#i understand the sentiment but a story like that doesnt go like this. this isnt the way u write a story like that & explore those themes

[bellamygate]

I think it's really likely phee and jin happened bc they were both rebounding from non and maybe they caught feelings maybe they didn't maybe phee is feeling guilty for that but like to ME regardless of how bad they feel abt it they're fucking on non's dead body and I'm petty enough to put away critical thinking and appreciating the nuances of media to wish them a very die

[dballzposting]

TBH Yamucha has always hated Vegeta with such passion, like hes familiar with the curve of bad guy -> good guy and hes not so stubborn that he cant see the good that Vegeta has done, but GODDAMN, yknow? Yamucha can move on but it's not like hes under any obligation to FORGIVE Vegeta for anything.

And he had gay sex with him ONE (1) time and had said "come back anytime," but he didnt really mean it that much. It's just polite to say. You know how Yamucha is . He drinks a little whiskey and then feels no qualms with having gay sex with Vegeta. And he will in fact maintain a conversation with him about it for as long as Vegeta will allow, to any end.

But I SERIOUSLY BELIEVE that Yamucha can NOT talk to Vegeta before hes had something to drink. After hes had atleast a little of any type of alcohol, he loosens up, and can freely converse with Vegeta without feeling bitter and/or losing interest. This usually is not a problem however becasue Vegeta never goes out of his way to converse with anyone, and alcohol is always being served at the functions where they may cross paths.

And it's not like Vegeta is especially keen on cheating on his wife again or admitting to hinself that he wants a hot boy summer with that tasteful slag who is pushing 40 (or is like 45 I dont keep track of eras and ages that well...) and dresses like a used car salesman. But when Yamucha is up there on karaoke night with Oolong and Krillin, Vegeta is strangely not complaining or cringing as much as he usually is. And when Bulma hosts a summer event, Vegeta hides behind corners and stares at Yamucha's legs in his tiny summertime shorts.

Sorry I keep posting about Yamucha and Vegeta having gay sex ... Honestly every time I make a post that ISNT about Vegeta having gay sex I feel a bit of pride becasue I feel like it's such an overdone topic, I appreciate the variety.

Anyway. When Vegeta starts to actually ask Bulma questions and listen to her stories, she is delighted to see how far hes come along. But then she notices that hes really mostly just asking about Yamucha. What Was It Like. Why Did You Like Him. What Did Love Feel Like? Do You Feel The Same About Me? Do You Think That First Love Is Special? Do You Regret Leaving Him?

And like some of those questions would be typical of a sentimental, melodramatic, brooding, sensitive, curious husband. Vegeta isnt exactly those things tho. And she doesnt understand what vein of curiosity hes coming from when he asks What Was It Like type questions. She appreciates being able to tell her story, and she'll spare the details she thinks are relevant, and then he'll be like "Was he as hot as he says he was? I mean, at karaoke night he was blabbering about how be was adored for being a stud when he was younger and had more vitality." And she laughs and goes "I wouldn't say THAT, but he was cute enough" and Vegeta asks "Did you like him. What was it like to kiss him..." and shes like............. "I dunno Vegeta why dont you find out for yourself. What're you drilling me for, you writing a book?"

Cue his angry blushing. Bulma's just getting testy becasue she wants to talk about HERSELF not about Yanucha's toned baseball player legs. She is conversing with her husband not having a gossip session with the other wives at poker night.

Bulma defintiely thinks in self-absorbed ways, so when she catches Vegeta sitting and staring at pics of Yanucha in a photo album (this one literally taken at their last outing like it was not long ago...), all she can conclude is that the reason he keeps asking about Yamucha is that hes wondering why he left.

"Admit it. You're wondering why he was able to let me go. You're having doubts about our marriage, arent you? You're wondering what it is about me that sends people away. Well, you've known me long enough. What is it that you're coming to dislike about your perfect wife? SPIT IT OUT, Vegeta - why do YOU think that Yamucha didnt put a ring on it when he had the chance?!"

And Vegeta is just like. "He left so that he could have gay sex with other men." This is not quite a fact but it did defintiely play out that way. He knows this becasue of the long conversation he and Yamucha had that one time about gay sex with men.

Bulma is not expecting to hear this. Vegeta not only used the word "gay" but he used the word "sex" too. This is quite shocking for the man who has always considered casual talk of sex and sexuality and even love at large to be too vulgur to be permissible.

She doesnt know what shes supposed to make of that. She thinks that maybe hes making fun of her somehow. It really is one of the weirder things that shes ever heard him say.

Anyway. Yamucha never hits on Vegeta ever again and Vegeta feels the pain of having been played by a summerboy :( if Bulma found out shed be so mad at Yamucha A.) For fucking her husband and B.) For breaking his heart. Look at him sitting there like a kicked puppy. He married his first lover, he doesnt know the bittersweet pain of a boytoy's love. SO WHY DID YOU TEACH HIM ?! You fucked up a perfectly good Vegeta is what you did. Look at him. Hes got sadness now

[mine-curse]

Idk i think c!philza is compleatly right...

c!tommy/fandom neg, im serious, i tried hard to word things nicely but this might come off as kinda insensitive. If you like. Relate really really hard to c!tommy maybe seriously dont read it? Or at least like.. try to read it charitably?

All characters, all rp, not discussing the ccs at all here.

It seems like a lot of people have very visceral reactions to tommy trauma because they relate to him, well i relate a lot to phil as hes been presented so far, so....

Things are not more important than people, they just arent. Symbols are not more important than the thing they are supposed to be symbolizing. I feel like this is such an obvious truth that I was extreamly confused as to why so many people were saying phil's advice was bad.

I understand that the Rapple burning reminded people a lot of Dream's treatment of Tommy during exile, and i think thats where a lot of the "this was bad advice" is coming from. I mean. The timing wasnt great. Doesnt really mean its not good advice. Its also like... the kind of advice you would expect phil to give tommy when you consider what phil has observed of tommy and where his problems seem to come from. Something i think he's expressed multiple times. And it wasnt like phil was trying to intentionally trigger tommy or somthing. I actually think tommy had an unexpectedly underwhelmed reaction given the circumstances. One that highlights the differences of these situations. Dream was doing what he did to keep tommy under his control. To try to remove any sense of power he had by undermining things that he had worked for. To show that it was all pointless to try to make him feel powerless. It was the intent behind the actions that was turbo fucked up. Phil was/is trying to show tommy that he has his own power. That he has the strength to rely on himself. That he doesnt need symbols. That his reliance on them, while understandable, it holding him back and plays a part in making his life worse. That without these symbols the things that made them important will exist. Unless they dont. And that the pain of loosing a thing cannot compair to the pain of loosing a person and how the pain or frustration of loosing a thing will disapate. Something that someone like the immortal "ive watched kingdoms crumble and lost countless friends and also my son" Philza would probably understand.

Also yes burning the rapple was painful on a meta level. I was there for a lot of the Rapple journeys. But it made it a stronger beat in the story to actually destroy something of practical and sentimental value.

I just dont think the take away, regardless of trauma, should be: hold onto things that make you feel (emphasis on feel) safe at the expense of things that can actually improve your situation, ie bonds with people, your own strength. I understand that can be a very hard thing to hear. Trust me i really really do. And Phil's timing might not have been the best but Tommy tends to go in circles, so its somewhat clear, to me at least, that he needs some kind of change.

I guess i just... over the years I think ive thought a lot about posession and ownership and the value people place on external systems. and if there is value or practicality inherent to those ideas. And i think in very very many cases there isnt, or there doesnt need to be, and that they've ended up being a self-perpetuating machine that keeps people thinking they need them. But i understand the emotional implulse to hold on. Because.. our things give us something we can control, something physical thats proof of something. But... none of that is inherently true of objects or external systems, its symbolisim that we assign to them as a way to cope with various things. Cope with traumas that are often caused by those objects and systems !!! And coping is important! I personally am in posession of lots and lots of cope!!! But you've gotta know when you're letting the cope take presedence over things that are truly irreplaceable.

Im gonna be honest, the fact the tommy did hesitate on saving tubbo's life for the disks made him a wildly unlikable dude to me. I get that its out of some kind of trauma, but the other characters are all traumatized, even if its not as apparent as it is in tommy's case. I dunno, i guess it's just a visceral reaction I have to seeing someone consider trading the life of their best friend away for a symbolic object wow 🤪🤪🤪

(I do think Tommy is an interesting character still, i kinda just resent the fandom treatment of him, and of other characters on his behalf without like... thinking about stuff...)

If you all read that here's my interpretation(s) of the furnace thing, as a.. treat..?

I think Phil was trying to give an example of like... shit happens, life moves on, we all keep persisting, its like the circle of life maannn, the cycle of stone break, cobble furnace, stone place, stone break again. Life's a cycle of ups and downs. Which is the kind of thing thats like... true, but hard to say in a way that actually registers because its often repeated. And its hard to see the truth of that when you're in the thick of a trauma response or a bad situation. So trying to give a very physical representation of that kinda makes sense.

For me its also like. Man. Giving advice is hard. You might horribly fuck up and say the wrong thing, not even because thats what you mean but just that your words come out wrong. And its a horrible feeling to let down someone that relies on you. And it can be hard to tell people things in a way they'll understand. Sometimes being a little obtuse feels like the only thing you can really do. Especially if youve already tried the direct approch.

I dunno, thats at least how i see it. I think theres lots of room for other interpretations and like, maybe we'll get some more clarification.

[zenosanalytic]

Harrow the Ninth: Blood and Guts; With Feeling!!!

While I’m sure the physical trauma, gore, intentional autophagia, unintentional cannibalism, and necrophilia in the book will be what turns mainstream heads, what really grabbed me about Harrow the Ninth was its unabashed and sincere humanity.

Every character in Harrow the Ninth gets to be a full human being. The best example to my mind is Crux: a gruesome cadaver 2 parts loyalty, 3 parts shouting, and 5 parts sheer bloody-minded cussedness; who blew up a long-grieving, broken family(and their completely innocent pilot) for the “crime” of leaving the place that murdered their husband and father and broke them; who insulted, beat, and tortured Gideon her WHOLE DAMN LIFE. And, also, the major, if not only, source of kindness and sympathy in Harrow’s own.

CRUX!!! Kind uncle Crux sneaking her sweets once a year and whenever she gets sick? Reliable retainer Crux always honest with her about her hallucinations and never judging or dismissing her for them; doing EVERY BIT of what little he can to help and protect her? Soft-voiced and kind Crux being the only member of the household who DOESNT abandon her in the Nova AU? THIS IS HOW HARROW SEES CRUX! The guy who casually kicked and spit on Gideon, who treated her as less than trash and never showed her even the shadow of an ounce of kindness is, in Harrow’s mind, the kindest person in her life. That is Fucking Wild.

Everyone is allowed to be 3D in this book, even when Harrow and Gideon disdain them. Ortus -a too-big blubbering joke in Gideon the Ninth, and Gideon and Harrow’s minds both- doesn’t JUST get to be brave, to be selfless, to confront and face up to and SURMOUNT his mistakes and flaws and then ride off glorious and stupid into Valhalla, he gets something so much more important; to speak for himself. To be Known. Understood. Through Harrow’s petty sniping we get to see the love and care he has for his shitty poetry; through her defensively projected self-loathing his regret, his sympathy, the breadth of his Heart, the loyalty to Harrow which lets him be insulted and also the stubborn pride which insists those insults not go unanswered. I’m tearing up just writing this! We get to see, in his meeting Protesilaus, him struggle with the very image of EVERYTHING he wants to be but isn’t, AND we get to see him resolve that displaced self-hatred to BOTH men -who he is, and who he isn’t- and befriend them both, and realize that the physical distance between them is superficial before the siblinghood of souls, and even more: that the conceptual distance between his ideal and his reality doesn’t have to prevent him from being good. He’s still a side character but he gets an arc, development, a story, and resolution, and HE gets to give its summation. And he’s allowed to be Heroic in his own way! HIS words summon his Hero from The River to speak HIS meter while fighting to save them all powered by THEIR shared belief in HIS Art, and then a heaven of his own defining. What other book does that for a JOKE character?!

And again: this is everybody. Yes of course the souls Harrow unknowingly called up, all those too-soon dead from Gideon the Ninth; We get to see Abigail and Magnus’s love for one another -and the dreadful teens, and their universal big-heartedness- up close, and the refutation of(or perhaps counterpoint to) Ianthe’s selfish conception of love gets to come from Magnus’s lips(oh: and Abigail SAVES THE FLIPPIN DAY! Harrow gets to know her and, through this, we get to know the true tragic waste of her death at the same time that we get to watch her MAKE her own meaning from beyond the grave); we get to see Protesilaus’s bravery and grace and kindness; Dulcinea’s indefatigability and cleverness and morbidity; Marta’s selflessness and unshakeable faith in Judith; we get to see ALL OF THEM run literally soul-risking cosmic dangers to shepherd one grieving, suffering, traumatized young woman -their jailer!- not only THROUGH that grief, but also through spiritual invasion by the product of their society’s sins: Of COURSE that was Noble as Fuck and I was Sobbing.

but EVERYBODY! John, for all his exTREMELY fucked up morality and inability to understand her, GENUINELY cares for Harrow, GENUINELY tries to see the best in everyone(even if, I suspect, that’s for mostly selfish reasons), and we get to see the sincerity of that; his care, and the self-recrimination his missteps bring despite that unyielding, bullheaded, self-warping insistence to continue on one Faustian course after another. The Lyctors in all their twisted, ancient cruelty: we get to see their surviving virtues beside their ENORMOUS, demented, murderous flaws -Augustine’s cleverness, wit and charm; Mercymorn’s outrage at endangering the young; Gideon’s faithful dutifulness; the endless love and sorrow all of them have for their Cavaliers- in the context of the fear and strain and loneliness the Emperor has forced them to endure for ten thousand years. We get to see the true grief and betrayal, fresh and bloody even now, they feel at John’s lies and manipulations, the relief they feel at thinking it all finally over, and even some small glimpses of the love they’ve managed to carve out for themselves in all of that: Gideon’s necrophilic makeout with Cytherea’s corpse takes on a whole different meaning when you learn that the first soul he’s truly loved since Pyrra is driving it around. And this too is significant; for all the discomfort it brings Harrow, and the general gross-out factor, and despite their villainy, the Kindly Prince and his Lyctors, the “Adults in the Room”, are allowed to have desires; allowed to be full and sexual people.

And the same sentiment extends to how Ianthe is written. As much as she is Harrow’s tormentor(and she is); as much as she is a ghastly, gaslighting manipulator(and she absolutely is); we also clearly see that she is Harrow’s fellow prisoner and victim on that station. Her terror is real; her suffering is allowed to be real. As much as they would Harrow, the Lyctors would as soon kill Ianthe as help her, and the Emperor not only allows that mindset but orders it thinking it helpful; just so long as his deniability remains plausible throughout. She gets to be Harrow’s safest harbor in a sea of troubles while ALSO being the person fucking with her perceptions to build in her feelings of helplessness and dependency for the SOLE PURPOSE of getting in her pants. Yet Gideon herself names her joy at seeing Harrow alive Genuine; her love for Harrow, Genuine; as twisted and awful-made by the cruel ideals instilled by her life of entitlement and emotional abuse they are, those feelings are still allowed to be real and heart-felt. Her attraction to Harrow, expressed cruelly and selfishly as it is, isn’t dismissed; Muir treats it always seriously, as she does Harrow’s own desires, and repressed confusion over them, for Ianthe. Everybody in this book gets to be REAL.

Fuck even Alecto. Over and over again we get to hear the Lyctors call her a Freak, a Monster, Subhuman(and given her eyes, those white-on-black oddities, it’s very likely she ISNT human; either a Planet-Soul herself or something even stranger); we get to hear from John’s own lips -the person SHE guarded; HER Necromancer in a pairing we have seen presented as the epitome of intimacy through two books- how he betrayed and “killed” her to calm their fears of her; and yet all the while there she is with Harrow, comforting, advising, never shaming or judging, being the only real friend Harrow’s allowed herself to be aware of.

Harrow the Ninth may very well be “Genre” Fiction, but its emotional universal is not only meticulously naturalistic, it is radiantly understanding and humane.

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket, Se3, ep 12 (Part 1)

The aftermath of the curse lifting~ Btw, the timeline is super messy. Flashbacks & background stories aren’t this anime’s best tool, it’s always felt messy when they attempt that. more on it in my side notes below. Now into the ep~

-Yuki & Machi: ( Blossoming Love!):

I love that the author attempted different direction of romantic love with yuki/machi that suits yuki’s personality! Opposite to kyo/tohru who had the (from best friends to lovers/ from roommates of 3 years to lovers). Yuki & machi’s love is based on natural crush & while she isnt his best friend, she’ll be his lover & they’ll know each other after dating. Both types of love are realistic & have their own path of dynamics, which is clear with how yuki/machi will be interacting & how kyo/tohru are now interacting since becoming official. I’m still bummed most of yuki/machi’s “noticing each other” is supposed to be off-screen, it robbed me of seeing yuki interact in a normal teenage-boy crushing on a girl which contrasts his relationship with kakeru, kyo, haru & tohru. Now, we’ll start the “ official-boyfriend yuki” stage! Also, this jump to confessions didnt help machi have any uniqueness beside being saved by yuki’s words from her trauma. watching her interact with him normally would’ve added realistic depth to her being a normal girl with unique cute quirks differently from tohru, Isuzu, kagura or even motoko!. Oh well~ moving on & focusing on the meaningful cute confession. I loved that altho there were a hug & a kiss, it didn’t have “ I love you” statement. You know they (will) love each other so dearly, but they’re in stage 1 now, she just called him by his first name for the first time! cute! I love that the emphasis is on the “ first name” calling since this is a huge key to yuki’s identity & struggle. Also, It is cute she bought a gift to tohru! This is a set-up to a healthy relationship with yuki since she isn’t jealous from a precious woman in his life that isnt related by blood.

-Moving towards the future: Kyoru’s final stage of growth!

By Kyokoy’s grave Kyo & tohru had key moment of growth & healthy closure to their core character issues::

1- Kyo’s toxic habit of running from life became a desire to run towards life!: While this habit is rightfully excused by his trauma, it needed to be addressed once his curse broke. We know he stopped running & faced his dad, confessed to tohru, accepted her love, embraced his crazy desire for her & accepted he deserved to be loved! Even ran towards tohru, chasing her! However, all the above is him running to the good current life in his grasp. He needs to run to the far away future this time! Needs to plan for the good & accept that the bad is part of it. struggling is part of life & he’ll endure it together with her, while enjoying life’s rewards.

I love that kyo is the one who suggested moving out to another city/place, cuz kyo was the one NOT living. He was long dead & trapped in the cage of his guilt & self-loath. Tohru at least was living thro helping others ( which is not real living but at least it’s better). Kyo was “ Mom, why didn’t you kill me instead of yourself?” ,“ I’ll kill yuki & then kill myself, would that please you, dad?!”, “ I cant forgive me, I dont want you to forgive me, tohru”. Walking on a road of self-destruction & slow death. But now, with tohru he wants life!!! all of it!! travel, learn, see, struggle, fail, succeed, build their own future by themselves.

I love that kyo didnt take tohru’s approval for his plans for granted. He really didnt think she’ll accept right away. He didnt even want her to dedice quickly, He was prepared for compromising to a better solution for them both. They’ll work other possibilities “ if i’m gonna live in this world, I want to do it with you”.

I love that kyo was real abt the obstacles ahead & didnt want tohru to just follow him based on love. He wanted her to decide on her own as well. He also, left the door open for her to change her mind anytime & this screams support & understanding!! Very powerful!.

2- Thoru’s toxic habit of being ashamed to desire anything for herself, living for others & wearing a happy “i’m okay” mask while concealing her true feelings became confidence, self-clarity & honesty: The tohru who was smiling while concealing grief on the beach is gone, the tohru who kyo had to coax her to “complain, be selfish” se01,ep5, to “not hide worrying over a relative’s sickness” se02, ep14 “ cry if she needs to” se3, ep6, is now telling kyo her honest opinion abt his proposal, while thinking of her own self as much as him & even objecting to his sentiment abt her mom’s words!!!!

I love that tohru is now a confident free woman making her own decisions based on self-honesty & communication with her partner. She wasn't just “okay” with it cuz he wants it while putting fake smile, No more of that. Now, she’ll say her true feelings, she asked him abt his plans, tried to see if it is a spur of the moment decision or if he really thought abt it. She also inquired where’s heading, who he talked to, what he’s planning! She is deciding for herself after hearing him! ok, this is your plan? I like it. I’m going!  Very powerful!.

I love that like how kyo was realistic abt the plan having some difficulties due to starting away by themselves, she was also realistic that it is indeed sad to part with my friends, my hometown, & my mom’s resting-place, but i’ll choose ME now. “I” want to go with you for “me”. This is not a bind I’ll follow you wherever love story, this is realistic depiction of healthy relationship. Acknowledging hardships & accepting them saves you from being crushed by failure, you’ll endure it when it eventually happens & move on, cuz God knows we DO fail & succeed! Life isnt smooth sailing~ 

I love that tohru complemented him on his plan cuz she could see that is a sign of growth. If she’s gonna share her life with this man, it is delightful to see that he is thinking of a happier, healthier & realistic future! Cuz kyo was this destroyed man~ so destroyed he was pushing her away despite loving her dearly, now, he’s asking her opinion & permission to accompany him!

I love that tohru made sure to touch upon kyo’s last scar “ my mom doesnt hate you” This is a scar that wont go away even if kyo is mentally healthy. Cuz death is the ultimate truth. He can never hear kyoko’s affirming her love for him, he’ll have to trust in it based on their earlier interaction together. Tohru is powerfully & stubbornly taking away most of his pain by affirming her acknowledge of her mom. You might disagree kyo, you might still feel a bit guilty, it might haunt you sometimes. but me? NO. Never. Mom loved you. She meant ONLY good. Hopefully my determination heals you bit by bit, & it DOES. Kyo stands bravely, confidently & happily in front of kyoko’s grave & instead of saying “ i apologize for hurting you, or tohru, I’m sorry, forgive me”.  he tells her he’ll keep their promise & protect tohru for life! he literally proposed there in front of her mom & all. T_T

-Kyoko’s Words: ( Sometimes, you don’t get to know the whole truth & that’s okay):

Can’t describe how much I love this part. This is the most painful yet important lesson in furuba. Life isn’t a movie where the entire truth is exposed to the characters or the audience. Sometimes you live & die without getting to know an important truth, hearing a much needed confirmation, or getting a loved one’s forgiveness. There are things in our life that we just can’t get back no matter how much we tried. What we do, then? die? despair? throw away what we DO have in our hands for this lost truth no matter how important it was to us? No, we do the only thing we can. Live. Not just go thro life’s motion, but really live. Accept the good & the bad. This is so goddamn easy & difficult as hell too!

-Kyo not knowing kyoko’s words at that time was tragic. It was so tragic it sent kyo into a suicidal descent into the abyss. The wounds of his mom’s death that were slowly healing with kazuma’s care got re-opened & poured blood! The old destructive habits became full force, The toxic coping habits returned with its ugliness. I can’t kill myself literally? I’ll do it figuratively. trapped, caged, destroyed, eyes shut, ears closed, only seeing his pain. Kyo is us. All of us in any moment of true crushing despair. He could never bring the dead back, hear their loving words or ask forgiveness. Thro kyo, the author is telling us... I know. You had your moment of lost truth, didn’t you? I know. IT IS OKAY. live, my child. your pain is valid, let it take its course, but afterwards live bravely.

-Kyo’s path towards healing is: the ugliest cuz it hurt tohru of all ppl, the longest cuz he was the last one to move on, the bloodiest cuz he’ll never have the ppl he lost, the rockiest cuz he failed & failed, the most frustrating cuz he repeated his mistakes over & over, He couldnt even do it alone. needed intervention & support. He lost hope. completely. But it is okay even if you fell as deep as kyo: stand up. even if you never learned the truth: let go. even if you were the last one to learn or heal: it isn’t a race. Embrace life with its good & bad & continue as kyoko said “ you fought well”

-Kyoko’s parting plea to her daughter broke my heart into pieces. Death is ugly, but death is a truth that we can’t escape. The leaving ones is hurting as much as the ones left behind, but hopefully, the leaving ones will find a happiness a kin to the ones left behind. yuki’s "say a prayer & move one, one step at a time” is all you can do.

-Kyoko was: a gangster who hurt others (ugly path), repented, married & had a daughter (fulfilling path), widowed & left her daughter while grieving (ugly path), came back, repented & tried to raise tohru well, love her enough! (fulfilling path), died & left her young high school daughter all alone (heartbreaking path) but she accepted that the last path isn’t sth she can fight, prayed, & accepted her fate~

-Kyoko~~ “ you fought well”  while you were alive~ you really did! The Tohru you left behind helped a whole clan & hopefully readers as well! you tohru is loved by an entire generation of readers & anime watchers. Tohru is so precious & I can’t stop crying~

Side Notes:

Timeline is super messy & confusing. (a) Tohru’s hospital discharge, kyoru’s hug & curse break for everybody all happened at the (late) afternoon. While curse was breaking, akito was wearing her white kimono & she cried until tohru hugged her on sunset. (b) Before tohru’s hospital shigure’s face was scar-less. we first saw the scar in the afternoon & he was wearing his kimono.

Now the flashback, Akito wearing her outfit from her talk with the maid (which also happened while kyo was talking to his dad which is on the same day) & shigure wearing suit & it’s sunset time??????? How can the sunset happen before the curse break on the afternoon? She inflected the scars on the sunset, how did he have them on the afternoon of the same day?? both changed outfits which is even weirder??? Someone help me put things on order. Or is order not important? If the sequence of events isn’t important, then, why did it have to happen on the curse break day??? Shigure could’ve had his scars a day or two before tohru’s discharge.

Also the OP started in the middle of yuki’s scene which was so odd!

No big deal, but I still feel that yuki’s curse break would’ve been thematically powerful last ep. Especially after seeing The Zodiac Ruler come & collect the spirits. The legend would've been wrapped powerfully on the same ep where it was told. We see the zodiacs’ original story & we see its closure. It would’ve made tohru/akito’s hug more symbolic. An end of an era to akito & to them all. Real Goodbye to the zodiac animals, but now we had a goodbye & a half. lol.

Is yuki the only one seeing the cursed spirit? He looked down at it? I dont remember the others looking down where an animal would be? Is yuki’s curse special? different? He got all the ropes/bonds around him? I really thought yuki’s theme is all abt desiring to be normal & despising the “special” treatment that haunted him even in school. 

Momiji/ kagura /kyo interaction is cute!

Haru/Yuki/ Isuzu interaction is cute as well. XD

Kagura, girl, you used to have best fashion, what’s up with jeans under knee length dress?! lol.

I’ll be honest. It is a lost opportunity that machi weren't made to question how teen-tohru is yuki’s mom. That would’ve solidified her as a unique stand alone character if she were to discuss it with yuki. Tohru being yuki’s mom figure is not normal, otherwise yuki’s entire dilemma of figuring out his feelings for tohru would’ve become meaningless. Having machi quickly “understand” it is a bit weird. But it helps the plot move quickly, I guess. ( it reminds me of Arisa hugging akito when she confessed stabbing kureno without questioning anything, it is weird, but you get the message that “ we aint got time for that~ gotta hop on the next plot).

I love that furuba subverted the old anime-trope of the entire happy cast staying together in one city/place & living exactly like they did in their teens except being married now! XD. It is so realistic that each character is now moving on their path of life~

Tohru wore a ring in her foreshadowing vision! SHE WORE A RING! My baby girl is a grown woman now~ T_T. I love tohru so much!~

Shigure/ akito & the last banquet is in my review part 2. I’ve been editing out any thoughts abt Shigure from my previous posts. I needed to see the whole picture first. I think can now talk abt them, I’m looking forward to the comments of the next part cuz I really really need to see if I understood it or if i’m off.

[tamhrayis]

ive been reading all your posts and i share the same sentiment. what boils my blood is some erehisu b*tches still bark in the dark claiming eren has only chosen historia. if those people have brains and read the seen where eren was telling ymir go fight for yourself etc make your own choice they’ll see that it parallels with why he says he want to protect historia and will not sacrifice her, bc both ymir and historia are the people at the “top” of this whole titan mess (bc royalty etc). i havent seen a single hint of romance between eren and historia, and anyone who exaggerates eren’s will to start with historia as the beginning to stop the whole titan mess (since shes the ‘head’ of everything) into romance and even come up with the stupid baby daddy conspiracy when nothing is still confirmed and we only have 1 chapter left makes me laugh as how dumb these people are. isayama has been clearly building up the relationship between eren and mikasa from day one, and for me it isnt just some teenage lovey dovey romance, it’s obviously a very sacred bond and a kind of love that has transcended mundane love, indicated by they continuously saving each other, having telepathic connection, having a bond that is akin to family. i could easily see that eren has always loved mikasa even though he doesnt show it bc 1) not his character since hes too focused on his figting freedom bla bla bla goal 2) by doing so isayama intensifies the pain and suffering of what “war” does to individuals. eren also had mikasa as the biggest panel in his memory in chap 137.

Hello, anonie! Oh...I tried to avoid the E\\H thing on my blog, because I don’t want to fight people in my safe space and I personally don’t care at all about this topic. I prefer to only focus on what I love and that’s EM.

To me, the biggest reason why I hate watching movies, Netflix series (yes I identify it as a genre) and k-dramas because of how they cheapen the whole meaning of love. 

Love is the one of most cruel and beautiful feelings that any person could experience and yet they watered it down to constantly making out and some unnecessary drama that doesn’t even develop characters as people.

About E//H...I have no words. People have rights to ship anything they want, but being this disrespectful and projecting ill fantasies on to characters is a different thing. I like Historia as a person, but character vise...she never interested me even though I think her relationship with Ymir is truly something else in a positive manner. But I simply don’t care. As a woman I share my concern about her pregnancy, but her love story never interested me.

Her pregnancy wasn’t meant to be a mystery or an important plot point that has a big significance to the story. But people twisted it into something so big and I don’t really understand why. It was Historia who suggested the pregnancy (or she was already pregnant we don’t know).

Anyways, EMA is the main trio and the main characters of story. Their opinions won’t change this fact and we simply need to move on.

[babysizedfics]

Hi! I hope ur having a good day. I saw a post abt black cats that was kinda sad but had a happy ending but still made me kinda sad. Do u have any cute headcaonons abt Virgils stuffed cat? Jiji I think? If not that's totally fine. Have some good vibes:💜🖤

aw shoot i hope u feel happier soon i hope this helps but its not rlly headcanons its mor origin story!

jiji is actually a big deal

because vee's regression wasn't revealed voluntarily, it was accidentally exposed and logan was mostly responsible for it (this is why his character arc takes place over the very first parts of the storyline, because of the guilt from this - LABD is his final act for his main emotional development essentially)

but logan is desperate to make it up to virgil, and after things have been spoken through a little bit and logan (and the others) understand what regression is, logan decides a spoken apology isnt enough

so one day he comes to virgil really awkward and blushing and aboiding vees eyes and holding a box with a ribbon on behind his back and hes actually so embarrassed that he wrapped it up like that its too sentimental its too much

but he sits virgil down and apologises again and virge is blushing like no oks no its ok dont apologise again pls just forget it happened

and logans like no see thats the thing i cant just forget this is important

and virgil feels so terrified of whats coming next, will he be kicked out? will logan try to cure him?

but logan shyly holds up the box and virgisl heart races because hes anxious about receiving and opening presents, its too much pressure

lo can see he is distressed and internally curses himself for not thinking about that, so he hurriedly undoes the bow and opens the box muttering 'uh i thought perhaps, since you have a dinosaur toy to embrace maybe...' and he pulls out a soft fluffy black cat toy 'you might appreciate having your favourite animal to hold too'

and virgil is just staring at it blankly so logan panics and keeps talking 'i cant forget about this because it is clearly an intrinsic part of who you are and.. well we care about you virgil, all of you, and if this makes you happy then... oh god you dont like it my apologies this was ridiculous i--'

virgils hands silently reach out a little, very shyly. he's looking down at their laps and logan doesnt comment on the way his lips appear to be trembling and he pushes the toy into virgils hands

and virgil squeezes his fingers in the fur and bites his lip as his eyes well up because he has never received a soft toy from anyone since he was an actual child, he always buys them for himself he never imagined anyone would get him one and soft toys are a huge huge comfort to him and its one of his favourite ever animals next to spiders

and he whispers 'thank u' surprised by how light and shaky it was, hes fighting his littlespace tooth and nail, he doesnt let himself regress but he does let himself bury his face in his new toy's fur to hide his tears for a few moments

'will you.. uh, name it?' logan asks stuntedly, clearly unsure if he should go or interact or how to interact

and virgil clears his throat and lowers the toy but cant help but hug it tightly to his chest 'uh.. i dunno, i guess' he pretends he hasnt already got a name 'i guess maybe.. maybe jiji i dunno..'

logan nods and its genuinely awkward for a few seconds and logan gets up and goes towards the door then turns back, then to the door again, then back and says 'i am glad you like your present. Please... do not feel afraid to ask for help should you ever need it' and hurries away

virgil doesnt take that request very seriously and logan doesnt realise he wants to play an actuve part in vees regression til several weeks later but jiji is still symbolic of logans acceptance of baby vee

[vigilentballofpassion]

Hi! I saw that you do headcanons, and you did both Ban and Hendrickson as fathers! Do you think you might be able to do one like that for uhhhh Gowther? If not no worries! Have an amazing day!!!

Hey! I'm sorry this took so long! Thank for for requesting Gowther as part of as a parent series! (If I can even call it a series XD)

Personally I really ship Gowther with Slader. But I was it to make it generalized so it can be with anyone.

*I'm not sure whether or not Gowther can have biological children. But, with the amount of magic in the world and great power of adoption. I dont think that matters!

*I think if he has a little girl. I think his lover would want to give her the middle name Nadja after his first love. Gowther might not understand the sentiment but he would appreciate it none the less. Like with the charm King made him.

*Same thing with a boy. Perhaps middle name could be Escanor after his treasured comrade.

*Maybe he would name would Gowther jr. But after Daddy Gowther, not himself.

*Everynight he would read his kids a bed time story. This would continue until his children move out of the house of they let it.

*He would also give them a Shoulder Boot. I'm just kidding. Please watch the Seven Deadly Schmucks parody in YouTube if you haven't.

*Storytime with Gowther is the best! He does all the voices! He'd sometimes change his appearance and act out all the scenes!

*I think theater is something that he would eventually get into. As a result his children might as well.

*Since Gowther doesnt need food. I'm not sure how much of a cook he is. But, I'm sure he cant be worse than Meliodas so... I guess his kids are safe in that department.

*Gender specific clothes are not a thing with this man. His sons and daughters will probally get dressed up in make up, bows and dresses. And suits, armour, suspenders. The like.

*His kids will be very well read. I'm sure hed introduce them to all kinds of literature. But with a preference for fantasy. (Does fantasy even exist in this world? Would it just be fiction?)

*If he marries I can see him wearing both a wedding dress and a suit. I could not make up my mind which one.

*if his child marries. He will have the best mother of the bride dress, that will leave anyone jealous.

*I think if he ever gets concept of sentimanity he will have so many scrap books of his family and friends. If he doesnt he will appreciate it if his partner or friends do it for him.

*Will probally read every parenting book he can find.

*Given how upset he was at losing Daddy Gowther... Also losing Naja. (He may have a few abandonment issues) I think Gowther will be hesitent to leave his children for long periods of time.

*This may be annoying to his kids when their younger. But I think they'll appreciate it when their older. Always being able to rely on quality time with their dad.

*Gowther will be the best at tea parties. Going way out with dressing up.

*I can't see him having a lot of kids. Maybe just 1 or 2.

*He would be so factual when "giving the talk". This could either be more embarrassing for his children or a relief for them.

*I dont think ever actually learned how to "read the room" so he might accidentally embarrass his kids and partner from time to time without meaning too.

*Because of that, he might be really nonchalant about asking them personal questions that they may not want to discuss.

*Since he really started valuing his friends and teammates. I think Gowther would like it if his kids, grew up being friends with the others kids.

*I think Bartra, given Gowther's previous relationship with his sister would accept any children of Gowther's as more grandchildren and attempt to spoil them.

*Gowther would be very fair when deciding if his kids can have a pet or not. And would mainly base his decision on how responsible they and how likely they are to take care of it.

*When it comes to birthdays and things I think he would aim for more sensible things for gifts for his lover and kids. Like clothes, shoes, armour, equipment for any jobs or hobbies.

*sometime He may have to talked out of it. Because it could be considered offense. Off the top of my head. Maybe like giving his spouse a new broom for their anniversary because the old one broke

*Once in a while he'll surprise them with something truly sentimental. Like stitching old baby clothes into a quilt or something.

*Oh and books would be a common gift from him and a good one to give him.

*I think of he marries someone with a short lifespan or adopts kids with short lifespans. (I.E. Humans) it would cause him.a great deal of distress given how quickly they age and die.

*Although since he's a doll... it may not matter how long their lifespan is because he will still out last them.

*May actually seek something from.Merlin to allow him to age with his family.

*Given that he has friends from all races. Several of whom are in interspecies relationships. And presumably his partner isnt a doll he himself would be in one. So I don't think he would rarely care who his children decided to pursue romantically. All that would really matter if they treat them well.

*Growing up with a sin as your parent would probally be some serious street cred. Especially for them dad could beat your dad argument.

*People will probally assume the child of great knights, like that of the legendary order of the Seven Deadly Sins will be knights themselves.

*Gowther wouldnt push them to be a knight if they didn't want to.

*Sometimes he will be too blunt. Like if their outfit is ugly. He may come out and say it. He's not trying to be mean. Probally didnt consider it before saying it.

*Since he's a doll. I don't know if he actually needs to sleep or not. So Getting up with a baby would be no problem for him

*Wouldn't be phased by changing diapers. Would do it without ever being asked.

*if his kids are being bullied. I think he'd take care of it himself.

*Might try to entertain his children's friends by taking of his own head and scaring the crap out of them accidentally

*I think he would be great if his kids ever need help with homework.

*Since Daddy/Demon Gowther was Merlin's teacher/Mentor. I think it would be really cute and full circle if Merlin was at least one of Gowther's children's mentors.

*Diane will probally teach his children how to dance

*King will give him so many parenting tips assuming King becomes a dad first.

*Both King and Diane are really proud of the progress Gowther as made.

*Gowther's family will be invited to visit the Fairy King's forest any time.

*Meliodas will offer to arrange to have baby shower or any invents in Boar's Hat Tavern (If Gowther's partner wanted something nicer. I think Elizabeth would offer up the Castle)

*Elizabeth would probally offer to babysit so that Gowther and his partner could go out on dates.

*Ban would probally slap Gowther hard enough on the back to make him jerk and almost drop his glasses. Once Ban learned Gowther was going to be a dad.

*Ban would probally gift him very fine alchohal that Gowther would probally give to his partner.

*King and Elaine would probally work together and make the kids the cutest clothes ever.

*I can see Gowther taking his family to vacations where he went with the sins. Like to the beach or the mountain.

*Gowther will over all be a pretty good partner and parent to have. A few bumps in the road here and there. But, over all pretty great.

As always. Feel free to add on to these.

Also if you want to use these if a fanfiction or fanart go ahead. Credit would be nice. But it's not needed.

[ryeguns]

hey! so ive been missing streams 😭 and i was wondering wtf has been happening in the dream smp since the election results were revealed? i'm so lost and i really dont wanna watch all the streams 😔😔😔

oh god a loooot has happened; i personally recommend watching wilburs edited vids on his channel if u rlly want to understand everything but ill give a basic summary!! 

major MAJOR spoilers for the dream smp (obviously) so if u don't want to hear about it then don't continue on (also its kinda long bcause all i think about is the dream smp-)

SO schlatt and quackity won the election, schlatt banished wilbur & tommy from l’manberg & renamed l’manberg to manberg. wilbur and tommy created a new place called pogtopia which is a bit away from the manberg / main area. quackity is schlatts vice president, tubbo is secretary of state (i believe?)

 tubbo is a spy and is secretly working for pogtopia. technoblade joins the server and joins pogtopia to help take down schlatt. all he did for the most part was farm potatoes...and breed horses....

dream reveals he doesnt support schlatt out of fear that schlatt will begin to take over the entierty of the dream smp, but he cant show his support of pogtopia publicly. niki doesnt like schlatt, schlatt taxes her, they just hate each other in general. fundy is also secretly a spy, but hes not directly giving info to anyone, he just keeps a journal about what he has learned. fundy begins to question what side he supports, and begins to lean more in favor of schlatt because schlatt has been cleaning up the area and basically has been making everything look nice. 

tommy and tubbo make a giant tunnel under manberg that leads to pogtopia (which is also connect to the prime path for, well, obvious reasons). technoblade has mostly just been trying to get the best gear for himself & has been trying to breed the best horse (he gets a trident at one point). 

wilbur goes insane and believes he and tommy are on the bad side of history, that they’re the villians. wilbur gives up on getting l’manberg back and has settled on just blowing it all to shit so no one can have it. dream backs wilburs plan and supplies him with TNT and wilbur rigs the entire underground of manberg with TNT (much like dream did in l’manberg during the dream smp war) tommy doesnt support wilburs decision to blow everything up. 

(this isnt exactly really story-related but sapnap killed tommys cow, henry, and dream, techno, and tommy teamed up to fight sapnap and a few others. idk it isnt rlly important to the plot but i enjoyed it so :D)

schlatt announces there will be a manberg festival, in celebration of democracy and everything. wilbur decides thats the day hes going to blow everything up. tommy still doesnt support wilburs plan. tubbo and fundy (and i think quackity?? idk) set up for the festival. tubbo has a speech written for the festival and one of the lines is the cue for wilbur to press the button to blow everything up.

the day of the festival comes along, schlatt gives a few speeches, wilbur and tommy watch from the top of one of the buildings. everyone is invited (even technoblade) to the festival, except wilbur and tommy. technoblade brings and OP rocket launcher crossbow and tries to get info on manberg. they play games and stuff.

 wilbur starts to question if he really wants to go through with blowing everything up (because he will be blowing up all his friends in the process) and tommy continues to try to talk him down. wilbur ends up asking tubbo what he should do, and tubbo doesnt know. wilbur tells tubbo that if he says the cue in the speech, he’ll do it, and if he doesn’t, he wont. tubbos speech comes along eventually, and at the end he hesitates saying the cue, and schlatt begins to ask if he had anything more to say. tubbo eventually does say the cue, and wilbur goes and runs off to find the button to blow everything up. 

schlatt starts encasing tubbo in a box and wilbur gets distracted and goes back to see what is going on. schlatt announces infront of everyone that tubbo is a traitor. schlatt calls technoblade up to the stage and tells technoblade to “take him out”. technoblade tries to stall, wilbur and tommy assure tubbo that techno is on their side and wont hurt him. techno gives in to peer pressure and kills tubbo with the rocket launcher crossbow, killing schlatt and quackity in the process (because they were on stage as well and just vacinity stuff yknow).

tommy and wilbur panic. wilbur goes and rushes to find the button, but cant find it. tommy reveals his position and goes in to kill techno, claiming techno has betrayed them. techno just starts shooting his rocket launcher into the crowd, killing basically everyone. tommy and tubbo meet up in the manberg-pogtopia tunnel. wilbur, tommy, tubbo, and techno all go back to pogtopia. wilbur and tommy are the most mad at techno, but wilbur forgives him. tommy doesnt and still believes hes a traitor. wilbur manipulates tommy and tells him to use that anger and to kill techno, so they fight in a pit that wilbur made. tommy dies, and everything is basically settled (though tommy is still mad at techno). niki also joins pogtopia. niki, tubbo, and tommy meet up just outside pogtopia and discuss whats going on. they all agree that wilbur has lost his mind and that they can only trust each other, and they begin to discuss plans of building up pogtopia so they can fight back to reclaim l’manberg. sentimental bit of them three looking off into the sunset as tommy plays the original blocks disc. 

schlatt doesnt really care what happened, him, quackity, fundy, and a few others continue to play games after the whole techno thing. (i believe something with antfrost, bbh, and awesamdude happened? i dont quite know because i havent watched their pov yet but i believe they formed some kind of alliance to fight against schlatt? correct me if im wrong-) schlatt starts talking about his plans for manberg. he plans to replace the hto dog van with an apartment complex. fundy, quackity, bbh, antfrost, and awesamdude try to talk him down from it. they eventually come to an agreement that the appartment building will be built around it, so you cant see it. schlatt kills a few cats for no real reason. schlatt talks about how he wants to remove the white house (the one quackity built with wilbur and such), quackity gets defensive and tells him not to destroy it as it is a symbol of peace and he worked hard on it. schlatt still wants it to be removed but they plan to discuss it at a later time. fundy is left alone, he questions which side he supports. he is now more in favor of wilburs side because of the public execution of tubbo and the fact he killed cats. 

day after the festival quackity and schlatt are on, tommy eventually joins as well. tommy plans to JFK schlatt and goes over to manberg to do so. he watches quackity and schlatt from a far, who are both at the white house. theyre both arguing over whether the white house should stay or go. schlatt wants it gone, quackity doesnt. tommy doesnt make a move and continues to watch. schlatt begins to insult the white house and starts to take it down. quackity gets pissed and kills schlatt and claims that he is no longer a part of manberg and proceeds to run off into the forest. schlatt then continues to demolish the rest of the white house. 

tommy goes after quackity; quackity joins pogtopia and they head off to pogtopia. wilbur gets on and claims he has found where the button is and that he doesnt care if no one else is on, all he wants to do is kill schlatt and blow everything up. tommy tells wilbur quackity has now joined them. quackity and tommy then proceed to build a giant dick infront of the manberg flag.

 wilbur then goes and shows quackity and tommy the button, quackity finds out about wilburs plan as a result. wilbur tries to push the button multiple times and quackity and tommy try to talk him down from pressing it. quackity says the only reason he ran against wilbur was to prevent dictatorship. they continue to attempt to stop wilbur from pressing the button. tommy at one point stands infront of the button and wilbur tells him to move to the side if he trusts him. tommy hesitates, but then moved. wilbur then destroys the button. wilbur says that now tommy will be leading them and making the next move. before returning to pogtopia to discuss the new plan, wilbur asks for quackity and tommy to wait outside. theres a sad moment and wilbur sings the l’manberg anthem and places the button back and says its just incase, as a backup, just so he knows that if something goes wrong, he can always rely on the button.

the three head back to pogtopia and discuss a plan. im going to be honest i was v lost on what they were saying when discussing the plans because they were all talking at once basically but the first plan, named plan a, is to use quackity to get to schlatt (its named plan a because ass...), then the second plan, plan 1, is yet to be determined, and the last plan, if those two fail, is plan b, which is to go with wilburs original plan of blowing everything to shit (b because bomb haha) 

YEA thats the basic summary i think? theres a lot of other details like the fact that fundy, tubbo, and sapnap are now dreamon hunters but !! yea. sorry for this being so long aaaaaaa

[baron-von-stroheim]

THE GROUP’S TOPIC IS: JoJo Bizarre Adventure Part: 1, 2 and 3

The beginning of a long parts of the lineage Joestar, Phantom blood presents us to the family Joestar who is a rich family compuest of George and Mary Joestar, and the little Jonathan. One day in a travel in carriage this have an accident, leaving with the mother of Jonathan death, but one drunk men appear, and taking advantage of the situation, start to steal the rings and necklaces of George, but this weak up in shock and see this men and he is happy because one men his treating to save is family lives, and the Joestar family is debt with you, the drunk men accept is condolences, and says his name, Dario Brando. 12 years after that Dario Brando pass away, but his son Dio goes to the family Joestar to reclaim his debt, and George accept, and treat him like a son, but the will of Dio is taking everything of this family and gives to Jonathan the worst. In this story Dio when bot are young, Dio is the main character and jonathan doesn't stand out. In the second half when bot are adults, the father of Jonathan suddenly falls ill, and Dio is the guilty, because he gives poison, Jonathan when he realizes, goes to deal dio, but Dio has a mask of stone, who transfer him into a vampire and we see the real main character, Jonathan, who goes behind Dio.

This is only 3 chapters of the first part, and i think is not the worst part, but is slow and maybe bored, but if you want a really good story, you want to see until the final, and if you already see the first part, the rest of jojo is a really masterpiece, and you will remember Phantom blood like something sentimentalist, very recommended because is the beginning of something much bigger and epic.

Jojo Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency is the second part of the masterpiece known as jojo bizarre adventure, in this part we are introduced to the succesor of Jonathan, Joseph Joestar one of the best jojo protagonist of all the series and the gonna fight againts the poweful villians and they are the Pilar Man, but he isnt gonna fight alone with their friends. Cesar Zeppelin ,Speedwagon, Lisa Lisa and the mighty Baron Von Stroheim a german cyborg. The story of this season is about the development of Joseph as the new savior of humanity that he must have prepared to defeat the evil pillar man that in total are four:Santana, Esidisi, Wammu and Kars one of the most evil antagonist of the anime. And follow all the crazy adventures of Joseph to overcome evil in a great journey that covers this story, to have one of the most surprising and bizarre endings in anime. This part is have a lot of fighting scenes and they are all good, the anime doesn’t have good devepment character but is not important because all the caracter have a really good personality, unlike other animes and by the way this part is full of references to the pop culture, a classic distinctive of the JOJOs saga, you may have listen one of the music references like AD/DC, Led Zeppelin and more, see if you can find them all. This part is very sentimental, in one part you will cry or in another you will scream with happiness but you should have prepared for one of the saddest scene ever, only in Jojo. I love this part is the best thing I ever seen is so breathaking and unique.

I really recommend this part for everyone, it is really fun, it has a lot of personality, a unique style and many references. If God had a favorite series it must have been jojo. 10/10

Hi Friends, lets talk about the part 3 of JoJo’s Bizarre adventure, Stardust Crusaders. This part happen after the great part 2 Battle Tendency, after many years after, with the end we have our protagonist from the part 2, Josheph Joestar but a Little bit older, i hope to not give a lot of spoilers, but if i release a Little or a “big” spoiler i’m warning rigth now for all the people who doesnt see JoJo’s yet, and want to have a beautiful experience of this bizarre adventure of the Joestar family and Friends. Im starting with the impressions what give to me the part 3, in a start i was so exited for the history and how was the characters, the way of her evolutive personality made me feel deeply friendly with one person in particular, that is someone who in the part 3 have a lot of work and principal motivation who every person i can admit what every person will understand that man, feeling sadness about his way in this part. This isnt the only one who is the favorite of this story, im going to warn of a Little spoiler now because i will say my favorite character and he is Josheph,end of the spoiler, i wont say nothing more of that because you have to see JoJo’s to understand, the “crusaders” is a group who have a mission since the start of the part and in my opinion, the reason maybe for me should have made me feel a Little sad but if i speak of sadness, well… see JoJo’s and you’ll know what im talking about…

I keep thinking in the main antagonist of the part 3 and how he is there, in my mind was (Little spoiler) he should have been “dead” but is not dead and is alive but in my mind is “alive” because a thing what he did and was weird, bizarre in a way, but nothing to do with the creator of this, Hirohiko Araki, god bless you with this amazing story, and you, who is Reading this, you should’tn have been Reading the manga because the anime have a nice animation, thanks Productions David. Have a nice day or night and stay safe, see you someday bye, thanks for read!

[normal-thoughts-official]

ok i see a lot of posts about raphael and magnus that are like "like father like son" and they show that they have similar fashion senses or show them both being sassy or making similar expressions or whatever, but i wanted to talk about the other things they have in common

listen, magnus and raphael's similarities run so deep it's kind of surprising magnus didn't, like, actually raise raphael in his formative years

for starters, they're both incredibly loyal and dedicated to those they love. raphael had no qualms about threatening anyone or sacrificing anything for his family (be it the clan, magnus, his sister...), just like magnus never hesitated to do anything for his (like when he finally yeeted camille, he did it for raphael, despite feeling awfully guilty about it, despite how it forced him to relive part of his abuse and face her again). loyalty, love and family (as well as, i feel, justice) are the things that drive both of their characters and i think thats indisputable (dont ever threaten my family again, id do anything for the downworlders i take under my wing, etc)

it's not just the people they love, though. like the both of them seem to have this sense of needing to take care of others (which i called justice above). theyre both natural born leaders, and they both seem to have an eye for people who need their help. magnus' prime example of this is raphael himself, of course, and raphael's is simon. he risked his own life for simon back when camille was still the leader and they didn't even know each other, he took his body back to clary despite having no reason to even trust her, he offered her emotional support, and he tried to keep helping simon, despite simon constantly fucking him over (even if not knowingly or on purpose). he also saved izzy's ass back when the whole yin fen thing started, despite having no reason to trust her, and ended up having his addiction purposefully triggered by her as compensation for his efforts. it's pretty clear to me that, like Magnus, Raphael also wants to help other downworlders, keep them from suffering, and just generally take care of the weak and helpless lmao. sure he's a lot less gentle about it, Magnus has this whole sorta dad vibe going on; Raphael is a lot rougher at the edges, but the sentiment is still the same, that almost selfless kind of caring, that instinctive need to reach out their hand even when it will get them in trouble. like the both of them were done so dirty by the mains (esp clace) but they still kept helping and reaching out, and i think that says a lot about who they are tbh

then of course you have their insecurities, this sense of monstrosity they both obviously carry, which granted could be argued to be a thing for every downworlder, esp considering all the fantastical racism, but two things catch my attention about it: 1- the sense of atonement they both seem to carry; 2- the way they deal with it

i mean Raphael is catholic and feels guilt and that kinda doesnt need elaboration, lmao. we know he's always talking about atoning for his sins and that he canonically self harms because of that, while simultaneously putting himself in the position to do the dirty work to protect others (for instance, when he tried to kill clary to save the downworlders, which obviously would hit him pretty hard, or you know, the whole thing about getting close to Camille so he could slowly sabotage her. etc). Magnus has a completely different approach to that, but the sentiment is similar. the way he blames himself for his mum, for killing his stepfather (despite that being One Hundred Percent valid lmao), i never wanted you to see this terrible, ugly side of me. he feels guilty, and wrong, and like a monster, and he has hallucinations about standing in what looks like a burning battlefield, and he constantly sacrifices himself and his wellbeing for the sake of others, much like Raphael compromises his physical and even spiritual health in his atonement

and then there's the way that they both clearly put up fronts to be able to handle all of that, like? Magnus created this whole devil-may-care, lothario persona, so he could distance himself from others after the trauma of camille; so he could at least attempt to keep himself from getting too close, and being used and hurt, anymore. and raphael went a route thats simultaneously the same and the opposite - the same, because by creating this sassy, uncaring, cold front that didnt care about anybody he also put his distance. the opposite, because magnus' front was all about being (superficially) open and surrounding himself with people, and Raphael opted to close off, hide in the shadows, look unapproachable and angry and keep people from even getting close to him. Magnus put up a wall of people to keep him away from himself, and Raphael put up a wall to keep people away from him

basically their stories run in such a clear parallel, from their motives to their angsts to their choices and paths, and even their history is similar - both immigrants who lost their family because of their downworld status, thrown to fend off for themselves and having to completely rebuild themselves in the process, yet still looking for ways to take others with them as they moved forward. they can understand each other from simple things like missing talking in their native tongues to the deeper, painful parts of themselves that feel too raw to even touch on without pain. they went through similar hardships, and coped in similar ways, and built an eternal bridge with each other from that, and isnt that what family is? this unspoken understanding of each other?

idk, i just think they have so much in common and that it truly makes their familial relationship to ring true, you know, all these things they share that run so deep there's no way to imitate it, and i really wished we talked more about those kinds of parallels between their characters, too

[mousehole5000]

tgcf lb the fourth chapter 23 - 33

“hmmm looks like theres people in the fertilizer. i shan’t say a word” ok king of minding your business i guess

oh looks like it has a long tongue. oh i dont care for that at all

The build of their bodies were similar, and atop their shoulders, all of them carried cudgels that were densely covered in sharp wolf teeth. It created an illusion that a pack of wolves had transformed into people. attack of the furries? okay.

It was easy to comprehend after thinking about it. This person had been buried in the desert sand for fifty to sixty years. The flesh of his body had long been transformed into nutrients for those Kindred Moon Herbs. He had been entirely consumed until the only thing remaining was a mere skeleton. when this book isnt being very funny its being very grim!!! yikes!! also this was an episode of hannibal 

Ke Mo definitely had never heard someone ask to go first in this place. His eyes widened and looked like bells as he asked in astonishment, “You want to go first? For what reason??” Xie Lian naturally couldn’t reply and say it was because he wasn’t scared. Thus, he chose an answer that conformed with the norms of society. “General, these are merely innocent merchants just passing through. They even have a child amongst them.” - love watching the immortals trying to act like humans. would have been funny if xie lian had just hit em with “well i cant die so its chill”

That young man had crossed his arms. With an indifferent gaze, he thoughtfully sized up the deep Sinners’ Pit.　　 A bad premonition sprung up unbidden in Xie Lian’s heart. “San Lang?”　　 When he heard Xie Lian call him, San Lang turned his head. He smiled faintly and said, “Everything’s fine.” - edgy bastard lets go

What Ke Mo had been cursing was, “It’s this slut again!” - me when a corpse gets up and knocks all my soldiers into the sinner’s pit what a relatable reaction

oh now im switching translations here we go

does hua cheng just straight up transform in the darkness? edgy bastard. also  hualian having their little discussion while ke mo keeps trying to attack im still amused by these kinds of shenanigans

banyue guoshi ma’am your backstory.... rough. im on your side im sure you had your reasons

why do the soldiers keep her up near the top of the pit of death if she keeps getting up and knocking them all in? am i missing something? or are they just that dumb/dead fjdf;adjsf

fu yao: y’all alive? lmk. if not ill guess ill go back to the the merchants who totally promised to stay put in the circle. in case its not clear i do not care what happens to said merchants.

hua xie... of course thats the fucking name he picked. also looks like that wasnt so much a parallel being drawn between xie lian and the general as it was the same exact line

fasdlkfjsldfdsf god xie lian really has a hard time. you help some orphans, you try to keep people from dying, you try to save an orphan and you trip and get trampled but you cant die so you wake up in a river full of corpses and just float away. actually tbh i really appreciate him as an immortal character this is the shit i like to see. love xie lian ready to defend himself from the slander of being completely flattened. he was only mostly flattened

cunty vibes so strong all the wildlife in a 10 foot radius just chuck up the deuces and split

ITS RAINING SCORPION SNAKES. THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO PUSH A REVEAL. love that the umbrella is just always on hand

okay i guess fucking. everyone is here now why not. we’re all in a hole covered in scorpions and everyone knows each other but not everyone is admitting it but we know. we know. still not 100% sure what is going wrt pei su/pei ming/general pei/pei junior im a bit confused idk

okay i cant explain it but im attached to him now.

i like banyue. i feel like theres going to be a few background female characters i really like but im not so sure theyll get a lot of development. wind master come back you and your lady friend i would like to know more of you. anyway fuck this pei guy(s?). also they just put banyue in a jar? fair enough

is xie lian another mc who cant cook? so much so that everyone who knows him just leaves if he offers? love that for him

okay we’ve got ONE identity admitted. i liked how casual it was. i wonder if hc was waiting for this bc yeah he was not subtle i feel like he definitely wanted xie lian to know. if he didnt then bruh. get lessons in how to act human please

screaming. no words. cant wait to meet him. and hua cheng please keep up the good work. i love that now we’re just. sitting. chatting. chilling. okay.

yeah it makes sense that hes an immortal i think you would have to take this attitude after 800 years

this authors note about not writing ugly characters.... fjkdalfdjfa obviously i dont think holding beauty as such high standard is good it warps our views and values etc etc but also i would expect nothing less from a story like this. yes we know everyone is going to be beautiful theyre immortal and beautiful and young forever

lmao at exile being a temporary banishment for crimes.... yeah that sounds about right tbh. rich elite fuckers

oh good we haven’t forgotten about human face disease boy. im wondering when we’re going to find out how important he will be bc he clearly matters otherwise he’d have been resolved already also yeah how tf does he have that disease that sure sounds like an issue

i dont like him. pei ming i also wish you to die of syphilis. also of fucking COURSE xie lian’s cultivation method doesnt let him read dirty books

im just saving this because its funny

okay lang qianqiu i see you falling asleep at the meeting. i like you already but you are not above suspicion. actually you know what i suspect you already. crown prince of the kingdom that conquered xianle? idk if youre good or bad but you know something i learned this lesson from beloved morally grey huaisang

okay last comment for this post. mxtx’s little authors note about everyone being straight except for hualian but you can make up headcanons as long as you dont split hualian up fjdlfakdj. i just find it silly to write a story thats so clearly for an audience that understands shipping and ships often and say not to split a specific couple up but i mean to be fair i kind of get it that sentiment as an author and not wanting people to do certain things with your work, although again i think its silly

i guess the point of this note is just to be clear that no one else is going to get together so no one argues about it and i dont actually know much about how this was published but it seems like it was serialized so i can see why that would be an issue. personally i dont really care for knowing stuff like that ahead of time but i know a lot of people do and it seems to be thing in other cnovels ive seen to know whos going to get together as far as major characters are concerned i guess thats part of the draw and i guess i kind of get it

not sure how much other romance will be in this but also i think its kind of ridiculous to be like “these are the only two gay characters” in a cast that just keeps growing but whatever shes really leaving that work up to the readers to make it happen which they’ll do anyways so whatever. also there had to be at least one of the 33 officials who fought hua cheng who thought he was hot. theres no way that didnt happen

[phoenixfangs]

i got rlly butthurt abt that starlight comment so i went to that persons blog and the posts they reblogged abt mlp r full of cold takes so i went on an incoherent rant detailing y those ideas r wrong. rant under the cut, its v long and probably hard to read bc of my typing style// maybe ill come back and properly format it later

cold take 1: starlight couldve been a better character

no she couldnt unless we downplay her crimes or change her entire design. i dont care what her reason 4 forming a cult was, whether it be the stupid canon reason that her friend hit puberty and moved, or the stupid fanon idea that she never got a cutie mark and is resentful (i rlly hate this idea) LITERALLy if u want her to be a better character then dont redeem her. dont try to write a season-long arc of her trying to earn forgiveness from the village ponies bc her actions r beyond forgiveness. lets call a spade a spade: shes a monster who mutilated their bodies, minds, and hearts 4 her own stupid philosophy that she doesnt even believe in, and we dont even KNOW how long she was doing that or when the village was established. those ponies could have been in that cult 4 YEARS as far as we know--night glider herself admitted that the village was her home and that she couldnt/didnt want to move when given the chance, bc where else could she go? where else could any of them have gone? they explicitly say starlight targeted them bc they were vulnerable, or smthn to that effect. would YOU have a story abt a crazy abuser going back to their victims after who even knows how long of abusing them, and writing it so even one of them 4gives the abuser? would u write a story where the victims of jonestown 4gave jim jones? u wouldnt bc i expect u have at least 2 brain cells, and if u wouldnt, then i would hope u wouldnt like the idea of redeeming starlight at all, too. at this point in the series life, where weve seen all the redemptions and whos gotten them, i dont care abt the nuances of 4giveness, bc the writers and fans clearly dont when they have poor ideas and lack the skills to properly execute them. abusers and bullies dont deserve 4giveness, tyrants and fascists dont deserve 4giveness, terrorists dont deserve 4giveness, and the fact that diamond tiara, stygian, starlight glimmer, and tempest shadow ALL were anywhere between bullies or literal fucking terrorists, and they ALL got to be 4given and redeemed, while characters who have done way less heinous things (trixie and the flim flam brothers) r still treated with suspicion and distance by the main characters, is fucking disgusting to me. the only one ill give leeway to is diamond tiara bc even tho she was horrible to the cmc, she is just a kid and its possible to step back from bullying when ur that young. it rlly rlly isnt easy or possible to step back from mindfucking and mutilating an entire village of ponies bc ur bitter and entitled

cold take 2: cutie marks make no sense

less of a cold take and more of a gripe i have, bc they make perfectly fine sense to me. a cutie mark doesnt determine shit, its literally just a physical manifestation of what ur good at. rarity is good at finding gems, but her job isnt geology, its tailoring. rainbow dash is good at racing and being fast, but her job isnt initially stunt flying/racing with the wonderbolts, its weather duty in ponyville. in the later seasons when they start talking abt cutie marks being ur Destiny is when i admittidly start to get a little annoyed bc i dont personally believe in destiny or teaching kids that there is a predetermined path, but even still, u dont randomly get a cutie mark that determines what ur destiny is, u get a cutie mark that REFLECTS what ur desitny is. so no, a pony wouldnt get a random cutie mark of a computer 20 years b4 computers become available at home, AND THEN they discover thats what theyre talent/destiny is. cutie marks cant predict the future, theyre reactive to the individual. i dont understand how this is a confusing concept, even with the stupid destiny stuff thrown in

cold take 3: slice of life is the funniest episode of the series

no it fucking isnt JESUS the last roundup is the funniest episode, not bc of derpy, but bc of pinkie and raritys interactions. "rarity catch me" busts me up every fuckin time, as well as when pinkie and rarity r on the little handcar (hoofcar?) at the end and pinkie wont shut up and raritys like "when i get back, ur gonna GET IT rainbow dash". slice of life is a bunch of nothing and, wouldnt u know it, the best parts of the episode r the parts that include characters we actually KNOW (celestia and luna arguing over gifts, matildas anxieties, cadence consoling a crying shining armor at the wedding). even discounting the fact that the target demographic--kids, yknow, children and preteens--likely dont have forum accounts or the time/energy to scroll through those forums and wikis and blogs to understand all the inside jokes of the episode, its boring and kind of annoying if ur as disillusioned with the fandom as many ppl r, including myself. also lyra and bonbon werent confirmed stop projecting and giving praise where none is due. coy looks and 'best friends' sentiments dont mean shit, say explicitly that theyre girlfriends or wives and then give me a call

[soysauceharry]

thefemaleofspecies replied to your post “instead of wondering whether or not you should praise harry for doing...”

I understand the sentiment but really dislike how important n impactful you make the act of a white man simply posting an ig story with no comments or mention of the cause of victim's death . I assure you none of harrys millions of followers would be in the dark about the situation without harry posting a simple ig story which would vanish in 24 hours considering loads of celebs n media is spreading actual awareness about this

thefemaleofspecies replied to your post “instead of wondering whether or not you should praise harry for doing...”

Like idk this post just sounds like "be grateful that harry did something and yall should be happy at the crumbs thrown at you". Black fans wanting harry to express something of more emotion and substance than a generic ig story which doesnt even raise awareness about police brutality isnt wrong since harry has shown capability to educate Himself about these things.

thefemaleofspecies replied to your post “instead of wondering whether or not you should praise harry for doing...”

Spreading awareness about these things means nothing if the gesture doesn't come off as genuine. By that logic ppl like kendall jenner should be applauded for posting a string of heartbreak emojis about this topic

hey, i’m having a little trouble understanding the issues you’ve brought up. the point of my post was to recognize that scrutiny and debate over “a white man’s” actions takes away from the actual action itself. i agree with you that many of harry’s followers are probably aware of the situation and are also (hopefully) doing what they can to promote this movement of change. but why should their prior knowledge and awareness negate harry’s action? i don’t understand why harry using social media to disseminate information is automatically a bad thing considering he really hasn’t done anything like this before IN DIRECT RESPONSE to something that’s just happened. yes, we can argue about if his efforts have just stopped there. we can speculate his intentions all we want. we shouldn’t laud him for it because it truly is the bare minimum, but what good does that do? what good does that do in regards to any celebrity? why are we holding them accountable instead of focusing on the REAL issue at hand, which is so much bigger than an instagram post? are we to look at a post like that (not just from him, but from any celebrity) and be like “oh, well I already knew that, tell me about something else.” like you said, he’s shown the capability to educate himself, and i think a lot of people appreciate him showing that he knows and he sees and he supports what’s going on when this isn’t a normal thing for him, which is unfortunate, but i think it’s worth giving him credit. and like i said, things like this shouldn’t be treated as a benchmark for advocacy when there’s a real tragedy involved. everyone just wants to do their part. trust me, there have been plenty of instances where he’s done disappointing things and i’ve called him out for it. this is an instance where he’s done something to support a movement, so i’m not going to sit here and find something to nitpick. if you have a problem, i urge you to think deeply about whether your issues are true contributions or detriments. 

also. nowhere in my post did i say that this is “just something that black fans should be grateful for.” that’s horribly insensitive and i would NEVER insinuate something like that, especially being from a marginalized population myself. from your blog, i can see that you’re also south asian, so you get it. your frustrations are valid, as are mine. ultimately, though, the frustrations of black men and women are the most important, and those are the ones we should be listening to. im not trying to argue with you, but i just wanted to address this. if you want to talk more, just message me!

[macklives]

to be real fucking honest, i dont blame them. but at the same time im extremely happy people are seeing negligence and abuse for what it is, especially since dave doesnt seem all that willing of it. i could rant FOREVER about this particular topic. but i feel as if the feelings are all the same. that people are slowly realizing how bro, a probably adult, how he acts around a 13 year old, is.. Not A Good Thing.

tho, i do want to mention something. in defence of those who used to like bro. i dont myself, but i do like debating on different views of the comic and respecting all without bashing solely bc “my opinion is more valid than yours”. we dont need that in 2019. but that doesn’t mean we still can explain those opinions.

so i will just do that, while seeing both sides of it.... (kinda)

for those who have liked bro as a guardian, or still do, i do get it. it can be overlooked if you see bro as someone doing ironic things for comedic relief. and if you prefer his character, thats completely fine. he has the potential to be a fucking good one. but i dont feel for him because of how he acts as a guardian. because i think at the time, his whole shindig didn’t really seem to be something taken seriously. as in, you wouldnt expect homestuck to be a touching sentimental story in that aspect, seeing as the theme doesnt fit “slice of life” where abuse is a problem. if you take out dave from the situation, imagining bro as just a regular guy not having to take care of a kid, the fandom would view him differently. however, times have changed and the more you delve into homestuck, the more you can see the subtle points of the story being much more than kids playing a game. ie, the background of said kids and how.. something seems off, right? something that often doesnt get resolved but kicks you in the ass once you figure out how you missed the key elements everyone else is trying to convey. 

but me, having done and still continuing into the psychology field, and especially out of habit, im looking more into the characters and their backgrounds than the plot itself. so being angry over bro because of what ive seen concerning his relationship with dave, of course that upsets me and of course i can see the abuse. but i do love the plot, dont get me wrong. but most of my long rants will probably be about analyzing a character than analyzing the current situation. which in hindsight, is probably bad. but im better at one than i am the other (see the intermission). yet that still wont stop me from trying to analyze plot, it just wont always be the in the right passion and understanding, considering im prone to get many things wrong.

so i can get behind the whole “bro isnt all that bad” for people having headed into the comic in the earlier years, and seeing him more of a character than a role model for dave. tho personally, thats not for me. i cant find it in myself to like his character when the looming abuse is just lurking overhead. then again im also bias for dave and for him to be happy and have hella respect for people actually going through similar stuff.

so i said “fuck bros rights”

since i do not like the man

although, i do love how people are coming to realize this fact and it shows how we’ve kinda... grown, havent we?

[niennavalier]

Okay, belated Star Wars thoughts under the cut; no particular order, just as I think of them. Possibly some unpopular opinions, I dont really know, I'm not all that active in the SW fandom. So maybe I'll get roasted alive but...eh, whatever, this site is somewhere between an void and hell anyway.

Also SPOILERS BELOW (OBVIOUSLY)

[[MORE]]

Okay, so first things first: I enjoyed episode 9. A lot. It was really fun to watch, and just talking in terms of my experience in the theater, it was fantastic. It was so much fun to see the old crew back, all of those appearances were basically like happiness shots in the arm. It was really very cool. The Palpatine reveal and everything around it was pretty damn epic for the obvious reasons. And I absolutely loved seeing the trio bantering and arguing and passing each other - I always love stuff like that. I swear, just give me hours of good character interaction and I'll be happy. Kylo and Rey fighting together/him using the blue lightsaber was also some cool shit and basically like "yaasss heres the payoff for the entire trilogy let's fucking gooo"

Oh, and I need to mention that little droid that Rey fixes. That little guy was adorable and I want merch for him and I will not hear otherwise. (The droids are always great in all the movies fight me)

Also Zorii and Jannah. Badasses, loved watching them and the way they got to interact with the main cast. Just...wanna spill all the love for them in this sentence.

But there are a lot of other things I have to say about the movie - especially the more I think about it and the trilogy as a whole. Dont get me wrong; I still really loved watching the movie. There are just...certain things that feel like missteps or missed opportunities?

(Not counting how badly Oscar Isaac wanted Finn and Poe to be boyfriends, which I just discovered is a thing. And reminds me a lot of anytime anyone mentions Julian Bashir to Andy Robinson and his response is always "oh Garak wanted to have sex with him from the start". Which I literally love so much, this man is a treasure, and I'm glad that apparently the same thing is happening here. And it's not that I'm not gonna talk about it here cause I dont think Poe and Finn should've been boyfriends, but I'm pretty sure Oscar Isaac has much more to say about it than I do)

Gonna start where I always start when I have problems with writing: romance. Because IMO badly written/unnecessary romance can ruin any good story real quick. I'm talking about the kiss at the end. I'm not saying this to bash on the Rey and Kylo shippers. Generally, I dont care what you ship so long as you dont start harassing everyone else; I care even less when it comes to this fandom cause I just participate in it so little. So this isnt me bashing on the ship itself or the fans, but I just think that, in the context of the movie itself, the romance was really poorly handled. To the point that I saw the scene going that way and all I could think was "oh god please dont kiss, I'm begging you". And well...we all know where that went. But I just never got a romantic vibe from the two of them in terms of what was shown on screen. The chemistry always felt familial, at least to me, across episodes 8 and 9 in particular. I dont know if that's just the chemistry between the actors or what, but the tension between them never struck me as romantic - more like two people desperate for someone who understands the chaos around them, not lovers.

Again, granted, maybe that's just the way I read stuff, especially considering I really appreciate movies that don't feature romance arcs. I'm not sure how it read to other people, and I'm not gonna bash on the shippers who like it. I may feel like JJ Abrams didnt write a convincing romance - or just stuck the kiss in there at the end to fulfill some plan from episode 7 that didnt actually pan out - but I have no problem with the ship itself, or the people who ship it. (Because at the end of the day, this is all fiction, and I couldnt care less how anyone chooses to interact with it)

(And this isnt an entirely rated point but because I've seen it around:

In all honesty, I'm starting to think that the romance thing was just a symptom of a bigger problem with this trilogy: it doesnt feel cohesive. It's like JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson had two separate sets of notes and just refused to actually look between them. Two separate sets of ideas that they were too stubborn to compromise on.

And I have a feeling (at least, talking to my little brother, who definitely feels this way) that a lot of people are pinning this fragmented feel to the trilogy on Rian Johnson and The Last Jedi, but I honestly don't think that's fair. Because, and here's the unpopular opinion: I really don't think Last Jedi is that bad. At least, not bad enough to deserve all the flak it gets.

Won't get into that entirely here because that could be a whole separate post, but that's my opinion. Sure, it's not perfect, there are definitely a lot of parts that are pretty irrelevant and not really necessary, but that's true of everything. Frankly, its biggest problem was that it was written for the wrong audience. Which is a major problem, yes, but taken for what it is, it's perfectly decent. As I said before, I could write a whole thing on this movie and why it's not that bad (because I have my brother's points as to why it's terrible for me to argue against) but overall, my reading of 8 is that it's a movie meant to introduce wider ideas and concepts to the universe - particularly this very gray and murky area of morality and character - through stories that are closer to the characters and tied to harsher realities of war. Things aren't always black and white, people are complex, sometimes our heroes can be gravely wrong in ways that aren't glamorous.

Frankly, it feels somewhere between a super deep indie movie and Star Trek (particularly DS9, at least to me, because I love when that show gets to twisty moral stuff). So yeah, wrong audience, yet he decided to stick with his storytelling despite that. No matter I personally might fall into the audience that movie resonates with, it wasnt gonna resonate with most of the fandon.

Again, Last Jedi is far from perfect in other ways too, but it sets up some great ideas that I was really hoping to get some closure on. Honorable mention here is when Rose saves Finn when he's speeding out to sacrifice himself and because of the desire to save the people they love, which I always end up likening to the "we dont trade lives" sentiment. Mentioning this cause my brother always complains about it, but I was thinking this would be one of those virtues that separate the good guys from the bad guys and ultimately allow good to triumph. Yknow, sorta like how Voldemort's lack of understanding of love contributed to his downfall, to liken it to HP. I was under the assumption that would be the concept at some turning point in the climax, but...guess not.

Big one though, which was actually a pretty big disappointment IMO, was the whole neutrality argument, the existence of a grey area. The most interesting thing from Rey and Kylo's scenes in 8 was the notion that the Jedi and Sith could be left to die, and the two of them would essentially find a way separate from those two sides, walking a path down the middle. I know I'm not the first person to bring this up, especially because of how the Force just...works. That the scales need to be balanced. And so, given that, to have the Jedi always destroy the Sith - that's not balance. Give it a few more years and the same problem is gonna happen; if there are Jedi, there will be Sith and war is gonna break out. That's hardly resolution, so neutrality is the way to go. And, personal opinion - I loved that this ended up in 8. It's just a lot more nuanced than "good vs evil, good is victorious" and brought in new ideas to this universe that I really wanted to see explored.

But that just...never happened. Sure, Rey has that yellow lightsaber at the end, but it's really very little more than the barest hint of lip service to that entire concept. Because it's never built on throughout the movie. Kylo's insistence that they look for a different way turns into a demand that she basically become his Sith queen. Which isnt playing with the gray area - it's more firmly dividing light and dark. And as she's fighting Palpatine, he's all the Sith, while she's all the Jedi; doubt that needs further explanation. Sure yeah, she's dealing with the revelation of her bloodline throughout the movie, but that interaction with the dark side is very different than in 8; she's afraid of it (a character arc I love, dont get me wrong), not lured by it. The Sith are very clearly evil, and despite her family, she comes to embody the Jedi as a whole. The opposite of what was laid out in 8.

Which actually just makes her choice to take the yellow lightsaber make even less sense? Because...she has no reason at all to turn away from the Jedi and every reason to keep using the Light side. The only possible reason by that point is if she knows about the balance and makes that choice intentionally to prevent the rise of a Sith lord. But that choice is never shown, so I dont give that a pass. It just feels like the lamest nod to something from 8 - no buildup, no explanation, just there because it technically should be.

And that fucking sucks. What a waste. Puts so much space between these movies.

The romance might be another aspect of that - 8 didnt really give me a strong romantic vibe, and then 9 tried to benefit off of buildup of romantic tension that just wasnt there. And that romance isnt the only other one. Just the existence of Palpatine at all? Like, awesome plot yes, but not at all foreshadowed. The banter between the trio at the start? One of my favorite parts to watch, but it comes out of nowhere, and I guess we just have to live with the idea that all of the development happened off screen. Lame. The return of the fucking helmet? Fuck, i actually have more i can say about the way i interpreted the helmet, but this is getting long. So point being: it's like we just got zipped right back to episode 7 all of a sudden and didnt even get a symbolic moment of him losing the helmet in 9 (at least, not that I remember).

Really, on the whole, JJ Abrams basically did the beginning of 9 such that most of 8 could be made irrelevant. Because that's how I felt throughout the whole movie; like 8 didnt matter. And I know a lot of fans are honestly happy with that (so maybe if was actually the right choice on that front) but god does it make the whole trilogy clunky. Literally nothing flows.

And I think that's my main problem with the trilogy as a whole - or, rather, with the production behind it. It's like JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson were just so goddamned married to their ideas that they wouldnt budge from the story they wanted to tell. Like they put their individual creative visions above the quality of the story as a whole. Like they weren't willing to deal with any changes that they didn't put into play themselves. And the trilogy suffered for it.

Which is really so obnoxious to me. Because it is very possible to be flexible and improv and incorporate other ideas into what you already had; just look at D&D. That's the job of a DM. You can plan everything out perfectly, figure out the story you want to tell, decide how you want everyone to interact with your world, but the players will invariably fuck those plans over. And you just have to roll with the punches. But beyond that, those changes can be for the better, because those are ideas you never thought of, and incorporating those makes for an even richer story than anyone expected. All because the people involved are willing to see where the story naturally takes itself.

Just wish these directors could understand that.

(Also...what was Finn gonna tell Rey? I mean...? This is honestly the strangest thing about the movie because it literally felt like the writers just...forgot they ever had this plot point after halfway. Which just feels like sloppy writing, and I feel Poe when he seems to be really curious what Finn wants to tell Rey. Because...me too!)