#finally some good fucking aspec rep and TWO OF THEM AT ONCE we are so winning. hhhholy shit my heart

[ajdrawshq]

on that note. heyy wait no nvm what i was abt to say i think i just found the glitch in the matrix here.. OHHHHH I DID

[aroace-cat-lady]

Conventionally, yours.

First, I want to say thank you to Annabeth Albert for writing such a shitty book that I finally was able to defeat my reader's block. Genuinely, at some point I hated this so much i needed to finish it so I could complain about it *properly*. So, if Annabeth gets to read this, thank you for being a terrible writer.

Now, were do I start??

Conventionally Yours promises an enemies to lovers lgbtq+ between two gamers that have to compete at the same tournament at THE convention of their favorite game, Odyssey.

What Conventionally Yours gives it's a story about two guys that for three years had plenty of reasons to hate each other and end up falling in love in, like, three days.

This book promised SO much. The opening is pretty good. It introduce us to our two MCs, the game, secondary characters and the dynamic you can expect. At 15% of the book, we have elder queer couples, interesting back stories, nd rep and a no binary character.

And then Albert managed to send all of that straight to hell.

Bad writing, shitty character construction, elemental research left half way, and internalized ableism would be enough to piss any reader. But those are not the only reasons I hated this book so deeply.

Aphobia, virgin-shame, crappy characterization of a neurodivergence. These were the ones that made my blood run cold.

Amatonormativity and allonormativity are two things I know I can expect in a romcom. I was prepared for them. Most ppl haven't even heard about asexuality or aromanticism.

But our dear Annabeth had.

Let's get back to the classics shall we?? Show Don't Tell is the basic rule of writing, and Albert never learned it. She told us Cornard was a great, carrying guy; what she showed us an ableist 21yo pal that can't see farther than his nose. She told us Alden was neurodivergente, had anxiety and panic attacks; she showed us the classic case of ND, touch repulsed, probably aspec guy. She doesn't do anything with this information, but bringing it once in a while when its convenient for the plot. And the touch repulsed thing that was so clear at the begging of the book gets lost at some point because "love is the cure to everything".

And the worst was the virgin shame scene. That angered me on its own, but then, for some alien reason beyond my comprehension, Annabeth thought it was a smart move to bring up the aro and ace spectrums. If you have a ND character and you bring up the spectrums you do not do it to say they are not part of them, ESPECIALLY if said character is aspec coded. ESPECIALLY if being aspec gives them deepness. ESPECIALLY if that would show how much of a queerphobe you actually are in your lgbtqa+ (surprise darling: the A doesn't stand of ally)

Now, the dynamic between Conrad (21yo, his father kicked him out because he is gay, he's bankrupt, almost homeless and needs to win the tournament to start over) and Alden (23yo, living with his moms, neurodivergente, has anxiety and panic attacks, needs to win the tournament to build his own future).

She tried to make them cute and sweet and wholesome. She gave us a gaslighter ableist instead.

She did tried to acknowledge Alden's neurodivergency on his surrenders, but when it came to his dynamic with Conrad, it became more like a personality tread. Conrad is the worst kind of character you can find: author's favorite baby. If Annabeth were half as good as she thinks she is, she wouldve been able to see how toxic and shitty Conrad is with Alden. Albert tried hard to paint Conrad as a good guy, and she did it fine the first 20%. After that, she might be telling us he's awesome, the reason the sun comes out every morning and why the stars shine, but the reality is that he's just some guy that knows nothing about how to treat right a ND partner.

The eternal love promises were hard to read. The only "character development" in the whole book came from Love Meets All Shores (fuck you very much). And she managed to ruin erotic scenes. Like. It wasn't even funny enough to laugh about them. They were pity. And, tbh, disgusting.

The only point I give to her is that the Odyssey scenes were actually stupidly good. Like. Really, really good. They gave me hope that maybe this lady wasn't as useless as I thought.

But game scenes aren't enough to carry a book.

Anyways. Terrible book. It had some cute parts, but the awfulness of Conrad ruined them for me. Alden had so much potential and it makes me sad how bad AA managed him.

[clarabosswald]

i binged all of she ra s5 last night spoilers ahead

low points:

the animation. i’ve always had a bit of an issue with the animation in this show... in terms of design, it’s gorgeous. in terms of flow... i often find it lacking. stocky movements, or lip sync that’s off - those are pretty common. and i mean, i get it, they’ve had to get new episodes out in almost no time and i admire the team for creating the product they did at the end. but i really wish they were given more time to polish and refine it. 

the writing, i mean it’s a kids’ show obviously, but when they’ve got pretty much two modes - beautifully nuanced and emotional writing and then... painfully childish writing, then the childish writing REALLY stands out and it’s a bit embarrassing sometimes (micah and frosta’s little arc, for instance). but i get that too. people who’re good with drama very often can’t get comedy quite right. (and comedians are often really good at drama. it’s an odd thing)

the character arcs were done VERY well with the short time given for them to evolve, but i still do wish they were spread over 2 seasons instead of one. especially catra - seeing her change was super satisfying, but toxic life-long habits are SUPER hard to get rid of. and while they did show her struggle with it, i still really wish it was given the time to develop in a more natural way. still, with the time they had, i do think they showed a satisfactory amount of hardship before catra settled as a good guy.

this season was an absolute celebration of lgbt+ ships and identities and at the end i was really disappointed they didn’t make entrapta canonically aspec. it’s very reminiscent of peridot in su..............left JUST ambiguous enough so fans can keep on putting the characters in romantic/sexual ships. and it’s incredibly frustrating to see us getting SO close to actual canon rep for aspec people and then......not hitting the point. when will aspec representation seem important enough for creators to give it to us apsecs?

speaking of entrapta, her early season arc of her difficulties in interpersonal relationships made her......just a bit too unlikable. or rather.....they let it go a bit too far before letting entrapta show how much she DOES care for her friends? it might honestly be realistic, i know, i do, but realistic writing isn’t always the right choice when trying to present a character like this in a positive light, especially in a kids’ show. i’m just glad they only stuck with it for one episode.

i know it’s super silly but............the team’s spacesuits having holes in them for iconic look’s sake, and adora and entrapta’s hair sticking out................ my dudes that’s not how space works. it’s just a quirky thing but seeing how much emphasis was given on the dangers of space. just. yeah i’m a bit nitpicky

the music in the show is good but also.... kind of overused? that might also be a time constraint thing, though - they might have not had the time to write some new pieces. but it was slightly distracting when the emotional high points all used the same emotional track.

high points:

prime ABSOLUTELY felt like a big threat and i LOVED it. he seemed to be a few steps forward up until the end. this show always was REALLY good with its villains and i really admire that, it’s not a common thing in children’s media. speaking of villains, shadow weaver’s arc too was very satisfactory - her internal struggle between her massive thirst for power and her love of magic as a natural phenomenon and wishing to see it free. and chipped!spinnerella was chilling! chipped!scorpia was genuinely scary! chipped!micah was BATSHIT TERRIFYING! just, really good villain writing all around and i LOVE that shit.

speaking of prime’s chips - the mind control threat was REALLY well done, absolutely not too obvious, absolutely not too easy to win over with “the power of friendship and love”, REALLY fucking chilling and terrifying at points. i really loved how the trauma it left on catra was NOT downplayed, how often you could see her hand reaching the back of her neck when the chips were discussed. that was brilliant.

hordak and wrong!hordak were great. i kinda feared wrong!hordak was gonna turn out to be embarrassing but they kinda managed to tread the thin line there and success at making him really funny most times. hordak struggle with his memories was very good, and by GOD was i fucking grateful they didn’t make his fanship with entrapta canon with all the shipping fest that this season was.

catra with short hair was too fucking much for my poor heart and i WILL FIGHT with adora over her hair length preferences.

she ra’s new design was FIRE and it’s absolutely my favorite one. 

i know melog was kinda giving the team easy instances of deux-ex-machina with his invisibility gift but i love an adorable big alien panther thingy. plus, he really did come across as a powerful and threatening being in his debut episode.

the characters, backgrounds, general worldbuilding designs in this show continued to be utterly beautiful. really appreciate that. the mix between fantasy and sci-fi was SO good.

i really liked how bow, the heart of the best friends squad, was the one who struggled the most with glimmer’s return and with forgiving her. it added plenty of really good depth to his character. 

adora’s struggle with her identity and destiny was an ongoing theme but still, a+ on the execution, especially coming off last season’s closing cliffhanger.

god it’s already becomes so ingrained and obvious in my mind but obviously it needs to be discussed - CATRADORA CANON. like, BEAUTIFULLY canon. i started off the season with “are they gonna do it?” and pretty early on (like, when catra and glimmer were still prisoners kind of early) i became convinced like “they’re ABSOLUTELY heading towards it or the fandom is gonna burn this show” and then it was becoming SUPER obvious and i was like “okay are they gonna finally kiss now? finally kiss NOW? finally kiss now?” but obviously they had to save the big kiss to the climax and i was very okay with that because at that point their romantic love for each other was SO obvious. and just....... wow kudos to the show for going the length and making this ship canon, it was so SO so so so so satisfying and refreshing to see and i love love love loved it. because it really WASN’T done in an obvious way? they couldn’t really allow each other to openly love each other until catra started to REALLY heal and give up her old ways? and THAT was the ONLY well written and natural way for their ship to finally happen because adora is TOO heroic and lawful good-aligned to let herself openly love catra while catra was still in the dark side. so catra didn’t get it easy and had to go the way and change for adora and it WASN’T badly written because catra’s struggle with her love for adora and her hardships while being on the dark side and with her huge ass pride and will to do the easy thing over the right thing vs. her struggle with wish for meaningful relationships and being drawn to good-aligned characters and with having adora in her life again - all of those were SERIES-LONG issues that were explored with catra and while, as a i said, i wish we could’ve seen catra struggle with her lifelong habits a bit longer once she made the choice to join the rebellion, it STILL was made SO WELL with the time they were given and wow, GOOD SHIT. so joined appreciation BOTH for catra’s writing AND for how catradora grew to become canon this season.

bow/glimmer becoming canon was short and sweet and i was satisfied with that.

REALLY happy double trouble made a return. i still kinda wish they were given a BIT more to do, but they’re still probably the best written shapeshifter character i’ve encountered so far.

okay that’s all i can think of off the top of my head so far

overall: 4/5 the show’s like.........a REALLY good fish dish that unfortunately still has got a few bones in it that kinda stick in your mouth when you eat it. but it’s still so good overall that you can’t help but adore it. still wish the season, this show could spend more time in the oven. more work on the animation, more work on the comedic writing, more work for... general tweaks here and there. more TIME, another season, would’ve been brilliant, but sometimes it’s just not part of the plan or the upper ups (netflix/dreamworks in this case i presume) are just assholes and refuse to give the show the episode count it deserves. but still happy and glad for what it was. kudos to the dramatic writing, kudos to the character development, kudos to the designs and color and background work, kudos to the lgbt+ rep.