#i knew from the og series that he is the way he is bc he had a pretty dark past but i never imagined THIS

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

okay so TENATIVE predictions for season 4: it looks like they're going to be playing into the mandela effect. half the universe remembers the umbrella timeline, half the universe remembers the sparrow timeline, and the ONLY thing both groups remember is Ben.

I've been praying since day one that Ben will have memories of both lives in his head, and judging by the fact he appears to be Going Through It in the trailer I assume that'll be the case.

since Ben is at the center of the conspiracy, I almost want to say he's who they're supposed to be rescuing? like, maybe instead of One Ben Two Lives, it's Two Bens One Cup. I don't think they'll do that, though. They're probably trying to rescue Jennifer. HOWEVER I do think it would be really sexy if Nick Offerman and Megahn Mullally weren't playing a couple but were instead playing the same person from different universes (hence being named Gene and Jean), and they somehow found each other and that's why they're leading this conspiracy.

Mystery Jennifer is stressing me out. obviously by the glowing she's got something going on. I'm thinking there's a possibility she was erased from the family's memories after Ben's death- the trailer makes it seem like Reginald made Allison rumor them after the fact. there's probably a decent chance they all knew her, she lost control of her powers, Ben died, Reginald locked her away and erased all traces of her. maybe in the sparrow timeline she died instead, or maybe she was always locked up there and Ben was drawing her from memories that were already starting to leak through from the og timeline, but either way probably in trying to uncover how Ben died they figure out they have to save her. idk!

also, six is like. a random number of years I'm sorry. why wouldn't they just say five years later? maybe another thing to do with Ben bc umbrella Ben was number six? I'm probably reading too much into that one.

I'm truly SO scared they're gonna reveal none of them have spoken during the time skip. Five doesn't deserve that 😭😭. in my perfect world him and Viktor have an apartment but the show writers 100% forgot they said those two were best friends when they were kids judging by the rest of the series rip. when the Gene and Jean characters were first announced I thought maybe Five got stuck in the foster system and they took him in, and that could still be the case (maybe that's how they noticed the universe is a lie in the first place, the boy loves to Yap) but I think it's less likely now idk

if Diego and Lila's daughter isn't named Gracie....what was this all for. what was this all building towards. what's the point. LMFAO I know the popular fanon one is Anita (personally in my head I've been calling her Poppy and I Don't Know Why) but like Gracie is the only name that makes sense, Diego is Too Much of a mama's boy to accept anything else.

this one isn't a prediction it's just a demand- I DEMAND a white violin icon moment set to extraordinary girl by green day. they can 100% get away with just doing an instrumental version since Viktor's not a girl lmfao, but it literally Haunts Me that they didn't do that at the end of season 1 (or at LEAST play the opening of letterbomb when Viktor was in the basement hallucinating) so they NEED to make up for that. it's the last season. play the fucking song oh my God.

there might be too much going on to bring the sparrows back in any meaningful way, but like! I liked them! I especially wanted more Marcus last season, he and Viktor had good chemistry. and Fei was an icon. Why Are We Hiding Sloane Tho. I considered maybe they were rescuing Sloane, but like, Luther just seems a little too happy for that to be the case? that's why I also think Diego and Lila's kid isn't the one being rescued like I saw some theories suggest- Diego is so excited and Lila's grinning in the car scene. can't imagine their 5 year old is missing.

Five is absolutely gonna die. like I'm sorry since episode 1 there's never been a believable outcome where everything's okay and he lives. HOWEVER I think there's a very strong chance the series could end with the timeline is finally saved and set right, and grandpa Five died- but then right at the end 2002 baby Five shows up and gets stuck in the safe timeline. Five has been a walking paradox the whole series. it'd be bittersweet to lose the Five we love, but know that he's still technically getting a happy ending because he doesn't have to live through the apocalypse and become an assassin. I think that's like the best outcome we can hope for.

I think it'd be EXTREMELY funny if Reginald is just super nice now that Abigail is back. like the entire excuse for 30 years of insane behavior was that he missed his wife. bestie there are better ways to cope than abusing superpowered kids </3 but lmao I'm intrigued by him and Viktor being together in both trailers! I've always gotten the feeling that Viktor is one of his 'favorites' (to the best of his ability anyway), and from the brief childhood flashbacks we see that he had baby V acting as an assistant for him, so I'd like to see their relationship expanded a little bit. honestly I just want a lot about Reginald cleared up- he does give off the distinct impression that he actually cares about his kids, even though he's abusive. I'm assuming the explanation will be something along the lines of 'well I always planned to bring you back and safe in the New Universe', that he was approaching it as a 'they have to suffer now to save the universe, and then they can be happy' mindset. that would be interesting. but I'm also a little worried they'll wave his behavior off with 'oh he's an alien he just can't understand how he affected them', which, would suck writing-wise.

I'm worried about Allison- I'm sure they're gonna want her to have a full redemption by the end of the series, but what she did to Viktor and Luther last season...like I just don't know that they'll pull off a meaningful redemption, to where it's believable that they forgive her (other than the fact they're both softies and push overs). not with the shorter season, anyway! I *think* the person Viktor was punching in the trailer was Allison. but I'm worried that instead of actually fixing the issue the writers will just have her do a sacrifice play. especially since, bless her, she's the least sacrificial person in the family, so I could see the argument that it'll be a meaningful character growth moment, but like...if they don't actually have her believably fix her mistakes it'll just feel like a lazy writing move. also, I love her and I don't want any of them to die. as I said, the only death I'm willing to accept is Five's WITH the promise of baby Five getting a happy ending.

I want the Handler to come back, even if it's only for one scene. sorry, I think her absence was one of the low points of season 3.

I think if Grace appears in this season at all it won't be the robot version we're used to, but an older version of her human self that Diego met in the 60s. could be very bittersweet. I just don't think the robot exists in this universe bc honestly if my husband revived me from the dead but then I found out he's been living without me just fine, but made a robot copy of a pretty young fling he had after my death and seemingly can't live without her. I'd be a little pissed! sorry! lmao that said I also have personally been headcannoning that Grace is actually a cyborg and not a robot this whole time, the kids just don't know because of all the insane protocols Reginald set up, so if they do something with that instead I'll be really excited.

Diego and Lila's daughter deserves powers<3

alright I think that's all I got for now. but I wanna hear more theories!!

[jade-len]

okaaaayy, so, i saw a post that i think was sort of targeted towards one of my posts talking about how "lbh was better than me bc i too would've gone bat shit insane"

"I've seen a post saying that that they understand LBH going bat-shit crazy because one guy (Shen Jiu) rejected him, and that they would've done the same."

and i would just like to say that i am in no way justifying bingge or bingmei's actions, and i think i made it pretty clear that i knew how fucked and unhinged lbh was ahaha..? though it's not just because one guy rejected him, but because of the terrible side dishes, nasty after taste, and tragedy galore!

all i was rlly doing was putting myself in lbh's shoes. in my post, i was saying how if i was thoroughly bullied and alone throughout my whole life and then was randomly taken cared of by someone and proceeded to fall completely in love with them, and then out of nowhere they turned a complete 180 and pretty much told me to fuck myself bc of my race and pushed me down into literal hell, i think i would've gone crazy! absolutely bonkers. then that person kept running away from me when i'm just trying to talk to them? i don't know how my mental health would be able to take that! the post was more placed in a joke-y manner, but i do think that i would've done the same if that was my situation. is that okay? hell to the fucking no, i'd be horrified of myself if i were to see me doing that no matter the reason. the same goes for the og, the pidw binghe's situation

and really, the same goes for sj as well. if throughout my whole life i was on the streets and then a slave and beaten etc... shit, i probably would've turned out just like him. it doesn't make it right, and i'm not justifying it, but i'm placing myself in the characters' shoes and understanding how they came to be such a way

so, i was pretty much saying that i understood luo binghe, though in no way did i mean to excuse his actions. but i understand that it sounded like i was justifying it, so i can 100% see that now looking back which i am completely at fault for. and, i for one also dislike it when people try to downplay luo binghe's actions or justify what he did

"by your logic, can we excuse serial killers going on a rampage because the person they liked refused them?" no, absolutely not. and no, i wouldn't be okay with a crazy bastard taking it out on someone i cherish for a stupid reason. i wouldn't be okay with someone taking it out on anyone for any reason. there is a line between reality and fiction that i do not cross, and even in fiction i can very thoroughly recognize the fucked up side of my favorite characters

lbh's fucked and definitely a little more than unhinged, and i don't truly think that he's a completely good or even bad person, but i do appreciate that (at least, to me) he seems to try to become a better one after all of that at the end of the series and recognizes that he can't own sqq

and, hey, sj is one of my favorite characters! i enjoy how mxtx made the svsss characters be fucked in some degree. like how lqg thinks just beating up his disciples is a valid teaching method. i enjoy stories with characters who aren't necessarily "good" or "bad" only. moral ambiguity with characters is so interesting!

i really don't think that we should be putting lbh stans and sj stans against each other because, well, there will always be people on both sides who justify the characters' actions. it's not just one side is doing this and the other side isn't doing that, ykwim? and this isn't even just about lbh and sj when we think about it, it's how some people perceive characters who are morally questionable and don't truly look at all sides of the character! the bad, the good, and the ugly

i love sj and lbh, i love my characters with ambiguous morals, and i love that i can put myself in their shoes and see where they're coming from/why they're the way they are no matter how delightfully screwed it is. especially bingge, he's a deliciously tragic and horrible person

so, if i were to believe that lbh's (or tbh any svsss's characters') actions were okay and justified, and also proceeded to believe so if it took place in real life, then there "might" just be something wrong with me

[maze-of-my-design]

persona fun facts :o? can be from any game!

totally not copy-pasted from dms FUN FACTS BRIGADE (also i cut it in half with a readmore bc its. a lot)

Ann is the tallest girl among the Phantom Thieves, santing at 5'5! (In my head she is taller than Ren but shh)

If you take the thieves to darts, the worst player in the gang is surprisingly not Morgana, but Sumire! Don't ask me how she's worse than a cat!

In P5 (including royal), Ann is the only romance option to directly say "I love you" to the protagonist without cutting herself off* (and, i'm half sure, she's one of the few direct kisses a protagonist receives in a persona game) and honestly? good for them ily ann im so gay for her *Sumire says it too, even before being romanced, but it's not a complete "i love you", per se. She stutters through her confession and Ren has to finish it for her because she's so flustered, which is pretty cute i'll be real but in terms of Saying it, it technically doesn't count.

Sho Minazuki (yknow, the guy from the arena games) was originally meant to be the protagonist for P5! This is massively implied in ending dialogue for the Arena games, as well as how similar the two look if you, like, dye his hair black. Also if you recall the original Femc for P5 with the neon red hair…

Sumire lives with her dad, that much is obvious, but the Royal artbook reveals she also lives with her grandma and her mother!

Among all the non-party-member confidants in P5 (including royal), only 5 find out Ren's identity as a Phantom Thief through something else other than a mementos request. These are Maruki, Yoshida, Sojiro, Mishima, and Sae

The Featherman series is a Power Rangers style anime that airs in the inner universe of the series. Contrary to what the Dancing games make us believe, There's always only 5 Feather soldiers that are part of the main crew: Pink Argus, Red Hawk, Black Condor, Yellow Owl, and Blue Swan. These names, however, are sometimes interchanged between "generations" of the show.

Actually lemme go on a tangent (you asked for fun facts you're GETTING fun facts) There are three generations of the Featherman show to date: OG Featherman (persona 2), Featherman R (Persona 3), and Featherman V (P4 and the Arena games). There's actually a change in the naming semantics every new generation of Featherman. For example, take this excerp from the wiki: "Red Eagle (from Featherman), Feather Hawk (from Featherman R and/or Neo Featherman), Feather Red (from Featherman V)" So in P2, the naming convention is "[Color] [Bird name]", in P3 it's "Feather [bird name]" and in P4 it's "Feather [color]"

Ok tangent over don't ask me how i know so much about a fictional series from a fictional game JSVGEFVR more fun facts

Sumire actually has the biggest amount of portrait sprite variations, since it includes her Kasumi and her Sumire sprites. She deserves it tbh, fashion icon

Another Sumire fact! Did you know Maruki "transformed" sumi into her sister on her birthday? I sure did! Fuck you Maruki!! Uninvited from MY birthday party for sure

Sumire, piror to the third semester, is only ever called by her last name, Yoshizawa, by everyone aside from Ren, Morgana and Futaba. This is a very a subtle way to show something's up with her and i gasped when i first found out about it.

Ok fine enough P5 facts have a P3 fact. It's kinda well known im pretty sure but Makoto Yuki's barrage of official names include, also, Sakuya Shiomi from the stageplay. Sakuya means "blossom" or "bloom". Hey do you recall that he dies in March 5th? yknow, when spring starts? Cherry trees. you get it

Back to P5, Tactica reveals that Haru used to indulge in chopping firewood when she was younger. Her dad didn't like that for her, but he never tried to stop her. This probably leads to her having an Axe as part of her Phantom Thief artillery.

Did you know Fuuka and Futaba actually become friends in the Dancing games? They sadly don't remain friends after losing their memories post-game but Fuuka knew her as Alibaba, and Futaba knew her as Lucia :) I hope they became friends online again

In the jazz jin in Royal, Futaba reveals that the retro console you use to play games was hers, and that she'd sold it to the shop in Yongen. Also apparently the busted laptop you buy there was Haru's! (fact also revealed in the Jazz Jin)

[pitter-patt-art]

Ace Attorney AU August oops-august-has-been-over-for-a-week Update!!

Hiiiii well okay first and most importantly of all! Happy investigations collection day everyone!!!! My copy is supposed to arrive by 10pm although I'm not sure I'll be playing it right away, but, hey, once it arrives I'll have in my possession at least one physical copy of every game in the series (2 for aai1, woohoo)!!! *Coughs* uh except all of the OG Trilogy which instead I own like 2 times over digitally (3 in T&T's case, thanks Wii) lmao. Ah well.

NOW the actual post. Yeah it's not August anymore but I've been recuperating or w/e so shhh, better late than never!

Overall I wrote over 50k words (actually in August itself) and posted 5 fics (with many more in progress), which is honestly just, wild???? That is so cool. Apparently the way to overcome writer's block is just overcommit to a month-long prompt list, who knew!

Here is my post about the first 17 days/AUs! And over here's my Ao3 series for these! Below the cut I'll wrap up the last 14 days of AUs, some thoughts, etc!

I am setting the goal for myself to actually finish writing these before the end of the year even if they're not technically "AU-gust" qualified anymore by the time I get to them sooo ...wish me luck!! In the meantime I am proud of myself for (tbh completely unnecessarily and to my detriment lmao) coming up with actually a full 31 solid AUs based on the prompts that I feel inspired by.

This post is gonna be a bit more rambly than the last one because I definitely did more of my writing last month the first 2 weeks rather than the last 2, but nevertheless--

Onto the remaining AUs!

18 - Space Travel

So, I actually started a draft at the airport before my vacation where I got wayyyy too sidetracked getting detailed about this one and thus ended up not being able to finish the post before takeoff lmao. I'm not sure whether it's annoying or interesting to include all of that here, but it's my post so fuck it, here's August 21st patt to tell you aaall about it so I don't have to: The Martian AU (I've only seen the movie and not read the book but i *did* literally just re-watch it because this thought crossed my mind lol. (Hello! It's future me popping in to say: fun fact, rewatching this movie literally ended up being the reason I knew a bar trivia answer last week lmao. Huzzah for the powers of Ace Attorney refreshing my movie quote knowledge.) Be glad this one occurred to me because my first inclination was to lean into the dark past of my vld phase (I'm super joking I had a lot of fun with it before the last few seasons haha sorry idk what to tell you friends) and see how much I'd retained if i tried to make that work but the martian sounded more fun in the end). Apparently my Thing™ is a) poisoning Phoenix and b) putting Apollo in an insane situation in which he's completely on his own--which all things considered is probably far meaner lol. I think Phoenix is to blame for creating his own problem here for choosing to eat the stupid necklace but I fully blame Capcom for all the BS Apollo has gone through after AA4 (bc...the stuff IN that game is. coincidentally also Phoenix's blame to claim. lol). That said I'm part of the problem teehee. Apollo can be Some Guy from the real world who gets isekai'ed and he can also be Mark Watney :P (sorry bud I love you but you have just the Worst case of unavoidable main character syndrome). ((Which is QUITE funny actually because I'll never get over Capcom calling 4,5,6 the """"Apollo Justice Trilogy"""" (it's really not and it's frankly insulting they're trying to say it is.) Like he's. Y’know. The main character in exactly one of those games...... so.)) What was I talking about? Lmao oh yeah so Apollo is left on Mars (not sure he actually has much in the way of Botanist™ vibes but the indomitable, never-say-die, highly sarcastic vibes.... ye haha that's my boy right there). Omg wait sorry I'm writing this and realizing this whole thing actually fits the 18th AND yesterday's (the 20th) prompt as well. Whoops.

Clay as the captain (let him do something, says I)

Trucy as I think the pilot ONLY because I am literally constantly on the lookout to make a Wright Flying Brothers joke, sorry

Klavier aaaas. Uh. So the German astronaut in the film is the chemist and navigator and I know Klav's not necessarily supposed to be actually German canonically but there IS something funny about it

Athena as the flight surgeon and EVA specialist (for a couple reasons but mostly so she can be a doctor lol. I imagine she also can be there for psych stuff too, like, it's a long ass space voyage, that does shit to your brain)

Kay as the SysOp and reactor tech, tbh mostly because for some reason i really have a thing for hacker/programmer Kay, i guess?

Ema I want to be there also lol so that would be exceeding the actual number of OG astronauts but eh it's my AU. The rest of these I'm just directly comparing to a crew member from the martian but I think some of the titles and tasks could be redistributed a little to allow an extra person as a treat for me.

Originally i kind of wanted Sebastian (....SIGH. or...Eustace. (I fear even though it's AAIC release day today, I truly may die on this hill forever, falling on my sword of devotion and gratitude to the fan translation team... That said, while I think Eustace is, like, a Deeply Fine name, I have to say that Excelsius is a fucking knockout name lmfao, that one took me out. Anyway, ahem: "I wanted Seb/Eustace...")) to be there too but I think that's getting into too many cooks territory just specifically bc I'd have too many voices to play with lmfao. So instead I think he's the operator who works the satellite and realizes Apollo is alive, I think he'd fit that well. NOT THAT that needs to be. Included. In the AU. I have...so much self control.

Anyway I have too many thoughts about it, it's a problem, ironically I think I would prefer to focus on the crew and not Apollo himself, so that would at least make it more than just a rehashing of the movie/book. (Or, the movie at least. Does the book spend more time with them? I should read the book.) ...I did, Of Course, also came up with a funny, pseudo-future-science-y way to do a Sibling Reveal in this one, so there's that, too, haha. OKAY AND, SCENE. Snatching my mic back from myself. I'm actually so devoted to the Martian AU now hahaha, I really didn't think I'd let that happen to myself but here we are... You'll see in a bit, but I for-better-or-worse do truly have an extended universe going on for it now, eheh... (Help.)

19 - Spies

Franmaya?? Franziska POV??? Here's the deal: I cannot BELIEVE I got this many days into the month and STILL hadn't come up with a franmaya-centric AU, it's terrible. Also I need a Maya POV if I want to hit my self-set, self-indulgent goal of having POV of every "main" character I can (did I exactly accomplish this no but that's perfectly fine obviously haha it was just a side achievement I had my eye on). So to that end, I ended up with something here that I'm not COMPLETELY sure I won't end up changing when I sit down to actually work on it, but in short: semi The Princess Bride vibes but with spies instead of pirates! Or uh! So um okay full disclosure lol I got all excited about an AU of this kind and then like an hour into daydreaming it into existence I realized I was heavily relying on / leaning into ASSASSIN territory rather than SPY. Which are notably different things. (Wait lol should I blame Spy x Family?? Totally Endo-sensei's fault and not at all mine, boom, take that.) ...And not to go even harder into sxf territory, whoops, but my idea was something along the lines of like, since Kurain School Channeling changes spirit mediums' appearance entirely, I was going to have Maya be something of an expert in disguise, and Franziska I was almost more or less going to let retain her actual position of international prosecutor with Interpol, although perhaps I'd lean more into a James Bond-esque intelligence agency sort of thing than what we see them do in-game, I'm not sure. Maya gets "killed" for real in 2-4 except she actually just becomes an international assassin(?) apprentice. Does this make sense? Probably not lol. But is it a little funny and a little sad? Yes, yes it is, and that's always my sweet spot as a writer. The only problem with this premise is I can't stop myself from considering what Phoenix would do / be doing in the background, because the problem with Maya "dying"-only-being-secretly-alive leaves at least twofold problems in justifying why Nick hasn't gone full conspiracy theory board stop-at-nothing-to-find-her, in that a) If she's not dead, Pearl can't channel her, and knowing Pearl I have to imagine that would be her first move to try tbh, and b) even if that weren't an issue, if the police were never able to track down Maya's body at all, I fully believe Nick would still throw himself at the problem until he's able to find answers irregardless, so. This ain't about him though!! So we'll just all have to deal with knowing he's taking reaaally really bad care of himself while he single-mindedly tries to figure out what's going on ahaha...ha. He's most absolutely the drowning child in the facebook post meme. Don't worry about him.

20 - Crossover/Fusion

Soooo. Okay. First may I say, I'm not the most crossover-fic-y person in the world neither as a reader nor writer. HOWEVER. Unfortunately. My one undying weakness has proven to be Ace Attorney x Legally Blonde (and more specifically Legally Blonde the Musical, the best version, though I do love Reese Witherspoon's performance ofc it's iconic but the musical is just MWAH ugh. One of my all-time favorite musicals and definitely the one I've listened to the most esp the past couple years hahaha.) The problem is, I've joked about so many slight variations / one very Long Intensive specific AA/LBtM crossover AU ideas, that trying to limit myself to a one-shot I could conceivably finish within a day proved too much for my decision paralysis and I didn't end up writing any of them lmao. Alas. Mostly, I just think it would be funny to see the characters interact in something of a vacuum just for fun, the problem is just that I happen to be uniquely terrible at not thinking through a Crack AU until I can, ahem, "crack" it, so to speak, to make it actually justifiably function. So in theory all I want to write for this day is some combination of like, Elle and Phoenix interacting and Miles and Emmett interacting, or the four of them having a conversation that goes something like "omg wait me too!! i also went from a creative undergrad degree directly into law to chase after some guy!! what are the odds teehee" while Emmett and Miles watch in horror, and also alternatively Emmett and Phoenix mostly bemusedly watching Elle and Miles geek out over like, fancy ass high class (pink) clothing like "uh yeah i have no idea what any of those words mean. she bought me this suit and i honestly wouldn't even be able to find the store again. oh no way he bought you yours too?? man, wild." Etc. (If anyone's interested in really watching me suffer and spiral: my longer and more intensive idea for an AU with them is to have them be tackling parallel cases where either of them (Elle and Phoenix) has specific knowledge that is helpful to defending the others' client, and they get like place-swapped through dimensional shenanigans somehow also related to the cases. And Phoenix has to abide by, like, nominally-accurate US trial law (I know he wouldn't really be licensed shhhh) -- by which I mean Emmett is sitting as his co-council and exercising the most restraint possible to keep from bashing his head into the table every two seconds. And Elle has to abide by guilty-until-proven-innocent Japanifornia trial law ("wait WHAT omg what do you MEAN the prosecution can just, like, not submit their evidence before the trial???? wait what do you MEAN we should just TAKE THAT that is EVIDENCE AT A CRIME SCENE--"). On the bright side, Elle gets to experience being one of the most normally-dressed people in a courtroom and not at all being looked down upon for her general vibes and wardrobe (like tell me she wouldn't fit right in in the ace attorney universe and seem completely ordinary), and Phoenix gets to experience a real jury (take that jurist system trial that Capcom would like to never ever talk about again) and also the judge going "so, Prospective Juror No. 103, do you understand that the defense in this criminal trial does not need to say a single word in order to be doing their job? the burden of proof lies entirely on the prosecution the entire time and the defense and defendant could choose to remain silent every day of trial and that would be completely within their rights, do you understand that? are you okay with that?" etc etc, shout out to my jury service a couple month ago and the kinds of questions a real life California judge asks jurors that would seriously blow the minds of every single character in Ace Attorney lmfao can you imagine? Anyway.) So yeah idk. Also something something, spirit mediums and the whole Greek Chorus bit from the musical... "School Spirit"... much to think about in crack AU land hahaha.)

21 - Absurd Tragedy

To be honest with you, this is the entire series lmao, so much so that I had trouble even thinking of an AU to be "alternate" in any way here, hahaha. What I sort-of landed on and have vague outline notes about in my doc is (not to make another excellent-musical-adaptation-of-an-already-top-tier-movie-which-is-itself-a-highly-unfaithful-adaptation-of-a-fairly-obscure-book reference) a Shrek the Musical "I Think I Got You Beat"-style debate about whose canonical absurd tragic circumstances are the worst, lmfao. Granted, this then turned into a "wait what if I use said argument as an absurd way in which to make Apollo and Trucy have a siblings realization completely on their own, which both compounds the fact they've both already lived such tragedy to begin with but also could touch on Phoenix knowing about it and not telling them about it", and uhhhhh lmfao a debate specifically between them is OBVIOUSLY not the romantic flirting banter of the song between Shrek and Fiona lmfao but like still, the general premise, just in a sibling bickering coat of paint instead. Also was toying with it being an Athena POV just to sell home / for the additional absurdity of the experience of "you've gone over to your friend's house to hang out and suddenly they're obnoxiously arguing with their sibling and their parents are nowhere to be seen and you're not exactly sure what you're supposed to do with yourself except awkwardly wait for them to be done" lmfao. Which I've most absolutely experienced from both ends multiple times hahaha. The alternative option for this prompt is just for me to write an excessively long essay debating and attempting to personally rank the main cast's level of absurd tragedy compared to each other, lol.

22 - Orphan

I wrote 324 words (slash one physical lined page in my actual notebook) of this while I was on vacation, lol. AU where Miles invites Phoenix to go watch one of Gregory's trials (or Phoenix invites himself, or Gregory invites him while Miles tries to hold the landline phone away from him, lol) and I mean of course the trial he goes to is The Trial (like, Jeffre... AW CRAP wait I don't actually know what Jeff Master's or Kate Hall's official names are lmfao uhhh. Well you know what don't worry about that. Happy AAIC day once again..? Lol. Anyway, the concluding day of Gregory's last trial, obviously, ignore the defendant's name.) Like, basically, here's my thought. AU where Phoenix is also there, and not only does that mean he knows what happened to Miles and Gregory but also, like, it's Phoenix. Tell me even at 9 he wouldn't be insisting on taking care of the poor kid who just lost everything and has nowhere in the world to go. Tell me he's not like, begging his parents they need to help him, lol. I think really this is just sort of an AU to explore one of my several personal headcanons for what Phoenix's parents are like, because I've spent a lot of time on a different version of them (coughs for the last AU on this list...coughs) but I also have a version of them which I find fun / funny where they're like, kinda hippy-dippy and like very hands-off (tbh almost all of my hc's about the Greater Wrights is they're very hands off, just in different ways) but in more of a "we want our child to experience the beauty and wonder of the world on his own time and not influence him or set rigid standards to conform to" kind of philosophy. Anyway my point is they like adopt/foster Miles somehow before Manfred can actually get his hands on him (he's still too busy dealing with the fresh bullet wound I guess?) This is just a gen au of course, not only because they're 9 lol but also the logistics of being adoptive/foster siblings gets weird quick lmao, but mostly I just find it interesting to think about what might have happened if Miles was in an environment where people paid more attention and cared more (and weren't explicitly influencing and manipulating him to exasperate the problem on purpose), because I have to imagine examining his nightmares a little more closely a little more quickly might have led someone (say, Phoenix who was also there in this AU) to find something slightly off about it or like start putting pieces together quicker, idk. I, uh, I'm not gonna lie to you, I don't actually remember how I intended to end this one hahaha ;; I started it but I was on vacation and neglected to outline / summarize the rest of my ideas the day of, so I guess I'll just have to see where my mind takes me when I get back to it.

23 - Musician

So my FIRST thought for this day was to use it as an excuse to finish my First Ever Ace Attorney Fic, which has been in WIP stasis for...uh.... 6. Years. i--SIX????? Shit. lmfao. yeah uh. I guess I created the first version of the doc (on my OneNote, god) back in 2018. So. Yeah. Hm. Omfg. This fic has partially existed since before Phoenix Disbarment Day. That is so. Wow. Damn. Y'all we're so close to aa4 time (2026) what the hell??? Ahem. Pianist Phoenix. That's. My point lmao. I know the original thing that sparked me loving this concept was actually some tumblr post I saw apparently a LONG long time ago, hahaha, and I know there's no way I'll find it with tumblr's abysmal search function, but just know it was not a completely original idea of mine when I say i fucking LOVE the headcanon that, you know what actually Phoenix CAN play the piano, he just chooses to do it as shittily as possible because that's kind of what he's like post-disbarment and he'd absolutely get a kick out of fucking with people like that even if they have no way to know they're being fucked with. It's like, he's no virtuoso or anything, but he can passably play the piano! He's just being an ass on purpose! It kills me every time lol. I won't say I think that's necessarily true in canon so ofc it's not like an end-all-be-all hc for me or anything but it's just sooooo funny to me that I like to break it out any time I possibly can. Look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't. Honestly, look me in the eyes and tell me if he actually put his mind to it in any meaningful way he wouldn't be able to get decent quickly regardless, considering the fact he became an accomplished lawyer on more-or-less a total whim. This to say: that was my intention, to finish this fic I've had brewing that was about Phoenix actually being able to play the piano and hiding it for a really long time but eventually being found out by Miles by chance. Except then I sat down on the plane and started writing a Pearl POV instead? In which she finds out about more or less the same exact concept but from Iris--also by chance, but less actually catching him playing and more being asked, "Oh, does he still play? He was always good at that." And then bc it's Pearl (Pearl I love you), of COURSE she goes and confronts him about it. Pearl might be the single most confrontational character in these games tbh which is SO FUNNY to me. Like I'm kind of exaggerating obviously but also am I? I know she has psyche-locks you have to break through multiple times throughout the series but stiiiill. Everyone else is so repressed and weird about anything remotely vulnerable, I stg. Props to Maya for making sure Pearl turned out pretty okay I guess, lmao. Anyhow yeah that's sort of the AU I ended up with. Pearl POV where she and Iris know they're sisters (don't get me started on this I have so many thoughts about the amount of information I'm positive Maya and Pearl are NEVER given skjflj) and Pearl visits Iris in prison regularly and on one such visit maybe she mentions Nick's job at Borscht and Iris makes a totally innocuous comment to the effect that Pearl learns he actually knows how to play the piano and she goes to get mad at him about it because he's definitely been pretending he can't and Pearl's pretty sure he's told neither Maya nor Trucy the truth and that cannot be left to stand.

24 - Pretend Hate

Okay, this exists in a similar realm to the Orphan prompt, except instead of Phoenix being there for the trial or the Wrights taking Miles in before Manfred can, it's more just AU where Miles doesn't actually cut all contact and he and Phoenix successfully end up exchanging correspondence (in semi-secret) during the time they're separated (i.e. they remain friends and close during the 15 years they're separated in canon). "Semi-secret" because they--esp Miles--somehow hide who exactly it is they're talking / writing to all the time but don't necessarily hide the fact they are doing that. Like, a fake cultural / language exchange program or something? I feel like there could be a world where Manfred really doesn't give a shit what Miles is up to as long as he's being molded into "someone Gregory Edgeworth would hate" (I don't think he would lol but that's another AU) and becoming a model von Karma protege prosecutor and such. He obviously goes to lengths to cut Miles off from everything he's familiar with in that he takes him to Germany, but I've always thought it's way more on Miles feeling guilty and blaming himself and thinking he's unworthy / pushing people away being the reason why they never talked before aa1 despite Phoenix's "attempts to contact him," whatever those may be specifically. And, yeah, I've watched that one episode of the anime but tbh I don't really use anime canon for almost anything besides maybe some of the fun visuals, haha, so I'm kind of disregarding that anyway. ANYWAY. My point is. The "pretend hate" part is that--sometime over the course of exchanging correspondence, Phoenix starts thinking something's weird and gets it in his head to "investigate" himself, since he's still in LA / has access to the scene of the crime and stuff, and then as a combo of him just plugging away at it until he has enough (circumstantial) evidence to be like "Miles I think you're wrong about this" and also a younger, slightly less repressed, slightly less in Manfred's pocket Miles actually being somehow willing to consider alternatives a little--they're able to put their heads together and eventually come to the (correct) conclusion ahead of time, before the 15-year statute of limitations, that it was almost certainly Manfred who did it. And then they work together to figure out how they can possibly PROVE that but they haven't thought of anything foolproof by the time aa1 events start rolling around (or at the very least, the 5-years-ago sections of aa3? It might make more sense if it's as soon as Miles returns to Japanifornia, and also I think Phoenix has way less reason to fall for Dahlia/Iris so hard if Miles is around and *coughs* available lmfao. Anyhow). So, in the hopes it'll keep Manfred from getting suspicious of Miles, they publicly pretend to hate each other, putting on a show of more of the canon attitude Miles esp. has before 1-4, but behind the scenes they're actually working together trying to think of a way they can definitely get a conviction to stick that Manfred won't be able to worm out of. And that's the AU! Idk, in terms of additional thoughts, I couldn't decide what to do / what would happen to Mia in this AU either, which doesn't super matter but did give me pause. So she might live, idk, depends the exact timeline. I do also think a scene where--Dahlia still hits on Phoenix in the reading room/courthouse library but he's like, actively there waiting for one of Miles' trials to conclude for a covert meeting, so when Miles gets there and is like "What are you messing with over there?" Phoenix is like "Oh, hey, check out this weird bottle some girl just gave me because apparently she fell in love at first sight, haha, isn't that so funny--" and then Miles recognizes it from the Fawles trial and they catch Dahlia earlier or something, idk. Or alternatively Phoenix was AT that trial so HE recognizes it. Or maybe it's funniest if he was there but doesn't recognize it until Miles does lmao, this is not the point of this AU but I can't stop myself from considering this part of it.

25 - Scientists

So THIS is the day I sort of alluded to earlier, many many words of post ago, where I got so invested in my The Martian AU that I started accidentally worldbuilding about it. What I've started and have about 400 words of (slash one notebook page, again from the plane after my vacation), is like, AU where it's NASA instead of law and I can make Phoenix go "What, like it's hard?" only it's about literally rocket science this time hahaha. Basically for this fic I just thought, well what if Phoenix just shows up as a flight tech or engineer or something (idk I don't really know that much about real life astronautics) as Miles is preparing for some space mission or something and he's just like WHAT are YOU doing HERE. I know I know I made Apollo literally be the titular martian and yes he ALSO has a (or tbh probably has a WORSE) canonical debilitating fear of heights, so, shhh, but I do like the idea that Phoenix is like, oh, who, me? In the flying metal death trap? No fucking thank you, I will be down here watching and talking directly to you through a headset or something. You cannot escape me however i can at least escape the building I'm in. No interest in seeing the Earth from above, thanks. Actually iirc Miles also doesn't love heights but meh whatever I'm fairly certain Phoenix talks about it the earliest in the series so there you go. Anyway, this would all be a mission prior to whatever mission it is that Apollo & Co. go on to Mars for the first part of the AU, so I guess you could consider it a prequel? And probably a fairly shippy one. I have other reasons for which it's fun for me if wrightworth is at least together if not outright married before the events of the "The Martian" part of the AU, so this one would be, like, about how exactly that went down.

26 - Victorian Era

Okay, once again, this just. IS. Literally. Dai Gyakuten Saiban / The Great Ace Attorney. Lol. That said, I've always loved the fanart I've seen of like Ryuunosuke and Phoenix (and respective Co.'s) interacting, or like, one or the other ending up in the other time period somehow, so I thought it'd probably be fun to try my hat at that. I feel like I've neglected the tgaa characters anyway, considering I actually somehow managed to reference PLvPW already, which is obviously significantly more of a spinoff and also just largely non-canonical, lmao. Also tgaa is just SO GOOD, augh. I'd love to have the multi-witness cross examinations from both of those games back sometime again, and I had so much fun with the jury in tgaa too, excellent mechanic. What was I talking about? So, I never completely decided on a concrete direction to take this, but even before AU-gust had started I'd already been toying with the idea of an AU where maybe Maya or Pearl channels a character from tgaa specifically because some documentary or special or something comes out talking about the real-life Herlock Sholmes (as opposed to the Totally Fictional "Sherlock Holmes" who Phoenix references in that one trilogy line, because I really think that's the funniest possible explanation for the discrepancy) and they're arguing over how that cannot possibly be a real person and no one was named that and etc etc and then to prove once and for all one way or the other Hurley is channeled and also for bonus joke content "recognizes" Phoenix at first (idk pretend his eyesight got worse in his older age, I know Phoenix and Ryuunosuke look, tbh, less alike than Ryuu and Apollo do, lmao, but again that's another AU) and then I get to play with Phoenix's mom's maiden name is Naruhodou and his middle name is Ryuuichi or such to that effect, because that is also a favorite headcanon of mine (not in small part because I can project my own life onto him by making him half-Japanese from SoCal, lol). So that's an idea I'd had that was already decently fleshed out and the ONLY problem is that if I'm having characters actually be channeled then there's a very real limiting factor of how many spirit mediums exist, and also that means Maya and/or Pearl don't get to interact with them, which for the sake of not overwriting would be good but for the sake of my love of a chaotic group conversation would be bad. But, uh, hopefully I do manage to hold myself to a less broad cast of characters, ideally, instead of bringing a bunch of them over to the other time period to see how they'd deal with that and interact en masse. Ha. Haha.

27. Younger / De-Aged

So here's another AU I'd already had idle thoughts about before AU-gust had even started! I...will get into this later, TRUST I will, lmfao, but I do have an extremely involved AU already in which Time Travel of the "regression" type is involved, i.e., they have their memories of the "future" but are thrown back into the past including their own younger bodies however-many-years-ago. So I've got that type of thing covered, I promise I do, haha. And additionally, I've actually already written them "younger" for my colorless AU way back on day 2, so I did think perhaps I'd just continue that one and say it was for this prompt (a smart person thing to do. this is the objectively correct option). On the other hand. I find pre-DL6 Phoenix and Miles reacting to how their lives actually turned out in the end HILARIOUS. Tell me it's not funny. And tell me it's not, like, some sort of depressing-yet-ultimately-hopeful for the older/current them to look at their child selves and be like Kid, Oh, You're Going To Go Through Some Shit, but also reflect on how they did make it and things turned out okay and life goes on etc etc. My problem with this kind of thing is that it's hard to come up with a justification for and that's not a problem in itself but it is a problem in me not knowing how i'm going to end a fic, which often gets me decision-paralysis-ed into not being able to start it in the first place, which did in fact happen to me here, haha. I think ideally I'd just do a quick "wait, was that a dream?" kind of thing where they (Miles and Nick) have a short conversation with themselves, but... Uh-oh, what, did you think that was all I had? You clearly don't know me at all. OTHER au option where young Phoenix is in the future/present and rather than himself and Miles it's the Wright Anything Agency who like, idk, find him roaming the streets of LA (fun fact! I actually came up with this AU one day while I was quite literally roaming the streets of LA myself at like 3am-ish. Do with that what you will). He is of course wearing a hat or beanie or something at first because come on, that's way more fun, and no matter how much Trucy, Apollo, and Athena are like "hm idk something about this kid seems familiar" I just don't think my first thought upon seeing some vaguely familiar kid alone on the street would be, like, "Oh, that's obviously a child version of my father/coworker/boss!" So. I'm not really sure that one has an end point either, though, so the same problem still stands, haha. The bad, someone get a spray bottle to spritz me, option of this is, obviously, to combine the two, so it's like the WAA find him first and then are like UHHHHH we need an adult (never mind actual adult-age-ness between them) and somehow end up getting Miles there too, but idk. I... should not. Overcomplicate. I shouldn't. Even, even if...august is over...so theoretically there's no longer any sort of On-Time component since it's late either way........ definitely not.

28 - Caretaker

Here are my exact notes / entire doc for this day. Ahem. And I quote: i brought up the lighthouse keeper thing but i dont know where that would be going exactly maybe this is a thing i could do franmaya for??? since i still havent gotten there? actually lol that as a lighthouse thing is funny. ghost romance? my three tropes rattle End quote. Anyway, shout-out to my friend hailstorm for being the one there to brainstorm "lighthouse keeper" with at the self-same bar trivia that I mentioned previously, lmao. I actually think that was even the same exact day as the The Martian quote was a relevant answer to a question. So yeah, even though I already kind of have franmaya planned for the spies day, that's both kind of sort of a darker AU overall and--WELP well, okay, so, i do, you know, recognize maybe a ghost romance isn't, uh, necessarily the fluffiest kind of AU lmao. Don't mind that. My point is, I love the vibes of a lighthouse keeper AU, and I generally like ghost romance as a trope, so that does feel like a viable option. Honestly, I kind of separately wanted an excuse to practice writing miego also, so maybe the Feys are just all chillin' in this lighthouse for...Some Reason, and that's side-plot relevant somehow, idk. I know Franziska and Godot exist in the same place for a minute in 3-5, but I honestly can't really remember them interacting? I think she'd fucking HATE him though lmfao. He'd think she's funny but I actually think she'd be too reactive for his most preferred teasing/fucking-with-people dynamics, haha. Regardless, if he is there at all, it's a very minor B plot, I think, 'cause this ain't about him, lol.

29 - Forced into Hiding

Achtung, baby, 2566 words of this are written! Lol. So uh, yeah. In short, AU where Klavier gets hounded by fans on the street while he's also having just a bad personal day, and the closest and best place he can think to hide from them is at the WAA. I, um, actually hadn't realized I'd written quite this much of this, haha, it was supposed to be short and fairly silly but then it turned into Klavier having a little bit of a panic attack maybe and getting consoled by Apollo, sure, of course, but then also having to deal with and experience some amount of closure / reach some kind of understanding with the Wrights, also. It's kind of part Klav character study, kind of part complaint against freaking Capcom for neglecting him (boo, I love him, stop ignoring him, or, yknow, worse, whatever the heck turnabout academy was supposed to do for him, which honestly almost felt like a step back to be quite honest). Okay, also, taking a slightly closer look at what I've already written, the REASON I'd thought I'd written way less than this is definitely because he hasn't even GOTTEN to the Agency yet, never mind spoken with any of its members, lmao. That would do it. In any case, I like the idea of Klavier having a bit of a vulnerable moment, and I also like the idea of him and Phoenix actually, like, talking for real, instead of, once again, whatever Turnabout Academy and DD was meant to tell me, which seems to be less than nothing. I kind of like the fact that it gave him a law mentor? I mean, she was very dead, but I have a very meaningful Use for her in later-to-be-announced-AUs-I-keep-teasing, haha. I of course considered other people and times when people in AA might be forced into hiding, but this felt like a silly but also meaningful way to do that without it just being an exploration of Miles and his not-suicide note (which wasn't exactly "forced" anyhow, he did that all on his own) or like, Zak Gramarye (who also completely did that to himself but w/e). Making it about Klavier completely escapes the bounds of canon, because canon is a weenie about talking about any of his actual feelings EVER, so screw you Capcom, I'm doing it for you. Don't worry about it. Trucy commiserating with him about still Loving someone, perhaps the very closest person biologically related to you you've ever known and depended on in your life, who not only did you very big harm personally but explicitly used you in a very real and participatory way to perpetuate the harm elsewhere and all the complexities about Feelings For And About Them Therein, and Phoenix somehow having enough self-awareness to recognize that shutting down completely and isolating yourself away doesn't actually do you any good even when you're at your lowest, and recognizing that Klavier doesn't exactly have a "Trucy" to be a focal point to draw him out of that, and that therefore he needs to be a bit more open to his peers. (Insert joke about "Well, I'm really definitely not suggesting you go adopt an entire child, that's really probably, uh, not the way to go, actually, but, you know. Everyone needs people, that just makes us human." Etc.)

30 - The Beginning of the World

So, hm, as it turns out, I got extremely sidetracked this day thinking about the next day on the docket. Whoops! Unfortunately this ultimately means my ideas for this day as of now are relatively uninspired: I had the thought that I could explore the beginning of Troupe Gramarye, which is its own sort of world, or else, maybe something about the beginning of the series itself but from the somewhat unconventional POV of a one Mr. Larry Butz. Yes, that's a bit self-serving in that it lends toward trying to complete a list of "main, recurring characters' POVs" that I've had as a sidequest all month, but, still. That said, just exploring actual canon through Larry's POV isn't exactly what I'd classify as an "AU" necessarily, so I feel like something would need to be different here. Okay, wait--not to draw inspiration a dang week late to the party, BUT. Now that I'm typing this up, I'm thinking, okay, maybe, what if. The "Beginning" of the series, technically speaking, is basically the fact that Phoenix gets put on (class) trial for stealing Miles' lunch money--which notably only happened because Larry himself picked it up when it fell on the floor. So, perhaps, what about an AU where he doesn't do that? I mean, I guess it would just turn the entire world of AA into something of a terrible series of tragedies with no real closure about them, lol, rip, but it could possibly be interesting? I dunno! (And, yes, I know DL-6 itself is more or less the basis of the series, if we're being ticky-tacky, but Phoenix wouldn't have been involved without meeting Miles, and that somewhat necessitates the class trial, and without him none of canon would get resolved, so. I will say, I do love going back to the earliest points to see how and how much you can make canon deviate or stay the same--reasonably speaking--via minor tweaks and butterfly effect and all that, so this could be interesting, although I once again must say I think it really just means a bunch of innocent people, Miles included, are going to be put away and possibly executed over murders that weren't their faults, lol. Hm. Much to consider.)

31 - Two(+) of the Above:

Beginning of the World + Younger/De-Aged + Canon Divergence (+ Feat. Jokers: Guardian, Everybody Lives)

With all of this, the ONLY prompts I've actually missed on this list become Animagus which I swapped for the Wings joker, and the last joker of the four, Thriller, which was never exactly a priority of mine because I'm not sure I'd write that sort of thing particularly well, so! Wild! Completionists everywhere almost rejoice, haha. SOOOOO. For the eagle-eyed readers out there, I'll bet you're just dying to know what this one AU I've been teasing all post could Possibly be to warrant such a build-up, right? (...Right?) The answer is the at-ow! (Phonetically, lol. I've been calling it that instead of out loud saying all the letters in AATTAU out loud every time.) My friend Ben can attest to the fact that this behemoth AU (her word which I'm stealing) has been in the works for, uhhhh... months?

MONTHS. AHAHA. Ha. That. Sure says March! It sure does! And it is not lying. Lmfao. (Ignore the time, I was working overnight then--my beloved work schedule whomst I miss dearly--so that's a perfectly reasonable discord-ing hour for March-me.) Also, once again, I'm choosing to blame Ben for my extensive AU problems, she sent me a very cute time loop AA fic that utterly destroyed my entire mind because it got the mere idea of "Time-based AU" caught in my endless void-idea-hole. So. Here's the real rub. The literal reason I started doing this AU-gust challenge in the freaking first place was that I was absolutely Desperate to find a way to overcome my writer's block. And one of the (admittedly many) reasons I wanted to do this was because I have been ITCHING to write this stupid behemoth AU for real. I have a massive outline doc already, I have a whole slew of scenes planned, I have lots of character archage, I have sooo many things I want to say and explore about them all you have No Idea. It's extremely self-indulgent and absolutely my personal magnum opus for all my very specific favorite AA headcanons and ideas and thoughts. And obviously, it worked! I did indeed overcome my writer's block! And I had so much fun doing it!! And I'll admit, from the very beginning, I had been eyeing that "Everybody Lives" joker prompt, because...that's it! That's basically the point of the AATTAU (Ace Attorney Time Travel Alternate Universe, if that wasn't clear, haha). I don't want to let myself get TOO into it, because Oh Boy, I sure will! If you let me! Haha. But basically the premise is EXACTLY what I stated in that very first discord message I could find about it. Maybe not so much "time travel" technically speaking than it is "gaining memories of everything that happened in canon right as the DL-6 earthquake happens", so it's more regression than actual time travel since they're in their own younger bodies and everything, but still. It's basically my excuse to treat canon like it did happen and YET allow for everybody to survive and for the very fun cocktail of traumas and joys that come from remembering what happened but having the chance for something different (and all the effort that goes into making something different happen in the first place).

Now, as far as AU-gust goes. I was obviously not about to even pretend I could remotely start this during August itself or justify connecting any of it to the series and the prompts I'd already written for it, lol, but I also couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I got it in my head I really wanted to end the month with SOMETHING that somehow tied into my AATTAU, if only to motivate myself to actually get on it and start writing out instead of solely outlining everything that's been in the works all these months. So to that end, I saw the "Everybody Lives" and the "Beginning of the World" prompts, and an idea came to me. I'd been dancing around the justification aspect of this AU for most of the time I've had it because let's be honest, it's just a very self-indulgent idea and it does not NEED "justification" to serve the purpose I want it to serve and be what I want it to be. But the AU-gust prompts gave me some actual inspiration and an Idea as to a way to solidify my unnecessary "justification" but in a way that it doesn't need to be directly part of the final product of the AATTAU (like, I could make it a separate one-shot and either just link it to and from the AATTAU fic itself, or if it all ends up being a series, then I could just include it in the series but it wouldn't be necessary to read to understand what's going on. And so, I present! The Ami Fey one-shot special I came up with just to fit these prompts :3 ...And by "i present" i mean, uh, I wrote 4k words of it on the 31st and didn't even come close to what I wanted to cover, because I suck at being concise. Lmfao. (Shocker.) Basically, I used Ami Fey as a semi-self-insert kind of godlike figure to reason out a semi-plausible way to make the concept I want to explore happen, happen. And I had a lot of fun, but I do still have a bunch to finish, but either way, I'm very pleased to have a (somewhat silly but ultimately fun for me) reasoning as to the gears ticking behind the scenes of my idea! To be somewhat less vague, the whole AU is predicated on the idea that, Phoenix and/or Miles (who remember from the beginning / from December 28th, 2001) meeting the other characters at-or-after the time they originally met in canon are able to recall their memories of the "original" (i.e. canon) timeline. I've used some magatama shenanigans to have some fun with this, and I'm now using Ami Fey and magatama shenanigans to explain how and why this is A Thing, even if it isn't necessarily the objectively most logically sound argument I've ever made. It's still a good one, in my book, and more importantly I like it, so that's all that really matters.

To briefly explain the "two" (by which I mean 5?) of the "above" I'm using here:

Beginning of the World: This fic specifically would show the beginning of the "world" of this AU specifically! Woohoo! Go Ami Fey, creating a whole new set of problems for our beloved little Guys to go through, hahaha. I think I may have based her character a little too much on Maya mischievousness, but, oh well. Let's just say that's where she gets it from.

Younger/De-Aged: As I've already kind of expressed, the premise of this AU is mostly just them being their own younger selves except they also have the memories of all of canon (and maybe a year or two after the fact, I need to confirm a couple dates).

Canon Divergence: I feel like this is decently self-explanatory, but then again maybe it's a bit cheesy to include this here, since it basically diverges from nearly the first major event of canon (DL-6), but that's not the only time things go almost-canonically but diverge a bit in some way, so I think it really does fit here.

Guardian: This one is a bit multi-fold. It somewhat refers to the way I'm making Gregory Edgeworth the de facto guardian (as in, legal guardian) of mostly everyone I possibly can because I love him and he would be great at it. But also, guardian in that, Mr. Savior Complex Phoenix Wright himself has literally all of the information at his disposal to try to "save" the potential Happy Lives of literally every person he loves, and, well. He does a pretty good job about it; not without cost, haha, but I feel like I can definitely call him a "guardian" of others in this AU. And, as for specifically the one-shot Ami fic, she is essentially the guardian of the entire Fey lineage, in this AU at least, so that also totally fits and is most immediately relevant.

Everybody Lives: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory at this point, lol. But for the one-shot: Ami is essentially trying to secure an "everybody lives" scenario, even if it hasn't been achieved yet, so it's more an aspiration at that point, but ultimately it is indeed successful. Now, "living" does not mean, like, "totally healthy" (mentally or physically), so there's lots more to it, but in short, yes, they live.

And......that's basically a wrap on that!

I mean, it isn't actually at all, since I still have to finish 26/31 fics, lmfao, but as far as the idea generation stage goes, and the use of the AU-gust prompts, that's what's up in my world! Somewhere out there maybe there's an AU of my actual real life where i finished more of these on time, but i'm still pretty pumped by all the work that's already been made on making so many AA fics a reality for me. I've come a long way since starting that first AA fic in 2018...!!

I still have all the aforementioned 26 fics to finish obviously, and I also have AU continuations planned for at the very least, day 2's colorless prompt and day 3's dark academia prompt (let alone day 31's, lol, but that's its own monster entirely), but I'm optimistic!

Thankfully I actually finished using nano to word track for me before they, you know, doubled down on AI and called everyone "abelist" (???) for not supporting it, which, uh. Well. But for my own posterity and if anyone's curious, here's what my word counts looked like throughout the month of AU-gust--admittedly including some planning and outlining:

It ended up being 51,377 words total in August on these AU prompts alone!

I feel like I wanted to say something poignant and meaningful at the end here, but it's almost 9:30 and I work at 4am tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and wrap this post up here, haha. If you read all of this, thank you very much for joining me on my little journey!

Once again, here is the Ao3 series where I'll post anything more that gets done, so if you'd like to see how any of these AUs turn out, feel free to keep an eye on that!

And here is the previous post with the 1st half+ of the AUs if you missed it and are interested now!

My copy arrived literally as I was writing this up so I've spent the last several prompts of this post listening to the AAIC soundtrack in the music collection, and, oh man, it's seriously so surreal this exists??? I might be an old fogey who has and will for an indeterminate amount of time continue to have trouble letting go of the fan translation names I've lived with for the past decade or whatever, but it's seriously so awesome the entire series is finally available internationally!! Let's hope for my sake AA7 doesn't come out before I finish any of my AATTAU, because that would really throw a bit of a wrench in my decision-making process, lol.

Bye for now!

[haethyre]

X-Men 97 Thoughts

My personal opinions

Okay. So I grew up with X-men The Animated Series. It was one of my fave shows. It always came on late at night on Toon Disney (at times i shouldnt have been awake LMAO) so it has a special place in my heart. I was very surprised that of all things they decided to "continue" it. So, when I heard about it, I did a full rewatch (even that ungodly last season where quality took a nosedive OOF) Anywhoo! Started and finished 97. Those who know me best know at heart I am a big OG fan of my fandoms and am trepidacious of reboots/even continuation reboots, bc lets be honest most of them are all about stomping on the source material, SO I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Xmen 97.

You could really see how much they tried to capture the feel of the old show and the characters. The voice replacements were surprisingly well done. (i mean, Wolverine is a little off, but i'll give the guy a break its been like...28 yrs XD ) The animation looks amazing. Even if i'm taking some points off for the hair hfgjhdf haha

Now the storyline.... The elephant in the room. We all know the one. I have been a Romy fan since I was a kid and yes, when I was a young girl in Borders, I did come across the comic that showed the RoguexMagneto storyline. I hated it then and I hate it now. Its just...weird. (Again, my opinions. If you like it, power to you. Enjoy, but its not for me and this post isn't for you) but its even weirder in the show, and ill tell you why. As a Marvel comic reader, I'm well acquainted with the fact that everyone gets with everyone. That is just a trope of Marvel comics. All ships of imaginable and unimaginable proportions happen. BUT I think when doing this, they really should have thought it through a bit more in context of the show's universe alone . Bc I'll be real, if you're coming in from TAS, this kinda hits you out of nowhere. She had no form of connection with Magneto in the past show. Like....they had a makeshift funeral for him and she didn't even care. She was just worried about Gambit being stuck in space. So, their "secret" just seems so random and out of place. I do like that it was used for her to understand fully her feelings for Gambit, but man was it frustrating to see him just killed off when he was one of the best characters.(even if it was really well done and the animation, again, was amazing)

There's talk of him coming back as "Death" which is a storyline I'm not familiar with but I also heard talk of the original showrunner idealizing a timeline where Rogue and Magneto have kids....so... IDK It all just left me a bit frustrated and disheartened bc Romy was like one of my earliest ships before i knew ships were a thing. To see what happened to it made me sad, even if it could be part of a long game to get them to their HEA. (and thats always an if bc we don't know, even if the original guy isn't in charge anymore)

Other things that bugged me a little but not too much. Gonna bring up Morph. I love Morph. They were always a fave and they went through so much to finally be back on the team again. I really don't understand why they changed their character design tho? I read it was to make Morph look more like the character changeling from the comics but this is again something that doesnt make sense coming out of TAS bc Morph always had that other appearance throughout the entire show. I mean...it could have at least been explained... Also, as far as the feelings for Wolverine, i kinda found it funny XD bc in TAS, it always seemed like it was the other way around jkhfgjkdfh Wolverine was so attached to Morph and wouldn't let 'em go. That being said, I kinda wish they didn't go this route if its only meant to be unrequited and sad. AGAIN. I know. Marvel is all about unrequited drama jfhdkjfdh but hasn't Morph been through enough??? That being said, I love the ship even though I know its doomed. Wolverine is the worst person to be down bad for tho. Mans falls in love at the drop of a hat fhghdfjhsd

Other than these couple things, I really loved the show. Some people said "why are they shoving so much story into such a short amount of time" XD The storyteller in me would like to agree but i will be honest, there is nothing more like Xmen TAS than smooshed storylines jkdfhfkjds with random one-off eps in between. XD So, I was fine with it.

I liked the conclusion with Scott and Jean, as messy as it was. The family fun time was a pleasure to watch.

Xavier and Magneto. They really highlighted their messy, but still devoted relationship from the original series, so that was nice to see. I was glad to see him back in the red suit LMAO bc the one he was wearing all season was weird for me.

I loved Jubilee's journey, and it was cool that they brought Alyson Court back for that one episode.

I was very pleased overall that they didn't tone things down and since censors are different these days, they could show more stuff they couldn't in the 90s. So, I am looking forward to more seasons (and pleeeeease for the love of god give Romy back to me i am begging)

[kaqura]

I apologise for asking this if it isn't something you want to talk about but do you know why there is so much hatred for Kagura from so many S*ssr*n shippers/HnY fans? I haven't seen HnY because I don't like sequels that take away the happy ending of the original so I only know a few spoilers through the grapevine, but the Kagura hate I've seen lately from some HnY fans reminds me of anti-Kikyou Inukag shippers from twenty years ago. But Inukag shippers are more supportive of Kikyou nowadays and fandom in general is less misogynistic than it used to be, so I don't understand why another woman being important to Sesshoumaru in the original Inuyasha series is so unacceptable that Kagura gets hate now. Even if people ship S*ssr*n, love isn't a finite resource? Sesshoumaru loving and wanting to avenge Kagura doesn't mean he can't love anyone else, it doesn't diminish his other relationships—especially because Rin was a literal eight-year-old child when Kagura was alive. It's not like Kagura was a yandere type who harmed Sesshoumaru or anyone else he cared about, either, after a while Rin knew she had nothing to fear from Kagura and was squee'ing about Kagura being in love with Sesshoumaru.

Again, I apologise for how long this question was and sending it on Anon, I just didn't want to get hate from S*ssr*n shippers or HnY fans. Kagura's my favourite Inuyasha character, so it made me sad to browse the Inuyasha reddit/tumblr and see people calling her a 'manipulative bitch' and such when I went looking for fanart and fic about her. It's especially strange coming from people who praise other former villain characters like Sesshoumaru, who did worse things than Kagura when he was evil.

hello buddy sorry this is late i literally did not see it??

but since i'm obviously on the opposite end of the spectrum in this situation & have only really been involved in the tumblr iy fandom for so many years, the only thing i know about any of that drama is that she's perceived as a threat to their yucky ship bc she was really the canon love interest for sesshomaru in the og series. and kagura is obviously the polar opposite of rin in literally every aspect. like, we have a demoness that was born from the body of the main villain who comes out the gate swinging on koga's entire family & is forced to beef with the whole inugang constantly and calls sesshomaru a bitch to his face the second time they meet. versus a cute lil baby who's a complete blank slate. so for people that don't care for her bc of their ship bias it's pretty easy to misinterpret her character & motivations and draw silly conclusions lmao. i'm not gonna say kagura isn't problematic in some ways but LITERALLY WHO CARES it's not that serious?? pretty much everyone in IY has done morally questionable shit. it's a fairy tale set in feudal japan, like. and it sucks that you're coming across negative bs when you're just trying to enjoy yourself in this fandom!! that happened to me too when i first got back into iy in 2020 bc i didn't know that kagura was like severely hated until i joined an iy group on fb (owned by you-know-who, unbeknownst to me) and saw all that weird shit lmao. but there's a lot of really great creators on tumblr, at least, that are anti-sr & pro-kagura, so i hope that you could at least enjoy yourself on this blog!! <3

[doyouevenshipbr0]

i just finished live action avatar the last airbender. buckle up. obv spoilers incoming.

~

honestly just gonna list the good and the bad and give a number rating at the end. this will be long. also THIS IS JUST MY OPINION!!!! nothing i say is right or wrong. dont hurt me.

the good

sokka (ik this is controversial bc of his actor okokokok im js purely from a performance standpoint he ate)

zuko (absolutely devoured)

fight scenes!!!! obv not as good as the animated (we knew this) but i still enjoyed

zhao!!!!!! do not sleep on him he killed this!!

KIYOSHI!!! ARE U KIDDINGGG

overall loved the focus on avatars other than roku

suki/suki and sokka

attack on the air nomads… ik it was unnecessary and a little hard to watch but still was v interesting

azulaaaaa and the fact that we see her this season. LOVE this addition. also the way they added her was veryyyyy well done. didnt feel forced.

bumi/how they handled the bumi arc in general. some parts i actually like better than the og. like how aang knew he was bumi right away. makes way more sense to me.

sokka and katara has some very sweet and genuine moments

aang and gyatso reunion awwww

omg. the “twist” with the 41st division that zuko accidentally saved becoming his crew. the bestttttt change that they made. i loved this. something so small but felt SO impactful.

yue/sokka and yue. this is a BIG one bc i think the original show really lacks with how they wrote yue and especially her relationship with sokka. i think it was a lot better here.

when zhao admits at the end he was working w azula and that ozai was just using zuko to motivate azula. omg. that was such a cool thing they added

and now. the bad.

aang. JDHSKSJDJ SORRYYYY dont care! he got better as the show went on. overall acting wasnt great and the writing for him definitely did not help

katara OOPSIES HEHEHE sorry but again same thing. kind of a dull performance. where is her PASSION?!?! wanted to like her so bad bc katara is my girl and this girl was giving katara on paper but the performance was just kinda bleh. didnt hate but DEFINITELY did not love.

costumes. dying on this hill i do not care. it was giving spirit of halloween. and some of these wigs…. yue’s wig? azula’s fuck ass pieces hanging out? HOW MAI AND TY LEE LOOKED IN GENERAL?! ouch

^in general mai and ty lee did not need to be here at ALLLLL. def shouldve waited till s2 for their appearances.

where is the silliness? where is the humor? hardly tried to embody the fun spirit of the original and when it did it failed miserably.

gran gran saying the thing. that’s katara’s thing.

too much exposition dumping.

first ep was by far the worst imo. how sokka and katara came across/met aang? WOW what a let down holy shit.

they should’ve kept it as aang running away from the southern air temple. not that he went for a late night drive with appa. dont care that this is a small thing. it is a HUGE part of aang’s character.

idk how to word this one and i think ppl would disagree anyways. but they are making iroh too obviously “good”. ykw i mean? when we first meet him, we know he’s not like the rest of the fire nation but we still don’t truly know where his morals lie. this show made it too obvious too soon.

why did katara never train w pakku?? that makes 0 sense. i understand she was mostly self taught throughout s1. but the whole thing was that: yes, katara was good before pakku, but when she finally did get a master, she became EXPONENTIALLY better and really came into her own. i am not buying that she becomes the master katara we know and love without learning from pakku. so unrealistic. when zuko says “u found a master” and she said “yes ur looking at her”. oh girlboss feminism u are going to HELL!

would like to take a moment to say^^^ i am a feminist ok. do nottttt get it twisted. but girlboss feminism is brainrot.

aang. did not bend. a single drop of water. are u fucking KIDDING ME? that was nuts.

really felt like if u did not watch the original series, this show would feel SO all over the place and u would have so many “wtf is happening” moments. the whole omashu shit was kind offfffff a mess. i see where they were going and why they were doing that but in hindsight after the fact i was like… if i knew nothing ab this show that would have been the most confusing clusterfuck.

and i think my biggest/most general complaint that i already talked about that i will briefly touch on: trying to do too much. why are we putting in characters and plot points that do not come till seasons 2-3 and are completely unnecessary now (secret tunnel, wan shi tong, swamp-kinda episode, etc.)

final thoughts?

it was enjoyable. i cannot deny that. landscapes were gorgeous. fights were well choreographed and looked GOOD. some changes were genuinely made for the better, and even changes that i do not necessarily think were better, i could respect the creativity of some changes and understood why they were there. but overall, as most live action remakes go, this was a flat portrayal of one of the greatest pieces of fiction of all time that suffered from some overly ambitious ideas and dull writing with little to no sense of whimsy. while some performances exceeded expectations, others that were crucial to the integrity of this show really disappointed me.

overall: 6.6/10. this number is completely subject to change.

[androdetective]

since someone already asked for au poli (THANK YOU), can i ask for ur thoughts on og poli? :o]

also as a bonus, any thoughts on the official playlists for the characters?

I think I'll start off with my thoughts on the official playlists for the characters as my thoughts are more shorter. I like them! You can tell the characters are older with their tastes lmaoo. Theyre still pretty good though. My personal favorites are Juan Carlos' and Juanín's as they're more my tastes lol. I feel like the playlists say something about the characters. Off the top of my head, Juanín's playlist is filled with sad love songs with themes of longing for something good. And his character just so happens to deal with shitty friendships. I feel like we can assume he values friendship a lot because he tolerates so much of his friends' bullshit and still sticks around and cares for them a lot. And ofc he wouldn't like that so I can assume he just wants better. At least, that's what I get from it. I just care about Juanín a lot 😭

As for og Poli, I have several thoughts. First off, he's very funny 💀 I love how mean he can be like you go girl. Policarpo is honestly, just a superficial person. He's fake and a snake and he has pride. He gets friends and family he knows for the top rankings. He'll take bribes for who'll be the top ranking. (as seen in that one season finale) He's one of the several mean, superficial, and insecure characters on the show (ie tulio, bodoque) He has gossip on everyone and is willing to reveal things to humiliate others or just for entertainment. He is willing to screw others over for whatever reasons. And of course, when you're in an already mean environment, you're gonna get mean. I feel like bc of all the puppets' insecurities and their proneness to being mean, it ends up making the others even meaner in a bad cycle. Policarpo cares about his image. A lot. He is very careful to keep a tidy image. When it got revealed that he was bald, this caused an international scandal (💀). And it genuinely hurt Policarpo a lot. He had to rely on his friends to reassure him (and even then they still initially laughed at him. Assholes 💀) He cares about not only his public image but even his image amongst his friends. None of his friends even knew he was bald (and tbf, I wouldn't tell them that either they fucking suck) The first time he presented feminine, everyone was surprised. While it seems like they know Policarpo, they also don't at all. And Poli probably does that on purpose. Maybe bc his friends are shit. Maybe bc he just doesn't trust anyone with personal information like that. He doesn't trust them to present femininely more often around them. He doesn't like to admit that he's dressing femininely whenever he dresses very femininely. Even when his friends already know. It's sad to think about honestly. He's one of the several characters with low confidence in being their genuine selves and would rather cover it up with a (near) perfect image, superficiality, and meanness. They try to be in control of their image as much as they can but that's just impossible. To get over this unhealthy way of coping, they'll have to realize it's alright to be imperfect. But in an environment where everyone laughs at each other for the smallest things + general mistreatment, that's near impossible.

Idk how to explain it but this series feels so latino bc of the way the characters cope like actual traumatized/mistreated latinos do. Idk man 💀

[theweirdhybrid]

SOOOOOOOOOOOO WHAT DID YOU THINK OF SEASON 4!?~

-Abandoned King anon

So answering this is like [ checks watch ] two months late but I finally found a place I could watch it! I'll admit I wasn't spending a whole lotta time looking bc my brain switched to hyperfixating on TMNT instead of LMK, BUT, that doesn't mean my love for the series disappeared!

I'm actually hoping to start working on Into The Wukongverse again after I finish the season :0 I haven't seen the specials yet unfortunately, the website I'm using doesn't have them bc they're not out in english yet I don't think :(

But also, if I start work on Into The Wukongverse again, I'll be working on it alongside my ROTMNT fic "Just This Once, Everybody Lives" because I refuse to abandon that fic. I have vivid stories in my mind for both, and sure, I haven't touched ITTW in... a while, BUT I haven't stopped thinking about it this whole time! I still have the masterpost pinned for a reason! I'll have to go back and redo some of it, but I'm still working on it, I promise!

(this gets long so I'm slapping a read more on this bad boy)

So my initial thoughts when I saw how different the sworn brothers were from the original cast of brothers (i wasn't terribly surprised honestly considering how different LMK already is to the source material) was actually delight! I'd already known about the new demons, since they made book appearances (it's been... a while since I've thought deeply about LMK, I'll be honest, so some lore has slipped from my brain unfortunately) and I can't quite remember if they were part of the og brotherhood or not, but I DO know they were adversaries that Wukong fought later on! So it was really cool to see them animated like that! Makes me wonder what became of the og brotherhood members, tho.

It was honestly a little funny how Azure told MK and Mei not to draw attention to themselves and the first thing they do is try to kidnap Tripitaka after saving him from being eaten XD Honestly, these doofuses... The episodes are very fast paced, but it's understandable considering they're only eleven minutes long

And also...

Married. Married, holy SHIT they are so married I'm not even joking LOOK AT THIS OH MY GOD also the "I'm your Tangy :(" line- HUSBANDS. MARRIED. OH MY GOD. Literally this was so fucking cute oh my goooOOOOOOOOOOOOD-

Also, the entire thing of "No, Wukong's not my dad. Pigsy's my dad." and MK denying Wukong being his dad w the "If he was my dad don't you think he would've said something by now?" and then Mei shooting back with "Yeah, because he's sooooo forthcoming with information." was AMAZING. It had me looking at my lore for the Wukongverse and going "Yeah that tracks" XD

AND THEN TANG BEING TELEPORTED TO THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN AND BEING OFFERED WATER FROM THE RIVER AND IMMEDIATELY SCREAMING IN TERRORR AND TELEPORTING AWAY WAS FUCKING AMAZING I'M FUCKING CRYINGGGGGG

AND THE- THE BRIEF TELEPORTATION TO NEZHA AND AO BING'S FIGHT?????? HI HELLO I'M GOING FUCKING INSANE

AND THE LADY BONE DEMON CAMEOS...

AND AO LIE!!!!!!!! HEHEHA

I love knowing my JTTW history this is so fucking cool :D

Also, regarding who MK really is, I just wanna say... I FUCKING CALLED IT. I CALLED IT!!! I KNEW, THE MOMENT I SAW MK REVERT TO A STONE EGG IN THE FIRST EPISODE THAT THERE WAS NO WAY HE WASN'T A STONE MONKEY TOO >:D

In fact, depending on how canon fully reveals what's going on MK and his past, I might even be able to say I predicted it w the ITTW lore :p I never did reveal how MK came to be, but I never forgot that piece of lore, so we'll have to see how it holds up to canon, but it looks like my version of the lore is pretty similar to canon but! We'll just have to see :)

[luckycheesefoodie321]

OH MY GOD NOW THAT WAS PERFECT

Emily did so well for her part. The way I felt each and every scream “Arlong” as her hatred seeped through more and more. The way she viciously stabbed her arm and Luffy silently stopping her. The way the conversation matched the og. Luffy giving one word answers and Nami carrying the weight of the conversation. I’m wondering if they do flashbacks to Nami’s time as the mapmaker bc that’s gonna make it hit so hard in the next ep.

And I appreciate what they did with The the Moment. The “help me” “OF COURSE I WILL!!!” Like the way “ATARIMAEDAA” is a scene embedded into my bones. It’s an iconic moment in One Piece. It’s the moment Nami finally trusted Luffy implicitly. And Luffy was vindicated. He knew Nami at her core. He didn’t need to know all the extra stuff. She is his friend and his navigator and she needs help. So of course he’s gonna help.

But they got Luffy to build up to it. He said it to Nami as reassurance. Then to himself as “of course I would” and then finally a huge bellow to the sky like “FINALLY SHE ASKED FOR HELP” bc that’s all he’s been waiting for.

AND THEN BOIS IN THEIR POSITIONS.

THE BOIS IN THEIR POSITIONS!!!!!!

Not them portraying the moment perfectly except it’s at night time. And all of them answering in unison bc finally they have the answer theyd been waiting for from Nami and now they won’t hesitate to act. These boisssssa

Oh man it was so good. First real cry of the series. They did well to hold on to it.

[rubbersoles19]

What is your opinion about Launchpad? Speaking of the character himself... Both in the old series in which he appears and in his version from DT 17.

(I'm sorry if the question for you is too personal or if it irritates you, I was really curious when you gave your opinion about Drake and Gosalyn earlier...)

Oh boy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Launchpad is complicated. The reason he's complicated is because I love him so much, and yet I cannot wrap my head around him.

The OG Launchpad was just wonderful. He was faithful, all heart, occasionally petty, endlessly optimistic, a scaredy cat, and never ever wanted to hurt anyone's feelings. He was incredibly emotionally intelligent while sometimes being kinda clueless, he was logical, he was baffled, and he cared about everyone so freaking much. Launchpad was, without a doubt, the heart of the family. He soothed hurt feelings, looked out for the over looked, tried to steer people in the right direction, and was always ready with a comforting word or a little encouragement. He called Drake out on his nonsense, tried to talk some logic into Gosalyn, and made sure Honker knew he was loved. I can't imagine the back pain the big lug had from carrying all of the emotional maturity in the show. I'm even okay with Launchpad being a terrible pilot, because at the same time he's a Remarkable pilot, and again, being intelligent isn't his strength. But that doesn't stand in his way of being a rounded, well written character.

AND THEN DUCKTALES WENT AND MADE HIM A FREAKING IDIOT. Seriously I can Not STAND DT Launchpad. OG Launchpad (yes, I realize that there was Another Launchpad before DWD Launchpad, but I've never seen the Original DuckTales so it doesn't count) was never the brightest bulb in the box, but he was Grounded. While Drake, Gosalyn, Honker, and pretty much everyone else had their personalities blown out of proportion for comedic effect, Launchpad was the stable, consistent one. He wasn't out there putting clues together to solve the weekly mystery - though he did help! - but good Lord he wasn't licking his hands to make sure they weren't waffles. Again, I haven't seen every DT episode, but I have seen the first season and the finale (which I have opinions on, to no one's surprise) and I know they "tried" to give Launchpad some sort of arc where he, IDK, proves he's a still worth something even tho he's a useless moron, but it just didn't stick. Maybe they shouldn't have made him a stupid lump from the beginning. In order to make all of their other main characters shine, they took a big dump onto poor Launchpad. The original beating heart of the family got reduced to being Dumb for a few cheap gags that weren't even funny. This version of LP suffers all the more for being a terrible pilot bc he has no other redeeming traits. Sure, they tried to keep him optimistic and caring, but it's totally over shadowed to me by how SIMPLE he is, both mentally and as a character. It's terrible writing.

Anyway, the reason Launchpad is so hard for me to write is because on one hand, I get him. But on the other hand, he emphasizes the parts of writing that I'm not good at: the emotionally empathetic characters. I myself am a puzzle solver, so I like writing characters who are solving puzzles, and Launchpad isn't the one really doing that all that often. He's the emotionally smart one and I am... not that.

So in the end, I love Launchpad. I think Darkwing balanced him extremely well, and never had to pull gimmicks with him in order to avoid sidelining him behind their "main characters." In fact, he was a main character. I adore Launchpad for who he was, not what DT did to him, but I still struggle to write him, through no fault of his own. He's just very unlike me. But that's why I love him.

[another-blues-clues-day-hooray]

Debunking “Film Theory: Blue is Not a Dog”

(I typed this post title before even watching the video. I just knew. And I was right.)

We start off with his claim “all these years we’ve been led to believe that Blue is a puppy. But, she is anything but.”

If Blue is not a puppy...then why did she come from a book that was literally called “About a Puppy”? (og series season five episode twenty nine Blue’s First Holiday). That itself should be enough to disprove the theory, but let’s humor him.

He goes on to argue that Blue’s age in the reboot is evidence for her not being a dog, saying that she shouldn’t still be alive. But the reboot is a different universe from the original. You want to know how I know that it’s a different universe? Because if they’re in the same timeline, that would mean they met Periwinkle for the first time twice (og series season three episode twenty one Blue’s Big Mystery vs Blue’s Clues & You’s season three episode one Our New Neighbor). I’d also look forward to seeing his explanation on why, if they’re the same universe, Miss Marigold mysteriously turned into a hippo and Green Puppy got Thanos snapped.

He claims that this is definitely the same Blue from the original series, but his evidence for that is flimsy - saying it’s solely because Steve and Joe talk to her. But that literally does not mean anything regarding whether or not it’s a different timeline if you stop and think about it - the BC&Y timeline is so similar that Steve and Joe probably raised her in that timeline too.

He also goes on to say that Blue can’t be a dog because she has aposable thumbs. It’s almost like...and I know, this is wild, but it’s almost like...Blue comes from a different universe than the one we call reality (Blue’s Big City Adventure seems to establish that pretty well) and so dogs can have different anatomy in different universes? Same goes for his stupid “real dogs can’t eat chocolate ice cream” argument too.

This is just a nitpick but MatPat, when retelling Moona’s story in Legend of the Blue Puppy, says “a litter of puppies just appeared out of nowhere” when Moona literally says they were “born”. Aka they had a mom, we just didn’t see them, they didn’t spawn out of nowhere. 

His argument about Blue’s Room not following a normal time is valid. But it’s not valid in the sense of “obviously Blue is an alien”. Blue didn’t make her room, it was given to her, so while it’s perfecly valid to wonder about the time passage issue, I don’t feel like this is something that can be used against her. 

The part about Rainbow Puppy seems to have absolutely no evidence attached to it whatsoever other than “Rainbow Puppy is more powerful and is also probably the same species” (I know that Rainbow Puppy is definitely a dog and so is Blue, but I say “probably” because MatPat is trying to argue that neither of them are dogs). 

I also love (read: hate) how he argues that Blue unlocking her room changes everything because “it’s all about you now” and “Joe isn’t allowed in there” when Joe has been in Blue’s Room several times. There’s too many to just list here - go look at a Blue’s Room episode guide and see for yourself. (No, I don’t mean a Blue’s Clues episode guide, Blue’s Room is a separate series). 

I don’t understand his argument that because Blue stood on two feet in Blue’s Big City Adventure, she’s becoming a “higher evolved being”. She’s stood on two feet several times prior to that. Like a lot. Just for one example, go back and rewatch the scene where they’re reading the About a Puppy book and you’ll see it too. 

He’s using Blue’s abilities seen in Blue’s Big City Adventure (skidooing into New York City, bringing objects to life) as evidence for his theory but none of that means she isn’t a dog. That just means she’s a magic dog.

I cannot believe he used Skidoo World being rainbow colored as evidence that Rainbow Puppy controls the world and that Blue is on her way to take control of the world too. The lgbt pride flag is rainbow colored too, does that mean Rainbow Puppy controls the gays? (As a gay person myself I can confirm the answer to that is no).

Yes, Blue came into existence from a book. But that doesn’t make her an alien, and do you know why? Because that book still existed in Storybook World. So it’s more like she moved in from another state/city.

Never go against a tumblr user when the integrity of Blue’s Clues is on the line. 

[olivieraa]

I'm 5 eps into Avatar and I'm very... mixed

Now Avatar is one of my most precious shows. For the longest time, Avatar and Sex and the city were my only shows. And then Stranger Things and Barry entered my life and they all became my top 4 (would love a fifth but Lost and OITNB ended so terribly)

These are non-animes ofc

Let's just say my Avatar weekend was planned months ago, and been getting through a few a day

By the end of ep 3 I had thoughts, and by the end of ep 5 I had basically the same thoughts

My biggest con with the show, bc I cant, currently, understand the motives behind it, is... why are they showing season 2 scenes??? And characters??

Like... season 1 of the animated series has 20 eps that are 20 mins each, and season 1 of the live action has 8 hour long eps. There is enough content from season 1 of the animated series to fill your show, no???

Like Ozai's reveal is season 3, but we knew of Ozai's casting quite early, and idk, I dont mind them showing him. But Azula? And Mei and Ty Lee? Why??

And the Owl??? Why??????????? Is it to make Toph the only big reveal/new character in season 2 or something? I've no clue.

But anyway. The bulk of the changes I actually dont mind. I think they did it in a way that flows well. However, they kinda cause something that is truly essential to the story to like... not happen.

So in ep 3, they go to Omashu. Instead of it being like in the OG, they decide to combine the Jet episode and the Northern Air temple episode, INTO the Omashu episode so that the 3 main characters go off and do their own thing. Aang with the wheelchair kid Teo up the mountain (tho they didn't fight off any firebenders which is a fave scene of mine in the show), Sokka with the mechanist talking about the blimp (accurate enough), and Katara off with Jet (accurate enough but would have liked their hideout to be up in the trees, would have been awesome scenery and also made more sense, y'know, being a hideout).

So what this created was separation, and the characters had just gotten to know each other by this point. With the show being only 8 eps, I kinda need to see them connecting more lol this show has a heavy friendship and love theme. Aang and Katara have literally only talked about waterbending every time they've spoke (and Aang has not waterbended once even tho he was an immediate natural at it, but whatever about that).

Again, I didn't mind that they made all these stories happen at Omashu, instead of one of them being Omashu, one of them being at the Northern Air Temple, and the other being in a pretty forest. Missed out on great scenery but, again, wtv.

The most important thing to me is that I need these characters to build their bond first and foremost. Then those changes would matter less.

Even the ep after that, the ep that Omashu should have originally centred around, was Aang meeting Bumi without Sokka and Katara. And instead of Aang and Katara in the love tunnel (since they're basically implying Aang and Katara are not gonna be a thing), they show Sokka and Katara's sibling love as a mean's of escaping the tunnel.

So we're at ep 3 and 4 by this point and they've been separated from Aang the whole time.

Changes from what I can remember off the top of my head (that I want to assume, are for a reason, so I'm not going to say they're changes that I hate, I just, currently, don't get them):

Aang is mildly playful, but defo not Aang level of playful. I'm not expecting him to go penguin sledding or ride the elephant koi, but idk........... something. Anything. It would have been fun if they made him play airball at least. I'm glad there was at least a brief BRIEF scene of them using the mailing system in Omashu.

There's no room at the air temple that shows all the past Avatar statues, which glow when Aang goes into the Avatar state which basically alerts the world he's awakaned. People just kinda........... learn he has awakened. Somehow. But Kiyoshi's statue on Kiyoshi island glowed and it led to a cool scene.

Again, Aang not knowing any waterbending. I wanna believe they've a reason for this.

Zuko doesn't have any moment where he shows any sorta, idk... respect or fear of Aang? Like he hasn't witnessed Aang show power enough to impress him

Zhao and Zuko didn't fight, another fantastic scene to show Zuko's character

Currently no pirates or foretuneteller, but may happen in the next

Iroh's dialogue is a bit... well... its different...

Changes I thought were fine:

Aang can sorta fly

Their discovery of Appa not being as dramatic was fine to me. Classic OG series moment of Sokka realising Appa could fly but I didn't mind them just getting straight to it

Aang not revealing he's the avatar but Gran-gran doing it instead

Aang already having the bison whistle given to him by kid!Bumi

The air temple backstory and Gyatso's speech to Aang not being in a flashback but in the spirit world

Zuko has a briefly important journal

The scroll being given to Katara by her gran instead of stealing it from pirates

Idk why Suki has a mother, she's not really relevant, but its fine

Azula shoots arrows, which is cool

Azula's reveal was half-cool and half-bad. I liked her in the scene, everyone else was an idiot. Did they think it would be that easy?

Aang and Iroh have had two scenes involving a prison together

Koh the face stealer was introduced early instead of during the North Pole eps where he tells Aang who the moon and ocean spirits are, which means he's going to find that out some other way in those eps.

Kioshi giving Aang wisdom before Roku

Katara and Sokka dont come down with a random illness which results in Aang looking for frogs and getting captured by Zhao and saved by Zuko

Scenes I really wish they'd kept:

Okay, this one was really important to me, bc it was the exact moment I fell in love with the show in 2005. Aangs first Avatar state moment.

In order, Aang playfully escapes some firebenders with some slick moves. An alert is made that he's escaped. Him and Zuko have a brief fight (Agni Kai music heck yeah), Aang escapes and attempts to jump off the boat with his glider, Zuko stops him and attacks Aang and then he falls into the ocean. Katara calls his name, he awakens his Avatar state and knocks out Zuko and the firebenders and then Sokka and Katara save him. And then Zuko and Iroh attack Appa and Aang redirects it.

Instead, Aang fights absolutely nobody. There's no alert that he's escaped but Zuko somehow knows?? Aang jumps off and successfully uses his glider and gets onto Appa. Zuko attacks and Katara uses BIG waterbending to save everyone.

That moment adapted well could have sold this show for me.

In addition to that:

The "Avatar" test that proved to the Air Nomads that Aang was the Avatar. Instead they just kinda showed that he was more gifted than everyone else so that's how they knew.

The big change I think most people were a fan of:

Kiyoshi's appearance. Bad. Ass.

What I like:

Sokka and Zuko. I think the casting is fantastic for these two.

Appa and Momo.

People actually being burned alive. Idk, it shows the brutality more in this version

Azula has potential

What I h a t e:

Okay. Ep 1 31:38. This scene kinda shows a few things at once. Its just so… strangely written and acted by everyone except Sokka. Aang overacts (throughout the show), Katara underacts (throughout the show). The way Aang plays with the kids is odd. The way he doesn't even have any sort of reaction to seeing Katara for the first time sucks. Katara looks depressed most of the time and she just stands around a lot without a word to say. Tbh she doesn't even really know how to stand without looking awkward.

Katara did not give Aang her motivational and heartwarming speech at the air temple which basically told Aang that the three of them are now family. He just sorta… calmed himself down. All she did was call his name

Again, the lack of relationship these two have

Ozai continuously praising Zuko and Azula being insecure? So so SO early???

The season 2 stuff. There's enough to gather from season 1 so this makes no sense to me. They've basically shown the swamp ep already. And the swamp ep is where Aang first see's Toph, y'know, super important fan favourite character. Which means she's going to get a different introduction.

Bumi's "tests"? WHERE WERE THEY? HE KEPT SAYING TESTS BUT NONE HAPPENED. ALSO THE LAST ONE IN THE ORIGINAL WAS ABOUT GUESSING WHO HE WAS, BUT AANG KNOWS WHO HE IS THE SECOND THEY MEET. SO HIS CHARACTER WAS COMPLETELD CHANGED. WHY THO.

Uh, that's all I can remember off the top of my head (I just went to check that one timestamp, but other than that, this is all from memory).

I've one ep left and then the last two will be in the North Pole eps.

I know the one ep left before those two will feature Roku's appearance (hopefully on a dragon but prob not) and Zuko as the Blue Spirit as a combo ep, which I think is also combining the Sokka and Katara sick episode but instead of them being sick, they're about to be eaten by Koh (which makes him more menacing, something the OG show didn't do so I'm fine with this). I just hate that these characters are separated so much.

BUILD THE BOND GODDAMIT.

[marashi96art]

Since I laughed at you for not having the anon asks on, I'll ask you a question. :P

Aside from Titanic, what other movies inspire you when drawing Cleon?

I love Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock so much that I want them to be my celebrity parents. But they are just best friends and always have been this way since they worked on the film Speed (1994), and The Lake House (2006) 12 years later.

When I first got into Cleon, they were the only "couple" in my mind and I have been preaching this ever since. I think they are my core of Cleon, and I rewatch Speed every month lmao.

I've also mentioned a few movies on my AO3 log, and here are MORE honorable mentions:

Action Movies:

Point Break (1991) Someone recommended me to watch Fast & Furious series for RE AU(and I have), but this movie is the OG of F&F series.

The Gray Man (2022) Kickass power couple saving a little girl, together. I use it for RE4 era ref, and I kinda have a reverse AU of Claire being trained to be an FBI agent to follow her brother's steps and Leon is just a random college boy.

Mission Impossible series I was talking with my friend about how Hollywood cliche Capcom can be.

RED (2010) & RED 2 (2013) If RE9 is about the OG team reunion like DI, they will be exactly like these movies, grandpas & grandmas still kicking ass.

Fantasy & Rom-com:

One Day (2011) Friends to lovers…The drama. In fact, my newest art has used this for ref, and you will see it in 2 days.

Now and Then (1995) Teenage Cleon. Childhood neighbors, enemies to friends to crushes lmao.

What Maisie Knew (2012) Spoiler alert I'm planning to draw a series of this. I'm not into Cleon having children but if they are, I'll do it my way ;)

Life as We Know It (2010) Enemies to friends to lovers again. And raising a baby together.

No Strings Attached (2011), Friends with Benefits (2011) Not really into FWB Cleon but you writers kinda like to write this? So I rewatch them recently, well, it could work.

The Mummy (1999) You cannot tell me Rick O'Connell didn't reference Leon's design. Again, gonna draw this soon.

The Huntsman: Winter's War(2016) Pretty average, I only use ref for outfit design but Jessica Chastain is so beautiful in this. (But my ideal live-action Claire is Rebecca Ferguson, just FYI)

Far and Away (1992) LMAO I've always thought of this movie as the prequel of Titanic.

Angst:

Drive (2011) My favorite movie of all time. And I saw someone already draw it, I reblog it to my main account a few days ago. I will draw another one soon, my fav scene is not the elevator scene so, no worries.

Marriage Story (2019) Literally just rewatched it last night. I love the arguing/fighting scene so much, and it kinda suits my idea of how Claire will leave Leon for his drinking problem.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) I don't know why this movie got so much hate, but I think the part when Steve came back and later Diana has to let him go…Inspired me to draw Cleon.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Directed by David Fincher. It's more for Claire honestly. But the Scandinavian scenery is something I long for.

Sci-fi:

Oblivion(2013), Edge of Tomorrow(2014) Both staring Tom Cruise. And I regret that I didn't go to the theater for both of them, at the time I thought the posters were boring, but they turned out to be really good, at least for my taste.

Not gonna put Romeo and Juliet (1996) on the list bc I don't use Leonardo DiCaprio for my Leon when drawing, I use Brad Pitt more, for he has a better fashion sense haha. Claire Danes is already perfect.

Some TV shows as well:

Full House (1987-1995) Uncle Jesse & Aunt Becky, just search them on Pinterest.

My So-Called Life (1994-1995) Angela Chase & Jordan Catalano. I Only use Jared Leto's appearance for ref; characteristically speaking, Leon is more like Brian in this show.

Peaky Blinders (2013-2022) For Noir outfit or Mob AU cuz why not?

Rougue One (2016 movie), Andor (2022) I love Star Wars and fuck…Cassian and Jyn are so Cleon-coded! I'm mostly into SW fashion, they have some dope jackets in Andor. Seriously go watch, Andor is as good as The Last of Us.

Ride with Norman Reedus (2016-) They got some cool bikes in the first season and Cleon bike date on PCH…My beach Cleon is inspired by this show actually.

I didn't even try hard to think about these and can still go on for days…Still, I think it's good enough for one ask for now hehe.

[skadiyoko]

Okay, like, Matt’s been in AH videos BEFORE he was even hired. Wasn’t the first Minecraft we saw him in Griffball? And everyone in AH immediately liked him bc he smacked Gavin? Like, we as a community knew axialmatt, and were excited when the guys played one of his maps! And then he and Jeremy (AH fan artist AND fan fiction extraordinaire) get hired to do their DREAM job! And I hate to say a good chunk of the community took a LONG time to warm up to them (especially Matt, but Ray leaving soon after they were hired I think really threw a wrench in things too), but eventually they got comfortable and clicked into their places in AH, and it was like they were there the whole time!

And especially recently, Matt specifically has been KILLING it! He’s so creative, and funny, and his humor is sarcastic and dry, but he’s GENUINELY so kind, you can just tell. Like, this sucks, everyone’s pissed, WB are burning their company to the ground and idk if RT has any way of getting out of there, but they really need to, bc this is only the beginning.

Challenge Accepted and the Randomizers are, imo, the best content in AH right now. I even watched the Raft series, even though I have no interest in that game, bc Matt kept me there! Shark mage was the best! I love the rest of the cast, I really do, but at this point in AH’s life, Matt and Michael are def my fav members. It just sucks, I’m taking it better than when Ray left (I was a damn mess through that;;), but maybe that’s bc he’s still PT? We’ll see how long that lasts, I’ve really been enjoying seeing him in Chilled’s Among Us lobbys, and if he had more time to devote to streaming, he’ll prob hang out with that crowd more, which would be awesome tbh.

Does anyone know if he has a YT VOD channel? I have a thing, I don’t know why, but I don’t like watching livestreams. They make me anxious for whatever reason;; So VODs are a lifesaver for me, so please let me know if you know! 🧡

And yeah, that’s my jumbled thoughts on the matter. WB is ruining RTAH, and it sucks to see, and I really, really, really hope they SOMEHOW get out of that company. Easier said than done, I know, but it just sucks to have had to see all of the obvious change they’ve had to go through since they were put under them, and are still going through. AH cast and content used to be so colorful and bright and happy, but as much as I enjoy how they’ve matured, and still have fun together, the contrast from the past, more care-free AH is drastic. The past however many years, it’s just noticeable how dark their spaces have been, like, it’s kind of dreary looking at them compared to, let’s say, their tiny OG office. Like, that room was always so full of life! And their past few spaces have just been… sad looking.. and also, they’re not quiet about scheduling. Matt and Michael talked about how Sarah had been breathing down their necks for like, half the Wind Waker randomizers bc they were taking too long, and every time they brought it up it bummed because out, bc I HATE they’re being rushed to make content! Idk who thought a Zelda randomizer was going to be less than like, 8 episodes anyway! But that just suggests to me they’re not enjoying playing the game as much as they could be, bc they’re being bitched at about it behind the scenes. Plus other random, too-businesslike things I smell just bc I’m an employee of a big business, and like, I can TELL they don’t have as much freedom as they should have, and it sucks.

like, I really don’t like getting into the “AH was better when it was just the OG cast 😤”, because those people annoy me (I don’t know why they just don’t stop watching if they just complain every video how they hate current AH? But that’s a can of worms I don’t want to open), BUT I do hate what big business has been doing to them, I hope Matt settles into the path that is right for him, the AH members someday gain their freedom back, and WB burns in hell. It’s 3:30am, I got a bit off track with this post, goodnight.

Edit:

After seeing more information come out, Big Yikes, looks like RT has been shitty even before WB sunk their claws in. I know back in 2013 they would make shitty, offensive jokes and call people babies for being upset when they were called out on them, but as I said before, one of the biggest things I’m thankful for is the vast majority of them [AH] have matured, and realized slurs aren’t funny. The community still, for the most part, gets on my nerves for MANY reasons, but I never get too into any kind of community anyway (so I can actually enjoy the media I’m consuming). All that being said, this looks like the beginning of a real big garbage fire, and I just hope all the good RT/AH people find their way to a happier life, and all the shitty assholes get what’s coming to them.

[saviourkingslut]

okay but curry can we PLEASE talk about how fucking PHENOMENAL like action Mihawk is. Had me on the brink of mental collapse 24/7 bc I kept thinking about his magnificence- he knocked it out of the PARK GODDAMNIT!!! Who's your fave from the live action cast and what are your thoughts?? Personally I think it's very good, I just wish Sanji's arc hadn't been cut (tho Don Krieg sucks as a villain, ngl, kinda happy Mihawk got rid of that bitchboy so easily ☠️☠️☠️), but other than that I'm SO proud of everyone involved, they really put in lov and dedication and respect for the series, I'm looking forward to more!!! How about you??🌸🌼🍀

ok full disclosure lest anyone think i have read the manga or seen the anime: i haven't, it's way long and i've never felt particularly drawn to it. HOWEVER i've seen my fair share of (shounen) anime and when i saw they were doing a live action of one piece i really thought it was going to suck bc the live actions always suck. boy was i wrong. everyone working on this from screenwriters to cinematographers to costume department to the actors themselves clearly love the source material and knew exactly what they were doing, and the vibe is Exactly Right. it's camp and fun and a little stupid like shounen anime tend to be and it fully embraces it and so it feels completely natural. of course the cat-themed pirate crew hiss and wear knife-gloves. of course there's characters with blue and green and whatever colour hair. of course the officers in the marines have personal Themes. we don't need any explanation, the world is just like this. and it's balanced exactly right so the more emotional, serious aspects of the story carry the weight that they need to without feeling out of place.

also, as a someone who hasn't engaged with the manga/anime, i think the series cut away/kept enough of the original material to come out of it feeling well-paced, understandable to newcomers and filled with fun recognisable bits for long-time fans. perhaps this meant, as you say, cutting out some pieces of character development/background that might have been enjoyable, but it's a well-made sacrifice bc it prevented the story from feeling too bloated. i think it was just right like this: gave us background on everyone and simultaneously left room for the story to process, without too many things at once to focus on. you could still sense that it was based on a manga bc of its little arcs - usually two eps with a minor boss to beat each time, and a bigger, badder boss at the end of the season. so i feel like keeping that theme in a narrative sense also really helped to make it reminiscent of the material it draws from and made it well-rounded and well-structured overall.

ANYWAY. mihawk. oh my god. i rewatched his scenes. multiple times. he was gorgeous. effervescent. insert the lady gaga meme. again i haven't engaged with the og material but i know these kinds of manga characters and there's so many ways to do them wrong but steven john ward really said 'i was made for this role actually' and he served absolute cunt. definitely up there among my favourite characters in the show - and that's saying a LOT bc im obsessed with almost everyone in it fr. they made me like the fucking clown (i hate clowns) buggy is genuinely incredible. the main cast? what the hell dude. they just found luffy living irl like... genuinely what the fuck. iñaki was born to play him and he did it so wonderfully - guy who is fatally optimistic but also insane and it works. nami's really cool as well - i've heard/read some stuff abt the writing of women especially in the earlier parts of the manga (woman in shounen main character group syndrome) but i think she was solid here and her interactions with the rest of the cast were great. also usopp! is so cute! so much potential to not have that kind of character work out in a real life adaptation but he's so lovable

and on that note the fucking. interactions amongst the main cast? im sobbing screaming crying they're everything to me. the way they're so supportive and proud and protective of each other and yet they talk shit the whole time too. there's so much chemistry among them and they truly do feel like people from different backgrounds who (sometimes reluctantly) come together and would do anything for each other. like real friends who have fun and make fun of each other too, it's a great dynamic and they really hit the mark there.

as to who's my favourite, well, as i said, mihawk's definitely up there, and im a simple hoe - i love zoro. but i think i enjoyed sanji's scenes the most and not just bc of his ass. heard he's kind of pervy in the og material? well the direction they took him in the live action where they kept the 'imprints on woman' but is overall sweet about it and generally less moody than he is in the anime/manga was a great direction i think. he's supremely enjoyable as a character. the accent? the facial expressions? the smiles? the jokes? im on my bed swooning and giggling and kicking my feet he is so fucking funny and i want him so bad. 'apologies madam i didn't see you there.' 'oooh back for seconds must have liked it' i literally re-watched every scene he was in at least once. his kicks were so nicely choreographed too it was really satisfying to look at, very clean (taz did god's work on his training). sometimes at home ill be doing nothing in particular like ill be standing in the living room and i'll mutter to myself 'cotelette. collier. epaulé. poitrine.' and go on with my day he lives in my brain rent free.

so uhm yea i think the series is really good and 1) sanji 2) mihawk 3) zoro if i had to put them in order i think lmaooo