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queermediaanysis · 11 months

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How Izzy’s Death Could’ve Made Basic Storytelling Sense

Just to be clear, Izzy is my favorite and I wanted him to live more than anything. This isn’t about that, and that is NOT why I hated his death. Had it served the narrative in a way that made even the most basic storytelling sense, while I’d admittedly have been devastated in a different way (i.e. the character whose queerness was relegated to the subtext in s1 and as soon as it’s textual and his whole arc is that he’s killed, but that’s a whole separate post…), but at least there would’ve been a correctly crafted arc from a surface level narrative standpoint that ended in the death of my favorite character. But that’s not what this is about. It’s is about how the show could’ve actually made the death actually make sense and work effectively. (Also, if you want my unasked for thoughts on how most of the existing plot of s2 (minus 7-8) could’ve easily been adjusted to fix the narrative as a whole and keep Izzy alive, I wrote this)

But. For those in the fandom insisting that Izzy HAD to die, including DJenks who has said as such in interviews (for reasons I do not understand), from an objective developmental editor standpoint, this is what I think needed to change to make Izzy’s death serve the narrative, character arcs and dynamics, pacing, structure, and thematic elements correctly.

It’s about 2K words just so you know what you’re gonna get into. Spoilers under the cut.

Issue 1. Izzy’s relationship with the crew and how they truly became his family this season totally vanished during his death scene. The same crew who he protected from Ed during the later, worse parts of the Kraken phase. The crew who banded together to save his life by hiding him from/lying to Ed about it, and amputating his leg to save him. The crew he saved by crawling up those stairs during the storm, hobbling out into the rain with one leg and shooting Ed before he could shoot a cannon ball through the mast and kill them all. The crew who called him “our dick”. The crew that then banded together with Stede’s half of the crew to him the leg and the new unicorn (aka the figurehead of the ship). That crew didn’t cry a SINGLE tear when he died. What?? Fang sobbed most of episode one and really lost it when Izzy got shot. Where was that when he died?? Izzy’s last speech to Ricky had something along the lines of: piracy is about belonging/family. We are Good. (Forgive me, I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist). Izzy truly did find his family in the crew outside of Ed. That was absolutely fantastic, especially in the first four episodes and episode six. It VANISHED when he was dying and dead.

The fix: To make the death impactful, effective, or even to make it make sense on a very basic acting and writing level, the crew should’ve been utterly DEVASTATED. At least heartbreaking music and like 30 seconds of everyone breaking down and holding each other. At least some of them crying and holding each other in the background when he was dying. Come on.

Issue 2. Thematically speaking, is piracy Good or Bad? Again, Izzy tells Ricky that they (the pirates/his crew) are capital G Good. Yet Ed has spent a lot of time maintaining piracy is capital B Bad. He tells the urchins as such. Here’s some money that I never had, now you don’t have to be pirates. Don’t be pirates. He doesn’t want Stede to kill Ned Low in cold blood. Ed just doesn’t want to be a pirate. Even at the end AFTER Izzy dies telling Ed he’s with his family (implied that this is the crew) and they love Ed, Ed LEAVES THAT FAMILY AND LEAVES PIRACY IMMEDIATELY. We’re left with him and Stede watching the family Izzy swore was Good and loved Ed sail away because Ed thinks piracy is Bad. Which is it?? The death served nothing in convincing Ed he could be happy with his found family on the sea as Ed, not Blackbeard, so the dying words were pointless. The thematic elements are all over the place (for the whole season but that’s another post) and that needs changing to make the death scene make sense.

The fix: Izzy should’ve told him he sees he doesn’t want to pirate anymore, he’s glad he’s found love with Stede because Izzy isn’t going to make it, go run your fokkin’ inn, you twat (affectionate).

Issue 3. Izzy died of bad planning and bad luck. Why didn’t they take the gun from Ricky? Between Spanish Jackie, Izzy, and Jim, SOMEONE would’ve thought about it. If not those three, someone else would’ve, but come one. One if not all of those three would’ve known better. Yeah, Izzy happened to be standing in front of Ed and he got shot instead of him, but you’ve gotta be REALLY looking for that to even be aware it’s what happened. It wasn’t even on purpose unless Ed strategically placed himself behind Izzy (which I doubt was the intent). Izzy didn’t position himself protectively/take the bullet for anyone on purpose. It was just happenstance and you only notice it if you’re rewatching and hyper-analyzing everything (which a lot of us, me included, in the fandom do, but casual watchers don’t. It’s totally unclear as far as the surface level narrative goes) Any sort of “heroism” is not acknowledged, it’s barely even noticeable in the shot. If that was the intent, it HAD to be clearer and acknowledged by the characters so the audience would realize the stakes and repercussions of clear choices. As it is, I don’t think it was intentional. If Izzy HAS to die, it should truly have rounded out his arc in a way that CLEARLY changed the course of the scene, leaving him to protect people he’d put in danger at the end of s1. It didn’t. It just read as terrible planning to the point of it being out of character for more than one character, and bad luck.

The fix: Izzy should’ve saved someone. I personally don’t like the idea of it being Ed. I’s have rather he save Stede (Not really, but it’s better than Ed I guess) But really Izzy should’ve died saving the crew. The crew makes the most sense to me, narratively speaking. He’s their figurehead, he’s protected the Kraken Crew for months and they should’ve been fiercely loyal to him, he blames himself for what Ed did to them (more on this later) so it makes sense for him to fiercely protect his crew. His family. Who should’ve been devastated that it happened because Izzy is the one character of the main three who’s managed to earn that status this season.

Issue 4. The death did not serve to move the plot along. There are literally zero things that would’ve been different for the end of the episode, save Izzy being alive and on the Revenge in his rightful role he earned with his crew as the captain, if he’d have lived. Ed and Stede aren’t partnering with Zheng to go after the guy who killed him in the next season. Nope. They got the offer but nah. They’re running an Inn. Which Izzy would’ve supported based on literally everything we’ve seen from him in episodes 5-8. The crew who Izzy protected fiercely and who viewed him as their leader? Not one tear during his death or the the funeral. Happily sailing away to do presumably more Muppet Treasure Island hijinks. No character development happened. No plot development happened. The season could’ve ended literally the EXACT SAME WAY with Izzy alive aboard the Revenge!!! No stakes were changed at all. No one was impacted enough for it to seem like it was even going to be a plot obstacle next season. It just happened, Izzy’s toxic situationship who maimed him multiple times over the course of months to the point of his leg needing to be amputated was sad for one (1) scene, then we moved on and did not seem sad at all at the funeral. What.

The fix: The plot should’ve been driven by the death. Ed and Stede (but especially Ed), and DEFINITELY the crew should’ve been sailing off plotting to avenge the death and defend piracy against Ricky and the British, especially with Zheng who lost her whole fleet. Ricky and the British are clearly (or so I hope, nothing’s clear here anymore tbh) the primary antagonist for the theoretical third season. No one should be running an whim-based inn for fun or sailing off happily into the sunset after the death of the most major character aside from Ed and Stede, who beyond proved himself a major part of something every character (his family) should’ve cared about this season. If he HAD to die, that death should have furthered the plot. But instead, it seems everyone shrugged it off with tears exclusively from Ed.

Issue 5. Izzy got shot in the left side. The side in which canonically NO ONE DOES FROM BEING INJURED ON IN THE OFMD UNIVERSE.

The fix: Yeah I know this is just too nit-picky but it was also just SO sloppy. Like just shoot him on the other side if he has to die, because this was a very memorable plot point more than once in s1. Like, come on y’all.

Disclaimer: Issues/fixes 1-5 would all need to happen together to truly fix it and make the death serve the narrative correctly. Issue/fix 6 is a totally separate route, which I personally hate, but at least the narrative would’ve made sense this way.

Issue 6. The idea that Izzy had to die so that Ed could be free of Blackbeard makes no sense at this point in the story. Ed already threw away his leathers and gave away his treasure to symbolically get rid of Blackbeard, and Izzy very sweetly encouraged him to follow the feeling that throwing out the leathers gave him. Izzy told Stede that he and Ed were good for each other. They balance each other out. Izzy is on good terms with both of them and their relationship, so Izzy “having to die” so Ed could flourish as Ed genuinely makes no sense and came totally out of left field.

The fix for 6: This one stands alone and is my absolute least favorite option, but if it HAD to happen without the 1-5 fixes, here’s how it could’ve made sense. If THIS is truly the way it was going to end, Izzy needed to be continuously antagonistic or avoidant to at least Ed and actually be shown holding Ed back from happiness until that last second. He wasn’t. He was so much better. Izzy clearly does blame himself (that’s for a separate post because I have lots of thoughts there) but to be fair they were both abusive in that relationship, for years it seems. Although I think by the beginning of s2, the power dynamic has clearly flipped and it was Ed who was doing most of it and Izzy was exhausted and knowingly “reaping what he’d sewed” (I don’t Blame Izzy for his abuse but I think this was his mindset) so the crew wouldn’t get the brunt of it.

If he seriously HAD to die because the writers just had to have it that way, those are the changes I think would’ve made the narrative work/make sense, served all the character arcs and dynamics correctly, and actually driven the plot as fictional deaths are supposed to, compelling things into a third season. Seriously, this season finale was a mess of baffling choices the most series finale season finale I’ve ever seen.

Anyway. There’s my unsolicited two-cents. Now back to hoping Izzy’s in the gravy basket waiting to be sea witch necromancied back by seagull Buttons in season 3. I love this show and I hate hating what I hate hating about it because it’s my absolute favorite and I can’t stand it because it’s fantastic and the worst thing I’ve ever seen. (Also, Izzy should’ve lived).

#ofmd spoilers #izzy hands #ofmd #ofmd season 2 #ofmd season 2 spoilers #ofmd meta #izzy my beloved #izzy deserved better #we deserved better #eyyyy djenks if you need a dev editor for s3 just hmu #david jenkins #ed teach #stede fucking bonnet #stede bonnet

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anartisticdreamer0 · 2 months

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i have been reminded of how i love and loathe c!bedrock bros.

i will now talk about it for a while

I think especially when rewatching their argument during doomsday you really hear both of their sides and realize: “oh, oh if only” tommy is just kinda bad at articulating his point while techno literally refuses to even try and listen to it because as far as he sees it, it doesn’t matter.

in c!techno’s mind, c!tommy’s point doesn’t matter because it sympathizes with the people who have hurt him and gone against him multiple times. which is a valid stance. it just sucks that he refuses to really think about why tommy would want to be with L’manburg.

now, i shall now comment on c!tommy. he was in a position where really his only option had been to work with c!techno. but as soon as he was presented with another option he took it, why? because he realized he isn’t happy. do i think that he made a good decision? no, but i understand it. he didn’t want to betray techno, he just wasn’t happy. now, granted, we know as an audience that this decision won’t make him happy either, but he doesn’t. and as such he picks what is familiar and what has only failed to make him feel worthy once.

i also really love that there is this moment between them where tommy is unsure about destroying l’manburg and so techno says “you don’t have to help me” (not a direct quote but basically he says that). and when the betrayal happens in the community house he brings it up saying that perhaps he didn’t make himself clear, “when i said you don’t have to help me, i meant you could sit it out! not switch sides!” but here’s the thing. hadn’t, by that point, tommy already helped? like short of spawning the withers and attacking his former countrymen, he basically helped techno prepare for this attack. (of course help is a strong word but they did do most of it together) they got techno’s weapons and armor terrorizing the country along the way, they found and bred the dogs that would later make up the hound army, they did all sorts of things to prepare to attack l’manburg. tommy had already helped! so really what good does it mean if he were to “sit it out” he already helped you do most of the damage!

“i’m worst than everyone i didn’t want to be.” now THAT is a statement. a statement no one really talks about. when he was exiled he was compared to the country’s og founder turned terrorist and was upset by this, we can assume he definitely doesn’t want to be dream after everything and yet he says he’s worst than at least both of those people. you know i would love to ask him “how?” because how does he see himself as worst than an actual traitor terrorist that blew up the entire country and his own fucking abuser. makes you think

he even apologizes for betraying techno after admitting that he knows what he’s done and he hates himself for all that he’s done.

now, back to c!techno, before tumblr silences me, immediately following tommy’s betrayal c!dream (who we know had orchestrated this entire thing by blowing up the ch then blaming it on c!tommy) starts berating c!tubbo. and c!techno? who could use this distraction to escape? stays and even joins in. as much as i love c!bedrock bros, this why i loathe the c! part of it. because c!techno’s biggest flaw in this relationship is that he doesn’t see c!tommy or c!tubbo as kids. he sees them as adults or at least the equivalent of adults, which means he treats them the same way and he holds them to the same standards. he in a different stream comments that tommy had to have deserved exile because that is the consequences of his actions. that of course he deserves it after all the problems he’s caused. (unfortunately with the way this conversation is worded it’s hard to tell if the in character or ooc but still) which admittedly is both deserved also a flaw of every adult character on this server.

you know, actually, the more i watch the beginning of the bedrock bros arc- techno really lays it on heavy on them teaming up. like tommy is straight up walking away saying “no i’ll get my discs back myself” and techno keeps convincing him until it works. even saying they don’t need to be friends that it isn’t an option. “you’ll help me destroy the government” “i won’t help you destroy the government but you’ll- you’ll let me-“ “tell you what we’ll do some terrorism from where the government- you know what tommy we’ll work out the details on the way.” this was never going to work. tommy definitely didn’t want to go as far as techno wanted to go and that alone destined this friendship for failure.

to conclude, c!tommy is a traumatized character who absolutely refuses to deal with his issues until the worst possible time and then makes it everyone else’s problem. while c!techno struggles to see any pov outside of his own and presents their alliance under false pretenses and with soured feelings towards tommy. their friendship is one of tragedy as it was never going to work, but they do care about each other. and they will continue to until the server’s end.

#dsmp #dsmp techno #dsmp tommy #dsmp bedrock bros #bedrock bros #vague character analysis #it isn’t great but i’m trying to keep neutral #i love both of these characters #a lot #i think i was a little more lenient with tommy #but rest assured he is also a PROBLEM #like seriously he intentionally was annoying techno any time he wasn’t directly in character #c o n s t a n t l y #tommyinnit #technoblade

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hauerhoetime · 2 years

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hi love congrats on 100 followers!!! can i please request a headcanon for anthony bridgerton of him being jealous and protective ?? thank you !

Hi!! Thank you very much :)

I'm so sorry that I took so long to answer this :( I started to and then I saved it to my drafts but it's just gone?? Idk and then I got really busy with art stuff and that's my bad. Anywho I'm here now with your headcanon!!

Jelouse Anthony

Anthony Bridgerton x Reader

Summary: Anthony being oblivious to his own feelings and jelouse of other men

- ok so we all know his "I don't want to have a wife that I have actual feelings for" arc

- well this takes place in it's prime

- so yall would know eachother before probably due to your mothers being friends

- not like incredibly close (you were probably closer with daph) but the two of you have definitely had your fair share of conversations

- you are at a ball that his mother forced him in attending and you were actually looking for a husband

- he was well aware of this fact and thought nothing of it really

- you're at the perfect age to search for a husband and you were quiet beautiful and intelligent as well

- why wouldn't you want a husband? You wouldnt have any trouble finding one either

- so he spent the entire night standing on the sidelines avoiding dreadful mothers and during his time he watched you dance and twirl with several men

- several men that he didn't like

- well actually he had no prior negative opinion of them but suddenly the moment they took your hand and guided you off to the dance floor he formulated a list of reasons they weren't worthy of you

- he didn't intervene that first night

- no he went home and fumed alone for a day or two before someone in his house (probably Daph or Benedict) noticed his sour mood and asked him what was on his mind

- that's when he said out loud what he was thinking

- how unappealing these men were for you and how he was simply concerned for you

- he only wanted the best for you

- he could admit to himself he was confused why he cared so much for a girl he wasn't related to but he began to convince himself it was because of how close you were with Daph

- he must have began to see you as a sibling

- yes of course that must be it he wrote similar lists as to why men were atrocious for Daphne when she was being courted by men

- however there was this nagging feeling in the back of his mind

- he never saw you as a sibling. Never even considered it

- of course when he told Daphne or Benedict (whomever asked you take your pick) his sibling knew almost immediately that Anthony Bridgerton was in love

- this all lead up to the next ball where once again he watched you spin and spin and spin around the room looking elegant as always

- the only problem was the men spinning you were simply toads compared to your beauty

- well that's what he convinced himself

- his mother watched him glare at any gentleman that walked your way and encouraged him to ask you for a dance

- he thought that idea utterly absurd

- that was until he watched a man that was old enough to be your father try and make his way towards you

- now this he simply would not stand for

- he basically sprints to the other side of the ball room to your side

- you were shocked by his sudden appearance but you couldn't do anything to hide the smile he pulled from you

- he asked you for a dance and you obviously accepted

- the truth was youd always harbored a bit of a crush on the eldest Bridgerton but you didn't think that it was reciprocated

- and he openly said he wasn't looking for a wife

- yet here he was guiding you to the dance floor

- once the two of you were gracefully gliding across the floor he began to ask you questions

- how were you finding the men trying to court you? Fine just a bit pushy sometimes. Overall uninteresting

- do any of them make you uncomfortable? Honestly yes. Some can be a bit persistent even after I voice my disinterest

- what if I could help you? I would love that but I don't understand how you'd do it

- and that's when it hit him that he was the only appropriate suitor for you

- his mouth seemed to notice this fact as well causing him to speak before he could stop it

- let me court you

#x reader #fanfic #anthony bridgerton x reader #anthony bridgerton #bridgerton #anthony bridgerton x you #Anthony bridgerton x y/n

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miraculouswolf99 · 10 months

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Season Five Feelings

As someone who has been into this show for a while, I am sure that I was not the only person who did not have high hopes for season five. Especially since after seasons 3 and 4, the show itself had really gone downhill. Especially in terms of character development and storyline.

But, as I watched season 5, it actually became one of my favorite seasons after the first two. There was actual character development, there were moments where characters other than Marinette got time to shine, and we finally got somewhere when it came to the love square.

I will first be honest. I have never been a fan of the love square. Marinette has always been a creepy stalker who seemed to care more about Adrien as the "perfect model" than she cared about Adrien as the "regular person." Also, I never liked how even when she tried to date Luka, she still never gave up on Adrien and that was extremely unfair to Luka since he is by far one of the best characters on the show.

But, given that season 5 had actual character development, the love square actually became something I enjoyed. First, there was the adorable reversal where Adrien liked Marinette and Marinette liked Cat Noir. Gave a lot of "Marichat" fans what they wanted given that it is the corner of the love square that people tend to enjoy the most. It also lead to both Marinette and Adrien going into slight depression because of how their hero lives continued to prevent them from having meaningful relationships with anyone as civilians. But, after the two of them actually got together, without any Cat Blanc or Ephemeral stuff happening, they actually became a really good couple. Marinette was less of a stalker, Adrien started standing up to his father, and the two became more in sync as heroes.

Also, if there is one thing that I have seen a lot, it is people disagreeing with how Lila and Chloe's characters were handled. Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with them. While I get that people were probably excited by Chloe's redemption story and were against how it was "taken from her," I never cared much. Like, even during her "redemption" arc, Chloe was still Chloe. She still bullied others, still got people akumatized, and still treated everyone horribly. There was always the chance that she would turn worse rather than get better. With Lila, I think it is quite realistic that she is as bad as she is. Like, I understand how there are a lot of people that want her to have a reason for her being as bad as she is. But, that is not the case for everyone. Sometimes, people are simply bad without really having a reason. Lila is a classic case of a sociopath or a psychopath with narcissistic personality disorder. She literally can not accept anyone going against her in any way. Which is why she targets Marinette and Ladybug for such petty reasons.

As for each episode, allow me to share my feelings for each one.

Evolution: Probably the episode would have had the most fanfics about if it had not been the first episode of the season. Not only was it fun to see little flashbacks from previous episodes, but it was the start of development for other characters beyond Marinette. Such as how Cat Noir was allowed the rabbit miraculous to duel-wield as Rabbit Noir. Actually giving him a moment where he was treated as Ladybug's partner and not her sidekick. Also, it showed that despite the golden opportunity, Gabriel would choose his obsession with the heroes over everything else. After all, he could have easily given his past self the fix-it spell for the peacock miraculous but instead chose to go after Ladybug and Cat Noir. Plus, I personally also enjoyed Natalie giving him the "you're an idiot" talk. Also, we got the moment of Alix gaining the rabbit miraculous, even if it also took her out of the show, for the most part, to keep Monarch from getting the miraculous back. It was nice to see Alix's father approve of her leaving rather than taking Alix away from her life without letting him know. Multiplication: This episode was the first that started the rest of the real plot of the season. First, it showed the heroes traveling to London to confront Felix about both his betrayal as well as to get the peacock miraculous. His mother lied about him not being there even though the episode ended with him being next to her and then introducing himself to the peacock's kwami. Then, it showed how the other characters, and people in Paris in general, were adjusting to try and keep Monarch from being able to akumatize them. Such as Mylene and Ivan taking up yoga and Alya and Nino taking boxing lessons from Nora. It was shown that a few weeks had passed since Monarch gained the other miraculous, making people originally believe he gave up. Until the attack by Kagami's mom, who had also been given the power of the mouse miraculous. After she had been defeated, she was shown to not have the actual miraculous. This led to the reveal of how she was both aware of Gabriel being Monarch on top of revealing they were designing "smart rings" to give akumas specific miraculous powers without having to give them the actual miraculous. However, my favorite part was Adrien getting his best character development moment when he confronted his father and said he did not want to model anymore. Which, much to his shock, his father agreed to. Even if Gabriel only agreed because he was still using Adrien's image for the Alliance rings.

Destruction: Another episode that was almost like it could have been a fanfic. It was about Monarch trying to force the kwami to lead him to Marinette/Ladybug because he was ordering them to take him to The Guardian. It leads him into what was basically an overly complicated scavenger hunt around Paris that eventually takes him to the wax museum. But, it was then revealed the entire thing was a trap. Ladybug had been prepared in case Monarch, when he was Hawkmoth/Shadow Moth, ever got his hands on the kwami. So, she set up the entire scavenger hunt so that she would know where he would end up and they could ambush him. I thought it was great to have a moment of Cat Noir having actual pity as well as some trauma over Monarch forcing him to use his power on him so that he could get away. Plus, it's also fun to see the heroes be able to plan ahead the way they did to almost be able to defeat him. Especially since there was no way either could predict that he would be so desperate not to lose that he would allow himself to be cataclysmed. This episode also had the moment of when Gabriel and Tomoe changed the miraculous into rings so that they could move forward with their plan. It was great to see the plot slowly unfolding.

Jubilation: Usually, the introduction of a new character this late would not work out. But, I actually ended up really liking Socqueline. It showed an unseen part of Marinette's character when we meet an old friend of hers. Plus, it was also revealed that another usage of the Alliance rings was to track people. That way, if either Ladybug or Cat Noir wore a ring, the rings would detect their faster movements, which would reveal who they were to Monarch. While it was a little unrealistic that only Ladybug and Cat Noir would not wear rings, it makes more sense for Marinette and Adrien since Adrien was shown to not like that his image was still being used and Marinette was shown to not really like Alliance in general. And they were not the only ones since Ivan and Mylene were revealed to not wear rings, either. I also liked that Ladybug and Cat Noir chose to come out of the illusion that the power of the pig miraculous put them in. It shows that they were willing to put aside their own desires to stop the akuma.

Determination: It was not my favorite episode, to be honest. While it has been shown that Luka and Kagami were supportive of Adrien and Marinette getting together, this episode took it a bit too far where the two tricked them into coming to the museum and then locking them in a room. While this had already been done in the New York special, this time it was interrupted by a real akuma instead of the fake one that Jess and Aeon created. The episode also showed how much more hatred Chloe had for the heroes since she was using her father to keep the hero exhibit from being opened. A lot of people disagree with how Chloe has been done, but I have never liked her. Plus, her irrational hatred of the heroes has been shown before. It made more sense for her to hate the museum because I doubt they would have had a Queen Bee statue. I also enjoy that even this far into the show, there are still characters that become akumas for the first time.

Passion: Personally, this is one of my favorite episodes of the season. I really enjoyed the character development of Natalie. She stays at Agreste Mansion solely because she wants to protect Adrien from Gabriel. She even got akumatized on purpose, basically tricking him because she was going to take the miraculous for herself and make a wish to once again keep Adrien safe from Gabriel. Plus, another great part of the episode was Cat Noir taking charge of his and Ladybug's partnership. He was able to use the kwami to switch their miraculous so that he could become Mister Bug and she could become Lady Noir. He made the choice because the paralyzing arrows that Natalie/Safari was using against them would search specifically for Ladybug and Cat Noir, not Mister Bug and Lady Noir. I also enjoyed seeing how much Adrien did care for Natalie. He treats her as a mother figure and going to her for advice on how to ask Marinette out.

Reunion: There are two great things about this episode. The first being that we got to meet a previous holder of the ladybug miraculous, Joan of Arc. Marinette had gone to her for advice since she was the only other previous holder who was involved with that era's black cat holder. The second was how heartfelt it was to see Jalil missing his sister so much that he was willing to believe anything that could explain why she left because didn't want to believe she left her family willingly. He wanted the truth, even if he had originally gone to the wrong source by believing online chats that were filled with people going the "Monarch might want to use the wish for something good and Ladybug and Cat Noir might be the real bad guys" route. It was really funny to also see Joan try to fight Pharaoh, only to pass right through him because she was not actually there. Plus, when Plagg gave Adrien his own kwagatama, I was literally like "Finally!"

Illusion: Another great thing about the season was that civilians were also trying to fight back against Monarch. Nino had formed a resistance group made up of the class and their friends. They wanted to try and figure out how the akumas were gaining miraculous powers without having the miraculous. Only, they had no idea Lila eavesdropped on them and revealed their plan to Gabriel. It brings me to how I enjoy that Lila was becoming more frequent and less of someone who randomly appears in episodes to cause trouble. She was becoming an actual villain rather than a small-time bad guy. It was a villain's own form of character development.

Elation: I had said earlier, this season had a reversal of the love square. And this episode showcased their changed feelings. Probably the one thing I enjoyed the most about the episode was Marinette reaching her limit with other people telling her who she should love. It was a very human moment that also showed the downside of her falling for Cat Noir since it is dangerous to be with a hero. And despite knowing how dangerous it was, she still loved him. Cat Noir also had his own moment of knowing that it was dangerous for him to love Marinette as a hero. They both did not change their feelings, but they accepted how dangerous their feelings were. It was a great character moment for both of them.

Transmission (The Kwamis’ Choice – Part 1) & Deflagration (The Kwamis’ Choice – Part 2): I thought this two-part episode was a great show of Marinette and Adrien finally allowing themselves to make a selfish choice. Tikki and Plagg had taken it upon themselves to take away their miraculous so that both of them could lead normal lives and have their own love lives. I think it was a great moment to show that even heroes can go through difficult times. I also like how the plot device that was previously shown, the rings tracking the movements of their wearers, was used against instead of being forgotten. That was how Monarch learned the identities of Scarabella and Kitty Noir. Also, the episode included more of the Resistance that Nino started. I definitely enjoyed seeing them fight against Monarch rather than giving up hope once it was known that the new heroes had been defeated. Though, it was funny that while fighting against Monarch, Kim, Ivan, and Rose dogpiled to keep him from moving. The fact that Rose also jumped onto the villain despite being the only one who is almost as small and short as Alix was so funny to me. Plus, despite Marinette and Adrien basically going back to square one by the end of the episodes, they did not choose to go back. They decided to continue to try a relationship despite being heroes again.

Perfection: As I previously pointed out, I enjoyed that Lila was becoming an actual villain. This time, it showed how she was able to trick more than just the class since she was able to lie and trick Kagami. I did feel really bad for Kagami because she made to believe that no one really cared about her. That even when she strived for perfection, it wasn't enough. The plan for helping Kagami break out of Monarch's influence was really sweet. Especially since I enjoyed seeing Socqueline again. And while a little corny, I also think that Adrien's song to Marinette was really sweet, with funny moments as Max, Nino, and Zoe provided the backup vocals. A very random trio.

Migration: Luka is definitely one of my favorite characters. Not to mention also a fan favorite. So, having an episode focused on him was great. Anarka was also HILARIOUS with how many times she threw Bob Roth off the Liberty. And while I hate his character, I did like how Bob got an actual akumaization this time rather than the opening scene one that we got in the Ephemeral episode. I also enjoyed that it was finally brought up how Luka is aware of both Ladybug and Cat Noir's identities from back in the Wishmaker episode. Despite how it forced Luka to have to leave Paris, that was a realistic moment while showing Luka's selflessness when it came to protecting the heroes. Plus, the fact that he gets quality father-son time is a great thing for him that he deserves.

Derision: As someone who does really like Kim, I both loved and hated this episode at the same time. The parts that I loved were showing more about Marinette/the class's past, showing the reason why Marinette and Socqueline had been so close, and also having Adrien end his "friendship" with Chloe for real. I also enjoyed seeing the reason why Marinette was so focused on learning everything about Adrien. As much as I think it doesn't excuse her stalker behavior, it does explain it. I also enjoyed Mylene's line about how just because Chloe's mom left her, it doesn't excuse Chloe's behavior the way everyone says that it does. Chloe's brattiness is her choice and her choice alone. While I liked the additions to Kim's character, what I didn't like was how he was turned into an unknowing bully. Like, he didn't mean to be a bully, but he was one. He took jokes too far, including using Marinette's fear of bugs against her after Chloe tricked him. However, it did explain why Kim had sometimes gone along with Chloe in the past before she broke his heart in Dark Cupid. Such as going along with Chloe and Sabrina when Chloe got Alya suspended in Lady Wifi. I am glad that he learned his lesson by the end.

Intuition: Just like with the power of the rabbit, the power of the snake was another that probably a lot of people thought that Monarch would use a lot. And it was shown that he did use it. Very often. I liked seeing scenes from previous episodes, showing how much he used the power. Plus, it was another example of something from a previous episode not being ignored. This time being the cataclysm scar from Destruction. It showed how he basically was speeding up his injury because time would move for him while it would reverse for everyone else. Also, gotta love Natalie and her once again basically saying "You're an idiot" to Gabriel.

Protection: I know how often Kagami and Luka are used in fanfics as friends of Marinette who see through Lila's lies easily. But, I actually like how Kagami also falls for Lila's lies since it shows both Lila as a threat on top of showing that even someone like Kagami has weaknesses. What I didn't like was how this episode basically ignores Kagami having already learned from Perfection how much others, including Marinette and Adrien, care about her. Another great part was Adrien once against standing up to his father, who had teamed up with Tomoe to get Adrien and Kagami forced back together. Adrien chose not to listen to them, choosing to continue pursuing Marinette. He was really growing into his own character.

Adoration: Lila and Chloe had shown to have teamed up in the previous season. A great detail that was shown to not have been ignored in this new season. This time with them teaming up to get back at Marinette by getting Sabrina akumatized into Vanisher again, with the added addition of the power of the dog miraculous, to frame Marinette for theft. I enjoyed showing how awful these two are on their own with them basically using Monarch to their own advantage rather than the other way around. While I have always liked the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters, I didn't like how Zoe was made yet another person interested in Marinette. If they really wanted more LGBTQ+ characters, then they could easily have Juleka and Rose or Marc and Nathaniel be actual known couples rather than having them only be known as that through speculation and guesswork. It just makes it seem like they try and force Marinette to appear like a Mary Sue-type character with how many people they have fall for her.

Emotion: Felix is another character that I feel got a lot of much-needed character development. While the entire idea of this episode came out of nowhere, it shows that Felix was more than just a regular villain. He was actually more like an anti-hero, like Red Hood and Harley Quinn. I enjoyed seeing him try and protect Adrien and Kagami by making those who control them vanish. It was also a realistic take on how even when both Adrien and Kagami are aware of the fact their parents are controlling, they still love them. Kagami showing she was even willing to attack a miraculous-wielding "bad guy" to get her mother back. I also enjoyed how Felix ended up changing because he could see how much he upset Adrien with his actions. But, Felix obviously was shown to be a very complex character that I was really looking forward to learning about more.

Pretension: More character development for both Marinette and Felix. Not only was it great to see Marinette standing up to Gabriel, but Felix showed his growth by becoming interested in Kagami. And not just because he liked her, but also because he did not want her to be controlled by her mother. Also, despite not trusting Felix, Kagami learned enough about Felix and why he does what he does that she was able to convince Ladybug and Cat Noir to give him another chance. That allowed them to be able to defeat Kagami's akumatized mother, with Felix allowed to get away. Felix and Kagami were quickly becoming a favorite couple of mine. The way they gave each other development was really good. Also, I enjoyed Adrien now having to deal with his own home-based conflict when Gabriel reveals he is going to demand Adrien go to London right after the end of school. It gives Adrien another reason to start standing up to his father.

Revelation: Lila is shown to really have no real version of herself. Not even with her own family since it is revealed she is juggling three different mothers/lives with her lies. I actually like that detail since it shows how there is really no "real" version of her. She also had really been pushed to the edge in this episode as Gabriel had replaced her with Kagami as an Alliance avatar. Part of which was probably because he wanted to make her angry to akumatize her, but mostly because he no longer found any use for her. However, I liked that it backfired on him since when he did akumatize her, she used her powers to force Natalie to take pictures of all of Gabriel's secrets and send them to her. While others might question how she was able to do that, she still had her free will because she was willingly akumatized. Just like when she was akumatized into Chameleon. I also like how Adrien apologized to Marinette for his "high road" advice. He now knew that Lila was a lot more dangerous than a simple liar. He was another great growth of his character. One thing that I will never understand is why they allowed Lila to run for class representative simply because she did not get the chance before. I mean, it was almost the end of the year, so there wouldn't be much point to have a change. My best guess is simply because they needed a plot device for the next episode.

Confrontation: And I was right about them needing a plot device for the next episode. After all, if they had not allowed Lila and Chloe to take over as class representative and deputy, then they would not have been able to throw away the original school/career forms to replace them with things none of the class would be interested in. After all, even if they replaced the forms while Marinette was still the representative, there is no way that Marinette and Alya would have shown the forms at the school meeting since they would know someone faked them. Also, while I didn't like how Damocles was forgiven for all his past mistakes, I did like that he finally stood up to the mayor. Especially when allowing the class to redo their forms rather than letting the mayor tell him to not allow that because it would "make the school look bad." The added power of the magical charms was also really cool! Lila finally being exposed was also really satisfying, even if it didn't end up doing much since Chloe used her power to keep herself and Lila in school and away from the consequences. But, my favorite part was actually the reveal that Juleka has a speech impediment, which resulted in her previously being held back a year. It was a great explanation as to why Luka was not also in the same school with them even after it was revealed that he and Juleka were twins.

Collusion: It turns out that Damocles' no longer being the principal did not mean much in the long run. Even with him being replaced by Mendeleiev, she also bent to the will of Chloe and the mayor. Even firing Miss.Bustier for no reason other than her trying to stand up for Marinette after Chloe faked getting slapped. As much as I hated how low Monarch was willing to go to akumatized a pregnant woman, I did like how it was one fight that was handled with no violence. Just like when Rose first became Pigella and helped defeat Reflekta without any need for fighting because of her power. However, I honestly did not like the episode much since it really drove home how Chloe literally can get away with ANYTHING! Like, how could it ever be possible for a TEENAGER to become mayor even if her father had been the previous mayor? Even with the usual TV logic, it STILL doesn't make sense.

Revolution: The only thing that makes even less sense than Chloe being the mayor is people being OKAY with her being the mayor and making Ladybug/Cat Noir outlaws along with Monarch. Like, the heroes have been working hard, day and night, to defeat Monarch and his akumas. With a lot of those akumas being CHLOE'S fault. Yet, that is forgotten by so many people when they agree with her decisions. Also, if Sabrina had not already broken her "friendship" with Chloe by exposing her and Lila's plan, then she DEFINITELY would have done it when Chloe replaced the entire police force, including Sabrina's own dad, with robots. Not to mention ruining school by forcing Mendeleiev to "teach" Chloe's fake version of history, which was her family being responsible for everything good in the world. However, I am SO glad that she FINALLY experiences consequences for her actions. Her father finally stands up to her, he kicks her out of Paris to allow Chloe's mother to have full control, and not even Marinette allows Chloe to deal her any more emotional pain. Chloe has reached rock bottom and she knows it. Also, Adrien and Marinette finally getting their kiss will always be adorable!

Representation: I will be honest and admit that I have never liked the whole "Adrien is a sentimonster" theory. But, then I got this episode that revealed how it was true, not to mention Felix and Kagami also being sentimonsters as well. That was definitely not expected. However, it does explain why Felix and Adrien are identical even though their mothers are identical twins. After all, identical cousins are not a real thing. I also really enjoyed the way that Felix and Kagami revealed their origins to Marinette. Telling it as a fairy tale with a sentimonster called "Once Upon A Time." It was fun and creative. I also loved how Cat Noir got to defeat an akuma all on his own, with help from the Resistance. Plus, since I do like Kim, I enjoyed how he was the one who went right to Cat Noir to help bring him out of his nightmare. I also felt SO bad for Adrien and Kagami since their parents wanted to control them so much that they forced them into plain locked rooms since both had escaped their previous new rooms in London.

. Conformation (The Final Day – Part 1) & Re-creation (The Final Day – Part 2): Big season finales have always been a favorite of mine! And this one was REALLY big! First, my heart went out to Adrien because he was constantly being tormented by his nightmare while also locked in his room with no way to seek comfort. Second, I really enjoyed the other heroes from other parts of the world, the United Heroes and Lady Dragon, coming to Paris to help in the final fight. It brings the heroes from the specials even more into the world of Miraculous rather than keeping them as just characters in the specials. Gabriel and Tomoe's plan was honestly brilliant! While Scarlet Moth failed to overwhelm the heroes, this was a global-scale epidemic that was pretty much a guarantee to overwhelm them. If it had not been for Marinette being able to learn who Gabriel really was. Her fusing the black cat and ladybug together was really cool to see! As well as bringing back the detail of the upgrades she and Cat Noir got from "growing up" in the Revolution episode since she used both Lucky Charm and Cataclysm several times without changing back. I also enjoyed how it didn't focus on just her showdown with Monarch, but also her friends dealing with the Alliance soldiers. Especially since Rose being the one to tackle Ivan to the ground when he became a soldier will always be funny to me! Rose is a violent angel and I am here for it! Only three things bothered me about the episodes. One, Marinette trusting Gabriel enough to de-transform in front of him just because he was showing a moment of weakness. That was NOT smart at all. Especially since he had already sown that he was pretty much completely insane with desperation by that point. Two, the fact that Marinette kept her "promise" to Gabriel to not reveal who he was to Adrien. If he ever finds out the truth, he is going to be DESTROYED! Not to mention feel incredibly betrayed by Marinette. Adrien has every right to know who his father was! And three, they seriously took Adrien/Cat Noir out of the final battle! That is NOT RIGHT! He has been a hero from day one and yet they do not even allow him to take part in the final battle! That is NOT okay!

Action: I don't honestly have much to say about this episode. It is simply one of those regular "children's show" episodes that are about teaching kids an important lesson. A lot of kid shows usually have an episode like it. The most I can say is that I enjoyed how it was another example of Adrien standing up to his father.

#ml salt #miraculous #miraculous fandom #i hate chloe #luka is the best #miraculous spoilers #ml spoilers #i have opinions #season five #miraculous season 5 #chloe salt

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mike-haters-dni · 2 years

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El’s conflict in s4 had nothing to do with Mike, actually

Okay, maybe not nothing, but like basically nothing. I shouldn't have to tell you that s4 El was not in a good place self-image-wise. She was thrown into the deep end of a society she was not prepared for, separated from the few people that could actually understand her, and was being relentlessly bullied for it. She was clearly miserable but was also clearly trying really hard not to be miserable (waving at the girl in the hallway/her general demeanor). Lying to Mike in her letters was an extension of this. IMO, she was doing it more for her own benefit than anything. Telling Mike that everything in her life is great, actually, makes him a sort of safe space for her where she can pretend that she's happy and normal. When they’re sending their letters back and forth she doesn’t have to think about how sad she actually is, and she doesn’t have to feel bad that Mike feels bad for her either (which he clearly would if he knew what was going on). I just don’t believe he would have given her any indication whatsoever that he wouldn't love her anymore if he found out she was actually a mess. If any part of her thought that, it was because she had convinced herself it was true.

So she already feels like shit, and then the Roller Rink Incident happens, and now she feels not only like a complete social reject but remembers, "Oh yeah, I've killed like tens of people and probably also murdered a bunch of innocent kids? Maybe I shouldn't have rights," and gives in completely to the self-loathing (Mike's reaction doesn't help but like, she was already horrified with herself before he showed up). Yes, during The Argument, she brings up how upset she is that he refuses to say the word "love" for some reason, but even if he had actually said it in that convo, there was no way she would have actually believed it at that point, one: because she was in such a personal dark place, and two: because uhh it would be incredibly unsatisfying story-wise lol. I mean, he literally tells her that she's "the most incredible person in the world" and she responds with "actually, you're wrong lol." If he had been able to say it, I imagine her reaction would range somewhere from "you're just saying that to make me feel better" to "oh no, you just think you love me, but actually I'm fucked up and evil so you really shouldn't. Let me push you away for your own good." And none of that is on Mike. "Okay, what don't I understand" is an absolutely legendary fictional boyfriend line like, he really did his best.

Also worth noting that she does the same thing with Will after he tries to tell her that her presentation wasn't that bad (which, I mean, it absolutely was so, uhh). She says he's lying when he tries to comfort her and generally doesn't seem to take much reassurance from him at any other point either. Again, because of the self-loathing.

El's arc in s4 was about fixing her perception of herself, and that arc is done as soon as she tells Brenner off and then watches him die in the desert. You'll notice that from that point on, she is fully accepting of the affection of both Mike and Will (the desert reunion, the pizza glasses scene), way before Mike finally says the L-word. Because it was never really about that. You could say she had to learn to love herself before she could accept the love of others :)

#btw if anyone still doesnt understand why mike had so much trouble saying ily #i can provide a very detailed explanation lol #el hopper #mike wheeler #mileven #stranger things #edited this a bit just fyi

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silvantransthranduiltrash · 1 year

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Here’s what i consider the 411 on Miriel+ Thranduil+ the -We’s parents in my “Miriel and Thranduil are twins au”

Miriel and Thranduil’s parents: Oropher and Cloudryad.

-they were enemies and hated each other at first, but with copious sexual tension that eventually boiled over and they had hate sex, which they refused to acknowledge when they were done. Rinse and repeat a few times.

- Oropher has his insanity and “lets destroy the world” arc, but Cloudryad eventually manages to snap him out of it (beat him). Oropher disapears to lick his wounds and then they reunite at an unfortunate (or fortunate depending on who you ask) time where they’re both in deep shit and they go “i don’t trust or like you, but i hate those other fuckers even more so might as well team up”.

- They win, and it turns out they actually work pretty well together so they decide to stick together bc at least they know what the other’s capable of. Cue hate sex again and hey! Look at that! A pair of elflings pop out of Cloudryad. The entire elf population panics bc they’ve never had sex ed or knew what a child was.

- Eventually the partnership turned to genuine affection turned to love and now they’re like the old couple that bickers (surprisingly good parents considering they were the first).

Elwe, Olwe, and Elmo’s parents: Elya and Felome.

- Elya is a strong independent elleth who can kick ass and take names. Oropher is her brother and she trusts him to take care of her kids when/if she passes.

- Felome is a little pathetic, but like endearing pathetic. Elya likes her ellons a little on the weak side. She thinks it’s charming. Felome is a very curious elf though, so the exploration gene comes from him.

Ingwe’s parents (here’s a doozy): Ingen and Allehalen

- so long story short, Ingwe’s dad (Ingen) is a POS who knocked up Thranduil, but when Thranduil refused to obey or be chained down by him, Ingen went to “get milk” came across Ingwe’s mom, seduced her, knocked her up and here we have Ingwe.

- Allehalen isn’t a baseline bad elf, but she lets her husband lead her around, so she isn’t great. Allehalen knew Elya, and when Elya mentioned Thranduil and Miriel looking after Elwe and Olwe (and later Elmo) when Elya and Felome were busy or else where, Allehalen asked if they could watch Ingwe too, not knowing the fact that her husband knocked Thranduil up and had Lasgen, who’s Ingwe’s half sister.

- They find out when Ingen accompanied Allehalen to pick up Ingwe only to come face to face with Thranduil and Lasgen. Oof. Awkward. Anyway, neither Allehalen nor Ingen are really cut out to be parents nor are they really like, good elves to be parents iykwim. So Thranduil and Miriel legit end up being more of a parental figure than them. Ingew holds it over them to this day. “You know, it’s quite sad that dad’s ex, whome he knocked up and dipped out on, is more of a parent to me than either of you.”

- Indis was born of these two in valinor and she low-key inherited the entitlement from them. She’s not as bad, but still.

Finwe’s parents: Lord. Help. Mori and Fikuwe.

- The most emotionally constipated couple to ever walk the earth. It’s a miracle that finwe is as well adjusted as he is. Mori and Fikuwe teamed up all the way at the start when they awakened, even though they clashed as well.

- Fikuwe is pretty chill (finwe takes after him) but Mori is simultaneous genius level smart and also a goddamn moron. And slightly manipulative. Not even having Finwe managed to get them together. They survived all the way to the 5th age without actually becoming a couple (even though it’s obvious for everyone involved). They partner up, fight and then split. Rinse and repeat.

- They’re not together, partially because Mori doesn’t understand that Fikuwe genuinly likes her (ultra oblivious) but mostly because they can’t emote normally. During the fifth age, they had a one night stand that resulted in finwe having a younger sister, but Mori kept it from Fikuwe because she didn’t find out about the pregnancy until after they fought again and Mori’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to see her for a century. Like i said. Issues.

- That being said, for all that they couldn’t figure out their own relationship, they did genuinly care for and love their son, and they were ok parents.

- Mori is very good friends with Cloudryad, but clashes a lot with Oropher due to similar personalities. Cloudryad and Fikuwe are the pair that sit and drink tea while they’re partners are fighting in the background.

(Listen, ok, the elves that spawned at the lake have the emotionally maturity of a new born, of course they are all messes!)

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thecleverqueer · 2 years

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Random Thoughts on Star Wars Ships (Part One)

First, I’m going to focus on toxic Star Wars ships that I absolutely despise. There are three. They are all canon. Some of them are more serious than others, but all of them are incredibly pernicious and problematic. To say they’re my “least favorite” would be selling my hatred of them short, but yeah… the word “loathe” comes to mind. They are as follows:

1.) Luxsoka (aka Ahsoka Tano and Lux Bonteri)

This is my least favorite ship of them all because watching it unfold at times was physically painful. Part of me doesn’t understand it, but the other part of me knows that it was likely just a tepid attempt by Filoni egged on by Lucas to make Ahsoka more relatable. It didn’t work.

I guess the premise didn’t start out too bad with “Heroes on Both Sides” aside from the fact that it sort of felt forced and completely unnecessary, but holy fuck did it go off the rails fast!

Lux’s behavior in “A Friend in Need” was completely unacceptable and inexcusable. I mean, less than 10 minutes into that episode, Lux is threatening to shoot Ahsoka with a deadly firearm, followed by him stunning her unconscious, stealing her ship, hiding her lightsabers from her, then meeting up with known terrorists with anti-Jedi sentiment and history of violence against Jedi. Then, there’s the unwanted kiss. He just sort of grabs her and kisses her against her will to shut her up. She tries to wiggle herself out of it, and when she finally succeeds you can tell she’s PISSED. Rightfully so. Technically, that’s sexual assault. The episode ends with Ahsoka somehow being more fond of him, I guess… I assume it’s related to trauma. I don’t know.

Anyway, the last time we see them together is in the Onderon arc, Lux has fallen for and appears to be in a romantic relationship with Steela Gerrera, and Ahsoka finds a way get over him, which, good for her. It takes two episodes (of a four episode arc) of her being completely insufferable, but she gets there. Ahsoka deserved better anyway. By the end of the arc, she sort of does this attaboy shoulder slug to Lux after Steela kisses him for luck. By that point, Ahsoka probably also found Steela to be pretty hot, and at least one of them got to kiss her. Steela should have kissed you, Ahsoka, but we can’t win them all.

Filoni basically said he was experimenting with this anyway, and I would say that this particular experiment was an abject failure. I’m just glad that it fizzed out before it ever became anything. It was trash. Utter fucking trash.

2.) Anidala (aka Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala)

This is another toxic relationship that I don’t really understand. No. I mean, I do get it. It’s a plot point that gets us to a specific place in a character’s development.

It’s unfortunate really. Padme is supposed to be this badass strong, independent woman, and yet, she blatantly ignores countless red flags during “Attack of the Clones” that should have made her turn away… Anakin being generally creepy, crossing her boundaries, frequently interrupting her, admitting to being a dictatorial fascist… I guess I could technically write all of that off because sometimes your brain short-circuits when you’re in love, and you miss red flags. But… genocide? That was a bridge too far. She should have ran. She should have reported the incident to the Jedi council, but she didn’t because she’s “in love” and actually just a prop.

Their relationship didn’t get much better during the Clone Wars. Anakin guilted her often when she chose duty over desire, something her role in the galaxy required. It was also pretty apparent that Anakin didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her based on the way he acted during the Rush Clovis arcs. There was a point where it felt like their relationship should have ended during season six. Padme needed a break, and told Anakin that she just couldn’t do it anymore after Anakin brutally beat the dog shit out of Clovis. But then, more trauma. Maybe the moral of the story is to avoid “romantic” relationships when you’re in the midst of a traumatic experience because it’s going to end badly, I don’t know.

Then he kills her in “Revenge of the Sith”. Well. He force chokes her and she dies of a broken heart… and then he proceeds to lose his shit, force crushing an entire room with overwhelming emotion (say what you will about the Jedi and their obsession with not forming attachments and overcoming feelings but… *gestures vaguely at this incident right here*).

It’s just an incredibly disastrous toxic sludge of a relationship. And, I know I was more vague about this one, but honestly, I could write a novel about it… so, I’ll spare you.

3.) Reylo (aka Rey Palpatine/Skywalker and Kylo Ren)

I hate this one too… mainly because Kylo tells Rey that she’s “nothing” except to him in “The Last Jedi” and that bothers me. This is something a narcissist might say to someone they’re abusing and gaslighting in an attempt to make them stick around, and that is just gross.

If Rey had actually been a nobody, it may have been less offensive, but she’s a fucking Palpatine. She’s not a nobody. Her grandfather (who isn’t actually her “grandfather” as her father was just a Palpatine clone, and goddamn, I’m going to need a better explanation for all of that shit because it just makes me dizzy, but I digress) was an oppressive emperor that reigned in terror for decades. She’s far from a nobody. In fact, Kylo’s grandfather (actual grandfather, not a clone) was Palpatine’s bitch. He should at least show her a little respect.

He was also generically mean to her during the entire sequel trilogy.

This one ended in death too, but at least it was Kylo’s and not Rey’s death. Again, Rey exhibited this weird mental exercise where she sees Kylo Ren and Ben Solo as two different people instead of them being one-in-the-same (much like the mental gymnastics that everyone does with Vader), so she tries to validate the whole thing. But, he’s an asshole too. She should have faced it.

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notmoreflippingelves · 3 months

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Esteban, Victor, and Shuriki for the bingo?

Esteban, my beloved <3

Unsurprisingly a double-bingo for the blorbo. Clarification for a few of the points.

I am mainly being hyperbolic when I say Esteban has never done anything wrong in his life. I am fully aware that he has done some very bad things. However, I still maintain that he has still done less wrong than the narrative thinks he has and that he had already been more than punished enough by the time his actions come to light. 40+ years of isolation, a guilty conscience exacerbated by survivor's guilt and the responsibility of being the only thing standing between your country and a ruthless tyrant. Adding to that the fact Esteban was at most 18--frightfully naive, very scared and lonely and extremely young--when he made the worst mistake a person can make and had to live with the consequences for decades. Yeah, he was definitely punished enough long before Elena banished him.

I am also being a bit hyperbolic when I say that "no one understands Esteban but me." There are actually a bunch of people in the fandom who understand him pretty well, though overall, there are even more who don't understand him or who misinterpret crucial aspects of his character. A big thing for me is that there's a lack of recognition that a lot of Esteban's supposed "arrogance" is a facade and defense mechanism. He hates himself far more than he loves himself--and a lot of fans seem to miss that. On a much smaller note, when "Wizard School House" headcanons were still socially acceptable to make, I notice that Esteban was consistently placed in the "snake" house, supposedly because he is cunning and ambitious. However, this has never seemed right to me. He's never really sought power in and of itself, but more as a means of self-protection and/or because he feels it's what he's "supposed" to want/ a decent enough alternative if he can't have what he really wants (love and belonging). This sets him apart from Shuriki, Paloma, and the Delgados--who I see as more "natural" Slyther*ns, since the power in and of itself is what they seek. Imo, there's a decent case to be made for Esteban in any of the other houses, but I'd put my money on the "bird" house personally.

"Suck" is wayyyyy too strong a word, but Esteban/Paloma is by-far the most popular ship for Esteban in the fandom, and I don't much care for it.

When I say that Esteban is done dirty by the creators, has wasted potential, and has not enough screen time, I am primarily talking about the "Shuriki Returns" arc in S2 as well as a general lack of exploration as to the impact that the Dark Times™ had on Esteban. Now I fully understand why this is the case. For better and for worse, Elena of Avalor is a kid's show, and therefore, it is difficult to fully-present a character's decades of untreated PTSD in a way that is both appropriate and comprehensible for the eight-year olds watching. That being said, there was still much more that could and should've been done with Esteban especially during the Shuriki returns arc. They could've had Esteban speak more in a somewhat vague sense about how he has personal knowledge of just how dangerous Shuriki is and that he can't allow his familia anywhere near her. Or there could've been a moment where someone checks in on Esteban and lets him know that they are aware of how hard this must be for him and that he isn't in this alone anymore. But instead, we got next to nothing during a part of the show which should've been just as emotional and meaningful to Esteban's development as it was for Elena.

My opinions about Esteban that would likely cause concern for most of the fandom are primarily in reference to some of the people that I ship him with and/or some of my darker headcanons about what exactly the Dark Times™ might have entailed for him.

Victor

In terms of wasted potential and not getting enough screentime, I think Victor and Carla should've joined Team Avalor midway through S3 as opposed to only a few episodes from the end. I also think Elena, Esteban, and Victor's characters would've all benefitted from another flashback episode set just before Shuriki's initial invasion and allowing us to get a better handle on the characters, their relationships, and their states of mind just before their lives were irrevocably change. It's also a bit of an overstatement to say that I "don't think about Victor much." The truth is that I don't think about Victor as an individual entity much (especially in comparison to some of the other characters), but I do think about his relationships with and to other characters (especially Esteban, Carla, and Elena) a good amount--and these are the specific "dynamics" in question that I particularly enjoy Victor as part of and of which I wish that I could see more. I am also aware that Victor/Paloma never interacted in canon, but the potential (shippy or otherwise) of their interactions lives in my head rent-free. Yet another reason that we were robbed of the Delgados getting redeemed earlier in S3.

Shuriki

I'm a bit conflicted regarding Shuriki. I actually mostly like the way that she is utilized in the work as is. I actively don't want her to get more complexity/a sympathetic backstory the way that some others do. She works best as an ominious, omnipotent presence haunting the characters and the narrative (Esteban and Elena in particular). That being said, I do think that the Shuriki returns arc was shorter than it needed to be and that crucial aspects were missing from it. (As I had already mentioned, we were owed more Shuriki & Esteban interaction post-Secret of Avalor. We also should've seen more about how her return impacted the characters other than Elena herself.) I also think that during parts of the return arc, she was taken a bit less seriously than warranted. It became harder to view her as intimidating, insensate evil when she's complaining that her cringefail minions Victor and Carla just burst into song.

#elena of avalor #esteban flores #victor delgado #shuriki #i am once again asking where the estevictor is #like i get why my other esteships are controversial and/or unpopular #but estevictor does seem like a no-brainer and yet it barely exists #tho tbf victor ships in general barely exist #i've only ever seen him paired with rafa and ash #tho carla gets paired with mateo; gabe; marzel and more

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aseriesofunfortunatejan · 6 months

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Hoodlum's flashback(s)

I'm supposed to be studying the economy so you know I stopped everything to buy Chapter 45 instead.

In Chapter 45, right as he learned that Doctor was responsible for Brawler's death (ouch, by the way), Hoodlum has a manga-exclusive flashback to a conversation he had with the guy he liked.

Sorry, I meant Brawler. Hoodlum asks him if he has a bucket list, being that they're wearing bomb collars and all.

(All the while Pupil is begging Junior not to kill himself, but that's not important.) Read more included because I feel compassionate towards the poor souls who didn't watch Akudama Drive.

Putting aside that Hoodlum said the exact same thing I did (!!!), Brawler apparently spoiled his last wish to Hoodlum ahead of time. Rude.

I'll be honest, this is a "meh" narrative choice to me. Of course, this is thankfully only shown as a late flashback, and doesn't take away from the reader's discovery of Brawler's arc, but as far as Hoodlum's feelings about Brawler, I think like this cheapens Episode 6 quite a lot.

Most important, it cheapens Hoodlum's famous gay realisation moment. What's there for his mind to go blank about if Brawler had already told him he felt this way? It's not that hot, he already enjoyed it the one time and had a cute, but not so strong reaction.

By all means, this above should have been in the flashback. If it took that long for Hoodlum to click what kind of person Brawler was when he actively told him some time before Episode 6, then my man is a bonafide idiot!!!!

In any case, I have to admit this is absolutely adorable. It's just... (Thinks about Shikoku Arc) (clenches fist) maybe writing isn't Rokurou Ogaki's strong suit... (my long nails dig a hole inside my palm)

Here goes my take that Hoodlum didn't quite understand what was happening, I guess. It seems it was actually the exact opposite, which is fair.

Regardless, as much as I think this flashback cheapens Hoodlum's reaction both to Brawler being really hot and to Brawler being really cold dead, this flashback is used very well within Chapter 45.

Although I believe that Hoodlum could (and did, as far as the anime went) come to this conclusion by himself, this memory of Brawler's last wish informs his decision to attack Doctor.

He actually has a second flashback right then. The guy has been through a lot!

I know someone whose fanfiction has gotten slightly invalidated by this admittedly late translation, but isn't the manga low-key Rokurou Ogaki's own fanfiction itself anyway?

It's fine, staff, she's just "gender unknown", so you can't justify taking this down.

Hoodlum recalls Doctor teaching him where the carotid artery is. This is actually a pretty interesting flashback - I can't say I would have guessed that's when she taught him that, but it makes sense coming from her. (That being said - what are they doing???? What's happening to you my man??? Are you into it? Why are you under the covers? Everyone knew your ass wasn't on top during that scene, but in any case, why is this happening to you? How did this come about? RUN!)

Loser has never "cut a carotid artery" before 🙄

For all his flaws, Rokurou Ogaki's flashbacks are worked very well into the narration. The two next panels are a perfect mirror of each other. (It's unclear whether the first panel takes place in the flashback or the present, but I don't think it should matter.)

As a hommage to what he and Brawler both did in the first flashback, Hoodlum flicks his thumb in a (bloody) thumbs up.

He then thinks to himself: "There's nothing better… than… fighting against… someone… stronger… than you…" (B-Bro…) He remembers his love intere- bro's smile one last time before dying.

A very sweet, interesting interpretation. This remains a little too on the nose to my taste - but it is interesting nonetheless. Hoodlum ended up learning the same bad lesson as Brawler. (Grandpa claims another soul.) This makes sense, since Brawler is someone he wanted influence from, contrary to Doctor, who forced herself upon him - using Brawler's memory to fight back against Doctor, especially since he's avenging him, ties the story together beautifully.

It's mostly the Brawler flashback I take issue with - I think it really serves the narration better if Hoodlum comes to this conclusion with less literal clues, in "Episode 6". As far as the narration of Chapter 45 of the manga goes, though, this is beautiful. Fuck you, Doctor. But I understand your tastes.

#akudama drive #akudama drive comicalize

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pikahlua · 2 years

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Reading some of your comments, I've been thinking about why I dropped MHA a while a go as a Bakguou fan. I'm not sure if you want to hear it but you were asking anon to tell you the reasons why they think Bakugou's character arc isn't working for them so I'll say what I think. I think it's Deku. I personally always liked Bakugou and despised Deku from start. I liked Bakugou when he was bad and didn't even want development. If Horikoshi could separate them instead I would've loved MHA a lot more.

First of all, let me point out what an immaculate ask this is. I love it. This is exactly what I was asking for. You have perfectly expressed your feelings without saying anything to provoke or upset me. I have every respect for your opinion despite not sharing the same opinion, and I would have this ask stand as a monument and example of perfection to the world. Kudos, friend.

Now, since you offered your opinion, I will respond to it with my thoughts. I hope to do so just as respectfully as you have.

So I feel for you. I did not “despise Izuku from the start” as you have, but I have come to a point in the story where I’m feeling that frustration with how slowly his character is developing, so I understand where a lot of the negative feelings aimed at Izuku particularly lately have been coming from. Even though I like him, I don’t like him nearly as much as I love Katsuki (I think that’s obvious), and while my frustrations haven’t made me STOP liking Izuku, they are still frustrations that can annoy me at times. Additionally, my perspective on the story has changed since I first started watching/reading MHA, and these perspective changes put early story arcs in a new light that highlight Izuku’s character flaws when before I may have missed them. That said, I do love me some character flaws, so I wouldn’t say that made me dislike Izuku either.

And this is such a weird thing to say, but I kinda like that you despise Izuku. XD I don’t know what it is exactly about Izuku that you dislike, but if it’s anything other than “he’s just too whiny” like I’ve had to deal with in every fandom for decades, I have even more respect for you. Aside from character flaws, Izuku does have a few traits that can be gratingly annoying on occasion, and while they’re not bad enough to make me feel the need to air my grievances, I won’t deny that they exist. I think some of that is just by virtue of him being a shounen protagonist--some tropes are unavoidable.

Now, here’s the part where I have to speculate, because I don’t fully know what you mean by how you “liked Bakugou when he was bad and didn’t even want development.” To me, Bakugou “was bad” in two ways during the early parts of the story. One of those ways was how he plainly rejected norms and acted confrontational with everyone regardless of the situation (season 1 and season 2, basically), and I can absolutely understand why you would want more of that. But then there’s the plainly unhero-like behavior from, say, episode 1, which is a moment I treasure for what it means in his story but is not behavior I would want to see continued from that point because that would leave Katsuki stagnant and unable to demonstrate his actual heroism.

Now, that said, you claim to not want any “development” from Katsuki, which...I also don’t know exactly what you mean. Do you want his character PERSONALITY not to change? Or do you want his story character to remain static. I’m not sure. I can understand (but don’t necessarily agree with) the former feeling, but I definitely don’t agree with the latter. Katsuki’s character development, especially as begun in his Starting Line episode, was exactly the initial draw to Katsuki for me. I have already alluded to how sick I’ve become of lancer rival characters regressing after learning a lesson in other posts.

I can’t help but laugh (respectfully) at what I perceive to be the potential result of your desire to have Izuku and Katsuki separated. What you’re expressing sounds to me like you would actually prefer a story in which Katsuki is the main character. That’s the major effect of splitting these two characters up like you’re suggesting. And I can totally understand THAT desire, because Katsuki is the main character of my heart (looool). But I also have enough experience with narratives to know that one of the reasons I love Katsuki as much as I do, the reason Katsuki is allowed to be the character he is in so many ways, is precisely because he’s NOT the main character. Remember what I said earlier about some of Izuku’s annoying traits stemming from the fact that he’s the protagonist? Yeah, I don’t want any of that crap getting on my precious Katsuki Bakugou. Izuku is a shield protecting Katsuki’s character from getting bogged down in that protagonist bullshit, because Katsuki IS the formulaic main character of a shounen anime who doesn’t have to do any of that shounen anime protagonist bullshit because someone else is doing it for him. That’s a little too detailed of a discussion for me to go into right now, but that’s the summation of my feelings for that.

You say some things about wanting to watch Katsuki struggle and win as the underdog and fight and earn respect, and I think you’re justified in wanting those things for him. In my opinion, that’s exactly what we get from MHA. He hasn’t been given any help in those regards--everything he’s achieved he did so on his own. The ways in which Izuku has been involved have been as Katsuki’s inspiration in some situations. But that seems to be your sticking point, which I certainly can’t help you with or would even want to try to talk you out of. You don’t like Izuku, so your feelings make sense. For me, it’s more like the Izuku that inspires Katsuki is a symbol more than Izuku the person. Katsuki is seeing the things he needs to see in Izuku (not the full picture of Izuku) in order to push him in the areas he needs to improve. And when it comes to Katsuki’s fights and whatnot, I’ve said before I don’t think people should ONLY want him to have cool fights, but I do understand the desire to want to see one on occasion. It’s just that that feeling in me gets squashed every time I think about what Katsuki is in this story. He’s already a top fighter. No fight he wins will ever look like an underdog overcoming the odds because he’s been a combat savant from the beginning. The underdog aspect comes into play when he’s rescuing someone. It would be a far more amazing underdog moment for Katsuki to save someone like Tenko Shimura when it feels like that’s something Izuku, the rescue savant, wants to do, especially when the story seems to imply Izuku is destined to do so. So I guess in this way I’m getting those things fulfilled for me that you feel aren’t being fulfilled for you. And it’s gonna make sense then why I’m still into the story where you’re not. I hope you do get those feelings fulfilled in some other part of the story or in another story altogether then.

I do think Katsuki interacts with other characters, but I can understand why many people feel like it’s not enough. (That said, I think ALL the characters could stand to interact a bit more than they do, but at least we don’t feel like it’s TOO MUCH instead I guess.) It does seem like that’s an unfortunate consequence of the story coming to an end when Horikoshi seems to be running out of steam. I hope he gets to have all the scenes and moments he wanted in his story at least. And we will always have fanfic for those moments we didn’t get in the story proper.

Your not wanting Izuku to gain from Katsuki’s victories is...a very individualistic perspective (no, I do NOT mean you are being selfish). Like, there are individualistic- vs communal-focused societies, and many western countries tend to skew more individualistic whereas many eastern countries skew communal. Japan for sure is one of those communal-focused societies, and many of their stories will reflect this, such as in themes where “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Shounen loves its themes of friendship, comradery, and teamwork, so MHA was always destined to have a fair bit of that in it. I’d warn you a lot of Japanese stories will be like that, but I do wonder if you’ve had an anime you felt did give you want you want before. I personally don’t see Izuku’s wins as Katsuki’s losses--Katsuki has always in some fashion desired Izuku, which may have manifested as jealousy or yearning for friendship or comradery (or whatever, depending on who all you readers are). If you didn’t like that about him from the outset, I’m afraid you were long doomed for latter parts of the story. I’m not gonna say anything that will make you feel better about the likely ending to MHA in that regard. I happen to like where things are going (at least the things I can TELL about it, since I’m guessing as much as anyone else about it).

(And I mean, calling what Katsuki did to Izuku “mellow for an anime character” is its own can of worms. We don’t even really know enough about their childhood and middle school years prior to 9th grade to be able to comment definitively on any of that, I would think. I will say though it’s not anyone’s job to attack or defend Katsuki for any of that in a conversation with anyone else. You can take what you need to from that situation.)

Again, thank you for your thoughts! I really appreciate them, especially because they actually provided me a constructive point of discussion and some meaningful insight into opinions like yours. You’re always welcome to send more asks! A+ Anon Award!

#ask pika #anon ask #katsuki bakugou #anti izuku midoriya #this isn't an anti post but there are criticisms of izuku in this post that some izuku fans may not wish to read #meta #anime only friendly

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nemovanilla · 1 year

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This is what I want to happen with bakugo for the rest of mha.

1. Edgeshot fails to revive him. Mirio tells midoriya, who stops being able to hold himself together and shigaraki manages to grab him. He tries to take ofa but it doesn’t work (like last time) so they both go into the vestige realm.

2. Midoriya, shigaraki, and bakugo are all in separate locations. I think bakugo is talking to all might, midoriya is in some kind of emotion-induced hellscape/memory thing/etc, and shigaraki is trying to find the holders so he can attack them. I guess afo could be there too.

3. When bakugo figured out that midoriya is here he immediately goes to look for him.

4. Midoriya doesn’t necessarily know everything that happened, or if he does, he’s very confused about it. Sort of like temporary amnesia. He might have a general understanding of the situation but he can’t recall specific events. He just knows there is a sense of urgency. There is one scene where he is walking through the woods and starts being chased down by shigaraki, or rather, the thing that is possessing him. It would be a monstrous form of afo’s consciousness. Midoriya runs away, and with every step he becomes younger and younger until he falls into the ravine. When he looks up, the monster is gone for the meanwhile, and teenage bakugo is offering him a hand up.

5. They talk about some things, but they get cut off by shigaraki chasing them down. They start to run, then get into some kind of really tense situation, for example if they’re about to fall off a cliff. Maybe it’s just midoriya who falls, but bakugo jumps to catch him. I don’t think they can use their quirks, so they are stuck.

6. Midoriya is telling bakugo he needs to let go of him so he can save himself. I don’t think either of them realize it isn’t real, or if they do, then they think they could still actually die if they die here. Bakugo tells him all sorts of sappy things to explain why he won’t let go, but midoriya still wants him to. When bakugo refuses, he lets go and starts to fall. Bakugo is in the middle of confessing to him, and midoriya hears these words as he is falling. This gives him enough presence of mind to find the usual vestige world before he hits the ground.

7. Midoriya is alone with the vestiges, except for all might, who is still missing. I think that the second user should berate midoriya, tell him seomtehing like “if you had learned to control your heart, he never would’ve died” and midoriya no longer believes him because now he knows he wasn’t crazy for loving bakugo. He would then tell the second user that he tried to warn bakugo of shigaraki targeting him, but the vestiges all said it was a bad idea. He finally gets to have his own say in how he experiences his emotions. Maybe halfway through this bakugo would show up with all might and he would watch in awe. Then he and midoriya would talk some more and (finally, FINALLY) hold hands.

8. The effects of this (according to the theory where bakugo tapped into ofa and used gear shift on accident) would be insane. Maybe ofa would properly resurrect bakugo.

9. Bakugo and midoriya work together in the vestige world to take out that monstrous afo and save shigaraki that way.

10. At some point during all of this, midoriya has to figure out that shigaraki deserves to be saved because he is a person, and not because he used to want to be a hero. As of right now, he still believes that villains don’t really count as people, and has yet to realize just how wrong he is. This is not lapse in judgement on horikoshi’s part because uraraka already came to this conclusion a long time ago.

11. When they both get out of this alive, bakugo tells midoriya “Im so glad you’re alive” thus completing his character arc. Whatever midorya answers would complete his own arc, though I’m not exactly sure what that would be. I suppose if he says “Im glad too” that could be signifying how he has learned to actually value his own life, but that feels a bit clunky and unlike midoriya.

#mha #bakugo katsuki #Midoriya izuku #bkdk #bnha

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galaxy-brain-rasslin · 9 months

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Thoughts on AEW World's End

Finally got around to watching this. It was pretty fun.

Zero Hour

Willow Nightingale vs Kris Statlander

It was fun. Willow is one of my favorites in the women's roster of AEW. There weren't any real stakes, which was fine. Having Stokely Hathaway on commentary was definitely a plus, since he's hilarious. It was just great to see two good wrestlers having a good wrestling match. I would have been fine with either of them winning, but I'm glad Willow won.

TNT Title Battle Royal Thing

It was your standard battle royal, really. Had some entertaining moments. I'm a fan of Lance Archer, so it was great seeing him. And Danhausen. I would have liked the final two to be Dino-Kane vs Archer, but it is what it is. Nothing special.

Wheeler Yuta vs Hook (c), FTW Title, FTW Rules

Yuta is absolutely perfect as being this snotty little piece of shit that's clearly good at wrestling, but not as good as he thinks he is. Hook has definitely come a long way in his wrestling since he started. I enjoyed it. I love listening to Taz consistently just sound so damn proud of Hook. It adds so much flavor to the match. Decent match overall. Nothing particularly special, but it was fun watching Yuta get the shit kicked out of him.

World's End

Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, Mark Brisco vs Brody King, Jay White, Jay Lethal, Rush

Mark Brisco is one of the most endearing, and one of the silliest, people in AEW. I assume that it was at least partially his request, but it's so sweet (and so sad) that the entrance screens still reference his brother everywhere.

Brody King will always terrify me.

Rush is unfairly cool.

Jay White is one of my favorite wrestlers. I love how he flips between being this cocky asshole to a sniveling piece of shit during matches. I also like how always looks like he's about to collapse after seemingly after match. It adds a lot for me.

I liked this one. It had a lot of people who I'm pretty glad to see on my screens. Having Daddy Magic on commentary is always innerdaining. Genuinely happy to see Garcia actually get the pin, since he's someone who I definitely wanted to get further in the CC. I wouldn't mind seeing him get the ROH Pure title off of Yuta in 2024. Miro vs Andrade el Idolo

Miro and Andrade were two of the reasons I watched Collision. I really enjoyed Andrade's character when he debuted, and Miro is just very good at being an incredibly intense dude who I believe would try to kill God. Andrade's AEW theme is also just one of my favorite wrestling themes.

Since I had read before watching this that Andrade's contact was up, I expected him to lose. The match was decent. They're both good wrestlers, but it wasn't anything that blew me away. Miro winning makes sense, though I still don't fully understand where the Miro/CJ arc is going (I assume I've missed something)

Riho vs Toni Storm (c), AEW Women's World Title

Toni Storm doing this unhinged 1950s, Sunset Boulevard thing has been fantastic. She's great in the ring, too. Solid match with nothing particular exciting going on about it. While Toni did win this one, I would like to see her lose the belt sometime soonish, because I do want to see where they would take the character. If Mercedes shows up in AEW, I wouldn't be opposed to Toni losing to her. But that's also just my bias.

Swerve Strickland vs Dustin Rhodes

I love Swerve. He's absolutely one of my favorite active wrestlers. I've wanted a belt on him for ages. He's also so absurdly popular that I'm pretty sure he could actually kill someone in the ring and the audience would be chanting "WHOSE HOUSE? SWERVE'S HOUSE!" during the murder.

Sucks that Keith Lee couldn't be cleared because of whatever injury has been nagging him since 2022.

For a match with, ultimately, no real build, it was pretty good. Dustin is by no means a bad wrestler-- I was a fan of Goldust back in the da, too. And Swerve is just legitimately great in the ring. Always glad to see Swerve win a match.

Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, and Sting vs Ricky Starks, Big Bill, Konosuke Takeshita and Powerhouse Hobbs

I'll be honest, outside of listening to Tony Schiavonne do his "IT'S STIIIIIIIIIIIING" I just couldn't care about this match. I just had no investment in it, to the point that can't really remember anything specific about it.

I'm getting kind of tired of the Don Callis family, and honestly just Don Callis in general.

I don't care about Jericho and Callis.

I don't know if it's his choice or not, but I wish that Sammy would actually get away from Jericho and do something independently.

Starks and Bill are fun as a pair. They're cool.

I want to see Takeshita more.

Darby is here for a good time, not a long time.

I will probably be a little sad when Sting retires (although if he un-retires, as wrestlers tend to do, I will also be annoyed).

Abadon vs Julia Hart (c), AEW TBS Title

It was alright. I'm glad to see Abadon finally wrestling more than just on Halloween, and seeing a match that was really just two different types of Spooky fighting each other was kinda fun. The audience was definitely enjoying it. Julia and Abadon have both had better matches. Something seemed off about it. It almost felt kind of sloppy-- one thing that stuck out in particular was Julia messed up her moonsault at the end of the match.

Didn't expect Abadon to win, but it would have been cool if they did.

Adam Copeland vs Christian Cage (c), AEW TNT Title, no DQ

The audience actively detracted from the match for me. One of my least favorite things is when the audience just sits there shouting "WE WANT [X]" for various props in a no DQ/hardcore match. It feels like they don't really care about the match so much as the specific spot that they're wanting.

That said. I liked this. Christian was great, Adam was great. They worked really hard to give you the feeling that they weren't friends anymore. Had a lot of good hardcore wrestling spots. Watching Nick Wayne eat shit because the burning table didn't break was kinda funny. Copeland winning was a nice move.

Christian Cage vs Adam Copeland (c), AEW TNT Title

Dino-Kane, having won the battle royal from Zero Hour, showed up and mauled Copeland. Dino-Kane was about to request his title shot when Christian Cage managed to con the title shot from him. So, Christian signed the contract for the title shot. The match was made official. Bell rings, Christian hits a spear and wins back the TNT title.

lmao.

I appreciate it just for being such a POS move from Christian.

Jon Moxley vs Eddie Kingston (c), Continental Classic finals, NJPW Strong Openweight title, ROH World title, AEW Continental Title

Match of the night, categorically. Mox and Eddie are fantastic. I was absolutely glued to my screen. These dudes know how to put on a good match, and so many matches with Eddie always feel like they have these enormous stakes involved, no matter who insignificant the match actually is. Few people can, or do, get me as invested in their matches as Eddie Kingston does in his.

I loved it. I was so happy to see Eddie actually win it all. And to see Mox and Eddie hug after the match-- not in a shipping way. You do you with that, it's not my cup of scene-- but because I like that Mox and Eddie are seemingly back to being friends.

I don't like to sit and analyze stuff involving Eddie too much, because I feel like it's disrespectful to try to do inside baseball shit to a guy like him and the work he puts into his character.

Samoa Joe vs MJF (c), AEW World Title

MJF is another dude who I don't like to sit and analyze too much, because of his character work and things like that. The commitment MJF and Eddie have to keeping kayfabe is genuinely great, and I have nothing but respect and appreciation for that.

That being said, we gotta do some of that with this.

MJF is, according to myraid reports, like Super Injured and in tons of pain. He's been dealing with stuff for a while.

I think this managed to help the story of the match a long, but it hurt the actual quality of it.

MJF's babyface run lately has felt a lot like an homage to that 1980s-early 1990s babyface archetype. Get beat down, overcome adversity, etc.-- the same kind of thing that Cody Rhodes has done. MJF is also a great babyface because he's very open about a lot of his personal issues, which makes him relatable to be people (part of why people like Hangman Page is the whole "anxious millennial cowboy" thing is very relatable to many). Being injured makes MJF the underdog. Makes you want to rally behind him even more and see him win. Especially against someone like Samoa Joe. Especially on his home turf.

But I can't help but wonder if this match would have been better if MJF had been at 100%. Something about it felt off. I don't know if I was just reading into it too much, or what. Maybe MJF was always going to be injured for the purposes of the match. I have no idea. While I can wonder, it doesn't really do any good.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the match. I'm a fan of Samoa Joe's, and I'm glad to see AEW treating him as this monster of a dude who just wrecks people's shit.

At this point, I just really hope that MJF is able to do whatever he needs to do so that he can recover from all his shit falling apart. Especially with what happens after the match.

Aftermath

After the match, The Devil's henchmen come to the ring and threaten to beat up Adam and MJF-- specifically, threatening to hit them with a chair. MJF trying to convince them to attack him, and not Adam. Adam trying to divert the attack onto him and not MJF. Then the lights go out.

When they come back, Adam is now sitting in the chair that the henchman had been brandishing. The four henchman unmask themselves. It's Wardlow, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, and Roderick Strong.

So, in a move that was legitimately not surprising, but also the only logical move in the narrative-- Adam Cole is The Devil that had been attacking MJF and others. I am absolutely okay with this.

I had been waiting for a while to see how they were going to split up the MJF/Adam Cole team. Adam Cole is one of the most morally reprehensible pieces of shit out there. It's one of his most significant character traits.

I'm legitimately looking forward to seeing where MJF goes from here. His best friend, his only friend, betrayed him and took from him one of the only things he cared about. He trust Adam, and Adam abused that trust. Now he's left with nothing.

When MJF comes back, he will absolutely have the crowd behind him, so I'm hoping they don't decide he should come back and turn heel (like when they kept Rollins as a heel after he returned from his knee exploding several years ago).

There's a lot of places this story could still go, and a lot of them have the potential to be pretty entertaining.

#pro wrestling #aew #aew worlds end #aew spoilers #swerve strickland #samoa joe #adam cole #eddie kingston #jon moxley #mjf #maxwell jacob friedman

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supernovaa-remnant · 1 year

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Ask game: 24 22 and 19

19. What are come of your favorite pieces of c!Dream animations/songs/other types of video/audio content?

The Old Days animatic by Knp lives rent free in my brain. Watching that animatic changed the trajectory of my life I'm so serious it's so aklsjdhsgajksdshass the way it so perfectly represents c!dream's longing to return to a simpler past? when he could laugh and have fun with c!george and c!sapnap???? the way you can see when c!dream stops smiling in the animatic?? aughhhh c!dream team my c!dream team you are a wound that never stops aching.

22. If you had all the time, resources, and skills to create your ideal piece of c!Dream fan content, what would it be?

I've talked about it before, but genuinely You and I Drink the Poison From the Same Vine (my theoretical c!dreambur semi-canon compliant fic that I talked abt in the post linked). I think about it all the time. I would love to just... have the commitment needed to write this long fic that examines canon through the lens of one non-canon element being added.

Also, it'd be really really fun to write interactions between c!punz and c!wilbur (where c!punz doesn't understand why c!dream keeps c!wilbur around and does what he wants and c!wilbur holds his connection to c!dream over c!punz's head like a taunt).

Uh, other than that, I have a slide show about c!dream that I never finished. I started making it with the goal of presenting it to my non-c!dream sympathetic irls haha

24. When/how did you become a c!Dream apologist?

Okay, this is going to get long and I may get into way more detail than I need to, so buckle in because this was quite the journey for me.

So, I didn't get into the fandom until around august-september of 2021. However, I had multiple irls who were really into the dsmp in late 2020-early 2021. And, uh, they're very very non-sympathetic to c!dream. (also believers in the l'manburg mythos, but we are not getting into that...) anyway, I heard a lot about the dsmp from an outside perspective during my time of not being in the fandom. And this included hearing about the exile arc (with one hilarious instance where my friends did not specify it was rp so for a moment I thought cc!dream was just a really really bad dude 💀) and hearing about how horrible c!dream was how evil he was etc etc.

In typical "I am not invested in this fandom at all but my dear friend is" fashion, I just agreed with them. All of my info came from hearing them talk abt something they were interested in, so why would I disagree?

Anyway, flash forward, like, half a year, and I begin watching the manhunts. I got really into them and ended up reading some non-dsmp fics. And then everything spiralled and I got sucked into the fandom. I remember reading some c!dream redemption fics, and I was really enjoying it, but I still didn't consider myself an apologist. Afterall, my entire first impression of him was how horrible he was through my friends.

Anyway, I don't have an exact timeline, but it wasn't until I actually followed someone from dreblr that I started fully embracing my c!dreamisms and my c!dream apologism. I kept my c!dream apologisms hush hush in front of my friends for so long. I still do to an extent. I'm scared, okay? And I don't wanna get into arguments with them, so it's best to just, like, not bring it up I guess.

#c!dreamie has always been my favorite character though #it definitely started with some cc bias bc I got into the fandom via manhunts #but it has evolved from that #stella answers #sioster #dreblr #ask game

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lovecolibri · 1 year

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SaL anon here bestie and *deep sigh* here we are...again. Not to get off topic but have you ever seem The Green Mile?? I have a complicated relationship with that movie but I the thing from it permanently imprinted on my brain is when the warden comes in demands "What in the Blue Fuck was That!?" It a whole ass mood right now after watching that clip and I highly recommend just watching that line to get the full effect.

Why, for the love of God, are we bringing up Shannon again??!! She didn't even really come up during Eddie's PTSD arc but we're just gonna randomly insert her in a episode sort of about death?? Of course we are because KR has literally no new ideas. Oh except for this season where she's like "You know what hasn't been done yet?? We haven't emphasized importance of family by blood so we'll redeem all the horrible parents with zero effort to let everyone know your grudges are petty and just hurt you." You know why that hasn't been done Kristen??!! Because this is a show about FOUND family, realizing your importance and worth in a space that's safe for you to do that, and having the support you need when the bad times come!! She has actually forgotten the very foundation of this show and I'd scream but I'm also so, so tired. You know what time it is then 🍸🍸🍸. Gonna read comfort fic and find a comfort show to put on when that gets hard. Cheers friend!!

Bestieeeee! What. The fuck. Is happening?! I didn't answer this Friday and I should have because yesterday was a WHOLE other mess! I feel so bad for dragging you into this show just in time for it to all go to shit. We survived RNM, we don't deserve to suffer like this again! 😩😩😩

Your "KR has literally no new ideas" line is SO apt after that clip yesterday literally recycling the eddieana meeting. Parallels can be used and be effective but after she literally just re-did Buck's fight with Bobby over returning to work with Eddie (only to not show their apology or Eddie's decision to return to work on screen), and re-did Eddie's "it's time to get back out there after Shannon and figure out what you want") s4 arc last week, this "Buck meets a girl on a call in the exact same way Eddie met Ana" just looks...so so so lazy. Not to mention Buck and Eddie are only ever with women after they meet them on calls, AND we are reverting Buck back to season 1 "a relationship with THIS women must be able to fix me" which is just...gross. Buck was always one of my favorite characters but GOD I dread his personal scenes now because KR just doesn't know what to do with him unless it's trying to get into his pants in some way and she doesn't understand any of the motivations or what drives him as a character. Stop ruining my boy!! GOD I need her off this show like, YESTERDAY.

ANYWAY

This whole Shannon thing has me so 🙄🙄🙄 because as good as Ryan and Gavin are and Eddie/Chris scenes always are because they play so well off each other, this is like, the LEAST interesting thing they could have done and it's clearly not about Chris or Eddie or their complicated history with Shannon, it's just being used to push the "Eddie choosing someone to date for himself" idea. They could have given something deep and emotional this season like Chris now being old enough to start asking harder questions about Shannon leaving and Eddie trying to navigate that with him, or having a talk about Chris starting to be interested in dating and asking Eddie some hard questions about why Eddie isn't dating again since Ana has been gone for so long. But nope! It's "let's pretend this parent never did anything awful and there are zero complex feelings about them" hours once again. Thanks, I HATE it. And for me it ruins the nuance of Shannon's character because she WAS just a person who was struggling. But where Eddie thought his son didn't need *him* so much as he needed Eddie to provide for him and once he found out Chris just wanted to spend time WITH him he fought tooth and nail to make it work no matter how hard, Shannon decided it was too much and cut off all contact because keeping in touch with her son and making sure he knew he was loved wasn't as important as her not wanting to be put in an awkward position. And that's life! And Chris and Eddie should be allowed to acknowledge that they loved her at some point, Chris should be allowed to have good memories of his mom, and still be allowed to acknowledge that she abandoned them and hurt them deeply and there are complex feelings around that!

These complex parental relationships leading to the found family of the 118 has ALWAYS been at the heart of the show and you're right that KR has NEVER understood that and has spent this season undermining that bond across the whole team and any time the story tries to emphasize the found family it's also still pushing the blood family importance so the storytelling comes out confused and in opposition to itself giving the audience emotional whiplash. I'm just so very very tired of this. I'm positive it's too much to hope for but with audiences tuning out and the constant complaints at how the show is handling arcs and pacing and KR's choices, and even now articles by people who often write about 911 calling out the inconsistencies, maybe the negotiations for renewal will come with some stipulations on who gets to be in charge. Even if I didn't love EVERY storyline choice in the early seasons, the episodes themselves were ALWAYS enjoyable overall and there was so much good stuff going on it was easy to let the stuff I didn't like as much roll past, so it would be good to get back to that sort of vibe again and KR has proved over several seasons that she is NOT up to that task. With the Tarlos wedding wrapped up, we might get...I don't want to say "lucky" because I don't think Tim is the greatest thing ever, but we might get some bit of pacing and consistency and flow back in the show (I know LS has some pacing issues as well but that feels to me more like them having to work around RL's insistence on centricity than anything else)

Oof. Lets see if we can make it through these last few episodes with this dating nonsense, the sperm donor arc and L coming back, and maybe even a Tay Kay jumpscare. Can't wait 🙄 At least Ravi is back home and the finale emergency looks like it will be good and we're getting injured Chim so we're going to get *some* crumbs out of this mess. And then it will be summer and I've got a fic idea started soooo, we'll see if I can get anywhere with my astronaut!Buck, NASA medic!Eddie Countdowns inspired thingy. Cheers my friend, we are going to NEED IT. (But hey, if we survived RNM, we can do ANYTHING. But also we shouldn't have to and I need this show to STOP IT.) 🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹

#my sweet nonnie friends #sleeping at last anon #911 #911 spoilers #anti shannon diaz #for blacklisting purposes #*oh ariana we're really in it now.gif*#brb gotta go scream into the woods for an hour #and then binge more fic until i stop wanting to pull my hair out #why can't normal things make my brain produce the good chemicals? this is bullshit

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