#im rooting for the wrong character ik

[angryborzois]

can't stop thinking about how cool the izana vs mikey battle is gonna be when its animated

[themyscirah]

Complaining abt Suicide Squad yet again but the fact that they have Waller exposing the alien community to space racist attacks and talking abt how she got to her position through deceit and being a terrible person and stuff is just. Ahsfiwueh JUST SAY YOU DONT KNOW WALLER.

Anyways literally the 3rd mission of the Squad ever (and the first framed as smth Waller picked and not orders from above) was the Squad discrediting and stopping a rogue vigilante who was only arresting POC and funneling white people into white supremacy groups (of which he was the most prominent member) in SUICIDE SQUAD #4. and it's explicitly framed as this mission being personal for Waller that she's hiding from the government bc its illegal like. Guys. Please why are we having her incite (space bc comics) racist attacks now

Also the whole "Amanda got her position through deceit and being a terrible person" NO. she KEPT her position through being shitty and playing complicated political games!!! She wasn't always that way like there is a difference and it is IMPORTANT ppl PLEASEEEE. In Secret Origins #14 we learn Amanda's backstory and she used to be a normal, caring person! Like even after she entered into working in government and politics she wasn't automatically morally bankrupt like please people. She was originally given control of the Squad by Reagan (*sigh* 80s comics...) to distract and get rid of her because she was so successful at pushing progressive social policy in Congress. Acting like she's this static pillar of evil is such a waste of her character and so fucking uninteresting and disrespectful to her arc it drives me MAD.

Like I am NOT saying Waller is all sunshine and rainbows, she fucking SUCKS (said w love <3) but like there's a human being there. It's a progression, she has a character arc like please, DC, please!!! They've fucked up Waller so bad and made her so opaque and uninteresting she can't even be the protagonist of her own story for fucks sake!

Like I don't know how many times I have to scream it until DC hears me or remembers but WALLER IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SUICIDE SQUAD. ITS HER BOOK. yet right now she's a cutout to be used as the villain wherever the writers please. Even in her book we get none of her perspective really displayed, no exploration of her thoughts with any kind of understanding of the role she traditionally has played and was made to play in the story.

[silly-lil-scribbles]

(copied from my liveblog post)

ik the fears don’t really work here but for simplicity im using them to get my point across

so obviously this feels pretty lonely adjacent, but i actually feel like corruption is a big part of it too (which i think tells a lot about the tmagp universe in general, ill get into that in a sec). but like the corpse was talking about how her family wouldn’t care or help, which plays in to the main point of the corruption, which is something you rely on becoming, well unreliable, or rotten in a sense. which also ties in with the lonely because both have large themes of abandonment in some way. where the corruption is about mistrust in a way, not being able to rely on the most important things (such as how the victim spoke about starvation, like in some way this kind of starvation cant be helped with eating almost. it’s different. which is scary, the thiught of having no control, and not being able to save yourself from the starvation because actual food cant help you anymore) the lonely is more about just plain abandonment. again, just like the corruption, its a different kind of unreliability. in a dumb metaphor way, the corruption is like a relationship with someone who is abusive but youre stuck with them, and the lonely is like a relationship where the person is distant and although they say they care about you, you know its empty. and nobody can see this but you, and as you start to mistrust your own mind, you lose parts of yourself. and that my friend is where the spiral ties in. the spiral is also rooted in mistrust but like the corruption, its not knowing yourself, losing yourself. the shattering of your own sanity is a lonely thing. its like youre stuck in a movie and youre the only person who knows. everyone is saying youre wrong to the point where you start to wonder if you are. everyone else in the metaphorical movie cast has no control over themselves and you start to wonder if theyre even conscious. and then, you start to wonder if youre even conscious.

the reason i said the tmagp universe feels like the corruption, is because its like a new start. but its not. small things are just plain wrong, and more and more characters feel off, and they don’t belong here. and some of them know this, im sure. you know something is wrong here but youre stuck and you don’t even know if this is you. again, ties into the spiral (stranger too).

i hope this was coherent at least somwhat lol

[closetsof-backlogged-dreams]

tiptoeing my way into your ask box: should merlin have revealed his magic in the sins of the father episode

THE WAY I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS ASK😭😭😭😭 mbbb but im here now!!! so hi:))

ok so this is the second ask youve sent me that ive literally never thought of once in my life so prepare youself for a brainDUMP

my answer is completely and irrevocably: yes. i can't imagine myself having another opinion on it, because i think you found the only episode in the entire series where a magic reveal would have been a natural and understandable choice, by both the writers and the characters (except for of course the last episode, but i have many feelings on the execution of the actual magic reveal, of which are for another ask lol).

but because im an unnecessary bitch, i'm going to answer this question twice with the same answer (why? because im a nuisance to everyone around me, thats why) by interpreting the question differently. the first interpretation? should merlin have revealed his magic in the sins of the father, as in should MERLIN have revealed his magic. was that the right decision for him to make in this episode? would that have ended in the best outcome? would that have improved the situation? just morally, was that the right choice to make?

i thought about it, and at first i was torn, because arthur was a wreck at this point. he felt angry, betrayed, devastated, and rightfully so. is this really the best time for his best friend of probably over a year, by this point, to admit to him that he was born with magic? and while this definitely would have been a tricky time to do it, i think this is the only episode in which arthur shows completely empathy and compassion towards magic. for once in this series, he doesn't blame magic for all the wrongs in the world, or even reservedly believe that magic may not be a thing to persecute for but can certainly never be trusted—he is fully open to magic and believes that every negative thing he ever knew of it, all stemming from his father, is completely wrong. obviously, this is because he took his hatred for magic and swapped it with his respect for his father due to the switched roles they had in his life (magic: the deceiver, the killer, the villian; uther: the protector, the victim, the hero; but yk, swapped in this episode) but that doesn't make his open mind to magic (IN THIS EPISODE!!) any less real.

so, ik that was a lot lol, but if merlin had told arthur about his magic at this point, i think itd be one of the only times when that revelation would cause arthur to feel angry and betrayed not really because of the magic, but because merlin hadn't told him. and i'm sorry, at any other point in the series, imo, that wouldn't be true. the deception itself may be the root of the hurt, but the magic would just be salt in the wound.

and!! not even to mention the fact that arthur was going to kill uther. instead of lying to him, merlin should have admitted that he has magic, told him not to kill him, explained whatever information he knew (yk, about nimueh or literally anything because he definitely knew more than arthur did, atp). would arthur have felt the betrayal twofold? of course, but i do think that this would have hit him hard enough to stop on his rampage to kill uther. it definitely would have been difficult to get him to STOP long enough to tell him lol, but i think merlin could have done it. all in all, it definitely would have been difficult to execute, but i think overall it would have been the right choice for all the right reasons.

now, onto the second interpretation of the question: should merlin have revealed his magic in the sins of the father, as in the WRITERS should have revealed his magic. and that answer is a resounding fucking YES!!!! im so so sorry, but merlin and arthur's relationship was ridiculous. i can (and will with the slightest prompting) go into an insane amount of depth and detail into why i hate their relationship development despite being obsessed with their dynamic (most of the time) and why i think as the MAIN DUO OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING SHOW deserved better, but i'll try to keep it short and sweet. in season one, their relationship was developed almost perfectly. sure, there definitely should have been more time from the first episode and onwards of actual contempt between them, but besides that i think the writers really did a very good job at building their relationship and dynamic.

then comes the giant fucking spiky, iron wrecking ball that is season two. immediately, all the trust and obvious affection and friendliness built in the first season just... disappears. i honestly think that a change in their dynamic was necessary! but with the current canon, there is absolutely no reason for it, and the changes that there were, quite frankly, sucked. they were completely unnecessary. but start off season two with them being all chummy and just genuinely good friends, and merlin starts to feel guilty for not telling arthur about his magic. (that's another thing about this goddamn show. i honestly can't think of a single time merlin expressed any actual guilt for lying to arthur about his magic for an entire fucking decade?? for the most part, all he expresses his fear at the possibility of arthur finding out, which makes me want to kick scream chew on someones eyelids and just generally maul someones face, but whatever ig. but this guilt could definitely result in some distance and loss of trust, and then it keeps building and building and building until... BANG! fucking magic reveal!!

its also perfect for the reason that, im sorry, i dont believe for a fucking second that season one arthur (MY arthur, thanks) would even LET merlin not tell him about his magic for TEN GODDAMN YEARS. he would sniff that shit out and wait patiently for merlin to spill before confronting him after like a month. because in season one, arthur definitely wasn't ready for a magic reveal. they weren't close enough, there wasn't enough trust, arthur hadn't grown enough yet, all the things. but season two? proved the perfect opportunity for all that to happen, and then on you can have ACTAUL GOOD CONFLICT instead of the entire conflict being "oh well merlins secret🥺" ........................SHUT THE FUCK UP

anyways, i think thats my whole opinion?? overall i just really think that the magic reveal should have happened longgg before the finale and this episode is the absolute perfect place for it to occur:)) thank you sm for the ask!! i had a lot of fun with this one if you couldn't tell lol. sorry for forgetting about it😭😭 so glad your back tho, and cant wait to have you lurking in my inbox again!!!

[sixofsol]

@johaerys-writes tagged my main (@heypax) for this, but since ive talked about my fics more on this blog i decided to do it here instead !

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26!

2. What is your AO3 word count?

151,778

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I mean, I haven’t written anything for anything but six of crows since like year back… But! I do miss writing patrochilles, and tsoa is the fandom i’ve written the absolute most for! If we’re looking back, I’ve written hadestown, steven universe, haikyuu!! and a bunch more years ago.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

we were shotgun lovers // I’m a shotgun running away - six of crows, wesper, 772 kudos

like moss climbs a tree - song of achilles, patrochilles, 446

i want someone to try, and let me down easy — six of crows, wesper, 405 kudos

from the outside looking in - the song of achilles, patrochilles, 371 kudos

twisted roots and sunny days, the song of achilles, patrochilles, 363 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

YES if i dont miss when i get them (i dont have the email motifs on) i always do ! it means so much someone commented and i always love having a lil conversation about this thing that i wrote.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

as much of an lover i am of hurt no comfort i very rarely write it lmao but a lot of my tsoa fics had sad endings. autumn’s coming around is the first one that popped into mind, but that’s at least slightly open ? i’ll hold your hand while you drown, less so.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I feel like a lot of my fics have equally happy endings haha, the one that came to mind was our hair tangled in the breeze, simply because its a happy ending canon complaint tsoa fic which is a feat lmao

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope the closets ive ever come was when i was 12 and people were like nice story but god your grammar and spelling is terrible! which was fair!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nah I’m a fade to black kinda girlie

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I never anymore but well,, Once upon a time i was 14 and obsessed with glee and sherlock and well….

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as ik

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope !

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

nope, but I would enjoy trying!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

…this is hard because wesper has been running around in my head for a year but simply cause ive been obsessed with patrochilles longer im still gonna say them

15. What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will?

I’d love to continue for everyone im about to prove wrong, and I think I even have a mostly finished chapter lying around somewhere, but I’ve just not had the inspiration rip.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I’m good at writing characters in general, especially when it’s from their pov. first person pov my beloved.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m not really a person who uses a lot of metaphors of writes flowery language, but i wish i was!! i love very beautiful language and poetic writing but i just don’t do that that much im pretty straight forward, which isn’t a bad thing but I wish i could expand a bit more.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

takes me out the story way too much, it’s fine if it’s like one word every now and then but nah. ive read a couple of young royals fics, and as a swedish speaker its a bit jarring to suddenly have swedish words there lmao

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If non published count, harry potter. if only published, glee!

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

i’m gonna be fair to myself and choose one for soc and one for tsoa.

autumn’s coming around for tsoa and a fire died last winter for soc, which ironically are my least popular fics in the respective fandoms!

thank you !! and im tagging @leglesslouie @jackwolfes @wesperbrekkered @deathless--aphrodite

[phoenix-before-the-flame]

this isn't about natsu on his own but more of a natsu and lucy theory (or hc(?? since ik it won't be true) and the importance of their relationship and status as -both- mcs had mashima done things with a little more thought

basically it roots from anna's 400 year plan and the reason she decided to send the kids to that specific time to kill acnologia and it was because lucy is alive in this time

I don't believe for a second that anna was "the most powerful celestial wizard to ever have existed", not with lucy in the picture -and having seen literally not a single instance of anna using her powers- my hc starts with anna seeing through the eclipse gate and discovering one of her ascenders will hold an inmense ammount of power and unique relationship with the celestial keys when she grows up and that's when she makes up her mind, she will send the kids to a timeline where her most powerful family/clan(? member will be alive and be able to help them

and now onto the natsu part sorry this is getting long ndhsjf

I think zeref creating natsu was ultimately what made him lose his final straws of sanity tho I can't remember if this was canonically implied

but I also think he was sane enough to realize making so many demons as tests to revive natsu made him completely unable to raise his brother and in his last moment of conciousness he decided that anna and the dragons were far better options, even if it meant natsu was deliberately being used as a war pawn, so he used whatever remained of his power to make natsu more powerful to be able to survive this war and hopefully being able to kill him as his way for atoning for not being the brother natsu deserved to have

and there you have it, pretty much natsu and lucy's relationship was threaded by fate and the plan was for the dragons slayers to kill acnologia under the support of the actual most powerful celestial wizard that has existed or will ever exist

you can think of little moments under this pretext, like why was lucy's father set up on bringing his daughter back after finding out she's part of fairy tail, or how natsu and lucy together was the catalyst a handful of characters needed to surpass their traumas

idk I like them both a lot be it platonically or romantically, mashima could've expanded their relationship so much more 🤧 but anyways hope you liked my derrangedness

I know u sayin a lot right now but i have to let u know in the midst of your paragraphs i zoomed tf in on this point specifically

Cause i sorta wrote a whole ass essay some time ago bout that and it activated my neurons.

Anyways! Onto your actual ask!

Honestly we share a pretty similarish school of thought on the situation there as a whole. With regards to how the heartfilia's got thrown into the mix (and Anna. I have, mixed thoughts on how she was used in the final arc and just her being there in the present the whole time. Home girl would've been a much more interesting character if her role stayed in the past and her connection to the dragons expanded on but! Gettin off track!)

I think the only part here where we may differ majorly is around where you said this-

but I also think he was sane enough to realize making so many demons as tests to revive natsu made him completely unable to raise his brother and in his last moment of conciousness he decided that anna and the dragons were far better options

It's just in my head I always found it so hard to wrap my head around the idea of Zeref doin all that to just give away Natsu. It always felt so hard to believe that mans literally undid the fabric of death to give away his hard work.

(Note this is not a jab at you for using it! It's just me disliking it in canon lol, I personally don't like using that reasoning. Plus with my mental characterization of Zeref he doesn't feel like the type to atone or fix his wrongs to me so can't really see him doing certain things willingly. Forgive me i'm sittin on a whole ass different characterizations and plot beats that im holdin onto for the thing i'm writing that i dont wanna rlly let loose yet)

But like, you're right! Natsu n Lucy work as a neat package deal of MCs! Two weirdos! Blah blah the demon and the star child, blah blah the writer and the guy who's a book. Daddy issues but in opposite directions! It's fun that they're linked with each other! Wish it was used more :)

[jovenshires]

you are named jovenshires. very little joven recently. this ask is a prompt to talk about joven (pretty please)

ooooh dangerous territory here anon. very dangerous territory.

so the reason there has been very little joven content is bc (and i would like to apologize to the stan community in advance) i don't watch the og smog content. ik ik i should, but i still don't even watch any of the old smosh content they're in bc it just makes me so sad. don't get me wrong im still following them all everywhere but. ya know. one day i will get there and i'll be able to stomach it but fr i am so sensitive to that shit y'all have no idea akldmfkf

but anyway! you didn't ask for my backstory you asked for me to talk about joven and so i will!

i don't think i've ever really talked about like. Why i like joven so much or what drew me to him. so here goes that. attempting to put it into words for the first time is crazy bc i've just had this In My Brain for like half a decade. so first things first - i've always been drawn to people who take up that position of being a heel. you know; the butt of the joke, the silly guy. (do you all see the spencer transition.) like if you knew my friends, they're all like that, too. so yeah, joven was a pretty clear fave choice. he was always being picked on, he was always the contrarian, and it made me want to root for him when no one else would. he was the odd one out ya know. obviously it was mostly a bit / he was not actually being bullied and they were all friends NDKNKNF but still, the character was fun to watch and easy for me to fall for.

but like also. there's something ab him that's so genuine at the same time. like he puts on all this bravado and this big show but he just seems like a genuinely really nice person. obviously parasocial relationships i only know him so much etc etc but like... the part of himself that he Showed that was kind and gentle really appealed to me. i think frequently and i just rewatched a clip of that one stream where he and boze played a horror game and she had a full panic attack and he stopped the whole thing and was like. 'okay breathe with me.' like he seemed to actually care for his coworkers and friends in a way that he sometimes couldn't help but let slip through and i found that really endearing.

and, of course, i really appreciate anyone who's passionate. smth smth babygirl your encyclopedic knowledge is a sign of mental illness but also so sexy. his love of comics? his absolute unwavering (and often undeserved don't get me wrong) confidence when he speaks? whew! i just really love a man who at least thinks he knows what he's talking about. like yes please tell me all about batman i'll pour us some wine and listen sir

anyway, all that's to say - even though it's tattered around the edges, the love never died. it's still there <3

[imrllytootiredforthis]

hey cyrus, i am a big fan of your artworks and i just have to tell you about how much i love them im sorry pls bear with me.

I absolutely admire your writing style. It's constantly unpredictable, captivating, and invigorating. Since that's really more to my taste, I especially enjoy your fiction when the main character—the ID0L—is the centre of the story, rather than the reader. I appreciate how you adhere to the hashtags you use. I'm always pleased by you, as are probably many other readers.

My favourite work of yours is "night at the bar" (if im not mistaken). I adore how you portrayed Felix in that fanfiction, and I adore, adore, adore the character of the "reader." It's interesting to see the reader in the role of the villain once. I don't know why, but I really enjoy the vibes in the moment where the reader pulls a random guy close to them for a kiss as Felix approaches them it's so JQGDHWGAHAGAI WANNA KISS FELIX BUT IK SCARED RI FALL IN LOVE BUT I WANT HIM I WANT HIM TO BE MINE.

That specific fic of yours reminded me a lot of cigarettes after sex's songs. it's enticing and exciting at first but suddenly those feelings turned into remorse and bewilderment. but as both parties be completely transparent with each other, they started to learn to love and cherish each other. I love it i love i love it so much.

Please writw more, we're all rooting for you cyrus. Im sorry if there is any grammar mistakes, im still learning english and i might have some words wrong.

Thank you, thank you, i cannot tell you how much of a confidence boost this gave me<3

I'm so glad you enjoy them! Comparing 'night at the bar' to cigarettes after sex's songs-honestly i love that so much, and that was totally the type of vibe i was going for while i was writing it

I find that in a lot of fics (not all, there are plenty of other amazing writer's that do this) the reader is very sure of themselves, very confident and always kinda knows what to do and how to react. I find this unrealistic in a lot of ways and portraying the reader in the light of making the mistakes/in the villain role is something that just feels more authentic if that makes any sense

I am writing more, i have a few half-made fics and ideas that i'm getting through rn, i'll try to get them out as soon as i can-and i really hope that you'll enjoy them :)

and again, thank you so much for this feedback, i really love to see what you guys think of my writing and your thoughts on them<3

[mossdogs]

alright so i watched the eps (spoilers under the cut)

i kinda liked these, they arent terrible. sexy ed felt like og ch at times and that was great! seems like they r finding their footing. ALSO MR B SAID WESLEY!!! THREE TIMESSSSS!!!!!

my issue however is w the pairings. it seems like they said "oh right!! these two couples!! we forgot abt those!!". as much as i like cleo and frida together, it was... a bit rushed?? same w harriet and confucius, in their case it felt... random. there was no sign that they had a crush on each other (asides from those bits from the intro) and im not sure why they did that (probably to introduce another love triangle or smth who knows. maybe for the drama). it rubs me the wrong way i dont have a good feeling abt them ik that when they rush a couple in this show its cuz they r setting some shit up. i dunno im still not rlly attached to them but we'll see w time.

oh and the joa/nfk breakup!! that was a tough one. i stopped rooting for them ever since joan had that sex dream w abe cuz i knew that some shit was coming, so it didnt affect me as much as it could have. it was handed.. pretty well! if they dont get together again, at least they can be friends and find other ppl. lord and miller mentioned that they play w couples a lot and that they r always changing whos dating who so i find it logical that they want to experiment w other characters too.

anyways besides that im biased for cleo/frida so im glad that they r canon, i can make an exception and forgive the writing in their case, confucius/harriet hasnt grown on me much yet. mr b and scudworth r the best part as always their b plot carried ep7 pretty much, i dont care abt the rest gb

[sab-teraa]

Watch with me: Duy Beni episode 3

1. “We did it for you” - OZAN STAND TF UP!

2. These lot are so dumb for recording their attacks 👀 no money in the world can stop the consequences once something goes viral or leaked. This is so unrealistic.

3. I LOVE BEKIR 😭😭 the way he walked out like a Roman Prince! Roman Bekir 😭😂 Bestie <3

4. Bekir has Ozan’s blood boiling 💀 he is trying so hard to break him and Bekir keeps being Bekir lmao.

5. That lowkey stand off between Ozan and Kanat? Yeah their friendship is on thin ice.

6. Melisa is a disgusting person …but?? why do I like her ? It’s defo the actors charisma bc even tho I love the villain … she’s not the type of villain I would root for.

7. Yup. You see that shit Ekim is saying to Bekir yeah? Solidified my dislike for her. Don’t force your problems on everyone else … already bc of you he was attacked (multiple times). He would have been attacked at some point … but rn he is being attacked because of YOU … and that’s how you treat him? I’m pissed

Like I understand she’s upset … but Bekir clearly has his own coping mechanisms … it’s sick to speak to him that way

8. Kanat, bro, ik you have a mission … but pls say thank you to the waiters.

9. Melisa sis. Pls date ozan. This man hates you 🥲

10. I lied. I ship Ayse and Orijinal 🚀

11. Not Leyla crying over a man she’s never met. Wrap it up. You both live in Istanbul and never met irl? Stfu

12. I was right! Aziz is cat fishing Leyla using kanats pic

13. Did I miss something??? Is Leyla also cat fishing???? Why is he calling her meltem??? Wtf is going on

14. There’s being in love with someone and then there’s leyla. She’s obsessive and possessive af. I’m genuinely scared

15. Aziz HATES Kanat … like he says it … but this ep he showed it

16. That scene where Riza forced kanat-Aziz mum to change her outfit broke me 💔

17. Melisa going to ozan for help instead of Kanat??? OZMEL = CHAIR!!! SIGN ME UP RN.

18. Personally, I thought that the parents have their own bullying group and were involved. I still think this … but maybe the kids are tryna protect their parents 💀

20. Aziz and his mum have me bawling. Like the way I’m crying.

21. We don’t know much about the mum zzz but I think that she comes from a rich family and riza used her etc.

22. AYSE is good! 😭🤣 she couldn’t even stay in character im finished

23. I like that we are learning more about Ekim … especially her background

24. Are we sure that Leylas father is not Sedar? Bc who in their right mind will go off over some random child. Bc even if there’s a sense of community blah blah … him forcing Ayse to work in a sweat shop over her is ducking SICK. IM PISSED

25. Checkmate scene makes me think aziz doesn’t really like Leyla??

26. Okay will finish the rest of the tomz

27. Wtf is wrong with Leyla. Honestly I’m sick of her

28. Ozan 🥺 ik you would be a better bf

29. I think Mel really likes Bekir and they will become friends

30. Ozan making an effort to greet mels dad. GET TOGETHER ALREADY

[idlepebbles]

just rewatched raya for the first time in a couple months and I thought I'd give some random thoughts lol

- I will literally never watch the English dub again because I loved the bahasa Indonesia one so so so much. the voices were perfect and it filled a hole in my heart istg

- the plot feels really fragmented and I wonder if it has to do with how the work was literally fragmented with each person off in their home for the second half of production

- I was initially mad about having SEAsia blended together, however now I think that this is a good first step. having a movie come out that was just one of us probably would have caused some bitterness and I'm somewhat glad we can all just share this piece of representation until we all get up there and make our own :)

- the trust message feels a bit too nuanced/confusing for a kid's movie tbh. it felt like it always framed sisu as correct for randomly trusting ppl and raya as having trust issues when... yeah??? ofc she has trust issues? both of them had flaws in their outlook but it felt like raya was constantly criticized for it

- I didn't know that there were deleted scenes and other extras and they were so fun!! I loved seeing what aspects of the movie were from what culture :) seeing it say that pencak silat was the martial art that raya's was based on made me so happy!

- one day I want to dress up as raya bc istg that's what I look like :o I love the character design in this movie. almost cried the first time I watxhed bc omg that's me. wtf. that's my eyes and nose and hair??? I am so attached because of this??? and chief Benja looks just like my papah so it's just T-T yeah...

- raya barely did anything wrong. maybe im saying this bc I also have issues with needing to control things. in fact... probably... but still lmao imo she wasn't at fault for sisu's death bc namaari was about to pull the trigger.

- tuktuk being a pill bear is such a cute concept and I love it. he's just so cute. me and both of my sister's have plushies of him :)

- I'm still sad we didn't get fun music tbh. esp after watching encanto it feels like a lost opportunity even tho ik the tone of this movie was a lot darker. speaking of which, I love the cinematography but I kind of wish there were more bright colors?? idk, again, I don't know if it would match the vibe lol I wonder if we'll get a bright and happy movie one day. that would be fun. our cultures are so bright and beautiful and despite colonization and violence we have so much happiness to share

- not to beat a dead horse, but yea the jokes... aren't great. not a fan of them bc they rlly take me out of the immersion. why couldn't we just get funny jokes that aren't based on being #relatable. not everything needs to work for western ppl. we could have had inside jokes only we got.

- sisu's design also isn't my favorite but honestly I don't like how everyone acted about it. it really wasn't as terrible as ppl made it out to be and it's still clearly a dragon with SEAsian roots. that's not a European dragon that breathes fire

- the food makes me so happy :) I was eating longon and lychee and actually shrieked when I saw it on screen and I had Tom yum for dinner and that's so fun bc I was thinking about how much I wanted to try their soup and apparently that's what it's based on!!!

- I wish they had actually used a mix of different languages instead of making things up. like they could have had a word from each country or smthn instead of making up a random word. would have felt way more connected.

- the lack of SEAsian VAs makes me sad. partially why I love the Indonesian version so much is it alleviates some of that discomfort. I don't think the performances were bad (for the most part. I'm looking at you random really deep voiced girl from the market) but it just makes me so so sad. we had a thing for once and they just went. nah east Asians instead! like... why. it's not like we're not in the industry. ik Kelly Marie tran and awkwafina and Benedict Wong are popular but y'all rlly could've gotten a SEAsian for at least the side roles :(

- oh also the awkward way they say their names and made up words makes me so uncomfortable lmao. I think this every time I see a cartoon about a culture with another language but goddamn could you just give them an accent so the mixed in words from another language feel more cohesive? they managed to do this in encanto so goddamn have them roll some Rs sometimes lmao

- I love Boun and Tong and Toi and Benja and the ongis and it kind of makes me sad that there's only content for raya and namaari. sort of feels like yt queers just took the queer bits and decided that the rest of the cultural stuff wasn't as interesting.

- on the flip side some of the fanart is so fucking cool and I'm glad there's so much good stuff! and these characters are gay. so gay. they are just. so lesbians. the eye contact. the tension. the hand holding. the undercut and cat lady jokes (while western oriented) are yeah. theyre friends to enemies to lovers your honor. there's nothing else to be said

- the droon being an allegory for colonialism is something I just saw and that's rlly interesting. next time I watch I'll have to keep that in mind. would really change how I look at the movie I think. would add a layer of depth that could be interesting to think about.

in conclusion, I love this movie sm, it makes me cry every time, and I'm so fucking glad my little sisters have a south east Asian princess to look up to :)

edit: there have been many videos made recently about raya and in my watching of them, I noticed all of them said that the cast was almost fully east Asian including Kelly Marie Tran. a lot of issues that people have had are that she is east Asian and claiming the seasian princess but???? she is seasian?? I just checked and she's literally vietnamese?? I'm so confused why has everyone been acting like she was an east Asian coopting seasian roles?? help??

[kindlespark]

god. long post as i port over some twitter thoughts but. im catching up on tuc2 and i just don't want to gloss over the fact that d20 wrote a white woman becoming the chosen one of a culturally asian tradition and organisation. like it was already :/ in the first season but tuc2 making it clear that sofie made said organisation change bc they were doing things wrong makes it feel worse lol!

it's easy to not understand the full ramifications bc dnd is a theatre of the mind and i don't have to physically see a white woman at the head of an organisation with explicitly asian roots but i don't want to and can't ignore what they've made text here. deeply sucks as an asian woman to have to watch asian people be, if not villainised, distrusted and implied to be wrong for wanting to hold onto a tradition that a white woman is trying to change/improve upon, even if said tradition is outdated

like if sofie WAS asian everything would be fine bc asian media often has that trend of change vs tradition and seeing a young asian immigrant woman in america work to change the harmful parts of her culture and embrace change would've been everything to me. and ik we can't exactly retcon it now and im not saying we allow emily to suddenly play an asian woman but like. instead we just got a deeply uncomfortable and harmful narrative about white saviourism where two white people are at the forefront of a fight about asian tradition

like. if they'd just made more asian characters present in the conflict, if they'd had more prominent asian characters that also wanted change introduced earlier, if they didn't just try to ignore the racial dynamics they accidentally set up in the 1st season..... all im gonna say is it sucks to watch as an asian immigrant!!

[sepialunaris]

Besides the crazy stupid plot twist and dumb character actions I think the big problen why Jurassic World is a failure of a narrative is that it constantly confuses its own tone and what idea it wants to convey. And as a whole it just sounds like singing praises to capitalism and pinning problems on other aspects instead of the root of the problem.

So JW is said to have been open for 15 years, and its said people are bored with classic InGen retrosaurs hence initiating the creation of Indominus, and yet from the other perspective people are enjoying the retrosaurs just fine? It is not even hinted a bit that they did not not enjoy them besides that bit of exposition.

And our audience perspective character doesn't work. Gray and Zach seems to come from a middle-upper class family and yet they never visited the park for years despite having a family member as a high level staff? Knowing their son is obsessed with dinosaurs? And the only reason they were sent there was because it was an excuse to cover up their parent's divorce? In the case of Darius Bowman from CC it makes sense, but this is weird. It's kind of nitpicky, but okay my point is, what makes them ineffective is that they are new eyes to the park and Zach cannot represent "ahh ppl who already seen this many times get inspired to see the beauty of ugly 1993 retrosaurs" because he has never been there either. So its just weird to include their POV when it deosnt complement the Indominus narrative and if it does it feels forced and loose.

And its more bizarre when the movie seems to be more obsessed with showing "oh my god look at this capitalist paradise! John Hammond's gentrification deeam fulfilled!" and panning on random buildings and starbucks with the Jurassic Park theme. Besides "do you have dinosaurs in your dinosaur park" it just wooshes the anti-capitalist social commentary of JP, more crazy when its loads of product placement. I know that they did plan a panning shot with dinosaurs which would've been effective and narratively fitting rather than *pan to giant building* so idk why they even did that. And so idk if this movie wants to criticize capitalism and consumerism combined with the privatizing of the genetics could give way to ethical and environmental issues or do they want to say "god powers are allowed for capitalists if they are nice" (ahh and based on leaks for JWD, its the latter. They made John Hammond a messiah for protecting his unethical business from the 'bad capitalists' omg)

There's also the issue of 'authentic' dinosaurs (hence why I keep mentioning retrosaurs from the start 😂, i want to talk about this too). The scene with Wu and Masrani works, but ultimately the whole movie fails it. It is lifted from one of the few good scenes from the oroginal movel with Wu and Hammond, and concerns about how ALL dinosaurs from this park are genetic hybrids from the start. And well it would've worked well to explore the ethics and capitalism approach but honestly with the whole movie as comparison it just sounds like "guys this is the reason why they are not realistic and feathered please dont ask us about it again." The fact that they are hybridized retrosaurs get ignored and thrown under the rug besides that one scene, and we never again explore how unnatural all of them are as the movie time to time again keeps promoting a division between "legit" dinosaurs and Indominus, the character Lowery keeps pushing. And the latter... aslo shows how much they want to praise the first park and John Hammond despite it being a metaphor of capitalism failing from wanting to conquer nature, despite it being the exact same thing as modern JW. "They didnt need these hybrids they only had real dinosaurs" is already an errornous statement since all of them were frog hybrids, so if its wrong... what was the point of bringing it up? JP didn't just fail because Dennis Nedry sabotaged it, it was bound to fail for its attempt to control nature as Ian said. However JW attributes the singular creation of Indominus as the reason for its failure (and by attribute hoo boy how many plotholes did they engineer to pin it the blame. Suddenly it knows its being thermally monitored? Or does it just releases electromagnetic energy to make ppl around it dumb or jam cellphones, god im rambling), and if they continued making retrosaurs it would've been fine? So what was the message? "Its okay to mix dinosaur dna with frogs but don't add to much to the mixture"? "Its okay to play god with capitalism but dont go too far"? Instead of mentioning both concepts as unethical and the concept of Indominus as an already flawed concept pushed even more unethically, the increasing level of tolerance for playing god already shows a shift of morals from the JP and JW. So once again its 'capitalism is actually good, its just the evil ppl thats the problem'

It honestly just erases the brilliant potential of how that narrative could be engaged. Of course its obvious the park would want to promote their retrosaurs as legit and Indominus as a different flavor despite both being hybrids but the latter being pushed to the max, so both of them are bound to have intersecting problems. However not everyone would've been fooled by such promotion. And yet from our POV only Wu was aware of it; the view of them as retrosaurs is treated as an understatement to be ignored as we are only allowed to see things and agree with opinions from the POV of Lowery or the kids against Hoskins' cartoony "lets convince our president to use dinos to steal oil" idea.

It could've honestly touched on many aspects of de-extinction or concepts like the Chickenosaurus, as well as the complex moral dillema around many genetic issues, but the movie just wants to shy away from it and impose a black and white morality of "Indominus bad unnatural" and "retrosaurs good natural." Not unnesary military commentary that doesn't work (dinosaur's effect in the environment would be more devastating than them acting as military weapons so pro-US imperialists can be proud (one bullet will kill them, I swear yeah ik this is a 'scifi' franchise, but the logic hoops you need to jump from that. One raptor died from getting hit by a rocket launcher as they should. So what US wants to use these bags of flesh as weapons to steal oil? There is nothing they can do that dogs or dolphins can't do better). The only time its kinda shown is when Indominus is killing Apatosaurus for fun, but... real animals like humans, dolphins, chimps do that too. And the movie treats this as something unnatural or makes it evil. Scorpios rex despite being ugly actually accomplishes the ecological horror of having an invasive creature invade an ecosystem (despite the ecosystem itself alr being flawed and superficially created) and being able to reproduce through parthenogenesis). And I doubt they would touch on this in JWD despite the variance of animals they will show, as even Atrociraptor is not going to be called out by name in that film, that they can change its name in post production.

[probablydinosaurs]

Ok super unpopular opinion/question: whats so inherently wrong with "wooifing" more problematic male favs? I see people doing it for girl characters like azula all the time and no one butts in to remind u of all her sins and yet i want to draw goro akechi in pastels and someone has to go "HE KILLED PEOPLE!!!!! STOP BABYING HIM!!!" like. You look at catra or the diamonds from steven universe and go "aaw what a cute kitty girl and such pretty milfs~" like they weren't just as flawed and fucked????? Why cant we just woo and baby all are problematic favs. As long as they arent rl assholes/serial killers, i dont see it. Ya u can say "oh your ignoring there toxic masculinity and just simplifying there character into hot and male" im noy ignoring anything. You can "wooify" a fav and still be heavily critical. Just sometimes u don't WANT to defend every little thing u enjoy. Sometimes u don't want to actively say u don't support a characters actions. I just want to go " i want to draw simon from infinity train in more crop tops and give him a boyfriend" without Needing to defend myself. I still realistically hate his guts. I still can think critically on his character. Me wanting make believe good things for a shit character is rooted in my fascination with them as a character and shouldn't be looked down apon just because a few outliers go too far and cant do both. Ik people who fully wooify and will fight to defend their sweet baby boys. Dude please draco was in a family of fascists and never openly said he stopped believing bullshit. Accept that AND still enjoy your drarry fics. U need both. U need to be aware that they are assholes first. U need to be critical first. Then you can do whatever u want within legal reason. As long as ur aware. Im mainly just tired of people acting like the act alone is a red flag and shitting people for it.its happened to me with my notable bad taste all the time.

[darthkruge]

heyy Megan!! , I read a few anidala relationship analysis posts on my timeline and it really got my wheels turning. The more I read about them the more I feel as if they really rushed into establishing their relationship & from their character/personality stand point I feel as if they weren't compatible from the get go. I may be wrong but don't really think they loved each other, i think Anakin just idolized her and she saw something more in Anakin that there was idk if this is making any sense

hello!! and yes that all makes sense!! i’m gonna add my thoughts and i am going to preface this by saying that i don’t want people to yell at me because it seems like i might have an unpopular opinion lmao

i personally really like anidala and i think that a lot of their flaws isn’t to the fault of their characters. i shall explain :)

in my opinion, the prequels, which i absolutely adore if that’s not painfully obvious, could have been improved timing wise. espeically the first two movies. so i think that a lot of the rushing felt in AOTC is due to this. 

i know a lot of people are confused when it comes to their compatibility and honestly i get that. here’s padme, this amazing, intelligent, well-regarded, former queen and current senate member. and then there’s anakin, reckless, occassionally immature, young jedi. on paper, it feels out of left field.

and anakin did idolize her, espeically in the beginning. i’m not going to deny that. but i don’t hold that against them, either. listen, it’s normal for people to romanticize the person they’ve fallen for. especially when anakin fell so young. speaking from experience, especially when i was younger (i mean i’m still young but-), i had a tendency to latch on when i felt romantic feelings for someone. 

but anakin grew throughout the prequels! he had a lot of development and i think this was mirrored in his relationship. you can see in ROTS how he acts when he finds out padme is pregnant. instead of freaking out or wanting to run (as escapist tendencies are major signs of immaturity), he reassures her. he stays and he says that he’s happy and they’ll figure it out, together. so, yes, while the idolization happened at first, i think he outgrew it, at least outgrew it to the point where it would be like toxic and weird. because when you love someone, they’re gonna seem perfect, at least to some extent. it’s just how that shit works. 

and in AOTC, their romance felt juvenile at times. it was flirty, awkward, young. but padme was reckless at times, too. remember, she was the one who wanted to go to geonosis. it’s in moments like these that i remind myself that, yes, she was a bit older than anakin and definitely more mature, but she wasn’t this poised, perfect woman that people try to paint her as. further, she, herself, was also young! this was her first major love and she was trying to navigate those emotions, too. and while senators are allowed to be in relationships, they’re not allowed to do so with jedi. as much as anakin struggled with the secret relationship and not being able to talk to anyone for advice in it, padme did, too. i think she and anakin were more alike than people assume.

another reason i like anidala was because they had to put a lot of effort into their relationship. because it was secret and because they don’t initally seem like soulmate material, it wasn’t laid out for them. they had to fight, and they did. so i like them for that reason and i think it shows their committment to each other. they chose each other, repeatedly. that relationship wasn’t one they could have just stayed in because it was easier than breaking up. splitting apart would have been the path of least resistance but they fought for it because they loved each other. or, at least, that feels like love to me. 

perhaps they were both a bit blinded. but i think they were happy. and i’m a bit biased, i’ll admit; i love anakin with my entire heart and you can tell that he was happy with padme. because of this, i always rooted for them. i didn’t want to watch his heart break.

and i saw a bit of myself in padme. she was strong, she was kind, she was good. and she couldn’t control who she fell for, just like anakin couldn’t control his emotions. she might have seen someone who allowed her to let go, to be a bit reckless, herself, and who wouldn’t judge her if she wasn’t a perfect, mature senator all the time. maybe their inbalance allowed them to balance each other. 

again, these are just my thoughts. i just personally do like anidala and i tend to give them some slack. but maybe im just projecting because im a romantic at heart and cry when i listen to “across the stars”. or because i watch the prequels and, everytime, hope beyond hope that things work out differently and they get their happy ending. because they did want that happy ending. and they wanted it together, as a family. 

yeah <3

also i’ve been in school all day so i haven’t seen all the discourse but i scrolled through a bit and yeah i am aware that i’m probably the one with the unpopular opinion. and this is an opinion. if y’all don’t like anidala, that is 100% cool and okay with me, you are fully entitled to your opinion! if you don’t really care, also totally valid, you don’t need to have a strong viewpoint on everything! if you love them, awesome! as long as people don’t invalidate me or act like assholes, i reiterate that i am open to any and all perspectives. 

ok i wrote this on my break in 15 min so if it makes no sense, whoops! also ik they have flaws, i just saw a lot of people pointing those out so i decided to say why i liked them, bc, personally, i do! on that note i gotta go back to class!! see y’all later today <3

[blinder-secrets]

yes! i def get your points abt historical context and it was my b for forgetting that the whole shell shock thing was a thing akdjsjsj. don’t get me wrong, i do like PB despite my many many criticisms but tbh i feel like if you rlly like smth you should be able to find ways to improve or criticize instead of blindly liking every aspect yk. one thing i did find interesting was the choice of bonnie gold’s plot line. and i get why what happened did happen but i was rlly interested to see how his plot as tommy’s mentee (???) would go and i wish he stayed around longer tbh. i’m not rlly sure if this is already a thing but i think it’s be interesting to see a cop character who is on PB’s payroll. i also wanna see relationships with male and female characters that’s more platonic rather than romantic bc i think that would def give the writers a chance to write a strong female character (don’t get me wrong the women we have are badass but they do tend to have romance as a big part of their plots and ik abt ada being her own self). i feel like there’s a lot of plot lines they could go into for future seasons (like an ex-war nurse or smth) i’m sure i’ll watch s5 but i think it’ll be a while before i get to that ((ok but def don’t imagine a plot with a character from one of the minority communities being friends with like finn or smth and maybe this is OOC for the whole show but finn getting out of his bubble and experiencing diff cultures))

no no i agree its worth criticising things sometimes and i definitely have said my fair share about peaky over the years djsjf

also im sure moss was somewhat on their payroll in the earlier seasons..? at least he was until campbell showed up but it would be interesting to have more of that corruption

i was always rooting for jessie and tommy to become just friends but :/ SK couldnt help himself