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wjforever · 2 years

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Shatter me again. Chapter 59

I've been stalling for too long, finding excuses, evading his demands. He has force me into situation where I have no options. I either let the baby die. Or try to save him. He has tired of waiting. He's tired of me. Or maybe he's just taking revenge on me for trying to kiss kill him yesterday. But in the end, an innocent child will suffer for it.

I need to take a chance. Right now. Because If I wait too long, the life of another poor baby will be on my conscience. So I quickly look around, trying to think of a safe route and hurry forward.

When I get close to the child, I stop and allow myself one deep, shaky breath. Warner thought it all out. I have almost no clothes on, so it will be difficult for me not to touch the baby with my bare skin. But I'm going to take off my top to use it. Now I absolutely don't care who sees me like this. All that matters is the life of a little human. The only thing I pray for is that this tiny piece of fabric will be enough to protect the child from me.

But as soon as my hands reach for the bottom of the tank top, the ground begins to vibrate a little. I've already learned what that means. I only have half of a second to react before the spikes slice up through the air.

I abruptly bend over and yank him up into my hands.

His screams pierce the entire space of the room, pierce through me like like hundreds of bullet wounds. One bullet for every second. I'm trying to save him, but instead I'm hurting him. And he's so small, there is not as much strength in his body as in the bodies of soldiers that I had to touch before. The baby scratches my arms, my chest, kicks me, screams in agony. I feel neither elation nor desire to hold him tighter. I seem to be able to control it. Maybe I learned something in the practices. But my touch still brings suffering.

The pain paralyzes the small body, he goes weak in my grip. And I'm being ripped to pieces with memories of what I did. Eternal torment and suffering, with which I will pay all my life for the horrors I'm responsible for.

Tears are flowing from my eyes as the child's life force is pouring into my own veins. But I don't feel the usual strength and pleasure. And now all that remains for me is excruciating pain, as if I feel the same as my victims. It's like the wages of my sins. It's like reliving a nightmare I've been trying to put up with for three years in a row. And I almost drop the baby from my arms.

"Absolutely amazing!" Warner exclaims. "You're just gorgeous, love. I'm totally impressed. Go ahead, don't think about this test object. I can always find a replacement for it if need be."

I don't listen to what Warner tells me. I'm not interested in the ravings of this sick psychopath. But his voice pulls me out of my stupor. Despair is replaced by the realization of the need to act somehow.

I need to lessen the amount of my skin that touches this boy. And once again I curse this skimpy outfit. I won't be able to act according to the previous plan. Taking off my clothes while holding the child in my arms won't work in any way. But the baby is wearing a diaper. I'm trying to contrive and grab him by the diaper. With much effort I manage to hold him up with the palm of my hand, and I'm desperate to believe I couldn't have touched him long enough to cause serious damage.

He needs help, he needs a doctor. But I know it's useless to beg Warner for it. He has already outlined his position very clear, and he won't allow this horror to end sooner than he wants it to. We're on our own in this torture chamber.

A few moments pass and hope slowly begins to slip away from me. I'm already waiting for Warner's enthusiastic voice to be heard again, praising me for the murder he was expected for from me. But he's waiting for something.

And then the baby makes a few sounds. I understand that his body is coming back to life.

I want to cry with happiness.

But then I want to scream in horror. Along with life, the desire to get away from me and my hands returns to him. My tired wrist nearly breaking from the effort, I almost lose my grip. Maybe I could take off his blindfold and us it as a barrier between me and him. But I would rather die than let him see this hellish place, the face of his torturer. My own face.

I clench my jaw so fast I’m afraid I’m going to break my teeth. If I put him down, he’ll start running. And if he starts running, he’s finished. I have to keep holding on.

The roar of the old mechanical wheeze cuts through the room again, reviving my heart. The spikes are like poisonous snakes returning to their burrows one by one. And the room is safe and harmless again, as if nothing terrible has ever happened here.

I no longer have the strength to hold the small body in my arms, and I drop the boy back onto the floor and bite down on my lip to swallow the pain welling in my wrist.

I have to fight back tears and I tilt my head up to calm myself down a little. Just for a couple of moments I let the child go out of my focus. I'm sure it's all over now.

He's still wearing a blindfold. I can hear him running around me. I'm definitely not the person who will be able to calm his panic right now. I just have to wait for the door to open, for Warner to come in with his fake congratulations and admiration. But instead of relief, another horror creeps up on me.

The kid accidentally bumps my bare legs.

I don't have time to move away from him. He screams, shudders and falls to the floor, curled up into himself and sobbing. I want so much to reach out to him, help him, hug him and kiss his cheeks. I would like to save him, take him with Adam and me when we escape from this hell. I would like to play with him, and comfort him, and read to him. But I'm a terrible monster who would be better off destroying itself, saving the world from the terrible danger. I will never be able to have something good in my life. I can't. I know I never will. I know it will never be possible.

Nobody comes. No one is dragging us out of this torture chamber. And my hatred shifts from myself to the person who is responsible for everything that just happened. If he had just left me alone, none of this would have happened.

Rage overcomes my entire consciousness. I've never experienced anything like this in my life. The intensity of my anger is so powerful that I almost elevate off the ground. I'm boiling with blind hatred and disgust. I allowed myself to become softer around him, I tried to believe that there was something good in his actions, that he was misunderstood. I thought that maybe if I gave him a chance that I myself had never been given, he would be able to show something different in himself that no one sees in him. But I was so cruelly mistaken. There is nothing good, bright, kind about this person. He's a monster.

I'm not a person anymore, I'm one continuous impulse of one single desire. I want to get to him. I want to feel Warner's neck in my hands, I want to squeeze it so hard that it snaps between my own two hands. I want him to suffer the same way as all those people he hurt. I want him to experience the same terror he just inflicted upon a child. I have no more mercy or compassion for this soulless beast.

I don't understand how my feet move in the next instant. I don't understand my hands and what they're doing or how they decided to fly forward, fingers splayed, charging toward the window. I don't remember what I do and how I do it. All I know, all I want to do is watch Warner beg me for mercy. I want to watch him die.

I make a dash forward and pass through the concrete wall.

I crush the glass with ten fingers.

I'm clutching a fistful of gravel and a fistful of fabric at Warner's neck. Everything happens too fast, too abruptly and Warner loses his balance under my pressure. We both fall to the floor, covered with dust and chunks of concrete. I saddle him up, look into his dilated eyes.

It's difficult for me to explain how my fantasy turned out to be a reality, how Warner ended up in my hands. I don't care much about that.

I hear the clicks of the automatic rifles being ready to fire, aiming at my head. The air is heavy with cement and sulfur, the glass falling in an agonized symphony of shattered hearts. They can shoot me if they want to. But I won't stop until I do what I started it all for.

I slam Warner into the corroded stone.

"Hold your fire!" Warner wheezes to his soldiers.

I want to touch his skin. Isn't that what he's been dreaming about for so long? It could be his dying wish. The last desire of the sick psychopath. I have a strange suspicion that I could do more. I could smash his rib cage into his heart if I just pressed a little harder.

"Don't try. I'm going to kill you anyway." My voice is a dangerous whisper. I lean closer to his face. "Because you deserve it." He doesn't answer, looking at me stunned. A coward. A wuss. A pathetic parody of a personality. "Don't you believe me?"

Now he is prey in the hands of a predator. And I almost wonder what he feels in a new role for himself. Will he plead me for mercy?

"I do…" He tries to swallow, breathing hard. "You just… you just broke through concrete with your bare hands."

He's lying to me. He's lying to me again to distract my attention. I blink. But I don't dare look behind me. And I press my hands harder into his body.

Warner grunts softly and I can hear the soldiers moving around, seeming to be preparing to fire at the first order.

"If any of you hurt her, I'll shoot you myself," Warner barks.

"But sir, she's going to…" One weak voice sneaks in.

"Shut up and follow the order!" Warner says through clenched teeth.

The rage is slowly starting to leave me. I understand that he can't lie to me. There was no other way I could get to him. I must have done what he told me I had done. I had to. My mind is a maze of impossibility. Confusion. My consciousness has already surrendered to disbelief. I don't know what happened. I don't understand it and I don't want to comprehend it. But it seems obvious that I don't know what I'm capable of at all. I never even thought I could destroy anything at all. And now I'm scared. I'm suddenly so afraid, so terrified, so scared of my own hands.

I lean back, still sitting on top of him, trying to get up even though my limbs don't obey me well. I stumble backward, stunned. My eyes are darting back to Warner. He follows my example and also gets up, straightens up, and I see how greedily, with hunger, he looks at me. His emerald eyes bright with boyish fascination. He's practically trembling in excitement.

I think I gave him exactly what he wanted. Not death of that boy. No. Power. There's a snake in my throat and I can't swallow it.

"If you ever do something like that again, I will kill you with my bare hands. And I will enjoy every moment of it."

I no longer feel that uncontrollable anger, but still, I'm not sure if I'm lying to him.

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#shatter me again #aaron warner #juliette ferrars #shatter me #shatter me series #warnette #ella sommers #ao3 fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction

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weaselbeaselpants · 4 years

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Hazbin Hotel Review part 2: Mistakes were made please don’t kill me

This pilot is polarizing at the moment. In between the two sides of the anti-fanbase (ppl crying “if you like HH you’re homophobic”, or the BWW with it’s cringey politics), you have lots of fans who are falling over themselves about how good this is. If you love Hazbin unconditionally that’s fine, but here’s the thing:

I like it too.

I’m the kind of person who’s naturally critical, pokes harmless fun at what I like, and is always rewriting and reimagining things within the fandoms I like. I want to be a ‘Hazbin’ fan but I don’t know if I’m allowed to since the fanbase can be so staunchly overprotective and Viv herself has said she doesn’t like criticism, no matter how valid or done in good faith.

Tbh, that’s why the drama revolving around @frootrollup1 upsets me: the fandom is fine with lumping all criticism or redesign stuff in the realm of ignorant hate, when redesign, rewrites, revamps and other fan dribble are kind of a labor of love onto itself in other fandoms. Guess that’s a talk for later though.

With all this in mind, let me go over my thoughts:

There’s no PROPER establishment of Hell as a place, setting, world, or proper establishment of the characters.

The armor-piercing question Hazbin needs to be asked is this:

“is this a generic version of Hell we should all be familiar with and need no introduction to, OR is this a unique take that requires it’s own rules?”

^ It feels like the latter but we don’t get a good rundown of said rules. Besides that, characters are one note and serve either no purpose or become flies on the wall to other characters’ purpose.

Things were said and places were shown but we honestly don’t get a good idea of Hell by the end of the pilot. It’s a ritzy(?) place where souls of the damned literally become demons and then get purged. I THINK. I THINK, that’s what the writer’s were going for here. TBH, it feels like they’re skipping ahead and thinking of the show as a finished, fully realized product with developed characters and plots already, and not an introduction to a series/standalone piece.

If I didn’t have some inkling or the lore prior to watching it, I wouldn’t have known that the demons sans-Charlie were once human. Angel says in passing in the car that he’s already dead, but really references to the fact that they were once human are rare.

Now I’m a simple woman - I ain’t picky with mah demonology - But, call me crazy, when I think Hell I don’t think of the people who end up there turning into demons, I think of people going there to be tortured. That’s the hell I’m used to seeing and is prevelant in like every religion that has a hell. Taking a spin on that and making demons the souls of sinners trapped in hell? A-okay, but I NEED MORE. Instead of talking in a car or spending time on this lolsofuny demon turf war, we really needed more time given to the fact that Vaggie, Angel, and others were once human. No, I don’t want a full flashback, but it would give us a better grasp of the mechanics of sin in this world if these two characters told a little bit more themselves than just having some lines offhandedly explaining how everything works.

EX- How to do revamp of a familiar setting right while still leaving certain details vague? One Word: Hadestown.

Hadestown doesn’t need to give you all the details of it’s setting cause that’s not the point. You don’t need to know if the workers of Hadestown are literally dead, metaphorically dead, or both or where other gods live. Those aren’t the things we need to know for the musical to progress. What we need to know is Hades’ underworld is a mining colony of doom, that Hades buys peoples souls so the workers can never leave, that Persephone and Hades are on the rocks which is messing up the seasons, and that oop! Eurydice had to go back. Between the commonplace to complex knowledge westerners have of Greek mythology and the revamped Prohibition-era setting, all is explained that we the audience need explained.

I have the feeling Hazbin Hotel wanted the same thing: explain what needs to be explained for the currant plot and leave bits and pieces in the dark. It just didn’t really work.

The flow of the narrative was bad.

So apparently on the PizzaPartyPodcast Vivziepop admitted there were things that were moved around or turned out rushed.

Fair enough but even with that excuse can someone please tell me why they thought it was a good idea to start the story after Angel has already been made a patron of the hotel?

Getting to know not only how the world works first and foremost, but who our main character (Charlie) is and what she is doing (the hotel), would be the easiest way to drop us into the action of the story and get the ball rolling. But instead we start off with an intro song that sort of shows us what this world is like but doesn’t explain anything about who or what we’re seeing until the newscasters come in. Angel’s introduced in this time and the build up and execution of this character is poor, rushed, and feels more like writers fudging around with a character they like than giving us, the audience, a proper introduction*.

After that, I’m sorry to say the spots where the story picks up, drifts off, lulls about, or comes around all kind of melt into this big slurry the characters are drowning in, without any real care for telling a story. BUT THIS IS A STORY!!!

This is not a little menagerie of random characters ala the Pastoral Symphony from Fantasia. This is not a collection of little things just for the fun of it to get to to know these people (it does a bad job at getting you to know these guys). This is a three act structure. I can tell where the intro, rising action, climax, and falling action are SUPPOSED to be, but they don’t stand out, don’t do their job, and melt into the fluff in a way that makes the emotional impact we’re supposed to feel null somehow...

The pacing was bad.

While some scenes go by far too quickly others go on for faaaaaaar too long. These are the bits that don’t surprise me when I hear this pilot was changed around, cut down, or fudged with a bit.

Scenes like this include Charlie’s back and forth with Katie Killjoy before and after her song, Charlie and Vaggie’s fight in the car, Alastor explaining himself to Charlie and Vaggie trying to talk him out of it, ALL of the Ser Pentious/Cherry Bomb terf fight bits.

Oddly, it feels like these parts are trying REALLY hard to get a point across but they end up being more of a hindrance to this otherwise snappy dialogue and supposedly simple set up. This pilot is 20+ minutes, but the bits we need to endear ourselves to our main cast are squandered on what the writers thought was “fun to write” at the time.

Too many characters, even in a 20 minute pilot.

Instead of getting a good idea of our leads, everyone is treated with the same level of importance or interest in a world that hasn’t even been fully introduced yet.

The truly important supporting characters to Charlie, Vaggie, Angel, and Alastor are Husk, Katie, and Nifty. Katie provides conflict to the first half of Charlie’s story, while Husk and Nifty are hires by Alastor for the hotel; they establish his power over other demons and his influence on the hotel and it’s success. Sir Pentious and Cherry Bomb needed to be cameos. Their characters should be glorified plot contrivances/resolutions, No More. I ain’t gonna care about a cast of billions from the start. We gotta start small first. Not only do we have four mains, we also have a bunch of little guys who need to eat up screen time...except they absolutely don’t need to and should be simple background cameos for now.

Sir Pentious and Cherry Bomb get as much character time as the four mains even though Angel is underdeveloped and Alastor is overdeveloped. When it comes to storytelling - unconventional or otherwise - priorities, is what this pilot needs.

Angel basically does nothing after Alastor is introduced.

Of all the characters in Hazbin to get left in the dust (lol) and be underdeveloped, Angel Dust would be my last guess. He’s popular with his creator and with the fandom but because of how the pilot is set up, his character falls to the back-burners and is kind of unnecessary: (Charlie uses him as an experiment to see if she can reform a sinner but he doesn’t hold up, so when Alastor comes into play the focus of Charlie’s plan switches almost entirely to Alastor and Angel is unneeded). If this were two episodes of a series; one about Charlie getting to know and trying to “fix” Angel, and another about Alastor coming in and taking over, that’d be fine. But this is a pilot so the plot and character development is kinda crushed in and neither Angel nor his existence amounts to much of anything.

I honestly forgot Angel was even in the latter half of the pilot. The poor demon-spider whore dies on the way to his home planet.

Not to fan-blurb here but I think it’d be more interesting if the conflict in the latter half wasn’t Vaggie trying to warn Charlie away from Alastor but Angel feeling shown up by Alastor and him being the one protesting to Alastor’s take-over of the hotel. It would have given Angel more to do and would cement him as one of our four leads.

Alastor gets a backstory because he is A) not the character I thought they were going for, or B), they’re jumping the gun on him. Alastor is a maddening character in my book because if he’s the character I thought he was supposed to be - our main villain - then they royally messed up a good villain by explaining his story. If he ISN’T the main villain, than color me confused on what he’s supposed to be.

It goes without saying that a good villain should remain somewhat mysterious throughout the rising action, which is what the pilot is building up to (I think?). Alastor’s personality makes him an absolutely wonderful villain and probably the most outwardly “demon”-like of anyone in Hell. Him being a rogue demon that scares the inhabitants of Hell should be alluded to, not stated.

Vaggie and Angel get passing “we dead” bg but our villain gets a backstory dumped on him? For the standalone pilot this episode is, his backstory doesn’t do anything for the plot. For the rest of the series, this feels like a big waste to reveal this guy’s history over anyone else. The rest of the HH cast are sorta small stereotypes and cliches that the writers want to endear to us because of what they do and what they go through, though since there’s too many of them they end up just being there. Alastor, on the other hand, is where they hit gold and really have a character who oozes personality and the feel of their show...but they kind of taint him by giving him an unneeded (at this point) history.

Big problem with him not only being explained but him outright stating his intentions with the hotel.

Maybe I’m wrong and Alastor is not the bigbadvillain in a cast of villains...in which case I don’t know what the pilot wants us to think of him or where the show’s going with him. Is he a demonic version of Harold Hill who learns to care about ppl and gets redeemed? Maybe that will change with future episodes....

Hazbin is confusing as a person not privy to the franchise/development prior ,and feels disappointing from the pov of someone getting hyped for these characters. As a follower of the project it feels like a let down to the respective characters and plots we’ve been anticipating. While, as newcomer, it’s hard to care about anyone. My sister, who had far less info on the pilot than me, was watching it the whole time going “who are you?” and by the end said “why should I care?” Really good summary from this IMDB review here:

Little harsh but my thoughts exactly.

TL;DR: The writers need to really rethink how to introduce their world to newcomers AND fans alike. -

There’s so much passion in Hazbin Hotel but I feel it’s misaimed and a prime example of why “write/draw what you like and what sounds ‘fun’!!!!” isn’t a good idea for storytelling.

There’s technically a story in Hazbin Hotel, but because of the bad pacing and lackluster approach to world and character development, for the kind of project that it is, it’s not very good.

Again, for the people in the back: if you think I’m a bully because I happen to be harsh with my criticism, sorry but harsh critique isn’t the same thing as bad faith criticism (CinemaSins, NC, Bad Webcomics Wiki) and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lump me in with those turds because I don’t love every second of this. I may not be the best writer, but storytelling is my passion and I think this dropped the ball. IT DOESN’T MEAN I HATE IT. - Alternatively, if you love Hazbin unconditionally or disagree with me on these things: great! Like what you like as long as everything’s safe, which it is. Stuff is problematic but hey so is everything look at the stuff I like. Also, if you’re one of those people who unironically says “if you like HH than I’m blocking you teehee unfollow me”, you fittingly have a very special seat in hell set up for you. Don’t threaten my friends cause you don’t like something they like. =)

#hazbin hotel critique #vivziepop #hazbin hotel

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sokumotanaka · 5 years

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Last train home: An ode to Rwby

It’s over...it’s finally over.

Prepare for a long and tired final post.

Look, let me say this;

RWBY volume 6 is a mess and I think that's the most charitable thing I can say after spending several years of being invested in it’s crumbling world.

Maybe it was laziness, rushed or sheer incompetence that made this season crumble, so in my final review on rwby as a whole I may have to do some guess work at points; and after several wasted years, I’m not in a position from this point on to be charitable.

I gotta tell you, volume 6 tricked me, hell from what I seen it tricked alot of us, it started off good, we learned thing we should of learned volumes ago. But then I soon realized that this volume was; damage control. We learn of ozpin origins with salem only to not get to absorb it cause we soon learn through obvious reasons that maria was a silver eyed warrior and when ruby finally starts training, we meet one of jaune’s sisters, also pyrrha’s statue is there, but also neo is back, but so is adam and cinder, also mercury has no semblance, tyrian has a new tail-

see what I mean? before you could absorb one thing, two more pop up in its place and there’s such a lack in structure in the world, characters, their growth, development and their dimensions. The magic and power system that rwby has is just a mess that gets increasingly worse as it progresses, they take one step forward only to stumble several feet back and fall on their ass. And maybe one of the problem is I listen to writers commentary; to someone who doesn’t they won’t see as many problems as I do with the series, but when you actually listen to it you see the many problems it has with how this series is handled.

A reboot is at this point completely necessary and needed for this series to make even a semblance of sense. Semblance, Aura and Dust are so poorly handled and explained that they changed at several points to the point of being contrived.

Semblance was originally something you could use when your aura was completely depleted before requiring aura to use.

Except when it’s not but also when it can be, it changes at the drop of a hat, we see yang use her semblance with no aura in her vol 5 trailer, then sun in vol 4 loses his semblance when his aura is depleted.

despite miles changing it almost instantly afterwards...

When I started rwby I was optimistic it could be a great show probably not spectacular or amazing but great, and while it had it’s flaws and potholes at the time they were relatively small at first, but they just kept growing and more issues popped up and...christ if you like rwby and notice it’s flaws that’s fine, but I can’t say the same for people who outright ignore the flaws people critiquing the series bring up to get mad and preach about how only positive criticism can save the show.

Look as a person who started off with positive criticism I’m not saying it has no place, but you also can’t say critics be it negative from your perspective, is objectively bad or unneeded. Sometimes a firm but fair hand is needed.

Ruby’s issues are like a small flame building up, you can close your eyes and ignore the problem but sooner or later if something’s not done your house is gonna be completely on fire, and you don’t know how that may affect your surroundings, for all you know ignoring the issue caused the trees behind your house to catch fire, maybe one toppled over and landed on a neighboring house and now it’s spreading. The bottom line is weather you can get past the issue to find the things you like isn’t the problem, it’s ignoring them in the first place, if you aren’t willing to help something growth and change for the better with non rose tinted criticism then you’re not offering any help at all, you’re hindering it because you yourself refuse to change and that can be just as harmful if not worse to coddle something.

Rwby increasingly became more unhinged as a series, the flaws turned into overlapping problems, this went from a world that felt had love and care crafted into it to a plot and world with more holes than swiss cheese, which is why so many people felt disappointed and rightfully annoyed, could you sit there and tell me if I made a series and told you one thing yet showed you another only to tell you “yeah that’s not what I meant.” in post that you wouldn’t feel even the slightest bit of cheated, lied to or had your time wasted? If not do I have a camel to sell you among other things!

As a person who sat through so many lovely crafted media; I sat through paper mario and it’s whimsical tale, I watched avatar and fell in love with it’s amazing characters, world building and music, same goes for things like steven universe, final fantasy 6 (a game ironically about togetherness) ff9, the persona series, hunter x hunter, soul eater, gravity falls, Disney flicks, the dragon age series every super giant game, all these and more were handled with so much love and care and hold their structure throughout.

I. LOVE. MEDIA.

I spend most of my time absorbed in their stories worlds and characters, laughing and crying and growing with them to the point I studied it, twice to get two separate degrees in it because I wanted to write at a time. So when I critique rwby, call out it’s flaws and so on, it’s not a personal attack on you if you like it, but I also can’t be satisfied with where the series has gone, not because it’s not ‘my’ take but because I enjoy narrative flow, I find interest in the characters if the plot isn’t too good and vise versa, media can touch on so many amazing things and I felt at a time...that miles and kerry could do well if they tried, if they applied themselves, before becoming such mean spirited, greedy and unwilling people, and this was long before I came into the picture, long before rwde no matter how much you disagree or what to place blame.

Cause trust me I seen rwby stans (fans unwilling to hear criticism out and will display many hypocritical and messed up tendencies over a cartoon) not only ignore issues, tell people to kill themselves over a typed critique of a series they like, be irrational, sexist, racist or just plain stupid at times, you realize soon that the rwby tag is a cesspool of horrible people mixed in with a minuscule amount of fans willing to discuss the issues offer fixes and healthy non annoying chats on what they like and dislike.

Which confuses me as an individual cause I feel personally you can and should review rwby without threat of an anonymous person telling you to die over your opinion or one of the writers telling people to...enact physical violence on fans who don’t watch the supplemental material they hide, don’t promote to a casual audience and contradict and retcon on a constant basis. And sometimes it’s through a panel or a tweet, a casual rwby fan wouldn’t even catch unless they constantly follow the writers around or have someone dedicated enough to do so.

And all the stuff I mention and want isn’t impossible or asking too much honestly, I’d like the writers to be honest and fair to their fanbase, like anyone would, I’d like them to listen to actual critique and hire someone who can guide them so it doesn’t turn into one big “damage control” arc, The characters need more substance and need more screen time to grow as characters and fighters, when your fans excuse character growth with “Well animation is hard, not everything could be onscreen it could happen offscreen.” you have a problem, can you imagine ed just showing up with alphonse and it never being explained and I go “well animation is hard.” yeah that goes without saying but at the same time there are writers, creators and so on who get paid less, have smaller teams and sometimes just teams of two people to work hard on their craft, amazing teams with money, production and care like supergiant games get overlooked, so never EVER excuse jump cuts and lack of characterization, structure and development when better writers are out there busting their asses.

Do not be that guy.

*sigh* I been sitting here thinking how how I could end this, how after several years of a fast decline in quality, what’s something I could possibly leave this on? What can I say past this point? I been actually sitting in stunned silence trying to mull it over. I guess all I can say is, if you like rwby fair, fine, despite the major holes I discuss fixes with the series, I draw characters, try fixing the crumbling road of rwby trying hard to understand it, make no mistakes that when I critique it it’s not coming from a place of contempt for the series, but of disappointment in how far it’s fallen and how it could have been good if miles and kerry took the hand offered, it wouldn’t lead them down the most comfortable road, but they’d gain experience from it and could fix the series possibly for the better, and if you again like rwby, do not allow rose tinted goggles to blind you from the issues of the series, the ever growing problems with the series and the unwillingness for the writers to change and grow, do not allow more writers to turn into david cage, M Night Shyamalan, or stephenie meyer.

If you want the best for the rwby series and the rwby brand then you cannot accept mediocrity, you need to be vocal otherwise the writers won’t be incentivized to do better. And it doesn’t have to be straight up criticism, you can word it your way as long as it helps the writing grow, but at the point we’re at and how nice or not miles and kerry take current criticism rwby will continue to plummet and honestly that’s a disappointment.

To all fellow rwde and non rwde who have supported me thus far? Thank you, this has been a wild ride and while we possibly haven’t seen eye to eye I enjoyed and learn alot from watching you over the years, and now I think it’s finally time for the vet to retire and give the reins to new people, I received alot of kind messages from this and they touched my heart, take care rwby critics, it’s been real.

-A past fan of rwby

#crticism #rwde #rwby criticism #rwby volume 6 #rwby critical #writing #finally my last rwde post #a goodbye #bad writing

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douxreviews · 5 years

Text

Legends of Tomorrow: Luchas de Apuestas

"You were right. There’s no such thing as happily ever after."

Legends of Tomorrow is back with its first episode in nearly four months, and it comes out swinging.

The second half of season four just got real, y'all.

Wow. That is a lot to process. Just... wow.

The most admirable thing about this episode is how much every additional tragedy felt like a natural consequence of the events that led up to it. So often when a show wants to create big, dramatic rifts between its characters it ends up coming across as incredibly contrived. The writing staff wants A and B to have a falling out for whatever reason, and so they find some way of starting a fight between them that usually comes wrapped in a big sign that says 'this is an excuse for A and B to fight.'

That's not the case here at all. What we have here is a bunch of characters that we know quite well by this point, responding to events in ways that feel perfectly true to who they are. And the actions that they take cause other characters to react in ways that are true to who they are, and soon the reverberations of all of those in character actions are careening off in tragic but understandable ways. It's like watching a meticulously arranged domino pattern but with crying.

Obviously, I'm girding myself to discuss Sara and Ava.

OK, right now I'm rocking gently and repeating to myself, 'It's not permanent. They'll work it out' over and over again. But as much as I hate that Sara and Ava have broken up, I can't help but watch all the little steps that led up to it and think, 'Yes. That is exactly how Sara would respond to that' and 'Yep, that's exactly how I would expect Ava to react to that situation.' Of course Sara would choose to give Mona and the Kaupe the benefit of the doubt and try to shield them from the Bureau. Of course Ava would feel betrayed by that and respond by attempting to take more control over Sara and the Waverider in order to protect time. Or course Ava would ultimately try to prevent Sara's team from doing something she sees as reckless by sending in troops, and of course Sara is going to respond badly to that. Just to make it more heartbreaking, they both genuinely tried several times to talk the situation through like adults so that they could head the whole thing off, but failed.

Ava needed Sara to be on her side, and Sara couldn't be because that would mean abandoning Mona and the Kaupe, both of whom are basically innocent, to punishment and torture. She feels like Sara let her down, because Sara did actually let her down, even if it was for the best of reasons. Sara needed Ava to back her up against Hank and the government forces that are torturing their prisoners, and Ava couldn't do that because without Hank and his funding the Time Bureau ceases to exist, which would leave time unprotected just as it's being overrun with magical monsters. She feels like Ava is compromising herself ethically by ignoring the torture because Ava is, in fact, compromising herself ethically by ignoring the torture, even if she is doing it with the greater good in mind.

Which was a great final twist of the knife, by the way. A lot of Sara's dilemma in this episode was not knowing if Ava was part of the corrupt system, or in danger from the corrupt system. And because Sara is an emotionally healthy adult her default position was to have faith in Ava. Which made that final conversation all the more painful when Ava not only revealed that she didn't have a problem with the torturing of prisoners, she also pointed out that the Legends were sending those same prisoners to literal Hell only a few months ago. Ouch. I had forgotten that. Hell, they were ready to send Charlie to Hell now that I think about it. Goodbye moral high ground.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the episode, wow we have a lot of characters now, don't we. So, Charlie and Ray hang out back at the Waverider, while Mick, John, and Sara go to check out the Lucha Libre to which they've tracked the Kaupe. Zari, meanwhile, heads to Time Bureau HQ to dig into their security software and find out if Mona is telling the truth about not having released the Kaupe herself. She pairs up with Nate, and of course uncovers that Hank doctored the footage and is behind the whole 'creature torture' thing. Nate shows that he's undergone some character growth and doesn't fly off the handle at Hank, but instead pretends to be cool with it so that he can go all monster hunter Donnie Brasco. I like that new direction for Nate a lot. Having him investigation the TB from within is a lot more interesting than him slowly turning to the dark side and siding with Hank during the inevitable upcoming civil war, which is where I thought he was going.

Mick, John, Charlie and Ray don't get a ton to do this week, but Mick does get a couple of solid bonding scenes with Mona, over his Buck and Garima books, of which there are now apparently many. I guess that's what Mick was doing over the winter break. John, similarly, doesn't get a lot, but had a couple very nice moments with a Luchador who is supposed to be a big hero, but who's been supplanted by the time displaced Kaupe who's now wrestling under the name El Lobo. The detail that John is apparently a big fan of that particular wrestler and his later monster movies is perhaps a tad too convenient, but it was earnestly endearing, and earnest helps to excuse a lot in my book.

So, after all that uplifting triumph over adversity, Mona has the opportunity to run away with the Kaupe, but makes the emotionally correct choice to not run away from her problems, and everything is warm and fuzzy and deeply moving. But then the Kaupe is abruptly shot and killed and Mona is apparently a werewolf (were-Kaupe?) now, and all you can think as a viewer is, 'Oh, that's why they reminded us about her Kaupe-injury and why we had all the wolfman references made to the Kaupe. They were setting up that moment really well as the natural consequence of this sequence of events and I didn't even notice.'

If only every hour of broadcast television understood and used cause and effect as a result of character choices this well. What a world that would be.

So what have we learned today?

That the show isn't even remotely concerned about what the knock on effects of changes to the timeline might be anymore. That was actually the one big flaw this week. If the presence of the Kaupe in 1961 was changing the timeline in a way that the Bureau could see, then it would have eliminated a lot of the underlying problem. Specifically, if Ava could have seen that having the Kaupe fight the Lucha de Apuestas fight was the only way to get history back on the correct course, then the whole final fight could have been avoided.

Of course, the whole final fight was much more about Sara and Ava and their relationship, so it doesn't detract that much from the episode. But it would be nice if they'd addressed it at all.

Everybody remember where we parked:

This week the Waverider went to Mexico City, 1961, to catch a little Lucha Libre. And Zari somehow flitted back and forth between the Waverider in 1961 and the Time Bureau in the present day.

Present day, interestingly enough, is still stated here as 2018, probably unavoidably, as the action picks up right where "Legends of To-Meow-Meow" left off.

Quotes:

Gary: "Aw, what an adorable little puppet." Puppet: "Eat my fuzzy dung, ya dick!"

Ava: "Gary. Close that hospital gown or I will report you to HR."

Gary: "I don’t know who I am. I don’t know why anything is things. I don’t know where my nipple went. Where’s my nipple? Where’s my nipple?!?"

Constantine: "Oh, come on Raymondo."

Nate’s mom: "Zari? What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman with excellent childbearing hips."

Ava: "Sara, my ass is already on the line. Feeling me up in front of my boss is not a good idea right now."

Constantine: "Trust me, there’s nothing people like more than a good comeback."

Bits and pieces:

-- Please don't let them be hinting that Zari and Nate are going to be a couple. I'm just not down for it.

-- Zari and Sara again looked absolutely amazing in their party dresses.

-- On the one hand, I like the implication that the show has finally remembered Nate's hemophilia, since it's implied that that's why his parents host an annual fundraiser for it. On the other hand, it's weird that that never came up once from anyone.

-- Seriously, powers that be, if you're going to take a four month mid-season break, for the love of god make the first half's episodes available on-demand so that we can get back up to speed. I spent most of this episode thinking, 'Oh yeah, I forgot that that happened,' which really killed several of the reveals for me.

-- I really, really wish that there'd been a luchador with the number 5 on his mask, somewhere in the background.

-- Luchas de Apuestas means a fight with a wager on it. Usually either the opposing wrestler's mask or hair.

-- Was the Kaupe a demi-god before? Because I think that was a bit of a ret-con.

-- Apparently the heavily hinted Gary/Mona/Kaupe love triangle is not going to be a thing. I hope they find a way to fix Gary and that he forgives Mona.

-- I did not see Mona's monster transformation coming. Can't wait to see where that goes.

-- When exactly did Sara and Ava learn that Tango? Not that I'm complaining, it looked amazing.

-- I would totally play Ray's 'Cards to Save the Timeline' game.

An episode that was both a lot of fun, and a lot of heartbreaking. Welcome back, Legends. You were gone too long.

Three and a half out of four missing nipples.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#Legends of Tomorrow #Sara Lance #John Constantine #Ray Palmer #Ava Sharpe #Mick Rory #LoT #DC's Legends of Tomorrow #DC Comics #Arrowverse #Legends of Tomorrow Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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zayadriancas · 5 years

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What do you think are best and worst written episodes from each season of degrassi & why?

I don’t have a reason (or at least not a good reason) for all of these, but:

Season 1:

Best: Jagged Little Pill, Coming of Age

Worst: Basketball Diaries. Idk it was a boring episode and I hate that Spinners ADHD was used as a plot device then never mentioned again.

Season 2:

Best: When Doves Cry, Shout, Karma Chameleon, How Soon Is Now, Dressed in Black, Tears Are Not Enough

Worst: Hot for Teacher. It’s not very memorable and idk it just felt like an uneccesary filler plot

Season 3:

Best: Father Figure, Never Gonna Give You Up, Don’t Dream It’s Over, Our House, Whisper To A Scream

Worst: This Charming Man. Again it wasn’t very memorable and it just made Sean look like more of an ass, like they began that plot in Gangsta Gangsta but they just made him look worse in this episode instead of expanding on what was really going on with him. Thankfully they redeem him later but idk this episode just felt weird. And the subplot was boring and not memorable

Season 4:

Best: Mercy Street, Time Stands Still. Back in Black, Voices Carry, Secret

Worst: Bark at The Moon and Goin Down The Road. BATM was an unnecessary filler episode with two unnecessary relationships starting and GDTR just felt unrealistic and stupid and contrived idk it was weird especially the Kevin Smith stuff

Season 5:

Best: Turned Out, Redemption Song, & Our Lips Are Sealed

Worst: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For & Together Forever. TF because the Liberty having her baby plot was so rushed and barely shown & this was the only time the pregnancy was actually from her POV.

Season 6:

Best: Eyes Without A Face and Free Fallin

Worst: Honestly pretty much every other episode lmao but If You Leave, Sunglasses At Night, True Colours, Here Comes Your Man, Don’t You Want Me, & Crazy Little Thing Called Love. HCYM because they screwed over Sean’s character for no real reason, tried to make Peter look good when he wasn’t, and the plot itself was just plain stupid. And neither of the subplots were likable. If You Leave just made Emma look like a bitch and was unnecessary drama and it made Dylan look like a bad guy again for no real reason (I never liked Dylan but they just made it worse in this episode and tried to make it seem like Marco was being irrational). CLTCL further damaged Sean’s character and the subplot was just filler cuz it never was mentioned again even though it actually did have potential. DYWM was actually a good episode for Alex even though it was heartbreaking but it still could have been written better and honestly my main reason for putting this episode under worst is because of the subplot. Emma’s “pregnancy scare” and Sean suddenly leaving again was so rushed and horribly written. I don’t really have a good reason for the other two episodes.

Season 7:

Best: Standing In The Dark, Live To Tell, Death or Glory, Hungry Eyes

Worst: Got My Mind Set On You, Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Dont Stop Believin’, Love is A Battlefield, Broken Wings, We Built This City, & Talking In Your Sleep. GMMSOY was one of the most boring episodes of Degrassi that I’ve ever seen. I never liked Derek but they just made him and Danny fight over a girl that was never mentioned again and Danny actually faced racism which is serious but that’s never mentioned again either. I know filler episodes exist but this one was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. The subplot made it worse. Emma/Damian was such a rushed and unnecessary relationship. Owner of A Lonely Heart was barely memorable either. I feel like all of Marcos plots in the later seasons were badly written/unmemorable. And I love Janny but their relationship was really rushed too. Don’t Stop Believin was just weird. I understand what the writers were trying to do but there was no reason for Ellie and Marco to make out/almost hook up to realize they were too dependent on each other. It was just really awkward. I don’t hate the episode but it just wasn’t written very well. Love is A Battlefield just made Paige look like a diva and was a bad write off for Alex’s character who went through so much development. Alex did nothing wrong but they tried to make her look like she was inferior to Paige and that’s not the first time they did that either. That’s the main issue I had with their relationship. And the subplot was an unnecessary filler. There was no reason for her and Damian to start another relationship only to end it in the same episode and then have Manny accused of being racist. It was so stupid. I don’t really have a reason for Broken Wings, it was just boring and not memorable. We Built This City just made Liberty look bad for no reason and made me wonder again what anyone saw in Damian and why his character existed. This class deserved a better graduation episode. & Peters subplot was random and boring and unnecessary, I mean they probably had no idea Shenae would be leaving when they wrote this plot but they have Darcy begging him to stay only for her to leave like 3 Episodes later. Peter could have just left and then we wouldn’t have had to sit through Pia or any of Peters other boring plots. Talking in Your Sleep was bad writing partly because Paige/Griffin being interested in each other was rushed but mainly because the whole HIV thing was never brought up again. I know there wasn’t a high chance of Paige getting it but still it just felt like they didn’t care enough to explore this plot further and Griffin wasn’t even a relevant character so they probably wouldn’t have done this plot to its full potential anyway, which sucks.

Season 8: (ugh why does mobile app keep spacing things so far apart?)

Best: Causing A Commotion, Jane Says, Heat Of The Moment, Lost In Love, Heart Of Glass, Fight The Power, Didn’t We Almost Have It All, Up Where We Belong (most of these are for the main plots, the subplots in Heart Of Glass, Fight The Power and Jane Says sucked)

Worst: Uptown Girl & Degrassi Goes Hollywood. I know DGH wasn’t meant to be realistic but it still could have been written a lot better. They had Paige turn into a total diva even though acting isn’t even what she wanted to do in the first place and it just tainted her character for no reason. What makes it worse is they had Paige specifically tell that Hayley girl or whatever her name was that she’d never treat people as bad as she treated Paige, but then Paige ends up treating people just as bad anyway. As for Manny’s plot, it was great to see her dream come true at the end but the whole teacher/student relationship cane out of nowhere. I know Manny didn’t play a big role in Season 8 but we still did see her throughout the season so even though that relationship should have never happened in the first place, they should have built up to it at least. Ellie’s plot was the only one written decently but that wasn’t enough to me up for half of the movie being awful. Uptown Girl was equally unrealistic but this wasn’t some special movie so it really had no excuse for being that way. Mia becoming a model was a terrible uneccesary storyline and the fact that she slept with the Tom guy but still got to keep the job didn’t add up. I know it wasn’t publicly revealed until later and I know Danny and Leia didn’t say anything but still. It just was stupid.

Season 9:

Best: Shoot To Thrill, Why Can’t This Be Love, Waiting For A Girl Like You, Somebody, & You Be Illin

Worst: Just Can’t Get Enough, Close To Me, Holiday Road, & Degrassi Takes Manhattan. JCGE handled Peters meth use terribly. It was so rushed through and felt pointless. Close To Me tainted Janes character for no real reason by having her cheat on Spinner. Holiday Road just made Emma into controlling girlfriend when they could have instead just focused on the fact she was hiding that she flunked out of college and how hard it was on her. Degrassi Takes Manhattan was just…a mess. Between the rushed, random, unnecessary and pointless Spemma marriage to Janes boring plot, it was just awful. Nothing about Spemma made sense, the writing was awful, it was the most rushed relationship I’ve ever seen. This movie was a train wreck.

Season 10:

Best: Purple Pills, What A Girl Wants, Breakaway, Hide and Seek, Chasing Pavements, Halo, Drop The World

Worst: Love Lockdown. I liked the two subplots but the Holly J/Declan plot was awfully written. I can understand Holly J. not wanting to start anything by admitting that she thinks she was raped and instead just wanting to say she regrets what happened, but the fact that Declan pressured her and didn’t listen when she said no does qualify as rape but they let Declan get away with it which is disgusting. Sure, Declan may have not realized what he was doing but that doesn’t make it okay.

Season 11:

Best: Boom Boom Pow, Idioteque, Take a Bow, Paper Planes, Can’t Tell Me Nothing, Hollaback Girl, Smash Into You

Worst: Love Game. I just hate how they wrote Clare in this episode.

Season 12:

Best: Zombie, Waterfalls, Rusty Cage, Never Ever

Worst: Come As You Are & Walking on Broken Glass. The whole situation with Katie and Drew was written so terribly. They worked so hard to make Katie look like the victim. Yes it was wrong of Drew to cheat on Katie, & he should have been honest and upfront from the beginning about wanting to break up, but what Katie did was way worse. Yet they don’t show everything that happened so we’re made to believe that Drew just “had sex while drunk and forgot because he blacked out” and we’re supposed to think he’s so terrible for dumping Katie after they “had sex” though he made it clear he didn’t wanna be with Katie anymore, he wanted his first time to be sober and with Bianca, there was no way he consented to having sex with Katie, he was too drunk and honestly that whole video of Drew cheering about having sex was so contrived. At the end of the first part of the episode he just says “I did it” which could have meant that he thought he broke up with Katie. Then he falls down the stairs and hits his head, then regains conciousness and looks confused but keeps jumping around and dancing but it’s never implied that he thought that he had sex or that he did have sex. Yes we see him and Katie kiss but that doesn’t automatically mean sex and either way kissing does not equal consent. The next day Drew is completely confused as to why Katie thinks they’re back together, it doesn’t matter why he doesn’t remember, what matters is it’s clear he didn’t want it to happen. So they just created that part of the video to make Drew look like he “wanted it” even though 1) HE WAS TOO DRUNK TO CONSENT 2) It was clear he never wanted to have sex with Katie, he went upstairs to break up with her, even telling her he lied about Courtney to get him to break up with her cuz he wasn’t happy. Katie thought that just cuz Drew said “he might be dead if it weren’t for her” that somehow meant he didn’t want to break up, even though when she was saying all that BS about how he shouldn’t be able to make decisions about their relationship on his own, he just sat there with a dazed expression on his face. He never said he still wanted to be with her. 3) Drew would never talk like that if he were sober. It’s just like Zoe saying “do you think I’m sexy” when she was blackout drunk and assaulted. Drew didn’t even remember saying or doing any of that stuff just like Zoe didn’t and she obviously didn’t want it either. So yeah. Come as You Are & Walking on Broken Glass were both terribly written. The only good part of CAYA was Maya’s plot. The other reason WOBG was terrible aside from the Katie/Drew stuff was also terrible because Eli acted like such an entitled ass and even though Becky was ultimately wrong for being homophobic, Eli only changed the play to spite her even though he said otherwise, and before she was revealed to be homophobic he was totally condescending and rude to her. Eli didn’t deserve to be the director because he acted like he was the only one who was allowed to be in charge of plays. I’m not really saying this was badly written because it made sense for Eli’s character, it just annoyed me. Oh and, Tristan pretending to be Maya to talk to Cam and when Cam finds out, he says he will never be friends with either of them but that’s completely forgotten later. I think the whole plot of Tristan impersonating Maya was dumb but the plot itself wasn’t bad writing it just was a bad idea but the part about Cam saying they’ll never be friends was inconsistent writing.

Season 13:

Best: Unbelievable, How Bizzare, My Hero, Enjoy The Silence, The World I Know, Better Man, You Are Not Alone, Believe

Worst: About A Girl, Cannonball, Honey, Black and White, Who Do You Think You Are, Barely Breathing, Spiderwebs, Sparks Will Fly, & Thunderstruck. The main reason of course for Honey is Adam dying and the fact that it was so poorly written. But also because the Maya/Zoe/Miles drama was so cringeworthy. And they tried so hard to make Alli/Leo look like a good relationship for several episodes and I know abuse isn’t always immediate but in this episode and in episodes prior they try so hard to make it seem like Alli and Leo have an epic romance and by the time we see Leo become aggressive for the first time it feels underwhelming, like it’s obviously heartbreaking and they do better with the abuse storyline in later episodes but idk the writing was just really weak in this episode. With About A Girl, again I hated the petty Maya/Miles/Zoe/Tristan drama, & Adam impersonating Becky was stupid and felt honestly out of character. With this episode & with Cannonball, they had a great opportunity to explore Connor being asexual but it’s dropped after these episodes and just used as an excuse for relationship drama. Cannonball also sucked because of Adam crashing into a tree of course which was such a sloppy way to write him out of the show, he deserved better. With Black and White, they all the sudden had Winston try to ruin Drew’s presidency and have something against him even though Drew never did anything to him. They tried to make us feel sympathy for Winston even though the way he treated Drew was out of line. Who Do You Think You Are & Barely Breathing were both awful because the plot of Dallas getting kicked off the hockey team and developing a drinking problem wasn’t even from his own point of view. The storyline had great potential but they fucked it up by not making it from his point of view. Then the Maya/Zoe drama was so ridiculous. Both of them were in the wrong for different reasons. What Maya did was awful and she definitely deserved punishment for it, but Zoe also deserved punishment and the way they tried to make her look innocent pissed me off so much. With Spiderwebs, the Drianca break up was so rushed and random and written so awfully. I can understand if Alicia couldn’t or didn’t wanna come back but it could have been written better and it was pretty clear that they only broke them up so Drew could be free to have ridiculous relationship drama plots, even though none of those relationships lasted long (or even happened in the first place like Clew) and all of those plots just dragged Drew’s character down. Drew and Drianca deserved better. Then there was the Eclare plot. Clare took Eli back so quickly even though he made little to no effort to earn her trust back. And then we have Alli supporting Clare taking Eli back even though Alli herself has been cheated on before and she used to strongly dislike Eli and had even more of a reason to now. I could also say that the cheating plot in BOW was written badly but honestly Eli doing shitty things doesn’t surprise me but in Spiderwebs the whole thing was badly written. Clare deserved better. With Sparks Will Fly, Clew finally is about to start an actual relationship after several episodes of build up only for Eli to show up, thus Clew doesn’t happen. What was the point of building up Clew if they were just going to keep bringing Eli back? Then there was the Zig/Maya/Miles triangle, that had both guys acting like assholes and they had the episode to make this episode about why Maya was so scared of rejecting Zig/hurting Miles but instead they made it about relationship drama, yeah they had Maya say “I can’t be with a guy who scares me, not again” and “last time someone I cared about disappeared they never came back” but we don’t see Miles even react or care about those statements which is one of the many reasons Matlingsworth sucks, he never truly cared about her feelings. Yes Zig was an ass in this episode too but he’s proven to care about Maya’s feelings on more than one occasion despite making a lot of mistakes. Miles only ever cared about himself. With Thunderstruck, I didn’t hate the episode but it was badly written. We’re supposed to believe Drew and Becky are romantically interested in each other even though in past episodes they were just shown to be friends. Yes, they spent a lot of time in the woods together in the last episode but nothing about it was romantic. Even though they were friends throughout most of the season, they were never super close yet somehow Drew suddenly knows all this stuff about her. I can buy him being attracted to her, but not actually having real feelings with her. Everything about Drecky was rushed and unnecessary. Then with the Maya/Zoe plot, Zoe and Zig suddenly are interested in each other, again yes they spent time together in the previous episode but nothing about it was romantic. Then, despite Maya supporting Zoe at her trial and them being on better terms, she hates her again all because Miles almost cheated on her with Zoe, even though Zoe was literally out of her mind drunk and was assaulted the same night. Yes Maya was mad at Miles too but Miles was really the only one who deserved blame in this situation. I can understand why Maya was upset, especially because Zig agreed to go to the dance with her after already saying he’d go with Maya, but the way she acted was immature whether she was drunk or not. Yes, Zoe was never a good friend to Maya but Maya still acted irrationally. And Zoe saying she was trying to be Maya’s friend all year was bad writing as well because that was total bullshit and not true. Then the Eclare plot, Clare conveniently hits her head, has to go to the hospital, misses her interview, all the hotels are booked so she has “no choice” but to stay with Eli. Hmm, how convenient. Then the random ass revelation of Clare being pregnant at the end. Which of course leads into more terribly written plots for season 14.

Season 14:

Best: (You Drive) Me Crazy, Wishlist. Get it Together, Give Me One Reason, & The Kids Aren’t Alright

Worst: Anything involving Degrassi Nudes and Clare’s pregnancy in the first half of season 14. Most of the episodes really only suck because of those plots, like they’d be fine otherwise without those plots. It was hard to pick a specific episode. I also didn’t like Finally, I hate how badly Drew was screwed over throughout this episode when he did nothing wrong, and I hate how Imogen and Jack briefly reuinite only for Imogen to once again feel like she has to do everything to please Jack whereas Jack puts in little to no effort, and then they break up again. There was no point in any of that, and once again Imogen loses her girlfriend on the prom/graduation episode :( I know it was Imogen’s choice both times but like with Fiona it was because she didn’t want to hold her back and also because the writers wanted to bring Imogen back for another year. Imogen deserved better honestly. I also felt like the Hunter plot was out of place even though I did like the plot, it didn’t really fit in this episode.

Season 15/NC season 1:

Best: YesMeansYes & ButThatsNoneOfMyBusiness

Worst: NotAllMen and ThisCouldBeUsButYouPlayin. With NotAllMen, I felt like the whole plot with Zoe thinking David was her dad was a bit random and also felt unrealistic, like it would have been great if Zoe had a real plot about finding her real dad but idk, it felt poorly written. and then they have Gracevas kiss and still Grace isn’t honest about her feelings. It would have been great if Grace actually returned her feelings, but seeing where the next episode goes, they didn’t need to tease us like that, it was fucked up. Then there was Frankie’s plot. It was clear Frankie was struggling and instead of going deeper into that, they have Jonah think he knows Frankie, being condescending and rude to her, and having Frankie’s friends guilt her into staying with them even when she wanted to try and go make a difference and volunteer. Jonah had no right to treat Frankie the way he did, it was uncalled for, but somehow this is the build up to their relationship which never needed to happen, at least not the way it did. Frankie could have been given a real depression storyline but instead it’s all about boy drama. I know they also do this in three other episodes of the season but this particular episode’s plot was the most poorly written. TCBUBYP was awful because of the contrived cheating plot that instead could have been Zig talking to Maya about his insecurities, or if he had to talk to Zoe she could have just been there for him as a friend, there was no need for them to hook up, and the fact that Zoe recorded it was even more disgusting. And then of course setting up Gracevas only for Grace to not return Zoe’s feelings and randomly say she likes Zig which made zero sense. Everything about this plot was contrived and awful. It just tainted Zaya, Zig, Grace, and Zoe for no real reason and they couldn’t even write it in a way that made sense.

Season 16/NC season 2:

Best: ThatAwkwardMomentWhen & BuyMePizza

Worst: TheseAreMyConfessions & ThrowbackThursday. & ToMyFutureSelf. TAMC because Grace liking Zig was obviously forced and it was extremely awkward, and the way Grace treated Maya was out of line but we’re supposed to feel sympathy for her and she never even apologizes (like maybe she did off screen but I doubt it because anytime someone screws Maya over they rarely face consequences or apologize, or if they do its not sincere). There’s no real explanation aside from Grace’s illness why she acting the way she’s acting, but her illness is no excuse to treat Maya like crap and it doesn’t explain why she lead Zoe on either (you’re my best friend I tried for you isn’t a good excuse), And her liking Zig was so random and made no sense and it was obviously forced. ThrowbackThursday was badly written in my opinion because the alumni’s lines mostly felt forced and awkward and they deserved more screen time. And while it was great that the writers wanted to bring attention to the BLM movement, Tiny getting suspended wasn’t because he was black, and then they don’t even have the storyline from his point of view. I know that they brought up that Frankie barely got in trouble for her racist banner, they should have done the plot about that with Shay leading the protest, or they could have had Tiny fight a white kid who went to their school and have Tiny receive more punishment than the white kid if they wanted the plot and protest to make sense. ToMyFuturseSelf just made Grace seem like a bad friend and her reasoning for being on Zig’s side for most of the episode even though she called him out the most after he cheated on Maya made no sense. And they just made Zig look even worse in this episode for no reason. The other plots were just boring and hardly memorable.

Season 17/NC season 3

Best: Honestly all of them

Season 18/NC season 4

Best: Obsessed, Fire, KThxBye

Worst: I thought the Zig/Esme/Frankie plot in FactsOnly was poorly written but the rest of the episode was great

#degrassi #long post #anonymous #answered

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gascon-en-exil · 6 years

Text

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: The Opening

Prologue

Here begins my run of Fates, in which I react to things that I believe merit either praise or criticism and that hopefully haven’t been thoroughly picked over yet hundreds of times by everyone else in the fandom. I’ll be doing each route in the sequence I used last time, with gameplay details to follow as they come up. To answer @damoselcastel, I’ll be doing an all-male run, and it does indeed suck that the game screws this over a bit at the very beginning by forcing me to take Felicia over Jakob first. Breeding will come when I feel like it, more to have extra chapters to play through than anything.

Prologue

In what I assume will continue to be a series trend going forward, all of the 3DS FEs open somewhat in the abstract, including a flash forward to a future event. Fates’s particular take is both the most surreal and the least dependent on shock value, as the events it depicts are only several chapters away rather than near endgame. Azura picks up her Lady of the Lake associations right from the start, there’s a very early glimpse at what will be eventually revealed to be Valla, and Ryoma and Xander and Xander’s ludicrously acrobatic horse square off to set up this setting’s central conflict. The chapter proper is (fittingly) dreamlike, with surreal music and a high-energy scenario that begins in medias res and doesn’t entirely follow the normal rhythms of FE combat. I have absolutely no idea how this would come across to a newcomer to the series - I got my hand held through Lyn Normal Mode, cut me some slack - but I imagine it would be disorienting.

Chapter 1

That’s apparently official concept art of Nohr. Reasonable worldbuilding, what’s that?

The in-game presentation starts off rather less absurd. Hell, if it weren’t for the ominous castle rooftop setting of Xander’s training session one could almost find Corrin’s slice-of-life interactions with their servants and their Nohrian family quaint. Xander is just a drama queen like that. This fight calls back to Path of Radiance and New Mystery, which also start off with training sessions against significantly more powerful named characters. For Birthright it also forms a narrative bookend, but I’ll get to that in due time. I have Feelings about the presentation of Xander...and not just because he’s my husbando either.

I like that Corrin’s retainers are domestics first and combatants second unlike those of the other royals, because it stresses that they’ve been isolated in a non-combat role during their upbringing, their exposure to Nohr’s allegedly spartan military culture limited to sparring with Gunter and Xander. I have no idea how that would be enough for them to survive when they evidently live in Mordor, but then Nohr is the source of the most consistently sloppy worldbuilding in Fates so at least we get that established right away.

Oh, and Lilith is here. There’s never a point anywhere in this game where Lilith’s character is competently handled, so I have a tendency to forget she exists unless she’s on-screen. Here she’s just an unassuming stable girl with an unusual design, and Elise makes an incestuous insinuation in her direction that’s only funny if you played the appropriate DLC.

Chapter 2

Structural contrast with the towering Hoshidan royal palace aside, I don’t entirely get how Krakenberg works. A dragon did it?

Anyway, Corrin gets an under-explained and clearly evil magical sword from his shamelessly homicidal father only to balk at the thought of killing anyone with it. Leo salvaging this faux pas isn’t the silliest example of Corrin not understanding the basic concept of lying - it’s presumably easier to fake someone’s death with magic than with a giant sword - but it’s definitely up there. The Nohrian royals on the other hand have no trouble with such things based on their traumatic but mostly implied experiences at court. Important to note that everyone here up to and including the prisoners of war calls out Corrin for their sheltered worldview; their development from here on out really is dependent on the player’s choice of route. I vastly prefer this approach to Awakening’s for explaining why the Avatar is such a relatively blank slate - almost no amnesia necessary this time.

And while they appear in most chapters, I want to praise Dragon Veins here for being a really cool concept that doesn’t get as much love as it should. Draconic or otherwise superhuman bloodlines in FE are usually expressed in gameplay with the ability to wield certain legendary weapons, and while that also makes an appearance in Fates Dragon Veins represent more dramatically visible utility. They really make a difference in some chapters, and I’d like to see them reuse the concept in future games where it would be a logical addition (which would be most of them since humans with dragon blood pop up all over this series).

Chapter 3

I chose this image because I want everyone to appreciate as I do that Hans dresses like the world’s most tasteless leatherman. A harness and straps that show off all the wrong bits, and it’s in purple. Not even the overall weirdly fetishistic look of this game’s berserkers can excuse that.

But aside from that, Hans sucks. Iago also sucks. Less characters than plot devices that pop up whenever there’s a need for someone to act completely despicable to move the conflict along, there’s no way to spin them in a way that sounds like they contribute anything positive to the narrative. Case in point: in this chapter Hans single-handedly reignites hostilities between Nohr and Hoshido by Leeroy Jenkins-ing his way through the chapter and later (possibly) killing Gunter, with the only interesting caveat that he claims to have done so at Garon’s behest. And sure, Garon is also flat over-the-top villainy incarnate, but he at least has gravitas and a master playing a long game that arguably succeeds in two of the routes. Hans and Iago are just two more in the line of FE villains with flat motivations and personalities who lack even the good grace to be attractive, but unlike Desaix and Darin and Chagall and others like them they stick around in the story long after they’ve worn out their welcome. Did Nohr really need not one but three flat antagonists in its ranks around for most of the game?

I haven’t even gotten into the first appearance of Camilla’s...issues surrounding Corrin or whatever the dimension-hopping hell Lilith pulls with her invocations to presumably deceased dragon “gods” now that she reveals her true form. This is really the first chapter to offer a hint of how disjointed and frequently contrived Fates’s stories are going to end up, saved only by the very end when Rinkah puts this game’s new blunt weapon category to its logical use. Not like the game wants us to feel bad for Corrin....

Chapter 4

...because Hoshido is paradise. And also Takumi.

Everyone knows the story, both as it’s explicitly told and as can be read through the lines. The writers weren’t afraid to let their biases show, the localizers and the Western fandom did a fair amount to mitigate that with some bias of our own, and the final product is one big mess that fails to make logical sense in-universe and teeters on the edge of real-world two-way racism. Here we’re introduced to Castle Shirasagi, glimmering and verdant and awash in cherry blossoms, as well as Azura, Corrin’s foil in Stockholm Syndrome. But it’s all good, because Mikoto is tranquil and peace-loving and enforces her tranquility through a plot contrivance magical barrier that is just one of many examples in Fates of magic not working the way it does in the rest of the series (or at least I can’t think of anything else like this, correct me if I’m wrong). We don’t learn just why Nohr is so hellbent on invading Hoshido that they’d resort to summoning soulless monsters to do so until much later (and only in Birthright of all routes!). For now they just sound like unprovoked aggressors, and the Hoshidan royals Corrin’s true and loving family.

However, what I really wanted to bring up for this chapter is how oddly it’s structured, such that it never fails to throw me off a bit. It opens in an unnamed Fire Tribe village in a snowy area of Hoshido, which might I mention is the only point in the game we see anything of the Fire Tribe other than Rinkah herself. Considering all the time we spend in multiple routes with the Wind and Ice Tribes, that lack of detail strikes me as peculiar. Kaze then brings Corrin to the Hoshidan palace where Ryoma and Mikoto reveal the truth, then it’s immediately back to the snowy north to rescue Hinoka and Sakura from Faceless before returning to the palace to meet Azura. Was there any reason the Faceless fight couldn’t have happened before Corrin left the village, and the reveal and trip to Shirasagi left for after the chapter map and partially in response to Hinoka’s OOC crying fit?

I also hate maps where high-powered NPCs go around stealing kills. Kaze barely got to see any action this chapter, poor guy.

Chapter 5

Props to this manakete design, which is unlike anything else in the series and manages to work in elements of Anankos and Corrin’s weird outfit. No props to the scripting of the thing, as after this chapter Corrin may as well not even be a mankete except for gameplay purposes (which are minimal anyway unless you need them to tank something). You’d think learning that you can turn into a dragon would leave more of an impact on...anyone really, but nope. I guess it technically becomes relevant again in Kana’s paralogue, but that’s as tangential and ultimately irrelevant as everything else involving the kids.

There’s a lot else going on in this chapter, but I’m sorry to say that neither Mikoto’s death nor the obliteration of a large chunk of Hoshido’s capital lands as powerfully as they were meant to considering Corrin and the audience have spent all of 1.5 chapters with these people. This isn’t anything like Elbert or Greil’s death scene or even remake!Rudolf’s for that matter - at least that one came with a shocking twist that was responded to appropriately. It’s hard to even appreciate these events from the perspectives of the Hoshidan royals because they’re still pretty new characters in the player’s mind, though with the hindsight of Conquest I can maybe sympathize with Takumi here at the beginning of his downward spiral.

Corrin also picks up their legendary sword in a way that feels extremely random. I guess the Yato was inside the statue that got blown up? Weird place to keep a divine peace-bringing relic, that’s all I’m saying.

Branch of Fate

Despite some early warning signs and a few slight missteps, I’m happy to say that this story moment works. It’s a good thing that it does too, as this is the defining moment of FE14 in everything from its marketing to its game design to its core themes. The setup is rushed and tense and allows only Corrin, i.e. the intended player self-insert, full knowledge of the weight of the choice put before them, as none of the other royals are aware that they are all in a way family to the person they’re now abruptly forcing to pick a side. Familial connections (biological or otherwise) may not be a narrative hook that grabs me personally, but nonetheless this scene sticks with you. There is no easy choice, and the consequences of any of them immediately define the direction of the story.

This is not to say that all three of the iterations of Chapter 6 that follow succeed equally well, but that’s for other posts...including the next one, which will kick off Birthright.

Next time: Birthright Chapter 6 - 11

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #FE14

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hoochy-coo · 4 years

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Give us your take on reputation vs 1989.

MUSIC

1989: The singles were amazing with tons of radio appeal (with the exception of ‘Shake it Off’ and ‘Bad Blood’) but still remained memorable with witty lyricism. However, the album as a whole is very ‘meh’ to me - a couple of the b-sides are top-notch with serious replay value (I Know Places, Clean, Wonderland, New Romantic), and others are either juvenile or forgettable fillers (This Love, How You Get The Girls, All You Had To Do Was Stay, I Wish You Would). The highs are very high and the lows may as well be scrubbed from her discog lol

Reputation: Poor single choices with the exception of ‘End Game’ because while it may have not even be close to the best song on the album, it’s a goldmine of commercial success with both Future and Ed Sheeran as features. THE experimental album of her discog so far and the b-sides deserve more love. An interesting listen for a fan that’s been around from the beginning because it marks a point of musical evolvement (that we later saw regress with ‘ME!). Even if you don’t enjoy the music, you can find aspects of it to be intrigued by, such as torch-inspired vocals on ‘Don’t Blame Me’ or the full EDM explosion on ‘I Did Something Bad.’

Verdict: 1989 wins for singles and highlights but Reputation wins as an album.

VISUALS

1989: I don’t think anyone can deny the superiority that is the visuals of this era. The music video ‘Blank Space’ was glamorous but nevertheless, a satirical take on stereotypical aspects of modern music videos for female pop artists. Taylor was glammed up like a movie star but a screaming, crying mess which really captures the core message of the song. ‘Bad Blood’ was an epic concept in theory and executed well imo, however the actual song was written as a diss to another woman so the feminism marketing/message became pointless. ‘Style’ was a flop of a music video and a massive waste of the song since it’s such an underrated bop. ‘Wildest Dream’ was basically a mini Hollywood movie. ‘Out of the Woods’ didn’t even warrant a music video but she’s extra so she gave it to us anyway. Overall, we were flooded with content and they were all quality.

Reputation: Let me start this off by saying that I detest LWYMMD as a song but visually, it was um...amazing. She also kept with the theme of ‘humbling’ herself that we saw with ‘Blank Space’ by poking fun at her own image with all the snake symbolism and adding a line-up of Taylor from each eras to the end of the music video, while also attacking Kim K with that ‘receipts’ jab. Petty? Yes. Entertaining? 100%. ‘...Ready For It?’ was a cringe-fest (we had Taylor trying to act tough for 3-4 mins) and I like to pretend it never happened. ‘Delicate’ was ok but nothing special - the dancing was quirky but that’s about it. The music video for ‘End Game,’ just like the actual song, is overlooked by the fandom. It’s a fun music video of her partying with her friends, she’s drinking and dancing seductively with the girls without doing too much (ala LWYMMD). She actually looked comfortable doing the choreo in the video, which proved to me that she could have pulled off a sleek, alluring era but shot herself in the foot by starting it off with a very aggressive brand of sexy.

Verdict: 1989 wins, obviously.

STYLE

1989: We get it, this is her 80s era but did we have to suffer through that much embellishments, sparkles, metallic skirts and glittery cropped bomber jackets? Everything looked cheap, like she sent her stylists to a local craft store and asked them to superglue gemstones onto clothes she got from Target. Also, the tour costumes have no correlation to the style she presented in any of the music videos from that era?! Justice to that matching-plaid set she wore on tour though!

Reputation: Throw the rainbow Atlantic City-inspired halter dress out and we had an era full of excellent styling. Taylor gave us strong shoulders, sleek silhouette, and a bunch of different texture to keep the outfits interesting despite most of it being black. The tailoring was impeccable, all the pieces looked like they fit her to perfection and it was sexy but in the most tasteful way. I despised her hair during this era but the fashion was so great that I overlook it. Also, I can’t believe I’m saying this but can we get Taylor in more Balmain?

Verdict: Reputation wins. The bejeweled rompers from the 1989 tour need to be set on fire.

PROMO

1989: Taylor was insufferable during this era, and whenever we had enough and tried to look the other way, she was there too. She didn’t give us a chance to have a break from her and constantly bombarded us with her cats, her pap runs, her faux girl squad, and the constant reminder that ‘GUYS, THIS SONG IS ABOUT HARRY STYLES.’ I don’t think we had one day without at least two headlines about Taylor, whether it’s about which new friend she just initiated into her squad or which colour she painted her nails. It was so extra, so contrived, and at the time, I thought it was never going to end lmao. With that being said, this era showed us just exactly how far Taylor was willing to go for that Grammy. This era also cemented her as one of the biggest pop stars to have emerged from our generation and grant her a pass for eternal relevancy in pop culture. And then everything fell apart when the gp got a bad case of Taylor fatigue lol. Either way, we’re probably not going to get another pop era that big or impactful for a very long time so we should appreciate the gradeur of it all.

Reputation: This was supposed to be her triumphant comeback. She’s back to drag KimYe and “own” her snake image. She revolved a whole era around vengeance but she gave such mix messages - half the time she was still pointing the fingers at her enemies and the other half was spent making excuses. It didn’t come off as an authentic era of her evolving or letting things go. Literally, nothing went to plan. LWYMMD flopped (by her standards, especially as a follow up to 1989 anyway) and album sales were a disappointment to her and her team. Did Taylor even promote this era much? She went on a few late-night shows, performed at iHeartRadio and some award events but that’s all I remember. I’ve said this gazillion times before and I’ll say it again, the biggest issue with the promo is that she picked the wrong singles to send to radio. It’s her sexy era, she had about 4-5 mature track on the album and decided to not promote any of them. It didn’t make sense. However, I’ll give credit where credit is due - the rollout for LWYMMD was very smart (wiping her IG clean and posting that 10 secs clip of a snake slithering around) and it got the internet very hyped so kudos for the single. If only the song was quality...

Verdict: 1989 reigns supreme over every era. This isn’t even up for discussion

In conclusion, 1989 is the better era and inarguably, the more memorable one but I prefer Reputation music-wise. 1989, as an album, has little replay value to me. Whether it’s because her music was everywhere the year the album dropped so I’ve had enough of it for a lifetime or because I can’t stand ‘Welcome to New York,’ I’m not sure. In a twisted, these two eras share one thing in common: inauthenticity (although in a completely different way). Reputation was like one big warped apology tour where Taylor was “sorry but not sorry.” It was her chance to tell her side of the story after the public ‘cancelled’ her but her petty need to have the last word on all the beef and drama made this era a hard sell. 1989, of course, was inauthentic in a sense that Taylor basically bent herself out of shape to find her most marketable self.

#taylor swift #ask #answer #music

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tellywoodtrash · 7 years

Text

ishqbaaz 12.07.17 lb

plain text version here.

self confidence goals: ragini 😊😊😊

anika’s hiding and snooping game be hella weak. 🙄🙄🙄

god this baagad billa looks 🔥🔥🔥 in black. i can’t even. meri saansein ruk rahi hai yougaiz. 😧😧😧

LMAO SHIVAAY REFUSING TO TAKE THE HINT HAHAHAHA 😂😂😂

lololol the speed jis se anika prakat hui when ragini touched shivaay. 😆😆😆

“kaadha? what’s kaadha?” “this? this green green item is kaadha! drink this, and your health will be TAN TANA TAN TAN TAN TAARA!”

hahahahahaha shivaay’s faceeeeeeee. 😂😂😂

this family is super big on its weird kaadhas. i’m on team ragini. it looks weird and hell no to drinking it, no matter what you say, billu in black. 😒😒😒

pfffffffffft, these two be eye-fucking riiiiiiiiiight in front of her. kuch toh sharam karo. 😶😶😶

ragini makes valiant second attempt. 😌😌😌

success! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

lmaoooooooooo if looks could kill, there’d just be scorch marks on the floor where billu previously stood. 🙃🙃🙃

i’m not falling for this tej-jhanvi nonsense again. tej’s a dirty dog who will never sudharofy. he doesn’t deserve to even be on the same continent as jhanvi. 😑😑😑

“kitne dino baad hum normally baat kar rahe hai!”

yeah it’s so sad when someone trying to set you on fire and that puts a damper on civil conversation. 😕😕😕

ugh this simpering conversation is sooooo boringgggggg. im fwdinggggg. 😣😣😣

yup. fully called it. 🙄🙄🙄

WAZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAA QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEN I MISSSED YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU LOOKING FIRE AS EVERRRRRRRR 😍😍😍

... someone tell me where REAL bechaaaari svetlana is though. 😐😐😐

time for regularly scheduled Faraq Fight of the hour. 😊😊😊

baaat ka batangad. kaadha diya, zeher nahi. untwist your boxer briefs, billu. 🙄🙄🙄

he’s getting angsty and mad at her for believing that ragini is his fiancee, when that’s exactly what he wanted in the first place. stupidddddd boy. 😑😑😑

he’s thissss close to blurting out the truth. he’s this close to growling “how could you believe i could be remotely interested in anyone else?” 😌😌😌

oh ho, kabab mein omki. 😒😒😒

...yeh dikhaana tha? iske liye achcha khaasa sexy shivika moment kharaab kiya tha? 😠😠😠

ok rudra is the unfittest gym bunny i have ever seen. 10 crunches take it out of him???? son, i haven’t exercised since 2003, and *i* can do 10 crunches. 😕😕😕

also @ acp anda (as @vishwaspur calls her): who the fuckkkkkkk exercises with hair alll khulaaa and flowing around? 😑😑😑

caaaaasual misogyny time. nice to see that bit of rudra’s personality is constant. 😒😒😒

RETURN OF OLD SENSIBLE, SNARKY OMKARA. *CRYING OF HAPPY* 😭😭😭😭😭😭

pfffft, shivaay and his tarafdaari of baby brother. 😆😆😆

i honestly love how much shivaay babies rudra. it’s fucking adorable. 😚😚😚

ugh svetlana, girlllllllllll, you can honestly do SO MUCH BETTER? it painssssss me to see you waste your hotness on terrible tej. 😫😫😫

i just realised that i want svetlana and jhanvi to get together. like, as a couple. two amazing, beautiful queens. haaaaye. imagine the flawless. 😍😍😍 #jhanLana #makeItHappen

oufffffff, can this scene enddddddddd already? 😑😑😑

oh boy. what plan? will they steal jhanvi’s face next and put her in the freezer dabba? 😟😟😟

sarcasm singh oberoi needs to shut it. 😒😒😒

omkara is me. i am omkara. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

oh god are they going to sabotage his gym equipment? IT COULD KILL HIM, YOU FUCKING IDIOTS! 😧😧😧

of course pedantic singh oberoi has to sit and read the user manual. 😑😑😑

i relate with omki’s frustration level sooooo much rn. 🤦🏽🤦🏽🤦🏽

why are pinky/shakti on the DBO set of OM? 🤔🤔🤔

TAMEEZ AND DISCIPLINE? WHAT IS THIS, GURUKUL OF MOHABBATEIN? 🙄🙄🙄

ooooooop, shaktiji calling pinky out on the reallll issue. 🙊🙊🙊

oh dang. shaant shaktiji is shaaant no more. 😬😬😬

pffffffft, bhains ke aage been kyun baja rahe ho shaktiji? go do some pooja-paath instead. 😕😕😕

but yeah, this is the slow start to the pinky ka redemption track, methinks. she’ll continue with her ragini wala plan for a while, but then she’ll do something that’ll be her “ek kadam” and the family will forgive her and accept her. whatever. i don’t even care anymore. i just need her to stop being so nasty so i can stop hating her. it’s exhausting. 😖😖😖

“ab toh aaj yeh machine rahegi, ya main rahoonga!”

famous last words. 🤐🤐🤐

📰📰📰 tomorrow’s headlines 📰📰📰: oberoi scion (no, not the hot and short rude one. or the one with the hair. the other one.) killed due to stupidity. absolutely no one surprised. we’re amazed he made it this far.

eeeeeee callback to “haath chod” moment of yore! omkiiiiiii. alavoooooo. *pulls his cheeks* 😘😘😘

i need the mom of a hot guy to throw her son at me, the way pinky is throwing shivaay at ragini. 😌😌😌 #suchSexPositive #muchProgressive #Wow

ragini’s amazing faces of the day:

how the fuck is dadi expecting this whole fucking taj mahal sized mansion to be painted IN ONE DAY?????????? 🤔🤔🤔

awwwww bulbul and her adorable baby cheenkein. 😊😊😊

pft. what a contrived issue. and these idiots are sooooooo useless. 😒😒😒

literally just some pics of shivika being attractively annoyed/annoying:

this is suchhhhhhhhhhhhh a stupidddddd “problem”, lord. literally just watching for shivika and om’s hella beautiful faces. 😒😒😒

wow. gale force winds blowing inside the room at romantic scene. amaze. 😐😐😐

so... gender reversed fairy lights scene from IPKKND/DBO then. but with... gym equipment. sure. 🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽

it’s amazing how little fucks i give about these two as a couple. i’m literally more invested in prinkveer. 😕😕😕

OH MY GOD WHY WON’T THIS SCENE ENDDDDDDDDDD????????? FWD FWD FWD FWDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. can’t believe i’m having to sacrifice on bulbul screentime/rikara romance for this BS. 😒😒😒

there. there’s the beginning to pinky’s redemption. she’s going to try and expose him for jhanvi’s sake. but it’s gonna backfire and he’ll expose the truth about shivaay to fuck her over. oyyyy vey. 😬😬😬

these threeeee fucking idiots. don’t they have their own love/sex lives which are in shambles to attend to? khade ho kar vicariously getting kicks from the most thanda “love story” in the history of the world. 😒😒😒

greattttttt. back to square one. 😑😑😑

shivaay: “tum log ladne ke bahaane ko dhoond kyun rahe ho? come on, be nice to her, she helped you out.”

oh my god. OH MY GOD. irony just died a thousand fucking deaths right now. *lays flowers at its grave* 😧😧😧

ragini: comes to talk to shivaay. shivaay: literally ignores her to turn to anika and randomly ask her what SHE’S up to. 😂😂😂

ohhhhhhhhh shivaaaay. why you even started this whole stupid engagement drama when you don’t even have the mettle to act on it for 10 minutes is beyond me. 🙄🙄🙄

oh nooo, ragini ki choppppp. 😋😋😋

pinky’s gonna do it. she’s gonna blurt it out. 😗😗😗

yuppppppppp. she’s...

oh no, shaktiji is putting addddchan. and misunderstanding her intentions. 😐😐😐

I FULLY NEED JHANVI TO GONE GIRL TEJ’S ASS. LIKE YESTERDAY. PLEASE GOD. HE DESERVES TO BE STABBED IN THE FACE, THIS LYING SNAKE. 😡😡😡

ok, when someone is going to SUCH lengths to prove their story, it’s shady af. 🙄🙄🙄

yes pinky, please use your tedhaaa dimaag for productive things like these. leave your son alone for like a day, so he can get laid already. 😑😑😑

LMAOOOOOOOO WHY IS ANIKA SO SMUGLYYYYY SWAYING WHILE SHIVAAY LOOKS UNCOMFORTABLE? 😂😂😂😂😂

GENDA CHAAP DANT MANJAN. lolololol. 😆😆😆

produced by same company as chamko detergent??? 😁😁😁

of course he doesn’t know what manjan is. #burgerBachcha 🙄🙄🙄

GOD SHE’S SO STINKING CUTE I CAN’T EVEN. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ONE PERSON TO BE THIS CUTE? IT SHOULD BE BIOLOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE! THE LEVELS OF CUTE IN HER BLOOD ARE TOO HIGH!!!!!!!!!!! 😧😧😧😧😧😧😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

“shivaay, aap na meri baat kabhi nahi samjhenge.” “main toh tumhe hi nahi samajh paaya, anika. tumhaari baaton ko kya samjhunga.”

ooooop. things suddenly serious. though, is he talking still labouring under the misunderstanding, or does he Know™ about what she did? 🤔🤔🤔

“story kahin se kahin bhi pohunch jaaye, lekin yeh dono har do minute kisi na kisi pillar ke peeche hi milenge.” “ya phir RK pose mein!”

lmaoooooooooo 😂😂😂

anika be like bitch i don’t have time for this passive aggressive emotional garbage. ANIKA OUT!!!!!!!!!! 😒😒😒

lololol om’s shiftyyyyyyyyy look. GODDDDD MAN, WHAT EVEN IS YOUR FACEEEEEEEEE I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUU 😍😍😍😍😍😍

hahaha khanna be hardcore shivika shipper from literally day 1. shivaay have dinner with some other ho? NOT ON HIS WATCH! ❌❌❌

pft such contrivedddddddd excuses. and these idiots are falling for it too. 🙄🙄🙄

how nice and convenient that there’s such strategic mood lighting that makes their skin look perfect and glowy. 😌😌😌

THIS ISN’T THE FUCKING STOREROOM. THIS IS THAT... ok idk what to call it, but it’s that random performance hall type space in their house. 😐😐😐

waaah lighting got even more romantic. and there’s dinner too! 😇😇😇

me: waaay more excited about the food >>> the man. 😊😊😊

ooooooooooh. things getting serious. and angstyyyyyyyyyy. 😌😌😌

lmao what the fuck even is this tent nonsense? WHY WOULD YOU SET UP A TENT IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE A FULL-ON FUCKING STORM? HOW LONG IS OM PLANNING TO STAND THERE HOLDING ON TO THE DAMN THING????????? 😕😕😕

JUST GET IN THERE AND CUDDLE WITH HER, BOO. 🙃🙃🙃😚😚😚😉😉😉

#ishqbaaz #ishqbaaaz #ib episode liveblogs #episode liveblogs #120717 ib lb

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hidefprinsass · 7 years

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Kicks Vol. 1

And there I stood, overridden by emotion, unable to mutter a single word of anger at what he had just said. There was not a single hint of truth to what he kept saying, over and over, each time in a more elaborate manner, tapping on more elevated abstract imagery. However, my lips were sealed, my feet glued to the ground. What is it about a fake messiah that is so appealing and numbing. ‘You will never find peace if you follow the misdirection of a more confused than you human’ are the thoughts reflected on my bathroom mirror. When the puke started coming up I didn’t stop it, just like I hadn’t stopped Michael. I wish both events had been simultaneous. Another day starts, coffee pot half empty from the night before, shreds of paper from a collage project intended to make me feel better about my past with him. How can a transgender man, who fucked the brains out of a trans woman using a vibrating pink dildo, be now a fundamentalist prick? I wish these answers would come easy to me. Then again I’m all wishes and no matter. A proud daughter of the WWW (more like the KKK sometimes). Since Michael’s 'revelation’, a collision of contradicting hate messages had taken over the lgbtq blog scene, making me question the actual point of voicing yourself on there. Bottom line, I was still alive and people like Michael, reversed queers with a new found faith in the old dogmas, remained intact, hovering over the earth like termites over an old rotting boat. My intention is to fire back in a classier, more meaningful way, or so I tell myself. I honestly don’t give a fuck about Michael anymore, he wasn’t for me anyways, queer or straight. I just want to make a lasting impression on part of generation of self-involved, oversensitive kids (I included), about the impact of living a public lie. Michael had been on papers all over the country, as a lighthouse for all struggling queer youths. His mom had opposed the hormones he desperately wanted, his dad had disowned him altogether, kicking him out their lifelong home in Maine. His childhood friends couldn’t bear to look at him. He was crushed. And alone. I had to spoon him to sleep every night for a year before he could find some form of inner peace. He lurked around, all puffy barren eyes, from all the crying, he couldn’t stand up straight, let alone stomach an entire meal without rushing to the nearest bathroom to let it all out, much like I after his little speech on 'sexual morality’. I’m really interested in knowing what is the moral stature of a queer guy with, say, a food fetish. Is he lost too, in the eyes of an 'almighty god that died to save us’? How much more bullshit could humanity pin on religion? I am intrigued to see what will be of us 50 or 100 years from now, when the church has run out of money and excuses to drain its congregations. When politicians no longer find motivation in the Bible or Koran. A new form of resentment I haven’t experienced before, one that feels awfully justified in its audacity and candour, starts burning inside of me like wildfire on a dry paraire. Tell me what to do, I cry out, not to some weird deity that claims my blood in exchange for his, but to myself, to my empty apartment, to Michael’s boxes, to our dog, sleeping peacefully like misery is a human invention. It has to be. Otherwise, what’s the point? It all has to begin and end with humanity, doesn’t it? It seems like my inner monologue is infinite, as is my despair. I need to put a stop to the madness, inside and outside of these four walls of middle class privilege and lgbtq artsiness. My life feels like a cartoon, sometimes, like some sort of gimmick, intended to amuse some conservative white man reading the Sunday paper in his office, while his secretary gives him a bj under he mahogany, oval shaped desk that is his life. We are objects and so are feelings. There is nothing really immaterial about existing. Representation has to take worldly form, each time it hits us like Katrina did those poor town’s people. Are thoughts and ideas even a thing? Maybe it’s just my current cynicism speaking through me, like 'god’ through its self - ordained prophets. Then again, we all speak for big truths we are too afraid to claim as entirely our own. Killing is bad, cheating is bad, love is good, sex is better with someone you care about. It seems like the world is indeed full of truths, yet not a single one belongs to individuals. They are either god’s, or society’s, or institutional truths, or universal. If our universe is our truth, how can we claim no part in it? Do we feel that insignificant? Are we that irresponsible about our own lives? All this is going in an email I am forwarding as a reader’s letter to a local newspaper I know the editor of. It’s not much, but enough to alleviate my bourgeois neurosis for a couple of hours. So I can go on with my candle lit baths, and dog walks through the well kept park across from my Berlin studio apartment. It is all very white and very common in its singularity. Like a long thread of contrivance and falsehood stitching it into one big quilt of social oppression. I tell myself I am transgender and a woman, therefore very vulnerable and discriminated against. Yet here I am, warm or cold at whim, eating delicious food I prepared but didn’t buy myself. Rich friendship is also a white privilege. As is college and travelling, and playing some fancy instrument like the cello. It is all part of the same dissident identity. Rejecting self-own wealth by keeping your privileged social circle, out of love, out of whatever, is equally imbalanced. Then again, what are we to do for a world made by us, right?

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readbookywooks · 7 years

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A quarter of an hour later I was rushing up and down the room in frenzied impatience, from minute to minute I went up to the screen and peeped through the crack at Liza. She was sitting on the ground with her head leaning against the bed, and must have been crying. But she did not go away, and that irritated me. This time she understood it all. I had insulted her finally, but ... there's no need to describe it. She realised that my outburst of passion had been simply revenge, a fresh humiliation, and that to my earlier, almost causeless hatred was added now a PERSONAL HATRED, born of envy .... Though I do not maintain positively that she understood all this distinctly; but she certainly did fully understand that I was a despicable man, and what was worse, incapable of loving her. I know I shall be told that this is incredible - but it is incredible to be as spiteful and stupid as I was; it may be added that it was strange I should not love her, or at any rate, appreciate her love. Why is it strange? In the first place, by then I was incapable of love, for I repeat, with me loving meant tyrannising and showing my moral superiority. I have never in my life been able to imagine any other sort of love, and have nowadays come to the point of sometimes thinking that love really consists in the right-freely given by the beloved object - to tyrannise over her. Even in my underground dreams I did not imagine love except as a struggle. I began it always with hatred and ended it with moral subjugation, and afterwards I never knew what to do with the subjugated object. And what is there to wonder at in that, since I had succeeded in so corrupting myself, since I was so out of touch with "real life," as to have actually thought of reproaching her, and putting her to shame for having come to me to hear "fine sentiments"; and did not even guess that she had come not to hear fine sentiments, but to love me, because to a woman all reformation, all salvation from any sort of ruin, and all moral renewal is included in love and can only show itself in that form. I did not hate her so much, however, when I was running about the room and peeping through the crack in the screen. I was only insufferably oppressed by her being here. I wanted her to disappear. I wanted "peace," to be left alone in my underground world. Real life oppressed me with its novelty so much that I could hardly breathe. But several minutes passed and she still remained, without stirring, as though she were unconscious. I had the shamelessness to tap softly at the screen as though to remind her .... She started, sprang up, and flew to seek her kerchief, her hat, her coat, as though making her escape from me .... Two minutes later she came from behind the screen and looked with heavy eyes at me. I gave a spiteful grin, which was forced, however, to KEEP UP APPEARANCES, and I turned away from her eyes. "Good-bye," she said, going towards the door. I ran up to her, seized her hand, opened it, thrust something in it and closed it again. Then I turned at once and dashed away in haste to the other corner of the room to avoid seeing, anyway .... I did mean a moment since to tell a lie - to write that I did this accidentally, not knowing what I was doing through foolishness, through losing my head. But I don't want to lie, and so I will say straight out that I opened her hand and put the money in it ... from spite. It came into my head to do this while I was running up and down the room and she was sitting behind the screen. But this I can say for certain: though I did that cruel thing purposely, it was not an impulse from the heart, but came from my evil brain. This cruelty was so affected, so purposely made up, so completely a product of the brain, of books, that I could not even keep it up a minute - first I dashed away to avoid seeing her, and then in shame and despair rushed after Liza. I opened the door in the passage and began listening. "Liza! Liza!" I cried on the stairs, but in a low voice, not boldly. There was no answer, but I fancied I heard her footsteps, lower down on the stairs. "Liza!" I cried, more loudly. No answer. But at that minute I heard the stiff outer glass door open heavily with a creak and slam violently; the sound echoed up the stairs. She had gone. I went back to my room in hesitation. I felt horribly oppressed. I stood still at the table, beside the chair on which she had sat and looked aimlessly before me. A minute passed, suddenly I started; straight before me on the table I saw .... In short, I saw a crumpled blue fiverouble note, the one I had thrust into her hand a minute before. It was the same note; it could be no other, there was no other in the flat. So she had managed to fling it from her hand on the table at the moment when I had dashed into the further corner. Well! I might have expected that she would do that. Might I have expected it? No, I was such an egoist, I was so lacking in respect for my fellow-creatures that I could not even imagine she would do so. I could not endure it. A minute later I flew like a madman to dress, flinging on what I could at random and ran headlong after her. She could not have got two hundred paces away when I ran out into the street. It was a still night and the snow was coming down in masses and falling almost perpendicularly, covering the pavement and the empty street as though with a pillow. There was no one in the street, no sound was to be heard. The street lamps gave a disconsolate and useless glimmer. I ran two hundred paces to the cross-roads and stopped short. Where had she gone? And why was I running after her? Why? To fall down before her, to sob with remorse, to kiss her feet, to entreat her forgiveness! I longed for that, my whole breast was being rent to pieces, and never, never shall I recall that minute with indifference. But - what for? I thought. Should I not begin to hate her, perhaps, even tomorrow, just because I had kissed her feet today? Should I give her happiness? Had I not recognised that day, for the hundredth time, what I was worth? Should I not torture her? I stood in the snow, gazing into the troubled darkness and pondered this. "And will it not be better?" I mused fantastically, afterwards at home, stifling the living pang of my heart with fantastic dreams. "Will it not be better that she should keep the resentment of the insult for ever? Resentment - why, it is purification; it is a most stinging and painful consciousness! Tomorrow I should have defiled her soul and have exhausted her heart, while now the feeling of insult will never die in her heart, and however loathsome the filth awaiting her - the feeling of insult will elevate and purify her ... by hatred ... h'm! ... perhaps, too, by forgiveness .... Will all that make things easier for her though? ..." And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better - cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better? So I dreamed as I sat at home that evening, almost dead with the pain in my soul. Never had I endured such suffering and remorse, yet could there have been the faintest doubt when I ran out from my lodging that I should turn back half-way? I never met Liza again and I have heard nothing of her. I will add, too, that I remained for a long time afterwards pleased with the phrase about the benefit from resentment and hatred in spite of the fact that I almost fell ill from misery. . . . . . Even now, so many years later, all this is somehow a very evil memory. I have many evil memories now, but ... hadn't I better end my "Notes" here? I believe I made a mistake in beginning to write them, anyway I have felt ashamed all the time I've been writing this story; so it's hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment. Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting; a novel needs a hero, and all the traits for an anti-hero are EXPRESSLY gathered together here, and what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are all divorced from life, we are all cripples, every one of us, more or less. We are so divorced from it that we feel at once a sort of loathing for real life, and so cannot bear to be reminded of it. Why, we have come almost to looking upon real life as an effort, almost as hard work, and we are all privately agreed that it is better in books. And why do we fuss and fume sometimes? Why are we perverse and ask for something else? We don't know what ourselves. It would be the worse for us if our petulant prayers were answered. Come, try, give any one of us, for instance, a little more independence, untie our hands, widen the spheres of our activity, relax the control and we ... yes, I assure you ... we should be begging to be under control again at once. I know that you will very likely be angry with me for that, and will begin shouting and stamping. Speak for yourself, you will say, and for your miseries in your underground holes, and don't dare to say all of us-excuse me, gentlemen, I am not justifying myself with that "all of us." As for what concerns me in particular I have only in my life carried to an extreme what you have not dared to carry halfway, and what's more, you have taken your cowardice for good sense, and have found comfort in deceiving yourselves. So that perhaps, after all, there is more life in me than in you. Look into it more carefully! Why, we don't even know what living means now, what it is, and what it is called? Leave us alone without books and we shall be lost and in confusion at once. We shall not know what to join on to, what to cling to, what to love and what to hate, what to respect and what to despise. We are oppressed at being men - men with a real individual body and blood, we are ashamed of it, we think it a disgrace and try to contrive to be some sort of impossible generalised man. We are stillborn, and for generations past have been begotten, not by living fathers, and that suits us better and better. We are developing a taste for it. Soon we shall contrive to be born somehow from an idea. But enough; I don't want to write more from "Underground."

#NotesfromUnderground

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