#i wish these comics like... didnt make fun of itself

[officialtokyosan]

uuughhh megatron/optimus really is the couple of all time huh

[suffarustuffaru]

I think I read a while ago on reddit that you had a madoka magica au for re zero, do you still think about it? I can Imagine Subaru taking the place of Homura but the rest of the cast is harder to place. It's a fun thought exercise though.

WAIT wow your ask sent me down memory lane wkdndn i forgot i even had a madoka magica au in the works for a while. i made it in like late 2020 and last worked on it in early-mid 2021 hah mostly bc my skill with writing and art didnt match with how big of an idea a multichap plotty crossover/fusion au was and i was still just dipping my toes into more ambitious ideas!! but id love to revisit it again now that i got more practice 👍

i like read your ask then went WAIT A MINUTE I DO HAVE A MADOKA MAGICA AU and then i skimmed through my old google doc plot outline for it in a frenzy. but also i used to write in yellow comic sans at the time so i wont subject you to my old terrible (affectionate) writing habits too much. but i think its funny how i had some notes on vague (and Dead Serious) ideas for witch form symbolism and i just found this yellow comic sans monstrosity:

2020/21 me was on some drugs probably LMAO 😭😭 but given madoka magica’s canon content that is probably a good thing if youre writing serious madoka magica fic.

also i did have a tiny bit of finished writing for it. here is the old synopsis past me came up with:

Stumbling across magic and witches, fourteen-year-old Natsuki Subaru follows his new friends and a mischievous cat spirit into a world where a single contract could grant you your greatest wish.

And at the end of it all, he really should’ve known this from the start: wishes always come with a cost.

i think that currently id probably change up this synopsis a bit if i worked on it again but it aint bad i think 👍 and yes youre right subaru would def be in homuras role for this fic… 😔 anyone whos seen both madoka magica and rezero would immediately make that connection i think hah they have. Similarities, as we know 😔

and i deaged some of the rezero cast as you can see hah. not sure if id keep that but i think an important aspect of madoka magica is that the main characters are that young. it helps add to some of their decisions and adds to the tragedy and whatnot. that and like. targeting vulnerable young girls, Literal Children, knowing that most would make a wish and sell their souls in a heartbeat and then easily be crushed by trauma without being able to fight back much, you know? :,) and then theyd make Lots and Lots of despair to harvest… and madoka was meant as a magical girl deconstruction and magical girls iirc tend to be arounddd early teens/preteens!! ill talk a bit more later on how id try to do this au with deaged rz cast hah.

also i did have a small drabble written for this au!!

The boy, no older than fourteen, stands there with an eerie sense of calm.

His frame is seemingly scrawny and lean, dawning dark clothing reminiscent of a mixture between a tracksuit and a school uniform - even if it’s adorned with golden ribbons and stripes - with a whip attached to the belt at his waist. Draped over that is a cloak, the hood of it casting a shadow over messy black hair and a cold expression. His keen eyes, emphasized by the deep bags underneath, narrow at the sight of Puck, mean and brimming with distaste.

With a steady hand, he raises a pistol to Puck’s head.

The moonlight shines dimly through the broken windows and onto the shards littered all over the floor. A beam illuminates a metal contraption, its appearance similar to a shield, strapped to the boy’s forearm.

“You know, I don’t quite recall making a contract with you,” Puck muses cheerily, though an undercurrent of a threat weaves itself into his tone. He stares down the barrel without fear, his sharp teeth revealed in his smile. “Who are you, really? And why are you so upset that I’ve been getting close with Lia? Jealous much?”

“Don’t you dare call her that,” the boy replies instead, bitterly spitting out each and every word. “Don’t you dare pretend that you only have her best interests at heart, or that you really care for her like a father figure would. It makes me sick.” He sneers as he digs the cool metal of the gun harder into Puck’s fur. “Because if you make even just one mention of creating a contract with her, or if you even come near her… I’ll definitely make sure that you regret it.”

yeah so. past me made puck kyubey apparently 😔👍 and if i revisited this au im not sure if i would keep subarus character development to be Exactly the same (ie it was very greedbaru/pridebaru/homura inspired) but this drabble was a fun exercise at the time!!

but anyway i will ramble about some more ideas i had for this au under the cut!! turned out past me had A Lot of ideas.

yes so this au was like. a fusion of sorts so yes i was assigning rz characters certain roles, blending worldbuilding together, etc etc but the general plot sort of followed the general story of the main madoka magica plot from the main show to rebellion!! it was like vaguely modernish too, but you know, madoka likes to be Creative with its backgrounds (see: the infinite amount of crazy chairs everywhere, which im still very fond of to this day) and also rz vainglory/school if has its fantasy world cast mixed in with subarus parents still being there iirc and a whole bunch of other details too (like beatrice being subarus adopted sister iirc?). so i was going the vainglory-ish route here in terms of “how modern is this world?” 👍

the main cast i was focusing on was gonna be subaru (homura), emilia (madoka), rem (sayaka), ram, beatrice, felt, and reinhard. also puck as kyubey haah and satella as walprugisnacht aka the giant witch at the end of the main show. i havent seen madoka in a bit wkdn i gotta rewatch. but anyway!! felt and reinhard got a mix of mami and kyokos roles narrative wise yeah.

quick rundown on their characters is that i wanted to stick to the rz cast’s canon characterization as much as possible while leaving room for fun experimentation!! and if theyre still younger than normal canon here—subarus still got his Big Ego/Im The Main Character mindset but in that way thats specific to his little kid self bc he hasnt gotten Completely Depressed yet (think like. arc 7-8 type stuff), reinhards still stuck in the middle of watching his dad gradually deteriorate, felts even Younger and still trying to find her footing a bit, rem is Guiltily and enviously trying to live up to ram’s Golden Childness (this is pre-Incident That Kills Their Whole Family). and emilia has lived a lonely life in the forest somewhere with no one for company :,) i cant remember if i had some Magic Mindfuckery ideas for her backstory here but ive definitely had ideas for modernizing her backstory for other aus like this!! but either way emilias family is still dead ;-; and i do consider like. the idea that modern emilia would have albinism, especially when there is discrimination in place against people with albinism that is a little similar to emilias canon struggle with her appearance so a modern take of emilia being that she is someone with albinism would be Very Relevant!! but!! not sure if id go all the way with that bc its a sensitive topic that needs to be treated with care and i dont personally have albinism 👍 or i could go the magic route and go “emilia looks like a previous magical girl thats become the most powerful witch yet….” ie satella ofc. so emilia would still be a bit of a “red flag” to other magical people.

but yes emilia wished for. im not sure but probably smth like “i wish not to be lonely anymore”…………. and then she got her wish granted via having magical girl/boy friends and puck!!!!! thisll totally end happily.

and quick note on reinhard is i didnt have much plot ideas for him yet but i considered different ideas for his backstory!! maybe theres some magic fuckery and theresia was a magical girl once? no clue how that works but it was an Idea i had for sure. also various ideas to modernize the Astrea Family Drama (dont worry the accidental indirectly/directly causing your family member’s death thing would still be there wkdndh this is an important detail to me.) but regardless of whats going on with reinhards backstory his wish was a naive little kid wish!! he wanted to be a hero who helps people ;-; good going reinhard ;-;

the entire plot of this au in general was divided in half, first half would be the first timeline where things go wrong. subarus gonna be the pov and hes the audience surrogate bc hes new to the world of magical girls/boys and no one in the group 100% knows the ugly truth yet!! and like in canon emilia/madoka has already become a magical girl here. emilia is also already close with puck—and emilia is the one person puck has genuine fondness for ;-; and i had a Lot of ideas for what exactly went wrong here—i had elsa and meili planned as witches? and i think i considered disemboweling felt :<<<< this is very sad bc her family gave her away to save her bc they were in danger (yes just like in canon rz) but then later felt had her life threatened or smth? and like mami, felt wished to keep living. but the wording felt used was wanting to “live strong”…………….. well she sure got it by fighting elsa valiantly but still losing 😔

also ok the first person to become a witch is beatrice. i had like wild ideas with beatrice—the possibility that echidna still made beatrice and puck and that beatrice couldve been a failed—whats the word for the creatures in madoka that collect/cause magical girls??? incubators i think?? yeah that. because whatre the two things a little kids gonna probably trust?? a cute cat creature and a tiny little girl offering free wishes, probably. and of course beatrice got assigned by her biomom echidna to look after echidnas library maybe. bc echidnas funny like that and beatrice didnt work out as an incubator so now shes gonna generate soooo much despair when she realizes that there is no That Person + the truth of magical girls/boys and what beatrice was meant to be used for….

yes more various shit hits the fan bc rem and rams canon witch cult backstory… i had plans to adjust it for this au and make it happen In Real Time. and also rem’s wish was probably something along the lines of wanted to be needed. and Better. so not just Like Ram. but rem wanted to be More than ram. which rem is guilty about but thats still what she wants so she wishes for it away from rams eyes. ofc rams feelings on this is that she just wants her sister to treasure herself and be safe and whatnot but rem is kinda in her pre-witch cult trauma mode and Oops now their town is destroyed in flames and their family is dead ;-;;; not sure how else id modernize rem and rams backstory but yes this is. this is how their plot went in that first timeline wkdnd. and ram is injured in some way ;-;;;

yes and then rem you know pulls a sayaka and goes a little crazy about everything bc beatrices whole ordeal already revealed how fucked they all are and then rem and rams Trauma just happened so rem feels like shit!! and then she becomes a witch too oops ;-; and then reinhard decides to be the hero and sacrifices himself so emisuba can escape ;-;; or at least that was my plan at the time. but yeah rem became better (a magical girl. bc ram didnt feel like making a wish bc her only wish would be wanting rems happiness but she didnt want to Cheat That. she wanted rem to find it on her terms. except rem became “better” and bigger than ram by being a witch also oops. also i think i still had vague plans to include rem being Obsessed with subaru to contrast what will later be subarus emilia obsession haha) and then reinhard. is the hero. </3

satella comes in somewhere at the end. she used to be a magical girl but she became a witch and shes Crazy Powerful for reasons i have forgotten now 👍 but i definitely wanted to have more shenanigans going on with her backstory to keep that sort of emilia-satella-subaru mystery connection. and theyre still connected anyway bc emisuba inevitably lose to satella bc shes too powerful ;-; emilia is gonna die and puck realizes OH SHIT I SHOULDNT BE FEELING LOVE BUT I DO GENUINELY LOVE EMILIA I CANT DEAL WITH THIS. WITH HER DYING. ID RATHER DESTROY EVERYTHING THAN LET THAT HAPPEN. and ofc subarus also in agreement bc oh god oh god—and yeah. subaru hasnt made a wish until this point but he makes a contract with puck to promise to save Everyone. like subarus promise in canon right before he dies for the first time you know? bc then he dies.

and wooooo the time loop officially begins!!! i had more ideas but i have typed lots on this post already akfnd maybe ill save it for another time if people are interested.

but yes thats all thats the au!!!! i am not familiar with stuff like magia record yet sadly ;-;; but if i ever wanted to expand the au thats def One option 👍 bc WOW the rz cast would be such a goddamn gold mine for those fucking incubators. little kid felix argyle would be a Top Tier candidate for them. like can you imagine???? thatd be the biggest disaster of all time ;-;;; and also theres Lots of possibilities for various witches the cast can fight!! very fun stuff its why i chose elsa and meili and satella :o !! but yes id consider exploring other candidates for magical girls and boys as well bc WOW felix would go insane here.

[certifieduruihater]

wish we got to learn more about april's character outside of when she hangs out with the turtles. maybe part of the reason for this is because the writers wanted to make her a "part of the team," hence the reason why we only ever see her with the turtles, but that logic doesnt hold up when the guys themselves have established personalities on their own. like we know what every single one of the turtles does for a hobby. but i still don't know what april likes to do for fun. she can draw, sure, but is that her hobby? idk. she journaled after their defeat during the invasion, but did she always do that or was that just a one time thing? she never really struck me as incredibly reflective or introspective, either. she's more of a "go out and get 'em" kind of person to me.

i wish we could have gotten to see more of what she's like at school, too. how come she doesn't have more friends? she's a nice girl, and she doesn't strike me as particularly shy. is there some other reason? she signed up for extra credit classes, but why? does she need more credit? is she studious? enjoys school? why was she failing trig? bad at math? bad at trig itself? doesn't want to study? no time to study ever since mutant insanity invaded her life/grief over her father? it's these little questions that i think would have painted a better picture of april's character.

and this is what i mean when i say i wish she had better writing. april is not a bad character. she's not "ungrateful." she's not a "brat." she's not a "b****." from what we do see of her, she's kind and friendly, but can also be incredibly stubborn and a little prideful.

when she blows up at the turtles for getting her dad mutated? completely understandable. the guys got cocky and reckless (which was another point of the episode). they did not prioritize her or her dad's safety. the only reason they were out there was because the turtles insisted, and didnt think of the potential consequences. and yeah. it WAS the turtles' fault that the city got mutated. yes, it was an accident. yes, they were kids. but like i said, they were incredibly cocky, reckless, and arrogant. accept your faves' flaws guys!! and the way mikey delivered the news that it was their fault was...oof. so blasé. not apologetic at all. bro was treating this as a comic book adventure the whole time. no wonder she got mad. i would too, and im an adult. she's 16. of course she's going to say hurtful things in anger (imo what she said in the episode wasnt even that bad. it was understandable, given the situation). of course, it's fine when raph or mikey throw a tantrum (and usually for much more minor reasons), it's fine when donnie explodes in anger, but when april does it, the world ends? april actually blamed herself first, before she found out that it was their fault. her first reaction is NOT to blame others. and part of the reason for her anger was BECAUSE she trusted the guys so much. she spent the episode filled with hope that because of her and her dad's help, they'd be one step closer to taking down the kraang. she didn't even WANT to ask her dad in the first place, considering her dad's been suffering paranoia as a result of being kidnapped from the kraang for an entire season. but she had hope and faith in the turtles as heroes.

she had faith in them, and her entire life fell apart. AGAIN.

that's why when they revealed it was their fault that her dad got mutated, it was a big loss of trust for her. for a whole season april has been going along with the guys shenanigans, agreeing to be bait, wanting to tag along, wanting to be useful. i like this for her character because it shows that she does have a limit. she's not a yes-man for the turtles. she's her own person (which many fans seem to dislike). have fans ever considered that maybe april didnt WANT a crazy life? that she never asked for any of this? that she wanted to be normal? what's wrong with that? and after she and the guys resolve their issues, april even admits that her father's mutation "was an accident, and more importantly, you're my friends. I don't ever want to hold a grudge ever again." she needed that reflection time away from the guys to reach this conclusion.

she endures a whole episode of feeling looked down on by the guys due to a mix of their insensitive comments (raph in particular), as well as her own pride/wanting to be included/not wanting to feel useless mixed in there, sort of snaps at raph ONE TIME (to which raph doesnt even care), and suddenly, she's the devil incarnate. unbelievable.

and another thing: she's not a mary sue. she has flaws. in fact, the fandom actively blows up at her whenever she does display her flaws (pride, stubbornness, willingness to throw herself headfirst into danger). so then what does the fandom want? oh, i know. someone who will bow to the turtles' every whim. someone who has just enough of a character, or can at least pretend to be one, just so long as they don't get in the guys' way. so long as this person doesnt hurt their little pookie-bear. okay tmnt fandom. i see u

so even if we did see what she was like outside of the turtles, i wonder if anyone would even care. after all, this is a show about the turtles. most viewers probably aren't here for april. maybe this is what the writers were thinking? and worse, some people might have even complained about the screentime april would have gotten, saying that it was too much :/

[venticuliao]

despite how fun it was, a parade of providence felt shallow when brought into full context. most of the characters in genshin are used as devices to contribute to the chapter, and the choice for the theme of selflessness could have gone to another, or at the very least it could have done a better job at exploring it further than just surface level 'upper class man wih ideals of altruism that hinder his stability'.

kaveh's backstory was pretty compelling, and his characterization is certainly enjoyable, but this in itself and the point the event makes straight up refuse to look at the elephant in the room. and if that was the intention then.. its just not stellar writing, im not saying bad, just that it is disappointing to me personally.

kaveh is an intellectual who struggles with compulsive guilt so he cant bring himself to ignore people in need around him, and this is portrayed in the event as him refusing to claim points from faruzan, helping trapped foxes in the desert, and ultimately rejecting sachin's nihilistic research so that it doesnt hurt anyone again. he is also a character who suffers his own pains in silence, since his reputation prevents him from showing vulnerability and reaching out for help, even when its the actions of his own blood family that hurt him.

in isolation this is compelling, but in contrapositon to the desert? it feels hollow.

hoyo has built up the narrative in the desert well, especially through jeht's quests, but if all it amounts to is to be used as an argument for the intellectuals then its worthless to me. kaveh doesnt read sachin's research, he gets to keep his principles of altruism and collectivism precisely because he doesnt get to look into the real suffering of humanity. would his ideals still stand against choices like those jeht had to make? we never get to find out, and i wish that had been more of the point of the event. all i get from this is his ideals are shallow and unchallenged. intellectual in nature i guess? blindness is a recurrent theme in this chapter after all.

take dehya for example, who was abandoned as a baby in the middle of the desert, grew up in poverty, made her own principles and values among a no mans land, smuggled people into the city, and gave up all her life savings to an orphanage. she even risked her own safety to rescue a god and a nation that would never do the same for her kin.

like how am i supposed to look at kaveh's upper class struggles like this. doesnt help that dehya and candace barely featured as circumstancial guests in the plot, and that cyno only showed up for comic relief. it would have felt more genuine to address the elephant in the room, but that would have dimishined the main character, so i guess nahida's epilogue had to resolve it.

i dont know, its not the first time they introduce the narrative of a marginalized community only to brush it under the carpet when it has fulfilled its job as an argument for something else. and watsumi island didnt even get meaningful quests.

just feeling a little disappointed at the moment, maybe i'll change my mind if they do address it later. and its not my place to argue about this sort of bias but i also am not gonna pretend it doesnt bother me

[juni-ravenhall]

reactions (mild spoilers!) on sso comic song of darkness

bc i read it before bed. this is a mix of random reactions + commentary/criticism. no pics sry! under cut bc spoilers, but i dont spoil the story itself, just some content -

- the pages at the intro with character information for some reason made me feel really nostalgic and happy, like, “wow this is a real comic” idk its hard to explain. it reminded me of reading stuff like W.I.T.C.H. as a kid (ive read a billion comics in my life but i compare to this bc its closer in general vibe) 

- anyway wow sso comics. on paper. wow (yeah i have clouds over silverglade but that was a while ago)

- hhehehehehhe south hoofers and raptor in the bg!!!!!! after this panel i kept looking at the bgs for other cameos kjhdsfg

- i can tell the swedish translation is... a bit... meh. like, yeah this is standard, especially today’s standard, but it could be smoother and more natural, which would make it more fun to read (and supportive of the language in the country where sso was made like? idk...)

- AVALON?? U HAVE A FACE??? he looks way more like evergray than i’d have thought though, youd have imagined he wouldnt want to style himself similar to him lol

- its a bit depressing how even tho this comic tries to express everyone’s personalities, lisa still barely feels like she has a personality. she can sing! ok... and... we’re wating... what else? (there are plenty of “boring” people irl, but in media you usually want to exaggerrate or simplify things a little bit) the current lisa seems like she could have more anxiety/depression in her narrative, the old lisa looked like she was tough in a different way than alex, both of those are things that could be pushed. or anything else. 

- my only like, “art related criticism”, also relates to the above - i think more work could be done in using individually unique expressions. im generally not a person who agrees with the idea of “same face syndrome” (often its a stylistic choice which is fair) but i think here it could be a good idea to work a bit more with various expressions - you can have charas who would almost never make huge shocked eyes for personality reasons, charas who always have a very obvious expression (alex does have this a lot in this comic!), charas who always look annoyed or frustrated or scared alongside whatever new emotion they get, etc. just very simplified description bc im already rambling. but basically, letting all charas emote in a similar way also removes layers of personality expression. 

- it’s cool that kora is in here!! love to see many known charas!! not rly interested in random new charas since sso already has a ton to work with 

- was a bit surprised when they said “mistfall, so youre a long way from home?” to kora when they.. were riding to firgrove from valedale? i could have understood this if they were in like epona or golden hills.. but firgrove?? shes specifically not a long way from home? confused

- i do like that the horses’ personalities get expressed, altho it does feel a bit shoved in, it’s still nice to see them. many of us are here bc of loving horses after all, and this comic delivers in featuring them a lot, even if they dont talk. i get that theres a level of “explaining everything to newbies” in this whole comic, even though i could wish that wouldve been done less blatantly. (kids arent dumb!) 

- i do kinda wish the overall story hadn’t been a standalone random thing but something more tied to what we have, exploring parts of the story & charas in sso in more detail, BUT, i think thats a valid direction to go with comics and its more just a personal preference for me. i would anytime take more sso comics that are standalone random stuff than to not have sso comics at all. 

- it seems like the reason concorde is an alive adult in this comic, is bc its an AU where concorde “almost died” but didnt, if i understood it right (they just said “she almost lost concorde”). i think thats a bit weird BUT valid, its ok to have differences in canon between different media of the same story, it tends to be like that between books and movies for example. however personally i wouldve preferred to see comics that explore, for example, the 2 years (?) between SSL and SSO, or each soul rider’s life history in general until now, or exploring in more depth events that happen in the main storyline (in sso or ssl which counts as backstory to sso)

- there were times i committed small giggle during this comic even as an adult man, tho arguably a childish adult man, but just to say that it was enjoyable, and overall i thought it was really exciting and fun to read a full sso comic book, and i hope to see a lot more (even if i’d prefer stuff like what i described - more exploration of existing story/charas). like i said at the beginning, i also got good nostalgic feels etc. i feel a bit sad now that its “over”, i wish i could have a whole pile of volumes to read for the rest of the summer. 

(when i criticise something, it means i care enough about it to criticise it! i tend to criticise stuff i love - aka sso - way more than stuff i have no interest in or dislike, which i just dont talk about much bc that would be a waste of time.) 

[all-hail-the-witcher]

kay so this has been bothering me for days 

pretty much every character in the witcher is a piece of shit with one or several toxic traits, morally gray values and many flaws which causes them to have  toxic relationships. 

you might be thinking, hey saph, what the fuck? and i promise theres a point so lemme explain myself. 

first up lets talk about jaskier, this fandoms little baby. hes not a main, hes a side and pretty much only there for comic relief, and to drive geralt's storyline by kinda playing the role of destiny. but in canon you cant deny that hes kind of a bitch. 

first, he uses geralt for fame. in the show he only becomes famous after toss a coin and theres also the whole thing where hes like “witcher time to repay your debt” in ep 4, which is some severe talking down to. he tries to steal geralts djinn wishes (and then theres the matter of what he tries to wish for), then kinda blames geralt for the whole mess that gets them into, gets mad that geralt wants to save yen when jaskier literally put him in the mess to begin with, and then theres the whole mountain scene thing where jaskier tries to make a pretty shitty joke to lighten the mood (geralt doesnt get jokes on the best days clearly so why now idk). hes definitely not traveling with geralt all the time (which i made a different post about) and is pretty much just using him. 

all of that being said jaskier is a great character and definitely brings some much needed lightness to the show. most of the stuff in there is pretty heavy and without a comic relief it would take itself too seriously and probably be really hard to watch. also geralt and jaskiers relationship is important because it shows that geralt actually cares about someone that isn't tied to him through destiny. his flaws allow the audience to see other sides of the characters that he interacts with and how they respond to situations that they might not normally want to be in.

geralt clearly has issues, even if he doesnt know what they are per se. he was abandoned by his mom as a kid, forced to become a witcher (consent issues), has pretty much no friends, is called a monster, murdered a bunch of humans in blaviken, hes not always overly nice to jaskier (but admittedly that could be because jaskier is using him), he ignores all his emotions because witchers aren't supposed to have any, has a pretty grim outlook on life, ties yennefer to him via the djinn, claims the law of surprise and then kinda just abandons ciri until the war, tells yen shed make an awful mother, yells at her for wanting a choice when he took that away from her with the djinn, the list goes on.

but geralt needs these flaws in order to 1. have a story 2. make the story interesting and 3. have a character arc. hes a really well written character because a lot of the time you can tell that he doesnt know what hes doing when he makes shitty decisions because he really doesnt know any better or doesnt know what to do when faced with a decision. hes trying his best (most of the time) and does genuinely seem like he wants to help people even it does frequently blow up in his face cause he doesnt understand human emotions and relationships very well. geralts flaws are needed because they show his humanity (yes its still there) and also drive the story. there would be no story without geralt's flaws. 

then we have yennefer. she was shunned by her parents and essentially sold, didnt have a choice in becoming a sorceress, literally tried to kill herself, had a pretty shit relationship with that dude who's name i cant remember, reluctantly became a sorceress and lost the ability to have kids, has major consent issues, appears to be power hungry in some scenes, theres the orgy scene (which yes is supposed to be consensual but that's not really abundantly clear the first time you watch it and people sometimes get upset by it), despite having consent issues tries to rape jaskier who's definitely not into that, pretty much trusts no one and her first focus is usually personal gain. 

but much like geralts, all of yennefers flaws are absolutely needed in the show. they sell the fact that she's still the confused scared girl who was unwanted by her parents and show the lasting effects of trauma. they give her substance and direction in the series. she's a main character and she has a rather complex arc with all her flaws and she certainly wants to get better, she just doesnt really know how to go about it properly. her flaws cost her relationships, and overall make her a very tangible character that a lot of people can relate to. they show that although she might be a sorceress, she's not untouchable, she still has issues, she's not perfect, and she has things to learn and grow from. 

most people are able to forgive jaskier and geralt for their flaws, but have a harder time with yennefer. objectively, there are huge issues with things that all three of them do. but you cant exploit the flaws of one or two characters to make fanfics interesting and completely make the third character irredeemable because all three of them are overly similar in their mistakes: they all want to protect themselves, want personal gain, and do some questionable things when it comes to consent. morally gray characters are what drives plot and theyre really fun to write about. yennefer deserves the same appreciation jaskier and geralt get. just cause she's a woc doesnt make her flaws any worse than theirs. 

[cosmosrival]

just a quick vent post i wanted to make since i got a shitty lil experience on twitter and also found out about some things!! its just me talking about my take on kama and sakura fans (the Bad ones)

just needed to let it out <3

there’s this person on reddit whose content i genuinely despise since he babifies kama who is a character who Absolutely Should Not be babified and is one of the reasons why i wish kama’s first ascension didnt exist. but unfortunately: fgo. i usually have no problems with ppl’s headcanons since i can’t control their minds u know? same goes for ships, just do whatever u want (and if its gross keep it away from me lol). but the AMOUNT of traction this man gets on his fucking posts where kama is parvati and emiya’s daughter is so insanely repulsive to me ??? LIKE... I GET IT. YOURE PROJECTING ON EMIYA. URE A SAKURA FAN. U LIKE SHIROU AND SAKURA TOGETHER BUT THINK SHIROU IS A LOSER SO U SHIP PARVATI AND EMIYA INSTEAD. OKAY. THATS FINE. just PLEASE for the love of GOD, leave kama out of it and dont turn them into this clueless baby because thats NOT what they are.

for a while i was just stuck in this position since i’m petrified that the ENG fandom only sees kama as the Haha Baby Nugget ! baby Sakuraface ! servant and then look away. when all they took from sakura is her body and negative personality traits (BUT EVEN THEN. kamadeva had their own grudge and negative feelings about shiva so sakura’s just amplified those and didnt create anything new) meanwhile their backstory is so RICH and their trauma with shiva leaves so much room for growth and there’s so much in indian mythology that’s about kama and their death/the whole Becoming the Universe/galaxy godly state frozen when they reached the Throne thing too.

but im afraid. i’m going to be honest. i’m afraid of their NA release. because of the traction this degenerate got on his posts amongst the english fandom. i know everyone hates reddit but its still a popular website :/

but then the greatest thing happened and a mutual of mine dmed me and told me that he’s actually a p*dophile who made porn in that 3d japanese porn game of emiya and first ascension kama fucking and i felt like a weight got off my chest. SO HE’S A FREAK ! HE’S ACTUALLY JUST A FREAK!!! he then told me that he’s also extremely hated on 4chan which is... the website i didn’t expect to be on the same side with ???? but you know what, i’ll take it.

this isnt even a battle or anything... since the main reason why people will roll for kama anyways is that they’re a sakuraface, and i’m fine with that. do whatever u want!! love em however u want.

what im scared of is that ppl will literally forget their third ascension exists????? and that more disgusting content of kama’s first ascension will end up coming out because of dudes like him getting popular because they’re good at photoshop and sprite editing. and that kama will end up being babified ONCE AGAIN meanwhile they’re an ethereal god and are older than the world itself.

being a fan of the god is suffering but i’m glad there seems to be a large portion of the fandom thinking the same way i do fjdnfndjdfgfgdgft

im glad kama got sakura physical traits bc sakura is a pretty girl !! and they turned out really gorgeous thanks to redrop. but sometimes i wish they werent a sakuraface.

this kinda got messy and i wont be checking this for mistakes since its really just me venting but... yeah. i like exploring kama as being this mess of a servant, god, demon and half human ? the ooku event added a lot to their character and i think the sakura side shouldnt be ignored even if i personally believe that its like. 15% of them. the rest is kamadeva and mara. its still interesting to explore !!

but then weirdos like these exist and i suddenly log off <3 i could very well ignore these comics no problem, if they WERENT ALL AROUND THE INTERNET EVERYTIME I TYPE KAMA IN THE SEARCH BAR its tiring. 

though, mutuals coming forward and followers as well, coming to tell me that i made them like kama since my take on kama is so detached from sakura and the whole dark sakura theme and that they see kama in a new positive light thanks to me, gives me strength and makes me want to continue posting my headcanons. 

if u made it this far and still choose to support me, thank u so much !! i think that kamadeva is a genuinely interesting god and that fgo’s take on his revenge is very fun to explore and i wanna keep going in that direction and learn more about them !!

tho if ure a hardcore sakura-only fan and decide to unfollow me because of this rant, no problem. i never watched heavens feel, i dont want to watch it and im more of a rin fan to be quite honest !! my fate/stay night knowledge is enough for me to get by im jus here for fgo historical lore fellas !!! Peace !!

[delusionland]

the iron man vs wanda maximoff beef is the center imo of the marvel cinematic verse politics and it drives me crazy bc u CANNOT make two people the center of two ideological movements and still be full fledged characters that appear in 17 movies each. but they try anyway and u can see half the flaws in disney political bent thru them tbh. ( meta )

(mcu criticism and talks about hydra / nazism under the cut but this is NOT vagueposting i love the portrayals i see of wanda exactly for what they, and i LOVE wandavision and i JUST LOVE WANDA IN GENRAL but i would feel terrible if i never stated this somewhere on a blog that analyzed disney / mcu)

we’re meant to find endearing two powerful & sympathetic but flawed characters. they both fuck up a LOT and are kind of meant to be looked at as fucked up but at the end of the day they are both placed on a pedestal of power & sympathy and more importantly---’audience perspective.’ 

bc wanda specifically blames Tony Stark for all her problems and not america itself and that that is the catalyst---the audience is expected ignore the problems with america OUTSIDE of tony stark. the real problem is not with the foundation of america (&its ties to nazism bc SHIELD ISNT EVEN A THING ANYMOREEE DONT WORRY AOUT ITTTT), and it’s certainly not with wanda’s fantasies of america and american culture as an eastern european in a country destabilized by america & hydra (nazis), a country where we see NOTHING about their actual culture besides the mcu’s maximoffs terrible on-and-off accents.

it is scary to me that somehow in wanda’s eyes, the problem&source of her trauma is One Man, One Manufacturer of Weapons. to the point where she can join the nazis, STILL seem to believe the nazis are freedom fighters, and still cope with the death of her lover and her stability by saying ‘i will literally live in the american sitcom dream & force reality to mold around me and that wish’ which tbh implies the american dream of the 50s+ is Not Incompatible with the ideals she fought for WITH THE NAZIS.

which could be an interesting character point that honestly makes sense with the themes in catws & what i’ve seen of agents of shield (nazis are everywhere) and make her a really fucking scary villain if she was NOT A ROMANI/JEWISH WOMAN IN THE COMICS which makes this A COMPLETE SLAP IN THE FACE TO ROMANI/JEWISH PEOPLE?

it’s also interesting bc wanda represents??? such a strange compulsory heterosexuality???? do we EVER see her without a man except in wandavision where she has literally formed reality into her sitcom nuclear lifestyle and then traps the ACTUALLY queercoded witch into a heterosexual fifties marriage because she threatened that lifestyle---even tho she did hardly anything wrong compared to wanda who imprisoned and mind controlled a town of 4k+ people? wanda isn’t queercoded, she’s explicitly a vessel for male sexuality to the point that elizabeth olsen said she had to control her facial muscles while using wanda’s powers on screen bc ‘nobody wants to see that’ regarding GENUINE HUMAN EMOTION.

tony on the other hand flirts with rhodey in iron man as easily as he breathes. if he’s not queercoded---he’s metrosexual coded. he’s the kind of character lgbt kids look at in 2012 and go ‘oh wow he would paint his nails and fall in love with captain america and be like me.’ tony stark is extremely objectivist One Great Man themed. but he’s also in his story very much the ‘my daddy never loved me enough so now i project a needy self-absorption that gay kids can relate to.’

i’m not saying wanda is oppressing tony for being gay bc thats stupid. but i AM saying wanda vs tony feels very much like a ‘fragile cishet white woman who is also extremely powerful iSnT sHE fLAWEd and iNTEResting’ vs ‘purposefully annoying New Generation of money meterosexual who never did anything wrong but also was an IMPERIALIST WARMONGER but stopped but didnt isnt that a fun quirk’ and it’s like. driving me crazy bc the problems of racism and imperialism go far deeper than just two people ever could and the mcu slaps a face on every institutional problem and CALLS IT A DAY

[chaelisaz]

honest opinions on ww84 GO

under the cut so i wont spoil anyone

DAMN is it straight like. diana is ALL about steve. i get that she loves him and i guess patty chose him as something diana could sacrifice to show how selfless she actually is but. my god girl is the dick that good???? let it go

it wasnt clear to me how steve got back into that dude’s body. was diana the only one able to see him and everyone else saw the actual guy? or was he steve for everyone??? idk i was confused at that part but maybe i didnt pay attention or just didnt get it

cheetah was... not it for me lmao. barbara has always turned into cheetah because she gets in contact with something about.... cheetah. its always some kind of goddess or spirit that has smth to do with this feline divinity or magic being or whatever. ww84 barbara wished she was more like diana. ok fair. then she wishes to be something unique and at some point says she wants to be like a predator and then she becomes this cat like woman????? where did the stone get that from?? is it that literal???? idk seems weird to me

i dont care for barbara’s reasoning either. she wanted to stay like that bc no one would talk to her at lunch???? news flash bitch we’re all socially awkward and no one has friends!!!!! like boo hoo im a white thin woman and men wont fuck me :((( grow up go to therapy

HOWEVER. i do like her final cheetah look and how she beat the shit out of the guy that harrassed her. that was sexy

the golden suit was made so asteria could take on the WHOLE world and it was fine but this one furry lady with self steem issues is actually able to rip the wings apart???

max lord was an ok villain. wasnt thrilled about him but it makes total sense to me that once a loser of a man gets some power he becomes the most destructive disgusting thing on the planet

pedro pascal looking all messed up with that bloody eye was good tho

when max was being broadcasted why didn’t his son’s wish come true??? and i guess all someone had to say was “i wish max would stop” or “i wish max would lose his powers” or “i wish everything would go back to normal” or anything like that and the problem would be solved?

ALSO. diana broadcasting the truth to everyone felt like a supergirl s1 type of thing. kara danvers did if first

the whole wish thing is. meh. i feel like i’ve seen this a million times before. “be careful what you wish for” zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

it was fun seeing steve back being impressed with the modern world and stuff it was cute he’s cute

diana looked delicious in the entire movie so cheers to that

i like the message of hope and how we should think about other people and be better. i think its very fitting for these shitty times we’re living

the amazons scene was so nice love me some themyscira action

LOVED lynda carter as asteria it was a little thing but it made me super happy

imo the movie feels like something straight out of a comic book which is good ig but its like a 5 issue average story that does the job but is not that impactful and people only read it bc they like the character and not the story itself

[captainshyguy]

B, N, and U for the asks?

ty megan!!

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

me and sam were talking abt how much of a dweeb zote is and she said something about bretta deserving someone nicer, like cloth and i was like OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

im guessing we’re talking abt fandom wise instead of the actual source material itself so! 

-fics about some of the other hk npcs!! cornifer, bretta, cloth, iselda, sly, the nailmasters, the stag!!! the stag especially, that boi gets nothing!!! 

-i know stag beetles and broken legs did it better than like, anyone else could, but god i’d love to see more about quirrel and monomon’s dynamic....blease 

- more fanart of the areas perhabs?? :3 i saw a lovely picture of kingdoms edge, it really gave me a better idea of how the area would look in a 3d space

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

-quirrel is the obvious one from hk of course and i could ramble FOREVER abt why he’s my fave, so i’ll try nd sum it up X] extremely friendly, poetic, more to him than there seems, helps you during the uumuu fight, the most involvement an npc has in the game (tied with hornet), smart, and the reveal that he’s been carrying monomons mask this whole time im :’) his arc...good and compelling....there’s something about him slowly remembering, learning he was called back too, he’s on this journy too, gives this huge sense of solidarity, even if his life before was much different to ghost’s, that he’s come to help them, even if he didnt know it, he’s come to aid in killing someone who welcome it, who he probably cared for quite deeply, and obviously trusted him enough to take her mask, knowing he doesnt quite want this, but he accepts it anyway its..AAAA i love him. i love his arc i love his voice i love his struggles and actions and everything it makes me feel its!!! aaaaaaaaa!!!! 

-rex for tcw, naturally! i love how brave and good he is, he knows he doesnt have much choice, but believes it’ll be for the better anyway, believes in helping and saving people bc that’s the kinda person he is. i love watching him struggle with good vs loyalty, and how he ultimately gets to good, regardless of orders, he's just so good at his very core, i love that he makes mistakes before getting there, but at the same time, you cant quite blame him, because standing up to krell does get people killed, i love that the others can still blame him and it feels realistic, i love that he’ll do so much for his siblings, charging in to rescue echo, i love his drive and his kindness  

-luigi and dimentio are tied for mario, but since i’ve talked abt good characters, lets go with dimentio here. he’s a fave because he’s such a despicable little bastard, like! the extent of what he does, how much joy he seems to take in it? it feels beyond that of your regular mario villain! he has so much energy and presence, and i think that flashiness is what draws a lot of people in, and it makes him endlessly fun to watch! i’ve recently been interpreting him a bit more 3 dimensionally (hah) thanks to sam’s comic, and i do like the idea that he genuinely did care for the rest of the gang, but he buried it bc he didnt want to feel it, and fell back into old, bad habits, the negative character development, watching him devolve and come apart in a huge spectacle becomes almost tragic, though very satisfying in game x] its like ‘i almost pity you. but you brought this upon yourself buddy!’ 

[dyketectivecomics]

JUST finished watching Superman vs the Elite for the first time (& a little surprised that I hadn’t seen it before since it apparently came out a good 8 yrs ago???)

Anyways Head Full, Many Thoughts, all hopefully under this cut if tunglr decides to act right (otherwise will throw a “long post” tag for those of yall who dont want to scroll for miles)

So the FIRST thing that struck me was the animation style ofc!!! Because this pre-dated B*urassa and his awful style hadnt yet permeated to the dc movies, it was very fresh to watch!!! Bouncy and lively and flowy and above all so EXPRESSIVE!!! The dogfight scene especially had me absolutely THRILLED, but every big combat in this movie had such Energy that I havent seen from a DCAO movie in far too long!!

Normally especially when Talking Head scenes happen I have a very bad tendency to check my phone, but even lower energy scenes had interesting Movement to them, not a single frame was I tempted to avert my eyes for even a fraction of a second.

Again, that might just be because when we’ve gone so long without something to break the monotony of animation style, anything new feels Fresh and Interesting... But I dont think that was entirely the case here.

I dont know how else to explain it, other than that it feels like a lot of love went into the animation for this movie, and I think that partly, its because this felt like such an important Superman story. Which leads me to...

The fact that this story felt so wonderfully, quintessentially Superman.

There is a time and a place to enjoy stories of rogue agents with a Might Makes Right policy, or hell, even to enjoy a tale of small forces overthrowing oppressive regimes. But the reverse of this idea, of that small force taking things a step too far with little to no oversight-

That’s exactly the kind of thing for Superman.

Because Superman still considers himself an American above all else, behold to our ideals and the idea that Good will prevail. That the greater part of humanity will choose to be better. And that though he holds a lot of power, he is still beholden to the people and to protect them, to stand up to injustice and maintain peace.

Now I haven’t read the issue that this movie adapted itself from (will remedy that tonight since its apparently a single-issue), but given the context of when it was published, and when this movie was released (in 2001 and 2012, respectively), I feel like its just as, if not more, relevant now as it was then.

Because with a Global pandemic looming, the 2020 presidential election only a month away, and our country in such a horrible state of disarray, this is exactly the kind of story I needed to see.

That there will be people to take a stand against injustice, and against those who stand against the very foundations of Truth and Justice. That we can come out of this, no matter how bleak things feel. That we should be hopeful, and believe that there’s a fundamental goodness that will outshine all of the worst that humanity may offer.

I tend to stray from Superman stories because typically, I prefer ones on a smaller scale, that deal moreso with interpersonal dramas or have elements of true crime/smaller crimes or otherwise would have some inherently supernatural element to pique my interest. But that doesnt make these grandiose ideals and larger scale conflicts all the less important.

Because stories about larger acts of terror have their place in comics as well, and a character as big as Superman is sometimes one of the only ones to handle them. A character who at his core, is meant to stand for that hope that we damn well need from time to time. An idea that I didnt realize I needed in my life, even for just a nice little hopeful moment.

(And god i really wish i could end it on that note, but I want to also squeeze in the fact that Lois & Clarks interactions in this movie were really cute and just. Overall i really liked it. I’ll probably look more into Manchester Black & the Elite later because I found them compelling and remember seeing them briefly in my Damian reading and obvsly a little in Supergirl before I think I dropped off paying attention to the show BUT. they’re a topic for another time)

ANYWAYS. I Enjoyed it. Gonna read the issue its inspired from now real quick. Plz give it a watch from something really nice, uplifting and just plain FUN to watch.

[panickedforcefield]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE: MUN & MUSE

Fill out & Repost ♥ This meme definitely favors Canons more, but I hope OC's still can make it somehow work with their own lore and Lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multimuses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

Tagged by: @ifthearmorfits , @polyhexianchicken

Tagging: @raysofsinshine @eloquent-music @symphonicdemise @omicrontheicequeen @wild-at-spark @rebel-heart-icy-spark @knockoutsapprentice @kups-war-stories and anyone who wants to it^^

MY MUSE IS.   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

* is your character popular in the fandom? YES/NO

* is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  WELL… / NO / IDK. (I mean, I really like the Bot)

* is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

* are they underrated?  YES / NO.

* were they relevant to the main story?  YES (Sorta??) / NO. (I am so sad about that. He deserved better)

* were they relevant to the main character?  YES (In a way. He was kind of a turning point) / NO

* are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO. (No idea)

* how’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

That is quite hard to determine. I try to follow canon up to the point of where Kaon killed him. But the more I play and write him, the more new aspects he gets, the more things he experiences and the more off-canon he gets. But thats Character development.

SELL YOUR MUSE! (aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.)

This Truck can carry you anywhere you want to go! Just dont let him run out of fuel and Highgrade, don't abuse him and you have one of the loyalest souls in the Universe on your side. This scared and scarred Bot is build like a brick wall and even has some special abilities. I am not talking about his Magna Clamps, which lets him magnetize himself to different surfaces, I am not talking about his Outlier Ability to generate Forcefields!! I am talking about his empathy! This is one, maybe naive, Bot that can think about others viewpoints and where they come from, he is thinking about what he can do about it. This steady Bot can hold so much fuel, you won't believe it! He even always has some juice packs with him, that he offers others. He is the perfect guy to take with you for any occassions. Not bad looking, not as dumb as others perceive him to be and with a strive to show himself to others!

NOW THE OPPOSITE! (list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

Even if you think you know him, you don't. He learned that people judge what they see, so he tries to be perfect n their eyes, helpful and polite. Its a mask. He seldomly lets someone get past behind those masks anymore. He is very unsure of himself, very easily guided along with pretty words. But if he likes you and calls you a friend even behind his mask, he would lay down everything for you, which is a nice point for him but an even bigger one against him. He is a drunk, his frame needing way more fuel than other mechs of the same build.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?

To be honest. The first time I saw Teebs in any comic was in the Wrecker-series. And he was just a guy breaking into a situation and smiling that warm smile of his at a friend in need. There was no judgement and no pity there, just a very happy and warm smile. This was the moment I wanted to see more of him. And then I kept on reading. And I was getting more and more desperate to see more about Trailbreaker/Trailcutter. And the more I saw and read up on, the more my heart sank. This was a bot struggling with himself, but smiling for others, being there for others. Someone who wants so depseratly to change and even making true friends along the way after all the shit he had to went through, only to be cut down way before his time, way before anyone could breach all of his walls. And I was crying for him. My heart broken. He deserved so much more, I kept thinking.

It took maybe a few days and a few talks with a friend before I found the courage to really do it, to RP him.

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION

The Teebs in itself is keeping my attention. The many different layers his char gets the more i play him. And the different people I interact with. Gosh, people. I couldn't do it without you. I love the reactions, I love all the little snippets, I love rereading threads or just mentions. It keeps me going and it keeps my love up. Its awesome.

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

* do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO.

* do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO.  

* do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES (Very very much so.) / NO.

* are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. (I dont know. I wish I could say yes, but I think im making to many mistakes. But I try to get better.)

* are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. (Most of the time)

* are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. (No comment)

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

If it's constructive. Constructive Criticism is all well and can only get me to better my writing or to face things I didnt think about before. If its just flames, I delete it right away. Really, just comming in to tell me they hate my portrayal is nothing you do. Flames are used to roast my marshmallows, enough said.

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?  

YES!!! Yes, I love those! I can't get enough of those, because really, you can only wrap your brain around issues and questions and HC for so long before you get stuck. Those questions keep my brain and imagination in the loop and I have so much fun to think about those, to come up with reasonings.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  

Eh, I mean. Normally people tell me why they think different. There can be quite some good discussions stemming from that, but mostly, we are humans with different ways of life and different experiences. So naturally we will see some things differently. My Muse is following my own way though, so it all makes sense to me and fits the puzzle in my head.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?

I would ask myself why they would read what I wrirte then. They can just unfollow me if they hate what I do. You can't cater to every whim. You can't play nice with everyone. But really, if you hate my Muse, why coming back to my Blog then? You have your own opinion and thats all great. So, it really doesnt face me to be honest. As long as it doesnt blow up to hate against me or all people liking what I do.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  

I hope so, but I know or imagine that I am not. I have my problems, my work and time zones to work through. But I dont want to let those get in the way of nice interactions. I am a scatterbrain, I sometimes forget threads. Its not because I dont want to continue, but because my RL is getting really stressy or something is eating my brain capacity. I love my time on tumblr and try to be open minded and nice to everyone. I hope that gets across^^ So, all in all, I want to be an easygoing Mun. And I love others getting in contact with me about everything.

[n0ttinghamshad0w]

The Game’s Afoot! || Crime Squad

In which Rob robs the Davis house, with a little help from Andrina, Desoto, and Sarina...

@andrina-the-amazingsupergenius @accendimi @desotosykes

[CW: uh crime? creepy gnomes, slight implied child abuse mention]

Here’s the plan as I’ve got it laid out, yeah? She’s movin’ stuff, I know this, been movin’ things for a while. Not sure why, but judgin’ from all the stuff, I think she’s got a new place and may be rentin’ this place out at one point — anyways, point is that she’s out this weekend, the 27th of July and that’s when we’re goin’ in —

We’ve got the van, picked up a spell from one of the sorcerers in town to make it look like a movers. We’ve got the uniforms. ‘Ts gonna be as simple as walkin’ right up to the front door, only we’ve got Andrina here to disable all the security. Once we’re in, we divide and conquer — one of yas, Sarina, yeah, get to the safe and pick it open. Take whatever else you want — we’ll ditch the van right as we leave, burn the uniforms, and divvy up the stuff to pawn....

ANDRINA: 

Today, after months of planning and foreplay, Andrina was going to help rob Crazy Gnome Lady.

 Fun! 

 She got to wear a super sexy, special crime outfit for the occasion-- a cookie-coloured jumpsuit with a logo stitched to the front advertising MIKE’S MOVERS AND SHAKERS. She had to hand it to Rob; he had really committed to accuracy for replicating the logo down to the terrible Comic Sans font (graphic design was Mike Mover’s passion). Her favourite part of the look was actually the baseball cap, which she threaded her long, curled ponytail through, and used to hide the headset that would let her talk to her version of Oprah’s Book Club-- some hot chick named Sarina, some Italian Mobster transported straight from the set of the Sopranos named DeSoto, and their fearless, foxy leader, Robin Hunt, posing as the infamous Mike Mover himself. 

Important supporting characters included the moving van they’d rented for the occasion, sporting the same logo. 

 Also, the gnomes inside the Crazy Gnome Lady’s house. 

 Phase One began here: parked right in front of the aforementioned target. It still felt slightly counterintuitive to Andy. When Rob had told her they were gonna just roll up to the driveway, she’d raised her eyebrows. You sure you’ve done this before? Shouldn’t we park down the street? Wait for the cover of night? Plan a diversion?

That’s more suspicious, he’d told her and flashed a toothy smile, his confident tipping over to a cockiness Andy found very sexy. The secret to gettin’ away with somethin’, he told her, is to pretend like there’s nothin’ to get away with.

 And so the mid-afternoon sun was their spotlight. It was time for Andrina’s debut. Cue Ashley O’s On a Roll from Andy’s phone hooked up to the aux, and Andy cracked her knuckles and got started. 

 Her laptop pulled up, she clacked her way into Gnome Lady’s wi-fi. “Leeeet’s see….” she said, her tongue edging out against the bottom of her lip as she started to poke around Gnome Bitch’s desktop remotely. While the rest of her daring, dashing crew were going old-school bulgery, she’d get a chance to mine the digital treasure trove for any extra goodies. But for now, she was looking for one thing and one thing only-- 

 “Annnnnd-- disabled,” Andrina chirped as she deactivated Gnome Bitch’s security system.

 The house remained perfect still and silent, a sleeping giant of brick and mortar and ugly beige. 

 Andy flashed her grin at her comrades. “It’s moving day.” 

DESOTO:

This whole thing was kinda strange for Des. Not in the way he’d never done it before. Naw. He’d broken into houses and even stores before when he was a helluva lot younger. And dumber. What was strange was the amount of planning that went into it. The team that was put together and the plan that had been laid out by the man that had contacted him what felt like months ago. It was smart. Brilliant even. And the fact they’d just be… waltzing into the house and taking shit? It made it even better. Maybe he’d have to invest in this sort of crime more often. It was stress free. Stress free crime. Ha.

Dutifully he waited for the okay to head inside, pulling the ball cap he wore down out of instinct. They had the disguise as a moving company but there was still that slight paranoia that made him want to be as unnoticeable as possible. It’s why they’d gotten the gloves, right? An added security measure to further protect their identities if anything happened.

Following the mental map that he’d created as Rob detailed what he would be charged with getting and where exactly it would be, DeSoto made his way through the too goddamn beige house to get to his target. The room was, surprise, beige with pictures of gnomes and pixies and were generally creepy. No matter where Des went in the room it felt like those creepy little eyes were on him, watching every step he took. Were those where the cameras were? Hiding in creepy pictures so that any wrong doer would know intrinsically that they were being watched? Would be crafty of her, honestly. Crafty and creepy. Right up this lady’s alley.

The room itself was huge. Bigger than any one person would need. DeSoto understood the need for space, though. His own room back home had been too large. He’d filled the space with a large bed and then let it get cluttered with a shit ton of things that didn’t exactly matter to him but filled the space. Almost as if he were trying to fill an empty spot within himself. This room felt like that. Though, certainly more like a strange tomb. It smelled of the kind of perfume that made your allergies act up and mothballs. Idly he wondered how he’d drawn this room but pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he began combing through the drawers of the huge vanity. 

Rob had told him that the old broad had a ton of jewelry but he hadn’t anticipated this damn much. Each drawer was filled to the brim with gaudy jewelry that was organized by style. Bracelets, necklaces, rings, those weird things old broad’s wore on their shirts. Obviously he wouldn’t take it all but a good amount would be missing next time she bothered to look at any of this crap. Easily DeSoto began packing shit away, filling the box he’d brought with random expensive looking pieces. They’d get a pretty fucking penny for all this shit and Des wouldn’t have to worry about funding his next batch of drugs for a good while. 

Next was the closet, the smell of mothballs even stronger as he began pulling dress after dress from the hangers they were on. Each was made of exquisite fabric and for a brief moment Des wondered where the hell this bitch wore these clothes. There certainly wasn’t any place in Swynlake that warranted this fashion. Not hat it mattered. He was here for a paycheck, basically.

JELLY:

Jelly had one last job in Swynlake before she left. A job that Sarina had accepted and why not. If she fucked up she would just kick someone's ass and bounce sooner than expected. She was already burning bridges that Sarina had so nothing would follow her. 

And neither would this rag tag group of people she was apparently robbing a house with. She however did admire the plan. Jelly didnt want to deal with them. Let her be alone and make sure Sarina's skills worked in her favour.

She was just sad she didnt wear her heels to listen to the sound of clicking on the hardwood floors as she proved to herself over and over why she was better than all of them.

And this stupid moving uniforms. It was gross. 

That was for another time though as Jelly walked into room. It was impressive. At least until she spotted that creepy ghome. What was with this bitch and Ghomes. For a human she really had a lack of family pictures. Wasnt that a high human thing. To look at your loved ones 24/7. Not that Jelly cared. 

Jelly almost wished she was here just so she could play with the obsession. Make the woman think she was shattering all of them. Actually Jelly would shatter all of them. Let's not lie.

Glancing around the room Jelly walked over to the creepy painting not wasting any time and pulling the thing off the hooks. If there was anything she knew about humans was that they were predictable even on the worse days.

And a safe behind the picture. Yeah that was obvious. Settling in Jelly pulled up to the safe focusing on Sarina's memories without giving the girl a chance to breath instead ripping them from her mind without a concern for the pain she caused her. 

Listen to the locks. Be smooth in your motions. The fact you could insert a wire in the right place to give you better access. It was all there and Jelly loved it. Sarina had to easily be one of her favourite hosts.

It didnt take long for her to have the safe swing open and there was the cash nicely bundled just asking to be taken and as Jelly grabbed it the numbers rang in her mind. 

1000. 

1500.

2000.

3000.

4680.

Not a bad haul for less than half a days work.

ROB:

He’d let his two accomplices handle the bulk of the haul. He dinnit care what they took, s’long as they weren’t stupid (and he knew they weren’t stupid — Sarina’d done this before and before, and Desoto had a stake in stayin’ in the town so he wouldn’t fuck up). While they plundered, Rob idlly walked through the halls of the house.

He was on the hunt, you see, but not for money or jewels or any of the stuff he’d promised Sarina and Desoto (he’d promised Andrina the thrill of the chase, and out of everyone, he hoped she got what she was after). Nah, you see, Rob was lookin’ for something else. 

Normally, see, he’d take something — a mug that said Number One Dad from a dad who dinnit deserve it; a mother’s flask tucked away under a pillow; gambling stubs; a belt used for punishment —

But this house was barren. There wasn’t a single indication that Mrs. Davis even had kids, let alone two, let alone one of the kindest souls Rob had ever known, let alone a boy buried in the ground.

Nothing he could take that would remind her of what she’d done.

As he walked by the fireplace, he glanced at the garish modern paintings on the mantle and the thought occured to him. 

He reached in his pocket, pullin’ out the photograph Tuck had given him, smoothin’ out the edges. It was a young Mrs. Davis, her first husband, and Tuck as a baby — already Mrs. Davis’ face was stern and she held her baby at a distance. This’d been taken a few months before they decided they dinnit want him. He’d been left unceremoniously on the doorstep of the orphanage, as if Mrs. Davis were some woman in a Victorian nove dying of a wastin’ disease.

Rob wasn’t sure how she got from Nottingham to here, wasn’t sure what she told everyone happened to the first kid.

What he did know was that she left Tuck. She left Tuck and she had another kid and she dinnit even remember that her son was dead, dinnit even act like he existed —

He didn’t want to leave the photo, the only thing of Tuck he had, but there was a spot open on the mantelpiece. 

With a gloved hand, he smoothed out the creases and left it right on the empty space. 

[pbandjesse]

Today was an excellent day. I'm sore right now but I feel really happy. But there was some family stress today which has me nervous but it'll be okay. Cause it has to be.

I slept alright last night. I woke up a few minutes before my alarm. I took my time getting out of bed. And got washed and dressed. I couldn't find my romper i wanted for a bit but then discovered it was inside another dress? Annoying. But I felt super cute. And not a stitch of makeup.

Which is something im working on. Something I feel like I do every summer. Relearn to like my face without eyeliner, it's hard sometimes, but I'm working on it.

The stressful part of the day is when i textes my dad to see if he could talk earlier then we had planned. And he called and didnt sound right. Very mellow and whispery.

Turns out he took himself to thr ER without telling my mom!! And then told me not to tell mom. I told him that was ridiculous and to call her. But they had put him on medication amd wasn't himself. And it was scary. So now he's not coming to see me on Sunday and that makes me sad. But well figure it out. Mom says he'll be okay. And dad pocket dialed me later in the day and he sounded more himself. I worry about him.

The rest of the day was nice though. James and his sister Charlotte came to get me. She met my cat, and the Fulwilers continue to not understand how to approach cats. And she asked, and then proceeded to, shake sweetp's hand. It was very funny.

We grabbed my bag and left quickly though. We had a fun ride. I was a bit dazed and hadnt eaten because i was on the phone. So i was a little quiet but i enjoyed their sibling banter a lot. We drove out to the summer camp they grew up going to and working at. And it was super cool and i understand why it was so important to them. I still wish i had that kind of camp experience but we both agree our kids will go there someday. Its important to both of us.

We stopped to say hi to a few people. I got a hug from some important people in the creation of James as a person. And then we left Charlotte there and headed out.

We went to the quarry. It was the first day they were open on a week day for the summer. And besides a group that was almost exclusively using the volley ball nets, we were the only ones there.

It was cold. Breezy. But the water was nice. And once you were in it it was nice. We floated and swan. James went and talked to the manager, who trained him to be a life guard! Always meeting nice people James knows. We joked with the life guards and floated. James helped a teen stand on the rolling log. It was fun.

But then a turtle bit me on the butt and i yelled. So that was exciting.

Eventually we stopped for snacks. And we were freezing. Need more towels next time. But the snacks were good. And then i went to take Shelby pictures for instagram. And then James were to do the rope swing and I sat in the shallows.

I watched the fishes and James came back to me. But he was frozen and shivering. It wasn't that cold but something was up. So he went and dried off and got changed.

I hung out on the dock and enjoyed the sun. He came back and we chilled for a while. But then i went to get changed too, was annoyed because i thought i packed underwear but couple find it. Actually dropped it like an idiot and had to go back for it. Ah well. I felt really cozy and sun warm and that was really nice.

Me and James cuddled up on the benches on the dock for a while. Quiet in the sun. It was just perfect and I was so happy. We took some pictures. And then decided to pack up and go. We both needed food.

We went ti the amish market. Gor sandwiches and fries. I enjoyed walking around. There was a crystal place and they had a quarter machine tI get random crystals. Jess says that its fate that decides what you need. And with howlite, onyx, and and jasper, I would have to agree.

We also got Amish pretzels and a milkshake and it was excellent. We left and headed to the bbq place to pick up a fathers day thing for Tucker but we waited for like 10 minutes in the drive through before we gave up and James went inside and was served comically fast. But by then I was really sun tired and wanted to go home.

We got back and dropped some stuff off. Got my watermelon. Packed up a couple mirrors to take to his parents, and off we went.

James left me at his apartment to lay down. And he went to take the car to his mom. I spent some time playing animal crossing and resting. But i nevr actually slept. Ah well.

James got back and after some laying down he msde us pizza bagels and then we came back here to my apartment so I could wash my hair.

And now hes asleep and i wish i was too. We have abother fun filled day tomorrow. Early morning yoga class in the park, then getting ready for Jordan's birthday party, and then the cook out itself. Im looking forward to spending time with my friends.

I hope you all get some good rest tonight. Be safe out there. Sleep good.

[juni-ravenhall]

my opinions on mistfall!

under a cut bc spoilers and/or not everyone wants to read :D 

overall experience: 

its fun that there IS a sso cartoon now even if its not exactly amazing quality, and im happy to see if there will be more series or movies after this. it was fun to watch and see sso things in cartoon form too and i wish that we had more already (of sso animation in general). imagine if there had been a ssl cartoon? i also kept thinking throughout this, that it wouldn’t be hard for me myself to make an animated series with around the same length episodes and in a similar quality to this (aside from voice acting and music production), which made me feel a little inspired.

favourite scene:

skye taking photos of blaze and hanging out

positive points: 

i like the background art a lot, i think the style of it, and the colour schemes, helps give the series a specific vibe that fits for an sso series in my opinion. 

i like the concept art (i assume) illustrations which we saw in the recipes and other posts on sso ig, i think it looks a lot better than the characters in the series, but thats normal for concept art!!

the music is really good quality (whether or not its your taste, the quality is good) which is ofc bc its sso - theres already good music and not something they only did for the cartoon but something they care about in all of the starstable media. 

i think skye is a nice character (despite the series’ overall low quality writing) and i like her design. i also think rania’s cartoon design (visually) is cute.

skye and rania being a teensy bit gay (minus points for sso if they dont end up really gay in later canon)

i like that blaze wasnt actually like... mean or anything to skye, and i like that shes a mare since typical stories like this usually have stallions. but i just like that there wasnt really any “ooh difficult horse” things between skye and blaze in the current time of the story, blaze actually was sweet to her most the time. blaze seemed pretty charming whenever there wasnt “omg fire” drama. 

the animation itself (not meaning the details of the drawings or scene timing, just the actual frame by frame / puppet movements) was fine! not amazing, but absolutely fine.

points i have constructive criticism for, which doesn’t mean that i expected more from the series, but that we’re all allowed to discuss the quality and our opinions of media regardless of the target audience, budget, etc:

the writing was childish and rushed - this is not to be rude, but a matter that affects a lot of “media for girls / kids”, and a topic talked a lot about by Lauren Faust (creator of the FiM reboot of MLP) who wanted to show that a show about rainbow ponies “for little girls” didn’t have to be badly written, and could be engaging and interesting. if you watch the older MLP cartoons and compare to the first season of FiM (where Faust was still on the team) you can see a huge difference in quality of the storytelling, characterisation, etc. Mistfall, so far, did not subvert any expectation in the quality of what typical “cartoons for girls” are like, and is reminiscent of stuff like “The Ranch” (french horse cartoon) which imo is so bad that its hard to watch. (and ofc... that goes for a lot of “cartoons for girls / kids”, but doesn’t have to be like that.) in order to improve on this, the writer has to study more on storytelling and study from better writers.

on the topic of being rushed: no, it’s not an excuse that the episodes are short: - you have to ADAPT your storytelling and writing to the length of the episodes, not do a bad job and blame the episode length. being able to adapt to different types of media is a necessary skill if that’s what you work with. this comes down to proper planning and structuring the story and writing in a way that works for the length of the episodes. i don’t think that was overall done well here (at times it was okay), and bc of that, it feels rushed and has exposition thrown in your face instead of being shown through better storytelling. the classic thing with exposition is “show, don’t tell”. this is what the writers/directors should study, or pay more attention to. 

the timing (length of shots, length of scenes, or parts of shots, etc) was rly bad at times and overall unimpressive - this comes down to the skill of directors and editors. to improve this they have to study more on the topic. bad timing and pacing can really ruin a good scene or a good story and make it feel disconnected and hard to immerse in for the audience.

the artstyle of characters and horses is fine at times, but appears very low quality at others (skye’s childhood scene really bothered me bc her kid-self had really badly drawn eyes in my opinion). this, like everything else on this list, is ofc something that appears in almost every single “cartoon for girls” that ever existed. to improve on this, most likely it’s not a problem with the artists but with the budget and the production timeline (allowing the artists more time to produce better quality art and animation), and it can also be a problem with the art direction, if the art directors aren’t very skilled or experienced (i don’t say that they aren’t, im just giving examples of what could cause these problems.)

the character design for all characters that aren’t skye, rania, or blaze was very lacking. none of the not-main-3 characters looked interesting or fun to look at, they looked very dull and like the most boring NPCs you could think of. even though its understandable that the mainest-main characters would have the most interesting designs, that doesn’t mean everyone else has to look that boring. this is an issue with art direction or character design. i think most likely there was just very little time (equals money) put into designing the other characters.

the horse design could be improved for a cartoon that focuses on horses this much. like, horses are a big part of the selling point here, so make sure that their designs and art/animation is good. at times even blaze looked awkward and uninteresting, as did the other horses.

“alonso” looks nothing like sso alonso and i don’t like that they used his character if it’s not going to have anything to do with him. they should have given this character a different name if they wouldn’t make him seem like he had anything to do with the sso character aside from being a male ranger. (also in the game he’s like 22 or something, skye is 15...?)

why did they add a “he’s cute” dumbass fucking stupid hetero comment for literally no reason other than adding a dumbass fucking stupid hetero comment?

considering that they “can’t confirm whether a sequel is happening or not”, it seemed very meh to throw in druid cult magic stuff and not really connect to it and now the series ended? you would have expected to find out more about the cloaked people, the runes, the magic that the ranger guy did, and blaze’s magic in general, and skye herself, why her mom is “a witch”.... thats a lot to throw in while saying that you can’t say if there’s a sequel coming to answer all those questions. (it wouldn’t have been a criticism from me if they said “we’re working on season 2″ or “there will be a comic book that continues the story” or anything that told us that these questions, in this particular iteration of a story in jorvik, will actually be answered. - and i assume they ARE working on the continuation of the story, but i dont agree with that they’re not upfront about it, when they left so many questions unanswered.)

at times rania’s blindness was handled stupidly and i think they should have gotten more consultation from actual people with visual impairment, but i think its still good to HAVE a blind character in the main cast and that it’s not a big dramatic story thing but just an everyday thing. at some points it was fine though; and i personally don’t think the scene with rania being able to see blaze was necessarily a problem - because - a lot of blind ppl can see sharp contrasts in light and dark, and this seemed relatively realistic to me when blaze is on fire. (however, the way it was drawn as if she could see the whole shape of blaze and skye could be criticised for sure, and makes it feel more like “i can see because of magic” and not “i can see bc THIS MARE IS ON FIRE”). 

personal opinion which i said before, but i don’t think rania’s voice fits her at all, and it’s not the voice actor’s fault (i’m sure they’re lovely) but the casting and the directors. from the sso character, rania would seem a lot more lively, quick and adventurous, and not as calm and gentle as she appeared here. she seemed a lot too sort of motherly or just adult, instead of an adventurous teen who runs off on her own to do whatever she feels like. compare in-game rania going “MC, thats a jorvik wild!!!” and alonso going “stop talking nonsense” (paraphrased), to Mistfall rania going “jorvik wilds are really rare...” (calm, sort of disinterested, doesnt seem like she cares that much about adventures)

the voice acting overall was meh. i see this as a direction problem, not an individual voice actor problem (and the writing didnt help - it’s hard to provide good quality acting with a poor script unless you can just toss the script aside and improv, if you have good actors). it felt childish and uninteresting at most points and generic low quality for “cartoons for girls”. from a voice acting perspective i think skye had the best result. anyway, the way to improve this is for the director in charge of voice acting to not direct the actors to perform in this childish manner. (again, refer to cartoons with better writing and better voice acting, that have a very similar target audience.)

ok, i think that was everything that i wanted to write about for now, might think of more later lol

[dcswoop]

Not to be a hater, but

I literally dont understand why ppl seem to be stanning the new mamma mia movie. Didnt it strike any of you as tonedeaf at best? Mamma Mia is about badass ladies. Thats the soul of the story- women who have strong realationships and opinions and personalities. Tanya who gleefully weaponizes her femininity for her own gain, Rosie who stays single shamelessly as long as she wishes, Sophie who trusts her insticts about when to stay and go, and Donna who refuses to love a man who dosnt treat her right, Donna whose real central love story is with her Daughter.

Mamma Mia 2 is about guys. Im sorry but its true and someone has to say it. They decided to tell the story of Donna, right, but not how she raised her daughter, not how she travelled the world, not how she met her friends or their adventures together- no, the story of how she met 3 dudes one summer. And like, thats not inherently bad. Its a whacky and fun plot ya know. But the movie in of itself is just so clearly not about women that i cant quite look past it. Like, Why is young Rosies storyline just that Bill didnt fancy her and thus she had to eat a lot to cope with the rejection? Shes a literal lone wolf badass why is that the only interesting or whacky plot they could give her? Why did Tanya, Tanya!!, Just become heartbroken when Sam didnt notice her on the street? Have you met Tanya? She knows shes a total babe and also, like, Sam was visibly distraught and shes not an idiot why wouldnt she be able to read his expression?? Where were Sophies besties? Why did they write Cher, fucking Cher, into the movie just so she could have a romantic subplot with a dude?? Like, honestly. There wasnt any female comeraderie in this film!! Donna ditches the dynamos for boys, old Rosie and Tanya quarrel over Cher's man, Sophies friends dont show up to the christening... I hate it all.

The moment it really became clear to me that this movie was written by guys was when Donna started talking about how there were "two types of seducers". Who speaks like that??

Also, homophobia. Why arnt anybody writing about this?? Did nobody notice that they wrote Harry out of the story? To be fair young Harry gets a musical number, but like, otherwise he's basically comic relief? And then when we skip to the present, he's a bored businessman...which means...they totally reversed his character arc from the end of the original. He had figured out who he was for christ's sake! He had come in contact with his sexuality and spontaneity! He was ready to live! But nope, he learned nothing and he's in the same place still, apparently...what makes that so bad though if u ask me is that they reversed all his growth, they deleted it, but then they didnt give him any new arc in this movie? Not really?? Like, yeah, he leaves Japan. That's a meaningful moment, but it has no build up! It feels like a weak repetition of the arc he is supposed to have had already! And then what really upsets me is that then he's just comic relief again, or like, a means to an end? He ties himself to a chair and falls into the sea?? Idek?? And that's rly just a way to introduce Sky back into the story. And THEN what makes me REALLY upset is that he dosnt get a love story. Nothing. Rien. Nada. Ingenting. All the other characters get to express their sexualities, except Harry. So really, Mamma Mia 2 did not have gay energy!! Ive seen people say that but i disagree. Cher was in it, yes, but the narrative didnt resepct its 1 gay character. So like?? Whats so great about this movie lol i dont get it