#being real I have to say this was a very poorly executed arc and I really didn’t care for it much

[nekropsii]

“Bad Representation” is actually a topic I’m really passionate about and interested in, I could talk about it for ages. The way people handle “Bad Representation” as a concept is genuinely fascinating, too, so this is both an analytical fascination and an anthropological one.

For clarity, I thoroughly do believe there is such thing as “Bad Representation”, especially when it comes to expressions of pure bigotry from the person doing the representing… But I personally think everyone’s bar for what counts as “Bad Representation” is set a little bit too strictly, has no real account for capitalistic and/or historical restrictions - For Example: Language and common understanding of queer identity being far different in the 1950’s than it is now, and Studio Meddling - and also, interestingly, tends to take no account for the opinion of those getting “represented”, or the idea of individual satisfaction.

There’s been many, many times where a character is objectively pretty bad representation by modern standards, but discussion surrounding it takes no account for the concept of Resonance. Sometimes a character is not “Good Representation” as an objective concept, but they are relatable, likable, and quite fun to watch. I’ve seen quite a few instances of people talking down to the mentally ill or disabled for enjoying a Slasher in part because of their disorder/disability, or queer people for enjoying Hays Code villains. Sometimes a character isn’t written kindly, or isn’t written well, but they really resonate with you… And that counts for something.

One of my favorite characters - one who has helped me come to terms with my cPTSD and OSDD - is a representation of PTSD + DID that is objectively not very good. He’s basically a Vietnam War veteran, who gets an Alter in the middle of the war that is basically a self defensive Murder Mode. It’s literally the PTSD from The War and Evil Alter cliche, but there’s just some aspects that really hit for me, like the fact that he’s considered the nicest, kindest person in the cast, and the alter is portrayed clearly as being in constant self defense mode, thinking he’s still in the middle of the war, and also being quite silly. There’s several details I view as being done pretty well, a whole arc about him grappling with his mental health in a way I find quite fascinating and visceral, and I enjoy him quite a lot! But many would agree that he’s “Bad Representation” because of the War PTSD and Evil Alter tropes. Even I agree that those things kinda suck, but that’s not stopping the fact that this character has meant a lot to me, and that I really would not be the same level of okay with myself if I hadn’t discovered this character.

I’ve caught flack for this. I’ve seen many other people latch onto a character who is not executed very well because they find them personally relatable, or are using them to figure some things out about themselves, and also catch flack for it because the character is not “Good Representation” for a group as a whole. No account for Resonance, no account for Individual Experience. It’s a fascinating lack of a sense of nuance.

I think people have forgotten - or perhaps do not realize - that criticizing a base concept, or base execution of a concept, is different from criticizing individual experience. It’s like the difference between criticizing the makeup industry vs. criticizing someone’s personal choice to wear makeup. It is good to point out when something is written or executed poorly, but you do not know the reason why that one individual disabled person enjoys a poorly written character who shares their disability. I would even say that they probably know more than you do that it’s written badly, because they have lived that character’s disability and you likely have not. I think you should maybe step off if a blind person really likes Terezi or something. You do not need to patronize them by telling them that she isn’t “Good Representation” because her quirk isn’t screenreader friendly, and that her blindness has a magical workaround. I think they already know that these are facts about her that are true. They like her for a reason, and that reason is Resonance.

[sapphire-weapon]

So. I gotta say some shit.

I think we all have a tendency to be more gracious to Ada's character than she rightfully deserves. I'm guilty of this, too. We all want to give her the benefit of the doubt and insist that her character serves a purpose and is worth talking about because she's A. such a huge part of Leon's character and B. the only non-white member of the cast, but like.

There's nothing there.

I noticed this when I rewatched Separate Ways recently (because fuck ever playing that shit again holy fuck Separate Ways sucks to play).

After RE2, Ada isn't a character anymore. She has absolutely no arc; her character never develops or goes anywhere. She's not tied to anyone or anything in the plot in a way that matters -- even her relationship with Wesker doesn't fucking matter, because there's no fallout or consequence as a result of anything she does to/with/for him, whether it's beneficial to him or against him. She has only one facet to her personality: snarky and mysterious. We never see her emote or speak in a context removed from either of those two qualifiers. Ever.

She has some softer moments here and there, but they last for like a single line of dialogue or two and then the scene just completely moves on without them -- so, those softer moments never actually matter anyway.

She doesn't enhance or enrich Leon's character in any way; the only thing her character serves to do is isolate him from the main cast, which gives his character nowhere else to go other than horrible, spiraling depression because every action he takes in his life turns out to be completely meaningless -- because it's not allowed to mean anything, because he's become so far divorced from the central plot of the series.

The only functional purpose that Ada Wong actually has is as a plot contrivance to explain how a bad guy did a thing. Other than that, she exists solely as a pair of legs and tits for Leon to chase after.

We all hold out hope that Remake is going to change this and turn her into a real person with autonomous motivations and goals, and there might be some merit to that, but like

She's not there yet. She's just not. There is no there there, when we talk about Ada's character.

And this tiptoeing around that we all do to try to make it seem like we're supportive of her character just

strikes me as silly a lot of the time, man.

I understand wanting to give credit where it's due, but it's not due for Ada's character. And I understand the desire to not be seen as misogynistically bashing her, but I feel like supporting her character as it currently exists is what's actually misogynistic. Because her portrayal in canon is misogynistic.

And I also understand the desire to not be seen as being a ship war fuckhead, but like. It's not about the ships, man. It's about Ada. Specifically Ada. She just sucks, dude.

And this is coming from the person who has probably written more meta about Ada Wong in an attempt to justify her character than basically anyone else in the fucking fandom.

idk I've just been thinking about this lately while perusing EagleOne fics. It feels like everyone in this ship feels obligated to address The Ada Problem before they can start to justify a relationship between Leon and Ashley, and it's like

No, you don't. Especially in Remake canon, you absolutely do not have to bring up Ada at all. Because Remake seems very self-aware of the fact that the problem with Leon's character has always been Ada, which is why they seem to be actively writing her out of his overall arc.

Like. Let's just call it for what it is. Ada is the worst part of Leon's character. The relationship is poorly written and poorly executed and doesn't make any fucking sense for who both characters are actually meant to be. They actively hold each other back -- not as people, but as characters who are meant to meaningfully contribute to the storyline.

And idk I'm just tired. I'm just tired of always having to do the hand-wringy "oh no no, Ada's really cool and great and I'm not trying to diss on her, and her relationship with Leon actually matters" shit, man.

Because she's not cool or great and her relationship with Leon doesn't actually matter -- and if it does matter at all, it's due to the negative impact that her presence brings -- not just to him, but to the entire fucking plot of the series.

She's the worst recurring element in the entire series, and there's not even a close second.

[once-upon-an-animation]

A rant about Reyna’s love life situation in ToA…

So I just read the Tyrant’s Tomb and uhhh…I see why people have such mixed feelings about what happened with Reyna. Here are my thoughts (w/ spoilers of course).

- First of all, that whole Lester/Reyna pseudo love story thing was so…weird? Like, I understood the point of getting Reyna to reflect on dating, but like, did she really need a bizarre romantic subplot with Lester to achieve that? The whole incident w/ Venus felt like it only existed solely for the sake of this moment with Reyna, seeing as it was first introduced in this same book, and will likely be forgotten about afterwards. As a result, the whole thing seems so random with no buildup whatsoever. I think there are better ways to introduce Reyna’s interest in taking on celibacy and joining the Hunters than this pile of weirdness with Lester/Apollo.

- Second of all, a lot of Reyna’s dialogue concerning her love life sounded like Rick Riordan just inserting himself into the story, and it was extremely cringey. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it was OOC for Reyna to say these things, but the language choices made it clear that RR was just using the character to voice his own thoughts (I literally cringed when he used the word “ship” unironically in her speech to Lester/Apollo near the end of the book. Nobody talks like this.) We have never seen any of the kids at New Rome actually mention Reyna’s love life in any of the books as far as I remember (let me know if I’m wrong). So this problem she has with other people “shipping” her doesn’t seem real in-universe and feels like it’s being brought up to address the fandom specifically and sort of…scold(?) them for shipping Reyna with other characters.

In addition, I don’t like it when authors use their characters as a disguise for their own thoughts. It ruins the integrity of the character and the story. If you have something to say to the fandom, just say it instead of hiding behind your character.

- Third, I find the line where Reyna says “Why do healthy friendships have to progress into romance” (or something like that) in response to Lester/Apollo asking her if she’s dating Thalia to be really hypocritical. Romance is a very major theme in RR’s books and he has a knack for pairing up as many characters as possible, even characters who don’t really need to be a relationship/whose romances could have worked just as well as a friendship. This line Reyna says about not every friendship needing to be a romance could apply to almost every couple in this franchise.

I give Percabeth, Frazel, SilenaxBeckendorf, and EmmiexJo a pass, because romance genuinely complements their stories, but as far as other ships goes, I actually think their romances were unnecessary/poorly executed/could’ve worked just as well as a friendship. ChrisxClarisse definitely didn’t need to be a thing; Clarisse doesn’t even give off romance vibes anyway and Chris stops existing after TLO. Grover and Juniper are cute, but nothing would change if their relationship didn’t exist. Jasper/Jiper might have genuinely been better as friends. Caleo ABSOLUTELY didn’t need to happen; I personally believe romance was NOT the best resolution for Leo’s arc. I give props to Nico and Will for being the first gay ship, but again, RR should not be using romance as a bandaid for emotional conflicts. Nico should learn to maintain healthy friendships first before jumping into romance. TysonxElla did not need to happen for any reason at all. A lot of the hinted pairings in The Hidden Oracle (Miranda & Sherman, Chiara x Damien, Valentina x Paolo) didn’t need to exist either. These are all side characters whose romances have little to no impact, and who would lose nothing if they were all just friends. Same for Lavinia x Poison Oak.

As you can see, RR loves to pair people up together. And most of these pairings are straight/straight-passing. But Reyna maybe liking girls is where he finally draws the line, and decides that romance doesn’t need to happen all the time? Seriously? Like don’t get me wrong, it’s cool to finally have a character in this franchise who chooses to be happily single, and I know that Thalia has not expressed any interest in women (neither has Reyna, tbh), but like…still. RR has been gung-ho about romance everywhere else, even with characters where it literally didn’t matter. Why did he draw the line here?

All of this also makes me wonder if Piper/Shel became a thing just to placate disappointed fans who wanted to see a major character in a wlw relationship. I remember RR’s tweet where he was like “I didn’t want to make Reyna like girls because it would seem like girls only like girls if things don’t work out with boys”. This is a nice sentiment, but it becomes questionable when you realize that what he tried to avoid with Reyna is basically what he did with Piper? And to make matters worse, Shel is such a non-character. She exists for a few pages at the very end of the final series, has no canon personality or physical appearance (as far as I remember), and she’s so unimportant, she doesn’t even have a last name! Her only purpose in the story is to show us that Piper likes girls, which is so lame! Why not give a wlw between two fully fleshed out characters instead of this last-minute romance between a major character and a character who’s just a device?

- Lastly, I’m really tired of RR shoving the female characters that he doesn’t want to pair up into vows of celibacy (Rachel, Thalia, and now Reyna). In fact, this happens with the male characters too, where they are either dating (Percy, Grover, Tyson, Leo, Nico, Will, Frank, Jason) or they’re dead (Luke, Octavian, Jason).

Reyna was so close to being the first major character who didn’t fall into this pattern and then it was ruined. There are many options that people can have for their love lives beyond dating or mandatory celibacy, Richard Riordan, and these options are not that hard to write/explore even in a book aimed at preteens. The characters could easily say that they’re not interested in romance at the moment and may become interested at a later point, that they’re interested but are waiting for a person that they truly want to date, that they’re working on friendships right now, that they’re focused on other things right now, etc. Not everyone needs to be paired up, but not everyone needs to take on a vow of celibacy either. Characters are allowed to just be single, no explanations given. There are so many things Reyna could do besides being a Hunter. She could go to school, travel the world, do something similar to Emmie and Jo where she creates a safe haven for others, maybe even a safe haven for abused girls such as a herself. Becoming a Hunter is not the only option here.

Sorry for the length of this rant, and sorry if this post sounds hyper-critical of Rick. I’m just not impressed with the way Reyna’s love life was handled, and how she explained it using dialogue that was essentially just Rick Riordan talking. Very weird.

[infolane]

ARC V MONTH DAY 3 - Duetto of Duelist and Spirit

@arcvmonth​

Let’s get opinions outta the way first! Our favorite cards are the Fairy Tail ones! They are cute and very versatile and star in our main deck! Shoutout to supreme king servant dragon darkwurm, also :>

But, since we are talking about cards, let’s pick up our first optional prompt too and talk about something fun-

In our fanfiction, That Which is Seen, we have introduced new side monsters for each of the yuboys, and fusion aces for the non-fusion bracelet girls. Let’s talk about them and their designs!

-x-x-x-x- 

Odd-Eyes Vanishing Dragon

Yuya’s new dragon friend! Her name is, naturally, as allusion to his unfortunate condition.

Going into this, I knew I wanted to create a design which wouldn’t feel out of place with the other performapals and Odd-eyes pendulum dragon himself, making a more organic looking dragon.

So, I decided to lean into how people say odd-eyes looks like a chicken on this design! :> Huge peets, little hands, many colors.

Like the other dragons, she is a living promise to meet again under God’s gaze.

-x-x-x-x-

Dark Nadir Dragon

Hardest to design and, unfortunately, the least featured of the four. Dark Nadir is rather elegant looking when compared to Dark Rebellion- I wanted something delicate to contrast with the rough and war-worn vibe of Yuto’s dueling.

Her name is actually inspired by Dark Anthelion’s name. That is one great name that is hard to beat... but I went with an astronomical thing to keep in line. I had planned it to be dark blues and purples, but never did get to color her.

-x-x-x-x-

Clear Reverberation Dragon

Not to be confused with the Blue Reverberation /j. I think I did pretty well to keep her in line with Clear-Wing’s aesthetic! And she’s my favorite design, too. I imagine her as being rather small compared to Clear-wing.

She gets a say in teleporting Yugo around and talks to God in the ruined nothingness.

Her name also connects to Yugo’s condition- like a wave of information spreading among people.

-x-x-x-

Starving Solipsism Dragon

A lonely dragon for a lonely boy, as her name implies. Another one I did less with than I would have liked. There is something particularly ethereal with her, I think.

The lavander and light yellow sets her well apart from Starve Venom in terms of color and the plants growing between her horns are really fun to draw!

-x-x-x-x-

I don’t really have finished art on hand for the new bracelet girl monsters, but I’ll talk about the concepts.

See, I do believe that there was an intention to give all four of them fusion-based aces... and the anime executed it real poorly, only working well with Serena and Yuzu. So, naturally, I went at it for Ruri and Rin.

So Rin’s fusion ace is Twee Stitchwitch Evibell.

This card, in the fanfiction, is shared between her and Sora, functioning as a shared persona in order to cause chaos in the Synchro dimension. The monster itself looks like a witch, naturally, dressed in black, with mismatched orange and green eyes.

Evibell as a concept is also featured in my other fic, And There Were Four. 

This monster is a saboteur, a smart thing hard to catch and a means to an end, for the sake of loved ones. The use of fusion, for Rin, symbolizes how she does not care for the way, for enemies decided by people she has nothing to do with. As far as she is concerned, there is only a friend that uses Fusion.

Ruri’s own monster is Lyrilusc - Beholding Lammergeier

Born from her desire to understand the war down to her bones, she first uses this card against Sora inside a fracture. Despite the nature of the duel in exposing Sora as an agent of fusion, there is nothing but fondness to it.

This monster looks like other lyriluscs, but seems rather menacing in blacks, whites and rusty oranges.

[skylaryozora]

Late AF Opinion on Fate: The Winx Saga

No one asked for it, but I'm gonna write my opinion on Fate here too before the second season is released (if you're curious about my reactions to specific scenes, please feel free to visit my highlight 'fate comments' on IG, but I'll be basing this post on what I wrote back then).

Let's start with my initial impression, which iirc was in December 2020 when I saw the trailer and pictures for the first time. To put it shortly, I didn't like it at all (here I need to mention that I'm not a fan of live action adaptations in general so I may have been biased from the very beginning that it's not something I will like anyway). I wasn't surprised by the fact that this version was going to be once again focused very much on Bloom, but was still disappointed they didn't decide to try and divide the focus on the characters more evenly, so that it could feel more like six different arcs with comparable screentime which would be more fitting for a series titled "Winx Club" after all. But well, that's just my wishful thinking. Regarding the casting, while I considered Bloom, Stella, and Aisha to be quite spot on, I was quite astonished when I saw the actresses who were going to take on roles of Musa and Flora (at first I thought she was really supposed to be Flora), and that there would be no Tecna, but I guess everyone had a similar reaction. Back then it did not look that convincing to me, so I didn't feel encouraged to watch it when it was released. I observed the fandom's reaction to it, and saw how polarized the opinions were. Some people loved it, others hated it, and there was a third group which claimed that it's okay as long as you don't consider it an adaptation of Winx Club but a separate story. After several months, I gave in and decided to give it a try, all the more because it's just a few episodes so I managed to finish it all during one weekend.

Before I dive into my impressions, I need to stress something first. When I posted some criticism regarding specific scenes on my IG stories, one person pointed out that it's funny that I criticize, and yet I keep watching the show. I don't understand the reasoning behind it; if I stopped watching the show because I didn't like it, there would be people understandably complaining that I shouldn't even say anything when I didn't see all the episodes. Personally, I think it's better to watch until the end to understand the whole picture and provide a better grounded opinion, unless the show would be something absolutely unbearable to watch for some reason.

In general, I would consider the show to be... nothing special, and personally I felt it missed the point when it comes to main aesthetic/theme of the original franchise. When I think about the original Winx Club, what comes right into my mind are the following: vibrant colors, glitter, 2YK fashion, wings of all shapes possible, and fantasy mixed with a sci-fi, highly modern world. The last one is especially fascinating and pretty unique, which makes this show stand out, however, I can imagine that you would need a pretty huge budget to pull it off in a live action in a way which could enchant people. But what is great, the colorful aesthetic didn't stop anyone from implementing mature, adult themes.

In order to make this post concise, I will simply list the things which bug me about this show:

American (Bloom) vs British (all the others iirc) trope

the show's aesthetic seems to be leaning more towards dark academia than Y2K but it's quite poorly executed (fashion choices are disappointing, to say the least), and Alfea is changed into a generic school castle with dull colors and only three teachers

numerous awkward dialogues

Terra being the laughing stock because of her body type (if the show aims to be body-neutral/positive, then discrimination and hate which "plus size" people are forced to deal in real life shouldn't permeate into fictional universe as well, but that's just me)

fairies lost wings a long time ago (this moment had me like "seriously?"), and Bloom, as the protagonist, is ofc the first one since ages to activate the transformation which... didn't transform her; instead, her fire power manifested as flames on her back, vaguely resembling wings which didn't even enable flying - this also misses the point of the original show which has always been immensely focused on wings and flying throughout all the seasons

majority of characters were changed DRASTICALLY (I mean especially their personalities, for me most of them are totally different characters), picking bad traits and overblowing them

Burned Ones as a serious threat didn't convince me because girls, despite being beginners, were able to defeat them two or three times

several anticlimactic scenes

not sure how to feel about the only reportedly queer characters being villains

show is again focused mainly on Bloom and Sky

the word Winx is used just as a name of the girls' suite for some unknown reason... and ofc in the series' title.

With that being said, I can't consider it a good adaptation. I know that an adaptation has all the right to be different from the original, and it actually should be different, but in case of Winx Club and Fate, the drastic changes concerned aspects crucial to the original show which irreversibly colored my impression of the adaptation. I'm writing this because I have encountered many well-written analyses, fan-reboots, redesigns, and headcanons revolving around Winx Club, which were all made by the fandom's members and some of them put the bar pretty high. So, I guess I'd rather refer to Fate as an AU very loosely based on Winx Club.

When it comes to the upcoming second season, you can imagine I'm not hyped at all. I see they added Flora (which makes me wonder if it was sparked by the backlash from fans?), and I think I will watch the second season to see how they decided to write her, out of curiosity, without any expectations or hopes. In the trailer she seems to be saying "Losing control is the best part" which doesn't really sound like something the original Flora would say, so she's probably rendered very differently as well.

Anyway, that would be it. Let me know your thoughts if you have any at this point.

Just a disclaimer: I don't want to denounce any Fate fans, I know many people enjoyed the show and are excited for the new season. I'm just not one of them, I have listed my main reasons above, and as I say, we all have our preferences and expectations so it's probably impossible to create something which could please the whole fandom.

[kaelor0409]

So I've been watching @ohnoitstbskyen's play through of The Mageseeker, and been having a great time. The commentary is entertaining and insightful, as you'd probably expect if you're familiar with his content, and some of his comments got me thinking about a few things myself.

I've been on the fence about Mageseeker, since the whole point of the game seems to be to neatly wrap up the Mage Revolution plot that has been Demacia's ongoing arc for literally years now. I was on the fence about the Mage Revolution plot anyway, since it feels very much like the writers asked "how can we make our Generic Good Guy Fantasy Kingdom more nuanced and edgy", and the answer they came up with is "make them White Mana from Magic: The Gathering".

Still, TBSkyen's analysis in the videos below convinced me that there were interesting stories to tell with that premise, even if some of the writers weren't really handling it with the care it deserved.

Not having played the game, the concept of The Mageseeker felt like a hasty attempt by Riot to sweep a poorly thought out plotline under the rug so they could move on to other things. Who would have guessed that a "good" faction herding innocent people (including children) into concentration camps would be controversial?

Having watched a good chunk of the playthrough (and skipped to the end to get the final analysis), I can say that my fears were...somewhat unfounded? The game does mostly wrap up the plots around the Mageseekers and mostly puts a lid on the Mage Rebellion, but admits this is not a "clean" resolution and that the struggle will continue.

The real reason I've come around on The Mageseeker, however, is because I think it moves Demacia into a more narratively interesting place. "Outwardly good faction is secretly xenophobia, dogmatic, and committing a genocide" has honestly been done to death these days. What hasn't been done is "good faction realized 'whoops, we "accidentally" did a genocide', now what?". This is honestly pretty relatable, because if you live in Europe or anywhere Europe colonized, your national history probably includes some genocide.

So let's talk about Javan and Garen.

Jarvan ordered a genocide by knowingly signing an execution order for hundreds, potentially thousands of helpless mages (including children). It doesn't matter that he was "reluctant", it doesn't matter that he had to be talked into it, he willingly gave the order to exterminate an entire ethnic group ("magic" is technically not an ethnicity, but let's not split hairs here). Also his "preferred" alternative to executing them was to keep them locked up forever (which, yes, is still technically genocide), so even if you entirely blame the Mageseekers for the execution order he's still at fault.

Garen remained a loyal soldier even after Jarvan gave the order to commit genocide. He did initially object, but his objections were that his sister and friend might also get executed, not that the order itself was morally wrong. Even afterward, he only went outside of his role as Demacia's dutiful soldier to try and save his sister Lux. Only Lux, not any of the helpless mages she was sheltering, and when she asks him to join her in defending these defenseless people, Garen refuses. You could argue that Garen never actually harmed any mages himself (any mages that weren't trying to kill him first, anyway), but he certainly helped and when given the chance to flip to the oppressed side, he turned it down. At the end of the day, Garen was "just following orders", and we all know how much water that excuse holds.

So you have two "good" characters who very clearly did something monstrous. You also can't have them stop being "good" characters, because Riot sure as hell isn't going to go through all the effort to rebrand them at this point. So what do you do?

To be continued...

[gralunaisland]

Hey, not new to your blog but wanted to check in and give you some insight on Gray's current character in 100yq. I know you don't follow the sequel because the very idea of Gruvia disgusts you (like it does to all of us) but hey! What's wrong in having some fun?

You wouldn't believe the number of Gruvia fans (yeah you heard me right, GRUVIA fans) have expressed their disappointment in how Mashima is literally using Gray as a ship bait at this point (which was the sole purpose of creating Juvia's character in the first place) and he is a slightly better version of Juvia now (might as well call him Juvia's male equivalent) who has somewhat of his individuality left.

Okay enough now hear me out, in the present arc, literally every single character got their shining moments. Erza got to solo Misaki (she can do enchantments and heavenly body magic like Jellal now), Wendy defeat Haku (she's acknowledged to be a high enchantress by Irene), Lucy won against Kyria (another stardress mix, she can do gottfried singlehandedly and Laxus acknowledged her strength), Laxus defeated Kirin (we got an interesting flashback of the thunder dragon Elexion and revelation of the second generation lacrimas, Laxus literally consumed thider dragon king's soul and earned a powerup). Though I'm disappointed in Gajeel's contribution, even he got to fight God Serena for the time being.

Ask me : what did Gray do?

Gray fought a fodder from the next set of enemies, who can do literally nothing except transmutation. What's that : body swap between your opponent and his lover! (Poorly executed attempt at including Juvia in every Gray moment somehow) The amount of times this very same concept has been used to ship bait the Gruvians is insane. Meredy? Invel? Now another fodder named Sai.

He hasn't done anything exceptional since the Wood God Dragon Arc. His only feat till now is soloing the Raijinshuu. That happened years ago. His fight against God seed, Hakune and Sai have been so underwhelming.

The real Gray fans have been deprived of a great character, the only outcome of Gruvia is more unnecessary Juvia screentime.

Update on 100yq and My Thoughts

Hi there! Thank you for sticking with me for all this time!

Thank you for checking in and giving me some 100yq insight! I haven't read it yet still even though I have the gr///via masterlist given to me by that one great Anon, because yes, you're right, the very idea of gr///via disgusts me, and it disheartens me from even touching the sequel unfortunately... so it really helps to hear what's going on. (I love the Anti network we've got going on here, guys!)

Anyway, onto your ask!

Wow, Mashima is getting so bad at writing gr///via that even the gr///vians are getting upset?? That's honestly hilarious and appalling at the same time. Like now do you understand why Antis, especially those of us who love old Gray Fullbuster, hate gr///via, Pros??? What have we been saying from the beginning?? Gr///via has been poorly written from the get-go, but I guess at least finally some Pros might be seeing the error of their ways. But what’s appalling is that the level gr///via has been pushed to must be astronomical if the Pros are discontent with it…

You're completely right, Anon, gr///via in its essence was always going to turn Gray into mere ship-bait. If you think about it, gr///via is literally built around wearing down Gray's consent and his defenses and self-autonomy and self-agency until he's so broken down that he's fooled into thinking juvia is right for him. Through that process, of course he was going to turn into a character that's completely not who he was before. Not character growth, character dismantling and destruction.

Strong, cool-headed, friend-oriented Gray would never fall for a girl who was never his friend because from the beginning she’s been romantically obsessed with him, who has continuously ignored his wishes and embarrasses him at every turn and who pushes herself onto him whenever they're together. He doesn't have an inflated ego so this wouldn't flatter him at all. So, what does Mashima have to do? Knock him down a hundred pegs until he's on juvia's rock bottom level of sniveling, namby-pamby, wimpy, self-respect-lacking, love-obsessed-and-oriented nothingness that's the opposite of the whole moral of the anime in the first place, which is friendship.

Ugh I'm so disgusted. Anyways, sorry for the tangent, back onto what you were saying.

I'm so sad that we're at the point where Gray has turned into only a "slightly better version of juvia" where he has ONLY "somewhat of his individuality left". Why does it take getting to this point that Pros are finally seeing how gr///via is killing Gray's character and individuality??

Okay, I hear you, Anon, the other characters all did some bad-ass things...

And then Gray...

Uh... wow... Gray gets to fight fodder...

So, if I'm understanding you correctly, Sai can't do anything but turn lovers into each other??? So.... all Sai did was bodyswap gr///via and turn Gray into juvia???? EW???? I'm getting goosebumps, that's so icky to me, gross!!

That's ironically a perfect metaphor of what's happening to Gray right now. He's literally being turned into the male counterpart for juvia just so this toxic, disgusting ship works somehow, and then in the story he literally turns into her. Wow. Bravo, Mashima, you perfectly metaphorically portrayed what nonsense you're dishing out.

I am so sad that Gray has been reduced to fighting fodder, and that his bigger fights are just bland and uninspiring. And seriously, it's been years since he did something exceptional?? And Mashima doesn't see the problem with that?? He's effectively killed one of his most beloved characters just for the sake of the imposing, threatening gr///via fandom, and from what you're telling me, even they aren't happy with the way Gray is turning out. It's so telling that even the butt-load of wholly unnecessary screentime their favorite girl juvia is getting isn't enough to appease the Pros.

Real Gray fans (Anti-gr///vians), and Pro-gr///vians are all unhappy.

So, tell me, Mashima, just who is it that you're pleasing now?

Really, the only answer is juvia herself, and she's the least deserving of happiness out of anyone involved.

[h-worksrambles]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: I wanna talk about Tora

With the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 less than two weeks away, I’ve been thinking a lot about Xenoblade and the Xeno series in general. And I wanted to use this time to talk about a thought I’ve had for a long time about Xenoblade Chronicles 2 specifically. That being, the one character in the main party who had severe missed potential, the Nopon inventor, Tora.

Now, before I go on, I want to pre-emptively state something. I love Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It’s one of my favourite games on Switch and I go back and forth between it and Xenosaga Episode III as my second favourite game in the whole Xeno series. Furthermore, it has overall my favourite cast of characters in the franchise. It’s full of likable, complex figures with great chemistry. But no game is perfect, and even a wonderfully realised title is going to have missed opportunities. I know how much flack 2 gets from portions of the fanbase and I don’t want this post to either become a rallying point for bad faith criticism, or for fans of the game to feel like their game is gettting still more unneccesary hate. Plus, much like the last time I did one these character critiques/rewrites, I must remind you that writing from scratch is incredibly hard, and me playing script doctor after the fact is not me claiming to be a better writer than the people who worked on the game. Everything I say comes from a place of love for this title. But I think Tora is the victim of several missed chances and poor writing choices that result in him being the weakest member of the party by a long shot, probably the only one I dislike. And I wanted to talk about how he might have been improved. Also full spoilers for Xenoblade 2 naturally.

Tora enters the story in Chapter 2 when he shelters Rex and Pyra from Ardanian soldiers. Tora is a Nopon mechanic who lacks the aptitude to resonate with a Core Crystal and become a Driver. Becuse of this, he and his family have been working for generations to build an artificial Blade, one that can resonate with anyone, regardless of potential. This Blade is the android girl, Poppi. Tora and Poppi befriend Rex and Pyra and join them on their search for Elysium, as Tora hopes to one day find his father, who vanished several years ago.

There’s a lot about Tora’s character that does actually work. Tora is very different from previous Nopon party members. Unlike the deceptively mature Riki or the outspoken, sometimes cocky, Tatsu, Tora is an introvert who spends most of his time tinkering in his home. He doesn’t have much in the way of friends or a social life and latches on to Rex very quickly. To him, Rex, this ordinary kid who became a hero by wielding the legendary Aegis, is exactly what he wishes he could be, and he respects him greatly. He’s basically a nerdy shut-in orphan learning to get out and make friends, all while fulfilling his dream of being a real Driver.

Unfortunately, whille Tora is pretty well established as a character, between a lot of ideas not being fully explored with him, and poorly executed comedy that actively makes him less likable, he falls short compared to the rest of the characters. I think the first step to fixing Tora is pretty obvious to anyone who’s played the game: We’re taking any of the ‘jokes’ about him being into maids or moe, and we’re throwing them out of the window. I was gonna talk more at length at this, but frankly I believe it’s self explanatory. The last thing we needed was to make this character into Mineta 2.0. Stuff like this casts really ugly implications on to Tora and Poppi’s relationship, which we need to buy into for this character to work. But it comes up in Poppi’s very first scene and makes an awful first impression, especially considering Poppi goes on to be arguably one of the best characters. And it’s not like it’s in service of any character arc. Whenever it comes up in cutscenes or heart to hearts, it only amounts to ‘Tora does/implies something creepy, the other characters get annoyed, but he gets off with just a slap on the wrist’. I think a lot less people would deride Xenoblade 2 for being ‘too anime’ if it didn’t pull stunts like this. Not funny. Never funny. Always gross. Stop it. The other issue is that Tora is relatively tangential to the story, with his only big moment of relevance being Chapter Four. Problem is, Chapter Four...kind of sucks. It’s a filler episode full of half explored ideas, cringy jokes, and the worst dungeon in the game by far (Screw you, Old Factory).

This is where that plot about Tora’s missing dad gets resolved. When the party is in Mor Ardain, they find another artifical Blade, who Tora recognises as Lila, Poppi’s prototype, who was stolen the same night Tora’s father, Tatazo, vanished. It turns out that Tatazo was kidnapped by a group of Nopon, led by Charmain Bana, who wanted to use his research to create weapons of war to sell to the already tense countries of Mor Ardain and Uraya, lining their pockets as the people of these Titans go to war.

I think this is a great idea to introduce to Tora’s character. Tora and his family designed Poppi with the best of intentions shut up that other thing isn’t canon in my version. They wanted to become Drivers, and to allow even those like them who lacked the aptitude to do the same. But now that same technology is being used by selfish people as a tool for war. And it gets worse, because by Chapter Six, Torna are using that same technology against the party. Tora’s family legacy is now being used by a group of murderers who want to destroy the world and kill his friends. This could have been used to make the young, naive Tora reflect on his part in this, since he and his family effectively opened the door to allow them all to do this. Heck, we could have even seen him wonder if it was even right to create Poppi at all. But he doesn’t. Tora gets briefly mad at Bana but otherwise never brings it up again , nor does his outlook or attitude change at all. Sure Poppi gets a power up, and this is actually a great moment for her. But this is supposed to be the resolution of Tora’s character arc and he doesn’t do or say anything meaningful. Plus, after this he fades into the background, only providing unfunny otaku jokes. Sure, Mòrag and Zeke also kind of fade in and out of relevance, but at least their dialogue and actions in major story scenes subtly show new or changing aspects of their characters as the story progresses. I can’t say the same for Tora.  The thing is, we do get hints of this theme...in Poppi’s arc. In Chapter Eight, Poppi reflects on her nature as a living weapon, on what her technology could be used for down the line, with or without her say in the matter. And this is something Mythra is able to empathise with, having spent centuries being afraid of her own power, and wondering if the world would be better off without her. It’s a wonderful scene for both characters. But I can’t help but think this should have been an ongoing concern for both Tora and Poppi’s characters for most of the game, rather than just bringing it up now with just Poppi. It could have given Chapter Four more weight if its events had more of an impact on Tora, and if Poppi picked up on Tora’s own doubts, before she voices them to Mythra.

You could even have given more substance to the PoppiQTπ sidequest. Maybe make this scene the resolution to this arc as Tora, now reunited with his father, talks through his worries with him, as they work on upgrading Poppi, if he’s ok with knowing that people could use their research for evil, only for Tatazo to sadly explain that that’s the sad reality of being a pioneer. You can’t predict what your discovery could one day result in, and it’s up to Tora to decide if he’s willing to press on despite that. Then after QTπ is complete, we could see Tora and the now almost fully sentient Poppi, discuss this, reaffirming that Tora’s proud of Poppi, that he’s glad they met, and that they both still want to be Driver and Blade knowing the risks. I actually like the subtle detail that PoppiQTπ looks a lot like Mythra. It’s a great subtle expression both of how far Tora’s skills as an inventor have come, and of his admiration of Rex. He’s built a mini-Aegis so he can be like his hero. But I think this side quest could have been a much stronger conclusion to Tora’s character arc if the writers cut the cringy humour, and went all the way with the themes and ideas they set up.  

Truthfully, I didn’t need to change much because the ideas for Tora’s character arc are all there. What it lacks, is any real response from Tora that suggests the game’s story has impacted him in any way. But in the actual game, he feels like the exact same character he was when the game started, and compared to how much growth the various heroes and villains of Xenoblade 2 go through, he sticks out like a sore thumb.

Tora had the potential to be a really sympathetic and interesting character, a lonely boy genius who made a huge step in his scientific field, who gets to see the world with his new friends, but also has to come to terms with the ugly realities of not just the world at large, but his own creation. Unfortunately, the writing doesn’t commit to the ideas it introduces with his character, and drags him down with misguided attempts at humour, that cause many players to dismiss him outright. At best, he’s an accessory to Poppi, who is a far better developed and more likable character. The result is a huge wasted opportunity in an otherwise splendid game. And that’s a real shame.

[seavoice]

sooo curious what you think of greywaren now given even more time to digest

honestly figured i’d have more thoughts on greywaren by now but due to 1) not really rocking with my initial reading of it 2) being busy as hell this month with Other Stuff i just...have forgotten more parts of it?? have even fewer thoughts? eventually i will do a reread, i GUESS, and have something useful to say but right now i am talking out of my ass!!! but still let’s give it a honest try—

atm my feelings on it keep fluctuating. it just really did not make much of an impact for me. there are definitely scenes which i found cool or interesting or moving, and i did care very much about where these characters were going up until the very end, so that’s a massive point in its favour, but overall i just don’t see it as a book i enjoyed that much! the plot was meh, the themes were more interesting in theory than execution, the character arcs were paced very poorly (imo), the dynamics...were also more interesting in theory than execution and even the writing itself in some parts weren’t really compelling. i find myself comparing it unfavourably to cdth and even mi, i’ll admit. there are some real sparks of brilliance, but as a finale it fell short for me!

that said, i do still stand by my post of the things i liked—

[sheacouleecametoslay]

All Stars 1 (2012)

Yeah... I'm gonna go ahead and say this is the worst Drag Race season I've watched so far (I've yet to see Down Under). I blame the format not the cast though; since this is a cast worthy of being called All-Stars. I felt hyped when the queens were walking down the street doing the intros in the premiere. But then the teams twist was introduced and the season was ruined from that moment. Part of the issue is the judging - what happens if one half of the team gives a stand-out performance and the other half flops? What if another pair delivers two equal but average performances? You could make arguments either way on which is better or worse. I think the twist also hindered group interaction since it pushes the queens to mostly talk to their partners. Plus the season only has 6 episodes with double eliminations every week, so we barely get time with the cast. Furthermore, the challenges were unfamiliar and poorly executed. It was a bad decision to replace the usual staples. The premiere was a photoshoot instead of a "make an outfit out of a junk" challenge, which is what the first 4 seasons all started with. The Snatch Game became the Gaff-In; a challenge so unfunny it becomes ironically funny. The Makeover turned into lip sync choreo with a celebrity; where all 3 teams were even. The Ball turned into this superhero/supervillain story; where one team talked about melanin and the other talked about vaginas and nipples.... yeah. There's also an outdoor basketball game for a mini-challenge. And the finale is a series of public appearances instead of a music video. Oh, and there's one episode where the queens had to prank people in the streets... WTF was that? Talk about CRINGE. It felt like I was watching an entirely different show. It's so awkward trying to convince strangers to do embarrassing things. And it took up 15 minutes of the episode. I also wasn't a fan of the red siren twist for the lip syncs (ie. where the partner could tag themselves in). It was such a mess when Yara Sofia pressed it. Speaking of lip syncs, the final 4 face-off between Jujubee and Raven was a very emotional one, and one of the few good moments of the season. The Latrice vs Tammie lip sync was good as well. But the rest were meh. The other issue with AS1 is the winner's story. I love Chad and all, but I don't feel like she did anything to warrant a win here? It's like this season was treated as a formality or a rubber stamp or a means to end just to give her a crown.   All in all, this does not feel like an All-Stars season. I'm glad that most of this cast got their chance at a real All-Stars season in later years.

Queens Ranking: 12. Pandora Boxx She spent the entire premiere complaining about having to be paired with Mimi Imfurst, and that defeated attitude is what sent them both home first. 11. Raven Here she goes again, being an asshole to Mimi in Untucked; all mad because Mimi was 3rd in the fan voting. And then next episode saying Mimi didn't deserve to be there. I did enjoy Raven's stand-up routine though, and her Supervillain look was one of the top runways this season. Her getting naked in the photoshoot was a bold decision too. But I do think Raven was the weaker half of "Rujubee" in other challenges. 10. Nina Flowers I still love Nina, but she had the smallest edit of the 12 All-Stars this season, and she didn't really do anything memorable in those two episodes. 9. Chad Michaels It's funny how I wanted Chad to win Season 4, but I couldn't care less if she won AS1 or not. Talk about a boring winner's arc. I don't mean boring because it was predictable, it was boring because she didn't do anything memorable this season. Sure, she won 3/5 challenges with Shannel, but those wins didn't feel notable. Part of that is bad challenge design, but at the same time, I can't think of a funny quote or an iconic runway she delivered. I didn't laugh once at her Bette Davis in Gaff-In or her vaginal rejuvenation story in the superhero challenge. 8. Mimi Imfurst Mimi was calmer this time... until everyone ganged up on her on Untucked, but can you blame her? She was the bigger person and tried to make things work with Pandora though, even when Pandora was resistant. And I actually liked her lip sync better than Chad's, even if she was overdoing it and getting into Chad's personal space and giving an underwhelming reveal. "Mandora"'s photoshoot and runway weren't great. Both photos were just expressions of their tense partnership in an uncomfortable way. While on stage, the blue outfits with the lime green fur weren't visually pleasing. 7. Alexis Mateo More or less the same Alexis as Season 3. She had outside beef with Mimi on Untucked, and she made points about the Latina queens being discriminated. Otherwise, she played off of Yara well in the Gaff-In. And "Yarlexis" had good chemistry in general. But I felt like Yara was the more prominent half of the pair. 6. Shannel Shannel was this stern workaholic and she took charge in a lot of the challenges. She was frantic in the pranking, and she lead the choreo twice - in the girl groups and the F4 superhero number. If anything it felt like Shannel was the stronger half of "Shad". Her premiere and finale runways were great too. But she fumbled the finale challenges; where she had the worst stand-up routine and overtalked in the group interview (which is just classic Shannel). I don't think she was making Final 2 either way though. "Shad"'s photoshoot came off pretentious. Their Gaff-In impressions weren't funny. And their superhero stories about vaginas and nipples felt juvenile. They had the tightest choreo in the girl groups, which is why I gave them the win for that one, but their outfits were the least matching. 5. Latrice Royale Latrice is still one of my all-time faves, but all the things I love about Latrice were kind of missing from this season? She played Oprah in the one comedy challenge and it wasn't funny. She was then shown digging in that trash can in the next episode. And her runways weren't the best this time. 4. Jujubee I'm probably going to like Jujubee less with each appearance, but she was my favourite of the Final 4, so there's that. Her Fran Drescher laugh carried her team in the Gaff-In and she had the best stand-up routine in the finale; although she was swallowed in the group interview. "Rujubee" had my second fave photoshoot in both categories. But they suffered from poor communication in the pranking. Jujubee had a stand-out lip sync in girl groups, but the pair just repeated the Season 2 choreo. The superhero stories were... okay. 3. Tammie Brown AS1 cemented Tammie as an icon, with the show fully embracing her weirdness as everybody kept commenting on it. "I'm from Planet 15, we have two moons"; "I CURED MY GRANDMOTHER"; "HA! HA! I'm acting"; "Well come on Teletubby, teleport us to Mars!"; "We have to sniff the Flowers" (as she sniffs Nina Flowers); "She likes to wear grass... grass underwear because it's always green"; "Sexy orangutan shake it and do your thing". 💀💀💀 Her Gaff-In "jokes" were so confusing and dumb, but she sold them with such conviction that I actually would've saved their team from the bottom 2 lol. "Brown Flowers" surprised me in the photoshoot though. Tammie looked great in the Opposites Attract, and I liked the pair's sensitive embrace in Half Baked . 2. Manila Luzon This season made me appreciate Manila more. She could've been a decent winner, and she carried confidence here. I was impressed by her Cruella de Vil entrance look. The Teletubby was... an idea. And I liked her runway with the black high heel and feather on her head. Her Madonna in Gaff-In was fine but not really funny. And then she gave us a creepy lip sync to "Nasty" and that was that. "Latrila" looked high class in the Opposites Attract photoshoot, but Half Baked was weird. As for the pranking, Latrice revealed post-show that they actually had the second most points but were put in the bottom 2 anyways. Shady producers. I mean, I thought Raven and Yara were the least effective on the street anyways. 1. Yara Sofia Yeah, she remains my favourite from the first 4 seasons. Her Charo is one of the few things I enjoyed in AS1. I loved her hair clothes line runway look, despite what Michelle said. And I liked her 60s Glam look including the reveal. She really didn't need to tag herself into the lip sync against Raven though; I face-palmed during that. "Yarlexis" were the only funny team in the Gaff-In. Their sinister Half Baked photoshoot was my fave, but their role reversal in Opposites Attract didn't quite work for me. They had the best outfits in the girl groups, but their choreo wasn't as good. And Yara seemed too pushy with the strangers in the street in the pranking. Teams ranking: 6. Mandora 5. Shad 4. Rujubee 3. Brown Flowers 2. Latrila 1. Yarlexis Favourite entrance: Manila Luzon Challenge ranking: 1. Finale public appearances 2. Photoshoot 3. All-Star Girl Groups 4. RuPaul's Gaff-In 5. Superhero vs Supervillain 6. Pranking in the streets Lip Sync ranking: 1. Jujubee vs Raven ("Dancing On My Own") 2. Latrice Royale vs Tammie Brown ("There's No Business Like Show Business") 3. Chad Michaels vs Mimi Imfurst ("Opposites Attract") 4. Raven vs Yarlexis ("Don't Cha") 5. Chad Michaels vs Raven ("Responsi-T-slur-ty") 6. Jujubee vs Manila Luzon ("Nasty") Season ranking so far: 4 > 2 > 3 > 1 > AS1

[bloominstorm]

Finally we’re moving on from this arc..

[captain-sodapop]

Your essay on why Sam is the protagonist is awesome. Thank you so much for writing it! Do you read lol-jackles here? He said the same thing for years but no where near as detailed as your post. I think lol-jackles saved my sanity because he's an objective fan that cut through the endless crap by AAs and minions insisting Sam is not important and SPN is all about Destiel now.

Thank you! Looks like my English major just might pay off.

I have read lol-jackles before, and while I don't claim any knowledge on showbusiness and may not come at everything he says from the same angle (he has a few stances I disagree with), at least when it comes to the actual show itself, I often agree with him. He's a lot more objective about what the show itself is actually trying to do and has a more general audience view of it, and I really appreciate that. While I definitely participate in spn fandom, I feel like I've always tried to be as objective as I can be with any piece of media I consume, and it's always been clear to me that Sam was supposed to be the protagonist, and trying to change that makes the show weaker. And I'm never going to come for anybody for having a favorite character besides the protagonist, that's totally okay, but that doesn't mean the story is going to suddenly revolve around your fave. It can't. Sam establishes a desire in the pilot, not Dean. Certainly not Cas or Jack. Doesn't mean they don't have them, but they don't have the same goal as Sam, who was vocal about his wants from the beginning and pushed the story forward. That's why he gets mytharcs and bigger stories, and why those bigger stories are more successful when he's the one carrying them. Sam is ultimately the hero of SPN. The tragedies that occur and the losses he experience are to not only push him and his story forward or create obstacles, but the hurt we as an audience experience in watching those losses proves to us that they were important, that we cared, and that not only Sam but the audience can survive and persevere through tragedy.

Honestly, a big part of why I don't like Destiel (besides the things I listed in that one post) is that it doesn't feel like a storyline Cas and Dean can carry. Unreciprocated romance is an interesting storyline for sure, or however you view that confession scene, but it ultimately serves no purpose and was sort of just...poorly executed fanservice, on all sides of it. When Sam has a romance, it's attention-grabbing. Only one episode with Madison and a few episodes with Eileen - far less episodes than Castiel or Dean are involved in - but it's hard to ignore because it's Sam. Everything he does carries a little extra weight because it's his story. We wonder if this is the person who will get him out of this situation that he hates. Destiel has a lot of issues, but one of the big ones is that it doesn't support the story or protagonist in any way. It's just sort of this weird standalone thing between two deuteragonists. Now, that's not to say that characters besides the protagonist shouldn't have romantic entanglements or drama of their own - they should, absolutely - but it doesn't affect Sam or the story in any way. And like I said, Castiel's whole arc was about finding purpose and belonging, and in 15x15, he finally says aloud that he found that in being Jack's father and creating this family. There. Done. Doesn't mean he has to be dead, but once he finds that, he needs to be serving the story and getting it and Sam to the finish line. That's another reason the confession scene is so clunky and out of place: it feels like it's trying to retcon Cas's storyline. Plus, it gave Bob Berens another excuse to villainize and kill off a black woman's character, so there's an real-world ick factor to it, too.

And when they tried to make Dean take on the protagonist role in seasons 9 and 10? Hooboy. That is just not something Dean's character is built to do. He's a hero, sure, but he's not the hero of the show. His season-and-a-half mytharc slows the show down to a crawl because not only is it just incessant misery porn, it distracts the audience and characters from the show's main goal, which is to try and get Sam what he wants. Dean's biggest desire in those seasons is simply to rid himself of the Mark. That can't drive the show. The storyline does affect Sam and hinders his ability to get what he wants, but he and his desires are so out of the spotlight that it doesn't feel like he's even really involved. Dean is a very fun, interesting character, very blustery and full of stupid one-liners, but he generally sticks to the script. Sam is the one who usually rips up the storyline: he's the one who broke free of Lucifer to jump in the Cage, who was often shown in leadership roles, who figured Chuck out and was the one in the final season who kept dodging his traps. He breaks the mold again and again as he pushes to get to his final goal, and with the help of the other main characters, he finally does that.

Also, from what I've gathered, the SPN writer's room was incredibly disjointed. Buckleming apparently didn't even write their episodes together, and they're a writing team. So I think part of the reason people squabble over this and AAs/minions/hellers think they can claim Dean and/or Cas are protagonists is because the writers themselves - especially in later seasons - lost a lot of focus. The stories aren't quite as tight as they were earlier in the show's run. I also find it funny that if this John and Mary spinoff ever gets off the ground, it seems that Jensen/Dean still won't be the protagonist - just the narrator. Again, like Aaron Burr: he may be the one giving his perspective, he may be a main character, but the things he wants and his character still won't be driving the story. And that's because that's just not what Dean Winchester was made to do.

[rikalovesrice]

My Thoughts on Trollhunters : Rise of the Titans

WARNING : ALL THE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

.

.

.

Mmmmm. Okay. So I just finished the movie. I’m fatigued as always so this’ll be a bit of a mess lol. Gotta spew the thoughts while they’re still fresh, y’all know how it is.

Right out the gate, I definitely want to talk about the things I loved.

The animation was, of course, phenomenal and gorgeous!

Voice acting was incredible as always

MUSIC SLAPPED

Douxie. I just loved seeing Douxie again and honestly kept my eyes trained on him for most the of movie lol

OK DOUXIE AND NARI SWITCHING?? BODIES??? Definitely didn’t see that coming and I legit started screaming lol

Nari in Douxie’s body is the most precious, chaotic, and wholesome thing like holy cow that was so adorable LOOKIT DOUXIE CROUCHING AND CRAWLING AROUND ON ALL FOURS WITH THOSE NOODLE LIMBS OF HIS I CAN’T --

We called Nari’s mind control and Douxie trying to reason with her!

In the very few scenes they were together, Douxie’s love and affection for Nari really came through. You could really feel how much he cared about her. ALSO THAT TENDER HUG AND NARI’S LITTLE HAPPY SQUEAK MY HEART NO--

Loved Barbara. Always love Barbara.

Walter and Barbara getting engaged

Nomura back in action

Claire being the powerful sorceress she’s become

Loved seeing Aja, Krel, and Varvatos all together again.

NARI VS SKRAEL WAS ALL SORTS OF EPIC AND CRUSHING EMOTIONS.

The way Douxie yelled Nari’s name and ran to her after she died and the remnants of her magic falling all around him, like she was saying goodbye, just *UGLY CRYING*

It was so cool to see Charlie out of his den and flying about like the mighty dragon he is

Loved the Guardians of Arcadia pulling Excaliber out together.

All the gang all going after Bellroc together

YES JIM MY BOOOOOOY

BLINKY DIDN’T DIE

Aarrgh I love you so much

Stuart, what a bro!

We saw a hint of mercy in Bellroc towards the end.

Toby’s death... That was a huge curveball. Jim might as well have cut my heart out with Excaliber as he sobbed over his best friend.

Uh.....um....and.....Er...what else........ .___.

..........Alright so.......It’s about to get a bit brutal from here on out as I talk about the things I didn’t like at all. And the really sad thing is, at least to me, the cons far outweigh the pros in this movie. Because I’m actually having difficulty picking out things I enjoyed, they were so few and far between...which really sucks.

So here we go.

Gosh, where to begin... I guess I’ll go ahead and say this : I’m really disappointed. 

Like as I’m here typing this, I’m just thinking, “...That was it? That was the movie?? The big finale???”

So much of this movie just felt....unnecessary. I hate to say almost like filler. The entire intro re-caping the series really wasn’t needed. And then Toby went and restated it all again when he was being interrogated. The pacing, oh my gosh...Guys, the pacing in this movie was not good. The action started and it never seemed to stop. There wasn’t a single moment of rest, of levity, of our characters just being themselves, getting to know each other, being friends outside of the battle. No Reckless Club Segment. No fun, just... I mean Claire and Aja didn’t speak to each other at all. Douxie and Toby hardly interacted. Steve was turned into a gross male pregnancy joke. Jim and Krel barely spoke. Douxie and Aja had nothing to say to each other. Even Aja and Krel didn’t have any moments together. The list goes on. The whole movie was just go, go, go. And it’s so frustrating because there was time for it but it was poorly executed.

Like was the whole break-in to the Chinese Trollmarket really necessary?? Guys, I really found myself not caring. I didn’t care to see this random side quest involving an insignificant new troll character and a Trollmarket that had little to no bearing on the plot. Did I love seeing Charlie, Archie, Blinky, and Claire? Of course! But these scenes were so pointless. So needless. They could’ve written other ways for all our heroes to go after the chronosphere (Maybe we could’ve had Zoe for crying out loud). But instead this vital artifact was the hands of a character we don’t know and don’t care about in a place that turned out to have basically nothing to do with anything.

Deaths. The deaths in this movie. Because of the pacing in this movie, there wasn’t nearly enough time for the emotional impacts to sink in. Nomura? Gone and the only ones mourning her are Aaarrgh and Douxie, who barely knew her. Walter’s death was handled better since we got to see Jim and Barbara actually having a moment to mourn him. The weight of Nari’s death was singlehandedly carried by Douxie, but even that was over before it started. The immense gravity of Toby’s death, which really got to me, was also short-lived to make way for an ending that...I don’t know. 

ALSO DOUXIE JUST??? BEING OKAY WITH HIS FAMILIAR, THE ONE WHO RAISED HIM AND WENT THROUGH SO MUCH WITH HIM FOR CENTURIES, LEAVING HIM FOREVER TO BE TRAPPED IN THAT DUMB TROLLMARKET WITH CHARLIE LIKE???

“I hope he’s happy.”

WHAT. THE. EVERLASTING. FRICK. 

Douxie’s reaction objectively doesn’t make a shred of sense. Geez, it’s almost like Douxie was expecting Archie to up and leave him someday to be with Charlegmane. Just...what???

What also frustrates me so much is how this movie undid so much characterization and development that happened in Wizards. Or more like all that development didn’t even matter.

What was the point of Steve’s arc in Wizards if he was just going to be reduced to...this?

I was so excited to see Douxie really being a Master Wizard. To see him lead the Guardians of Arcadia alongside Jim. To see him in action as Successor to Merlin and Protector of this Realm.

But no.

Douxie, who had such an incredible arc in Wizards and a character who’s come to mean so much to me in my life, was nerfed and sidelined.

And then time restarts and I can’t help but wonder why any of this mattered at all. What the heck was the freaking point of the suffering, the loss, the pain, the growth, enduring and overcoming so much, the friendships and family spanning across three shows... All gone. Starting all over. Undoing everything, except what Jim went through. As much as I love Jim, I didn’t think he’d be the only character I’d be getting closure for at the grand finale of this entire franchise. But that’s what happened and I really hate it.

Just...all in all, this movie wasn’t satisfying. Not to me. It had its good moments. But not nearly enough. The comedy was misplaced and fell flat. The climax was sorely anticlimactic and didn’t hold a candle to Eternal Knight. The writing, the direction, characterization...For some reason it was all lost and confused and none of it felt right and so much didn’t make sense.

I’m not at all upset with the writers, though, because they still pulled through and did what they could. When the movie did something right, it was beautiful. The things I loved about it I truly adored. No, I’m not upset in the least bit with any of the creative team.

I’m upset with Netflix. I’m upset that Wizards was robbed of the seasons it should’ve had. I’m upset with big cooperations stifling creators. I’m upset that this’ll be it. This is the ending we got and nothing can be done about it.

Aaron did say there’s every possibility for the franchise to continue in some capacity, and I’m hoping for that someday. Because so much, too much, has been left unanswered. So much left to be explored that couldn’t. But until then....I guess this is it. This is what we get.

Now, I want to remind everyone that this is my own personal experience with the movie. These are all my opinions. If you enjoyed every second the movie, that’s wonderful! And who knows how my thoughts will change upon another viewing. But in the meantime, Rise of the Titans really missed the mark for me. I wanted found family badassery and fluff. But nope. Just fighting and heaviness and no payoff. It’s such a letdown...a real shame. 

But yeah...Thanks to any and everyone who read to the end of this haha

I still love Tales of Arcadia. It’s a series that has blessed and inspired me so much as an artist, writer, and as a person in general. I do want to keep making ToA content for a while. Cause this movie isn’t the end. Not my ending, at least.

I’ll continue to hope for more Tales of Arcadia in the future (a Douxie spin-off series please Lord pleaaase). We shall see. Until then, fics and fanart fixing this mess galore haha

Until next time everyone! God bless!

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Character Deaths That Made Me Side-Eye the Writers

There are a lot of character deaths in TWDG... obviously. It a series about the literal dead walkin’ around and eating people, so as you’re playing, one of your favorite characters is bound to meet such a fate. To give this series credit, it does have quite a few well-executed deaths that, while I hate them, they have a purpose in the story that works. 

The best example of this is Lee’s death-- we all hate that Lee dies, but it’s well-done. It serves its purpose, it acted as both a shock and a slow-burn for the player, and left us all an emotional mess. 

However, we’re not talking about the “good” deaths today. No, we’re talking about the character deaths that are poorly executed, cheap, lazy, and just plain dumb... they’re the deaths that make me side-eye the writing team and wonder what the fuck happened there. 

By the way, it was reeeeeeal fun narrowing it down to only five deaths, because it seems like for every great death, there’s at least two bad ones.

5. Mariana and her death that ruined ANF’s potential story

I’ve talked at length about Mariana’s death and how much I hate it. Like, I get it TWDG... you love your sudden deaths and you’re so edgy for killing off a child character because you’ve never done that before... but maybe consider things a little further before pulling the trigger?

Yeah, killing off Mariana the way they did got a reaction outta people when it happened, and we got the burial scene if you stayed with Clementine... but you didn’t consider the future of this storyline? You pretend you did by name dropping Mari when it’s convenient, but then throw it out the window when it comes to characters like David or Gabe.

Listen, I know that ANF is a mess and what’s the point in telling the mess that it’s a mess? Well, I’m still annoyed at the writers for wasting the biggest opportunity for this game’s story, something that could’ve saved it from being a mess.

And I get it, you gotta make a death quota, so instead of killing Mariana off... why not kill Kate off instead? Oh no? We don’t get the stupid love triangle that no one actually enjoys or is engaged in?

Instead of this dumb story about Javi falling in love with his sister-in-law but oh no David’s back.... we could’ve had a story about Javi losing Kate and being left to care for two children by himself. Mariana and Gabe are all he has left, and he going to do whatever he can to keep them safe all while the three of them are mourning Kate.

Then David comes back, and he immediately takes these kids away from Javi.

There is no stupid storyline with Kate, but an actual conflict between two brothers who were never on the same page and two kids caught in the middle.

Plus, Mariana herself as a character really could’ve brought something to the table. She could’ve brought out a lot in David’s character since she seems to be more like Javi.

Her death is just... annoying. It’s frustrating when you know they could’ve told a better story with her alive, something ANF desperately needed.

My side-eye is one of disappointment and annoyance.

4.Luke and his easily preventable drowning

Ugh.... where to even begin? 

Luke really just gets butchered as a character throughout the second half of S2, and the writers end up demolishing the set up they placed at the beginning of the season for a Luke vs Kenny thing. 

Why? Well, Luke vs Kenny was the initial ending they were gonna go with, but because this season went through all kinds of bullshit, they scrapped that and replaced Luke with Jane... and it’s so dumb.

Hell, it kind of ruins a lot. Not only did it ruin Luke, a character that many players loved, but it forces the new character of Jane, who we only get two episodes to get to know, so they can fade Luke out. 

But that’s not all. 

His death is so... ugh. It’s stupid, okay? Stupid and easily preventable, but noooo... we gotta kill Luke off for reasons because all we know is that S1 killed off a lot of characters and we’re gonna do that again but worse because we failed to understand what made those deaths impactful in the first place. 

Lots of character death and despair = good game. 

Yep, uh-huh. Okay. 

So we all know that Luke’s leg is hurt, yeah? Great, so you’d think that the group that has an injured man and a new born baby would be extra cautious and go around the frozen lake. Yeah, Arvo says that it’s safe but let’s not take any chances. 

But no. We gotta go across like a group of dingdongs and whattya know-- the ice begins to crack beneath Luke’s feet. Now, even here, we coulda got him outta there safely... if Bonnie wasn’t a dingus. 

Think about it. If we shot the walkers who were coming towards Luke with all their weight, he could’ve slowly scooted away, even if he’s already fallen through. BUT NO. Bonnie either guilts Clementine into going towards him, adding more weight to the already fragile ice as Luke tells her to stop, or Bonnie will go over there herself... and she’s a full grown woman soooo her weight breaks the ice. 

Good job, you dipsticks. 

When you have to make your characters into morons in order to move the plot along and kill off characters....maybe do some rethinking, yeah? 

 3. Mitch and his shock-value death

This death is so dumb... so incredibly, dumb. Even now, I can’t help but give full side-eye to the writers every time one of them tries to justify this death. 

I’m sorry, but this death didn’t have the impact you wanted it to have. And because there’s always someone who says, “Mitch didn’t die for shock value, you just can’t tell the difference between a good and bad death” lemme tell you a thing. 

What was the point of killing of Mitch? Well, according to those who worked on TFS, it was to show that Lilly and the delta are serious. This is when shit gets real, and when Lilly is established as a bad bitch who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. We should be scared of her now. 

Except no. 

This scene doesn’t tell me that Lilly is a bad bitch. It tells me that she has good reflexes, and going off her reaction after killing Mitch.... I’m not fucking scared of this dumbass. If anything, this scene says more about Mitch than it does Lilly. It says that Mitch is also a dumbass for running at her like he did. 

Y’know what would’ve been more impactful? If Mitch didn’t immediately get stabbed in the throat, but instead, actually got her on the ground and struggled with Lilly. Then, Lilly gets the upper hand and when you think she’s about to send Mitch to the cart, she fucking murders him in front of everyone to prove a point. 

There’s no remorse, it’s slow enough for Lilly to actually process what’s happening and show that she does know what she’s doing. That would scare me. That would show me that these people aren’t fucking around and they’re willing to kill some of them if that means getting the rest for their army. 

You still get your shock value death but it actually does something other than kill a character off. 

I’m really supposed to believe this is the same Lilly who can order to have Louis’ tongue cut off? 

But it doesn’t end there. No, no... there’s another part to Mitch’s death that annoys me, and it’s how insistent everyone was that his death is going to have a greater impact on the second half of the story. It had a purpose within the story, we did it for a reason.

...I mean, it has an impact on Willy and his arc for the second half. 

But that’s it. 

Oh... oh, what’s that? Oh, you were referring to those throwaway lines about Tenn? “He was screwing up again, just like when he got Mitch killed.”

OOOOOH.... I see, that’s what Mitch’s death was really amounting to... some lines dealing with whether or not AJ shot Tenn. Well, I guess I was wrong. Mitch’s death wasn’t just shock value. It really had a big purpose. In fact, Mitch’s death has the biggest impact on the series. Fuck Marlon and Brody’s deaths, and Lilly and James, and hell, fuck Tenn’s death, too. They’re meaningless compared to Mitch’s death. You did it, guys. You really did it. 

....Okay, I’m done. I’m just... salty, I fully admit. 

Being serious again, Mitch’s death is probably the worst in TFS as far as unpreventable deaths go and the real reason I side-eye the writers is because they tried to tell us it was going to have this huge impact in the future and it just... didn’t. 

2. Nick and his offscreen death.

I’m sorry, but what the fuck happened here? Why- what are you- how the hell did this happen??

I’m actually baffled. 

Someone wrote this. 

They set up at the end of ep3 that Nick is shot.... then ep4 comes and we find him like this. I just... did someone on the writing staff not wanna do their job that day? Someone was working on the story and at the last minute forgot Nick was a character, so they were like “Eh, he’s not important anyway, and it adds to the shittiness of everything so we’ll pretend this was 100% intentional.” 

Nick was one of your more interesting characters and you really thought killing him off like this was the way to go, huh? 

Like, his first death is shitty, but in the very least it kind of makes sense. 

But this? 

This is horrible. If I wrote this, I’d be embarrassed. 

I just... I’m so tired of S2 right now. 

This is at #2 because it’s just lazy, bad writing. At least with Luke, Mitch, and Mariana, we got to see their deaths and they had some, even if just a little, impact on the story afterward. 

But Nick? 

Nothin’.

Even Luke, who is the closest person to Nick, name drops him maybe twice? It’s just.... nothing. 

And yeah, you can come at me with the “oh well not every death has to have meaning!” 

This is a story, okay? This is a story crafted with characters who have arcs by people who wanted it to be a success, and usually that means having satisfying conclusions.... or, intentionally unsatisfying if that acts as a natural conclusion to their story or is a reoccurring theme. 

Nick’s death is just the writers falling flat on their faces and hoping no one would notice. 

1. Sarah and both of her shitty deaths. 

Ugh. UGH.

Okay. 

I’m not even side-eyeing anymore-- I’m fully glaring.

I don’t have to tell you how shitty both of Sarah’s deaths are. We all played S2, we all know that no matter what you do, Sarah dies in ep4. You can try to save her, she lives a little bit longer, and then falls to her death... and both deaths have her being devoured alive by walkers. 

Now, this is enough to annoy me. First off, I guess my choices don’t really matter. Sure, you can justify this as one of those “sometimes you can’t save someone, no matter how hard you try” ...and fine. Sure, if they had bothered to execute that point well, then great. 

But I disagree that the writers had that in mind when they were killing Sarah off. 

In fact, I know what what going on in their brains-- “God, can’t wait to kill Sarah off! Give us any reason to do it! She’s so damn annoying!”

The writers have openly admitted that a lot of the team were just waiting to kill Sarah off, waiting for any reason, so when the major part of the community who take everything at surface level because why think? kept complaining about Sarah, they jumped on the opportunity to kill her off.... but the deaths are dumb.

Listen, this isn’t like when the writers planned on killing Lee off. You can plan a death and even be excited about it because you’re excited about the story and execution of it all. You can be excited to see the heartbreaking end of this character’s story that you crafted because you know you put everything you had into it.

These deaths were lazy and the product of a team who didn’t care about the character. Sarah dies and no one cares. 

Sure, you leave her to die the first time and Jane does her thing about how you can’t save everyone, she talks about Jaime, and then Luke exposes himself as the fake Luke by agreeing that leaving Sarah behind was probably the right thing. Like what?

Now as much as I hate that first one, the second one is even worse. 

For some reason, Sarah is standing in the corner while they’re trying to fight off the walkers instead of being inside with Rebecca... y’know, where she would be if this was logical. 

Then the deck breaks and Sarah falls, trapped under a pile of wood. Jane, despite being the one who sees Sarah as a liability, goes down there to try and help her after Clementine begs her to. 

But because the writers don’t know what they’re doing, Jane gets hit by a random piece of wood and can’t get Sarah out in time, leaving her to be eaten alive by walkers. 

Then AJ is born and no one cares about Sarah ever again. 

I just.... 

Could’ve had an interesting story arc with a character who just lost her father in such a gruesome way, a character that already deals with anxiety and other problems that you never bothered to explain other than “she isn’t like Clementine” and you could’ve had her grow. 

But I guess that would’ve taken effort.... and screen time away from Kenny, and god forbid we ever do that. 

---

Honorable Mentions

-Ava falling to her death in the most comedic way possible, made even more hilarious by David’s two seconds of mourning. -Omid.... because hope is dead. Do you get it? Hope? is dead? Because Omid means hope? Do you get it?? -Honestly you could put most of S2′s deaths on this list because oh my god. -Ben because I’m still a salty bitch.  -I also wanna add Louis and Violet’s deaths on the bridge mostly because they die, Clem is sad for two seconds, Tenn says sorry, and then no one cares. Yeah, yeah, they mourned off screen and I call that lazy bullshit. -Hell, throw Tenn’s death on here, too, for similar reasons-- no one but Louis/Violet and AJ seem to care. Even Clementine is like “whatever” after it happens. 

---

Y’know, picking this one seemed like a good idea at the time, but by now I’m just annoyed by all these dumb deaths. So, what are your thoughts? Are there any deaths that make you question the writers that didn’t end up on the list? Do you agree or disagree with my list? Lemme know, we can have a friendly discussion about it. 

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

---

Next week’s T5F Top 5 Favorite Louis Moments

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2021: Embarrassment of Riches

So this current anime season absolutely stinks, which just makes the last one look even more impressive. Well, maybe not all of it...

Zombieland Saga Revenge

First off, you don't need to tell me that the following is a severe outlier opinion. We good? Ok. ZLSR is, in a word, subpar. I liked S1 back in the day, but it was already in the process of getting lazy towards the end. S2 continues this trend and is basically just another idol show. And as someone who actually does watch other idol shows I have to say that it's not a particularly good one of those either. The zombie gimmick has mostly stopped mattering and we're just doing what every idol show does, only with the odd occasional sight gag. The alleged subversive qualities mostly amount to a flashback for Yuugiri, which is admittedly the best part of the show but feels like it barely has anything to do with anything. Apart from that, it's a bunch of generic idol plots, rehashed character beats, shoddy attempts at twists (while not connecting to any setups from S1), and the obligatory "idols give us hope" ending, which is terribly hackneyed and flat out bad. Tae gets further memed into the ground, because of course she does. And there's stuff that was simply never good to begin with, like Kotarou and his comedy schtick, which gets truly insufferable now that there's no qualities to distract from it. It really makes me think that S1 wasn't even all that good to begin with and seems like an attempt to turn this surprise success into an easy money longrunner with no edge and no ambitions. "The idol show for people who don't watch idol shows" indeed, but not the way you mean it. 4/10

Bakuten

But not to dwell on the failures, with the second show we're already above the cut — barely. This one got my attention with its really impressive performance scenes early on and it totally sticks to that, which is even more impressive. But besides that? Well, this is by far the most predictable show in a season where I watched an unambitious Kiraralike and put ZLS on blast for having no ideas. The characters are a mixed bag, some are cool (Shida, Asawo), some are very annoying (Mashiro), but those are the supports. The main cast is extremely one-dimensional, which is fine until they try to heap a ton of pathos on their lead, which doesn't go well. But I guess execution matters, and Bakuten is slick enough to get by. Writing this down in stark daylight I feel like I overrated this show somewhat (I actually put it over the next one originally, which definitely doesn't hold up when thinking about it), but I was indeed mostly entertained. 6/10

Yakunara Mug Cup mo

Yeah. Of course Mug Cup definitely doesn't invent or subvert anything either, but it's a pretty good Kiraralike that's always entertaining to watch. Explaining the qualities of such a nothing genre is as difficult as ever, but it mostly comes down to me liking the characters and it having nothing to annoy me. It's shorter than normal, which is a plus for slim shows like this. And yeah, you can make an excessive amount of dick jokes with the clay fondling. That helps too. Looks are just fine, pleasant but nothing out of the ordinary. Comfy low-effort anime. 6/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

This one is decent, but sadly still a major letdown. Because the first few episodes of Vivy were excellent and kicked ass, but then it became increasingly clear that the writing can't cash the checks the ideas wrote while the action starts running into severely diminishing returns. Vivy just keeps slowly getting worse and worse as it goes on, not by a huge amount each episode but by the end there's a pretty sizeable gulf between potential and result. Going into detail would probably be a little much for this venue because there's a lot, but from the top level view the issue is that while Vivy has good fundamental ideas and steals at the right places, it just isn't a smart show — it's schlock, and by the end, poorly thought out schlock that tries to smooth out every problem with liberal application of the big feels hammer and le epic twist at that. Yeah, couldn't tell that the Re:Zero dude was aboard here, for sure. That said, it still works pretty well as entertaining schlock that is not to be taken too seriously, and the characters are generally just very fun to watch even when they're doing stupid things. Still, I can't in good conscience rate this higher than Beatless, a show that looks like butt but properly executes on its ideas. 6/10

Super Cub

So this is 100% a Honda commercial, and I got really mad a Yuru Camp last season for being a blatant shill. Yet I'm feeling this, what gives? I think the main difference is that Super Cub is specifically a commercial for one product (and a very iconic product at that), while Yuru Camp is so all over the place that it ends up mostly a commercial for consumerism in general. And when Super Cub goes too hard on the product (which it does), it's at least pretty entertaining. That's something about Super Cub in general: It goes hard. Your regular Kiraralike this is not, because it's uncommonly slow, focused and moody - yes, it almost measures up to Yuru Camp at its best and demolishes it at its worst. Also, it's just extremely amusing to see sadblob Koguma grow a huge grizzly biker beard and become a badass outlaw dad to her goofy wife and cute daughter, all thanks to the power of afforable personal transportation. Needless to say, that can get unintentionally silly, but Super Cub has so much charm that it doesn't matter — it's great when it's good and still funny when it's not. 7/10

Shadows House

Shadows House turned up with a lot of potential, and I have to say it at least delivered on most of it. It has some problems; notably I'm not a fan of how the entire middle turned out to be a tournament arc of sorts that seems curiously inspired by Resident Evil memes, crest-shaped intentations and boulder punching included. I also think that this is a show that would be perfectly fine without explaining much, but I guess it is a shounen manga after all so we got dumped on eventually anyway. At least that came late - close relative Promised Neverland didn't show that much restraint. Shadows House is generally well written though, with great characters, interesting interactions and a great hook. But what really makes it memorable is that it's exceptionally good at the cute/creepy contrast, something that is often tried but rarely works as well as here, with great character designs and very appropriate production. I hope this gets a sequel, because it seems like it's just getting started. 7/10

SSSS.Dynazenon

Coming in with a fondness for Gridman, Dynazenon didn't have to do much to convince me. The surprise though is that it's not a rehash even if it's basically the same show, a character drama where occasionally huge and goofy fights break out. Dynazenon is Gridman done better, and the interesting part is how it accomplishes this - mainly by being far more conventional. I do appreciate that Gridman went for something weird and almost experimental, but that only really paid off towards the end while most of the show was a distraction/holding pattern. It just didn't feel like there was enough material for a full series there, more like a movie maybe, if even that. Dynazenon fixes this by just being a TV show, with an actual cast of characters that each have their own arc. And by spreading the material this way, Dynazenon ends up having a lot more nuance than its intensely focused predecessor, while having the same themes and not actually being any deeper. In a way, Gridman ends up looking like the spinoff in retrospect, while Dynazenon is the full package. 8/10

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

So how good was this season? So good that Thunderbolt Fantasy doesn't end up at the top, that's how. And all the elements that made Tbolt such a sure thing are still there, big hammy puppets doing stunts and scheming never gets old. However, I do have to note that at this point, the writing appears to have gotten too comfortable. I don't expect it to ever top the amazing S1 ending, but at this point it's like Tbolt has stopped trying to deliver on endings at all and seems in the process of retooling itself into a longrunner instead. Barely anything gets resolved in S3 (the climax is that the climax of S2 is resolved again, for good this time... maybe), and everything else is just setting up plotpoints for the next season. Tbolt is truly lucky that it doesn't actually need to resolve anything to be a great time, but at this point I have to say that I'd appreciate it if they wrapped it up with S4. 8/10

Nomad: Megalobox 2

Speaking of sequels to shows I liked, Nomad doesn't so much improve upon its predecessor but steamrolls right over it. This is a tall order, since Megalobox was surprisingly good for a sports shounen and had a real nice, heartwarming ending that Nomad instantly negates for purposes of drama and everyone being extremely miserable. That sounds like a pretty terrible idea - and it would be, if Nomad wasn't as excellent as it is. To call it not the same show would be an understatement, because it's a true sequel, not just the same characters doing their thing some more, or new characters doing the same thing as the old ones did. Indeed my biggest problem with Megalobox was that it still closely adhered to its genre template and was very predictable; Nomad fixes this issue thoroughly. Nomad is about questioning what being a hotblooded shounen protagonist eventually leads you to, and how to fix everything you screwed up by being one. You could call it a deconstruction, but that term has been so abused for cynical, edgy "thing you like actually sucks" takes that I feel like it doesn't really fit here. Nomad isn't cynical at all, it's just a character drama about some boxers past their prime, and it being a sequel to a show that is indeed rather formulaic just enhances the experience. My biggest issue with it was that I really like what they did with Joe in this story, so the big focus on Mac's backstory felt like a distraction for a long time. But in the end that turned out to be absolutely necessary to make the ending work. The ending's just great, by the way, and I shall say not more about it. 9/10

Odd Taxi

Yeah boy, here's the show that has apparently become somewhat of a "greatest show you didn't watch" meme, which I can feel smug about because I don't need YouTubers to tell me what's good and followed this from day one. Anyway, Odd Taxi is indeed great, the greatest show in a few years even. What starts out as seemingly a relaxed hangout show in the vein of Midnight Diners quickly turns into a psychological murder mystery while never losing its quirky humor. The character writing is outstanding, with even small bit players being on a level that the average anime wishes it could have for leads. And the rollout of the mystery is exemplary, with answers given and new questions raised every episode with a satisfying and logical payoff in the end. This is also the rare anime that has rock solid production from the first to the last second; it's never really flashy but excellently done and highly consistent nonetheless. And the music just owns. I have a few complaints, mainly that there's a few logical weaknesses in the story (which wouldn't even register in a lesser show, but sticks out here since the rest is so immaculately constructed) and that the ending overextends on the emotions when the rest of the show is so reserved and dry in comparison. But those are only the reasons why I didn't give it perfect marks, and I almost did that anyway. 9/10

[kitkatopinions]

Leave it to RT to make me hate plot points I wanted. I wanted Winter to be the Winter Maiden, I wanted Salem to win, I wanted Whitley to not be treated like the worst person ever, I wanted Emerald to be a redeemable character. All that just flopped.

Hard agree on... Literally all of that. XD

I also wanted Winter to be the Winter Maiden (and before volume seven, I’d theorized that maybe she already was one,) but having the powers go to Penny, then get pulled away due to CRWBY making a contrived story and forcing her totally unnecessary death, making her give the powers to Winter, in order to drive home the message that Ironwood is one hundred percent bad and now that Winter isn’t following his orders, she can have the powers... I’d have rather Winter didn’t get the powers at all. They could’ve kept Penny alive and had Cinder steal half the powers like she had with Amber. They could’ve had Jaune or Pietro accidentally be the last thing Penny thinks of, and therefore the powers go who knows where. Winter looks great as the Winter Maiden, but because CRWBY chose to make everything needlessly complicated, the whole situation was more or less pointless, and now I wish Winter hadn’t ever been slotted to receive the powers in the first place.

I wanted the villains to have a win, but I wanted the protagonists to be present in the real world long enough to start feeling the effects and face consequences, and I wanted it to be because of Cinder learning and changing too. I was actually impressed and excited because they were finally doing something somewhat interesting with Cinder and displaying that when the villains learn and work together, they actually outmatch the heroes, and Ruby and the others need to learn and grow to compensate. But then, they took back any growth with Cinder and they successfully separated all our main characters (and Jaune, for some reason) from the world of Remnant, possibly for a whole volume so they can’t feel the effects. And not only that, but now Salem is in a much worse position and... Really doesn’t seem like a threat, currently. She has only three people left who seem like they’re even on her side, and one of them has proven herself a brat who always puts her own agenda first, but never gets killed for her actions because I guess Salem plays favorites, and one of the other ones (Mercury) might just leave her too. It makes her seem non-threatening, it makes Salem seem weak, like her people are just self-destructing themselves and the heroes happen to get caught in the crossfires here and there. I barely even consider it a win for the villains since Cinder took out Watts, the best villain on Salem’s side, and then betrayed Neo. Also, can I point out that out of the four deaths we got (which I literally said I wanted at least four deaths omg,) only one of them was a hero. One was more or less Ironwood’s henchman who then had a ‘we’re friends, sacrifice himself for his friends’ ending that felt like it didn’t matter because he was the most non-character member of an underdeveloped group. Another was Watts - who became one of the most enjoyable characters of season seven and eight only to be murdered by Cinder in his prime. Bad choice imo. Another was Ironwood, presumably, after his character was destroyed, he still managed to have a sympathetic death, but it’s wholly unsatisfying for me because I’m still sitting here going “What was the point?” And they forced him into a villain role too. And then, counting earlier deaths, Hazel, another villain. Only Penny was someone I feel like we were supposed to even care about enough to be sad about her death.

I wanted Whitley to be treated like he wasn’t the worst person ever and made this big post about how I’d be happy with anything so long as he got a bigger role. And to be fair, Whitley was one of my favorite parts of the season. I didn’t mind his interactions with Weiss. What I minded was how quickly they acted like things were completely resolved, how they never really addressed Weiss’s own problems and her flaws in their relationship, having Willow act like a caring, doting mother out of nowhere with Whitley just smilingly accepting it, having Winter never express an ounce of care or much recognition of Whitley, having Whitley and Weiss now separated, so there isn’t a chance for them having more interactions at least for now and maybe the next whole volume. It’s not that I wish Whitley hadn’t been involved, though, so... I guess there’s that. Whitley’s plot was severely lacking, but not enough for me to wish they’d left him out of things.

And then, as for Emerald, you’re right, I really wanted a redemption arc for her. But I’m entirely unsatisfied with how rushed it is, with how everyone can just laugh with her and trust her, with how they thought a little bit of groundwork was just enough to convince everyone she’s a good guy now  and that the heroes should just... believe in her. They let it go without consequence like her former, terrible actions didn’t even matter and didn’t really need to be worked through or addressed. Our good guys have stupid little teasing moments and laugh about Emerald saying something about being on their side when she’d been attacking Penny with Cinder mere episodes ago...It’s so weird. CRWBY’s lack of real growth and evidence of change in Emerald makes her seem like a weak character and make our heroes look really stupid and reckless. I almost expect Emerald to drop them with no warning and go run off to find Mercury after maybe severely wounding one of the heroes because there’s no way she suddenly changed that much, except that CRWBY has such a bad track record when it comes to making jumps with their characters and their dynamics without providing real growth. It’s so unsatisfying that it’s making me dread what they’re going to do with her in Vacuo. I totally wish she was still a villain, if only so they could give her organic growth and a more convincing arc.

But yeah, RWBY volume 8 really is just the season of really good concepts that just aren’t executed very well, or walked back on, or too caught up in plot points I already didn’t like. Some of it’s my own personal likes and dislikes, some of it I feel I can safely deem just kind of poorly done. That’s not to say there’s nothing to like about Volume 8 - Like I said, some of the Whitley stuff was good, and there were other good things too - but on the general whole, Volume 8 was just a disappointment to me.