#it's really interesting to me because while it's probably a bit exaggerated it really shows how rage and fear can warp one's perception

[demilypyro]

So I've seen a few too many people on twitter talking about The Kiss Scene from the new Scott Pilgrim anime. People saying it's fetishistic and indulgent, people calling it male gazey, etc. And while the kiss itself is certainly a bit exaggerated, I felt like writing a bit about why I disagree, and why context is important, like it always is. But it basically turned into an extended analysis on the metatextual treatment of Roxie Richter. So bear with me. It's a long post.

What really matters about this scene is not the kiss itself, but what precedes it. Not even just the fight scene just before it, but what precedes the whole anime series, really. And that's the Scott Pilgrim comic book, and the live action movie. Because in both, Roxie is a punchline.

She's a joke. Her character starts and ends with "one of the exes is actually a girl, I bet you didn't expect that." Jokes are made about Ramona's latent bisexuality, the movie especially treating it as funny and absurd, and her validity as a romantic interest is entirely written off by Ramona as being "just a phase." There's a fight scene, she's defeated by a man giving her an orgasm which implicitly calls her sexuality into question (come on), and the movie just moves on. It sucks. It really, really sucks.

The comic fares a little better. It never veers into outright homophobia like the movie does, and while the line about Ramona having gone through a phase remains, Roxie actually gets one over on Scott when Ramona briefly gets back with Roxie. But Roxie is still only barely a character. Like all the other evil exes, she's just a stepping stone towards the male protagonist's development. She barely even gets any screentime before she's defeated by Scott's "power of love." But Roxie stands out, since she's the only villain who is queer, or at least had been confirmed queer at that point (hi Todd). In a series that champions multiple gay men in the supporting cast, the single undeniable lesbian in the story is a villain. She's labeled as evil, made fun of, pushed aside in favor of the men, and then discarded. Her screentime was never about her, or her feelings for Ramona. It was about the straight, male protagonist needing to overcome her. And that was Roxie Richter. An unfortunate victim of the 2010s.

Fast forward to current year, and the new anime series is announced. Everybody sits down to watch the new series expecting another retelling of the same story, and.... hang on, that straight male protagonist I mentioned just died in the first episode. And now it's humanizing the villains from the original story. And there's Roxie, introduced alongside the other evil exes in the second episode, and she's being played entirely straight, without a punchline in sight. No jokes are made about her gender, no questions are made of her validity as one of Ramona's romantic interests. The narrative considers her important. In one episode, she already gets more respect than she did in either of the previous iterations of Scott Pilgrim. And this isn't even her focus episode yet... which happens to be the very next one.

The anime series goes to great lengths to flesh out the original story's villains and to have Ramona reconcile with them. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Roxie gets to go first. While Matthew Patel gets his development in episode 2, Roxie is the first to directly confront Ramona, now our main protagonist. This is notable too because it's the only time the exes are encountered out of order. Roxie is supposed to be number 4, but she's first in line, and later on you realize that she's the only one who's out of sequence. She's the one who sets the precedent for the villains being redeemed. She's the most important character for Ramona to reconcile with.

What follows is probably the most extensive, elaborate 1 on 1 fight scene in the whole show. Roxie fights like a wounded animal, her motions are desperate and pained. Ramona can only barely fight back against her onslaught. Different set-pieces fly by at breakneck speed as Roxie relentlessly lays her feelings at Ramona's feet through her attacks and her distraught shouts. And unlike the comic or the movie, Ramona acknowledges them, and sincerely apologizes. And the two end up just laying there, exhausted, reminiscing about when they were together.

Only after this, after all of this, does the kiss scene happen. Roxie has been vindicated, she has reconciled with the person who hurt her, the narrative has deemed that her anger is justified and has redeemed her character. And she gets her victory lap by making the nearest other hot girl question her heterosexuality, sharing a sloppy kiss with her as the music triumphantly crescendos.

It's... a little self-congratulatory, honestly. But it's good. It's redemption for a character who had been mistreated for over a decade. And she punctuates the moment by being very, very gay where everyone can see it, no men anywhere in sight. Because this is her moment. And then she leaves the plot, on her own accord this time, while humming the hampster dance. What a legend. How could anything be wrong with this.

[peppermintquartz]

"Why do we have to wear tuxes?" Buck grumbles as he comes out of the bathroom, tugging at his collar.

"Because we are attending a formal event, darling," Tommy says absently, taking one of Buck's wrists to fasten silver cufflinks for him. They're elegant, inset with some kind of green stone, so they probably belonged to Tommy's late grandfather.

The darling is what catches Buck's attention. He and Tommy are attending a wedding, one of Tommy's old army buddies getting hitched to some wealthy socialite, and the wedding dinner is black tie. Tommy already has a tux in his closet, and took Buck to get one altered from an off-the-rack Armani. Buck wasn't really keen on spending the money on a suit he probably wouldn't wear more than once, but Tommy insisted, and Tommy so seldom insisted on anything that Buck didn't really like.

Once both cufflinks are fastened, Tommy takes a step back and looks Buck up and down. He smiles at his boyfriend, slow and appreciative.

"You look very good, Evan." Tommy's gaze sweeps over Buck once more.

"You're not too shabby yourself," says Buck. It's true, too; Tommy's custom tux was tailored to fit him perfectly, although he admitted that a few alterations had to be made recently because he'd put on a bit of weight. Buck would feel bad about that, but he's the one making sure Tommy ate more than just grilled chicken breast and steamed vegetables. (Slightly exaggerating there, but Tommy is very conscious of his food choices. Not the same way Buck is.) "Very Double-O Seven."

"An American version only," Tommy says, grinning. "My British accent is horrendous."

Buck raises an eyebrow, and then thinks a little, before he says, "My name is Bond. James Bond."

Tommy's expression of amusement shifts into something like amazement. "That was... That was so hot. How did you do that? Can you say something else? In that accent?"

"Something else?" Buck says, in that accent, because he can be a little shit. He smirks and closes the distance, a hand smoothing down Tommy's lapel, resting at the top of his pants. "Perhaps later, you can show me around your lair. Disclose your evil machinations to me, in a gloating monologue."

But the way Tommy's cheeks and ears go pink and the way his tongue darts out to lick his lips tell Buck that Tommy won't be able to talk much. With a saucy smile, Buck kisses Tommy lightly and steps back. Because he can be a gentleman.

"James Bond fantasies, huh," he says, in his regular voice. "I learnt a bit to impress a girl who was super into Tom Hiddleston. Didn't work for her, alas."

Tommy clears his throat. "Definitely working for me. And you look so edible in the tux. After the wedding, when we come back, you're fucking me while wearing it"

"No argument there." Buck grins. He heads to the door of their hotel room where his shoes are, and wonders how Tommy will react when Buck breaks out the accent in the middle of having sex. Some dirty talk in a British accent might be an interesting button to press...

Oh yeah, Buck is definitely going to try it.

--

edited on AO3

[defectivegembrain]

I hate when people seem to misunderstand Troy and Abed's relationship as being actually like what Vice Dean Laybourne tried to make them think it was. He didn't understand them, he understood just enough to present a simplified, stereotypical version of what they have. Like yes Abed was initially a little inconsiderate in his response to Troy, but honestly as an autistic person, I understand very well the frustration of having something planned out, being very focused on it, having an agreement with someone, and then they suddenly want to change it. People exaggerate how stubborn he was, he was literally about to give in before Laybourne manipulated him.

And he actually does that quite a lot. In the initial buildup of their friendship, he does things like take cues from Troy's behaviour and try to "mess with" him, because that's what Troy teaches him friends do. He's trying to connect on Troy's level. He plays basketball with him, engaging in interests he doesn't necessarily share, he tolerates Troy's competitiveness and lets him win the race to make him happy. It's Troy who has to get past the attitude that friends only do things for him and not the other way round.

And he does learn to be a good friend, but the idea that Abed doesn't show up for him just as much is bizarre. In Epidemiology, he's insistent that if only one of them survives, it should be Troy. He listens and supports him with the AC repair vs plumbing thing, and it is Troy who decides that he just wants to watch tv with him. When Troy goes to the AC repair school, Abed doesn't try to talk him out of it, even though he's devastated. He's upset when Troy and Britta get together, but he doesn't put that on Troy himself.

He listens to Troy about the impersonator thing, despite deep fears of being controlled, and honestly seems more concerned about their friendship than his own safety. He goes along with the body swap bit at a moment's notice, goes to a restaurant he previously said he couldn't go to, puts up with the waiter badmouthing one of his favourite movies, and breaks up with Britta for Troy. When he's so upset about Troy leaving that he hallucinates lava, he jumps into said lava in order to let him go.

And I especially hate when people, just like Laybourne, use the Inspector Spacetime thing to argue that their relationship is unequal. Like sorry, in other instances, Abed is more than willing to play the villain (Kickpuncher, Alien) or love interest (Kickpuncher) or sidekick (their shadow puppets) to Troy's hero. They do Bert and Ernie, who are equal partners. When they do Calvin and Hobbes, yes he's Calvin, but that's notably something only Troy has expressed an interest in him doing before.

Yeah Inspector Spacetime is a more frequent thing for them, but it's pretty clear that's a really special character for Abed. In Virtual Systems Analysis we can see him use the character to express how he's different from other people. Which, yeah, an autistic person connecting with what is essentially the Doctor...go figure.

Like, look at when he lists characters he thinks are like him: "Data or Johnny 5 or Mork or HAL or K.I.T.T. Or K9 or Woodstock and/or Snoopy. Spock goes without saying." None of those are human. Several robots. Most are not the main character. One is an antagonist. It's probably not often that Abed feels this deep a connection to a character who is undeniably the hero, and while not human, still shows human characteristics. And there's no way Troy is unaware of that.

And by the way, Troy never seems remotely unhappy about playing Constable Reggie until Laybourne talks him into it. And never again afterwards. In fact, when Abed is full on trying to act "normal" at Shirley's wedding rehearsal, Troy talks him into playing Inspector Spacetime...with this ridiculously tender look of love on his face.

It's just...it's a severe mischaracterisation of them both, articulated by a clearly manipulative character, and it bothers me when I see people fall for it.

[fruitageoforanges]

Hello, I read your aegond fic series recently and wow, it’s kind of crazy how so many small details you added to it actually ended up happening in the show 😭 the little sunfyre boops, theory going around fandom rn that helaena sometimes mends Aegon’s clothing when she’s embroidering. MOST of Aegon’s characterization this season. Even Aegon listening to petitions kind of felt like the scene with Helaena doing the same. And I think you captured the vibes I get from all 3 of them based on the show perfectly. Aemond’s temper and overall pragmatic attitude is so spot on, the scene of him dressing down larys reminded me of him talking to the substitute Lannister hand in your fic.

It’s like my fix it for all the wasted potential of season 2. Im so sad bc i’m loving the actors’ portrayals but i hate so much of what they’re making them do?? So thank you for writing it!! You took everything i liked from the show and made smth very lovely and emotionally cathartic from it

Also would love to hear your thoughts on season 2 bc I think your characterization for the siblings and Alicent is so spot on. Anything you liked or disliked from what they’ve been doing so far?

thank you so much! i’m glad you enjoyed the series, and that it can make up for a bit of the stupidity of s2! as you can probably tell from the way i wrote the yellow dress series, i’m not best pleased with a lot of the writing choices for s2. i’ll go through each of the characters and tell you what i think:

alicent: i’m torn, because while i feel like show!alicent (and show!rhaenyra) does a massive disservice to book!alicent, because the showrunners seem to have got it in their heads that a sympathetic woman is one who is constantly the victim of those around her and that sympathy is more important than making a character interesting, i also think her characterisation in this season is pretty coherent for the way they set her up in s1, and i do enjoy it. ironically what i really enjoy is her and aemond’s relationship falling apart — i saw a very good post talking about the driftmark incident, and how aemond idolises her for her expression of protective fury while she hates that she lost control like that, and him realising she’s never going to stand up for him instead of rhaenyra like that again is an excellent way to fracture their relationship.

helaena: i really like her characterisation! aside from the fact that maelor not existing really diminishes b&c, i think they’ve struck a good balance between showing her being heavily affected but not reducing all of her agency like in the book. the fact that they’re giving her and aegon’s relationship more weight than they did in s1 pleases me greatly.

aegon: i mostly enjoy his characterisation this season — i really enjoyed the second brothel scene as it showed he hasn’t really stopped being a bit of a shit to aemond over the years, and let’s be honest, he’s never going to stop, that’s just how their relationship is. what i don’t like is the ways the showrunners have deliberately exaggerated his incompetence, like him being shut out of the plan for rook’s rest, going into battle drunk and not even knowing high valyrian. i feel like this is partially because the showrunners really want us to know this is the rhaenyra show, and partially what i said above with regards to alicent — because it’s the rhaenyra show, they seem to have it in their head that characters can only be sympathetic if they’re victimised by others to some degree and not directly involved in prosecuting the war. so if they want some degree of sympathy for aegon, they feel like they have to diminish his involvement, and make him a victim of his own team, which leads me on to…

aemond: of all the greens, i’m most annoyed at how aemond has been characterised this season. the writers seem to have decided he’s the character they can make an unequivocal villain even to his own side in order to make alicent and aegon “more sympathetic”. this when they did such a good job in his 13 minutes of screen time in s1 of making him more than the one-dimensional psycho he was in the book. and even in the book, he didn’t betray aegon at rook’s rest!! that was the lazy way out of the aegond relationship — though i might’ve hated it less if it was given any emotional weight. ewan mitchell is wasted on this writing; he does so well with simple facial expressions, but the writers seem to have decided that aside from the first brothel scene, aemond doesn’t get to have emotions. or, you know, a coherent character arc — with aegon’s comments about him being a loyal hound in ep 1, i thought he was being set up to have to choose between his own ambitions and loyalty, or that he might have a scrap of complicated feelings about rook’s rest, but no, the evil switch has been flipped, so bye bye character arc. that said, i love how he’s demolishing the small council at the moment and cackled out loud when he put larys down. get his ass, babygirl. he’s also the only targtower at the moment to be actually focusing on winning the war, so well done my pragmatic wife.

daeron: he exists! at last! stupid to not even mention him in s1, but i’m so fucking excited to meet him and deeply tickled to think of him as a mini-gwayne.

i don’t have too many thoughts about team black other than that the show has done unforgivable things to baela the brave… but i must admit that jace has wormed his way into my heart by being a) the prettiest, most fashionable princess of the season and b) constantly done with rhaenyra’s bullshit. he and aemond need to get together and commiserate over having to deal with their mothers’ nonsense.

[catsacrossthemultiverse]

I made this sideblog to share my art and then. didn't use it. so im doing that now!!

my friends and I have an ongoing trend of taking games that i'm interested in and fusing our OCs with the cast of characters, trying to make the lore align in a way where both stories get to show through!! I think it's both fun and great for thinking. And I get to draw all my silly critters in situations!!! And new outfits, and behaviors, with new story!! and references to things I like!!!

So.. here's a few of the things I drew!! Current hyperfixation game is In Stars and Time!! We decided to call the AU "In Claws and Time" because most of the characters are silly fluffy critters instead of humans!!! I'll explain a little bit about the characters and why I made the changes I did too :3 SPOILERS FOR IN STARS AND TIME WARNING!!! This includes twohats!! I don't remember exactly which acts have what lore, but just to be safe, if you're avoiding spoilers and haven't played the game all the way through, don't read!!

We've got our Loop design!! They're a little bit less energetic than Loop in the actual game, smoother lines n slightly less exaggeration, because Scribble (who's taking Siffrin's role) has a lot less energy in general. Still keeps the fun sarcasm charm, but with less of an "OMG!! Helloooo~~ Hi Stardust!!" way. More laidback I suppose. Sorry if i'm no good at explaining!! ^^'

Speaking of Scribble, here's the actual design for Scribble themself!! The king would call them Dark one instead of Bright one, because their species has a lot more focus on being darkly colored (I will probably elaborate on that more in the future, but Scribble and a couple of other characters are actually part of an original species I made up, my friends called them the Paradoxes and it stuck!!! I wrapped the Paradoxes into the lore of the Island and stuff, species rules and traits have been edited to mesh with ISaT lore better, and have nicer designs for style purposes. If you're curious about them, please ask!!! I love talking about these guys).

We also have replacements for the Change God!!! The original story with me and my friends' OCs and such had 3 gods. Dune (the little cat in the middle), Umbra (the little dog on the left), and Adair (the little deer on the right)!! They're triplets, and they have a whole bunch of little mythology stories prepared by me and Wyvern (One of my friends) that explain how their world came to be!!! In ICaT, they take the Change God's role, deities that don't really do much, but are still worshipped for being the higher beings, and occasionally giving a little bit of help!! The little symbols on their collars, while in the image don't stay consistent, they'll be changed to be little teardrop shapes, each with different detailing, showing the versatility of even a simple shape like a teardrop. Umbra with a little water drop, Dune with a cut gem, and Adair with a leaf.

We have characters matched up with various characters in ISaT that don't have designs drawn yet too!!

A few matchups we have that haven't been drawn are:

Tiger as Isabeau Windy as Mirabelle Leaverc as Odile Cauli/Cauliflower as Bonnie Creature as The King Phantom as the Head Housemaiden Masquerade as Claude (Mira's roommate) Petunia and Lizard as that one girl and her dog And many more!!!

There's a lot of characters!! And a lot of matchups!!! and even more to be made!!!

We'll also have silly little extra cutscenes, even more lore than there is in the original ISaT!!! To tell people more about our characters. All of this is incredibly self indulgent, it's just for fun!!! Expect a lot of canon divergence from both stories

I don't know if I'll be going anywhere with this, but it's fun to share regardless!!! I just want to get the ideas out there really

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #26 – The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

This was my monthly dose of high literature, chosen because I subscribed to the author’s substack for a while and generally liked it. After somehow accidentally grabbing historic fantasy and dystopian sci fi, this time it did was actual proper adult contemporary litfic, even! So y’know, horizons successfully expanded.

The book is honestly a caricature of what an outsider would guess contemporary litfic to be. Meandering and plot light, eight different POVs whose chapters’ are largely character studies of their own interiorities and relationships, deeply preoccupied with the process and structures that produce Fine Art, about a bunch of miserable queer grad students in Iowa City. It did at least refrain from having a character actually be an author attending the Iowa Writers Workshop so like, not totally free of restraint here, but it’s still nearly overpowering.

Saying ‘plot light’ is still almost overstating it, really. Each chapter is a vignette from the perspective of a different character, with varying levels of personal connection to the other protagonists. Some individual characters have little arcs, but none exactly undergo a profound transformation – the book is largely just a study of them, their relationships, their damage and their neuroses as they drift through a year of their lives.

The characters themselves are all resolutely unexceptional. No prodigies, no savants, no stars in the making – they are all talented and dedicated, but in ordinary and unremarkable ways for their milieu. It’s precisely that ordinariness that Taylor seems most interested in – how people conceive of their relationship to art when they’ve devoted everything to a craft that only barely seems to love them back.

The relationships between the characters is the other real driver of the book. They’re all..kind of dicks? In the thoughtless, inarticulate, emotionally-illiterate-lashing-out way of incredibly stressed people in their mid-20s (though exaggerated a bit for effect. Or at least, I hope so). Everyone is broken and jagged, and rubs up against everyone else only with violence and force – resentful friendships, unhappy romances, comfortable enmities. No one ever makes a clean break with anyone – no one shows much sign of being able to even if they wanted – and what character growth there is is a matter of compromise and accommodation, making peace with the people you love around you whatever their shortcomings.

The characters are all very well-drawn, their neuroses and struggles believable and mostly compelling. There’s probably one or two too many of them – at a certain point I did start having trouble with whose tragic childhood (they of course all have tragic childhoods) or insufferable emotionally unavailable boyfriend was whose – but in the final analysis they all mostly worked for me. That said, the two female POVs seem almost..tangential? Less connected to everyone else, less richly examined, less grounded and dirty and vicious. Which is a bit unfortunate, both in terms of the novel’s overall strength and because almost literally the only other women with lines in it are a bunch of deeply unkind caricatures of poetry/literature-as-activism types in one of the character's seminars.

Speaking of relationships – if you don’t know what the stereotypical litfic sex scene looks like, this book overflows with examples to learn from. Partially just trying to be true to life about a cast of horny gay guys in their mid-20s – if you draw a chart of who fucked who I’m pretty sure it connects every man in the main cast – but the book also just tries to get a lot of characterization and symbolism across through sex scenes, and ends up devoting more word count and flowery prose to them than anything I’ve ever seen besides outright erotica. All the sex scenes do have a fascinatingly vast variety of valences and tones, though – some are passionate and romantic, some flagrantly exploitative or transactional, some are just something to do on a boring break in the middle of nowhere. The sex can get a bit monotonous, but at least it’s never one-note.

Taylor’s very interested in the culture of like, capitalized prestigious Fine Art, its production, and the relation of the university to both. The book, broadly, seems to take the point of view that the whole edifice is one great machine for chewing up and spitting out hopes and dreams. It’s a recurring theme that even among these people who have dedicated their entire lives to poetry or dance of the piano are unable to spend it making the kind of art they want. And that’s not even getting into how all the people you’re supposed to be making art with are the most insufferable pieces of shit to ever see the sun.

And on the note of insufferable pieces of shit – there’s also just a very strong recurring theme of class. Getting a MFA is largely the province of people who don’t really have to care about a near-future paycheck, and the cast is divided between those who fit the description and feel varying amounts of repressed guilt and awkwardness about it, and those that have to work some job to pay the bills and display a remarkable amount of restraint in not decking at least one classmate a day. The irony of art imagined as activism or world-changing being near-exclusively the result of elite educations and trust funds is bitter and plentiful, especially among the poets.

It’s, I think, a very sort of subtle humour that across the first half or so of the book the really poetic prose and most evocative imagery is used near-exclusively to describe the vulgar, low-class survival work that the less fortunate half of the protagonists do to support themselves – meal prep in a hospice kitchen, preparing cuts of beef in a slaughterhouse, recording porn of oneself to post online – while the actually art they create isn’t much described at all. This doesn’t last, but it’s a very funny joke while it does.

The book is, on a sentence-to-sentence and page-to-page level, really quite beautiful. Unfortunately, it ends up feeling like less than the sum of its parts. There’s a bit of a running narrative connecting half or so of the protagonists, who really are major parts of each others lives and enrich each others narratives with an outside view – and then the rest only appear outside their own chapters as cameos, if that. Exactly one characters gets two chapters from his POV – the first, and about halfway through the book – and he’s one of the people who barely touches the rest of the cast, so it’s not like he’s actually the protagonist or propelling the narrative. You end up with a novella and a bunch of short stories that, put together, are both constantly hitting the same beats but also lacking any real through-line tying them all together and pushing things forward. Which really isn’t helped by the fact that the ending reads like someone gave Taylor a maximum wordcount 5 pages before he hit it and he just did the best he could.

[sneakyboymerlin]

random ask inspired by your post about gwaine being merlin's ride or die and how he was the only knight who went to see merlin released in 5x07. first of all so many points being made. second of all your tags about how leon probably led merlin's arrest were validating for me personally as someone who has always found leon a bit annoying. or at least, who's always found the accepted idea that leon is like this beacon of morality and goodness as really boring, canonically unrealistic and unimaginative. this is an unpopular opinion but i do kind of feel like the fandom's idea that all of the round table knights love/protect merlin is somewhat exaggerated. and esp irt to leon, i think it's potentially interesting to explore the way his loyalty to the throne, his personal code of chivalry, and the ideals he likely grew up with as a noble-born child of uther's camelot interact with each other. then again i truly do understand why no one wants to give him much thought as he is basically just a piece of stale white bread.

Gwaine is Merlin’s ride or die! There’s truly no one quite like it besides Will or maybe Lancelot. But what makes Gwaine unique here is a combination of beliefs/behaviors:

Gwaine never knew about Merlin’s magic! He saw how special he was without his gifts and his destiny. He saw it before Arthur’s life was in danger, just from being around him under casual, non-life-threatening circumstances.

Gwaine’s loyalties aren’t divided—or at least, as far as they are divided, he’s already prioritized Merlin above his other loyalties (whether that’s Arthur, Eira, Gaius, and by extension, maybe the greater good…)

Gwaine always implicitly trusts Merlin, even when he himself doesn’t have all the information… even when Merlin admits to Gwaine’s face that he is lying to him. This is why he assumes that Merlin is right about Gaius in 4x07, despite having no evidence. It’s also why he lets Merlin go in the Valley of the Fallen Kings. And it’s why he was the only one who believed Merlin didn’t do it in 5x07, as evidenced by his appearance in the cells.

The only time Gwaine questions Merlin is when Merlin is potentially endangering himself. He doesn’t ask any questions about why Merlin needs his protection in the Valley of the Fallen Kings. He only asks what they’re there for when Merlin tries to send him away.

Gwaine is the only one who’s still alive when Merlin needs him 💀💀💀 so by deduction…

Anyways, 5x07 is one of those rare episodes where it’s actually interesting to look at Leon! (Non-canon events notwithstanding—I once played a good game of Merlin-themed DND where someone made Leon interesting which, in the spirit of this post, is an impressive feat).

Now, in my personal opinion, Leon’s significance is over-inflated by fandom in the sense that the attention and depth his character receives is highly disproportionate to what we see of him in canon. I think the reason that Leon isn’t included much in canon isn’t because he’s being screwed over but, simply, his characterization narrows down what roles he can fit into.

His unquestioning loyalty to the crown means that he’s unlikely to ever prioritize protecting Merlin, and it shows that he has no issue with the ban on magic. Therefore, he fits well in 5x04 when he worries that Arthur is risking too much on his quest, and in 5x07 when he has Merlin arrested on the word of his queen alone. These two episodes provide a great contrast to Gwaine’s respective roles in them, where he stays behind when Merlin is injured in 5x04 and releases Merlin from the dungeons in 5x07.

This is why I posit that Gwaine and Leon are the perfect foils to each other. Both of them are unquestioningly loyal, protective, and caring towards the person/people they prioritize. However, for Gwaine, that person is Merlin, a “mere” servant, while for Leon, it’s the royals.

Gwaine’s devotion is towards his best friend—one irreplaceable person—while Leon’s is more of a distanced loyalty that follows a line of heirs (though Leon does show some preference to Arthur and Gwen, despite his steadfast loyalty to Uther). Leon also strikes me as a very methodical, rules-adhering fighter, which contrasts Gwaine’s more resourceful, bar brawl-based style.

And let’s never let ourselves forget that Gwaine and Leon’s first-ever interaction was when Leon—under Uther’s orders—arrested Gwaine for protecting Merlin! It’s a miracle they can tolerate each other on quests and patrols.

This difference seems to be the source of their tension in 4x08 as well. Under Lamia’s enchantment, Leon calls Merlin “nothing but a servant,” which Gwaine apparently takes offense to despite also being enchanted against Merlin:

Leon: Why don’t you watch what you’re doing?

Gwaine: Why don’t you watch your damn tongue?

Leon: You’d do well to learn some manners.

Gwaine: Nothing I can learn from you, Leon.

At this point, Leon has said nothing in this scene for these remarks to make much sense. However, Leon’s last line before this is where he insults Merlin. And as we know, Gwaine is no fan of nobles who devalue people for being servants.

So, imo, if you want to bring out Leon’s full potential: instead of turning him into a clone of Gwaine, fans can take his loyalty towards the royals to the exact opposite extreme. As Gwaine takes Merlin’s side, Leon takes Arthur’s >:)

[fisherrprince]

for the ffxiv specbio stuff, do you headcanon the people on the First as having physically different traits from the people on the Source, or are they pretty one to one? and if so, were there any strange looks/social faux pas regarding the scions while on the First?

THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING ACTUALLY I think… that the species are all the same, mostly, but since they evolved/grew/colonized in/from different environments, there are definitely differences because of that. Like, say, dwarves not having any of the lalafells’ adaptations to sand, and instead having darkvision in their mining environments and more of a mole snout than a slit snout. Maybe being fuzzier overall. Or elves not having that split between duskwight (colorful, variant cave animal) and wildwood (forest animal). Heck there’s not a lot of elves at all, are there? Was their homeland just so concentrated that most of them were wiped? Another hard thing about this is the complete lack of knowledge we have of the regions before the Flood outside of Norvrandt! Or maybe just knowledge I have. Lol. I don’t have encyclopedia eorzea 2 or 3 just the first one… if anyone can hook me up with a First Lore Historian. I’d love to learn. Or with 50 bucks so I can grab the encyclopedia

And then, even, after the Flood, a lot of culture broke down in favor of communication and survival, so people just souped together. In short… ok. I think the First had a very fairytale vibe, so their designs should reflect that. I know drahn and galdjent have like a kingdom thing going on. There’s probably WAY less sea imagery and ocean features on roe in the first. More puppies than sea puppies, vaguely. More mountainy? Drahn I think are much more draconic than most Auri people, think fairytale dragon guys. They have the kind of customs that fairytale dragons and fae have, too, so it’s historically easy to say something odd to them and vice versa. Giants and dragons! I haven’t met a single elf except Ardbert’s friend. That’s an exaggeration but like no important npcs were elves. They seem very isolationist to me, very used to solo travel. Humes seem to have been mostly in kingdoms as well, like Ishgard, but less Catholic. They’re probably the most same. Garleans as a race of people do not exist on the First which is interesting. Ronso seem much more family-oriented, work-oriented, still cowboys, but very similar. I think the coeurl type hrothgar would be replaced with something else. Viis we know a lot about! They seem to be very similar as well, though I think just for fun for me, they’re Bigger. Like, taller, they’re isolated in a warm forest with plenty of prey and big magic energy. Viis big. Mystel I don’t know about, but they don’t SEEM to be desert cats, so I actually think. They don’t have undereye markings. Some of them have fold ears or domestic triangle cat ears rather than wild cat features. Familiar-like, not a lion pride — so they don’t have the same family structure miqote do either, it’s more like wolves where location and family are top tier. And Dwarves for sure have more mole than mouse features - thick claws on their toes and fingers, a little snoot, and very reflective eyes that are a bit sensitive to light. 

As for social faux pas… I think that Miqote, to show they’re unserious or apologetic, bunt or touch the other cat, lay down or sit next to them, put their tail on the other’s tail, something physical — and Mystel will lick their lips and look away and NOT touch, because further touching is To Fight. Ari FOR SURE tried to lean on and got smacked by Kai-Shirr and then smacked him back in betrayal. It took Alphy intervention to fix that. It is also way more common for humes to grumble and growl than it is for hyur (that’s bad manners. Imagine you bumped into someone at the store and they growled at you), so there was one point where Ryne actually (quietly like a kid swearing for the first time) grrrd at a monster and thancred had a whole 20 minutes of thinking to himself wether or not this was OK feral child behavior to let her keep doing or if he should tell her not to or. Or what. What do here. Is this OK. And lastly..,,, lalafellin alcohol is pretty strong, but their beer and mead taste great so it’s a popular party drink. dwarven alcohol is INCREDIBLY strong, it contains an ingredient mildly toxic to every other race except mord. You are SUPPOSED to, however you decide to do it, last a number of mugs (if you’re a bigger race, dilute the thing with soda or juice, you might get teased but it’s what you do). Some people were not aware of this and passed out after one mug, and got pitiful beards drawn on them (Urianger’s wispy stubble was quite silly to the rest of the party)

I’d love to compile more abt the First just in general. maybe my ideas would change with more info … anyways! Thank u for letting me drop a very large text bubble :]

[twistmusings]

Who would be the Worst at flirting?

Oh this is going to be so fun omg. I should say ahead of time that I personally headcanon that no one in NRC has any game whatsoever considering the ghost marriage event, but I do love to pick on the boys.

Which TWST characters would be the actual worst at flirting?

Riddle Rosehearts

Riddle is... rather sheltered. He truthfully has always been so strongly focused on his studies and making himself stronger that he's never really put much thought into romance in general. He might have a concept of how flirting should be based off of novels he's read, but real life isn't a novel. He simply doesn't have the experience to know how to flirt well.

Riddle is very... earnest about it, if a bit misguided. His approach will be very much storybook prince. It's probably sweet, similar to the desire to protect that he expressed in the ghost marriage event. And while that's sweet, those sort of vows of protection and undying love aren't exactly attractive if the person he's interested in isn't already dating him.

It's giving:

"You remind me of a rose: beautiful and delicate despite your thorns."

"... So you're saying I would cut someone if they mess with me too much???"

He gets very flustered if they call him out for having incredibly cheesy lines and no game. He will ask his friends for advice. That's a bad idea because, spoiler alert, no one he knows is really great at flirting.

Deuce Spade

He's SO bad at it but in a very sweet way. He gets really nervous about romance and tends to overthink what he says a lot, so his pick up lines always fall flat.

He usually ends up getting frustrated after a few failed attempts and resorts to other means of trying to get his point across.

He shows up with flowers wearing a dapper little suit and it's very silly because it's obvious that he wants to impress them... but it's very much giving "Please go to prom with me?".

He definitely asks his mom for advice on how to flirt.

Trey Clover

A good way to phrase it is that Trey is... a nurturer. He likes to take care of people. As sweet as it is, it definitely isn't necessarily setting anyone's heart to racing. It is extremely easy to mistake his flirting from his normal nurturing nature.

When he does try to flirt, it's usually kind of blunt and unflattering. He doesn't mean for it to be, but he definitely will point out something he thinks is cute and then give no context to the fact that it's cute. "You have a very loud laugh." "You keep getting whipped cream on your nose when you eat." That sort of thing.

It might genuinely seem to come out of nowhere if he asks them out because that's how much his flirting blends into just his normal conversation style.

Jack Howl

Jack SUCKS at flirting. Plain and simple. He might start to say something that's an attempt at a flirt, but he catches himself every. Single. Time. He gets embarrassed the moment he realizes what he's about to say and just turns it right around and backtracks.

He tries his best to be aloof and cool and he sucks at that too. It's easy to see that he cares, and beyond that it's easy to see he's interested in them, but holy shit he's laughably bad at making a move.

His eventual solution is to just... be kind of direct. "Do you want to go get lunch with me?" or "Want to go swimming with me or something?" It's not super romantic, but it's very Jack and it's charming in it's own right.

Idia Shroud

If they're waiting on Idia to hit on them, they're going to be waiting for approximately the amount of time it's going to take to get to the heat death of the universe.

To say he doesn't make an effort... well that's not an exaggeration. In fact, he actively tries to drive off people he's interested in by outlining that he's a weirdo. And that they're a weirdo for hanging around him.

In fiction he knows a lot about what he thinks flirting should be because he plays dating sims but... he would never know how to apply any of that in real life.

God save him and everyone around him, though, because his pining gets so fuckin bad. He just won't take the first step because he's not brave enough for it.

Malleus Draconia

Malleus sucks at flirting but not for the reason that everyone ELSE sucks at flirting. He sucks at flirting because he does it accidentally. He will say something that seems to check every box for him to be hitting on someone and then if they flirt back it's like he's been hit by a train.

"I hadn't realized that it came across that way..."

He actually wouldn't be a bad flirt if he put his mind to it, but he usually just opts for doing acts of service for someone he cares about. He's got game in all the wrong places...

[sunskate]

VM show: ep 4 Scott's back injury, Skate Canada in St. John, Tessa photoshoot

this episode is upbeat, and they're getting along so well that you have to think a lot of the tension in the first 3 episodes wasn’t balanced in the big picture. either that or the upbeat part is exaggerated too😅

Tessa is doing a photoshoot that the show is pretending is in Canton whyyy? though it's in the VM tradition of telling unnecessary untruths and making things more complicated than they need to be😅💀

left is the show, right is from the house & home 2018 feature on her London house

T: i'm a very private person, and yet part of what we do is promote our brand and bring on sponsorships [...] you know, a little bit of that notoriety is great because it helps our career and helps the sport. i don't know what the future holds for me after skating, and i want my options open

she's always called herself private, but i think she's not so much that as self protective and wanting to feel in control of her image, because she's used a lot of personal stuff strategically in ads, sm, and media in general. using the word notoriety is odd? that's usually being famous for something negative, though in celebrity culture it can grant an air of interest or mystery - so does she actually mean it - she likes using their *thing* to draw people's interest? does notoriety relate to shipbaiting, or is it just a word she means without the negative connotation

what would come after skating was very close at the time. she clearly was interested in the "business side.” it's probably relatively easy compared to skating while using her performing skills and strategic brain with the gratification of feedback, pretty pictures, and a guaranteed $$ reward

VM had been driving themselves without a break from an unusually young age - late childhood, all of teenhood to age 24/26 was in a pressure cooker of sacrifice and severe discipline. but on top of that, she had pain - i don't think anyone but her can really understand what kind of grit it took to endure shattering pain and push through and deliver. to make her efforts not feel wasted and to feel she hadn't let herself, Scott, and others down. by 2014 she *had* to want the relief of being done and flying the cage? when you're in distress, it's hard to feel much except you want it gone. and she'd suffered that for years and two surgeries

so i think she can sound like she hated skating and wanted to push everything about it away, but maybe it's like if you're having an anxiety attack or feeling claustrophobic, the distress has to stop before you can feel much of anything else. and while she stopped skating, it sounded for a while like her legs didn't stop hurting even after

if you didn't keep her pain in mind, how she's talked about skating can feel kind of callous and like she didn't value it that much. i hope she's come to more peace about it for herself. and that Scott understands, because otherwise it seems like it would be hurtful to hear her talk that way?

another piece of all this is her father. she said in this interview that she had a "tumultuous" relationship with him and that she decided when she was 15 to be financially independent so there's a piece of 'i'll show you' about her wanting to go make her own money. he was still around at the time of this show as we'll see, but maybe not for long

all this out of a 43 second clip of an episode 😅

[mrs-monaghan]

Previous anon here again, I just wanted to clarify in response to your answer: I totally agree with the over exaggerated edits of supposedly Jungkook being jealous of the members, most of them are bs (maybe except for a very few instances with Namjoon?). I was thinking of a few moments that do seem legit to me and as you said especially the ones with people outside of the band. I was also thinking of the moments with Taemin, though I still wonder if Jungkook was jealous of him or if he just didn’t like him for whatever reason (which is a shame cause I love Taemin!!) I think in the past Jungkook had a tendency of being a bit possessive, which seems quite normal to me, he was really young and probably insecure, it happens. Ha anyway, he has grown a lot though.

Oh for sure JK had a huge issue with Taemin. Huge. Don't people believe the manilla fight may have had something to do with Taemin? My friends i think that Jimin may have had to practise on JK's birthday and the latter wasn't having it. Like its the only thing we can think of because, Jikook were fine during the day celebrating. So what happened overnight so that the next morning at the airport they couldn't even look at or be next to eo?? How can things go wrong in such a short amount of time? Jimin has been there for all of JK's birthdays. But this one night he couldn't so maybe JK felt some type of way?? Who knows. But it make sense. Either way you've seen the way Taemin looks at Jimin. He's definitely been hit by that Jimin effect and JK ain't blind 😂😂

So outside of BTS we have seen Sean Mendez, Taemin, and something was happening with Bogum during this.

My friends and I believe JK watched Jikook compilations and saw himself doing the tongue in cheek thing and decided to rectify 😂😂 but as u can see he did that for the entire Jimin and Bogum interaction and stopped as soon as Jimin was next to him.

Then we also have JB and this has to be my favourite 🤣🤣🤣🤣 JB and Jimin kept looking at eo. Well, tbf, JB was blatantly staring at Jimin and so Jimin kept looking back at him.

But this happened for too long and JK was like

I swear to God this entertains me so much!!! And it happened for quite a while!! Jikookers Classroom always shows the whole picture and doesn't manipulate so check out the whole Kdrama here. And its the way Jimin smirks like....bro what are u doing??? This whole thing is fucking gold!!

Then of course we have Wonho. This one is quite popular but my favourite part has to be when after Jimin admiring Wonho's muscles for most of the night, when they were leaving, JK started to work out his arm with the trophy

He was like "babe see? I'm strong too." 🤭🤭

Last but definitely not least we have this TXT moment.

Its so subtle. A blink and u will miss it type of thing. The guy shakes Jimin's hand once. Okay, thats fine. But when he does it a second time JK taps him like "that's enough son." 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Just to name some few none bts moments. But back to RM and Suga. While I understand why JK would be anti Yoonmin, I dont get the Minimoni anti thing. 🤭 A friend told me it could be because JK admires RM so much. He's so smart and bla bla bla. And JK looks up to him. And maybe JK knows he is not like RM so it could stem from that? Idk why the issue because JK is super smart and has a million things going for him. But after being around for a while I found out something interesting about the Korean culture. About how men claim their women and let everyone know that, that woman is his. Apparently when JK got into that nasty scandal with the tattoo artist c*nt, Karmy were telling the boyfriend to claim her?? Or some shit like that? But the guy refused to because they were broken up or something. Apparently it was messed up that JK would hold another man's woman like that. Idk man. I'm not Korean and I don't fully understand it but I know it's a thing. Which explains why JK behaves the way he does. You said, he was possessive coz he was young and insecure. And maybe thats true. But I think there is also the issue of no one knowing they're together. JK would love for the world to know Jimin is "his" but he can't. And so people going around touching and feeling on his man well... I can see why he would have an issue with that. Especially since Jimin gets shipped with pretty much everyone.

[leonsliga]

https://twitter.com/BayernNewsw/status/1762100914259648872?t=UVN8cg2KCTKBeOaVs0qNMQ&s=19 what do you think of this?❤

Hey anon! Thanks for sending me this ❤️ if I’m honest, I’m generally distrustful of bild as a news outlet. Even though they’re not always that way, they’ve just got this tabloid vibe that I find tough to swallow. Their articles always feel crafted in such a way as to pit fans and footballers against one another, and I don’t think that’s always fair.

That said, they did provide photographic evidence of them partying (supposedly). The guy in the first pic in the thread looks like Leon, but I’m not entirely sure. I couldn’t quite locate Phonzy in the pic either, but that’s not to say neither of them were there. I’ll be curious to see if other news outlets apart from bild report on it (as far as I can tell, they’re the only ones who have); maybe then we’ll get a bit more information and insight.

Now let’s talk about the party itself. Should they have gone? Probably not. Should they have stayed out that late, knowing they had training later that day? Definitely not. I understand wanting to blow off some steam (and wanting to meet up with the legendary David ‘Alaboom’ Alaba lol), but the problem with being in the public eye is that someone will inevitably find out you’re doing it. Bild’s business is quite literally finding out other people’s business, and if you want to have a party or go to one, they’ll be the first to know about it. Hell, they’ll probably invite themselves to it in some facet. Such are the perils of being in the public eye, I suppose.

I think I can understand why they went though. They were probably still buzzing off the adrenaline of their victory and wanted to celebrate. Couple that with the prospect of a reunion with an old teammate, and bam! You’ve got reason enough to party. Not only that, but Leon, Phonzy, and Serge are under scrutiny at Bayern, and maybe they thought they could escape the pressure for just one night. Besides, let’s think of football like a normal job. When you’re off the clock, that’s your time, and you can spend it how you like. Should football really be any different? Should bild or other news outlets really have the right to judge how they spend their time off? I guess the tricky thing is when you look at this event through the eyes of disgruntled Bayern fans. And that leads me to my next point:

Can I understand fan anger towards this? Of course I can. It was right after a match, and the way we’ve been playing this season doesn’t exactly scream “party time.” Far from it actually. But truth be told, if the rumors are true and they stayed out as late and partied as hard as bild seems to imply they did, the coaching staff will probably punish them accordingly; besides, if this is all true and not exaggerated in the slightest (because let’s face it, we can’t rule out bild exaggerating some details), TT actually has a chance to do something right for once and score some easy points with Bayern fans on his way out the door 😂

Quite honestly though, I’m sure showing up to training massively sleep-deprived and possibly hungover is quite the punishment in itself 😅 if they’re old enough to make their own choices, then they’re old enough to know the consequences of them ahead of time. Leon, Phonzy, and Serge aren’t the first to go out and party after a match, nor will they be the last, but that doesn’t mean it’s wise, but they’re still relatively young, and I’m guessing suffering through training while wishing for death that morning was lesson enough lmao. It would be for me anyway 😵

Now that I’ve said my piece though, I’d love to hear from you all. I know I’m biased when it comes to Leon and our Bayern squad as a whole, so I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter. Do you feel the same way about it as me? Do you have a different take? Or is there something you noticed that I might’ve missed? I welcome any and all opinions—just please be respectful 🫶

[indiaalphawhiskey]

Hi India. What is with fan's obsession for Harry to disappear? For the past several months I see that whenever he says something it is taken out of context or exaggerated to be a hint or confirmation that he's taking a long break, and under most posts about him people are saying they'll miss him but they better not see him for at least a year. It feels super controlling and I wonder if it's tied to that anon Gina? got a while back saying that after tour Harry was going to disappear and focus on raising a family with Louis. Is that why fans so desperately want to see him disappear? I don't think it's weird for him to say he's going away for a bit after tour. What is the alternative? Touring up until he releases HS4 and then start another? He's been doing LOT for 2-3 years and it needs refreshing. He'll need new visuals, outfits etc. If he was having a long tour break (years) I would have thought he'd say as HSHQ could easily capitalize off his last few shows. Imo he's working on HS4 now and that's why he did the LA and NY residencies so he had access to writing/recording in one place. He also had Kid Harpoon with him during the residencies, Japan and now London. He's probably writing or recording inbetween these 4 Wembley shows and the days before and after. Obviously I might be wrong and maybe he'll elaborate more in his other shows. But I just hate the desperation for him to disappear and I don't know that it's in his best interests. He says a million times how much he loves performing and fans still say he's being forced to do it by Jeff.

Love, I don’t know which blogs you’re following, but everyone I’m following isn’t “desperate” for him to disappear. I think you might be reading the wrong blogs or misunderstanding the tone of the blogs you’re reading.

People (that I follow at least) want him to disappear because he’s had a frenetic three years. Between Fine Line, HSLOT1, DWD, My Policeman, Harry’s House, ONO, HSLOT2, he’s been going at it nonstop. I think people are very protective of him pacing his work because many of us remember how worked to the bone 1D was when they were active, and though we know the situation is different, it doesn’t mean we can’t express vocal support for him taking the time to rest and also recharge creatively.

I’ve not seen anyone on my dash relate it at all to that anon (which IMO was really just an inquisitive theory with no real teeth to back it up). (Also, if you’re getting the drama from Twitter… um… don’t.)

As for why people keep saying they’ll miss him, well, it’s because we will. It’s nice to know when you’re seeing an artist you’re a fan of next. It’s nice to have new music or a new project to look forward to. It’s not anything more than the fact that we got used to seeing him, and now we have to get used to the idea of not knowing when he’ll pop up next. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Maybe there’s a bit of apprehension because we haven’t heard anything tangible about a re-signing to Columbia, and we know he had a three album deal, so Harry’s House is technically the last album we’re guaranteed, but I personally think that’s by design. It keeps us on our toes, it keeps us wondering, it makes the announcement all the more anticipated and delicious when it comes, and it also alleviates the pressure on him to create/work on break.

It’s really not anything dramatic, at least not for me.

Basically…

[yumedoca]

Hi hi! I always love reading analysis and your analyses always fun to read!❤️

Ok. So as fellow Ataru's fan myself I always wanted to see an analysis about Ataru's character (not about his character in general because there are so much about him)... Its more about comparison of Ataru's characters we got (manga, 80'anime, and All-stars), not for which one is better but more about how they are same but have their own uniqueness/something that makes them different with each others.

It is so interesting for me honestly, even for all-stars Ataru who is based on manga Ataru still has difference with his manga self

Ok lets stop here because I will just rambling in you ask box, I just wanted to leave request huehue

((I was planning to make this analysis myself but then I realized I suck at it :D👍))

Hai there! First of all, Thanks so much for the compliment 💐 

Hope you’re doing great and thanks for being patient!!

Analysis under the cut…

Welcome to today’s episode of ‘Yuca Analyzes Silly Things (Bonus Edition!!)’ You know what we’re discussing since you’ve probably read the ask, so here we go!!

Ok, so first we’ll talk about the differences between manga and og anime Ataru. Then, we’ll compare it with remake Ataru… 

OG anime Ataru is someone who I have a love/ hate relationship when it comes to writing. His character is not really written well from a writers POV, he is still pretty funny though. But I figured out the reason why it is like that. It’s because of simplicity. You see, back in the 80’s UY is a gag anime, so when you present something to the audience, being simple instead of complex is the way to go. Of course, nowadays we have more complex storytelling in some gag stories, but that was the 80’s. Gag anime aren’t really known for complex stories, so the prospect of giving UY characters more character development wasn’t really something people thought of that time. Yea, I know the surrealism stuff exists, but that’s probably their way of showing “we can be more than a funny show but without the character development“  So instead it became simple. Something you don’t need to look it too much, but still have fun with. You can exaggerate things more than it actually is or you can do the opposite. Not to mention, different episodes had different writers and each writer put their different views into writing (looking at you, Oshi). And in that way, along with everyone else, Ataru also became simple. Some of his gags were exaggerated, some remained the same and the others were lessened. So it creates an inconsistent character (the reordering of chapters doesn’t help either). To prove my point here’s an example from the Inaba storyline when Ataru sees his married future with Lum, and the difference in character between both versions (I haven’t seen the anime version in a while, but I do remember what happened so the order might be a bit clunky, so apologies for that.)

Original Anime: Ataru (and Lum) sees Future Mendo brooding about how he doesn’t accept their marriage and that he’ll come for her in the future. Then they see Lum coming out of a church with her new husband Ataru with tears in her eyes (of joy). Everyone they know is around and they all celebrate together happily and then take a group photo together. And Present Ataru is happy to see their married future and honestly why shouldn’t he be? Aside from the fact that he doesn’t get a harem, he gets to be with the one he truly loves and everyone is happy about their wedding. He has no reason to hate this future. This in a whole is a simple take, Ataru’s character changes a little because of him showing that he doesn’t mind a married future with Lum. That is all. It’s a sweet and romantic moment shared by them.

Manga: Ataru sees Lum coming out of a church with her new husband Ataru while teasing him happily and then joyfully cries. But Ataru is having trash thrown at him and being heckled at because apparently there are many who don’t accept his wedding with Lum and is harassing him in that sense. And Present Ataru is happy to see their married future, but here he has a reason to see it in a negative light. Ataru is being hated here by many and they are not celebrating, but the reason he wants to save this future is because Lum’s smiling, not because of himself. This in a whole is a complex take, Ataru’s character changes a lot more not only because of him showing that he doesn’t mind a married future with Lum, but it’s also because he only cares for her happiness and hers only which is quite selfless of him. This is hinted at a little in the og anime with Ataru’s line “She’s crying…” which is also in the manga, but here because his situation isn’t all that great for him, it adds to the sentiment. This scene adds a bit more depth to Ataru as well as Ataru and Lum’s relationship as a whole. It’s more deeper than the og anime’s and it’s something you can understand if you look into it deeply.

You can see how one shows a take on what you expect love to be and what it actually is. This theory I stated was actually from a Japanese website where someone described the original anime’s take on romance as childish and like a fantasy, while the manga’s take on romance was more mature and down to earth. And honestly, I agree. This explains why Ataru and Lum has had genuine kisses in the anime but not the manga. And this explains tons of other things as well. I do prefer the manga’s more mature storytelling, but I love the anime’s more simple one as well. That's the one that more people can understand easily and no one ever said simple was bad, it's quite refreshing. Being an audience to both types of media, while understanding how and why each is written differently instead of going ‘X is better than Y’ or ‘Y is better than X’ and causing arguments, You can learn to appreciate them more. I know I appreciate the anime more after I read that random Japanese person’s opinion (Thank you random Japanese person).

Now remake Ataru, how is he different from his manga counterpart? I would say he shares 3/4 similarities which his manga (OG Ataru shares 1/2). The first difference between them is that remake Ataru isn’t a complete character. There are a lot of chapters skipped in the remake and each chapter is supposed to build his character, so because a chunk of chapters aren’t there, he isn’t the complete Ataru. Do we see him on his first date with Lum? No. Do we see his first night with her? No. Do we see the time he cared for a caterpillar no one else cared for? No. And really, that’s how it is, because the remake is four cours long not everything’s there and there’s nothing the writers can do because that’s how the show was ordered. The parts of his character which are the same to the manga is like that because the writers wanted to make it a good adaptation, so that didn’t change most of the things. The only other difference I can point out between remake and manga Ataru is that early manga Ataru is waaaaaay pervier than early remake Ataru is. For example, in episode 10 Ataru in exchange of showing two girls a yo-yo trick, he asks to go on a date with them. In the manga, Ataru just straight up flips a girl’s skirt. Ataru’s perviness decreases as time went on the manga and remake Ataru’s horny level is on later manga Ataru’s level if you know what I mean. I guess it’s to make him more likeable or problematic? Idk. But that’s really all differences I can gather.

TLDR; Manga Ataru is the full package and has more character depth. Original Ataru is simple in character, it’s not consistent but he is very much absurdly funny and Remake Ataru is 3/4 of the package and is less horny. In the end, they are all great in their own way

Thank you for taking time to read this analysis and sorry If I made any errors. Hope you all have a great day ahead and thanks @ikemengoessbrrrrr for the suggestion! 💕 

[themirokai]

For my new followers: I’ve been watching Person of Interest really slowly and posting reactions to each episode with gifs. Check out the tag #miro does poi if you’d like to see more. Or, ya know, blacklist it.

POI 03x23: Deus Ex Machina

I thought some parts of this episode worked and some did not. Gonna do some big overarching thoughts, then call out some specific moments.

I generally liked Collier as a villain. Some of that is an affinity for Leslie Odom Jr., but as I said in a prior post I also really like villains who have a point but take it too far. And I thought Odom played him really really well. The guy is crazy charismatic and brought every ounce of that to bear in this role.

So I felt a bit let down by the trial as culmination of his arc. It’s just… kind of dumb? Like did they actually believe that doing this show trial at gun point - of two political operatives and three people no one knew - was going to … what? Convince people to rise up against the government and demand greater privacy rights? Or was it to make themselves feel better about killing the people responsible for Northern Lights? It just seems pretty half-baked for a character who I felt had been previously set up to be intelligent and driven.

And I didn’t really like the reveal that Greer had been pulling the strings the whole time. It made sense for the broader Samaritan plot but it undermined everything about Collier. I think I would have preferred if they just had Decima influence how the trial went rather than have them be responsible for the entire Vigilance movement.

The trial did create the set up for Harold to be self-sacrificing. Again. Still. Some more.

So much of Harold’s actions throughout the series seem to be motivated by guilt. Actually, remorse is probably more accurate. He only thinks he’s important in terms of what he can do for others. BRB my heart is breaking.

Another thing that got my wheels turning was this part with Control where she gives her experience on 9/11 as her motivation for undertaking the surveillance program, and I’m interested in how that reads to younger people and people who aren’t American.

I was 17 on 9/11 and it isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that you could feel the country change in real time. Control’s story of having the rest of her life motivated by that day isn’t at all rare. I know several people who signed up for the military on 9/12 or shortly thereafter.

Probably most of the people using this site weren’t even born on 9/11 and I wonder if Control’s story comes off as contrived or manipulative to you. I know that for me, I do feel the remove of 22 years. I know that 9/11 jokes and memes are pretty common now. But I don’t think that was the case when this aired. I think we were still too close to it then, and Control probably came off as sympathetic or at least doing the wrong thing for the right reason. I’m not sure this part of the show has aged well. But also Camryn Manheim’s performance is fantastic.

I find it super interesting that when I try to use gif search, the majority of gifs that come up, and the first ones, are ALL Shoot. I’m not sure if that’s because there’s just more of them or if Shoot fans tag their stuff differently or what. I didn’t embed any here because this was getting lengthy, but this scene was great, they have excellent chemistry, and I generally love how their dynamic is developing.

Fusco’s arrival was fantastic because I’m always happy when he shows up but also Root … apparently sent a message on??? with??? Bear? We’re not going to interrogate the mechanics of how Root got Bear out of the library while she was going after Samaritan but I was very glad Bear was there too.

Also! Fusco still doesn’t know about the Machine!!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh look, Hersh ends up being great and I’m kind of attached to him now. Of course he’s dead at the end.

Let’s talk about the Rinchiness. As always, we have John’s single-minded determination to get Harold back for the majority of the episode.

But then there is this oh so gentle and affectionate scene that I suspect lives in every Rincher’s heart.

Sigh.

And the ending. Goddamn the ending was gutting. RIP Library.

That’s a wrap on season 3! Thanks for sticking with me, y’all. Reminder that my ask box is open if you want to share your thoughts!

[usamamoweek]

Meet the Creators - Daikon

What username(s) and platform(s) can folx find you on? (Please include links!)

I write under the penname "Daikon", which was unfortunately already taken on Ao3 and Tumblr, so there I use @daikon1

I do also still technically have a FFN account, but it is no longer being maintained or updated.

(Fun Fact) What is your favorite kind of potato?

Oh gosh, I've spent like a week thinking about this and still don't have a good answer. It's probably either twice baked or french fries with some kind of condiment (ranch, BBQ, BBQ ranch, honey mustard, I could go on)

How long have you been creating works in fandom spaces? How long have you been active in the SM fandom?

I technically submitted my first fanfiction to a Buffy archive back in 2004 but MERCIFULLY they didn't end up sharing it on their site. I discovered FFN around 2007 but didn't start actually posting content (and then only sporadically) until 2009.

Regarding fandom spaces, I've come to and from the Sailor Moon fandom over the years; in 2005 I was OBSESSED with Alicia Blade and was dying every time she updated Love Potion #19. Over time, I wandered away and found other fandoms to invest in (shoutout to Kingdom Hearts) though I was much more of a lurker than anything. I didn't really find my way back to Sailor Moon until 2019 when I stumbled on @floraone (and started dying every time she updated The Unintentional Seduction of Chiba Mamoru). Ignoring one fluke-y and OOC piece from 2014, I've been writing for the SM fandom since mid-2020 and am hoping to stay here for a while :)

What type(s) of creative works do you usually make? (fanfics, digital art, cosplay)

I'm a strictly fanfic kind of girl.

What do you enjoy about creating for the SM fandom?

I love the characters and am low-key obsessed with the dynamic between Usagi and Mamoru. I started watching Sailor Moon when it was first airing in the US in 1995 and when I say that shit was formative for me, I am not exaggerating. My favorite relationship dynamic is definitely snarky, stupidly-in-love A seeks sunshine-y-but-perpetually-annoyed-with-them B.

Are you strictly UsaMamo or do you create for other pairings as well?

I don't mind having various sideships in my works, but I don't think I have the emotional investment in any other SM ships to actually write a piece centering them.

What inspires you to create works for Usagi and Mamoru?

TBH, I have been struggling a bit with inspiration of late (I had a bad bout of burnout early in the year that I'm still recovering from) so, you know, once I figure that out... XD

In general, I've noticed that music tends to be something I find very inspiring. The right lyric can shake up my thought processes and sometimes give me a whole piece of writing (see: then you showed up...) In the event that music isn't working, brainstorming with my beta, @floraone, can nearly always unstick me when I can't find any momentum.

If the question is supposed to be more of like, why UsaMamo, see above re: what I enjoy about creating for SM.

Do you tend to work on multiple projects (WIPs) simultaneously or try to finish one at a time?

I don't like to have multiple multichapters going at the same time if I can avoid it. I do tend to have a multichapter in the works, and will pause my active multichapter for a fandom event (such as a gift exchange or UsaMamo week) or if I have a plotbunny I can't shake. However, I tend to try to keep any side works short (ideally a one shot or a novella-length multichapter).

I also have a handful of ideas/story fragments that are basically paused in my drafts folder because I don't have the interest/bandwidth to tackle them at this time, but I might eventually come around to. In an ideal world, I would finish them one at a time

Do you prefer large projects (chaptered fics, webtoons/zines, highly detailed art) or small projects (one-shots or simple art)?

They both have their own challenges and rewards. I find it's much easier to hit a wall in a multichapter, whereas a oneshot you get to finish and push out and "check off", as it were. However, a multichapter tends to grow an audience and have folks invested in where it's going, which is both lovely and validating (and sometimes a lot of pressure!) Multichapters are a lot more of a commitment - I can get an idea for a oneshot and churn it out in a week when I'm feeling inspired, whereas a multichapter invariably takes more time and (at least for me) I don't feel like I can take on several at once in the same way I can tackle a oneshot plotbunny and keep moving. A oneshot is also more of a self-contained "complete thought" while a multichapter can be a bit more sprawling, which gives you more space to explore and innovate.

All that is to say, I'm not sure if I really have a strong preference one way or the other. I like both, for different reasons.

Are there any common themes, situations, tropes, or mediums in your work?

LOL so basically whatever I'm currently tackling in therapy tends to pop up in my writing. Grief and self-worth are big ones lately, which I think is part of the reason I'm feeling less inspired of late. While they are important things to process, I don't necessarily always want to be grappling with those heavy feelings during my fun creative times.

Also, you know. Idiots in love. Healthy and accurate portrayals of sexuality. Minako being a disaster queen. And when I can work it in, I love self-referencing my own works in a kind of multiversal invocation

Is there anything you haven’t explored artistically and would like to try?

Nothing's coming to mind! As mentioned, I'm a writer through-and-through, so I'm not interested in trying a new medium at this time. I think if I did come up with some form of experimental writing I wanted to play with, my beta would be delighted to support me, but right now I'm happy to stick to mostly traditional romantic comedies with a side of emotional processing.