#Like there are just random scenes that made zero sense other then that they wanted to have a shocking viral trailer

[insertcoolnameherethanks]

My friends complaining about Gemma having "zero emotional capacity" my man, she has emotional capacity she's just neurodivergent stfu

[wildernezz]

dead poets society scene that cannot be slept on any longer (im just rambling and analyzing the sillies and pretending to be smart. also spoilers loll)

I GET THAT THE DEAD POETS SOCIETY BARELY HAS A FANDOM BUT WHY DOES EVERYONE SLEEP ON THE PUNCH SCENE WITH CHARLIE AND CAMERON?? IT'S GENUINELY SO WELL WRITTEN AND PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST DIALOGUE SCENES I'VE SEEN IN FILM??? HELLO?????

every single actor in this scene does such an amazing job. they genuinely all feel like such real and complex characters it's insane.

i don't care if you hate cameron's character but you cannot deny that his scene was amazingly pathetic. his actor did such a perfect job at portraying him almost like a rat backed into a corner. he's doing everything he can to save himself, telling himself he's the one in the right, the one with common sense, when he knows he's faking it. all his dominance is such a pathetic lie and it's genuinely impressive to watch it be portrayed so accurately. it is exactly what it's like to watch someone desperately claw for an ounce of respect. cameron was always a desperate character, and the moment he got the chance to drop his friends and come out "higher" than them, it just made him even sadder to watch.

and meanwhile charlie's the perfect example of failed justice and passion being outpoured all at once. he has so much determination and desire to stand up for what he believes, but it's all pouring out at once. he doesn't know how to handle all of it. he knows he's done for but he can't give up for the life of him, and it all comes out in a solid swing to cameron's face. that single punch probably sums up everything about charlie, and honestly everything i love about him as a character. he seems like a menace-y little bastard, but at the end of the day he just genuinely wants to do what he thinks is right. he's fiercely protective of the people he looks up to but he'll never admit it. that little shit has ZERO clue how to handle his emotions rationally and it's honestly respectable. he doesn't know exactly who he is, but his values are so strong that he's unknowingly guided by them. basically he's just a silly little guy and i hope he punches people more often :3

AND TODD THE BELOVED <33 he is so underrated in this scene it's insane. every word feels like it's falling out of him. he's lost his best friend and he's lost all control over himself. it's powerful seeing such quiet and reserved character unwillingly transform into everything they've been trying to keep down. i will forever be in love with how his character completely breaks down after neil's death. this is kinda just me projecting but he fr feels like a representation of all of my own thoughts when breaking down, except he's actually voicing them. todd supremacy for-fucking-ever.

THE OTHERS ARE ALSO SPECIAL TOO BUT THEY DONT GET A LOTTA LINES FOR ME TO ESPECIALLY ANALYZE SO IM JUST GONNA ADD RANDOM TIDBITS OF THE OTHERS HERE.

i absolutely adore how knox acts in this scene. especially his lines of "don't touch him charlie, you do and you're out," and then for that to be followed by "you don't know that" after charlie's little "i'm out anyway"?????? knox's entire personality in this movie might be about trying to rizz up girls (and it's a little concerning now but it was a different time guys please he's silly guys i swear), but he's honestly SOO sweet when he's not focused on that. he's just as protective of his friends and it's so nice seeing him be the voice of reason. like did u guys not see how quickly he reached for charlie when he was about to kick cameron's ass????? he genuinely wants the best for his friends and he knows them well enough to try and stop them from doing any irrational shit (even tho it failed later but shshsh). love knox for that.

meeks and pitts don't say anything in this scene, but their looks alone give off so much. you can just SEE how much meeks feels betrayed by cameron, and then pitts looks like he's still trying to process the fact that cameron would even do something like that. it's honestly so sad but god it's so amazing to watch.

anyways thank u for coming to my ted talk plspls ask me about films or drop ur random analyzations to me im so desperate to analyze my favorite little guys :33

[pencil-peach]

G Witch Onscreen Text: Episode 19

Haku Haku ! It is once again time! This is part 20 of my series where I transcribe and discuss the onscreen text of G Witch, as well as talk about and analyze interesting things episode by episode. We're on Episode 19: "Not the Best Way."

<< Click here to return to Episode 18 Or Click here to return to the Masterpost

We're going back to Earth...

We open the episode on a conversation between Guel and Miorine. Miorine comments on how close they are to earth, and Guel responds, "You've always wanted to go there, right?" (Left)

It could be read that Notrette might have been Earthian, which is one of the reasons why Miorine wanted to go there so badly, to be closer to her mother.

After Kenanji enters and leaves, Miorine asks him, "Don't you hate being back on Earth even more?"

I'm really really fascinated by this line because it means that at some point, Guel and Miorine talked about what happened to him when he was on Earth. How much did he tell her? Does she know about Seethia? Does she know that he killed his father? What I wouldn't give to have seen that conversation.

On the whole, I really enjoy the brief glimpses we get into their post-Asticassia dynamic. It's hard to call them friends exactly, but it's clear their relationship is now built on mutual trust and respect. And despite the seriousness of their circumstances, they can still be silly with each other: Miorine: Are you really the same Guel Jeturk...? Guel: Plus, I can't trust you to handle the negotiations alone. Mio: HA??? What's that supposed to mean?? [Angrily drinks her juice.] Or like in last episode where Guel shows her the schwarzette and she's really angrily like, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME??" and he's like "IT'S NEWS TO ME TOO OKAY!!!"

Like they're silly! It's cute !

Sorry for liking Guel Jeturk it will happen every day forever until I die lol

Look at his gay little pose here. Why is he sitting like that. It's making me so mad look at him.

When Godoy tells Prospera that he's located and verified the source of the Lfrith Models, Prospera comments that she's, "...grateful [he] has so many friends."

I've already talked about how sad I am that we never learn anything about Godoy, considering that he seems to have connections all across space. How did he and Prospera meet, I wonder? How did he become so connected? Is he Earthian? I guess it's just one of those things we'll never know.

Anyway, Prospera tells him that "The wait is over," and to "please proceed with the preparations." Lending further credence that Quiet Zero being completed was never an issue. The only remaining issue to correct was the existence of the Lfriths, and now that it's being taken care of, it can truly begin.

I like that Secelia just actually gives Martin good counseling in this scene but is definitely also just fucking with him. She's a good person but also happens to be a bitch. She's perfect !

As the Benerit Gang take the Permet lift down to the station, we hear over an intercom that in accordance with the "Earth Sphere Biological Protection Act," all passengers entering from beyond the Earth Sphere are required to undergo a biosecurity check. (Left) This isn't the first time we overhear biosafety information over an intercom, as in Episode 2 (Right) we hear a brief glimpse about preventive measures being put in place to stop the infectious spread of a disease known as "SV29." (There's also an anecdote in Cradle Planet where Suletta recieves a vaccination)

It seems that biosafety is a major concern in Ad Stella, which makes sense, spaceborn illnesses must be super scary !

Something to note is that in the next scene, we see a panning shot of a highway, with a visible highway exit sign in front. But unlike many of the other signs in the show, the text on the sign is completely illegible, being made up of random shapes and characters from a handful of languages.

This might have been done to ensure Quinharbor's location remains vague, and isn't grounded within any specific place or country on Earth.

As we drive down the highway, we see some protest signs attached to a chain link fence.

From top to bottom, left to right, these seem to say: (* denotes when I'm making an educated guess) - Down with Spacian oppression - Spacians GO BACK TO SPACE - TAKE YOUR WARS BACK TO SPACE* - NO MORE MS VIOLENCE - Benerit ignores Earthian lives - ENOUGH! END MS VIOLENCE NOW!

The one I want to bring special attention to is the one in the center, partially hidden behind the "Down with Spacian oppression" sign. At first I assumed it was, "Stop TAKING our lives for your own wealth," but when i looked closer I saw that the visible portion of that word is "-CKING." When I tried to assume what word it could be, truth be told I could only come up with:

STOP HACKING OUR LIVES FOR YOUR OWN WEALTH or, STOP FUCKING OUR LIVES FOR YOUR OWN WEALTH

You can decide which one you want to be true.

I really like how Guel is just fucking awful at this whole running a company thing. King you can't just bail on an important negotiation like this no wonder ur company is in freefall.

But that's just the kind of person he is. He's open hearted but short sighted, and doesn't think things through as much as he should. But he's trying, so we can appreciate him anyway (Although to be honest it's probably for the best he wasn't there.)

At the table with the Earthain Negotiators, we can see that there are two empty seats next to Miorine. One of them was meant for Guel, and the other was presumably for Kenanji.

Also, seeing as how it keeps being mentioned but isn't explained specifically, I think it's important to clarify what the doctor means when he talks about "The proxy wars you force onto us through war partitioning."

As best as I understand it, Delling and the Benerit Group have been exercising control over Earth (as well as providing a consistent market for their main export, weapon manufacturing) by instigating and arming conflicts across the planet along carefully partitioned political borders.

If Earthians are constantly fighting amongst themselves, they'll be unable to unite as a people against Spacians. (Remember, an impending interplanetary war is currently a major fear)

Remember what Rajan says to Miorine about Dellings motive: "And yet... even if he could control conflict through war partitioning, he never managed to achieve order [...] there was always some new enemy or rebellion."

It's important not to divorce Delling's motives from his beliefs. When Rajan says "he never managed to achieve order," or, "there was always some new enemy or rebellion," you have to ask yourself what "order" or an "enemy" means to a man who wholeheartedly believes that anyone beneath him should fully and unquestioningly submit to his will.

Quiet Zero only makes sense as a solution to a man who is too arrogant to realize that he is the disease which is causing the symptom. But we're not there yet. Let's continue.

When Norea is having her breakdown, she's drawing this picture before her pencil snaps. At a glance, it's easy to assume that she isn't drawing anything and is just scribbling nonsense, but if you look closely, she was drawing a spider being eaten by a venus flytrap (and then started scribbling over it.)

When 5lan looks through her notebook, we see some more. (Left) We see a more abstracted piece of a decaying mechanical clown head (Although it could be a broken down amusement park ride. The DOF lived near an abandoned water park prior to Plant Quetta), a spider with its prey in a web, and a decaying deer carcass.

(Right) And the landscape that 5lan wanted her to show him

Here we see the truth behind Norea's breakdown. Sophie was the only person who understood her, and now that she's dead, she’s all alone. They were supposed to always be together, but the only way for her to follow Sophie now is to die herself, and she's deathly afraid to die.

Sophie and Norea were opposites in how they coped with the disposability of their lives. Norea was afraid to die, and so she coped with it by drawing the death and decay she was constantly surrounded by. But Sophie coped by taking pride in it. She constantly sought out danger to prove to herself that she was alive. (Like in Episode 12 when she activates Permet Score 4: "My heart is hurting so badly...I can't... breathe... but I'm still alive!") In her mind, fighting for her life was what gave it meaning. She wasn't afraid to die, and in a way, she sought out Ericht so badly because she wanted to find someone strong enough to kill her. (Not in a suicidal way but in a putting it all on the line way.)

Norea pretended she was unafraid too, to keep up with Sophie, but she was always afraid. And now that Sophie is gone, she has nobody left. She has nothing to live for, but is too afraid to die. Her life is somehow even more pointless than it already was.

(Left) The moral of the story is that if you're depressed, the solution is some good soup.

(Right) Agh, I wish so badly we got some supplementary material about Chuchu and Nika. But that's a conversation for later.

When we meet up with Kenanji and Guel, they're talking to Sedo, who mentions that he's an "official refugee designated by the special reconstruction plan." His official description on the G Witch website explains a little more, stating that he "lives in a designated recovery plan area on Earth." It seems that there are consistent zones on the planet dedicated to war and infrastructure recovery.

We learn about the child rearing academy Grassley runs here as well, but we'll talk about that next episode, when it's meaning becomes more relevant. Oh, and, nobody asked but the shirt Guel is wearing here is the second shirt we see him wearing that has holes in it. (The first is the sweatshirt he wears in Episode 16.) So y'know. If you wanted to know.

So, here we learn that Shaddiq's birth name was "Jeru Ogul," and "because of that name, everyone at the Academy called him 'Prince.'"

At first I didn't what Kenanji meant by this at all, but after thinking about it and doing some research, I think I understand it now. He's called "Prince" because "Jeru" is short for "Jerusalem." This pun is actually localized from the original Japanese script too, as his name is not "Jeru" in Japanese, It's "Ieru" (イエル) as in, short for "Ierusaremu" (イェルサレム) (Jerusalem is not spoken with a J sound in Japanese because it's based on the original Hebrew pronunciation of the word, which is yerushalaim)

A remarkable child from Jerusalem? It's not a huge leap from that to calling him "Prince." (It's Jesus. It's a reference to Jesus Christ. Now that you know that you should go back and look at his character and the things he does. You'll be like, ooooohhhh, ohhh my goooodddd)

I think a lot about how Miorine immediately keeps cool and analyzes the situation logically, as opposed to Guel's righteous fury. I also like how Miorine knows Shaddiq well enough to immediately clock exactly how to catch him in the act and where he's keeping Sarius. (She's completely correct about all of it too.) She knows him better than anybody, after all.

As the fated moment begins, Eri activates a data storm around Quinharbor to take control of an Earthian tank. (Left) The error message displayed is:

CONTROL LOCKOUT: Control has been overridden due to effects of data storm space. ERROR CODE: [569]

Later, as Prospera retreats to grab Aerial's canon, we can see Miorine attempt to contact her (Which she quickly declines.) (Right)

TEXT: (Left) CODENAME: SOPHIE PULONE MS: LFRITH UR AFFILIATION: Ochs Earth Corporation

MS: LFRITH UR MODEL NO: EDM-GA-01 HEADHEIGHT: 21.2m WEIGHT: 75.9t BASE MS: GUNDAM LFRITH PRE-PRODUCTION MODEL (Ochs Earth Corporation) CHARACTERISTICS: Combat-specific unit intended for short-decisive combats, its output has been greatly increased even among the combat specific types. MAIN WEAPON: BEAM GATLING GUN / PHASED ARRAY CANON

(Right) CODENAME: NOREA DU NOC MS: LFRITH THORN AFFILIATION: Ochs Earth Corporation

MODEL NO: EDM-GA-02 HEADHEIGHT: 14.4m WEIGHT: 41.2t BASE MS: GUNDAM LFRITH PRE-PRODUCTION MODEL (Ochs Earth Corporation) CHARACTERISTICS: Support type unit intended for wide area control. Long arms and legs stabilize the center of gravity enabling advanced combat maneuvers. MAIN WEAPON: BEAM DIFFUSE GUN / PHASED ARRAY CANON

As Prospera breaks into the bunker holding the Lfriths, she pulls up Pilot data files (Tagged SO-3) on Sophie on Norea. Of critical importance here is that according to these files, "Sophie Pulone" and "Norea Du Noc" are referred to as the girls' codenames, not their real names. (Keep this in mind I'm gonna do a really cool thing next episode you're gonna be like ohh noooo) The girls are also affiliated specifically with Ochs Earth, which was supposed to have been defunct immediately after Vanadis.

Less Important but also worth mentioning is that Base Aerial was running "SYS Ver. E.S," a clever nod to Eri's initials, Ericht Samaya, but rebuild has changed that, instead running "SYS Ver. 2.0"

Also, we never get a clear look at it, but the board Bel and Feng were sitting in front of is labeled "ADJUSTMENT OF GUND PROSTHETIC LEG OPERATION." And seems to be data on a subsequent series of tests regarding the legs movement and calibration.

Okay, so, before we proceed, it's probably a good idea to clarify the current political reveals which are being made here. I think there are a lot of names being thrown around and due to the time constraints of the show, I don't think they were able to explain it as well as it could have been.

If you aren't interested, that's okay, you can just scroll past here, but I think it's important to try and understand it. I'll try and keep it as simple as possible: (This is also as best as I understand it, so ultimately take it with a grain of salt)

____________________________

The Space Assembly League is an administrative organization meant to mediate political problems and maintain peace within space. While the Benerit Group is an exceedingly powerful corporation, it's still a corporation, not a governmental institution. It has to, in theory, answer to the rules and regulations set by the League.

The problem is that the Benerit Group has become TOO powerful. Its reach and influence across space has long eclipsed even the League in terms of political power. At some point after Vanadis, the League's High Council (the people at the top of the organization, to be clear) realized this, and began to formulate a plan that would allow it to eventually suppress, and possibly even break up, the Benerit Group.

But the first issue to overcome was this: The Space Assembly League is a governmental institution, and is beholden to its own regulations. Without probable cause, it would be unable to justifiably interfere with the Benerit Group, who, by its own standards, were not openly violating the law.

So, in order to intervene with the Group, the council realized it needed to secretly contrive a reason to accuse the Group of threatening peace among the fronts, thereby giving the League the probable cause it needs to dissolve it.

(It's important to keep in mind that this plan was being conducted SPECIFICALLY by the League's High Council. By and large, the majority of the Space Assembly League DO NOT KNOW this is happening. Feng and Guston are official investigators FOR the league and discovered the conspiracy themselves during their investigation.)

This is where Ochs Earth comes in. The League obviously could not openly begin funding terrorist organizations, but it COULD secretly fund Ochs Earth, a MS Company that was very openly and publicly obliterated, and that everyone still believes to be defunct. An army of Gundams would be perfect to cause enough conflict to accuse the Group.

But here comes the second issue: How exactly do they plan to pull this off? It would be hard to organize and execute a plan of that scale without some kind of middle man. The League couldn't risk openly communicating with anti-Spacian organizations, it would be too risky.

Which is where Shaddiq comes into play. Whether or not he knew the League's intentions beforehand, he contacted them with his own plans to dissolve the group. He was the bridge that connected the League and Ochs Earth with the Dawn of Fold, and being so closely involved with the Group, he could know exactly when would be best to strike.

This eventually led to the Plant Quetta incident. Though the intention was to assassinate Delling, the unjust (and illegal) retribution of the Group upon Earthians after the fact seemed like the perfect cause needed for the League to act.

But that plan didn't work. Remember, the League is a Spacian Organization. And the unfortunate fact of the matter is that Spacians, by and large, do not care about Earthians. The unjust murder and torture of Earthians was not enough to turn public opinion (even within the league itself) far enough for the League to justify intervening.

So they tried again, with the attack on the school. Shaddiq focused on his side of the plan, working on dissolving the group from the inside by taking advantage of the imminent Presidential race, while the Ochs Earth witches stirred up more violence and discord within the Group, focusing on threatening the lives of Spacians instead, which leads us to where we are now.

____________________________

OKAY. damn. that was long. again, this is as best as I understand it, and I might be off the mark in some regards. Either way, I hope this cleared things up for you at least somewhat! Unless you scrolled past which, in that case, 1000 palms of death.

Here we see the GUND-Bit Canon firing at full output. It's the only time we see it do this, and even then we don't REALLY see it unfortunately. Still though, it should be noted that with one blast the cannon destroyed all the Lfriths in the bunker, and was so powerful it blasted THROUGH the bunker AND the mountain it was stationed in. Utterly terrifying.

But the truly tragic thing about this scene is what Prospera has done, and what that truly means. Think about what her actions have interrupted. It's not just that she's completely ruined the negotiations between Miorine and the Earthians. It's specifically how she managed to bridge that gap. With the GUND Prosthetic Legs.

This meeting was the ideals of Cardo Nabo and GUND finally being realized. GUND technology paving a way to a brighter future, finally bringing Earthians and Spacians together on equal ground. This was the future that GUND was going to save. When Prospera destroys the Lfriths, she calls Ochs Earth "The heinous sinners who trampled on GUND's ideals," but in this very moment, she has done the exact same. For the sake of Eri's future, she even struck down the future her family died trying to protect.

After the event, we see various news outlets covering the event.

Left: (From Extra Orbital Reports) BENERIT GROUP MS FIRE ON HOUSING COMPLEXES OF ANTI-SPACIAN GROUPS, WITH MANY CASUALTIES - WITH NO OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM BENERIT GROUP REGARDING ATTACKS, ITS UNCLEAR WHETHER SITUATION WILL BE RESOLVED

Middle: (From Planetary News Broadcast) [...] when Benerit MS responded to street protest by setting up roadblocks - [...] now turning into urban warfare as anti-Spacian side counterattacks with militarized mobile craft

Right: (Fom INTERPLANETARY NEWS NETWORK) IN RESPONSE TO BENERIT GROUP'S ATTACK, EARTH INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT LEADER DECLARES THEY WILL JOIN FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE - With Benerit forces dispersed as explosions take place throughout the city, fierce fighting develops between the two sides.

It seems like communications have fully broken down. The Earthians are more devoted to their demand for independence as ever. Things are even worse than before. The future has never looked worse.

When Suletta sees the news broadcast, she remembers what Ericht said to her about not being able to cling to either her or their mother anymore, but afterwards, we see a silent shot of her saying something else. It's impossible to know exactly what she's saying, (anime lip flap moment)

But personally, considering the context, and the syllables she's sounding out, to me I think she's saying "gomenasai" (I'm sorry)

And with that dour note, it seems like things can't get any worse. But, well, we all know if things can't get worse, they will.

>> Episode 20: The End of Hope The Masterpost.

[hsrlorefreak]

okay WHAT IS THIS.

(Guardian of the Shoreline: drift bottle V) because i swear that in this game only really important/related text is highlighted gold like that. and this? this is a random daily quest. it didn’t do anything after.

i’m looking at the wiki and it doesn’t say that trailblazer says that line. who is that. because i thought it was just a game mechanic mocking you but that might have actual story significance?

there’s even more if you say you disagree. except only elation gets a repeat, and Aha’s simulated universe appearance is. interesting, considering they’re the only one to realize that they’re not the actual aeons.

not remembrance, but elation.

but back to the not-trailblazer narrating. because you would assume it’s just their thoughts, yeah? like any other game. but we do have that already, and they’re labeled trailblazer.

so who is narrating when it’s not?

right now, without anything else to go by(?), it honestly might be elio.

we have like, zero knowledge of who he is other than that the ipc wants him captured unharmed and alive unlike the rest of the stellaron hunters and that he’s probably a cat. but he could just be controlling it.

but the trailblazer has the option to make references that don’t quite make sense to the other characters, even though herta has been around for quite some time and is a genius (albeit one who loses motivation easily).

and elio is “cursed/blessed” with future sight, but that’s just the ioc’s description of him. the stellaron hunters talk about “his future” and “his script” and if kafka wasn’t lying during her truth and lies game in her companion mission? trailblazer is artificially made. according to blade, who has literally zero reason to lie, trailblazer followed kafka around, before they were left in herta’s space station.

there’s a theory canon idea thing that elio is the cat that was in Scene 47 Jepella Rebellion that was watching, which is great, but hsr is great at making your choices matter but not at the same time.

you get different endings, technically, but the main story will go on (elio’s script) will go on no matter what you do. even if you choose to not go to kafka and blade, they escape the xianzhou luofu anyway.

i don’t think the trailblazer *is* elio, but i think he’s more involved with them than anyone in the story realizes, just because there’s so little information about the stellaron hunters in general, and even less so about elio.

anyway.

is this implying that your dialogue options might actually change what path you go on in future story? that seems really unlikely but like. what if.

trailblazer might recognize elio, if they see him. i know kafka says she’s the only one that trailblazer recognized, they probably won’t see him in penacony, but i do think he’ll show himself not soon, but not like. final boss battle late.

i wonder if elio actually cares about trailblazer at all, since he presumably had hands in their creation.

or not, since he put them in kafka’s care for at least as long as blade’s been with the stellaron hunters.

i really, really hope penacony is cool.

[samasmith23]

The Retconning of Aunt May's death from Amazing Spider-Man #400... aka, screw John Byrne!

Wanna know something else we can criticize John Byrne for aside from his general creepiness and bigotry? He undid Aunt May’s death in the beautifully written Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #400, "The Gift," aka one of the best stories to come out of the entire infamous Clone Saga era.

Like... when Linkara reviewed the Web of Death storyline, one particular complaint he brought up was how all of the all the beautiful & emotional moments between Peter Parker and comatose Aunt May were severely undermined in hindsight due to the later retcon that this wasn't actually May Parker, but instead an highly-skilled actress whom Norman Osborn replaced Aunt May with after her stroke and made resemble Peter's aunt through cloning technology.

And the person who was responsible for this controversial retcon? None other than John Byrne!

Byrne apparently refused to even initiate his divisive 1999 Chapter One and The Next Chapter reboots of the Spider-Man titles unless he was allowed to utilize Aunt May as a member of Peter's supporting cast. Consequently, this meant completely retconning Aunt May's lovely and tragic send-off by J.M. DeMatteis & Mark Bagley in ASM #400, even though that issue was highly regarded and celebrated by even the most hardened detractors of The Clone Saga era as a whole.

And you know what made the retconning of Aunt May's death even more stupid? It directly contradicted Norman Osborn's own recounting of The Clone Saga from his perspective in The Osborn Journal one-shot after he was revealed to be the true mastermind behind the whole saga. Writer & editor Glenn Greenberg specifically made sure to include these passages from Norman's private journals:

-"And as luck would have it, the clone -- Reilly -- learned of May Parker's stroke and returned to New York to be near her during her final days. This saved me the trouble of concocting some elaborate scheme to lure him back to the city."

-"Then the old woman finally died, delivering a major emotional blow to Parker and his wife. My only regret is that I was NOT the cause."

Yup, Greenberg wanted to make sure that DeMatteis' brilliant work from ASM #400 wouldn't be undone by having Norman himself state in his private journals that May's death was strictly due to natural causes instead of another part of his behind-the-scene's manipulations. Which makes sense considering that the entire issue was dedicated to Peter & Aunt May's final days together as she revealed to her nephew that she had always known he was Spider-Man and was deeply proud of him before passing away in her bed right besides Peter, Mary Jane & Aunt Anna, with Peter's final words to his surrogate mother-figure being him quoting his favorite childhood novel Peter Pan to her, telling Aunt May:

"Let go. Fly. 'Second to the right... and straight on until morning.'"

Its honestly one of the most simultaneously heartbreaking & beautiful scenes that I've personally ever read in a comic. The silent panels of Ben Reilly crying to himself on the roof of the house, unable to be by his Aunt's side during her final moments since he's only a clone of her nephew, especially tug at my heartstrings (poor Benjy)! And its an issue that resonates with me even more deeply today than back when I initially read it a few years ago, since I now know what it feels like to lose a dearly beloved relative, with both my paternal grandmother (Nana) and maternal grandfather (Paps) having since passed away.

But then John Byrne decided in his infinite wisdom to screw it all up, ignoring all of that emotional weight and feelings of down-to-Earth loss by not only revealing that the Aunt May Peter watched die was actually just a random actress whom Norman Osborn "genetically modified via the Jackal’s cloning technology" (which again… makes ZERO sense), but that Osborn apparently now lied in his own personal diaries or something?

So yeah, the resurrection of Aunt May by John Byrne during the Spider-Man: The Gathering of Five/The Final Chapter arcs is easily one of the most insulting retcons that I've ever encountered since it spits in the face of one of the most beautifully written single-issues that I've personally ever read (both because of how it personally resonates with me as someone who's lost two grandparents, and because is J.M. DeMatteis is among my Top 5 favorite comic book writers).

But trust me, this is the LEAST of John Byrne's problems, which fellow comic creator Ramon Villalobos made an excellent thread discussing in detail if you want further information:

[hikennosabo]

trimax vol 13 random thoughts (ch 1-4)

ohhhh i can't believe we're almost to the end... i'm so full of anticipation. love to see my boy livio on the cover :)

why does it say THIS on the back cover lol??? vash isn't DEAD as much as he'd like to be :')

i LOVE the pirate-themed joke covers... impeccable timing as i'm (slowly) watching opla this week lol. elendira looks so dashing in her outfit :') the inner illustration with vash and legato is great too, i love it~

chapter 1:

the flashback to legato getting accordion'd... i miss knives's long hair tbh...

wait i'm obsessed with this image of legato. dare i say gender envy

i'm admittedly confused about what's going on in this scene... someone in the tag said vash is using his bullets to block the cannonfire, but i don't know if that's what's happening...? he definitely did not do that when the cannon fired in the previous chapter, and i think the ガガガ sfx are sounds from the cannon firing, not a gun... so why is vash screaming? not like he needs a specific reason to scream in his situation, i'd want to scream too.

legatoooo your silhouette is so striking

i enjoy knives's expression here, it's as if he's saying "i dare you to go ahead and try," lol

it also hurts just a little to see knives like this compared to his current self. him being human-shaped feels like it was so long ago.

he's being so mean and dismissive on purpose but his yawn is so cute :')

this has nothing to do with what's going on, but i wonder if knives can even sleep at all in the state he's in. i don't think he can...

"admire"... i've only ever made jokes about this myself so don't take this too seriously but i wonder why legato x vash is such a rarepair. y'know, the toxic psychosexual obsession type of ship. especially with what happens right after this with legato seeing himself in vash? "recognition of the self through the other" is pretty standard ship fuel...

......although... if the two of them stopped fighting right now and kissed each other instead, i think THAT would shock knives so much just long enough that chronica could successfully blast him with the cannon. boom, fight over, problem solved, roll credits (i'm joking I'M JOKING)

on a more serious note i'm chewing on glass

legato looks at vash and sees a broken man, sees his past self... and laughs in disbelief... as a legato fan i should have more to say about this but. i don't know how to articulate anything besides eating glass

uuuugggghhh i'm laying on the floor. the juxtaposition of how much my heart hurts at this vs me thinking legato's insane expression and little fangs are cute

a silly vash face, a rare sight in this volume...!!! also... ALL the gung-ho guns? i say once again: elendira didn't get a coin. so i ask again: did she refuse to participate because it's legato? or does this mean legato didn't think vash could kill elendira?

also, "kill"... lol. not even all of them are dead, and as for the ones that are, exactly zero of them were killed by vash's hand.

oh this is diabolical. heinous even. that the point of this entire farce was so fucking frivolous is so fitting for him, i love it

chapter 2:

vash is FUCKING PISSED

it's interesting that vash is including razlo and zazie among the "dead" ghg... livio was included at the end of the last chapter too, and he's certainly not dead, except in a metaphorical "my past self is dead" sense... is vash assuming that razlo is gone forever? like how i did until i read this volume?? and i don't think vash even knows what happened to zazie at all...?

speaking of zazie, where are they at? their previous body was killed, but they're a hivemind, they can't die. are the worms just hanging back watching this all unfold?

ohhh boyyy like the 98 anime! (it wasn't in his mouth in the anime though...) hope we get a scene like this in stampede too so we can complete the "vash points his gun at legato's head" trifecta

i've been thinking this for a while, but... there are a lot of differences in each version of trigun, different ways the characters are adapted, but i think legato is pretty much the same in all of them. like, his powers work differently, and things happen or don't happen to him depending on the version, but personality-wise? he's the same guy at his core, i think the most "the same" out of all the other characters. that core being he is A Freak

also i don't know exactly what legato is doing in this next sequence of pages so i'm going to imagine he's hulking out because it just takes that much effort to simultaneously maneuver to summon his iron maiden and keep vash's gun in his mouth.

and then we cut to what has become my MOST ANTICIPATED FIGHT OF THIS ENTIRE STORY!!! YEAHHHH!!!

she doesn't seem surprised so much as mildly bemused, lol

she appeared suddenly behind him last volume, now it's livio's turn to suddenly appear behind her. heheheh

i ADORE their back-and-forth so much. like, a fight between 1. two of the strongest characters, 2. who also happen to be some of my favorites, 3. AND they have absolutely fantastic banter?! what more can i ask for!!!

i am in love with both of them

i'm in tears. he has no business being this cute while also pulling off such a cool move.

chapter 3:

ohhhh, so legato uses his iron maiden by swinging her around. what is this kind of weapon called... a mace? *googles* no, a mace is attached to a stick, this is actually called a flail. i see.

why does he lick vash's blood off the floor HSDLKFJDS?!?!?! i forgot how long his tongue is... god, he is such a freak (affectionate)

he can carry her over his shoulder with no problem, kick her like a soccer ball with no problem... also he's so leggy... (leg... ato...)

oh, sweetie, absolutely not.

legato's relationships are all pretty one-sided, aren't they? his relationship with knives goes without saying, but he's got a one-sided obsession with fighting vash, a rivalry that's all in his own head which vash does not reciprocate. and his relationship with elendira is one-sided the other way around in that he's the one ignoring HER goading... lol.

thinking back, vash went from "from now on, i'm hunting you!" to really wanting to avoid fighting legato for as long as possible...

OH, THE FLAIL ALSO HAS GUNS IN IT. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DOES. HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?! (the answer is it works because it's cool, obviously!)

livio is so CUTE!!!! he's so cute, i'm actually going to cry. if i included every cute livio panel in this post i would hit the image limit so fast.

i will post this one though because i also love how PISSED elendira is, it's so funny.

ugh, he's so cute, he's so cute, he's so cute!!!!! i can't get over how cute he is!!!!! getting a morale boost from his clothes... he's such a sweetie. head in hands. i feel like i'm going to explode from a cuteness overdose.

chapter 4:

ELENDIRA'S ROCK-LEE-DROPPING-THE-WEIGHTS MOMENT LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOO!!!!!!

i am in love with both of them.

there's the number thirteen again...

it's kinda... i dunno. sad? that the earth fleet has more knowledge of what's going on than the people who actually live here...

well. one of those things isn't true anymore. :')

also, what do you mean "for some reason"?! was the tradeoff for all those fancy advances in technology the entire earth's stock of hair gel?!

LEGato...

that... sure is a lot of bullet casings... and oh... his coat is black now... like the title of the chapter... and like at the end of stampede... i see...

i think this is the most normal-looking smile i've ever seen from legato. he actually looks more handsome than insane (but still pretty insane)

WAIT, WAIT, PAUSE THE FIGHT, PAUSE THE STORY, WHO ARE THE OTHER TWO PEOPLE. TELL ME ABOUT THOSE FIGHTS PLEASE

AAAHHH!!!! THE RETURN OF!!!! OUR BOY RAZLO!!!!!! YEEEEAAAHHHH!!!!! i was honestly so sad and lowkey disappointed when i thought he was gone permanently because i ended up liking him a lot LOL i'm SO glad he's back!!!!

and with that i will end this post, to be continued in part 2...

[juhbebbie]

Shadow and Bone cancelation is not at all surprising (I was literally talking to my roommate about the show the other day and I said there's no way we're getting another season) but seeing it confirmed still sucks. The literal ideal cast got screwed over by some terrible writing decisions. Either that, or they already knew they wouldn't be getting another season, which is why season 2 was... like that

I do think it's a combination of both. They knew people cared more about the crows so they tried to have scenes from the books in there, as well as try to wrap up the Grisha trilogy asap. At the same time, with Netflix's track record they probably knew chances of a renewal were slim. But I can't help but wonder if they shot themselves in the foot by trying to fit as much as they did into this season, causing it to get a lukewarm reception and kinda ruining any chance of it getting renewed again. Like don't get me wrong, if it's between getting the odd, kinda lame versions of the crooked kingdom scenes put in there or no crooked kingdom seasons at all, I prefer what we got. (Trying to give the showrunners/writers the benefit of the doubt here😭)

But there is NO EXCUSE for what they did to my boy Matthias. If they knew (or were at least sure enough) that season 2 would be their last, WHY WOULD THEY LOCK HIM UP AND THEN FORGET ABOUT HIM FOR THE WHOLE SEASON. WHY DID THEY SEND THE CROWS ON RANDOM SIDEQUESTS THAT MADE NO SENSE. In season one the way they fit them in felt very natural. We knew what their stake in this was. In season two they literally went on a whole ass world tour and still managed to find time for a tragic backstory acid trip, all for a sword that got used like once

I wish they had just committed to going one way or the other. If this is our last season, let's give the fans what they want and make sure all the crows are together. Let's not change the nice ending that Alina and Mal got and separate them again and then do a cliffhanger so we can keep Alina around for longer (which I would've been cool with honestly, I love Jessie Mei lee)

Or, let's try really hard to make this as good as possible so we get another season. Sure, okay, combining siege and storm and ruin and rising is fine, although I would have happily watched a third season with Harshaw and his cat. Let's give the crows something worthwhile to do, even if it isn't directly related to the grisha trilogy storyline. Maybe set up the status quo we have at the beginning of six of crows. Have Matthias hellgate scenes but yknow. Don't jump the gun by putting some of the most emotional scenes in with exactly zero of the lead up, making them kinda fall flat. Build up that tension so that fans are even more anxious for another season or spinoff.

But don't land somewhere in the middle where you expect this season to be the last but still write most of it like there's gonna be another. I would assume they wrote that cliffhanger to leave the door open for a plot just in case it did get renewed, but by that point all the other, much more preferrable doors had been closed shut

[cyb-by-lang]

Uhhh, so, my take on Tailed Beast!Kei & Human!Isobu

[First of all, I don't usually use this site so I wasn't sure where I could like, send this to you so I hope this was the correct decision xd.]

[[Also, this is a work in progress I guess, cuz they're just some ideas that I got while rereading CYB.]]

[[[Also, also, I was racking my brain thinking of a way for Kakashi to possibly fall in love with a non corporeal, chakra-made entity like Kei and the answer was that Kei and Isobu could "exchange control" of Isobu's body like that one scene with The Dreamer.]]]

One last thing, English is not my first language, is spanish, so if some things don't make a lot of sense it could be either my sleep deprived brain or my Spanish rearing its head when I don't want it to.

Kei would be the Three tails, then.

She would probably bicker as much with Kurama as Isobu does in CYB.

While Isobu has amber eyes, when Kei takes control of the body, the eyes change to rings of black on gold.

Isobu and Kei exchange control kinda frequently, since Isobu wants Kei to experience the outside world more and feels apologetic for the Tailed Beasts getting their freedom removed against their will.

Which means Isobu and Kei scare a lot of people in different power echelons.

Since Isobu changes with Kei a lot, they make a system. Kei gets to control de body when (1) Isobu is too tired of other people's bullshit, (2) when he literally throws the control at Kei when he does something arguably against the law, or (3) he gets too hurt in missions and gets unconscious, letting Kei to do damage control of the situations.

Kakashi probably falls in love with Kei in the little moments that she gets the control, obviously after freaking the fuck out the first time.

Since everything is the same, Isobu would be Gēkko Isobu, teammate of Uchiha Obito and Hatake Kakashi, student of the Fourth.

Isobu would give zero fucks about everyone's opinions except those of his family, Kei and later his teammates and Sensei.

His childhood and life in general would be of a normal human being sans the memories of past lives. Kei would be the reincarnated human in Tailed Beast form, but the thing is she's lived all the time in the Three Tails form since the "birth" from the Ten Tails via Sage of the Six Paths. She couldn't change anything because her memories where spotty at best after the reincarnation (there weren't more that vague feelings of random human knowledge and her warped sense of self, where she knew she recognized herself as a female, and that her personality was a little more "human" than the rest of her siblings) (also, what could a Tailed Beast do in human society in order to change the plot?), so she lived the first centuries like a normal Tailed Beast. Only after getting trapped by the First Hokage and handed to whatever nation it was in canon, is that her memories return at full force.

But even after that, the only thing that would change after having a human body the first time around is her desire to change the plot (since she doesn't want to get brainwashed with Yagura by Tobi, and then getting reincorporated in the Ten Tails), the longing for freedom being doubled, and keeping her little human safe.

Meaning, the Tailed Beast side of her personality takes precedence over her human memories.

She's also... Opinionated.

Cuz even if she gets some human things, she also sees everything through a Beast lense.

Also, live commentary on Isobu's head.

They (Isoby&Kei) probably see each other as something like siblings.

The Fourth (or Third, I can't remember the timeline, help) probably prohibited Isobu of letting Kei take control of his body so easily, but eventually desists since, again, he doesn't give a fuck and "really, Sensei, if Kei wanted to level Konoha to bits she would've done that since getting inside my body. She had the courtesy of holding her chakra back when she was getting slapped in my chest and then when the Control Seal was trying to get a hold of our conscious."

At first the exchange wouldn't be possible since the seal was too tight for it, but with some help (and some threats on the line of "if you don't help me, I'm just going to experiment with myself") they manage.

The first couple of times are really short burst of consciousness since the body wouldn't handle the strain of holding a large being such as a Tailed Beast and something something, chakra exhaustion.

Then it gets easy because something something, compatibility.

Kei has the advantage of already have been a human being before, so the first times she got to control the body after a mission gone wrong and Isobu wanted to rest in their shared space, she tries her best to mimic Isobu's behavior and tics, but the eyes and the fact that her chakra was being concealed the entire time she was fronting gave her away pretty quickly.

Isobu then wakes up in a T&I cell lmao.

Then the incident gets resolved and everyone stops freaking the fuck out.

Overprotective of her siblings. If Kei with only Hayate had overbearing tendencies, with other eight siblings it's worse.

She remembers very clearly the way all of them got caught by the Akatsuki, so one of the first conditions on the deal with Isobu on not destroying Konoha the moment she gets control of the body is making sure all her siblings get a decent treatment by their Jinchuuriki and the village they're in.

Um, that's all I have so far. I really enjoyed this fic, and I sometimes still think about it. 

[talkin-tdc]

Ranting about my favorite character XD

I love Ordon…but I need to rant about him a bit

Ordon is quite frankly one of my favorite characters, I love what he does with Rian and their cute interactions after he turns good and all that…but that’s why I wanted him to survive and why I have to fault him for all his DUMB moves!! (Also I get that the gelfling aren’t supposed to be the brightest or some suspicious, so just take this in good fun as an outsider looking in/advice I would’ve given him if I could).

I’m not going to fault him for putting Tolyn in charge because honestly that was one of his few good choices. He’s fiercely loyal to the lords and the crystal which is what he was supposed to be so while yes Tolyn sucks and he basically killed the guard, can’t blame Ordon for that one in a good conscience…

You know what I CAN blame him for though? His complete lack of awareness in the carriage scene! Like, dude, you are the head of security! The Captain of the crystal guard and you let some rando maiden who looks to be a princess (but you don’t know for sure because she could be lying) into the lord’s carriage?! And people might be thinking ‘Oh, but SkekOk insisted’ and yeah he did but would it have killed Ordon to at least try to be more vigilant? Like do a pat down or question her to validate her claims or something? Have her empty her pockets? No? Nothing before he lets a random girl on the street into the carriage of the lords of the crystal?! She could’ve had a knife, or poison, or a million other things and he doesn’t even bother to check. It didn’t even seem like he knew her or had met her before evidence by the fact that he referred to her as “girl”. Yet he lets her in without even asking her name if something bad potentially happened, just trusts that the crowd says she’s a princess.

Next up for stupid decisions is the decision to not talk to Gurjin or get any tangible proof while he was at the castle that Rian killed Mira. I mean I know most people can write this one off, but honestly this is the most heinous in my opinion. Like he doesn’t even see her body, heinous. Let me say that again for the people in the back ahem HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW FOR A FACT THAT SHE WAS DEAD!! You couldn’t even be bothered to ask about the body? Like ‘hey can I see her stab wounds to know if a gelfling really killed her?’ Not even that?!?! She could’ve been kidnapped for all he knew! She could’ve still been alive marking Rian innocent, but nooo we can’t have common sense can we? And not even trying to talk to Gurjin? Come on! He’d be far more likely to admit to you than anyone if your son really did commit a crime. He didn’t even check to see if Gurjin had the sickness that Rian had. He surely needed to prepare himself for the journey to find Rian, he couldn’t have swung by just to try to investigate? Couldn’t have asked Tolyn to investigate and make sure Gurjin was actually sick or showed any signs of sickness before you left?! It’s like he wants to believe Rian’s a murderer and was sick to protect his own reputation, that is not the thing to be worried about in that scenario!

Finally we come to his stupidest decision yet, going with Rian to Ha’rar. While yes there were a lot of emotions after the dreamfast and obviously that clouded everyone’s judgment, it made absolutely zero sense to go there together. Why not hmmm I don’t know have the all maudra’s daughter go with him instead of the gelfling who is said father of the accused murderer? Like Tavra could get an audience with Mayrin way faster than Ordon could. Plus she’s a third party without Ordon’s bias. I’m also sure it’d be just a little bit easier to get Gurjin out of the cells or try to save the guard or figure out more information on the Skeksis if he went instead of Tavra. Plus while running in the forest, Ordon stated he had knowledge of more of the Skeksis wrong doings, so it also could’ve made more sense if he had spoken to Maudra Fara about their info and convince her earlier that something was up.

Anyway yeah, rant over. I love him as a character but his choices could’ve been better for survival. I really wish he could’ve survived for season two if that had ended up happening but it is what it is. Let me know your thoughts on him as a character!

[alarrytale]

This new tattoo thing with Harry is a second blow after similar shame and doubt I’ve had around Louis. A few weeks ago, i tried explaining babygate to a new friend. All of it. The foreshadowing, SBB and RBB, the inconsistent pregnancy and birth timelines, ignoring Freddie for years until suddenly bringing him back, but they zeroed in on how the stunt is a character assassination of Louis, or rather my explanation of it. They pointed out how many times i said “but he would never do that” and how many inconsistencies relied on fans “knowing how the real him.” That all the inconsistencies and odd behavior are only weird if you assume Louis is a good and moral person who would be a picture perfect dad. The way my friend sees him, he’s just a random celebrity they don’t know who maybe isn’t the most present parent, and that, to them, makes a lot more sense than a good guy pretending to be a bad dad who only spends time with a pretend kid to put him in questionable situations in order to convince a small fan base he isn’t gay. All the stuff i brought up about how genuine he is with fans compared to Freddie was countered with videos of other celebrities known to be terrible people also being nice to fans for the camera. They gave examples of musicians who wrote beautiful lyrics while abusing their families behind the scenes. I don’t think Louis is an abuser and neither does my friend, but that discussion has made me question my own biases as a fan. Have they been complicit in stunts this whole time and I’ve just been assuming they didn’t have a choice because i want to see them as innocent? Even if he’s been forced into the Freddie situation, he’s still the one the stunt is for and therefor somewhat responsible. Maybe those sweet boys devoted to love and lifting up the lives of their fans that i fell in love with was just another marketing scheme that i fell for. I’m sorry this is ramble and we’ve moved on but I’ve been working up the courage to ask this and you seem like someone who won’t get mad at me for doubting.

Hi, anon!

Well, ultimately it kind of does depend on what kind of person you believe Louis to be. But also how much his image is controlled, and who's controlling it.

Let me sort it all a bit for you. Here is your options:

Louis is a good person vs not. Aka not just good when there is cameras around. I think there are enough evidence from people bts and from others, and what i see with my own two eyes, that he is a good person.

Louis is gay vs not. If he's gay then bg would never happen. I believe there's plenty of evidence of him being gay.

Louis is with Harry or not. If he's with Harry then he would never have slept with B. I obviously think he's with Harry and that there are a looooot of evidence supporting it.

The kid is Louis' or it's not. B was never pregnant and the kid looks like the Clarks.

Louis behaviour around babies and kids vs Louis around Freddie. He is really good with kids, as we've seen. He's excellent with his own siblings. They adore him. Shouldn't it be the same with F? His tone is flat when speaking of him and he sounds like he doesn’t know any of his interests etc. He's also an absent dad.

Good guy pretending to be a bad dad vs. Bad guy just being a bad dad but pretending to be a good dad. Louis is the son of an absentee father. Do you believe he'd do the same to his own son? If he had a kid with Harry, do you believe he'd treat them as bad as he's done F?

Being forced into it by people controlling his image (hide the gay, tarnish his image and perhaps help closet Harry) vs choosing to closet himself. Bg isn't just closeting it's taking advantage of a kid. There are other ways to closet himself. Make a sex tape. Or create a womaniser image like they did with Harry. Why would he tie himself to that family like that?

And to your 'he's the one the stunt is for so he's still somewhat responsible'. Yes, it's his image they are using, but if he's contractually obligated to (a contract he signed ar 18 to be in 1D) and is resisting, and not cooperating more than neccessary, then at least i struggle to blame him for that. Aka good person pretending to be a bad dad. He isn't the bad guy here. He's damned if he do and damned if he don't. If he's resisting he looks like a bad dad. If he's playing along his 90 per cent larrie fanbase will riot and not buy his shit. He'd also be lying more and also dragging the kid along more. So he's doing a bit of both to try to balance everything.

If you sort out all of the options above i think you'll see that Louis is a good person in a situation where he's a bit fucked either way he behaves. The kid is not his, so it's a stunt. Stunts suck.

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure 02 (manhua) - Vol. 1

Eurgh...I think this one is even worse than the first series. However, it is mercifully short (2 volumes), so at least it will be over quick. I think copies of this manhua in English are kind of a rare commodity so I'm just reading scans.

Ch. 1

-Back at it with the rushed adaptations as illustrated by Yuen Wong Yu. So far, the art in this is looking pretty good, but the writing is a mess, just like the previous series.

-This was a super condensed intro to 02. Veemon, Hawkmon, and Armadimon are all introduced simultaneously and the 01 kids don't even attempt to hide the Digiworld from the 02 kids. It bugged me that when Daisuke got his digivice he was like "so this means...!" How does he know what anything means?? He just got sucked into a computer with zero context.

-Charmingly lame translation. Daisuke says stuff like "mad skillz" and "dag yo." Honestly, he would. Sooo funny how they kinda-sorta incorporated the Japanese names. "I'm Daisuke, but my friends call me Davis." That's like saying "I'm Maxine, but my friends call me Meredith!" Just...a completely different name lol. (Then again, I guess East Asian people do choose "American" names, so maybe it's not so crazy).

Ch. 2

-I really wonder about the production of this manhua. 01 was 5 volumes, but for 02 we only get 2. The writer/artist must have known from the start that they would only get 2 volumes because of how blisteringly fast the pace is. Was this based on bad sales for the first manhua? Or maybe the fact that the second season of the anime wasn't as popular?

-This chapter starts with Koushiro saying "I found out why digivolution isn't working," but we never had a scene showing digivolution not working lol. We also see all of the armor digivolutions in this chapter...without any chapters of those getting introduced. So yeah, this is another adaptation that assumes you've seen the show so they skip all the exposition that would be helpful to a newcomer.

-Daisuke said "wiggedy wack"

Ch. 3

-Lol at Koushiro calling the 02 gang "kids" when he's like 2 years older than them. Middle schoolers do be like that tho...

-They just threw all the new digimon armor evolutions together in a way that I thought didn't really make sense. They find the digimentals and can't lift them up, but then later in the same chapter the digimentals just fly over to the kids and work? Why couldn't they pick them up the first time? Were the vibes off or something?

-I was sad to see they cut out the part where they make fun of Ken for calling himself the Digimon Emperor/Kaiser. I did enjoy Iori's "how does he do that with his hair?" bit tho lol

Ch. 4

-Wow, this one was laughably bad. Somehow we're already on Ken's redemption arc. The instant after Wormmon's sacrifice Taichi appears literally out of nowhere (he wasn't in the previous scenes at ALL) to be like "guys it's okay, Ken's brother died." WTF? How did he know that and where did he come from?? Clunkiest exposition ever. They could have at least thrown in a separate "Ken backstory" chapter to make this go down a lot smoother.

-Daisuke literally says "Dag. This thing got the bling bling" when he finds the miracle digimental loool. Why.

Ch. 5

-In horrible 90s/2000s slang news, in this chapter Daisuke calls Veemon "boo," randomly shouts "Extreme!" and says "that's straight." (I don't even remember that last one being a thing).

-I liked how they drew Stingmon. His face is a little more Wormmon-like than it was in the anime. I always prefer it when digivolutions bare a resemblance to their earlier forms instead of being totally random.

Ch. 6

-In this chapter, Daisuke calls Ken "homeslice." He's the only one they made talk "street" (or whatever you want to call it). The other characters are just like "Wtf?" lol. Of course, I'm sure none of this was in the original Chinese.

-Not gonna lie, going through this again is just reminding me how dull 02's story is :/ I think they kept presenting questions "who is this mysterious lady??" but then the answers we eventually got were underwhelming, so you were left feeling like "what was the point...?"

Ch. 7

-They mention the dark ocean, but it's completely without context because they didn't bother to adapt that episode lol. So much of this manga is out of context in general and would be a nightmare to read without prior knowledge.

-Weirdo dialogue when Hikari saves Miyako from falling off a cliff and says "I believe in you!" and Miyako's reaction is "wow! That was really nice, thank you!" As if Hikari was mean to her before...? Just awkward.

Onto the next! I bet it will be just as underwhelming (especially since the 2nd half of 02 isn't that great in the first place).

[leheckajiri]

okay I have way too many thoughts about sab season 2 so here goes *deep breath*

on the "main storyline" side: as someone who hasn't read the sab books but has read soc duology, I rlly liked alina's storyline this season and thought it was decently paced for how few episodes there were. i loved mal and nikolai being friends and not having a random awful love triangle and that alina didn't love nikolai except for platonically! made sense.

baghra kicked ass and ben was again amazing as the d*rkling. loved seeing alinas struggle and his side even though i hate him, because we got to see genya. (SIDE NOTE GENYADAVID WRECKED ME.)

mal being sturmhond was actually a nice twist imo. the twins ROCK and i love tamar and nadia sm. adrik too he's so cute.

on the crows side: even though i adore the crows (and there were zero faults with the cast's performances, as usual), i found myself a little disappointed with some of the writing. some decisions to put book scenes in early made sense (MORE SENSE THAN SOME OF YOU WILL GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR, considering they want to feed us crumbs IF the show gets cancelled), but generally it was disorienting to see the ck plotline, or at least part of it.

i think that the one great thing abt the ck plotline is that it opens up new implications for matthias and pekka's motives, both towards each other and towards kaz, and i love that idea. it's something i'm the most excited for, honestly.

kaz's backstory was well-done and well-acted by jordie, young kaz, and current kaz! freddy continues to be an absolute superstar and one of my favorites in the cast. one thing about kaz, tho: i HATED that the dregs weren't already his crew...like girl who tf is running the crow club. kaz is older in this iteration but not by THAT MUCH...anyways i do think it'll provide basis for the big bolliger/not trusting kaz scene at the beginning of the real soc plot but i still didn't like it.

the other major thing i hated was how rushed wesper was (this one is pretty obvious), but let me also volunteer this: it made sense. of the crows, they have the least traumatic relationship (even tho they have personal traumas yk), and because we can't guarantee that the show will get a spinoff, SOMEONE has to end up happy. thus, no slow burn. annoyed about it, but it's not unreasonable + i adore jack and kit together.

kaNEJ THIS SEASON OMG. the scene in the chapel at the end of the season...wow. i thought it was superbly done and made sense in the storyline of the show, despite being from the books. yes, they had some slightly rushed moments, but again, no guarantees for another season. also this means they're probably planning even more development for a spinoff!!

helnik...cal and dani blow me away even when they're not together?? how do they do that?? amazing. i loved the tension; it was just like the books.

jesper's powers becoming stronger after he hallucinates aditi were a nice touch imo. when colm comes around he'll have to reckon with himself even more now, so that's actually interesting + good setup. he was amazing in episode seven!!!

INEJ SAVING ALINA AGAIN. the implications it has for her religious beliefs are so wow. also, her looking for slavers with sturmhond (MAL!) and the crew is great bc we'll see her again, but it also gives her a minor amount of closure. not full closure, but enough to keep fans wanting to see her again.

on a general note: my favorite episodes were five and seven. i thought five did character interactions super well (specifically nina/kaz and kanej), and seven brought the characters from both storylines together in a way that was, imo, better than last season. also, in episode eight: ALINA USING THE DARK CUT ON THE PAREM SOLDIER?? WOWOWOWW I LOVE THAT I'M SO EXCITED. people will be mad kaz knew about parem before van eck told him but my guess is that the van eck kidnapping stuff DID happen and we just didn't see it yet (wait for spinoff!!)

i'll definitely have to write more posts as it settles in, but yeah...that's the gist of it lol. basically: i will always be a show defender, even if there's clumsy writing and some hamfisting!! i love that damn show!! i am really excited to see them again (praying for a spinoff) and i loved the way the season ended tbh.

[winderlylandchime]

At this point you are all in this with me and i am officially making this man everyone’s problem. He came into my home office while i was on zoom and asked for a pen and paper only to later find out that he made one of those mind maps. It’s about Britin and there’s bunch of arrows about what all he thinks could happen in the future seasons, to how Britin is connected and there’s a section for Ethan and everything. He then gave me a 10 minute presentation while I took a break. It made zero sense but he swears it does. I wish I could send you all a picture of it cause one arrow that leads out of the middle (which he named ‘beautiful bastards’) is just called ‘what the actual fuck is going on’ and under it, it says ‘idk bro, we need more context.’

The summery of his presentation that was interrupted by his alarm for pills and him going ‘for fucks sake i cant have a minute with my thoughts anymore!’ (I fear he has had too many minutes with his thoughts) was basically: Britin is connected, he doesnt know how BUT(!) they are stuck together forever even if it all goes to hell. Which he says won’t happen bc their connection is too big and no type of idiot would ever fuck this up. (Can you tell how hard it’s to keep a poker face?) Justin is linked to Brian and Ethan and also for some reason Ted(?) he has yet to make sense of that one but he swore that once he makes sense of it, it’s gonna blow my mind. Ted and brian are also linked with dotted line and he said and i quote ‘it has some weird potential cause i like how he calls him Bri like me’ only other person linked is Daphne (she is also dotted linked to Brian bc he likes them together and thinks they could be besties IF daph doesn’t disappoint him with Ethan. He thinks she will help Brian win Justin back) now here are his theories of what could happen: -he thinks that to get back together they should be put in a situation where Justin has to pretend to be Brian and Brian would be Justin (he watched an ep of White Collar where they did something similar so he got inspired but in his words he ‘made it gay’) the gay part is: role reverse sugar daddy/Justin would be forced to spend Brians money on Brian (this made me laugh bc of you) and somehow that would lead to them fucking -justin hits michael bc he still kinda hates him and he needs it to happen BUT he wants mikey to hit Justin back for Brian (since he can’t do it) which leads to Britin making up -justin breaks up with ethan bc of his ugly facial hair -justin and brian cheat together on ethan, he hates cheating but is willing to look the other way for them -brian hits ethan bc he hates his smug face and he wants Brian to hit someone -brian wins back justin and i quote ‘bri and i have yet to decide if we are okay with this one tho cause Bri is more than a consolation prize’ And for the Ethan points: there are only 4 thing’s written under his name: -i hate him, -he has a dumb goatee that makes no sense, like how does he shave that?(this was an entire 5 min long rant), -he’s not even good at playing that fucking ukulele -i hate how he talks when he says french stuff

My new favorite bit of his is the refusal to acknowledge that Ethan plays violin. Yesterday he told our mom that he plays the triangle. And i feel like it’s only right for you to know that: 1)he taped this paper on the wall next to the tv (it is an empty wall and then just a random piece of paper in the middle of it and that is all..) and 2) he did ALL this before 9 am.

I was going to send you this after we’d get back from the doctor later today but I am literally writing this while “working” cause he came back in the room to get more markers without saying a word and i am just hoping i don’t find any more papers taped on my wall when I get out of this meeting.

We welcome this man as all our problem. He’s got people going back and rewatching Ethan scenes to see if his theory that Justin’s artwork was an image of Britin. We are all in this together.

He’s gone full conspiracy theory. Too many minutes with his thoughts is right. I’m dying.

But also his theories are not entirely wrong - Randy and Scott have said they thought Justin and Ted would get along. And of course we know that Brian hires Ted for Kinnetik and they become bros. And Daphne is Britin’s biggest shipper. She DOES help them get back together. And there is hitting with Michael involved over Justin. And there is cheating involved in Justin and Ethan breaking up. He is not wrong, anon, is the point.

Cracking up about the reverse sugar daddy situation.

Dyinggg over refusing to say he plays the violin. Kind of how his beloved Bri Bri refuses to call Ethan by his name.

I’m sorry your wall has been defaced with this conspiracy theory map. But also impressed.

[anghraine]

Jyn and Cassian?

Hah, I got this right before queuing a Jyn/Cassian gifset, and I was just slightly revising (>_>) a chapter of Jyn/Cassian fic. I do indeed ship it.

1- What made you ship it?

It sounded like my kind of thing from before the movie even came out, but the reality of the tension between them, the underlying (and later overlying!) rapport, and the mixture of very profound, mirrored(heh) similarities/parallels with high-contrast oppositions is pure distilled brain candy for me. They overreact very quickly given the circumstances (they both jeopardize themselves for each other in situations where there is zero practical need to!), which is always fun, and they're always drawing physically near to each other (there's the justly beloved elevator scene, though the circling and leaning in the "welcome home" scene is my personal favorite), which is also extremely fun. :D

There's the whole concept of them as people who have been denied homes by the Empire and find it in each other, without rejection of the very important allegiances and ties they do have. And they're very pretty, haha. Also, I enjoy (for a certain value of enjoy) that their dynamic is quite blatantly romantic IMO but the way it's cut short through an almost random act of Imperial cruelty is ... it's awful but it also a) makes sense and b) makes me feel even more about them. They deserved so much better. :(

2- What are you favorite things about this ship?

That mixture of close parallels and sharp contrasts + tension/rapport + UST you could cut with a knife are probably my favorites, honestly. I don't want my faves to be too similar, but I like parallels a lot and I don't like losing sight of the ways in which paralleled people are similar, which is a fine line to walk that Rogue One walked extremely well.

In that, it reminds me a lot of my ship of ultimate destiny, book!Darcy/Elizabeth, where they don't have to be basically the same—and aren't—to have a strong and important fundamental affinity that ultimately pulls them together.

3- Is there an unpopular opinion you have on the ship?

Many, as usual! I dislike the hyper-sexualization of Cassian with all my soul—it's not something I care for in general and I often imagine my faves as grey-ace, but it is something I stick to more stubbornly with him as a reaction to the sexy Latino stereotypes with a character who gave zero indication of having them is pretty gross to me.

I think Jyn was more justified in the circumstances of the Eadu fight and that Cassian was more correct, which basically ensured my annoyance at every conceivable iteration of discourse around the fight.

Also, in AU-land, I'm agnostic (as usual :P) on them having children. I don't think they're likely to have unplanned children, but I can see planned pregnancy or adoptions once the galaxy is more stable. I can also see them not choosing that and having full lives regardless. The likelihood of it just depends on the scenario and the writing for me, really.

[queen-of-bel]

some general fe3h thoughts now that i'm at like month 8

starting with the bad and i feel like this is a very severe flaw but this game is not well put together at all. they force you to make all these choices with no context or supporting information and then you just pray it turns out okay

i tried this game first like a year and a half ago and could not stand to finish it. i didn't like anyone in my faction and ed*lgard's vibes were rancid as hell and the idea of pouring like 50+ hours into a game where i want to throttle half the cast was not appealing to me in the slightest

then i tried out dimitri's faction and immediately fell in love with ashe and dedue so i was motivated to keep playing. ironically i think dimitri's vibes are gross as hell too but i genuinely like every other person i have in the group

a choice as big as who you spend the entire game with should not be made after just speaking with the characters for like. 3 sentences. it really will make or break your enjoyment of the game and it's baffling that you're forced to make such an important choice after only 15 minutes of playing

this complaint doesn't just apply to the story, it's towards the gameplay too. the chapter 6 map was complete dogshit. all the warping tiles would've been manageable if it weren't for the fact that you also were on a time limit. i have no clue what the right way to warp is and i have to just pray that whatever i chose is the right answer. i had to restart that battle like 3 times bc i kept choosing the wrong direction. why in god's name am i supposed to be rawdogging this map like that like WHO in the good lord's name thought that was a good idea

and then the devs obviously did not bother to integrate the support scenes into the main game at all like it's actually really laughable. like man i would've expected maybe at least an attempt...

i think ultimately the game is horribly disjointed in a lot of ways and it just feels like it's a bunch of random gameplay mechanics just slapped on top of each other and the game doesn't even bother to try to tie any of it together in a way that's cohesive or even pretends to have it make sense

that being said, it's not as big of a complaint as it normally would be for me bc i actually am (for the most part, dimitri can choke) really enjoying each of those pieces.

i do think it's funny that you can permakill team members with zero fucking fanfare and minimal announcement. rip to sylvain but i didn't even notice he had died. no clue when i lost him 🫡

it's pretty amazing, despite having a lot of my biggest pet peeves in video games, i actually am hooked to this game and can't put it down. quite the definition of high highs and low lows so far, but the highs are outweighing the lows by far

[eviltothecore13]

People really did assume the worst about Wednesday pre-release in some very strange ways that turned out not to be true at all. I remember I was going “where are you even getting that idea from??” and other people were like “no, this terrible thing is definitely going to happen, it’s unavoidable!”, and then...none of it happened.

Things I actually saw people saying pre-release:

“The casting call mentioned wanting someone 18-20 for Wednesday, so this is DEFINITIVE PROOF that the show is going to be full of gratuitous sex scenes for her, why else would they want to cast an adult (no it can’t possibly just be because they want a more experienced adult actor or they don’t want to deal with the extra legal/ethical/etc issues that getting child actors involved can bring, it MUST be about sex! This show is disgusting!” And then there’s no sex in the entire show beyond a couple of mild references in dialogue that aren’t about Wednesday herself, she barely shows much romantic interest in people let alone sexual, her outfits aren’t remotely revealing and the same goes for pretty much every other teenage character on the show.

“Look at Gomez’s smile in the trailer! It looks evil! Only creeps and predators smile like that! [Never mind that Luis Guzman seems to smile like that naturally and I’ve never heard any evidence for him being a bad person.] This one scene in the trailer is proof that Gomez will be the villain of the show and an abusive creep towards Wednesday, how dare Tim Burton make Gomez evil, I hate this!” And then Gomez is, of course, not remotely the villain, and is a good dad who gets some very sweet interactions with Wednesday, just like every other Gomez

“Wednesday calls her parents evil puppet masters in that one clip! This is proof her parents are going to be abusive and the villains of the show!” and then it’s obvious from the very first episode that they want the best for her, because guess what, Wednesday “I’ve decided with zero evidence that they love the baby more than me and that the only answer is to kill him” “Dear Mother and Father, I hate you, Love, Wednesday” Addams had assumed the worst and overreacted.

“Wednesday throws piranhas into a swimming pool! Never mind that it was made clear she didn’t kill anyone and that the guys were bullies who had it coming, this show is clearly going to be making all the Addamses completely unrepentantly horrible evil murderers with no redeeming features because villainising POC!” And then not only is the show very much based around Wednesday standing up to bullies (seriously, who thinks setting piranhas on bullies is evil, anyway?) and bigots, defying corrupt people in authority, caring about people and trying to protect them and save people from the actual villains, and generally is a series that really shows her as a principled (if often harsh and ruthless) person with a strong sense of justice... but I’ve now seen people claiming that the Addamses are OOC for not being homicidal ENOUGH (which I disagree with because I think the show does still establish them as OK with killing people in certain circumstances, and no version except possibly some of the older comics ever just went around deliberately murdering random innocent people for the sake of it, but still). (The show DOES have issues with its depiction of Black characters--but that’s not what people were shouting about pre-release.)

“Gomez’s actor is credited as a guest star, this is proof they’re going to kill him off!” No they didn’t.

Like people really did leap to some wild conclusions with zero evidence and then start complaining about all the things the show was supposedly “obviously” going to do...that it then did not in fact do and I’m not sure why anyone ever expected them to do it.