#events like camp are a good way to include the other characters so i love it

[obsessive-valentine]

Are your request open? Can I request a sequel to Barbarian?

I know he's kind and everything but I don't think I could give in to him 100%, like yes, probably return the kindness but never love him. Reader feels a lot of guilt about the attack and I think that after the event and realizing that they didn't have much to do in the situation, they just felt numb about everything, living on autopilot except when they are with their dog.

This is just my interpretation and basically a self insertion sorry haha.

I would love to know about their daily lives! Does the barbarian take reader to war with him? (If you delve deeper into my idea) Would he realize that reader doesn't talk to him much? Would he be jealous of the dog?

Requests are always open, I love to hear about people’s thoughts on my silly little characters lol.

I did focus more on the barbarians perspective on the relationship rather the actual complexity of the whole thing and psychological depth of it all, it was a rather shallow Drabble but I’d love to expand more on his character. I’ll see if I come up with any domestic short stories for him in the coming weeks, love that idea thanks :)

Yandere!Barbarian X GN!Reader Headcanons

The barbarian himself isn’t a good person, morally or in any other way, and he knows that. He understands what he’s done to you -pulled you away from everything you’ve ever known or loved leaving it all in tatters- he understands he’s killed innocent and guilty all the same and will continue to do so for the clan to thrive. And he doesn’t feel bad about any of it.

He definitely tries to sympathise with how his greed effects you, but, he doesn’t regret his actions but does understand to an extent how hard this is for you. This is why he tries to over compensate by gift giving and finding it within himself to be gentle and patient, so as not to damage you further (despite that being the polar opposite of how he was raised).

He’s not super emotionally intelligent so doesn’t really know what to do aside from the above. Anyone with common sense will learn fast that they can’t fight him off so it’s very possible to become numb and retreat into the mind. If you wont retreat into his arms he will try make it so you feel comfort in his tent that way you’re not always on autopilot but enjoying a craft or something in your quiet tent if even just for a hour.

Honestly though he doesn’t really mind if you’re on autopilot but does expect you to tolerate him, so if you are adamant on distance or fighting him you might trigger his temper. Like pulling and tugging you around, making you sleep in the same bed no exceptions, raising his voice to remind you who you’re trying to challenge etc.

A very tearful darling is a whole other situation, he cant stand seeing you cry, he’d be sobbing, crying, throwing up on the inside while trying to maintain a poker face and think up a solution.

Onto a lighter topic, the barbarians do move camp every few weeks and that includes reader (dont worry he never makes you walk) they don’t have a permanent home just their tents though our barbarian does intend to settle down at some point once the fighting becomes to much hassle for his ageing bones. But never once does he imagine bringing you into one of his raids, rebellions or battles.

He leaves you at camp with the members that aren’t participating that particular day (like the few women, elders or barbarians that just didn’t go-nobody’s forced to fight every battle, just to pull their weight). And of course your beloved wolf dog who he doesn’t regret, he doesn’t get jealous easily especially of the dog he got you for the soul purpose of cheering you up, if he can’t cheer you up at least the dog can and that’s a win in his books.

He’s really not high maintenance, as long as at the end of the day he load up your plate with his finest hunt and sit near you while you both eat, watching whatever fight breaks out in the clan from a safe distance before he has to eventually step in. There’s not much entertainment in the middle of the woods during the evening so you both take what you can get even if it’s drunken fight.

Maybe he takes you and the dog out for walks or fetch if it gets really boring at camp. Will bring you the best stick he finds for you to play fetch with the dog, he sees how much the dog means to you so he treats it with utmost respect. He’ll let you have control over this one little thing in your life for your own sakes.

Therefore while he would prefer you to love him truly, he doesn’t expect it (mostly because half the time he can’t tell the difference between your compliance and you showing affection), doesn’t stop him from trying though. He’s a saint compared to the barbarians before him... only for you though.

[accio-victuuri]

selfie points, custom red envelope, joint celebration rumors & AU pairings 🧧🎉🎉

happy CNY to all of you! it’s a happy day for the fandom and not even because of candies— but due to fans making so many content as new year gifts. i have personally enjoyed the photos and video edits of AU pairings. you can check this round-up for the links of those posts so you can enjoy all of it 🫶🏼

the best way to start this post is to clown over xz’s CNY selfie. this is usual for zz, posting one during this day and every year, we tend to speculate over it so this is a tradition already. lol. anyway, i wanna explain more on the caption and the exclamation he was using: 龘龘龘龘！

thank you to baidu for explaining and it makes sense now why he used it: 龘 (pronounced as dá, ㄉㄚˊ [7] ) is a Chinese character with the radical dragon, a variant of "龖" , and the meaning of the character refers to the shape of a flying dragon.

dragon fits because it’s the year of the dragon and he also used an emoji for that. his hand was also posed as the claw of a dragon. 🐲

now back to candies related to this selfie...

people are saying that this was taken using his wechat camera and in selfie mode. which, like what we usually cpn, is because he was sending it to someone else. what we got is another leftover selfie. another one is what’s drawn/reflected in his eye? if you’ve been here long enough, you may be familiar with people saying that ZZ will edit his eyes to show something else. there were examples before that were kinda believable but i personally think it’s a stretch. xz is definitely an artist who loves to hide things in his art, which includes his photos so it is probable. i just don’t know how far he will take it. what fans are comparing it to as possible reference are the two: happy camp hand stand or a photo of wyb in SDC 6.

my favorite part tho is the second photo shared. i always feel like if xz is only giving us 2 photos, then it means something. the selfie makes sense— but the other one? i actually expected him to share a photo of food that he is eating. anyway, it’s a winterberry ( one of it’s names ) and is a known means health and longevity, no illness or disaster, suitable for decorating during spring festival it is believed to bring happiness and good luck.

this is seen frequently in relation to ZZ:

One old cpn we have is that WYB gives him this in bouquets for his filming wrap up events knowing that he likes it. maybe not exactly how it looks but what it means. most popular being during OOL. He posted a different bouquet from what was given to him by the crew as per the wrap up bts video 👀 so why? what’s so important? was he trying to make someone happy? that is mostly explained in the last part of this post.

the speculation is he included that because wyb gave it to him. or that he gifted it to WYB, who took a photo of it and sent it back to him so he is sharing as well. wait… where did we get that idea? 🤔

again, another galaxy brain observation… the wall. it’s not the most unique kind of wall and it’s hard to tell in wyb’s video— but this video went on HS today as wyb’s new year greeting. so it kinda makes sense that gg will use that clue. wherever this was taken, probably wyb’s office, that’s where he placed the flowers. mister photographer wyb then took a photo and sent it to zz to show his appreciation for it.

lastly, a tiny clue from yibo-official is the emoji they used for their cny greeting. does it look familiar????

AHHHHHHH! What a coincidence!!!! 👀

to add this “emoji clue” in his photo that includes this hat. this freakin hat that launched a ton of cpn posts. interesting….

NEXT IS YBO’s custom red envelope cover for this year. They also did this last year, which we also clowned over.

black panther is something that in this fandom is widely accepted cpn was made by xz. and it’s still there. the panther looks like he has something that looks like what xz wore and drew before. also those personal connections to wyb like the 85 and skateboard, which i understand is a common yibo element and anyone can just add it. personally, i think xz did the panther on the shoulder only. 🤍

I will lightly discuss the rumor going around cpfs, especially the morning of 2/9 when cpfs have noticed that both zz and wyb have turned off their ip address locator on douyin. this usually means they don’t want people to know where they are. there are rumors that zz’s parents already arrived in Hengdian the night before 2/8 and that wyb + his parents are also going to HD so the whole joint family can spend CNY together ♥️

tho i have to say HD is a populated place, but i feel like most people will have the day off and the two are so careful so they won’t get caught. Treat this as fanfic for now. if this is true, we will clues in the next months. that’s just how turtle cpns go.

-END.

[thermodynamic-comedian]

ever wanted to rant to someone about your hyperfixations? now's your shot!

hi, i'm frey. and i'm interested in YOUR hyperfixations!

so, due to recent events, i will no longer be posting or reblogging our flag means death content. i'm trying to distance myself from the show in general, but i'm the kinda guy who can't survive without at least one hyperfixation. i decided that the best way to get over all this shit is to find something new to obsess over.

that's where you come in. yes, you. i know that a lot of my wonderful lovely dear mutuals have several hyperfixations that i don't. and i am interested in adopting your hyperfixations as my own.

reblog this post with an info-dump about your current hyperfixation!

information i need:

the name of your hyperfixation

what form of media it is

where i can find it

information i don't need, but would love to hear anyways:

your favourite character(s)

music you associate with your hyperfixation

headcanons

anything else you wanna say, i wanna hear all of it

sharing some of my own interests and preferences under the cut, if you wanna get a better idea of my tastes/make sure i don't already know about your hyperfixation :3

already interested in: good omens, the locked tomb, camp here & there, nevermoor, adventure time.

my preferred forms of media to consume are tv shows, book series, and fiction podcasts. i'm not interested in real life related hyperfixations, sorry :(

i have no genre preference, but i like a bit of humor mixed with mystery, horror, fantazy, sci-fi, all that good stuff.

shortcuts to grabbing my interest:

philosophy! does your hyperfixation include a bit of debate about morality and/or reality? tell me more!!!!

music! is music significant to the story? hell. yes.

queer stuff! bonus points for trans stuff!

pathetic little guy(s)! my favourite type of fictional guys!!

absurdism! i love when shit makes no sense!!!!

go forth, my beautiful mutuals and others who might or might not find this post. tell me everything.

[neitherabaron]

Really looking forward to the Chris Pine D&D movie, and I want to share some love for the original attempt at a D&D film from 2000!

Make no mistake, this is a so-bad-it’s-good film, with digital effects that are ropey as hell (especially when you consider that Fellowship of the Ring was already in post-production in 2000), a plot so disjointed it barely exists, (including a final battle that the main characters don’t even really take part in) and staggering levels of camp.

But it’s fucking charming.

Jeremy Irons (Scar from The Lion King) is the villain, an evil archmage who wants to overthrow an (not particularly benevolent anyway) empire with a plan that is never really clear but involves dragons?

Just look at this guy:

:readmore:

He walks about like that for the whole film, waggling his fingers slowly so you know he’s the baddie. He has an office where all the furniture and decor is made of human skulls and bones (a real location; I believe it’s a church somewhere?) and likes swooping his cape about. And Jeremy Irons himself is so bored, it’s hilarious. I seem to remember that in the dvd extras he’s interviewed alongside Gary Gygax and pretty much expresses open disdain for the whole process. He’s a serious actor! This is beneath him!

Elsewhere on the supporting cast, we have a henchman with spiky armour and inexplicably blue lips that are always pouting in a way that seems vaguely sexual; Tom Baker(!) as a wood elf Druid who only exists in order to say something vaguely mystic about dragons for 20 seconds before disappearing forever; and Richard O’Brien in full fey bastard mode as a camp thieves’ guild master who challenges the party to…find a crystal…in a deadly maze filled with traps and puzzles. Like in that game show he used to present…I forget the name. I wanna say Diamond Labyrinth? 😂

As for the party, it’s all delightfully one-note characters. We’ve got a rogue? bard? who goes from being a selfish dickhead to altruistic freedom fighter on a dime. Some dialogue suggests he’s some kind of chosen one, but the plot never actually explores or resolves that. Then there’s a wizard who doesn’t like poor people, an elf fighter who doesn’t like anyone, a dwarf who’s so out of it he barely knows he’s there and is never given any character motivation to explain why he’s travelling with these guys; and some dude called Snails, whose personality is…he’s scared? Basically Shaggy without Scooby.

These guys have to save a princess from Jeremy Irons, who wants to kill her because she has friendly dragons or something. But here’s the great thing: the party have very little reason to want to rescue her (most of them as non-mages are actively oppressed and even enslaved by the ruling mage class of which she is the figurehead) and they never actually *meet* her until the very end of the film, after the evil archmage has pretty much already been defeated - by the princess and her dragons btw, not the party, who basically teleport a magic wand to her and then just watch.

They rescue her because in order for the film to be a film, there needs to be an end goal, even if it’s totally arbitrary. And that’s what I love. Isn’t that just so reflective of a slightly haphazard campaign of Dungeons & Dragons with a party that’s hastily thrown together?

And there are more similarities that compound this feeling of watching some randoms play a home campaign. The plot as I mentioned is disjointed. It’s not a series of events that flows or has any kind of pacing - the movie is a series of 15 minute adventures that don’t really connect to each other or build to the ending. As if the director is a dungeon master arbitrarily stringing together modular adventure sourcebooks! Let’s storm a castle for reasons! Great, now let’s raid a tomb. No, I don’t know why. At one point a party member just bounces from the plot and is never seen again, just like that player in your group who never shows up and you all just move on.

It’s like the writers transcribed a home campaign, warts and all, into script form and then somehow successfully pitched it as a B-movie. Though the Chris Pine version will doubtlessly be a much better movie, Dungeons & Dragons (2000) is perhaps the most accurate possible dramatic presentation of D&D as it actually is in practice for most people playing it. What could be more charming than that?

[doomreed]

I’m not hyped about the new fantastic four news either. though I think what I kind of hope will happen is marvel doing something like they did in the last mcu spider man movie where we see 3 peter parkers team up.

I think it would be super cool to see the cast from the 2005-2007 fantastic four movie meet with the ones from the newest movie. and have the 2005-2007 Doom (Julian McMahon) meet with the Doom from this upcoming fantastic four film too.

so we have more than one “fantastic four” team and also more than one Victor von Doom in the same movie. that would be pretty epic to see in my humble opinion. (if this really is the case, I still have hope that marvel won’t mess it up, because it sure has the potential to be great.)

I mean marvel did just very recently confirm that all the events prior to the mcu (so… sony’s spider man and fantastic four) are also canon to the mcu, and I doubt they would say that if they didn’t plan to do something with it (they said it after the event of the last spider man movie with 3 peter parkers), especially when mcu is heavily heading towards the direction of multiverse, various timelines, various variants of the same person (character) right now. I mean we basically have 3 peter parkers (from both sony and mcu) and literally a bunch of lokis. so let’s see what’ll happen next.

also not related to the topic but I should just say that I’ve been a fan of your blog for some time now. thank you for all the DoomReed goodies

The only part of the casting I agree with is Ben. It feels like Marvel is playing it extremely safe with casting Pedro, like since Multiverse of Madness they've clearly been aiming for the "soft dad" angle with Reed, probably in an attempt to get ahead of possible complaints about him based on canon? I love Reed Richards to a fault, but he's always been a little bit of an asshole. Not intentionally, and much of that perceived assholeness stems from him being on the spectrum imo but it's there, and ignoring that does him as much a disservice as playing up Tony's alcoholism purely for laughs and then never mentioning it again was to that character--another thing the MCU has done.

The poster, the casting, idk. It radiates a nuclear-family blandness, with a camp overlay used purely for aesthetics that will probably be quite popular with general audiences and leave F4 fans from the comics and old movies and other sources of media quite cold. We are not the audience Marvel Studios wishes to court, they've made that very clear.

I'd love to be wrong about how this will play out, though. Pedro is a gifted character actor when he's allowed to be, the trouble is, studios know too well how much audiences love him as a person, and are too prone to mixing the two to improve audiences' appreciation of a character he's playing, rather than just letting the man cook. 😔

I don't have a firm opinion of the other cast other than: this will be the most money anyone named Kirby has ever made on Fantastic Four, so good on her. 👍 And the Ben casting feels right. I'm outside the Johnny demographic so no real opinion there.

I had read that the baddie for the first movie will be Galactus, which is like leading your football season with the Superbowl? But no one asked me, so... 😅 maybe they have a set up that will make that work, who can say.

I've also read (on reddit, so make of that what you will) that Doom will have a "cameo" in the first movie, but no clue what that means or even of it's true.

I like your idea a lot. I think the Deadpool & Wolverine movie will have a Fantastic Four cameo of some kind, probably. The comic book we see in the trailer next to Wade's head on the desert world is Secret Wars #5, which is a recap of the story so far and how everyone got to where they are--so it's possible the desert world they're all on is Battleworld, run either by future-verse Doom or (more likely) the Beyonder. I do think the movie will include them in some way bc the studio will want to start building hype for that as their next big project, going into the MCU version of Secret Wars.

And ofc SW will have crossovers galore, since Marvel Studios has unfortunately set audience expectations for that being what it's about 😅 so, worst case, they'll turn up between those two films no doubt.

I'd love to see Julian McMahon's Doom encounter a closer-to-comic-canon version, but a thing to know about Victor is that he kills every variant of himself he meets. Like, historically, that's just his thing (it's an expression of his own self-loathing, which is really tragic in a way) ...I dunno if the MCU will carry that fun little trait over, but as a writer I can say it's an easy, low-stakes way of showing "this character is a bad guy and also there is something very wrong with him" so... yanno. I am expecting it. 😁

Sorry for the negativity on this, I'm trying to stay upbeat about it all but so far they're not inspiring confidence yet. We'll see what future developments bring, if nothing else we'll always have fanart and fics and the comics themselves. It's not like this fandom hasn't dealt with bad adaptations before, I think we'll be alright whatever happens.

[choicesmonthlychallenge]

Choices August Challenge 2023

This month's challenge will be a little different. The previous host had to back out so I am taking over... however, I was already planning on hosting 2 celebration weeks in August, which with the 2 book clubs would leave me with 5 events, and that's too much, even for me. So we're making August a combination month!

PlayChoice Game's 7th birthday is August 17th, so instead of having a birthday week, I'm including prompts for this event below and it'll run through the entire month of August.

There will also be prompts for Hollywood U + High School Story, as it's been one year since PB pulled those games. Without their success, we might not have gotten Choices.

Also, I've rescheduled sibling appreciation week a few times, so let's just add that in.

I also have some August holidays and summer prompts.

And lastly, similar to @choicesprompts, if you have a WIP from a previous challenge or event from this year that you really want to finish, feel free to submit it here too (regardless of the prompt). Let's clean out some WIPs.

Any of the prompts below can be used with any story/characters. They do not have to be used in the context of the "theme" they're posted under.

Happy Birthday, Choices!

In addition to the prompts below, posts celebrating Choices and your favorites (MCs, LIs, Friend Groups, Books, etc), will be accepted regardless of if a specific prompt is used

baking a cake

blowing out candles / making a wish

the perfect gift

surprising them with their favorite flowers

surprise party

spa break

"I'm sorry did you just call my/your birthday my 'womb escape'??"

“Are you crying? Please don’t cry, I didn’t think the gift was that bad-"

"I never liked celebrating my birthday."

"I don’t think fighting for my life is an acceptable way to celebrate my birthday"

"I’d rather eat you than cake."

"Put down the frosting!"

Hollywood U + High School Story Appreciation

Just like last year's event, any and all HWU and HSS content will be accepted regardless of if a specific prompt is used

movie premiere / red carpet

behind the scenes

coffee (all the coffee)

library dates/sneaking around in the stacks

falling asleep watching a movie

classes at HWU related to your MC's field of study

"Does a ninety minute movie really warrant this amount of snacks?"

"Your taste in movies is so bad"

"I love you but I'm not watching _____ again" -----

prom

graduation

High School Reunion / Where are they now?

school clubs

skipping class together

putting secret notes into the other's locker

being paired up for a project/presentation

"I accidentally grabbed your notebook" (What do they find, doodles, writings, poems, songs, little hearts with their initials?)

"It's finals week and you forgot we have a history exam?"

Sibling Appreciation

Any and all content that is focused on siblings in the fandom will be accepted regardless of if it fits a specific prompt

teaching their sibling about/how to do something

teasing each other

being overly protective of sibling

"Could you just stop talking for once?!"

"Don't blame it on me!"

"Thanks for being there"

"Can you pick me up?"

Siblings would help you bury a body, but they wouldn’t bring out the trash for you, no matter how nice you ask.

August Days

any August holiday

August 4: International Beer Day ; National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

August 5: Sandcastle Day

August 6: National Friendship Day

August 9: Hold Hands Day

August 10: National S’mores Day

August 12-20: National Heritage Week

August 18: National Couple's Day

August 26: National Dog Day

August 27: National Just Because Day

August 30: National Beach Day

Summer Prompts:

popsicles

sidewalk chalk

camping

fairs/festival

fruit picking

stargazing

iced coffee

sunglasses

Making summer playlists for each other

“it’s absolutely sweltering, how can you still want to cuddle?!”

“do we have any ice cream left?”

"Summer's almost over…"

“I couldn’t help myself… All the ice-cream flavours looked so good!”

Remember, you can also submit any WIP you have that are based on previous prompts from any 2023 event.

2023 Monthly Challenge Prompt Lists:

January ❤️ February ❤️ March ❤️ April ❤️ May ❤️ June ❤️ July

Guidelines + Rules

Submitted works will be featured on a weekly masterlist

Every form of creative work can be submitted: fanfiction, drabbles, moodboards, edits, drawings, poems, songs, sketches, and more—all are welcomed.

Work from any book and story from the Choices (and Pixelberry) universe are welcome (new and old alike)!

You can participate as many times as you want during the month

Clearly list the prompt your used

You can combine submissions for this event and others

Please add a cut to avoid long posts and exposing other fans to triggering/disturbing content.

If your work is NS*W please label it as such and use appropriate warnings. Adult content should be hidden under the page break.

You can get creative with the prompts. It can be a variation of the word and/or concept. It doesn’t have to be exact or literal. If the word inspires a train of thought that led you to something different, put that in the notes and send it in! Have fun with it! Make them work for you! The ultimate goal is just to find joy in creating!

Please tag @choicesmonthlychallenge​​ and if you’d like to add me you can do so as well~ @lovealexhunt​​​ (feel free to DM me your work too since Tumblr tags are fickle)

[marjanefan]

Why I believe Reece and Steve (and Inside No.9) are  NOT homophobic  (spoilers)

OK I am just going to look at the accusation that 'Inside No.9 is homophobic. I will address particular concerns and try and look at particular characters in more depth. I hope I can make a good case it is far from homophobic.

Please note I will be discussing characters who are openly LGBT or who are shown to be LGBT. I will not be discussing characters whose sexual orientation is not indicated or discussed. It is actually interesting to note how many characters sexual orientation or marital status is not indicated. This shows how these play little part in the characters motivations and actions.

We should ask 1. are the characters made ridculous because of their sexual orientation 2. punished because of their orientaton. 3.Motivated to do bad things because of their orientation.

Please note many spoilers below

Wholesome LGBT Characters- that survive!

Stevie (Tom and Gerri), Bobby (12 days of Christine), and Robert (Zanzibar) may be somewhat camp but they are all deeply caring and considerate characters - and they all survive

And lets not forget Mark Gatiss got to play Callum, a happily married, professionally successful openly gay man, just as he is himself.(and yes Callum does survive the events of 'Merrily Merrily'). Callum is or was part of the gang just like Laurence and Darren and his sexual orientation is by the by. And the friendship between Callum, Darren and Laurence reflects the even greater frienship and brotherhood between Mark, Steve and Reece.

Martin (The referee's a wxxxer)

There is a gay character who does not die or who kills who does something questionable. Martin in 'The referee's a wxxxer' sets up his lover Calvin to ensure the success of his true love- the football team he supports. But the episode asks questions of the ongoing homophobia in UK league football and the alliegance fans at all levels have to their teams.

Episodes where LGBT characters die

Inside No.9 does not kill off LGBT characters more than heterosexual characters

In 'Sardines' it is implied Stu and Carl may die but this is alongside THREE heterosexual couples

In 'Wuthering Heist' Mario (Dino Kelly) dies in the final shootout but so do several other heterosexual characters.

In 'A Quiet night in' Sabrina is killed by Gerald- and the killing is shown in all its horror. But Gerald is also killed as are Ray and Eddie.

In 'Private view' Patricia (Felicity Kendall) is killed- as are several other characters.

I will come back to Simon Smethurst in 'Simon Says'

Episodes where LGBT characters are killers

Inside No.9 includes many many killers - but only two are (possibly) LGBT.

In 'How do you plead?' Urban is revealed to have killed a classmate as a young teenager. But it is clear he is deeply haunted by this and he actually owns up to it and accepts that he will face serious punishment eventually for this. He is trying to make amends by being a patient and caring person and it could be said that his outwardly camp persona is a way for him to defuse the darker side of his character and turn it into something better (see how he drops this persona when he goes to sort the fuse).

Brian in 'The Last Night of the Proms'joins in the killing of Yusef. But this is shown to be part of his latent xenophobia and of his failure to accept and be open about his true sexual orientation and desires.If he had been more self accepting he probably would not have participated. And part of the point of Brian's story is that Reece and Steve show that remainers are capable of being as racist and intolerant as Brexit supporters.

A few more thoughts on Carl and Stu

I wrote a whole blog about 'Sardines' but just want to say a bit here about Carl and Stu and their relationship. When we met them they are mid argument and it is clear that there are underlying tensions between them about Carl's fear of intimacy, because of the abuse he endured at Andrew's hands. But it is also evident that there is affection and in a moment that was cut from the episode as aired but in the script they reconcile.

The case of Simon Smethurst

In 'Simon Says' Spencer kills Simon during what appear to be an attempt by Simon to seduce him. But this is after Spencer has seen Simon apparently kill Gavin. He could well believe he is about to get violated and possibly killed. (Also worth noting there was a cut scene from earlier in the episode when Spencer considers smothering Simon as he has had enough of his blackmail).

What Simon's actual intentions are in this particular scene are debated by fans. There are signs he may have a romantic/sexual obsession with Spencer but he was performing a script (I may come back to this). But the point is that Spencer doesn't kill him because he may be gay but because he is afraid in that moment for his life.

Personally I could also discuss the portrayal of lesbian characters such as Felicity (The Understudy), June (And the winner is) and Patricia (Private View) - it seems no one cares very much about the L part of LGBT (I say this as someone with many Lesbian friends). But I don't hold this against Reece and Steve (too much!)

And arguably why can't LGBT character be as flawed and complicated as a heterosexual character

The vast majority of killers and indeed victims in the show are heterosexuals or do not have their sexual orientation indicated (like Maxwell, Dennis Fulcher, Viktor).

I previously wrote a blog about 'The Stakeout' which looks at amongst other things whether Varney being a vampire is code for homosexuality.

The Question of 'The Last Weekend'

This particular issue is being raised because of the forthcoming episode 'The Last Weekend' where Steve and Reece play a couple Joe and Chas. I am going to reserve my thoughts on the episode until I have actually seen it and had a chance to think about it.

Perhaps we need to examine our own feelings about what we expect from this episode and why we want the episode to play out a particular way.

Final thoughts

Reece and Steve have many close friendships with members of the LGBT commmunity (not just Mark Gatiss but people like Matt Lucas, Derren Brown and many others). Russell T. Davies has praised the show.

Inside no.9 explores the human condition and human fralities often in quite a profound manner. I am proud to be a fan.

[dag-hammarskjold]

I cannot believe it, I found the Hammarskjold movie

I really enjoyed it, it is about everything I would ask for

Thoughts under the read more, will include spoilers

I really like the direction, the dichotomy between Hammarskjold the Secretary-General and Dag the person. I see why some wanted more focus on the crisis itself, but I actually think the crisis is not that relevant to him, as the subject of the movie. And given the almost 2 hour run time already, I think it was the right decision.

I cannot talk about the dichotomy between Secretary-General and man without talking about Peter. I remember reading that the director added Peter as a stand-in for him, as a voice to which he said what he wanted to Dag. I definitely see that, but his sub-plot with Dag was so good it is barely noticeable. (And I respect the rpf self insert shipping 😂)

In the movie, Dag and Peter knew each other since University, but were estranged after Peter tried to kiss him on a camping trip. It’s almost like a romcom setup - the love interest reappears into the protagonist’s life in a time of turmoil and uncertainty, reigniting feelings the protagonist long repressed. In the past, Peter even gave him a gift - a statue of a unicorn - something Dag would later use in Markings to describe himself.

The conflict within Dag is so palpable. When Dag was told Peter had previously been found guilty of homosexuality in Sweden, the first thing he asked was if anyone else knew. When he rejected Peter for the second time, Greenback his pet monkey and sole companion died almost simultaneously… the parallel writes itself doesn’t it?

The Congo crisis itself was probably the weaker part of the movie, and I am fine with it. It quietly builds up in the background, and ends almost just as unsatisfyingly quiet. Because there is no fight at the climax, this is not a 3-arc narrative where everything is resolved, not even like the more well-known crises in the Cold War where everything ended generally better than it started, the crisis continued on for years, if not till modern day. Hammarskjold died, and the movie ends with him. I would suggest watching a different movie if you want to focus on the events of the crisis.

It somewhat reminds me of reading about the crisis in real life: you know what it is from the start, there is no gallant fight, you watch them walk away less hurt than the good people, you watch them win using all the dirty tricks, you know it doesn’t matter that the pilot who shot his plane down had tears in his eyes, you know how it ends.

Most other characters are relatively one-note, and I think it fits. Dag was a lonely, perhaps very repressed man. I think on some level he was afraid of being known so intimately, the way Peter did, and thus he keeps most people (that he didn’t know prior to being at the UN) at arm’s length.

The use of quotes from Markings were also well-chosen and well-timed. I could almost recite them by heart, and they fit very well into the plot. The movie does a really good job making you want to see Dag happy - in a cottage near his friends, back home in Sweden, no stressful job, and perhaps love. When Peter sent him a letter telling Dag that he had a right to be happy too, and Dag replied that Peter would be welcome when his term ended, it hurts ever more knowing it was too late.

I previously said this movie was my Oppenheimer, but that isn’t entirely accurate now, I suppose. Oppenheimer was a deeply polarising individual - the father of the atomic bomb - the movie must balance between his point of view and addressing the reality/horrors of him and his creation.

But Hammarskjold does not have this baggage - he is still by a wide margin considered the best Secretary-General of the UN, remembered universally positively. For once, Hammarskjold didn’t have to be the image of an impossibly perfect Secretary-General, he can be Dag. And I think he has more than earned it.

If this movie is all that the world will ever learn about Dag Hammarskjold, I would be satisfied. I would rank this a 10/10, but I am very easily satisfied by movies.

(If I got anything wrong, it’s probably because the version I watched had a dub in a language I do not speak, and subtitles that were not in sync with the movie)

[cityandking]

2, 11, 25, 41, 44 for dai and minah!

thanks dear!! // get to know my d&d characters

2. before they met their party, what was their main goal?

DAI — be a good son, be a good cleric, be a good soldier. rise through the ranks of the order because that's what good cleric soldier sons do. MINAH — make money and not get caught

11. what skills are they proficient in? why?

DAI — history, medicine, perception, persuasion, religion, and he has expertise in insight. he studied history, medicine, and religion as an acolyte. the perception proficiency comes from his cleric domain (his vision is quite literally blessed by pelor). persuasion he's learned over his time traveling (he picked it up last ASI with the Skill Expert feat). insight is just who he is as a person, but it's been honed over time (also from last ASI) ((technically the acolyte skills are insight and religion but I choose to believe that means he came to training sharply attentive to other people. probably one of those little "growing up in an army camp" things)) MINAH — acrobatics, deception, investigation, perception, performance, sleight of hand, stealth, and thieves tools. she's got expertise in deception, investigation, perception, stealth, and thieves tools, and she also rolls all thieves tools and deception checks with advantage. acrobatics, performance, slight of hand, and thieves tools were all skills she learned with the troupe. stealth she already had a decent handle on, but she definitely honed it working with the orchestra. perception and deception are all her own — she's spent a lot of time looking over her shoulder and talking her way out of corners. investigation is a recent skill — turns out going around for weeks and weeks hunting down leads about ancient magisters and tevinter cults really hones your investigative eye.

25. what stories do they like to tell? what stories do they like to hear?

DAI — isn't much of a storyteller. he gets a little too caught up in laying the facts out neatly and sometimes forgets about the artistry and the space between the facts where stories hide. but he loves listening to stories. he likes histories especially, and doesn't mind if they're a little muddled or mythic. there's a kind of awe in knowing where things came from, including the ways people think about those events later. MINAH — she loves to tell big stories, clever ones with embellishments and untruths and misdirection and jokes and happy endings. the point isn't the honesty, it's the way the audience feel listening to it, and the way she can twist words to make anything sound real. the thing about stories is most people have things they want to believe, and stories are a way to give them that. of course, being a storyteller (liar) herself, she prefers to hear true stories. they don't have to be factual, but she prefers them to be true. (with the orchestra, comedies sell best, but she likes the dramas and tragedies the most)

41. what are they attracted to in other people?

DAI — the ability to talk to other people competently and confidently is unfortunately enormously attractive to him. I think there's a certain kind of unobtrusive and quiet attentiveness he also finds really compelling — something about being seen, maybe, without having to make an effort for it. maybe just a little bit of pride, so long as its earned. competence is sexy MINAH — minah likes a bit of an edge, a bit of power, and a bit of deference. she likes people who will look up to her not because they have to but because they choose to. it was one of the most fun parts of going home with someone after a show — they still saw her as that larger-than-life thing up on stage and she enjoyed the awe. (helvius, with his magic and his gratitude, was delightfully interesting)

44. what do they need to learn?

DAI — how to heal the void. seventh level spells. honestly idk. he's learned a lot of lessons he's tired. school's out. MINAH — tevene, how to let go of some stuff, and how to hold on to some stuff a little better

[lab-trash]

hi!! aplogies if this is pushing but i really really really love your michie fic titled “H̶e̶r̶” and i was wondering if you’re planning on updating it at some point?? no pressure i just love the premise a lot and i am HOOKED

[also i really hope i have the right blog lol]

Okay, so first off. Right blog? Yes and no? I am the person who wrote Her, but this is more of my... sci-fi, supernatural blog? Which I suppose NPMD could key into, but it's much more sitcoms and movies. (Also just my personal rants, vents and other bullshit)

That being said, I've gotten a confused person looking for my musical theatre blog enough times that I definitely should create a pinned post including my other blogs.

My musical theatre blog, for future reference, is @im-not-a-l0ser . Very fitting if you ask me ^-^

Anyway! About your question! I do plan on updating it at some point, I just don't know when that point will be. Something that keeps me on top of my stories is writing chapters in advance so I don't get burnout. Example, I'm writing Beanies right now and there are nine chapters posted. Chapter 10 is complete, but I haven't yet finished chapter 11, so I'm not posting Chapter 10, and Chapter 11 won't be out until Chapter 12 is complete. (This also allows me to double-post chapters when I'm finishing a book, although this has not actually happened yet.)

I did not start doing this until after starting Her. I'm stuck with Her, because I don't know what direction I'm going into, and I don't know where to start. Also doesn't help that my parents were never formally divorced (they have 6 kids and had been married for over 20 years by the time they separated; can't blame them) so I really don't know anything about the process. I know it's long and gruelling and stuff, but I don't know how quickly I'd be able to just gloss over it. But I suppose maybe Gary Goldstein (Attorney At Law) is a good enough lawyer to get it wrapped up real quick lol.

I understand that Her is more of an angst and trans-comfort gold mine, but feel free to take a peak into my other books, which are updated slightly more frequently, such as Beanies or Zeek: The Fighting Nighthawk. Beanies is more building friendship secretly between them, while Zeek: The Fighting Nighthawk has them becoming friends with one under false identity (obviously, that's Zeek.) Beanies does also include the same character being trans, but it's not a major plot/talking point (yet). I really appreciate the support, I'm just going to be very busy between planning for pride and writing for Beanies (I have a trio of chapters coming out that I want to get out of the way before I pick up something else; I don't want burnt out on this before I even finish the pride event stories.)

If you want something of mine that's complete, I have a handful of one-shots, such as Dance with Death (spoilers for Workin' Boys and Abstinence Camp), Max Jagerman's Socks, r/TrueOffMyChest (you can actually find some backstory for that on my blog under an ask @/24-guy sent in), and Max Jagerman's Private Story.

I also have an ongoing porn saga but we're not gonna talk about that right now

Hi! If you follow me for LREF, Stranger Things, It, etc. and you for some reason read this whole thing. You should totally go watch the Hatchetfield musicals! If you like musicals (some people don't lmao)

If you're interested, they have a rich lore, many meta-jokes, and a currently active fandom which you might enjoy (looking at you LREF fandom. That is to say, like six people.)

If you are interested, it's The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, Black Friday, and Nerdy Prudes Must Die. They're all free on YouTube, recorded by the creators and they're all absolutely fantastic IMO. Watch them in that order though! If you don't, you'll be really confused! This is a trilogy (kinda), the world is the same (kinda), the previous shows give context for world building and jokes.

If you do watch them, please please come talk to me about it over on @im-not-a-l0ser . I do highly recommend blocking the tags though before you've finished them. Spoilers can happen really easily, and when it comes to Hatchetfield, something that might seem small or insignificant (or maybe just extremely confusing) probably means something pretty big overall.

(Ps, there's also a 'mini series' called Nightmare Time. It definitely gives some context and it expands upon Hatchetfield as a whole, but it's not technically necessary to watch. I'm not gonna force anyone to watch it, just because there's so goddamn much of it.)

[thenewfuture]

Ranking the Mainline DanganRonpa Entries

Hey guys. The mastermind ranking list brought a lot of discussion and attention here, and I had a lot of fun making it. Now it's time to start list that won the second place on the poll; ranking all of the main series entries.

Oh, beloved DanganRonpa. How you started out as a niche spiritual successor to Ace Attorney, to now becoming your own big entity that can rival the best of them. Where have the years gone?

Quick rules to explain the process here:

-Like I said this is only the mainline entries. Fanganronpas like the Another series, Rebirth, Blowback, etc. will not be counted.

-That being said, I will also not be including any side content like Summer Camp S, The Kirigiri, Togami and Ultra Despair Hagakure novels, Killer Killer, IF, and Zero. For one, because a lot of them don't do much to add to DanganRonpa's overarching story. And two, a good half of them I have not seen nor am I interested in doing so because they don't much for the main series anyway. Apologies...

-This list is going to be INCREDIBLY SUBJECTIVE AND OPINIONATED, if you disagree with any of the spots I've put them in; that is completely fine, just don't be a jerk about it.

-And finally, the following will contain massive spoilers for the DanganRonpa series and their respective games and entries. View at your own risk. But considering this is on a story blog that takes place after three of the entries here, maybe you shouldn't be here anyway, but I'm still warning others just to be safe.

#5 DanganRonpa 1: Trigger Happy Havoc

Why is the subtitle for the game way bigger and upfront on the cover while the actual series name is way smaller? I don't get it...

To kick off our ranking list, it's the game that started it all. The very first DanganRonpa game, Trigger Happy Havoc! Now don't get wrong, even though it's this low doesn't make it the "worst", just my personal least favorite out of all of them. I mean I would have had to like the first game to some degree if I stuck with the series this long, right? I think this game has just aged......poorly...

The premise of the game starts out very well, each student is trapped in an enclosed environment and the only form of escape is to kill another classmate. This sort of environment encourages distrust of others so that when it's inevitably time for a murder, not only are you devastated that the character you were growing attached died but also saddened at how another character you liked could do something like that. That's all fine and dandy......here's the problem...

You can't convince me these guys were EVER friends! Not only is the player supposed to get attached to the other characters, the characters themselves have to from lasting trust and bonding experiences so that they too can feel despair. But barring a few good exceptions, it's not really done with anyone else. Let give a few examples:

Could imagine Sakura getting well with Kiyotaka? ......Hard, right?

Could imagine Leon getting along with Touko? ......No, right?

Could imagine Celeste getting along with Aoi? HA! Right?!

And that's not taking into account despair loving diva Junko and her sister Mukuro who would barely have any identity of her own.

Like I said; there are some great relationships here, I am not ignoring that. I was saddened with Kiyotaka having to get separated from Mondo too, and even more saddened when Aoi tried to get everyone killed because she believed the reason for her best friend's suicide was everyone else. But the comradery of the group doesn't work as well as it should or could have been we focus on these smaller groups and leaving behind the characters that exactly fit into a group of there own. Many of the other games fix this by having much more morale boosting events and activities for the rest of the remaining cast, meanwhile I can't exactly say the same here. As an unfortunate downside of this, it makes some of the characters bland and forgettable at best. Cast makes or breaks your visual novel game people, and the cast of THH leaves a lot to be desired.

The pacing's also very slow here. Because Monokuma doesn't outright say that a blackened has to survive and outwit the others in a class trial, the first chapter feels much more sluggish as a result. Future entries would go on to fix that issue by telling them right out the gate. And like I said, because there are hardly any events or anything of note going with the cast at times, most chapters play like: "waking up, meet up with everyone else, talking about what happened, explore new area, Free Time, Free Time, sleep, wake up, meet up, Free Time, Free Time, motive, sleep, wake up, meet up, Free Time, Free Time, sleep, Free Time, Free Time, oh hey someone kicked the bucket"

The slowness also translates to the gameplay as well. Having no breaks means going through 1 to 2 hour trials in one big burst. The joke of "Naegi, telling them" is very much true here and it's normally him, Kyoko and whenever he's not being a dick, Byakuya carrying the trials with everyone else offering their input every once in a while. "Gee, I wonder if we could spice this up by having other characters object to your line of thinking?.......NAH!" The minigames are serviceable as well, I mean Hangman's Gambit was never bit it's fine here, Climatic Return is always awesome, and while MTB is fine I just want to talk to the person that suggessted having this sort of action take place NUMEROUS TIMES in some of the later trials! And I have an unexplained, visceral, HATRED for the RE:Action prompt. Imagine having to watch and read some text explaing important information to just suddenly STOP TO A HAULT and press another button to get more info because your character to ask, "what do you mean?" by himself.

All in all, while Trigger Happy Havoc may not hold up as well as most of its predecessors, and maybe some of my reasons boil down to me spoiling myself on this game but watching a let's play of it and skipping down to see who survived, that doesn't mean there isn't a whole lot good to this game. The characters I do care about are written pretty well, Makoto is a good protagonist for this game and works in a number of ways, the trials are fairly simple to what we get later down the line, and the atmosphere works well for a killing game environment. I just have a few issues with it personally that question if I want to go back to it on numerous occasions. But as I said, if I didn't like the first game somewhat I wouldn't really be here, would I?

Just remember your first shot isn't always going to be your best, and that's okay.

#4 DanganRonpa V3: Killing Harmony

I consider V3 to be the Fire Emblem Fates of the franchise..............now I know that made sense to a whopping two of you, so let me explain.

Fire Emblem Fates comes off the massive success of its predecessor, Awakening, and fixes a lot of its issues. The gameplay is much more advanced and easy to understand, the music is really good, the environments look amazing, and there is a ton of content for many to enjoy. .......Everything else with it?

OH BOOOOOOOOYYYYY!!!!!!!!

A great number of characters are incredibly one note, has an insane number of unwanted fanservice moments, has numerous localization controversy, and the story is so GODDAMN convoluted, confusing and messy, surrounding itself in a mountain of incest!

.........So onto V3...

DanganRonpa V3 comes off the massive success of its predecessors, and fixes a lot of issues. The gameplay and mingames are much more easier to understand and scrum debating is awesome, the music is fantastic, the graphics and environments take use of its new console software, and there is a lot of content to enjoy. .....Everything else with it?

OH BOOOOOOOOYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the characters are incredibly one note, has insane number of unwanted fanservice moments, has numerous localization controversy, and the story is so GODDAMN convoluted, confusing, twisted and messy, surrounding itself in a MOUNTAIN of incest!

..........Ya get it now?

I don't want it to seem like I'm ragging a whole lot on V3, but there are a lot of things that this game does that is straight up bad.

I will be nice and start with the good first however. I really like the cast and their designs, very unique and hard to forget even if I tried. The Ultimate Academy is a pretty cool set-piece for the killing game to take place in; having it be closed off to the world like Hope's Peak Academy but open to see the sky and other areas like Jabberwock Island, a pretty decent blend of the two. The music is a phenomenal treat for the ears, and for the eyes comes amazing sprite work for the new characters as well as Monokuma and great use of angles not before seen in the class trials. The new minigames for this game, Scrum Debate and Mass Panic Debates are also hella fun. And the bonus content is spectacular with Salmon Mode and Ultimate Talent Development Plan treating the fans to some actually GOOD fanservice.

That's about where the compliments end unfortunately. The other minigames aren't that fun to play through, Mind Mine is pointless and I don't enjoy it. V3 is notorious for having the ridiculous and mind stretching logic of all the class trials and that is a fact, Seesaw murders anyone? The back route mechanic sounds good on paper, and I'm not going to pretend that actually having multiple routes in a trial isn't a tremendous amount of work to pull off, but most of the optional ones are just time wasters as we don't learn much and just end up back on the correct path after a few minutes, so one has to wonder the point of all that. While I do like this cast, there are some stinkers that bring it down for me and can't compete with other ones. What the fuck is with all the incest in this writing?! And of course...the big two...

Why did we replace Kaede, a unique talent personality type who had tremendous potential for the first ever girl, main series, DanganRonpa, class trial protagonist.....for Shuichi? A low self-esteem, doesn't feel like he belongs, boy protagonist?

THIS IS THE THIRD TIME WE'VE HAD SOMETHING LIKE THIS!

We were this close to greatness....this close... And I love Shuichi too, but it still hurts everytime I think about it man, come on! Kaede could have done great things for this story or even have the two share the role of dual-swapping protagonists! And oh, that story though...

I get it, the power of fiction is real and it affects reality,and it does work for this game's overall theme of truth and lies, blah blah blah... But with how many times they HAMMER the message of: "Everything's fake! Everything you know and lie isn't real and it didn't happen! Look at you, the fans, you love killing games! You love DanganRonpa! Hahahahaha!" The message work so well it loops back around to feel insulting to not only the "fake" audience of the TV Show series, but also the auidence that's playing the game now. And apparently must have not worked enough because we still have people making videos on what they want in DanganRonpa 4, as well fans like me still being here and creating content discussion for it right now.

And with how ridiculous some of the characters' backstory are, such Gonta living with actual dinosaur people, Kaede preforming for famous kings across the world, Kirumi being the FUCKING PRIME MINISTER, maybe these were the clues all along to help you figure out this place was a fictional world. And I know that this is the series where a high school girl can overthrow the world into chaos, demigods are basically born left and right, and ghosts and aliens directly affect the plot, but I think we should have some sort of groundedness to this world, no?

Bottom line: V3 is a good game but has a mediocre story and because this is the last game in the series(maybe?), it leaves nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. I swear these writers aren't even trying anymore, DanganRonpa 17 was the best.

#3 DanganRonpa 3: The End Of Hope's Peak Academy

*THE BIGGEST AUDIBLE GASP KNOWN TO MANKIND*

Mod Freeze, isn't DanganRonpa 3 relegated as one of the worst installments in the franchise by the fans? Yes.

Mod Freeze, isn't the Final Killing Game a massive jumbled mess of time management, rules, and scope? Yes.

Mod Freeze, didn't DanganRonpa 3 not utilize a whole bunch of its characters as well as the DR2 cast? Yes.

Mod Freeze, isn't DanganRonpa 3 responsible for instilling the idea of the Remnants of Despair simply being brainwashed? Yes.

Mod Freeze, is this straw-man arguments tired out and old? Yes.

Mod Freeze, why is Danganronpa 3 so high? Well my dear reader, that is a long and extravagant answer.....

I like it.

........................

....That's it.

I'm not here to paint you a picture on how DR3 is the greatest piece of media in the history of existence, or even sway your mind from thinking that DR3 is so garbage that it could be mistaken for a Garbodor. I like DanganRonpa 3, for the simple fact that I enjoyed my time with it.

Now I am not blind to the various things DanganRonpa 3 has done wrong. It doesn't utilize most of the branch leaders well or hardly gives you any reason to care about them. A good chunk of the DR2 cast get left behind in the dust, especially those that should garner more attention like those present for the Twilight Syndrome case. And those that took the time to read and explore other lore such as DR0 do not get rewarded. Skips what could be interesting scenarios such as Chisa's time in the reserve course or even a few moments with the THH cast. And that's not even mentioning the Final Killing Game with all its confusing and convoluted bullshit.

But honestly, despite all that, I didn't mind any of that too much. I really liked the idea of a free-for-all killing game that Future Arc tried to implement, and seeing the fun and cute moments of the 77th class was such a delight. Some characters ere unfortunately narratively more built important than others, but some of them stuck out to me for the best of reasons. Chisa's fun mommy-sue nature, Seiko's tragic backstory and relationship with Ruruka, Koichi how he's trying to protect and be there for Kyoko, and a lot of the designs here for these guys kick ass.

Great Gozu is a more well-rounded character than a good chunk of others from THH and V3, and I can and will fight you on that.

Some of the returning cast was done really good here too, a real Chiaki for added wholesomeness, Hajime with his doubts of self-worth due to lack of talent, Imposter shined more than I thought he would, dude would ever imagine Imposter getting some shine in the main series, never me, holy cow. And we explored other characters who we hadn't known more about, like Izuru finally making him his own character, exploring the relationship and natures of Natsumi and Sato, and Mukuro.............y'know let's just not talk about that blunder...

I don't even mind the brainwashing portion either because.......that's what it always was....

And I had a talk with an anon a while back about this topic. I don't mind it too much because, if you're telling me that Junko can just switch your marolaity with a few words from her silver tongue, that makes her look too overpowered and the rest of the DR2 cast indigenous and kind of already shitty people. And I know a few of them can be swayed to despair give the right circumstances(Fuyuhiko, Peko, Mahiru, Mikan, Hiyoko, Akane), but honest to god how can someone like Imposter, Nekomaru, or ray of sunshine fall to despair with her words. I think we're stretching it here...

DanganRonpa 3 may have disappointment me as well as others on a quite few number of fronts, but kept me more invested in its story and mysteries than the past two entries. Again, my personal opinion of course... Without DR3, I wouldn't be making The New Future in the first place so it has to have some merit of enjoyment in here. And I think there could be more stuff to enjoy from this anime as well, squint and tilt it a little bit and you might find a gleam of hope...

But hey, what do I know? I'm the guy that likes DanganRonpa 3 :P

#2 DanganRonpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Okay how do you say this name?! Ultra Despair Girls: DanganRonpa: Another Episode?! DanganRonpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls?! DanganRonpa Ultra Despair Girls: Another Episode?! DanganRonpa 1.5 Final Remix?! THREE FIVE EIGHT OVER TWO DAYS?!-Wait.

These years have shown that not much has changed in the grand scheme of this list, as it's secured second place spot has not been challenged. And that's funny because I'm pretty this game is much more divisive in the fandom as well, and it has the unfortunate perk of being more well known than the anime series. I mean, a game with no class trials, no investigations, no definite mascots, smaller cast than normal, a huge change in gameplay, and Monokuma being demoted to near Goomba status. It may be a spin-off entry, but these are some drastic changes to the formula, almost a whole new game at this point.

However, I think Ultra Despair Girls is a fantastic entry to the series, and you would do yourself a disservice by skipping out on it. Makoto Naegi's little sister, Komaru, fights through the streets of Towa City for survival against the Monokumas and the Warrior of Hope with the help of a returning face, Touko Fukawa.Right off the bat, I have to say this idea for a story is really impressive. Because this takes place after THH but before DR2, we get to see kind of the world is during the Tragedy. Hectic, apocalyptic, barely clinging onto hope.. I may not be a fan of zombie or horrors movies, but the ambience here is top notch and works extremely well.

We have a ton of colorful characters as well, the Warriors of Hope are good antagonists with heartbreaking and understanding backstories, seeing relatives or people close to the first's game cast is an excellent treat as well like Hiroko, Kanon, Yuta and Taichi even if we get a little out of those two...and of course, the main big bad, Monaca. If you read my ranking list of the series' masterminds you know full well why I like her. She is a perfect villain for this sort of story, a twisted and manipulative person with the face of the child but the heart of a demon.

Of course, I can't forget to mention Komaru and Touko. Komaru's development from an average whiny high school girl who can't do anything learns to stand up and fight for herself. And Touko, who has outgrown her shell of being reclusive and venomous to others....while still retaining that somewhat, now has an active roll of helping Komaru get through these tough times. She offers her advice, lessons, support, everything. These two's relationship make this game for me and I'm sure many others would agree with me on that front.

Okay, time to get on to the negatives here, ah......oh boy....

For starters Towa City is huge and many areas here are really cool looking, but the path is quite linear and that can be quite tedious for exploring and hiding collectibles. It's not too hard, but there are a lot of collectibles to nab, and if you miss one you have to start the chapter all over again so be mindful. One of which is the wanted list that the WOH have to hunt down other "demons" aka, THH's families and friends. You give them to Hiroko to hopefully go get them, but do you ever seeeee or meeeeet them in the Resistance base. Nope! That's a missed opportunity if I ever heard of one!

And um.......all the.....uncomfortable....things this game does....hoo boy... From Touko's fantasies, to the scoring screen at the end of chapters, to.....the Motivation machine in Chapter 3, and.....j-just how manipulative and twisted Monaca can be in chapter 4, this game proves it is not for the faint of heart. Probably not even that too, those who aren't faint of heart might reel at some of these questionable decisions here. I'd call it fanservice but because some of these scenes involve, ahem, MINORS; I'd call it fansqueezing with how much it'll squeeze and hurt you with all this psychological trauma. I suppose I've either seen worse over the course of my life to not be affected by this, or I've endured these sorts of things in the game so many times that I have become numb to it. Remember folks, I platinumed this game.

Ultra Despair Girls may make you feel despair at times, but beyond that despair, lies hope. Hope of a game with a great story, great cast of characters, and a great episode for this franchise in general.

Oh, also this...

Another point to V3 being so low. How dare they tease us…

#1....DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair

"Wow, shocking! The guy that's blog is about the DanganRonpa 2 cast ha DanganRonpa 2 as his favorite! I tooootally saw this coming a mile away!" Hey look man, I don't appreciate all that sass. I saw that train coming a mile away too and I didn't say anything. Also on you're right-

*HOOOOOORRRRNNN!* *CRAASSSSH!*

Eugh....oh, oh that looks bad.....A-Anyway....

Yes, if you follow me on my main blog you probably know that I love DanganRonpa 2 a whole effin' lot! I love mah boy Hajime! I love mah girl Chiaki! I love my other boys, Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Imposter! I love mah other girls, Sonia, Ibuki and Mikan! I love DanganRonpa 2!

Everything is so right here. The gameplay, the setting, the story, the characters, it's all great!

Mind Dive and Rebuttal Showdown are excellent additions that keep the mystery paces going as well utilizes other characters and their outlooks on certain things. It's almost like it's a real trial here guys. And some would say that an island doesn't really fit for a whole killing game setting, and I agree somewhat, but I love all the places of Jabberwock island and I can argue waking up and finding yourself on a deserted island far, far away from any signs of civilization works just as good too.

And the cast, the cast is perfect! A great combination of personalities coming together to make every moment feel that much more impactful and memorable. And even though I may not like afew of them(Hiyoko, Nagito, Teruteru), they evoke more of a emotional reaction out of me and stick out in my mind far more than other members of the other casts. Not to mention there are plenty of group activities and moments together that serve to boost the character's morale and hope. While again, some of them are locked behind presents, some that aren't work well enough. The party at the old building, a beach party on the second island, Ibuki's concert, there are so many ways for the characters to come together that when some of them do die, it is really sad and heart-wrenching. Like what THH was trying to do, but better!

And the main story is really good as well. Having characters we all know and love turning out to responsible for the Tragedy set up in the first game is a really nice twist, as well as learning that it may be possible to bring them back. Some say it a cheap action that miiiiiight devalue all the tragedy and lose the player and characters have went through, and again, I can see that point being made. I personally believe if you give me the option to have them back I would take it a heartbeat.

If there is one true negative I have for this game, it's that the motives are fundamentally lacking in some regard. The motives for chapters 2 and 3 are very much targeted for specific people, and don't affect the others too much, which made the motives in THH work so well is that anyone could fall into the temptation, everyone was treated equal. And with those two chapters, eehhhhhhh.....not so much....

But even still, I hold DanganRonpa 2 very near and dear to my heart. It was the first game I saw and watched from beginning to end, the first game I played and even why I bought a Vita in the first place. I would come back to this game at a moment's notice, the emotions I felt through every chapter make me want to sit by the beachside and experience it all over again...

DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair is my favorite game in the entire series. I cannot express how much I love it so much...

-Mod

[pathetic-gamer]

You're so incredibly nice to ask abt Farrow, my beloved mutual. Perhaps I can return the favor by asking if there's anything you'd like to share about your OCs? What are mutuals for if not mutual exchange? (Mutually assured destruction perhaps? 🤔)

I love hearing about OCs!! (And I love mutually assured distruction)

Okay, this time I'm gonna talk about Jargen (pronounced "yargen"), the dragon ranger from when I played Quest. I honestly think about him all the time - he's one of the few characters I've drawn actual art of (I drew our whole party from that campaign lol)

Quest is one of my favorite ttrpg systems - it's free and open source, pretty loosey-goosey with the rules, character classes are "roles" and are focused on the role you play in the party as a whole, the skill trees are really unique and fun, and it's great for telling a good story in a very collaborative way.

Jargen was a ranger (link goes to the official role description lol). He's a wandering poet of few words - other than when performing his epic tales or giving dramatic, rousing speeches - with dreams of overcoming the image of a monster and becoming a hero of the people who would live on forever in song, and with a terrible fear of becoming the monster everyone believed him to be. His skills were focused on storytelling and wilderness survival.

Our party was a group of freelancers who all accepted the same job regarding helping a woman find her sister. There was a human doctor in the group, Feign, and he and Jargen became close friends very quickly and shared a number of fun dramatic bonding experiences including but not limited to failing to kill a mouse and nearly dying for each other.

What follows is a rather dramatized version of certain events as recalled by Jargen when turning the experience into an epic poem:

When I say Jargen and Feign were close friends, I do of course mean they shared an impossible to describe warriors' bond of drift-compatible entwined souls that only grew stronger with every new bonding experience.

One of the earliest of these was the very first evening of their adventure, while Jargen was mourning the loss of an animal companion. The party was camped in some very old woods, and he took first watch so he could take some time to himself. Instead of letting him be alone, Feign sat with him and opined on death from the perspective of a physician with an innate connection to the dead and dying, a long career of going wherever he was needed most bringing back the living from the cusp of death and guiding the dead across the final threshold in peace. He shared with Jargen his deep fear of undeath, and Jargen in turn shared his fear of being seen as a monster.

While they were talking, Feign mentioned that places like this, these deep woods and ancient trees, were actually full of death, despite how very alive they are. He then touched Jargen's hand and gave him a glimpse of the world as he saw it, leading to Jargen having a sudden and overwhelming experience of seeing hundreds of spirits of creatures large and small, animal and sentient, and even spoke with the ghost of a child. It was enlightening and comforting and terrifying. After this, Jargen and Feign became inseparable.

When Jargen was overcome with rage and prepared to trap dozens of people in a building and burn it to the ground rather than risk letting single vampire - the monstrous perversions of life that they are - escape, it was Feign who talked him down and instead devised a plan to help the living flee.

When Feign was bitten by a vampire and knew he had limited time to find a cure before the infection set in, it was Jargen who offered his own blood to sustain him. (Ultimately, though, Jargen agreed to Feign's request to put him down the moment he passed the point of no return so that he wouldn't have to suffer his greatest fear of becoming undead.)

There did, of course, come a time when they walked the line of near tragedy and each sacrificed themself for the other, both nearly dying in the process. I wrote a dramatized version here, but I can do one better this time!

One of the features of Quest is that you're supposed to write a summary of each session from your character's perspective - Jargen's were, of course, composed in verse. Here is a very brief portion of what he wrote in the aftermath of that near-tragedy:

Steel glinted, cold and bloodstained red held in the villain's hand When from the dark he lunged again, a killing blow to land But Jargen’s feet were faster far, And to Feign’s side he flew To take the brunt of the attack Though the grave cost he knew “Flee now, my friend,” the dragon said, As Feign looked on in fear “I beg of you to trust me now - Your path must not end here.”

(I said he was a poet, but I didn't say he was a *good* poet)

I unfortunately can't share the whole thing because it's not finished and also it's very long, but that's a tiny fraction for your enjoyment lmao

okay thank you for reading, beloved mutual <3

[tfseeds]

Random TF brainworms

Other TF prompts that have been rattling around in my brain the past year(s), mostly franchise-based:

Slime Rancher 2 - With all the weird future/alien mystery science going on, it's prime free TF-estate. And c'mon, there is NO way Viktor Humphries wouldn't have a way to splice slime DNA for science. A cotton slime-ified Gaius would be so stinking cute.

Speaking of slimes, I was definitely on a slime kick -

Stardew Valley - Basically, story involving getting caught on the wrong end of the witch's temper while cave-delving, and getting a good old fashioned slow-burn curse transforming poor farmer Gaius into a slime. Also plays into my favorite trope of trying to keep the changes hidden - as patches of blue ooze-y spots form around his mid section, he tries to wrap them with cloth to keep it from saturating into his shirt. Plastic wrap is also attempted. Too much clothing is worn during the summer. Hats to cover hair that's more like a jello mold. Close friends who discover the secret using a wheelbarrow to haul the poor unconscious slime-guy home before he puddles all over the Halloween party. Figuring out how to maintain a solid enough form to wear clothes, use tools, etc.

BIG OL FFXIV SHADOWBRINGERS/ENDWALKER SPOILERS BEYOND HERE

FFXIV - Aaaaa there's so much I want to draw and design properly.

The whole light corruption/lightwarden arc of Shadowbringers was absolutely my jam, complete with soul-cracking strain and coughing up light gunk. I'm still not satisfied with my first take on Gaius's lightwarden form. The rough mental concepts: Large and bulky, like Zinogre from MHW. Maybe a semi-quadriped. Hooves on the rear feet. Wings for sure, white mane, gold horns. Blend bull and lion and other creatures.

The thing is I really want to bring a lasting physical representation of the corruption to Gaius's current form. I'm struggling with how to do that. Lots of other WoLs changed their hair white after the events of ShB, but that doesn't fit Gaius. I've been playing with the idea of a glowing scar of some sort, like markings on his neck or maybe chest that he keeps covered. I love using the bandana in his regular fashions and could be a fun way to tie it into his lore.

Throwing in my hella-old Zinogre doodles because I want to capture some of that mid-way feature goodness with Gaius's light corruption.

The whole journey of Shadowbringers is such prime real estate for transformation trauma - budding horns, patches of skin/fur bleaching out, those random soul-crunching episodes as a little more light escapes and furthers the process... All the while having to keep moving forward, despite the quest literally eating him. The other fun part with going sineater is the invisible changes, like a growing craving for aether, and losing the clarity of other senses like physical touch and taste. Gaius's character has always been a boisterous lover of food with a bottomless appetite. It's part of his love language - he makes sure his friends are well fed with snacks and home-made meals. This is something Minfilia/Ryne gets to experience intensely as he does his best to make sure the young girl is well nourished through their travels, and as a way to include her in the family.

There is a whole comic I will probably never get around to drawing, highlighting group meals along their journey - Gaius sharing his travel snacks in Il Mheg, getting her to join them for drinks and a big meal in the Crystarium, forcing a second helping of stew on her in Rak'tika with Runar. But then it comes to a small camp in the Tempest as the Scions overlook the skyline of Amaurot, one last rest before they venture into the final leg of their journey. Ryne is the one who brings a bowl of soup to Gaius, who is sitting apart from the others. The man is already showing extreme lightwarden features which have been spreading since the episode on Mt. Gulg. "I brought you some soup. To keep your strength up," she offers. He turns his one still-blue eye to her and smiles sadly. "Thanks, but I'm not hungry." He wishes he was. He wishes he could still taste anything. He wishes food didn't sit like a rock in his stomach. The look of grief and pity on Ryne's face is obvious.

Just, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. *rolls around in traumatizing-OCs-for-fun brainworms*

I want to tie the whole light corruption in with Gaius's struggle with his Inner Release beast - probably the best and terrible example I could give of what's in my brain is like how Naruto has the fox spirit sealed inside him. Inner Release is a whole other monster or side of Gaius that he harnesses for power, but not without risk of losing himself to it. Like something during the post-ARR banquet breaks it and that's why he takes up Samurai during HW, as a way to learn to control himself with discipline, meditation, and patience. The whole lightwarden thing either corrupts or fuses with his inner release, and maybe he still manifests some features while he's berserking, like vestigial horns and spikes. IDK, still playing around with that. I do think he keeps his hair longer to cover the small gold horns left over from his light corruption, along with whatever other scarring I settle on. Trying to distance himself from the 'beast' is a big long part of Gaius's struggle through FFXIV.

AND AND. I THINK ZENOS GOT TO FIGHT FULL-ON LIGHT INNER RELEASE BEAST GAIUS AT THE VERY END. Where Gaius finally let's himself fully sink into the pit and embrace everything he's kept buried away, that even he is too afraid to acknowledge. Accepting Zenos also includes accepting the entirety of himself, beast and all. Fray would be proud.

[dongzhou3kingdoms]

Dynasty Killers Review

New book by Baptiste Pinson Wu, the third in the Liao Hua cycle.

As ever, good choice of poem to open. I suspect people new to the era will find the “whose who” at the start helpful, and Baptiste knows how to provide enough of a recap or sense of the world. But for those who have read the three books, there will also be little moments that pay off from the past as Liao Hua's world shifts.

A sense of things are happening in the elderly Liao Hua scenes, a good combination with Chen Shou while quickly building personalities of key figures around him. But the main focus is on the youngish man and his friends, the world around him changing. Each part has a big and entertaining battle at its centre, but not just the battle. It is the building up to it as pieces fall into place and people prepare, Liao Hua getting heavily involved with daring plans and actions and then dealing with the aftermath. As fun and varied as I find the battles, I am a bigger fan of the build ups and aftermath

Baptiste has a good touch for the little details about people and life at the time including geographical differences, good at quickly giving a sense of character and tweaking big historical (and novel) moments, so they feel fresh to read. It does go quite dark, particularly in part 2, so fair warning but it is balanced overall by a little bit of humour, kindness, crushes and love, and good bonds between characters even as events fray them.

It is also where we first really get Liu Bei and co as more than difficult opponents for an angry Liao Hua to face. There is always the worry that one gets either a Dynasty Warriors Liu Bei of vague motive and no brain, or a backlash Liu "the treacherous, dishonest failure" Bei. Here though is a Liu Bei I would be willing to serve, using the knack of seeing little acts of kindness and consideration, a sense of charisma about him to see why he pulls men together. I was really pleased with this version of Liu Bei.

Loved the ending.

More spoilery below

Part 1: It felt a little “scene by scene” as it moved Liao Hua around from place to place to meet figures before we get to Wan. I loved the scene with Liu Bei, a strong sense of personalities and use of passing history that mattered so much to Liao Hua. Having built up to a seeming cynical view of Liu Bei, instead we get one that feels like a charismatic well-meaning figure, one can see from the first scene why people might follow him.

Sun family scene, some good description works for Sun Ce's camp and people, I liked Lu Fan and Zhou Yu, will be interesting to see if we get more of them as time goes on. The adventure there was well done, and I liked the play on Liao Hua's love of older women with some reactions from his team.

The battle: nicely done on how Cao Cao messed up and the hinting that things will change for Cao Cao from there on out, which helps further build the sense of people changing. But also a sense of chaos and desperation from Liao Hua and others as things get desperate, which felt the right tone for that battle.

Part 2: Focus on Xiapi. Some good balancing of personalities within Cao Cao's army, allowing Liao Hua to build dynamics with various figures that he had met before. I love the Xiahou Ba connection past and future with the future events building a head of steam.

The famed scenes in that siege are done well and one still sees the sense of Lu Bu the powerful threat. But its most powerful moments are in the aftermath, it goes very dark and stuck in my head for a time afterwards (in the right way). There was one scene near that end I wasn't fond of but the general brutality in the aftermath scenes, both in the fighting and the disquieting celebrations was powerful.

Part 3: Guandu. We see a good mix of the brutal Cao Cao (dealing with the Girdle Decree comes to mind) that has Liao Hua considering his future. But also flashes of the old Cao Cao and, particularly as the campaign draws to a close, we see things knitting together from Liao Hua's time under Cao Cao. It does have an end-of-era in his life feel.

Yuan Shu's scene was sad and pathetic without feeling it punched down against the false Emperor, some sad goodbye moments in Liao Hua's life as we approached the end. I enjoyed Wuchao as a big culmination moment done with a bit of humour before the big fight. There was one goodbye that was particularly sad, and I really enjoyed the build-up to Guan Yu's journey, including building dynamics with new groups.

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of the dog days of summer

monday, aug 22, 2022

on my phone again in the hopes it’ll help me preserve (some) brevity! it has not worked! vague but important spoilers below for winter’s orbit (and a little for the left hand of darkness). it’s been a while, actually, since a summer of mine has had real, actual dog days—it requires a combination of heat, breathlessness, and a feeling like time has suspended which is actually quite hard to get, as an adult. you’d think the last two years would have but, for me anyway, not really? anyway, i think we finally got there this weekend—neat. dry grass, bright days, breathlessness. thunder woke me at 2am last night, and it’s been raining on and off all day, at last, at last. i think i’m calmer than I have been in…weeks.

reading it’s been a week+ (a summer, maybe) of space operas. listening to murderbot 4 network effect any time i’m on public transit (and thinking abt how tuning in and out of the events in the audio book while commuting is a bit like having them all coming to me in a feed, actually), got 80% of the way into a memory called empire before the loan expired and i was so so bereft that i’ve turned around and started rereading ancillary justice (fascinating to pair with murderbot, i should talk about that next time). we’re talking empire, we’re talking what it means to be colonized, human- and person-ness, we’re talking gender, and cool info tech, and more political machinations and unpronounceable names than you can shake a stick at. but today’s post is for everina maxwell’s winter’s orbit, since that’s what i actually finished most recently. very good experience, i found it immediately engaging, a good mix of all the above Space Opera Themes with then lots of small touches of humor and genuine fun romance to stand out. i saw a blurb describing this as red, white, and royal blue plus imperial radch, but honestly i think it reads better as its own thing, or at most as a love letter to the left hand of darkness. (it’s not as anthropological or poetic, but there is Gender, there’s negotiations abt joining an echumen-esque galactic alliance, there’s a winter camping trip. winter’s orbit is for people who really wanted genly and estraven to get it on in that tent). is an arranged political marriage tropey as hell? yeah! did i have fun with the miscommunication and unreliable narrators? yeah! was this also one of the most searing portrayals of spousal abuse i’ve ever read? yeah. you can see it immediately if you know what to look for, the details are peppered in very intelligently. we hear the term gaslighting thrown around quite loosely these days— that’s not how i’m using it. i mean quite seriously, it’s clear through flashbacks that a character has previously been made to second guess their own perceptions by their spouse, has had their communications with friends and family shut off, privacy invaded, sense of self eroded, been shamed, manipulated, and taught to anticipate outbursts and apologizes to avoid them, and is an unreliable narrator in part because of negative self-talk learned through abuse. it’s heartbreaking. but there’s a journey of healing started, and watching the other protagonist’s righteous fury was very satisfying. also getting to destroy his own evil ex (even in a hallucination scenario) helped.

listening been spending a lot of time with my spot of fy top songs of 2021 playlist. you know how you sometimes scroll your own blog to bask in your own good taste? a bit like that. it’s also very funny, bc there are songs on there i one thousand percent have barely heard once—i guess they have to algorithmically pad it out to reach 100 songs for weirdos like me. anyway, here’s dom fera’s ‘easy thing’, which grooves like a lazy sunday mid morning bop if I’ve ever heard one but has lyrics that go surprisingly hard!

watching finished up season 2 of gentleman jack with @hematiterings (including much consternation at some of the rushed, disjointed, mystifying editing in the last episode), watched some full metal alchemist: brotherhood with her, @pep-squad-lizzie and @dimir-charmer, and finally started ‘Turning Red’ for myself! only about halfway through it, and so far the toronto details are my favorite. local friends please weigh in, but it seems like it must be fun to watch if you grew up here. i have also watched another episode of oath of love, bringing me up to 12 i think? @witcheryen they just surprised gu wei with the house warming (bet he haaaaated that) and lzx saw the hot female doctor at his window. gasp.

playing still on my stardew bullshit—more cut scenes with more characters has been really lovely, and leah gave me her statue! i have also purchased a cow and named her marigold ☺️ then tonight, got to play some more ‘it takes two’ with my xbox buddy; i have liked each level of this thing more (we’re done with the squirrels and wasps now and have reached the space-faring baboon!! the scenery is so starry and beautiful!) and have still got to hold myself back from shouting at the dialogue.

making repotted my poor fucking nasturtium, which had been gnawed off at the stem by a squirrel again. it has put out some root hairs after sitting in water for a few days, so it’s back in soil to see if it can actually pull through, but i haven’t much hope. meanwhile, the rest of the garden is starting to really produce!

working on anyone besides me not notice we’d skipped this section last week XD. which is hilarious bc I do think about work almost constantly, however it is depressing so a break isn’t a bad thing. still, as a small check-in, I’ve more or less reframed my chapter plans in my head (‘offering a reading rather than a definition; this isn’t a lexicographical project’) and now just get to explain and justify those to my supervisor on wednesday. still reading this welsh article, as part of getting extra tutoring yn gymraeg. he was very nice to me last week, which is good bc one word conversational gambits still seem to be my limit. oh, and the post doc / publication chat i had with a supportive prof last week thoroughly shook me. everything’s dandy.

[calvincell]

Rambling Thoughts on Netflix’s One Piece Teaser Trailer

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After that Teaser Trailer, I’m still remaining cautiously lukewarm on Netflix’s One Piece adaptation. Particularly after the debacles of Death Note, Mob Psycho & Cowboy Bebop’s Netflix live action projects, even Oda’s direct involvement doesn’t feel like a boon for the show. A common refrain from behind the scenes of projects on this scale is executive/studio interference after all & which is rarely surmounted.

My Likes:

- Casting seems great so far with Sanji & Luffy standing out as particularly good.

- I actually really love the fact that Luffy has a distinctive accent

- Designs from ships & buildings like the Merry & Baratie look alright

- The CG Sea King actually looks alright too

- Clip of Zoro saving Luffy from drowning, Sanji readying for a fight & the Strawhats’ barrel break did tickle my hype gland

My Dislikes:

- “Gum-Gum”  rarely sounds good coming out of anyone that isn’t a cartoon

- Even for the normally stoic Zoro a lot of the acting in the teaser was bland & stiff beyond Luffy’s actor who is rightfully leaning in

- The yellow/sepia-tinted color grading on so many shots looks just soooo abysmal to me personally. It triggered a memory of some big movie/show having a similar issue a while ago but can’t remember any specifics beyond that it wasn’t & rarely is liked by audiences & I include myself in that camp

- Luffy’s rubber CG feels like one notch below the point where it wouldn’t be distractingly noticeable, once again, at least to my eyes

My Worries:

- Crossing my fingers for Chopper to look good. Honestly, a route of using a hybrid of a physical puppet/animatronic just with some touching up via visual effects might work out best in my eyes but what do I know LOL It is the same technique used for Grogu in The Mandalorian so I’m hoping for at least that much.

- Praying that the effects for all the other Devil Fruit abilities are great

- My single biggest worry at the moment might be the show’s ultimate pacing. Live-action TV is forced to be economical in a way that animation & manga aren’t as beholden to. There’s a reason that so many of the big climactic emotional & victorious events in OP’s manga/anime hit hard & it’s due in a large part to pacing for both anticipation building & character development. Rush + an inability to allow the story & characters to breathe will absolutely suffocate the whole thing

At this point, my plan is to cease all engagement with the show until the first season is done & taking the consensus. Might read a few first impressions from a fan & a newcomer but no trailers or reactions or clips until season end (I’m just assuming it’s going to be scheduled at least since Netflix & other streaming networks are eschewing the bulk drop/binge format these days.)