#every character was so well rounded and had a story arc

[longing-for-rain]

Katara and Mutuality in Relationships

There are lots of conflicting opinions about which characters Katara felt attraction towards, which characters she didn’t, and how long she felt that attraction. I see in most cases, people point to quick clips of her faintly blushing or kissing another character on the cheek as evidence, but I think these kind of takes miss the nuance of the purpose attraction serves in a story.

Most importantly, I see these characters treated as if they are actually people capable of making their own decisions. It’s important to remember that these are fictional characters. They don’t make their own choices; the writers make their choices for them for the purpose of telling a story. From that standpoint, it’s more valuable to examine how a character’s story and narrative themes tie into their relationships with other characters. Animators can shove in a kiss or a blush wherever they want, but it’s harder to demonstrate through storytelling how and why two characters might feel attraction towards one another, and how a relationship between them would develop both characters and contribute to the overarching themes of the story.

In other words, when discussing which characters Katara is “attracted” to, I’m discussing which relationships and actions within the narrative build on her established story and arc. Romance is always integrated into a story for a reason, and considering that reason is important.

Unfortunately, ATLA is very much a product of its time in this way. It’s easy to see what romance adds to the arcs of the male characters—but not so much with the female characters. All three canon relationships (kataang, sukka, and maiko) follow this trend to some degree. The primary purpose of the woman in this narrative is to act as a prize for the man for performing some good deed. Once they’re together, she ceases having her own motivations and becomes an extension of the male character she’s dating. This is pretty blatant with Suki—she barely had a personality in that later seasons; she is there to be Sokka’s girlfriend. Similarly, Katara becomes a completely different character—she’s even animated differently—when the narrative pushes her into romantic scenes with Aang. Her character is flattened.

So what is Katara’s arc, and how do the romantic interactions she has throughout the series contribute to this?

Well, that could be a whole other essay itself, but to put it simply, Katara’s arc is one of a young girl devastated by grief at a young age clinging to hope that she has the power to fight and change the world for the better. Which she does as she gains power and confidence throughout the series—culminating in her defeating Azula in the finale.

But the part I want to focus on here is how Katara connects with other characters. She connects with them over shared experiences of grief and loss.

Take Haru, for instance.

Haru: After the attack, they rounded up my father and every other earthbender, and took them away. We haven't seen them since.

Katara: So that's why you hide your earthbending.

Haru: Yeah. Problem is…the only way I can feel close to my father now is when I practice my bending. He taught me everything I know.

Katara: See this necklace? My mother gave it to me.

Haru: It’s beautiful.

Katara: I lost my mother in a Fire Nation raid. This necklace is all I have left of her.

Haru: It’s not enough, is it?

Katara: No.

This isn’t just a throwaway moment; it’s an important character moment that leads up to growth and the progression of Katara’s overall story, both in this individual episode and in the whole series.

Katara finds her power in the connections she’s able to make with other characters. It’s a powerful driving force for her that makes her a strong character even before her bending abilities develop. Imprisoned was such an important episode to establish who Katara is and what her power is, and adds so much to her arc.

But there is one line in particular from the above exchange that also stands out: Haru says “it’s not enough, is it?” and Katara agrees. Even this early in the series, we’re establishing the fact that despite her drive and hopeful outlook, Katara feels deeply hurt, she feels a deep sense of loss that she opens up about to other characters in moments like these. But unlike Haru…Katara can’t go rescue her mother. Her mother is dead, and we see her grapple with that grief throughout the series.

Another character she reaches out to like this is Jet.

Jet: Longshot over there? His town got burned down by the Fire Nation. And we found The Duke trying to steal our food. I don't think he ever really had a home.

Katara: What about you?

Jet: The Fire Nation killed my parents. I was only eight years old. That day changed me forever.

Katara: Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation.

Jet: I’m so sorry, Katara.

Another important note about Jet is that there are explicit romantic feelings from Katara in this episode. Again, Katara empathizes with another character through a shared sense of loss. Sadly, in this case, Jet manipulated her feelings and tricked her into helping in his plot to flood the village…but those feelings were undeniably there.

That was the tragedy in this episode, but it also gives the audience so much information about Katara as a character: what motivates her, and what she wants. Katara is established as a character who wants someone who will connect with her and empathize with her over her loss—her greatest sense of trauma. She wants to help others but also receive support in return. The reason why she was smitten with Jet, beyond just initial attraction, is because he gave her a sense of that before Katara realized his true motivations.

A lot of people make the claim that Aang is good for Katara because he also feels a sense of great loss and trauma. And while on paper that’s true…does he really demonstrate that? I just gave two examples of characters Katara connected with this way, and both responded with deep empathy to what she said. Very early on in the show—the third episode—Katara attempts to connect with Aang the same way. How does he respond?

Katara: Aang, before we get to the temple, I want to talk to you about the airbenders.

Aang: What about 'em?

Katara: Well, I just want you to be prepared for what you might see. The Fire Nation is ruthless. They killed my mother, and they could have done the same to your people.

Aang: Just because no one has seen an airbender, doesn't mean the Fire Nation killed them all. They probably escaped!

Just compare this exchange to Haru and Jet. No effort to empathize, not even a “sorry for your loss” or anything. It’s a stark contrast, and the reason for that is because this narrative entirely centers Aang. Katara’s narrative always seems to be secondary to his when they’re together—which is exactly my point when I say this relationship has a fundamental lack of mutuality. It’s built that way from the beginning of the series. It does not add to Katara’s arc nor establish what about this dynamic would attract her.

And, look, before someone jumps down my throat about this…I’m not saying Aang is a horrible person for this response. I think it’s a sign that he’s immature and has a fundamentally different approach to problems than Katara. Katara is a character who has been forced to take on responsibilities beyond her years due to being a child of a war-torn world. Aang’s approach to problems is avoidance while Katara never had that luxury. It doesn’t mesh well.

This is all in Book 1. I honestly could have gotten on board with Kataang if the series meaningfully addressed these issues…but it didn’t. In fact, they actually got worse in some ways.

Back to Katara’s mother. We’ve established that this is a core part of Katara’s character and like in the scene with Haru, she indicates that this is an unresolved issue that pains her. But then, in Book 3, Katara actually does get a chance to confront this pain.

This would have been a powerful moment. Surely the character who is meant to be her partner, her equal, would have been there for her. Surely he would have understood and supported her, fulfilling her narrative and adding to her story.

But Aang didn’t do that. I won’t go into details because there are a million analyses out there on The Southern Raiders, but Aang’s response to Katara was the opposite of understanding. He got angry with her, insinuated that she was a monster for wanting revenge, and tried to dictate her behavior according to his own moral values. And importantly, from a narrative standpoint, he did not go with Katara. One of the most important events in her arc, and Aang didn’t support her—he actually tried stopping her. He didn’t contribute to her growth and development.

Also noteworthy:

Katara: But I didn’t forgive him. I’ll never forgive him.

Even at the end of the episode, Aang clearly doesn’t understand at all what Katara is feeling. This line demonstrates it perfectly. He thinks she forgave him when that wasn’t the case at all…but of course, he didn’t even accompany her, so he didn’t see what actually took place. His worldview is fundamentally different from hers, and he’s consistently too rigid in his morality and immature to center Katara’s feelings.

Throughout Katara’s whole arc, her most significant character moments, Aang’s character just doesn’t come through the way Katara’s constantly does for him. Their narrative lacks mutuality. When Katara and Aang are together, she becomes an accessory to him. The ending scene is a perfect demonstration of this.

Now, to address the elephant in the room.

Which character does actually add to Katara’s narrative and support her growth as a character?

Correct! I just talked about how important The Southern Raiders is to Katara’s character and story, how it’s a chance for her to finally address the grief she’s been carrying since Book 1. And who stood by her side throughout this pivotal moment? Right—Zuko did.

You can talk all you want about how he’s a “colonizer” while Aang’s people suffered genocide, but you’re forgetting that “show, don’t tell” is one of the most basic aspects of storytelling. The fact is, despite how it looks on paper, Zuko was the one there for Katara at her critical moments. Zuko empathized with Katara more than Aang ever did—as demonstrated in this episode. Zuko never once brought up his own cultural values. Zuko never once told Katara what to do. Zuko’s position was that Katara should be the one to decide, and that he would support any choice she made. He supported her decision to spare Yon Rha, but he would have also supported her if she decided to kill him. I actually found this episode to be a satisfying reversal to what is typically seen in TV—for once, the female character is centered while her male counterpart takes the backseat and becomes a supporting role to her narrative.

Even before this, Zuko is shown to empathize with Katara.

Zuko: I’m sorry. That’s something we have in common.

I think what gets me about this scene is the fact that he’s still Katara’s enemy, and she was just yelling about how she hates him and his people. But despite that, Zuko still empathizes with Katara. She is fundamentally human to him, and he expresses that to her in a way that allows them to connect. Zuko stands to gain nothing from this. It’s true that Azula entered the picture and twisted things around—but in this moment, Zuko’s compassion is genuine. His instinct was to respond to her grief with empathy, just like she consistently does for other characters.

And finally, how else does Zuko add to Katara’s arc?

I don’t think there is any more perfect of an example than the finale itself—the culmination of the arcs and development of all characters.

Zuko and Katara fight together. In a heartbeat, Zuko asks Katara to fight by his side against Azula, because he trusts her strength. She’s his equal—both in his mind, and in a narrative sense.

Then, this:

Both of their roles are so critical in this fight. They both save each other. The scene has such raw emotion to it. These characters were together at the conclusion of their respective arcs for a reason.

This is the perfect conclusion to Katara’s arc. She just played a critical role in ending the war that has caused her trauma her whole life. She just demonstrated her mastery of waterbending (another thing she’s dreamed of throughout the series) by defeating the world’s most powerful firebender during Sozin’s Comet. Even though she had help as all characters do, these are victories that belong to her and demonstrate the growth and power of her character. And to top it all off? She was able to save Zuko’s life. She didn’t have to endure the pain of feeling helpless to do anything while someone else died for her; this time, she had an active role, she changed her fate, and she prevailed. Zuko plays an important role in Katara’s story without dominating it. They perfectly represent mutuality. They add to each other’s stories. Their narratives become stronger when they’re together, without one diminishing or sidelining the other.

So, from that standpoint, that’s why I always see the attraction between Zuko and Katara and why I see it lacking between Aang and Katara. Zuko and Katara’s story doesn’t need some cheap little throwaway moments to shine. It’s integral to both characters’ stories. We are shown not told of the way these characters feel about each other. Given everything we know about Katara, her goals, her values, her past loves…absolutely everything points to Zuko being the true subject of her feelings.

Because let’s be honest. The ending I just described is so much more powerful and so much more Katara than seeing her being relegated back to a doe-eyed love interest for Aang to kiss. It hardly even made sense—Katara played no role at all at the culmination of Aang’s arc. She was relegated back to a love interest, rather than the powerful figure we saw fight alongside Zuko.

[onepiece-polls]

One Piece Shipping War - Round 2 Side A

Propaganda under the cut.

Propaganda for Franky x Robin:

Do I really need to explain?

The old married couple who's healthy, Enies Lobby (and all their appearances) are their propaganda really.

It’s all about the maturity!

Their dynamic is perfect and their pasts are so similar. I love the chemistry between them as well as their introduction that helped build the connection and shared history they already have.

they are THE t4t bi4bi ship | franky telling robin "existing is not a crime" immediately puts this at number one for me | they are opposites (bright and loud + quiet and goth) but also they're both so eccentric and silly <3 | THEY WEAR MATCHING OUTFITS

Mom and dad Straw Hat

They are STILL the Mom and the Dad of the Straw Hats, this is the one thing I don't care what Oda says <3 Also their interactions in Enies Lobby and Thriller Bark are amazing.

In my eyes, they are married. Some of my favorite character interactions in the manga/anime and in official art.

Oda had Franky call Robin his wife at least once

Your honor they’re married

I'M GOING TO PUT LINKS IN MY EXAMPLES (Mod note: I linked to the whole post, the propaganda was going to get too long otherwise. But I will copy this line:...) They immediatly clicked in Enies Lobby, Franky saved Robin with both words and actions ("Your existence is not a sin!"), and then she grabbed his balls.

The duality of two kids who were just trying to chase their dream and having circumstances outside their control (the government) take everything they love away from them, but one choosing solitude and the other adopting every other person in a bad circumstance??? I love them. Plus they literally had couple moments from the first interaction.

The ultimate t4t couple idk what else you need theyre iconic

A wholesome ship of a woman who feels the need to be constantly on edge trying to relax and a man who is a 110% himself from the moment we see him. the joy of frobin is the causal domesticity, in many color spreads and especially post timeskip we can see them casually enjoying the others company.

Remember when Franky was in Chopper's body in Punk Hazard and every time he spoke Robin was like "Franky. Stop talking. Do not talk while you're in Chopper's body."

idk like. he's obsessed with her. she's his weird Goth gf and he's her himbo. they have matching outfits. I love them.

Look. It's Franky and Robin. Literally the only two characters that make sense to ship on the Sunny. Their arcs are inextricably intertwined (water7/enies lobby). Also LOOK AT THEM interacting, both during their arcs, but also thriller bark, or post time skip. I love them. Also robin crushed frankys balls.

funny big robot man & analytical smart research lady power couple... silly x smart... himbo x researcher... augh... so good

They are the ship for taxpaying adults your honor I LOVE them they’re literally freak4freak and they share such a fucking powerful arc together (Water 7).

that moment she let him sleep on her lap in punk hazard was sooo cute <3 -- The matching thigh highs and bottoms in film z can NOT be understated. -- Strawhat mom and dad -- Let's not forget the way robin convinced franky to join ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -- she also indirectly called his balls "treasure" so,,, -- the way their stories are so closely intertwined...they were both keys to destroy the world...the way they instantly connected over that...the soulmate-ism of it all...

they . them. girlboss and malewife. that's it.

She grabbed his balls. He totally liked it.

He's so silly and she loves it. She's so scary and he loves it. She grabbed his balls in public.

They will be endgame trust me. Franky doesn't treat any other girl like he treats Robin. There dynamic in Water 7 and Thriller Bark was and always will be one of the best in all of OP.

Propaganda for Rayleigh x Shakky:

They’re canon and very hot. These are facts.

[bethanydelleman]

Online Discourse, Redemption Arcs, and Jane Austen

There is a story in the Bible where Jesus is brought a woman who has cheated on her spouse. The officials ask Jesus what to do, he knows they are trying to trick him into breaking the law with mercy, so he says, "Go ahead, throw rocks at her until she dies, that's the law, BUT whoever has never done anything wrong throws the first stone." Eventually everyone leaves and Jesus forgives the woman.

This post I shared a while ago really makes me think of that story, because online commentary of characters seems to so often break into two groups:

People so unforgiving, so unwilling to allow a single misstep in a character that they would start throwing stones immediately

People who will twist themselves into knots to prove that everything the character did was justified (and since we have zero backstory for the unnamed woman in this story, it would be easy to give her a sympathetic one. She did it because of trauma!)

Let's apply this to Emma Woodhouse. At Box Hill, she mildly insults an older woman, it is a poorly timed and placed joke:

“Oh! very well,” exclaimed Miss Bates, “then I need not be uneasy. ‘Three things very dull indeed.’ That will just do for me, you know. I shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth, shan’t I? (looking round with the most good-humoured dependence on every body’s assent)—Do not you all think I shall?” Emma could not resist. “Ah! ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me—but you will be limited as to number—only three at once.”

There are basically two reactions to this insult: BURN EMMA AT THE STAKE and Eh, not that bad. Now I think with this particular insult, it really wasn't that bad and we are told about the surrounding extenuating circumstances that caused Emma to slip up. However, I'm probably wrong because Emma does feel guilty and she does make amends. While she does not directly apologize, it's clear in the novel that what she did was a relationship repair.

What makes me feel like a crazy person is how many people throw first stones! How many people are SHOCKED by what Emma said and they could NEVER imagine insulting Miss Bates in such a cruel way! Get over yourself! I feel fairly certain that every human being on earth over 25 had insulted someone to the same level as Emma has insulted Miss Bates. That doesn't mean it is excusable, Emma should apologize and so should we, but I'm left amazed by how many people feel blameless in the face of this extremely human and relatable error.

And yes, it makes me wonder about forgiveness in their real lives. There are some things that I believe could be hard and fast "never forgive" rules, like your SO should never hit you, but people make mistakes. We should have room for forgiveness, we should understand circumstances. People get tired and sick and angry and overwhelmed and sometimes they screw up. It makes me wonder if this is an online persona effect, where we never show our negative sides, or is this a true opinion. Do people forget their own mistakes?

There also seems to be this idea that once someone has done something once, it's already a pattern even if the novel is full of counter-evidence. Emma is very polite throughout the novel, she endures people that annoy her a lot, she is endlessly accommodating with her father, but a single insult to Miss Bates and people start retroactively making her worse. When she visited that poor family she must have been insulting them! (Nope) Suddenly she becomes a villain through and through, instead of a normal girl who made a few mistakes.

That's not even getting into the real "villains" of Austen's works. The amount of people who tell me that Lydia (16), Henry Crawford (probably 24), Mary Crawford (22-24), Willoughby (25), and so on and so fourth ARE INCAPABLE OF CHANGE and will never improve. Like excuse me? Have you not changed and improved since you were 16-25? How early do you give up on people? Do you really think a young adult is fully formed?

Is this how you think of people in the real world too?

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda under the cut

Alana Bloom

she kissed will graham in s1 and dated hannibal in s2 so you can imagine how bad the fandom is to her. fun fact she's in a canon lesbian relationship now tho <3

The show literally does the yaoi treatment of victimisation for the benefit of the male leads to her. And then the fandom mistreats her

I'm not sure if this even counts but...Literally a victim of Yaoi along with several other characters in-series, but she got it almost the worst. The entire show is just people dying because the two male leads are OBSESSED with each other and can't be normal about anything. Alana Bloom, actual PhD of psychology and consultant to the FBI, got kissed by one guy, fucked and fed people-meant by the other, and pushed out a window by the murder husbands' forced-surrogate daughter. Like. Actual victim of several crimes caused by yaoi. She's probably one of the few examples of a Yaoi Victim overcoming and evolving past her yaoi-related trauma into a stronger person/character, though: She gets an entire character overhaul and a hot, millionairess for a wife. She kills a man with an eel. She becomes head of the BSHCI, effectively putting her in complete power over her jackass cannibal ex-bf. She does quite well. Unfortunately, the rest of her screen time is spent trying not to get killed in the ongoing fallout of Hannibal and Will's fucked up courtship, but hey. Can't have everything. I don't even know if I'm saying anything valid here: the fandom loves her, but I supposed her position outside of the Hannigram relationship relegates her to a non-subject in a lot of Hannigram-focused fanwork. She's an 'obstacle' to their relationship only in the sense that Will had a crush on her once that went nowhere and Hannibal started an actual relationship with her SPECIFICALLY to piss off Will. I guess she's also a more literal obstacle as Hannibal's jailer and Will's friend who's constantly pointing out to him that Morals exist and he should try having some of those, maybe

Maya Fey

OKAY SO She's definitely NOT the love interest coz she's like 16 n he's 24 or smth but in literally all fandom she's just... the wingwoman. that's all. EVEN WHEN SHE'S IN A LESBIAN RELATIONSHIP IT'S IN THE BACKGROUND N SHE'S SUPPORTING THE YAOI GROWN ASS MEN..... it's horrible... detestable... she's a main character... she has ARCS..... and yet.. her own most popular ship tag is just.. her n her gf as background yuri who are supporting and wingwomaning the fucking main guys. it's a tragedy. Maya Fey would make Phoenix Wright buy her burgers everytime he made her listen to his love problems and then she'd tell him that every complaint he makes will cost another burger. SHE WOULD NEVER BE SUPPORTING YURI.. 

Phoenix’s best friend and partner in solving crimes. She often gets shunted aside by the fandom, reduced to Phoenix/Edgeworth cheerleader and matchmaker. 

okay i wouldnt say shes exactly mistreated, shes pretty well liked in the fandom, HOWEVER shes always seen as like an accessory to wrightworth, her only role being to make jokes about how in love they are etc. i feel like a lot of people ignore her depth and backstory to just use her as a tool in wrightworth stories. she plays a very important role in the games as well and has been through a lot, and has always been helpful to wright, so she deserves to be more than the setup to a joke about wrightworth

[the-badger-mole]

There's A Difference

I think I've said this before- in fact, I'm almost certain I've said this within the last few months- but the reason I can't let Aang's actions be dismissed by his age is because his worst traits are never addressed in canon. The reason why I personally find him very incel-ish is because the grown men who created him and project onto him strike me as incel-ish (and yes, I'm aware that at least one of them is/has been married. Incel is more of a frame of mind than an actual state of being). Aang could have had a growth arc, but instead Bryke chose to either ignore his flaws or make them out to be virtues. I'm judging Aang as a character, not a child. Because Aang is not an actual child. An actual child might have been confronted on the things Aang did. Aang is a character whose creators want fans to think is perfect, even when they themselves introduce the idea he might not be (Aang's being a terrible father is not that surprising to me, but even then Bryke had to scramble to tell us he wasn't actually that bad 🙄)

I am a lot less harsh with Zuko because he actually faced the consequences of his poor decisions. He worked to make amends not only for himself, but for his family. I empathize with his losses and his personal tragedies because the narrative actually cared about how those things affected him in just about every episode, unlike Aang, whose devastating losses are only touched on when they're convenient to that episode's plot. Otherwise, he is the picture of unbothered to the point that I question if he even knew most of the time that he was in a war (the answer, it would turn out in the penultimate episode, was no, apparently not). There's not much I can criticize Zuko on that wasn't already touched on within the show. Why would I judge Book 3 Zuko based on Book 1 Zuko (who btw, I still think was a much better rounded character than Aang in any of the series)?

When it comes to Katara and the misogyny inherent in how she was treated in her canon ship? Well, I can only point to canon and aks to be proven wrong. Katara had very little to do with the development of Kataang during the series, and that little was usually prompted by someone or something outside of her own thoughts and feelings bringing the idea up. Meanwhile, we know from the beginning that Aang likes Katara (well, he likes how she looks anyway). His feelings matter to the narrative: Katara's not so much. Then the disastrous comics where Katara's character from the show is completely stripped from her and she ends up being the cheerleader girlfriend of the Avatar. I know some of that is walked back in the more recent comics, but we already know how it ends for Katara and her kids. Also, the post LoK scramble to give Katara more agency honestly just makes me think that my original assessment of her relationship with Aang was spot on.

Zutara, in my opinion, would have been a great relationship for them both. They would've been just about perfect together, because as hot tempered as they can both be, they also both get really good at communicating with each other, which is something that Katara never really has with Aang. That's why it doesn't surprise me to find out how dysfunctional their family is. Katara and Zuko know how to work together as a team. In a relatively short time, they got comfortable opening up to each other. They are both passionate to the point that they can be really hot-headed, but they are both also extremely empathetic and compassionate. They are a couple that would've helped each other grow, and would have been so much more interesting than anything that happened with their actual canon relationships.

I get that there are people who would rather believe that Aang could outgrow his selfishness. That's totally valid, and has made for some great stories. However, I don't think saying the way he was written in canon has shades of incel is wrong. Especially by Book 3. I could see that guy growing up to be a viciously obnoxious narcissist. I bet those of us who know an "Aang" IRL can picture that, too.

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Round 1 Part 2 (3/8)

Propaganda under the cut!

BEN LINUS

One of my fave characters of all time! Also a prolific liar. Almost every single thing this man says is a lie. He lies, manipulates, murders, and feels very little remorse, all in the name of “protecting” the magical Island where he and his people live. Ben is fueled almost exclusively by bitterness, stemming from an entire childhood’s worth of abuse from his alcoholic father, who blamed Ben for his mother’s death in childbirth (Ben did eventually kill his father, along with the whole community he grew up in). Additionally, Ben is desperate to have some great destiny or higher purpose, and his bitterness toward the fact that he’s just an “ordinary” man and jealousy toward the man who DOES have a higher purpose drives Ben to commit various acts of cruelty and murder. Ben does act as a villain for most of the story (save for the last season, in which he’s more of an anti-villain and eventually an anti-hero), but he has two redeeming qualities: his love for the Island and his love for his adopted daughter, Alex. The latter is complicated by the fact that he kidnapped Alex as a baby from her biological mother, a woman stranded alone on the Island. However, when forced to choose between protecting the Island and saving Alex’s life, Ben ultimately chooses the island and deeply regrets this decision for the rest of his life. He’s eventually forced to reckon with his many, many mistakes and undergoes something of a redemption arc, but he spends enough of the show establishing himself as a villain that I can easily see the good denizens of Twitter attacking his fans.

IANTHE TRIDENTARIUS

Her number one hobby is ruining every person's that she knows life. Her second hobby is being soooo slutty about it despite looking like a literal wet rat. Her third hobby is having an extremely unhealthy relationship with her twin. Her other hobbies include cannibalism, wearing a maid outfit, being extremely convinced she is the main character, the badboy sexy love interest and the villain. 'Why', you may ask. Well, the answer is, for shits and giggles #justgirlythings i, aswell as literally everybody else in the fandom have gone through the pipeline from hating her to desperately wanting to fuck her. expect for i still fucking hope she dies and doesn't come back for good. (that would literally solve all of everybody's problems) as god intended (EXPECT FOR. one of her hobbies literally is gaslighting god) She is fucking horrible i will love her until i die and even after that

parks and recs jean ralphio voice she's the woooorst!! The moment she learns she has to kill someone to become a Lyctor (aka a more special necromancer), she doesn't hesitate to kill and cannibalize the guy who has been her cavalier since childhood… cavalier who she also totally bullied as kids, she was allowed to choose one guest for her and her twin sister's birthday party each year, and she would always pick whoever she thought her cavalier didn't want to see there! While other characters are shown to regret the process of becoming a Lyctor (which involves someone close to them dying)/were forced into it because of circumstances, Ianthe has absolutely no regrets, she believes she did what she had to do

The author once said of Ianthe: "I don't think she's been nice to anyone, if she has I'll go back and change it." She killed and ate the soul of someone she has known all her life so that she could become a necromantic saint and tormented him plenty before that. General negging, ganging up against him, always inviting people he didn't like to their birthday parties. She doesn't regret killing him. I think she is repulsed by the idea that his digested soul is affecting hers. She helped her crush lobotomise herself so she would be in Ianthe's debt, and later lied and said she didn't see the corpse of a woman her crush killed under her bed (why did she do that? I do not know). She has a bone arm because her original arm was cut off, she hated the replacement so her crush cut THAT off and grew her a new one out of just bones. She had it gilded and only after that did she decide to help her crush deal with the person who had been repeatedly trying to kill her. She wants so badly to be the main character but people keep interrupting her villain monologues.

she has her own content warning tag pollrunner's note: this is the most compelling propaganda I've ever seen for a character, thank you for submitting

She's such a bitch to everyone all the time, she causes nothing but problems, she tries to do a villain speech but fumbles it because her tummy hurt, she is the awfulgirl of all time

[astralartefact]

NieR Reincarnation The People and the World Amber Spoiler Post & Theory Hour

Mama on Mama on Mama on Mama in this one. And I'm going to look a little bit too deep into that. Far too deep actually.

What can I say. They did a good job with the shitty gacha game. I'm so sorry, but I am once again validated in my opinion that this is the best NieR writing right behind YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse. It's just. Chef's Kiss.

And sure, I still prefer Sun/Moon over People/World as a story since that one just managed to weave the themes so well with the stories and everything whereas this one has certain moments where it doesn't really line up with stuff it has already established (some/many of the stories kind of seem to disregard parts of their hidden/ex stories which feels weird, also where are hina and yuzuki in all of this as rogue cage wanderers, i have a feeling they're not going to address them at all (which imo would be fine but kind of disappointing)), but we're finally getting the lore payoff we know to expect from Drakenier and it feels so good.

And you know, I did notice that all the seasons so far were in two distinct parts that lined up with their name - and as this was obviously the The People part I was wondering before playing this morning what the The World part would be about. But it didn't even occur to me that we could be going to the "Real World"... (Put a Pin in that)

But let's get into it.

Mama meets Accord (who I'm sure somebody has called mommy before)

I mean at this point we know she's coming - we just don't know when and how. I do wonder if these more and more overt mentions of her might be setup for the next NieR/DoD4 because I feel like Accord as a character would be prime real estate for the new big game, but of course it would also make perfect sense for her to show up here, she already has an established presence in the Cage - and I mean she could just do both!

It's interesting to note btw that the coffer that Yudil's story explicitly points out has recently appeared in the most recent Bakuken stage play (the one that's called Finale even though it's not the final one) where a portuguese merchant (The Cathedral City is on the Iberian Peninsula) called Michael (you know, like the Dragon) had it. Of course, they might also just have reused the prop since they made one for the YoRHa stage play Accord appeared in...

Mama meets Mother

She's giving Mother and she's back with a vengeance rhythm game. Amazing. Tens across the board. I love her fascinator head piece.

As the Mother Expert that I call myself I have to point out some things here:

a) What exactly is Mother Mourning? The Watchers have up until now only been described as motivated by a fervent hate of Humanity and anger - the Gods want to claw themselves free of their humanity-imposed seals and devour the world - so why is this version explicitly shown as sad? Her battle dialogue also kind of sounds... betrayed in a way? "Why Protect People? Destroy" and "Our objective. Why?" seem to hint that maybe Mama (points right at the name) was in with Mother this whole time but has now turned against her. And it makes me wonder if the Cage is a way for humanity to enslave the gods they sealed for profit...

But also, given recent Developments in SinoAlice JP's Ending Arc, there's likely something else in the Cage that the Mourning Mother could be talking to. Maybe the thing we saw in that one cutscene is actually protecting humanity?

b) With some of that already in mind I was thinking about her pose and was trying to find some connection to the dance of her Intoner version in the DoD3 Final Boss when it occured to me in a one-two punch: She's shackled. The Cage is for Her. She's what is Caged. And doesn't that sound like a seal that keeps a certain Round Egg at bay that I have an exciting theory for-

Tangent: Mama meets my Round Egg Theory

okay so strap in because it's time to bring up the thing I bring up every chance I get!

We know there's a connection between the Memory Tree and the Moon Server Data through two things:

a) In the Replicant Remaster's new Ending Kainé goes into the Memory Tree's Data to bring Nier back - which of course means that the Memory Tree contains Nier's data. This is important because

b) In YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse (My Love <3) the Red Girls have a Seed (we'll get back to that in a second) - and out of that Seed grows a Tower that contains "Ego Collectives" of People, which is basically the collection of memories that makes up one person.

Now I know that everyone just handwaved that away as a way to have cheap Replicant references as the first two bosses with the Remaster coming up but lol wouldn't that be easy, did you forget who you're dealing with? Because the exact two bosses used (Knave of Hearts and Hänsel and Gretel) means there's only one person this Ego Collective could belong to: Nier, because only he fought Hänsel and Gretel. (let's ignore that Weiss was there too bc that would be a dumb!!! this is much more fun bc of the implications!!!)

And I'm positive that this was intentional because in the remaster ending - in a scene that's eerily similar to the fight in Tower at Paradigm's Breach - Kainé only fights her memory of Gretel without Hänsel, so they knew.

Why does that matter? It doesn't really, I just wanted to bring it up as a little fun fact, but what does matter is that Y:DA establishes that whatever that Seed the Red Girls have recreated is, it also contains all the memories from the Memory Tree, because that's where those memories were recorded. And they were recreating it, which implies there was a basis to recreate. And that was always the big future overarching NieR plot thread that Y:DA left me with - sure, we know this is where it all ends, the Watchers are over now and this time forever through collaboration and power of friendship - but how did we even get here? How did the Red Girls get a Seed to recreate?

And now it fits right in with what's happening, especially now that we know what exactly the Moon Server can do:

The Moon Server/The Cage can peer into different universes - we know that since at least Hina and Yuzuki (Yuzuki knows Reinkane exists as a game but also their EX stories) - but as far as we know the Seeds only exist in Drakengard's Universe. So why do the Red Girls/The Watchers/The Mourning Mother want to get into the Moon Server/Cage so Bad? (It was even sort of highlighted in the Automata Anime where Adam transformed into a giant Reincarnation Mob - implying really hard that the Red Girls/Logic Virus is indeed behind the attacks on the Cage) Well, maybe it's because they want the Round Egg, because they have been separated ever since DoD1's Final Boss and they need it to Dark Apocalypse.

Before this chapter I thought that the entire Memory Tree might have been built from Seeds in the first place and that's why the Red Girls want into the Moon Server to get a basis to copy - I thought it would make sense that humanity somehow got that dimension-crossing technology needed for it out of a Seed - but that would require the NieR world to have Seeds to use for that and we know next to nothing about them so I just kept it in the back of my mind until something else comes along to strengthen it. I also didn't want to base too much on the cross-over one, even if I personally really don't understand why people are so hesitant to call it canon, it's definitely canon, it's one of the few things Yoko Taro is directly credited to have written the past few years and he literally always writes stuff that right away retcons things, so even if it changes details with Automata he has done the exact same thing multiple times now. ("It's not DoD3's Ending A that leads to DoD1, it's the version of Ending A in this specific novella that's basically the same except for one small thing.")

But you know what other tangentially related thing I can bring up that you won't believe I will stuff into this theory? Why yes, It's Yuki Wada's Breakout Hit Voice of Cards: Forsaken Maiden. And fair warning, this is where it gets entirely unfounded. And also spoilers for that game's ending.

I have the long and well-documented theory that the Spirits from VoC:FM might be the Watchers. In that game Maidens need to sacrifice themselves to the Gods so they 'keep humanity save' in return - but it ends with Laty (the female MC) going into an eternal slumber to sort of 'trap' the gods in her everlasting dream so humanity is save without them. And because I always found that very reminiscent of Drakengard 1's Goddesses I theorized that VoC:FM might have been the folkloric 'inception story' of that system, humanity just reiterated on the mechanics of it so it's spread over multiple people instead of one so nobody has to go to sleep forever.

So with that as an foundational thought, what if humanity did that again? What if they extended it again on more people so fewer people have the sort of responsibility Laty or Furiae had? What if they didn't only extend it to a finite number of people - what if they extended it to every human in every dimension that ever experienced any form of prolonged misery (or whatever else the requirements are to end up in the cage lol)

So what if the Cage is the Seal? What if keeping the Seeds locked up is the purpose of the Cage? What if the Cage is a Cage?

And if the Cage is just NieR's Goddess Seals then the Watchers have a really good reason to get in there: The exact same reason as in Drakengard 1.

But I'm not done. Because what if Mama didn't know that. What if Mama just knew there's a server on the moon and basically every single person ever is trapped in it, eternally doomed to relive the most horrible pain and suffering imaginable for some reason - and some figure, a mother figure if you will, told her she could fix their suffering. That she could change the system for the better by giving them hope and respite by giving them an afterlife. But that was a lie. The figure just wanted her to weaken the system built on sin and suffering so she could break through it and reach the Seeds.

What if Mama (points at the name) realised she was tricked by Mother and is now trying to fix her mistakes? And that's why Mother is Mourning, because she betrayed her?

Don't think so. Mama didn't seem all that "remorseful". But maybe something along those lines though.

Depending on SinoAlice JP's ending whatever other being the Library turns out to be might also be involved - maybe the Library is a god that turned away from the Watchers to help humanity and the Cage is instead a way to protect the being that is the Library which in turn protects humanity... That would be a full circle moment to VoC:FM too...

Either way I'm so stoked to find out what's really happening!!!

Mama meets Mama in the Real World

Already talked alot about Mama, but let's just all applaud ourselves for reading the room! We did it! We knew!

Just as theorized she was 10H all along! Probably should go reread her story to see if it still lines up with what I theorized above... And she's pretty. And has almost the same haircut as Hina and Marie. Hmm. Maybe they should have chosen one of the other Marie designs.

(Small correction: I read that last scene wrong, seems like Mama isn't 10H but Pod 006 - but since the character we're getting is 10H I'll still say we were right :3 ...and yeah, we do control the pod in that scene, makes sense, don't know why I went straight to Mama has to be 10H)

What I'm actually more interested in though is where we're going with this. Like what can she even do in the "Real World", doesn't 10H die constantly in her story for disobedience? So she can't be allowed to do all of this, right? I do think a "We rebuild the Cage on Hopes and Dreams" is in order, but the way to get there... ah! Look, it's the Pin I made you keep in mind!

What if they don't go to that Real World. What if they go to our Real World? Hina & Yuzuki - who came from our or at least another Real World - are notably absent from this arc. And that could just be because the true ending being optional makes things harder for the devs to write around and they want the spotlight off of them bc they were the main characters, but still: I would love a chapter or even just a scene of their perspective of what happens to the Cage. I mean what happens to them now that the Cage falls apart? Could Dark Mama and Papa save them just like Mama did with the others? Do we maybe even meet Dark Mama's and Papa's real forms?

But there's another character that immediately comes to my mind when we talk about "the Real World". And it's because of a throwaway line that I never see anybody bring up... mainly because nobody likes Y:DA.

In her final letter to Konogg, Anogg explains that at some point she visited another world (likely when she fell into the Pseudo-Seed) and in doing so she learned that both her and the world are constructs - which implies she knows that a Real World exists from which this world was created. And sure, that could have been a meta-joke about haha video game. But her constructed self also displays several similarities to moments in Noelle's Chapter - which came out vaguely around the same time - and now all of this lines up with what's happening in the Cage. So yeah. What if the ending scene is her emerging from the Cage to save Konogg just like these characters have done this entire arc? All I have to say is #AnoggForReincarnation. She would be perfect. Do it.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group F Round 3: #F8 vs #F2

#F8: Young boy gets sold to a demon to be his grandson

#F2: 90s maid girls with guns

Details and poll under the cut!

#F8: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun (Marimashita! Iruma-kun)

Summary:

Fourteen-year-old Iruma Suzuki has been unfortunate all his life, having to work to earn money for his irresponsible parents despite being underage. One day, he finds out that his parents sold him to the demon Sullivan. However, Iruma's worries about what will become of him are soon relieved, for Sullivan merely wants a grandchild, pampering him and making him attend the demon school Babyls.

At first, Iruma tries to keep a low profile in fear of his peers discovering that he is human. Unfortunately, this ends up being more difficult than he expected. It turns out that Sullivan himself is the chairman of the school, and everyone expects him to become the next Demon King!

Iruma immediately finds himself in an outrageous situation when he has to chant a forbidden spell in front of the entire school. With this, Iruma instantly earns a reputation he does not want. Even so, he is bound to be roped into more bizarre circumstances.

Propaganda 1:

The main character, Iruma, is very kind and wholesome, and you really just want to see him succeed throughout the series, especially after knowing everything he’s been through. He was neglected and used by his parents, but now he gets to live out a nice life despite being surrounded by demons, as his new grandfather spoils him. The demon that adopted him, Sullivan, is an extremely powerful figure in the demon realm, but through most of the series, he looks like an egg. The side characters are also well-designed with interesting personalities. The main two, Asmodeus and Clara, become almost inseparable from Iruma after they become friends, and the three of them are very cute together. There is also a canon nonbinary cat person, who is technically Sullivan’s servant, but he is treated as part of the family, and he’s a disaster bisexual.

Propaganda 2:

It’s really good in terms of art, plot, and characters. There’s nonbinary representation in the form of Opera, and there’s friendship galore with very poly undertones. It’s so sweet and good, and it’s just rahhhhh. Everyone is silly but also realistic and well-developed. There are reasonable arcs, and there’s a well mix of plot-driven growth and character-driven plots. I love every person who appears onscreen, even for like two seconds. The world building is lovely and so bright and colorful.

Propaganda 3:

You should vote for it because it is genuinely one of the best animes I’ve ever seen. It has good character development, mysteries, focuses on the cast well, and it is not a harem anime. The plot is also really good and is suitable for all age groups.

Fun fact: the main character crossdresses three times in the first three seasons

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse (mild)

#F2: Akiba Maid War (Akiba Meido Sensou)

Summary:

The innocent Nagomi Wahira has always admired the cute girls serving at maid cafes. Hoping to fulfill her dream of becoming one, she moves to Akihabara to work at the maid cafe Ton Tokoton.

Nagomi’s first day seems completely normal—until she has to run an “errand” at a rival maid cafe along with her fellow recruit, the mature Ranko Mannen. There, things quickly go south, and Nagomi soon gets her first taste of Akihabara’s violent maid wars. As she watches Ranko calmly battle her way through a horde of gun- and knife-wielding maids, Nagomi realizes that maid cafes are drastically unlike what she had envisioned.

While struggling to reconcile her expectations with the harsh reality she finds herself in, Nagomi searches for the enjoyment she once saw in the lives of maids.

Propaganda:

It was animated by P.A. Works! As far as I know, they also worked on Buddy Daddies, Angel Beats, Ya Boy Kongming, etc. Cygames also contributed to this anime!! The story is creative as well. Who would’ve thought of a cute maid mafia anime? Keep in mind, this is a P. A. Works ORIGINAL. They went SO crazy on this anime. There’s also 12 episodes, which means that you can binge it all on one day and still be satisfied :D The OP and ED are also catchy, creative and unskippable. Despite its dark themes, it can sometimes get a little more “lighthearted” and silly, even in the most violent scenes ;P

Trigger Warnings: Flashing Lights, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore.

Just like what I explained, it’s violent. A lot of guns. And a lot of blood. Yes, they kill fellow maids in like every episode ever lol. Also, since Akiba is known to have flashy street signs, like every city ever…. And the guns, of course…that’s why I put the Flashing Lights warning.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[pttucker]

Okay, so, I've been thinking about some of my more recent posts and have started to combine them with some of my older posts and think I've come up with another theory that I want to throw out into the wild while we've still got like 40% of the novel left to go.

Well, actually it's not really a new theory for me per se, but I think I've finally cemented it whereas in the past I've had vague suspicions. Which has resulted in another giant post.

tl;dr: there are three stories in the novel, with the novel itself being Dokja's story and I think by the end Dokja will realize that he's inside ORV itself in a sort of Neverending Story kind of way, the Fourth Wall is between him and our world (and maybe also him and TWSA), and that the true Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint belongs to us.

So, anyway, I recently made a post about Han Sooyoung being the author of TWSA and overall I think this current arc we're going through right now is another major allegory / foreshadow for how the characters relate to TWSA, just like the Peace Land arc. But thinking on it some more, I think this arc (and possibly also Peace Land) is also showing how they relate to ORV itself.

Like, I actually even specifically said that certain passages relate to the overall plot of ORV such as this one—

Regrettably, there was no guarantee of the work ending up as a success even if the author did an excellent job. – Time to start our attack, Yoo Joonghyuk. Because the ones to complete the story were the 'Characters', not the author, that's why.

—and I think by taking that just a tiny step further, in combination with other clues, ORV itself will end up being almost a Neverending Story type of deal. Not necessarily with Dokja trying to talk to us like Sebastian and the Childlike Empress, but literally just realizing that he's a character in a novel.

Which is something Dokja has technically already realized, and maybe even unconsciously accepted, not only because of the above passage where he lowkey calls himself a character but also because he's seen that he's listed as a character when he messed around with the Fourth Wall (more on that later) and we have no idea if he recently became one or if he's always been a character and didn't realize it.

Unrestrained questions flooded my head. Why did I get this story here? What was the relationship between that story and being called a character? Was I now a character or was I still a reader? I… Was I still able to change the future?

However, I think the big reveal for Dokja is going to be not that he's a character but that the novel is not TWSA but instead ORV.

In fact, I know I've been using "TWSA" as kind of a shorthand for the world that Dokja is now in, with the scenarios and Joonghyuk and such, as compared to the "real world" he was in before as a company worker, but technically speaking TWSA is not Dokja's story. He is not inside TWSA. TWSA still exists as a completely separate text that he has access to and every time he looks at the revisions of TWSA they are still Joonghyuk's story. They go all the way up to the 1863rd round, and while Dokja is in the TWSA revisions, that's because Dokja is a part of Joonghyuk's story in the third round.

And speaking of the revisions, I kind of breezed past this in the tags of another post but Dokja got the Final Revision immediately after thinking to himself that he wants "an author" to tell him that he did good, that it's all going to work out in the end, that he's made the right choices. At the time I thought that perhaps Sooyoung could be the author of the revisions but now I don't think so anymore.

Going back through the text, the First Revision appeared when Dokja was dying in the Industrial Complex and he wanted to read TWSA to try to figure out if there was any sort of hope to fix things without having to ruin his story by killing innocent people. (And honestly he wasn't in any shape to kill people even if he wanted to at that point.) The Second Revision came after he abandoned Breaking the Sky Sword Saint to fight the outer god alone and felt like crap because of it (to be fair she shoved him through the portal while he was still trying to convince her to come) and he and Joonghyuk had a mini-conversation about what to do after and all Dokja could think of is to just keep struggling as best they can.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that all of the revisions have come when Dokja is at an extremely low point, floundering, trying to have someone tell him what to do, tell him that he's made the right choices, etc. Except not once has he actually said anything to anyone in the story around him. He didn't actually end up asking Sooyoung if he did the right thing; he wanted her to tell him it's going to be okay but he only thought it. Just like every other time the revisions have appeared. Almost like they came from someone else who can see what he's going through right then and knows he needs a little help...

Also, back when Sooyoung's version of the story first appeared, I was a little confused by the (First) after it, thinking that maybe Joonghyuk only had the first part of the story, but then later we see that Joonghyuk has 『Han Sooyoung – Records of the 1863rd turn (Last)』.

So now I don't think Sooyoung is writing the TWSA revisions, even if I do think she wrote the original TWSA, and I think that her story is also getting revised as she changes it because she is also a character in which "the ones to complete the story were the 'Characters', not the author" applies.

And speaking of the stories, I kind of went off on a sort of three, three, three tangent in the Sooyoung post, but I realize now that that can be taken even further. There's three unknown beings still left in ORV (Secretive Plotter, Oldest Dream, TWSA's Author), there's three protagonists in both TWSA and ORV, there's three people involved in a novel (Reader, Writer, Character), and there's three ways to the survive the apocalypse. Which, TWSA lists those ways as Regressor, Returnee, and Reincarnator.

But, technically, aren't we also seeing three ways to survive the apocalypse right now? Joonghyuk's way in TWSA, Han Sooyoung's way in her diary, and Dokja's way in ORV itself. Not to mention, now that I think about it, we have Regressor Joonghyuk, Returnee Dokja, and now Reincarnator Sooyoung...

Three separate stories, all sort of TWSA but not technically, more like they're all different versions of the same story. And the dokkaebi's have recently started talking about "which story will you choose" (talking to Bihyung btw, who's been helping Dokja all this time...) and everyone else in ORV keeps going on about a Single Story and how they're all vying for their true story and ending. And how maybe the true story/ending has finally come. Because this particular timeline is going through Dokja's story...which is ORV.

And too when I had the post about the "failed stories" I wondered if maybe it was foreshadowing for ORV ending in tragedy (and maybe that's still true) but also now that I think about the "failed stories" and how both Sooyoung's story and Joonghyuk's story could be considered the "failed stories" in a loose way. Granted, we don't currently know how those stories actually ended since ORV started off with Dokja waiting for the epilogue and the 1863rd ending was disrupted by Dokja, though Dokja has been pretty heavily implying that at least TWSA ended in tragedy up to the epilogue. And with the Single Story it's possible that all three of them will end up combined in the end of ORV itself.

Especially since we don't know what happened to 1864th Joonghyuk. It's possible we may see him again at the end of ORV. Also, I just realized that Joonghyuk stopped being a character when he moved past what was written in his personal story but, atm at least, he's also past ORV's story since we haven't seen him since and Dokja has no way of knowing what's going on with him.

On the topic of endings and epilogues, Dokja has been less and less willing to read TWSA as he starts living his own story and has finally outright said that he doesn't think his epilogue will be in the file. And, yeah, if Dokja's story is ORV then his epilogue would be ORV's epilogue. And ORV does have one. Even though I don't read the chapter titles ahead of time due to spoilers, I did notice when I looked to see how many total chapters ORV has that the last one had the word "epilogue" in the title.

And that's not even getting into Dokja casually stating that the novel is a lie. Which is very interesting.

And of course, there's the infamous moment where (while Dokja is sleeping I might add) the Fourth Wall starts telling the 1863rd Joonghyuk Dokya's story and it literally starts reciting the opening passages of ORV itself. And I'm pretty sure that when Sangah shoved him into it, he once again saw Dokja's story (ORV) just due to the fact that he zeroed in on not just Secretive Plotter, who doesn't appear in TWSA, but specifically all the things Secretive Plotter did in regards to and with Dokja.

In fact, as Dokja messes around with his Fourth Wall more and more, it becomes more and more sentient and present in Dokja's story (ORV) and he starts seeing things that perhaps he, as a character of ORV, was never meant to see, such as the fact that he's a character or that the Fourth Wall goes from simply blocking mental attacks to narrating Dokja's actions, reflecting his thoughts, etc. Just like ORV does for us readers.

I've actually briefly contemplated in the past that perhaps the Fourth Wall isn't necessarily protecting Dokja from the elements of TWSA, but in fact protecting him from the outside world (relevant part quoted below)—

Oh man, what if that's what it means by Fourth Wall? Instead of Dokja being a real person and the Fourth Wall existing because he knows he's not part of the novel, what if he's a character and the Fourth Wall is actually the barrier between him and the real world where the author lives? In which case, the being behind the Fourth Wall could be the author (or the reader!) of Dokja's story.

—and I then later began to wonder if it might be our world and not just some random third world inside the story of ORV, and I really do think that's the case now. Or it could be both! If I'm reading a comic about Batman who's reading a comic about Spider-Man, both I and Batman have a Fourth Wall between us and the fictional world we're reading about, ergo Batman has a Fourth Wall working both ways. (Ignore past Marvel/DC Comics team ups, pretty sure those aren't considered canon lol.)

And this is not only because of the fact that the Fourth Wall is acting more and more like a narrator (or like the third-person text of ORV) but that Dokja reacts so poorly to it going down. Sure, the first time the Fourth Wall went down a million constellations tried to attack him so that caused him issues, but later when he took down a little bit of it for the giants he was in a place with only his most trusted constellations who didn't seem to make any attempt to attack him and he only opened it up a teeny tiny amount and yet he still was physically wrecked. I don't think that he would be that affected by now by the elements of TWSA, especially since he literally learned he was a character and was freaked out for a moment but didn't have this big world-ending crisis...like he might if he attempted to connect to our world. Also, Dokja still hasn't gone back to the idea of using ORV on himself...

And on that topic, I know that I've kind of joked before that Dokja is the most oblivious person ever for someone who also happens to be able to read various characters' minds and see their actions, but honestly speaking there are tons of parts of ORV that are from other POVs that Dokja has never and likely will never see. I actually started tracking them about a hundred chapters back and we get a different POV, even if it's just a few paragraphs, almost every third or fourth chapter. And they're all from the third-person POV, just like how the Fourth Wall speaks.

Meaning that the true omniscient reader's viewpoint is ours.

PS: a very weak "clue" that I'm not really "officially" including is also the fact that The World After The Fall is mentioned as a book that Dokja has read and that's a real webnovel written by the same authors as ORV. I'm not really counting that since I do understand the concept of a cheeky little cameo but it could still be fun to at least acknowledge the possibility that it's something that secretly indicates that Dokja is maybe a little more connected with our world than any of the others.

PPS: I think if I find time this weekend I'm gonna go back through at tag everything or make a list of all my posts or something. Trying to find links for this majorly sucked and I just kind of gave up at points lmfao.

[sanaserena]

YAY, OPLA is still in the top 10 - top 4 most streamed last week - this week, in it's sixth week of airing! See ↓↓ from here: Twitter Link

In my personal opinion, that's looking good. It's also interesting to compare OPLA's streaming stats week by week compared to several other shows in the top 10 (but in saying that... I haven't had time to do a full comparison, just bits here and there, so I can't say anything for sure...still, it's very interesting to look at!! And considering, I usually don't have the time or effort to follow any other show in such detail... but One Piece has such a special place in my heart!)

I finally am back round with screenshots from Episode 6 - and my thoughts on the episode. I also really loved this episode, the cast has so many good moments, and I love how we see the crew bond and develop through one of the biggest trials of the Straw Hat pirates friendship.

Highlights of Ep 6:

Do you know how much I love these sets? Why sometimes I love live action? Because we get to see even more sides to the manga panels, to the anime scenes that probably weren’t important or thought about at the time. For example, I love that we get to see more of the inside of the Going Merry (we do see this in the manga, but there's something more intricate and detailed about the live action's adaptation)

The interactions between Koby and Garp. The more times I re-watch OPLA, the more I like these interactions. I like them because we get to see Koby develop and how Garp becomes his and Helmeppo's mentor (something we only see in cover stories in OP, before their big appearance at the end of a specific arc, where the Koby and Helmoppo have clearly grown up.)

The interaction between Garp and Mihawk. This is OP only, and we see a different kind of Warlord/Marine interaction past the East Blue Saga in the One Piece Manga. I liked that this was introduced in OPLA season 1, it does so many wonderful things like, give us more Mihawk time (those who know, know how rare he is in the manga, but beloved despite those rare appearances), show us more of how the Warlord system works/or does work, and of course hammers in other plot points for OPLA. (Also, Steven John Ward is such a magnificent Mihawk.)

The interaction between Sanji, Usopp, and Luffy. When Luffy speaks of Wado Ichimonji, and pronounces the name completely wrong in a very Luffy way, sometimes I ask myself, do I love this line in OPLA because I know it’s a very Luffy trait from the manga, or do I love it because Inaki delivers this line so well?

This episode gives us more wonderful expressions from the cast. Taz is such a fantastic Sanji and Jacob is pretty good as Usopp. They're both great in this episode. I've heard some people complain that Usopp and Sanji were done a bit dirty in season 1, but truthfully, I have high hopes that the showrunners will give them more space for development in season 2 now that they've been introduced. If you squash everything into season 1, that only leaves less space for character development on screen later on. So I'm looking forward to seeing OPLA develop some of our favourite OP characters in their way, but faithful to Oda's vision.

I love how they did Sanji's backstory. They did not skimp on the truth behind Zeff's leg, which the anime does, and the manga is a little more brutal on.

You know, sometimes I had my doubts, before OPLA was released, on whether Craig Fairbrass would make a good Zeff. There were so many white actors and I like hmmm. But, damn it all, he’s perfect. He brings Zeff alive with so much zest and flavour. Both in present and the past flashbacks. It was wonderful. (Also, it does make me laugh every time I see his braided mustache jumping when he speaks, love it.)

Christian Convery is also fantastic as young Sanji. He acts wonderfully. He's like a little angelic cherub, and thus for the extended starvation period, he was a little too fleshy, however, this is a child (and we can't ask him to starve just for acting at his age, and for something like this in a tv series, I'd much rather the vfx went to the bigger elements, like Buggy's devil fruit powers, Luffy's devil fruit powers, the Sea King, etc.), and his acting still managed to convince me that he had been starving for days.

And as usual, I can't fit all the screenshots here ... see Part 2: Here, and Part 3: Here.

[yoodokjas]

I saw someone talking about how with the scenes added in the ebook and with the scenes in the ongoing side story, with emphasis on that one scene where LHH talks about the heroine of ORV, DokSoo might become canon. And while they did mention that they read the side story, I thought that that particular scene pretty much sunk many ships?

oh boy ngl i was a bit reluctant answering this ask but imo this is just fans' wishful thinking rather than singshong walking through a doksoo route.

the doksoo scenes added to the ebook arent really so fundamental to the point that theyre the closest ship to become canon. in fact I'd say that the main reason to make them canon would be that it's a (well-developed) straight ship tbh. in the 1863rd turn, theres an added smoking-on-the-roof scene. kdj tries smoking and immediately has a coughing fit. hsy asks him if she did well in this round. this added scene is a direct parallel to kdj telling her that she did well during the enemy of the story arc

another scene is during kaizenix. yjh and kdj decide to try the romance route and bcs yuri was in love with ricardo, it's kdj who writes the letter "write a story that's for me and me alone" this is also a foreshadowing to what we learn in the epilogue lol. to expand more on kaizenix, we also have yjh telling kdj that his writing skills are terrible despite him reading so much, kdj tells him that with his face he certainly didnt have any problems with courting. yjh then goes on a thinking tangent about how he could not care less about the looks of someone he likes (and we know who is called ugly throughout the book)

as for the lhh part where he talks about orv's heroine (kdj's love interest in this context) he is 100% not referring to han sooyoung. he says that the character he had in mind didnt have as much screentime as the other leads. the main women in orv when it comes to screentime are hsy jhw uriel and ysa. going by lhh's logic and IF his words represent singshong's stance, then hsy is immediately ruled out. i also wouldn't consider jhw for the role either, not only bcs i didnt really see their scenes with a romantic undertone but also why would singshong write kdj's romantic interest love someone else (lhs) romantically?

with uriel, unless you consider kdj/uriel to be a direct parallel to 999yjh/999uriel then i dont think shes The candidate either. now for ysa, im a bit iffy when it comes to her bcs sure she doesnt have as much as screentime as lets say yoohankim but shes also not someone you would consider neglected (like lsh for example) also i genuinely think that romance would undermine doksang's bonds. i think theyre so good BECAUSE theyre platonic

singshong have told us in multiple ways that orv is not a story about a canon romance so you can interpret the ending however you want just dont mis-label the novel's genre (this includes both het and gay romance). plus i just dont think they would shoot themselves on the foot and risk "angering" the largest active part of the fandom (general statement). i dont want to sound arrogant but you cant deny that joongdok shippers are the backbone of orv fandom and joongdok artists have been the only ones to be recruited to promote orv. alter (the official artist before blackbox) is a danmei artist, blackbox is a joongdok shipper, haban (taiwanese release cover artist) has a danmei history, the artist of the simplified cn version release has jd porn on their twitter and so on. certainly singshong are aware that orv didn't get this big bcs some guy recommended it in solo leveling's comment sections

speaking of guys, not every dudebro out there ships doksoo anw, some like doksang, some dont ship anything. the same can be said about the female audience too. not everyone ships joongdok. some ship doksoo, some yoohankim, some nothing thats not canon. im not part of the latest group since i could not care less about a ship's canon status lol

this got WAY too long. if you want a TL;DR refer to the first paragraph

[onepiece-polls]

One Piece Shipping War - Round 4 Quarter Finals

Propaganda under the cut.

Propaganda for Franky x Robin:

Do I really need to explain?

The old married couple who's healthy, Enies Lobby (and all their appearances) are their propaganda really.

It’s all about the maturity!

Their dynamic is perfect and their pasts are so similar. I love the chemistry between them as well as their introduction that helped build the connection and shared history they already have.

they are THE t4t bi4bi ship | franky telling robin "existing is not a crime" immediately puts this at number one for me | they are opposites (bright and loud + quiet and goth) but also they're both so eccentric and silly <3 | THEY WEAR MATCHING OUTFITS

Mom and dad Straw Hat

They are STILL the Mom and the Dad of the Straw Hats, this is the one thing I don't care what Oda says <3 Also their interactions in Enies Lobby and Thriller Bark are amazing.

In my eyes, they are married. Some of my favorite character interactions in the manga/anime and in official art.

Oda had Franky call Robin his wife at least once

Your honor they’re married

I'M GOING TO PUT LINKS IN MY EXAMPLES (Mod note: I linked to the whole post, the propaganda was going to get too long otherwise. But I will copy this line:...) They immediatly clicked in Enies Lobby, Franky saved Robin with both words and actions ("Your existence is not a sin!"), and then she grabbed his balls.

The duality of two kids who were just trying to chase their dream and having circumstances outside their control (the government) take everything they love away from them, but one choosing solitude and the other adopting every other person in a bad circumstance??? I love them. Plus they literally had couple moments from the first interaction.

The ultimate t4t couple idk what else you need theyre iconic

A wholesome ship of a woman who feels the need to be constantly on edge trying to relax and a man who is a 110% himself from the moment we see him. the joy of frobin is the causal domesticity, in many color spreads and especially post timeskip we can see them casually enjoying the others company.

Remember when Franky was in Chopper's body in Punk Hazard and every time he spoke Robin was like "Franky. Stop talking. Do not talk while you're in Chopper's body."

idk like. he's obsessed with her. she's his weird Goth gf and he's her himbo. they have matching outfits. I love them.

Look. It's Franky and Robin. Literally the only two characters that make sense to ship on the Sunny. Their arcs are inextricably intertwined (water7/enies lobby). Also LOOK AT THEM interacting, both during their arcs, but also thriller bark, or post time skip. I love them. Also robin crushed frankys balls.

funny big robot man & analytical smart research lady power couple... silly x smart... himbo x researcher... augh... so good

They are the ship for taxpaying adults your honor I LOVE them they’re literally freak4freak and they share such a fucking powerful arc together (Water 7).

that moment she let him sleep on her lap in punk hazard was sooo cute <3 -- The matching thigh highs and bottoms in film z can NOT be understated. -- Strawhat mom and dad -- Let's not forget the way robin convinced franky to join ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) -- she also indirectly called his balls "treasure" so,,, -- the way their stories are so closely intertwined...they were both keys to destroy the world...the way they instantly connected over that...the soulmate-ism of it all...

they . them. girlboss and malewife. that's it.

She grabbed his balls. He totally liked it.

He's so silly and she loves it. She's so scary and he loves it. She grabbed his balls in public.

They will be endgame trust me. Franky doesn't treat any other girl like he treats Robin. There dynamic in Water 7 and Thriller Bark was and always will be one of the best in all of OP.

Propaganda for Usopp x Kaya:

When we first meet them and see them interact they just act so sweet. There's also a chapter in one of the novels where a guy interested in Kaya asks the old Usopp pirates "what kind of guy does she like?" And all 3 reply "Captain Usopp." Which I think is very cute!

He wanted her to laugh! Help her when she lost her parents because he knew exactly what it felt like! He helped her get better! And she was so heartbroken when it seemed like he was lying to her about Klahadore! Then she was more heartbroken when it turned out he'd told her the truth!

They will also be endgame trust me.

The ship that I would put money on becoming canon at the end of the series. It's very romantic how Usopp would come to see her every day, and how they are both still thinking of each other after so much time apart.

[highfantasy-soul]

NATLA - Episode 3: Omashu (1/3)

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

An explanation of what I'm doing here and my history with ATLA.

Of course, full spoilers ahead.

<previous/next>

Here is where we start to see the trajectory the writers decided to go in for this series. In the animated, the Gaang pretty much always stays together - they all face the same plot in each episode. This gives them a lot of space to create their bond and each get to interact in depth with the same problems - and we see how each character handles it differently though there is usually one primary character the focus is on. When compressing the story into 8 episodes, doing that would mean about 2 and a half episodes need to be crammed into a single episode and happen back-to-back. That would make the structure feel very stilted and uneven as we hop from issue to issue (and setting to setting) without any real connective tissue - it would feel a bit more like a travel show than a cohesive narrative. By finding several plotlines that share common themes but focus on individual characters that came to the forefront of each plotline, the story can be condensed and cohesive for the hour long episodes. Here is also where we start our two-episode arc structure which gives more space to breathe and include smaller plotlines into the story to enhance the themes being focused on.

These two episodes are focused on how people who have suffered in this war handle their trauma - and how they fight back against oppression. I love love love how they include a new plotline that enhances the themes they're going for in this episode, too, with the small rebellion in the Fire Nation. In the animated series, by virtue of it being a kid's show, they make it pretty cut and dry the first two seasons: anyone wearing red is an enemy and bad. Here, we see a more realistic view of how the people of the Fire Nation actually view the war and their role in it - well, how some view it. In every authoritarian, imperialistic empire, there are citizens who disagree with their government - ESPECIALLY if their people have been at war for 100 years! America is an imperialist empire and there are plenty of citizens who vehemently disagree with the government. There were Germans who disagreed and fought back against the Third Reich. There have been people throughout history standing up against their own oppressive governments. It's great to see that echoed here, too - and then we see Ozai's view of his rule.

First, Azula's cunning and cold-heartedness is shown as she's the infiltrator spinning a sob story about lost family that's designed to lure the revolutionaries to their deaths. While it's sinister and shows just how cut-throat she's willing to be, there's also the obvious evidence that she's A CHILD. In the animated version, Azula is drawn like a 30 year old woman with a full chest, hips, and slender face with sharp cheekbones - in short, she's massively villain coded, not child coded (not to mention she's voiced by an adult). Casting an actual young actress shows the viewer that this really is a child. Her round face implies purity and innocence - a sharp contrast to her father's striking cheekbones and jawline. While the revolutionaries had their spirit, they were misguided in their methods - there was no way they'd have succeeded in killing Ozai, there's just no way.

When Osric Chau (who I could swear they put in that scene to distract the audience from noticing that the 'spy' was the actress cast for Azula - keep your eyes on this guy as you say 'wait, is that Osric Chau? No way, can't be - no, that's totally him! I know him! Where all do I know him from?' while Azula's actress just quietly sneaks around in the side-frame) gives his whole speech about ending Ozai's tyranny, we see the justifications authoritarian rulers so often make - while in the animated show, Ozai's justification is 'we're the best and everyone should bow to us - it's natural', here he's a bit more nuanced - at least he claims he is. "Tyranny? Don't you mean 'unity'? Prosperity?" Atrocities can be justified when you claim 'law and order'. He keeps his cool, his commanding presence until Osric mentions how much people have lost - we see his lip twitch and he insinuates he, too, has experienced loss, then his cool composure returns. Finally, Osric speaks on the massive pressure point of the Fire Nation - the one person that's bringing hope to people and sparking up that flame of resistance - that flame even Ozai won't be able to control - the Avatar. That's when Ozai loses his cool and burns them all alive. Even in the Fire Nation, news of the Avatar inspires people to stand up and fight back.

I think it's a great move to show more of Azula and Ozai in this season - we get to see Azula's actual character when she's figuring things out rather than just her on a mission. She's dismissive of the Avatar - she thinks there's no way they're right, no way the Avatar has returned. That's when Ozai informs her that yes, it is verified that he's back and that it was Zuko who'd found him - he'd done the impossible, just like Ozai asked. Starting from the jump showing how he pits his children against each other to see which will rise to the top.

The animated episodes that they combine here are really interesting in that they actually show up much later in the animated show, however, when you look at the character development aspects of those plot lines, it makes sense to put it here at the beginning. The Waterbending Scroll, Jet, The Northern Air Temple, and The Great Divide (yes, even that one) all create a nice foundation for core character elements - especially for Katara and Sokka - while the Omashu episode is big for Aang's foundational development. I like how the characters in the live-action grow more organically from a weaker starting position than they do in the animated version.

Katara doesn't start out as a naturally inspiring leader like she shows in episode 6 of the animated show in the Imprisoned storyline - she needs to see different kinds of leadership in order to formulate her own. Yes, she stands her ground and thinks her way is right, but to translate that to inspiring a whole group of people? That takes experience and practice - experience she gets to see first-hand with Jet and Bumi (sometimes learning what NOT to do is just as important as learning what TO do).

Sokka is insecure with his role as a leader as he's so convinced that the only thing he has to offer is being a martial warrior - he needs to learn from experience that his ingenuity can be just as useful to the team as his muscle. While in the animated show, Sokka starts out knowing this - always coming up with clever plans to get the job done, in the live-action, he needs to grow into it and learn that that side of him is good too, and can help his friends. This episode, like The Northern Air Temple from the animated series, gives Sokka that foundation to build off of.

All these animated episodes also help the characters learn how to work together and resolve issues with how to go about saving the world - and show just how dangerous trusting the wrong person can be. All the animated episodes this live action episode (plus the next one) combines circle back to Katara and Sokka's bickering and lessons on how to resolve their differing view points. Getting this lesson in early is a great way to solidify the foundation for the team and make them - well, a team. All this is just taken for granted in the animated show - they're traveling together, therefore they're a team and because of its episodic nature, the same issues can crop up again and again and not feel like they're being rehashed as most probably didn't watch all the episodes back to back and in order the first time they saw it.

So there are tons and tons of reasons I think it was a really smart move to combine the storylines they did in this episode and put them all in the beginning of the season and setting them in Omashu.

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

Fandom song animatic tournament: Bracket 2 Side B Round 2

Two Birds - Regina Spektor

"Two birds on a wire One tries to fly away And the other Watches him close from that wire He says he wants to as well But he is a liar"

Love Like You - Steven Universe

"I always thought I might be bad Now I'm sure that it's true 'Cause I think you're so good And I'm nothing like you Look at you go I just adore you I wish that I knew What makes you think I'm so special"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)

Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

Two Birds - Regina Spektor

Propaganda:

This song was EVERYWHERE. If you were on fandom youtube in like 2016-2017 it was inescapable. This song had you by the jugular. Because of the imagery it uses you can sort of project the 'two birds' dynamic onto any duo of characters that have a tragic conflict/separation arc and it will work well, so this song in particular has got to have an animatic for like all the fandoms under the sun. You're laughing. one tried to fly away and the other watches him close from that wire he says that he will but hes just a liar and YOURE LAUGHING!!!

Wlell um um there are these two birds right. On a wire. And one tries to fly away qnd the otther

It is THEE fandom universal fit. Metaphorical enough that it will fit any setting. Swinging from mellow to dramatic enough that it fits any story's tone. It boils down to an essence of conflicted love/loyalty that You Know Fandom Loves To Have Brainworms About. Pick any fandom and I GARE-RON-TEE there will be a relationship it fits if not animatics already made.

it makes me cry every single time

Animatics with the song:

Genshin Impact

The Owl House

Encanto

Over the Garden Wall

OMORI

Love Like You - Steven Universe

Propaganda:

love like you is the foundation animatics were built on tbh steven universe is like the father of like every lgbt artist it’s too classic not to win. it’s also genuinely a good song the simplicity of only piano, voice, and drums does it so well and it really wrenches your heart out your goddamn chest and bites into it like an onion

Animatics with the song:

Genshin Impact

Good Omens

Heaven Official's Blessing Hualian

DSMP

Adventure Time

Please be cautious and read the title, description and warning cards on the animatic videos if you decide to watch them. If you've got specific triggers I'd recommend even more caution when watching animatics of fandoms you don't know, since sometimes canon-typical themes don't get warnings.

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

(from my main but this is variousqueerthings): am really enjoying reading your analyses of amy -- I definitely felt more resonance with her on this last Big watch I did, when I could disconnect the way she would at times be underserved by the writing, from what was actually going on in her story, and it's fun going from there to reading deeper analysis that picks on those threads even further

I don't know if this refers to only my straight analyses I've posted on this blog, the rambling rants I've done in the tags of other people's posts, or my fics (someone once called a fic of mine an "eloquent rant" and sometimes I feel like that's a great way to describe the more "character-study"-esque of my fics), but either way thanks! I actually had my own reevaluation of Amy Pond as a character when I got back into Doctor Who this year thanks to various other blogs/others analyses (shout out to @saint-eleventh, @thefiresofpompeii, @spoofymcgee, @ameliapondmd, and plenty of others, including you, @variousqueerthings, with your rewatch series). The first time around, when I watching Doctor Who as a freshman in high school, I couldn't pick apart the Moffatisms from the foundation of a very compelling character full of fascinating contradictions and unabiding faith and a desperate loneliness that connects so well with Eleven's. (I also, full admission, hadn't gotten the shift between how companions were written in Davies' era v. Moffat's, with the companion's arc being as integral to the story during 9 and 10 v. during 11's- though I am also now realizing the mistakes that Davies made, especially with his handling of Martha and other black characters.) Now, though, I can ride with the fairytale vibes of Season Five, which has steadily risen through my season rankings, and can also appreciate the push-and-pull of Amy Pond.

I hate love triangles but looking at Rory and the Doctor now as embodying the themes of domesticity/growing up/stagnation v. travelling/danger/curiosity and the way that the narrative constantly tries to shove Amy into the former (literally making her a wife, a womb, a mother, a vessel, stripping away her agency at every turn) makes it all the clearer how Amy, whenever given the chance, turns to the TARDIS. She doesn't want Rory to die in Amy's Choice but chooses him by choosing the TARDIS and life with the Doctor. Her biggest act of agency in the show is demanding the Doctor show up at her wedding, literally yanking him into existence and demanding that he prove to the world that her faith in him was never mad, was always the most sane thing in the world. Even at the end of the God Complex, when she should hate him more than anything, she still believes in him (and frankly, he believes in her. Eleven and Amy are each other's gods as much as they are each other's best friends).

I think that Eleven and Amy are made for each other in the same way that Nine/Rose, Ten/Martha, and Twelve/Clara are made for each other, to believe in each other, to change each other, to make each other's stories full. I love Donna&Ten, Clara&Eleven, and Bill&Twelve as much as anyone else does (I seriously adore all of these dynamics), but you can't tell the Doctors' stories and arcs without the first set of pairings I mentioned. And realizing that about Amy and Eleven and the effect they had on each other (the fact that after eight hundred years without her, she is still the last face he sees before he regenerates, the fact that she can literally remember him from nonexistence) really made me realize the potential and impact of her run as a companion/their dynamic this go 'round. I think that's the great thing about a show that runs for this long and with so many doctor&companion pairings- you are constantly going to bump up against these relationships that transcend friendship and romance and go into world-shattering, character-arc-altering, often-verging-on-codependent dynamics that impact both sides for the rest of their lives.

[williamrikers]

i have one major problem with cooking crush, and i'm going to call it the star trek: strange new worlds problem. the thing is, i cannot watch st:snw because it's close to the original series in tone but not as good as the original series in terms of storytelling. so what happens is, i inevitably turn off snw and put on tos instead. because the original is simply better.

the same thing is happening with cooking crush and a boss and a babe. cc uses a lot of the same ingredients (ha) as abaab, but this food is just worse. i'm so sorry. there are logic errors, there are continuity errors, there are editing errors, the storyline has glaring weaknesses, some of the location choices make absolutely no sense. (i suspect the team was unable to book some of their old locations for their many obvious reshoots. also why did they have to do so many reshoots?)

abaab's story is just better told. the relationship development between gun and cher is written with much more nuance and detail than that between ten and prem. some scenes in cooking crush seem to make the characters regress, almost? this is played for comedy at times ("i think we're way past that, doc"), but other times it seems to be accidental? what cc is missing, what abaab had, is a big internal character journey. on abaab, almost the entire middle of the story was cher dealing with his trauma, opening up about his past to gun and having to confront his own insecurities and fears.

and cooking crush certainly set that up with ten, we got the family issues beautifully set up, the touch aversion, the pressure he puts on himself due to his mother's death. and then... they just don't do anything with any of that? i was expecting that at around episode 7, we'd be in full-on past trauma mode, ten really having to fight for his love against his own demons. but no. nothing of the sort is happening.

the cardinal sin is: this is boring.

cooking crush makes boring choices. ten, instead of having to talk to prem about his touch aversion and them maybe having to figure out their way around that, just says "it's okay, you can touch me now." (and god i would have LOVED a bl character who isn't okay with being touched and a story about that, are you kidding me? I WANT THAT!!!) prem, for some reason, is often the one who pulls away, even though this problem was set up for ten to overcome? specifically?!

ten, instead of having to confront his father and his family history, is sent away to do his internship. once again, going the boring route. prem, instead of having to actually deal with ten's father not trusting him, is told "just date him secretly". look, i love his grandma for that, but that is not an interesting narrative choice! that's not really an obstacle to overcome! where is the tension!

i'm not saying abaab was perfect. there were some questions left open about the gaming company that were never addressed in the end. however, the journey of cher and gun and their love story is one of the most well-written relationship arcs i have ever seen and it is a delight on every rewatch. these are two characters who are well-rounded and fully realized, who make sense together, who tangibly have an impact on each other.

what exactly are ten and prem giving each other that no one else can give them? this is always at the core of love stories, and in this case, they haven't really given me an answer to that yet. i can theorize that maybe prem makes ten feel safer? in a way he doesn't feel safe around his family? maybe? but that's purely a headcanon and has not been addressed by the show.

i can tell you exactly why cher and gun are together. i can tell you all about how cher is the only person who consistently makes gun smile, how cher is the only one who treats gun like an equal right out of the gate, who has fun with him and is, in gun's words, "his happiness". i can tell you all about how cher has been longing for someone to stand by him unwaveringly, for someone to support him, to really see him, to listen to him, to be his steadfast rock. and how gun is exactly that for him. watching abaab, you know exactly why these two are right for each other, how they make each other's lives brighter and better, how they make each other happy.

if cc doesn't want to tell me a good story (i'm sorry, but i do not care about the cooking competition), at least tell me a good love story, the way abaab did. but that doesn't seem to be happening, either.

anyway, i would rather be watching the original, the show that got all of these things right, and that is a boss and a babe.