice isn't for nothing", his sly way of saying "alright but you've still gotta help me, I'm not letting you get hung up on this" lol

He needs to make sure Sonic won't lose focus of their mission and still work hard and not lose hope, so he can get him past the Zeti and betray him later.

And he just gives a little "eh whatever" shrug while Sonic isn't looking again. Much like how he grinned when Sonic wasn't looking in the other scene. Like when Sonic isn't looking, you see the real same old Eggman and how he really feels about both situations.

It's really funny how much he just doesn't even react or give a fuck in this scene lol. I think it really testifies against him really caring about Tails in his previous save considering this is the next cutscene he's even in.

It makes sense for the reasons behind the save is a combination of performing heroics to seem more reliable in this truce because he was planning to betray them the whole time, along with how he expected Sonic to lose focus of their mission and not perform as well if he was devastated by the loss of Tails. So when he couldn't save him this time, he brings out the little motivating speech since it's all he can do now.

Especially since the modified battle robot would've certainly resulted in Tails' death which of course would've had a heavy impact on Sonic and could've affected his performance, while they weren't sure what the Deadly Six were going to do with Tails though Eggman did think of it as like a "sacrifice". So I see that as explaining his earlier actions of the save.

Like this, I can't think of any others that I wouldn't also have an explanation for that tracks with the way he's selfish and self motivated. Lost World, to me, really seems like another prime example of that instead. I love Lost World Eggman and just how much there is to explore and consider about his actions, knowing that he was using them and was going to betray them the whole time.

Eggman does a have a human side and genuinely human moments in the series because being human isn't being a good person. There are many ways to be. Selfishness is very human too. He has a bunch of human traits and moments that remind us that he's human and none involve him being a genuinely good selfless or caring person because it's not required for him to be.

I haven't seen anything that people use as examples of him being a good person that I can't find reasons to argue against and they don't require any huge reaches or speculation as there are always scenes and dialogue to support my points, like the stuff I used here. The more I go back and reanalyze, I only find more to support them despite my open mind and neutrality looking into it.

I only see a pure evil villain with a funny side who is exclusively self motivated only acts for purely selfish reasons that personally benefit him. Which tracks with the kind of egotist and narcissist he is, it's the strong defining core of his character that influences his mindset, goals, and actions throughout the series consistently. There isn't any scene where I can see any exceptions to this.

I encourage you to have your own take and disagree so we can have a discussion like this though. I understand you're not trying to start drama and respect your perspective, I'm interested to see and discuss and share my thoughts. I understand what it's like for people think it's your intention though, it sucks. This is always a chill space to agree or disagree as long as you're chill about it too. 🤝

[wheeler-fan]

Well I see ur last answers on Byler and Mileven post and I would like to add my perspective on both of these ships realistically (because I like to poke my nose into others businesses /jk)

Well honestly speaking I love Byler, but here I'll try to be as unbiased as possible. Realistically speaking, both ships have their own pros and cons. Mileven did looked cute around 1-2 seasons (if we see it from general audience perspective) and while Byler (for me atleast) looked so much cute and healthy in season 2.

But look let's forget the fact that Mike can't say ily to El for a moment. Their ship still won't make sense, because Mike (when he asked El out) was around 11-12 yrs (as much as I remember). He cared and loved El but not romantically. He showed a genuine care for her because he suddenly founded her in woods (plus he thought she might know about Will). At this time I don't think he had crush on her. El was the first girl who had talked to him without being mean, so that is also the reason for him to act more soft towards her. But since it was first time for Mike to talk to a girl, so the other people around him (like - Lucas and Nancy) thought that he liked her. And Lucas was the one who was pushing this idea that Mike might be in love with her, and after sometime Nancy also confronted him about this. And since surrounding does affects you and it was his first time being friends with a girl, he later thought yes that might be the case. And El didn't even knew what a friend was, so how do we expect her to know the meaning of love is? In conclusion I think that both El and Mike likes this idea of being in love and they do love each other but as I said not romantically. They both don't act like themselves around each other and in last season they both lied to eachother. Both of them need to explore themselves and what they like and then should be in a relationship with someone they like.

While for Byler, I do believe it is much better than Mileven but again Mike still needs to find what he really feels and think. And as for Will, he does know that the kind of love that want is "not normal" in the sense of 90s. He do love Mike in a romantic way but he still tried to fix Mike's and El's relationship, because he cares for both of them. I'm not a Mike hater but him in season 3 and 4 just gives me mixed feelings. Mike outted Will and he during the time when he was supposed to find his "girlfriend", he started talking about how Will didn't talked to him the whole day. Which is actually kinda umm, weird? Like bro u are supposed to find ur girlfriend, so don't change the topic lol.

I'm still looking out for Mike's character development in season 5 because he has so much potential and he is more than "El's boyfriend".

I to be honest wouldn't mind if Byler doesn't becomes canon (actually I will but that's not the point here 🥲) but if Mileven becomes endgame then tbh it would be a kind of a fanservice. Like let's take bylers a side, the large number of audience are general audience and other are Milevens. Most of the general audience are homophobic and they go with basics . Not forget to mention that people still say in this date that "wait people ship Mike and Will??" El is a character who needs to be independent, her story doesn't revolve around finding a boyfriend but it's revolve around finding herself and learning the normal world. Mike is just boiled down to being El's boyfriend but he is more than that, so many people find him relatable and it's not a bad writting if something like this happens. If see from Will's perspective, then his story doesn't fully revolve around finding a partner but it still plays a important role in his character (since he thinks that he can't be loved by someone how he wants). I'm such huge fan of Will and I want what he feels is good for him, I just want to see him happy. I still hope that he comes out to Mike and Mike to comfort him, them having a heart to heart while comforting each other.

Mileven as a ship held a big potential in past but it wasn't taken serious as it should've been. Same goes for Byler, it have potential to be a good friends to lover story and duffers are giving us bit of hints but we will only what is gonna happen to them in season 5.

At the end I want all my three babies to have a happy ending which they deserve (⁠〃ﾟ⁠3ﾟ⁠〃⁠)

I'm gonna be honest with u right now, this is one of the best explained views on a byler pov I've seen!! It was really nice and you've got a point!! i love nice byler fans with all my heart i swear❤️❤️

The first thing i want to say is the fact that we all are getting so mad sometimes about these ships probably bc no one wants to be in a situation where we get to know that we believed in some delusions for years 😭😭

I personally see mike with el, I don't know if things are gonna work out for them but i hope so, yet the most important thing for me is a happy ending for my fav character- Mike, and if you're the one who has right, if byler actually's gonna be endgame, as long as mike is actually happy i think I'll be happy too (well i really hope so but i want mileven to be endgame please lord😭😭😭)

But even skipping the part about who does mike actually love in a romantic way, can i ask u something? Can you really see it, how mike and el break up and then immediately mike goes to his best friend and his ex gf brother and they become a couple? I know that you would really like that to happen but the question is do u really see it happen?😭 Because i just can't I'm so sorry i don't know how it is supposed to happen, we actually don't have much time it's the last season 😭

And I have another question like this is kinda personal but I need to know, do u have something like this sometimes, that you're starting to stress- ,,what if my fav ship actually won't be endgame? what if I'm being delusional?" Don't get me wrong I'm asking these questions to myself all the time because i have to be honest with u it's stressing me out that there's so many byler shippers like it have to mean something right?😭😭😭

[macravishedbymactavish]

This is for the 'send me a character for headcanons of 3 pros and 3 cons of dating them':

This was a very long thought over choice but I picked Merrick because I'm honestly genuinely curious of the pros and cons of dating Mer-Bear.

This one started as a challenge, then somehow came naturally?

| Blog HQ | Ghosts Masterlist | Price's Version | Hesh & Logan's Version |

Pros & Cons of Dating (Thomas A. Merrick Headcanons)

Pros

His memory (especially when it comes to you) is top tier. He has your favourite drink, and take out order memorized so he can surprise you on nights you need a pick me up or you're both too lazy to cook

Sitting on the couch, recovering from what felt like the longest day in existence you heard the front door open and the familiar greeting of your boyfriend as he entered.

A smile tugging at the corner of your lips when you saw your favourite drink in his hand, "a small peace offering" he shrugged 

He cooks as a hobby, and truly enjoys trying and creating new recipes

"The next step is to fold in the cheese" You giggled, watching as he rolled his eyes. Focusing on the task at hand.

"What does that mean? What does fold in the cheese mean?" He played along, smile widening as you laughed harder. Nearly falling off the counter in the process.

The two of you were trying out a new recipe he found online a few nights ago. He was doing the cooking, while you kept him company and read off the instructions.

"Cheese is folded like origami into this, now what?"

His music taste is vast but refined

Whether it's humming along to the radio, or able to tell you what song is playing by the first few notes -- he never fails to shock you with how many bands he listens to.

It's also incredibly sweet when he starts playing new songs when you're around. All on the premise that he heard it and either thought of you, or thinks you'll enjoy it.

Cons

Good luck watching movies with him. Either he stops paying attention halfway through or falls asleep within the first 15 minutes

Arms resting behind his head, he watched as you grabbed the remote and your favourite snack. Clicking play with a smile, you cuddled into his side.

"Don't fall asleep this time" you teased, feeling him chuckle from beside you, promising not to. 

It was about 1/3rd of the way through the movie when you felt him shift his weight a few times. Opting to lean further into the arm of the couch. You paid little mind, as this was a movie you've been waiting to see for months.

It was around the halfway mark, a quieter scene when you glanced over at the man. Seeing him glancing between the TV and his phone. With a soft sigh, you reached forward and paused the movie; knowing all too well what was happening.

"Need a break?"

For a guy with only facial hair, he spends a surprising amount of time and money on it

Knuckles tapping gently against the wood of the door, you softly inquired as to whether or not he was ready to leave for the night.

You'd been ready to go, waiting on the couch for the last 20 minutes. Waiting for him to finish up in the bathroom; where he was finishing a couple last details.

Peeking your head in, you were met by an array of different hair and beard products lining the counter….and your boyfriend still not fully dressed.

Snores like a freight train

Jumping slightly, you blinked the sleep out of your eyes. Looking around the room as you tried to comprehend why you were awake suddenly.

After a few seconds, you closed your eyes again. Willing your heart to calm down as you cuddled into your boyfriends side. Eyes shooting wide open again at the snore that came from his mouth.

No, it can't be.

Glaring up at him, you shook his body. Urging him to wake up and fucking breathe. His hand pressing back against you, sleepily shoving you back as he got more comfortable.

Sighing, you sat up and grabbed your pillow; pressing it gently against his face until you felt him wake up. Pulling the fabric away, you looked down at him and simply whispered:

"An eye for an eye, you bitch"

Taglist: @bloodonmyhands-1221 @bowtruckleninja @v1naco @ai-luni

[zilabee]

Yoko: I'm trying without the marmalade today, you know.

The breakfasting genuinely makes me so happy. And the lunchtime conversation today is stellar. It's the quality content I'm here for, more than the music or the interpersonal dramas.

What do you want for lunch? --- Sparrow On Toast. --- Boiled Testicle. --- Whatever The Veg-etables Are.

My menu when I open a fancy london dinery.

- When George is talking again about releasing Get Back as a single, and Paul says he's really just rehearsing at the moment sldkjfowije. They're still trying to do different projects at the same time.

- I am starting to feel a low drag from watching get back so constantly, now. While the small amounts a day is definitely easier for me than the whole thing was, it's also very constant, with all the pain and the frustration spreading out endlessly, heartbreaking and blue.

- John deciding he wants Billy to be a permanent Beatle, and not just deciding that but deciding to talk about it, and then George wanting to drag in Bob fucking Dylan too. Exhaustion. I love Paul just openly acknowledging that he can only just cope with the Beatles they already have. (I know there are pros and cons and maybe it makes sense to turn the Beatles into a concept instead of a group, but also it doesn't at all not really.)

- I do just love Ringo having a little art gallery. The only thing keeping him sane.

It's a bit of a drag, bass, isn't it?

It is not a drag Paul, it is your soul. (Is it John that then claims he's never heard a song without bass, and Paul has to go 'well we've done a few...')

Paul: ha aha ha, it's so weird, it's like we wrote songs that mean something lol John: yeah, mad. it makes it sound as if we love each other or whatever roflmao!

- MLH doesn't know what story he is telling any more, and I'm trying to have a bit of sympathy for him. I think he could just call someone with a bit of imagination, and a bit of push and put them in charge. But at the same time... he thought it was going to be about everyone working hard, it all fitting together, and creating a huge Beatles concert to light up the world. So he's allowed to be sad that all they do is sit in a room and talk in circles.

> At the moment we've got a movie about smokers, nose pickers, and nail biters. > We are rather uncouth. We're not your elite you know.

- I suppose he didn't know who they were. I suppose we have a lot of hindsight about them. I suppose he thought he was going in to do a film about really successful people doing something successfully and he just didn't know he'd have to organise it and shape it at all. I suppose he thought they were magical and was surprised that they were weird terrified children.

George: It sounds lovely that, now. After all the anguish we went through with it. John: Well, it's part of the, the pudding... It's a Henry Moore sculpture, that. George Martin: And the fact that you're working so well together: you're looking at each other, you're seeing each other, you're... just happening.

- All my heart to George Martin for saying perfect things to them.

- The bit in Polythene Pam where John is frowning, and confused at what his chords are doing, as though he has nothing to do with it, and he is so beautiful when puzzled that is all.

- I love that they only bought George the cheapest Hawaiian but if he's any good he can have a better one. Mimi would be proud.

- I love how much Paul and John use each others names the moment they're in an accent or a character or a bit.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Level 1: Let's-a-go easy with some illuminated Mario!

What I want to explore at least partly over the course of Nintendo-vember is the fact, that Dobson was biased with a capital b when it came to videogames and Nintendo. To be more specific, Dobson not only hated people who played anything but Nintendo, acting like PS3 users are the scum of the earth (which we can see examples of a lot near the end of the month), but he was also very opinionated what counts as “the true and honest” depictions of his favorite Nintendo characters.

Again, something more explored down the line soon, but to give at least one example for how even the slightest “deviation” from Dobson’s own interpretation can result in him getting pissed, only for things to backfire on him in some sense (partly a cosmic one) let me turn back time a bit to the November of 2017.

Almost 6 years ago, it was announced that Illumination, the studio behind the Despicable Me movies and some really shitty Dr. Seuss based works, would head the animation work on Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros movie. And people were pissed.

Many of them believing that the studio would ruin their favorite videogame character and produce something that was of great disservice to him. And that was something people claimed, before even the voice cast was announced and everyone had a mental breakdown over Chris Pratt voicing Mario.

For your sanity though, don't click on the vidoe of that fat slob from Boston who is more of a disservice to animation than Live Action Disney is currently

Now to be fair, I am myself aware of the quality of Illumination up until the Mario movie came out. The Despicable Me and Minions movies, plus Secret Life of Pets, having been the most successful endeavors of the company, while also creating some rather annoying, though in my opinion funny cartoon slapstick characters. But honestly, I never thought that Illumination doing the Mario movie, could possibly be the worst thing to ever happen. At the very least, even if the company had fucked up royally with Dr. Seuss related content, they actually have some understanding of cartoon slapstick in their work and can in my opinion create some very colorful movies. And let us be real here, Super Mario has never been the most “adult” or deep franchise on the planet. So as long as Nintendo would keep them on the leash (which they did in the end) I doubted the movie would be utter shit. I at least did not expect it to be the Teen Titans Go of Nintendo, dumb like Boss Baby or unfocused and insulting like Wonder Park.

And lo and behold, the movie came out and minor things aside (like using Take on me as a pop song in the background at one moment) it captured the essence of Mario, was very colorful and a smash hit. To the point it was up until Barbie came along still the most successful movie of 2023 and is the third highest crossing animated movie of all time. With the place actually being the second, if the Lion King remake from 2019 wouldn’t be technically considered animated. Heck, you could actually call it the most succesful animated movie of all time currently, if you also decide to look at the list in such a way, that "sequels"/continuations ofalready established IPs don't count.

What I am trying to say is, in hindsight, many people should have just simply tried to be calm and see where things were heading.Give Illumination the benefit of the doubt. Particularly if they decided to first think about what was likely going to happen and analyze the pro and cons of Illumination doing the movie.

But fuck using your brain when your name is Andrew Dobson.

Dobson took genuine offense to the idea of Illumination doing the movie and as such made a “mock art” of what Mario would likely look in their art style.

There was just a tinsy winsy problem with it. The artwork in itself….

Turned out to be better looking, than most things Dobson did at the time.

No, seriously. Considering the lack of a decent art output at the time aside of shitting on nerds via SYAC strips, this, for what is obviously meant to take the piss out on Illumination’s art style reserved for the Minions, actually looks rather decent. Sure, Mario looks like a tic tac, but for a “quick” sketch, it looks nice. Mario looks -unlike Dobbear in 95% of the strips- actually happy by the way he smiles as well as very cartoonish. And considering that the blood and soul of Mario is kinda in the cartoonish nature of the game series -as evident by how ridiculously Mario Wonder is currently- Dobson in my opinion captured here the soul of Mario better than he did in other pics he did way back in the earlier 2000s.

Though to be fair, these pics look decent enough and at least Dobson was experimenting with different styles back then. Perhaps his cartoonish style would have worked best with Nintendo, if he refined it just right.

Which you know, kinda defeats the “purpose” of the picture if you ask me. I mean, it is obvious Dobson just did it to vent and piss on the fact that a company he considered “inferior” to other animation studios, would bring his favorite videogame character on the big screen for the first time since that Bob Hoskins movie. But if he wanted to mock the idea, he failed. Simply because in his sketch he doesn’t really “highlight” why Illumination being behind Mario would be bad. Not helped by the fact Dobson lacked giving more context why in his opinion that was a bad idea. And the few posts he did, painted him just as hating Charles Martinet and believing Charles would be the main voice of the characters in the movie

An as stated earlier, in hindsight, any “criticism” or fear Dobson might have had, proved in my opinion invalid in the end. The movie was not only a success, but it also paid tribute to his “precious” Mario is from Brooklyn background.

Frankly, the only thing I can see in the pic I would criticize is that Dobson a) gave Mario four fingers despite the fact he should know by now he has five (though that may be a cartoony jab at the Minions. Though even that jab is half assed, cause if he wanted to emulate their design, he should have given Mario three instead of four digits) and b) Mario being likely completely bald under that cap. The later just doesn’t fit entirely. Which, considering the Minions are mostly bald, may have been the intention by Dobson, to create an uncanny effect. Unfortunately, the rest of the artwork balances it out mostly, so on average the sketch ends up being visually more pleasing than anything.

Honestly though, the picture’s existence does highlight one thing more than anything: That Dobson would rather create something out of spite and hatred, rather than a genuine sense of enjoyment. That and if Ilumination being announced as a company to animate the movie, I wonder how he reacted in light of the casting or other Mario related news. Like can you imagine how livid he must have been when Mario+Rabbids by Ubisoft was announced and became popular?

[themattress]

Disney’s The Little Mermaid (2023)

All right, I’ve seen it, so let’s do this.

PROS:

- I have some problems with Ariel in this movie, but Halle Bailey ain’t one of ‘em. I mean, good lord. Not only is her singing as beautiful as expected, but her vocal impression of Jodi Benson from the original movie is phenomenal. If you hadn’t seen either movie and just heard audio files of the two back to back, it would be exceedingly difficult to pick out which was which, that’s how spot-on Bailey is with her performance. And even when Ariel is mute, Bailey never fails with her facial expressions, which continue to convey her lovable personality. You totally believe her to be Ariel because she totally believes herself to be Ariel; the sincerity that she exudes is proof of just how committed to doing this iconic character justice she was.

- Luca Paguro himself, Jacob Tremblay, was perfect castling for the voice of Flounder. 

- While I hate everything else about him, I love King Triton’s design and general vibe. He’s less of a traditional king and more of a Poseidon-like god, and that’s a cool take on him.

- The shark attack sequence. I especially liked the new way that Ariel outsmarts the shark. 

- "Part of Your World", both how the scene is staged and, of course, Halle Bailey’s singing. 

- "For the First Time". Again, it’s a Halle Bailey song. You can’t go wrong there.

- Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina, Eric’s adoptive mother. As pointless as this character was from a story standpoint, I thought that Dumezweni sold it with her performance. 

- Art Malik as Grimsby. I totally bought his fatherly concern and affection for Eric.

- Once they’re finally allowed to start bonding after needlessly putting it off to pad out the runtime some more, Ariel and Eric’s chemistry is on point, especially in the dancing scene.

- Jodi Benson’s cameo as a merchant who gives Ariel a fork. Unexpected and delightful. 

- From the second half of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and all through the second half of the movie, Melissa McCarthy is suddenly good as Ursula. She’s no Pat Carroll, of course, but she finally has the bombast and intimidation factor down which she was lacking in before.

- Jessica Alexander as Vanessa, who owned those two-or-so minutes she was on screen.

- Before the way it ended I was enjoying the climax. King Triton being straight-up killed rather than turned into a polyp was a genuine shock, and gigantic Ursula was utterly terrifying.

CONS:

- The opening scene is awful. Rather than that epic shot of Eric’s ship coming out of the fog with the music blaring, we get what looks to be a mermaid (actually a dolphin) swimming underwater as whimsical music plays, only for it to get cut off like a joke as the sailors on Eric’s ship try to harpoon the “mermaid” while yelling hateful superstition. Just a terrible start.

- Rather than Triton’s hatred of humans being pure bigotry on his part, the movie decides to "both sides" the conflict, making humans equally as hateful and fearful of merpeople as merpeople are of them. Worse still, they each have valid reasons for this hate and fear, making the end resolution of it being brushed off as a big misunderstanding ring hollow.

- Jonah Hauer-King as Eric. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t take him seriously in the role.

- Worse still, Eric's whole character is fucked up on multiple fronts. First off, he’s now adopted royalty instead of genuine royalty, which gives off the unfortunate implication that this is the real reason he bonds so well with the common folk and desires a life of adventure. Secondly, his life situation is made the same as Ariel’s instead of different, pushing them as kindred spirits too literally and losing much of what made him desirable to Ariel in the original. And finally, his romance with Ariel starts and ends on a lackluster note, with him being too quick to dismiss having anything to do with her after he learns she’s mute and then too quick to accept being together with her was a fantasy never meant to happen after he learns she’s a mermaid. In trying to give him more depth, the filmmakers just made him more confusing.

- The undersea world lacks appeal. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it and have since the trailers came out. More proof that animation is an art form that has things live-action can never replicate, and that Disney needs to stop making these live-action remakes already.

- Javier Bardem as King Triton. He is absolutely terrible in this, giving one of the most dull and disinterested performances I’ve seen in recent memory. He sells none of his lines.

- Triton's character isn’t any better than his actor’s performance. Beyond his bigotry against humans having more justification to it, he is downright cruel and unrelatable in his treatment of Ariel. When Triton crossed the line into abusive parenting in the original by destroying Ariel’s collection, we immediately see a flicker of realization, horror and remorse on his face once he snaps out of his rage. He’s too proud to admit to anything yet, but it helps sell his “What have I done?” remorse that we see later, and his sacrifice for Ariel’s sake in the climax. But here, he seems to have no such remorse. He’s hardly a father; just a tyrant.

- Flounder looks unappealing and Jacob Tremblay’s voice can’t save that. Sebastian looks even more unappealing, and Daveed Diggs’ obnoxiously high-pitched voice only makes his character worse. Scuttle looks unappealing, and Awkwafina creates such a different character with her performance that I don’t get why they bothered even keeping the “Scuttle” name. Much like with The Lion King remake, it again shows animation’s superiority in this regard.

- Ariel's hair is boring regular red and not vivid real red. That’s a fail on such an absurdly fundamental level, as well as a disservice to Halle Bailey who could have rocked such hair.

- Ariel's character, in the script, is as sanitized as I feared. She’s more of a socially conscious fighter for equality rather than a teenager realistically out primarily for herself and her own ambitions, her sexual lust for Eric is toned down to near non-existence, she’s much less of a rebel since she only goes to the surface for the first time when going to see Eric’s ship, she’s made to have far more hesitation in her deal with Ursula to the point she almost backs out entirely until Ursula cranks up her pressure campaign, and as I will talk more about later gets some needless “girlboss” additions the same way previous Disney heroines in live-action remakes have. Thank God for Halle Bailey, who minimizes the damage as best as she can.

- In the first half of the movie all the way through to the first half of “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, Melissa McCarthy is way too understated as Ursula. She’s doing a campy Bette Midler or Eartha Kitt style of voice, but doesn’t go big enough on her lines and absolutely lacks the skin-crawling, psychotic menace that Pat Carroll so effortlessly provided the character with.

- Restoring the deleted concept of Ursula being Triton’s sister and Ariel’s aunt was pointless. 

- "Under the Sea". Beyond the issues of the underwater world on display not working as well as in animation and Daveed Diggs’ ear poison of a voice and delivery not holding even a candlewick to Samuel E Wright, Ariel joins in on the song by the end! Excuse me? The whole point of the song is to convince her to give up her interest in the human world! Her singing along (without being forced to because it’s part of a stage musical rehearsal that she’s obligated to partake in, as is the case in Kingdom Hearts II) is akin to signing off on that! 

- There’s a plot hole about Eric’s kingdom. Apparently it’s incredibly paranoid and isolationist, and part of why Eric wants to explore other places and make connections with them is so that the kingdom “doesn’t get left behind”. That doesn’t stop its village and marketplace from being a bustling hub of multicultural diversity! Which is it? Is the kingdom isolationist or not?

- Related to the above: Eric’s song, “Wild Uncharted Waters”. Yawn.

- Also, Ariel's sisters are all different ethnicities. I assumed this meant that King Triton slept around, which certainly wouldn’t be out of place for a Greek god like he’s styled after. But no, the sisters still speak of “Mother” as if they all have the same mother! How does that work?

- Flotsam and Jetsam don't talk. Boo! Let them talk!

- There is an absolutely pointless change where Ursula, apparently having no real confidence in herself, cheats in her deal with Ariel by slipping in an amnesia potion so that Ariel forgets she needs to kiss Eric in three days’ time to stay human forever. OK, but why does that prevent her from retaining the memory of Sebastian later straight-up telling her she needs to kiss Eric? And why is she still that heartbroken when Eric gets engaged to Vanessa, given that she no longer thinks it means she won’t get to kiss him and thus won’t remain human? 

- Instead of the newly human Ariel making it to shore and getting dressed in a sail before Max sniffs her out and leads Eric to her, she gets caught in a fisher boat’s net, the fisherman gives her a cloak to wear, and he...brings her to the castle? Why? When you fish out a mute girl adrift at sea, why does your mind jump to the freaking castle and its prince as the go-to solution for getting her help? And like I said before, it actually takes away from Eric and Ariel’s bond, since him finding her and, despite his disappointment that she can’t be the girl who saved him since she’s mute, still taking care of her personally since that’s the decent thing to do was a great showing of Eric being a nice guy whom you could understand Ariel loving.

- Actually, the usage of Max is disappointing in general. Eric saves him on the burning ship so that important plot point is checked off, but him having earlier met Ariel and memorized her scent ends up having no pay-off since he isn’t the one to lead Eric to Ariel. On top of this, he doesn’t get to be the one who causes Vanessa’s shell to break and Ariel to get her voice back later, so that’s another important plot function he’s deprived of. And he’s not even a sheepdog anymore, he’s a bearded collie. What was stopping the filmmakers from using a sheepdog!?

- The stupid little jade mermaid sculpture that Eric calls “my Little Mermaid". OK, so is the movie’s title supposed to be in reference to that now? Why include that as a thing at all?

- "Kiss The Girl", beyond being ruined by Daveed Diggs’ voice, has the pointless lyrical change to make sure Eric has Ariel’s consent before kissing her. As the new lyrics say: “Use your words to ask her”. Except...Eric doesn’t fucking do that! He leans in to kiss Ariel, with her also leaning in to kiss him, at the end just like in the original, without him having asked her beforehand if it’s OK! So a classic, perfectly good love song got altered for nothing!

- "The Scuttlebutt". The only good part about it was Ariel hating it as much as I did! 

- Instead of the animals all divebombing Vanessa at her and Eric’s wedding, with Max dealing the finishing blow that makes her lose the shell containing Ariel’s voice, we have Ariel being a girlboss and....engaging Vanessa in a cat fight over the shell, ending with Ariel grabbing it and breaking it herself. Because a cat fight between women is so much more progressive?

- The climax ends with Ariel and Eric swapping places, and Ariel killing Ursula with the ruined ship. This doesn’t work, since not only does Ariel not know how to steer a ship and she looks kind of ridiculous sliding around the deck on her fish tail, Ursula going after Eric specifically rather than Ariel makes no sense (Ariel just killed Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula is pissed off at her above all else) and Eric not killing Ursula means Triton has no impetus for learning that he was wrong about humans. Maybe this wouldn’t be a problem if Triton stayed dead in this version (since, y’know, he actually died), but alas he gets resurrected once Ursula is killed and loses the trident. And sure enough, he’s learned nothing, which leads us directly into...

- The Ending. Ariel just accepts living under the sea from now on and becomes severely depressed about it, which somehow makes Triton change his mind and turn her human (she was depressed after he destroyed her grotto and he clearly didn’t give a fuck; what’s the difference now?) Eric had also accepted he and Ariel weren’t meant to be after all, but once she shows up as a human again he instantly reverse on that. Queen Selina sadly remarked that the human world and mer-world just weren’t meant to exist together...but then Ariel is made human again and gets together with Eric, and then she says the exact opposite and endorses the two worlds existing together! Everyone is just changing their mind at the drop of a hat; it’s ridiculous! And rather than ending on a wedding with a beautiful choir version of “Part of Your World” being sung, the movie abruptly ends with Eric and Ariel sailing off in a boat toward a ship that they will use to explore other kingdoms and further connect the two worlds together in the process while the generic instrumental “Part of Your World” plays. There’s just....no real heart to it. Which sums up this movie’s problem: like the vast majority of these live-action remakes, it was not made with the same heart as the animated original. The best that can be said about it is that it’s not the worst of the remakes, and that it provides a great stepping stone for Halle Bailey’s professional acting career. Beyond that, it’s useless.

[iheartsyaosaku]

Clear card pros and cons (that i can remember i need to reread it again)

Pros:

SYAOSAKU DATING ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

idk more content around our fave characters (though not as much but take it as you will)

The wierd ass technology update all of a sudden everyone has iphones (minus syaoran)

It picked up from the og ending where syaoran comes back from hong kong

SYAOSAKU DATING 🥹🥹🥹

SYAOSAKU WENT ON A DATE ‼️‼️

Unlocked sakura new swag (at the cost of ending her cardcaptor retirement…)

(Anime only) english dub actors of trc syaosaku voice ccscc syaosaku i thought that was pretty cool (syaoran sounds like maybe he went through puberty a little too early but thats okay)

(Anime only) SYAORAN SPEAKS FRENCH IN THE ENGLISH DUB

cute art style

Maybe just me but sometimes i get a little emotional seeing sakura in her daily life in middle school because its like !! Wow i remember when you were in 4th grade and now you’re in 7th grade im so proud of you sakura 🥹

Momo (new mascot to make marketable plushie off of)

(Anime only) MEILING COMEBACK ‼️

THE SYAOSAKU SONG HOSHI NO TEGAMI 😭😭😭😭😭 BEST SONG EVERRRR WTF SYAORANS SINGING VOICE IS SO!:?:)/$/? THEYRE SUCH A GOOD DUET

SYAOSAKU DATING. Btw. Theyre a couple. Theyre dating and theyre in love.

Cons:

KAITO.

New characters who happen to be mediocre

Akiho is literally just a carbon copy of sakura who is just sad (they refused to touch on the different aspects of her like reading books, singing and from kong kong only very rarely)

Kaito fucking sucks literally worst ccs of all time and THATS A LOT saying theres literal PEDOS in the fucking show but theyre all background characters but they can also piss off

Tbf i got confused along the way

Too many plot holes

Syaosaku angst

Syaosaku couldnt touch for a while 😔

Anyway why did yelan do that (referring to point above)

Some shit does not make sense

Tsubasa/xxxholic references (this is for you oomf)

Syaoran???? Is part of the “im keeping things from sakura” gang???? And it sucks so bad (yes it got resolved in the later half BUT IT STILL SUCKED)

TOO MANY THINGS KEPT FROM SAKURA JUST TELL HER DAMN

pushes most characters from the og manga aside to focus on akiho and that man 🙄🙄🙄

Clamp forces us to care about them but in reality we really do not gaf

(In reference to point above) Clamp sees that and pushes the nostalgia tactics/references sometimes and its lowkey tiring

The part where the syao/saku/tomo were reminiscing that fuck ass teacher made me ill i genuinely wanted to kms

Still hasnt gotten rid of their p*do ass shit thanks clamp very cool (sarcasm)

Did i mention that the og characters were pushed back? Because they really were

Akiho felt more of the main character of this story instead of sakura

Tbh not much happened in the entirety of this manga ESPECIALLY considering time shenanigans

Im still mad that syaoran hid stuff from sakura tbh

HOW CAN I FORGET THE UGLY ASS “YUNAAKI IS SIMILAR TO SYAOSAKU” PARALLELS AND HOW BADLY IT PISSES ME OFF

syaosaku dont look but theres an ugly bitch trying to be like you (yunaaki)

Yunaaki becoming borderline canon despite it being a toxic and p*dophilic ship

Kaito still exists in this fucking story and got a somewhat happy ending (befriending syaoran dont piss me the fuck off)

COMPARING KAITO TO SYAORAN KYS @ CLAMP

Kero/tomoyo/yue/nakuru/spinnel basically everyone magically involved is pushed back basically useless until the final act (i think i mentioned the character pushback before)

Still major plotholes

Yamazaki tells the truth now

Touya got whitewashed

Akiho still has too many similarities to sakura it still pisses me off. Why cant they make her her own character

My girl sakura developed anxiety

MY BOY SYAORAN DEVELOPED DEPRESSION

angsty ass middle schoolers

Didnt like the scene where sakuras grandad was basically throwing shade at syaoran comparing his romance with sakura to … sakura’s fuckass dad grooming her mom. What

Syaoran calmed down a bit i miss when he was chaotic af but whatever #middleschoolerthings

Season 2 is taking forever to release good lord

[spheresr4cubes]

Thoughts on the Mario movie

THE PROS

--Stunning animation! I mean, Jesus Mohammad Christ, the lighting?! The facial expressions?! The textures?! The weight of things falling and hitting and cracking?! The translation of 2D side-scroller to 3D world?! J'adore!!

--Genuinely horrific intro to the Darklands. Like, I was actually terrified for Luigi, especially the last shot with the Shy Guys in the castle.

--The world designs! If there's anything Illumination excels at, it's funky little societies, and the Mushroom Kingdom is no exception.

--The Battle with Francis the Dog, not only for the fantastic facial expressions of Francis himself, but for showing off how Mario and Luigi interact when faced with a problem (Luigi holding up a mirror as a shield mirrors [ha] how he protects Mario at the end of the movie). Also, the placement of the opera music over the madness happening when the plumbing goes haywire was *chef's kiss*.

--Hair flippies <3

--"Peaches"

--The voice acting: Charlie Day strikes a very interesting balance between Luigi's game voice and a real person, which makes him feel familiar at the same time as adding depth. And of course, Jack Black sounds like he had a lot of fun as Bowser, and I got chills twice during his lines.

--Existential luma

--Mario and Luigi apparently dress the way they do as a way to brand the look for their new business, and I love that. They feel out-of-place in their world somehow and fit better into the Mushroom Kingdom (which may just be the fact that their designs were meant for that world, but ce la vie, that's how it felt).

--THE HUG. I did not want to see this movie at all until I started hearing people talk about the relationship between Mario and Luigi as actual brothers. I haven't played any of the games with story, so I don't know how the film's take compares, but I do have a little sibling whom I love dearly and would absolutely learn the physics-bending rules and fight the same battles as Mario does if it meant getting my sister back. Does it feel a little fanficky? Sure. But it works.

--Actually, the whole Mario family's dynamics work, and there were so many little details and interactions I caught just on the first watch that build so much character with only a few scenes of dialogue. Mario being athletic before the events of the movie, never knowing when to quit, being defensive about his career choices and how they affect Luigi, who would follow him anywhere; Luigi being the most supportive person, even singing Mario's praises in the face of a big scary monster, never losing hope even when things are looking dire; their parents being more concerned than outright disappointed in their choices, trying to be supportive but missing the mark.

--Speaking of Mario never knowing when to quit and Luigi being a supportive person, no one in this movie really learns anything... and that's okay! The feelings that everyone has about how things should be end up being what keeps them going until the world(s) agree with them. Peach, for example, cares tremendously about the Toads and will do anything to keep them safe, which she does!

--Bowser is actually terrifying! Sure, he has his silly moments, but the badassery absolutely outweighs them. I had no doubt that he would actually commit mass murder, especially toward the end of the movie when the anger from being turned-down really comes out.

--Peach running the obstacle course in heels and a full gown (I have done something similar in a full skirt and bodice, and it was fun to watch on screen).

--FUCKIN TEAMWORK, YA'LL

THE CONS

--How many times do they have to title-drop? After seven, I was really getting tired of it. Like, yes, we know it's the Super Mario Brothers, we are aware.

--Illumination has a brand of comedy, and it is not absent from the movie.

--I'm not too familiar with the lore of anything, much less Donkey Kong, but... he never struck me as the fratboy type?? Like, sure, the dynamic kind of works when he interacts with others, but it felt... off.

--The voice acting. I saw this one coming, honestly, and I think I blame the studios more than the actors (I can't help but have sympathy). Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong felt wrong to me. Same with Cranky Kong, as if something in the voice did not match the character somehow. I'm not sure how to describe it. There were times where the same issue arose with Peach, Mario, and the main Toad as well, like there's a disconnect.

--Lots of very bright colors in both Brooklyn and the Mushroom Kingdom, which softens the blow of actually arriving in another world. I get that this is more of a children's movie, and children love bright colors, but do you know the feeling you got when first seeing Dorothy step out of the sepia-tone house into the technicolor Land of Oz? That feeling was missing here.

--Someone used a lot of the budget on copyrighted songs, and it gets distracting. ("Mr. Blue Sky" is already intrinsically linked with a complete other fandom in my mind, so its addition really threw me out of the story).

OVERALL

The Mario movie was good! I enjoyed it, even with its faults, and I would buy the DVD if only to admire the artistry that went into the animation and screenplay. There were still times I absolutely would have screamed "HELL YEAAAHHH!" had I not been in a public theater.

10/10 visuals

10/10 foley

6/10 voice acting

7/10 plot execution

8/10 characterization

Judgement: Would recommend, even if you don't know lore!

[gh-0-stcup]

Time for some random late night thought dumps on my recent insane Buffy/Oz fascination.

Yes, it's kind of a nutty pairing. Possibly the verge of crack. But I have logic, I swear!

The Pike -> Oz Pipeline

We've all heard of the Pike -> Spike Pipeline. Oz was also one of the characters that had very clear shades of Pike. Along with Xander, he completes the triad, the Pike Triforce if you will.

Guitar, van, unusually calm in the face of extreme strangeness? Definitely a stoner off screen? Oz = Pike. Therefore there is a valid basis for this pairing. There will be no further questions at this time.

"A nice relationship with a nice guy."

The idea that inspired the creation of Riley. It's a good idea, but sadly the writers struggle to understand what a "nice guy" actually looks like. They can seemingly only create one when that isn't their main goal.

Luckily, there's an actually nice guy in the main cast. Right there. Perhaps the only genuinely nice guy in the entire Buffyverse with any semblance of a recurring role. Okay, there's Lorne but he's also gay.

And a relationship between Buffy and Oz would almost definitely be a nice one. Low in toxicity, high in affection and support.

Communication

Buffy's got issues with communication. Oz is a man of few words. Admittedly, this doesn't sound like the greatest recipe for a good relationship.

But Oz is also quite emotionally intelligent. He gets people. Even Buffy, in the few scenes he has with her. He's patient and not keen on pressure. He's good with setting boundaries and discussing even highly sensitive issues in a nuanced, empathetic way.

They're actually very similar characters in how they deal with things. Both have a tendency to try working things out on their own, both need space and time to process their feelings. While these similarities would probably cause a bit of friction, they'd at least understand that aspect of each other.

Anxiety Support Wolf

Buffy is in an endless battle with Willow for the title of Miss Anxiety. She's a perfectionist of a different sort - frequently at war with her own emotions and desires in an effort to live up to the expectations her loved ones have for her. Or at least what she perceives to be their expectations.

Having a boyfriend who's chill with pretty much everything (in a healthy non-evil way) would be quite good for her imo.

He's not really her type.

Yeah, okay. Fair point. Even if the relationship could be good once it got going, it's hard to see where the non-platonic interest would start.

But Buffy's type can vary - Owen, Scott, etc. And Oz has some elements of her past beau's. Angel was stoic, Riley was nice(ish), Spike wears nail polish and is closer to eye level. Oz is just a combo of all of their pros with none of their cons.

As for Buffy not being Oz's type, we've only really have the one girl to judge him on. He was drawn to Willow from the start because she was unique. Her dorky lil parka caught his attention, her banging bod on Halloween grabbed his eyes, and her intelligence and adorable social awkwardness sealed the deal.

So we know Oz likes three things in a girl - weird, smart, and hot. And from Riley's perspective while seeing Buffy around campus with his frat soldier brothers, we know that by s4 Buffy is in fact weird, smart, and hot.

See, it all works!

Wonderful crack fic opportunities

Spike running and screaming hysterically while Oz chases him around cemeteries in wolf form as a result of Spike's s5 shenanigans.

Jealous/territorial stand offs with Angel where no words are ever exchanged. Everything is discussed through eye contact and microexpressions. Oz doesn't know there's a conversation going on - he just spaced out thinking about Camus with his face in Angel's general direction.

Drunk!Buffy is golden. How about stoned Buffy?

[nellie-elizabeth]

Bob's Burgers: Running Down a Gene (14x04)

Cute episode! I love Tina and Louise getting some sister bonding time in the subplot.

Cons:

Still banging that drum and hoping we'll get a school episode soon. At least we got the library in this one! Also, and I don't mean to harp on things that this episode isn't, instead of appreciating what it is, but... why no Halloween episode? This came out on October 29th!

Pros:

Gene's music aspirations are always so fun to see, I love that he's a blend of genuine talent with silly little kid explorations. The support his family shows him is always touching to me. That's a general theme with this show, that Bob might be exasperated or overwhelmed by the antics of his children, but he never stifles their dreams, either.

Louise and Tina's dream this episode? To catch an annoying cricket that has been chirping and keeping Linda and Bob awake. They set messy traps all over the house and try to lure the insect with an enticing lady companion, all for the promise of $10 (split between them) for their success. This plot thread serves to create another night-time based story to accompany Gene's lucid dream attempts, so we get the whole family up in the middle of the night due to various shenanigans.

The main plot stays focused on Gene. I really loved the way his journey through the dreaming happened. He failed at first, but eventually actually did succeed to getting back to the piano and writing the perfect song he'd originally dreamed about. But then it turns out the song is no good. He then writes a song about the experience of striving for something without being able to reach it, and that becomes the song he's really proud of. But one last narrative twist: he decides not to submit it to the contest, because it's actually too good for such a thing!

I love Gene's confidence, I love his perseverance, I love that he's such a weirdo and he doesn't even care. When I think about the characters in this show I think I often rank Gene below his sisters and parents in terms of who I most like to spend time with, but this episode was a reminder that he's also pretty dang cool!

I'll stop there. I feel like my reviews of this show always come down to, "aww, that was cute, I liked it", and to be honest, that's exactly what I'm always looking for from Bob's Burgers.

8/10

[missroller15]

I know you said you probably won't want to watch Season 7 again, but what are your overall thoughts about the season so far? What is it that you don't like about it in general? (It's not a favorite of mine either, but I'm curious!) Is there anything you HAVE liked about it so far?

Hmmmm, I think I'll state what I wasn't a big fan of first and then what I did end up liking to end off on a good note.

Warning, my memory sucks so this will probaby be a bit inaccurate or off when I'm recounting these but I'll try my best!

Let's do this Rory Gilmore style ;)

Cons:

I'll state off the bat, no Jess. Automatically, not a big fan but I can work with it so it's not the biggest thing that sorta made me like this season so much less. (Still made me kinda sad but I get it, it's fine I guess.)

Rogan. Yup, I said it. There was something so sugary, so artificial that wasn't really there to me before that frustrated me and honestly, I found certain aspects of them so strange. And I think one day I'll get fully in depth about it in a post but to sum it up: The rocket was an interesting gift but it wasn't very romantic to me at all, the whole 'Logan has great hair' thing was also.. um, that? The "Hi." "Hi." in the episode where Logan visits SH set me off too. And I'm 100% biased when I say all this as it felt like they almost ripped off Literati with that and the hair thing. There I said it, I'm sorry.

Rory's character was particularly strange too because I've noticed before that I always found her love for Logan frankly strange/obsessive but s7 had a really big goal to make her life pretty much revolve around him. I mean, I'm pretty sure at one of the Friday Night Dinners, Emily actually asked her what her summer plans are and she responded that Logan was gone so.. Yeah, I dunno. As well as her jealousy over that woman that worked with Logan at that dinner (Which was another part that I didn't really like b/c Logan pulled the same thing he did back in s5!)

CHRISTOPHER AND LORELAI, WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT- I can't even wrap my head around how much that ticked me off. I just couldn't believe it too.

Anna Nardini. Need I say more? :|

Marty just disappointed me so much as well. So much for that friendship Rory had.

Those are just what I immediately thought of off the top of my head. I promise, I did enjoy certain parts too!

Pros:

Luke in Dad mode. Look, I understand completely how much the April storyline could bug people and to be honest, it bugged me too since it was so clearly used to split up Lorelai and Luke but I actually don't hate April as a character. I think she's pretty good and her interactions with Luke were rather cute.

Lorelai's letter to help Luke was EVERYTHING. I genuinely enjoyed it, and the way the scene was shot as well where it was read out loud then it panned to Chris reading it as well with Lorelai's voice. Ah, just so good.

The final episode was done wonderfully, regardless of what the writers may have done, they did know how to tie the show up nicely.

(Just because I'm a bitter emo person, the moment Rory and Logan split was also kinda relieving BUT it's not something I'd officially add to the pros b/c the other side of me really did not care. Christopher and Lorelai could be added to that category as well.)

There's probably more that I add to this but yeah, these are my thoughts. I totally entered rant mode, sorry but yeah my general thoughts! Thank you so much for the ask, it was nice to actually get these thoughts and feelings out.