#fears/trauma so that's somewhat different. also not one character in this series has managed to defeat master xehanort by themselves so bit

[oveliagirlhaditright]

So... I've been meaning to make this posts for years, but fear kind of kept me from doing so (I thought I'd be raked over the coals for making this comparison, but maybe not). But you know what? I no longer care.

Kairi's treatment in KHIII somewhat reminds me of early Tifa Lockhart. And if Square Enix has any brains, they'll follow through with making her proper-Tifa Lockhart-esque.

Why does KHIII Kairi remind me of early Tifa Lockhart? Because a young Tifa started her training (martial arts training), and had so much promise, but took on Sephiroth before she was ready (who, to be fair, is a super-soldier for those who don't know: a SOLDIER. She was also grief-stricken there, after Sephiroth had burnt her village to the ground and murdered her father, so it was not a fair fight), and he nearly murders her (she's fatally wounded by him, that is, and only quick surgery time saves her).

And it reminds me of how in KHIII, Kairi gets training--has lots of potential--but fights in this war she really shouldn't be in at all (based on her skills at that point), and is thus killed.

Years later, Tifa has gotten much stronger and isn't going to make the same mistakes from before. And guess what? She gets to help bring down the man who has traumatized her so much, and nearly killed her before--as she fights to save the world:

Reminds me of how in Re:Mind (pun intended), after Sora brings Kairi back, she gets to fight alongside Sora (much stronger than she was the rest of the game), and end the evil reign of the man who had murdered her.

No one would ever put down Tifa Lockhart... so why are we so quick to demonize Kairi before her own arc is done?

I understand a lot of it is because how she's been treated in the past, truly I do. I'm right there with you in hating most of that. There's even so much in KHIII I don't like, and would have written so much differently. But we're about to start a new saga, and have some new writers on the scene, so let's cross our fingers that with some new eyes on the script, Kairi could finally get her dues.

[write-like-wright]

u asked for requests so im here to comply😳could you maybe do a ”should you date them” with the defense attorneys in the series?? or just generally some other characters?? bc the prosecutor one added like 20 years to my lifespan lmao. hope u have a great day!!

I'm so glad you liked it!!! Here's the sequel, just for you <33

Original post here

Should you date them: Ace Attorney defense lawyers edition

Phoenix Wright

yes, you really should

probably one of the best, if not the best, boyfriends in the series

wanna get married? husband material

wanna have kids? father material

has a tendency to casually adopt children actually, could be an issue at some point

worships you

you know how some guys brag about how they'd die for you?

Nick would unironically die for you

may even come close a few times but I'm pretty sure he's canonically invincible (eating poisoned glass and falling off a burning bridge, who?? tis' but a scratch!)

massive gossip

gets home after an investigation and immediately starts like "you won't believe what I found out about Gumshoe today"

somehow surprisingly mature and good at keeping secrets in spite of everything

has a lot of really cool friends!!! and larry

have you seen those shoulders tho?? mans built like a dorito, smashing through massive wooden doors n stuff

biggest monthly expense is hair gel

claims his hair is natural but you know better

don't be the big spoon, he will poke your eyes out

can somewhat read your mind tho? a bit off-putting but ok

marry him before Edgeworth someone else does

Mia Fey

hell yeah, dude

cool, calm, collected

has literal superpowers

successful business owner at 27!!! unironical #girlboss

went from being a lame rookie to a literal legend with her own practice and an apprentice in, like, three years

she's so smart, I fear her

has the fashion sense of a female character drawn by a cis man... oh, wait

god help whoever tries to hurt you

will literally kick their ass to hell

family-oriented

believes in second chances

took phoenix under her wing after everything, mia has the patience of a saint honestly

drops cool oneliners in everyday speech like a marvel character

curve lovers rejoice

doesn't mind being called dorky nicknames

major wife material

Diego Armando/Godot

I already covered him in my prosecutors list,, literally did not occur to me to split Diego and Godot into two lists

but to sum up, if I had to choose between the two, I'd go for Diego

i like my men like i like my coffee - tall, dark and bitter

^^ eats up pickup lines like those

Apollo Justice

Polly is such a sweet babey boy, please be nice to him

short king

low on confidence, makes up for it by being loud

*voice cracking* HE'S FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!

your neighbours will hate him

such a pushover, will do anything you ask of him

sensitive boy, not afraid to cry

pretends not to be dorky - is very dorky

consumes nerdy media almost exclusively (canonically a Whovian! but Capcom can't say that)

bikes everywhere and is apparently good with a hula hoop

Polly got cake is what I'm saying

have you seen his cool street style clothes?? sk8er boi

very grounded, literally

might play around and hold your hand for comfort

won't come to visit you if you live on a high floor, sorry

cat dad!!! cat pics!!! yes!!!

about 7 different tragic backstories

new secret family member drops every week

stares at you when you speak sometimes

is he jealous of Klavier?? does he have a crush on him??? who knows but it's funny watching them interact

bicon

spends way too much time on his hair

someone please date him, he deserves some love

Athena Cykes

holy childhood trauma batman

been through a lot

total empath

if you're sad, she's sad

can kinda read your mind... why is this such a common thing in AA games?? I like my privacy

super energetic

will drag you to the gym, take you on hikes, practice wrestling moves on you...

you will always be sore but also in the best shape of your life

has minus 25 chill

incapable of keeping secrets from you

her weird goth convict uncle threatens you every once in a while

she promises he means it in a friendly way

loves europop

way too accomplished for her age, everyone in this game is so smart, help

i feel like she'd enjoy theme parks idk

date her, she's baby and she needs some TLC

Kristoph Gavin

no

he's scary

thinks he's better than you

thinks he's better than everyone

has the audacity to wear white shoes with a blue suit??? are you going to prom????? sir????

obsessed with phoenix wright to an alarming degree

perfectly manicured nails!

the kind of guy who warns you never to go into his basement

nice on the outside but it's all fake

deeply rooted issues even he's unaware of

if you like drillbit hair consider Klavier instead

Ryunosuke Naruhodo

world's biggest baby

secretly a bitch

loves to clown on people

fake it till you make it

has no clue what he's doing most of the time

very determined in spite of that

everyone loves him

so many cool friends

cries at the thought of your bare ankles

physically incapable of walking by a shop and not buying something he doesn't need

"look, i got you a gift!!" "awh, how sweet! ...what is it?" "i don't know, i'll ask Mr Sholmes when he gets home!"

good with his tongue

may be somewhat trapped in the closet

has literally zero chill

remember when he just casually chased armed robbers??

must be a family trait

Iris interrogates you about your intentions with her brother

she has a gun

you have no privacy at his place

Sholmes crashes your dates

his bromance with Kazuma sometimes drops the "b"

becomes ultra cool eventually

hop into that time machine and date Ryu's ass, but be prepared to deal with period-appropriate homoeroticism and misogyny lol

Extra little shout out to Kazuma Asogi for that one time where he was a defense lawyer for, like, an hour and a half and somehow managed to cram 50 of the horniest one-liners in the game in that very limited time. Date him.

[cherry-valentine]

Spring 2021 Anime Season

Mars Red is one of two series this season set in one of my favorite periods, the Meiji era. It’s a vampire series that deals a lot with the politics of war as the Japanese military is attempting to establish a vampire unit, supposedly to compete with the British vampire unit (because of course that’s a thing). It focuses on a human military officer named Maeda who is charged with recruiting and managing vampires. Maeda is the type of character I really enjoy. Handsome, a little older than most anime protagonists, chain-smoking, overly serious, and voiced by Junichi Suwabe (who has to have the sexiest voice in all of anime). The series has a classic, romantic feel to it. Its take on vampires is somewhat traditional (they evaporate in the sun, drink blood, sleep in coffins, have super strength and speed, etc.). If it brings anything new to the table, it’s the concept of vampires having different ranks, from S-class down, and how lower ranks naturally fear higher ranks. Still yet, the classic vibe works in the show’s favor. Combined with the historical setting, it gives the show a certain charm. The art is lovely, from the backgrounds to the character designs, and the music is a high point. It easily has the best ending theme of the season.

Fumetsu no Anata e (To Your Eternity) is a unique series. I’ve seen a lot of people comparing it to Mushishi, but with an overarching plot, and that assessment is pretty accurate. The show follows an entity that comes to be known as Fushi. It begins as an orb, and as it makes contact with other objects and creatures, it learns from them and can possibly take their forms. Among the forms it most often takes are a white wolf and a young man. Originally, it’s a somewhat empty shell, incapable of communicating, but as it meets different creatures and learns, it develops a personality and begins to speak. The series is, overall, about Fushi’s journey through this world and all the experiences it gains, both wonderful and tragic. There’s a subtle beauty to the series, with an early focus on nature, but it also has scenes of trauma and violence. The animation is fluid and the facial expressions are amazing. There’s an overall natural feel to it that, like others have pointed out, reminds me of Mushishi (though it’s definitely faster paced than Mushishi). The show also likes to make you cry, so keep that in mind.

Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood is the other series set in the Meiji era this season, albeit an alternate version of it that has a strange form of technology. To be honest, I’m a little fuzzy on some of the details, but it seems to be about a group called the Nue who work for the government to fight against a growing rebellion. The main character is Sawa, a member of Nue who has some sort of special powers involving her blood, which allow her to transform and battle monsters, or whatever else stands in her way. Her goal is to get revenge for the death of her entire clan (implied to be wiped out because of their power). Sawa is a decent heroine, a woman who craves vengeance and is determined to get it through any means, but is, at her core, a compassionate person who would rather live in peace. It’s this internal conflict that makes Sawa compelling (even if it’s not entirely original). The other characters are interesting, particularly Tsuki, whom I won’t talk much about because it would involve spoilers. The plot and details can get a little convoluted, but the action and animation are solid. When Sawa transforms, the art style changes, and it’s a really cool visual effect. The music is also nice.

Shaman King received a remake this season. I was a huge fan of the original, and so far I’m enjoying the remake, but to be honest, I’m having trouble seeing the point. The art is almost the same (just a lot shinier), the voice actors are the same, the plot is the same. Maybe it’s just that it’s been so long since I saw the original, I’m unable to remember the details and so I can’t tell what’s different. But to me it feels like I’m just rewatching the show. Which is fine, because I loved it to begin with. Maybe it gets different later on. Maybe it more closely follows the manga. I’ll keep watching to find out. For anyone new to the series, it looks like the remake is a solid place to start if you want to get into it. I won’t go into plot details for a story this old, so I’ll just say it’s a top tier shounen fighting series with a unique art style and some very memorable characters. If you like that sort of thing, and missed the original (or you just want a refresher), definitely check it out!

Godzilla Singular Point is a true delight. I’m a huge Godzilla (and kaiju in general) fan. I’ve watched every single Godzilla movie, as well as all the related movies (the Mothra films, Rodan, etc.), but I never watched the previous Godzilla anime that was on Netflix a few years ago. It just didn’t sound like something I’d like. Singular Point, however, is right up my alley. Set mainly in a small seaside town that’s suddenly attacked by bird-like monsters known as Rodans, we have two geeky protagonists using their intelligence to figure out what’s going on while more and more monsters appear. Mei and Yun are excellent heroes. They rely on their wits rather than physical strength, which is a refreshing approach. It’s also interesting that they have little to no face-to-face interaction. Instead, they chat with each other via text as they work separately. They often challenge each other with science questions. It’s adorable. The show’s overall feel is fairly upbeat and energetic. The colorful art and peppy character designs by Kazue Kato (who did Blue Exorcist) help with this feel. It should be noted that Godzilla himself doesn’t fully appear until halfway through the series. It says a lot about the quality of the show that I don’t actually mind that at all. Some of the science stuff does go over my head, but the general plot is easy enough to follow and the action is very well done. It also has fantastic music, with my favorite opening theme of the season. Even if Godzilla isn’t your thing, consider giving this series a shot if you like nerdy science types as heroes.

Burning Kabaddi is a sports anime about an unsual sport. I’d never heard of it before now, and if people in the comments were not talking about the very real sport, I would have assumed it was made up for the anime. The show is aware that the sport is obscure, so it takes great pains to explain the rules and details so that we can all follow the action. The story centers on Yoigoshi, a soccer prodigy who decides to drop all sports once he gets to high school due to all the drama and angst that surrounded him (mostly due to his teammates being jealous of his talent), and pursue a career as a streamer. All the various sports clubs at the school want to recruit him (especially the soccer club, of course) because they’ve heard of his skill and he has an athletic build. He rejects them all, but the Kabaddi club is strangely relentless. He ends up being manipulated into joining (the vice captain of the team straight up blackmails him by threatening to show his online streaming account to the whole school). Despite this rocky beginning, Yoigoshi actually starts to enjoy playing Kabaddi, and more importantly, begins to bond with his new teammates. It’s pretty fun stuff that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The art is serviceable for a sports anime and the music is fine. The series isn’t going to blow your mind, but it’s a fun way to spend twenty minutes every week. Worth a watch if you have a weakness for hot blooded sports anime.

The World Ends With You finally got its anime adaptation and I was so excited. The game is one of my all-time favorites. So far the anime is pretty good. The art is a near perfect replication of the bold, thick-lined art of the game. The battles are exciting and cool. Best of all, the anime often uses music from the game. This is important because the game has one of the best soundtracks, ever. Every time I recognize a song from the game, I almost squeal. If I had a complaint, it’s that the pacing feels a little off at times. It feels like the anime is rushing through the story, but that’s understandable. In the game, it took longer for everything to happen because you were walking from place to place, fighting battles along the way, stopping to scan NPC’s, shopping at stores, spending time in menus, etc. The anime has to cut most of that out, so naturally things are going to move faster. The result is that you don’t get to spend as much time with these characters, and so you feel less attached to them. Anyone watching the anime who didn’t play the game might feel like the emotional beats are lacking. I feel like this anime is definitely meant to be enjoyed by fans of the game, rather than newcomers to the story. But if you are a fan of the game? You should be watching this every week. It’s an excellent refresher on the story, just in time for the second game to come out this summer. Super high on my watch list.

Boku no Hero Academia has a new season. To be honest I don’t remember what number we’re on. This season, so far, focuses on a tournament-style competition between the two main hero classes. I would much prefer the plot to move on to something more exciting involving the villains, but I suppose they have to throw arcs like this in every so often just to remind everyone of which characters have which quirks. The plus point is that instead of being an individual competition, it’s team-based. What this ultimately means is that characters that are viewed as weaker or having more obscure quirks actually get a chance to shine. These are characters who definitely aren’t going to win one-on-one battles. In an individual tournament, it’s pretty much a given that characters like Deku, Bakugou, and Todoroki are going to win most of the matches. But in a team, everyone has to work together. The end result is that the lady characters, all of whom have fairly weak or situational quirks, finally FINALLY get to actually do stuff! Even better, in several of the match-ups, the girls have taken the lead in planning and strategizing. It’s been pretty nice to watch. The girls from the other class have been very proactive as well. I really wish the girls could do more in “real” battles with villains, since it’s clear that they can step up when they need to. Who knows? Maybe this is a sign of good things to come.

86 is a new mecha/sci-fi anime based on a series of light novels. The setup is fairly cool: In a country where everyone has silver hair and eyes, the people live in what looks like a utopia. There is a war going on outside their protected land but all combat is performed by automated robots, so there are no human casualties... or so the government would have the people believe. In reality, there is a district that exists on the outskirts of the country called 86, where people who don’t have silver hair and eyes are sent to pilot the robots and fight to protect the country that shunned them. Most of the pilots are children or teenagers. The mortality rate is high. Only a few people in the government know of their existence, mostly military types that include “handlers”. These handlers each take on an 86 unit and communicate with them through a system called “para-raid”. Using this, they monitor the battlefield from their safe positions and issue commands. Naturally, most handlers view their units as nothing more than tools in the war, and most 86-ers view their handlers as privileged snobs who know nothing of actual battle. The real plot kicks in when Lena, a young Major, becomes the new handler for a particular 86 unit. Lena is sympathetic to the people of 86, but it’s going to be hard getting her notoriously rough unit to accept her. The plot is a bit complicated and the show deals with some weighty themes (racism, privilege, war, child soldiers, death). Lena is a likable enough heroine and the members of 86 are all interesting and fairly well written. The music is fine. The art... well, it’s pretty to look at, but it feels a bit generic to me. A bit too shiny. The mecha designs are great, but I’m not crazy about the character designs, which feel like they could be from any other modern anime. I also find it sad but hilarious at the same time that the women’s military uniforms are clearly designed for fanservice (they include mini skirts, thigh-highs with garters, and a short jacket that opens up just above the chest to show the tight shirt underneath) while the men’s uniforms are just totally normal military wear. To be honest it’s just too stupid to actually be offensive, so it comes across as comical. Thankfully, the interesting setup and plot carry the show, making it good enough to overlook the generic visuals.

Moriarty the Patriot has a new season... maybe? I think it’s technically still season one, but with a split cour. Regardless, it feels like a new season so I’m treating it as such. The series focuses on famous Sherlock antagonist Moriarty, here represented as a trio of handsome brothers (though one of them is clearly the protagonist and the leader of the group) who work as “crime consultants” and basically help the lower classes wage class warfare against the nobility. This season shifts the focus away from the individual crimes Moriarty concocts and instead focuses on larger-scale conflicts that involve government conspiracies, corrupt cops, etc. We’re also treated to a lady James Bond (finally!), fixing one of the very few complaints I had about the first cour (that it lacked strong lady characters). The show remains very compelling, with beautiful art and excellent new opening and ending themes.

Best of Season:

Best New Show: Godzilla Singular Point

Best Opening Theme: Godzilla Singular Point

Best Ending Theme: Mars Red

Best New Male Character: Maeda (Mars Red)

Best New Female Character: Sawa (Joran)

[meggannn]

shepard/garrus?

oh boy, sorry for the late response! I always end up posting these things and then going to read/take a nap/play a game or something. anyway writing this up took two hours, i hope it is even slightly interesting to read. cut because this is looooooong

What made you ship it?

I think I was interested in this ship before I even played ME. I was just like “I know Shepard is a character and an alien named Garrus is a character, and people draw porn of them together.” because I think it’s reasonable to say it’s one of, if not the most, popular ship in the fandom, or at least in ME’s tumblr fandom? and the way people talked about it, I knew their tropes were #banter, #battle couple, #partnerships, and... and as we’ve learned from royai, I am a bit weak to those tropes (assuming I like both of the characters). the way people talked about them also from a “best friends” angle—which is sort of forced in-game in a way that seems strange to me now—was also a plus in its favor at the time. (if they get together, I do see their friendship/companionship, in whatever form, in some ways integral to their romance—unless you’re playing full far-right renegade who’s like a xenophobe and hate-fucking Garrus, I guess?—but Bioware also kind of shoehorned Garrus into that best-friend role and that’s a topic for another day.)

What are your favorite things about the ship?

(my friend will hit me if I say “partnerships” again) I’m gonna talk about the way I play my Shepard now, because so much is dependent on the unique Shepard. for Lydia’s journey over the series, I see a large part of her journey as basically a study of her (often self-inflicted) loneliness. and she never entirely breaks her habits of self-isolation, but the events of the series force her to be vulnerable in a way she would prefer not to be in front of a crew, or, y’know, ever. Garrus becomes an integral part of that story to help her break her out of these bad habits (all of the crew does, particularly also Ashley for my Shep), but to my eyes, the story of “Shepard and Garrus’s relationship” is also one of mutual respect, burden-sharing, and sanity and morality checks.

I don’t think of their “mentor” relationship in ME1 very often mostly because I don’t think it was done particularly well, but for all its faults, I do like how naturally the jump from “subordinate” in ME1 to “ally” in ME2 felt; once you meet Garrus on Omega you feel more on the same footing as two friends greeting each other because you’ve both recently been through trauma and the sight of a friendly face in a station full of hostiles is so unexpectedly welcome that it lets them both hope things will be okay for a minute. starting from that moment, Garrus becomes one of the few people who can see “under” her mask, I guess: partly because he’s one of the few combatants from the SR-1 who knows Shepard well and sees who she is both on the field and onboard the SR-2, with the ability to compare both to the times of “before you died”; partly because he has trauma response training and recognizes it in others even if he doesn’t in himself; partly because his loyal personality makes him sensitive to wonder how she’s dealing with being resurrected; and also partly because they’ve both gone through similar things. namely, getting your squad killed and blaming yourself for it, and it possibly being your fault (BioWare is inconsistent on what Shepard’s role was on Akuze, but in ME1 she has the chance to reply that she was responsible for getting them out safely, and failed).

necessity forces Shepard to adapt to things like being effectively forced to work for terrorists; being isolated from her support system; being resurrected and feeling like a stranger in her own body; later, getting decommissioned for making an incredibly difficult call to save the galaxy; watching your homeworld burn; being forced into a political role negotiating high stakes you don’t know how to play; being told you’re the spearhead of a galactic war; doing all of this without a full crew complement; the list goes on. those are all, on their own, incredibly isolating, traumatic experiences, and my Shepard’s not emotionally sane at the best of times. (emotionally stable, perhaps, only in the most literal of terms, at least on the surface. she’s like a rock when shit hits the fan. emotionally sane, no, for that reason and more.)

the tables have turned, and Garrus ends up becoming a large part of helping her regain agency in most if not all of those things: in ME2 he was a former crew member she trusted, and he was eager to work for her and be distracted from his failures on Omega. over in the battery, he is himself recovering from a major injury (like Shepard) and going through the aftermath of a bloodbath he feels responsible for (like Shepard), working on a crew that holds him at arm’s length, that he also... arguably... didn’t have much choice in joining (like Shepard—I’m assuming he wasn’t held hostage and joined voluntarily after waking up, but lbr this is unconfirmed). their reasons are different and varied, but they don’t realize until much later that they have found each other at the most opportune time, providing a sense of stability for each other, and also, frankly, sanity and morality checks.

in ME3, he steps into this role more fully because he’s become more disciplined, is doing work firmly in his wheelhouse, and paired up against Shepard struggling with their positions somewhat reversed from ME1: him more confident and her now completely out of her element, floundering with her place on a galactic scale. without Garrus—and Chakwas, and Joker, and Tali, and later the loyalty of the entire SR-2—the story of ME would be a tragedy, and it would end shortly in ME2; it’d be the story of how my Shepard slowly went insane being forced to fight boogeymen under a terrorist banner. Garrus isn’t, like, the keeper of her sanity, but their ability to check each other, and see themselves in the eyes of each other, provides stability and occasionally a bit of a wake-up call to both of them. when they’re both vulnerable, they both feel most seen, and most understood, by an alien that listens.

one angle of this ship that highly interests me at the moment, along with the above, is that while it’s not illegal for them to be together, it’s still... a really bad fucking idea lmao. (I could make the argument that it’s a bad idea for Shepard to be in any relationship with their crew but I think there are a few ships—Garrus, Tali, any Alliance crew at all—that realistically would be huge political clusterfucks.) so overcoming personal insecurity and fear of the unknown to acknowledge interest in each other, and the desire to become an item, getting roadblocked by a reality wake-up call with the fact that 1) she’s his boss, 2) Garrus comes from a society where station matters, like, sort of a lot and it even determines your job and how much legal power you have, 3) the potential political blowback (which would be ENORMOUS because lbr the hierarchy may not care about what turians do in off-hours but they WOULD care about the superior/subordinate thing, the human thing, the fact that they’re doing this while a war is going on. basically one of their best agents is on the Normandy to negotiate their interests and they’re basically at the whims of their relationship the whole time)... it’s a lot! all of that sort of makes it tragic, but I’m curious to see how they’d overcome it.

anyway, all of that is where I’m coming from when I think or write about this ship, but there’s a lot more I’m not mentioning here. there are a lot of juxtapositions that in my head that I’ve either added or extrapolated from canon that also interest me about this pairing. Garrus is a former cop, as is his father; Lydia is a poor kid who used to be in a gang out of necessity. Garrus is a turian with often traditionalist thinking; Shepard is a human who has much less sociopolitical power than him, even if she is his superior on the Normandy. both of them are roughly as old as the First Contact War, when their people were at each other’s throats not thirty years ago. Garrus idolizes Spectrehood while Lydia hates it, feeling it was forced on her. they can’t eat the same food. and yet despite all of that, and the fact that they need translators to communicate, they manage to understand each other when a lot of the world around them doesn’t.

god this is not even the full list of it. anyway I could go on but I’ll stop there lol.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

oh jesus, so much. I’m a grouchy and picky shipper, be warned.

pining can always make my ships more interesting, and imo it’s a consistent part of any ship of Shepard’s, considering it’s wildly inappropriate and unprofessional for her to be fucking any subordinate, so I think more consideration could be given to shakarian in the “we shouldn’t be having a thing and oh also you’re an alien and I’m kind of scared of both your government and your body” angle! I hope to explore that a bit with a fic I’m writing (if I ever finish it, god).

I hate the flavor of fandom!shakarian where Shepard romanced Kaidan in ME1 then felt “betrayed” when he’s confused and hurt on Horizon, so she gets with Garrus as like... revenge? idk. and then Garrus usually develops this bias against Kaidan as a sort of author mouthpiece (which is inconsistent with his characterization cause Garrus is nothing but pleased to have Kaidan back on the SR-2 in ME3!) and takes up the anti-Kaidan crusade cause K ~questioned the commander~ (since when does Garrus fall over himself defending a superior from criticism?) like, idk. I think Garrus can be sensitive to the fact that that reuniting must’ve been painful for Shepard, but also be aware that it was also really painful for Kaidan because all of Kaidan’s complicated feelings about Shepard’s resurrection were, realistically, things Garrus should’ve felt too! this trope is very popular but just feels like manufactured drama for drama’s sake, idk, I’m also not big on love triangles so. I would much rather people just rescue Ashley on Virmire and avoid the whole thing rather than have previously-romanced Kaidan around in ME3 for the sole purpose of forcing him to watch Shepard/Garrus being happy together tbh.

I think full goody-goody paragon Shepard is too preachy to make a good partner for Garrus and full shoot-anyone-in-my-way renegade Shepard encourages and emboldens his worst tendencies (and Castis Vakarian is right to disapprove of them). most people end up playing some combination of both, or if they do settle in one camp or the other, usually there is some sense of realism where Shepard doesn’t play nice/naive or play mean all the time, so it’s rare I see either of those kinds of extreme Shepards depicted, but in general if there is a Shepard that is so far in one direction it seems illogical to me that they ever stay together.

I think wanting a mShep romance for Garrus is a pretty welcome idea in fandom, but adding onto that, I think Garrus should’ve been romanceable in ME3 for players who changed their minds on other romances or want to play slow-burn romances! we had it for Kaidan—and should’ve had it for Ash—so (pounds fist on desk) Garrus too imo!

I hate the canon get-together because Shepard walking into the battery and asking “do you want to fuck” feels very tailored to the players who want to romance Garrus, not to who Commander Shepard is, imo. it lacked all of the subtlety and depth of some other romances—until the scene of Garrus coming to her cabin with a wine bottle, at least, cause I do like that scene, but anyway, I dislike the actual get-together.

just in general, I’m a stick in the mud, so my favorite iteration of this ship is where Shepard is resolutely professional, and the challenge of it becomes him getting her to open up, not the other way around. like, I think on some level every iteration of Shepard is a bit of a lunatic/eccentric, because you have to be to do the things they do, but I like to see their flirting with less of her calling him “big guy” (not sure where that came from, is that in canon? I must’ve missed it, but personally I don’t like it) and more of Garrus making wisecracks in the canteen while he’s talking to Joker, but he’s looking at her out of the corner of his eyes and he really said his joke with the aim of making her laugh, and as she’s reading her datapad she hears him, and even when she wants to chuckle she stops himself and just smirks cause she doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a laugh, but he sees her lips twitch and feels his heart flutter. that. I want more of that.

oh lastly, I hate “Shepard takes Vakarian clan markings” in any iteration. there is no canon relation to turians being poc—in fact I’d argue they have sociopolitical privilege real-world bipoc do not—but the concept of social face markings, face tattoos, etc., is rooted in non-white cultures and with the fact that 1) turians had a literal civil war over the territories those markings represent, 2) we don’t even know if marriage is how markings are shared or if non-turians are ever invited to wear them in the first place, 3) most of the art of this trend, lbr, is of mostly white Shepards in wedding dresses and blue face paint... all that combined just makes me frown and scroll faster every time I see it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bipoc Shepard with Vakarian face markings in fic/art, and that to me is very telling (not because they should have them, but because bipoc fans who make bipoc Shepards usually recognize when a racially-coded trope is uhhhhh not so great to appropriate for someone not of that group).

[aion-rsa]

How Ted Lasso Sneakily Crafted its Empire Strikes Back Season

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This article contains Ted Lasso spoilers through season 2 episode 8.

Perhaps you’ve heard, but Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso was the subject of some dreaded Discourse recently. 

Since the Internet is infinite and we privileged few in the media have nothing but time, a handful of features came out weeks ago essentially questioning what Ted Lasso season 2 was even all about. Many of these features were well-written, well-argued, and fair, but when filtered through Twitter’s anti-nuance machine (i.e. Twitter itself), every feature boiled down to the same reductive take: Ted Lasso season 2 doesn’t have a conflict. 

In some respects, this take was the inevitable reaction to the metanarrative surrounding Ted Lasso in the first place. Despite drawing its inspiration from a series of somewhat cynical NBC Sports Premier League commercials, the first season of Ted Lasso was all about the transformative power of kindness. 

Or at least that’s what we critics declared it to be. And I don’t blame us. Awash in a flood of screeners about antiheroes, dystopias, and the end of the world, the simple kindness of Ted Lasso seemed revolutionary. They made a TV show about a guy who is…nice? They can do that? But the inherent goodness of its lead character was always Ted Lasso’s elevator pitch, not its thesis. 

There’s been a darkness at the center of Ted Lasso since its very first moment, when an American man got on a flight to London in a doomed attempt to save his marriage. And, as season 2’s brilliant eighth episode rolls around, it’s become clear that that darkness is what the show has really been “about” this whole time. 

Season 2 episode 8 “Man City” (the title is referring to AFC Richmond’s FA Cup match against opponent Manchester City but also stealthily reveals that this installment will be all about men and their respective traumas) is quite simply the best episode of Ted Lasso yet. It also might be the best episode of television this year. Near the episode’s end, right before AFC Richmond plays a crucial FA Cup match against the mighty Manchester City, coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) finally comes clean with his coaching staff. He’s been suffering from panic attacks of late. His assistant coaches hear him, accept him, and then head off to the pitch where Man City absolutely obliterates their team.

Man City destroys AFC Richmond. They annihilate them. Embarrass them. Stuff them into a locker and steal their lunch money. The final score is 4-0 but it might as well be 400-0. The coaching staff is rattled but the players are hit even harder. Richmond’s star striker and former Man City player Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) is forced to endure watching his scumbag father cheer for his hometown team from the Wembley Stadium stands at the expense of his son. 

After the game, Jamie’s father, James (Kieran O’Brien), enters the locker room where he drunkenly accosts him for being a loser and demands that Jamie grant access to the Wembley Stadium pitch for him and his scumbag friends to run around on. When Jamie refuses, his father pushes him, so Jamie reflexively punches him right in the face. James is dragged out of the locker room by Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), leading a stunned and traumatized Jamie Tartt standing in the middle of the room, as if in a spotlight of pure pain, surrounded by teammates too afraid to even approach him. And then something amazing happens…

Here’s the dirty secret about television: there’s a lot of it. Due to the sheer number of TV shows released each year, even the best of them are destined to become little more than memories long-term. Sometimes all you can ask from multiple episodes and seasons of television is to provide you with one moment, one line, or one warm feeling to carry with you into the future. I don’t know how much I’ll remember from Ted Lasso 30-40 years from now when I’m immobile and reclined in my floating entertainment unit, Wall-E style. But I know I’ll at least remember the moment that Roy hugs Jamie.

The great Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) – a character so disconnected from his own emotions that some fans are convinced he’s CGI – embraces the one person in the world he is least likely to embrace. As Roy and Jamie wordlessly hug, it’s hard to tell which man is more shocked by the moment. Ultimately, however, it might be Ted Lasso himself who is hit hardest. Shortly after seeing Roy play father to the younger Jamie, Ted quickly exits the locker room and calls sports psychologist Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles) on his Apple TV+-apporved iPhone. 

“My father killed himself when I was 16. That happened. To me and to my mom,” Ted says, weeping. 

And that, my friends, is what Ted Lasso is all about. Pain. And dads. But mostly pain. 

None of us can say that Ted Lasso didn’t warn us it was coming. To go back to the discourse of it all real quick – I don’t blame anyone for not picking up on the direction that this show was so clearly heading in. Ted Lasso is, first and foremost, a sitcom. The beauty of sitcoms is that you welcome them into your home to watch at your own pace and your own terms. If having Ted Lasso on in the background so you can occasionally see the handsome mustache man who smiles while you fold your laundry is the way you’ve chosen to engage with the show, then great! Just know that season 2 has been operating on a deeper level this whole time as well.

Let’s take things all the way back to the beginning – back to before season 2 even began. You’ve likely heard the old philosophical thought experiment “if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well Jason Sudeikis’s interviews leading up the season 2 premiere beg an equally as interesting hypothetical “how many times can one man mention The Empire Strikes Back before someone notices??”

Sudeikis referred to Ted Lasso season 2 as the show’s “Empire Strikes Back” multiple times before the premiere including in his local Kansas City Star and his technically local USA Today. The show even explicitly mentions the second Star Wars film in this season’s first episode when Richmond general manager Higgins (Jeremy Swyft) tells Ted that his kids are watching the trilogy for the first time. Sudeikis (who co-created and produces the show) and showrunner Bill Lawrence clearly want us to take the idea that Ted Lasso season 2 is The Empire Strikes Back seriously. And why would that be? 

Think of how ESB differs from its two Star Wars siblings in the original trilogy. This is the story that features arguably the series most iconic moment when Luke Skywalker discovers his dad is a dick on a literal universal level. It also has the only unambiguously downer ending of any original trilogy Star Wars film. Luke is thoroughly defeated in this installment. Having one’s hand chopped off by their father and barely escaping with their life is definitely the Star Wars version of a 4-0 defeat. 

The Empire Strikes Back can safely be boiled down into two concepts: 

Dads are complicated.

Everything sucks.

When viewed through those two conceptual prisms, so much of Ted Lasso season 2 begins to make more sense.

Episode 1 opens with the death of a dog and then leads into a classic Ted Lasso speech that could serve as this season’s mission statemetn. After recounting the story of how he cared for his sick neighbor’s dog, Ted concludes with: “It’s funny to think about the things in your life that can make you cry knowing that they existed then become the same thing that can make you cry knowing that they’re now gone. Those things come into our lives to help us get from one place to a better one.”

Things like…a father who you didn’t have nearly enough time with? Following episode 1 (and following just about every episode this season), Bill Lawrence took to Twitter to assuage viewers’ fears about a lack of central conflict this season. He had this to say about Ted’s big speech.

Look, Merrill. It was thought out, but the speech he gives after (Written by Jason himself – I loved it) is the core of the season, but we knew some people might bum out.

— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 27, 2021

Sorry, truly. Ted’s speech after (which I love, but am obviously biased) is a big part of the season. But it sounds like you had a crappy thing happen recently.

— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 28, 2021

It’s not. But Ted’s speech has big relevance. Stick around!

— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 26, 2021

He also had this to say about dads.

Effin Dads, man. Love mine so, but he’s struggling a bit.

— Bill Lawrence (@VDOOZER) July 27, 2021

“Effin dads” and our complicated relationships with them are all over Ted Lasso season 2. In the very next episode, Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) tells Ted “You know, my father says that every time you’re on TV, he’s very happy that I’m here. That I’m in safe hands with you.”

Ted smiles at this bit of info but not as warmly as you might expect. Because to Ted, a dad isn’t a reassuring presence but rather someone you love who will just leave when you need him the most. That’s why he’s been trying to be the perfect father figure this whole time. That’s why he did something as extreme as leaving his family behind in Kansas while he heads off to London. If giving his wife space was the only way to preserve the family and remain a good dad, then he was going to give her a whole ocean of space.

Moreover, Ted hasn’t just been trying to serve as a father figure to his son this whole time but to everyone else as well. Sam’s comment to Ted reminds him that not everyone has a good dad, which encourages him to bring Jamie into the fold in the first place.

As time goes on, however, the stress of being the consummate father to everyone in his orbit begins to wear on Ted. Throughout the entirety of this season, Ted Lasso appears to be trying to be Ted Lasso just a bit too hard. His energy levels are too high. His jokes go on too long. The same life lessons that worked last year aren’t working this year. AFC Richmond opens with an embarrassing streak of draws before Jamie’s immense talents set things straight.

It all culminates in this season’s sixth episode when Ted has his second panic attack in as many years. This time it’s in public during an important game. The experience sends Ted running through the concourse of the stadium until he somehow ends up in the dark on Dr. Fieldstone’s couch, instinctively, like a wounded animal. 

It’s certainly no coincidence that this panic attack occurs on the same day that Ted received a call from his son’s school asking him to pick him up, not realizing that he’s an ocean away. In that moment, Ted can’t help but remember what it’s like to be left behind by his own father and subconsciously wonder if he’s doing the same. 

Though the shallow waters of Ted Lasso season 2 may have appeared consequence free for half its run, beneath the surface was a tidal wave of conflict. Just because the conflict wasn’t taking place between a happy-go-lucky football coach and a villainous owner doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.

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Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is terrible at meeting deadlines but great at writing. According to him (and William Faulkner, from whom he borrows the quote), the only conflict worth writing about is that of the human heart with itself. That’s something that The Empire Strikes Back understood. And it’s something that Ted Lasso season 2 does as well.

The post How Ted Lasso Sneakily Crafted its Empire Strikes Back Season appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[edwardsvirginity]

au where edward has aro’s powers and aro has his

read more bc this got looonnnggg

How Edward’s life would be different:

his power starts out just in his palms (like kate’s did, my hc for canon!aro too) and he makes no effort to expand it

actually he just straight up hates his power bc duh, he’s edward (”it’s a curse,” he says dramatically, whenever anyone asks him abt it)

he realizes he has it fairly quickly when right after waking up from being turned he touches carlisle and immediately knows everything

but since he touches carlisle pre-esme carlisle’s outlook is still pretty bleak

edward is 10,000x more emo and angsty

super nihilistic bc whenever he does read someone’s whole life it becomes clear to him that there’s no real order to anything or narrative guiding ppl’s lives so like... we all out here, suffering eternally

(tbh he’s deeply impacted by having touched carlisle first and absorbs carlisle’s pre-esme deep despair, loneliness, and nihilism, which colors his whole vampire life from the beginning)

he wears gloves all the time bc he hates touching ppl bc it’s an invasion of their privacy and mentally fucks him up

he tried to do the “kill bad ppl” thing like in canon in order to restore a personal sense of justice and order to the universe buuuuuuutttt it didn’t last long bc he had to touch ppl to eat them and it became abundantly clear that people are complex and not easily sorted into good/bad boxes, and it’s hard to condemn someone to die when you know their entire life

edward is deeeeeeeeppppllyy empathetic as a result of his gift. he’s also TERRIBLE at making decisions

he resisted going to HS with the others for a really long time bc he was afraid of accidentally touching someone

the only person he touches regularly is alice bc she worries abt him being touch-starved and lonely, and she insists. edward is ok with it bc alice is legit super optimistic and listening to her thoughts is really soothing/healing, and he has her consent. plus, it’s cool/useful to be able to see her visions. edward starts pushing his gift’s limits/expanding it in order to try and access alice’s memories from when she was human, as a gift to her

the rest of the vamps in the house fucking makes him even more emo than in canon bc he thinks he can never bang someone bc it would mean touching them all the time and he couldn’t condemn someone to an eternity without privacy, and no one would ever consent to that

edward hates himself bc he feels like his gift is unethical and he’s a monster for having it and invading ppl’s privacy the way he does

he does occasionally touch ppl for really important reasons... if the cullens are worried abt someone being a threat to their family, or carlisle is trying to save someone’s life but doesn’t know what’s wrong with them

edward’s gift is kinda a secret in the vampire world, only the cullens and denalis know

despite the fact that edward is emo abt being a vampire, he’s intensely grateful he was turned by carlisle, the original vegetarian vampire, bc edward would have HAD to become a vegetarian due to being unable to kill ppl bc of his gift and it would have sucked for him to be alone, the first vegetarian vampire

alice is always trying to encourage edward to touch ppl bc she thinks it will make him less emo. her theory is that he’s mostly only touched ppl with really sad lives and outlooks and that if he understood the fullness of most ppl’s lives he might be less nihilistic

another part of his gift edward works on with alice is turning his gift “off” even when ppl are touching his hands, and being able to root through ppl’s memories and only see what he’s looking for so it’s less invasive

alice encourages edward to wear his gloves less often to school so he can practice controlling his power, on teenagers, whose lives are shorter and less sad and therefore less mentally upsetting for edward

@ang3lba3 had this brilliant idea of edward touching bella while his gloves are off and being Shook af. i can’t stop thinking abt bella almost getting hit by the van on a day edward didn’t wear his gloves, edward bracing himself and rescuing her, then being overwhelmed when he can’t hear anything from her, thinking he’s finally “broken the curse” of his gift, going home and touching someone and Oh Shit It’s Not Gone It’s Just Her

edward is like. kind of obsessed with touching bella. he’s very tactile from the very beginning. holding hands with her is just incredibly blissful for him

throughout the series edward works on refining his gift to be more tolerable. it’s like his lil project. bella makes him want to try

edward is p reluctant to turn bella into a vampire bc he’s never met any vampires with happy lives or satisfying personal narratives/growth. he thinks all vampires just #suffer in the endless void for all eternity. humans have much clearer stages of life, growth, beginnings and endings that make them more fulfilled. (or so edward claims)

post bd edward would be able to pick specific thoughts out of someone’s head without seeing their whole life, and bella would work on her shield so she can deliberately send specific thoughts TO edward, and so with both of them concentrating really hard (at first), they could have mental conversations while touching, v similar to canon post-bd (except in this version bella has more control and edward is v specific to only find the thoughts she’s sending him)

tbh if edward ever manages to figure out his gift fully, he’d make a rlly good vampire therapist, bc he could isolate traumatizing memories (that ppl may not even consciously remember) and have a good perspective on how that’s affected their lives and how they can work towards recovery. since he himself would have to learn rigid mental compartmentalization in order to stay sane with that many lives in his head, he could teach ppl how to work thru a traumatic incident and then mentally shelve it once they’re done. also, some ppl define trauma as an inability to form a coherent personal narrative, which edward could also help with, bc he can identify patterns and similarities across a person’s entire life that the person themselves may have forgotten or overlooked

anyway, this version of edward is much more gloomy to begin with but would also undergo significantly more extensive character growth, which i think would be a really cool story

How Aro’s life would be different:

still volturi

still king of the vampire world

however killing other vamps/enforcing the law includes much more torture and interrogation bc aro can only hear what they’re thinking abt at the time

he has much less absolute power over other member’s of the volturi bc they can hide things from them by not thinking abt them around him, but at the same time, aro is more feared bc his gift is more omnipresent

aro is hella paranoid and keeps the most important members of the guard within his gift’s range at almost all times

as a result the volturi are much more mobile bc aro insists on going on most outings/executions

aro likes to keep his absolute range a secret to keep ppl on their toes and reinforce their fear of him

aro collects mental gifts in order to be omniscient and is constantly looking for power-amplifying vampires. so instead of focusing on recruiting vamps with physical gifts like strength or fighting, he looks for vamps like eleazar (&alice and jasper) who can sense things he can’t, as being able to read their thoughts allows him their gift by proxy

he’s constantly suspicious ppl are hiding things from him

i think this aro would just be a lot more vicious and violent in general

less useful in battle tho, bc he can’t know the opposition’s entire strategy, and while he can know if someone’s about to attack him, it doesn’t really help him keep anyone else from being attacked

i think this aro would be generally very twitchy and bizzaro, constantly responding to ppl’s thoughts instead of their words, lowkey always overwhelmed by what everyone’s thinking + his suspicions+ his own schemes, less of a shut-in and therefore more overwhelmed by a ton of thoughts. all the other vamps would think him slightly unhinged, talking to the air somewhat nonsensically all the time, visually emotionally reacting to other ppl’s thoughts (but just looking startled or angry at nothing), never having a predictable mood. 

as a result, there would be more of an underground resistance to the volturi, and his general hold on power is less absolute. (and he’s very aware of how unstable his position of power is, which makes him crazier)

he keeps trying to expand his mental range but the REAL problem is not distance but that he can only handle hearing a certain number of ppl’s thoughts at once. unlike edward, who was forced into hearing a ton of ppl’s thoughts all the time from the very start in order to pretend to be human, and who didn’t much care abt most ppl’s thoughts, aro is never forced to live in a city and get acclimated, and he cares deeply abt what ppl are thinking bc he’s a paranoid schemer, so each person’s mind requires a lot more concentration. 

sometimes aro gets reeallll mad when ppl talk out loud bc it interrupts his mindreading concentration. yet another reason why the rest of the volturi is both terrified of him but also think he’s insane

also more unhinged from hearing ppl die all. the. time. in canon he listens to ppl’s whole lives but obvs doesn’t listen while he kills them, why would he, whereas in this au he’s forced to listen everyone’s thoughts as he kills them (or eats them!) and it is one of the things that pushes him towards insanity. (canon edward doesn’t have this problem bc he kills significantly fewer ppl than aro and also obvs doesn’t feed on humans)

ALSO more unhinged bc canon!edward refines his gift so he can “turn down” other ppl’s thoughts or mute them/stop listening, whereas in this au aro is so obsessed with power he never even tries to develop that skill bc he wants to know what everyone is thinking always, so he has no regulation ability. he keeps trying to expand his power in stupid ways (like making the range bigger) without actually trying to regulate it in ways that improve his mental health or sanity

honestly in this au aro is just significantly more insane, but less powerful, both of which make him more dangerous bc he’s more desperate

how them having each other’s powers changes the larger plot:

honestly idk

i’ll think abt it

my brain isn’t working anymore u guys figure it out

[rosethornewrites]

Fic: leaves eddied over the earth’s scars (fixed)

Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Yànlí & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn

Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín

Additional Tags: Angst, Grief/Mourning, Trauma, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Regret, Implied/Referenced Character Death

Summary: Lan WangJi wakes to find Wei WuXian quietly grieving his shijie.

Notes: Spectre was supposed to be a one-shot, but guess not. The title is a line from the poem “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” which is also the series title. Also, I dumbly initially set this in the fall, but Jiang YanLi's birthday is supposedly May 2. So I fixed it and added the symbolism of the magnolia blossom. For those who don't know, in China magnolia blossoms tend to symbolize womanly beauty and gentleness, which suits YanLi. This is the corrected version.

AO3 link

Spectre

---------

Lan WangJi wakes without knowing what has disrupted his sleep. The jingshi is silent, and Wei Ying’s side of the bed is empty and unrumpled. But he has grown used to Wei Ying’s late nights; that alone would not disturb his sleep.

The silver light of a barely-waning moon spills into their home, the door slid open and letting the soft, chill breeze of late April pour in. When Lan WangJi sits up, he can barely see the shadow of Wei Ying’s figure on the porch.

A sense of unease prickles at his skin as moments tick by and there is no movement, and finally Lan WangJi stands, drawing on his outer robe and bringing Wei Ying’s with, padding barefoot to the door.

Wei Ying is curled in on himself, seated at the edge of the porch with his forehead on one knee. In his lap is a rabbit that has of late taken a liking to him, a gentle white doe dappled in brown spots so light they were almost pink. Fallen white petals from the nearby magnolia tree surround him, a few adorning his robes.

The scene would be lovely to behold if not for tears that glimmer on Wei Ying’s face in the moonlight.

Lan WangJi moves to him immediately, stepping over what appears to be an unopened jar of Emperor’s Smile. He drapes the outer robes around his shoulders, then sits behind him and gathers him close, resting his chin on Wei Ying’s shoulder. There is a tension in him, as though he is so taut he might snap.

“Wei Ying, I’m here.”

“Lan Zhan,” he murmurs, shivering as he leans into his embrace. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Lan WangJi wishes he had, wonders if there are other nights that find Wei Ying crying alone. Or, perhaps worse, drinking himself numb. Even if tonight has been the first time, the placement of the moon suggests it is after midnight; he has potentially been out here for hours alone, in quiet pain.

“Tell me?”

He makes it a request, not a demand, something Wei Ying is free to deny if he wishes. Over a minute ticks by in silence, so long he thinks perhaps all he can do was hold him in the moonlight.

But then Wei Ying lets out a long sigh.

“Next week would have been shijie’s birthday.”

Though it’s barely a whisper, Lan WangJi can only describe his tone as lost. He understands; for Wei Ying, it will be the first birthday since her passing.

After Wei Ying’s death every anniversary had felt like a fresh lash against his soul—their meeting, the cold spring cave, the battle against the XuanWu of Slaughter… all through the day he’d plummeted to his death. The first year had been the worst.

Lan WangJi wonders how many anniversaries he has quietly grieved alone like this, hiding his pain. He had faced his grief alone, refusing to impose upon his brother, but he doesn’t want Wei Ying to face this alone.

“Tell me about her?”

He keeps it as a request, willing to simply sit here and hold him if that is what Wei Ying needs.

“Ah, you met her, Lan Zhan.”

Something in the way he says it is hesitant, though, and so Lan WangJi responds gently.

“I do not know her as Wei Ying does.”

He purposefully keeps the phrase in the present tense, for Jiang YanLi lives on in the memories of her brothers. He knows Wei Ying has noticed when his breath hitches and he shifts to the side in Lan WangJi’s arms to lean his head against his chest, gently repositioning the rabbit as he does.

Comparing Wei Ying’s speech to a burst dam, though a common metaphor, is inaccurate; rather, words come slowly, sometimes haltingly.

Lan WangJi learns of Jiang YanLi’s dedication to keeping him safe and happy, how she found him up a tree and coaxed him down and home and filled him with warm soup and love. Of her smiles at his antics, and how he sought to keep her smiling through childish behavior. Of how she tried to shield him from Madam Yu’s rages.

Far more than a sister; he is grieving the loss of a surrogate mother. He knows of Wei Ying’s childhood, of the time spent fighting dogs for food in the streets following the death of his parents before Jiang FengMian had finally found him. Lan WangJi is reminded of his own inconsolable grief at his mother’s death. The similarities are incomplete, but pain is not meant to be compared—only acknowledged and eased.

If only he knew how.

Between the lines he hears another fear: that without  Jiang YanLi the rift between Wei Ying and Jiang WanYin will never mend, that she was what brought them together, that without her any reconciliation is impossible.

Tears have seeped through the layers he is wearing by the time Wei Ying falls quiet, his breath still hitching irregularly.

“It was my fault she was there. If I hadn’t stopped at Koi Tower…”

Lan WangJi knows how these regrets work, having questioned his own actions for years, critiquing everything he could have done differently that might have saved him. After learning from Wen QiongLin of Wei Ying’s secret, the loss of his golden core, he knows just how many mistakes he made.

“She would have sought you regardless,” he says, and knows it to be true. Just as he had come, Jiang YanLi would have out of love.

A tremor runs through Wei Ying, and Lan WangJi brings one hand up to thread through his hair in a comforting motion.

“She wished to protect you.” And she did goes unsaid.

“She shouldn’t have,” is so soft he barely hears it, and he can’t stop himself from clutching Wei Ying tighter against him. The rabbit kicked at them, squirming out from between them to settle on the porch beside them; Lan WangJi barely registers it.

“She sacrificed herself and I just—“

“Wei Ying.” He can’t bear for him to complete that thought. “That was not you. The Book of Turmoil…”

The sob that rips itself from Wei Ying seems to echo in the still air.

“How can you be so sure?”

There is an air of desperation to his voice, and it pains Lan WangJi that Wei Ying has been so wronged, lost so much, been led to doubt even himself.

“Su MinShan played at Nightless City, just as he did at Qiongpi Path.”

A tremor passes through Wei Ying at the mention of that place.

“His target was me,” Lan WangJi whispers. “Your death was his weapon.”

The events at Guanyin Temple had left him with little doubt: Su MinShan had killed Jiang YanLi to break Wei Ying, to leave him susceptible to the music, knowing he would be too strong to succumb without excessive measures. Just as the other cultivators had given into their worst inclinations, their amplified lust for power leading them to fight each other over the remains of the Stygian Tiger Seal, Wei Ying had succumbed to self-loathing so deep it had led him to...

He can’t finish that thought, panic and grief threatening despite the warmth of Wei Ying in his arms.

Lan WangJi suspects Jiang WanYin had been similarly affected, that perhaps some of the rage that the man still holds onto was truly anger at his own actions.

Or perhaps he just hopes this is the case for Wei Ying’s sake.

“That was not you,” he says again.

Wei Ying’s fingers trace one of the discipline scars that peeks above his night robes, as though he recognizes it as a physical symbol of their trauma. Lan WangJi resists the temptation to trace the almost invisible scar at Wei Ying’s throat, trying not to remember his attempt to convince him his life was not worth sealing his spiritual energy. Even so, he can’t quite contain a shudder at the phantom memory.

“Lan Zhan…” His breath is hot against his collarbone. “Does it ever end, Lan Zhan?”

He knows he is speaking of grief, of trauma and regret and guilt. It had for him, but only because Wei Ying had returned, the notes of their song played by a masked man on a mountain thirteen years into his grief bringing tears to his eyes and hope to his soul.

“I did not wish it to,” Lan WangJi admits.

Letting go of it would have felt like letting go of him, and that he couldn’t bear.

Fingers come to rest on his cheek, wiping at moisture he didn’t realize was there.

“Oh, Lan Zhan.”

Wei Ying’s voice is grieved, but the apology is implied rather than spoken. They had promised, after all.

“Together,” Lan WangJi tells him. “We can try together.”

“Together,” Wei Ying echoes, but adds nothing more.

Lan WangJi is not good with words; this conversation has required more of them than he can usually manage. But he knows Wei Ying still needs them, needs reassurance, from the way he is pressed close, pliable, drooping against him, the tension eased somewhat but still present under the surface. It would be easy to let action take over and distract, but that will not heal.

“How do you wish to celebrate Jiang YanLi’s birth?” he finally manages, uncertain of what else to say; he only hopes these words will help, not harm.

Nearly a minute passes in silence, and he wonders if he failed, but then Wei Ying speaks so softly he almost doesn’t understand the words, as though he is speaking to himself.

“I wouldn’t be welcome.”

Lan WangJi has to quash old anger before he can reply.

“I will write to Jiang WanYin. We will go to Yunmeng, if that is your wish.”

Welcome or not, there will be words if Wei Ying is denied, he decides. Perhaps sixteen years’ worth.

Wei Ying doesn’t reply, doesn’t say no, only trembles in his arms, and though he knows it is not, Lan WangJi decides to interpret it as cold, lifts him to his feet and wraps the robe more snugly around him.

He stoops to pick up the rabbit, leaving the untouched jar of Emperor’s Smile to put away in the morning. Wei Ying’s eyes are red-rimmed, his face pale in the moonlight, as pale as he had been at Nightless City. He looks delicate, like he might break. Again.

He looks exhausted.

Lan WangJi hands him the rabbit, then scoops him into his arms, meeting no resistance as he brings him into the jingshi, tucks him into bed, pulling away only to place the rabbit in a small hutch near the bed usually reserved for ill or injured ones.

He isn’t certain whether either of them will truly sleep tonight, but he gathers Wei Ying to him, runs a hand soothingly against his back until his breathing is calm and regular anyway. Even if he isn’t asleep, he is at least no longer so tense it feels he could shatter.

Tomorrow he will make arrangements for Uncle to take over his duties during his absence, will write the letter to Jiang WanYin and send it, will visit XiChen in his seclusion so he won’t worry at his absence and to explain his intentions in Yunmeng, will begin preparations for the journey.

Most important, he will watch Wei Ying, give him what he needs so they can face their pain together.

[vmheadquarters]

Fifteen years ago, our favorite female sleuth made her first appearance on UPN (later turned CW) in Veronica Mars. Three television seasons, a Kickstarter-backed film, and two books later, Veronica Mars is being revived thanks to the beloved streaming platform Hulu.

From the get go, Veronica Mars has sparked the conversation on many ‘controversial’ topics – well ahead of its time – that were handled so well and subtly, you never felt like you were being lectured to. Within the first season, writer-creator Rob Thomas tackled topics like rape, slut-shaming, transphobia, racial stereotypes, and the most prevalent theme at hand is the war and divide between “the have and the have-nots”.

Kristen Bell’s portrayal of Veronica Mars and V’s sassy, yet endearing, personality has taken the marshmallow community by storm. The character is one that is efficacious and sharp, but is not without flaws. Veronica allows each of us to resonate with her as a person, with her struggles, with her traumas; she is and remains a grounded, human character.

The Murder Mystery

Set five years after the Veronica Mars Kickstarter film, three young spring breakers and a motel manager are dead after a bomb explodes in the office of the Neptune Sea Sprite Motel. This is the first of more to come, all of which are hurting the Spring Break destination and beachfront businesses. Hired by the Maloof’s, a wealthy and politically rich family of one of the injured victims, Mars Investigations is on the case to figure out who this serial bomber could be.

Meanwhile, Veronica finally gets a Pony, Logan (Jason Dohring) – a navy intelligence officer – returns home into the arms of Veronica, Papa Mars (Enrico Colantoni) is physically recovering from the car accident that occured in the film and reeling through the emotions of a potentially serious medical issue, Wallace (Percy Daggs III) seems to be happily solidified in his married life and career as a teacher at Neptune High, and Weevil (Francis Capra) must face the formidable consequences that occurred between the film and present-day. Max Greenfield reprises his role as Leo D’Amato, except this time as an FBI agent working with Veronica on the case. Even if you’re a LoVer, Leo’s presence back on the screen is one that deliberately toys with our emotions, but leaves us with a happy sensation coursing through our veins.

The plot has a heavy focus on the main mystery in a serialized fashion, so that any newbie can come fresh into this season without even the basic concept and still be able to follow along. The characters are introduced in a manner that subtly recaps their backstory without being overly explanatory, which allows the new faces to scoop in, but gives enough of the nostalgic factors to cater to those long-term marshmallows. Book readers might notice some similarities between this story line and the content of the books, and while some of it seems to be derived from them, this is not an exclusive adaptation.

There is a noticeable lack of mini-mysteries in each episode set within the confines of the larger, long-con mystery that the previous seasons managed to execute so well. A bit of a letdown since those episodic stories also helped provide teachable moments, and without them we’re almost without the moral compass that creator Rob Thomas has perfected in years past. But when you see how twisted this bombing story turns out to be, in hindsight it’s understandable.

The Nostalgia Doesn’t Outweigh the Modernization

Longtime fans are already on the edge of their seats waiting for this revival and eager to figure out what is so “controversial” about it that warrants Bell’s contemplation of falling off of social media during its release (per an interview with E! News). While they will eat up every moment of the new series, Bell is not wrong in that this is arguably the most controversial season of Veronica Mars simply for the arcs in the storyline. With fellow critics having early-screening access and all eight episodes dropping on day one, caution is advised on social media and within articles, as this season is one you do not want to be spoiled on.

Albeit some pandering to LoVe-rs (the acronym for fans who ship Logan and Veronica), which I am all on board for, Veronica Mars isn’t willing to sacrifice its authenticity and realness simply to keep solidified fans happy. Veronica and Logan have been together for a solid five years now and with a particular state of affairs that arise, Veronica must fight a battle within herself and decide what’s more important: the love of her life or protecting herself from her fears? This is not a plot device created in order to cultivate some rundown teenage emotions, but rather to reflect on the characters we have come to know and love.

Veronica desires chaos because that is all she has known; she has found comfort in it and the only way she has learned to cope with life is by fighting that chaos. ‘Classic Logan’ is in reservation as he’s been working with a therapist, but that doesn’t mean we don’t see those sparks inside of him. For what it’s worth, this is the most likeable and stable Logan has ever been. The chemistry between Bell and Dohring on-screen is on fire more than ever before, and they’re much more compelling now that they’re adults with real issues to discuss.

Hulu doesn’t try to recapture the exact essence of the original three seasons and film, which may be somewhat jarring to old fans. This is new, this is different, and this is an emotional roller coaster you need to prepare yourself for in a completely different way. Thomas and Ruggiero-Wright have managed to take the crux of Veronica Mars & Co., encapsulating who she is and what built her to this phase in life, and expand upon it.

We’re no longer looking at a teenage girl whose life is constantly at battles with every rich kid who wants to dual it out, but we still have good ‘ole Veronica Mars. She’s the same in the way that she still has a hard time letting her guard down – both physically and emotionally – and will smack you in the face with her brutal honesty like a baseball coming out of left field. But Veronica is grown up and we needed this version of her. Sure, they could recycle the same character and we’d still love it, but Veronica aging and growing with her original viewers is a great way to give a nod to those fans and simultaneously grow the show.

New Players Pull Up Their Sleeves and the Old Ones Need More Face Time

When Veronica Mars originally aired, there was an overwhelming number of guest stars on the show that later became top notch actors/actresses. Season four’s casting announcements have generated huge buzz, from big names like J.K. Simmons to Patton Oswalt, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste to Clifton Collins Jr as guest stars.

Simmons plays Clyde Pickett, an ex-con who works for Richard Casablancas a.k.a. “Big Dick (David Starzyk) after meeting during their incarceration in Chino. The two are an entertaining pair who receive a huge chunk of screentime but in relevancy to the over-arching story. You know they’re good when they can fit naturally into the Mars world and hold a light to the insanely talented OG casting. A handful of other guest appearances from the original to tease the fandom will leave you with your hands in the air cheering and send your heart racing (good and bad).

Other criminal syndicates include the fantastic addition of Alonzo (Clifton Collins Jr.), who manages to bring laughter and fun to a character that is a literal drug cartel hitman for El Despiadado.

Alonzo and his new partner are in Neptune looking for the at-fault bomber that killed his boss’s nephew. Unfortunately, the El Despiadado storyline is pretty minute and would be a fun side-story to pursue in the next season. If you’ve seen Collins’ other work, you know just how talented he is, and his persona here is no exception. The vicious and brutal pair might give you a chuckle but you know they mean business.

Two other characters that definitely received their fair amount of attention is Patton Oswalt’s Penn Epner and Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Nicole. Oswalt is a Cho’s Pizza delivery driver (yes, THAT Cho’s), a true crime obsessee and “murder-head” participant. He’s the kind of pain in the arse we love to have around.

But Nicole. What a character. She’s a strong-willed (and seemingly strong-fisted) business owner of the local spring breaker bar, making waves calling out Big Dick and punching douchebag guys in her establishment. Big Dick is advocating for a movement (N.U.T.S) which seeks to remove the spring-breakers and their trash behavior from Neptune, but he also wants to buy up the real estate on the boardwalk, including that of Matty Ross (Izabela Vidovic).

Matty is the deceased motel manager’s daughter and now property owner of Sea Sprite Motel (somehow, even though she’s still in high school). As V’s new protege, Matty seems to have the same lived experiences as Veronica, leading her to the same determined and resiliant personality that Veronica most definitely can resonate with. She’s an entertaining watch when she gets her screen time, but with as much is packed in to this 8 episode mini-series, there just doesn’t seem to be enough time for the characters growing on us and those we remember with a fondness – like Weevil and Wallace.

Wallace is living his best life – married with a son (who happens to be played by Percy’s ACTUAL daughter) – and working at Neptune High. The absolute disappointment here is that we just don’t get enough of him. We spend so much time focusing on the case at hand and the LoVe relationship, it’s like Wallace was cast to the side a bit. While we can all certainly relate to getting older and losing touch with our close friends, it seems odd that Wallace wouldn’t want to extend his help with this case or that Veronica wouldn’t want to rely on him for some advice. This is the biggest letdown in the revival.

And then there’s Weevil (Francis Capra). Why is he one of the most underrated and incredible castings on the show? Probably because he has a deep heart of gold, he’s beyond loyal to Veronica, and Capra knows how to steal the show with a powerful performance. But again, this is another character we needed more of. One of the most beloved in the show and a character that’s still integral to this storyline, Weevil feels underserved and underutilized.

A Girl Needs Closure

There’s no doubt that this is top-tier content from within the Veronica Mars world, a needed step up from season 3 and the film. But if you’re a marshmallow Weevil’s been loving long time, you’ll need to accept what the writers are doing here and understand why.

It���s not sunshine and rainbows. Rob Thomas always desired Veronica Mars be a dark noir and season four absolutely delivers on this principle. It’s a worthwhile investment that most definitely has a clear conclusion, but with enough content and characters that if Hulu were to appease us, a fifth season is a must.

The shocking ending will leave you speechless and have you wondering how Veronica could possibly recover, taking us back to the roots of what makes Ms. Mars the person she is. As V herself said in season one, “Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it’s still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. Because after disaster strikes, the important thing is that you move on. But if you’re like me, you just keep chasing the storm. The problem with chasing the storm is that it wears you down, breaks your spirit. Even the experts agree, a girl needs closure.”

With edgier and more adult content, Veronica Mars is cussin’ back with Mr. Sparky (her taser) in her hand and dusting the wreckage off her shoulders. The private eye achieves her closure, and we are left with enough hope that Mars Investigations will soon be back in business.

[darkershining]

DarkerShining’s thoughts on Pretty Cure: Hugtto Pretty Cure

All right, it’s time for another one of these! I’ve been looking forward to write this one.

So, last time I talked about Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode, and this time, I’ll be giving my thoughts on Hugtto Pretty Cure.

The story begins with our pink lead Cure, Hana Nono, getting ready for her first day at a new school. She tries to cut her bangs to try and give herself a more mature new look, but she doesn’t manage to get it quite the way she hoped. On her way to school, she experiences a strange phenomenon, when she hears a baby’s cry and time seems to freeze for a brief moment. She manages to save an old lady from being hit by a baseball before time resumes moving, and ends up late for school after stopping to help the old lady carry some things.

After making it to school, Hana is initially worried about having messed up her first impression, when she hears that strange cry again. She goes to investigate, and comes across two of her classmates, Saaya and Homare. Saaya admits that she likes Hana’s cheery attitude, while Homare compliments Hana on her hairstyle, much to her surprise.

Later that night, Hana concludes that her first day of school didn’t turn out that bad after all, and decides to keep an optimistic attitude. As she is cheering herself on, a bright light appears in the sky, falling towards her. Hana manages to catch it in her arms, and finds to her surprise that it is a baby girl, which Hana decides to call “Hugtan”. The baby is accompanied by a hamster-like creature named Harry, who decides to stay at Hana’s place for the night.

The next day, Hana wonders if her encounter with Harry and Hugtan was just a dream, when more strange things happen. A mysterious company known as Criasu shows up at her school, using a classmate’s negative energy to create a monster. For some reason, both Hana and her classmate Saaya are unaffected as the monster spreads more negative energy throughout the school, and the two try to get others to safety. However, when Hana gets separated from the group, she comes across Harry and Hugtan once more. After Hana goes to defend Hugtan, refusing to leave her side despite being afraid, a glowing crystal emerges from Hana and an item from Harry’s suitcase flies out. Combining the two, Hana becomes the Pretty Cure of Spirit, Cure Yell.

With her new power, Cure Yell manages to purify the monster and restore the positive energy around the school. Hana is told to give some of the energy from her new Mirai Crystal to Hugtan, and Harry muses that maybe the world can be saved after all. Harry later explains more of the situation to Hana, and that he still has three more Prehearts, meaning they must find three more Cures. Hana manages to bond more with Saaya and Homare, who take up two of the Prehearts, and together they must save the future.

And from here, I’ll be putting the rest of my thoughts under the “Read More”, and there will be spoilers from the entire series. (previous parts can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)

Hana Nono/Cure Yell

As usual, I’ll begin by talking about the lead pink Cure. Hana Nono is a thirteen year old girl who is quite energetic and tries her best to cheer on and encourage those around her, as you’d expect from most pink Cures. However, even from the start, it is clear that Hana has some self-esteem issues, later revealed to be partially caused by being bullied at her old school after she defended another girl who was bullied. While trying to stay cheerful, there are times throughout the series where Hana’s insecurities and worries will come to the surface, and times when she just doesn’t know what to do. Thankfully, her friends are always there to help and support her like she does for them.

I really like Hana. Her design is cute, and I particularly like Cure Yell’s cheerleader motif. She’s always trying to support, defend and inspire her friends, and they in turn are willing to do the same for her when her doubts start getting to her. Over the course of the show, we see Hana discovering where her own strengths lie and becoming more confident as she fights alongside her friends. I feel she embodies the themes of the show well, particularly the “you can do anything, you can be anything” part, with her willingness to try different things and inspiring those around her to do what they want.

Saaya Yakushiji/Cure Ange

Next up, I’ll talk about Saaya/Cure Ange. She’s an intelligent young girl with a generally calm demeanour. When she was younger, she was famous as a child actress at one point, and her mother is also a famous actress. While still taking part in auditions for parts and such, Saaya isn’t actually entirely sure if acting is what she should continue to pursue, or if there are other options she hasn’t considered yet. After befriending Hana, Saaya ends up becoming the second Pretty Cure, Cure Ange, the Pretty Cure of wisdom. As a Cure, she gains healing and barrier based abilities.

I like Saaya, she has a pretty design and I like how she’s a slightly different take on other blue haired smart girls that we’ve seen throughout the various Pretty Cure series. Saaya doesn’t come across as quite as serious, being more of a dork with interests in various odd things, such as machines or special effects used in movies. Saaya is also in one episode shown to have a bit of a competitive side to her that emerges when she has to try to keep up with someone with just as much knowledge on a certain topic as her. And interestingly, while Saaya manages to often know what her close friends are thinking, she’s otherwise not that good at reading people.

However, Saaya is still the least quirky of her teammates, and since she isn’t as directly involved in some of the sub-plots as the other Cures, Saaya has a tendency to not stand out much in episodes that aren’t focused on her. With that said, I do feel Saaya fares better than some of the other Cures of previous series who were in a similar position, as Saaya does have her own character arc and we get to watch her gradually figure out what she really wants to be when she grows up.

Homare Kagayaki/Cure Etoile

All right, now onto Homare. She’s another one of Hana’s classmates, although at the start of the series, she hadn’t attended class lately. Homare initially comes across as a somewhat aloof, but still nice girl. We soon find out this behaviour comes from an incident a few years ago, when Homare was a figure skating prodigy, but ended up suffering an accident on the ice that injured her leg and left her unable to skate for a while. Having recovered since then, part of Homare wants to return to skating, but can’t bring herself to do so due to the trauma of the incident that forced her to quit. This has also affected other parts of her life, as she just can’t seem to find much interest in other activities either.

When Hana enters her life, things start to turn around. This is partially because Hana reminds Homare of herself when she was younger. However, when she initially creates her Mirai Crystal, she can’t bring herself to jump up and reach for it, causing it to disappear. She continues trying to distance herself, but ends up captured by Criasu and used as bait for the other two Cures. However, forced to confront her feelings from the monster created by her negative energy, Homare is ultimately able to find the resolve she needs, and successfully manages to get her Mirai Crystal. Becoming the Pretty Cure of Strength, Cure Etoile, she works together with Cure Yell and Cure Ange to stop the monster.

After becoming a Pretty Cure, Homare is gradually able to begin conquering her own inner demons and return to ice skating. She starts becoming more social and active again, although she still often has more of a serious demenour than that of her friends. She also develops a friendship with Harry, which gradually develops into a bit of a crush on her part.

I really like Homare. She is the one with the most serious and tomboyish demenour for the most part, but when just having fun with her friends, she often lets the girlier aspects of her personality show, like squeeing over Hugtan’s cuteness, her fear of horror movies and admitting that she sleeps with a rabbit plushie. It’s rather cute. Her initially being unable to become a Pretty Cure was sort of similar to what happened with Karen in Yes! Pretty Cure 5, albeit for different reasons. Sort of a darker take on that idea. But it is great to see Homare managing to overcome the doubts preventing her from taking the first step to start moving forward again, and her first fight as Cure Etoile, working together with Cure Yell and Cure Ange to soar once again.

One thing I really like about her designs is while how her present self has short hair, we see that she had longer hair tied in a ponytail in the past, which she cut off after she had to quit ice skating because of the accident. Her hairstyle as Cure Etoile looks similar to her younger self’s, which I think is a really nice touch.

I also think the sub-plot about her crush on Harry was done fairly well. She is conflicted about it, but after discovering that Harry may have feelings for someone else, she is able to accept that her feelings may be unrequited, making for a contrast with Bishin, who in his corrupted state can’t comprehend this. Homare eventually does confess her feelings, and while Harry does reject her because of his unresolved feelings for Cure Tomorrow, Homare at the very least manages to get some closure and thanks him for being honest with her. I liked how maturely Homare deals with it, and while it was painful for her to go through with it while knowing there was a very real chance she’d get turned down, she ultimately realized it was the only way she was going to be able to stop worrying about it.

Emiru Aisaki/Cure Ma Cherie

And now, onto one of the two Cures to join at the halfway point. Emiru is introduced as a classmate of Hana’s younger sister Kotori. Emiru is shown to be a somewhat socially awkward young girl who tries a little too hard to make sure things go well during a trip with her class, trying to be prepared for every situation and making things safe. When she and Hana end up in a situation she didn’t account for, she freaks out a bit, but Hana is able to calm her down and get her to talk about why she acts the way she does. During this, we also see that Emiru is a good singer, even if she was too shy to sing with her classmates earlier, setting up another major aspect of Emiru’s character, her love of music.

In Emiru’s next major role, she, inspired by Hana’s encouraging words to her and witnessing Cure Yell in action, is trying to act like a Pretty Cure herself and helping people, even if she keeps messing up. She ends up meeting Ruru, who had gone on an errand for Hana’s family, and quickly takes a liking to her. Even after concluding that Emiru isn’t actually a Cure, Ruru still accompanies Emiru to her house, where Emiru shows off her skills on the guitar, which captures Ruru’s attention. It is here we find out that Emiru’s reluctance to share her interests is partially because of her brother, who is heavily influenced by their grandfather in his thinking, and feels Emiru should focus on more feminine instruments like the piano or violin. After Ruru comes to Emiru’s defense, Emiru is even more amazed with her, and by the end of the episode suggests that she and Ruru try to become Pretty Cures together, despite Ruru not being especially interested at this point.

During the fight between the Cures and Ruru to try to save her from Criasu and bring her back to their side, Emiru notices the commotion and goes to investigate, learning the identities of the Cures. When Emiru goes to talk to them about it later, Ruru keeps her from blurting out their identities to a crowd of people. The Cures fill Emiru in on what is going on, including Ruru actually being an android from the future. Despite all this, Emiru still wants to be friends with Ruru and become a Pretty Cure alongside her. As the two spend more time together, Emiru is able to convince Ruru to become a Cure with her, but there’s one problem: There’s only one Preheart left.

With no way of obtaining another Preheart, the girls are left hoping for a miracle, since only one of them can become a Cure otherwise. When their Mirai Crystals manifest, both initially try to tell the other to take it, but neither of them want to become a Cure without the other. Due to the strong friendship between them, the being later revealed to be known as “Mother” appears and creates a copy of the last Preheart, meaning both of them can become Cures by transforming together, allowing them to become the Pretty Cures of love, Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour. Ruru later starts learning how to play the guitar along with Emiru, and the two start a two-girl band together.

I really like Emiru, I think she’s a fun character with her quirky personality. She’s initially a bit shy when it comes to sharing her interests, in part due to her brother and by extension, grandfather’s influence, but with the help of Ruru, Hana and the others, she soon overcomes this. Her friendship with Ruru is also really sweet, but with that said, I wish we could’ve seen Emiru bond with Saaya and Homare a bit more. With Ruru, we at least saw her have different interactions with each of the initial three Cures when she was observing Hana and the others as a spy, but Emiru only really connected with Hana before getting involved in the Pretty Cure stuff.

Even when we do see her interact with Saaya or Homare, these interactions usually have something to do with Emiru’s friendship with Ruru. So, while Emiru is still clearly part of the group of five, I feel like we don’t really have a good idea of the relationships and how she interacts with Saaya and Homare. I feel the age difference might also contribute a bit, since Emiru is still in elementary school, while the other four are in middle school.

Still, I really like her, and she has a cute design. I also like how Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour’s outfits have the same theme going on, since they’re both technically using the same Preheart to transform. I also like the songs she and Ruru perform together.

Ruru Amour/Cure Amour

Ruru initially starts off as a mysterious member of the Criasu Corporation, who is eventually revealed to be an android. The other Criasu Corp members see her as a little more than an emotionless puppet working for them as an intern. After a while, Ruru decides to infiltrate the group by hypnotizing Hana’s mother into thinking she’s the daughter of a friend of hers and staying at Hana’s place. Ruru has trouble getting along with everyone at first, as she doesn’t understand a lot of human behaviour and particularly why people wouldn’t choose the most efficient method to do something. After noticing that people at school are making fewer attempts to socialize with her following this, Ruru begins to reconsider her plan and thinks about leaving. However, a conversation with Cure Yell seems to stir something in her, and she decides to stick around a bit longer.

Much like other villains who have tried the infiltration route, her time with the Cures lead to a change in Ruru, as she gradually grows to care for the Cures. She also meets Emiru, and discovers music. All this ultimately leads her to return Homare’s transformation trinket after stealing it, and taking a hit for Cure Yell that ends up breaking her. Ruru is brought back to Criasu and reprogrammed to fight the Cures. The Cures attempt to fight Ruru who has been put into a bigger robot to fight them. They try to bring her to her senses, and Ruru is eventually able to access her memories of them when she tries searching for more data on her opponents.

Ruru ultimately breaks down, showing the most emotion she has shown up until this point, finally changing sides for good. Ruru undoes the hypnosis she did to Hana’s mother, but is still allowed to stay at their house, much to her confusion. Ruru spends the next few episodes wondering if an android like her can truly have a heart, and if an android can really become a Cure. With the support of Emiru and the others, Ruru gradually begins to overcome these doubts.

As mentioned in Emiru’s section, she and Ruru ultimately do become Cures together. Alongside the others, Ruru continues to develop her heart, and we eventually learn that she was originally created by Dr. Traum as a daughter, presumably to fill a void left when he lost his first daughter, but Traum eventually gave up on her when he couldn’t get her to develop the way he hoped. After Traum switches sides, he wants to patch things up with his android daughter, but Ruru is understandably somewhat cold towards him for turning her away before. The two are gradually able to become closer, although Ruru still shows little patience with some of her father’s antics.

I really like Ruru, and I find the concept of an android Pretty Cure really interesting. And while she does at times use her android abilities to analyze opponents and such, I wish they’d have done a little more with this concept. Still, I enjoyed her character arc and how she gradually came to understand more and more about human emotions, and even as the show nears its end, there’s still more for her to learn, particularly when it comes to how to deal with her father.

Also, in the various series in the Pretty Cure franchise, there is usually at least one Cure who is a bit of a big eater, and in this particular series, I find it really amusing that they chose to give this particular character trait to an android. I guess it makes sense that she has these human-like qualities, considering Dr. Traum initially envisioned her as a daughter. I like her designs too. The way her eyes change as she gradually develops a heart is also a nice touch and reminds me a bit of the Kiryuu sisters of Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star. 

Another aspect I like about her is the fact that unlike the other four, storywise, she wasn’t actually meant to become a Cure initially. Later episodes revealed that Hana, Saaya, Homare and Emiru all witnessed time stopping and heard Hugtan’s cry in the first episode, which in some ways reminds me of how Tsubomi, Erika and Itsuki all had dreams of Cure Moonlight’s defeat and eventually became Cures in HeartCatch Pretty Cure. The fourth Preheart was always meant for Emiru, but thanks to the strong friendship between her and Ruru, Ruru was able to become a Cure too even if she wasn’t “chosen”. I just think that’s really neat.

The Fairy Partners

Now that we’ve covered the main team of Cures, lets talk about the “fairy” partners.

First, there’s Hugtan, the mysterious baby girl that the Cures and Harry look after. Hana is the one to name her Hugtan, following in the footsteps of the Doki Doki and Mahou Tsukai girls naming a baby based on the sounds it makes. We don’t know a lot about Hugtan at first, except that she needs the energy from the Mirai Crystals created by the girls to help save the future. Hugtan is later shown to have some powers of her own, such as when she exhausts herself by purifying an Oshimaida when Hana is unable to transform, or even summoning Cures from different series. Throughout the series, Hugtan gradually grows up a little, such as learning how to talk and walk.

We eventually find out that Hugtan is actually a aged-down Pretty Cure from the future, Cure Tomorrow. Among the Pretty Cure of the future, Cure Tomorrow is the last known member, as her three teammates presumably sacrificed themselves to try to help her escape from Criasu. Cure Tomorrow saved Harry from Criasu, and Harry later returned the favor by freeing her when she was captured herself. The two used Tomorrow’s Mirai Crystal to travel back in time in hopes of saving the future, but the process used up most of the power in the crystal, which is what turned Cure Tomorrow into a baby upon arriving in the present.

Hugtan is pretty cute. Her role naturally draws some comparisons to Ai from Doki Doki Pretty Cure, being a magical baby who helps empower the Cures in some way. One aspect in particular about Hugtan that intrigues me is that I don’t it is made entirely clear how aware she is of everything going on. While she mostly acts like a baby, it is suggested at a few points that Cure Tomorrow is still in there in some capacity, particularly with some of the things she pulls off throughout the show. I also really like her design as Cure Tomorrow. It looks a lot like a typical lead pink Cure’s outfit. The design also reminds me a bit of Cure Heart from Doki Doki Pretty Cure.

The final episode throws in one more reveal regarding the character, namely that Hugtan was Hana’s kid from the future all along. I think a lot of us caught onto that near the end, and I began to suspect they might pull this trope by noticing that Hana and Hugtan had sort of similar eye colors, and the fact that Hugtan continued to refer to Hana as “mama”, rather than calling her by name even after she started calling the other Cures by name. I kept going back and forth on whether I thought this would be the case or not, though, as I couldn’t quite make sense of how it’d work within the timeline. And the closer the show got to the end, the more it began to dawn on me just how confusing some of the timeline and time travelling mechanics of this show were, but I’ll talk more about that later.

Anyways, I certainly didn’t mind it. I think it’s kind of cool to have a Cure whose mother was also a Cure when she was younger. I guess we had something close to that in HeartCatch Pretty Cure, where our pink lead Tsubomi/Cure Blossom’s grandmother was also a Pretty Cure in the past, and the ending implied that Tsubomi’s younger sister would become one in the future. I don’t really have much else to say on this, so let’s talk about Harry.

Hariham Harry is a hamster-like creature with the ability to transform into a young man. He accompanied Hugtan into the past, and assists the Cures, giving them their transformation trinkets and getting them started on their mission to save the future. Much like Nuts from Yes! Pretty Cure 5, Harry starts up his own store to make money while staying the present, Beauty Harry’s, which is also where he lives and sort of a headquarter for the Cures.

Harry for the most part comes across as sort of a supportive big brother character to the Cures, but there is also a mysterious air about him as he initially keeps a lot of details regarding himself from the Cures, only revealing things bit by bit as the show goes on. We eventually learn that Harry was part of Criasu for a time, as his people came to them to try to save their village and their kind from a mysterious illness by becoming humans. Harry was experimented on by Criasu, and turned into a monster. He was eventually rescued by Cure Tomorrow, who gave him the golden chain he wears to keep him from turning back into his monster form. Harry ended up betraying Criasu and tried to save Cure Tomorrow, leading to the two of them ending up going back in time to try to stop their plans. 

I really like Harry. I like how he can both be this mature big brother type of character towards the other Cures, while also having his goofier moments depending on the situation. He also has a pretty dark backstory for a Pretty Cure fairy-type character, considering everything he went through before the events of the series. Even after he starts opening up to the Cures, there are still details about himself that he keeps secret, and in fact, the Cures don’t find out about his previous connection to Criasu until Harry’s former friend Bishin reveals it to them. Even so, the bonds between them at this point mean the Cures don’t let this affect their friendship with Harry and they know he’s now on their side.

I liked how we gradually got bits and pieces of Harry’s story and how he and Hugtan ended up in the past. Even by the time Harry finally reveals the last bit about Cure Tomorrow, we’ve already got most of the pieces and can probably piece most of it together from there. His connections with both Bishin and Ristoru also helped develop those two villains, but I’ll talk about them a bit later. I also like Harry’s designs. His hamster-like form looks kind of similar to the fairies from Yes! Pretty Cure 5, and his human form is pretty good-looking. I also liked how that chain he wears in both forms was revealed to have a purpose beyond just being part of his design.

The Villains

And now, for the villains of this season. I usually go in order of when they introduced, although there may be exceptions. Either way, I’ll start with Charalit.

Charalit is the first villain our heroines go up against. He’s a dark skinned, blond young man who fights against the Cures in the first few episodes. He has a bit of a laidback personality, but as he keeps failing against the Cures, he finds himself in a tough spot as Criasu starts losing patience with him. He pleads for one last chance, targetting Homare and attempting to take advantage of her self-doubts, but this backfires when it ultimately leads to Homare becoming Cure Etoile. He is eventually punished by being left locked up alone in a dark room for several days, if not weeks, before being let out in episode 11 and transformed into an Oshimaida against his will.

As an Oshimaida, he goes on a rampage, until Cure Yell nearly attacks him with the Sword of PreCures. Seeing his frightened normal self within the monster, Cure Yell refuses to strike him down and instead tries comforting him. After the Sword instead becomes the more typical Cure weapon, the Melody Swords, the three Cures purify Charalit. While being purified, Charalit thinks that there might be a bright future for him after all, and the next episode shows that he basically decided to become a vlogger.

Charalit is later seen again early in the second half of the show, alongside Papple and Daigan, who have also been purified by that point. The three of them have basically come together to form their own talent agency and occasionally do other jobs around the town to help support it. Charalit is shown to be more optimstic and helpful towards others after being purified, and even gives Hana some encouraging words at one point to return the favor from the time she saved him.

I like Charalit’s design, and I feel he does well as the starter villain for this series. We also get an early look into how ruthless Criasu Corporation can be at times, with their method of punishing him for his failures. One thing I like about what they did the villains in this series is how they basically eventually join the supporting cast as friends of the Cures. When former villains team up with the Cures, it is usually near the end for the final episodes, while here, it starts out early in the second half of the show, also giving them a bit more room for character development. And while they don’t get quite as much development as certain other characters, you still see how they’ve changed for the better thanks to the Cures and found something to believe in again.

Anyways, next I’ll talk about Papple. She’s a flashy young adult woman who comes across as more ruthless than Charalit. However, despite her bad treatment of her co-workers, she secrelty longs for love, and is often seen interacting with her “boyfriend” (later revealed to be George), who doesn’t seem all that interested in her despite her seemingly believing otherwise. She’s the main opponent the Cures usually face after Charalit’s purification for several episodes. She eventually meets Gelos, a younger employee, and a bit of a rivalry is set up between the two women. Despite temporarily breaking Ruru (with an attack meant for Cure Yell) and taking her back to Criasu to be reprogrammed, Papple interestingly enough seems to have reservations against putting her into the mecha suit.

Things eventually reach the point in episode 22 where Papple, having already been threatened with the same punishment Charalit went through, discovers that her “boyfriend” has seemingly been cheating on her with Gelos, which ultimately pushes Papple into transforming herself into an Oshimaida using the negative energy from her own despair, all while hoping her “boyfriend” will try to stop her, only to go through with it as she concludes that he never loved her.

With the help of Cure Black and Cure White, the Cures manage to weaken Oshimaida!Papple, and Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour eventually manage to enter the Oshimaida to speak to Papple and try to calm her down. They eventually manage to get through to her, and with their new Twin Love Guitars, purify her. As she is purified, Papple muses that even if things didn’t go so well this time, if she keeps holding on to her own love, maybe she’ll someday be able to find someone who will return her feelings.

As mentioned above, Papple returns a few later alongside Charalit and Daigan, having started up a talent agency. She is more friendly towards the Cures, and shows an interest in having Emiru and Ruru sign up with their company after hearing them perform. While Emiru and Ruru refuse, Papple continues to reach out to them in hopes of getting them to change their mind. It is unclear if they eventually accepted, but even so, we see Papple supporting and helping out the two in later episodes.

I really like Papple’s design, and I think she’s one of my favorites among the Criasu characters. As a villain, she is as mentioned established as more ruthless than Charalit, since she's the one to turn Charalit into an Oshimaida, and she later ends up breaking Ruru after she betrays Criasu. Still, her scenes with her “boyfriend” show that there is more to her, even if these scenes can be a bit unsettling with the way the “boyfriend” acts, among other things, never actually responding to anything Papple says in their scenes together. I’ll go more into details on my thoughts about him later.

The imagery during Papple’s breakdown after discovering her boyfriend cheating on her with Gelos is quite unsettling, as she seems to hallucinate while her inner monologue expresses that she wishes he would try to stop her from doing what she’s about to do while she makes her way to the top of the tower. The fact that she also triggers her transformation into an Oshimaida stabbing herself with a shard formed from negative energy makes the metaphor they’re going for pretty clear.

Thankfully, Cure Ma Cherie and Cure Amour are able to get through to Oshimaida!Papple and purify her. From there on, Papple is much friendlier with both the Cures and the other reformed villains. One particular moment I liked was when Papple offers some encouraging words to Daigan after he was briefly tempted to return to Criasu, letting him know how the people at the festival they were helping out at appreciated the work he’d been doing. I also like how she supports Emiru and Ruru, helping them plan out concerts, and when Emiru briefly lost her voice, telling them to take their time for her to recover when informed of the situation.

Next up is Daigan. He doesn’t really get to do much throughout the first half of the season, mostly complaining about his co-workers and claiming that if they just let him handle it, he’d defeat the Pretty Cures in just five minutes. When he finally gets to fight them, though, he is quickly taken out by Dr. Traum. Cure Ange manages to heal him, and we find out a few episodes later that thanks to that, he survived and joined up with Charalit and Papple.

After being purified, he still continues boast about being able to do things in five minutes, clearly having a bit of an obsession with efficiency, and being easily frustrated when he can’t pull it off. This leads into the Halloween episode, where he is briefly tempted to return to Criasu, leading to the Cures getting a proper fight against an Oshimaida he created. After being defeated, he calms down again and receives some encouraging words from Papple that motivate him to get back to helping with the festival. After purification, he is also quite grateful towards Saaya/Cure Ange for saving his life. When the group got stuck in a VR space based on a movie Saaya and her mother were starring in, Daigan showed up to help Saaya out and helped her reach her decision regarding which career path to pursue by once again reminding her of how she had saved him and how he’d never forget that.

So, yeah. Daigan is one of the villains we don’t really get to know as well, but even so, I like seeing him working alongside Charalit and Papple after being saved by Cure Ange. His gratitude towards Saaya for saving his life is also really sweet, and I do like his design.

Since there’s not all that much else to say about Daigan, let’s move onto Gelos, Takumi and Jinjin. I’ll just over all three at once, since the latter two’s role in the story is pretty closely tied to Gelos’, for the most part. Gelos initially comes across as a bit of a rival for Papple, who has a tendency to sprinkle english words into her dialogue, and is often accompanied by her two handsome henchmen, Takumi and Jinjin. Later on, Gelos seemingly gets involved with George, which leads to the events in which Papple ultimately became an ally to the Cures.

Of course, Gelos doesn’t have much luck in beating the Cures either, but doesn’t seem too perturbed about it. Despite the bonds between herself, Takumi and Jinjin, Gelos at one point in episode 31 shows that she is willing to throw the two under the bus to make herself look better, leading the two of them to try to betray her with an invention stolen from Dr. Traum to freeze time. Things backfire horribly for them when the unfinished prototype turns them into an Oshimaida, with their reactions suggesting that this is very painful for them. When Gelos tries to get them to fight the Cures in their state, the Cures call her out on her treatment of those she claims are her friends. Reaffirming their own friendship, the Cures gain a new power that they use to purify Takumi and Jinjin and return them to normal. As they are purified, they hope that Gelos will eventually come to remember how much she really means to them.

Following these events, Takumi and Jinjin get regular jobs, while we quickly come to realize that Gelos probably needed them more than even she realized, as without their presence, she starts getting more unhinged and worried about growing old due to her belief that only the efforts of young people are appreciated, complete with a makeover that makes her look more wild. It ultimately results in Gelos making use of Dr. Traum’s invention to try to freeze time once more, and turning herself into an Oshimaida.

While the Cures try to stop her rampage, Takumi and Jinjin eventually show up to help calm Gelos down. Gelos initially thinks the two of them ditched her because she was getting too old for them, but the two manage to talk her down, letting her know just how much they care about her and telling her they want to grow old alongside her, causing her to break down and cry. The Cures manage to purify her, and the three of them reunite. The three of them reappear in time to help out during the final confrontation between the Cures and Criasu by giving the Cures a ride to Criasu’s tower.

So, yeah. These three are also villains we just don’t get to know that much about, although we at least get some hints at a backstory. It is clear that the three had always been close, but I guess Gelos must’ve eventually come to take them for granted, leading to the events of episode 31. After being purified by the Cures, we see that Takumi and Jinjin hold no hard feelings towards Gelos despite trying to have them fired, and only hope that she’ll remember the good times they’ve had together someday. In addition, with how quick Gelos starts to break down after those two leave, I guess their presence also helped Gelos’ mental stability. Of course, at this point, it’s kind of hard to feel bad for her, considering what she did to Papple and that she brought this all on herself.

The fact that one of the things Gelos fears is getting older also feels interesting to me, considering she’s one of the younger members of Criasu. I kind of wish we’d gotten to see more interactions between her, Takumi and Jinjin prior to their purification. I feel that could’ve helped flesh out all three characters a bit more. Plus, the other villains all sort of have some sort of connection with each of the Cures (Charalit and George with Hana, Daigan with Saaya, Papple with Emiru and Ruru, Dr. Traum with Ruru, Ristoru with Harry and Bishin with Harry and Homare), but these three don’t really have that either. 

Next up, Dr. Traum. He’s likely the oldest member of Criasu, and is also the creator of Ruru. While we never quite get the full story, it is heavily implied that Dr. Traum had previously lost a daughter, and Ruru was built in an attempt to fill the void. However, when he failed to get Ruru to develop the way he hoped, he felt as if he had failed and started distancing himself from her, leaving her with Criasu to work alongside the other employees. When we first meet Dr. Traum, he makes his entrance by quickly taking down Daigan, nearly killing him in the process, had it not been for Cure Ange’s intervention. He also takes over the Oshimaida that Daigan had already created, modifying it with his own tech.

While his taking down Daigan during his introduction may have given the impression that he’d be another one of the more ruthless villains of Criasu, it is soon established that out of the current set of villains, he’s actually one of the goofier ones, with his over-the-top mannerisms and such. Despite his daughter being one of the Cures, he still fights against them, and he later admits that he was a bit jealous of the Cures for succeeding in helping Ruru develop a heart when he had failed to do so.

After being purified during episode 37, he returns a few episodes later to try to reconnect with Ruru, as well as give the Cures some important information about Criasu and George Kurai’s goals. Considering how Dr. Traum had treated her before, Ruru is initially kind of annoyed with her father and doesn’t understand why he would want to bond with her now. Dr. Traum eventually admits that even he is full of contradictions, and that it is hard for him to explain how he feels. Ruru gradually begins to warm up to him over the course of the last few episodes, even if she still hasn’t fully accepted him yet.

Dr. Traum ended up becoming another one of my favorite Criasu characters, due to his somewhat goofy personality and connection to Ruru. As I sort of already said, he ended up being rather different from what I expected based on his first appearance. I feel he provides some comic relief among the set of villains the Cures face off against in the second half of the show, and I like how he’s basically the expert on technology and inventor of the company.

Of course, he’s still quite dangerous as a villain, as with the use of his inventions he managed to get pretty close to achieving Criasu’s goal in episodes 36 and 37, and in the latter episode grew so powerful after becoming an Oshimaida that the Hugtto team needed the assistance of all the previous Cures and their allies to stop the army of monsters he had summoned, and then purify him.

After becoming one of the good guys, he tries his best to make things up to Ruru for giving up on trying to raise her before. I like how Dr. Traum eventually manages to bring himself to admit that it wasn’t Ruru’s fault that things didn’t go as he hoped, but his own since he had his expectations in how he wanted Ruru to develop, while the Cures were able to bring about this development simply by accepting Ruru as she was to begin with and not pressuring her. I like the sort of wacky parent, serious child dynamic between the two.

I’m also really curious about what happened to his original daughter and how whatever happened ultimately led him to becoming part of Criasu, and I’m wondering if supplementary materials might some day give us an answer to that, as it did with clarifying some of the details regarding another character, but I’ll get to that later.

Next, I’ll talk about Bishin, or I guess his name might be spelled Bicine? Anyways, the character is first introduced when Ristoru goes to free him from his cell, asking Ristoru if he’s really sure about letting him out, since he might end up destroying everything. Bishin turns out to be an old friend of Harry, and really wants him to come back to Criasu. He ends up revealing Harry’s previous connection to Criasu to the Cures, and ends up forming a bit of a rivalry with Cure Etoile over Harry.

Bishin comes across as having trouble understanding others, such as having trouble understanding Harry’s decision to oppose Criasu, and not understanding how Homare is able to accept that her feelings for Harry are like unrequited. Since Bishin appears to be younger than both Harry and Ristoru, I’m guessing some of his behaviour can be attributed to him being more immature, combined with Criasu’s influence having left him a bit mentally unstable. Bishin later seems to move on to Ristoru, who comforted him after his duel with Cure Etoile in the VR space. Bishin is also seen questioning why George removed Ristoru’s “heart”, and wonders if the two of them can be happy together forever once Criasu’s goal has been reached.

In Harry and Ristoru’s backstory, we found out that Bishin was seemingly among the members of their village who was afflicted with some sort of illness, and hoped Criasu would save them by turning them into humans. After Ristoru is finally fully purified by the Cures, Bishin flies into a rage, and only calms down once Ristoru assures him that he truly cares about him, allowing Bishin to finally be purified and reunited with both Harry and Ristoru.

As you could probably tell from some of my thoughts on the various episodes, I did mistake Bishin for a girl until he was confirmed to be a boy, due to his voice and androgynous design, along with his crush on Harry. I do like the design, and I think he’s an interesting character. He is presented as a bit of a foil to Cure Etoile in the episodes revolving around both characters’ relationships with Harry, since Homare is ultimately able to accept Harry’s decisions and how things are, while Bishin just doesn’t understand.

Considering how Bishin seems to move on to Ristoru later on, I’m guessing Bishin doesn’t handle being alone very well, which again might be partially due to him being younger than Harry and Ristoru. Also, if I remember correctly, I don’t think it was ever really explained what Bishin did to get himself locked away in the first place. Well, whatever the reason, I imagine being locked up for a while might’ve also worsened his mental state. I feel kind of bad for him, thinking about how much Criasu’s influence messed him up.

Next is Ristoru, who was introduced in the first half of the show, but we didn’t really learn all that much about him until the second half. During the first half, he seems to be running things on behalf of their leader while he is away, or something. During the second half of the show, he starts to take on a more prominient role, including seeking out potential new employees for Criasu Corp after several of the villains have switched sides. We learn that Ristoru is a squirrel-like creature from the same village as Harry and Bishin, and that he initially joined Criasu as part of a deal to save the village. When the village was destroyed anyways, Ristoru fell into despair and came to believe fate couldn’t be avoided.

In spite of continuing to stoically carry out his work for Criasu, it gradually becomes apparent that part of Ristoru really resents George for not keeping his promise to save the village. After the Cures succeed in partially purifying him, Ristoru admits this. Because of this, George does something to Ristoru that Bishin describes as taking away his heart, messing with his memories and leaving him showing even less emotion than before.

During the final battle against him and Bishin, the Cures and Harry gradually manage to get through to Ristoru, jogging his memories and finally purifying him, allowing him in turn to help them talk down Bishin.

So, yeah. Ristoru turned out to be a very interesting character. At first, the most I could gleam from his role in the first half of the season was that he was obviously the second-in-command to the big bad, but I wasn’t sure what else to make of him. So I was very intrigued once the second half of the season started giving more focus and insight into Ristoru’s character. Ristoru turning out to be from Harry’s village was a bit of a surprise at first, and then I realized that his name does sound a bit similar to the Japanese word for “squirrel”.

I guess what’s really interesting about Ristoru, is that while part of him resents George for not keeping his promise, he has come to believe that there’s really nothing else left for him. When the Cures manage to partially purify him, he’s able to start admitting that he hates George, but he still can’t bring himself to leave, leading to him basically being brainwashed into an emotionless state to keep working for Criasu. It’s a bit unsettling to see him like that, especially when Bishin was talking to him and he did not react at all.

Other than that, I like his design. I’m glad the Cures were able to save him in the end, and that he in turn was able to help them save Bishin.

Finally, George Kurai, the big bad of the series. He makes appearances throughout the first half of the show, as this adult carrying around a book who occasionally talks about his worldview and ideals with Hana, which even inspires her at times. However, it is clear that something is up with him, as he keeps commenting on the actions of the Pretty Cures with great interest, Hugtan seems unnerved when he briefly interacts with her and Harry, and it eventually being confirmed that George is the “boyfriend” that Papple keeps spending time with.

George is eventually revealed to be the leader of the Criasu Corporation, much to the shock of Hana who had grown to trust him to some extent. During the second half of the show, we see how George manipulates the other villains. He seems to believe there is no hope for the future, which is why he is trying to stop time. He also continues to show a weird interest in Hana, due to a combination of her being able to draw out the power of Mother, much like Cure Tomorrow, and the fact that he and Hana knew each other in the future he came from.

Thanks to supplementary materials, we know more of the story, in that George and the alternate Hana were friends, but since the Hana of this timeline never transferred schools and met the others, she never found the inner strength the Hana we got know over the course of the show did, and it eventually led to her death. This was one of the factors leading to George going down the dark path.

However, it seems to me that George doesn’t quite seem to understand that the Hana he fights against in the present isn’t the same Hana he knew in the bad future, leading him to come across as rather creepy with his interest in this girl who is several years younger than him. It is also interesting that despite his reactions to his book changing in response to whenever Hana/Cure Yell and the other Cures change the future in some way, he still thinks the future is a lost cause and that stopping time is the best option.

So... Well, George does have a nice design, but I’m not sure where I’d put him on the scale of how well developed he is as a Pretty Cure main villain. Maybe it’s because there’s a lot of things we don’t really know about him, since some of the details regarding his backstory and such didn’t come up in the show itself. 

Despite his insistance that what he’s doing is to put an end to a future that can’t be saved, he still shows himself to be rather cruel. He seems to emotionally manipulate several of the other villains, including Papple, Gelos, Ristoru and Bishin. Due to his interest in Hana, I doubt he really cared about any of those villains the way he could make it seem. He also has a knack for torture, as shown with how Charalit was punished for failing to defeat the Cures, as well as how he tortured the other four Cures in episode 47 to try to get Cure Yell to surrender.

Of course, he is defeated in the end, and Cure Yell goes back to have one final talk with him. Despite his claims that his worldview hasn’t changed, Cure Yell believes otherwise, claiming that he wouldn’t keep telling her that they’d meet again otherwise. Seemingly accepting that she has a point there, George says good-bye by promising that they’ll meet again.

I admit, it does feel a bit weird that Hana is willing to forgive him after all he’s done, and that she still became friends with him in the good future, albeit presumably with his younger self who hadn’t done all those things. There’s a lot of things that are left unclear regarding their relationship, including whether or not they were more than friends at any point. Personally, I prefer to think they’re just friends. I mean, after everything that’s happened, anything more would just feel a bit weird. I’ll talk a bit more about this later when I go into my thoughts on the plot and the ending.

Other Characters

As I’ve mentioned before, I really do like the supporting casts of the various Pretty Cure series, and this one also had some really good ones. I’ll begin by talking about the family members of the Cures, starting with Hana’s family.

Hana’s parents, Shintarou Nono and Sumire Nono are both shown to be very good parents to their daughters, Hana and Kotori. Shintarou is the manager of a local store, HugMan Home Center, while Sumire works as the reporter for a magazine. All in all, both are shown to be kind and understanding to those around them, with the two helping give advice to the girls and Harry on how to look after Hugtan, Shintarou being a reasonable, good boss to his employees at the store, and Sumire still caring for Ruru’s well-being even after realizing something had been done to her memories after Ruru undoes the effects.

I really like both of them. I feel Sumire in particular is very perceptive in regards to Hana’s mood and mental state, even figuring out that Hana is Cure Yell during the final battle. They’re both really good people.

Hana’s younger sister, Kotori, comes across as more down to earth and calm than her sister, and doesn’t as easily get caught up in her family’s goofier moments. She seems to be a bit embarrassed over her older sister’s antics, but she still clearly cares about her. In an episode focusing on her, Kotori worries that Hana might be unintentionally creating problems for the Pretty Cures, since they always seem to show up in places she’s been to, and tries to investigate alongside two of Hana’s classmates, one with a crush on Hana herself and one with a crush on Cure Yell.

During her investigation, she comes to realize Hana’s strong points, and even starts to figure out that Hana and Cure Yell might be the same person. While she doesn’t get to confirm her theory due to Hana falling asleep before she can ask her, she at the very least has a better understanding and appreciation of her older sister.

I really like Kotori, and I wish she’d gotten more episodes focused on her. For example, she and Emiru could’ve gotten at least one episode together, those two being classmates and all. With their different personalities, it might’ve been interesting to see those two interact more. At least she still got a pretty good episode centered around her, and it was interesting seeing her interactions with those two male classmates of Hana’s. I also wish they’d perhaps done a little bit more with her being implied to have learned Hana’s identity.

The last member of Hana’s family to be introduced (not counting Hugtan) is Hana’s grandmother, Tanpopo, who is more of a minor character featured in a few episodes, most notably episode 29, her debut episode. She runs a shop where she sells traditional sweets that she makes herself, with one of her customers, a friend of hers named Yone, expressing that the sweets just aren’t as good as they used to be. Tanpopo tries to ignore this and keep at it, but as she throws out her back and has to be taken to the hospital, has to consider the possibility that she’s simply getting too old to continue working at the shop.

After speaking to Yone, Hana and her friends decide to try to re-create the Hope Manju that the shop used to sell back when Hana’s grandfather, Tanpopo’s husband, was still alive. Upon receiving these, Tanpopo admits that the reason she had stopped making them was because it was the one sweet that she couldn’t bear to make if it didn’t turn out the way it did before. She’s inspired to return to the shop and teach Hana and her friends how to make them properly, and ends up helping the Cures fight the monster of the week, and recognizing Cure Yell as Hana. In the end, she decides to keep the shop running, but acknowledges that it’ll be difficult to keep it going on her own. Hearing this, Yone offers to help out, as she still has quite a bit of strength, being stronger than she looks.

Tanpopo may be a minor character, but I really like her and the episode that introduced her. She and Hana seem to get along well, seeming to have some personality traits in common. Her episode also addresses another aspect to the show’s focus on the future, namely the fact that there may come a time when you have to retire and just can’t do your job as well as before. In the end, Tanpopo is able to keep her shop going, realizing she can’t do it all on her own and hiring her friend Yone to help out after she offers her assistance and physical strength for the tasks Tanpopo has difficulty with.

Seeing Tanpopo step out to protect her shop and actually managing to deflect an Oshimaida’s attack with her shop’s equipment was also pretty cool, as well as her figuring out that Cure Yell is Hana. I also like Yone, and the friendship between the two old ladies.

Next I’ll talk about Saaya’s parents. We learn early on that Saaya is the daughter of an actress, and part of her character arc is whether to follow in the footsteps of her mother as an aspiring actress, or if there’s another dream she’d rather pursue. In the episode properly introducing Saaya’s mother, Reira, we learn about how Saaya’s mother convinced a lot of the crew she worked with to help her with balancing continuing her career and making sure Saaya was raised well.

It is shown that when Reira plays a role, she will do what she can to understand the role and get really into character, leading to her sometimes doing things she wouldn’t normally do if it’s something the character would do. As a result, she can come across as a bit clumsy at times, but her dedication to her work certainly shines through.

While she is supporting of Saaya and the choice Saaya makes regarding her future career in the end, things take an interesting turn as while Reira is accepting of Saaya choosing a different path, part of her is also conflicted due to the reality of the fact that her daughter is growing up. After a heart-to-heart between Saaya and Reira after Reira is turned into an Oshimaida, Reira manages to sort out her conflicting emotions, and later goes off-script during the scene she and Saaya are practicing as a way of showing her full support of Saaya’s dream while still in-character.

I really like Reira. Her dedication to her career, while also wanting to make sure her daughter is raised right is quite admirable. I also really like how close she is to her co-workers and how they pitched in to help her balance her career with raising Saaya. I thought her internal conflict when Saaya decided to focus on a medical career instead of acting was interesting too, realizing how fast her daughter is growing up and being reluctant to let her go. She initially tries to keep these feelings to herself, but being turned into an Oshimaida brings them to the surface as she abducts Hugtan, seemingly mistaking her for a younger Saaya. They ultimately manage to talk things out, with Saaya letting Reira know just how much of an influence Reira has been and how she also played a part in helping her reach her decision.

Next is Saaya’s father, Shuji. He first appears in episode 7, where he is seen preparing Saaya’s favorite food. He works as a caterer for the film sets Reira works at, and sometimes helps Reira with her work. When he’s not delivering food to the set, he seems to handle the household chores and such while Reira is at work.

He doesn’t get that much screentime, but it is clear that he supports Reira and is a good parent to Saaya, presumably being able to spend more time with her than Reira. I like their story.

Next, onto Homare’s family. We don’t get to see much of them, but Homare does mention in one episode that she lives with her mother and grandparents, and that her mother and father are divorced for unknown reasons. We finally get a glimpse of the family in episode 25, when Homare’s mother, Chitose, is seen helping Homare get ready for the festival and giving her a hair accessory for the occasion.

Chitose makes another appearance in episode 43, when she notices that Homare is feeling conflicted due to her feelings for Harry, and gives her some advice, reassuring her that no matter what happens, her friends will be there for her.

While a minor character, I liked Chitose’s interactions with Homare. She is able to tell what is troubling her and gives her some advice based on her own experiences. She’s clearly a caring parent, and I wish we’d seen some more of her and Homare’s grandparents.

I guess Homare’s dog, Mogumogu, also counts as a family member, so I’ll talk about him real quick. Homare basically adopted him as a pet after saving him from being hit by a truck during the brief period in which Hugtan froze time. Mogumogu gets an episode focused on him, where he develops a crush on a cute celebrity cat named Lily, shown on TV. When an oppurtunity to meet her presents itself, the Cures try to help Mogumogu muster up the courage to win a competition. When an Oshimaida attacks during the event, Mogumogu manages to show his courage when he rescues a girl who was separated from her mother during the chaos and leads her to safety. The girl and her mother later come to thank him, turning out to be Lily’s owners, allowing the two to finally meet.

Yeah, not really much to say about Mogumogu. He’s cute, a bit of a slow learner, but managed to prove his courage when things got tough. And he can tell that Cure Etoile is Homare, which isn’t that surprising, as other pets belonging to the Cures tend to be able to figure it out. And his little relationship with Lily the cat is cute too, I guess, with the final episode suggesting they still meet regularly.

Anyways, since I’ve already talked about Dr. Traum, that only leaves Emiru’s family. We meet her parents in episode 15, and we quickly see that the two are quite eccentric, wearing old-fashioned outfits and singing and dancing around the room when Ruru first meets them after following Emiru to her house. A later episode shows that they also support Emiru in her music career. I don’t have that much to say about them, really. They’re kind of funny, giving us a bit of an idea of where Emiru gets her some of her overly dramatic tendencies from, and I like how they are supportive of Emiru.

Now, let’s talk about Masato, Emiru’s older brother. When he is first introduced, he comes across as sort of a rich jerk, due to having been heavily influenced by his grandfather. As such, he disapproves of Emiru’s interest in the guitar, suggesting that the violin or piano are more lady-like, leading to Ruru, moved by Emiru’s guitar playing, to stand up to Masato on her behalf.

Masato is seen again in episode 19, commenting on how feminine a ribbon Henri wears on his school uniform tie looks, with Henri just ignoring his opinion. When Masato later in the episode tries to pull Emiru away from performing in a fashion show with “heroes” as a theme due to his belief that only guys should be heroes, Henri steps in after changing into a beautiful dress. After Henri stands up against Masato and his sexist views, Masato leaves, with his negative energy making him into a target for Criasu and turning him into an Oshimaida.

During the confrontation with the Cures, Masato’s Oshimaida kidnaps Henri. While caught up in the situation, Henri calmly speaks to the Oshimaida, encouraging Masato to love himself more. After being purified, Henri’s words seem to have had quite the effect on him, as Masato starts mellowing out and showing more support for Emiru. He apologizes to her by giving her tickets for her and Ruru to see a concert, and also apologizes to Henri, with the two becoming close friends afterwards. In later episodes, the two are often seen together, with Masato supporting Henri in his ice-skating and such.

Masato’s character development really shines when his grandfather shows up after Emiru loses her voice over being unable to admit to not wanting Ruru to leave once the Pretty Cures’ mission is over. When Emiru and Masato’s grandfather tries to talk Emiru into quitting her band with Ruru, Masato stands up to his grandfather and helps give Emiru the encouragement to regain her voice and talk things out with Ruru. 

Masato ended up becoming a surprisingly interesting character, once Henri and the Pretty Cures helped him gain enough insight to think more for himself and not just follow what his grandfather taught him. I really like how he redeems himself by becoming a supportive older brother for Emiru, and the friendship he develops with Henri. As the story progresses, it even seems their relationship might be developing towards something more than just friends.

I think the moments between those two that really stand out to me are his scenes in episode 42. There’s the scene where he and Homare visit Henri in the hospital after the car accident that broke Henri’s leg, with Masato tearfully wishing he could’ve been the one who got injured instead of Henri. Then there’s Masato’s joyful reaction when Henri temporarily becomes a Cure, and him running out on the ice to catch Henri in his arms after the transformation wears off. Yeah, that episode had some really good moments between those two.

I also really liked his confrontation with his grandfather during the episode where Emiru temporarily lost her voice as mentioned before, and while the grandfather is still being stubborn and refusing to change his mind by the end of the episode, Masato still hopes he’ll eventually come around, even if might take time. I feel that episode really showed how Masato has changed for the better, and how his more open-minded perspective has also helped him connect with others more.

Well, I think that about covers the family members of the Cures, so now let’s move onto other recurring characters. I’ll start with Henri Wakamiya, a half-French, half-Japanese figure skater from Russia. He is initially introduced as a childhood friend of Homare, who is thrilled to see that she’s taken up skating again, and wanting her to come with him to Moscow to help her get back to her former glory. Henri is initially skeptical of Homare’s new friends, Hana and Saaya, believing them to be holding Homare back from getting back to her full potential.

Homare eventually proves him wrong, and he starts to warm up to Hana and Saaya, and it is implied that he figured out that they were the Cures after witnessing their battle against an Oshimaida in that episode, which is confirmed in a later episode. After these events, Henri transfers into the Cures’ school. His comments to Hana indirectly led to the plot of episode 10 and 11, which had Hana start doubting herself, before eventually overcoming these doubts with the help of her friends and gaining the Melody Swords.

Henri’s next big role is in episode 19, where he invites Emiru and Ruru to take part in the fashion show after hearing them sing together. We also see him not caring for Masato’s mocking comments about his fashion choices, even when Hana tries to defend him, explaining to her that he believes arguing with those who disagree with his choices is just a waste of time. When Masato tries to interfere with the fashion show by taking Emiru away, Henri chooses to stand up to him, appearing before him in a dress. Henri explains his worldview to Masato, believing that living life with unwanted restrictions is a waste, and stops him from taking Emiru home.

As mentioned when I talked about Masato, an Oshimaida is made from Masato’s negative energy, and it ends up capturing Henri. While the Cures try to save him, Henri also assists by calmly talking to Masato, embracing the Oshimaida and encouraging him to love himself more. After the Cures rescue Henri and return Masato to normal, Henri and Masato end up developing a close friendship, as I mentioned earlier.

Henri’s next appearances start up a sub-plot in which the Criasu Corporation look to recruit him, while Henri is recovering from a problem with his leg which may potentially force him to retire from ice skating. When first approached by Ristoru, Emiru witnesses their conversation and goes to talk to Henri, who assures her that he has no intention of joining up with them. He also comments about this surprising turn of events saying that he would’ve sooner expected the Pretty Cures to recruit him.

However, Ristoru does leave Henri with a business card, and the ending of the episode to introduce this sub-plot shows that while Henri may have rejected Criasu’s offer for now, this isn’t the end of it. Indeed, Homare eventually notices that something is wrong and asks Henri about it. Henri eventually admits that while he’s already had the doctors take care of his leg, he knows that he likely won’t be able to continue, but he wants to have at least one last ice skating performance before he starts looking for another dream.

Unfortunately, Henri is unable to perform when he gets into a car accident which results in him breaking his leg. Henri initially tries to put on a brave face for Homare and Masato when they come to check on him, but once left alone, his despair starts to get to him, with Ristoru making it worse by showing him his fans who are upset at not being able to see his performance. This leads to Henri briefly falling under Criasu’s control, but the Cures manage to snap him out of it.

As the Cures manage to reach Henri, a miracle occurs, leading to Henri temporarily becoming a Cure himself, Cure Infini. Cure Infini assists the Cures in their battle and manages to raise the spirits of the audience with his ice skating skills. After the battle is over and Henri is taken back to the hospital, he speaks to Hana, Saaya and Homare about why he chose to call his Cure form Cure Infini and talks about how he considers the first three Cures the Precures of wings, pointing out in Hana’s case that Cure Yell’s name also sounds similar to “Aile”, which means wings. Henri is seen still recovering in the last few episodes leading up to the finale.

I think Henri is easily one of the most interesting characters of Hugtto’s supporting cast. I think it’s particularly episode 19 where we really get to know him. He is true to himself, and has no issues occasionally wearing dresses because he likes them. I enjoy watching his interactions with Masato, and I think his sub-plot was an interesting one. Much like Tanpopo’s debut episode, it ties into the show’s theme in the aspect of the possibility of injury or medical condition interfering with your ability to follow your passions.

Ultimately, the sub-plot results in something I don’t think anyone saw coming until the preview for episode 42: Henri Wakamiya becoming the first official male Cure, even if it was only temporary. While the idea of a male Cure has previously been teased in previous series and we’ve certainly seen plenty of male allies of the Cures, Hugtto Pretty Cure finally had a male character recognized as a Cure. It was quite awesome, and with the themes brought up in episode 19 and Henri having shown an implied interest in being a Cure, I feel it was quite fitting that they actually went through with it. And what makes it even better is that this wasn’t just a one-time thing: It was foreshadowing for the events of the final battle between the Cures and George! I really loved that. I’ll go more into detail about that later.

Aside from Henri and Masato, I also like his relationships with his childhood friend Homare, and how they’re shown to understand each other fairly well as both notice the other’s troubles. Another relationship I liked is his relationship with Hana. While it starts off with him skeptical to her, he soon starts warming up to her once he realizes how big an impact she really left on Homare in helping her return to ice skating. While the two are on friendlier terms, it is still shown in later episodes that they still haven’t quite come to fully understand each other, but eventually, in episode 42, when Hana shows him the design she made for an outfit that ultimately becomes the basis for Cure Infini’s outfit, Henri, while commenting that the outfit doesn’t seem all that practical for ice skating, at least acknowledges that Hana has grown to understand him more as he still likes the design itself. I really liked this little moment and the acknowledgement of how their relationship has progressed.

Okay, I think I’ll talk about Ranze Ichijo, a recurring character who plays a role in Saaya’s character arc. She’s an aspiring young actress, and self-proclaimed rival to Saaya, even if Saaya doesn’t fully understand that she sees it that way. This is because Ranze and Saaya were both in a variety show together as children, but while Saaya was the main character of the show, Ranze was just a side-character, wearing a leek costume. This itself also leads to a bit of a running gag in the episodes where Ranze shows up, as she keeps inexpliacably ending up in roles relating to leek, such as the person delivering leek on a show about cooking, or a leek knight in the episode where everyone got caught up in another virtual world created by Criasu.

Ranze’s appearances mainly focus on her desire to get bigger roles as an actress, while “competing” with Saaya. However, as is made clear in the episode where Saaya decides to retire from acting to focus on pursuing a career in medicine instead, Ranze also respects Saaya. She calls Saaya out on not putting her heart in her role, and when Saaya informs everyone of her decision, Ranze is initially upset and even tearfully asks if there’s a chance that Saaya could both work in medicine and still be an actress, while respecting Saaya’s decision when Saaya explains why that wouldn’t work.

I really like Ranze, particularly her moments with Saaya in episode 44. Due to the similarities between their names, she may be partially based off of Ranko Ichijou from Go! Princess Pretty Cure, another fun side character who wanted to be an idol. Still, whether that was intentional or not, she seems very different from Ranko. I also like her design.

Next, I’ll talk about Fumito Chise, one of the Cures’ classmates, and the first person to be the victim of the week on this show after getting angry over his teacher scolding him for turning in an assignment late. He becomes interested in Cure Yell after she saves him, and episode 34 reveals that he at some point started his own Cure Yell fan club. He is usually accompanied by Hinase Amano, another one of his classmates.

During episode 34, we see just how enthusiatic he is about Cure Yell. On the other hand, he’s not all that interested in Hana, unaware that they’re the same person. He and Hinase end up talking to Kotori about her concerns, and the three of them end up helping give the Cures the power boost they need to defeat the opponent of that episode.

Yeah, he’s a minor character for the most part, but I really liked his interactions with Kotori and Hinase in episode 34. The way they work off of each other with their different personalities and viewpoints was fun to watch. I also like the little book end with Fumito’s frustration being what causes the negative energy to possess the train the future characters are supposed to use to get back to their own time, with the reason for his frustration even being just about the same as what got him turned into an Oshimaida in the first episode.

I’ll talk about Hinase next, a guy is part of the school’s orchestra club and is often seen preparing for concerts. While also a fairly minor character, he does play a slightly bigger role than Fumito. Aside from background appearances in early episodes, his first scene to stand out is a conversation with Hana in episode 10, where he tells her of one the orchestra club’s upcoming concerts and talks about how many different talents come together to make amazing music. This later comes up again in episode 11, where the girls are trying to figure out how to help a comatose Hugtan, and end up heading to the tower where the concert is held. Remembering his words, Hana and the other two girls are able to figure out how to wake up Hugtan.

Later episodes show that Hinase has developed a bit of a crush on Hana, but unfortunately Hana is totally oblivious to this. He later gets a focus episode alongside Kotori and Fumito, as I’ve already mentioned. He helps Kotori with her concerns by providing his perspective on Hana, and how she’s always caring for the well-being of others, even if she can be a bit clumsy at times. He, Fumito and Kotori later help the Cures by cheering them on and giving them the power boost they need to save the day.

I like Hinase, and I think his interactions with Hana are really sweet. While she may be oblivious to his crush on her, he manages to give her some good advice and encouragement. I also find his interactions with Fumito interesting, as mentioned above. He’s just a nice, sort of dorky guy who is very understanding of others.

And now for Aki and Junna, two other classmates of Hana who are frequently seen in minor roles throughout the show. While the two are shown throughout early episodes, their only real focus episode was episode 16. The episode focuses on Aki, the read haired girl, wanting to be more like Homare, which leads to conflict with Junna, the girl with the glasses, who thinks Aki is fine the way she is and doesn’t think Homare would make a good role model considering her reputation prior to Hana and Saaya helping her to get things back on track in regards to her ice skating.

As Homare tries to convince Aki to sort things out with Junna, we learn how the two have been friends since kindergarden, and that Junna has helped Aki a lot throughout the years since Aki has trouble staying focused on things. Homare can’t figure out how to help the two, so when the two later get into another argument, the become an easy target for Papple to create an Oshimaida. 

During the battle, Cure Etoile’s words reach them, and they begin talking things out. Aki explains why she wanted to be more like Homare, while Junna explains her own feelings and realizes she may have been unconsciously holding Aki back. Thus, the two patch things up. They continue to play minor roles in later episodes.

So, yeah. I like them, they have a fairly interesting dynamic. I like their designs, and their focus episode was good. I don’t really have much to say about them, though. Aside from their focus episode, I can’t think of any other big roles they play in other episodes at the top of my head, aside from being among the people shown to temporarily become Cures in the finale. Still, I felt the show still treated them as important enough among the recurring characters for me to include in this post.

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Overall Thoughts

I really did like this series a lot. I liked the art style, which reminded me a bit of Yes! Pretty Cure 5′s art style, the character designs were really great and the soundtrack was really great too. I really think the whole future theme worked really well, and it is in some way similar to the theme of Go! Princess Pretty Cure about following your dreams, another Pretty Cure series that is among my favorites. The characters are all really great, and I like how this show continues experimenting with the Pretty Cure formula like Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode did.

Hugtto Pretty Cure is also one of the darker Pretty Cure seasons, which I’m guessing is partially due to the previous two seasons for the most part having had a fairly light-hearted tone, so they allowed themselves to go a bit darker with this one. For starters, the main threat facing the world is made known right from the start, with Criasu’s goal being to eliminate the future by stopping time, while in both of the series that preceded this one it took some time before it became clear what the villains were trying to accomplish. The first few episodes also have more of a serious tone in some aspects, particularly with Homare’s initial difficulties becoming a Cure.

This show could get seriously intense at times. A few scenes that come to mind are the endings of episode 10 and episode 16, the imagery in the scene in episode 22 leading up to Papple becoming an Oshimaida, Harry’s backstory shown in episode 25, Henri getting into a car accident in 42, George torturing the other four Cures in episode 47 in order to force Cure Yell to surrender... And those aren’t even all of the examples I can think of at the top of my head.

There’s also the way the show presents its future theme in very relatable ways, showing different worries people may have about their futures. How do you become the person you aspire to be? What goal do you truly want to pursue in the future? And what do you do when it seems you may no longer be able to do the thing you love because of injury or because your body no longer works as well as it used to due to age? There’s even sort of an element of this with the villains, who for the most part have all given up on hope for their future, and are already aware that the world will end up in a bad state in a few years anyways. Considering all the worry about climate change and whether we’ll be able to do something about it before things get worse, this can hit kind of close to home.

But of course, being a Pretty Cure series, this series still takes a optimistic approach to many of these topics, with the Cures gradually figuring out what they truly want from the future, and inspiring others to do their best too, even managing to convince the villains that there might still be a good future for them and inspiring them to explore the possibilities. I feel this in some ways sums up one of the reasons why I like the Pretty Cure franchise so much. There’s something very inspiring about watching these girls fighting for the futures of themselves and those around them, always managing to find a way to get back on their feet no matter what hardships they might face along the way. And I feel this element of inspiration is really highlighted in Hugtto Pretty Cure.

This series also celebrates the 15th anniversery of the franchise, much like Happiness Charge Pretty Cure celebrated the 10th anniversary. And while I did like Happiness Charge, I do feel this Hugtto does it better. Happiness Charge had some interesting concepts, but all in all, it didn’t utilize those concepts to its full potential and had some romance sub-plots that were a little hard to get invested in because it was already pretty clear what the outcome would be. The series wasn’t bad, but it could’ve been better.

With Hugtto, there are plenty of callbacks to previous Pretty Cure series, they are also willing to try new things and take more chances, managing to truly capture the essence of the Pretty Cure franchise. And sure, it has some flaws and there are perhaps some characters that could’ve been explored more, but all in all, it’s still a pretty good series.

And while on the topic of it being an anniversery series, I of course have to talk about certain episodes. I’ll first bring up episode 21, which ends with Hugtan summoning the original Pretty Cure duo, Cure Black and Cure White, who end up assisting the Hugtto team in episode 22, helping Emiru and Ruru sort out some problems between them and helping fight Papple’s Oshimaida before Hugtan returns the two to their world. This was pretty cool, and also ties in to the Hugtto Pretty Cure movie, which also has the Hugtto team teaming up with Cure Black and Cure White to help reclaim the memories of the other Pretty Cure teams, basically making it a Pretty Cure All Stars movie, which also has me wondering if we’ll get another All Stars movie for the 20th anniversary, and if that’ll be a recurring thing or not.

Anyways, back on topic, episode 36 and 37 then decided to one-up those episodes, by basically being a two-part episode All Stars movie on its own by bringing in all the other Pretty Cure teams. Basically, episode 36 has Dr. Traum planning to stop time, and trying to prevent the Cures from doing so by turning them into babies (again, another reference to the plot of the Hugtto movie) with one of his inventions, going after the grown-up Kira Kira Pretty Cures, who were meeting up for the first time in a while. Hugtan manages to get them out of danger by teleporting them to the Hugtto team, but not before Dr. Traum’s invention has turned them back into the ages they were during the Kira Kira Pretty Cure series itself. Hana and Ichika recognize each other, presumably due to the events of the crossover movie with them and the Mahou Tsukai Cures. (as well as Hana having visited the KiraPati in the finale of Kira Kira, but I’m not sure if this came up in the crossover movie or not, I do need to catch up on those.)

The Mahou Tsukai girls soon show up, with Mirai and Riko getting de-aged as well (Kotoha still being the same age as before due to essentially being a physical Goddess or something as shown in the finale of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure), and the three groups team up in order to stop Dr. Traum. As his new invention proves especially difficult to deal with, the Cures split up to seek more help, and end up meeting up with Love Momozono from Fresh Pretty Cure, and Nozomi Yumehara from Yes! Pretty Cure 5 and Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo.

Cure Peach and Cure Dream join the fight, but Dr. Traum ultimately manages to freeze time, including most of the other Pretty Cure teams, however, we do see that in addition to the Cures gathered so far, Cure Black, Cure White and Shiny Luminous also managed to avoid being frozen and soon join up with the other Cures. However, Dr. Traum continues to get stronger, until he becomes a powerful Oshimaida and summons various monsters from previous series.

However, thanks to the determination of Hana and the others, the Cures manage to break through Dr. Traum’s attempts to stop them, and eventually the rest of the Cures from various series are able to join them, resulting in an epic fight where the various Cures fight together. In the end, with the help of all the Cures, as well as the encouragement from various allies those Cures have made throughout their series, they manage to purify Dr. Traum with their combined strength.

Now, while I do love these two episodes, episode 37 in particular, I do have to bring up the fact that this causes a few small issues with the timeline previously established by the final episodes of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode. You see, in Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure’s final episode, Mirai and Riko are both college age, but are temporarily returned to middle school ages by Kotoha’s magic, as they go on one last mission as Cures and find out what has happened to the other characters during the time skip. During their adventure, they meet Ichika, who is at this point a middle schooler.

Cut forward to Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode’s final episode, where Hana stops by the KiraPati along with Hugtan, and which takes place before a time skip leading to the final scenes where we see the Kira Kira Pretty Cures all grown up. However, in episode 36, we see the Kira Kira Pretty Cures in their grown-up ages, despite the fact that Hana’s appearance in the last episode should suggest that they’d still be close to the same age as her at this point in the timeline. In addition, Mirai and Riko’s grown-up selves still appear to be the same age as we saw them in the last episode of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, even though the grown-up versions of the Kira Kira Pretty Cure suggests that those two should be even older by then. Yeah... Kind of messes up the timeline a little, doesn’t it? Again, I haven’t seen the Dream Stars and Super Stars movies yet, so I don’t know what their take on the timeline is. I suppose the time travel element might play into some of this, but I’ll talk more about some of the more confusing aspects of the time travel stuff later.

Now, as mentioned, while there are some confusing details regarding the timelines of these shows, I’m actually willing to mostly overlook it simply because of how awesome episode 37 was. Seriously, that episode was like a love letter to the fans that have been following the entire franchise so far. I love the little details of the Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode team being clueless as to who most of the Pretty Cure teams are, as the last Pretty Cure All Stars movie prior to the Hugtto one was the Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure one, and thus the Kira Kira Pretty Cures hadn’t met most of the previous teams.

The entire fight scene during episode 37 is pure awesome, with how they pair up different Cures with similar abilities or personalities. Like the defensive Cures getting together to deflect an attack with their barriers, the former villain Cures with musical instruments (+ Cure Ma Cherie) joining up for an attack, Cure Blossom and Cure Flora combining their flower power, the star themed Cures doing an attack together, the Splash Star, Happiness Charge and Mahou Tsukai teams using their different forms, Milky Rose, Cure Felice and Cure Parfait (all being fairies who became human) fighting together, Cure Rouge, Cure Sunny and Cure March using their ball-themed attacks, the Cures who in some way use swords joining together, Cure Rhythm (also being an aspiring patissier) finally getting to meet Cure Whip... There are so many good combinations in this!

And there’s even more! We even get cameos from other notable characters from previous series, starting with an appearance from Bunbee, who was unwittingly roped into helping Dr. Traum with his invention, and then bailed out once he realized what was going on and then informed the Cures of what was going on.

Then, when the Cures are preparing for their final attack to purify Dr. Traum, we see both Pekorin and (partially) Mofurun assuming their Pretty Cure forms, and we get cameos from Michiru and Kaoru from Splash Star (in their Cure Bright and Windy forms), Cure Flower from HeartCatch Pretty Cure, Royale Candy from Smile Pretty Cure, Cure Tender and the Aloha Pretty Cures from Happiness Charge Pretty Cure, Pikario and Bibury from Kira Kira Pretty Cure, Soular and Westar from Fresh Pretty Cure, Otokichi from Suite Pretty Cure, Regina from Doki Doki Pretty Cure, Yui from Go! Princess Pretty Cure, the principal from Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and even Cure Echo from the All Stars movies appears to pitch in for the final attack. All of these allies of the Pretty Cures... Ah, it was so awesome!

There were probably a few more characters they could’ve included, with Seiji Sagara and maybe Blue from Happiness Charge in particular coming to mind, but it was still really awesome seeing them acknowledging all of these characters as basically part of the Pretty Cure teams. I loved that scene so much! And they even worked in a cameo of Kaoru from Fresh Pretty Cure after the battle and time returned to normal. It was just such a great episode! And they even managed to work it into the on-going story of Hugtto, since Dr. Traum was purified in the process. Seriously, this is how you celebrate a franchise’s anniversary. I also liked the use of the opening theme of Futari wa Pretty Cure for the action scene and the special episode ED themes.

The character development in this series is pretty solid, for the most part. As I mentioned earlier, I think Emiru could’ve had some more interactions with the team besides Ruru, and Saaya tended not to stand out as much in episodes not focused on her. Although I feel they at least managed to avoid having Saaya end up in the same category as Alice from Doki Doki Pretty Cure, Yuko from Happiness Charge Pretty Cure and Mirai from Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure, three characters who didn’t receive as much character development as their teammates and while they certainly had episodes focused on them, they sort of remain static characters for most their shows. With Saaya, there is a clear progression in her character arc and her focus episodes develop her story well.

There might’ve also been aspects of some of the villains that could’ve been explored in more detail. On the other hand, I suppose there’s that saying “show, not tell”, and it might be better not to just tell everything. Still, in some cases, certain unanswered questions leave you wondering, and I’m not sure if we’ll possibly get an answer to some of those via supplementary materials, like we got with for example Sasorina, Kumojacky and Cobraja from HeartCatch Pretty Cure.

That aside, I feel the show overall does a pretty good job with setting up its plot points and the foreshadowing, with the gradual reveal of Harry’s backstory, the mysteries surrounding Hugtan and so on. There’s just enough clues that you can kind of piece together what’s going on, and look forward to seeing if you were right and what the other characters’ reactions will be. At least, that’s how I felt watching this series.

I also really appreciated Cure Infini. I feel this show was probably the most perfect time and place to introduce a male Cure, as I mentioned earlier. I kind of hope this could open up new possibilities for future Pretty Cure series. As I mentioned earlier, the appearance of Cure Infini also foreshadowed the events of the second-to-last episode, so I think it’s about time I start getting into the last few episodes, my thoughts on them, among other things.

So, basically, the last battle is kicked off by Criasu managing to stop time, and creating a giant Oshimaida to deal with the Cures. George kidnaps Hugtan, but the Cures do manage to finally purify Ristoru and Bishin, and Gelos helps give the Cures a ride to Criasu Corp’s HQ before joining the other former villains in holding off Oshimaidas while the Cures try to rescue Hugtan. George eventually traps all five Cures, and tries to break Cure Yell’s spirit by torturing the other four by eletrocuting them. However, the four manage to encourage Cure Yell to not give up despite all this. The four of them are sent away, leaving Cure Yell to confront George alone.

The two fight for a while, with Cure Yell refusing to give in. Recalling how much things have changed since she met Hugtan and the others, she finds the strength to keep fighting and eventually manages to destroy George’s book, freeing Hugtan. The other Cures soon rejoin the fight, and as they spread positive energy all over, time resumes as everyone becomes a Cure to assist with the final battle. Yes, everyone in town temporarily becomes a Cure to help deal the final blow against George. After this, Cure Yell goes to have one last talk with George, where they seem to reach somewhat of an understanding before he leaves, promising that they’ll meet again somewhere. After that, the Cures and the other former villains watch the sunrise together.

Yeah, that second-to-last episode was pretty awesome. With the angel-wing imagery throughout the show, I thought for sure that the Cures were going to receive one final power-up that included angel wings, but that didn’t happen. I think what they ended up doing with everyone in town becoming Cures was really cool, though. There were a few characters whose Cure forms we didn’t get to see, though, including Harry, Bishin and Ristoru, although I’m sure fanartists have come up with some designs. Among other characters I would’ve liked to see as Cures were Ranze and Reira, who I at least don’t remember seeing during that sequence. There were a lot of cool designs, though, especially for some of the former villains. A clever alternative to giving the Cures a final upgrade for the final battle, and works well with the show’s message. By working together and getting everyone involved, they were able to make a better future.

After the final battle, the last episode focuses on everyone going about their daily lives, with the first half of the episode dealing with the girls spending time together before it is time to send the characters from the future home. While working on the invention that’ll send the characters from the future back, the invention ends up turning into an Oshimaida and going on a rampage due to absorbing Toge power from a frustrated Fumito. The Cures have one last fight, with Hikaru/Cure Star from the then upcoming Star Twinkle Pretty Cure making a cameo to help them out, before going off to chase a kappa.

With all that done said and done, Hana and her friends see the characters from the future off as they board Dr. Traum’s time machine train to return home. However, they find it hard not to cry at being separated for a long time, especially as Hugtan doesn’t fully understand what is going on. In the end, the characters from the future return home.

Yeah, the scene where the characters from the present and the ones from the future part ways was really sad, especially with Hugtan’s reaction to it. Cure Star’s cameo was also kind of short compared to the cameos of Ichika/Cure Whip and Hana/Cure Yell in Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure and Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode. Still, since every other Cure from the previous series had been featured, and this show does have the whole future theme going, it’d also be strange if she didn’t show up. Also, after watching the first episode of Star Twinkle, I thought the whole thing with Hikaru running off to chase a kappa turned out to be a clever bit of foreshadowing, considering the first of the villains she ended up facing.

Anyways, as for the second half of the episode, we jump ahead several years into the future, where Hana and her friends are now adults, and we see what the supporting cast has been up to. We find that this timeline’s version of Dr. Traum has built a child version of Ruru which is supposedly capable of aging, which he calls the grown-up Emiru over to meet. While it’s not the same Ruru (who she presumably will have to wait another 13 years to meet again, if I understand things right, I’ll get back to that later), Emiru is happy to see her, and plays the song she wrote for the original Ruru on her guitar. New!Ruru seems to know the song, and sings along with Emiru.

Meanwhile, Hana is now the president of a successful company and is well-liked by her employees, which include some of her former classmates. However, one of her employees point out that she’s not even supposed to be working at the moment, and we soon see why as Hana is revealed to be pregnant and she starts going into labour. Saaya, now working as a doctor alongside the good timeline version of Daigan, prepare to help Hana as they get the call about her. Homare, now a famous ice skater, hurries over from the airport to be with Hana as she gives birth. We see more glimpses of what the rest of the supporting characters have been up to, and Hana gives birth to a familiar-looking baby girl, naming her Hagumi.

So, yeah. It is pretty neat seeing what all the supporting characters are up to in the good future. A few lingering plot points, such as the whole deal with Masato and Emiru’s grandfather is resolved, as we see him attending one of Henri’s performances, seemingly more accepting than before. Also, Henri and Masato probably had a relationship upgrade at some point during the time skip. Good for them!

And it is confirmed that Hugtan/Cure Tomorrow is indeed Hana’s daughter. The identity of her father is still ambiguous, though. While it could be George... I don’t know. I think it’d be kind of strange for that to happen, considering everything the bad future!George put Hana and her friends through. Even if the good timeline George is different, and Hana was willing to forgive the bad timeline!George to some extent... It just seems strange. I guess I just personally think that if anything, those two would just be friends.

While George being Hugtan’s father could potentially explain why she alone was spared in the bad timeline, but that could also just be because George knows she’s Hana’s daughter, even if he’s not the father. Yeah, I mentioned earlier that there are some confusing elements of the story, due to lack of certain details and the whole time travel aspect with the two different timelines. The whole deal with Cure Tomorrow being one of them.

By the time the series begins, the timeline has already changed slightly from the bad timeline George, the other Criasu members, Harry and Hugtan came from, with Hana having transferred schools and cut her bangs, while in the bad timeline, Hana never did transfer schools and meet the other girls. So, I guess the bad future characters going back in time might’ve caused some ripple effect that set in motion the changes to the timeline, including somehow Hana changing schools, although that’s just speculation on my part.

And then there’s the final episode, with the characters from the future returning to the good timeline, a brief scene of human!Harry with Cure Tomorrow seemingly confirming that they did make it there. I do wonder, though, since we do see the younger versions of the former villains there, is there going to be two of each of these characters in this timeline? My reason for this is based on the appearance of human!Harry, since we see hamster!Harry with Bicine and Ristoru in an earlier scene, and considering the events of the bad future didn’t happen in this timeline, Criasu wouldn’t be around and Harry, Bicine and Ristoru presumably wouldn’t have been experimented on and given their human forms.

I guess I’m curious as to how things would’ve played out when the characters from the future return to about 13 years after the events shown in the second half of the final episode. I imagine Emiru being thrilled to now have two Rurus to hang out with, and the two versions of Dr. Traum discussing new inventions, as well as discussing the possibility of upgrading the original Ruru to be able to age like the new Ruru. And then there’s Hagumi, assuming Hana did indeed have her in the bad timeline too... I mean, would good timeline!Hagumi have had any reason to become a Pretty Cure, since there doesn’t seem to be any villains causing trouble in the good future? So, if there’s two Hagumi in the good future now, would one of them be a regular girl, and the other a Pretty Cure?

Yeah... Assuming that’s how it would work, I guess it could make for some interesting fanfic. I imagine Hana and the others would do their best to help their friends from the bad future settle down in the good future.

So, basically, if you think a little too hard about it and try to make sense of how the whole time travel and timeline aspect works, certain things can get a bit confusing. The series does have a few other flaws, but all in all, it’s a very enjoyable series with plenty of great characters, nice animation, a good soundtrack and so on. The story is really good, with its optimistic message about the future and plenty of call backs to previous Pretty Cure series while also trying some new twists on the usual tropes. As I said earlier, this series perfectly captures the spirit of the Pretty Cure series.

Well, I guess I’ve said everything I can think of. I really loved this series! A great series to celebrate the 15th anniversery of the franchise, and I certainly have high hopes for the future of the franchise. I’ve been enjoying Star Twinkle Pretty Cure a lot so far, and when that series concludes, I’ll certainly look forward to writing another one of these posts with my thoughts on that series! Okay, that’s all for now. I’ll see you guys later!

[elliepassmore]

Kingdom of Ash Review

4/5 stars

Recommended for people who like: high fantasy, strong female leads, friendships, hero's journey, multiple POVs Okay, I will be the first to admit I love this series maybe to the point of obsessing and that I bought and read this the day it came out....but this book is also entirely too long. There are two parts to this book, with the second part starting ~600 pages. The first part had some good content in it, but there was also a lot of space that didn't need to be there as well, descriptions and chapters and POVs that could've been cut out without really affecting the story or plot in any way. I especially felt that way when I hit part 2 and felt like the book should've ended there and Maas should've made part 2 a separate book (albeit a somewhat short one). The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that if she'd done it that way, we'd have a mostly boring 7th book and an action-packed, but shorter 8th book in the series....which is why I came back to the idea that she should've just cut scenes from part 1. There were so many scenes of the armies just moving or camping, and then there'd be a scene where an army was just casually mentioned as having been moved without showing us the movement, and I feel like if the book had done more of the latter it would've 1) moved quicker, 2) been less boring in part 1, and 3) been shorter. But I digress. The review will have some spoilers, I hide the major ones as always, but if you don't want spoilers, don't read below the cut. Non-spoilery review here.

The book opens with Aelin, who is not in a good place right now. Despite fears, it's only been two months since Maeve and Cairn got a hold of her. The scenes in the beginning are...dark. There's heavy mentions of torture and mind manipulation and death and all sorts of really horrible stuff. Some of the torture scenes get more descriptions than others, it's nothing I would call graphic, but it's enough to make your skin crawl and twitch. On the plus side, Aelin does escape *SPOILER* super plus, she manages to get herself out of Cairn and Maeve's grasp, even if there were other forces behind it *SPOILER END* and she teams up with Rowan, Lorcan, Elide, and Gavriel. The lot of them + Fenrys basically haul ass out of Wendlyn....which is where it gets boring. Reading several chapters of them traveling is not that interesting, even if some stuff happens during that time, there was definitely other ways to bring it about and/or ways to shorten the mentions of them traveling and bring them back to stuff that actually happens. Aelin really drew the shit-stick when it came to destinies the day they were handing them out, I'll say that. Before I get too off the tracks, I was really not happy when it was revealed that all of Aelin's scars were wiped away. Like...I get they had a lot of healing to do on her, but really, all of them? It's part of the trauma, everyone's horrified by it, but I wonder if it really had to be in there. Part of the draw of Aelin was that she was so scarred, that it could be seen, especially since a lot of her scars were testaments to her survival despite the odds. Having her skin just suddenly be scar-free felt....oily to me. Also kind of bummed that Aelin didn't really fight in the war that much. She was in two battles while pretty much everyone else was in a battle every ten chapters. I wanted to see her fight more than she did. In terms of development, Aelin has both internal and external development. On the one hand, she has to contend with the new round of torture she'd endured and raise herself back out of the depression she's in--I definitely appreciate the different ways Maas depicts depression, I'll say that, it's different for different people and situations, which true to life and nice to see. On the other hand, she also has to contend with the Lock and the throne and the coming battles. Throughout the book, she has to look at a situation and decide if it's worth stopping to help if it means more fall to Erawen's forces down the line when either helping or continuing on could mean Erawen wins. Sometimes she makes the right decision, sometimes, like with the Lock, she doesn't (*SPOILER* I still feel bad when people get mad at her about the Lock though, even if I understand and kind of side with them, lol *SPOILER END*). Aelin has to shed a lot of the stuff that's happened and the weight of every success and failure and destiny and god as she moves through his book and finishes her development. Aelin comes through strong in the end, despite her mistakes, and I think the way things end for her is perfect for her arc and what it's been building toward. When Elide said she was pissed with Lorcan, she bloody well meant it. I don't think the two of them are on good terms until several chapters into part 2. I'm kind of surprised she didn't kill Lorcan in his sleep for how mad she was at him. Aside from her being pissy, we also get to see more of her using her observation powers and calm cunning to outsmart their opponents multiple times. She's vital to getting Aelin back, and she's vital to the final battle in the book as well. I really enjoyed seeing her development in full-swing, especially when it came to confronting her uncle. Vernon is an ass, but he's not wrong that witch blood flows through her and it shows when she's making decisions regarding enemies and opponents. Elide's cleverness and cunning plays a huge role in some of the major schemes and events in the book, which was awesome to see. By the end of her development, she feels like a Lady more than she did in the previous books. Aedion and Lysandra are playing their parts as they get settled in Terrasen and prepare for the coming war. The interactions between the two of them are...tense, to say the least. I can see why Aedion would be angry with her, but I don't necessarily agree with it or with the way he handles the situation. Because he's honestly an ass *SPOILER* until Lysandra almost dies *SPOILER END* and if I were Lysandra, I wouldn't give him the time of day. Aedion is angry in this one, like, really really angry. He's angry at Maeve, angry at the Terrasen lords, angry at Lysandra, even angry at Aelin, to an extent. I felt like all the maturity he had in the previous three books just sort of disappeared and he just lost all perspective for first half of the book. There's an instance when Aedion is thinking about how Aelin should've conferred with everyone before making plans with Lysandra, apparently, conveniently forgetting that Maeve made a surprise!capture of Aelin and that Aelin hadn't sacrificed herself to the Lock. He was literally angry at them about something neither of them had planned nor had control over, but that Lysandra acted upon in order to help rally the troops....riiight. So, for most of the book I just really didn't like Aedion, and then he got miraculously better and was suddenly back to being himself. He basically pulled an Elide but for less good reasons. Obviously, this is the last book and so it's the end of the character development. For Aedion, I feel like a lot of his development in this book is on the emotional side of things. He deals with maturing a little bit when it comes to people making decisions he doesn't like. He also develops in that he realizes he can be fatally wrong. He was wrong about Aelin and the allies in the end of EoS, he's wrong about Lysandra in this one, and he's wrong about some of the strategies and maneuvers he tries as well. He's definitely someone, I think, that doesn't handle things Going Wrong very well, and so his development is mainly focused on improving that in this book. And, of course, part of that development is reconsidering his anger and resentment toward Gavriel. Once we get into part 2 of the book, we see him really doing a reversal and growing as a person (I definitely like him better in part 2). Lysandra is another character who gets the short end of the stick in this one. She has to juggle pretending to be Aelin while also shifting to go on scouting missions and fighting to help the army while in battle. The only person there who knows she isn't Aelin is Aedion....who is pissed to no end with her. I think it's clear from the get-go that Lysandra doesn't necessarily expect to survive the war, but Aelin's friendship and offer for a better world combined with knowing that if they win Evangeline will get to live keeps her going. It gets better in part 2 of the book, which is definitely the 'upward curve' part of things for just about every character. We get more Lysandra-narrated chapters in part 1 of the book, so there's not really a whole lot to say about the second part, but it did feel that the second part of the book, for her, was more about redeveloping her relationship with Aedion. There was just less of a focus on her going into battle and I wish Maas had expanded these more, since it was cool to read about her fighting in different forms and how they used those forms to their advantage. Manon, of course, remains one of my favorites and she was with the Thirteen trying to find the Corchans. So, uh, the Crochan witches are not as goody-two-shoes and nice as I was expecting. I mean, to be fair, I probably wouldn't be in their position either, but still, it is well established that if I were a witch I definitely wouldn't be the benign kind. Manon's arc in this one is mostly about tackling her new heritage and how to either pick a side or balance them both. Manon, quite literally, comes into feelings for pretty much the first time ever, so that was fun to read about. Her relationship with Dorian was just weird, though it felt a little more natural in this one than it did in QoS, though I still think she and Elide would've been good together. She was unbalanced in this book, mostly because of aforementioned feelings, but the inability to balance and the struggle to win over the Crochans while still keeping true to herself forged her. Manon is one of the characters who I think gets a pretty solid arc throughout Part 2 of the series (and technically Part 1, since HoF is in that part when I divide the books plotwise, but w/e). There are definitely some things in this book regarding her that I would change,  mainly re: the Thirteen and Dorian, but overall I think she has one of the strongest arcs in KoA. Dorian also undergoes a significant arc transformation in this book. I think multiple people in the books acknowledged that he still felt like a prince during and at the end of EoS, but as this book opens and develops, we get to see Dorian continue to struggle with the collar, his abilities, and the Lock, which in turn triggers the final phase of his development arc. He does get a bit of that cunningness and cruelty he marked in Manon and Aelin, and he is able to trick his way in and out of things. I kind of miss how soft he used to be, since almost as a necessity of this transformation he loses a lot of that softness--but not entirely!--and it kind of makes me nostalgic for when he was just a cinnamon bun princeling, but I think the changes are, for the most part, good for him as a character. Like Elide, by the end of KoA, Dorian actually felt like a king as opposed to someone who just had that title in front of their name. Yrene is an interesting character and I wish there'd been more of a chance for her to shine in the beginning of the book like she does later on. I also wish she hadn't been pregnant. Call me crazy, but she's a healer, she mentioned in ToD that she could brew something for Nesryn, and they're about to go into war but she somehow gets pregnant? Are you kidding me? But that aside, Yrene really does come through with her Valg-healing powers and plays a huge role in how things play out. A lot of her arc already played out in ToD, so her actions are mostly external and push the plot or other characters forward. I wish she had a bigger narrative element to her in this book, and while she does get her due later on, I feel like this is one of those areas that could've been expanded had extraneous scenes been cut. For all the traveling Chaol and co have to do, they certainly get into the thick of things faster than Aelin does. We finally get to close the loop with Chaol's father that was opened in the series' Part 1, which I think was the only unresolved part of Chaol's arc. Like Yrene, a lot of his arc was dealt with in ToD. He does, however, adjust to being the King's Hand, and having the power to forge alliances and give land and whatnot. I loved his reunion with Dorian. It took over half the book, but it did eventually happen and we later got to see them fight side-by-side! This is apparently the space where I complain characters aren't given their due, because I feel like Nesryn got shorted too. Again, in part 1 of the book, she barely gets any narration and the narration she does get is her worrying about Sartaq. Like, good grief, both of you have seen battle before, I'm sure you'll be fine. She also worries a lot over the role of empress and is a bit hesitant over it, but it's not really a major touching point. I feel like there was some development of Nesryn as a ruk rider that we didn't get to see in either book, yet somehow she was a good enough flyer and had adjusted enough to the difference between fighting on foot and on the back of a ruk that they let her fly in the aerial legions. It's not really something that needed a ton of focus, but a little more than it actually got would've been nice and would've rounded out the physical arc with the ruk riders she had going on in ToD. I feel like Rowan wasn't a huge narrative presence in this one, unfortunately. He was obviously worried for Aelin and was trying to be attentive, but he also had some of his own schemes up his sleeve that we don't get to see until the very end (Aelin clearly rubbed off on him in more ways than one). I think the major shift with him is that he and Aelin are more like a team again in this one, like they were in QoS, where they scheme together and apart, whereas in EoS they did more scheming apart than together. I have to say, I really like them being a team better than I liked their separate, but supportive schemes in EoS. Lorcan had all, or most of, his narrative chapters dropped, though we did get to see some of them. Lorcan's definitely not in a good place for most of this book. He realizes he fucked up by calling Maeve and that not only did he fuck up in calling Maeve, but he fucked up in ever serving Maeve as loyally as he did. Lorcan's arc is largely about redemption from that and coming to the realization that there are other options and the potential for a better world out there, as cliche as it is to say. A decent portion of his page-time is also dedicated to getting back into Elide's good graces, as pretty much everyone else gets over Lorcan's mistake pretty quickly, even Aelin, funnily enough. Evangeline got narrative chapters in this book, which I was happy to see. I can't really remember how old she is, 10 I think, but she's definitely mature for her age and clever as a whip. I think that, even with everything Aelin and the others do against Erawen and Maeve, Evangeline's the one to really convince Darrow to stop being stuck up about the throne and crown. I did think it was a little weird when she became his ward and heir without mention of whether she was also still Lysandra's ward and heir still. It just warranted more of an explanation than we got. Nox came back in this one, which was a nice, if not unexpected surprise. Unfortunately, he meets Lysandra!Aelin and then yeets into the distance and there is Absolutely No Resolution regarding where he went, what happened to him, or if he actually met the real Aelin again. Even if it was only a couple lines, Falkan did get to reunite with Lysandra, so we got the nod there. If we're talking about characters who got done dirty, the Thirteen and Gavriel are at the top of the list. I really like the Thirteen and wish they got more page-time individually. We know Asterin and Sorrel the best out of them, I think, but the others are sort of background names I felt like. They're such an interesting and complex bunch, and they have some of the only continually included gay characters and characters of color in the book that I really wish they got more attention. Not to mention, people Aelin and Dorian care about get chapters dedicated to them, but people Manon cares about don't? How does that make sense? I also really hated how their arcs ended [ they sacrificed themselves to take out the last witch tower. Like, it's poetic and broke the curse on the Wastes, but (pun aside) it was such a fucking waste to have that be the answer (hide spoiler)]. Gavriel was such a warm and caring character and he really only wanted to bond and spend time with Aedion, and then he's separated from Aedion for most of the book only to reunite in battle. He, of course, has a similar course to the Thirteen...like, almost exactly just with a different situation, actually. As much as I loved the book, I will admit that some of it was predictable. If you've browsed the fan theories since EoS and ToD came out, then you've probably come across some of the theories that turned out to be true. Maybe we just got really good at reading Maas' foreshadowing, but I do feel that some of the major elements of this book were more predictable than before. My least favorite theory that came true is the one where *SPOILER* Aelin loses almost all her power and is saved in part by her water and Mala, but remains at a low level of power; honestly, I can understand Aelin losing some of her powers, but for the supposedly most powerful female Fae in the world to be reduced to mere embers and some water, while she's surrounded by powerful male Fae like Rowan and Fenrys and Dorian, who end up being more powerful than her after she forges the Lock, is annoying (especially when it was said earlier in the series that power calls to power)*END SPOILER*. So, 4/5 stars overall. I really like a lot of the stuff that happens in the book,  it was great to see Nox again and seeing everyone with their powers out and fighting was awesome, and I think most of the characters get a good resolution to their arcs. However, the book is way too long, is too boring during certain parts of it to warrant it being that long, and definitely did some characters dirty. Combined with the fact my least fav theory came true--a little petty? maybe--and the fact that aside from the characters done wrong, no one really dies, I decided to drop a star despite the other interesting things that happen during this book.

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

Gonna write my scatterbrained Spicy Hot Takes on Agartha before the news is stale and I delete this annoying and boring chapter from my mental landscape, so bear with me:

I think Agartha���s main issue was just straight up poor writing. The Japanese direct translations being as downright offensive as they were is one thing - but overall, the chapter is just one plot contrivance after another. It tries so, so hard to go for a certain tone but can’t seem to stick to any one thing or idea. Disregarding themes about sexuality probably would have been the very best way to go about this chapter, since I think the most interesting part was the theme about storytelling and in-authenticity - we all know that That Line was annoying af in a game like FGO, but it CAN work in a series like Fate as a whole. I had a helluva long day at work so allow me to explain in the least scatter-brained way I can manage right now:

Here’s what I’m thinking: Scheherazade, whose name I guarantee I will spell wrong/differently every time I write it even though I’ve been able to pronounce it properly since I was thirteen (I was in a speaking competition and told some of the Thousand and One Nights using her framework as the opening monologue, long story short ANYWAY -) is traumatized by her ordeal with the king. This is a really good and interesting thing to explore! Fitting it in with the theme of storytelling - Scheherazade is deeply afraid of dying and will do whatever it takes to live, so she makes a fantasy world and fills it with legends, and feeds their energy to a Holy Grail. With this, and the power of a Demon God at her side, she plans to reveal magic to the human world in the most destructive fashion possible, allowing the fantastic to become ordinary, and destroying the Throne of Heroes itself in the process. Fate is a series were stories have power - but Scheherazade survived basically by telling the most fantastical, interesting tales she could and never finishing them. She always would pause in the middle, and say, “That’s all for tonight.” I think this is the kind of thing we can run with in terms of setting.

Dahut is the weirdest example because it’s the one story in the chapter that I know next to nothing about. At one point it’s mentioned that Dahut is impossible to summon as a Servant, and so Drake was “forced” into the role of the Pirate Princess. Ys is probably the weakest part of the chapter for that, but I did like the idea of her being “Drake Alter,” where Drake vibrantly pursues her goals and desires but takes nothing for granted; Dahut gives into her every whim and takes absolutely everything for granted. The conflict between “Drake” and “Dahut” should have been emphasized more instead of having the player/Da Vinci dismiss her as “Oh, it’s not Drake, except when she conveniently comes back to delivery us the MacGuffins Ex Machina in the eleventh hour.” Dahut has little connection to Drake - it’s not her story, but a role she was forced into because Scheherazade was building a very specific kind of world. Therefore it is inauthentic. Perhaps that’s all it needs to be in this context. 

This can also work with the Amazons. Scheherazade never told stories of the Amazons, but she has access to basically all stories in the world through her Noble Phantasm - she learns that they are a society of warrior women who live without men, and so decides that they will be a society which oppresses men due to her fear/bitterness towards men after the ordeal she suffered through. The “oppressing men” plotline was honestly dumb all around but using the Amazons as a mechanism to explore Scheherazade's trauma would’ve been more interesting than just having them be the Big Bad before the Big Bad Columbus Reveal: Scheherazade doesn’t like fighting, but wishes that she had been strong enough to protect herself. Because she views herself as a coward and her ordeal with the king has complicated her view of sexuality - “I’m better suited to a bedchamber than a battlefield” - she uses the Amazons of Agartha as a mechanism to cope. 

This brings us to Wu, whose design I’m still not happy about even though I think the in-story justification is somewhat fair. (Let Helena and Wu be gray-haired grannies together or so help me!) Wu was absolutely an authoritarian ruler who did, in fact, invade and conquer several nations and institute a terrifying network of secret police. In her later life, she was given to decadence - but her tenure on the throne showed her to be a highly competent administrator. Notably, she ruled over an era of religious tension and balanced matters quite well, and though she was accused of undoing meritocracy to put her supporters into power, many of the men she appointed held positions in government long after she’d died because they were actually good at their jobs. Wu has been heavily mythologized over the years - later Tang emperors and Neo-Confucian scholars wrote her off (Wu founded her own dynasty under her own name, so they kind of had to legitimize it somehow), she became associated the nine-tailed fox spirit thanks to a few popular novels and poems, etc., etc., etc. The crazy thing is that Wu actually left very few records of herself behind, apart from some poems. Even the inscription on her tomb is blank! People can say whatever they want about her - it’s extremely difficult to know the full truth of the matter without any objective observers in the field (and without Wu’s own words to give context/another story), especially if you don’t read any Chinese. 

BTW - the first thing I learned history class is that when you’re dealing with primary sources, you must always remember that translators have agendas. Every word is a deliberate choice, and it changes the meaning from the original text. When dealing with historical documents, this is not always a good thing. 

Scheherazade reads some, but not all of these stories, and integrates Wu into her world as the sadist empress with an iron grip on her decadent mythical city. 

Do you see what I’m getting at here? It’s a lot, but I’m not done. Now we have to deal with Columbus - there’s “In Defense of Columbus” video is floating around in the Agartha tag, but I haven’t watched it in full and haven’t done like, any intensive research on Columbus in particular, so I’m going to apologize right now for any historical inaccuracies/misconceptions that I’m about to write. The point I want to make here mainly is that Columbus, like Wu, has been heavily, heavily mythologized for both good and evil at various points. The thing about Columbus that is also interesting is that the authenticity of his journals is or was apparently a subject of debate. The man who published most of them actually happened to be Bartolomew de las Casas - one of the founders/first vocal supporters of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The reason de la Casas supported this is because he believed that using African labor would be an improvement over enslaving the native populations of the New World. Soon after, he had a change of heart and devoted the rest of his life to fighting against slavery in all forms. De la Casas went on to be named a saint, and was possibly the first person in history to propose the idea of universal human rights - which is how I had heard of him until literally just this afternoon; I had no idea he’d ever supported the slave trade until I was looking up basic info about Columbus’s writings so I could write this long-ass post. History is full of complicated people. 

But as I mentioned in Wu’s bit, it’s very important to note that in many ways, Columbus is literally just whatever people decide he is. Like, he never even set foot in any land that would become the United States, and yet he’s a huge symbol here! Along these lines, his amnesia would fit the theme of inauthentic storytelling, choosing what to read and what to believe in. Columbus regaining his memories was an understated moment, which is actually fucking fantastic because it could be used to really emphasize the choice that is being made here. He’s a Heroic Spirit who can choose to be whatever he wants. He can choose to be the simple hero-explorer that schoolchildren sing about, or he can choose to be the Big Bad, the first and perhaps most infamous conquistador. And he chooses to be the bad guy. That is so fuckin’ fantastic, y’all! I honest to God love that not only did FGO portray Columbus as a villain of history but that the bad reputation is something he chooses to maintain! I can write a list of Servants who were less than stellar people and got a makeover for Fate. Nero is probably one of the worst examples but like - Ozymandias absolutely owned slaves in his life as a pharaoh. Hercules and Medea murdered their own children. Asterios literally ate humans as the Minotaur. Gilles de Rais exists as a playable character. Jack the Ripper is your daughter. Hell, Nobunaga burned temples with the monks still inside - but she feels bad about it now! Enough digressing but I a hundred percent get why Japanese fans found Columbus “refreshing” at his introduction. He owns his cruelty, his desire to exploit others - he challenges the narrative that everyone is redeemable because he doesn’t even want to be redeemed, he just wants to get rich and famous, and he doesn’t give a shit who he steps over in the process! Like, Columbus said, “I’m just doing what comes naturally,” at one point when he still had amnesia, so when he got his memory back and turned on the player, I really would’ve liked for him to say is something like, “You’ve already decided that I’m the bad guy, right? You know my story, and I’m nothing if not a man of my word.”

These kinds of questions/debates could have been used to emphasize the themes of Agartha. Legends are what people decide they are. People make choices and history decides whether they were good or evil or important retroactively. Can you know what someone is like by reading a translation of their poetry? Can you judge a king’s reign by the words of their successors or their rivals? Does the context of a story matter? This all could have been super interesting to explore!

Like I said, the main theme of Agartha being “inauthentic storytelling” could have been hella, hella good considering that this is a world created by Scheherazade’s fears and trauma feeding into her escapist desires. But Minase’s incompetence as a writer made everything so hamfisted and awkward that everything just suffered under his desire to insert his fetishes at every moment. It was so obvious that he didn’t read any material for old Fate characters - like Astolfo you poor sweet thing, you deserved so much better! - and even the new characters that he clearly did research on, like Columbus, fell flat because he couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say beyond mildly-to-extra offensive sex jokes.

[smokedcapybara]

looks like my exhausted rambling isn’t over yet but this time I’m gonna talk about Tony Stark and why I hate the direction the MCU went (aside from Black Panther, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, and Ragnarok - but why they’re exceptions might also be touched on)

so, a long while ago I talked about how Young Justice and Teen Titans has been exactly what I needed when I first moved to Bellevue - I would imagine the heroes watching over me, making sure I was safe, or coming to whisk me away so I could join them and become a hero myself

I started watching the MCU movies around the end of middle school/beginning of high school and Iron Man, for me, couldn’t have come into my life at a better time

firstly, my first introduction to superhero movies was the Batman Beyond trilogy which was exactly the opposite of what I needed and almost enough to turn me off superhero movies entirely

and then I saw Iron Man, which was so completely different - it was funny and hopeful and bright - but also... well

around that time I’d constructed a mask to hide all my negative emotions - all my pain and anger and fear, everything caused by the abuse I’d suffered in Texas and my mom and brother starting to lash out more and more - and this mask, well to me it looked an awful lot like Tony Stark’s

and that was what I needed, I needed to see myself in him, to have the reassurance that I could move on from my past and become a better person, that I could have happiness, that no matter what others might think or see neither my mask and what was under it made me an irredeemable person

for the whole first half of the MCU I latched on to Tony, him and Loki were my favorite characters because they represented the two possibilities of what I could become - the positive and the negative, and even the negative didn’t look all that bad once you scaled it down to a small, disabled human from the powerful, magically talented god

(I also liked Loki because it was like they’d taken all my own family issues and lain them out in a way that anywhere I looked in the fandom I’d see people indirectly supporting me through their support of him)

I also liked Bruce, Clint, and Natasha, and all the side characters, they were all relatable in small human ways that I was very fond of

Thor and Steve I struggled with though

for about three years - the three years I lived in Texas - my mother was married to a bodybuilder name James, he was abusive and because of this I was traumatized and spent up until recently automatically scared of any large muscular man

sort of a ‘they have to prove they’re not to be scared of instead of the other way around’ kinda thing, and unfortunately Steve and Thor did not do that in those first few movies

so I projected heavily on Tony and tried not to let my trauma color my opinion of Steve and Thor too much and trusted that Marvel would handle their main characters as well as I was used to from things like, for example, Teen Titans or Young Justice

Age of Ultron was difficult but it had some good Clint moments and the ‘language!’ running joke was fun - I was torn up at the loss of Jarvis, of course

and then Civil War came out

they took the character I projected on and one of the characters my trauma made me somewhat distrustful of and pitted them against each other and somehow, miraculously, I sided with Steve

of course I sided more with healthy communication and talking things out amongst themselves before they take sides and start splitting up but unfortunately there wouldn’t have been much of a movie if they’d done that, would there?

and then

and then, Steve admitted to knowing who killed Tony’s parents and not telling him sooner and got upset at him for being upset

I’d managed to get past my trauma enough to recognize that he was mostly dedicated to being a good person, I’d even managed to get past it enough to side with him over Tony for the better part of that movie

but watching that fight, especially the end where Tony was laying there defenseless, was almost like being retraumatized - having the association of large muscular men as violent and dangerous rebranded into my brain - and the letter he sent at the end pulled up all the less physical aspects of James’s abuse

and so Steve was firmly associated in my head with all of that stuff from my past, and it made it so hard to participate in fandom where suddenly everyone was picking a side and declaring one or the other completely in the wrong

and those who like Steve or believed his side was right decided anyone who liked Tony, or disapproved of how Steve handled the whole situation with Tony’s parents having been murdered, was a terrible person and should be torn down for liking him, they reduced Tony to his mask and declared that he’d never be able to make up for his past - called him heartless and more

and those who supported Tony were just as bad

and there was no room for someone who supported Steve’s argument against the accords but was against his actions in the Hydra base(I don’t remember where it was, I watched the movie once and refused to ever watch it again cause it was too triggering for me)

and while the rift in the fandom has softened, its still there - everyone seems to either hate Tony or hate Steve

and those who dislike Tony have had more and more good reason to as the series has gone on and it hurts

because at some point he stopped being a beacon of hope for me while still being too connected to me

in fact, it’s almost like him and Loki switched places with Ragnarok and everything

(here’s where we touch on why Ragnarok is so much better than most of the rest of the MCU, and is in fact my #1 favorite MCU movie)

by the time Ragnarok came out I had lost my main fictional source of hope for myself - I’d only ever found two characters I related to in that way and on that level: Tony and Loki (there have been many other fictional characters I’ve related to but all either on much smaller scale or just in wildly different directions)

and Tony was quickly becoming worse than what Loki had represented for me, my hope turned sour, my mask indistinguishable from the truth, I was a little lost

I distanced myself somewhat from the MCU fandom, I just couldn’t handle it, it hurt too much

and then I watched Ragnarok

Thor was goofy and ridiculous and silly and a definite hero but in an almost washed up way - like his time had come and gone and come again and he was gonna grab it with both hands while it was there but not take it too seriously this time cause he knew better, y’know?

and that was exactly what I needed to get past the ‘big muscular man’ trigger to see him as a whole Good Person and absolutely love him

and him and Loki’s interactions were exactly what I needed right at the cusp of a change for the better in my relationship with my own brother

and by the end of the movie Loki was happy and accepted and understood (and gay, can’t forget the gay subtext) - while still being himself - and that was definitely what I needed

and then Infinity War and Endgame came out and I still haven’t watched either of them yet but I don’t need to and I don’t want to because I’ve had enough spoiled for me to know that nothing good would come of it

and it makes me so sad and angry

Marvel took this series, these characters, that was so important to me at such a difficult part of my life, that I was so dedicated to for so long, and essentially threw it all away, trashed it, ran it into the ground so thoroughly that I decided not to watch any more unless it’s, like, a Black Panther sequel - and that mostly because black superhero movies need to be supported so more will get made cause they’re important (and because Black Panther was good but, I mean, I feel like the rest of this post does a good job explaining that one movie being good doesn’t mean it’s sequel will be or that you should watch the sequel so the representation aspect makes more of a difference for me rn)

and all because... what?... cause they decided drama and conflict was more important than their main team being a team? cause they didn’t want any spoilers leaked so they lied to their actors? because they were more motivated by making money than telling a satisfying story? cause they forgot not all their watchers are cookie cutter carbon copies of each other and all relate to different aspects of different characters for different reasons?

because they forgot that because this series might be a child’s first introduction to the concept of superheroes they have a responsibility to protect and nurture that child’s faith in the world? that’s the responsibility you take upon yourself when working with those characters, any superhero characters unless your story is undeniably adult oriented, and you need to remember that

superheroes are supposed to be our hope that maybe things can be better, maybe we can make a difference, that’s what got Marvel and DC big and they need to do better to remember it

(I liked Black Panther because it was very emotionally impactful and visually stunning and had great characters and representation - so many different important woman characters as well as most the characters being black! - and just overall was, like, the ideal movie)

(I liked Guardians of the Galaxy 1&2 because it was easily separated from the rest of the MCU in my head and it was fun and funny and leaned very heavily into found family which is my jam and it had an A+ soundtrack and Groot was adorable and amazing and Drax was very autistic coded in a Good way, also Gamora and Nebula gave me similar sibling feels to Thor and Loki which is important to me)

[newx-menfan]

(I wanted to do a Three Part post about Surge-Noriko Ashida; because much like Julian, Noriko is often heavily criticized by readers. Those two characters tend to be the ones that come under fire the most by fandom…)

Part One: Surge in DeFilippis and Weir

Out of all the New X-Men Surge is probably the most mysterious; because where we get a pretty clear picture of the other X-Kids lives BEFORE becoming a mutant, Nori doesn’t really talk much about her past life…

We know Noriko was born in Japan and was very close to her brother Keitaro. Her powers manifested when she was thirteen and she managed to immigrate on HER OWN from Japan to America, since her father rejected her.

That takes some pretty big balls in my opinion! To immigrate at thirteen, ALONE, to a country that’s both very different in culture and language. Yet, Noriko manages to survive on her own.

Noriko DOES accurately represent homelessness, in the fact that almost 34% of the homeless in the United States are under 24, according to HUD’s 2014 Point in Time Report. 80% of homeless youth (age 12 to 21) use drugs or alcohol as a means to self medicate. (Studies on homelessness CAN be really difficult to do, because homelessness tends to be a temporary circumstance, there’s less push for these kinds of studies in the psychological and sociological communities, and because of the stigma around this issue…) Noriko story also touches on the fact that MANY illegal immigrants come to the United States to escape circumstances such as abuse, poverty, political or economical upheaval in their home country, persecution for their identity, ect…

She ends up stealing and using pills (never specified what they were) to control her powers, by sedating her body enough to control the outbursts of electrical power.

The one attempt to reach out for help by going to Xavier’s goes horribly wrong, when she runs into Julian; who at the time has issues with classism and a prejudice around homelessness. (In Julian’s defense- American culture does cultivate this narrative that the poor are somehow at fault for their own poverty heavily. This ties back into the American Dream being represented as widely attainable and America being represented as ‘not having a class system’. We have essentially gaslit the poor into believing they are at fault for their own poverty, instead of admitting that our social systems are inadequate and structured in a way to promote some groups more than others. This ends up being a learning moment for Julian…).

This experience validates Nori’s beliefs that people will NOT provide any kind of help, that the only person she can rely on is herself; so she decides to do what she knows will work-steal and self medicate with drugs. (It also leads to Julian and Noriko having bad blood for a period of time until the Nimrod battle).

Nori accidentally hits ‘the Grind Stone’ coffee shop owner with an electric bolt when robbing the store, and fearing that if she reports it she will end up imprisoned, (keep in mind Noriko is homeless, most likely an illegal immigrant, a person of color, a drug addict, a mutant, and she was actively committing a crime- so she’s probably right in her assumption that she’s not going to get treated sympathetically at all by the justice system…) so she takes the money and runs.

Josh remembers seeing Noriko asking for help and hanging around the Grind Stone, and puts two and two together. Josh convinces the other students to track down Nori; and when they find her Noriko looses control over her abilities, and the students bring Noriko back to the mansion.

Even pre M-Day; the X-Men aren’t all that sympathetic to Noriko. Beast essentially tells her you can either wear the gauntlets I designed for you or get out, where you’ll essentially be put in jail. The only people Noriko really connects with are Cyclops and Dani Moonstar; I’ll come back to this when talking about Kyle/Yost’s run…

David is the other person who tries to connect with Noriko; and while David MEANS well, there are moments that he does come off a little condescending. While David has absolutely faced racism, David has also grown up in a middle to upper class caring family in Chicago; leaving him somewhat struggling to understand Noriko’s experience with homelessness.

While David IS a really great person, he does sometimes struggle with socialization, empathizing, and accepting that people MAKE MISTAKES . This makes sense, because David looks at things from a more logical than emotional place; David DOESN’T DO gut feelings. It’s why the dream around his powers scares him so much, because LOGICALLY it could happen and David knows he prioritizes knowledge. It’s also why Sofia ends up being co-leader of the New Mutants, because David just isn’t very good with understanding the emotional side of things and needs Sofia to handle that side of leadership.

Noriko chooses to stay at the school and takes responsibility of her actions by working at the Grind Stone. This is a common theme with Noriko; no matter what mistakes she makes, she always takes full responsibility for them. She also slowly becomes friends with her fellow teammates.

Noriko’s role on the team in this book was always secondary; in the fact that she had no interest in being leader. She’s perfectly fine with Wind Dancer and Prodigy taking up that responsibility. Noriko acknowledges that her personality ISN’T a good fit for leadership. (This will become important later).

This makes sense, since Noriko is very independent; she doesn’t like to feel like a burden to others and sees herself as ultimately the only person she can rely on. This is because for a long period of time, that WAS true: Noriko had to rely on herself for all care.The idea of working as a team and supporting each other is an extremely foreign concept for her, because her survival for years relied on focusing on the baser needs (food and shelter over emotional health and building emotional connections) and her being her own support system. Essentially, it’s Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; if you’re Physical needs are unmet or inconsistently there day to day, you’re not going to be as focused on needs around Social, Ego, or Self Actualization.

Noriko HAS a tendency to lash out at others; this is used as a defense mechanism-shun others before they shun you. This comes up every time Nori feels threatened or insecure; she’ll lash out or get defensive at the person SHE VIEWS as attacking her.

One of the big complaints people bring up with Noriko is her interaction with Dust; and yes, Noriko’s views ARE problematic.

But no one is born out of the womb a perfect feminist; because we live in a patriarchal society, we all subconsciously take in problematic views that we may need to deconstruct LATER.

This series was written in the 2000’s, when the Iraq war was in full swing and Islamophobic propaganda permeated the news; one of the favorite narratives was ‘their women are oppressed, our women are fine!’ The fact that DeFilippis and Weir subtly commented on the problems with this narrative, IS pretty DAMN impressive, in my opinion.

The truth is, is many teenagers when starting to learn about feminism, START OUT with problematic views. It’s only when they start to learn more about intersectional feminism, that they start seeing the problems with feminism fixating on western culture being the ‘correct way’ and essentially what’s been labeled as 'White Feminism’ (Feminism from the lens of White, Upper Class, Heterosexual, Cis Gendered Women- often times ignoring other POVs and avoidance in addressing the issues around white privilege). Noriko MAY have internalized a lot of these beliefs.

There’s also a possibility that Noriko had faced harassment while living on the streets on her own; 92% of homeless women reported severe physical and/or sexual violence at some point of their in their lives for example, in a 1997 study. In a survey of homeless youth between ages 13 and 21, 23% of women had experienced sexual victimization on at least one occasion since being on the street, in a 2004 study.

While Sooraya is simply trying to explain her side, this could be bringing up memories for Noriko and an internalized belief that IF something happened, it was somehow her fault. As previously stated; Noriko’s feminism has it’s problems, so internalized victim blaming COULD be part of that.

Nori does kind of apologize in her own way, and while still coming off as crass; does accept that her and Sooyara have different beliefs and that both are valid.

Another complaint lodged at Nori is her reaction to Jay’s suicide; and yes, suicide and mental illness is heavily stigmatized. Nori DOES react badly to his admission, which can have negative affects for the survivor of a suicide attempt.

Nori handled this BADLY, but you can understand why. From Noriko’s point of view- Jay comes from a loving family that accepts him mutation and supports him. While her opinion IS invalidating Jay’s experience around depression and that’s not okay; Jay has things Nori didn’t in her own life (Jay also kinds of invalidates Nori’s experiences as well, by saying things like “You wouldn’t understand”, when Nori herself comes from a background of trauma…). Essentially what is coming up is jealousy.

Noriko and Jay later talk it out, and understand that their reactions in this conversation came from trauma; Nori from being homeless and rejected by her family, and Jay from losing his girlfriend and not being able to cope, and from the stigma that comes from being a survivor of a suicide attempt.

They also notice things disappearing/moving on their own in the school. This turns out to be a dead X-student named Jeffery. Surge bonds with Jeffery, partially because he reminds her of her younger brother and partially because she can relate to the child’s anger at his situation. This is one of the examples that despite Noriko’s tough persona, lies someone deeply hurting inside.

Another example, is her reaction to David’s little sister, Kim. Noriko deeply wants Kim to like her, because Noriko likes David. It’s one of the few times Nori goes OUT OF HER WAY to get someone to like her, and is deeply hurt when she is rejected.

Throughout Noriko’s childhood she has been rejected by her parents and other people she turned to for help. David is the only person to genuinely show concern for her (this will be REALLY important later….)

So while Noriko does HAVE problematic views in this series, a lot of it traces back to Noriko’s history being homeless. Nori is in my opinion, a character who gets unfairly hated on for simply struggling to get close emotionally to others, because she’s been repeatedly hurt in the past…

(I’ll post my sources at the end together, like I did with the post around Julian and disability.)

Next is Part Two: Surge in Kyle and Yost, which will be posted either today or Wednesday!

[fairytail-whathesays]

Concerning sympathetic antagonists,

Since Gangsta: Cursed is making me annoyed in addition to physically ill, I think now might be a good time to make a post about going too far with a villainous character you want to show in a sympathetic light or, worse yet, redeem. There’s a TLDR at the end.

I’d like to preface by saying that this is actually not directed at Hiro Mashima. I already know why Mashima redeemed evil pieces of shit like Flare Corona and Minerva Orland--because they’re women, sexy women. So they have to be good. That’s just how his brain works. No, I’m talking more to authors like Kohske and Kouta Hirano, who want to show us horrible villains while showing them in a sympathetic light.

I’ll also say that I can only make this post in reference to the first 6 chapters of Gangsta: Cursed, of which there are 20, as the rest haven’t been translated yet.

Up until now, I’ve been favorably comparing Gangsta. to Attack on Titan, mostly because the two bring up a lot of similar issues--discrimination, fear of people who are different, mob psychology, what makes a human versus what makes a monster, and child soldiers.

What makes the “Titan Trio” (Annie, Reiner, Bertholdt) of Attack on Titan so interesting and compelling is that they aren’t really villains. Make no mistake, they’ve committed horrible crimes and have killed thousands of people. But they were also children, brainwashed and indoctrinated and doing what they thought was right without understanding anything about their actions. They are shown later in life being wracked with guilt and trauma and doubting themselves, and hesitating at critical moments, especially with people they’ve come to know. That’s why showing them tragically works. I may not like Isayama, but before his work went to shit, he did know how to make me feel sorry for an antagonist.

Gangsta also has child soldiers. Murderers come in flavors as young as 13. This group of people are the Destroyers. They’ve been indoctrinated and brainwashed too, and like the Titan trio, brought up to think exterminating a different race is the right thing to do. Gangsta: Cursed stars Marco and Striker, as the children who do that.

Marco is ostensibly the sympathetic one. He is the one who begins to doubt himself as he wonders if Twilights are really the monsters he’s been brought up to see them as. Striker is just evil. Striker gores small children and then laughs about it--no, literally. He and Beretta seek out shelters full of hiding, crying humans and slaughter them gleefully. Striker is so horrifically evil even from a young age that he makes Nic’s dad look like a fluffy puppy. He makes the guy who killed a boy’s mother, raised him as a soldier, beats him daily and lets him nearly die on his watch, and then abandons him while calling him a monster, look like a damn saint. And yet, it still feels too early to say that Striker is supposed to be evil, because he is given the same excuse as Marco: he’s been brought up to think this way and thinks he’s doing the right thing, and sticks to that when there are opportunities where it could’ve been shown that he’s actually just a murderous lunatic.

Other parts of the Destroyers include Beretta, who’s almost as loony as Striker, Minimi, who just slaughters for cash and actually manages to be more sympathetic than the brainwashed kids, and Marie, who saw her big brother killed by what she only later learned was a Twilight, and for which she feels slaughtering every man, woman, and child Twilight in the most painful way possible is justice.

You can probably guess without me telling you that poor Marie’s excuse is shown in a series of pathetically bare panels in a monotone voice that couldn’t be harder to take seriously.

What makes the Destroyers different from the Titan Trio? While we don’t know how many people the Destroyers kill (if we use Striker as a somewhat aggressive example, they probably have killed hundreds each and thousands as a collective), we do know that the Titan trio have killed far more, at 250,000+ lives being lost to the jaws of Titans due to their actions. So what makes them different?

For starters, even if we take out how different the Titan trio’s behaviors and thought processes are (because the Destroyers’ aren’t really supposed to be different, the portrayal makes it clear that they’re going for something similar here), there is still a very fundamental difference in their actions, several each.

Reiner and Bertholdt didn’t walk up to people and start goring them as 12 year olds. They just destroyed gates, and the Titans did the rest. To a child, that probably seems a lot simpler and easier than sticking a sword into a man’s neck. All of the blood is by proxy.

But what about Annie? She went into the field and killed people with her own hands, some of them in horrific ways.

Yet, Annie was merely tracking down a target. Yes, she was brutal and sadistic, but she left anyone who was not an immediate obstacle to her goal out of her killing spree. 

All of Annie’s targets were able to defend themselves. While it’s obvious they can’t really fight back against a Titan of her caliber, they can escape her if they wish without her chasing them down. These are trained soldiers who, as Eren points out, don’t have to die at all.

None of the Titan trio ever intentionally kill a child. While you can argue about whether or not women are more innocent than men, children are most definitely more innocent and defenseless than adults. Killing a child with your own hands is generally considered the mark of a complete villain, aka someone iredeemable.

The Destroyers violate all of that. They intentionally seek out men, women, and children, who are doing nothing to them at all and have done nothing wrong in their lives, and brutally slaughter them, usually in unnecessarily cruel and painful ways. This includes screaming husbands and wives shielding their crying and traumatized children. The vast majority of their targets are people who cannot fight back. 4/5 of them never question their instructions at all, even though it shouldn’t take them long to realize what they’re killing does not match up with what they’ve been taught to expect. Marie in particular should find what she’s doing to be heinous and unbearable, yet we’re supposed to feel sympathy for her because her adult brother got killed and someone told her a Twilight did it later and her actions are supposed to make sense.

Marco’s not exempt from this either. 

It takes Marco an astounding number of unprovoked murders to come to this conclusion, even though the reality hasn’t matched the expectation from the start. “Normals, and even children” have been many of his own victims.

Think about if you were holding those razor wires, and able to slice people up faster than they could blink. How many screaming men and women would you have to carve up while they begged you to leave them alone before you came to the conclusion “This is wrong”?

There is a limit to how much evil you can show your characters partaking in--even if they’re young, like Marco here--before they become impossible to sympathize with. I cannot sympathize with Marco. I think he deserves to die, painfully, because I’ve watched 5 straight chapters of nothing but him and his cohorts slaughtering people. That’s literally all the first five chapters have consisted of! 

And usually, I’d approve of this. I get so sick of people like Mashima and Hirano, who think showing us a few panels of Tragic Backstory™ is enough to make a dent in enough evil to fill Lake Superior. It should be refreshing to see an author actually try to show an antagonist thinking about what they’re doing before just sloppily redeeming them. But this is so carelessly done, that I can’t approve of it. And Marco gets redeemed. I already know that he gets accepted into twilight areas and gets to save his lady love after defeating Striker and Beretta.

So, to summarize,

“I wonder if murdering twilights is wrong?” Marco Adriano wondered, while opening a screaming woman’s head with a can opener and Striker pissed on corpses in the background.

[aion-rsa]

How Cruel Summer Recontextualizes Our Understanding of Teenage Trauma

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This article contains spoilers for Cruel Summer.

The Freeform drama Cruel Summer is undoubtedly one of the best TV series of 2021, an addictive teen thriller with a story spread across three distinct timelines and an ending that manages to feel both completely inevitable and deeply shocking. (Plus, there’s the amazing 1990s soundtrack – truly a gift!)

Set in the aftermath of a kidnapping in a small Texas town, Cruel Summer follows the story of Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt), the high school queen bee held captive in her vice principal’s home, and Jeannette Turner (Chiara Aurelia), the former dorky nerd who remakes herself in her frenemy’s image in the wake of her disappearance (and is accused of failing to report her abduction). The show uses its split timeline format and a series of unreliable narrators to explore what really happened to Kate and what, if anything, Jeannette knew about her disappearance.

Although the series is full of the sort of jaw-dropping narrative twists that make for endlessly compulsive binge viewing, at its heart Cruel Summer is a story that subverts our expectations about what teen television can do. From the deft way that the series plays with our preconceived assumptions about who these girls are – and should be – to the way it uses its mystery framework to tell a complex story about trauma, grooming, and sexual assault, this is a show that consistently surprises in all the best ways.

And nowhere is that complexity more evident than when it comes to the character of Kate Wallis. On a less nuanced show, Kate would likely have been little more than a mean girl stereotype. She almost certainly would have been positioned as the villain of the series and viewers would have been urged to sympathize with the much more familiar teen drama protagonist Jeanette – an awkward girl with a secret dream of becoming popular. But that’s not what happens here at all.

Because while the surprising cliffhangers and time-jump-related twists of its central mystery may have driven internet buzz about the show – and a not insignificant number of truly bizarre fan theories – the question of whether Jeanette knew about Kate’s imprisonment was never the most important story that Cruel Summer was telling. 

Instead, the show fearlessly digs into a much more complex topic: The often traumatic experience of teen girlhood, exploring issues that go well beyond the horrifying kidnapping at the show’s center. Through Kate and Jeanette, Cruel Summer deftly deconstructs how the unrealistic expectations placed on young girls damage their lives in unexpected and often unforeseen ways, encouraging them to chase elusive ideals of perfection, compete with one another for things like boys and popularity, and pretend to be people they aren’t.

Read more

TV

How Cruel Summer’s Ending Changes Everything For Season 2

By Lacy Baugher

On the surface, Kate Wallis is the teen idol of Skylin, Texas. Beautiful, rich, and popular, she’s dating a handsome football player and looking forward to a bright future. But beneath her seemingly charmed life, Kate is devastatingly lonely, trapped in a family and a social position that values her appearance more than her interiority. Everyone around her treats her like an object, happily projecting their preconceived notions of who she should be – a perfect daughter, an ideal student, a popular friend – onto her, without ever asking her what she really wants.

It makes perfect sense that Kate would be an easy target for a man like Martin Harris (Blake Lee), someone who makes sure that she feels seen on her own terms. While his motives are clearly nefarious – not to mention classic grooming techniques – Harris is also one of the few people that actually listen to Kate, encouraging her to share her feelings and fears in a way that no one else in her life really bothers to do.

Unlike some other popular teen dramas, Cruel Summer never glamorizes the relationship between Kate and Martin, working overtime to remind viewers that their connection is one born of abuse and manipulation. Their romance isn’t depicted as a dreamy fairytale or a rebellious act against a judgmental society, it’s a metaphorical prison that eventually turns into a literal cage. And in a world where shows like the mega-popular Pretty Little Liars not only depicts Aria dating one of her teachers for several years but marrying him at the series’ conclusion, well, suddenly Cruel Summer feels pretty revolutionary.

The series is part of a growing swath of mainstream television programs that seek to wrestle with and push back against these sorts of damaging assumptions. From the miniseries A Teacher to the reboot of Gossip Girl, the medium is purposefully deconstructing the formerly romanticized ideal of the teacher-student relationship and the complex power dynamics between young women and the people charged with educating or protecting them. 

One of the biggest shows of the upcoming Fall television season is Impeachment: American Crime Story, a series that puts these dynamics front and center in its reevaluation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal of the early 1990s. The real-life events saw the world’s most powerful man take advantage of a young woman in his employ and then allow her to essentially be blamed for his (disgusting) actions. Its past time for us, as a society, to not only reckon with this specific case – and our collective lionization of Bill Clinton in spite of it – but with our need to put exploited young women into one of two boxes: A virginal damsel whose purity means she’s not responsible for anything that happens to her or a messy (read: normal) girl whose choices make her at least somewhat culpable for the things that did. 

But one of Cruel Summer’s most crucial aspects is that Kate is not required to be perfect to earn the show or the audience’s sympathy. Our culture loves to blame young women for the bad things that happen to them, so the revelation that Kate first entered Martin’s house willingly is the sort of shock twist that all too often precipitates a problematic backlash. It’s her fault she went there in the first place. She deserved what happened to her. Here’s the thing she should have done differently. Why should we believe her now if she lied before? These are all the things that survivors often hear in the aftermath of their traumas.

Cruel Summer determinedly subverts typical TV storylines about sexual assault, never once entertaining the idea that Kate is anything other than a victim. Olivia Holt’s performance is a revelation, heartbreaking and furious by turns, as Kate wrestles with multiple forms of guilt and struggles to figure out who she is in the aftermath of what happened to her. And the show itself displays such consistent empathy toward her character, from the inclusion of the therapy sessions that feature her doctor explicitly explaining the concept and signs of grooming to the desperate chat logs that show her seeking any sort of community that might understand her messy emotions.

By the end of Cruel Summer’s first season, it seems as though Kate has reached at least a baseline level of peace, thanks to a boatload of therapy and allowing herself to remember what really happened during her last night at the Harris house. (She shot and killed Martin.) Though she’s still unaware of the fact that her initial suspicion of Jeannette was actually correct – if not precisely in the way she first assumed – it seems as though she’s finally ready to move on with her life. (Particularly if her kiss with Mallory is anything to go by.) But with the series renewed for a second season – where does Kate’s journey go from here?

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Though there’s certainly a valid argument to be made that Cruel Summer should return as an anthology series and tell an entirely different story in its second season, there’s an equally compelling one that says truly showing us Kate’s journey back to herself is just as important. (There are also probably a fair number of fans who want to see Jeanette exposed, as well.) This show has been so thoughtful about the way it has depicted the effects of trauma and the lingering impact it can have on those whose lives it touches, surely Cruel Summer season 2 would handle the next stage of Kate’s story with the same nuance. And that certainly feels like a story worth telling – if only because it’s precisely the kind of teen story we rarely get to see.

The post How Cruel Summer Recontextualizes Our Understanding of Teenage Trauma appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[analytic-chaoticism]

Night In The Woods - Witches, Astral Projection, Dissociation, and the Hole at the Center of Everything

Here’s my Night In The Woods theory out of left field because I love!!! this game! so! here we are. Lots of spoilers regarding literally everything so only read this if you’re familiar with at least one complete playthrough of the game. Sorry if this doesn’t have the best structure, I’m still trying to condense my thoughts on it all a bit but I wanted to get this out there!

The ending of Night In The Woods has seemed to confuse a lot of people, and I can understand why, because the deeper story elements can seem quite nebulous the first go through. But! fear not. I have some ideas that I’m throwing together here to hopefully consolidate some of the meaning and shine light on a plot a little more conclusive than what we have now. I’m not going to claim this is an original theory, because I’m new to the fandom and unfamiliar with any of the present conjecture, but I still wanted to share my ideas. I’ve only seen one playthrough of the game, so I’m unfamiliar with alternate choices, all of the evidence, and any of the companion game content, so if this interests anyone reading it more knowledgeable on the bigger picture of this universe please tell me what you know! Talk to me! 

There are 3 key parts of the plot that I’m going to tie together here: Mae’s issues with dissociation, her dream sequences, and the cult of the Black Goat. 

Part 1: Mae’s Issues

The focal point of this story is Mae’s struggle with mental health, namely depression, anxiety, and dissociation. To quote: “And suddenly, like, something broke. It was just like… pixels/No like… reality broke. The characters onscreen… Like I’d felt like I knew them… But they weren’t people anymore. They were just shapes. And their lines were just things someone had written/It was all just stuff. Stuff in the universe/When Andy stepped up it was like… And he was just shapes too. Just lines someone wrote.”

Mae very clearly outlines an abrupt and dramatic disconnect from reality. The important part here is understanding that this is not based on psychosis - wherein one becomes delusional and hallucinatory, replacing or reinventing reality - but ‘depersonalization-derealization.’ This is when someone feels detached from themselves (either simple self-estrangement or actually feeling as if they are a third person observer of themselves) and/or their surroundings. Depersonalization Disorder (DPD) could, then, sound like a bit of Mae. Dissociation is, largely, a coping mechanism for stress, so then it’s no surprise that dissociative disorders - here DPD - are usually developed after prolonged trauma or very traumatic events. Mae’s past is largely unknown to us, but from the sounds of things, the trauma that incited the onset of these dissociative issues were existential crises: her first break occurs after she loses sight of significance and meaning. Things are just shapes and predetermined lines, performing the functions they were made for until they stop, associating reality with a script more than a series of natural events. Everyone and everything is just a series of shapes and lines. This is a feeling I can understand. It deals with pointlessness and inevitability and whether free will actually matters or even exists at all, what the purpose of anything is, forgetting that everyone has a personal life and inner monologue just as complex and unfathomably large as your own, and reconciling your feelings with these thoughts and truths. Mae then goes on to discuss how her symptoms worsen whenever she’s around new places and new people by herself, and alludes to her journal as a sort of anchor. Now I’m not a trained psychologist, just a second year high school student who’s done some research and had some feelings, so I can’t for certain say the significance of this? Maybe consolidating things, thoughts, and feelings, helps ground them in reality? On paper, from her hand, they’re somehow more real, more significant? Something immutable that she has made which condenses and validates her experiences - at the end of everything, hold onto anything. With all of her dream sequences being very spacey and barren, all the talks about stars and the spaces between them (and the meanings we give them, something which would be V important here and explain why she likes constellations so much), and the (black) hole at the center of everything are all things that deal with distance and emptiness, which is something to keep in mind in regards to all that. So! That’s our backgrounding on Mae and the key to the premise of this theory. 

Part The Second: Mae’s Dream Sequences - The Astral Plane

Mae’s dream sequences are really cool, and I can’t tell you what all their constituent parts are. All I know is that they feature amalgamations of Possum Springs and her university. I think it’s worth mentioning here that the songs for her dream sequences start with Astral, even Astral Train, which rhymes with Astral Plane, which is where we’re headed on this journey together. 

So there’s a lot of significance to Mae’s dreams, ranging from the first sequence we see where she destroys a looooooooot of things, to the all-important talking with God, and you could make a lot of connections to different things (including her issues with dissociation and how they manifested), but that’s not quite my angle per se. Mae’s dreams are astral projections: her soul left her body and traveled through reality, where she would encounter the star giants, and ultimately God, as well as find the Black Goat. Astral projection, in and of itself - when one’s soul wanders through existence separate from the body (which ties in to Mae’s wandering tendencies nicely) - is very similar to dissociation: the soul (seems to) leaves the body, severed from the confines of physical reality. Through astral projection, it is thought that you can encounter higher powers, such as God, which Mae did. During her conversation with God, they alluded to the ‘hole at the center of everything’ and showed her visions of eldritch beings who - because I’m a Homestuck - we’ll refer to as Horrorterrors. 

Now it could be said that there aren’t actually any mystical forces at play in NITW, considering Mae - with her mental illnesses - makes for somewhat of an unreliable narrator, but it’s undeniable that Eide possessed supernatural abilities from an unbiased perspective (with all 4 friends present), and I’ve seen cut content featuring Germ’s grandma where she predicts Mae’s future regarding the cult of the Black Goat and discusses how she started ‘walking in her dreams’ once the mine shut down and the Hole opened. So we have God, the Horrorterrors, the eldritch horror that is the Black Goat (who I believe to be inspired by the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young from the Lovecraft mythos). We also have two related figures to back them up: the witch and the Forest God.

Now, astral projection features in Wicca, and before that, a variety of other religions pagan or otherwise. Wicca is the practice of witchcraft, which we see reflected in the witch of Possum Springs, who could have been drawn to the area because of the slumbering Black Goat, or - if they weren’t in Possum Springs already - somehow have summoned them there through their practices. One of the primary two Wicca deities is the Horned God, god of nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting, and the life cycle. He can be reflected in both the Black Goat, as the Horned God so often appears to be, or in the Forest God who banishes the witch to “wander the stranger places” with the “ghosts” which also sounds a lot like astral projection. Either way, there seems to be a lot of pagan imagery going on here (and the janitor is a whole theory in and of himself). 

The important part to take away from all this is that Mae’s dreams and otherworld events aren’t just in her head: they are real, as is God, the Horrorterrors, and the Black Goat (but if you wanted to argue the delusional dissociation theory I’m down for that too). I think something important to note is that when Mae was pulled into the hole through the river, Gregg described her as looking like she was sleep-walking, which she would be, if her soul had left her body to travel across dimensions. 

Part Fuck Man: The Cult Of The Black Goat

Now this is where we start to tie things together. 

The cult of the Black Goat all share something very important with Mae: they’re displaced. Displaced in society. Displaced in time. They’re disillusioned by the contemporary era and are scared for their dying back-end town. They’re depressed, anxious, and dissociative. This is how the Black Goat gets you. The weak and vulnerable, with wandering souls. It calls to you in your sleep, much like the Horrorterrors, whispering to you, like any outer god. A dark, enigmatic, ineffable, cosmic, selfish force. 

And so, like every cosmic horror who manages to tear a hole in the fabric of reality with its dark, dark hooves, hiding within an interidmensional pit in the abandoned mine of your abandoned town, it makes pacts with the vulnerable residents it can prey upon within their astrally vulnerable dreams. Whether or not it actually makes the town prosper - if it even has the sort of power something so intricate and unquantifiable like that requires (though it is worth mentioning that material wealth is the easiest to get from these things because it just becomes a matter of equivalent exchange) - it convinced the cult to throw people into the tear to feed it. In reward, some got abilities, most notably Eide. Throughout his appearances we see him use intangibility - whether it be during the Harfest kidnapping or jumping us in the mines (which would require him to faze through solid rock because he definitely didn’t use the elevator to appear out of nowhere). 

Nowhere as in he literally appears out of nowhere. During this sequence everything starts going dark and the lights are flickering. Perhaps there’s some connection between his powers and darkness, which would make sense, considering their origin. 

Before this you could have written the paranormal off: ‘Mae’s an untrustworthy narrator with mental issues and the game is a series of delusions’ or (as the article in the library mentions) ‘everyone is bugging out on mine gas’ (which is such a flop theory because to share a specific, collective hallucination for so long is SOOOOOO improbable and the nature of the people selected is too evident of a pattern yet random i.e. - Mae was never in the mines and nobody else in town was affected by the gas besides the cult, but both of these parties have mental issues and supposed astral travel capabilities making them vulnerable to cosmic interference). But here we have it. The elevator doesn’t move in these few seconds at all. The whole group is there. The narrative is not untrustworthy as long as they are there, experiencing events. This moment cannot be a hallucination, because one of them would have noticed the elevator moving, even though we can clearly see it wouldn’t have had the time to in the frames of darkness knowing how slowly it moves. Irrefutably, there is paranormal bullshit going down in Possum Springs involving the Black Goat. It preys on the mentally vulnerable and detached in their dreams, and offers them power and material gain in exchange for food. Typical Horrorterror stuff. 

So what does it mean

You know what? I’m not sure what it means. 

For one, it means everything actually happened. 'Mae’s total psychological break down' and 'a variety of hallucinations' are neither interesting explanations story-wise, nor the story I think this game was trying to tell. I think mental illness and what happened went hand-in-hand, but in a more causal nature, or a symbiotic relationship kinda thing, not just one over the other. I wish I had something really profound to say about it but I don’t think I’ve got that far. I think the hole in the center of everything is relatively omnipresent, like a disease. It exists in the literal center of everything, it manifested in Possum Springs, and it consumes the affected residents from the inside out. I think it’s a metaphor for Mae’s issues as much as the Horrorterror stuff is related to them, so it has a bunch of meanings. 

In the end all that matters is that everyone’s hopefully going to get better.

I don’t think she closed the hole yet, but I think she’s working on it, and I think there are good people who can help her. 

A hole that doesn’t care, and people who do.

If you have any relevant ideas or perhaps more of a satisfying conclusion, or you just wanna talk about things, please! do! I would love to talk about this or this game with peeps so HMU if you’re interested God bless. Perhaps theory isn’t quite the right word for whatever this analyzation is, but here we are anyway. This game means a lot to me, so I wanted to put my thoughts down and get them out there. 

Thanks for reading!