#i guess the warnings do kinda spoil it but it is the main point of the show lol

[xxspirit]

🩷

🚨 Warning! Yap alert!! 🚨

(About requests and some new changes to Camellia’s design, I bolded the main points)

Just a heads up, that I am closing requests, but will be finishing up the ones I have already been sent, thank you for sending me requests! It was a very nice refresher to change it up for a bit. I know I haven’t really posted a lot of requests, but I have a LOT more to draw- I’ve been kinda unmotivated lately, but I’m slowly getting back into it now.

I do want to say that I am not doing requests for personal oc’s. I apologize for not saying this sooner. 🙏

(Yes I do also have this in my blog’s bio, but I will be deleting that shortly.)

I do have upcoming projects for- I think you can guess, but I don’t really want to spoil much cause usually when I do I end up scrapping the idea after I hyped some people up for nothing which I hate when I do that ughrhegdn-sorry :(

But yea the main reason why I wanted to take a break from drawing Cami- and Dreamberry is one- was running out of ideas for them, and two, I was giving Camellia a slight make-over. Nothing big just proportional adjustments(HEHASKNEEECAPSNOW OMGGMGMFHHFH), color adjustments(I’ve been all over the place with the colors, and I wouldn’t consinder this drawing to be his new color palette- I gave this piece more of a pink hue- but I do want his green’s to be warmer and a little bit lighter/softer), and the biggest difference, his pupils and eyes!

I feel like his little flower pupils clashed with the design a lot since it didn’t really match with any other part of his design, these ones match a lot better now, but I still really like the flower pupils so I made it to where when he gets really excited he just go:

I also made his eye color darker, made it the same color as his scarf so you could actually see the pupils instead of having to outline it

[my-jokes-are-my-armour]

The witcher review - part 2

So here we are… this is the hardest post for me to write. Because I have to fight my inner rage to think straight and keep as much of cool as I can while I write. This is rare.

As always since the announcement, the general consensus is to hate no matter what, and I won't lie, it's driving me crazy. I had even a breaking point not long ago, stumbling on an "article" mourning Hector the horse that won't come back for S4, and turning a not returning actress as she left the boat for implicite bad scripts whereas her character is simply not returning story wise (in the books also).

Do I have to mention the constant rain of bad comments on every video or official posts ? Or the vast majority of the articles and reviews are over focused on one thing only, erasing from the existence of every other good work done ?

Because yes ! Curiously there is good work in there too. Sheer stupefaction ! The series is not that bad. And do you believe it ? Quite book accurate in the global storyline also !

Am I a tad sarcastic there ? Yes. Not in my points though. But I am really REALLY pissed off. And this is my last stand. I understand that I am a drop in the ocean. A little shit screaming into the void. A stupid arse loving the series for the stories it offers.

So… if you are still here, that's because you surely are in the same state of mental exhaustion than I am. Maybe angry too, or sad. Maybe you liked the series also and want something else to read other than "burn it down !".

[Pretty accurate representation of myself]

So... Here is the short version for those who don't care about the development of my review :

I loved it. Yes !

A lot of emotions.

Geraskier. I rolled down the hill again so hard and so fast that you can see burning traces on the grass on my path lol.

Buckled some storylines from the first season for the main characters and secondary characters too.

Perfect ? Certainly not. There are problems and I will address them.

Book accurate ? Mostly yes but no at the same time. The story is there, not told the same way. There are twists and changes but the checkpoints are validated and cohesive (believe it or not), catching up books threads and the divergent series' too. Some almost straight out of the pages in this second part too.

Proper send off to Henry ? If you aim for fulfillment, then no. But his ending matches with the beginning of the Hansa, so I am personally happy with it. Also it had more depth than what it seems.

So now behind this break, I will spoil the series in great lengths, as much as the books. I will probably go further than Time of Contempt because they included pieces from Baptism of Fire. Again I will say what works and what doesn't in my opinion. I am not on a solo thread of thinking.

But you know I guess even some gray is giving light in this infamous soup darkness. So let's go !

Warning : it contains mature subjects.

[Important note : I have read the RI article about Tomek giving explanations about plot simplification. I will address this in the flow in my review. Well kinda].

My detailed general point of view :

Even with a lot of twists and turns, I did like the series part 2 (and the series overall !). The second volume had me having emotional roller-coasters. If you care for any characters, they have their moments of raw emotions. Secondary characters included. That moment between Fringilla and Francesca for example or Tissaia's farewell… 😢.

Everything emotional with Jaskier had just me on my knees… 😭

It goes pretty much by the books in terms of events and uses pieces of them as framing devices. For the twists. Some are good, some less. What we have the most is one character doing something another would normally do. But most of the time this is fluid and it doesn't bother me much. Mostly I liked, loved even, the stories that were told behind.

In the middle ground. I don't see it as bad but more as an irritating thing.

There is a big change of plot with Yennefer (again) but this is more a problem of how to tell the story afterwards more than a big wrong like in S2, and I am just curious how they will handle some storylines from there. The irritating part though is that they have a tendency to use her too much for everything, so she runs everywhere. This is quite frantic in episode 6 but then it slows down fortunately.

Also the series doesn't fully go on the darkest side of the books. The rating 16+ is a bit overlooked in my opinion. There is blood and some monsters but this is a soft 16+. There is real gore in the books and the subjects are far more disturbing. The flesh monster tries to compensate for what is not told about Vilgefortz's experiments for example. But the mage is a f.cking lunatic. And if you felt bad for Geralt after his fight with him, go get some brutal internal pov of Geralt while he is literally destroyed. Also a part of Geralt's arc with the parallel with Ciri is more disturbing in its core. But they didn't go as far as with the Rats (yet ?) so they crafted another motivation, which is not a bad one, by the way.

This is middle ground to me because, for sure it would have challenged the viewer more, but some subjects may not be easily validated to show on screen to fill the rating.

On the wrong side (yes because I am not in a tunnel - I see goods and bads), for me there are some strong editing problems that put an uneven rhythm that can bore or frustrate, depending on the part. I was not bored but a bit frustrated sometimes so I can understand why some were annoyed, let's put it that way.

They seem to rush for the plot, cutting some breathing moments or dragging on some other parts. With a recurrent issue to make us feel the passage of time

For me this is what severes the series the most, especially in the second volume.

Also, on the visual effects, there are some issues too. Something is sadly unfinished there. It feels like the deadline was an immovable obstacle and they tried to rush everything they could in it.

So, here we are. Now I will detail everything ! Compare with the books when I can etc. Because I can't bear anymore reading all this dry "they did not respect the source material" thing, to say it politely. Maybe I will be annoying as hell. But this is how I work. I have feelings, I have opinions, like everyone else I can be passionate, but I can justify my position and I will do it.

SO !

Book accuracy ?

First, because I have to play dumb, these are the large blocks of the Time of Contempt only, just to have a visual idea of the proportions of the stories.

So now please tell me there is too much of Ciri, too much mages, too much politics… ** cough cough **

OK let's go. As I said in the short version, accuracy is a yes and a no for me. Let's begin with the no.

Things happen pretty much in the same chronological order but like in an alternate version of the books. In some events, this is not always with the good character carrying the moment. But this is the case from the beginning of the show. And although I found this strange sometimes I never felt confused by it. Some of them are necessary compression of narratives, some are holding arcs to fulfill and become relevant at the end. And the arcs, the stories told, are what appealed to me the most.

A large part of those switches comes from the invented parts for secondary characters. Because they had written things in advance. Why did they choose to set up a lot of them from S1, you say ? Because otherwise we would have to deal with a massive drop names with everyone having their agenda, popping out of nowhere, and trying to have the big part of the cake this season (2 to 4 in my picture). What would happen then ? Confused audience for those who haven't read the books or play the games. And if you tell me, but we are the audience ! Then why I read so many : "Why the politics ? Why Ciri desert thing ? Why the sorceresses ? This is boring and long, why no monster hunts ?" Well… 👆.

At least, I can understand the last statement from the gamers because the story is rhythmed by the hunts, but for the rest, lads, this is the book for Time of Contempt and a part of Baptism of Fire.

And this where my "yes this is accurate" lands.

Time of Contempt particularly contains a f.cking loads of politics, of mages and a lot of Ciri. Sure Geralt is the main POV in a good amount but in the politics part for the most of it. This is basically him in rooms with people, discussing. He doesn't do much other than that. To be fair, there are always good fights, he has always good fights, and this books provides, but the monster fights are not that over present and overall, Geralt is reluctant to kill in general except when he has to protect. He fights people… The real monsters of the stories.

What did I find book accurate in this second volume ? The Thanedd coup setup (the battle is almost pure entertainment). Ciri in the desert, definitely. Some parts of Brokilon. Tissaia's death is delayed in time but accurate. Dijkstra and Philippa general plot in Redania even if simplified. The false Ciri at Nilfgaard. Geralt on the road with Jaskier and Milva at the end.

The issues

As I said, for me the problem is really the choice of pacing that makes some parts feeling dragged and others rushed. Particularly in episode 7. This is the most book accurate part with Ciri, but the pacing of what is before and after makes it odd. She is the only one we feel the passing of time for. The Brokilon part almost not. But technically days had passed too.

I understand what they did there, trying to make us feel her isolation, but putting two parts with different rhythms together that way was what makes it crumble. Making a parallel between Ciri's struggle and Geralt's would have maybe corrected the pacing, and just having scenes with places, travel from afar, something that links the time and space with the characters (they did that a bit with the first episode and that was great !). But distance and time is an ongoing problem on this show.

Speaking of time, note that in the books Geralt stays a long time in Brokilon healing. A month like. And he was in a very bad shape for a long time during this period. This is for those who are unhappy to have him stuck in a bed moaning for too long.

Then the last episode has the major shift from the book with Yennefer. The birth of the Lodge of the sorceresses has one of the best ending arcs and the most twisted storyline with dragged moments. I am not against Yennefer being in the heart of the Lodge with Philippa doing her things on the side, because I understand that having that part told without main character to connect with would be hard for a lot of people but the fact that Yennefer is used has a plot insert too many times irritates me.

The scene where she heals Geralt for example is one that I don't like. In terms of emotions, this is great. But for Geralt this is wrong. I hope the healing is not complete, for S4, like in the books. Because the fact that he is experiencing phantom pain is a part that makes his journey psychologically interesting.

Now, that said !

And this is where I'll develop the good parts for me. And I am sorry if I become (even) more sarcastic but you know… I do what I can with my bleeding heart in front of so much hatred.

The arcs

This is where a lot of people sadly give reason to Tomek about the need for simplification, in my opinion.

They did simplify the plots, true that, but as soon as there are some under layers to dig, this is the big farewell of the crowd. Because I read things like : volume 2 is empty. Geralt is barely in it or without depth. They did wrong to him.

Know that if they really had stopped where Time of Contempt ends, then you would have just Ciri in the desert and the Rats. Final dot (cf my picture).

And if this is empty to you, maybe this is because you've erased the plotlines from your memory, or defining a character the way it is done in the book is not for you.

The series plays with circular references and mirroring characterisation but I guess this is unimportant. Lazy. Irrespectful. Uncaring. Or whatever. Because this is not forefront.

Maybe you wanted more than a rampage at a post frontier and the walk into the mist. I can understand that this is not satisfying in terms of fulfillment for his presence, I really can, but there is closure for his arc too in there.

But maybe you missed the full circle in this part of the journey for him too. And if you didn't. Maybe you don't care. I don't know...

I am not above anybody else. I watch things with my own perspective. Maybe you think I am stupid or currently arrogant or overlooking things. So be it. I am the stupid one then. I don't mind. But I'll do it anyway. I'll do my shitty analysis. So many scream. I have the right to stand my ground for what I appreciate. Who would read this anyway…

So let's get into the thematics and dig everyone's plotlines, shall we. I will divide this into parts and develop many characters through those aspects.

Blood family vs found family

Vulnerabilities

Loyalty and betrayal

Clinging onto the past and repeating history

Blood family vs found family

In the last part of S3, several characters have a defining moment about family. And they are mirroring each other within their relationships. They have been setup early in the previous seasons.

The accent is put on the found families and how strong their links are. For some more than blood. And then how sometimes, blood heritage goes against that.

We have obviously THE found family. Ciri, Yennefer and Geralt, extended to Jaskier (thank god!). They have all left their blood family behind. Book Jaskier not totally but the series one seems to.

The trio of Destiny as I like to call them, are three orphans linked by destiny but fighting it in the first place. This is only when they accept it that the family emerges. And this is a strong one. Their issues with their blood family define a part of their actions and how they grow.

Geralt was abandoned. In response to that trauma he printed in himself the will of never to do that to Ciri ever ! (vol 1). Even in the letter he wrote to Yennefer, he tells her that this is the first time he experiences real fear. And this fear is to lose Ciri and her… Losing against Vilgefortz made this fear a reality. So now in Brokilon when he is trying to walk back to Ciri even when he can't is the display of his desperation. He has to accept that despair first so he can heal enough to actually have a chance to succeed. This desperation transforms into rage that can burst at any time. He is calm on the surface, but a boiling volcano inside.

White Knight complex and neutrality (side note). In S1, in Blaviken we established that Geralt has a white knight complex and he tells the story to Renfri of how he chose neutrality, telling her a story that illustrates that. He saved a young girl from a rapist. And while he thought he did the right thing he ended up being the one treated like a monster. That is why he chooses not to get involved again. Renfri's story showed him that not taking a side was impossible but he sticked with it anyway. Neutrality became his mojo and tried to live with that, even teaching it to Ciri. Renfri's broach was a reminder of that silent promise he made to himself. And the Thanedd coup is the pinnacle of that resolution and desire to protect. Till the end he won't pick a side. But when he failed against Vilgefortz everything crumbled.

The last scene we have with him, that rampage doesn't come from nowhere as a lot likes to think. The soldier suggests he would rape the girl. And that's what triggered his rage. Yeah the same story that made him who he was… I guess this stupid and empty…

The broach he leaves behind is the symbol of the neutrality he abandons. He is a man with a huge scar inside and the only thing that can soothe him is finding his daughter.

Jaskier says it out loud beforehand in case you would miss what to come : the war outside is nothing in front of what Geralt would unleash on this Continent to find his daughter.

The arc of neutrality is closed. Time for a new one. A hurt dad, a warrior, roaming the Continent to find the child he promised never to abandon. No depth at all in the writing of this arc… yep yep.

But this is not the only layer of Geralt. We will see that in another point.

Now Yennefer. She has the easiest arc to get. Her blood family sold her and in her struggle to get control over her own life she hurt the two found families she had. First Tissaia whose mother side became apparent when she had to take the same responsibilities with Ciri. Then Geralt and Ciri when she succumbs to Voleith Meir. But her redemption arc fulfills her need to be a mother. Even if she fails finding Ciri and leaves that task to Geralt (which is a plot hole in a way*), she comes full closure with her motherhood duties.

And she has a beautiful and powerful new goal and it is turned toward the found family. She will make sure to make the world a better place for her to return to. Isn't that some of the strongest push parents can experience ? The need to make the world better for their children ?

(*) In the books, Yennefer is incapacitated so it is logical that she is unable to find her. Here they will need to find a good explanation.

The arc of Yennefer circles and mirrors the one with Tissaia in a very emotional way. For a part, this is one the lesson she gave to Ciri and the one she took so long to understand. Without control, power is nothing. When you have control you can move mountains.

The first day in Aretusa, Yennefer tries to commit suicide because she feels that taking her own life is the only thing she can control. Tissaia tells her that doing so, she didn't have control, she was losing it. And the rectoress did the exact same thing at the end… (she lets go for other reasons though)

Ciri is at the core of the found family and she lost every one of her blood family. Emhyr is the last one and you can't say this is a nice perspective. Yet she doesn't know. Then she grew being afraid of her own heritage. Her bloodline is terrifying to her and makes her feel like a monster. And she is trying to make the best of it, expressing idealistic thoughts and wishes.

The found family is her last grip on feeling safe and having a life. She clings onto them with everything she has. She is so afraid to lose them too. And… it happens. Her mojo is to find them.

Hallucinating, in the desert she confronts her blood ancestors who push every button of her insecurities. When she relinquishes her powers, this is her last stand to protect her found family from herself. She doesn't want to be Falka and burn the world down and them with it.

But then when she kills for the first time, she loses herself. The importance of a life was one of the last of Geralt's lessons, but she succumbs to a penchant to like killing (see her face when she killed the echnea) buried deep inside, exactly like Falka. That's why she chooses to call herself after her.

For those who find this too easy, that she should be used to visions and not break. OK then, get in the same state of desperation, get lost in a desert for days, hallucinate and try to stay strong. Too long ? I thought she broke easily…

One of the things that was so touching, on the first part of that desert wandering, was how much she tapped into her found family teachings. Geralt and her witcher brothers for survival skills. Yennefer for magic. And Jaskier… for comfort.

So now Jaskier. He is a different kind of protector. We don't know much of his past in the series to know about his siblings and past traumas but the found family is everything to him. This season proves it even more blatantly. He chose Geralt as his family very early on but the real turn into a proper family member dynamic appears with Ciri. The fun uncle or even big brother.

From S2, we saw him develop a strong protector side to his personality. He is willing to help those in need. The elves. Yennefer… Also he kind of protects Geralt, even under torture. S3, within the found family he isn't the strongest member. The weakest we could say. But we see that protector side to him, in the fights for example. Helping the wounded to get to safety. Or pushing people out of the way (Valdo or the last fight with Geralt). Or even helping Radovid returning home after a heartbreak...

Ciri has the strongest protectors possible. Geralt and Yennefer. And they are teaching her their skills. She has enormous latent power. What can a simple bard do ?

Answer : he protects the last drop of childhood she has. He is the one she can be a normal child with. Playing games, even having fun of the parents (lessons of smiling, imitating them in the wood,...). He is a confort person that grounds her in her normality.

Being a comfort. This is what he does in the found family. For each member. But this is particularly moving to witness for that lost child. And hearing her sing the song he sings to her to help her sleep, trying to stay strong in the desert, tells how much he was important to her too.

The trio of Destiny isn't the only one that struggles between blood family and found family. We have other characters that are much defined by this dichotomy. Like Milva, Dara, Fringilla and Francesca.

For Milva, we just understand that her found family is the dryads, whatever happened to her and wants to forget. Dara has lost all his blood family because of one of Calanthe's army's raids. His found family is the elves led by Francesca, with whom he has a feeling of being with his kind again, until he understands the path she is taking will just send him in a very bad place. He is tired and tries to rebuild himself with the dryades.

Both of them highlight what is nursing inside of Geralt, for us to understand his last fight. Dara speaks about the hatred he carries and is going to destroy him if he doesn't stop. Milva makes him speak about Renfri and his neutrality paradox.

This is not a sign of erasing a character to make others speak in his presence and having some kind of defining moment. That character then reflects on the other, defining him by a mirroring effect. Sometimes in the same way, sometimes in the opposite direction. Heroes don't have to always say things out loud for that to exist in them. Maybe some thought that Dara and Milva were taking the spot. I did not.

Now for Fringilla and Francesca this is a bit more complex. And for them, they go down the other way around for a long time. Blood family first.

It begins with Fringilla whose uncle is a member of the Brotherhood. The magic school isn't much of a found family to her as she has an anchor there. After Yennefer switches kings with her, she ends up in Nilfgaard having a totally different life. She built strong links there and in a way she found guidance and purpose. While she tries to serve her emperor she meets the elves and makes a very strong friendship with Francesca. She begins to move forward and that alliance blossoms into something inspiring. Especially when she saves the elven bady.

But as soon as this baby is born, the loyalty of the elves shakes and what I believe was her kind of found family begins to drift away. Francesca says to her that she values their friendship but blood is more important. Fringilla will try to find the support of her uncle at some point but he refuses to help her.

This is when Fringilla becomes independent.

The rupture is particularly strongly displayed in S3 when she watches her uncle die without any feeling for him.

On the contrary, Francesca sticks by blood first at all coast, and she loses everyone brutally. Not that she is wrong or anything else to be that attached to her kind. This is just the way it turns out for her. And by the end of it, learning that Fringilla hid the real murderer of her baby, she ends up pushing her from her life, severing the last link of possible family outside her kind. She is alone with her vengeance burning inside of her. Pretty much like Dara described it. Pretty much like an old part elf woman who let the rage consume her… Mirrors again.

Vulnerabilities

Maybe the biggest character who shows vulnerabilities and is able to demonstrate love is Jaskier. This is the obvious one. And I will probably make a separate post analyzing him and Radovid this season, because the games of masks plays a big role in Jaskier defense mechanism. Let's just say for the sake of this f.cking review that this so empty relationship for the majority is there to help us understand how and when he hides his feelings, how he speaks of real love…

He is probably the most open character to emotions and shows us a lot, but, even he, tries to hide his wounds to the others. For others.

So emotional shock after another, we can assess the damages and how strong he is for those he loves.

His main weakness, if I can call it that way, is his biggest strength too. Empathy. Makes him feel too much. And his love for others (especially Geralt) plunges him in deep vulnerable emotional states. This season, this is still the case, and to a great extent too. Don't get fooled by his levity, jokes and smiles.

But let's take a look at our trio of Destiny.

Ciri is vulnerable and afraid at first but she learns to hide it more and more, until everything is unveiled during Thanedd and the desert. She is so damaged by her abandon issues and she is living her worst nightmare. When she hallucinates, all of her ancestors push her buttons, poking at this particular pain she holds.

Yennefer has many issues and she is a insecure person empowered with strong chaos. We saw her struggle to free herself from everyone wanting to control her in S1, and on top of that to have her powers back in S2. That internal urge to be the one deciding about her own destiny, to be able to have a choice.

She goes to great lengths for that. Too far. Yennefer gives Ciri two valuable lessons based on her experiences. One about control and power. The other about making choices and their consequences.

And one thing I appreciate and shows growth in her character is that she lets the one she loves see when she is vulnerable and talk about it. Ciri, Geralt, Tissaia. Even Jaskier in her own ways, since S2.

But one of the biggest growth in that field is Geralt. If I wished they included more of the book's vulnerabilities early on for him (about the fact that he believes that his mutant condition excludes him to be worth his own emotions), they didn't cut it all and he had other vulnerabilities and insecurities worth the growth.

He is emotionally constipated and has problems expressing his feelings. Not the hiding part, when he is like, I am a rock, I don't feel, but more when he has to communicate his feelings.

In S1, he tries and fails with Yennefer at the mountain. But he shows a great deal of emotions, at the expense of Jaskier though. In S2, to help Ciri he has to open up. And we find him having deep introspective moments with Vesemir. Likewise, he is a bit more open to Jaskier with whom he shares his fears.

But in S3, for the first time, he expresses his feelings and exposes his vulnerabilities to Yennefer and they connect deeply then. Also when he is wounded and healing, he is open raw for a moment.

After that he brings back his kind of neutral face, but the last fight is one of the moments he bleeds what's inside.

Also like in the books, they show that even a character that strong can be broken.

This failure brings a lot out of Geralt for the future. He wants to die because of it ! He refuses healing because he wanted to die ! The only thing that kept him alive was to have news of Ciri and Yennefer. When Jaskier finally arrives (days after) this is what he asks only. He just wants to go knowing that they are well. He clutches Jaskier's wrist because he is his last hope to have this news. He empathises with him as he struggles to deliver the informations (that subtle stroke) but he needs to know. This is a silent "please tell me Jaskier".

Then he chooses to accept the healing when he knows Ciri is still in danger. He won't rest until she is safe.

But I get that the consensus is right. Moaning in a bed. Boring as fuck. No depth in it either.

Loyalty and betrayal

Here again I could speak for days about Jaskier. His portrait should be in the dictionary next to the definition of loyalty. Even in his faux pas, he doesn't betray because his heart is in the right place. When Geralt confronts him trying to push him to Redania, they simply have an honest discussion about it.

I could speak about Yennefer's betrayal also, trying to sacrifice Ciri in S2. But I wanna highlight some secondary characters that have arcs around this.

The first one is Cahir. At the beginning of the series, he is the definition of loyalty to his leader. He has almost a religious faith (S2). But the mission given to him leads him on a path to lose that faith. In S3, he is trying to get back to a position where Emhyr valued him, and he goes to the point of killing a friend to get there. The broken mirror symbolizes that moment of shift.

(This part I could have put in vulnerabilities but I won't come back on the character sonI put it all there)

He is mirroring Ciri in his fears. She had nightmares about him. He has nightmares about her. When they face, they face their own fears. When Ciri cannot kill him he kind of pledged her allegiance, setting up his obsession to join de Hansa to save her (they may drop the weird attraction thankfully).

For him to work fully, we needed maybe one more scene between the Thanedd coup and fighting with Ciri. This is Emhyr's lie about Fringilla's death and her last little push, telling him to think by himself, that cut the last string attaching him to his emperor. But Cahir cannot live that way. What he has done is too much, he needs to be free from his guilt. Hence he asks Ciri to take his life as a price to pay for the sufferings he caused her.

But this is not how she thinks (yet) and vengeance is not her solution. Winning the fight was enough for her to overcome her fear about him. She won a silent battle.

Cahir needs redemption so he goes by the only way he knows. He devotes himself to her. This can seem blurry because he has very little screen time this season. But here we are.

Francesca is loyal to her blood kind, but trying to find a way for her species to survive she betrays some of them, losing progressively the faith people have in her. The last one to have an undefective trust in her is Filavendrel because they share the same pain, I guess.

The dramatic turn for her is that she has to sacrifice the squirrels in order to save the others. So she kind of betrays them all at that point.

Though one of her last biggest sad moments is when Fringilla tells her the truth about Emhyr. The last scene they have together is hard. All is not black and white though we can understand Francesca's deep emotion and feeling of betrayal. This is not fair for Fringilla and this settles the down path for the queen of elves.

In the secondary characters we could play all day with Dijkstra and Philippa in terms of loyalty and betrayal. The frontiers are so blurred between them two. Dijkstra is loyal to Redania to a sick extent. Philippa plays by her own rules to the point that it is unclear who she is loyal to.

But the last but not least big loyalty betrayal moment goes to Vilgefortz and Tissaia.

Technically Vilgefortz is loyal to no-one. But he played for so long with Tissaia… Their story is the evil side of what could have been Geralt and Yennefer's if Yennefer had been truly malevolent. Tissaia is echoing the deepest hurt in Geralt's heart and rewinding everything why Geralt took so long to forgive Yennefer.

(Tissaia was way more developed in the series than in the books to help building the emotions for what is lost and internal struggles for other characters)

Clinging onto the past and repeating history

That you liked it or not, despite being not lore accurate, BO has a lot of circleling and mirroring meta. Elves being the oppressors of dwarves, and humain becoming the oppressor of everyone less. Or the funny parallels between the couple Eile/Fall and Jaskier/Geralt.

The simple story of Merwyn is an example that repeats itself in history. Francesca being her mirror through the length of another elven legend.

The elven queen is one character that is very changed from the books and has a strange setup for later parts with the lodge. But she echoes some other characters, and stories. There was a symbol in S2 with the white rose that was a foreshadowing of what would happen to her as it echoed Sherraewedd of whom we learn the legend of in S3. The same way that elven warrior did, she is the one that may lead her kind of a new path of extinction, sacrificing the squirrels to Emhyr for a land for the rest of them… Cintra in place of Dol Blathanna.

And in the same way if Merwyn who had the well being of her people in mind she clings too long onto legends of the past. Willing to find a new home for them.

Btw, she is set up as a vengeresse willing to burn the world down as everything she loved was taken from her. Does she not remind you of someone who could now do the same for his found family ?

She is the circling history for a part of elven history.

For the human part, still connected to the elves though we have Falka whose story is set up in S2 and nourishes Stregobor hatred. That burning hatred is seen in many characters with the effect it has on them. Ciri relinquishing her powers in order to prevent falling in that pit too is a first step to break the cycle but what is waiting for her is a pit of darkness.

Also we have Istredd the historian that digs to unveil the mystery around the monolithes. Very quickly said in S3 but he knows about the book of Monoliths. Vilgefortz knows already about it and he is yet to unlock their power. That's why he made Istredd prisoner during the coup. That mystery is one of the key component to BO story and the Wild Hunt that is now leaking in our dimension.

And those monoliths were there before the elves came. Dwarves and gnomes venerated them.

I know people are mad about this but I think this is an easy visual anchor for the gates between realities. And if you read the books you know who can travel through dimensions… So yeah. We are circling again there with this.

And now the Thanedd coup is the shock that finally destroys the old system but nothing emerges except chaos and favors Emhyr's. The wipe of the Brotherhood is also a not too subtle nudge to women getting free from patriarchy. In this battle we see the oldest and the male fall one after another. And in this mayhem I have to admit I loved Stregobor last stand. Delightfully twisted and satisfying.

Now there is one final point because one member of the old system has survived a little bit longer…

Tissaia has a bunch of lost children under her care. Every one of them rejects the model she is trying to preserve. She believes in the fragile peace they have created and maintained with the Brotherhood.

Fringilla sees another way with Emhyr and believes in his goal for quite some time, until she has the chance to evolve by herself and she discovers the true face of the emperor.

Working with Dijkstra, Philippa sees the crack in the old system. And she sees the opportunity to take a new turn as it crumbles.

Yennefer doesn't care about the system. She wants to regain control over her life. And she opposes Tissaia on a personal level. But doing so she adds cracks into the walls. She reconnects with her mentor when she becomes a mother to Ciri, seeing finally the mother in her she always has been. Yennefer doesn't protect the old system, fighting by Tissaia's side, she is fighting for her.

The final push that lead Tissaia to commit suicide is Yennefer saying that she is their mother and that they need her. Her children don't need her anymore. She is just a relic of the past. Because they love her, they cling onto her. But they have to fly. We see her abandoning her severe mask and going soft, accepting to lose control. She cuts herself the last string that holds them to the old system. And the Lodge of the Sorceresses is that : a new power emerging from the ashes of the old one.

And there so many other little parallels that I wish I would speak about. Little pieces for us to dig and get the layers under those characters. I didn't even get into the political part. But I have to stop somewhere because I am too long...

OK but why pointing out that repeating history, the past parasitizing the present, all the time. We are going nowhere. Do you think ?

Nenneke said to Ciri that she could be the key to ending the circle of hatred and the young woman idealized it. She doesn't know how. But she wants to put an end to all this. Does she succeed ?

Well I guess that no-one cares now.

The circle of hatred had won on this side of the spheres so...

Empty, without soul, unnecessary, diversity garbage, unfaithful, no actor good enough except one… you are so many so it means you must be right. But still I love this show. I can't help it.

I hope someone would appreciate the effort of the underlying structure of my garbage. Circle and parallels...

[oldmemoria]

God finally I finished the 1992 Spider-Man 2099 comics—

SPOILER WARNING BTW IM JUST SPITTING OUT MY THOUGHTS RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW GET OUT IF YOU DONT WANT THE COMICS SPOILED FOR YOU PLEASE AND THANK YOU

Overall, writing wise I liked it. Most of it, at least. I wasn’t a huge fan of the art style at some points but that’s just personal preference, I guess. I know how much work and how little time goes into comics so that is just a tiny thing to me. Biggest complaint about the art style was how the women were drawn. Uh…. Yeah, it was the 90s. I’m not shocked we’ve barely grown and it’s 2023. Side note but this comic really did predict some modern stuff didn’t it /hj

The downsides…. Oh boy. I don’t like how most of the female characters were relegated to the damsel in destress or…. Miguel lover. Ig??

Conchata was sort of out of the ordinary with that and that’s why I liked her (Xina too, both of their personalities stuck out to me and I liked them. Xina sort of reminded me of Red from TLOTFK National Anthem for some reason) but I mean… she was the main characters mom. Kinda makes sense that she’d go against the grain

That and the representation of Mexican culture.. my god did I hate it. As a Latino, specifically as someone who is Mexican, I was not a fan of how Day of the Dead was portrayed specifically. It isn’t just Mexican Halloween. But in the comic… yeah that’s what I got from it and I think if a kid who didn’t really know what that is might end up being ill informed but just— they should have done more research. That’s all I’ll say.

I can give them a little leeway and say “oh it was the 90s”. So I will. It was the 90s. What am I gonna expect from a comic book in the 90s. This was actually pretty progressive for the time so why am I complaining 💀

Oddly enough though, I did enjoy the representation of suicidal tendencies and ideation from Miguel. You don’t see that a lot. At least not in the way this was depicted and from what I’ve seen. It was relatable. Every time he got into a near death situation he still fought through it and didn’t give up. Which like, yeah, I wouldn’t want to be killed by some guy with wings or drown because fish man or something, but as he spirals I feel like it was depicted well. He knew that he couldn’t take his own life because not only did he have a job to do (save the city, work at alchemax) but also he found that other people did end up caring about him. At some points that didn’t matter to him, sometimes it did. It’s a fucking roller coaster, realistically.

With the scene right after the reveal of Tyler stone, Miguel’s really awful boss who groomed him into his position at alchemax, being Miguel’s father. We see a shot of either Miguel attempting or thinking of killing himself. Personally I interpreted it as an attempt. Felt like it was a spur in the moment kind of thing, which is realistic, as far as I know. Reading his dialogue and thoughts just felt real. It felt like someone was maybe directly talking to me about their thoughts or that i was reading someone’s journal. There was no filter. Miguel has no filter. I fucking love him for that.

Everyone in the story was just kind of an asshole in some way. There was no morally good or morally evil. I’d say everyone in some way was morally grey.

Miguel is kind of a dick, but he cares about the people around him even though he may not properly show it (whether or not that’s because of trauma or, in my personal interpretation, him being possibly autistic is up to you. I think it’s a little bit of both). He feels guilt when he hurts people, when he kills others, on accident mind you, but he does. He shuts down. He trails off. He’s not evil or malicious, he’s just very very emotionally damaged. Which by all means isn’t an excuse for how he treats some of the people in his life throughout the comics but they serve as a good explanation.

Dana generally seemed to… kind of care? She did sleep around and was bouncing between literally all 3 of the OHaras (Miguel her fiance, Gabriel her brother-in-law, and Tyler her father-in-law), but she also treated them more like trophies than anything. We didn’t see a lot of her backstory or motivations because she really just… was only there when the plot needed to mention “oh by the way Miguel’s fiance cheats on him”. I wish we got to see more of her, tbh. I wanted to see her line of thinking (maybe I will once I eventually reread but rn my brain feels like it’s about to explode and I need to eat something before it does. T minus 8 minutes /ref)

Gabriel. Just Gabriel. I do not have the right words to unpack him. Holy fuck.

Xina was a bit of a hothead, ig? She bounced off of Miguel’s character pretty well because she directly went against him. Not like she was a villain at any point but she did end up being at odds with him at some point, so.. she does, however, still care about other people and just like Miguel she feels so much regret about the past. I’d argue everyone in this story just kind of sits in a puddle of “oh god this unending agony”. I’m happy she seemed to be blazing her own trail at the end of the comic. Cool of her. Very cool.

Tyler…. Yeah I didn’t like him and technically speaking he is a villain, but he wasn’t entirely evil apparently, he liked Dana. Even though i don’t believe him. He’s a greedy shit who basically only values his role in a billion dollar company so uh.. fuck him. He’s not cool. I wouldn’t say he’s morally grey but if we take his word at face value he can feel love. I guess. But I don’t think he does. Nuh uh, Tyler Stone, Nuh uh.

Lyla was great. I love her. She’s funny, witty, her timing is great, she’s fucking insane sometimes but yknow what that’s fine. I saw a post describing her as “the weird fairy that haunts Miguel” (paraphrasing) and I cannot help but see her that way from now on. Especially movie Lyla. Because she’s just FUNNY in both and she’s so much fun I wish there was more of her in the comic and I WISH WE HAD MORE OF THAYT RANDOM PUNK VARIANT OF HER WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT—

Overall, I found the comics charming regardless of my few critiques. It was written well to reflect that not everyone is picture perfect, everyone is just a bit cynical, and relationships are rocky sometimes. Especially if trauma and literal actual grooming is involved. Also I smiled and cheered a little bit when Tyler stone died and when alchemax fucking exploded.

That was great

(Sorry if this was a little incoherent like I mentioned before my brain hurts and I’d probably have to reread over and over to get my full analysis, this is just my final thoughts after my first full read through)

Will I read the other Spider-Man 2099 comics?

Um

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Katfl commenthough, part 7

The lore, the loooreee

HAL labs cut the pause-screen descriptions out but to compensate they just straight up put all the lore right in front of us this time (…still miss the cute ability descriptions tho)

The one time the maxim tomato before a boss was needed, and thank the void for that tomato

Going in with fire dragon Kirby!

Also hold on wait a minute why was Kirby authorized to use that elevator that bought us here in the first place-

Oh thats fucked up actually

(Didn’t get spoiled about this fella though so that’s nice to know)

Does the lion guy know "half“ refers to 50%? Equal parts? 1+1 = 2? Because Elfilin sure isn’t big enough for that

They went to a "Land of Dreams“…Dreamland.

Wait…is that why the big one‘s ear looks all shredded..? Because that chunk is Elfilin…? D:

LEOPOLD oof that’s kinda goofy a name

This lion is shooting void-lasers out his mouth, help- also glowy aura, struggling at some points when attacking, aforementioned lasers- smells like possession

Even if I hadn’t seen spoilers, that was just. Way too easy to not have the thing shoot out the background when I go collect Elfilin- also Elfilin!!! My buddy!! I missed you so much!!

The calm lullaby version of the main theme that’s playing in the background is nice though :]

Called it :)

OH THATS MESSED UP

OH VOID THE EYE DID NOT NEED TO SNAP OPEN LIKE THAT

WHAT THE HECK WHAT THE HECK WHAT THE HECK-

AHHHHHHHH GO AWAY GO AWAY

You can see all of them in the goo, you can see them with those soulless half-dead eyes all mushed up together oh that’s so messed up

And why is the part that used to be Leopold‘s face so…fleshy and red? Did the goo burn it off when it absorbed him?? Does it act like acid to melt its victims inside itself like a horrifying Venus fly trap it’s prey??? Oh void I‘m looking too much into this and the eyes are still staring everything about this feels so wrong and twisted

This definitely explains the PEGI warning for fear

ELFILIN NOOOOOOO

…

…There‘s no music. There is. No music.

All abilities to choose from. This is it, isn’t it? Fire it is.

It’s a truly beautiful sunset outside. Perhaps it marks more than just the end of the day.

There is music, and it has a choir

It still looks as uncanny as when I first saw it, yet in a rather weird way…also beautiful?

"Ultimate Lifeform“…Shadow the Hedgehog?

Second half- the sky darkened, the music switched, the choir gained one clear voice (that goes high with the notes holy-)

Seriously. The music. It is just. You’d think it were from an epic dramatic PS5 game or something similar from its sound, yet it’s Kirby. And it absolutely deserves all of it. Just goes to show another reason you can’t judge the quality of a game by its age rating. Such a good soundtrack.

Oft of course that’s how we save Elfilin-

Oh shot

oh shot

Oh that’s a cool shot with planet pop in the focus while Elfilin and Kirby are out of focus in the foreground

NO WAY HAHAHAHAHA WE’RE REALLY DOING THIS TRUCKIRBY LETS GOOOO

AND WITH A REMIX OF THE INVINCIBILITY CANDY MELODY with a whole chiptune part thrown in between too, absolutely amazing

Ngl this part is genuinely quite epic

ELFILIN YEEESSSS

OH SHOT

ELFILIN NOOOO

Nooo ;-;

???? :D?

:D !!!!!

Hell yea, credits! This is really just an anime outro lmao - these pictures are adorable

Wait, there’s a hidden HAL room here too? Huh

Ayo?? To be continued?

Post-game?? Guess there‘ll be a few more parts of this then!

Man this game was fun as heck, HAL labs wasn’t holding back huh, they absolutely nailed their first attempt at 3D!

[ghitathepanda]

Digimon Survive 1st playthrough complete random thoughts

Non-spoilery version: I enjoyed the ride through roller coaster of emotions that is Digimon Survive, despite some characters defo making me really wanna SLAP em REALLY hard. Idk how common it is in tactical/strategy rpgs to have that bit in a fight where you're spending time just getting your characters to a specific far away spot but if it is a common thing, yeah it's here too, which is the only really negative thing in this adventure. I admit, I ended up doing a lil bit of save scumming near the end for certain things but it's just really engaging.

SPOILERS BELOW. WARNING. SPOILERS FOR AT LEAST THE INITIAL 1ST PLAYTHROUGH SO IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED AT LEAST THE FIRST PLAYTHROUGH AND YOU CARE ABOUT SPOILERS DO NOT READ FURTHER!!!!!

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Okay a few more spaces just in case...

Random thoughts 1: Okay so the writing leans very heavily in trying to get at least Ryo and Shuuji killed in the first blind playthrough right? Like you're still in the "wow new experience!" phase so you haven't exactly figured out what you're doing but Ryo's not doing well mentally after being transported into what would become the "Digital World" but despite your attempts to try befriending the dude, he mentally broke in Chapter 3 and died and BOY the blood splatter effect. And then of course this pushes Shuuji, who is already not hitting it off well with Lopmon, into pushing himself harder and while you're at the point where you'd realize that Shuuji is defo going to be the next to die with how things are going down with Lopmon, it's HOW he ends up meeting his death that will probably really rattle you. I'm pretty sure the shock of Shuuji being EATEN ALIVE by his own partner did numbers to me mentally.

Random thoughts 2: Anyone who isn't immediately in the "wow new experience!" phase early into the game probably realized the professor is the real Haru from the flashback bit at the start of the game as far back as once Takuma meets him in the shrine... or maybe not but a streamer who started his blind playthrough did. I was in the "wow new game!" phase so I was too excited at the idea of experiencing a whole new adventure to immediately connect the dots nor did I bother thinking about that bit although at the very least the game isn't exactly making it the real big plot twist since the game eventually shoves the pieces of that specific plot point into your face before the professor reveals himself as the true Haru. It's the sort of twist the writers deliberately wants to make obvious to players at the very least in chapter 6, where that plot point is properly put into the spotlight. I never bothered wondering what really happened to the real Haru was after the prologue (I assumed both Renamon!Haru and the silent Miyuki were at least some sort of weird ghostly versions of em initially before chapter 6) until the game very unsubtly tells me "hey the professor may be the real Haru", and I also lowkey assumed the flashback happened at least 1 or 2 decades prior instead of the 5 decades because kids in fiction just kinda wear whatever, regardless of era. Like... once the game actually bothered putting the spotlight in chapter 6 it does become fairly obvious because AGAIN, the game deliberately makes it obvious. The maybe(?) real hidden twist is Renamon being Haru in disguise, unless it's actually supposed to be obvious too. I was a bit more invested in other plot points to really notice if it is especially due to how quickly it happened and the idea that Renamon is just lurking in the shadows when things really get tough is just as plausible and you're more focused on saving your friends anyway, or if you have the folklore knowledge to basically spoil yourself. The whole thing can be summed up as "I'm too focused on the immediate main conflict to think about that that plot point" I guess.

Random thoughts 3: Despite the above thing, I was still at least on the money with the idea that the whole Haru and Miyuki thing happening MANY years ago, initial assumption going at least 1 decade so when the game blatantly suggests the real Haru is the professor in chapter 6 without confirming it, I was like "ah okay". Also, in chapter 8 when Miyuki and Takuma are in the real world, I find myself imagining all sorts of scenarios of Miyuki discovering modern tech, including Miyuki asking Takuma about that popular "fortnight" thing (deliberate mispelling because fortnight is a real word and the ignorant Miyuki's first assumption would probably think of Fortnite like that) or Miyuki being the poor victim of "ligma", "updog" or "deeznuts" jokes... or Miyuki giving a member of the main cast a bit of a slight panic by nonchalantly performing the various dances associated heavily with Fortnite. OR she could end up acting like a grandma with technology and thus become the victim of "ok boomer" jokes by other kids.

Random thoughts 4: Okay chapter 5 had that weird thing where Digimon partners that were initially given she/her pronouns suddenly having he/him pronouns so Renamon having he/him pronouns was weird but at least has the excuse of "none of the kids know em well enough despite the voice maybe". Then in chapter 10, Renamon evolves into Sakuyamon (even the game's description for Sakuyamon uses she/her pronouns) so that it must've meant that Renamon SHOULD be using she/her pronouns right? Well later, when Renamon finally joins the group, Renamon spends more time as Haru, as the form becomes more or less the "main" identity after decades of taking care of Miyuki so it sorta justifies Renamon going with he/him pronouns (at least chapter 11 onwards). Idk how things are in the Japanese script so it's hard to really pinpoint what exactly is going on there but I supposed Renamon in-universe for this game has always been referred to with he/him pronouns because Sakuyamon wasn't a form Renamon has access to and because gender as a concept is pretty alien to Digimon so Renamon had no reason to object to whatever pronouns is given. I guess Renamon in Survive can be considered genderfluid.

Random thoughts 6: So did Miyuki enroll back into school after returning to the human world proper? Because I can only wonder how much of a hassle that would be to forge partial lies about her identity. Or maybe she doesn't but has to bother with whatever other alternatives in Japan that puts her in a similar situation as Peter Parker after the end of No Way Home regarding higher education if she finally grows up. OR... she could just pretend to be adopted by her own brother or her own parents (assuming they are still alive and the siblings went to tell the story of what actually happened to em) and go to school under that identity.

[kuiinncedes]

just the keys to paradise

jatp au - prologue - part 1/15? - 1834 words

relationships: blaine & sam & tina & artie

okkkk we're doing it 🤪 idk how regularly i will update this (omg ongoing fic??? who is she) but i do have like technically a ~few~ chapters i guess done,,, and i am working on the next so . we're gonna try this lol

anyway if it wasn't clear this is an au based on the most amazing tv show ever with only 9 episodes pls watch or rewatch it on netflix the emmy-award winning julie and the phantoms !!! 🤪

that being said if you haven't watched it what are you doing jk i think you can still read this and hopefully it makes sense 😂 feel free to ask me if there's anything that doesn't make sense lol :)

also fyi in case it influences your decision to read: this will be more focused on platonic relationships for a while but will almost certainly have main endgames klaine, quinntina, and samcedes 😋

prologue title and lyrics in this part from "now or never" from the jatp soundtrack

plot and some dialogue from julie and the phantoms so like credit to all those creators and writers 🤪

warnings for this part: car accident, major character deaths (both of these are not actually in writing/"on screen" just implied at the end (especially within the context of this being a jatp au) and nothing really described -- if you want/need more details feel free to ask me)

read on ao3 or under the cut :D

--

1995

“Dudes, we fucking killed that !” Sam cheers when the smoke has cleared, going around and giving each of them something that could be called a high-five, just not to their hands. Tina laughs and cheers too as Sam excitedly taps her feet after she gets out from behind her kit, still elevated on the drum stage. Some of the workers applaud them from the audience space.

“Too bad we wasted that on the soundcheck,” Artie jokes, putting his guitar down and grabbing his water bottle. “That was the tightest we’ve ever played, yo!”

Tina grins and hops down from the drum platform. Sam slings an arm around her shoulders and she grabs his wrist. They’re both sweaty and too warm but she doesn’t mind having Sam’s heat pressed against her right side.

God, she thinks… that really was something else, even though it was just the soundcheck. She looks around at her bandmates’ faces -- shiny with sweat, red with exhilaration and exertion, bright with elation, eyes wide with excitement and --

Wow. They’re playing the Orpheum.

Blaine pats Artie on the back, jostling him enough to spill the water he’s trying to drink down the front of his shirt, but Artie just laughs -- he’s soaked with sweat anyway. They have spare clothes backstage just for this reason.

“Just wait until tonight, guys, when this place is packed with record execs,” Blaine says, looking out wonderingly into the empty (for now) audience. His grin widens almost imperceptibly, which is impressive considering how huge it already is.

“We’re gonna be legends!” the other three of them chorus, before Blaine can, and they laugh when he turns to them, affronted. “That’s my line!”

“It’s what you get for saying it ten times a day for the last month!” Tina teases. Blaine pushes her shoulder playfully, putting his hand within reach for Sam to grab. It’s a strange position considering Sam’s arm is still around Tina’s shoulders, but Tina adds her hand to their hold as Sam beckons Artie over from his side of the stage, barking out his name with joking anger.

Artie puts his water down and walks over to complete the group, placing his hand on top of Tina’s. “Tina, you were smokin’,” he says.

She rolls her eyes a little and grins back. “Pretty sure you’re just talking about the pyro. You guys were the ones on fire,” she says, pointing her drumsticks around at them.

“T, can you just own your awesomeness for once?” Blaine exclaims.

“Queen T!” Sam calls, pulling her closer into his side. She stumbles into him, laughing as the guys all start cheering it after Sam.

“Okay, okay! Thanks, guys, I got it!” she squeals, trying to get them to quiet down although -- they are in the Orpheum, where they’re playing later, it’s not like they have to be quiet -- while Sam leans his weight on her, causing them to stagger into the drum riser. Tina catches herself on it and Sam finally detaches from her and they’re still being loud and raucous and probably somewhat annoying to the staff, but she’s just laughing too hard to care.

“We’ve got an hour ‘til the show; I say we go celebrate before we become legends!” Blaine proclaims, jumping off the stage. The other three follow.

Tina starts, “Celebrate our last night of being -- ”

“Losers?” Artie interjects.

They’ve caught the attention of one of the Orpheum workers -- a woman with brown hair who’s wiping down the tables, smiling at them as Tina catches her eye. “There’s some nice restaurants around here,” she says with a wink. “You guys really killed it, by the way. But it seems like you know that.”

Blaine laughs, a little sheepishly. “Thanks. Uh, I’m Blaine,” he says. “This is -- ”

“Sam, hi!”

“Tina, how’s it going -- ”

“Artie, hey.”

Tina raises her eyebrows and stifles a laugh at Artie as he leans his sweaty arms onto the table that the woman just cleaned.

“We’re Sunset Curve!” Blaine says to complete their introduction.

“Tell your friends!” Sam calls, raising his voice and drawing the other workers’ attention to them. Tina elbows him lightly in the side.

“Nice to meet you,” the stranger says. “I’m Elle. So… what were you guys thinking for this -- what was it -- ‘celebration of your last night as losers’?”

“Well, we really can’t afford any nice places -- ” Sam starts.

“Oh, you know what? We should just go to Tip Top!” Blaine says, clapping his hands together. The others are quick to agree -- it’s the small, cheap diner where they spent the evening after their first “real” gig, and they’ve spent countless hours there since, annoying the staff and depleting their supply of plastic silverware. The employees there have learned to let them take what they legally can (and sometimes what they couldn’t), and the band is friendly with most of them. They haven’t been there in too long, having been working hard to get the Orpheum gig, and then writing and rehearsing like crazy once they got it.

Elle smiles as they excitedly and loudly recount stories of Tip Top to each other -- sentimental memories and the ridiculousness they got up to -- talking over each other and having multiple conversations at once.

“I guess you don’t need my recommendations?” she says lightly.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry, we’re good, thanks so much for offering,” Blaine answers, polite as ever.

“Have fun! Looking forward to seeing you guys perform again tonight.”

“Thank you!” the four of them exclaim as they make their way back to the exit. Tina yanks on the back of Artie’s shirt as he lingers at the table, a dumb look on his face that tells her he’s trying to flirt, or at least, his version of it.

“Tina!” Artie yelps and she laughs at the annoyed look on his face.

“You are not exempt from this last night of loser-dom celebration. You’re telling me you’d rather flirt with a girl than this?”

“Yes,” Artie grumbles. There’s no heat behind it, and Tina playfully pushes him sideways.

“Plus, we need you to drive.”

“You can drive!”

“Technically we all can drive!” Tina laughs at Artie’s horrified expression, probably at the prospect -- and memory -- of the one time Blaine drove them to a gig. “Just not your car!” she calls, jogging to catch up with Blaine and Sam, Artie running after her. “Your car is the fucking worst.”

“Don’t talk about her like that!”

“Blaine and Sam agree!”

That gets their attention and the two guys turn, Blaine asking, “What are we agreeing with?”

“I agree with Tina,” Sam says immediately. Tina nods gratefully at him.

“You don’t even know what we’re talking about!” Artie complains.

They’re at his beat-up car now and they pile in, Tina in the passenger seat laughing as Sam all but tackles Blaine into the backseat when he starts for the driver’s side, jostling her and Artie in the front. They continue shuffling around while Artie attempts to start the car, to many concerning -- but normal for his car -- noises.

“This thing is gonna go down and take us with it, Artie,” Tina mumbles teasingly, absentmindedly twirling a drumstick in her right hand. (She realizes too late that she probably should’ve left them at the Orpheum, but it’s not a big deal -- they’re not her favorite pair which are safe in their studio and she has extras backstage in case something happens to this pair while they’re out.)

The car finally starts with a rumble and Artie lets out a cheer. “We’re fine, T. Let’s go, y’all!”

“Floor it, Artie!” Sam calls from the back. The car accelerates comically slowly even as Artie presumably “floors it,” but they’re going somewhere.

After a few minutes, Tina finds herself unconsciously humming her solo in the bridge of “Now or Never,” only noticing when Sam interjects suddenly with his “Tomorrow!” leaning between the front seats and slightly startling her. She laughs and continues with the words, “‘Cause we got all we need today! ”

“Today!” Artie echoes, miming his guitar playing with one hand on the steering wheel.

“Living on a feeling that’s been running through our veins!” Blaine sings loudly, joining Sam in crowding into the front of the car.

“We’re the revolution that’s been singing in the rain!” It’s Sam’s line, but they all belt it at the top of their lungs together.

“That’s my line!” Sam exclaims at the same time that Blaine cheers, “My favorite line!” Tina continues to clap the beat for the next part of the song, Artie hitting the steering wheel in rhythm with her. Her face hurts from smiling.

“Artie, dude, where’d you go?” Blaine asks suddenly. Tina looks around at their slowly darkening surroundings that are completely unfamiliar. Slight panic rises in her stomach but she swallows it down; she’s with her boys, they’re safe, just a little lost.

Sam bursts out in uproarious laughter as Artie complains, “You guys distracted me!”

“Told you I should’ve driven!” Blaine says. He leans forward again and Sam follows. Tina stays quiet, pressing herself against the door a little to make room; her boys aren’t that much better but she’s always been completely hopeless with navigation and directions.

“You would’ve gotten even more distracted from singing and veered us right into a fucking building,” Artie grumbles, but he obeys as Blaine directs him to turn left and chooses to ignore his comment.

“Safe driving, am I right, dudes?” Sam cackles as he returns to the backseat, and Tina can’t help but laugh with him. “We’re gonna miss our gig, that’s how we’ll be legends!”

“‘Sunset Curve Skips Orpheum Showcase For No Reason’?” Tina suggests, turning around in her seat to face Sam.

He points at her. “Exactly. Or, 'Sunset Curve Skips Orpheum Showcase Because They Don't Know How To Drive.' The end of a promising career,” he jokes somberly. “No one would ever book them again.”

They fall silent and only the mutters of Blaine and Artie fill the car, along with the loud engine.

“Still haven’t figured it out yet?” Sam groans loudly, laying on his back across the backseats as Blaine is leaning awkwardly out of his seat to help Artie navigate.

“Not like you’re helping!” Artie says.

“That’s the street!” Blaine exclaims, pointing ahead. “The next intersection.”

“Give it up for Mr. Blaine Anderson, everyone,” Artie drawls, speeding up the car a little bit. “Perhaps not able to drive, but navigator extraordinaire.”

“You chose the wrong career path, dude,” Sam says, propping himself up on one elbow to clap Blaine’s shoulder. “Like, songwriting?”

Blaine looks down at him, raising an eyebrow. “Songwriting?” He gestures for Sam to continue.

Sam shrugs, sitting up finally. “Just, you know, songwriting, bro…" His gaze suddenly shifts and fixes at a point beyond Tina. "What th-- that car Artie!”

Tina snaps her gaze away from Sam just in time to see him yank Blaine down into his seat and the set of blinding headlights through the car windows in her periphery.

---

as a final note, i'm not sure if it can be seen this way but i'm not trying to erase artie's disability or anything and i believe i'm not doing that; as you might be able to guess, the car accident at the end of this is what paralyzes him, like in glee canon but just several years later (in his life not in actual time). please let me know if any aspect of this is disrespectful or anything <3

[digital-dhampirs]

vnc episode 12 thoughts

The thrilling conclusion to the Vanitas no Carte anime’s first cour is out, and I have thoughts! I’m still considering doing a full season/ fill cour review, but I have a Lot of episode 12- specific opinions, so this review / breakdown / thing will focus around e12!

A warning before we begin— review will contain spoilers for events that take place in the vnc manga and not in the anime, and will most likely spoil some sections of the anime’s next cour. With that, let’s get started!

Episode 12 of the VnC anime covers chapters 19, 21, 22, and 23 of the manga.

To begin this review in a brutally honest way, this episode was… in my opinion as a manga reader… bad. It did have some ok moments, but generally devoted a lot of its time to a plotline that (while adorable) isn’t actually super important compared to what was left on the wayside. Vanitas and Noé’s fight over blood drinking is fine, I guess, but why’d we get that minute long flashback compilation and not Dante’s conversation with Dominique, or Roland and Olivier’s complete conversation, or Astolfo’s excitement to hunt vampires, or Mikhail?

I really truly wish the show had taken some of the money and time that went into the Vanitas and Noé fight from chapter 23 and put it into the arguably much more important and interesting parts of this episode. Ruthven drinking Noé’s blood, Roland’s threat, and Chloé and Astolfo’s introductions all had some very janky stills and animations. It truly irked me to see that time and effort went into making Noé’s mouth move while he’s mentally monologuing about wanting to drink Vanitas’s blood, while Roland’s fantastic threat from Chapter 22 got… this. click on image for worse quality

The episode also decided to continue E11’s habit of chopping scenes up and mashing them together. In E11 this was a very not great decision, but was ultimately somewhat forgiveable from a tone point of view. In E12, meanwhile, it’s just all out chaos as the anime tries to string five completely separate scenes into something coherent (Noé and Vanitas in the hotel, Ruthven and Jeanne in the street, Domi and Dante on the stairs, Roland and Olivier in the chasseur compound, and a flashback to complete the Ruthven and Noé encounter from E11). Suffice it to say the anime does not succeed in this endeavor.

What really irritates me about this is that the manga already provided a framework for the anime to work these scenes together into. A frantic Vanitas reunites with Noé, Ruthven meets Jeanne in the street, Roland and Olivier speak about the beast, we see a mysterious flashback of Chloé calling for Jeanne as they talk, cut to Jeanne in the present as Dante and Ruthven’s attendants simultaneously tell Ruthven and Vanitas about the beast’s return.

I really wish the anime could’ve just given us the conclusion to the Ruthven scene at the start of the episode, done the OP, and then followed this series of events to a T. But it didn’t, and the result is a bit of a mess.

The anime’s choice to omit half of Roland and Olivier’s conversation means Dante’s announcement about the beast being back has no meaning or weight; Vanitas running to the hotel before we know what actually happened to Noé at the cafe ruins the drama and irony of the scene; Noé’s lack of memory of what happened at the cafe is muddled by the weirdly placed cafe flashback right afterwards; the anime putting Olivier’s “what that man believes in isn’t god” line seconds before the reveal of Roland’s intelligent and scheming nature doesn’t give the line enough room to breathe and stew; and the transition scene with Domi and Dante just doesn’t fit. I can honestly say I would have preferred Dante just teleporting from the streets of Paris to Vani and Noé’s windowsill than have that scene smack dab in the middle of what’s already a confusing mishmash of way too many unconnected events.

Wow. That was a long, critical paragraph. one might even say it was just as chaotic and disorganized as the episode itself. I feel like I’m really living up to my fullest potential as a bitter manga simp. So! Let’s turn things around and talk about some of the good parts of this episode!!

First and foremost I want to compliment this episode’s music..! The soundtrack of VnC is just all round fantastic no matter what— whether it’s playing during a goofy scene or a fight, it’s is bound to be fantastic. I think my favorite pieces are the ones that play at quiet, ominous moments— the music during Vanitas and Dante’s conversation about the beast is excellent, adding something truly incredible to the atmosphere created by the illustrations of the beast and the eerie green light of the scene. The way the music lines up with Olivier’s “what that man believes in…” line during that one flashback is similarly awesome.

This episode also has very nice voice acting..! Despite all of its struggles in the visual and plot department, pretty much everything to do with the VnC anime’s audio is stellar. I’ve become a big fan of Jeanne, Roland, and Olivier’s voices (I can’t wait to see how Olivier’s VA works with all his screaming in the Gévaudan arc); Astolfo’s voice is perfect for him (I am similarly excited to see his clipped, polite tone take a turn for the insane as the Gévaudan arc moves forwards); and as always our protagonists’ voices are great.

My one singular problem with the voice acting this episode is Chloé. I don’t know why, but she sounds like a catgirl from a fantasy anime rather than a multiple- centuries- old vampire. I don’t know what I was expecting from her voice, but this wasn’t it. I really hope Chloé’s voice will grow on me like Roland’s did, but there’s just something about it that feels off to me.

However! That one detriment doesn’t detract from the fact that this episode does have some very beautiful moments, especially during that one last scene with Chloé at the end. Visually, Chloé is absolutely spot on— I only hope the show has the budget to keep giving her pretty, pretty scenes like this. The scene where Vanitas and Dante discuss the beast is also very very nice to look at. The monochromatic red section of Ruthven and Noé’s scene is excellent. And, while I’m still annoyed that this scene got so much love put into it and others did not, Noé’s spotlight-lit monologue is aesthetically pleasing as well.

With that, we’ve covered all of my main thoughts on the final episode of the vnc anime’s first cour! My feelings towards this episode’s plot and pacing are overwhelmingly critical, and the episode’s visuals are a toss up (leaning on the side of bad, @/ that Roland screenshot), b u t the episode’s music and voice acting are both fantastic. And honestly? That’s kinda how I feel about this whole cour of the anime.

Episode 12 might not have been “good”, but I believe it’s a very neat representation of the best and worst of what Vanitas no Carte as an anime has to offer.

Despite all my critiques I am still legally obligated to love this anime, and can’t wait to see the Gévaudan arc in the next cour!

Fun Fact

The weirdly technological background when Noé realizes he’s hungry makes absolutely no sense for an anime set in 1889, but for some reason that just makes this scene funnier to me

[enbyzutara]

A Personal Vent: Ma1ko scene & the Invalidation of Abuse Victims

(Triggers Warning: abuse , invalidation of an abuse victim . )

So, I want to talk about something, something that I have seen on ATLA Twitter and it has directly affected me in an emotional way.

This person on Twitter made this tweet:

As you can see, this tweet isn't a Mai hate-post, it isn't “Mai slander”, the person that tweeted this was just talking about how they feel towards a certain scene. The most you can say about this tweet is that it has Mai criticism, but I don't think I do even need to explain that criticism isn't the same thing as hating.

And these are some of the replies for this tweet:

As you can see, people have been really misinterpreting what the OP had said, and started to make some “takes” because they were trying to defend Mai.

So... there's a lot to unpack here.

I don't even need to make a whole essay explaining that Zuko is an abuse victim, because if you watched the show, you know what I'm talking about, and you probably already know about what scene, that all of these tweets, are referring to.

So now let's start talking: look, I don't know if most people are aware of this, but abuse victims always have their own way to deal with their trauma, they have triggers as well. And @sokkastyles has already written an analysis about this: How Zuko deals with his traumas & his coping mechanism. I really recommend everyone to read this, it’s an interesting analysis, and shows to us that the way that Zuko deals with his trauma is talking about his trauma, in other words: venting is his coping mechanism. So, in Zuko’s case, it’s really important when he, an abuse victim, is talking about his traumas and experiences, and it’s even more important that the person who’s hearing this doesn't invalidate what he was just talking about & don’t make jokes about what he have just said. 

But you can go and just say this to me:

“Oh, but you're being unfair with Mai, how was she supposed to know that this is the way that Zuko deals with his trauma?”

And you're right, she isn't supposed to be his therapist, she isn't supposed to know his coping mechanism, but she, as his partner, as his girlfriend, is supposed to be aware of his triggers and traumas.

And she knows his story, she knows what his father did to him. So, she is aware of his trauma and that what his father did to him is a trigger for him.

Mai: Why would you even want to go? Just think about how things went at the last war meeting you went to.

She is aware of his life story. She isn't supposed to be his therapist, but she's supposed to be aware that he was opening himself to her about his trauma, that he was talking about something traumatic and personal to her. And as any empathetic person, not only because she is his partner, she was supposed to be more careful towards him in that moment, she was supposed to offer some emotional support.

And some people who are trying to defend this scene always say that Mai is not supposed to cuddle Zuko. And honestly, what the fuck that's supposed to mean?

Look, I personally don't like Mai, but I'm not a Mai hater at all, I don't think she's a horrible person, I don't think she was just a terrible girlfriend and Zuko is her poor boyfriend. I do think she, at some points, tried to be a good girlfriend, tried to cheer him up, as in this moment:

"Mai: I know one thing I care about. I care about you.”

And I do agree that Zuko as well failed with her. One example: in the Beach Episode, at some points, he was being an asshole with her, and him being a jealous boyfriend wasn't cute at all.

So now, as you can see, I'm not a Mai Hater, who thinks she was a terrible person and blabla, I do think that she tried to be a good girlfriend (I just don't think she achieved this goal). But my whole point is:

Since when being aware and careful with your partner's trauma and triggers is cuddling? Since when offering emotional support to an abuser victim is cuddling? Since when offering emotional support to your partner is cuddling/spoiling at all? Y'all be treating abuse victims as shit.

Do you think that a person who is aware of someone's story, a person who knows that their partner has been through some traumatic experiences is right when they make a joke just after their partner opens about their trauma & talking about how a certain situation is kinda triggering for them (?).

But no, for real, I really want to know if this is the way that some of all treat abuse victims. For real. How do y'all view people who have been through trauma? I'm not gonna talk about what I have been through, but I can say, as someone who has been already a victim of abuse, someone who has traumas and triggers, seeing the way that some of y'all treat abuse victims as shit has completely ended my whole day.

I'm literally talking about all of this because, yes, some of these replies did trigger me. (That's why this post is a "Personal Vent"). I already had my experiences being invalidated by some people, can you believe that someone has already even made jokes? Yes, that's right. Jokes. So I’ll be saying: Any jokes you do when an abuser victim is talking about their trauma & experience & triggers are wrong. I didn't even think I was supposed to say this. I thought that, God, people were already supposed to know that.

And I know that some people will be continuing to defend Mai’s attitude in that scene, and one of these argument is gonna be: 

“Oh my God, but you’re being so unfair with Mai, ok that what she did was wrong but she is as well someone who has coping mechanisms, and hers are being quiet & keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself.”

And guess what? I completely agree with you. Mai is someone who has grown as an only kid, probably alone, she was taught to keep her feelings and thoughts to herself, and that's why she wasn't capable to offer the emotional support that Zuko needed. 

And guess what too? The sentences “Mai didn’t offer the emotional support that Zuko needed because she, as well, deals with her own coping mechanism” and “Mai made an insensitive joke at the wrong moment to Zuko, just after he opened himself about his fear and traumatic experience, and this was a form of invalidating his feelings, even if it wasn't her intentions” can and should co-exist.

So, as you can see, in this whole post I’m just talking about how problematic it's the way that some Mai stans try to defend this scene. This post has Mai criticism? Yes, but my main point is not to talk about how problematic was the Mai and Zuko scene, my point here is to talk about how problematic is the way that some people have been treating this whole discussion. How problematic is the way that some people are talking about abuse victims, how problematic is the way that they go around and make fun/jokes of this, when this is definitely a delicate topic, a real issue that people in real life struggle with.

So please, be aware of the way you’re talking about an abuse victim and how far you’re going on a discussion just to defend an animated character. Especially when we're talking about this.

(Read my tags).

[ecclais-fouoras]

Falling for someone like you

Chapter 9 ? What a day

Previous chapter here

Tags : fluff and slight smut warning ⚠️

The next day went swiftly, you both had a great time at the mine and then the museum, afterwards you both went out for dinner, in the small restaurant she had spotted before. Wilhemina offered to pay since you had already done so much for her those few days. "I insist baby..you've been amazing and I was the one who suggested it... Let me get this one"

"Okay fine...don't make a habit out of it you know I love to spoil you, my darling" you had responded placing your hand on her cheek. That night you had gone to bed early, exhausted from the day spent. Your lover laid by your side, your arms around her protectively and her leg draped over your body, and fingers upon your collarbones. "Y/n ?"

"Mm ?" "What are we gonna do tomorrow ? I tried to find something to vis..."

"Amusement Park"

"Huh ?"

"Tomorrow that's what we're doing"

"Oh...you do kn..."

"I checked if it was something you could do, and there are many attraction available"; "Good..." She said before yawning. "Oh baby sleep you're tried"

"I don't want this day to end"

"It doesn't have to...in your mind never" You turned slightly, putting your hand around her hip and under her head, and hers went to your neck. Your legs found the spot between hers and the one still on top of your body. On Sunday you woke up a little bit early to pack stuff in the car before traveling to the park, your girlfriend watching the landscape pass by the cars window. Your eyes fixated on the rood and right hand in hers on her thigh. You arrived and went inside. The place was kinda crowded but since Wilhemina couldn't stand for too long waiting wasn't a problem, you could easily enter attraction in another line. "I hate their faces when they see me cut the line" she said growling from anger and you caressed her hair while explaining "Hey baby... You're not cutting line, your simply taking another one. If they don't like it they can try and live all their life in a body that aches like yours. They'll see if taking that line is worth the trouble."

"I guess you're right"

"I am...if they aren't happy about it they can suck my dick"

"OH so they can but you barely let me do it ?" You playfully feigned being offended and slightly pinched her arm. "That's not even true.."

"It is. Whenever I wanna do it you don't pack"

"Well I'm not going to pack every single day love"

"Well at least some of them baby"

You giggled and subconsciously started walking towards a small Russian mountain.

"Are you up for that mina ?"

"Of course. I'm up for anything", "You Sure ? It seems pretty scary". "It's not. Besides if it wear it would say not for people with back problems"

"Okay okay... Well when you throw up just make sure it's not while the wind is in our way."

"Haha very funny"

:read more:

She said as you took her hand and leaded her to the side line, after a few minutes you got in the seats. Wilhemina held your hand a little tighter than usual, so you nuzzled behind her ear and told her she was more than safe with you. She relaxed a bit and then screams and squeals of joy were the only thing that could be heard. You both moved throughout the park, doing things left and right, pointing at beautiful landscape and designs. You stopped at a flying swing and encouraged wilhemina to come with you and do it together. But she didn't seam to keened on it. Even as you took her hand and tugged her towards it she held her ground. The mushroom tower started to rise and everyone started cheering as the chair flew around in circles and people moved in their chairs."Look it's fun honey" "It's for kids."..."No. It's not. Watch there are plenty of adults her and besides it didn't bother you in the flying elephants."

"That was different"

"Absolutely not, look if it's because you don't stand the movements it's okay, but at least tell me"

"I do stand it" you went closer to her, your hands on her hips as you kissed her cheeks "Babe tell me what the real problem is, no bullshit please"

"I don't have. Anywhere to put my cane in there."

"Well we can leave it in the entrance"

"I'd rather not"

"Why, you don't need it during the ride, and I'll get it for you at the end baby"

"Who knows what will happen during the ride. I don't want to find it broken, not only because you gifted it to me, but because it is my life, I refuse to let it be broken or lost by those incompetent people"

"Hey..hey no need to insult anyone here, baby I know that, but just like when you go to bed you leave it to the side, you can let them take care of it"

"I..."

"Baby I promise nothing bad will happen"

"How can you do that"

"I'll make sure it doesn't, do you trust me ?"

"Of course I trust you. I just don't trust anybody else"

"But you learned how to trust me, so maybe you can try and give a little trust to that"

"Fine. One session"

"Yay ! I promise you'll love it" You said as you both went to it, and as soon as wilhemina was sited you went up to the people managing the attraction and asked them to keep her cane during the ride.

"Oh and by the way. If anything happens to it. Even the slightest impact, i will make sure you all lose your job, and ruin your reputation so much no one will go to a park that is unacceptable with disabled people."

"..we..yes. well, we will take good care of it"

"You better do." You went back and sat just next to Wilhemina on the double sided chair. "Did you te..."

"It's okay baby. They'll handle it carefully"

"Oh okay..." The swing raised above the floor, and progressively your feets hanged down as they stopped touching ground and The ride began. the wind hit your face faster and faster and you both smiled and yelled as it spined. Wilhemina had to keep her hand on her skirt so it didn't lift up and give everyone else a great view and you giggled. You whispered in her ear as the world around you kept turning and turning. "Don't traumatize these children and get arrested for public nudity I'd hate to have to get you out of jail and runaway together..."

"Is it weird of it actually sounds good"

"Depends on which part"

"The last bit you fool"

"Well my anxiety could never...but keep dreaming darling" You both laughed and held hands as the chairs were turning even faster. At one point the air was to rapid through her hair and it detached her hairdo, you Heard her groan as her hair moved everywhere including her face while she looked at you. "Oh come on why"

"It's fine mina just let it go"

"It's a good thing this was not a wig"

You laughed again as You pushed the hair out of her face and saw her eyes shining with joy, you don't think you ever saw her so happy your whole life, and you thought maybe she never has been.

"I love you y/n"

She said as her hair flew behind her like a beautiful main. You couldn't help but put your hands around her face and bring her for a kiss. Your lips lingered on hers for a while, hands stoking her cheek and breathing linked and she pulled away questioning. "Why the kiss?"

"I just couldn't not kiss you right then"

"But in front of all these people ? Children"

"They won't die because I kissed the woman I love. They've seen people kiss before, they'll be fine"

"But the people here ?"

"I don't give a single fuck about them, I love you and they better get over it."

"I love you too" You enjoyed the rest of the ride, and after you got down you went to get wilhemina's cane for her, and as it took a little longer before she got out of it like the rest you heard someone tell her to get off the swing because people were waiting. You immediately turned around and went up to him, her stepped back a little "What did you just say ?"

"I..i said that this bitch needs to get off of the swing or learn to leave others their turn"

"You better shut the fuck up now, or else you really aren't going to enjoy the ride with a broken nose and bleeding face."

"Is that a threat ?"

"No it's a promise."

"It's unacceptable she ne.."

"And you need to stick your patience up your ass and fuck off. She'd be out of there in a second if you were able to keep your fucking mouth shut, now I bet you don't have any one in your life who has a disability except you because you are clearly having a stroke so let me tell you this. You say anything offensive to my wife. And I'll have your fucking ass in the floor."

"How dare you ? Telling all this in front of my kids"

"Maybe it'll teach them not to be complete assholes to people. Now your kids didn't say anything you did. So maybe you could thing about that"

"M'am you have to hurry..and keep your distance with the rest of the clients" The bold men tried to respond.

"But...i..i" ."

"we'll be out in a sec.. You. Save it. I honestly don't give a shit about your opinion, I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing it for her. Because if she weren't there I would have already been in jail for beating your ass. I'll say it once. Stay. Away. From. her. And keep your thoughts to your two inches long brain."

You went back to give her her cane and you both left the swings, glaring one last time at the men, who looked like he was about to piss his paints.

"Don't bother him, he's an ass"

"You don't always have to get in trouble for me"

"You're kidding right ? He was practically begging me to tell him off. Besides no one talks to you like this and gets away with it on my watch"

"He looked like a kid cought cheating have to admit watching you It was a little hot." She whispered in your ear

"Happy to oblige" you said as you pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and grazed her cheek. After that she bent forward a little and lifted her arms to try and do her hair back which you knew could hurt her.

"Hey hey no.. leave it" you said as you put your hands on hers.

"Let's sit over here baby"

You said while taking her to a small stair bench.

"Sir over here I'll sit on the one higher.

"Oh okay"

You settled her between your knees and asked for her hair tie.

"Do you really want to put it up again ? You know I love your hair down like this, you look so beautiful"

"I know you do, but it's our thing you know, I don't want it to become banal, I like that you're the only one who sees me like this, it makes it special"

"We have other things that are private darling, just because you go out with your hair down it doesn't mean it's not special anymore. I still get to see you in your nightwear or with a messy tee-shirt and a lazy bun."

"I know but still, I prefer keeping it up please"

"Okay baby no problem, can I put it up how I want ?"

"..fine yes, but no funny business"

"Of course" you said as you kissed her neck. You started sectioning her hair, brushing it through your fingers, huming softly. And you started breading, strands of hair between your hands, one over the other. Starting from up and then going down. Wilhemina relaxing visibly in your embrace, letting her head slightly back.

"Oooooooh, I am not the only traveler, who has not repaid His debt, I've been searching for a trail to follow again take me back to the night we met, and then I can tell myself what the hell am I supposed to do.

I had all and then most of you some and now none of you. Ooh

Take me back to the night we met.

"Here done"

"Can I sea ?"

"Let me just ..there "

"Oh..y/n"

"You don't like it ?"

"No..no i do like it.. it's different than what I'm used to"

"I figured you don't usually bread it because it's probably to painful, so I wanted to do something nice". "I love it y/n"

"You look beautiful"

She blushed softly before you kissed her lips.

Afterwards you were both a little hungry, so you took wilhemina to a candy shop, they sold many things like sugar canes and candy floss

You waited before asking Wilhemina what she wanted, and ordered a pomme d'amour for starters, and decided you would take candy floss to walk.

"It's going to be messy y/n we have to cut in"

"No..baby the whole thing is to bite it at the same time"

"I swear if you get my shirt stained"

"It won't willy"

"Oh you know I hate that nickname"

"That's why I use it willy"

She groaned and you both stood while you held the food.

"On three"

"Wait does that mean we bite on three or after three"

"Oh just bite it on three love"

"One."

"Two" you both said

"Three"

You both took a bite out of the apple, juices covering your taste buds and the sweet sugar envelope cracking.

You giggled with your mouths full  and finished the apple as much as you could, heads turning around to find a good angle and sharing the same space.

You noticed Wilhemina had sugar on her top lip corner.

"Baby you have a little something here"

"Oh..thank you"

She tried getting it off but it wasn't efficient. So you stepped closer.

"Here..let me do it" you said before setting down the rest of the dish and pressing her against you while your hands found her jaw and you kissed her soundly, she moaned a little when you bit her top lip. And grazed it with your tongue. It asked for entrance and Wilhemina granted it to you. You made out together for a little bit before parting a little and just holding each other for a while, pairs of hands around shoulders and hips.

After that you bought the candy floss and started walking around the park once again.

You both picked in each others sticks, exchanging looks, smiles and kisses.

Feeding each other bits every now and then.

After a dozen minutes you had both finished

And you kissed her again, sharing the taste of sugar between each other. Her cane pressed against her and her cheek in your hand.

"Thank you y/n"

"For what ?". "For giving my life purpose"

"Aw baby why do you have to be so damn cute ALL the time"

"I'm serious"

"Me too...and you don't need to thank me, you mean everything to me. Come here."

You said before taking her inside your arms, inhaling her sent and circling your arms around her frame. You pressed kisses in her hair and she place them in your neck.

"I love you so much Wilhemina"

She started to tear up a little bit before sniffling and hiding more inside your body.

"I mean it...baby you don't ever have to cry about that again..for I will hold you till the end of time itself. And in every one of your future life's I'll have you in my heart."

Time passed as you held each others before slowly getting going again.

You arrived at a shooting game, pushed animals were hanging from the walls and ceiling.

"Oh here let me win you something !"

"Oh come on darling these games are money black holes"

"Not if your good at it" she starting turning around and walking away

"Besides it's gun shooting you're not going to be any good at that love you don't own any. Also I think it's quite funny that yo..."

"Here m'am, ya just need to get those target over there to ya win"

"Huhh come on y/n, do you even know what I said"

"Ssh baby I gotta focus"

"Sshh? So you shush me now ?"

You ignored her rambling as your hands settled their positions and you started shooting the first few bullets hitting right on the targets, five bullets later you heard a ringing sound and the guy stunned by your performance started

"Well m'am I'll be honest I wasn't expecting ya to win on the first try. But here ya go, you can pick one of them little stuffed animals"

"Mm I'll have this one for my lady over there "

"Excellent choice...here there ya go ... have a nice day birdies"

You giggled and thanked him as you went up to Wilhemina and gave her the white furry bunny you had won.

"So since you were so supportive I'll just keep it to myself"

"...I'm sorry baby...i just didn't want you to waste your money" "I know"

You said as you handed her the toy, "it's for you baby", "Oh.. really ? Wow it's the first time my lover...well anyone wins me something at a game"

"Looks like I'm your first on lots of things babe"

"Heyy" she responded while jabbing your shoulder "Aww why do you always do that, I think I need to go check it at the hospital."

"Oh don't be A baby y/n"

"Well you're the one standing with a bunny in your arms so who's really the baby huh?" She frowned before she joined you in laughter. You walked hand in hand with her gift under her hand. The sun was starting to set slowly as you both chatted and enjoyed the rest of the day.

"Let's get married"

"...What ?"

"Here let's get married now"

"..y/n ? I don't understand...I'm not sure it's a good idea"

"Chill baby I meant there" you said as you pointed the small church in the middle of the other attractions.

"It says it celebrates unions and marriages, but nothing actually official"

"Oh .."

"So let's get married here darling. Let's have our unofficial official ceremony now"

You said as you led her to the counter

"Wait..."

"It's okay you don't want to"

"No..no I definitely want to, I'm just straddled, and what If they don't celebrate our 'marriage', baby there are no legal obligations here"

"Well I don't care if they don't celebrate 'Our' marriage. I'll find another fake church that does, but we have to try frist right ?"

She nodded and took your hand.

"Hello ladies how May I help you"

You both looked at each other and she smiled.

"We would like to get married." "Alright, are you married irl ?" "Nope"

"I have to inform you this is all outside of any actual legal union, this mariage is only valid here, and in your hearts."

"We know"

"Perfect then. Follow me" You arrived in a room filled with dressed and suits, the man asked if you wanted to pay before or after, you decided to do it now, Wilhemina didn't even notice you did. "I'll let you approximately 30 minutes to choose your formal wear and get dressed, an hour to prepare your vows and will Then accompany the... well brides walk down the aisle"

"If it's easier i don't mind being already there."

"Oh yes good. Anyway, I'll let you change, there are two different Rooms with staff so you don't see each other until marriage"

"Thank you". You both said before picking your outfits and trying on dresses and suits. After some time the man came back and took Wilhemina before letting you know where was the aisle. You waited there with the pastor, who didn't look used to celebrating marriages between women, but who wasn't mad about it. The music started and there was no one else in the church except for the few staff and you both. The doors opened and you saw your girlfriend walk arm in arm with the guy who welcomed you in. She looked ethereal, beautiful you had never seen such beauty before, her hair was in a beautiful hairdo, half down half up, a bunch of colored flowers in her hair and even a purple orange make-up.

She walked gracefully, her dress following her and a veil attached to her flower crown.

"Hey"

"Hey...wow, you...look... amazing...I'm so lucky" she blushed before being handled her cane and replied "Well...I must say You're not so Bad yourself y/n"

"Erm erm.. We are reunited today. To celebrate the union of two beautiful souls, linked together by life. Two hearts beating at the same pace, two bodies sharing one path. We are here, in the evening of this bright full day, to make the two women standing here, married, for better and for worst until death do them apart...If i may have the rings. " He took them and turned to Wilhemina "You will now exchange your vows"

"Oh..lord..sorry. this is the part I'm not going to be good at. But you already know that.

You know every part of me. Every single piece I've yet to discover. You hold them, in your arms. Steady, fierce, protective, bringing me the safe home i could have never hope to have. And yet here you stand. By my side every day. You hold my heart, and you make my sun hang, so bright yet so easy, in my sky. I didn't believe I could ever be liked. And you showed me unconditional love.

I didn't believe I was pretty, you made me feel like the most beautiful goddess in the world. I didn't believe I could feel it, but darling, you are the person I love like I would have never believed such feeling existed.. I am not good at expressing feelings, I find them to abstract, to volatile to be caught by my words. So I chose the ones of someone else that resonated with me so hard I believe them to be our own.

'You belong with me, my love. And I belong with you. We should live life side by side, In everything we do. You belong with me today, For now and ever more. And I belong with you, my dear, The one that I adore. We were meant to be, I know; It’s written in the stars. I love the way we are as one, And everything you are. Just think of all the moments Aligning for us to meet, So once we found each other, We were bound to feel complete. But this part of our story, We’ll sit and write together. Hanging memories on the wall,of the home we’ll share forever. So, both of us are certain. As we each say ‘I do’, That you belong with me, my love, And I belong with you." As she was done and the tears spilled from your eyes the pastor gave her a ring and spoke again.". "Now you will repeat after me as you place the ring on her, -I take you, y/f/n" "I take you y/f/n" ; "—to be my wedded Wife" "To be my wedded Wife"

"— to have and to hold from this day forward"; "To have and to hold from this day forward"

"—for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer''; "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer" ; "—in sickness and in health to love and to cherish,"; "in sickness and in health to love and to cherish,". "—till death do us part"

"Till death do us part"

She said as she finally settled the ring she picked out on you.

"You will now exchange your vows to your bride."

".. Wilhemina, every time I dreamed about love, it was always me finding it, searching, like a lost salior for my beloved boat.But little did I know, love would find me, it would find a way through my heart, in between the cracks of it, sunshine would bring healing. I remember when I first fell in love. The intensity, the warmth, I remember her smile, her hair. I remember how hard I loved. How wrong I may have, probably because of the youth. I remember how much it had hurt. When she was taken away from me. When I could no longer hold her body, when everything from her had immediately and indefinitely turned to dust. I remember how I cursed at the wind, yelled, screamed, cried, abused whatever God had been responsible for it, responsible for this pain love had brought. I swore, I swore to never love ever again. And I tried, I begged for love to leave me alone. I dreamed it would never hurt again. And I remember when I found you, and you found me. How utterly lost we had been. How stupid it was for me to think I would not fall for you.

For your smile.

For your laugh.

For your eyes.

For your tears of joy and sorrow. For every single beat of your heart. How stupid I had been, To think I would never fall again. But the truth is, I spent all these years climbing, to afraid, to hurt, to coward, to actually jump. But the more high you gain The longer and harder the fall. And man, did I fall. And man, how did it feel so terribly perfect to do so. And man, little did I know, you could make me fly. I wasn't scared anymore. It didn't hurt. It was the answer I had been searching for all of my life. The one I didn't know was within me all along, the one you brought to life. It was love, love was the answer. No Our, our love was the answer. I'm so completely and unapologetically in love with you. You, you, you it's always been you. And the stars are watching, they are jealous, and they talk because never in the eternal burn they experience, never did they see souls shine so bright. Our connection goes beyond speaking, you choose words to express what you want to say. I want words to choose how to express what I say.  In truth, we married each other that first night, in bed, we had been married by our bodies, but now we stand in history—what our bodies had said, mouth to mouth, we now said publicly, gathered together.

'I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:i love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams... We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight, live coiled in shells of loneliness, until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies, old memories of pleasure, ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls. We are weaned from our timidity, In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love, which sets us free.'.. Today i stand here, as i will stand for as long as my fragile body allows me to, perhaps then I will sit, or lay, by your side my dear, always. And love within me blooms, and makes flowers from every cell in me grow. I will choose you over and over again love, I will hold you close, I will give you peace, I will bring you home. In me. In my heart."

"Now, for the ring.."

He gave you the one you'd picked for her, a thick golden string with amethyst, and Carnelian.

"-I take you, Wilhemina venable"

"I take you, Wilhemina venable"

"-to be my wedded Wife"

"To be my wedded Wife"

"- to have and to hold from this day forward"

"To have and to hold from this day forward"

"- for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer

"for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer"

"-in sickness and in health to love and to cherish,"

"in sickness and in health to love and to cherish,

"-till death do us part"

You finally slid the ring on her finger before saying.

"Till death do us part

"Perfect, you may now kiss the bide."

You turned to Wilhemina, picked the veil covering her face, lifted it and placed it backwards before taking she took her face in her hands and yours grabbed her hips, bending her slightly backwards before stealing her lips in the most beautiful and delicious kiss you both had the chance to share, oxygen wasn't even needed as your whole body experienced full Bliss, during the embrace you heard, no felt her mumble 'i love you' to which she know you replied by kissing her harder tumbling a little before parting away, faces close, smiles on both of your lips. You walked down the aisle tightly pressed together her hair darked than usual with the dim candle light. And as you went through the door, bells rang and you felt rice being thrown at you from somewhere you couldn't spot. Eventually you got outside, turned to your wife and spun her around before kissing for what would most definitely not be the last time of the day, body pressed together like it will be during your Wedding night.

When you came back home both of your touch yas tender yet urgent, you took no time to

Set your things, just immediately riding her of her day clothes and coat, slamming the door with your feet and taking her upstairs. Before the bedroom door you lifted her up over the threshold, "tradition is sacred my darling"

"Shut up and just make love to me"

Shortly you were both in your underwear, your body on top of hers, cradling her with kisses and caresses, your lips all over her body.

You began to take her nipple in your mouth and play with the other one, her back arched and she moaned loudly, you were starting to kiss your way down her body but she stopped you.

"I..I..want us to cum...together"

"I can't refuse my baby now"

You dragged down her body before teasing her inner thigh and kissing her clit, making sure she was wet enough, you went up her body again, your hand between her legs stating to work her up. Your own hand finding yourself, toying with your panties before sitting back and touching yourself for her to see. Once you were both ready you aligned both of your centers, and lowered yourself on her. Hearing a moan from both of your throats as the contact was a delightful bliss. Your moans filled the room as you rubbed your clitorises faster, wet sounds coming from the friction. "Uh..uH baby I'm getting close"

"..wait a bit for me.. can you do that ?"

"Uhh..yeah..yeaH" You doubled your efforts and before you knew it she was cumming all over you which triggered your own orgasm. You fell on her body, legs intertwined as your bodies sank into each others. Still catching her breath Wilhemina couldn't stop herself from laughing.

"...We got married...in an amusement park";

"We did baby...".

".....I love you";

"I love you too baby"

A/n: the italic pieces are bits of different poems, I couldn't settle for one, if you think cutting a poem is sacrilegious I'm sorry but I believe that Words and art is ment to be movements, live and change though our experiences of then, pieces of structure that you can use to build. your own.

[verytiredblob]

My reviews on Manhwas

Alright so, recently I've began to fall into the great Manhwa hell, as if I didn't have enough fandoms.

But I neither have friends to chat about this with, nor a Discord chat where I can fanby about it, so I just decided to throw it in here.

These are both Manhwas I recommend and my opinions on them. If there are any spoilers, They will be striked through and in blue for anyone that wishes to avoid them (if anyone even reads this lol).

1. The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass (악녀는 모래시계를 되돌린다)

Premise: Aria was a terrible person and was sentenced to dead by being beheaded. In her final moments, she discovers her step sister, Mielle, actually manipulated her during her entire life just so she could get Aria killed. She then is beheaded, and wakes up in the past, in her child body. So now, she must work to both survive and get her revenge on her sister.

Lovely story, and my first Manhwa. The art is simply stunning, and all the characters are very flashed out and developed. Aria (MC) is the pettiest person alive and I'm here for that.

Also, I noticed a trend where, even though the manhwa has "Villainess" in the title, the MC is usually a total angel. Well, not here. Aria is egotistical and a total Diva, she has her goals and one of them is her revenge and by all that is sacred she'll get it.

Mielle is a great villain, she has grown a lot in her own pettiness and tactics since she was a child, and I really like that. Also, watching her suffer for being a terrible person is delightful.

The Male Lead (Asher) is also really cool, I like how he's both witty and friendly, and how much he truly admires Aria and her achievements.

The side characters are also pretty good, and they get a lot of focus because of their interactions with the main cast.

Again, The art is S T U N N I N G. Look at this:

Literally all panels are drawn like this or better, I'm in love.

All in all, an awesome read, 10/10, I love this a lot.

2. The Monster Duchess And Contract Princess (괴물 공작가의 계약 공녀)

Premise: Leslie's life was terrible, and always centered on her big sister, Eli. After a failed attempt of her family to grant Eli her sister's skills and knowledge, Leslie searches for the feared "Monster Duchess" in an attempt to survive.

Another one with incredible art AND incredible characters. Leslie is an absolute angel, and seeing her grow as a person is awesome.

The gender envy I feel with the Duchess is unbearable, she's utterly perfect. And the entire family is so dotting and loving and sweet, my little grinch heart can't take it.

She's perfection, really.

The plot keeps getting more and more mysterious, and I'm here for it!

I love each of the main characters a lot, and even the villains are well done and fuel your hatred.

Also, Eli Sperado and her Dad can choke on those black flames for all eternity.

Another 10/10, although I must warn anyone that wishes to read this that the translations sometimes are very spotty and messy, so it can be a bit annoying.

3. I'll be the Matriarch in this Life (이번 생은 가주가 되겠습니)

Premise: Firentia was a girl that died in Korea in her past life, and was reborn into an influential family as the illegitimate daughter of the third son. Her life was pretty terrible, with in the end, her family ending up in poverty and disgrace because of her uncles and cousins, while she was exiled from the family. After another accident, she wakes up in her past, now with a goal: Become the Lombardi matriarch and stop the other family heirs from bringing it to ruin.

Awesome art and Awesome plot number 3! This is so good, genuinely. Firentia is such an awesome plotter, and her goals and actions are very well developed.

The Male Lead is my baby and I shall protect him, and the side characters? Utterly stunning.

The twins are the cutest fucking shit, seriously. Like, look at these two?? I'm dead. Although, all the children are very, veeery cute.

I like how Firentia subtly manipulates things around her to get what she wants. It's similar to Aria, but she's much more mature and knowledgeable, and has a much less petty goal.

Guess what? 10/10. Yeah, I know, I'm terrible at grading, sue me.

4. The Twins Siblings' New Life (쌍둥이 남매의 뉴라이프)

Premise: Arien and Arjen were a pair of twins that died in Korea, and were reborn again as twins and as the Emperor's illegitimate children. Now, with only each other to trust, they must do their best to survive.

My current obsession. I really like this one. The art is not on the same level of pure Awesome like the ones before, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

The plot is pretty nice, but I must warn you: DO NOT expect them to act like adults. Honestly, just forget they're meant to be reborn in this world. They're just normal children and that's it. They act like children, and they think like children. Honestly, I think the author just wanted to make this story about them as children and their producer went and said to make them reincarnates because that Isekai shit is popular nowadays (And to justify they having memories of their newborn days). Seriously, just ignore it, the experience reading will be much better.

Other than that, the story develops nicely. The characters are all very good and the plot is very mysterious. I am holding myself back to not spoil anything, aaaaa.

There is also only one another thing that disappoints me: Arien is very clearly the MC. The story is told by her eyes and we only know what Arjen thinks or feels when he says it 9 or by subtext). I really wish it was more balanced, because they're both different people and have different perspectives, and also I really like Arjen.

I have absolutely no idea where this plot is gonna go, and honestly? I like it. It's very rare when I don't know how things are gonna develop because of other stories, so it feels very fresh.

The brothers are freaking awesome. I was so scared they were going to hate the twins and be petty, because of other manhwas that are like that, but they're so loving and sweet?? All hail these idiots. Also, Daddy is the biggest dumbass of all, this poor clueless man.

An 8/10, because of the complaints above. Still a good read, and I really like it, even with it's defects.

4. I'm A Stepmother, But My Daughter Is Just Too Cute! (계모인데 딸이 너무 귀여워)

Premise: A seamstress dies of overwork in Korea, and wakes up in the body of Abigail, the vain Queen, and the evil stepmother to the princess Blanche. Yes, It's like she stepped into the world of Snow White, and she must now do her best to live and.. Dote on Blanche with toys and dresses as much as possible?

Again with the awesome art and nice plot. Why are there so many manga with awesome art?? I'm so envious.

May all hail this crispy, delicious art.

Abigail is a whole mood, and I enjoy how she is inserted into the life of someone who had already lived and had a reputation. Her actions baffle a lot of the characters, as do her motivations, and I'm here for it.

The King has also an amazing backstory that's very tragic and yikes. I enjoy it, really. Not something you see in men's backstories that much.

Also, I'm kinda saddened by the fact the MC and the king are bound to become an actual couple. They would be such good platonic friends stuck in a political marriage. I was robbed, y'all.

Abigail greatest ambition is to get to design a dress for Blanche and have her wear it, and you know what? Good for her! Sometimes, it's good to have an MC that is not plotting against world at large.

Also, her mirror? Verite is simply perfect, I love this guy. I non-jokingly ship him with Abigail more than her with the King.

Blanche is a sweetheart, she deserves to be in my "adopted children" wall.

For now it's more of a Slice of Life than anything? But I also don't know what happens in the novels, so I'm just going to wait.

For the current lack of a grater plot, this gets a 7/10. Still pretty good and entertaining, especially for when you just don't feel like trying to understand deep plots with lots of elements.

5. Beware of the Brothers! (그 오빠들을 조심해!)

Premise: Another one of those "I lived my life and then wake up in the past." Hari was adopted by this family after the death of their only daughter, and although her parents love her, her 3 older siblings very much don't. She lives a miserable life in their hands, and when it's the night before she is to get married and finally escape her brothers, she wakes up in the past, and has to deal with them all over again.

Another nice art one, and the background characters are very nice, as is the MC.

But for me, it has a big problem. And that problem is the main ship. It's Hari with her eldest brother, Eugene. Even though they are not related and yadda yadda yadda, they were raised as such, and thus it bothers me. Also, Eugene is as plain as white bread and just as generic when seen as the Male Lead.

I ship Hari with Johan, even though I know it's not gonna happen, Ugh, the pain..

For me, the main point in this is Hari's relationship with her other siblings and the other background characters. I'm here for that wholesome sibling interaction. Her relationship with Erich, specially, is awesome. I love these two so much

It also kinda lacks a plot? Other than the relationship development and their story as a family, but again, I have no idea how they will develop this.

Also, pet peeve? Why do they keep using Oppa instead of translating it properly as brother? I get honorifics and stuff, but it's so annoying.

I give it a 6/10. Good characters and good relationships outside of the bloody incest thing, and it's a good enough way to pass the time.

There are two more that I've read, buut it's like 4am and I'm sleepy as all hell, so I'll just add it in a reblog or attached post later, and I plan on doing this for other future manhwas as well.

Do you have any recommendations or comments or just wanna talk about any of these manhwas? Hit me up!

[tarklesbehindthescenes]

🔥

Transformers Prime was so disappointing. As I said in tags, I'll try to be nice, but I just. I'm going to put this under keep reading. It will be lengthy. I do have some good things to say about it and I will, but I have so many complaints. Can't say I didn't warn you.

I'm going to start off with: I saw Cliffjumper in the first episode, paused immediately and told my friend that if he got red-shirted in the first five minutes to prove the situation was serious, I was going to be ANGRY. Lo and behold, Cliffjumper died to prove the situation was serious. And what was the time? Oh, around 4 minutes 30 seconds give or take. I screamed. My friend said something to the effect of, "I think they killed him off because his voice actor was The Rock and he was pricey". My response to that is, "Then maybe they shouldn't have hired him and gotten someone else."

My boyfriend came to the conclusion at one point that Optimus Prime sets the tone for the Transformer shows he's in. And I'm inclined to agree. Optimus is an absolute edgelord in this and I can't make myself like him. And the rest of the show follows. All I'm seeing is a show that tries too hard to be dark and gritty. It's like the writers were focused so much on the dark themes that the characters, their personalities and their backstories, they were all just an after thought. To me. Just my opinion.

Bulkhead... Why the heck didn't they keep Animated Bulkhead's personality? Why did they make him a generic brute? Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the generic brute types, but Bulkhead is different. It just feels like a slight on what Bulkhead's character was in Animated. I understand that each continuity has every right to their differences. But it still bugs me.

I don't like Arcee. I don't care about her, I don't like the show's half-hearted attempts to make me care about her, she's so darn bland, and it really feels like she is looking to bring down the moods of anyone around her. "Smokescreen's too cheerful and immature. Time to berate him." Glitch, let him have some fun! Dumping hamburgers on someone's car is not something to be mean to him for. Just roll your optics and leave the mood be.

Ratchet does not hit it for me like G1 and Animated do. Maybe because he's racist? He treats the humans like vermin. And then the show just suddenly shows him with a slight change of heart when Raf gets sick. No warning or build up. Just "You humans are so annoying. Oh crap, this child I suddenly care about is dying!" I may be exaggerating, but that's how it felt to me. I guess an argument could be made that Animated Ratchet is racist, too? So if that's the case, then maybe that's not what rubs me the wrong way. But either way, I really don't care for Prime's Ratchet.

I don't care about Raf or Jack. They're just... there. Jack's blander than Arcee. Raf is just some kid with computer knowledge. How in the world does he understand Bee? This isn't G1, they can't just pass it off with "He just can". And I think you said you like Miko, so I'm sorry about this, but I loathe her. She just grates on every fiber of my being. Why is she allowed to put everyone in danger with no repercussions? If they do acknowledge it, it's usually just a slap on the wrist and she goes and does it again. I consider myself a pack animal, so if anyone was pulling stunts that endangered my family, I wouldn't hesitate to deck 'em and give 'em an earful. I'm sorry.

Starscream feels like a joke... He's so hung up on killing Cliffjumper. Like dude. Surely you killed more than just that one tired and beaten Autobot throughout the entire time the war has been going on. And if you haven't, how the heck did you get your position? People say his design is sexy and I just... don't see it. He's very expressive, and the way he moves his wings is great, but aside from that. His voice actor did a great job. But Starscream having a deep vampire-ish voice is not my cup of tea.

Soundwave really should have gotten more screen time. When I saw him slam down Airachnid, I knew I really wanted to see more Soundwave action. Megatron looks like Shredder's armor grew a face (TMNT). I can't take Megatron seriously whatsoever. From his bulging optics that can't look straight ahead, to his alt mode that shows his head and eyes peaking out at the top.

Can the Decepticons in general just have some more color, please? Knock Out and Breakdown are okay. Skyquake and his bro can get a pass. But most everyone else are just colored black, grey, super deep purple, etc. Airachnid should have died in the explosion caused to the Autobot base.

The Autobots are really not much better than the Decepticons. The amount of vehicon violence. They make it a game. But vehicons are filler, they're there to be cannon fodder, etc. Vehicons are so used to being killed off that the second they get punched, they lay down and pretend to be dead so they don't actually die. And the Autobots just laugh amongst themselves and treat it like some game. G1 treated Decepticon battles like a game sometimes too, I know, but they weren't actually killing their enemies. They were just thrashing their butts. The Prime bots kill off the cannon fodder, but don't kill off the main Decepticon characters when they get the chance? Oh! But Bulkhead smashing Starscream's clone to a bloody pulp and killing him! So unnecessary when the clone was clearly not a threat.

The abuse that Megatron throws at Starscream isn't really addressed in a satisfying way. Nobody tries to comfort him or help him get out of the abuse. It just happens. I haven't gone through all of season 3, so I'm only going off of what I've seen so far.

How. Dare they tease the idea of Breakdown having a change of heart and then kill him in such a stupid fashion. Just as I was getting past the fact that they turned him from a paranoid combiner in G1 to another brute like they did with Bulkhead, and beginning to like him. And he was friends with the vehicons! He was the only one that treated them with respect and gave them the time of day! And the writers killed him off! I will never not be salty about that.

...Okay, I think that does it for the negative stuff. Mostly. Now I can move on to the positive stuff.

Smokescreen is precious and I adore what they did to him. It was not worth waiting two seasons for him, but now that he's showed up, I can tolerate the show a little more. He just wants to be the best he can be and prove himself to Prime. The team does not deserve this ray of sunshine.

Knock Out and Breakdown's dynamic was adorable. It took a bit for them as individuals to grow on me, but in the end, I like them and I like their relationship.

I appreciate that the show gave the Decepticons some wins as well as the Autobots. Really made it feel like an actual war and that the "good guys" weren't overpowered.

Scraplets were a nice touch. I like the concept of some tiny terror being a predator to mechs. Makes the bots feel less indestructible. The bringing in of the Insecticons was kinda nice. Wish the design was different, but I appreciate they were even brought in. They really feel like a threat.

I liked the arc where Earth started being cyberformed. I don't think I will never not like the concept of cyberforming.

June Darby with her crush on Optimus. Oh, how I wish they explored that.

Miko and Bulkhead's dynamic is nice. They have a good friendship. I like the idea of a troublemaker dragging around their dim, but sturdy friend around and getting into trouble.

Ratchet on the synthetic energon was great. Give me more kickass doctor, please. Minus the vehicon torture and slaughter.

Predaking is precious as well. I think his fate has been spoiled for me, but we'll see. Hope I'm wrong.

I appreciate that around season 2 the humans started doing more work. They were no longer freeloading.

The vehicon that knocked Optimus' ass out with a tree trunk. He must have had direct beef with Prime and was training for that moment, because oh my goodness.

There was more that I liked about the show. Hence why I don't hate it. I'm just super bummed that I can't move past all those negative points. It had potential. And I want to enjoy it. Whoever loves Prime, like my sister, that's great. I'm glad you do. Somebody has to enjoy it. But it's not for me.

[izzybadapple]

Mr Forrest I trust your tastes, can I get some comic recommendations from you? I'm mostly looking for indie/standalone/non-marvel/non-dc stuff, but I won't say no to a good superhero comic (as long as it doesn't require ancestral knowledge of the superhero lore)

Oh sure! I don’t read comics very often so I’m by no means an expert but there are a few I like very much. Here’s some non-superhero recs I’ve read/finished within the last few years that I thought were really good (warning, some of these contain gore and sexual themes but I’ll be sure to tell you which ones):

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki

I read it in Spanish under Aquel Verano but it’s the same thing. Coming of age thing about two teenage girls (forgot their names) during a single summer in some little bumfuck town. Contains themes of miscarriage and sexual assault, but other than that it’s a good read that I’d recommend for everyone above 13. I don’t remember much else other than that, but I do remember that it made me cry. I’ll have to give it another read soon.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

This series is definitely meant for mature audiences. Contains pretty much everything under the sun: graphic sex, gore, cursing in every panel, etc. But… it’s very good. I do have a few gripes about the mode of storytelling but I can’t exactly air them out without majorly spoiling the story. However, it’s definitely a solid series that I’d recommend to pretty much everybody. Saga is a space opera about two idiots raising a bastard they weren’t supposed to have because they’re from two races on opposite sides of a giant intergalactic war. They meet a lot of cool characters and aliens along the way and stuff… I’ve based two OCs directly off Marko and Alana (the two protags). The series is currently on hiatus so I’d say now is definitely a good time to pick it up without getting overwhelmed with constant updates.

Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

Four little delinquent shits from the 80s are transported to the dreadful year of 2016. Hell ensues. There’s aliens involved. Also, it’s kinda gay. I’ve seen the series be credited for how progressive it is, so if that’s a selling point for you then this book certainly has it. I can’t think of any mature themes in it besides cussing and maybe gore, but if you read OPM (which…. I’m guessing you have because that’s like 99% of my followers) you can surely handle Paper Girls.

And yeah that’s about it. There’s also other series I like, like Fables and TWD and other shit but it’s been so long since I’ve read them, I don’t think I can give an informed recommendation given how much I’ve forgotten.

I’d also recommend Akira, which technically isn’t a comic book (it’s a manga but who really cares), by Katsuhiro Otomo.

My favorite series ever…. This is the best mode of cyberpunk if there ever was one. In fact, I’d argue it practically invented the genre, or at least perfected it. Akira is about a group of teenage shitheads (….a common theme with my recommendations, I realize) in a biker gang who lose one of their own to a military experiment. Shit happens, people die, there’s motorcycles, and the characters are really likeable. Gore, sexual themes (but nothing graphic), cussing, and existentialism. A great read if you’ve got time for 2000 pages of lovely storytelling.

Now, this one isn’t non-superhero, but given that it’s a standalone limited series that you can read with minimal knowledge of the main characters, I’d like to recommend Mister Miracle, by Tom King and Mitch Gerads.

I’d say it was arguably one of the greatest comics available in 2019. Now, Tom King is pretty hit or miss with his writing but when he hits he really knocks its out of the park. Mister Miracle has been my favorite superhero since I was like 11 and I was so excited to hear that he’d be getting a limited series all to his own and I was definitely not let down. There’s a neat little exposition at the beginning so even if you’re not familiar with the guy, you’ll still have a good understanding of the story and characters before going into it. The protagonist is Scott Free, certified malewife to his 8-foot tall warrior wife Barda, and this is about their time recovering after a life of abuse and torture by their adoptive “parents” on the planet Apokolips. Definitely a cathartic read for me. That’s about as much as I can mention without spoiling anything. It’s only about 12 issues and you can read the whole thing in a single afternoon, but it’s worth it.

Yeah that’s it. Thanks for asking! ❤️

[giantroboticplatypusbutt218]

I finished watching Loonatics Unleashed and I have Some Thoughts. I guess this is like a part 2 to the other post I made about the show so yeah.

I swear I don’t intend for everything I write to be an essay but whatever. It’s all under the cut. No massive story spoilers, but I will talk about episodes and will warn accordingly. (But who actually cares about being spoiled on the plot of Loonatics Unleashed?)

Alright so I finally figured out why Ace has laser vision. ...It’s kinda dumb but it’s because rabbits eat carrots(in cartoons). It’s... a reason at least. Still kinda sucks that it’s his only power when everyone else got 2 and some change. Kickass swords don’t count, even if they are magic. Seriously; Transformation. Duplication. Imitation. Tons of other “ation”s. They could’ve leaned into his trickster side but no. He eats carrots... so he got laser vision. Also he only ate carrots like three times in the show so wtf...

Okay so the pacing... improved somewhat in season 2. Don’t get me wrong there were still problems in some episodes but at least they learned how to build the stakes until the climax. They still sometimes went from zero to eighty after the opening credits, but at least it wasn’t zero to a hundred. Much less whiplash was had is what I’m saying. 

I don’t think I really mentioned the villains before but they’re uh... generally not very good. They’ve got cool gimmicks but most of the time they’re just two stereotypes and a cliche in a trench coat. Season 2 brought back classic anthro characters to be villains a few times, and while they still weren’t well written and just referenced old bits half the time... at least they weren’t dehumanized humans. 

I also don’t think I mentioned the animation so... it’s fine. It’s got cut corners but all cartoons do. Sometimes fight scenes look cool, sometimes they’re stiff. Sometimes the slapstick is well timed, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes the facial expressions match the voice acting, sometimes they don’t. Speaking of voice acting, it’s good. There’s not really anything stand out to perform in the first place but everyone does a good job with what they have. 

Okay random note before getting deeper into things... the intro themes were... not good. I swear the first song ended on a note that it wasn’t supposed to. The second song fixed that but added people announcing the characters which... is just worse to me. Not much else to say because I skipped them after the first few times. 

(Very mild spoilers for the general plots of episodes past this point.)

Ace and Lexi improved a little in the second season, but I still find them kinda bland. Ace still just feels like zero calorie Bugs Bunny. His wit is confined to being the leader, snarky comebacks, and some decent sleuthing skills... and that’s really it. He doesn’t really play around with the villains the way Bugs would. Ace was also supposed to have an arc learning to use his magic sword which... didn’t really happen. Lexi’s defining trait outside of her powers is still that she’s “the girl” which... sucks... Uh... she upgraded to Gamer Girl in the second season which while neat, amounted to nothing outside that one episode. At the very least she was never kidnapped for more than 5 seconds?(That “honor” goes to Zadavia) They also never really brought up their backstories in a meaningful way again, which sucks. 

I still like the rest of the team. Slam got an episode about wrestling that built on his backstory and was fun to watch. Duck discovered that his egg powers work differently in water which was neat and matched him being a waterfowl.(Lexi’s powers work differently in water too but it’s never brought up again). Rev is still Rev and I still love him. He got an episode about his family and struggle to impress them(specifically his parents) despite his career choice which was also neat, but I will be coming back to this episode later. Tech is also still Tech and I also still love him. But uh, every character and also me wanted to see him get out of the lab more, and then he got like a nibble of an episode to get out of the lab, and then the show was over. Oof.

Speaking of Tech, it might be for the best he hardly ever left the lab because his powers are... possibly way too effective against all the robots and machines the team fights. Now, him being “overpowered” could’ve been used as a fun writing challenge. Robot goons aren’t a good option for villains anymore. Fighting against him in a city filled with metal is harder. Villains can’t rely on simply killing him thanks to his regeneration. Fight scenes including Tech would have to be handled in a fun and interesting way. But... no. In a team with two tech guys, the one with super speed and flight comes with while the one who can control metal and literally can’t die stays behind. Oh well. Doubt they could’ve added him into more fights without accidentally dumbing him down anyway. 

Oh crap I forgot to talk about Zadavia! Uh... she exists. She’s the team’s boss who sends them out on missions. Uh... I can’t talk too much about her without spoiling what little overarching plot this show has, but just know that she’s neat, but affected by the usual sexism going on in the show’s writing.

(Character and episode spoilers past this point.)

You know, for being The Loonatics the main cast wasn’t very loony. You know who were though? Basically all the villains. Yeah I don’t wanna go there but oops here I go anyway. It’s pretty messed up that all the main characters’ zany traits were dialed down, while the defining feature of practically every villain (besides their stereotypes)is that they’re insane. I mean, if you’re looking for good mental illness rep in The Looney Tunes you’re gonna be disappointed, but at least in the shorts almost every character was a little unhinged and a bit of an asshole, making none of them stand out for those traits specifically. 

Also messed up is that a lot of the villains are disfigured and made fun of for it by the main cast. Hot take of the century, but I think making fun of people for having a big head or only one eye is... bad. Oh and if they’re a woman then they’re also judged on how hot they are. Actually all women in the show are subjected to sexist writing. I remember like one episode where women were treated with a sliver of respect for a split second and that was in the obligatory “the cast comes across an island of amazon women” episode. However since most of the time was spent painting them as villains until the “actually sexism is bad” ending, there was hardly a moment of reprieve from the bullshit if a woman was on screen. 

I’m not the best person to speak on this but uh... it’s fucked up that since literally every notable human is a villain, all the people of color are bad guys, right? Like, obviously it’s not as bad as some of the shit the old shorts pulled, but that’s like saying getting punched is not as bad as getting stabbed. It’s true... but I’m sure most people would prefer neither. 

And here’s where I bring up that Rev episode I mentioned earlier. Rev’s parents are racist against coyotes (cartoons sure love to make carnivores allegories for black people don’t they?) and obviously with Tech E. Coyote being his close friend, that causes trouble. ...Right? Uh, no. They say some racist crap to Tech, and that’s it. There is not even an attempt to correct their behavior from anyone. It’s just treated as some unfortunate quirk. In fact the episode’s conflict actually revolves around Rev’s brother, Rip. Honestly, I doubt that they could’ve handled a decent “racism is bad” episode anyway. But they could’ve also... just not brought up racism if they couldn’t handle it? I’m sure having no racism topic at all would be better than having Tech just take the parents’ racist bull crap lying down and then help Rev impress them with an invention he doesn’t get credit for. Also at one point Rev says if Tech wasn’t a coyote and a guy he’d kiss him, which has two uncomfortable implications, but this section is already too long. 

(Spoilers end here.)

Overall... yeah the show’s not very good. Of course it wasn’t. It was always going to be a little garbage. And no not because of the darker style or strange setting or any of that superficial crap. Team dynamic shows are popular and with Teen Titans doing so well WB probably thought they might as well shove out a 2 season Looney Tunes version to grab a little more cash, probably minimizing the budget to squeeze out as much profit as possible. If anyone working on the show was passionate about it, I doubt they had the budget or time to act on most their ideas. 

Still, there were things to like. There are some funny jokes throughout the show, a few of which even managed to come out of Ace’s mouth. Danger Duck was literally just Daffy and he’s always great. Ironically, Rev and Tech were the most fun to listen to, and also to watch interacting in general. Slam didn’t do much but was a sweetheart who deserves success. There managed to be some decently twisty twist villains, if only because Disney ruined my brain with their ceaseless and lazy attempts at them, and I wasn’t looking out for them in this show. And, while almost nothing was properly developed, at least the concepts and characters are fun to think about?

I can’t say I’d recommend this show to everybody, but uh... if you’re a Furry with low standards and too much free time like me, maybe you’ll like it? Just go in with low expectations so when nice things happen you’re decently surprised. 

[evitachristine]

Anti-Hophie Rant

So I finally finished reading One True King, and this is what I have to say. It’s long. 

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Before I get into this, just a small warning: If Hophie is your OTP and embodiment of perfection, this text is not for you. I will not argue with anyone, alright?

To start this off, in my opinion OTK is the weakest of the series. It just feels like a connection between the last book and the fact that Tedros has to become the King. Some might argue that the second book was the worst, well, I disagree. It’s not just because Hophie happens here, but I kind of believe that when the internet spoiled to me that my hated ship was going to happen (because I had to wait until the book comes out in my country), I was expecting more from it. That I would actually be convinced it’s meant to be, which didn’t happen. Also the execution of some characters (Ahem...Merlin) was just...why. It seemed to me that there were a lot of other fan services in this book, apart from Hort and Sophie getting together, but more about that later. 

 I need to remember this for good, and next time I become a fan of something, I will avoid its fanbase. I do not mean to offend anyone, but a fanbase can really ruin a platform, especially when the platform is still developping and the fanbase is influencing it, which I believe did happen a lot with SGE. I will not deny that a fandom can improve such thing - that is definitely true as well - but sometimes the line between improving and ruining is slim, and if it doesn’t ruin the platform, then it might ruin a couple of fans’ experience of it. 

Now to the point of me hating Hophie.

As I mentioned in my previous post, and above. When I discovered the fandom and found out that people are shipping Hort and Sophie, I asked myself “But why? Sophie doesn’t like Hort.” and I kind of thought this was a joke or a meme ship. I always ship characters where both sides have at least a visible bit of attraction towards each other. Whether its friends to lovers or enemies to lovers. Hophie, until the last book and half, was not the case. It was a typical example of unrequited crush, Sophie once only used Hort to make Tedros jealous. But if my mind isn’t tricking me, she was always disgusted by him and even during their first encounter, he attempted to harass her! And the fact that “they were still kids back then” is not an excuse to me. 

Allow me to make a slight turn from SGE. When I was about 8-10, my mum took me to see an opera called Turandot. I will not bother you with opera, but long story short: A princess is very beautiful and a lot of men want to marry her. So she is giving everyone three questions, if they answer incorrectly, they are executed. Everyone are getting executed until a prince in disguise arrives and is in love with her, answers all questions correctly. Princess doesn’t want to marry him tho, so he asks her to guess his name and if she succeeds, he will gladly die. The princess doesn’t feel love at all and doesn’t want to fall in love. She believes she is a saint. Then in a dramatic duet the prince kisses her and ALL OF SUDDEN the princess falls in love with him. 

Whew. Sorry, I tried to make this as short as possible. I remember asking my mum after this: “Why is the girl always forced to love the boy?” Little me didn’t like this idea of a “magical kiss” already, lol. Mum’s answer was “Because it was written by a boy.”, but that’s not even my point here. Do you see the pattern? Girl keeps refusing guy but in the end he still gets her. THIS RIGHT HERE is the main reason why I hate Hophie. It reinforces the stereotype that if a guy is persistent enough, he will get the girl even if she said no a million times. 

Another note I’d like to say about this, and I’m going to receive hate for this opinion. I started book 1 when I was 16. Now I’m in my early twenties and I get that most SGE readers are still teenagers. The age of crushes, clumsy love experiments, etc. OK now I sound like a grandma. But I think this is where Hophie stems from. Everyone are seeing themselves in Hort. Your crush doesn’t like you back, his crush doesn’t like him back. Something like Éponine in Les Misérables. If Marius and Sophie both fall in love with the person who likes them, it’s like the crush of the fan does. Can we call this the Hort-Éponine complex? 

Aside from that, I believe that people who already experienced both sides of unrequited love (like yours truly grandma, right here), meaning Sophie’s side of it, are less likely to support such ships. 

I will now dive into the OTK “resolution” of this pairing. First let me just say, this book made me, if not hate, then at least strongly dislike Hort’s character. The first half of the book and even a some time after before he finally gets with Sophie, his character is disgusting to me. He is so obsessed with her, even while he’s still dating Nicola. As in my previous post, it’s like a huge part of his character is only “I LOVE SOPHIE”. While he’s still with Nicola, he never fails to mention “his FRIEND Sophie”. I will now paraphrase because I read a translation, not the original, but even when Hort’s singing to the guards to distract them so Agatha and Tedros can sneak into the Library, he sings something along the lines “Girlfriend Nikki and friend Soph”. I’m not sure if this was meant to convince the reader that Sophie ending up with Hort is a good idea, but with me, it did the exact opposite. 

In general, their “romance” feels extremely rushed to me. Compared to Sophie’s previous love interests, regardless of who they were as people, these two have zero chemistry. It seems as if Sophie decided to settle because there was no other guy for her. And the description of her suddenly being in love with him, as mentioned above, is another of those “magical kiss” stories. It is hardly believable and kind of... shallow. 

There even were several moments when Rafal was mentioned. In COT, when the protagonists wanted to flee Camelot but Sophie decided to stay, she saw Hort flying to her and she mistook him for Rafal. Goodness. Even in OTK there were a few moments when it seemed that Sophie still has issues from that relationship. Very few, but they were there. 

Therefore I refuse to believe that the reason for this was anything other than to satisfy the majority of the fandom. In addition, the entire book feels like one huge “fan service”, as other ships are “sailing” as well. We have Hestadil and Bogden/Willam, but these two are at least believable. Hestadil started, even tho inconspicously, two books ago, and it resolved naturally. And beforehand they were close friends, so there’s that. As for the boys, they were side characters, so we can only think that all resolved while they were off the scene. 

To sum it up, I thought of three different endings I’d prefer for Sophie. 

On the first place, this was mentioned several times by other people, is that she should have stayed on her own. That happened in TLEA, but this time, really. I hated that OTK made it seem that she really needs a partner. Yes, love, but heck... is romantic love the only thing that is out there? How about friendship? Content with oneself? Pursuing hobbies that you love? Freedom? Come on. Awesome characters that end up single AND ARE HAPPY should have more representation. And I think Sophie would have been amazing like that. 

On the second place I have two things. First, Sophie with a girl. Only I’m not sure who. Maybe Nicola, or Betty if she survived. Or maybe, people might hate me for this, but... Dot? I don’t ship it but I think it could have been cute. Maybe they would start off getting closer as friends and the rest would be left up to the reader’s imagination.

The other preferable ending I have at second place was originally on the third place, but some weird nostalgia overcame me when reading OTK and I had to move it up. People will hate me. But if Sophie should end up with a guy, it should have been Rhian. Yes, I know what you are thinking right now. But think about it. That guy really believed he was Arthur’s son. Imagine if he found out the truth. Something tells me it would be really hard for him at first, but in the end, if he found out that Japeth really only wants Aric, he could’ve joined the protagonists. In my opinion Sophie had the best dynamic with him, before it all spiralled downwards with snakes etc. Maybe he could pretend to help his twin but in the end... I believe I read something like this somewhere on Tumblr as well. Also this kind of feels as if it could have been Soman’s original plan before he turned to pleasing the fans. Or maybe I’m just fantasising too much.  Regardless of how much you’re cursing me right now, I believe Rhian deserved better and shouldn’t have died. After all, he was the better twin. 

As for Hort, well, before OTK I didn’t really care for his character, I didn’t dislike him but he wasn’t my favourite. I simply wished him well hoping he’ll get over Sophie so he can be happy, either with Nicola/someone else, or on his own. After the last book made me resent him, I’m not sure. He could have died, but I know that is cruel. 

He could have been slowly realising that he doesn’t need Sophie, his love would fade away, maybe Nicola could break up with him in the process, then they would get back together, at a natural pace, realisation, etc. Or they wouldn’t, or they wouldn’t break up at all, just separate on different missions, and then reunite and realise they were truly meant to be together all along. 

Whew, if you made it here, congratulations. If you read this as a Hophie shipper, I’m not taking away your opinion. I just needed to let this out. Hope we can respect each other. 

...But I still kinda wish we could get another version of OTK where Hophie doesn’t happen. 

[wing-ed-thing]

Cabaret (Might Guy x Reader, Chapter VII)

Synopsis: You can't stand Might Guy. Honestly, how could anyone be so boisterously unaware and sickeningly positive? Your heart sinks as the both of you are teamed up to infiltrate and collect information from the Hidden Sound's gritty nightlife. Maybe losing yourselves in the dark of the underground will help you both come to an understanding.

Word Count: 1,737

Warnings: Alcohol, Foul Language

Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIIIChapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI 

Notes: Y’all it’s my man MIGHT GUY’s BIRTHDAY TODAY! Damn you know I gotta do some celebratory squats.

Guy woke up in the middle of the night to find himself still on your couch. The lights still lit up the room. Guy squinted at the glare of the side lamps. A weight weighed on his chest and after a few blinks, he realized that it was you. He craned his neck and gazed upon your softened features. The tension of your day had since vacated your face. Your hand bunched up in his shirt. Sparks of chakra pulsed from your hands with every breath you took. Guy watched your chest rise.  A burst of chakra came when it fell.

He felt his energy being pulled from his network and swiftly replaced by fragile warmth. Every exhale felt like a slow heartbeat. From your fingertips came a puff of fiery spirit energy. It traveled up Guy’s chest, resolving itself in front of his nose.

Guy slowly pushed himself from the couch and weaved a finger through your balled up fist. Placing your hand in your lap, he maneuvered his forearm under your knees. He picked you up with ease. Guy unconsciously held his breath, careful not to wake you as he made his way to your bed. He placed you in the unmade nest of blankets, turning the nightstand lamp off as the covers enveloped you.

Guy made his exit swift, turning off all of your lights before allowing that partitioning door to softly close.

***

When you woke the next afternoon, you felt more rested than usual. Suspiciously so, but you hardly paid any mind. After all, you had a date.

You looked at the clock. It’s blinking neon slots showed 2:47pm. You groaned and stretched, silently cursing what hostessing did to your sleep schedule. The covers were thrown aside with laziness. You might as well get used to staying up and sleeping in late if this mission was going to last as long as you assumed it was going to.

You studied your wardrobe with disinterest before plucking out a few articles of clothing that you guessed that your date would like. You frowned at your reflection in the mirror as you considered that this would be the first time you went out of your way to dress for a man. The feeling lessened at the prospect of not having to wear an evening gown for a few hours of the work day, but it did not lessen by much.

Making your way to the subtle door, you gave it a light knock before letting yourself in. As you figured, Guy had been up for quite some time. You made your way over to the kitchen where he leaned over the sink. He donned workout gear. Guy gripped a water bottle in his hand as he panted. Red overtook his face. Small beads of sweat he wiped away with a small rag.

“I didn’t get a chance to brief you last night.” You told him as you leaned on the other side of the counter. “I should probably fill you in before I go.”

Guy took a breath and another swig of water.

“You’re not going.” He exhaled. You rolled your eyes.

“Guy, just let me brief you.”

“There’s no shame in taking something you can’t handle off of your plate.” Guy placed down his water bottle. Both hands gripped the counter firmly. You almost laughed. He was kidding, right?

“I can handle myself just fine. Just let me-”

“That’s not what I got from last night.” He looked into your eyes. You kept waiting for a signature Might Guy smile or for him to break and tell you that he was just joking, but it never came. You faltered, unsure of how to answer.

“Well fuck, I’m not going to confide in you just so you can throw it back in my face.” You snapped, more disappointment in your voice than you wanted. “Let me tell you what kind of information I got yesterday-”

“It’s not safe. I can’t spot you. I can’t make sure that you’re safe the whole time.” You crossed your arms, heat rising hotter and hotter to your ears.

“I don’t know why you won’t listen to me right now. Yesterday-”

“It doesn’t matter.” You blinked, a smile of disbelief fighting onto your lips.

“Guy, what the hell?” He came around the kitchen island. You recoiled at the hand that Guy tried to place on your clothed shoulder.

“There will be other opportunities. We don’t even know if this one will help us.” You slapped his hand away. A momentary shock rippled through the two of you.

“It’s not a big deal. I don’t understand why you’re making it a big deal.”

“If it’s not a big deal, then you don’t have to go.”

“What the fuck happened to ‘We are on a mission together’?” You stepped closer. “‘Whether you like it or not, that was Lady Tsunade’s call’? Or does that just apply when I’m the one throwing the fucking tantrum.” Guy stayed silent as you challenged him. You puffed your chest out, face in close proximity to his as you glared. “I’m the point of contact so I get to call the shots.”

He spoke your name with a sigh. But you were out of the room before another word fell out of his mouth.

***

Your date rented out a whole private room for your date which made you wonder just how much more the ninja of the Sound were paid. He had taken you to a relatively nice restaurant too: a traditional place where he spoiled you with half the menu. Surely you were sore about being bought as nothing but an expensive ornament, but you couldn’t muster up the rage to be angry at free food (at least for the moment).

It was at that chabudai where you learned that his name was Shou, a Jonin-level ninja.

“Wow, that must mean you’re pretty strong, then.” You sighed, gazing with wonder into his eyes. Chiasa taught you that one. Shou looked to the side with a bashfully prideful smile.

“Well, I mean yeah, kinda.” He feigned modesty. “I mean, I’m kinda gonna be a big deal.” Your date shoved a piece of teriyaki into his mouth.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You crooned. “You gotta tell me everything! All this ninja stuff is so fascinating.” The ninja chuckled, diving into his rice.

“Top secret, missy, I can’t tell you everything.”

“Oh who’s a girl like me gonna tell?” You giggled, leaning with your elbows propping you against the table. The Sound ninja hesitated.

“Maybe later, beautiful.”

You frowned inwardly despite the coy expression plastered to your lips. You weren’t about to push it right now.

***

It became abundantly clear that perhaps Tsunade put you in the right position as a host girl after all. You stared at the empty glasses on the table, then back at your date. The Sound ninja roared with laughter, once again, in a private booth at the club. You laughed along with him, showering him with flattery as you fed him drink after drink.

“The three L’s,” You remembered Yuzuki telling you. The memory reeked of cigarettes. “Liquor Loosens Lips.”

You snuggled into your target’s side, his arm loosely around your shoulders. The rim of your glass met your lips. A gaze lingered on your skin. Your eyes narrowed and your attention immediately snapped towards the bar.

Guy stared your direction, a cup in his hand and cloth in the other. His leer raked across you and you nearly shuttered under the intensity. Guy put the clean glass with the other. You kept waiting for a look of reassurance or a subtle wink to remind you that he was there for you, but he tore himself from your connection. His diverted eyes hit you like a door slamming in your face. A pang of hurt erupted in your chest. You scoffed. Your date didn’t notice.

You grasped the bottle of scotch by the neck and refilled the ninja’s drink.

“So, Mr. “Big Deal”, how did you manage that?” You shifted in your seat, laying a hand on Shou’s chest.

“It’s not exactly legal, sweetheart.” You toyed with his robes as you pouted.

“Clients tell me these sorts of things all the time.” You glanced back to the bar. Guy was already looking your way. “I doubt that anything you could say could surprise me.”

Your hand came over his as you grasped his drink. Your breath hitched as you trained your focus on your kekkei genkai. You let a spark pass which transformed into a trickle of controlled energy. The scotch met your lips. The drunken Sound ninja studied you, tongue wetting his lips as your head came to rest on his shoulder.

“I don’t know much about it,” He began, persuaded by nothing but your touch, “But some opportunities have come up among the ninja. Some serious cash is involved I know that.”

“How cryptic of you.” You glanced down, then back up. “Cash for what?”

“Information of course.” The ninja tapped his drink and you reached for the bottle, but someone grasped it before you did.

“Having a good time, Shou?” The unfamiliar ninja in front of you mused, reading the label on the side. Your date lifted his cup with a silent nod. Wasted. You focused on the chakra flow, making the information exchange as small and undetectable as possible.

A group of them stood in front of you. Two went around to help their comrade from his seat next to you. They tipped handsomely. You recognized them from your first night of work. The rest of the group patted Shou on his back and rustled his hair, helping him as he floundered to the back room. A woman trailed behind the main group. From your recollection, she usually stayed behind. You watched as they went, disappearing behind the curtained doors to the left of the bar.

You frowned at the table. They took the bottle of scotch with them. You began to neatly gather the empty liquor glasses onto the tray, but were interrupted once more. The unsettling feeling of a man standing to close sent a shiver down your spine.

“Excuse me, Yakushi-san. Let me clear this booth and I’ll be right with you.” You attempted a pleasant exterior. The uneasy presence lingered closely behind you. A hand made its way to your waist.

“Of course.”

Thank you to everyone who liked, reblogged, and followed. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

[ichika27]

The World Ends with You

(Yeah, it’s the same screenshot I used for my post about ep. 1. I couldn’t get a new one so...)

Ah, first week without the TWEWY anime to look forward to. I’m actually kinda sad cause I’d miss waiting for the episode every Saturday night (Ani-One posts theirs on that day here). I have some stuff I wanna say about the anime so I thought I’d make one of these plus this is a good way to end the twewy anime blog post series I make every week. I’ll try not to spoil until the very bottom of this post which will have a spoiler warning.

Also, this will be very long and rambly as most of my fandom posts are haha.

Story:

A boy named Neku wakes up in the middle of Shibuya with no memory and finds himself as a player in the Reaper’s Game. For a week he must partner up with a girl named Shiki and both of them must complete missions, battle creatures called noise, and survive as failure meant erasure.

Characters:

Neku Sakuraba - our main protagonist who somehow lost his memories and is now playing the Reaper’s Game. He’s a loner who isn’t too keen on getting close to anyone let alone working alongside anybody - unfortunately for him, it’s a requirement if he wants to survive. As a player he has an assortment of abilities to fight off noise and other enemies (in the game this meant he can use a lot of different pins).

Shiki Misaki - the nice and friendly Shiki becomes Neku’s partner in the Reaper’s Game. Unlike Neku she has knowledge of the game and fills Neku in on things he doesn’t understand. Her ability is to control her stuffed toy called Nyantan/Mr. Mew which she uses in combat.

Beat - the tough skateboarding player, he’s somewhat more like the typical hot-blooded shounen protagonist when compared to Neku. He’s protective of those he care about especially his game partner, Rhyme. He uses his skateboard in battle.

Rhyme - Beat’s game partner who is a lot kinder and calmer than him. Rhyme tends to be the one to reason with Beat when needed and the two are always seen together.

Yoshiya Kiryu - a mysterious boy who seem to know more than he lets on and acts at times acts suspicious. He prefers to be called by the nickname Joshua.

Sanae Hanekoma - a cafe owner who helps out Neku and the others and would give them advice. His advice prove to be very helpful and Neku takes them to heart. Seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Reaper’s Game but doesn’t seem to be a reaper himself.

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Thoughts:

(I tried my best to not be spoilery in the character descriptions so some names weren’t written in full)

The World Ends with You (or in the original Japanese “Subarashiki Kono Sekai”/It’s a Wonderful World) is an anime based on the video game of the same name. It had to compress an entire game’s worth of story within it’s 12 episode run which meant they cut out a lot of things and combined some scenes to quickly run through them. It’s theme song is the anime version of the game’s original OP “Twister” although this wasn’t what was originally planned but an incident involving the band who sang the original theme forced them to make changes. The original voice actors from the game also reprised their roles for the anime. The series is created to be watched before the release of the long-awaited sequel game.

The art style is made to be similar to it’s game version (with a bit of change to adapt it as an anime like when it comes to body proportions). They also retained the effect of the characters from the UG (players/reapers) being brightly colored while those from the RG having darker/muted colors. While the noise are obviously cg, I personally liked this since they’re said to be from a different plane anyways so it’s a nice contrast to those from the UG and RG. They had to update the setting though as years had passed since the original game’s creation and they had to model anime version of Shibuya to what it’s real life counterpart now looks. The characters are also given smartphones instead of the flip phones they had in the game (anime-only watchers who are gonna play the game would have to get used to them still using flip phones though lol).

Okay so story-wise... it’s rushed. Of course it is. They shortened it so that what’s left would mostly be important plot points from the main story but they cut out many scenes that consist of character interactions and several little things that could’ve fleshed out the characters more. The gameplay is also made simpler with some mechanics taken away and the mini games weren’t adapted (RIP to Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer, especially the latter as you’re severely missed). The game boast an assortment of characters and some NPCs have their own stories but due to the anime’s limited run time, they had to either be cut out (and are just given cameos) or given smaller roles (and their stories weren’t adapted). They did, however, give a few bits and pieces of information that weren’t in the game such as some details about certain characters and one supporting character was given a bit more screentime that they did in the game version.

Despite the rushed nature of the series (which may or may not affect how one views the story itself), the anime made sure to adapt several important scenes and the dramatic stuff is made worse... like, they really had to make some deaths harder to take. The battle scenes were nice as well although my biggest complaint about them is that the boss fights were over too quickly. There were scenes that were changed for the anime version and there are those that I liked and those I didn’t but there are many which I think was as good as the game’s version.

Do I recommend the anime? The game is better, the characters and story are more fleshed out and the way the character/relationship development happens is better paced so of course, me, biased already would tell you to play the game instead if you haven’t yet. Do I recommend those who played the game to watch the anime? Yes! Yes I do. I think the anime is better watched when you’ve played the game and know the stuff that they cut out cause it’ll make better sense that way. Plus I found it enjoyable seeing the scenes from the game animated and the characters are speaking whole dialogues and moving. It’s great!

Even if the anime wasn’t perfect, like I mentioned before, they did their best to condense the entire main story in a 12 episode series and it tried to be as faithful as it could to the original story so despite the deviations when it comes to how things got to the way they did, if you summarize important plot points, they would be the same (with some details changed). Overall, it was very enjoyable and it wasn’t as bad as I feared when I heard how many episodes the anime was going to have.

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Some spoiler thoughts:

It would’ve been better if the anime had more episode count than just 12. Cramming a 3 week story of game into just 12 made the thing very rushed with Week 1 only getting three episodes, Week 2 getting four, and final Week getting five. They had to get to the good stuff so they cut off a lot of scenes where the characters are interacting with each other which means they suddenly get character developments and relationship developments too quickly. It might not be that obvious to anime-only watchers but to me, it felt kinda sudden and it feels like it doesn’t work out well story-wise since Neku had to learn how to trust other people and make friends and with how he started vs. how he came out of it contrasting each other.

By the way, they made the characters look good in the anime. Especially Joshua. Have you seen Joshua? He’s so pretty in the anime. I want a picture of him I could stare at anytime I want to (I do not own a phone, sadly).

I like how they gave Eri more scenes though and that they changed her outfit for the anime so she won’t look exactly like UG!Shiki. All of her scenes though made me feel like I wish the anime gave closure to Shiki’s own story by showing us her and Eri making up. Another scene I liked in the anime is Neku’s fanboying of CAT when he finds out the truth. It was adorable.

Some info was taken away from the anime. Beat and Rhyme leaving home had scene dialogue and unlike Beat just narrating it in-game but they didn’t mention specifically why he was angry and his trouble at home. Joshua wasn’t present when Sota and Nao gave Neku a pep-talk either which is a shame cause I think that helped Josh as well. 

I mentioned before how the anime made things go too fast. They cut off chunks of not-main-plot story that let the characters interact with each other more which means each game day is shortened as well. I think it made sense that Neku wakes up at the scramble in the end and not stressed out because he didn’t go through as much as his game counterpart did. That said, game Neku learned a lot from more than just the main cast in the game compared to the anime so I like his character development in the game better.

They took away Tin Pin Slammer. I am sad and disappointed. I was hoping so bad for Another Day to be adapted even if it’s an OVA. That and the ramen incident are part of Josh’s week which meant some side of him wasn’t shown (I mean, anime fans don’t know he wasn’t there on week 3 since he’s busy playing a kid’s game elsewhere and how he could talk about food like he is from a cooking anime). Speaking of Josh, they made him very suspicious from the get-go in the anime. I understand as there’s a limited run-time and they can’t really afford to be subtle about it but it meant some of the fun interactions with Neku is gone and so are some scenes where they actually got along. At least they had ice cream together, I guess?

(I have more to say when it comes to Joshua cause he’s my fave character but this is long and my thoughts on it would make this way longer. I might make another post.)

In the end, it wasn’t perfect but the anime was fun and enjoyable enough that I found myself looking forward to it every week. Seeing scenes I recognize from the game in animated form (with voice acting!) felt exciting and awesome. I’ll miss this show and I still wish it was longer.

If you’ve read this far well, thank you. And also I’m confused why but still hopefully that was a good time-killer. I have so many other things I wanted to comment on but that’s for another time. Maybe.