#his character generally is really annoying too.. and bland.

[fragmentedblade]

I hate that when I look up the "Kalpas" tag here there's me and then there's me again, but on another blog. Fake moustache me

[reallyromealone]

Title: fated

Chapter: two

Fandom: JJK

Characters: Gojo, Geto, unimportant ocs

Fic type: series

Pairings: Gojo x reader

Warnings: male reader, reader insert, omegaverse, Omega male reader, angst

Notes:

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Gojo had been staying with (name) for a week at this point, (name) going about his day of without any care and honestly ignoring him half the time.

Gojo was still his... Gojo self.

(Name) Was watching his dramas on the couch as he made little plush toys for the neighborhood children, Gojo had gone out to do whatever... Frankly (name) didn't care and if Gojo didn't have the power to blast off the hinges of his door, he would have changed the locks.

Gojo had Geto send him a copy of (name)s information, everything about the Omega, hobbies and interests though Gojo ignored those as they seemed to be generic Omega things to make the thorn bush that was (name) seem more delicate.

(Name) Was interesting though from the other things Geto gathered for him, and something deeply interesting.

He wasnt blood related to the (lastname) clan...

He was a descendant of a notable figure.

Sakuna.

That would explain his defiant nature.

And then came his abilities...

Jesus fuck.

At that moment, Gojo knew why they were destined to be together.

If given proper training, (name) would be an unstoppable force and it made sense on why he was the diamond of his clan as Gojo was the gift of the heavens of his clan.

Their offspring would be a monster of power.

(Name) Was asleep when Gojo came back, the tv playing a drama as the Omega slept on the couch, curled up and cozy as a few crochet plushies scattered around him. Gojo felt the urge to protect but... He didn't feel love, he was always told that when you met your soulmate you would feel endless love but he just felt... Calm.

Like he did with Geto.

Carefully he lifted (name) and brought him to his bed, tucking him in.

He would learn to love (name) as his omega and (name) as his alpha...

"Work?" Gojo asked confused and (name) nodded with a yawn "of course, what do you think I sit on my ass all day?" Yup he could definitely see how he was descendants to Sakuna now, the white haired man chuckling at his omegas attitude, he definitely wasn't some weak Omega.

Gojo knew he would have to leave soon, he had work to do after all.

But he would be back, he had to come back for his mate after all.

They both had roles to play.

Gojo noticed that (name) always read slower, more intensely "oh.... They didn't see a purpose of having me learn too much, better a pretty Omega than one who could make their alpha look inferior" Gojo with his new knowledge of (name) knew that wasn't the full truth, they kept (name) dumb so that he couldn't be a threat like Gojo was.

"I have to go back to Tokyo tomorrow..." Gojo started and (name) looked up from his dinner "hm? Finally gave up?" He asked calmly and Gojo snorted "I don't give up, I just have to take care of stuff" he said simply and (name) rolled his eyes "it would be easier if you came with"

"Absolutely not" (name) didn't even hesitate to shoot that down, as he glared at Gojo "don't feel like you need to rush back" (name) said with a bland tone as he sipped his drink "ill be sure to come back as soon as possible " Gojo fired back as blue locked with (color) and the two glared at one another.

It took a month and a half till Gojo returned "what is this? You moving into the village or something?" (Name) Asked at all the bags and boxes that sat on his engawa "nah, Geto told me courting gifts are important" Gojo said and (name) looked a mix of annoyed and disgusted "you don't need to do that"

"But I want to"

(Name) Wanted to slap him, the audacity of this man.

Alphas were really shameless.

(Name) Barely glanced at the pile of gifts in his livingroom as Gojo made himself comfortable "so ya miss me while I was gone?"

"No" (name) said simply as he sipped his drink, already feeling a headache form in the front of his skull at the other "the house smells sweeter, you get a new air freshener or something " Gojo tried making small talk and (name) wasn't too interested "no that's just post heat smell, sticks on the walls for a while" this made Gojo freeze "your heat?" When was this?!

"Yeah, it ended the other day" (name) said like it was just talk about the weather, deciding to work on his crossword puzzle that was sitting on the corner of the table "why didn't you call me?" Gojo asked incredulously and (name) glanced up and glared "why would I call you?"

"Because I'm your alpha!"

"But you aren't" (name) argued and Gojo seethed, his Infinity getting a bit stronger and (name) was pushed back a bit, a slight look of fear on his face was enough to snap him out of it and a guilty look on his face "shit, I'm sorry" he was already fucking up even more and it hadn't even been an hour! (Name) Letting distressed pharamones slip out as he whispered "you make no attempts to be my alpha, ignore me for years and then you come into my life and make demands and claims... Then you use your strength the intimidate me... You are no different than the ones I grew up around" (name)a words were like a hot knife as he curled into himself.

(Name) Went about his day as if Gojo didn't exist, the Alpha having the decency of getting a room at the local inn though it was obvious Gojo didn't exactly want to do so but after the stunt he just pulled it was the smartest choice.

Though that didn't stop him from being excessive and clingy.

"Maybe we could go on a date tonight, what is there in this town anyways?" Gojo followed (name) around at work and the Omega was deeply embarrassed as people stared and whispered "can you not bother me while I'm at work?"

"I just wanna see what my omega is up to"

"Not your omega"

"Not yet"

"(Name)?" A voice called as Gojo was a bit annoyed that (name)s attention left him to some beta man who was the embodiment of the annoying boy next door trope "oh kei, is school out already?" (Name) Checked his watch and it was already 5pm, the store would be closed soon "yeah, gave the kids some fun in the sun before school let out... It's a nice day and all" he joked as Gojo dead stared him from behind (name) who paid no mind "that's great! It's too good of day to waste truly"

"Whose this?" Kei asked and looked at Gojo with a stupid smile that made the white haired man feel the urge to turn him into a fine mist.

There was barely any cursed energy in him, both Gojo and (name) combined had enough cursed energy to keep japan lit for a generation! He was weak, the lowest level scum cursed spirit could take him down!

"He's a creep who won't leave me alone" (name) said blandly and Gojo scoffed "Gojo Satoru, his fiance"

"Not my fiance"

"Not with that attitude" Gojo fired back and the school teacher looked between them confused before smiling "well it's nice to meet you Gojo! I'm Sato Kei!" He was inconsequential to Gojo, offering his hand to him but if he was to get closer to (name) he would need to get close to his friends.

"Pleasure to meet you" (name) huffed as they interacted but decided to take the time to return to his shift and shake the tick that was Gojo off him.

Gojo should had known it wouldn't be complete smooth sailing while he was here...

"It's always schools.." he whispered as he adjusted his eye cover and walked to the building where a cursed spirit resided, he just hoped he could finish the job fast.

Gojo didn't have a lot of empathy to those weaker to him, he didn't care about them.

But he did care about his omega, even if he didn't get why he did.

And telling (name) that his beta friend was dead... He never wanted to see (name) cry like that again.

[punkeropercyjackson]

In general white queer Atsv fans seem to be under the impression the poc of the Spidercast have to basically be turned white personality and presentation wise to act queer which is very harmful at worst and really annoying at best.Sorry not sorry but Miles is never gonna have some Love,Simon shit going on with Hobie and he dosen't need a bi awakening considering that realistically he probably knows he's bi already by online things and extra not sorry but trans boy Miles is nothing like M.cu Peter who's the actual disgrace on the Spiderman legacy Miles haters think Miles is and if Miles needs a queer awakening by another Spiderperson,she'd be a trans girl egg that was cracked by Gwen and it makes way more sense than 'Hobie gives Miles his first gay panic' and i can't emphasize enough how much Punkflower is more like a lot of poc4poc m/f ships than they are any bland white gay ones and Miles dosen't even have to be transfem in the context for it to be accurate

Much like this,a significant amount of Ghostflower content has Miles acting white to make it conform to norms rather than a proper transmasc4transfem couple i.e existing completely outside of cisheteronormativity and Gwen is self-inserted into by certain people in the fandom who can't accept she's not a racist weirdo like them but a genuinely realistic and awesome trans girl who's good to the characters of color and that the jealousy scene was ooc and only existed to make Gwen look bad and screw over Margo even further and it's important to note she's never been mean to Margo nor expressed actual dislike of her as a person.Margo is magically not part of the poly Spiderband despite deadass being Miles' crush and when black queer women BUILT the lgbt community and Pavitr is basically had microaggressions thrown at him nonstop by feminizing him because white westerners don't know what actual positive masculinity instead of praising men for the bare minimum is or anything about indian culture that's not the chai joke

Spiderd*ds is so fucking gringocore and as a Peter B selfshipper since 2018 y'all've made it impossible to like the newer fan content of him and i feel so bad for Miguel because he dosen't even seem to like Peter B all that much seeing as their ONE scene was him being DIRECTLY annoyed by him and showing it unlike Margo and Gwen who don't have real beef but every fandom needs it's nonexistent in canon smut fest with racism injected into it ig.Jessica's canon trans in the comics but like Margo,y'all're no blacks and women dni in bio types

And Hobie.Good fucking GOD,white punks and white people with punk fetishises can't act right.Next mf to make a they/them Hobie joke is seeing stars,Prowlerp*nk is on my shitlist purely because Miles G is made into a violent tsundere by everybody who ships it and i never wanna hear about how the super darkskin black character should've been aroace instead of the center of romantic attention to BOTH mcs.Hobie is a black transsexual,not your papable lil trans gag character and the sweetest,gentlest person ever who's a consent king and that's right there in the text by his relathionship with Gwen and oh btw,yeah,they ARE dating and he has way more reasons to be into her than he does any white boys cause he stays having a thing for transfems and i'm giving major sideeye to black Gwen being nonexistent for multiple reasons too when it's so fitting and such a no brainer take

Point is:Be better.Stop acting like poc have to whitewash ourselves to be queer.You ain't slick

[deltaengineering]

Winter Anime 2024: Payday

Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge hasn't ended yet, but I am quite certain that at this point it's unsalvageable. I can give it one thing: it's going for a specific ~vibe~, and nails it. Why anyone would want to evoke the ~vibe~ of "deservedly forgotten 2000s sci-fi seasonal" is beyond me (I won't provide an example, because if I could remember it it wasn't forgettable enough), but there you go. Truly, Bones have outdone themselves with this celebration of their 25 year legacy.

It's hard to even start, but the one thing everyone is certain about is as good as any: The plotting and structure of this show is a complete mess. Some consider this "ambitious", but I don't think an ambition of "let's throw in every half baked thing we can think of and try to glue it together with proper nouns" is worth celebrating. We've got insipid and illogical worldbuilding that ultimately goes nowhere, brave political statements on the level of "slavery sure is bad but don't be rude about it", metaphor bombshells like a character who schemes behind the scenes and styles themselves the "puppetmaster" and constant plot twists that explain things long after I've given up on even trying to make sense of anything. That's where the ~vibe~ comes from: everything that has ever vaguely annoyed you in a mid anime is somehow in this one all at once.

This wouldn't be so bad if it had characters that are entertaining on their own, but here we meet the most bizarre creative decision: the one thing it has going for it is the Diet Dirty Pair banter between Rouge and Naomi, which elevates a few episodes to "decent", but of course they spend half the show seperated. And by themselves, Rouge likes chocolate and is as dumb as a brick with charisma to match, while Naomi is sassy and mysterious and that's it. The rest of the characters (and naturally, there are far too many of them) are either irritating or at best just bland.

So if this is Bones pulling out all the stops, at least you should expect the production values to be high, but even that is a mixed bag. Metallic Rouge looks quite mediocre for the most part until it's time for a dedicated Sakuga Cut™, which might be a fight or alternatively just a random one of the dozens of boring hallway conversations (that Crunchyroll of all things is treating this as a joke really says it all). And even the fights aren't all that great, because this show somehow manages to have bad sound mixing and music beds that I'd call interesting in theory but don't work well as a score. At least it has a stellar OP, but even that seemed a lot better before the show actually came out.

I might bump up the score a point if it ends exceptionally well (which it won't), but even in that case... it's still bad. Please go back to sourcing your deep plots from Weekly Shounen Jump, Bones. ~3/10

Bucchigiri...

Bucchigiri..., on the other hand, has the exact opposite problem: While Metallic Rouge is a convoluted tangle of inconsequential plot, this show is just happy to phone it in. It almost feels like a rerun of fall 2021, where Metallic Rouge is the new Fena and Bucchigiri... is the new Takt:Op. It leaves an agreeable first impression, with a bold, colorful look, unusual setting, expressive direction and kinetic animation – but everything not entirely superficial is an excuse, and a "dog ate my homework" level of excuse at that. If all you want is bromantic burly brettyboys going through the motions, get your fanfic pen ready, but don't expect the show itself to provide significantly more than character designs. It doesn't help that the main character is particularly bad, with his gimmick being "annoying disinterested horndog". These non-characters keep going in circles slapping each other's asses and being not very funny for two thirds of the show, until a very generic "sensitive best friend is tempted by evil" drama plot appears because even yaoi shippers realize that eventually something has to happen, which boils down to Matakara going around slapping everyone's asses again, but now it's supposed to be sad. And then that doesn't work at all, because for character drama you need characters. Who knew.

Of course the funny bit is that this is pretty much what I asked for. I gave SKOO shit for only being good at the wacky parts while the heartfelt drama and more fleshed out characters fell flat. Well, now the director's followup work is just the wacky bits and feels completely hollow for it, and then the exaggerated drama lacks anything to back it up. Maybe just do better, I suppose. Oh yeah, and this also hasn't ended yet but with how completely predictable it is I feel like I've already seen the final episode. ~4/10

Undead Unluck

You can take the Shounen out of the Jump but you can't take the Jump out of the Shounen. I don't usually touch the Weekly Shounen Jump brand for good reasons, but Undead Unluck definitely had one of the strongest first impressions for one in a long time, if only because it has leads that aren't Goku and Vegeta again. But it also had a flashy, devil-may-care attitude with absurd nonsense happening left and right, a bonkers setting that is actually interesting in its own right and production value to back it up. In short, it was Fire Force with arguably better characters. When it's firing on all cylinders, Undead Unluck is a very fun time.

The problem is that Undead Unluck is firing on all cylinders about as often as a Cadillac V8-6-4 with a flaky ignition distributor. Primarily it has a massive padding problem: The amount of recapping and flashbacks to things that just happened is patently ridiculous and I say that as someone who has watched two seasons of My Hero Academia. If you include things like OP and ED, I feel like calling roughly a third of this show's runtime literally repeated content is not a wild exaggeration. And that's only literally repeated content – since this is Weekly Shounen Jump, there is also a lot of restating of facts and tedious explanations. I can't even blame this just on Jump Editorial, because a lot of the time it seems to be in service of hitting the right cliffhangers – but if both source and adaptation have severe pacing issues, it all compounds to the worst pacing in any show I've seen a considerable amount of.

And then, even in the coinflip of time when it's actually doing anything, it's obviously not always at its best either. This is honestly acceptable from a show that goes wild – with these you have to take the bad with the good. I didn't care much for the lazily metafictional final arc for example, but it would be perfectly fine if it didn't (quite expectedly at this point) do its core statement twice in as many episodes in a row, only with more screaming the second time. It's good when it's good, sure, but it would have to be outstandingly brilliant to make the whole thing worth it – which it isn't, so it's not. 5/10

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete (Gushing over Magical Girls)

My standard line regarding any extra spicy fanservice anime show has always been "you know you can find real porn on the internet easily, right". Gushing over Magical Girls (which is, aint gonna lie, a genius title translation) is a pretty good example why: Even though it is pretty damn explicit, it still isn't on the level of actual porn, and then the extended moaning and wriggling sequences just take up so much of the time that it gets tedious pretty fast. And a lot of the "other" content of the show is just blatantly an excuse to make the porn happen. There's some edgy comedy too, but I think characters like Kiwi are more annoying than anything, so that didn't do much for me either. Then the middle section of the show is an excursion where our protagonist villains go sex up a couple of more villainous villains, which feels like it's missing the point even by its own standards. Also, be aware that with hentai content come hentai production values, and this one is definitely below average. None of this is particularly unusual.

However, I kept watching this one, and the reason is pretty simple: I don't actually object to spiciness in principle, and in the beginning the show did a pretty good job of portraying Utena's awakening to a bunch of fetishes. That she then started an awkward on-and-off anonymous BDSM relationship with an actual magical girl was even better. I honestly have to say that this is a brilliant concept, even if it wasn't executed to a level where I was certain it was intentional. Also, while it's arguably the "main plot", it's a fairly small part of the show and when it didn't show up much in the middle I was sure the show had lost me. I do have to admit though that against all odds, Gushing does stick the landing, with a final episode that really pays off that plotline in the best way you could reasonably (see above) expect. It's a bit of a rough ride, but this show delivers.

So I'm two minds about Gushing over Magical Girls. If you just consider it a hentai OVA that somehow escaped to television (which is not an unreasonable standpoint), it feels surprisingly ambitious and well thought out. But as a regular TV show, it just has too many weaknesses to ignore. Still, even though I can't call it good, I still think it's a more interesting curio than the score might make it sound. 5/10

Hime-sama "Goumon" no Jikan desu ('Tis Time For "Torture", Princess)

Oh no, this has "torture" in the title, what could it mean? Yeah, I think at this point everyone knows that it's a joke (one might even say... The Joke) and let's leave it at that. It feels like every season there's some fluffy and cute comedy that I quite enjoy for no profound reason. The Alleged Torture here simply doesn't do anything wrong, manages to find just about enough angles to its one joke to not get boring, and features nice designs and enough production value to deliver a smooth ride all the way to the end. It occasionally does something beyond its one joke, and that tends to turn out cute and chill as well, like Tortura's modest OL home life. Really the only thing I don't like about this is the manzai reaction antics of the sword – explaining the joke is always questionable, but it's especially so when there is exactly one punchline that never changes. In any case, this one is hardly essential and there are many others like it, but sometimes you just want something sweet and inoffensive that still puts the effort in. And this is definitely one of those. 6/10

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Apothecary Diaries)

I feel like I should like this show a lot more than I actually do. This is because it is made of great ingredients: Very nice looks, a setting with tons of potential, mostly interesting characters and in particular an amazing main character. Maomao is just great, she has tons of personality and a funny oddball charm that is tempered by a smart and stoic attitude. The beginning of the show, where Maomao plays the streetwise intruder into the stilted world of court intrigue and manages to cut through the bullshit like nobody else could, is pretty excellent.

However, as the show went on, it became clear that I just don't agree with the direction the plot takes. Of course it turns out that Maomao is actually deeply involved into the court drama in half a dozen ways (without ever telling the audience about it, which smells of retcon). Of course the focus shifts to other characters like Jinshi or later on Lakan, who are far less interesting. Of course there is a romance with Jinshi on the horizon. I don't want to be that guy that is mad that a show doesn't turn out to be what they had wished it to be, but it's still a letdown.

And that's not mentioning that the daily business of the show, various levels of detective work, is hardly solid gold either. It's just bad at mystery writing – most "cases" turn out to be massively contrived and then Maomao walks in and just guesses the solution out of nowhere. The large-scale mystery (who is Jinshi, really?) is not much of a mystery at all but Maomao can't figure it out because apparently she has to solve these complicated and tiny problems before she can realize the simple and obvious large one. And then there's the drama, which is effective enough in the moment but seems to be mostly built on a foundation of allegedly smart people acting much more stupid than they should.

So overall, I think this is still a good show simply because Maomao is fun to watch no matter what, but I just don't think the writing can quite hold up its part of the bargain, and that is kind of a bummer. 7/10

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Bang Bravern arrived with a simple, but quite amusing thesis statement: What if you had a tacticool, Armored Core-like mecha setting but then everything changed when a super robot show invaded. That's pretty funny. It also just so happens that Masami Oobari knows that the likes of Top Gun tend to have a certain undertone, and also made Bang Bravern explicitly homoerotic. That's even funnier. Add to this the fact that the epic super robot action genre is inherently hilariously over the top, and you have the makings of a very amusing show. Now, I could just leave it at that, because that's what Bravern is. An over the top and self-aware love letter to the super robot shows of old, with a couple of additional comedic angles.

In other words, it's like all super robot shows that have been made in the last two decades. Yeah, Bravern is undeniably quite entertaining, but I also don't think it's anywhere as unique as people seem to think it is. The "super in a world of reals" joke in particular doesn't really come into play that often, apart from when that side of the show keeps introducing dozens of characters that then proceed to not do anything apart from standing on the sidelines. The gay love affair does matter more often, but seems to run into diminishing returns because once you've done "come inside me" (which it does in like episode 3), you really have nowhere to go. And besides those two, well... it's charmingly exuberant and features all the goofy tropes, but it lacks the absurd hugeness of a TTGL or the meaningful subtext of a Gridman – and that's only shows that I have actually seen as a non-fan of the genre. I suppose fans will gladly take it anyway, because the genre is somewhat rare nowadays, but Bravern doesn't exactly blow me away. Still, you can't deny the fun. 7/10

Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

So here we come to the big dog. The show that's pulling Doraemon numbers on Japanese TV, has been riding a comfortable #1 spot on MAL for months, and has inspired an unfathomable amount of porn. And the real surprising thing is that it's the first show in a very long time that I think comes even close to deserving that level of hype, especially early in its run when it absolutely isn't the kind of show you'd expect to do this – apart from the production values being about as good as TV anime gets, naturally.

Frieren starts out as an uniquely focused narrative that explores as many angles as it can out of a complicated mess of legacy, memory and regret through the lens of a pretty simple and generic RPG trope. It achieves this almost entirely through one of the best casts I've seen in a long time – Frieren may not be quite as charming a protagonist as Maomao, but she has much more depth and more importantly, every character that matters in her show is almost as good, and their relationships are even better. In its first-cours adventure mode, when we're just wandering around having more or less episodic encounters and plot points that drift in and out of focus with a wistful tone but splashes of goofy comedy, Frieren is quite excellent and would have been my show of last year if I had considered it eligible.

But then it slams in a new gear with the elegance of a tractor driver who thinks clutches are for pussies. Suddenly we're doing a proper Shounen Exam Arc and we're getting a lot less of this and a lot more of this. Now to be fair, this is a long running manga and it probably could not have kept doing flashbacks to Frieren being too dense to realize that Himmel was hitting on her 80 years ago forever. But still, the mage examination arc just really isn't Frieren at its best. It's not even that the content is particularly bad (maybe apart from the really quite rough beginning), and I do understand the long-term benefits of introducing a bigger cast of characters for future use, especially when they turn out to be quite good eventually... but it all just takes way too long. There's still great moments here, but that's usually a small segment of the established good stuff or, failing that, Frieren dropping a sick ass spell. Yeah, I won't even blame this on the action, because said action is incredibly well done and still quite brief, but you really didn't need a full season of theorycrafting and skill discussions to get those explosions. In short. Frieren temporarily turns into Full Metal Alchemist with better leads, and while this would be high praise for almost any shounen manga, it isn't for the one that has demonstrated it can do far better.

There is one real upside to this distraction arc though: Unlike, say, the plot problems of Apothecary Diaries that are here to stay, none of this irreversible, which Frieren immediately makes clear by snapping back to its best behaviour the second they leave the designated raid zones. The ending is as good as any part of the show, with the skillful writing and great tone we have come to wish for. Frieren may not be as consistently excellent as it first appeared, but it is still pretty damn good – and not on a purely superficial level either, because it obviously can have outstanding writing when it wants to and the fundamentals are rock solid too. 8/10

Yubisaki to Renren (A Sign of Affection)

And the top spot of the season goes to... a show that may not be the most ambitious, but does absolutely nothing wrong. Yubisaki to Renren is a fluffy romance where a very cute girl meets a very nice boy, and then no drama happens because not everyone in the world is a fucking idiot. I think my delight with this says more about the absolute state of romance anime than it does about the show itself, but I also have to say that while the plot of this show might be simplistic, it takes great care to set everything up in such a way to get away with said simplistic plot.

Obviously the core of the setup is that Yuki is deaf. But, quite smartly, the author doesn't make the story about Yuki's problems with not being able to hear, but rather about how her world is just... limited. And Itsuomi is a dude with an uncommonly wide worldview and experience. Opposites attract, and there you go. The show basically gets all the grounding it needs from that simple setup for free, then throws in a bit of complicated history among the larger cast. Then just make Yuki incredbly cute and Itsuomi an uncommonly levelheaded adult who will take measures to prevent any pointless drama before it gets out of hand, and you have a show that's just 100% a good time all the way through. So the leads (i.e., the thing that matters way above all else in a romance) are great, and the rest of the cast is more than fine too, even those who would instigate such drama – it can't get annoying, because they never succeed.

Really if I had to say something negative about this show it would be that it's still superficial compared to a show at its skill level that does go hard. I mean, it's about two nice people falling in love and nothing goes wrong, which isn't exactly a lot. There is maybe also the idea that Itsuomi may be a bit too perfect, but I'm just more than happy to see a male lead in a shoujo romance that is neither an abusive jerk nor a bland cardboard cutout. In a perfect world, something like Yubisaki to Renren should feel a bit bland and generic, but in the real one, there just isn't much like it. 9/10

[billy-jay-kisses-robots]

Spoiler free review of Transformers One. I literally just left the theatre like half an hour ago.

Pros

-Hella cool fight and action scenes

-Had some genuinely funny moments

-Cameo mention from one of my underrepresented (as far as the franchise goes) favorites, Tailgate

-Arcee was adorable and I wish we got to see more of her

-Political commentary was a bit cliched but overall well done

-Megatron's characterization was fantastic

-A few really hard hitting moments that made me audibly go wtf (in a good way)

-Watching Optimus' and Megatron's friendship fall apart was heartbreaking

-Cute Easter eggs I appreciated

Cons (no pun intended)

-Predictable. Like, really predictable. Besides the few surprises, I could see most of the plot coming from a mile away. I'm not referring to the obvious shit like Megatron and Optimus' falling out. I mean the general story beats and even a lot of the dialogue.

-Speaking of, a lot of the dialogue just didn't do it for me, especially in the first half. Plenty of shit just wasn't as funny or charming as it was clearly meant to be

-Besides Megatron, I found most of the characters to be fairly 1 dimensional

-Optimus/Orion was annoying. I've seen a million protagonists exactly like him, and if it wasn't for Megatron playing such a good foil, he would be unbearable

-Way too fast paced. I would have love too have gotten more of a feel for the world of Cybertron and a feel for the characters

-A few annoying plot holes

-Bumblebee had serious missed potential to get fleshed out more given his backstory. They had a great opportunity to build onto the effects of his isolation but he was stuck being a fairly generic comic relief character

-Most of the main cast fell into tired roles with little new done

-Sentinel was bland AF. Another character type I've seen done elsewhere, better

-Voice acting wasn't terrible but definitely fell into the trap of "we casted these people because they're famous rather than based off of how well they fit the characters"

The whole thing felt like a marvel movie. Fun action, but overly punchy dialogue and not enough risks taken. Not awful, but disappointing. Final verdict: 6/10.

[emlan]

Finished expansion!

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail done, here's some MSQ spoiler thoughts:

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I've had XIV on ice for a while so I was going into it as a casual and not a diehard fangirl but still I am shocked and disappointed by how bored I was during the whole thing… And annoyed, which is a bigger crime. Constantly wondering why characters act like they do or why they aren't asking about X.

Alphinaud and Alisae did nothing and they were both an eyesore with their old outfits, dressing them in local threads would've been so easy and a cute way to buff the immersion of visiting a new continent. (To be fair I guess they HAVE to tag along even if the writer doesn't want them there due to Trusts? I'd argue Krile and Erenville were just pieces of furniture until the very last stretch too but they were at least interested in the same goal as Wuk Lamat so they didn't feel out of place.)

My fav stuff is interacting and bonding with characters new and old but it doesn't feel like we got much of that? Trying to picture what people will even draw fanart of for DT of and all my mind's eye can see is Wuk Lamat lovers drawing WoLship art or just her looking cute and/or hot. (Also Erenville looking cute and/or hot.)

Doing a "sweet girl turns into massive threat" right after a "sweet girl turns into massive threat" expansion is rather brazen but it is a Classic so whatever. Would've been neat if she was an adult woman instead.

I could probably rant about several particular moments but I can feel myself slowly starting to morph into a WORST expansion EVER red-arrow-and-circle YouTube thumbnail which would be rather unsexy of me so I'll go ahead and choose happiness by listing the things I enjoyed instead;

Starting with the incredible lvl 93 weapons!!!! They all look like bland NPC pieces which is something super rare in this game, such a breath of fresh air. The NIN daggers especially is pure 10/10 and I was even considering changing my never-glamming-it-away ARR longbow into the new BRD one. The new sets are good too, I'm not much for scifi-y gear but the ones you get before Solution 9 are very nice and the aiming top gave my lizard a very lovely waist. I was really lucky to get the golden bangle hand drop that all Tuliyollal NPCs wear so I could fit in proper :3 Tweaking my main glam slightly to blend into each new areas better was a big source of fun.

Zoraal Ja bringing back an SSR Alpaca made me chuckle.

The moblin pot contract stuff is very endearing, basically they are keeping a crafter as a personal pet to love and pamper so they can do their best work? Such a cute Human Cattle aligned setup even though it's a mutual agreement and not actual ownership.

I liked the little merchant/seller skit we do with Koana even if my main glee was just seeing him wear something that didn't clash with his teal hair.

I perked up during the cooking contest introduction since it seemed like the chance for shenanigans was high, but they didn't really play around with it. At least we got Alisae musing to herself about Zuraal Ja and Baka Ja Ja in matching aprons 👌 Is the Fu awakening in you, my girl…?

Bakool Ja Ja doing his best to help out and getting a little flustered when receiving thanks after having been a stupid miserable bully that pretty much set off a nuke willy-nilly was nice, but only bcs I tend to clap like a seal no matter what when this trope appears. Since I am choosing happiness I'm not gonna comment more on his character.

The play was delightful as was the FF9 town wink in general (I also laughed for the wrong reasons at poor Otis doing a voice gag in an unvoiced cutscene, at least it still got the gist across well.)

lvl 100 dungeon nice presentation.

And…

Of course…….

Koana turning out to be an all-in siscon 🙏

Blessed be. It was rather predictable him and Wuk Lamat would end up as a duo ruler pair to cover each other's weaknesses, but her energetic public marriage proposal and stone carving to truly show off their union ran with the premise more than what I had braced for!

Love him feeling super jealous and obviously having been crying in the shower over WoL getting asked about a place in his sister's court [before he knew he had a place too] and then later him also clearly feeling threatened when she states that she views the WoL as one of her beloved siblings too. So pathetic clearly wanting to be the only Brother™ in her life ❤

I was kinda eyes emoji at Zoraal Ja too when he was staring at his sister with icy contempt, emboldened by my incest win when it came to the catboy I dared to dream that the oldest brother also harbored some obsessive feelings towards her that he didn't know how to handle, but that's not quite what happened… It's a shame we didn't get flashbacks of all those siblings together in various stages of life, I kept forgetting they were actually family so Wuk Lamat angsting over her evil brother made me go Oh Right every time I got reminded.

Lastly it wasn't quite part of the MSQ but the chuuni villain roundtable intro for the Role Quests was very silly (positive) and probably the most entertained I was during these past 4 days. Well, besides the actual trial fights being fun but I don't count those for story.

Ignoring the "human" faces and only going by the world the graphics/lighting update is very nice! My guy made it out OK but it stings a bit every time I see his mouth having had its charm nerfed. Very impressed by the not-Vanu Vanu, Horthgals and Mamool Jas facial expressions. However, hairstyles all look worse than before, so soft and "washed out"? I'm exaggerating for effect rn but Koana looks like he has a soft teal cloud as hair basically? And the twins' white hair is now too uniformly white without the darker hair strand lines…

The inn room is probably the nicest looking one we've gotten so far, both luxurious and cozy vibes. Always crack up seeing my Au Ra in bed nothing says relaxation like a super stiff coffin pose.

Quite bummed I couldn't find as much excitement as in previous expacks and I probably won't bother renewing sub for a while, but at least I already have other fandoms to keep me occupied.

[noodlefluid]

I HAVE A RISE X READER ASKKK post krang invasion. donnie and reader are hanging out in his lab. donnie is upset bc he misses his old lab and the tech he had, now he has to build everything from scratch again. reader is chilling on one of donnies many spinny chairs and gets curious abt how his life was before the krang invaded, reader starts asking questions abt his lab and life n stuff.

he tells them how cool his lab was and the adventures they had and how they fought villians, then donnie brings up jupiter jim and the reader is like “what’s that??” and from then on, donnie is scavenging the base, looking for the comics (maybe the comics can be in leos room and they have a lil argument bc leo wants to know why donnie needs his comics and donnies ashamed to admit he wanted to get them so he can read them to reader) after donnie retrieves the comics he shows them to the reader and the two of them chill w each other, reading all of the jupiter jim comics

Never the same | Donnie×Reader

▪︎Sumary

Donnie gets nostalgic about his past life and start talking about it. After you ask him about one of his favorite super heroes, Donnie decides he have to show it to you no matter what.

❥Type: Fanfic

 ❥Characters: Donnie Leo Reader

 ❥Reader's pronouns: no mention

 ❥Relationship: Crush (implied)

 ❥Autor notes: Hi, sorry for the delay. This is my first request and therefore I wanted it to be the first one I published,I think this ended up being more focused on donnie and leo, but I hope you still like it . Also, please remember this is my first time writing and that english isn't my first language, any mistake either in writing style, grammar or just any suggestion in general is welcome, but please be kind :)

Warning: probably ooc leo and donnie, Angst, verbal argument, y/n is bland as hell lol, minor swearing

Word count:3225

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“ugh…” Donnie was looking at one of his latest invention, it didn't go as planned and it was starting to annoy him, this was already fifteenth try and it was going nowhere 

You were sitting in a chair beside him, spinning to beat the boredom and just trying to disconnect with the world for a moment, but as soon as you heard the sigh leave the purple turtle’s lips you stop what you were doing “What's wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just…this stupid thing doesn’t work” you could see the frustration in his face, he was agitated, he groaned out of frustration “This wouldn’t happened if I just had my old lab”

Curiosity began to flourish from the moment these words were uttered. Even when the four brothers were seen as heroes, no one really knew too much about them, and no one could be bothered to ask either, we were in and out of danger every single day. Still, the atmosphere of this half-built lab make you feel nostalgic, you were starting to miss normal even when you sometimes complained about how boring was your past life, you were missing those exact moment of boring.

You met the brothers once they saved you in one of the many rescues they performed after the krang began to invade New York and finally the whole world. A world of suffering, where humans and yokai struggled together trying to survive the apocalypse. Maybe it was because of the way you encountered them for the first time, but it didn't take you long to get attached to them.. Especially, the purple one, Donatello, he never left the base unless necessary since he was responsible for maintaining the shields, because of that you saw him often. Donnie took his job seriously, always making some sort of gadget  to make missions easier and faster. You spent a lot of time around him, it seemed to bother him at first but now he was more used to your presence. It was probably because of this that you started to feel curious about the past of the turtles that saved your life, and this was just the perfect moment to ask

“How was it?” You asked, looking at the ground due to nervousness

“hmm? what do you mean?” The mutant looked away from his work to pay attention to you

“your lab, how was it?"

Donnie's face immediately light up “Oh my dear y/n, it was magnificent” He turn his whole body to you, noticeably excited to talk about it “I had so many inventions and material, you would be impress, a-and” The excitement make him trip over his word “Not to brag but the aesthetics were, heh, just marvelous, if I say myself, the purple LEDs and my incredible organization make my lab the best room in our...home” he sigh that last word, leaning back on his chair “I’m sure you would have loved it...I use to spend days in between those walls. I had this drone named S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N, he was sometimes annoying, but he was my pride, almost like a son to me, he was severed damage in a fight, and just when I managed to bring him back… this happened” He looked annoyed but you could feel the sadness on his words, he keep talking. “I just kinda wish this lab could make itself, you know?, now it just messy and doesn’t look scientific enough, my old lab had everything a turtle could wish, it was perfect”

“Well, I think is nice tho” you felt stupid for saying that and gave yourself a mental slap in the face, he didn't need kind words, it was a dumb

“Yeah…it is "nice", but I miss my old one, and…well, I guess my whole life in the lair” He sounded a little down there, looking somewhere between his work and blueprints

“How…how was your life before?" You feel imprudent for a moment, you already make him quite sad, and you were just putting salt on an open wound. Sometimes you hated your curiosity “if…if you don’t mind me asking, I-I understand if you don’t…” your voice reflected a bit of shyness as you spoke faster than usual, it didn't matter if you were friends with the turtle, he still was your superior, and most important,the hero of the apocalipse, you always tried to treat him with respect, but the familiarity was such that you sometimes forgot to put your filter on

Donnie gives you a little smile “It's okay." Of course the turtle was oblivious to your thoughts, he didn't care about ranks between you two "Well…hmm" He started talking "we were just hiding in the sewer, we couldn’t really go out that much. I think It is one of the few things I like about now, we can interact with humans without scaring them away” He looked puzzled, hesitant, probably asking himself what was worth telling “we were…usually fighting again some mutant who was dumb enough to use their power for evilish things, those oozquitoes where quiet the trouble”

You opened your eyes, news were full of strange event about people turning into monster, one of them being the world famous chef Rupert Swaggart, but you actually never pay too much attention to it, since it always ended up solving itself in some strange circumstance, now you knew the true “Wait, it was you? that it's so awesome” Your eyes were sparkling of excitement, just when you thought they couldn’t be cooler "Those incident were everywhere, I actually thought they were just some kind of stuff TV came up with for the audience or something like that, b-but it was you?, it must have been fun, you're amazing Donnie" This just add to the reasons you admired the turtle brothers

Donnie's cheeks burn at the compliment, he try to hide it “Yes, it was fun. Although I preferred it when we were just relaxing in the lair, making fun of the last stupid thing Leo did, playing video games, and when the only fights we had were over who got the last slice of pizza or which Jupiter Jim movie we were going to see first, you know?” He spoke softly, looking down and making a few gesture with his hands here and there while speaking

You looked at him confused. “What's that?” you asked

“What's what?”

“That umm.. Jupiter…Jim?” you were quiet for a few seconds trying to figure out if you had said it correctly, after deciding that you did you start talking again “What it is?”

Donnie looks at you like if you had insulted all his ancestry “Captain Jupiter Jim? you don’t know who captain Jupiter Jim is?!” You started thinking that this had to be really important for one of the Hamato brothers to be this defensive, maybe it has something to do with their training? perhaps a really important figure in the ninja world?. Donatello looked thoughtful you were gonna ask about it but you were interrupted as the soft shell suddenly stood up with a determined look “I need to go” and with that the turtle walked out his lab leaving you even more confused

« • ❁ • »

Donnie went into Leonardo’s room, he was the biggest fan, so it wouldn’t be weird for him to have the comics and maybe the movies that were saved from the lair. He was searching in the bookshelf

“What are you doing?” the sudden sound of a voice make him jump, slamming his back against the shelf and knocking some things over., it was his twin brother

Donnie didn't know whether knowing who the voice was coming from made him panicked more or relieved...he was panicking obviously.  “uh- um…no-nothing?, nothing! not searching for anything here” the soft-shell turtle picked up the thing that fall from the bookshelf while speaking

Leo looked at his brother with obvious oddity “uh…sure” the blue turtle throw his odachi on his bed, he was just arriving from a mission and totally didn’t expect to see his brother trying to steal something, he keep making eye contact with Donnie, he knew how to get responses from him “so?”

“s-so what?” Donnie try to maintain the eye contact

“What ya looking for? Need your big brother's help?” Leo smiled teasingly, it was weird to see Donnie so nervous, and he was gonna tease the hell out of him to get answers

“I just said I wasn’t looking for anything, and for the last time, it is obvious that I’m the older Nardo.”

“uh-huh…yeah, sure” Leo looked unimpressed of both statements

“As I say, I wasn’t looking for anything, since anything that belong to the such of you it’s probably unworthy” Donnie broke the eye contact first, looking at the door, obviously wanting to escape from this situation

Leo saw his intentions and immediately put himself as a barrier between his brother and the door “Well, if my belongings are so unworthy, what were you doing in my chambers?” he made a mocking gesture along with the last word, kinda proud of himself for using book words

“I-I…um” he stuttered trying to find the correct words to leave this situation “You know…I was just doing normal typical brotherly things, just uh…wanting to spend time with my favorite brother” Those last two words had a bitter taste in donnie's mouth. 

Leo couldn’t help but laugh “I’m your favorite brother?” he continued laughing so much that tears started to come out “That was a good one Dee hehe…so what do you want?” The face of the blue turtle turn serious with the last sentence

“I said it was nothing” Donatello hissed annoyed “...but just by chance, have you seen those jupiter jim comics?” He finally admitted,

“Ah ha! you did want something” Leo shouted victorious, just to realize about something not even a second later “Wait…Why do you want my comics?” Leonardo knew his brother, this was suspicious behavior, Donnie was something special when it comes to comics.

“Why do I have to tell you everything? Do you have them or not?” The soft-shell bark his words at his brother, trying to hide his embarrassment, if Leo was to know the reason, he would never hear the end of it

“I do have then, but I'm not giving them to you if you don’t tell me, so start talking” Leonardo insisted, it sounded like a command which make Donnie even more nervous

“I’m not telling you” 

“Then you won’t have the comics”

“But I need them”

“Then talk."

Both twins were known for their stubbornness, they never gave to others, much less to each other.. Their fight could last hours if you let them, and one of their brothers always had to interfere. They stared at each other once again with flaming eyes, trying to intimidate the other

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because" The other replied "I’m talking to the person who cried when he had to open his comic without gloves” 

“I didn’t cry!”

“You did!”

“Ugh! whatever, just give me the comic for einstein sake” Donnie’s fist clenched

“Just tell me why you want them!” Leo demand once more

“I just want to...read them”

"Why can't you just tell me the true?" 

"I JUST DON'T WANT TO" The soft shell shouted, making his twins take a step back, both looking at each other surprised. The purple turtle covered his own mouth, he wasn't expecting to yell

Leo sighed, he didn't wanna fight with his brother for some dumb comics, he has more important thing to worry about, and knowing Donatello, he knew he wouldn't tell a thing if he didn't want to "Fine…no need to yell, I was just teasing" He sighed once again, not dearing to look at his brother

Donatello had a complicated expression. Back in the lair, they would keep screaming at each other until Raphael or Michelangelo made them stop, they would keep teasing at each other, maybe go physic, but at the end of the day they wouldn't even apologize, at least not with words, they would hang out in one of their room or Donnie's lab and have those unspoken conversations they always had. But this wasn't the lair or their past lives, there were just so much that wasn't the same, even when they were still living together, they never see each other, they were starting to feel like strangers, and it make Donatello feel insecure "I-I'm...sorry…I didn't- I" he spoke tripping over his own words. Donnie felt pathetic, starting to fidget with his fingers, his breath a little accelerated, avoiding any eye contact

"Hey, hey, It's okay, don't worry" Leonardo tried to comfort his brother, smiling and making sure the other knew he wasn't angry or anything while searching for something under his bed. A cardboard box "Here..." Leo offer the box to the other mutant

Donatello took a closer look at the box, inside there were not only the Jupiter Jim comics, but also some action figures, posters, among other stuff from the franchise "umm…thanks" both brother were uncomfortable, neither of them were good with "feelings" and "sincere moments"

"Yeah yeah, but next time just ask, don't come to my room to snoop around like a creep, you weirdo." Leonardo teased Donnie, trying to make the atmosphere a little less serious, it was starting to suffocating them both

The comment make the other laugh a little, but he covered his mouth to not give the him a clue "Scoff" he looked away

"Oh, shut up."

Donnie finally had the comics, now it was time to show them to you, were you gonna like them? What if you didn't like them? He went through all those problems, if you didn't like them he would probably cry internally. 

« • ❁ • »

Donnie sends you a message to come to his lab. You were still confused about the events from early on, but maybe he needed you for something important, it wasn't weird to ask you to test his inventions. When you arrived at the turtle's lab, he was on his desk looking at something, but you couldn't see it.

He then noticed you standing on the entrance "Finally!" the mutant spoke, he get up of his seat and walk towards you, taking you by the shoulder and sitting you on omce of the chairs, you then saw the thing he was looking at, there were various comics with Jupiter Jim as the title in it

"What's all this?" You asked 

"This, my dear y/n, is one of the best comic and movie franchises of all. And I just can't be friends with you if you don't know about this" Donnie has bright eyes, you could see how they were sparkling on excitement

"So...It's this the thing you talked about early?" You take on of the comics and give it a quick look at it, all your theories of a great and important ninja figure collapse with one glance, it was just a comic

"First of all, you can't call it "thing", this is a super valuable collection of Jupiter Jim merchandise" He takes the comic off your hands "second, you shall treat it with respect" he sat beside you. You couldn't help but laughed at how serious he was about those comics, it was hard to believe that the great Hamato Donatello, the smartest living being and one of your saviors, could be so excited about sometime so childish, your heart feel all fuzzy and warm inside.

The mutant searched sometimes inside the box, it looked like he was looking for something specific “ah ha! found it” the turtle beamed at the comic book in his hands, after giving it a quick look he gave it to you “here, read this one. It's one of the best to begin with”

You took the comic, staring at the cover. Just like the one before, the pages had the title “Jupiter Jim” in bright yellow, a dark skin man standing heroic, dressed as an astronaut with a little funny looking red fox on his side. You started reading the first page “The colors are so pretty”, it was the first comment you made, colors always had been a focus point for you

Donnie was just staring at you while you kept reading in silence, nodding or adding a few “I know, right” to your occasional comments. The purple turtle started to order the comics, trying to decide which one to give you next, there were a few chapters missing, he put a piece of paper to remember what needed explanation from a previous loss episode. He then just stared at you some more, it was quite interesting for him how focus you could get at something

“Wow…” You proclaim, closing the comic book and looking at the distance for a few seconds, trying to process what you have just read, and then looking at the turtle “That was such a roller coaster of emotion, like- like the fights a-and…“ You spoke fast, as if you were trying to put all your thoughts in one word "It just so awesome!! I can't describe it, I don't know how I have been living without knowing this" You kicked your feet with pure joy

Donnie was flapping his hand while listening to you talking about your first impression of the characters, story, just the whole thing! he didn’t want to interrupt but at the same time he wanted to ask so many questions about your thoughts. He felt himself over the moon just listening to you talking about one of his favorite things, he could barely conceal his delight “I know! I told you, this is a history treasure” he shouted, not being able to regulate his voice.

“I feel so foolish for thinking of such an amazing creation as childish, I shall regret my words and promise to worship this great creation.” You hold the comic with both hands, putting it in the air as a  sign of respect for a few seconds before snapping “Please, please!! show me some more” you got a little too close to the contrary 

Donnie would have usually pull you back, but his joy was just enough for him to not care and unconsciously put you closer instead “Oh dear y/n we are just getting started, this is not even a fraction of how amazing Jupiter Jim is” he took another comic book, holding it with both hand with the cover facing you, it was quite close to your face so you couldn't actually read the title “This is one of my favorite, buy I would need to explain some things, since to my sadness the first episode of this saga is missing” He put his chair closer to yours, opening the first page, you also got closer to get a better look “First…” He started explaining “The previous episode ended with this big battle between Jupiter Jim and…” You both began to read the comic, laughing and sharing your thoughts of the story. Time seemed not to move forward as you both enjoyed your time together, just having a fun time in the middle of this chaotic world, which may never be the same again, but for that moment you both forgot about that.

[please-someone-give-me-love]

Hello! 👋 Just a curious question: what do you think of Batman & Robin (2023 her) so far?

Hi! Well, I have some mixing feelings over that run. I would say that I have more like mixing feellings over Joshua Williamson's writing of Damian as a character, but anyways, in general, I don't think it's bad but neither I think it's good, I would say that there are a lot of things that I did enjoy in the run but there are also stuff I found kinda boring or oc.

I think what happens with this run is similar to what happened with Robin 2021, that because other comics were bad, this comic came to like a neutral form, like "at least is not as bad as the other comics/interpretations", but that came more related to Damian's characterization, that has good moments but in general I have always feel like Joshua writes Damian in a really bland/boring way, not risking too much on new dilemas for him or a stronger and fierce personality.

I've come to realization that maybe that's my personal taste, I've always like Damian being more defiant and rebel.

But for other part, the plots are kinda just there, it doesn't feel like actual plots to me, pretty much stereotypical boring stuff with villians that are not really interesting and even boring.

I think the strongest point of the series is exactly their name "Batman and Robin" "Bruce and Damian", I can criticized a lot of Williamson's direction but I do like how he handled Damian and Bruce relationship in this run, I could actually feel Bruce's love and compaassion for Damian, not like some other runs that forgets that Bruce is supposed to be a father and not just a leader. I really enjoyed their way to make them relate as father-son not only to the vigilante life but to their normal life.

Other thing I didn't like is what they are doing with Flatline, I think that they are trying to create a dynamic that doesn't seem to fit Damian's character and everytime they tried to established that dynamic feels off and oc and even started to getting the dislike from the fans. I don't know why they are trying so hard to make them act like that, especially Flatline, they are always playing the "I betrayed you but not really" and is getting annoying and boring.

I would say that if you enjoyed Robin 2021, you probably would like this as well

For me it's likek a 6-7/10, not really bad or awful but not really good.

-Thank you for asking me!💖

[xelasrecords]

Hi Xela :~) I had actually been meaning to ask you your thoughts on The Winning so I was happy to see you mention it in response to Faye 🥰 Shopper is definitely my favourite too.

Now life AND fictional men:

1. If you had to assign yourself a colour palette what would it look like? I think it's always interesting to know what colours people associate themselves with!

2. I feel like I still don't really know how you feel about any of the mysme characters aside from Jumin and V, so please rank them. Just based on personal preference 😌

The MVs for The Winning are insane!! I love the concept I love her acting I love everything about them. Some of the sounds like Holssi is more experimental but they're essentially IU. And the physical album with Tweety and dandelions on the acrylic is so cute.

I found this palette on Pinterest and I see my personality as this!

My taste in colours is more like this though

Mysme character ranking based on personal connection and unexplainable annoyance, here goes:

Jumin & V: my blog is the explanation

Zen: if there were no Jumin and V and he could be more empathetic, I'd choose him

Jaehee: she's cool and really nice but I don't think I can connect well with her. I can't see us being close beyond our relationship as the RFA members. But I do want to whisk her away to a healthy work environment and shower her with Zen merch

Yoosung: sometimes I get annoyed at him, but when he's not blaming V without evidence or comparing me to Rika, he's all right

Saeyoung: such a fun friend to have. His tsundere defense mechanism of pushing me away with harsh words is a huge dating dealbreaker tho. I also get protective over V when he beats him up what can I say I put my man first

Saeran: (I'm wary of admitting this because people love him) as Ray his codependency alarms me and as Suit Saeran he starves me and is verbally cruel and physically aggressive at one point. I know he's traumatised, but respectfully I don't want to go through all that and wait for him to treat me better just because I ~believe~ the nice him is in there somewhere. Then as GE Saeran he's just too..... sweet......

Vanderwood: neutral. I find him bland. Whenever he comes out I'm just like oh, 707's sidekick (he'd kick me if he heard this)

Rika: I don't like abusive characters in general. Her villainy also seems two-dimensional and the sun metaphors are exhausting.

Ann give me your color palette and mysme ranking too!

[neoyi]

So

Elemental.

I think this movie handled the allegory of Asian immigration, first born generation, and the cultural ties and differences in a satisfying way that I didn't feel with either Turning Red and Everything Everywhere All At Once and yes, I think I will die on this hill.

Alright, alright, some bit of context is necessary and anything else to back this up is admittedly a personally biased one. Because I get that Turning Red's ending ultimately had to have a conclusion where Mei and her mother found a workaround. I get it. It didn't satisfy ME as an individual, because I just cannot get beyond the fact that at thirteen, I would have never changed my hardcore Asian parents the way the movie so neatly did, but I get it and if not a movie for young Asian kids to relate to so hard, then what?

And EEAAO is just, conceptually, a damn good, entertaining, thoughtful movie with a tried-and-true premise that feels especially novel for starring a middle-aged Asian woman.

In any case, Elemental doesn't push the boundaries or fill you with (intentional) emotional stress that either of the two films did: it's significantly more lowkey. And taken as a whole, neither the plot or its characters did anything for me - Pixar's second coming this ain't (and one particular scene where Wade supposedly died, but oh wait, he's aliiiiiiiive, feels emotionally cheap and something Pixar can no longer really get away with) - and in spite of its background and character design, the CGI is as bland and unassuming as the average big-budgeted western animated film.

No, what stuck with me was the little things that emphasized Ember's life as a first born gen:

It's the heavy pressure Ember feels, thinking her entire life was built to take over her father's shop because that place has been his dream for thirty years, and if she doesn't follow the path her parents expect of her, than she is a failure. The horrible guilt she faces knowing her parents sacrificed so much of their lives to give her a future means she has to drop everything and do the same for them, no matter how she feels. It's a horrible cycle, but so true of Asians, and something I've spent decades fighting off.

It's Wade's family praising Ember for speaking their language very well, spoken through well-meaning filters, but delivered in an unintentionally condescending tone. And Ember silently just takes it in, awkward as it may be, because it's damn clear this is probably the 14,000th time she has heard this and she is probably just so damn tired to do anything about it right now.

It's Ember's parents denouncing her romantic entanglement with Wade because they especially have it out for Water People through xenophobic, racist assumption of their kind; the movie doesn't sugarcoat that because they're considered minorities, they do not have prejudice and unjustified disgust of other people, too (sadly a reflection I have seen my parents carry, too.)

It's Ember and Wade's respective good-byes to their parents in the film's ending. Where Wade and his mother cry and hug and hug and cry (I have no idea if the crying thing is just a Water Person thing or just Wade's family, but I thought Wade was a total drip until the last act of the film because the running gag was so dang annoying) while Ember keeps a respectable distance because by comparison, yeah, we're just not as physically affectionate.

It's Ember repeatedly declaring she is a "bad daughter" because she thinks she's constantly failed her parents and the thought of disappointing them is a greater stab in the heart than anything in the world. That one hit WAY too damn hard (I'll kindly overlook that her parents never attempted to pressure her in any particularly forceful way, more that they just assumed she would inherit the shop because it's traditionally expected of their culture to do, when I know damn well if it had been my parents, they'd have been a LOT more emotionally anguished about it.)

It's the extra attention paid to Ember's culture that in turn reflects her lifestyle and how she and her family behaves. I also love how well they played with Ember's fiery abilities, showing a multitude of basic everyday necessities like sealing metal pipes in their basement home after a leak, or Ember using her flames to heat a hot air balloon, or molting glass to create artwork from (sadly, this level of attention is only marginally demonstrated by Wade, a little less so for the Cloud folks, and you might as well say "fuck off" to the Earth People.)

Elemental is a C-grade plot: I'm never gonna see this again nor am I aching to get it on home media. I was just awestruck by how well-tuned it captured the first gen Asian experience, and particularly in a way that compromises a respect for their culture and encourage change.

I admit that it hits me more because it does what EEAAO did not: it learned to let their child go. And I guess it offered a bit of catharsis.

[away-ward]

Hey ko! I was the anon who talked to you about my opinion of nightfall around two weeks ago ask & ans 256? Anyway, i dont think i have anything much to reply to your answer, i agree with a lot of things you said. And i actually read the bonus rikabanks and wtf? 🤮 i shouldve listened to you!!!!! Wtf? Why do i feel like dn series dont have any couples that will stay together for the rest of their lives? Like? Tbh, i wasnt feeling alexaydin, willemmy was on thin ass because of that bitchass will grayson, kaibanks too on thin ice because of kai fuck that guy- conclave, then michaelrika is so stale? Ngl, they got that sexual tension, but what else?

Unpopular opinion, i actually dont dislike any fmcs in this series except for winter, even rika, i just dont feel much about her tbh. It's insufferable to see these men and women going after her bland ass, but hey wtv. My least fav though would 100% be winter. alex was my #1 hated, but winter was my #1 disliked fmc in the series, but still my dislike for her is lower than any hatred i have for the horsemen tbh. I think it's because both of alex and winter are jjst such self righteous hypocrites, will and kai got on my nerves for the same reason too. when they fucked up, they love to play victim too much, and blame everybody as if their hands are not just dirty. winter's character is just being a useless tool, to be damon's muse and before anyone come after me, winter was not boring because shes blind at all. It's her lack of presence outisde of damon, and her personlity. In general, damonwinter is unlikeable to me. Shes just there, she didnt make any impact to her OWN love story and i hate it, feels like only damon was yearning, and i dont even like damon. Like AT ALL. I fucking hate him, and still think he deserves better than winter tbh.

Funny how out of the four main couples, i actually rooted for damonwinter the least. Even in conclave and fire night, it was always damon taking initiatives, and i hate it, i dont like winter because of this. I dont understand how od got the chance to write a bomb ass character who's disabled and write someone naive, guillible, self righteous, weak, whiny and slut-shaming, like winter. Granted other characters did too, but the way she was described as pure and good but doesnt match up to how she actually was, i was disappointed. theyre the least not romantic to me, besides kaibanks (but kaibanks was because pd didnt know how to write them, and busy putting damon in their story. Outisde of those factors, they got chemistry). I want fmc and mmc to be obsessed and be yearning and work for each other. Damonwinter was giving nothing, because winter made it feel like a reluctant group project, but hey looking at goodreads reviews tell me that maybe its just me. I was so disappointed because everyone was like "you gota keep pushing corruot and hideaway for damonwinter" then when i read it, i was like "huh, why was winter like THAT?" She was so fucking self righteous and annoying. Like she dont gotta a brain or something? Like? Even rika wasnt this gullible. I mean rika WAS very gullible but there was a lot of situations we read where she was only like that because she chose to put it past her since her only aim in corrupt was michael michael michael. As she grew, even though she was still a lot unnecessary, she wasnt insufferable on purpose, but because pd wrote her to be one. Rika's character assassination was not because of herself, but because of pd's writing. Like damon said, half dumb half smart. But winters character was straight dumb. I feel like it's due to bad writing AND her character was born to fluff damon up. Like winter Was so damn stupid, i had to take a break when i read her pov.sometimes stupid? Thats fine, everyone does that in the series (except for the horsemen) but almost all the time? Girl, what? Interesting how damon really always find interest in dumb fmcs, but then he also admitted that thats his personality type, literally the ditzy blonde ones, so hey, maybe misogyny IS the big turn on for these "heroes" huh?

and another thing that i wanna touch on: purity culture of this series. Ohmy fucking god, it was so icky!!!!! Made me hate damonwinter even more. No because why did nobody gave this a trigger warning? I didnt know this going into the series!!!!! Ohmygod! Like for real? Damon always talking about how young and pure the people around him? I get it. Trauma. But goddamn, he romanticised it all the time and never grew out of it! I cannot stand His povs!!! Talking about rika like that, then treating banks like that and touching her ass ohmygod it traumatised me, then babying will and acting like he's a baby, then winter about her young thighs, ruining her and shit like ughhh 🤮 and innocent sleeping winter like she was 12 🤮 like whats with the purity-obsessed with these characters? Rika when she said alex was the purest? Huh? theyre both such dumb no-thoughts-but-only-dicks besties for real. Theyre always so embarrassing together, so shallow, i hate it!! But pd has never had a talent to write good female relationships either, her birthday girl book and fall away series are always fmcs fighting and putting other women down. But she always write all these men bonding with each other and having the best kinds of support system. I hate it!!! Anyway, back to the purity topic, ugh, did you notice this too? I always throw up in my mouth a lil when damon went into emmy's shower stall and talked about will like that, it's so predatory (which again, i know trauma, but idgaf) and weird ughhhhh. But people esepcially willdamon shippers always go awww 🥹 but theyre also damonwinter lovers so i guess purity is really their kink? Idk idc, you like what you like but it still traumatised me!!!! Thank god in emmy's pov i dont have to read much about purity and misogyny. Ughhhhhhh. Like 6 books in the series, and only in nightfall we see the fmc being mostly good to other women, and not the other way around only ughhhhhh. Maybe this was why alex was mad at emmy, among many other possible reasons than jealousy? Because emmy was her first female friend in the group who didnt start her relationship with alex being shit or judging to her from the start? And after everything still good to her? Because shes not to sincerely supportive female friendship like this? Or am i reaching? Because i remember alex's relationship with rika, banks and winter were rocky at first, not like theres a big fight or anything, but their men always use her to pit against their women and their women always looks down on her? Maybe not winter because she didnt know but damon was still implying that alex was only a side hoe. Idk, have you discussed this point here before? I think it's interesting how bare minimum it was, but thank fucking god for emmy for this. I wished she was bitchier and didnt have to always be so kind to people like this, they just always walk all over her while her bitchass guy grayson stood there like a dumbo, never fight for anything. Ughhhhhhh im pissed!!

i think that's the only thing i got in mind after ask and answ 256.

anyway,

and i just read your conversation with anon about emory's lack of background and ohmygod, it just came to mind that wow, emory's back story is really the most mysterious, huh? And not in a good way, but in a bad author-really-dgaf way. Like, damn? We really dont know much about emory? I'd like to think she dated and all, but the relationships were not impactful enough to change nightfall. But i still dont understand, why tf does pd's mmc always be so obsessed of being overly fond of other women in their story? Like? Will and alex? Why is pd always so obsessed with this? But the women always stay virgin or not a hoe, again, pure! Ughhhhh purity!! Men can have fuck buddies and girl bff (kai, will) but girls got called out and lashed out for being close to men while their men didnt give a fuck about how they feel (kai with damon, lev and david and prety much any men in banks vicinity, wil with damon, aydin and any men emmy hooked up with while being #1 whore himself). The hypocrisy and double standard!!!! Adding another reason in my list to hate kai and will. No bcs it's easy to hate characters like michael, damon and aydin from the get go because theyre shit and they know it. But hypocrites like kai and will? They always get babied by female readers and i hate it!!!! Cant pd write just one book with fmc who's not a pure virgin with big bad sccary guy who treats her like shit? Ughhhhhhh did i say how much i hate the purity concept in her stories?

Now, another one that i got angry about after thinking about emory's lack of background story: pd had the time to make up that Aaron Palmer Fane name for Rika's baby, combining alex and will's name, and the middle name of Torrin (girl version of torrance) for one of willemmy's daughter, and Fane for damon's son, but she can't give the same energy for emmy's story, and banks' closure? Like those babies literally only came not until later, but they got their spotlights? I'm so pissed off! Uggghhhh like if pd was so obsessed with alex and will, why cant they just write them together? This is the case where authors wrote too much of unnecessary side characters and fans start siding with them instead of the fmcs. And then pd's say shit like "oh i planned this, you just dont understand". No her writing and planning was just whack, period. She shoudve hyped up emmy from the start in every single book. For one fact about alex, give emmy 3-4 extras. How the hell do you even plan your stories like this? Who's the main character now, im so angry! We literally got a scene of alex and will on a bike, but not willemmy? Got a scene of alex in willemmy's bed, but not willemmy hanging out? Even their godzilla movie date after was glossed over. Dont even mention the cove burning scene. Unpopular opinion, I understand the point of her being locked up and will's thought of it, but again, why is alex with him? Ughhhhhhhh im angry!!!!!!! And why the fuck is will so fucking bad at setting boundaries? And when willemmy talked in the carfax room, they prob did talk about boundaries, no? So why no scenes of that? Because pd didnt find that interesting? But will giving alex's cheek a sloppy kiss at the cove, howling like dogs and looking into each others eyes saying theyre mirrors are interesting? Interesting to whom? Ughhhh

another thing, i read on goodreads/ pd's website that the characters' birthdate were never something that she thought too much off until the story got published them and fans asked for them. Huh, what a great planner! Like at this point, i dont believe that shes a great planner at all. And i cannot unsee it but i feel like pd and damon are similar in the sense that what goes on in their doesnt match reality, thats why their rationale are stupid. Description doesnt match anything. Like?? It made me feel a bit disrespected as a reader because she kept on writing a but i felt gaslighted if i felt b, then her fans will attack me and say im dumb because i didnt believe a. Like why are you angry at me? Tell pd to write properly ten, how is it my fall, if im not the only reader who had this problem with her writing? Anyway, i guess No wonder banks' age doesnt make any sense, but then she doesnt give a fuck about banks as much either other than always making her self worth about men around her- damon, kai and gabriel. Idk, if i thinkabout all the way pd messed up hideaway and banks character, that'll be a whole other long rant that nobody probably gaf about, but me.

Tbh i really dont remember where i heard this but hideaway was actually her hardest book to write because corrupt was supposed to be a standalone, so she had to think of how kai and banks would work. So dont take my word for it!! But i can see why hideaway was like THAT. i guess by nightfall, she just wanted to end it. I mean she did took feedback to lessen alex's presence in fire night, thank god! And i remember one of her goodreads questions about having more diverse fmcs and pd said she couldnt because of banks' character and who she was related Too and tbh idek what to make of this, because i just read the extra on her site of banks stalking michael rika kai in the valentines extra, and that LITERALLY couldve been the prologue hideaway or epilogue for corrupt. Uggghh and not the epilogue of hideaway being damon pissing? Ughhhhhh i hate himmmm.

excuse me ko, i sound so hateful and whiny here but i only react to this to bad soap operas, because only bad soap kperas can me invested in their shitty stories like this. Im so angry but so invested? Idk but i think people who are still in the fandom are tough readers, because after my anger subside, i think i wont be touching this series again for real, these characters, these books, these stories and this author just make me angry!!! How do yall stay sane here. Your fanfics are one of the reason i like willemmy in an au. No but seriously, theyre so fun to read! I really appreciate the fanfics you put out for free, and all the games and fan things you do on your blogs! And unexpectedly, i didnt know i need that banks emmy hollow fic! Thank you for that female characters bonding 🥰

if you have any happy books or shows that i can watch with no angst or bullying, please do send my way 🥹🫶 i think i need a cleanse from this series

Heyyyy! I’m so happy you're b-ohhh…

And i actually read the bonus rikabanks and wtf? 🤮 i shouldve listened to you!!!!! Wtf?

Well. What can I say? Sometimes curiosity gets the better of you. Looks like you did the same thing a lot of us did: go looking for all the bonus material only to realize it doesn’t get better; it only gets worse. To this day, the only one I return to is the Hideaway deleted scene with Will. Does so much for my willemmy heart.

Why do i feel like dn series dont have any couples that will stay together for the rest of their lives?

You’re not the first to say that. Personally, I feel that these people will live the rest of their lives together, die together, and be buried together if only because no one else will put up with them (probably all at the same time if Damon gets any control, and knowing PD…)

(…am I implying that Damon will plan a murder/suicide plot, killing his wife and best friends when they reach age 80, because he can’t stand the idea of living without them, or them he? possibly.)

My least fav though would 100% be winter.

Your rant about Winter and purity cultural got me thinking a little bit. The majority of readers like to give Emmy multiple boyfriends and hook ups in her time away (I’m in the minority but that's for another time), but I truly feel that it would have given Winter’s character much more legitimacy if she was the one having hook ups.

Like, Rika’s history makes sense given how the Crist family was controlling and manipulating her.

And Banks’ virginity can be played as more of a power move. She grew up around men who treated women like toys, constantly being reminded that there’s a thin line between her and them. Her choice not to let them have access to her body, even if she had found someone other than Kai, gives her autonomy. She has the lock and key, no one else, not even Damon. It works for her character and situation.

But Winter? She was so angry with Damon after the truth came out. Not to mention, he opened her up to experiences she didn’t have before, but were suddenly taken away from her. It would have made so much sense if she had gone out and tried to erase him, tried to replace him, tried to capture whatever it was she felt in his arms with someone else, only to discover that it doesn’t work. No one else can do what Damon does for her, and she hates herself for it. Him too.

Even if she’s a little ashamed of herself, because she’s coming out of this “purity cultural” mindset, it’s fine. If she had multiple partners before her second chance with Damon, her knowing that it he’s the only one that she “works” with makes a lot more sense plot-wise. They’re messed up, but they’re messed up in similar ways, and that’s why it can’t be anyone else. Maybe that would have given Winter a bit more substance as a character, outside of being Damon’s soother. But what do you think?

and another thing that i wanna touch on: purity culture of this series.

You asked if I noticed it, and to be honest, on my first read, I didn’t. But this leads into another idea I’ve been thinking about lately, which is mostly unrelated except for the way my mind connected them.

I’ve watched a few youtube videos on how booktok and the like are promoting books, and why some of those books are just not good despite all the hype. And one person (can’t remember which video, but I’m sure this is not their opinion alone), suggested that part of the problem is the tropification of books.

Now, this doesn’t bother me. Knowing the tropes of books will get me to read the summary and then I decide from there. But that’s because I was raised on fanfiction. I didn’t have a lot of money growing up, and the library was not always easy to get to. But fanfiction was free and at my computer, and easy to access. Which means I was also exposed to all of the terms and phrases frequently used in dark romance (along with a lot of other obvious signs of lazy and cheap writing) and learned to ignore.

So the popularizing of features you’d normally only see if fanfiction/fandom spaces makes sense, because the people who were in fandom spaces when I was a teenager are now adults with money who decide what’s popular and what’s not; and therefore what gets published and picked up (and this isn't anything new, really. I think a bigger part of this is just that it's the natural evolution of the bodice rippers from years past).

And putting these thoughts together, I realized I read DN as if it were a mid-tier fanfic. I think it was written about as well a fanfic. Not that it was once FF and then turned into original fiction, like so many today. Just that it has the same level of skill and editing quality as a really good but not great, fanfic. That may be why I’m not as angry as other readers? And also why a lot of the more problematic issues went over my head? It’s the same things you overlooked to get some decently written work on ffn or ao3. Sometimes, you just had to put on your “no thoughts; just here for a good time” helmet and go.

I could be completely off on this. It’s a new idea I haven’t fully worked through, but might possibly have some merit.

That being said, it was very popular when I was a teenager – and given how hyped books with these features are today, I’m sure still is – to have a oversized, brooding, sometimes bloody MLI be totally whipped for the good girl, never seen a naked man without blushing, “he's going to ruin me and I'm going to let him,” FLI. Later, readers started calling for more empowered female characters. And some writers understood the assignment and some didn’t. PD seems to have tried to combined the two, with less than effective results.

And this goes back to my point about Winter. It’s not that this idea of “purity” doesn’t have its place, it’s how it’s used and what it says about the characters who are using it.

If Banks was a virgin by choice well into her 20s, good for her. That's a power move.

If Damon had to let go of this idea that Winter was only meant for him, of this “pure as freshly fallen snow”, and to see her worth despite it, it would have been good development.

But I think we both know that Banks being a virgin and Damon having those thoughts about Winter were not meant for character but because that’s what some readers find hot. Which is why it’s one, not enjoyable for all; and two, went straight over my head. What other people find hot has nothing to do with me. I’m still here for the character development (that never happened! I’m clearly madder about that).

But pd has never had a talent to write good female relationships either, her birthday girl book and fall away series are always fmcs fighting and putting other women down.

I tried reading bully but I don’t remember much from it. But to your point, I don’t understand why PD seems to always want women to fight, as if that’s the way to show their empowered. Like above, when readers started calling for stronger female characters, some writers took that to mean they wanted physically strong characters – which in some cases is legitimate. But it was soon made clear that that’s not what was asked for.

It seems that PD only finds female characters interesting if they’re willing to physically fight another woman because that shows…? Actually, I’m unclear what it shows, exactly. I would have loved if the girls in this story weren’t copy/paste versions of one another; if the things that made them strong was different and yet just as valid.

For example, if it was Rika’s capacity for forgiveness tempered with her growing backbone and refusal to be treated like a doormat was emphasized as what made her strong, and not her fencing/martial arts/willingness to hurt others.

If Winter had unmatched mental fortitude. I mean, come on, the girl still dances after going blind. She has resiliency. Why is she so weak when Damon’s not around? Why does she need Damon to tell her to raise her voice.

If Emory’s emphasized strength was her kindness despite her suffering, and not her ability to walk away from good things and endure massive amounts pain, which we see is mostly physical.

Again, for the most part, those are all good qualities, but usually it’s only the physical strength and willingness to use it that’s emphasized more than any other trait. And ruins them because them you have to make them be angry enough to physically fight, or want to, when these girls should be supporting each other.

I left Banks out above because her being able to physically fight is one of her more important features, and should be allowed to shine through. If the other girl’s abilities were scaled back, Banks being able to do what she does, having learned how to survive in Gabriel’s house, would have just been more outstanding.

It just goes back to having good female relationships means having a variety of women and a love of different types of personalities. I’m struggling to see PD truly enjoying characters, and more enjoying just certain plots and character traits. I think one thing that is clear is that PD is not the writer for me. Which is fine.

Maybe this was why alex was mad at emmy, among many other possible reasons than jealousy? Because emmy was her first female friend in the group who didnt start her relationship with alex being shit or judging to her from the start? And after everything still good to her? Because shes not to sincerely supportive female friendship like this? Or am i reaching?

It doesn’t really matter if you’re reaching, you’re in a fandom space now. Run with it!

I like the idea that Alex and Emmy’s relationship is unique because Emmy was the first girl to not judge her (and of all the girls, Emmy has the biggest reason to, but because she’s Emmy, all she wants if for Will to be happy). It would have been great if we could have seen Alex struggling with wanting to be Emory’s friend because of the kindness shown her, and wanting to protect Will from further hurt, which only Emmy had the ability to do. Alex wanting to be friends with both, but having to pick one because they’re on opposite sides of an issue is a real problem.

But there’s some arguing that idea because Alex left Emory exposed, and then said it’s partly because she wanted to see Emory and Will interacted. What were they, her little experiment?

There were a lot of ways that the Alex/Emory/Will issue could have been played that would have address their real issues without pitting Alex and Emory against each other the way they were, but then PD seems to love it when the girls fight, then kiss and make up.

Cant pd write just one book with fmc who's not a pure virgin with big bad sccary guy who treats her like shit?

Doesn’t PD’s new series feature this? Someone else will have to check, but I’m pretty sure. But I can’t vouch for how the mc treats the fmc.

pd had the time to make up that Aaron Palmer Fane name for Rika's baby, combining alex and will's name, and the middle name of Torrin….

This is not something I’ve discussed before but I hate PDs naming trend. What is the obsession with Fane?

Madden? Cool. Jett, nice. Indie? Would have loved if her middle name was actually Jones, because that would have been sooooo Willemmy, but I’m still hoping (stupidly) that Aspen has some real inspiration and not that they opened up a baby name book and picked the first name they saw.

But are we really surprised that the most thought when into how Rika and Damon named their kids?

Aaron Palmer – isn’t that a drink…wait, no. that’s Arnold Palmer.

Athos? An eight-year-old named herself after one of the three musketeers and where supposed to think that's cool and not totally contrived (and am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that Athos being eight technically means she was born when Rika was sixteen, which is when Corrupt first takes place…which kinda means that Michael and Rika sort of retroactively become teenage parents, as if Michael hadn’t let Rika leave that night? Like I wouldn’t be surprised if it was revealed that Athos’ birthday is in July - nine months after devil’s night.).

Dag??? Take Damon’s ability to name things away from him.

She shoudve hyped up emmy from the start in every single book. For one fact about alex, give emmy 3-4 extras.

Absolutely!!! That's so real. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but Emory should have haunted Will the entire series. One hint in each book was not enough to sell how bad Will was truly affected by her. And if we had been given more hints, I think the shipping war probably wouldn’t have been so bad. Overall, we just needed more of Emmy’s presence throughout the series, even if she wasn’t on the page, to be really hyped for Willemmy.  

The way the idea of reading Nightfall and then going back through the series and seeing where Will was most affected by her grips me, and we never got that. ugghgh.

another thing, i read on goodreads/ pd's website that the characters' birthdate were never something that she thought too much off until the story got published them and fans asked for them.

Please don’t get me started on the birthdays/timeline. I’ve been through enough.

Idk, if i thinkabout all the way pd messed up hideaway and banks character, that'll be a whole other long rant that nobody probably gaf about, but me.

I can name like two or three blogs that would love to hear your rant. Come on, don't keep them to yourself. Share.

Idk but i think people who are still in the fandom are tough readers, because after my anger subside, i think i wont be touching this series again for real, these characters, these books, these stories and this author just make me angry!!! How do yall stay sane here.

Too true. Like I said above, I wasn’t as angry as a lot of other readers, but I mourned the lost potential. I kept reading because of Emmy, and high (too high) expectations for what this could turn into and it never went in that direction.

The mourning led to ranting with a friend, which led to me writing fics to answer the questions I had and fill in the gaps, and try to capture some of that potential. But otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. The asks keep me around. The games fill in the time between the asks, and honestly, to try and help make some of it a little better. It’s fun to play with the idealized versions of the characters in my head. This is actually a great group dynamic and if PD would let them be friends instead of trying to find away that everyone can sleep with everyone despite the fact they made their favs related, I think we could have some fun.

There are good things here, and I believe one day a talented enough artist or writer will come along and tap on that potential. Until then, we keep trying to find the joy in what’s left.

Your fanfics are one of the reason i like willemmy in an au. No but seriously, theyre so fun to read! I really appreciate the fanfics you put out for free, and all the games and fan things you do on your blogs! And unexpectedly, i didnt know i need that banks emmy hollow fic! Thank you for that female characters bonding 🥰

Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much! Hollow was definitely a response to the scene I warned you not to read, and while I know the characters aren’t perfect replicas of PD’s, I needed it too. Just happy they can bring some joy to others like they helped me.

Um.. I am horrible with recommendations. I tend to read and watch the same things over and over again. I don’t have a lot of time to read, so it takes me forever to get through things, and then I don’t remember books by their tropes; just how they made me feel. Which is why even badly written things stick with me if I enjoyed myself.

I understand if you have no intentions of touching this series again (you mentioned before how goodreads reviews were saying you just need to get through corrupt and hideaway to get to kill switch, which is so opposite of what I tell readers. If you can’t stand corrupt, quit while you’re ahead), but to catch any of the books or shows I’m into, you’d just have to hang around, unfortunately. No pressure, though. Move on to brighter places if DN talk just doesn’t work for you. Make your fandom places fun.

Thanks for coming back! And thank you for your thoughts. I enjoyed them.

[laoih]

Some thoughts on Netflix's Avatar The Last Airbender

I love the original animated series, and have loved it for many years. I know that many fans are upset about the adaptation, and that's their prerogative. I know how that feels, that's basically me as a fan of Tolkien's work with Amazon's terrible The Rings of Power series.

However, when it comes to Avatar The Last Airbender, I can say that I genuinely like the live action adaptation. It is flawed for sure, and I have my criticisms, but I still think it's enjoyable and has a lot of heart. I do want to see more of it.

A quick (lie) list of the highs and lows in my opinion (spoiler warning):

Let's start with the shortcomings:

The dialogues: Throughout the whole show they are probably the biggest issue. Too often they are used for exposition, or to tell the viewers what they could deduce by themselves. It's often on-the-nose and missing subtlety. Although I have to admit that it seems for some people who don't know the animated series, it seems to help for understanding the show better, and therefore may be justified at least in parts.

Aang's woe-is-me attitude: It makes sense that Aang is suffering due to his trauma of being the last of his kind, of losing his family, and because being the Avatar is a huge burden. However, towards the end his attitude of "everything is my fault" started to get annoying. He doesn't have to feel responsible for everything. I hope he can quickly move past this in s2. I'd like to see other sides of Aang as well.

Aang's water bending: I think it's weird that Aang never really gave water bending a try. They never even give a reason why he didn't try, and that just makes that change confusing.

Aang's & Katara's relationship: I understand why they didn't include Aang's crush on Katara, but with them bonding over water bending being removed as well means that two major parts of their relationship don't exist, and the show has failed to really build up their relationship in a meaningful way otherwise.

Katara's character: In general she stays a bit underdeveloped, and the actress is lacking a bit of Katara's edge and energy in my opinion.

Azula: I don't like how they have written her, and I don't think the actress fits the character either. It's very difficult, because Azula in the animation does not act her age at all. Her entire demeanor is difficult to portray for a teenager, but it's also very memorable. Itd be hard for any actress to do her justice.

Mai & Ty Lee: They have nothing to do in that season & now they can't get the great character-defining introductions that they had in the original series. They were included to give Azula someone to talk to, but it's to the detriment of these two characters – they're just bland background now.

The Spirit World: Episode 5 just didn't work for me because there was too much crammed into it. There was no reason to include Wan Shi Tong nor did it make sense to include Hei Bai and then basically completely skip his story. With Koh being the actual culprit, the abduction of the villagers stands in no relation to the burnt forest in that episode. It would have been better to tell

Avatar Roku: I feel there was wasted potential there. Based on interviews I suppose there was simply no time & money left, so I hope they'll do him more justice in later seasons.

Now for the highlights:

The Bending: I think for most of the series it looks very powerful and impressive. It's not perfect throughout, but in general they did a really good job with it.

Zuko: Dallas Liu's portrayal is wonderful and I have zero complaints and only praise.

Aang's & Zuko's relationship: I think they build a solid foundation for these two characters, and I think some of Gordon's best acting is opposite to Dallas Liu.

Suki: Loved the actress' performance and how they have written her.

Ozai: I think Ozai is a case where the live action character is more interesting and impressive than the animated character. I really like what they are doing with him and Daniel Dae Kim is perfect in that role.

Jet & the Mechanist: I think putting these two plots together is a very interesting and fitting idea, and contrasting them in the same episode made me think about them in relation as I hadn't done before. It's fascinating how these two characters, who should actually fight for the same goal, have gone down two very different paths.

Kioshi's avatar state: It basically replaces Rokku's version in the animated version, and it's just cool.

Bumi: Maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but I think within the context of this more serious show this version of Bumi makes much more sense. Animated-Bumi with his challenges for Aang to realise how to take different approaches to find a solution wouldn't have worked with the changed tone of the story.

Sokka: Within the context of the show, Sokka also works well. He still is funny at times, but he is a bit more mature and responsible than animated-Sokka, which is more realistic in this show. Otherwise, one would have wondered why Hakoda didn't live an actual adult man in the village for protection.

The 41st division: I know, one of the points in the original was also that Zuko's defense of the new recruits seem to have been useless, but I love that his crew was given such an impactful background. It does not lessen the tragedy of Zuko's situation.

Hahn: I kind of like that he's not just a complete idiot, but actually a likable guy that I felt sorry for when he died.

The impact of war: I liked the exploration of what war does to people and especially children. It includes a variety of examples and stories, and I like that we get different kind of sides to this.

The locations: the sets are good, and the CGI backgrounds as well.

Appa, Mom and other fantastical animals: I understand that it's difficult to include them for large amounts of time, but I think whenever they are used they are convincingly animated.

The music is as good as expected.

... I'm sure I have forgotten many things I wanted to mention, but this has to do for now.

[leaderpinhead]

Emir (OC) - Lying Mask

I missed the deadline for @flashfictionfridayofficial prompt this week, but I still wanted to posted this. In a way, it's kind of a character study for one of my RSA OCs. My interpretation of the prompt was very loose, but Royal Sword Academy might as well be "galaxies away" from Night Raven College.

Emir admittedly wouldn’t be very happy with seven dwarves crowding his knees either. Neige may have found it cute for all his friends to follow him around the campus like little ducklings following their mother, but Emir couldn’t think of a fate more exasperating. It was one thing to have his dozens of cousins following him when he returned home (Kalim included), but they were adorable and family, and it annoyed the Vipers, which amused him to no end. 

Preparing for the Starsending celebration had inadvertently drawn the seven dwarves to Cielo, who had been chosen by the headmage to be one of this year’s Stargazers. Emir could understand the general attraction to the fae. He had an ephemeral kind of beauty in general, one that almost made it difficult to look at him on some days, but that beauty transcended to a whole new level when he floated around the campus wearing black tights and translucent robes that looked like the night sky had been woven directly into the fabric. 

Maybe it was because Neige wasn’t on campus for the event or because there were few other fae attending Royal Sword Academy, but the seven dwarves had chosen to cling to Cielo during the week-long preparations. Emir hadn’t really cared until Gias had pointed out the odd stiffness in Cielo. Having an innate fascination with people who pretended to be one thing but were the complete opposite (like a certain Viper he knew), Emir began watching Cielo. 

And it was absolutely fascinating to watch the fae’s bland mask slowly crack throughout the week. 

“You make the prettiest Stargazer I’ve ever seen, Cielo!” Hop cheerfully exclaimed. Had Emir not been watching Cielo so closely, he would have completely missed the small muscle twitch in his cheek, the rest of his expression eerily flat. None of the dwarves were as observant. “I hope Neige gets chosen next year. He’d make a pretty Stargazer too!” 

“Stop being so loud!” Grum complained. Despite his grumpiness, he practically clung to Cielo’s knees. “They can hear you all the way on the other side of Twisted Wonderland.” 

“Your cape is really pretty,” Shelpie said. His head bobbed as if he was about to fall asleep where he stood. “I dreamed about it last night.” 

Toby grabbed the edges of the cape and flapped it in the air. He ducked under the cape. “I’m a shooting star!” 

Cielo’s head snapped down to the dwarf. Emir waited for him to kick the silly boy across the field. He could see the moment Cielo completely disassociated from the situation even from a distance. His dark purple eyes stared out across the field as if he was waiting for the Star Fairy herself to descend from the stars and take him away along with the wishing stars he had collected. 

Timmy shyly ducked behind Dominic. Emir would have missed the shy whisper if he wasn’t already focused on the timid dwarf. “I-I think you’re prettier than even the Star Fairy!” 

“I heard that some night fae from Comet Vally are descended directly from the Star Fairy,” Snick said before a wet sneeze cut him off. 

“I read about that too,” Dominic said, like he had been waiting for a chance to jump in between his other friends’ ramblings. “But there’s not a lot of books on Comet Valley. It’s more isolated than even Briar Valley before the wars. Are the night fae there really that different?”” 

Cielo slowly lowered his gaze down to the dwarves. The shift in his expression was very subtle, but Emir caught the quick shine in his dark eyes before it disappeared just as quickly. “Yes.” 

The group of dwarves fell silent. They stared up at Cielo in rapt attention. Grum rudely coughed. “And?” 

Cielo slowly leaned down. Emir’s old etiquette teacher would have scolded him for the rude posture. There was no shift in the tone of Cielo’s voice. “The Star Fairy gifted the fae of Comet Valley with her ephemeral beauty.” 

The dwarves made varying noises of awe. Toby, still hidden under Cielo’s cape, waved his hands in the air. “I knew it!” 

“What else?” Dominic asked eagerly. Emir could easily imagine Dominic rushing back to his dorm room later to eagerly transcribe every word from Cielo. “Did she leave parts of her magic in the valley too? Briar Valley’s scholars say the Thorn Fairy weaved her mighty magic across the island. That’s why thorn patches are randomly find across the island.” 

That brief flicker in Cielo’s eyes returned, but it wasn’t the same as the shine Emir had caught earlier. It was ...darker. Like what little amusement the strange fae took from the situation was abruptly snuffed out. He straightened and looked down his nose at the dwarves. “The Star Fairy left many gifts for her descendants.” 

Shelpie jolted awake. “Like what?” 

“Like pretty eyes?” Hop asked. “Your eyes are really pretty!” 

Cielo’s eyes jumped between all seven dwarves. Emir got the impression he earnestly searched for something in each of them. Something that he didn’t find as all interest fled his expression. “Sometimes wishes in Comet Valley come true. The interesting ones.” 

Cielo swept his cape away from Toby and briskly walked away from the dwarves. His abrupt departure left the other boys confused, and they looked to each other as if searching for clarity. Their eyes eventually fell on Dominic, who didn’t look as assured as he usually did. He pulled a phone from his pocket. “Oh! Neige texted. He must be on break now. Let’s go do video call with him.” 

The dwarves shuffled away. Toby looked back at Cielo, looking almost sad that the taller fae had left them so abruptly. Emir watched Cielo for a while afterwards, noting how he kept to the fringes of the crowded students who happily shared their “wishes” with each other. That dark flash crossed his face several times before Emir inevitably lost sight of him. 

Curious, Emir thought to himself. Maybe it was because he had experience with people who regularly wore masks, so it was easier for him to catch those tiny signs. Maybe he was judging normal fae social behavior by human standards. 

Or maybe Cielo was a liar, and Emir was one of the few people who could see it. 

[byrdiboo]

There is no sexism in Ba Sing Se

By now I think everyone has their opinions formed about the live action ATLA remake but as a non-fan I figured I'd offer my two cents to anyone still on the fence or who might be interested in a slightly less biased opinion. To clarify, I don't hate the show, I actually like hearing my friends talk about the fan theories and how they thought the various heavy subjects are handled, I just never got into it myself. Because my partner is one of those people who did get into it, I've at least seen up to the point of Kyoshi Village in both shows (ep2 Netflix, ep4 original). One of the things I've seen most people excited about is the special effects, especially the bending. I will say, it looks...fine. I'm not up on my fighting styles but the choreography seems decent. The effects are nothing groundbreaking - we've had these water and fire sims for at least 10 years - but it's definitely not awful to look at...when you can see it. Way too much of the show (ie more than 0%) utilizes the inexplicably popular "someone forgot to turn the lights on when filming" lighting technique and "shakeycam meets too-many-cuts" editing with motionblur out the ass for good measure (some of the opening scenes are on youtube, judge for yourself). At least all two of the creatures we get to actually look at look awesome. Perhaps the biggest thing I've seen talked about is the changes to the characters themselves. I will start by saying the actors deserve no ill will, they're clearly doing their best with a subject they love and a script written by people who thought ATLA should read like GoT. Aang and the others have a few goofy moments thrown in to keep people happy but for the most part he plays the part of Main Character Boy while the others are The Support Characters, rather than three children in extraordinary times doing what they think makes sense. This is where my knowledge of Aang and Katara is lacking, but I do want to talk about Sokka cuz his changes (rightly) had a lot of people worried (and a lot of his character arc is pretty obvious from ep 1, rather than revealed past the point I've seen). They didn't just tone down his sexism, they removed it entirely, taking him from an obnoxious but teachable idiot to a generic annoying dudebro. Maybe this is just me, but I was endlessly annoyed that they took away his sexism without addressing the things that made him sexist in the first place. After being told by the leaderly elderly matriarch character about the fire nation attacks wiping out most of the village, we are told Sokka is how he is because he was appointed the village leader at 13 for...reasons. So the village is still sexist enough to declare a 13 year old boy leader over the woman everyone already looks up to, but this didn't affect his character in any meaningful way, I guess? And for those looking forward to the Kyoshi warriors, you can go ahead and put those hopes down. The warriors themselves get minimal action time before Deus Ex Kyoshi-ghost-possession (yes, really) deals with the fire nation attackers for them. As for the love interest, they took what was a solid moment of "sexist gets ass beat by woman, begs woman for training, learns woman can do stuff too, ends up liking and respecting woman so hard she reciprocates" into the most bland "popular girl falls for cute boy at school" complete with eyelash fluttering, shy-can't-look-at-yous, and the most vomit-inducing "training" scene I've seen in a long time. No lessons learned, no character growth achieved, but hey they got rid of sexism or whatever. All this to say, I'm willing to give live action some passes, but personally I don't think this one's even worth a hate watch. I won't tell you to hate it, it does have a few moments of brilliance, but they're the glitter on a turd imo and Netflix doesn't deserve to be rewarded with your watch time. Despite my misgivings, the show is (supposedly) still getting at least mixed reviews from fans and non fans alike, so if you've bothered to see it I'm curious what you thought the remake (or my impression) got right or wrong.

[the-sinful-voice-witch]

All right! It's time to talk about Sonamy and it's future:

Ok in past posts i already stated how badly Amy's potential was wasted in general and how it affected her relationships and specifically her relationship with Sonic.

When she showed up for the first time in a game she was 8 and was a fangirl of Sonic so... Basically another Tails but without any more use than be a damsel in distress, sonic didn't share her feelings like he did in the manga when she first appeared and then... Well things still didn't get any better in comics and series.

In Archie comics... oh boy... 🤦🤦 Do you remember? She was still 8 and in her classic looks and was still in love with Sonic and additionally she wanted to be part of the freedom fighters but was too young so she used a magic ring or something to get an old enough body... WTF with this plot? Still she had to work hard to finally be part of it and that's great I guess but seriously the changing the body thing was... 😣😣 She still was portrayed as annoying (in another comic she was portrayed as a capable independent warrior but sonic treated her crush for him with too much disgust so...😒)for a while but kept getting better, yet her crush for sonic remained completely one sided for so long until finally little by little he started to be more comfortable with her and she wasn't pushy about her feelings anymore and we got so many nice moments but the best ones to me are in the IDW reboot because I mean... Just look at this:

Best part of it? Sonic is not only comfortable with her he wants her company! Writers and artists of the comic are not allowed to show too much specific emotion like a obvious blush but still they did it pretty clear! He flirts subtly, he gets embarrassed in the good way with her comments and... Isn't he more touchy? Remember the group hug? Tails is also hugging him and then Tangle squeezes everyone with her tail but sonic hands are only AROUND AMY !!! And not only in the modern comics also the comics with the classical look!

Aren't they cute????

Well now the TV shows, i still don't know what will happen in Sonic prime but let's remember others shows:

Sonic X: I'm not a really big fan of this show besides the Knuxrouge moments and for good reason, they had the modern game designs i like but the animation was terrible 🙈🙈 and I can't stand most of the humans because of the lack of charisma specifically that tag along needy bland kid but issue here is how Amy was treated, yeah sure there was some spontaneous moments when she was charming and sweet and a tiny moments when she was a good fighter but in general for comical relief i suppose... She was obnoxious, loud, pushy, obsessive, bossy, over violent... They also took away her moment with shadow ... And in general most characters showed discomfort with her in too many times and she wasn't seen as a capable fighter in the most serious situations so sonic didn't want her around in the battlefield, just see the difference between Rouge and Amy in the show, i guess because Rouge is a match for Knuckles and half antagonist she could be seen as a capable fighter but Amy was just a loud violent fangirl so she couldn't 🙄🙄😒. But I'm going to be fair and point the little sonamy moments, but to be honest they didn't felt that genuine to me because sonic uncomfortable annoyed attitude in general towards her... So this moments felt kinda forced and because of that im not satisfied with them. The remarkable ones: the shells bracelet the sonamy moment to me was Sonic fixing the bracelet and wearing it without Amy knowing cause let's be honest the moment he rushed into water to save her doesn't count because he would do that to save any of his friends so we can't trust that moment in fact he did that for knuckles in the movie and they were still enemies 🤷 and others i remember that there's a Japanese ending that was sung by the seiyus of Amy and Sonic in a duo a sounded really romantic and it shows in the animation how Sonic is looking for a sad Amy in the mist and the last one i remember is when sonic is back from earth and Amy runs going to meet him and yells at him crying her feelings out and he out of nowhere gives her a flower and says something that we casually can't hear in the original dub... Like up to interpretation right? Like he could have said that he loves her and we don't know...🙄😒 Well for this i can't say that sonamy was cannon in this show...

Sonic Boom: well here we are, with this show 😂😂😂 well funny enough unlike with Sonic X or for now in any Sonic stuff ever(except the original manga when she first showed up), i can and I will say absolutely convinced that SONAMY was totally CANNON here, for starters like in the recent comics Amy is again part of the group, capable smart and strong fighter, maybe whiny and bossy but still more charismatic and funny and sarcastic and also those treats are in sintonía with the other characters: sonic sassines, knuckles dumbness, sticks craziness and Tail geekness so everyone Is balanced in annoyingness moments i don't know if I'm explaining myself 😂😂. This time Amy hides her feelings but Is still obvious and Sonic hangs out with her a lot, even without the rest of the group and more importantly HE GETS NOTICEABLE JEALOUS! He was annoyed Amy prefers Vector help than his and was upset when she hugged him, when she was fawning over a skater rat boy, when he thought she had a date with someone, same He has no problem flirting with that girl Perci but with Amy he is shy even though in his fantasy he was enjoying the jealous Amy stating: "don't mind her, she kind of has a thing for me" when in this show she hides her feelings and never told him, Eggman points out that there's something between them, he dreams with her and they had dates alone!! Just like with the Knouge moments in Sonic X, the sonamy moments were the only reason I watched Sonic boom 😂😂😂😂

Oh and what could happen in Sonic prime? It remains to be seen... I hope we get good stuff🫴🫴🫴

And for the games we still have nothing in particular, we just have a new Amy still in love but not obsessed and she is wanted along with the group as a strong asset for the team like she should be

Seriously this scenes meant a lot for me, she was fighting on her own the robots fine and Sonic and Tails looked for her to invite her to the adventure that is all I wanted! I hope the game feed us as well with the Sonamy we deserve.

And last the future possible Sonamy in the movie, you just have to read this👇👇👇

Movie Sonic is not only a lonely child who doesn't want to be on his own and wants attention and company unlike the free spirit he is the games, he is also an awkward teenager who wants to show off and look cool and has never seen a female from his species so.... 👀👀👀 What could happen? Well in case you haven't read it if you scroll down my account you'll find my version of what i imagine of Amy appearance in the movie 🤭🤭🤭 honestly if sonic isn't a shy mess not knowing what to say to look cool in front of her and he isn't teased the blue out of him by his adopted family because of it I'll be disappointed 😮‍💨😤

[cartoonrival]

Nrto/Brto for 3 10 & 17?

bro literally the wider naruto fandom sucks so bad idek where to begin

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

i dont have a specific example so instead im gonna give a general gripe about a trend that ive seen in many takes over time

the black and white thinking and refusal to think for half a second about characters other than ur faves Reminds Me Of Something!real ones know. the way people talk about any character with any sort of greyness to their morality kinda makes me crazy and i lowkey think ppl bring up kishimoto TOO MUCH in their discussion of the storys themes bc while obviously like its important to talk abt WHY he wrote it the way he did esp wrt nationalism and all, i think also it sort of dulls ur ability to think anything complex about it if u blame everything u dont like or think was "sloppily done" on kishimoto. judging every character based on kishimoto's morals instead of their own if that makes sense? its not like "the wrong way to do things" i just personally find it really boring when thats the only way youll look at a text. like no wonder you guys are constantly making jokes about how naruto sucks and you'd never recommend it, you wont even allow yourselves to think about the story as its own piece of art beyond just "kishimoto wrote it this way because he sucks" like do you ever think maybe youre killing some of the fun of media analysis... i think its why so many people hate sakura or kakashi or itachi or anyone else. and this always comes out in the way ppl characterize bc theyre like Um I've Fixed Them :) and then its the blandest shit ever because you absolutely refuse to work even slightly WITH the story you claim to love, only fighting tooth and nail against it.

some examples of what i mean w this: basically any conversation about itachi that tries to categorize him as either good or bad. basically any conversation about sakura that tries to do literally anything or nothing with her. people making sns blandly romantic as if the insane and inventive ways they talk about their feelings for each other in canon isnt genuinely part of what makes it so maddeningly fascinating and awesome. anyone who thinks kakashi is a bad teacher. its just this refusal to meet the characters where they are and think of anything in terms of the text itself rather than exclusively in a meta way, ie "this is how it would be if it was good." no its not. you just made it how it would be if it was bland and obvious. dont you literally think the fact that the guy writing it was accidentally writing his characters to be struggling against the same shit that he was struggling against irl and struggling to keep Out of his writing is like. wildly fascinating and part of waht makes the story intersting to pick apart. but ok. this also applies to aspects of boruto primarily sasusaku and naruhina marriages. no one gets it like i doooooo

10. worst part of fanon

everybodys always shipping kakashi with someone and its never even guy. if youre gonna ship kakashi it had better fucking be with guy bc theres gen srs no one else he would be caught dead romancing with and i cant even see how you could read any of his other relationships as romantic. he doesnt even HAVE a relationship with iruka. i get that not every ship has to have canon support but its all either 1) literally not even interesting to think about or 2) what they have actually going on is way more interesting but see my response to question 3. its the same with gaara honestly the more i think about it the more annoyed i get about the ignorance surrounding just-short-of-canon aroace gaara ToT like if u didnt know then ok... but you should learn because its awesome. i just thinking the shipping culture in the fandom is annoying like everyone has to be shipped with someone and that seems to come before their genuinely interesting relationships. and those genuinely interesting relationships are sanded down into something normal. idk this is a gripe that goes w Many Many fandoms but i feel like w naruto its particularly bad largely on account of See Previous Answer. ppl are like "its written this way bc kishimoto is homophobic i will fix this" then they make it suck because shockingly ik kishi actually wrote a good as fuck story if deeply flawed

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

ill be fr i dont gen seek out fics or art independently to be 100% sure that stuff i'd be looking for isn't out there somewhere. but i think ppl really really should just. think about sakura more. i literally love her sm but ppl won't think abt her beyond either 1) she sucks and i hate her (but this is because of kishimoto's writing and has nothing to do with me! if i rewrote naruto then she wouldn't be there 😌 this is a kindness to her and not because i cant be assed to think about a woman for 5 seconds) or 2) girlboss!!!! like.... is that scene in the land of iron not BIBLICAL to anyone else....??? is her devotion to someone she's lost faith in out of loyalty to someone she loves and is losing her ability to understand not FASCINATING???? TO ANYONE ELSE???? IS THE WAY SHE PICKS UP THE TRAITS OF HER TEACHER THAT HE SPECIFICALLY IS NOT MEANING TO PASS ON TO HER NOT HEARTWRENCHING???????? you people suck. instead you write ooc sns over and over and draw kakashi without his mask kissing fucking obito