#keep the same premise the same main themes and stuff

[nina-ya]

DILEMMAS I don’t know if I should write this law fic on work on personal things

[hyewka]

or can u suggest any txt fic here (preferably the long ones w chapters) that u enjoyed?

sorry for the extremely extremely late reply but i’ll list some long fics + txt series’s that ive enjoyed with some comments attached to each one. spoiler alert, a completed txt series is pretty hard to find lol

series

lover = lo$er (sub!gyu, virgin fic)

it would be easy to just straight up recommend every @/wildernessuntothemselves series and i might just succumb to that later on but this is pure submissive beomgyu heaven, served as my first real awakening and i would probably attribute most of my sub gyu writing to this fic alone. 10/10, has a love triangle bit and beomgyus kind of insane

criminal conscience (dom!gyu, crime au)

on the other side of the spectrum, this is pussy clenching dom beomgyu goodness and i dont think it gets better than this. the writing is so compelling it fully immerses you in the narrative, even im getting sucked in to beomgyu’s manipulation (whats new really), blaring red flags and all. its currently on hiatus though but i would catch up either way beomiracles is a pretty consistent writer, she’d probably pick it up sooner or later :)

mosquito (soobin)

sorry this is going to be all over the place lol but this is also still ongoing (its only two parts in) but this writer is absolutely insane. narrative feels fleshed out and though it mainly follows soobin’s perspective and feelings, i am quite enjoying it so far. it has some idol x idol action as well, not the main focus of course but it is written in detail

one way (dom!beomgyu, themes of sadism)

this ones a three parter and its completed. by the same writer mentioned previously (soobrat), very very good storytelling, keeps you on your toes and has a hold on your emotions but like mentioned, it has a bit of an extremity in the smut and it is undeniably toxic but its good

sneaky link (dom yeonjun, the other woman trope)

i havent read this in a while but i remember staying up all night reading all of it lol. i would probably not recommend this to people who really cant read infidelity since thats what the fic is based around but it isnt cast in a very favorable light anyway. really toxic, seriously good

fuck you series (sub gyu, enemies to lovers, band au)

its really cute and the e2l set up is believable enough since theyre band rivals. beomgyu is so so so cute in this even if a little insufferable to mc lol. i would also recommend fairyofshampgyu’s now live series but its currently on an indefinite hiatus (its sooo good as well though so if youre willing, you should check it out)

nabi (best friends to lovers beomgyu, no smut)

two parts in, not completed but im following it currently and god i love them together their dynamic is soooo fun to read, you wont get bored

jerk! (enemies to lovers, beomgyu fic, no smut)

its another band au and its also ongoing. there isnt a consistent update schedule so that might be a minus but the most recent chapter was from a month ago so its safe to say it hasnt been left in the dust (thank god). very very good writing, excited to see how their relationship takes off

bullying choi soobin (sub soobin)

submissive soobin and its good, of course im recommending this. its finished and a 4 parter

sugar (dom!yeonjun, dom!gyu)

unfortunately probably forever incomplete but i love it and i might actually go back to reading it for the third time

let me into your world (non smut beomgyu series)

i havent read a soulmate premise in sooo long so this was refreshing to read, good stuff

supermodel (dom gyu and sub i believe)

its just. Amazing. a two parter but a goodie

the city that never sleeps (bsf smut)

also two parts but both parts are pretty long, really good stuff

ok for the life of me i cannot find this one huening series where he was getting bullied by reader and they were secretly fucking?? that one was literally perfect submissive men shit so if you find it if youve struck gold

long full fics (6k+)

telepathy (fantasy, dom!gyu)

a little out of the box compared to all the fics ive recommended so far and thats what makes it so special and good

duality (dom!kai)

i actually havent read this one yet but i will soon, i just thought id add it here anyway since i know ill love it

killer instinct (taehyun fic)

very plot heavy and it centers taehyun mainly. i could go ahead and cheat and just list out every single koqabear fic lmao but this ones a gem, very happy i set aside the time to read it

the redemption of choi yeonjun (dom!yj)

im not personally a fan of the trope but when it was originally teased the smut sounded heavenly and honestly, it is. such a good dom yeonjun here but beware hes a little (a lot) mean lol. he changes by the end

like cat and mouse! (sub gyu, inexperienced)

again, worth the reading time investment. i love submissive gyu, he is everything here and more

love love love (sub gyu, royal au)

i have probably read this a total of 30 times

i hate you (enemy!beomgyu, dom beomgyu)

ok sorry im cheating here a bit this isnt long but its so good you should check it out anyway

[aroaceleovaldez]

what's your opinion on the trials of apollo series? (if you already have a post like this, you could link it below, i just haven't seen it if so)

I think it has an interesting concept and introduces some interesting worldbuilding, plus some nice new characters, but overall it's not executed well and is an unnecessary third series. A lot of TOA kind of ends up breaking the theses of the first series by creating a premise that basically every character involved needs to be retconned to be able to fit within. It also focuses way too heavily on unnecessary cameos and retcons/overcorrecting previous mistakes. Not to mention how much new stuff it introduces that is... not great. Altogether it's kind of a mess. But I can see promise in some of the core concepts.

My two main sort of main "takes" on how I think TOA could be improved is either: a.) remove Calypso from HoO and instead have her be re-introduced in TOA as a tritagonist in a trio with Apollo and Meg, with the focal point of the trio's dynamic being the intersection of their experiences and how they relate to one another - with a lot of emphasis on Calypso being a mirror to Apollo in both being stripped of their immortality and thrown into the mortal world and having been unfairly punished. Then have Calypso join the Hunt in approximately TTT (essentially her way of taking control of her own life again and regaining her immortality) so the finale is Meg and Apollo on their own and Calypso's absence is naturally felt because we're used to trio dynamics in the franchise. It'd be a great way to break the convention of the series while also playing with this feeling of loss but also hope leading up to the final fight in a meaningful way without having to lean so heavily on unnecessary (and poorly executed) character death. Calypso is gone because she got her happy ending, and now it's Meg and Apollo's turn.

or b.) - and this is apparently controversial - instead of having the protagonist be Apollo, have it be Ares. Otherwise the overarching plot is the same. This way you can keep the plot structure but not have to entirely retcon Apollo's character to fit the story concept. It also finally ties up that loose thread about Ares never seeing repercussions for his actions and allowing him to have a positive character arc that way more naturally touches upon events from the previous series. As a bonus it also allows for bringing PJO!Ares closer to how he's mythologically portrayed and examining some of his mythological themes and what exactly he's the god of. Mars is an agricultural god! Having his deuteragonist being a daughter of Demeter would be really fun to highlight that! Mythologically he's usually portrayed as a really good father! Let's allow him to have some character development where he stops being such a jerk!

One of my core problems with TOA is Apollo's character is retconned entirely for TOA to even begin, he doesn't have any actual true flaws that he needs to work on throughout his character arc, and by the end he's literally just back where he started with his characterization in PJatO. It's a total net-zero. Why? Having Ares be the protagonist instead would be a great opportunity to take his currently very stagnant character from PJatO (and the very little he shows up in HoO) and have him change dramatically for the better. Doing so would also fit way more with the themes of the first series.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

arcane s2 - review

okay so now that i have given my two cents on caitvi and i've had enough time to digest s2 of arcane, what do i think about the rest of it?

overall, i have mixed feelings about it. i didn't hate it but i feel like a lot of the themes and ideas were poorly executed, especially compared to s1.

(huge spoilers to arcane below!)

but let me start with the positives:

the animation OBVIOUSLY. huge props to the animators, s1 was already phenomenonal and s2 lived up to the hype, animation-wise. the fight scenes especially were just *mwah* chef's kiss.

the character designs were great. caitlyn looks a lot prettier with the middle parting. vi's emo phase is really hot. jinx's designs in the alternate universe and the finale were iconic. jayce's beard and disheveled look was just chef's kiss. jesus viktor was hot as fuck.

the voice actors did an amazing job obviously, and i didn't expect anything less from them.

jayce's and viktor's relationship was so good despite not having all that much screentime when you think about it. they interact in the beginning when viktor wakes up from his hex-coma and then reunite and fight and make up in the final few episodes. but because of their relationship that was built up in the first season, it all worked out smoothly and made for a very natural progression in their relationship.

jinx's redemption was pretty good. not the BEST but it was carried out well enough, especially in just 9 episodes. i didn't feel like it was rushed or undeserved. her sacrifice in the end was heartbreaking but it felt natural and not shoehorned in for some added angst.

and now for the negatives:

1. the pacing was really bad, in my opinion. they had only 9 episodes but they stuffed in so many subplots into this season that it felt overwhelming.

maybe i'm just stupid but i couldn't keep up with half of the stuff that was going on and some parts of the finale didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

like the whole storyline with mel and ambessa and the black rose was a blur to me. i honestly don't know what happened in the end after ambessa dies.

the whole deal with singed and vander and whatnot was also really murky. like i get the overall premise but it was really hard for me to grasp every single detail.

maybe this is just a me problem and i'm too dumb to follow more than two storylines at the same time. but s1 already had a lot going on and it was still a tad bit easier to follow.

s2 was just crammed with a whole bunch of different characters pursuing different goals and facing different obstacles, 9 episodes weren't enough to give all of it a satisfying conclusion. and as a result, some of the arcs felt rushed and unfinished.

like what happened to the whole found family thing with sevika, jinx and isha? they were beginning to get closer and form a good relationship but then suddenly, sevika is pushed out of the image and we never see how she reacts to jinx and isha's death.

2. while i don't think that caitvi is abusive, i still don't think the ship was great. it was just super rushed and there is a grain of truth to what caitvi antis are saying.

like yeah, caitlyn being an enforcer and seeing nothing wrong with it was.. questionable. wasn't the whole point of s1 that enforcers were ruining the lives of the people in zaun? wasn't police brutality and classism the main theme of this series? how come vi's parents were killed by enforcers and she was unfairly imprisoned for years by enforcers, but somehow she ends up dating an enforcer?

before s2 came out, i expected caitlyn to give up her job after realizing how corrupt it was. i thought that would be the natural progression of her arc, especially since she's seen how much the people of the undercity has suffered at the hands of enforcers. but nope, she keeps her job and it's never addressed in the end.

i don't think that caitlyn hitting vi once out of frustration and once out of necessity makes her a domestic abuser. but i do think it's kind of icky for vi to end up in a relationship with an enforcer, and for the show to frame it in a semi-positive manner. it's not entirely romanticized but the problems with it aren't really addressed either.

3. i feel like the themes of classism wasn't as well addressed in this season as it was in the first one. the first season had a strong message and it stuck to it. the second season was all over the place and then suddenly, there's viktor and the whole glorious evolution or whatever, and the conflict between piltover and zaun is pushed aside.

i like that sevika becomes part of the council in the end but is she the only one representing the undercity? is one person enough to speak for all these people in zaun? at least it's true to real life, i guess.

overall, i felt like the message was a lot more murky in this season. this ties to my first complaint because while s1 had a lot of storylines too, they followed a common theme. war, classism, and how privilege and the lack thereof affects people. s2's storylines are just all over the place and none of them seem to follow a theme. at least some of them could have been discarded.

4. i briefly mentioned this before but the fact that jinx stops experiencing her hallucinations never made sense to me. especially after she accidentally killed silco, shouldn't they get worse? it is implied that she has schizophrenia and c-ptsd so i really don't understand how silco's death suddenly got rid of most of her symptoms.

she still sees and hears the hallucinations from time to time and her mental state is definitely far from stable, but it was still such a huge jump from her psychotic breakdown in the s1 finale.

so yeah, these are my thoughts about arcane s2. there were more pros than cons but the cons still outweigh the pros, simply because of how much impact they had on the plot.

i'm generally not one to demand more seasons or episodes out of a series where the writers have already told the story they wanted to tell, but arcane s2 was so rushed and so filled to the brim with different characters and storylines, i couldn't help but feel like it would have benefited from having more episodes to play everything out more slowly.

i still liked this series a lot and i enjoyed watching it, but i'm not blind to its flaws and i try not to be biased.

[okayto]

Mini-Review: Ya Boy Kongming!

General of the Three Kingdoms, famous military strategist Kongming met his demise in the Battle of Wuzhang Plains in 234. On his deathbed, he wishes that his next life would be in a peaceful place, free from bloodshed... and was sent straight to modern Japan, appearing in the middle of a costume party for Halloween in the club district of Tokyo. The partygoers lure him to a nightclub, where he meets an aspiring singer, and his second life begins.

It would be easy to play with the "fish out of water" aspect of the premise. With nearly 1,800 years between his death and reappearance (can you call it a rebirth if he just manifests wholly as an adult?), the differences between Kongming's culture of origin and modern Shibuya make this essentially a reverse isekai despite taking place all in the same world.

However, the series sidesteps those expectations in the first episode. Yes, Kongming is somewhat confused when he figures out what happened—having appeared in Shibuya on Halloween, he first assumes he's in Hell, and it's not until the next morning that he figures out he's not—but he grasps both his situation and many aspects of modern life quickly. Even quicker, he declares he will be a strategist for an aspiring singer who blew him away the night before.

While the singer, Eiko, is its emotional heart, the show hinges on Kongming's strategies: getting Eiko's music in front of people, avoid traps set by competing music acts in the form of simultaneously-scheduled concerts or unideal locations, etc. He is very fun to watch: cunning, steadfastly polite, wholeheartedly believing in his cause, and 100% not lying about who he is.

That last point adds humor to the show, because modern humans understandably do not think "the guy wearing Three Kingdoms-era cosplay who knows a ton about that era is actually an ancient Chinese strategist," they think "this guy sure knows his stuff and is dedicated to the bit," though there are times when characters definitely consider whether he's telling the truth. Ultimately, it's hard to tell to what degree the main characters believe (or not) if Kongming is who he says he is—personally, I think several appear to waver between believing—but that's not the point of the show.

The point is, despite the fantastic (in the sense of fantasy) premise, Kongming is a strategist, and strategize he will: no longer for bloody warfare, but instead for music. How can Eiko, who touched his heart, reach a wider audience than her nightclub?

The series wouldn't work without Eiko, and she's a likeable heroine, trying to balance her goals and passion in music with the realities of needing money in adult life. She has a good voice—I enjoyed the music in this series, the EDM fitting nicely in the setting—and isn't a one-dimensional, happy-go-lucky idol like I might've feared upon hearing the show's premise.

The expanded cast is good, too, from the bar owner (an enthusiastic fan of the Three Kingdoms era delighted to have in Kongming someone who can actually talk about it, yet still a business-savvy character) to rap battler Kabetaijin to a variety of music industry-connected folks.

Verdict

English dub? Yes, with well-fitting voices. Songs are left undubbed (though subtitled).

Visuals: Modern, shiny, and colorful!

Worth watching? Yes. It has a very fun premise—ancient military strategist now working as small-time EDM musician manager—that never loses its playfulness, while also staying away from slapstick by keeping Eiko and her struggles in the spotlight. The balance is done well, holding your attention throughout, leaving you wondering both whatEiko will do, and what Kongming will come up with.

Also, it has just the catchiest opening theme song.

Where to watch (USA, June 2025): HiDive, Hulu, Blu-ray

Click my “reviews” tag below or search “mini review” on my blog to find more!

[crosslinks]

Hello! This is CrossLinks, an AU for the Legend of Zelda where the various heroes of Hyrule all meet and interact. Focusing on the various different versions of Link and Zelda living in the House of Hylia, their mission to protect the various timelines, as well as their everyday life and the chaos that comes with it. 

Whilst this is similar in premise to other such Link-Meet AU’s; I am keeping it as something distinct, and will be putting my own spin on things. 

A brief introduction to the world of this AU, plus some additional character notes, are also available here on A03.

⚔️ Synopsis 

The events of CrossLinks occur outside of any one timeline or continuity, starting some time after all the different universes of the LoZ series became connected. Some characters, like Luci (Time), Levi (Sky), Ludo (Worlds) or Ravio are able to travel freely between universes thanks to magic. Others meanwhile rely on gateways/rifts/portals/etc.

They operate out of a shared base known as ‘The House of Hylia, a confusing five-story mess of a building constructed around a great Deku Tree that kept on having increasingly-unstable extra rooms added on as more Links joined the group, bringing pieces of their homeworld with them. It’s located in a small forest somewhere in the Sacred Realm, because it allows for easy access to different universes. 

With their powers combined: they are the CrossLinks (cue credits). A giant, chaotic found family of Links, Zeldas, and a Ravio! Their main objective is technically to use their combined forces to help protect each of their individual universes from harm, as well as help with general timeline upkeep- but if there’s one thing every Link is great at, it’s getting distracted doing sidequests, so about 90% of their time is instead spent doing shenanigans instead.

⚔️ Who are the Links?

There are 15 major members of the CrossLinks, with representatives from every mainline game. The big difference you might notice is that they each have names now! It takes some getting used to, but I personally prefer it to referring to each one by their title. Nothing against those that prefer titles- but having characters called ‘Legend’, ‘Hyrule’ or ‘Time’ just seemed awkward when I tried to write it. It’s a purely personal preference, but it does mean that I’ll be calling them different things. They are still named ‘Link’- they just picked nicknames for convenience; and they all start with L because ~theming~ They’re names are as follows:

Sky: Levi (Skyward Sword)

Minish: Lilian/Lil (Minish Cap)

Four Swords: Leon (All of ‘Four Swords’)

Time: Luci (Oot + Majora)

Legend: Lukan (LttP, Oracles, Awakening)

New Hyrule: Ludo (LbtW + Triforce Heroes)

Hyrule: Lorin (LoZ + Adventure of Link)

Twilight: Lyka (Twilight Princess)

Wind: Luca (WW + Phantom Hourglass)

Trains: Lawrence (Spirit Tracks)

Wild: Luz (BotW + TotK)

Wisdom: Leif (Echoes of Wisdom)

And the same is true for the Zeldas; namely Zeta (BotW) and Zaria (EoW). Other characters who already have names, like Ravio, as well as Shiek or Tetra will just go by their existing ones. 

⚔️ What to expect 

Fics, currently. I can’t draw, or do much creatively, but I can write! How often I do this is going to vary a lot, depending on time/motivation/etc. 

CrossLinks currently has no plot. It’s just episodic, slice-of-life stuff focusing on the Links, their missions, and the dynamics they have with one another. Whilst generally on the lighter side, with more comedy or ‘fluff’- I still might go into some darker/more serious themes, and might even get slightly serialised in the form of some multi-part fics, or some light continuity over time. But generally, I think the fics should be able to be read in any order. 

Thank you for taking the time to read that, and I hope you enjoy the AU!

[burntoutdaydreamer]

Book Openings I Love

Deciding how to start your book is an important and daunting question. I put together a list of book openings I love- and what makes them so good- to help brainstorm.

If you have any you'd like to add, please do! Let's keep this post ongoing.

1) Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Anyone who read this book as a kid will know exactly what I mean.

'The Lightning Thief' starts with a warning to the reader to stop reading the book immediately and believe whatever lies their parents have told them. Otherwise, 'they' might come for them.

An adult might roll their eyes at this, but as a kid, you believe it. You find yourself wondering if what you're reading is true. It makes you feel like you're a part of this story- even if you haven't realized it yet. So, as you read on, you might end up looking for the signs and clues that this world of Greek gods and monsters exists around you in real life. The lines between fiction and reality blur, if only for a little while, and you become immersed in the story, because on some level, you can't help but want it to be real.

It also leaves you feeling that by reading this, you're doing something forbidden- something dangerous. Exactly the kind of stuff that gets your heart racing as a kid.

2) Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Life of Pi is one of my favorite books of all time, and the beginning has a lot to do with it.

"This book was born as I was hungry. Let me explain."

The book begins with an author's note that's not exactly an author's note. It begins as any author's note might- the writer explains how his previous publication was a bust, and that he took a trip to India to reinvigorate his creativity as he tried to write a new book that ultimately sputtered and died. That was, until he met a man who promised to tell him a story that will make him believe in God. The man then told him to seek out the main character, who is alive, and living in Canada. When the author does, he agrees that his story is indeed a story to make one believe in God, and commits to writing it down as a book through the main character's point of view, only with the disclaimer "any inaccuracies or mistakes are mine."

As they follow this progression, because of the way it's all structured, there's a good chance the reader might find themselves asking "Wait, is this a true story?"

The answer is of course no, and anyone who's read through most of the book would probably figure that out easily. However, if you get to the ending, you realize the question "Is this a true story?" has significant implications for the story's themes- and that makes them all the more resonant.

TL;DR: Life of Pi's beginning does the same as The Lightning Thief's beginning, only in a less obvious way that's far more effective on adults.

3) One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

The premise of "One of Us is Lying" is that someone killed a boy named Simon, and that the people in the room when it happened- who just so happen to be the four POV characters- are the main suspects. The book then starts off my immediately putting the reader in the scene where Simon dies.

Now I'm not sure if this is a common mystery novel set up (I haven't read enough of this genre to know), but it's an effective one. This has the effect of getting the reader engaged in the story right from the get-go. Instead of passively reading the chain of events, the people who picked up the book are already going to be searching in between the lines for any clues on 'who done it.'

But not only is the reader looking all the little details in the scene, but they're also going to be questioning the POV of the person narrating the chapter. From the very start of the story, the reader gets immersed in several levels of tension that hook them and carry them through the rest of the story.

4) The Giver by Lois Lowry

"It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word, Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen."

The first chapter begins with a scene of an aircraft flying overhead a peaceful community, and a child narrator who's overly careful about using the right words to describe things. The narrator's trait doesn't appear to be unique though- a quick flashback to a moment in his classroom shows that this tendency has been drilled into him, just as with any other kid. The reader immediately gets the sense that something is off. What that something is, though, is a bit harder to pin.

There doesn't seem to be anything nefarious going on, aside from maybe the mention of a citizen getting 'released' after the aircraft landed and everything calmed down. Only, later in that chapter, being 'released' gets mentioned twice again at his family dinner, as his parents discuss how their work went that day. But otherwise, the dinner seems to be a normal and mundane affair with an emotionally mature, functional family. Maybe a little too functional.

So, when Jonas decides that the feeling he's experiencing is 'apprehensive,' the readers start to feel that way too.

5) A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

The preface and first chapter of "A Natural History of Dragons" does a great job of introducing one of the series's greatest assets: its main character.

"One benefit of being an old woman now, and moreover one who has been called a "national treasure," is that there are very few who can tell me what I may and may not write."

In the preface of the book, we find out exaclty who the main character/narrator is: a famous Victorian-era woman and accomplished dragon scholar, who's too old to care about being a 'proper lady' anymore. What's more, she's writing a series of memoirs about her life to satisfy the many adoring fans who have been writing her letters in hopes of hearing about the juicy gossip of her famous expeditions.

The narration oozes with personality from the very beginning, and that's before we even get to meet any dragons. Following this introduction, we get to see where her passion for dragon studies began: collecting little dragon "sparklings" as a kid. While her fictional readers would know these little creatures as commonplace in her world, the actual readers don't, since this world is as new to us as it was to her as a child. As such, the reader gets to share in her childlike wonder, and gets excited by the promise to discover the secrets of dragons right along with her.

[pikolswonderland]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Urban Conspiracy...EXPLAINED!

HELLO EVERYONE!! I've been putting this off for a while now, but I think it's finally time I make an explanation post for my original TMNT iteration, Urban Conspiracy! However, before we begin, there is some stuff I need to clarify first.

This is NOT a full explanation of the WHOLE iteration, such as complete descriptions of characters and the ENTIRE storyline (those will be saved for future posts). This is just an introduction to the main premise, characters, world building, and lore. Secondly, some aspects of this iteration may potentially change as time goes on (for anyone who read my ComputerBug fic set in this iteration, there are already some significant differences between when I uploaded that fic and now). Finally, this iteration will discuss and portray some potentially triggering themes and content, including in this post. Please keep this in mind and proceed with caution. Also, this post is going to be a bit long, so watch out for that as well!

Now, with that all out of the way, let’s begin!

15 years ago, a mysterious tragedy occurred in New York City, known as the TCRI Disaster. The TCRI (Technological Cosmic Research Institute), was a government organization stationed in New York, dedicated to researching anomalous scientific phenomena and materials.

One night, however, a huge disaster occurred causing a large portion of the facility to be completely destroyed and exploded, completely out the blue. As a result, many of the scientists, visitors, and animals used for experiments were killed or went missing. To this day, nobody knows what really happened that night. Who or what caused the disaster, and what happened to the people and animals whose bodies were never found?

One thing was for certain though, something shifted within the general populous. Even long prior to the disaster occurring, there was already a famous urban legend that plagued the streets of New York. It was believed that there existed a mysterious substance known as the ooze, a bright green glowing sludge said to have the ability to turn normal humans and animals into mutant monsters. Yet still, despite the numerous reported sightings of these so-called mutants roaming the city, no concrete evidence existed that proved that the mutants and the ooze actually existed. However, things started to change after the TCRI Disaster. The reported sighting of mutants skyrocketed, and more and more people started to speculate the possibility of what was once a simple urban legend...could actually be true...and whether or not the TCRI Disaster and these mutant sighting were somehow linked.

But whether or not you actually believed it or thought it was all bullshit, what nobody realized was that the legends...were all true. A certain bunch of turtles could attest to that.

Leo, Ralph, Donnie and Mikey were all originally just normal baby turtles, born in the TCRI laboratory to be used for experiments. In reality, the ooze...or by its more proper title as mutagen, did, in fact, actually exist. The mutagen had the ability to mutate any organism within the kingdom of Animalia into hybrid of it and the last organism (also within the kingdom of Animalia) it had made physical contact with.

In the case of the four brothers, it was the humans that cared for them within the laboratory, turning them essentially into humanoid turtle people. Though in the case of their adoptive father, Splinter, his situation was a little different. Once a famous action movie star by the name of Hamato Yoshi, he just so happened to be visiting the TCRI facility when the disaster occurred and having come in contact with one of the lab rats within the facility, his fate was sealed. He was now stuck as a humanoid rat with a bunch of turtle children to raise, who just so happened to be mutated in the same disaster as he was.

Yet despite them technically not being entirely human, at least in their bodies, they were human within their brains and hearts. They had human lifespans, they thought like humans, they talked like humans, they were essentially...humans. However, the outside world was too dangerous for them, if anyone ever found out about the existence of mutants, who knows what terrible things could happen! They had to stay safe, to stay hidden. They made their home in an abandoned subway tunnel, right underneath an old 24/7 internet cafe, only occasionally leaving for quick trips on the surface. Additionally, Splinter decided to teach and train his sons in the art of ninjitsu, so they could fight and defend for themselves, just in case.

However, on the brother's 15th birthday, 15 years since the TCRI Disaster, 15 years since they were mutated, 15 years since they became this weird little family, Splinter decided to do something. He believed the turtles were strong, old, and responsible enough to go to the surface, all by themselves, without the supervision of their dear father. The four teenage boys were excited and overjoyed, finally being able to have their first real taste of freedom that night! There was only one rule, don't let any humans know about you...

...unfortunately, that rule just so happened to be broken in the exact same night. At least this teenage human girl by the name of April O'Neil is more than happy to keep quiet about the existence of mutants, especially since these four mutant turtles just saved her life as well. The only reason their secret even got out was thanks to them being suddenly attacked out-of-the-blue by a bunch of members of the Foot!

The Foot was said to be a mysterious organized crime syndicate from Japan but stationed in New York. Little was known about them and their goals, all that was known was that they were extremely dangerous and not to be trifled with. However, many people also believed the Foot were having an increasing interest in the rumors about the mutants. People have slowly been going missing without a trace over the past 15 years, and with that being just around the same time the Foot had shown up, and when the TCRI Disaster happened, there was indefinitely something strange going on. Something bad was happening, and it's going to be up to these mutant turtles and their new friend (and some future friends as well) to get to the bottom of it. From mutants, to gangsters, vigilantes, robots, crazy scientists, an underground society, and interdimensional aliens, things are certainly going to be interesting.

However, one thing is for certain, good old New York City is about to get a whole lot weirder!

Special thanks to @catonamatchbox, @glitter-alienz, and @acidichcl for inspiring me to make my own TMNT iteration and for accidentally really getting me into this franchise at all! I'll be making some more explanation posts in the future as well. Also, I encourage you to send me asks for this iteration based on this and this Ask Game as well, I tend to have an easier time explaining things by being asked questions! My ask box is always open! Until then, I'll see you all soon!

Ɀረ ዐ𐌄ዪᏵ፱𐌐ቹ𐌐ል, Ᏽ፱𐌐ረ ክ𐌄ዪ የ𐌁ጊᕓል𐌕 𐌔፪𐌄 𐋅ቻ ክ𐌙ሃ. Ᏽ፱𐌐 𐌓፱𐌍፪𐌅 Ꮦ፱ᕓየ𐌵 𐌄ዪᕓፕ𐌀ቻ ፪𐌉ዪ𐌄 𐌁ⶴ𐌄 𐌵፪Ɀዪ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 𐌀፪Ᏽ Ꝋዪ ዪᏵዪ𐌄ል𐌍ሃ, 𐌀፪ ጊ𐌍ፏᏵዪ𐌄 Ꮦ፱𐌍ፏ, Ꮦዪ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 𐌔ህ𐌀ዓ ር𐌍ቹ𐌍ዓᕓቻ𐌐. ህ𐌔 ᕓፏ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 𐌀፪Ᏽ Ꝋዪ ነ𐌁ቹ ⶴ𐌅, ፏ𐌵ዪ𐌀 ᕓፏ ፓᕓሃ𐌙 Ꝋዪ ነ𐌁ቹ ፪𐋅ቹ የ𐌵ህ𐌙ዓ𐌄ዪ𐌀. ነ𐌁ቹ ፏ𐌵ዪ ፕ𐌙፪𐌄ረ ፪𐌔 𐌁ⶴ𐌄 𐌙ህ𐌉ዪ𐌅 𐌍ል𐌒 Ᏽ፱𐌐 𐌕ሃ𐌁ፓᕓል𐌕 𐌕ቹ𐌐ዪ𐌀 ᏖህᏵ፱ᕓል ፪𐋅ቹ ዐ𐌙፪𐌁ዓ, 𐌔፪𐌄 ᕓፏ ጊ𐌍ሸ𐌐ቻ ⶴ𐌅 Ꮦ፱𐌁 Ꮦዪ ክ𐌄ዪ.

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga 2024 Year End Retrospective - Twitch and Moving Past the Sewer Kingdom

This is part of a yearlong retrospective since I’m halfway through the Green Giant Saga since I started work on it very late last year.

As fun as I had writing Twitch, I do think there are a lot of improvements to be made, especially since Twitch had a decent amount of focus in this first half of the story, being a main character with substantial focus for 6 out of 10 episodes, specifically on his relationship with Zac.

Let’s start with the premise of the character, which has always been the premise of the character since I roleplayed him in high school. The premise is built out of the motivation he had in the old lore in which Twitch is trying to recreate his sentience. In Green Giant Saga, Twitch is a mutated rat who declared himself king of the sumps because he’s the monster with the biggest stash. By his logic, if you kill a creature (human or otherwise), you get to steal their things and the more things you have, the more security and luxury you have in a cutthroat environment like the inhabitable sumps. In this case, he truly thrived, accumulating more and more stuff for his throne.

As Twitch accumulated more wealth, he started to get more lonely. He read fantasy books and romance books that told stories of companionship that he truly wanted, but he’s always been taught that the sumps were to kill or be killed. The people that you put your trust in can always backstab you or exterminate you to steal your stash. As such, Twitch didn’t try to make friends the normal way, he aims to recreate his sentience and make more mutated rats. If he’s their creator who gave them life, surely that would make them loyal to him. However, he keeps failing and failing and failing in his sentience experiments, leading to more rat corpses in his lair than he knew what to do with. This was until one day, Twitch looted a special green goopy ingredient in the aftermath of what was, unknown to him, a warden raid into Zac’s home. When he combined it together, he finally created his first subject: not a mutated rat like himself, but the Zaunite Amorphous Combatant.

However, Zac didn’t act like the optimal servant that Twitch wanted. Zac had radically different morals, attitudes, and beliefs that frustrated him. There are many times when Zac would actively disobey him and go against his wishes. He wants him to be so much better than what he got; there are times when he wants to create a better subject, but he can’t give up on him. Too much blood, sweat, tears and dead rats were burned to get to his first sentient subject. What does that say about him if he couldn’t even make this first relationship work, and so, a lot of Twitch’s arc is him trying to make his relationship with Zac work in the context of him being the sewer king, a delusion based on his own beliefs. 

(Art by PirateSylph on Twitter / X)

In general, I think this is a good premise in the context of the Green Giant Saga. A major theme of the story is resolving the differences between a childlike fantasy to the real world. For Zac, it’s his image of superheroism, and for Twitch, it’s being a self-proclaimed king. It also emphasizes themes of empathy. Throughout the relationship, Zac and Twitch’s empathy for each other gets tested. In particular, this core belief that “the only subjects I can trust are those that I create” is set up to be challenged with the nature of how Twitch recreated Zac from his remains. What happens when he finds out that he didn’t actually create him?

However, in execution, I think there are some problems with it. The main problem I have that I’m looking to resolve moving forward is that Twitch’s character plotlines feel too centered around Zac. Zac is currently the main vector for Twitch’s development. I think this is fine at the start, especially with how possessive Twitch is, but I do imagine it getting repetitive. I get that sometimes people need to learn the same lesson multiple times, but Twitch learning to respect Zac’s wishes and compromise twice in a row isn’t exactly great. I still like “Monster under the Trashbags” and “Zac’s Day Off” and they both have their differences, but that’s not great for character growth and I’m going to try to avoid that same arc if I can.

 I also want more stories exploring his internalized logic of how “the natural sumps” work, mirroring how people would internalize systemic abuses as “part of the real world”. This is 100% being challenged by Twitch’s reaction to Zac’s heroic deeds (Puffcap Adventure and especially Fresh Sump Blood in particular) but I think we can challenge them more directly. It allows Twitch to be developed in a vector other than his relationship with Zac in addition to exploring the themes of systemic abuse.

Another improvement that I want to make is to have more opportunities for Zac to learn from Twitch. So far, most of the stories are Twitch learning from Zac which makes the relationship feel very one-sided. Granted, I think Twitch has a lot more to learn from Zac than vice-versa, but I wanted it to be mutually beneficial in which both are learning from each other. This is already getting addressed in the next story I’m writing (coming out mid-january), but I do want to look for other opportunities for Twitch to offer Zac something. 

I also wonder if I’m not being funny enough with Twitch? I think the latest stories in particular don’t show his more zany, comedic side more often, and instead display his more desperate, greedy, and possessive side. It’s funny because back when I did the roleplay blog, I thought I leaned super hard on the comedic side and now it’s the opposite problem, and if I want to write Twitch well, I need to strike a really good balance between the two. I think I noticed this when I went over some of the cover ideas of the current stories and found that a decent chunk of them has Twitch looking miserable or paranoid. Writers do love torturing characters I suppose, but I shouldn’t be too hard on him. 

Negatives aside, I do think a good dynamic is starting to form between the two (at least Fresh Sump Blood and the current story I’m working on). Zac is starting to become the reckless moral heart of the story, wanting to do good by everyone sometimes through stupid actions, and Twitch is the one that makes sure Zac doesn’t bite off more than he can chew through his paranoia and caution. Through Zac, Twitch is starting to learn a worldview beyond basic violence and greed and through Twitch, Zac is growing more confident in his heroism. I do think more work needs to be done to develop since a lot of the relationship’s initial teething problems were ironed out in Zac’s Day Off, the last Twitch/Zac episode. Twitch, in general, also just has the strongest voice out of any POV character in the series with how distinct and loud he can be. I wonder if it comes off as annoying sometimes.

I hope I can make good on these goals in the later half of the series, but I still think my Twitch is decent, albeit a bit repetitive sometimes. Definitely better than the nothing Riot has for him right now. It's so weird to say I'm more proud of my work on Zac than my work on Twitch because in my high school roleplaying days, it was the exact opposite.

—————————————————–

If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page (Character Insights and such)

[burymeinwillow]

Hellooo I didn't see someone asking this before but maybe I'm blind. I was thinking of starting to watch Bonanza and Dr. Quinn. I am interested but I'm a little afraid of how big they are so to speak? I thought asking you what you like about them would be cool? Your posts are so nice!

I love westerns and I don't need romance romance but I am also not feeling the newer series like Yellowstone if that makes sense? So I thought maybe Bonanza and Dr. Quinn would be the ones to try.

Hello!! Both VERY good and fun shows!! But yes both can definetly feel like quite the undertaking, especially Bonanza (looks at the 14 seasons)

If I'm to say what I like about Bonanza we might be here a while and this post will get very long, it is my favorite tv show after all, but I'll try to keep it short! I really overrall enjoy the characters and family aspect of it. All the adventures and situations they get into and how they interact with each other and the people around them. Bonanza is more of an anthology series, where each episode has it's own plot and the series doesn't follow one main plot (well I guess the main plot is following The Cartwrights and the stuff they get into each episode). The anthology-ness of it sometimes might make it easier to watch, cause honestly you can kinda skip around the episodes and seasons and watch the ones that you think sound interesting plotwise if you don't feel like starting from the beginning and watch all the episodes (or if you start at the begining to familiarize yourself with the characters and get tired of watching it in order). But keep in mind this is a long TV show that started in 1959 and ended in 1973, so the show look and feel rather different in the later seasons than in the first ones, but naturally it still follows the same premise. You REALLY do not have to watch all of it in order to enjoy it.

In Bonanza you kinda have everything. You got humor, drama, action, extreme sillyness and more dramatic darker themes and lots of other things and I really like that! there is romance also but it's more like.... what girl is Joe dating this episode and then you never hear about her again. and also

While Dr. Quinn is probably best to watch from the start and work your way through it. It's alot more heavy on the romance side tho (the cheesy campy good kind of romance mind you). It's a very feel-good and sweet TV show that also isn't afraid to get dark and dramatic and also being cheerful. I like it cause it gives me a wierd 90's romance drama nostalgia that I really love along with family drama.

HOWEVER if you feel like trying out some other older western shows that aren't as lengthy as Bonanza and Dr. Quinn, I can recommend these:

The Magnificant Seven (1998-2000)

The Young Riders (1989-1992)

Bordertown (1989-1991)

Little Men (1998-1999)

I also totally understand not vibing with newer shows like Yellowstone! Personally I really don't watch alot of newer westerns cause they feel to gritty for me. I prefer the vibe of the 60's-90's westerns.

[cherry-valentine]

Spring 2024 Anime Season

Spring 2024 Anime

Note: I’ve decided to stop writing about new seasons of shows I’ve written about multiple times before.

Tadaima, Okaeri is this season’s soothing, feel-good show. It’s also this season’s “please have babies we are begging you!” show. It follows married couple Hiromu and Masaki and their daily lives raising their adorable children. Something to note is that while the couple here are both men, the series really isn’t about their relationship but rather about their roles as parents. The two of them face discrimination for being together, but not because they’re both men (same sex relationships seem to be common in this world). It’s because Hiromu is an alpha and Masaki is an omega. Alphas can get any type pregnant and omegas (regardless of sex) can become pregnant by anyone. Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be any difference between them and regular human beings. The show ends up being fairly realistic (especially if you sub in homophobia for the alpha/omega stuff). Overall it’s a mild, sweet series. The strength of the show lies in just how cute their young children are, the family drama surrounding the couple, and the endearing friendships they’ve built. The animation and art are fine for this type of show, with comforting pastel colors and gentle music. Recommended. 

Oblivion Battery is a baseball sports anime about a battery duo who dominated middle school baseball. They were so talented that all the top schools offered them scholarships. But instead of continuing their path to becoming pros, the catcher Kaname gets amnesia after an injury. This causes him to forget everything he knows about baseball, and his cold, calculating personality reverts to the silly goofball he would have been without the discipline of baseball. He decides to go to a no name school with no baseball team, but his pitcher/best friend Kiyomine follows him, and with the help of some former rivals, they decide to start a new team. The main draw of this series is the unique premise. The amnesia angle is interesting, and the relationship between the two boys in the battery is fun.  Kiyomine is the quiet, stoic type who balances out Kaname’s zany antics well. Kaname himself is saved from being too annoying by being voiced by Mamoru Miyano. The baseball seems reasonably realistic so far, and all the rules are conveniently explained to us via the characters explaining them to Kaname. The animation is nice but the character designs are almost aggressively unattractive. All the characters’ faces look too small for their heads. It’s a strange image, but I guess I’ve gotten used to it. I can’t resist a sports anime with a unique premise. 

 A Condition Called Love is a shoujo anime about a young girl named Hotaru and the boy who falls in love with her, Hananoi. While Hotaru is a fairly average girl, Hananoi is very good looking and popular with girls. The catch is that Hananoi comes on way too strong and has several well-meaning but toxic methods of showing his love. His feelings are very intense from the beginning, and the first episode might leave you scratching your head because he seems to fall madly in love with her out of nowhere. I will only say that this gets addressed later. But right away, it’s clear that Hananoi has several red flags. He’s possessive, gets jealous easily, is self destructive, and has no interest in maintaining any relationships besides the one he has with Hotaru. I appreciate that the series rightfully points out that this is concerning behavior and Hotaru refuses to have a relationship like that. She makes it clear that she will keep all her friendships and she earnestly tries to help Hananoi change. My main issue with the series is that it seems to be a bit wishy-washy with these themes, never taking them quite far enough to have a strong impact. And sometimes Hananoi will do something I think is pretty egregious and Hotaru just doesn’t seem to mind. While watching, I’m often reminded of the manga Love and Heart, which explores similar themes but goes much harder with them. Of course it has the luxury of a college aged cast instead of high school students, but I still feel like this show could have delved a little deeper. I do like the explanation for Hananoi’s behavior and outlook. It makes perfect sense and makes him a much more likable character to have that context. The art and animation are okay, but Hotaru tends to be drawn with exactly one facial expression and I wish she was more visually expressive. Hananoi has a very pleasing design, as do most of the supporting cast. Despite my mild complaints, the show is still very good and at least touches on topics that aren’t often explored in a realistic way in shoujo. 

Wind Breakers is one of my favorite new shows this season. It follows Sakura, a high school boy who excels at and enjoys fighting, starting as a new student at a high school known for its fighting delinquents. He goes there with the intention of fighting his way to the top and taking over, setting up our expectations about what sort of series this will be. Instead, he discovers that the delinquents are more like a team/found family and they’re basically heroes to the small town the school is located in. They patrol the streets, protect the townsfolk, repair damages, etc. Sakura, somewhat surprisingly, finds this all very cool, and is happy to join up. The school is led by the very charming, very cool, and very strong Umemiya, whom many people have compared to Jujutsu Kaisen’s Gojo (they look somewhat similar and even share a voice actor). He’s definitely a highlight of the show. The character designs are varied and interesting, and the animation is nice. The fight scenes look pretty great. The soundtrack is excellent. Highly recommended. 

Yatagarasu is a show I almost dropped after the first episode, but I’m really glad I kept watching because it hit its stride in episode two. This is a court intrigue series about a world where humans can transform into giant ravens. The youngest prince is next in line for the throne, surpassing his older brother due to being born with rare and powerful abilities. This splits the court between supporters of each brother, leading to assassination attempts, betrayals, and various other things. At the same time, a daughter from each of the four great houses is sent to participate in a competition to be chosen as the royal consort. This aspect of the story is the one I thought I would hate, as the idea of multiple women competing for one man just doesn’t appeal to me. But it soon becomes clear that romance has nothing to do with it. At least two of the women have zero interest in the prince himself, and thus far in the series the prince hasn’t even gone to see any of them even once. It’s all political maneuvering. There’s some violence here and there, but overall the story is more about politics than action. The prince himself is an interesting character, not falling easily into one of the usual tropes for a character in his position. The animation looks lovely and the character designs are fantastic. The music is also very good. Highly recommended if you like a good political drama with some supernatural elements. 

Kaiju no. 8 is probably the show I was most looking forward to. I’ve been following the manga since it began and I’m a big fan. It’s set in a world where kaiju attack often and Japan has the highest number of them. The country has created a defense force to fight them, and protagonist Kafka has always wanted to join. The problem is that he’s thirty, and he’s failed the application process several times already. Having pretty much given up on his dreams, he instead works on a kaiju cleanup crew (responsible for cleaning up all the kaiju guts that splatter everywhere following their defeat). After meeting a young coworker who intends to join the defense force, and surviving a run in with a kaiju himself, he decides to try one more time. A complication arrives when a tiny kaiju forces its way down his throat and gives him the ability to transform into a powerful kaiju himself. The best part of this series is Kafka. We so rarely get protagonists his age in this sort of story, and it’s refreshing to see him continue to pursue his dreams and act as a sort of father/uncle figure for the younger members of the cast, even as they outclass him in every way. I also like that some of the most powerful people, ones that Kafka see as his “goal” are women. There’s Mina, a captain in the defense force who is absurdly strong and can take out massive kaiju solo (and also happens to be Kafka’s childhood friend). And then there’s Kikoru, a new young recruit who outperforms every single other applicant and is viewed as a genius prodigy. The battles are a blast to watch, with cool kaiju designs and fun fight choreography. The animation is solid. The music is excellent. If you have even a passing interest in kaiju, this is the show for you. 

Other Shows I’m Watching:

My Hero Academia Black Butler Touken Ranbu Kimetsu no Yaiba 

[loserspride]

04/13/2025

For ease of reference, in this post I talk about — Big Fish & Begonia, Risk System, The Boys Season 4 and Crank.

Alright, it's been a hell of a couple of weeks so I've missed maybe an update or two, I lost count, and I don't particularly want to get into any of what's been keeping me busy so let's fucking do this shit. I have decided at this point that I am only going to be writing about media I have finished only. It feels dumb to keep posting about stuff that is ongoing and only updates once a week or month because I don't really have a whole lot to say at that point so it just feels like a waste to keep reiterating the same thing until it's over and just save everything to an overall breakdown at the end of it all. Okay, let's do this actually now.

Big Fish & Begonia

I decided I wanted to start including anime movies to movie night since I used Anilist to track animanga instead of Letterboxd, these movies wouldn't turn up during the movie roulette system I use to pick non-anime movies. Anyway, I am now alternating — one week anime movie, next week non-anime movie. This was the pick for the night! First of all, I want to say that I ultimately did enjoy this movie but I don't think that a lot of it had to do with the movie itself. The premise is a bit absurd. The plot summary reads as follows:

This is a mythic land where no outsider has ever set foot. The spirit-like dwellers there, however, know us mortals well. They are responsible for human emotions and desires, for seasons, weather, the elapsing of time. Our protagonist, a spirit girl named Chun, has just turned sixteen and goes in the form of a dolphin to explore the earthly part of the sea, to see what the human world is like. While cruising at sea, Chun gets caught in a storm and finds herself enmeshed in a fishing net. A human boy spots her and comes to her rescue, trying to free Chun from the entanglement. By accident, the boy drowns leaving Chun wretched and heartbroken. Da Hai tells an absorbing and bittersweet story of sacrifice and redemption when Chun is determined to bring back to life the boy's soul, now in the form of a little white fish. Da Hai is about an adolescent coming to terms with her limitations, and a spirit, coming into possession of her powers, dealing with the difficult issues of death, love and maturing emotions with empathy and nuance.

What that summary doesn't encapsulate is how much of a "at what point into sacrifice for the sake of something do you back out and call a loss?" this movie is. The number of people, of friends and family, who die for the sake of this one girl's refusal to accept the death of a total stranger (no matter how charmingly this fixation the movie and its creator's try to pose it) is absolutely absurd. At one point, I had tears in my eyes from laughing over it. In all seriousness, I think the frustrating thing about it all is that the movie never truly confronts its themes. In the end, Chun makes it to the mortal world with the newly resurrected boy and there is no actual lesson to take away from it whatsoever. Death is not something to be accepted. It's something that can be manifested and compromised with. I understand that they might have wanted to end the movie on a high note but maybe don't make a movie majorly about grief and coping with loss if you don't want to reconcile with the weight of the narrative. And I think a lot of this could have been forgiven if the character writing was at all interesting or engaging or just. Anything.

This movie has some very cool and interesting character designs. It's unfortunate that none of them were reserved for any of the main characters. And a lot of this lack of effort also goes into their characterizations. The main group have no depth whatsoever. There is just nothing about them that really makes them feel like anything outside of characters in a thing we are watching. And this is where I have to draw some comparisons.

It's pretty clear that Big Fish and Begonia took a lot of inspiration from Studio Ghibli. That they had big pants to fill to compare is an understatement, and I'm honestly not at all a Ghibli fan. I've actually only seen two Ghibli movies and I fell asleep midway through one of them. But even then, I could see the inspiration. But was it inspired? Or was it derivative? In terms of writing, in terms of stylization, characterization, heart — the substance just was not there. That Ghibli films were made by people who care what they are making is something I can definitely agree with, but this didn't feel like a movie made by people who cared about what they were making. It was a movie made by people who were trying to make a Ghibli movie. Oh well.

Risk System

So I started Risk System back in October and I have played it on and off since them. Recently, I've decided to shelve it. It has an interesting premise, fun character designs and writing (though minimal). I enjoyed the music a lot and the aesthetic. It had everything going for it but ultimately, the gameplay was lacking. A grazing shmup with movement inertia and incredibly buggy hitboxes. I got a few levels in before I figured that if I dedicated a single additional month to this instead of the hundreds of other games waiting on my backlog, I'd lose my mind. It had incredibly mixed reviews with some people hating it, others loving it and some just content with it's addition to their repertoire and I think that very accurately captures the experience of playing the game. When it's good it's good and when it's bad it's bad and unfortunately, for me — it was mostly bad.

Maybe another time.

The Boys Season 4

Trigger warning — I will be talking about scenes in this show in which people have been raped in no explicit detail, but still. Proceed with caution.

I don't know, man. So much of this season was just sort of ... dicking around. I don't care about Starlight's abortion, I don't care about Hughie's mom, I don't care about whatever they're doing with Black Noir. So many plots just become so inconsequential — like why the fuck did Frenchie put himself in jail? I know, it's because he is an expert chemist and they wouldn't have needed to kidnap Victoria's boyfriend if he wasn't locked in a box somewhere. It lent no credence to his character whatsoever. It never really went anywhere. Everything in general for this season felt like just set up. A lot of set up for the final season. And what isn't set up, is just much of the same of what we've already seen. I just don't know. It doesn't really feel like they're milking it too, y'know. Like when shows just sort of go on for too long that they lose themselves, it just feels a bit like the writers are a bit lost on where to go. It just kind of feels like it's run out of steam. This tends to happen a lot with adapting series that deviate so heavily from their source material. Anyway, this isn't exactly even my biggest complaint with the season. As aimless as the plot feels throughout, it's always entertaining in one way or another and I could honestly spend hours just watching nothing but shots of Anthony Starr giving his Homelander stare. Starr just really brings exactly what needs to be brought to the character at all times.

No, my biggest complaint is the extremely weird stance the show has taken with rape all of a sudden. The Deep raped Starlight when he forced her to give him oral sex. This was treated with extreme weight and severity. She is a person who was victimized but she rises from it and fights for justice. Becca is raped by Homelander. This was treated with extreme weight and severity — though it also serves for good manpain fuel for Butcher, I guess. But it's still given the seriousness that an event like this deserves. But then, the Deep is raped. When this happens, I couldn't help but feel like it is treated with nowhere near as much compassion. As if the writers feel that he deserved this and it is morally justified to mock him for it. As a survivor myself, it made me feel sick — but I chose to give them the benefit of the doubt. It was a hiccup and I suppose that there are other victims out there who disagree with my perspective and lean into the "an eye for an eye" mentality. Fine, whatever. I was willing to shrug it off.

And then Hughie. Hughie is raped several times in this season. It's actually absurd to say this as I'm sure you know what's coming but yes — Hughie is raped several times in season four and the show treats it with extreme levity and even goes as far as to villainize him for it. Firstly, he's assaulted by Tek Knight. I know there's a very weird sort of grey area in the earlier parts of the scene because Tek Knight thinks he is someone else who has consented to this, as does Ashley but when Tek Knight discovers he is not who he thinks he is — he plans to torture and assault him. I also would like to remind everyone who doesn't remember from earlier in the season/series that Tek Knight was Hughie's favorite Supe as a child. This was someone he looked up to as a little kid and now this man is sexually assaulting him and the show thinks it's a fucking joke. He has a panic attack and cries and then it is swept away as the story moves on to the rest of the inconsequential bullshit it's churning.

Then, we have the Shifter. Shifter was a pretty interesting character. I actually was very intrigued by them. I loved the way they actually shifted bodies, that they had to do so constantly or their body would start rotting away, the fact that they had no idea what they even looked like, the fact that their brain is likely full of the memories of hundreds if not thousands of people. They were really fascinating, as a character. And they raped Hughie repeatedly when they took on Starlight's appearance and proceeded to seduce him under the false pretense that they were Starlight. It's rape. And it is infuriating that when Starlight learns about this, she immediately tries to make it into some bullshit faux-feminist "Wow, is that all you see me as? A sex toy?" argument and has absolutely no understanding that this was an incredibly violating thing to happen to Hughie as well as her. They were both victims. She's not perfect, no one is, so I just want to clarify that I think it's perfectly understandable for the show to have characters who are flawed and don't always say or do the things people would consider the "correct thing" to do and that the actions of characters aren't always in any way indicative of a writer's thoughts or feelings but it is extremely concerning that the rape of men in this show is never given any grace or compassion or empathy. It just feels so extremely callous and has left me with a really sick feeling in my stomach.

And it's also made me think about how regularly men experience other minor forms of sexual assault on the show that are always treated as jokes. MM is regularly poked and prodded at by Love Sausage's giant dick. That thing is around his neck so often, it's more scarf than cock at this rate. MM gets Web Slinger's webbing shot out of the little hole in his lower back and it goes on his face, an obvious "cumshot" joke and something that MM, a man with misophobic OCD, is distressed by. And then of course in herogasm, when he gets absolutely bathed in cum. I can't remember anymore off of the top of my head but I know in the back of my mind, I know there is more. But then meanwhile, Homelander's backstory is being treated as if it were one of the greatest tragedies on the planet. The nationalist genocidal psychopath is being granted more kindness than Hughie.

And we've seen them handle PTSD before. One of the things I most have liked about the show is how it has handled mental health, substance abuse, etc. There was always a degree of understanding but this season has felt ... devoid of that. Devoid of humanity. If you've seen the show, you know it's not subtle. When it wants you to know something, it tells you. Which is fine, that is the vibe it has always had. An over-the-top satirical spin. But that only makes this whole situation all the more jarring. We'll see what happens in Season 5, I guess.

Also, them changing the name of the last episode is some real wimpy cop-out bullshit.

Crank

Trigger warning — I will be talking about a scene in this movie depicting a sexual assault/rape/dubious consent situation in this movie in no explicit detail.

Last night's movie was a riot. This is definitely one of those I've been meaning to get around to for a while and was so excited to finally do so. The editing, music, acting, cinematography— it was just so stunningly produced. From the get-go, everyone in the stream was enamored. Now, for clarity's sake, it's a rough watch. There are a lot of slurs tossed around, some jokes that are meant to be pretty clearly offensive and a scene that has pretty much all watchers of this movie fighting a war that has gone on for almost twenty years. This is getting really long and I've been working on it for a little over two hours now so I'm gonna keep it pretty short.

I can get how this movie isn't some people's style. It's janky and gritty and stupid but it's such a good fucking time. I think it's probably one of the best action movies to have ever been created. A few things bring it down, a lot of which pretty fucking heavily dates it. I was bummed when Kaylo was sort of just used as collateral damage in the movie. I was pretty excited to see a trans/gay character in a movie like this but I guess that just showed a degree of naivety in me I didn't expect. I guess I thought that with the way the movie had handled such a fun and interesting character like Orlando, it would have done the same with Kaylo. Which brings me to say that I feel that a lot of the movie at times feels disjointed with itself. It was as if six different people were all trapped in a room for a week with nothing but a pile of cocaine to survive off of and came up with the script, which is both it's biggest strength but also it's biggest weakness.

It's not like the movie isn't capable of compassion. I was actually rather taken with these random moments of contemplative introspection littered in the movie. The scene in the hospital where Chev stumbles into the room of a (comatose or sleeping) sick man in a hospital bed and spend the time he can afford grappling with his own mortality. The scene where his doctor offers him an "easy out", a dreamful sleep into death and he once again finds himself in this fork where he must either break the cycle or turn the wheel. It is able to offer glimpses of humanity into the beast that is Chev. Even Verona, who struggles internally with the grief for his dead brother but the pride that disallows a semblance of vulnerability. It just doesn't really want to dig its fingers into that gaping wound, which is disappointing.

Movies like this, where the protagonist is a sack of shit is always very divisive, especially when those characters also show semblances of being good people. Some people strongly believe that only good people should be the main characters of thing and that those people can only ever do good things and that the people who stand against them are bad and can only ever be bad. You know, like real people in real life, I guess. I do not agree with this mentality at all but I do think that people who are writing characters like this sometimes lose the plot. It's a dangerous line to walk but not impossible.

Anyway, this is all to say that I don't like that they made Chev assault his girlfriend in attempts to goad her into sex so that he could keep his adrenaline up and not die. I think it was a severely mishandled scene that could have been fixed with more than two seconds of critical thought. My partner actually pointed out that he should have just started jerking off or something if he was that desperate. I don't know if it makes it less of an assault and more of a harassment situation but it's definitely a better option than him clinging to her legs like a pathetic horny dog and trying to knock her onto the ground. Many people argue that she ends up agreeing, which would I guess push this more into a "dubious consent" situation. I'm not here to argue semantics. I think anyone with a brain capable of rational thought can surmise that this largely contributes this the rape culture mentality that no does not always mean no and can then become a yes with enough grit and determination. That being said, I don't think it's the end of the world that a movie made twenty years ago has shit politics. I'm an adult that can watch a movie and say "there are some things about this I really liked and there are some things I really didn't." Which is to say, there are some things about this movie I really liked and there were some I really didn't.

That's all. Bye.

[ldlingsomewhere]

8. What project(s) are you currently working

this is a GREAT question. there are many but i will list only wips i have actually written substantial stuff for. still very long, im putting it behind a read more. ALSO! content warnings for pregnancy, abortion, mentions of grooming, psychiatric abuse, and workplace sexual harassment. i write fanfiction about social issues. also most of this is rpf

not readmored fic: my philosopher of neuroscience stories

i have an 0918 (daryl watts and jesse compher) proximity curse fic (its not really a curse in fic, but thats like. the trope. so). premise is that dw09 can’t leave jc18’s side/stop physically touching her without experiencing a tremendous amount of pain/passing out. the fic is generally a commentary on disability and medicine. this is where my philosopher of neuroscience oc comes from.

there is another fic in this universe inspired by the philosophy of mind paper “what mary didn’t know” by frank jackson that essentially interpolates nathan mackinnon into jackson’s thought experiment. my philosopher of neuroscience and her girlfriend (a professor of comparative literature) have to go on a road trip to the nhl all star game in vegas to save nathan mackinnon from Big Neuroscience. it’s a comedy

my x men fic: hopeandexodus

my untitled hopeandexodus fic is kind of two fics that are tenously connected. the first is a currently 1.3k outlined to be much, much longer fic about hope summers experiencing divine conception, getting an an abortion, and having a generally terrible time ft a supporting cast of sophie cuckoo, laura kinney, and dr. nemesis

the second, much shorter and much less well formed fic is a follow up to si spurrier’s 2014 x force run. it’s about hope dealing with the aftermath of being groomed by fantomex (as it occurred canonically in the run). i don’t know how much i’ll work on this, going into the future. it’s pretty much been abandoned for a while, but it’s still really important to me and i’m going to keep it around.

both these fics could theoretically take place in the same universe. don’t know if i’ll ever connect them tho

my omegaverse universe (generally referred to as “girls like us” after the underscores song but i need a better title)

this is the big one. theres. a lot. i have ~20k words in just outlines/notes. i will be numbering these for ease of comprehension.

i spend my entire life thinking about social issues and critical theory. so of course i write fanfiction about social issues and critical theory. this is my exploration of what omegaverse has to offer in terms of reproductive justice, psychiatric survivorship, ethnic studies, coalition building, and more

1. untitled avs fic

this is a story about compulsory heterosexuality and workplace sexual harassment. follows the 3 omegas on the avs as they develop more complex relationships while negotiating workplace gender discrimination and helping their friend/coworker deal with a toxic and unbalanced romantic relationship. big focus on relationships and how the three omega protagonists deal with the consequences of “heterosexual” aka alpha/omega relationships. these are main themes for the entire universe, but especially prevalent here.

2. drop out starring quinn hughes 43 (dosqh43)

this is a story about psychiatric survivorship and a road trip. you’ll never guess that this was super inspires by the webcomic drop out by gray folie. i wanted to think about how the intersection between gender and psychiatric oppression would play out in omegaverse with the added complexity of the lack of control professional athletes have over their own bodies (and minds, in this case). also very inspired by margaret price’s the bodymind problem

3. the toronto maple leafs are a diverse college campus brochure picture (ttmlaadccbp)

this is the first happy fic!!!! while my protagonists in 1. and 2. are fighting for their bodily autonomy and domestic freedom, my protagonists in this fic are learning about their differences and forging inter and intra community relationships and coalition building. this is a fic about immigrant identity, racialization in hockey and canada, and gender. the title sucks but i love it

4. jo and quinn’s bizarre abortion adventure (jaqbaa)

this follows one of my protagonists from 1. (jo) and qh43 my protagonist from 2. they reluctantly bond over their experiences with gendered psychiatric mistreatment/madness. when jo accidentally gets pregnant, he refuses to get an abortion because he’s catholic/pro life. despite this, he knows he cant keep the baby. qh43 is a bro and flies across the country to support jo emotionally when he gets his abortion. this fic is heavily inspires by carol gilligan’s work in care ethics of abortion.

5. woodshed raise a child

this is another avs fic that takes place at the same time as 1. focused on the betas on the team. mb39 acquires a baby because his ex (carol the wetlands ecologist) is offered a once in a life time career opportunity. he has to figure out how to raise an infant with his goalie partner and later has to negotiate parenting a mixed child, with cameos from nr89 (one of the protagonists of the leafs fic), his brother, and the other filipino players on the stars. happy fic!

i also have another potential fic in this universe that i may or may not commit to. it has yet to undergo the griffin and chuck evaluation

[albatris]

Writerly Questionnaire!

thank you @davycoquette for tagging me :3

About You

When did you start writing?

I started when I was a lil kid, probably about 6 years old!

Are the genres/themes you enjoy reading different from the ones you write?

No, they're much the same! Horror, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery :3

Can you tell me a little about your writing space(s)? (Room, coffee shop, desk, etc.)

It's just me n my laptop wherever we end up! Usually on the couch or in bed! I love writing in coffee shops but I'm often too anxious to be around other people ^^;

What’s your most effective way to muster up some muse?

Playlists, baby!! Or watching/reading something that scratches the same itch as the stuff I wanna write. Usually some good horror :3

Did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and places you write about?

Oh, absolutely! My works are very Australian in nature!

Are there any recurring themes in your writing, and if so, do they surprise you at all?

There's themes of uhhhh.... isolation vs. connection, that's one that comes up a lot. Mental and physical illness too. The bendy nature of reality. Anti-capitalism. I'm often surprised when the same themes pop up over multiple works, since I don't often plan it that way haha

Your Characters

Would you please tell me about your current favorite character? (Current WIP, past WIP, never used, etc.)

My favourite character currently is Alex! Alex is from "A Rental Car takes a Left Down Rake Street and Disappears". It's a vampire lawyer who preys on despicable predators human society will never hold accountable. Alex is an intensely private person who prefers to keep to itself, but it's also deeply kind and always looking to help others when it can. It enjoys gardening, sleight of hand magic and expensive wines :3 Alex has my favourite character arc in the trilogy!!

Which of your characters do you think you’d be friends with in real life?

Ripley!! Her sense of humour is similar to my IRL best friend's. She's loud, boisterous and silly, and the fact that she talks so much means I wouldn't have to talk as much which is always a bonus c:

Which of your characters would you dislike the most if you met them?

Quinn. They're such a shady bastard. They'd hate me and I'd be scared of them lmao

How do you picture them? (As real people you imagined, as models/actors who exist in real life, as imaginary artwork, as artwork you made or commissioned, anime style, etc.)

Here they are!

The characters of my two main projects, drawn by me :3 A Rental Car takes a Left Down Rake Street and Disappears on the top and All the Doors are Open on the bottom!

Your Writing

What’s your reason for writing?

It's my way of communicating with the world and connecting to others!

Is there a specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating coming from your readers?

When people tell me they resonate with my stories in terms of, like, shared experiences... I love that! Some of the comments I still think about all the time have been from fellow psychosis-havers telling me they resonate with my depictions of psychosis or that my stories made them feel less alone. But I adore all comments!

How do you want to be thought of by those who read your work? (For example: as a literary genius, or as a writer who “gets” the human condition; as a talented worldbuilder, as a role model, etc.)

I wanna be thought of as... spooky... >:3

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Characters and worldbuilding! By worldbuilding I don't mean Creating Worlds (I suck at that) but crafting unique premises and putting my own spin on things like vampire lore and interdimensional portals :3

How do you feel about your own writing? (Answer in whatever way you interpret this question.)

I'm very happy with it!

If you were the last person on earth and knew your writing would never be read by another human, would you still write?

Probly. I think I'd go stircrazy without it. It's my way of understanding and processing the world and my feelings on it. Plus I'd get bored otherwise.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely what you enjoy? If it’s a mix of the two, which holds the most influence?

Both! But I'd say I mostly focus on what I might enjoy!

[haptronym]

Hey!! This is the anon from a while back who had that convo with you about quirkless discrimination with your cannon vs fannon posts. The one who sent a way too long ask haha.

I still haven’t picked back up BNHA, just still dinking around in the earlier seasons with my writing after dropping it so long ago due to the exact reason you outlined; I stopped watching due to a certain character stagnating while saying they’re changing. Which I find amusing how prevalent that problem is in so many arcs that it’s the reason I stopped watching the show actual years ago (though not solely, it was that + a combination of other things with that arc but it really exasperated it) and you’re now talking about the same exact issue for the end of it. I don’t even feel like I can say it’s due to external pressures rather then just a weak point of the writer at this point tbh.

But, besides that, on the topic of why I initially started this ask, I just wanted to say it’s interesting to hear the story has still done squat with quirklessness, really goes to show the whole glaring divide in exactly what we where talking about so long ago. Full circle kinda?? It really is such a shame the show never went into it and kinda failed to scratch the surface of anything with how compelling it would have been and how easily it could have tied into the whole of the series’ themes.

But hey, like you said, there’s always fanfics. Just thought I’d send in an ask about it since it was fun talking to you about it last time.

Now that it’s over, I might give the show another shot, for old times sake, we’ll see!

Oh as an add on, as the fannon vs cannon anon, I do want to put a note that since I haven’t seen the thing myself I’m not making too strong opinions on it or agreeing with everything in that post, just contemplating the specific stuff I talked about in that previous anon ask as a sort of now outsider to the series.

This isn’t a “oh you’re wrong!” but making sure people know I’m not blindly following things I’ve read about a series rather then forming opinions around it from first hand cannon, HA! I’ll do that when I maybe start watching it again…one day…

-

(The post under discussion)

Hello again! Glad you're still enjoying the fandom space and haha, it's ironic that this issue is why you dropped the show. I'm also going to caveat that I'm not trying to dunk on Horikoshi or be a bitter hater. The issues I'm bringing up are par for the course for most serial writing, way harder to avoid than they seem. I really liked MHA overall and have huge respect for Horikoshi's writing, art, and ability to keep his sanity while bringing this behemoth to life.

Anyway, a response.

I mentioned a few aspects where quirklessness got brought in later in the story, but overall, yeah, it still felt kind of… vestigial. To me it felt like the author threw it out there at first thinking it was a cool idea, then later went "ugh, shit, that's not actually where I want to focus. I can't retcon it, so let's just... minimize it and move on." A lot of times when big series start, they toss out a whole bunch of possible story hooks and then narrow down to just a few that they're actually going to spend serious time on... anyone who gets hooked on a premise that doesn't end up being developed further can be left feeling disappointed.

I suspect this is exactly the reason why MHA has such a giant fandom. The show's clown-car cast means that pretty much no character really gets "deep" treatment. Instead we get 1,000 tantalizing flashes of really, really cool possibilities. We get sucked in by an awesome idea, get frustrated when the cool character/premise barely gets touched again after that, and then feverishly fill the empty space with fanfic and fanart. (I'm lucky that my favorites, Izuku and All Might, were about the most main of main characters, and even they felt somewhat shallow. I can't imagine the agony of being, say, a Momo fan.)

Unfortunately when a story does this, it also means that it's inevitably going to disappoint its fanbase. It tossed out 1,000 awesome ideas but it only has space to cultivate a small handful of those into proper plotlines… not only is it sad to see all the unused plot threads peter out, but usually the realized story ends up outright contradicting at least a few very popular fan theories and hopes. This doesn't mean the story's bad, far from it. But in these weekly-chapter stories where fans have years or decades to get attached to their interpretations and predictions, praying each week that yes, it seems like a long shot, but maybe the story will veer off into X… things quickly spiral into enormous bitterness when those decades of hope are finally snuffed out for good. (This same phenomenon makes me dread the eventual end of One Piece…)

MHA had a lot of people going "it's not like other shonen!" because it had lots of promising ideas. But it turned out that… yes, it is just another shonen. Shonen are tons of fun, and I love MHA overall. But man, it got hit hard by those high expectations.

I was a bit harsh (and incorrect) in my post, saying Izuku/All Might haven't changed at ALL, and that quirklessness meant NOTHING. It gets outright confusing when there are characterization backsies like the ones I described. Which is canon: the single panel where a character says "quirklessness is a big deal to me!" or the way that every other character behavior and plot point screams "sure doesn't seem like it"? They're both real. And this discrepancy depends on the reader's interpretation too: I'm extremely picky about characterization, while someone less anal might not see any contradiction at all. So we get All Might fans insisting that the show made quirkless issues into a huge enormous part of the plot/characters, and meanwhile I don't see it, and get annoyed and preachy because it feels like the narrative is being unfairly ascribed depth and profundity that I really wanted but never actually saw from it. How dare!

ANYWAY, I highly recommend checking out the rest of the show. I have a feeling the final arc is going to look amazing in animated form once it's finally done. The final section is a combo of delightfully over-the-top shonen insanity and surprisingly weighty outcomes. We can debate whether it really earned those outcomes, but I'm at least pleased that it tried.

[isekai-falls]

Isekai sources!

For my primary source research, I’ve been looking around the internet for things I can use to gain insight on my blog topic. This usually includes people’s opinions on the Isekai genre, and in their opinion, what drags the genre down. 

The source that I’ve found to be quite rewarding when discussing this topic is the shows themselves. I’ve already watched many animes within the genre, but haven’t slowed down to think what makes that specific show good or bad.

I’d also like to look into Reddit posts and other blogs or articles about the anime within the genre to understand what other people think. 

 So for my first course of action, I will watch and review a short list of Anime I’ve found that range in popularity. As I watch, I will take notes about what makes that a good show or a bad one. I will be looking at the message, art style, who it’s aimed towards, what makes it unique from other shows in the same genre, and things I did and didn’t like about it.

For example, recently I’ve been watching the Isekai Konosuba, which is one of the most popular Isekais to date. I’ve taken a few notes about the show, that I’d like to talk about now.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Show’s Message

At the heart of it, Konosuba is a comedy that mocks the ideals of a perfect fantasy world. Kazuma Satou, the main character of this show has died and reincarnated into this new world, he starts with no great skills and a party that consists of characters that make his life harder. From a goddess healer who only cares about money, gets into a lot of debt, and complains 24/7. To a spell caster who can only use one spell, then becomes completely useless after using that singular spell. I’d say he has his work cut out for him when it comes to rising the ranks as an adventurer. Unlike most Isekai, where the main character has everything figured out, Konosuba hits us with a reality check that not all fantasy worlds are easy to traverse. I find this premise refreshing amidst the generic plots within the Genre.

In terms of art style, Konosuba has your typical anime look. From super flashy battle scenes to serene peaceful moments that allow you to appreciate the scene. But I’d say that most of the charm comes from the show’s plot and not the style.

Konosuba is made for the generic Isekai fan. As someone who has watched multiple shows within the genre, Konosuba is like a swift kick in the pants. Going from your usual Isekai where the main character is already quite strong, to a character who gets eaten by giant frogs every other day, It’s nice to see something new.

As I’ve already said before, this show is unique from the others for one reason; It challenges the stereotype. Instead of a powerful protagonist, we get a weak one who doesn’t always make the best decisions and has a team of characters who sabotage him all the time. Very much not ideal in a magic world such as this. This alone already makes the show much more interesting to watch, as you wonder what else can happen to make Kazuma’s life even worse.

Finally, some things I did and didn’t like about the show. For one, I like the change it makes with the stereotypes in the genre. It’s quite a unique show when compared to many others around it. The comedy bits can be a little much depending on which you’re referring to. Most of which consist of the characters doing something strange, gross, or just plain stupid. You feel for the main character, as he’s the only sane person in the show in most cases. But there gets to a point where you just want him to win for a chance. An example from the show would be when he and his party save the town from a giant robotic spider, but he’s left with a huge debt from damages.

Overall I would recommend this anime to Isekai fans who are tired of the same old same old stuff. It still keeps the theming of an Isekai fantasy world, but a more nuanced outlook. Give it a try!

______________________________________________________________________

There you have it! My first anime review on my blog which included notes I took while watching the show. For my next review, I’ll be watching and reviewing “Saga of Tanya the Evil”. Instead of just looking at it myself, I’ll look into other people’s reviews of the show to see what they thought of it as well. This will give me a little more insight into their feelings as well.

Until next time!

Image source Crunchyroll