#and maybe i'm practicing reviewing stuff

[imogenlefay]

So, I read this book... Daisy Jones & The Six

so, i've been thinking about doing a thing, and maybe someone finds it interesting, or maybe it's just for me to order my thoughts and i'll get bored to it before march, but we'll see. basically, for the last two years i've been keeping track of the books i read (or audiobooks i listen to) bc i felt like i'm not reading enough (except for fanfiction). and while i'm far behind people who actually read a lot, and woefully behind how much i used to read when i was a teen, i'm actually pretty happy with the progress. made it to 34 in 2022 and 40 in 2023, and hope to get more done this year. 2024 is starting off strong, just finished my first book of the year, and usually when i do that, i have thoughts. so what's the point of blogs if not to put that out there, so it stops haunting my head? or maybe even get someone else's thoughts on things? so i decided to blog about the books i read (unless i forget or don't feel like it), starting with general feelings and then going into spoilery feelings. so, yeah, this is what this is going to be. let's go.

Summary: a look back on fictional rockband The Six rising to fame, where they meet It Girl Daisy Jones, leading to the collab of a century, until the band breaks apart after one show in Chicago. Told completely in interview snippets.

General Feelings: say what you want, it's a fast read, and it's fun. the style of writing with everything being interview snippets, aka the band members' and friends' memories, works really well, especially the parts where one person remembers things, and the next person directly contradicting their memory. it's a quick way to give you everyone's point of view, and sowing the seeds of miscommunication and conflict. the story is easy to follow, and it's also easy to feel for most of the protagonists. the characters are likable enough, and their conflicts are mostly realistic. the final show in chicago and the general fall out unfortunately fall kind of flat for me. like... this is it? it's not much of a bang, tbh... which maybe sums up my feelings about the whole thing. it's a fun ride, but at the end, it's like "huh, guess that was it?" it is fun, but it's just not very deep, i guess. although the way they describe the songwriting process and the songs that result from it really was cool to read. another fun fact, i totally forgot there's a show until i googled the book cover. and since i was reading and caught myself wanting to check out the songs, only to remember they're not real... well, that might be enough motivation to check out the show. Recommendation: yes, i'm doing that before the actual feelings part cause i can't discuss those without spoilers. so, if anybody cares, rec first. Daisy Jones & the Six is a casual read. like, vacation book. for the beach, for train rides, for flights. it's fun to breeze through, but i doubt it'll really grip most people. so yeah, not a must read, but can be fun, light reading.

Spoilery feelings:

(consider yourself warned)

there are a few things that really didn't work for me.

i never really got into the whole daisy/billy thing. like, his instant antipathy, the weird rivalry, and then her oh so deep love for him, and at the end, him finally kinda sorta loving her but loving his wife more... maybe that's part of the format. both of them looking back at it from the future, where it's just not that present anymore. but it didn't ring that true.

my biggest problem was probably drug use and how it was handled. it just felt so trivial and meaningless. like sure, for both billy and daisy it's supposedly the central struggle, but it just fell so flat for me. i know part of that is that early december i read Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, which (in germany) is a famous non-fiction account describing the fall into heavy drug use of an extremely young girl (starting at 12, i think), and it's the bleakest thing i've ever read, with the girl herself describing how she fell into heavier and heavier drugs, paid for by prostitution. so it's dark, and it's heavy, and compared to that the drug use in Daisy Jones feels almost offensive in how little weight it has. the comparison is super unfair, i know, i'm primed and biased, sure. but after that, the book may say a million times "oh yeah, that was a bad time for daisy", but it just doesn't ring true.

i'm not sure if the identity of the interviewer is supposed to come off as a twist? like, sure, i didn't see it coming, but it didn't really have an impact, either.

lacking impact is probably my final point. while the book, especially with the format of the interviews, is really good at painting the conflicts within the group, i didn't feel like these paid off in a significant manner. like, eddie's whole growing resentment never went anywhere except being a red herring. the show in chicaco wasn't that special in the end, was it? nothing happened at the show himself. just, the band broke at many different places at once, but they barely impacted each other. billy's struggle with addiction toppling over, daisy having a breakdown and camila helping her through it, pete getting married, the karen/graham thing exploding... like, you could see them coming, but the resolution all at once felt kinda random. like, it didn't feel like there's this big bang setting off all the dominos (yeah, mixing metaphors, i know), but more like "oh yeah, that's all happening now, i guess". sure, there isn't always a big bang, but i feel like they teased one, and then there was nothing. so i guess the end feels a bit anticlimactic, like it just fizzled out.

it was still fun to read, but more like meaningless fun, i guess. definitely preferred "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo", which was super fun. interesting writing style, but story is a bit shallow. okay, now i talked enough about a book i kinda sorta liked but wasn't super impressed by. anyone else thoughts about it? did you read it? did you watch the show? do you or did you have feelings about it? seriously would love to hear them!

[inkskinned]

it's just that there's a few more steps you have to take that other people don't have to take, but they don't see the steps, so they think you should be able to hop from moment to moment, a chickadee.

it isn't getting out of bed. it is the weight, the hook in your chest, the anchor. you have to move the anchor first. you have to silence your alarm, but your phone is in your hand, which means now you have to put the phone down, which is too-hard. you get stuck in there for a while, the white screen, mindlessly scrolling. you don't even like this activity, have tried a few other options but - here you are, and time is passing.

you've googled iron deficiency causes depression and if i drink enough water does it help with mental illness and anxiety but no caffiene within the last two weeks, like how you googled am i gay quiz at 17.

it isn't just calling the doctor back, it's the anxiety, it's these little moths in your lung cavities, furious and fluttering. you need to figure out how to capture your fingers from between their nervous bodies. you are an adult, you can say the words yes hi, i'm calling because i need - but you need to practice first. maybe write it down because what if you misspeak, wouldn't that be embarrassing. write it down, but you need to find a pen first. well, actually, your desk is kind of messy. you should get a new pen. you should get a new organizational system. you should try journaling.

your grades in school were always strange. the way teachers would say things like it feels like you're not trying. you could touch stars in the stuff you cared about. well, sometimes. god be willing. homework average zero. oops! your english teacher's wrinkled brow: i know you know this stuff. what the fuck are you doing?

it isn't the showering, it's the mirror before the shower and the soft horrible pull of your naked physique. you have to avoid eye contact completely or else it'll be 93 minutes later and you'll have picked at your skin until every little pore is bleeding. you have to stand up but standing is tiring and also you should have remembered to buy more soap but you never remember anything. maybe get out of the shower and while it's still running and you're still dripping wet, use your phone to take a note. make a note to get your groceries. let the shower run while you stand half-in half-out and get lost in your phone for a moment. come back out when the water runs cold and now you have to sprint to get ready.

your grandmother's frown. you're just being lazy. protestant work ethics in a house that isn't even protestant. she says she just learned different but she means learned better, doesn't she.

it's not that you can't send the email, it's that your hands have been hurting lately and the desk really is messy and also why the fuck would you even care about this thing? doesn't everyone else feel like they're drowning? hi brendon thanks so much for sending! will review and get back to you shortly. but now you're on the internet, close the tab with tumblr on it. go on, close it. feel the little soft vapor of boredom come up and over your eyeteeth and make everything overwhelming and itchy.

literally all you have to do is put on shoes to go outside. you're literally already dressed, that's the hard part of this whole thing. literally just put the shoes on. just... do it! do it! this shit is easy!

it's literally that easy. just stop taking all those stupid invisible steps. stop following your strange made-up rules. times like this, even you're positive you're faking. you just don't want to bother with the cleaning and the cooking and the being-an-adult.

but then - shouldn't you be able to put these stupid shoes on? nobody's even looking. go on kid. life is out there! just take the leap!

get moving.

[drdemonprince]

this feels like a silly question but I know you have the answer. is hypnotism real? or is hypno kink just another form of roleplaying? Or something in between?

the trance states some people reach under hypnosis are undeniably a real thing! in fact, people enter into trance-like states in everyday life all the time! when you're zoning out on the highway, particularly engrossed in a book or movie, wrapped up in a fantasy, or even in a more receptive state while listening to a particularly compelling speaker or preacher, you are entering into a trance state! hypnosis is just one of the means by which a person can enter into this altered state of consciousness. people also reach trance by meditating, praying, engaging in repetitive tasks, and all kinds of other ways. trance is also highly similar to subspace, or even Domspace really, heightened mental states that people enter into after engaging in a kinky role under the right conditions.

research shows that when a person enters into a trance they are generally more vividly imaginative, receptive, and suggestible, and they may also be less inhibited and more able to access feelings and thoughts they are normally uncomfortable with. this can make it both a really meaningful state to enter into, and a potentially risky one to play with or have exploited by another person.

in practice, some people with hypnosis kinks only roleplay the activity (though because of the nature of how trance works, sometimes pretending to be in a trance can just get you into a trance!). other people are only interested in fictional depictions of hypnotic states in animated GIFs or stories or things like that. but a great many of us in the hypnosis fetish community do engage in actual hypnosis that is informed by what research is available on the matter, and work on developing new techniques for helping people achieve hypnotic states and experience particular phenomena while under hypnosis - for example hypnotic amnesia, hallucinations, hands-free orgasms, and any number of other conditioned responses.

for the average novice getting into the kink, the most you're going to experience at first is a feeling of relaxation and maybe some cute party tricks, or maybe a little extra intensity when taking on a different headspace, such as pup space or bimbofication. you might feel a little bit more at ease, silly, and able to take in suggestions and run with them. with practice and a seasoned hypnotist and hypnotic subject though, you can get into the realm of some pretty dramatic personality change and preference change kind of stuff. I've had entire whole new kinks inserted into me by hypnotists before that have stuck around for years. I didn't used to be until latex for example. I also learned how to deep throat exclusively from listening to hypnotic files and all the reviews indicate I'm damn good at it (The limitations of my small mouth not withstanding). hypnosis got me to learn to suppress my gag reflex really easily, and it's great for training physical relaxation and responses like these.

I've also had like breaks from reality from being in trance states for days or weeks at a time with hypnotic mantras running in the back of my brain telling me that I'm a robot I'm not a person and stuff, and known people who have experienced psychotic breaks from pushing the throttle on certain forms of hypnotic play too heavily when they were already vulnerable to that kind of thing, so you can reach really high highs and low lows with this stuff. That's if you have the right mindset and dedication to it, it's not magic. but it is a lot like being in a cult, or being under another person's influence in some other way. humans are far more susceptible to influence than they realize sometimes.

[zuko-always-lies]

Ashes of the Academy First Impressions Review

Non-Spoiler version: I didn't like it, and if you're looking for good Azula content or good young! Dangerous Ladies content, you should look elsewhere. And if you are looking for Maiko content, that's pretty limited at best.

However, if you are looking for more fiction that sabotages its own themes by demonizing little! Azula, you are in luck!

Spoilers under the cut:

As always, ATLA media is so dedicated to demonizing Azula that it undermines it's own themes. The supposed theme of the comic is that the Fire Nation Royal Academy for Girls corrupts the youth and teaches them to be violent, cruel, and mean. Supposedly Ursa believes that the Royal Academy might have been the point where Azula "started to go wrong."

Yet the actual comic has several flashbacks to young Azula, and she's depicted as having been mean and cruel and entirely awful from the start of her attendance there. Hicks could have depicted a progression, where Azula becomes progressively worse as a person the more time she spends in the academy, but she choose not to. Moreover, some of the casual cruelty Azula does feels more Zuko-like than anything else. It's not impossible to imagine Azula doing everything she does, but some of it feels more like stuff Zuko would do.

As always, every demonized depiction of little Azula adds to the "Azula problem," where she's somehow a much better person at 14 than she was at 8, despite only having entirely negative influences over the past six years. Given Azula was apparently already totally awful from the moment she stepped into the Academy, maybe Ursa was the real bad influence on Azula!

Moving beyond that, another way Hicks undermines the themes of the comic is through the depiction of little Mai. Hicks could have depicted little Mai as someone who became a worse person under the influence of the academy and did things that grown up! Mai now regrets, but she didn't. Apparently Mai is entirely immune to all the corruption the Academy imposes and is, of course, "inherently good."

Mai of course is entirely good, entirely anti-imperialist, and entirely against the bad practices of the academy from the start. Better writing might have Mai start out fairly indifferent about it all but gradually turn against the Academy as she sees it's practices from a different viewpoint and realizes that what it put her and her friends through was cruel and wrong, but this is the Avatar comics. Mai can't have learning experiences where she learns to be a better person, since Mai was always a good person the whole time.

A few months ago, I posted that any depiction of Azula and Mai at the Academy needs to explain why they became friends. The good news is that Ashes of the Academy offers an explanation. The bad news is that it sucks:

Mai's father pushed Mai to become friends with Azula for their family's political advantage, but Mai didn't want to since Azula was so, so, so very mean, but Mai's father was persistent, so Mai eventually gave in and agreed to it. And Mai got Azula to like her by showing off her knifethrowing skills (OK, that actually sounds like something which could have happened).

Mai thus was an entirely false friend to Azula from the start, only pretending to like her for her father's political ambitions. Why Azula never noticed this, despite going to an Academy which encouraged people to be paranoid about their best friends, is a too sophisticated question for this comic. And of course "spending a decade pretending to be friends with someone I hate so my dad can get more power" is not something that canon Mai, who transparently couldn't give a rats ass about his ambitions, would do.

Of course, this does raise the question if Zuko and Ty Lee should be on the lookout for Mai being a false friend to them. After all, I'm sure Ukano pushed to Mai to seduce Zuko...And if Mai is willing to put up with two of her biggest relationships in her life being entirely fake, who's to say she wasn't only pretending to be Ty Lee's friend out of convenience? After all, we know she disliked Ty Lee girliness, but maybe Mai was willing to put up with it in exchange for having a chi-blocker on her side if she needed it.

Now, moving beyond Mai and Azula, the other aspects of the comic are just pretty uninteresting. I know a lot people were baited into buying it for the Maiko, but there's barely any Maiko in it, and their relationship struggles are definitely not resolved at all. The weirdest thing is Zuko telling the Headmistress that Mai will be a teacher at the Academy before he's bothered asking Mai. That's kind of an asshole move, to be honest.

I don't remember how Smoke and Shadow depicted Michi, and I'm not going to bother looking it up, but she's oddly warm toward Mai here, both in the flashbacks and in the present. It really seems like Hicks missed the point of what the cartoon said about her.

Kiyi and her friend have a pretty boring role which doesn't really drive the plot of the comic at all, and they don't get to do anything interesting. Better writing would have Kiyi begin to be corrupted by the continued awful practices of the academy, but this is the Avatar comics.

The headmistresses conversion to good felt distinctly unearned and unrealistic, but I suppose she's not Azula, so she was always inherently good.

I wasn't expecting any of the political stuff to be good, and it wasn't. All the Fire Nation elite families apparently hate everything Zuko is doing, which is fair and unrealistic. Why they haven't just slit his throat in his sleep is unexplained.

The evil old headmistress felt like an entirely unnecessary plot element, added only so the comic could get a fight scene. The Dai Li who for some reason work for her also felt very unnecessary. If they want Azula to become Firelord, shouldn't they have been putting their effort into assassinating Zuko?

These Dai Li were depicted as still being completely loyal to Azula, despite not having seen her for many years. A better written and more interesting work of fiction might raise the question of what Azula's ability to create durable, lasting loyalty in people she barely touched says about her as a person, but this is the Avatar comics.

About the only thing I liked is Ty Lee. She had a brief appearance at the end of the comic, solely in the present, and she actually felt like she was mostly in character, including through violating Mai's personal space against her wishes. A much, much better writer might have had Mai remember how Azula was careful not to do that, but this is the Avatar comics, and we got to keep our expectations low.

[korn-official]

JONATHAN DAVIS INTERVIEW FOR PIT MAGAZINE (date unknown but guessing ‘95 or ‘96)

“I had no idea that people would relate to me so much.”

**

Korn came together in 1993, in Huntington Beach, California. Now, their Epic/Immortal self-titled debut is winning critical acclaim from the music community. Dark, intense lyrics front this hard-hitting sound. The band is comprised of Jonathan (vox, bagpipes), Fieldy (bass), Brian (guitar), James 'Munk' (guitar), and David (drums).

Be sure to eat your vegatables, son.

Pit: Tell me about the bagpipes - how did you come up with that? Are you of Scottish descent?

Jonathan: I went to a high school that had a pipe band. I started taking lessons at school; then I took private lessons and started competing. I always wanted to learn how to play that instrument, but I never thought I'd play it in a band. Then we wrote this song and thought we'd try it; it just worked.

Pit: How did the band come into being?

Jon: Munk, Fieldy and David had been playing in a band for like the last ten years, and then Brian got in the band. The singer didn't work out. They saw me in Bakersfield, where we all grew up, and asked me to try out. We just clicked. We wrote three songs our first practice. That's how Korn started; two months later we were signed. And here we are.

Pit: You're from Bakersfield, California. What kind of childhood did you have?

Jon: The normal hell-childhood. It's like out of a Stephen King novel - it's crazy. Nothing to do... Only thing I did was study music, because my dad owned a music store. So I took a lot of lessons. Eventually I learned to play a lot of things.

Pit: You're very impassioned when you're on stage. How do you feel when you're playing live?

Jon: I don't really know; I just get in a state. I don't know what I do. I get to a point where I feel everything - all the pain that I feel inside, all the passion for my songs. I can't remember anything after; I just go for it. The band tells me what's going on after. Haven't you ever gotten that freaked out?

Pit: I have, but not on a regular basis.

Jon: Well, that happens to me every time. There were a couple of shows where I snapped out of it, and I just hated the shows. Things went wrong.

Pit: What do you expect to see in the crowd?

Jon: I usually just see lots of kids going crazy - jumping around in pits. I expect to see the kids having fun.

Pit: Is there a message in your music?

Jon: I guess the only one is to be honest with yourself. I'm tired of seeing hardcore kids acting like they're so tough, so hard, so bad, but they actually have feelings. It's hardest to be yourself. If you've got to be a fake, then who are you trying to fool? I have a lot of problems with all the testosterone.

Pit: Is it hard for you to be honest with yourself?

Jon: It was for a while, but it's not anymore. Now that I have my music I can get all this out. It's like therapy for me.

Pit: You're album has gotten a lot of critical acclaim. How does this affect you?

Jon: I think it's great. I never dreamed it would be like this, but getting good reviews makes it worth it. I had no idea that people would relate to me so much.

Pit: What do you think makes your music different?

Jon: Maybe it's our grooves. That's a good question.

Pit: What do you see as the world's biggest problem right now?

Jon: Us, I guess. The people. The politics. Stuff I don't care to talk about. I hate politics. Everyone should just kill politicians. America is a huge business; they do fucked up shit to us.

[quirkwizard]

Final Note: A Look at the True Ending of My Hero Academia

Wow, Hori. Way to ruin my heartfelt review of the final few chapters of your series. It was very inconsiderate of you to put this out.

Okay, but seriously, I was not expecting this to happen. When I had heard that Volume 42 was going to have a lot of new pages added, I thought there were just going to be more extras. Stuff like little notes and character profiles. Imagine my shock when we get a whole additional chapter for the proper finale of the series.

I am only writing about one chapter here. In spite of the fact this is ending the series, there's only so much I can cover here. So this is going to be a lot shorter than some of my other mega posts. More notes and a few longer tangents then the bigger analysis I had written about on the final arc and the epilogue.

And yes, I am using the fan translations here. Normally, I'd wait for some official translation to come out, but going by what people have said, these translations are pretty close to what's going on in the manga. Plus, the last volume isn't likely to come out until October and there is no way I am waiting that long to talk about this.

Duds and Duds: The Final Stitch-Part 2

Let's get something simple out of the way first: new looks.

-Nejire got one of the more improved looks. The spiral gauntlets and leggings are simple additions, but really add a lot to her look.

-I guess Present Mic's hair works like a tree. It grows as he ages and if you cut it, you can tell how old he's gotten by the rings.

-Best Jeanist, how did you get a hair cut that somehow even made you look like even more of a complete fop? And why the laces? Why do the jeans have laces in them?

-I'm mixed on Mirio's new look. The ones on his legs are kind of silly, but very fitting for him. I also miss the visor he had on as well. However, I cannot accept the pompadour as a part of his appearance. I'm sorry, but it just looks silly.

-Kamui Wood's new look is simple, but amazing. The narrower eyes look more menacing, the branches around his mask forming a makeshift crown, the wreath of leaves around his head to give him this regal look. It's great, no notes.

-The Ketsubutsu Schools kids got some minor touch-ups to help them stick out more, such as Shikkui's more rap artist-inspired look and Tatami's arm sleeves. It just makes them look less generic. Yo Shindo caught me off guard though. Maybe it's the cow-lick or hair dye, but he looks like an entirely new character. Like I swear his face changed shape too.

-I think Tamaki just won me over. No joke, he actually may have gotten one of my favorite looks. The all-black look with the hood gives this monstrous appearance. The teeth on the hood is not only amazing appearance, but a really cool reference to how his power works around eating. The little bendy straw on his costume is amazing as well. It's both a cute detail and a practical part of the costume.

-Juzo, Setsuna, and Kendo didn't have much going. Maybe a few minor design choice changes that don't hurt anything. Same with Tetsutetsu, but I really like his sharper hair and larger eye accents. Just something about them made him pop out more. I like Manga's drawing tablet as his chestpiece. It's a really cute design for his character.

-Seiji looks even cooler now with his sharper features. Inasa is more of a sidegrade. The Slimy Shadey hair is really odd, but I do like the goggles to help fit in with his steampunk look. Camie I'm the most confused about. Why does she have feathers in her cap? Is that a reference I'm not getting? Maybe to a superhero or mythological figure?

-Monoma has the worst design out of anyone here. I don't even know where to begin with him. The clock earrings are dumb and just seem like they'd get in the way. His gloves are actively keeping him from using his Quirk. And do I even need to say anything about this hair cut? I can't believe Hori turned Monoma into an e-boy.

-Fat Gum is a bit of a downgrade for me. The all-black look doesn't suit his more welcoming brand and personality. Plus, the "M" and "G" in the middle of the "F" already present on his chest just look really out of place. I just think it worked better with the "F" and "G" on his old costume. They just fit a lot more seamlessly into his overall look and helped break up all the yellow with some white.

Meet Up/Catch Up

Now to talk about certain changes to Class 1-A. Yes, I'm dedicating another list segment to this. I have a lot of thoughts on it

-Wow, I really don't like Sero's peach fuz mustache. It looked bad in the helmet, and it's even worse now. It just looks so wrong on him.

-I despise Iida's half buzz, though I will admit that's more than everything ruining that hair cut over the past seven years.

-Nighthide is such a terrible hero's name. I'm not sure if that's just bad translation, a lack of creativity, so simply an in character choice for Shinso to be bad at naming stuff. Just like his mentor.

-Kirishima threatening to scratch the hood of Bakugou's car is one of my favorite jokes in the series. I know it's only part of the fan translation, but I'm going to be disappointed if it isn't in the official one.

-I like how Hori basically had Denki and Jiro look into the camera and confirm they are not dating. Right after confirming two characters getting together that nobody cared about but him. 

-I have once again been vindicated by canon. Iida is in fact faster than Bakugou. The manga out-and-out said it. All the power scalers out there can turn on your badge and calculators.

-Hey, look at that, a billboard with Izuku's face on it. It's almost as if he hasn't forgotten about it over the last couple of years. Maybe Hori wanted to make it extra obvious for some of the fans.

-I appreciate how not everyone is a pro hero by the end and some of them are still sidekicks. Any other author would have had it, so all the students are pros with their own agencies, but it's realistic not every one of them would have the want or ability to become a proper pro. I'm honestly surprised which ones are and aren't though.

-I'm kind of amazed that my guess of the rankings of the heroes ended up being so spot on. Pretty much all of them ended up in the brackets. I would have guessed where they were. Even some of the reasoning was spot on, like Bakugou's terrible people skills still getting in his own way a lot of the time. The dark horse of all this was certainly Shoji. I assumed that he would have fallen in the rankings due to spending so much time trying to deal with the heteromorph situation, but I guess that ended up helping him in the long run.

Missing Invites

So one complaint I've heard about this ending is how focused it is on Class 1-A and especially Uraraka and Izuku. Which I can kind of get. It's just that, as the final chapter in this entire story, it carries a lot more finality to it. So, if some character isn't given any attention, chances are they are never going to get it. I can understand the desire to see other characters. Like I wanted to at least get a look at how All Might and Endeavor were doing. Even if it's only one panel, it would have been nice how things were for them eight years on.

However, I do think that misses the point of this chapter. Because a lot of this chapter is around to act as an epilogue to the main cast of the series and to show us the future that they were and are still fighting for. As well as to tie up Izuku and Uraraka's arcs and to affirm what the story is about and what messages are. Anything that isn't focused on that feels more like a nice bonus rather than something integral we needed to see, such as getting to see the Big Three as heroes. A lot of the characters and their arcs were wrapped up already. As nice as it would be to see where they ended up, you don't really need to.

Ships Docked

Look, I'm glad there weren't a lot of ships got together within the final act. If we're being honest, a lot of the ships that people love didn't have a strong foundation in canon. So I didn't really want or expect an "And then everyone paired off and had a kid" ending that people were wishing for or dreading would come to pass. Considering that there hasn't been much in the way of personal relationships for more than 1-A as a whole, instead of pushing 1-A more as a larger unit of people that help and support one another rather than focusing on individual pairs, it would have been very jarring.

That being said, it's hilarious how, in a fanbase as famous for shipping as this one, there are only three canon pairings at the end of the series. Maybe four depending on how you interpret Gentle and La Brava's ending. And two of them were for ships nobody cared about. There was Shindo and Tamati, a pair that you'd only know was a couple from the databooks. Then there was Kuroiro and Komori, a connection that only had the faintest of set up in the databooks, a brief exchange during the Joint Training Arc, before being pushed front and center in the very last chapter. And of course, there was... we'll get to that, trust me.

Ghosts of Shipping Past

So you're telling me that Izuku got pushed to Uraraka by Bakugou and Toga pushed Uraraka to Izuku? Bakugou and Toga, who are the most popular pairs for Izuku and Uraraka respectively, are literally pushing Izuku and Uraraka together. And that's what ends up making them confess to each other. If I didn't know any better, I would say this is a Supernatural finale level of spite on Hori's part. That he got so tired of people harassing him and his staff about shipping and had this part sketched out to specifically make people upset about it. 

And if Uraraka is seeing Himiko and Izuku is seeing Tomura, does that mean that they are both being haunted by them? Fanfic writers, this is a golden opportunity here to make a comedy fic. A newly minted hero couple try to live their lives while being haunted by the ghost of their archenemies. What, is Himiko going to be cheering Uraraka on about getting together with Izuku and that she should take him right now? Meanwhile, Tomura's haunting Izuku about how he should grind out another level in League of Legends before doing anything else?

Odds are LeMillion to One

I'm still pretty mixed about Mirio becoming the Number One hero. I guess it feels like such a big deal to get the top spot only to have it fall to Mirio. And I'm not saying that to slam Mirio. I do like Mirio. Mirio is one of the most heroic figures to come out of UA, if not the whole series. It's just odd to me because Mirio feels like such an afterthought. Outside the Yakuza Arc, he hasn't had much going on with him, let alone an arc where it feels like a proper conclusion. I suppose it's to show the change in things. How the greatest hero in Japan isn't this invincible pillar, but this jokey guy that can hang out with kids and make a fool of himself.

I guess that has less to do with where Mirio ended up and more about how little presence he had in the story. Looking back, I do think that Mirio's presence and momentum were put to a grinding halt because he lost his Quirk. That Horikoshi just wasn't sure what to do with him once the Yakuza arc was done. Because when I try to map out Mirio's character and his arc, I struggle to understand where it was going and how it ended up here. He's introduced as the guy who seems like the best "One For All" candidate on paper. Then it's shifted to being more about carrying on Sir Nighteye's successor. I know I'm getting way off-topic here. It's just been something that's been on my mind ever since I read the chapter.

Temperate

Shoto is great in this chapter. I've always stood by the idea that part of Shoto's arc in the series is about him trying to define himself as a person. Away from all his family and the baggage that came with it. From trying to accept his power as his own to riding himself over the demons of his father to finally being able to be his own person. Saying that he just wants to do something because he wants to do it. It's also a good contrast to how Enji was. Instead of obsessing over the same thing that destroyed his family, once Shoto got as high as he felt he could go, he instead turned to something new that he wanted to try. For no other reason than he simply liked soba and thought it would taste better with something he made. 

I also really like how they tie this into the idea of heroes having more free time and becoming less and less needed. That now heroes have chances to take care of themselves, stop worrying about everyone else, and have lives outside their work. Again, that's something I feel like didn't ring as true with only Chapter 430 as context. We never got to see anyone besides Izuku working in that chapter. And since he was a teacher and not a pro hero, it didn't feel like what Hawks did came to pass outside of maybe a few lines. So I'm glad it got some focus on Shoto and his own arc. I think it's a excellent note to end his character on. I'm glad that it was more overtly finished as opposed to the single panel we got for it in Chapter 430.

Blast Back

So, after all that, what do I think about Bakugou's ending? I think it's an effective bittersweet ending to his character. He reminds me a lot of veterans after a war. And I'm not just saying that because he was in two wars for his life, both of which he technically died in, though that is part of that. It's more about the mindset and character of Bakugou. He's a man who defines himself by his ability to fight and win. Now the world is coming to the point where those aren't as valued, and he lashes out because of it. He tries to find that drive in other people like his sidekicks, but none of them have it anymore. He tries to reignite that rivalry with Izuku, only to find that he's moving on with his own life. 

It's like a natural expansion of his failure to move past his mindset earlier on in the series and how obsessed he was with being the best, only now it's twenty times more depressing. It's an interesting way to end his character. Bakugou got what he wanted, but realizes how little any of it really means. Which isn't to say it's a sad ending. Bakugou was able to complete his arc and come out the other side a better person. That is a more worthwhile reward than any kind of ranking. However, I do think there is some hope for Bakugou. Considering how much of the chapter is about people trying to live their lives outside of being a hero, I prefer to think that he would eventually do the same.

Weightless Burden

Out of all the characters, Uraraka needed this chapter the most and easily benefits the most from the extra focus. There's just a lot about her character that felt unfinished otherwise. Like with a lot of stuff, it does help that we get to see Uraraka in action and helping people with their Quirks. It helps clear the air about what exactly Quirk Counseling is and how it's going to affect people from now on. That what Uraraka said wasn't just hot air, and she did help people. And that, yes, what the League did and went through was important. It helped push people to make changes later to keep something like this from ever happening again.

More importantly, we get to see her dealing with her emotions. I feel like an underrated part of Ochako's arc was her being more honest about her feelings. We got a lot of her trying to understand people and the importance of reaching out with Toga. And without that part of her arc completed, it seemed like a part of her story was left unfinished. I like how it gets so much focus in this chapter, with Uraraka basically being literally haunted by her feelings, both metaphorically and literally. All in all, I like how Uraraka was handled in the final chapter, and I think this is a good end for her. If only there wasn't something that overshadowed her entire storyline in the eyes of the fans.

Within Reach

I feel so vindicated by this whole chapter. Besides all the claims people made about Izuku being disproved, it retroactively makes Chapter 430 better. I was always fine with Izuku being a teacher. I felt it was a very natural place for his character to end up in hindsight. It's something he has the skill to do, especially in a place like UA with his observational skills and hero knowledge. However, it can still feel jarring with just Chapter 430. Izuku's dream was to be the world's greatest hero. He did achieve that, but it was never mentioned that he wanted to be a teacher. Having Izuku say that was what he wanted and enjoys doing is very important. It helps add a lot of validity to this writing choice and shows how much Izuku has grown into wanting things outside of hero work.

More importantly, I feel like this works much better as a finale for him. While Izuku working with Dai about his Quirk did work as showing Izuku's change in mindset, I don't think it was as satisfying of an ending. It worked to tie up some of the thematic ends to the story and Izuku, but it did not work as well for an emotional climax. Because Dai was just some nobody we hadn't met before. Now, we get a lot more proper closure with Izuku and the rest of the cast. We got his final moments with All Might and Aizawa, but not much else. Now we finally get closure with all of his classmates, Bakugou and Uraraka included. And it gives us time to show him enjoying stuff outside of hero work instead of just being told about it.

Car Bomb

Alright, let's disarm this first bomb. The car ride.

Speaking of growth, it is not out of character for Izuku to reject Bakugou's offer. It has been over a decade since Izuku has been in middle school. He has grown a lot over the year the story takes place in. Shoot, he's probably grown a lot more since then as well. My point is, this is not the same Izuku at the start of the series. He would not freak out over signed All Might merchandise. Izuku and All Might have been friends for a decade. He would not jump at the chance to work under Bakugou as a sidekick or with him as an equal. Izuku does and should have a life outside of Bakugou. Izuku does not owe Bakugou anything for helping to make him a suit. It was a group effort with Toshinori and the rest of Class 1-A, and I really doubt Bakugou would even want Izuku to join just because Izuku "owed him one".

I bring this up after talking to Izuku and Bakugou on their own because both are important parts of why this section of the story was done this way. Izuku out and out said that he wants to be a teacher over a pro hero. Being a hero is important to him. It lets him spend more time with his friends, and he gets to help people, but it doesn't define his life any more. He's doing what he wants now. He doesn't have that self-destructive heroism as a part of him anymore. His wanting and choosing to be a teacher is part of that healthy selfishness I was talking about before. I honestly think that him working with Bakugou would undermine that part of the ending. That he'd go back into hero work full time and have it take over his life rather than focusing everything on teaching. Shoot, it even ends with Bakugou telling Izuku to think more for himself.

And I think a lot of this comes down to people overestimating Izuku and Bakugou's connection and its relevance to the overall story and underestimating their own growth. Bakugou is Izuku's rival, and they play a part in each other's story, but their rivalry is of minor note to the greater story. This isn't like Naruto and Sasuke, where the two main rivals are of vital importance to one another's storylines. It's more like Ichigo and Yuru, where the rivalries are far less prominent and only occasionally cross over. It was more that Bakugou's own arc was heavily tied to Izuku, but Bakugou's arc was only part of what was going on in his own story. Specifically, the part of Izuku training to be a hero and how they both learn from one another. However, that part of it is done because Izuku found a life for himself outside of hero work, leaving not as much for Bakugou. Which is why I think the ending seems sad for Bakugou, even though I'd describe it as more bittersweet.

Holding Hands? How Scandalous!

All of this chapter aside, let's get into the real meat of this and defuse the second bomb. There were a lot of fans that were upset about this. Let's remove the good chunk that were simply upset their ship didn't become canon and focus on some real issues people have with this.

No, this isn't a fake-out. This wasn't made by Hori's assistants, generated by AI, or whatever other piece of cope you've heard online. This did happen, it is canon, and it is romantic. And yes, them holding hands is supposed to be romantic. Not only would it be out of character for these flustered nerds to do anything more implicitly romantic, but them holding hands ties a lot more into their characters. Them grabbing each other's hands is an integral part of their connection and growth. It's to show the two are connected and understanding one another. It ties back to the idea of reaching out being about understanding someone and part of why the two do it so much together. By them clasping hands at the end, it's to show the bond the two have made and how close they are now.

No, Uraraka getting with Izuku is not something that was forced into the story, nor was it something that came out of nowhere. Uraraka's feelings for Izuku have been set up ever since she was introduced. It started out as a crush but was slowly reinforced and built up between the two's appearances, both apart and together. Having her get with Izuku ends part of her arc as well. One of the biggest points of Uraraka's story is how bad it is to repress your feelings and not be emotionally open with the people around you. This is contrasted by Toga, someone who was hurt by that same repression, yet now was totally honest with her feelings. It's why Uraraka said that she admired Toga as a person for that honesty. Shoot, it's why Ochako confesses her feelings for Izuku in that fight. Something people seem to be forgetting. Uraraka pushing down her feelings wasn't the end of that plotline, it was merely another plot point in her story that culminated in this confession.

No, this doesn't devalue or reorient Toga's story to be about the two of them. Toga has always played a major role in the romantic connection between Izuku and Uraraka at various points in the story. There's a reason why Izuku keeps getting brought up whenever Uraraka and Toga fight each other. However, that was only a part of her character. Toga's story was all about trying to be understood for who she was and trying to find happiness in her life. She got that when Uraraka was willing to bleed and die just to try and reach out to her. And Toga's story was over when she died and saved Uraraka's life, living life as she chose to till the very end. Izuku and Uraraka getting together does not ruin that. Her usage here is more about her manifesting due to Uraraka's unresolved emotions. It's why Toga only shows up when Izuku becomes more active in her life. Again, it goes back to that whole thing about Uraraka admiring Toga for being so open about her feelings.

No, the fact that Uraraka ends up with Izuku does not devalue her character in any way, shape, or form. Her getting with Izuku is part of her story, but that's it: part of her story. She can still be her own person with her own life outside of Izuku while being in a happy relationship with him. They aren't mutually exclusive. Uraraka has this whole other arc she goes through with Toga that is integral to each character and the story overall. For the past eight years, Uraraka was and still is a pro heroine who helped countless people with the expanded Quirk Counseling program. That part was well established before the relationship was resolved. Because that's just as important to her story and character as the romance with Izuku. That doesn't go away because she updated her status to "In a Relationship". It doesn't automatically reduce her to a housewife. I'm sick of people saying this, and it's a frankly disgusting way to look at her character.

Epilogue to the Epilogue

So what do I feel about this ending? It was nice, and I am glad that we got it. I am someone who defended the original ending and have only come to appreciate it more as time has gone on. That being said, it did leave me with this feeling of incompleteness. Like the overall picture was there, but there were fragments of it missing. And in those fragments, people started filling holes with their garbage ideas. I do think that Chapter 431 filled out some much-needed holes within the first finale and ends the series on a good note.

Heck, Hori was able to fix and cover a lot of the problems I had with Chapter 430. The fact that Izuku wanted to be a teacher seemingly coming out of nowhere? Settled and expanded upon that he always wanted to be a hero as well as a teacher. The lack of any real final moments between Izuku and Bakugou? That was settled pretty well with the two of them in the car. The lack of resolution regarding Izuku and Uraraka? One of the main focal points of this chapter and what we ultimately end the series on. It feels more complete, if that makes any sense. And I'm glad Hori got this opportunity. Few authors ever get the chance to make a recovery like this, and fewer still are able to pull it off.

I will say that now I'm less worried than I was before. When I ended my review of the final few chapters, I talked about how much the general perception of the series would have been tainted by the ending. I feel like most fans are a lot more agreeable with this than they were on Chapter 430. I still stand by the fact that it was ruined by leakers and the general anti-hype tainting any discussion people could have about it. And it wouldn't have stung so if all of the obnoxious memes and straight-up lies surrounding the ending weren't out there.

Will My Hero Academia live on? Oh, I'm sure it will somehow. Maybe Shonen Jump will force the hand of one of their many mangaka into making a sequel series. Maybe it will live on through merchandise sales, spin-off light novels, and however many movies they decide to make about it. I know for certain it will live on. In us. Countless characters, stories, and art pieces that we all made because of it.

I started this series right around the same age as Izuku. Some young kid who was quiet, socially awkward, and obsessed with superheroes, knowing all sorts of trivia about them. So naturally, I was drawn to series where the protagonist was literally me. Yet what kept me was the story, the worldbuilding, the characters, the art, and, of course, the power system. But the thing that resonated with me more than anything was the message: anyone can be a hero as long as you choose to be one. Now that the series is over, here I am again. At a similar age to Izuku. I wonder if I've grown as much as he has. All I know is that My Hero Academia will always have a special place in my heart.

Sure, there were ups and downs throughout the story. Yet, in a strange way, I appreciate that as well. This story helped me a lot when it came to my critical thinking with the media I interacted with. It made me think about and reconsider what I was watching and reading over and over again. It helped me overcome my gut reactions to events and how those reactions would stick with me. It helped me think more and more about the actual message and meaning of it. Not what I thought the story was saying, but what the story was trying to tell me. It made me reconsider parts I despised and helped me appreciate what I enjoyed so much about this story.

Most of all, it inspired me to create this blog and to meet all of you. It filled me with so much creative passion that I couldn't help but share it with all of you. Was it hard? At times. But there was always the feeling that what I did inspired and helped the people see the series in a new light. I've had so many people talk about how much they love my blog, how they are excited to see me post, and how much they want to use my Quirks for their stories and characters. I've even had people say to me that what I did helped them think about stuff critically, and they were inspired to make their own stories all because of what I did. That means so much to me. More than you could ever imagine.

And now it's over. I'm left to wonder what I will do with myself and this blog now that it's done. I suppose I'll have to figure that out soon enough.

[the---hermit]

05|06|2024

New day new struggles working on this history paper. I cannot stress enough how stressed I am about how bad the new research interface of my uni is, I feel like ever since they did the big update it's super complicated to get results that have to do with what you are looking for and that are accessible too. Moreover no one cares about this topic because I genuinely cannot find anything. I have found a couple of articles to help me with context but not much. By the end of the week I plan on finishing reading and highlighting what resources I have found and then I'll see what I can make of them, and get back to the professor. I am procrastinating emailing her back because I have no idea what to say tbh. My English lit review on the other hand is going pretty well, and reviewing in the afternoons seems to be a good plan. Since I am a bit more tired having to review out loud helps me with staying focused, and I also don't have to read historical sources all day, or else I'd lose my mind. This afternoon I struggled to stay focused anyway, but at least I got some stuff done, if I had to continue my history research I wouldn't have done anything probably. My brain is just very very tired again.

Today's productivity:

started my morning with an audiobook

more struggling looking for historical sources (I found a couple more but I am keeping those for the very end because they are once again not 100% relevant to what I have to do)

read and highlighted quite a few sources I downloaded at the beginning of the week (a couple were more or less useful a couple were a waste of time, but maybe I'll quote a couple of context details in the end, who knows. At the moment I only need to read two more and then I am done with my first round of secondary sources, but one of those might get deleated because I'm pretty sure is totally useless)

got to practice my French because of a couple of said historical sources, and wrote down the new words I learned today (surprisingly my understaning is better than I expected giving that I have not used my French in years, I should really get back to it more seriously)

continued my first outloud review of all my English lit materials (today I started working on the Shakespeare part, it will take a couple of days to finish it, especially bc today I didn't do as much as I had hoped)

wrote a little summary of a couple of sentences for all the scenes of The Merchant Of Venice in order to review it without having to reread it for the fourth time

[kaibutsushidousha]

Another Danganronpa linguistics-based post that has been about as long overdue as the name study post is the post about the language nuances of Fujisaki's unusual gender situation. I'm genuinely surprised I never got a direct question about this, even when the Danganronpa Translation Critique tag was still active, but one post about the subject in this site and a conversation about it elsewhere (read: a place where can easily copypaste my own explanations from) inspired me to finally put this one out. This used to be a heated topic a decade ago, so there's probably too many disclaimers to be made with this one, so assume I made every one you need to read this study in good faith. Thank you.

I guess I need to start with a general explanation of first-person pronouns. I imagine a lot of people know this part already since it's an omnipresent aspect of the language, but it never hurts to review the basics. Japanese has multiple first-person pronouns instead of the single "I" English has. A person's choice of pronoun informs things about their gender, age, social status, and relationship to the person they're speaking to. In theory, there are maybe over 40. In practice, there are only 3, maybe 6 depending on your standards for what counts as "commonly seen". In modern Japanese, most pronouns are things you only find in fiction.

The three genuinely common first-person pronouns are the traditionally masculine boku and ore, and the gender-neutral watashi. Watashi can be easily mistaken for feminine since that's what women default to in every situation due to the lack of other options, but it's a truly neutral formal pronoun that men are using all the time in professional situations. It's especially relevant here that watashi is not inherently feminine in any way.

Now to the relevant question. What pronoun Fujisaki uses for himself? The answer is boku, a markedly masculine pronoun, the same our male protagonist uses. This can be seen in Mondo's flashback with him, in the scenes contained his inner thoughts, the bonus mode/game scenes that have his secret revealed, and if that counts, how Alter-Ego talks as him.

Fujisaki's boku is a traditionally masculine pronoun, so he obviously didn't use it before the reveal. It's easy to spot this and call it a pronoun switch. These kinds of pronoun switches are a very common language trick and come in all sorts of circumstances in other stories, but Fujisaki's case becomes a lot more intriguing when you verify what it was changed from.

The expected answer is watashi. It's the perfectly gender-neutral pronoun, but it's a pronoun women use far more commonly than any feminine-specific pronouns. It's a perfect fit for the disguise and it's very easy to honestly say Fujisaki has no reason to feel any dysphoria using watashi as a man. It's something his male peers are expected to do when talking to teachers and that they'll need to do in their jobs as adults. But Fujisaki never says watashi before or after the reveals.

The actual answer is none. Fujisaki omits pronouns in every line of dialogue he has alive. Omitting pronouns is a completely normal part of dialogue in Japanese, so doing it 100% of the time is not something people normally do, but it is something you can get away with in Japanese without raising many eyebrows.

This 24/7 pronoun omission has always been a fascinating dialogue quirk to me because in my 12 years consuming stuff as a Japanese student and translator, this is something that I've never seen done before or after, and something no translation of DR1 could convey properly in English. It's a truly unique case as far as I'm aware.

Makes this gimmick work requires an extra level of attention and sometimes getting creative with phrasing, both in Kodaka writing out-of-universe and in Fujisaki speaking in-universe. Genuine work was put into making Fujisaki fiercely refusing to refer to himself with anything less than a fully masculine pronoun, no matter how much he felt "undeserving" of his gender.

Anyway, that's pretty much all on the side of Fujisaki's own self-expression. The question I'm mostly copypasting my own answer from was "which characters used which gender expressions in chapter 2" and I yapped about Fujisaki's own answer because that's the special and unique description trick that frequently occupies my mind, but I guess I'll drop the answer here as well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first point to be relevant is that many characters, including our PoV Naegi, use the honorifics san for the girls and kun for the boys. Naegi is the first to address Fujisaki after the reveal and he sticks to the san he always used. This continues even after the flashbacks give the full context of Fujimaru's situation.

Next, Celes mentions Fujisaki as "Fujisaki... kun", taking a big pause to indicate intent on the pronoun switch and attention to the habits she's trying to unlearn. Kirigiri, Geno, and Ishimaru also refer to Fujisaki in unambiguously masculine terms before Oowada reveals any of Fujisaki's perspectives on the matter. The rest don't say anything gendered, which is easy to do because Japanese is a really easy language to be gender-neutral on (this says a lot about the choices of the characters who did pick gendered words, perhaps).

How Oowada and Junko (Monokuma) address gender is discussed directly in the trial so I don't think I need to cover it here. They're also the only ones with full context during the trial, so it's not comparable to the 4 above deciding Fujisaki's gender based on fragmentary information.

And the last relevant new factor is Alter-Ego, who refers to its creator as "Goshujin-tama", aside from regularly using he/him. Goshujin-sama used by servants to address the specifically male lords they work for. As maids became a staple anime trope, you probably heard this one coming from a fetishized maid character. The reason why I'm specifying this is that Alter-Ego calls Fujisaki "Goshujin-tama" instead of "Goshujin-sama". The "honorific" tan is a variation of the classic honorific san, used primarily by otaku to address their anime waifus. The -tama there is a -sama equivalent of that. The blatant implication there is that Fujisaki designed his subservient digital clone to be attracted to him, which is categorically weird. That's another character element that the localization doesn't bother trying to convey, opting for a mostly sanitized "Master" as Alter-Ego's title of choice of Chihiro.

Then the next game has AI Nanami referring both to Fujisaki as her father and Alter-Ego as her brother, and I'm closing the post here because I'd rather not to think about how that makes Alter-Ego's title of choice weirder.

[pinkacademiaprincess]

Hiii I’m so sorry to bother you!, hope your day goes well <3 I just want to ask, how can I improve in maths? I’m preparing myself for the sat and I have trouble with understanding it. Any tips would be very much appreciated, thanku !! ♡

Become a Math Whiz: Acing Math Class & the SAT 📈✏️📚👩‍🏫

ty for the ask & the kind words! you are never a bother, i'm happy to help 🥰 i can def give some tips as someone who went from struggling w/ math to being good at it. and i’ve taken the SAT so i know that experience as well! i hope this helps 💗

take accountability

it’s very easy to try to shift blame & avoid taking responsibility for your grades/ performance. i used to think things like “the teacher is just bad!” or “i’m just not a math person!” but this mindset is just deflecting. some things are out of your control, like what teacher you have or preferring other subjects, but you have to step up & work hard to create your own success! remembering this will help you stay motivated and disciplined.

find your learning style

i talked about this in a previous post too, but there are different styles of learning - visual, auditory, hands-on, & reading/writing - and not all of them work for everyone. if you spend a ton of time studying and don’t see improvement or results, that’s a big sign that you’re studying wrong. a method that works for your friend or that your teacher uses might not actually be effective for you. so do some research into learning styles and study methods, and find implement strategies that work for you.

never fall behind

okay, easier said than done. but one of the biggest reasons i used to struggle is math is that i would get stuck on a concept, never fully master it, and then i’d stay behind. in math, a lot of topics build on each other. if you get stuck on a topic, it’s crucial that you figure it out asap or your confusion will snowball. you can’t build a solid structure on top of a wobbly foundation. the moment you encounter a problem area, study it until you’ve completely understood.

practice makes perfect

i try to steer clear of recommending specific study methods b/c everyone has different learning styles. but math is so dependent on problem solving & applications that you really have to master this skill in order to succeed. beyond just reviewing your notes & reading over concepts, you need to practice applying topics by solving problems. do the homework questions & do them for accuracy, even if it’s just graded for completion. find extra problems in the textbook, workbook, online, etc. redo questions from class or the hw that confused you until you can do them correctly without your notes. drill it until you can solve them AND understand how the steps work!

ask for help

i am clearly a big proponent of asking for help. in school, your teachers are gonna be one of the best resources you have. for one, they’re teachers for a reason, so even if you think they’re not too great at explaining stuff, they know the concepts. and besides that, your teachers the ones who are creating units, assigning your work, writing & grading your tests... they should be your go-to for questions. visit them during office hours or email to set up a meeting where you can discuss concepts. ask for extra practice problems, ask them to look over your work & let you know how it looks, talk through your work with them. aside from teachers, you can get help from a tutor, a classmate, whoever you can turn to. but pls don’t suffer alone! succeeding with help is still succeeding.

use the internet

so maybe your teacher truly sucks at explaining. maybe you don’t have classmates to help and can’t afford a tutor. or maybe you just wanna supplement your learning another way. i really really recommend utilizing free learning tools online!! khan academy is an obvious one for videos, practice problems, and more. you can also find tons of youtube videos explaining math topics. sometimes it helps to hear things explained another way. i also google “[math concept] practice problems” if i want extra questions to work through.

bonus: tips for SAT math

the SAT is a bit different b/c the math concepts aren’t actually too advanced. it’s all multiple choice so you don’t get to rely on partial points for showing your work. the SAT is testing your strategy & speed as much as it’s actually testing you on math concepts, so here are my best tips for that specifically:

use khan academy’s SAT prep tool - it’s free (!!!!!) and it links to your collegeboard account. it uses prior years’ SAT content so it’s very similar to the test itself. it helps you pace yourself, pinpoint your problem areas, learn & apply concepts, & track your progress. here's a screenshot from when i used it, as you can see my scores improved and i was able to ultimately get a superscore of 1450!

take practice tests - this helps you get familiar with the time constraint. khan academy has plenty!!

do a ton of SAT math practice questions - ideally, find a ton of questions used in prior SAT tests and just crank them out. the test's concepts are quite repetitive so if you just focus on the topics they usually test, you can master them

learn test-taking strategies - the SAT is multiple choice and has a tricky time constraint, so however you can save time will help. become good at using the process of elimination & other multiple choice test methods. you can find these sorts of tips online!

i hope this helps! know that you are completely capable of improving at math. i went from thinking i suck at it & doing poorly in math class to acing my calc courses & studying to enter a math-focused field. utilize your resources and figure out your best study style asap, and you WILL see improvements!

[bloody-wonder]

looking forward to ur review of tgr :)

so yeah i don't like what these books are doing😬

not the foxes - the foxes are talented brilliant amazing show-stopping as always. love that neil is still a pathological liar. love that andrew is still a menace to society. love that both of them still take turns babysitting kevin. you probably know i'm an aroace kevin truther but honestly? kevin *all i want in life is to play the perfect game* day and thea *supremacy on the court above all else* muldani are a match made in heaven. this is the aro4aro rep we need. love renee's cameos too. the foxes vs ravens fight was harrowing but in narrative terms it was also the only logical escalation of their conflict, to say nothing of the fact that it was the only moment in this entire book (that is somehow longer than tkm) where literally anything happened that elicited any emotions from me. having to return to the trojans and their match with whoever the fuck was super jarring. it's like you're made to acknowledge that the real story is taking place elsewhere and then forced to stay over here where nothing interesting is happening to anyone important.

ig people often criticize the plotlessness in jean's trilogy and then other people counter that this is a feature and not a bug bc the story is a character driven narrative about healing from trauma and rediscovering yourself etc etc. while i agree with the idea that neil and jean are different people who require different story structures, i don't think that jean's books succeed at this slow-moving character study/development format. when people defend something as character driven, they usually mean that the character work in a text is its raison d'être, which is why the author channels the narrative resources they could've used for the plot into the character work, making it superior to the one in a plot-driven book, for example. i don't think the character work in the new series is that good - or any good at all when compared to the supposedly more plot-driven og trilogy.

jean and jeremy are the only characters with any depth but neither of them is interesting to follow. jean lacks agency and, while i understand that this is how his trauma manifests, i simply cannot get invested in his arc bc he just does whatever he is told. he used to do bad stuff bc he was surrounded by bad people, now he's doing good stuff bc his good friends the trojans tell him to be nice, practice self-care, turn the other cheek etc. this is a simplified and unserious idea of healing that is apparently rather appealing to many but to me feels condescending and narratively bankrupt. i don't want to read about the therapeutic power of cooking, gardening and other cozy cottagecore activities in my sports mafia books. i wish jean had joined the foxes after all. maybe his Healing Journey wouldn't have been as straightforward but it would've made for a much more compelling, meatier story.

taken by itself jeremy's tragic backstory is quite solid, however when contrasted with other major aftg characters his problems come off as annoying. to quote a goodreads review i just saw: jean is out there reenacting a little life and jeremy is sad bc the only person in his family who likes him is his butler - who he has. in his mcmansion. boohoo a tear for your discomfort :// ik we're not discussing trauma as if it were a competition but let me just say - there's a reason we find out about matt's and allison's backstories mostly from the extra content. at any rate, the deep dive into jeremy's sad family life doesn't add anything particularly valuable to his character bc the development is lacking. while jean goes on his flimsy self-actualization journey, jeremy remains boringly static. i suppose he will get an emancipation arc in the last book but, given that he's one of the two pov characters and the love interest besides, it will be too little too late.

speaking of romance, i don't feel any chemistry between them. from time to time one of them will mention in their inner monologue that he finds the other one attractive and ig they do become friends but there's no spark, no tension of any kind. why should these two characters end up together, beyond the fact that they're two queer guys who keep hanging out? idk maybe this is just a personal preference but i was much more invested in jean's unrequited crush on kevin. this jerejean book made me a kevjean shipper, i hope y'all are happy now😐

the rest of the trojans are non-characters. i still cannot tell cat and laila apart, to say nothing of the rest of the team and staff. sure, i know more facts about them - laila's uncle owns the house, cat's the one with the motorbike, coach rhemann has a husband, this teammate is trans, that one uses they/them pronouns, these two are himbo jocks, there's a bunch of people with ethnic names so we know the trojans are a diverse team - but i don't know who they are, what purpose they serve in this story or why i should care if their home burns down. (seriously, when it comes to lost property i care a lot more about neil's murder racquet that was confiscated in trk and still hasn't been returned >:( ). in fact, now it has become painfully clear that this is a typical case of style over substance type of minorities representation - the surface level rep is in your face but there is nothing material behind it. it says nothing, it doesn't make for interesting characters or serve any other narrative purpose. it's just nora's failed attempt to address the common criticism of the lack of diversity in the og trilogy.

while the trojans are hardly convincing as individual characters it can be argued they work as sort of a collective character - a smiling faceless crowd whose job it is to therapy speak at jean (who already goes to two different therapists) until he heals from his trauma in real time. toxic positivity is not the right word to describe this but i hope you understand what i mean. absolutely suffocating to read bc there is no push and pull. jean brings nothing to these relationships so it ends up feeling like he just joined another cult.

(one notable exception to this problem imo would be tanner: he's interested in the raven drills and jean is interested in improving the trojans' skills so the contrast of their personalities is complemented by this mutual exchange and benefit and both guys can bond over exy, you know, the titular Game in "All for the Game"? tbh given how much exy is actually played in tsc and tgr nora should've just filed jean's books under a new series called "The Game? I Don't Know Her"🙄 anyways as a result, instead of coming off as an overused gimmick their antisocial great dane vs playful golden retriever puppy dynamic does feel genuinely cute and endearing. i wish nora used this reciprocal approach with other relationships in the series, instead of just having everyone baby jean around all the time.)

my thoughts keep coming back to the conversation between jean and cat (or laila? i honest to god have no idea which one of them) after the banquet where he says that it doesn't matter that everyone liked him bc he had to perform this civil persona in compliance with the trojans' public image (and to subvert people's expectations of his raven behavior) and she gives him a lecture about being kind and polite as if he's a 3yo. he says people didn't meet the real him and she insists the rude obnoxious jean is not the real him, the implication being it's his raven trauma shadow self that he has to hide and overcome or in any case keep it in check so that it doesn't negatively influence his relationships. this to me feels like a notable reversal of what aftg has always been about, of what makes it special: the foxes' "life fucked us over and we're gonna make it everyone else's problem and, guess what, we'll find friendship, love, respect and fulfillment even so" becomes the trojans' "take your rant to the group chat, only post good vibes and positive affirmations on main". i wonder if this change in philosophy can to a certain extent be explained by the fact that aftg was conceived and written mostly in the early-ish days of the internet whereas jean's books are being written in the age of online performativity and the digital panopticon of social media.

the last thing i want to discuss is the trojans' ethos of sportsmanship, expressed in these new books as radical nonviolence in the face of their opponents' cruelty, radical turning of the other cheek, as it were. i don't know about that. in simplified terms, one could argue that the ravens were very good at exy bc they're evil and the trojans are good at exy bc they're kind. however, remarkably, when the two teams were pitted against each other the ravens consistently prevailed. it took a team that had the best of both worlds and a couple of tricks up their sleeve on top of that in order to end the ravens' reign. two books later it appears that the foxes are still the only feisty kid on the block who is brave enough to stand up to a bully and they're getting whumped for it like nobody's business, while everyone is gasping and sighing in commiseration, "those poor foxes can't catch a break", as if their misfortunes just happen randomly and not in retaliation for their dedicated and proactive campaign to rid their favorite sport of corruption and harassment. i'm not saying that the trojans' should engage in some sort of militant activism but i am saying i liked their famed sportsmanship much more back when it was expressed as this moment of chivalric solidarity with the underdog instead of disarming catchphrases or banquet respectability politics or whatever. now that the foxes took one for the team (again) and eliminated the ravens they finally created a playing field where the trojans' nonviolent approach can win a championship - which does feel like an overall positive for everyone but,, no thanks to the latter🤷‍♀️

[le-92vi]

It's You and Me (Part 1)

Geto Suguru x Reader

Genres/Warnings: nothing really, reader is Suguru's junior. fem!reader, academic weapon!reader (bc i'm not^^) hs!geto. Mostly fluff and banter. Not proofread.

Word Count: 1.5k

Notes: hello again! I'm still unsure if i should make a whole series out of this or just drabbles, or maybe... nothing more, even though i kinda have a story line in mind. Please let me know if you liked this one and would like more parts to this fic. im also sorry for not making regular updates. (Reviews, critics anything<3) I hope you like and enjoy this one!!<33

---

"Yeah, Mom, I'm getting off from school. Just text me whatever you need." You end the call with your mother.

Maki, who stood a couple of lockers away from you and happened to be listening to the conversation, cocked her eyebrow at you. "More housewarming parties?"

You chuckled at how well she knew your mom as you gathered your belongings from your locker and shoved them in your backpack. "I guess. She loves being a good host. Would you mind a little detour to the market?"

"Not at all." She closes your locker for you. "We can get the décor stuff for the presentation too."

"Nice!"

***

"Mom," you called out as you and Maki hauled all the groceries to the kitchen counters. 

"In here," she called out from the living room. 

"Maybe the guests are over already," Maki shrugged.

"But we just got here with the food? Aren't they supposed to be here for dinner?" You asked sheepishly. 

Maki gave you a sarcastic upturned smile. "How am I supposed to know that?"

"You're back! And Maki's here too!" Your mom appeared from the hallways, greeting Maki with a hug the first thing.

It didn't even faze you at this point just how smitten your mom had become with her. And it was endearing too, not that you'd ever admit it out loud. 

You clear your throat to get your mom's attention, "Excuse me, you two..." only to earn laughs from both of them. 

"You're such a silly girl." She took the other bag from your hand, plopping it on the counter. "Anyways, you should go greet our new neighbors. You too, Maki. They have a son around you guys' age. Take him upstairs with you. Poor kid's bored out of his mind sitting there." 

Immediately, Maki's eyes met with yours as you shrugged.

"Go on, now."  Your mom motioned towards the door as the two of you made a beeline outside. 

"New neighbor, huh? Finally, some action in your life, Miss Prude." Maki nudged you, fake-wiping a tear from her eye. "Guess you won't need me around anymore."

"God, Maki! You're so overdramatic," was all you could manage to say, as all your words died in your mouth.

THIS HAD TO BE SOME SICK JOKE.

Suguru Geto. The smartest and most popular guy in your senior school. The Suguru Geto was hunched over the love seat in your living room, visibly bored out of his mind.

You decided that it was for the best for you to ignore his presence in the room for the time being and greet his parents first. You bowed in greeting as you wished them, and so did Maki. That seemed to have grabbed Suguru's attention: "Hey, I've seen you guys in school. I think..." His voice trailed out as he tried to remember where he'd seen you from.

His eyes fixed on both you and Maki, hoping that your presence would gratify his curiosity.

Maki did, as you mentally facepalmed yourself for going blank. Briefly introducing the both of you, she elbowed you in the side to join in on the conversation. But you didn't know what to say, especially to him.

"I have a lot of books. Do you want to check them out?" you blurted. He liked to read, right? You've seen him practically living in the school library. You were supposed to hang out with him after all, right?

"Sure," he says, seeing it as his only chance to escape from the room of boring adult talks, as he follows you and Maki to your room. It was almost as if your body had gone into auto-pilot mode; you were moving without having to think—or rather, your brain was clouded with Suguru's presence, and you couldn't think.

All of it felt wrong. He wasn't supposed to be in your home, let alone your room. And, even though Maki was there too, it didn't help the blaring alarms going off in your brain.

"This is it," your hand gestured at the book shelf filled with books, top to bottom. 

Suguru let out a small chuckle. "I think we have very different ideas of 'a lot of books'." He plopped down on your study chair, while Maki snickered and made herself comfortable on your bed. 

"What do you mean?" You sat beside Maki, turning your head from her to Suguru, trying to find out the object of their amusement. "What is it?" You looked at her sheepishly. 

Maki turns your head towards her, squishing your face in her palms with a look of jest and something motherly. "He likes reading novels, not text books, honey."

"Oh!" you exclaimed, feeling very stupid. How were you supposed to know that he liked fiction? It's not like you ever crept up on him to get a peek at his paperback. "I'm sure I can find some novels for you too! You could've just said so." You sprung up from your place and walked towards your book shelf to find one. You were determined to find a book for him now.

"What genre do you like?" You said, knowing full well you might not even have something close to it.

"Nevermind. I don't feel like reading in the first place; I just wanted to get away from the parents. No  offense." He swung around in your chair. "What else have you got?" 

And something in your brain shifted. He looked so comfortable in your house. It was astonishing. Truly. While you racked your brain trying to adjust to his presence, he looked like he had always belonged there, swinging so freely in your chair. As if you had known each other for a very long time.

For a moment, you forgot about Maki's presence, drowning in his beauty. His eyes, lips. his hair, falling perfectly into place. His voice. It was like he was hand-sculpted with so much care. Until you were brought back to your reality by an elbow to your side. "You should give that a rest unless you want to puncture a hole in me," you pouted at her, rubbing your side to ease the pain.

She, in turn, snickered at you, "What are you so lost in thought about?"

Suguru Geto!

Wasn't it obvious? But, you were kinda thankful that neither of them noticed. "Dinner should be ready by now, right? I'm starving!" You exclaimed, trying to change the topic as fast as you could, dragging Maki by her hand and cocking your head at Suguru, "Let's go."

"You can't just ignore my question like that, you-" her words were cut short by your hand on her ringing phone, "Someone's calling," You swung it near her face in haste.

"Just you and your luck." She whispered to you and gave you her signature scowl before answering her phone.

"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" You tried making small talk while Maki was busy on the phone, trying your best to not have Suguru notice your tiny, little crush on him. That had to be why you had been acting so strange since you got home, completely zoned out and clueless.

"Bad news, I gotta go" She stuffed her phone back in her jeans.

"No! Why?" You frowned. "Dinner's just ready."

"I know, but I think it's urgent." She rushed back upstairs to grab her bag. "I'll have to call a rain check on the project today, sorry."

"Don't worry about the project. Is everything okay?" You call after her, but she'd already disappeared out of your sight, "I'll ask Mom to pack her some food."

You rush to your mom to explain everything to her, while she packs Maki's portion of the dinner for her. "It's going to get cold by the time she'll eat it" She sighed.

"Go safely!" You hand Maki her dinner, seeing her off like a military wife. "I wish you could stay longer."

"Who's being dramatic now, huh?" She shook her head with laughter at your antics.

You were just glad you could make her laugh. "I'll call you later!" You called after her as you watched her leave, to which she turned around to wave at you.

***

Soon enough dinner was over too and the guests were beginning to leave.

You were now much more comfortable in Suguru's presence. More than you'd like to admit. And, you didn't completely hate the thought of it. He could be a good guy, after all.

You wondered how the rest of your school year would be, now that you'd practically befriended the School's ace, the most sought after guy, as you and your family walked the Geto's to the driveway.

While the parents bid good nights to each other, Suguru quietly popped up beside you, "I'm looking forward to seeing you more often, neighbor." Before running ahead to catch up with his parents, turning back slightly to get a final glimpse of you.

It's going to be a long year.

Tags: @mandysfanfics

[cosmogyros]

I posted elsewhere about that horrific translation of Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, and a friend commented: "I'm curious how a translator looks at other's work and knows it's a bad translation". Of course the translation nerd in me was thrilled for an opportunity to rant about my specialty, and I proceeded to reply with a multi-comment thread analyzing this particular example. For posterity, I'll combine it all into a single messy "essay" here.

It's actually quite easy once you're familiar with translation "from the inside"! I'll come back to this post with some examples later today, because I'm a huge nerd and love talking about this stuff, haha.

...

Okay, big thread incoming, buckle up. The book is called Kitchen and is by the author Banana Yoshimoto, who – from what I understand – is well-known and beloved in Japan. The book description on Goodreads starts this way:

"Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her a sensation in Japan and all over the world, and Kitchen[,] her best-loved book, is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book [...]"

So, clearly this book is something special, right? I started to read it, and on every page – in practically every paragraph – encountered language that I can only describe as "weird", such as the following:

Three things in particular struck me in this example: the word "alarmed", the word "abruptly", and the word "it" strangely set off in quotation marks. None of these word choices have any larger context in the story that would make them make sense.

Someone else who wrote a very astute review of the book on Goodreads was able to put her finger on exactly what the likely problem here is:

"There are simple errors in translation that can only result from using a bilingual electronic dictionary that provides a list of approximate synonyms rather than actual definitions."

When you look at it this way, it immediately starts to make more sense. Imagine this re-write of the paragraph above:

"When I stepped off the elevator, I was startled by the sound of my own footsteps echoing in the hall. I rang the doorbell, and Yuichi opened the door at once. 'Come in!'"

If you're familiar with "the way literature works", so to speak, you'll immediately recognize that "startled" and "at once" are examples of words that have a similar meaning to the (presumed) original Japanese word, but fit more accurately in the context of the English translation.

(This is obviously different from "creative language", which is lovely and fun and not to be messed with. I love the line "my gaze landed with a thud", for example!)

Another perfect example of bad translation here: the sentence "I couldn't know," which stands out so oddly that it throws the reader out of their reading rhythm. It would make much more sense for the flow of meaning if it said:

"What was this table doing in the apartment? I had no idea."

or

"What was this table doing in the apartment? There was no way to know."

To an experienced translator, a grammatically correct but contextually wrong choice such as "I couldn't know" at this particular spot stands out like a sore thumb. If Google Translate had existed at the time this translation was made (1993, I believe), I might have accused the translator of using it. As it is, I suspect she must have been using whatever the equivalent tool was, at that point in time.

If you want more analysis, check out this fantastic review (the one I quoted above) from Sarah on Goodreads.

Two more good examples she provides in her review are the following, which I will copy in wholesale:

"Words in Japanese that have more than one possible English meaning are translated not only incorrectly, but inconsistently. (The Japanese '笑' could be 'smile' or 'laugh' in English. Maybe it is not a huge distinction, but when a character 'smiles' at something his friend says and then can't stop shaking it creates the impression of an unbalanced or perhaps epileptic person when, in the original, the character was simply laughing.)"

And:

"Even the friendly Japanese exclamatory 'えええ' has been translated with an inappropriate emotional volume. In response to a ringing phone: “[Mikage] answered it. 'Aaaah!' screamed a high, thin voice. 'Mikage, dear? How have you been?'” This accounts, I suspect, for a huge amount of the inconsistencies in the prose, and for characters that vacillate wildly between contradictory and inappropriate emotions."

Sarah follows this up by observing:

"Japanese is a context-dependent language. A translator who can't be bothered to acknowledge multi-sentence discourse is not ready to translate prose. Instead, she has given us characters who emote passionately, overreact wildly, and then are described as cold, hard-to-read, independent and stoic (or vice versa)."

In conclusion: How do you know if it's the author or the translator you're displeased with? To a degree it's guesswork, sure. But if you ask yourself "What EXACTLY am I displeased with? What strikes me as odd?" and the answer is repeatedly "the specific words on the page" (see all my examples above), then you have to keep in mind that it is the translator who chose those words.

If the original is NOT weird and stylistically unsettling, then it's the translator's responsibility to make sure their translation is not weird and stylistically unsettling either.

If the original IS weird and stylistically unsettling, then it's the translator's responsibility to create a writing style that displays sufficient internal consistency that the reader rapidly recognizes, "Oh, this book IS supposed to be odd and quirky – that must be the author's personal style!"

This translator did neither A nor B.

[fannyyann]

Hey, hope you're doing okay. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I am rather new to the mattdrai fandom and I couldn't help but wonder:

Was Matthew really as bad as a lot of fic lead to believe in his earlier hockey years in Calgary? And was he really disliked in the room - where there rumours like that? So many fics build on this premise, and seeing him now in Florida and hearing all the nice things his teammates say about him and seeing the things he does himself and the insane good hockey he plays... it's hard to believe.

It's so strange also that it's so rarely mentioned that Leon was the one to be sent down to the minors, not Matthew.

Plus what I don't get: matthew is a lot hotter than Leon? why is it always told like Leon is the hottest dude on earth while Matthew is nothing? comparing early pics and pics from now... it's just not true? Leon looks good, a bit bland IMO, but Matthew is and was just hot in a very unique and special way. maybe because he isn't that bland generic good looking Leon is? But good looking in a special way? so that got a lot longer than I thought it would, hope you don't mind the ask.

i don't mind you asking at all! this is basically my roman empire so MY apologies if this gets unwieldy but i have FEELINGS about matthew's early fic portrayal lmao

in his six years on the flames, matthew was always one of the top five scorers.

his rookie year, he was sixth in rookie scoring

the season he was picked for his first ASG, the flames were 16th in the league at the time all star rosters were announced and matthew was their top scorer.

so it's not like he was the best player from a bottom of the league team or going because he was the home town boy, he was a playoff team's best player (both at the asg break and when the season was eventually suspended because of covid).

and even in his career worst year (2020-2022), he ended the year as their third best scorer and only six points behind johnny (the leader). and as one of calgary's beat reporters said in his end of the year review, Matthew was "good, but not quite as good as the Flames needed him to be."

so i've never really understood why people were portraying him like that either and still haven't figure out if most of it was unreliable narrator kind of stuff or if some authors actually thought he was bad before he had his breakout season, but it doesn't reflect reality.

as for him being disliked in calgary, that all stems from jake muzzin flipping the puck at him, and the subsequent players only meeting that took place after it, in which matthew allegedly told the team he was upset they didn't join him in the scrum after and he was then told him it can't be a riot every night.

before that there were never any rumors that i'm aware of that he was unliked in the room, and in 2019 gio, who most people tend to think is the one who told matthew to tone it down, said this about another players only meeting:

so while the 2021 players only meeting was a story because matthew wasn't playing like his usual self afterward, i've never thought it was indicative of him not being liked by his teammates. and honestly, you have to take it all with a grain of salt anyway because while guys obviously bullshit the media, at the practice after the players only meeting guys talked about how there was a general lack of emotion, and how they came out there trying to have fun with each other and put it behind them, and in the postgame the next night, gio specifically sites getting into scrums and mixing it up when asked how much more emotion they played with in that win compared to earlier losses, so if mixing it up was good the very next night, the math doesn't quite add up, yk?

but johnny did confirm in his spittin chiclets appearance about two weeks after the muzzin incident that matthew was pissed after they left him out to dry that night, and when asked about matthew's struggles that season darryl sutter said matthew needed to, and would, get back to playing to his identity, so the whole cause and effect of the muzzin incident on matthew's play that season isn't completely unfounded, but i do think multiple guys saying the team needed to play with more emotion, johnny saying in the chiclets episode that the guys skating off didn't find out about the puck flip until they saw it on sportsnet and saying he felt bad about it, and the new coach coming in and getting matthew to play back to his style shows that it wasn't as personal as it was made out to be.

anyway, the flames may not have be as tight knit as the panthers are, but matthew had his people there. he's bffs with hanifin and his friendship with sam bennett is part of what drew him to florida. johnny always says great things about him, blake coleman called him the heartbeat of the team, and was such an important voice in the room that the flames suffered when he and gudbranson were no longer around to tell sutter to chill the fuck out when he was being too hard on guys in the room.

he probably wasn't close with every teammate, most people aren't friends with all their coworkers, but he wasn't some sort of loner in that locker room.

as for the looks, that's all down to personal preference. leon is definitely very conventionally attractive and while matthew has definitely glowed up in the last few seasons, he was by no means ugly. i wouldn't even say he's really unconventionally attractive either. he's got a good face and was a cute teen and people who are like "oh no i find matthew tkachuk attractive now" have literally never made sense to me. but again! personal preference and all that.

again, my apologies if you weren't looking for THIS MUCH of an answer to your question but this isn't even all the sources i pulled up when i first got this ask so i did TRY to keep it short lol

[amphiptere-art]

I want to point out exactly how I think the daycare attendants, timeline? Is. It's a bunch of sporadic theories I'm putting together.

So first part of the timeline. Jack. Jack existed as a sort of spooky singular attraction kind of guy. His main attraction was the carousel. But he was around way back during Fall fest. That's why the DCA has some very old and very strange electronics to him. Because they were just figuring out how to animatronic, and in a way he is "mimic age".

Fall fest then sort of had a fire problem, And a lot of the assets had to be skimmed down. They had to lower the costs of maintenance and probably cut some hours. And the easiest way to cut maintenance money is to get rid of stuff that have high maintenance and low customer reviews. Either that or make something new. So Jack o Moon Is thrown into storage in order to lower costs.

Much like a lot of stuff that was around during the Fall fest days. He was kind of lost to time. Held in an obscure basement as Fazbear's expanded into a standing restaurant place. But after a while. Presumably during the years help wanted came out as a game. They finally found Jack. But he had been in storage for years. You can kind of guess what that does to your complexion. Plus his original purpose had been practically forgotten. Probably only a couple documents here and there.

So fazco decided to sort of rebrand him. They probably read the item tag Jack o Moon. Or maybe they didn't. Maybe it had worn away to just moon. And decided to go with the moon title. Giving him that new makeup. Now Jack also has a "sun mode". Although it is very much unknown if this was utilized in his base form. But it is clearly there and shown. So they probably found out about that mode and decided to also give it a proper touch up. Creating a sun side of the Moon.

Now Jack was still sort of online. Jack as a walk around horror attraction. Was already sort of used to theatrics. So they decided to try him out in the theater. Slapped on some more appropriate code into Jack and put them out there. Jack utilizing the sun and moon modes as Eclipse~. He was basically one person playing two rolls. And the light thing was still active. It was just a convenient way to get the two modes to switch out seamlessly and with a cool effect.

But the moon's part of his act starts to get more... Scary. It started bleeding into that old haunted house-esk personality. The one from Fall fest. That scary Jack o Moon. The robots personality started to split. The people also started to just refer to them as they're two different personalities. Despite the fact that eclipse/Jack was still very much one person. And with the personality switch they start to get concerned.

So they decided to fix it. They move him into the daycare. Somewhere where theatrics are not encouraged to be acted as deeply. And the only act that is good, is to be nice. Eclipse was still sort of one person. But the two acts were getting separated more and more. That nicer moon coding was still sort of in there. It was just being infected by the whole haunted performer act Jack-O-Moon. So they slowly had sun take more and more online time. As this eviler moon only comes out when the moon was out for too long.

But sooner or later it becomes a hassle. Sure Moon is being nice. But every once in a while that evil Jack coding comes out. Sun becomes more sustainable. Sun was sort of built from the ground up while Moon was already there and they simply changed the furnishing. So there became less and less nap times and more daytime. The nice moon and sun reports start turning into the evil Moon and crazy sun reports. Sun unable to handle the children for so long, And that old Jack coding bleeding into moon more and more often.

It is around this time that the virus happened. I believe it came from the arcade. Either that or snuck into Moon's coding with the security protocol. Whichever way it happened. The split finally becomes permanent. Eclipse doesn't really exist anymore. Jack is infected and thrown to the front. The nicer Moon falls in between the gaps. Probably becoming our equivalent of eclipse in ruin. Therefore filling the whole three personality thing.

Also this is more of a note. Like I said I think the arcade is what infected them. And I believe the Arcade Eclipse is this black orange and red coloration. Because Vanny was basically trying to pull out that Jack o Moon. Mimicking their face in order to not only control, but also unleash. Because Jack add sort of been offline in a weird fashion. Buried but there.

And then you have the main storyline of security breach. Yada yada yada. Sun is completely burnt out. Mostly because he's just out all the time. Jack disguised by moon. His programming either jumbled up as fuck, or thrown out of proportion due to the Vanny virus. Basically becomes the crazed moon we all know. Absolutely out there to scare the shit out of you, and because of the virus. Kill you. The nice moon coding and the eclipse coding. Both of those are sort of merged, lost, and scrambled. Only showing up after the reset. The reset resetting it to what fazco had first intended. With this nice cuddly moon, sweet happy sun, and a jack that is buried because he is too terrifying. This moon taking on eclipses name because he just doesn't know who he is anymore, And it's kind of the only available other name.

And that's kind of how I see the security breach timeline. A bunch of theories put together, along with just wanting a certain Head Cannon. To put it in simple form.

Jack came first.

Jack was lost to time.

Jack was found and rebranded as a sun and moon (Eclipse)

Eclipse is put into the theater.

Sun and Moon are technically eclipse until Jack starts to pop up and he starts to separate.

The nice moon code is infected by Jack. Making them evil.

The arcade is what infects them with the virus. Looking like a spooky jack-o'-Eclipse to draw out Jack.

The virus seals the separation, and makes it so it's only this jackified moon.

Throwing nice moon and whatever personality eclipse had into disarray.

Sun gets tired because he's doing all the work.

With the reboot. The nice moon comes back out but takes the name Eclipse, as the only other thing he can take as a name. (Also probably coding confusion)

And yeah that's the bullet points. My daycare attendant history.

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #26

The Battle of Big Wand... Spoiler-free and jumpin' in!

Season finale! I'm excited for this one!

I'm gonna give my very first prediction before moving on from the title screen: Dale is going to learn about Fairy World because he finds the notes Cosmo and Wanda left on his stuff during Dev's birthday.

I'd prefer he learn about Fairy World from Crocker because I thought leaving your enemy notes that outs you as a fairy and tells him all your secrets including the Big Wand as a power source is... out of character and cheap.

Me now realizing I've been acting under the assumption Dev scribbled the notes out very badly and Dale will find them, but I guess it's possible Dev could've erased them thoroughly and they were only there for audience benefit. That's... certainly one of the ways to info-dump ever.

For all I know, Dale might not even be in this episode, though I assume the notes were there for a reason. Also, Dale has definitely been set up as keeping tabs on Hazel and we're probably going to hit a major point of Dev's daddy issues arc.

Tentative prediction... Dev is put in a situation where he can only save either his dad or Hazel (maybe not save them, but assist them or betray the other) and he's going to return to being Hazel's friend at the expense of his relationship with his dad. Let's find out!

Here we go!!

Holy flippin' what on EARTH, Hazel has made more wishes in 1 season with a regular timestream than Timmy did in 8 seasons after freezing it for 50 years.

GIRL, ARE YOU OKAY??

Me when those numbers were counting up: Wanda stop Wanda stop Wanda stop- HAZEL?!?

What the fffliiiip...

Is she going to Wishing Well?? I feel like she might need to. I have to assume that's not the direction we're going, but... ???

Wishing Well's whole thing is that godkids get sent there if they become too reliant on wishing, so they can practice doing things for themselves. I don't think Hazel's too reliant, but I'm really caught off guard. That's a heckuva thing to drop on us with no foreshadowing whatsoever. Not long ago, she hit her 100th wish, right?

That said... I'm willing to let this slide. In "Lost and Founder's Day," Hazel happily wished for good things to come to other kids. 4.5 months later ("Operation: Birthday Takeback"), Cosmo and Wanda confirm Hazel "can" wish for other kids, and I assume she probably has been.

I would've liked to see that onscreen if that's true, though. It's not really been a thing.

- I think I understand why Dale's obsessed with Hazel losing him money by granting people happiness for the price of free now. -> Dale, you should've told me! I would've been shocked and concerned right there with you. She's robbing you blind! This whole city is robbing you blind! -> Unpopular opinion, but if Hazel has secretly made 1 million wishes by somehow not making people lose money when they buy Dimmadome products... first of all, that would be hilarious, and secondly, I think Dale would be justified in saying "hey. wtf." - No, no… please continue. I think we should definitely mess with the guy who has trauma about having no control over his life and lived 7 years being unable to get himself out of it. We should totally destroy his ability to make progress after engaging in hard work and consistent action. I wanna see where they're going with this. - what if Dale isn't the antagonist and the real antagonist is Fairy World stressed that Hazel's draining the Big Wand's power?

[cnt'd - 6,600 words below the cut, so buckle up...]

I guess a few episodes ago, Father Time also said she ruptured the space-time continuum, but...

Oh, I'm so nervous. Girl, if you're at 1 mill, all your wishes are up for review now. Timmy sends his blessings.

Please say that's where this is going. They're not gonna reference "Timmy's Secret Wish" multiple times this season and then NOT follow that episode's canon for "standard procedure at 1 million wishes," right?

I'm stunned and wary, but let's see where we're going with this.

??? Okay, but... I'm pretty sure the only time Hazel truly wished for other people's benefit without including herself in an "unlimited pudding for everyone because Dev is hoarding it all and me and my friends want some" way was during "Lost and Founder's Day." She made wishes for random folks she walked past to have a more enjoyable time when she saw Dale's O-pairs trying to upsell them. It really ticked Dale off, and if he's been stalking her for 5 months...

... then I HAVE to assume that when she's not onscreen, Hazel's still wishing for other people in a way that either cuts into Dimmadome profits directly or stops Dale from upselling in a way that upsets him. Even the O-pairs were having mental breakdowns and beating themselves up about their failures, which just says a million things about the guy who programmed them... presumably Dale.

If she's made 1 million wishes when Timmy required 52 years to hit that number AND Dale became obsessed with stalking her and trying to figure out what she was doing, she's almost certainly wishing for the people around her- It's not like we've seen her with a closet of toys or having a montage of travel adventures. I don't think she's even left Dimmadelphia except to go to Fairy World.

She's 100% wishing up Dimmadome products in bulk without them paying for it. Or at the very least, she's doing something that is wrecking the Dimmadome business, and Dale is really confused and annoyed about it.

I went back to "Operation: Birthday Takeback" and Wanda outright says Hazel is wishing for other people and that led them to stop buying things. So... not necessarily wishing up Dimmadome products, but definitely distracting people from wanting to purchase Dimmadome stuff.

^ Dale tracking his profits, 100% aware this massive crash correlates with Hazel messing around. He's very confused. I don't support grown men stalking little girls, but I respect how hard he's working to keep his business thriving. Look at his notes!! He's working so hard!

Like ?? As far as we know, Dale doesn't know she has fairies and he's not chasing after magic (unless that's what this finale is about). What on EARTH is she doing with 1 million wishes that's getting him this hyperfixated??

It's not like Hazel and the other kids can afford the expensive tech products I'm certain Dale sells, seeing as he's a tech mogul with talking drones that have arms, and seeing as back during "Stanky Danky," he was advertising products kids aren't really interested in (He bragged Dimmadome Global sells "rugs, plugs, and coffee mugs" plus doormats). She's gotta be wishing for adults too.

Am I reading this right? I don't think she's doing anything wrong - she's 10 and is allowed to wish for stuff and there are no rules against wishing for other people - but she's absolutely wrecking the Dimmadomes.

1 million wishes........ hoooo boy.

- I just !! wish we were seeing this onscreen?? Even though Wanda claims in the birthday episode that Hazel's been wishing for other people, I've not gotten that impression outside the 3 wishes we saw her make in "Lost and Founder's Day" (new ice cream after dropping one, faster-moving line, bouncier bounce house)... Things that shouldn't be costing Dale money. -> Maybe he's just annoyed he can't upsell, but ?? none of the kids expressed interest when his O-pairs tried to upsell them. One of them looked bored out of their mind. - I personally would've liked glimpses of Dale working on this stuff since we used to get peeks into Crocker's life regularly, especially since I assume he's the big antagonist for this episode and has run off to Fairy World to take over... I would've liked to be there when he discovers the notes on his board. Maybe we'll get a flashback about it? - I feel like I missed a bunch of context and I'm having to do a very deep read that I would not be doing if I weren't intentionally pausing and theorizing. -> I'd really have benefitted from a Dale-centric episode akin to "Transparents" from the OG series' Season 1: similar vibes to Crocker having a suspicion, showing us how people make fun of him to his face, and taking steps to prove his theories (i.e. Crocker shocked that Timmy brought a dinosaur to show and tell). -> So... something like Dale wanting to scour the whole city with the O-pairs - or stalk Hazel specifically - but having to come up with a creative excuse to hide his intentions. Like him deliberately sending Dev to school with a hidden camera and we keep cutting back to Dale watching the footage at home, or inviting Hazel's family to dinner (maybe through a connection with Hazel's dad studying mystical things; he could say he wanted to show him something or fund his research). -> You're a super rich man and you tell that parascientist that you believe in him and want to fund his research? I think he'd bend over backwards to please you. -> That said, I've enjoyed seeing lots of Hazel episodes. We've gotten important friend and family bonding that I wouldn't want to lose, and we'll probably get some flashbacks that show how we got here. Just... I would've enjoyed building tension over time.

Okay, unpause...

... Hm. So, you're telling me Timmy gets in huge trouble because he secretly froze time 50 years ago, but Hazel gets handed a rule-free wish and none of the Big Fellas are here to supervise...

She's already manipulated time twice without this. If she also wished for time to freeze for 50 years, but it was on a rule-free wish, would anyone bat an eye? Like, could anyone stop her?

I don't love this, but again, let's see where we're goin' with it. I think I know why Hazel and Dev are fighting in the title card. He's gonna want her wish for his dad's love, I assume.

I'm still unclear on why that wasn't one of his wishes when he had Irep.

Wait a sec... He freaked out that Hazel "wished for them to be friends” (his interpretation). He probably genuinely does not want to wish for his dad's love, because it would be "fake."

Now I'm really confused. Timmy had to get his 1 million wishes reviewed and defend the most questionable ones in court. Was that just... something they only did for Timmy because of his history of collateral damage, which is made very clear in the episode, and everyone lied to him that review was standard procedure? lol.

Oh boy. I'm not sure I'm gonna like this... I've not made a real attempt to let New Wish stand for itself as a separate thing from the OG series (I'm too familiar with the show to pretend I don't use it as a baseline to study this one), but maybe I'll have to try and ignore the fact that we're in blatant canon violation. Despite knowing "Secret Wish" is canon in this spin-off.

Is Hazel going to be super anxious about having a rule-free wish? Is that what the recent set-up of anxiety in these last few episodes was for?

lol, I just realized that (unless this rule-free wish comes in the form of a muffin) Hazel's now put herself in a situation where she's not going to be able to wish for the entire rest of this finale unless she's willing with her rule-free wish. That would be really clever.

I said I expected Dev to turn from his dad to Hazel, but I can also see Hazel using her rule-free wish to save Dev from falling to his death or something.

?? I am SO CONFUSED. If they want to do a rule-free plot - and if they don't follow standard protocol for 1 million wishes - why didn't they just do a fairyversary plot? She should be WAY closer to hitting her 1-year anniversary of godparents than to a million wishes.

Rule-free wishes are canon for the 1-year anniversary, and "Abra-castrophe" is probably the best-known movie of the series. It would've made sense.

And she clearly hasn't hit her anniversary yet in a world where we assume that's still canon, or she'd already have rule-free wish experience, which she doesn't.

Pfft, the Big Wand drained. That's... also a way you can take away her ability to wish so this finale will be dramatic, but I liked my "oh no, if I wish for anything, I'll waste my rule-free wish" theory better :'D

Cosmo: We've gone to Fairy World with you 39 to 40 times! :) Me, who previously said I was sad we hadn't seen Hazel being delighted by Fairy World or engaging with its magic, whispering: what the fliiiiiip... This has never been indicated even slightly... why weren't we shown this?? instead, you flat-out told us Fairy World was "reserved for special occasions," which you then used photo evidence to back up your insistence that going to Fairy World was really only for times Jorgen is testing you as godparents... I'm so confused...

Did I miss some episodes? Did we jump forward in time? Is there a plot twist time travel reveal? I feel like I missed 2 or 3 whole seasons;;

- Fairy World should be a big deal. It should feel very different than the human world and be full of weird roads, magical creatures new to Hazel, purple grass, etc. - I'm sad that our only times seeing Hazel interact with Fairy World are when she and Kennueth went clothes shopping (in one store we didn't see them enter or leave, just a scene change) and when she was randomly teleporting around with Dev. Or Fairy Con, I guess, but we haven't seen her wander the streets. I'm just sad to hear she's gone so many times, so now I'll not get to see her explore. - Had my hopes up for something akin to "Big Wanda" or "Odd Squad" or "Timmy TV" :'D Or even just "Most Wanted Wish" when Timmy goes to lunch with Mama Cosma

I just want to see New Wish's version of random reminders that Fairy World is a funky non-human society and it's fun to explore :'D

I wanna be wowed!! And I'm sad I don't get to be there when Hazel truly starts looking around. Alas...

I'm operating with the assumption that the show may get a second season (at least, it needs to be set up so it can either tie up loose ends or continue in the future). 1 million wishes is a strange thing to drop on us this early (Skipped every milestone and skipped oodles of adventures). I saw no foreshadowing or hints that they were doing any of this.

-> I could've sworn her most recent milestone was 100... Or if I'm misremembering, it can't have been more than 1000.

Hmm. I do like how Wanda's worried and Cosmo's kicking his legs.

... When I paused to write my note about not being shown this, I thought I heard a flashback ripple that would showcase Hazel's wishes. But it was not. It's just a normal scene change :')

This is a 20-minute episode; I can't treat it like a movie. They're doing their best in the allotted time and budget and I'm glad we even get a finale.

But also, I really like how "Secret Wish" makes a special effort to showcase tons of Timmy's wishes, most of which we'd seen, but a few that were made up. It gave us story context and depth that I'm itching for more of with Hazel.

- I like what I've seen with Hazel, but I feel like I just got sucker punched in a "Haha, you don't get to bond with this character or be there during these important events like finally exploring Fairy World with Cosmo and Wanda" kind of way. I feel robbed and icky. - Next you're gonna tell me she's already familiar with Juandissimo, Mama Cosma, Schnozmo, Blonda, and/or Big Daddy and I'll just sit here feeling sad, cheated, and confused. Let's hope not...

omg, we're going back to the Hocus Poconos in the finale and it's gonna be full of unwished Hazel stuff..... Is that why we don't have flashbacks yet? That'd be clever! My theory was that Lezah got sent there, and they did set her up as a rival with a very thoughtful design... so maybe.

??????? whaaaat.

hooooly, what is this...

Well, that's not Dimmadome aesthetic, so this doesn't fit my Dale theory. I don't recognize this style. It gives me Crocker vibes, but we've only seen him once.

?? The fact that Cosmo described the Big Wand as yellow and Hazel says "It's blue" when she shows up makes me think this is supposed to be Anti-Fairy aesthetic (even though their star is black), but it sure doesn't look like it...

We know, like... 4 things about Anti-Fairy World: red skies, purple roads, lots of metal, and Anti-Cosmo's castle design. This doesn't look like any of those things.

I want to think Crocker, but it can't be... He's only had one cameo. We just barely had our second Anti-Fairy reminder; this HAS to be Anti-Fairies. but... throwing out their aesthetic would be a heck of a way to introduce them :'D

If this is Anti-Fairies, I'll let it slide because they seem to have taken over Fairy World, so actually... it makes sense Anti-Cosmo's sign isn't here. Also, they wouldn't bring the sky. And I can't blame them for not lugging barbed wire out here.

Actually, this looks closer to Fairy World when it lost power in "Crocker Shocker" than to Anti-Fairy World. Which would track with the fact the Big Wand just went down.

I do like how the bridges look like lava. I think I like that better than Anti-Fairy World's purple roads.

I'm really glad to see the roads connecting different clouds up and down as that's Fairy World's signature thing; I was sad in Episode 2 that Fairy World didn't look magical or make me interested in returning.

Ironically, this might be the best showcase of the roads I remember from either series. But I miss the mountains…

Okay- I've taken some time to sit and think. I'm paused at 2:48, so I don't think I have enough clues to put the pieces together, but since it's the finale and I'm not sure if I'll be spoiler-free again if we get new episodes, I'm pulling out all my theorizing stoppers. Bear with me.

1) We know Fairy World is shut down right now. I think it's coincidence that this happened when Hazel earned her rule-free wish. I don't think anyone's plotting to take her wish, and I do think she'll use her wish to either save Dev's life or make him happy.

2) We know the Big Wand is blue (???) and the sky is gloomy. That feels like Anti-Fairy vibes despite this not being their aesthetic.

3) We know Anti-Fairy World is still a thing; Jorgen sent Irep to Anti-Fairy World when he booted him away from Dev. That implies the species are still divided.

In most of their appearances, there's a theme of Anti-Fairies being locked away. I think something happened to get them out, which plays into my next thought:

4) If this is Anti-Fairies, I lean towards this being Irep now grown-up and following through on his dream of taking over. It feels weird, because his goal in the debut of THIS series was obtaining godkids, so... I'm not sure, but I'm getting Irep vibes. Here is why.

- This feels closer to Irep's aesthetic than Anti-Cosmo's. Foop's thing has always been that he loves Anti-Fairy World the way it is, and all the creepy aesthetic that goes with it. He eats it up. - Anti-Cosmo enjoys chaos, but his whole thing is being jealous of the Fairies. He hates being locked up and seems more tolerant of Anti-Fairy World's vibes than appreciative of them. His thing is that he desperately wants Earth (so it’s really funny he said H.P. could blow it up. BFFs…) - OG series Anti-Cosmo doesn't even want to take over Fairy World; he wants a godkid. His shtick is "I will literally do anything for a godkid even if it's stupid and I make a fool of myself." And then he makes a fool of himself; it's great.

I don't think Irep is capable of taking over Fairy World by himself, even though he wants it. But I also don't think Anti-Cosmo would do this, even though (if his Anti-Fairies followed orders) he probably could.

Taking over means confronting magical people, and Anti-Cosmo doesn't, like... do that. He taunts people IF he holds a blatant advantage (like them being locked up or them being a human who can't jump and grab him), but he's also a huge coward <3 He's Mr. Buddy System. He needs his Anti-Fairies. So... He might be here, yeah! But I do get major Irep vibes. Irep's totally leading, and I don't see Anti-Cosmo's aesthetic here, so I think he's playing a small supporting role if he's here at all. - Anti-Cosmo thinks being locked in Anti-Fairy World sucks, but he also hates leaving the house, you get me?

I DO think Anti-Cosmo would be willing to help someone who helped him. And I do think he doesn't mind Anti-Fairies taking over if it keeps Fairies off his back... but ruling isn't his gig. He likes being a goofball in the field.

I think someone else who wants to take over Fairy World got the Anti-Fairies out of Anti-Fairy World, and this is Anti-Fairy aesthetic combined with someone else's. I think they've been granted freedom in exchange for their numbers and magic.

Dale has ginger hair. HE looks like the roads. Now, THAT would be funny.

oh, I'm an IDIOT! It's gotta be DEV. He went looking for Anti-Fairies at the end of "Best of Luck!"

omg, this is Irep's love for darkness and cruelty plus Dev's ginger hair aesthetic! That feels totally right. That's my final answer.

Okay, THIS IS MAKING SENSE. I've been sitting here for (no joke) an hour outlining mental notes like "Irep got flicked away by Jorgen being casual; he can't possibly take over by himself. And you'd need a ton of Anti-Fairies to pull this off, and they take orders from Anti-Cosmo... but why would Anti-Cosmo take over Fairy World? He's literally always dragged his feet about it when the idea comes up."

But if Dev let the Anti-Fairies out - thus earning Anti-Cosmo's assistance - and we know Dev's been ANGRY... Ooooh, that would answer my concerns. I'm ready for this.

Anti-Cosmo does not have the best track record with not backstabbing someone who releases his people, so I'm intrigued.

And this COULD be a way to get the godkids! Indirectly, but we just found out Anti-Fairies can now yoink godkids if Fairies quit, which is a new rule for this series!! Ohhh, I'm picking up what they're putting down (I think).

I'm here, I'm ready, I'm excited. Let's do this.

Hey, actually, before I unpause... what the flip. Up until this second, I assumed the notes Cosmo and Wanda wrote on Dale's note board were going to be found by Dale... ... but we KNOW Dev saw them. HE knows about the Big Wand. AND he has a way to get to Fairy World (Peri, and/or Irep coming back for him, and/or if he broke into Cosmo and Wanda's apartment I guess) that Dale doesn't. And he's even been here before, and he's been researching Anti-Fairies. That makes so much sense.

Final answer: I think Dev released the Anti-Fairies (bringing back Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda for finale, yay!) and they're teamed up enough to blend their aesthetics, indicating a semi-equal partnership.

I think A.C., A.W., and Irep will all be here together, finally giving us family vibes for them (fingers crossed), but I think Irep will suck at being a team player. I think Anti-Cosmo will play along with Dev until he decides it would be to their benefit to backstab. Not sure what they'll do with Anti-Wanda; she might hang back =(

Maybe we'll get lucky and Anti-Wanda will be motherly towards Dev. Anti-Cosmo being fatherly would be funny.

omfg, that would be REALLY funny. Anti-Cosmo wants godkids- can you even IMAGINE the daddy issues that would resurface if Irep had to watch his dad fawn over his new friend? crying.

Irep's not big on backstabbing people unless they betray him first (Ex: Crocker not inviting him to his house party), so I do think if Anti-Cosmo fawned over Dev, that would snap him. lol.

I'm not expecting Anti-Cosmo to talk about wanting godkids, which is fine... This is a new show, and he's had time to form a new dynamic with his son that wasn't there in the OG series (because his son grew up in Abracatraz and Foop was upset about his parents "moving away without leaving a forwarding address again" in "Certifiable Super Sitter"), so it's not like their dynamic was great back then.

"Hey Riddle, didn't you say once the week they ditched Foop would pan out to be during free-tailed bat mating season? And hasn't that always been your headcanon'd species for them and it got way funnier when it turned out Foop's toes are canonically light-colored, just like the white bristles on free-tailed bats' feet?" Yeah. lmao.

Also, I think Dale should have a gun.

I have my fingers crossed that we are referencing "Secret Wish" for a reason... but the only thing I can think of is that the Hocus Poconos is coming back.

I'm just so surprised they'd make up new lore for a rule-free wish in a way that directly violates that episode's canon of what happens at 1 mil (considering that if people wanted to go digging for Hocus Poconos backstory after its introduction in this series, "Secret Wish" is what they'd watch) instead of using the established one with the shorter time period, unless they just didn't know the lore.

It has to be intentional. But why?

My thoughts are that they don't want a rule-free muffin bouncing around or they didn't want Hazel's muffin to be compared to the OG series... but that makes me sad because we know that was established for any godkid who keeps fairies for a year. It would be so easy... That's literally the movie they air often... It's the one people are probably most familiar with...

Hmm. Well. I'll take a breath and try to let New Wish stand on its own, but I'm just very surprised.

Plot Point Theories

... Okay, I've been thinking a little longer (next day), and now I'm REALLY nervous if this is Dev. Because if Dev's hanging around Anti-Fairies and making wishes with their powers, Peri's gonna get magical back-up.

In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't already since we haven't seen him grant a single wish for Dev in several episodes, and when he did show up, he was in his parents' house with Dev nowhere to be seen.

Also, the Big Wand is down- everyone is gonna get magical back-up, which we just learned kills you.

In the OG show it didn't kill you (and Cosmo and Wanda went through it multiple times), so if they explode and then turn out to be fine, I won't be surprised. However, they seem to be pushing the death story for this show.

Fairies leaving no bodies behind when they die was canon in the OG though, so I like that part (They left dust, and I've always headcanon'd Anti-Fairies as leaving behind smoke since Foop was born from a smoke cloud).

- I like that in this series, they clarify magical backup occurs "if you don't use magic." That was always unclear in the old one, where they used to say "if you don't grant wishes" despite the majority of Fairies not being godparents. - In 'fics, I went the route of "Well, godparents probably get a huge power boost of magic when they sync up to a godkid, hence why the creatures who are so paranoid about people hurting them are even motivated to help kids, and that's why you risk backup." - Specifically, I went a whole worldbuilding route where godparents draw energy through the Big Wand, but use godkids as a springboard to alter the world in ways they normally aren't powerful enough to do (so I like how we saw Irep messing with the flow of time when he became Dev's godparent in "Best of Luck" since that was probably the first time he was able to play with those kinds of powers in an all-encompassing way). - But if it's just magic in general, that's a completely new vibe than anything I've played with, and I like that. I'm ready to be surprised and horrified about what does or doesn't count as magic.

I think if Hazel doesn't save Dev with her rule-free wish, she's probably gonna wish someone who explodes from magical back-up back to life.

My predictions for where Dev's arc is going:

- Peri's going to get magical back-up and Dev will be some emotion like shocked, ashamed, or remorseful.

- Anti-Cosmo specifically will backstab Dev when he's "no longer needed" (Irep won't; Irep's always wanted friends. He might even stand up for Dev against Anti-Cosmo, but I'm not confident).

- If Dale shows up in this episode, he's gonna uncover Fairy World's shtick and have a meltdown that the Fairies never rescued him from 7 years of child labor.

- Dale tries to explain himself to Dev, justifying his behavior with claims that he's never "meant" to treat him poorly and all he's ever wanted is for Dev to have a better life without needing to carry the burden of trauma and the past that Dale does.

-> Big "I was going to tell you when you're older; I was trying to do the right thing for both of us" vibes

Ex: We know Dev never gets to have lemonade (presumably a trigger for Dale) & we know Dale has told Dev he "worked in a factory underneath a lemonade stand," but withheld details on Vicky (with Dev having no baseline for how Vicky could possibly know his dad). -> And Vicky only said lemonade stand, not factory, which makes me think Dale's withheld some of the details. For all I know, Dev might think his dad "worked in a factory" by choice. If he uncovers Dale's trauma (maybe by finding memories or records of the past), Dev's gonna either be annoyed his dad withheld this from him, or confused and saddened in a way they can bond over. -> Ex: Maybe Dev thinks "Vicky and my dad worked at a stand as kids and my dad went on to a factory and she's bitter." Part of me is like "Surely there's no reason to bring the lemonade up; it's not a big deal for Dev like it was to his dad," but after Vicky referenced it recently (and Dev was like "How does she know my dad?"), I suspect we might play with that someday, even if it's not in this episode (Because I can see Dev's daddy issues being a multi-season thing to maintain tension).

- Dev's going to break, lose, or throw away his shades, symbolizing that he wants to stop regressing.

-> I imagine them getting broken during a tense moment (such as Anti-Cosmo backstabbing him and smashing them under his foot) so it feels sad at the time as Dev clings to his comfort item, but he's gonna learn to let it go.

- Dev will reject his dad and stay with Hazel and/or Cosmo and Wanda, willing to put in the work to be a nicer person. Also, Peri resolves some issues he has with his parents.

-> Actually, forget that: I think Peri should get his own apartment and Dev can hang out with him there. I really want to see them try to live on their own when I don't think either of them knows how to do much to get by in the real world. I want them to confuse scream together as they try to, like... read bus routes and grocery shop.

- Dev will finally get to taste lemonade. tbh, I think if I was handed this set-up and told to find a fun way to end it... I'd have Hazel "waste" her rule-free wish because it makes her anxious, so she opts to give Dev lemonade.

-> Again, I know the lemonade's probably not a big deal to Dev, but I think it's funny. Then she no longer has to think about the anxiety the wish causes her, and he can be touched by her kindness. lmao.

In "Nectar of the Odds," Timmy's lemonade could grant wishes for anyone who drank it. Dev getting his hands on THAT would be hilarious. I'm not sure what it would add that Peri can't give him, but it would be a funny way to use magic when the Big Wand is down (because Cosmo made that lemonade with his sweat, which he still has in this episode, implication being fairies kinda ooze their extra magic). I can't imagine they would do that because it requires a big callback to the OG series and magical lemonade's not been foreshadowed, but... Dale himself is a callback to that same episode, so I write off nothing. I'm super glad Dale was brought back as Doug's son. Imagine if Dev had different parents, one of whom was Doug's child, so we had a Dimmadome child, but it wasn't Dale. - I'm glad he's here because it feels like the writers did their research. I'd miss him.

Alternate endings I don't think are likely, but they make me laugh:

- Finale doesn't 100% wrap up and instead we're setting up a longer-term relationship for Dev and the Anti-Fairies.

- Dale and Dev have a heart-to-heart and try resolving some of their issues. Dev reaches the point where he's no longer miserable (maybe through his dad being kind to him, or Dev opts to cut ties with his dad and it's a weight off, or Hazel being his friend), so he and Peri will part ways (which tbh... might be healthy for both of them).

- ?? I think I like the idea of Dev no longer counting as miserable, which should disqualify him from having a fairy, but the Council lets him move into Poof's apartment as long as Cosmo and Wanda are nearby to keep an eye on them.

- Alternatively, Dev and Peri break up because Peri realizes he wasn't ready to godparent yet. He takes time away. Thus, Dev temporarily ends up as a shared godkid with Cosmo and Wanda (an unlikely callback to the old series since a lot of people didn't like Chloe sharing fairies with Timmy, but I think it would be funny).

-> Or, Hazel decides Dev needs Cosmo and Wanda more than she does (I'm not saying she doesn't need them, but canonically most godkids don't keep their fairies for long, so it would be interesting). She lets them go so he can have them, maybe using her rule-free wish to do this.

That's not a likely way to wrap up a finale that needs to leave things open for future seasons (if any), but intriguing to think about. We never got a proper send-off for Timmy in the OG series and one of my early theories for New Wish was that Hazel might give Cosmo and Wanda to Dev in the finale, so I think it's worth mentioning.

This show really likes changing the status quo, which was uncommon in the OG series, so I like that about it and I'm interested to see what might happen.

------

Now then... I am once again writing my concerns about Anti-Fairy reboot stuff so I can look back later and see what did or didn't happen.

Basically the same thing I said in Post #10

If you don't like people talking about concerns, you can stop here and I'll pick up the liveblog in my next post <3

------

Okay, so... hm.

I'm not that picky about what they do with Anti-Cosmo. If he's now more interested in taking over Fairy World than chasing after godkids, I'll allow it. He can mix it up and it makes for a dramatic story.

Also, the chances of us getting to see his many facets are pretty low if we only get this one 20-minute episode that also has to (presumably) wrap up the Hazel-Dev conflict and some of Dev's issues towards his dad. We're not gonna have time to see much of A.C. beyond whatever he's out here doing, which seems to be evil takeover stuff. And that's okay.

But my hope is that I don't have to see Anti-Cosmo making Dev sign a contract. I really want the Pixies to keep the stuff that's theirs. I don't want their cool things to be moved to characters who are already popular.

Also, I refuse to believe the man who can't sit still for 3 seconds and whose plans look like this would have the skills or patience to write his own contract:

If there's a contract, I'll take it with grace, but I'll headcanon he's been hanging out with H.P. (which I'm not opposed to at all, so that's a win for me).

I'm glad I took the time to sleep and think about this. I'm not sure my thoughts will be correct, but I think I've made peace with the idea of Anti-Cosmo taking over Fairy World: something he's never really expressed interest in and that I associate with H.P. instead.

I said in Post #10 that I was really nervous about the possibility of Anti-Cosmo being rebooted as a suave, sassy, super calculating sexy bad boy who's now confident and all-in on taking over Fairy World... considering that in the OG series, he's an awkward nerd who hates confrontation, defers to H.P. even in his own castle, can't discipline his son, likes comic books, spins in circles, jumps on tables, throws tantrums, will wander off when he's left alone, and wants a godkid.

He DOES have smug energy and cool lines sometimes... but he's also a tantrum-throwing brat who's scared to stand up to people, and in this house, we love him for it!!

And yes, I am so nervous that I'm going to have to watch Anti-Cosmo be rebooted so he's more like H.P. - who IS the suave, sassy villain who's meticulous and in control - and then I'm going to make " :'D " faces for years as I watch the fandom gush over Anti-Cosmo turning into the cool villain H.P. always was. I'm sorry, it's selfish, but H.P. is my favorite and has been a big part of my life for the last 8 years of 'fic writing and fanart, so it would make me sad :') Also, I like Anti-Cosmo being dorky; who will I turn to for a dorky magical villain if I lose him?? The second half of this fear is... Since rebooting Anti-Cosmo into a sassy, confident villain who plans well and wants to take over Fairy World would make him basically the same as H.P., then the pixies are less likely to show up in future seasons (if any) (Alas), or worse... ... H.P. might return, but get rebooted so he's no longer one of the snarkiest characters in the whole show... No longer uses finger guns, no longer gets excited over puns, no longer kicks back to drink the canon alcohol parallel (soda) on the job, no longer wears two hats at the same time, and no longer ditches responsibility for raves :') And I'd just be very sad if I had to see his character traits stripped from him and folded into Anti-Cosmo instead, seeing as A.C. is already very popular with fans and doesn't need the boost in cool.

But... All this said, now that I've sat with my thoughts, I like this idea of Anti-Cosmo, Anti-Wanda, and Irep doing things as a family. THAT is interesting enough to me that I think I'll forgive Anti-Cosmo being confident and sassy, if that's how he's rebooted.

I think it's reasonable for A.C. to change for his family. So... as much as I'd be nervous for what it could mean for H.P., it'll be fine.

I just want Anti-Cosmo to be an awkward nerd pretending to be confident, but also he likes to run around and goof off, but he should also look at people like he's confused they kicked his puppy. Also, that scene in "When Nerds Collide" that you can pause with perfect timing and see him holding Anti-Wanda's hand lives rent-free in my head. You have to balance the smug "In your face" dance & his love for touching things & how oblivious he is to Anti-Wanda's pregnancy cravings & the fact that he shook his wife up and down 2 seconds after she gave birth & how he much he cries & the fact he throws tantrums kicking and screaming & that he once pulled Timmy towards him and then dropped him on the floor because he forgot he couldn't float. This man is a spoiled brat with the giddy energy of a Labrador and the emotional stability of tinsel. you understand...

Man. Why am I so nervous?? H.P. and A.C. both had a decent amount of episodes, and there have been so many callbacks to the OG series that I'm sure the writers studied A.C. before putting him onscreen. If for nothing else, then to get a feel for his dialogue.

If H.P.'s characterization can remain the same across several years in the OG series, he'd probably be fine if they ever came back. I'll be less bothered about Anti-Cosmo changing if H.P. doesn't become less sassy as a result, and I'm probably overthinking (though I have many questions about where Hazel's love for paperwork is going; it almost feels like they're setting up a Pixie plot)

-> Especially since about 15 months ago, there was a rumor going around that the Pixies would return "in the 2nd half of the season." It was later decided they weren't, but the possibility that they nearly did just gets me on edge.

I'll always be happy to see my specialist boy in the world, but if they reduce H.P. to the Pixie stereotype when his whole thing is that he conflicts with whatever dull and boring expectations you go in with, I'll be injured in Family Guy death pose forever. Do not do this to me… I want him back so badly :') ...

Okay. On to a 2nd post! ... Tomorrow, I think. I'm not even 3 minutes in. Haha, I'm in danger.

[jazzy-art-time]

Alli - JarbleAU

Alli belongs to @curce [ I had permission to Jarble-ize her. Curce willingly sacrificed her to me ]

Diagnosis information below the cut

DIAGNOSIS:

Alli

Job: Stage performer / Stage magician

Despite her flamboyant and spectacular performances on stage at the Shining Ring's biggest Casino, Alli is all but a fraud.

Most wouldn't be able to tell that her acts are all fake. Just tricks of the light or very strategic stage tricks. She works hard to make sure everything looks spectacular and entertaining from down below in the seats… or well.. at least makes sure her stage hands work hard.

Whether or not magic does exist doesn't matter, in the end its just about money. Real or fake it doesn't matter, what sells, sells. Wasn't entirely the route she was expecting to take in her life but it's where she's at now and she is good at it.

She is extremely cocky and arrogant and demanding of those around her to make sure her performances go well. At this point, is she even doing much work out there?

However, stage tricks aren't enough to keep a crowd interested, so she sometimes has to resort to… interesting outfit changes to gather attention. She isn't the best at flirting face to face, but that doesn't really matter when you are on stage with a short skirt.

She gets easily worked up over any critic reviews of her show. What would they know anyhow. Better hope you aren't a stagehand who happens to be nearby when a bad review drops.

But despite her cockiness on stage, there is some level of discomfort with it. Sometimes she wonders if it's really worth it to be this way. Maybe she shouldn't rely on such cheap tricks to gain a audience. A deep ache resides in her chest whenever a child happens to pass by mentioning that they love magic and hope to see a show of hers once they grow up. She remembers when she believed in that stuff too. It hurts a little.

But she doesn't know why. DEFAULT WEAPON:

Expandable Cane/Wand

Is conjured by "pulling" out of her head gem.

Usually summoning it causes a mild headache. She cannot conjure it if her gem is somehow damaged or covered, even by her own hair.

The wand/cane can expand for as long as she needs to for the situation. She can also determine how flimsy or stiff the cane is. So it can either be being hit with a flimsy switch or getting nailed with a lead pipe.

Normally a clear glass like appearance during the day. But within starlight or specific brands of stagelight, it glows. EXTRA DESIGN NOTES:

-> Has a more witchy type outfit but had to go more magician for the gimmick. BUT kept the hat overly large with the crinkled tip just as a bit of a nod to the original.

-> Sparkle markings appear on her face, her hair shimmer and lightly faded on her tail tips. The ones on her face are supposed to mildly resemble that of clowns.

-> Has several gems that mimic her forehead gem on her body. When she performs, she somewhat hides that she is pulling her staff from her head gem. That way it leaves to some illusion on just WHICH gem she is pulling it from. Most assume she can pull it from any of them.

-> The inside of her cape has that like… "space" texture that changes and warps as she moves around. Is it just some kind of mythical fabric or does she own like 50 fucking capes with different sequin space patterns? WHO KNOWS

-> I'M NOT... ENTIRELY HAPPY WITH THE OUTFIT but like. Magician outfits can be kinda basic and so trying to do something more flashy but also like?? I don't know! I don't know how fashion or clothing work I'm still learning and practicing give a man a break