#im very normal about the parallels between these scenes

[thunderon]

“i guess it’s fine if we all starve to death. as long as travis’s feelings are okay.”

[centrally-unplanned]

Japanese website Forest Page is shutting down ~today, a tragic loss of "Heisei otaku memories", as so many are calling it. Launched in 2003, Forest Page was a "Geocities for mobile", a site that hosted user-created websites and gave them tools to allow non-coders to make them. In practice, it became one of the premiere places for fanfiction in Japan, with the stories hosted on author-created sites.

It wasn't quite the Fanfic.net of Japan, as for one the Japanese fandom just never centralized quite the way the 2000's western one did, instead being spread out over a half dozen or so sites. But additionally, it wasn't initially popular for fanfic so much as cell phone fanfiction, because in 2000's Japan the "cell phone novel" was a specific thing. These websites were being made for flip phones, not smartphones, and not only would people read them on those phones, they would often write them. None of that was very conducive to the creation and consumption of a "traditional" novel; so starting in the 2000's Japanese writers started making stories fit for the medium, namely:

Very short

A huge focus on dialogue and inner thoughts, with no/minimal description or scene detail

Using a limited POV of a specific character

Often employing the medium-as-message, like using emojis, structuring the story as IM's or emails, etc.

Also they all had huge gaps between lines, I'm not really sure what that is about:

Probably for readability on the phone given the small screen size? But it was absolutely part of the genre. A few of these novels actually made it big, got movie adaptations, people wrote articles about the "cultural phenomenon", it was the 2000's so Hiroki Azuma had a take on it of course, and so on. It slotted neatly into the vibe of the time of technology changing culture, paralleling discourse around otaku in the same era.

In fanfic those trends met up, and anyone familiar with fanfiction probably read that list of traits of the cellphone novel and thought "oh, this is perfect for fanfiction". Skipping out on description? I don't need it, I know what they look like already. Focus on conversation and POV? Perfect for shipping fics. Short lengths? Yeah, we are shortcutting to the good stuff, that is the point. Mirroring trends in the west, Forest Page's userbase was ~95% female, and the most common content on the site was romantic or edgy-dramatic stories in the franchises you'd expect. The closure page linked above actually summarizes the site's history by year, and lists the biggest fandoms:

Which is exactly what I would expect from a female otaku fanfiction website. Congrats to Pirates of the Caribbean for making it though, freeaboo's represent.

I do think the fact that the site was a website hoster as opposed to a fic hoster did align with the way the Japanese fandom was more "creator focused" and embraced the media mix more. There were "fic circles" a la doujin circles who made their own pages, people would make fanart, fan video games, and so own to host alongside it, and all of it was centralized to the creator; it made following them-as-a-person just a little bit easier. Most websites were simple text, but others did have the full Geocities experience:

Something that was somewhat common were basic visual novel concepts where the reader could make choices, or even insert their own name so they would be the "MC" of the story:

(Dream novels are in fact their own thing in Japan) My understanding is the site was quite popular through the 2000's and into the 2010's, though over time the "cellphone novel" as a concept fizzled out. People got smartphones, more people got PCs, and the constraints didn't make sense anymore - you can read ebooks and normal websites on your phone now after all. You can probably draw a line between these kind of stories and the webfiction/light novel boom of the late 2000's/2010's, something that was equally born on the internet, that streamlines the novel to "shortcut to the good stuff" but without the need to fit on a flip phone's screen. Though I will admit my own understanding of their histories shows them more as two sides of the same "youth demand for new literature" coin.

In 2017 Forest Page launched Forest Page Plus, a new service fully optimized for the smartphone era; but it did not transfer over all the old content, starting the clock ticking on the original Forest Page. My understanding is that in June they announced Forest Page was officially closing down; and from what I have gathered from reminiscing writers on twitter, they did not provide any easy, one-touch way to save any of the content, so people are archiving Wayback Machine links or sharing tips on how screenshot-save stories (I think the rub is they gave people a way to transfer content to FP+, but most don't want to do that, as places like Twitter & Pixiv are the content kings of this era).

As of tomorrow I would bet the large majority of the content will be gone; quite sad given both the quantity of stories there and how many got sometimes millions of readers. I am sure most of the biggest stories are archived at least, but particularly the early stuff was a very ephemeral genre, one that doesn't make sense to revisit once you aren't a 16 year old teen writing and reading fics on a flip phone in between classes. Which means another legion of the ghosts of the Wired is being born today. May we pour one out for a fellow online community that lived and died!

[actuallyprobablyafaerie]

pjo episode four parts that made me scream

Them starting with sally trying teach percy how to swim and percy being scared is fantastic for two reasons: number one, its a normal kid thing and number two it ties into later in the books when we find out percy has a fear of drowning. Its like hoe thalia has a fear of heights and kind of ties into the idea that forbidden children are often afraid of some part of their parents element. I love that theyre bringing in elements of that idea so early!!!

percy’s “can i ask a stupid question” and annabeths “are you trying to make me make fun of you” akdbdkbaaksbdkjsbakks shes so funny

I LOVE THAT THEY BRING UP PAN AND SPECIFICALLY TIE HIM TO MANIFEST DESTINY AND AMERICAS HISTORY OF KILLING ITS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE!!!! ITS IMPORTANT FUCKING HISTORY AND IM SO GLAD THE SHOW ACKNOWLEDGED IT

percy and annabeths little banter, percys stupid accent and then him collapsing on her. That and the scene where theyre talking on the train is the percabeth we deserve!!!!!! God i love them so much

ALSO going back to the scene where theyre talking in bed on the train i love how annabeth knows that grovers grumpy in the morning and percy doesnt. Grover was her protector once too!! (Like they said last episode) and theyve traveled together before!! He was annabeths friend before he was percys

ok everyones already said this but the parallels between annabeth and medusa?!!??? With medusa saying “i was you” last episode and now annabeth getting punished for something percy did ghe same was medusa was punished for something Poseidon did????? Absolutely insane i love it

also the fact that it hurt athenas pride specifically, much like how medusa mentioned the “pride of athena” in reference to annabeth last episode, which all ties back to the fact that hubris is annabeths fatal flaw and she gets it from her mother

THE CUT TO PERCY IN THE FOUNTAIN AND THEM SPLASHING WATER ON HIM AHSKSBJAHAJSJSB theyre so funny for that

Percy just looks like a wet rag this episode and its so well done you can even tell the makeup on his face was done to make him appear paler and sicklier and it works so well

ok PERCY PULLING ANNABETH INTO THE STAIRWELL AND SHUTTING THE DOOR???? Because hes loyal to a fault!!!! And theyre becoming friends!!!!!!!!! And he cares about her more in like a week than athena ever has and its shown to us so clearly in this episode!!!!!!

ONCE AGAIN LUKES MOTIVATIONS ARE GOING TO MAKE SO MUCH SENSE BY THE TIME WE GET TO THE END OF THIS AND WE DONT EVEN HAVE TO SPEND TIME WITH HIM TO UNDERSTAND THEM god this series is so well done

Also the chimeras design looks so cool i love it so much

AND WE FINALLY GET AN ANSWER AS TO HOW PERCY GOT IN THE RIVER FROM THE TOP OF THE ARCH!! (At least in the tv world, in the book world the arch might very well just be in a different spot lol)

Poseidon saves him!! Hes a better parent than athena is apparently

god the episode ending with percy breathing underwater is so good i was on the edge of my seat until the very end

OK LAST THING is that they are continuing the theme sally brings up about monsters not always looking like monsters and heroes not always looking like heroes so well!!! Echidna bringing it up and saying that to her, demigods are more dangerous was fantastic i love how dedicated they are to this

OK ACTUALLY THE LAST THING i love the dichotomy of different mothers in this episode. We start with sally and percy and immediately see how much they love each other and care about each other!!!! Then we get to echidna who cares about her children too by teaching them to hunt!!! And then we get athena who ducking punishes annabeth for something she didnt even do. And its like. That was a little monstrous athena. Im understanding why someone might want to kill their godly parent

GOD THIS SERIES IS SO GOOD

[beaulesbian]

wano spoilers, ch. 1036-1042

i watched the ryuma one-shot before i got to the zoro vs king fight in wano, so only now i can appreciate the name of it even more! this connection between shimotsuki ryuma and zoro keeps getting better and better

plus the parallels of kaido and king, vs luffy and zoro are so insane! smth smth about saving a person (from navy/government) and they become so loyal to you and will want you to become the king of the pirates with their whole being, where your dream becomes their own in a way. different situations and people, but there's something soooo similar, it's very interesting! (one piece really doesn't have any captain and his right-hand man with just normal relationship aksjdskjd)

(and the luffy flashback!! even this one small panel of luffy from the mihawk fight and zoro promising to be stronger for him! to stand in future as the greatest swordsman beside king of the pirate!

it's so impactful! it's incredible how much it still gives zoro the strength after all that time. i will have to watch the anime of these parts, bc i read there's their first meeting scenes reanimated! can't wait to see that!)

zoro becoming king of hell after his fight with king and because of his enma sword?!! the sword that chooses its wielder and which wouldn't serve anyone weak, which recognizes what strength means to zoro and what his dreams/goals are?? incredible, brilliant, showstopping!

and then zoro seeing death itself?? and telling it not to kill him!

it rlly makes me wonder of these consequences of the drugs he took to become stronger. (which is another stuff i keep thinking about zoro and how he always thinks of himself as weak, not strong enough.. theres a lot to unpack here, but im so tired ;-;)

+ few chapters later, 1042, there was also one panel with luffy vs kaido that caught my attention, with luffy covering his mouth saying 'don't leave me yet, strength!' which is kind of unusual for him to say to himself something like that.

(which in combination of these two fights, where it could be assumed they're happening simultaneously, it's an interesting similarity - where neither zoro or luffy's body is listening to them much. one almost dead, the other losing strength...)

[aemiron-main]

I Love You: Gay Henry, Puppy Love Creelby, and Virginia-Patty Parallels

So, Patty says “I love you,” to Henry (and tells him to say it back), but yknow who else is the only other person to say “I love you” to Henry in TFS?

Virginia.

Yet ANOTHER parallel between Patty and Virginia, and yet I’m supposed to believe that Henry’s relationship with Patty has Absolutely Nothing to do with Henry’s mommy issues?

Oh, and don’t forget that Patty runs away from Henry, terrified, and yells for him to “let go of me,” after she tells him that she loves him (meanwhile, Henry’s literally sobbing on the floor about how he’s “not a freak,” and trying to tell her the info he found about her mom).

Just like Virginia running away from Henry, terrified, and yelling “get away from me,” after HER “I love you,” scene to Henry.

I’ve put both Virginia and Patty’s “I love you,” and “running away from Henry after saying ILY,” scenes in the video below- they’re obvious parallels:

Nothing quite says “true love,” like one person sobbing alone on the floor insisting that they’re not a freak and theyre normal (very normal things said by a normal, totally-not-gay boy after being prompted to say “i love you” to a girl- henry says “im normal” right after saying “im not a freak”, i just cut it out of the vid for time’s sake) while the other runs away from them terrified, all while paralleling his mother.

And also, there’s a scene where Henry is tearing off Virginia’s dresses- and then Joyce later does the same thing to Patty’s dress:

The parallels between Patty and Virginia are literally never-ending. They’re literally beating us over the head with the fact that Henry’s a gay boy whose romantic relationship with Patty is motivated by his mom issues (just like how Patty’s relationship with Henry is motivated by her dad issues).

[sporesgalaxy]

hi. quastion. i experience religious based delusions that sometimes get made worse when i watch stuff thats about religion (mostly christianity) or has religious undertones/subtext/Whatever (i.e. i cant watch good omens bc itd Do Things to me), if i was interested in getting into trigun should i be careful about this.

Okay so it varies between 1998, Stampede, and Maximum (the manga). Mostly: Yes do be careful. Less so with the animes, though? Sorta? But it depends on your threshhold, which I don't know. Details about each below

•••

Trigun (1998 anime): One major character carries around a giant cross shaped gun all the time. He is a preist, but this is played for laughs mostly; he describes it as a "trade" and seems to just be trying to use confessional as an excuse to raise money for an orphanage. At one point he very truly genuinely prays to God in desperation, and on a few other occassions he offhandedly says Christian ritual phrases. In a flashback, some symbolic parallels are drawn to the Garden of Eden although no characters make the comparison. As far as I can remember, no serious supernatural things occur that are genuinely attributed to Christian entities. It is primarily sci-fi focused. The Angel imagery is very limited, as we only see a battery being one time and it is...not super well drawn. They are mostly offscreen. Vash and Knives' transformations are limited to one arm each. The arm appears to have angelic-looking beings on it when transformed, but they look more like statues than genuine living creatures.

Okay Im goin off of memory here so if I missed anything people should feel free to comment etc.

So you didn't mention if it's holy or unholy stuff or both that sets you off, but I'll mention that none of the Trigun adaptations have demons in them. Demons ARE referred to metaphorically, but no literal demons or truly demon-like supernatural entities appear. The monsters are all explicitly man-made, excluding the alien bugs, but those are just bugs not demons. Anyways. Knives is often likened visually to a fallen angel, but not a demon.

Trigun Stampede (newer anime): Cross gun guy is still there, but his devotion to God is depicted as even less genuine (mostly unacknowledged). This one also uses stereotypical religious cult tropes. We hear someone on the radio preach about doomsday in Christian-like terms, and Knives is addressed by his followers as a messiah. There is one instance where a child sacrifice dies, and it miraculously changes the weather; the cult responsible seems like an offshoot of Christianity. Knives and Vash are referred to by their caretaker as angels sent by God in a flashback. There are angel-like wings sprouted by Vash and Knives in the finale. The Angel-like battery beings look much more like normal non-holy aliens in this one.

Trigun Maximum (the manga): the MOST Christian. Cross Gun guy is still there. Has his desperate genuine prayer to God moment. The battery beings look VERY much like Angels, are likened to angels by characters repeatedly with what reads as genuine reverence, and they have incredibly strong, miraculous-seeming supernatural powers that we see demonstrated multiple times. These beings are stated to have been created by humans somehow, but they are often treated as miraculous and inscrutable by humans in the present because the science that created them has been lost. Even in flashbacks, it is implied that these beings are not fully understood by human scientists, giving their apparent "miraculousness" more weight. There is a scene where Vash is extremely depressed, watchingna sermon in a church, and he wonders how God could ever forgive him. The angel imagery in the finale is cranked up to 11, as many supernatural ohenomena are caused by the angel-like battery beings, as well as Knives and Vash in angelic winged forms.

[stormyoceans]

top5 puentalay kisses/hugs?

im pretty late with this but i would never pass up a chance to be annoying about vice versa so here we go!!!!!!! (also im not sure if i was supposed to pick only one of the two but again I SIMPLY CANNOT PASS UP A CHANCE TO BE ANNOYING ABOUT VICE VERSA IM SORRY)

TOP 5 PUENTALAY KISSES

1. greyllery kiss in episode 8. this is their first mutual kiss after two one-sided kisses, three almost kisses, three cheek kisses, and one forehead kiss. not to mention the hugs, the cuddles, the promises, the sleeping in the same bed, the taking a bath together, and i could go on but imma stop here before i get involuntary committed. we waited so long for this kiss and when it finally happened it was everything we could have ever asked for and MORE: the confession, the music, the parallels with the glasshouse kiss, the fact that it happens when the lights are out because they love each other for who they really are and not for the body they inhabit, puen's single tear......IT'S PERFECT.

2. glasshouse kiss in episode 4. i know having a one-sided kiss for second place doesn't seem fair but in my defense this kiss makes me go through such a plethora of human emotions that i feel like i need to go lay in the dirt for several hours to climb down from the sheer manic unhinged rabid energies that got me going on. y’all must be tired of hearing me say the same things over and over again about this kiss but. the build up!!!!!! the emotions!!!!!! the music!!!!!! IM NOT EVEN KIDDING WHEN I TELL YOU THIS KISS IS MY ROMAN EMPIRE.

3. beach kiss in our skyy episode 2. our skyy may have given us only one kiss but WHAT A KISS IT WAS. it feels like a sum of all their previous ones, the cycle closing with a recollection of the past and a promise for the future, as the kiss itself lets us know that no matter what's gonna happen from that moment on, they will always love each other like the very first day. and if the reminder of the drunk kiss in episode 2 wasn’t enough to drive this point across, the song they used during this scene is the same as the one they played during the greyllery kiss, which you know. [FEMALE HYSTERIA]   

4. foggy glasses kiss in episode 12. honestly can't think of any other scene in television history that was able to so perfectly portray a fictional character being left breathless, lightheaded, and weak at the knees by a kiss. the way puen is holding talay's head with BOTH OF HIS HANDS to keep talay in place which barely gives talay any time to take a breath...... the way they're so close and entangled in each other that you can barely tell where one starts and the other ends...........this kiss literally be turning both me and talay into the 🥴 emoji every single time.

5. reunion kiss in episode 11. it was a tough choice between this one and the bathtub kiss in episode 10, but in the end i had to go with their first kiss in their real bodies, not just because of this, but because there's so much love and comfort and reassurance packed in it. this kiss is the meeting of two souls who have missed and found each other again. it's the promise of being together for the rest of their life AND I FEEL SO NORMAL ABOUT IT IT’S HONESTLY INSANE HOW NORMAL AND HINGED AND SANE AND FINE I FEEL ABOUT IT.

TOP 5 PUENTALAY HUGS

1. reunion hug in episode 11. LITERALLY THEE SINGLE MOST SCENE EVER IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION IT CHANGED THE TRAJECTORY OF MY LIFE THE FOUNDATION OF MY PERSONHOOD AND THE CHEMICAL MAKE UP OF MY BRAIN. puen says "you must be very tired. from now on, things will be okay," and that's exactly the feeling this hug conveys: everything will be fine, you're home now.

2. comfort hug in episode 6. my grasp on the english language is too limited to even attempt to put into words what this hug did to me the first time i've watched it. it made me mentally deranged in ways so profound they will only become apparent years down the line. to this day there are people out there wondering why talay even likes puen and the urge to shove this scene under their nose is immeasurable. FIND YOURSELF A PARTNER WHO WILL LISTEN TO YOUR FEARS, GIVE YOU COMFORT, AND HUG YOU THROUGH THE NIGHT TO MAKE YOU FEEL SAFE!!!!!!! (@GOD ME WHEN)

3. reconciliation hug in episode 7. I NEEDED THIS HUG JUST AS MUCH AS PUEN DID TBH. talay initiating any kind of physical affection always feels incredibly special and precious, and it is so much more here because this is him finally realizing that puen's feelings are sincere. this hug is the turning point of their relationship as talay implicitly accepts puen's love and confesses his own. it’s just so emotionally satisfying [SOBS]

4. back hug in episode 12 and in our skyy episode 1. LOOK I KNOW IM CHEATING BUT. THE DOMESTICITY THE COMFORT THE TENDERNESS THE AFFECTION THE ADORATION THE SOFTNESS THE WARMTH THE PARALLELISM THE ROMANTICISM THE SOULMATISM THE TRUE LOVISM OF IT ALL. YEARS LATER THEY'RE STILL THE SAME.

5. hourglass hug in episode 12. the hourglass with the sand that doesn’t fall!!!!!!! i don't want time to go by without you!!!!!!! from this moment on it's you and me!!!!!!! ‘city’ playing in the background!!!!!!! the moon watching over them!!!!!!! WAILING WEEPING HOWLING SCREECHING CRYING SOBBING SCREAMING--

[justmybeautifulthings]

as requested, a list of highly very oddly specific AOTV predictions that wont happen:

hes trying to install LED lights on an object people really wouldnt

"Im in Payno" joke when hes feeling sad

welcome to my crib tour of his stash of random mancave expenses stored in a hoarderly fashion (think life sized superheroes, the forrest gump braces, tiny toy cars, unopened 3d printer, designer chair shaped like a dog, some very shiny unidentifiable object too large to fit anywhere in the middle of the room on the floor)

he pets a horse

he has friendly chitchat with the delivery person bc they know him bc he orders his coffee (bonus: throwing a fit bc his starbucks is taking too long just before)

hes recording a song but hasnt written the lyrics yet and hes singing "ya no wha a mean" as a placeholder

cinematographic subtle shade (like paralleling some [within fandom] iconic footage but no words used or context given and it actually is on purpose but well never know that for sure)

he's got a strand of niall's blonde hair framed

wears yellow and says "I look like a banana"

for whatever reason hes trying to glue something together and it doesnt work as hes not using the right glue and nobodys telling him

hes claiming he does know how to cut a tomato by now but then doesnt show any proof

shoutout lighthouses

an ad for barneys beanery in the middle

he makes an analogy that one direction is like a burger and then goes on a long ramble that hes the bun oh no wait hes the burger harry is the lettuce oh no wait harry is the bun niall is the tomatoes liam is the gerkin zayn is the sauce no wait harry is the sauce no wait he is the sauce no wait-

footage of him making a business call of placing an order for a ridiculous amount of black pants

A look into his closet and there will be some comment you can take as having a double meaning and it will make me feel bad for responding the way i will (bonus shows off the grease jacket he still has)

a total of 28 subtle dick jokes can you spot them all?

recorded zoom meetings during the pandemic with cliff barking in the background with dramatic music when hes like i need to take 5 guys this pandemic is getting to me

he reveals the weird hobbies he got into during the pandemic like everyone else

he makes nice comments about his own eyelashes like multiple times throughout unprompted

continuous zoom ins on unhinged signs in the crowd, if we list them all together the first letter of each sign will make a sentence but itll spell out "h a h a y o u f i g u r e d i t o u t"

every scene he wears the same pants but a size smaller till we notice (possibly related to the order of black pants this was not on purpose)

reveals his favorite color dramatically

drinks red wine and then trashes it but later in another fragment hes just drinking it like normal

hes watching some pawn shop /auction tv show screaming at it like as if hes bidding along

hes playing minecraft, there will be carrots in his hotbar also his hotbar will be a mess also hell get thrown of the mountain by a goat

silk pjs

he lights something on fire by accident

some kinda quick bambambambam pic collage edit thing that just like has a lot a lot a lot of unseens but it goes so fucking quick like youre like WAIT WHAT SHIT HOLD UP and ok ok unhinged then there are shirtless pics in between

home video of cutting his own hair (LHL around the euros)

covers sweet caroline while showing footage of football fans and his crowd back and forth

keeps confessing his deep love for his fans (will happen) but laying flat on the floor bawling making whiney noises completely unintelligible

there will be enough onions

AND THIS IS WHY WE'RE FRIENDS.

[bmpmp3]

wanted to know what vocal synth hcs you have... for any of them :3 curious

MY headcanons for like anything morph around a lot depending on what i wanna daydream about in that moment so things get loosey-goosey - i joked about the myriad of AUs i made for the main character of an otome game I drew a lot of fanart for a few years back that I imagine it all like this one map for b3313 i saw years ago

like this HVFGSKDJHFEksafds everythings connect but also not and some are parallel and some are unrelated and some are branching storylines for the same concept while others are like. what if they were in space. i have fun <3

BUT anyway what i was thinking about is like, most of my silly comics kind of have a weird mix of like. imagining a production company that specifies in voice and singing production and also like. old 2009 vocaloid fandom canon where synths know theyre a specifc install of software in a computer and know about the user and all LOL im more of an oldhead than i think i am.......... i missed out on the entire scene from 2018-2020 tho so even tho i love old songs and new songs theres like that two year gap thats always a surprise for me <3

SO like i often imagine all the different engines as like. separate offices or separate office buildings. all mostly in the same district tho. tin pan alley ass situation. THE UTAU building is huge and chaotic with a new addition under construction with openutau, the vocaloid building is like sleek and a bit old fashioned but slowly amping up its to its old glory, some of the smaller engines like voicevox and such i picture as like smaller offices within the same building - so someone like sora whos on both sv and vocaloid i always imagine going between the offices (engines) to do different voicework, someone like rikka runs between voicepeak, sv, and cevio talk all together. shes very busy....

a really old deprecated software like i dunno lalavoice. dectalk. etc also have an office but everyones too scared to visit. they never see people leave or go in but the lights are still on. haunted by perfect paul.

wait sorry thats not really what you meant by headcanon probably sorry for the setting overview i just like to picture them all in a place <3 with a big showbiz entertainment industry flavour because i love stories about that stuff kjdsrkfed

anyway sometimes i also move over into my less meta daydreams so something like the virvox guys who i've gotten kind of attached to, sometimes its fun to imagine them as just normal guys doing voicework in a real office building that just happens to have companies called voicevox synthv and a.i.voice on different floors HFJKDSJHksd i like picturing stories where theyre like underdog voice actors/singers trying to make it big.... its very fun hee hee

actually i like doing that a lot in general. my favourite scenario is a big first concert that almost goes wrong (maybe technical issues) but just barely manages to go through fine and connect the singer with the small audience.. a classic..... can you tell im a love live fan....

OH heres some specific headcanons i tend to lean into relationship wise:

asterian rikka and genbu i like to imagine hanging out a lot as buddies and close co-workers because they were the first three vocal synths i bought and the only three full sv banks i have currently DKJFSJdkfsdakfds like you know how some people talk about like "work-husbands"? genbu is rikka's work-big-brother and asterian is like her work-dad <3 i imagine asterian to be like early 30s ish at most so hes a bit young for work-dad status but i think itd be really funny if he got a worlds best dad mug from her. like. thanks kid. but damn.........

and yeah i have absolutely incorporated your frimomen as rikkas dad headcanon into my worldview its so good dude. i think hed be so wonderfully embarassing <3 and i think itd be funny if he got a mug from rikka that just says like "dad". no worlds best or anything. moon god work-dad is cooler.

genbu's getting a congratulations on turning 3 toddler birthday card from rikka and thats it. i like imagining them as a bit of a shenanigans duo.... like a big brother who tries to be responsible for a second but immediately gets swept up in some bullshit anyway. 20 something bro who enables ur teenage sillyness <3

relationships are a big thing for me I looooooove picturing all kinds of dynamics like friends family romantic etc its so fun. i keep calling the eclipsed sounds starry court the celestial polycule and part of that is because i didnt know what else to call them before i saw the official starry court name but also i do like those three together a lot, romantically, platonically, any which way. saros is very silly in particular. i imagine them like 6 feet tall and full of chaos and solaria and asterian as like a wonderful 5'9

sometimes i think its fun to imagine universes where the starry court dont know theyre synths nor celestial deities and like theyre normal people with secret powers they havent unlocked yet..... i had some daydream a year or two back about asterian in a slightly dystopic future unlocking moon powers by discovering ancient technology in a fallen moon. if that makes sense. i forgot why.... but i think its a fun AU

i tend to focus on a lot of relationships between synths that share software but i also think its fun to think about shared voice providers, like i always imagine sora having like this sisterly bond with the coco sisters despite no blood relation. they are sisters...... sisters forever....

i do wanna start considering unrelated synth relationships more often tho... most of the time obviously i treat miku like shes the biggest synth star because she is HJKFSDHJkdsrfjds so i often picture other synths viewing her as like a celebrity. altho some know her personally like teto or gumi LOL i think theyre BUDDIES they have known eachother for over a decade. OH and im also a mean teto truther. i love her being kind of mean and jaded HJKFDsjds i think shes ultimately softhearted but i like to picture she has a bit of a hard edge

but yeah i really like playing around with these guys!!! they are fun dolls for me <3

[sirenemale]

WARRIOR CATSSSSSSSSS LETS GOOOOOOOOO ❓️💢

I was hoping someone would ask for theseee YAY

❓️ : fav total background character (im not talking minor characters like say. whitewing or moonlight, i mean cats with like...3 lines tops)

This is sooo hard actually. I think most of mine still fall into minor adjacent cause they get some focus and lines. But I've always really liked Ashfoot, literally one of the only wc map parts I've made was about her. I always thought the windclan family dynamic of her being related to onestar was really fun. She just seems very together and competent and idk, I like that she and her husband were both deputies with a foot suffix.

I also always really liked breezepelt's kids, idk what they ever really got up to in canon but Smokehaze, brindlewing, appleshine and woodsong are such cute names. There's probably a lot to explore with how he'd approach parenting with how he grew up. I also think it's really cute that the older sisters ended up mentoring their younger siblings.

Also not super minor, but I guess semi-minor in terms of how often I see fan stuff for them. Pretty much every side or minor character in Graystripe's vow i really liked. Gremlin, Fury, all of warriorclan. Petunia especially, I think all of them you can draw some really fun parallels with first arc characters, I almost wish we'd gotten some kinda soft reset where we start following them instead of the kinda giant extended never ending conflict we have in the main clans. Fury is the antagonist obviously but I don't think she made any kinda impact on the fandom really, I just think she's fun. At the end when she's mostly defeated and bleeding out she crawls to the top of the high rocks in thunderclan camp and I was hoping soooo fucking bad she'd be deranged enough to just stand up there boasting until she died. Not what happened but it's what happened in my heart, not deep at all as a character I just liked that she got to be kinda crazy.

OTHER than thattt. I can only think of Red from Skyclan's destiny. There was a rogue camp and she had drama with her dad bc she had a boyfriend, then her dad Stick tries to kill that guy and she jumps in front first and dies and everyone regrets it lmao.

💢 : what scene made you the most irrationally angry upon first reading

The entirety of Squirrelflight's hope for 1. It was such a viscerally deeply upsetting book to me.

The scenes of Bramblestar demoting squirrelflight to children's tasks, not letting her leave the camp without telling him because she Challenged him, taking her autonomy away, guilt tripping her, telling her she's selfish for not wanting to kill pregnant woman who is going to leave in Less than a MONTH anyway. The whole book just made me feel crazy. It's crazy how uncharacteristically sadistic every character becomes JUST so squirrelflight can be made to look inconsiderate for Embarrassing her husband in public by telling him they can just Wait for them to leave. And it's worse because it does completely break her down, Bramblestar completely shatters her sense of confidence, her sense of safety and personality ALL for the book to treat it like it was two-sided, all for her to apologize to him for speaking up and then the book ends. I don't think warrior cats has ever written anything more vile than this genuinely.

I remember that scene where she brought one of the sisters, who was dying, into camp for Leafpool to treat. and bramblestar threatened leafpool, his sister-in law and their DOCTOR not to heal an outsider. when squirrelflight argues and protects leafpool, fights for sunrise, bramblestar asks Why are you doing this to me. Guilting her and forcing her to choose between saving a woman's life, protecting her sister, AND listening to him beyond all reason. Choosing anything else except him is Hurting him. That's the framing. And it's crazy bc this isn't normal for warrior cats either, again it's uncharacteristically sadistic, it goes against the code, and it's all so they could write this scene, so bramble could say that, So it would Hurt squirrelflight, and punish her narratively.

You'd think it's intentional writing but then you remember this is the last book he's meant to be Good, because the next arc he's possessed by ashfur and is meant to actually be abusive and possessive and terrifying, which he is. But it's just fucking mortifying that the writer's idea of Bramblestar at his best, at the point where everyone missed him, is this. That they consistently do believe their relationship is healthiest and most equal when she is completely submitting to him.

ANYWAY that;s not even the actual last scene that broke me irt actually reading warrior cats myself LMAO.

it was similar though it was the way they handled shadowsight in the broken code. Similar thing of a character who is being so outrageously abused, other characters around him are suddenly far more sadistic and cruel than they've been before just to further beat him down While also having it be narratively justified.

Anyway it's the scene where Shadowsight, mothwing (i think), lionblaze and willowshine are trying to access the dark forest or starclan to get bramble's spirit back. No one trusts shadowsight, they all literally hate him, especially Lionblaze. Shadowsight offers to go to the dark forest, knowing there's a good chance he'll die there. He does this because he's basically suicidal at this point, so wracked with guilt over unknowingly creating this situation and having everyone Blame him for it that he's like Let me make it right. Lionblaze refuses because he doesn't trust him, so Willowshine offers instead. Willow lies down and closes her eyes so she can dream herself into the dark forest and in one of the fucking rawest scenes they've had in a MINUTE she dies on the spot. Ashfur killed her spirit in the darkforest so fast that barely a minute after she closes her eyes her physical body DIES. Lionblaze immediatelyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy blames shadowsight for this and is like it should have been you why did you let this happen. And at that point i was really like. if i keep reading this series I am Actually going to smash my head into a walllllllllll. I think I did finish the book a while later and idk.

It's hard knowing so much of this could be really hard hitting writing about abuse and complex situations. I think the meta of warriors is really interesting, the way the authors misogyny and absurd hate for abuse victims literally warps the world and character morals book by book. The way it literally gets worse as the books continue. I can't stomach reading it myself anymore LMAO. But I also have permanent brain worms for warriors so I still keep up with the character drama in the new books, there's stuff that's really interesting to me. Looking at curlfeather, frostpaw and splashtail's stuff. But yeah

[quillkiller]

would you spare some regulily Jennifer’s body au of your own? :)

im guessing you mean some thoughts i have about the regulily/jennifers body au !!

so obviously it’s based on the film!! this all started with when i got an anon about cheerleader reg and marching band lily !! and since then it has spiraled <3 it’s lesbian regulily (<- my personal go-to) and im thinking reg and lily are already close friends like needy and jennifer !!

i see them going to see a band just like in the film. its lilys favorite band and reg takes her and decides then and there that she’ll sleep with the lead singer only to ruin the band for lily forever ..

reg gets turned into a monster girl in the same way basically as in the film !!

lilys boyfriend is james.. they’re a good stable and boring couple. everything is always as it should be between them. good girl lily evans and her stable boyfriend james. high school sweethearts and all that

i don’t think lily would be the unpopular girl in this au like needy is in the film !! she’s not necessarily the popular girl either but she’s simply the girl next door. everyone likes her, boys are drawn to her, teachers favorite, the very object of regs desires even before he become a man-eating monster

and same with reg!! he wouldn’t really be the popular girl like jennifer is !! he’s sort of popular because hes a cheerleader and he has an in with the popular girls. but he’s a loner at heart and he’s mostly faking it with his cheerleader pals. also he/him nonbinary lesbian regulus as per usual. he wears the ’male’ cheerleader costume but he’s also so very pretty. everyone wants him but no one knows him

so in this au i would spin it so that the boys he kills are the ones pining after lily…. and james is the last one to go <3

i would also spin it so that lily isn’t scared of reg like needy is of jennifer in the film. i think lily would TRY to be scared of reg. she should be HORRIFIED. but she just… isn’t.. it satisifes something dark and buried inside her. it even makes her desperately jealous that reg is ’seducing’ all these boys before she knows what’s really going on. and honestly, even then she’s still jealous

lily tries to tell herself she has to do the right thing just like needy. tries to tell herself she needs to stop him. and then i see this sort of breaking point where lily just.. realises she doesn’t care. thinks it’s insaney hot even. feels very special that reg would kill for her. feels at home in the morally corrupt instead of the heavy guilt and exhaustion of being on a pedestal. she’s been faking her whole life up to the point where she didn’t even realise she had been faking… it’s sort of like she Wakes Up

then there’s the make out scene…. which we’ve discussed… which i see going literally exactly like in the film….. yummers

so instead of reg killing james, like jennifer killing whatever his name is, i see maybe reg and lily killing him together <3

OR i see this as the very moment where everything clicks for lily but reg has already gotten away…… and what if there was a cat-and-mouse sequel au…. where lily is either locked up like needy, or has to go on a mission to find regulus again……

LIKE. I USED TO BE NORMAL. THE IMPLICATIONS. THE PARALLELLS. THE ONLY THING LILY EVER TRIED TO BE AND THEN HER ENTIRE CONCEPT OF HER OWN REALITY IS JUST SHREDDED …. could be so very interesting……

also bonus:

regulus. youngest sibling. the youngest sibling is always left hungry and wanting and now he’s cursed to literally always be hungry and wanting. the fall from grace….. his desire becoming SO literal….

the monster girl trope being a metaphor for girlhood and comp het and puberty (<— and yes i do obviously include trans women in that)…. becoming something so ugly and repulsive to other people and there’s nothing to DO about it. all you can do is go through it against your will.. desiring your girl best friend, in a small secluded town, and feeling monstrous and alone and guilty.. your body is changing and you cant keep up…. RRRRAAAAA the inherent female experience of feeling disgusting for having a body

…. i think about them a lot

[romaritimeharbor]

THE SHORT. THAT SHORT. OH MY GOD. I AM NEVER GOING TO SHUT UP ABOUT THIS. (spoilers ahead btw. for anyone reading this.)

we finally get arlecchino backstory! and her real name?!?! peruere is such a cute name omg. seeing her as a child was so adorable!! and her crush AHEM friend clervie!!!!!! i love them being friends, i love them being so happy and innocent together before… yeah…

the parallels between crucabena being a kind and sweet ‘mother’ on the outside while truly cold and cruel towards her children, while arle is unfeeling and strict on the outside but a caring ‘father’…. holy shit. arlecchino’s character is so fascinating. i want to write a proper analysis on her soon, but i’m gonna wait until i get more from her actual character details to post it.

i want to know more about arle’s curse… i am hoping there is more explained in her stories because what theyve shown so far is so interesting?????? i need to know more!?????

AND FREMINET OH MY GOD I ALMOST FORGOT HIM (that was freminet right???) arlecchino promising to raise him as her child… being a ‘strict and unfeeling father’ as opposed to crucabena’s false sweetness…

other little details i loved were scara’s coat being slightly too big for him, THE SYMBOLISM WITH THE FLOWERS, the entire fight scene is so well animated—actually scratch that. the animation in general is so incredible, if we see more like these im going to go feral. (i say, as if i am not already going feral over this one AHDHJSGSKA)

THE SHORT. AUGHDNFKEHDJDHENSG. THE SHORT. I WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS.

spoilers hehe

i don't know much about latin, but i believe "peruro" means "to burn" or something of the like. maybe that's where "peruere" came from???? WHICH WOULD MAKE SOO MUCH SENSE I AM SO INSANE ABOUF HER

she was such a cute lil baby :((( ahh yes arle and her crush I MEAN clervie 😇 they were so cute and happy before. erm. yeah. t. they never got to see the lights together :( crying rn

GOD EXACTLY YOU SEE WHAT I SEE WE ARE ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH 🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝

crucabena, the kind and nurturing "mother"... or so it seemed. she who did not care for her children at all.

arlecchino, the cold and unfeeling "father"... or so it seems!! she who cares very deeply for her children, i think.

AND YEAH I THINK THAT WAS FREMI??? BC WE KNOW HE WAS LIVING UNDER CRUCABENA'S REIGN BEFORE ARLE KILLED HER SO?!?!?!? I THINK THAT WAS HIM

everything about this has me going insane i. Hdnebskdhenshekdh arle release WHEN 4.6 WHEN HYV STOP TEASING US AND JUST DROP THE UPDATE PLEASE PLEASE PLE

edit: ALSO YOURE SO REAL AND VALID ABOUT HER CURSE I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT SOO BAD??? WHY IS SHE CURSED???? WHAT HAPPENEDBEKSHSN *head in hands* i am so normal :)

[skapediem]

2, 4, 7, 9 (this can include you know what 😏), 12, 15 B))

TY JEROME!! <3

2. favourite episode(s)? HI BOB!!! one of my favourite episodes of any show ever its such a comfort watch < absolutely SHOULD NOT be a comfort watch but it is im just such a sucker for bottle episodes.... also sands of ares for that same reason!! + bring it down for danny those are probably my top 3 but id also say prime crew and leningrad :)

4. favourite use of the alternate history timeline? kind of a basic answer cause its like. the conceit of the whole show but i really just love how far the fam universe has gone with space exploration and cold war tension like im suuuuch a massive nerd about that period of time as it is but its just so sick seeing how much progress can be fuelled by such petty competition like theres something just so human about it if that makes any sense at all. its just cool getting to draw the connections between things that happen in the show to what happened in reality just finding those parallels or places where things diverged its just a fun little layer of worldbuilding.

7. favourite earth moment? THERES SOOO MANY oh no how do i choose... god i feel like i should pick something to do with the space program but margo and aleidas one interaction in the grey.... everyone has worked so hard you cant say its over like its nothing who is this why is she speaking to me she apologises no i dont yes you do i like this one.... scene i obviously feel super normal and regular about. also molly chewing out ed and gordo like theyre kids whove been sent to the principal that was super fun :)

9. favourite non-canon ship? Oh You Know.... but an answer for the viewers at home who dont know Yet iii also quite like margomolly with wayne being fully aware and supportive i just think its a fun little dynamic. + i dont think they should be together EVER theyre so so so terrible for eachother but gorded does have a sneaky little nook in my brain just to contemplate

12. best bit of tech in the alternate timeline? THE SOLAR SAIL!!! i mean i know its a real thing but on the scale that they had on sojourner i just love it sooo much i love you operation jolly roger... also d-mailing i know its not like. a Bit of tech its just terminology but its funny to meee i laugh every time

15. wild mass guessing for season five? jimmy gets out of prison and starts an investigation into danny's neglect by helios command < very wishful thinking ummmmm genuine answer tensions with canada and their space program i feel like they haven't been mentioned much since the news reel.... australia comes into the mix somehow even though we still dont have much of a program in this universe by the looks of things (there is AN australian working for helios we can hear her accent when theyre all yelling at eachother but still. can we actually do something pretty please) and maybe javi and graciana get to do. idk. somthing. i feel like they need to establish the legacy/family characters more if theres gonna be 3 more seasons

[elipheleh]

i watched mary & george today and was blown away by it. i don’t tend to go for historical/period dramas and i tend to struggle to concentrate solely on a tv show, but i spent probably 80% of the time not using my phone (because it was so captivating) which is ridiculous given my normal which is like 25% max not on my phone. it was really very good.

spoiler thoughts under the cut, still processing my emotions tbh but it got q long

i would have liked to see more of the relationship between george & the king, it was - by all accounts - a very close relationship & the show presented it less in depth. i was really hoping “christ had john and i have george” would make it in, as well as some of their letters, but i guess it was focused too much on mary & george to fill that in. the relationship also seemed… weird? why did the king bite him like that?? other than occasional moments it didn’t feel like i was maybe expecting it to. i wasn’t expecting blatant love and affection but i was expecting some. it seemed mostly focused on the arguments.

i was surprised they went with george physically killing the king - while it is speculated he poisoned him, it was done through medication rather than so abruptly/violently. it made him much more… villainous, i suppose, determined to do anything to protect his position including killing the one he claimed to love, but it just… i didn’t really like that.

i saw someone saying about how george’s death was rushed and inconsequential and just of no real value & that was demonstrating how little impact his death really had - they had to hold his funeral at night because people loathed him so - & thought that was really interesting.

when george slept with carr only to say he just wanted him to think of that as he died… chills. they were both using sex to get the other to do something for them, the parallel between characters is beautiful there

the king’s heart scene… that was really special.

i loved that they showed george as loving katherine. i don’t know if he did in real life, but it was really nice that they had such a bond in this. she was very pragmatic and i think they were a great pairing.

very sad about sandie’s death. i hadn’t connected that it was bacon who’d ordered it until he said and it was very frustrating. so much backstabbing.

the… decapitation scene had me hiding from the screen only to be fooled and i had started looking again & they showed the decapitated head arghhh. unhappy about that. the hangings were.. not great but slightly better.

wasn’t expecting the second scene to be someone hung from a tree either which was an incredible shock.

cringed a lot at the dancing lol. i was glad that the ‘may i perform for you’ was about the instrument and not a dance. much less embarrassing.

i felt really bad for charles with the spanish bit. that was really frustrating and annoying.

kit rescuing george was my favourite thing. gross way to do so but the ‘how is he going to get out of this’ to “oh kit!!” was wonderful. george’s “are you sure we weren’t followed” in hindsight being ‘did you see kit’ was so clever. i think id have to watch it again to catch more nuances like that.

mary telling the attendants to leave her attached to george a little longer was soooo telling of their attachment, on mary’s behalf anyway.

the scene where george decides to go and join the french pair was really well done, his hesitation and then return when he decided to give in was so good. the being torn between what is “right” and what he wants.

love that they went back to the guy who was saying george would never get w the king & that he saw he’d managed it. really nice link there.

lastly (because im gonna keep going indefinitely otherwise) i really liked the lighting. the night scenes were accurately lit - firelight and candlelight - but you could still see what you needed to see, and it wasn’t just dark and dreary.

[wiz1ys]

Byler, Mileven and the flower symbolism in season 4

Hi everyone ! It is my very first post on tumblr and first analysis im making.

So i was rewatching some byler scenes from funsies. Of course, i get to the infamous airport scene. No need to explain its context, i think anyone in this tag knows what i’m referring to.

So Mike comes to Lenora. El obviously looks super excited to finally see her boyfriend that she didn’t meet for 6 months. El and Mike reunite, and while they hug, Mike tells her “Careful careful, you’re squishing your present”. This line is very important and we will be coming back to it later.

The present in question is a pretty bouquet of flowers that our boy Michael picked himself on that one hill in Hawkins. Keep in mind, the hill appeared twice (correct me if i’m wrong though). Once at the beginning of season 3, when the party are about to try reaching out to Suzie and when El and Mike go back home. Yes, in that one scene Will describes their relationship as “gross” and Dustin as “bullshit”. Dustin’s points of view is very important to me because he’s always described as the smartest in the party, but i digress. The second time the hill appears is at the very last scene of season 4, but again i will come back to it later.

COMING BACK TO THE AIRPORT SCENE. It is a yellow and purple bouquet, “because [El] likes yellow and purple”. Now what’s important in the following : Mike says, i quote :

“I know you like yellow, but now i’m kind of realizing that it’s too much yellow […] so i kinda did some 70/30 split kinda thing”

Ladies, gentlemen and non-binary legends, we ALL KNOW that Mike is blue, Will is yellow and El is purple. The 70% in the bouquet is yellow, the remaining 30% is purple. YOU HEARD ME. The bouquet is supposed to show El how Mike loves her, but it is made of 70% of the other “love interest” ’s official representative color (assuming Will is a love interest because DUH) .

In short : the bouquet represents Mike’s love for El ; but it is actually just 30%. The other 70% of his love is for somebody else. The yellow. WILLIAM BYERS.

Coming back to the line “Careful careful, you’re squishing your present” I mentioned before. It is to highlight the way the bouquet was between El and Mike. I MEAN EVEN WITHOUT BEING A BYLER TRUTHER ANYONE WOULD TAKE CARE OF THAT BOUQUET AND TRY TO NOT DAMAGE IT. But it’s not Mike’s case: he uses it as some kind of shield. I like to parallel it to the scene at the end of season 3, where El says I love you to Mike. When she kisses him, she has Will’s old teddy bear in her arm, which kind of keeps them apart. Also, in that make-out scene in season 3, we notice how there’s one of Will’s drawings in that room. At a very random place, like, the room is almost empty. YOU ARE MEANT TO NOTICE IT. I think it implies how Will was always there, every time Mike and El have a romantic scene. This is reinforced in season 4, where the only scene Will is absent is the one when they fight.

Now. The hill scene. The final scene of season 4.

Flowers on the Hawkins hill decay. As i said before, it is supposedly the hill where Mike picked up his flowers. The bouquet represented his love for El. Now its flowers withered, and their relationship faded.

The couples are standing up the hill. Jonathan and Nancy, Joyce and Hopper… and Will and Mike, while El is alone, in front. Because El’s arc is about her finding her independence, who she truly is, not as a “superhero” but as a normal girl, as a person.

Thank you for reading, and the may you have a fantastic day 🫶🏼

[stormyoceans]

i feel like in bl world it's somehow a no go to talk about why you dislike a show, because people always think it means you hate everyone involved, so it's nice to see that i'm not alone with my feelings about 4m. i was thoroughly disappointed by it and it's even worse considering it's sammon who wrote it. they (ceo and sammon) always went on about how they are working hard on the script and that's why it took 2 years and like... this is what they came up with? i like triage and love mod, but this one doesn't compare at all. the characters were flat and i did not care about them or the relationships at all (i will say, i liked the second couple much more than great and tyme), the mystery was okay i guess, but still lacking anything meaningful and even the chemistry between the actors, not just the pairings, but everyone interacting was so wooden and missing any depth to me. they tried and we know the actors can act, but none of that came across to me. and i 100% agree with you, the ending is so lame, they should have made this a tragedy and not whatever they tried to achieve with the ending they gave us, because that was just laughably bad imo. maybe my expectations were too high because of sammon, but i was just disappointed with this show :(

i honestly understand getting defensive over something you love or even just enjoy, i think that's pretty normal, but i also fully believe it's extremely important to be critical of the media we consume, and unfortunately i feel like over time 'being critical' has started to be equated with 'being hateful' by fandom in general, which couldn't be furthest from the truth: you can love a piece of media AND still be aware of its shortcomings, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. analyzing media and talking about different aspects of it is actually what makes fandom fun to me, so as long as everyone is being respectful im always going to encourage this kind of discussion

ANYWAY. all that aside, i fully understand your disappointment over 4 minutes, anon. it was one of the series i was looking forward to the most this year because both triage and manner of death are two of my favorite BLs, so it's just really weird to me to feel so..underwhelmed by it. i've mentioned this before, but my main issue with the show is that, like you said, i simply do not care about these characters. i wouldn't say they were flat, personally, because there was A LOT of potential that was not used, but it feels like the writing always remained on a very surface level and did not utilize the depth these characters had, and as such it failed to create a connection between them and the viewers (which is also why i think some of the acting may have felt a bit bland)

for example, i think they could have done SO MUCH MORE with the brotherly relationship between tonkladome and korngreat, maybe even by creating some parallels between them. like it's crazy to me that we didn't get a single flashback showing what tonkla and dome's relationship was like (and no, im not counting the one where tonkla killed their dad), or just that we didn't get more of dome's character by himself. 'he was tonkla's brother' is not enough for me to care about him dying or about tonkla's revenge. and now that im typing this out im realizing we never got a confrontation between korn and great about great helping thyme THAT'S INSANE (AND NOT THE GOOD KIND OF INSANE). also not a single scene with tonkla and great other than tonkla shooting him!!!!!! all these characters could have been SO INTERESTING if only the narrative would have given them a bit more insight

and this is already so long so im gonna try to wrap it up, but i have to say this because me actually WISHING we would have gotten a sad ending is one for the history books. tbh i think there is a deeper narrative issue when it comes to great and thyme that im not gonna get into because this post will never end otherwise (to sum it up: they weren't treated as main characters), but MY personal issue is that i didn't want an happy ending for them, because at no point in the show i've been rooting for it. like take triage, for example: you start the story almost hating tol, and then time loop after time loop after time loop you see him go through one of the best character development i've ever seen and by the end of the show the viewers are BEGGING for him and tin to be happy and together. i don't wanna say great and thyme didn't deserve that happy ending, but they also didn't really earn it, which is why that perfectly wrapped up sense of peace we got falls completely flat and feels very out of place

idk sammon's concepts are always incredibly fascinating to me and 4 minutes is no exception, but while all the elements of the show had a lot potential, they just did not come together in a satisfying or coherent way, which is really a pity

at this point im looking forward to spare me your mercy even just to see if maybe these issues are more due to boc or to sammon just not being as good as a screenwriter 🤔