#and I guess the hype died for a lot of people already

[krimsonwings]

I hope that, in light of his increased popularity because of the movie, that Miguel O’Hara shows up in more Spider-Man media. Like, outside of the Spider-verse movie trilogy.

I see him a lot in his white suit on random merch, usually in the background, but amongst Peter and Miles. Sometimes with Gwen and Anya too.

Marvel has had no problem de-aging characters for media purposes before. Peter has been aged up n down all over the place, and even Tony Stark has been de-aged for a cartoon before, so it’d be cool to see a younger Miguel heroing alongside Miles n Peter.

I could see a teen Miguel getting trapped in the past due to some plot-related future shenanigans. The implication of how he obtained his spider half would be more horrific since he’s younger, but that can be alluded to and left to fanfiction if needed. (But is important to his character and shouldn’t be removed or diluted!)

I just wanna see a teen Miguel having some fun with Peter n Miles (while still being our favorite sarcastic ass).

[passionartx]

Hi!! Firstly, I LOVE your Tangled AU, so glad to see Tails getting more focus in AU’s. I wondering: Do you have any general Tails related headcannons?

Hiya! 💛✨ Thank you so, so much! And ooo this is such a fun question. Tbh, I have too many, I could write an essay! This account isn’t as popular as my au blog since I’m pretty inactive on it so probably only like 3 people will see this… but I hope those hypothetical 3 people enjoy my inevitable waffle and chaos! <3

Will also use this opportunity to hype up some friends and people who’s work I admire!!!

A few of my favourite Tails Headcannons! :

- I love the idea that him and Sonic were 4 and 11 when they first met.

- Sonic will always be Tails’ big brother first and foremost… however, as Aosth Tails put it: “You’re my mom, you’re my dad and you’re my picket fence!”. Sonic having accidentally become the closest thing Tails has to a parental figure has a hold on my heart and I love how writers like @chaoxfix and my homie @myyla-x portray this in their fics!

- After having first met (and honestly even a few years in) if Sonic ever had to leave Tails alone for a while for whatever reason, maybe to protect him from a particular battle, Tails would deal with hardcore abandonment issues. Poor lil guy would fear Sonic wouldn’t come back, that he didn’t want him around anymore (which is made 10 times worse if you headcannon he was abandoned by his parents). Lil guy wouldn’t know what to do with himself <\3

- Tails reminds Shadow of Maria. Probably my favourite Tails headcannon! Though I guess it’s more of a Shadow headcannon… am I using this as an excuse to talk about it? More likely then you’d think. But ahh, those blue eyes, yellowish fur, sweet gentle childlike wonder, love of life and learning + Ian flynn has confirmed given her upbringing Maria was prob a bit of a science kid. Ah <3 Plus that brings the idea of Sonic and Tails’ dynamic reminding him of his with Maria’s and that makes me want to cry. I actually have a WIP fic about this headcannon but it’s been a wip for like a year… hopefully one day I’ll finish it cause I’m literally obsessed with the idea and want to see it through.

^ Also extra nostalgic about this headcannon cause my friendship with @sh-0-w-1-sh literally started cause they were looking for art ideas and I was like TAILS REMINDING SHADOW OF MARIA!!! And here we are almost a year later!

- For better or for worse he’s picked up a lot of his big bros traits. I’m talking puns, poses, that lil nose rub and foot tapping, occasional cockiness, being self sacrificial, the list goes on. Once he realises this or anyone else especially Sonic points it out, he’d probably be super embarrassed and deny it <3

Speaking of picking up habits…

- While he would definitely be scared by certain situations like this ( << the Starline issue 35 and 36 situation being a good example with other people being at risk and him not really understanding the situation or his role in it ) I think Tails would be pretty desensitised to being kidnapped or hostage situations at this point. He’d probably just find it an inconvenience more then anything or be entertained by the hypothetical villains incompetence. Me and @myyla-x had a conversation about this idea once and… it’s been like 6 months and we’re still talking about it. One day that’ll make sense. We got a lil carried away. Just a lil. Anyway someone get this kid therapy. <3

- An already pretty popular one but I felt the need to mention it cause I relate, but he gets so sucked into projects and his inventions that hours and hours can go by and he just zones out and forgot to eat… well, anything but mints at least.

- Tails is a theatre kid. :D Is this self projection? … maybe. If nobody else gets me @guiltypandas gets me <3 :,)

- I think Tails would be in denial if Sonic died. As smart and logical as that little guy is, given how Sonic has beat the unbeatable, has come back before and seems invisible… yeah. <\3 I think he’d always hold onto the hope that it would only be a matter of time until Sonic comes back… even if this time that wouldn’t be the case… my friend @whitecatindisguise actually wrote an amazing fic about this when we talked about the idea called He’s (Not) Coming Back (which if you haven’t already you should totally check out cause it’s amazing! And a heart breaking! The best kinda fic :,) )

- I think Tails has a heart of gold…but I also think depending on certain circumstances if he hadn’t have met Sonic he could have gone down a much darker path (which I guess ended up being somewhat proven with Nine in Sonic Prime!). Me and @casperangel have screamed about this too many times then I can count and it haunts me.

- Tails is a sweetie, a cutey patooty, like an adorable little house cat… but similarly (and yet again as proven thanks to Prime!) Tails definitely has a feral side. Especially if he hasn’t gotten enough sleep or gets his mints confiscated. @dunkinbublin and @studioboner ‘s accounts are absolute goldmines when it comes to Tails multitasking being an adorable lil guy and a feral lil menace!

- Tails and Tangle have sibling energy! I mean, Tails is basically everyone’s adopted little brother, Knuckles and Amy especially, but I think him and Tangles dynamic isn’t talked about enough and I’m super glad we’ve had some sweet moments with them in the comics! @pocketscribbs is feeding the Tails and Tangle nation fr <3

This was super fun! Thank you so much again for asking and I hope you have an amazing day! And if someone actually read all of this… you’re a trooper :,) <3

[witchthewriter]

𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

⤷ female, ambiguous race, and any size reader. Requests are open, thank you for reading!  

a/n: So I’m writing this off vibes and what I can find from google/youtube, m’kay? Love you, thanks for reading🥀 (edited)

ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ      

(I’M GUESSING THE MBTI, HOGWARTS HOUSE, ALIGNMENT, AND ZODIAC, OKAY?! well it’s more of a guesstimate...) 

🌿ENFP 🍁Gryffindor 📜Chaotic Good 🔮Aries Sun, Scorpio Moon, Gemini Rising  

SFW🌿

⭑ Harwin never ceases to make you smile. And it was this very ability that you fell in love with, long before your marriage. 

⭑ Being at court wasn’t easy. The politics felt like a whirlwind of chaos and debauchery. You had wished your father would let you leave, but alas, he wanted you to marry someone with station. 

⭑ Within your first days there, Rhaenerya befriended you. Her white-blonde hair caught your attention immediately. But her wit and daring truly captured your attention. 

⭑ So when it was her little brother’s birthday, you and your family were invited to the celebration. And that’s where you met Harwin. 

⭑ Your father was unhappy with the courtship. Harwin Strong was barely the match that he desired. 

⭑ But you persisted since you couldn’t give a fuck about tradition. This was your life, and you were going to live it however you wish to. 

⭑ Harwin brings you up in every conversation when you aren’t there. He absolutely fawns over you. He talks about what you wear, what you’ve made, what you said to someone etc. 

⭑ And he LOVES when you wear his clothing, especially his shirts, and you wear nothing else

⭑ He is constantly proud of you, and just so happy that you’re his. 

⭑ Your wedding wasn’t huge, but it ended being pretty big because Harwin has a lot of friends (during sailing, battles etc.) 

⭑ And because he has a good heart, he helped the families of those whose male members died in battle. So many people love him and want the best for him. Therefore, your wedding was bigger than expected. People just showed up. 

⭑ Harwin cried when he saw you walk down the aisle 

⭑ He’ll randomly tilt your chin up so he can kiss your forehead 

⭑ Doesn’t care who is around, he’ll dance with you, sing for you; he’s just an outgoing chap

⭑Definitely your hype man

⭑ He gives left overs to the poor and homeless

⭑ He hates the royals and thinks money should be put into housing those who live on the streets

⭑ His pet names for you are ‘Love,’ ‘Honey,’ and a variation of her name or last name; just to tease you. 

⭑ He’s more of a morning person than a night owl

⭑ And he loves watching the sun rise and set. 

⭑ A man cat-calling you while you’re walking with Harwin, and he calls back, “I wouldn’t say that if I were you mate. She’s got a strong right hook,” 

And the guy is like ??? “Women can’t hit” 

   And a fire ignites in your belly and you narrow your eyes like a hawk looking at its prey. “Do you want to find out?” And the way you say it is so guttural, that even Harwin gets goosebumps. 

  So the cat-calling asshole goes, “sorry miss,” and sits back down. 

⭑ Relationship Tropes; 

  ✧ Forbidden Love

  ✧ Constant Banter

  ✧ He Loves Dangerous But Is Actually A Sweetheart x You Look Like A Sweetheart But Is Actually Dangerous

NSFW🔞minors dni!

⭑ Harwin would be a very passionate lover. He’d like sex to be rough and fast; ravishing you with his hands, his lips, his cock. 

⭑ He’d grab fistfuls of your hair and kiss you so deeply that you think you might faint.

⭑ Harwin would love head. He’d often fantasize about ramming your throat with his cock, burying himself deep inside your mouth. 

⭑ He would most definitely want to have sex everywhere. The library, outside in a field, on the beach shores, in the bath, in the castle hallways. 

⭑ Imagine him roughly pushing you up against a wall and pulling your skirts up, doing everything he can to be fast so no one sees you outside. His pants dropping and cock, already stiff and hard, easing inside of you. 

⭑ He’s a moaner but not an obnoxious one. His voice sounding in your ear, his pleasure racks his body. 

⭑ Harwin is more than likely a dom. Liking to manhandle you and pushing you around. Not that you mind in the slightest. 

⭑ He likes to kiss you after he cums in your mouth. 

⭑ And his favourite flavour isn’t mead or chocolate, but the one between your legs. 

⭑ He would spontaneously wrestle you to the bed, planting warm kisses on your lips, cheeks, neck, and stomach. Even then he would make you laugh, his beard tickling you.  

⭑ Oh and YES HE WOULD BE REALLY GOOD AT EATING YOU OUT. Absolutely filthy he would be. Pushing his fingers inside of you, licking them, and making you do the same. 

⭑ He loves slapping your ass, and sex is the only time he’s allowed to do that without repercussions 

⭑ Aftercare with Harwin is usually cuddling. But if sex was messy, you push him out of bed and tell him to get you a cloth so you can clean up

[rivalriotrenegade]

Random Werewolf Jason Todd Head Cannons pt 1.

Soooooo, this one is was made for you Miraclecherry. Thank you for reposting my works and just hyping them up so much :) It’s not a lot but I really do hope you like it. :D

As you can probably guess werewolf Jason Todd is territorial of what he considers to be his. This includes but is not limited to: food, rooms or areas of the house, clothes, his personal belongings, blankets and people he considers of importance. ie you. 

Since he is so territorial his wolf will often just decide that “Hey, this is mine now.” Of course he doesn’t steal from stores because he’s better than that! And by better I mean if some drug lord or crook has it, hippity hoppity that’s now his property. I mean what are they gonna do? Tell him no? Call the cops? Lol. Yeah, that’s not happening. 

Anyways! At the beginning of your relationship you can’t have shit around Jason. Your favorite blanket? It’s his now. The ice cream you’ve been saving? Good luck prying that from his hands. Leave your clothes anywhere other than your room? Hahaha, yeah you're not getting that back for a while. (He makes a ‘nest’ with stuff that smells like you so you’ll get it back when your scent is too hard to smell) This man will even go so far as to snag your shampoo because and I quote “It smells like you.” Yeah no duh Jason! (You did manage to get your shampoo back tho) 

Now Jason already loves to pick you up and hold you. (No matter how heavy you are this man can and will lift you because you quite literally weigh nothing to him) BUT in his werewolf form Jason's love to pick you up amplifies by 10x. The instinct in him to just hold you close and cuddle the hell out of you is far too strong for him to resist. Not to mention when in that form everything in him is screaming to keep you safe and what better way to do that then by having you securely snuggled in his arms?

Jason adores it when you kiss him. Honestly the first time you kissed him he thought he somehow died and went to heaven. He gets this goofy, lopsided, lovesick grin on his face when you kiss him and your kisses make him go weak in the knees. Every. Single. Time. 

Praise is a must for this man. He has a lot of self doubt and to hear someone praise him (especially when it comes from the person he loves the most) means a lot to him. Something he will NEVER admit to liking is when you call him “My good boy” It sets every single one of his nerves ablaze and gets his heart hammering in his chest like nothing else. At the end of the day you’re Jason's end game. He wants nothing more than to please you. His precious mate. He would give you the stars and the moon if you so asked. 

[unwinthehart]

okay so prima di tutto, scusa because i'm using your ask to share a lot of messy thoughts and nonsense about the sanremo duets:

annalisa with lrdl and bigmama 🤯 MI TREMA IL CULO just thinking about it, it's going to be a bopponeeeeee

i had to literally look up clara's song because i wasn't sure i understood it's El ciclo de la vida, but… i have a little bit of hype to see what they do ngl 🙃

occidentali's karma is back for good (i still think it deserved a better esc spot even though 3 of the top5 from that year were my favs)

geolier really said "i came to win"

there will be a lot of momenti fazzoletti but "who wants to live forever" will be my top

i think i'm one of the few people who didn't want irama to duet with rkomi. like, i LOVE them but at the same time i knew it'd be a little too much. keen to see what he brings to sanremo

i'm so glad that the rumors were right and mahmood will duet with i tenores di bitti. when he decides to go to sanremo, we all know he doesn't play around. he's here to win and all our cuoricini li ringraziano 🛐

la sad con rettore will make fanta points. same with ricchi e poveri ft. paola e chiara (sarà perché ti amo supremacy)

renga and nek said "if this hell of a contest is not about us, we are leaving"

sangiovanni with aitana…………….. i'm really going to have to watch the two worst hispanic-italian collabs in one week: these people in sanremo and beret with mr. rain in benifest. i don't deserve such a level of suffering. yes i'm the #1 hater of collaborations turning into a lousy translation of the song that doesn't fit the tempo, i wish they did a medley of songs from both because i would love to see ariston dancing to Aitana's hits

santi francesi make me tremendously curious but i think that's exactly why they always get me so hooked…

if you've made it this far, thank you… and sorry 😅

I literally asked for this, so it's completely fine by me! ahaha I wholeheartedly agree with "mi trema il culo", I'm already seated. We WILL survive, but barely. Yeah Clara's singing the song from The Lion King. It's a whole thing, but good for her I guess? lol Geolier absolutely didn't come to play, like many others, but he truly went all out. It's gonna be absolutely fucking crazy. I'm gonna be so insufferable.

Momenti fazzoletto for sure: I would add Angelina because, as I said in another ask, she's gonna sing a song by her late father and the song itself is deeply emotional. Yeah I'm not that mad about the missing Rkomi & Irama opportunity, they did (are doing?) a tour together after all, and Irama will be another one of the "fazzoletti moments". He can do great with that song and his voice. La Sad-Rettore/Ricchi & Poveri with Paola & Chiara will be pure CINEMA. I'm so here for that. Mr Rain is on thin fucking ice, what with the Benidorm thing too, but he's chosen a song that always makes me fucking cry, so lol I agree with the Aitana-Sangiovanni thing: it would have been nice to hear some more of her songs, to do a medley. Sigh. I'm still deciding about Mahmood tbh. I thought the exact opposite, like he didn't care about competition at all (there would have been choices more "paracule" to do that), but just about doing a classy thing. An emotional performance. It will be undoubtedly good, not sure how much the juries and televotes will eat that out.

[world-of-wales]

Is India really going to be renamed as 'Bharat'?

Aah you are gonna get me banned from here and red listed by the Indian govt 😭😭😭 buckle up, this will be a long one

So, bharat is already a name for the country. It's the Indian hindi name. So the constitutions Article 1 says 'India that is Bharat shall be a union of states.....' so it's already a name.

Now the government seemingly had no problems with the name ' India' before this month really. Infact in 2016 some conservative nationalist had gone to the Supreme Court petioning that we need to change the name since 'India's a foreign name, colonial etc etc' and back then, the same government had said no need to change it, it's the choice of the people. You wanna call it India you can, or if you wanna call it Bharat you can.

Now it's just rumors at this point but the people have been saying pretty much that the government is going to change the name. Media houses have hyped the rumor up. Celebrities have jumped in etc. Full on political storm at this point.

So the issue comes from the fact that the opposition basically all the opposition parties came together and formed an Alliance for the next elections happening in 2024 and they named themselves I.N.D.I.A. And since the day they formally decided to come together, it's only been political drama. Now you can easily guess where this thing about changing the name has come from. It's nothing but blatant insecurity.

The ruling party is not doing well there's been a lot of issues of their own doing. They're losing state elections. They've lost a lot of momentum due to their mishandling of a lot of things especially the Civil War situation in the state of Manipur, the way they have used religion as a way to divide people all across the country, the very high inflation, the basically non response to the environmental crisis - sinking of Joshimath, flash floods all across the country this monsoon, the washing away of roads, buildings collapsing like a house of playcards basically in the state of himachal. The government's Covid response? Disgusting.

Then there's a lot of other problems like for example the Indian wrestlers were protesting against the chairman of their federation. He's a bjp mp and the atheletes were accusing him of sexual harassment and the government didn't respond for a long time. He resigned but he still an MP in Parliament by the way.

Then the controller and auditor general (CAG) the one who actually audits the govt accounts, all the expenditure on the Indian treasury etc. They've actually released reports saying that a lot of the developmental projects have used excess money than what they were supposed to have used as per the initial estimates so that's another thing. Also there's very little press freedom, almost non exisitent freedom for activists. There's very little transparency especially when it comes to things established by this government.

They also tend to also put the laws in the constitution on the back burner and do their own thing as per their own whims. Don't even get me started on the kind of expenditure they are doing for the G20 summit happening right now. And the other things surrounding it in terms of organization etc, just search about what they've done to the low income areas of Delhi during this time on the internet and you'll find out

These are just a few issues, there's a lot more and I'm not putting them here since it's already turned into an essay. But safe to say that M*di and his govt would have had very stiff competition in the elections next year because a large population of the people are just not interested in their whataboutry now and want the real tangible things to be done on ground in terms of Healthcare, planning, education etc.

And if they actually do it, change the name I mean then it is basically a last ditch by the government to get their ardent supporters back on their side, give them a shot of nationalism and make sure they vote for them next year.

Legally speaking article 1, which I mentioned above it can be amended but till what level can you amend it? That's what I'm unsure about and I have been researching for the past few days, so still in the process of it. Because the thing is that the Indian constitution is both rigid as well as flexible. Basically means that, you can amend the constitution but you can't encroach upon or you can't change its basic structure like the main tenants which make it the document that it is. So I'm not particularly sure over how much the first article be amended to facilitate this name change. It's not even a name change really it's the deletion of one of the names.

The name which is basically what everybody knows the country as. If they do change it then it would be nothing but a political gimmick but also it will be a waste of a lot of taxpayer money. I'm honestly scared to calculate how much it would cost and what all would need to change from people's legal documents, to names of state institutions, their documents, the public sector firms, educational institutions etc.

Another issue is the language, Bharat is the Hindi name and a lot of states might not accept given the fact that their local languages have always been given a lower position as compared to the North Indian Hindi. Then there's the history attached to it the name India and the govt will be basically bulldozing all that has been associated with it if they delete it.

Now people who've never actually opened a book up in their lives say that this is a name given by the British so it's our Colonial Legacy etc, but the thing is the name 'India' is actually related to the ancient Greeks who used to trade with the people of the indus Valley civilization. Locally the indus river was known as 'sindhu' and they in their own language translated it to 'indus' and thus, the word India came into being - the people who lived on the indus Valley were thus called 'Indians'. And then this name India given by the Greeks was later exported to other western cultures etc. So not a colonial Legacy after all.

A lot of other things also but the gist is that the name change/name deletion situation is a very slippery slope to go down.

Once again saying that it's just rumors at its point, but I won't be surprised that they are thinking it. the government is known to take pretty significant and often rash decisions without any prior information to anybody. Still it's just rumors till now.

[night-market-if]

AHHHHH The last chapter, just AHHHHHH, it was expected, but unexpected, I, I just can't.

I think, I dont know if this was an error or purposely, but when you are talking with <3Malcolm<3 and you have the options "I do/I'm sorry/ I could" talking about Milo and if you love him, in "I'm sorry" option, you go to the same page than "I could", again I don't know if you wanted in that way or not, but just in case I told you xD

SPOILEEEERSSSSSS

I'm so hyped for the next chapter, I can already see my MC, someone who really are a "Kuudere stereotype" (more or less he is a "serious and sarcastic type of character who is often cold, blunt, and cynical without showing any signs of emotion". But this is all facade, inside they are very affectionate, at least when it comes to their loved ones) losing his shit with all the things happening and busting in flames and drama because:

"really, I was wandering like a lost puppy all over the market for so long meanwhile people here were busy making necromancy shit, broking spines, buying-selling people as prison system and my f-ing lover/boyfriend whatever we are, (BECAUSE I EVEN DONT KNOW WHAT THE HELL WE ARE) were more worried hiding the secret I almost died for a couple of times and telling shit like "be careful" ohhhh im going to be careful, dear of course im going to, I'm going to be very careful when I catch you cause im going to kill you" and "all the people here are just worrying about keeping their secrets and making shit decisions instead of worrying about the end of the world so f u guys"

The meme of a doggo saying "Im fine" meanwhile siping it's cafe in a house in flames? That is my mc outside, inside is the meme of "gimme yo f-ing money!!" CHAN CHAN LAW & ORDER Special victim unit Being the girl my MC and all the other character and drama the doll.

Can we please choose to lost our shit? I will love my usually calm MC losing his cool and exploding in a flurry of pent up emotions (I love drama)

The worst of all? I know im going to feel so bad about Milo that, surely im going to choose the meaner option only to know the way he will react but then im going to go back and choose the better option for his mental health cause, lets be honest, the poor guy needs not a therapy, but a whole psychological office, poor baby boy.

PS: Malcolm is the sexiest, charmer cutest boy ever and every time he talk my MC simp, a lot. I loved the head?canon about him talking with the lamp lights and now I cant stop thinking about it

Okey, maybe its better for me to stop rambling, thank you so much for all your hard work! Really, you are writing a master piece, I hope you have a beautiful day

That was for sure a bug! I got it all fixed up for the next update. Kicking myself that that one got messed because the "I'm sorry" portion was kind of important for a future romance. But! I guess that's why we have wips. LOL

I like the headcannon MC you got going. That is awesome. And oddly works really well I think for a Milo romance. I think Milo needs someone that can put him in his place occasionally and who is not afraid to call him out on his bullshit. In chapter twelve, it is going to much more be about getting the information he is holding back. There are going to be some moments to get angry with him but there is a lot going on in the last chapter that it won't be the focus. But I promise you, it is going to happen in book 2. There is no way Milo could even be in the game anymore without a confrontation of some sorts. I'll let the reader handle how they would like to see that confrontation but it will be there.

🪷✨🪷✨ If you want to support me 🪷 ✨🪷✨

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[fuckyeahmercury]

It seems many people have left from Queen fandom. I'm so sad that no one sees my post, but I love Queen so I'll keep blogging. Your blog is a big pillar of Queen fandom. Please you going to keep blogging.

yes I guess the fandom migrated to instagram or basically vanished into thin air after the borhap hype died down. but I think there's still a lot of great Queens fans here. you just have to look for them and approach them if you're really eager for that connection, discussion and fangirling. but if you post Queen stuff just for the notes and reblogs then you may be in trouble. Tumblr in general is not as popular anymore and the ones who survive here are usually older blogs that already have amassed a huge following. I don't think I'd be here if it wasn't for the followers and so many people visiting the page everyday still 🙏 it just wouldn't be worth it since it's a lot of work sometimes to keep it going. Roger says chin up 💪

[yuzu-all-the-way]

FaOI 2023 Makuhari Day 2 - Impressions

It's kind of what happens when people already know what's happening during the show - the hype dies down, quite a lot. I woke up at 6 a.m. randomly and found out MORE photos from Day 1 were published. Naturally, I wasted no time and saved them - I compiled some of them in the OP2, EX2 and Finale2 posts. Yuzu truly shines when he's in his element, or rather, on his element aka ice-chan ☺(excuse my poor attempt at a pun)

After saving the photos, there was still more than an hour to go before the second day of Fantasy on Ice 2023 began, so I decided to rest my eyes for a bit. I ended up sleeping through 3/4 of the show, so I missed the reports in real time about the 2nd day's opening. I quickly found the relevant posts and there wasn't really much info about it, but one thing that caught my eye - Yuzu, apparently, is acting very cat-like in the OP. I guess we'll have to wait until the live broadcast tomorrow to fully understand what that means or why he's doing it.

This time, the 4T was cleanly landed followed by a high-kick. With that trademark combination ticked, I can finally rest assured that FaOI has truly started and it's not just a fever dream. You'd have thought the photos are enough to confirm the reality of it all.

Once I caught up with the (not so much) info about the opening, I patiently waited for the second half to conclude and find out the shenanigans Yuzu was up to for his EX and Finale. In the meantime, of course the twitter timeline was losing its mind, still, at all the new photos still popping up from Day 1. By the way, seems like Yuzu did a layback spin yesterday in the Finale, but no one really said anything about it. Do excuse the poor quality, unfortunately, no media has made this public, it's a stock photo from Aflo.

There really can't be FaOI if Yuzu doesn't progressively get more daring by the day. Reports quickly started pouring in with the absolutely very important information that, at the end of IF, his new program, he took of the jacket and the audience lost it. I see taking off the jacket is quickly becoming a FaOI tradition. Apparently, Yuzu knows exactly how to serve and keep it interesting. Patiently waiting for the recorded broadcast on 9th July for this gem.

More about IF: I was too excited yesterday that I forgot to talk a bit about the program itself. Some footage was released on the news of what the program looks like. It reminds me of Ashura-chan, but not too much. It's a fast-paced program, it has two 3Lo jumps, and the most baffling detail: IT STARTS WITH A CAMEL SPIN. There's no program EVER that started with a spin - Yuzu keeps revolutionizing figure skating and that says a lot about his nature as a pro athlete.

The one thing I was truly curious about, though, was the finale wacko combination jumps. From the sound of it, there was no such thing yesterday, so I held out hope that maybe today there'd be something, and it was. A 4T3A (step out) - 3T (or 3Lo, depends on who you want to believe - once again, 9th July will reveal all).

Unpopular opinion, maybe, but I find it a bit weird that Yuzu is not nailing the jumps so early in the tour. I mean, we know last year he did perfectly well in the beginning, but as the tour progressed, he got more tired, so the jumps became less perfect. Anyway, with all that Yuzu has accomplished in the past year (wow, almost a year since he turned pro), a wobbled jump on the first day of FaOI and a small error on a combination jump on the 2nd day (after an intense solo program, might I add) it's perfectly alright.

All that matters is that Yuzu is having fun and he keeps surprising us. He said a while ago he feels like he's running out of ideas, but Fanyus seem to have an abundance of them and maybe, just maybe, Yuzu is taking inspiration from them. For example, Henni147 suggested in her Challenge4Yuzu thread that he should start a program with a spin - he did 😉

[elie-draloup]

Lists of my theories and thoughts during my lost future playthrough (maybe not in the right order because my files are a mess and also this is way too long).

Spoilers for the first three games and also for the movie Patema Inverted :

- Hmm, ok no I'm not buying this, this can't be future London. It's never curses, it's never vampires, so it can't be the future. But then...What is it ? Can't be hallucinogenic gas, they've done it already. Maybe a massive underground thing like in Patema with a fake sky and fake stars and everything but that seems far-fetched. Like, in Patema they had hundreds of years to build the whole thing so yeah no too much work. WAIT WAIT WAIT I KNOW. What if it's actually MIRROR LONDON ?! Like, some rich guy built an entire district and hid it behind the horlogy wich can probably rotate on itself. That would explain why the ground is shaking when the "time machine" operates. And they tell us to take the subway, so I guess we can't access much more without it, probably because even the richest guy can't hide that much of an entire district in such a big city so had to built the rest somewhere else. Now why even bother building a mirror London... I don't know. And who are the people who lives here ? Actors ? Robots ? Massively mentally manipulated people ? And why does it look like a post apocalyptic thing ? Maybe it was a part of London where they accidentally threw a toxic bomb or something and now the place looks miserable and that's why whoever the antagonist of this opus will be managed to buy it, because London didn't want it anyway. And Maybe the politic guy who died at the beginning was actually murdered because he knew too much (like, hey, you sold me this abandoned part of London, thanks, now you may die or Layton will find everything out after asking you two questions). No wait the scientist guy died too. I've only started the game and there's two dead guys already what the heck.

-That kid with the tiny eyes is DEFINITELY a robot.

-I can't believe the Professor actually decided to just go with it. If I'm right and it's not future London but mirror London, then there's no future Luke and someone is trying to trick them. The Professor proved himself able to make an awful lot of enemies based on misunderstandings (and whatever Don Paolo has going on), so I wouldn't be surprised if we met someone who hates him or something for some mysterious reasons. I don't know where this is going exactly but apparently there's the mafia and honestly the only thing I can think of right now is Layton having troubles with Team Rocket and I want a pokemon crossover now.

-list of questions : Who sent us the letter ? What the heck is this place exactly ? Is there a tiny chance that we're really in the future ? (Won't believe it until I've seen future Luke) ? How does this relate to the incident with the time machine presentation? Are the watchmakers involved in this ? They have to. But who are they and why would they take part in this ? What even is this ?

-FUTURE LUKE IS REAL, AND WE HAVE EVIL FUTURE LAYTON I'M HYPED.

-Ok so why and how Layton could have turn evil ? Well, it's defenitely related to the woman in the flashback. Who is very probably supposed to be dead (I mean common, the Professor was literally shaking when he saw her in the street. That's the reaction of someone who have just seen a ghost.) Love+grief+obsessive behavior+no therapy = polite and evil mafia boss trying to change time to save a loved one. It could happen to anyone, honestly, as long as you're under circumstances that blurrs your sens of reality (feelings can do that).

But then, if the lady is supposed to be dead, who was the person we met in the street ? And why is she here ? Maybe we have a Katia thing going on, and it's, in fact, his hidden daughter or something? I'm getting more and more confused about the timeline, but if they've met in their twenties, and if Layton is in its 40-something, it could track (Layton strikes me more as a 35-ish man but he has dots as eyes so it's kinda tricky to tell. I don't remember if he ever told his age in the two previous games.)

Anyway, whoever is the woman we actually met in the streets, this whole "Layton becomes evil" thing is probably related to the woman he seemed to be in love with in the flashback. Maybe he saw the presentation, and his brain went " Hey I could cheat grief with this" and decided to use time travel as a way to save his first love from whatever tragedy has (very probably because come on what else could it be )killed her. The more he worked on it, the more he became desperate, and despair slowly made him fall into madness. Love has the weird power to turn people into monsters when on an unhealthy level and nobody, not even Hershel Layton can be 100% sure they'll never get trapped in the spiral of pain and destruction that ensue. Basically Anakin Skywalker. (And then we can have Layton telling his future-self "this is not what love looks like" because that line from Centaurworld is cool and would fit so damn well in this scenario)

Now... the implications of this : Him deceiving Luke, our boy spent 10 years spying and scheming against the Family apparently (I want a swordfight between future Luke and future Layton now because come on it would be cool. Layton can't risk fighting himself after all. It could be so damn cool. Imagine evil Layton ending up threatening to hurt our Luke so future Luke can't fight back but future Layton take a weirdly long time to actually harm Luke (because he can't) then our Layton makes a long reveal speech about whatever the heck this plot is hiding, and reminds his future self that he loves his apprentice *cough*son*cough* too, and he loves London too, and none of them should pay the price of his grief and boom problem solved. With some trauma but still. Swordfight. )

Also Flora probably flew away to her hometown OR is either held captive by/actively working with future Layton. I want to see Flora more in this game so I'm hoping for one of the later.

- Wait, Luke has parents ?! Well... there dies my found family headcanons. I thought he was a stray kid sleeping in the university's library or something.

-Sooo... Future Luke is getting waaaay too suspicious. Everything seems too... easy. Like we went to China Town. A supposedly very dangerous place. And just went back without much trouble. I don't know... I think Future Luke is definitely lying to us. 100% he never really left Layton's side and is actually working for him. Maybe he's the one who's going to realise the craziness of all of this and switch side in the climax ? But yeah, for now... He's definitely working against us. Maybe that's why he seems to still hold our professor in great esteem despite what he'll become : He followed his mentor in the dark side.

-Excuse my language professor, but breaking a promise you've just made to a teen you swore to take care of with a known past of abandonment and loneliness issues is a fucking bullshit move. Flora deserves better, come on.

-YES FLORA YOU GO GIRL. And Chemley and Barton too, triple win !

- SOOOOOoooo, turns out there's no future Layton, it was Dimitri all along ! The dead scientist guy who is in fact not dead (and Bill isn't dead either, he's just an hostage) And also Don Paulo is there, and actually he's named Paul, and has a backstory know

(and wants to protect Flora for some reasons ? Where does this come from ?). I'm starting to doubt this whole "time travel" thing... since I've known that future Layton was actually Dimitri.

Besides Luke, the two other people we saw as "aged up" were actually Paul in disguise. So in fact... Luke is the only aged up person we've met. And it seems... rather strange ? Why haven't we crossed path with at least one person we would have known from our time ? It's... Yeah. Future Luke is definitely hiding something. Maybe he's not even from the future. Perhaps he's not even Luke. However... Everyone here lives as if they were real people living here, they seem real.

They already did the robots thing, the illusion thing, so it can't be that. What if this place exists in our time after all. I'm back on the mirror London theory because honestly I can't think of anything else and after the Dimitri and Don Paolo reveal it's definitely not time travel.

Oh wait wait. Remember the bunny ? Number 3 ? He said that one of experiments consisted of "transferring " him in a different room. So there's also the possibility that its not time travel, but teleportation.

.... Nah, it doesn't make sense. The dragon tower had a secret exit. Who need to build an emergency exit when you have teleportation technology. Definitely Mirror London.

But what about the whole "saving Claire" thing then ? Well... Just because time travel doesn't exist yet doesn't mean that Dimitri can't be working on it.

Anyway... I'm starting to wonder who "Future Luke " really is. He do look like an older version of Luke... But this game taught me to be wary of conclusions when the only proof is a face. In a world where a thirty-ish guy can disguise himself as a convincing late-teen girl, faces lie.

But wether he's Luke or not... What does he want ? For someone who seemed to have spent years trying to stop his mentor, in an attempt to get his friend back and change the course of time, he's weirdly unfazed when Dimitri reveals that he has been a fraud the whole time. Future Luke should have shown more concern like"but then what happened to my mentor ?". And yet... he didn't. Who the heck is he.

-Not mirror London, but underground London. Come on, I was close. At least I got that the time travel was bullshit.

-Haven't seen the mass murder terrorist thing coming though.

[william-s-churros]

painful definitive edition thoughts from one playthrough lol

i mean its lisa, so am i gonna complain that much? the campfire conversations are a nice touch, but they're so sporadic and im not sure how to trigger them so i wasted a lot of time and resources trying to get the damn things to happen. as for the rest of the game tho, it really is pretty much exactly the same, just with an added layer of frustration to get bonus content thats like. fine i guess. the terry convo is obviously very charming and sweet but its kinda like i feel like the trailer/promo material kinda overpromised this feature lmfao

SPEAKING of overpromising... i was really hoping for more enemies lmfao.... area 3 has always felt extremely unbalanced to me and i was kinda hoping like. something would be done about that, but it wasnt, so whatever. i do feel like im the promo stuff it was stated there would be more battles but perhaps i just misunderstood?

anyways, its lisa! obviously i had fun playing it. i was just kind of hoping it would be like... harder.... or like maybe had an even harder mode than pain mode... outside of savescumming to bring back guys who died in battle and falling off a cliff once, i think i only game overed during battle once? i dont give brad joy and i usually play one-armed, tho i have beaten it armless and even then i still didnt struggle as much as i hoped i would... oh how i miss the highs of being killed by the mens hair club like 5 times before getting into the proper groove of things and the rush of finally defeating them... i guess this is just what happens when youve played a video game like 20 times.... you git gud as they say. sometimes i really appreciate the ability to stunlock (for ex, when fighting an enemy with permadeath moves lol) but sometimes being able to do that really detracts from the challenge ykwim?

who knows, tho. theres probably some kind of fanmod for masochists like me out there and maybe i should look for it. most of the ones i have seen as qol mods that make painmode easier which is basically the opposite of what i want lmfao.

anyways, all in all-- its lisa! most of the character information i got from campfire conversations is extremely compatible with my own headcanons already too so lmao. its validating i suppose! but its kind of on me i think for hyping it up in my own head. i am curious to see what becomes of this fandom as more people play this game this way.

ive heard theres a secret ending if you get all the companions that im gonna try for next. maybe its all worth it... we'll see.

also i still gotta play joyful! i do wonder if a lot of the changes made were to joyful bc that game felt like such an afterthought in many ways lmfao. we'll see igss! im probs gonna keep replaying these games forever because i love them, but yeah. i guess i was expecting more lmfao. but i still liked it! and im excited to try and get other things, but i do sort of feel like like easter-eggy character interactions is cheap in terms of replay value for me anyway, maybe id feel differently if i were still at that stage with the game that i found the battles really challenging and stuff, idk, lmfao

OH EDIT; super appreciated the toning down if not outright omission of the antiblackness in the original game, altho the american indian stuff was still pretty stereotypes, tho im not entirely sure what you could do abt that besides a complete overhaul of the blood moon area lol

[bettsfic]

betts your obiwan posting makes me want to watch it, as a prequel fan. i havent looked at star wars in ages and dont have disney+ is this worth pursuing??????

i was certain, CERTAIN, i would be immune to Obi-Wan Kenobi (dir. Deborah Chow, 2022). for 17 miserable years i've been adamant that should disney exhume hayden christensen's acting career for the sake of new darth vader content, i would not be among its audience.

i've been angry most of my life about the prequels--not just that i loved them while recognizing they didn't live up to their potential and that the success of the franchise was largely because a mediocre dude had the right idea at the right time 45 years ago. but also what i loved about the prequels went totally unseen by many fans and made me feel very alone and like i was just making things up (i've since found a lot of people who love the prequels in the same way i do).

what made me angriest though was the unfair and wildly offbase criticism of hayden's acting. i can agree the dialogue is weak. the direction is weak. but hayden christiensen chews the scenery and spits it out. he's phenomenal. so i just couldn't bear the thought of even more of that in the year of our porg 2022, after the hatred for the prequels had finally died down in the wake of rise of skywalker which i think many of us can agree sunk star wars to a new low. not to mention the disneyfication of the franchise which pushes out new shiny happy content nonstop so that star wars is no longer an eagerly anticipated event, just another show on tv, fighting for attention against all the other content out there.

i can't tell you what exactly changed my mind. it wasn't like i saw any positive reviews or a ton of gifsets or anything. in fact it might have been the total absence of hype that sparked my interest. four of six episodes had aired and my feeds were still mostly ofmd and tgcf. so i gave the first episode a shot.

as expected, i was not wholly impressed. the first episode is a lot of plot setup. a little boring. i didn't end up watching the second episode that night. but for days after i kept thinking--isn't this what i've always wanted from star wars? a well-crafted character study that takes its time? a thoughtful story about the aftermath of revenge of the sith, the more intricate economic and social consequences of the clone war and the rise of the empire? ewan mcgregor being a dilf???

i guess until now i didn't believe i'd ever see live action prequel-related star wars content made by someone with more respect for the source material than shock value or high tech explosions. and that was silly of me--i loved rogue one and solo. i wasn't super into the mandalorian but i watched it and recognized it was trying to do something new. those were all different to me though. i wasn't emotionally attached to the original trilogy and its adjacent stories the way i'm attached to the prequels.

[some spoilers after this but nothing you couldn't piece together from the fact hayden has been on the press tour]

i finally watched the second episode. darth vader was there. i thought, did they really bring hayden back just to be the dude in the suit? and they did. they did bring hayden back just to be the dude in the suit. and the bacta tank. and a heartbreaking mirage in the desert. i was expecting just random high-stakes plot content until the very end of the series when we'd finally get an ominous peek at vader. but no. he's like. a main character. obi-wan's love for him and his regret at the events of RotS is overt. his love for padme is there too. like Deborah Chow really said "padobikin is canon lol." it's emotionally devastating in a way i didn't think any new live action prequel content could be.

[spoilers for episode 5 here but i've also reblogged about a thousand gifsets of what i'm talking about so if you've seen those you've already been spoiled]

then in episode five we get a flashback. pre-AotC. and i don't know why this was the thing that really sealed the deal for me but it just meant a lot to me that they didn't fully de-age hayden back to 19. maybe they couldn't or maybe it was a Choice. they might have done a little polishing but but for the most part you look at him and know you're looking at a 41 year old man. it's a flashback, yeah, but i can't help but think "this is what he would have looked like."

and so there i was imprinting onto darth vader again the way i did when i was 15. but whereas back then i related to his eternal struggle to have agency in a society that only wanted to exploit his gifts while denying him any real personhood, now i relate to the abysmal feeling of regret, the long-term consequences of a million wrong choices. and i guess i'm just impressed that despite the disney backing, the show leans into the real tragedy of the whole thing and doesn't let up. it assumes that the thing we care about most isn't the fate of the galaxy but the fate of one man in it, and we already know how his story ends.

the finale airs tomorrow and i'm not nervous. it follows the canon so closely that you can easily deduce where the story is going, and even though many dudebros would have you believe predictability is bad, personally i find it exciting to see the cause and effect sequence of a story told over many generations totally out of chronological order.

and what's more, i've been watching interviews with ewan and hayden and getting the sense that they enjoyed filming the show, and that it wasn't filmed on green screen but on something called The Volume and that seemed to make a big difference. i think it was moses (reva) who said, "you get on set and you're in star wars."

on a personal note though, what i'm most excited about is that after nearly a year struggling with the motivation to write and a total lack of inspiration, somehow i managed to pound out 12k words in 3 days of a longform RotS fix-it fic i've been wanting to write for 17 years.

tl;dr Kenobi isn't a perfect show and it does fall prey to the overbloated nature of the undying big budget franchise disease, but it's thoughtfully made, entertaining for casual fans, and cathartic for diehard prequels fans.

ps i can't stop thinking about middle-aged wifeguy anakin skywalker and that will be my undoing.

[sepyana]

Jjba Stardust Crusaders Ep. 34-39 Thoughts

Under the cut

Ep. 34-35 (D'Arby)

These episodes were pretty solid! Good setup and pay-offs.

The opening scene is so funny to me, they are all synced... wow

D'Arby is entertaining, his Japanese VA really does a lot ot he work, despite the dodgy English. I'd say his stand ability is a bit too obvious, taking people's soulds by gambling. I feel like something more interesting could have been done but it's fine as is, the stand's design makes up for it.

Also, this episode implies people in JJBA have souls? I'm saying implied because it's a real possibility that those are not actual souls, just a part of stands ability.

I love how fucking pissed Advol is this episode. I can't blame him.

I initially thought this was gonna be a Joseph episode since he is a natural gambler. I did like the direction they took. It's showing us that even someone like Joseph can't out cheat D'arby, getting rid of that as an option.

It's a bit weird that Joseph doesn't use hamon to keep the drink from spilling. Hamon would make too much noise, I guess?

The confortation between D'Arby and Jotaro was the best part, I think. It's entirely non-combat but the show utilizes a lot of the tactics it uses for fight scenes. With the lines and the colors and the music.

Jotaro is secretly the funniest character in part 3 and nothing will change my mind. He has Star Platinum bring him a drink and light his cig while betting his and his friends' souls. He could have done all these thing without being so extra about it.

D'Arby fucked up by letting Jotaro bet people's souls with a contract. I sure he thought there is no way he would go for it. He doesn't even flinch when betting Kakyoin's soul which is so funny to me. If the group is going down I'm taking him with us too. He doesn't get a pass just because he is away in the hospital.

Then he bets his own mother's soul. I was sort of expecting that to happen since if he dies, Holly will die too anyway.

I think he should have bet Iggy's soul too while D'Arby was panicking just to get the point across lol

Yeah these episodes were fun. The mechanics around the contracts gets a bit confusing if you think about it but who cares.

Ep. 36-37

I did say before that I would kill to see Hol Horse and DIO interact and guess what?? It was so worth it. I liked this way more than the DIO scenes before.

Otherwise? I struggle to find anything to talk about. I feel like this was just here just because of the set up from earlier, in the Justice episode. It would be worse if they never acknowledged Hol Horse at all.

My question is that, Is the scene with DIO earlier the reason Hol Horse's watch is wrong? I already know DIO's power is stopping time cuz everyone who has heard of JoJo knows. Let's be real. It doesn't make that much sense when I think about it but I assumed that was what they intended while watching.

Ep. 38-39 (Pet Shop)

I was really mixed on it initially but I think I like it a lot now. A fight scene between a superpowered bird and a dog have no right to be this well done.

The most notable thing I don't like about it is a personal preference. I don't like when animals in a show are anthropomorphized. Because part of the fun of an animal companion is that they don't think like us. The most amount of it I don't mind is Missile from Ghost Trick, as an example. Even the way he is drawn now anthropomorphizes him.

I did love the fight scenes. I love that whenever Iggy thinks he has escaped he gets found again.

The shows stops in it's tracks sometimes to tell us how COOL and FEROCIOUS hawks are, just really hyping up Pet Shop.

Speaking of Pet Shop, I really like him. I've found the Engrish names in JJBA charming, It gives a completely different vibe to those who know English compared to Japanese people who do not. It's not intended but it is either really funny or really bold. Pet Shop's name shows that well.

His design is strangely cute. Intimidating but also cute :) It's funny to think how DIO recruited him. Did DIO gave that outfit to him??

When Iggy started having flashbacks I thought "Holy shit is he gonna actually die??" You know how jjba is, if we learn a character's backstory it means death for them. The show knows this. It waits for the last possible second to save him, to make you think he was gonna die for real.

It was really sad seeing Iggy struggle to walk. I said I don't like tiny dogs but what I dislike even more is how much jjba loves torturing dogs.

So, Kakyoin is back. With sick shades too. I don't know why he has them, maybe his eyes are sensitive to light after treatment? They are a bit extra, sure, but they also fit his character really well for some reason. I appreciate this costume change and that he has scars left from the incident.

I love that everyone rushes towards him, sort of hugging and and then Jotaro is just like 😐. I know he is emo but he could at least pretend to be a bit more excited.

The translator of the manga I was reading even left a little note on top going "MY BRO MY BRO IS BACK".

They have found DIO's hideout so... we are reaching the end. I am excited but also a little bit scared.

People wouldn't be praising this part ao much if it had a horrible ending, so I'm not really worried about it being bad, at least.

Praying for my lads to make it out alive lol

I will try to watch the last 9 episodes as soon as possible.

[ecargmura]

When You Become Your Idol Bias's Child - Oshi No Ko Anime Review

Everyone and their dogs have been hyping up Oshi no Ko since it’s anime adaptation announcement. I was also curious on what the hype was, so when the first episode was released, I sat down and watched the episode. I was blown away.

The anime centers around the Japanese entertainment industry. I’m not too familiar with how the Japanese entertainment industry works, but I grew up watching Korean entertainment. While every entertainment industry may seem ritzy and glam, that’s only a front to the cesspool of darkness buried deep within. Every entertainment industry is dark.

The animation is beautiful, honestly. Doga Kobo is an underrated anime studio. Their animation quality has improved a lot; if you’re unfamiliar with them, they’re the studio that animated the perfection that is Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. I love the choice of colors that the studio uses to make the animation pop out. The way they color the characters’ eyes is pure quality.

The music is great. The opening, Idol, is THE anime song of the season and possibly the year. It’s super addicting and it’s one of the rare times I do not skip openings. It’s just that good. The ending song is good too! However, other than that, I do feel like the OST is a bit forgettable. I don’t remember the songs used in the anime other than the opening and ending.

The writing of Oshi no Ko highlights that immaculately. The story is about Ai Hoshino a sixteen year old idol who takes a hiatus and goes to a hospital where a male gynecologist named Goro resides. It turns out that Goro is a fan of Ai and got into stanning idols after a patient died. While he was shocked that his bias is pregnant, he becomes supportive and promises her to help her give birth naturally and not caesarian. One day, Ai gets into labor, and her stalker actually follows Goro to an isolated area in the forest and murders him by pushing him off a ledge. When he awakes, he finds himself inside the body of Ai’s son, Aquamarine Hoshino (Yes, that’s his actual name). However, there’s another person who got reincarnated as his twin sister Ruby Hoshino; it’s Goro’s patient Sarina who was a fan of Ai’s before her death.

The early years of the Hoshino family was cute, honestly. Ai was charming. Aqua and Ruby were hilarious kids; they have no clue what’s going on with their new lives, but they were just trying their best to live. Because they were reincarnated, they behave much differently from normal babies as they can already walk and talk. I always wondered why no one ever pointed out how different Ai’s babies were from other kids. Like, Ruby was already knowing how to use Twitter and talking about “virgin birth” while Aqua read thick books meant for adults when he was around 2 or 3 years old. People have commented on it via gossip and baby Aqua uses Youtube as an excuse of his precociousness and people buy that. I guess it’s just Japanese culture to not stick your nose into people’s business.

Ai’s death was pretty shocking in itself. I didn’t expect it to be so sudden. She didn’t even reach twenty years old before her death. How unfortunate. I think what hit the feels the most is the fact that, throughout episode 1, Ai never once said that she loves her kids. While she  has strong affection for them, she’s unsure what love is. Love and lies are a big theme in this story. While her name is Ai, it has several meaning. The most common meaning is “Love”, however Ai’s name is written in katakana. There could be two meanings why it’s in Katakana, which usually associates with a loan word. It could stand for “I” as in the pronoun, but I think it most likely stands for “Idol” since idol is pronounced as “A—i—do—ru” in Japanese. Ai says I love you to her kids the first and last time before her death and realizes that her love for them were genuine. I know that Ai’s death comes as unfortunate for some fans and viewers, but it’s the point of the show.

The show is about the darkness of the entertainment industry and how Ai was a victim of said darkness. Because of that, Aqua got dipped into the darkness at about the age of four and sought revenge against Ai’s true killer as he realized someone had sent the stalker behind the scenes. I kind of like how the narrative splits between the two main protagonists. Aqua’s path is how the industry’s darkness can affect anyone; it has affected him to the point that he’s becoming a product of said darkness with his desire for vengeance and the way he’d use anyone to achieve that goal. Ruby represents the flowery, glamorous portion of the industry. Note how Ruby wasn’t fully present during Ai’s death due to her being locked out behind the door that she was leaning against. While Ai’s death has affected Ruby as much as Aqua, she still walks a path of light because of her strong desire to uphold her mom’s legacy and to become an idol as great as her.

Aqua and Ruby are the MCs of this story, but I feel like Ruby doesn’t get enough screen time, which is why I feel like she’s the weakest part of the anime so far. This anime is mainly Aqua diving into each possible plot point that can give him a clue to Ai’s true killer. Ai is the catalyst, Aqua is the driving force and Ruby is just exposition. Exposition is good for the readers, but I feel like that role diminishes later on as Kana comes into the picture as she’s more aware of the industry than Ruby. Since Season 2 has been announced, I do hope Ruby gets more screen time.

Because this is a character-driven drama story, the characters are the prime focus. In addition to the twins, there are a plethora of supporting characters who help them with their goals. We first have Miyako and Ichigo. Ichigo is the CEO of Strawberry Productions and Miyako’s husband. He’s the one who recruited Ai into becoming an idol and formed B-Komachi. Miyako wasn’t thrilled about her marriage at first and was even forced to babysit the twins; she only got married to Ichigo because she wanted to meet hot guys. Eventually, she warms up to the twins to the point that she actually adopts them as her kids after Ai’s death and her husband’s disappearance. While Ichigo and Miyako are important figures in Ai’s life, I feel like Ichigo disappearing kind of makes him look bad. Miyako pretty much kept everything afloat since the incident. I was surprised how much she changed after caring for the twins. Miyako is a neutral character who knows about the darkness of the entertainment world but isn’t innocent to get tainted. She’s kind of like mission control of the story as she’s the one who gets Aqua gigs and forms the new B-Komachi for Ruby with the help of Aqua who recruits two members.

The first of the two he recruits is my favorite character and THE scene stealer of the entire show, Kana Arima! Kana is a character who was considered a genius child actress (not a baking soda licker) but eventually lost the spotlight as she got older. Her story is basically the dark path child actors face when they get older. It’s a very harsh world. People once thought Kana was astounding and she had so many jobs as a child, but when she got older, nobody wanted her anymore. People even believed she was past her prime since the child Kana they all wanted was gone and that no one wanted the teen Kana. The last episode of this season reveals that Kana’s issues comes from the fact that she feels like she won’t be complete unless someone needs her, which shows how much psychological damage the industry can have on a child.

Kana is a character who wants to look for light in her darkness and eventually sees it in Aqua despite him drowning in darkness. I think what makes Kana so compelling is the fact that she cares more about being used for her talents and not past fame and such. She wants to be acknowledged as a good actress and not someone who used to be a child actress. Even if her gigs are bad (the drama she was in was SO cringe, especially with the way the male actor was acting).

Kana is a perfectionist and harshly criticizes herself when something doesn’t go right in her eyes. I can relate to her a lot; while I am not an actress, I can relate when it comes to writing. I used to write fanfic. One fan fiction in particular had a lot good reviews, but the popularity scared me, so I stopped fan fiction writing to focus on original works. When I changed paths, I felt like my writing wasn’t as good as it was when I wrote fan fiction and it made me wonder if this was the path for me at times. The fact that Kana went through a lot just to survive because she does love acting from the bottom of her heart speaks a lot for me. I’m glad that she took Aqua’s offer into becoming an idol because idols get a lot of gigs from singing to acting. I’m sure more opportunities will come for her the more she enjoys her idol life. Though, I do feel bad for her because her crush on Aqua’s very complicated as she likes him, but his feelings are ambiguous at best because he clearly doesn’t want to be in a relationship as he’s too fixated on revenge, but he does have a soft spot for her that’s different from his soft spot towards his sister.

The second idol that Aqua recruits for B-Komachi is Mem-cho. Mem-cho is a YouTuber known for her bubbly personality. She was on the same reality dating show Aqua was on and told him about how she wanted to be an idol at first but her lost her chance and resorted to becoming a YouTuber. While she does grab onto her idol dream after Aqua makes an offer, it turns out that she’s been lying about her age. While she poses as an 18 year old, she’s actually 25. In the idol industry, they value youthful girls above all. Anyone past 20 is considered too old for an idol. I know it’s cruel to think like that, but that’s how Japan’s idol system works. While 20+ year old idol debuts are common in Korea, it’s different for Japanese standards as they value youth. Mem-cho’s issues is very realistic and I like that. However, I do wish that Mem-cho got more screen time as a character and not as the cute background character. I hope Season 2 changes that.

In the same reality show that Aqua and Mem-cho are a part of lies another important supporting character, Akane Kurokawa. Akane is a passionate theater actress who’s considered a genius in her theater troupe, Lala Lai. However, even if she’s considered great in her theater world, she’s anything but in the filming world. She has no presence, which means no screen time. When she tries to step up, she accidentally scratches Yuki’s face. This causes her to be dunked into cancel culture. Akane is a character who was basked in pure light but got forcibly pulled into the world of darkness because of cancel culture and cyberbullying.

There was a controversy that broke out in the real world regarding Akane’s cyberbullying case. After the airing of Episode 6, a complaint was filed. The filer turned out to be the mother of Hana Kimura. If you’re unaware, Hana Kimura was a MMA athlete who was on a reality show called Terrace House. She did some things that caused her to be targeted for cyberbullying. When it got too much for her to bear, she decided to take her own life at the young age of 23. While the events of the incidents seem similar, the author never officially confirmed if Akane’s story was based off of the late Ms. Kimura’s. However, because Mrs. Kimura, the mother, filed a complaint, there were people that started cyberbullying her. I don’t want to get into it too much, but you can watch The Anime Man’s video regarding this topic to get a bigger picture. Long story short, I stand by my claim of the entertainment industry being the darkness in people.

Because of the incident, the light she was basked in is no longer pure. While she does manage to come back, she’s definitely not the meek Akane Kurokawa from before; she’s an evolved Akane who is able to use her acting prowess and amazing analytical abilities to capture the essence of a person she does not know personally and do it in a way that the aloof Aqua manages to keel over for her. I’m amazed that Akane is able to do this. This makes Akane like a wildcard honestly. It’s unknown if she’s going to be someone who’s going on a dark path or if she’s going to go on a light path. Just please do not reduce her to someone who lacks agency around Aqua. PLEASE.

I do wish that there were more male character to balance out the female cast. I want to see more of Pieyon, the Director and more. Fortunately, it seems that there will be more males in next season. I want to see Aqua interact with male characters.

The last thing I want to talk about is the voice acting. The voice acting is good. My favorite female voice actress Megumi Han steals the show with her performance as best girl Kana. If you’re not familiar with Han’s roles, she voices Gon from Hunter x Hunter, Yamato from My Love Story!!, and Jill Warrick from Final Fantasy XVI. Her range is insane and it’s because of Kana that my love for Han’s acting increases day by day. Aqua and Ruby are voiced by Takeo Ohtsuka, whom I’m not too familiar with and  Yurie Igoma, who’s a complete rookie. I think they’re doing a great job with the twins. They make them sound distinct and not too basic. Rumi Okubo as Mem-cho fits her perfectly. Manami Iwakura as Akane shows off her acting prowess. If you’re not familiar with Iwakura’s roles, she voices Tohru Honda in the Fruits Basket remake. I’m familiar with her soft voice, but the way she is able to voice Akane the way she did in Episode 8 really proves that she is versatile. I want to see more roles of her. Rie Takahashi did super well as Ai. I think the best performance of this show has to go to Pieyon. His VA uses a high pitched duck voice for most of his appearances. Like, that’s not even his normal voice, so props to him for being able to produce such a voice.

Overall, I highly recommend watching this anime if you want to watch a dark show. I can see why it’s so popular now that I’ve finished all 11 episodes and thought about it. I will gladly buy the manga and read on ahead. I can definitely say that this is Spring 2023’s best show. Sorry, Demon Slayer. Oshi no Ko is just too good.

Also, did you know that there’s two meanings of Oshi no Ko? Oshi means bias, if you’re familiar with English idol lingo. Ko usually means child, but it’s also another way to say “person”. Oshi no Ko can either mean “My Bias’s Child” or “My Bias/My Favorite Star” in a contextual term.

I hope you enjoyed my review and please watch Oshi no Ko!

[drag-queen-jesus]

NEO: TWEWY

yeah I know, im late to the party.  Fake fan, whatever

BUT

I finally started playing NEO and oh my god

(for reference as of this post im on week 2 day 4,  so ya know, all of THAT has happened already

I wish I had thought to like, liveblog it or something, because I am SO invested right now.  I don't think I will, necessarily, I just wanted to put my predictions and thoughts out there so I can see how they stack up once I reach end game.

spoilers, obviously (also unedited)

okay so first, ARE we actually dead???  like I made a joke about it to my friend like “they are such Gen Z, like oh were dead?  Cool AND THEN DIDN’T QUESTION ANYTHING ABOUT THAT” but then it kept going and we still haven't talked about it?  Until we finally met Beat (my boy, I’ll get to you)  and he firmly says he's alive.  That opens a whole host of questions for me

Is he really?

Are we?

is anyone else, if we are?

I’m pretty sure there's some legit dead players, but now that im thinking about it I can't remember now if they actually said they died, or if they've just been playing the game long term (Motoi, and one of the Variabeauties come to mind)

and then what does that mean if they’re taking living players???  is that even allowed???  

which brings me to my second point: WHER IS JOSH???  like im not expecting him to be a main character, but he is/was basically GOD, so is this him???  I don't think it is because we thought he learned a lesson since last time, and living players was never a thing when he was in charge.  So did he get taken out of commission?  is he the mysterious “you” that the hat character is talking about.  (I have a theory, ill get to it)

and Neku.  My son, my boy, my little spicy tuna roll.  How does this man come back into play now of all times.  first of all, what did he do to get back on the reapers radar after three years.  these ‘new’ games have been running for at least a year (we know Motoi has been playing for a year at least) and its been three years since the Big Game that took every one out, so how long have they been looking for him, how long has he been in hiding, and why can't they find him?  they wanted us players to track him down and fight him, which implies that he's still currently connected to the UG in a way that lets us interact with him, but if that's the case, shouldn't they be able to like, trace him or something (that might be a fanfic thing I've made canon in my head, about people having traceable auras or whatever).  because it sounded like Beat’s been looking for him too, and up until recently Beat was in the UG, so where's Neku?

and then Beat, poor guy.  Why is he looking for Neku anyway?  I mean, I guess if my friend is missing, id look too, but how long has Beat been looking for him?  How long has be been missing?  Why did he get dragged back into this mess too???  I’m digging the new fit tho, don't get me wrong, I liked Beat well enough before, but he looks a lot more Sk8ter Boi and less ‘basketball player’ now.  I do hope Rhyme and Shiki are doing okay without their guys tho, I wonder if we’ll hear anything about them at all?

Also what the fuck is Hype-Chan’s deal?  (I KNOW she has a name now, but she's been Hype-chan since 2012, she will be Hype-chan until I die). Like, something is going on with her and I can't wait to find out what.

Another question: I think its pretty obvious that the ruin bringers are getting special treatment.  the question is, why?  Whats the goal of keeping everybody in the UG like this indefinitely?  because that's what it looks like to me.  The whole point of the reapers game, as Kariya put it, is to find the best and brightest Shibuya has to offer, to give the people who can make Shibuya a better place a second chance at life.  Obviously the rules have changed since the last time we played, but what's the point of keeping everyone in Limbo like this?  Obviously Shiba’s having a good time (also, who made him the new conductor???  it couldn't have been Josh, no way) but what's even the point of having a game if you won't let anyone come back to life???

And where did all of these reapers even come from?  Uzuki told us that there are reapers all over the place, but did they wander here themselves, where they appointed by the higher ups?  Who's the producer now, since CAT is apparently on hiatus (I guess Sanae got in trouble after all?)

and then there's that whole vision Rindo had and keeps having about Shibuya like, blowing up or whatever.  Thats a whole thing I don't even have thoughts about yet.

theres a bigger story here im not seeing yet (at least I hope so, ill be disappointed if im wrong). 

Heres what I think.  My predictions, if you will.

I think that something happened to Joshua after the Big Game.  We know that Sanae got in trouble, so it would stand to reason that Josh did too.  I think he disappeared himself (like with Another Day) and left Shibuya a vacuum, with very few strays left to pick up the pieces (Uzuki, Kariya, and that one wall reaper who said he knew Neku from before are the ones I can think of).  I think that, seeing this open playing field, reapers from other districts were either moved in, or they took it themselves (they seem like the sort.  All the new reapers are kinda sleazy and I don't trust them). I think that Neku, for whatever reason, figured this out, or was told, or kept some kind of connection with the UG or with Josh (hello fanfic brain, I see you) - I honestly wouldn't put it past Kariya to know more than he’s telling us so far, and to have something to do with it.  I think Neku dug himself back into the UG somehow to look for Joshua, so that Joshua can fix things again - they said they wanted to make Neku a reaper, but I don't know how they pan on doing that because it never seemed like something you could force on someone, and also Beat was able to quit being one, so how were they planning on making him stay?  I think that the reapers are gonna try and pull something similar to what Kitaniji did with his red pins, but this time I think the goal is to... merge the RG and the UG - it would make sense what with the living player angle, I just don't know what the end goal is.

I ALSo think that Shokie is gonna be a party member at some point, just based on the box art.  Do I want her too?  not really, but I think she will be.

I didn't even get into WHATEVER Minamimoto has going on, I couldn't make heads or tails of it, other than I think he’s also looking for Joshua (I don't personally think he has any reason to look for Neku specifically, outside of to get to Josh). We’ll see, I don't think we’ve seen the last of Pi Face

I have a Lot more thoughts, but im kind of just rambling at this point.

We’ll see how it shapes up, and where I was wrong

[ddejavvu]

Lately I’ve been seeing authors step away from writing because they think the interest in fics (like Eddie ones) is starting to die down or they feel discouraged because their work is not getting any traction or enough notes and I just feel so bad when I see that. I guess this is not really an ask but more of me trying to just get the feelings out. I’ve tried reblogging and sending in positive comments to help but I guess I just wish that people who don’t already know it would realize how lucky we are to have writers, like you, spend time trying to create content for everyone to enjoy. I’m sorry I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to say, but I will say thank you for what you do and I always look forward to reading any new content that you write!

i agree with a lot of this! i've also been noticing a decline in popularity among the st fandom, and it's a little discouraging. I totally get it! not as many people are here because the hype has died down, there's not new episodes coming out anytime soon, and casual fans have stopped seeking out content for the show. I get it, i understand why it's happening, I just don't like that it's happening. Even though my brain understands that there's just not as many people on the market anymore i can't help but look at the fics i used to write a month or more ago and see that they got 5K+ notes within a week, and then unpin a recent fic with less than 500 notes. sure, it can also have to do with the plotline of the story, the quality of the writing, and the fact that school has started up so not as many people are on tumblr anymore, but it's frustrating to not have the same audience that you once had, because it feels like your fault. i see a lot of this discouragement throughout the fandom, and many others who have never received the overwhelming love and support that st did this summer. and it makes me so sad, because authors deserve their praises sung from the rooftops, but if not as many people are standing on those rooftops, it's hard for the chorus to be as loud as it was before. I get it, again, i totally understand that it's natural and it has nothing to do with us or our quality of writing, but it is very discouraging once you're used to the hype of it all. thank you for doing your part to encourage the authors that provide you content, we really really appreciate it. everyone please remember, no comment is 'too dumb' or 'too short' or 'too incoherent' (ex. a keyboard smash) to put in the tags or comment or send to the author, we appreciate it so much, and it keeps us writing :) <3