#and for the record if there's any sort of supernatural power that affects a character's aging

[theminecraftbee]

Despite knowing next to nothing about Persona I am super interested in your Persona AU, is there any more information on it or is it just those two posts?

so far those two posts only! but because i sort of wandered into fic-writing territory, the basic premise, for those unfamiliar with persona:

this is an original plot, not the plot of any of the existing persona games, but it is meant to mimic what persona plots are like. as mentioned at the start, people are mysteriously vanishing in incidents that are making the national news (including in ways that affect our lead characters' lives). like any of the mysterious bad things that drive persona plots, these are being caused in some way by the existence of otherworldly creatures called Shadows, which are monsters made from humanity's collective unconsciousness.

joel, our protagonist, has recently moved to a new town, new hermiton, and is starting at a new school. (this is also Persona Protagonist Standard; hilarious side effect of it being a persona au is that it's technically kind of a high school au). in this storyline, it's because the people in charge of the dam protecting his town Vanished, and as a result, the dam's flood gates weren't opened when they needed to be, the dam collapsed, and joel's hometown was destroyed. yikes, i'm sure that backstory isn't affecting him at all. he was invited to new hermiton academy to finish his schooling.

however, on arriving, he quickly stumbles into the world of Shadows. for my story, it involves following a butterfly to an unpredictable location, where the border between the real and unreal is thin, and then using that to go into the world of Shadows. (i think i might call it the unreal world? i don't know, workshopping that.) there, he discovers he's a persona-user; that is to say, he's one of the lucky few capable of summoning a persona and fighting shadows. a persona is a representation of a person's soul (i am thou, thou art i), as well as a representation of a mythological or legendary figure of some kind. it grants supernatural powers to the user.

for the record: joel's starter persona is pygmalion, and his starting element is wind. also, in this au, summoning a persona requires stabbing yourself with a special knife, and then using that scar to summon the persona afterwards. this is Middling on the scale of 'edgy ways to summon your persona' in the series, lol. however, joel is special: he's a wild card, which means he will actually throughout the story gain the ability to use other personas and swap them at will. this is a special power only he will possess.

it turns out that he's not the only persona-user in town. grian, one of his classmates, has been attempting to fight shadows mostly on his own, with the help of his teacher, joe hills. joe can't summon a persona, but knows enough about the other world to help grian and now joel out. (although, that's... kind of weird, right...?)

joel now must balance his school life with, you know, fighting shadows to save people from Vanishing and, eventually, to save the world. to figure out WHY the shadows have started Vanishing people, too. and, unfortunately, he can't skimp on the "balancing his school life" aspect, because you see, to a wild card, the bonds he makes with other people are vital. joel will collect social links, each represented by a tarot card. each of these social links are his relationship with another person or group of people, and raising those social links makes him more powerful.

he'll also collect more party members, them represented as one of his social links each as well, and he'll bother his velvet room attendant--jimmy, who's supposed to help him fuse personas and give him cryptic guidance, but like, it's jimmy--and manage to fight his way through the trials and tribulations of being a mildly unwilling video game protagonist in a game where half of the story is having to kind of be everything for everyone at once, and also constant weird things you have to do for the plot.

and that's what i have so far of the au! i am sort of just. making it up as we speak,

[fangirl-erdariel]

Strangely enough, I've come to realize that I don't really see a whole lot of point in the fandom discussions regarding who/what Tom Bombadil is

Like, I've played around with the question myself a bit at one point or another, I have some thoughts regarding it, but the more I think of it, the more I feel like answering that question would be pointless (to me, at least; this is of course a personal and subjective opinion)

It's just... well, we know Tom Bombadil has certain... power, for lack of a better word, even if the specific extent of it is a bit unclear (let's be honest, the specific extent of any character's explicitly magical/supernatural abilities is a little unclear, middle-earth is a very soft magic system kinda world). We know his power at least seems to be bound by some (possibly self-imposed?) rules to a specific geographical area. We know he's, well, he's Tom Bombadil. He seems a little fickle, a creature of the moment acting on his own whims and habits which may seem nonsensical and inexplicable to an outside looker, but at the same time he's primarily friendly, vaguely benevolent toward the hobbits - but then again, the hobbits mean no harm to him or his; who knows how he would respond to hobbits or other people who came to the Tom's lands with ill intent?

Ultimately, what would the sure knowledge that he is a maia, or that he's Eru Ilúvatar, or that he's the physical manifestation of The Music or The Secret Flame or of the world as it was in the beginning in a primal state before Morgoth and then Sauron actively began to try take over it, or... whatever, what would the sure knowledge actually change? It would remove the mystery about what he is, but it wouldn't really, as far as I see, really explain anything about his behavior or what we see him do, I can't see how it would actually affect the way you see his actions in the book? (The only explanation/headcanon for his identity that I will accept is that he's, like, all the valar taking turns to go on a holiday and get away from the responsibilities of their job and all the other drama and bullshit, because at least that's funny)

Like I genuinely think that at the end of the day, the best explanation for who/what he is is the same one Goldberry gives to the hobbits when they ask: "He is."

Plus, besides the fact that I don't think it would add anything truly worthwhile to the character, I think removing the mystery, having a sure, true, canon answer, would take something away. Like, part of what makes Tom fun is the mystery, the fact that he just is there and is sort of inexplicable.

Part of what makes Middle-Earth overall fun, if you ask me, what creates such depth and richness and sense of adventure to the world, is the mystery, the unknown. The fact that as much as we get to see across the books, it's clear there's still more we do not know. There's always more lands beyond the horizon, that we get only vague references to and never see.

There's vague references to mysterious, dangerous, "Nameless Things" lurking in the deep dark places of the world. Some places in the nature, apparently, have some kind of spirits, enough at least to be conscious and have some kind of will and ability to act, such as Caradhras (yeah in movies it's made to be Saruman explicitly, but my takeaway from the books has always been that it was most likely the mountain itself, that while not necessarily actively in league with the evil forces, is kind of vaguely malevolent anyway) - and is the River-Woman, Goldberry's mother, also some kind of spirit of a place/natural feature? the name at least implies so. And what is the Watcher in the Water that the Fellowship encounters at the gates of Moria anyway, and how did it end up in the lake? Why is Beorn - and his ancestors - able to change into a bear, and are there humans in the world who are able to change form into some other animals? Oh, and then in Silm there's that one single instance of a sword just talking, but no other recorded instances of talking weapons in the rest of the legendarium, what's up with that? And what are the Barrow-wights anyway, ghosts or evil spirits or what?

Some of those may have Doylist explanations; Beorn and his shapeshifting can probably be chalked up to "Hobbit wasn't initially meant to be part of the same setting as Silmarillion, and therefore wasn't written with same rules and worldbuilding applying to it, so certain parts seem a bit strange in the hindsight". The talking sword case is definitely "Tolkien copied the scene almost directly from Kullervo's suicide in Kalevala, in which the hero asks his sword to kill him and the sword replies" (for those interested to see what I mean, send me an ask and I can show you the relevant scenes). And so on and so forth.

But the Watsonian explanations are... more up for interpretation.

And I just like the fact that the world has so much mystery, so many unexplained things and vague references to stuff we never really have the time or opportunity to look at in detail, it just makes the world feel so huge and so rich and so strange. And quite frankly, some parts of that mystery are, in my opinion, better when they're left mysterious and untouched, and there's no explanation that could make it better than the mystery is. Although some, of course, are fun to toy with and try to explain with headcanons. But to me at least, Tom Bombadil falls into the "better when unexplained" category

[ljf613]

On Ships With Age Gaps

I've thought about writing a post like this for a long time, but I always decided against it because I don't feel the need to justify anything I say (or do, or enjoy, or ship, or write) to the good people of tumblr.

However, I do think that there are some people on here who, rather than being actively cruel or hateful towards certain shippers/writers, are just really confused or grossed out and don't understand why we people like these things and don't want to just assume that we're all degenerate freaks, and that maybe they might benefit from learning my story.

(Note that this is just my story. Other people may or may not have their own stories, which may or may not resemble mine-- the point is that these stories exist, and that just because you don't understand doesn't mean there isn't a reason.)

I was in middle school when I first realized that I had a (very normal) problem: I was attracted to guys, but boys my age were obnoxious. (Every heterosexual female reading this is nodding their head in sympathy.) Many of them made rude jokes, and said nasty things, and most of them were just generally immature and irresponsible and not-at-all crush-worthy.

Adult guys, on the other hand, were nice and sweet and smart and mature (*insert laughter here*). They knew how to be responsible, and how to treat girls right and take care of the people who mattered to them. They were ready to get married and settle down in a house with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids. (You get the idea. Give me a break, I was, like, eleven or twelve and most of the men in my life really were great guys in happy and stable marriages.)

So, like many other girls my age, I fantasized about attractive twenty-something-year-olds falling madly in love with me. (I can not hammer this home enough: this is perfectly normal behavior.)

But at the same time, I knew that this sort of relationship was obviously something I was not in any way ready for, and, in any case, I didn't actually know very many attractive single guys in this age range. (Because why would I?)

So, instead, like any normal kid, I gravitated toward stories I could live vicariously through. Stories about about girls my own age (or maybe a little older) who fell for guys who loved them back. Guys who were willing to wait for them. Or at the very least guys who treated them like equals, and, once they were old enough, might start seeing them in more of a romantic light.

The very first relationship like this that I remember falling for was Sesshomaru and Rin from Inuyasha.

(Actually, my first real adult/minor ship was probably Lux and Eric from Life Unexpected, but after that dumpster-fire of an ending, I didn't want to think about anything related to that show ever again.) (Although it did introduce me to One Tree Hill, which is still one of my favorite shows of all time, so I guess it did something right.) (And Nathan and Haley probably also fit the bill-- Nathan wasn't an adult, but he was mature and responsible and ready to settle down. TV really should bring back teen marriage plotlines instead of endless cycles of love triangles.)

I discovered anime in seventh grade, and Inuyasha was my second real anime. (In case you're wondering, Fairy Tail was my first.) I quickly fell in love with Rin (who was an example of what would become one of my favorite character archetypes), and her relationship with Sesshomaru fascinated me.

Here you had this demon who hated humans, only to be bewildered when one try to help him, leading him to use a part of his heritage that he'd been rejecting until now in order to save her. And then she just. Follows him. And he lets her? And he just spends the entire series treating her like an equal and letting her do literally whatever she wants?

(To those who read them as father and daughter: uh, if I saw a parent with this sort of laissez-faire approach to child-raising, I would be very concerned. He treats her like a traveling companion and constantly defers to her wishes. She gets kidnapped and he only comes to rescue her when he's sure that's what she wants? Very parental of him.)

And then when he's finally about to reach the goal he's been working towards this entire time, he gives it up the moment Rin gets hurt. ("Nothing was worth losing her?" ICONIQUE, nobody is doing it like him!) And then in the final battle, he fights alongside the same people he was trying to kill when we first met him. All because Rin has taught him that humans have worth, that weakness isn't a sin, that there are more important things than strength and hatred? Are you kidding me?

I've already gone into my love for this ship here, so I'm not going to repeat the whole thing, but I will say that I loved what we saw of them in the finale-- the two of them separated, so that Rin could grow up and decide what she wanted out of their relationship. Because he was willing to wait for whatever choice she decided to make.

This was a game changer for me. It was exactly what I hadn't realized I was looking for. I needed more. What followed was a love for various other wholesome bonds between protective/traumized men and the girls who taught them about love.

Naofumi and Raphtalia of Rising of the Shield Hero (talk about clueless guys-- he seriously managed to convince himself that he only saw her as daughter because he had no other frame of reference and had been so traumatized by the last girl he liked), Kyoko and Katsuya (dude was more than willing to wait for her and only stepped in when she needed him to be there for her? Find me another man this swoon-worthy) and Kureno and Arisa of Fruits Basket (I normally don't buy love-at-first-sight, but for these two cuties I'll suspend my disbelief), Zack and Rachel of Angels of Death (the age gap is the least problematic thing here), Mamoru and Haruka of Until Death Do Us Part (the man literally laughed the idea of their relationship off until he couldn't anymore. And then, again, he let her go and waited until she was ready), Satoru and Airi of Erased (the soulmatism!), Accelerator and Last Order of A Certain Magical Index (alright, fine, I've never been able to decide if I prefer these two to stay purely platonic or eventually fall in love, but whatever they have I adored), and many, many others.

But the thing here is that none of these relationships are the main focus of their respective series. I wasn't going out and actively looking for these ships, but when they showed up in the stories I loved I would certainly enjoy them. (Love stories were cute and all, but magic and adventure were way more interesting to middle-school me.)

It was only when I was in high school and I started getting more into romantic stories that began actively seeking out the sort of thing I was looking for. Seiji and Shiharu of Love So Life are still near and dear to my heart (my guy buys her a ring, tells her he'll never want anyone else, refuses to let her reciprocate, and doesn't go near her for almost six years to make sure that she doesn't choose him until she's really ready. KING), Mao and Hiro of House of the Sun will never stop being adorable (Taamo's drawing style is so stinkin' cute), The Start of Niina is as heartbreakingly lovely as ever (the gift and trauma of reincarnation!), and Faster Than a Kiss is a gem (another great guy who does his best to take care of the girl he loves but won't lay a hand on her until she's ready).

And it wasn't just age gap stories. Because the age gap wasn't the real point-- the point was mature guys who were ready to commit and smart girls who knew a good thing when they saw it. Which is why I also devoured stories about teens getting married (please bring these back, western media) and arranged marriages ("we may not have wanted this but we are going to make it work"). The World is Still Beautiful remains one of my favorite fantasy-romances, Absolute Peace Strategy is hilarious, I really need to reread Prince of Silk and Thorn, Dawn of the Arcana is fantastic, Taisho Maiden Fairytale is super-cute, etc. etc. (This is not an exhaustive list, btw-- feel free to DM me or drop an ask if you're looking for more in any of these genres.)

Once I discovered fandom, fanon, and shipping culture, it was a given that my love for these dynamics would cross over into media where such things weren't canon.

(And, for the nth time, all of this was perfectly normal and understandable behavior for a girl my age.)

These were stories and tropes I adored. But they were stories. Fiction. They were not reality. And even at the very earliest stages of this interest, I understood the difference.

When I was in seventh or eighth grade, there was an incident involving one of my female classmates and a twenty-something-year-old male student-teacher. I was not directly involved (I barely knew the girl) and I wasn't exactly asking for details (I've always prefered to stay out of real-world drama if I can), but middle school girls are loud and I have good ears, so I was pretty sure I got the gist. (Years later, I spoke with one of the other teachers who'd been involved with handling the aftermath, and she confirmed and added some more context.)

To simplify, the teacher in question had somehow gotten a hold of the girl's phone number and had been sending her texts that were not appropriate for a grown man to be sending to a thirteen year old girl. This made her highly uncomfortable, but she was too scared to say anything-- it wasn't as though there was anything explicit or overtly sexual (he told her how pretty she was, and how much he looked forward to seeing her every day, and I do not know or want to know what else)-- and she didn't want to look like she was make a big deal out of nothing. But when her friends found out, they immediately said "this is not okay," and marched her to the nearest female teacher to confess the whole thing. (Good for them!)

Again, I was not directly involved. I did not discuss the subject with any of my classmates, I was obviously not present when the school staff spoke with the guy, and I have no idea what exactly the school policy was for this sort of thing. All I saw from my end was a crying girl being comforted by her friends as they dragged her off, and within the next day or two we were told that this teacher would be ending his postion early (he'd been supposed to leave soon, regardless, as he was only a temp). I never saw him again.

And there was never a question in my mind that this man's behavior was deplorable, that this story should never have happened, and that this girl was a victim of a horrible injustice.

(I have a vivid recollection of being outraged when another teacher-- who happened to be related to him (probably how he'd gotten the job, I don't remember ever our school having had a student-teacher before or after)-- told us he was being forced to leave earlier than planned like we were supposed to be sad about it, and then insisted we make a good-bye card for him (while making snide comments under her breath about how some people needed to learn to keep their mouths shut). (I honestly don't remember whether or not I helped decorate the stupid thing, or what the girl did while this was happening.) I was not old enough or mature enough to fully realize that what this other teacher did was also hideously inappropriate and ought to have been reported as well, but I did know that it was nasty and underhanded and I didn't like it. (This was not the only time when this teacher behaved obnoxiously or passive-aggressively insulted a student for bringing a complaint to the school staff or doing something else she disliked (I was on the receiving end at least once or twice, but that's another story), and she did not return the next year. Good riddance.))

In any case, despite the fact that age gap stories (and even the occasional teacher-student romance) were something I liked seeing in media, I recognized the clear distinction between fiction and reality, and what was right and wrong. I didn't even need to think about it. Even at thirteen, when I didn't fully understand what was and wasn't appropriate behavior for a teacher, this was something I understood perfectly.

And to anyone reading this and saying, "alright, fine, so you liked age gap relationships as a kid because they let you vicariously live out your perfectly ordinary teenage fantasies, but you're not fifteen anymore. Isn't it time you moved on?":

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Y'all still read/watch the same stories you enjoyed as children-- that's why you're in these fandoms to begin with. If you can understand still loving those things as adults, it shouldn't be much of a leap to grasp me liking the same sort of fictional relationship dynamics I did in high school.

(Which isn't to say those are the only kind of ships I like. They never were. But I'll probably always have a soft spot for them.)

TL;DR: I initially got into age gap ships because they let preteen me fantasize about a hot older guy sweeping me off my feet. No, this did not prevent me from recognizing predatory behavior from real adults. No, I'm not letting go of the things I liked as a kid just because they make you uncomfortable.

[hellsbellschime]

Ok, so I’ve always noticed some of the racism on TVD , most notably the treatment of Marcel and Emily, and the founders day parade episode (which, as a Virginian I have to say that the episode made me low-key ashamed when I re-watched it years later). But it took me a while to catch onto the racism on Bonnie‘s character. I was wondering if you have done a meta about it and could link me to it, or if you could do one?

Well it only took me like a year but here ya go!

Despite the fact that The Vampire Diaries is a show that was ostensibly created for girls and young women, the show undeniably seems to lack a certain level of respect or basic interest in its female characters. And while every single significant female character demonstrates that misogynistic point of view in one way or another, one of the most unique, distinct, and apparent instances of The Vampire Diaries' sexism is on peak display with one of it's leading female characters, Bonnie Bennett.

Bonnie obviously occupies a particularly interesting role in the series because she's the only black leading character, and it's also hard to miss that The Vampire Diaries universe has a pretty apparent issue with it's non-white characters as well.

The race problem on TVD expresses itself in a few different, extremely blatant ways. The most obvious issue with people of color on The Vampire Diaries is that those who are actually PoC within the narrative itself are typically pushed to the sidelines and relegated to supporting players at best, but there is also an issue with presenting PoC performers who are white-passing as white characters.

None of the PoC characters in The Vampire Diaries get very good treatment, but the series seems to be exceptionally problematic when it comes to its presentation of black characters. While black people arguably get more representation than any other non-white characters in this fictional world, they are almost all outrageously attractive, extremely light-skinned, and conveniently lacking in any emotional needs or inner life that needs to be addressed within the narrative, seemingly designed to show up, perform whatever service is necessary, and once again fade into the background if not just be killed off entirely.

This is an issue with every black character in the series, but given that Bonnie is the most significant and prominent in the series, it comes as no surprise that she was affected the most intensely by these biases. It's one thing to be a black character, it's one thing to be a female character, but being a black female character in the TVD universe is exceptionally crippling. But how exactly did the misogynoir of The Vampire Diaries completely neutralize Bonnie Bennett as a character?

Bonnie was mistreated, dismissed, and outright ignored in many big and small ways throughout the course of the show. But, a lot of that treatment can be pretty easily sorted into a few categorizations. The Vampire Diaries went through a pretty seismic shift from the start of the show to the end, but it has always been a series that falls primarily into two genres, the supernatural thriller genre and the romance genre.

The show pretty clearly transformed from a show that was firstly a supernatural story with a romantic subgenre into an almost entirely romantic story with a supernatural backdrop, but it's safe to say that the vast majority of the plotlines were either focused on magic or love. And, it's not particularly difficult to see how Bonnie was forcibly excluded from a predominant storyline in each genre, even when it made absolutely no sense.

Bonnie was a completely inexperienced witch at the start of TVD, so her cluelessness and powerlessness made a certain amount of sense at that point. But by the end of season 2 at the very latest, it seems fully established that she is one of the most powerful living witches in the world, and for the bulk of the series it is plainly acknowledged that she is one of the most powerful witches who ever lived. Which is exactly why Bonnie's position in the narrative is baffling.

In quite a few instances, Bonnie's magical abilities seem to be somewhat inconsistent, at least in the sense that, if she can solve some of the biggest problems that the Mystic Falls gang is confronted with, then it's very odd that she can't solve the others. And while plenty of characters in TVD are occasionally used as plot devices rather than characters, Bonnie seems to be the one who is specifically designed to show up, fix what needs fixing, and then become set dressing once she's no longer necessary as the mystical solution to every unsolvable issue.

And this is actually a significant problem with the witches at large, but of course is most recognizable with Bonnie because she is the most prominent witch. While not all witches are women of color, it seems like they are far more represented in that faction of the magical world than in any other. So then, it's interesting that the witches are presented as servants of nature who are meant to selflessly restore order to the world without actually using their abilities for their own personal gain.

Of course there are plenty of witches who appear to use their powers for themselves, but still, it's incredibly meaningful that the lone black main character in the series is constantly sacrificing herself for the sake of the otherwise entirely white cast of characters. It's even more meaningful that she seems to willingly put herself in the line of fire every time, and it's also extremely telling that she suffers and even dies without complaint for the sake of other people.

And while TVD has never been the kind of show to linger on emotional moments for too long, Bonnie seems to stick out like a sore thumb in this circumstance as well. Most of the main and even supporting characters have moments where their pain is acknowledged and at least has a second to breathe, but there are quite a few situations where Bonnie should be upset but isn't, or where her emotional journey as a character literally takes place off screen.

This lack of acknowledgment and nearly complete omission of an internal emotional life that doesn't involve sacrificing herself for her friends only further makes Bonnie feel like a plot device instead of a character. And, while no character needs a romantic relationship to make their character complete, it is incredibly relevant that, on a series that was built largely on a foundation of romance and arguably became a completely romantically driven show by its end, only one of the female leads was pretty much never presented as a viable love interest.

Nearly every character is either threatened or charmed into doing what someone else wants them to at some point during The Vampire Diaries, however, Bonnie's charm-to-threaten ratio seems to lean very heavily in favor of threatening. That in itself wouldn't necessarily be a huge issue, but it seems to punish Bonnie in a way that is so severe that it's completely illogical.

Trying to intimidate Elena or Caroline, people who at best have the strength of a baby vampire and at worst are as powerful as a normal human, makes sense. But trying to strongarm the most powerful witch in the world instead of just convincing her to do what you ask seems like an incredibly dangerous and completely baffling decision.

And yet, that is how Bonnie is forced to do nearly everything that she doesn't want to do in eight seasons of the series. By the end of season 2, TVD has canonically confirmed that Bonnie is powerful enough to destroy Klaus Mikaelson, and yet people like Klaus, Katherine, and even vampires as young as Damon get Bonnie to do things by simply bullying or even assaulting her into doing it. And what does Bonnie typically do in response? Absolutely nothing.

At a certain point, the consistent contrast between Bonnie's mystical strength and the way that people treat her in order to use that strength becomes a pretty gaping plot hole. And while it's not unheard of for someone to try to sweet talk Bonnie into joining their team, it is almost always done by a character who is far less powerful than she is and who is completely irrelevant to the narrative at large.

In contrast to characters like Elena and Caroline, the distinction between them becomes even more obvious. Perhaps a thin argument could be made that because Elena is a doppelganger that makes her a tad more unique, but when one of the most powerful creatures on the planet was wrapped around Caroline's finger, it really begs the question, why wasn't anyone ever as invested or even obsessed with Bonnie as they were with the other two female leads on the series?

After all, Elena's love was consistently treated as if it was the greatest prize that anyone could possibly win, and the two male leads were completely obsessed with her and willing to do anything they could to try to win her over. And despite the fact that Elena was at the center of the love triangle that was a significant driving force behind the story for the entire series, she still managed to score a few love interests that weren't Salvatores throughout the show's eight seasons as well.

And, while Caroline was actually treated as more of the reject love interest in comparison to the unattainable Elena, her record with romance is also incredibly varied. Even though she was portrayed at best as the consolation prize and at worst the abuse victim, she did have some sort of romantic relationship with the two male leads in the show. Or at least, that is how The Vampire Diaries chose to portray it.

In addition to her horrorshow with Damon and her incredibly brief marriage with Stefan, Caroline is also a love interest for Klaus, Matt, Tyler, and disgustingly, Alaric. Arguably the only main male character who doesn't serve as Caroline's love interest or potential love interest at any point is Jeremy.

Although this laundry list of love interests can be partially excused by the fact that Caroline is characterized as someone who wants to date a lot, the contrast bet0ween characters like Caroline and Elena and characters like Bonnie is astonishing.

Over a nearly decade-long run, Bonnie's only legitimate leading men are Jeremy, Elena's kid brother who Bonnie will willingly die for but who also prefers a literal dead person over her at one point, and Enzo, her epic love romance that comes about at the very end of the series in a relationship that almost entirely develops off-screen.

Of course, female characters do not need love interests to validate their characterization or very existence, however in an environment where every single barely significant supporting character seems to get at least two love interests, it's incredibly telling that Bonnie Bennett gets two important love stories in eight seasons of storytelling.

It seems even more relevant that the show seemingly went out of its way to sidestep almost any and all opportunities for romance in Bonnie's character arc. Whether it was Kol, Kai, or Damon Salvatore, there were quite a few instances where there was a clear and easy route to develop a love interest for Bonnie in a way that made sense and had a pretty solid amount of audience support, and yet the series always went out of its way to avoid it.

In stark contrast, Caroline is still seen as a viable option for a burgeoning love story when she's pregnant, and Elena is an acceptable love interest when she's literally unconscious. And yet, in a series that began with romance as its secondary genre and that evolved into a romance series with a supernatural backdrop, Bonnie is supposedly not as appealing of a love interest as Elena and Caroline regardless of any circumstances, no matter how insane.

If these issues existed in a vacuum then they might be excusable, but considering how poorly The Vampire Diaries treated its female characters and black characters, it's pretty much impossible to avoid the reality that Bonnie Bennett's entire character arc was likely hamstrung by the fact that she was a black girl.

In any reasonable circumstances, Bonnie would have arguably been at the center of every single supernatural storyline, and she logically would have been a far more appealing love interest to any powerful characters in the series. But instead she spent the vast majority of her screentime with her inner characterization ignored, her personal development unexplored, and serving as little more than a glorified deus ex machina who didn't even want her friends to bother mourning her when she literally sacrificed her life for them.

Representation was always an issue in The Vampire Diaries universe, and unfortunately it seems like Bonnie was the definition of their token black character. Although the series had eight entire years to course correct and had many seasons where they were desperate for new ideas and decent character development, the racism and misogyny of the series seemingly prevented them from ever tapping into the enormous untapped potential of someone who should have been one of their flagship lead characters.

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

Klaus x Powered Reader

Summary: Reader is part of the umbrella academy but came when they were 12 due to parents needing help for them, ya know controlling powers and whatnot. They can shapeshift into any animal and their senses are heightened n such.

Warnings: bloody, fighting bad guys, bit of Klaus fluff

You know that moment in a movie where they freeze frame and then the character says something like “you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.”

Yeah with Klaus you have those moments more times then you could count. In fact, if you had a dollar for every time Klaus has gotten you into a freeze frame moment. (And you’ve thought about this often.)

You could probably afford a real nice apartment with actual food in its fridge. Instead of living at the Academy with some apples and Klaus’ latest alcoholic beverage.

But alas, here you are in a back alley as Klaus’ bodyguard waiting for some Italian mafia members to come get their money that he owes them. Well that’s what you’re assuming but Klaus insists they’re just some moody tough guys. Okay sure.

You watch Klaus as he paces back and forth in front of you counting his cash for about the 50th time in the past 10 minutes.

Klaus stops abruptly and turns to you with a smile, “You know what I love about you, Y/N, every time I think things could get worse I look at your pretty face and I know you got me.”

Sighing in knowing annoyance you look up at him, “Are you short.”

Klaus snorts, “No actually I’m pretty long.” He says with wink.

You look up to the sky trying not to crack, you couldn’t give him the satisfaction even if it was funny, not the time or place. Especially considering his dumbass is short some cash he definitely owes very soon.

You look over to Klaus again and raise an eyebrow.

“Alright how much?”

He twiddles is fingers while avoiding your curious gaze. “Oh you know...a couple hundred or so.”

“So that’s why I’m here, emotional support my ass”, You say rolling your eyes a bit amused nonetheless.

Klaus may be an idiot but he’s funny and kind and you love him. Also you do enjoy beating up gangsters or whoever these thugs of the hour are.

Folding your arms while giving Klaus a smirk you tell him, “Well your friends better get their asses here cause when they do. I’m gonna knock their teeth in for making us wait in this shit ally. I’ve been suppressing the urge to vomit for 10 minutes.”

He nods in agreement, glad you’re not about to rip him a new one for his latest antics.

“Wait, does it really smell that bad, I mean the dumpster is at the other end of the ally.” He says in confusion.

You put your hands on your hips glancing at the dumpster and then focusing on Klaus.

“I’ve got the whole animal kingdom inside me Klaus, I know you can kinda smell that dumpster from here, but listen. For me it’s 1000x worse and let me tell you it doesn’t smell like a bath and body works around here.”

Klaus laughs scratching the back of his head, “Right, right, sorry.”

Suddenly a sketchy looking black car rolls into the ally, coming to a halt as three angry looking men walk out. Clearly hiding something within their coats, the “leader” it seems steps up and speaks.

“You betta have that 1,000 you owe us right fucking now you little theif, I don’t appreciate you takin’ my mother’s gold necklace, rest her soul.” He growls.

Klaus raises his hands up, “Listen buddy, you stole that from your own mother at her funeral...and let me tell you she’s not to happy about it.” He says looking to his left where you assume this guys dead mother is standing.

The bald guy behind him shakes his head and says, “So fuckin what? We needed that shit for other important purposes raccoon eyes.”

Klaus now lost as to where this situation is about to turn looks over at you clearly needing assistance. While mouthing “help me”.

Walking past him you hold your hands up showing you have nothing to hide, “Now that’s not very nice, a real shit personality, your mother would be very disappointed in how you’ve turned out. Cause let’s be honest it’s not like your looks are doing anything for you either.” You say snickering trying to see how they’ll react.

The first guy smirks reaching into his coat to pull out a nasty looking knife. “See this right here, I’m a good old fashioned man, I don’t believe in guns.”

You raise your eyebrows at him, “Oh well in that case we should all be quite relieved then.”

Looking behind him you notice as his two friends pull their own weapons out, which consists of a hammer and some type of meat hook.

“Klaus couldn’t have picked an easier bunch of idiots to fuck up then these psychos.” You thought.

The bald one begins to move brushing past the first guy looking like he’s seeing red.

“Jesus, man I didn’t mean to offend, I’m just making friendly conversation.” You muse.

Baldy begins to charge holding up his hammer ready to strike. “Come here you bitch, that’s my husband you’re talking to.”

He swings as you side step him, tripping him as he falls directly onto the concrete. Conveniently dropping the hammer in the process. Klaus being the ever troublesomely fantastic sidekick, picks up the hammer and throws it at you.

Gripping the hammer tightly, baldy rises from the ground faster then you’d expected mouth bloody and boiling with rage.

But in a hot second his bearded buddy in crime sprints towards you with his meat hook seemingly out of nowhere.

Klaus yells for you to watch out but you didn’t even need to look, this guys heart beat is louder then a firework and you’re faster then a viper, your senses on overload. As you turn around in record time to grab the guys right arm with the meat hook.

With your left hand tight around this guys beefy one you hold on and push his assault giving him more power. Effectively fulfilling your plan and leading the hook right into baldys chest. Who was fortunately running towards you.

A split second later with the hammer in your right hand you swing it forcefully into the guys shins. Hearing a sweet sickly crunch sound and the wild howls protruding from your assailants throat.

“Sorry I didn’t know you were married.”

“Fuck you!” He screams.

You look up hearing the sting of metal being swung in the wind, to see a knife heading straight for your throat.

With lighting reflexes you grab his wrist, the knife inches from your vulnerable skin.

Klaus gasps in the background terrified and relieved at not getting your throat slit.

You turn your fingernails to sharp cat-like claws that dig dangerously into his flesh, causing hot blood to drip out. The man drops the knife and grimaces in pain.

“I don’t know about you but I don’t think my boyfriend owes you three motherfuckers shit.” You growl, eyes beginning to glow an electric blue while the whites of your eyes shift to black, something that happens when you start to use your power.

“Fuck you, and fuck that thieving piece of junky shit crying in the corner.”

Your mood darkens, “Wrong answer.”

Letting go of his bloody wrist you grip his throat with your left hand lifting him off the ground. He begins to choke and struggles against your tight grasp.

“I know you’ve heard of me from other friends of yours, so listen very closely. If you touch Klaus again or anyone else around here who’s just trying to survive in this city. I won’t be so generous next time. Or maybe I should rip your fucking face off right now.” You squeeze tighter drawing blood.

“Y/N.”  Klaus says softly.

“Let’s go home.” He asks with pleading eyes and you snap back to reality smelling the iron scent of blood on your hands.

Sometimes you can get carried away feeling the rush of the hunt, a taxing side affect of your power, one you’ve always struggled to control.

Letting the man go he slumps to the ground coughing and sucking in straggled breaths.

“ Alright, me..me and the boys...won’t do nothing....you have my...my word....no bullshit nothing....I swear.”

“Good cause your friends are gonna need more then some stitches.”

You quickly leave the ally and start walking down the street towards the Academy.

Breathing heavily, you look up at Klaus who’s at your side as you start to feel a bit embarrassed that he saw you lose it a little.

He holds onto your arms stopping you, “Don’t worry, we’ll have a bath and watch some movies...hey you like that Museum one?”

“The Night at the Museum.” You say smiling still feeling off.

Klaus’ face lights up, “Yeah that one, with the big T-Rex skeleton and President Roosevelt on a horse.”

He links your arms together and you both begin walking again.

“Y/N, I’m not afraid of you, you know. I never have been, I actually find it pretty sexy of you to beat up bad guys for me and keep the neighborhood safe-er. Ben thinks so too, minus the sexy part of course. Only I get to enjoy that.”

You relax more into his side and once again start to feel a bit more at ease with yourself.

“Oh wait a second, here put these sunglasses on, your eyes are still playing mood rings with us. Don’t wanna freak out the civilians” He laughs.

“Thanks, I did wonder why that kid back there looked like he just saw a ghost.”

Klaus winks, “Maybe he did, cough cough..Ben...cough cough.”

“You’re an ass.” You say while rolling your eyes

“Yes indeed my love but remember I deal with the supernatural of all sorts, from ghosts to monsters, nothing phases me.” Klaus states proudly.

You laugh, “ Okay Van Helsing, this monster wants a bath with her hunter then.”

Klaus kisses your cheek, “That can be arranged my dear.”

Smiling up at him you hold him tighter and think to yourself how weird your life is, but you wouldn’t change it for anything.

- okay wow alright, first story ever I hope it’s good or at least some people like it. It was honestly fun to write ngl.

[shyrose57]

2nd part.

Other: Both groups understand they have different ways of showing affection and closeness. Though Charles does hesitantly ask Jackie if Ran ever shows affection, to which Jackie answers that he does he just isn't a very physical person. 

After Ran first attacks and injuries Ranbob, and once the groups get the two separate, they sit down and talk. The Gladiators go first, saying they've never seen Ran that aggressive and angry before and ask what Ranbob could've done. To which the Fishermen tell them (to an extent. Somethings they leave out as its best for Ranbob to tell them) and after sharing, ask what Ran's relationship with Ranbob was. Where Watson says Ran said before he had a brother, and they then connect the pieces. So in summary, the Gladiators know about Ranbob being controlled by Dream, what Ranbob as done, how it affected him, and what the Fishermen have done to help him out and the progress Ranbob has made. While the Fishermen know that Ran has said he had a brother (Ranbob said it too), Ran having to survive on his own for years, And Ran having nightmare's but don't know what they are about. 

The Gladiators are skeptical of Ranbobs story, but after reading a bit of a dairy Ranbob recorded the experience in when able to, and both picture and multiple eye-witness accounts they eventually believe him. 

He ran from the hunters for around 4 years, he also lived alone and learned to survive during his time, while being constantly on the move. Multiple times the brothers have said something concerning, either jokingly or very casually, but both ways the brothers groups have responded with utmost concern and basically interrogating them until they find out the events behind what they said. Where they then either leave it be, or there's more talking, comforting, and maybe even cuddle piles. 

It happens once during the trip, when Ranbob just isnt having a good day at all, when he relapses he immediately tells the Fishermen (as he has grown to do), who then go to comfort him and do a sort of therapy. Ran immediately uses the relapse as evidence that he shouldn't be trusted and that he is still the same person he was before. While Watson, ignoring him, goes to see if he can do anything to help, while Grievous and Jackie try to lead Ran away to cause less stress for Ranbob. 

It is confusing at first for them, and when their finally able to, they (both groups) ask eachother what different instincts their enderman friend has. And after exchanging it they just kinda leave it be then and accept it. Sometimes Cletus will laugh when he just randomly sees Ran carrying someone around and mocks them, but Ran tends to growl at him when he mocks the person he's carrying, so he doesn't mock em often. 

He was only able to eat crackers, nuts and seeds, and dried out vegetables. So when he first goes to the Fishermen's house he's only able to keep down stuff like soup and again crackers. Though he's able to slowly work his way up to eating meat, which then he's able to keep most things down. 

The gladiators are overwhelmingly happy about no longer following such a strict schedule and can spend their time doing whatever they want. The fishermen are at first a bit hesitant at adventuring, seeing as they never really adventured outside of their home to much before, but are still very excited to see new places and get new items. Cuddle piles are sometimes shared amongst the groups, but strictly when neither of the brothers are nearby, other habits like telling bed time stories and sharing supplies and food are shared amongst the groups. While a sort of therapy sessions type habit are only in the fishermen group. And making and testing weapons are only in the gladiator group. For nicknames, Ran- Tall man/Tall bastard, Jackie- Jack, Shorty(teasingly/jokingly), Watson- Dad, Grievous- Ugly, John, Gri, Ranbob- Bobby, Benjamin- Benny, Ben, Charles- (Just Charles), Cletus- Wildfire, Little shit (Isaac only calls him that, Benjamin doesn't like it though), Isaac- Saac (pronounced as Isaac without the I, or just Zack).

The fishermen live a calmer, more quite life. Where the most active they've gotten is going to Mizu and getting Ranbob and a few attempted robbing. While the gladiators live a very active and fighting filled life, with only a few breaks where they can do whatever they want too. The fishermen are more accepting of outsiders and willing to give them a chance in their group. While the gladiators, you need to prove you can earn a place and are more tight in their group (Which is partly why it means so much to Ran and shocks him when his haunting welcomes Ranbobs group into their group). The fishermen are more freewilled, not having to follow a schedule. While the gladiators do follow a schedule and typically don't get much freewill.

They originally wanted to live in Mizu. But after the discovery of the Dream Mask Benjamin stated that it was far too dangerous to stay, much less live there. So they instead just went and looted the area then left 

As of now I do not plan to add anymore characters. Maybe they'll meet some while traveling but im not positive yet, if they do meet someone later on though it'll probably be either Wilburs decendent, or if I include other Tales I'll include them probably. 

It is very hard to convince Ran for a good while that what happened to Ranbob was the truth, but when he does finally accept it he's horrified. He feels incredibly guilty about leaving his brother and doing nothing during this whole time other than making it harder for him to recover. And immediately does what he can to make it up and help him out. And to the relief of the others, the brothers start to grow closer again, although there's still some problems. It took multiple tales of Mizu and Dream from all around the world, some very old records about how manipulative Dream was and how it seemed he had supernatural powers, and even finding Ranbobs journal and deciding to read it for safety reasons (where its recorded Ranbobs deteriorating mental state and all of the events where Dream came in, and even Dream wrote in it sometimes, comparing it to Ranboos Memory Book.)

Personalities (More may be added later): Ran- Secretive, protective, quite, joking when gotten close too, patient, serious mostly. Watson- Kind, very approachable, the father figure, logical, has a very comforting presence. Jackie- Playful, joking, mean at times, teasing, loud, energetic. Grievous- Very kind, energetic at times, quite, prankster, hard to trust someone. Ranbob- Quite, shy, well-meaning, clumsy, hesitant in things, very eager to please someone. Benjamin- Truthworthy, comforting presence, kind, approachable. Cletus- Chaotic, mean at times, prankster, loud, confident, energetic. Isaac- Leader figure, kind, logical, playful. Charles- Quite, shy, anxious, smart, logical. And idk if you want him too but Porkius- Confident, arrogant, hard headed/stubborn, hard to talk with, but extremely willing to make changes and call off events if serious injury to anyone is threatened. 

Sorry if some answers are dull, I had trouble coming up with answers and wording some of them. But as a bonus I thought of something that could happen while traveling (while they've been traveling for almost 5 months now). Maybe a thunderstorm is coming in and the group is trying to find shelter and they find it mostly in time, but the brothers start to really get into a verbal fight during the searching and so start to lag behind. And just as it starts to storm more Ran screams and yells "YOUR NOTHING MORE THAN AN MURDER! NOTHING YOU EVER DO WILL MAKE UP FOR ALL YOU'VE DONE!"(or something similar) Which just really breaks Ranbob, and the two stand across from eachother in the rain, before Ranbob chokes out a heartbroken agreement and runs off. Ran almost going to chase after him, but deciding not too, and going to meet up with the group.  Also Ranbob having a nightmare about when he first saw Ran again and is terrified in the nightmare, as no one is there to actually stop Ran this time (this happens before the thunderstorm part). So he does actually begin to kill him, and during the dream he keeps seeing glimpses of he and Ran as kids, being so close and laughing and everything. Then just before he wakes up he sees a younger, tween Ran directly next to the Ran killing him, and the Vision Ran's face is frozen in a scream of terror and heartbroken look in his eyes, and his eyes are filled to the brim of tears (which is the exact moment a Ranbob controlled by Dream turns the blade on Ran suddenly). Which just completely breaks Ranbobs heart, and when he wakes up, with tears frozen on his face, he can't look at Ran for days without seeing the terrified face of his younger brother. 

1: So they’re pretty chill about it. Alright. 

2: Fairly skeptical, but still willing to help out, and eventually coming to agree. Interesting. Ranbob has a diary? From before? That must be quite the interesting read. How much did young Ranbob understand was going on? How did he feel about it? Just how much does his diary show of his mental decline? Does he still have it? Were the Gladiators supposed to be reading it, or is it more of a ‘I found this, let’s see what’s inside’ thing? And I know the eye-witness accounts are probably the fishermen, but what are the pictures? Of Ranbob before Dream, back in Mizu? Of Ranbob when the fishermen found him?

3: Casually drops trauma on them, huh? What kind of things have been said? How much of it do these two traumatized gremlins think is the norm? Does Ran have any particular enemies with the hunters? Was it hard for him to settle in one place again?

4: What do these relapse consist of, exactly? Ranbob becoming aggressive? Trying to run? Can’t imagine Ran’s too happy Watson ignored him about it. What was the aftermath of this event? Does Ran know what a relapse means, or does he just overhear and assume?

5: So Ran totes people around, and Cletus occasionally makes fun of them. How long before someone points out that Ranbob, as you put it, follows them around like a lost puppy, in retaliation? 

6: The more I hear about Ranbob, the more I kind of want to wrap him in a warm blanket, give him cocoa, and go threaten Dream with bodily harm. That kind of food isn’t exactly great nourishment. If that’s the kind of thing he was eating, and only once every three days, I’m not shocked the Fishermen managed to force him into a room. Or that his house kept falling on him. Poor guy must be a malnourished noodle-stick. Honestly, he sounds light enough Cletus could probably carry him around. Or a breeze could. Hopefully he gets a little more weight on him, he needs it. 

7: Sounds like the first few days of the trip are probably pretty chaotic, with everyone adjusting. But they sound like they’re having fun, so that’s good. What kind of things are the two brothers doing to be gone long enough for their groups to be able to cuddle pile for a bit? Gathering supplies? Do they just know, and do their own thing for a bit so their hauntings can chill together? And Bobby, huh? Sounds an awful lot like what Ran used to call Ranbob. Who exactly revived the nickname, and what was both Ranbob’s reaction to it being brought back, and Ran’s reactions to hearing it again? 

8: The clash between lifestyles seems to be a pretty big one. The gladiators are a bit more willing to jump into things, and the fishermen are generally more open. Seems like they’ll contrast nicely once things settle down. So it’s kind of a big deal for the gladiators to just welcome the fishermen? You said they have to prove themselves. Do the fishermen ever end up doing something like that, or are they just an exception? Or is it that what they’ve already done proved themselves? 

9: They just loot the place, huh? Do they keep what they find or sell it? What’s Ranbob’s feelings about that?

10: A Wilbur descendant? Interesting. 

11: Oof. Well, at least they’re figuring it out. So there’s records about Dream and such? Do they just happen to find them, or are they led there? Who wrote those records? Does Ranbob notice when they find them, find some himself, or is that part of the trip he doesn’t know about? And Dream wrote in Ranbob’s journal too? Yikes. That must have been terrifying for Ranbob to experience. He compared it to Ranboo’s memory book, huh? Did that mean Ranbob figured out that something similar was happening to his ancestor? If so, how did he feel about it? And how does Ran feel about Dream’s part in all this? What does he do once he finally accepts it? Hug Ranbob? Apologize? Try to murder Dream?

12: Sounds like quite interesting group there. Charles and Ranbob both being shy sounds adorable honestly. Porkius sounds like he knows what he’s doing, and does it well.

13: They don’t seem particularly dull to me. But thank you for the heart-crushing scene, I’ll cherish it forever. Do the fishermen chase after Ranbob? How do the gladiators feel about that whole thing? Does Ran feel a bit guilty about it?

[927roses-and-stuff]

Miracles in Gotham: Chapter 3: Unwelcome Discoveries (Part 1)

Hey, guys! This fic is inspired by @ozmav mav’s Maribat AU. Shoutout to @mystery-5-5  for brainstorming ideas with me for this fic. 

Midterms have got me acting up. Despite the quarantine, I literally wasn’t motivated to write until the moment I could use writing to procrastinate. Absolutely brilliant logic. Truly. Thank you guys so much for the wait and I hope you enjoy this chapter.  

If you want to see more, follow: #miraclesingotham or ask to be added to the tag list.

P.S. For the sake of continuity, I’m going to ignore the Heroes United thing because that episode was basically a fanfic of the fanfic and as much as I loved the animation and the new characters...I’ve seen better plots and explanations for a lot of the similar problems in the Maribat fandom. Also Sparrow is probably a reference to Batman, anyways. Also, canon has just gone out the window...I guess...whoops. 

P.P.S. Swearing tw, death tw. 

Please remember this is rated M for a reason. Also, it is my headcanon that not everyone who dies during the akuma attacks come back. Of course, it’s not mentioned in a children’s show, but I’ve always seen the Miraculous Cure as a cure for physical, non-living objects as they’re easier to fix, and lives take a lot more effort and energy from the user to revive. And since Marinette is a child, there’s not going to be a lot of energy to spare.

Tag list: @northernbluetongue @spicybelladonna @my-name-is-michell @legendaryneckjudgestudent @lokiifriggasonn @zerotosiki

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To the members of the Justice League…

I am writing to you as Chat Noir, superhero of Paris and holder of the Black Cat Miraculous of Destruction, and partner to Ladybug, the official Guardian and the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous of Creation. I come to you with a plea similar to ones that we have sent you a year ago. The magical terrorist, Hawkmoth, is still at large here in Paris, France. If you are not aware of who he is, Hawkmoth is a domestic terrorist in Paris who relies on the power of the Butterfly Miraculous to create a physical and amplified manifestation of a person’s negative emotions, using the victim as a host, using magical butterflies as his form of transmission. These are called akumas. The akuma allows Hakwmoth to essentially get inside the mind of  his victims and manipulate and amplify their emotions.  We have been fortunate enough to have a failsafe in Ladybug, who can repair any physical damages, and even bring back lives, from these attacks. However, both Ladybug and I have reached our wits’ ends with no lead to Hawkmoth’s true identity. The people of Paris are suffering both from emotional trauma and the physical trauma of being subjugated, manipulated, experiencing bouts of amnesia, and even resurrecting multiple times. Hawkmoth has even taken to exclusively targeting a middle-school class at College Francois-Dupont.

Ladybug and I are aware of the risks superhero presence may bring since we will not survive a fight if any more experienced superheroes such as yourselves are akumatized. However, I feel that we have no other choice. Our Master has recently been put out of commission and the rest of our comrades have had their identities compromised. Ladybug is now the Guardian of the rest of the Miraculous. And although she will not approve of my plea, even your  advice or insight will be of use to us.

Please consider our plight and contact us as soon as you can.

Chat Noir 

Bruce Wayne was not a perfect man, he will admit. However, he did pride himself on his sense of logic and adaptability to most situations, as long as they stayed within the mortal realms of believability that is. Magic, however, or anything pertaining to the supernatural was out of his forte; in fact, he often liked to pretend it did not exist despite having acquaintances and enemies whose entire lives revolved around it. There was a reason he did not tolerate the  prolonged presence of meta-humans in Gotham, after all. 

He re-read through the email once, twice, again and again, desperately wishing that it had not been his shift to look through the messages that the Justice League received on a daily basis. Why couldn’t it have been Superman or Wonder Woman? Or better yet, Dr. Fate or Zatanna, never mind the fact that the latter was technically retired. Any of them would’ve made sense of this gibberish that was laid out in front of him. 

Initially, he thought it had been a coded message. It made perfect sense, in his opinion. The only concrete fact he could dissect out of this nonsense was the presence of a domestic terrorist and how they were targeting some middle school students for whatever reason. His mind recalled  the recent conversation he had with André Bourgeois yesterday. Even he had mentioned a domestic terrorist going after his daughter’s class, which was why he reached out to Bruce, since Bruce would be the most fitted to protect them with his resources, despite Gotham being the crime capital of the world. He nodded to himself; the facts were consistent then. There was a terrorist and middle school students were the targets. 

On one of the other screen monitors, he had pulled up records of College Francois Dupont School for a background check using a VPN to connect to French service networks. Both the email from this Chat Noir (Selina would get a kick out of that) and André failed to mention the terrorist’s intentions with these kids. However, looking through the different classes, there had been a special note besides Mme. Bustier’s class that stated:

“High vulnerability to akumas.”

This was where Bruce was once again stumped. Of course, he really couldn’t deny the existence of magic, but accepting that meant accepting that the terrorist used magical butterflies as his form of attack. Bruce wasn’t a qualified psychologist or any sort of specialist, but surely magical butterflies could not give you emotional trauma, mind-control, or even as Chat Noir had implied, a means to murder. 

Bruce scanned through Mme. Bustier’s class to look for anything that might be different from other classes. If he recalled correctly, this was the same class that André’s kid was in. He took note of the name, Chloé Bourgeois, and other notable names such as Adrien Agreste (who’s father was a fashion mogul and a model in his own right), Lila Rossi (a diplomat’s daughter), Max Kanté (a genius, and he noted to himself to see if that held true when the class was under his supervision), Marinette Dupain-Cheng (the class president and the designer of a recent rock album according to Jason who had obsessed over the cover for a few weeks before Alfred confiscated it), and Alya Césaire (an aspiring journalist who ran a blog called the Ladyblog). 

Okay, he rationalized. While not all of these kids were significant, some, like the Mayor’s own daughter, would be prime targets for a terrorist, so that made some sort of sense in Bruce’s mind. 

He sighed again, wishing that he had a cup of coffee or an energy drink with him at the moment. Unfortunately, Tim’s recent addiction meant no one could have it. Bruce scoffed underneath his breath. Alfred had really weird rules when it came to show “family support.” Tim was a grown man who should suffer his own consequences. Alas, no one argues with Alfred lest they risked his wrath. 

Bruce hovered over the link under Mlle. Césaire’s file, the Ladyblog. Perhaps it would give him some answers. 

As a bright ladybug designed website popped up, Bruce realized he might have been so wrong. 

He scrolled through the website thoroughly from the latest posts to the earliest. He noticed a concerning trend where the later blog posts centered more around one of Césaire’s classmates, Lila Rossi, and shaky videos of a red and black spotted figurem and a black cat figure fleeing the scene, or fighting some sort of abomination that Bruce did not even attempt to understand. In one video it was the two heroes against a flock of pigeons, or a gigantic baby, or whatever else. Bruce had half a mind to dismiss the entire blog as based on falsities, however one of the videos caught his eye. 

It was a video titled: “Syren: Paris Going Underwater!!” 

That was concerning, considering a flooded Paris would’ve featured on international news, not just on an amateur blog by a middle schooler. Fortunately for him, the video quality was clearer, allowing him to watch as the camera recorded the scene of that day. 

Bruce jolted awake and snapped to attention when he realized it was being filmed on a rooftop, and that the water levels were still rising as the video progressed. From what the camera captured, there were only a handful of people on each rooftop; not even making up a fifth of the Parisian population in total. 

What the fuck?

Then, as the video concluded, gigantic swarms of red and white bugs (ladybugs?) filled the camera’s frame and when it disappeared, everything was back to what he presumed was normal. The video then faded to black, posting statistics that chilled Bruce to the fucking bone. 

“Death count: 1.528 million Parisians

Resurrection count: 1.51 million Parisians

Injured count: 10 000 Parisians

Permanent death count: 18 000 Parisians

In honour of the Parisians who were not revived and were injured during the attack, the Ladyblog, offers our condolences, and will help in any way we can online and offline.  The akuma victim, as always, will remain anonymous for safety purposes.  Links to help organizations and donation funds to the peoples and families affected will be posted below. Additional links will be posted for available online mental health services.”

And, if Chat Noir was to be believed, some people had died multiple times. 

After making sure the video was not doctored in any way (though that would be cruel to assume about a kid’s blog), Bruce sent Chat Noir’s email (along with the earlier videos from both heroes and an email from Marinette Dupain-Cheng that he had found) and all of the links he had amassed to his own computer in the Bat Cave before closing all the tabs on the monitors. Swerving around, he stormed to the Batmobile, eyebrows furrowed in solemnity. 

Magic or not, whatever terrorist was plaguing Paris had a pretty damn high casualty count, and the only people that were stopping him were this Ladybug and Chat Noir people, who did not seem to be properly equipped (the Ladybug heroine was using a yoyo, for fuck’s sake) to deal with someone of this power. Not to mention, Bruce winced, their mentor  was “out of commission” whatever that meant, with their peers being compromised, so they probably had no outside help.

And it seems, Bruce’s features darkened into a scowl, his dear friend André Bourgeois had a lot of explaining to do. Police department has it handled, his ass. 

In the meantime, he was going to make damn sure the class under his care would have a relaxing reprieve even if he had to lock up every villain in Arkham Asylum himself. 

________________________________________________________________

Dear Diary, 

The talk with Chat was a bust. I know he thinks I don’t trust him, but I wish he knew how much I’m trying to, but it’s not as simple as he makes it out to be...right?  And of course I trust him with my life, but as the Guardian, I can’t just make impulsive decisions like going to other superheroes, especially when there’s no guarantee they would help us, or can even be trusted in the first place! And I can’t just reveal our identities to each other either. It would put Chat and the rest of the Miraculous at risk. And I really don’t want a repeat of Chat Blanc…

That future will never happen on my watch. I forbid it. 

Speaking of other superheroes, I think there might be someone though, who could help us, even a little bit. 

Marianne. 

She wasn’t a Guardian, but she was a Ladybug user for a while and was really close to Master Fu. She must know something. She’s in London so she might not be available but...

I’ll check up on her today after class! If she has any helpful advice, I’ll be sure to share it with Chat too. 

Gotta go!

Bisoux, 

Marinette

Scrambling to get ready, Marinette fumbled with her pigtails and shoulder bag simultaneously, trying to make sure that her pigtails were just right. Tikki zoomed around, helping her get ready by shoving stray pens and pencils into her pockets. When they were done, Marinette rushed downstairs, swiping one of the freshly-made quiche along the way. Just before she exited the store, she turned back to give her Maman and Papa a smooch. Hastily, she then left the bakery, the bakery’s bell ringing behind her as she sprinted to school. 

It was a mystery for most people, but despite living less than five minutes away from the school, Marinette was always late. Marinette liked to blame her Ladybug duties when Tikki asked, but she knew better. She had the habit of being late since before she knew the Miraculous existed. 

To be fair though, Marinette usually slept in because she was exhausted from schoolwork, designing,

and Ladybug duties. Was it her fault that Hawkmoth liked making 3 AM akumas? Was it her fault that coffee- for all the espresso and sugar she dumped into it, and despite all those hipster blogs saying otherwise- did nothing to help her stay awake? Of course not. If anything she was a victim here; a victim of late night akumas and faulty biology. 

Fortunately for her (and her quiche), she was actually earlier today than usual. She could see students milling around the courtyard behind the school. Some sat with their friend groups while others huddled to catch up on the homework from the night before. 

Unfortunately, one of those groups was Lila and her friends. Lila sat on one of the picnic tables, talking about whatever grand adventure she supposedly went on or whichever famous celebrity she supposedly saved from a rare type of cancer or something while her friends sat around her, captivated with every word. Marinette rolled her eyes. It was too early for this. 

She steered away from them towards the other side of the yard, where she could see Alya and Nino cuddling while finishing their homework. She glanced back at Lila, who waved at the couple before going back to whatever story she was regaling to her loving audience. It was probably because Alya and Nino hadn’t seen Lila greet them in the first place, but Marinette couldn’t help feeling a bit happy that they didn’t return her greeting. 

“Morning, guys!” She greeted as she approached their table, sitting on the other side. 

Alya looked up first. “Hey! You woke up early today,” she teased, giving her shoulder a friendly nudge.

“Heh, guess it’s my lucky day today,” she said. As she sat down, she began eating the quiche she had swiped earlier. “Well, almost, anyway.”

Alya rolled her eyes and smirked. “You live in front of the school. It’s your own damn fault at this point.” 

Nino, who had been pouring over a worksheet that was due today, finally looked up. Upon seeing Marinette, he smiled. “Hey, dude. You’re actually early!” 

At Marinette’s exasperated groan, both Alya and Nino fell into giggles, Marinette shortly following along. 

“Keep that up, and I’m not gonna let you guys eat at my place for lunch,” she teased, wagging a finger at them. 

Alya wagged her own finger, engaging in a finger sword fight. “As if your mom would ever let us starve!” 

Marinette laughed, as she wrapped her finger around Alya’s and lightly slammed it onto the table, declaring her victory. 

“Okay, okay, you got me.” Marinette went back to eating her quiche, devouring it before it got too cold. For once, she was in a pretty good mood. 

“Hey, Alya, Nino,”

And of course, she just had  to jinx it. 

Marinette didn’t even try to join in the conversation to acknowledge Lila’s presence. If Lila wanted to talk to her, she needed to stop lying about everything; and with her supposed “lying disease,” that wasn’t happening anytime soon. She only wished Adrien was here so someone could sympathize with her. 

“Oh, hey Lila,” Alya greeted, having gained her hand back and waved. “Ignore Nino here. He forgot about Mendeleiv’s worksheet due today.” 

“Oh, I see.” Lila said. “Well, you know, Nino. If you ever need help with science, one of my cousins actually won a Noble Peace Prize for his contributions in molecular chemistry.” 

Nino, to his credit, only muttered an “uh huh” before turning the worksheet over and frantically scribbling all over it. Marinette briefly wondered if Nino understood what he was writing down- or if he cared. 

Alya perked up. “Wow, that’s amazing Lila! What did your cousin do?”

Lila smiled bashfully, and looked away, waving her hand. “Oh, you know, it was the discovery of some man-made element.” Marinette had to give Lila credit- she knew how to fake her blushes really well. “I’m nowhere near as smart as my cousin, you know? All the scientific words get me so confused!” 

Marinette buried her head in her arms. Did she need to be here for this? She could just slip away? Glancing at Lila, who caught her eyes, she decided against it. Like hell she was letting Lila take away her time with her  friends. 

Alya laughed good-naturedly. “Oh, I understand completely. English is so much more of my forté, you know?” 

“Yeah I totally get what you mean.” Lila stopped laughing as her gaze landed on Marinette. Only she seemed to notice the glare she gave her.  “Oh, hi, Marinette. Glad to see you’re early today.” 

“Yeah,” she deadpanned. “Hi.” With a fake smile, she robotically waved at her. 

“Well, anyways I got to go. See you later Alya.”  Lila said, waving her fingers before finally walking away. Marinette exhaled. Thank kwami. She may have been less obnoxious today but that was probably because of Alya’s presence. 

Speaking of, the said girl turned towards her. “You could be nicer towards her.” 

“She almost got me expelled.” Marinette had had this conversation with Alya many times before. At this point, her responses came like clockwork. She contemplated telling Alya’s threat back in Lila’s first day, but she really wasn’t ready for the backlash if Alya accused her  of lying. 

“Well,” Alya stuttered. “It was because she has an illness that makes her lie uncontrollably.” 

Marinette was pretty sure there was no such illness but at this point, Lila had somehow convinced everyone it was an actual illness. That, or no one wanted to point out the obvious lie, including administration. Which would be pretty negligent of the school admin so she hoped not. 

“Alya, if it was just an illness that makes her tell lies, pray tell, who put the test answers in my bag and the necklace in my locker?” she asked. 

“Maybe, well,” Alya tried coming up with an answer but failed, thereby changing the subjects. “Look, both of you are my friends, and I don’t want to get in between the two of you.” 

Marinette sighed. “Yeah, yeah.” She picked up the discarded quiche container and her bag. “I gotta go to class and see if Mme. Bustier needs help.” 

Alya frowned. “Marinette, wait.” 

“It’s okay, really.” Marinette assured her, before walking away. When she was climbing up the steps to the entrance, she sighed heavily. She didn’t really understand Alya’s logic sometimes. If she knew about Lila’s supposed lying disease, why did she put Lila’s trash on the Ladyblog? If Alya knew Lila’s lies had led to Marinette’s initial expulsion, why still defend her? Marinette shook the thoughts away, not wanting to get into that impeding headache. Lila Rossi was never worth her time. 

When she reached the entrance, Lila was leaning against the doors, her arms crossed. Her olive green eyes were glaring right at her. 

“Dupain-Cheng.” 

“Rossi.” 

Lila strutted up to her, getting uncomfortably close to her face. “I told you what would happen if you didn’t play along.” 

Marinette stared back, unimpressed. She really had more pressing issues than this weird power play Lila wanted to play. Leaning back and stepping to the side, she said, “I already told you I’m not scared of you, Lila.” 

Marinette didn’t spare her another glance. In some ways, she pitied Lila. What kind of life did you have that you were so desperate for attention you lied about everything, and tried to get rid of anyone else who called you out? 

She really hoped Alya would soon see sense. Adrien had once told her to take the high road, and honestly? Sometimes, it felt good to not let Lila’s lies get under her skin. 

Then again, when did Lila ever go down so simply? 

[statementends]

So @i-swear-this-is-for-homework asked if I could elaborate on my ideas about the TMA universe and how technology is affected by the Dread Powers. 

From the beginning we learn that the Statements have trouble recording on more modern equipment: 

The Archivist: Elias, hopefully if you hear this it means I’ve found a way to record those ‘difficult’ statements I was telling you about.

...

The Archivist (Con’t): As you know, I’ve been going through trying to digitise and record audio versions but I’ve been having trouble with a few of the more… bizarre statements. There have been sufficient distortions as to make them utterly unintelligible.

We also hear more to the effect in Episode 13, Alone.

Naomi: Really? Does that thing even work? It must be thirty years old.

The Archivist: I know, but we have previously had some success using it to record statements that our… digital recording software struggles with.

Jon finally states in Episode 39, Infestation: 

Sasha: Jon, what did you mean by “real statements”?

The Archivist: You know what I mean. The ones that have weird wrinkles, or that just seem to have something solid to them. They all have one thing in common.

Sasha: They don’t record digitally.

The Archivist: And we have to use the tape recorder. At this stage, if it records to my laptop I almost don’t bother. I don’t -

So it’s very established that the statements don’t record to computers well. They can be written down, spoken verbally and recorded on tape. 

In Binary (EP 65) we get a bit more about technology from Tessa: 

Jon: I’m not sure what this has to do with my tape recorder

Tessa: Magnetic tape. Everyone thinks it’s analog, but it’s digital. A lower-tech version than what we use now, but people forget that it was used to store computerized data for decades. Maybe it reminds people of a film reel, or, or maybe nostalgia turns everything analog.

Note: I bolded film reel here because it becomes relevant later. 

So we learn magnetic tape is digital in itself, just older which is why we still get static on the recordings when people like Peter Lukas or the Distortion show up. They’re degrading the quality, like holding a magnet to a computer. In real life (and I know this is obvious) we wouldn’t hear any static, but we might feel a deep feeling of dread standing near a being like that. Martin instantly knows that there’s something wrong with Peter Lukas as soon as he steps into view and we the audience know there’s something wrong with Lukas because of the static. When Jon compels people they say there’s a tingle or pull. This is sort of beside the point, but the soundscaping of Magnus Archives does an amazing job of creating the dread the characters might be feeling through using static to tip us off that something is not right. 

So then we move on to the Stranger which is our next big amount of information concerning the powers and technology. The Stranger can rewrite themselves into someone’s lives entirely with the exception of tape recordings. I mistakenly thought that they didn’t affect old cameras as well, but it seems that there’s no stated reason why two of the photos in Episode 78, Distant Cousin, are different. 

But we learn in Episode 77, A Kind of Mother that her mother’s voice is still on tapes which means it isn’t only archive tapes that work on the stranger. it’s all tapes, so it isn’t that Jon’s tape recorders are somehow magical. There’s something about them that doesn’t corrupt them as badly as digital but allows them to imprint information that can’t be effected by the supernatural. 

Okay so. Tape recorders can capture the supernatural. What else does?

Digital cameras (really badly): Melanie captures an image of not only Jude but also a Ghost that she couldn’t physically see, but it was basically useless like the statements taken on computers. 

Phone Camera (Really badly): In Angler Fish Sasha has to up the resolution and really work at it to get the outline of a hand.

Film (assuming, but probably well): The Web are tight with the movie industry. They even have physical watchable copies in artifact storage now, but it isn’t digital film. In episode 110, Creature feature the statement giver says:

He had insisted on using old equipment, and avoided digital almost entirely, to the point where several of the crew were using pieces of kit they’d never even seen before. This meant that a work print had to be made manually for the dailies, something he refused to let anyone else do.

So the Web is using analogue too. Probably VHS. What do tape and VHS have in common? Magnets. 

And another instance where old filming equipment is used? 

Episode 148, Extended Surveillance is a Beholding episode. 

Statement Giver:  There was only one piece of equipment that seemed to give him any trouble. It was this old Tecton multicamera recorder from the late 80s, managed the feeds for one of the various budget shoe shops that lined the promenade.

Now, to be fair I don’t really know much about how these technologies work so if I’m wrong feel free to tell me. But from everything we have it seems to me that Digital recordings get super corrupted. Things like film is chemicals so can be easily manipulated, but old Tapes and VHS rely on magnets and the dread powers have some sort of of field (Magnetic or otherwise) that kills newer digital technology, maybe because that sort of tech sends out signals whereas the older stuff is self contained. I do not really understand all of what makes digital digital and analogue analogue. Maybe it’s a Goldilocks situation of Just Right for magnetic tape. 

The only newer devices picking up supernatural occurrences in good quality is a computer (Binary) and an Ipod (Decrypted), but  both of those are (arguably) Extinction statements. It would make sense that The Extinction can use and send signals through newer technologies. 

So what does all this even mean? Well I don’t know. It makes me think that the dread powers have something to do with magnetic fields which is sort of weird. But there is consistency that older (magnetic based?) recording technology is able to pick up statements while not completely corrupted or able to be manipulated. 

Anyway please feel free to add or correct stuff.

[elizabethrobertajones]

(part 1) this is random but something im curious about is do you think the next few years will see a radical shift in more lead lgbt couples in shows? i feel like when supernatural started it was all about subtext/queerbating between characters we would never see canon (maybe), the last few years have seen an update in more side lgbt characters/couples and while not a lot, more main lgbt characters then we had before. I don't know if tumblr/twitter fandom translates to general audience...

Yeah, I mean, the only way is up. I feel lucky that I managed to encounter a fair amount of queer content in my formative years, whether targeted programming on TV, or taking the route of not really differentiating the perceived cultural value of independent media like webcomics and webnovels etc from the mass media as I was young enough to naturally grow up on the internet as the internet itself was growing up and web 2.0 was pretty much taking off alongside my use of the internet. And that I had liberal parents who didn’t regulate our internet, and lived in a community where culturally I didn’t really fear being discovered casually accessing all this like in particularly this terrifying seeming evangelical christian community in America.

Which really makes me feel like A: everyone should feel that comfortable in themselves via the media as I did as a mass accessible thing or B: that the world at large should be soaked in as much representation and more that I encountered as a curious teen because at the very least it did me no harm and at best helped handhold me through an awful lot. 

And then brings us to the problem that the world isn’t actually like that and for a lot of people their media is restricted one way or another, from everything such as the era of social media weirdly making us much LESS broadly travelled on the internet as I was back in the day (SO many bookmarks - I had like 100 that I would check either daily or on their weekly update schedule, with enough habit that I had pretty much memorised it all without using an RSS feed or just following everyone’s twitter and waiting for update announcements, never mind the vast pit of things which I occasionally checked to see if their sporadic but very worth it updates had occurred somewhere in the last month/year) to the vastly overwhelming amount of media accessible to us. It seems almost to flood the market and creates this panic about watching the worthiest shows and campaigning for them and raising awareness and the FOMO and how things slip by and zomg you have to watch this that and the other, when even just making this list on Netflix now contains more hours of TV than a human lifetime and also one liable to disappear from the service at some point or another without warning. 

And then on top of that you have the absolute cultural monoliths that if you’re not going to have a cohesive culture - which now includes the entire population of the world because of our connectivity on the internet and mass-joining of services - based around smaller shows and stuff, then at the very least everyone is going to watch anything under the main Disney umbrella, other superhero flicks, animated things, and all the really big studio franchises and remakes, as well as a few TV monoliths which manage to get enough people talking to make it seem like “everyone” (again - these days it seems like that’s presumed to be the entire western world plus everywhere else these things air) are watching, like Game of Thrones or whatever… THESE properties are the inescapable ones and on that basis they’re the things we have to lean on the most for representation and then again barely get any, when it comes to gender and sexuality, due to them shooting for such worldwide markets that they can’t imply gay people exist to censors in places such as China. And it exposes the cultural awfulness inherent just in getting a white female character in the lead role of some things, or the absolute garbage fire lurking underneath that if you dare have a black stormtrooper or make one of your female ghostbusters black when you’re already ruining the childhoods of so many how dare… 

In those respects, having side characters who aren’t even major well-known superheroes or jedis or ghostbusters or whatever also be gay (because even well-known lesbian Kate McKinnon didn’t manage to get her ghostbuster to be canonically gay even if we All Knew) would be absolutely groundbreaking, even if it was, like, a role that could be snipped out for the Chinese market or something. And that’s probably exactly what would happen, and cue ensuing riot from whichever fandom, along with everyone rightly pointing out that even for us who got to watch it it was still a tiny side character… I mean Disney is still at the stage of what they did with Beauty and the Beast’s ~canonical gay character~ 

So yeah… that’s thrown back to TV and smaller movies to lead the way and because the generations showing most likely the real global percentages but actually just the young western world stats on queerness in any form (like… 25% instead of 1% or whatever and that’s STILL probably too low) are still teens to young adults. The previous gayest generation above them are still just arriving in power and settling in, and the excellent changes we already have from the generation before that is what we are seeing now... But given THEIR cultural context, even their best can still seem to younger eyes, moderate and not generally placing queer characters in lead roles except in niche or indie or otherwise “acceptable” places to take those risks. I think change is always coming and culturally each generation being more open and accepting that the last is really making changes and so on, hopefully things WILL change rapidly and what was the common state of affairs in the sort of indie media I consumed as a teen will be the mainstream soon because a lot of those creators 10 years later are kicking off… 

All that said, TV in the mainstream is still controlled by Mark Pedowitz types exercising their power over the Bobos who have their Wayward Sisters pitches with the clearly labelled main character for the main teen demographic being queer. The culture is very much that we’re now pretty open and can happily have queer characters, but the main characters are still largely held separate. A good example is Riverdale, which is on the CW, a newer show with writers such as Britta Lundin, who is young, queer, and wrote a novel blatantly based on being a Destiel shipper and fan interacting with the cast and crew in fandom spaces, and whose first solo episode of Riverdale featured a looooot of the gay stuff (yay). 

But while she’s a story editor and writer for the show and can use it as a platform for writing stories for its audience using a whole range of canonically queer characters, the show still keeps all 4 of its mains at a strict remove from this. Cheryl can come out as a lesbian in the second season after a lil ho yay in the first but no clearly marked storyline about her identity, but even though Betty and Veronica kissed in the first episode it was blatant fan service (for Cheryl in-story, lol) and mostly just set the tone that they are the sort of seemingly straight girls kissing for attention while having strong romantic or physical attraction to guys. In the second season the kiss comes up again in joking that Jughead and Archie are the only ones of the main 4 who haven’t kissed, Archie gets one planted on him by a dude as a “judas kiss” moment of betrayal in season 3 and he and Jug are teased that they were expected to get together because they were close but in the same sort of homophobic undercurrent tones as early Destiel snarking from side characters, seemingly less about their relationship and more to unsettle them with implications… I mean it was a complicated moment but in the long run it didn’t seem entirely pleasant to me, especially given the overall emotional state they were in and later plot etc etc. (My mum is 1000% invested in Riverdale now as a former Archie Comics reader as a kid so this is now my life too as I was in the room when my brother callously exposed her to it, hi :P) 

Anyway that’s just one case study but aside from SPN it’s probably the most mainstream teen demographic thing I watch… Other examples would be things like B99 which had Rosa come out as bi and that’s awesome, and made us all cry a lot, but Jake, the clear main character even in a very strong and well-treated ensemble, has a great deal of bi subtext, there’s no way given Andy Samberg’s apparent habit of ad-libbing MORE progressive jokes that he’d ever be intentionally harming people if that’s how his brain works (you know, like other people quick-fire offensive stuff from their mouth working faster than brain sense of humour :P). But at the same time for all Jake’s quipping about crushes and such and the fact the show clearly knows how to be sensitive to bisexuality with Stephanie Beatriz being a strong advocate, just because Jake’s the main character and adorably married to Amy. In NO WAY can that be threatened because they’re SO GOOD, so there’s STILL uncertainty that this will pay off in the same special episode “I love my wife but I am bi” kinda way that seems obvious that could just be said. We all carry on without it affecting anything because obviously Jake’s found his soulmate so we don’t mess with that but they should know it’s important to clarify it… Even with B99′s track record, I’m nervous solely because Jake’s the main character and main characters tend not to get self-exploratory arcs about latent queerness and ESPECIALLY not if they’re happily married. If ANY show was going to do it right and trailblaze in this exact era it would be them, but… gyah :P 

Anyway I guess the conclusion right now is that the more mainstream you are the more uncertain it feels, but we are right at that cliff edge, especially with shows putting in SOME of the work. If B99 doesn’t get us there (or the Good Place where they’ll happily confirm Eleanor is bi in interviews but I believe she hasn’t said it outright on the show despite clearly showing attraction to female characters, again, the denials we know so well in SPN fandom reflect a wider audience view of dismissing this stuff as jokes and not reflective of character feeling and identification without a Special Episode dedicated to confirming it >.>) then we’re very clearly on the cusp of SOME mainstream or massively well-known show doing it at least once in a meaningful way that has an Ellen-style cultural impact on TV writing. 

Let’s make it a goal for 2019 or 2020, and hope that a NEW show with a canonically queer main from the start is pitched and becomes a mainstream hit in the next 5… Still got a ways to go before Disney level mainstream but again there IS work going pushing the envelope, especially if we get a movie of a franchise such as idk Further Legends of Korra, or Steven Universe or something else that’s massively pushed the envelope with sexuality or gender for their main character on the small screen in the experimental petri dish they’ve had there for children’s TV. Something that would force Disney to blink about a lesbian princess or Star Wars to let Finn and Poe kiss or Marvel to let Steve and Bucky hold hands or something in order to remain relevant.

Once the Big Cultural Monoliths get in on it, I expect culture as a whole to first of all react quickly on the small screen, but honestly I’ve been waiting for them to snap pretty much my whole life since adolescence and they’re taking such wee tiny baby steps, and some factors are enormous geopolitical awfulness, that the story as a whole is unpredictable and we can only really hope that things don’t slow down. 

(Where this affects SPN is just impossible to say right now, given its almost unique position in this mess due to longevity vs fandom vs almost entirely new generation of writers’ room) 

[canadianpharmacieswebsite]

The Simulation Hypothesis: Some Bits & Pieces

One might try and think of our Universe as just a big version and variation of “Star Trek’s” Holodeck but programmed from the outside like a computer simulation or a computer / video game. Perhaps like in the “Star Trek” Holodeck, the characters who did the programming can also enter their creation and interact with their creations much like our relatively primitive (in comparison) virtual reality setups. This is known as “The Simulation Hypothesis”. Is there any evidence at all for this scenario? The Simulation Hypothesis: The Eight-Fold Way of Reasons *Probability. The Reason: Really real reality is a one-off / a one-and-only. Really real reality can however contain multi-millions / billions of virtual realities / simulations. Place your bets. *The Accelerating Universe (and associated notation that the energy density of the Universe remains constant thought the Universe is expanding). The Reason: This implies a free lunch / getting something from nothing. Simulations can of course create this illusion. *The “Observer Effect” (especially the delayed Double-Slit experiment). The Reason: There’s no known, natural, or rational explanation or mechanism apart from introducing virtual reality’s special effects. *Radioactive Decay. The Reason: No causality. Again, this is an illusionary effect that can be programmed into computer software. *Mathematical Equations. The Reason: If you were to ask one of our video game characters what their ultimate reality was, they would, on reflection, and being smart little buggers, have to answer “mathematics”. Now fast-forward to your reality, which is ultimately what? Mathematics. All of physics – the bedrock in thinking about and describing reality – is describable as or in mathematics. Now the really interesting thing is when you examine the mathematical equations that describe the laws, principles and relationships of the physical sciences, against all expectations, the exponents and coefficients nearly always tend to be low value whole numbers and simple fractions. These equations are not human inventions. Mother Nature dictates what they must be – or perhaps they are written into the software that determines those laws, principles and relationships of the physical sciences. *Fine-Tuning. The Reason: Now it is not enough to design and give properties to each of the bits and pieces that collectively make up the Standard Model of Particle Physics. They have to be fine-tuned to fit together. Just like Lego Blocks, you can intelligently design thousands of types of Lego Blocks, but if they can’t or fail to snap / fit together then what’s the point? Simulations and the software that programs them into existence have to be fine-tuned in order to make any sense of the simulations in and of themselves. *Mind – Body / Brain Dualism. The Reason: The physical is affecting the non-physical and vice versa. This defies common sense as well as any sort of explanatory mechanism. Again, one can call on special effects to create this illusion. *There’s also the category of things seen but always elusive and never substantiated: ghosts; UFOs; Bigfoot / Sasquatch; Loch Ness Monster (and other lake / sea monsters). They tend to all fall under the category of “It can’t be therefore it isn’t” versus “I know what I saw”. The reason for the paradox: This contains inherent inconsistencies and contradictions. And there are numerous examples as suggested above: UFOs, alien abductions and ancient astronauts; mind over matter from ESP to telekinesis to remote viewing to the placebo effect; accepted miracles (by the Catholic Church for example); supernaturally themed visions; ghosts, hauntings and poltergeist; phantom objects (i.e. – trains); anomalous disappearances; OBEs and NDEs; past lives and reincarnation; alternative medicine from copper bracelets to acupuncture to use of crystals to the power of positive thinking; the wee-folk like leprechauns, elves and fairies; the not so wee-folk as in the Amazons or those Biblical giants in the earth as well as Goliath; and one should honestly also include quantum physics here. There almost seems to be way more things to disagree on than agree on. [See also section on “Cryptozoology” below.] It would appear that since the dawn of recorded history, in all cultures and societies, across the gender, age, racial, etc. boards, multi-millions of people have had “it can’t be therefore it isn’t, but I know what I saw” experiences. However, as you would be well aware, Hollywood’s special effects can create all sorts of things that can’t be yet things that you see! The Simulation Hypothesis and Cryptozoology Can the Simulation Hypothesis help explain the ins and outs of cryptozoology? Crypotzoology itself is the investigation of anomalous animals that have been witnessed, yet which remain outside of the realm of normal zoology. *Cryptozoology is yet another example of [Con] “It can’t be therefore it isn’t” versus [Pro] “I know what I saw”. [Pro] The sightings of anomalous animals are geographically unique and pretty consistent. [Con] These animals shouldn’t / couldn’t exist. [Pro] But ordinary people with no ulterior motive have reported seeing them. [Con] There are however no bodies and by now there should have been bodies found. So why just plesiosaurs at Loch Ness? Why not other extinct ‘marine’ reptiles like the ichthyosaurus, or the tylosaurs or even the mosasaurs? And why just a very select few of Scotland’s lochs are home to plesiosaurs? And why is a marine reptile in fresh water anyway? In Africa there’s the ‘dinosaur’ Mokele-mbembe. But why not the Dodo or Pink Elephants? So why just huge hairy man-apes in the Pacific Northwest? Why not woolly mammoths or sabre-tooth cats? In Australia we have the Yowie. But why not killer koalas or moas? In the Himalayas you have the Yeti. Why not dragons or the wooly rhinoceros? In Mexico / Latin America there’s the Chupacabra. Why not unicorns or centaurs? Then there’s the Jersey Devil; Mothman; the Beast of Exmoor and on and on it goes. “It can’t be therefore it isn’t” versus “I know what I saw” is easily resolved as noted above by special effects technologies, like programmed software. The Simulation Hypothesis and the Hard-Wiring of the Brain *When you were conceived there was no neural you; no brain, no hard-wiring. Hard-wiring fell into place as you developed in order to successfully carry out the physiological functions that would keep you alive and kicking over after you were hatched. However, in the absence of learning and experiencing your environment, either formally or just through living day-to-day, it’s difficult to explain where your visions of immaterial concepts – those Carl Jung “collective unconscious” archetypes for example – come from. If you do come pre-equipped with innately derived immaterial concepts then there is programming separate and apart from your initial genetic programming that’s going on. Concepts like Carl Jung’s “collective unconscious” archetypes cannot be hardwired into the brain from conception on down the line unless they were actually programmed by external influences to be there. I’m just going to substitute Jung’s “collective unconscious” – which has no real explanatory mechanism – for programmed software. The Simulation Hypothesis and Consciousness / Free Will *An interesting question is, how can you simulate consciousness? How can you give a simulated virtual reality character free will? Now if we are virtual reality does that mean it is possible to create Artificial Life with consciousness and free will? Will Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) have free will and consciousness by our design? Probably not in both cases. Take one of our space probes that lands and roves around and explores the surface of a distant planet. That space probe cannot rely on instructions from say NASA’s Command Centre back on Earth due to the time lag in communications. The space probe has to make its own decisions in an emergency; when crunch comes crunch. But does the space probe – with limited A.I. – really have free will? No. It has been pre-programmed to do A, B or C whenever X, Y or Z arises. Even if it could be done – not a given – the last thing we’d probably want to do is give A.I. free will and the keys to the city – just saying. Better to be safe than sorry. You probably wouldn’t want to create a video / computer game where the characters had free will / consciousness as that would spoil the fun of playing the game. The point is that you are in control, not your simulated characters. So in the Simulation Hypothesis, your apparent consciousness is just programming and of course you have no free will. You can program a computer to display “I think, therefore I am”, but the computer doesn’t really have consciousness nor free will. The Simulation Hypothesis and Mind Over Body / The Placebo Effect *The ordinary run-of-the-mill Placebo Effect is one thing (one mind; one body), but when mind-over-body gets taken to extreme and even ludicrous lengths (many minds; one body) then special effects programming seem like a logical requirement. Now you would no doubt believe that if a body has a medical condition then that body has that medical condition. But one body can have more than one mind and such a condition is often referred to as multiple personality disorder. Now each mind will have in the same body its own unique set of medical conditions which will come and go; appear and disappear as that personality comes and goes. So say you have this body and personality A has associated with it medical condition X (but not Y or Z); personality B has medical condition Y (but not X or Z); and personality C has medical condition Z (but not X or Y). But as personality A becomes personality B, malady X disappears and malady Y appears then in turn disappears as personality C comes to the fore along with malady Z. This is totally crazy but also totally verified. There are of course some limits (like death – see below). One’s body doesn’t become pregnant then not-pregnant then pregnant again as the body’s personalities come and go. Bones aren’t broken for one personality and unbroken when there’s a change to the next personality. But any medical condition that the real Placebo Effect can have on a body just inhabited by one mind equally works for any one mind (at a time and in turn) that’s part of a multiple collective of minds – dual personalities in one body. Here’s another extreme illustration of the Placebo Effect. We’ve all seen pictures of those rather strange and unique individuals who can embrace all manner of self-inflicted tortures without pain or suffering or experiencing injury; individuals who survive (even thrive) being hung by meat hooks through their flesh, who seem to be nearly immune to intense heat or who have swords run through them – no blood; no medical condition results. Then too we’ve seen karate experts who can punch through solid bricks and boards without flinching or even feeling a thing – as in severe bruising or broken bones. Initiation ceremonies in lots of tribal cultures are another example of mind-over-body – the Placebo Effect. But if the Placebo Effect is so effective, then why do we ultimately die? Even if you took a daily anti-death pill that you were 100% convinced would prevent your demise, you will still eventually kick-the-bucket. It seems as if not even the Placebo Effect can overcome death and therefore might there be something else going on behind the scenes – like programming. The Simulation Hypothesis and Death Either there is an immaterial / non-physical component to the human species or there is not. If there is not, there can’t be any such thing as an afterlife, near death experiences, out of the body experiences, death bed visions, reincarnations, past lives, etc. Yet these aspects part and parcel to the death and dying process have been postulated and recorded by nearly all societies / cultures over nearly all of recorded history (and probably well before that at least in terms of the afterlife concept – grave goods found in very ancient burial sites). How does that make any sense? If there is an immaterial / non-physical component, even after your death (or the death of others), for there to be such things as an afterlife, death bed visions, reincarnations, past lives, etc. that immaterial / non-physical component has got to operate and navigate around in space and in time in the absence of any sensory apparatus (eyes, ears, etc.) and an organ (i.e. – the brain) that can perceive and interpret those sensory aspects we call vision / sight, hearing / sound, taste, touch and smell. How does that make any sense? There seems to be another case here of “It can’t be therefore it isn’t” relative to one of “I know what I saw / experienced.” No matter what side of the fence you’re on, you’re damned if you’re on one side and you’re damned if you are on the other side. That said, the obvious alternative explanations are 1) experiences are all in the mind and just mental delusions, or 2) people are deliberately perpetrating frauds and hoaxes. IMHO I don’t think either one of these explanations are entirely credible. Let’s examine each of the death-related categories in turn and ask whether or not special effects might be in play here. Death Bed Visions: It seems highly improbable that someone, especially a quite elderly someone just hours away from the finality of death is going to hoax death bed visions. Delusional mental states are far more probable an explanation except you’d think that death bed visions would cover or incorporate a very wide, wide, wide variety of visions, not just visions of already dead relatives and friends. Near Death Experiences (NDEs): The eyes may be the visual organs but it’s the brain that does the actual seeing. Neither eyes nor brains are present and accounted for in NDEs. Nor are any other sensory organs. So how can a person relate an NDE if that person in that immaterial state can’t experience anything external reality, being 100% deaf, blind, etc.? Out of Body Experiences (OBEs): As with NDEs, and closely enough related to NDEs to include them here, OBEs suffer from the exact same sort of impossibilities that NDEs suffer from. In an OBE you are in a non-physical state and lack any and all of the sensory organs and sensory processing abilities that would give you the ability to actually relate your OBE to others after-the-fact. Reincarnations: If you have been reincarnated, that implies that some sort of immaterial part of you survived death, wafted around the Cosmos for a spell, then got incorporated into another biological body. What would be the ultimate purpose I know not since it would seem logical to have the concept of just one immaterial part inhabiting one and only one material body. If the immaterial part of you survives your body’s death, all fine well and good, but why not just enjoy the immaterial afterlife instead of coming back for another round(s) of enduring physical existence? But like all things immaterial, the best explanation is the Simulation Hypothesis explanation. Past Lives: There is no possible way that you can go from a past life to your present life without going through an immaterial / non-physical stage. If you remember a past life then this immaterial “you” that went from past body to present body contained memories which suggests that memory is immaterial. Yet can you really conceive of having an immaterial basis for your memory since your memories can obviously be affected by physical mechanisms – disease, injury, drugs, lack of sleep, the ageing process, etc. So in this case the more obvious explanation or conclusion is that people recalling past lives; past memories are delusional or outright hoaxing. Special effects to the rescue? Afterlife: To start things off, the concept of an afterlife is a nearly universal one, and when concepts cross nearly all cultures and societies, and all eras, then one has to sit up and take notice, for there’s some explaining required. Since there is no solid or actual knowledge that people possess regarding an afterlife (belief / faith – yes; knowledge – no), we can neither conclude the afterlife is real or just wishful thinking and a self-imposed delusion reinforced by the collective wishful thinking by the rest of humanity. What probably can be said is this: if there is an afterlife you’d have to experience it in an immaterial / non-physical state without any sensory apparatus or the means to process any sensory data. That’s a concept that makes no logical sense at all. But all is not lost in you invoke simulated special effects. If your life is just virtual reality then your afterlife can also be just virtual reality. The Simulation Hypothesis and Religion *Is the Simulation Hypothesis up to explaining theological themes? Consistent themes in religions include: Concept of the Supernatural: The concept that there is a supernatural almost (but maybe not quite) seems to be written / programmed / hard-wired into the psyche even before the dawn of civilisation that is during the hunter-gatherer stages and prior to numeracy / literacy and the rise of agriculture and farming. This has resulted in near compulsory if not downright obsessive behaviours, ritualistic and otherwise. However, immaterial concepts cannot just be hard-wired into the brain without external input. There’s no gene for the supernatural. Thus, I have to go along with the idea that this is a form of special effects programming. Concept of Creation: Why the concept of creation at all is a big mystery (to me at least) since we’ve never witnessed the creation of the Cosmos, of the Sun, or of Planet Earth, or of the origin of life or of basically anything. What we observe tends to be cyclic and so we have no real need to conceive of any creation on the grounds that it makes a lot more sense to just think that all we see has always been here, and our ancestors would back up that idea since they had to deal with the same cyclic stuff that we do. No one has ever known anything different. Again, the concepts central to creation are perhaps hard-wired and thus programmed software. Concept of Supernatural Deities: There’s hardly any religion anywhere, that existed at any time, that didn’t include the concept of supernatural deities, usually many (covering all the bases and the basics); someone just a loner god. The reasons why aren’t too surprising. You need an agency to explain the unexplained; the good shit and the bad shit. That too appears to be a hard-wired need. However, since there aren’t any supernatural deities, any actual evidence for them and knowledge of them must be the result of programming. Concept of Anomalies / Miracles: All religious texts are full of unnatural anomalies. The best way to explain the unexplained is to look at those special effects generated by the film / TV industries. There’s nothing so miraculous that programmed special effects can’t create. Concept of the End Times: Much like the idea that there was an origin; a creation, there tends to be a near universal belief that all things will come to termination, either in fire or in ice; either with a bang or with a whimper. Again why, I’m not sure. There seems to be little logic in assuming this. Maybe it is because we ourselves terminate that we think it only fair that everything comes to a grinding and deadly stop. Still, all good computer simulations / software programs have to end sometime, and this inkling of that finite duration is what we envision as the End Times – the end of days; the end of the computer program. More About the Concept of an Afterlife: The only part of you that could in any way survive into an afterlife would have to be an immaterial part of you since when you snuff it, your material remains go nowhere. But any immaterial part of you would have no sensory apparatus so how could you enjoy an afterlife when you couldn’t experience it? On the other hand, if your life is but a computer simulation, then equally so could your afterlife be another simulation. One software program ends (death) and another begins (afterlife).

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[deltaengineering]

Bummer Anime 2018 Part 2: shoujo to the rescue

It got better, mostly because it could hardly get worse. That doesn’t mean it was a smooth ride, of course. I would like to state, for the record, that I’m not trying to be the funny guy who hates everything here; the season’s just that unusually bad. As before, the source for the ad copy at the end of each block is this.

Asobi Asobase

What: A bunch of assholes play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

✅ It’s another exuberant comedy, and unlike Chio-chan, I can’t catch this one on the execution: It has the technical chops and honestly good comedic timing.

❌❌ Initially wants to make you believe it’s a pleasant cute girls doing cute things show, but what it actually is is a brutally annoying and ugly explosion in the reactionface factory. Since the production values are there, it’s rather too good at that.

❌❌ I was trying to compare it to something, and the best I could come up with was rage comics. Yeah, it’s anime rage comics. It’s that bad.

❌❌ I would feel more benevolent towards it if it were shorter, but at full length its high energy screaming based assault is mostly just tiresome.

♎ This is one of those rare shows where even I will say your mileage may vary. It’s really good at what it does, but I hate everything it does. Hooray for the subversion, but at the end of the day you’re still annoying and ugly.

ANN sez: “It's this exact mix of stupid crassness and innocent naiveté that I think truly defines high-school life, and Asobi Asobase nails it perfectly. “

Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria

What: A smartphone with a light novel protagonist attached time travels to the bronze age, establishes a incest-fascist harem regime with the power of Wikipedia.

❌❌ read the synopsis again please

❌❌ there’s more idiocy than that, believe it or not (ex.: smartphone hotline to his actual imouto, for the feels), but I haven’t got all day.

❌❌ Basing your isekai shit on “history” (i.e., a LN author’s idiotic idea of history) instead of an MMO or whatever only serves to piss me off even more.

❌❌ Actually not better than Isekai Smartphone, which makes it one of the worst anime episodes I have ever seen. Congratulations. The only thing it has over Death March is that it doesn’t spend 80% of the time in menus, but it makes menus look pretty good so it’s a wash.

ANN brainfarts: “Yuuto also seems to be limiting his phone searches to historically accurate things as well, which shows that he's really thinking about the fact that he's in the past – no one's inventing the rocket here, they're just learning to grind grain and use the phalanx formation for battles.”

Phantom in the Twilight

What: Chinese girl travels to London, inadvertently inherits her great-grandma’s vampire harem. 

✅ Step 1 of every otome harem appraisal is determining how much of a wet blanket the protagonist is; Ton here is pretty spunky and even gets to kick some ass, so well done on that.

✅ Some of the right kind of nonsense for my taste, stuff like chav goblins and Jiangshi with miniguns is always appreciated.

✅ Random shows ending up with bizarre minimal techno soundtracks is still something that I approve of.

❌ Still not the glorious kind of nonsense that Dance With Devils had, nor the disregard of actual romance in favor of comedy that Dame x Prince exhibited. It’s an otome-ass otome harem and that’s not inspiring confidence for the long term.

❌ Looks cheap, and that won’t be getting any better.

ANN sez: “The fantasy worldbuilding here also felt far more sturdy than in many similar shows; this isn't a world where the Good Fantasy Guys fight the Bad Fantasy Guys, this is a world where creatures like goblins and spriggans and werewolves all exist, all possess their own cultures and priorities, and uneasily rub shoulders with each other.”

Jashin-chan Dropkick

What: Demon snake girl wants to murder the chuuni gothloli that summoned her, gets owned right back.

❌❌ It’s the second coming of Dokuro-chan, with every punchline being torture. Quite literally for the characters, and consequently for the audience as well.

❌❌ Needless to say, the entire cast (there’s some additional supernatural babes, none of which make much of an impression) are jerks and the show being wantonly mean-spirited towards them does not cancel that out. 

❌ Somehow the second anime about eating reptile ass in recent memory. But Maidragon, as lame as it was, wasn’t as terrible as this. Jashin-chan won’t get into insipid family feels any time soon, but the alternative is worse.

ANN sez: “If this is your taste in humor, it may be worth giving a second episode to see if it starts pulling that off.”

Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes

What: Handsome genius antique dealer appraises old pottery and his assistant’s soul.

✅ I have to admit that if you somehow decided to make a otome version of Sherlock without anything so crass as murder, this is how you’d do it. It works.

✅ The leading pair has simple but effective chemistry.

✅ The studio behind it has mostly done porn OVAs before, which is the kind of meta-humor I can get behind.

❌ Based on a series of novels, so naturally the talkytalk gets out of hand.

❌ Doesn’t have the highest budget, tries to make up for it with rainbow-colored garishness. Not a dealbreaker but it could get tiresome.

ANN sez: “While Yagashira cuts a handsome figure as the bishonen, Aoi has more of an ordinary appearance – perhaps deliberately so, since I suspect that the source novels were originally aimed at female audiences.”

Shinya! Tensai Bakabon

What: Showa-era gag manga gets on air again after decades, repeatedly points out how hilarious that is.

❌ Beat-for-beat the same first episode concept as Osomatsu-san.

❌ The main difference is that Bakabon is more willing to look old as fuck, but when they arrive at the non-ruse look at the end of the episode, it’s the same as the non-ruse look that Osomatsu-san ended up at the end of its own first episode.

❌  So guess what, constantly takes potshots at Osomatsu-san, despite being a blatant ripoff of it.

❌❌ When it doesn’t reference Things You Know (if you’re a middle-aged Japanese salaryman), it references its own sorry showa-era gag manga self.

❌❌ I didn’t even like Osomatsu-san but this is an embarrassment.

♎ On the bright side, not as likely to provide fujos with incest shipping material. I fully expect to be proven painfully wrong on this.

ANN sez: Nothing. Way too Japanese for them, I suppose. 

Angolmois - Genkou Kassenki

What: Historical action show wherein a bunch of misfits in medieval Japan fight the Mongols.

✅ Fairly decent action and animation thereof.

✅ Characters seem alright for this sort of thing. Maybe a bit too tryhard violent for my tastes, but that’s still within acceptable parameters.

❌❌ The looks are ruined in postproduction. I could live with the heavyhanded color correction, but what really kills it is the same omnipresent static paper texture over every single shot. It’s bad when it doesn’t change between shots but it’s devastating when it doesn’t move along with zooms and pans, which this show has a lot of.

❌❌ Seriously, I haven’t seen anything as senselessly destroyed by a single AfterEffects layer since Garo: Vanishing Line’s Parkinsonscam, but at least that only affected impact frames. Here it’s literally every frame. Delete that PNG you damn fools.

❌ So yeah, it’s okay-ish but that’s not enough to survive one boneheaded executive decision that’s impossible to ignore. It just comes out as a net negative.

ANN sez: “From its beautifully animated, choreographed, and directed fight scenes to its generally dynamic compositions and keen understanding of visual economy, Angolmois is a visually stunning production.”

Lord of Vermilion - Guren no Ou

What: Tokyo gets enveloped in red mist which raptures most of the population and turns the rest into JRPG characters. They start fighting, we promise.

❌ Has the shape of an obvious Persona clone, but isn’t one; it’s actually based on an arcade CCG. So the source material isn’t very classy to begin with.

❌❌ Haphazardly thrown together so it’s hard to care about anything, especially not the characters.

❌❌ Opens with a flashforward to the climax, so we know this will just end up as overdesigned dudes and dudettes having allegedly epic battles that the show can’t afford to make look good, but can afford to make very red. Thanks for the heads up, I guess.

❌ So it’s quite bad, and not even funny-bad like Caligula was.

ANN sez: “There are always a few action shows like this every season, and they're always entirely overshadowed by that season's versions of shows like My Hero Academia and Banana Fish”

Grand Blue

What: City slicker moves to a beach town expecting to end up in Amanchu; ends up in Animal House instead.

❌❌ Say it with me: Every punchline is the protagonist making a shocked face at dumb meatheads doing something stupid.

♎ For something that I feel like I should hate every second of, I actually didn’t hate it all that much. I even thought it was mostly sort of enjoyable. I don’t really know what exactly does it but I can offer some ideas:

✅ While the punchlines (well, punchline) may be bad, the jokes themselves aren’t. This is a real sitcom with larger-scale comedic setups than you usually see in anime, jokes build upon each other and keep escalating.

✅ Sleazy fratboy humor about partying hard and drinking like an idiot isn’t very profound, but rare at least in anime. And it’s amusing that the overall conceit is that it’s preventing iyashikei from taking place. Novelty counts for something. 

✅ Manages to build awkward comedic situations about buff dudes with their dicks out without resorting to the same old gay panic jokes. Just regular panic, no homo.

✅ Makes a good Friday beach bum combo with Harukana Receive, which incidentally also got better by embracing its more prurient side.

ANN sez: “If Grand Blue Dreaming has a major Achilles heel, its that it isn't self-aware enough to recognize when a joke has run its course. ”

Happy Sugar Life

What: Yandere sociopath adopts a preteen girl (from a parking lot). It’s cute, only not.

✅ Is fully aware that everyone in this show is an asshole and is honestly trying for subversive. At least on the surface.

✅ Goes all on on the imagery, which works. At least on the surface.

❌❌ Simply exploiting the contrast between cuteness and insanity got old about a decade ago; this cranks up the presentation on both sides but doesn’t really add anything new.

❌❌ About as mean-spirited and unpleasant as Mahou Shoujo Site, while having even less to say. 

❌ Doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere; it’s just going to be the main character pwning other people that are just as flamboyantly fucked up as she is, but not as good at it. Starting with a flashforward to the (very edgy, of course) ending like Lord of Vermilion doesn’t help either. And even if they end up rusemanning what is implied there it won’t be much better.

ANN sez: “Happy Sugar Life was on my list of most-anticipated anime this season because its combination of disparate elements seemed so utterly perverse that I was curious to see how they could possibly fit together.“

Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight

What: Girls slowwalk in an academy for stage arts by day, get into metaphorical superbattles by night.

✅✅ What can I say, it’s Love Live x Marimite with a glossy coating of Ikuhara-style operatics. A total deltabait concept if I’ve ever seen one.

✅ Clones the storytelling approach of Ikuhara but not many of his specific directing mannerisms; Since I’m tired of the latter but a sucker for the former, this is a good thing.

✅ In a similar vein, this trades Ikuhara’s functional ciphers for actual characters and his enigmatic arthouse plots for something that obviously makes sense. 

✅ How gay? So gay.

❌ Has the opposite problem of Grand Blue: This is a show that should blow me away, but doesn’t. In fact, if it didn’t bring the big damn musical theater complete with one of the best and most appropriate henshins I’ve ever seen near the end, I’d say it was fairly lame.

❌ Probably has something to do with that in the course of casualizing Ikuhara, the “real” world ended up too bland and the characters too generic. I get that it’s for contrast, but it can be done far better (see Yorimoi for an example).

✅ In any case, it still seems easily worth watching even if it’s not as good as it could be. Maybe it’ll even get better.

ANN sez: “All I can say for certain is that it comes completely out of nowhere, and that it raises all kinds of questions about what kind of series this is going to be.“

Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san

What: Impoverished ghost hunter checks into a haunted hot spring and interacts with the harem that happens to live there.

❌ As generic a 90s ecchi harem comedy as they come; my correspondents tell me that this is extremely reminiscent of Love Hina. Shockingly it’s actually based on a 2016 manga, but you wouldn’t be able to tell.

❌ As such, an abundance of accidental boobplants and other saucy accidents makes up the bulk of what’s going on this show.

✅ The main ghost girl is fairly cute; The main dude is also relatively bearable and has at least one good joke in his backstory (which I won’t spoil), so the core dynamic is surprisingly fine. If the rest of the harem weren’t there, this wouldn’t be such a bad setup. 

❌ Features those dastardly breast-hiding light rays, reportedly even in the AT-X version. This doesn’t affect a large part of the show (the majority is more like the cap above), but boobies are probably still the only reason anyone cares about any of this.

♎ Certainly not good, but the lame shit of yore is not what I’m going to spend energy getting mad at in 2018. The 24 minutes I’m ever going to spend with it felt more nostalgic than anything.

ANN sez: “Ninja girl Sagiri comes off the worst from the situation, with nearly all of her dialogue spent promising to beat the crap out of anyone who doesn't measure up to her moral code. I imagine there must be more to her and the rest of the supporting cast than what we've seen so far, but at the moment they seem an awful lot like stock characters.”

Sirius the Jaeger

What: A broody werewolf and his team of assorted bad dudes hunt vampires in 30s Tokyo.

✅✅ Looks ace, this is an action show with deluxe everything. It better, because being directed by Masahiro Ando is pretty much the start and end of this show’s unique selling points.

✅ Interwar Tokyo with a bit of a gothick twist is a cool setting, and this show can afford to portray it properly.

❌ Seriously though... edgy vampires and edgier werewolves. Come on, son.

❌ Just like Banana Fish, this is a highly polished implementation of something that fundamentally isn’t very interesting to me.

✅ I’d still take it over Fanana Bish because this doesn’t seem to take itself so bloody seriously and is far more comfortable with just being moody action schlock. It’s also less showoffy, believe it or not. What else are you going to watch? Sirius the Jaeger is what you’re going to watch. Sorry.

ANN sez: They only have a preview from Anime Expo, and that boils down to “The second episode is where things start to get interesting.“ I sure hope so.

Well, we got a few acceptable shows in if nothing else, I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which ones those are. I’m cutting my losses here, see you in three months for a hopefully more bountiful season.

[agameofsouls]

backstory // jackson + lyra

so, jackson and lyra are ocs that i created for a group rp that i used to run a year or so back. the history and lore was really really deep, and i actually spent months writing it and tying little pieces together to make a blend of rural folk village / supernatural monsters / scifi horror whatever that made me really happy to think about and plan out.

i actually had an entire notebook filled with different arcs and conflicts i wanted the group to work through, including a huntress, a dragon, blood spells, etc. unfortunately, we only got about half way through the huntress before things died out due to busy personal lives, and what have you.

this is just a small directory and explanation to certain parts of that world that are integral to the development of jackson and lyra as characters, and things that they have experienced from their old home, as well as links to posts from the group page with even more stories and information.

mostly, this is for my benefit so i can sort of feel better referencing their backstories knowing that this exists for anyone to read that’s interested.

also, i just really want my old favorite stories to see the light of day again. nightmare was honestly so important to me as a writer, lmao.

NOTE. this is a long post!

the town itself

Nightmare has been around for two hundred and forty horrific years. It was originally created by the legendary group called The Eleven, which consisted of: Five witches, two vampires, three werewolves, one necromancer, and several children belonging to most of the members.

The story is that left their homes in Salem, followed by groups of hunters, and traveled all the way down to Tennessee before disappearing into the Smoky Mountains, losing their would-be killers forever. It took them a while and a lot of settling down and uprooting before finally deciding on a permanent home, but they did it, and here we are: hidden, secret, and safe. ( more here )

essentially, the town is self sufficient, isolated in deep within the smoky mountains. there are several sister towns spread across the us, typically either in more wooded areas, or deep within the rarely traveled plains of the midwest, or the deserts of the mojave.

they are connected by ‘trails’ that are only traveled by those in the know, and nomads travel from town to town with goods to trade on a regular basis, and often bring newcomers with them that they found along the way.

the government system is fairly simplistic as well -- each species that resides in nightmare has one representative, whether because they were elected or are the only one of their kind, that sits on a council.

the power is usually passed through the family of the current council member, and doesn’t often switch hands unless something drastic happens. in the case that there are no familial relations of the current council member available, they will select another member of their species as their ‘heir.’

lyra + jackson

in this world, lyra lived a very carefree life. she was a bit of a criminal, and would often get into trouble on purpose just to have the sheriff of the town, tris, arrest her. she developed a crush on him, and they eventually started seeing each other, much to the dismay of lyra’s mother. she hated that tris was older than lyra, as well as a shape shifter. she thought he was dangerous, but lyra wouldn’t hear a bad word against him.

she also had a best friend, a witch named antonia, who she would drag into all sorts of trouble with her. the two were inseparable, except for when the law man came around. lyra never let toni go down with her, and always took the heat. freya always forgave lyra for any wrongdoing she did, and was the kind of mom that instead got upset with the guards rather than her own daughter for her ever growing criminal record.

on the other hand, jackson lived quietly. even in a place like nightmare, necromancers were still feared. their power was different than that of any of the witches, and it was mysterious. it made other people uneasy, and they didn’t have a lot of trust for young or new necromancers like him.

so he typically stayed home, tending to his plants and decorating his house to look like an hgtv model home. he also sold his fruits and veggies in the town center at his little produce stall, and made some extra cash that way. it was a far cry from his previous life, but he liked it.

he made friends slowly, and eventually befriended lyra. the two, along with toni, became close friends and would often spend time in jackson’s home having tea and snacks during the day, and going to parties at night. toni, while she spent her time with jackson and lyra often, still had a slight distrust of jackson, and would often make excuses to not join them on ventures. this left a lot of time for him and lyra to be alone and bond, and he quickly became her second most trusted friend in town.

when shit hit the fan and it was time to leave, they went together, trying to make sense of all the shit they had been through. after everything, they are inseparable, and would probably die for each other. there are very few friends as close as them, and they depend on each other to survive in the outside world.

the problem

For some reason or another, though, our population has started falling, and not because our citizens are leaving, either. Something’s been coming around when we don’t know it and making people drop dead left and right, whether it’s from a sickness or people being outright murdered, we don’t know.

The recent deaths are causing some tensions between groups and have cause productivity to dwindle as well. Some parents won’t send their kids down to the school and community events have begun to see a decrease in attendance as well. The Council is working on finding the source of the problem and a solution, but with even the Elders finding it difficult to work together, some people are afraid that this is the end of Nightmare.

so, basically, there was a sickness spreading, but it was only affecting certain groups, such as the witches and sirens, specifically. it had slowly started to spread to other species as well, enough that a true ‘pattern’ hadn’t been picked up just yet. no one could figure out how it spread, and no one could figure out a cure or a source for it.

there was no magic that could stop it, no potion that could slow it. it seemed to suddenly hit a person, and within a matter of hours to days, they were dead.

what the townspeople didn’t know was that the sickness was entirely created in a lab. freya, the alpha of the werewolf pack and current holder of the werewolf council seat, had been contacted by a mysterious organization from the outside world regarding a research project into special beings.

the organization wanted to study the dna of supernatural beings, to see what made it different from humans, and if it was possible to cure, or if it was possible to weaponize and turn regular humans into these creatures.

they wanted to see if they could modify regular human dna to pass it on like any regular trait and have it manifest in their children, thus manufacturing witches, werewolves, or even hybrids of any of these species. it was a long shot by far, but they were willing to pay for any help.

for a while, she helped the organization by gathering dna samples and sending it off to a drop point. it was harmless. they compensated her well, and she was able to provide the town with wealth and new things that they never had before. but then, operations at the organization switched hands to someone with a little more darker intentions.

this new head had led the scientists in the direction of extermination -- treat the genetic markers like a virus, create a serum that destroys it, kill the monsters, ensure the survival of pure humans. now, this worried freya, and she pulled out almost immediately, until the head made a deal with her -- provide the dna of the creatures you don’t like and we’ll stick with them. your kind will be safe.

she quickly bought into this, and brought her brother in on the situation, and continued to provide dna from witches, shape shifters, and sirens alike, always avoiding her kind. the organization gave her a satellite phone, as described in this post, and she began to poison the town slowly through the well systems.

the huntress

in the midst of all the chaos and fear caused by the sickness in town, something perhaps worse came to nightmare via an old legend called the huntress, fully explained here.

Legend tells of an ancient hunter made immortal and unstoppable by a group of religious witches to destroy the races of monsters. Their chosen Huntress was taken from her life of poverty and misery and used in a forbidden ritual dedicated to the dark gods. During this ritual, half of her soul was ripped from her body and placed in a token of the Huntress, for safe keeping. The gods replaced the missing piece of her mortal soul with pieces of their own, effectively making her one of them, therefore making it impossible for her to die by normal means.

the story ends with the huntress being trapped in a chest, passed down by the bloodlines of the original witches that created and later imprisoned her. a ritual was to be performed during a full moon every century, but that instruction eventually fell to myth and then became hardly a memory, and the whereabouts of the chest were eventually forgotten.

it turns out, like a lot of things do in this town, that the chest ended up in the attic of the council building, just waiting for a little something like the hunter’s moon to come out and let the huntress out to play. 

That moment finally came as the moon reached the highest point in the night sky, casting moonbeams through the trees and onto the buildings in town. One in particular hit the attic window of the Council Hall, illuminating the small, dusty area. It rested on the wooden panels of a particularly dusty and battered looking chest that hadn’t been touched since the Founders chucked it into the attic – which was the last time the chest had been touched.

Just minutes after the light of the moon touched the chest, it began to rumble, softly at first, and then violently. The rumbling then spread to the attic itself and then to the building, making ceiling tiles fall and the wood flooring and walls crack. A dark smoke, moving almost like liquid, began to seep from the seams of the chest and surround it, hissing whenever it came into contact with the wood. Finally, the rumbling stopped, the smoke disappeared, and all was silent.

BANG

It sounded as if several canons had gone off in unison, temporarily deafening anyone in the vicinity of the Council Hall. As the sound went off, a burst of magic exploded from the chest, sending wood pieces flying through the attic and either becoming lodged in the walls or blowing holes right through them like a shotgun blast. The burst of magic flew through the entire town, knocking every living being off of their feet and also knocked the wind right from their lungs. Several light bulbs blew out with the blast and windows shattered, and some people even dropped dead, causing more terror and panic than the initial magic had caused itself.

the rest of the huntress returning to this world can be read here!

after her return, one of the ghosts alerted the town to an ongoing crisis by ringing the bells and causing an even bigger alarm than her arrival did. that can be read here, and so can the official death count from the morning after.

this arc was never finished. i like to think that the town eventually solved it, that they were able to find her token and destroy it. i imagine that it was crushed by either tris or toni. but it was in a climactic moment. fire raging around them, the huntress standing with an arrow ready. the hero drops the token, and crushes it beneath their boot.

with a scream, the huntress let a final arrow fly, killing the hero, just as the trapped piece of her mortal soul came flooding back into her, and forcing the immortal bits out with another flash bang of magic. it forces the huntress onto her knees, and another of the heroes, either lyra or jackson, was able to take the sword and kill the huntress with it.

in the end, a majority of the town was killed, and it was evident to most people that the population would never recover from what had happened between the huntress and the sickness. a few dozen people decided to stay and rebuild, having faith that things could ever go back to normal.

others left, whether to rejoin regular society, or to join the other sister towns for a while, it wasn’t specified. but this event essentially blew nightmare off of the supernatural haven map for a while.

it was from this that jackson and lyra decided to leave. they had witnessed so many friends and family members die, and they both wanted out of that life. lyra left behind her mother and her future as alpha of the pack. jackson left his home behind, and off they went.

[evakuality]

Some thoughts on writing and characterization

I’ve seen a lot of discussion in the fandom lately about how to write characters and to what extent it’s okay to change canon characteristics in fic, and I guess in art too.  One comment I saw really stuck with me and I want to explore the ideas behind it a little more.  Now I just want to clarify here that I’m not telling anyone they have to write a certain way or that any idea in any post I happened to see (and which I can’t remember now where I saw it, so I can’t even credit the person with that idea) is wrong.  I just had some ideas which were pinged by that one comment in particular and the whole discussion in general.  This is messy and my own opinion only.  I’m well aware that other people think other ways, I just want to record how I feel about it all.  Also, as usual, this got VERY long so … uh, beware of that.

So, the comment I saw claimed that making Isak smaller and slighter and weaker than he’s shown in the show, or making Even actually taller and stronger is just a preference and that doing so is perfectly fine because who’s to say that in the parallel universe represented by the fic that those things aren’t true.  And okay sure, in some ways that’s fair.  We don’t expect things to be exactly the same in an au.  Different situations will inevitably end up with characters having different outlooks, and I get that.  I write that sort of thing myself, and there’s a real joy in thinking ‘how would changing x thing about y character affect him or her while still keeping them recognizable?’ But for me that’s different to what we’re talking about here.

What’s happening here is our fics taking actual physical traits of the actual actors and changing them.  And unlike personality characteristics, these aren’t things that could believably be changed.  To be clear here, I’m not talking about ‘what if Isak were a fairy?’ (I love that fic!) or ‘what if Isak were trans?’ (I love that idea too), but rather a tendency to write a ‘changed’ character as if he were an actual part of the canon.  The difference is subtle, I know, but the distinction is actually huge.  Again, I reiterate, we can all write what we want etc etc but I think exploring this difference is important in figuring out why we as fandoms write the way we do.

Deliberately changing something to wonder ‘what if’ is quite different to writing a certain set of tropes in a certain way.  Because the thing is, if it really were just people having a preference we would have a much wider variation of these traits presented as if they were canon.  Let’s do a thought experiment.  Let’s say someone writes a fic.  It’s labelled Isak/Even and presented as if what’s inside is just the sort of variation you’d find in a parallel universe.  In it, Even is a small Asian guy with dark hair who is physically unimposing.  Isak is a tall, broad, very muscular body builder.  There’s no ‘what if’ and no hint that this is out of the ordinary.  Indeed, the fic treats this as just how they are in canon.  None of this is tagged because that’s just Isak and Even, no big deal.  How many of us are squinting at that going ‘what? That’s not Isak and Even; how can the writer of that fic not say that’s a deviation from what we know?’ I think we can all agree that this fic would be strange, and we’d instinctively go ‘this isn’t Isak and Even’ because it’s not.  I think those sound like fascinating characters, and I’d love to read about them, but they aren’t Isak and Even.  I’ve also seen people saying ‘don’t like, don’t read’ but in this case that doesn’t apply because it hasn’t been tagged.  There’s no way before going in and reading that fic for us to know that there’s something that’s been changed from canon.  

So why is it okay for us to say ‘parallel universes so they’re just like that’ for one set of characteristics and not the other?  Why do we shrug and accept tiny, weak Isak but we find it difficult to accept tiny, unimposing Even?  Why is it that a particular set of tropes are an acceptable preference that can just be dumped into a fic as if it’s canon but others can’t be?  And why is that particular set of tropes that’s permissible the set that allows for a heteronormative reading of the text and the pairing?  We do a disservice to the characters when we do just shrug and accept this as just the way it is and don’t examine why we like it.

Because the important thing here is that these tropes are not just an Isak/Even thing; they occur in practically every fandom that has a popular m/m pairing.  I’m not in the fandoms for Harry Potter, Merlin, Supernatural, Glee, Marvel etc and yet I have heard similar comments about pairings in all of them.  Some fandoms even come to blows if you put the ‘wrong’ character in the ‘wrong’ role (Supernatural fandom, you are always fascinating to me).  It was never quite that bad in Skam, but there was a long time when people were vilified if they wrote Even as the bottom and people were tagging bottom Even and making author’s notes because they were so worried that they would call down the wrath of the fandom on their heads.  This is ironic since the only canon hint we have about their sex life strongly suggests that Even was the bottom in that case.  And you know, if this was just harmless fun, people writing what they like and posting it for free, I’d probably be okay with it (though I’d beg for it to be tagged so I could avoid this stuff that I don’t particularly want to read).  But the thing is there are two problems here: 1. It’s so ingrained in this fandom now that we now consider this ‘canon’ so it’s never ever tagged and 2. This type of thing can have an actual effect on actual real people.

Again, this wouldn’t be an issue if there was a wider range of stories in the fandom.  I’ve seen people saying that the Scandinavian fics are much better in this way and that they use those tropes much less so there’s no problem with diversity of ideas in the fandom.  And that’s fantastic, it really is.  I’m genuinely happy for the people who can read those (and I really want more translated and/or to learn enough language so I could read them).  Unfortunately, many people are like me and can’t read them so we are all stuck with the English language fics.  Equally unfortunately, a lot of those fics fall into these tropes.  Many of them include just small moments where some small thing is casually dropped in as if it’s ‘just how it is.’  Isak swims in Even’s clothes, Isak is tiny, Isak has to stand on tiptoes to kiss Even etc etc.  None of these, by themselves, is inherently bad.  The problem comes when they are piled on top of each other, fic after fic (and indeed art after art).  When this is 90% of what we see in fic it becomes a pattern, and soon it becomes accepted as truth.  Except that, in the actual show, none of those things is the truth.  

I’ve said it before, but many of these accepted things are not correct: In canon, Isak and Even share clothes and they fit both of them fine, Isak is shorter than Even but he’s not so tiny that tiptoes are necessary for kissing.  And the major issue with such revisions as if they were canon is that they all play into a certain set of stereotypes.  And those stereotypes all serve to put our m/m pairing in a very heteronormative position.  They trap Isak in the ‘weak, submissive, spoiled, nagging bottom’ role and Even is forced into the ‘dominant, aggressive, controlling, forceful top’ role.  And none of those things is either inherent in the physical attributes of the characters (even if physical attributes reflected stereotypical personality traits, which they don’t) or a true reflection of the characters’ personalities.  Even isn’t aggressive or domineering.  He’s not controlling.  He runs away from his issues rather than facing them, and he hates being controlled.  He’s unlikely to enjoy doing to others what he hates having done to him.  Isak, on the other hand, can be an aggressive little asshole who would punch someone if they looked at him or his boyfriend in the wrong way.  In terms of personality (again, if personality truly reflected these stereotypes, which it doesn’t), it would make much more sense for those roles to be reversed.  Canon Isak acts much more like the ‘top’ in these tropes, and canon Even (gentle, kind, avoidant Even) is closer to the ‘bottom’ stereotype.  (For the record, I’m not advocating for merely turning the tropes on their heads and just having Isak be the strong, dominant one and Even the weak, submissive one; they may be closer to those stereotypes but they still don’t fit into these sets of personality traits.  They’re both strong and confident in some ways and very vulnerable in others.  This is just saying that even if we were sticking to the stereotypes, the way each role is usually ascribed makes little sense with our canon characters). These are such complex, layered, rounded, human characters that reducing them to these ideas seems so limiting; by doing so, we lose so much of what makes them such interesting and powerful characters.  There’s also the fact that, as shown in this meta I wrote, Isak hates the feminized stereotype of gay people and would not thank us for putting him in that role.  And while that might make for a fascinating character study, that’s not what tends to happen in fic.  What tends to happen is that this dynamic is just accepted as true and assumed to be the way things are.  I’d actually love to see a fic where a deeply internally homophobic Isak comes to terms with actually enjoying being a ‘feminine’ gay man (If anyone knows one, please feel free to let me know about it).  But it’s not canon and it’s not what the bulk of fics with this type of Isak are doing.

Now I’m being a little facetious here because, of course, Isak is fictional and his wishes and preferences don’t mean anything except to add a layer of irony to this now-accepted and common idea (unless we’re trying to write a canon Isak in which case we should really pay attention to what he thinks and feels).  But there is a group of people who are affected by this stuff -- lgbt+ people in fandom.  This group is exposed to these ideas over and over and over again.  This group will be taking on these ideas little by little.  No one fic or artwork by itself is an issue, of course.  No one person is ‘the problem’ just like none of us is perfect (I’m here to say I’m sure I’ve fallen, and will fall, into some of this stereotyped stuff myself despite trying not to, and I know I’m horrible at tagging in particular and am trying to get better).  But the problem is that when this is the message, over and over again, it’s very hard to think outside or see outside it.  No matter what fandom we lgbt+ people fetch up in, this message is always there.  And much like Isak in the show, we lgbt+ people in fandom are exposed mostly to this certain set of tropes, this idea that there is an actual defined and acceptable role for gay or other lgbt+ people to take on.  That one character is, and always will be, smaller, weaker, often younger, and therefore more submissive and that the other is, and always will be, larger, stronger, often older, and therefore more dominant.  This is not inherently true, not in real life; people don’t fit into sets of stereotypes and lgbt+ couples don’t inherently have one who is always top and one who is always bottom.  Again, this wouldn’t be an issue except that when we do this, we imply that those actual real life lgbt+ relationships also have a dichotomy which feminizes one half of the pairing in a way that can be harmful when it’s all that’s presented.

In itself, this idea is an issue because it says all relationships fit into the same narrow set of dichotomies.  This isn’t actually a good message for anyone in any relationship (and many heterosexual texts shoehorn similar roles into many romances too), but it’s worse when the relationship portrayed is lgbt+ because it implies rigid gender roles where, by definition, they don’t exist.  It’s also true that even while we see these tropes in heterosexual romances as well, straight people have a much wider diversity in the way their relationships are portrayed.  However, there are far more limited representations for lgbt+ people, particularly in traditionally published, or broadcast, media.  That means that when they turn to fanfiction and the bulk of what they see is this very narrow set of tropes, it’s hard not to take on board those messages.  Isak himself is a good example of why this is bad as I said in that internalized homophobia meta I linked earlier.  He stays in the closet much longer than he might otherwise have done because he had such a narrow set of models of what it means to be gay.

Then, of course, there is the way that the smaller one in the pair can end up being fetishized.  He is always the one who is made to wear the feminine clothing, he is the one whose body is most often exposed in art, he is the one who then acts in a very stereotyped ‘feminine’ way in fic.  These fetishized moments are deeply uncomfortable to come across as an lgbt+ person and it’s an extra unfortunate byproduct of these ways of lgbt+ people being represented.  So while, yes, everyone has a right to write what they like when they’re putting their work out onto the internet for free, it’s also nice for us to take a step back and look at the wider context.  Because none of this happens in a vacuum, and as individuals and as a fandom it can pay to take that step back and ask why this is our preference.  It may seem like a small thing to write a small physical characteristic change which makes one or the other character seem smaller or weaker (or alternatively bigger or stronger) but as part of a wider pattern it all builds on everything else we put out there and creates a fandom where a lot of what we consume just cements in a set of expectations of what it means to be lgbt+ that is then very hard to see past.  

I’m not saying no-one should ever write these fics, of course.  If we want to write Isak being small and needing to go on tiptoes, then we should go for it, but we should be aware of why we’re writing that way (and maybe find a way to put Even on his tiptoes; everyone deserves a good tiptoe kiss moment!)  If we want to write D/s sex, we should do it, but maybe we need to think a bit about how we’re presenting it.  Is it healthy?  Is it properly negotiated?  Why have we decided which character should be in which role?  Stopping and thinking a little can only help the creative output in the fandom; it can give us a wider range of reading and viewing material to choose from, and it makes us more aware of what we as a fandom are doing.  The Harry/Draco fandom in Harry Potter apparently turned this around, moved away from a rigid idea of who was top and who was bottom (and who was dom and who was sub) and it’s flourishing even now, so many years after its canon is over.  If we want to flourish into the future too, maybe we can diversify a little more and be a little more thoughtful and respectful of the people this fandom is supposed to represent, too.  To the lgbt+ people in fandom, who deserve to see ourselves in as much variety as straight people do and who do not deserve to see ourselves fetishized and reduced to tropes over and over again, this could mean a lot.

[roscoerackham]

Starfinder: The Classes [COMPLETE EDITION!]

Meet the new guardians of the galaxy.

In Starfinder, the average adventurer looks much different from average party on old Golarion. Understandings have shifted, old disciplines have faded out of vogue, and everyone has friggin’ laser beams.

So while it’s possible to convert some of the old Pathfinder classes, the bulk of adventurers in the Pact Worlds will likely adhere to one of these six new disciplines. Check it!

Envoy

Envoy is Starfinder’s intrigue and tactics focused class. They possess the most skills out of any class (tied only with the Operative) and their Skill Expertise feature allows them to specialize in certain favored skills; granting them an extra 1d6 insight bonus, and allowing them to perform acts that skill doesn’t usually grant. For those of you familiar with Pathfinder, think of it as a cross between an Investigator’s inspiration feature and the skill unlocks of an Unchained Rogue.

Their main class features are Improvisations; non-magical abilities which allow the Envoy to manipulate the battlefield; they can make enemies Flat Footed, warn allies of impending dangers, or even grant their friends additional actions in a turn. 

Play the Envoy if you...

Want to be a social butterfly.

Enjoy using unexpected tactics both on and off the battlefield.

Want to be the undisputed master of a narrow set of skills (without sacrificing other proficiencies).

Mechanic

Mechanics are masters of machines. Unlike the more academic Technomancers, Mechanics aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty working with the futuristic technology of the Pact Worlds. Some even go so far as to augment themselves with advanced cybernetics!

A Mechanic’s best friend is their trusty artificial intelligence; a digital construct they personally designed. At first level, the Mechanic can choose between implanting this AI into a drone (granting them an autonomous robotic ally who can fight alongside them) or into an implanted exo-cortex (augmenting the Mechanic’s cognitive abilities and allowing them access to stronger armor and weapons). As the Mechanic levels up, they can augment their AI (or themselves!) even further. A high level Mechanic can even split their attention between a drone and an exocortex, becoming a cybernetically augmented mastermind with a personal robot honor guard. 

When they aren’t trying to turn themselves into the singularity (or just make a really sweet robot), Mechanics are masters of technology in all forms; they’re master hackers, brilliant engineers, and can make that ray gun work really well in a pinch.

Play the Mechanic if you...

Want to play a pet-focused class.

Don’t want to play a pet-focused class, but would love to play a heavily armored ranged combatant with a wide array of skills.

Want to be a master of technology in all its forms.

Want your character to be more machine than person. 

Mystic

Mystics are the spiritual successors of Golarion’s divine and occult spellcasters, and often fill similar societal roles. Understanding magic to be a manifestation of the connection between all living things, the Mystic channels the fundemental nature of the universe to a variety of effects.

Mystics are one of Starfinder’s two spellcasting classes, viewing the fundamental forces of magic through a more esoteric and philosophical lens than their Technomancer colleagues. Their spells tend to be focused more on living things; affecting both the mind and body. Of course, this doesn’t mean they can’t draw upon natural forces as well; Mystics are more than capable of flooding a room with gamma radiation if they feel like it.

All Mystics can establish a link with other creatures, which manifests first as a healing touch, and then eventually evolves into a party-wide telepathic network you can use as a conduit for their other abilities.

Mystics also all have a connection to a force they see as the source of their power; they may choose to be an akashic, empath, healer, mindbreaker, overlord, or star shaman, with each connection changing the lens through which a Mystic views the universe. An Akashic may view their powers as coming from the divine records that govern reality, while a Star Shaman may take a more religious viewpoint. Healers focus on restoring the vitality of their allies, while Mindbreakers focus on crushing the psyches of their foes. 

Play a Mystic if you...

Want to play a support focused character with strong healing potential.

Want to be a psychic or similar character.

Want to play a more magical character with minimal scientific influence. 

Love enchantment spells like charm person.

Want to have a connection with natural forces. 

Want to define your own supernatural tradition (in SPACE).

Operative

Operatives live on the fringe of society. More than just simple thieves and assassins, the Operative represents any sort of character willing to utilize underhanded tactics and dogged determination to get the job done.

Every Operative chooses a specialization (daredevil, detective, explorer, ghost, hacker, spy, or thief) which grants them access to unique exploits; similar to the talents of a Rogue or Vigilante in Pathfinder. 

Their most unique ability, however, is the trick attack. Unlike the Rogue, an Operative has need to hide in the shadows to surprise their enemies. Instead, they use a skill (usually Bluff, Intimidate, or Stealth, but some specializations can use other skills) to gain an advantage over their enemies; allowing them to deal extra damage and inflict a variety of detrimental effects on their foes. Operatives are also one of the only classes capable of becoming snipers, granting them additional combat options.

Like the Envoy, an Operative is a master of skills. Unlike the Envoy, they lack the same level of focus; the Operative’s edge class feature grants them a bonus to all skill checks (and initiative checks) and they can gain special bonuses to skills in which they’ve taken the Skill Focus feat for. Of course, Operative specializations can grant uses for skills that an Envoy could never hope to accomplish, so perhaps its all relative. 

Play an Operative if...

You want to play a character on the fringe of society, like a spy, vigilante, or assassin.

You want to be the ultimate skill monkey. 

You enjoy stealth and subterfuge (or dashing derring do)

You love the massive payoff from a perfectly set up attack.

Solarian

Solarians believe in the power of the stars; that they are the ultimate expression of the powers of creation and destruction. They guide worlds with their gravity and give life with their light and heat, yet can also obliterate with supernovas and black holes. Solarians seek to be agents of this cycle of preservation and annihilation, channeling the forces of their stars themselves in battle.

All Solarians have a mote of fundamental energy or entropy that accompanies them, which can either transform into a lightsaber Solar Weapon, or augment the Solarian’s armor. 

In battle, Solarians are one of the few classes who specializes in melee combat (indeed, while they gain access to Advanced Melee Weapons, they lack proficiency in any ranged weapon more complicated than a blaster pistol). To make up for this, Solarians are capable of making more melee attacks than other classes (three in a round, rather than the normal maximum of two) and can utilize the power of the stars for a variety of spectacular at-will effects.

Solarians can choose to attune themselves to either Photon or Graviton energy; each of their powers is connected to one of these two energies, and as they build up their attunement these powers grow stronger. After spending three rounds attuned exclusively to a single type of energy, the Solarian can activate a spectacular manifestation of cosmic force known as a zenith power. Even at level one, a fully attuned Solarian can explode in a miniature supernova, or draw distant enemies closer to them with the power of a black hole. These powers only grow stronger as the Solarian’s experience and understanding of the cosmic balance grows.

Play a Solarian if you...

Want to play a knight attuned to the cosmic forces of the universe.

Want to be a melee focused combatant with a variety of at-will effects that can shift the battlefield.

Want to wield the very power of the cosmos themselves.

Enjoy characters with a more philosophical bent.

Soldier

If the Solarian is a master of melee combat, the Soldier is a master of combat, period. Heavily armored, proficient in every kind of weapon, and trained in the culmination of thousands of years of tactics, the Soldier’s skill in a fight is unparalleled. Not only do they have access to more combat options than nearly anyone else.

All Soldiers specialize in a combat style to specialize in (arcane assailant, armor storm, blitz, bombard, guard, hit-and-run, and sharpshoot), and can pick up a second fighting style at level 9. In addition, they can pick up gear boosts that increase the effectiveness of their equipment, representing the modifications they’ve made to their favored combat kits. It doesn’t matter if it’s magic or technology; if it can give a Soldier an edge in combat, they’re willing to give it a shot.

Of course, they wouldn’t be the main combatants of Starfinder if they didn’t have access to bonus Combat Feats. Unlike in Pathfinder, combat feats in Starfinder are far more streamlined (requiring at most one other feat and some BAB and ability score requirements to access). This allows Soldiers to gain access to advanced combat options quickly and easily; for instance, a second level soldier could gain Weapon Focus with every single weapon they are proficient in (which is to say, all of them) with only a two feat investment. And since Weapons in Starfinder are capable of a wide variety of effects (including creating beams, cones, and bursts that would make a Wizard jealous), a Soldier can prove to be one of the most versatile and effective combatants in the game. 

Play a Soldier if you...

Want to be a bad-ass power-armored space marine.

Want to be a melee combatant but don’t like all that weird cosmic stuff.

Want to modify your weapons and armor to fit your combat style.

Want to combine magic, technology, and martial prowess.

Want to be able to use almost any weapon you can pick up.

Want to have a jetpack. Anyone can have a jetpack, but you’re the best at jetpacks.

Want to take a variety of combat feats while still having slots left over.

Technomancer

In the Pact Worlds, Magic and Science are effectively the same thing; a fundamental set of rules that governs reality. While Mystics and Solarians focus on the esoteric connections between things, a Technomancer’s approach to magic is much more practical. Using a combination of the scientific method, advanced technology, and a bit of old-fashioned wizardry, Technomancers can hack into the very fabric of the universe to achieve a variety of effects. 

Unlike the Mystic (who is more focused on connections between nature and living things) a Technomancer’s spells are more focused on interfacing with technology, or fiddling with the laws of physics. They can conjure small technological devices, hit things with logic bombs, bend light to create illusions, and drop fireballs like no one’s business.

What makes the Technomancer unique is their approach to magic; by viewing it as a scientific force, they can break the rules of magic as they’ve been known in the universe since the days of ancient Golarion. They have access to a spell cache, which starts out as a way to bypass the need for a spell slot, and can eventually be used to keep certain spell effects running for 24 hours. They can also fuse lower level spell slots together to achieve higher level effects; the most powerful Technomancers can even fuse two of their 6th level spell slots to cast 9th Level spells like the fabled wish.

Technomancers also have access to Spell Hacks, special abilities focused on manipulating magic, technology, or both. Fueled by spell slots, these magic hacks can modify how your spells and equipment function. You can drain the battery from your weapon to power up a spell, modify how a spell functions, force technology to do things that shouldn’t even be possible, or even fabricate equipment from nothing. 

Play a Technomancer if you...

Want to play a dedicated spellcaster.

Like your magic with a healthy side of science.

Want to blend both magic and technology into a single discipline.

Are willing to mess with your class resources to achieve an optimal effect.

[nostalgic-blood]

so yeah tri finale thoughts

i went into this movie with rock bottom expectations. mostly because i went into symbiosis riding high due to the ridiculously juicy poster that turned out to be the baitest bait that has ever bait.

and i suppose perception helps because I mostly enjoyed it! my biggest fear was that they’d try to answer the millions of questions and mysteries they brought up in one single movie, and seeing their track record it’d be done rather sloppily. instead, they went for a sequel hook so it made sense to leave out the answers to some mysteries. It’s not as if homeostasis and yggdrasil were the reason I was watching tri. If the lore was why I was watching it I’d be bored and left long ago

like thank god they didn’t explain much about huckmon or alphamon because i do not care. I do understand on an objective standpoint that leaving so many of these things in the air is bad writing, but for most of the movies they already reserve like 60% of the screentime for meiko and her murderous cat so really what spotlight is left is prime real estate for characters and digimon i actually care about. slice of life moment at an inappropriate point of the movie is better than static exposition for five minutes. 

still what they did use the screentime for was a little odd, though not to the egregious degree of meiko in the previous movies. I find it interesting for instance that yamato and gabumon had a pretty long scene together but they are the only ones of the cast that never had a full-screen metalgarurumon evolution. they also spent a lot of time that wasn’t the occasional flashback or the recap at the beginning of every episode even though it’s released as movies and we literally just watched that scene showing the faceless military being inept at destroying the supernatural giant monster. 

it feels like tri’s structure is far more rigid than average. As in they seem to follow some strict formula, which causes pacing issues and screentime priority issues. They also don’t really put thought into what goes into the structure. For instance we did get some Hikari spotlight because it was necessary due to the situation, what with tailmon having become part of the big evil bad. But instead of focusing on really anything specific on hikari’s character, it was mostly reactionary and worrying over meiko. There was a quick moment just before tailmon mega evolved which, when I put more thought into it was sort of poignant, but because that conflict of hikari’s character was so much more subtle than meiko’s plot it almost seems like it comes out of nowhere as a conclusion to hikari’s arc.

plus, they rip away more of tailmon’s agency when they simply refer to the big ordinemon boob butt monster as simply meicoomon that has absorbed tailmon. You can’t backtrack like that! We VERY CLEARLY SAW in symbiosis that tailmon TOO was corrupted as ophanimon falldown mode, and that the two digimon fused together in a rather blatant manner. It felt far more like they were equals when they became one than one digimon absorbing the other. There is no point to tailmon’s dark evolution if that never comes up in the plot! If no one ever brings it up! It feels like, just as the poster was, included just as fanservice and bait so more people would watch, but with zero substance. 

Again, a rigid formula or structure, like the writers were all sitting in the room and throwing ideas on the wall, but the ideas are like “we should have a dramatic moment where tailmon disappears!” and they do. But it doesn’t do anything. It’s not really relevant because it’s not as if tailmon changes drastically or even dies. It feels like it was put there just for the drama itself, just to throw in a trailer so people will be like OMG DID TAILMON JUST DIE!?!?! HOW SAD!!! I NEED TO TUNE IN!1!!

or like “WE SHOULD BRING BACK WIZARDMON!” because fans of hikari and tailmon love wizardmon! so they do! for 3 seconds! He has no lines! We never see his face! What the fuck. It’s a tease that goes no where. They even have the audacity to include his hat in the poster for five seconds of screentime. I should have expected that after the ophanimon falldown mode debacle.

meanwhile the new characters are involved in drama that is actually affected by the plot, like meiko having to say goodbye to her partner forever because meicoomon is too far gone, and needs to be put down to end her suffering. Pretty dang relevant to the story right? it wasn’t simply put there for feels. Or Daigo dying. While the situation they got into seems kind of convoluted, like how they just happened to fall into the underground bunker where the 02 kids just happen to be, and Daigo just happens to be mortally wounded and Taichi just happens to be unscathed. People explain it away that Daigo “probably shielded Taichi as they fell” which he probably did! But when I have to say “probably” or if the audience has to explain it themselves because they SHOWED ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT, then it’s especially jarring. Like the writers were like “Let’s kill Daigo off!” and put no thought into how they should smoothly transition to a moment where that could be possible. 

like you spend six movies foreshadowing and leading up to the twist that meicoomon was the source of the infected, and then slowly revealed how much yggdrasil’s influence was exactly on her and then give us the shock of the century when she fuses with tailmon into the big bad near the end, and then we finally conclude the conflict of sacrifice by yes, we must put the cat down. Because of all the damage that she had inflicted, by the death that taichi had just witnessed and could do nothing to prevent. That the theme of the movies was growing up, no longer the fun friendly idealism of digimon back in adventure. That she was just too far gone, almost dragged another digimon down with her, lead to the death of humans !! and risked the death or at least the reboot of the real world. It was not time to debate what we should or should not do because if action is not done now it’d be too late.

but for daigo dying it’s like, oh he ends up in a room, somehow far more injured than taichi. Like at least give Taichi cuts and bruises so the whole “OMG TAICHI IS DEAD!!!” thing had a little more merit, and then not!gennai sets up a sadistic trap where only one of them will live and the one that lives will conveniently return back to the real world safe and sound with the 02 kids that have been missing this entire time. I mean, real convenient hm? kill off a guy for drama and put the main char where he needs to be while fixing up one of the biggest issues in the entire series with the lingering whereabouts of the 02 cast and no one seemingly caring. They tried to kill many birds with one stone, but they were too greedy, trying to kill so many birds that all the birds they killed weren’t intact bodies on the ground for feasting but mere scraps, as the stone was used in such force their remains were absolutely pulverized. I swear that analogy was going somewhere.

I was still sad about it tho, because I warmed up to daigo and maki as characters, and if maki doesn’t come back then these original chosen have left Tri in rather brutal and bloody fashion, tragic with no real positive spin aside from maki’s cautionary tale over sacrifice and what it can do to a person and daigo leaving lasting words to taichi. They were the first to get Digimon and save the world! The rest of the adventure kids and in the 02 epilogue everyone else gets their own digimon and lives out happily side-by-side. Why do the first get such a bad hand? It’s sad.

i’m a bit disappointed some of the coolest theories over tailmon and meicoomon as foils didn’t come true, which I mean I can’t really expect what with the track record of tri, but it would have been nice. tailmon would be light and then meicoomon is darkness, and the demon that results is even more powerful because they light that combined has been tainted by darkness, or w/e. there was little explanation for the fusion and again, they often referred to tailmon as simply having been absorbed. When she escaped ordinemon I doubt there was memory of being ophanimon falldown mode. I guess the koushiro-ex-machina mass return of their selves before the reboot has some amazing ability to purify on the fly. Could have been done better!

still, on an emotional level I enjoyed it. Even if they planned every emotional moment in the most soulless, structured way possible without any ounce of passion I think I still would have teared up at some scenes. Seeing all the megas in grand animation was great, and the fighting was good this time too unlike the body slamming fun times from symbiosis. 

so my initial rating of this movie is 2.5 stars out of 5, but I will minus .5 stars for the ridiculous and unnecessary amount of fucking butt shots ordinemon has. I don’t know what person in this wide wide world would actually enjoy seeing cthulhu’s bare fat ass every twenty seconds but if they were the primary demographic somehow then I guess I have no justification to complain!

I also minus .5 stars for the stupid pointless recaps. And minus another .5 for doing nothing specific for hikari’s character. That least us at 1.5 stars.

BUT ONE WHOLE EXTRA STRAW FOR HOLYDRAMON!!! AWWWWW YEAH

Even if Holydramon only was around for 15 seconds itself, it still got a gorgeously animated evolution sequence and as I do not stare at trailers (and it never being on a poster) that surprise was not only well worth the wait but the time it took to process. I was cheering at 3am in the morning.

but . 5 deducted for the stupid wizardmon bait SHAME ON THE BAIT THE BAITEST BAIT I HATE THE BAIT

2 stars out of 5. Eh good enough. I personally put the movies as 3 > 6 > 2 > 4 > 1 > 5. That is all and Spotto out.

[cwdcshows]

Legends of Tomorrow - S5 E1 - Meet the Legends

(Sigh)... Yeah, I'm so bored, I'm going to watch Legends.......(sigh) Wait, the Legends saved the world and warmed up everyone to demons and metas and whatever; so why was the Time Bureau shut down?  And why the fuck would the Wave Rider be at risk of being impounded?  What, did Sara take out a mortgage on their time machine or some bullshit?   Why the fuck does congress from the 21st century have any authority over a time machine from the future patrolling time? Also, if they want oversight, why the fuck would you shut down the Time Bureau??? Why have they managed to annoy me this much less than a minute into the first fucking episode of the season?

Wait, Nate was raised from the dead....?  I guess that's something that sounds vaguely familiar; I'm completely out of fucks for this show to keep track of that shit.... Augh, because they had to make Super-Bro Nate more obnoxious for some reason... Cool, so Charlie's going to get the universe's first TTUI?  This is where we find out that she crashes the jumpship, which causes the extinction of the dinosaurs, right? Is Mickey being the author of these romance novels a secret at this point?  He's gone to book signings.  He was at one during fucking Crisis! (Sigh) Fucking Gary..... So they're just going to gloss over there being two Supermen?  I mean, I kind of get not going into so much detail as to bring up the fact that one of them looked like Ray, which only leads to more questions, but still... It took me a minute, but I take it the guy yelling, "I'm still outside, I'm still outside, don't leave me!" was the camera man shooting the exterior of the ship?  Yeah, I guess that was reasonably funny. Jeez Gideon, this is why you never log onto the internet with protection; you know where that networks been.  Are you at least using a firewall? But seriously, where the fuck does a sentient AI from the future pick up a computer virus that actually manages to cripple its systems?  Is this a byproduct of Zari's timeline changing? Remember back in the day when doing a time jump everyone aboard had to get buckled in; and upon arrival almost everyone felt queasy or disoriented?  No?  Yeah, neither do the writers. I get that we wouldn't get to see what Constantine and Gary were doing otherwise, on account of the documentary conceit, but seriously, why the fuck would the camera crew be following these guys who are not presently involved with whatever the Wave Rider crew are doing? Also, so does being a Fairy God Mother mean you can negate free will?  Because how did Gary wish for something that required Constantine's consent and Nora just grant it without John having a say?  Good thing Gary didn't wish to have sex with John, so far as we know... (Sigh) Fucking Ava..... This just further supports my theory that Gideon is actually a super villain who's been getting in the heads of all the heroes and personnel who come aboard the Wave Rider and makes them stupid, in order to carry out some grand scheme.  Who the fuck would be the oblivious as to write a condolence card like that? (Sigh).... Fucking Atom-cam..... seriously? And yeah, at least this instance Ava has it right; if you're a time traveling superhero and some creep in the past who supposed to be dead is suddenly not dead, you don't dick around, you put him in the ground.  Is it too much to hope for the other morons to get caught in the crossfire?  Nothing fatal, per se, but just like, "oh no, Nate accidentally caught a bullet in the leg and he forgot to list all the medicines he's allergic to, so the sedative they gave him at the hospital caused a bad reaction and he's lapsed into a coma for the next 50 years...." The real question that Ava should be asking is, will a bullet even do the trick if Rasputin managed to come back from everything else; especially if his return was supernatural? Seriously, how is Nate and the camera crew not dead?  Also, why the fuck aren't the camera crew disguised and concealing their method of recording? This shit is why I didn't want to watch this fucking episode.  I didn't know exactly what was coming, but I'm not surprised... How the fuck is Nate in Ava's shot, when he's easily 4'-5' away from Rasputin and she's even further back and like 15' up above them?  I have a hard time believing she doesn't have a clear line of sight. Come on Ava, would it really be so bad to fire, even if Ray and Nate were in between you and the target?  History is on the line after all..... Wait, what did happen to Ray?  How did she fire while he was still in the barrel only for his to still be in the barrel....? God damn this series... Ray: "Nate, I'm coming for you buddy!"

How can a fucking sentient time machine AI not be able to process two conflicting timelines?  Wouldn't that be, I don't know, a design flaw?  Particularly considering that it was designed to travel through time and correct these sort of problems and has been used by the fucking "legends" for years?  They've broken time so much worse than this before.  In season 1 they started getting erased from history. Are we sure the writers haven't gotten into whats-his-name's stash? They left the director behind.... 🤦‍♂️ It's convenient that Not-Zari, while being mind controlled by Rasputin, doesn't have the level of self-awareness to use his powers against Sara; she'd probably be pretty fucked against a guy who can control the air. Wait, they went to the trouble of having Mick shove a camera out of the way and the lens of the camera; then cut to a camera that isn't shattered - how many cameras are on the scene exactly?  Seems like they left more than just the director behind. I mean, why not just use that infinite shrinking thing they used on the Anti-Monitor on Rasputin?  Even if he can't die, he's got to be less powerful than the fucking Anti-Monitor.  You probably don't even need him to be perpetually shrinking, just shrink him to a size where he can't effect anything anymore; he'd be essentially dead at that point. Or, you know, blow him up from the inside out.... God, Sara and Ava are fucking boring. You know, I know they had Jim Carey's character in The Truman Show do the whole thing of reconstructing the face of a woman using cut-outs from a magazine, but when Nate does it it's creepy as fuck. Although to be honest, in hindsight, it was kind of weird and creepy when Truman did it too.... How exactly does this documentary or screening it to an audience who gives them a standing ovation address any of the very legitimate concerns congress had about the time ship Lolipop and its crew? I mean....how does an audience that large go into a screening of a movie, a purported documentary about fucking time travel and sit through it with such absolute certainty that it's all real that they all lose their collective shit like this when the so-called stars tell them it's not?   Don't get me wrong, the premise of them taking the piss out of some of the things, like Rasputin speaking English, was kind of funny; up to Mona talking about the effects looking bad, because then it just seemed obvious they were trying to pick it apart and discredit it.  The whole thing would have made a lot more sense had they played it straight, like they were really just actors in this sci-fi time travel mockumentary; and they wouldn't just start ripping on it during a Q&A panel. How does this affect Hayeworld though and the positive impact it had on demon/human relationship and whatever other bullshit they said it did?  If they're not walking back the idea that this lot travels through time, doesn't also undermine all the other wild things they claimed as fact recently? Oh, and now Ava says that Hayworld was fake - so fuck that change to history, apparently, right?  All that good will, etc., down the drain? Yet again, how does a team aboard a self-suficient, advanced time machine that has the resources the provide anything the crew needs or wants, have money problems??