#UGH i love pokemon with family dynamics

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Mausholds & Kangaskhans totally arrange playdates with their children sorry I don't make the rules

[lannisterdaddyissues]

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

And

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

For the ask meme <333

omg aww @lauwrite1225 @fleurdufeu ty all for the asks!!! also @faeratil bold of you to assume you can retract your challenge just like that, watch me do all of them anyway

A: Ships/platonic pairings that you currently like a lot ok so thanks to @potatoesforsamoo i am simping on main for steven stone and flannery from pokemon which is such an obscure ship but she writes amazing fic for them!! i also love twiyor from spy x family rn! as for platonic pairings i'm obsessed with literally everyone in major. the father-son relationships in that show are EVERYTHING and i love the friendship dynamics so much. in my head i've written over 1 million words of meta about them

B: A pairing that you initially didn't consider, but someone changed your mind franky/nightfall from spy x family... i was a yuri/nightfall shipper for a while bc i thought it would be comedic and hilarious but i saw some art of franky and fiona and honestly it would be the FUNNIEST thing if he had a crush on her. they would be like fix-it felix and sergeant calhoun from wreck-it ralph if they were a couple i think. and i love it

C: A ship you have never liked and probably never will sheith i guess?? i'm trying to think of ships from fandoms im actively in but not sure. anyway yeah whenever i see sheith i'm like ew. not even bc of their familial dynamic, like i don't care who ppl ship or anything go ahead and ship them all you like i just cant see them together. it makes my blood boil for no reason at all. it might be bc i ship klance or smth idk i'm gross

D: A pairing you wish you liked but just can't i guess all the thomas ships in downton abbey but i just don't Like thomas that much and im not very interested in his subplots sorry... it seems like everyone who stans thomas is having a genuinely good time tho and i wish i could be one of them bc im starved for good fic in the dabbey fandom :(

E: Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what? how easily you forget all the memes i made for tlk lmao... as for my current fandom i made this thread summarizing the entire plot of major through memes bc watching the anime made me so mentally ill. if u actually click on the second link tho don't read the tags i beg you... i thirstposted in there and it was bad

F: What's the longest you've ever been in a fandom? i've been in the fullmetal alchemist fandom for going on 8 years now and it's been pretty good. after that i was in the man from uncle fandom for 3 years or so

G: Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? gee it was so long ago but i believe the first ships i ever actually shipped were like kimron and drakkgo from kim possible. the first ship i actually consumed content for was either shirogane and ichigo from tokyo mew mew or yullen from d-gray man i think. if we're talking actual brainrot otps tho then it was stony jdkfsjskfds

H: What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff? oh anime 100%! i watch so much anime its a wonder i haven't magically turned into an anime character already

I: Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why? h*zbin h*tel bc the fandom was toxic as fuck and the show is actually so, so evil...

J: Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr duh it's the gay pirate show and the vampire book club... i'm not in them but they ARE all over tumblr so i have to think about them obviously

K: What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc? JOE GIBSON MAJOR JOE GIBSON MAJOR JOE GIBSON MAJOR!!!!!! I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH WHAT AN INCREDIBLE CHARACTER HE IS!!! MY BRAIN IS SO ROTTED FROM THINKING ABOUT HIM ALL THE TIME OK YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HE MEANS TO ME NONE OF YOU KNOW HIM LIKE I DO

L: Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves ugh... ok aethelwold WAS admittedly really funny sometimes. i hated him but he made me laugh and sometimes i miss the levity he brought to a scene with just his overall existence

M: Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend alice from major!!! she's just so cute and i think we would get along super well i love her <3

N: Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom content, content, and more content. the major fandom is a barren wasteland i hate it here

O: Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of? the first song to come on was if u seek amy by britney spears... idk why but it reminds me of junior from major bc i think he would have the trashiest white girl taste in music i just know he would be belting out an impeccable falsetto in his fancy jag while bumping his hand on the steering wheel. i know it

P: Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas) courtesy of ro i am still thinking about a major au where gibson adopts goro and raises him and junior together with momoko after shigeharu's death to atone for his mistakes. i just want gibson to be a father figure is that so wrong

Q: A fandom you’ve abandoned and why there are a lot of them so i can't really give one answer but like i said, the h*zbin h*tel fandom is so toxic i will never go back

R: Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom? GIBSON AND GORO ARE SO IMPORTANT TO ME!!!! despite their history there was never any lingering hostility or anything between them. they respected each other so much and took so much inspiration from one another and grew as people because of it. like gibson had been so arrogant and almost selfish in his debut eps but he transformed thanks to goro's influence and became such a humble and selfless person like even when he was dying he never put himself first. it was all about keeping his promise to goro, and making up for lost time with junior, and upholding the pride of his country, even if it meant putting his life on the line to do so. and in the last arc of season 5 we saw how he touched the hearts of fans all around the world with his resolve and i think it's so so beautiful

S: Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged) major au where no one dies and everyone is happy that's my personal headcanon right there. bc if shigeharu had lived i actually think he and gibson had such potential for a rivals to besties dynamic like it was all there. in my heart shigeharu lived and he and gibson became reluctant carpool buddies during the little league arc. i just really wish they had been friends that's it. nothing else to see here

T: Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? toshi is so in love with goro it's not even up for debate he is in LOVE with goro!!!! also i think goro and alice dated for a little bit. i just need it to be true

U: Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites roy mustang from fma/b, jaime lannister from game of thrones, and joe gibson from major. they're all war criminals (only emotionally in gibson's case) who are traumatized by the sins of their pasts but later redeemed themselves through their actions thanks to an excellently-written character development arc (in the case of jaime, this was all erased at the last minute. thank you d&d for your service)

V: Which character do you relate to most? KAORU MY BELOVED!!! i too am a spaz who loves sports but can't be normal if her life depended on it and i for one would LOVE to be goro's girlfriend so if she would just hand him over please <3

W: A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom i hate breakup+makeup/divorce+get back together aus i just can't stand the relationship drama smh

X: A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom slow burn mutual pining gets me every time its so basic. but if we are being oddly specific here then it's when a character who's the last person you would imagine to be competent in this type of situation is actually terrifyingly competent and you are So Confused and a little turned on right now like who is this and what have they done with [insert character here]

Y: What are your secondhand fandoms? succession, yuri on ice, she-ra reboot, attack on titan, mdzs and tgcf, and riverdale

Z: Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! uhhhhhh i guess with the new pjo adaptation i'm a bit concerned with alleged racism in fandom spaces now?? so many people are up in arms about annabeth's casting like "you're racist if you don't support this casting!!" like it's not that we don't support it? i love that annabeth will be black in the show! it's great! but... in the books and the movie... she is still... a white character... and maybe... it's not so bad... if people PREFER the books and the movie... so they continue to think of annabeth as a white character as a result... like, it's not erasing black annabeth at all! it's just they will continue to think of annabeth as white bc it's the annabeth they know and love! either way, the character is still annabeth! same source material and everything! anyway that's it, people will probably come after me for this but i just wanted to say it :/

[mod-kuixs-contained-chaos]

📔 NAT + FAMILY

Things are kinda panning out in regards to getting in contact with everyone, but...can’t help but still feel isolated, if not even more than I have. Sure, everyone took it pretty well when it came to finding the island again and we’re all chatting it up, but even with Gabe being my closest cousin I still feel out of place.

Maybe it was the fact Oscar was the one who had to raise me in an emotional sense because my parents were either so absorbed in their own things or whatever other excuse is in the book. You don’t exactly run into many if any at all that were practically raised by a pokemon. Maybe I just...ugh.

Maybe I just wasn’t good enough? That I don’t deserve to have something along the lines of a familial environment? Dad always said I wasn’t doing enough and not applying myself, and maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s the fact I’m behind on the learning curve so to speak-I’m behind everyone else when it comes to settling on a path and making something out of it. It could just be that I’m the youngest of all us cousins and that I just haven’t gotten to that point, I could be beating myself up a little more than I deserve to.

I don’t know, I mean I love what I have in terms of family-Oscar is my absolute lifeline and nothing will ever change that for me. But it’s just...alienating I guess. I obviously don’t lead an ordinary life or at the very least-one within the standard expectation. Perhaps I’m hoping a little too much for a family dynamic that yields itself to be mildly ordinary.

Damn I gotta stop rambling, but at the same time if I say this to anyone I won’t hear the end of it.

[eisa96]

I might as well draw Sato...Gou too ;-; They're just so cute.... Ugh, imagine them meeting up with Shigeru. I want that to happen so bad because all three of them have a lot in common.

Gou will be so excited to meet with Professor Oak's grandson and IMAGINE. Finding out that Shigeru is a researcher himself. They will have a lot to talk about ;-; Shigeru wouldn't like to be tied down to his family name, so he will try to ask gently to call him by his first name.. We could also finally see Satoshi and Shigeru catching up with each other ;-;

AND

All three of them share the same unconditional love towards pokemon ;-; Their dynamic will just be the most endearing thing to watch :') Them talking about new discoveries and sharing knowledge with each other....

[aurantia-ignis]

omg i love what you wrote for hop and bede for the character memes! can i ask for leon?

Thank you, I’m glad you enjoy my musings on character writing! That said... Ohhhh boy. I have... a lot of personal thoughts about Leon...

First impression

I cannot stand his dressing he is a fashion disaster. Also he looks like he’s going to be an antagonist in the end ;D

Impression now

He is the dorkiest dork and he’s hilarious and he’s definitely an archetype that I usually quite enjoy except.... His character execution really didn’t reach its full potential ;w; He’s a good man, and a fun character, but omg if only he became an antagonist and developed from there and then rejoined the ranks of the good guys in the end ;w; Failing that, at least let him have a clearer focus on his existing character writing!

Favorite moment

Each time he gets lost. 8′D

Idea for a story

LEON’S PAST WITH SONIA. The game literally said that Leon and Sonia USED TO BE RIVALS.... and then we were never told WHY they stopped being rivals. Which is a huge, huge pity. :’(

Unpopular opinion

I’m assuming this is probably what you came for so. Buckle in!

Leon’s character in the original canon plays a few important roles in the storyline:

- He endorses Hop and player character, and as Champion, is supposed to be seen as the Strongest Person in Galar. His goals, therefore, is to protect Galar (by solving ‘disasters’ himself, blocking the player character from doing so for gameplay purposes) and by supporting new young trainers (although that’s a little ruined by him saying ‘you should get stronger so I can BEAT YOU DOWN AND BECOME EVEN MORE STRONG MYSELF’ like wow the script makes him kinda asshole sometimes haha).

- As said strongest person in Galar, Rose is intending to use him to control Eternatus. After hearing about Rose’s plan, Leon refuses him, but despite Rose harping on it, Leon doesn’t seem to worry about it, and seems to think that just cause he said No to Rose, he can just continue with his champion duties.

- After Eternatus, he’s still considered the strongest in Galar, and is the final goal that Player Character has to defeat.

- He sets up the Battle Tower after he ceases to be champion

Technically, there isn’t anything particularly wrong with the way he was written. However, based on what we were given, his narrative could have been far stronger for himself and for the plot, as well as to further the narratives of Hop and the player character. Leon is already a character with flaws; if he had been written with those flaws as key parts of his personality, he could be much more interesting and complex as a character.

Pulling away slightly from Leon (but it’s still relevant, I promise), one of the biggest elements shown in Galar is ‘pride’. Chairman Rose’s arrogance in his own beliefs was what led him to think he could make that huge decision for all of Galar. Though it’s not outright stated, but there’s a possibility that the truth behind Zacian and Zamazenta was hidden by prideful humans because they wanted to be the heroes of legend (see Sordward and Shielbert, who are also slaves to pride). The entire concept of Dynamax itself is very flawed (won’t go into details here because it’s another huge can of worms on its own) and happened because of human pride; Zacian and Zamazenta, Galar’s guardian spirits, literally hate dynamax. 

And Leon, of course, is often displaying a great deal of pride in his Undefeatable prowess. Imagine if Leon’s entire character arc had been based on pride.

- Leon is proud of his strength. He has good intentions; his goal is to protect Galar as its champion, while supporting his brother and player character and other trainers in their pokemon journey

- Because of his pride, Leon is confident that he can handle the dynamaxing problems that pop up. He assures the player character that everything will be okay, so that player and Hop can continue safely on their journey. He’s protecting them from unnecessary problems.

- When Rose tells him about Galar’s problems, and says that “You, as the champion, can save Galar by catching and controlling Eternatus!” Leon brushes him off because the concept sounds too far-fetched.

- After Rose puts his plan into motion, awakening Eternatus from its slumber, Leon is annoyed at Rose, but figures that he can defeat Eternatus and solve everything. Hop and player character, who have seen Sonia’s research on the darkest day, are worried that Eternatus would be difficult to handle. Leon, however, is confident that he can manage fine. He goes up against Eternatus, instead of attempting to evacuate everyone from Wyndon. Hop and Player character rush off to Zacian and Zamazenta to try and solve the issue.

- Eternatus proves to be too much for Leon to handle, and he realises just how wrong he has been when the dynamax issue is getting out of hand. He regrets not trusting Hop and Player, instead believing that he is the only powerful one who can deal with all the problems.

- Leon gets knocked out, Hop and player solve Eternatus. Having been knocked down a few pegs, Leon acknowledges that player is strong and smart and their decision to go to Zacian and Zamazenta was the right thing to do. However, he still wants to face Player in the final match despite his injuries, clinging to the idea that he’s still the strongest champion. 

- Player defeats Leon, and he finally understands that it’s never about being Unbeatable, because the generations that come after them will always be improving too. He starts up the battle tower to support the trainers, and continue training himself as well, to get battle and re-fight Player (and other trainers).

In this scenario, his pride would also be an explanation of how Leon became so engrossed in chasing championhood that he left Sonia (and his family) behind. Seeing Hop and player supporting each other reminds him that there’s more than one kind of strength. 

Leon would have been great as a powerful, well-intentioned character who made a whole bunch of mistakes, and had to deal with the consequences, but came out of everything wiser and happier than before. ;w; 

Favorite relationship

I really, really seeing him with Sonia! As friends, and also rivals... Think of how Sonia realised halfway through her journey that she wasn’t really interested in pursuing the gym challenge, especially when her best friend was moving on way ahead of her and never looking back. Sonia has her own character arc (also woefully did not achieve its full potential in terms of clarity sobs) in the story surrounding the lore of the wolves and the Darkest Day, and it would have been great if she’d found out a little about (or suspected) what Rose was intending to do, and tried to speak to Leon about it. The game shows us that they do smile at each other and care for each other (Leon likes Sonia’s curry!!), after all. 

Also, one of the most endearing parts about Leon is his goofiness and his lack of a sense of direction, so it’s super fun to see his dynamic with Sonia as she goes ‘ugh are you lost again???!’ This is actually one of my personal favourite ships HAHA

Favorite headcanon

He hated being distant from Sonia, but didn’t know how else to go about solving it, so he just. Didn’t. And he just decided to make do with the casual civility they share, without any of the true camaraderie they used to have. So when he finally got the chance to make up with her he was all YES I GOT MY BEST FRIEND BACK :DDDD and didn’t realise that the reason he so enjoys spending time with Sonia is more than platonic.... ;D

[ragingwave]

⊱ ─ Mun talks about the Muse | Not Accepting ─ ⊰

Thank you everyone who sent something in! It kept me occupied for the tail end of my shift! ♥ I broke up the asks sort of since I got doubles!

@pacifidive​ & @destinycaught​​ asked: 

💡 What inspires you to write the muse?

If I had to pinpoint one overall thing that inspires me to write Ness, it’s her strength. She’s just portrayed in game to embrace having so much of it in herself, in her Pokemon, and really in all that she does and it’s really appealing to me. From the way she speaks to the way she stands in battle...Home girl is so confident in herself and it’s beautiful! It’s not a brash and in your face type of confident, but it’s definitely there! I really love it! So I enjoy the challenge of trying to express Nessa’s graceful power in writing. 

@100eightynine​​ asked:

✍ Favorite thing about writing the muse?

I haven’t gotten to explore it much yet, but I look forward to channeling into her different work faces. Her gym leader self and her model self are very different, and I want to jump more into that! I’ve just been playing it safe by keeping her in Gym leader mode since that’s how she’s usually approached, haha. 

Another favorite thing I enjoy with writing Nessa is playing on the contrast of her on camera life and her off camera life. Off stage she’s so chill and just an average gal when she’s with her family and friends. But in spotlight, she carries herself formally and is really keen on her image. Getting to let her slip up and be true to her off stage, true, self is really fun.

@eternablade​​​ asked: 

🎭 How similar are you and the muse?

The only similarities Nessa and I have is that we love Water Types, Dive Balls are definitely are the aesthetic of choice, and we’re black. 😅 I like to think there might be a few more similarities, but I might venture deeper into the question than I need to. I wish I did have the charisma Nessa has! 😂

@beehyve​​ asked: 

👀Favorite thing about the muse’s appearance?

Oh most definitely her hair. Her hair is my everything. When she whips around after saying a few words before you battle her? When she’s standing on the field and her hair is just swaying? That’s it. It’s my fave part of Nessa. I’m telling on myself a bit but I totally abuse talking about her hair when I can in responses. It’s her pride and joy and you can TELL. Second favorite (since I got two of these) would be her eyes. Blue with that little speckle of orange? That’s so unique to design to me! At least, i’ve never seen it much before.

@forgxtemall​​ asked: 

😂Funniest thing that’s ever happened to your muse?

On this blog, so far, I think the Hip Words with Kabu™ saga with Mu’s Kabu ( @flcmedriven​ ) had some of the funniest moments i’ve had with Nessa thus far. My top favorite would be when she couldn’t explain to him that LMAO meant Laugh My Ass Off, so she told him Laugh My Appletun Off. Which was funny and cute. Until @fathachmilis​ came along and made it a further party.😂

@misanthropecopy​​ asked:

🧥Favorite outfit for the muse?

UGH I HAVE SO MANY FAN ARTS I’D LIKE TO SPAM HERE because ANY ARTWORK with Nessa out of her usual canon clothes and being a fashionista is my LIFE BREATH! But between her two outfits in canon, I adore her model dress. Her hair? Is gorgeous? I’d die wearing those heels, but I remember seeing that card and gasping so loudly because she looks so fierce and flawless.

@100eightynine​​ l asked: 

 📷 Favorite picture/screencap of your muse?

I got two of these! So i’ll share a fanart: Here and my fave screencap: Disgusted Nessa! That face always gets me. So much personality man. 

@ballguysays​​ asked: 

💕Favorite ship for the muse? (I'm nosy, okay?)

This one is really killing me and i’m biting my knuckle so hard because I really want to share what it is. 😩 I very honestly scream about it on my Twitter and to all my friends on a consistent basis where they all know it’s my Fave™. But I’d rather refrain on being so open about what it is because a) I don’t want to disrupt the ease of flow and interaction as well as the comfort of muns who play that muse. ( LIKE if you know I ship this ship, and i’m interacting with that muse I wouldn’t want anyone feeling i’m interacting with them in hopes to establish a ship when I genuinely value organic interactions and want to enjoy casual writing with this muse. ) and b) I’ve had bad experiences in the past from voicing who and what I ship. It’s just a real bad paranoia I have, i’m sorry!  😓 I just feel bad that i’ve seen enough people feel like they’re only being interacted for because of ships I wouldn’t want to be in that position NOR have someone feel that they’re in that position. Even in the back of their minds. 😞

I will say though! since i’ve rambled this much and this is my (1) time to talk about it on this blog (even unnamed) I really do look forward to the day i’m hopefully able to build up and write the ship! I really love it, it’s dynamic, and I feel like there’s so much to explore with it. I do have so much fun wilding out over it in the spaces I get to talk about it and I haven’t had a ship that makes me feel so enthusiastically vocal in a very long time! 🥰

[tepid-tea]

Teen Wolf: a character I grew to love; and I have a weird fondness for hearing about people's noTPs... if you want to.

I looove Answering stuff! :D  I’m gonna answer them all cause why not lol Sorry :Pmy favorite female characterWill always be Lydia  my favorite male character

Stiles, hands down. But again like above I wish Boyd would have had more character exploration cause there was so much potential. I would love a whole ass fic where they look into what happened to his sister and it be a whole arc you know?my favorite book/season/etcthe Nogitsune arc was my favourite easily. When it was first airing I remember watching it with my younger sisters and it was just so gripping. Dylans acting was so on point.. when I do rewatches of the whole show I always stop there cause none of the seasons after never could compete. my favorite episode (if its a tv show)Uhhh... the episode where Stiles puts himself in Eichen house?  Cause the interactions between Stiles and his Dad are so heart breaking.my favorite cast memberI’m one of those people who really don’t read too terribly much into the cast members?  But Tyler Hoechlin seems like a ball of sunshine lol and I do follow Ian Bohen on IG because he’s such a goofball. Oh and Colton cause his pokemon go obsession is adorable lolmy favorite shipSterek lol  But also Cora/Lydia, Boyd/Erica, Scott/Kira or Scott/Issac too :P

a character I’d die defending

Hmmm... thats tough... probably Derek? Cause he does and says some thing that would make me want to bash my head but he’s had such a bad deal in life... he’s a survivor that I feel still struggles a lot but wants to be better?a character I just can’t sympathize with

Ugh Theo, I haaaated Him right off the get go. After the first season with him I actually stopped watching the show cause I saw it looked like they were giving him a redemption arc which I completely noped too lol When I see him in fic if he’s not there as a villain I wont read it LOL;

a character I grew to love

Thats hard.... probably Jackson? on a fanfic stand point I love when Jackson is brought into the friend dynamic of Stiles and Scott!  Everyone has that asshole friend thats secretly an over protective mush underneath it all lol or at least I do? lol I was sad when he left the show so soon... I know he comes back with Ethan but I haven’t watched those seasons/episodes.

my anti otpScott/Stiles... I’m sorry!! D: I know people really like them as a couple but I just can’t. I love both characters individually and love seeing them paired off with others just not together. For me it borders on incest for me and incest is a thing I just cant... bleh.  Scott and Stiles will forever be brothers that will do anything for one another and love each other in a family way.Also Theo/ anybody cause he’s a turd LOL;WELP! this was fun! :D Thanks

[cringefinalgirl-moved]

heehehe the unova elite 4? or n

UGH CHARLIE UR MIND

it’s actually long I’m sorry hbhgbhdbhhbfd

Caitlin who? | only know their name | loathe | ugh | overrated | indifferent | dead | alive | just okay | cute | badass | my baby | hot | want to marry | favorite

Oh god where do I even start. I’m still amazed how she actually debiuted in Gen4 as a Battle Frontier, even if it wasn’t her who fought (it was that dude.. Darach I think),  which was weird but!! Apparentely she has strong psychic powers and it’s super cool imo??? I love when Psychic type specialists have powers like that, I find it very fitting!! And make sense why she is “sleepy”, to control her powers I believe. Oh, and that she became a fucking Elite 4 after not battling as a Battle (iknow) Frontier is also interesting, she went ape shit and became very strong woman. I genuinelly like Caitlin, and she is also another character who has confirmed age? I mean.. KINDA confirmed, she was 14 in DPPt/HGSS and the age goes weird in BW/B2W2 unknowing how much time had passed I think. BUT STILL!! I really like her. 

Marshal who? | only know their name | loathe | ugh | overrated | indifferent | dead | alive | just okay | cute | badass | my baby | hot | want to marry | favorite

I don’t have much strong onion on Marshal, but he was pretty okay imo. I actually like that he looked up to Alder and they did cared about each other (like mentor-student dynamic), I do like when Elite 4 and Champion keeps themself together like friends/family rather than co-workers and strangers. I’m just kinda Hmm with Game Freak making him dark skinned.. You know, fighting type specialist being POC gives me weird feeling. Good enough he is decently dressed and not nakey like Matt from Team Aqua.

Grimsley who? | only know their name | loathe | ugh | overrated | indifferent | dead | alive | just okay | cute | badass | my baby | hot | want to marry | favorite

jnfjjnNGJNGJJ okay oKAY. He always gave me serious uncle vibes, and I can’t explain why and how!! He is one of those comfort characters I CAN’T EXPLAIN WHY I GET THE COMFORT VIBES, they are just there and I’m not questioning it. I just accept it, he just looks like tired but good uncle who owns 10 cats. Let him rest tho, he looks very tired and yet very expensive, Depression Deluxe ig. I mean, his fucking E4 room looks VERY EXPENSIVE, like the gold? The red carpet? Bruh. I get it, you gamble, but damn. Get your shit together. Get a better hobby. Gambling bad.

Shauntal who? | only know their name | loathe | ugh | overrated | indifferent | dead | alive | just okay | cute | badass | my baby | hot | want to marry | favorite

Okay listen, she is pretty but also her outfit make no fucking sense. What the fuck is that thing around her neck, a fluffy boa? I don’t fucking know, I want to touch it tho. It is pretty cool tho that she is a writer and does something else besides being a Elite 4!! I like when characters, like leaders and E4 has more hobby than battling and giving badges or something. She probably writes a lot of ghost stories, yes it was intented. And Pokemon fanfiction. I call it. Oh and her E4 room is pretty cool too!! 

N who? | only know their name | loathe | ugh | overrated | indifferent | dead | alive | just okay | cute | badass | my baby | hot | want to marry | favorite

Yes, I’m a lesbian. Yes, I find N kinda attractive. Yes, I exist. Also Ghetsis DNI.God, where do I start. I like N, I really like him but he deserved much better, in both game and in fandom. I see how he tries to improve in B2W2 after realisation how Ghetsis and Plasma used him for their goals and that trainers aren’t evil and don’t actively harm Pokemons. Still, I wish they write him.. less.. uhh.. pushy? Weird? In BW, especially in Accumula. I get it, he was manipulated and probably never learned properly how to interact with people outside Plasma, but fuck!! That wasn’t good, and people in fandom of course picked it as him being creep and stalker. But also infantilising him is bad too, he is.. pretty much 20, well young adult but still!! TL;DR I really like N and his gimmick as a Legendary Pokemon Hero, but he deserved better fandom and writing. Oh, and I much more see him as Zekrom Hero, than Reshirams, but it’s my preference and I don’t mind people seeing him other way!!

[rewolfaekilerom]

ginny & georgia is good.

//NOTE: This was originally posted to Wordpress on 05.01.2021//

Let me start by saying that I tried to think of a clever title for this post, but all I could think of was the simple fact that I really like Ginny & Georgia. Excuse my lack of cleverness this week. I’m not sure if it’s my body responding to the first vaccine dose or if it’s the fog of seasonal allergies, but my brain is mush; my sense of smell is also not right. Also, Bug scratched the hair off of one of her ears (I’m pretty sure that’s seasonal allergies, poor thing) and I’ve spent a cumulative 15 hours this past week rendering, exporting, and uploading one single video onto YouTube for work (lost story short: I’m back at the rendering stage after I realized the audio got unsynced in the second half of the video. Ugh). It’s been a WEEK.

Excuses, excuses.

So, while I wait for my laundry and as I take a break from New Pokemon Snap (omg, it’s so good), I thought I’d brain-vomit my thoughts about Ginny & Georgia. Proving true to the portrait I gave of myself in my last post, I’m happy (or embarrassed?) to say that I watched Ginny & Georgia (henceforth G&G) twice this week. I finished episode 10 and immediately started rewatching episode 1, and it’s taking everything in me to not start rewatching for a third time. But depending on what you consider a week, I might be on week two now? ANYWAY.

I’ll start this brain-dump by saying, again, I really like this show. I described it to friends as a cross between Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars or Outer Banks–maybe with a touch of Dexter. I don’t think it’s just that, but I think that’s a good way to summarize how it feels to watch the show, and those are good things in my book. GG and Dexter are probably in my top 5 favorite TV shows, and OB is up there too. I’ve watched OB through twice, and it definitely quenched my mid-winter thirst for the beach and my perpetual desire for a solid mystery/intrigue. I grew up watching the Travel Channel, so any show set in an even moderately interesting locale is immediately catching my interest. Oh, and I watched the entire PLL series with my mom while I was a teenager and even after I went away to college; it was “our show”–our way of sharing cultural ground even when I was away from home for the first time. We watched each episode together when it aired on TV, and we’d be the first to admit that the show was–at best–illogical, comically dramatic, and unrealistic to the umpth degree. But sometimes it’s fun to watch a show and laugh at its absurdity.

G&G doesn’t fall into the same traps that a lot of those types of teen shows do. It has drama and intrigue; it has sex and “teen problems” (which are really just person problems). But it also has real conversations about race and sexuality and parent-child relationships that go beyond the CW/Freeform problem-for-problem’s-sake model (hi, PLL)) or the WB squeaky-clean-problems approach (I’m talking to you, Seventh Heaven). It takes a Skins approach to issues young people face–well, if Skins was made for a puritanical US audience, but not THAT US Skins reboot. We’ll never talk about that. Shhh. Look away.

I’m not going to rehearse the plot of G&G, so look it up for yourself right now. I’ll wait.

Just kidding. I’m not waiting. Go look it up on your own time.

The similarities between G&G and GG are glaring (hell, Georgia even calls herself and Ginny the Gilmores with bigger boobs). In both, you have a young, single mom who had her daughter at 15/16 and then ran away from home. The mom is plucky, charismatic, and doesn’t always navigate the world by making the most, er, ethical choices. The daughter initially seems a bit more reserved and like she wants to play by the rules, but deep down is just a younger version of the mother, and that comes out of the course of the series. The two relate to one another as friends, but it’s complicated by the fact that they’re parent and child and that there is an inherent power imbalance there. The daughter is a little too mature for her own good and the mother is a little too immature for her own good. They butt heads, usually over the mother’s past and present choices (particularly regarding men) and the daughter’s present and future choices (also often regarding men). Their fights and falling outs are truly spectacular–they fight like only a mother and daughter could, but they also love one another–though they can’t express that love in the most logical or legible ways. They’re dysfunctional in every way you could imagine, and they really should be in family counseling.

But that’s not all. If that were it, I’d say, “oh, boohoo, they have similar types of characters. As if this is novel? Hasn’t this been done before? Get off your high horse.” NO. The parallels between these two shows go WAY deeper than that. Georgia is Lorelei and Ginny is Rory–hell, their naming practices are even similar. Georgia named herself after the state she was in the first time she had to come up with a pseudonym; this initiated a naming practice wherein she names her children after the cities/states they’re born in–hence Ginny, for Virginia. Rory is a nickname for Lorelei. (Side note: Lorelei is a hard name to type.)

Fine, fine. But we also have the tripartite relationship dynamics. Lorelei’s Big Three are Christopher, Max, and Luke; Georgia’s are Zion (Ginny’s dad and Georgia’s “penguin”–still not positive what that means, except that they can’t let go of one another?), Paul (the mayor, a white collar, public-facing profession), and Joe (the cafe/restaurant owner). If teenaged Rory has Dean and Jess, Ginny has Hunter and Marcus, respectively; Rory and Ginny obviously belong with the “bad boy”–they have infinitely better chemistry and get one another–but struggle with how good they “look” with the good guy, who’s actually kind of a judgmental jerk (as the bad guy points out).

Stars Hollow looks a whole lot like Wellsbury–hell, they’re both in New England. Wellsbury IS the most New England town name ever. Period. I love me some picturesque New England town bullshit.

Oh, and the side characters. Ellen and Sookie fill the same niche, and it’s a good one. They’re easily the most likable characters in both shows, and their husbands are genuinely funny characters in their own rights. GG has the sexually ambiguous (until he’s not) but oh-so-sarcastic Michel while G&G has Nick. Arguably, you could lump Kirk in with Michel to get Nick, but Nick isn’t as bumbling as Kirk, so maybe that point doesn’t stand. Hell, for friends Rory has the angel and devil on her shoulders in the form of Lane and Paris; Ginny has Max and Abby. And if Stars Hollow has Taylor Doose, Wellsbury has Cynthia Fuller. The list goes on.

Of course, a staple of GG is Emily and Richard Gilmore, but we glimpse that in G&G’s flashbacks to Zion’s parents, who help Georgia and Zion when the two first have Ginny. They’re similarly exasperated with their child’s choices and come off as a little overbearing but nonetheless have good intentions. They don’t have nearly as much screen time as Emily and Richard, which is a shame, but they serve a similar function.

Oh! And the flashbacks. They’re one of the charming parts of GG–they give us really important backstory on Lorelei’s life and life choices prior to the series’ start (and Rory’s birth, frankly). They’re less charming in G&G because Georgia’s background is far darker than GG ever could or would have conjured.

This gets me to why G&G isn’t just a GG rip-off. G&G isn’t just a woke GG. It isn’t just GG with people of color, in the LGBTQIA+ community, of varied socioeconomic classes, or from outside New England. If you like GG, you might like G&G, but you also might not. G&G addresses real life challenges teenagers, women, people of colorm hell, most Americans face in 2021. It depicts the US in its multiple angles, some of which are very, very ugly. Some might say that it’s GG for 2021, and maybe it is, but if that’s true, I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. I’m just not sure it’s totally true.

I’m going to cool it on the GG-G&G comparisons for a moment and just talk about G&G because I think you get my point. Before I cool it completely, though, and as a point of departure, I’ll say that if we do go with the idea that G&G is GG for 2021, then we need to recognize what G&G does differently: it gives us glimpses into how a whole range of people experience the US, and it doesn’t look away from ugly, unflattering, hateful truths that reside just below the surface of sparkly, shiny, pretty, picture-perfect towns. It doesn’t shy away from reality, even if that reality is uncomfortable for white, middle-class, cis, het viewers.

The important things about G&G that I haven’t yet mentioned in specifics are a’plenty.

Ginny (and Hunter) is mixed-race, a subject that comes up on a number of occasions in the form of explicit conversations about how being mixed-race doesn’t necessarily mean belonging to two communities but can instead mean feeling out of place in both. It also comes up in a very hard-to-watch argument between Ginny and Hunter where the two trade insults about one another’s lack of belonging; the argument escalates into a screaming match in which the two effectively diminish not only one another’s claims to their Black (in Ginny’s case) and Taiwanese (in Hunter’s case) identities but also the prejudices they experience at the hands of a hegemonic white society that systematically denies opportunities or a sense of belonging (among other things) for those who don’t fit into readily identifiable “boxes.”

Georgia ran away from her childhood home in rural, impoverished Arkansas because she was being sexually abused by her stepfather, who then went on to sexually abuse her half-sister.

Georgia has killed people, often for “legitimate” (???) reasons, including posing threats to Ginny.

Georgia used to be in a biker gang and still has connections with at least one member, a lawyer she has on retainer to help her “disappear” her misdeeds, including said murders.

Marcus and Ginny have struggled (or are currently struggling) with self-harm and suicide ideation.

Literally every single one of the teenagers in this show is under immense pressure to over-engage in extracurricular activities that will make them competitive candidates at top universities.

Parents’ unhealthy relationships with one another, divorce, and everything else in that realm also shape the teenaged characters’ lives.

Abby struggles with an eating disorder that’s fueled in part by comments her male peers (notably, an asshole named Press) about her body. Male characters make sexist, stereotyping comments to Ginny about her body, too.

I’ll stop there, but I do so with full knowledge that I’m likely leaving something out. Hell, as I type this I remember that Austin (Ginny’s younger half-brother) literally stabs a kid in the hand and there’s a private detective trying to figure out Georgia’s past, including if/how she murdered her previous husband (the impetus for the family’s move). Like I said, there’s so much more to this show than just its similarities with GG. But I’ve also seen articles online decrying viewers who make the connection, and I don’t think that’s quite the right approach. The show clearly isn’t copying GG. Even if G&G did take inspiration from GG, it takes that inspiration in a fresh direction.

I wonder, though, about how we, the viewers, are supposed to respond to certain aspects of the show.

For instance, the show pits the US South as the source of obvious Bad Stuff ™–child abuse, incest, poverty, etc.– and the US Northeast as a place where the Bad Stuff ™ is hidden beneath a picture-perfect veneer. I get what the show’s creators are going for. They’re attempting to give us a multidimensional perspective on the US in all its prettiness and ugliness, but I wonder if associating the South with only the Bad Stuff ™ is doing a disservice to a region that has a rich cultural past and present–a past and present that’s certainly included problems like poverty, racism, and abuse but cannot be defined by those things alone because those things are not all that’s there. To tie those things primarily to just one region because those are stereotypes that are often perpetuated about that region seems a bit . . . overly simplistic? Troublesome? Dare I use the old grad-student favorite–problematic? It’s too easy–it’s lazy, in fact–to pit South against Northeast as the source of the US’s outright ugliness. It’s the rhetoric surrounding the 2016 presidential election all over again, and, frankly, we could all use a break.

The other thing that regional competition does is it makes it possible for the show to gloss over the fact that those Bad Things ™ exist in the Northeast, too. I feel silly saying that because it seems so obvious, but the simplistic portrait the show paints of the US means that it sacrifices accurate representation and complexity for the sake of–well, actually, I’m not sure what it’s for the sake of. Maybe straightforward storytelling? That might make sense if the show didn’t dwell in other complexities and commit itself to attempting to represent other identities and aspects of American life with some degree of accuracy, so I don’t know.

I can’t speak to whether the show accurately represents the experiences of mixed-race people, LGBTQIA+ people, or people with disabilities. I suspect that it represents the experiences of some people accurately but, of course, not all people because that would be impossible. I’m also not sure if I think the show’s commitment to representing a variety of experiences of US life borders on tokenism. I can’t speak for how someone who occupies one of those subject positions experiences the show because I do not occupy that subject position. My gut reaction is that the show does seem to make an effort to go beyond the whole “look at us, we cast all sorts of people in our show” by attempting to humanize all of its characters as real humans with rich, complex lives. It weaves the characters’ lives into a tight web, making clear that a character like Max and Marcus’s dad isn’t noteworthy just because he’s deaf. You don’t look at Clint and think “oh, that’s the deaf character.” You think, oh, that’s Clint; he’s Ellen’s husband, Max and Marcus’s dad, he’s deaf, he makes pithy remarks about his over-the-top daughter and slacker son, and he performs strip-teases for his wife. He’s noteworthy because he’s an engaged (and absolutely hilarious) husband and father whose deafness is one of many identities of his that influences his children’s lives as any other cultural identity would influence a family’s dynamic. The entire family is (at least) bilingual, communicating in sign language and spoken English while also teaching their sign language skills to friends and significant others. His deafness is one identity among many that the show invests him with, and he’s not in all that many scenes.

I could be wrong, but that was my experience while watching the show and thinking about it a bit afterward and while writing this post.

The show depicts mixed-race identity in a complex way, too, but it dwells on it a bit longer and with a bit more detail. I mentioned that Ginny and Hunter are both of mixed-race parentage and that their mixed-race identities become a subject of a relationship-ending argument. To back up a bit, though, the show attempts to paint a vivid portrait of the challenges Ginny in particular faces as a she navigates middle-class, white suburbia as the daughter of a Black father and a white mother. We see how she reacts when a police office walks toward her at a gas station while she pumps gas in her mother’s BMW, when a teacher tells her she’s being “aggressive” (while her classmates, who display similar behaviors, are unremarked upon), when her hair frizzes out after her friends pressure her to let another student’s white mom brush her curls into a ponytail using a boar-bristle brush, when a male friend (multiple male friends?) tells her that she doesn’t look like a stereotypical Black girl, and, among other things, when another student asks her “what are you?” in an attempt to pinpoint her racial/ethnic identities. Each instance is painful to watch because the actress who plays Ginny plays her well; the camera stays trained on her face as she responds to each of these interactions, allowing the viewer to observe the range of emotions she feels as she repeatedly navigates a community of peers and adults who can’t get their shit together and respect her existence. These interactions aren’t quirky neighbors asking silly questions about why she hangs her laundry a certain way or informing her that she needs to only mow her lawn on Thursdays. These are interactions that repeatedly undermine her sense of belonging, that tell her she’s somehow different, and that question her very right to exist. It’s heartbreaking, but I think it’s important that it’s depicted because that’s reality for many, many people.

The scene with Hunter is interesting because it shows the two turning something that was common-ground into a source of conflict for them. I’m not entirely sure how to read this scene. It’s difficult to watch because it rapidly descends into a “who is the most disenfranchised?” competition rather than a respectful conversation about each partner’s different experiences with prejudice. I wondered if the subtext here was some commentary on how members of one racial community pit themselves against members of other racial communities. (I’m not being clear here, and I’m struggling to clarify even as I go back to edit this post. I guess what I mean is that, when I initially watched this scene, I worried that this was a negative commentary on the Black community in particular and how it engages with other racial communities. I hope that makes sense.) Frankly, I’m still not sure if that’s not what’s happening there or if that’s not what was intended. What I’m fairly certain of, though, is that the scene makes clear that we, the viewer, are being told pretty explicitly that we can’t identify the two as “good partners” on the sole basis that they have mixed-race parentage in common. In other words, the scene undermines the idea that experience of racial prejudice is the only (or even the most important) factor that brings two people together and makes them good partners for one another. It also undermines the belief that experiencing prejudice doesn’t mean a person is automatically awakened to the prejudices other people also experience.

This is also one of the scenes where Ginny truly is unlikeable. Hunter is, too, but he’s unlikeable in a number of scenes throughout the show. He’s the Good Guy™ character in a nutshell–says all the right things, does all the right things, is all the right things, but maybe isn’t all those things for all the right reasons. In this scene, Ginny enacts the prejudicial treatment she’s suffered at the hands of her peers against Hunter; she questions the validity of his identity and the veracity of his experiences of prejudice at the hands of his peers. This scene is the breaking-point where the two have to come to terms with the fact that they’re not compatible even though, on some surface and by some set of metrics, they might appear to be.

Hunter sucks, but so does Marcus–for different reasons, though. Marcus is detached, withdrawn, sarcastic, unmotivated, disrespectful, and dishonest. He’s unaware–and doesn’t attempt to improve at all on this–of how his actions impact other people. He just doesn’t care about anyone but himself–until he does, a little bit. Some part of me has sympathy for Marcus and genuinely likes him; I’ll blame the show for that. Another part of me–the part that’s 30 years old and has known plenty of Marcuses–doesn’t have time for his shit. I’m conflicted, but the majority of me wants Marcus and Ginny to end up together because the things they have in common and the things that bring them together are the things that most people look for in a relationship. Marcus is a lazy shit most of the time, but he makes a genuine effort to understand Ginny. By the end of the season, we see that he also respects her and accepts her as she is–warts and all. He seems to genuinely want the best for her, which is a nice development in character from our first introduction to him, tumbling out of his mother’s minivan after having been caught smoking weed on a street corner. Again, though, he wasn’t always so respectful. His past behaviors make it hard to trust him, so it makes sense when Ginny doesn’t bring him along at the end of the season. It does, though, make you hope that he’s back in season 2 and that we get to see more of their relationship.

Speaking of which, I hope that season 2 also explores Georgia and Joe’s relationship a bit more. It seems like they’re headed in the Lorelei-Luke direction, which will make me happier than words could express, but I could also see the show’s creators flipping the script on us and setting Joe up with his own gloomy backstory–something to do with the ethically ambiguous labor situation he’s got going on at his farm and in his cafe, perhaps? Still, I think that might make him and Georgia even better suited for one another than they already are. After all, he’s one of the first people who showed Georgia true, genuine kindness after she ran away as a teenager.

And of course I want more of Ellen in season 2. The actress who plays her is hilarious and her character is just . . . really likable.

On a somewhat lighter note, one little thing I noticed while watching the show is that the characters slap their thighs a lot. This, again, might by my seasonal allergies brain, but the “[slaps thighs]” notation on closed captioning came up an infinite number of times over the course of this show. It came up so often that I started thinking you could catch the entire plot of the show if someone just spliced together every instance where a character sighs and slaps their thighs. I’d watch that video.

After all that, I still think the parallels to GG are there, but I still defend that G&G is also more than those parallels. And the “more” it offers is good. It’s intrigue; it’s gloomy realities and often-ignored truths that don’t offer viewers a sunny break from reality. But I think that’s good. I don’t like the argument that TV should be a “break from reality” or that a show is good on the sole basis that it offers us a “break from reality.” I think that argument is an excuse used to defend media that is too lazy to do the responsible thing and convey storylines that are inclusive and meaningful.

Well, my laundry is done, so I have to go deal with that. Happy Saturday, and happy initial inoculation!

XOXO, you know.

[survivorfillory]

Tribal Council #6 - Clownie

You should take it as a sign of just how much I hate Alice Quinn as a character that I’ve decided to break the 4-4 tie for the tribe name in favor of a literal demon...

Welcome, Clownie Tribe, to your first merged tribal!

You were all asked questions, but I had zero interest in coming up with 11 game-related questions for y’all, so this is what happened instead!!!

Colin - If you could change Ten (10) Seasons of Survivor to make it so your favorite from the season wins, but in exchange, Cirie Fields was never on Survivor, would you do it?

I dont even think I've watched 10 seasons of survivor tbh and I love Cirie so uh I'm gonna say no???

Dani - What song does the viewing lounge need to know about RIGHT THE FUCK NOW?

Dean - Which Harry Potter character got the worst translation from book to movie?

that would easily be Ginny "waste of space" Weasley. Who literally was reduced to Harry's love interest - even Katie Bell was more interesting than Ginny... where was all the character development? The building of a strong, independent character in her own right? No, let's take everything meanigful about Ginny and make here this boring character who is only concered about Harry and what Harry thinks of her.

Dennis - What’s your most embarrassing childhood memory?

I had an older cousin who I overheard say she was going to be a porn star one day. I had no idea what that was (9yrs old). One day we went to the mall with her parents and a kiosk was selling license plate holders. One said "#1 porn star". I very loudly said "look Angie! #1 porn star!! For you!!" The look on her parents face....

Jacob - You’re at a karaoke night and you have to sing a song. What’s your go-to track?

recently i would go for space cowboy by kacey musgraves too but supercut and dancing queen is my long term brand

Jess - Congrats on immunity! Assign a Buffy the Vampire Slayer character to each tribe member, but don’t give any reasons why you chose them.

Colin- Spike

Dani- Buffy

Dean- Angel

Dennis- Xander

Jacob- Rupert

Jess- Faith

Kage- Riley

Lily- Dawn

Maynor- Oz

Nicole- Cordielia

Stevie-Wesley

Kage - How old were you when you found out Santa wasn’t real? What was the last straw in your belief?

No answer...

Lily - What Disney movie makes you cry the most?

Ah Sweet, Drewie. This is the best tribal question you have asked me all season. Tbh I don’t cry at movies often in general...but I bawled on my 2nd viewing of Up. I don’t want to get into the details but damn. I was real sad. Not sure if I can watch it again.

Maynor - What obscure Pokemon should be the star of their next animated movie, and what would the story be?

i want to see a movie on Delibird. Have a female shiny amd a normal living in the snowy mountains. Where they are going to have to save xmas because a gengar and an alakasam stole the ice heart from their village. And alakasam n gengar live in a cave up the mountain. So they have to travel up and face some of their hencemen (gastly haunter abra kadabra onix hypno drowzee) while the final battle gengar takes down shiny female delibird and she falls into a cave hole not to be seen ever again. Then normal gets emotional and defeats gengar and alakasam. Looks for shiny deli and cant find her. Goes back to return the heart. Articuno comes in thanking deli and reveals that the shiny deli fell on articuno where it was sleeping.

Nicole - What’s your biggest unpopular food opinion?

bitch I love Brussels sprouts idc what anyone says

Stevie - What is the best Emma Stone movie, and why did you pick Easy A?

The best Emma Stone movie is in fact Easy A. First of all, who doesn’t love a good coming of age movie? Especially one shadowing The Scarlet Letter that most people probably had to read in high school. The cast was just great. Penn Badgley? Amanda Bynes pre total meltdown? Aly Michalka? Stanley Tucci? Lisa Kudrow?! ICONIC CAST. And we can’t forget Patricia Clarkson, the reformed slutty mom who brought her husband back to the Hetero life from his stint as a gay man because she is THAT bitch. Their family dynamic was fun to watch in every scene and I needed more of it. “Spell it with your peas!” So she didn’t say “Twat” in front of her little brother is one of my favorite moments. And shortly following the black brother talking about him being adopted and their dad saying “Who told you?!” Is still one of my favorite lines because they are a white family and it’s obvious that they did not have a black baby naturally. Every scene with the family is just filled with jokes and I love it all.

Next we need to talk about Amanda Bynes. The Jesus freak purity cult leader who clearly just needs to get laid. She goes from 0-100 REAL QUICK and down to -100 in a blink of an eye and I feel she did it so well because that’s her in real life. Having a boyfriend that was sleeping with the guidance counselor, who was 22 or something and still in high school, and got chlamydia whilst being in the Jesus purity group was just wild. Honestly thinking in depth about it, this whole movie was just wild. Amanda Bynes’ character was the antagonist that you love to hate and she definitely made the movie.

Seeing Aly Michalka in action again was truly a blessing. The nostalgia of seeing her alone from her Phil of the Future days was enough for me to love her character throughout no matter how much of a stupid bitch she was in the movie when she turned on Olive. Speaking of this, we need to talk about the root of that happening. When Olive gets a card from her grandmother in the mail and it sings “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Beddingfield. ICONIC SONG. And Emma Stone opens the card and says “ugh I hate this song.” Then proceeds to spend the entire weekend jamming out to the song (FROM THE CARD, NOT DOWNLOADING OR STREAMING) until she wears out the card and it dies. Then she lies and says she visited her older brother at college and lost her V card to a guy at his college. Which I think might be community college? I don’t remember fully. What later on in the movie SENT ME was when her phone rings and her ringtone is Pocketful of Sunshine. I was DEAD.

Most importantly Woodchuck Todd was my favorite storyline. He didn’t believe the sluttiness of Olive because of what she did for him from spin the bottle in 7th grade. I shipped them the whole movie and loved how cheesy all of it was. The most exciting part was the musical number of knock on wood at the end during the basketball game. Stellar performance, so extra, and Emma Stone killed it. So yeah these are all the main reasons why I love this movie and I could easily talk about every single thing that happened and dawn over how much I love it all but I will keep it to these fave scenes.

La La Land was a great movie but this was just so entertaining and funny and a great story. And honestly all of it was a bit ridiculous but not too ridiculous that it went to far. It was the right level. Another honorable mention would be Crazy, Stupid Love because that was also a stellar cast, really funny, and overall just great. Had a great reveal in the end. Easy A was just one of the most memorable movies I’ve seen and I love it equally as much, if not more, every time I see it. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk

If anyone has a power and would like to play it, now would be the time to do so!

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NO ONE STANDS.

Once the votes are read, the decision is final. The person voted out will be asked to leave the tribal council area immediately.

I’ll read the votes.

First vote: Stevie

Second vote: Kage (self-vote)

Votes 3-11, and the sixth person voted out of Survivor Fillory and Further,

Kage

Kage, I’m sorry, and I hope you’re doing and continue to do better, but the tribe has spoken.

[locatie]

2019 Gaming Year in Review

This year I beat 21 games! Last year I beat 38, but this year was a little rough on me in many ways, and I had to go a few months without really committing to anything.

I’m going to go through my list of games and jot down a few thoughts I had about them! Spoilers ahead, naturally.

Rating System:

5⭐: An absolute favorite! A game that’s going to stick with me for a long time. Regardless of any flaws I found, I fell deeply in love with these games. 4⭐: A pretty good game! I really enjoyed my time with these ones. They’re not quite perfect, maybe a few story beats or mechanics I couldn’t jive with, but I did still love these as well. 3⭐: A decent game! I didn’t fall in love with these games and the good and bad felt fairly equal. I don’t regret playing these games, but they had a lot of room for improvement. 2⭐: A bleh game. Most of these games were very ‘miss’ rather than ‘hit’ for me. Good concepts are probably buried in these ones, but I struggled to get through them. 1⭐: A terrible game. There is very little about these games that I find redeeming. I probably played them wishing they’d be done already. That I finished them at all is a miracle.

In order of when I beat them, starting with the beginning of the year:

Gris by Nomada Studio

4⭐

A visually gorgeous game. The mechanics were satisfying and made puzzle solving enjoyable, and I adored ‘unlocking’ the colors of the world to restore it to its former beauty. The game only got more beautiful as time went on, and the level design was very memorable to me. Also the soundtrack is one of the best of all the games I played this year, and I keep it on repeat a lot.

Best Part: The art in general. A treat to look at, and it makes for the best desktop wallpapers. Worst Part: The ambiguity in narrative. It’s not too bad, I just wish there was a little more to it.

Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee by Game Freak

4⭐

Despite this feeling like the millionth time they’ve focused on the Kanto region, and the blatant baiting of nostalgia, I appreciated this game. I’m a sucker for having my Pokemon follow me or being able to ride them. Much more accessible than going back and replaying the original R/B/Y games, which I can’t seem to enjoy anymore due to the QOL features that newer games have, so if I ever have a craving for Kanto, this will satisfy me. Not the best Pokemon game though just because Kanto was a pretty boring region visually and they stayed true to that, haha.

Best Part: Pokemon following the player! Riding Arcanine was a blast. Worst Part: Being in Kanto again. Really wish it was Gold/Silver for the double Johto/Kanto region thing, because Kanto alone just isn’t worth it.

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix by Square Enix

3⭐

I liked this game a lot as a kid and was interested to see how I would feel about it as an adult. It’s... something. There’s something always very off when JRPG localized dialogue is voiced -- it’s extremely cheesy to listen to in English, and this game is no exception. Still, I enjoy the sheer absurdity that is mashing up Disney and Final Fantasy characters anyway. The platforming is not remotely fun at all and the story is ridiculous, sometimes not in a good way. Thank god for skippable cutscenes or I wouldn’t have survived the end of this game.

Best Part: The creativity of the worlds. It was such a unique and ambitious concept for its time. Worst Part: The dialogue/story. This might be the only JRPG where the whole ‘friendship makes us stronger’ angle makes me want to strangle a fictional child.

Dear Esther by The Chinese Room

2⭐

I do enjoy walking simulators, but apparently not ones by The Chinese Room. Not as bad as Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, but still...not very enjoyable. I couldn’t seem to process what was going on as it was narrated to me -- I liked how it was written, and I was interested in hearing it, but I dunno. It meant nothing to me. I might replay it and try to grasp it again, really focus on it, but as it was presented to me on the first playthrough, it didn’t grab me. This is what I get for expecting something really good of a game where I wander around aimlessly for a couple hours

Best Part: The writing style is really neat and I enjoyed reading along and being fascinated by the prose. Worst Part: The ambiguity of the narrative. what the fuck is happening. why am i in a cave. who was that i just saw

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey by Ubisoft

4⭐

Not the first AC game I’ve ever played, but the first I liked enough to beat! It’s essentially an action rpg more than ever -- stealth is completely unnecessary if you so choose. I loved Kassandra so, so much, and exploring Greece was extremely fun for me! It was gorgeous and I often found myself wandering around towns and cities, soaking in the sights and feeling pretty dang immersed. I haven’t played the DLC yet but hope to some day. Not a perfect game -- while a lot of side quests are fun, the charm wears off after a while because the gameplay loop of sneaking in and murdering everyone got stale finally after 50 hours. Still, I’d love to go back and replay it some time.

Best Part: Kassandra. Everything about her. I would die for her. Also Greece in its entirety. Worst Part: Every goddamn time Deimos opened his mouth.

Rose of Winter by Pillow Fight

3⭐

A pretty cute but simple visual novel! I liked the protagonist quite a bit and a couple of the romances, but I wished it was longer/more fleshed out. I liked the universe it took place in and the concepts it presented (time travel! Race relations/the variety in cultures!) and would’ve happily played a longer game about these things. The romances leaving me wanting more was a good and bad thing, in the end.

Best Part: The protag! I love this chubby pink-haired knight! She is SO cute and lovely. Worst Part: Lack of depth in the romances. I like drawn-out romances, and these take place over the course of a couple days, and that’s not my bag.

Celeste by Matt Makes Games Inc.

4⭐

My review on this game is a little skewed. I was very bad at it, in the end, and very tired of dying literally hundreds of times in some areas that I had to give myself extra dashes. I had to keep toggling them on and off after giving myself a certain number of tries, because I really wanted to see how this game would play out. The gameplay and design and soundtrack give it the score it has, but the writing it was knocks it down from being a 5 star game. The concept of the story is good! Madeline wanting to reach the top of the mountain for her personal reasons was really lovely but the delivery of it felt very flat. The writing itself didn’t do it justice for me! I only ever see people talk about the gameplay itself and not the story/writing and maybe that’s why.

Best Part: The fact that the developers added accessibility options to people who aren’t very skilled at games, like me, can enjoy a game like this, even if we’re not playing “as intended.” Worst Part: Madeline’s reflection. As a narrative device she’s good, but the dialogue between the two characters was kinda mehhh to me.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt by CD Projekt

5⭐

There’s nothing I can say about this game that a million other people haven’t already said. I loved dad!Geralt. I loved Geralt in general. I did enjoy the first two games but who he was as a character in this game was my favorite. Yennefer was also great, as was Ciri, and the family dynamics were The Best. Also probably the best side quests in any rpg I’ve ever played! None of that radiant quest bullshit or fetch quest nonsense that pad a lot of other WRPGs I’ve been into :/ I still need to finish Blood and Wine, but so far it’s incredible, as was Hearts of Stone. Ugh I have so much to say about how much I loved the music, and Skellige, and Novigrad (Novigrad is one of the best video game cities as a worldbuilding device, imo), but I’ll keep this all brief. Don’t like Gwent at all though!!

Best Part: The entire portion of the game where you have to be a Good Dad or else you get a bad ending. Worst Part: The fact that Iorveth and the entire Scoia’tael subplot was cut entirely yet Roche got to stick around. I hate Roche. Iorveth was way better. Bring back my boy.

Persona 5 by Atlus

5⭐

holy shit. I haven’t beaten a JRPG this good in so long. This game changed what I want out of a JRPG. The soundtrack is phenomenal, the design of everything is impossibly stylish and I never got sick of any of it in the 96 hours it took me to beat the game. I adore Joker, Yusuke, Haru, and Ryuji as characters!! I don’t really care for Akechi and Shido as villains, but the proper final battle was very tense for me and the cutscene that followed felt so good. BIG GUN. Sometimes the palaces were a little tedious, and it took me a really long time to actually finish the game from when I started, because I needed big breaks after chunks of the game, but once I got into the swing of it after Makoto’s introduction as a Phantom Thief and that palace, I was pretty sucked in.

I will never forget my desperate struggle to max my stats by aggressively eating giant burgers until the endgame.

Best Part: The entire ‘student daily life sim’ portion. Managing my time and my relationships was very fun and I loved getting closer to my friends and choosing where to go, how to spend my time. Worst Part: The occasional sexism and homophobia that I had to sit through. Giving Ann agency after the first palace, but then trying to convince her to get naked really sucked, and then those two predatory gay men. Ugh. Oh and Ryuji looking at Ann’s boobs all the time. Seriously? are you for real??

Nier: Automata by PlatinumGames

4⭐

I waffled between giving this 4 or 5 stars, but I think 4 is right. I adored this game to bits, but admittedly didn’t do everything in it that I wanted to. I loved the world, the music, most of the characters, the combat, and that fucking ending. I didn’t like Adam and Eve (their dialogue...was so dumb...), and I was a little eh on route B, since it’s a lot of the same as route A, just from 9S’s perspective. At first I thought it was asking a lot to make me essentially do all the same shit over again, but when everything started changing in the third route, that’s when I was getting really invested. I mean I was already loving it during the first route, I was just slightly skeptical about having to replay a lot of the same things.

Ending E fucked me up though. Hearing Weight of the World didn’t hurt me until that ending, after all I’d been through, and then accepting help and hearing the chorus of voices. Ugh. No ending has ever been like that in a game for me.

Best Part: Sacrificing my data to help some stranger out there, because people do want to help. Humanity can be good. The message that there is worth in having feelings and being alive and real and loving. Worst Part: we really out here sexualizing 2B and looking at her panties a lot, huh.

Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage (Reignited Trilogy) by Toys For Bob

4⭐

This is the Spyro game I played the most of as a kid, and this remaster is incredible. All of the Reignited Trilogy makes the Spyro games look the way that I felt they did when I was a child. Seriously, it’s gorgeous and I can’t believe how true to the originals it is. I had a blast playing this one; it doesn’t get 5 stars, though, because I wouldn’t say this is like a ‘favorite’ game or anything. It’s wonderful, but not mindblowing.

Best Part: Getting to run around the hub worlds and drinking them in -- they’re where I spent hours as a child, and that nostalgic really got to me. Worst Part: the fucking TIMED FLYING PORTIONS

Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (Reignited Trilogy) by Toys For Bob

4⭐

I was really excited to play this one because I didn’t get to beat it as a kid, and it was impossible to emulate because every rom of it didn’t work. Not as good as Ripto’s Rage to me, personally, because I didn’t love the levels where I was the penguin or the monkey. There were a lot of gimmicks, so to speak, in this game that I could do without. Skateboarding didn’t add anything to the experience either, ehh. Still, 4 stars because what Toys For Bob did with the trilogy is amazing and it made me wish games there had been more Spyro games that were like this.

Best Part: I finally got to beat this game after so long and it felt like a childhood wish of mine came true. Worst Part: I never want to be that stupid monkey ever again. Most of these side characters do not feel like they belong in a Spyro game, even though I know they were just trying to innovate the formula.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses by Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo

5⭐

Ohhh my god. I was nervous about another mainline Fire Emblem game, ever since Fates burned me pretty badly with how much I hated that game. Three Houses gave me nearly everything I wanted out of a Fire Emblem game, thankfully. No stupid explanation for offspring, no wasted dialogue between characters that didn’t need to have supports! I fell in love with so many of the NPCs and while the story isn’t perfect, it was a blast to go through and see the multiple sides to the conflict.

I went Golden Deer first and watched most of Amy’s playthrough of Blue Lions. I was in the middle of a Black Eagles run when I got a little burnt out and put it down, but I’m super excited to eventually see what Edelgard’s side of the story is, seeing as I don’t like her in the other routes but I’m shrimpterested in what her possible justification for anything is. Can’t wait for more story DLC whenever it happens!

Best Part: The support dialogues between characters. Also Claude von Riegan, destroyer of racism. Worst Part: the fact that there’s barely any time between Dimitri finally being nice to Byleth and the end of the Blue Lions route. he’s such a growly ass for so long.

Genital Jousting by Free Lives

2⭐

Obviously this game is a self-aware joke and isn’t meant to be much. The reason it got 2 stars instead of 1 is because I played it at a time that I really needed a laugh. I streamed it for my friend and for a while I was happily distracted by the story mode, even if it mostly involves hopelessly sticking my dick head into butts. The narration gave me Stanley Parable vibes, which was amusing, but yeah. Obviously this wasn’t gonna be some game of the year shit

Best Part: Playing with friends and yelling “GET OUT OF MY BUTT” at the top of your lungs. Worst Part: You can only enjoy sticking your dick in butts for so long before you don’t wanna do it anymore

I Love You, Colonel Sanders! by Psyop

1⭐

Yes, I am ranking this game as worse than a game about wiggly dicks. I didn’t have any hopes or expectations for this game, as it was always obviously meant to be a giant advertisement for KFC food, but that’s not even the part that bothered me. I didn’t care or mind the blatant product placement, the millions of mentions of all their herbs and spices and their gross bowls of corn, potato, and whatever.

I was so damn disappointed because it just wasn’t a good visual novel. I spent the whole time comparing it to Hatoful Boyfriend, which is an actually good parody of the entire genre. ILYCS felt more like “ha ha see how fucking weird dating sims are?? See how stupid and absurd the things that happen in them are?” rather than any kind of remotely interesting subversion on the genre. I don’t know why I expected that ILYCS would bother to do that, but I figured if a pigeon dating sim could surprise me, maybe this would too. Bleh.

Best Part: I did succeed in making Colonel Sanders love me, at least. Worst Part: Literally everything else.

The Outer Worlds by Obsidian Entertainment

4⭐

I’m giving this 4 stars, but this game gives me conflicted feelings. I love the companions in this game a lot, but some of them do have slightly disappointing arcs -- Ellie comes to mind for that one. The writing for the dialogue is great, but some of the main quests are just OK. The flaw system is really cool in theory, but I definitely didn’t think of them were worth the perk points, though they’re great if you’re serious about roleplaying.

I did have a lot of fun, but the ending felt very abrupt to me. I got to Phineas and we spoke for a minute, and then the credits rolled. And capitalism sure was bad! That was very heavy-handed. I enjoyed my time with it a lot but I am not itching to replay it. If there’s a sequel, though, I will definitely be on board with it.

Best Part: The dialogue options. They’re so fucking funny. Obsidian is the champion of snarky/witty dialogue. Worst Part: The ending made me the leader when I didn’t really feel prepared for that, I didn’t feel like that was the narrative I built for my character. The ending came at me so fast, it felt wrong.

Tyranny by Obsidian Entertainment

4⭐

If nothing else, Outer Worlds made me crave more of Obsidian’s writing flavor. This is the first CRPG I’ve ever committed to and beaten, and I do not regret that choice. I had tried to play it before but stopped very early on because it’s a lot of reading -- the entire opening has you do so much reading to make choices to kind of build your character’s backstory.

I loved playing a bad guy and accumulating power. My character was so loyal to Tunon and I loved the active development I got to have as someone who was so devoted to being a cog in the machine to someone who realized that they are special, they can be a conqueror, they can shape the world however they want. I know it’s possible to undermine all the bad guys and use your power for good, but eh, this is a game about being bad! It’s wonderful! And it was just long/short enough that it was great for someone just getting into CRPGs.

But. Like Outer Worlds, the ending felt rushed in Tyranny, though in an even more egregious way. Just as the story starts truly kicking off -- you have all this power, I had succeeded in making my superiors bow to me -- the game ends. It seems as though they ran out of time or money to have you actually face off against Kyros, the obvious next step in your plan for domination of whatever flavor. Maybe it was always the plan that taking down the Overlord was sequel material, but the way they built it up, it doesn’t feel right. And the game didn’t do well enough, or so I’ve read, so there will never be a face-off against her. I had such a good time with this game, but the ending left a real sour taste in my mouth.

Best Part: Really feeling like I had earned the power I got by endgame, by ‘playing’ the system. Defeating Tunon by manipulating him into bowing to me had me on edge and I was terrified until I walked out of his room. Worst Part: Knowing I will probably never get a resolution for the fight against Kyros. Really felt like all the cool stuff I did meant nothing.

Pokemon Shield by Game Freak

3⭐

Biiig mixed feelings about this one. I know Pokemon games are not known for their storytelling prowess, but even this one felt insultingly stupid to me. I know they can be good and interesting and posit cool concepts based on the worlds they’ve built. I didn’t like the gameplay of Black/White but I guess since that one tackled the ethics of Pokemon, Game Freak doesn’t want to try making any more challenging storylines.

The world also felt so empty. I never really noticed it in older Pokemon games, but SwSh has all these houses and no one has anything interesting to say. The NPCs aren’t worth talking to except when they give you items. Problems like that are common in Pokemon but I really hoped that bringing it to a home console meant that the game could be bigger and more full of content. The post game is almost nonexistent. For the first time ever, I don’t feel compelled to play long enough to complete my dex.

Best Part: The Wild Area, and doing raid battles with Amy. Playing alongside her and battling together was fun, and it was nice to cut down on the time it would’ve normally taken us to grind. Worst Part: Hop, Leon, and Bede. Worst characters in any Pokemon game, hands down.

Pillars of Eternity by Obsidian Entertainment

5⭐

I had initially tried this game out last year or so, but couldn’t get into it. Beating Tyranny finally made me feel able to tackle this one, and I’m so glad I gave it another chance. For most of the game I was meticulous and did almost all of the side quests, and I felt extremely rewarded by the narrative for doing so. Most of the companions were a joy to be around, and the lore of the world really drew me in.

Thanks to PoE, I think a whole new world and genre of games has opened up to me! But I’ll always feel like this is the first one I really loved.

Best Part: Eder!!! Ok also the themes of the game, especially in White March. Almost a month later I’m still thinking about the meaning to some parts of the game. Worst Part: That part in White March part 2 with the debate I couldn’t win. I understand why it was like that, I didn’t hate it or anything. Just the prerequisites to get the good outcome are bananas and there’s NO way I could possibly get the “good” ending of that dlc without following a guide WAY ahead of time. Oh well!

Katamari Damacy Reroll by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment

2⭐

I didn’t play the first game when it came out. Instead I played the sequel, and that’s the game I have fond memories of, so unfortunately I spent this remake wishing they’d remade that one instead. The controls are more frustrating than I remember, and the level design is kind of meh. I do like that the town gets bigger with (almost) every level, until you’re rolling up adjacent towns and cities, but it wasn’t as fun as the paper crane level or the flower level or the zoo level of We Love Katamari :/ I absolutely pushed myself through this one as fast as possible, no replaying levels for the fun of it.

Best Part: The creativity and absurdity of Katamari as a whole. Rolling around a little Japanese town and finding very Japanese items is fun. Worst Part: The controls. Trying to climb up things is a nightmare and I ran out of time during some levels purely because it was so difficult to climb sometimes.

A Plague Tale: Innocence by Asobo Studio

3⭐

I didn’t know a whole lot about this game going in. I didn’t think the narrative was as incredible and resonating as reviews led me to believe, but it was alright. The first half of the game was very interesting to me -- the perspective of children running away from the Inquisition during the plague was exciting and I feared for these children as they never seemed to be able to get a moment of rest. I did like that Amicia and Hugo needed to build their bond from scratch, and it was full of missteps that I could understand children would make.

However as soon as things got supernatural wrt Hugo’s blood, then I felt like it lost a little bit of the charm for me. I liked the ‘found family in an unforgiving world’ aspects, but then suddenly blood powers happened and the vibe of the narrative changed. Oh well.

Best Part: The progression of power in the game. At first I felt very nervous when sneaking was the only option I had, as I am bad at stealth, but then gradually being able to kill people with my sling and solve puzzles with fire and light and being nearly unstoppable was really cool. I felt like I had earned Amicia’s strength. Worst Part: Hugo’s RAT POWERS and that final boss. just. what.

Untitled Goose Game by House House

2⭐

I wanted to close out the year with something fun and short, but I didn’t expect just how short this game would be. Although, ngl, if it were any longer I think I might’ve gotten rather tired of it anyway. The memes and whatnot that Goose Game gave the internet were worth more to me than the game itself. $20 for roughly an hour of gameplay just feels... bleh. I don’t even normally believe in that whole “$1 per hour of gameplay” stuff that many gamers like to throw around, but this felt like a rip-off. Still, it’s kinda fun to be a wretched little goose.

Best Part: Being a naughty little goose is cute and amusing, and bullying that Griffin McElroy looking boy into the phone booth is the highlight of my experience. Worst Part: It’s a hilarious concept but I don’t feel like I got to harass people half as much as I expected I would. The objectives to find a series of items and dump them somewhere else is just boring.